November 2009

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I was obsessed with this series when I was... 14. Good luck with that. At best, it's a good fantasy wish fulfillment world (the Heralds that is).

I fully expect that, and I also think that this series is 20 years too late for me (especially since I loved horses as a teenager). But I'm curious and I do like the occasional light and fluffy fantasy.

[Mexal]

I finished Lamentation by Scholes last week. It was pretty good but nothing special. I'd read the next book as the ending seemed to hint at further fun.

I'm reading The Other Lands by Durham. I'm not really sure what I think of it yet. I feel like not all that much has happened to really move the plot forward and I'm about 250 pages into it.

[RedEyedGhost]

Well I figured it's time to finally suck it up and write up my comments on the last several books I've read:

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher started a little slowly, but really picked up about a third of the way through. I wasn't a big fan of the new character - Michael, but he became much less annoying as the book progressed. There were some great twists that worked back around on each other, and I really liked the scene at Bianca's and the relationship stuff with Susan. I also liked that in this book Harry was less reliant on Murphy (but I did miss their interactions). It wasn't as enjoyable as Fool Moon, but in the end I like it quite a bit.

8/10

The Blonde by Duane Swierczynski was high octane, one day, romp through the criminal side of Philadelphia. The main protagonist is Jack Eisley who meets a blonde woman in the airport's bar that informs him that she has poisoned him and he will be dead in ten hours. There's a peripheral connection to Swierczynski's previous book - The Wheelman, and I liked that quite a bit. It also had a nice bit of sci-fi that worked very well in the context of this book. What I didn't really care for was that the book covered such a short time span that there wasn't a lot of resolution for two of the three main characters. Of course this was remedied by a short story also included in the book called The Redhead. The story itself was decent, but there was way too much tell and not enough show. Overall it was exactly what I expected - light, bloody, fun.

7/10

MultiReal by David Louis Edelman is the second book in his Jump 225 Trilogy, and it is just as good (if not better) than Infoquake. I don't want to say too much about the plot because it is a direct follow to Infoquake, but for the series as a whole it's not your typical sci-fi. The setting is far future postwar with AIs that has left parts of the world devastated. There's not a lot of laser beams or space ship battles that are typically associated with sci-fi; instead we get courtroom drama and boardroom turmoil (although we do get some nice dart gun action in this book - no lasers though). My one problem with the book (and series) is that it's one of that books that I don't have to pick up, even though I really enjoy it when I do. Altogether it was a fantastic continuation, and I'm really looking forward to the concluding volume due in February.

8/10

Then came Darker Angels by M.L.N. Hanover (Daniel Abraham). I liked this book quite a bit more than the first one. Set in New Orleans we get a different take on the riders and voodoo (it was interesting seeing some of the same Loa that were in Tim Power's On Stranger Tides that I read earlier this year), and I really liked this take on voodoo. I would like to get more on why the series is call The Black Sun's Daughter, because at this point we've only got a few snippets of that. I do like how Jayné is developing her skills at a normal pace rather than being introduced to the world of 'riders' and becoming an expert in one book. I'm definitely looking forward to where this series will go.

8/10

Memoirs of a Master Forger by William Heaney by Graham Joyce was absolutely wonderful. William Heaney is a forger of antique books and he's also a humanitarian, oh yeah, he also sees demons. The story follows two points in Heaney's life: current day, as he tries to successfully forge and sell a copy of Pride and Prejudice in order to cover a donation he made to keep homeless shelter - GoPoint - in business, and his time in college which is when he began forging books and seeing demons. Great story and wonderful execution, truthfully though I expect no less from Graham Joyce, and this one is now slotted in as my third favorite book of his (just behind The Facts of Life and The Tooth Fairy in the top spot).

9/10

My Dead Body by Charlie Huston was all but perfect. Once again I won't say much about the plot so as not to spoil earlier books. Overall it was a great concluding volume, and the ending was very satisfying. There was one scene in the late-middle of the book tat dragged on a bit long, and I didn't care for the wraith's explanation (nor did I care for the wraith in the first book) but those are very minor quibbles. Basically, if you've enjoyed other Huston books, then you will like this one as well.

If you haven't read any Huston books you should check out Already Dead it's a crime/detective noir that scientifically works in vampires (with a y) and zombies.

An admittedly fanboy 10/10

Lamentation by Ken Scholes was an unusual reading experience for me because I took a break almost exactly half way through to read Huston's My Dead Body, and this was a perfect example of why I normally only read one book at a time because once I got back to Lamentation it just wasn't grabbing me like it did before. Then I was very busy at work, and then I had family come to town... so it took about a week and a half to go 60 pages, but the final 120 went by in a blur.

Wonderful ending, reading it felt like completing a very difficult puzzle and just watching as all of the pieces fell perfectly into place. Because of the unusual reading experience I will admit that I did have a little trouble keeping the Whym family history straight.

I didn't think the characterization was as bad as it has been made out to be. Rudolpho and Jin Li Tam both were given a lot of depth, and Neb and Petronus were quite solid. Unfortunately we didn't get much depth on anybody else, so I can see where the complaints are coming from.

I'm really looking forward to Canticle, but I'll probably put two or three books in between just so that I don't read it and then instantly crave Antiphon.

8/10

And now I'm reading Dark Hollow by Brian Keene. I'm about half through, and I'm not liking it all that much. I picked it because I wanted to read a horror novel for Halloween... yeah, I'm hoping it gets better. The good news is that it's short so I'll be done very soon.

After that I'm going to read Paul Melko's The Walls of the Universe, Quin's Shanghai Circus by Edward Whittemore, Blindness by José Saramago, and then something by Christopher Priest. Of course The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart comes out on the 16th, so I'll probably work that in there somewhere.

[Analu]

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher started a little slowly, but really picked up about a third of the way through. I wasn't a big fan of the new character - Michael, but he became much less annoying as the book progressed. There were some great twists that worked back around on each other, and I really liked the scene at Bianca's and the relationship stuff with Susan. I also liked that in this book Harry was less reliant on Murphy (but I did miss their interactions). It wasn't as enjoyable as Fool Moon, but in the end I like it quite a bit.

I picked this up at the library before going on vacation, thinking it'd be great vacation reading, but had to put it down because... well, just because. Maybe I'll try to start it up again on the return flight home.

Instead, against my better judgment, bought "The Gathering Storm" last week. Am about halfway thru and so far... I love it. Think Sanderson is doing an awesome job with this (maybe even better than RJ himself could've done), and even the Egwene chapters aren't boring me to tears like they usually do. I'm really excited to get thru this book and see what he has planned for the last 2 books to conclude this series.

Am also reading Joe Frazier's bio.

[Multaniette]

I'm been working my way through Stephen King's It. It's very readable, but I'm not sure it's going anywhere I'd like.

On the side, I've been reading some shorter books:

Disgrace by JM Coetzee. It seems every distinguished academic male eventually gets to the point of writing novels about aging academic males having immoral affairs with younger women (see Roth, Philip). Some write multiple novels with this plot. This novel is slightly more interesting because it's set in contemporary South Africa, though I'm not quite sure I'm confortable with what Coetzee is trying to say. I liked Age of Iron better.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. LibraryThing's predictor tried to warn me this was really not going to be my thing. Promising concept but poor execution.

Coming up in the next few weeks - more Shirley Hill, Philip K Dick completionism, Iain Pears (based on Cyrano's glowing rec) and maybe Butler's Xenogenesis series (based on Eefa's recs in the feminist book thread). And some other stuff.

bellis, i dunno which pears' cyrano rec'd but the instance of the fingerpost is definitely breathtaking stuff. :)

[Garlan the Gallant]

I am about half way finished with Scholes' Canticle. I am liking it so far but I don't think it has enough depth to be "great."

I am about 3/4 done with Brown's Servant of a Dark God. I find it to be a pretty good read and that Brown is generally in the same tier as Scholes and Ruckley.

I have Triumff: Her Majesty's Hero on my shelf to read after these two and then I will have finished my to read pile. Arg, lets not talk about that....

[beniowa]

M, glad you liked The Orphan's Tales!

I read Nyphron Rising by Michael J. Sullivan and enjoyed it quite a bit. The book had some major and minor developments for the main characters and sets up a bit more of the overall plot arc.

I'm going to take a break from reading for a couple of days before starting into Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. I'm not sure yet what I'll read in between that and The Sad Tales of the Brothers Grossbart.

[TheEvilKing]

Anyone read Fallen by Tim Lebbon? It's selling for dirt cheap at a local bookshop. I remember one review a while back saying it was very good... any other opinions on this one?

[mashiara]

I finished The Gathering Storm and loved it for the most part, like I have already posted in the threads about it. I had a couple of issues with it but I'll say it again, I'm very satisfied with the end result.

M, glad you liked The Orphan's Tales!

I did, I loved it. Thank you for the recommendation. :)

I finished up The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice that I had put aside for the WoT book. I am completely in love with Valente's writing, I can't describe how much I enjoyed these too books. This is what I said about them in the end of the previous thread.

What a wonderful, magical book, like a fairy-tale for grownups. Her story-telling skills are amazing and I couldn't help but get lost in all her tales and admire how they were interwoven in a magnificent way. It seems simple but it's incredibly complex and very, very beautiful.

All I have to add is that I even loved the fact that there were illustrations, what a wonderful treat!

I also read The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. It was Ok, I guess, a very quick read. I expected something deeper but it was still kind of entertaining, seeing the world as a nanny to a rich, spoiled woman who doesn't pay one iota of attention to her son and instead expects a total stranger to take care of his every need and his upbringing (sounds oddly familiar) while treating her like a slave.

I think I'll start Cadillac Jukebox by James Lee Burke.

[Myshkin]

Currently reading Lord of Silence by Mark Chadbourn.

[Procrastimancer]

I just finished Madness of Flowers by Jay Lake. Really enjoyed the book, but I can't really say any more on account of a mind that does not wish to work. Next up is Finch by VanderMeer... though I might have to start that tomorrow.

[K_P]

Finished The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas - liked it a lot and will definitely be picking up the next the rest of the series.

Now starting the Evergence Trilogy by Sean Williams and Shane Dix.

[RedEyedGhost]

Just FYI for those interested in The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart, I received an email today from amazon that the delivery date has been moved up to Nov. 6-9 (when it had previously been Nov. 18).

[afterroots]

Mines already on the way from The Book Depository :)

Reading Tigana at the moment.

[Talyn]

I just finished Witches Incorporated by K.E. Mills and while I enjoyed it quite a bit it wasn't as good as the first book in the series. There didn't seem to be as much action as the previous book and the the stakes didn't seem to as big.

[beniowa]

Just FYI for those interested in The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart, I received an email today from amazon that the delivery date has been moved up to Nov. 6-9 (when it had previously been Nov. 18).

I got an email as well. Nice!

[Ski the Swift]

Mines already on the way from The Book Depository :)

Samesy, I can't wait.

[Peadar]

I've just finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. I enjoyed it. Now, I need something to keep me occupied until Thursday when I can buy Songs of The Dying Earth...

[Deornoth]

Finished reading Morgan Howell's 'Candle in the Storm', second book in the 'Shadowed Path' trilogy. Despite the formulaic Dark Lord and 'black and white' reasoning I really found myself getting into this book, couldn't help thinking that I'd read it all before though... My full review is over Here. I'm now well into the latest Elric collection 'In the Dream Realms'...

[Eyelesbarrow]

Just finished TC Boyle's Talk Talk. Enjoyed it a lot. I'm currently in the middle of Little Dorrit by Mr Dickens. After that, I'll go back to fantasy, but the book is still undecided.