November 2008 reads

[Cuchulain]

I stayed up until 3 am yesterday to finish Morgan's [i]Altered Carbon[/i]. I found it quite enjoyable and will probably be reading the others in the near future. Also, the novel has made me curious for [i]The Steel Remains[/i]; I want to see how Morgan handles his violence in a fantasy setting. :P
Today I've started Zelazny's [i]Lord of Light[/i] because of what was said about it in the 'best single battles' thread.

[Larry.]

Finished a few books recently - Sapkowski's [i]Bautismo de fuego[/i] was another fine installment in one of the few epic fantasies I'm still avidly awaiting the conclusion (in Spanish, that is, since it'll be 4 more years before the finale is released in English).

Roberto Bolaño's [i]Estrella distante[/i] was very good, but I think I should have read it in conjunction with another book of his, as this book refers to events in that other book.

Currently 3/4 into Federico Fernández Giordano's Premio Minotauro-winning novel [i]El libro de Nobac[/i] and it's intriguing. I know the cover blurbs refer to how Poe, Borges, and Lovecraft influenced Giordano's novel, but part of me thinks it's more like Zafón's [i]The Shadow of the Wind[/i] in feel. Pretty good so far, but the ending will raise or lower it immensely, I suspect.

Up next will be either Javier Negrete's [i]Salamina[/i] or Bakker's [i]The Judging Eye[/i] (if my copy has arrived yet, that is). Jeffrey Ford's latest story collection will be read around these books, as will the VanderMeers' pirate anthology.

[Myshkin]

Just finished Andrzej Sapkowski's [i]Blood of the Elves[/i]. A very good book, although I liked the short stories more.

Now reading Sergei Lukyanenko [i]Twilight Watch[/i].

[Quarterman]

[b]Shadow Coast[/b] by Philip Haldeman, took an interested premise of Indian myth set in the North American northwest and ran it into the ground with a very Shyamalan stylized apocalyptic ending.

SPOILER: spoilers

I love the book's ideas of vengeful ghosts returning with the tides, fogs, and mists, the victims of a turn of the century massacre by a logging baron (the ol sins of the fathers mass murder bent on revenge ghosts scenario) and possessing the living in the present day and a former whaling Indian tribe's myth involving a soul stealing two headed great sea snake.

That being said the characters failed to engage me further hurt by the fact this a slow burning subtle horror with a not so subtle cliched freight train ending with Shyamalan moments of cinematic madness tossed between. Too nicely packaged movie bait (For instance, a man in the clergy, who for the brief time we're introduced to him seems perfectly sane until he hears God's emissaries telling to make an Abrahamic sacrifice of his son and holds his son ransom right out on the public sidewalk with a knife at his throat to be surrounded by onlookers and police what happened to the part where he climbs up a mountain alone and there is no one but himself, God, and his son??? Of course our protagonist whom is not trained in hostage crisis, simply volunteers to talk to him while the police step aside and manages to be the hero of the day pfft). 5/10

[b]Meat[/b] by Joseph D'Lacy. My enthusiasm runs high with this one and sounds fun and could prove to have deeper meanings. The cover has a Stephen King blurb "Joseph D'Lacey Rocks!"

Backcover:

Abyrne is a decaying town, trapped by an advancing wilderness. Its people depend on meat for their survival, meat supplied by the processing plant on the edge of town.

Meat is sanctified in Abyrne, a precious commodity eaten with devout solemnity by everyone except for a handful of people who won't, who suspect the town is evil, rotten to its core.

A feud smoulders between the town's religious and secular powers - whoever controls the food supply controls everything.

But the townsfolk are hungry, they must be fed.

They must be fed.

And I love the premise of the author's second novel due out next year too:

[url="http://beautiful-books.co.uk/254.html"]The Garbage Man[/url]

EDIT: Joseph D'Lacey's [url="http://www.myspace.com/josephdlacey"]Myspace[/url].

[Dark Wolf]

I finished [url="http://darkwolfsfantasyreviews.blogspot.com/2008/11/bloodheir-by-brian-ruckley.html"]"Bloodheir" by Brian Ruckley[/url]. I liked this novel even more than "Winterbirth" and I can't wait to see the outcome of this series. It has a slow start and a rahter slow pace for half of it, but I don't complain, because I believe it compensates in other aspects. And the story is building steadily toward its boiling point and it made me await eagerly the third novel.

[ambyr]

Finished William Gibson's [i]Spook Country[/i]. It was an easy read, very smooth and engaging, but a bit lacking in substance. I haven't read [i]Pattern Recognition[/i], to which I guess it is at least nominally the sequel. Perhaps going back and reading that at some point will reveal some depths I missed.

Not sure what's up next. Maybe Diana Wynne Jones's [i]Changeover[/i]?

[Cuchulain]

Just finished Zelazny's [i]Lord of Light[/i]. The first few chapters didn't convince me, but the later ones did and I ended up liking the book a lot. I've made a note of checking out more of Zelazny's work in the future.
I'm going to do some reading for college next, starting with [i]Mrs Dalloway[/i] by Virginia Woolf.

[Quarterman]

A halloween tale by Joseph D'Lacey [url="http://horrorreanimated.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/a-tale-for-halloween-by-jdl/#more-309"]http://horrorreanimated.wordpress.com/2008...y-jdl/#more-309[/url]

And the author's [url="http://www.myspace.com/josephdlacey"]myspace.[/url] I havent been able to put his book down since I started it yesterday.

[delete this account pls]

Still working my way through a Crown of Stars reread. About halfway through Book 4, Child of Flame.

[pat5150]

Just finished GRRM and friends' latest Wild Cards novel, [i]Busted Flush[/i].

Complex and entertaining, though a notch perhaps under [i]Inside Straight[/i], it's over all a good read.

Check the blog for the full review! :)

Patrick

[Mr. X]

Currently reading Kathleen Ann Goonan's [i]Queen City Jazz[/i], which is a story about a young girl living in a post-nanotech apocalypse America (Cincinnati, Ohio, to be specific). The book is the first of four in her "Nanotech Quartet". It's quite beautifully written, though a bit confusing at times. Goonan makes some interesting stylistic choices throughout the book, which are largely successful. Overall, I think she does a good job of throwing you into the world and letting you sort out a lot of what is going on instead of beating you over the head with expositions and infodumps. I'm curious to see where it ends up.

[quote name='Cuchulain' post='1588329' date='Nov 13 2008, 19.02']Just finished Zelazny's [i]Lord of Light[/i]. The first few chapters didn't convince me, but the later ones did and I ended up liking the book a lot. I've made a note of checking out more of Zelazny's work in the future.[/quote]
Every time someone mentions [i]Lord of Light[/i], it triggers an almost Pavlovian response in me to utter "Man, I love that book!"

[beniowa]

Yesterday I finished [i][b]Agent to the Stars[/b][/i] by John Scalzi. Scalzi's first novel has kind of an interesting publishing history being first published on his website, then in limited edition by Subpress before finally being available to the wider public. This book has more satire and less science fiction than some of his later work, but he still does an excellent job balancing it with just the right amount of drama. Definitely recommended. 8/10.

I'm currently reading [i][b]Wild Cards II: Aces High[/b][/i].

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I'll be finishing [i]Lord of the Fire Lands[/i] by Dave Duncan tonight. It was pretty good and the issues I had with his first novel, [i]The Gilded Chain [/i]seemed to have disappeared. It is interesting since both books sort of standalone, each discussing events with different people and countries, and yet there are inconsistencies in the story, which the final novel resolves as it is the bridge for the other two books.
Since I'll be heading off to Belize and sailing for a week :D , I'll be taking [i]Sky of Swords[/i], the final book in A Tale of King's Blades trilogy and [i]Here be Dragons [/i]by Sharon Kay Penman. I feel the need to read some good historical fiction lately.

[Argon]

I've finished the 988 pages of "[i]Pandora's Star[/i]" by [b]Peter F. Hamilton[/b]. What's to say? Bloody too long - especially because the 2nd installment is again 1100 pages strong.
My problems with the pandora's box, er, book. It's written in a way that I couldn't connect to any protagonists. I simply didn't care. There was no 'drama', at no time did I fear for any of the characters.
Thus what remained was the plot to drive me forward. The story, however, isn't that enthralling. Nothing innovative and worse the tight coupling to past Earth history just cried wrong. The crime episode, Tara/Morton, was so lame, beyond description. And Ozzy-Orion-Elves was just crap.

At the moment no intention to buy "Judas Unchained."

I'll take a brake from genre and read something non-fictious, I think.

[Deornoth]

I've just finished reading R. Scott Bakker's 'The Judging Eye'. I could gush on for hours about how great I thought this was (can you tell that I enjoyed it?) but I'll just say that it's Bakker doing what he's done before... but better! My full review is over [url="http://www.graemesfantasybookreview.com"]Here[/url].
I'm now reading 'The Stealer of Souls', a collection of Michael Moorcock's Elric tales...

[mashiara]

Since my last post I finished reading the following

[i]I, Robot [/i]by Isaak Asimov. I needed to reread that and I probably enjoyed it more now than the first time I read it. A classic in its way.

[i]Sharp objects[/i], by Gillian Flynn. A rather interesting book. I was feeling so smug and certain that I knew who did the murders and then I was wrong. That's a good thing.

[url="http://www.amazon.com/Case-Histories-Novel-Kate-Atkinson/dp/0316740403"]Case Histories[/url], by Kate Atkinson. I liked this book, I was prepared not to based on some reviews I had read. True, I figured out almost everything before it was over but if I didn't view this solely as a thriller and I focused on the characters then it was well worth it. They were very believable and memorable, very.. human.

Last, but certainly not least, [i]The Bell Jar[/i], by Sylvia Plath. A disturbing and brilliant book. The first person narrative made it very personal and very real. I can't believe I never read it before.

My next read is going to be [i]Running with Scissors[/i] by Augusten Burroughs.

[Mexal]

I finished [i]Lords of the Bow[/i], the 2nd Genghis book by Conn Iggulden. It was great. Very quick read that got me wanting to know more about Genghis Khan. I'll have to pick up the third book but I'm somewhat adverse to paying 15 quid for it...

I'm now doing a reread of [i]The Darkness That Comes Before [/i]given that [i]The Judging Eye[/i] comes out soon enough. I think I'll only need to reread the first one to familiarize myself with the characters and storyline. I don't like the idea of having to buy all the books a 2nd time.

Next up after Bakker is [i]World War Z[/i] by Max Brooks. I'm really really looking forward to this.

[Sweetmartin]

i am in Bonehunters SE(Special Edition or Steven Erikson) and Bartimaeus 3 from Jonathan Stroud,what i will recommend for everyone,but who cares!!!

[kcf]

I finally finished a got [url="http://nethspace.blogspot.com/2008/11/tender-morsels-by-margo-lanagan.html"]a revew[/url] written for [i]Tender Morsels [/i]by Margo Lanagan. It's both a very good book and one that didn't appeal to me much at all - a tough review to write.

Now I'm reading [i]The Well of Ascension [/i]by Brandon Sanderson, which is turning out to be just the sort of read I'm in the mood for. Next up will be [i]The Judging Eye [/i]by Bakker which just got here today.

[duchess of malfi]

I am in the middle of [i]The Afghan Campaign[/i] by Steven Pressfield. It is about Alexander the Great's attempts to conquer Afghanistan. It's a bit grim, and makes me think tonight of a couple of young American soldiers I know stationed over there. :(