Reading, and Goodreads
I'm here, I'm fine, "we're all fine...here...now. How are you?"
I've been doing a lot of reading lately, which makes me happy.
Cadfael series, books #1-11, by Ellis Peters
I started rereading the Cadfael series back in March in preparation for my trip to the UK with tawneypup. We were making a special trip to Shrewsbury Abbey, the former Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul where many of the books in the series take place. The visit to the real life abbey (now a parish church) and the real life town was AMAZING. More on that in later some-day post. I reread the first three books in the series to re-familiarize myself with the history and setting, and once I started I couldn't stop. I've written about these books before and I will undoubtedly do so again. I love them.
I just finished book #11: An Excellent Mystery. It's fitting that the middle book of the series is the most unique. It's the only book of the series in which no one is killed and the ubiquitous pair of young lovebirds is almost completely absent. Instead of a murder mystery, it's a story of passion, loyalty, justice, service, and devotion. The "excellent mystery" part doesn't kick in until a third to halfway through the book and isn't fully explained until the end. All of the characters are passionate about something, for good or ill, and some are more obvious in their passion than others. It wasn't until a scene late in the book, when Nicholas was single-mindedly seeking Hugh in the pouring rain, that I realized he was displaying just as much passion as poor Brother Urien, just about very different things. The final act of the book is very moving and also brilliantly constructed, bringing each character's tangled thread to a conclusion. Happy for some, bittersweet for others, but positive and hopeful all around. And adroitly avoiding a huge scandal, too. Besides, any time mischievous Sister Magdalen (introduced in book 5, The Leper of Saint Giles) is involved, I'm all in! The theme of passion is reflected in the historical events of the time. King Stephen and his cousin Empress Maud were fighting a heated civil war for the crown. The book is set in 1141 and readers are direct and indirect witnesses to the burning of Winchester and Wherwell, the siege and route of Winchester, the Empress's retreat from Queen Mathilda's armies, and the capture of Robert of Gloucester. Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester and papal legate, is mentioned often and appears in a brief scene with Nicholas.
Atomic Robo Vol 4, by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener
I enjoy comics and graphic novels, though I wouldn't say I'm an avid reader of them. Or that I'm all that widely read. My friend batman1013 just started a new blog, The Matt Signal, that "celebrates comic books, graphic novels, and all forms of graphic storytelling." His first recommendation was Atomic Robo and I was convinced to try it. The library only had Vol 4 but fortunately it's the kind of story that can be "entered" at any time. I liked it very much. It's fun. Robo himself is "a nuclear powered artificial intelligence created by Nikola Tesla" who now runs a think tank that fights the good fight and generally tries to improve the world through Science. Oh, and one of Robo's nemeses is an insane time-travelling dinosaur. Yes. I look forward to reading the first three volumes.
Shades of Milk and Honey, by Mary Robinette Kowal
Jane Austen with magic. And it's AWESOME.
The Price of the Stars, by Debra Doyle and James MacDonald
This is book #1 in the Mageworlds series. It was recommended by both duncatra and jedimara77 (the latter at some length), and it was billed as a Star Wars-esque space fantasy/space opera adventure with great characters that was "epic, but not dark and depressing." Sign me up for some of that!
I enjoyed it a lot. Loved the setting, loved the interwoven plotlines. The Jedi analog characters were great and I want to know more about how their society and powers work. I liked that the main protagonist was a woman, Beka, captain of her own ship. I adored the medic, Jessan, and Beka's brother, Ari. Gil, the General's assistant, really grew on me and I adored him too by the end of the book. Actually, the only thing that kept me from absolutely loving this book was Beka herself. I had a really hard time getting a handle on her character. Early in the book she takes on the identity of a cold blooded mercenary/assassin. I don't feel like I got to know her well enough before being confronted with this other character who was both her and not her. She didn't seem to have a very clear voice on the page, whereas Ari, Jessan, Llannat, and even the enigmatic Professor came through loud and clear. Perhaps because of this I thought [Spoiler (click to open)]the love story between Beka and Jessan was a bit abrupt. I loved Jessan, but I wasn't convinced that she did. Also, I don't think the book conveyed the passage of time very well. Beka's mother is assassinated just before the beginning of the book. Later on (roughly 3/4 of the way through, maybe?), after our heroes have had several adventures, we're told that it's been two (three?) years since that event and it totally didn't feel like it. It really jarred me. Still, it was a fantastic adventure and I enjoyed it overall. I'm waiting for the library to cough up book 2.
The Alloy of Law, by Brandon Sanderson
I LOVED this book...right up until the very end. (Which is pretty much exactly what happened to me with Sanderson's entire Mistborn trilogy, too.) Instead of a fun, exciting, stand-alone adventure it was a fun, exciting adventure that ended with [Spoiler (click to open)]the protagonist frustrated and the true Big Bad getting away. Arg! Not cool. It's the perfect set up for a sequel book but I haven't seen anything that suggests Sanderson intends to write one. The characters are fun, the magic system is still brilliant, and 99% of the story is wrapped up perfectly...I just can't get past the final disappointing ending.
I'm currently reading The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury. I was sad to hear of his passing recently...and rather ashamed to admit that I haven't read any of his work. Seriously, I haven't. Fahrenheit 451 is one of those books that *everyone* reads in high school. Everyone but me, apparently. My English teachers assigned other things (As I Lay Dying, Grapes of Wrath). I've decided to fill the gap, both because I'm an SF&F fan and Bradbury is one of the cornerstones of the genre, and because I want to see what all the fuss is about. The latter was the same approach I had to Shakespeare, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Dresden Files, and Twilight. :) firstcrusader was kind enough to loan me her copies of Martian Chronicles, F451, and Twice 22 to add to my reading pile.
Speaking of which, my reading pile currently has 11 books on it. Three from the library, six borrowed from friends, and two from my own shelves. And that's just the literal, physical pile on my end table by the couch. That doesn't include the dozens of titles I've jotted down in my notebook and in various text files on both my home computer and work computer. So many books, so little time!
Related to all this reading I've been doing: I've joined Goodreads. You can rate and review books, and share with your friends what you've read and what you're currently reading. You can also organize books onto various shelves, one of which is a "to read" shelf. I'm under my real name, if you want to find me there. I figured that if nothing else it would be a good place for me to collect and store all those notes and text files into one virtual reading pile. Also, Carl pointed out that since Goodreads is a community of presumably voracious readers the reviews are probably more trustworthy than those on Amazon, and I'm inclined to agree.
I decided right up front not to use Goodreads as an inventory of all the books I own. I have Excel for that. :) Instead I've added all the books I've read since about last August, whether I own them or not. I'm trying to take the rating system seriously and only rate books five stars if they're ZOMG AMAZING. So for now all I have on there are recent reads that I feel I can rate honestly, plus a few favorites that are automatic five stars all day any day.
In other news, Life has been good. When next I have a free evening I really need to sit down and compose a massive update post. I miss keeping up with my LJ.
I've been doing a lot of reading lately, which makes me happy.
Cadfael series, books #1-11, by Ellis Peters
I started rereading the Cadfael series back in March in preparation for my trip to the UK with tawneypup. We were making a special trip to Shrewsbury Abbey, the former Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul where many of the books in the series take place. The visit to the real life abbey (now a parish church) and the real life town was AMAZING. More on that in later some-day post. I reread the first three books in the series to re-familiarize myself with the history and setting, and once I started I couldn't stop. I've written about these books before and I will undoubtedly do so again. I love them.
I just finished book #11: An Excellent Mystery. It's fitting that the middle book of the series is the most unique. It's the only book of the series in which no one is killed and the ubiquitous pair of young lovebirds is almost completely absent. Instead of a murder mystery, it's a story of passion, loyalty, justice, service, and devotion. The "excellent mystery" part doesn't kick in until a third to halfway through the book and isn't fully explained until the end. All of the characters are passionate about something, for good or ill, and some are more obvious in their passion than others. It wasn't until a scene late in the book, when Nicholas was single-mindedly seeking Hugh in the pouring rain, that I realized he was displaying just as much passion as poor Brother Urien, just about very different things. The final act of the book is very moving and also brilliantly constructed, bringing each character's tangled thread to a conclusion. Happy for some, bittersweet for others, but positive and hopeful all around. And adroitly avoiding a huge scandal, too. Besides, any time mischievous Sister Magdalen (introduced in book 5, The Leper of Saint Giles) is involved, I'm all in! The theme of passion is reflected in the historical events of the time. King Stephen and his cousin Empress Maud were fighting a heated civil war for the crown. The book is set in 1141 and readers are direct and indirect witnesses to the burning of Winchester and Wherwell, the siege and route of Winchester, the Empress's retreat from Queen Mathilda's armies, and the capture of Robert of Gloucester. Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester and papal legate, is mentioned often and appears in a brief scene with Nicholas.
Atomic Robo Vol 4, by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener
I enjoy comics and graphic novels, though I wouldn't say I'm an avid reader of them. Or that I'm all that widely read. My friend batman1013 just started a new blog, The Matt Signal, that "celebrates comic books, graphic novels, and all forms of graphic storytelling." His first recommendation was Atomic Robo and I was convinced to try it. The library only had Vol 4 but fortunately it's the kind of story that can be "entered" at any time. I liked it very much. It's fun. Robo himself is "a nuclear powered artificial intelligence created by Nikola Tesla" who now runs a think tank that fights the good fight and generally tries to improve the world through Science. Oh, and one of Robo's nemeses is an insane time-travelling dinosaur. Yes. I look forward to reading the first three volumes.
Shades of Milk and Honey, by Mary Robinette Kowal
Jane Austen with magic. And it's AWESOME.
The Price of the Stars, by Debra Doyle and James MacDonald
This is book #1 in the Mageworlds series. It was recommended by both duncatra and jedimara77 (the latter at some length), and it was billed as a Star Wars-esque space fantasy/space opera adventure with great characters that was "epic, but not dark and depressing." Sign me up for some of that!
I enjoyed it a lot. Loved the setting, loved the interwoven plotlines. The Jedi analog characters were great and I want to know more about how their society and powers work. I liked that the main protagonist was a woman, Beka, captain of her own ship. I adored the medic, Jessan, and Beka's brother, Ari. Gil, the General's assistant, really grew on me and I adored him too by the end of the book. Actually, the only thing that kept me from absolutely loving this book was Beka herself. I had a really hard time getting a handle on her character. Early in the book she takes on the identity of a cold blooded mercenary/assassin. I don't feel like I got to know her well enough before being confronted with this other character who was both her and not her. She didn't seem to have a very clear voice on the page, whereas Ari, Jessan, Llannat, and even the enigmatic Professor came through loud and clear. Perhaps because of this I thought [Spoiler (click to open)]the love story between Beka and Jessan was a bit abrupt. I loved Jessan, but I wasn't convinced that she did. Also, I don't think the book conveyed the passage of time very well. Beka's mother is assassinated just before the beginning of the book. Later on (roughly 3/4 of the way through, maybe?), after our heroes have had several adventures, we're told that it's been two (three?) years since that event and it totally didn't feel like it. It really jarred me. Still, it was a fantastic adventure and I enjoyed it overall. I'm waiting for the library to cough up book 2.
The Alloy of Law, by Brandon Sanderson
I LOVED this book...right up until the very end. (Which is pretty much exactly what happened to me with Sanderson's entire Mistborn trilogy, too.) Instead of a fun, exciting, stand-alone adventure it was a fun, exciting adventure that ended with [Spoiler (click to open)]the protagonist frustrated and the true Big Bad getting away. Arg! Not cool. It's the perfect set up for a sequel book but I haven't seen anything that suggests Sanderson intends to write one. The characters are fun, the magic system is still brilliant, and 99% of the story is wrapped up perfectly...I just can't get past the final disappointing ending.
I'm currently reading The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury. I was sad to hear of his passing recently...and rather ashamed to admit that I haven't read any of his work. Seriously, I haven't. Fahrenheit 451 is one of those books that *everyone* reads in high school. Everyone but me, apparently. My English teachers assigned other things (As I Lay Dying, Grapes of Wrath). I've decided to fill the gap, both because I'm an SF&F fan and Bradbury is one of the cornerstones of the genre, and because I want to see what all the fuss is about. The latter was the same approach I had to Shakespeare, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Dresden Files, and Twilight. :) firstcrusader was kind enough to loan me her copies of Martian Chronicles, F451, and Twice 22 to add to my reading pile.
Speaking of which, my reading pile currently has 11 books on it. Three from the library, six borrowed from friends, and two from my own shelves. And that's just the literal, physical pile on my end table by the couch. That doesn't include the dozens of titles I've jotted down in my notebook and in various text files on both my home computer and work computer. So many books, so little time!
Related to all this reading I've been doing: I've joined Goodreads. You can rate and review books, and share with your friends what you've read and what you're currently reading. You can also organize books onto various shelves, one of which is a "to read" shelf. I'm under my real name, if you want to find me there. I figured that if nothing else it would be a good place for me to collect and store all those notes and text files into one virtual reading pile. Also, Carl pointed out that since Goodreads is a community of presumably voracious readers the reviews are probably more trustworthy than those on Amazon, and I'm inclined to agree.
I decided right up front not to use Goodreads as an inventory of all the books I own. I have Excel for that. :) Instead I've added all the books I've read since about last August, whether I own them or not. I'm trying to take the rating system seriously and only rate books five stars if they're ZOMG AMAZING. So for now all I have on there are recent reads that I feel I can rate honestly, plus a few favorites that are automatic five stars all day any day.
In other news, Life has been good. When next I have a free evening I really need to sit down and compose a massive update post. I miss keeping up with my LJ.