What Else Are You Reading? August 2013

[Margit]

I've picked up Happy Hour in Hell by Tad Williams.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Reading an arc of The Broken Land by Ian McDonald. He's so creative and his ideas keep me reading.

[Sandi]

Jenny wrote: "Reading an arc of The Broken Land by Ian McDonald. He's so creative and his ideas keep me reading."

I'm so glad to see his older stuff being re-issued. It really sucked that his books were unavailable in the states for so long. I read King of Morning, Queen of Day in 1991 or 1992 and read everything that followed as it came out. Then, he disappeared for about 10 years. I was overjoyed when Pyr brought him back to the states.

The Broken Land is one of his best early books. I liked that his future was based on biotech. Back in the Nineties, SF was all about physics and engineering. McDonald was one of the few that focused on biology.

[David Sven]

Finished the Audible version of Reynolds last Revelation Space novel The Prefect *sniff*
My review http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Starting the Audible version of White Night The Dresden Files 9

[Rob, Roberator]

Finished Last Argument of Kings (My Review)

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Sandi wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Reading an arc of The Broken Land by Ian McDonald. He's so creative and his ideas keep me reading."

I'm so glad to see his older stuff being re-issued. It really sucked that his boo..."

Ha, I didn't realize this was re-released! Thanks. I loved The Dervish House.

[Sandi]

HIs early work is very different from his newer stuff. It's all amazing though. I just downloaded a bunch on Kobo when I found it a couple of weeks ago. I got The Broken Land though a Kindle Daily Deal.

[Joseph]

Finished Matthias Thulmann: Witch Hunter and started Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear.

[AndrewP]

Finished Dead Until Dark which I thought okay but nothing special. Now moving onto another urban fantasy with Moon Called. So far, I am enjoying this one much better as it's not just another vampire story.

[Melanie]

Just finished reading Daughter of Smoke and Blood and it's sequel, Days of Blood and Starlight. They were both enjoyable, quick reads, finished them each in a day.
Before that I read The Snow Child, which was quite good. I loved the imagery, the language and the fairy tale -ish vibe.
Right now it's Blood and Beauty. So far not really gripping me, but I'm interested enough to keep reading.

[Karen]

Margit wrote: "I've picked up Happy Hour in Hell by Tad Williams."
Whoah! When did that come out? I missed it!

[Kevin]

I just finished the new Terry Goodkind novel, The Third Kingdom, which is really a good book that should be read till the end. I glad to see that he is back to his original form after the last couple of bad books like The Omen Machine and The Law of Nines.

[Rob, Roberator]

I just finished listening to The Way of Shadows. Really enjoyed it. My Review

I'll be jumping right into Shadow's Edge tomorrow.

[Emily]

Just finished Ship of Magic what a great book can't wait to finish the trilogy. I've never loved pirates more but what can you expect from Robin Hobb. How onto finishing The Curse of Chalion and the VF picks of the month. I've also finished the second Dresden book and am listening to Changeless the second in the Parasol Protectorate - thanks Veronica for the suggestion.

[Mohrravvian]

I just finished Dust, I thought it was a great end to the Wool trilogy. Now I'm not sure what to read next.... I'll have to go through my stack at home.

[Belle]

AndrewP wrote: "Finished Dead Until Dark which I thought okay but nothing special. Now moving onto another urban fantasy with Moon Called. So far, I am enjoying this one much better as it's not just another vampir..."

I've read all the Mercy Thompson books so far & really enjoy the series. I think both the writing & story lines are better than the Sookie Stackhouse books. There is also a Mercy Thompson graphic novel you might want to check out if you're enjoying the series. It's Mercy Thompson: Homecoming. It's basically the prequel to Moon Called.

[Walter]

I keep forgetting that the 'What are you reading?' thread begins anew every month, so I'm always late to the party.

Not genre, but currently reading Katharine Graham's Personal History. Excellent autobiography thus far.

And to those reading The Shadow of the Wind, hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Wonderful novel. :)

[Ken]

Finished Redshirts, WWW: Wonder, and Magic Bites.

[Valerie]

I've struck out on my last two books, The Thirteen Hallows on audio and Vampire Games for Kindle.

I really wanted to like The Thirteen Hallows, but between odd pacing, stiff characters and inconsistent mythology I had to admit that we were not compatible.

As for Vampire Games, I just may have to accept that this series has jumped the shark. Or was it ever good? Did I maybe just want to like it so much that I glossed over the early warning signs of fatal flaws.



Hopefully my next reads will be better. I just started Cinder on audio and I have Charming queued up on my Kindle ready to go.

Wow, just occurred to me that I am doing kind of a fairy tale title theme.

[Charlie]

Reading The Final Programme by Michael Moorcock - figure on just doing the first part of that quadrilogy now so I'm ready for the September S&L pick.

[Jenny]

With my summer ending I've been reading a lot the past couple of weeks. I finished The Golem and the Jinni, Deadlocked, Hounded, The Ripple Effect, City of Bones, and The Maze Runner. I enjoyed them all but was surprised at how much I enjoyed City of Bones and The Maze Runner. I'm looking forward to continuing both of those series. I'll be starting Hexed next, the sequel to Hounded. I'm currently listening to The Ocean at the End of the Lane and I'm not enjoying it as much as I hoped :(

[Ctgt]

Just finished The Curse of Chalion which I really enjoyed but am changing gears a little with
House of Leaves.

[Dharmakirti]

Ctgt wrote: "Just finished The Curse of Chalion which I really enjoyed but am changing gears a little with
House of Leaves."

House of Leaves is quite possibly my favorite book ever. I've never read anything like it before or since. I hope you enjoy.

[Ctgt]

Dharmakirti wrote: "House of Leaves is quite possibly my favorite book ever. I've never read anything like it before or since. I hope you enjoy. "

I had paged through this book several times but always put it back on the shelf. About 200 pages in and it was difficult in the beginning just because of the footnotes and the odd page layout but it is very intriguing and there's no turning back now.

BTW hopped over to your profile and saw you are reading The Magic Mountain. I just picked that up from the library, thinking I might tackle that after HOL. Are you liking it?

[Kristina]

Finally finished Way of Kings. It was a haul but worth it. Going to take a look at Unfettered next I think.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I am reading Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon for SFF Audio. It is more like an imagined planetary history than anything else.

[CountZeroOr]

Just read Neon Genesis Evangelion, Volume 12 and Volume 13. I'm really looking forward for when the final volume, Volume 14, comes out in the US.

[Dharmakirti]

Ctgt wrote: "Dharmakirti wrote: "House of Leaves is quite possibly my favorite book ever. I've never read anything like it before or since. I hope you enjoy. "

I had paged through this book several times but a..."

I had the same experience with House of Leaves. My curiosity finally got the better of me when I found a copy of it at the used bookstore.
I'm liking The Magic Mountain quite a bit. I'm reading it with the The Thomas Mann Group. We read Mann's Buddenbrooks previously and I really liked that one, too.

[kvon]

I finished Blessed and Cursed Alike which had interesting if scanty worldbuilding, but a grim ending that made no sense to me. I read the released parts of Indexing, an ebook serial that is like Shadow Unit vs fairy tales.

Reading The Darwin Elevator for my other book club. I've still got my copy of Demolished Man somewhere in my library.

[Shaina]

I've been rereading the Harry Potter books, this has been one of the best decisions I've made in a while :-)

[terpkristin]

I had a productive day of reading today, finishing Carniepunk (some good stories, more bad stories) and reading Dreamer: A Prequel to the Mongoliad. The plan is to start The Mongoliad: Book Two tomorrow at lunch. And I'm still reading Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut in my "free" time.

[Jeff]

Finished The Curse of Chalion and did not care for it at all. Disappointed. Still trying to finish Children of the Jedi which it's not a good book. Having a bad reading month it seems. Picked up Magic Burns audiobook and hopefully it can redeem the month.

[Keith]

I recently finished Malice, the debut novel by John Gwynne. It's a very well paced and well told story. It has some standard elements that will be very familiar to fantasy fans, but Gwynne does a great job with the execution of the story and making you care about his characters.

[David Sven]

Finished the Audible version of White Night The Dresden Files 9
My review http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Starting the GraphiAudio version Sanderson's Warbreaker

[Ty]

I finished The Curse of Chalion and absolutely loved it. I'm now reading Captive of the Orcs and will finish the month with A Stab in the Dark and The Tempest.

[Joseph]

Finished Range of Ghosts, which was excellent! and immediately moved into the sequel, Shattered Pillars.

[[deleted user]]

I'm about 1/3 the way through The Iron Heel by Jack London. It is framed as a manuscript written in the near future discovered in the far future. There is an editorial introduction that let's us know that things do not turn out well for the characters. Well and good, the plot works towards the tragic ending. We know and fell it coming ever nearer.

The characters and plot are a bit contrived but not too much for the dystopian genre. London has an axe to grind and gets his point across but is a strong enough writer to avoid it destroying his story.

It is a surprise how the problems described as still with us today. The accumulation of wealth into the control of a few and the power of the corporation and their their corrupting influence, for instance. London describes the problem very well. You may or may not agree with his solution.

The problem I do have is that the "editor" makes comments throughout the story. The content and style of these asides reminds me a bit of Thorsten Veblen. This breaks the narrative and rarely adds anything to the story. I'm thinking I'll just pass over those comments for the rest of the book. Unless someone who has read the book let's me know they are essential as the book progresses. I may go back after I'm finished and sample some of those I've skipped. They are fun but an interruption.

The book is freely available on Project Gutenberg if anyone else wants to give it a try.

[Carolina]

Oh, oh, I haven't finished The Curse of Chalionyet, but I think I can manage before Friday. This month I finished The Woman Who Lost China, The Female Ward, The Never List, City of Bones and Metatropolis. It was a busy month!

[Dharmakirti]

I won a copy of Darwin Elevator in one of the Goodreads book giveaways so I started reading that tonight.

It's being billed as, "...the drama, swagger, and vivid characters of Joss Whedon's Firefly with the talent of sci-fi author John Scalzi."

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Dharmakirti wrote: "I won a copy of Darwin Elevator in one of the Goodreads book giveaways so I started reading that tonight.

It's being billed as, "...the drama, swagger, and vivid characters of Joss Whedon's Firefl..."

I started listening to it and it's definitely not for me! But maybe it's for you. Good luck.

[Rob, Roberator]

I finished listening to Shadow's Edge. It was alright, but not nearly as good as the first book. (My Review). I'm now on to Beyond the Shadows.

I also finished reading The Lies of Locke Lamora. Loved It! (My Review).

[Valerie]

I just checked The Lies of Locke Lamora out of the library. I just need to finish my current book and I'm there. Your review has me even more excited to read it!

[AndrewP]

Valerie wrote: "I just checked The Lies of Locke Lamora out of the library. I just need to finish my current book and I'm there. Your review has me even more excited to read it!"

Hah..coincidentally I just started Red Seas Under Red Skies :)

[Valerie]

This has moved up my priority list when I was given an ARC for The Republic of Thieves.

[Neil]

Rob wrote: "Neil wrote: "I'm making my way through Simon R. Green's The Secret Histories series, having just finished Book 3 (The Spy Who Haunted Me), and moving onto Book 4 (From Hell With Love).

Having just..."

Hi Rob, There are lots of references to Nightside sprinkled throughout the Secret Histories as well. In Book 3 (The Spy Who Haunted Me) Walker from the Nightside is a major character. The Deathstalker character from Green's Deathstalker series also turns up in Book 2, so he's no stranger to intermingling his genres or literary universes.

[Rob, Roberator]

Valerie wrote: "I just checked The Lies of Locke Lamora out of the library. I just need to finish my current book and I'm there. Your review has me even more excited to read it!"

Well I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Or at least that you don't hate it and curse the day I was born/wrote that review.. ^_^

[Rob, Roberator]

AndrewP wrote: "Hah..coincidentally I just started Red Seas Under Red Skies :) "

I have that sitting and waiting (just came yesterday in fact)..but I'm reading it with some friends in my Side Reads group on 9/15.

And we'll be reading The Republic of Thieves when that comes out in October.

[Rob, Roberator]

Neil wrote: "Hi Rob, There are lots of references to Nightside sprinkled throughout the Secret Histories as well. In Book 3 (The Spy Who Haunted Me) Walker from the Nightside is a major character. The Deathstalker character from Green's Deathstalker series also turns up in Book 2, so he's no stranger to intermingling his genres or literary universes. "

I haven't read Deathstalker, I had meant to try it out sometime.

I'm more excited to try Secret History now. I just need to find some time to cram them in. Maybe in October or November I'll give the first one a shot.

[David Sven]

Finished Book 1 of Robin Hobb's Tawny man Trilogy Fool's Errand
My review http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Starting Emperor of Thorns

[Dara]

Finished Royal Assassin. Not bad but I didn't enjoy it as much as the first book. Going non-genre and reading Gone Girl next.