It can't be July, already? Can it? Oh well, let's hear what you're reading!

[GOLLUM]

I need to choose more books by favs like that now that i can only read late nights at work. Hard staying awake at work with books that are boring reads

Wait 'til you get a load of my recommended listings coming up soon in the new thread.....

It's guaranteed to sizzle your mind......

Vertigo may need a wheelbarrow to cart new purchases around in by the time I'm done....

 

[Vertigo]

Ah no actually, just another hard drive to store them - that's one of the reasons I switched to e-books!

 

[GOLLUM]

Clever you!......

 

[Rodders]

Just finished Dan Abnett's "The Armour of Contempt". Insertion and Mayhem. Exactly what the Ghosts are all about.

Now on to "Only in Death".

 

[HoopyFrood]

This'll make someone (or no one) happy.

G.R.R Martin - A Game of Thrones

 

[Pyan]

Is that a first or a re-read, Hoops?

 

[HoopyFrood]

First time.

 

[GOLLUM]

What took you so long hoops?.......

 

[mosaix]

Just finished Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman and just started The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

 

[Mary Hoffman]

I am reading Brooklyn by Colm Toibin at present and enjoying it very much. Previously Jackie Kay's autobiography Red Dust Road, which she has just read on Radio 4 as Book of the Week. Next Michelle Lovric's The Book of Human Skin.

 

[Connavar]

Im reading Priest the 5th book in a series by Ken Bruen,

A fitting time to read an irish book about Priests with the whole pedo scandals stuck in your memory.

The book started with a powerful negative poem about Priests and the unholy things they have done to kids......

 

[Nikitta]

Currently reading The Loyal Subject (Heinrich Mann) and am impressed with the author's ability to create a main character that I feel like punching so much while still making me want to keep reading the book.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I've finished Mistborn, a.k.a. The Final Empire, the first in Brandon Sanderson's trilogy. For those interested (GOLLUM?), here are some brief thoughts.

I liked it. Quite a lot, actually.

It's quite different from Abercrombie (who's works I've recently read). There's significantly less violence, for instance, and very little blood (oh, how I miss the blood...) and Sanderson focuses a lot more on the magic (Allomancy in Sander-speak), where in The First Law it was of little more than passing concern. This was my second Sanderson novel (having previously read his stand-alone debut, Elantris) and I can already see where he gets his reputation for unique magic systems. Both the Aons from Elantris, and Allomancy are very unique from other magic systems (as well as from each other) and interesting ways of explaining how the capable people are able to do what they do.

Another difference are the characters. Sanderson's characters aren't nearly as grey as Abercrombie's; but this isn't to say that they're uninteresting. They are, in their own way, but don't have the moral ambiguity of Logen or Glokta. Having said that, Kelsier is a protagonist I like a lot. Vin, meanwhile, is a little more stereotypical (scrawny little thing, from a poor and humble background, seemingly weak and pathetic, but who finds out that she's a Mistborn of considerable potential) but is still appealing in her own way.

The plot is quite interesting, the Lord Ruler's identity a little bit of a surprise, and the pace is always moving fast enough that you don't feel like the characters are dragging their feet. The end is a *little* anti-climactic, but it's not too bad considering Sanderson had to leave the window open for the two sequels. The magic, as stated above, is very well thought out, and the mechanics of it are explained in way that makes it almost... logical.

All in all, I thought it was a really good novel. I'll wait until I finish the trilogy to judge how it compares to The First Law, but by itself, I would give Mistborn: The Final Empire an 8.5/10. Definitely worth picking up.

And so, now I shall be reading the second Mistborn novel, The Well of Ascension.

 

[GOLLUM]

Currently reading The Loyal Subject (Heinrich Mann) and am impressed with the author's ability to create a main character that I feel like punching so much while still making me want to keep reading the book.

Presumably you've read works by his more famous younger brother Thomas Mann, who is of course a major figure in German literature and author of such masterpieces as The Magic Mountain and Doctor Faustus and the short Death In Venice.

Continuing on with the family theme, I can also suggest you check out Thomas Mann's lesser known son Klaus, who also wrote, including the classic Mephisto, of which I was fortuitously able to source a copy of earlier this year......

@Devil's Advocate: Thanks for the review. 8.5 stars is a fairly high rating, hence my increased interest in obtaining a copy of this trilogy for myself. I shall watch with interest your subsequent review of Books 2 and 3..

 

[Nikitta]

Presumably you've read works by his more famous younger brother Thomas Mann, who is of course a major figure in German literature and author of such masterpieces as The Magic Mountain and Doctor Faustus and the short Death In Venice.

Continuing on with the family theme, I can also suggest you check out Thomas Mann's lesser known son Klaus, who also wrote, including the classic Mephisto, of which I was fortuitously able to source a copy of earlier this year......

Actually, I haven't read anything by either of these two. In fact, I only discovered The Loyal Subject because I saw it at a library sale and it looked interesting - plus I recalled having heard it mentioned a few times. I recently borrowed some books by Italo Calvino and Albert Camus at the library and when I go to return those books, I'll look for works by Thomas and Klaus Mann.

 

[GOLLUM]

Actually, I haven't read anything by either of these two. In fact, I only discovered The Loyal Subject because I saw it at a library sale and it looked interesting - plus I recalled having heard it mentioned a few times. I recently borrowed some books by Italo Calvino and Albert Camus at the library and when I go to return those books, I'll look for works by Thomas and Klaus Mann.

OH OH....which Calvino did you get? I have all of his books published in English, being one of my all time favourite authors!!! Camus I have a number of books inlcuding The Plague....

 

[Pyan]

Re-reading my way through Julian May's septology about the Galactic Milieu, the Intervention and the Saga of Pliocene Exile...

 

[Nikitta]

OH OH....which Calvino did you get? I have all of his books published in English, being one of my all time favourite authors!!! Camus I have a number of books inlcuding The Plague....

I got Invisible Cities - having recently read If on a Winter's Night a Traveler and liking it, so I had been looking for more books by him at the library.

By an odd coincidence, when I borrowed If on a Winter's Night... I found a receipt in the book which showed that the last person to borrow this book borrowed it together with The Fall by Albert Camus and that he had left the receipt of borrowing these two books inside this one. Liking If on a Winter's night... so much, I decided that someone reading it would be bound to have good taste in litterature, so I borrowed The Fall, read it and liked it enough to want to read more by Camus. I have now borrowed The Plague, which you just now mentioned.

To complete the sequence of coincidences, I was reading If on a winter's night... for class - this class being about litterature and how to inspire people to read certain types of litterature.

I'm reading these book in their Danish translations, but am looking up the English titles to write this, so I'm sure we're talking about the same books.

Once I have finished The Loyal Subjet and read Invisible Cities and The Fall - plus two by a Danish author you wouldn't know (It's my vacation and I have decided to spend it reading), I'll go back to the library and then I'll probably get something by Thomas Mann. Looking at the library online, it seems I'll be out of luck looking for fiction by Klaus Mann, but they do have a couple of titles by Thomas.

 

[GOLLUM]

I got Invisible Cities - having recently read If on a Winter's Night a Traveler and liking it, so I had been looking for more books by him at the library.

To complete the sequence of coincidences, I was reading If on a winter's night... for class - this class being about litterature and how to inspire people to read certain types of litterature.

Once I have finished The Loyal Subjet and read Invisible Cities and The Fall - plus two by a Danish author you wouldn't know (It's my vacation and I have decided to spend it reading), I'll go back to the library and then I'll probably get something by Thomas Mann.

Weel....you have probably picked Calvino's 2 indisputable masterpieces there so that was well done...

Klaus lived very much in the shadow of his father and didn't write many novels, so it doesn't surprise me you would find it hard to source his work.

Being a student of world Literature please tell me the Danish author anyway. You can PM me on that if you like. Danish authors whose work I have inlcude Peter Hoeg, Hans Christian Anderson and Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen). Authors from your neighbors that I have include Tove Jansson, Astrid Lindgren, Selma Lagerlof, Silanpaa, Kivi and Lonnrot.

Cheers.

 

[soulsinging]

This was my second Sanderson novel (having previously read his stand-alone debut, Elantris) and I can already see where he gets his reputation for unique magic systems. Both the Aons from Elantris, and Allomancy are very unique from other magic systems (as well as from each other) and interesting ways of explaining how the capable people are able to do what they do.

The magic, as stated above, is very well thought out, and the mechanics of it are explained in way that makes it almost... logical.

I've never understood why fantasy readers seem to rate this as important. Do people really get turned on by having new or "logical" magic (seems like kind of an oxymoron to me)? I'm not trying to attack you personally, but every positive review I've read of this series praises endlessly the inventiveness of the magic system and I can't imagine anything less relevant in terms of making me want to read a given book. I've avoided the series because I feel like if I'm going to get lessons in how something works, I might as well have it be about physics or something I might actually get some value from, hehe. Nothing else about the series has ever sounded terribly unique or compelling to me... I'll be curious to hear what you think about it going forward. It's been so highly rated here, on amazon, and on goodreads and yet all the reviews I read make it seem so underwhelming and it's a big time investment!