February 2011 - Reading Thread

[Peadar]

Just starting K.J. Parker's The Folding Knife. I had forgotten a) how enjoyable he/she can be, but also B) how much I detest omniscient characters :stillsick: Oh well, here's hoping 'b' doesn't overshadow 'a'.

[Nearly Headless Ned]

Just starting K.J. Parker's The Folding Knife. I had forgotten a) how enjoyable he/she can be, but also B) how much I detest omniscient characters :stillsick: Oh well, here's hoping 'b' doesn't overshadow 'a'.

Kinda one of the themes of the book though. Is he that brilliant or merely lucky. I was kind of expecting him to invent the iphone at one point though.

[Ski the Swift]

Reading Raymond E Feist's A Kingdom Besieged. It's the first book in the last trilogy ever to be written about Midkemia. So far I'm around three chapters in and it isn't as bad as his more recent books, still very short though.

[Mjolnir]

Finished Terminal World by Reynolds, thought it was good, with a very memorable secondary cast of characters and setting. There're still places where I just don't connect with Reynolds' writing and it feels very choppy, but he's only getting better.

Read Greg Bear's Hull Zero Three, a story about shit getting fucked all to Hell on a generation ship. Even if such tales have been told before the premise is fascinating and pretty damn scary, with some evocative scenes of cold, derilect stretches of the busted-up ship coming off very atmospheric. The characters I found to be mostly convenient mechanisms for the exploration of the environment, some intriguing identity issues based around the situation they're brought into being in aside, and the protagonist suffers in particular -- though there is one absolutely awesome character. The revelations come thick and fast at the end, and they really are pretty cool, but unfortunately the beginning takes entirely too long. It's a shame most of the best stuff's backloaded into the final third or so, but still: got many good points. I've not read other Bear, so can't offer an opinion on how it compares to his other stuff.

Also finished M. D. Lachlan's Norse werewolf fantasy Wolfsangel, which has some great, nightmarish -- even darkly poetic, sometimes -- depictions of magic [specially magic through suffering] and supernatural power. I felt the novel was at it's best when it let these fly, but on the other hand what makes them so effective is that they're occasional horrific intrusions upon the normal. The human characters were a bit hard to get into for me, particularly the principle love interests: the boy's obsessed and the girl exists mostly to get captured and carted around places, though Lachlan seems aware of this and does his best to give her a couple good bits. The characters, even the gods, are solidly motivated, but the plot's got a tendency to treat 'em like chess pieces when it needs to get shit done and this made the whole thing feel a little cold to me. The writing style goes for some cool descriptive passages, with the point of view wobbling hither and yon in a way that would normally drive me batshit except it struck me you could interpret it as the sort of omniscient writing used in sagas, and viewed in this light I found it quite effective and fitting [though some modern colloquialisms ring foul.] Overall I'd say it had some fairly awesome parts, but that , once finished, I didn't quite see what they all added up to.

And then I read Alfred Bester's The Star's My Destination, which doesn't need me to tell you how good it is. It was pretty awesome, though. The main character's a bastard to a surprising degree, and the story deals with him as a swine in what I thought was a very balanced way whilst not letting him off the hook -- until the very end, when I felt things got a little shaky. I thought the story got an incredible amount done incredibly well in an efficient way -- this book is 250 pages long, and some modern sf bricks over twice it's length wouldn't include all the concepts Bester covers, and covers interestingly. I did think the book dropped the ball on one of it's villains, whose storyline was left hanging in a cowardly way, and that [though as a book of it's time it ages amazingly well and induces comparatively little cringing] there were one or two situations in which a character's race came up that might've been handled better. 'Mazing book, though, fun and readable and smart.

Now reading my first 2011 release, A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, and while it's started picking up around the hundred pages mark I swear if this damn vampire turns out to be awesome at one more thing, or the main character comments on how tall and dark-yet-pale he is one more time, I'm out. Also reading Susan Palwick's sf novel Shelter, and trying to figure out how the fuck it didn't get nominated for a Hugo.

[Iskaral Pust]

I just went on vacation and brought several books along:

Lamb by Christopher Moore - the gospel according to Biff, Jesus' sarcastic childhood BFF. A new author for me. Quite funny while sustaining a reasonable narrative plot. I had been looking for more humorous authors and I think I will try more of his books.

Incompetence by Rob Grant. Silly in a good way and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. Very similar in style and tone to his Red Dwarf work. No plot of any substance, and lacks the character brilliance of Red Dwarf. Not quite as good as his other novel Fat either. I'll keep an eye out for his others.

Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein. Non-fiction. Excellent book on behavioral economics applied to the field of public policy (health, education, savings, etc) via the lens of "libertarian paternalism". Highly recommended. Anyone who liked Levitt's Freakonomics would enjoy this.

Philosophy Made Simple (can't recall author). Text-book style introduction to, overview and critique of the various threads of philosophical thought. Interesting overview, very accessible, stimulates further reading. A nice diversifier in my vacation reading.

Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. An early cult classic of SF that has been highly recommended here. A bit of a disappointment for me. Underwhelming, and the messianic theme probably felt stale after just reading Lamb.

Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. Very good. Another rec from here (thanks for this one). Time travel SF, but I think it should be viewed as Fantasy. Crichton's Timeline, which I had read before, is clearly an inferior rip-off. The juggling of timeline consistency and plot-lines, the antagonist characters and the portrayal of Regency London make this great.

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett. Not his best, but still enjoyable and I'll read anything he writes. I think this will be slightly more appreciated by anyone who has attended football/soccer matches, particularly in the old terraced stadiums.

Next up: Altered Carbon

[Teng Ai Hui]

Recently finished Death Masks (Dresden Files #5). Then I picked up Half-Made World. I've read 2/3's of it and have decided to put it down for now. I enjoy the world building, but the main characters are just uninteresting at this point. I found Mockingjay (Hunger Games #3) a few days ago. Currently, I'm more anxious to read this rather than the ending of HMW.

[Procrastimancer]

I read the first part of 2666, The Part About the Critics, and have put it aside for later continuation. I love what I've read so far, but it is a massive book and since I can only read one book at a time, I don't want to devote all of my reading time for the next month to finishing it. Figure I will read a part every month or so until it is finished.

Then I moved on to Mr. Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett, which proved hard to put down. It was a quick read and featured an interesting downward spiral narrative. I enjoyed the book, but given the dark, brutal nature of it and the lack of positivity, I don't think it is for everyone. I like to imagine the book has caused at least one person to break down into tears.

Sleepless by Charlie Huston is a good example of how my mood effects my reading. I am a fan of Huston's work, even had this book on preorder several months in advance, but despite my eagerness to tear into this book... I did not make it all that far. As it turns out, I was just not in the mood to read it and the bits about bald spots and whatever video game everyone was playing was just putting me off it. What is it now, a year later? I've picked it up again and am really getting into it.

[Datepalm]

Finished Cherie Priests Boneshaker - very fun and adventury, but it felt a bit thin and rushed in terms of plot and character, though there were definitely some good bits on that front as well. Well, it does take place over all of three days though. Nonetheless don't feel any need to pick up the apparently standalone sequels.

Currently reading Way of Kings, The Heroes, Twelve, Yellow Blue Tibia, The Windup Girl and Future History of the Arctic, and will not start anything new until I finish at least one of them. Even two. They're all good (particualrly the Heroes), but none seem to really totally suck me in in a way that would just force me to sit down for a few solid hours and finish the book.

[Bellis]

Finished off February dipping into Dennis Lehane's Patrick and Angie detective series: A Drink Before the War, Darkness Take My Hand and Sacred. None of these are nobel prize worthy novels or anything, but they are solid, fast-paced thrillers. Escapism that I needed.