Reading in December 2008

[Justin2209]

I loved Dragon Champion and the other books in the series (Book 4 is in the mail from Amazon for me!). Yes, it is light, but the stories are fun, engaging and its great to follow the dragons' viewpoints (a different protagonist from the dragon's nest for each book so far).

Currently reading Shadow's Edge with the third book of the series on deck. Its good, but I guess I feel like its lacking something. I find myself reading just to finish the series. One beef is the constantly shifting storylines. I find some more interesting than others, so I get annoyed every time it cuts to another storyline. Especially since when some of them are only a page or two long...

I find the pacing in the Night Angel trilogy, my only complaint with the books. It's really slow building till the last 200 pages and BAM they hit you with all the good stuff. I have the third but haven't read it yet. I'm trying to get to 80 books for the year (my year will end Christmas day). I have 4 more to go so I decided to read this series and polish it off. I'm just that OCD.

 

[kcf]

Well, I finally got my review of The Judging Eye by Bakker written. This is a very good book - better than the previous books and I think more accessible to a wider audience without sacrificing the depth of his previous books.

Now I'm reading The Engine's Child by Holly Phillips. Next up will probably be Escape from Hell! by Hal Duncan.

 

[suciul]

I finished Documents Concerning Rubashov the Gambler by Carl-Johan Vallgren and overall I felt it was a waste of an interesting premise.

Gambler loses soul in bet with the Devil and is sentenced to immortality which seems strange, but soon transforms indeed in Hell on Earth.

However the execution is marginal at best - either the translation is not great or the original is just a very boring book considering the premise.

Has some flashes of what could have been early on, but otherwise it just transforms into a bunch of 20th century headlines of the infamous.

This subject - encounters with the infamous of the 20th century and the horrible sufferings of people in said century - has been done much better by quite a few authors, most notably in M. Moorcock masterpiece Colonel Pyat tetralogy, and this book just pales in comparison.

 

[Dark Wolf]

I read "The Mammoth Book of Best Horror Comics" edited by Peter Normanton. It is a nice anthology gathering comics from the 1940s until present days. It doesn't have the big names of comics publishing, but it makes a nice timeline through the history of horror comics.

 

[Cranky Hamster]

Read Mike Carey's The Devil You Know (the first Felix Castor book) which was okay but not great. I probably won't be reading further installments in this series. I'm not sure if it's that I don't get British humor or there really isn't a lot of funny there to get, but to me this book just felt kind of drab. None of the characters were all that interesting, and all the women were absurdly over-sexualized (srsly I don't think there was one female character, however minor, who was not explicitly ogled over by the narrator. Not one. This made him seem like a total perv, because who does that?). The writing was good but there were occasional clunky moments that threw me completely out of the narrative, partly because the rest of it was fairly smooth so the clunkers stood out more, and partly because I never felt all that drawn into the plot.

Overall it was hardly bad, but it also wasn't good enough to make me keep reading.

Then I read Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Takes A Holiday, which was another good-but-not-great (although I liked it better than the Carey and will probably keep up with this series, albeit in mmpb). Great voice, good characterization, better plotting than previous installments in the series. I finally figured out what it was that was bugging me about the earlier books: the plotting is weak and too quickly resolved on a lot of the storylines. This book is appreciably stronger on the plotting front and works up some good suspense, although I still feel like it gets resolved too fast and I never really felt that the main characters were in serious danger.

I did like the courtroom scenes in this book. A lot of fiction is wildly inaccurate in portraying what goes on in court. This one wasn't. It was clear that Vaughn spent some time doing her research, and even though it was a pretty minor part of the book, I thought that was nice.

 

[Apathy]

(srsly I don't think there was one female character, however minor, who was not explicitly ogled over by the narrator. Not one. This made him seem like a total perv, because who does that?).

Guys have one thing on their mind. Trust me on this.

 

[Hellions]

Ghost Walk is the second book I've read by Brian Keene. It's a sequel of sorts to Dark Hallow and I wouldn't recommend it as standalone. Ghost Walk was entertaining enough and serves as a good break between more demanding books. This dark god vs powwow magician of a tale was however wrapped up too quickly and felt a tad underdeveloped. My main gripe is that Keene tries way too hard to give each and every single one of his protagonists a tragic past and instead of being moved, this particular reader ended up sniggering (I know, that's bad). Still it was fun. This is categorized as horror but nay, nay it tastes like urban fantasy.

 

[Cranky Hamster]

Guys have one thing on their mind. Trust me on this.

Not all the time. No. Seriously. I am sure the biggest horndog in the world doesn't think that way about 80-year-old nuns, 12-year-old girls, and every single woman on the street from size 0 to 42XXL. That guys have one thing on their mind when it comes to attractive women of a certain age, I'll accept as hyperbolic but not too far from the truth. That this means attractive women of a certain age are the only women in the world worth noticing is a pretty skeevy proposition, but it's the worldview that book (however inadvertently) manages to convey.

My problem with the book is that if Felix Castor finds every female character he meets attractive, then one of three things (all bad) must be true:

1. The author thinks the only women in the world worth noticing (or including in his fiction) are attractive ones of a certain age. They vary in hair color, ethnicity, and bitchiness, but they all fit a familiar mold. This is creepy.

2. The character thinks the only women in the world worth noticing are attractive ones of a certain age. Still creepy.

3. The character thinks all women in the world are equally hott. Still creepy. This doesn't even work as some misguided attempt at equality between the Amandas and Ugly Bettys of the world, because the truth is that guys don't react to all women the same way, so all that accomplishes is bad writing and making the narrator look like a sex addict to put David Duchovny to shame.

So, I mean, not to beat down a joke here, but I get what you're saying and it does not excuse the flaw in this fiction.

 

[mjolnir]

Re The Devil You Know: Hmm, ... yunno, I didn't notice Felix remarking on every woman he met throughout the narrative. I'm sure you're right, though. It must be because I enjoyed the book, since it's the sort of thing that would normally annoy me. Thinking back, I do recall one scene that seemed entirely superfluous even at the time. It involves a character who had better become a significant part of future installments, because as it is she feels tacked on to The Devil You Know as an obligatory attractive female character.
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[Apathy]

Re The Devil You Know: Hmm, ... yunno, I didn't notice Felix remarking on every woman he met throughout the narrative. I'm sure you're right, though. It must be because I enjoyed the book, since it's the sort of thing that would normally annoy me. Thinking back, I do recall one scene that seemed entirely superfluous even at the time. It involves a character who had better become a significant part of future installments, because as it is she feels tacked on to The Devil You Know as an obligatory attractive female character.

The succubus? Yea she appears later. He actually fleshes her out a bit. Thought that was a little interesting.

And Felix in the book only thinks TWO freaking women in the entire book are attractive and interesting. I think some cranky person may be noticing some things a little too much. The book did have other material. That material took up..what? maybe 20 pages?

 

[Cranky Hamster]

No, it's all of them.

-- the "very busty, very blonde, very beautiful woman" (the wife at the kid's birthday party in the intro);

-- "Pen. Christ, she was beautiful... in a feathered snood, a red boob tube, and a slit black skirt... she looked like a hooker who's just tossed it all in to become a nun but hasn't told anyone yet";

-- "With that detail, and with the stern haircut, she looked like the warden in the kind of immaculate women's prison that only exists in Italian pornography" (Alice, the assistant in the museum).

Those are the first three female characters introduced in the book. I could keep going but I think that's sufficient to make the point. They are all described like this.

I suspect I noticed this because I didn't like other things in the book, but it's definitely there.

 

[mjolnir]

Well, though I haven't gone back to the book for context that description of Alice at least doesn't seem to imply that he's lusting after her necessarily, but I certainly take your point just based on the way the descriptive passages come off. And actually I was talking about Cheryl. She is in fact a decently interesting character, but the little romance plot thingy between her and Felix felt like it was just there for the sake of being there.

I've been doing some good reading myself, but I'd like to get my thoughts a little more in order before I talk about it.
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[Evil Agent]

What is going on in this thread? Make a new thread specific to that book, if you want. Sounds interesting, but this isn't the right place.

Still reading Reaper's Gale. I'm nearly halfway through, and it's good... but I don't know if I like it as much as The Bonehunters so far. Which is funny, because most of the reviews said the opposite (Bonehunters = not so good, Reaper's Gale = awesome). I've also heard a few things about the next book (Toll The Hounds) being somewhat slow/boring? Is this true???

 

[Cranky Hamster]

Yeah, my point isn't so much that there's excessive sex in the book (there really isn't, at least not by my standards) as that the narrator comes off as a creep, which makes me disinclined to spend any more time in his company.

Admittedly, I'm reading from the perspective of someone who happens to be an attractive woman* of a certain age, but when I see that kind of thing over and over again, I start thinking: "so this character is the kind of guy who's too much of a wimp to actually make catcalls from the street corner, but is thinking the exact same things. Incessantly. Faaantastic." It might be realistic characterization (although I have quibbles about even that, as discussed in the previous post) but it's not gonna make me like the book.

To soothe Evil Agent and resume discussing books in general, I just started reading Deborah Chester's The Pearls, the first book in a high fantasy/romance duology. The last time I dipped a toe into this subgenre it was Elizabeth Vaughn's Warprize, an impressively abysmal book that has cemented a place on my Worst Books of 2008, and probably of the decade.

So far The Pearls is looking better than that, at least on a prose level, although I'm only on Chapter Three and the heroine has just been introduced and she's already demonstrated herself to be too stupid to live, so I'm not that optimistic about how this is going to turn out.


(* -- Modest, I know.)

(Edited to add: I totally agree about the Cheryl subplot, btw. What was that about? It was so random, and I could not for the life of me see why Cheryl, who was supposed to be an independent and strong-minded free spirit, would be remotely attracted to Felix, who hadn't done much of anything impressive. The succubus at least had understandable motives. Cheryl just came off as creepy wish fulfillment. However, to be fair, by that point I was pretty poisoned against Castor so I wasn't too charitable in my reading.)

 

[BrightStar]

Been through a couple of dissapointments lately. Read Dean Koontz' The Mask but didn't care to read much past the 100th page. I don't necessarily expect to be scared by Koontz' writing, but I do expect a creepy atmosphere and a sense of impending doom - neither of which came through very strongly for me with The Mask.

I thought I might like Heroes Die so that was next on my list. I've heard good things about the book, but I just didn't enjoy it very much. Admittedly, I abandoned it rather quickly (by about page 50) but I just wasn't enjoying it at all and couldn't bear the thought of reading any more.

I tried Spirit Fox next, but I didn't like that very much either. Perhaps too many characters, and a definite lack of conflict or direction. I read enough to give it a fair chance and then set it aside for other things.

Right now, I'm reading Luck in the Shadows. I've been putting reading this book off for some time now because --- well, I'm not sure if I can explain exactly: it's due, partly, to my worry that the book wouldnt' be as good as the author's other works (which I loved) and partly, because, if it is nearly as good as the author's other stuff, I want to save it. I find it rather comforting to set a book aside which I believe is guaranteed to be good, so that when I've had the misfortune of reading a series of less than great titles and need to restore my faith in the fantasy genre, I can fall back on something I know will be of good quality.

However! Although Luck in the Shadow seems to be good quality, but I don't know whether I'm enjoying it all that much. It's good enough for me to keep reading though.

 

[Apathy]

I thought I might like Heroes Die so that was next on my list. I've heard good things about the book, but I just didn't enjoy it very much. Admittedly, I abandoned it rather quickly (by about page 50) but I just wasn't enjoying it at all and couldn't bear the thought of reading any more.

WEAK! Too Weak! Many books take at least 50 pages to get good. Heroes Die is one of them. Strap yourself to that chair and read that if that is what it takes!

 

[Lynn]

Just my luck....

...that I'm reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and it's the first of yet another unfinished multiple-book series--Arrrrrrrrrgggggghh!!! I promised myself that after reading Asoiaf, Wot,and Donaldson in the last 18 months, I would stick ONLY ONLY ONLY to series that were finished. I hear Rothfuss' 'The Kingkiller Chronicles' will only be 2 or 3 books long-----can I bear the wait??????

Anyways, the book is great so far

 

[Astra_]

...that I'm reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and it's the first of yet another unfinished multiple-book series--Arrrrrrrrrgggggghh!!! I promised myself that after reading Asoiaf, Wot,and Donaldson in the last 18 months, I would stick ONLY ONLY ONLY to series that were finished. I hear Rothfuss' 'The Kingkiller Chronicles' will only be 2 or 3 books long-----can I bear the wait??????

Anyways, the book is great so far

Poor you.
I stick to the rule for the last 8 years since I finished Path of Daggers, book 8 of WoT and realised that the series have no more books yet. Unfortunate demise of Robert Jordan only strengthened my devotion to the rule. I would hate to waste months of my life reading s series that will never finish.

 

[Aurian]

I never quite understood this mentality - if everyone did this, why would the author continue due to lack of sales?

I recall a few first books in trilogies that seemed to have been simply abandoned, but other trilogies I loved the first book and eager anticipated the upcoming books.

Give the author (and publishing company?) a reason to keep putting out the rest of the series! Buy the book and read it if you're interested! (I also get the thought of you waiting years for a trilogy or series to finish, buy the lot and discover that you don't like the author. Oops).

 

[Apathy]

Or you could get all your books from the library and not spend anything...

But yea I tend to avoid series that only have one book in a series. Since I tend to kill books extremely quickly, only having one feels like a snack. So I AM WITH YOU LYNN! KTS!