Kevin's Watch

Reading Runes of The Earth and Sword and Citadel the volume 2 omnibus of The Book Of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe

Reading Ashok Banter's 'Prince of Arodhya' and am enjoying it.

I've read plenty 'historical' fantasy novels based in Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, China, Japan, but this is my first based on Indian legends, with dharma and karma and brahmins and nagas and rakshasas.

My one gripe is his over-use of Indian words - a little bit is fine, to add colour, but when a character indian verbs his indian noun, it is a little bit confusing!

The Gap Into Vision: Forbidden Knowledge

--A

While on my little trip I read Dean Koonts's Odd Thomas, which I found to be very enjoyable. It is about a young man who sees dead people.

Right now I am reading the first book in James White's Sector General science fiction series, called Hospital Station. The books are about the wild thinsg that happen at a huge (384 level; staff of about 10,000) space station which functions as a general hospital for that area of the galaxy. Lots of really cool aliens, and interesting problems.

Dragonlily and Avatar have been telling me for quite some time now to read Sector General.

Avatar wrote:The Gap Into Vision: Forbidden Knowledge

--A

ME Too! Where are you...i am almost done. Nick has just confronted Morn after fleeing Enablement station. I love the GAP>

Haha, just finished it last night actually. Unfortunately for me, I only have the first two, so this is where my foray into the Gap has to end for now. *sigh*

Glad you finally got around to it Duchess. You'll like them I have no doubt.

--A

My latest read is a short story collection from Laurell K. Hamilton, called Strange Candy.

I have a love/hate relationship with this author. Some of her early works are these great tightly plotted little mystery stories with supernatural elements. Later they became nonstop and plotless group sex scenes.

I was hesitant about reading anything else by this author, as her work has slipped so much.

Plus this particular book has one of the worst covers I have ever seen on a book.

But the Amazon reader reviews were glowing, so I thought I would give it a try.

And some of the stories were wonderful.

They have plots. They have cool characters.

There was this one really cute and funny story where packs of cupids hunt down people above a certain age to force them to become part of a couple whether they want to be or not. There was this other haunting and very well done story about a merman who is a serial rapist/killer and the woman who stops him.

Damn, this woman can write as long as she keeps her characters out of the bedroom!

Ok, recently on my holiday in the US I finished reading Stephenson's "The Diamond Age" Or (as I assume what Stephenson really wanted to call it) "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer". To me it read like a cross between a fairly typical sci-fi novel about nanotech (but with the cool Stephenson prose), and a Brother's Grimm style fairy tale about a young girl. An interesting combination, but ultimately a disappointment after "Snow Crash".

Today I've started Zindell's "War in Heaven".

oooh, I really loved Diamond Age, a different kettle of fish from Snow Crash though I agree. Hard to compare for me.

At the moment I am re-reading Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe, as I think I missed alot of intricacies first time round! ---nothing new there then...

Recently Read:

Hinterland by James Clemens. Standard fantasy that is rather well written and some very interesting inventiveness in worldbuilding.

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. I enjoyed this as well. First time reading anything by the author and I found his style of writing to be very acessible without being trite, too simple or generic.

Trial of Flowers by Jay Lake. A new author on the novel scene. Tries a little too much for the book to flow as it should. "Cool" book effort makes it a bit heavy going when it should have been a bit more light and faster paced. I can definitely see this book getting cachet. It's kind of like the nose piercing one gets so as to get a rush of superiority when people, well, actually notice a big ring sticking out of the snoz.

Hav by Jan Morris. I was hopign for something a bit...more. It wasn't bad in any way. Just a bit too sparse. I think I was too hopeful that I would be discoverig something a bit better than Morris delivered. Anticipation can be cruel in that regard. I think I was hoping for something a bit more Ruritanian, maybe. Still, there was enough there to make me want to read her next work.

Next is Patrick Rothfuss' forthcoming The Name of the Wind and then probably Joe abercrombie's second book Before They were Hanged. 2007 (at leat in terms of reading) snuck up pretty fast!

duke wrote:Today I've started Zindell's "War in Heaven".

Spoiler

better bolt yourself to a chair! What a freakin' ending!

I'm 45 pages into GAP III: ADHGR. Things are really picking up now, boy!

Electric Velocipede #11, which arrived in the post today!

Neil Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors, a collection of his poetry and short stories.

Assassin's Apprentice if great. But I have to say, it is the most painful fantasy book to read: the pain Fitz goes through can be too much at times.

I've read Smoke and Mirrors a couple times (the second time, I thought, 'Hmm, this story seems familiar' and a few pages later found the bookmark I'd left in it before returning it to the library).

Currently reading Murakami's Kafka on the Shore while I wait for Soldier of Sidon to arrive.

I'm finishing Dan Simmon's Olympos. Superb novel, better even than Ilium. Wonderful imagination and truly epic in scope and execution. I really enjoyed how the old-style humans (Dan's word, not mine) changed and matured and really hung tough against overwhelming odds.

If you love sf, and have any interest in the Trojan War, this pair of novels is a must-read.

I thought some of the wrap-up was a little vague and too convenient, though, especially with Setebos and Caliban, so I can't call it the best novel I've read in 2006. That honor remains with Scott Lynch's stunning debut, The Lies of Locke Lamora.

Loremaster wrote:Assassin's Apprentice if great. But I have to say, it is the most painful fantasy book to read: the pain Fitz goes through can be too much at times.

Hobb sticks it to her characters more than any other author I have ever read - including SRD and GRRM.

Still reading GAP: Dark and Hungry God Rises. I am just to the point of

Spoiler

the attempted assisination attempt on VS

Roland of Gilead wrote: I thought some of the wrap-up was a little vague and too convenient, though, especially with Setebos and Caliban, so I can't call it the best novel I've read in 2006.

I really liked the books but for some reason the ending left me unsatisfied. After all the spectacular stuff it seemed to suddenly...well, just stop.