Author Topic: What are you reading, part 3  (Read 311050 times)

fireflyz

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1710 on: April 14, 2011, 12:48:28 AM »
Well, I have finished the Malazan Series.  Yes, I thought I'd read the side novels before diving into the final two books (which, as Erikson says in the beginning are basically one super huge book).  But I had to know how the story ended.  So I read Dust of Dreams and The Crippled God back to back.  Warning:  There will probably be SPOILERS in this so if you haven't read the series or the last two books, please skip ahead.

SPOILER WARNING CONCLUDED


I have to give it to Erikson.  The man has some amazing stories to tell.  Going into these books I thought the Crippled God was the enemy.  When I discovered that he wasn't the enemy, but in fact the central reason behind the entire series, I was blown away.  Initially, I was a little turned off.  After all, this guy seemed like a villian.  But, Erikson does a tremendous job of showing why we should like the Crippled God.  In many ways, the Crippled God is humanity, enslaved by callous, uncaring Gods.  This was just one long rollercoaster from start to finish.  I thought we were going to see the end of the Bonehunters at the end of book 9.  The way Erikson brings all of the races together is just breathtaking.  I've said it before, but Erikson has incredible talent in moving whole armies through thousands of pages.  I haven't seen it done this well before.  Where we get to see and feel for armies as a whole and yet we get to see through the eyes of every aspect of those armies.  The only series that can compare with breadth and scope is Wheel of Time.  But whereas Wheel of Time is a story mainly of individuals, Malazan Book of the Fallen is definitely a tale of societies.  Sure, there are individual stories, but there are more than just a few.  Unlike WOT, I didn't get the feeling that it was three key players saving the world.  Instead, I saw it as disparate groups of human/humanlike races coming together to do what is right.

Many will say that Erikson's books are dark, sarcastic, and not very uplifting.  It's true.  In many places he takes a dim view of the world.  But the ultimate story, the reason for all of those pages, is about doing what is right.  There's no real reward for the participants.  Sure, there's the possiblity of the world ending well after their dead and there's the possiblity for massive changes in their world (loss of magic, etc.) but none of these is the reason for their actions.  They are simply doing what is right.  Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead.

I want to say thank you to WriterDan and Bookstory Guy for plugging Erikson even after I was less than enthralled with his first book.  Definitely worth the read!

I'm leery of how series will end.  I think of Stephen King's Dark Tower series and while I liked the ending, I didn't feel completely satisfied.  I don't see how he could have finished it any other way, but it still left me wanting more.  Then there's J.K. Rowling who had a decent ending and ruined it with that awful epilogue.  Erikson's ending is the best I've read in recent memory.  There are a lot of big time pay offs.  By the end, that long, long breath we've been holding is finally allowed to exhale.  And that was immensely satisfying.
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fireflyz

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1711 on: April 14, 2011, 01:14:54 AM »
I've been trying to read more YA scifi/fantasy because the current novel I'm working on is present day YA sci fi.  To that end I read James Dashner's Mazerunner and Scorch Trials this week.

The Mazerunner is a good, fast paced read.  The basic premise is that a teenage boy wakes up with no memory in a Maze that surrounds a compound in which another fifty or sixty boys have been living for two years.  The rules are harsh, death ever present, but this boy is different.  Others remember him and he's beginning to feel like he's been there before.

The book's a little too plot driven for my taste.  There's not a whole lot of character development.  The descriptions are adequate, but with such an exotic locale, I could have used a little more to help anchor me in.  There's definitely a certain Lord of the Flies feel, but without the obvious symbolism.  The writing is tight, sparse for the most part and I like that.  It definitely helps the book move along.  The entire time I felt like we were moving at break neck speeds.  For all of that, the book does a good job of developing the setting so that by the end I felt like I had a good grasp of the situation.  The character's didn't have personal development, but they did connect with each other so that the budding friendships were believable.  Yes, these teens were more adequate than I would expect from teenagers, but Dashner does pay lip service to them being selected for above average intelligence.  The ending was satisfying and the epilogue definitely set up the sequel.

My only real complaint is that instead of actual swear words Dashner has the characters use words they've made up during their stay in the Maze.  The spelling in some cases is so similar to modern swearing that it's really obvious.  It's a pet peeve of mine.  I think it's morally questionable to have cursing in your books that replaces our words with something similar.  I just think it's hypocritical.  If you mean **** then say ****.  I can see using words from the society at large to show what they consider profane.  This is especially true of fantasy or non earth worlds.  However, the Mazerunner is recognizably Earth.  By the end of the novel the words stopped pulling me out of the story.  Like I said, pet peeve.

The Scorch Trials was another good, fastpaced read.  I loved how Dashner began to reveal some of the reasoning behind the Maze and now these Trials.  It's made clear that this is a post-apocolyptic society.  The character development that was missing from the Mazerunner is gone from the Scorch Trials.  Characters begin to develop in some pretty interesting directions.  What's better, is that it's more than just the main character.  The description's better as well.  Perhaps this is because now we're in a setting that is more relateable to the reader.  The ending was good in that Dashner kept leaping from potential ending to potential ending, leaving the reader guessing right up until the very end.  Unlike the first book, this one does end on a cliffhanger.

I really only have one complaint again on this book.  It's not the language (Dashner does have the people the teens run into act confused by their cursing, but to me that's just more annoying).  The book essentially takes place over a mad dash to cover 100 miles through inhospitable terrain to a Safe Haven within two weeks.  The book is so fast paced though that by the end when one of the characters says they have one day left I actually put the book down for a moment.  I thought about it and it just didn't feel anywhere close to two weeks.  Also, the main obstacle they face is a City in the middle of their journey that is filled with infected, Zombie-like people.  These teens are in good shape after running the Maze so it just wasn't believable that they would take that long to travel there.  The first night they have to cover thirty miles.  They travel from sundown to sunup.  Even if they moved at 3mph they would make it there in time, but in the book it takes them almost three days. 

Outside of a few continuity errors, this book was a step above the Mazerunner and has me looking forward to the next novel.

I'd reccomend this series to anyone looking for a good afternoon read.  There's no swearing, no sex, and while there is killing and death, there isn't a lot of graphic violence.
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Bookstore Guy

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1712 on: April 14, 2011, 04:13:20 PM »
Glad you liked the Erikson portion of the Malazan series.  The Erikson novellas are fantastic--read them if you haven't already.  I really like the Esslemont novels for what they bring to the series as well.  Extremely well done.

Glad you enjoyed the ride.
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fireflyz

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1713 on: April 15, 2011, 12:02:00 AM »
Finished two books today.  The first was Night of Knives by Ian Esselmont.

Honestly, fast on the heels of the finale of Erikson's books, this one wasn't as striking.  The beginning was a little slow to get into.  Esselmont does follow Erikson's formula of jumping from character to character.  I did like Temper's POV and it was interesting to get some back story.  I was dissapointed that we didn't get to see what actually went down when Surly confronted Kel and Dancer.  Still, not a bad read and as I think this was his first, I'm sure it only gets better.

The second book I finished was The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  It's post apocolyptic sci fi set in America.  North America is divided up amongst twelve Districts that all specialize in certain areas (argiculture, industry, and technology) to serve the Capital District.  The 12 rebelled 75 years ago and were defeated.  Now they basically exist to keep the Capital happy.  One of the ways they oppress the districts is to select a boy and girl from each district to compete in a futuristic gladatiroial arena.  This is the story of a girl who volunteers to take her younger sister's place.

I absolutely loved this book.  Yes, some parts were fairly predictable, but I really liked the voice.  The prose was smooth, no bumps to knock the reader out.  The character was interesting and Collins does a nice job of showing us the world through this hardened girl's eyes.  The best part?  She's inherently unreliable, but not intentionally.  She is oblivious to the type of person she really is.  Because in her world, weakness equals death.  I didn't realize this was a series, but that makes it all the better.  The book is fast paced and there aren't a whole lot of lessons to be gleaned.  It's mainly entertainment, but the characters and the plot make it worth the trip.

Going into this, I was not a fan of present tense in writing.  The only other book I read with present tense was the Wind Up Girl which I thought was a pretty terrible novel.  That novel was 3rd limited POV and the present tense kept pulling me out of the novel.  That and the novel started nowhere and finished the same. 

Collins's story is in 1st person and the present tense works much better.  I'm glad I read it.  I had written off any present tense authors, but she gives me hope.  I highly reccomend this as a good book to read in an afternoon.  Especially as a break between some hefty fantasy tomes.
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mtbikemom

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1714 on: April 15, 2011, 07:53:27 AM »
Nice reviews, fireflyz!  I appreciate your sensibilities.  Check out an old thread called "Reliable Content" here sometime.  I think you would appreciate some of the recommendations there.  I refer back to it from time to time and may start a similar new thread with the original lists for the purpose of attracting newer additions.

Bookstore Guy

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1715 on: April 15, 2011, 03:48:19 PM »
@fireflyz-- Night of Knives is a novella pretending to be a novel.  And it will feel like a disappointment if you've already read the full Erikson stuff.  Usually you should have read it  around the time you read book 6 of Erikson.  Return of the Crimson Guard is much better.
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fireflyz

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1716 on: April 16, 2011, 08:52:01 PM »
Finished off the Hunger Games Trilogy yesterday.  I didn't really intend to, but after the second I had to know how everything turned out.

The second book is called Catching Fire.  I found this book very interesting because the Writing Excuses Podcasters just had a Romance themed podcast.  There is definitely a love triangle thing throughout the the trilogy.  It's well handled and manages to see saw back and forth enough that the main character (female) could go either way and the reader would be hard pressed to be upset with her.  By the end of the book the pendulum has shifted and the writing is on the wall (we hope).  The second book was more of the same as far as content.  The protagonists find themselves back in the arena.  I read this on the intro that the Kindle has and was slightly turned off.  I mean, really?  We just read an entire book devoted to the Hunger Games and now book 2 is more of the same?   I was wrong.  The author does such a fantastic job of handling the plot that I quickly got over any misgivings I had.  This book definitely has a 1984ish feel to it.  Fast paced, I was to the end before I realized it. 

As a word of warning to those who are thinking of reading the series, the second book ends on a major cliffhanger.  So I'd reccomend having the third ready so you're not waiting for awhile.  If you're anything like me, that will dirve you nuts.

The third book was a change from the first two.  No more Hunger Games (sort of).  Going into this book, and even a third of the way in, I found myself growing concerned.  You see, YA novels in general don't have a problem with violence or death in their books.  They do seem to have a problem with accurately describing the violence.  And up until this point, I felt this was following the same patterns.  I think we do ourselves a disservice whenever we have violence without the consequences.  I don't think that accurately depicting violence will make us desensitized.  If anything, the past few generations have seen the least violence in history.  We used to have to butcher our own livestock, fight to preserve our right to the little parcel of land we had, etc. and that was violence from an early age until death.  Anyway, my point is that I don't like it when an author describes shooting someone or someone getting killed violently and it's just oh they were shot or oh they were stabbed.  That cheapens it.  If the author can't bring themselves to be realistic with the physical effects then they at least should delve into the mental.  And this brings me back to the final book, Mockingjay.  Partway through the book the novel takes a darker turn.  We begin to see the psychological effects of violence and war.  The author does a good job of showing multiple views on war, humanity, and empathy.  As I neared the end I started to realize that this book might not have a happy ending.  Collins does an excellent job of building tension and giving the reader every reason to believe that this is not a fairytale.

Ultimately, it's not a fairytale, but it's a damn good read.  There are a lot of good messages interwoven throughout the story.  This is the type of novel I enjoy.  The kind that after you put it down, lingers on, making the reader think.  Collins's message is idealistic and great in theory.  I think the true answer lies in how her protagonist solves her problems.  It's not through wit or banter or manipulation.  It's through violence, because even if it is the last resort, sometimes it is neccessary.  Stephen King says that violence is hardwired into our systems.  After six years in the infantry, I'm inclined to agree with him.  I'm not sure that Collins would.  This series treads familiar paths, but it's message bears repeating.  I'd say this a good read for anyone over the age of 13 up to an adult.  There's no sex and very little language.  Obviously, there's violence, but nothing too explicit.
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fireflyz

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1717 on: April 16, 2011, 08:55:48 PM »
@mtbikemom   Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely check it out.  I've been chewing through my reading list and am always on the look out for new titles.

@ Bookstore Guy  Haha, novella is more accurate, I agree.  When it ended after six chapters I was a little taken aback.  I'm looking forward to the Crimson Guard though.  The little tidbit Erikson gave us was definitely intriguing.
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Sigyn

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1718 on: April 18, 2011, 08:51:52 PM »
I'm reading Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson right now, and life is very happy.
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Bookstore Guy

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1719 on: April 18, 2011, 09:49:33 PM »
I'm reading The Unremembered right now, and life is not very happy at all.
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Patriotic Kaz

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1720 on: April 19, 2011, 03:28:58 PM »
First thing I did at the airport when I got out of basic was to buy The Wise Man's Fear, absolutely fabulous so far.
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WriterDan

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1721 on: April 20, 2011, 09:54:54 PM »
Reading Mark Hodder's second book, The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man.  Really good stuff so far.  Not to mention the studly cover art...
Dovie'andi se tovya sagain

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Bookstore Guy

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1722 on: April 20, 2011, 10:03:37 PM »
I'm reading The Unremembered right now, and life is not very happy at all.

Oh wait...I already posted that.  I'm sorry, I'm stuck in this time-lapse thing where the book I'm reading starts off exactly the same as Eye of the World and The Sword of Shannara.  The Eye of Shannara.  There is still a ton of time for it to differentiate itself, but I feel like I've read this before...

...what was I saying?  Oh!

I'm reading The Unremembered right now, and life is not very happy at all.
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dhalagirl

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1723 on: April 21, 2011, 06:05:20 AM »
I'm reading Falling Under by Gwen Hayes.  It's good so far.

hubay

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1724 on: April 21, 2011, 08:49:43 PM »
@writer dan: I've been loving all of pyr's cover art lately, especially when they enlist Jon Sullivan. He's half the reason I picked up Empire in Black and Gold (Elitist's review is the other half).

SPOILERS for those of you who haven't read Erickson yet.

I just finished Midnight Tides. My local library didn't have it, but they did have Bonehunters, so I made the mistake of thinking I could skip the book and get it later – it sort of worked, because Ericksons books aren't all consecutive, but it also kind of spoiled the ending for me. Since Karsa meets some Edur in the end, I already knew who won. The entire book had a sense of inevitability about it, that the edur where destined to win, but I'm not sure if that was intentional or a result of me already knowing the ending.

When Iron Bars showed up my mind was blown, because all that talk of Holds made me think the book was much, much more of prequel than I thought (I figured it was set something like 1000 years or so in the past). Realizing the Crimson Guard was there changed the entire book for me, and gave it more of a sense of immediacy.

When I get a chance I want to grab some Esslemont books now, just because I like the Crimson Guard, but I've got to grab I Don't Want to Kill You first.