In honor of new and upcoming releases: Books!

[Johny Cee]

The week of September 30th saw the release of new Neil Gaiman and a Richard K Morgan "Takeshi Kovacs" book,  and we're hitting the one month till A Feast for Crows, so I figure we need a new book thread.

Gaiman, Anansi Boys --

This novel picks up in the same world as American Gods,  with the same premise.  Gods exist.  Not a God,  but all gods.  From Christ to Odin to the trickster spirits of West African myth.  Not just historical gods, either, but gods of credit cards and railroad tracks and the internet.  God symbology extrapolated to the extreme, where human belief in near anything is distilled down to a physical and animate representation taking on that symbol's characteristics.  Dying and aging as belief is snuffed out,  and being replaced by new gods.

Anansi is Mr. Nancy,  who appears as a kindly yet lascivious older man in fedora and canary gloves, who also happens to be a trickster totem spirit from West African myth and the father of two boys.  It falls to his engaged son, very ordinary Fat Charlie, to return to Florida for Mr. Nancy's funeral where he discovers the existence of his brother Spider. 

Spider precedes to turn Fat Charlie's life upside down.

Anansi Boys reads like Neverwhere and Stardust.  Light-hearted and slightly fable-like, even if seemingly awful things are happening.  A strong thread of family and family connection runs throughout, with especial attention to how the actions of a parent always seem to be an acute embarassment to the child, and the process of the child maturing and taking on the parental role and world of responsibility.

Enjoyable read,  but nothing earth shattering here. 


Morgan, Woken Furies --

I like Morgan's "Takeshi Kovacs" novels.  Really.  Despite the man's flim-flammy political and socio-ecomomic worlds.  Morgan is pretty much guaranteed to have one "WTF just happened???  Fucking Christ, he didn't just do that" moments in his books.

My opinion on the latest is mixed.

Kovacs is back on his home world,  in a new sleeve.  And he's slightly off kilter, mentally.

While killing time between switching sleeves,  he wanders into a bar fight when neo-Fundies start beating down a woman for not wearing the proper head scarf.  After slaughtering said bearded neo-Fundies, Kovacs ends up entangled with the woman and her crew of mercenaries (De-coms) sent out to try and exterminate the sentient war machinery cluttering up the worlds largest continent.

Honestly, the book is a mixed bag.  I was willing to forgive the previous books cyberpunk roots because I enjoyed the noirish, paranoid, and violent plot.

Politics and economics start to come to the forefront.  A potential Quellist uprising (think Marx,  but more stupid) emerges,  and Kovacs elucidates on his hat of both the neo-Fundies and the ruling oligarchy that supposedly keeps the rest of the planet in near poverty.

Fucking hell.  At least it's better than Market Forces.  That book's world read like it was ghostwritten by a Skinhead labor organizer and crunchy granola vigilante.


A Feast for Crows --

Release date is November 8th, and seems to be holding steady.  We can hope.


Steven Erikson, "The Malazan Book of the Fallen" --

The author is a mix of Glen Cook,  Tolkien,  dashes of Martin.  Splash in maybe 10 years of animea, and the better 4 or 5 of Zelazny's Amber books.  Now put it into 800 page volumes of a 10 book series,  not counting side books written by the co-creator and developer of the world.  Presently on book 5,  with 6 due out in the next few months.

It's very good stuff,  a little wordy at times.  Books 1 and 2 are available in the States at your local bookstore.  The rest are only available overseas.  Coming out in the States soon,  but can be ordered from amazon.ca at a reasonable price.

There's also a few side books starring minor characters from the main storyline.

Book 1, Gardens of the Moon, is pretty good.  Some interesting characters,  and you really get a feel Erikson's influences.

Book 2, Deadhouse Gates, is outstanding.  Some very serious moments here.  Without getting into spoilers of any kind,  the entire sequence dealing with the retreat of a Malazan army across a desert during the course of the entire continent holding a revolution is astounding.

On a lighter note:

Some of Erikson's fan forums make Vault poster look like some kind of enlightened thinktank.  The first time I browsed through, I actually considered trying to make myself hate the author. 

        http://www.malazanempire.com/forums/


I did manage to dig up some interesting links to Glen Cook interviews on the same site.  Most notable factoids are that the Dread Empire books will see reprint,  but the previously written and unreleased books may not.  It seems that Cook used to invite fans into his home to chat,  until someone walked off with his unpublished manuscript for the sequel to An Ill Fate Marshalling.

http://www.sfsite.com/10a/gc209.htm

[Luxor]

Book 112 in the Robert Jordan series is out this week/next week. Entitled 'The Wheel of Time - Nyneave pulls her braid again' the book is eagerly awaited by people who enjoy 30 pages of plot development in a 900 page epic.

Book 6 of the Steven Erikson series has been delayed again until Feb 2006 ( orig due out in April this year ). We'll see closer to the time if it slips further

[Ironwood]

Woken Furies tried too hard to give the reader stuff to think about.  And, let's be honest, that's not why we were buying the book.

However, some of his advancement of the society was interesting.  There was more about how the hell an immortal society could actually function that I wanted to wrap my head around.

[Sky]

I'm not much for fiction, though I did read the newest Feist The Exile's Return. Nice twist shifting focus away from Talon for a while. I've got to get to some Glen Cook, there's not a lot in the library system, but my ladyfriend just took over fiction, so we'll fix that quick enough.

Mostly I read nonfic, and lately my guru has been Richard Dawkins, currently in the form of The Ancestor's Tale, a book of evolution based on Chaucer. Great read.

Also reading a huge variety of books, nice perq of the library, heh. No late fees ;) A book on mexican cooking, some stuff on hiking trails, the obligatory stack of tech books for work, should be getting in some biodiesel books we ordered for a new display.

'The Wheel of Time - Nyneave pulls her braid again'

Heh. Jordan lost his mind, I gave up on him after book 6 or 7. Long list at the library, though, people love it.

[kaid]

Ah yes robert jordans random novel generator was activated again. I think people buy those book in the same frame of mind that people watch slow moving car wrecks. Its always intersting to see somebody completly blow up. After seeing the reviews of the last one this should be amusing. I am very curious if he realizes that sooner or later he is actually going to have to attempt to progress the plotline.

kaid

[ClydeJr]

Right now I'm rereading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy. Red Mars and Green Mars were great. Blue Mars always feels like a bit of a letdown. The first two books had a lot of hard sci-fi and a lot of conflict. Mars vs Earth. Reds vs Greens. Metanationals vs everything else. Blue Mars is the slightly boring calm after the storm.

My uncle loaned to me that Wheel of Time prequel where Moraine meets Lan. Anyone read it? Is it any good or is it a lot of braid pulling, nose sniffing, and stoic silences like the main books?

Does anyone else hate waiting for the softback versions of books to come out? I don't have the money or space to buy many hardbacks so I end up waiting forever to get books that people have already read. Right now I'm waiting for the latest Harry Potter (you can't go anywhere on the web without getting spoiled for that book, dammit) and who knows when Feast of Crows will come out.

[Dren]

A Feast for Crows --

Release date is November 8th, and seems to be holding steady.  We can hope.

[HaemishM]

I've been on a non-fiction kick lately. I've read most of The Portable Beat Reader, Peace, Land, Bread (about the Russian Revolution of 1917), and Outsourcing America, a book about offshore outsource and what it really means for the American economy. On tap after that are a book on the NSA and Bob Woodward's book Veil, on the CIA secret wars from '81-'87.

I'm starting to read like my father.

[Merusk]

My uncle loaned to me that Wheel of Time prequel where Moraine meets Lan. Anyone read it? Is it any good or is it a lot of braid pulling, nose sniffing, and stoic silences like the main books?

My wife bought it, and I couldn't finish reading it.  It's an expansion on the Short Story, "New Spring" that was in the original "Legends" book TOR published.  Much like the last 5 books, the short story gave you all the salient bits you needed.  Reading the entire novel was a waste of time.  When the new book comes out I plan to take an hour or two and just read the last 5 chapters at Border's.  Anything you don't understand or miss you can flip back to the last time the character appeared and get up to speed.

[Viin]

I just started reading The Dark Tower series by Stephen King (the revised versions). I've never read anything by King before, but am really enjoying the first book. Very graphic, emotional, and hard to put down.

As for non-fiction, well, Standard Aircraft Handbook for Mechanics and Technicians is a bit of a yawn, though somewhat interesting. Unless it has to do with airplanes or military ops, I don't read much nonfiction unless you count all the crap I have to read at work.

Oh yes, I also recently finish The Hedge Knight, which is a comic written by George R.R. Martin and penned very well. Recommended!

[Paelos]

My "Complete Calvin and Hobbes" newly released hardcover shipped today.

[Rasix]

My uncle loaned to me that Wheel of Time prequel where Moraine meets Lan. Anyone read it? Is it any good or is it a lot of braid pulling, nose sniffing, and stoic silences like the main books?

Honestly, it kind of reminds you while reading it of why you don't really like Robert Jordan anymore.  It's not as bad with the pointless exposition as he has gravitated now, but as a whole it just lacks any sort of kinetic energy.  It also has a lot of "Frodo & Sam" moments where you just wonder if Moiraine and Siuan are going to start making out or something.  Of course, it does have a better content to drivel ratio than most of his later work.  Oddly enough, I feel compelled to read some of the earlier books but I seemed to have lost them when I moved about a year and a half ago. 

I just finished Cook's The Silver Spike.  This one might be my new favorite.  I liked it a lot but Smeds aka Shed v2.0 was a bit hard to swallow.  Pedophile to badass in 5 easy steps! The ending was a bit severe too.  Ouch.  Happy, but.. wow.

Reading Gaiman's "Smoke and Mirrors" currently.  My first exposure to his writing. Pretty interesting with some fascinating twists on some old themes.

[Merusk]

My "Complete Calvin and Hobbes" newly released hardcover shipped today.

Oh wow.. I just found my Santa present.  Is it 'complete' or is it 100% fully complete?

I need to find some old Bloom County books too.

Nonfiction I can get in Magazines.  Though I recommend "Why Buildings Fall Down" and "Why Buildings Stand Up".   Theyr'e more in-depth than they sound, and cover some of the biggest structural failings and triumphs ever. (Well.. as of '94 when they were published.)

[Sky]

Nonfiction I can get in Magazines.

Heh. We have over 50 periodicals in the periodical room. I read about half of them, I can usually devour one a day between lunch and breaks. Max PC, PC Mag, PC Gamer, EGM, Time, Newsweek, MEJ, Rolling Stone, The Nation, Sierra, Fine Homebuilding, Discover, Scientific American, etc, etc, etc. The vast bulk of my reading is periodicals, mostly music, tech, science, news and homebuilding. Real narrow scope. Damn, where's that green text when you need it?

I find it ironic that Newsweek is calling the GOP out on competence (that is, lack of) and corruption...the same week the Pres nominates a Justice that was a personal friend and also lacks any judicial experience whatsoever. Not that it's at all out of character for him....

Apologies for the political statement, I just found it ironic.

[HaemishM]

Magazines don't do it for me anymore. They can't go into the depth that a book could, and are no longer as timely as anything on the Web. Now magazines on the web, that I could do. But print mags just really don't fit my lifestyle anymore.

[Pococurante]

Apologies for the political statement, I just found it ironic.

Oh Irony... why must you pervade everything.

[Morfiend]

I just finished "The Cobweb" by Neal Stevenson and some other guy. Was a decent Political Thriller type. The main problem I ahd with this book was that I couldnt relate to any of the characters really, and so I didnt really give a damn. Overall an avarage book, with an interesting pre-Iraq (the first one) War, backdrop.

I picked up a few books that have been taunting me for a while.

Some one Come to Town, Some one Leaves Town.

Friday by Robert A. Handlin. Interesting note, when I did an amazon for the book, I just realized that my Father read this to me when I was a young kid. I knew I knew that name some where.

I also picked up Anansi Boys (Ill get to it at some point) and a book I cant remember the name of, but was basically the story of Satans fall from heaven to rull in hell, and the angle war that took place. (Im a sucker for angle war books)

[Viin]

Heh, oh, you mean Heinlein.

Funny that he read you Friday, since I think it's one of his more .. umm .. sexually explorative books.

[shiznitz]

I liked the new Glenn Cook book a lot. Took 80 pages or so to really get going, but that was just because he introduced about 30 characters in about 30 pages.

[Pococurante]

Funny that he read you Friday, since I think it's one of his more .. umm .. sexually explorative books.

As I recall she is raped early in the book.  I assume dear old dad breezed that part... ;)

[Luxor]

and a book I cant remember the name of, but was basically the story of Satans fall from heaven to rull in hell, and the angle war that took place. (Im a sucker for angle war books)

The Pythagorean Theory?

[Xilren's Twin]

I've been reading the series by Alistar Reynolds: Revelation Space, Chasm City, Redemption Ark and am now on Absolution Gap.  Pretty decent hard sci-fi.

Oh, and in what is becoming a personal tradition, would someone of you slackers pick up and read the Sun Sword series by Michelle West.  I enjoyed that world setting more than most fantasy I've read in years.  Though i will warn you, the writing style take some getting used to, and the last book leave way to many plot lines unfinished.  (It's sorta ends the way I feel thw WoT series will, with huge and important characters basically left hanging in varous spots b/c the author has no idea where to take them next).

Xilren

[Johny Cee]

Magazines don't do it for me anymore. They can't go into the depth that a book could, and are no longer as timely as anything on the Web. Now magazines on the web, that I could do. But print mags just really don't fit my lifestyle anymore.

The only periodical I regularly pick up is The Economist.  I like it for the lack of most standard US news mag biases,  and the fact that most of their writers seem to have more background in economics/political economy then actual journalism.  Usually has some great and informative articles on Developing World items which would never make any US magazine.

As for current events type reading...   You REALLY need to pick up a copy of Fareed Zakaria's The Future of Freedom.  Great book,  and incredibly informative.

Zakaria's arguments about liberal autocracies vs. illiberal democracies are great.  Very depressing when you consider how often elections fail to provide liberal (guaranteed rights, freedoms, etc) governments in poorer countries.  Especially when you consider some of the people who have won open elections by catering along ethnic or class lines,  and then gone on to prove themselves completely antithetical to any notion of progress or reform.

[Johny Cee]

Book 112 in the Robert Jordan series is out this week/next week. Entitled 'The Wheel of Time - Nyneave pulls her braid again' the book is eagerly awaited by people who enjoy 30 pages of plot development in a 900 page epic.

Book 6 of the Steven Erikson series has been delayed again until Feb 2006 ( orig due out in April this year ). We'll see closer to the time if it slips further

It seems Erikson occasionally has people post updates for him to the site I linked above.  Per the latest,  he's done with Book 6.  He also claimed to be on Chapter 7 (someone guestimated based on his previous works this is about 300 pages) of Book 7,  and that it's flying along.

It's good to have both Jordan and Erikson mentioned in the same post,  nice segue.

Like Jordan, Erikson churns out huge doorstops of material.  Unlike Jordan,  Erikson's plotting is decentralized. 

There is no one main character.  You probably have between 10 to 15 fairly major characters a book.  It's pretty much guaranteed 2 or 3 of them get killed.  Even if a character survives,  the action in the series moves on to different locations so you tend to not see a character again for a book or three.  I'd say that most of the characters are decent,  and at least a couple of them are fucking classics.

Jordan's real problem is he's glued to Rand and a couple of the other characters,  and feels obligated to cover them pretty much every book.  This eventually lead to a dry well of not having anywhere to go with the characters without tieing up the main plot device.

[Johny Cee]

I just finished Cook's The Silver Spike.  This one might be my new favorite.  I liked it a lot but Smeds aka Shed v2.0 was a bit hard to swallow.  Pedophile to badass in 5 easy steps! The ending was a bit severe too.  Ouch.  Happy, but.. wow.

Reading Gaiman's "Smoke and Mirrors" currently.  My first exposure to his writing. Pretty interesting with some fascinating twists on some old themes.

The Silver Spike is brutal.  Every one of Cook's natural tendencies as a writer are massively exaggerated.  Amoral to outright evil characters,  who also are sympathetic.  Age and entropy (mostly Raven,  who isn't the badass he once was...)  Paranoia taken to extremes.  And God, the body count.  I wouldn't call it an especially easy read for these reasons.

Gaiman writes a mean short story.  Smoke and Mirrors is in paperback,  and there's another collection of short stories in I think limited edition hardcover.  Both collections share some of the same short stories.  Pretty much bouncing around between whimsy/fable, horror (in traditional and Lovecraftian molds), wierd and speculative fiction, noir...  basically all over the place.

Does Smoke and Mirrors have the noir story set in Nurseryland?  That one really struck me.

If folks have some more suggestions,  I'll jot them down and try to pick up some copies.  I mostly pick up new books by browsing,  so if it's hard to get or in limited print I may miss it.  I'll take a look for Michelle West next time I peruse the stacks.

[Sky]

Magazines don't do it for me anymore. They can't go into the depth that a book could, and are no longer as timely as anything on the Web. Now magazines on the web, that I could do. But print mags just really don't fit my lifestyle anymore.

Except that I like being away from computers. And with the wide variety of topics available at the library, I don't have to hunt through 50 websites to find a couple articles to read, I just grab the mags and head to the break room.

Of course, if something piques my interest, I can dig deeper on the web, that's the beauty of it.

Oh yeah, and the web is annoying, as are computers.

[Murgos]

I just finished Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh, which was excellent and I highly recommend it.  The thick scottish accent of some of the 'voices' takes some getting used to but wasn't that hard to understand really.

Non-fiction wise I'm reading Head First Design Patterns and I find that it's a pretty good treatment of the subject.  If you do OOP and don't really have a good idea what design patterns are and why you should use them I recommend it.  It is MUCH easier to read and understand the the Gang of Four original.  The book is java centric but with a little effort it applies well to any object orientated programming language and especially .NET stuff.

[HaemishM]

Oh yeah, and the web is annoying, as are computers.

You shut your damn filthy mouth.

[Righ]

I just finished Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh, which was excellent and I highly recommend it.  The thick scottish accent of some of the 'voices' takes some getting used to but wasn't that hard to understand really.

Welsh is good, but for contemporary Scottish writing, I think that James Kelman and Alasdair Gray are better.

[Morfiend]

and a book I cant remember the name of, but was basically the story of Satans fall from heaven to rull in hell, and the angle war that took place. (Im a sucker for angle war books)

The Pythagorean Theory?

Nope it is To Reign in Hell. Seems pretty cool from the few pages I read.

[WayAbvPar]

It is a decent book. Not one of Brust's best, IMHO, but not horrible. It kind of rambles a bit, which made it a bit of a tough read for me.

[Morfiend]

Funny that he read you Friday, since I think it's one of his more .. umm .. sexually explorative books.

As I recall she is raped early in the book.  I assume dear old dad breezed that part... ;)

I dont recall. But my dad did read me some pretty advanced stuff when I was a kid. Including the first 4 DUNE books, also the LotR trilogy, and tons of shorts from Analog. He was a big SciFi buff, and thats probably why I like that stuff now.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Oh, and in what is becoming a personal tradition, would someone of you slackers pick up and read the Sun Sword series by Michelle West.  I enjoyed that world setting more than most fantasy I've read in years.  Though i will warn you, the writing style take some getting used to, and the last book leave way to many plot lines unfinished.  (It's sorta ends the way I feel thw WoT series will, with huge and important characters basically left hanging in varous spots b/c the author has no idea where to take them next).

Xilren

Already done.  I couldn't wait for the books to come out.  The prequel duology (Hunter's Oath and Hunter's Death) sets up a lot of what happens in this series, but like you said, it seems like nothing is really resolved at the end.  I have a feeling there will be another series coming out, and if so I can't wait for that either.  You're right, the cultures she sets up are really rather interesting and different (or rather, different twists on the familiiar.

[Ironwood]

I just finished Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh, which was excellent and I highly recommend it.  The thick scottish accent of some of the 'voices' takes some getting used to but wasn't that hard to understand really.

Welsh is good, but for contemporary Scottish writing, I think that James Kelman and Alasdair Gray are better.

Alternatively, for something resonates and explores the 'funny' Scots, try Christopher Brookmyre.  Just DON'T take it too seriously.

Start with Boiling a Frog.

[Miasma]

I just finished Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh, which was excellent and I highly recommend it.  The thick scottish accent of some of the 'voices' takes some getting used to but wasn't that hard to understand really.

Welsh is good, but for contemporary Scottish writing, I think that James Kelman and Alasdair Gray are better.

Alternatively, for something resonates and explores the 'funny' Scots, try Christopher Brookmyre.  Just DON'T take it too seriously.

Start with Boiling a Frog.

I really like Ian Rankin's books.  Being mystery novels they're not high literature or anything but they are a great read.  He takes two, sometimes three different plotlines and merges them together in a very complicated way.  They are mostly based in Edinburgh and he draws heavily upon the culture.