Amph What book are you reading right now?

I'm getting close to the end of my Legends reread.

 

Foundation. So, it started out interesting but faded and faded as it went on. I was expecting to be blown away. Nope.

WWW: Wake by Robert J. Sawyer. A blind teen with a web surfing implant gets a new implant to cure her blindness but it triggers an ability to "see" the web where she discovers an A.I. I forgot I had picked this up. It is the start of a trilogy.

 

Battlefront II: Inferno Squad

 

Oh, wow, they've released another Battlefront novel? The first one (Twilight Company) is one of the stronger EU novels I've read; and easily my favorite since they hit the reset button on the whole thing. I see this is a different author and different focus. The author (Christie Golden) wrote Dark Disciple, one of the better EU novels of the reset era, and I like that the focus/approach here is on the Empire. It's a side/perspective I'd like to see more of in these novels.

 

I just finished Inferno Squad last night. I liked it. Currently reading Steve Alten's Meg: Nightstalkers.

 

The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais

The first of the Elvis Cole detective novels. It's enjoyable, tightly paced, and very short (201 pages).


I started reading books again btw after taking a 2 year hiatus for stupid reasons.

 

YJK 5: The Darkest Knight

I can't believe I forgot how good theese are.

 

Piercing the Darkness (1988) – Frank E. Peretti

This is the sequel to Peretti’s first real masterpiece, This Present Darkness. Like that book, this has a kind of standard thriller plot going on in the real world and we’re also privy to the conflict of angels and demons behind the scenes. The main recurring characters here are the angel characters; the book mostly follows a new set of characters in a new location in the real world, though some characters from This Present Darkness do eventually appear. This book is even longer than the first book, by around a hundred pages, and it is, in my opinion, not nearly as good. This book is a lot more political than the previous book. A large portion of the book revolves around the efforts of an ACLU-like organization to shut down a Christian school and the valiant efforts of the Christian school teacher to prove that he was totally in the right to try to cast a demon out of a little girl. Peretti is never particularly subtle, but he has a gift for character. One of the best characters in This Present Darkness was a villain; Peretti really got in his head and made him a complex, interesting character with a strong emotional arc. Here, the villains are literally Satanists and it’s all about a murder plot where some Satanists are trying to kill a young woman who used to be part of their group but she also just happens to have seen one of the villains in the ACLU plot do something bad, so if the two plots could ever just intersect, everything would be cool. But this book is way too long and, while it has a handful of decent action sequences, the combination of draggy pacing and preachiness really sink this one quite a bit below the first book. Peretti still has some good ideas and the book has some good scenes, but it’s only sporadically entertaining and a misfire a good bit of the time. 2 ½ stars.

tl;dr – Peretti’s second novel of “spiritual warfare” is significantly longer & peachier than the first one; there are good sequences here, but the pacing is draggy & the book has a lot of filler. 2 ½ stars.

 

I just re-read Destiny's Way.

I very much appreciate re-reading this novel. Unlike Traitor which was heavy on the monologues and philosophy this has a more rounded balance of action, monalogue, dialogue, politicking, and so on.

I very much enjoyed reading Jacen unite with his family and Luke and Vergere's conversations.

As reading about Nom Anor's various intrigues and political escapades.

I have one criticism-the emphasis on Jaina's sole minded focus on combat and war is a little over done. After it was emphasized for the third time I and any other reader would have understood Jaina has largely closed herself off from her friends and family and is focusing almost solely on the war.

Also I thought Luke and the Jedi collaborating with smugglers to force defections from Rodan in the election was a rather underhanded and dirty operation. Something that deserved more reflection from the characters who participated in it.

All in all 8.5/10.

 

Just finished; The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis. Never really warmed to our "heroes" and things get eye rollingly silly during the middle when the story is taking place in our world. There's some charm as well, but not quite enough for me to rush right back to Narnia (though I'm not giving up on my Narnia quest).

Currently reading; Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. This is my third attempt at Cline's seemingly beloved love letter to 80s pop culture. This should be in my wheelhouse, but I never managed to make it past page 50 or so during those first two attempts. The recent Comic-Con trailer for Spielberg's upcoming adaptation of it got me hyped enough to give it another go.

 

Crosscurrent

 

Yeah, TMN isn't the best story. I'm glad you're not giving up on Narnia!

I freaking LOVED Ready Player One. I hope you enjoy it this round.

 

As far as Narnia books go, you can't go wrong with LtWatW, PC, VotDT, or TSC.

All the rest are crap.

 

I thought The Magician's Nephew was one of the best of the series. I think it's probably my favourite.

 

I'd rank The Magician's Nephew and The Horse and His Boy above The Silver Chair. Quite comfortably.

 

Interesting how different everyone's opinions on Narnia are. I personally enjoyed all of them except for The Horse and His Boy which I found to be so boring I skipped it to get to Prince Caspian when I read the series through. It's been years since I read the books though.

 

Dawn Treader is far and away my favorite. I'm a total sucker for sea-going adventure stories.

Also, Reepicheep.

 

Yeah, that is funny about everyone's opinions about Narnia. Magician's Nephew is easily my favorite. I think Horse & His Boy is the most lackluster. The Last Battle is pretty bad, I reckon, but it's also pretty gonzo; lackluster it's absolutely not.

 

SWpants I'm now past the 50 page plateau that I'd been stuck on w/RP1 the first two times. Now nearing the 1/4 mark, and I'm far more invested than I was before. I'm liking it, if not quite yet loving it. The only problem is that after having watched the trailer a dozen or so times, I constantly have Rush's Tom Sawyer stuck in my head as I'm reading it.

Re: Narnia, I think part of my problem may have been both mood and expectations. My only experience being the movies, I was expecting (and in the mood for) something a tad more epic. But I did enjoy Digory's moral dilemma, and though as a whole I didn't feel it was very filmic, I do believe that choice could make for powerful character drama in a movie.

 

The visuals I have from reading it as a child (in fact I'm sure it was actually read to me at school, but I've read it several times since then) are still strong: the world between worlds with all the pools, the room of frozen people, each one nastier looking the further you went in, Aslan creating Narnia, even the guinea-pig and the coloured rings, all seem as vivid and exciting to me today as they did then. However, I think it really helps to have encountered them at a young age; the older I get I frequently find much-hyped books lacking because I came to them too late: Ender's Game I thought was merely okay, and Catcher in the Rye just didn't impact me like it should, and both I'd heard recommended by people on the net. But I read both in my mid thirties, too late I feel to have too much impact.

 

soitscometothis I agree w/you re: the iconography. The world between worlds in particular. I could see it so clearly in my mind's eye; and what's more, I could feel it. It was a lot like LOTR's Fangorn forest in that way.

I think you make a good point about age. The Narnia books are, after all, children's lit. That's not to say adults can love them (The Hobbit and Harry Potter are also considered children's lit, and I read and enjoyed them as an adult). But certainly if you came to them as a kid they would impact you in a different way. But there's subtext even in TMN that I'm sure was lost on many kids when they first read it and re-reading it as an adult you're rewarded by discovering it.

 

The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis. Steampunk fantasy about the first woman to be assigned command of an airship in a war zone. Exciting, interesting characters, and fun to read snappy dialog. I hope there are sequels; I can see the protagonists developing a fascinating Aubrey/Maturin kind of friendship. And the icing on the cake for me: the author actually understands airships! The physics, engineering, and aeronautical technology and techniques are excellent. In too many books about airships, the author either skims over the details (unsatisfying to me) or gets them wrong (which takes me right out of the story). I've been reading about airships and zeppelins for decades, and this one gets it right.

 

Currently reading The Glass Castle in preparation for the movie coming out in two weeks. 60 pages in, and I'm really enjoying it.

 

The Hanging Tree - Ben Aaronovitch. It's the latest of his Peter Grant (Rivers of London) books to come out in paper here in the UK. Not bad so far.

 

Ah. I have never seen the trailer. I didn't even know it was going to be a movie til last week.

Some of the other Narnia books (like LWW&W) are a bit more epic
BUT they were written for children, so.....it won't be "Game of Thrones" epic that's for sure.