[June] What are you reading?

[Mark Chance]

Not reading much so far. Current reading list includes Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen, The Iliad (again!), and Psionics Unleashed by Dreamscarred Press.

 

[Crothian]

I just finished the Book Thief which is most likely the best book I've read all year. Of course that comnes closly on the heals of me saying that Little Brother was the best books I'd read all year. Both are very excellent though quite different in tone though more similiar in subject now that I think about it.

 

[Krug]

A Storm of Swords - Refreshing my memory of the books. Martin is vicious, though I dislike his overfrequent use of cliffhangers in this book, as in the character sees so-so-so, but you need to wait until the next sequence featuring him/her to find out what. It wasn't so blatant in the previous two. Great turnarounds; villains turning into heroes and saviours, and heroes turning out to be cowards or.. plain ole dead.

 

[Morkul]

The Citadel of Fear by Francis Stevens (1918)

Francis Stevens is the pen name of Gertrude Barrows Bennett, the unsung creator of the Dark Fantasy genre. Her stuff reads a lot like A. Merritt. She published six novels and numerous short stories in pulp magazines between 1918 and 1923, then disappeared...

Excellent stuff, anyways. Would recommend it to anyone who digs olde fantasy...

 

[Krug]

Onward to A Feast of Crows. Swords was brilliant and brutal, but Crows introduction of new players into the Game of Thrones is frustrating. I know some of the main characters from the previous books aren't here, though I have to say the bits of culture Martin reveals about the different cities is quite fascinating.

 

[megamania]

Finished First Deadly Sin. Not sure if I liked how it ended but ah well.....

Started Second Deadly Sin all the same....

 

[DragonLancer]

Trying to re-read The Hobbit and A Song of Ice and Fire.

It took me ten years (no exaggeration) to read The Hobbit the first time, and I'm having the same trouble again. It's just so dull.

From watching A Game of Thrones I figured I buy the first book since I enjoyed the show. I'm about a third of the way through and I may just put it down. It's a good book and I have been enjoying it but I find it a real slog to read right now.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I'm finishing up A Storm of Swords and then moving on to A Feast for Crows.

I am on A Feast for Crows as well on a re-read, in preparation for July 12's release of A Dance with Dragons. Well, re-listen actually, as I am doing this one via audiobook. I'm having to put up with John Lee as narrator and apart from his voice for Podrick Payne, it's just brutalcompared to Roy Dotrice's masterful narration and voice work of the first three novels. [Speaking of which. DragonLancer -- give the audio books a try. Roy Dotrice does unique voices for all of the characters and the result is almost like a radio play. Highly recommended.]

I have never in my life anticipated a book more -- or for as long -- as GRRM's A Dance with Dragons. I have, quite literally, been wanting this book for 10 and a half years. That's a LONG wait.

I've decided next month to experience A Dance with Dragons on the first "read" through via audiobook as well. It's Roy Dotrice who will (once again) be narrating the book (and not the dreadful John Lee who did AFFC). Apart from loving Roy Dotrice's narration and voice work, having to listen to the book will prolong my first-run experience of ADwD.

 

[Mallus]

I recently finished Leviathan Wakes - which was a wonderfully deliberate throwback to the SF of my youth, ie the likes of Niven and Pournelle. It's mid-future intra-system space opera with a dash of detective noir and horror. The great thing is the book is all about people, not post-people or computer programs. Terrific fun.

Daniel Abraham, who co-write Leviathan, and wrote all of The Dragon's Path, is my new go-to author for pure, compulsively readable storytelling.

I also read the 1st book in Mark Charan Newton's Legends of the Red Sun series, Nights in Villjamur, It's Dying Earth science fantasy, complete with direct shout-outs to Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, even. It's moody, heavily reliant on tone, kinda obviously an early-career novel, but still very good. I found it compulsively readable too, but I'm guessing most people wouldn't. I'm somewhat of a sucker for that particular sub-genre, as well as for authors willing to mix up their language a little, do something other than flat transparent prose or faux-grandiose high fantasy diction.

I just started the 2nd book, City of Ruin. So far, so good.

After that I may take a break from SF/F and read Jenifer Egan's 1st novel, The Invisible Circus. Her latest book, A Visit From the Good Squad won the 2011 Pulitzer for fiction. I thought it was marvelous too, the best book I'd read since David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, aka, The Best Novel of the Aughts -- and soon to be a major motion picture from the Wachowski Brothers, and that Run, Lola, Run guy! (I kinda wish I was kidding about that).

 

[Shade]

Onward to A Feast of Crows. Swords was brilliant and brutal, but Crows introduction of new players into the Game of Thrones is frustrating. I know some of the main characters from the previous books aren't here, though I have to say the bits of culture Martin reveals about the different cities is quite fascinating.

Agreed! The Braavosi are especially interesting.

I'm reading through the series for the first-time, so I didn't have to suffer the lengthy wait for A Feast for Crows. As a result, I think I'm enjoying it a bit more than I might otherwise. I can see why long-time readers were a bit disappointed, although the fairly common criticism that almost none of the main characters are present is surprising to me. I think at least half the surviving main characters are present.

One thing I've found off-putting about this one, though, is the deviation from titling the chapters by the character's name, and instead labeling them "The Soiled Knight" and so forth. I don't recall GRRM doing that in any of the previous three.