November 2009

[Cuchulain]

WHY??? I suggest dropping this class as your teacher is clearly insane.

Haha, I know. It's a bit late to drop this class though, I'm stuck with it. Only option is to make the best of it. For my other two books, I'm probably going to choose Brave New World and Galápagos. I'll keep the Only Revolutions part of the essay to a minimum, as it's by far the hardest of the three to analyze.

[TheEvilKing]

Finished The Age of Ra by James Lovegrove. It's set in a kind of alternate modern-day where the Ancient Egyptian pantheon has destroyed all other gods, and now war between themselves. The world has been divided into various factions depending on which god they worship. Only Freegypt is godless, and there a violent revolution against the gods is begun by a mysterious man who dubs himself the Lightbringer.

Usually when I find a book with a cool premise by an author I've never read before, I wind up disappointed with the execution. I was pleasantly surprised with this one. It's by no means amazing, but it's a fun, quick read and well written. The central protagonist is a good, competent man but certainly flawed and torn between his allegiance to the gods of Europe, Osiris and Isis, and the vision of the Lightbringer. The inevitable romance with one of the Lightbringer's freedom fighters is handled better than most SFF romance, and does a good job in avoiding cheesiness.

The coolest part is the gods, as we follow Ra in his quest to sow harmony among the pantheon and bring about an age of peace. Anubis, the god of death, who rules over Australia and the Far East, was particularly well done. Although sometimes the gods use modern speak which is intended to be funny, but doesn't really owrk. For example, Set and Horus calling each other "moron" and "loser" totally took me out of the story.

All in all the book was a blast, and I'd reccomend to anyone looking for a light, quick and different read.

[mashiara]

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. I freaking loved this book, I was blown away by parts of it. I could feel my imagination stretching, it was so vast and complex with such attention to detail. The characters are really memorable and the images... I feel I'll need to reread it just to be able to picture it all better in my head. I liked the society he presented, the vision he had of the world and its inhabitants. It felt awesome and haunting at the same time. It wasn't always easy to read and I had to double back a couple of times to make sure I didn't miss anything but it was a really good book. That was the first of his I got to read, I would be interested in reading more of his work.

Certain Girls by Jennifer Wiener. Much easier and quicker reading but equally entertaining. I practically devoured the book in one sitting, more or less. Well written, probably one of her best books yet. I don't lump her along with the other "chick-lit" popular authors, I think she and Marian Keyes -to a degree- are several steps above the herd. The story was about real people, not shopacholics or model wannabees. I found it witty and well written and very emotional at the end. (So emotional that I cried. Not teared up, cried for real, with loud sobs that didn't manage to wake up my sleeping husband. I swear, it would take a Nuclear disaster to wake that man up.) I was thinking of rereading Little Earthquakes but it's probably not the best thing to do at my current situation, I'd end up bawling my eyes out.

I decided I'm going to read A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe next. I checked it out of the library in 2 volumes, at 510 pages each, so it might take a little longer than usual to read it.

[Eyelesbarrow]

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. I freaking loved this book, I was blown away by parts of it. I could feel my imagination stretching, it was so vast and complex with such attention to detail.

This has convinced me to give Mieville another go. I read King Rat, didn't like it.

Currently, I'm reading this anthology of American Gothic Tales edited by Joyce Carol Oates.

[Isis]

Well, I actually managed to finish something, which suggests I'm neglecting my thesis (which I am). Sapkowski's Blood of Elves reminded me of some of the really well written fairy tale collections I devoured as a child, but with a more adult slant. Have any other works been translated into English, or is it just this and The Last Wish?

I also sped through The Electric Church by Jeff Somers, which I found strongly reminiscent of Neuromancer to begin with (the Case/Cates thing probably contributed to that) although Electric Church has more humour than Neuromancer. The grim, hopelessness and black humour are right up my street and I'm keen to see what happens next. The second book is near the top of TBR pile. I should really return to The Little Friend but I just can't give it the attention it deserves right now. I need simple, action-based stuff which requires no effort on my part. Saying that, I noticed the other week that there is half a shelf of John Ringo books in the SF section of my library...

[beniowa]

Last night I finished Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman, set in a land much like ancient China, but with dragon spirits that bond with humans to harness the power of the elements. The story is about a girl with special abilites who poses as a boy in order to become the next apprentice to the current Dragoneye. She succeeds beyond her wildest dreams and is thrown into the politics and intrigue of both the dragon and imperial courts.

First off, Eon is a decent debut novel with an interesting twist on the familiar "farm boy rises to power" theme. I liked the mythology of the dragon spirit world as well as the complexities of both the intrigue and characters. That being said, the book has a few flaws. Other than minor stuff of a first novel, the biggest problem for me is that the main character comes across as a bit stupid. She really isn't, however, her circumstances throw her into several situations for which she is completely unprepared and makes it difficult for her to get the knowledge and help that she needs. She ends up making some really stupid decisions. Still, it was a decent novel overall. I'll probably read the sequel when it comes out in paperback.

After hearing so many people mention this book, I've started on Watership Down by Richard Adams. Though it looks like I'm too late for the discussion thread. Oh well.

Well, I actually managed to finish something, which suggests I'm neglecting my thesis (which I am). Sapkowski's Blood of Elves reminded me of some of the really well written fairy tale collections I devoured as a child, but with a more adult slant. Have any other works been translated into English, or is it just this and The Last Wish?

No, just those two so far. I hear there's another short story collection set before Blood of Elves, but apparently Gollancz decided not to publish it for some reason. It doesn't really hurt not to have read it, but I still would have liked to. Hopefully, they'll translate it at some point.

[Bellis]

Polished off 3 highly hyped new releases in time to be able to talk about them on the coming year's best discussions:

1. The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington. I didn't actually think it was as gory as I had been warned - if you can get through ASOIAF's Brave Companions and Valente's Orphan's Tales you'll probably be okay. That said, there are horror bits you might not want to read right before bed. On the whole, I was quite impressed. It was dark but with enough grounding in history and mythology to keep it interesting. Unfortunately, the story gets a bit bogged down in conventional adventure schtick starting at around the halfway mark, so I had a hard time sustaining my enthusiasm for the first 100 pages right to the end. Best debut of the year, maybe, but best book, probably not.

2. The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan. A fairly quick, competently executed read, but really, it's just the arty lesbian version of House of Leaves and that's about it.

3. Finch by Jeff Vandermeer. I've loved everything that JV has done and I was happy to return to Ambergris. But I didn't really care for the noir stylings (this was my main problem with The City and The City too). This is a personal thing - and the main reason why I would rank Shriek, which has a very different prose style, over this book. Not to say it's a bad book by any stretch; it's quite good.

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. I freaking loved this book, I was blown away by parts of it. I could feel my imagination stretching, it was so vast and complex with such attention to detail. The characters are really memorable and the images... I feel I'll need to reread it just to be able to picture it all better in my head. I liked the society he presented, the vision he had of the world and its inhabitants. It felt awesome and haunting at the same time. It wasn't always easy to read and I had to double back a couple of times to make sure I didn't miss anything but it was a really good book. That was the first of his I got to read, I would be interested in reading more of his work.

Yay! The Scar (my favorite, as is obvious from my alias) and Iron Council are also set in the same world and if you loved PSS you'll probably want to read those stat. The City and the City and the YA book Un Lun Dun are quite different in style and setting but still very cool.

[Larry.]

Polished off 3 highly hyped new releases in time to be able to talk about them on the coming year's best discussions:

2. The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan. A fairly quick, competently executed read, but really, it's just the arty lesbian version of House of Leaves and that's about it.

Curious that you would connect this with Danielewski's book; didn't see that when I read it a few months ago. What connections did you see?

And since I've gone too long without responding in the monthly reads, I'll just note that I'm about 40 pages from the end of Paul Auster's recently-released Invisible and it, Colum McCann's National Book Award-winning Let the Great World Spin and Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones are very closely-bunched among my favorite 2009 mimetic fiction reads. More on Auster and McCann on my blog in the coming week, as each deserves a full entry there.

[Bellis]

Curious that you would connect this with Danielewski's book; didn't see that when I read it a few months ago. What connections did you see?

The montage structure, and ambivalent ending and ambivalent horror. But perhaps I don't read enough of this sort of psychological horror genre?

[Larry.]

Hrmm...but the structures differ quite a bit (I didn't see Kiernan's book as an attempt to create a meta-narrative the way Danielewski mostly succeeding in doing) and the points of the tales differ as well (plus there's a ton of pseudo-autobiographical material in Kiernan's book, including her real-life struggles with seizures). Perhaps it's just a case of me being aware of the stories behind the stories and thus discounting any apparent similarities? Wouldn't be the first time I read too much (or little) into something :P

[beniowa]

Bellis, you make a good point about the gore in Grossbart. The level of it isn't as much as expected though I think there's certainly more of it than in the Orphan's Tales. As for best debut, I can't decide between Grossbart and The Windup Girl.

[Talyn]

So when I finished The Gathering Storm I decided to reread the rest of the series as well. I have just finished book 6 and have decided to stop now while the going is good. I'm now going to read Karl Schroeder's Virga series of books.

[mashiara]

Yay! The Scar (my favorite, as is obvious from my alias) and Iron Council are also set in the same world and if you loved PSS you'll probably want to read those stat. The City and the City and the YA book Un Lun Dun are quite different in style and setting but still very cool.

The Scar and Iron Council are on my list, for sure. I meant to ask you about your name because it only gets mentioned once in PSS and I wasn't sure that's where you picked it from, but I guess I'll read all about "you" in The Scar.

[delete this account pls]

Yep, Bellis is the main protagonist in The Scar. Iron Council is my favourite, but that isn't a popular opinion - I enjoyed them all though.

[MinDonner]

Read Scalzi's Old Man's War over the weekend. It was a good, fast read and some nice old-school no-frills SF, but the style was just too clunky and offputting for me to really enjoy it; I just wasn't convinced by any of the witty bantering dialogue, even Erikson does that better. Not sure I'll bother picking up any more of his.

[Bastard of Godsgrace]

Unfortunately, the story gets a bit bogged down in conventional adventure schtick starting at around the halfway mark, so I had a hard time sustaining my enthusiasm for the first 100 pages right to the end. Best debut of the year, maybe, but best book, probably not.

I had the same impression. The first half is great but after that the story starts tp drag. Stiil quite good book, but not the debut of the year. The Windup Girl still claims this title, IMHO.

[Maester Joergensen]

Just finished the final long stretch of "thunderer" and has come up for air.

Wow. Am I the only one who absolutely loves this book?

Will probably continue on to either Gears of the city, or Perdito street station.

[Procrastimancer]

Still making my way slowly through VanderMeer's City of Saints and Madmen, but I am not focusing on it by any stretch of the imagination. Just finished Shivering Sands, a collection of articles written by Warren Ellis over the past sever years. An enjoyable read, but then I am a big fan of such writing of his and thankfully I am a newer fan so I only recognized a couple of the articles. Started on The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington, but I am having a hard time settling into it and end up putting it down quite a bit. Which led me to pick up KJ Parker's Devices and Desires, which I have been reading for most of this evening. The dialogue is a distractingly modern, but otherwise a good read and it is certainly holding my attention. Might be putting The Brothers Grossbart to the side for the time being.

Also took a glance at The Other City by Michal Ajvaz and it was decent, nothing I am going to commit to at the moment. All I have to say is "Holy Pages-Long Paragraphs, Batman!"

[Isis]

Which led me to pick up KJ Parker's Devices and Desires, which I have been reading for most of this evening. The dialogue is a distractingly modern, but otherwise a good read and it is certainly holding my attention.

I'm confused. Why would this be distracting? The series is set in an imaginary place so we can't draw any definitive parallels with our own history or try to place the events in the book within any time period of our own. :unsure: I've seen plenty of anachronisms in books with obvious medieval European settings but the Engineer trilogy does not fall into that category.

[etcetera]

The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan. A fairly quick, competently executed read, but really, it's just the arty lesbian version of House of Leaves and that's about it.

I liked The Red Tree quite a bit. I've had Danielewski's book in the TBR for years and just haven't been able to bring myself to read it. It's one big doorstopper of a book. Even now, for anyone interested in this kind of story, I'd recommend Kiernan simply based on the fact that it's not such a damn brick. However, I see your point about calling it an artsy, lesbian version of HoL. I did think of Danielewski's sister's song "5&1/2 Minute Hallway" (by Poe) as I was reading about the hike to the tree in Kiernan's book. And no... I haven't watched The Blair Witch Project, but I'm sure connections could be made with that too. I enjoyed several of the horror story/film references in Kiernan's book, and if you haven't watched Picnic at Hanging Rock (which Kiernan mentions in the book), it's well worth watching (keeping in mind that it's a psychological film, not horror). Overall, though, I think Kiernan's book stands on its own.