What are you reading right now? (possible RotE spoilers)

[Oblivia]

Just a funny quote from 'Vampires Suck'. I couldn't resist.

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Some thoughts on what I've been reading recently. I have put aside the Howard Waldrop short story collection halfway through. The stories felt like jokes without punch lines to me: pointless and boring.

I have about a hundred pages to go of High Deryni, the final book of the Deryni Chronicles trilogy. I can see where the comparisons to GRRM and Robin Hobb are coming from. Like Westeros or the Six Duchies, the worldbuilding is very closely modeled on medieval Europe, the magic is relatively low-key (The only standout is a highly powered magical battle at the end of the first book, but other uses of magic are more subtle) and there are no elves or dwarves or non-humans running around. (Well, there are Deryni, but they are physically indistinguishable from humans. The only difference lies in innate magical abilities.) There is a high focus on political and religious intrigue.

And yet the books miss the spark that would turn them into something truly special, like A Song of Ice and Fire or the Fitz books. Maybe it's the slightly flat and simplistic characters. Or maybe it's the strange worldbuilding: in an apparently imaginary world, we have a Christian church. A look at the map reveals that we are not on Earth - the geography doesn't correspond to any place on Earth, although it vaguely resembles Europe with Great Brittain connected to the continent instead of being seperated by the canal.

That said, I have also been told that the series only really finds its feet with the second Deryni trilogy. Maybe I'll check it out some day.

['thul]

These beings are currently reading two books:

The lord of the Isles - David Drake
Crusader - Robyn Young

The former fits in under high fantasy, while the latter is semi-late crusades historical...

They also recently began and finished the third soldier son book.

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Just finished High Deryni this morning. Like I said before, I found myself a bit underwhelmed by this trilogy. It had all the ingredients that I would normally like, but it missed that spark that would have made it truly special.

For my next read, I'm eyeing The Chosen by Chaim Potok. Both my parents have been reccommending it and it will be a nice change of gear after the large amount of fantasy I've been reading recently. Plus, it's fairly short, and my birthday is coming soon. I suspect I'll have plenty more to read, and soon...

[joost]

Finished the Renshai books. Hmmhmm. I like it, but I don't love it. Oh well.

Next up: De begraafplaats van Praag (The Prague cemetery) by Umberto Eco. I love Eco's books, so I'm really looking forward to this.

['thul]

These beings have started reading the third book in the lord of the isles... Just as good as the previous ones, if not better...

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I have started reading one of the books I got for my birthday: Different Kinds of Darkness, a collection of short stories by David Langford.

[joost]

Finished 'The inheritance' in the train today (review will follow!), and started Neal Stephenson's 'Snow crash'. My first cyberpunk novel I ever read was Neuromancer, and I was bored to death, so I dropped the whole genre, until my sister's BF gave me Snow crash a few years ago. And I really liked it. So now I'm rereading it.

One day I will start reading Philip K. Dick too....

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I am currently reading The Case of the Animals Against the People, a part of the Rasa'il ikhwan as-safa' wa khillan al-wafa, an encyclopedia by the Islamic philosophers known as the Bretheren of Purity. (These guys lived a thousand years ago, by the way.) It is a fictional story, but the plot is mostly there to frame a lot of philosophical arguments.

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I have taken up reading two books again. At home: Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. On the train: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.