April 2011 - Reading Thread

[Seli]

I'm reading Harold Lamb's Swords from the Desert.

Thanks Peadar, that sounds interesting. The description on Amazon rang a bell and it seems I read one of his stories in a Swords and Sorcery collection. The fact I remembered indicates I liked it to some extent, so I'll put it on the possible list.

[beniowa]

The Prestige.

That would have been my answer too. :)

[Stone-Made-Soft]

I'm about halfway through The Half-Made World by Felix Gaiman. I'm a huge fan of the world building, especially the conflict between The Gun and The Line. The Line is really interesting. I'm also loving Gaiman's prose.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I've just finished Shadowheart by Tad Williams. Overall, I thought it was a very good series, but I couldn't help but to compare to his Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series which has a soft spot for me. The plot twists were good, with some good WTF moments. I think characterization was better in this series compared to M,S & T.

I will always be a Tad Williams fangirl.

Up next is The Plains of Passage by Jean Auel :leaving:

[SkynJay]

Finished The Company by KJ Parker. Still good, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the others I read of hers. I guess the big reveal did seem like anything new.

Now reading The Tyranny of the Night by Glen Cook. It was that or finally start Malazan, and I still cant bring my self to start that giant series when so many other books need to be read still.

[wolverine]

I'm reading Harold Lamb's Swords from the Desert.

Is that the same guy that I read like a 100 year old book about Genghis/Kublai Khan?

That seemed like a really fun book at the time (when I was like 12) and might be part of the reason I am so interested in Mongolian history.

[henderson]

Deryni sequence by Katherine Kurtz

Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

[Cuchulain]

I'm steadily working my way through Stephen King's Danse Macabre, a non-fiction work about the history of the horror genre and the books, movies, etc. which influenced King's own writing. Very interesting and insightful so far.

[Convivial Edd]

Finally got around to reading I am Legend after picking up the SF Masterworks edition when I was in the UK years ago. Pretty good read. I've no idea why the movie version was changed so much. This is actually good, and would cost far less to make than the crap Hollywood version.

Now I'm onto some history. The Great Siege - Malta 1565 by Ernle Bradford

[Borque]

Now I'm onto some history. The Great Siege - Malta 1565 by Ernle Bradford

Great book. Read it after a visit to Malta a few years ago. Non-fiction but very dramatic and fascinating. .

[nickg]

Anathem by Neal Stephenson. I only just started, so I can't comment much.

[Seli]

Is that the same guy that I read like a 100 year old book about Genghis/Kublai Khan?

That seemed like a really fun book at the time (when I was like 12) and might be part of the reason I am so interested in Mongolian history.

Wikipedia suggest yes.

[williamjm]

I finished Wise Man's Fear yesterday. I'm convinced that someday Patrick Rothfuss is capable of writing a superb fantasy series. However, I don't think it's going to be this one. That's not to say the book isn't great fun to read, because it is - Rothfuss is a good writer of prose and dialogue and even when not much is happening in the plot the book is still entertaining to read. The plot has a lot of potential but ends up being a bit underwhelming and at times Kvothe's adventures do start to feel a bit formulaic. The overall plot of the series does have a compelling premise as Kvothe tries to track down the near-mythical Chandrian who killed his family, but despite the book being 960 pages long very little progress seems to be made towards that goal and at the end of the book little seems to have changed for Kvothe other than him learning a few new talents. Some of the subplots along the way are definitely entertaining and occasionally surprising (for example, the extent of Kvothe's potential ruthlessness) but few of the characters Kvothe meets on his travels are as interesting as some of the characters back at the University. Kvothe is a slightly frustrating character as well due to his combination of being brilliant at most things he tries to do and being irritating foolhardy and prone to doing the worse possible thing at times. Despite that, he is charismatic and reasonably likeable, although I like the Kvothe from the framing story more than the one from the main storyline.

This is a good book that's a lot of fun to read, but it's also a bit disappointing because I think it had the potential to be a great book and a lot of that potential wasn't realised.

Next up I'll probably read Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding, unless I have time to go to the bookshop tomorrow, in which case I might see if they have the new Daniel Abraham book yet.

[Mjolnir]

Read Aravind Adiga's novel The White Tiger, the life story of a garrulous, potentially slightly unreliable, opinionated Indian entrepreneur in two days. Very entertaining narrative voice -- really keeps the pages turning through some pretty grave disheartening stuff about the Indian class/caste system and how they intersect, as well as rampant political corruption in the country. Brings some unrelenting attention to things that need it -- including outsourcing -- but compelling as fiction as well. I didn't always like Balram [the narrator], but I was always interested and entertained by him. ?And some parts of the book are pretty uncomfortable to read from a position of relative privilege, which is good. Very glad I read this.

Geoff Ryman's Air proved to me that it new what it was doing and has gotten its shit back together. This is a long read I'm taking slowly, as it's complex, with many different angles from which to view what's going on despite the focus on a single character, and would rush poorly. Just over a hundred pages from the end now.

Took a big chunk out of The Wise Man's Fear. Over a third through now. I can really see where people complain that not a lot happens, but honestly I don't find this to be the case. The book just works on a scale that's not quite the one we might expect a big fat fantasy to operate on. I'm not done or close, so it's certainly still possible I'll end up a little pissed off by the end -- a thousand-page slice of life story is a lot to ask of a reader -- but right now I'm having too much fun just hanging out in the world with the characters and watching them work their way through things gradually to really care. Rothfuss has that power as a writer: I truly am just happy to be here. I think a faster pace might ruin that, and bust up the gradual sense of discovery regarding organizations and old secrets that's starting to emerge.

The Name of the Wind was never a very formal book; there was never much of the "hail and well met, fellow!" fantasy dialogue. But I'm finding WMF very colloquial. Not a bad thing, just weird, because I'm finding that I can recognize Rothfuss's blog-voice in a lot of the humourous byplay.

A hundred pages into Lauren Beukes' distopia-of-connection Moxyland.

[TheEvilKing]

Read Aravind Adiga's novel The White Tiger, the life story of a garrulous, potentially slightly unreliable, opinionated Indian entrepreneur in two days. Very entertaining narrative voice -- really keeps the pages turning through some pretty grave disheartening stuff about the Indian class/caste system and how they intersect, as well as rampant political corruption in the country. Brings some unrelenting attention to things that need it -- including outsourcing -- but compelling as fiction as well. I didn't always like Balram [the narrator], but I was always interested and entertained by him. ?And some parts of the book are pretty uncomfortable to read from a position of relative privilege, which is good. Very glad I read this.

Nice one! I read it a couple of years back, excellent book. I always reccomend it in the non-SFF threads.

I was a bit disappointed in Adiga's next book, Between the Assassinations. There were a couple of cool stories but half of them fell flat for me.

I've officially given up on Blood Meridian. 110 pages in, decided it's not for me. The Prestige has been intriguing as hell so far.

[delete this account pls]

Just got The White Luck Warrior by R Scott Bakker today. Which is great timing because I'd almost forgotten why I hated women so much.

[Eponine]

Finished Wolfe's Shadow of the Torturer, and feel it's obvious that I haven't gotten far enough to make any judgments yet. This is the most positive I've felt toward any multi-book series in years though - although that's a pretty low bar. It seems with so many series that they're good in the beginning or middle, but the ending fails to wrap up in a satisfying way. I hear that Wolfe doesn't go downhill like that, at least not in this quartet.

[GuybrushThreepwood]

Isn't the second part the one with the play? I love that part.

[nickg]

I started anathem yesterday, but it got pushed to the side today after I picked up Use of Weapons. Consider Phlebas is the only other Culture novel I have read, and I thought it was really good, but Use of Weapons is much better about halfway through.

[Mjolnir]

TheEvilKing

Nice one! I read it a couple of years back, excellent book. I always reccomend it in the non-SFF threads.

I was a bit disappointed in Adiga's next book, Between the Assassinations. There were a couple of cool stories but half of them fell flat for me.

Glad to hear I'm not alone in reading this -- well, obviously I'm not; it won the freaking Booker, but within the forum community. I just finished a couple days ago, so time will tell, but I think it'll really stay with me. Maybe not so much the characters, other than Balram, who's pretty damn memorable, as much as the situations. Too bad to hear about the short story collection. I'll probably still give it a try some time, just for the few excellent stories, and to get another look at Adiga's depiction of India. Sounds like it's located a little more definitely within the time/indluence of particular political figures and events, which might be nice. The more nebulous approach really worked for The White Tiger but might not with different characters.

Brady

Just got The White Luck Warrior by R Scott Bakker today. Which is great timing because I'd almost forgotten why I hated women so much.

Lot of that in this one then? Damn. Oh well, I'll get it from the library.

Still creeping forward in Air and Moxyland. Both excellent. Thinking of maybe starting Spin State, or perhaps waiting for my next library order to come in.