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New Reviews: Ken Grimwood's Replay, CS Friedman's Black Sun Rising, and Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October
August 31, 2002 (11:07 PM) ( link ) ADDED new reviews of Ken Grimwood's Replay, CS Friedman's Black Sun Rising, and Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October. All of them pleasant reads.
I'm continuing on with the second book of Friedman's trilogy, although the first one left me a little cold. There are just too many good things said about these books for me to ignore. Also, I think the book suffered from the fact that I read it in brief spurts over the course of about a month--and in between I was interrupted by The Farseer Trilogy, which I read in only three days. Perhaps if I stick carefully to the second book (When True Night Falls, I think), I should be ok.
I'm also about halfway through Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone, on the suggestion of a reader of this web site. (Actually the reader suggested Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time, but I couldn't find that anywhere.) It's fun, eminently readable, and very simple--it's not going to be one of the best books I've ever read but it should be amusing to go through. I'm already halfway through and I've only spent two hours with it! I'm basically just waiting for Elric to get his big sword and start kicking ass.
Brief moratorium
August 23, 2002 (2:18 AM) ( link ) I'm heading off to Yale now, so although I'm only about 20 pages from the end of Ken Grimwood's Replay (which is quite good, for those of you who are interested), I won't be posting anything new here until my phone line is activated at Yale, some time in September. That'll mean a brief wait for the promised top 10 list, as well as the one-year anniversary of this site. Exciting!
New Reviews: Robin Hobb's The Farseer Trilogy and Neil Gaiman's American Gods
August 21, 2002 (6:35 AM) ( link ) ADDED reviews of Robin Hobb's The Farseer Trilogy and Neil Gaiman's American Gods. The Farseer Trilogy is very, very good--one of the best fantasy series I have ever read, even compared to George RR Martin's fantastic A Song of Ice and Fire. Neil Gaiman's book was somewhat less exciting--given my lukewarm reaction to three of his prose efforts thus far, I think I will avoid his books in the future.
I am currently nearly done with Ken Grimwood's Replay, which has an interesting premise: a man dies and then wakes up back in time in his 18-year-old body, but with the memory of his 45-year-old self. Then he dies again--and again wakes up back when he was 18 years old. As I said, a fascinating premise, and Grimwood does an excellent job laying out everything somebody in such a position would do. I am also working my way through CS Friedman's Black Sun Rising, but Hobb's trilogy sort of got in the way.
I've realized, with my review of Gaiman's novel, that I've become less and less forgiving toward books in the past year. In fact, if I were to go back and re-rate things, I think many of the books that are currently in the 6, 7, and 8 category would very quickly be pushed down below 5. For instance, Gaiman's Sandman: The Dream Hunters does not deserve the score it currently has. But I think it would be a bad idea for me to go rampaging through my prior reviews, especially since my reviews are supposed to be about what the books were like at the time, and my opinions of certain books certainly change over time, sometimes for reasons not related whatsoever to the book. But we'll see.
After Replay and Friedman's trilogy, I might get into Roger Zelazny's A Night in Lonesome October, where Jack the Ripper's dog prevents extra-dimensional Cthulhu creatures from invading earth. (I just love a zany premise.)
New Review: RA Macavoy's Tea with the Black Dragon
August 16, 2002 (2:47 AM) ( link ) ADDED a review of RA Macavoy's Tea with the Black Dragon. This book was awful.
Since I will be going on vacation soon, I wanted to bring along some thick books that need a lot of time to read. So I've decided on at least three massive tomes: William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Don DeLillo's Underworld, and Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon (assuming I can find a place to check that out). I will also probably try to read Neil Gaiman's American Gods and even Lois McMaster Bujold's Curse of Chalion as a way of rounding out my knowledge of this year's Hugo nominees for best novel.
Before that, though, I plan to begin reading CS Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy, a series that has been on my Books I Plan to Read list for a while. It's supposed to be excellent dark fantasy, along the lines of George RR Martin. But I'll know within a day or so if it's worth reading.
New Review: Connie Willis's Passage
August 13, 2002 (5:50 AM) ( link ) ADDED a review of Connie Willis's Passage. I suppose this deserves to get a Hugo nomination, but I still think that Perdido Street Station is better--and Chronoliths, though less well written, might even edge Passage out in terms of sheer coolness and compression of the story. Nevertheless, as I say in the review, Passage is still worth a read for anybody who enjoys Willis's other books.
I am currently about a fourth of the way through RA Macavoy's Tea with the Black Dragon, which is pretty terrible at the moment. The book is about some person's daughter, who is lost (or worst), but I couldn't give a damn about any of the characters. Plus Macavoy writes with this annoying pseudo-mystic style that is really starting to bother me. Oh well--perhaps it'll get better.
Soon enough I will begin on Gene Wolfe's Soldier of the Mist, a supposedly good novel that will perhaps tide me over for at least a few days of entertainment. At some point I will be reading Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy, which my brother recently re-read and loved.
New Reviews: Glen Cook's The Dragon Never Sleeps and Jack Vance's The Dying Earth
August 11, 2002 (9:50 AM) ( link ) ADDED a review of Glen Cook's The Dragon Never Sleeps and Jack Vance's The Dying Earth. Neither are the best reviews I've written: in fact, I think they're terrible, and will probably merit re-writing at some point in the future (though I'll probably never get to it). At any rate, The Dying Earth was bad, and The Dragon Never Sleeps was good, but extremely confusing.
I am now deep in the throes of yet another Connie Willis book, Passage which is an excellent read so far (I'm about halfway through in a single day). The feeling I'm getting from it is something like the feeling I got while reading Doomsday Book--very interesting, but not yet fascinating. Of course, we all know how Doomsday Book turned out (it became one of my favorite books ever, with a devastating ending), but I've heard that Passage doesn't have quite as good a conclusion. Oh well: at least it will be fun while it lasts.
Something I noticed: according to the official list of 2002 Hugo nominees, I've read (or am reading) three of this year's nominations: Passage, Perdido Street Station, and Chronoliths. The last two were quite good, and I'm glad they were nominated. I have no inclination to read either Lois McMaster Bujold's book, nor Ken MacLeod's, but I like Neil Gaiman enough (despite my relative coolness toward his prose-only efforts) to perhaps try American Gods some time soon.
New Review: Barry Hughart's Eight Skilled Gentlemen
August 8, 2002 (4:33 AM) ( link ) ADDED a review of Barry Hughart's Eight Skilled Gentlemen. This is the third Master Li novel, and a much better book than The Story of the Stone (though not as good as Bridge of Birds).
Next up will be either Jack Vance's Dying Earth (printed in a miserably tiny-fonted pocket book edition), or Connie Willis's much larger Passage--her first full-length novel since To Say Nothing of the Dog. I'm going to look up reviews of Vance's short book to see if it's good; if it is then I'll likely try to get it out of the way before diving into Willis's tome.
The Dragon Never Sleeps is still really confusing--perhaps because I rarely read it in long installments. It has had the rare misfortune of being read concurrently with all of Hughart's Master Li novels, but nevertheless its ideas are so interesting that I still haven't gotten bored with it.
I think that next month, when the one-year anniversary of this site rolls around, I'll put up what I think are the ten best books I've read this past year. Of course my ratings basically give things away, but I think even some books from the 8 (or perhaps 7) category will make their way up to the top ten, since the books I found wonderful at the time may or may not be the books I would recommend highly to the casual reader.
New Review: Barry Hughart's The Story of the Stone
August 7, 2002 (2:34 AM) ( link ) ADDED a review of Barry Hughart's The Story of the Stone. This is the second in the Master Li trilogy, which began with Bridge of Birds, but I'm afraid it's not nearly as good as the original.
I'm still progressing through Glen Cook's The Dragon Never Sleeps, which confuses me from beginning to end but has a host of great ideas. I will hopefully have that done by the end of the week, at which point I can put up my full impressions.
Next on the list is the third Master Li novel, Eight Skilled Gentlemen. Here's hoping that it falls somewhere between the first two books on the ratings (at least).
New Review: Neil Gaiman's Stardust
August 4, 2002 (10:19 AM) ( link ) ADDED a review of Neil Gaiman's Stardust. It was ok, I guess.
I have discovered that Bridge of Birds has two sequels; since my brother and I are going to the library together, we may try to check them out. Unfortunately the two sequels don't seem to be as wonderful as the original book, but that is to be expected.
I've also decided to start reading Connie Willis's Passage, foregoing Lincoln's Dreams, which my brother said was passable but hardly memorable.
The trip to the library tomorrow should give us several new books to read, which will be wonderful.
New Review: Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds
August 3, 2002 (1:25 AM) ( link ) ADDED a review of Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds. This was an awesome novel, and I'm sorry that it had to end so soon.
What's next? Perhaps Connie Willis's Lincoln's Dreams or Passage, if they are anything like Doomsday Book or To Say Nothing of the Dog--but not if they are anything like Bellwether or Remake. And then, afterward, I might try reading two more novels that are also about China in one way or another: Maureen McHugh's China Mountain Zhang and RA Macavoy's Tea with the Black Dragon. It might be interesting to compare how three Westerners wrote about mythical China, especially since these two other books are supposed to be quite good as well.
I suppose at some point I should also try reading some "real" books--i.e., classic books. But I'm having too much fun right now.
Eleven-month anniversary, and New Reviews
August 2, 2002 (2:07 AM) ( link ) ADDED reviews of the following: - Mark Bowden's Blackhawk Down
- Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy (at last!!!)
- Robert Charles Wilson's Harvest
- Gene Wolfe's The Fifth Head of Cerberus
- Vonda McIntyre's Dreamsnake
- John Gardner's Grendel
- Guy Gavriel Kay's The Fionavar Tapestry
Whew! I can't believe I'm finally finished with A Suitable Boy--I've been meaning to read that book since last October, and finally it's done and written up for good.
Today marks the 11-month anniversary of this book-review site. In the last month I read 9 new books and wrote 7 reviews (lumping together the three Fionavar Tapestry books), making for a total of 58 books read in the last 11 months and 89 reviews written.
Right now I am reading an unusual pair of books: Glen Cook's The Dragon Never Sleeps, a weird but interesting science-fiction tale, and Barry Hughart's superb Bridge of Birds, "a novel of an ancient China that never was" that is charming, exciting, and hilarious. Hughart's book is a bit too short to be truly satisfying, but nonetheless I am glad to have picked it up.
This is the last month of summer for me. Hopefully I'll be able to stuff down a whole lot of books in the next few weeks.
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