It's Been How Long?

[redbyrd_sgfic]

Since I posted any book reviews? Eh. In addition to being stinking hot and humid, I've been having troubles with the laptop overheating this summer. Which is playing merry hell with accomplishing *anything* on any of my computer-related projects. I've concluded that I really need one of those laptop coolers with fans...anybody else with this

Comments

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Wow--you read so much!

Is it too late to ask what Pratchett I should have started with? I'm enjoying The Color of Magic (and expect to finish before I go on my trip next week), but it wasn't originally published as a novel, was it? There are four parts with separate titles, and the second gives lots of information one would get from the first, as if they were separately published as stories.

I haven't read any of these books you have here. I've heard I should read the Scalzi series, though. I've really liked a couple of Lois McMaster Bujold's books, but I haven't started that series yet.

[redbyrd_sgfic]

In my defense, I haven't actually posted book reviews since March, so this is several months' worth.

And no, it's never too late to ask me about Pratchett *g*! Pratchett's stuff is mostly not strictly organized in series, so you could start anywhere. But he does have clusters around various sets of characters, which are better to read in order. The Color of Magic is an early book, and while entertaining, it's nowhere near his best work

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Thanks! That's very helpful!

Don't know why you need to defend yourself for having read lots of books. What's indefensible is that I have read so few, outside of work. (The good thing is that a lot of what I read for work, I enjoy.)

I'll have to look for the Miles books. I loved The Curse of Chalion; I've read the second book in that series (although I think it's quite a loose series and one can start with the second), and I enjoyed it, but not nearly as much.

I'm glad to hear the Rincewind books get even better. I keep reading bits of The Color of Magic aloud to Brilliant Husband

[redbyrd_sgfic]

Yes, well- the last book I read for work was a book on quality auditing. The fact that I *don't* read for work as a rule means that I'm not sucking any book-reading energy away from the things I want to read. I probably ought to be spending more time on work stuff.

Pratchett is always humorous- but the middle books all work on more than one level- the lighthearted humorous fantasy, and also on a more serious level. For a number of years I kind of paced myself reading them- because reading a Pratchett for the first time was a surefire way to cheer myself up if I was feeling down.

I've read The Curse of Chalion and it's sequel both. If you liked them, you may well enjoy the Sharing Knife series. I had (what else), structural problems with both of them. Not that I hated them, but they weren't nearly as well-written as the best of the Miles books

[a_phoenixdragon]

Along time!! But it looks like you've been busy!

*Smishes you*

[sorrelchestnut]

Jenna Starborn is probably my least favorite of all of Sharon Shinn's works, so I can agree with you there, even if my mother loved it to pieces. I don't know if you've read any other Shinn, but if you haven't, please don't give the rest of her stuff a miss because of that one book. I recommend Summers at Castle Auburn as an excellent standalone fantasy novel (in my top-five all-time favorites) and the Archangel series, which is in my top-five of favorite series.

[redbyrd_sgfic]

Oh, I've read one or two other Sharon Shinn books. Um, Archangel, I think *checks library* also Wrapt in Crystal. We also have a couple of others, but I think my husband read those.

They made less of an impression on me, but I can see why other people would find them appealing. Jenna Starborn wasn't badly written, it just didn't appeal to me as a concept. In fact I can say that it annoyed me most where it was most like Jane Eyre. It's the Bronte I disliked, not the Shinn!

[sorrelchestnut]

Oh, that's fair, and I certainly don't expect everyone to like the same sort of books, no matter how fabulous one person might think them. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't that one book putting you off the author by itself, since Jenna Starborn isn't exactly her usual style. I think for me it's the sweeping romance of her stuff that gets to me so often. Except for Summers at Castle Auburn.

I really do have to renew my recommendation for that, even if you weren't overly fond of her other works. It's about growing up, it's about seeing through the glamor of court life to the ugliness underneath, it's about doing the right thing and being a good person and most importantly, being a person with good sense and a strong sense of self. And I find so little of any of those things in a lot of the books I read, so it's noteworthy when I do.

[redbyrd_sgfic]

Sounds interesting, I'll have to keep my eye out for it.