January 2010 Reads

[pat5150]

A bit on a dare with Mark Charan Newton, I decided to give tie-in fiction a shot by reading the first chapter of The Horus Heresy sequence set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. And I have to say that I'm very impressed by Dan Abnett's intelligent and entertaining Horus Rising.

Will definitely read the rest of the series! :)

Check out the blog for the full review...

Patrick

[slim da reaper]

pat, I was quite recently considering Warhammer fiction after playing Dawn of War II, and David Abnett comes highly recommended on Amazon. One issue I might have had with the book you review is it's part of a shared series with different authors contributing novels, but their contributions have decent recs too. I have in my basket Eisenhorn which is written only by David Abnett but thank you your opinion has persuaded me to give David Abnett a try.

[beniowa]

LadyN, like murphy said, the first few books are pretty self-contained, but it helps to read them in order. Especially, as some things that happen in the later books are connected to the early ones. Also, the scope of the series begins to expand and the Chicago setting becomes less important.

[Gigei]

Kate Griffin's "Madness of Angels"

It's a very good take on urban magic and uses the characters or urban places in a very imaginative way. London is the setting and is described with much love and artistry.

The plot is rather linear, a simple back-from-the-dead revenge thing. It's also a bit slow and dense going. The main character is a bit boring for me, frankly. Too goody and confused though this is understandable given the circumstances. The minor characters unfortunately were forgettable.

[williamjm]

Currently reading Daniel Abraham's 'A Shadow in Summer'. I'm only about 50 pages or so in, so still early days. It seems interesting enough, with some solid characterisation. Hope the Quartet lives up to the hype.

I've just started that as well. I agree that the book seems good so far, and it does a good job of making the world feel distinctive compared to the standard fantasy world. I remember someone complaining about the poses being distracting in one of the previous threads, so far I think that aspect works fine, it seems a fairly believable cultural quirk.

[Bellis]

Last book read in 2009 - The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. I love it. If you've read Dan Simmon's Drood, you simply must read this novel as well - as context if for no other reason. Also, Collins is so much less racist than Simmons, in general, especially given the non-politically correct era in which he wrote, that he's now among my favorite Victorians.

I'm about halfway through James Tiptree Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips. It's a slow and dense but very good biography of one of SF's canonical authors, and does an especially good putting her in the context of the 20th century feminist movement. She's a very colourful character! Highly recommended, but only if you've read and loved Tiptree's stories first.

On the list - the rest of the Jerusalem Quartet, Jonathan Lethem and other "best of" 2009s. But seriously one of my resolutions is to actually read less this year. I think I may have almost given Larry a run last year, and I would like to focus on having more of a social life in the future... However, I just bought Paradise Lost and The Canterbury Tales at a used bookstore today, so I don't know how good I'll be in keeping my list shorter.

[Han Shot First]

Erikson's Gardens of the Moon. About a hundred pages in... and it's definitely different. Haven't read anything like it.

[BookWyrm]

I just finished Bernard Cornwell's Agincourt. My final thoughts on the man now, is that he's writing for the action. I guess this board had gotten my expectations up too high. Since I don't feel the novel was that great, it was that much more of a let down. A massive plus for Cornwell is his knowledge of warfare, but it seems like that's all he has going. For the more experienced Cornwell aficionado: Did I just pick up one of his bad books by chance? His Warlord Chronicles get praise around here, so I'll try them.

What to read next...

I will try out another new author (to me that is) - Italo Calvino's The Castle of Crossed Destinies.

[siemprepe]

I got best served cold for christmas and devoured it the same day. What a great read, although it kept reminding me a bit of the locke lamora books in some way.

After that i read the sad tale of the brothers grossbart which also was an entertaining read but not exactly the masterpiece the reviews made it out to be.

Now I have started The name of the rose since that is a way overdue read :)

[Lichen]

I just finished Bernard Cornwell's Agincourt. My final thoughts on the man now, is that he's writing for the action. I guess this board had gotten my expectations up too high. Since I don't feel the novel was that great, it was that much more of a let down. A massive plus for Cornwell is his knowledge of warfare, but it seems like that's all he has going. For the more experienced Cornwell aficionado: Did I just pick up one of his bad books by chance? His Warlord Chronicles get praise around here, so I'll try them.

Haven't read Agincourt but as it is basically all about that battle I'd guess it has more.... action :P

However, you won't get rid of warfare by picking up his other books. Most of them have lots of battles, skirmishes etc. And the plotting becomes very familiar/repetitive the more you read his different series.

Warlord Chronicles are my first choice of his books.

[Procrastimancer]

What to read next...

I will try out another new author (to me that is) - Italo Calvino's The Castle of Crossed Destinies.

I am reading Numbers in the Dark, a collection of his short fiction. It is my introduction to Calvino after having him recommended to me from a couple different sources. The stories are really short, even for short fiction, and more than a couple have left me wondering what the fuck I just read, but for the most part they are quite good and some are just downright wonderful. I am looking forward to picking up more of his work in the near future.

[kcf]

reading Servant of a Dark God by John Brown. It's OK - it has some good, original stuff to it and sometimes it's damn near impossible to put down. But it's also rather uneven, especially for the first 2/3 of the book (I'll finish tonight).

I'll probably roll a die to figure out what to read next, but I'm leaning pretty heavily to The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett.

[beniowa]

I haven't had a Sunday off in a long while so I had plenty of time to finish Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover. My reaction to this book is somewhat mixed. I thought some aspects of the novel were well done, but that other parts were merely average. It felt like Stover tried to do too much, tried to combine too many elements and didn't quite put it all together right. I haven't decided if I'll pick up the other Caine books yet.

Next up will be The Cardinal's Blades by Pierre Pevel.

[Stubby]

I am currently reading The Tower by Valerio Massimo Manfredi. Pretty good stuff so far - different and seemingly well-informed.

[BookWyrm]

I'm half way done with The Castle of Crossed Destinies. I love the duplicity and connection of each of the fables to each other. Of course, I feel like there's a lot going on that I can't decipher yet, but that's what rereads are for. This makes me think of a Borges + Chaucer equation. My impression: Wonderful prose and stunning strength behind his words, I didn't really expect him to be this good, but I'll hold off on a final view for when I finish the book.

I am reading Numbers in the Dark, a collection of his short fiction. It is my introduction to Calvino after having him recommended to me from a couple different sources. The stories are really short, even for short fiction, and more than a couple have left me wondering what the fuck I just read, but for the most part they are quite good and some are just downright wonderful. I am looking forward to picking up more of his work in the near future.

Velos, Sometimes I get the "huh?" feeling after finishing a chapter, but Calvino so far feels reassuring. The amount of depth that I've found so far implies that he wouldn't write whole chapters for no reason, so I feel almost comforted by that.

[Zappster]

Finished my first book of 2010 which was Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. The first work of his that I've read and I liked it quite a bit. It's a nice SF novel that centers on a phenomenon that occurs one night and follows the impact of this on a generation of people, particularly the 3 main characters who I think are all nicely developed. Axisis on the way which I hear is not near as good, but as something related to Spin I feel I have to at least try it for myself. I've also had my eye on Julian Comstock for a while and now that is going to be pushed up my To-buy list after enjoying this book, although I'll probably wait for a cheaper paperback edition to come out.

Currently reading All the Windwracked Starsby Elizabeth Bear, as part of drive to read more works from female authors this year. It's a struggle at the moment. Mainly because I'm finding some of the sentences difficult to parse and I'm having a hard time visualizing things. I suppose also because of some of the terminology and things referred to, as I'm not really well versed on Norse mythology. I also have a stubborn streak which means I'll often read and re-read certain passages on a page until I can understand and perhaps even visualize them "properly" before I move on. As a result it makes for slow reading which is somewhat of a change from Spin. Still, it's not a problem I haven't had before and I persevered with that book (Lord of Light, for reference) which I ended up loving.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I finished Blue Adept by Piers Anthony on the morning commute to work. Up next is Juxtaposition by the same author. I've been enjoying this re-read so far.

[Deornoth]

Finished reading Troy Denning's 'Invincible', the last book in the 'Star Wars: Legacy of the Force' series. It was a lot of fun to read but a loss of focus right at the end, along with a tendency for characters to 'bypass danger' when it suits the author, soured things somewhat. My full review is over Here. I'm now reading David Gemmell's 'Quest for Lost Heroes'...

[Zach H]

Finished VanderMeer's Finch. Thought it was really cool how he completely switched his prose style from the prior two books in the Ambergris style to something that's more in line with a bare bones "street level" of noir. This was definitely one of the highlights of my 09 reading. Finch is a novel that isn't easily categorized, most likely because it draws traits and style bits from different genres and subgenres in a manner that leads to a brand of fantasy that feels inexplicable. This novel is a police procedural set against a seminal Weird City backdrop. It's a surrealist tale where flights and theories of wonder can be abruptly interrupted by the type of physical and psychological suffering that actually warrants use of the oft-used "gritty." I even detected shades of heroic fantasy pertaining to the main character's resolve near the end of the novel when Finch's world truly beings to boil over. Only minor complaints with this one: I didn't think it was quite the instant classic for me that Shriek: An Afterword was. Couple this with my belief that Finch may have had too much to fit into such a relatively modest page count, and a part of me can't help but wish we still had one more Ambergris novel forthcoming. Still, I loved the book, and even if I want more (or maybe because I want more), the ending certainly retains that sense of weird, mind and genre-bending mystique that defines all the Ambergris stories.

[kcf]

I finished up Servant of a Dark God by John Brown. It's a decent debut. It's uneven, but the good ultimately out weighs the bad and I am looking forward to reading the sequels to come. (full review)

I started Sleepless by Charlie Huston. If the first few chapters are any indication, this is going to be an outstanding book - depressing as hell - but outstanding.