I like Malazan more than Wheel of Time. It's notoriously difficult to get into but I think you'll probably be fine.
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What'cha Reading?
- Thread starter Falselogic
- Start date
The short story collection The Ladies of Grace Adieu (set in the world of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell) is somewhat hit or miss, but the balance of the stories are great, and it's definitely worth reading if you liked Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (and particularly if you found women magicians underrepresented in that narrative).
Agreed that Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is SO good. If you held a gun to my head and demanded that I name my favorite fantasy novel that's probably the one I would say. I thought the miniseries was okay. The casting was spot on but the tone was darker and less whimsical than I found the novel.
I have my issues with all modern(ish) epic fantasy series (chief among them is they could all be 30% shorter), but of the ones I've read I think Malazan is the best. Better than Wheel of Time, in any event.
Edit: That being said, I would always recommend Guy Gavriel Kay over almost any other fantasy author.
I had read the first two parts, but had to DNF it during the last part because he completely lost me. I did manage to recently read Chlorine by Jade Song about a female swimmer who really likes mermaids, and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. So glad I gave that a try. It was overall very enjoyable, although I liked the first part better than the second volume. Now, reading Tempest-Tost by Robertson Davies
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
I was so puzzled by that book. It seemed like something I should like for so many reasons but it just didn't work for me.
So good. Highly recommend the movie as well, they did a beautiful job keeping the style of the comic while still making it shine:
Finished up Black Leopard, Red Wolf. Brutal from start to finish, definitely qualifies as grimdark. I thought the writing was engaging and I enjoyed the read overall, but I'm also not sure I want to go on and read the sequel Moon Witch, Spider King just yet. It apparently retells (many of?) the same events through a different character's eyes; I honestly don't know if that makes it more or less appealing to me right now. On the one hand, it might benefit from reading shortly after the first one so I remember details from the first one so I can compare and contrast better. On the other, that's a lot of oppressive brutality to stick with and they're not short books.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Just got started on You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, the science fiction novel related to the Within the Wires podcast. I haven't listened to it but I definitely can see Jeffrey Crainor's (co-creator of Welcome to Night Vale's) voice in it as co-writer. It so far feels like conventional post-apocalyptic tale but the logline implies that this is actually about the person of helps move the world beyond that with revolutionary new ideas that might change the nightmarescape into a dystopia.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Starting Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life by Helen Czerski. Been reading a lot of fiction recently so excited to have something denser to read for a bit.
that Seems to be the general consensus; if it was just the first two parts it’d have been great! Personal politics notwithstanding
But nope! Had to go ahead and make an entirely unrelated story the last third
DANoWAR
(Wheeee!)
Dragonlance. I'm running into the problem that I don't have a source for the books from Villains/Dwarven Nations onward. I want to read them in English, but Amazon doesn't have most of the books, not even used.
Why on earth can't I just buy those as ebooks? Why must this be so hard?
Why on earth can't I just buy those as ebooks? Why must this be so hard?
Unsurprisingly, I caved and got the sequel.
Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson. I'll be unintentionally binging the rest of the series. I had put Bands of Mourning on hold a while back, thinking I had more time, but it came out of holding about a week ago, and I have until the 15th to read it. Then, for giggles, I searched to see what the status on The Lost Metal was this morning, and it was available
I'm like 10 pages into Moon Witch, Spider King and I can assure anyone who was curious that this book is no less grimdark than its predecessor.
Only finished three books in May, but one was very long and I started like five others so I'm considering the month a success.
Madouc - Jack Vance (1981)
This is the last book in the Lyonesse trilogy and I had high expectations for it. Perhaps too high. Vance is playing against form here by using meiosis and summary to take the grand epicness of epic fantasy and compress it down into a petty domestic squabble. It's a bit hostile to the reader who's expecting a gigantic Sandersonesque climax. The ending flies through the big armed conflict the trilogy has been building towards in just a few pages and leaves far more questions open than answered. But Vance is always subtler than he appears and I imagine this one will reward immensely on rereads.
The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson (2010)
Speaking of Sanderson. I picked this up after that terrible Wired hit piece as it painted an intriguing picture of an author out of control and I wanted to reacquaint myself with him and see if the accusations panned out. Somewhere around the 700 page mark I described this book as a gigantic bowl of oatmeal: you have to trudge through endless bland mush but occasionally you get a raisin. Then I hit the climax and it was like getting not a just big raisin but the whole damn vineyard. Despite Brando's mushy prose, constant repetition, and almost perfect ability to summarize what should be detailed and detail what should be summarized the ending left me agog and in a state of wonder. Not only did I feel like the ending justified the previous thousand pages but it showed me a whole new lens through which to approach epic fantasy. 10/10 ***** A work of genius. Can't wait to jump into Words of Radiance.
Bridge of Birds - Barry Hughart (1984)
Read aloud to the kid. Still a classic, still a goat, still deeply beautiful. I don't think Alex caught some of its more profound aspects, but he laughed a lot. I did too. A good revisit.
Madouc - Jack Vance (1981)
This is the last book in the Lyonesse trilogy and I had high expectations for it. Perhaps too high. Vance is playing against form here by using meiosis and summary to take the grand epicness of epic fantasy and compress it down into a petty domestic squabble. It's a bit hostile to the reader who's expecting a gigantic Sandersonesque climax. The ending flies through the big armed conflict the trilogy has been building towards in just a few pages and leaves far more questions open than answered. But Vance is always subtler than he appears and I imagine this one will reward immensely on rereads.
The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson (2010)
Speaking of Sanderson. I picked this up after that terrible Wired hit piece as it painted an intriguing picture of an author out of control and I wanted to reacquaint myself with him and see if the accusations panned out. Somewhere around the 700 page mark I described this book as a gigantic bowl of oatmeal: you have to trudge through endless bland mush but occasionally you get a raisin. Then I hit the climax and it was like getting not a just big raisin but the whole damn vineyard. Despite Brando's mushy prose, constant repetition, and almost perfect ability to summarize what should be detailed and detail what should be summarized the ending left me agog and in a state of wonder. Not only did I feel like the ending justified the previous thousand pages but it showed me a whole new lens through which to approach epic fantasy. 10/10 ***** A work of genius. Can't wait to jump into Words of Radiance.
Bridge of Birds - Barry Hughart (1984)
Read aloud to the kid. Still a classic, still a goat, still deeply beautiful. I don't think Alex caught some of its more profound aspects, but he laughed a lot. I did too. A good revisit.
I read that Vance's failing eyesight contributed to the abridging of the more climactic elements of Madouc, but I'm not sure how true that is. I like both Lyonesse and Stormlight quite a bit.
jpfriction
(He, Him)
Sanderson’s ability to stick the landing is his best attribute, I’d say. His books can be a slog but you always want more after you finally finish them.
Yeah I could see that, but also I donno. The ending feels deliberate and purposeful in its pushback against expectations. And there is big impactful stuff in there, but its buried and not confirmed. The significance lies in the reader's pondering.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
On page 15 of this book they introduced scientific notation but had a typo. 500,000,000,000,000,000,000 is not 3x(10^20). I would be only mildly annoyed if a zero was off or something, but the starting number? I'd extremely bothered by this. Overall so far that seems to fit the overall vibe, it's jumping around and not diving into anything in detail, just making broad superficial strokes. I think this is "popular science" book that is a bit too far on the "popular" side of things for my taste. It legit hurt me that she spent almost three pages talking about the Ideal Gas Law and even named it but never wrote out the dang equation.
Also if there's a way to type exponents on the forum I'd be curious to know.
Picked up a new printing of Jeff VanderMeer's first novel, Veniss Underground, at the library the other day. I'd never even heard of this one, apparently it was first published in 2003! I'm not far enough into it to have an opinion yet, but it's definitely got a lot of similar DNA to some of his mid-period stuff like Borne. Looking forward to seeing where it goes.
I just realized that there's been a bunch of recent discussion about Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell in this thread that I didn't see. Well, I'm happy to report that I have, at long last, finished that book myself. As someone who read Piranesi first and absolutely loved it, Strange and Norrell was a little bet less my bag, honestly. The older style of the prose and loooooooooooong story buildup were a little taxing on my patience, although in the end I did find it the be a rewarding read. It's strange how little happens over the first, like, 600 pages - and then suddenly it's popping off for the last quarter of the book. I could see how someone who enjoys reading stuff like Jane Austen would just devour this from cover to cover, but sadly, that person is not me. I was still fairly invested in the story and characters by the end, and thought the conclusion of the book was both pretty strong and fairly touching. I kind of love the "guys being dudes" quality of Norrell and Strange working together from their dimension-hopping cone of darkness at the conclusion, it felt oddly wholesome.
I recently got my cousin The Lords of Uncreation, which is the third book in the Final Architecture series by Adrian Tchaikovsky - one of my favorite science fiction authors in recent years. I'm dying to read it myself, but he said he'd lend it to me once he was done. So in the interest of frugality, I'm filling the time until then with A Fire Upon the Deep. My brother recommended this one to me with the caveat that he didn't actually enjoy it much himself, but that it was a well-respected classic in the genre. Happily, I seem to be enjoying it more than he did so far and I find the pages are turning pretty quickly.
I recently got my cousin The Lords of Uncreation, which is the third book in the Final Architecture series by Adrian Tchaikovsky - one of my favorite science fiction authors in recent years. I'm dying to read it myself, but he said he'd lend it to me once he was done. So in the interest of frugality, I'm filling the time until then with A Fire Upon the Deep. My brother recommended this one to me with the caveat that he didn't actually enjoy it much himself, but that it was a well-respected classic in the genre. Happily, I seem to be enjoying it more than he did so far and I find the pages are turning pretty quickly.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Oops I joined too many book clubs
Classics book club, June 14th: A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. I've read this a billion times and the "let me play the lion too" scene was read at my dad's funeral to commemorate him as an actor, it's a powerful memory. I'm going to see if I can find a recording or at least some pictures of my dad in this play to share, I think my mom has a lot of them.
TT book club, all month: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. This was one of my picks, I thought I'd read this but then was talking to someone and seemed like I haven't. So glad to finally get around to reading it! @Falselogic I think we need the thread for this one?
Science Fiction book club, June 26th: Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers. A friend gave me this last year (the same friend who gave me The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo so I trust her judgement) and I swear someone recommends this book to me every other month. I'm not normally a member of this group but saw it on the list and wanted the push to finally read it.
Work women's group book club, June/July: Code Girls by Liza Mundy. The story of the codebreakers during WWII. I've heard great things about this for years so glad to finally read it. This book is broken out over several meetings so I don't have to finish the book this month, whew!
Classics book club, June 14th: A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. I've read this a billion times and the "let me play the lion too" scene was read at my dad's funeral to commemorate him as an actor, it's a powerful memory. I'm going to see if I can find a recording or at least some pictures of my dad in this play to share, I think my mom has a lot of them.
TT book club, all month: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. This was one of my picks, I thought I'd read this but then was talking to someone and seemed like I haven't. So glad to finally get around to reading it! @Falselogic I think we need the thread for this one?
Science Fiction book club, June 26th: Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers. A friend gave me this last year (the same friend who gave me The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo so I trust her judgement) and I swear someone recommends this book to me every other month. I'm not normally a member of this group but saw it on the list and wanted the push to finally read it.
Work women's group book club, June/July: Code Girls by Liza Mundy. The story of the codebreakers during WWII. I've heard great things about this for years so glad to finally read it. This book is broken out over several meetings so I don't have to finish the book this month, whew!
@Violentvixen thank you for reminding me! The thread is up now!
I read this right when it came out, but it was the first Becky Chambers book I'd read so I wasn't really aware of her writing style. I remember expecting it to be a different kind of book than it ended up being, but now that I've become more of a fan I'd like to give this one another shot. The sequel came out pretty recently too!
Really solid, especially the conclusion, although I enjoyed The Alloy of Law a little bit more. Now, on to The Bands of Mourning
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Oh, interesting. I always appreciate a heads up about writing styles so thank you!
I don't mean to poison the well here -- just that I was expecting more of a traditional story structure, which isn't really Becky Chambers' thing (she's way more focused on character development and worldbuilding). Psalm for the Wild-Built is a chill and meditative book, and I'd like to read it again.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Oh no, I do much better with books when I have a bit of a heads up. Honestly if I'm struggling with a book one of the first things I do is go read about it to see if there's much detail on the plot/background/style that might help me have a better time with it.
This was my least favorite so far, but not by much. The last third was dynamite. Finishing it up with The Lost Metal. I'm also reading the novella The Fall by Ryan Cahill. One of my fav Booktubers has been highly extolling The Bound and the Broken series (I already have the first two books)
Well, The Fall certainly got me hyped for the series and I thought Sanderson definitely stuck the landing. Will be interested to see how Era 3 turns out. Switching over to nonfiction for a bit with The 1998 Yankees by Jack Curry