December 2017: Reading thread

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Last book of the year is going to be....A Christmas Carol and Other Stories
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Finished Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey. The lead character, Jimmy Stark, began like a John Constantine but without the cleverness, which was frustrating. Magic was mostly all flash without subtlety. But it improved into the last third of the book when the story proper came into being and finally showed some insight and intelligence. In the end, this book felt like a long prologue which finally set up an interesting platform for a series. In that regard it worked well enough, but less is more would have been better.
 
kythe said:
It seems we've been reading parallel lately. I'm reading "A Christmas Carol" now too, but not in book form. I read the Gutenburg Project site because it is free.

This is my first Charles Dickens since high school.
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Same here. Last week I was speaking to an American who was shocked only 3 out of 4 of us Brits had read it. She was convincing in her praises of it, so I decided to read it.
 
I finished More Than Human this morning, and even the slightly over-egged moral/ethical ending wasn't enough for it to be anything than a very enjoyable read.

I might go back to Darkmans or maybe start The Book Of Phoenix - Nnedi Orokafor, I'll decide at bedtime.
 
Brian G Turner said:
Finished Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey. The lead character, Jimmy Stark, began like a John Constantine but without the cleverness, which was frustrating. Magic was mostly all flash without subtlety. But it improved into the last third of the book when the story proper came into being and finally showed some insight and intelligence. In the end, this book felt like a long prologue which finally set up an interesting platform for a series. In that regard it worked well enough, but less is more would have been better.
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yes it's a interesting character.the books are quite dark but kinda funny sometimes also
 
I'm about halfway into Steph Swainston's Fair Rebel. I've always enjoyed her Fourlands books, so it's good to see a new instalment, even if I'm sometimes struggling slightly to remember the details of what happened before since it's probably been about a decade since I read the preceding book (not counting the prequel she did in between).

Glen said:
I reckon you're right - I didn't mind Bascule's language at all. He was by far the funniest part of the book, laugh out loud at times. Great character.
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I think Bascule's story was my favourite part of the book even if it did take me twice as long to read as the other chapters. I found it comprehensible when read out loud (particularly in a Scottish accent).

Glen said:
Uh oh, Consider Phlebas is the one I bought though, so it's going to be first. Thanks for the recommendations all the same. Do they not need to be read in order of writing? I read one or two years back, but I can't even remember which ones.
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The order is usually not important, most of the books don't share any characters - Surface Detail is probably the main exception where a character from a previous book plays a significant role. Often the books are set centuries apart as well - there is a list of them in chronological order but I couldn't tell you what that order would be without looking it up.
 
Have just finished "Half A King" by Joe Abercrombie.
This is volume 1 of a trilogy, not bad but different to his usual style.
Fairly low on gore and no salty language, this might be aimed more towards teenagers.
 
I'm switching genres for now, and reading Yoshiki Tanaka's Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu/Legend of the Galactic Heroes, book 4. I've been waiting a while to read this one.:)
 
I have finished the mega-novel At the Sign of Triumph by David Weber. I will first say that I didn't have to slog through this novel quite to the same degree that I had the last couple. This one had the redeeming grace of having much more to do with the actions of the main characters in the series. It also brought to an "end to the beginning" as the book said at the end of the story. I can't see myself going onto the next planet locked series (I hear Weber plans at least 3 more before the people of Safehold get into space.) So, given Weber's age and the size of his ambition it's likely the last Safehold book I'll ever read.

Not sure what comes next. I'll have to cogitate on my "To be read" pile.
 
@Parson
Are you going to continue reading the Honorverse? It seems to suffer from much the same flaws and now Weber has started a prequel series that tells all the same stories only the characters have different names.

I feel like a sucker because I keep reading the books ...
 
Probably. I liked the Safehold series, save Off Armageddon Reef, less than anything else Weber has written. And, after the first the series really bogged down for me. I kept feeling like a fool for reading more, but I have enjoyed almost everything else he has written, but clearly not up to his early Honor Harrington books, or the Apocalypse Troll, or especially The Path of the Fury. I've longed for more of that.
 
I hear you. And let‘s not forget The Excalibur Alternative as a good standalone and the Starfire series for those who like straight shoot‘em up military SF.
 
I finished listening to Bum Luck by Paul Levine. One of the Jake Lassiter series. Interesting character and his moral questioning and hilarious lines make this an enjoyable read. I've now started reading Time Storm by Steve Harrison. Seems like a solid book so far. Waiting for the time travel aspects of the story to kick in. Be better able to judge then.
 
Just finished The Sleeper in the Sands by Tom Holland. Anyone else read him? He's better known as a non-fiction history writer (In the Shadow of the Sword, etc) but he's also done four supernatural/historical thrillers, inspired by the vampire idea. This one was set in Egypt and moved between the 1920s (Howard Carter being one of the main characters), the tenth century and the late eighteenth dynasty, and provides an interesting and roughly coherent explanation for Akhenaten's heresy, his "deformity" and the extinguishing of his name and line. Worth a read.
 
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