September: What have you been reading?

[The Judge]

The Copper Promise by Jen Williams. I've heard a lot of good things so am persevering but finding it tough going so far - lot of early PoV changes haven't helped. The main issue though is the MC feels like a D&D cartoon character - Danger! Impudence! Daring! Rah! I can see why lots of people like that but so far its just made my eyeballs roll like a bowling ball.

Exactly my reaction! And it doesn't improve. I read it at the end of 2014, and my thoughts at the time.

[It] contains two pages of encomia and a back-cover quote from Adrian Tchaikovsky, and while I can understand praise for its being fast-paced, in the sense that there is a great deal of running around swiping at various bad guys, I can only think whoever wrote of "characterisation... second to none" read a different book to me. Some clever ideas, but overall it felt to me something akin to an RPG where rushing around killing things is more important than actual coherent/cohesive plot, credible dialogue or any kind of character arc.

 

[Vaz]

Asimov for the first time, yay!

Also some of Sanderson's Way of Kings.

 

[The Big Peat]

Exactly my reaction! And it doesn't improve. I read it at the end of 2014, and my thoughts at the time.

"[It] contains two pages of encomia and a back-cover quote from Adrian Tchaikovsky, and while I can understand praise for its being fast-paced, in the sense that there is a great deal of running around swiping at various bad guys, I can only think whoever wrote of "characterisation... second to none" read a different book to me. Some clever ideas, but overall it felt to me something akin to an RPG where rushing around killing things is more important than actual coherent/cohesive plot, credible dialogue or any kind of character arc."

Annoyingly I think she has interesting characters and does a fair bit of characterisation right but it is lost in the pace and the constant killing. Apparently the book was originally meant to be released as four or so ebooks - I think that shows. S&S is great in small doses and when following one or two characters. As 500 pages and when following a bunch... nope. Or at least not done this way.

Ver' frustrated. I'll ripple through the last hundred or so - completely agreed it doesn't improve - and then get on with reading Night's Dark Master by Tanith Lee. And a re-read of The Diamond Throne by Eddings. And... hmm, other stuff. Maybe finish Crash. Or maybe not, as I feel like I've seen the trick of that book by now and don't need to keep reading.

edit: Reviews reveal a big Dragon Age/Skyrim fan. Thing that might explain some of the dungeon crawl feeling.

 

[The Judge]

I hope you get on better with the Tanith Lee -- I found it lush and gorgeous and was wholly entranced by it

 

[Vertigo]

Constitution by Nick Webb - apologies to all those here who like this book but I'm afraid I thought it dreadful. My reasons here.

 

[Elvraie]

Is it Night's Master instead of Night's Dark Master? Tanith Lee is my favourite and her Flat Earth Series are my prefered books of hers. She writes like a dream. Said someone once about her books.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I read a couple of the books in that "Tales of the Flat Earth" series by Lee. Lush, exotic, feverish.

 

[SilentRoamer]

Asimov for the first time, yay!

Always call for a yay!

Which Asimov are you getting lost in Vaz?

 

[Vaz]

Foundation enjoying it too!

 

[SilentRoamer]

Foundation enjoying it too!

Lots of people love foundation and although I think it's great I still don't think its Asimovs best work. I love his standalones.

You probably already have then in your sites but my three favourite Asimovs are The Gods Themselves, Nemesis and The Caves of Steel (admittedly not a standalone.)

Happy reading Vaz!

 

[ratsy]

I'm trying to finish a beta book which is really good. And at the same time, I have a library book due back soon, and I'm trying to get through King of Thorns by Mark Lawerence. It is not blowing me away, but I've heard great things about his next series. I will finish this one, and eventually keep reading the rest. Been a busy time, so not nearly as much reading time for me. Hopefully I can get back to the immense TBR pile sooner than later!

 

[The Judge]

Is it Night's Master instead of Night's Dark Master?

That's how it was styled in my copy, but I wasn't sure if it had different titles.

So far that's the only one of hers I've read, but it certainly whetted my appetite for her work. Interestingly, I read Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber not long after Night's Master, and there was a similarity between them, particularly in the lush gorgeousness of the prose, but a great difference in feel. The Lee stories, for all their decadence, sensuality, deceit and death, had a sense of order, of goodness even, which Carter's didn't. Both collections made me think of wild, exotic vegetation, but whereas Lee's was an overgrown garden, burgeoning with exuberant life, fragrant and beautiful, Carter's was a teeming, festering jungle, the scents heavier, even poisonous, with something rank lurking in the undergrowth. (Sorry for the purplish prose -- I was infected there for a moment!)

 

[The Big Peat]

Yeah. It is Night's Master. Not sure why I added a Dark in there.

The only problem with it is I keep stopping to imagine my own deeply mythic demon infested worlds. That and the reason I got it was I heard it was one of the main inspirations behind the rpg Exalted. I keep reading it and being "Oh snap" and then "Aw man, how did they get so far away from this?"

I don't think I've ever seen a book so universally described as lush. Not a word I associate with books. I completely agree mind. Just very different.

 

[biodroid]

Rebel by Bernard Cornwell. So far so good, I like his writing and the characters seems pretty real.

 

[HareBrain]

I found a lovely hardback slip-cased copy of The Monk by Matthew Lewis in a second-hand bookshop, and decided to read it to see what all the fuss was about. (Granted, the fuss was two centuries ago, but it might not be too late to join in.) Entertaining enough in a verbose kind of way, but nothing very torrid or salacious so far.

I don't know if I'll go back to The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. About three-quarters through, and I'm still not sure what the book's really supposed to be about.

 

[Boneman]

Just started John Le Carre's biography.... Finished Reign of Iron by Angus Watson - an entirely enjoyable read, with fabulous characterisation.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Ratsy, I really liked King of Thorns. If you read Emperor of Thorns [I think that's the next] it'll be interesting to see what you make of it.

 

[Foxbat]

Just started Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

 

[Fedos]

I just finished Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe. Now I'm on to a collection of novels by Nathaniel Hawthorne from Library America.

 

[StuartBurchell]

Just started to read a book called Goblin Moon by somebody called Teresa Edgerton. Haven't got far in it, but I like it so far and I love the old fashioned chapter titles.