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What are you Reading Now?

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb. I read the first volume a couple of years ago and it barely made an impression. Rather than try to re-read that, I went to volume 2. It says something that I don't really think volume 1 was needed to appreciate 2.

In any case, despite the fact that I think assassins are pretty much silly in fantasy, and despite the slow start, I am quite enjoying the book now. Hobb has put together some genuinely moving scenes and I'm reading a couple of chapters just about every day. The names of the royal court still grate on me but I console myself with the good names of non-royal characters.
 
Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb. I read the first volume a couple of years ago and it barely made an impression. Rather than try to re-read that, I went to volume 2. It says something that I don't really think volume 1 was needed to appreciate 2.

In any case, despite the fact that I think assassins are pretty much silly in fantasy, and despite the slow start, I am quite enjoying the book now. Hobb has put together some genuinely moving scenes and I'm reading a couple of chapters just about every day. The names of the royal court still grate on me but I console myself with the good names of non-royal characters.

My last read by Hobb forever scared me off her :/

Assassins are one of the things that will make me jump on a book without thinking much about it, lol. I don't even care. They're just fun to me.
 

Gurkhal

Auror
Interesting. I read Hobb when I was younger and could read a 300 novel per week or so, while attending school, training football and such at the same time, and I really liked her. I remember her slow pace but it really wasn't a problem for me as I got to immerse myself more in the setting and get to know the characters more. I only wish I could confidently take on her massive tomes a second time, but my reading pace has slackened to much since then.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
There's definitely room to cut with Hobb. I have spotted her telling me things she's already told me, often in the form of a reminiscence. Or in providing details for a place--she's fond of the kitchen--that she's done more than once. I'm trying to pay attention to where and why my eye starts to slide over the text.

She's strong on set pieces, such as the speech Ket (can't reproduce the full name) delivers to the troops after an attack from the Forged.
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
I just finished The Trouble with Wanting, and Other Not-Quite Faerie Tales, by Rommy Cortez-Driks. It's a collection of fairytales and stories with faeries in them. It's not a modern-style retelling of classic fairytales, but it does put a modern twist on some of the stories. Well worth the time and highly recommended.
 
I'm reading The Black Prism by Brent Weeks. I do not like it very much except for the magic system. I'm almost 200 pages in.

I just finished A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi yesterday. Not too fond of that one either. It was supposed to be a story about a Muslim girl growing up in post 9/11 America, which was the good part. But as YA is fond of doing, the book focused mainly on a very boring romance, which I hated. I hate romance in books the vast majority of the time. :/
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Reading The Godfather, by Mario Puzo. It's interesting reading a book after having seen the movie several times. The characters are physically much as they are in the movie (except for Fredo). I can see where the director chose to cut parts out of the book (much more of Johnny Fontana in the book). It's a testament to Puzo's writing that I can still be pulled into the story despite knowing it so well. I'm trying to pay attention to specific techniques, but his writing is so neutral in tone, it's hard to catch him at it.
 

neodoering

Minstrel
I'm currently reading an anthology, The Year's Best Science Fiction, edited by Gardner Dozois. 300,000 words in 38 stories ranging from about 10 pages to 60 pages long. So far I really like some of the stories, and others don't do a thing for me. That's ok, can't love everything I read. I do recommend it if you want to get a finger on the pulse of the short sci-fi market; these are tales the professionals thought were worthy of publication, and as such they are worth reading.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Is that the current one? If so, you are reading Dozois' last work. He died last May. One of the great magazine editors, and probably one of the last, given how genre magazines fare these days.
 

neodoering

Minstrel
skip.knox,

Thanks for filling me in; I'm sorry to hear about Gardner passing away. I've read his anthology every year for about the last 10 years, and it is tough to imagine anyone taking his place.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I really do think we are losing something permanently here. There simply isn't going to be another generation like that of Gardner Dozois, H.L. Gold, James Blish, James Baen, Ben Bova, Damon Knight, Anthony Boucher (not to mention Gernsback and Campbell). The world has changed; it is too fractured now.

I'm getting old (am old!). I miss the unity when one listened to that one underground radio station, got the news from this newspaper and that network (Cronkite, or Huntley-Brinkley?), and the number of SF (and fantasy) publishers and magazines could be counted on one hand. One belonged to a subculture that was shared right across the country. Seeing someone at the newsstand looking through the latest copy of Astounding meant you could talk to them. They were of our people.

The magazine editors played a crucial role in creating that feeling.
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
You ever feel like youve run into so many sucky books in a row you dont want to read anymore for a while?
Not quite exactly like this, but close. Last few years, I've come across books that I didn't enjoy for various reasons, but I've still felt compelled to give them a good chance and not pick up a new story before I've finished the ones I've started. This then lead to me just not reading at all. It became a chore rather than a pleasure.
I'm now trying real hard to not get back into that situation, and I allow myself to put away and forget about books I don't enjoy.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
You ever feel like youve run into so many sucky books in a row you dont want to read anymore for a while?
My trusty reading list protects me from this. I'm slogging my way through Robin Hobb's Royal Assassin. Whenever I get discouraged (which is every couple of chapters), I turn to my reading list.

I just finished Old Yeller by Fred Gipson. Good story. It also reminded me that good fiction about 19thc or early 20thc rural America is a great place for fantasy writers to find pre-industrial tidbits--not only about material life but also habits of mind and speech. La vie quotidienne.

At a far extreme, I'm also reading Breakfast at Tiffany's, by Truman Capote.
 

Gurkhal

Auror
I never thought it could possibly come to this for me, but I feel disillusioned with GRRM at this moment after reading "Fire and Blood" as I realize that I have tricked myself into seeing things that were not there in the story. GRRM is an excellent author and deserves great credit praise for his work, but I can't personally love it any longer, even if I hope I will still appreciate it. The flaws of fantasy stories that I thought he might not have, have become clear to me.

I don't feel much bitterness but more feeling a bit of emptiness over a wonderful dream I once had, but can no longer recall.
 

Gurkhal

Auror
And right now I am currently reading four books at the same time while jumping between them; Russia: People and Empire, A History of the Archaic Greek World, A Complete Guide to Heraldry and Fire and Blood.

After these ones are done I hope to continue with Mary Renault and Tolostoy.
 
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