Reading in January 2010

I *finally* finished Deadhouse Gates by Erikson.

I needed something to make my brain hurt less, so I'm working on Cell by Stephen King. I stopped reading him after From A Buick 8, so I have a few to catch up on.

Ken
 
Finished Agyar by Steven Brust. I definitely enjoyed it and it was a pretty quick read; only 254 pages long. It's good if you need a break from long series and want something completely self-contained. It's hard to say much on this book without ruining it.

Full Review Here

EDIT:
Spoiler warning:


It was interesting to see a vampire novel done without even mentioning vampires, only heavily hinting that way.

On to A Shadow in Summer and possibly 7th Son: Descent.
 
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Just started reading Wood Beyond the World by William Morris. I found it for free on Project Gutenberg. I like to read a book on my computer at work. I haven't read too much of the story, but the writing is a bit archaic. The story seems to have some promise though, of course I'm a sucker for nautical stories.
 
Finished up Daughter of the Empire, by Feist and Wurts today. I enjoyed the earlier Riftwar books by Feist alone, but they definitely lost something as they went forward. I've been meaning to try some Wurts recently, and I'd heard that she raises Feist's level a lot in this trilogy. I have to say, I was impressed. It was a nice mix of politics and eastern culture (which is a little too rare in fantasy, for my tastes). I quite enjoyed all of the politicking, though many of the challenges faced by the protagonist were overcome a bit too easily. She seemed just a bit too clever for a girl of 17 who was facing off against people who had been playing the game longer than she'd been alive. Hopefully in future books she'll face a little more difficulty in achieving her aims.

Starting in now on Watership Down, the book club book for this month.
 
Last night I finished The Cardinal's Blades by Pierre Pevel, which was a romping good time. Loved the politics and intrigue 17th Century Paris as well as Pevel's twist on dragons. Characterization was also very well-done with all the characters, notably Richelieu, being nuanced and complex. The only major complaint I had was that I thought the chapters were too short. The rapid-fire chapters made the book feel like a movie, but it took me a little while to get used it.

Now I'm reading Kitty's House of Horrors by Carrie Vaughn.
 
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is by far the most entertaining book I have ever read. It was absoloutely hilarious. I'm talking laugh out loud, I need to put the book down hilarious. I don't think I could praise it enough. It is at times absurd and at others low brow, but it's damn funny. I am very excited to start Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.
 
I finished off two very enjoyable books on flights between Indiana and NJ:

Ariel by Steven Boyett - I liked this one a lot and had I read it about 15 years ago, it could be a contender for the favorite book of my youth. As it stands now, it is a terrific story about a young man who wakes up in a world where technology has died and magic has taken it's place. This is a reprint of Boyett's debut which was originally published in 1983 and brought back into print. I jumped right into the sequel Elegy Beach which published November 2009 (which I'm halfway through with at the moment) - Kudos to Ace for bringing the original back into print just in time for its sequel. I'll have a review of both books here at SFFWorld in the near future

No Doors No Windows by Joe Schreiber - A solid horror novel, that mixes ghosts of the past with a haunted house that has a bit in common with Gormenghast. Though the novel, I think, has drawn comparison to Stephen King (and rightfully so), the story/novel reminded me in many ways of Graham Joyce's Dark Sister and a book I recently enjoyed a great deal, The Red Tree by Caitlín R. Kiernan.
 
while on vacation I finished Pump Six and Other Stories by Paulo Bagigalupi and Dawnthief by James Barclay. I enjoyed Dawnthief but shook my head several times while reading Pump Six full review here

Moving on to The Left Hand of God by Hoffman
 
Well, now I'm done fixing my laptop that I broke because I started to install crap that I shouldn't... so now I'm up to finish Lamentation by Scholes.

Some books just arrived, Heroes Die by Stover and Twelve by Kent. I was planning on starting Pilo Family Circus after Lamentation, but it looks like it'll have to wait a bit more. I'm going with Twelve next.

@Durzo, I hope you enjoy Left Hand of God, I certainly did. I bet if even if you don't like it much, you'll have a hard time putting it down.
 
Just finished The Blade Itself, and ended up really enjoying it after being underwhelmed by the first half. Once all the characters get together and a storyline actually shows up, the book was really gripping. Sort of got a Scott Bakker vibe to it towards the end there, what with the insidious distant villainy and semi-historic settings and all. Looking forward to the next volume.
 
I finished Legacy (book two of the Sharing Knfe series) last night. I'd had a hard time getting into this when I started reading, and I'm sorry to say that I never did completely warm to it. The plot took ages to get going properly, and in the meantime, I was fed up with reading about the dispute with Fawn's new in-laws.

I really enjoyed Beguilement, so had been looking forwards to Legacy, thinking it was one of those books that I could rely upon to be a good read. Sadly, after being dissapointed by it though, I'm not tempted to bother with the other books in the series. There were some ideas that were interesting, and I wouldn't have minded learning more, but there's too much that wasn't so enjoyable.
 
I've finished Silk by Caitlin R. Kiernan which is her debut novel.

Kiernan is a truly talented writer, I've greatly enjoyed her metaphorical and often poetic style. Her depiction of a ragtag of fringe characters entrenched in the punk and goth subcultures screamed of real-life experiences. There's that stamp of authenticity lending credibility to the characters, settings and overall atmosphere (whether real or imagined on my part).

On the other hand, this novel fails so utterly in its fantasy/horror elements. The plot is paper thin and whenever supernatural manifestations occurred, they felt completely artificial and unwelcome, like rejected grafts. There is zero tension as it's quite difficult to be afraid of poetic evocations or convoluted dream sequences. We're left hanging in the end with no explanation whatsoever. Yes there is a sequel, Murder Of Angels, but that is hardly an excuse for this travesty of an ending.

Still Kiernan is truly worth the time for her high caliber writing and original voice. I'm not done with her yet.
 
Finished William Horwood's Hyddenworld - Spring and I'm disappointed. I haven't read Horwood's Duncton Wood novels but when I read about its blurb, I loved the promise of this book. However I failed to connect with the characters and the plot on various levels:

I thought the tone of the book was too innocent for my taste. I didn't care much about the characters, except a Hydden called Stort. The bad guys didn't feel threatening enough, the two main protagonists' (Jack and Katherine) relationship wasn't painted strongly enough. The chapters were very short (3-4 pages) which probably contributed to the fact that the plot was getting cold regularly. I didn't feel any urgency in the plot and the first half of the book was very slow.

I saw good things in this book too. I liked the world that Horwood has created. It is complex enough to make you want to learn more about it. I guess the future books will go deeper in the descriptions of this world. And being the first of a quartet can be the reason of the slow pace of this book.

Currently I'm enjoying very much Mark Charan Newton's Nights of Villjamur and the next one will be his second book called City of Ruin.
 
I was desperately hoping that my copy of Carol Berg's Spirit Lens would arrive today, but due to the terrible weather we've had here in England recently it sadly did not. So, I figured I'd better pick something new off of my to read pile to keep me occupied over the weekend.

I decided to take a break from the fantasy genre for a few days, and so picked out something in the horror genre (Graham Masterton's Black Angel) instead. I recall the author being recommended to me quite some years back, after I'd expressed a growing dissapointment with Dean Koontz' writing, but I just hadn't gotten around to ordering anything by him until only this month.

So far, I have to say, Black Angel is really quite a dark and disturbing read. So much so, in fact, that it actually managed to freak me out a bit. I won't be reading this book in the house on my own, that's for sure!! Not finished it yet, but I must say I'm impressed by this author. I was gripped within a few pages, and can't put the book down. It's gruesome, horrifying, sadistic, really, really nasty stuff. And I'm not even at page 50 yet, so I get the feeling the gore value is only going to increase I near the end.

I'm thinking of looking into other titles by this author after I've finished Black Angel. Anyone have any recommendations? There are so many books by him, that I don't know where to start!
 
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BrightStar said:
I was desperately hoping that my copy of Carol Berg's Spirit Lens would arrive today, but due to the terrible weather we've had here in England recently it sadly did not.
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Thanks for the reminder about this one. I had forgotten that it comes out this month. I picked it up today with a gift card I had. Not sure when I'll read, but may move it up into the January reading queue. I haven't had much of an attention span lately. Escapist reading is about all I'm up for at this point.
 
Just finished the omnibus version of Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. A bit sad because I'll never again get to read it for the first time. Simply amazing. An instant classic to be shelved along with my other "must reads."
 
Finished Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett. It's hard to remember that it's been over 2 years since the last Discworld novel and this was a return to form. Welcome back Sir Terry, you have been missed!
You can read a full review at my blog: travelsthroughiest.blogspot.com.
 
It looks like the hardcover will have 325 pages when it comes out. The review copy that I have is more like a trade paperback of 502 pages.
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That's why I asked, the pre-publication page counts are sometimes wrong and it looks like the published hardcover will have to be longer than 325 pages.
 
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