Well this year I finished the fabulous Malazan - Book Of The Fallen series by Steven Erikson. Not a set of books that you can, or would want to, dip into now and then, this series totally consumes any spare time that you have and really is best read from beginning to end, in my opinion, with no breaks for other books. It's a very rich, and consequently very complicated, world of characters, religions, politics and ... well let's just say it pretty much has it all. I loved it from beginning to end and once Erik has finished the trilogy that he's currently working on, and I've had a little time to invest in the work of some other writers, I'll be back for sure.
I've also read a couple of books by Glen David Gold, Carter Beats the Devil and then Sunnyside. I really enjoyed them both and the writing style reminded me of that of Michael Chabon and whilst Carter Beats the Devil was more accessible I found Sunnyside more intriguing and a little disturbing.
I also managed to sneak a few old favourites in there, A.E Van Vogt's Slan hadn't aged well, great story premise but the writing seemed a little tired following on from the books I'd already read this year. I also managed to fit a couple of R.E Howard's Conan stories in there, which read as well this year as they had when I first read them many years ago. The man could write.
Add to this the latest Skulduggery Pleasant story (I've been a fan since reading the fisrt few to my daughter at bedtime quite a few years ago) from Derek Landy and it's been a pretty good year's reading all told.
Amazon have finally managed to put the Wild Cards books in Kindle format. These books are to me what comic books should be. George R.R. Martin does a great job writing and editing tales of Jokers and Aces, previously normal people who have been altered by an alien mutagen cloud. Thanks to Chris Dingsdale for letting me know that they were now Kindleable, I'm two stories into the first books, Wild Cards, and really enjoying it. I'll read these until I run out of them and then maybe I'll be ready to dip my toe back into the Eriksonverse.
Having time to read is definitely the plus of now having to travel to work by train every day and 45mins must be a good length of reading time as I'm certainly getting through a good number of books.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Ooerr. I might just have to purchase those Wild Cards books on me kindle. Cheers fer the heads up Dave (and you too Chris)
ReplyDeleteYou won't regret it Gary, a couple of people have emailed me that they're going to give them a try as well. If you don't like them then I'm sure Chris will give you your money back :o)
ReplyDelete