March 2009 reads

[williamjm]

[quote name='TheEvilKing' post='1730069' date='Mar 23 2009, 10.07']Sadly I found like the whole middle of the book (basically the parts with fairies and where various characters were going around questing) to be pretty boring. Not my cup of tea. However the last 60-odd pages flew by - basically when all the plot strands came together it was great.[/quote]

I did have a similar reaction to the middle of the book. The writing was reasonably good but I didn't have any interest in what was happening. I got distracted by some other book, so I never got as far as the good bit of the book you describe. I never deliberately decided to stop reading but considering that was about 5 years ago I doubt I'm going to finish it any time soon.

[Cuchulain]

[quote name='Myshkin' post='1730780' date='Mar 23 2009, 23.08']If it make you feel any better, I'm not a fan of Morrison's work either.[/quote]
It does actually. I've noticed from your posts on this board that you know your literature. If someone like you isn't a fan of Morrison, I at least know that my dislike for her work isn't completely due to ignorance on my part.

[Myshkin]

[quote name='Cuchulain' post='1730910' date='Mar 23 2009, 17.42']It does actually. I've noticed from your posts on this board that you know your literature. If someone like you isn't a fan of Morrison, I at least know that my dislike for her work isn't completely due to ignorance on my part.[/quote]
Off the top of my head, Morrison is the only Nobel Prize winner I can think of that I've read and disliked. I even gave her two chances; [i]Beloved[/i] and [i]The Bluest Eye[/i]. I just felt that her prose tended to be overwritten in places, and that she tended towards sensationalism. Also, I feel that I may lack the framework of reference to fully appreciate the depths of her themes (especially with [i]Beloved[/i], as that is also about the mother/daughter relationship).

[Bellis]

I liked Beloved well enough, but I haven't sought out any of her other work. It was depressing and creepy.



Inspired by Larry, I remembered that I hadn't read Lord of the Rings since my teens. I didn't really care for it then, I thought it slow and I had already read some imitations (like Terry Brooks) so the entire quest thing felt old.

So.. In the last 24 hours, I have sped through Fellowship and am halfway through Two Towers. And I'm really digging this. Sure the prose is archaic, but it's actually very well done. The character development is not so bad and the story is really quite thematically sophisticated. I'm enjoying the experience of being familiar with the movies and being able to compare and contrast what was left out. The books are much more talky. Which I like, though it wouldn't have worked as well on film. Lots of sections quite condensed. I felt very sad about the Entwives :( I'm falling on the defending Tolkien camp. I'll probably follow-up with a re-read of Silmarillion and then Children of Hurin.

[Larry.]

I'm glad that you're enjoying your re-read of Tolkien more than I did mine (even though I found much that I could admire even more than I had when I was younger)! :D

I'm currently in the midst of reading quite a few of the fantasy "classics" - just finished Mervyn Peake's [i]Titus Alone[/i] and the rest of M. John Harrison's [i]Viriconium[/i] stories. Working on a review of MJH's [i]A Storm of Wings[/i] right now. I suspect my opinion of that book will be a minority one here, based on a few comments here and there ;)

Currently reading Roberto Bolaño's early novel, [i]Monsieur Pain[/i] and Daniel Goldhagen's 2002 broadside, [i]A Moral Reckoning[/i]. Might have to write an essay about this one, because Goldhagen's first book, [i]Hitler's Willing Executioners[/i] was an inflammatory work that had questionable methodology and so far, this second book of his is far, far worse in that regard.

Will be receiving quite a few books in the mail this week, including Paul Auster's [i]New York Trilogy[/i], so that will be an immediate read.

[TheEvilKing]

[quote name='williamjm' post='1730847' date='Mar 24 2009, 08.13']I did have a similar reaction to the middle of the book. The writing was reasonably good but I didn't have any interest in what was happening. I got distracted by some other book, so I never got as far as the good bit of the book you describe. I never deliberately decided to stop reading but considering that was about 5 years ago I doubt I'm going to finish it any time soon.[/quote]

Yeah exactly. I soldiered on and it got a lot better, basically when Carfilhiot comes back into it and Aillas finishes his journey. But basically anything with Dhrun and Glyneth totally dragged.

[Deornoth]

I've just finished reading Adrian Tchaikovsky's 'Dragonfly Falling', the second book is his 'Shadows of the Apt' series. There's so much going on that things do get a little clunky as conclusions are cut short in favour of finding out more about other characters but it still has everything that made 'Empire in Black and Gold' such a good read, I'm still in for the long haul with this series! My full review is over [url="http://www.graemesfantasybookreview.com"]Here[/url].
I've got no idea what I'll be reading next. Mark Newton's 'Nights of Villjamur' looks very good but so does Ken Scholes' 'Lamentation'. Having said that though, I've got the next three days off work so it might be the best time to finally read 'Toll the Hounds'...

[Procrastimancer]

I finished Lamentation by Ken Scholes. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. I bought it even though I had an inkling that it wouldn't be my cup of tea, but I am glad to see that I was wrong about that and glad that I bought it. A very good book. A bit annoying in spots when the author repeated bits of information that were already presented to us, but other than that I have no complaints. I liked it enough to pick up his collection of stories as well. Can't wait for Canticle.

Now I am stuck with the dreaded task of scouring my stack for what I will read next.

[K_P]

After scouring my stack I landed on CJ Cherryh's [b]Foreigner[/b]. I am about a 1/3 of the way through and really hope it starts picking up soon. Many of the reviews of this series were very positive though maybe this comes from some of the later books. Right now I am tempted to drop it as the characterization and world building have been very thin and leave a lot to be desired...

[Peadar]

I just finished [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Science-Fiction-Best-Rich-Horton/dp/0843959045/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237934468&sr=1-2"]Science Fiction The Best of the Year 2007[/url] edited by Rich Horton. The stand-out story for me was Robert Reed's "A Billion Eves".

I'm going to continue with short fiction for a while by reading this year's Hugo Nominees.

[murphy]

[quote name='K_P' post='1732188' date='Mar 24 2009, 15.12']After scouring my stack I landed on CJ Cherryh's [b]Foreigner[/b]. I am about a 1/3 of the way through and really hope it starts picking up soon. Many of the reviews of this series were very positive though maybe this comes from some of the later books. Right now I am tempted to drop it as the characterization and world building have been very thin and leave a lot to be desired...[/quote]


Has Bren shown up yet? That's when it starts picking up.

[Larry.]

[i]Conjunctions[/i] is my latest short fiction subscription. Received #51, [i]The Death Issue[/i], on Saturday and there are around 40 stories over 420 pages dealing with death and dying in some form or another. If I had read this when it came out in December 2008, it would have been my favorite anthology for that year. As it stands, it might be one of the best books I've read in quite a while in terms of the range of stories dealing with that most personal and incomprehensible of things. Might try to write a review tonight or tomorrow. Simply outstanding.

[K_P]

[quote name='murphy' post='1732235' date='Mar 24 2009, 17.53']Has Bren shown up yet? That's when it starts picking up.[/quote]

No, not yet, thanks for the heads up

[BookWyrm]

[quote name='TheEvilKing' post='1731373' date='Mar 24 2009, 08.19']Yeah exactly. I soldiered on and it got a lot better, basically when Carfilhiot comes back into it and Aillas finishes his journey. But basically anything with Dhrun and Glyneth totally dragged.[/quote]


Those were some of my favorite parts. :leaving:

[delete this account pls]

Just cracked the spine on The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson.

[ambyr]

I made a library run earlier in the month and grabbed Pratchett's [i]Nation[/i], Slattery's [i]Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six after the Collapse of the United States of America[/i], and Stover's [i]Heroes Die[/i].

[i]Nation[/i] was a quick and enjoyable read, but very far from Pratchett's best, IMO. The story felt too slight to support the themes, which were laid on pretty heavily. I liked Mau, but by the end I felt the person had disappeared under the weight of the role.

I loved Slattery's prose and world-building (for lack of a better term), and the emotional arc of the novel rang true to me, but the plotting was. . .uhh, a little lacking. I wanted a clever heist, I wanted to see the characters working through obstacles. Instead I got a remarkably straightforward plan that went off without a hitch--and one that I didn't buy would achieve their long-term objectives. The meat of the story was all in how the characters related to each other. I'm fine with that kind of novel, but then why throw in a save-the-world B-plot? Still, out of the three, this is the one I'm most likely to buy for rereading purposes. And I'll definitely check out Slattery's other book.

I'm about halfway through [i]Heroes Die[/i] now. I want to like it, but it just isn't gelling for me. Perhaps it improves? I've got until Saturday to find out, I guess.

[Peadar]

As part of my Hugo Awards reading, I've just completed [url="http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/fiction/ccf01.htm"]The Political Prisoner[/url] by Charles Coleman Finlay. It was a great read and I feel lucky to have started with it. Click on the [url="http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/fiction/ccf01.htm"]link[/url] to enjoy it for free. :read:

[Larry.]

[quote name='Peadar' post='1732727' date='Mar 25 2009, 09.24']As part of my Hugo Awards reading, I've just completed [url="http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/fiction/ccf01.htm"]The Political Prisoner[/url] by Charles Coleman Finlay. It was a great read and I feel lucky to have started with it. Click on the [url="http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/fiction/ccf01.htm"]link[/url] to enjoy it for free. :read:[/quote]

FYI, I'm working on an interview with Finlay for the Nebula Awards Blog. His earlier stories are quite good as well.

[duchess of malfi]

[quote name='Cuchulain' post='1730776' date='Mar 23 2009, 18.06']Just finished Toni Morrison's [i]Beloved[/i]. I didn't care for it at all (and I couldn't care less that Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature). Reading would actually be too strong a word for what I did; After a while I just started skimming. If it wasn't necessary for my postmodernism class, I wouldn't have finished the novel at all. Life is too short to read books you don't give a fuck about.[/quote]

That has got to be one of the grimmest and most depressing books I have ever read. I can usually handle grim and depressing - but that one was way over the top grim and depressing. :(

Finished up Bakker's [i]The Judging Eye[/i], and am already planning on rereading it soon.

Am now working on Stross' [i]Saturn's Children[/i], about a fembot designed as a sex slave as part of my annual Hugo Quest. Of all of Heinlein's geniunely good books to be inspired by, why anyone would want to emulate him in his Dirty Old Man Phase is beyond me. :rolleyes: But here you go.

[Peadar]

[quote name='Dylanfanatic' post='1732858' date='Mar 25 2009, 16.00']FYI, I'm working on an interview with Finlay for the Nebula Awards Blog. His earlier stories are quite good as well.[/quote]

I look forward to it :)