Reading in May 2010

[kater]

I have finished Deadhouse Gates and am into Memories of Ice. Three Malazan books in a week may be some kind of record for me.

 

[Hobbit]

Moved on to Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury last night. I've never read any Bradbury before, but I will say that the man writes beautifully. I'm entranced. The eerie, hyptnotic feeling as the carnival moves into town is conveyed perfectly. The sense of foreboding is tangible. Loving it so far.

LOVE that Bradbury. Shows that short can be effective.

I have finished Deadhouse Gates and am into Memories of Ice. Three Malazan books in a week may be some kind of record for me.

Clearly some sort of weight-training is at work here as well - anyone who can lift three successive Malazan books in a row should be admired.

Mark

 

[TheImp]

I have finished Deadhouse Gates and am into Memories of Ice. Three Malazan books in a week may be some kind of record for me.

lol holy s**t! that's insane, it took me 2 weeks to read gardens of the moon alone.


anyway, i'm reading old man's war and teh darkness that comes before right now

 

[Gizmo]

Just finished Equal Rites by Pratchett.

I'm a huge Pratchett fan but that was the worst TP I've read, unfortunately. Still some great one-liners though.

 

[Gilgamesh]

I have finished Deadhouse Gates and am into Memories of Ice. Three Malazan books in a week may be some kind of record for me.

Wow! This is serious amount of reading. Have you been locked in a library for a week?

 

[kater]

Clearly some sort of weight-training is at work here as well - anyone who can lift three successive Malazan books in a row should be admired.

Mark

The preferred area of reading, my bed , is kinda sagging a bit. I'm waiting for the mattress to roll out the white flag, after the fifth book I've got the series in hardback so may need some assistance with the lifting

Wow! This is serious amount of reading. Have you been locked in a library for a week?

Holiday week 1 of 2, I've been doing about 3-4 hours of reading uninterrupted since Monday, there's no way I'd have done 2000 or so pages otherwise.

 

[Apathy]

Read Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews. It was good, which is very unusual for the fourth book in a series. Usually once a series starts going you start seeing a lot of repetition, or where the story starts going in a different boring direction for awhile. This one held up quite well. I actually really like this series even though it was written by a female author (please spare me your whining women, usually they create feminine males, or where there is a lot of touchy-feeling &*99 going on). The world building in this series is progressing along quite nicely. Every book so far has expanded the world, and you begin to understand more of its history. The characters feel real, they have motivation for their actions, and some of the persistent characters have changed. The books remind me a bit of the Dresden files in how the setting of the series is based mainly in a single city, and how the plot progresses at a fairly quick pace. The plots are sort of similar, something hits the fan, and the characters have to find out who dunnit, and then how to deal with the situation. Magic Bleeds was a very enjoyable book, and I hope the next book will be as impressive.

 

[kcf]

Finished up Shadow's Son by Jon Sprunk. Overall, it's pretty good - perhaps the dark fantasy (with assassins) equivalent of a beach read.

Now I'm reading The Passage by Justin Cronin - this is some really good writing. It really tugs on the heartstrings. So far, it's living up to the buzz.

 

[Seak]

Been busy, but managed to finish a couple more this month:

The Light Fantastic - Pratchett. This was a fun read, I really like throwing Pratchett in there to have a bit of a change up. I think I liked The Color of Magic better, but this was still funny and entertaining.

Dante's Journey - Marino. Had fun with this one. Each level of Hell was interestingly done with some surprises here and there.

Catching Fire - Collins. This was as good as the first, which means it was fine, but nothing to write home about. The characters get a bit annoying at times worrying about things no normal person would ever worry about, but it was still a fun ride.

Zombie Survival Guide - Max Brooks. Really well thought out, but it's still a guidebook so don't expect too much. Good for what it sought out to accomplish, but it mostly just got me ready and excited for World War Z.

I'm probably missing a few, but that's all I can think of. Currently reading The Last Unicorn and it's not let down my high expectations yet.

 

[Gilgamesh]

I finished The God Catcher by Erin M. Evans last night. It is a very fast-paced and a very enjoyable book. It quickly becomes a page-turner. I haven't read many Forgotten Realms books but this is pretty irrelevant in this stand-alone story.

Evans' style is very pleasant. I liked the dialogs in the book and the characters are well created (except Cassian who didn't materialize for me). The setting is not sophisticated as the story unfolds in the city called Waterdeep, City of Splendors, but the reader is captured by the plot so the lack of complexity in the setting doesn't even come to mind.

I think The God Catcher deserves 4.5 stars and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to read a good fantastic adventure.

What next? I started to read The Noise Within (sci-fi) by Ian Whates and I'm hoping to finish Mieville's Kraken this weekend.

 

[algernoninc]

finished "Ombria in Shadow" my Patricia McKillip: i liked it for its prose, but it remains in the shadow of "Under Heaven" which really clicked for me. Then I picked up 2 non-genre [one excellent: "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" by Stiev Larsson] and returned to fantasy with "Watcher of the Dead" by J V Jones. I sure was glad for the synopsis at the start of this 4th installment, it's been a long time since i read the first book in the series.

 

[AlvinFlummox]

I finished A Storm Of Swords by GRRM earlier today; what a great book! I really enjoyed it, and would have finished it much quicker if it wasn't for various sport and work commitments... The best book I've read this year so far, and I can't really see it being topped. I enjoyed every point-of-view, although I found the first Samwell chapter a little uninspiring, so I must admit that I feared the worst with his introduction, but I thought the rest were better. Jaime was great, and I'm becoming more sympathetic towards Sansa (she really annoyed me in A Game Of Thrones). The last line in Tyrion's chapter was pure genius, and I'm a little disappointed that I didn't see the twist coming at the end of the epilogue. Not sure when I'll get to read A Feast For Crows, I've acquired a growing To Read list (gone from 0 to 40+ in the past 6 months), but no doubt I'll buy it when I get the chance!

Moved onto Last Argument Of Kings by Joe Abercrombie now, looking forward to this one as I enjoyed the first two in the series, and I've heard mainly positive things regarding it.

 

[DurzoBlint]

Just finished the ARC/proof of Field of Fire by John Connington. Aside from the errors you would expect in a proof, it was a really good book. Looking forward to reading the next installment of this series.

Started Wolfsangel by Lachlan, got the first chapter under my belt. Looks very promising.

 

[Lord Golden]

Read Robin Hobb's Farseer and Fool trilogies in the beginning of the year.
Since finishing those, I'm finding most novels hard to pick up and read because I keep pining after the intense friendship between two of the main characters. Full of treason, polotical intrigue, and those parts of epic fantasy everyone loves.
It seems as if the main character will never win, and is dogged by bad luck. Definitely not your cliche fantasy.
You can't put it down, and you really do come to love just about every character in this series, for their flaws and the hardships they have to overcome, both physically and emotionally.
Plot twists keep you guessing, and there are so many tear-jerking moments. I can not give this series high enough praise!

Brent Weeks' Night Angel trilogy is definitely worth a read; magic is completely believeable, and Weeks creates an Assassin's world, wrapping the main character and his mentor (who i think is just about everyone's favorite character...) in a promising story. Hooks you from page one.

Just finished Karen Miller's Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series. Definitely worth a read, your typical protagonist here. Country-boy-turned-hero in a believable way, with some pretty good plot twists.

Still, though. Looking for something to rival Hobb's genius.

 

[the gozzfather]

I just finished the first 3 books in the Morgaine Cycle by CJ Cherryh. I thought they were great. Cherryh's prose was excellent and she created very interesting characters. The relationship between Vanye and Morgaine was very unusual for fantasy and Roh was a well-crafted, complex villain.

It was also interesting to see how certain aspects series influenced the Wheel of Time. The relationship between Morgaine and Vanye is similar to that of Moiraine and Lan and both stories feature very dangerous magic called balefire.

 

[stephen.deas]

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

There is some truth to that. However, the bigger reason was that the first draft of book three (written well over a year ago now) kept on needing stuff explained which kept slowing it down. I aim to have the second half of book three make The Adamantine Palace look like a gentle stroll in the park; whether I've succeeded in that, well you can tell me in a year or so.

 

[Jon Sprunk]

Just finished The Name of the Wind (Rothfuss). Remarkable story. Now I'm starting the Tales of the Dying Earth (Vance).