March 2009 reads

[Larry.]

[quote name='Peadar' post='1733259' date='Mar 25 2009, 16.09']I look forward to it :)[/quote]

It'll be a week or so before it's done, as Finlay is currently doing his CEM the next couple of days. So far, he has some very interesting things to say.

[bossfan2000]

Just finished [b]The Twilight Herald[/b] by Tom Lloyd ([url="http://fantasybookreviewer.blogspot.com/2009/03/review-twilight-herald-by-tom-lloyd.html"]review[/url]). A much different book than the first...more epic, with lots of stuff going on. I know you won't believe me, but it feels like a bit of a cross between Abercrombie and Erikson. Definitely worth checking out, even if you didnt like the first. This book begins with a 5 page summary of [b]The Stormcaller[/b], so if you had trouble with it..just jump straight into this one.

Next up, I think I'll read [b]Foundling[/b] by D.M. Cornish

[Tears of Lys]

Just bought the two-volume biography of Charles Dickens written by Edgar Johnson back in the '50s. Found it used on Amazon. This is a fantastic read. I read it long ago as a library borrow and returned it grudgingly. Now I've got my very own! :love:

If anyone enjoys biographies at all, this is a must-read. You won't be sorry.

[kcf]

I finished up [i]Foundling [/i]([b]Blood Monster Tattoo[/b] Book One) by D.M. Cornish last week and I finally got [url="http://nethspace.blogspot.com/2009/03/foundling-by-dm-cornish.html"]a review up[/url]. I really enjoyed it - definately a superb example of worldbuilding, but it doesn't sacrifice in story and characterization as often happens. Marketed as YA, it has cross-over appeal.

I'm currently reading [i]Buyout [/i]by Alex Irvine as a change of pace.

[beniowa]

I read [b][i]River of Gods[/i][/b] by Ian McDonald ([url="http://thedecklededge.blogspot.com/2009/03/review-river-of-gods.html"]review[/url]). I liked the setting of India for the background and I also liked McDonald's ideas on artificial intelligence. The bad news is that I found his prose to be very clunky and hard to read. I felt he also had more characters and storylines than were necessary.

Next up is [b][i]Dancing on the the Head of a Pin[/i][/b] by Thomas E. Sniegoski, which I'll be reviewing for Bookspot Central.

[seastarr]

Just finished: [i]The Road[/i] by Cormac McCarthy and[i] The Pillars of the Earth[/i] by Ken Follet. I liked them both although I needed [i]Pillars[/i] to recover from [i]Road[/i]. Those fragments really took some getting used to, and I needed a storybook [i]with complete sentences[/i] after all the heaviness and choppy choppy.

Up next: [i]Shantaram[/i] by Gregory David Roberts. This might be one to recover from, too. We'll see.

[mashiara]

I read [i]Caught Stealing [/i]by Charlie Huston and enjoyed it tremendously. Fast paced, gritty and oh so amusing at times. I kept worrying about the cat, though, that distressed me a little bit. :unsure:

I also read [i]The Begotten [/i]by Lisa T. Bergen which claimed to be the first of a series. I have no interest in reading the rest of them, this one was bad enough. Most times there are merits even to what turns out to be faith-based literature, but not here. This book lost me in the prologue, when in 731 in Constantinople a bishop with a Latin name inspects a copy of the Bible written by a local monk and a) the manuscript is in Latin b) for some heretical bit he condemns the monk to burn at the stake!!! At the very least, get your research done and your facts right!

Last, but certainly not least, I read and absolutely loved [i] On Chesil Beach[/i] by Ian McEwan. So short and so rich, it made me wish there was a lot more of it. Beautiful writing as always and such an accurate study of human behavior and fears. A gem of a book.

If I have any time left today after doing tons of homework and housework, I'm going to start [i]L.A. Confidentia[/i]l by James Ellroy.

[Trinuviel]

I recently finished Jo Graham's second novel [b]Hand of Isis[/b], which turned out to be very very good indeed.

Being in the mood for something altogether more light, bright and sparkling, I am now halfway through [b]Black Sheep[/b], on eof Georgette Heyer's delightful Regency romances.

[JGP]

I recently finished a reread of the Italian Roberto Calasso's brilliant, brilliant retelling of Greek myths, titled [i]The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony[/i]. I cannot pimp this book or the author enough, who is an inviting intellectual with a decidedly wry sense of humor.

Just started [i]Little, Big[/i] by John Crowley. Been looking forward to this one for a long time.

[Werthead]

Finished [i]Storm Front[/i]. Enjoyable, even if it had many of the flaws of a first-time novel. Will read the sequel, [i]Fool Moon[/i], shortly.

Currently reading Neal Asher's [i][b]Shadow of the Scorpion[/b][/i], a prequel to his [b]Cormac[/b] series of novels.

[LianeM]

Read Christopher Priest's The Prestige. Came out of it feeling "meh." I think that I might like the film version better, as it sounds like it avoids most of the plot problems I had with the novel, but I haven't seen it yet. The book was so-so in my opinion; I only have so much patience for hat tricks with cascading narrators, and to me it felt like the plot was rather arbitrarily bent into whatever shape was needed to add just [i]one more[/i] narrator with a new piece of the puzzle.

It was an interesting writing experiment and I'm glad I read it, if only to learn what all the talk was about, but it felt a little too artificial and meta for me to care. I probably won't be reading any more Priest anytime soon.

[beniowa]

[quote name='mashiara' post='1736602' date='Mar 28 2009, 00.11']I read [i]Caught Stealing [/i]by Charlie Huston and enjoyed it tremendously. Fast paced, gritty and oh so amusing at times. I kept worrying about the cat, though, that distressed me a little bit. :unsure:[/quote]
I know what you mean. I gave my dad that book for Christmas without having read it yet myself so I didn't know about the cat until he told me. I'm a little worried about reading it now.

[Iskaral Pust]

I'm in the middle of Chabon's [i]Kavalier & Clay[/i]. Good so far, though not great.

[williamjm]

I finished reading Guy Gavriel Kay's [i]The Darkest Road[/i]. Having had fairly mixed opinions of the first two books in the trilogy I definitely liked the third the best. It was freed of most of the awkward set-up in the preceding novels and now that the characters has spent so much time in Fionavar they didn't seem quite so out-of-place. I thought the ending worked well, and I thought it struck a good balance between some happy endings for some of the characters and some fairly important characters actually dying so the victory did have a cost.

[quote name='LianeM' post='1737112' date='Mar 28 2009, 21.39']Read Christopher Priest's The Prestige. Came out of it feeling "meh." I think that I might like the film version better, as it sounds like it avoids most of the plot problems I had with the novel, but I haven't seen it yet. The book was so-so in my opinion; I only have so much patience for hat tricks with cascading narrators, and to me it felt like the plot was rather arbitrarily bent into whatever shape was needed to add just [i]one more[/i] narrator with a new piece of the puzzle.[/quote]

Although I did like the book, I do think the film is better structured and the revelation of the assorted plot twists is handled better (for example, the book makes it fairly obvious early on what Borden's trick is, whereas in the film it's much better concealed but still makes sense when the revelation is made).

[Trinuviel]

Have just begun reading [b]Flesh and Spirit[/b], book one in Carol Berg's [i]Lighthouse Duet[/i]. Apparently it is a story about magical cartography that to a certain extent takes place in a monastery, which is something that isn't seen very often in the fantasy genre.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I finished [i]Hand of Isis[/i] by Jo Graham which I quite liked. While reading [i]Hand of Isis[/i], I was inspired to re-watch episodes of ROME!
I felt like reading a short novel, so Paulo Coelho's [i]The Alchemist[/i] is up next.

[Bellis]

[quote name='LianeM' post='1737112' date='Mar 28 2009, 15.39']It was an interesting writing experiment and I'm glad I read it, if only to learn what all the talk was about, but it felt a little too artificial and meta for me to care. I probably won't be reading any more Priest anytime soon.[/quote]

I haven't read The Prestige (though I loved the movie), but I have read most of Priest's other work, and I would advise giving him another chance. The Affirmation, The Separation, Inverted World - all brilliant stuff.

I finished up The Lord of the Rings (fittingly, on March 25). I can respect and enjoy this novel for what it is, the first epic quest fantasy of its sort. Every subsequent fantasy, even many non-epics, are really a response, either an homage or refutation. I can appreciate Tolkien, and also Mieville (Moorcock less) for what they are. I would put the blame for perennial issues with race (the dark others in the south and east) and gender in epic fantasy not with Tolkien, who was period of his time, but with imitators in the 80s and 90s, whose mindset was stuck in that way of looking at the world.

Overall, my other impression of the books was that Peter Jackson did a damn fine job. The only thing I wonder is why, especially as he otherwise seemed to want to develop the female characters, he didn't give the Eowyn/Faramir relationship more screen time.

------------

For something completely different - I read Steph Swainston's [b]Dangerous Offspring[/b]. This is a fascinating series because she has so much talent, and yet the plotting and pacing are all over the place, with radical shifts in tone between war and family drama. DO is considerably less cynical than the previous two, featuring more development of Lightning's and the healer (don't have name handy) characters.

[b]Thirteen[/b] (Black Man) by Richard Morgan was a fun airplane read. It seems to take itself more seriously than that, but I'm not prepared to give it that. It didn't piss me off too much in its philosophy, and that's more than I expected. So thumbs up!

I'm now reading [b]Lamentation[/b]. I was really looking forward to it, because the premise is so great, but so far the execution seems pretty conventional...

[Deornoth]

I've just finished reading Graham McNeill's 'The Killing Ground', a tale of Ultramarines in Warhammer's 40,000 universe. It starts off well then gets really shaky (trying to write for newcomers to the series and old hands at the same time, I think) but recovers to become a dark and atmospheric tale of the aftermath of war. My full review is over [url="http://www.graemesfantasybookreview.com"]Here[/url].
I'm now getting back into Ken Scholes' 'Lamentation' which is proving to be an absolutely gorgeous read...

[duchess of malfi]

Just finished up Cory Doctorow's [i]Little Brother[/i], one of this year's Hugo nominees. It was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed it. I am now going to read my library books (three short mysteries and one historical novel that I checked out on Saturday) before trying to tackle the cinder block that is Neil Stephenson's [i]Anathem[/i], only of the five Hugo nominated novels I have not read yet. :lol:

[kcf]

I finished up [i]Buyout [/i]by Alex Irvine the other day. This is a great gook that has me still thinking about it long after finishing it. ([url="http://nethspace.blogspot.com/2009/03/buyout-by-alexander-c-irvine.html"]full review[/url])

Now I'm going to give Brent Weeks a shot and his [i]The Way of Shadows [/i]- so far it is decidedly average.