Reading in October 2009

I got to about halfway through Tigana and decided that it just wasn't worth my time to keep reading any more. Despite really wanting to enjoy it (hence why I gave it so much of a chance) the more I read of it, the more I felt my enjoyment fading. After getting midway through a chapter and suddenly realizing I had no idea where the characters were, who they were with, or why, simply because I had gotten so bored with the prose that my mind had been failing to pay attention, I decided it was time to stop.

I think I'll probably avoid any further books by this author in the future, since this is the second of his that I've been unable to finish. At least I did find Tigana to be better than the Fionavar series.

Moving on then from Tigana, I'm currently just getting started on a book called Paradise. Not overly sure what this book is about (though I'm pretty certain its fantasy), I do know that I've read other titles by its author (Chaz Brenchley) and had mixed opinions. So far, I've only read the first chapter but I'm already enjoying it a lot more than Tigana.
 
BrightStar said:
I got to about halfway through Tigana and decided that it just wasn't worth my time to keep reading any more. Despite really wanting to enjoy it (hence why I gave it so much of a chance) the more I read of it, the more I felt my enjoyment fading. After getting midway through a chapter and suddenly realizing I had no idea where the characters were, who they were with, or why, simply because I had gotten so bored with the prose that my mind had been failing to pay attention, I decided it was time to stop.

I think I'll probably avoid any further books by this author in the future, since this is the second of his that I've been unable to finish. At least I did find Tigana to be better than the Fionavar series.
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I am really disappointed to hear this as it is on my to be read pile and I have heard nothing but good things about it and the author. I hope I don't have the same experience.

I am glad that you have found something good to read. Nothing is worth the misery of plodding through a book you don't care for.
 
DurzoBlint said:
I am really disappointed to hear this as it is on my to be read pile and I have heard nothing but good things about it and the author. I hope I don't have the same experience.

I am glad that you have found something good to read. Nothing is worth the misery of plodding through a book you don't care for.
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Hopefully you'll have a better experience than I did. I really wanted to like Tigana, but there was just too much about it that, in the end, I couldn't put up with. In small doses, it wasn't so bad, and I did find some of it enjoyable, so it's not all bad, but I want something to read that's good enough to keep me occupied for hours at a time, and Tigana doesn't fit for me. I think some of the themes of the book are interesting, and though I failed to really connect with any of the characters, I did think some of them were at least partially interesting.

You may well enjoy Tigana, so I'd still try to go into it with an open mind.
 
In terms of Tigana and Guy Gavriel Kay, he does seem to receive a lot of high praise... but if you read through these threads closely, there's a lot of mixed reviews as well.

I've read all his books so far, and my least favourite was the Fionavar Tapestry. It had some neat ideas, but (IMO) was poorly executed. I read Tigana next, and while it was a big improvement, I thought it was still very flawed. My favourites were A Song for Arbonne and The Lions of Al-Rassan; The Sarantine Mosaic and Last Light of the Sun were decent.

I think there are some big problems with Kay's writing (a tendency towards forced melodrama and sentimentality in particular), but there are also some really great moments of characterization and historical accuracy.

I think one's enjoyment of Kay's books may well depend on one's interest in the history of the country being portrayed. Again, Tigana = Italy, Al-Rassan = Spain, Arbonne = France, Sarantium = Constantinople, and The Last Light of the Sun = Welsh/Anglo-Saxon/Viking culture. If any of those strikes your interest, I'd recommend checking out one of those books.
 
Just for clarification, Evil, you aren't suggesting that interest in the country's history is required for enjoyment, right? I don't have any specific interest in the histories of Spain or Constantinople, but I enjoyed both The Lions of Al-Rassan (enjoying it right now in fact) and The Sarantine Mosaic very much.
 
Obtuse said:
Just for clarification, Evil, you aren't suggesting that interest in the country's history is required for enjoyment, right? I don't have any specific interest in the histories of Spain or Constantinople, but I enjoyed both The Lions of Al-Rassan (enjoying it right now in fact) and The Sarantine Mosaic very much.
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If you know the history you know how it is going to end. I would not bother with reading The Lions of Al-Rassan if I knew the history :eek:
 
Currently reading Contract by Si Spurrier. Actually not sure if it goes here, but when recently murdered rise up, heal their wounds, and start cussing you, I figure the book has some supernatural aspects to it.
 
Obtuse said:
Just for clarification, Evil, you aren't suggesting that interest in the country's history is required for enjoyment, right? I don't have any specific interest in the histories of Spain or Constantinople, but I enjoyed both The Lions of Al-Rassan (enjoying it right now in fact) and The Sarantine Mosaic very much.
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No, it's not required at all. I'm just suggesting that if anyone happens to be more interested in the history of one of these particular countries, then perhaps they'd enjoy that specific book more than some of the others.
 
Bought Joe Schreiber's Death Troopers, largely on the strength of its cover (which is awesome) and concept (zombies and Star Wars!!) and knocked it out in less than an hour last night.

It was... uh... well.

I'd never read a Star Wars novel before, and will likely never read one again, and we've just had a whole thread about how tie-in authors are all different individuals and the results from one shouldn't be generalized to another bla bla, but I do wonder how much of my reading experience was governed by the line's restrictions. Specifically for two reasons:

(1) The good: there are two prominent movie characters who appear in the novel and whose dialogue and characterization are very consistent and believable with their movie appearances. It was a little weird to see them in the novel because there wasn't really any need for them to be there and their presence tended to let out some of the tension that the story was supposed to generate, but they were well rendered, so that part was good. I am guessing that house style looks semi-closely at the depiction of movie characters so they don't stray too far from canon.

(2) The bad: the book was written at about a ninth-grade reading level. Simple sentences, simplistic characterization, lots of repetitive word use (I think about half the chapters ended with some version of "That was when [imaginary dramatic drum roll] the doors blew open!/he heard the screaming!/he realized he wasn't alone!!/the author inserted yet another one-sentence sorta-cliffhanger!!!" It went from dramatic to annoying to ridiculously funny really fast.)

Apart from that, it was a decently okay-ish zombies-in-space novel, I guess. I dunno. I was expecting a lot more than what it turned out to be, which was a fast but very superficial read that didn't really have any surprises on either the "zombies" or the "space" halves of the equation. The final twist was copped from half a dozen other sources, including another fairly prominent SF franchise's movie, and was neither scary nor surprising.

Overall I don't regret reading the book but I do regret buying it in hardcover, even if it was on sale at Borders, because it's a one-hour disposable read at best and doesn't offer anything new to anyone moderately well-versed in the genre. So it wasn't bad, but it had the potential to be a lot better than it was and that unfulfilled potential left me pretty disappointed in the end.

Cover's still great, though.
 
Finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The book is one big repository of powerful emotions. Telling the story by Death is a brilliant idea. Probably one the best books I read in the last 20 years. A good demonstration of how WWII looked to ordinary Germans.
Cannot decide what to read next because I am still with Liesel Meminger...
 
I got a good portion into Redemption Ark before being tempted by Charlie Huston's My Dead Body. It's a bit of a step up from the last book, which was mostly setup. The final book in the series had plenty of action and plot resolution as well as resolutions for most of the major characters and players. Joe Pitt got some character evolution without changing too much. On the negative side, the book dragged in a couple places while skimping in others. The ending for Joe was a little surprising for Huston, but was believable. Definitely a series to be recommended.

Now back to Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds.
 
I finally finished The Lions of Al-Rassan tonight. It was everything I recalled loving about The Sarantine Mosaic, but even better. Makes me wish Kay were a bit more prolific.

Next up, The Paladin by Cherryh
 
While not as excellent as the first book in Juliet Marillier's Sevenwaters trilogy, Son Of The Shadows was still a great read with plenty of poignant moments, great characterizations and a gripping plot unfolding over several generations. I'll get to the final installment soon, very soon. If Juliet Marillier keeps up the quality, she just might get in to my top five favorite fantasy authors.
 
Oh! The Book Theif is one of the best books ever!
Very special, emotional, and.... truthful.
I enjoyed it so much that it was hard to appreciate anything else for quite a long time afterwards.
 
LaMattie said:
Oh! The Book Theif is one of the best books ever!
Very special, emotional, and.... truthful.
I enjoyed it so much that it was hard to appreciate anything else for quite a long time afterwards.
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Absolutely true..
 
Nearly finished my 7th reading of The Two Towers. What can I say? This book just gets better and better. It's ridiculous!

One thing I've noticed on this 7th reading, however, is that I enjoy the dialogue sections more and more, yet I'm finding the landscape descriptions a little tedious (to the point where I've started skimming!). I read a recent quote where someone had estimated that nearly 50% of The Lord of the Rings is landscape description. That sounds like a high number, but I've been paying particularly close attention to this, and I think that number could very well be accurate. There's one section in particular, when Frodo/Sam/Gollum are trekking through Ithilien (shortly before meeting Faramir), where Tolkien spends nearly 2 pages actually listing every single type of plant and flower in the area! Still, part of what I love about Tolkien is how eccentric and uncompromising his style is.
 
Evil Agent said:
Nearly finished my 7th reading of The Two Towers. What can I say? This book just gets better and better. It's ridiculous!

One thing I've noticed on this 7th reading, however, is that I enjoy the dialogue sections more and more, yet I'm finding the landscape descriptions a little tedious (to the point where I've started skimming!).
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Two Towers is my favourite of the three. And I agree, at times the landscape description can get to be a little much. I've been known to skim a bit when re-reading LotR. :o
 
After getting sidetracked for a while this month, I finally had a chance to finish off Greg Keyes' The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone. I really wish he had of extended the ending. It could have really used an extra volume to really finish the series off in style. Still a great series.

Up next is a quick hyperspace jump into a couple Timothy Zahn Star Wars books and then right back into some, hopefully, excellent fantasy series. Namely Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn and Carol Berg's The Bridge of D'Arnath.
 
Finished Guards! Guards! and Eric by Pratchett last week. Guards! Guards! was awesome, I really liked the City Watch characters; Eric was okay, although definitely one of the weakest Discworld novels so far.

Onto Dreamsongs by GRRM now, in the middle of reading The Hero at the moment. Interesting stuff so far, nice to see how he started out.
 
Astra_ said:
Finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The book is one big repository of powerful emotions. Telling the story by Death is a brilliant idea. Probably one the best books I read in the last 20 years. A good demonstration of how WWII looked to ordinary Germans.
Cannot decide what to read next because I am still with Liesel Meminger...
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After getting over The Book Thief, I decided to read some Sci-Fi. Haven't read any Sci-fi for almost 2 years.
 
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