CURRENTLY READING
The Crippled God by Steven Erikson – Last week I got my hands on this, the tenth and final installment of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. Lots of good stuff, and crazy revelations. More background on the Tiste races, the Eleint, the relationship between Dassem Ultor and the T’lan Imass (!) and an absurd amount of callbacks to earlier books in the series. Much like Dust of Dreams, the pace moves fairly slowly, which is more or less fitting for two volumes that depict a slow march across an entire continent. Just reaching the halfway point now.
Archive for the ‘LibraryThing’ Category
Reading journal entry
Monday, February 28th, 2011Reading journal entry
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011CURRENTLY READING
The Complete Sherlock Holmes:
A Case of Identity – I felt pretty good about this, as I had it figured out before Holmes did—or, rather, before Holmes explained it to everyone else.
The Boscombe Valley Mystery – This was a decent story, but at its heart it seems to be almost exactly the same as the previous tale (though with more murderin’.)
The Five Orange Pips – Nice to see that Holmes doesn’t know everything. A bit of an ego-booster to the U.S. reader, who will know the significance of “K.K.K.” and which state the Lone Star refers to.
Reading journal entry
Saturday, February 19th, 2011RECENTLY FINISHED
Zoe’s Tale – It was good, and Scalzi pulled of the teenage-girl POV well. A nice companion to The Last Colony. Review here.
JUST FINISHED
Peace by Gene Wolfe – It was enjoyable (4 out of 5 stars’ worth of enjoyable) but I can’t say that I “get” it. I was fully expecting the last page or two to change the way I looked at the entire story, but that wasn’t the case at all. And yes, I’ve checked out some of the interpretations online, but I have to say it’s all way too obtuse for me.
CURRENTLY READING
The Complete Sherlock Holmes – Looks like The Crippled God won’t be here until Monday (even though it’s been in the Cities for a whole day now, according to the tracking site) so I’ll be reading some more Sherlock Holmes stuff the next couple of nights.
Reading journal entry
Tuesday, February 15th, 2011CURRENTLY READING
Deadhouse Gates – In preparation for the discussion post each Wednesday, I try reading one chapter on Monday, and another on Tuesday. But for the past month or so, each week I’ve been whipping through both chapters on Monday. Then I skip ahead to the end of Chapter 21 and the tears start flowing. Then I skip to the Epilogue, and when I finish with that I’m practically bawling.
Reading journal entry
Monday, February 14th, 2011Okay, so a lot can happen in a week when a series is this hard to put down. Sorry about that.
RECENTLY REVIEWED
Old Man’s War – Review here. 4/5 stars.
The Ghost Brigades – Another great read, if not quite as fresh as the first book. I missed Perry, but on reflection I think Jared Dirac might have ended up the stronger character. Review here. 4/5 stars.
RECENTLY FINISHED
The Last Colony by John Scalzi – John Perry’s return wasn’t anything like I expected. If I was a little let down by this book, it was only by the slimmest of margins. Review forthcoming. 4/5 stars.
CURRENTLY READING
Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi – It’s turning out to be fun seeing The Last Colony from a different perspective. Seems like this should be a more successful attempt to do what OSC did with Ender’s Shadow, given the first-person perspective that Scalzi employs.
Reading journal entry
Monday, February 7th, 2011RECENTLY FINISHED
Old Man’s War – Tore through this in just a few days; definitely falls into that rare “can’t put it down” category. Not as mind-blowing as I thought it would be, but really good nonetheless. And surprisingly touching.
CURRENTLY READING
The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi – About a third of the way through now. I miss the first-person narrative of John Perry, and so far not much has happened. But it’s good, and I like the narrative trick Scalzi pulled with Cainen in the first chapter.
Reading journal entry
Sunday, February 6th, 2011You can always just read the 10-book MBotF; no other books are necessary to enjoy it. And in fact, the first 5 books can roughly stand on their own as well.
But yeah, Swords and Dark Magic makes for a very nice fantasy author sampler, keeping in mind that it’s not each author’s best work.
Reading journal entry
Saturday, February 5th, 2011@sandragon: Erikson and Esslemont created the Malazan world together in the 70s-80s and decided they’d write a bunch of novels about it. Erikson got published first, with his 10-book Malazan Book of the Fallen series (now complete). Esslemont came on the scene later with his own Novels of the Malazan Empire sequence. Esslemont still has a couple of books left in his series, while Erikson is writing at least two more trilogies set in the same world, and apparently they’re also co-authoring an upcoming Malazan novel as well.
Esslemont’s books are not required in order to enjoy Erikson’s, but it does make for a “fuller” experience. In general, to get the most out of the two series, it’s recommended that you read the books in publication order.
Reading journal entry
Friday, February 4th, 2011My review for Stonewielder is up. I should have one for Old Man’s War up this weekend if my current reading pace holds.
Reading journal entry
Friday, February 4th, 2011JUST FINISHED
Stonewielder – Whew! It was good, but I’ve noticed a quirk of Esslemont’s writing that’s starting to get to me: he doesn’t like to explain anything. Erikson gives you some dots to connect, and every now and then he draws a line between some of them for you. Esslemont gives you a couple of dots and leaves it at that. Like I said, it was a good book, and it was awesome really seeing the continent of Fist for the first time, but the ending seemed rather arbitrary and contrived to me, and the lack of any real explanation for anything was mildly frustrating. Still, 4 out of 5 stars.
CURRENTLY READING
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi – Time for some good old-fashioned science fiction. I tore through the first three chapters last night. So far this is a hard book to put down!