What are you reading in April?

[Garett Hornwood]

Finished Theodore Rex on the 2nd, started The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest on the same day and finished it yesterday. Both were great books, the biography of T.R. was the 2nd in a trilogy and focused on his presidency. As for the finale of the Millennium trilogy, after The Girl Who Played with Fire I was expecting a different course of the events but Larsson surprised me with how the story went to great effect.

I started Colonel Roosevelt today, it's the final installment of the Edmund Morris' biographical trilogy.

[peterbound]

I found a few issues for download, and I'll delete after I'm finished just like I would if I'd been able to borrow it from the library. My requirement with anything multivolume has been that I finish the first volume, so 1 issue = 1 volume. I don't feel bad for sampling.

I've got 'Dangerous Habits' which is, I think the first Ennis run on HB. I'll get it to you somehow.

[NewsToTom]

I loved Count of Monte Cristo, but someone is going to have to explain to me the appeal of The Three Musketeers. I could not get into any of the characters, unlike Abbe Faria, Dantes, Mercedes, Haydee, Noirtier, and company.

Late last month I finished Francis Spufford's Red Plenty. I'm not sure how well it worked as a novel, but I liked it a lot.

[TempusFugit]

In the wake of Iain Banks' announcement last week that he is terminally ill, I've kicked off my reread of all of his work with Raw Spirit: In Search of the Perfect Dram. Slainte mhath, Iain, and oh how I wish those words didn't ring so hollow.

[Peadar]

I've started Voices by Ursula le Guin.

[williamjm]

Currently I'm reading the third of the stories in Hugh Howey's Wool. I'm enjoying the book so far, I saw some people saying that they thought the second story was a bit weaker than the first, but although it isn't quite as tense and claustrophobic as the first story I liked the more detailed world-building.

Now I am confused. I am going to read some more Bujold, and finally trying the Vorkosigan Saga. I picked up an omnibus containing Shards of Honor and Barrayer, is it a good staring point? Or is there a better one?

Shards of Honour or The Warrior's Apprentice are the two obvious options for starting the series. Shards is the first chronologically (ignoring Falling Free which doesn't have anything to do with the rest of the series), but some people prefer to suggest The Warrior's Apprentice since it is the first book to feature Miles Vorkosigan as the protagonist and then go back to read the two books about his mother, Shards and Barrayar, as prequels. I started with Shards and I think it's a reasonable starting point, although it isn't the best book in the series. I think Barrayar (which was written a few years later) was a significant improvement.

[RedEyedGhost]

Shards of Honour or The Warrior's Apprentice are the two obvious options for starting the series. Shards is the first chronologically (ignoring Falling Free which doesn't have anything to do with the rest of the series), but some people prefer to suggest The Warrior's Apprentice since it is the first book to feature Miles Vorkosigan as the protagonist and then go back to read the two books about his mother, Shards and Barrayar, as prequels. I started with Shards and I think it's a reasonable starting point, although it isn't the best book in the series. I think Barrayar (which was written a few years later) was a significant improvement.

I agree with everything here. The only difference is that I started with Free Falling. I do think Shards is a good starting point because you get to see some of the secondary characters fleshed out much more than they are in Miles's books.

[wolverine]

Just started The White-Luck Warrior after reading a few short stories from the Warriors anthology. I never really seem to get into short stories much, unless they are like the Dunk and Egg ones, related to something I am pretty familiar with.

[RedEyedGhost]

I finished Devil Said Bang by Richard Kadrey and expecting a let down, based on pretty much all of the reviews I'd read, I was pleasantly surprised. It was a bit disjointed, but the second part made up for the first even though the climax was a bit of a letdown as there is a lot of set up for the final volume.

Having put zero thought into what I should read next I am at a loss as to what I should read now, maybe Moving Mars... it's been on my shelf forever.

[poor_fellow]

Just finished The Stand by Stephen King. It's the best post apocalyptic book I've been able to get my hands on The book was going great with the practicalities of rebuilding the world democracy, and up until 3/4 of the way there it looked like democratic world building was going to defeat the antagonist... but then King went all deus ex machina and God told everyone fuck civilization and practicalities and put their faith in the Lord. Still with rich characters, a wonderfuly imagined post apocalyptic world, and a Lord of the Rings type climax between good and evil it is one of my favorite books.

[RedEyedGhost]

Just finished The Stand by Stephen King. It's the best post apocalyptic book I've been able to get my hands on The book was going great with the practicalities of rebuilding the world democracy, and up until 3/4 of the way there it looked like democratic world building was going to defeat the antagonist... but then King went all deus ex machina and God told everyone fuck civilization and practicalities and put their faith in the Lord. Still with rich characters, a wonderfuly imagined post apocalyptic world, and a Lord of the Rings type climax between good and evil it is one of my favorite books.

Have you read Earth Abides by George R. Stewart?

[Nearly Headless Ned]

Swamplandia- Karren Russell.

Very evocative with great and likeable characters but it was a bit stop/start with the change of narration and as a result didn't always hang together.

[Juli Greyjoy]

I just finished The Heroes by Abercrombie and GRRM's novellas A Song for Lya and The Glass Flower.

Loved every page of The Heroes, which is now one of my all time favorites. :D The novellas were very entertaining as well, and especially Flower was beautifully written.

I'll start now with Red Country.

[gordonah]

I loved Count of Monte Cristo, but someone is going to have to explain to me the appeal of The Three Musketeers. I could not get into any of the characters, unlike Abbe Faria, Dantes, Mercedes, Haydee, Noirtier, and company.

I've a strong leaning to Count of Monte Cristo, it's probably in my top ten, but I also enjoyed The Three Musketeers a lot. May be it's just my background, but I find them almost the classic example of a buddy adventure. The interesting characters and the storyline kept my interest throughout.

[lojzelote]

I finished American Gods. On the whole, I must say I loved it, although I would probably *just* like it were it not for the main twist.

When Shadow noted that all the tricks Odin explained to him during the Christmas dinner were for two person, I constantly knew his *previous* companion was Loki, since he and Odin were according to Edda blood-brothers and both known for tricksey nature, but I assumed that their paths had parted somewhere along the way ... lol. Btw, I was very proud of myself that I recognized who exactly Low Key is on the second page of the novel. Not a great accomplishment on its own, but it is slightly more impressive when one takes into consideration that I was reading a translation into a language in which Loki is pronounced differently than Low Key.

Oh, and it had the best portrayal of a zombie, I've ever seen (which is, admittedly, not many, but still). The worms. Ugh, I really felt sorry for the poor human being.

Just a question:

Odin and Loki, those bastards, caused the accident in which Laura and Robbie died, didn't they? But if they did, I mean, how come that Shadow actually misses Wednesday?!

Right now I'm in the third of One Hundred Years of Solitude. So far it has been ... mostly creepy. The girl with the raw meat on her back? Amarantha's hand? Aureliano/Remedios?! But I couldn't help it, I just had to LOL at Arcadio/Pilar Terner.

[wolverine]

I have a question for you here. I was about to agree (love D&E, for example), but then I was like "When do I ever actually seek out short stories?" Is that just me, or are they just not at the forefront?

I'm thinking of many of the other authors that I try to read, and I'm not thinking of any shorts or novellas besides GRRM.

I thought maybe the collections that D&E stories are in would be a good sampling of other fantasy authors, but it is really hard for me to get into short stories without an overarching connection to something else I have read. I have read a book of Gaiman and some other short stories and they are all pretty meh for me.

[Sansa_Stark]

Starting: The Shadow Rising by RJ

[Rorshach]

Finished Tai-Pan. I enjoy Clavell's plotting, but I'm not to thrilled about his characterization. Overall I liked it.

Started Anna Karenina. Hopefully I'll finish it before the end of the month...

[delete this account pls]

Haven't posted here for a while. Been on a pretty good run this year. Started with Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone, which was tremendous. Also read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell and Beautiful Ruins by Jess Waters - both fantastic. Tana French's latest in her Dublin Murder series, Broken Harbour, was the usual high quality. China Mieville's Embassytown was good, though it's probably my least favourite novel of his, but still worth reading. Alif the Unseen by G Willow Wilson was a decent YA-ish urban fantasy set in the Middle-East. The only big miss for me this year so far was Erikson's Forge of Darkness, which I really hated. Either it just straight up sucked, or I've completely lost my taste for Erikson. Probably more the latter, I suspect. In the non-fiction department, I tackled God's War by Christopher Tyerman, a history of the crusades, which was very long, but rewarding, and The Winter King by Thomas Penn, an interesting history of the reign of Henry VII of England.

Now reading The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich. Promising so far. Seems like a bit of In Cold Blood (shocking mass murder in a peaceful rural community) mixed with a touch of To Kill a Mockingbird (tomboy-ish young girl coming-of-age and dealing with racism and prejudice), set on a Native American Reservation.

[Isis]

I just zipped through Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck. It's a collection of stark, spiky little short stories. The variety of subject matter is refreshing, e,g, a guy who marries an airship or a faux historical record of a fabled creature, and at times I was almost shocked at how blunt/direct these tales are. I enjoyed this tremendously. If you're after something a little different and you like short stories you should try this.

This morning I started Peter Hamilton's The Reality Dysfunction. I've read 12 pages so far and I'm already wondering how much techno space jargon I can tolerate. Possibly it was just my insomnia making me irritable but those 12 pages were hard going. I'll persevere for the first 50 pages and if I'm still not feeling it by then I'm giving up.