Reading at t'moment?

#5961 QuickTidal

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Posted 14 January 2011 - 04:40 PM

MTS, on 14 January 2011 - 03:56 PM, said:

Anyway, delving into American Gods at the moment. Fantastic so far.

I really believe that AMERICAN GODS is Neil Gaiman's finest hour. It's both interesting and weird with a really great protagonist.

Note: If you grab a copy of Neil's second short fiction collection FRAGILE THINGS (one of my fave collections by him), there is a short novella that features AG's protagonist Shadow in a story called THE MONARCH OF THE GLEN....and is WELL worth the read!

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 14 January 2011 - 04:40 PM

"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora

"Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone." ~Ursula Vernon

#5962 Bauchelain the Evil

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Posted 14 January 2011 - 05:34 PM

QuickTidal, on 14 January 2011 - 04:40 PM, said:

MTS, on 14 January 2011 - 03:56 PM, said:

Anyway, delving into American Gods at the moment. Fantastic so far.

Completely agree. American Gods is one of my favorite novels ever. But then I really like anything of Gaiman( with the exception of Anansi Boys)

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#5963 QuickTidal

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Posted 14 January 2011 - 06:06 PM

Bauchelain the Evil, on 14 January 2011 - 05:34 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 14 January 2011 - 04:40 PM, said:

MTS, on 14 January 2011 - 03:56 PM, said:

Anyway, delving into American Gods at the moment. Fantastic so far.

Completely agree. American Gods is one of my favorite novels ever. But then I really like anything of Gaiman( with the exception of Anansi Boys)

Haha. So TRUE! I like every other Gaiman book/story...except ANANSI BOYS. It was such a tremendous letdown for me. After loving the character in AG, I was just upset at what was done with a story about him.

"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora

"Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone." ~Ursula Vernon

#5964 Fist Gamet

Mortal Sword

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Posted 14 January 2011 - 08:28 PM

Almost finished The Passage...TEENSY SPOILERIFIC...after a great opening third and a more turgid (but never-the-less very well written) middle third, it has picked up again and is rising through the awesomeness scale towards the conclusion. Cronin's real skill is in what he does not write and I love an author who gives me just enough and let's me use my imagination to fill in the blanks.

Also reading If on a Winter's Night A Traveller between times...quite unlike anything I have ever read...got to be read to understand for any attempt I make to describe it will fall woefully flat.

Victory is mine!

#5965 stone monkey

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Posted 15 January 2011 - 12:10 AM

That Calvino book is something else, isn't it? I really cannot think of anything that is remotely like it that I've ever read...

I'm currently reading a book with the rather extraordinary title of Eeeee Eee Eeee by Tao Lin. It (or rather another book by the same author, Shoplifting From American Apparel) was recommended to me by a friend of mine who is a poet, and I'd say that is probably one of the oddest things I've ever attempted to read. The plot, if it can be called that, revolves around a failed, depressed writer in his early 20s, who works as a delivery boy for Domino's Pizza, and his increasingly bizarre and confused encounters with a bunch of randomly appearing and strangely behaving talking animals and their interactions with other confused humans; which, up to now, have led up to the death of Elijah Wood (who was beaten to death, for no reason I can fathom, by dolphins).

I can see what my poet friend might be getting out of it; the use of language is interestingly unique, to say the least, although I'm not sure what any sane person could hope to find in it. But, in its favour, I'll say that I'm finding it substantially less irritating now, 120 pages in, than I did when I first picked it up; which is to say I don't now want to hunt down and kill the author and burn any manuscripts I might find with him. The book's foibles; sentences that don't seem to have all that much to do with one another, having absolutely no plot whatsoever, characters that are sketchily drawn at best and otherwise massively unlikeable and an obsession with the minutiae of intensely boring and/or completely surreal events, are actually seeming to start to grow on me now, so maybe I'm turning into some sort of post-post modernist after all

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 15 January 2011 - 12:24 AM

If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do. If some one maintains that two and two are five, or that Iceland is on the equator, you feel pity rather than anger, unless you know so little of arithmetic or geography that his opinion shakes your own contrary conviction. … So whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants. Bertrand Russell

#5966 Mentalist

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Posted 15 January 2011 - 12:40 AM

ok, I finished "Monarchies of God".

I can see why some people would have had issues with "Ships from the West".

And the ending was a bit predictable. Like I said, Kearney does NOT do foreshadoing and subtlety well. for instance

Spoiler

that being said, DAMN. Kearney can write mean battle scenes. the last one was awesome.

This series is now firmly in my top 10, I think.

Not sure what i'll read next. gonna be busy in the next few weeks, can't afford to pick up something super-good that will suck me in. THough I do have the 5th book of "Shadows of the Apt" sitting on the shelf...

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Jump Around, on 23 October 2011 - 11:04 AM, said:

And I want to state that Ment has out-weaseled me by far in this game.

#5967 Ain't_It_Just_

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Posted 15 January 2011 - 01:24 PM

I'm reading Stonewielder and I think it's a massive improvement since RotCG. He's not going crazy with alternative names and the characters seem more like how SE would style them. So far so good, hey?

Suck it Errant!

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#5968 Salt-Man Z

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Posted 15 January 2011 - 09:50 PM

I'm about halfway through The Citadel of the Autarch and loving it. I was planning on reading The Urth of the New Sun next, but Stonewielder keeps whispering my name late at night...

"Here is light. You will say that it is not a living entity, but you miss the point that it is more, not less. Without occupying space, it fills the universe. It nourishes everything, yet itself feeds upon destruction. We claim to control it, but does it not perhaps cultivate us as a source of food? May it not be that all wood grows so that it can be set ablaze, and that men and women are born to kindle fires?"
―Gene Wolfe, The Citadel of the Autarch

#5969 pat5150

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Posted 15 January 2011 - 10:12 PM

Just finished Patrick Rothfuss' The Wise Man's Fear.

Though it suffers from the same shortcomings as The Name of the Wind, Rothfuss upped his game in this one. Fans will love it, while those who weren't that impressed with TNotW need not bother, methinks.

Check out the blog for the full review.

Patrick

For book reviews, author interviews, giveaways, related articles and news, and much more, check out www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com

#5970 MTS

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Posted 16 January 2011 - 12:14 AM

No, Pat runs a fantasy blog, so gets a lot of books to review early. Bastard.

Antiquis temporibus, nati tibi similes in rupibus ventosissimis exponebantur ad necem.

Si hoc adfixum in obice legere potes, et liberaliter educatus et nimis propinquus ades.

#5971 Mentalist

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Posted 17 January 2011 - 01:57 AM

Finished Tchaikovsky's "Shaodows of the Apt" book 5 yeasterday, instead of doing work like I planned. Dammit.

Book was suprizingly, amazingly good. He's improved tons from the trainwreck that was book 2. I'm starting to really like this series.

thankfully, I am now out fo stuff to read. I feel soon it'll be time to take advantage of that Chapters gift card....

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 17 January 2011 - 01:59 AM

The problem with the gene pool is that there's no lifeguard
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Jump Around, on 23 October 2011 - 11:04 AM, said:

And I want to state that Ment has out-weaseled me by far in this game.

#5972 QuickTidal

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Posted 17 January 2011 - 02:01 PM

In the home stretch of THE GATHERING STORM by Jordan and Sanderson (last 200 pages), and actually also started TOME OF THE UNDERGATES by Sam Sykes (my first PYR review copy), so look for a review of TGS on the site in the next day or two.

"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora

"Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone." ~Ursula Vernon

#5973 Gothos

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Posted 17 January 2011 - 02:08 PM

Finished: The Well of Ascension.
Reading: The Hero of Ages.

Prime time.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

#5974 acesn8s

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Posted 17 January 2011 - 03:04 PM

pat5150, on 15 January 2011 - 10:12 PM, said:

Nice review, I look forward to picking it up.

I have a question about the review though. You made a comparison that went over my head. If you have time could you please elaborate on the following?

Quote

It's also been said that a more sexually active Kvothe was sort of a wish fulfillment thing on Rothfuss' part. It's been compared to that of Guy Gavriel Kay with bearded characters.

“The others followed, and found themselves in a small, stuffy basement, which would have been damp, smelly, close, and dark, were it not, in fact, well-lit, which prevented it from being dark.”
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#5975 QuickTidal

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Posted 17 January 2011 - 04:12 PM

Gothos, on 17 January 2011 - 02:08 PM, said:

Reading: The Hero of Ages.

Prime time.

I can't even explain the awesomeness of this book. So good!

"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora

"Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone." ~Ursula Vernon

#5976 Salt-Man Z

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Posted 17 January 2011 - 04:59 PM

Briar King, on 15 January 2011 - 09:53 PM, said:

Dont know what to tell ya on that one. Id read Urth next so its all fresh in your head if I were you.

To be fair, this is my third time through the BotNS (though I've only read Urth once) so I'm not too worried about "freshness".

#5977 amphibian

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Posted 18 January 2011 - 05:24 AM

acesn8s, on 17 January 2011 - 03:04 PM, said:

I have a question about the review though. You made a comparison that went over my head. If you have time could you please elaborate on the following?

pat5150, on 15 January 2011 - 10:12 PM, said:

It's also been said that a more sexually active Kvothe was sort of a wish fulfillment thing on Rothfuss' part. It's been compared to that of Guy Gavriel Kay with bearded characters.

I haven't read Wise Man's Fear yet, but in The Name of the Wind, Kvothe has several nice interactions with girls that don't end up in him boinking them.

That may frustrate some readers, but they should be continually reminded that he's freakin' 15 at the time these interactions are happening. That's right at the point where you start transitioning from no idea how to get laid to it accidentally happening to consciously getting it to happen.

I don't see a theoretical problem with Kvothe getting some. Perhaps the devil is in the execution of it.

I survived the Permian and all I got was this t-shirt.

#5978 Yellow

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Posted 18 January 2011 - 07:36 AM

Just started The Silent Land by Graham Joyce, after Wert's praise for it. I'm not sure if it can really fill 400 pages with the plot I think it has... but I shall find out.

Don't fuck with the Culture.

#5979 QuickTidal

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Posted 18 January 2011 - 02:30 PM

About 100 pages into TOME OF THE UNDERGATES....the battle that started the book is still going on..LOL (I hear it continues till page 200 or so)...ah well..

also...I THINK...think...a dragonman main character...took a steaming shit on the deck of the ship before setting out to fight the pirates...I'm kind of at a loss for words...LOL! What a strange and dirty book so far.

"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora

"Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone." ~Ursula Vernon