Reading in February 2010

Dwagginz said:
Talking of debuts, I'm on page 228 of David Gaider's "The Stolen Throne". Whether it's his years as a games writer or just natural talent, he's created a very vivid story with brilliant characters and it's helping me understand some characters/events in Dragon Age: Origins a lot more.
Even if you've not played the game (this book came out before the game did), it's still a very good read.
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I actually read that book some months before the game came out. I had a very different experience than you. I thought there was a lot of interesting worldbuilding, but it was very obvious that it was his first novel. And not only was it his first published novel, it was the first novel he had ever written.

I think that the storyline was a little too linear. It felt like a video game storyline. Each little area that the party had to travel to was very much like a level. I felt like I was reading the Baldur's Gate games or something.

I felt that Gaider needed to work on the transition from game writer to novelist.

Gilgamesh - Yeah, it comes out March 30th in Canada. I think Amazon.com has it available for April 27th.
 
Just finished Kitty's House Of Horrors by Carrie Vaughn. While the supernatural reality show turning into a massacre made for an interesting story, I found the book to be too short and awkward in places. The villains were rather faceless and some of the new guys could have been fleshed out a bit more. Ah well, some planks in the bridge creak more than others. Despite the criticisms, it's still a decent entry in the series, if not the best.
 
NickeeCoco said:
I actually read that book some months before the game came out. I had a very different experience than you. I thought there was a lot of interesting worldbuilding, but it was very obvious that it was his first novel. And not only was it his first published novel, it was the first novel he had ever written.

I think that the storyline was a little too linear. It felt like a video game storyline. Each little area that the party had to travel to was very much like a level. I felt like I was reading the Baldur's Gate games or something.

I felt that Gaider needed to work on the transition from game writer to novelist.
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It's certainly not the most efficient place-to-place transitioning he's used, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless. Sometimes I get a bit "Wait, what?" at where they've ended up but a quick look at the map and I trace back in my mind and can sort of see it.

By the way, if you didn't know, there's a Baldur's Gate novelisation series. Philip Athans did two of them and Drew Karpyshyn (Who writes the Mass Effect novels) debuted with the third I believe.
 
AlvinFlummox said:
Just finished reading Drood by Dan Simmons.
...
My main complaint was that some of the chapters throughout the book (I can't think of specifics off the top of my head) seemed to drag and not really go anywhere. Overall though, an enjoyable and interesting book, and I'll look to read more of Simmons' work in the future!
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I have a feeling this is a result of the story being a secret history, and Simmons struggling with some of the flatter periods in the life of Collins/Dickens.
 
Spent part of the month reading Weiss & Hickman's The Sovereign Stone trilogy. They always have a way of building an interesting world and interesting characters. Wish I had the time to go back and re-read The Deathgate Cycle.

Now I'm about half way through David Gemmell's Lord of the Silver Bow.
 
I finished Mistborn book 1 last night. What an exciting ending! I haven't been that surprised in a book in a while. I enjoyed this book very much.

So I immediately started book 2, Mistborn: Well of Ascension. The action is already underway.
 
I finished Jonthan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I'll say more in a different thread.

I'm about 60 pages into The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Reads fast for such a bleak book.


Randy M.
 
Finished Barclay's Demonstorm last night. I'll drop the review in the Barclay thread.

Started Conqueror's Moon by Julian May.
 
I've been away for several years, but have returned.

I'm currently reading Saki's "The Complete Saki", which features some outright horror stories. Such as the excellent "The Interlopers".
I'm also reading "Best New Horror 17".
And Ramsey Campbell's "Nazareth Hill" (2nd time for this one).
 
Just finished Hero of Ages. Another solid book by Sanderson and the ending was acceptable. Sazed was starting to get on my nerves though. Not sure what to read next. Something available on kindle in aus most likely. Perhaps the latest dresden book.
 
Just finished The Blade Itself, book 1 in The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. I picked this series up because of the praise it received on this site.

Easily one of my favorites now. Already 100+ pages into book 2.

Inquisitor Glokta is my favorite character.

Dave
 
Halfway through Mistborn: The Well of Ascension. Hugely enjoying this series so far. Sanderson can spin a good tale! I'll defnitely be keeping my eye out for more books by him in the future.
 
Finished Jane Lindskold's Child of a Rainless Year

The very beginning was interesting and the end was well done, but the other 3/4 was a bit of a slog.

I think I've realized my problem with her books that are set in our world, though. She seems to feel the need to bombard you with what seems to be all of the research she did for the story, so you get all this history and detail of a place that just isn't interesting.
 
I'll soon be starting Oath of Fealty by Elizabeth Moon.
 
Started The Way of Shadows a couple days ago and it's flying by. Nothing too complicated, but that's exactly what i've needed lately.
 
I wasn't sure whether to put this here or in General Fiction, but since there's a supernatural element, it's here. :)

It's unfair to comment on a book I won't finish, but maybe I can save someone some money, not to mention time, which is even more precious. Dan Simmons has been a favorite for many years, but I've dumped his latest, Black Hills.

The review in the Christian Science Monitor explains why, and does it much better than I can. Link.

Basically, the story lacks a focus, and there are so many facts dropped here and there, in some spots it reads like a tourist brochure. The worst part for me were the sections where General Custer writes to his wife -- those parts read like the Penthouse Forum.

It's well-written -- nobody can accuse Simmons of bad writing -- but it's just all over the place.
 
AuntiePam said:
I wasn't sure whether to put this here or in General Fiction, but since there's a supernatural element, it's here. :)

It's unfair to comment on a book I won't finish, but maybe I can save someone some money, not to mention time, which is even more precious. Dan Simmons has been a favorite for many years, but I've dumped his latest, Black Hills.

The review in the Christian Science Monitor explains why, and does it much better than I can. Link.

Basically, the story lacks a focus, and there are so many facts dropped here and there, in some spots it reads like a tourist brochure. The worst part for me were the sections where General Custer writes to his wife -- those parts read like the Penthouse Forum.

It's well-written -- nobody can accuse Simmons of bad writing -- but it's just all over the place.
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I found Black Hills excellent though I agree about the shifting in time and space that it took me a while to get my bearings, but it's not that modernist a novel otherwise as style goes and I read much more "complicated" books; and anyway everything comes together in a rounded whole

Black Hills is very voice dependent - you care about Paha Sapa, you care about the book; else you do not; the Custer passages are daring true, but they have their place and they sound reasonable imho as we will see later in the novel. People in the 19th century enjoyed sex - shocking, shocking, shocking...

I just loved the book and so far it's my best mainstream novel of 2010 and with a good chance to stay there and probably on par with Hyperion as a Simmons favorite

The review linked above is so ideologically motivated that to me it reads like a Pravda one about a "capitalist" writer - the reviewer does not agree with Simmons take (which actually I found it quite pro-native American overall) and the digs about the possibility of the future imagined by Dan Simmons are so out of place that I would fire the editor that allowed it to be published as such; a review is about the freaking book and maybe its context within its genre, not about how Dan Simmons imagines a future some centuries in the future - and a future that is quite positive - that cannot come about because geez the current political climate is "x" and so on...

Imagine writing a review like this about pretty much all future sf and cringe...
I will see if that review allows comments since it p..d me of badly - again the literary objections are acceptable, though I disagree there, but the rest is disgusting imho...
 
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Thanks for your reply re: Salute the Dark, Liviu. I'm intrigued enough that I'll be continuing this series!

I recently finished The Waste Lands by Stephen King, book three in the so far very impressive Dark Tower series. Going to take a break from that series and read A Magic of Twilight by SL Farrell since it's this month's book club. Also reading Voice of the Fire by Alan Moore.

I also picked up Jade Man's Skin by Daniel Fox the other day. Looking forward to devouring that one as I loved the first book.
 
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