I don't know what the heck to call this thread!

[jesse_custer]

I'm almost done with A Storm of Swords. It's clearly superior to A Clash of Kings and possibly better than A Game of Thrones. I also think it's unfair to call the book nothing more than a soap opera, as some have.

[CaptainCanada]

I think that's the best book in the series, so far.

Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner

My sixth Faulkner novel, a sort of proto-To Kill A Mockingbird where a elderly black man (one of the main characters of Go Down, Moses) is accused of murder, and the only people standing between him and a lynching are an old woman and two teenagers. Contains some interesting passages on Southern society and Faulkner's view of race relations.

[CaptainCanada]

Rabbit at Rest by John Updike

John Updike's four-decade-spanning quadrilogy about Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom concludes with this 1990 effort, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. It's the longest of the four, and feels flabby in places, but it feels like a conclusion to our "hero"'s self-centred, random exploits over the years.

[dan bailey]

I'm about 45 percent of the way through Stephen King's Duma Key. As I mentioned awhile back in some thread or other, for some reason it never grabbed me the first couple of times I tried to read it, to the point that I never got more than maybe 15 pages into it. Picked it up yesterday & didn't put it down again till 280-odd pages later, & then only because it was time for bed.

Finished it & found it about as strong as anything he's written in the last couple of decades. Then moved directly on to Lisey's Story, which I'd unaccountably also let lie unread for years (since before it came out, actually, considering that a friend who then owned a bookstore had sent me an advance reading copy), & found it at least as impressive.

Now I've finally gotten around to picking up the supposedly last Bachman book, Blaze. We'll see.

[Roquefort Raider]

I'm almost done with A Storm of Swords. It's clearly superior to A Clash of Kings and possibly better than A Game of Thrones. I also think it's unfair to call the book nothing more than a soap opera, as some have.

I think that this book being so good made the disappointment of A feast for crows all the greater to me.

[Expletive Deleted]

Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed. If not for the setting, it'd be fairly generic. Even with the setting, it tends to default to standard fantasy tropes. Still, there's some interesting worldbuilding going on and I'm probably onboard for a sequel if I hear good things.

Ahmed's written at least one short story set in the same world that's available free online: Judgment of Swords and Souls.

[CaptainCanada]

I think that this book being so good made the disappointment of A feast for crows all the greater to me.

I think Feast is great. But I can see how it would be disappointing if you had been waiting five years for it, and then waited another six for the next one.

[Slam_Bradley]

Here Comes the Sun by Tom Holt

Probably the weakest effort I've yet read by Holt. The plot was convoluted, nonsensical (not in the good way) and ultimately resulted in not much of anything. None of the characters were particularly compelling. The only redeeming quality was that there were just e ough interesting set-pieces to keep me plodding through.

[CaptainCanada]

The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever

Part 1 of my attempt to develop more of a taste for short fiction (as well as another Pulitzer-winner notched), this mammoth (700 page) collection of the so-called "Chekhov of the suburbs" is quite a good way to start trying the genre (I've previously read some short detective stories by Doyle and Chesterton, but detective fiction isn't really a major interest of mine). There's some okay stuff here, but a number of really standout stories. I know that Matthew Weiner, the creator of Mad Men, has talked a lot about his love for Cheever, and you can see some influences (there's even a character named "Joan Harris" in one of them, as well as another story with a Madison Avenue advertising executive).

[dupersuper]

I've been lax on posting on this thread because all the books I've read since January are on the "1500 or bust" thread.

[Expletive Deleted]

The first three Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child. The Killing Floor, Die Trying, and Tripwire. Not my idea, and not really worth reading. Reacher is a former MP turned drifter who's also brilliant, a perfect physical specimen, and preternaturally good at just about everything. He's Rambo in First Blood, but without any of that wussy PTSD and, like, way more badass.

Child's style is functional at best, and he leans heavily on quick cuts between characters points of view to amp up the tension and near-fetishistic digressions into the specifics of military hardware. Aside from Reacher, the characters are barely sketches (not that he's particularly well-developed, himself -- we just spend more time with him than anybody else). The villains are bastards, the love interests are sexy, and the sidekicks are dependable. The twists are telegraphed miles in advance.

[Karl O'Neill]

The Shipping News.

It'was good!

[Libaax]

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick

Looks to be one of the strongest PKD i have read so far. The haunting alternate history world reminds me alittle of 1984.

[Slam_Bradley]

Waltz Into Darkness by Cornell Woolrich

I was not wowed by this effort by Woolrich. Beyond the late 19th century Gulf Coast setting this was a fairly straightforward noir. Femme fatale manipulates man in love to his detriment. Part of the problem may have been that I've seen Woolrich play this game before and the change in setting really wasn't enough to differentiate it. More likely it's that Louis Durand was just profoundly stupid. It's beyond the old "fool me once, fool me twice" canard. Durand might as well have just gone through the book with blinders and a "kick me" sign on him. You can't have sympathy for someone who works this hard to get his ass kicked emotionally (not to mention financially).

It's got enough of the Woolrich positives to make it worth a read. But it is far from his best work.

[berk]

The Book of Dreams by Jack Vance. Not as fluffy,happy as the title sounds. Another grim,smart revenge story in Demon Princes space opera series. This last book and the one before made me respect the series even more.

I noticed a Dying Earth tribute anthology in the bookstore the other day, Songs of the Dying Earth. Lots of pretty well known writers in there - Tanith Lee, George R. R. martin, Gaiman, etc - but no idea how good it is.

Waltz Into Darkness by Cornell Woolrich

I was not wowed by this effort by Woolrich. Beyond the late 19th century Gulf Coast setting this was a fairly straightforward noir. Femme fatale manipulates man in love to his detriment. Part of the problem may have been that I've seen Woolrich play this game before and the change in setting really wasn't enough to differentiate it. More likely it's that Louis Durand was just profoundly stupid. It's beyond the old "fool me once, fool me twice" canard. Durand might as well have just gone through the book with blinders and a "kick me" sign on him. You can't have sympathy for someone who works this hard to get his ass kicked emotionally (not to mention financially).

It's got enough of the Woolrich positives to make it worth a read. But it is far from his best work.

Only Woolrich I've read is The Bride Wore Black, which I thought was pretty good, though not much more than that. Any recommendations? I've had my eye on Night Has a Thousand Eyes, mainly because I think it's such a great title.