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I don't know why I keep doing this to myself but I'm continuing on with The Passage trilogy of vampire books. Just finished the second book The Twelve and have started the third. Overall I think it's a better book than the first in the series. Seems the internet hivemind has decided that the first book is amazing and the second is very boring, but I found the second to be to more engaging of the two. It's definitely not as over-written being 200 pages shorter. The writing is not great. The characterisation of the female characters continues to be shite, lots of rape in this book too. Some of the most critical sections of the book where huge plot points are revealed are written with a real lack of clarity. Not purposely vague or ambiguous to serve the narrative, just very clumsy and hard to decipher.
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Dec 1, 2020 00:51
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Not the Messiah posted:Finished Tuf Voyaging - enjoyed it overall, with my only comment being that it's very obvious it's a series of short stories written at different times (I don't want to read about the main character's background at least once in each story please), but that's not much of a complaint really - just a bunch of fun wee stories. Wish there were more socially-oblivious crazy cat man/God tales! Oh I really liked that one. Martin in his prime was fantastic, I especially liked the planet where the ocean life starts laying siege to the cities and how it gets resolved. The Dreamsongs collections are also great.
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Dec 2, 2020 04:03
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I thought the third book in The Passage series was better than the second - more engaging, anyway. I don’t regret reading the trilogy, although the writing was very clunky at times.
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Dec 5, 2020 16:22
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A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. I loved Uprooted and Spinning Silver so I had high hopes coming into this. I’m a sucker for wizard school books that aren’t Harry Potter. It was okay overall. I don’t read a lot of YA, so maybe some of my complaints derive from that. But the main character is insufferably surly for most of the book, the voice reads like it panders to readers of a certain age (mid-thirties millenial), Novik’s main character is British and the novel gains nothing from this other than an American author awkwardly shoehorning in British-isms here and there, and the book ends on such a cliffhanger that it felt more like an episode of TV than a book. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its good points. The world is inventive and novel, a school for wizards that runs entirely on its own in a pocket dimension, and the ideas that derive from that conceit are a lot of fun. But there’s a lot left to the reader to infer about this world because of the first-person POV, and I don’t know that this is an easy thing to fix since the whole novel is like a third exposition delivered in the voice of a snarky teenaged protagonist. All in all, if you like cleverly constructed worlds, snark, and fun tropes turned on their ear, I’d recommend it, but this is the book that’s making me realize I have less and less patience for genre fiction as the years go on.
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Dec 5, 2020 20:30
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The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff (audiobook). Well written account of how mega tech corps gather information about people and use it to advance their interests without much government oversight. Interesting read, especially about how many younger people had withdrawal symptoms when asked to unplug for 24 hours, how FB knows from their own tests that they can easily influence voter turnout by newsfeed tweaks, and how Pokémon go can steer people to businesses that pay. Slight downsides is the author can get repetitive and at 24 hours of audio it was too long. Narrative can get a bit too academic sometimes and whenever author tries to mention their own experience it comes off as bragging (you’ll get frequent reminders about Harvard attendance and name dropping well known profs.) still worth a read if interested in subject.
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Dec 6, 2020 17:19
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I just finished Antkind and that book was way too loving long. I did find myself laughing often (mostly the first 400 pages of a 700 page book) and almost want to recommend it so people can marvel at the fact that it wasn't edited down to <500pp
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Dec 9, 2020 21:07
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Finished Young Bucks: Killing the Business and first person wrestling memoirs are my jam. Of course, some of the parts may be a bit exaggerated but I enjoyed looking into the mind of someone who was going through this part of wrestling history.
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Dec 11, 2020 06:45
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Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series seems to be about the only "urban fantasy" I can stand, even if the books themselves are hit or miss. I haven't checked out any of the newer mainline stories, but took some time to read Tales from the Folly, the short story collection set in the world, mainly dealing with side characters. There was the definite feeling of "this is filling in a blank before a sequel", or "pay attention, this will be important in the future". It was breezy and funny and fine. It did the job of reminding me why I liked the characters and the world though, so I'll head back and finish these books when I can.
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Dec 17, 2020 15:25
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Captain Hotbutt posted:Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series seems to be about the only "urban fantasy" I can stand, even if the books themselves are hit or miss. If you're looking for recommendations: have you tried Mike Carey's Felix Castor series?
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Dec 17, 2020 16:47
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Jedit posted:If you're looking for recommendations: have you tried Mike Carey's Felix Castor series? It's on my list of things to read. I'll get to it eventually, but there's a lot out there.
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Dec 17, 2020 23:17
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Just finished Don DeLillo's latest: the very, very short The Silence. I've loved most of DeLillo's stuff since I was introduced to him in university, but this? Wooooooof. Pure, unfiltered self-parody. It's like every (very valid) criticism of his prose came to life and made a story that mocks him.
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Dec 18, 2020 15:53
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Captain Hotbutt posted:Just finished Don DeLillo's latest: the very, very short The Silence. The reviews I've seen published have been pretty unanimously in agreement with yours. I just finished Clive Barker's Books of Blood Vols. 1-3, which was a Secret Santa gift from a few years ago from Franchescanado iirc. its a really excellent collection of horror short stories, some really top notch stuff. The guy could write, and loves him some gore.
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Dec 20, 2020 05:53
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Just finished my second read of PKD's Ubik (the first in years, I remembered basically nothing about this book so it may as well have been a first read) and I honestly don't know how I feel about it. I got really caught up in the weirdness and momentum in the first half, but then the main character gets separated from everyone and it turns into a weird metaphysical slasher movie. In that way it is kind of effectively creepy, but maybe the characters just didn't resonate with me enough to make an impression.
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Dec 21, 2020 05:27
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The characters are pretty underwhelming in that one, yeah.
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Dec 21, 2020 10:29
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Just finished Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy which is one of Felicia Day’s top ten series.
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Dec 27, 2020 07:12
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The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin.
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Dec 28, 2020 08:47
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oldpainless posted:Just finished Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy which is one of Felicia Day’s top ten series. I very much enjoyed that trilogy, even though I’m not normally drawn to fantasy literature. Abercrombie is a far better writer than most people in that genre.
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Dec 28, 2020 13:33
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JnnyThndrs posted:I very much enjoyed that trilogy, even though I’m not normally drawn to fantasy literature. Abercrombie is a far better writer than most people in that genre. Yeah I liked it. Usually with books where each chapter has a different character POV there’s often a character where I just hate their chapters but that didn’t happen this time.
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Dec 29, 2020 05:33
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Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel A beautifully written, fast paced and interesting account of the events leading up to Henry VIII's break from the Catholic church seen through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell. It's a funny, engaging and insightful fictionalization of historical events. It paints a different characterization of Cromwell, Wolsely and Anne Boleyn. My only real criticism is that while Cromwell and Boleyn are extremely deep characters, everyone else is rather shallow, but I think this is intentional as it paints a picture of how Cromwell sees others since it his written from his perspective. I don't quite understand some of the negative reviews it has received by people claiming it is difficult to read. The only thing I found sometimes frustrating was that Mantel will put dialogue in quotations sometimes and sometimes in the middle of sentence, within the same paragraph. While Ive read other authors who do this, Mantel seems to do it in a very strange way. As far as historical fiction goes, I'd say its probably the 2nd best novel I've read only below I, Claudius. This was actually a re-read in preparation to read its two sequels. Up next is the sequel to Oryx and Crake (which I read 10 years ago), but never got around to reading. This series seems particularly apt during these times and Im looking forward to finiahing it before returning to Mantel's Tudor trilogy. Happy New Year
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Jan 2, 2021 02:19
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City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin This is the final book in the 'Passage' trilogy. I think it was the best written book of the three by far, even if it turns into Catcher in the Rye for about 3 chapters. I'm not upset that I spent the time I did reading 1600 odd pages of sometimes pulpy vampire stuff. The epilogue did drag on a bit but the book is definitely not as bloated as the first. The book didn't seem to lose momentum with big jumps in time like the first does. Something that continues to bother me from the outset with this series is all the world building that happens to give a classic horror monster a scientific explanation - virus that causes changes in thymus gland - then throwing that all out the window and still going full bore divine/supernatural/telepathic elements as well. Some things that bothered me that are story specific. Out of nowhere, drowning a certain type of vampire (for reasons not explained) turns them from a beastlike 'viral' into the more classic person with fangs vampire. Surely there was a better bit of lore that could have been thought up for that? Mutation of the virus or vampire version of hypothyroidism or something. I don't know what to make about the explanation we get for the mysterious figure saving Theo and Maus from the viral at the farmstead in Book 1. So Amy tells Peter in the post-viral dream state that it was actually him who did it even though physically he was elsewhere. This is possible because it needed to be and the farmstead exists outside of time. Maybe I'm only looking at it superficially, but what is the loving point of any of that supposed to be?
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Jan 5, 2021 05:10
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Spoiler Alert - Olivia Dade I needed something light/fluffy/whatever after the disappointment of DeLillo's latest, so I checked this out. It's about an actor from a Game of Thrones-style show falling in love with a fan after he sees her cosplay on Twitter. There's other stuff in there about fanfiction communities and body positivity and stuff like that. It is what it is. Fine enough, nothing to grasp on. The author very clearly had a grudge against the last season of Game of Thrones, so it was off-putting to have those grudges aired out and referenced. It was also maybe 75 pages too long.
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Jan 5, 2021 19:20
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Just finished A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. I enjoyed it, even laughed out loud at several parts. Next I'm going to finish reading The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman. I've been reading a different, and shorter, work of fiction after I finished each of the four parts. Only one part left to read now.
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Jan 6, 2021 02:16
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Finished reading Dune by Frank Herbert. I'm not really into sci-fi at all, but this one hooked me up. I couldn't put it down! Now I'm waiting on the next book of the saga to arrive (and hopefully it has a better translation. I think I might give the english language original a try in a few months or when this plague is over).
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Jan 13, 2021 02:48
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Vincent posted:Finished reading Dune by Frank Herbert. 
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Jan 13, 2021 02:56
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Boomtown by Sam Anderson. About the history and modern day state of Oklahoma City. Top tier recommend, the author has a breezy style while communicating lots of fascinating info and not getting stuck in the weeds. I didn’t have much interest in OKC as a subject before reading and now I’m fascinated. Especially the parts about the weather and land rush.
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Jan 13, 2021 05:50
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Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner. A Southern Gothic version of To Kill a Mocking Bird (with grave robbing!). This was my first encounter with Faulkner and it took me a while to "get" the digressive, run-on style of his. Dialogues would sometimes be hard to follow because characters would anticipate and answer the unspoken in dialogue. He raises an interesting point but one without a clear answer. Several times he states that the Black man will not truly be free until the White southern man frees him. I would agree with this--the racism that keeps Blacks oppresses (this was published in 1948) is from the heart and one cannot legislate a change of heart--especially not imposed by the North. But, I didn't get a real firm grasp on what, exactly, would lead to this changing of the heart either than time or mutual encounters, which many (personified by Beat Four) would never be inclined to do. So, I don't see a real way out from his perspective. e. it ends with a very funny scene, leaving one feeling optimistic nonetheless Bilirubin fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Jan 13, 2021 |
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Jan 13, 2021 17:46
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Finished The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman. I wasn't really into it, but my opinion of it is colored by the fact that I read other books in-between each of the four parts. Maybe if I'd stuck with it I'd have enjoyed it more. As it is I went in expecting it to be from Richard III's POV but it jumps around a lot between characters as well as time and space. Chapters might take place months or years after each other so it felt like important things were being skipped over. Penman tried to set everything in locations that still existed and that could be visited which I think is part of the reason it felt disjointed. Anyone have recommendations for other works of fiction in the time period? I have Wolf Hall and its first sequel that I haven't got around to reading yet but does anyone have other suggestions? Bilirubin posted:He raises an interesting point but one without a clear answer. Several times he states that the Black man will not truly be free until the White southern man frees him. I would agree with this--the racism that keeps Blacks oppresses (this was published in 1948) is from the heart and one cannot legislate a change of heart--especially not imposed by the North. But, I didn't get a real firm grasp on what, exactly, would lead to this changing of the heart either than time or mutual encounters, which many (personified by Beat Four) would never be inclined to do. So, I don't see a real way out from his perspective. You've hit upon the problem which is that only time can change things, but it won't necessarily succeed. Certainly not for everyone.
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Jan 14, 2021 04:31
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The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John Le Carré. Picked it up after Le Carré died a month ago. The later Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is more universally acclaimed but this is the one that put him on the map so I thought I’d start here (also, I’ve seen the 2011 movie of Tinker, Tailor… so I probably know broadly how it goes, but was unspoiled on this one). It’s a realist Cold War spy thriller, written by a real Cold War spy. His characters are bureaucrats, morally compromised, and everyone is miserable (he might have been working out some stuff here). A good, fairly quick, read.
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Jan 14, 2021 05:46
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Vincent posted:Finished reading Dune by Frank Herbert. I recently finished this as well, after owning a copy that just sat on my shelf for years. I think I was intimidated by it, but once I started it was surprisingly accessible and addictive!
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Jan 14, 2021 19:36
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Glimpse posted:The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John Le Carré. Picked it up after Le Carré died a month ago. The later Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is more universally acclaimed but this is the one that put him on the map so I thought I’d start here (also, I’ve seen the 2011 movie of Tinker, Tailor… so I probably know broadly how it goes, but was unspoiled on this one). I haven't read the book, but the Richard Burton film version is really great and I highly recommend checking it out!
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Jan 14, 2021 20:17
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I just finished the English translation of Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. I kind of hope that it's the fault of the English translation being particularly lovely but oh my god this was the worst book I've read in a long rear end time. Genuinely so disappointing, I loved the idea of an ancient curse being monitored by technology and I do like get into bleak looks mob mentality but loving hell all the characters are so poo poo, the plot is overlong and the ending has such a lovely payoff. This is all not mentioning the use of sexual violence and imagery towards female characters in a way that makes it feel like it's written by an edgy horny teen rather than put there to freak you out. Kind of made my head spin how many positive reviews there are of this book. Reaally reaaally bad, I didn't have expectations that this book was going to be a masterpiece or anything but even for passable horror novel it falls way below the mark. Gave me a hernia/10 thrashingteeth fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Jan 19, 2021 |
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Jan 19, 2021 18:47
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Just finished One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. I'd had this one my list for a while but I wanted to let the film fade in my memory. The book is quite good but definitely has issues with how it portrays minorities and women (though some/much of this is coming from the extremely unreliable narrator).The book is different from the movie in many ways, noteably that the perspective is entirely from Chief Bromden who is the far more interesting character vs McMurphy. It also does a real interesting job of portraying someone's perspective who does not have a grip of reality, and does it in reverse (as Chief gets more clearheaded as the book goes on). It's an easy read and the characters really pop but the casual racism/misogyny is pretty brutal, even for the time period.
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Jan 19, 2021 19:32
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Finally got around to finishing The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. I got this book almost ten years ago and kept starting it and putting it down to read Hammett instead. Glad I gave it another shot. While the prose was, at times, pale imitations of Hammett, once he got comfortable in his voice, the story got stronger and more interesting. These pulp detective fictions live and die on their style and I can see why Chandler's stuff kept living. I also gave his later novel Lady in the Lake a shot and thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Jan 22, 2021 21:12
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A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears) by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling. Non-fiction book about the "Free town" project where a whole bunch of libertarians tried to take over the government of a tiny town in New Hampshire by force of numbers. It doesn't go well, generally. An interesting read. While some (most) of the libertarians are as awful as you'd imagine there are some fellow travelers who move to the town for their own reasons and some already present residents whose stories range from bittersweet to straight up tragic. There's a good amount of background history of the settlement of New Hampshire and its apparently eternal battle with abnormally clever bears. There's also an interesting, if not rigourously backed up, theory about the role of the t-gondii parasite in the development of human and bear behaviour. The book is straightforwardly written. The only real flourishes are slightly ham-fisted attempts at word play. Worth a read.
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Jan 23, 2021 11:30
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Wizard of Earthsea This is my second time reading it and first time continuing on with the rest of the series. There's an economy to the prose I really like, it's a welcome change to other fantasy I've read (Janny Wurtz comes to mind) where it seems like the author feels obligated to hit a 50 page minimum for any given passage. First time through I really didn't enjoy the last third of the book and it put me off of the rest of the series, the early sections where the main world building and explanations of magic occur is really engaging for me. I really haven't indulged in a lot of fantasy books since I was a teenager so I really don't have a lot to compare with, but it really stands apart from what I've read before. I'm a third of the way through Tombs of Atuan and I'm really digging it. Even with the lack of Ged.
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Jan 23, 2021 13:06
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A History of The Art of War in the Sixteenth Century by Sir Charles Oman. It's exactly what it says. It's an older book, published between the World Wars, so if you're looking for a history of the period there's more modern scholarship, but I came to it because I saw it mentioned in other books I was reading so if you're going to commit to reading about the period you're either going to start off with this or come around to it because it keeps popping up.
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Jan 25, 2021 03:47
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Finished Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Got it under the impression that it was a sort of supernatural mystery, or at least that’s hows it was described to me. It ended up being about a quarter mystery novel and then three quarters of Jaws In a Museum. The result was pretty entertaining admittedly and a ton of people get viscerally ganked in between middling-to-decent character interaction. One complaint I had was the rival FBI character introduced later into the book who is so incredibly stereotypical and pulled straight from something like Die Hard that it almost comes off as parody They also made a movie, which makes sense because it is almost written in a style begging for it, but it’s a serious mess and somehow ends up far less violent and creepy than the book is. Oh well
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Jan 26, 2021 03:29
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Reaverbot posted:Finished Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Got it under the impression that it was a sort of supernatural mystery, or at least that’s hows it was described to me. It ended up being about a quarter mystery novel and then three quarters of Jaws In a Museum. The result was pretty entertaining admittedly and a ton of people get viscerally ganked in between middling-to-decent character interaction. One complaint I had was the rival FBI character introduced later into the book who is so incredibly stereotypical and pulled straight from something like Die Hard that it almost comes off as parody Read this a decade or so ago. It's totally a B-Movie book, but fun.
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Jan 26, 2021 18:29
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My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier. A young man, Philip, is raised by his deeply old-fashioned and misogynistic cousin Ambrose. Ambrose goes abroad and marries a half-Italian cousin, Rachel. He decides to stay in Italy, where he then dies from an alleged tumor. Rachel comes to England and poo poo pops off when Philip falls in love with her. It's a very good Gothic novel, and I think, even better than Rebecca.
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Jan 26, 2021 22:44
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"The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home" from the Nightvale guys and it's really a nice treat. I didn't know what to expect going in, given that the podcast doesn't really tell you much about her as a character so when we got a swashbuckling supernatural revenge tale out of it, I was surprised and delighted
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Jan 27, 2021 14:36
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