Saturday, July 16, 2011

2nd Quarter books

Only read a few interesting books since April; some were repeats, some were gambles that didn't pay off, and some were just out of a sense of ennui.

Still, it's nice to have stories going through my head. Strangely enough, it seems to help keep life in perspective.

The name of the wind- P Rothfuss
Wise Man's Fear

A Hymn before Battle- J Ringo
Gust Front
When the Devil Dances
Hell's Faire

Dreadnaught- J Campbell
Fuzzy Nation- John Scalzi
Moon Called- P Briggs
Borders of Infinity- LM Bujold
Elantris- B Sanderson
Moon is a Harsh Mistress- R Heinlein
Overkill- Robert Buettner

The first two by Patrick Rothfuss are my favorites. There is an interesting back story, the character is smart and quick, but has flaws which tie well into his strengths. I did have the discomfort of continually thinking: "When's the other shoe going to drop? When are things really going to get bad?"

Occasionally it was difficult to listen to for that reason. But there were some moments of genuine awesome storytelling.

The stuff by John Ringo was plot driven military silliness, but entertaining. Fuzzy Nation was legal driven fun; decent number of laugh out load moments.

Cetaganda- LM Bujold
Brothers in Arms
Mirror Dance
Memory
Komarr
A Civil Campaign
Winterfair Gifts

Listening through the VorKosigan novels again. I'm amazed that they have the staying power to keep me entertained enough to listen through all of them for the past three or four years; occasionally multiple times per year.

I hope Sanderson will get the next book in the Stormlight Archive done soon. He's fairly prolific, so it shouldn't be more than a year or two. And I'm looking forward to Butcher's Ghost Story. That should be coming out in the next few days.

Pity that Patrick Rothfuss took years between his two novels. Still, I'd rather a good book that ooh a while rather than a half assed effort once a year. Of course, the worst of both worlds occasionally happens, too. Hope it doesn't in his case.







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2 comments:

Leah F said...

I picked up Name of the Wind, but haven't read it yet. I want to get through A Dance With Dragons (I'm 82 pages in) and then take a little break from epic fantasy before jumping into a new one. I also plan to reread the Harry Potter novels soon.

My boyfriend likes the VorKosigan books (he likes Bujold a lot too). He's been trying to get me to read A Civil Campaign, because it's based on the Regency novels of Georgette Heyer (which I LOVE), I'd guess specifically A Civil Contract, but I'm just not all that keen on sci-fi.

Fritz said...

I just started Dance with Dragons today; hopefully I can get it done before Ghost Story is released. Feast for Crows was a tough read, and took me a while.

Civil campaign is an enjoyable book, but I think it'd be a bit confusing to read without the back story.

Hope you enjoy Name of the Wind!