Reading in May 2010

[suciul]

The Adamantine Palace was a lot better than the second book.

Leaving aside the "a lot" I agree too as I mentioned in my review; I thought that the main reason was the author tried to be more "conventional" and explain things, rather than go on another mad dash like The Adamantine Palace

Back on topic, I finished "Stealing Fire" by Jo Graham and I liked it a lot - I was actually preparing to start one of my big expected books of the year (big in all senses, from sweep, number of characters to page length - Void 3 by PF Hamilton) when Stealing Fire showed somewhat unexpectedly in the mail and when I opened, it just hooked me and since it was a short book at about 300 pages, I decided to read it first.

Third in Ms. Graham loosely linked by reincarnation and manifestations of gods, "numinous realms" historical fantasy series, though chronologically it falls in-between the saga of Aeneas in "Black Ships" and the one of Cleopatra in "Hand of Isis", this one follows a former stable boy - Lydias of Miletus, half Carian, half Greek by blood - who becomes a cavalry officer in Alexander's army and on the death of the Conqueror throws its lot with rumored illegitimate older half-brother of Alexander, general Ptolemy and goes to Egypt to secure it for his chief who was named by Alexander satrap there, while the story alternates between the present day from 323 BC on, to snippets of important events in the hero's past. Very entertaining and a page turner to the end, I thought this the best of Ms. Graham's work to date in many ways

 

[...]

Just finished reading the Scar. I thought it was a very good book, not as good as Perdido Street Station though. The writing was fantastic. The only complaint I have is how we never find out

Spoiler

what happens to the female Lover. Considering the entire book was a build up to reaching the Scar.

 

[Mithfânion]

Interesting. I've been going back and forth between picking it up or giving Stealing Fire a miss. I will buy it forthwith.

Suciul, you don't happen to have an arc of the "stories" anthology by Gaiman do you?

 

[suciul]

Interesting. I've been going back and forth between picking it up or giving Stealing Fire a miss. I will buy it forthwith.

Suciul, you don't happen to have an arc of the "stories" anthology by Gaiman do you?

No - I was not even aware of the anthology until now, but I will take a look when published; the only forthcoming anthologies I remember having so far are Swords and Dark Magic (read 1/2 so far and I plan to finish it this month) and Clockwork Phoenix 3 (have not read much yet but I plan to do next month).

Of forthcoming novellas the Ted Chiang one (Lifecycle...) is excellent, as good as mundane sf gets for me, Blue and Gold was awesome but I have become an unabashed KJ Parker fan, while I tried the upcoming Peter Beagle one Return but it did not quite click with me

Back to sf now and Evolutionary Void which 100 pages in is living up to my expectations

 

[DurzoBlint]

Leaving aside the "a lot" I agree too as I mentioned in my review; I thought that the main reason was the author tried to be more "conventional" and explain things, rather than go on another mad dash like The Adamantine Palace

Perfect, think you hit the nail on the head, my friend.

 

[TheEvilKing]

Correct me if I am wrong. I think I have read somewhere, that the whole trilogy is very bleak, protagonists die, very depressing. It was long time ago. Now, I don't remember whether it was about this trilogy or another (definitely not the First Law)

Yes that sums up Godless World. Bleak as hell.

 

[DurzoBlint]

Yes that sums up Godless World. Bleak as hell.

The Godless World was depressing and no one was safe by the end of the novel. I know I came out of it looking for something nice and failed to find any glimmer of hope in that series.

 

[mjolnir]

Just finished Liane Merciel's The River Kings' Road, a book which I feel should be getting more attention. It's traditional faux-medieval European fantasy: a village is attacked by treachery and fell magic, sets off hostilities between two rival kingdoms, representatives of the church of holy awesomeness get involved, etc, but this type of story would never have become cliche if it didn't have the potential to be good. And this one is good, I feel, [though if "traditional" swords-and-magic fantasy is not something you're in the market for at all then I'd stay away; Merciel's book is an excellent representative of thoughtful but exciting traditional fair, not a worker of miracles or breaker of boundaries.]

One of the things that makes it good is a judicious application of the thing a lot of us 'round here have started calling "grit": The book is not grim on the Martin level, or as committed to being cynical as Abercrombie, [that level of concentrated darkness isn't the aesthetic Merciel seems to be going for], but things can and do go wrong, combat -- when it happens -- is suitably ugly, politics likewise, and people can die. There's also a ... I don't wanna say realism, ... but substance to the world just by virtue of the fact that everyday truths of survival are acknowledged. For instance, swords need to be sharpened, babies need to be cared for in the proper way, peasants can't read and often have it pretty awful particularly if the plot happens to sweep them up in the doings of the great. This grounding is helped by the fact that one of the major characters is a peasant girl who has [realistically] zero influence over the political decisions which force her into action at the beginning of the novel. Speaking of the characters, they're very engaging. On the surface they're recognizable: the mercenary, the traitor, the innocent peasant girl, but each has a unique and really fairly involving story and much emphasis is placed on the choices they make and why they make them. Book's big on choice, and there're some powerful ones. The exposure of character motivation sometimes, just sometimes, leads to some first novel clunk, but honestly most of the time I found it very polished, very absorbing. The main villain is eviltastic and a little more straight-forwardly traditional, which is too bad, but at least when Merciel breaks out the fantasy black hats she makes them memorable. The plot pretty much wraps up in this installment, but I see the arcs of development for several of the characters continuing well beyond this book. I could see Merciel writing in this world for quite a while beyond TRKR [and, apparently, its one contracted sequel], if she is inclined / allowed to. I'll certainly be reading whatever more there is. A very good debut, I thought.

In other news, Blake Charlton's Spellwright is fun. Sometimes you can just tell, [or, at least, I *think* I can tell], that the author is having an incredibly good time, and this I feel leads to the reader enjoying themselves also.
________
Kid Zoloft

 

[BrightStar]

I'm reading Elantris at the moment. This is my first experience with Brandon Sanderson's writing, and so far I'm very impressed. I had a fear that Elantris might be a bit too "epic" for my tastes (I seem to have a common dislike for many of the the more popular, epic fantasies) but so far I am enjoying Elantris a great deal. The characters are really interesting, and already (only read up to chapter 6 so far) I am finding the book to be quite a page turner.

 

[Astra_]

Yes that sums up Godless World. Bleak as hell.

The Godless World was depressing and no one was safe by the end of the novel. I know I came out of it looking for something nice and failed to find any glimmer of hope in that series.

Ah. I see. Good to know. Thanks. I am going to avoid it like hell. Real life is bleak and depressive enough.

 

[beniowa]

Last night I finished Divided Allegiance by Elizabeth Moon. It was good; stronger in some places than Sheepfarmer's Daughter, but weaker in others. Paks's adventures and encounters with evil make the second Paksenarrion book felt a bit piecemeal compared to the first. I remember someone making a comparison to D&D and that's good description. Being the middle book of a trilogy, it sets up a fair bit for the last novel with a strong and surprisingly dark ending.

I also finished Warriors edited by George R.R. Martin and Scenting the Dark and Other Stories by Mary Robinette Kowal. Both were quite good.

Earlier today I started The Emerald Storm by Michael J. Sullivan. I'm going to take a break from short stories for a while, probably until Leviathan Wept arrives in the mail.

 

[Loerwyn]

'bout 100 pages from the end of Farlander.

Hm.

 

[DurzoBlint]

Ah. I see. Good to know. Thanks. I am going to avoid it like hell. Real life is bleak and depressive enough.

Still think you should read it as it is a decent novel but make sure you are in the frame of mind to do so. Otherwise you might just jump off a bridge. j/k

 

[Haliax]

Just finished The Emerald Storm by Michael Sullivan, and really enjoyed it. While it can't exactly be read like a standalone like the first three, most of the major plot threads are closed by the end of the book. The series has really taken a turn that I definitely would not have expected out of it at the end of the second book, and got a glimpse of in the third. I'm very interested to see what surprises Sullivan has in store for us with the last two books, and I am really looking forward to the next one, Wintertide, due later this year.

Not sure what I'll read next. My to read pile is quite large at the moment (for me... probably small compared to most others), but I'm just not sure what I'm in the mood for right now. I think I might give the Malazan books another try, depending on how long it takes my order from bookdepository to arrive.

 

[Bastard]

'bout 100 pages from the end of Farlander.

Hm.

Finishing up Codex Alera right now, about 50 pages. I'm right behind you with Farlander afterwards.

 

[Hellions]

I finished Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey which is a doorstop of a novel. It was quite gripping and I've been turning the pages thanks to a well constructed storyline set in an alternative Europe. However the characterizations nearly ruined everything and suspension of disbelief was broken several times along the way. I won't go into detail about how everyone is so extraordinary, so fascinating, so beautiful or how the protagonist who is the "avatar" of an SM god is always crying or on the verge of tears. My biggest complaint goes to the villainess who was a completely unbelievable caricature, perfect in every way, openly manipulative, who punctuates the end of each of her "witty" sentences with gales of laughter; she only lacked a mustache so she could twirl it. Aargh.
Yes I did get irritated but overall, there were more pluses than minuses and I'm interested in reading the next book (and hopefully find a small paragraph on how our heroine deals with birth control).

 

[PeterWilliam]

Finished May's Ironcrown Moon last month and the review is scheduled to come up this coming week.

Since then, read Dante's Journey, by JC Marino and am halfway through Return of the Crimson Guard by Esslemont. I have no 'good' reason for liking it, and can't quite articulate why, but I always enjoy reading a Malazan book.

 

[DurzoBlint]

Just finished Old Man's War by Scalzi. Really had a good time with that novel. Definitely going to check out the sequels. I liked his humor and the humanistic portion of the novel.

Going to try Fiona McIntosh's Royal Exile. It has been sitting on my pile for quite a while so it is time to get it off of there. I hope that I enjoy it as I need another series to follow.

 

[the gozzfather]

Just read John Scalzi's the God Engines and really enjoyed it. I kind of wish it was a little longer because since he created such an interesting world it would be nice to see it fleshed out a little more.

 

[Loerwyn]

Finished Farlander about an hour ago. My thoughts will be spoilered, but before that I shall give it a rating.

7/10. Nothing special, but with a lot of promise. Col Buchanan seems to get his setting a bit confused, along with the way his characters interact.

Spoiler

So, onto the meat of the review.

I'm not overwhelmed, nor am I unimpressed. I think Col Buchanan shows a lot of promise with this series, but the book itself is too "up and down" in terms of quality for me. The personalities of characters seem to change on a whim, for example. A character would say something and another character would get annoyed at it, but it lacked the "impact" which caused the mood change. It's best likened to an in-joke, I think. You have 2 out of the 3 pieces of the puzzle, and that leaves you out in the dark.

I felt Col also repeated himself a lot and used awkward wording from time to time. He seemed to get hung up on describing the breasts of various female characters at the start, or possibly over-sexualising them. Generally I wouldn't mind, but the fact I saw it annoyed me. I think one major female character (Marlee, Bahn's wife, if my memory serves me correctly) escaped it, and that's not something I'm a fan of. As for repetition, aside from breasts and giving characters brown or red hair, he often referenced a meal known as "chee", yet I don't recall it ever being explained what it was. From various descriptions it sounds very much like a kind of soup or broth, but I just felt that a bit of clarification could help.

As I mentioned above, his setting is a bit confused. It strikes me as very odd that Q'os is the only place referenced in the book with concrete and metal framework for buildings. This universe has flying ships and rifles, yet only one "culture" has the technology to make concrete? And Q'os has a gladitorial arena, and maybe twice near the end of the book, Col seems to bring his ideas of morality into it, decrying the event as "shameful" and implying that it's not befitting a civilized society. Yet, in the back of my mind, I was constantly thinking of civilizations like the Romans, who were rather civilized yet had gladiator battles.

The end, for me, was quite a surprise though. I didn't expect Nico to be killed, especially by Ash. But the whole end series of events seemed shoehorned in to the last ~50 pages, and that did grate with me a bit. If Col had removed most of the "fluff" with Bahn and possibly Ché, or at least taken 50 or so extra pages, he could have given a more satisfying ending. It just felt like he trimmed it down to stay within a page limit.

Overall, it's a good debut. I didn't feel it was strong, but I do think that Col showed signs of improvement over the course of the book, and the next book could be rather good *if* he focuses on improving the setting and describing other attributes of his female characters.