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Tim's Horror, Fantasy and SF 2014


Timstar

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Welcome to my 2014 reading log, as before I will only be the reviewing Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction books I read this year. I do read other books of course, and may occasionally post my thoughts about them.

 

My previous reading log

 

Books read and reviewed:

 

Horror

Night Shift - Stephen King (7/10)

Cujo - Stephen King (6/10)

 

Fantasy

Best Served Cold - Joe Abercrombie (10/10)

The Dragon's Path - Daniel Abraham (7/10)

Legend - David Gemmell (10/10)

The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson (7/10)

The Fade - Chris Wooding (7/10)

Shaman's Crossing - Robin Hobb (7/10)

The Dirty Streets of Heaven - Tad Williams (10/10)

The Ace of Skulls - Chris Wooding (9/10)

Happy Hour in Hell - Tad Williams (10/10)

Guardians of the West - David Eddings (9/10)

Steelheart - Brandon Sanderson (9/10)

Under Heaven - Guy Gavriel Kay (9/10)

Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson (6/10)

Gospel of Loki - Joanne M. Harris (4/10)

Something More Than Night - Ian Tregillis (7/10)

The Heroes - Joe Abercrombie (8/10)

Gardens of the Moon - Steven Erikson (8/10)

Promise of Blood - Brian McClellan (5/10)

The Malloreon - David Eddings (10/10)

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel - Susanna Clarke (6/10)

Sleeping Late on Judgement Day - Tad Williams (9/10)

The Steel Remains - Richard Morgan (7/10)

 

SF

Player of Games - Iain M. Banks (7/10)

Dune - Frank Herbert (8/10)

Judas Uncahined - Peter F. Hamilton (8/10

Replay - Ken Grimwood (9/10)

The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham (8/10)

Pebble in the Sky - Isaac Asimov (6/10)

Misspent Youth - Peter F. Hamilton (9/10)

Leviathan Wakes - James S.A.Corey (6/10)

The Dreaming Void - Peter F. Hamilton (9/10)

The Temporal Void - Peter F. Hamilton (10/10)

Edited by Timstar
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My TBR list is far too long to post here, so here are the authors of which I have at least 1 book on the list:

 

Horror

Stephen King

Jack Ketchum

Clive Barker

Adam Nevill

James Herbert

Robert Kirkman

Sean Platt

Paul Jones

Jack Kilborn

Chris Carter

John Everson

 

Fantasy

 

George R.R. Martin

Robert Jordan

Brandon Sanderson

David Eddings

Terry Brooks

Tad Williams

Anne McCaffrey

Chris Wooding

David Gemmell

Robin Hobb

Neil Gaiman

Joe Abercrombie

Roger Zelazny

James Clemens

Brent Weeks

Matthew Stover

Neal Stephenson

Raymond E. Feist

Tim Powers

Gene Wolfe

Chine Mieville

Daniel Abraham

Julian May

Rob J. Hayes

Terry Pratchett

 

Science Fiction

 

Arthur C. Clarke

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Peter F. Hamilton

Jack Vance

H.G Wells

Isaac Asimov

Robert Heinlein

Kim Stanley Robinson

Ray Bradbury

Philip K. Dick

John Wyndham

James S. A. Corey

Vernor Vinge

Walter M. Miller Jr.

Aldous Huxley

Iain M. Banks

Alfred Bester

Frederik Pohl

J. G. Ballard

John Scalzi

Walter Tevis

Daniel Keyes

 

 

If you're interested in which books I have for any specific author/s just let me know and I can list them.

Edited by Timstar
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50 books to read before you die challenge.

 

There are many lists which state 1000 books you must read or something along those lines, which is a ridicolous amount. I think 50 is quite achievable. So I am slowly working through this list, although there aren't many horror, fantasy or SF on there I will post thoughts when I read a book on the list.

 

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JR Tolkien 
1984 by George Orwell
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
A Passage to India by EM Forster
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
A Bend in the River by VS Naipaul
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
The Bible
The Cantebury Tales by Geofrrey Chaucer
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
Money by Martin Amis
Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pulman
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
The Outsider by lbert Camus
The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The War of the Worlds by HG Wells
Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
The Divine Comedy by Alighieri Dante
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
 
Only 16 read so far, but I try to put at least one on every or every other reading plan.
 
ETA: Books marked in red I have finished this year.
Edited by Timstar
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Like last year I have made an series plan for the year and my aim is to at least start most, if not all of them and finish a few of them.

 

The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
Malazan - Stephen Erikson
Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe
Lord of the Rings - J.R.R Tolkien (Re-read)
Drenai - David Gemmell
Night's Dawn Trilogy - Peter F. Hamilton
Gentlemen Bas-tards - Scott Lynch (re-read)
Saxon Chronicles - Bernard Cornwell
Malloreon - David Eddings
Braided Path - Chris Wooding
Soldier Son - Robin Hobb
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn - Tad Williams
Expanse - James S. A. Corey
Galactic Empire - Isaac Asimov
 
My current reading plan:
 
A Dance With Dragons - George R. R. Martin
Enemy of God - Bernard Cornwell
Excalibur - Bernard Cornwell
The Shadow Rising - Robert Jordan
A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge
Replay - Ken Grimwood
The Dragon's Path - Daniel Abraham
Misery - Stephen King
King of Thorns - Mark Lawrence
Pebble in the Sky - Isaac Asimov
A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway
The Player of Games - Iain M. Banks
Isaac Newton Biography - Michael White
Space/Ranger Trilogy - C.S. Lewis
The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson
Emperor of Thorns - Mark Lawrence
 
Edited by Timstar
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Lots of good books in your list! The Player of Games is my favourite Iain M. Banks book so far (I've read the first four Culture books). I love the Wheel of Time series, as you know. I quite liked Replay too. Some of the other books are on my TBR too or I have other books by those authors on my TBR. Happy Reading in 2014, Tim :readingtwo::)!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Apologies for the lack of updates on here, I am working seven days a week at the moment, finding very little time to read and struggling to get into anything. Not a great start to the year but I'm sure it will pick up soon.

 

I am really enjoying Best Served Cold audio book though.

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best-served-cold.jpg Best Served Cold - Joe Abercrombie (Audio book read by Steven Pacey)

 

Synopsis

 

There have been nineteen years of blood. The ruthless Grand Duke Orso is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling League of Eight, and between them they have bled the land white. While armies march, heads roll and cities burn, behind the scenes bankers, priests and older, darker powers play a deadly game to choose who will be king.

War may be hell but for Monza Murcatto, the Snake of Talins, the most feared and famous mercenary in Duke Orso's employ, it's a damn good way of making money too. Her victories have made her popular - a shade too popular for her employer's taste. Betrayed, thrown down a mountain and left for dead, Murcatto's reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance. Whatever the cost, seven men must die.

Her allies include Styria's least reliable drunkard, Styria's most treacherous poisoner, a mass-murderer obsessed with numbers and a Northman who just wants to do the right thing. Her enemies number the better half of the nation. And that's all before the most dangerous man in the world is dispatched to hunt her down and finish the job Duke Orso started...

Springtime in Styria. And that means revenge.

 

Review

 

I wasn't originally going to get the audio book of this, I already have the paperback and was planning on reading it soon, but I remembered how brilliant Steven Pacey's narration of Red Country was and couldn't resist getting this as well.

 

Very glad I didn't resist, this is a superb book but not comfortable reading/listening at all. The characters are dragged through the mud kicking and screaming, Monza worst of all, yet they never lose their wit and charm. Their motives are clear and logical, and even though the good guys are a collection of criminals, mercenaries, drunks, poisoners or just outright insane I never stopped routing for them, I was never irritated by their actions whether they helped or hindered the plot or other characters.

 

It was great to see Cosca back and with a lot more to do than he did in the trilogy, He and Sergeant Friendly particularly stand out as my favourite characters, Morveer, the poisoner, also deserves a special mention as a finely crafted character.

 

The battles and violence are ruthless and bloody but never too complicated. As with his other books, Abercrombie makes you feel every punch, kick and eye gouging.

 

There were a few bits that were predictable but not in a bad way, it is part of Abercrombie's intended humour but seen through the eyes of his characters it is irony. There were also a few unpredictable bits which were simply great.

 

The first law trilogy was good but this is a vast improvement. Can't wait to read The Heroes and his new YA stuff.

 

Overall 10/10

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My purchases today:

 

 

 

I couldn't decide which doorstopper to get, and I knew I would get them all eventually so... I got all three :D Carrying them home was a workout though.

 

Dune has been on my wishlist for a while and saw it on offer 2 for £5 along with Bring Up the Bodies which I've heard good things about but need to read Wolf Hall still.

 

The two at the end I had no intention of getting but they were giving them away free with any purchase, they are probably terrible though.

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Awesome purchases! :D Where did you get them from? Not our favourite discount book store The Works? :giggle2:

 

No, The Works is having a massive clearance in preparation for new stock, unfortunately they are not clearing anything I want.

 

The Classics were from Waterstones the rest from Fopp

 

ETA: Hehe, the height of the three classics stacked is the same as Dune standing up...

 

 

 

:giggle2:   :readingtwo:

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