Reading in January 2009

Law school applications are taking way too long.

I did finish Sign of the Unicorn by Zelazny (an amazing 120 pages or so, I know how impressed everyone is)

I'll start The Hand of Oberon tonight hopefully, but what will probably happen is I'll try to revise my personal statement one more time. Why am I doing this again? Only kidding, I know why I'm going to law school, the application process is just insane.
 
Just finished The Bonehunters by Erikson. No surprise, I loved it. It had everything I love about the series and Icarium's story continues to just kill me. Having read Midnight Tides just prior, however, I am now ready for a little break from the Malazan Empire.

Next up, another double dip; this time into Goodkind. I plan to tear through Phantom and Confessor as quickly as possible, so I can finally be done with SoT.
 
I finished Garden Spells and Thirteen Orphans and have picked up Shadowbridge. Am halfway through it. It seems to be a series of stories, somewhat like The Orphan's Tales.
 
PeterWilliam said:
Finished Wizard's First Rule and pleasantly surprised. Surprised because from all of the blowback against Goodkind on the forums, combined with the silly tv show, I had extraordinarily low expectations. It was so-so.
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Overall, it's not a bad series up until about book four or five. I've read beyond there, but tend to find some of the later books a bit of a struggle to get through. Wizard's First Rule I kinda expected to utterly hate, and actually found myself enjoying it. As a simple fantasy adventure, it's fun enough. Readers that expect anything more would probably be horribly dissapointed though.

I saw a trailer for the tv series and just thought "ugh". I have no intention of watching it (not even out of morbid curiosity) and am probably better off for not having done so, judging by the comments I've heard from most fans.

I'm still reading Stalking Darkness. Managed to about meet my "50 pages a day quota", so that was good. Unfortunately, at that rate, I'm not going to have the book finished up by Saturday. I might try to pick up the pace a bit, but unfortunately I'm finding the book hard going if I stick it out for anything more than 50 pages at a time.
 
I recently finished The Lord-Protector's Daughter and was pretty bummed about it, as I like most of Modesitt's writing. I can't really recommend this one.

I was trying to decide what to read next, and settled on Path of Revenge by Russell Kirkpatrick. While his first trilogy wasn't earth shattering, I did enjoy it for the most part. fifty pages in and this new series is off to a good start.
 
I just finished A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham and I thought it was very refreshing. I liked the way he introduced the intricacies and unique characteristics of the world were dropped in piece by piece. It was not overwhelming with details and history, but given at a nice, relevant pace, leaving some mystery and fascination for the reader.

It's also nice to have a smaller volume fantasy series, with a self contained novel. I don't know if the rest of the books are like this, but it was a short, well written fantasy novel.

xvart.
 
I read Passage to Dawn and the Hunter's Blades Trilogy by RA Salvatore and I have to say I am DONE with this author unless his new stuff goes in a different direction. I want his books to STOP dealing with dwarfs or gnomes, jealous wives, or about dwarfs (its worth saying it again), and start focusing on Drizzt. Not retards with names like Nanfoodle, or Dagnabbit, or Hard Hammer, or Wulfgar. Is the author in love with dwarfs or something? If he focused on the dwarf Pwent that would be fine with me (Pwent is a berserk dwarf that loves ripping things into pieces).

DAMNIT!

GO BACK TO DRIZZT BEING THE MAIN CHARACTER AND MAKE HIM KILL s**t!! KILL SOMETHING AND STOP BEING SO EMO!!

KILL! KILL! KILL!

EITHER KILL OR GET DOWN AND DIRTY THAT BROWN WOMAN! either is fine...
 
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As hesitant as I am to associate myself with the above post ;), I agree that Drizzt did not get nearly enough face time in the Hunter's Blade books (Passage to Dawn I read too long ago to comment on). Further, as Apathy alluded to, the time Drizzt did get was mostly spent talking about and/or pondering his feelings about this, that and the other. There is not necessarily anything wrong with a character that spend time doing that, but 1) there needs to be some balance and 2) let's face it, that kind of stuff is not why one reads the dark elf books.

So, more Drizzt? Yes. More kill? That's fine. Less Emo? Sure. Get down and dirty with that brown woman? Uh, who?
 
Finished Shadowbridge and found out it's only half the novel. Good thing the sequel is already out and I can pick it up at my library tomorrow. While the characters and setting are interesting I didn’t finish it with that satisfied feeling of ‘full story.’ Have you ever eaten dinner and fifteen minutes later you’re checking the fridge cause you just didn’t get enough? That’s the feeling Shadowbridge gave me.

I wonder why they chose to publish the story this way?
 
Obtuse said:
As hesitant as I am to associate myself with the above post ;), I agree that Drizzt did not get nearly enough face time in the Hunter's Blade books (Passage to Dawn I read too long ago to comment on). Further, as Apathy alluded to, the time Drizzt did get was mostly spent talking about and/or pondering his feelings about this, that and the other. There is not necessarily anything wrong with a character that spend time doing that, but 1) there needs to be some balance and 2) let's face it, that kind of stuff is not why one reads the dark elf books.

So, more Drizzt? Yes. More kill? That's fine. Less Emo? Sure. Get down and dirty with that brown woman? Uh, who?
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Catie-brie. Brown hair = brown woman.


Hmm, it look there are some other books by Salvatore that are newer. Like the Orc King and the Pirate King, any thoughts on those?
 
hippokrene said:
Finished Shadowbridge and found out it's only half the novel. Good thing the sequel is already out and I can pick it up at my library tomorrow. While the characters and setting are interesting I didn’t finish it with that satisfied feeling of ‘full story.’ Have you ever eaten dinner and fifteen minutes later you’re checking the fridge cause you just didn’t get enough? That’s the feeling Shadowbridge gave me.

I wonder why they chose to publish the story this way?
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You might be interested in the book club discussion we had on this book.
 
Just finished World War Z by Max Brooks, and as usual have blogged up a review. In short - really addictive read, harrowing and almost utterly believable. Brooks mixes 'action' with plenty of politics and exploration of social issues, and the result is a well-balanced 'oral history.' Good stuff.

Currently waiting for some books to arrive from various publishers, so am reading Gemmell's Ravenheart as a stop-gap. Good so far, you can always rely on Gemmell. :)
 
Apathy said:
Catie-brie. Brown hair = brown woman.

Hmm, it look there are some other books by Salvatore that are newer. Like the Orc King and the Pirate King, any thoughts on those?
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Oh, gotcha.

Haven't read the latest ones that you mention, but from what I understand Salvatore has put the old crew (Drittz, Bruenor, Wulfgar, Catte-brie and maybe Regis) back together for a good old-fashioned adventure that does focus on Drizzt more than the Hunter's Blade books, while at the same time continuing the story that left off in that trilogy.
 
I finished up The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson a few days ago. A great ending to a great series.

I'm now reading the conclusion of another series - Last Argument of Kings by some bloke called Abercrombie.
 
Re-reading Memories of Ice by Steven Erickson, and then I may slide in Death Masks by Butcher.


After that, most likely onto House of Chains, a other re-read. I am finding I am loving the series more on the second read!

Keyoke
 
Apathy said:
Catie-brie. Brown hair = brown woman.


Hmm, it look there are some other books by Salvatore that are newer. Like the Orc King and the Pirate King, any thoughts on those?
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Hmm, could have sworn Cat had read hair. Anyway...

I couldn't get more than sixty pages into The Orc King, though that may be my distaste for orcs shining through. I was bored throughout what I read of it, perhaps because Drizzt showed up once and it was to have a philosophical discussion about death with everyone's favorite Barbarian Philosopher. I put it down just after this.

I did read The Pirate King though and found it to be one of the best of Salvatore's Realms books to be released in quite some time. However, you mentioned upthread that you would prefer the books focus on Drizzt again. This book does not do that, in fact Drizzt has quite a minimal presence and really only stands on the sidelines.

The book focuses on four parties:
1) Deudermont and Robillard of Sea Sprite
2) The Captains (rulers) of Luskan
3) The Host Tower
4) Drizzt and Regis

The last being, as I said, minimal in screen time.

There is also a lack of action in the novel. It is still there of course, it would hardly be a Salvatore novel without it, but it is toned down quite a lot in comparison to previous novels. I should also mention that there is really only one Dwarf and he doesn't have a lot of screen time either.

I enjoyed it, but I find that I prefer less action and a step away from Drizzt carving a swath through his enemies. It also helps that I consider Deudermont and Robillard two of my favorite minor characters.
 
Winter said:
Hmm, could have sworn Cat had read hair. Anyway...

I couldn't get more than sixty pages into The Orc King, though that may be my distaste for orcs shining through. I was bored throughout what I read of it, perhaps because Drizzt showed up once and it was to have a philosophical discussion about death with everyone's favorite Barbarian Philosopher. I put it down just after this.

I did read The Pirate King though and found it to be one of the best of Salvatore's Realms books to be released in quite some time. However, you mentioned upthread that you would prefer the books focus on Drizzt again. This book does not do that, in fact Drizzt has quite a minimal presence and really only stands on the sidelines.

The book focuses on four parties:
1) Deudermont and Robillard of Sea Sprite
2) The Captains (rulers) of Luskan
3) The Host Tower
4) Drizzt and Regis

The last being, as I said, minimal in screen time.

There is also a lack of action in the novel. It is still there of course, it would hardly be a Salvatore novel without it, but it is toned down quite a lot in comparison to previous novels. I should also mention that there is really only one Dwarf and he doesn't have a lot of screen time either.

I enjoyed it, but I find that I prefer less action and a step away from Drizzt carving a swath through his enemies. It also helps that I consider Deudermont and Robillard two of my favorite minor characters.
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EH, I need more violence. And since I do not really care about numbers 1, 2, 3, and half of 4, I will probably stop reading Salvatore. What a pity.

I think Salvatore should have killed off every other character except Drizzt when the Tower fell in (some book i forget). The tower's collapse should have been so catastophic that it even killed Deudermont and Robillard on the Sea Sprite thousands of miles away, and every single minor character on its way to them...

And that way I would be happy, and he would FORCED to focus on Drizzt, since no one else lives....
 
I finished Shaun Hutson's "Body Count". The novel is not entirely a horror one and can be taken as a thriller as well. Despite a few aspects that didn't appeal to me very much I had an entertaining and fun read.
 
I just finished The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. It was an enjoyable read, very much so. Light, fun, and quick, you won't find a complex story here, but the simplicity of it is what makes it what it is. And it is good, perhaps really good if I am of the mind to say so. Which I may or may not be.

Anyway, next up is Charlie Huston's Already Dead.
 
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