currents

[ex_pippin880]

Whatcha reading at the moment? Would you recommend it to others?

After taking a break to read 42 volumes of Dragon Ball I've gone back to The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales, an anthology edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. I've read less than half of its contents, but so far I've been more disappointed than pleased. Hopefully the quality will pick up...

Comments

[caro]

I read The Coyote Road last year after buying it at Comic Con. I was pretty disappointed by the stories as well, but there were a few good ones. My favorites were "The Fiddler of Bayou Techem" by Delia Sherman and "The Constable of Abal" by Kelly Link.

I just finished Transformation by Carol Berg and liked it a lot. I also recently read The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapowski, and I'd recommend that as well. Right now I'm reading The Story of the Stone, which is the second Master Li & Number Ten Ox book by Barry Hughart. It's fun, in a silly way.

[foxfinial]

I'm reading Fire Logic by Laurie J Marks, which is the closest to epic fantasy I've read in quite a while. So far I'm finding the characters quite interesting and likeable. The plot, which simple so far, isn't bad. Would need to read more before I recommended it.

[phoenixsong]

Not quite current, but in the near future, I'll be re-reading at least the last three (if not all six) of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy books in anticipation of Naahmah's Kiss.

I loved the last two Kushiel books, so now I want to go back and see if Kushiel's Scion is really as annoying as I remember it seeming at the time.

[tallan]

I've just started The Oathbound by Mercedes Lackey. Started working my way through her Velgarth/Valdemar books about a week ago, and I enjoy them a lot. The Arrow's trilogy was cute (complete wishfulfillment!), By the Sword was total love (Kerowyn!), and Mage Winds was quite good (Elspeth is badass). Just wish I had found them when I was a kid, I think they would've meant a whole lot (more) to me back then.

[ellarien]

I'm halfway through Michelle West's The Hidden City, the first novel of the House War series. It's fine in itself, but I'm a bit disappointed because I really wanted to know what happened to the protagonist after the end of the Sun Sword series, not when she was a child of ten!

[sweet_sparrow]

At the moment, I've just finished up Titus Groan yesterday. I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about it, so I'm not sure who I'd recommend it to yet. I liked it, but I can see why people wouldn't.

I'm curious now, which of the stories in The Coyote Road did work for you? (I could't even finish The Dreaming Wind. It completely failed to grab my interest.) The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park after the Change was definitely the best story in there for me. I'm glad I read The Coyote Road for the stories I liked, but it's not been enough to convince me to rush out and collect the rest.

It's the third time I've read an anthology of theirs, but it just wasn't enough to convince me I must run out and collect the rest. I loved the first anthology I read, the second was utterly ruined by a single story, and this one... As said I'm glad I read it for the stories I liked, but... I don't know. *rambles*

We've very different causes for the reaction, though, I think. I thought a few of the stories were absolutely terrible choices (and the rest at least enjoyable to read), whereas you seem to dislike most of the stories.

[dunc]

I just finished Acacia by David Anthony Durham and hell yes. Great epic fantasy after a long string of 'meh' and all-out duds.

[dracothelizard]

I'm currently reading an anthology of horror stories, The Wordsworth Book of Great Horror Stories, and the cool thing is that they're all from either the late 19th century or the early 20th - there's quite a few by Arthur Conan Doyle, but for some reason none by H.P. Lovecraft. It's not technically fantasy, but there's plenty of unexplained things that go bump in the night and ghosts.

[missdanaidae]

Yesterday I started reading Terrier by Tamora Pierce. I'm very interested to see where the story goes because the plot revolves around the investigation of the murder of a three year old boy. I've never read a YA book with a murder plot so I'm impressed. The only thing that irks me is how long the narrator's journal entries are. I don't mind reading stories told through a journal, but when one entry is 50 pages I cannot suspend my disbelief.

[ilthit]

I'm reading a god-awful "paranormal romance" novel that promised werewolves and never delivered. I'm finishing it out of sheer stubbornness.

If you like short stories, first recommendations off the top of my head would be The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke and Sandman: Book of Dreams, a collection of prose short stories based on Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics (not by Gaiman, and I think they stand on their own without knowing too much about the comics). They are both brain-breakingly awesome. I also like Gaiman's short stories (Fragile Things and Smoke and Mirrors better than his novels; and of his novels my favourite is the delightful Anansi Boys. I also liked Kissing the Witch by Donoghue (short stories again), but for that you need a high tolerance for Message.