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What Are You Reading, Part 2


Chaos

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Just finished Codex Alera. It was pretty ok.

I'd classify it as a mashup of Pokemon, Avatar the Last Airbender, and the Roman Empire, fighting a Last Battle (or Desolation) against a Mongol hoard of alien spider monsters.

Its not as good as Dresden Files XD

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haha, JB actually wrote the CA on a dare to prove he could write a good story with stupid ideas, he was dared to use one stupid idea, he chose two - the Lost Roman Legion and Pokemon.

That actually makes sense when it is put that way. Still, I thought it was a pretty good story. As said, not as good as Harry Dresden stories, but enough for me to want to add them to my library.

Of course not any sillier than the challenge of the "food or wine based fantasy" that is the series Vineart War by Laura-Anne Gilman. It is an interesting concept, and the first book Flesh and Fire starts of promising. Curious to see how the author uses this unique magic system.

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I thought it was merely a simple plot, felt like a basic feel good, adventure/fantasy story.

I finished The Spirit Thief and ended up reading all the three published books of the Eli Monpress saga. They actually get significantly better as you go on.

Just finished reading Fahrenheit 451. I was surprised in a good way with this book. Before I read it, all I knew about it was that it had book burning. Before, I always assumed that in this world the government forced people to burn their book to keep the people uninformed. However, actually in the book, the people voluntarily asked the government to burn books for them, so that they would no longer feel stupid. Somehow this feels so much worse to me.

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Game of Thrones (audio): I read the first 3 books in 2000. I remember thinking the first 2 were 'ok', but really liked the 3rd one in large part because Jamie was a viewpoint character. This was the first time I read a fantasy book where you had what you thought was a generic bad guy character, then you see, he isn't really that bad. It is a different experience going through it the 2nd time. I remember the first time around cheering for the Starks and hating the Lannisters (until Jamie became a view point character), now I see more of the complexity earlier on in the series.

The audio books are very good and I appreciate the writing a lot more. In part because I am older and I have read alot of books in the last 12 years. I think it is also in part because I liked the TV series and I can see the scenes better. One thing that is very funny on the audio is that the guy reading it gave him a Scottish accent. What is it with dwarves and generic Scottish accents? The reading is very good. I think the actor reading the book really brings out the different personalities of the characters. I don't recall thinking Sansa and Arya were so childish when I read it the first time.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just finished The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks and started The Shadow's Edge last night. They're pretty good, and I'm looking forward to rooting for Kylar in the Suvudu cage match. They're not my favorite books every, but they're certainly readable.

It reminds me a bit of Mistborn where Kylar/Azoth=Vin and Durzo=Kelsier, what with the rescuing a young kid from the streets and training them to be an awesome assassin.

*glare from Kylar and Durzo*

Sorry, wetboy.

Anyway, the climax confused me a bit, but I figured out what was going on. Also, I wanted to slap Kylar silly when he went all snarky during the final battle. Pet peeve: non-snarky characters suddenly getting sarcasm skills when trapped by the bad guy. Especially since Kylar then talked about how hard it was to think when he was so scared. I was practically yelling "THEN HOW ARE YOU SO SARCASTIC?? YOU HAVEN'T BEEN SARCASTIC ALL BOOK AND NOW YOU PULL IT OUT??" I mean, if he was Shallan or something I could understand it, but not Kylar.

I'm hoping the rest of the series will be better, but this one was pretty good.

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I just finished Wake Me When It's Over and The Counterfeit by Robison Wells- I had read his new book and was curious about his older stuff, so ordered them on Amazon. The first one is pretty hilarious.

(Btw, the above are LDS fiction)

Currently reading Matched by Ally Condie, because my friend reccomended it. I am still unsure of my feelings on this one.

Tomorrow is the official start of my spring break, and I plan on devouring *minimum* a book a day, want to get some fantasy in. I've been reading too much other stuff :), I need my fix.

Any suggestions?

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Gah... I need to update here more often. What have I read recently?

Partials, by (duh) Dan Wells

Live Free or Die, by John Ringo (only book of his I've ever managed to get through).

Spellbound by Larry Correia (sequel to Hard Magic and utterly fantastic).

Snow Crash, by Neil Stephenson

Rosemary and Rue, by Seanan McGuire (first in the October Day series, and rather enjoyable)

Dead Iron, by Devon Monk

The Girl in the Steel Corset, by... someone...

Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs, by Molly Harper (an amusing entry in the over-saturated vampire urban fantasy market that I, surprisingly, enjoyed).

Sword of Fire and Sea, by Erin Hoffman

And about sixteen other books I can't remember right now, and four or five I can't divulge the names of.

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Reading Lord Darcy by Randall Garrett. It is a collection of his short mystery stories and one novel based in a world where Richard the Lionheart never died and magic has become the new "science." It's basically a Sherlock Holmes character with a Watson who is CSI magician. Through in some puns and you have a rollicking good read!

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The Naked God by Peter F Hamilton: Last book in Nights Dawn Trilogy. Great books in general. The ending was incredibly disappointing. The author spent 3000+ pages building up this really complex and interesting conflict (the dead come back to possess the living) and then solves it by having the hero character find this all powerful god like technology. Problem solved in 20 pages. This was really annoying. A story like that is much better off left in a complex state then finding magical technology to magically solve the problem. That being said. The other 3000 pages were fascinating. I will read more of Peter's books.

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