April 2012 Reads

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I haven't had much time to read lately, but I finally finished The Shadow Rising. The Rhuidean scenes are my favorite bar none, and for that reason alone, The Shadow Rising is my favorite.

Perrin going back to Two Rivers and the Tower coup is also a highlight.

I need something short and quick to read so Rick Riordan's The Sea of Monsters or A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle is next.

[jdiddyesquire]

Finished Railsea over the weekend, Mieville's new one out next month. I'm not entirely enamored. Need some time to marinate on it.

Working on Blue Remembered Earth by Al Reynolds now and Scourge of the Betrayer by Jeff Salyards on my Kindle.

[Sheep the Evicted]

The fight scenes, where 90 pound segulesh manage to buzzsaw their way through 10x their numbers of heavy infantry, applying their ninja aikidoo skills for some reason reminded me of this video of a "sensei" trying out his skills in real life,

This is one of the sad things about the rise of MMA. There was once a time when I could read about waifish kung fu masters effortlessly destroying an army of musclebound thugs and not blink an eye-lid; now i have to make a conscious decision to ignore it every time the trope comes up. One of the few things guaranteed to stretch my suspenders of disbelief.

Which brings me nicely on to my thoughts about Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway which i finished a few days ago. I'm commenting because i can see that alot of people in this thread are reading it now too; did you guys also completely miss the fact it was out since February ? I've been eagerly anticipating this book for for two years now, sporadically checking Harkaways blog for any mention and i still missed it. The internet PR guys need to be fired.

Anyway i was disappointed but not it in the way i thought I’d be. After GAW i was certain that Harkaway had completely blown his load and used up every awesome idea that had been gestating in the back of his head for the last thirty years. He definitely hasn't; Angelmaker is every bit as brilliantly inventive and energetic as GAW but, IMO, it’s just not as well balanced out. In GAW i relished almost every single digression and aside, here i often wanted it to end. In GAW i thought every character added to the story here i thought there was just too many and that some of those characters would have been more palatable if they were introduced later or earlier.

This is probably a personal failing on my part but i also didn't like how Harkaway clearly set out to write an 60's Boys Own comic in prose form and then realised moral standards had very much changed and set out to empower and expand the cast of females any way he could. I realize this probably sounds very much like "why are there wimminz and why are they doing stuff!!!" but that’s not my problem - like everything else i think it was the over abundance of this broke my suspension of disbelief because i could clearly see the hand of the author steering the story into politically correct territory. Just felt manufactured and artificial, which is, now that I think of it, a fairly absurd criticism in a book where mechanical bees warp the laws of physics (said bees are created by a super-genius who managed to completely misunderstand schrodinger and his experiment), but there it is.

Oh and that’s another thing. Harkaway is ALWAYS present. What i mean by this is that the narrative is clearly in his "voice" but then the character dialogue - with the sole exception of JJ Spork - is also in his "voice". Naturally this voice is charming and whimsical and witty but the problem is that it’s uniform. It’s the Jack Vance problem – every one of his characters speaks with exactly as much magnificent eloquence as the next.

All in all i'd say Angelmaker would have been far better off if it was put in the hands of a ruthless editor who got Harkaway to cut maybe 100 pages worth of content. Full of passages and scenes that are jaw-droppingly, fist-pumpingly, laugh-out-loud awesome, just as you’d expect from Harkaway, but sadly these are frequently watered down and broken up by rather (or maybe only comparatively) dull asides and too-long transitions.

Also finished Jaquards Web by James Essinger two days ago. I was looking for a brief history of computing and while this did the job well enough I feel it was sorely lacking more detail about the actual machines themselves.

Currently reading How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carniege. So far while the style is unusual I feel its surprisingly relevant and insightful for a book written three-quarters of century ago.

After that its on to Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

[Starkess]

I was in one of those blah, don't have anything to read, don't have anything pressing to pick up kind of places. Spent a while scrolling through my Amazon recs going blah, blah blah. Finally decided to pick up Elantris because I liked the Mistborn series. I'm only about a chapter in, so we'll see how it goes! Should probably start planning my next read now so I don't get stuck again.

[Guest]

After that its on to Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

This one has had a lot of hype. I think IheartTesla is reading this one too. I want reviews.

I'm half way through The Name of the Wind. Really impressed so far, but the quest for anything that compares to the first three Martin books remains unfulfilled.

[peterbound]

I haven't had much time to read lately, but I finally finished The Shadow Rising. The Rhuidean scenes are my favorite bar none, and for that reason alone, The Shadow Rising is my favorite. Perrin going back to Two Rivers and the Tower coup is also a highlight.

I need something short and quick to read so Rick Riordan's The Sea of Monsters or A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle is next.

Perrin goes to Two Rivers?!?! There is a Tower coup?!?! Don't we have spoiler tags??

[RedEyedGhost]

I was in one of those blah, don't have anything to read, don't have anything pressing to pick up kind of places. Spent a while scrolling through my Amazon recs going blah, blah blah. Finally decided to pick up Elantris because I liked the Mistborn series. I'm only about a chapter in, so we'll see how it goes! Should probably start planning my next read now so I don't get stuck again.

God's War by Kameron Hurley. You're welcome :)

[Contrarius]

I was in one of those blah, don't have anything to read, don't have anything pressing to pick up kind of places. Spent a while scrolling through my Amazon recs going blah, blah blah. Finally decided to pick up Elantris because I liked the Mistborn series. I'm only about a chapter in, so we'll see how it goes! Should probably start planning my next read now so I don't get stuck again.

I enjoyed all the multiplicitous ideas running through that book. I felt as though Sanderson kinda threw in everything including the kitchen sink. His execution of those ideas wasn't always perfect -- it was a pretty obvious first novel, after all -- but I still thought it was a bold and worthy effort. I hope you enjoy it!

[russjass]

Finished Consider Phlebas; pretty mediocre compared to other Banks books I have read, will probably give the rest a miss as I have read Use of Weapons and Player of Games which are widely regarded as being his best.

Finished the Hunger Games trilogy. Very, very good. Not particularly great writing, might be a personal thing as first person present irritates me anyway so may have been a bit picky. The story is just...wow. Very much recommend this series.

Now on to Peter F. Hamiltons Pandoras Star. Have very high hopes for this as really enjoyed Nights Dawn. I am a hundred pages in, and still need to adjust to the change of pace from Hunger games first person, streamlined story and abundant summaries to Hamiltons details, details, details, and a cast of thousands.

[Tyler Snow]

I'm continuing my long journey with the Wheel of Time series. Just finished the Dragon Reborn and am now onto Shadow Rising. Just finished Ender's Game as well and, if you haven't read that book and are a fan of science fiction, you definitely should. Also just started Red Mars at the recoomendation of a family member so I'll see how that goes.

As for WoT, didn't think I was going to like this series but I pretty much love it.

[peterbound]

God's War by Kameron Hurley. You're welcome :)

Yep.

Couldn't recommend this enough.

[Starkess]

God's War by Kameron Hurley. You're welcome :)

Looks pretty good, I may be forced to check it out even though I've been avoiding starting unfinished series!

I enjoyed all the multiplicitous ideas running through that book. I felt as though Sanderson kinda threw in everything including the kitchen sink. His execution of those ideas wasn't always perfect -- it was a pretty obvious first novel, after all -- but I still thought it was a bold and worthy effort. I hope you enjoy it!

So far I am liking it--there are enough creative ideas to interest me--but I also feel like he went a little overboard in his making-shit-up-ness. It's kind of confusing to have like a thousand new words be introduced, and in some ways it seems unnecessary. Like, is there really a need to make up a new hierarchy for this empire's church? Readers are already familiar with a priest/bishop/cardinal type thing, now I'm struggling to figure out wtf a dyrteth or whatever is.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

Perrin goes to Two Rivers?!?! There is a Tower coup?!?!

Don't we have spoiler tags??

fixed

[RedEyedGhost]

Looks pretty good, I may be forced to check it out even though I've been avoiding starting unfinished series!

The third and final book will be out later this year, so if you don't read it now make a note to pick it up later. It would be a great palate cleanser after Elantris (not that Elantris is terrible or anything, it just reads like an early novel, and is quite saccharine).

[IheartTesla]

This one has had a lot of hype. I think IheartTesla is reading this one too. I want reviews.

Patience, Padawan, I am going through Fortune's Formula first. T'will be a week or so.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I finished The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan. It was OK as it was very predictable, even for a YA novel. Up next is A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.

[Contrarius]

Finished Kushner's Swordspoint. Awesome. Those here that don't like it suck. :P

I just finished this. I listened to the new audio version of this book -- and, unfortunately, I think this is one book that would have been better to read than to listen to. I liked the story a lot, but I found the "full cast" production really distracting.

There's two follow up books, which I might actually read some day. It could be fun to find out what Richard and Alec get up to. ;)

[SkynJay]

Finally finished my reread of Storm of Swords. Take a little time before I go on to AFFC, as the library got a few in for me.

Got the last SW Fate of the Jedi book, which should be the end of my trek through SW EU. NO MORE! Warhammer is my Tie-in love now(at least Abnett is).

Also got Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai. Supposed to be damn good.

I am ashamed to admit I will probably read the SW book first, but at least it will go fast.

[Grack21]

I just finished this. I listened to the new audio version of this book -- and, unfortunately, I think this is one book that would have been better to read than to listen to. I liked the story a lot, but I found the "full cast" production really distracting.

There's two follow up books, which I might actually read some day. It could be fun to find out what Richard and Alec get up to. ;)

From what I understand, the sequels are set like 100 years in the future. :(

[Myshkin]

From what I understand, the sequels are set like 100 years in the future. :(

The Privilege of the Sword is set maybe 20 or 25 years in the future, and deals mainly with Alec's 15 year old niece, although Alec himself plays a big part. I actually thought The Privilege of the Sword was better than Swordspoint.