Which book are you reading currently? #4

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Still reading Lackey... working my way through Winds of Change and being rather bored. Enjoyed Exile's Honor ans Take A THief immensely, and am hoping to get my hands on Exile's Valor soon... Alberich is AWESOME

 

I'm slooooowly making my way through The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramago - but I have so much school stuff to do (plus a severe Mount&Blade addiction) that it's not going to be finished any time soon.

I've abandoned Always Coming Home - maybe some other time...

 

Starting rereading Gardens of the Moon in preparation for Deadhouse Gates, and boy oh boy, I'd forgotten just how kickass it is. Best thing since sliced bread? Just might be.

Also, I don't seem to have any trouble following what's going on, and it's been so long that I read it that everything seems new. I guess I'm just paying more attention this time.

 

Hrm. I think I'll have to hang up Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose again for a while. I got farther than I did last time though and it's getting pretty interesting...

but I think I'll go for a quick read right now of The Dig by Alan Dean Foster. I picked it up bec it's a novelization of a game that a number of SPers say was cool.

 

I never had much interest in biographies, but I'm currently in the middle of Roy Buchanan: American Axe, by Phil Carson, and I must admit that it's very good to read. This may partly be because of Buchanan's interesting personality; he wanted to become the greatest guitarist that ever lived, but still wished to avoid the spotlight as much as possible. He might have succeeded at both.

 

Just finished Sunrunners Fire by Melanie Rawn....trying to decide what to read next.

 

I have begun reading "Kane of Old Mars" by Michael Moorcock. The book is a homage to the Martian tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Being an admirer of both Moorcok and Burroughs, I have high expectations.

 

Peril at End House by Agatha Christie

 

Eric Flint's Mother of Demons. Pretty good "starting life on another planet" stuff.

 

I'm currently reading "The Dreams In the Witch-House and other Weird Stories", by H.P Lovecraft.
Lovecraft is definitely my favorite horror writer of all time, mostly due to his use of language to create the most incredibly vivid images.

 

Just finished "Fool's Errand" by Robin Hobb. Great stuff.

Now reading "Golden Fool" by Robin Hobb.

 

picked up the Kama Sutrra when i was in the city. Should be a fun read

 

At the moment I'm reading assasin's quest by Robbin Hobb. It took me ages to get my hands on it but it was worth it.

 

After working from home most of last week (and thus not having my daily reading time on the train) I finally got around to finishing Gardens of the Moon yesterday. I found the first 150 pages to be absolutely brutal - the writing was just terrible. After that it suddenly got much better so that the rest of the book was fairly decent. I wouldn't say that I liked it nearly as much as most of the people here seem to though. The plot was decent enough but there was not enough focus on developing the characters and the descriptions of the action tended to make what ought to be exciting seem almost dull. Lastly, Erikson seems to like to create uber characters almost as much as Simon Green does - the problem being that Green's uber characters are typically interesting and quirky while Erikson's were just overpowered.

I have started on 1633 by Eric Flint and David Weber. For me 1632's appeal was based upon the characters more than anything else but this time out they seem flat and dull with more of the focus being on the big picture.

 

1632 was a fairly interesting book with many intriguing culture clashes. 1633 is a quite boring wanna-be Tom Clancy political thriller.

JSBB, the appeal and greatness of Gardens of the Moon isnt completely apparent until you either reread it with more focus and concentration which is hard to keep up the first time due to it being quite overwhelming and admittantly a bit incoherent at times or if you continue with the series which gives you the bigger picture.

 

I didn't really find Gardens of the Moon to be overwhelming - there are a lot of (woefully underdeveloped) characters and things going on but I was able to follow the plot without any troubles.

 

*stands up*

Hello, my name is Colthrun and I am reading the fourth book of the Wheel of Time... again.

*sits down, rubbing his hands*

 

I actually complely disagree with you there JSBB, one of Erikson's greatest strengths is in my opinion his ability to develop deep characters with quite a small amount of text for each character. Yes, you get to know the characters of Hobb and Martin better and they may be better developed but they have a completely different style and compared to most authers I find Erikson's characters to be much more intriguing and developed despite not being given huge amounts of texts and lenghty dissertations about motives and thoughts. I get more attached to some bi-character given very little space in Erikson's work than most main characters in other novels.

 

JSBB - Joacquin has the right of it. Erikson's writing IS hard work, but it is so rewarding. Erikson breathes more life into 100 characters than most authors manage to breathe into 3. I know more about a minor character like Picker or Lady Envy in Erikson's books than I do about just about anyone in, say, a Terry Brooks book.

 

Wheel of time is nice. Will it ever end. For myself I am reading an old classic by the master mr J. Vance. many will know it: Suldrun's garden. Poor little lass