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The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell. This was Book 2 in the Wallandar series of mystery novels about a Swedish detective. Wallander has the expected characteristics of a literary detective--anti-social, drinks too much, marriage deep sixed years ago, borderline depressive--but I still enjoyed reading about him. The story here veers into the B movie towards the end, but I was curious as to how Mankell would wrap it up. Mankell's depiction of Riga is so unrelentingly grim it's a wonder people had the strength to get out of bed in the morning. Moving onto Night Film now.
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Sep 2, 2013 01:18
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Recently finished Available Dark by Elizabeth Hand. It tells the story of an alcoholic, aging photographer who takes a job evaluating photographs for a collector. Things go very, very wrong. This is the second book in a series, the first being Generation Loss, which I hadn't read, but didn't impact my enjoyment of this book. I found it for five dollars on a clearance table, and took a chance. Glad I did. Robot Wendigo fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Aug 21, 2014 |
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Aug 21, 2014 17:49
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Finished Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle. It's about a guy who suffers a horrific facial injury when he's seventeen. The novel jumps back and forth showing his life pre and post injury, and how he uses his imagination to survive in each part of his life. The book is bleak and disturbing, showing how being young and emotionally unstable can change the direction of your life forever. Darnielle does a great job of getting into the mind of a loner who lives through his fantasy novels and games, and how dark that path can go. A great book. I'm sure it's going to win a few awards.
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Oct 5, 2014 23:49
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Finished Memories of Ice by Steve Erikson. Exhausted by the end of it, as I was with the first two books. I had planned to charge ahead with the next one in the series, but I'm going to need a break.
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Feb 9, 2015 00:00
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Finished Shovel Ready by Adam Sternbergh. I thought the author chose style over story and mishandled both. The rules of a first person narrative are broken, with the lead character recounting scenes with a wealth of detail which is quite a trick since he isn't even present. The lack of quotation marks to indicate speech is also irritating. Is this person saying that line? Or are they thinking it? Who are they talking to? In fact, who is talking right now? All these questions and more abound. The world that Sternbergh shows is interesting, and that's where Shovel Ready came alive for me. But we don't get enough of that. In the end, this was a disappointment, especially after all the gushing praise I'd read before I bought the book. I also finished up Xenos by Dan Abnett. Exciting and fun, that classic Abnett modern pulp approach done to perfection. Robot Wendigo fucked around with this message at 23:59 on May 30, 2015 |
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May 30, 2015 23:56
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I enjoyed Ready Player One but it's the last 'Weren't the Eighties great'? book I need to read.
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Jun 19, 2015 18:28
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Archer666 posted:This echoes my thoughts exactly when I finished that. At some point it even became clear he just mashed two of his books together just to make this even longer. I'm glad I'm not alone in the Reamde disappointment. The novel felt like you could place markers where Stephenson lost interest in things after really being into them (MMOs, guns, the characters) culminating in losing interest in writing the book altogether. As for Simmons, I thought The Terror to be absolutely superb. Summer of Night is also very enjoyable. It's a grand, unapologetic, Eighties style horror potboiler. I'd avoid the sequel-of-sorts, A Winter Haunting, which I saw as Simmons clearing his throat and apologizing for the previous book. Robot Wendigo fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Sep 12, 2015 |
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Sep 12, 2015 00:41
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Finished Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. It took awhile to win me over, but it had its filthy claws in me by the end.
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Sep 13, 2015 00:31
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Among Others by Jo Walton. It's the story of a teenage girl in early Eighties England, recovering from horrific loss, seeking solace in science fiction and fantasy novels. It's also very definitely a fantasy novel itself, but Walton doesn't let that aspect fix things for the girl. It's still very much her recovery that moves the story forward, interspersed with her thoughts on authors like Heinlein, Delaney, and Le Guin. The magic in the novel strikes the same tone as that in Clark's Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell, so we don't have lightning bolts crackling through boarding schools. It's subtle and quiet, much like the novel itself. I really enjoyed it. Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig. An absolute mess. The whole thing felt rushed and slapdash. The characters were lifeless, the plot inconsequential, and there is no sense of actual care about the world(s) being presented. I could almost hear Wendig's fingers hitting the keyboard, his eyes on the clock.
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Dec 5, 2015 16:55
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Kafka On The Shore--Haruki Murakami I enjoyed the writing, but the protagonist just grated on my nerves. The magic realism also failed to sweep me away with its dream like imagery as well, making me instead roll my eyes. This was my second Murakami after Norwegian Wood--which I thought was okay, but not great. I'll try another one of his books sometime in the future. The distant future. The Two of Swords Part One--K.J. Parker This was my first K.J. Parker, and was much more along the lines of what I enjoy. It had the same tone as the soldier segments of Erikson's Malazan series, with a similar dark humour. And there was no talking cats, which was a plus.
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Jun 19, 2016 02:13
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The Long Way Down by Craig Schaefer. I'd heard quite a bit of praise for this series, so I gave it a shot. Glad I did--the story moved quickly and was satisfyingly dark, the characters were enjoyable, and Schaefer's take on magic appealed to someone who grew up reading Doctor Strange in the Seventies. This is a definitely a series I will return to.
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Jul 31, 2016 23:22
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Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews. Terrible title, terrible cover, but a great, fun story. Kate Daniels is a mercenary in a magic Atlanta, solving crimes alongside vampires and shapechangers. She also has a sword called Slayer, just to put a little more awesome on top of this particular urban fantasy sundae.
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Aug 25, 2016 23:48
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I Am Slaughter--Dan Abnett Ridiculous and fun is what I look for in a Warhammer 40K novel, and Abnett delivers, for the most part. This busy novel sets the stage and players for the rest of the 12 part series, unfortunately at the cost of Abnett's character work. He felt restrained here, like he wanted to give us more scenes of interplay, but drat, that plot wasn't going to deliver itself. The Terra scenes involving Drakan Vangorich, the Grand Master of the Officio Assassinorum, is where Abnett works his magic the best. Still a fun novel, overall.
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Sep 11, 2016 01:55
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Finished The Devil You Know by Mike Carey, the first novel in the Felix Castor series. I enjoyed it immensely. Darker than I expected, but since Carey also wrote Hellblazer I'm not sure why I was surprised. It's easy to see the Constantine influence on Castor, down to the trench coat, but Castor is very much his own character. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
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Oct 19, 2016 01:21
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The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell My first Mitchell novel, and I enjoyed it. The novel--actually a collection of novellas--tells the story of a woman's encounter with a group of supernatural humans over the course of her life. I thought Mitchell juggled the various perspectives and the overarching story thread very well. I also really liked the main character, so that didn't hurt, either.
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Oct 23, 2016 23:57
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Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews, Book Two in the Kate Daniels urban fantasy series. It did what a second novel in a series should do--threw more hints at ongoing mysteries, widened the scope of the story, and deepened relationships between characters. I still don't enjoy the apparently unavoidable romantic aspect of the story, but you can't have everything. Still enjoying the series, but man, those covers should come with a lactose warning.
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Nov 28, 2016 00:40
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Eisenhorn by Dan Abnett (An omnibus including Xenos, Malleus and Hereticus) Highly enjoyable trip through the holy goddamn metal that is the Warhammer 40K universe. If you've been gazing over the smoke, las-fire and sheer awesome of 40K and wondering if this is for you, this should help you decide. A new kitten moved in with me while I was reading it, and I named her after one of the characters. (Bequin).
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Jan 23, 2017 00:47
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Heroes Die by Matthew Stover. As good as I was led to believe.
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Apr 17, 2017 00:59
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A human heart posted:How good were you led to believe? I was going by recommendations from the Science Fiction thread, which were all glowingly positive. My only experience with Stover had been with his Revenge of the Sith novelization, which I found to be better than it had to be.
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Apr 17, 2017 18:36
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A human heart posted:One hundred thousand retards can't be wrong So you don't want to borrow my copy? Robot Wendigo fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Apr 19, 2017 |
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Apr 19, 2017 01:15
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Blood Bound--Patricia Briggs (Mercy Thompson #2) I enjoyed this one more than the previous Moon Called. Briggs widens the scope on her world of coyote mechanics, douchebag vampires and raging bro-werewolves by introducing a new villain. The romantic angle wasn't as irritating as before, but that could just be the Stockholm syndrome settling in. Mercy is still Mercy, meaning she vacillates between being a clear headed heroine and having the emotional maturity of a twelve year old. Still, I'll read the next one.
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May 2, 2017 01:30
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The Library At Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. I really enjoyed this. Original, daring, and absolutely bugfuck. Robot Wendigo fucked around with this message at 00:35 on May 23, 2017 |
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May 23, 2017 00:25
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Revenger by Alistair Reynolds A YA novel that reads like a mixture of Treasure Island and Firefly. I don't read a lot of YA, so I was a little surprised by a few things in here, but that's down to me not reading YA novels for over forty years. Things have changed since Judy Blume. I enjoyed the book quite a bit--Reynolds has created quite a playground for himself, with piles of mysteries yet to uncover.
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Jul 14, 2017 19:19
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Ayem posted:Isn't the Stormlight Archive only going to be a trilogy? I was under the impression that Oathbringer was the last one... It's supposed to run ten books.
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Jul 17, 2017 00:40
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Agents of Dreamland by Caitlin Kiernan Kiernan creates some great characters in a story that is heavily inspired by Lovecraft, which I guess you could say about most of her work. It reads like an X-Files episode where they had no intention of making another one.
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Aug 15, 2017 00:49
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The White Gold Score by Craig Schaefer (Daniel Faust Series 1.5) Very Parker influenced heist story. Schaefer uses this novella to flesh out the character of Faust, almost as if he wanted to show just how much he isn't like Dresden. I enjoyed it.
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Aug 21, 2017 00:36
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The Darkness That Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker I think this is the first fantasy novel I've read where I disliked 99 percent of the characters but just kept reading to see where it ended up.
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Aug 28, 2017 00:14
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Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire. I've been dipping into a few UF book series over the last year and finally made it around to McGuire's October Daye series. As an introductory novel, I thought McGuire succeeded in showcasing her particular take on the whole supernatural world being hidden from our normal world without causing me to roll my eyes. Daye herself is a very likable character--perpetually broke, perhaps permanently broken, but still cursed with empathy and endurance--and McGuire isn't afraid to put her through hell. I'd put this book up alongside the first Kate Daniels in terms of personal enjoyment.
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Oct 12, 2017 00:37
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Warcross by Marie Lu. This is a YA science fiction novel about a young waitress/bounty hunter/and hacker who gets pulled into a mystery surrounding the annual Warcross tournament. (In this near future, the entire world is obsessed with this virtual game, which is like Capture The Flag held across varying game worlds.) I enjoyed this far more than I thought I would. Sure, there are YA tropes a-plenty (broken families, the power of friends, romance) because that's the market this is aimed at with laser like precision. Still, Lu made the Warcross battles exciting, the lead character was smart, and her descriptions of a futuristic Tokyo and other more virtual worlds were very evocative. This is Book One of a planned duology, and I'll probably pick the concluding volume up. If this isn't a movie in two years time I'll be very surprised. Robot Wendigo fucked around with this message at 23:32 on Nov 19, 2017 |
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Nov 19, 2017 23:30
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Finished Ahsoka by E.K. Johnston. I enjoyed it more than The Last Jedi--there was a definite character arc, action scenes made sense, and something was definitely accomplished by the story's end. The novel fills in what happened to Ahsoka after Order 66 and her evolution into her next phase of her career. A solid Star Wars novel.
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Dec 27, 2017 20:09
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The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larson. It's been years since I read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo but I think I enjoyed this one more. Any scene with Lisbeth Salander was the highlight for me, making up for Larson's teeth clenching focus on the minutiae of Swedish criminal investigations.
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Mar 10, 2018 01:47
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Finished Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver. With every new Bond being an alternate universe/reboot of the character, Deaver's version is in his 30s and served in Afghanistan and has a distinctive facial scar, which just adds to his coolness. Deaver puts his Bond through his paces, with enjoyable twists and one of the creepier Bond villains I've ever encountered. Deaver also continued the Fleming tradition of eye rolling names for female characters: Felicity Willing. An enjoyable Bond novel. I wish Deaver had written more of them.
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Mar 31, 2018 00:22
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Finished Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch, also known by it's far better title of Rivers of London. I should have read this far sooner than I did, since I loved Aaronovitch's Battlefield back during the McCoy era of Doctor Who--even though it was made with a budget of about three bucks, his melding of the show's mythology with Arthurian lore was...well, it was courageous. His The Also People was also one of the best Who novels in the Virgin line. So it was no surprise that I enjoyed this book very much. It's the story of a police constable joining the magic section of the London Metropolitan Police, and his first case on the job. There's magic, London folklore, and a witty lead character, so it pretty much hit all my buttons.
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May 21, 2018 00:50
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Finished Brimstone Angels by Erin Evans. It's a Dungeons and Dragons novel so my expectations were fairly low, but Evans clearly was trying to write outside the expectations of the genre. There was a focus on characters, even if it at times it read like an earnest YA novel. Still, it wasn't bad.
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May 27, 2018 20:39
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Finished The Freeze Frame Revolution. Even though I hadn't read the other stories in this series, I still enjoyed the black holes and revelations. I like the sort of science fiction that makes your brain feel like it's out of breath trying to encompass it all.
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Jun 15, 2018 02:05
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Magic Strikes by Illona Andrews I can't help but enjoy these books, even with the eye rolling omg Curran is so hot passages. The story centres around a sort of Fight Club in this post apocalyptic world that draws Kate Daniels in to kick some rear end and take some names. The series reminds me of Marvel's horror books from the Seventies paired with a smart rear end narrator, and I love that.
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Aug 19, 2018 00:51
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Magic Mourns by Illona Andrews. It's set in the Kate Daniels universe, but instead of being about an exotic brunette with a magic sword who has the hots for a were-lion, this time it's about a beautiful blonde with guns who has the hots for a were-hyena.
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Aug 21, 2018 23:11
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House of Leaves. An art book pretending to be a horror novel wanting to be literature that has something deep to say.
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Aug 28, 2018 01:07
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All Systems Red by Martha Wells. The story revolves around a security robot tasked by its employer to protect a team of global surveyors and how said robot feels about that. I loved this. After finishing the novella, I'm convinced the robot would fit in quite well posting on SA.
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Sep 4, 2018 01:28
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Cursed by Benedict Jacka I enjoyed this second novel in the Verus series, and the cast of characters continue to grow on me. I'm still unclear on whether or not people in England know the place is crawling with mages, but maybe that's just something you take for granted in the British Isles.
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Oct 1, 2018 01:00
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