Reading in January 2012

PeterWilliam said:
Thanks, the accepted recommendation is rather...humbling.

*running to the medicine cabinet in search of an elixir that will keep my head from inflating

At the end of that book, there was a particular scene that absolutely floored me. It was clear that the author has either seen, or thought long and hard about, life events that reveal unexpected truths. Specifically, I'm talking about... (MAJOR SPOILER)

...when Nicodemus finally receives the portion of his consciousness that had been stolen from him so long ago that it made him dyslexic, then decides to give it to his sister who has been attempting to assassinate him for years. It speaks of how being whole, versus being disabled, is more a state-of-mind than the physical possession of physiology/attributes/abilities. A profound and humbling notion.
Click to expand...
Sorry I never responded to this, I saw the words "major spoiler" and decided I'd skip out until I finished reading the book (which I did a couple days ago). That part of the book did resonate with me, but I kind of saw it coming. It was well executed though, and I was happy with that decision for sure.

The book ended quite well, if somewhat predictably. I think it just misses making my top 5 for last year, but it was still a fantastic read. I'm definitely looking forward to the next book, which I think is supposed to wrap up the story but I'm not 100% sure on that.

I'm not sure what I'm going to read next. I have a few options, but there is nothing on my to read list that I consider a "must read" at this point.
 
bossfan2000 said:
I'm about 1/2 thru the first book in Rise of Empire by Michael Sullivan. It reminds me how much I still enjoy (and prefer) what I call old-school fantasy.
Click to expand...
I'm starting this one today, too.
 
My last book of last year was the first book of Stephen Baxter's Northland trilogy, Stone Spring, which is an Alternate History taking place roughly 8000 years ago depicting Mesolithic cultures that lived in and around the land bridge (now buried under the North Sea) that once connected Britain to Europe. The premise behind the series is what course human history may have taken had these Mesolithic cultures been able to save the land from the encroaching sea. Liked it, despite a few quibbles, and will be interested in the rest of the series when it makes its way to the US.

The Daemon Prism arrived on my Kindle this morning, but I am re-reading the first two books in Carol Berg's Collegia Magica series first. Hope to finish them by this weekend so I can start TDP soon.
 
Last edited:
Randy M. said:
I read this in October. I'll be interested in hearing what you have to say about it.
Randy M.
Click to expand...

Just finished Southern Gods the other day. I really enjoyed it. After the first 60 pages, I wasn't really engaged, but after that it was a real page-turner. I thought the characters were pretty realistic, the plot interesting, and the story suitably creepy. Maybe it could've used another 50-60 pages to more fully flesh things out - at times, the plot felt rushed and the infodumps sparse - but for a debut novel I thought it was very promising. That said, I've never read any Lovecraft (although I very much want to read him now) so I don't know if Southern Gods is a worthy sort of successor in the Lovecraftian tradition. But I think Jacobs is an author to keep an eye on. Hopefully he won't have Jesse Bullington's sophomore slump.
 
Chrysippus said:
Just finished Southern Gods the other day. I really enjoyed it. After the first 60 pages, I wasn't really engaged, but after that it was a real page-turner. I thought the characters were pretty realistic, the plot interesting, and the story suitably creepy. Maybe it could've used another 50-60 pages to more fully flesh things out - at times, the plot felt rushed and the infodumps sparse - but for a debut novel I thought it was very promising. That said, I've never read any Lovecraft (although I very much want to read him now) so I don't know if Southern Gods is a worthy sort of successor in the Lovecraftian tradition. But I think Jacobs is an author to keep an eye on. Hopefully he won't have Jesse Bullington's sophomore slump.
Click to expand...

That's pretty close to my assessment. Not bad for a first novel: Decent prose that I think promises better to come, parts of the story quite effective and effectively told while some spots allowed the plot clock-work to show too openly. On the whole worth the read, but not one I'll enthusiastically push on other readers.

For some readers, Lovecraft's an acquired taste. But he's worth the effort: If you're open to the kind of story he tries to write, if you're in tune with his imagination, his work will pick you up and carry along. For some current readers his prose style is a bit much, but give it a try. I'd suggest "The Rats in the Walls," "The Call of Cthulhu" or "The Colour Out of Space" as good starting points.


Randy M.
 
I'm reading Zoo City by Lauren Beukes, after finishing her first novel, Moxyland, earlier in the week and posting about it in SF reading thread for January. Whereas that one was near future post-cyberpunk, this one is urban fantasy, but they both have their similarities. Beukes takes a "slice of life" approach to her fiction; she evokes her South African urban setting, in this case, Johannesburg, very vividly and her characters are drawn with great veracity. Her plots can be a little rambly, but Zoo City is more focused than her earlier novel, helped by the fact it is following one character rather than four. She also has some brilliant concepts which she fully fleshes out: Here, the book revolves around the idea of people called zoos; these are people who have committed "wrongs" (usually crimes) and have been cursed/gifted with animal familiars as avatars of their guilt; these familiars also come with some minor magical abilities. Zoo City is the slum in which these people are segregated. It's a very strange concept, but Beukes makes it seem very plausible and well-thoughtout. The main character, Zinzi, has a sloth familiar and the ability to track lost things. She is scraping together meagre existence by using her ability to make a little cash. The plot starts with her being hired by a record mogul to track down a teen idol who has gone missing. There is a very strong noir flavour to the book, but it's very authentic, unlike some urban fantasy novels I have read.
 
murf99 said:
Just finished Terry Brook's Bearers of the Black Staff. Gonna jump right into The Measure of the Magic which will conclude the Legends of Shannara series. The story is ok so far but not as good as what I expected. Hopefully it gets better in the next one.
Click to expand...

Amazing how much better the 2nd book is. Started it yesterday and im about half way through. Kinda funny how the last 4 Shannara series has pretty much been the same story over and over with just different named characters. For some reason I still keep buying and reading every new installment. Must be nostagia I guess. I should be finished this one in a day or two.

I'm really at a lost at what to read next. I found all last year so easy to pick something. This year I'm kinda struggling to put an order to my "to read pile". On my shelf right now its up between:

The King of the Crags by Stephen Deas
Bloodheir by Brian Ruckley
Red Seas under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
The Way of Kings by Sanderson
A Cavern of Black Ice by Jones

or

Crossroads of Twilight to Towers of Midnight by Jordan/Sanderson.

I'm kinda leading towards Neverwhere. It will be my first foray into Giaman which I've been looking forward to.
 
Darksbane said:
I'm definitely looking forward to the next book, which I think is supposed to wrap up the story but I'm not 100% sure on that.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't know what the projection on that series is, but also very interested in the next installment.
 
Currently reading Den of Thieves by David Chandler, who I will admit I've never heard of. In all honestly I only picked the book up in the first place because the cover is the same cool "parchment-with-stuff-on-it" design as the nicer Abercrombie editions but... it's really good!
 
Currently reading Epitaphs, a collection of short stories from the New England Horror Writers. And Shiny Thing, a collection of short stories by Patricia Russo.
 
Just finished "The Crippled God" by Erikson and well worth reading, I have to admit that it started off a bit slow but made up for it in the second half.

Next on the list to read are books 5 and 6 in the Dresden series which will be a good contrast.
 
Finished Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman. Generally liked it, though liked first part of the book more. Romantic plotline was no quite impressive, and
putting Battle of Agincourt into book without any considerable changes was spoilerish and not very interesting
 
I'm rereading The Lies of Locke Lamora for a group read over at LibraryThing. As enjoyable as ever.
 
Rob B said:
Even though I had some problems with the final book of the trilogy, the first one was very strong. I will admit some of my problems may have stemmed from the almost two years that separate my reading of book 2 and 3 so I'd suggest reading the three books back-to-back-to-back.
Click to expand...

I'm glad to hear someone like yourself say nice things about one of her books. I was attracted to the ideas in the first Coldfire book, but I thought her execution could have used a whole lot of work. I've been reluctant to read any more by her, but maybe I should give her another try one of these days.

As for me, I finally finished Among Others this evening. All in all I thought it was a very nice book, but I was disappointed in the part near to the end. Specifically,
I was disappointed that Wim (the main character's boyfriend) saw the elves/fairies, because I wanted to maintain the possibility that all the elves/magic stuff was imaginary. IMHO the book works much better if the reader never knows whether they are real or not. But once Wim sees them, you know they must be something real -- and that tarnishes the "magic" of the book for me. Sigh.
Otherwise, I liked it a lot.

edited to add -- oh, and I just started on Bloodshot by Cherie Priest. I meant to start Among Thieves next, but I wasn't at home when I finished Among Others and I hadn't put it on my iPod yet, so Bloodshot got the nod instead. So far I love the narrator....I'll have to look up who it is, I didn't notice....and the story is okay. I'm kinda tired of vampire UF, but this was recommended to me so we'll see how it goes.
 
Last edited:
I finished Zoo City by Lauren Beukes and I thought it was really, really good. I'm very impressed. She managed to balance and blend the supernatural and the realistic better than almost anybody I've ever read. Things get a bit crazy towards the end of the book, but she had me so submerged in the story I had no problem suspending my disbelief. I can see why this one has received so much critical praise.

Now I have to think about what I'm going to read next. It will be hard to find something that doesn't pale in comparison. I need to find a palette cleanser...
 
Started The Daemon Prism by Carol Berg last night. Only a couple of chapters into it. It's nice to see Dante's side of things. While I already felt some pathos for him in the last book, there's far more in this one. This will be a quick read, if only because I'm eager to see how this trilogy wraps up.

And, I must say that I enjoy

seeing Dante come to the realization that Illario (one of my favourite characters in this trilogy) is a transformer and is more than meets the eye.
 
Contrarius said:
I'm glad to hear someone like yourself say nice things about one of her books. I was attracted to the ideas in the first Coldfire book, but I thought her execution could have used a whole lot of work. I've been reluctant to read any more by her, but maybe I should give her another try one of these days.
Click to expand...
Someone such as myself? I have to know, can you please explain?
 
Rob B said:
Someone such as myself? I have to know, can you please explain?
Click to expand...

A dog-owning, beer-drinking, New Jersey Devils fan. They're the only people I take my book recommendations from.:)

I'm moving onto Two Worlds and In Between: The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan. Been meaning to get into her work for a while and this seems like a good starting point. I've read the first two stories and they didn't do much for me, but they are early works and this is a big volume so I'm sure to hit something that I dig soon.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Sponsors


We try to keep the forum as free of ads as possible, please consider supporting SFFWorld on Patreon


Your ad here.

Latest posts

Back
Top