September 2010 reads

[Bellis]

Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa, a Samurai epic of the 17th century. It took me a couple weeks - which means it's dense, episodic, ponderous. Yet it's also filled with captivating, memorable characters, great scenes and dialogue, a truly touching love story. It's apparently very influential on contemporary Japenese lit and indeed, something about the style reminds me of anime. Perhaps it was the tone of the conversations, the juxtaposition of the serious with the silly and the sympathy given to the antagonists. Anyway, this is great and rewarding literature. Recommended.

[Astra]

A couple of days ago I finished Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. I enjoyed the book quite a lot.

Immediately started book #2.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I had trouble getting through Path of Honor by Diana Pharaoh Francis. I just lost interest in the story which was strange since the main character is the kind of female character that I like to read in fantasy in that she is not a noble or a princess, or a prostitute or not particulary beautiful, and doesn't want a man to help her when she gets into trouble. She is your average female doing the best she can in events that she doesn't want to be involved in, but does it because of sheer courage and stubborness. I typically lap that stuff up, but this one is falling flat for me. :dunno:

Since I'm a completionist I'll read Path of Blood next.

[palin99999]

Finished:

Savages by Don Winslow - 7/10

[Cuchulain]

Finished Shadow and Betrayal, an omnibus collection of the first two volumes of Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet. Abraham's writing and character development was quite good and I liked the urban settings. One thing bothered me, though. While I understand that this is a quiet, character-focused, and relatively small-scale story (and I do appreciate the originality of it), I think it could have done with a bit more action. Despite this, I generally enjoyed the novels and plan to read the other two volumes next.

[The Evil Hat]

The next two books have far more traditional action, while maintaining the great characters and atmospheres of the first two.

[Cuchulain]

The next two books have far more traditional action, while maintaining the great characters and atmospheres of the first two.

That's good news. Based on the title of the third book, An Autumn War, I already figured shit was going to hit the fan.

[RedEyedGhost]

That's good news. Based on the title of the third book, An Autumn War, I already figured shit was going to hit the fan.

Understatement!

[Xalinor]

After a long, pointless gap in reading, I've finally begun the classic Moby Dick.

I'm a broke college student and did not bring any books with me here. I've resorted to finding free online novels. I came across this one and figured, "Eh, why not?"

It's good so far.

I figure once I finally return home, I'll stock up on Malazan, Brandon Sanderson (have yet to read every novel besides the first Mistborn book) and Stephen King (have a ton of unread King lying around). In the meantime, it's likely a bunch of classics, interspersed with short stories and possibly some Shakespeare.

[BookWyrm]

So at my new school I'm taking a class called Mutant Novellas in which we'll be reading Murakami and Kelly Link. I'm SO PYSCHED!! This will be a good good month.

[williamjm]

Currently I'm reading The Evolutionary Void by Peter F Hamilton. So far it is keeping up the high standards of the first two books in the trilogy, although I'm currently wondering...

If you can build one super-powerful Deterrent 'Fleet', why not build a second one, just in case.

That's good news. Based on the title of the third book, An Autumn War, I already figured shit was going to hit the fan.

There is more action in it, but don't expect huge battles, despite the title there's only a couple of battle scenes in it. Great book, though.

[The Evil Hat]

There aren't very many proper battles, but the book picks up in pace until it's quite the page turner at the end, which was very different from the calm first two novels, for me.

[Lyanna Stark]

Been on a long Agatha Christie binge, starting with "A Murder is Announced", "Murder at the Vicarage", moving to "Murder on the links", "They do it with Mirrors" and "The Man in the Brown Suit".

In the middle somewhere I finished "Altered Carbon" by Richard K Morgan and started "A Fistful of Charms" by Kim Harrison.

You might say I am on a detective novel binge and you woulnd't be wrong! I'm dead set on figuring out who the murderer is before Miss Marple/Poirot/whomever finds out who it is. I'm getting better tho, cos I could figure out what was fishy in "They Do it with Mirrors" before it was revealed.

[Peadar]

Just started Paul Kearney's Century of the Soldier, the second omnibus of the Monarchies of God series. So far, 100 pages in, it continues to be entertaining.

I'd love if we could persuade this guy to come to an Irish Con some day.

[Bellis]

The Dragon Waiting by John Ford - historical fantasy set in Europe during the early Renaissance. It was written before historical fantasy really caught on as a genre, so I suppose it deserves some props, though imo Kay does this better. I think I would have gotten more out of this if I had been more a fan of the time period, though luckily, I had just recently read Sunne in Splendour, so at least I could follow the Richard III subplot.

Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg. Moody, original, immersive with a unique narrative voice and set in a new culture. Punctuated by moments of violence and atypical sex. I expected a 90s version of Dragon Tattoo, but I found something much stranger. I can see why Isis likes it though ;)

[trio]

Just finished Heartstone by C.J. Sansom, which is the brand new one in the Shardlake series. Came out on Sept. 3rd here in the EU - not sure about the U.S.

Found it a slow starter but as usual Sansom ramped up the action tremendously in the last quarter. That seems to be his usual style. I don't think it's as addictive as the last one, Revelations; and there wasn't as much character development with Shardlake himself as I would have liked after 5 books, but.....still a good reliable historical page turner.

Next on the list is either The Passage or Anathem, both of which my husband recently shot through. Not too pushed about either of them to be honest, but I feel I should read stuff we have in the house before buying something else, y'know?

[Werthead]

My reading this weekend was slightly convoluted. I'd completed The Iron Wars and The Second Empire (Books 3 and 4 of The Monarchies of God, forming the first two-thirds of the second omnibus) but I wanted to read the new version of Ships From the West, which meant getting the omnibus edition. Whilst waiting for that to show I read and completed Dan Abnett's Traitor General and am now into the new versions of Ships From the West.

Might alternate the Abnetts with other books this time around. Guillermo Del Toro's second vampire novel might be up after the next one then.

Just started Paul Kearney's Century of the Soldier, the second omnibus of the Monarchies of God series. So far, 100 pages in, it continues to be entertaining.

I'd love if we could persuade this guy to come to an Irish Con some day.

Paul hasn't ruled out going to Octocon (assuming they haven't sold out of memberships in the interim), so I might fire off another email suggesting it again :)

[lady narcissa]

Just finished Heartstone by C.J. Sansom, which is the brand new one in the Shardlake series. Came out on Sept. 3rd here in the EU - not sure about the U.S.

I'm so incredibly jealous! It doesn't come out in the USA until January so I ordered my copy from amazon.co.uk and it still isn't here yet *sigh* I'm ready to drop everything the minute it shows up as I love love love these books.

[Arthmail]

After a long, pointless gap in reading, I've finally begun the classic Moby Dick.

I'm a broke college student and did not bring any books with me here. I've resorted to finding free online novels. I came across this one and figured, "Eh, why not?"

It's good so far.

I figure once I finally return home, I'll stock up on Malazan, Brandon Sanderson (have yet to read every novel besides the first Mistborn book) and Stephen King (have a ton of unread King lying around). In the meantime, it's likely a bunch of classics, interspersed with short stories and possibly some Shakespeare.

There are libraries were you live, right?

I have been reading Glen Cook, the Books of the South. I loved the first omnibus, but it took me awhile to get around to buying the second. It is as good as i remember.

I also bought Centurion, historical fiction by some fellow named Simon Scarrow. First time i have read him, and for the first time in my life i found myself skipping action scenes...and that was easily over a quarter of the novel. Not bad, but nothing really great either. I will probably avoid his work in the future.

Finally...i am going to give China Meiveill, or however the fuck you spell his last name, one more try. Kraken is the one i got. The ponderous weight of China's ego and self-regard practially drips from the pages, but hopefully this one treats me better than Perdido Street Station. I can't really judge him in any case, my own sense of self-regard is pretty high.

[Peadar]

Paul hasn't ruled out going to Octocon (assuming they haven't sold out of memberships in the interim), so I might fire off another email suggesting it again :)

That would be great! I'm halfway through the second omnibus and still enjoying it lots.