Reading in April

I love the wide range of books read by this group. Inspiring.

I'm still struggling to finish the last 100 pages of MSaT The Dragonbone Chair. zzzzz. This book, though beautifully written, is a snoozer. I've been reading it since December and I've been able to put it down for weeks at a time. I've read 8 other books in the interim and am trying desperately to finish it. I do want to finish the series, but based on the first book, I'm guessing what's going to happen and I think I'm setting myself up for disappointment.

One I finish this one, I'm going to dig into Hobb's Ship of Magic, or Jordan's The Eye of the World, or Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule.

And based on these titles, yes, I've been living under a literary rock for 10 years. I only started reading again about a year ago when I blasted through the 5 Potter books in week's time. At a good pace I can read a book a week, but with Williams I find myself reading a chapter and wondering why he's so jerkily paced. It speeds by, then drags to a crawl. Speed. Crawl. Somebody PLEASE tell me the other 2 (really 3) are better with the pacing and no so drastically up and down.

Here's to looking forward to some good reading this month! (what's left of it).
 
Of those three i'd say Hobb's has the most steady pacing(on the slow side) while the other two have more variation but are faster paced. Though I had no problem with MST so my opinion migth not be worth much to ya:).
 
maus99,
I am one of those few that had problems with the whole series. It took a long time to get thought Dragonbone Chair and it did not speed up in the other books . . .
I have not come away as a fan of Williams.


Stopped reading "Little, Big", but finished "Fire Watch" and Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon".
And then got back to reading Ash which I finished last night, leaving me drained.

Now I have the need for something shorter: Hidden Truth by Dawn Cook.

:)
 
Finished some SF titles. The Mote in God's Eye by Niven and Pournelle. Pretty damn good, I can see why it got its classic status. You've got to like those old school science fiction books that manage to make the characters sitting around discussing the problem and make it more interesting than an action filled adventure. I also read The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke. An interesting hodgepodge of ideas and storylines, which certainly kept my interest but somehow didn't gel perfectly. A bit of a case of great ideas, but not so great writing.

On the fantasy side I also read Krondor:Tear of the Gods by Raymond Fiest. Ouch! I should have known better than to buy another one of these awful computer game based novels even if it was dirt cheap. Must have been the allure of the Geoff Taylor cover.
 
I started Baudolino by Unberto Eco, but got sidetracked by a delivery from amazon. I read 'Winterfayre Gifts' by Lois McMaster Bujold, and am now in the middle of Angel Seeker by Sharon Shinn. Much better than Angelica so far. I do wish she would write about Hagar and Uriel - two characters always mentioned but never met by the reader! I will probably have a crack at the other short stories in Irresistible forces that the LMB short story was in, but I am not sure I will like it....reminds me of the Luna imprint discussion really. When it comes to it, a book wholly marketed on sci -fi romance with romance writers writing sci fi and vice versa does not seem so appealing. Still, I will give it a go eventually. Winterfayre gifts was great. I still hold out hope for another installation of Miles Vorkosigan and his interesting life.
 
I am still reading NF Guns, Germs and Steel. I was into it but got sidetracked and now can only read a few chapters and then need to move on to something else.

I have finished The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. It is a YA book that has won lots of awards and just went into paper. It is set in the future and is about a young boy who is a clone and is being grown for 'parts' for his owner a drug lord. The story follows him from birth till about 14 - and watches as he grows up and finally learns the truth of what is planned for him.

As entertainment the book is first rate. Great characters, riveting story, good setting - quite a page turner. As an exploration of the issue of cloning, it is mostly trying to frighten rather than inform or help generate rational debate. Shame, shame for brainwashing the next generation.

I also finished The War for the Oaks by Emma Bull for the Fantasy book group. Wonderful read. I will say more next month in the book group when we start posting about it.

I am now finishing up Colours in the Steel by KJ Parker, book one of the Fencer Trilogy. It is not bad, if a little long winded and technical. The writing is good, several of the main characters have a very dry sense of humor, and the city setting is very good. The story seems to take the city setting of ancient Rome, and make a walled 3 layer cake out of it, and surround it with water and hordes of Scythians with stirups who develop a passion for low tech engineering, and who wish to destroy it. The plot is a bit thin on motivation since the nomads don't want to live in it, or haul off the stuff from the city.


The author gets lost in technical details. He spends pages describing in great detail the weapons (how to use them and make them), seige engines and other water and cog driven machines (again using and making), and the accounting system. It is like wandering into applied physcis, accounting, shop class and woodworking class in the middle of a fantasy story. I will finish this book but may delay reading the other 2 since the second moves the POV character in Bow & Arrow making and the third into testing armor to the point of destruction. Perhaps this series is aimed at the DIY fanatic who loves fantasy.
 
Month of April

So far for the month of April, I've read: Elliot's King's Dragon, Prince of Dogs, Burning Stone. Also, I've reread Gardens of the Moon, and just finished Midnight Tides by Erikson.

As for comments and opinions for Kate Elliot...I have to say that I tolerated her for the first 2 books. After that I could no longer ignore all of the remarks and religious infrastructure that Elliot had set up. It just got too monotonous to read about "whatever" character consistently praying.

Next up, The darkness that comes before...by Bakker
 
I'm in a fantasy slump the last few months. I think the main reason is Robin Hobb's Assassin trilogy. It took me 3 months to finish the first one and now I've started on the second one. I think the series is picking up and the reading is going faster, but it's never taken me so long to finish a book.

I usually read in the mornings before work and get 45 minutes to a hour in. So it usually takes me about a week to finish a book.

Something about this series isn't dragging me in like others I've read. But, I like to stick things out and see how they end.
 
I'm reading the Daughter of the empire series. And after that I have a few Drizzt books I have to read.
 
In April:

I read Lord of the Rings again (at least once a year).

Loved Gardens of the Moon. I am hooked and I didn't think I would be.

Breezed through Daggerspell by Katherine Kerr. I liked it and will read the rest in the Deverry series.

And to finish out April will polish off Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin.
 
I finished reading Hands of Chaos(Death Gate Cycle) and I have now started on - Into The Labirinth! This is such a great series of books!! Awesome!! :D
 
I am just about finished with the Dark Tower V- Wolves of the Calla. It's not the best of the series, but it's still a good read.
 
Sailing to Sarantium, loved Lions, already feel like I'm going to love this.
 
yay.. finished reading the hitchhiker "trilogy".... Now I will try to read mr. jordan's book 11 (WoT).. the crossroads of twilight...

well, we'll see how that goes 100 pages of prolog will surely not make it any easier... :D
 
Well in the last couple of weeks I have finished off Greg Keyes' first two books in his The Age of Unreason series - Newton's Cannon and A Calculus of Angels. I'm about a third of the way through the third book Empire of Unreason. So far the series has been very original... I love the mix of pseudo science and sorcery... a great read!
 
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Never heard of Keyes, but he sounds interesting. Is his stuff science-fantasy,then?
 
I have Greg Keyes's Briar King on my to-read shelf. he is from Mississippi, where I presently live.

I started Salem's Lot a few days ago and am enjoying it......just got in a new book from my book club called Shadow, about a god with amnesia in search of his identity.
 
knivesout said:
Never heard of Keyes, but he sounds interesting. Is his stuff science-fantasy,then?
Click to expand...

His Age of Unreason is basically Alternate History in which the philosopher's stone/ether view of science turned out to be the correct one.

He also has a fairly popular and well-reviewed pure fantasy series he's recently started, the first book of which is The Briar King.

Also:
A previous fantasy duology, Chosen of the Changeling
Several Babylon 5 and Star Wars books in their recent push to have, erm, authors who do something other than just write in establised worlds.


I think that's all.
 
Recently finished:

Emma Bull's War for the Oaks...will reserve discussion for the book club.

Neil Gaiman's Stardust...A very easy little read. I love Gaiman's style and wit, though I didn't think this book had quite enough Gaiman moments. Basically a retelling of any number of the "human goes into faerie to carry out a quest" stories. Some of the peripheral characters were the best thing about this book.

Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood...After hearing some good things about it here, I saw it at the store and went for it. It's just the sort of thing I like. The incorporation of myth into modern life, even in the heart of a mysterious wood is magnificent. Fairly dark and well balanced between description and motion.

Jeffrey Ford's The Portrait of Ms. Charbuque...I finally got hold of this one and tore through it. I really enjoyed it, especially in it's mysterious aspects, the Sherlock Holmsian curiosity of Shez in driving Piambo to find out everything possible about his assignment. It's a very visual book that has a lot to do with perception and sight. Overall, just as great as so many people around here say.

Currently on tap: Steven Donaldson's The Illearth War for a second try. I love these books and find them very interesting and taxing, but last time I tried this one I wasn't in the appropriate mood to get very far. This time is going far better.
 
I lost a bit of interest in Colours in the Steel, its not bad, but it is a bit boring with all those handywork details and since I peeked at the back of book 2, I know how book 1 will turn out. So I am trying to refresh myself with other books before going back and reading the last 150 pages.

I finished Emperor: At the Gates by Conn Iggulden. It is an historical fiction set in ancient Rome at the end of the Republic. The author is very cutesy not using anything but first names for the characters, but if you have read any of Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series, or any history of the the time, you know who they are. He finally tells who the main character is on page 350 something, and the second POV character almost at the end. Problem is the author is a bit fast and loose with history, and doesn't understand the Roman naming system of the partricians. It is well written though, the story flows and has good characters, but not in the same league as Masters of Rome. I will read the next one when it goes into paper.

I finished Erskine's Box by Kim Lloyd. A non-genre book from the UK which takes real life and adds macabre. A 40 year old retired opera singer returns home after being gone for 30 years. He was bannished from his home, and contact with his mother since he was 10 years old. The author doesn't tell us anyhting in a straightforward manner. She uses stream of consciousness dialog and descriptions, and lots of earthy metaphors. You can tell there is something horrible in his past, and something wrong with him in the present but it is mostly talked around. I figured out most of what the problem was, and what his hobby and his boxes were - but am still not sure exactly what happened at the end. A book that keeps you thinking about it once you finish reading and asks the question do bad things happen because you are unlucky, or because you are bad inside.

I started Limbo by Andy Secomb, a book from the UK. It is a first book, and the first book in a two part series. It mixes fantasy, odd modern day, and SF future day into a story that is overblown and right out of some pulp mag. He is trying for wacky humor. It is not bad, I am enjoying it but it is very similar to Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Robert Rankin, without anything really original (yet anyway).

I also started 253: Remix by Geoff Ryman. It is about a tube train which if there was one person per seat and no standees, would have 252 passengers and one driver (253). The train is going from somehwere on the Embankment to Elephant & Castle - like a 3-4 minute train ride. Each of the 253 people has a page with name, occupation, physical descriptions, destination and and inner thoughts and such listed. I think each page has 253 words for the person. All the pages follow a similar format. The idea is that the book is trying to recreate when you are in a public place and you look around at those strangers sharing the experience with you, and you try to determine/make-up who they are.

So far it hasn't done anythng for me. I feel like I have wandered into a writer's exercise book and am knee-deep in character sketches for those he wants to use later in another book. Maybe there will be more interesting/wacky/disturbing characters as the book goes on, but so far I am bored.
 
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