Reading in October 2009

[Astra_]

Finally finished the Indigo series yesterday. Very rewarding read.

Is it 8 books Indigo series by Louise Cooper?

 

[DurzoBlint]

Just finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Not impressed, I guess I just expected more from a Pulitzer Prize winning book but, sadly it didn't leave much of an impression with me. Not to say I didn't take anything from it. I just feel that it didn't live up to the hype that surrounded it.

Starting A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin in a few minutes. Looking forward to it.

 

[Randy M.]

Originally Posted by Randy M.:
Pulled out a couple of collections of Edgar Allan Poe's stories, The Poe Reader and The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe -- the former was a bit easier on the eyes, the latter more ... um ... complete --
Randy M.

I picked up a complete works of his earlier this year myself...thanks to that Halloween thread I've been thinking of giving some of his tales a read. I've read most of his most famous tales but there are still a lot I haven't touched. Perhaps they would make for a good bed time read so the kids can have something to think about while their trying to sleep - and I sneak outside to lightly tap at their window with a broken branch or two.

My kinda dad.

Randy M.

 

[Cranky Hamster]

A lot of mixed emotions/thoughts regarding that book.

Like what? I'm deciding whether I want to pick up Nights of Villjamur myself when it gets its U.S. debut. The reviews I've seen were mixed enough that I didn't feel compelled to order from overseas, but I'm still thinking "eh, maybe..." so would appreciate hearing your thoughts on what you liked and didn't like about this book.

 

[Winter]

Read and reviewed The Love We Share Without Knowing by Chistopher Barzak, which was an interesting book bogged down by the writing. Also reread and reviewed Escape From Hell! by Hal Duncan, which was as good as the first time around and that was excellent. Finished a couple stories from Songs of the Dying Earth, which is exceeding my expectations quite nicely. Started The Shadow of the Torturer, by Gene Wolfe, which would be my third attempt at the book. I tend to get sidetracked when trying to read it.

 

[DurzoBlint]

Like what? I'm deciding whether I want to pick up Nights of Villjamur myself when it gets its U.S. debut. The reviews I've seen were mixed enough that I didn't feel compelled to order from overseas, but I'm still thinking "eh, maybe..." so would appreciate hearing your thoughts on what you liked and didn't like about this book.

Well, let's see here:

1) He had an lizard/human hybrid race (best way to describe them I suppose) that had no reason for their creation other than to have a race that he created and was new to literature but, aside from a long life they served no purpose and we no different than humans.

2) Book was slower than dirt up until the last 60 pages or so where he goes into manic mode, so pacing was off. He tried to tie everything up in a nice bow.

3) Characters were bland.

4) Book just was something to read, nothing was all that impressive and stood out about it.

I'm sure there are people who will disagree me so, you can ask them what they thought but, that is what I thought of the book. I originally was going to purchase the second book in the series when it comes out but, now that I think about it. It's not worth my time or money.

 

[Eventine]

Read and reviewed The Love We Share Without Knowing by Chistopher Barzak, which was an interesting book bogged down by the writing.

Winter, by "writing" do you mean the style of prose? Have you read any of Barzak's other work that you could compare it to?

 

[Winter]

Winter, by "writing" do you mean the style of prose? Have you read any of Barzak's other work that you could compare it to?

The prose was all over the place throughout the novel, switching from workmanlike to beautiful at the drop of a dime and never reaching any sort of consistency. I felt that the first person narratives bore the brunt of it though, with most presenting a monotone narration that lacked emotion. The third person stories were better in this regard, but my issues with the inconsistent prose remained the same--or perhaps less so, since the quality of it never fell so low as it did in the first person stories.

I also felt that a couple of the stories were rushed or ended in such an abrupt manner that I was left to wonder just where the rest of the story disappeared to. In one case, the end was not only abrupt, but also ambiguous, leaving things permanently in the air (because the elements I speak of were not picked up or hinted at in one of the remaining stories) and completely ignoring a loose plot element that was mentioned several times throughout.

This is the first work of Barzak's that I have read, so the book (and my opinion) stands on its own.

 

[Eventine]

Thanks for the comment Winter - it's well thought out discussion like that which makes threads like this helpful.
I've previously read Barzak's One for Sorrow, hence my question on if you'd read his other work as I've been contemplating picking up this but wanted to see how it compared.
Thanks.

 

[Winter]

Thanks for the comment Winter - it's well thought out discussion like that which makes threads like this helpful.
I've previously read Barzak's One for Sorrow, hence my question on if you'd read his other work as I've been contemplating picking up this but wanted to see how it compared.
Thanks.

You have to be careful with my opinion though. I am a real stickler with prose and anything that annoys me will bring a book down quite a bit. Despite my disappointment with the book, I'd still give One For Sorrow a try. Though I would much prefer my library to have it.

 

[Sancho]

Finally finished The Gone-Away World. It started and ended well, but the 400 pages in the middle dragged on like a funeral. All in all, was left with the impression that the finished product and the first draft (complete with Harkaway's own notes-to-self) were one and the same, and that the book escaped the psychotic editing it so desperately needed because some bigwig thought it would make it more dynamic and cool to leave it in its jurassicly overgrown fatboy state.

Moved on to The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and so far (about a third of the way in) so good. No, not good. Brilliant. Sam Clay, one of the book's protagonists, has to be the most likeable character I've read in ages.

Also have Skeleton Crew on the go. Some of the stories are good, some are bad, and some are magnificent. Looking forward to his new novel.

 

[Seak]

Just finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Not impressed, I guess I just expected more from a Pulitzer Prize winning book but, sadly it didn't leave much of an impression with me. Not to say I didn't take anything from it. I just feel that it didn't live up to the hype that surrounded it.

Starting A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin in a few minutes. Looking forward to it.

To this day I have not been a fan of Dan Brown because I read The DaVinci Code right after A Game of Thrones. It looks like you may be suffering from the same problem. Nothing compares when you're in the middle of that series.

 

[thrinidir]

Readin' Matthew Woodring Stover's Blade of Tyshalle

 

[Jon Sprunk]

Just finished The Orchid Cage by Frank Herbert. I am currently reading War and Peace (Tolstoy) and Amanda Downum's The Drowning City (great title), which I am enjoying in large part due to the setting, which is a neat collision of Roman Imperial and SW Asian.

 

[molybdenum]

Getting near the end of my Malazan and Wheel of Time re-reads. I'm actually quite impressed with the Bonehunters, and can't really think why it got such bad press at the time. It doesn't have anywhere near the emotional value that Deadhouse Gates, Memories of Ice, or Midnight Tides did, but it still is a well paced and well put together book, that for me, is answering more questions than is creating. (Though this is my re-read.)

What is probably a mistake on my part is that I'm reading Warbreaker by Sanderson at the same time as Malazan. The book is clearly Sanderson, but it's certainly not him at his finest. Vivenna has to be the worst character he's ever created. Just awful. And it's not helping that he's explaining absolutely everything she's thinking at any given time. Compared to Malazan, where I've been challenged to think about characters motivations and feelings, Sanderson just writes stuff you can easily pick up by reading. It's not a matter of show not tell, he's showing, and then telling what he has just shown. If this doesn't go away in the Stormlight Archive, I may have to re-evaluate him as my early pick for writer of the next decade. He's still a brilliant writer, he just has some flaws he has to sort out.

Starting to look forward to what else to read when my days of Malazan and Wheel of Time reading are over. I'll probably pick up Hobb and go through that. Other than that, I'm waiting for paperbacks of the Warded Man, (which I hear only good things about, except from LukeB, who seems to have exact opposite tastes to what mine are), Nights of Villjamur...(sounds like a good book, and a very attractive title to go along with it), an under 20$ version of Last Argument of Kings, a mmpb of the Judging Eye, and I still need to read more Mieville. That should do me for a while. If not, Shadowbridge and Lord Tophet are on my to read list as well.

 

[tyriseus]

Just finished reading Ursula Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea. I enjoyed it but it seemed rather bare boned - I would have preferred a little more dialogue as a lot happened in only 200 pages. Most authors would probably turn this into at least 500 pages and in a way I think I would have preferred that. But over all it was an enjoyable read - I'm not going to continue with the rest of the series yet - I'm moving on to Gemmell's Legend.

 

[Evil Agent]

Just finished reading Ursula Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea. I enjoyed it but it seemed rather bare boned - I would have preferred a little more dialogue as a lot happened in only 200 pages. Most authors would probably turn this into at least 500 pages and in a way I think I would have preferred that. But over all it was an enjoyable read.Legend.

Well, the book is considered YA isn't it? That might be why it seemed a little bare-boned. I personally liked how it was kind of short and sweet.

Getting near the end of my Malazan and Wheel of Time re-reads. I'm actually quite impressed with the Bonehunters, and can't really think why it got such bad press at the time. It doesn't have anywhere near the emotional value that Deadhouse Gates, Memories of Ice, or Midnight Tides did, but it still is a well paced and well put together book, that for me, is answering more questions than is creating.

I really liked Bonehunters, and I read it in 2 weeks which is way faster than usual for me (when it comes to Erikson).

 

[DurzoBlint]

To this day I have not been a fan of Dan Brown because I read The DaVinci Code right after A Game of Thrones. It looks like you may be suffering from the same problem. Nothing compares when you're in the middle of that series.

That very well could have been a problem but, the grammatical errors didn't help as I am an English teacher. I just kept me uninterested when the author used "dont and cant" instead of "don't and can't" that made me grind my teeth every time I saw it. It was like reading a text message from an 10th grader.

 

[suciul]

I finished "Leviathan" by S. Westerfeld; I enjoyed it quite a lot and the sequel is another big asap book. In an alternate Earth cca 1914, where the Great Powers are separated in "Darwinist" and "Clankers" following the "real history" pattern, Charles Darwin discovered both evolution and DNA and he and his disciples learned to splice genes and create astounding animals that are now used in day to day life - will leave to the reader to find out more, but Leviathan of the title is just a superb invention..

On the continent, the German engineers built powerful machines and using the Darwinist inspiration for form and function, they built sort of mechanical analogues - kind of like a steampunk Star Wars kind...

When Franz Ferdinand is assassinated, his 16 year old son Alek becomes a hunted person and he tries to escape in a powerful "walker" with the help of loyal Count Volger and several retainers.

Young Deryn Sharp used to enjoy her "tomboy" life with her father, but when he dies in an accident, she seems destined to a "woman's fate" unless with the help of her older brother Jaspert, junior officer in the Royal Air Force, she will manage to become "Dylan" Sharp and get admitted as a midshipman.

However at the middy trials, things do not go quite as expected, though "Dylan" keeps "his" head and manages to stay alive in a flying misadventure, only to be rescued over the Channel by Leviathan of the title; since "he" was brave and the rest of the exams are easy with "his" preparation - the flying part always was the make or break - Dylan remains aboard Leviathan as a middy and later when the ship is sent on a grand mission, Dylan becomes ship guide, cabin "boy" and all around gopher (including "not-quite-dog" walker of pet Tezza) for mysterious scientist Nora Barlow who seems to command a lot of power and influence "despite being a woman"...

And so the adventure begins and it's a non-stop page turner to the end, with great inventiveness and superb illustrations in the best Jules Verne style that accompany the text.

 

[Deleted member 16510]

Just finished John Scalzi's Zoe's Tale - I love the Old Man's War novels and he really gave Zoe a definite teenage voice in this one.

Started Pratchett's Unseen Academicals and it's flying by as his books usually do.

Not sure what to read after that, have a whole bunch on my shelf I wanna get to but can't decide...