November 2009

[PeterWilliam]

Reading Wolfe's Severian of the Guild, the omnibus edition of Book of the New Sun.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

For an author (Mercedes Lackey) known for light and fluffy novels I was surprised at the final novel with deaths, rape and torture. I thought Arrow's Fall was a great concluding novel, especially after the insipid middle novel that had no plot. While the series was good, not great, I do wish that I found these novels 15 years ago. I think they would've been my favorite series at the time given that I loved horses and was looking for a good but realistic fantasy female protagonist to follow. Despite the YA tones, I still can see myself discovering more of the world of Valdemar when I want a quick and light fantasy read.

Up next is The Last Pope by Luis Miguel Rocha.

[Astra]

Not much time for reading. Still reading A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge, only about 1/3 into it.

[beniowa]

Read Nightingale's Lament by Simon R. Green. Started out good, though it sort of devolved into a couple of cliches by the end. Maybe the author had problems figuring out how he wanted it to end. The Nightside series has been good overall however so I to continue with it.

After some delays in getting the book from Amazon, I finally got my hands on The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington. I've read about 50 pages so far. I see what others mean about being repulsed by the characters, but thankfully it's not like that all the time.

[delete this account pls]

Finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Great stuff. Moody, atmospheric, and intriguing. I especially admired how she starts the book making one character particularly sympathetic while others seem mysterious and sinister, yet manages to completely turn this around by the halfway mark, only to flip it around yet again before the book has finished. And the ending sent chills down my spine, even if I didn't understand it completely. I also liked the Classical allusions, though I'm sure I missed some.

Now on to A Betrayal in Winter by Daniel Abraham. Two chapters in and it's really grabbed me, something which the first one took a while to do.

[TheEvilKing]

Finished The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway... fuck yeahhh. Damn good book.

Started The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett today, and will also start Age of Ra by James Lovegrove shortly.

[Eyelesbarrow]

Just finished with Dicken's Little Dorrit. Wow. It's the first Dickens I've finished. I started on Great Expectations a few years ago, but was bored by it and was never able to finish it. Little Dorrit was rambling in parts, but I like the mystery and Arthur and Amy's love story. Will watch the BBC adaptation next. I read plenty of praises about it.

I'm off the Victorian lit train for a while and just bough TH White's The Once and Future King. That and Hammett's The Maltese Falcon are on the next reading pile.

[Deornoth]

Finally finished Jeff Vandermeer's 'Finch', maybe a little predictable (in terms of the ebb and flow of the detective sub-plot) but at the same time totally alien and utterly gorgeous in it's depiction of the city and some of the surprises that it throws up. My full review is over Here. I'm now working my way through 'The Cardinal's Blades' (Pierre Pevel) and 'Total Oblivion, More or Less' (Alan DeNiro).

[lessthanluke]

Just finished The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfield. I can't remember who rec'd it but I enjoyed it a lot. Good sci-fi.

[bossfan2000]

Over the weekend I finished reading Noonshade (review) by James Barclay. While I liked it a lot, I don't think it was quite as good as Dawnthief. Mostly because I thought the ending in Noonshade wrapped up too quickly.

Now reading Dark Heart by Russell Kirkpatrick and Cursor's Fury by Jim Butcher

[pika]

Finished Memory, Sorrow and Thorn and ' The Burning man ' short story.. am putting off reading " A gathering storm " till that series is finished.. so I'm going to read Terry Brooks first 7 Shannara books.. and will see how many of them I can get finished in november.

[Peadar]

I've just started reading Songs of the Dying Earth an anthology edited by you-know-who. So far, the Matt Hughes story, Grolion of Almery, really nailed the Vancian tone to the point that if you'd told me it was a new story by the master himself, I'd have believed you.

[Ser Howsmelly]

Just finished with Dicken's Little Dorrit. Wow. It's the first Dickens I've finished. I started on Great Expectations a few years ago, but was bored by it and was never able to finish it.

JW, did you start Great Expectations having watched the movie and hoping for a similar experience in Victorian Times?

And I'm currently doing a re-read of The Alienist by Caleb Carr.

[Strong_Belwas]

Just finished Anathem by Neal Stephenson.

Starting First law trilogy.

[Renasko]

The Gathering Storm has me ruined. I don't know what to read after it. I tried Feast of Souls, didn't care for it. Attempted Blood Meridian, felt it was soulless. Went with Kearney's Ten Thousand, got the impression he was just a poor man's Gemmel. Decided to read O'Guillin's the Inferior, seemed dreadfully YA-ish. Began to read Haydon's Assassin King, but it failed to interest me as much as her other books. Picked up Thomas Pychon's Inherent Vice, wished I hadn't.

So...

Bah. I guess I'll read Hunter's Run by Martin/Abraham/Dozois. I'm getting quite frustrated here. Have a long trip in less than a month, as well, so I'm going to need to do some serious research into books I'd like, before flying.

[Eyelesbarrow]

JW, did you start Great Expectations having watched the movie and hoping for a similar experience in Victorian Times?

And I'm currently doing a re-read of The Alienist by Caleb Carr.

No, I haven't seen Great Expectations the movie. Actually, I haven't actually seen any Dickens adaptations on film and tv yet. Prior to Dickens, my experience with Victorian lit comes from reading Stoker, Wilkie Collins, Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy and I quite liked them. Love Collins and Hardy, in particular. (Are there any BBC adaptations of Collins' work?) I don't exactly know why I was bored with Great Expectations. Maybe because it was for school and I was impatient with it.

Edit to add: Shortly after quitting Great Expectations, I bought a novel by Peter Carey titled Jack Maggs. It's supposed to be about Maggs' quest to see again Pip, whom he considers his son, after his incarceration in Australia. Pretty great book.

[Deornoth]

Finished reading Alan DeNiro's 'Total Oblivion, More or Less', a tale of the aftermath of the invasion of modern day North America by warriors from Ancient Europe (as seen through the eyes of a sixteen year old girl) I loved the concept but the balance of the story (more on talk than action) made it a tough one to really get into, worth it in the end though! My full review is over Here. I'm now finishing off 'The Cardinal's Blades'.

[PhelanArcetus]

Finished Jim Butcher's Grave Peril a couple of days ago. I don't think I liked it as much as books 1 & 2, but it was fun enough to pick up book 4 definitely.

In the bag right now is Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys, for a couple of days. I should have started it on Tuesday, but I've been using the commute to catch a bit more rest recently, so I'll get started probably tomorrow.

Also in the bag, just received, is Thor Visionaries: Walt Simonson, Vol. 2. I had gotten volume 1 at my request for my birthday, and used volume 2 to pad an order out to free shipping. I'm expecting great things from this; I loved volume 1 and this is what is generally considered the definitive Thor, with Simonson both writing and drawing. The other item in the order is a book I'll be reading, but that one's just for me and my girlfriend. Speculate as you will, I'll never tell :)

Sitting in the living room, where I read it during commercials and similar, is The Savage Sword of Conan, Dark Horse's reprint of the Marvel Conan comic series. I'm making slow progress, but enjoying the stark black & white art. Some of the stories are direct copies of real Robert E. Howard Conan stories, I've run across one that is Howard, but not Conan, though he slots in just fine, and a couple that are clearly pastiches.

And still on the bottom shelf of the bookcase, where I tend to store the books I haven't read yet (though not for long, that space will be needed soon) is Toll The Hounds by Steven Erikson.

After I finish those, or perhaps before even, I'll be doing some re-reading. Probably Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind and/or Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies. Despite an amazon cart with 70+ books in it, and that not including some that aren't out yet, or aren't out in paperback yet, I'm trying to cut back on spending, and re-reading is a good way to accomplish that for me. (I just finished a re-read of all of David Weber's Honor Harrington books, which consumed a decent chunk of time.)

[Cuchulain]

I've just finished the very funny and clever Galápagos by Kurt Vonnegut. Love the author's unique style to the point that I want to check out his other novels. Which would you recommend ? (I've read Galápagos and Slaughterhouse 5)

I'm still working on Gravity's Rainbow and I'm about to start Danielewski's Only Revolutions.

[Zach H]

I'm about two-thirds of the way through Absalom, Absalom! Not the kind of novel I can get through quickly, but that's probably all for the better since this is one where every single word seems to play such an important part to the story. While I'm not sure that I like this one as much as The Sound and the Fury, it's still a brilliant, tragic tale of a doomed family in the old south.

Next up I'll probably either go for Dostoyevksy's The Idiot or Zelazny's Lord of Light.