What Are You Reading?

[Channel Ocho]

I just finished reading Chris Jericho's new book and am going to start reading The Martian, on the recommendation of Adam Savage's podcast.

[Korian]

The Prince and also the Bible.

[Shin Johnpv]

So I finished The Name of the Wind today. Best way I can describe it would be as the poster book for the Euphoric Fedora wearing neckbeard crowd.

[sedition]

It's fine. It's pretty much universally liked among people that have read it. Sorry you didn't like it.

[Compass]

It's awesome, not fine. He just has bad taste which isn't news.

One week till Auri book! I'm stoked.

Malazan #6 was my favorite so far. Tunneling under the city. Bottle possessing the rat and naming it Y'Ghatan. It was biting everyone as they came up to pet it after the ordeal. But it would never bite Bottle. No, never him. They had a deeper relationship that went beyond--Ow! Damn you, bitch. lol.

Bought these and they're on deck after Auri book:

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

[sedition]

Now Reading:

Assail (Novels of Malazan Empire, Book Six of Six) by Ian C. Esslemont This is the sixth and final book for ICE's portion of the Malazan saga. This has a lot to live up to. ICE has really put off dealing with the Crimson Guard Avowed's true story until now... and everything hopefully closes with them in this book. The development throughout the series on his main group has been frustrating. It has a lot of big players for ICE to use: Silverfox and the end to her task, continued from Memories of Ice, Bars from Midnight Tides and the Crimson Guard Avowed, Fisher. Some great characters and Assail, the most feared and supposedly brutal continent in the Malazan world. I'm about halfway though. It's pretty entertaining, standard ICE stuff. It gets confusing as about six or seven different groups all attempt to challenge Assail. Four groups, sometimes composed of multiple parties, are sailing around the continent and other groups are running around on the mainland. It usually takes a few paragraphs to figure out who you are dealing with, typical Malazan. I hope this ends well.. I guess I'll feel a lot better about ICE if he succeeds. Then the long wait for Fall of Light in early 2015.

Up Next:

Magician's Land by Lev Grossman I'm not really into a lot of the stuff that happens in this series but it has some cool elements involved. There is always a lot of potential. This is the third book in the trilogy... might as well finish it off.

The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss This side story comes out on 28 October. I'll probably have some free time to read this on release. I guess I expect a lot considering what Rothfuss has already done. I try not to worry too much about the authors and just try to consider their work, but I find his attitude a lot like early GRRM. He seems like he's focused on everything but his story. Maybe I'm wrong and he'll have the third Kingkiller Chronicle ready soon.

Finished:

Assail (Novels of Malazan Empire, Book Six of Six) by Ian C. Esslemont This was Esslemont's best book for me. It had a lot to live up to and although it didn't fulfill in some of the areas, I felt like it was a good close to his portion to the main Malazan story. It features great returning and newly introduced characters all racing up through the perilous lands of Assail. It probably would have helped to cut out one of the expedition parties... it gets confusing which minor character the chapter is focusing on around midway through the book. Esslemont is now slated to tackle an Early Empire (pre-Empire) novel called Dancer's Lament. Should be interesting to see how he handles Dancer and Kellanved before the Malazan empire.

Magician's Land by Lev Grossman Oh god.... I hate to say it, but I was actually kind of into this book as it came to a close. It read really fast and as it approached the last 100 pages I felt like there was no way Grossman could tackle everything he needed to get done. It still kind of suffers because of it's fantasy realm parallels Narnia and I don't really find that setting particularly interesting. Oh well, It got the job done. Grossman is another author that while I'm reading his stuff, he just comes off as trying really hard to sound like an intelligent author. It doesn't feel natural and when you realize he closes a lot of his paragraphs with a simile, it starts to take its toll.

Now Reading:

About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior by Colonel David H. Hackworth and Julie Sherman Hey, it's a twentieth century war memoir..."From Korea to Berlin, from the Cuban missile crisis to Vietnam, Hackworth’s story is that of an exemplary patriot, played out against the backdrop of the changing fortunes of America and the American military. It is also a stunning indictment of the Pentagon’s fundamental misunderstanding of the Vietnam conflict and of the bureaucracy of self-interest that fueled the war." I'm reading non-fiction? I'm about halfway through... how the hell does this guy keep surviving?

[Compass]

Auri book.

Very short, one-day read. It really is the title. That is, one girl putting an awful lot of thought into the particular placement of inanimate objects in various abandoned underground structures. And making soap.

I was pretty into it. She's damn lovable.

[Frogacuda]

Went to a Chuck Palahniuk reading on Halloween and everyone got a signed copy of his new book, Beautiful You. I've actually never read any of Palahniuk's novels, only short stories, so I figured this was a good time to start.

It's a pretty bizarre book so far. It's a satire/parody of female-centric erotic fiction, especially 50 Shades of Gray. It's obsessed with sex, but it's definitively unsexy, turning sex into something clinical (and ultimately commercial). It's utterly ridiculous, which can be enjoyable, although the intentionally one-dimensional, stereotypical characters can maybe be a little wearying.

[No One]

It's utterly ridiculous, which can be enjoyable, although the intentionally one-dimensional, stereotypical characters can maybe be a little wearying.

That's actually applicable to damn near all of Palahniuk's stuff. I like his books, but I have to be in a very particular mood to read them. Try Haunted if you want to experience him at his most unhinged.

I'm reading a few books concurrently at the moment but did manage to finish Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation yesterday. It's the first of three novellas in the Southern Reach trilogy and the first thing I've read since House of Leaves that's satisfied my need for disorienting, intelligent and exceptionally weird fiction. Imagine a more depressing Roadside Picnic with a hint of Cronenberg-esque body horror thrown in and you've got an idea of what to expect.

I'm anxious to start the second book.

[sedition]

sounds interesting.