Which Book Are You Currently Reading?

[Cfrock]

The Bloodbaths by Steve Libby
Bit of a mixed bag, this one. I like plenty about it but there's an overall amateurish quality that holds it back. There are some parts that feel rushed or glossed over, and there are parts that could benefit from more description and mood setting. The climax in particular rushes past in a hurry, with some moments that feel contrived to the point of Libby ignoring the scenario he set up, which has the unfortunate effect of leaving me with a sour taste right at the end.

That said, it was a very interesting premise, and Libby does enough with it to keep my interest. It's about a water artisan named Crixus. He builds aqueducts and he's pretty good at his job, but he gambles his guild's money in a high stakes card game and loses. In a panic, he flees the country to the mysterious land overseas, where he decides to seek out the dreaded Lamiae. They are vampires and Crixus is going to fix their broken plumbing.

I'm serious about that. This is a book about a plumber making the baths work in a vampire castle.

Naturally, the baths use blood and not water, but water is needed to pump the blood through the system of pipes. It's actually quite interesting on that technical level, with Crixus having to account for the thickness of blood when calculating how much pressure will be needed, and how he can keep the blood fresh in the system for longer so that it needs to be replenished less often. See, the Lamiae are also brutal aristocrats who rule a peasant empire, taking blood from their citizens as a form of tax. Crixus does grapple somewhat with his desire to get paid so he can return home, and the knowledge that his work will lead to more suffering for the peasantry for generations.

If Libby were better at his job, this could actually be a pretty interesting story about class politics and revolution, but as it is the plumbing is the best part. Decent if you're into vampires, but I probably won't read the sequels.

Oh, and the e-book version is pretty poorly put together. Any time there are Italics it cuts off the rest of the paragraph. I don't know why. I don't like it.

 

[Cfrock]

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
I enjoyed this, for the most part. Eames is good at writing action scenes, and he has a good imagination on display, but there are plenty of times when it feels like he's almost afraid to try and establish setting or mood.

For example, late in the book the heroes go to the ruins of an ancient city, and the closest we get to description of this apparently wondrous place is one character giving light-hearted anecdotes about it. Mentally, I compare it to a similar chapter from Joe Abercrombie's 'Before They Are Hanged' where the mood and atmosphere is established excellently through description.

Eames is capable of this because he does it elsewhere in this book. This is his debut novel, though, so hopefully he gets, I don't know, more confident in himself with the sequel. This is a fun book for fans of fantasy, though, so I would recommend it if you're into big men with even bigger swords.

 

[VikzeLink]

Re-reading Fyre by Angie Sage.
I love the Septimus Heap books, and this is the last one. I've read it once before, when it first came out, but I recently started to re-read the series, and now I've made it to this one again!

 

[Terminus]

The Crimson Campaign. The second book in the Powder Mage trilogy by Brian McClellan.

Basically the french revolution with magic cocaine.

 

[Cfrock]

Huh, been a while since I've posted here. Let's go.

Darkdawn by Jay Kristoff
The final part of the 'Nevernight Chronicle'. It's good, but...

There's something that just didn't click with me here. It gets a bit full on towards the end with magic so spectacular that Kristoff kind of glosses over it. It robs the climax of the entire series of some of its grandeur because it feels somewhat rushed, or thin. I also wasn't a fan of the romance that played a large role, but that's mostly because I just don't like Ashlinn all that much.

I did however really enjoy everything involving Mia and her brother. Little kids can be tricky since it's easy to make them annoying, or feel unbelievable. Kristoff finds a balance with Jonnen, and watching his relationship with Mia develop over the story was the best part.

I will also say, I do not like how Kristoff gives Mia a happy ending. It doesn't fit well with the tone of the books overall, and we were even promised back in Nevernight that she wouldn't get one, lol. It feels like a publisher decision to me, and it was an unfortunate trip right at the end of an enjoyable series.

The Diamond Throne by David Eddings
Sparhawk is a knight in a holy order targeted by a devious plot to disband them and kill the queen they swear fealty to. I enjoyed this a lot. It has a good pace and energy, with plenty of interesting characters. It is the first in a series, so it doesn't so much end as trail off into a book I don't own, but I suppose they did pass that law in 1973 that says you can't write one-off fantasy stories...

I'd read the sequels though, so it's fine.

Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames
I loved the cover of this book so much that I read Kings of the Wyld so I could justify getting the second book in the series.

Haha, jokes on me, Bloody Rose can more or less be read on its own. Having read Kings adds to it, certainly, but not until the later chapters, and not in a way that makes the book any less accessible. So I could have started here...

I'm glad I didn't though. Eames's style seems to have gotten better since Kings, which I can only appreciate having read that first. That was his debut, and there were rough edges, but here the slapstick is toned down, the characters feel more like real people, and the emotional core is stronger.

I do still feel somewhat uncomfortable with male authors writing queer female characters who are constantly looking for someone to ****, because I cannot help but picture the sweaty author typing with no pants on, but whatever, it's fine, it's fine!

Worth Dying For by Tim Marshall
Marshall wrote 'Prisoners of Geography' which I loved so I wanted to read another of his and I went for the one on flags. It's decent. When he gets rolling on a specific flag and gets in to the history of it and some of the ways they've been used by different groups to represent different things, it's good.

The trouble is that he's too broad in his selection. The first chapter is about the US flag. The second is about the UK flag. The third is about the EU flag, Crusader banners, the French flag, three German flags, the Italian flag, all five Scandanavian flags, the Portuguese flag, the Austrian flag, the Dutch flag, the Russian flag, the Soviet flag, the Yugoslav flag, and seven Balkan flags with emphasis on North Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Kosovo.

*pause for breath*

The book continues like this, with each subsequent chapter focusing on as many flags as possible from regions too complex to cram together this way. This approach works better for regions like the Middle East or South America where multiple national flags share common elements and Marshall can go into the history and meaning behind those, but when you get to Asia and Africa it feels meandering and aimless.

It is decent, but it's a too unfocused to be as interesting as Prisoners was. Shame.

 

[Cfrock]

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
Pretty cool story about demons and grimoires. There's a romance in there, too, because it turns out it's a YA novel, which I did not realise when I bought it because I sometimes don't pay a lot of attention. It was imaginative and exciting and I enjoyed it.

 

[Echolight]

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Well, actually, more like listening instead of reading. I found this audio book version of the book on YouTube, and it’s amazing. He puts background music from the trilogy in it, and all the voices sound very similar to the movie. He even sings the poems Tolkien puts in The Hobbit. It’s really good.

The Hobbit: Theatrical Audiobook | Chapter 1 - An Unexpected Party (J.R.R. Tolkien)

Chapter 1 of the Theatrical Audiobook of THE HOBBIT. A dramatic way to experience the classic story by J.R.R. Tolkien, produced by Bluefax. This is Chapter 1...

youtu.be

I’ve read The Hobbit a few times before, and I love it. It’s full of lush descriptions, clever and powerful writing, and endearing characters. His writing inspires me to keep on working on my novel and stories and, maybe someday, I’ll reach a level of skill near to Tolkien’s. If you haven’t read this book, you need to. The very first line is so striking.

‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.’

 

[twilitfalchion]

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Well, actually, more like listening instead of reading. I found this audio book version of the book on YouTube, and it’s amazing. He puts background music from the trilogy in it, and all the voices sound very similar to the movie. He even sings the poems Tolkien puts in The Hobbit. It’s really good.

The Hobbit: Theatrical Audiobook | Chapter 1 - An Unexpected Party (J.R.R. Tolkien)

Chapter 1 of the Theatrical Audiobook of THE HOBBIT. A dramatic way to experience the classic story by J.R.R. Tolkien, produced by Bluefax. This is Chapter 1...

youtu.be

I’ve read The Hobbit a few times before, and I love it. It’s full of lush descriptions, clever and powerful writing, and endearing characters. His writing inspires me to keep on working on my novel and stories and, maybe someday, I’ll reach a level of skill near to Tolkien’s. If you haven’t read this book, you need to. The very first line is so striking.

‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.’

Oh, that’s an absolute classic. I loved it when I read it back in high school. Nice!
————
Been reading a manga (something I don’t normally do tbh) recommended by a friend called “The Elf and the Item Hunter’s Atelier.” A very wholesome slice-of-life kind of story. I like it quite a bit so far.

 

[Jimmu]

I started reading the Demon Slayer manga books in Japanese. I'm reading them after watching the anime episodes and seem to be comprehending them pretty well, there's a bit of vocabulary I haven't come across before but it is good to learn some more obscure stuff. So far it doesn't seem to stray very far from the anime (or rather the anime doesn't stray far from it).

 

[Fraxinus]

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer is going to be an excellent book to read while listening to the Carrion soundtrack.

 

[TheHeroofTime]

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. It's my first time reading the last book in the series. I read Fellowship and Two Towers a couple years ago, but I started having less and less free time, and I never finished TRotK. I returned earlier this year to read through the whole series. It's such a beautiful series. I would say more, but what can I say that hasn't been said countless times before? It's a classic.

 

[Mamono101]

Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts), by Lev AC Rosen.

Another YA LGBT themed book. This one focusing in a lot on stereotypes and sex (the act), with a building stalker sub-plot. It’s been an interesting book so far, but I’m only a little over 100 pages in. The Writing is easy to read, and is fun without being too obnoxious for me. Could be a little less preachy at times, but willing to overlook for now.

 

[Rubik]

I read the Adventure Zone; Murder on the Rockport Limited comic book yesterday. Not as fun as listening to the podcast arc, but still fun.

 

[TheHeroofTime]

How Long 'til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin. It's a collection of afrofuturistic short science, fantasy, and speculative fiction stories. It's quite possibly one of the best books I've ever read. Every story pushes the boundaries of my imagination and keeps me guessing, speculating, pondering, and interrogating right up until the very end and even past. The stories are never obvious or predictable, and I often don't figure out what a short was about until after I've finished reading it and spent a long time thinking about it. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It's an excellent read.

 

[Princess Niki]

Been reading a lot of manga lately, finished all the Zelda manga that is currently available. Right now working on Cardcaptor Sakura I have seen the anime several times but have barely read the books.