Finished The Court of the Air, which was interesting and mostly enjoyable, but a tad overstuffed with wacky steampunk/fantasy ideas, with more introduced seemingly every couple of pages. I think I recall reading there is a sequel out, and if so I hope it can spend a bit more time on plot and characters now that much of the setting details have been established.
I was also irritated by some punning and references, e.g. “Mother” Loade of Loade and Locke, gunsmiths.
Subsequently blew through Charles DeLint’s latest, The Mystery of Grace, which is pretty slight. We’re introduced to the main character and her prospective romance pretty quickly, and there’s just one complicating factor: she’s dead, and has been since before they met. The afterlife she found herself in is…unconventional, and that’s probably the most interesting part of the book but there’s not really a lot to either that aspect or the plot or the romance before the whole thing’s over. If you’re a DeLint fan (I am), by all means read it, but it’s certainly not a front-runner for his best work.
Finished Scott Westerfield’s Leviathan which I thoroughly enjoyed, especially Keith Thompson’s beautiful illustrations. Basically it deals with the explosion of World War I, in a steampunk alternate history. Austria, Germany, etc, are Clankers, which means they use large giant mechs, walking juggernauts to wage their war. Britain and France are Darwinists, they genetically modify species such as a large flying whale for their airships. It’s a young adult book, so the protagonists are around 16-18 years old, but they’re solid enough. It’s kinda refreshing not to read with an angst filled adult with a dark history. It’ll also make a great Christmas present for anyone nephew or niece.
It’s only part 1 though, so I eagerly await the sequel.
well if Name of the Wind is anything like Best Served Cold, I can see why Joe Ambercrombie appeals to a great deal of you. This is not static Tolkein pastiche and it moves along in a really entertaining fashion.
Abercrombie and Rothfuss aren’t remotely similar. “Name of the Wind” isn’t grim and gritty at all.
That’s pretty much exactly how I felt about “Court of the Air”. I still haven’t read “Kingdom Beyond the Waves” but I’ve heard it’s much improved and he reigned things in quite a bit. But the few reviews I’ve read of the third book (which revisits the characters and setting from “Court of the Air” believe) aren’t as strong.
I just finished Nightfall by David Goodis. I’ve read four books by Goodis so far and have liked them all but this one is my favorite so far. If I’d known how good it was I’d have saved it for last. This is just an amazingly tight book and it’s incredible how much he gets you invested in the characters in so little space. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the hard boiled genre.
Now I’m re-reading Salinger’s Nine Stories (having finished Franny and Zooey recently I wanted to go back and re-read this) and also reading a collection of Robert Benchley shorts.
Just started Devil in the White City which I came across while browsing Border’s. Apparently there was a serial killer stalking people (young women, in particular) during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. This sounds like one of those historical mystery thrillers, but it really happened. This guy killed many more people than Jack the Ripper, but for some reason the whole story has been lost to history while Jack has captured the popular imagination.
if you are intrigued by Devil in the White City, i’d suggest checking out Rick Geary’s Treasury of Victorian Murders for some neat primers on some big cases.
You may be able to find them from your local library as that’s how I read my copies.
I liked Court of the Air a bit more than you guys I think. Yes, it was a sloppy mess, but it was a grandiose, way over the top, pull out all the stops kind of mess.
I also liked Kingdom Beyond the Waves. It’s definitely a better written and more cohesive book than Court, and it has an excellent buildup to awesomeness. It does have a few flaws, some of the cutesy puns, and a bit of forced characterization and toss of the hand worldbuilding, but overall quite good IMO.
So it actually turned out better than I was expecting, but not stellar like his 80’s/early 90’s fare. He’s less enthralled with his common crutches of chance and elaborate stories within stories, and the narrative comes across as more straightforward for once, but yet again it’s a writer as the omniscient character in the book, who mediates your way through the story. Story of a young college student and three seasons of his life in 1967 I believe. Still all things being equal, I was a happy reader to finally not be disappointed, but pleased when I finished an Auster book. Haven’t felt that way in a long time after finishing his last few.
I thought it was a lot like Free Live Free in that there were some interesting ideas (Wondercan) mixed together with some half baked, not so interesting ones (really? That’s the secret with the gold?) Lots of great moments that don’t really come together as a great story. Overall I’d peg these two as Wolfe’s worst novels.
But yeah, I’m kind of confused as well. With most of his novels I have a reading with which I’m happy with. This one, not so much.
He seems to be revisiting some of his short stories. The hoppers are from Memorare, and the shark guy from the Tree is my Hat. I guess he’s getting old. I keep meaning to send some of my books to him to be autographed.
Started and finished Edward Lerner’s “Small Miracles”, a vaguely Crichton-esque technothriller about nanotech gone awry (but not like Crichton’s Prey - in this case the nanotech gets into a guy’s brain and results in the nanotech attaining sentience and controlling him). It was okay.
After sporadically reading bits of Lonely Werewolf Girl over the last week or so, finally got hooked on it and read the remaining 7/10ths or so today. I really liked it, all in all. It was a distinctly odd mix between some fairly heavy stuff (internecine warfare, kidnappings, vendettas, eating disorders, suicidal depression, drug addictions, etc) and a decidedly unserious approach, with a lot of hilarious interplay between characters and punctured egos (e.g., the big bad werewolf getting patted on the head by a young fire elemental who’s too airheaded to worry). I’ve got one other book by him, “The Good Fairies of New York”, iirc, and look forward to reading that soon.
In the meantime I’ve got Seamus Cooper’s “The Mall of Cthulhu” going on my Kindle and R. Scott Bakker’s “Neuropath” going from the library, neither particularly advanced. I’m a bit leery of the latter, as I found his Prince of Nothing trilogy ultimately disappointing and it looks like he’s exploring some of the same territory in a more SF fashion this time around, albeit substantially more condensed. But on the other hand, he does seem to be a pretty talented writer, so I’m hoping I’ll enjoy it.
I read the first 50 or so pages of Pirate Latitudes, which is the first of two discovered Michael Crichton manuscripts to be published following his death. This book–as far as I can tell–is basically a novelized playthrough of Sid Meier’s Pirates (or Port Royale or… whatever) with some extra character and sub-character developments. And actual sex. All based on real people, apparently.
It’s not said when this manuscript was actually finished, but the way it reads (in a much simple, pulpish fashion) I’d have to say probably 15-20 years ago… it just has that more of a shorter, more adventurous feel (though you won’t get that same feeling from the first 20-25 pages).
Anyway, I dunno. Don’t think it’d probably be worth buying in hardcover.
Still battling through Dust of Dreams. I’ve read about a dozen other books when I’ve bogged down. Don’t know why this seems to drag so, I’ve liked all the others, even GOTM.
Yes, that is what got me interested in reading the book.
Just finished, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson. Takes place right after the second book, The Girl Who Played with Fire. Makes a nice conclusion to the trilogy- even though he planned to write ten books in the series.
Interesting article on Stieg Larsson’s lack of writing a will.
Finished “Choke” by Chuck Pahlaniuk. It was interesting, but not mind bending.
In the middle of Huston’s latest vampire noir detective series, “My Dead Body: A Novel”. Can’t say I like it very much so far, he feels like he’s going through the motions.
Finished “Trigger Men (et. al.)” about snipers in Iraq/Afghanistan, and (not to go P&R, take it there if you must) it was startlingly how eye opening we are about murdering civilians for not following ROE (i.e. if you are using a shovel by a roadside, or using binoculars towards ‘coalition’ troops, or making hand signals, or using video recording devices, or…etc. etc. you can be shot on sight by a sniper) and how a couple guys matter of factly talk about shooting children (i.e. 10 year olds) that were perceived as enemy combatants. Bah.
The ironic thing is that the book isn’t that good and it’s all about “woo, men in action, learn how it REALLY IS!” and targeted at the SOF/wannabe-merc types, and it inadvertently made a political statement on the other side.
In computer land I’m reading SICP and Real World Haskell.
Charles Portis has four other books, all of which are well worth hunting down. Dog of The South, in particular, is fantastic. And I suspect that Paul Thomas Anderson’s next movie, Masters, is based off Charles Portis’s book Masters of Atlantis.
