Reading in October 2009

[Zsinj]

Just finished "The Crystal Cave", book 1 in the Merlin Trilogy by Mary Stewart. I gotta say that though I thoroughly enjoyed it, it seems to try a little too hard to be realistic,almost all the magic and mysticism seems to be shoved aside as Merlin is just depicted as a prophet and an engineer. It could have done with more intricate battle scenes as well. But, that being said, I still enjoyed it, and I'm now reading the second installment in the trilogy, "The Hollow Hills".

 

[NickeeCoco]

almost all the magic and mysticism seems to be shoved aside as Merlin is just depicted as a prophet and an engineer.

That's what I like about it. I like realism in my Arthurian legend. Maybe that's why I like Jack Whyte's series so much.

Oh, and you know it's not a trilogy, but a five book series? There's The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment, The Wicked Day, and The Prince and the Pilgrim. Though, the Wicked day follows Mordred and Arthur, while the last book follows a prince named Alexander who seeks justice from King Arthur in Camelot.
____________________

As to what I'm currently reading, I'm two-thirds of the way through Carol Berg's Revelation, the second book of the Rai-Kirah trilogy. I'm enjoying it, but I have to admit that it does drag at the point where I'm at in the story.

Spoiler

He's currently with the demons.

I'm finding it hard to believe how much this man goes through. One bad thing after another. He doesn't seem to get any reprieve. I'm also about 95% sure I know where this story is going. Berg doesn't seem to be concerned with originality with the actual story-line. The world building is excellent, though, as is the characterization. It's the latter that keeps me going. I've become emotionally invested in Seyonne, so I'm going to finish the trilogy. I just have to admit, though, that I find myself skimming a bit at the moment.

 

[PeterWilliam]

As to what I'm currently reading, I'm two-thirds of the way through Carol Berg's Revelation, the second book of the Rai-Kirah trilogy. I'm enjoying it, but I have to admit that it does drag at the point where I'm at in the story.

Spoiler

He's currently with the demons.

You're smack-dab in the midst of the worst part of that series, imo. The ending of that story and the series might be a bit less intuitive than you think.

 

[Raule]

Found myself in the mood for something wintery, so I picked up Betsy Tobin's Ice Land, a lovely blend of Norse mythology and Icelandic history (at least so far).

 

[PeterWilliam]

Just finished Dave Duncan's The Coming of Wisdom. A nice follow up and better than average middle book for a trilogy. I'm not sure if I'll finish the trilogy or pick up something else. Feeling real antsy in my reading of late. I need to pick up something with a strong hook.

 

[Seak]

Finished Before they are Hanged and I have to say it was better than The Blade Itself. Much more action and the characters are just that much more insane (in a good way). On to Last Argument of Kings.

 

[PeterWilliam]

I know what I need! An omnibus!! Reading Severian of the Guild and getting my first ever Gene Wolfe on, baby! Now life's good.

 

[Winter]

Just finished Canticle by Ken Scholes. I had issues with Lamentation when I read it earlier this year, feeling that is suffered from lackluster characterization and too much repetition. Canticle, I am happy to say, is a definite improvement over Lamentation, with those two issues from the first largely eliminated. The characterization is still a bit uneven, given that some characters are given quite a bit more time in the spotlight, but that is just a minor gripe.

 

[Corporal Blues]

After getting about 350 pages into The Court of the Air and giving up...as much as I wanted to like the book, I couldn't get past Hunt's poor writing...I moved on to the much better and more interesting Mainspring by Jay Lake. While it was much better than Hunt's book, it still wasn't amazing. I thought the book started out well, but lost steam about mid-way through, although it recovered a bit of that early momentum by the end. ONe thing for sure that I liked about the book was the Correct People. As a species/race they were very believable to me and were a source of great entertainment...On to Steinbeck's The Pearl now for a brief fantasy breather...this'll be my third time reading that one, and it gets better each time...I still gasp each time the scorpion falls into the baby's basket.

 

[Winter]

Currently reading Ian C. Esslemont's Night of Knives and I am finding it hard to retain interest in the book. Things look to be heating up in terms of the story, but I have been bored with it so far, finding it rather bland and uninteresting. The only positive thing I can say about the book thus far is Esslemont's description of Malaz Isle, which I am impressed by despite the relatively rare (so far) bits of description for it. The many references to Temper's mysterious past is enough to make me sigh each and every time and it is getting to the point where I have stopped trying to decipher where a flashback begins and ends. The only thing that has kept me reading is that the book is turning out to be a quick read, but even so, I might put it to the side and work on some other book. Madness of Flowers by Jay Lake is sitting on the top of my stack and I have been waiting some time for that, so that will probably be it.

 

[NickeeCoco]

You're smack-dab in the midst of the worst part of that series, imo. The ending of that story and the series might be a bit less intuitive than you think.

I hope so!

_______________

EDIT:

I now only have 75 or so pages left of Berg's Revelation. I want to tear through the rest of the pages and yet, at the same time, I want to stop. As I said earlier, Seyonne, the protagonist, has one piece of misfortune after another fall upon him. He is a figure of such sacrifice it's heart-wrenching. His characterization is done so well that I become emotionally drained with each new scene of sacrifice. I will be taking a break from this trilogy after I finish this book. I will finish it, but I need a break.

 

[PeterWilliam]

His characterization is done so well that I become emotionally drained with each new scene of sacrifice. I will be taking a break from this trilogy after I finish this book. I will finish it, but I need a break.

I wrote, essentially, the same thing in my review of that book. I needed at least one books worth of space before I went to the third and final. It left this reader feeling like someone had tied me to a truck and drove, slowly enough to drag, but fast enough to keep you on the ground, down several miles of dirt, country roads.

 

[DurzoBlint]

That's code for "we'll not have it anytime soon." It was out of stock a few months ago, too. The book has only been published in Australia and the book depository is based in the UK (though it has finally branched out to the US), so I really wouldn't expect them to have it (checked anyway though, and Ebay, Abe Books, and Alibris, though it has one copy in the US that is $28, plus the cost of shipping, which... yeah, no, not for a book that I am uncertain of). I've though about emailing the author and asking if there was any news on it being published in the UK or US, but then I remembered that he is Australian and they get pretty much get shafted when it comes to books and it just doesn't feel right. And really, I could order it from Australia if I were willing to pay that much for a book.

I am situated in South Korea, I know of a English book store that gets a lot of books via Australia. I'll ask if they can get the book and see what they are charging. If its decent I might be able to pick you up a copy and mail it to you. I'll check it out and let you know.

 

[DarthV]

Just started Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn. Definitely an interesting take on magic.

 

[BrightStar]

It seems I haven't posted in this topic for quite a while, which is sadly due to the fact that I just haven't read anything worth posting about lately.

Last I posted, I was reading Paradise, which despite having a mildly interesting start, soon became slow and tedious. In Paradise's defense though, I think my dislike of it was largely personal: I just didn't like the real world setting, and I found the Christian influence of the storyline a little bit too much for my tastes.

With Paradise turning out to be something of a letdown, I figured a change was in order. Next off of the top of my to read pile was The Wind Up Bird Chronicles. I don't know if it's of the fantasy genre, but it was certainly rather surreal and strange. Again, I started out thinking I was going to enjoy this one, but sadly found myself really struggling by about page 50. There was just so much about this story I didn't like: the pacing was horribly slow, I struggled to like any of the characters (or find them interesting---even the ones that I sensed were meant to be interesting) and felt they seemed very... unemotional. I get the strong sense that this is a book that requires time, effort and concentration in order to be able to appreciate and enjoy: all factors which I sadly lack at the moment.

Dissapointed by my run of recent failures, I returned to my to read pile today with something more like unease than the usual anticipation. So many books, and not one of them struck my interest.

So, what did I do? I ordered the last Sword of Truth book from Amazon!! Why oh why I thought that was a good idea, I'll never know. But I've been meaning to finish that series now for a long, long while, and I suspect that the thought of being able to celebrate not having to read another word from that series once I've finished the last book was more than a little involved in my decision to buy it.

I also picked up another 5 books, since those on my to read pile didn't really tempt me. And then I got an email from Amazon to inform me that my pre-ordered copy of the new book in the Tairen Soul series has been dispatched, as well as a book that features one of Carol Berg's short stories. So hopefully my reading dilema will soon be solved.

 

[Lynn]

I too have taken the plunge into the Malazan Empire---it's been quite a ride thus far. What Erikson does to and with his characters has left me laughing, crying (poor Toc the Younger) and everything in between. The books are so dense and imaginative--I love the different intelligent species.

Right now, I'm reading the 4th book 'House of Chains' --reading it slowly.
It is a challange going back and forth among the various plots/subplots:Whirlwind/Shaik, Karsa Orlong (I always say 'oolong 'when I read it--Karsa Oolong the tea of the Toblakai , Apsalar/Cutter, Trull Senegar/Onrack---my book is all bent up, let me tell you.

I may take a break when I'm done with HOC to read the next book in 'The Wheel of Time' series.

 

[Buddha]

Well in October, I reread the first 10 WoT books, will be starting Knife of Dreams today, also reread the Stand by King, while waiting for the last 3 books of WoT to show up in the Library

 

[Seak]

I too have taken the plunge into the Malazan Empire---it's been quite a ride thus far. What Erikson does to and with his characters has left me laughing, crying (poor Toc the Younger) and everything in between. The books are so dense and imaginative--I love the different intelligent species.

Right now, I'm reading the 4th book 'House of Chains' --reading it slowly.
It is a challange going back and forth among the various plots/subplots:Whirlwind/Shaik, Karsa Orlong (I always say 'oolong 'when I read it--Karsa Oolong the tea of the Toblakai , Apsalar/Cutter, Trull Senegar/Onrack---my book is all bent up, let me tell you.

I may take a break when I'm done with HOC to read the next book in 'The Wheel of Time' series.

I completely agree. I was taking a little break waiting for the newest books to come out and I just couldn't help but jump back into the Bonehunters this weekend. It's good to be back, so good.

I've even read some really good books lately, but Erikson's just amazing.

 

[suciul]

I had a period of reading great historical fiction (Wolf Hall, 4th read Place of Greater Safety both by H. Mantel, both big to huge and dense) while the sff reads were not great, just good (Nyphron Rising/Sullivan, Geas/Webb) to meh (Ars Memoriae/Bernobich) to bad (Vigilante/Reeve) , but I got a copy of the final draft of City Ruin/Newton (sequel to Nights Villjamur and due next June) and it's exactly what I needed to get back into a sff mood since it's just superb about 2/3 in; partly sequel, partly big time expansion of Nights this will be a major release of 2010.

I also got an arc of Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. Jeimisin and it starts great too, hope it keeps up; soon I hope to get an arc of Spellwright since that one sounds good

 

[BrightStar]

Part of my Amazon order arrived yesterday, and with it a title called Broken Links, Mended Lives , which is a compilation of short stories written by members of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers club. Ordinarily, I'd keep clear of short story collections, but this one featured a contribution by Carol Berg, who is one of my favorite authors, so I just had to make an exception.

I've been looking forwards to reading Carol's story very much, so when Broken Links, Mended Lives arrived yesterday, I set aside my current book (on which I've read only a few short chapters) and started eagerly on this one. Seeing as how these are all short stories, I was able to finish up Carol's story in one sitting. I thought I'd post my opinions on it for those of you that are fans.

I have to say that it wasn't the best piece of writing by Carol that I've ever read, but it was still very strong and enjoyable. The pacing was a little off, perhaps, and the characters failed to completely grab my sympathy. I know it's just a short story, but I have to admit that I've read other short stories by Carol and thought them a little better than this one.

One of the things I do love about Carol's writing is her ability to leave the reader with something to think about at its end, and this short story suceeded for me there, so I was pleased about that.

I was pleased to find that Carol's writing still inspires me to want to write myself. I love how effective her use of words and descriptions are at invoking an atmosphere, and I certainly found her world very believable and interesting.

If its the best story amongst the collection, then I don't think this title was worth my money, since it's good but not worth what I paid for it. But, if the other stories are of good quality (I haven't read them yet) then I'll be quite pleased with this purchase.