August 2011 reading thread

[Isis]

Interesting. I had heard Peake had planned five books originally. Is there also a fifth coming up in the near future, do you know?

I'm now 2/3 of the way through the fourth book but I already know (from the blurb) that the end of this book 'resolves' the whole cycle. As Peake's wife wrote this book from scraps of notes and chapter headings alone I'm pretty sure that there won't be another book.

Actually I went to this last night at the British Library with another boarder and had a huge geek out at Peake's illustrations and notebooks. :)

[Datepalm]

I finished Genevieve Valentine's Mechanique, and give it much applause and praise.

Yes, glad to see this being read. It deserves much love and cupcakes and other nice things.

Done with Kameron Hurley's God's War, which I think really came to more than the sum of its parts, and they weren't half bad parts. Interesting things about gender and sacrifice and the role of war on the society behind the front running through, without necessarily being positioned as an 'ideas novel' sort of book. (The plot is mostly fights, torture, conspiracies and stuff getting blown up.) The worldbuilding is awesome in particular, amazingly atmospheric and nasty.

Most of the way through Equations of Life, by Simon Morden. It's nice and zippy, also some good worldbuilding, if a little heavy on the action for my taste. I'm also becoming increasingly uncertain as to what the novel is about, which is for the good, ("save the girl" gets old fast, though credit must go out for what appears to be the main love interest being a two meter tall combat expert nun,) but the shift is coming in a way thats a bit abrupt.

[jdiddyesquire]

Most of the way through Equations of Life, by Simon Morden. It's nice and zippy, also some good worldbuilding, if a little heavy on the action for my taste. I'm also becoming increasingly uncertain as to what the novel is about, which is for the good, ("save the girl" gets old fast, though credit must go out for what appears to be the main love interest being a two meter tall combat expert nun,) but the shift is coming in a way thats a bit abrupt.

Felt that same way about the Petrovich/Nun relationship. It's a fun read, but some of the math stuff, which I kept expecting to be FAR more relevant, never seems to come into the foreground to my disappointment.

[beniowa]

Finished Ghost Story recently and it was quite good. It did feel like the plot from Changes didn't really get resolved, but like one of the characters says, "it's the journey, not the destination." Glad to see that Butcher did something a little different.

I also blazed through John Scalzi's latest, Fuzzy Nation. Compared to the original Little Fuzzy, Scalzi's book is better in some ways while less so in others. I'd recommend reading H. Beam Piper's book first.

And I finally got through a collection of Catherynne Valente's short stories titled, Ventriloquism. It's a good collection, though I think Valente is really stronger in long form.

Next novel is Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton while my next short story collection will be Other Worlds, Better Lives by Howard Waldrop.

[SkynJay]

Ok, due to the thread the other day I am now starting Hounded by Kevin Hearne. I like humor, and it is supposed to be a good funny read.

Just finished a reread Eight Days of Luke by Jones. Still like it. Grabbed it because i wanted to get through a few quick reads before treating myself to the Engineer Trilogy.

[Stone-Made-Soft]

I just finished The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. It was very, very good. I loved the ending. I'm just starting Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut then I will read Slaughterhouse Five.

[Antonius Pius]

I'm now 2/3 of the way through the fourth book but I already know (from the blurb) that the end of this book 'resolves' the whole cycle. As Peake's wife wrote this book from scraps of notes and chapter headings alone I'm pretty sure that there won't be another book.

Thanks. I wondered if Peake had left enough material for two books. Still, if book four does wrap up the whole cycle, I may have to go out and find it too.

Actually I went to this last night at the British Library with another boarder and had a huge geek out at Peake's illustrations and notebooks. :)

Heh, sounds promising. And it's always good to let your geek out once in a while. ;)

[Mjolnir]

Datepalm:

Yes, glad to see this being read. It deserves much love and cupcakes and other nice things.

Done with Kameron Hurley's God's War, which I think really came to more than the sum of its parts, and they weren't half bad parts. Interesting things about gender and sacrifice and the role of war on the society behind the front running through, without necessarily being positioned as an 'ideas novel' sort of book. (The plot is mostly fights, torture, conspiracies and stuff getting blown up.) The worldbuilding is awesome in particular, amazingly atmospheric and nasty.

Most of the way through Equations of Life, by Simon Morden. It's nice and zippy, also some good worldbuilding, if a little heavy on the action for my taste. I'm also becoming increasingly uncertain as to what the novel is about, which is for the good, ("save the girl" gets old fast, though credit must go out for what appears to be the main love interest being a two meter tall combat expert nun,) but the shift is coming in a way thats a bit abrupt.

Yes, very much all of this. Mechanique deserves all praise. God's War really worked for me as well, when I read it earlier this year. Among numerous other things, I thought Hurley really succeeded in creating a badass character who was just as frightening as she was cool, and in inverting gender stereotypes in thought-provoking ways without making value judgments except when they really, really needed making. It's mostly an action book, definitely, but I thought the thematic payload was integrated very completely,

from the very first line in which Nyx subverts stereotypes about mothering and stuff by selling her womb onward.

I read Equations of Life about two months ago and thought it was very fun, but maybe I'm just a careless reader but I couldn't tell you what I thought the story was driving toward for the first half or so. Things took a major turn part way through, yes. Fun book, will read the rest, but it didn't really set its claws deep in me.

I'm about a hundred and fifty pages into Jim Butcher's Ghost Story and it's very engrossing; there've been some major developments already. However, yesterday I went a little crazy and finished ADWD. Now life is meaningless and has no purpose.

Edit: Can't type today. Or think deep thoughts, even about books. It's the post-Dance despair.

[UndergroundMan]

Just finished the whole Rabbit Tetralogy by John Updike. Currently reading "Hyperion" by Dan Simmons and "The Joy Luck club" by Amy Tan. After that I'm considering either moving on to Donaldson's "The One Tree" or a reread of "Clash of Kings." Reading Dance and watching GOT made me want to revisit the awesomeness of the first three books. I haven't read Clash or Storm in 4 or 5 years.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I blasted through Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Just an awesome book. I loved every page of it. I hope the movie adaptation does it justice.

Up next is the final book in The Baroque Cycle, The System of the World by Neal Stephenson. Between this series, Shadowmarch and ASOIAF (re-read and ADWD), I'm done with doorstoppers for the rest of the year!

[Ealdorman Halasahr]

I'm currently reading:

• The King of the Crags, Stephen Deas

• Äta djur (Eating Animals), Jonathan Safran Foer

• Skymningssång i Kalahari - Hur människan bytte tillvaro, Lasse Berg

When I'm done with ... the Crags I'm picking up The Order of the Scales as soon as I can.

[nickg]

I like Deas. I have only read the first book, and while I liked it, it felt like it was missing something. The fact that they are shorter than most fantasy novels ( too short imo ) makes it more likely that I will finish the trilogy sometime soon.

Reading the final book in the Fionavar Tapestry currently. I understand why people dislike the series, but I am firmly entrenched in the love it camp.

Also re reading The Gap Cycle by Donaldson. Still haven't started Dance.

[Cuchulain]

Finished Alastair Reynolds' The Prefect. While it doesn't add that much to the Revelation Space universe as a whole, it's still a great novel. Really enjoyed it.

I also read Graham Joyce's The Tooth Fairy. Great coming-of-age novel.

I'm now halfway through William Gibson's Count Zero.

[Contrarius]

I read Prince of Thorns between last night and this evening. Very striking book. I'll have to think about it more for a lasting opinion, but it'll definitely be VERY interesting to see the rest of the trilogy.

Do NOT read this book if even Thomas Covenant was too much for you. Covenant was a choir boy. Prince Jorg is Ghengis Khan mixed with A Clockwork Orange, with some sorcery thrown in for spice.

[Grack21]

I read Prince of Thorns between last night and this evening. Very striking book. I'll have to think about it more for a lasting opinion, but it'll definitely be VERY interesting to see the rest of the trilogy.

Do NOT read this book if even Thomas Covenant was too much for you. Covenant was a choir boy. Prince Jorg is Ghengis Khan mixed with A Clockwork Orange, with some sorcery thrown in for spice.

Well, compared to a lot of the stuff today, Covenant doesn;t seem to bad.

Speaking of, reading The Judging Eye right now. I love it, but man, this is some dark shit.

[Contrarius]

Well, compared to a lot of the stuff today, Covenant doesn;t seem to bad.

I agree with you. But I just read a review where the reviewer was complaining about the book, and then went on to admit that she hadn't even finished the first Covenant book because of the rape early on. I mean, really.....

[Grack21]

I agree with you. But I just read a review where the reviewer was complaining about the book, and then went on to admit that she hadn't even finished the first Covenant book because of the rape early on. I mean, really.....

Yeah she wouldn't like most modern fantasy too much.

[Eponine]

Finally finished The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene. Phoenix and I went to his book signing sometime back in the winter, and I started the book right away, but had abandoned it for a few months because it wasn't on Kindle and I had been doing most my reading in bed after my boyfriend was already asleep, so I needed the little Kindle light. It was really thought provoking, and I'd like to read more nonfiction for a while. I have to get through Downbelow Station, which really isn't interesting me, and then I'll take a break from the list. I have several things unfinished right now, but everything else can wait. I almost typed weight, I must be tired.

[bossfan2000]

Last night I finished reading The Last Stormlord by Glenda Larke. I go in more detail on the blog, but overall..despite almost giving up on the book 3 times and taking 200 pages to finally "get into" the book..I really ended up liking it a lot. In fact, my interest in the book increased so gradually I wasn't aware how much I was enjoying it, until some of the characters started dying. Now that I am done with it, I consider it one of my favorite reads of the year thus far.

Next up will be the sequel, Stormlord Rising, or the new Karen Miller, The Blighted Mage. From what I can tell, I am in the minority, on this board, in being a Miller fan. That said, I couldn't finish The Reluctant Mage, so I'm curious to see what I will think of this new prequel to the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker duology.

[Grack21]

Last night I finished reading The Last Stormlord by Glenda Larke. I go in more detail on the blog, but overall..despite almost giving up on the book 3 times and taking 200 pages to finally "get into" the book..I really ended up liking it a lot. In fact, my interest in the book increased so gradually I wasn't aware how much I was enjoying it, until some of the characters started dying. Now that I am done with it, I consider it one of my favorite reads of the year thus far.

Next up will be the sequel, Stormlord Rising, or the new Karen Miller, The Blighted Mage. From what I can tell, I am in the minority, on this board, in being a Miller fan. That said, I couldn't finish The Reluctant Mage, so I'm curious to see what I will think of this new prequel to the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker duology.

I enjoy Miller even though I think it's all crap. It's weird. Well, some of it, that newest dualogy is one of the worse things I've read. Ever. It's like .....I can;t even describe it. It's like a Star Wars sequel in which you find out Han Solo beats his kids.