December 2008 reads

[Larry.]

A few weeks after some controversy arose surrounding this book, I managed to finish reading Kristin Cashore's [i]Graceling[/i]. [url="http://ofblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/kristin-cashore-graceling.html"]Here's the review I wrote for it[/url].

[Procrastimancer]

[quote name='BookWyrm' post='1630515' date='Dec 26 2008, 00.16']I envy you. I remember reading Amber for the first time...

Good times are ahead for you Velos, Amber is fine, fast paced reading. Zelazny has prose that can be, at times, dazzling, in particular I remember the last phrase from Nine Princes In Amber.

Enjoy the reading![/quote]


I wasn't so certain of it when I first started it, not that I expect to be drawn into a book by only a handful of pages, but by the time I got to the below quote, I knew I wouldn't be putting it down.

[quote]I drew on my cigarette, hoping she'd say something more. But she didn't, so I decided to seize what seemed the advantage I'd obtained in this game I didn't understand with players I didn't know for stakes I had no inkling of.[/quote]

Dunno why...

[BookWyrm]

You're just beginning to know what I refer to as the bad-ass affect. Corwin uses it frequently.

There are going to be more times when you're reading Amber that you get a similar feeling. I read the first chronicles during summer vacation one year and I totally burned through it in about a week. Well I'm just repeating myself now but, Amber rocks. :cool:

The only thing I thought was awkward was how much everyone smoked, but that's easy to tune out of. :smoking:

[Werthead]

Finished James Barclay's [b][i]Dawnthief[/i][/b]. It was terrible.

Moving on to David 'ASoIaF TV Writer' Benioff's [b][i]City of Thieves[/i][/b].

[Calibandar]

I read a James Barclay book two years ago because people kept saying he was so much like David Gemmell.

I thought it was very poor. There is a character called "The Unknown warrior" which does not work at all, because other characters even call him that. I was quite perplexed he was able to sell this to a major publisher in fact.

City of Thieves on the other hand is well worth a read and many times better written.

[Mexal]

[quote name='Calibandar' post='1631437' date='Dec 27 2008, 13.43']I read a James Barclay book two years ago because people kept saying he was so much like David Gemmell.

I thought it was very poor. There is a character called "The Unknown warrior" which does not work at all, because other characters even call him that. I was quite perplexed he was able to sell this to a major publisher in fact.

City of Thieves on the other hand is well worth a read and many times better written.[/quote]

I've never read the Raven series but his Ascendant duology is fantastic.

I just finished [i]The Book of Lost Things[/i] and it was good but not really all that much more.

Next up is either a reread of[i] Cry of the Newborn[/i] or [i]When Christ and his Saints Slept[/i] by Sharon Penman. I haven't decided yet.

[Cuchulain]

[quote name='Calibandar' post='1631437' date='Dec 27 2008, 18.43']I read a James Barclay book two years ago because people kept saying he was so much like David Gemmell.

I thought it was very poor. There is a character called "The Unknown warrior" which does not work at all, because other characters even call him that. I was quite perplexed he was able to sell this to a major publisher in fact.

City of Thieves on the other hand is well worth a read and many times better written.[/quote]
Damn, I had high hopes about this one too because of the comparison to Gemmell. Also, I was expecting something like Glen Cook's Black Company what with the mercenaries and all.

[dits]

Reading my seventh Bernard Cornwell book for this year with Sword Song. I'm really enjoying his Saxon Tales. After that I'm going to read some more of L.E. Modesitt's stuff.

[oneeye]

I'm finishing up Caesar, 5th book in the Master of Rome series. I think I liked the earlier books about Marius and Sulla better. Mccullough seems to admire Caesar a little too much, and paint Cicero, Cato et al as villains too excessively.

[Barnes]

[quote name='dits' post='1631993' date='Dec 28 2008, 05.46']Reading my seventh Bernard Cornwell book for this year with Sword Song. I'm really enjoying his Saxon Tales. After that I'm going to read some more of L.E. Modesitt's stuff.[/quote]


Just finished the 4 Saxon books myself, really looking forward to future additions, supposedly 3-4 more to come.

I've finally got around to reading ASOIAF, currently 100 pgs into book 2, enjoying it so far, although it's been so over-hyped I'm trying not to be disappointed.

[gyrehead]

[quote name='Barnes' post='1632207' date='Dec 28 2008, 11.57']Just finished the 4 Saxon books myself, really looking forward to future additions, supposedly 3-4 more to come.[/quote]


I'm just hoping the next installments have a bit more heft to them than the last one. I enjoyed it but thought it was way too singular-noted in plot and execution. It was more like an extended scene than it was a whole Act, let alone an entire play. He needs to sit back and focus on just that one book and take a bit more time and even a bit more ffort at layering the plot.

I'm still looking forward to book five though.

Recently read the following:

[i]Keeper of Light and Dust[/i] by Natasha Mostert -- decent; engaging and entertaining read but wouldn't be making any "best of lists" even this early in the game for 2009!

[i]Act of Will[/i] by A. J. Hartley -- another decent read. Fast paced. Insteresting to see how much attention this book gets.

[i]The Best of Gene Wolfe[/i] -- not being a Wolfe fan this was only a read I managed what with having a free copy given to me. Still I suspect fans will love it. And I didn't not enjoy it. Being a collection probably helped tremendously as I could interspere it with other books.

[Larry.]

A little over halfway into Luigi Pulci's [i]Morgante: The Epic Adventures of Orlando and His Giant Friend Morgante[/i]. I'm on an Italian Renaissance epic poetry kick, I guess, as I read Matteo Maria Boiardo's [i]Orlando Innamorato[/i] last Wednesday-Thursday. Got at least one more Roland/Orlando-related book in the pipeline for this month or early next.

[Werthead]

[quote name='Mexal' post='1631452' date='Dec 27 2008, 18.05']I've never read the Raven series but his Ascendant duology is fantastic.[/quote]

[i]Cry of the Newborn[/i] is solid. Flawed, but fun. [i]Shout for the Dead[/i] was meh. [i]Dawnthief[/i], which I suspect is the same book Cal tried, is vastly inferior to either.

[pat5150]

Just finished Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's [i]Bones of the Dragon[/i]. . .

A seven-figure advance for the series, and a 200,000$ national campaign to promote this book???

A MAJOR disappointment, to say the least. Could well be the most disappointing fantasy title of 2009.

Check out the blog for the full review. . .

Patrick

[Myshkin]

[quote name='pat5150' post='1632361' date='Dec 28 2008, 12.42']Just finished Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's [i]Bones of the Dragon[/i]. . .

A seven-figure advance for the series, and a 200,000$ national campaign to promote this book???

A MAJOR disappointment, to say the least. Could well be the most disappointing fantasy title of 2009.

Check out the blog for the full review. . .

Patrick[/quote]
I'm not sure how you can be disappointed in a dragonlance title. I mean, did you really have high expectations for it?

[kuenjato]

[quote name='pat5150' post='1632361' date='Dec 28 2008, 13.42']Just finished Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's [i]Bones of the Dragon[/i]. . .

A seven-figure advance for the series, and a 200,000$ national campaign to promote this book???

A MAJOR disappointment, to say the least. Could well be the most disappointing fantasy title of 2009.

Check out the blog for the full review. . .

Patrick[/quote]


I couldn't get past the fifth or sixth paragraph on either of those excerpts you posted, so no surprise.

Oh, and Pat: I think it's Vikings, not Vickings.

[pat5150]

Oops. . .

By the way, it's not a Dragonlance title.

Patrick

[Werthead]

[quote name='pat5150' post='1632442' date='Dec 28 2008, 22.30']Oops. . .

By the way, it's not a Dragonlance title.[/quote]

Despite having a cover design, title font and logo which look very similar to the recent [b]Dragonlance[/b] books. I'm not surprised at the confusion.

[RedEyedGhost]

I finished [b]Walter Jon Williams' [u]Implied Spaces[/u][/b] yesterday. It has a hell of a lot of good qualities, but it took a long time before it grabbed my attention. It's a post singularity novel in which the human's (with the help of Asimovian locked down AIs) create pocket universes, have virtual immortality, and live in a potentially "utopian society". The story follows Aristide, one of the original creators of the AIs, as he tries to prevent a war with an unknown being creating "pod people"). While there was a lot of cool stuff going on, the main character just wasn't that interesting and I didn't really care about him.

Overall it was an interesting concept, but poor execution. Had it been as engaging as his [i]Dread Empire's Fall[/i] trilogy, it would have likely been in my top 5 of 2008.

[b]7/10[/b]

I'm about 70 pages into [u]Devil's Cape[/u] by Rob Rogers. So far it's a very interesting take on superheroes/villains.

[duchess of malfi]

I finished up the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. I really liked it - lots of asskicking action along with surprising depth. One of the better endings to an epic fantasy that I can remember ever running into. :)

At the urging of a friend I read [i]Pastwatch[/i] by Orson Scott Card. I bought it used (for a penny and postage) so the author will not get my money. I had stopped reading Card a while ago, due to his weird and horrible homophobic internet rantings and the huge decline in his writing in the past few books by him I have tried. I could not even finish the last one, [i]Empire[/i], which was just plain gawdawful bad. This one is older, and I was reminded that once Card actually had good ideas and was able to write a decent story. And the tone was actually hopeful (perhaps a bit too hopeful) rather than bitter. Such a shame that his writing changed so much in the intervening years...

Now reading [i]Thunderer[/i] by Felix Gilman. The first chapter was, as I was warned, weird. I wasn't sure what I had gotten myself into. But in the second chapter, where the author describes the backstory of one of the main characters, and his childhood service in a religious musical conservatory to a god of a glorious VOICE, hooked me with its beauty. I am now halfway through the book. Still not sure where the three main plotlines will link up, or where the author is going with everything, but I am really enjoying the ride. :)

edited to add:
[quote name='Dylanfanatic' post='1630853' date='Dec 26 2008, 16.19']A few weeks after some controversy arose surrounding this book, I managed to finish reading Kristin Cashore's [i]Graceling[/i]. [url="http://ofblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/kristin-cashore-graceling.html"]Here's the review I wrote for it[/url].[/quote]

I commented on your review, but then realized the comment came through with my blogger ID (krobinett) rather than my board ID, so you would have no idea who commented. But I did read your review, and it sounds like we liked many of the same things about the book. :)