3rd September, 2010
Coldfire Surprise
Sounding a bit like a culinary dish with dubious ingredients but doubtlessly more tasty, C.S. Friedman has announced that she is working on a short story based on everyone’s favorite anti-hero, Gerald Tarrant, to be completed after her work on her latest trilogy is done. She’s even gone and published an excerpt of her work, currently titled Dominion. Cool beans.
Posted at 4:42 am | Comment (0)
19th August, 2010
Discuss
This month’s io9 Book Club features N.K. Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. So what the hell is the io9 Book Club, you say? Why, that’s exactly what I asked, too, when I first read about it. Looks like there will be a few days of discussion in the comments at the end of the month, followed by a chance to ask the author herself a question or two. Might be worth checking out.
Posted at 4:48 am | Comment (0)
4th August, 2010
We shall call it Untitled.
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald
A couple of McDonald’s previous works, River of Gods and Brasyl, had originally put his name on my radar, but I never got around to reading them. With the release of his latest book, The Dervish House, and the buzz surrounding it, I decided to finally give this author a chance and I’m happy I did. McDonald’s style is slightly evocative of William Gibson to me, with his lush descriptions and interwoven storylines of seemingly unrelated characters set in a not-so-distant future Earth, yet without the overall darkness that is so prevalent in Gibson’s works. Essentially, this book boils down to an entertaining adventure novel with a little believable sci-fi mixed in. And as an added bonus, it has a happy ending. A nice change from all the gritty and, ahem, edgy epic fantasy I’ve been reading lately. Worth checking out.
4/5 gogs.
Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain
Another collection of essays along the lines of his previous work Kitchen Confidential. There is still some trash talking to be found within, but it is tempered by the observations of a wiser, more tolerant man. In other words, as everyone – hopefully – does at some point, Bourdain has mentally matured and it really shows in this book. From his thoughtful contemplations of Eastern cultures, to his love of family and loyalty to friends, Bourdain really starts to open up a bit within and is refreshing in his honesty.
If you like intelligent, slightly snarky commentary, this is an enjoyable read. 3.8/5 gogs.
Posted at 4:51 am | Comment (0)
23rd July, 2010
Ten is done.
Rumor has it that Steven Erikson has completed his Malazan Book of the Fallen series. If you listen closely, you can hear Robert Jordan’s ghost and GRRM saying “D’oh!” =P
Posted at 4:59 am | Comment (1)
16th July, 2010
Heat
Been busy with summery things as well as re-reading Erikson’s Malazan series. Bwahaha.
Inda by Sherwood Smith.
Another reader suggestion here. I had not heard of Sherwood Smith before but Smith is a fairly well-known Young Adult author with Inda being her first Adult Fiction novel. That being said, the book unfortunately had the feel of a first-time novel even though it came from a seasoned writer.
Firstly, Smith has an irritating habit of changing points-of-view right in the middle of a story segment which often made things confusing for a minute or two while I carefully re-read the section. Also, there were many unexplained things such as a bizarre system of magic seemingly reserved for only the removal of bodily waste and dead bodies as well as sexually segregated society. Males receive one type of military training while females receive another and both are keep secret from one another. Top this off with a somewhat confusing habit of switching between referring to a character with their proper names, their titles or their nicknames and you have a frustrating read at times. Despite these shortcomings, the story does pick up as it progresses and begins to grab your attention about midway through. I found it be reminiscent of something that L.E. Modesitt would write.
I’m thinking that perhaps with a different editor, this book could have been better.
3/5 gogs.
Posted at 5:24 am | Comments (2)
2nd June, 2010
Thanes for the memories.
Bloodheir and Fall of Thanes by Brian Ruckley.
I finished off this series over the past few weeks and I’ve got one word for you. Bleak. The series follows the recently popular trend of anti-good-triumphs-over-evil in epic fantasy. While the writing was good – despite some iffy minor story arcs – with settings and characters complex enough to hold my interest, the ending really left a hollow feeling. Definitely not the feel-good movie of the summer but worth checking out if this sort of thing floats your boat.
3.5/5 gogs.
Posted at 5:22 am | Comments (3)
1st June, 2010
Salt
This article in the New York Times on the use of salt in processed foods is both enlightening (yes, really) and totally shocking (no, not really) and pretty much confirms what I’ve suspected for a while: food manufacturers have to heavily salt their food because it tastes like crap otherwise.
As a demonstration, Kellogg prepared some of its biggest sellers with most of the salt removed. The Cheez-It fell apart in surprising ways. The golden yellow hue faded. The crackers became sticky when chewed, and the mash packed onto the teeth. The taste was not merely bland but medicinal.
[...]
They moved on to Corn Flakes. Without salt the cereal tasted metallic. The Eggo waffles evoked stale straw. The butter flavor in the Keebler Light Buttery Crackers, which have no actual butter, simply disappeared.
The real kicker for me was the following information. The salt is there so companies can maximize profits by selling cheap, poor quality food. Mmm, mmm, good!
Making deep cuts in salt can require more expensive ingredients that can hurt sales. Companies that make low-salt pasta sauces improve the taste with vine-ripened tomatoes and fresh herbs that cost more than dried spices and lower grade tomatoes.
You mean to tell me that foods that are fresh and actually picked at times of ripeness taste good all by themselves??? Madness.
Posted at 5:04 am | Comments (3)
30th April, 2010
Relief
After a somewhat lengthy run of cruddy to so-so books, I stumbled upon something worthwhile.
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin.
I first thought this book would be a stand alone novel, but I guess that still isn’t allowed in the fantasy realm. Fortunately, I was rather impressed by this debut so I’m actually looking forward to the next two installments. A not-so-standard fantasy tale filled with developed and believable characters, Jemisin spins an imaginative story that was difficult to put down at times. Worth checking out.
4/5 gogs.
Posted at 5:08 am | Comments (4)
28th April, 2010
WMF
Circle March 1, 2011 on your calendars, ’cause that’s the day that Patrick Rothfuss’ new book will be available for purchase. Finally! Now I can go back to grousing about when GRRM’s next installment will be released.
Posted at 5:24 am | Comment (0)
14th April, 2010
Hnn.
Prince of Storms by Kay Kenyon.
In one of the more imaginative series I’ve read in a while, Kenyon wraps up her The Entire and The Rose saga with an ending that was decent but not what I was really hoping for. While Kenyon remains a skillful writer, action sequences really aren’t her forte. Nonetheless, if you enjoyed the first three novels, this wouldn’t be the worst way to spend your time on a rainy weekend.
3/5 gogs.
Spellwright by Blake Charlton.
Ugh. I was suckered into reading this by some of the hype I had seen in the SF/F blogosphere. Fledgling author Blake Charlton trots out the tired old story of lower-caste boy + prophecy = boy becomes all-powerful and saves the world, gussied up with a relativity unique “system” of magic (that of grammar) which is only briefly outlined in the book. Combine said magic with bad puns and wordplay and you have the wince-inducing offspring of Piers Anthony and Brandon Sanderson who displays only the weaknesses of both authors. The book felt like it should be targeted at young adults with its simplistic writing and lecturing tones (Charlton defines English words and explains math problems within) and to top it off, after a rather ho-hum climax, the final chapter read more like a synopsis of the next book in the series than a hook to make you want to go out and pick up the next installment. Not an impressive debut.
2/5 gogs.
Posted at 5:23 am | Comments (2)
1st April, 2010
April? What happened to March?
Huh, spring is here already. It seems like just last week we were still dealing with snow and ice. >.> Without much ado, here are the most recent entries to have left my reading queue:
Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson.
Book 9 of 10 in Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen epic. Another 800+ page monster – I don’t know how he does it. This book (and the series) does suffer from the sheer complexity of all the characters, plots and subplots that have been introduced and, I will admit, I started to lose faith and interest about midway through this one. I found myself having to go back and re-read entire sections since my mind had drifted away and I had no recollection of what I had just read. Thankfully, there were some bright spots in the book and the ending was pretty tremendous, even if it did end on somewhat of a cliffhanger. Still anticipating the final installation in the series.
3/5 gogs.
Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb.
Hobb takes us back to the land of liveships and dragons. Woot. But wait, what’s this? The first book of her latest trilogy was pretty, well to be honest, boring. Predictable, too. Whatever ailment caused her Soldier Son trilogy to land in the crap pile is apparently still alive and kicking. A thoroughly unremarkable book.
2/5 gogs.
Posted at 5:22 am | Comment (0)
3rd March, 2010
The forest for the trees
Honor this place, for our children’s children will stand here and speak these same words again. -mtg
Wil Wheaton’s been on a roll this past week with some really insightful posts. The first put me in a bit of a pensive mood while the second actually made me somewhat hopeful for humanity. This is most certainly worth your time to read today.
Posted at 5:22 am | Comment (0)
3rd March, 2010
Something to add to your Netflix queue
Why hello there. Did you know that yesterday, HBO made it official that they will be producing and airing at least one season’s worth of shows based on GRRM’s A Song of Ice and Fire series? I’ll definitely be checking this out once it airs while hoping in the meantime that it doesn’t suck like so many other fantasy-to-screen adaptations have in the past.
Posted at 5:10 am | Comments (2)
5th February, 2010
Emergence
Remiss again in documenting what I’ve read. I blame 3 months of no sun. Stupid El Niño. >.>
Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks.
Ok, we’ve already established that it’s been a while since I’ve last posted so my memory is a little hazy on these two books. But, to be honest, the faded memories perhaps speak volumes about how I felt about this series. Was it awesome and something that I will read again? Nah. Was it a horrible waste of time? Nope. It was just kind of there. A middling action/adventure tale that filled the hours of many a long winter’s nights.
2.9/5 gogs.
Canticle by Ken Scholes.
The second entry in the Psalms of Isaak series and somewhat (relatively) brief (epic fantasy under 400 pages – and currently still stupidly unavailable for purchase from Amazon), it was still a decent read. The main plot is still being built up, but I like the attention to detail that he is giving his characters and their environment. As I noted earlier, I think there is a lot of potential here, but it hasn’t reached out and fully grabbed me yet.
3.5/5 gogs.
Line War by Neal Asher.
In this fifth Ian Cormac novel, Asher really opens up the mystery of the Jain and its relationship to the Polity. I found it dragged a small amount towards the middle, but an excellent ending made up for that misstep. If you’ve read the first four novels in this series, you’ll definitely want to check this one out. Too bad it’s also currently stupidly unavailable for purchase from Amazon. Perhaps it’s time to find another bookseller, eh?
4.2/5 gogs.
Posted at 5:26 am | Comments (6)
22nd December, 2009
Snow
Lamentation by Ken Scholes
The first book from newcomer Ken Scholes has been talked up in the press since its release and I can confirm that it pretty much lives up to the reviews. I felt a little short-changed due to brevity of the book (around 350 pages) but it served its purpose to lay the groundwork for a 5-book series. Interesting characters and some intriguing mysteries are found within this well-described world. I’m not ready to bet the farm on this one yet but it has potential to turn into something great.
3.8/5 gogs
Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher
I was thoroughly unimpressed with Butcher’s Dresden Files series but a fellow reader suggested I give his Alera series a try. I was pleasantly surprised to find a decent story this time around although it did suffer from some predictability. I’ll probably give the rest of this series a shot in the future.
3/5 gogs.
Posted at 5:05 am | Comments (3)
