September Reads

[peterbound]

I am noticing a strong anti-war, anti-aristocratic, anti-organized religion slant; but I'm actually enjoying it so far. I read Saberhagen's Berserker books some years back, they were pretty good IMO.

I dug them. There is a scene in the second series (and I don't think this is spoilerish) where two opposing folks keep throwing one of those fucking swords at each other, that I thought was clever as hell.

[williamjm]

I'm still reading Fred Saberhagen's Second Book of Swords. Anybody else out there on teh Interwebz familiar with the series?

I read some of Saberhagen's Lost Swords books (including the book with the feuding families throwing Farslayer back and forth that Peterbound mentions) when I was a teenager. I think they might have made more sense if I'd read the earlier series first. I find I remember the Swords and their various powers better than I remember any of the characters.

[RedEyedGhost]

Great series.

Today was the first time that I was upset that I had to stop reading it at any point.

Just as Mena's and the Auldek's armies are beginning to engage one another.

The final book is finally making the slog through the first two worthwhile.

I read some of Saberhagen's Lost Swords books (including the book with the feuding families throwing Farslayer back and forth that Peterbound mentions) when I was a teenager. I think they might have made more sense if I'd read the earlier series first. I find I remember the Swords and their various powers better than I remember any of the characters.

I loved those books in high school, but other than Vulcan, I don't think I could possibly name a single character. I think the swords themselves were the characters more than any of the people.

[Stubby]

Finished Leviathan Wakes. Loved it. :thumbsup:

Dunno what I'll go onto now. Maybe The Forge of Darkness, which is sitting at home already, or go looking for the next couple in the Expanse series.

[Deedles]

Finished The Instance of the Fingerpost. Loved it. REally really fabulous historical fiction. Thanks Peadar - I think you mentioned it in a previous iteration and I finally got around to picking it up.

Also, The Language of Flowers, which was a very different book. Where Fingerpost got me intellectually, Flowers got me emotionally, I was crying on the couch on Sunday trying to make out the words.

Both excellent reads. Highly recommeded.

[Cato.the.Elder]

Reading the last volume of Theodor Mommsen's History of Rome. A very dense lecture, but a great one. This morning in the bus to work I was reading anout Caesar and Crasus conspiring to seize the power in Rome while Pompeius is fighting against Mithritades in Asia.

[deleted01]

Finally finished Shadow in Summer. It was like a ride across the ocean. Sometimes it was really good, and I got excited, and then it crashed, and I got bored. I will continue with the series, but I started The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold this morning. It's not bad, pretty much what I was expecting, and an easy read (for style of writing, not content). And of course, for those of you who know I'm studying criminology, things like this are right up my street.

[Peadar]

Finished The Instance of the Fingerpost. Loved it. REally really fabulous historical fiction. Thanks Peadar - I think you mentioned it in a previous iteration and I finally got around to picking it up.

Glad you loved it too!

[thecryptile]

Finished The Second Book of Swords last night- what an ending! Now on to The Third Book of Swords!

I agree that the swords are more memorable than the non-divine characters. Of Saberhagen's original deities, Draffud the Beast Lord is pretty cool. Ardneh seems like a Christian rip-off. I like that for the most part Saberhagen uses the familiar Greco-Roman gods. You see a lot of Fantasies where they have god X who is obviously Mars, but has a different name. It makes it easier on the reader to just say "Mars". Probably easier on the writer too.

I notice that the books were written in the 80s, so I wonder if the warbeasts are inspired by He-Man's Battle Cat.

Out of all the swords, I'd choose Shieldbreaker.

[KingGendry]

Just finished The Colour of Vengeance by Rob J Hayes and about to start the final book in the trilogy, The Price of Faith.

Found this gem of a trilogy on Kindle, it's self-published and could do with a proof-reader but the story has shaped up nicely so far with surprising twists, well worth picking up as the whole trilogy came to about £5 total. For fans of Abercrombie this one.

Speaking of Abercrombie, I read The First Law earlier in the summer so next on the list is Heroes/Best Served Cold/Red Country.

[Stubby]

I decide to go with Praetorian by Simon Scarrow. Had that in the pile and forgot it was there.

My name is Stubby and I have a problem. :blush:

[The Grey Wolf]

What's the problem? I'll help.

[Stubby]

What's the problem? I'll help.

I buy too many books.

[The Grey Wolf]

In that case I can't help you sadly, Stubby. You see I have the same disease. Best idea I can think of [which appalls my inner reader] would be to either sell some, give some to family members, give some to charity, or build a library/bookstore.

[Tears of Lys]

Finally finished Shadow in Summer. It was like a ride across the ocean. Sometimes it was really good, and I got excited, and then it crashed, and I got bored. I will continue with the series, but I started The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold this morning. It's not bad, pretty much what I was expecting, and an easy read (for style of writing, not content). And of course, for those of you who know I'm studying criminology, things like this are right up my street.

I'd be interested in hearing your take on one of the controversial scenes in this novel. I'll wait till you finish it to ask you about it, though.

[Snowborn]

Finished with Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, which was on my "to read" list only for a month. Really enjoyed it, it was fun and well written, like all of the Vonnegut books I've read. Since Jailbird is on sale (1.99) on Amazon, I'll get that one for sure.

But now I'm going to keep on reading Gardens of the Moon, I'm about to start chapter 4 and I find the story engaging so far. I particularly like the verses at the beginning of each chapter, how they're relevant to what will happen in that particular chapter. Someone here pointed it out to me, I wasn't paying much attention at first, so thanks xD. I'm reading it on my Kindle, I find the X-Ray function quite useful to remember (more or less) who is each character, the descriptions are the same as the ones in the "Dramatis Personae", and it includes little fragments in which he/she was mentioned. What I like is that it's not necessary to go back all the time, which on an e-reader is really annoying.

[deleted01]

I'd be interested in hearing your take on one of the controversial scenes in this novel. I'll wait till you finish it to ask you about it, though.

Well I finished this morning, didn't take very long! Fire away :)

[Candre]

Finished "Japan at war: An oral history" by Haruko Taya Cook. This actually shocked me.

Being a descendant of a German SS officer (which is not that uncommon in Germany though very few will admit it openly) and a descendant of persons, who were actually shunned during the war because they were not pure Aryan, I thought I had heard enough disturbing stuff about the second world war. I was wrong.

There are stories about experimentation on living human beings, stories about enjoying killing for the sake of killing, stories about mothers having to kill their babies because they might alert the enemy soldiers and a story about a young girl and her sister, who tried to survive in Hiroshima. All in all a heartbreaking read.

[deleted01]

Just about to start my first Neil Gaiman novel - Stardust. Picked up new for a quid in a cheap bookshop :D

[Alytha]

Dracarya, I hope you'll like Stardust. I really loved it. Even the movie is not too shabby.

I'm reading vol. 9 of Shadows of the Apt; War Master's Gate, which so far is better than the one before, which much too often got lost in play-by-play reports of the aerial battles and thus ended up somewhat boring. Here, so far there's less of that, but I still prefer the bits with Che and the Empress in the Mantis forest.

(seriously though, how have the Mantids managed to survive as a kinden, as volatile and proud as they are?)

Currently on hold is Unidentified Funny Objects, a short story collection of funny SF/F stories.