April 2009

[Mexal]

[quote name='publius' post='1746711' date='Apr 6 2009, 10.20']Good Luck on that one. I couldn't finish it because it's told in first person by multiple people all connected somehow, so I couldn't tell who was telling which part of the story...[/quote]

I've heard that said. I'm generally pretty good at keeping track of where everything is so hopefully this won't be too difficult to navigate. That was my one concern when going into reading it though.

[tadams]

I just finished Ender's Game for the 3rd time. What an amazing, openminded story. What the hell happened to Orson Scott Card?

[mashiara]

[quote name='Astra' post='1746500' date='Apr 6 2009, 13.37']Cannot decide which one to read though...
[i]The Time Traveler's Wife[/i] by [b]Audrey Niffenegger[/b]
or
[i]The Book Thief[/i] by [b]Markus Zusak[/b]...
or maybe
[i]Cryptonomicon[/i] by [b]Neal Stephenson[/b]
?[/quote]

I haven't read the first one. I finished [i]The Book Thief[/i] a few days ago and I found it a delightful book, powerful and full of strong images. I've also read [i]Cryptonomicon [/i]and I was really impressed with it but it was a difficult read with a lot of sideplots and going off in various tangents. Be advised, if you don't like Mathematics you are going to have a really hard time with it. Both are good books but they are completely different. It depends on what you're in the mood for.

Mexal, I think [i]Tides of War [/i]is probably one of my least favorite Pressfield books even though I was already familiar with the story and the heroes.

[Astra]

[quote name='mashiara' post='1746912' date='Apr 6 2009, 17.51']Both are good books[/quote]
That is what I gathered from your reviews in monthly topics :)

[quote]but they are completely different. It depends on what you're in the mood for[/quote]
It was my guess.
Whether I read or don't read Cryptonomicon after The Time Traveler's Wife depends on how much I like/dislike it :)

[kcf]

I finished up [i]The Way of Shadows [/i]by Brent Weeks. My feelings are mixed - it's a readable epic fantasy and I'll certainly read the sequels, but it seemed more uneven than many of the recent debuts that have received similar buzz. At times it read a bit too much like fan-fic. ([url="http://nethspace.blogspot.com/2009/04/way-of-shadows-by-brent-weeks.html"]full review[/url])

Next up is [i]World's End [/i](Age of Misrule) by Mark Chadbourn.

[Cuchulain]

Just finished Abercrombie's [i]Last Argument of Kings[/i]. The entire trilogy was great and I found the ending bleak but refreshing. I think Abercrombie has moved up to my hardcover must-buy list of authors. I'm not sure what I'm going to read next. Maybe finally start Pratchett with [i]The Colour of Magic[/i]. Also, the deadline for my bachelor thesis is coming up and I still have a lot of material to read for that.

[Teng Ai Hui]

Just finished some graphic novels:

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, volumes 1 & 2
Battlestar Galactica, vol. 1
American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang

[beniowa]

I had started [i][b]The Crown Conspiracy[/b][/i] but I'm going to put it aside to start on [i][b]Turn Coat[/b][/i], which just came out today.

[Larry.]

Four books arrived today; will be alternating between the following:

Dino Buzzati, [i]Il deserto dei Tartari[/i]

Neil Gaiman, [i]The Sandman: The Wake[/i]

Neil Gaiman, [i]The Sandman: Dreamhunters[/i]

David Foster Wallace, [i]This is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life[/i] (just released today)

[Werthead]

Starting up on [b][i]The Forest of Hands and Teeth[/i] [/b]by Carrie Ryan. I've been hearing some low-level but positive buzz for this book.

[delete this account pls]

Finished The Whale Road by Robert Low. it was OK. The story was a little patchy, a bit disjointed at times, and a few of the emotional beats didn't have the impact they should have. On the flipside, it does a great job of immersing you in the period. I think he shows promise, and since it's Low's first book I'd give him another shot, for sure.

Next up is Lush Life by Richard Price, which I got for free because Arbor Gold is awesome :cheers:

[Peadar]

[quote name='Dylanfanatic' post='1748847' date='Apr 7 2009, 23.36']Dino Buzzati, [i]Il deserto dei Tartari[/i][/quote]

An amazing book. But even better is a short story of his about a hospital. Sadly, I cannot remember its title for the moment...

[automne]

[quote name='Dylanfanatic']Dino Buzzati, [i]Il deserto dei Tartari[/i][/quote]
[quote name='Peadar']An amazing book[/quote]
Can't agree more.
And don't miss out on the wonderful [u]Il segreto del Bosco Vecchio[/u]

A link to a Buzzatti TV interview in French (thanks to fr.wikipedia). [url="http://archives.tsr.ch/player/personnalite-buzzati"]here[/url]

[Isis]

[quote name='Peadar' post='1749180' date='Apr 8 2009, 08.05']An amazing book. But even better is a short story of his about a hospital. Sadly, I cannot remember its title for the moment...[/quote]That's not the one about [i]E. coli[/i] that you really liked but couldn't remember the name of is it?

[Trinuviel]

Last night I finished Carol Berg's [b]Breath and Bone[/b], which turned out to be very good indeed.

Feeling the need for some lighter fare, I am now reading Patricia Briggs' [b]Moon Called[/b].

[Peadar]

[quote name='Isis' post='1749236' date='Apr 8 2009, 11.07']That's not the one about [i]E. coli[/i] that you really liked but couldn't remember the name of is it?[/quote]

:fence:

The E-coli one was something like "e-coli joins the UN". Or similar... I swear I'm not making it up.

[bossfan2000]

Just finished [b]Foundling[/b] by D.M. Cornish ([url="http://fantasybookreviewer.blogspot.com/2009/04/review-foundling-by-dm-cornish.html"]review[/url]) and thought is was a very good read. I will definitely look for a copy of the sequel, [b]Lamplighter[/b], this weekend.

Next up is either Blood of Ambrose, or starting my Ruckley re-read in anticipation of [b]Fall of Thanes[/b] arriving soon.

[beniowa]

I forgot to post my [url="http://thedecklededge.blogspot.com/2009/04/review-sun-over-breda.html"]review[/url] of [i][b]The Sun Over Breda[/b][/i] by Arturo Perez-Reverte. The third book is a little bit of a departure for the series, being mostly a story of military action than political intrigue.

[Deornoth]

I've finished reading C.L. Werner's 'Blood for the Blood God', a Warhammer tie-in tale of revenge on the edges of the Chaos Wastes...
It's a fun read but it's repetitive structure can make things drag... My full review is over [url="http://www.graemesfantasybookreview.com"]Here[/url].
I'm now reading Matthew Sturges' 'Midwinter'...

[Bellis]

I finished [b]2666[/b]. And then I re-read much of the first few hundred pages. It's quite the mindfuck, and the re-read is interesting because there's so much in here, so many fairly well-developed characters, references, musings, enough to fit at least 5 separate novels. By the end, it's mindbending to think that some of the earlier pages occurred in the same novel. Did someone really go on about David Lynch 600 pages ago? Whatever happened to those 911 conspiracists? Sort of hard to go back to ordinary reading now.