January 2016: What Are You Reading?

[ratsy]

I finished The City and the Stars by Clarke at the start of the month. I seem to find I much prefer the first half of Clarke's books, and that the endings fall a little flat for me. I am 3/4 of the way through The End of All Things by Scalzi and am not enjoying it nearly as much as the rest of his books.

 

[Hex]

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. It starts really well, but I'm struggling a little with the switches between POV.

I am really interested in one -- Elias's -- and much less interested in Laia's. In fact, I have skipped a couple of her POV sections to get back to Elias's story. Laia's a bit whiny, which is probably one of the reasons I'm not so keen on her. I hope it balances out, or or I'll end up reading only half the story...

 

[HareBrain]

Finished Steven Erikson's The Bonehunters. Would have been a good story at half its length, but 1200 pages!?! Now moved straight on to Reaper's Gale (book 7/10), which I hoped would be shorter, but no -- 1250!! I've just got a kind of head-down, belligerent determination about it now, like someone walking five miles into the teeth of said gale to get to a pub. Hoping the beer's good when I get there.

 

[Mark Ragland]

Finished Darkness Falls by Kyle Mills.

Started By Schism, Rent Asunder, the second book in the Safehold series by David Weber.

 

[Bick]

I'm on summer holiday, camping, and reading about a novel every day or two. I'm a bit worried I've brought insufficient literature. just read a Wodehouse Jeeves novel, now about to start Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg. This was written bang in the middle of his purple patch, in 1970.

 

[hardsciencefanagain]

Silverberg had a purple patch??.I liked TOG,By the way

 

[iansales]

Just started Flesh & Wires by Jackie Hatton this morning - see description here. (And yes, I'm back - after some time away )

 

[tobl]

good c

Finished Darkness Falls by Kyle Mills.

Started By Schism, Rent Asunder, the second book in the Safehold series by David Weber.

good choices

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

Finished Steven Erikson's The Bonehunters. Would have been a good story at half its length, but 1200 pages!?! Now moved straight on to Reaper's Gale (book 7/10), which I hoped would be shorter, but no -- 1250!! I've just got a kind of head-down, belligerent determination about it now, like someone walking five miles into the teeth of said gale to get to a pub. Hoping the beer's good when I get there.

That's exactly how I felt but I put Reaper's Gale back on the shelf. I didn't have the enthusiasm for it after battling through The Bonehunters. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on Reapers Gale.

 

[HareBrain]

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on Reapers Gale.

I don't think you're going to get them, alas. I read about 50 pages last night, and it was all either new people I didn't care about (more new people!! Is there anyone in his world he hasn't used as a viewpoint character?) or people we've met before and who I've largely stopped caring about. I've pretty much lost track during Bonehunters of who's where, who they support and what they're supposed to be doing. There are some questions I'd like answered, but the thought of slogging through 4000+ more pages to get the answers (or not, from what I've heard) is too off-putting. I'll use the time to read ten other books instead.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I'm on summer holiday, camping, and reading about a novel every day or two. I'm a bit worried I've brought insufficient literature. just read a Wodehouse Jeeves novel, now about to start Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg. This was written bang in the middle of his purple patch, in 1970.

Silverberg had a purple patch??.I liked TOG,By the way

I would say that what we are calling Silverberg's "purple patch" was his greatest period of creativity. Downward to the Earth, A Time of Changes, The Book of Skulls, Dying Inside, "Born With the Dead," and so on. The Tower of Glass may not be at the absolute top of the list, but it's very good.

I have just started The Warriors by Sol Yurick (1965), source of the 1979 cult film, and supposedly based on The Persian Expedition by Xenophon, which I just read. So far it's well-written, but I don't see the inspiration except very, very loosely. (Street gangs in New York City = Greek warriors.) This edition, published recently, has a long afterword by the author about Xenophon and the film, so that should be interesting.

 

[Hex]

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. It starts really well, but I'm struggling a little with the switches between POV.

I am really interested in one -- Elias's -- and much less interested in Laia's. In fact, I have skipped a couple of her POV sections to get back to Elias's story. Laia's a bit whiny, which is probably one of the reasons I'm not so keen on her. I hope it balances out, or or I'll end up reading only half the story...

I take it back. I am now sufficiently interested in Laia's POV segments to read them, though sometimes I skim. Elias's are much more gripping.

What bothers/ interests me about this is why I am so much more interested in his sections than hers. It may be the different voice (though they're not massively different), or the different story (duh!); it may be that she's still very much a victim, although one who is struggling -- fearfully -- towards fighting the system, whereas his victimhood lies much less heavily on him.

(anyway, after a bit of a dry patch where I was only marginally interested in the books I was reading (another slew of romances that got a bit tired), I am completely caught up in this one. What a relief. I thought I was going to have to break into Ash and Silver, but it looks like I can spend a bit more time wallowing in pleasurable anticipation)

 

[HareBrain]

I don't think you're going to get them, alas. I read about 50 pages last night, and it was all either new people I didn't care about (more new people!! Is there anyone in his world he hasn't used as a viewpoint character?) or people we've met before and who I've largely stopped caring about. I've pretty much lost track during Bonehunters of who's where, who they support and what they're supposed to be doing. There are some questions I'd like answered, but the thought of slogging through 4000+ more pages to get the answers (or not, from what I've heard) is too off-putting. I'll use the time to read ten other books instead.

Sounded like my mind was pretty much made up there, didn't it? Yet somehow I found myself giving Reaper's Gale another go last night, and got quite into it. So I guess @crooksy73 will get my thoughts after all.

 

[Vertigo]

Jupiter War by Neal Asher - a great end to the Owner trilogy. More here.
End of Empires by Toby Frost - Space Captain Smith once again have tea fuelled fun in the British Space Empire. Huge fun. more here.

Currently reading Pelquin's Comet by Ian Whates which has started very promisingly.

 

[tobl]

alex archer the mortality principal, greig beck hammer of god and kraken risiing and now bryon morrigan acheron

 

[biodroid]

The Dragonbone Chair - Tad Williams

 

[Allegra]

The Valley of Fear, the only Sherlock Holmes novel I hadn't read before. Fantastic.

 

[Hex]

Angel by L.A. Weatherly. Fun, so far, and a bit freaky.

I'm still dreaming (and thinking about) An Ember in the Ashes. It ended well, but strangely. Throughout Elias's sections were more interesting than Laia's, but I think that was because he was really making choices, whereas she was being driven by circumstances from one crisis to another.

 

[WaylanderToo]

Child of Fire - Harry Connolly. An urban fantasy I guess (but, thankfully, does not appear to be one of those turgid 'paranormal romance' novel masquerading as UF/horror) moving along at quite a clip and I'm enjoying it

 

[ratsy]

I finished The End of All Things by Scalzi and was under-whelmed by it.

I have Malice by John Gwynne here from the library and will most likely start it. Im really looking forward to a new big fantasy series! Heard great things about him.