April 2009

[kcf]

I've got a review up for World's End by Mark Chadbourn. I really, really liked this one.

Now I'm reading Starfinder by John Marco, which is decent but lacks the level of cross-over of a lot of recent YA books.

[Ealdorman Halasahr]

I finished re-reading Mr. Martin's A Game of Thrones today, and will naturally start re-reading A Clash of Kings soon. Before that, though, I've started reading R. Scott Bakker's The Warrior Prophet.

Hopefully I'll finish reading some other books I started a long time ago, as well (Glen Cook's The Black Company-novels; J.V. Jones' A Cavern of Black Ice; Brandon Sanderson's Elantris, and so forth).

[Rooster]

I read Lois Bujold's Young Miles omnibus (Warrior's Apprentice, Vor Game and the Mountains of Mourning novella). I was dreadfully bored the first half of Apprentice, Miles seemed a right old boyscout and nothing of interest happened at all. Around that point it turned a number of degrees and kicked my ass. Needless to say I enjoyed the rest of the omnibus greatly. I can't believe I let it lay on my shelf for years and years, but at least on the positive side most of the Vorkosigan books are out in omnibus editions by now.

Next up was David Blixt's Master of Verona. Good, solid historical fiction, which turned great at the end.

[williamjm]

I've started Look to Windward by Iain M Banks, apart from Matter it's the only Culture book I haven't read yet.

[Larry.]

Just began the 2008 English translation of Thomas Glavinic's Night Work last night and 40 pages in, this is damn good stuff. Got the recommendation from here, where there is still quite an active discussion.

[delete this account pls]

Just finished A War Like No Other by Victor Davis Hanson, about the Peloponnesian War. Pretty interesting stuff. Rather than just a straight up chronology of the war and the major battles, it looks at the war in overview. The weapons used, the changing tactics, the psychology behind it, the reasons why the war really was something never seen before in the Greek world. It also looked into how the concept of the polis affected warfare in Ancient Greece and vice versa, and how certain basic fundamentals about the way the Ancient Greeks viewed battle changed drastically during the war.

Just started Freedomland by Richard Price.

[H von T]

Just started Freedomland by Richard Price.

I like Richard Price. Clockers is better imo, but Freedomland is a good read.

I've started Memories of Ice, but I don't see myself getting through it. 775 pages is a bit much for the third novel of a series. If I finish this book, then I'm more likely to read the rest and I don't think I want to invest so much time for a series where I can barely keep the characters and plotlines straight.

[delete this account pls]

I like Richard Price. Clockers is better imo, but Freedomland is a good read.

I'm definitely going to check out Clockers.

About MOI, if your not digging it, you definitely won't like the rest of the series Deadhouse and MOI are pretty much the high points.

[Bellis]

Cyberabad Days, Ian McDonald's collection of short stories set in the same world as River of Gods. A good companion to that novel, though not as good. McDonald also tends to give Hindu characters Muslim names, which I'm not sure is deliberate or purely ignorant.

Use of Weapons by Ian M Banks. My favorite Culture book (I've only read two others which I didn't care for). I think this is because it has an interesting structure and dark undertones similar to his non-genre books, which I liked quite a bit (especially Wasp Factory and Complicity).

Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh's Circle of Reason. I reviewed his latest, Sea of Poppies, upthread. I didn't enjoy this one quite as much. It's a much earlier work, unpolished, and meanders a lot. Yet, it's fascinating because, although it's set in the 20th century, it still feels very much like a historical fiction of another time, not just another place. There's this thematic thread of Pasteur and germs which might appeal to Isis :)

Today I read the short Egyptian novel The Yacoubian Building by Alaa el-Aswany. I liked it quite a bit, though the society he paints of modern Egypt is certainly depressing, and I'm uncomfortable with some of the depiction of homosexuality (I'm not quite sure the author is anti-gay, or making a point about his society). Not quite sure he's the heir to Mahfouz, but he has the same sort of pessimism about the future of modernism.

[BookWyrm]

I just finished the first Rhialto story from Jack Vance's Dying Earth. Good stuff as usual.

I also read Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, which I must admit, blew Rhialto away. :D

[red snow]

I just finished "Catch-22", which was completely different from what I was expecting. I'm now back on SF&F and reading Dan Simmons, "Ilium". I'm about a third through abd thoroughly enjoying it. I was dubious of whether a future re-eanactment of "The iliad" by post-humans could be taken seriously but Dan has me convinced.

It also looks like I'll have plenty of King Arthur books to read soon - thanks to another thread on the board.

[TheEvilKing]

Almost finished with Dragon In Chains and I'm being indecisive about what book to read next. I have the following sitting on my bookcase, staring at me imploringly every time I walk past:

Felix Gilman - Thunderer

GRRM - Fevre Dream

Richard Pinto - The Chosen

Paul Kearney - The Ten Thousand

As you can see I'm spoiled for choice. Which one should I read first?

[red snow]

Almost finished with Dragon In Chains and I'm being indecisive about what book to read next. I have the following sitting on my bookcase, staring at me imploringly every time I walk past:

Felix Gilman - Thunderer

GRRM - Fevre Dream

Richard Pinto - The Chosen

Paul Kearney - The Ten Thousand

As you can see I'm spoiled for choice. Which one should I read first?

I can't help you with your next choice but I was wondering if you have read other works by GRRM before. I have strangely never considered it, whereas I usually track down everything by an author I like. Is GRRM's other work worth a look?

[beniowa]

Felix Gilman - Thunderer

GRRM - Fevre Dream

Richard Pinto - The Chosen

Paul Kearney - The Ten Thousand

As you can see I'm spoiled for choice. Which one should I read first?

Personally, I'd go with Fevre Dream first as it's my favorite of Martin's non-ASOIAF books. The Ten Thousand is also very good. I was pretty meh on The Chosen. Fantastic world building but rather lacking in plot though I hear the next book is supposed to be better. Haven't read Thunderer yet so I can't comment.

I can't help you with your next choice but I was wondering if you have read other works by GRRM before. I have strangely never considered it, whereas I usually track down everything by an author I like. Is GRRM's other work worth a look?

I'd say so. I've liked all of GRRM's novels with Fevre Dream being my favorite after ASOIAF. You might also think about checking out his short story collections such as Tuf Voyaging, and GRRM: A RRetrospective, which contains a large amount of his best short fiction.

[Isis]

I've been a bit of a failure at updating this year...

Brian Aldiss - Hothouse

Plants are really, REALLY scary. Not as scary as they are in DOTT but it's a close thing. And the parasitic morel is fascinating and terrifying! Actually, the science in Hothouse is alright. And that's quite high praise. The tummy belly men however, are almost as annoying as Jar Jar Binks.

Chuck Palahniuk - Rant, The Oral History of Buster Casey

An author guaranteed to shock and amuse, this isn't the best thing I've read by him, but it was certainly entertaining. I don't think I've ever read anything with this kind of struture either - the oral history of the title refers to the accounts from a variety of individuals who knew the protagonist which the entire book consists of. I wasn't expecting the direction the story went in toward the end at all, which I guess is A Good Thing. :)

Jonathan Mayberry - Patient Zero

I have lots to say about this one and when I get chance I'll dig out the thread for it which Wert asssures me is around here somewhere. It's supposed to be a cross between 28 Days Later and 24 and I suppose it is really. Except that Jack Bauer is the most humble man on earth and the protagonist of PZ wouldn't know what the word meant, and 28 Days Later is pretty dark and grim and PZ really wishes that it was dark and grim. And it has Bad Science. I thought before starting this that an author writing about prion disease would be on pretty safe ground since so little is known about it, but no. The key is not be explicit AND factually incorrect. People who work in the field of infectious disease will freely admit that the disease mechanisms for infections we've known of for centuries are unknown. So we'd all be perfectly happy to read a story involving prions where we're told, 'we don't know how that happens yet, but we're working on it'. That would be completely realistic. Of course that didn't happen, of which more later... Oh yes, and can someone in England please tell me what 'a London accent' is please? Because I certainly couldn't. Does the author mean a cockney accent? If so, why not just say this? :unsure: otherwise, what the hell are you talking about?

I also read Watchmen but I don't really have anything to say about it right now.

[TheEvilKing]

I can't help you with your next choice but I was wondering if you have read other works by GRRM before. I have strangely never considered it, whereas I usually track down everything by an author I like. Is GRRM's other work worth a look?

I've got Dreamsongs and have read about half of it. Some of the stuff is awesome, some of the stuff doesn't so much for me, but that's short stories for you - they are generally hit and miss. My favourites (so far): "The Ice Dragon" is a nice little story, "The Way of Cross and Dragon" is great mainly becaues of the rewritten Bible part (which is awesome and must have been fun for GRRM to write), and I found "The Second Kind of Loneliness" very powerful.

[Isis]

After dipping in and out of Dreamsongs every now and then, I'm trying to finish off all the ones I haven't read atm. I like how some of them start connecting via people and places.

[Deornoth]

Just finished 'The Forest of Hands & Teeth', a search for love and meaning in a post apocalyptic world teeming with zombies (the Unconsecrated). 'Forest' leaves a lot of questions unanswered (not sure if this is the first in a series) but still easily held my attention with strong and interesting characters as well as plenty of zombies! My full review is over Here.

I was going to pick up 'Keeper of Light and Dust' (Natasha Mostert) next but picked up Robert Dunbar's 'The Shore', to check out the first couple of pages, and now I'm hooked...

[williamjm]

I can't help you with your next choice but I was wondering if you have read other works by GRRM before. I have strangely never considered it, whereas I usually track down everything by an author I like. Is GRRM's other work worth a look?

I think all of GRRM's novels are worth reading, even if none of them are quite as great as ASOIAF. Fevre Dream is the best non-ASOIAF work, I don't normally like vampire stories but I thought this one was very good. I liked his science fiction novels Dying of the Light and Hunter's Run a lot as well. The Armageddon Rag, Windhaven and Tuf Voyaging were also good, although I did feel they had a few flaws.

[Werthead]

I've been a bit of a failure at updating this year...

Brian Aldiss - Hothouse

Plants are really, REALLY scary. Not as scary as they are in DOTT but it's a close thing. And the parasitic morel is fascinating and terrifying! Actually, the science in Hothouse is alright. And that's quite high praise. The tummy belly men however, are almost as annoying as Jar Jar Binks.

Yup, although:

SPOILER: Hothouse

They get the fate that Jar-Jar deserved but never did :)