ixoy's reading log

ixoy

I'm trying to average a book every two weeks. It can be a little tough as I read a lot of fantasy and sci-fi which tend towards the heftier end of the page count scale.
So far this year I've read:

• Market Forces - Richard Morgan
• Pattern - K.J. Parker
• The Thousandfold Thought - R. Scott Bakker
• The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie
• Brother Odd - Dean Koontz
• Beyond Lies the Wubb - Philip K. Dick
• Ilium - Dan Simmons
• Forest Mage - Robin Hobb
• Cry of the Newborn - James Barclay
• Song of Susannah - Stephen King
• Brassman - Neal Asher
• Flight of the Nighthawks - Raymond E. Feist
• The Collected Stories - Arthur C. Clarke
• Abarat - Clive Barker

Just over 8k pages worth. I'm currently reading:

• Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets - David Simon
• Accelerando - Charles Stross
• Woken Furies - Richard Morgan

Like to have a bit of variety in there. One book is always the main focus ('Market Forces' in this case) and the others to offer a bit of diversity.

Only about 40 books left in my book pile

ixoy

Finished 'Woken Furies' a couple of days ago and am now onto 'The Amber Spyglass' by Philip Pullman.

'Woken Furies' is definitely recommended but it takes longer to get going than Morgan's other two Kovacs novels. It's only about halfway through it that things begin to click into place and the novel, and its clever construction, begin to show. It's ultimately very satisfying but I was definitely left a little out of sorts by it initially.

ixoy

Finished 'The Amber Spyglass' on Saturday and enjoyed it. For those people whose only exposure to the series is through 'The Golden Compass' (or even the movie adaptation), the series matures a huge amount over the trilogy. I believe this book is unfilmable if concessions were required to the US market - there's a strong anti-establishment (the Church) running throughout this book but it's done without the sort of vitrolic Atheist response used by Dawkins. In fact this book is very spiritual in many ways as well as imaginative. I can see why people think it's pretentious but I think that's an unfair label and the series, for its take on theology and spirituality, is quite a classic.

Next up: "Red Seas Under Red Skies" by Scott Lynch.

ixoy

Finished "Red Seas Under Red Skies" late last night.

I was a big fan of the prequel "The Lies of Locke Lamorra" and this was, to be honest, a bit of a disappointment. It starts off well with the smart plot and clever twists, but about 1/3 of the way it takes a turn into a different scenario, one which seems a bit shoe-horned in. Lynch doesn't seem as capable of writing the world of the high seas and it's just not as interesting - it's far more clichéd than the world of thievery he did previously. The dialogue is still admittedly very sharp but its just not as refreshing as the debut novel and it's a bit crippled by an ending that feels forcefully rushed. Still worth reading as part of the series, I just hope for better in the 3rd installment.

Next up: "Toll the Hounds" by Steven Erikson - a nice light read at 930 pages in hardback....

ixoy

Finished "Toll the Hounds" - quite enjoyed it but perhaps Erikson could do with a bit more editing? He had a tendency to ramble on a bit in places and it affected the pacing at times. The last 1/4 of the book is full on epic and it's still an essential instalment for all fans.

Also read "Swords and Devilry" by Fritz Leiber, the (chronologically) first set of Lahnkmar stories. Pretty decent and I can see how it might influence other works I've read (thinking Scott Lynch's Gentlemen Bastard sequence in particular).

Finished "Accelerando" by Charles Stross. It's incredibly inventive but can be quite dense at times. I don't believe characterisation is his strong point (a failing of many sci-fi authors) but the sheer originality and thought gone into this makes it worthwhile. It's not for anyone new to the sci-fi genre, and some basic understanding of science (particularly comp. sci.) will help you here.

Now I'm reading "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel alongside "The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer" by Jennifer Lynch.

ixoy

Finished "Life of Pi" - not my normal read. It had in fact been resting on my bookshelf for several years now, having been thrown into an Amazon book order on a whimsy. Thought it was quite good, a simple moralistic tale with some genuinely nice moments. It didn't tempt me back to the world of more mainstream fiction on any long term basis however.

Also finished "The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer" (as witnessed by Jennifer Lynch). This ties in nicely with "Twin Peaks" and gives us great insight into Laura Palmer's character. It's quite a depressing read, witnessing the depths of self loathing and hurt someone puts themselves through. Not sure how this would work for those not familiar with the show, but if you've seen it it's a recommended piece (and officially part of the show's canon I believe).

ixoy

Finished "The Nano Flower" by Peter F. Hamilton, the third book in his 'Greg Mandel' series. This is an earlier book than the latter series that made him famous and it's quite different in that it leans more towards the science end of science fiction than the space opera that got him the fame and glory. Quite parochial (there is a strong thread on Welsh devolution for example) but that's no harm - some interesting ideas about alien life forms and technologies.

One minor quibble though - his characterisation can be a little weak. He flitted a little too much between some characters and then seemed to drop them, and he was far too fond of everyone praising one particular (Julia) at every second page.

Still a good read - just don't expect the planet smashing, billion-deaths of his later works.

ixoy

Finished "Memory" by K.J. Parker - Book 3 of the Scavenger Trilogy. The series is about a man who wakes up with no memory of who he was and looks to uncover (and avoid) his past. The answers to who he was are here and they're actually a very satisfying conclusion.
At times the exposition is a little too heavy - there's a bit too much revealed in long speeches but Parker's style of writing carries it through.
Unlike many fantasy genre authors, he forgoes the laboured "and verily he climbed the mountain" style of writing and looks for something far more casual which really helps the flow. It's a recommended series, with a small caveat that you'll need to be prepared for Parker's sometimes overly-detailed knowledge of various trades and crafts (such as blacksmithing, metallurgy, and bell making).

ixoy

Finished 'Shadowplay' by Tad Williams. It's the middle book of a trilogy and suffers a small bit as a result - there's a feeling that the reason characters experience events is purely to set them up for the third book. Having said that Williams is a fine writer and his characters are well crafted.

The faerie mythos in the book isn't terribly original, and I find the excerpts at the beginning of each chapter very dull, but there is still enough meat in this story to make me anticipate the third volume with the understanding that, so far, this is the weakest of his series ('Otherland' and 'Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn' were definitely superior).

ixoy

Finished 'Scar Night' by Alan Campbell, Book 1 of the Deepgate Codex. Quite original and moves along at a snappy pace. It's very dark in tone and isn't really self contained - a fair few bits are left dangling for the sequel which I'll eventually get around to.

ixoy

Finished 'The Dark Tower' by Stephen King, Book 7 in the series of the same name. My full thoughts on it are here, but it's a (mostly) satisfactory end to a series that I began reading almost twenty years ago. It didn't forget the face of its father

ixoy

Finished 'House Corrino' by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson - it's the final book in the "Prelude to Dune" trilogy and, much like the previous installments, it's a poorly written piece of cash-in crap. Give my user name is based on Dune (we actually get the phrase "Ixian boy" in this - from which ixoy derives), the series has a special place in my heart and I really just dislike Anderson's writing style.

I only read Book 3 because I like to finish what I started but there's little to recommend this - whilst the plot is okay the weak prose means no character or situation ever comes to life. There's a real feeling that rather than let the characters breathe, the two sat down with Brian's father's work and mechanically decided how to pad out back stories that were never envisioned, in order to maximise profit rather than story telling. The pacing is odd - sometimes events stretch half a book, other times they resolve in a page and there is none of the philosophy or insight that Frank Herbert brought with the seminal 'Dune'. It's really not worth reading and I'd tell fans of 'Dune' to avoid it.

ixoy

Finished "Isle of Battle" - Book 2 of "The Swan's War" by Sean Russell. It's a pretty decent "middle" book but not exceptional. It's not bad but it's not good either and ultimately has a sort of inoffensive forgettable quality.

It's set on a small scale and this somewhat works against it - the world seems very small, so it's hard to contrast that against characters and events that we are told are epic. The characters that are there often too mired (figuratively and literally) in the one faceless location and, although that's a central point, it can become a bit laborious wading through endless descriptions of lands draped in fog and singing frogs. One character though stands out above others - Lord Carral. The author does a great job of exploring the world through this blind man and he stands out among characters where development is often flimsy.

Could do worse than this book, could do better - I'll await full judgement until I read the final instalment some point later on in this thread.

ixoy

Finished 'The Worlds of Frank Herbert' - a short-story anthology of works by... Frank Herbert. The quality of writing here really shows the Dune prequels for the mindless cash-in trash that are. There's some real interesting philosophical concepts, including the seeds of ideas of genetic memory that would later appear in the Bene Gesserit in "Dune". The standout story, for me, is a piece about advertising in the future whose black humour and concepts still stand strong nearly fifty years on.

ixoy

Finished "Isle Witch", Book one of "The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara" trilogy by Terry Brooks.

It's a book that's been sitting around for ages and it's been well over a decade since I visited the world of Shannara. It's a bit of a mixed bag for me - I don't find the actual world all that interesting. In these days of grim and epic fantasy, Shannara's homely mix of elves, dwarves, druids and haunted lakes seems a little too homely and almost trite.

It would be helped with an engaging plot and, for the most, this book is a decent page turner. The plot - to journey across an ocean to an unknown land to recover an item of power - is hardly startlingly original but there's a sense more will be revealed in later books. Some of the keys events in this one though feel like a series of set pieces (particularly the quest for the keys) and don't really stand out in terms of excitement or interest.

Characters in this though are quite good and I found Bek particularly easy to empathise with. Brooks turns of phrase also ensure the story never drags, even if it never lifts too much and it's all a fairly solid, if uninspiring, affair.

ixoy

Finished 'The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse' by Robert Rankin.

I'm not a huge fan of the humour-fantasy sub-genre (headed by Pratchett), and alas this book hasn't really swayed me. There's some nice ideas in here and of course funny moments but I still always feel that concepts like plot and characterisation are sacrificed for the gag.

Rankin's style of writing is generally good, and certainly easy to read, but at times it aggravated me a little (e.g. he'd have a descriptive piece and then have the character utter the same description aloud or the comparative noun running gag). It's not to say that I wouldn't read another piece by him - I would - I just wouldn't be in a rush to do it when there's other works that I believe I'd find more satisfying.

Maybe a genre that's just not for me.

ixoy

Finished 'Dearly Devoted Dexter' by Jeff Lindsay, the second book in his Dexter series and written before the TV adaptation of Dexter first aired.

It's quite interesting reading this as I'm a big fan of the TV series. As a result, I find myself projecting it onto the characters and in particular hearing the whole book narrated in Michael C. Hall's soft voice (the book is written in the first person). It's a testament to the strength of the show, as much as anything, that I can see this book fitting comfortably into the characters I know.

The plot itself is fairly slight and the killer-at-large works quite well. There's no last minute revelation, that hampered the Ice Truck Killer in the first book. It helps the plot here that I don't actually know what will happen as the show didn't use this for source material. Both TV and book form share a lovely taste in black sardonic humour, although I think that this Dexter is more cold and calculating than the TV version which partially can be attribute to spending more time inside his head. The other characters are all as I have come to know them on TV, although Debbie manages the feat of being even more annoying here...

I'd recommend this book for a fan of the show and for those who would like a black-hearted twist on the serial killer genre. Don't come in with too many preconceptions from the show (it does take some interesting divergences from it) but you still get to enjoy the same humour, characters (for the larg part) and screwed-up slayings that the series brings.

ixoy

Finished 'Swords Against Death' by Fritz Leiber, the second volume of the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. It's composed of nine short stories, of varying length.

I think it's stronger than the first volume and some great pieces in there. Some of the stories seem a little forced (e.g. having the two enchanted and sent to a foreign continent) but there's a fair bit of wit and charm in the duo. Leiber is also quite a decent writer, with vivid descriptions and some beautiful turns of phrase. Some of the prose might seem a bit thick to the modern fantasy reader (although not so much if you're read LotR), but I think it makes the reading experience that bit more vivid.

ixoy

Finished 'Return of the Crimson Guard' by Ian Cameron Esslemont. Set in Erikson's Malazan world, it chronicles events that happen somewhat in parallel with Erikson's series.

I enjoyed this one and it marks another good entry in the Malazan world as a whole. Esslemont's writing style is tighter than Eriksons. This means that there's less lush descriptions but also fewer moments of padding. I don't think he's quite got the humour that Erikson manages to inject but his characters are all quite solid and he does no disservice when handling characters created by Erikson.

A recommend book and necessary as a whole for fans of the Malazan series.

ixoy

Finished 'Olympos' by Dan Simmons - the second part of the duology begun with 'Ilium' that is a re-working of Homer's Iliad with a sci-fi setting.

There's much here to like - the sheer breadth of scope and ideas, the mixing of classical literature and science fiction. The idea that you can have Achilles fight Greek Gods on the surface of a Martian moon whilst simultaneously having a plot line involving Shakespearean characters and nanotech is enticing. Like his excellent Hyperion/Endymion cantos, Simmons raises lots of questions.. unfortunately this time around the answers and resolutions aren't nearly so well handled.

The problem is that it all feels very rushed at the end - the previous cantos worked perhaps because it spread itself over four volumes. The resolution this time is deeply unsatisfactory in many aspects and many questions are only half-heartedly answered. There's also a bit too much deus-ex machina in play, when using technologies that are a little too powerful. There's even a thread of anti-Islamic ideology running through it, perhaps influenced by what was occurring in the US at the time of writing.

Right until the last 100 pages, it would have been a 4-5 star book. It's got so much going for it. It's the ending that drops it down and the lack of explanation that we got so well in the previous cantos (even the metaphysical aspects there were more enjoyable). I'd definitely recommend "Ilium" and even "Olympos" to an extent, but I'd almost tell people to drop away at Part 3 because Part 4's sense of "closure" didn't close well enough for me.

ixoy

Finished 'Forever Free' by Joe Haldeman, a sequel to his highly-regarded "Forever War".

This book continues themes of alienation experienced by a war vet who is trying to re-establish his life following his time serving in a pointless war. He attempts to understand how humanity has "evolved" into a homogenous culture called Man and decides that he must escape from this culture which he feels treats him, and others, as odditiies.

Initially there was a fair bit to like here as we saw a man trying to understand the world around him, 1100 years after he was first born. The science fiction concept of relativity has been well handled previously and it plays a role here. There's an interesting mystery but it all falls to pieces when we get to an ending that is, to my mind, one of the weakest endings to a novel that I've yet encountered - truly a Deus Ex Machina cop out if ever there was. I thought that "Olympos" didn't close well but it has nothing on the mess "Forever Free" turns out - which is a shame as there was definite potential there. I cannot recommend this book however for the highly flawed resolution, the lack of insight the first gave to us, and characters whom we never really get a grip on.

ixoy

Finished 'King Rat' by China Miéville. I'm a massive fan of his Bas-Lag novels (kicked off with the fantastic "Perdido Street Station") but I was a little bit apprehensive approaching this, his debut novel.

I need not have been. 'King Rat' is, admittedly, a bit rough around the edges at time. Mieville hasn't quite got the characters always right and the plot is a fair bit looser than his later books. However, it's still got the taste of the "New Weird" genre and, most importantly from my perspective, it's still got that beautiful dark and dank use of language.

Mieville's writing style is unique - simultaneously dreamy, evocative, descriptive and ambiguous that he makes what would be mundane details in other hands, almost works of poetry in his. His though processes seem to often run at right angles to other writers, as are the worlds that he creates (often cited as writing on the worlds between worlds). It's an acquired taste but here we see the talent emerging in his dark, fantasy novel. Very enjoyable here and, from the point of being a debut novel, a fantastic achievement.

ixoy

Finished 'The Year of Our War' by Steph Swainston. A debut novel, it's in the sub-genre of fantasy that some have labelled "New Weird" - essentially fantasy with a twist. In this case, it's a first-person narrative dictated to by an immortal drug-addicted half-angel(esque) messenger, recounting a country's fight against a mysterious race called the Insects.

There's lots of moments to like in this - some real interesting ideas here such as the drugs enabling Jant (the lead) to Shift to another world which, for my money, is a far more interesting one than the one we spend the most of our time in. There's also moments when the plot wanders around and it doesn't seem fully cohesive - the novel ends quite abruptly (it is the first in a series mind you) and there is one major incident, about mid-way, which completely shifts the book's plot but not necessarily to the book's advantage. It's a bit distracting.

Yet, having said all that, there's enough here to make me recommend the book. Some crazed ideas, some worthwhile characters, and a fairly interesting style of writing that engendered equal parts frustration and admiration. I imagine I'll read the follow up at some point, but it won't be for a while yet.

ixoy

Finished "The Lees of Laughter's End" by Stephen Erikson. In publication order, it's the third tale in the Korbal & Bauchelain series (although it's the second in chronological terms).

The volume is a short story/novella set in the Malazan world but with far less focus on the epic - instead, much like his other Malazan novellas, it's a horror with a rich vein of black comedy. It serves as a great (if rather expensive) introduction into Erikson's writing style for characters and conversations and a small taste of his world. It may not add to the grander mythos but it's a very entertaining instalment and well worth the price for Malazan fans.

ixoy

Finished "The Confusion" by Neal Stephenson, Part 2 of his "Baroque Cycle".

The book is a piece of historical fiction, telling of the exploits of the fictional characters of Jack Shaftoe, Eliza, and Daniel Waterhouse in the late 17th/early 18th century as they interact and weave around the historical events of the time.
Now there's much to appreciate about this book - Stephenson has done a tremendous amount of research and he's very good at setting the period for the reader.
Some of the plot points are clever (I did quite enjoy the ending) and there's some very interesting discourses on the inventions and changes of the time too - such as the beginning of the more complex credit trade markets (particularly relevant currently). There can be also a good line in humour, more of the witty variety (there's a great joke in there about leveraging and synergy applied to slaves) and Stephenson certainly knows how to turn a phrase. The fact that he's able to do us against a background spanning decades and the whole world is admirable.

However, at times, the pace really drags - Stephenson deliberately skips over some major events in the character's lives and instead has the characters relate them to us in pages of dialogue. Conversations, well written and all, can go on for ages - a character cannot merely say who his parents are, or where they came form, without elaborating on such over three densely-written pages. He can get dragged down too much in explaining certain aspects and settings.
Also I find the characters a little distant and, in the case of Eliza, somewhat too cool and aloof to even like.

I think a lot of my criticisms are valid only from a personal point-of-view in that I'm not a fan of the historical-fiction genre. I favour more fantastical escapism (evident from the list above) or at least not to feel that the plot is restricted too much by the confines of history. It's my failing, rather than the authors so that whilst "The Confusion" is a good book, it's not entirely for me and maybe not necessarily for other Stephenson fans who are expecting something other thn his normal non-Baroque cycle output (including, for that matter "Cryptonomicon" which I loved).

ixoy

Finished "Swords in the Mist" by Fritz Leiber - the 3rd collection of short stories/novellas concerning the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. There's a smaller number of stories in this one, given that a lot of it is taken up with the novella "Adept's Gambit" which sees the heroes journey to our own world. I liked elements of this novella but I'm not sure I was fond of the idea of them journeying amidst ancient Earth empires - still there was some nice concepts in it and a typically ghoulish central concept for the enemy.

The other stories are generally okay, with one standout - "Their Mistress, The Sea" - which creates a lovely sub-aqua world mastered by a beautifully bizarre triumvirate.

I believe the earlier volumes would serve as better introductions to the character, but this is a pretty decent continuation of their adventures for any who have been following the series.

ixoy

Finished "Polity Agent" by Neal Asher, Book 4 in his Agent Cormac series.

I very much enjoyed this novel as it nicely ties together events from the previous three, answering questions they posed and leaving a few new interesting ones. It's a full-on space opera here, with a great pace - the action doesn't stop for near 400 pages and there's some space battles there to match anything that Reynolds or Hamilton are currently throwing out.

Characters are all pretty good although Cormac himself, given its his series, doesn't feature too much. It's more than made up by some fascinating insights into Horace Blegg and other supporting cast but that won't stop Asher being pretty ruthless to his characters.

The novel doesn't conclude properly, due to the sequel (lying on my "To Read" pile) but not too sure if I consider that a flaw, or merely an incentive to read more. A great energetic enjoyable read.

ixoy

Finished "Devices and Desires" by K.J. Parker, Book 1 in his/her "Engineer" trilogy.

The same cynical style of writing that permeated his/her's in the Scavenger trilogy, is present here again. It's set in a world where the most advanced city is one built by engineers, who adhere to a rigorous set of standards for building all mechanisms and implements - from war engines to chairs. Any signs of innovation are treated in the vein of heresy, and it's actually quite an interesting concept to see that engineering here almost takes over from religion, which is largely absent. At times however, the author's clear love of engineering and technical details can be a bit tough going - we're treated to long descriptions of the technical nature of building these implements or made to be impressed by research done into hunting or the various elements of armour.

And yet for all the fact that it can get bogged down in detail, the book generally flows along. The reader is kept guessing as to what plot the titular engineer is unfolding and the writer's style gives characters generally a believable air - there's no particular bad guy, just people with differing viewpoints.

The novel also wraps itself up quite well - satisfying end, with more than enough still left for the next two instalments. I've already got the sequel bought and I'm going to simultaneously enjoy the crisp writing and interesting premise and expect to roll my eyes at the belaboured descriptions sometimes employed.

ixoy

Finished "Galactic North" by Alastair Reynolds. It's a set of short stories and novellas set in his Revelation Space universe.

The stories themselves, as might be expected, are of variable quality. The first piece was quite weak, which had me worried, but most of the other pieces were of a higher quality. Their style generally has the Gothic horror that permeates his work, most noticably in the longest piece - "Nightingale" which is almost pure horror SF (albeit one of the weaker titles in my opinion).

There's a couple of stand out tales in this, including the eponymous title story "Galactic North" that will please fans of harder SF, and also some very enjoyable background detail into the world and history (and future history) of the RS universe.

Definitely recommended for fans of Reynolds as there's more than enough quality to offset the more tepid offerings.

ixoy

Finished 'Ink' by Hal Duncan, the second part in the 'Book of All Hours' duology.

This book is the literary equivalent of David Lynch on a crack and LSD binge whilst consulting with old Oxford scholars. The plot is hard to describe given there hardly is one and ditto with the characters - the book features multiple versions of the same characters, spread across different realities, with each "character" reflecting a core archetype. Think that's confusing: the same mix of characters each assume different roles in each reality and each one is set against a different history of the world, at a different point in the 20th century. In some WWI never occurred, in many a nihilistic group called the Futurists have swept into power. Most feature concepts of chi, karma, and a mystical language that is used to alter the reality of the world: the Cant.
In theory it all sounds good, but there's a large whiff of pretension at times - Duncan makes numerous references to ancient mythologies and jumps into almost scholarly asides at times, dissecting ancient legends, religions, and their derivations. The first half of the book has one version of the characters spend page after turgid page enacting the author's translation of a two thousand year-old play.

Maybe it's just too high-brow for me, maybe I just didn't make the effort required, but I could not get into this book - too dense, too difficult, and too many diversions into areas which seemed to serve no purpose. It's a shame because there's lots of wonderful moments in there too, but I can't recommend this book unless you've a passion for scholastic treatises, incredibly non-linear plots, and a box of Anadin.

ixoy

Finished 'The Briar King' by Greg Keyes, Book 1 in his 'The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone' quadrilogy.

The book starts out with a set of characters who seem almost clichéd - the spoilt tomboy princess, the taciturn woodsman, the naive scholar, the noble knight - and drops them into a world where an established Kingdom has ruled for millennia. What Keyes is able to do though is flesh out these characters into three dimensions over the course of the novel, defying initial expectations that they're merely card-board cut outs.

The plot itself is multi-stranded, but includes the regular fare of political ambitions and dark forces. Again Keyes handles all these well and I quite enjoyed his system of magic displayed here, which is quite religious in nature.

The short chapters lead to a snappy pace and, to his credit, Keyes drives the book to a satisfying conclusion, while still leaving open more than enough plot points for the sequels.

In some ways the story reminded me a bit of Kate Elliot's "A Crown of Stars" septology (although this could change) and I'd ultimately have the same sort of attitude to reading the sequel: Yes I will, but not before a few other books. Definitely enjoyable, without quite getting that extra factor of brilliance.

ixoy

Finished 'The Temporal Void' by Peter F. Hamilton, Book 2 of 'The Void' trilogy.
It continues the interesting concept of telling two stories - one set in the Commonwealth universe in about the 32nd century, where a large void in the galaxy's centre is slowly expanding outwards and how they're trying to cope.
The other appears as a pure fantasy novel, detailing the exploits of a powerful young psychic, Edeard, and his rise to power.

The two stories are connected but you could almost read them independently. I really like both stories - they had interesting plots, but ones that were often handled in quite a realistic way. Edeard's attempts to overthrow crime were plotted out well and how he ultimately chose to fix them, as revealed in the closing chapters, and the result of that put a lovely twist in the tale. The main sci-fi strand, taking up about 35% of the book, is similarly well handled and has all the touches of grand space opera that I love from Hamilton. The writing is always crisp and Hamilton has a great eye for description.

I almost thought I'd have had a bad word to say when a certain event occurred towards the end of the book.. but then Hamilton neatly flipped my understanding of that and left me with nothing bad to say. A great book and I'll be definitely reading the sequel.

ixoy

Finished 'Swords Against Wizardry' by Fritz Leiber, the fourth collection of his Fafhrd and Grey Mouser series. The vast bulk of this is taken up by two novellas - 'Stardock' and 'The Lords of Quarmall'.

The first novella starts off well, and the mountain (the eponymous Stardock) is beautifully described. However, the inhabitants of the mountain are relatively unexciting and the finale is quite weak.

'The Lords of Quarmall' is a stronger affair. The setting is interesting, telling the tale of two warring brothers inside a large mountain. Splitting up the duo, it effectively uses their personalities as each is on an opposing aside, unaware of the other's presence. It builds up well, and there's some beautiful descriptions, and the finale is very satisfying.

A pretty decent collection of stories over all.

ixoy

Finished 'Abarat - Days of Magic, Nights of War' by Clive Barker, Book 2 in his Abarat sequence.

There's two versions of this book - the regular paperback and a beautifully illustrated glossy hardback which is the version I read. The illustrations are drawn by Barker himself and indeed inspired a lot of the story itself, a story which is akin to a dark fairy tale aimed at young adults - lots of wonder, but also some dark moments.

Telling the continuing adventures of Candy as she wanders the islands of Abarat, Barker's vivacious vivid imagination really shines here as Candy encounters fabulous characters, places and scenarios - animated creatures spun from ship's rigging or talking islands or a series of creatures eating one another or... I could go on. At times it does seem a little that Candy is wandering around the islands almost as a tourist, as if to showcase Barker's creations rather than out of a plot-driven necessity, but it's not what I'd consider a fault of any great proportion.

It's a recommended series, but I'd definitely tell people to plump for the illustrated edition to really enhance the feeling of travelling the bizarre Abarat lands.

ixoy

Finished 'Dune: The Butlerian Jihad' by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert, Book 1 in the 'Legends of Dune' trilogy.

Well this was a bad one - I expected it to be poor, but it defied those expectations by being worse than I'd feared. Reviews over on amazon.co.uk, more eloquently describe the many flaws than I can - suffice to say the word "cash in" was never more aptly applied. The prose is lacklusture, the characters laughable, the dialogue insipid, the clichés rampant, but even worse it barely feels like the Dune universe - it's as if the two writers are so intent on trying to show how the Dune universe came to be, that they ignore Frank Herbert's thoughtful and philosophical insights into humanity and ecology, that made up his original series.

On a positive note, I've no more Anderson or Brian Herbert books on my shelf to read and nor will I ever have them again. Avoid.

ixoy

Finished 'The Shadow Road', the 3rd part in Sean Russell's "Swan's War" trilogy.

This was a bit of a dull read - never particularly exciting, never terribly bad. The story suffered from having too many characters crammed into about 3 parties with none of them being particularly distinguishable - in fact characterisation is quite weak in this book (it was stronger in previous installments).
The plot also suffers too much from feeling as if characters are going from A to B to C - there's no real sense of the story gently guiding them. The world they're going through is done very sketchily - I'll give Russell the benefit of the doubt and say that's a deliberate tactic to invoke the sense of mystery and weirdness of this world but it's not ultimately a successful move.

It's not a particularly bad series, but it's not a good one either - there's lots more that I believe I could have enjoyed more with my time.

ixoy

Finished 'The Name of the Wind' by Patrick Rothfuss - "Day One" of the Kingkiller Chronicles.

When discussing this book with a friend, I jokingly accused Rothfuss of being a pseudynom for another writer because, if that's not true, then this is one of the best debut fantasy novels I've read (an honour shared with Scott Lynch's "The Lies of Locke Lamora"). It's the tale of an inn keeper whose previous life, as a historic figure, is recounted to the scribe who tracked him down. This being the memories of the inn-keeper, Kvothe, it's written primarily in the first-person and this works very well: Kvothe is smart (very smart) but also quite human and filled with curiosity and humour. The characters are all well fleshed out - it's not that any are particularly original but what's there is done very well.
Indeed much the same could be said for the plot - it's the manner of execution that stands out. Many tales talk of some poor orphan rising to power, but partially what stands out here is how Kvothe doesn't get lucky breaks, or find some convenient amulet, but uses his skills to get by.

The chapters are short generally and it brings a nice brisk, page turning pace to the novel. I got through the bulk of the novel in about five days.

For those who care, there's also an interesting system of magic in the book which draws vaguely upon some scientific principles (e.g. conservation of energy).

After a couple of disappointing reads, I really enjoyed this one and unreservedly will recommend it to friends.

ixoy

Finished 'Velocity' by Dean Koontz. Koontz is to my mind a perfect "airport" book - easy to get into with a simple premise, moves at a cracking pace, relatively enjoyable without ever taxing your brain.

This novel features a fairly stock character type for Koontz - a young man who retreats from the world at large with a loved one he can't interact with (pretty much the same as Odd Thomas). The characterisation is perfunctory as he gets caught up in a killer who forces him to make tough decisions about the killer's next victims. The moral aspect of this could have been dealt with at a deeper level and I don't think Koontz ever got really into the complexity but, to be honest, I didn't expect him to either.

The book as a whole would adapt quite well to a Hollywood thriller. Now it wouldn't be a particularly great one and it'd mostly star actors who you'd recognise off TV. It'd keep you satisfied but, shortly after, it'd fade from your mind. Neither classic nor bad, it's another harmless release from Koontz.

ixoy

Finished "Forever Peace" by Joe Haldeman. This is a thematic companion piece to "Forever War", exploring many of the same themes but from a different angle. It's about a long-running war in the near future where humans remotely pilot mechanised robots through a neural interface - that in itself is hardly new but Haldeman is interested not in the technology so much as the human effect it has and how it changes (or does not) attitudes to war and killing.

What I liked in this novel was that Haldeman spent some time to describe the daily lives of the inhabitants and fleshed out some decent characters - many science fiction writers are big on ideas but weak when it comes to the people. Like a lot of good sci-fi he uses the technology and discoveries to ask bigger questions about people rather than just for a pyrotechnic display - in this one it's a quest to find peace for humanity.

In places the novel is a little jarring as it switches between first- and third-person perspective but it's not unduly so. The ending is a little hurried but the pacing otherwise is pretty good and the plotting is pretty tight. It's a good read for its exploration of war and a look at the alienation and damage it can bring to people.

ixoy

Finished "Antrax" by Terry Brooks, Book 2 in his "The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara" series.

I'd pretty much echo a lot of what I said about the first one - slim, but adequate, characterisation and a writing style that moves fluidly enough without ever grabbing you.
This novel, being a "middle" novel does suffer a little from the usual middle curse whereby the pace can stagnate a little and there's a feeling of holding things off until the third book. This is offset a little by introducing a nice dash of sci-fi into the novel as the old world of Shannara comes back in the form of an AI. The sci-fi element doesn't dominate but it's still something not that common in the genre.

I'm sure I'll read the third book at some point but I'm not in a massive rush to either. Grand fare but nothing outstanding.

ixoy

Finished "The Toyminator" by Robert Rankin. Straight out: Did not care for this. The plot was fine, up to a point, but halfway through it makes a big change in direction and turns into a poor pastiche. The plot is then riddled with convenient setups (which the author tries to mockingly joke away), characterisation stagnates, and the denouement is weak.

The first book - "The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse" - was at least very creative in places but there's no such spark here as we don't expand on the original Toy City premise and spend too much time in an old Hollywood era.

Additionally Rankin's writing style really began to... rankle. He has a habit of repeating things over and over, over and over repeating them and it's irritating. The humour was also absent for a large part and relied too much on pop culture references to even wring a smile from me.

By the end of this, I was just almost in a state of apathetic page turning. Given my less than stellar enjoyment of the first instalment, I think I can safely say that I won't be perusing any of Rankin's other books.

ixoy

Finished "Glasshouse" by Charles Stross. It's set in the future of "Accelerando" but it's quite different. It's basically the story of some 27th century people, damaged psychologically after a war that agree to engage in a psychological experiment. This experiment is like a fusion of 'Big Brother' by way of 'Mad Men' as they're dumped into a re-created (at times amusing unfaithful) 1950s environment and struggle to comprehend the arcane rituals and way of life.

So on one hand we've got characters trying to view our 20th century mores through the life of a post-Singularity civilisation and that leads to some amusement as they puzzle over concepts like marriage and natural birth in these "dark ages". On the other hand, it's a good exploration of society as the "Big Brother" element ensures people can score points by rigidly forcing to the society's rules, all in an effort to make the experiment seem real.

Of course it's science fiction too and there's some great stuff there on identity as well as the universe they're in is one in which you can't even trust memory of self as they can be edited. Who one person is - are they their memories, is their past real or created - are all interestingly explored through the narrator. This strong characterisation is something not quite evidenced in Stross' previous works and it now shows he can blend the crazy inventive ideas with a more thoughtful character examination.

The climax of the book is a tad rushed but emotionally satisfying and with a narrative conclusion that's fitting. I found it all-in-all a great book, doing what science fiction can do best - using the future and science to explore more of what we are.

ixoy

Finished "Evil for Evil" by K.J. Parker, Book 2 of 'The Engineer' trilogy.

It's an interesting concept here - the lead is a brilliant engineer who can coldly create massive systems to achieve goals. He sees people and situations as cogs in a machine that are ultimately used (to their death even) in the cause of love. An unusual dichotomy but it makes sense as the concept of love, and its link with pain and hurt, are explored throughout as people's various relationships fall back to haunt them.
It's a bleak book but Parker's refreshing style means there's a vein of very dark, dry self-deprecating humour to it. Characters are given almost conversational inner voices, although at times it means some characters are less distinguishable. I was also glad that Parker's propensity for showing their detailed knowledge of engineering/forging/etc. was held in check this time.

It doesn't suffer too much from "middle book" syndrome and it sets itself up nicely for a finale but due to a game-changing piece, it may not map out the way originally intended. That means I'm looking forward to finding out what happens next but I won't rush to it as it was in a sense a tough read with its cynical bleak outlook.

ixoy

Finished "Zodiac" by Neal Stephenson.

It's quite a short book (minuscule next to his Baroque cycle) about an eco-terrorist fighting against corporations dumping toxic waste in the Greater Boston area. The protagonist is quite cynical which means any "green friendly" message isn't too heavy. The science here seems a little bit dodgy, but I'm no real expert as Stephenson tries to create a new form of highly toxic waste.

The book is... okay. It's told through the first person and Taylor (the leading man) is never really developed - we know little of what motivates him. Indeed the same could be said for most of the characters who are thinly sketched.
I also found the writing a bit disjointed at times - scenes weren't always clearly described, particularly ones with heavier action. Now it's one of his earlier works and he's certainly improved on this but it does show here. Also, and this is no fault of the author, but there was annoyingly large number of typos in this edition.

Overall, it's the weakest Stephenson book I've read and the poorest quality. Read all his other stuff first, and then read some other author's works. Passable.

ixoy

Finished "Second Variety" by Philip K. Dick (a couple of weeks ago). It's the second book collecting his short stories and, although none made it into movie format, there's plenty there that have some great ideas. The titular tale stands out, but there's also the likes of "Adjustment Team" (think "Dark City") or the mysterious "The Commuter".

As with all short stories, there's a fair few duds ("Martians Come in Clouds" did nothing for me) but I was generally quite surprised at how he seemed to have his pulse on sci-fi concepts that would only generally enter the mainstream (in tvs/movies) decades later.

As to his literary skills, his prose can be a little staid and I found some of his characters a little stiff, although that may reflect the '50s when they were written. There's also an amusing amount of unintentional sexism and some of the futures envisaged seem already amusing fifty years on. Nonetheless I enjoyed this collection and will be getting the third volume.

ixoy

Finished "The City and the City" by China Miéville.
I'm a big fan of this guy, in particular his "Bas Lag" series of novels. He's described (not by himself) as the inventor of "new weird", with his previous books fusing a mix of science, steampunk and crazy inventiveness with some of the most beautiful prose I've come across in the sci-fi/fantasy genre. It was this admiration that made me buy this book before the book shop even had a chance to place it on their shelves.

"The City and the City" is grounded on our earth (somewhat like his first work "King Rat") and initially appears to be a murder mystery with the traditional detective investigating it, in a city-state somewhere near Turkey called Beszel. So far, so normal.
The wonderful twist in the tale is that Beszel shares its space with another city - Ul Qoma. The exact relationship is never stated outright - some streets in one city are not part of the other, other cities share the same street. People of one city don't acknowledge the other and differentiate themselves by their mannerisms and clothes. You don't even see these neighbours in the other city - you must "unsee" them or invoke Breach - a third-party who monitors all to ensure the two cities stay apart.

The political and cultural differences between the city are done well, but what's most interesting is entering the mindset that could allow this and how it (cleverly) weaves into the tale. It's like a tale of a cop working outside his jurisdiction taken into insanely inventive levels.

The characters in this book are thinly sketched (as is his style) but Mieveille's genius is in creating the world around them. The prose may be less like the poetry of his previous works, but that's fitting when trying to ground this tale in our world.

It all wraps up well and, like his other stuff, I'd highly recommend it with the caveat that you'll need to subvert your expectations of how a murder mystery tale can operate.

ixoy

Finished "Black Man" by Richard Morgan ("Thirteen" in the racially-sensitive U.S.).

I was disappointed with this one. It's not bad as such, it's just not very good either. It's the story of a genetically-modified human in 2107 (called a variant "thirteen") who was designed as an alpha-male soldier with a psychology harbouring back to cut-throat savagery. He's hired to help investigate a string of murders perpetrated by a fellow thirteen and, from this, a mystery unfolds.

It's the unfolding of the mystery that is, I believe, one of the novel's flaws. It seems to ramble a lot with the lead, Carl, stumbling along from one intuitive hunch to another. Eventually the pieces all get connected up, and it makes sense, but the path to it all is disjointed and the explanation at the end is in a rather heavy-handed expository manner.
Along the way I was treated to a bit too much social commentary. I'm all for sci-fi being used to explore the human condition but here the sci-fi trappings seemed minimal at best and I felt that they were almost redundant. Morgan wants to explore concepts like racism, the feminisation of society, etc. but the characters he's doing it through and the prism of technology he's using to focus (genetics) didn't really work for me - what was here, including the mystery, could very easily have been transposed to a modern setting without much shift.

The characters in the book are okay - the lead is well 'ard and yet he still resembles a more one-dimensional version of Morgan's Kovacs. There's a bit of depth to him but I don't feel we ever got under his skin in the way the author intended.

The writing was quite good in this, and Morgan shows more descriptive agility than most sci-fi writers, but I just wished he had tightened the plotting a lot more and maybe fleshed out the future setting to make a more interesting book. Not bad but he's still yet to reach the heights he established with "Altered Carbon".

On an aside - I think this just about gets me in for the 50-book challenge...

ixoy

Finished "Into a Dark Realm" by Raymond E. Feist, Book 2 of his Darkwar series.

Found this was a pretty solid instalment in his Midkemia series and, despite this (or because of) being my 21st Feist novel I'm still liking the world and the various characters who've appeared over the course of the series (including Pug). The novel's story is pretty deeply inter-twined with not just the first instalment but many of the other series he's written previously, going right back to 'Magician' itself so it's pleasing to a long-term fan but not one for jumping in with.
I was pleasantly surprised that he's still able to build on the lore, by introducing a "second plane" of reality and a new culture - the Dasati - that are suitably alien to what he's done before. There's some interesting ideas here, more than enough to keep me wondering what's going to happen in the next book (and, I'm sure, the subsequent trilogy).

Of course Feist's usual flaws are here - he's not always the best with prose (if I see the word "suddenly" any more ...) and sometimes he's too quick to gloss over events (something though that many other fantasy writers get wrong in the opposite direction). Some of the humour is weak but yet, I can't help but enjoy it and it's definitely a cut above the weak Krondor series and more interesting than the Conclave of Shadows trilogy.

Recommended for Feist fans who've read the twenty prior books...

ixoy

Finished "Line War" by Neal Asher, the fifth and final book in his Agent Cormac series.

At this point, it's a series for fans only building on the previous four books. The plot is reasonably intricate but at its basic is about how a rogue AI attacks the Polity (the future Earth society) using a highly dangerous and virulent form of alien biotechnology. He's up against Agent Cormac and a number of others from the series.

For fans of big space opera, and the Polity universe itself, this is a great read. We've got the multiple plans, the big guns, the huge AIs. We've also got what I found as a very interesting alien antagonist (if a non-sentient bio-virus can be an antagonist). The characers they're up against aren't very deep but they work for the novel and I found Cormac to be quite likable rather than the "hard-as-nails" bastards that say Richard Morgan employs.

There's plenty of big revelations here and all the main plots conclude in a very satisfying bar the almost coda piece at the end, which seems a bit rushed.

Sure the prose isn't exactly Wilde but that's not important when you've got a good bit of creativity, a cracking pace, and lots of galaxy-spanning mayhem. A highly recommended series for me.

ixoy

Finished "Crown of Stars" by Kate Elliott, Book 7 (and final one) of her "Crown of Stars" series.

It's been a good few years since I read Book 6 (which is, in reality, one half of this volume which had to be split into two books due to the sheer size). As a result I had a bit of difficulty recalling all the various plot lines and the positions of the different players for a large chunk of the novel. It's not necessarily a fault of the author, but I think these large epic series should have some form of recap or, at least, a list of characters at the end as is common with many other series.

I disgress - the book itself is mostly about tying up the various plot lines. For the most part this is achieved quite satisfyingly but I think a couple were wrapped up too neatly - the Aishoi in particular seemed far too quickly ended after the threat of them for the last few thousand pages. Other elements, such as the religious shift that had been unveiled over the course, worked very well especially with the cultural shift they created.

Elliott is good at creating a realistic medieval world with a good interpretation of fealty and piety. Her characters can range from interesting and complex (Stronghand) to somewhat flatter (Liath). I'd have liked more focus on the more alien aspects in her world - the dark merman, the Eika - and less on the more mundane shifting alliances that sought control of a kingdom left in a power vacuum following the previous novels. She showed some talent for this whereas the various religious figures and players tended to blend into one another at times.

As a conclusion to a series, it was satisfying. It's not outstanding or revelatory but it's no insult either. It'd certainly encourage me to read her next septology (which is as well given I've already got the first two books standing on my bookshelf).

ixoy

Finished "The Prefect" by Alastair Reynolds, a book set in his "Revelation Space" universe (before the events of the initial trilogy).

I got through most of this book in two days, which is testament to how much I enjoyed it. It's a detective novel with science fiction flavouring - that concept is a little reminescent of Richard Morgan's Kovacs' series but I think the RS universe is far more interesting. This time we're in the Glittering Band - 10,000 individual habitats orbiting a central seat of power (a band which is very dead by the time of the original trilogy). The slaughter of the inhabitants of one habitat leads to a chain of events that, naturally, take a wider scope.

I imagine this is a pretty good novel for new-comers to his universe. It's more rewarding though for long-term fans as it enriches a certain portion of time, just as "Galactic North"'s stories did. The revelations come along at a good pace and Reynolds does a great job of giving us a glimpse at the diversity and potential of our future, as well as the tragedies to come. There's also some nice action sequences, albeit not as much as in previous (which is fine, as it's not strictly space opera as the others were).

There are flaws - Reynold's again has difficulty tying things up conclusively and there are some important scenes that transpire "off screen". One main character pretty much drops off screen for the last third of the book. His characterisation is tighter than before but he often struggles with dialogue, making some of it sound quite clunky. It's quite common in sci-fi however, and it didn't really detract from the novel.

Very enjoyable overall and I'd like to see a further instalment in this era of the universe - and that in itself shows how I rate this novel.