Reading in December 2011

Hi all,

I hope you had or have had a very good Christmas/holiday season. Unfortunately I'm stuck with a big pile of work on my back. Because of 16-hour working days for a long time (too long *sigh*) I've been reading at a glacial pace...

Last night, I finished (at 3:30 am - unfortunately if I don't steal from my already-too-short sleeping time, I'm not able to find the time to read these days) A Storm of Swords. I simply love ASoIaF. Amazing!

I'm also nearing the end of the very enjoyable The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer and am 1/3 through another very enjoyable book: Babylon Steel by Gaie Sebold.

Happy New Year everyone!
 
Well, I went into the first Malazan book with reservations. I started it yesterday and now I'm over the halfway mark. I still think the writing could be more succinct, but the story has really pulled me in. I don't know how long that will last, considering how long the series is and how long each book is. These are books I definitely will not be reading in a row.
 
NickeeCoco said:
Well, I went into the first Malazan book with reservations. I started it yesterday and now I'm over the halfway mark. I still think the writing could be more succinct, but the story has really pulled me in. I don't know how long that will last, considering how long the series is and how long each book is. These are books I definitely will not be reading in a row.
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He is an amazing world builder.

Don't make up your mind after the first book which can be easily confusing. Wait until you finish Deadhouse Gates or Memories of Ice.

IMHO (disclamer: I haven't finished the series yet) Malazan Book of the Fallen is as good as epic can get. I hope you'll enjoy it more as you get used to the Malazan setting and his style. He's a great writer (he's Canadian after all, right? :p ).
 
My reading has slowed down a bit here at the end of the year...some combination of lack of time, a few new origami books I've been working through, and occupying myself with other things here and there.

I've been reading Katherine Kerr's Daggerspell, which I've been really enjoying. It's another of those books I've not seen mentioned here a lot. I can see it being something some people wouldn't like, as you don't really settle into a cast of characters until about halfway through the novel. This is due to there being multiple timelines at play and the need to establish that through the beginning of the book. The main premise of the world is that certain people are reborn again and again through time due to oaths or grudges or for other reasons. This book follows a few such spirits through three different time periods. Their little struggle plays out differently each time, though the souls driving them are the same each time. I'll post more when I finish, but so far, quite interesting fantasy.
 
I read Daggerspell a while back and liked it, but not enough to get into the sequels. It was a bit too overwrought for my tastes.
 
What did you find to be overwrought about it? I actually thought it started out a bit simplistic until the multiple timelines kicked in. Since then I've found it to be interesting enough, but not overly complicated, either in concept or writing style.
 
Gilgamesh said:
He is an amazing world builder.

Don't make up your mind after the first book which can be easily confusing. Wait until you finish Deadhouse Gates or Memories of Ice.

IMHO (disclamer: I haven't finished the series yet) Malazan Book of the Fallen is as good as epic can get. I hope you'll enjoy it more as you get used to the Malazan setting and his style. He's a great writer (he's Canadian after all, right? :p ).
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I'm not confused at all. I'm actually confused at the amount of people who say his work is confusing. I just think that his prose can be a little purple at times. That's all.
 
Paks said:
I have read a few since I last posted. First up, The Magician King by Lev Grossman. I'm not sure about this book, I liked it but it felt like it lacked direction for a good while there. It all came together well but it kinda dragged a bit for me in the middle. I hope there will be another book, if not, then I think the ending kinda sucked.
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Thanks for the feedback on this. I've not picked up any by Lev Grossman yet but I'm intrigued and contemplating...he's gotten a lot of attention by "mainstream" publicity.
 
Started on Spellbound by Blake Charlton a couple days ago. I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying it. I liked the first book, but don't remember finding it to be anything special. I'm finding this one to be a step ahead in terms of entertainment value, and I'm really starting to see how much thought Charlton has put into his magic system as it's fleshed out and described a bit more. There is a 10 (?) year gap between the stories so many of his characters have matured and changed in several ways from the first book, and he's handled it well. We'll see if I can finish this one before the new year.
 
Darksbane said:
Started on Spellbound by Blake Charlton a couple days ago. I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying it. I liked the first book, but don't remember finding it to be anything special. I'm finding this one to be a step ahead in terms of entertainment value, and I'm really starting to see how much thought Charlton has put into his magic system as it's fleshed out and described a bit more. There is a 10 (?) year gap between the stories so many of his characters have matured and changed in several ways from the first book, and he's handled it well. We'll see if I can finish this one before the new year.
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I liked this one a lot. Among the books I read that were published in '11 (i.e. only 10), this was my favorite.
 
PeterWilliam said:
I liked this one a lot. Among the books I read that were published in '11 (i.e. only 10), this was my favorite.
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I saw that in the voting thread, and was actually the reason I bumped it up to the top of my to read pile. I might end up having to edit my list for the year, although my top 4 are pretty set.
 
Darksbane said:
I saw that in the voting thread, and was actually the reason I bumped it up to the top of my to read pile. I might end up having to edit my list for the year, although my top 4 are pretty set.
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Thanks, the accepted recommendation is rather...humbling.

*running to the medicine cabinet in search of an elixir that will keep my head from inflating

At the end of that book, there was a particular scene that absolutely floored me. It was clear that the author has either seen, or thought long and hard about, life events that reveal unexpected truths. Specifically, I'm talking about... (MAJOR SPOILER)

...when Nicodemus finally receives the portion of his consciousness that had been stolen from him so long ago that it made him dyslexic, then decides to give it to his sister who has been attempting to assassinate him for years. It speaks of how being whole, versus being disabled, is more a state-of-mind than the physical possession of physiology/attributes/abilities. A profound and humbling notion.
 
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just finished gardens of the moon. I kinda have mixed feelings about it. It was really confusing especially the warrens idk whats goin on with them. I hope ill come to a solid conclusion about it later in the series.

Next up Deadhouse gates!
 
Reading Abraham's "The Dragon's Path" right now, and it really is quite spectacular. There's no way I'm going to simply drop this series without a good reason like I did Long Price, and maybe at some point I'll go back and revisit it. It's also nice to know that the second book is coming out in 2012, so there won't be a long wait.

There's a couple of things that feel very Martin-y about it, but the story is completely different. I'll probably post full thoughts when I'm done.

Next on my list is Leviathan Wakes (which came with the Dragon's Path e-book), Book of Transformations by Newton and Stonewielder by Esslemont in some order.
 
Finally gota review of Leviathan Wakes up. It was good. I've also got forthcoming reviews for Blackdog by K.V. Johansen and The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer. I'm currently reading Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch.
 
Recently finished Miserere by Teresa Frohock (I enjoyed it - was worried the real world religion elements would put me off, but they didn't). Now on Shadow Ops: Control Point by Myke Cole (good stuff so far!).
 
Finished Circle of Enemies (Twenty Palaces 3) by Harry Connolly. Great urban fantasy, one of the two best in genre I read last years (other is T.A. Pratt)
 
On a whim last night, I picked up my Kindle and started to read When Women Were Warriors 1: The Warrior's Path by Catherine M. Wilson.

I was up until 1:30am reading it and I got about 45% of the way through it. Wow.
 
Finished the first Malazan novel, Gardens of the Moon, last night. I enjoyed the whole book, but the climax was really fun. It was a little cheesy and typical to have everything come to a head at

a masquerade party

but there was a feel of Alexandre Dumas in there. I kept on waiting for Edmond Dantes to come striding out. All in all, it was a fun read. Also, I was very proud of myself when it was revealed that

Kruppe was the Eel.
Kruppe is one of my favourite characters. Him, Tattersail and Parran.



I started Sheri S. Tepper's Plague of Angels. It's post apocalyptic, but there's trolls and giants and all sorts of fantasy type things in there, so I'm not sure which genre it actually is. It's blurring some lines. Not too far into it yet. The bath water started to get cold. And then I knocked over and shattered my wine glass, so I was occupied with other things.
 
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