Shejidan » What have you been reading lately?

Surtac · 6/24/2023 6:35 pm

I am finding the Palmer to be one of those books where I have to be in just the right mood to make much progress with it, but it hasn't yet thrown me out of the story so I shall persist.

Meanwhile, will likely add Rose House and Dual Memory to the Virtual Pile.

Kokipy · 7/02/2023 5:47 pm

I have just slogged my way thru the Brandon Sanderson Stormlight Archive books- the first 4 (the only ones written) of a planned 10 book story arc. The next one isn’t due out for quite some time. I regret that I am a completionist. But even I will stop here. It’s not that he is a bad writer from a diction or a plot perspective. I was never tempted to throw the iPad across the room, e.g. But I think a really good editor would have persuaded him to shorten all four of the books substantially. He is too much in love with his creation. And I am not liking the world building. It seems fairly clear that it involves humans landing on an alien planet thousands of years in the past, so there is some sci fi here, but the way the characters now move between worlds involves “another realm’ that seems to require magic to access, so there is a serious incursion of fantasy elements. It just all seems so stupid. And he’s probably written 2400 pages about it all- so far. I am glad to think that I will have forgotten all about this stuff by the time the next one comes out and won't be tempted to pick it up. I read them for my beloved nephew whose favorite books these are. I think I will now stop taking reading recommendations from the young men in my family- the hours spent on this and on Palmer could have been more usefully spent doing something else.

I have started Rose/House and like it very much.

Last edited by Kokipy (7/02/2023 5:51 pm)

Surtac · 7/02/2023 7:09 pm

I have just decided to give up on the Palmer. I managed another chapter yesterday but it was a struggle to get through it and it landed in another one of those sections where the actual story just stops and we get an interminable rambling about fashion and image and gender identity and pronoun assignation and I just can't see the point of it anymore with regards to thin-ness of the actual story it seems to be scaffolding. I realised too how much time I had wasted when I could have been attacking the Virtual TBR Pile. Final straw I guess was last night watching tv and coming across an old episode of a Bourdain show where he was drinking with Ian Rankin in the Oxford Bar in Edinburgh and I suddenly realised I was at least one Rebus novel in arrears.
So, back to tartan noir crime for me as a brief circuit breaker.before diving back into the Pile.
That's today's plan, such as it is.

Kokipy · 7/02/2023 8:30 pm

I endorse that decision, Surtac-ji❤️
I have finished Rose/House, which I found lovely but enigmatic and obscure, and have started on Hopeland, by Ian McDonald, which I just happened on . Only a few pages in but lovely writing.

Kokipy · 7/02/2023 8:32 pm

I need to go find Dual Memory too. I always feel less anxious if I have a couple of good reads awaiting.

Surtac · 7/02/2023 9:21 pm

I already have Hopeland in The Pile. And I remembered to add the new Liz Williams, Salt on the Midnight Fire.

Kokipy · 7/04/2023 9:00 am

I am 18% into Hopeland and so far it is my favorite McDonald of all time. It’s got that London/England countryside mythic feel, where every place seems to thrum with magic, and the writing lis lovely and the characters are so appealing. Music, lightning, families. Loving it❤️

nighthawk · 7/04/2023 3:56 pm

Haven't been here since forever. Read Translation State and liked it, especially how some topics from the previous books are expanded on. Right after that I read Connie Willis's The Road to Roswell, in comparison a lighthearted romp that I wasn't quite ready for. Might try it again as a vacation read.

Griffinmoon · 7/04/2023 5:37 pm

I managed to lay hands on Fire & Blood/GRR Martin from the library. Had watched the 8 part miniseries House of Dragon (good, I thought) and finally found that part in the book. Seems they took the middle out of the book. There was a whole lot more than what they produced. Moved on to a Shadowdance series by David Dalglish. Completely new to me. Seems to be a 5 part book series. Am liking it also. Will read til I hit the end of what the library has. Didn't mind the Stormlight series. Stopped at Oathbringer.

Last edited by Griffinmoon (7/05/2023 9:18 pm)

Surtac · 7/04/2023 6:32 pm

Kokipy wrote:
It’s got that London/England countryside mythic feel, where every place seems to thrum with magic, and the writing lis lovely and the characters are so appealing. Music, lightning, families. Loving it❤️

If you like that style, Kokipy, you might like the Fallow Sisters sequence by Liz Williams. It starts with Comet Weather.

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Kokipy wrote:

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