Apologies grow Boring...

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

But I will say, I can't believe I forgot AGAIN. This week the community was pretty active, though, so it didn't miss the chance to goof off, but I will not let my tardiness deter me this week. Tell me this:

Is there a book you've heard about, but can't decide if it's worth reading about? Let's ask each other, and see what the opinions are.

 

And as always...

What have you been reading?
    Tell us especially about a non-fantasy you read recently that was really excellent. Or even anything far outside your normal reading that you were surprised to like, ever.

And if you took a recommendation from the community, tell us what you thought of the book!

Comments

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

I read "The Game of Kings", which I enjoyed quite a lot, since the last time I remembered to post this, I think. >_<
Though the quote-heavy Lymond...I loved the way he developed, but I didn't like the feeling of ignorance I got because of that quirk. I'm mostly culturally literate when it comes to older references, so it struck me more than it would have I think.

Anyway, a great add to my list of Trickster types.

I have a [spoilerish!] question: there seem to be a zillion sequels. Are they must reads, or only if you're really dedicated to Lymond? I admit to feeling a little put off by the sheer number of them. Didn't we see him pretty much redeemed?
Just tell me which one he gets his girl in...

[blackholly.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that one has to read aaaaaallll the way to the end for him to get the girl. I just ordered the whole lot on the theory that if I start, I'm going to want to go through them without waiting.

[traboule.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked Game of Kings...there are 5 other books about him; if you thought there were more, they belong to the other series, which is longer. ;) Since Vintage reissued all 14, it's easy to mix up which books go with which character.

Trying to forget that I'm a mad Lymond fangirl, I think it's only really necessary to read the first, the fifth, and the sixth, although you miss some important plot points...I'd get the fourth in there as well, maybe...

If you're into quick resolution, you can certainly skip to 6 - that's where he gets his girl. Eventually. Most of them are good on their own merits (2 and 3, less so) and are important in the sense that Lymond is a character who does change a lot. We've seen him redeemed, but we haven't seen him grow up, especially emotionally. If you want to track that - actually, if you want to track that, you're probably devoted anyway so it doesn't matter.

Basically, yeah, BlackHolly is right - you do sort of need to read them all, but there's no reason why you have to. Depends on how comfortable you are not catching all the references. Meh. Bit like reading The Theif and King of Attolia but skipping The Queen - you can do it, there's just a hole.

[crazyviolin.livejournal.com]

I've just finished ploughing my way through a 1000 page tome called 'The Isles: A History' which was a fantastic history of the British Isles, if heavy-going in places.

On the fiction side (which I always have to read at the same time as non-fiction or else I would go mad from all the um... fact-ness!) is 'Marley and Me' by John Grogan. I thought it was brilliant. Really enjoyed it, even if it did make me cry at the end, though you know it's going to happen sooner or later. Normally it's only historical fiction or fantasy for me, so a cute autobiography made a refreshing change. Any one else read it?

[jazzfish]

"The Isles" sounds rather tasty!

[jazzfish]

Just finished Scott Westerfeld's Peeps. Good but not great stuff; the love interest is kinda weak, as are bits of the Big Conspiracy. But the world is /great/, and the every-other-chapter digressions into parasitology are an awful lot of fun.

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

I've heard so much raving about Westerfield by my fantasy reading club @ the library, I'm glad to have a sort of moderate review. They really don't look like my kind of thing, but I feel so guilty for ignoring everyone's suggestions.

Reading for the world I can do. Flora Segunda was kind of like that for me, this week. Except I loved it all, but the best part was her environment creation.

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

One non-fantasy that I love is The Chosen by Chaim Potok. It's excellent. And, since I'm an artist, I also love his book My Name Is Asher Lev. I need to re-read...

I don't remember who recommended the book to me, I'm not even sure that it was recommended here, but this week I read Magic or Madness by Justine Larbelestier (I THINK thats how it's spelled. Hum.) It was quite good, but not an absolute favorite. It didn't seem like a complete story to me at all... I got to the end and I was thinking, "...and then what?" It wasn't really a cliffhanger, like many series have, but it didn't feel like an (almost) complete story by itself, like many other series do. Anyone read it? Is it worth reading on?

I have The Book Thief and The View From Saturday checked out from the library, but as I've been alternately re-reading the Fellowship of the Ring and The Chosen, I haven't started reading them yet.

Some books that I've heard alot about but haven't read yet... oh, there are sooo many. Dune, Twilight, The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Sorcery and Cecelia, The Dark Is Rising Sequence, Inkheart, Fire and Hemlock, I, Coriander, and Dandelion Wine are several oft-recommended books that I have not yet read that come to mind. I could name you several dozen more, but I don't think you really want to know.

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

Ooh, the Chosen is good. Thanks for recommending the other one, I hadn't heard of it, only the sequel to the Chosen.

Magic or Madness is a trilogy. So no, it's not finished. I really liked the first and the second was a good follow up, definitely carrying the story further, which was good. But I really am looking to the third to see how I like it on the whole. I recommend the second if you're interested.

The View from Saturday is one of my favorites ever, though. So get on to that first! I vote.

Of course, anyone else's vote may cancel mine out.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

I think someone here recommended the Pagan books, so I am reading Pagan's Crusade, which has a really distinctive narrative voice and has made me laugh out loud more than once.

I still can't get through Middlemarch or Deathly Hollows, which is amusing because they're about the same length.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Um, I meant Deathly Hallows.

[traboule.livejournal.com]

Don't know how you lot feel about hard science fiction, but I've just finished one of those - Light by M. John Harrison.

China Mieville and Neil Gaiman liked it, so that should give you a pretty good indication of mood. Over all, I liked the science (I've done so astrophysics, so I was just chuffed I knew what he was going on about half the time) but didn't care much for the fiction. A little too bleak and plotless for me, and Harrison's writing is slightly irritating.

I'm not sure I'd recommend it wholeheartedly, but it definitely lingered.

I also read The Worm Ouroboros which is a sort of proto-Tolkein vaguely Aurtherian 1920's Brit fantasy epic. Given that Eddison's writing is creaky and heavy and does pretty much everything you're not supposed to do when writing, beginning with two page paragraphs describing banquet halls, I was really surprised how vibrant the characters were. They jump off the page at you, waving madly, and the woman - so lacking in Tolkien - are just as much fun as the men. (oh, and it has the best mountain-climbing expedition I've encountered since I read Left Hand of Darkness).

Basically, this is LOTR with politics. If you can get through Eddison's prose, it's well worth the read.

[(Anonymous)]

I am waiting for Dragonhaven...

And simultaneously reading Jane Eyre (for I think the third time) and The Game of Kings (for the first time).

I recently read--and would recommend--John Gardner's In the Suicide Mountains. If you like twisted fairy tales, you'll love it.

Has anyone read Time of the Eagle, and if so, what did you think?

~Feir Dearig

[(Anonymous)]

Has anyone read Lud-in-the-Mist? It's one of those "foundational" books that I feel I should read if I am going to call my self well-read in the field of Fantasy, but I never have. Is it any fun? or just important?

Megan



ps. "Well-read in the Field of Fantasy." *needs the t-shirt*

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

I'm in trouble, then; I've never heard of Lud-in-the-Mist at all, and I've been reading fantasy since I was five. *debates whether to panic, or conclude that the book can't be All That if I've never even seen it mentioned before*

My Suggestion for the Week

[(Anonymous)]

Bridge of Birds; a Novel of an Ancient China that Never Was.
Barry Hughart

This from Amazon.com:

Bridge of Birds is a lyrical fantasy novel. Set in "an Ancient China that never was", it stands with The Princess Bride and The Last Unicorn as a fairy tale for all ages, by turns incredibly funny and deeply touching. It won the World Fantasy Award in 1985, and Hughart produced two sequels: The Story of the Stone, and Eight Skilled Gentlemen. All present the adventures of Master Kao Li, a scholar with "a slight flaw in [his] character", and Lu Yu, usually called Number Ten Ox, his sidekick and the story's narrator. Number Ten Ox is strong, trusting, and pure of heart; Master Li once sold an emperor shares in a mustard mine, because "I was trying to win a bet concerning the intelligence of emperors."

Number Ten Ox comes from a village in which the children have been struck by a mysterious illness. He recruits Master Li to find the cure and comes along to provide muscle. They seek a mysterious Great Root of Power, which may be a form of ginseng. Of course, nothing turns out to be as simple as it seems; great wrongs must be avenged and lovers separated must be reunited, from the most humble to the highest. And even in the midst of cosmic glory, Pawnbroker Fang and Ma the Grub are picking the pockets of their own lynch mob, who are frozen in awe and wonder. --Nona Vero

How old is Number Ten Ox? The book doesn't say, but I revised my estimate upward when he spent the night with the rich man's concubine.

mwt

Re: My Suggestion for the Week

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

I read this aeons ago and have mostly forgotten it, but I do seem to recall that it was charming, sweet, and clever. Also, there are very few fantasies set in China, which is another plus.

[elsa12790.livejournal.com]

I'm in the middle of The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch and The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and am liking them a lot; both are immediately engrossing, intriguing stories. Just got Sherwood Smith's The Fox and Sarah Monette's The Mirador from Amazon today and am excited to continue in these series. Also in that order was So Fey: Queer Fairy Fiction, and surprisingly I didn't like the Monette story all that much (one of the reasons I got the book)--she's set the bar so high for herself in my mind, I guess. It wasn't bad, just sort of meh. The only other one I've read as yet is a Cassandra Clare story (and has anyone out there read City of Bones? I've heard mostly good things, with a smattering of negative).

I read The Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley, which philia_fan recommended a few weeks back, and loved it.

Cassandra Clare - City of Bones

[peanut13171.livejournal.com]

I read Clare's City of Bones. This is my take on it.

The author shows a lot of promise. Some of the banter between the characters was clever and witty. But what this book lacked was logic and intelligence. The characters just acted dumb! Fr'instance: A friend is taken by vampires, so the hero and heroine, ALONE, go to rescue him, instead of asking assistance from friends. Two people (one of whom is ignorant of vampires and knows nothing about fighting) against a whole nest of vampires??? The Omnipotent Authorial Hand engineers their escape *big surprise*.

Then they decide to find the Mortal Cup to rescue Clary's mother. But what exactly will they do once they have the cup? How will they use it to get her back? There is no plan, not even a discussion of possibilities. They just lurch from one event to another allowing the author to plunk them into one silly situation after another.

Then there is the problematic attraction between the hero and heroine. I kept wondering why they didn't act on it. And when they finally did (a passionate kiss), it really didn't go anywhere. THese are teenagers with raging hormones!! And, at the end, you find out why. In other words, the distance between them was completely artificial so that a crucial plot element wouldn't creep people out. Ugh. Serious Ugh.

And, then at the end, the Absolute Worst Part of the book: the good guys have a chance to kill the bad guy, BUT. DO. NOT. A seriously evil man is allowed to escape because the main characters are wimps, complete absolute pathetic weenies. Obviously, the authorial hand stopped the killing so there could be a sequel and another and another.

But, hey, give it a try. My quibbles might not be yours. I'd get it from the library, though.

(Sorry to be so darn wordy.)

Has anyone read Emma Bull's Territory?

[(Anonymous)]

I finished the book two weeks ago and didn't want to post about it because I didn't want to discourage anyone from buying/reading it. I really wanted to like it so I could buy it and do the support-the-author thing. I know Bull & Shetterly are incredibly likable and are hard up for $$, but I *just* can't see buying a book I didn't care for.

Basically, it's about the events leading up to the shoot-out at the OK Corral, with magic. Many possibilities for coolness, right? So why didn't this book work for me?? I liked the hero and heroine quite a bit, as well as the Chinese characters. But other than that, reading it was a slog. And the ending was not an ending. Hero does stuff that comes out of nowhere and goes after the wrong person! A review at Amazon says there's a sequel. IMO that should have been made clear somewhere. How about the cover or title page, TERRITORY, Vol.1. But I know that's not the author's fault. And I know that maybe the author wrote one book and the editors chopped it in 2. But still, very annoying!

Has anyone else read this?

Anneke

PS. I do want to highly recommend Brust & Bull's Freedom and Necessity. It was the best book I read the year it came out.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

I have to evangelize about the brilliance of Mary Stewart. Lots of people have read her Merlin trilogy (some of whom were disappointed by the strong quasi-historical slant and relative lack of fantastical elements -- I know, because that was how I felt as a fantasy-loving adolescent), but my favorite books of hers have to be her romantic suspense novels.

Well, maybe not Thunder on the Right, which I really wouldn't recommend as a good example of Stewart's writing on any level -- but definitely Madam, Will You Talk?, and The Moon-Spinners, The Ivy Tree, This Rough Magic, My Brother Michael, The Gabriel Hounds... if what you really want is to get away to a gorgeously described foreign locale with well-realized characters struggling to puzzle their way through danger and mystery, Stewart is your woman. Oh, and if you want a touch of magic or at least the supernatural involved, try Wildfire at Midnight or best of all Touch Not The Cat.

As a writer I could spend my life studying The Ivy Tree alone -- ironic, since I strongly disliked it on the first reading and only later appreciated just what a work of genius it really is -- as a perfect example of how to use unreliable narration to maximum effect and not fall guilty of cheating the reader. Also, Donald Seton wins at everything, and he isn't even the hero, which is a great example of how good Stewart is at creating secondary and tertiary characters.

Also underappreciated are Dorothy Dunnett's Dolly and the [Various Kinds of] Bird books, probably because the titles make them sound like they're about some silly old woman with a parrot solving mysteries in a quaint English town, instead of being about a mysterious portrait painter and yachtsman who sails about to exotic locations and may or may not be a spy. They're silly fluff compared to Dunnett's historicals, and even Dunnett thought so, but I love Johnson Johnson more than Lymond, and the things Dunnett does with first-person narration are genius, and it absolutely shattered my heart when Dunnett died before she could finish the series. Sigh.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I haven't read Stewart's Merlin books but I devoured the others you mention when I was a teen. The Moon-Spinners is lovely, but I know I liked them all. I haven't thought about those in years.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I read a teen sci-fi book, Life As We Knew It by Pfeffer. It begins with a day like any other day, except astronomers have announced that a meteor heading towards the moon will collide with it. Everyone goes outside to watch and it's instantly apparent that the damage is much more severe than anticipated. The moon has been knocked off its axis, resulting in terrible world-wide consequences. The story is told through a teen girl's diary as food become scarce, looting and crime ensue, and disease rages through the town. Chilling. I liked it, though the main character seemed a bit too ordinary to me. A bit reminiscent of How I Live Now, though not as good.

A couple of years ago I read Gifts by Le Guin and I loved it. Spare and lyrical. This week I read the two companion novels, Voices and Powers. Each was quite different. I enjoyed them, but the third one was WAY too long. Nothing seemed to happen for the first 100 pages. I'm glad I stuck with it for the payoff at the end, but still.

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

It sounds kind of like Alas, Babylon. I think it would probably scare me-- alas, I have a low threshold for fear when it comes to human beings acting depraved.

[fabricalchemist.livejournal.com]

OH

OH

I DO HAVE ONE. TWO.

Kenneth Oppel, both Airborn and Skybreaker. ♥ They're like Jules Verne, only more exciting. I nearly got kicked out of class because I couldn't put them down. I have a real weakness for high adventure on airships.

[scottykarrde.livejournal.com]

Oh, those were fun. Dyou think Kate-Matt could really work?

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

What about the Temeraire books? I had those recommended to me again yesterday.

[elsa12790.livejournal.com]

They're fifty different kinds of awesome. The fourth one's coming out later this fall, I think.

[scottykarrde.livejournal.com]

Mimus by Lilli - Lilli - Thal? Ulp. Riveting and just incredible. My librarian pointed it out to me and I must say he made a brilliant choice.
The foreshadowing by Marcus -er, what's up with me and last names? Sedgwick? I think. It's the kind of book you must read in one sitting otherwise it's imcompatible with further activity, it's that good.
Boot Camp. Wow. Just...wow. SHort, more YA than adult, but wow.

[supposedlyso.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yes. I must agree with you on Mimus by Lilli Thal. One of the few books (besides the MWT books) that I've borrowed more than once from the library. Good plot, well-written, wonderfully fleshed-out characters..It's an extremely enjoyable read.

[rowana.livejournal.com]

I'm nearing the end of a book called 'New Worlds, Lost Worlds: The rule of the Tudors 1485-103'. It's by Susan Brigden, (the title is fairly self explanatory, I think), and is pretty fascinating for non-fiction. The chapter about factionism related nicely to a couple of fantasy novels too.

On the fiction side, I just finished the first volume of Lois McMaster Bujold's 'The Sharing Knife' series. I enjoyed it a lot. The first few chapters had me worried that 'clueless girl meets smug superior rogue and they hitch up' theme was going to be played out, but LMB managed to make the characters convincing enough that after the fourth of fifth chapter, the thought wouldn't have occurred to me. I liked the premise too, but the ending felt incredibly abrupt. I know there's a sequel to have just made an appearance - I'm hoping that'll tie up all the loose ends.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Ro, LMB wrote an huge book and her editors split it into two parts. It's unfair not knowing this up front because, as you say, the first one just ends abruptly. The second one picks right up from that point, and I liked it a little better than the first. She's writing more of the story, too, I've heard. But a Miles book first, I think. Yay.

Beany Malone

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

Is (or was) anybody else a fan of Lenora Mattingly Weber's books? Especially the Beany Malone books, but also Katie Rose and Stacey Belford? They were written between the 1940's and the early 1970's and they are wonderful. Each series is about a large family growing up with not a lot of money, and I always enjoyed reading about what high school was like back then. Certainly a lot more interesting than mine was.

Image Cascade has republished them, and Sally Watson's historical fiction, and Janet Lambert's books, and Anne Emory's, and Rosemary du Jardins. I already have them all, but even so I'm tempted to buy another set just because they look so nice in their crisp clean covers with their wonderful vintage art.. I am being *sorely* tempted by the Complete Janice Lambert Collection (54 books for $432.........)

Re: Beany Malone

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Haven't heard of most of these, but I went through a Sally Watson phase in college (which is when I discovered them). Such fun.

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

I read Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold, the last Miles book I hasdn't read and loved it. It's great when you know you're going to love a book.

[(Anonymous)]

Oooh, that one scares me (torture & stuff). I just got it in audio and I'm afraid to revisit it, though a friend tells me there were some lovely scenes in it. But all I can remember is torture, sigh. IIRC she did a good job on it (i.e. didn't dwell on it for pages & pages). I heard her on a panel at Noreascon IV and she said that when you get to a horrific scene, you have to "turn down the volume." Scenes that would normally take 10 pages, you whittle down to one. That was such a "zing" moment for me! The books with Unpleasantness which I've really liked, had the volume turned down on the torture scenes.

I have to admit I haven't re-read QoA. I'm afraid to. The hand thing, you know. I've re-read Thief and KoA multiple times, but I've balked on QoA. I really need to Get Over It, because the end was resoundingly successful.

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

Has anybody read RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE, by Zane Grey, or THE VIRGINIAN, by Owen Wister? What do you think of them? I've seen them around for years and never picked them up, but the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans influence is strong in me right now and I'm feeling like reading a Western.

Westerns

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

I haven't read either. How about Ralph Moody's Little Britches ? Or Shane (come back, Shane!) Or True Grit?

or The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing?

I thought they were all good. Not quite Zane Gray, though.

[merliquin.livejournal.com]

I just finished reading stardust by Neil Gaiman who is someone that I've always loved (even though he wrote The Wolves in the Walls which is a great story but really creeped me out... and it's a picture book!)
If you happened to see the movie, it is different and not so different from the book. Same plot, different things that happen.

But I haven't' been able to read too many fun books as I am taking British Romantism and have been buried by Wordsworth and Coleridge....

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

There was no new While She Knits post for this week (not blaming! just explaining) so I'll stick this here.... I started Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell the other day and, though I'm not too far into it (though this might have something to do with the great length of the book)I am loving it so far. :)

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

No while she knits this week?

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

*coughmangacough*

[(Anonymous)]

THE. SHOEBOX. PROJECT. BEST FANFIC EVER. It's a Marauder-Era Harry Potter fanfic. I expected to hate it. I have read it three times (and it's 25 chapters. 25 LONG chapters.) I never thought I would like a non-canon fic, but honestly it is like the best book ever (aside from TT, ect, of course.)