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

[HomeInMyShoes]

I finished The Mysterious Affair at Styles which was quite enjoyable. I may have to read a few more mysteries. Now it's on to reducing the purchased TBR list with Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley which I probably should have read just before Hallowe'en. So far it's very good. The kindle version is nicely formatted with some great illustrations for e-ink as well and the stories are fun and slightly demented.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

I finished The Mysterious Affair at Styles which was quite enjoyable. I may have to read a few more mysteries.

I've found that all the Agatha Christies I've read so far were enjoyable, except for "The Big Four", which I recommend that you avoid.

[HomeInMyShoes]

^I've only read two and the one was so long ago. I perused your books I've read lists and saw that most of the Agatha Christie books were enjoyed except one. I'll probably read a few more Poirot ones at some point and maybe try another of the Judge Dee (Robert van Gulik) that I quite enjoyed.

[WT Sharpe]

One of the things I'm reading now is the Nov/Dec issue of Philosophy Now. It's a particularly exciting issue, as it deals with the connection between brains and minds. Unfortunately, it's not on their website as of this post, so I doubt it's in stores yet.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

I have read this before, long ago, but I'd forgotten many details. Certainly a classic, detailing a post-apocalyptic world. (But not too depressing despite that.) It was worth a re-read.

Next: Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie. Her 29th book.

[Quake1028]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

^I've only read two and the one was so long ago. I perused your books I've read lists and saw that most of the Agatha Christie books were enjoyed except one. I'll probably read a few more Poirot ones at some point and maybe try another of the Judge Dee (Robert van Gulik) that I quite enjoyed.

Read these like, yesterday:

Ten Little Indians (And Then There Were None)
Murder on the Orient Express

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

ok, i just finished mothership and returned it to amazon, since i'm in the mood for scifi-spacefaring i have decided to read dana stabenow's second star next, er....i mean now

Originally Posted by alansplace

i'm just about half way through second star and i'm just plain enchanted with it. i feel like i'm reading a long lost vintage late 50's early 60's (except for the fact it's actually from the early 90's) heinlein novel

finished second star last night and was so enthralled with the experience that i sent this comment to dana stabenow about it in a pm on goodreads:

alansplace said to Dana:
i have read the first two kate shugak books and enjoyed them immensely. then yesterday i got the first star svensdotter book and am approaching the halfway point in my reading of it. i really really like it and, in fact, i feel like i'm reading a brand new heinlein novel. thanks a lot!!!
--
Alan

then i immediately purchased the other two books in the series from here using the 'Buy direct from me' link (or, in the case of the books offered for free, like second star, you can use the 'Download FREE from Stabenow.com' link). they are inexpensive ($4.99) and you get both mobi and epub versions that are uncontaminated by drm.

so, this morning i'm going to begin reading 'a handful of stars'

[afa]

I'm done with The Way of Kings. Very good book. I don't know if it's really to everyone's tastes, as it seems that most modern Fantasy now is geared towards being more 'gritty'. Lots of violence, lots of blood, lots of sex, lots of grey characters who have both evil and heroism within them. All that is good, of course, and I enjoy those, too (Abercrombie and Martin are among my favorite authors). Sanderson, meanwhile, seems to be more in the 'classic' Fantasy mould. Good guys are largely good, bad guys can be spotted easily enough, and we have PG-friendly alternatives to swearing ("Storm you!").

None of that is really a criticism, though. In fact, in some ways, it's actually quite remarkable that Sanderson can write a book (and a big one at that) that holds your interest despite not having some of the aforementioned 'surprising' characteristics. Of course, that could easily bring up a debate over when a surprise is not really surprising. Once you're known for twists, the twists don't really seem all that twisting, if you get my meaning.

I think there is definitely a place for authors like Sanderson. Authors who know how to spin a good tale, have a vivid imagination and a detailed world for you to immerse yourself in, and can make you feel a sense of danger and desolation while never letting go of the undercurrent of hope.

The book is not without its flaws. In particular, likely as a result of his work on The Wheel of Time, Sanderson seems to have picked up Jordan's habit of detailing unneeded minutiae like dresses and food content. On the whole, though, I found The Way of Kings to be a very engrossing novel, as evidenced by the fact that I finished this 1000+ page behemoth in about 9 days, which is unusually quick by my standards. And much like his Mistborn trilogy, the book is self-contained enough that it can be read as a stand-alone (no cliffhangers here). An excellent first entry into what will apparently be Sanderson's magnum opus, The Stormlight Archive. I would give it a solid 8 out of 10, which may go higher or lower in the future, depending on how it holds up once it simmers in my head for a bit.

And so I move on to The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

[Kevin8or]

Originally Posted by afa

I'm done with The Way of Kings. Very good book.

Thanks for the review. Been hearing a lot about Sanderson lately, and will probably read the Mistborn series before long.

Once you're known for twists, the twists don't really seem all that twisting, if you get my meaning.

Yes. The twist in Game of Thrones was shocking. The sudden bloodbath in A Clash of Kings was jaw-dropping. I remember reading the latter event for the first time and feeling my body course with adrenaline. I could hardly believe what Martin had done. I realized that absolutely anything can happen to anyone in Martin's saga, no matter how indispensible they appear.

Now, though, I anticipate it. Each new book, I wonder who will be "killed off".

[DiapDealer]

I finished two books recently.

Reamde. Just a big, fat, beautiful book.

Seriously, it's not science-fiction, and it's not fantasy. It's not even of a speculative nature. What it is, is his (Stephenson's) most accessible, most mainstream work to date. It's just a straight-up story that doesn't get all bogged down in trying to be too literary, or too technologically geeky. It may be a little too long and Stephenson may seem a little long-winded at times early on, but honestly... it all comes into play eventually. There really are no wasted words in this 1000 pager. And contrary to what many people criticize him for... it has an ending. And that ending is wrapped up as pretty as you please with a ribbon and a bow and even a "thanks for reading" denouement. It's got humor, action and thrills. I'm not going to say it's my all-time favorite by him, but it's vying for a position near to it.

I hope more people recognize it for the achievement it is, but I have a feeling (with no knowledge of what the early reviews have been like) that it may be seen as a "sell-out" to some of his die-hard fans. I hope I'm wrong (and I'm sure someone will inform me if I am).

I'll leave you with this snippet that is representative of the nature of the conversation that tends to occur in corporate "meetings" in Reamde. A corporation responsible for a wildly popular online fantasy rpg game similar to World of Warcraft:

"A Weirding Ward costs about one gold piece per linear meter," C-plus said, referring to a type of invisible force-field barrier that could be erected by sufficiently powerful sorcerers.

"Cheaper if you harvest the Filamentous Cobwebs yourself," Richard retorted, referring to the primary ingredient needed to cast a Weirding Ward.

"Not as easy as you make it sound, given that the Caves of Ut'tharn just got placed under a Ban of Execration," countered Corvallis, referring, respectively, to the best place to gather Filamentous Cobwebs and a powerful priestly spell.

"Who did that? Sorry, I haven’t been keeping up the last couple of days..."

"The High Pontiff of the Glades of Enthorion."

"Sounds Earthtone to me."

"You got it."

"Some kind of strategic move in the Wor?"

"I’m not privy to the High Pontiff’s innermost thoughts."

"Anyway," Richard said, "that Ban wouldn’t prevent Earthtones from getting in there, if they were exempted from the Ban by a Frond of Peace that had been consecrated by the said Pontiff."

"I forgot about the Frond of Peace loophole," said Corvallis, crestfallen.

"It’s okay, you’re new here."

I also finished Mazarkis Williams' debut The Emperor's Knife. It was deliciously alien. Many people have attempted the Arabian Night's type of fantasy... and I've enjoyed a lot of them. But usually the characters of those books come across as mainly Western in behavior and thought--the authors just dress those Westerners in turbans, hand them a scimitar and plop them in a Desert/on the Steppes.

Not so with the Emperor's Knife. The author* here has succeeded in creating a truly unfamiliar culture and then introduces it to the reader as the story unfolds. For that, I applaud the author.*

Unfortunately, the first part of the novel seemed quite unfocused and a bit hard to follow (not too complicated, just a bit schizophrenic and unclear) and by the time the author* finds a rhythm at about the halfway mark, the ending seems to come rushing at the reader. So while I liked it, it had pacing problems that kept me from really liking it. I was intrigued and impressed by some of the passages and concepts (a magical plague with symbolic ties to a popular game of the empire for instance). So I'll probably try something by the author* in the future... that is... as soon as she steps out from behind this silly gender obfuscating persona someone dreamed up that forces reviewers and interviewers to keep constantly saying; "the author* this, the author* that"...

*

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Reamde. Just a big, fat, beautiful book.

That sounds fun. Added to my (lengthy) wishlist. I won't be getting it until the paperback comes out though! £9.02 is a bit steep for an ebook for me.

[Kevin8or]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Reamde. Just a big, fat, beautiful book.

Added to the TBR

Finished reading Nickel and dimed : on (not) getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich.

Now starting Foundation by Isaac Asimov because I'm woefully under-read when it comes to the classics of sci fi.

[anjirlly]

Finished Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World, by Tracy Kidder. An amazing story of a brilliant and compassionate doctor and anthropologist who refused to accept conventional wisdom about the futility of treating poor Haitians with HIV and Peruvians and Russian prisoners with multiple drug resistant tuberculosis.

[Traye]

I'm still reading The Drowning Pool. I have to admit I'm not finding it as good as my friend did and it's rather boring at some points.

I just downloaded The Final Winter as I liked the premise. I like reading horror novels under a blanket on the couch in winter, with a G&T or a hot chocolate.

I'll persevere with TDP and try to finish it tonight, although I'm disheartened that I'm only half way through it.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Traye

I'm still reading The Drowning Pool. I have to admit I'm not finding it as good as my friend did and it's rather boring at some points.

I just downloaded The Final Winter as I liked the premise. I like reading horror novels under a blanket on the couch in winter, with a G&T or a hot chocolate.

I'll persevere with TDP and try to finish it tonight, although I'm disheartened that I'm only half way through it.

many years ago i read a couple of those ross macdonald lew archer books. i certainly remember enjoying them then (it was a different time and they'ed made movies of two of them). maybe i'll see if i can locate one of them and re-read it