Kevin's Watch

HUH? You do mean the one by Steven Erikson, correct? That isn't even available on canadian booksellers! How?

I know two people. The first knows Steven rather well and serves as a beta proofer for the manuscript. So when it comes back from final edit he gets a copy with permission to let a few people read it. Second person is one of the moderators of our reading group and she works for one of the world's largest book distributors and channels many of the review copies for national publications. Between them I get quite a few Advanced reading copies. And the reading group I belong to includes 7 published authors and about twice that in editors and such. All in all, I think the only books we don't see ARCs in are Rowlings and Jordan. Rowlings because they don't exist at this stage (though one member has a lovely and no doubt valuable galley of the first HP) and Jordan because whoever gets them first usually does not let go.

One of the problems with reading galleys over ARCs is that there can be considerable changes to the material when it reaches final publication. Which I have found out to my extreme puzzlement when I read the next book and have no idea why something happened the way it did when the galley clearly had it happening another way. Or not happening at all. George R. R. Martin's second and third books had small but incredibly significant changes as I recall and I wasn't that thrilled with the original let alone having to go back and read it in final publication form to figure out what was going on.

Holsety wrote: Assuming you read Absolution Gap, tell me what you think. Personally, I thought Redemption Ark was the best of the three in the 'main series'.

Will do. I deliberately skipped Chasm City because I wanted to stay in the Inhibitor story line.

I like hard SF, but keep getting disappointed by stuff. I guess I just like character-driven work more, but I want to be awed by huge stuff and over-the-top ideas (even if I don't fully understand them).

My main grudge with these book is the character of Ana Khouri. She's supposed to be some tough-shit soldier, but all she does in the books is stand there like a little girl and ask stupid questions! It's driving me up the wall and I hope she dies in the third book. (Bad, I know.) She's just complete fluff, does not drive forward any part of the story and simply does nothing.

I'm reading A Cavern of Black Ice by J.V. Jones. I'm just starting it, but so far I like it.

Miles, Mischief and Mayhem. This is an omnibus edition of Cetaganda and Ethan of Athos, and all are by Lois McMaster Bujold. Just started it yesterday evening.

I'm simultaneously reading Elric's saga and Gloriana Or the Unfulfilled Queen. I must say that the prose of Mr. Moorcock in the last one is absolutely awesome

Well, I am reading a non fiction book right now, "Under the Bannor of Heaven" but it reads almost like fantasy.

I'm working my way through a Clarke collection of short stories; the thing that stands out in my mind about his writing is that he totally eschews the 'love story within the story', and it really is odd to me, because evey other author I read uses that sub-current to great extent.

Took me a while to get to it, but i'm just about finished "Belgarath the Sorcerer" at the mo. I love David Eddings' sense of humor.

I'm currently listening to the audio version of The Sagan Diary by John Scalzi, which he put up on his site recently for free download. Just finished chapter 6, "Sex", which is read by Cherie Priest, and wow is it good. The entire story (excluding the preface) is written as the internal thoughts of Jane Sagan, a character from some of his novels (but don't worry, it doesn't have spoilers for those books).
If you're interested, you can listen to it here.

Edit: Finished it. Brilliantly done.

Just finished UNCLEAN by Richard Lee Byer, my "subway" read for my weekday commute. Better than the typical sword and sorcery fare, but still not something that will likely get much attention outside of that sub-genre.

Check the blog for the full review!

Patrick
www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com

I was about quarterway into reading some of Cicero's speeches and letters.... and just felt in the mood for some fiction... and then Amazon offered up an interesting sounding book, so now I'm started on 'Shadow of the Torturer' by Gene Wolfe.

I'm only a handful of chapters in, but it's very interesting in a subtle way. Until I read the rest I won't know where it goes. It's an interesting other existence, and it seems to suggest more than declare what's going on. It spends several sentences on things that seem insubstantial, and passes quickly over things that seem worthy of more sentences. Once I've finished I'll chip in on the Wolfe thread below.

A weird bunch of books. Definitely some of my favourite, although I'm still missing the last book. Probably more work (mentally) than your average type of sci-fi/fantasy but definitely worth it. I've read the first 3 several times, and there are still allusions I'm missing.

--A

Avatar wrote:A weird bunch of books. Definitely some of my favourite, although I'm still missing the last book. Probably more work (mentally) than your average type of sci-fi/fantasy but definitely worth it. I've read the first 3 several times, and there are still allusions I'm missing.

--A

Well it's interesting so far in that it's intellectual without being full of itself. There are little bits of the history of philosophy sprinkled in but it's presented more in a manner of describing of the character's experience than in prescribing a philosophy for the reader. Not to mention there's an interesting story slowly coming together between the stitched together events and experiences. I'm sure I'll have more to say when done...... but it's a very easy going book so far, outside of the [strike]sublime[/strike] surreal (maybe unfamiliar is a closer word?) reality it describes.


edit: I meant surreal, don't know why I typed sublime. Surreal things can be pleasant or unpleasant...

I look forward to hearing what youthink of them.

--A

Yeah, me too. As a matters of fact, I'm still hooked on the last one of the series and love it

I'm re-reading Elisabeth Moon's "trading in Danger" Highly recommended!

Currently Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" and loving it!

The Golden Fool, book two of Robin Hobb's Tawny Man series.

It's amazing how entertaining Hobb can be even when her books are moving slowly. In the first book of the series it took about 250 pages for the main character to even leave the shack he was living in, but it was still riveting reading. Top marks for "unputdownability".

Wonderful, wonderful writer.

Lord Darcy by Randall Garrett

Stone of Tears by Terry Goodkind