What are you Reading Now?

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Any Weird Fiction recs? Is China Mieville any good?

 

[Steerpike]

Any Weird Fiction recs? Is China Mieville any good?

Yes, he is. The City and The City is particularly good.

 

[Dark Squiggle]

Any Weird Fiction recs? Is China Mieville any good?

He is great, and his writing is incredible, but I find his plots unsettling and characters unsatisfying. I would start with Neil Gaiman.

 

[Mythopoet]

So, I read Beauty by Robin McKinley in 2 days (a feat, I assure you, for a mom of 5) even staying up way past my bedtime to finish it. IT WAS SO GOOD. I'm not a big fan of romance, in general, but this particular retelling of Beauty and the Beast really smote me in the feels.

Currently reading The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold and right now I would only call it moderately enjoyable but that's probably because I am also not a fan of fantasy that centers around royal politics.

 

[Steerpike]

Robin McKinley is SO good.

I'm reading 9 Tales of Raffalon, by Matthew Hughes, which are delightful Jack Vance/Dying Earth-like stories. They remind me a bit of old school Sword and Sorcery.

 

[Mythopoet]

Robin McKinley is SO good.

Yeah this was the 3rd book of hers I've read but I wasn't really expecting to like it so much since I found the romance elements of The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown to be... not nearly so well done.

 

[Steerpike]

Yeah this was the 3rd book of hers I've read but I wasn't really expecting to like it so much since I found the romance elements of The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown to be... not nearly so well done.

Yes, they're not. "Deerskin" is a wonderful, if heartbreaking, novel of hers. I also like her urban fantasy "Sunshine."

 

[Insolent Lad]

I am rereading some of Ernest Bramah's 'Kai Lung' books—currently on Kai Lung's Golden Hours—having lost all my copies to flooding way back in '93. Both better than and not as good as I remember. That is, the stories are nothing special, but the telling of them is highly entertaining.

 

[Mythopoet]

I finished reading The Curse of Chalion and ended up liking it so much more than I expected to at the beginning. There was a lot more to it than political intrigue. Including really good development and use of a pantheon such as you seldom see in fantasy these days. There was a lot of great characterization too. I've started the sequel, Paladin of Souls. I was totally hooked as soon as I learned the sequel follows a character from the first book who is a washed up 40-year-old woman trying to reclaim her life. Talk about things you never see in fantasy.

I'm also reading Deerskin. I didn't realize at first that this is also a fairytale retelling. It's actually kind of disturbing how many versions of this tale exist in folklore, considering that it involves a King deciding to marry his own daughter. McKinley's version gives some really intense, repulsively compelling characterization to the King.

 

[Nimue]

Heh, you’re literally reading my two favorite authors right now, Mytho. I actually read Paladin of Souls first and it hooked me too, so I went into Curse of Chalion expecting more good stuff, and was duly rewarded. Bujold’s characters feel so real in their dialogue and behavior without falling into the fallacy that realism means selfishness and grey morality... I also loved the Hallowed Hunt, the third book in that world, even though the plot didn’t feel as tight, but that might have been because it had a lot of elements in my wheelhouse (romance, okay, there was more romance in it.)

Deerskin...I probably read it too young, considering, and the images and emotion stuck with me. I don’t know that it’s a book everyone would enjoy, but it’s lodged close to my heart.

Have you read Carol Berg’s Rai-Kirah trilogy, Mytho? Another strong, upstanding main character there, although the series is a difficult read in a lot of ways. The first book grabbed me, the second one kind of wore me out with its gratuitous torture of the main character, but the third one did redeem itself, I think.

 

[Steerpike]

Deerskin stuck with me and I read it in my 30s. Great book.

I second Uprooted, as well. Really liked that one.

 

[Nimue]

I read Uprooted a while ago and for some reason didn’t love it...it felt kind of discordant, but I can’t put my finger on why. Was it that the arc of the main character growing into her power and the creepy otherworldly forest plot didn’t really support each other? Maybe it deserves a re-read.

 

[Mythopoet]

Have you read Carol Berg’s Rai-Kirah trilogy, Mytho? Another strong, upstanding main character there, although the series is a difficult read in a lot of ways. The first book grabbed me, the second one kind of wore me out with its gratuitous torture of the main character, but the third one did redeem itself, I think.

No I haven't. I'm both tempted a leery. Gratuitous torture of the main character was why I had to stop reading the Dresden Files. Still I'll put it on the list.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

I finished reading The Curse of Chalion and ended up liking it so much more than I expected to at the beginning. There was a lot more to it than political intrigue. Including really good development and use of a pantheon such as you seldom see in fantasy these days. There was a lot of great characterization too.

Sounds like a book I need to read. I love a well-done pantheon story. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is one of my favorites.

 

[Heliotrope]

Currently reading The False Prince by Jennifer A. Neilson. I'm kinda meh about it.

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen

I just finished reading Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. It was fantastic.

https://www.amazon.ca/Bud-Buddy-Christopher-Paul-Curtis/dp/0440413281

Yes. I read a lot of kid's lit.

 

[Antonius]

Recently caught up to the latest chapter for Peerless Martial God by Jing Hu Wen.

 

[Chessie2]

My husband gave me a book about the apocalypse: Are We Living In The End Times? Actually, it's not really. It's about Bible prophecy in the last days and it's addicting. So much good stuff. Lol he knows me well.

 

[Mythopoet]

I finished Deerskin last night. It was really excellent.

 

[Nimue]

I’m reading Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea books, and...wow. Such deep fantastic writing. I believe I tried to read the Earthsea books when I was a kid, but found them too dour. (I also think I started with one in the middle). Now that I have the patience to bide with them, I’m finding so much joy in them as well.

 

[Mythopoet]

I started reading The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemison since I was able to get it on sale recently. It was unexpectedly blown away by the beginning. I've read her The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and thought it only ok. But so far I'm really impressed and fascinated by The Fifth Season.