Kevin's Watch

sindatur wrote:Oh, Menolly, you posted a link for Publlication Order, but, I don't see a link for "Suggested order". I could of course google it, but, may end up with a different suggested order than you are suggesting

Oh! Sorry sin. Somehow my orange dot tree skipped this post.

The published order is pretty close to the suggested reading, without reading a couple of chapters in The White Dragon and then reading Dragondrums before switching back to The White Dragon for the first two trilogies. Here is a suggested reading order which includes such. It really is very close to the published order. However, it only goes up to The Skies of Pern and appears to not include any of the collaborations with her son Todd, or Todd's stand alone novels. I would prefer to say you're not missing anything by skipping those, but...

SoulBiter wrote:

SoulBiter wrote:Starting "The forever War" by Joe Haldeman

Interesting book.

Tool of the Trade by Haldeman is one of my favourites, but I've never managed to get into The Forever War, despite its many accolades. Just don't like the style.

--A

Finished the Alloy of Law by Sanderson, reading The Emperor's Soul by the same. Good, quick, popcorn books to get back on track with by reading goal for the year!

Consider this a book club teaser:

If I had to list the top three books I've read this year, it would go:

1 We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson
2 The Shining Girls - Lauren Beukes
3 The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson

Or maybe it's:

1 We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson
2 The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
3 The Shining Girls - Lauren Beukes

I'm not entirely sure. Time may tell.

Reading the Illearth War in my "grand re-read", as everyone has taken to calling it. Also am reading American Gods, my first Gaiman. Loving it.

Read Good Omens, Neverwhere, Death: The High Cost Of Living, and the Sandman graphic novels as well.

--A

Bood and Bone by Ian Esselmont. Typical Malazan book so far.

"What's going on?"
"Something terrible..."
"And you know what it is?"
"Yes."
"What is it?"
"I'm.....reticent..." He gazed out over the horizons, his glazed eyes focusing on something else as rasped, with an awed whisper, "Assail..." before he dropped the snowglobe and dropped dead.

Being that it is not Erikson, you do not have random nose-picking Malazans debating on the nature of being... you just have random nose-picking Malazans.

Avatar - thanks for the tip, will definitely work my way through Gaiman's other books after American Gods.

So I stayed up very late last night reading NOS4R2 (NOS4A2 in the US) by Joe Hill, and then picked it up immediately in the morning and spent most of the day finishing it. Very good book, very long book.

The cover sticker lied, though. Waterstones had labelled it "The most terrofying book you'll read this year", but I can't say it was scary at all. Good, very creative, and Hill's good at messing his characters up in the worst ways (which just makes them more interesting).

Next up: More Joe Hill, because I'll be reading the next Locke & Key comic tonight.

Finished Renegade's Magic by Robin Hobb and A Mighty Fortress by David Weber today. (I was reading them at much the same time.)

Both are tomes at 600+ and 1000+ pages respectively. They both badly needed to be edited and I did a fair bit of skimming. I don't really understand the need for the books to be so long. Maybe it has to do with the fans who don't want the books to end, but I find it a terrible drag. I wonder if some of it is established writers refusing to take editorial advice because of their selling power. Whatever the reason is it makes for an immense amount of unnecessary material.

The Weber books are also annoyingly interesting in the righteousness of the main characters. They are so upright, so moral and so heroic that at times I have to wonder if the author is pulling the p**s I'd be interested to hear what anyone else who has read these book thinks.

u.

I'm halfway through Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

This is billed as his first new book for adults in years; the story, though, is of the narrator as a child, and a lot of the narrative style and the elements within the story bring to mind old fashioned children's books (the story references them a lot, too - the narrator is a reader). But at the same time there's a feeling of something a little dark and unsettling underneath it all.

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Read one of these long ago and couldn't get into it, giving them another try.

--A

Finished The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

Now that I've got about halfway through the Discworld books (in the order of publication) I will have to stop and begin Runes tonight otherwise I won't finish the 3rd Chrons before TLD is published in October. Damn! No kindle version. Have to go back to holding a thick tome again. It seems a long time since I read from a proper book.

Iolanthe wrote:Damn! No kindle version. Have to go back to holding a thick tome again.

Can you order from the US amazon.com, Iolanthe? The link are the kindle versions of the third chrons I found on search.

Thank you so much, Menolly. I've found it. Now I shan't have to balance my husband's glasses case on the page while I'm eating.

Iolanthe wrote:Thank you so much, Menolly. I've found it. Now I shan't have to balance my husband's glasses case on the page while I'm eating.

<GASP> You would do that to a Book? You would actually eat over it?








Hopes Iolanthe sees the winkie face and toothy grin and understands this was played for laughs

Time, time. When else do I have time to read a book, except at bedtime? Unless there is a thunderstorm and I can't work on the computer.

Damn, I'm still struggling through Red Mars. Actually finding excuses not to read it. Gripping, this book is not.

And in theory I have another 2 to go...

--A

Neverwhere? Eh? I have it on my shelf. I read Anansi Boys and enjoyed the heck o/o it, but I've heard some negative thing about Neverwhere... I'm still reading the appendices to Illuminatus! About a forth of the way into Walter Jon Williams' This is Not a Game, so have to jump back into that (almost tempted to read LFB again )