Books!

[Mebediel]

Cool! In that case, we can make our first updates around the end of February!

[Jitter]

Are you going to "report" when you start or when you are finished? May I suggest both, as someone already said, maybe you'll get more company reading with you if you mention the book when starting!

[Mebediel]

Are you going to "report" when you start or when you are finished? May I suggest both, as someone already said, maybe you'll get more company reading with you if you mention the book when starting!

I personally won't because most of my books are probably going to be really academic ones for school, but if others want to then they're free to do so!

[Róisín]

Academic books can be interesting depending on the subject. Says the person who reads books about ecology, botany, linguistics, chemistry and physics for fun.

[Jitter]

I’m thinking joining in, because I could use some kind of boost to keep reading (I love books but it’s so easy to end up doing “nothing” on the internet and suddenly it’s time to go to bed). However many of my books will likely be in Finnish. Would that be a problem? I.e. is it irritating flooding instead of interesting discussion, if the books are not available to most of you?

Although I don’t really read that much Finnish books as books in Finnish, so many likely will have also an English version available. I can promise to make the effort to find out and mention it!

[Mariiii]

I just happened to see this thread, and since I love reading, I wanted to share some of my recent readings. I am a big fan of fantasy books because I really love to see where the human imagination can take us in  creating new worlds with other rules, gods, species...For example, I read recently the Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson and it is one of the best fantasy books that I have ever read !! It is currently in translation in France so we only have the 5 first books of the serie (wich counts 10 books), but the characters are very well constructed, as well as the huge universe where the story take place ! I am sorry but the story is very complicated so I can't really sum it up 
I found the first book very hard to read at the beginning because the author doesn't help you to understand what is happening, but it didn't bother me because I like when I have to think when I am reading, it is a bit like a puzzle to solve. Plus, as the story goes on, there are revelations which give you a new point of view and a new way of  interpreting the previous events, and it is something that I really like about this serie !!

Another book serie that I recently finished is The Mirror Visitor by Christelle Dabos, which is a very nice and original fantasy story that I really appreciated until the end ! The story is about Ophélie, a young woman who lives on Anima, an ark ruled by the family spirit Artémis, where people can animate the objects and "read" their stories. She runs a history museum, but one day, she is told that she will be married to a man from another ark and that she has to go live with him. This is how she will have to leave her home and get mingled in the political shenanigans of her future husband's ark...

Finally, I also really liked the Land of the lustrous by Haruko Ichikawa, which is a post-apocalyptic manga, the story takes place in a world where humans disappeared centuries ago and now the only conscious beings are cristals beings who fight against the Selenians, inhabitants of the moon who want to kidnap them. It is a very poetical and contemplative story I would say, but it is also heartbreaking as the story goes on, and I really like it !

I think that the idea of talk about what you read during the month is a very good idea ! And I can't wait to see your recommendations 

[Jitter]

I like it when the author doesn’t explain too much and the reader is just dropped into the midst of a new world. SSSS is kinda like that actually, there is the prologue which establishes the apocalypse, but there is no explanation of the trolls, or the magic, in the very beginning. On the other hand I love the info pages. It’s a balancing act, it’s good that the reader gets to work things out, but it has to be possible to do so.

One such refreshing starts is in Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi. It’s hard science fiction and probably requires the reader to have quite a high level of interest, as it opens right in the middle of a scene of a fight (if I recall correctly, an action scene anyways) between spaceships and goes on to mention use of various technologies and fields that are (as far as I know) created for the story. I have read loads of SciFi and thus it was merely a little confusing but also interesting for me, but I don’t think it’s a god book to start reading SciFi.

The Malazan books seem very interesting! We seem to have some of them available in the library (in English, no translation into Finnish has been done). What is the first oart, or are they separate tales?

I would like to read fantasy and scifi at least mostly, but usually I read detective stories because they are easier, both to come by and to read. I enjoy them a lot, but it would be nice to also get the mind boggles effect a good SpeFi gives

[Ragnarok]

Read two separate books on the origin of humankind.

The first is A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson. Normally I like Bryson's books, but this one pissed me off. It seems more devoted to manufacturing the appearance of scientific uncertainty regarding the origins and early history of humanity (all aimed at implying a cosmological solution of special creation) rather than being devoted to any kind of actual research or facts. The fact that it was written in the 90s and hasn't been updated probably doesn't help in that regard.

The second, Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari, has been much more interesting and backed up by copious research and footnotes. It leans a little too hard into the 'Humans are Bastards' camp at times, but given that that's entirely deserved I can't really dispute it. It posits some interesting theories about what makes humans special (hint, it ain't tool use) and I quite like it.

[Mariiii]

SSSS is kinda like that actually, there is the prologue which establishes the apocalypse, but there is no explanation of the trolls, or the magic, in the very beginning. On the other hand I love the info pages. It’s a balancing act, it’s good that the reader gets to work things out, but it has to be possible to do so.

That's true ! And I really like the fact that the info page add depth to the universe and to the story.

Quantum Thief seems interesting as well ! I already read some Sci-Fi books and I saw that it is translated in French, so I think I will try it !

The Malazan books seem very interesting! We seem to have some of them available in the library (in English, no translation into Finnish has been done). What is the first oart, or are they separate tales?

The first volume is named Gardens of the Moon. They are not separate tales, but for example you can read the second book before the first, since we don't follow the same characters. But even so I would recommand you to begin with the first one 

[RanVor]

Since we're speaking of the Malazan, I can't not recommend one of the series that inspired it, namely Glen Cook's excellent The Black Company. It's a ten-volume (well, nine plus a side story) tale about the titular mercenary company as it gets dragged into a civil war rending an empire ruled by a powerful and cruel sorceress known as the Lady, and later embarks on a continent-spanning quest in search of the mythical land of its origin. The cast of characters changes as the series progresses, with new characters joining the Company and old ones dying or splitting off, but there are some who stay around throughout the story, most notably Croaker (the first narrator and the closest the series has to the main protagonist) and... well, that's a spoiler. Speaking of narrators, there are several, each with their own, distinct style and personality. The overall feel of the story is gritty and down-to-earth. And I'm running out of things to say about it, so yeah, The Black Company is great, feel free to check it out if you haven't yet.

[Mariiii]

Thank you for the recommendation ! I think I already heard about it, and the way you talk about makes it really appealing, so I will add it to my must read list of books as well

[Jitter]

I’m old, so grew up on the olden days Science Fiction that has crap characters and nominal plot to allow description of the author’s cool world concepts, so I can enjoy hard SciFi However I mostly prefer slightly less hard and more character centered stuff. Quantum Thief was interesting and refreshing read but I never got around to reading the second part (although I think I have it around somewhere). Also Rajaniemi is Finnish although the books were originally written in English, something that adds a little interest for me.

Another interesting Finnish SciFi book is Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta, which I believe is also available in French. Yes, according to the French Wikipedia it’s titled Fille de l’eau in French. It’s a fascinating dystopian book and again one where you get to puzzle together what’s going on. That one I definitely recommend for you and any dystopia fans!

[steadfastjewel]

I'm happy this thread's been getting love lately, always love hearing about new books

Two days ago I finished The Hero of Ages, the last book in the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. It took me a little less than a year to get through all three. I have... a lot of feelings about it, I guess? They were a fun read, and as always his hard magic systems are thoughtfully constructed and fun to think about. I read Elantris by him as a middle schooler, and it rocked my world back in the day? So I had very high hopes for this series as it's more frequently hyped up than Elantris. Allomancy, the magic system, was cool as heck. (Same to Feruchemy and Hemalurgy). I liked the bleak post-volcanic landscape and some of the fantasy creatures. I'm going to stuff some petty complaints under a spoiler tag, so please go no further if you don't want parts of the book spoiled.

If you like very action-adventure style fantasy with lots of twists and characters, you'll probably enjoy it! Has a cool-teenage-girl lead, and there's plenty of explaining so I never got lost in the plot. (There were points where I thought things a bit overexplained, but they were probably to help refresh readers who didn't read the books in rapid-fire succession, haha)

Petty Complaining Below Spoils
Mistborn Spoilers, vague LotR and Narnia talk

Spoiler: show

I did have some issues with the series, which were compounded for me by the fact that the ending (very ending! Last chapter!) was...kinda dumb, in a deus ex machina way. Sometimes I like a good last minute divine assist, like the Eagles in LOTR, but this was more like Narnia's The Last Battle in terms of feeling very 'suddenly we fix everything and nothing matters anymore'. For me it didn't wreck the journey the characters had been through up until that point, but it sure didn't feel like the triumphant climax / feel good moment it was seemingly intended as.

I also was frustrated by the way my boy Marsh fell right out of the story at the end! I get that in series with lots of characters, it can be tricky to conclude everybody's arcs, but this guy gets extensive POV chapters in this book and is in the final battle and then?? He's not mentioned in the epilogue at all and honestly, rest in peace. He had fulfilled his narrative role by then but I would have preferred a brief "and then he died" to no ending at all. He was still miserably limping along last he was mentioned, and other grievously injured characters got the Magical Healing Treatment, and can you tell I want Marsh Closure? boy howdy.(I'm assuming he died off-screen, which is rough for a POV character).

Last bit of whining is on the overall treatment of The Girls. I've seen Vin (our hero) held up as a great Strong Female Character before, just to explain some of my bias I had going in to this series. I was really bummed out that Vin doesn't get any female friends in the whole formidable length of the trilogy. There are constant moments where she is around other women, both at fancy parties and barely described 'cleaning women' who are around but don't get names or character. She tends to assess other women in the story as either competition or too boring to notice(even if they aren't boring- on not one, but multiple occasions, she is shocked and aghast at being pursued by a female spy, despite herself being a female spy, because those other women just look so vapid *deep sighs*). She also likes to dismissively call women puffs, which I am developing a complex about, because it somehow feels more insulting than actual insults. She has a moderately healthy relationship with almost one whole woman in the series, and that was more a case of 'my boyfriend likes you so I guess you're okay'. This is kind of an unfair complaint to throw at Mr Sanderson because it's so widespread in this kind of book but I am tired and sick of Girl Hate. I like stories where women can be friends and I feel like there could have been so much more. Oh! And as far as I can remember, every single female character with any personality had a male love interest, who was usually more developed. And more than one was *just* a love interest for one of the male leads.

Again, selfish critiques, just stuff that was rubbing me the wrong way.
I'm sorry for the negative tirade if you read this ilu thanks for listening to my rant. If anyone likes talking about exhausting fantasy tropes I'm always here to listen

Here's to many books being read in 2020!

[wavewright62]

I have not been doing nearly enough reading.  Full stop. Not fanfic, not books.  But I was in a lazy mood yesterday and noticed I'd brought our copy of Matilda with me, among the few books I packed for my apartment. I suddenly realised that I hadn't actually ever read it personally, although my daughter had. I've got sooo much catching up to do. *looks at central library only a few blocks away* Oh, yes.

[Jitter]

Oh I remember that feeling, Wave! My circumstances were different, but the moment when I realized that I will actually have time to read again was a hapoy one. For me it was when I realized that the kids were big enough so that they don’t require constant care anymore. Lately I have slipped again and read a lot less than I want and think I should, but still I haven’t gone years without really reading anything.

Most lately I have been reading a lot of fanfics of course. And happily there is still much to go! Coming in the fandom late means that there is loads upon loads of material already at hand This is both a good and a not so good thing, as sometimes I feel overwhelmed although there really isn’t any reason why I<i> should</i> read all or any of it, just that I want to