Fall Reading

At the advice of a wise woman, I've started reading again. This combined with my revival of interest in Gunpla and Final Fantasy XIV, I'm running out of a lot of time. I know, internet, you've missed my Gunpla work and it will continue very soon. I'm currently warming up on a Ver. Ka Victory Dash Gundam. Once that is finished, I plan to dive head first into my Perfect Grade 00 Raiser. But enough of all of that, onto the books.

I purchased the 6" Kindle, which is roughly the size of the paperbacks I'm used to reading. The list of books I have lined up are the following:

1) A Shadow in Summer - Daniel Abraham
So far, this is in a vein all to its own. I just started it tonight and I love it. We'll see how it goes forward.

2) Elantris / Warbreaker / The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson
As much as the Mistborn series was a reach for me, I'm giving Sanderson another chance.

3) The Black Prism - Brent Weeks
I know little to nothing of this, but it came recommended.

4) The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
More io9 suggestions. I believe it was their fantasy book of 2009.

5) The Strain - Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hohan
The author alone is a reason to give this a chance.

6) The Gathering Storm - Robert Jordan / Brandon Sanderson
I'm apparently a masochist.

7) The Sword of Shannara - Terry Brooks
I'll elaborate further below.

8) Boneshaker - Cherie Priest
Recommended by io9

9) Leviathan / Behemoth - Scott Westerfeld
Highly recommended due to the concept art alone

10) Kraken - China Mieville
Recommended by my good friend Cameron Frantz, I believe he said, "it has a lot more scifi elements than I really expected" which made my ears perk.

11) Thomas Covenant Series - Stephen R. Donaldson
I have the first 3 books in paperback packed away, so once my remodeling is done I will unearth them.

12) Dune - Frank Herbert
I'm ashamed it's taken this long.

13) World War Z - Max Brooks
Just as ashamed.

14) Storm Front - Jim Butcher
I watched "Dresden Files" on Sci-fi Channel and enjoyed the premise, so I figured I would give the books a try.

Review ( sort of ): The Sword of Shannara - Terry Brooks
Pain. So much pain. I understand that this was written in the 70's but it definitely is very much dated. Glen Cook's "Chronicles of the Black Company" were written shortly there-after and are still better than most of the garbage being labeled as "fantasy" these days.

This book has promise as the concept was interesting, but it just felt like it was trying too hard. Dwarves being forest creatures? Gnomes being yellow hunters of the land? I understand our standards of fantasy are jaded by dungeons and dragons or Tolkien, but what about a dwarf says "forest" to you? The short and stumpy limbs?

The idea where all the fantasy races were mutated from "future humans of a collapsing society" also kind of rubbed me the wrong way. One of the characters said "except for the elves, but that's a whole other tale" which irked me even more. I forced myself to read in order to find that little tidbit out, but I could go no further.

Most authors take a single character and show his perspective throughout a chapter, or a book, or a section. Not our friend Brooks. He likes to throw you into the minds of every single fucking person in a 20 foot radius which shifts almost between sentences. It was painful. "I wish I could tell them the secrets that weigh painfully in my soul" or so garbage was said almost every single fucking time the "Gandalf" ripoff spoke in his mind.

So, needless to say, I closed the book and moved onto Daniel Abraham by the suggestion of Mr. Fox. Good call, Foxy.

Anyway, more to come and more posting in my future.

Cheers, internet.
- Eric