Reading in October 2012

[Hobbit]

This is where you talk to us about your monthly Fantasy and Horror Reads: whether good or bad, we want to discuss with you what you thought.

As it's October, we'll be counting down to Halloween with our now-traditional posts from the awesomely-knowledgeable Forum member Randy M.

Have a great month: and a brilliant Halloween.


Mark

[Loerwyn]

Starting this month with a continuation of Trinity Rising by Elspeth Cooper.

I have to admit that whilst I kinda like it, I'm really struggling with bits of it. It jumps around a little and I feel like I keep missing major things here and there. On top of that, there's been quite a few sex & rape scenes in the first 100 pages but I've been assured that after a certain point they drop off completely. Phew.

Not going to put it down, though.

[Evil Agent]

About halfway through Best Served Cold and really enjoying it. Abercrombie is one of the only new fantasy authors I've enjoyed in recent years (haven't tried Lynch or Rothfuss yet, because I'm getting sick of unfinished series).

[ommet]

Still plugging away at Reapers Gale. I'm about halfway through and I really can't say that it's good or bad. I would say that it's a big serving of the usual Malazan type story with a few dashes of new developments and a side of mild confusion about where this is headed.

However, as I've found to be the case with the other Malazan books, the last third of the book is usually what makes the reading the first two thirds "worth it". So onward and upward we go...

[DurzoBlint]

Started Tim Marquitz's Embers of an Age.

[Westsiyeed]

Finished Tad Williams Dirty Streets of Heaven, overall thought it was OK but not great. A bit too over the top for me.

Currently reading Jack Finney's Time and Again.

[algernoninc]

I only managed to read 2 fantasy books on holiday, but they were really good : The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun by N K Jemisin. I would compare them to The Long Price series by Daniel Abraham, for the focus on character studies and the magic system based on mind powers - in this case magic is distilled from dreams. I welcomed the change of scenery away from the Thousand Kingdoms setting, the toning down of the romance subplots (still present, but more subtly treated) in favor of politics and larger conflicts, the more confident writing style. I will follow this auhor career with great interest.

I will start now on Daniel Abraham's The King's Blood.

[suciul]

I finished Mage's Blood by David Hair; the book itself - action, characters, portrayal of the cultures (Western, Islamic and Indian in barely veiled disguise) and their clash well done with nuanced characters, good and bad guys and girls on both sides - the Sainted Mater-Empress Lucia takes top prize for pure evilness, though it degenerates into cartoonish stuff on occasion - but I had two structural issues that at least for now stops the series from being a top-top level one:

The world itself or at least the known continents are just a shrunken version of Europe and Asia and that makes it feel a little like a small sandbox rather than a real world and second the cultures described have been in isolation one from another for untold millenniums before a few hundred years ago when the appearance of magic in the world allowed the West to get to the East so to speak (that would be a third flaw in a way, why not do it the other way, with the East getting the magic and getting to the west first) and I just cannot believe the unitary nature of the cultures as despite surface differences there is a fundamental similarity between the Western, Islamic and Indian cultures in our world and in the world of the novel, which of course is not surprising in our world considering how they interacted and influenced each other forever so to speak (compare to the pre-Columbian Maya, Inca, Mexica or even the North American Native cultures and see what I mean), but it stretches the disbelief thingy in the novel


Still a gripping read, lots of twists and intriguing characters so I am in for the duration...

[Ochos]

on book 3 of "the wheel of time" still enjoying it, got a while to go yet though.

[JustaStaffer]

I'm about three quarters through David Harris' Mage's Blood. I'm very much enjoying it.

Also simultaneously reading Kij Johnson's new collection, At the Mouth of the River of Bees, and Kameron Hurley's Rapture.

[Evil Agent]

Still plugging away at Reapers Gale. I'm about halfway through and I really can't say that it's good or bad. I would say that it's a big serving of the usual Malazan type story with a few dashes of new developments and a side of mild confusion about where this is headed.

However, as I've found to be the case with the other Malazan books, the last third of the book is usually what makes the reading the first two thirds "worth it". So onward and upward we go...

Yup, it really picks up halfway through.

[murf99]

Almost finished Summer Knight by Butcher. Really enjoying it. Love this series. Should be starting Death Masks later tonight.

[DurzoBlint]

Finished Embers of an Age by Tim Marquitz, I thought it was a major improvement from the first book in the series. Lots of action and character development. I look forward to the third installment.

With EoaA finished. I am going to jump into Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell in the hopes of finishing in before it comes to the theater. I have heard mixed reactions to the book, looks like you either love it or hate it. I hope that is not the case or at least I hope I fit into the love it portion of readers.

I have a lot of books that I really want to get to including Reaper's Gale. I love the Malazan series but with such large tomes, I can't read them back to back and have to give myself time to breath before venturing back into Erikson's world. But I should get back to it before the end of the year.

[Seak]

Reading the anthology Fading Light: An Anthology of the Monstrous and I have to say that it's pretty amazing. It's mostly horror, full of monsters and whatnot, but it's also got some great post-apocalyptic and scifi.

I'll probably pick up To Ride Hell's Chasm by Janny Wurts soon.

[Zaupa]

Started "This crooked way" by James Enge, and "The sword-edged blonde" by Alex Bledsoe.