Sometime in June, I want to read a book by an author who is new to me and has had a book sitting unread on my shelf for at least a year. I'm not sure which one to choose, though, so I made a poll for it. The poll will stay open until I finish The Silver Metal Lover and either Busted Flush or The Last Argument of Kings.
The options are:
J.V. Jones - A Cavern of Black Ice
Catherynne Valente - The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden
Laura Resnick - In Legend Born
John Varley - Titan
Tim Powers - The Anubis Gates
Which one do you want me to read and review sometime in June?
This morning I did finish my May book (hard science fiction), The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It took a long time to get going and I almost put it down a few times, but once it got going it was good and I ended up glad I stuck with it. I need to do some laundry and make a birthday cake so I'm not sure I'll get to review it today, but hopefully I'll get to review it sometime over the next week.
13 comments:
The Anubis Gates time infinity. Easily one of my top five books of all time!
~Aidan
A Dribble of Ink
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. It's great!
I have heard a lot of good things about The Anubis Gates! The only vote so far is for Catherynne Valente so I'll add two votes for Tim Powers to the poll at the right.
All good choices. My biased opinion is in this order:
1. Laura Resnick - In Legend BornShocking, I know, given that it's probably my rec to begin with. It's fairly traditional fantasy very well executed that I really enjoyed, and re-read twice. Good female characters - untypical IMO, fast-paced story with several climaxes, each resolution followed by a new revelation and conflict, this pattern sustained well over the 2 sequels, similar to the way Morehouse or Berg did it, still presenting a finished storyline by the end of the book.
2. John Varley - TitanI know April really likes this book, and you did say you need to read more science fiction. This is a classical "large mysterious object with an entire world inside" scifi setup. Good enough, small book,, quick read, although it didn't blow me away.
3. Catherynne Valente - The Orphan's Tales: In the Night GardenThis is good, but I had trouble reading it because of its nested story-within-a-story structure - it seems there was no good point to put the book down, and that exhausted me quickly. And with a non-linear narrative it's hard to build suspense.
4. Tim Powers - The Anubis GatesThis is historical, time-travel spec fic with all of the action taking place in 19th century Britain. A lot of people love this stuff, but it leaves me cold. If you enjoyed books like Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog or Jasper Fforde's The Eey Affair, this is in that vein. I just don't love 19th cent Britain that charming or interesting.
5. J.V. Jones - A Cavern of Black Ice
Haven't read.
I have an idea! You should implement weighted ratings. For each book that a person has already recommended to you that you happened to love, they get an extra vote. :-P
Pass on J.V.Jones, though I haven't read the others. Still, I liked the title of Anubis Gates and from the previous comments, that looks like it might be an interesting read.
I read The Anubis Gates several years ago and to be honest it didn't work for me. For this is one of these books which you either like or dislike. There is nothing between.
I vote for A Cavern of Black Ice because it is on my list and I would like to read your review about it.
my vote goes for valente :)
I vote for The Orphan's Tales. Valente has a rare gift for truly fantastical worlds and characters and her prose is a joy to read. The "Tales" are the real meat of this book. Due to the structure of the novel, it's best not to focus too much on plot and just let the story carry you along.
The only other book I've read is The Anubis Gates, and like a few others here I didn't care for it too much. It's not a bad book at all, I just had trouble caring about anything that happened. I've had the same problem with two of Powers' other books that I've read.
I'm now going to embarrass myself completely by admitting that I haven't read any of those books...nor any books by those authors, so I can't vote :( I do look forward to reading your reivew though :)
Nephtis - In Legend Born does sound really good. It's one of those that I keep wanting to read but keep putting off because it looks like it will take me 2 - 3 weeks to get through.
Darkened Jade - Have you read that book by JV Jones or a different one? I have heard her other series is not nearly as good as that one.
ediFanoB - I admit I am a bit hesitant to pick up The Anubis Gates since it is one I started to read at one point and put down. Since I didn't get very far before becoming impatient, I figured it was just me. I hadn't heard anyone say they didn't like this one, but after reading through the comments, I see quite a few people said they didn't.
Thrinidir - Have you read the Valente book?
Benjamin - I love reading great prose; the Valente book sounds wonderful! What are the other two books by Tim Powers you've read?
Orannia - You can still vote - just pick a title or book that sounds interesting to you!
The Anubis Gates is ahead so far but I'm not even done with the short book I'm reading now so it will probably be up for a little while.
Kristen, the other two Powers books were On Stranger Tides and The Drawing of the Dark.
With Tides, I had the same problem as with Anubis; it was good, but I didn't care about what happened. I actually enjoyed Dark quite a bit so I'm not sure why I lumped it in with the other two. At 30, my memory isn't what it used to be. :P
Benjamin - I understand, my memory isn't quite what it used to be either. The Drawing of the Dark did sound interesting. I remember reading it at some point but don't remember where (told you my memory isn't as good as it used to be!).
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