WWW 8/27/2014
Meme from ishouldbereading.
What are you currently reading?
I'm still reading The Shadow Throne, by my pal Django Wexler. I'm about halfway through, not yet to parts I didn't beta-read. Man, I'd forgotten just how good the storming of the Vendre is. It's seriously some of his best writing. Raes silencing the crowd by holding up the revolution's temporary agreement, Winter correcting the bombastic nobleman about lines of contravallation, Sothe surprising Marcus pissing out a tower window, Raes and Winter's demons meeting... there are a lot of really good character moments, as well as tense action.
Funnily enough, I know Django had a lot of anxiety about this part of the book as he wrote it; it was hard, he told me, stage-managing Raes and Winter and Marcus and their factions into the same place at the same time. But it works!
When I get to commute by myself, I'm listening to Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone, recommended to me by SO MANY PEOPLE. So far, I'm really enjoying it! Gladstone sure can turn a phrase--I love his brief yet telling descriptions, and his beautiful use of metaphor. His characters, too, are alive to me. Tara is a pretty terrible person, and I'm okay with that. I want to pat Abelard on the head.
The Song of Roland. Slow-going, as I flip back and forth between the Old French and the English.
I'm still reading Sworn to Raise by Terah Edun. I am literally halfway through this book--which was billed as a romance novel!--and we have only just met someone who might be the love interest. Also, there have been more irksome continuity errors.
What did you recently finish reading?
The Republic of Thieves, Scott Lynch. It took me forever to finish the audiobook, as I recently started commuting with Matt, and he is uninterested in Locke's adventures (for shame!). But anyway--this was enjoyable, but I don't think it was my favorite of the Gentleman Bastards books.
I've heard other readers had complaints about Sabetha, who you finally meet--that her actions don't match the awesome figure Locke has made her out to be for the past two books. I was okay with that, actually; I felt like the point was that Locke has this ideal of her that he's in love with, which doesn't match the real person. I liked the actual plot--Locke, out of his element, trying to rig an election! I liked the plot of the interludes, of Locke and the other young GBs learning their trade and coming of age. In fact, I almost liked that better than the main plot!
What I didn't like was the wooj reveals at the end. They felt tacked on, like somebody said, "There needs to be more epic in this epic fantasy." [Spoiler (click to open)]I'm referring to the Lamor Acanthus stuff, and the prophecy about how Locke will die, and pretty much anything having to do with the bondsmagi. I trust Lynch to know what he's doing with this, and I figure he'll subvert this epicness somewhere in the four more books we can expect in this series, but at the moment, it's just like... this isn't why I read this series. I read this series for the bromance, the chosen family feels, the heists, the snarky banter.
In August I also finished The Sex Lives of the Kings and Queens of England by Nigel Cawthorne, though I was ready to throw it across the room by the end, when it became basically a list of random names various monarchs may or may not have had sex with.
I also finished The First Five Pages, by Noah Lukeman, which is more generally a good guide to self-editing as a novelist.
What do you think you’ll read next?
I want to add a nonfiction book to my rotation. It might be The Weaker Vessel, Antonia Fraser's history of women in the 1600s, because I already own it, and am focusing my nonfiction efforts on "research" for Lioness. Also I need to read some more rigorous history than I have been lately, just to get the taste of the historical equivalent of tabloids out of my mouth.
When I clear one of these fiction books off my list, I suspect I will grab Ruin and Rising. But I've been saying that since it came out.
What are you currently reading?
I'm still reading The Shadow Throne, by my pal Django Wexler. I'm about halfway through, not yet to parts I didn't beta-read. Man, I'd forgotten just how good the storming of the Vendre is. It's seriously some of his best writing. Raes silencing the crowd by holding up the revolution's temporary agreement, Winter correcting the bombastic nobleman about lines of contravallation, Sothe surprising Marcus pissing out a tower window, Raes and Winter's demons meeting... there are a lot of really good character moments, as well as tense action.
Funnily enough, I know Django had a lot of anxiety about this part of the book as he wrote it; it was hard, he told me, stage-managing Raes and Winter and Marcus and their factions into the same place at the same time. But it works!
When I get to commute by myself, I'm listening to Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone, recommended to me by SO MANY PEOPLE. So far, I'm really enjoying it! Gladstone sure can turn a phrase--I love his brief yet telling descriptions, and his beautiful use of metaphor. His characters, too, are alive to me. Tara is a pretty terrible person, and I'm okay with that. I want to pat Abelard on the head.
The Song of Roland. Slow-going, as I flip back and forth between the Old French and the English.
I'm still reading Sworn to Raise by Terah Edun. I am literally halfway through this book--which was billed as a romance novel!--and we have only just met someone who might be the love interest. Also, there have been more irksome continuity errors.
What did you recently finish reading?
The Republic of Thieves, Scott Lynch. It took me forever to finish the audiobook, as I recently started commuting with Matt, and he is uninterested in Locke's adventures (for shame!). But anyway--this was enjoyable, but I don't think it was my favorite of the Gentleman Bastards books.
I've heard other readers had complaints about Sabetha, who you finally meet--that her actions don't match the awesome figure Locke has made her out to be for the past two books. I was okay with that, actually; I felt like the point was that Locke has this ideal of her that he's in love with, which doesn't match the real person. I liked the actual plot--Locke, out of his element, trying to rig an election! I liked the plot of the interludes, of Locke and the other young GBs learning their trade and coming of age. In fact, I almost liked that better than the main plot!
What I didn't like was the wooj reveals at the end. They felt tacked on, like somebody said, "There needs to be more epic in this epic fantasy." [Spoiler (click to open)]I'm referring to the Lamor Acanthus stuff, and the prophecy about how Locke will die, and pretty much anything having to do with the bondsmagi. I trust Lynch to know what he's doing with this, and I figure he'll subvert this epicness somewhere in the four more books we can expect in this series, but at the moment, it's just like... this isn't why I read this series. I read this series for the bromance, the chosen family feels, the heists, the snarky banter.
In August I also finished The Sex Lives of the Kings and Queens of England by Nigel Cawthorne, though I was ready to throw it across the room by the end, when it became basically a list of random names various monarchs may or may not have had sex with.
I also finished The First Five Pages, by Noah Lukeman, which is more generally a good guide to self-editing as a novelist.
What do you think you’ll read next?
I want to add a nonfiction book to my rotation. It might be The Weaker Vessel, Antonia Fraser's history of women in the 1600s, because I already own it, and am focusing my nonfiction efforts on "research" for Lioness. Also I need to read some more rigorous history than I have been lately, just to get the taste of the historical equivalent of tabloids out of my mouth.
When I clear one of these fiction books off my list, I suspect I will grab Ruin and Rising. But I've been saying that since it came out.