December 2009 Reads

[mashiara]

Good Lord! Gunnar Staalesen has been translated!? :stunned:

Either that, or Norwegian feels just like reading Greek. :P

[williamjm]

I guess it may have been the original gray fantasy in some ways?

I would say Donaldson's Tomas Convenant series (which was a few years earlier) would be one earlier fantasy series where the protagonist's moral ambiguity was a major feature. I suspect there are other earlier series as well.

[Autologic]

I just finished reading Red Seas Under Red Skies for the second time - because I needed something fun and easy to read at a time when I had a hard time concentrating on anything complex. Personally, I loved the way the flashbacks were handled - with absolutely no pretence at being anything other than a flashback. I cannot bear those infodumpy, expositiony 'so-and-so gazed out of the window and remembered another night when the wind howled and the rain pounded against the glass and...OH LOOK, IT'S A CUNNINGLY CONCEALED FLASHBACK!' I appreciate the unpretentious honesty of the flashbacks in Lynch's stories. But then I often seem to like the aspects of books that most people tend to get annoyed with, e.g. the poses in Abraham's Long Price Quartet.

I haven't thought about it that way before. I'm used to flashbacks that scream "PAY ATTENTION THIS IS IMPORTANT", but the flashbacks in Lies function more like little snapshots. But I still can't help but think they break up the taut pace, like getting up during sex to answer a telephone call. Or something.

[kcf]

I finished up Sasha by Joel Shepherd which is a really good book. Epic fantasy without the magic and with a strong female protagonist. Good Stuff. (full review).

Now I'm reading Servant of a Dark God by John Brown.

[Fenny]

Finished Wolf Hall a few days ago. I'm gnawed by the suspicion that it can't be a Truly Good Book, on account of the way I enjoyed it so much that I could hardly put it down.

At the moment, I'm reading Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro. I've liked it so far, but then I'm biased. If Ishiguro started writing the Mr Men books, I'd read them.

[K_P]

Finished The Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. Yet another highly imaginative magic system and excellent characterization.

Now starting Principles of Angels by Jaine Fenn

[Cuchulain]

I've just finished The Second Book of Lankhmar, an omnibus collecting the final three volumes (out of seven) of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser tales, respectively one novel (The Swords of Lankhmar)and two short story collections (Swords and Ice Magic and The Knight and Knave of Swords). The first of the three volumes, the novel, was really entertaining and up to the quality of earlier Fafhrd and Mouser stories. It had its really weird moments, though. At one point, when the protagonists are sailing the sea, they encounter (of all things) a German guy from another world riding a seadragon. Luckily, this person has a German - Lankhmarese translation dictionary with him and our heroes soon learn that the guy comes from a world called Tomorrow, where he works in a museum that displays mythical creatures. His job is to travel the worlds catching these beasts and now he's looking for a Scylla, a sea monster first encountered in the writings of an ancient fantasy writer called Homer. I kid you not.

The two short story collections are more uneven, with most stories uneventful and boring. People say Leiber's later stories really showed a decrease in quality, with an increased emphasis on sex and weirdness. I agree to a certain point, but my main complaint was that the later stories just weren't so interesting anymore.

Overall though, the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories are really entertaining (especially the early ones) and classics of the sword & sorcery genre. If you like s & s tales, filled with humour and written in lofty, alliterative prose, be sure to check them out. I would recommend you read them in chronological order, though, as there are often references to earlier events. It is also interesting to recognize the influence these stories have had on more recent fantasy writers. For example, Terry Pratchett's humourous writing style (especially in his earliest Discworld novels) clearly shows Leiber's influence. Feist also comes to mind, whose academy of magic in his Midkemia books, Stardock, is named after a mountain in Newhon (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser's world).

Edit: sp

[Procrastimancer]

I finished John Dies at the End by David Wong. I really enjoyed this book and I find that the only gripe I can come up with is that it is a horror-comedy that pretty much fails at the horror. It has the potential and all the elements, but the humor is so prevalent that it practically renders it moot. To be honest though, I would much rather have that comedic element just as it is, it is what makes the novel special. I am sure the novel has other problems, too, but I don't care. It is the type of novel that allows you to shut down your brain and enjoy the ride. Pure entertainment.

Next will either be Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond or Fear and Loathing in America by Hunter S. Thompson.

[Datepalm]

reading Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link bit by bit, and its strange but rather lovely, and The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde, which strange and funny, and The Brothers Grossbart which is strange and....well, not one of those.

Read The Stranger by Camus at last. I'm a bit...underwhelmed? It made me think of Dexter more than anything else, which makes me feel a bit shallow:dunno:.

[Peadar]

I recently finished:

Niccolo Rising by Dorothy Dunnett

The Price of Spring by Daniel Abraham

I enjoyed both although the former had a protagonist who was far too omnipotent for my taste. TPOS was enjoyable, but the high point of the quartet for me was book 3. This was more like a winding down or a long, very readable epilogue.

I have just started The Windup Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.

[Duane Dibley]

I finished Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg a few days ago. It was depressing, disturbing and full of self loathing, but also witty and funny at parts. Highly recommended!

[Infidel]

I finished Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg a few days ago. It was depressing, disturbing and full of self loathing, but also witty and funny at parts. Highly recommended!

Just finished this as well -- back to back with another depressing read, Tau Zero.

Double the rec for Dying Inside and add Tau Zero. Bleak, well-crafted early 70s SF...

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I just finished The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. I'm about 1/2 way through Split Infinity by Piers Anthony. The first 3 books of the Apprentice Adept is one of my favorite series and I'm looking forward to re-reading this.