Which book are you reading currently? #7

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I really enjoyed reading the Black Company series, by Glen Cook... the point of view being from a sarky physician of a pretty rough group of mercenaries was very entertainging.

 

I've started Into a dark realm and find it slightly inferior to Nighthawks for now, so I can see why you lost interest. It seems to be suffering from "middle of the trilogy" syndrome: nothing really important is happening but a lot of stuff is being set up for (I presume) resolution in the third book. The Conclave books were Feist's weakest IMO, so I'm rather glad that Nighthawks managed to pick up the same story yet improve the writing.

 

Imperial Life in the Emerald City - this book taught me that Iraq can be hilarious. Still depressing, mind, but hilarious. For example, the following exchange from February 2004:

Anyway. Well worth your time and money.

Caine Black Knife - Matthew Stover. Sort of the bastard child of Philip K. Dick and Robert E. Howard. Hardcore, gore-riffic superbadass sword and sorcery (okay, mostly sword) fantasy with some future dystopia sprinkled on for seasoning. R.A. Salvatore wishes he were half the author Stover is (Stover wishes he had half the money Salvatore does). Highly recommended for anyone looking for some very well done stabby that's more than just very well done stabby. Might want to read Heroes Die first, but I think it works as a standalone

A Cavern of Black Ice - J.V. Jones. Eh. Fairly good epic quest fantasy. Somewhat below Glen Cook's level (nevermind Martin/Erikson/Bakker/etc), substantially above Goodkind/Brooks/Feist/Douglass/etc. Nothing spectacular, but there are worse ways to spend your time and money, and I'll probably continue the series at some point.

 

I finished Wrath of a Mad God, the final book in the Darkwar series. I found it very enjoyable in some ways but it's got some serious problems. There are far too many typos and this is not the first edition, so there's no excuse for so many of them. More annoying is Feist's complete inability to keep track of some major plot details - blatantly contradicting an earlier series is bad enough, but when he seems to have completely forgotten about major plot reveals from the same series then something's wrong. The book has some surprising twists, but they're brought about in exactly the same way he introduced similar major twists in earlier series (particularly in the Serpentwar), which is disappointing. Overall the Darkwar is a good read (Flight of the Nighthawks is very good) if you like Feist and an improvement on the previous series, but nothing spectacular.

 

I just finished "Storm Front" by Butcher and loved it. Cracking good story, no pretentious horse puckey, interesting characters, great descriptions and ideas. I highly recommend it. I'm on the second book, "Fool Moon", as we speak.

 

Reading "A fortress in shadow" an omnibus of the prequels to Glen Cook's Dread Empire books. I have a hard time knowing if I am really reading things in he right order and I ordered "Cruel wind" which I think is the dread empire omnibus but it was not in stock. Re-prints of old stuff can be confusing. As for the book itself, it is ok has not really caught me like the Black Company books even though this seems to be the pre-prestory to them but I am not sure.

 

selections from Summa Theologicus (sp?) by Aquinas,

a cool economics book on long-term price fluctuations and the "rhythm of history"... I don't have the title or author with me at this exact moment...

 

Started The Founding a Gaunt's Ghosts omnibus set in the Warhammer 40k universe. I'm working my way through three big omnibus books just now

 

soldier of sidon wasn't good as the previous 2 i'm afraid.

just finished un lun dun by china mieville right after, good stuff. still trying to find a copy of king rat around here.

started confessions of an economic hitman by john perkins

 

City of Pearl by Karen Traviss - pretty darn good. First contact stuff plus 'this technology is too dangerous' and so on.

Mainspring by Jay Lake - Steampunk! Flying Royal Navy ships! Victorian weirdness! A world that is literally clockwork! Solid prose! Happy making!

Fitzpatrick's War by Theodore Judson - and now for something completely different. It's presented as an annotated memoir, complete with intro and afterward. Basically, imagine Germany won WWII and now, 70 years later or so, Goebbels is writing what amounts to a confession (it's not actually WWII or Goebbels, but that gives you a rough idea of what to expect)). The annotations are from a professor who, um, very much is in line with the official history, which doesn't exactly present the HUGE WAR as being a bad thing. They pretty well convey societal attitudes as well (one footnote states that the narrator's daughters 'never disgraced themselves, which is the highest compliment that can be paid to a woman'). Also, Steampunk! Pretty good, and somewhat different.

 

I just finished 'American Facists' by Chris Hedges, and just started 'The Iron Wall' from Avi Shlaim, an excellent book.

On a lighter note, I'll also read some books and poems by Heinrich Heine.

 

An intorduction to social psychology..can't remember the title...

 

The pillars of the earth by Ken Follett. It's a long (too long maybe?) book with some great bits and some not so good bits. Though it has a tendency to meander things do fit in together nicely at the end. Overall it's quite good.

 

still on confessions, but also started the white house mess by chris buckley. HILARIOUS.

 

Very Bad Deaths - Spider Robinson. What a great book. This writer has a deadly sense of humor. Just the right kind of twisted. And in my luck I discovered that my local library has a sequel of this book in hard cover.

 

The Steel Remains - Richard K Morgan: this book is faaaaantastic. Between this and Caine Black Knife, it's been a really good month for fantasy. Once again, y'all should read these two.

 

Oh, thank you Amaster, I have The Steel remains on my nightstand and is about to start it today. Thank you for getting my hopes up.

 

All the better to bask in your inevitable disappointment, my dear.

But no, I did quite like the novel. His protagonists are in familiar Morgan territory--damaged goods badass--but, y'know, Morgan does that pretty well. His take on the Oh So Scary Others was, to my knowledge, unique and at the same time blindingly obvious in hindsight. Why the hell hasn't that been done before?

Oh well.

 

Read the first three chapters and Morgan is not exactly subtle. The angle of a homoesexual protagonist is cool but it seems to take up quite a bit of space.

Anyhoo, I have forgotten this and I do not know how. I have read "The return of the Crimson Guard" and I must say that Esselmont is now on par with Erikson. I was not too fond of "Night of Knives", it was ok but not great. Crimson Guard is great and a MUST for anyone who is into the Malazan world. I am almost suspecting that it is Erikson who has written it, I really can not discern any difference in writing style or ability.

 

@joac

awesome, i can't wait until it comes out in normal-size paperback. as you say, night of knives was a bit of a letdown