Hello to all my wonderfully bookish blogger geeks! As always, I try to get this post out as early in the month as possible, but it usually appears around the second week. I know, I suck. But I wanna hear from you! Tell me what you’re reading currently, what’s on your radar and/or your to-read list. Don’t forget to let me know what it’s all about either, as I get a ton of great recommendations on this post. Also, it can be somewhat of a tool for other users looking for a good read or two.
I recently finished Golden Fool, the second book in Robin Hobb’s Tawny Man trilogy, and the fifth book chronicling the sad life of FitzChivalry Farseer. You can find the review I posted yesterday here! I’ll definitely be getting into the next book, Fool’s Fate as soon as possible. I’ve got it all lined up with my Audible account.
But first and foremost on my to-read list would be Aftermath, the latest Star Wars novel, by Chuck Wendig, and the first in-canon novel to detail the events of the fall of the Galactic Empire after Return of the Jedi… or so it seems. I’m already halfway through it and, although definitely not the best new in-canon book I’ve read, one of the most eye-opening. I’ve chosen to read this via hardcover and listen via Audible, so I can just breeze through it, at home and on the go. Should have my review up very soon.
A friend of mine introduced me to the Mistborn audio drama series recently, so I’ll be beginning book one, The Final Empire, very soon in that format. The audio drama is produced by Graphic Audio, and I’ve listened to some of their stuff in the past, so I’m definitely looking forward to this one. As Brandon Sanderson is one of my favorite authors in the fantasy genre, I’ve been dying to read Mistborn for ages.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant, and Last Song Before Night, both debut novels from Seth Dickinson and Ilana C. Meyer respectively, are also on my to-read list. Tor has given me ARCs to read, and though I know little about either, I plan to make the most of their many pages.
I also hope to read further into my favorite Valiant Comics stories by diving into Harbinger, Volume Five: Death of a Renegade, and X-O Manowar, Volume Three: Planet Death.
It’s an ambitious month for me, but I think I’ll be able to handle it. What about you? Be sure to friend me on Goodreads. And if you’re interested in an 30-Day free trial (which comes with two free audiobooks), check out my post Is Audible Worth It?
Geekritique
Last night, I started reading the published screenplay of Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan by Jack B. Sowards. It is still, I maintain, the greatest hard science fiction ever written. Sometimes I like to recite Khan’s lines out-loud, in character. It’s out of print now.
Also, I’ve recently acquired Age of Ultron. I’m not sure if Hawkeye’s fake badass. But it’ll probably get more interesting once we get back to “before”.
And there’s The Good, the bad the Multiplex by film critic Mark Kermode, who’s hilarious. If you haven’t seen him, check out his YouTube. I read Hatchet job: Love Film, Hate Critics, which he also wrote, and this one’s about the perceived decline of quality in the cinema industry. Definitely worth a read.
Started reading Watchmen. It’s kinda cool, I guess. Not far into it enough to really comment. But Rorschach is awesome.
Another one is The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. I’ve never seen this done before, but it’s a comic book sequel to an album. Originally based on the album Danger Days by My Chemical Romance. The two music videos Na Na Na (not as crap as it sounds) and SING (also not as crap as it sounds) were set about twenty years before the events of the comic book, where a group of flamboyant, theatrical, domino-mask wearing vigilantes drive around the Californian desert after a nuclear war killing Draculoids and listening to pirate radio. So twenty years later, one of the people they saved has teamed-up with other imitators who colour their hair and wear kinda gimpy superhero outfits they put together themselves and live in a big house together playing video-games. Some say it’s a political analogy, I say it’s an expression of artistic freedom. I will spray-paint my cape if I want to. Val Velocity is by far the sexiest comic book character ever created (and I read X-Men). Also, the villain’s Grant Morrison.
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Recently started on Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’ and if I ever get through that behemoth I think ‘Catch-22’ is on the agenda.
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I’m currently listening to The Three-Body Problem, which just won the Hugo Award for best novel. I’m maybe 1/3 of the way through and am really enjoying it so far.
After that, I may reread The Uplift War by David Brin, so I can finish that series again. I’ve heard good things about the <Malazan Book of the Fallen series, and have the audio version of the first book ready to go. I also have Voices by LeGuin on my short list. I’m not sure which I’ll do next.
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I’m currently part way through the second book in the Mistborn trilogy. I’ve been at 200 pages for a while and I want to finally finish it. I think you’ll like Mistborn. It’s brilliant and another great Sanderson magic system. But there are so many books I want to read this month. I’m doing a readathon this week, but after that I want to read Queen of Shadows, A Thousand Pieces of You, Vicious, and one of my fave booktubers convinced me to read The Assassin’s Apprentice. I can’t wait until next month because I’m going to start rereading Harry Potter.
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Assassin’s Apprentice… Robin Hobb is devilishly good. I just started the sixth book in the FitzChivalry Farseer series, Fool’s Fate. This series will rip you asunder. Hobb pushes her character beyond their mental and physical limits, and it’s just so well done.
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I wanted to read the entire Magicians trilogy last month, but ended up not finishing it on time. So, I am currently in the middle of the third book.
I found this really beautiful soft-leather edition of Frankenstein and that’s what I’ll be reading afterwards.
In addition to that I’m planning on reading Until Friday Night which is like a YA contemporary book about a football player and a girl who barely ever speaks.
And last but not least I am really excited about reading The Next Together. It’s about this couple that’s being reincarnated and they fall in love each time but can’t seem to stay together or something terrible always happens. I like those kind of star-crossed lovers stories.
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How is the Magicians trilogy, as far as you’ve read?
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The first book had really weird pacing. It was about 400 pages long but within the first 200 of those you went through 4 years of the main character’s life.
I guess I imagined it to be more like a Hogwarts for adults, but the time Quentin (the main character) spends at college is not very detailed and a bit boring except for 2 or 3 incidents. After that it turns into Narnia with a darker twist. Another thing I didn’t really like that much was that everyone was just so miserable all the time.
I liked the second book better. It was more fast-paced and they at least started to realise what made them happy hahaha
I am just at the beginning of the third one now and it still has some surprises in store. By now I just really want to know how it ends!
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Interesting twist on the genre.. I’m not sure how interested I am with it though. I might give it a try.
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I only read it because I wanted to know more about the upcoming TV show that’s based on the books. I can’t really see it happening the way it did in the books from what I saw in the trailer, but I think it will be a really good show nonetheless.
The books started to grow on me a little, but I doubt they’ll ever be among my favourite book series.
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That’s kind of the gist of what I hear from others.
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I read the first book in the series, and I agree with Impossiblegirl’s take on it. I have the audio version of book 2 in my queue, but have been hesitant to start it because I haven’t really been in the mood for something so dark. It’s nice to hear that it’s a bit quicker and the characters aren’t so depressing.
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Oh is it a depressing read?
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Not as a whole, it’s just that the characters always seemed depressed. Like Impossiblegirl said, they’re miserable all the time, and it drags the story down a bit. The world and plot are both great and really enjoyable.
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Ah, I see.
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I like. : )
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I’m so excited for you. Mistborn is fanstastic. The first book specifically. That book can stand on its own. The rest of the series is just frosting in my humble opinion. Enjoy it. You’ll have to let me know how the audible version is. I haven’t done well with Sanderson’s books narration. I’ve accepted they are ones I have to read to truly appreciate, but I haven’t tried the The Final Empire series via Audible
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Well it’s not quite an audiobook. It’s a full cast audio drama. Apparently it’s very good. We’ll see. I loved his Stormlight Archive books on Audible. Kate Reading and Michael Kramer are among my favorite narrators.
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