November 2008 reads

[chitman13]

I've just finished Neal Asher's [b][url="http://walkerofworlds.blogspot.com/2008/11/gabble-and-other-stories-by-neal-asher.html"]The Gabble and other stories[/url][/b], a collection of short stories from his Polity universe. Out of the ten stories there were two I wasn't quite convinced with, perhaps just because they were too slow moving, but the rest of them more than made up for it. It's definitely one of the better author specific collections I've read, although possibly not the best of jumping on points due to spoilers for some other books. Highly recommended for anyone that's read his stuff before though :)

[Deornoth]

I had a copy of 'The Gabble', I took it off the shelf to take a picture for the blog... and now I can't find it anywhere in the house... :huh:

[Werthead]

Now reading [i]The Path of Daggers[/i]. Now the journey starts to get bumpy.

Hoping my Bakker ARC turns up soonish.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

Finished [i]Where God was Born [/i]by Bruce Feiler. It was a good overview how the Bible (old Testament) and the Torah was created despite the author's tendancy into musings about his own beliefs as a Jew. I enjoyed the chapters on Iran, both contemporary and historical regarding the Jewish Exile and Diaspora and how that affected the Biblical ideas/foundations at that time.
Also reading the [i]Legendary Sailing Ships [/i]by Franco Giorgetti. This is a beautifully illustrated book about the history and evolution of sailing ships over the course of history. The one minor complaint is that there is no mention of Arab or Chinese sailing ships at all. Other than that, it covers everyting else in good detail. A highly recommended book for sailors and for those who want to understand the evolution of sailing ships over time.
I'm going to start [i]Lord of the Fire Lands[/i], the second book of The King's Blade Trilogy by Dave Duncan.

[duchess of malfi]

I just finished up a history book intended for middle schoolers to review for Amazon:
[i]Chasing Lincoln's Killers[/i] by James Swanson (he previously wrote a much more detailed book on the same subject for adults titled [i]Manhunt[/i]). he keeps things moving quickly, and exciting enough that I think many young to middle teens would enjoy it (though it might be too easy for older teens and adults).

For pleasure I am reading [i]Mornings on Horseback[/i] by the peerless biographer David McCullough. It tells the story of Theodore Roosevelt's early years. What an odd family he came from - old New York Dutch Knickerbocker aristocracy. Princes of the City and the Earth, wealthy beyond imagining. Yet his father was as close to a living saint as anyone you could ever find (and this was not easy on his wife or his children). His mother was a Southern Belle from Georgia whose family plantation was apparently the inspiration for Tara in Gone With the Wind, and was a legendary beauty who inspired the appearance of Scarlett O'Hara. His eldest sibling was malformed (tuberculosis malformed her spine). He nearly died from asthma numerous times (stress brought it on). His younger brother had fits (not from epilepsy, but from some sort of psychological disorder). The youngest daughter was said to also be unhealthy, but what was wrong with her has not been said yet in the book. His mother suffered from stress diarrhea and other stress related diseases/health problems, especially during the war years.

His father was among the founders of both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Natural History Museum. He built hospitals and hostels for homeless children. He was a tireless advocate for the new science of physical therapy after it helped his oldest child have a somewhat normal life. He was the one who had the idea that men serving in the military could send all or a part of their pay home to their families. He worked tirelessly on the part of serving Union soldiers, lobbying in Washington and riding countless miles across the South during the war to visit troops from New York - this despite the fact that his wife's brothers were officers for the Confederacy. It was during the Civil War and amid family tension that his elder son started having the severe asthma attacks. When he died, his house was surrounded by an army of ragged street children, marking the passing of the only prominent man who had worked for them and cared for them (he regularly visited the hostels he built, helping to feed the children with his own hands).

At the point where I am, Theodore is at Harvard. He went there to study natural history. His father has just passed on in horrifying pain from cancer, and Theodore is devastated.

[Myrddin]

I bought Dune Messiah finally and will start reading it tonight. I also bought the Blade Itself. I'm looking forward to reading that soon as well.

[gyrehead]

Just finished Bakker's [i]The Judging Eye[/i]. Easily one of the best reads I've had this year in the genre. Though I'm not sure how I'll mentally file it. As a 2008 read or a 2009 book. It certainly has me eager for 2009 to get here to sink my teeth into the rest of ny aniticipated reads (And the subsequent dismay when I find I have to wait even longer). Now I just hope he can keep up the pace as he did when writing the first trilogy. I do not want to have to wait a couple of years for the next book.

[A wilding]

Been reading Greg Egan's latest, [i]Incandescence[/i].

This is [i]ultra [/i]hard SF. It concerns a civilisation of aliens living inside an asteroid where gravity is towards the center in some directions and away from it in others. Of course fans of early Larry Niven will get that one straight away, but that is only the start of the story, which can't really be described without ruining the plot. I would say that only physics and astronomy types will enjoy this, except that Mrs W liked it as well, mainly because she thought the aliens "cute" (her science is biology).

[RedEyedGhost]

I finished up [b]Felix Gilman's [u]Thunderer[/u][/b]. Great book. I have a really hard time classifying this book: it's very epic in scope, but wouldn't qualify as what most people consider "epic fantasy", while there is enough to classify it as secondary world fantasy it may just be a different manifestation of our own world, it also has strong elements of steampunk - so, I guess the best way to describe it would be as it is described on the front cover "A Novel of High Fantasy". This is a quite vague classification, but it works, as does the wonderful mishmash of styles. I know Larry may be surprised that I think this considering Felix sites [u]Viriconium[/u] as a major influence, and that was very recognizable throughout the book (I also got a strong [u]Perdido Street Station[/u] vibe). I've been pretty verbal in my loathing of [u]Viriconium[/u], and while they share some of the same themes, I think [u]Thunderer[/u] succeeds where [u]Viriconium[/u] fails miserably - character development, plotting, and coherence. In [u]Viriconium[/u]'s defense (... omg I can't believe I just typed that) [u]Thunderer[/u] tells just one tale, and not even all of that, where [u]Viriconium[/u] [i]attempted[/i] to tell several. It's not the best novel I've read this year, but it's definitely in the top 10. I realize this is just a rambling mess, but [u]Viriconium[/u] gives me involuntary diarrhea of the mouth (or fingers as the case may be).

Now I should probably talk a little bit about [u]Thunderer[/u] :P The story has three main POVs: Arjun - a foreigner that comes to Ararat a city of gods to search for his god that has gone absent from his home far in the south, Jack - a 15 year old boy that, while breaking out of the workhouse he has been trapped in, harnesses the power of a god, and Arlandes - the captain of the Thunderer, an airship that harnessed the same power that Jack did. In the massive city of Ararat (with all of its infinite possibilities) this tale focuses on the Countess Ilona's small corner as a god becomes corrupted, and as the Countess becomes mad with the power of the Thunderer.

[b]8/10[/b]

Up next I want something light, so I'm going to reread Scalzi's [u]Old Man's War[/u].



@Larry: Have you read Richard Parks' [u]The Long Look[/u]? I listened to one of his short stories on podcastle, and it was pretty damn good. So, I was wondering how he performed in a longer format.

[Mexal]

I just finished [i]Genghis: Birth of an Empire[/i] by Conn Iggulden and enjoyed it quite a bit. Once it got moving, it didn't let up.

Next up, I'll either read the 2nd one, [i]Lords of the Bow[/i] or break back to reality and read the next Lee Child book. I want to read [i]World War Z[/i] but it's not here yet.

[Larry.]

REG,

Yes, I've read Parks' novel and it reads much like his shorter fiction - it is good, it twists certain plot expectations around, and I enjoyed it. I just didn't have time to review it a couple of months ago when I did read it.

As for more current reading, I am just now finishing up Sapkowski's fifth Witcher novel, [i]Bautismo de fuego[/i] and the characterizations are getting even better. Enjoying it quite a bit and I can't wait until the final volume [i]finally[/i] is released in Spanish!

[Wade1066]

Reading Asprey's, War in the Shadows (Vol. 1). It's about the guerrilla throughout history. So far, it's one of the best books I've read so far. But there seem to be some crazy errors. For example, he writes that Saladin was Egyptian.

[Thrashalla]

I finished Brandon Sanderson's [b]The Well of Ascension [/b] last week and enjoyed it quite a bit...though, I enjoyed the first book more. I'll certainly be digging into the last book soon but right now I'm working on Bernard Cornwell's [b]The Winter King[/b]...at the halfway mark, it's as amazing as all the hype has said, but I do think i enjoy Uhtred (from the Saxon tales) more as a narrator. :P

[Quarterman]

Just finished Through A Glass, Darkly by Bill Hussey, quite disappointed, a mixture of fantasy and horror. Think Clive Barker meets the newest BBC television series. A witch slain in the middle ages leaves a curse on an ancient village, a homicide detective who adolescent brush with death left him linked with demonic supernatural entities, a college holds the doorway to a library suspended in time full of ancient tomes and a staff who are neither living nor dead, and an evil soul that transmigrates and snatches new bodies upon the performance of an ancient ritual in order to survive. As early as the last three quarters of the book, things get abit too predictable, plodding, and repetitively dull. The book just hammers the desperation of the protagonist and the dreaded "transmigration of souls" er "metempsychosis" over and over and over again. I got to despise that word over the coarse of the novel. 5/10

The Pines by Robert Dunbar, I was pleasantly surprised at this mass market horror novel. The characters are well fleshed out and the setting appropriately bleak for the story concerning the legend of the Jersey Devil in the Pine barrens of New Jersey. Towards the end things get alittle (alittle) confusing and am still working out the finish in my head at this very moment.

SPOILER: spoiler

Think Carrie/Firestarter meets The Howling, apparently a condition afflicting every generation of the denizens of the Pine barrens is congenital lycanthropy which raises the child's telepathic/psychic powers until they are literally transforming into beasts once they hit puberty which lent to the Jersey Devil legends. This strain according to the novel dates back to the European colonists (mixing true European lore and legend about lycanthropy into the story) who colonized in the Pine barrens for the sole purpose of isolating their selves from endangering others and themselves being endangered. An original take on werewolves. Neat eh!

7/10 (might have been deserving of an 8 if the characters and thickening plot hadnt grown abit tiresome over the last quarter of the book.)

Now started Shadow Coast by Philip Haldeman, a book described by Lovecraft scholar S.T Joshi as "From its gripping opening to its apocalyptic climax, Shadow Coast compels the reader's attention with the subtlety and gradualness of its development. The core supernatural phenomenon is handled with remarkable deftness and skill." Compared to the work of Lovecraft and Blackwood and appropriately published by Hippocampus Press I hope this is a book I'll relish reading.

[mashiara]

I finished [i]Thirteen[/i], by Richard Morgan. I was sort of afraid to start reading this because the last Takeshi Covacs book had disappointed me and I didn't want this to happen again. Well, it didn't. I enjoyed it very much, all the little twists and turns, everything.

Last night I finished reading[i] The Swarm,[/i] by Frank Schatzing. The Greek translation amounted to over 1000 pages which made it really cumbersome to carry around but I managed. I had a hard time getting into the story, the first 200 or so pages were excruciating in scientific detail. Me, I love science and I'm not afraid of it, but this book overwhelmed me. It picked up quickly later and things started happening and it was all a very interesting scenario. I can certainly see what all the hype was about. I liked it.

I'm about to start reading [i]I, Robot[/i] by Isaak Asimov. It's a reread, actually. I vaguely remember reading this when I was a teenager but I can't recall anything from it and I figured it's definitely worth another read.

[Bellis]

[b]Everything is Illuminated[/b] by Jonathan Safran Foer. What an inappropriate title. This author has a lot of talent, but this books feels like he's throwing various modernist and postmodernist trickery at the page hoping that something will stick.

[b]The Plot Against America[/b] by Philip Roth. The alternate history setting (and it's more universal resonances with other examples of ethnic persecution and forced assimilation) is fascinating. But the novel sort of alternates between infodump and a coming-of-age story. So it works better as an idea then as a narrative.

[beniowa]

Last night I finished [i][b]Mistborn[/b][/i] by Brandon Sanderson. It had some standard fantasy tropes, but with interesting twists and was set in a fantastically realized world. The magic system of Allomancy, the use of metals to give abilities, is extremely fascinating. Physics has never been my strong point so I had a little trouble understanding the way the characters could "fly" but it was fun to read about it. The characters are also well done, especially Vin, whose personality changes quite significantly by the end. The book is over 500 pages and yet the pacing of the book meant that the ending almost felt rushed. I felt Sanderson took the easy way out a few times in terms of plot resolutions, but on the whole this is a very good book in a fascinating new series. 8/10.

I'm now reading [i][b]Agent to the Stars[/b][/i] by John Scalzi. This is Scalzi's first book and the only one of his I haven't yet read.

[Arlingzen Bill]

[quote name='Thrashalla' post='1583345' date='Nov 9 2008, 19.46']I finished Brandon Sanderson's [b]The Well of Ascension [/b] last week and enjoyed it quite a bit...though, I enjoyed the first book more. I'll certainly be digging into the last book soon but right now I'm working on Bernard Cornwell's [b]The Winter King[/b]...at the halfway mark, it's as amazing as all the hype has said, but I do think i enjoy Uhtred (from the Saxon tales) more as a narrator. :P[/quote]

Bernard Cornwell writes a fine story. Oddly I haven't read his Sharpe's series, but I enjoyed the movies.

Have you read any Simon Scarrow's books?

[Thrashalla]

[quote name='arlington bill' post='1583457' date='Nov 9 2008, 20.24']Have you read any Simon Scarrow's books?[/quote]

I have not, but thank you for reminding me about him, somehow he got booted from my Amazon wishlist a while ago and I completely forgot.

[duchess of malfi]

[quote name='Mexal' post='1582961' date='Nov 9 2008, 08.05']I just finished [i]Genghis: Birth of an Empire[/i] by Conn Iggulden and enjoyed it quite a bit. Once it got moving, it didn't let up.[/quote]

I just read that one, too, and also really enjoyed it. :)