April 2011 - Reading Thread

[Datepalm]

It took me a relatively long time to read Geoff Ryman's Air, but I finished it the other day. Very very good. Possibly amazing, in fact, I'll have to reread it to clarify what I think. It comes at a society of connection and high-tech access from an interesting direction, and specifically the kind of interesting direction that I think is important. It's very entertaining, but it's also addressing things like unilaterally deciding to impose "improvements" on people without knowing what you're doing, local repurposings of those improvements, the evils and wonders of progress and the coming of the future, dealing with a community's splintering over reactions to change, and, ... you know, stuff. Pretty amazing book, enough so that I'm willing to overlook what I found to be just one or two quite ropy plot points.

Just finished it as well. Loved it. Its one of those books where any attempt to explain 'what its about' seems to inevitably fall short. Suffice to say, everything you mention is in the book, and important to the book, and yet I found it most impactful from a different direction alltogether.

Just about finished Leviathan Wakes - it improved a bit at the end, but not enough to make up entirely for a long, dull, 'then-they-went-here-and-then-there', claustraphobic middle. The prose is rather lackluster (particularly the conversations and humor feel a bit forced. Like they're narrating a sitcom script.) and the characters thin, (and its a long book to hang on just two characters with only one discernable arc between them.) but altogether this might not be my genre at all - its more horror/thriller/detective IN SPACE! than what I think of as Space Opera, so i'm sure mileage will vary.

Started The Left Hand of Darkness. Except a few shot stories, i've never really read any LeGuin before. Seems like an oversight. Only impression so far is that i'm surprised at how much humour there is in the book. I mean, its a classic, right? I subconciously expected it to be significant but dull.

[automne]

Started The Left Hand of Darkness. Except a few shot stories, i've never really read any LeGuin before. Seems like an oversight. Only impression so far is that i'm surprised at how much humour there is in the book. I mean, its a classic, right? I subconciously expected it to be significant but dull.

Not all classics are dull. Hope you'll like as much as I did. You might try The Dispossessed next, I thought it was excellent.

I'm reading Anathem and enjoying it a lot.

[Thrashalla]

I just finished Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes I have a review that I posted on a few BB's that aren't very familiar with fantasy, so pardon any redundancy:

No actual spoilers, just saving space

Finally finished Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes after starting it in early February...it's been a rocky few months, but as my good spirits returned so did my reading appetite.

Joe's previous novels have covered vast stretches of land, explored exotic and wonder inducing locales...all while painting everything in sight with the chunky red wet of cloven flesh. With The Heroes he has taken a new approach and focuses on a single town in the North, during a battle that lasts 3 days. At first I was kind of disappointed that he was only giving us a glimpse at one part of the North - unlike in Best Served Cold where he took us on a (again, painted red with the wet of clov...you get the picture...) tour of one of the major kingdoms excluded in his inaugural trilogy...then I remembered that there really isn't anything to see in the North anyway and that Abercrombie does battle better than anyone currently writing fantasy; and can almost, ALMOST, stand toe to toe with the might Bernard Cornwell. Well...he got better.

While this is not the most epic work in his catalog, it is certainly the most detailed. Troop movements, strategy meetings, ration and weapon supply...he goes over it all and really shows that he has a mind for military matters. The characters themselves are, once again, not the one dimensional good and evil forces that most of the book learnin' types decry genre fiction for having - they're all shapes and sizes, they're good, they're nasty, they're altruistic and ambitious...they're anything but static. Most of all: the characters are FUN. *this is where I usually put examples and some quotes, but this is already longer than I wanted it to be...check out the excerpts on his site and on amazon*

The plot itself is intricate and despite the simple set up he manages to throw in enough turns and twists to keep you guessing (even though some of it is a bit predictable...but more of a, "I hope he does this!" than a, "Oh, he's doing this...") and it felt like it slogged a bit in the second act/book, but I was also out of my gourd with personal crap while I was reading that part - so don't take my word on that. He does pull it out for the third act/book, and more than makes up for any real or perceived sluggishness that came before it. I'll keep it short and say that if you like the recent trend in fantasy to be gritty, violent, and full of people you love to hate; you should already have read Abercrombie. This is the fantasy given to us by the descendants of Robert E Howard, Poul Anderson, Michael Moorecock, and George RR Martin. Not that of Tolkein, Eddings, Williams, and Jordan. Pick it up based on that - you have to be realistic about this kind of thing.

I also read Steven Pressfield's The War of Art

I'm not usually a self-help type of person - until now my experience with that section of the book store had been to buy Eat Pray Love as my go-to gift for post-menopausal female relatives, but I've had a rough couple of months and have needed a kick in the ass in terms of my creative endeavors and also just life in general. I've read and enjoyed the crap out of Gates of Fire by Pressfield, so I gave this a shot. Plus it has "War" in the title, which is just a big shiny beacon that tells me to pick it up.

Content wise, I love it. Very concise and to the point, with some funny anecdotes to drive points home - think self-help via Sun Tzu. I'm pretty good with self-reflection and figuring out what I have going on upstairs but I really liked the perspective Pressfield takes, and the personification he applies to the various negative forces that impede your goals. I've been on the recovery for a while, and this weekend I finally feel like I've made a turn - this book has helped reinforce the conclusions and plans I've set up. Highly recommended if you need a boost.

Next up: John Scalzi - Agent to the Stars

[Mjolnir]

Datepalm wrote:

Just finished it as well. Loved it. Its one of those books where any attempt to explain 'what its about' seems to inevitably fall short. Suffice to say, everything you mention is in the book, and important to the book, and yet I found it most impactful from a different direction alltogether.

Yeah, just coming up with a list of vague themes I thought were strung through it felt like leaving a whole lot out. As you say, there's so much any attempt to reduce it feels really unsatisfying. I also found it really compelling as a character piece, about Mae principally, but also Mrs Tung, as a counterpoint and sometime harmony. I'd be interested to know what angle you approached it from; there's a lot to talk about in this one.

I read The Left Hand of Darkness a little over a year ago and found it extremely entertaining, moreso than I thought I would. Not just in terms of humour; the book's exciting, too. I mean, it's Le Guin so I new it'd be good, but for a book with so much going on thematically I was surprised by how lightly and gracefully it moves. Read The Dispossessed much more recently and I love it as well, but I do think it's less entertaining, and certainly much less in the beginning. It's a weightier book, to the point that I bounced off it the first time I tried to read it.

Passed the 700 page mark in WMF and some personal knitpicks aside I'm still really digging it, but I think I might take a break. I'm between two of Kvothe's adventures right now, and if I take a breather the book'll last longer. I'm contemplating a reread of Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, partly in light of its Hugo nomination. Would be interesting to revisit the book after all the virtual ink we've spilled over it here, to see what I think the second time.

[Datepalm]

Yeah, just coming up with a list of vague themes I thought were strung through it felt like leaving a whole lot out. As you say, there's so much any attempt to reduce it feels really unsatisfying. I also found it really compelling as a character piece, about Mae principally, but also Mrs Tung, as a counterpoint and sometime harmony. I'd be interested to know what angle you approached it from; there's a lot to talk about in this one.

I thought the more universal character and theme stuff was more affecting than the specific question of change wrought by a new technology, though that was strong too. Change, time, memory, history, the way life goes by and the dissapointments and the breakthroughs of poverty and isolation and culture. The things that people cling to and the things they let go. It ended up being a mostly emotional book for me, for something with a very conceptual sounding sort of hard-sf premise. And I thought it was devastating that

Sezen dies.

[Eponine]

Finished The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe. I have mixed feelings, which apparently shouldn't be too surprising. Halfway through, and I'm not sure there's a real story. Certainly there are incidents (and accidents and hints and allegations), there are layers on layers of symbolism, and there are characters with hidden significance. But when all the symbols are peeled away, I wonder if the story that's left will stand on it's own. Right now it's more of a curiosity than anything else, an artifact. I have curiosity about unraveling the mysteries, but little feeling for the characters. I don't have much affinity for them and am having trouble seeing them as real characters instead of just another layer of symbols. Things keep happening to them, but there is no real suspense and no obvious purpose. There's a strong sense of inevitability but possibly without meaning.

A cynical part of me believes that the play reflects my own experience of Christianity, Christ can't decide who to punish first, but don't worry, he'll get around to you, especially insofar as the new Lilith is my own spiritual avatar.

[IheartTesla]

I must just not have patience for high fantasy right now in my life, because I'm ready to quit Bakker after White Luck Warrior. He just takes himself waaay too seriously. Really, dude, you are not that deep. For the record, for the Bakker n00bs, I thought the first trilogy was OK. I may or may not be interested enough to continue with Aspect Emperor.

Speaking of, has anyone ever told a joke in any of his books? Two Dunyain walk into a bar, the third one ducks...

I started reading Dracula by Bram Stoker. I think there might be more implied sex in it than the first two Twilight books.

[Grack21]

Speaking of, has anyone ever told a joke in any of his books? Two Dunyain walk into a bar, the third one ducks...

I started reading Dracula by Bram Stoker. I think there might be more implied sex in it than the first two Twilight books.

So...none at all?

[Cuchulain]

He just takes himself waaay too seriously. Really, dude, you are not that deep.

I agree. I haven't started the Aspect Emperor series yet, but this really bothered me in the PoN trilogy.

[Gormenghast]

Right now it's more of a curiosity than anything else, an artifact.

This summarizes well my impression too.

And Bakker taking himself seriously, well, it's a "feature", not a flaw.

[Datepalm]

This summarizes well my impression too.

And Bakker taking himself seriously, well, it's a "feature", not a flaw.

We should probably be grateful Bakker dosen't appear to regard humor as a virtue. I can only imagine him aiming for some platonic ideal of funiness and explaining that the rest of, literally, don't get it.

Nearly done with Left Hand of Darkness - it had a slightly slow strech but has picked up now. Besides, its so short that even a slow strech is over fast.

Any suggestions for what to read next? I want to give Valente another shot - Deathless of Habitation of the Blessed? Or Jesse Bullingtons new book.

[MattD]

I have curiosity about unraveling the mysteries, but little feeling for the characters. I don't have much affinity for them and am having trouble seeing them as real characters instead of just another layer of symbols.

Not wanting to spoil anything, I'd say that, too, is not surprising, and to a large degree by design. There's certainly meaning behind the events of the book, just as there is meaning in how Wolfe does not try to meet the reader halfway in creating affinity with Severian. I suppose whether there is a story or not depends on how broad your definition of story is, but the books certainly fit my definition. It may not be the kind of story you like, but...(shrug).

Any suggestions for what to read next? I want to give Valente another shot - Deathless of Habitation of the Blessed?

I'm finishing up Deathless now and, while it's not perfect, I'd recommend it over Habitation of the Blessed, unless you have a particular interest in Habitation's subject matter. Habitation is clever, in the way it weaves together Biblical themes and various Christian heresies, but did not strike me as especially wise or insightful. It's a rather template Valente story of gender role reversal: you know and she knows how it will turn out from the start. The telling also feels somewhat bloated, the plotting at times forced; and while its story stands alone well enough, it is the first book of a trilogy, so leaves behind that niggle of irresolution. Deathless in contrast is (as far as I know) a true standalone. It has a passion and a sense of personal import to everthing about it--characterization and plot and prose--that makes Habitation feel like an academic exercise, that makes comparable flaws more forgiveable because there's the sense that Deathless has something urgent it needs to share. That sense, the questions Deathless asks, are, to me at least, more interesting--why are some stories deathless; why do they keep being told and retold through different eras of history; can they ever change? And its answers about the power dynamic between stories and the world, agree or disagree, offer more interesting human insight.

[Borque]

Nah, Bakker can be funny. Disciple of the Dog is very entertaining. .

PoN actually has some humorous moments too. Admittedly, not many.

[Najob]

In the middle of "Gardens of the moon"

Enjoying it.

[Datepalm]

And its answers about the power dynamic between stories and the world, agree or disagree, offer more interesting human insight.

Sold! Deathless it is.

Finished Left Hand of Darkness. Its interesting that it really feels like you couldn't write that book today, but its really not very dated. Theres a few moments where the norms - of political correctness, if nothing else - have changed, but mostly it holds up. Its a book thats so clearly and straighforwadly about this, (without actually ever making any explicit good/bad statement,) whereas if it were published today I can see it being accused of preachiness or proselytization.

[Grack21]

If you're reading Bakker for the humor, you're doing it wrong. Or are a serial killer.

[Datepalm]

If you're reading Bakker for the humor, you're doing it wrong. Or are a serial killer.

And if you find it at least passing notable that someone is capable of writing 5000 odd sprawling pages featuring dozens of characters in a variety of situations without a single moment of humour, clearly you're the one with a possibly mildly peculiar view of the human condition.

Dammit, now PON and Left Hand of Darkness are attempting to interact in my brain. This won't end well.

[SkynJay]

I am still slogging through Tyranny of the Night by Cook. Never taken me so long to get through a 500 page book. It is good, no doubt, so I dont know what my problem is. Wish i had researched a bit more, looks like ill need to library the second two books now.

Bit since it is at the end, I will breeze through Blue and Gold by Parker, then move on to Kearney's The Ten Thousand.

[williamjm]

I recently finished reading Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding. My first reaction to this book was that it was very reminiscent of the TV series Firefly, except relocated from futuristic Science Fiction to a steampunk setting (with a bit of demon-summoning magic). At times, particularly early on, it did feel a little bit derivative but being derivative of Firefly is not necessarily a bad thing. As the book goes on it does get a bit more depth and some interesting aspects are introduced, particularly the backstory for the demon-summoner Crake and the ship's new navigator Jez, and I did end up liking the steampunk setting a lot. It did manage to be consistently entertaining and it was well-paced with some good action scenes mixed with some gradual but increasingly interesting character development. I would say it ended up being a better book than I was expecting from reading the first few chapters, and I'll definitely read the sequel sometime.

Now I'm reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, which is one of those books I feel I should maybe have read before now. It's an interesting read so far.

[Gormenghast]

I am still slogging through Tyranny of the Night by Cook.

I loved the book, but indeed it's the steepest climb I've seen in fantasy. Gardens of the Moon considered unfriendly is absolutely nothing compared to this book.