[Nov 2016] What Are You Reading?

That's on my pile of imminent to-read books (as opposed to the "one of these days" pile). The language he uses, indeed, is witty and lovely.

Blue said:

Rereading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I love heavily mythic books, like much of Tim Powers, and this works well for me. Plus some of the turns of phrase are just fantastic. And not in the "I polished this opening 30 times" but just little throw-away lines that are sheer genius.

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Now finally getting to another book I’ve been meaning to read for ages: Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice.

Assassin's Apprentice was surprisingly riveting. At first I was hesitant about yet another child growing into his powers story, it really drew me in.

Now I'm giving A Canticle for Leibowitz a try. Somehow I never had to read that for a class.

I'm now just about finished "The Broken Sphere". Thus far, the Spelljammer novels have been getting better as they go - book 5 is the best to date.

I also managed to fit "Shy Knives", the latest Pathfinder Tale, in earlier in the month. It was a good read, as game-fiction goes.

Next up will be "The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul" by Douglas Adams, and then "Consider Phlebas" by Iain M. Banks. That should take me to the end of the month, but if time permits I'll probably make a start on "N.E.W." by, um, some guy.

I'm now on The Way of the Traitor, the next in the Sano Ichiro samurai detective novels. (I think this is the third novel, after which I'll jump back to where I originally left off in the series. But it's nice to be "plugging the holes" in my collection.)

Johnathan

I'm almost done with 'Death's End', now, the third and final part of Ciu Lixin's 'Remembrance of Earth's Past' trilogy.

At the end of the second novel ('The Dark Forest'), I had felt that the story was pretty much already told.
So, I've been positively surprised by the third novel, because the roller-coaster ride continues:
It's full of interesting and unexpected twists. You can never be sure in which directions the story continues to evolve.

The only thing I'm sure about at this point: Every character introduced in the novels serves an important purpose, even if it only becomes obvious two novels later...

"Assassins of the Lost Kingdom" by E.J. Blaine. It's a story in the universe of the "Airship Daedalus" audio plays, which are done in the style of the old 1930s radio serials.

When things fall apart... By Pema Chödrön. Buddhism both intrigues me and frustrates me...

Ralif Redhammer said:

Assassin's Apprentice was surprisingly riveting. At first I was hesitant about yet another child growing into his powers story, it really drew me in.

Now I'm giving A Canticle for Leibowitz a try. Somehow I never had to read that for a class.

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I enjoyed all three books in the first Assassin's Apprentice trilogy. There's a second trilogy, and at least one other series set in the world.

Canticle for Leibowitz is fun, though you're right it's got a bit of that "assigned for class, need to write an essay" vibe to it. Though thinking about it just brought be back to Anathem I read a few months back.

Went on a 11 day cruise for our 15 year wedding anniversary. I'm an early riser and my wife and kids ... are not, so I got in a lot of relaxing reading outside in perfect weather.

Finished American Gods. Very good and I love his writing style. I brought with me four more books (had more ordered from Amazon but they didn't arrive on time).

I have to admit that I am negligent in reading much of our late beloved Sir Terry Pratchett. So I brought with me the first three guards books: "Guards, Guards", "Men at Arms" and "Feet of Clay". Delightful, though not as HGttG-esqe aburd-wacky as I remember the Rincewind books being way back when. Still quite solid.

Last as Neil Gaiman's Coraline, which I didn't realize was so short. Really liked it, and then lent it to me 10 y.o. daughter.

The ship had a library and I borrowed from there. First was Micro by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston. A very Crichton book - pick one technological advance, introduce it and see what waves it makes. Wrap a story around it that has a lot of exposition to act as a travelogue to this brave new world. Refreshing in that it broke one of the most common tropes, but I won't spoil it. It passed the time.

Next was my first John Grisham: Rogue Lawyer. It was entertaining, but in some ways like a bunch of short stories woven together instead of a full-length novel. And little character development. More enjoyable for me then Micro.

So Coraline was the only new book I'd call great, though the Diskworld were not far from the mark and it may have been just mistaken preconception.