July 2011 Reading thread

[polishgenius]

Everything Abercrombie can do, GRRM can do at least as well.

Even if that's true, and I don't think it is, just because he can doesn't mean he always does. Dance has bits that bore me, The Heroes didn't. The pacing is just average even if you factor in the not-a-standalone thing.

Anyways, a book can be standalone but still part of a series. Especially since The Heroes does, in the background, link into and move on a bigger arc.

I didn't much like the Silmarillion either, but I was 14 when I read it; possibly I'd like it more now.

[SkynJay]

It doesn’t count, because it’s a standalone. But even if: no way.

Everything Abercrombie can do, GRRM can do at least as well. The only parameter where Heroes is better is that it must needs be coherent (it has a unifying theme, beginning, end, setting, etc.), which is exactly why it’s a standalone and hence doesn’t qualify.

Otherwise the Silmarillion would own this competition from now and to the end of civilisation. No better “5th book in the same setting” can ever be written.

Good idea for a thread, though.

It is a good idea. However I gotta disagree on the one point. If WLW counts as a fifth book, so does The Heroes. WLW is the second book of a trilogy, but that matters not, because it is the same world, same timeline, and same author. Heroes fits the same way. Second standalone, but same world, timeline and author. So I would count it as fifth book in the series.

And Silmarillion wouldn't count, it was fifth book in a series this year. (Forgive my ignorance as well, but wasnt Silmarillion more of a prequel? I don't really know, so you can take away my fantasy fan boy cred).

[Bastard of Godsgrace]

Everything Abercrombie can do, GRRM can do at least as well. The only parameter where Heroes is better is that it must needs be coherent (it has a unifying theme, beginning, end, setting, etc.), which is exactly why it’s a standalone and hence doesn’t qualify.

I agree. IMHO, ADWD was better than Heroes which was good, but not great.

If we are discussing best five volumes ever, though, after consideration I would say Midnight Tides was a little bit better than ADWD (still below TWLW, though).

[Happy Ent]

OK, then. Heroes is in, Silmarillion is out.

Somebody draft the rules and get that thread afloat, so that we can stop derailing this one.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I finished The Confusion by Neal Stephenson. I found it brilliant in parts (the OK corral shootout in Cairo comes to mind) and other parts very boring and tedious. I did like this one more than Quicksilver.

I'm in the mood for more fantasy but with nautical themes, so The Edge of the World by Kevin J. Anderson is up next.

[SkynJay]

Finished The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks.

I know, I know, not supposed to like it, full of cliches, and all that. But I really did enjoy it. There were a few elements that were not well explained, but it didn't really take away from a good paced, action filled story, and sometimes I really like those.

Thought my chance at White Luck Warrior would be here, but since it isnt, I am reading Something Wicked Comes This Way by Bradbury now.

[Deedles]

Finished Dance, loved it. I would have preferred some things to have been done differently / more focus on certain characters etc, but on balance, excellent.

Followed that up by finishing A civil contract by Georgette Heyer. Good clean fun. It was really nice to see the romance build the way it did. I felt a little sorry for Jenny, but overall I think she'll be happy.

About half way through Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews. Fluffy good fun.

Up next, possibly another shot at A Madness of Angels. I just couldn't get into it last time round. The characters were doing nothing for me. Maybe a reread of A drink before the war by Denis Lehane.

[Zach H]

Halfway through Dance. Bran and Tyrion chapters are my favorites. Elsewhere some of the lordly/queenly-procedure-in-their-keeps stuff is dragging a bit for me, but overall the book is certainly holding my attention. I'm surprised how easily I settled back into the story after a 6-8 year layoff.

[Zap]

Currently reading The Past and Its Presenters: An Introduction to Issues in Historiography by John Warren.

[Grack21]

500 ish pages into Dance. It rules. Haters to the left.

[Contrarius]

I started on The Yiddish Policemen's Union, but I had to set it aside for now. It sounds like it's going to be very good, but it also seems very thick on the ground -- a lot going on there -- and I'm just too tired to concentrate today. Gotta listen to something more mindless until I'm more conscious.

[Eponine]

Finished ADWD. Thought I'd want to discuss it on the board, but although I've read some of the threads, I haven't posted anything myself.

Finished Doomsday Book - it was incredibly emotional, but unevenly paced - parts where I really got immersed into the characters alternated with parts where I hoped the plot would keep moving along. However, I couldn't put it down for approximately the last quarter.

Started Downbelow Station and so far I'm very meh about it. It's not horrible or difficult reading, but I keep finding my attention drifting.

Pretty soon I'll be a lot more occupied with class work, and in preparation am reading On Borrowed Time? by John Tilton about economic models of mineral depletion. Well, you know if I waited to find a career in something I was passionate about, I'd have a PhD in sleeping in.

[megs]

Finished Doomsday Book - it was incredibly emotional, but unevenly paced - parts where I really got immersed into the characters alternated with parts where I hoped the plot would keep moving along. However, I couldn't put it down for approximately the last quarter.

Started Downbelow Station and so far I'm very meh about it. It's not horrible or difficult reading, but I keep finding my attention drifting.

I was very meh about Downbelow, but now having read more books in the Union-Alliance, I am considering reading it again. This is not meant as a knock, but you kind of have to go into CJ Cherryh's books expecting not that much to happen, I think is the best way to describe it. Right now I'm reading one of hers that in any other writer's hands would be a short story or a novella, but because she is very into the universe & telling a future history, its a short novel that somewhat stands alone. I both really like and find this boring.

So instead I'm going to go finish MLN Hanover's Vicious Grace in bed and contemplate what it says about me that I have only finished Daniel Abraham books under this particular pseudonym. Though, I am also on a late 80s/early 90s space opera kick, so I may re-try Leviathan Wakes! :)

[Mjolnir]

I finished Robert Jackson Bennett's second novel, The Company Man, earlier in the month. Liked it quite a bit, more than Mr. Shivers. The characters engaged me more, and the universe had more substance to it. There's a bit of the plot that I imagine some people will be just predisposed to hate, but I'm not going to spoiler it here as it's rather large. I thought that, in this particular instance, it was well done, and appreciated that the author managed to graft a limb from another genre onto his creation and make it feel, for me at least, entirely natural and in tune with the book in terms of plot and feel. I think there's enough of the stark horror and semi-nihilism that typified Shivers that people who liked that book -- I did like parts of it very much -- would like this one as well, but I also think people who didn't connect with Shivers but liked Bennett's writing might give this a try with some hope. Apparently it's not precisely walked off the shelves, which is disappointing.

I'm now in the middle of Marie Brennan's third historical-London-with-faeries, A Star Shall Fall. This one's set in the mid-18th century, with Samuel Johnson, the Royal Society, the calendar change, and other historical elements and figures playing roles in the plot. I tried the first of these, Midnight Never Come, with high expectations when it was released three years ago or so and found it only okay. Half-way through this is much, much better.

However, it is on hold. Because ... this is so cool.

I am reading A Dance With Dragons.

I can write that, and it is not a dream. I am reading A Dance With Dragons. 170 or so pages in at the moment. Considering buying the audio edition.

[Calibandar]

Finished DWD, too.

Easily the second best 5th book in an epic fantasy series to come out in 2011.

Hard to believe the Shepherd of the Weirwoods would say this, since there is so much more catering to the arboreal perspective in ADWD than WLW.

Myself, I am now 600 pages into ADWD. Mostly enjoyable sofar, and I rate it higher than WLW.

[Biter]

On Friday (I think it was friday) I finished Solar, Ian McEwan's latest novel. I don't think it's one of his best works, but on the other hand it's worth reading for the great food descriptions alone.

Now I'm getting started on Lehane's Moonlight Mile while waiting for ADWD to arrive to my local library.

[Peadar]

Halfway through ADWD. Finally! Fully immersed...

[Happy Ent]

Hard to believe the Shepherd of the Weirwoods would say this, since there is so much more catering to the arboreal perspective in ADWD than WLW.

This is something I pay a lot of attention to. Both books represent steps in the right direction in that they have a lot more tree-porn than their series's earlier volumes. This is laudable.

Between the Mop and the SPOILER (you-know-who-I-mean) I think the book are tied.

[taisie22]

Finished ADWD - read it very slowly and going back for a reread in a couple of weeks after I ponder for a while.

Currently reading Towards the Gleam by T.M. Doran

[nickg]

About halfway done with The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie. Yeah, I'm pretty late to the party, but oh well. Not really much to say about it that hasn't already been said. Abercrombie is awesome, love the book. I only meant to read for about 30 minutes last night, but that turned into nearly 2 and a half hours.

I don't think I have had a bad thing to say about anything he has written. I need more. Soon preferably.