31 May 2010

What I am reading: May 2010

  1. Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson: I had this book for ages (got it at a BEA years ago), but still never read it. I saw that he was writing the final Robert Jordan book (never got into him, perhaps I should try the series) and still didn't. But today I was standing in a line with my Kindle and didn't know what to start next and thought— Why not? Wow. Another win for the author giving his book away. I'm downloading Elantris today and trying to decide whether I should download his Mistborne trilogy or whether I should just buy the boxed set and bring it back. I'm not certain how long this book is- from how long it took me to read it I will guess 500+ pages (ok, looked it up, 592 pages) and I was enthralled through all of them. Fascinating magic system. Interesting characters. Exciting story. I only wish there were another book in this world for me to read. I expect to buy his other works (and think about buying Jordans Wheel of Time because I know it will end well-written) and I'll be shooting off an e-mail to him to tell him why.
  2. Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobbs: Although I have read Robin Hobbs when she was writing as Megan Lindholm, I somehow never picked her up under this name. Another good read from the Kindle temptations program (they give a book away and hope that you are intrigued enough to follow up and read others by the same author). I thought it was good enough that I will give her another try, but not quite good enough for me to pay full Kindle price for the sequel and getting a used copy in Germany isn't happenning. I hear her Ship series is much more exciting. I did enjoy Dragon Keeper, but the concepts are a bit too well -used for me. The novel is a bit of Amelia Peabody with an overlay of fantasy and I just do't have the patience with a heroine who finds it so difficult to understand what the issue between her husband (not a nice guy) and herself is. I did like the blossoming relationship with the ship's captain, the ship itslef and her development enough to- as I said- try the sequel down sometime in the future.
  3. -14: And the entire rest of my reading month, including the flights to and from NY, were consumed with re-reading Edgar Rice Burroughs fabulous pulp Barsoom series. I had heard that there is renewed interest in filming (exciting to see that Michael Chabon has signed on for script revisions). In any case. ERB is one of my childhood foundations, and I vastly enjoyed the re-read, with far less shock at the sexism and racism than I expected to find. ERB is such a quintessential early 20th century writer.
1.A Princess of Mars
2.The Gods of Mars
3.The Warlord of Mars
4.Thuvia, Maid of Mars
5.The Chessmen of Mars
6.The Master Mind of Mars
7.A Fighting Man of Mars
8.Swords of Mars
9.Synthetic Men of Mars
10.Llana of Gathol
11.John Carter of Mars (includes Skeleton Men of Jupiter) (ERB died while writing this).

3 comments:

Jigbean said...

The Wheel of Time series is great although books 7/8/9 (or do I mean 6/7/8?) are kind of boring - I recently re-read the entire series in preparation for getting the 12th book when it comes out in paperback (how I have been resisting buying the hardback, I don't know). And realised that I had never bought 7/8/9 because after slogging through library copies, they didn't seem worth it. But reading the whole series through meant I really wanted to read them as well and since the library here doesn't run to English copies I just went and bought them anyway. The reward in 10 and 11, when things start to really move along again is nearly worth the effort of reading the few beforehand.

If you're going to read Robin Hobb, start with the Farseer Assassin trilogy. The the Liveships trilogy, which is set on the same world but is completely different. And then the Tawny Man trilogy which ties the previous two together. I haven't read Dragon Keeper, which loosely returns to that world I think. Wasn't too keen on the Forest Mage trilogy which she wrote after Tawny Man so that stopped me from automatically picking up her books and assuming they'd be good.

Curtis said...

Wow this was some intense read here. I saw where you had been over to visit and said you had been reading for some time but were unable to leave comments. Thanks for stopping by. I've really enjoyed sitting here and reading about the trips the books and the fried chicken and corn on the cob. Yes you are right, those Costco brand wipes are dabomb. I'm all pumped up and ready for the day after this.

G in Berlin said...

Hi Jean and Curtis- glad to hear you. Jean,always happy to exchange reading lists, stop on back. Curtis- I'll say hi over on your blog:).