nobodymN Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Rignt now I'm reading Steven Erikson's Bonehunters, as well as Jacqueline Carey's forthcoming Kushiel's Scion, while stealing sometime to dive into a new PKD collection coming out soon, Vintage PKD. Recently finished Patrica Mckillip's Solstice Wood, which I really enjoyed, a follow-up to her Winter Rose, but several centuries in the furture of the same village. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emberling Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Going through Vlad Taltos again at the moment, currently on Orca. Just finished The Book of the New Sun previously and hoping to find a copy of Urth next time I'm near a bookstore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VarysTheSpider Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Hmm, quite curious about Bonehunters. I started reading the free prologue but got interrupted and haven't felt the urge to finish it. What book does it most closely compare with? (If like me you think each book is quite different to the last.) Just reading textbooks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ser marauder Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Reading Tim Powers' Anubis Gates. Took me a minute to get into it, but I'm enjoying it now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Hmm, quite curious about Bonehunters. I started reading the free prologue but got interrupted and haven't felt the urge to finish it. What book does it most closely compare with? (If like me you think each book is quite different to the last.) Just reading textbooks. I'm reading The Bonehunters as well. The prologue is quite slow actually but the book is better. The plot picks up 2 months after the end of House of Chains and carries on many of the characters from there and Deadhouse Gates, but in terms of plot movement, BIG things happening and large-scale battles it feels a lot more like Memories of Ice. However, it is by far the most important book in the series for bringing together all the disparate plot strands (you see how Midnight Tides fits in with the rest, for example). And it's unusually funny as well (I think Erikson's editors may have suggested the books could be rather grim at times so he upped the humour content, although not overwhelmingly so). At the moment it stands just behind Memories of Ice in the rankings for me, but I'll see how I feel once I finish it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ztemhead Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 I'm rereading GGK's Tigana, after I mentioned it in another thread. I had forgotten what a delightful story it is. What I like best about him is how people in his books are so utterly human; they can still have fun despite the hard times they're living in. It's nice when an author takes some time to remind the reader that Good is not simply an abstract idea, but an actual way of life worth fighting for, rather than fighting for the honor of a house, or repelling invaders who might be better rulers than the present ones. Even GRRM falls into this trap sometimes- it's enough to just paint the bad guys as BAD to generate sympathy for the present POV as GOOD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhaco Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 While waiting for my copy of The Bonehunters to get across the pond this week, I stopped by the library and picked up a few books. The Crippled Angel by Sara Douglass, the last book in her Crucible trilogy. Wow, this series really went down the crapper. I loved the first book. The history (a twist on the War of the Roses & the Hundred Years' War), the characterization, the atmosphere and supernatural elements, the plot, nearly everything. It was a complete 180 from her earlier Axis series, and I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. Well, by The Crippled Angel it'd turned into a sad blend of Brown's The DaVinci Code and a melodramatic dimestore romance novel. Ugh. Extremely disappointing. The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell, the second book in his King Alfred series. Typical Cornwell. Good stuff, though vaguely depressing since I'm rooting for the Danes. I also picked up Gaiman's Anansi Boys and Stackpole's Cartomancy, the second book in his Age of Discovery series. I wasn't a huge fan of American Gods, so I think I'll read Cartomancy first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paladin of Ice Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Just finished Days of Infamy, by Harry Turtledove. It's an alternate history, the first in a series, about what might have happened if Japan had occupied Hawaii instead of simply doing an air strike on Pearl Harbor. It's generally a good and well thought out book, but it has a couple of flaws. One being that the pace and quality of the writing are wildly uneven; the first 200 pages or so are very fast paced, and have that can't put the book down quality to them, the next 250 pages you have to slog through, and the last seventy or so try to pick the pace up again. The second things, and this really annoyed me during the reading, is that a better editing job was needed. Characters have the same thoughts over and over again, and even pieces of the same conversations with other characters. Some of it is understandable, but having the exact same phrase thought by the same character in one chapter after another, and each time it's treated like a revelation, is kinda irksome. Next I'm probably going to do Hitchiker's Guide to the Universe for the first time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Trying to get into Moonheart by Charles de Lint. Somewhat successful, but I hate the handholding exposition. Actually, I don't enjoy the way he tells a story. It hasn't dated as well as other authors... Also reading Cosmonaut's Keep by Ken Macleod. I can see why people like his writing, but I'm finding it a tough go. With no prior knowledge of the books or the premise, I guessed the twist within the first chapter...(not that it was hidden or anything) and everything is a bit wooden. I'll muscle on, and try a couple of his other books because sometimes a reader needs time to acclimate to a new author. But I'm a bit bummed out. What I'm looking forward to in the next Powell's shipment: Vellum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Baelish Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 I finished reading The Bonehunters a couple of days ago. A truly excellent book and far better than AFFC, IMO. I'm now embarking on a reread of the series, starting with Deadhouse Gates. I'm also waiting for GGK's Tigana to arrive from Amazon, so I'm looking forward to that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 I'm rereading GGK's Tigana, after I mentioned it in another thread. I had forgotten what a delightful story it is. I just loaned this book to a coworker (along with another long-time fave, the Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge). It is such a delightful read. And the characters can be so tragic... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcelo Rebelo Firqoralas Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 It's nice when an author takes some time to remind the reader that Good is not simply an abstract idea, but an actual way of life worth fighting for, rather than fighting for the honor of a house, or repelling invaders who might be better rulers than the present ones. Even GRRM falls into this trap sometimes- it's enough to just paint the bad guys as BAD to generate sympathy for the present POV as GOOD. This is how you interpret Tigana? Wow, I would say that this was one of the first fantasy novel I read that DIDN'T say that goodness was something concrete (unlike Tolkien, Eddings and all of that stuff), and that Ãs one of the reasons I like it. I've met plenty of people online who hated Tigana, just because they felt that the protagonists were selfish bastards just out for revenge and that the Palm would be much better off if Brandin had remained the ruler. While I don't really agree with them, I can't really see what's so extremely good or virtuous about the protagonists. The way I see it, they fought for their own culture against imperialist invaders, but they really didn't have much of a moral high ground compared to the opponents (OK, Brandin started the conflict, so they definitely had some moral high ground, but not much more than that.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlimEagan Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 I'm reading Michael A Stackpoles Cartomancy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Sun Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Today was library day, and I picked up China Miéville, Perdido Street Station, the first paperback volume of Olivia Butler's Xenogenesis saga, because I did not even know her, and the omnibus of the Lois Master Bujold's Barrayar stories that finaly contains Komarr, because I waited for this book for years. I have started with Mieville and I really like it. If I get bored with one of these, I have still Murakami's Kafka on the Shore and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel waiting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colder Hands Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 starting it off with the charnel prince by greg keyes, then i will get into some more vance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cteresa Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Just finished Alan Garner´s Owl Service - strange but very good, not something I love but which I admire. Theoretically YA, three teens (?) in a welsh valley get caught up in an ancient myth. Right now, picking up again a book I started reading ages ago and stopped round page 20 or so, William Dalrymple´s From the Holy Mountain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kat Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 I finally made time to read Bakker. Because everyone on every forum ever seems to pimp his works. I am about 400 pages into The Darkness That Comes Before and while I found the first 150 pages or so kind of hard to get into, it's really picked up now and I'm enjoying it a lot. Did anyone else have this problem or am I just a bad reader? I found myself not wanting to go back and forth from the appendices too much to figure out what some of the factions are, and I didn't care for the Nansur chapters a whole lot. But! I persevere! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asa Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Re-reading all the Dune Chronicles and Ender's Game. Been thinking about geting Prince of Nothing, just from seeing Baker's name on here so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colder Hands Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Re-reading all the Dune Chronicles and Ender's Game. Been thinking about geting Prince of Nothing, just from seeing Baker's name on here so much. this constant bakkar pimping has me wanting it too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 I've been reading The Thousandfold Thought by Bakker, which was overall a satisfying and very exciting finish of the trilogy, but really leaves you hunkering for Aspect Emperor. Bakker is one of the better fantasists working today, though he is clearly not for everyone ( I think his work has less broader appeal than say Martin, but as much as for instance Erikson). There is so much left to be discovered in his world though, and the grand overarching conflict remains utterly fascinating to me. 8.5 stars out of 10. Also read Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas which was a remarkably good read. A very emotional ending as well. Clearly a totally different book as TTT, and because TTT is part of something so much bigger and deeper that simply appeals more to my epic Fantasy minded person, I do prefer TTT. But for what it is, Odd Thomas is a very interesting read indeed. I will be picking up the sequel, Forever Odd. 8 stars out of 10. I'm currently reading "Memories of Ice", a truly massive tome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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