What are you reading in 2023?

[Zaukrie]

Now that I finished Wheel of Time, I listened to The Origins of the Wheel of Time by Professor Michael Livingstone, which is a very cool examination of Robert Jordan's life story and the manuscript history of the books. Makes a good case for the literary merits of the books, really fun to go over when the series was fresh in my mind.

I followed this with 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed as a pallete cleanser, some pretty interesting stuff about the Late Bronze Age Collapse.

And then today, I started The Dragonbone Chair, which I have read before but found smooth going as an audio book. 7 hours in, 26 hours to go, the plot hasn't really started yet. Classic Tad Williams.

I just really struggled with the ending of DC......I get the point, I really do, but I just didn't buy that any world would work that way. Even in fantasy land.

 

[Parmandur]

I just really struggled with the ending of DC......I get the point, I really do, but I just didn't buy that any world would work that way. Even in fantasy land.

Well, about a third of the way there, I don't remember precisely how the first book ends, so I'll keep an eye on that.

It is interesting comparing to the Wheel of Time directly, Jordan definitely saw and experienced some intense things that gave him a different perspective.

 

[Pedantic]

I just really struggled with the ending of DC......I get the point, I really do, but I just didn't buy that any world would work that way. Even in fantasy land.

I really should reread those, I picked them up in middle school and they've completely drained out of my head in the interim decades.

 

[Zaukrie]

Well, about a third of the way there, I don't remember precisely how the first book ends, so I'll keep an eye on that.

It is interesting comparing to the Wheel of Time directly, Jordan definitely saw and experienced some intense things that gave him a different perspective.

It's possible I'm remembering wrongly....

 

[Parmandur]

even if the "Sithi voice" and "Troll voice" the narrator does are... a bit much.

Yeah, uh, Peter Lorre sound alike is certainly a...choice?

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Yeah, uh, Peter Lorre sound alike is certainly a...choice?

Well, now I'm interested in the audio book.

 

[Parmandur]

Well, now I'm interested in the audio book.

It is quite good! Some of the accents are a bit quirky in their choices, but the diction, pace, emotion, etc. are good.

 

[Parmandur]

Just as in interesting comparison: the first part of Dragonbone Chair covers about 18 months...a period of time similar to that from the beginning of Eye of the World to the end of Lord of Chaos. In total, the Wheel of Time covers a 2.5 year period, where Memory, Sorrow & Thorn is about 4 years.

 

[Richards]

I finished Hot Blooded and am moving on to the next Lisa Jackson novel in my pile, 2005's Final Scream. This one's apparently a standalone - not part of any of her various series - about a woman who survived losing her entire family in a fire 17 years ago and is now looking into the details of their deaths, only to uncover the work of a psychopath who has killed many times before and is willing to do so again to keep her from uncovering some buried truth. The last one of hers was pretty good, so I have fairly high hopes for this one.

Johnathan

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Finished The Book of Lost Tales Vol. 1 on the plane this afternoon. Not sure what there is to say about it. I enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to reading the next volume later this month.

Afterwards, I started Behind the Curtain by Jonathan Wilson, which is about football in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union. It's very good. Wilson is drily funny and captures the romantic side of the former Eastern Bloc countries -- he has a lot of affection for the countries and their people, and it shows. I did misread a reference to Antal Végh as Anton LaVey somehow and was surprised that he had the time and interest to write a full book on Hungarian football (Miert beteg a magyar futball? or Why is Hungarian football sick?). A man of broad interests.