Jon's comments
(member since Jan 19, 2009)
Jon's comments from the Fantasy Book Club group.
(showing 1-20 of 198)
I finished The Hobbit yesterday. It was wonderful to return to a more innocent Middle Earth. I started Ethan of Athos yesterday afternoon and it is proving to be a very quick read.
In planning for my trip to Texas this week, I'll take my three library books - City of Jade, Blindsight and the second Imager novel. I'll throw in a couple more paperbacks and maybe an audio book or two (for the long drive to Denton/Plano).
Started re-reading The Hobbit a couple of days ago. While this is most likely my 5th or 6th re-reading, I'm still discovering new and interesting tidbits. I'll post my observations in the comments to my status updates - http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/765...It's such fun to read this again (and again and again). :)
Chapter 39 was my absolute favorite. I cried and cried and couldn't see the page for the tears. Egwene stole the stage in this volume, no doubt about it.
Finished The Gathering Storm (my review) last night. I'm picking Blindsight back up and will start a re-read of The Hobbit this week as well.
Chris - thanks that was very helpful. And I'll pull out Lord of Chaos today and re-read the ending.
I'm settling into the story now (I'm at around page 250 or so). It's growing on me. I think he's doing Egwene well. Rand I'm not so sure yet. The one chapter with Perrin in it so far seemed acceptable. Elaida seems a bit over the top. I pulled out Knife of Dreams and re-read (skimmed) what I could find of Elaida and I'm not sure. I also can't remember if Elaida is Black Ajah or not. That's what I get for not re-reading the other eleven books before starting this one.
And which book had the incident at Dumai's Wells occur? I've skimmed through most of Knife of Dreams and I don't think it's in there. It sucks getting older and more senile. :)
I started reading TGS yesterday. I'm not sure he's completely mastered the characters voices and motivations - or perhaps it was Jordan's intent to reveal more information? The Prologue was definitely of a different flavor. Brandon is not only working on the next WoT book but will publish The Way of Kings sometime next year, which is a book/series he's been working on for several years (IIRC from his blog posts).
I finished The Lies of Locke Lamora (my review) yesterday; just wish it hadn't taken so long to finish. Book club reads this month (and some leftover from last month) include:
I'll be finishing up these selections:
I received a surprise in the mail today - my signed/numbered copy of The Gathering Storm. :)
Glokta has become one of my all-time favorite characters, beyond the First Law series. A villain I could sympathize with and grieve for. Reading his point of view chapters riveted me.
So was I. I kept telling myself 'So much of what I've read is outlandish lies, this has got to be another one.' Sadly, that was not the case.
I liked all the women in this tale, the Spider, Sophia, Nazca even the cardboard two-dimensional Berangias Sisters. The Falconer was so arrogant, so condescending and so convinced of his invulnerability that made Locke's triumph oh so sweet and surprising.
The Grey King befuddled me and even bored me. With the exception of Nazsca, the Barsavi clan did not strike me as villainous any more so than all the others who benefited from the Secret Peace.
Just finished reading this novel tonight. Took much longer than I anticipated, not because it was boring or dull, I just couldn't find more than five minutes to read most of the last week.
I savored the flashbacks. Expertly used to offset the twists of the present and just enough enlightenment to complement current events.
I just finished this and liked it, but didn't think it rose to the level of "loved it." I couldn't put it down, but more from a burning desire to find out what happened than any connection or caring for the characters. I'm not fond of revenge tales and this story was nothing if not excruciatingly intricate revenge multiplied exponentially.
I have read this multiple times. I hope to quickly re-read it next week. I'm still wrapping up my October reads.
Until I found GoodReads, it seemed like all I did was re-read. Now, I have more books to read than I could possibly finish in ten years or more. I do plan to re-read a couple in the next few weeks - The Hobbit Or There and Back Again and Mordant's Need Omnibus. Otherwise, I will keep forging through my ever growing to-be-read stack.
I'm about a quarter of the way into this novel. While this has been a good con/heist story, I'm wondering when/if it will have some more traditional fantasy elements. Aside from an almost alien-like architecture (Elderglass) and alchemy, I haven't seen any magic system or strange creatures. And this won a couple of Fantasy awards. So, I hope, something surfaces later on.
October is more than half over and I spent half of that time reading the excellent standalone fantasy novel To Ride Hell's Chasm (my review) by Janny Wurts.
Next, I'm starting the much lighter Miles, Mystery & Mayhem. I'll probably alternately read The Lies of Locke Lamora depending on my mood and the strength of the stories.
