Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Now onto The Companions, the next Drizzt book that just came out. Might as well keep going in the series. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered given the way the previous one ended. I won't say more for fear of spoilers, although it doesn't appear that many people read these books here.

Well, that really opened the doors for a bunch of sequels. I wonder how the rest of the Sundering series will go, hopefully it will focus on other heroes throughout the Realms.

I have read more pages this month than any other month I have documented by almost 1,000 pages. I didn't have any worries about making my goal before, now I am wondering if I should increase it.

None of my other library holds have come in yet, so probably on to Honor Harrington 8, Echoes of Honor.

[Stitchawl]

After all the comments here, I've just opened 'Riptide,' the Preston/Child book folks have been raving about. Let's see...


Stitchawl

I have two books going at the moment, a hardback and an ebook. The hardback I'm reading is City of Glass by Cassandra Clare, book three of The Mortal Instruments - I started the series a few weeks before the movie came out. It was originally just going to be a trilogy, so I'm interested to see how she ties this and the fourth book, City Of Fallen Angels, together. A synopsis, with spoilers from book two.

To save her mother's life, Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters - never mind that entering the city without permission is against the Law, and breaking the Law could mean death. To make things worse, she learns that Jace does not want her there, and Simon has been thrown in prison by the Shadowhunters, who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight.

As Clary uncovers more about her family's past, she finds an ally in mysterious Shadowhunter Sebastian. With Valentine mustering the full force of his power to destroy all Shadowhunters forever, their only chance to defeat him is to fight alongside their eternal enemies. But can Downworlders and Shadowhunters put aside their hatred to work together? While Jace realizes exactly how much he's willing to risk for Clary, can she harness her newfound powers to help save the Glass City - whatever the cost?

The ebook that I'm currently reading is The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. I've never read her Shiver series - it's been on my "TBR" list since release, but it's one that I'm apprehensive about starting. I guess I'm expecting the worst, even though I love YA and all of the encompassing tropes and clichés! I purchased The Raven Boys before Sihver simply because I had a 50%-off Kobo dicount code, and The Raven Boys ended up costing me under $4. A synopsis:

"There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark's Eve," Neeve said. "Either you're his true love... or you killed him."

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.
Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them - not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.
His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.
But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can't entirely explain.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: a freebie that caught my eye: The Accidental Demon Slayer by Angie Fox.

Not too promising as yet, but I'll give it a bit longer.

I shouldn't have done. It didn't improve. Paranormal erotica, but not very good, and unbelievable characterisation.

Next up: Midst Toil and Tribulation by David Weber. The latest in his Safehold series, now at a sensible price as the paperback has come out.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I started "The Historian," by Elizabeth Kostova, with the intention of reading only a few pages. Now I find I can't stop!



Don

Have that one on my shelves along with her next book The Swan Thieves. One day I'll get to them.

Let us know if it remains riveting for the duration.

[LovesMacs]

I finished Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa last week. It's a very good book, and I'm half-inclined to reread it right now. I've also started Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin, upon Dr. Drib's recommendation. It is quite a different reading experience from my last one, but at 10% so far it is also intriguing...just in different ways.

[BelleZora]

Purge by Sofi Oksanen, which has won the following awards: Nordic Council Literature Prize (2010), Kalevi Jäntin palkinto (2008), European Book Prize for Fiction (2010), Runeberg Prize (2009), Finlandia Prize (2008). I'm 1/3 along and find it sad and gripping. I'm taking time out this morning to read up on the history of Estonia since this is the first book I've read set mostly in that country.

Just finished Brown's Requiem by James Ellroy, clearly a first novel. But I'm glad I read it.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by caleb72

Have that one on my shelves along with her next book The Swan Thieves. One day I'll get to them.

Let us know if it remains riveting for the duration.

Sure will.

Right now I've read about 20% of it. So far, still extremely rich and rewarding.




Don

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by caleb72

OK - now I'm moving on to The Anubis Gates. I've had this on my bookshelf for a couple of years now and it's been recommended to me several times, so I thought I'd finally find the time to read it. Feel free to chime in and tell me how much I'm going to love it.

Well, that was very interesting. It's immensely clever for a time travel novel and I enjoyed most of it very much. There were a few times I thought certain characters were too uncannily intuitive for my tastes, and there did seem to be a giant deus ex machina moment towards the end which didn't really impress me much. Overall, however, it was a very good 4 star read.

Now I'm going to complete Frankenstein for the very first time. So far, it's been a mix of interesting and not so interesting passages, but I'm hoping it picks up a little, or at least lays on some seriously heavy atmosphere for me to savour.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Reading Sarah Hoyt's A Few Good Men. A sequel to Darkship Thieves and Darkship Renegades. Sadly, this series which started so very promisingly with Darkship Thieves has gone downhill since and this one is not encouraging for the rest that are to follow. I may finish it, but I can't recommend it, and won't be buying later ones.

Well, I finished it, but I didn't change my opinion.

Decided to re-read the McCaffrey Dragon books. Reading the tribute to her reminded me of what a role the series played.

[fantasyfan]

The Secret of the Ninth Planet by Donald A Wollheim is a YA science-fiction novel from 1959. Reading it was an exercise in nostalgia. It's a space adventure set in the solar system as it was conceived in the fifties. Most of it is now completely wrong--though it was accepted as being plausible theory when written. Mercury keeps one side to the sun all the time. Asimov wrote a science fiction mystery based on that assumption. We now know that it rotates slowly. Venus in the Fifties and before was frequently imagined as a hot, wet world not the violent poisoned maelstrom we now know it to be.

Mars, in the novel, of course has canals and even cities and inhabitants. This, in my opinion, is the most interesting section of the novel with its hive mind creatures. Even Neptune has an odd kind of life. But Pluto is described as a moonless planet the size of Earth which has been robbed from another star--far from the dwarf planet that we now realise it is.

Don't look for any psychological depth and be advised that all the characters are male--

Wollheim was more important as a publisher and editor, He edited the first mass-market science-fiction anthology The Pocket Book of Science Fiction {1943}. I have that book and a good few of the stories still hold up.

[bfisher]

I just finished Barbara Pym's A Glass of Blessings. Enjoyable, but I found myself drinking innumerable pots of tea (Indian, not Lapsang, but at least not stewed ), so I must take a recess before reading Jane and Prudence.

[Geralt]

Few days ago I finished The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin, from my fantasy challenge, and that was so bad, I wouldn't recommend her to anybody. Awful writing style, very little of world-building, almost no character development. I didn't care for any except one minor character, all other were flat as a wall. Will not be finishing this trilogy. No thx.

[poohbear_nc]

I'm close to finishing Louise Penny's latest Three Pines mystery How The Light Gets In - and I'm almost afraid to continue reading. If I'm grasping all the overarching Christian allegories that are being questioned and explored within this densely plotted book -- the ending is predestined, and is going to upset the hell out of me. But I will continue on tonight ....

It's hard to review or discuss this book without including spoilers, but I'll try.

Penny has 'complexified' her Three Pines mysteries to address grand issues of goodness, evil, fate, luck, love, and forgiveness, amongst many themes. Emphasis has shifted from simply solving mysteries amidst a quirky cast of characters inhabiting a veritable Shangri-La buried in the wilds of Canada to contemplating the role, if any, of a good man amidst near universal 'official' corruption -- and the toleration, even acceptance, of this corruption by people in all walks of life. And, rather than create a 'perfect' good detective pitted against the evils of greed & crime, Penny's characters are all deeply flawed, and all desperate for understanding and forgiveness.

Doesn't sound like much of a mystery does it? But there is a central investigation on the deaths, possibly murders, of a famous family of quintuplets. And the ongoing battles between Insp. Gamache and his corrupt superiors. And the ongoing addiction of Jean Guy to painkillers that is destroying his career, and life. And the suicide from the bridge that missed the water ....

By chance, I happened to read "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" just before beginning Penny's book - and I recommend others to do so as well. You will encounter Coleridge's albatross within Penny's book, and it becomes a central metaphor used throughout. Guilt, redemption, forgiveness, punishment, regret, sorrow -- the list of parallels is endless between the two works.

I highly recommend Penny's Three Pine series if you enjoy complex characterizations and thoughtful plotting. These are not police procedurals, but instead deeply imagined explorations of how people (both police and public) deal with crime -- how they understand, cope, and forgive -- or fail to. Although I think Penny made her evil a tad too grandiose and unrealistic, I am compelled to follow through to the (I fear) bitter end .... where I hope to be able to forgive Penny's manipulation of my emotions as her characters face their individual and collective fates.

Whew! Just finished it .... and I was wrong .... thankfully...

Spoiler:

Rosa wasn't shot!

Spoiler:

But she was the means of forgiveness & redemption for Jean Guy - an albatross in duck feathers!

I'm emotionally exhausted now .... what a splendid control of plot, character, and emotions! And a satisfying resolution of many mysteries.

[PurpleStar]

I'm reading Axis by Robert Charles Wilson. It's definitely not as good as Spin, so far. I really hope it gets better.