Jim's reading list for 2013

I started out the year with some new Sci-fi, some re-reads, then read the last Wheel of Time novel, then moved on to some books in my collection that I had never read. I will update this list as I continue to read this year.

This year's list

Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett
The Guns at Last Light by Rick Atkinson
The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett
The King's Deception by Steve Berry
Benjamin Franklin by E. Morgan
Children of the Sky by Vernor Vinge
Kings of the North by Elizabeth Moon
Imager by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
A Discourse in Steel by Paul S. Kemp
The Octagonal Raven by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
Dragon Venom by Lawrence Watt-Evans
The King's Peace by Jo Walton
Flinx Transcendent by Alan Dean Foster
Dragon Society by Lawrence Watt-Evans
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Warriors Martin/Dozois
A Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
The Puppet Masters by Robert Heinlein
The Last Dark by Stephen R. Donaldson
The Wizard in Waiting by Robert Don Hughes
A Bridge too Far by Cornelius Ryan
The Lost Fleet Beyond the Frontier: Invincible by Jack Campbell
The Black Ship by Christopher Rowley
Chain of Thunder by Jeff Shaara (LT Early Reviewer book)
The Dig by Alan Dean Foster
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keys
Prince of Wolves by Dave Gross
The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Hounded, Hammered, Hexed by Kevin Hearne (omnibus)
Hart's Hope by Orson Scott Card
Death's Heretic by James L. Sutter
A Storm of Swords by G. R. R. Martin (re-read)
Ruins, by Orson Scott Card
In High Places by Harry Turtledove
City of Jade by Dennis McKiernan
Mounted Warriors by Gene Smith (non fiction)
The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam
The Great Gatsby
Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erickson
Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
Adiamante by L. E. Modesitt Jr.
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erickson
Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny
The Changing Land by Roger Zelazny (re-read)
Dilvish the Damned by Roger Zelazny (re-read)
Wards of Faerie by Terry Brooks
Warriors of Thlassa Mey by Dennis McCarty (re-read)
Flight to Thlassa Mey by Dennis McCarty (re-read)
A Talent for War by Jack McDevitt
A Memory of Light by Sanderson/Jordan
The River of Shadows Robert V.S. Redick
Shadowheart by Tad Williams
The Reformer by Drake/Stirling
Warlord by Drake/Stirling
Conqueror by Drake/Stirling
Bringing Mulligan Home by Dale Maharidge
Polaris by Jack McDevitt
Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles that Shaped American History by Craig L. Symonds
Heavy Time by C.J. Cherryh
The Stars Like Dust by Isaac Asimov

Glad to have you joining us with a reading thread, Jim! I've only read The Name of the Wind from your list, but I loved it.

Thanks MrsLee! I really enjoyed that one as well.

My latest read:

Adiamante by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

This is a book I've had for a while, it came to me when I picked up a bunch of books from a friend. Modesitt is better known for his fantasy, but this was good sci-fi.

Under Heaven, by Guy Gavriel Kay. I admit I was a little concerned about this one. After his Sarantine Mosaic series, and The Last Light of the Sun, apparently he decided to tackle his own version of ancient China. So far it is quite good, though it still suffers from some of the problems of The Last Light of the Sun.

Welcome to the party, Jim. I see we share a nice little collection of sci-fi, although I haven't read as much of it lately. I found Under Heaven better than the couple that preceded it, especially the second half. Hope you'll enjoy it too.

Jim

Under heaven is still on my Tbr pile. I'm going to try and get to it soon now that his new book is out.

Thank you Jim53 and Sakerfalcon. I did enjoy Under Heaven, while I liked the theme and story of Last Light of the Sun more, Under Heaven was better written. It was good and I was fully engrossed in it while reading it. I'm going to try and get back to Deadhouse Gates but not sure I can manage it.

I read The Last Light of the Sun when it first came out and really liked it, but I don't remember it as well as I'd like to. I've been planning a reread for a while now; maybe I'll actually get to it this year. What problems did you find with it?

My big problem with Last Light of the Sun was how often he referred to it as a story. I see no need for the characters in a story to refer to the fact that they are in a story. It gave it a very strange feel.

I have no memory of that at all. Have you read the Fionavar Tapestry? The characters often refer to themselves and events as parts of a weave in the tapestry. Sounds similar to what you are saying. It's not something that bothers me (I love the Fionavar books) and I feel like re-reading Last Light even more now. I enjoy that boundless feeling when I read of characters being aware they are a small but integral part of something much larger.

Currently reading Deadhouse Gates again. I'm as unimpressed as I was when I put it down, even after reading the first book of the series.

I finally finished Deadhouse Gates. Really not impressed with it for various reasons. After that I read The Great Gatsby so i can see the movie soon. Back to The Longest Winter.

I too just reread Gatsby, the latest of many times since first being introduced to the book in college. It's still one of my favourites.

I have to admit, I believe I read it in high school but didn't remember a thing about it. Why is it one of your favorites?

I love Fitzgerald's prose and the way that, through Nick, he draws us into the world of 1920s New York/Long Island society. We circle around Gatsby for the first few chapters, gleaning rumours and tidbits of information before he enters the scene in person. I love the little portraits of the people who wander in and out of the narrative, who are each distinctive despite not having an important part to play in the overall story. And the pathos at the end, when Gatsby's father arrives, is very powerful.

I also like Fitzgerald's Tender is the night, and the short stories (of which I must read more).

I was planning to re-read Gatsby before the film - I read it many years ago as part of my studies but try as I might I can't remember anything about it. Not even how I felt about it or its characters... and yet I have an odd idea that I will prefer it now that I am older (although not always wiser).

It was an interesting and engaging book. The writing at times felt a little stilted to me, but I did enjoy it. Stillman, i suspect you are right, while a lot of kids are required to read it, I doubt they get nearly as much out of it as a more mature reader would.

Hi sandragon, I apologize for not responding earlier. It may have been a minor thing, but several times in Last Light of the Sun, one or more of the characters referenced the fact that they were living out a story in such a way that it felt like the author was speaking for them. I found it much more jarring than in Fionavar Tapestry, which I like very much. In Fionavar Tapestry, as they were outsiders to the world it was obvious that they had been 'woven in' for a purpose, in Last Light, the characters have no such excuse, neither does the author.

Sandragon's post.

"I have no memory of that at all. Have you read the Fionavar Tapestry? The characters often refer to themselves and events as parts of a weave in the tapestry. Sounds similar to what you are saying. It's not something that bothers me (I love the Fionavar books) and I feel like re-reading Last Light even more now. I enjoy that boundless feeling when I read of characters being aware they are a small but integral part of something much larger."

I finally finished Mounted Warriors but took too long finishing it. It wasn't as educational as I'd hoped, too much focus on uniforms and training.

I finally reached 1200 books cataloged here on LT! Book 1200 is Anathem.

On a less happy note, RIP Jack Vance.

I loved Anathem, it was so totally absorbing and intriguing. Hope you enjoy it when you get around to reading it. And yes, very sad news about Jack Vance. I will be doing some rereading soon in his honour, and getting to some of his work that I haven't yet read too.

I read a great tribute to Vance's work Songs of the Dying Earth recently. While I can't say every story was outstanding, I thought they were all done in Vancian style, and none of them was poor, in my estimation.

I don't know why I haven't gotten around to reading Anathem yet, I'll get to it soon.

The last 2 books were very mediocre, City of Jade and In High Places. Hopefully whatever comes next will be better, I'm looking forward to my first Kevin Hearne novel.

I finished Ruins, and I'm now skimming through A Storm of Swords (I've read it twice already) to compare the book to the TV show. I think the subtle things that the TV show ignores make it very different from the books.

I put down A Storm of Swords after the infamous Red Wedding and it has literally taken me months to return to the books. I think -- at least, to some extent -- the television show softens some of the harshness of Martin's world. It makes it more appealing to the broader population, but I suspect the books are "better" as storytelling.

My skimming has turned into reading. I enjoy the books much more than I do the TV show. The TV audience is missing out on a lot of minor characters that really make it a story, as well as the depth of the books. I find it funny that so many of the watchers claim to enjoy it because it isn't fantasy.

For me Martin is pounding home two lessons into his characters - know your enemies, and know who you can trust. Ser Davos might be the smartest of them all in that way.

I was very happy to find a copy of Hart's Hope by Orson Scott Card at the library sale this year! It was in great shape, and I've had it on my wish list for years.

This has been a bad month for authors. RIP Iain Banks. (aka Iain M. Banks)

I finished Death's Heretic and I'm working on Hart's Hope. Death's Heretic was more of a research project than just fun reading, I'm interested to see what's going on in that shared world.

Next up is the first 3 Iron Druid books, Hounded, Hammered, Hexed by Kevin Hearne. So far its off to a good start.

I'm pretty much finished with Hounded, Hammered, Hexed. The first one was fun, interesting and a great read. The next two slowly slid into silliness and megalomania. Even for fantasy, they got a bit overly fantastic. Besides that, one thought kept running through my mind 'The job of annoying talking animal is already taken!'.

I started on Anathem, but the strange language is making it hard to get into. I stopped at the bookstore and picked up The Lost Gate, so I've started that as well.

I thought Anathem was a good read, despite the fact that it did take some effort to wrap around the world and its conventions. It didn't strike me as Stephenson's best, though.

I loved Anathem, and don't remember having too much trouble with the language. I think I let it wash over me until the context made it clear what was meant, rather than worrying about it upon first meeting a strange word. I can't claim to have understood all the maths/philosophy in the book, but I really liked the characters.

I think you've hit on it, I have to stop trying to puzzle out the terms and just keep reading. Meredy I think I have to agree, this does not seem up to the same awesome standard as Cryptonomicon or Snow Crash. Those are both great books.

The Lost Gate was interesting, but I think I've read too many books lately that feature 13 - 16 year olds. Time for something with adult main characters.

35: Those two are the ones I was thinking of. Aside from the fact that I guessed the surprise secret of Anathem a long, long way before the ending, I also felt that it misled me by setting up an apparent villain who then just sort of faded away so it seemed like I'd been taken for a fast ride on the wrong trail. Still, it held my attention and left me feeling that it would be worth a reread one day.

I finally finished Anathem!! I paused in between to read Flowers for Algernon and several adventure modules, but I finally got through it. All I can say is that it was a slog - not quite a chore to read, but close. It just wasn't worth all the effort.

The Dig was a short, silly scifi book I picked up at a book sale. It looks like it was intended to be a movie, but was apparently written to support a computer game I'd never heard of.

On to Chain of Thunder by Jeff Shaara, my ER book for July.

Chain of Thunder was good, though a little frustrating as it covered such a short period of the Civil War. After a couple of light science fiction novels, I've moved on to A Bridge Too Far, a classic WW2 history.

A Bridge Too Far exceeded my expectations. It really is a great history of Operation Market-Garden during WW2. Detailed, thorough and just personal enough to be great to read.

On the other hand The Black Ship was a disappointment. I guess that's what I get for reading obscure 80's science fiction. It was just too muddled and Star Wars-ish to be a good novel.

The same goes for The Wizard in Waiting. I thought I'd read all of the Del Rey fantasy during the 80's, but as it turns out I missed this series. Apparently there was a reason for that, it wasn't very good.

On to my LT ER book, the last Thomas Covenant novel, The Last Dark. I love it when I get exactly the book I wanted from ER.

The Last Dark was excellent. After that I had to take a break and read a couple of shorter novels, and I'm now working on The Wise Man's Fear.

I just picked up the Warriors short story collection. It has some of the normal problems of recent short story collections, but it is better than most. Just don't expect the quality of Legends or Legends II.

I finished Warriors and moved on to City of Bones. In general I enjoyed Warriors, though there were a couple of stories I could have done without. The quality of stories is good, I never wanted to give up reading the collection like I do some short story collections.

After that I read City of Bones on my daughter's recommendation. I should have just watched the movie. The association of the title to the story is particularly weak, the story isn't particularly original and nothing about the writing caught my attention. Its also a series and the first book resolved very little.

I recently received the last 2 books of a series from ABE books, Dragon Society and Dragon Venom, by Lawrence Watt-Evans. In general I think Watt-Evans is a bit underestimated. This series went out of print years ago, and I was happy to pick up the last 2. The best thing about this series is that is has a completely different dragon to human dynamic than any fantasy I've read before, which causes quite a few plot twists and moral dilemmas.

Flinx Transcendent is supposedly the last Pip and Flinx book. I started reading these way back in the 80's when they first came out and I've always enjoyed the characters. Foster tries to introduce a bit more hard science in this one, while wrapping up this very long story. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

The King's Peace was a library sale pickup, I believe I mistook the author for someone else, I'll have to try to figure out which author I thought I was buying. Unfortunately this is just a retelling of the King Arthur story with different names. I'm several chapters in, the writing just isn't good enough to justify reading the same story again so I put it down.

Anyone else have opinions on Jo Walton's work?

Dragon Venom was a good ending to the trilogy. The ending was a little predictable, but even so, this book was still unusual and unique. I enjoyed it.

I couldn't pick up The King's Peace again, so I moved on to another library sale book, The Octagonal Raven. This one starts out slow and builds the story piece by piece, a good sci-fi while being a commentary on today's society.

The Octagonal Raven was interesting, mostly for the commentary on our current society. Well written too. I've started Post Captain, but I may have to jump to some fantasy I just picked up at B&N.

Just finished A Discourse in Steel. Pretty typical adventure fantasy starring 2 warrior heroes, in the tradition of Fritz Leiber. Good but not exceptional.

I just finished A Discourse in Steel. Pretty standard adventure fantasy. I'm now on to Imager.

Imager was quite good, though it did remind me a bit of his Recluse series. I'm not sure what it is about Modesitt's writing that I enjoy, but I do. After that was Kings of the North, which in theory is another Paksenarrion book, but as with the previous book she makes only token appearances. It was good, despite the awful cover. On to Children of the Sky.

Children of the Sky was good, but I was surprised that it seems like it is going to lead to another book, that's not normal for Vinge. On to a biography, Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was a tough read. I really enjoy history, but the style of this book made it very difficult to get through. After that I moved on to King's Deception, which was the opposite, a very light read, sort of Dan Brown style. Now onto The Warded Man.

Its hard to believe this is the end of 2013's list!! I was able to find a copy of Desert Spear so I could continue with that series, though I didn't enjoy it as much as The Warded Man. Luckily, The Guns at Last Light is finally out, so I can finish the Liberation trilogy. I have really enjoyed the depth and quality of this series by Atkinson.