2007 Releases Read

[JohnH]

That time of year rolling around again.

THE FEAST OF SOULS BY C.S. FRIEDMAN
THE WHITE TYGER BY PAUL PARK
FROM THE NOTEBOOKS OF DR. BRAIN BY MINISTER FAUST
HEART-SHAPED BOX BY JOE HILL
THE SERPENT AND THE ROSE BY KATHLEEN BRYAN
THE BORDERKIND BY CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN
YSABEL BY GUY GAVRIEL KAY
THE SHARING KNIFE: LEGACY BY LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD
DAWN BY TIM LEBBON
SWORD OF THE DECIEVER BY SARAH ZETTEL
BEFORE THEY ARE HANGED BY JOE ABERCROMBIE
THE NAME OF THE WIND BY PATRICK ROTHFUSS
YOU S UCK BY CHRISTOPHER MOORE
THE TOWER OF SHADOWS BY DREW BOWLING

[Mithfânion]

Feel like giving your thoughts on these novels John, or do you just want to provide lists and that's that?

For instance, what did you think of the Bowling book? The closing volume by Paul Park? The second Abercrombie? What about The Borderkind, or two books I haven't even heard of, In the Name of the Wind and Serpent and the Rose?

Do you agree with the advance buzz that Ysabel is one of Kay's very best? I've read a couple of reviews which were very positive.

Have you read Broken Kings by Holdstock yet? That one is in my long expected shopping cart for January.

I know, I'm setting myself up for another verbal smacking but I have to ask.

[ChrisW]

John's just showing off .

[SteveF]

3. The Aspect-Emperor: Book One by R. Scott Bakker
Book 1 of The Aspect-Emperor (duh)
ETA: Very Late 2007 (US/Canada), May 2008 (UK)

The second of the three series that together tell the story of The Second Apocalypse starts in late 2007. Apparently this is to the earlier Prince of Nothing Trilogy what Lord of the Rings is to The Hobbit.

Presumably this means that Bakker will have completely dispensed with characters and will simply be delivering an intro to philosophy textbook!

Still, I'm looking forward to it a lot.

[SusanRae]

Werthead, that all sounds very exciting!

I am particularly looking forward to 1, 3, 4, and 7 on your list!

Looks to be a good year for fantasy.

[Rob B]

Sloooow down folks, this thread isn't for the books you are looking forward to reading in 2007, this is the annual thread for listing what you have read for the year's releases.

Don't worry, we do often have a anticipated releases of the year.

...and yes, JohnH HAS read all those books well ahead of their release date.


As it pertains to the topic at hand, I finished up China Mieville's Un Lun Dun last week.

[Eventine]

And? Thoughts?

List threads suck. As Chris pointed out, there just a mechanism for all of you lucky enough to get ARCs to show off
Let's discuss people, not list!

[Rob B]

Let's discuss people, not list!

Sounds like a topic from yester-year.

Mieville's first foray into the young adult market is a success, he sets the plucky protagonist on a quest through a fantasy-land. But Mieville being Mieville, it is much cooler than that. The fantasyland is the dark underbelly of London, where smog monsters are the baddies, and milk cartons are pets. I'll be reviewing it so I'll expand on my thoughts there, but I think Mieville fans will enjoy the book as will readers who have been hesitant to read Mieville.

[JohnH]

Let's discuss people, not list!

So sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. What with this forum being so anti-list and all. I must have mistaken it for that other set of forums that has ongoing list after list of books bought and books read. Silly, silly me.

THE FEAST OF SOULS BY C.S. FRIEDMAN

it is the first in a series

THE WHITE TYGER BY PAUL PARK

it is the third book in a series. it read like book one and two

FROM THE NOTEBOOKS OF DR. BRAIN BY MINISTER FAUST

similar tone to his first work

HEART-SHAPED BOX BY JOE HILL

what an amazing unintended coincidence for the news to come out that he just happens to be Stephen King's son just a few months before his book is released. Simply amazing. I almost can't believe it. You'd think it was planned or something. And we all know how artistic talent always runs in the family. Always.

THE SERPENT AND THE ROSE BY KATHLEEN BRYAN

writes like Judith Tarr. Because she is Judith Tarr

THE BORDERKIND BY CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN

second book; lather and repeat

YSABEL BY GUY GAVRIEL KAY

no Sarantine Mosiac; no Lions of Al-Rassan

THE SHARING KNIFE: LEGACY BY LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD

take as needed

DAWN BY TIM LEBBON

keep away from small children and out of reach of household pets

SWORD OF THE DECEIVER BY SARAH ZETTEL

fourth book of series; not sure she needed to take the effort

BEFORE THEY ARE HANGED BY JOE ABERCROMBIE

do not operate heavy machinery while reading

THE NAME OF THE WIND BY PATRICK ROTHFUSS

jury still out, but it is big. very very big. And DAW is really pushing it. Pushing it like its not a Civil War or a fake wedding in an Italian castle or a baby adoption from Malawi.

YOU S UCK BY CHRISTOPHER MOORE

it's Moore

THE TOWER OF SHADOWS BY DREW BOWLING

teenage writer. Isn't there some kind of adage about that. No wait. That is about babies having babies. No, wait, it does work here as well.

[intensityxx]

And? Thoughts?

List threads suck. As Chris pointed out, there just a mechanism for all of you lucky enough to get ARCs to show off
Let's discuss people, not list!

Either that or John (and now Rob ) lives in the future.

[JohnH]

Boo hoo, another list entry. brevity should never be scorned what with the huge and detailed postings in such "non-lists" as the monthly reading threads. Or what I just bought threads. No unlike those tomes of minutiae ranging from synopsis to indepth opinion, here you just get a blip. Harriet Klausner wannabes can avoid this like the plague. Seriously. The scarcity of detail and the sheer hubris in attainment displayed will strike you dead.

Let's see:

Flora Segunda by Ysabeau Wilce
best YA I have read this year -- or YA I have read that is being published this year. And I strongly suspect unless J.K. Rowling has Ysabeau S. wilce typing up her bum, the best YA I will read year unless CLive barker stops trying to be Jack of All Trades and finishes the next Abarat book. Or Cornelia Funke writes another steller entry in the Inkheart series this year.

Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
nice thing about writing YA, he produces the least affected of his work somehow. Still it was nothing to scream about. Or roll on the ground. Or speak in tongues while thinking one was experiencing the rapture. I'm sure my disaffection will be labed as just not understanding the book or just being contrary.

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier
A bit of a flat entry for what should have been a homerun as it seems right up her alley. Not bad though.

Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox
Second best YA though, like Flora Segunda, labeling it as such totally misses the poin to fit just being a good book. though hardly the contrarian others claim, there is an almost schadenfreude sense of pleasure that people who natter about only wanting to read "mature" efforts will miss out on some of the best works of the year. Sort of like laughing at Donald Trump's hair even.

Deliverer by C.J. Cherryh
I know it is labed scifi. But like the next entry, the set up and thematic tone seems more like fantasy.

Bloodmind by Liz Williams
A bit more sciencey but I still call this science fantasy.

Selling Out by Justina Robson
Definitely fantasy in my book. Manages to keep the fun involved. Rachel Caine fans might want to check this one out

Weavers of War by David B. Coe
Slight flat and disappointing end to an otherwise good entertaining series. I suspect editorial poking and prodding that added a book to the series and left us with a fourth book that was bland set-up and loose end knotting might have also impacted the fifth book.

The Serpent and the Rose by Kathleen Bryan
Not sure why she used a different name but this is definitely typical Tarr. Well typical not-great Tarr. No Avaryan Rising.

The White Tyger by Paul Park
Better than the first two books in a readable series that sends others in ratpure and me scratching my head over why. If it wasn't for the mass completionist tendencies involved this would not have been read. Having read it, paradoxically it would not have been missed.

Shadowplay by Tad Williams
Very good. Well very good in that I liked Otherland, War of the Flowers and Shadowmarch. So nibble on that and swallow accordingly. I'm liking this better than Memory, Sorrow and Thorn which should cause a few to choke, no doubt.

Reaper's Gale by Steven Erikson
I hesitate to utter the words "has he lost it?" because the howls of outrage will likely cause my dogs to bark and then my neighbors across the street to complain and then I'll have to go all passive-aggressive on them and refuse to sign for their packages when they get their usual haul from QVC. But this, like the last book, represented for me a bit of a slide in quality. Maybe having Esslemont enter the fray when he did was not a good thing for the overall series. But to quell those howls I did not provoke, it is not a bad book. It is not a messy rough book like the first and second in the series. And if I had to weigh carefully, I would say that I like it better than all first three combined. But not as well as four and five and six.

Bright of the Sky by Kay Kenyon
Another science fantasy. Though it starts out a bit more science and likely will settle back in the next book from what the first book indicated to me. Still, it is nice to see the lines so carefully blurred these days. Especially with all the chest-beaters trying to declare what should be written and what should be read in the entire genre.

The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt.
I actually enjoyed this. Did not think I would. Go figure.

Titans of Chaos by John C. Wright
This series has been a bit of a letdown overall. This didn't make it any worse. But not any better either. Wright is an odd writer who seems to have some of the best skills but falters on the story a bit. Even after three slight books it got to be "enough already" with the constant plot "setbacks". Characters can only make so many stupid or unthinking choices before you feel like you are forced to watch an episode of "Dr. Phill" While getting a root canal.

Hunter's Moon by David Devereux
Definitely hoping to be optioned by the SciFi channel. It might be mediocre enough to deserve it.

Maledicte by Lane Robbins
Another who read Jacqueline Carey and said "I can write that!" Not realizing that once it is written, and so remarkably well, there really is no point is there?

The Well of Shades by Juliet Marillier
Nice ending to a nice series. Marillier lays on the pathos without it becoming bathos. Get it? I still feel like there is a superb and stunning novel or series just waiting to come out. This wasn't it. The Light Isles Saga came much closer.

[Leiali]

Bloodmind by Liz Williams
A bit more sciencey but I still call this science fantasy.

But did you like it? I read the Poison Master which I think was her debut a couple of years back and could not engage with the characters in any way. I thought it was all about the science and describing things, which makes me lose interest quickly.

[kcf]

So far only three:

-Fast Forward 1 by Lou Anders (ed.) (review)
-The Scent of Shadows by Vicki Pettersson (review)
-The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (review)

[Hobbit]

But did you like it?

Asking for responses like that would mean that John would be giving a review: John doesn't do reviews.

If it does help, Bloodmind is a direct sequel to Darkland, which I've reviewed HERE. For what it's worth, I liked it, though I can see that many might not: the characterisation is unusual, rather like Lila Black in Justina Robson's Quantum Gravity series is unusual. As John says, I can see why some may see it as Science Fantasy. Though there are trappings of SF there there are elements that could be Fantasy.


Pushing the boat out further: Ken, out of the three you've read and reviewed, is there one there that you've liked best? (I rather suspect there's one.)

Hobbit

[kcf]

Pushing the boat out further: Ken, out of the three you've read and reviewed, is there one there that you've liked best? (I rather suspect there's one.)

If you've read the reviews, it's pretty clear which one I like best - The Name of the Wind. This is a really spectacular debut IMO.

None were bad - The Scent of Shadows is a sub-genre that I don't read much of, but it was a fun, 'hard to put down' read, if suffering many of the flaws of a first-time novel.

Fast Foward 1 is an unthemed anthology that is noteable for the lack of any sub-par stories, and a couple are spectacular (I won't be surprised to see more than one up for a Hugo, Nebula, or other award next year).