The Rogue Moravec

Donkey kick, trapdoor kick, rising kick, jumping rising kick, jumping rising tornado kick…

Mileage may vary. There are so many books out there, find ones that speak to you. Not that effort in reading is bad, but I think this series is really, really mixed. You can always go back later if you’re curious.

Yea, the Dark Forest is a slooooooooog. While I liked the way the last book wraps up the metaphysics of this world, getting there was utterly exhausting.

I just finished Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett. I really enjoyed it, and felt like it’s a big improvement over the last few books in the chronological order of the series. Deals with problematic benevolence and imposing one’s will on others, and really cemented the personalities of the Discworld’s three primary witch characters Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick. Laughed a little too hard at Magrat reading martial arts books about the Way of the Scorpion by Grand Master Lapsong Dibbler of Ankh-Morpork.

I also recently read The Last Unicorn, by Peter S Beagle, which I have mixed feelings about. Not unlike Witches Abroad, it deals with the concept of how people interact with the stories we well, and the written language is poetic and really lovely, but there is a discordant note about how people just kind of… become whatever a story demands of them. People gain maturity or magic powers when they fill the role that requires it in a story, and bad stuff happens with people resist stories. It means the only entity in this book with any real self-determination, or whose actions may actual matter, is the unicorn, who kinda doesn’t usually do much anyway and is not affected by stories and roles like mortals are. I don’t know, I appreciated the book and really enjoyed reading it, but something about the orderliness-of-existence that rubbed me personally the wrong way, though I felt touched by the characters’ pathos.

I also read The Kite Runner, by Khaled Housseini, which gave us an incredible, painterly portrait of the intimate relationship between two children, and went on to give us a window into the Afghan expat community in America, but I felt like the strength of the story was in the childhood relationship, and the book tried to stretch that story into a three-act story involving world politics that I don’t think worked. I like the overall feel of the book, but at times it felt like plot points were glued together in a way that didn’t feel genuine.

Finally I also read Love, Death, and Robots, the anthology of short stories used for the Netflix animation feature. I felt like it was a good introductory collection of science fiction short stories for people who might not be used to reading them; a good gateway from adaptation to source material. I didn’t care for all of them, and I liked most of them. I really loved:

• Three Robots, by John Scalzi,
• Beyond the Aquila Rift, by Alastair Reynolds
• Good Hunting, by Ken Liu
• Zima Blue, by Alastair Reynolds
• The Secret War, by David W Amendola

I just recently read Dune Messiah myself, it felt like a great and sudden left-turn from Dune.

I second highlighting the book, author, and series. I like to hyperlink to OpenLibrary myself.

There is something… cozy?.. about reading IT. Not because there is anything cozy about the story, but there is something about his stream-of-consciousness writing style and approach to horror that satisfies, but only if you’re into that style of narration, and it’s one of those books you have to be content to hang out with, cause you’re gonna spend a long time with it.

All the best to you and your friend.

… aggressively don’t care about any of the characters.

That’s the worst feeling, but if you drop something that’s meh, then there’s all the more room for something awesome. Good hunting!

I know they’re a popular series, so I read the first one but I felt pretty let down by it, kinda tropey and felt like reading a screenplay. How do the later books compare to the first one?

I remember his writing style was exciting. It’s been so long since I read any of it, but I recall his books being pretty binge-able.

How are you finding it? I really enjoyed that series and the nature of magic in that world.

Zelazny wrote a fantastic short story called For A Breath I Tarry, and I wanted to read more of his work since then but only recently got the chance.

I just finished reading Foreigner, by CJ Cherryh, which I thought was a fantastic book about first contact and understanding vs communication between alien races, though the main character can sound more than a little petulant as he gets jerked around, then because he can’t relax he whines (a lot) about not having his human-goods catalogues so he can at least see a human face once in a while. Dude had a lot on his mind, so you know, I get it. For the book bingo I went with one book per square, and to be honest that was my free square because I bought almost all the books in the series and wanted to get reading them. Glad I did.

Before that I read By the Sword, by Mercedes Lackey; I’m lukewarm on it. Interesting world, great action-adventure stuff, and the main character is a likable, emotionally-mature woman leading a mercenary life in a rough world - it has its good points, but the overall tone of the story itself felt flat for me. I didn’t know it’s one of a bajillion books in the same world that Lackey wrote in, so IDK, might try another book from that pile sometime. For the bingo it satisfied the “Orange Cover Art” square due to lots of yellow leaves and hair in the art. Kind of a stretch, but I really couldn’t find something more orange-y in my collection.

I’m currently reading Nine Princes in Amber, by Roger Zelazny. It’s a really creative take on modern faerie-realm stuff that feels more like it pulls “modern day” back into European mythology rather than the way urban fantasy feels like it pulls fantasy into a more modern realism. The plot is fairly simple so far, but it’s the first in a series of relatively short novels, so I might just read a few more of them in a row and see where it goes. For the bingo, this was the “Title with a Number in It” square.

This has been such a fun way to cut into my oversized library of books I haven’t actually read yet.

Man, those books were my jam back in grade school. I gotta pick them up again sometime.

I started reading that series recently as well, and I’m quite enjoying it, and I’m taking the same approach to reading them in publication order. I’ve got Witches Abroad on my to-read list for the bingo, for the “Cozy” square. I didn’t enjoy Pyramids or Eric, though, those gave me weird vibes; I found Eric pretty dismissive of women, and Pyramids was weirdly insulting towards middle eastern contributions to science and math, but to be honest there were still parts of those books that were creative and worth reading, even if they didn’t meet Pratchett’s usual standards.

Perhaps controversial opinion, but I recently re-read The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and I found the core message to be something of a mixed message. Being responsible for what you domesticate isn’t a bad takeaway, but I felt like domestication also extended to friendship and relationships in a problematic way. No spoilers, but it has an ending that can be read as a bittersweet faerie-tale or a deeply troubling message about failure and regret. It meant a lot to me when I read it as a teenager, and now I’m not sure what I think about it, at least not yet.

I am just under halfway through By the Sword by Mercedes Lackey. I’ve never read any of her stuff before, and I didn’t realize this was part of a much larger, ongoing setting, but I’m enjoying it as a lighter read about a woman rejecting courtly roles for women and going full mercenary, with magic and psychic stuff for which I don’t know the rules, and a magic sword with a mind of its own.

I only did one book per bingo card square, so this one is actually the the orange colour square - lots of orange leaves, and yellow-ish hair on the cover art.

I just finished reading Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood, which I really enjoyed. I wrote a review on bookwyrm about this being a really insightful book on storytelling itself.

I only read the first Kushiel’s book but I really enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to getting my hands on more. How do you find the series holds up as it goes along?

Oo, I just finished reading the 4th book in that series for this year’s book bingo. It was a blast and a half, and dense but so rich. I’d love to hear what you think when you finish that one. Are you reading Citadel of the Autarch as well, or are you reading the series in between other books? I wrote a spoiler-free review on bookwyrm here. Anyone else read this series?