What are you reading in 2022?

Zaukrie · Apr 7, 2022

I must be in the minority, I couldn't finish the collected Vance novels. Not even close.

Eyes of Nine · Apr 9, 2022

Zaukrie said:
I must be in the minority, I couldn't finish the collected Vance novels. Not even close.

Whew, glad someone else had the same experience... I feel the same about Glen Cook's Black Company novels...

Hex08 · Apr 9, 2022

Unfortunately, I find my reading time limited, but I am slowing making my way through the Books of Swords trilogy by Fred Saberhagen. I am about four chapters into book two. One I am done with those I will go back to Glen Cook's The Chronicles of the Black Company. I have read the first three and really want to finish the rest.

Cadence · Apr 11, 2022

Just finished Moon Pool by Merritt (from Appendix N). I really liked the first half and then it was... okish. To much tell instead of show? And the cosmology was just ok.

Reading the collected Lord Darcy now.

(First time on both books).

Nellisir · Apr 11, 2022

Eyes of Nine said:
Whew, glad someone else had the same experience... I feel the same about Glen Cook's Black Company novels...

I'm honestly not sure what sells me on the Black Company, honestly. I love them dearly, but totally understand that other people don't.

Scottius · Apr 11, 2022

Nellisir said:
I'm honestly not sure what sells me on the Black Company, honestly. I love them dearly, but totally understand that other people don't.

Black Company, at least the first trilogy of books they kind of petered out for me after that, are some of my favorites. I think the viewpoint being that of a morally grey mercenary group makes it stand out. And it has some of my absolute favorite depictions of powerful magic users as well. The original ten who were taken are far more interesting and do so much more than say the ringwraiths. I find them terrifyingly human and inhuman at the same time.

Nellisir · Apr 11, 2022

Scottius said:
Black Company, at least the first trilogy of books they kind of petered out for me after that, are some of my favorites. I think the viewpoint being that of a morally grey mercenary group makes it stand out. And it has some of my absolute favorite depictions of powerful magic users as well. The original ten who were taken are far more interesting and do so much more than say the ringwraiths. I find them terrifyingly human and inhuman at the same time.

I almost said "the personalities, I guess" in my reply above. I mean, I LOVE the Black Company. I love most of Cook's writing. But I totally understand why people can't get into it, or get fed up with it, or find it unlikable.

Ralif Redhammer · Apr 11, 2022

I ran into a similar situation with the Moon Pool. The first half was chilling and eerie, the second half vague and misty, hard to imagine. While I loved Creep, Shadow, Creep! I found a similar experience with The Metal Monster. There's something about Merritt's language that can be hard to picture at times. I give him props for not just falling back on "unknowable vistas beyond human imagination" and instead actually trying to describe things, but I find that it can make for difficult reading.

Cadence said:
Just finished Moon Pool by Merritt (from Appendix N). I really liked the first half and then it was... okish. To much tell instead of show? And the cosmology was just ok.

I finished Moorcock's The Final Programme. It felt very much like an homage to J.G. Ballard. I dug it, though wouldn't rank it amongst his greats.

Now I'm reading L. Sprague De Camp's The Tritonian Ring.

Eyes of Nine · Apr 11, 2022

I liked the writing. The characters were interesting. However, there wasn't really a single POV character I could hang my hat on - the stories were really not about any individual, but about the company as a whole. I appreciate the risk the author took with that approach - and get why people like it. But for me I guess I need a single protagonist to follow.

And one that doesn't get killed at the end of the first book of an X-length and 2 million word+ mega series... I actually read the first 2 books and 100 pages of the 3rd when I finally said - the only person likeable in this entire series is a girl on the run who only shows up in about 4% of the pages. Buh-bye...