Reading in July 2012

[Hobbit]

This is where you talk to us about your monthly Fantasy and Horror Reads: whether good or bad, we want to discuss with you what you thought.

Book Club Reading: The Fantasy Book Club Book this month is Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko. Discuss HERE.

Mark

 

[Evil Agent]

I'm finally reading the second and third Dunk and Egg novellas (I read the first one about ten years ago). Just finishing up The Sworn Sword tonight, and moving on to The Mystery Knight tomorrow.

Also still reading Redwall and American Gods on the side.

 

[kcf]

While, it's technically still June where I am, I'll jump in. I finished The Winds of Khalakovo a while ago, but haven't gotten a review written yet - it's another promising debut from the folks over at Night Shade Books. I just got a review up for Sharps by K.J. Parker - which is excellent. I'm currently reading Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear, which is good. Next up should be The Forge of Darkness by Erikson, whcih I'm told is in the mail.

 

[Kazaxat]

Just finished Crossroads of Twilight, and I must say I'm a bit disappointed. I've heard people mention that WoT slows down in the 6-10 range of the series, but until now I've found it to be pretty engaging. CoT however...it seemed at least 3/4 of the book was spent on the different parties' preceding actions and reactions to the event the last book culminated on. I appreciate the attempt to give a world view on what such an event could have been, but it was extended far too long.

Spoiler

One full book later I still have little to no idea how successful cleansing saidin was. Rand's miniscule sections and the brief image of unusually happy Asha'men are the only clue we're given, and even that with a hint that the taint might not be completely gone.

I'd gotten used to the idea that I could expect from Jordan what I had come to expect from Erikson; The buildup may be slow but the payoff towards the end of the book would be well worth it. CoT fails to manifest any kind of cathartic event however. Here's hoping Knife of Dreams will make up for it.

 

[Cirias]

I'm currently reading:

Game of Thrones (Really, really fantastic)

Empire of the Saviours (Not too impressed. A bit generic-fantasy. When I first read a section that mentioned a breakfast of bread, honey and weak beer, I nearly gave up.)

and

Pregnancy For Men (err... yay... )

 

[Evil Agent]

Just finished Crossroads of Twilight, and I must say I'm a bit disappointed.

Don't worry, CoT is by far the worst book of the series. The next one is better, and while I haven't read the latest Sanderson books, I've heard they're much better than CoT.

So, you're past the worst of it.

 

[MattNY]

I'm finally reading the second and third Dunk and Egg novellas (I read the first one about ten years ago). Just finishing up The Sworn Sword tonight, and moving on to The Mystery Knight tomorrow.

Cool, I want to get to those at some point. Let me (us) know how they are.

 

[NickeeCoco]

Over halfway through the last book of Jemisin's Inheritance Trilogy, Kingdom of Gods. Really enjoying it. I like Sieh's pov. I find Jemisin's writing to be mysterious and a bit sensual.

 

[Hobbit]

Arrived today:



Mark

 

[algernoninc]

still reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Started it last month and should have been finished with it because it is very well written in a real scary "we are already close to living in this dystopian future" , but there are too many distractions with sunny days, and soccer games and day job and another heavy hitting book that demands my attention (Midnight Children by Salman Rushdie)

 

[kcf]

Arrived today:



Mark

Mine is supposed to be in the mail. Hopefully it'll get here soon.

 

[Rob B]

I'm still making my way through King of Thorns by Lark Mawrence. Nearly halfway through it and enjoying it. I'm enjoying the Easter Eggs in the story so far.

 

[Contrarius]

I gave up on The Onion Girl, but The Night Watch is going well so far (I'm a coupla hours in). I also couldn't resist checking out the first chapter of Prince of Thorns in audio, and I'm happy to say that the narrator is doing a good job so far. I hadn't heard of him before so I was a bit nervous, but so far so good.

 

[molybdenum]

Very minor spoilers.

I just finished Scourge of the Betrayer. What a fantastic book. One complaint one can have about military fantasy (or military books in general) is that because the point of view is from well worn veterans in most cases it gives kind of a cheap view of human life. Well, put a naive narrator into that military fantasy world, and add on the effect of the Bloodsounder Flail and that worry just goes away.

The book for me was perfectly paced, though many would find it slow, and I really kind of liked the way that we only had what was in front of us to gather information from most of the book. It took the focus off of the plot and onto really getting into the heads of Lloi, Braylor and Arki, so when things start to pick up near the end of the book and in future novels the foundation is there for events to become meaningful. And the characters are so well drawn in a short period of time without becoming caricatures, and its managed without giving us explicit character resumes. The battle scenes were also brilliantly written (if battle scenes is the right word, fight scenes might be better), as I was able to follow what was happening, keep track of where everyone was, and be perfectly clear (for the most part) on why everyone was doing what they were trying to do.

The only possible complaint I could think of about this book was that it wasn't very self contained. But that isn't really true thematically. Even with the cliffhanger ending, the book takes you on Arki's journey from being an outsider scribe to becoming locked in with the company both in knowledge of their goals and a sharing of the prevailing philosophy of the company. This makes the two sort of addendum endings make a lot more sense in hindsight.

For me, this is not only my early favorite to be the top debut of the year (though I'm not sure I'll actually be reading any more of the year's debuts yet), but the top book of the year. It was that good.

Trying to decide what is next on my list. It will either be The Soldiers Son trilogy (I'm planning on reading this before Liveship and Tawny Man so I can mix up the good and the bad of Robin Hobb), or The Troupe by Robert Jackson Bennett. I'm fairly certain The Troupe will be a better book, but I feel the need to continue with my Hobb catch-up.

 

[Rob B]

Trying to decide what is next on my list. It will either be The Soldiers Son trilogy (I'm planning on reading this before Liveship and Tawny Man so I can mix up the good and the bad of Robin Hobb), or The Troupe by Robert Jackson Bennett. I'm fairly certain The Troupe will be a better book, but I feel the need to continue with my Hobb catch-up.

Save your time and money with The Soldiers Son trilogy and go straight for The Troupe, possibly my favorite 2012 book so far. While I enjoyed the first installment of The Soldiers Son trilogy, the second book completely turned me off the series and possibly Hobb's books permanently.

 

[Mark Lawrence]

I'm still making my way through King of Thorns by Lark Mawrence. Nearly halfway through it and enjoying it. I'm enjoying the Easter Eggs in the story so far.

I'm adopting Lark Mawrence as a pen name. I think Dr Spooner would approve.

 

[Loerwyn]

I started Elspeth Cooper's Songs of the Earth yesterday, and so far I'm intrigued.

 

[Westy]

Save your time and money with The Soldiers Son trilogy and go straight for The Troupe, possibly my favorite 2012 book so far.

I'm halfway through The Troupe (on your recommendation) and am thoroughly enjoying it - thanks! It could be one of my favourites of the year so far too.

Very interested to see how it ends.

 

[s271]

Shadow Ops: Control Point by Myke Cole - mostly liked it. Guns+modern army+magic
The Rook by Daniel O'Malley - liked a lot, real page turner. Supernatural conspiracy/spy thriller. Very similar to The President's Vampire by by Christopher Farnsworth and also resemble Secret history series by Simon Green, but I liked The Rook more

 

[DragonReader]

Now reading The Hammer an the Blade by Paul S. Kemp. About a quater of the way though and really enjoying so far...