Flights of Fantasy discussion

Good luck with your little reader, Felina!

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I recently read a duology by Charlie Holmberg - Spellbreaker and Spellmaker. She's becoming one of my go-to authors for some kind of light and fluffy romance with a decent smattering of fantasy/mystery/fairy tale. That said, I was all prepared to give the duo a 4-star rating, but then I found the ending a little anti-climactic... so I think 3.5 stars instead.

My next project is a small brontosaurus amigurumi, in blue, white and red (for French flag colors).

I have to go to the library tomorrow or Friday to pick up my next book, Fangirl.

I've got a couple books going...
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (still!)
The Fire Next Time (finished but need to review)
An Unkindness of Ghosts (30 ish %)
A Colony in a Nation (about 10% or so)

Upcoming...
The Only Good Indians
Homegoing

Artemis and the soul of the marionette

koushik prasad wrote: "Artemis and the soul of the marionette"

Artemis by Andy Weir? How are you liking it?

I also like Charlie Holmberg. I read her trilogy of the glass magicians…I think that’s what it was. Or paper? But really liked it. I’ll have to check those out.

How’s Malcolm X? I’ve been wanting to read that forever.

Felina wrote: "How’s Malcolm X? I’ve been wanting to read that forever."

It's interesting and really good, but it is one I wish I had on audio, lol. I'm reading it and though it's insightful and really well written, it tends to be what I pick up at night, and then I zonk out. Whoops.

I hear you there. I struggle with reading around bed time cause I’m instantly tired but bed time is the only time I have. Figures. I have actually found reading in my phone is helpful. The blue light keeps me awake. Ha ha.

Felina wrote: "I also like Charlie Holmberg. I read her trilogy of the glass magicians…I think that’s what it was. Or paper? But really liked it. I’ll have to check those out."

Paper Magician was the first trilogy, but there was a follow-up book called Glass Magician.

I also really liked her The Will and the Wilds, but in a total guilty pleasure kinda way.

I can't really read on my phone for long periods or it'll give me headaches. (Not to mention the distraction of games and GR. LOL)

Come to think of it, I do t think I finished the paper magician trilogy. I read them when Wesley was in the NICU and I just stopped once he got out. Those deserve a reread.

Becky wrote: "koushik prasad wrote: "Artemis and the soul of the marionette"

Artemis by Andy Weir? How are you liking it?"

Hi, I just finished it. It was not a total waste of time. Like martian, got to know some cool science facts even though the protagonist is not as likeable as the scientist from that. The story was okay for a lunar heist novel and some supporting characters were more interesting. I will rate it between 3 and 4 out of a 5

Agreed, Koushik. I didn't like Artemis nearly as much as I loved The Martian, but I was very happy that I enjoyed Project Hail Mary much more than Artemis. It wasn't perfect, but it was really good and enjoyable! Have you read PHM yet?

Felina wrote: "Come to think of it, I do t think I finished the paper magician trilogy. I read them when Wesley was in the NICU and I just stopped once he got out. Those deserve a reread."

I definitely liked the first in the trilogy the best, but I thought it wrapped up well. I had thought you didn't like them when you read them, so I'm glad I was wrong. ^_^

I mean, there were some hokey parts but I remember enjoying.

Felina wrote: "I mean, there were some hokey parts but I remember enjoying."

<3

I said my next book was gonna be Fangirl, but I lied, 'cause I started The Red Fox Clan instead, to prepare for Duel at Araluen, 'cause I kinda forgot what happened...

I read zero things this entire weekend. Not one thing.

Currently reading Outlander because I loved the tv show. I know this is sacrilege...but I think the tv show is better. The plot is very slow, Claire doesn't seem too concerned in getting home a month after being sent back in time (she wants to, but she's not super frantic or freaked out like I would be), everyone's suspicions of her are present but very subdued.... It's not the worst thing I've read, but reading the whole series seems unlikely. I'll probably just stick with the show.

I audio’ed that one while at work probably 10+ years ago. The reader had a gorgeous Scottish accent so I stuck it out. I didn’t hate it but I never did move forward with the series and likely won’t. Jamie’s a hot piece though.

It's been about a month since I posted here last. I only finished two of the books I posted about on July 1: the very short The Fire Next Time, and So I'm a Spider vol. 3.

Capture the Crown was a "the wrong book" situation. It is a pure entertainment type story, imo, something that doesn't stand up to the lightest scrutiny, and after I'd read three books of a similar feeling/caliber over vacation, brain was not having it. I beat my head against it for three weeks, and gave up.

Currently reading The Night Watchman. I read one of Erdrich's books in college back in the 19-mumbles, and have only vague memories of it. This is a much more recent book of hers. So far, I'm enjoying it--it's suspenseful, and also a vivid portrait of life in a certain place at a certain time.

Audio: Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion, an overview of Douglas Adams' career, with particular emphasis on HGttG. Also Bleak House. I've tried to read a couple of Dickens' novels, but stalled out fairly early on. This one's a doorstop, and although it's going slowly, the narration is great, very absorbing. It feels like I'm visiting London and its various sites and denizens along with the narrator.

Sorry to hear 'Capture the Crown' didn't really work for you.

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I finished the reread of The Red Fox Clan and finished it's follow-up, Duel at Araluen. It was ok... but super predictable. For a book about a castle being under seige filled with characters we should like from previous encounters... there just wasn't any real sense of suspense or concern...

I'm now starting Fangirl. I'm only a few chapters in, but I like the writing style.

At some point I'll write reviews of the books that I read last month... maybe.

I can only successfully write reviews on books I hate and because I usually stop reading books I hate, I have like 10 reviews to my name.

My reviews have been very lackluster of late. I end up writing them months later, and by then I barely remember most of the book...

*my mind is a sieve*

When I try to review a book I liked it turns into a book report or is a slobbering fan girl simp. Neither are good reviews.

I don't have the capacity to either hate-read or hate-review, and like Felina, if it's something I really loved, the most you'll get out of me sometimes is a paragraph that's six lines of "Eeeeee!" The reviews I can think of that were most successful, were ones that I had mixed feelings about: a book that I enjoyed and felt that it had several flaws, or one that I know is well-regarded and didn't do much for me. The former often gets acid irony, the latter long-winded semi-apology...

I don't know that I have a particular method on this... I write reviews based on things I want to talk about after the book, and they can be as long or short as I have things to say about them -- and the vocabulary to express those things. Sometimes it's just too much and I can't be bothered... but that's pretty rare. LOL

I don't have a particular method, either. Sometimes I write an 8- to 10-paragraph review about a lowball, trivial book that by no means justifies that level of thought and effort. Sometimes there's a group or buddy read that I've been thinking analytically about for three weeks straight, and don't have the wherewithal to put all the thinking I've been doing into review form, so it gets one paragraph. They're all different!

Beth wrote: "Sometimes there's a group or buddy read that I've been thinking analytically about for three weeks straight, and don't have the wherewithal to put all the thinking I've been doing into review form, so it gets one paragraph."

LOL This is exactly what keeps keeping me from reviewing The Fire Next Time. I have no idea what to put in the review because we had such a great discussion about it, but I have to review that one before I can review A Colony In a Nation, and I also need to FINISH An Unkindness of Ghosts (from like 3 weeks ago) and maybe get around to reading the library books I have out and keep renewing incessantly because I'm not reading them. But I can't do those until I review TFNT, and my brain is like "BUT HOW??"

It might get the paragraph treatment... or maybe my brain will kick in once I start and it'll turn into a review longer than the book. LOL Who can know?

Dude, I have a hard enough time just reading the books let alone the pressure of a review. I have extreme respect for consistent reviewers.

I have to... I have been doing it for so long now that if I don't review it, I don't feel like I've finished reading it, and so my brain gets stuck in this loop of feeling like I left it unfinished and that I'm just stacking more and more on top of this bottleneck book that I haven't reviewed.

I don't have any issue DNFing a book for real, but I need to officially review it and say that I did. I can't just set it aside and be done with it. When I set a book aside, it's never with the intention of never going back to it... it's just not the right time, or a pause, or something.

I have issues.

Currently reading The Sword of Shannara. I don't hate it but people weren't joking when they said they weren't sure how it got away with being such a blatant LOTR knock-off lol. I assume he must have original ideas to justify such an extensive Shannara universe, so I'm willing to stick it out, though.

Yeah it’s incredible that he got away with that. But I believe the series takes a sharp turn away from Tolkien. Keeping it vague because you said you’re going to continue on.

It got away with it cause many of us (raises hand) read it before LoTR. And, personal opinion here, while a total knock off, Shannara is nowhere near as boring as LoTR.

I don't quite think that I haven't finished a book unless I've reviewed it. (I read a lot of manga volumes, and with fluff that takes maybe an hour to read, self-mandating full reviews would be both pointless and impossible.) Every now and then with full novels, I put a star rating up and move along. Which can be frustrating when I sit down to read the second book in a series to find it makes no sense, and I haven't written a substantial review for the first to serve as a memory aid. Thinking about the book as I'm writing a review solidifies some things that would otherwise fall through the memory sieve.

Beth wrote: "Thinking about the book as I'm writing a review solidifies some things that would otherwise fall through the memory sieve."

Exactly this. Even if the review is a crap throwaway paragraph, it makes me THINK about the book separate from experiencing it, and that's enough to make it feel done.

I don't read short comics or manga like that, but probably would have a similar process if I did. The graphic novels that I do read are volumized, which feels more worthwhile for reviewing with my normal process.

Felina wrote: "It got away with it cause many of us (raises hand) read it before LoTR. And, personal opinion here, while a total knock off, Shannara is nowhere near as boring as LoTR."

I haven't read Shannara. I want to take offense to your "boring LOTR" comment, but... ya ain't wrong. :P I've read it many times, and love it, but it does seem to get more boring each time. LOL

Dear lord it’s boring. I’m not saying it’s not good…in it’s own way, but I couldn’t read it after noon or I’d fall asleep. The Hobbit on the other hand, pure delight! I’ve read it many times. LoTR was read once and will only be read once. I’ll force Wesley to read it but only once.

I'm not going to say that LotR is objectively boring, but while many people I know read it and loved it in their pre-teens, I've tried the first book many times over the years, starting at about age sixteen, and it's never stuck. Was it a matter of missing the pre-teen window? Hard to say, but I was pretty easily bored at that age, and many middle grade and YA books lost me, too, so a (nominally) adult book with a slow pace probably wouldn't have stood a chance. An audio production finally managed to get me past Tom Bombadil and on to the Prancing Pony, so who knows, maybe I'll finish the series before I die?...

Tom Bombadil is absolutely one character I was not sorry to see cut from the movies.

I've got to say for Tom Bombadil, that he is a good fit for the parts of the book I actually read. Cozy set pieces with scary stuff lurking in the background. And not a good fit for the more bombastic, action-packed movies.

Completely agreed. The entire scope and scale of the book-story is so much more expansive than the movie-story, so it allows for Tom Bombadils whereas the movies just do not.

That being said, I DO dislike that the Mouth of Sauron character was relegated to the extended cut version of the movie. One of my favorites, and I LOVED the way they brought him to life, but I can't be bothered to watch the full extended versions just for him. So... I just switch discs, watch that scene when I get there in the regular versions, and then switch back. (Is that weird? It's weird, right?)

Felina wrote: "It got away with it cause many of us (raises hand) read it before LoTR. And, personal opinion here, while a total knock off, Shannara is nowhere near as boring as LoTR."

Readers like what readers like, but I meant legally.

Felina wrote: "It got away with it cause many of us (raises hand) read it before LoTR. And, personal opinion here, while a total knock off, Shannara is nowhere near as boring as LoTR."

Yeah, what Jason said. I meant no offense. :)

No offense taken.

Since I posted last...

Finished The Night Watchman, Exit Strategy, and Wishful Drinking. Very different books, all quite good and I gave them 4 stars. A relief after a longish slog of 3 star books.

In currently reading...

On hiatus:
Bleak House: it's excellent, imo, and it's also A Lot. Literally. Ideally the hiatus will be short enough that I won't have to start all over... again.
The Goblin Emperor: the first chapter or two made me think this would be just my thing, but I'm finding it all too easy to set aside. For a relatively short book, there isn't a lot going on. I have a couple of SFFBC discussions I want to participate in, so might not come back to this until October (if I do).

Actually currently reading:
The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon (audio): this is absolutely not the kind of book I'm typically attracted to, but a friend's review made it sound so interesting, I decided to give it a try. It isn't just about the "fastest ride" in the title, and goes into all kinds of interesting subsidiary topics about the area and its history.
Soulless (reread, audio): fun and frothy Victorian-era UF with a little steampunk on the side.
Never Say You Can't Survive: How to Get Through Hard Times by Making Up Stories: more or less what its title implies. A combination of self-help book and guide for SFF writing.
She Who Became the Sun: SFFBC fantasy pick for September, and I gather it's something of a flavor of the month in SFF circles (much like Gideon was a year or two ago). Only a few pages in, so there's not much to say about it yet.

The Origins of MIller's Crossing by David Clark on Laptop
This is ususally not my reading genre that I read, but it sounded like a great Halloween story. I was not disappointed. It was filled with suspense, mystery, ghosts and demons. Also added a bit of romance. I am eager now to read the rest of the series. Excellent beginning book for a series.

Becky wrote: "Tom Bombadil is absolutely one character I was not sorry to see cut from the movies."

Yes, Bombadil was a distraction from the story's main through line in the book. It would have just been worse in the movie.

Becky wrote: " The Origins of MIller's Crossing by David Clark on Laptop
This is ususally not my reading genre that I read, but it sounded lik..."


This sounds good. I'll try to remember it for next Halloween.

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I recently read Unbirthday. This was interesting because the other Disney Fractured Fairy Tales have been of the "change one event in the story, and see what happens" vein, but this one read more like a sequel. I thought the idea of (view spoiler)[the people Alice knowing in 'the real world' having a Wonderland variant, or vice versa, was interesting (hide spoiler)], but it felt like it lacked some magic. 3-stars.

I also read A Study in Scarlet Women - a Holmes-variant where Sherlock Holmes is the fake version of the real Charlotte Holmes, but, being a woman, is forced to create a male 'face' for the business. I wanted to like this one more than I did, but the characters weren't really as developed as they could be, and it felt like it relied too much on people already being Holmes-fans. Might've been better as it's own story, without the Holmes connect. 2.5 stars.

I'm bailing on A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians. I wanted it to be like Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (hush) - but it didn't have any of the magic in the prose or the story. The writing was bland and lackluster, and I couldn't care less about most of the characters.

Lastly, I'm reading Half Sick of Shadows - the "real" story of the Lady of Shallot. Decent, so far - but it keeps making me think of the Merlin show, and it doesn't hold up to that comparison. A bit flat, as well, so far... but it's early days yet. Not enough that I'd want to bail on it - it's at least moving along, unlike 'Declaration'.

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I also cheated and knocked down by Reading Challenge number, because I don't think I could've met the already low 42 that I picked. I'm just not reading as I much as I used to... and between rehearsals and crocheting, I don't think my numbers will improve greatly by year's end.