November 2010 Reads

[cosnik]

I have started Redemption in Indigo finally, and Hard-boiled Wonderland just showed up, so I'll start that next, but right now I'm plowing through a nostalgic re-read of Jaran.

have you read murakami before? hard boiled is a favorite of mine from his works. kafka takes the cake though. whiskey references and a guy who can speak cat :drunk:

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

I haven't -- it's our Board Book Club choice for November, though, and it sounded really interesting. Now to see if the actual book lives up to it. ;)

[cosnik]

you guys got a book club goin on around here? intriguing. i could use a reread. its quite out there and one of the major complaints about his novels are that there are too many similar themes explored but he writes beautifully and creates many mysterious elements. just gotta space out his books with other material.

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

The November BWB Book Club thread.

[Teng Ai Hui]

Just finished Foundation and Empire and had to skim through the last 20~30 pages. Intended to moved on to Second Foundation, then opened the book to discover that the Mule storyline was continued throughout. As I hated the Mule storyline, the book was quickly moved to the Failure to Launch pile. Now, I have starting reading The Blade Itself and Guns, Germs, and Steel. I'm please with both of them so far.

[Vrana]

Being sick, I have now finished Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and Diamond Age faster than I would normally have time for. Neither book really impressed, but were decent, I think Snow Crash disappointed as I have seen it recieve much love on this board, but for once didn't live up to it. Diamond Age had one too many mary-suesque moments to be enjoyable, and some ridduclously so, esp

when Nell is repeatedly raped while being held captive in a tiny confined space, (wallowing in her own excrements), yet the repercussions this has on her psyche is reduced down to two sentences. Apparently she stands above it all, like someone disembodied was to look at it from the moon, or some such.

Also finished Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, don't really know what to make of it. I haven't studied nearly enough philosophy to make any such judgements but I really liked the writing. Felt like he was maybe arguing semantics more than philosophy at some point, but I really can't claim to understand it all.

Albert Camus' L'Étranger, I absolutely loved this book. Might need a decade or two to get over it.

Currently thinking of doing a reread of HHGTG.

[Myshkin]

Just finished The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman. I thought it was amazing, but I never expected anything less from Gilman.

Now starting Towers of Midnight by Jordan/Sanderson.

[Astra]

Finnished Tehanu, last of the Earthsea Quartet by Leguin. Is this the best series in fantasy? Hard to argue against it imo.

No. Some of the worst. However, some will argue with that.

I finished The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

Very good series. Refreshing after some rubbish I have read.

Started The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [Millennium #1] by Stieg Larsson

Let's see whether it lives up to the hype.

[Astra]

As far as writing styles Tad Williams is the closest that I can think of. Her worldbuilding is exceptional. Only Erikson and Martin do better. There is a large cast and lots of political machinations like GRRM but not as violent either.

Werthead's reviews do a good job describing the series much better than I can. I admit his review got me interested in the series.

The link to Werthead's review of the series:

Books 1&2

Books 3,4 & 5

Books 6 & 7

Hope this helps!

I stopped reading his reviews after he prised this rubbish series :stunned:

[Nearly Headless Ned]

No. Some of the worst. However, some will argue with that.

I finished The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

Very good series. Refreshing after some rubbish I have read.

Started The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [Millennium #1] by Stieg Larsson

Let's see whether it lives up to the hype.

Well lets see a reasonable argument as to why the Earthsea quartet is one of the worst series in fantasy then. I believe its an impossible argument to back up but good luck to you.

[Nearly Headless Ned]

finished Lowdown and Dirty Pictures by Peter Biskind.

Chronicles the rise of Miramax,The Sundance Festival and the move of Independant cinema into something approaching the mainstream. Harvey Weinstein doesn't come out of this particularly well I feel.

[beniowa]

I got a few chapters into Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury before putting it down. There was nothing wrong with it, I just wasn't in the mood for it right then. I'll try it again next year.

After that I picked up The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell. I wasn't sure what to expect from this one. It starts out with a romance plot, but quickly moves on from there. There's a subplot dealing with a dark secret at a Japanese shrine that feels rather incongruent with the rest of the story. Not to mention it makes a particular character look like an one-dimensional villain. Where the book really stands out is in the details. There's a big emphasis on translation and the problems with language, which I liked and thought it added realism to the story. Mitchell does a fairly good job bringing life to a Dutch trading post in Japan at the turn of the 19th Century. I hear Cloud Atlas is really good so I'll probably give that a shot sometime in the future.

Next up is Veteran by Gavin Smith.

[Astra]

Well lets see a reasonable argument as to why the Earthsea quartet is one of the worst series in fantasy then. I believe its an impossible argument to back up but good luck to you.

Extremely boring reading. Boring characters. Old fashioned story telling type.

He said: I go.

She said: I don't want you to.

Don't remember other arguments.

[ambyr]

Finnished Tehanu, last of the Earthsea Quartet by Leguin. Is this the best series in fantasy? Hard to argue against it imo.

It's not the last. And while I thought Tales was eh (I'm not a huge short story person), I quite liked Other Wind.

[Nearly Headless Ned]

Extremely boring reading. Boring characters. Old fashioned story telling type.

He said: I go.

She said: I don't want you to.

Don't remember other arguments.

Well, being old you could say its old fashioned I suppose.

Criticising the story telling is bizzare though. Along with the magical prose its completely immediate style sucked me in from the begining.This is storytelling at its purest imo. The Tombs of Atuan is up there with Robert Holdstocks Mythago Wood as my favourite read of all time. But there's no acounting for taste I suppose.

[Nearly Headless Ned]

It's not the last. And while I thought Tales was eh (I'm not a huge short story person), I quite liked Other Wind.

Cheers for that! Will have to track them down.

[wolverine]

Well, being old you could say its old fashioned I suppose.

Criticising the story telling is bizzare though. Along with the magical prose its completely immediate style sucked me in from the begining.This is storytelling at its purest imo. The Tombs of Atuan is up there with Robert Holdstocks Mythago Wood as my favourite read of all time. But there's no acounting for taste I suppose.

I am not one to necessarily comment on the quality since I did not read a whole book in the series, but the first half of the first book did not satisfy me at all. It was too childish for my tastes (can't read Harry Potter either).

It is one of the very few books I have not finished. I too thought it was "boring" as I could not really be brought to care about the characters or believe the setting. Maybe I just didn't like the style or maybe it has to do with the targeted age. I dunno, I have often thought it is overrated.

[nickg]

Finished The Winter King. Liked it more than any of The Saxon Chronicles, which I thought were really good. So far I haven't read anything by Cornwell that I didn't enjoy.

[Nearly Headless Ned]

I am not one to necessarily comment on the quality since I did not read a whole book in the series, but the first half of the first book did not satisfy me at all. It was too childish for my tastes (can't read Harry Potter either).

It is one of the very few books I have not finished. I too thought it was "boring" as I could not really be brought to care about the characters or believe the setting. Maybe I just didn't like the style or maybe it has to do with the targeted age. I dunno, I have often thought it is overrated.

Well its each to their own I suppose, I'm one of the few people who hated The Prince of Nothing series around here. But what I found laughable was that poster who said it was one of the worst of the fantasy series written. Hasn't he heard of Eddings,Brooks,Salvatore,Newcombe and uber hack Goodkind?

[Yagathai]

Zipped through the new Richard Kadrey novel, Kill the Dead. It was pretty great if you like sleazy, violent primary world noir fantasy. Also skimmed the Jim Butcher short story collection Side Jobs, which was a mixed bag.