What Are You Reading In June 2011?

[[deleted user]]

Up to book 6 of the series.

I'm just going to ignore the rest of my BotM's for other groups this month.

[Holly]

Finishing Magic Kingdom for Sale: Sold by Terry Brooks and then I'm going to start on The First Days: As the World Dies by Rhiannon Frater

[Maggie]

I heart me some Garrett, but I am still missing book 7 :(

[whimsicalmeerkat]

I just started The Trial, which I am enjoying far more than expected, and Magician: Apprentice, by which I am thus far unimpressed.

[[deleted user]]

book 9 of Garrett.

Need to take a break and read something else after this one, though. Then finish up the series next week.

[David]

Just finished All The Lives He Led by Frederick Pohl. It was... underwhelming. Slow to start, slow in the middle, lively for about 40 pp, then draggy at the end. Pohl is trying his hand at "character-driven" SF, and not doing very well. His first-person narrator a hundred years in the future sounds like a mall rat from the 1980s (he says stuff like "happy campers" fer God's sake). Ah well... Zendegi by Greg Egan is next up, so hope for the best.

[Shomeret]

Just started reading Midnight Riot. I can see that it could be categorized as urban fantasy or a paranormal mystery.

[Trevor]

Finished reading Century of the Soldier. I think it's safe to say Kearney is one of my favorite authors at this point. What a great series.

Next up is Catching Fire.

[Karen]

Finished Kelley Eskridge's Solitaire a few days ago, and loved it. Boy, I wish I had her ability to use just the right amount of description to bring a scene alive. It's a moving and exciting book with some very appealing, and some other very interesting, characters.

[Benjamin]

Trevor wrote: "Finished reading Century of the Soldier. I think it's safe to say Kearney is one of my favorite authors at this point. What a great series."

He's one of my favorites too. It's a shame he's so under-read, though I'm glad the omnibii release has given him more exposure.

[Jackie]

Gravity Wave by Phoenix MacKenzie which I'm enjoying.

I plan to buddy read A Feast for Crows next week.

[Peggy]

Just finished Spook Country, and I'm not sure what my reaction is. I love Gibson's writing, but still don't fully understand what happened. Either I read too fast and missed it, or he didn't include the motivations for two-thirds of the characters.

[J.A.]

Interesting comments re Pratchett - I read them as they came out but thought the series faltered a bit somewhere around book 15 or so, as if he'd kind of surrealled himself out; and then he cut back on the silliness and went all dark and the books got a whole new lease of life. Great stuff!

I'm quite please as years ago I read and loved The Darkangel and the other day I discovered there were at least another two in the series, so I had a bit of an accident with the 1-click finger and bought the lot...so just finishing
Cave (which isn't Scifi or fantasy though) and then I'm on with those.... trying really hard not to get overexcited about it though as that's a guaranteed way to be a bit disappointed once I actually get round to it!
JAC

[Evilynn]

J.A. wrote: "
I'm quite please as years ago I read and loved The Darkangel and the other day I discovered there were at least another two in the series, so I had a bit of an accident with the 1-click finger"

I *loved* those books as a kid, and while I found the writing a bit flat when I re-read them as an adult, I still liked them. They might not go where you think they will, which is a point in their favour in my book. ;)

[Colin]

I finished A Land of Ash on the train home tonight, but might go for some non-fiction next as a change of pace, that would mean What Next?: Surviving the Twenty-first Century is now on my radar.

[Trevor]

Finished Catching Fire. I remember hearing there was a dip in quality after The Hunger Games but I enjoyed this book just as much as the first.

I think I'm going to read Good Omens next.

[Kat]

Peggy wrote: "Just finished Spook Country, and I'm not sure what my reaction is. I love Gibson's writing, but still don't fully understand what happened. Either I read too fast and missed it, or h..."

I had a similar reaction to Gibson's Pattern Recognition. It was enjoyable to read, but after a while, you say "wait, what...and why?"

Right now I'm reading The Black Company, but I think I am going to have to read The Hunger Games because I keep hearing interesting things about it.

[[deleted user]]

The Black Company is a good read and the series becomes a little addictive. At least, it did for me. His cast of evil characters, the "Ten Who Were Taken" is pretty good.

[Valerie]

Just finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - it took a while, but I really liked it. :D

I guess I'll hop back onto One Hundred Years of Solitude (though to be honest, the beginning really grossed me out). Then I'll read The Concubine's Daughter: A Novel. Not sure where I'll go from there.

[[deleted user]]

I'm on the latest of the Garret PI books, Gilded Latten Bones. So almost done with this binge.

Pondering what to start next, though. Too many options, never enough time.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Valerie wrote: "Just finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - it took a while, but I really liked it. :D "

Yay!

I'm reading The Stand. I have been reading it for 8 days and am not even half-way through. I figure I will pretty much be reading it for the rest of the month.

[stormhawk]

Trevor wrote: "Finished 2666 and that has to be the most pointless book I've ever read. I finished it out of sheer stubbornness and felt cheated when the main mystery of the book didn't get resolv..."

I am gratified to learn I am not the only person who thought this was a piece of artsy-fartsy crap.

I am finally starting Consider Phlebas.

[Jon]

stormhawk wrote: "I am finally starting Consider Phlebas. "

Finished that one about an hour ago. Moving on to something completely different ... The Edge of the World

[Trevor]

Finished Good Omens and it was a lot of fun to read. This was my first time reading Terry Pratchett and Discworld just jumped a lot higher on my wish list.

Next up I'm going to read The Heroes.

[Mark]

I'm taking a short fantasy break and doing some Sci-Fi.

Reading Ringworld Throne by Niven. I kinda know where its going and what will happen because I've already read Ringworld's Children.
Might go back to Elliots crown of stars series after I'm done, or maybe do a little more Sci-Fi...haven't made up my mind yet.

[Rusty]

Halfway through Brandon Sanderson's The Well of Ascension. It is long, but just as good as Mistborn. Hope that the series holds together!

[Janny]

Finished The Chosen by Ricardo Pinto - quite a very strange, lavish and original book.

[[deleted user]]

Janny wrote: "Finished The Chosen by Ricardo Pinto - quite a very strange, lavish and original book."

But was it good?

[Janny]

Ala wrote: "Janny wrote: "Finished The Chosen by Ricardo Pinto - quite a very strange, lavish and original book."

But was it good?"

If you are willing to totally throw out ALL your expectations; if you are willing to let the story TAKE you there/enjoy an exotic welter of detail that slowly pieces together into a very rich and interesting tapestry - if you like a story that has a core of love and caring IN CONFLICT WITH very bloody, oppressive brutality - (the culture is extremely rigidly caste based, with terrifying results if caste is broken) - this is not 'traditional' fantasy in any way...and at the point of the ending, it could fly in so MANY interesting directions....

I am still absorbing it.

It calls to mind some of the earlier/classic fantasies like The Worm Ouroboros - the richness/lavishness of the backdrop - but with a distinctive plot that gets more and more intense. Not a story to get impatient with, all that intensity of focus does go somewhere. But if you like your world grim and barren and brutish and short - this work is not. It is utterly Not Western, in many ways, but Not Eastern, either.

Exotic and strange, with a character viewpoint that is not shaping up to conform. Which, in a society this rigid/unquestioning of itself - could make for a very powerful dynamic to come.

If you don't mind floating free in an imaginative universe and aren't wedded to 'mainstream' values - it's rather an incredible journey. JUST enough 'traditional' story element laced in here and there to allow grounding out/some sort of orientation. Lots to digest.

So few books deliver the unpredictable - I think this is one where you need to plunge and try it, yourself.

I thought the scenes describing how the records were kept/how their libraries functioned - was among the most fascinating and original concepts I've ever encountered in fantasy.

[[deleted user]]

Now I am highly intrigued and look forward to reading this.

Thanks Janny :)

[Benjamin]

I found the world-building and concepts in The Chosen to be pretty interesting, but I did have a problem with the lack of a forward plot. Felt like the author created this elaborate world and wrote the book just to show it off.

I finished my re-read of A Storm of Swords. A monster of a book, but also a fantastic read.

Now starting Feed by Mira Grant for the Hugos.

[Janny]

Benjamin wrote: "I found the world-building and concepts in The Chosen to be pretty interesting, but I did have a problem with the lack of a forward plot. Felt like the author created this elaborate world and wrot..."

And Anathem didn't do the same thing, only more so?

[Emon]

Just read Annie Jacobson's Area 51.

[Benjamin]

Janny wrote: "And Anathem didn't do the same thing, only more so? "

I haven't read Anathem yet so I wouldn't know. Not that this a bad thing in a book. Each book works differently. It just didn't work for me personally.

[Deanne]

Reading Neverwhere by Gaiman, very easy to immerse myself in London below.

[Mark]

Deanne wrote: "Reading Neverwhere by Gaiman, very easy to immerse myself in London below."

Deanne wrote: "Reading Neverwhere by Gaiman, very easy to immerse myself in London below."

Thats an awesome book, though a little short for my tastes. It was the first (non comic) work I read from Gaiman and got me hooked on his work.

[Scott]

I started reading The Gates.

[Scott]

Neverwhere was my first Gaiman read also. I loved that book.

[[deleted user]]

Not to sound like the heretic on present company, but what is it you like about Gaiman's books? I've only read American Gods and overall I didn't care for it much. He sets a good stage, obviously knows a lot about various mythologies and what they represent, but I just felt like he only set the stage without putting on a real show. That particular book just left me with a sense of being incomplete. Understand that I'm not bashing your tastes, I only want to understand them.

[Maggie]

I didn't like American Gods too much either Craig. But one of the wonderful things about Gaiman is how each of his books is so DIFFERENT! He does not have a mold of any kind whatsoever!
so yeah, try a different one...

[Genia]

Gaiman is a fantastic wordsmith. He is doing, in my opinion, what writers should be doing; he focuses on creating a fantastically-crafted story rather than providing a plethora of action and bloody battle scenes. I enjoy so much reading his books because he gives me the best of both worlds; he provides the literary merit of mainstream, the philosophy of an artist trying to convey an idea, while at the same time refusing to bind himself to mainstream settings if better ones can be had.

I appreciate that about him. Not to mention I appreciate his outlook on the supernatural, which isn't pleasant and simple, nor is it flat on the level of coming in, running around, heroically doing stuff. His world is complex and very real, and I also appreciate that realism.

[[deleted user]]

Thank you Genia. I look for and enjoy much of the same things you do in novels of all kinds, but I just don't find it in Gaiman like you do. His expression of what you described above just left me feeling that something was left out. But that's just my opinion and nothing written in stone.

[Rusty]

Interesting comments about Neil Gaiman. I have read and enjoyed many of his books - not all - but he is an excellent author and I do like to read his work now and again.

[Valerie]

Decided to put my other reads on hold in favor of re-reading A Game of Thrones, and I think it's a good decision. :D

Maggie wrote: "I didn't like American Gods too much either Craig. But one of the wonderful things about Gaiman is how each of his books is so DIFFERENT! He does not have a mold of any kind whatsoever!
so yeah, ..."

Hmmm, I really liked American Gods, but one thing that turned me off was that I read it after Good Omens and I felt some things (like the (anti-)climax) were too similar... I did read Anansi Boys afterwards, but I didn't like it as much.

[[deleted user]]

Maggie wrote: "I didn't like American Gods too much either Craig. But one of the wonderful things about Gaiman is how each of his books is so DIFFERENT! He does not have a mold of any kind whatsoever!
so yeah, ..."

A friend suggested I try the audio book version of Ananzi Boys. I'll try it Maggie but I have doubts about finishing it. I just don't think he lives up to the hype that he's given. He's not a bad writer, I just think there are much better like Gene Wolfe or Nicholas Christopher. Although admittedly, few people agree with me on those points. Anyway Maggie, thank you for your reply.

[Maggie]

well, Ananzi boys is kind of American Gods part 2...something like Neverwhere would be much better

[[deleted user]]

I know the basic theme of A. Boys. I'll look at Neverwhere the next time I'm at the bookstore. What did you like about Neverwhere?

[Maggie]

Well, what I like about it is that there are a lot of original concepts that I havent seen elsewhere...the best example I can think of this is a character named Door whose power is getting into places, because she is a door...concepts that don't refer back to something else (such as the various mythologies referred to in American Gods)
however, this is a novel based on a screenplay, and that kind of shows too...
But check it out and see what you think.

[[deleted user]]

I'll look for it Maggie. Thank you.

[Trevor]

For what it's worth, I enjoyed Anansi Boys more than American Gods. Maybe you will too.