The Book Thread - February 2009

[Alan Dunkin]

Was finishing off quite a few books last month, lastly with The Mission Song by John Le Carre, which is not too bad, though the protagonist probably annoyed the hell out of me a bit too much, and the nurse he meets--with her background and the way the plot unfolds--is just a little too convenient. And it does seem like a rehash of the incident with Simon Mann and the mercenary-backed attempted overthrow of Equatorial Guinea (they were arrested in Zimbabwe), which had some sort of secretive backing or approval from the UK government (see Robert Young Pelton's Licensed to Kill).

Also wound up getting the paperback of Clive Cussler's The Chase on the cheap. I haven't read Cussler in forever (since Dragon I think) and got sick of it, but what the hell, it's not even a Dirk Pitt book. And it sounds interesting at least, though on the surface part of the plot seems like a slight rehash of Night Probe!

--- Alan

[metta]

I couldn't finish World War Z by Max Brooks (it's not you, baby, it's me) so am now full steam ahead on my re-read of A Clash of Kings by G.R.R. Martin.

[Eric P]

Portnoy's Complaint or Sex: The Sexing started off as a series of dinner party monologues by Philip Roth which dipped into autobiographical territory and it shows.

It's the story of one Alexander Portnoy and his life history as relayed in a series of couch sessions to a psychiatrist. It is at turns, vulgar, hilarious, depressing, disgusting, uplifting and educational. Basically, it's life as a man. Though I must confess I don't quite possess the same libidinous strength that the book's main character seemingly does.

It's entertainingly told and so far reads very quickly, but my main issue is with the structure of the book. It's done as a series of Psychiatric monologues but the length of these "sessions" varies wildly. I wish that it had kept to a specific rhythm with call backs to previous session rather than expanded stories.

Beyond the sex, the book also goes into life as a Jew in prewar New Jersey, or at least as it relates to this small section of Newark. His mother is essentially the mother from hell. Excessively doting and well intentioned but quite overbearing (with specific reference to Freud on Leonardo) and the painting of this as an issue for all Jewish mothers of a certain social strata in that time period within this community (driving one's child to suicide).

[Kevin Grey]

Stealing Light by Gary Gibson. Space Opera that is pretty reminiscent of Peter F. Hamilton's work but without the bloat (and excessive sex). About 150 pages in and really enjoying it.

[Gendal]

Finished Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, and outside of the first novel considered it pretty much a worthless slog. I was warned, so I can't really complain.

Finishing up Peter F. Hamilton's The Naked God, the last of the Night's Dawn trilogy, and so far really enjoying it, as I did his Commonwealth Universe books. Can't really argue with the bloat and excessive sex comments, but I still really enjoy it. Will definitely check out Stealing Light.

[Gav]

In the middle of Herodotus's Histories, which I'm enjoying a great deal. I bought "The Landmark Herodotus," which has lots of maps, which are good, and lots of annoying footnotes, which are not so good.

[Mike O'Malley]

Finished Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, and outside of the first novel considered it pretty much a worthless slog. I was warned, so I can't really complain.

I thought Wizard and Glass was quite good. After that, well, it pretty much flew off the psychotic Velcro Fly-playing bullet train rails.

[tromik]

Started Soul Music, the only Death book I haven't read. Should be done soon, I forgot quickly you can fly through them.

[Miramon]

I thought Wizard and Glass was quite good. After that, well, it pretty much flew off the psychotic Velcro Fly-playing bullet train rails.

I thought part of the first book was OK, mainly because of the apparently interesting fantasy world setting. The gun-fu is over the top even for Samurai Cat (speaking of which, does Mark Rogers still exist?) I read about one and a half more in the series before giving up. King warns the readers that these books were written for him and not for them, and I can well believe it -- very self-indulgent it all seemed to me, with a ridiculous basis, and weak characters.

[Lloyd Heilbrunn]

American Detective, new Amos Walker.

[Miramon]

Just read Flesh and Spirit by Carol Berg. First in a series, not bad. Interesting world, a bit like GRRM's in its current state of near-dissolution. She annoys me a lot by throwing in pointless references to other works deliberately to be cute.

When James Blish names all his white magicians after SF authors he knows, that's cute. When Carol Berg does a Name of the Rose pastiche or mentions a torturer named "Saverian" it's just painful.

However, the needless namedropping aside, it's not a bad story. A bit fraught with some soap-operaish elements, but generally engaging and adequately written. Good enough so that I will buy her sequel, just out in paperback.

[Equis]

I'm still finishing up Bill Bryson's A short history of almost everything. Bryson writes in an easy going style that presents the information as clearly as he possibly can, but there's a lot of information. The sheer density of the subject material he is covering is staggering and I can only read a bit before having to put the book down to process what he's just said, as well as google up a bunch of relevant information to see it all fits. I'm really curious as how he got all those personal anecdotes of the scientists odder quirks, but otherwise, it's a fascinating read.

In the meantime, I managed to polish off Gladwell's Outliers, and Mark's Salisbury, Interview with Comic Writers. The latter of which I'll recommend to anyone who has an interest in comic books. It pretty common knowledge, but Warren Ellis does come off like a major misanthrope and Grant Morrison is seriously loony. (He thinks he's a fifth dimensional creature sent to Earth to practice chaos magic and open the minds of his audience. He doesn't believe it's all the drugs that he took.)

[mrbloo]

In the middle of Herodotus's Histories, which I'm enjoying a great deal. I bought "The Landmark Herodotus," which has lots of maps, which are good, and lots of annoying footnotes, which are not so good.

Man, I would have loved a decent set of maps when I read Herodotus. I only hope the footnotes were better than in the one I read, which were written about 1850. I remember looking up some ancient unit of measurement only to be told in the footnotes that it was the equivalent of around "50 bushels" *. There was no footnote to that footnote unfortunately, and I didn't have Google then.

* http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=...G=Search&meta=

[Alan Dunkin]

I wonder if it's similar in size/layout/arrangement as The Landmark Thucydides, which was pretty nicely done.

--- Alan

[Gav]

It's exactly the same -- it's put together by the same editor.

[ExitPursuedByBear]

Finished Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, and outside of the first novel considered it pretty much a worthless slog. I was warned, so I can't really complain.

I read and enjoyed the first book a few years ago, and I just finished the second one. Wow, that was... terrible. I have the third one on my bedside table, and I don't know if I'll ever crack it now.

[malkav11]

Finished up Last Watch after rereading the other three Watch books. It was honestly kind of disappointing. I mean, Lukyanenko's still a great writer and the characters are the ones we know and love...but it feels more like an action movie than the thoughtful, labyrinthinely-plotted previous books. Hell, it even references the Night Watch movie a couple times (characters mention "dreaming" plot elements from the movie). And considering what a gut punch of an ending Twilight Watch has, Last Watch has a nearly impossible task in making a smooth transition off that.

Of course, it also suffers from having so many beyond-classification level Others wandering around that it runs afoul of the sort of problems that epic D&D campaigns and Dragonball Z confront - everyone's so overpowered that it's hard for them to have interesting conflicts.

[BaconTastesGood]

Finished "The Steel Remains". It's, uh, Takeshi Kovacs with a swords, armor, and a lot of gay (literally). It was a fun read, but I really don't think I could call it a good book, the story wasn't particularly engrossing. "Dude runs around, kills shit, The End".

Trying to force myself through the rest of Galactic North. I can't believe I never noticed just how bad Alastair Reynolds is as a writer.

[krayzkrok]

Not much book reading time. Still going through The Old Curiosity Shop which I'm enjoying very much, although I managed to fit Trafalgar: the Men, the Battle, the Storm in there as it was a Christmas present from the wife. I can't compare it to other accounts of Trafalgar as I haven't read any, but this one was pretty remarkable. The battle itself was captivating, and the minute-by-minute attention to detail chosen by the authors really brought across what these people were subjected to. That same minute sense of detail didn't work quite as well for the following storm, and one account seemed too similar to the last when following the fate of every single ship, but still highly recommended.

Some Peter F Hamilton science fiction coming up next (The Dreaming Void).

[Kevin Grey]

Starting Dan Simmons' Drood. This is one dense book (and I'm a big Malazan fan). I'll probably be reading it for months.

[Chris Nahr]

Hmm, a horror novel about Charles Dickens... sounds good!

I've been working through my Roman backlog -- Roman Imperialism by Ernst Badian, Sulla by Karl Christ, and now Hannibal by silly old Theodore Ayrault Dodge.

[Eric P]

Starting Dan Simmons' Drood. This is one dense book (and I'm a big Malazan fan). I'll probably be reading it for months.

i just picked up The Terror to eventually read

[Sharpe]

Stealing Light by Gary Gibson. Space Opera that is pretty reminiscent of Peter F. Hamilton's work but without the bloat (and excessive sex). About 150 pages in and really enjoying it.

This was reccommended to me but I haven't been able to find a hard copy at the big box bookstores. Once you finish it, let me know if you think it's worth ordering off Amazon. I do like good space opera and I like a lot of Hamilton's stuff, although like you I find it somewhat bloated with extraneous material. My favorite sci-fi of the last couple years is probably Century Rain by Alistair Reynolds.

[Miramon]

Trying to force myself through the rest of Galactic North. I can't believe I never noticed just how bad Alastair Reynolds is as a writer.

Ha, someone else agrees with me. Couldn't make it through any of his stuff, though I admit I haven't tried lately.

[HRose]

Starting Dan Simmons' Drood. This is one dense book (and I'm a big Malazan fan). I'll probably be reading it for months.

It's on my wishlist. Keep us updated with impressions :)

[Kevin Grey]

This was reccommended to me but I haven't been able to find a hard copy at the big box bookstores. Once you finish it, let me know if you think it's worth ordering off Amazon. I do like good space opera and I like a lot of Hamilton's stuff, although like you I find it somewhat bloated with extraneous material. My favorite sci-fi of the last couple years is probably Century Rain by Alistair Reynolds.

Yeah, he's only published in the UK right now so the copies on Amazon are imports.

I'm just about done with it (will finish it tonight) and I've really enjoyed it. He writes in a clear, accessible style (a big plus in Sci-Fi for me), has some neat ideas, and keeps the pace quick. I'll definitely be continuing on with the series when the second is published later this year.

All that said, I would feel more comfortable recommending it as a paperback though I don't regret the hardback purchase at all.

[BleedTheFreak]

I'm halfway through book one of the Belgriad, my second reading - but the first time I read this I was in Jr. High (nearly 15 years ago) so it's really grabbing me again and I don't remember ANY of this so far. I found I have like 9 David Eddings books in my bookshelf so I thought I'd give them a re-read.

I'm eager to pick up the next Wild Cards book, it came out late last year, and I'm reading book 2 of the R. A. Salvatore series that I can't recall the name of (where Drizzt is the "Hunter" and the first book was 1,000 orcs). My Mom got me the boxed set of this particular Drizzt trilogy for Christmas). It's a good read so far and it passes time on the treadmill.

[Alan Dunkin]

Unlike many others here, I won't criticize you for reading it, cause I think it's still not bad after all these years (referring to Eddings).

--- Alan

[croman]

During Steams holiday sale I bought, and got into, the Dawn of War series. That got me into the war 40k mythos. I never paid much attention to 40k, but after reading about it it seemed pretty darn cool so I tried a couple 40k books. I finished up the Ultramarines Omnibus a few weeks ago, nothing Great, but cool in a mindless action-movie sort of way.
A couple days ago though I just finished the Eisenhorn Omnibus. Damn. Surprisingly good writing, great story, and a pretty quick read; it kept my attention all the way through. I just went and bought a few more Abnett 40k novels today because I liked it so much ( here's hoping that the Ravenor and Gaunts Ghost series keep up the goodness).

For those just getting into 40k like me, and want a little fluff to go along with DoW2's upcoming release, I'd highly suggest it.

[ChrisJanes]

Abnett is certainly one of the best Black Library authors - the Gaunt series is particularly good.