Reading in October 2009

Hobbit

Hobbit

Cat Wrangler and Reader
Staff member
Joined
Jul 16, 2001
Messages
18,517
And so to October.

In case you haven't realised, this is where you tell us what you're reading in Fantasy and Horror this month. Good or bad, please let us know what you thought.

The Fantasy Book of the Month is The Company by KJ Parker, which coincidentally has an SFFWorld quote on the back cover. Feel free to like/dislike it HERE.

(And as is our usual tradition, Happy Halloween, everybody!)

Mark
 
Well, since it's fall (my favourite season) I'm re-reading The Lord of the Rings (7th reading). I usually re-read it in the fall, every few years. Starting The Two Towers today.

I will probably also be reading something else at the same time, but haven't decided what just yet.

I also just finished The Lovely Bones today, in anticipation of Peter Jackson's movie this December. Not sure whether I can really classify it as fantasy, but it was a quick read, and a pretty good one.

Happy October, and Happy Halloween!
 
Evil Agent said:
I also just finished The Lovely Bones today, in anticipation of Peter Jackson's movie this December. Not sure whether I can really classify it as fantasy, but it was a quick read, and a pretty good one.
Click to expand...

I though it was a great book, very poignant, emotional and most definitely a fantasy (very slight spoiler):
The fact that it's narrated by a dead girl who has some limited interaction with the "real" world firmly puts it in that camp for me. If it'd just been narrated by her I would agree with you and call it an interesting narrative device in a mainstream drama.

Which reminds me that I finished The Book Thief, which to me probably isn't a fantasy novel, was a bit overlong but had some nice turns of phrase. I reckon this one's destined to be a movie too. It's like My Girl with Nazis - how could it not be a blockbuster?

I'm just about finished Retribution Falls. The fact I put it down last night with about 20 pages to go tells me that it didn't quite hit the mark in terms of building tension. It's a bit like watching Pirates of the Carribean in that way - you know that in the end it's a Disney movie, and the loveable scamps will pull through (not to mention that RF also features pirates, none of whom unfortunately never say "Arrrr")
 
I am slowly making my way through Lions of Al-Rassan by Kay, as I was for much of last month as well. I'm not reading it so slowly because I'm not enjoying it; quite the contrary, in fact. I just haven't had much reading time lately.

Before Lions, the only Kay I had read was The Sarantine Mosaic, which I also enjoyed. Lions gets off to a quicker start and seems to be maintaining that momentum. Of course, Kay's writing is just as magical as I remember.
 
Having just finished Alastair Reynold's Century Rain (best book of his I've read so far), I'm sort of on hold until my next book order arrives from the book depository. Bought myself a copy of the Three Musketeers to tide myself over in the meanwhile, given I've been meaning to read this for ages and figured this was a good chance to do so. Books I'm waiting on are:

The Company (KJ Parker) - Book of the month, somehow couldn't find it anywhere locally
Pushing Ice (Alastair Reynolds) - Now that I'm getting back into him
Storm Front (Jim Butcher) - Another author I've been meaning to try for a long time
Cyteen (CJ Cherryh) - I've been looking for this for ages, finally seems to be available again
Byzantium: v. 1 (John Julius Norwich) - For the history nerd in me

So that's probably my entire October taken up right there :) Looks to be a good month.
 
I am reading Gardens of the Moon, by Steven Erikson.

Yes, I'm taking the plunge. Wish me luck :)
 
LOL. Best of luck, metalprof. You might be gone some time..... :)

Mark
 
I finished Steven Erikson's Deadhouse Gates last night. I loved it. It was great. Even though I'm itching to continue with Memories of Ice, I'm going to read Fiona McIntosh's Royal Exile first.

metalprof said:
I am reading Gardens of the Moon, by Steven Erikson.
Click to expand...

I think you're going to like it very much :). One thing to bear in mind, as I said in a blog entry (Lost in the Vastness of the Malazan World?), is that Erikson writes, I'm quoting the author, in a style that conveyed a sense of vastness, with a strong flavour of realism where not all answers are forthcoming, not all truths survive their utterance, and sometimes mystery abides no matter how desperate we all are for an end to the questions.
 
While we're all talking about Erikson, I'd like to comment on something I noticed in my re-read. It's very seldom a re-read of a book like as much as I liked Midnight Tides the first time lives up to expectations on the second one, but the book is absolutely incredible. It's like everything Erikson struggled with in his other books (with the exception of the timeline, that's still a mess) he suddenly became a master at. I found in every book other than MT his characters felt like recycled cardboard. Suddenly, they become the best part of the book.

I think the book is Malazan at its absolute peak, especially with a disappointing HoC before and the next book in the same location (you'd think once he nailed the characters once he'd be able to go back and get them again), Reaper's Gale was also disappointing. If Erikson could write every book like Midnight Tides, to me he'd be far and away better than the rest of the genre.

Anyways, on tap for me this month is The Bonehunters, The Company because I miss commenting in the book club, and I've been on re-reads since I read the Scar in July and I really want to read something fresh, and I'll see if I can get through Crossroads of Twilight and Knife of Dreams this month on my Jordan re-read as well.
 
Nearing page 400 of Watership Down. Wow - I love this book. The tension just built and built as the intrepid rabbits moved closer to achieving their goal and ensuring their longterm survival. I liked how the author used a thunderstorm to complement it. This book is no joke and is so wonderfully written that I think it would appeal to a wide range of fantasy fans.
Cheers all.
 
I just finished and enjoyed Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, a stand alone novel. I read this book after finishing Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy which I believe is fantastic, utilizing a magic system that is unique, very creative, and well done.

I am currently re-reading Knife of Dreams from The Wheel of Time series in anticipation of The Gathering Storm being released later this month.
 
I'm reading the Nine Princes of Amber right now after seeing so many positive reviews I thought I'd check it out. I'm only 100 pages in but -well that's nearly the entire book. After reading mostly epics and series the last few years, it's really hard to adjust to the pacing of a novel this short. It's like living off a steady diet of ten course meals for a year and then hitting Wendy's for a Baconator special. Just when you start getting into it you discover your plates empty and your going to have to order another if you want to continue. I'm enjoying it, but when I'm normally finishing off the appetizer and deciding whether I like the characters or not, I find myself nearly out of fries. It's a little different with this being a serial but still the pacing has been a real difficult adjustment as well as the limited character development. Some cool idea but with all the pyschedelic imagery I'm thinking I should be on something like LSD to get the full effect.
 
I did my 4th reread of The Lies of Locke Lamora. Damn! That book is good. On the 4th time around it's still fresh, funny and exciting. Now I'm reading Red Seas again.
 
Seegee said:
I did my 4th reread of The Lies of Locke Lamora. Damn! That book is good. On the 4th time around it's still fresh, funny and exciting. Now I'm reading Red Seas again.
Click to expand...
Along with Abercrombie, these books are also some that I'm interested in possibly picking up... but I am slightly turned off by the fact that there will apparently be 7 books in the series, and then another series of 7 books as well. I think I'm getting a little tired of super long series... Are these possible to read as stand alones?
 
Evil Agent said:
Along with Abercrombie, these books are also some that I'm interested in possibly picking up... but I am slightly turned off by the fact that there will apparently be 7 books in the series, and then another series of 7 books as well. I think I'm getting a little tired of super long series... Are these possible to read as stand alones?
Click to expand...

Everybody says The Lies of Locke Lamora is a stand alone, but I have my reservations. I am going to wait and see when the seventh books is published.
 
Just finished the first Mistborn book, and started The Blade Itself, I also have The Way of Shadows waiting on my bookshelf. Having great expectations of both!
 
Just finished Revenant (Book Seven of Indigo) last night. Didn't know what to think of it at first, since it seemed to lack the atmosphere of some of the previous books, but it soon got back on track and was very enjoyable. I'd usually take a bit of a break between each book in the Indigo series, because I'm trying to make it last, but at this point I kinda just want to know how it all ends. So, I'm moving straight on to Aisling (book eight).
 
Finished Nine Princes of Amber last night- it was a lot different than I expected but I definetly enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to the next one but I rarely read a series straight through. So instead I started in on to Le Guin's EarthSea Saga.
 
I'm reading "System of the World" by Neal Stephenson right now. I had hoped to finish the series by this week so that I could start the book of the month, but I'm going to need at least another week.

At this rate I don't think I will finish it until the 15th.

But, I have to say that I've loved this series.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Sponsors


We try to keep the forum as free of ads as possible, please consider supporting SFFWorld on Patreon


Your ad here.
Back
Top