Kevin's Watch

The Bloody Crown of Conan - Robert E Howard. A collection containing "People of The Black Cirlce", "The Hour Of The Dragon" and "A Witch Shall Be Born".

Good stuff. A little juvenile at times, but that never hurt anyone.

Just finished Chris Roberson's Paragaea: A Planetary Romance.

The novel was advertized as a great old pulp adventure story, grounded in the latest thinking in the fields of theoretical physics, artificial intelligence, genetics, and more. Paragaea is indeed a throwback to those science fiction pulp stories of yore made popular by authors like Edgar Rice Burroughs, Alex Raymond, Leigh Brackett, etc. Roberson demonstrates that he has a fertile imagination by cramming this work with cool and fascinating themes and ideas.

Unfortunately, I felt that Chris Roberson was never quite able to make this book rise above the traditional scifi pulp subgenre. All the tropes are present, from original monsters and creatures and swashbuckling to narrow escapes from certain doom. With lots of action, Paragaea is an entertaining read. And yet, the storytelling, relying too heavily on action in typical pulp manner, precludes this one from reaching a higher level.

If you are craving a novel which is a throwback to those old scifi pulp adventure stories, Paragaea: A Planetary Romance is exactly what the doctor ordered. But if you are looking for a work that rises beyond that, then you are bound, as I was, to be disappointed.

Check the blog for the full review.

Patrick
www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com

Finished "Royal Assassin" by Robin Hobb and was all pumped to get the third book in the series, but I got shanghaied by the girls to read "The Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch. It's well-written, but all of his characters are thieves, so I'm having a hard time feeling sympathetic toward anybody.

Oh, and I'm reading the 3rd Anthology, too.

I just gave up on Gardens of the Moon ( for the thrid time) And started instead rereading The Hitchikers Guide. Halfway through Book one now.

To the kids, I am reading Sir Thursday from Garth Nix's Keys to the Kindom series. The first three Books (Mister Monday, Grim Tuesday and Drowned Wednsday), though my son loved them, I didn't enjoy at all...but this one is starting to get a bit better--
I am reading Eragon to the other kid. The great thing about this book, is you can play a little game to see how many stories the author is ripping off. LOTR is a giveaway, but there's lots of Belgaraid references. I'm guessing there's some Dragon Lance stories, and probebly Dragons of Pern in there too.

aliantha wrote:Oh, and I'm reading the 3rd Anthology, too.

Are you enjoying it?

Just finished it this morning, in fact. I liked yours, Drew. I need to post reviews in the anthology thread...

I just finished "The Stolen Child" by Keith Donohue which was a strange retelling of the Changeling story, well written. And now I'm starting "Queen of Darkness", Book 3 of Anne Bishops' Black Jewels Trilogy. The story is not what I expected and the first book is hard to get into, but they get better - we'll see how she ends it.

Ursula LeGuinn, The Left Hand of Darkness.

--A

The Hobbit

Stephen Donaldson's "Fatal Revenant"

Aliantha you go and carry on with Robin Hobb as I loved that series especially the main character Fitz Farseer and the story continues with six more books it was one of my favorite series

Right now 1634 By Eric Flint

Awaiting new book in Honor Harrington series.

Palladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

George R.Martin's A Clash of Kings.

Discoveries is a new speculative fiction imprint from Wizards of the Coast (Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, etc). Hence, let me begin by saying that it's about time! A new adult-oriented specfic line is good news to fans of the genre.

Wizards of the Coast sent out a very neat publicity kit last fall. Of all the advance reading copies it contained, I elected to read J. M. McDermott's debut. Last Dragon is advertized as a literary fantasy novel in the tradition of Gene Wolfe and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Talk about raising expectations to a level that no debut can aspire to reach, right? Still, I was intrigued and decided to give it a shot.

Last Dragon is written economically, which is both a positive and a negative thing. On the upside, it makes for a narrative that flows well. Extremely short scenes in relatively short chapters help speed the story along. On the downside, many of the concepts are bare bones and should have been further fleshed out to make this tale more absorbing.

I'm well aware that I don't say this very often, but I believe that Last Dragon should have been longer. It would have given the author the chance to bring this book to another level, for the potential is definitely there. The absence of details concerning too many facets of the novel makes for a somewhat bland story that could have been a lot better. It's sad, for Last Dragon showed a lot of promise. . .

Check out the blog for the full review...

Patrick
www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com

Just started The Scar, by China Mieville. It's pretty tasty!

Reading Northern Lights by Philip Pullman with my girlfriend.
Taking it in turns to read chapters aloud!
It's quite fun doing the voices too.

If it works out well, we'll do all of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy this way.

Hammered by Elizabeth Bear.

Mostly by coincidence, a lot of the books on my to read pile for this year are sci-fi; I don't usually get much sci-fi reading done, so this might be something of a catchup.

Fatal Revenant. Courtesy of our own LuciMay. *bows low*

--A

Gardens of the Moon, not courtesy of Lucimay but rather because of Lucimay....

Started the Prince of Nothing trilogy this week after seeing several recommendations on this board. I'm intrigued so far