What Else Are You Reading - October 2014

[Sandra]

I readThe Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If your a fan of horror or the Walking Dead, then I would highly recommend this book. It definitely put me in the mood for Halloween.

[kvon]

I read Hawk by Brust, which advances Vlad's story (good) but the caper setup parts didn't thrill me.

Also I finished rereading Neuromancer, and I did forget a lot of that book over 25 years. Interesting worldbuilding.

[Joel]

Continuing the Last Apprentice series with Night of the Soul Stealer by Joseph Delaney. These books are a lot of fun.

[Sean]

Okay, I'm now a little over 60 pages into House of Leaves, and for the most part I'm enjoying it. I just have one question - do Johnny Truant's long, rambling tangential footnotes ever become pertinent? Because so far, I've slogged through two multi-page anecdotes that don't really connect to anything in either the Zampanò or Navidson levels of the book. I don't care about how he met and became obsessed with the stripper alias "Thumper", nor how he he failed to get into the pants of any of the girls whom he regaled with a fictitious account of his time as a pit boxer. And I really didn't need to hear said fictitious account.

I kinda want to reach into the book, slap Johnny-boy, and tell him to stand in the corner and be quiet until he has something to contribute to the conversation. At least Zampanò managed to tie that whole bit about echoes back to the Navidson Record.

[terpkristin]

terpkristin wrote: "...queued up Nine Princes in Amber at Jenny's prodding.
...
I also just bought Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography and I'm kind of stoked to read it."

So I tried to read Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography and realized that I don't like "choose your own adventure" books on Kindle. I am going to have to wait for it to come out in paperback so I can read it just like I used to read the books when I was younger, dog-ear-ing all of the decision point pages and trying to find the best path...

I did start listening to Nine Princes in Amber. And Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

[Ally]

Rob wrote: "Ally wrote: ">_

I suspect he got it the same way I did. Review copy. I didn't like it nearly as much as he did, but I haven't written up my review yet."

I thought maybe he works at Barnes and Nobles :P Well I hope it was enjoyable, can't wait to get my copy

[Phil]

Finished Dave Barry Is from Mars and Venus. A quick funny read in the Erma Bombeck mold.
Starting Blindsight.

[[deleted user]]

Not finding much reading time these days. Doesn't help I keep having to put down what I'm reading because of real life stuff, by the time I get back to it I've mostly lost interest. And now I'm technically into about 11 books or so. Sigh. Major read-off coming soon, I guess.

Aside from a handful of DarkFuse novellas, I haven't really finished reading anything I started recently. Nearly done with Jagannath and The Black Prism, though, looking to finish off those this week. This week there's a national holiday in Guyana, hopefully I can finish all my work and find enough time to read those out also.

I did finish Lord of Light a week or two ago. My first Zelazny. I liked it alot, I think it's aged pretty well, but it definitely wasn't what I expected. For a book so widely loved, I guess I just expected something more speculative. Anyways, I wrote a review. And after getting a taste of Cat Valente in a short story I read recently, I tried out one of her novellas, Six-Gun Snow White. Pretty entertaining. She's a bit unsubtle about her social commentary in the start, but as it progressed that petered off fast. Odd ending. Here's that review. And that's all that's going on with me at the moment, I think.

[Rob, Roberator]

Another weekend round-up:

I finished Ancillary Sword, and enjoyed it, though probably not as much as the first one. (My Review)

I also got my hands of a review copy of the audio book of The Slow Regard of Silent Things a few weeks early, and thought it was decent, but not great. (My Review)

I also read Rat Queens, Vol. 1: Sass & Sorcery and thought it was really excellent. (My Review).

[Ben]

re house of leaves - truant stuff is essential. I was less interested in his exploits but all interlink

[Sean]

I get that, I just wish he would focus a little more on that interlinked stuff and not treat this thing like it's his personal journal. Again, I really, really didn't need to know about how he developed a crush on a stripper. And when said entry literally ends with him saying, "Perhaps when I'm finished I'll remember what I'd hoped to say in the first place," (p. 54), my sense of immersion is completely destroyed, because I refuse to believe that any real editor worth their salt would let something like that actually get published. It also doesn't help when Truant starts rambling incoherently for a page or more, because then all I can think is "this is why you don't do drugs, kids".

I'm fine when Truant discusses something weird happening, or commenting on Zampano's text, but not when he decides to treat the manuscript as his personal journal.

[Sheila Jean]

So, I'm halfway through two books from the library: Poison Fruit, which I expect to finish in the next day or so, and Severed Souls, which I tried to read last month and failed because it is absolutely painful to read. (I want to know what happens, but the writing is just...)

During my commute I'm listening to Pandora's Star. It's definitely taken a while to really get into it, but things are starting to click. I'm probably halfway through.

[Tamahome]

Platforms — I remembered a scene from this book from the '80's as a kid, and someone amazingly figured out what book it was using the "Novelist Plus" database. It's about a guy named Halloran that can see dead people (not The Shining), and a spirit at a seance tells a woman medium to go find him. I'm reading a scanned version at the Open Library. But it slightly scrolls the page when it loses connection, sometimes.

[Aaron]

terpkristin wrote: "So I tried to read Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography and realized that I don't like "choose your own adventure" books on Kindle. I am going to have to wait for it to come out in paperback so I can read it just like I used to read the books when I was younger, dog-ear-ing all of the decision point pages and trying to find the best path..."



Which is crazy because you would think with it being on a computer instead of turn to page 157, it could just be click on it boom takes you to where you need to go.

[Misti]

Finished up Death Masks last night before bed time. Thinking about plunging back into Discworld with The Last Continent when I get home from work today.

[Carolina]

So far this month I have finished The Preacher, Attachments, Die I Will Not, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, The Witch Sisters, The Descent, The Sisters Brothersand The Catcher in the Rye.

Since I am listening to Ancillary Sword during commute with my BF we aren't advancing as fast as I would like, but we are getting there. I am not sure I like this narrator better than the one used for the first book, but can't do much there. I am loving the story and it has made me laugh and be angry and...we are only 3h (out of almost 12, so let's say 1/4 of it).

[AndrewP]

After a hard week I spent the weekend on the couch and finished Ancillary Justice, The Maltese Falcon and The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead.

Now onto another S&L catch up with The Curse of Chalion and some non-fiction with Thrilling Cities by Ian Fleming

[Dharmakirti]

Sean wrote: "I get that, I just wish he would focus a little more on that interlinked stuff and not treat this thing like it's his personal journal. Again, I really, really didn't need to know about how he deve..."

Maybe the whole thing is his personal journal and Zampano never existed. Maybe that is why the first words in the novel are "This is not for you."

Or, maybe it isn't even Johnny who is writing. Maybe it is all a story cooked up by Pelafina while she was at Whalestone.

While at first I thought it was odd that Johnny would tell his story through footnotes to a text he was editting, I quickly gave up on trying to figure out why and I just went with it and I'm glad I did. Johnny's story moved me. Perhaps it was because I read the book at a time when a friend was dealing with addiction and mental health issues.

[Paolo]

Aaron wrote: "terpkristin wrote: "So I tried to read Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography and realized that I don't like "choose your own adventure" books on Kindle. I am going to have to wait for ..."

I was actually thinking about this when I heard about NPH's book: Would I want to read it on a Kindle (where I read almost all my books); or, would I want to read it on a good ol' paperback?

I felt like reading a choose-your-own-adventure book on paperback would feel better. Flipping the pages just seems more preferable than tapping on the kindle, clicking "Go to...", entering the page number and hitting enter.

[kvon]

I finished listening to Etiquette and Espionage, Gail Carriger's YA story about steampunk spy school. Entertaining.

I've gotten my copy of Ancillary Sword that I'm working on.

Re CyoA books, I did Ryan North's Hamlet one To Be or Not To Be: A Chooseable-Path Adventure on Kindle. Even better than the 'Go to' button was the 'back' button, to make sure I reached every branch point of the story.

[terpkristin]

Paolo wrote: "I felt like reading a choose-your-own-adventure book on paperback would feel better. Flipping the pages just seems more preferable than tapping on the kindle, clicking "Go to...", entering the page number and hitting enter. "

Well, the Kindle is hyperlinked, so it's not "go to" blah blah, you click on your different options. But it's just not the same as reading it in print. So it's back to the virtual bookshelf to wait for the paperback version to come out. :)

I did finish listening to Nine Princes in Amber and really liked it. There was a lot that was familiar--I can see where others have learned from his methods--but it was still really good. I need more time so I can read the others!

[Kristina]

Finished up Blood of Elves. So looking forward to the Witcher 3 coming out that I thought I'd read the books. It's been neat to see where they got some of the storyline/quests for the games from. Back to Iron Druid now with Tricked. These books are so fun.

[Paolo]

terpkristin wrote: "Well, the Kindle is hyperlinked"

ah well this is new to me. if that's the case then I'm all for the Kindle version

[David(LA,CA)]

Rob wrote: "
I also read Rat Queens, Vol. 1: Sass & Sorcery and thought it was really excellent. (My Review). "

It really is quite good. January (and Vol. 2) are so far away.

Besides Alif the Unseen, I've hit a number of shorter works to get back on track for my yearly goal:

* An audiobook of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow narrated by the actor that plays Ichabod on the TV show.

* Bigfoot Trilogy from the recent Urban Fantasy Humble bundle.

* Mitosis, which I still need to go and review since I just finished a couple of minutes ago.

Ex-Purgatory is on deck for reading, Neverwhere: BBC Dramatization is likely my next "audiobook".

[Joseph]

Finished Elric: The Sleeping Sorceress and that inevitably led to Duke Elric, which should sate me, Elric-wise, for the time being.

[Andy]

David(LA,CA) wrote: * Bigfoot Trilogy from the recent Urban Fantasy Humble bundle."

My copy had the stories out of order. Read Bigfoot on Campus last, it was story 2 for me. So read 1, 3, and then 2.

[[deleted user]]

Not sure if you guys have heard, but Brandon Sanderson released his Cosmere novella, Sixth of the Dusk, singly! Good thing I never got around to buying the Writing Excuses anthology just to read it. Here's my review

I also finished Ghosts of Eden by Keith Deininger, a mindbending little fantasy that turns into a pretty strange horror story. I like how it plays with the whole kid-going-to-magic-school situation. Here's that review.

[Rob, Roberator]

Yeah, I bought the Writing Excuses thing when it was on sale or something..I wish I had waited as I still haven't read it yet. Alas.

[Shad]

It depends on what your interests are. I loved the look behind the curtain that Shadows Beneath: The Writing Excuses Anthology gave to the stories. While Sixth of the Dusk was my favorite story in the anthology, Mary Robinette Kowal's story in the anthology is almost as good. Hopefully, she releases that one on its own as well.

[Rob, Roberator]

Well my main thing is I don't care about the writing process. I'll read the other stories since I bought them all, but I just plan to read the final versions.

[[deleted user]]

I'm glad he chose to release it separately. That way, folks like me who don't want to know too much about how writing works won't feel tempted/obligated to read those parts of Shadows Beneath that deal with that.

[Dustin]

Rob wrote: "Yeah, I bought the Writing Excuses thing when it was on sale or something..I wish I had waited as I still haven't read it yet. Alas."

I got it in the Nanowrimo Bundle. I wanted the other stories and the writing advice anyway.

[[deleted user]]

I'm about to start Widdershins by Oliver Onions, Halloween time reading. One of the tales is supposed to be one of the best ghost-stories in English.

I notice that he also wrote some fantasy, science fiction, and detective stories. Any comments about his other works?

[Joel]

I bought the writing excuses anthology when it was on sale. My main reason for buying was the Sixth of Dusk, but I am excited to read the other stories as well. I've met Howard Tayler and found him to be a very funny and entertaining person. I have also read and enjoyed Dan Wells' John Cleaver series and the Hollow City, so I feel getting the extra stories was kind of a bonus.

[Louie]

I finished Story of Your Life and Others (only a week ago), and am now in the middle of Robogenesis by Daniel H. Wilson. It's been 3 years since I read the first book so I pretty much forgotten the details of that book, making this read a bit challenging.
After that I am planning on starting on The Strain trilogy, now that Season 1 of the show is done.

[artofstu]

I read it a while back, but I wanted to recommend a book called The Stars Were Right by K. M. Alexander. It's kind of a Lovecraftian urban fantasy set (possibly) in the distant future. A really fun read. Check it out.

[Phil]

Finished Blindsight by Peter Watts. It was a good plot but I generally dislike stunt-writing whose main purpose seems to be to confuse the reader and prove how clever the writer is. If this had been written in a more straight forward style similar to that of Larry Niven or Arthur C. Clarke I think I would have loved it. As it stands I gave it a 2.
Starting Borderlands of Science by Charles Sheffield.

[Paolo]

=== WARNING: Possible spoilers regarding the Mistborn series below ===

Finally finished Mistborn: The Final Empire!

I gave it a 4/5. Even though I thought the story was great, I felt like I had enough minor criticisms to warrant a minus one:

- I felt like the Vin-Elend romance was half-baked and not developed enough. Basically, I felt like them falling for each other that quickly was not believable enough.
- Same criticism goes for Marsh getting into the Canton of Inquisition relatively easy. There didn't seem to be enough tension/conflict and development for this subplot.
- When Sanderson says that his prose is very "workmanlike", he really means it. So much so that I felt like the action sequences were just continual sentences and paragraphs of Vin did this... and then Kelsier did that... then the Inquisitor did this... and then Kelsier responded with this... and then some coinshots did this... and then Vin did that... --- which seemed to be a bit too detailed and went on too long too often. The effect is that those sections felt dry and a slog to get through.

Having said that, the worldbuilding of Sanderson is just amazing. The magic system feels so unique and well-thought out... even the political and economical structure of the world where this takes place, with The Lord Ruler on top and then the Inquisitors and Obligators below him and then the noblemen, then the terrismen and skaa. The thought and detail put into creating the world is incredible.

Also: I was pleasantly surprised that my guess regarding The Lord Ruler's identity turned out to be true :p

==========

I've also just started The Well of Ascension. I'm very early into the book - Vin's first fight with a group of Mistings - and nothing much has happened. Criticism regarding Sanderson's way of writing action sequences still holds, but this time I also feel like he's using this particular action sequence to re-orient the reader with the world's magic system. The way this part of the book is written feels like Sanderson putting emphasis on how the different metals work (like saying how Pewter enhances one's physical attributes and Tin enhances one's senses, etc, etc). So for someone like me who's immediately jumped from the 1st book to the 2nd book, it feels a bit unnecessary... but I would imagine that for those who followed the series as they came out, it could have been a good refresher on the magic system indeed.

Also: I was wondering if the 2nd book's chapters would also be prefaced with excerpts from a diary or something, and intriguingly it is. My guess that this time the excerpts are from Rashek.

[[deleted user]]

I had a free day yesterday, so I finally finished up The Black Prism! Been audiobooking it, that's the first book I listened to. Not bad. As to the book, it has a few things I just didn't like, but ultimately I had fun reading [listening?] to it, so it's all good. Here's my review

[terpkristin]

Wow, Rab! You thought the audiobook wasn't bad...that narrator is TERRIBLE. The narrator for the 2nd & 3rd books is Simon Vance and is FAR better.

[Rob, Roberator]

Maybe Rab hasn't done any audiobooks with good narrators?

I didn't really think much about the narrator until I did.

[[deleted user]]

Well it was my first full audiobook experience, so I don't exactly have anything to compare it to, lol. Looks like inexperience played out well, in this case. I've heard it's terrible compared to the rest. I'll find out soon enough, I'm going to be listening to the second book also!

[Rob, Roberator]

I haven't listened to that book, but Simon Vance is one of my favorites, so I'd be shocked if you don't notice the difference.

[Geoff]

Rob wrote: "Maybe Rab hasn't done any audiobooks with good narrators?

I think that may be my problem with audiobooks. The only audiobook I've made it through is Redshirts.

But I also think that the audiobooks that I've tried haven't been in my wheelhouse. And I can read much faster than I can listen.

[Rob, Roberator]

Yeah, but I don't listen instead of reading. I listen in addition to it at times when I couldn't be reading anyways. I more than double the number of books I do in a year as a results.

[Joseph]

Finished Duke Elric and that's probably enough Doomed Albino Prince for the time being. I started Troika by Alastair Reynolds, which should be a nice, little diversion while I figure out what's next on the agenda.

[Tamahome]

Comics: Southern Bastards vol 1. My review. I tried to be Southernly. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Sandi]

I just finished The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. It was even better than Cloud Atlas. One of the best books I've read this year.

In audio, I'm listening to Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch. It's better than the first book in the series. Both the author and the narrator seem to be more comfortable than the first time.

[Ludo]

Finished The Girl with All the Gifts and posted a review . Really liked it. I'm also halfway in The Abominable and just started listening to Lock In.

[Sandra]

This weekend I finished Old Man's War by John Scalzi. Had to read this book to see what all the hubbub was about. I'm glad to say that I was not disappointed, I enjoyed this book so much that I immediately made my husband start reading it.