The Forum of David Anthony Durham

Deornoth · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 478

Finished reading Guy Adams' 'The World House', a dimension spanning mystery in a house that I loved visiting. I wouldn't want to live there though...
'The World House' suffers from choppy pacing at the start but overcomes this to present its readers with a compelling mystery set against a deliciously surreal and dark background. You may have seen it all before but Adams really makes it his own. I loved this book and can't wait for the sequel. My full review is over Here. I'm now finishing off N.K. Jemisin's 'The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms'...

Deornoth · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 478

Finished reading N.K. Jemisin's 'The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms'. The book started off a little choppy in terms of pace (a main character who keeps stopping the story to go back and correct other details doesn't help) but once it got going things really picked up and I had a great time reading it. I'll be around to see what happens in the next book. My full review is over Here. I'm now finishing off Mike Resnick's 'Starship: Flagship'.

Deornoth · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 478

Finished reading Mike Resnick's 'Starship: Flagship', last in that series. Wilson Cole's fight to take down the Republic is as contrived as hell but, at the same time, it's also contrived to be good fun and very entertaining so you can't really complain. My full review is over Here. I'm now finishing off 'The Eternal Prison' (Jeff Somers) and 'The Call of Kerberos' (Jonathan Oliver).

Deornoth · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 478

Finished reading Jonathan Oliver's 'The Call of Kerberos' where a fisherman must learn to control powers that he never even knew he had in order to fight off an invasion of monsters from beneath the sea...
As you can tell, there isn't a lot here that you won't have read before in other books and there's also a disturbing lack of background for the story to set itself against. When things get going though, Oliver does tell an entertaining tale that's worth a read. My full review is over Here. I'm now finishing off 'Kitty's House of Horrors' and 'The Eternal Prison'.

Deornoth · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 478

Finished reading 'Kitty's House of Horrors'; a fast paced tale with an engaging lead character that somehow managed to remind me of Kelley Armstrong's 'Stolen' so much that I didn't enjoy it perhaps as much as I could have done. The full review is over Here. I'm now finishing off Jeff Somers' 'The Eternal Prison'.

Deornoth · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 478

Finished reading Jeff Somers' 'The Eternal Prison', a tale of... well, the main character had no idea what was going on so I certainly didn't! Having said that though, lots of stuff got blown up against a brutally dark background and that was all that mattered at the end of the day. Confusing but good fun, my full review is over Here. Now, I'm finishing off 'A Thousand Sons'...

Deornoth · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 478

Finished reading Michael Shea's 'The Extra', where impoverished people go up against giant mechanical spiders (to earn big money) on film for the entertainment of the masses. This book treads ground that is already well trodden, and some of the social commentary is a little heavy handed, but it's still a lot of fun and highly recommended by me! My full review is over Here. I'm now finishing off 'Farlander' as well as Christopher Golden's 'Zombie' anthology.

Deornoth · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 478

Finished reading Christopher Golden's 'Zombie' anthology, there are some excellent stories here although I'd debate whether others were actually zombie stories at all. I also finished Col Buchanan's 'Farlander', a book that starts out bearing no small resemblance to 'Gardens of the Moon' but goes on to find it's own voice in the best possible way. My review is over Here. I'm now reading James Swallow's 'Black Tide'.

Deornoth · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 478

Finished reading Alexhey Pehov's 'Shadow Prowler' where a thief finds himself railroaded into a quest to save a kingdom from darkness. If that wasn't enough, there might be a prophecy involved as well... There is nothing new in 'Shadow Prowler' (quest + reluctant hero + first book in a trilogy = generic fantasy) at all and I was left wondering if the translation was up to scratch. Despite this though, I ended up having a lot of fun with a book that hit the target when it finally got going. My full review is over Here. I'm now reading Adrian Tchaikovsky's 'Salute the Dark'...

Deornoth · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 478

Over the last few days I've read Tom Holt's 'Blonde Bombshell', a comedy that didn't make me laugh once, Alden Bell's 'The Reapers are the Angels', utterly superb, and Charlie Huston's 'Sleepless', heavy going in places but worth sticking with. To finish the week on a bit of a bang I'm working my way through 'Helsreach' (Aaron Dembski-Bowden).

Deornoth · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 478

Finished reading Rob Sanders' 'Redemption Corps' where storm troopers in the Warhammer 40K universe kick seven kinds of... you know what out of alien hordes and their own side! It's one hell of an entertaining read when Sanders lays off on the detail and lets the story breathe. My full review is over Here. I'm now finishing off Jon Sprunk's 'Shadow's Son'...

rhallva · Joined: 15 Feb 2010 Posts: 3

I have had a great spring as far as reading new books and various authors. In being totally hooked on GRRM's Ice and Fire series, and waiting for Sanderson to continue the Wheel of Time I was able to find some excellent reading. David's Acacia books were time well spent, but in addition to them I can highly recommend:
Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
The Lies of Lock Lamora by Scott Lynch
Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
The Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher
A few of the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher
In addition, one of the most interesting series in recent memory, The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

The future looks bright with Acacia book three to look forward to, A Dance with Dragons by GRRM, and Sanderson's new series beginning soon (The Way of Kings). Life is always good for readers! Smile

Roy

Deornoth · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 478

Finished reading Jon Sprunk's 'Shadow's Son' and Steve Hockensmith's 'Dawn of the Dreadfuls'. Both were entertaining enough but 'Shadow's Son' skated very close to being 'just another book about assassins' (and wasn't paced very well) and 'Dawn' didn't come out well in the comparisons with its predecessor...
I'm now well into China Mieville's 'Kraken' and it's very good indeed...

Deornoth · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 478

It’s been one of those weeks where everything that I’ve picked up off the reading pile went down a treat! Graham McNeill’s ’The Chapter’s Due’ was a fine slice of military sci-fi from the Warhammer 40K universe, China Mieville’s ’Kraken’ was the kind of urban fantasy that ‘Neverwhere’ wanted to be (although Mieville perhaps indulged himself a little too much setting up the background) and David Moody’s ’Dog Blood’ was just plain nasty but in the best possible way!
I’m now well into Darren Shan’s ‘Procession of the Dead’...

Deornoth · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 478

Finished reading Jonathan Strahan & Lou Anders' 'Swords & Dark Magic', a collection of new 'Sword & Sorcery' tales from new writers as well as writers established in the sub-genre. A fewof the tales didn't quite hit the mark but the majority did and the collection as a whole is thoroughly entertaining. What is perhaps the longest review I've ever written is over Here. I'm now having a go at Lynn Flewelling's 'The White Road' but I haven't read the rest of the series and this is proving to be a larger obstacle than normal...