Reading in March 2012

[DavelinaJolie]

As mentioned in the other thread, I'm reading Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. Now 200 pages in and I'm enjoying it quite a bit, but I do have some minor quibbles I suppose. The incongruous nature of reading a fantasy novel with historical references is a bit bizarre, and I have a fairly idea of what is going to come of that, and I find the characters to be a bit thin. That said I'm a fan of stuff like the Shannara books, so those two things fit perfectly well with my general reading habits! Looking forward to racing through the rest of this.

[NickeeCoco]

Finished Breath and Bone by Berg this morning. The ending was beautiful. Made me cry.

[PeterWilliam]

Finished Breath and Bone by Berg this morning. The ending was beautiful. Made me cry.

Was going to read something newer to get a review out, but now I think I'm going to take these off the pile. You and I have had book interests that are too similar for me to ignore.

[DragonReader]

Finished Honor Bound, by Elaine Cunningham

Now reading Shadow's Master, by Jon Sprunk

[Rob B]

I'm going to start a book by an author I feel I should have read by now: Elizabeth Bear. My next read (starting either tonight or tomorrow) will be her 2012 fantasy novel Range of Ghosts which is the first of a new series.

[Danogzilla]

an author I feel I should have read by now: Elizabeth Bear.

I'm with you on that. Looking forward to hearing how it goes.

[thrinidir]

Finished The Islanders by C.Priest about a fortnight ago; picked up Kings of Morning by Kearney. I'm 100 and something pages in. We'll see.

[Contrarius]

I read all three books of The Last Herald-Mage trilogy (by Lackey) over the last few days. I really liked parts of them, but other parts made me want to smack Lackey upside the head a few times. OTOH, these should be pretty perfect for a young teenage girl.

I'm also in the middle of Control Point now. Seems kinda Avatar-meets-Heroes-meets-X-men so far. With-holding finalized opinions til the end, obviously.

[Eventine]

Finished The Islanders by C.Priest about a fortnight

And what did you think?

[Randy M.]

I recently finished Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite, a standalone vampire horror tale set in New Orleans and kudzu covered landscapes. The author's writing is poetic and literate and instantly reminded me of Caitlin R. Kiernan's style in Silk (though Brite predates her). The similarities don't end there as we're treated to scenes of casual drug use not to mention sex, youths adrift with shady values... The story itself was perhaps a bit "out there" but Brite's twisted fringe characters did resonate favorably.

This is a possible read for me over the summer. For what it's worth, Brite's story collection, Wormwood, was one of my favorite reads in the '90s. It has a fair amount of her early, raw work which made it fascinating to watch the progression to her later, more fully realized stories, like "Calcutta, Lord of Nerves" and "His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood."

Right now I'm reading Kiernan's story collection, To Charles Fort, with Love, which is wonderful, weird reading, and next up will Kiernan's new novel, The Drowning Girl.


Randy M.

[NickeeCoco]

Was going to read something newer to get a review out, but now I think I'm going to take these off the pile. You and I have had book interests that are too similar for me to ignore.

I think you're going to end up putting the duet up there with Paks.


As for what I'm reading now, I picked up Deadhouse Gates, book two of the Malazan series. Don't really have much to say about it at this point, because I've only read four pages.

[Danogzilla]

I started Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch. Pretty excited about it. Really hope volume three comes out this year.

[Zsinj]

Finished Elizabeth Kostova's "The Historian." It was certainly different and the ending more than a bit dissappointing. There's no question Kostova is a brilliant writer in prose, her form hearkening back to classic literature, but I expected Dracula to be portrayed as a helluva lot more powerful and drenched with pure evil and demonic malice. He is supposed to be the master vampire lord, after all.
On a more positive note, I'm now almost twenty pages into Stephen King's "The Dead Zone," and as usual, King is just drawing me in with his style and both lovable and unlovable characters. I have to say I could have done without the scene where that guard dog gets kicked to death by that psychotic salesman; it nearly made me cry. I don't know why but when I see humans being tortured in stories and movies, it's creepy, but it doesn't bother me so much, but when I see animals being tortured, it just breaks my heart and kills me inside.
Heck, I'm such a wuss about it I shut off the remake of "The Amityville Horror" film when the main guy goes insane and slaughters his own dog and refused to watch the rest of it.
But never the less I'm enjoying the "Dead Zone" so far.

[suciul]

Today a little to my surprise an earc of Liz Williams new series debut from Prime (June) Worldsoul became available and I am really excited to start it seriously later tonight. Here is the blurb:

"What if being a librarian was the most dangerous job in the world? Worldsoul, a great city that forms a nexus point between Earth and the many dimensions known as the Liminality, is a place where old stories gather, where forgotten legends come to fade and die - or to flourish and rise again. Until recently, Worldsoul has been governed by the Skein, but they have gone missing and no one knows why. The city is also being attacked with lethal flower-bombs from an unknown enemy. Mercy Fane and her fellow Librarians are doing their best to maintain the Library, but...things...keep breaking out of ancient texts and legends are escaping into the city. Mercy must pursue one such dangerous creature. She turns to Shadow, an alchemist, for aid, but Shadow - inadvertently possessed by an ifrit - has a perilous quest of her own to undertake."

[Loerwyn]

Gave myself a boot up the rear last night and landed face-first back into J.A. Pitts' Forged in Fire.

Hurrah.

Finished.

*Happy dance*