[August] What Are You Reading?

[Krug]

Finished Assassin's Apprentice. Can't help but feel let down by the ending after some great world-building and writing. I thought Fitz was too passive for the most part, letting things happen to him.

As for the ending:
[sblock]The whole psionic combat thing just seemed like a mathematical exercise to me, and felt unsatisfying.

Furthermore, once Fitz's cover was blown, the reaction of the mountain tribe just seemed odd. Why interact with someone who plans to assassinate you? Sure their ways are strange, but I just found it too far-out.
[/sblock]

I wished Hobb had done more with the Forged, but they seemed more like an afterthought.

 

[Nellisir]

Finished Assassin's Apprentice. Can't help but feel let down by the ending after some great world-building and writing. I thought Fitz was too passive for the most part, letting things happen to him.

I wished Hobb had done more with the Forged, but they seemed more like an afterthought.

The Tawny Man trilogy picks up Fitz's story a number of years later; I remember feeling many of the same things at the conclusion of the first trilogy, but I think the second trilogy provides more satisfactory resolution. It's been a few years, though.

 

[Richards]

In the last 5 days, I read the following:

Cold Vengeance, the latest in the Agent Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child;

Book One of The Walking Dead, a hardcover collection of the first two story arcs of the B&W comic by Robert Kirkman;

and two horror novels by Ted Dekker: Thr3e and Boneman's Daughters. I hadn't read anything by him before, but I enjoyed those enough to want to seek out other novels by him.

Johnathan

 

[Nellisir]

Finished The Good Thief; read The Giver, by Lois Lowry. Same arena as Never Let Me Go, although the latter is creepier. Not sure what I'll read next.

 

[Nellisir]

Just read The City & The City, a good book. Interesting conceit, although I couldn't swallow it as ever possible. Also read Summertide, an "older" (1990) sf book by Charles Sheffield: one of those books that assumes people 3,000 years from now are just like us, and they go somewhere dangerous and get in trouble, and then everything is OK, except the boring old mystery of the "Builder/Artifact/Engineer/First" race of aliens gets a shot in the arm because something happens and it saves the good people, and suddenly the dead aliens Become Important.

I'm not going to search out the sequels, but for .25c it was fine.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I just finished The Wind through the Keyhole, Stephen King's latest Dark Tower story. It's not really part of the main storyline, although it has a framing story of Roland telling his ka-tet a tale from his early life. It has a nested story structure like Sin City movie - part 1 of Story A, part 1 of Story B, Story C, part 2 of Story B, part 2 of Story A - that I really like.

The first few pages of the framing story made me think he'd forgotten how to write. They're agonizingly tell-y, if that makes sense, not to mention awkwardly structured and overly invested in spouting gibbets of Mid-World information. But the two stories contained by the framing story are awesome. The Skin-Man is a great Weird Western detective story, and The Wind through the Keyhole is a fantastic adventure.

If you enjoyed the Dark Tower series at all, I highly recommend this. If you can get through the first few pages

 

[Mercutio01]

If you enjoyed the Dark Tower series at all, I highly recommend this. If you can get through the first few pages

I read it this spring and had the exact same reaction. I think knowledge of the comic book series is also helpful, but not compulsory.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Poul Anderson's The Trouble Twisters. I haven't hit the Trouble Twisters yet, but I should get there tomorrow. A quick read, I picked it up on Friday.

It's interesting but not as good as his other works. I really liked the Broken Sword.

I love Poul Anderson. I just burned through Three Hearts and Three Lions again and I'm in the middle of re-reading The Broken Sword.

If you haven't, I'd highly recommend checking out Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories. They're set in the time period of The Broken Sword, and while they're historical fiction and ambiguous on the efficacy of enchantments, they have a great dark, brutal warrior feel to them that hits many of the same triggers for me that The Broken Sword does.

I read it this spring and had the exact same reaction. I think knowledge of the comic book series is also helpful, but not compulsory.

The comics are great. I love all the world information in them.

 

[LostSoul]

If you haven't, I'd highly recommend checking out Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories. They're set in the time period of The Broken Sword, and while they're historical fiction and ambiguous on the efficacy of enchantments, they have a great dark, brutal warrior feel to them that hits many of the same triggers for me that The Broken Sword does.

I think a buddy of mine has those books. I liked the Sharpe novels so I imagine they will be good. I'll have to borrow them.

The Broken Sword is a really good read.

 

[Nellisir]

I broke down and bought Caliban's War, the sequel to Leviathan Wakes. It's good. They've got the whole "end each chapter on a cliffhanger to keep things moving" tactic down pat.