Reading in February 2010

[Hobbit]

Just in case you didn't know, this is where you tell us what you've been reading in Fantasy/Horror this month. Good or bad, we want to know what and why.

The Book Club is discussing A Magic of Twilight by S.L. Farrell this month.

Feel free to join in!

Mark

 

[BrightStar]

I'm still continuing with Servant of the Underworld (book 1 in the Obsidian and Blood Trilogy) by Aliette de Bodard at the moment.

Aside from my issues with the names (quite difficult to pronnounce and remember) and the fact that I still keep on thinking of the main character as female (even though he's male) I'm really getting into this book. One issue I am noticing is that sometimes the writing leaves a little too much to the reader's imagination-there isn't all that much description, when it comes to setting, etc. Gladly, this isn't such a terrible thing though, most of the time, and I only noticed it in a very recent scene.

Other than that though, overall, this is pretty enjoyable and if it keeps up like this, I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for more by this author.

 

[Bastard]

I'm still continuing with Servant of the Underworld (book 1 in the Obsidian and Blood Trilogy) by Aliette de Bodard at the moment.

Aside from my issues with the names (quite difficult to pronnounce and remember) and the fact that I still keep on thinking of the main character as female (even though he's male) I'm really getting into this book. One issue I am noticing is that sometimes the writing leaves a little too much to the reader's imagination-there isn't all that much description, when it comes to setting, etc. Gladly, this isn't such a terrible thing though, most of the time, and I only noticed it in a very recent scene.

Other than that though, overall, this is pretty enjoyable and if it keeps up like this, I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for more by this author.

Sounds good, as said before I'll check this out quite soon... just need to finish up some books that are priority at the moment that recently arrived or are about to arrive.

At the moment I'm about 100 pages away from finishing A Madness of Angels: Or the Resurrection of Matthew Swift and it has turned out to be quite a cool book.

After I'm done with this, I'll either read some more Vlad Taltos or if it arrives today, I'll go and read Salute the Dark... the 4th book in Shadows of the Apt.

The Hundred-Thousand Kingdoms should also be arriving soon, so I might get to that too soonish.

 

[beniowa]

I'm not halfway through Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. It's been very good so far. I'll more thoughts on it when I finish.

 

[MattNY]

I am currently reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I am roughly 300 pages into it so far and am enjoying it overall. I am also rereading one of my all time favorites, Lost Horizon by James Hilton. I am about halfway through that one. It is always a good read to pick up my spirits from time to time.

 

[Astra_]

About 1/5 into When True Night Falls by C.S. Friedman (Coldfire, book 2).
Struggling in some places. Too much of religious gibberish.
We will see how it goes.

 

[metalprof]

I will start the month by juggling Memories of Ice (Erikson), Darkness at Sethanon (I'm re-reading the Riftwar Cycle by Feist), and Duma Key (Stephen King - I'm catching up on his last few).

Ken

 

[sweetmartin]

i am now on Fatal Revenant .book 2 in The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.i will read it slowly because the story is so old,so deep and rich,i will enjoy every word and every sentence.

and parallel to S.Donaldson i am on China Mieville´s Perdido Street Station.it is my second book from China after UnLunDun i added him to my top ten authors list.

 

[BrightStar]

Sounds good, as said before I'll check this out quite soon... just need to finish up some books that are priority at the moment that recently arrived or are about to arrive.

Just as a quick update: in my previous post, I mentioned that I felt there wasn't enough description (I was having a hard time visualizing the world and certain important events) --- glady, I'm feeling this becomes less of a problem as the book progresses. I'm about three quarters of the way through now, and since about the halfway point, I've had a much easier time at being able to visualize things. I'm still not entirely satisfied, but the problem seems to have improved enough so that it's not bothering me as much now.

 

[txshusker]

i am now on Fatal Revenant .book 2 in The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.i will read it slowly because the story is so old,so deep and rich,i will enjoy every word and every sentence.

I'd like to hear your thoughts about it when you're done. I started it a couple of months ago, then put it down. I've never done that with a Donaldson.


On my plate for the month:
currently anternating between Star Wars : Path of Descruction by Drew Karpyshyn and an HP Lovecraft anthology.

on deck:
Robert E Howard - Conan anthology (I've never read any!)
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Deja Demon by Julie Kenner (I know.. I can't believe it either)

in the hole:
A Game of Thrones - GRRM
The Summer Palace - Lawrence Watt-Evans

that should get me well into March.

 

[Bastard]

Just as a quick update: in my previous post, I mentioned that I felt there wasn't enough description (I was having a hard time visualizing the world and certain important events) --- glady, I'm feeling this becomes less of a problem as the book progresses. I'm about three quarters of the way through now, and since about the halfway point, I've had a much easier time at being able to visualize things. I'm still not entirely satisfied, but the problem seems to have improved enough so that it's not bothering me as much now.

As I mentioned in the previous thread, you can check out the author's blog or some of the links I provided in the thread or in the thread I created about the novel... it looks to contain a lot of useful information that should help you visualize the novel; particularly the setting.

I haven't checked them out myself, but maybe if you read those before reading the novel one might appreciate the novel a bit more.

But who knows, since I haven't checked them out myself nor have read the novel, but it does seem like a good idea to do so. Or maybe after you're done reading the novel, it might help you put some of the things you've read in proper perspective or something.

 

[krm0915]

Went to the library today and picked up:

Suldrun's Garden by Vance
Gardens of the Moon
Lords of the North by Cornwell
and The Hedge Knight. Love ASoIaF, but I've never read any of the companion books for some reason.

 

[sweetmartin]

I'd like to hear your thoughts about it when you're done. I started it a couple of months ago, then put it down. I've never done that with a Donaldson.

off course i will and in contrary please give your thoughts to me too.
but be patience it can take a while,ty.

 

[ObtusePunubiris]

I begin the month about 35-40 pages into Sorcery Rising by Fisher. Right now I am of two minds on this book.

Apparently, at some point in the past that I do not remember, I did some research on this book/series and decided it sounded good enough to try out the first book. So I bought it a while back and it's been sitting on my shelf. I picked it up to begin reading late last month and upon reading the blurb on the back wondered why on earth I would have decided this book sounded good.

Since it was already in my hands, I started reading anyway and I actually found the prologue really quite intriguing. Then chapter one rolls along and I discover that the (or one of the) main characters is your typical... *deep breath* ...pale-skinned, red-headed, utterly gorgeous, though she's probably unaware of it and wouldn't want anyone pointing it out anyway, young woman with an indomitable spirit, who is just as tough and fast and strong as all of her brothers and every other man and who has an unique magical ability that is probably related to some prophesy and will allow her to save the world or defeat some great evil or both. Okay, so I don't know about the prophesy part yet, but the rest of it is one of my fantasy book "cooties" (for those who following E_Moon's thread on that topic). I just hate that character. No, that doesn't mean I dislike all strong, beautiful female characters; just this particular type.

I'm going to give it a little longer, on the off chance that my first impression is off, but unless the author pulls off something quick, this one might not make the cut.

 

[suciul]

Last week I received a copy of The Folding Knife by KJ Parker, my top awaited fantasy of at least the first half of 2010 if not the full year and I spent three days on this book and read it three times to fully appreciate and enjoy it; The Folding Knife delivered all that I expected and more; this one is a very tough book to review since so much happens that I would not want to spoil and the motives and actions of its main character Basso are hard to understand without learning some crucial things but at a first try there are some points to emphasize:

- the book is written almost flawlessly with the same understated, cynical voice of KJ Parker's oeuvre, though this one is arguably the most idealistic of all and Basso the author's most idealistic character who wants to do good in a "real world" way through a combination of wealth, populism and intrigue with "war is an admission of failure" as his motto

- the world building is pitch perfect; I could describe it as a modern world without religion and technology in the way we understand them, or in another way an what if no messianic religion with a message of the possibility of human betterment - which however long it took essentially led to our technological world - appeared, but the flows and ebbs of the ancient Greek/Roman/Byzantine world would have continued for another two thousand years or so; another way of thinking about it would be as a "western" Chinese/Egyptian civilization, relatively stable over thousands of years but based on the Greek/Roman templates; very similar to the world of Fencer but without any overt magic like there - lots of names carry over modified a little, while both the world of The Engineer trilogy and Purple and Black could fit in The Folding Knife universe; very different from Scavenger and The Company which are more traditional pseudo-late medieval/early modern worlds; lots of naming jokes and allusions to the classical world; no magic, no supernatural

- the twists and turns are superb and while we have an idea of the book ending both from the blurb and from the prologue, we really do not know the hows and whys until almost the last page

- the book is also a page turner that you do not want to put down, though I forced myself to read 100 pages, reread them, read another 100 pages, reread them, another 100 pages, another reread and then the last 150 pages, a reread of them and then a reread of the most salient parts of the novel, so in this way I could both enjoy and savor the book as well as keep the tension which ratchets through to the finale

An A++

 

[PeterWilliam]

A little over 100 pages to go on The Price of Spring. Mmm.....savoring.

 

[JCD]

I just finished The Company by K. J. Parker. I can't help being somewhat disappointed. I think the theme is very interesting, the story is moving at a very slow pace to a final conclusion. I guess the ending was too abrupt, too unconvincing for me. Well, the previous trilogies are more to my liking.

 

[DurzoBlint]

Just finished The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver. It is YA but was a great read. Very similar in feel to the Harry Potter series. My review here.

Moving on to Twelve by Jasper Kent. Awaiting my copy of Hundred Thousand Kingdoms so with any luck the timing will be perfect and I will get it next week just as I finish Twelve.

 

[BrightStar]

As I mentioned in the previous thread, you can check out the author's blog or some of the links I provided in the thread or in the thread I created about the novel... it looks to contain a lot of useful information that should help you visualize the novel; particularly the setting.

I haven't checked them out myself, but maybe if you read those before reading the novel one might appreciate the novel a bit more.

But who knows, since I haven't checked them out myself nor have read the novel, but it does seem like a good idea to do so. Or maybe after you're done reading the novel, it might help you put some of the things you've read in proper perspective or something.

There are some useful images on the authors website, which really do help to visualize the world. I soon discovered that what I'd been imagining, and what the author probably actually intended were vastly different. It helped a lot to have the images for a referance, though I must say that I find it dissapointing if the reader is required to do this extra work in order to be able to completely enjoy the story. But, at least I found the extra research interesting, and it made the book a whole lot more enjoyable.

My problems with being unable to think of the main character as a male seem to have gone away, and I've even gotten used to the odd, difficult to pronounce names. Considering that the story is based on Aztec mythology, the author cannot be faulted for using such obscure names. I think she did a good job at making sure not to use too many obscure names that were overly similar to other obscure names, so I learnt to keep track of who's who by just remembering the first three or four characters of each name. I did try a few pronnounciation guides, but they didn't help me very much.

I finished the book this morning, and was left feeling quite satisfied overall. I admit that I hadn't been expecting too much from this book-I've never heard of the author, haven't heard a thing said about this book, wasn't overly impressed by the cover art, and was only midly interested by the back blurb. The writing is strong though, and I was instantly drawn to the book because it's written in first person - always a favorite narrative style of mine. Also, I have a particular interest for books based on mythology, so this was an added plus for me. I particularly really enjoy books where religion has a strong influence, especially when it involves mortals and gods actually interacting with each other.

I've been checking out the author's website, ( http://aliettedebodard.com ) and there are a number of short stories downloadable from there. There are even a few audio books of some of her short stories available - one of which I downloaded and enjoyed quite a bit.

I'm a little curious about the next book in the series though. I definitely intend to buy it when it's released, but the ending of the first book doesn't make it very clear what the next book is going to be about.

 

[ObtusePunubiris]

An additional cookie cutter character was all it took to make me put down Fisher's Sorcery Rising at the 50 page mark.

Next up, The Mace of Souls by Fergusson.