Gracielis
Yes, I know; a movie tie-in edition. But, I bought the book around the time the movie came out, and I loved that movie. And I quite like the movie-poster.
I own a lot of short story collections and anthologies. I don't read them enough. So, I made a bit of a project. I put a few short story collections in my reading pile and tried to read a couple of stories each week. This is the first one I finished.
Eight very well-written stories. I didn't love all of them, though they were all very clever, and quite impressive. I didn't dislike any of them.
My favourite story was definitely Story of Your Life, that inspired the movie. But I also really appreciated Seventy-Two Letters, Hell Is the Absence of God and Liking What You See: A Documentary.
I'm definitely interested in reading Exhalation.
”There is no struggle too vast, no odds too overwhelming, for even should we fail - should we fall - we will know that we have lived.” Anomander Rake
I am very happy I gave this series another shot, it is so good! This one is quite different in some ways from many of the others. There is much less military campaign and more following other characters and problems, some ‘normal' people and some of the rich and powerful.
There is lots of death, of characters both old and new - enough to break your heart. It is very well-written and I found lots of quotes that spoke to me.
Of course it's also a book with a lot of Kruppe and Iskaral Pust, and so you will find yourself reading a sentence like this: “The gate creaked open, inviting invitation and so invited Kruppe invited himself in.”
I decided it's been way too long since I read LotR. I had a lot of stuff to do, so decided to listen to the new audiobook narrated by Andy Serkis. On the whole I felt like he did a great job. His Tom Bombadill was very annoying to me and I decidedly didn't enjoy his performance in many of the songs.
I still love the story, though, and the characters, and the language and...
I'm going to miss Alex, Luna, Hermes and the others. I have really enjoyed the series.
I'm glad Richard was finally dealt with - couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy... I was sad that Sonder died, and Alex' death made me cry. I liked the epilogue, and while I'm usually the person rooting for the miraculous save, I haven't decided if I like it in this case.
Now, I'm waiting for what Benedict Jacka will publish next.
A long time ago (18+ years) I overdosed on Robin Hobb. I haven't read anything by her since then. I was finally persuaded to have another look, and as the audiobook was available on Libby, I gave it a go.
It really is a very good book. But, I will be careful not to overdose again, so will wait a while before I do the next one.
I had this idea to spend October reading romance books as my own little protest against “spooky season”, primarily because I'm not really interested in horror.
But then, this was on my shelf...
In the end it didn't feel very “horror-y”, but then I'm not an experienced horror reader. The part of the book that seemed most important to me was the fact that the main characters are African American in the 1950's. The portrayal of how they were treated by white people, including authorities, was the scariest part of the book, as well as absolutely infuriating.
I'm still enjoying my journey through the Malazan Book of the Fallen. Am seriously considering that I may have to upgrade all the titles to 5 stars. These books are so good, and I keep thinking about events and characters long after I read the books.
I don't generally care that much about the bad guys, so it's kind of amazing how much I pity a despicable character like Rhulad. My favourite parts of this book were probably the Fiddler and the Tehol parts. Oh, and Beak made me cry so hard!
“People with no sense or appreciation of humour, Invigilator, always take money too seriously. It's possession, anyway. Which is why they spend all their time stacking coins, counting this and that, gazing lovingly over their hoards and so on. They're compensating for the abject penury everywhere else in their lives.”
I read these when I was about 12, I would guess. I remembered the names Ged and Sparrowhawk and not really anything else.
Rereading them, I really liked them. They have a fairy-tale feel, with enough description for the setting, and not really any action-sequences, in the ‘modern' sense. No blow-by-blow accounts.
Of the four I think I found A Wizard of Earthsea the weakest. Possibly also because I have read a lot of classic fantasy. So things like the jealousy-storyline with Jasper were very predictable to me.
My favourites were The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore. Tehanu was good too, but sort of sadder and more wistful.
“The existence of many gods conveys true complexity of mortal life. Conversely, the assertion of but one god leads to a denial of complexity, and encourages the need to make the world simple.”
I'm not religious, so I don't necessarily agree with this, but there's something interesting about that quote.
I really liked this book! Continuing the journey through the Malazan Book of the Fallen, and as always that journey is difficult and exciting and gives me lots to think about. This had some very strong, dramatic events, and as usual lots of characters that are fascinating to follow. Quick Ben, Kalamazoo, Apsalar, Lostara Yil, Fiddler, Bottle, Hellian, Icarium, Tavore to mention a few.
This next quote made me laugh:
“Ignoring him, she stepped back out of the ellipse and began singing in the Woman's Language, which was, of course, unintelligible to Iskaral's ears. Just as the Man's Language - which Mogora called gibberish - was beyond her ability to understand. The reason for that, Iskaral Pust knew, was that the Man's Language was gibberish, designed specifically to confound women. It's a fact that men don't need words, but women do. We have penises after all. Who needs words when you have a penis?”
Wow, this was so good! As always Kay made me cry...
This takes place in the alternate Europe Kay has been working in for so long, and it was gratifying to see little signs not only of the other two books at this stage, but also things like Jehane's statue, and Crispin's art.
I loved the story, characters, themes, and as always Kay's writing style is so beautiful.
I finished this approximately 8 minutes ago, I may add to/change this when I've had some time to gather my thoughts.