Reading in November 2008

I only speak English and German. So, nope. But I have started reading The Brothers Karamozov, so I feel like I'm reading Russian sometimes.:D
 
I got a copy of Princeps' Fury, fifth book in the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher (I've read the previous books earlier this month). The new book answered some of the questions but opened a bunch of new ones. I can't believe there's only one book left! This is truly one of the most engaging fantasy adventure series I've ever read, I think it deserves more recognition from the fantasy readers community.
 
I have finished Sean Russell's World Without End, which I enjoyed very much, and went on to the following book, Sea Without a Shore. I'm about a third into that one so far. This second book picks up right where the last one leaves off, with no added explanations or anything, which is a relief when I just want to find out the answers to all the mysteries presented in the first book, although I would imagine if anyone tried to read this book alone they would be totally lost.

This duology is really fun, lots of mystery and suspense, as well as a fair bit of sex and drugs thrown in for good measure. :D
 
I added Sean Russell to my TBR pile based on favorable mentions around the board and blogosphere, but haven't received (much less read) the book yet -- it wasn't available at either of my local bookstores so I ordered from B&N online.

Tried Jennifer Rardin's Once Bitten, Twice Shy, put it down after the first chapter for breaking my suspension of disbelief about ten times per page (pretty impressive considering how much of each page is devoted to chatty fluff rather than substantive events). I like urban fantasy. I like snarky kick-butt heroines. I am willing to suspend all kinds of disbelief and accept, for example, that 102-pound River Tam can flip grown men over her head in the Firefly universe. But the first 10 pages of Jaz Parks, oh man.

It's like the campiest aspects of old James Bond movies repackaged in pink sequined heels and recounted to you, as sober fact, by a past-her-prime chick lit narrator who's just downed two gallons of corn-syrup insta-mix Cosmopolitans. Basically it is excruciatingly embarrassing and inspires nothing so much as the urge to make a quick, graceful departure before somebody pukes on your shoes.

Anyway, after that I read Paul Crilley's Night of the Long Shadows, a D&D tie-in novel set in the Eberron universe. It was a fun quick read (noir tropes repackaged in a D&D setting that moves away from the usual quasi-medieval world to one where there are magic-driven airborne taxis and El systems in a city of floating towers) and has done a great deal to restore my faith that there are quality shared-world novels out there.
 
I have always been a fan of Neil Gaiman ever since I read Good Omens so when I saw Graveyard Book I got it and quickly read it. The story follows a babe who's family was murdered the night the baby wandered into a graveyard. The residents of the graveyard decide to protect and raise the baby. With quite a bit of humor, a few misadventures, and a decent ending...I enjoyed the book, but it will not be one of favorites.

Shadow's Edge and Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks were a worthwhile read. Unfortunetely, the book tried to cover too many viewpoints and ended up feeling incomplete in most of them except Kylar's. He also included one or two character's viwpoints that I think the story could have excluded, without feeling like it was missing anything. A good example of this is the Sethi prostitute's portion. Other than that it was a good series, and I will be checking out whatever else he puts out.
 
I finished Last Resort by J. Carson and it was pretty disappointing though a fast bath time read.

Forgettable supernatural thriller about a writer who goes to an isolated community to reclaim his creativity and instead the universe and the timeline start moving around him.

I dislike solipsistic novels like this one in which external reality is malleable and only the narrator is essentially "real", though at least in this one it did not happen in a dream.

Starts well but then it becomes completely predictable and there are much better books out there.

If you like this kind of books in which the timeline/universe is altered but only the narrator or maybe only the reader retains the memory of what was before, this one is maybe for you since it's a fast read.

I also read two more interesting mainstream but genre associational books, though none was a five star read at the end and I put my opinions about them in the Current Non-genre reading - Magnus by Sylvie Germain and The Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf by David Madsen
 
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Just finished Holly Phillips' The Engine's Child.

Killer premise, vivid prose, but poor, poor execution. . .:(

Patrick
 
Finally finished Reaper's Gale. Took me about a month. I said I was going to go right on to Crimson Guard and Toll the Hounds but I'm not.

I can't read these books quickly. Maybe 50 pages a night, on a good night. The result is that the pay-offs are so far from their initiation that the impact is lost on me. I should have been upset/happy about several things, but it took so freakin' long and so much else was going on, I couldn't focus.

I think I'm gonna start re-reading Martin's books.
 
Gilgamesh said:
I'm a Hobb fan but I haven't read Soldier Son trilogy yet. I read/heard mixed reviews about it so I'm waiting to lower my expectations considerably before venturing into it...
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Well gilgamesh, I think you have nothing to fear. It's well known that every author has it's ups and downs and that doesn't mean that it will diminish her/him in my eyes because of it, especially if I liked its previous works.

And judging by that we have rather similar tastes in literature as I remember (Hobb, Kay) I think you should like Soldier Son trilogy.
I agree that it's not as engaging as her Realms of Elderlings but it's better than most what is on the market. And I really like the themes that she's dealing with in this one (environmental protection, preservation of cultural differences, traditions and survival of species as well) and her characters are as always excellent drawn.
And lets face it, most negative reviews were about that it's not about Fitz.
 
Well, I've been gone for quite a while. It's time to get you guys caught up as to what I've been reading.
A couple of months ago I finished the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons. Very good, I must say, but I also have to say I was a bit dissapointed in it. It just seemed to be built up so much in all the reviews I read about it, that when I actually read it, I was expecting more and was a bit let down. It was still very good though.
Last month I read Sineater by Elizabeth Massie. An excellent horror novel if I do say so myself. It shows backwoods religious fanaticism at pretty much its scariest and worst. Also it's very emotionally poignant, I almost cried at the end to tell you the truth.
Right now I'm reading book I of Naomi Novik's Temeraire Trilogy, "His Majesty's Dragon", I'm 1/3 of the way into it and it is very interesting and the characters are great.
 
Well i've read both Bonehunters and Reapers Gale since i last posted. I'd probably put Reapers Gale as my 3rd favourite in the series so far behind Memories of Ice & Midnight Tides. Even though MOI & DH seem to be seen as the most emotional of the books i thought this was the most emotional of them so far, especially a certain scene with Tool. Onto 'Return Of The Crimson Guard' now.
 
I just finished Bitterwood by James Maxey. It was very imaginative in its own way. I wish the character development had a little more depth, but I'm not going to be quick to judge as I've yet to read the sequel Dragonforge. It took a couple of twists and turns I wouldn't have seen coming if you hit between the eyes with it, but he followed the main premise to the end.... Dragons with 'pet' humans.. who woulda' thunk it?

All in all, I'll pick up the sequal at some point in the near future probably.
 
I read The Book of Lost Things by John Connoly. The book is follows a boy who lost his mother, and feels bitter when his father re-marries and has a child with his new wife. I can easily say that it will stay with me for a long time. Here are two quotes from the book which I thought were quite good.

"Deeper meaning resides in the fairy tales
told to me in my childhood than in the
truth that is taught by life.

—FRIEDRICH SCHILLER (1759–1805)"

“...You know how sometimes a story seems to be about one thing, but in fact it’s about another thing entirely? There’s a meaning hidden in it, and that meaning has to be teased out?”

The Book of Lost Things has many things it is trying to show, but on a first reading I do not think I teased them out. But trying to tease out a hidden meaning could be just me reading too deeply into the story. I found it amusing that one the same page that the author speaks about hidden meanings he also speaks about meanings that were not there originally, and were thought out by the reader. So maybe I am reading too deeply into some parts, but I know I am getting some meanings from the book. Subconsciously my mind is working on them (and if I was not sick this week, I would have more of my thoughts is order), so eventually I will just stop walking one day and think, "Ah, so that's what he meant!". I will probably be re-reading this book at some point when I feel that maybe I need a refresher. Too perhaps tease out a little more meaning that I may have missed.
 
Finished Tigana (a true wonder) and the first book of Brent Weeks' Night Angel series. I really like this series but I was reminded of Newboy/Fitz & Molly maturing (Azoth/Kylar & Doll Girl/Elene), as well as Fitz & Kylar as assassins. Not that it's really a problem, I just found myself, subconsciously, comparing Weeks and Hobb.
 
Just before the bell tolled on November, I finished Ramsey Campbell's Midnight Sun and it was excellent, the strongest of the four novels I've read by him. Campbell does an excellent job of depicting a family that genuinely loves one another and enjoys each other's company without making it sappy or dripping with sentimentatlity. And that is what makes the novel so wrenching, since he then methodically introduces and strengthens the outside force that tears at them. In addition, he doesn't just go for the scare, for the thrill, but tries to do what Lovecraft spoke so highly of, attempting to create a sense of cosmic awe. This is one of the few novels I've read that manages in some degree to evoke that.

If you haven't read this, I suggest strongly that you do. A number of years ago someone on another site asked what horror novels from the horror boom of the late '70s through the early '90s might have a chance of lasting. I'd nominate this as a worthy contender.


Next up: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.


Randy M.
 
PeterWilliam said:
Finished Tigana (a true wonder) and the first book of Brent Weeks' Night Angel series. I really like this series but I was reminded of Newboy/Fitz & Molly maturing (Azoth/Kylar & Doll Girl/Elene), as well as Fitz & Kylar as assassins. Not that it's really a problem, I just found myself, subconsciously, comparing Weeks and Hobb.
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I did that at first too. It got easier to ignore as I kept reading. For me, that was a good thing since I didn't particularly care for the Farseer trilogy.
 
Last weekend I finished The Guns Of Avalon, 2nd book of Chronicles of Amber. I really liked this one too.
 
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