Reading in May 2009

Julian said:
I have little idea how anyone could ever consider this series a "slow and tedious read" (awkward and literary and quite gothically "grandiose" , yes, but hardly "tedious"), but who cares. The new volume's out, finally!
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I kinda got the feeling that perhaps the series is the sort of thing most readers will either love, or hate. Okay, so I'm not quite at the hate level, but I certainly found a lot more about it to dislike than I did to like.

Sometimes, I can be really picky about what I read, though. I was sorry that both the Chosen, and The Standing Dead didn't work for me. I really wanted them to.

Another book that's not working for me at the moment: The Darkness that Comes Before. :(
 
BrightStar said:
I kinda got the feeling that perhaps the series is the sort of thing most readers will either love, or hate.
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Very true. The Chosen got my endorsement for worst fantasy book ever read. Others here really enjoy it. I think I'd rather attempt to write a 30p dissertation advocating Goodkind's Objectivist views....well, maybe I wouldn't, but it'd be awful close.
 
BrightStar said:
Another book that's not working for me at the moment: The Darkness that Comes Before. :(
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The first half of the book is really sloooow, especially the prologue. It takes about half of the book to fully understand what Bakker is talking about. It will pick up in the second half.
 
... said:
The first half of the book is really sloooow, especially the prologue. It takes about half of the book to fully understand what Bakker is talking about. It will pick up in the second half.
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Yeah, I think I was prepared for the prologue to be slow, so I just sort of grit my teeth and muddled through. I've only read chapter one so far. Been really struggling to find the desire to read this one so far, so I've mostly just been putting in a few pages or so before bed.

I do get the strong sense that there's an immense amount of world building gone into this one, and part of me really does want to invest the effort into becoming immersed within those details. Some ideas so far seem kinda interesting, and the writing is strong. I'm just not gripped by the characters or the plot yet.

Having to read half the book before it gets good sounds a bit daunting to me. :( I'm ashamed to admit that I'm often not as patient with new books as I should be.

What's the rest of the series like? Once it gets good, does it remain of high quality, or is it one of those who's later books are considered somewhat poorer than the earlier ones?
 
Amaunette said:
I haven't read Legend, but Lies of Locke Lamora is an excellent book. Go with that one and you won't be disappointed. Beware - Lies has graphic violence and murder of a sort rarely described of outside of horror novels.
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Thanks, I just started it. :)
 
Daddy Darth said:
I am just about to head off to start Chapter 10 of Bane Wreaker. This is a page turner. I have not been this thoroughly into a book since Martin's ASOIAF. There is a real undercurrent of sadness about it. I am enjoying a book from the "bad guy" point of view though really in this one it is hard to see either side as good or evil rather two forces that can not reconcile and seem to have no choice but to go to war. Awesome. Good night all.
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hmmm, I just checked out this book on Amazon and I think I'm going to pick it up. Sounds like something I could really get into, thanks for the heads up.

Myself? Well I haven't read much in the way of Fantasy lately but I am getting back to it. I just finished Dawn but I was not impressed. I remember loving Dusk back when it came out but Dawn seemed so much more flat and sluggish. I still like Lebbon as a writer though and plan to read more of him.
 
BrightStar said:
What's the rest of the series like? Once it gets good, does it remain of high quality, or is it one of those who's later books are considered somewhat poorer than the earlier ones?
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Nope, the rest is still very good, if not better, than the first book. And I can't help but think that reading 5-10 pages before bed time is not the best way to approach this book. You should sit down for a couple of hours and plough through dozens of pages at a time.
 
columbob said:
You should sit down for a couple of hours and plough through dozens of pages at a time.
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Unfortunately, I'm the sort of reader who tends to read little and often when it tends to come to getting into a new book. I seem to find I get restless and can't concentrate (maybe I just have a short attention span?) if I try to read for hours at a time.

I sense it's definitely not the best way to approach this book though. There's a lot of information to keep track of, and with spending such a short time with the book each time I read, it's probably going to make it difficult for me immerse myself into the world and its characters.

I never have this "problem" once I actually get into and am enjoying a book. I can read for hours and hours and hours, and barely notice the time's gone! But whenever it comes to a new book, it takes me to actually start liking it before I can allow myself to invest large amounts of time into it.

I wonder if I'm the only one who has this problem with getting into new books. Maybe it's due to a lack of patience.
 
BrightStar said:
Unfortunately, I'm the sort of reader who tends to read little and often when it tends to come to getting into a new book. I seem to find I get restless and can't concentrate (maybe I just have a short attention span?) if I try to read for hours at a time.

I sense it's definitely not the best way to approach this book though. There's a lot of information to keep track of, and with spending such a short time with the book each time I read, it's probably going to make it difficult for me immerse myself into the world and its characters.

I never have this "problem" once I actually get into and am enjoying a book. I can read for hours and hours and hours, and barely notice the time's gone! But whenever it comes to a new book, it takes me to actually start liking it before I can allow myself to invest large amounts of time into it.

I wonder if I'm the only one who has this problem with getting into new books. Maybe it's due to a lack of patience.
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I have the same problem with new books and I realized for myself it was that I was unfamiliar with the new book. With new books for me, especially epic fantasy there are too many things or unfamiliar words/places/people that its tought to get into the book. However, give me an Erikson or Bakker book and I can read for hours on end beginning with page one.
 
AuntiePam said:
I loved Drood, not so much for the horror aspect as a look at the daily lives of Collins and Dickens, what it was like to write and publish in Victorian times. I've read Dickens and Collins but don't know anything about them as people. I imagine Simmons played fast and loose with their personalities (especially Collins -- was he really so jealous of Dickens?) but I was fascinated by it. It was almost like an alternate history, or an alternate bio.
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Just finished Drood. I agree with what you say, AuntiePam, but I have a slightly different way of looking at it. Think of it this way: I have a copy of The Moonstone somewhere, and now I'm afraid that, if I start reading, I'll have images of Simmons's quite weird version of Wilkie Collins dancing through my mind. Arghh!

Having said that, Drood is fascinating. I'm not quite sure it makes a great deal of sense, but it's fascinating nevertheless. And very well written! It's an excellent book, if puzzling.
 
BrightStar said:
I kinda got the feeling that perhaps the series is the sort of thing most readers will either love, or hate. Okay, so I'm not quite at the hate level, but I certainly found a lot more about it to dislike than I did to like.

Sometimes, I can be really picky about what I read, though. I was sorry that both the Chosen, and The Standing Dead didn't work for me. I really wanted them to.

Another book that's not working for me at the moment: The Darkness that Comes Before. :(
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I can understand that. There's lots in both The Chosen and (especially) The Standing Dead that I didn't actually "like" either. But I can't help but admire the way Pinto writes - and to be frank, I was thinking that perhaps the third book would never be published, leaving the tale in limbo. So, I'm very happy (not to mention quite surprised) that The Third God is finally here...

(As an aside, I feel Scott Bakker is a tad over-hyped. Certainly by the third book, I began to feel a bit let down: I felt the books to be pretentious in a rather unsatisfying sort of way. That's just me, though; most people here seem to love the stuff!)
 
Julian said:
Just finished Drood. I agree with what you say, AuntiePam, but I have a slightly different way of looking at it. Think of it this way: I have a copy of The Moonstone somewhere, and now I'm afraid that, if I start reading, I'll have images of Simmons's quite weird version of Wilkie Collins dancing through my mind. Arghh!
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I wish I hadn't already read The Moonstone. It'd be fun to read it again, after listening to Dickens poke holes in Collins' plotting and characterization. :)

One thing about many Victorian novels (and Drood too) is that you get so involved in the story, you don't realize until it's over that (like you said), it doesn't always make sense.
 
... said:
I have the same problem with new books and I realized for myself it was that I was unfamiliar with the new book. With new books for me, especially epic fantasy there are too many things or unfamiliar words/places/people that its tought to get into the book. However, give me an Erikson or Bakker book and I can read for hours on end beginning with page one.
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I had to give up on The Darkness that Comes Before. I figured, after reading about 10% of it, I aught to at least have a vague attachment to the characters by now. Unfortunately, I didn't.

I think my problem is that perhaps the book is just too epic for my tastes. The problem with it is that Bakker asks the reader to care about a world and conflict before he lets me care about the characters. For me, world building is actually the least important thing about a book (in fact, some of my favorite books have been heavily critisized due to a major lack of worldbuilding) and I suspect that this is why I just didn't get on with The Darkness that comes Before.

For a start, the names were difficult and confusing to remember. And secondly, I felt like I was given too much history and information to keep track of before I'd really become interested in the characters enough to want to care about their world.

So, it's goodbye to The Darkness that Comes Before and I'm on to Louise Cooper's (my favorite author) fifth book in the Indigo series.
 
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yes, exactly! I sometimes have the same issue with some epic series as well. The author is trying to set a feel for the world, but if you throw too many names at me and shift around in locations and characters too much, I`m just going to lose track of it all and get frustrated.

I love a good worldbuilding, but please give me a good foundation in some characters I care about before racing off to throw a bunch of names and places at me.



Currently reading The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. Basically it seems to be a post-apocalyptic world where the dead turn into zombies, and the living must hide in fortified villages. Interesting and a quick read - the pages flow pretty fast. Not sure I like the way the main character seems to want whichever guy she can`t have at the time though!
 
Aurian said:
yes, exactly! I sometimes have the same issue with some epic series as well. The author is trying to set a feel for the world, but if you throw too many names at me and shift around in locations and characters too much, I`m just going to lose track of it all and get frustrated.

I love a good worldbuilding, but please give me a good foundation in some characters I care about before racing off to throw a bunch of names and places at me.
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Yeah, I bet a good 75% of the epic fantasy that I read (and end up giving up on) is probably largely a result of this issue. The only epic fantasy that I've been reading recently, and liked enough to want to read more of, is (I'm ashamed to admit) the Sword of Truth series. (I'm assuming that would be classed as epic fantasy, though to be honest, I'm not very sure which fantasy series' are and are not considered to be within the category of "epic")

I've been pondering why it is that I don't mind the epic worldbuilding of Sword of Truth, when books of much higher quality end up tossed on my "didn't like it" pile. The Darkness that comes before didn't strike me as a bad book. It just struck me that after reading about 10% of book one, I aught to have formed some sort of emotional interest/attachment to at least a few of the characters. And, I hadn't. Unfortunately, by this point, if the author has not hooked me already, he's lost me. I admit it: I am not a very patient reader. :(

Anyways, as I said in my previous post, I'm currently reading book five of the Indigo series. Already, less than 15 pages into this book, and I'm enjoying it. This other's style of worldbuilding suits me far better, I think. Louise Cooper develops her world through the eyes of the characters themselves, which for me, makes it far more interesting (especially since at this point, I already have a strong emotional attachment to the characters).
 
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I finished Ice Song by Kirsten Imani Kasai

Excellent debut; it's undeniably fantasy-like in style but it's also closest to Liz Williams Darkland/Bloodmind in theme and setting, so it's more of a gothic sf than anything else; could be marked as sf or fantasy alike.

Superb style, imagery and emotion with an ok plot and a little too much tell rather than show, but debut and all, the positives vastly outweigh the negatives. A strange book and I expect it will be a love it, hate it kind - I loved it

This is a book that establishes Ms. Kasai as an author to follow and get any new book asap
 
AuntiePam said:
One thing about many Victorian novels (and Drood too) is that you get so involved in the story, you don't realize until it's over that (like you said), it doesn't always make sense.
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Ironically, the objections Dickens raises against The Moonstone are quite similar to the objections one might raise against Drood...

D'you know, I rather think Simmons must be laughing his head off, somewhere out there in the wild West... :)
 
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