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What books are you reading?
rjbull:
Wow, that's even good depiction of Zagreb main square, with the statue of governor Josip Jelačić in the background. I'll have to pick it up just to see what is it about.
-Attronarch (August 12, 2016, 05:29 AM)
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There isn't much about Zagreb as such, but a fair section about the age-old and horrible enmity between Serb and Croat. Bernie is a non-Nazi German detective; the novels span the early 1930s through to the Cold War, with all that implies. As a character, he is very much in the 'noir' tradition of e.g. Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe.
More on Philip Kerr's official website.
rjbull:
[The Quiet Twin - Dan Vyleta]
-rjbull (August 04, 2016, 05:25 PM)
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did you find that one as good as the reviews suggested?
-tomos (August 12, 2016, 06:24 AM)
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I haven't seen any reviews of it - I picked it up when I saw it in the library, because I'd read his first novel, Pavel and I (for which I had seen positive reviews), and thought well of it.
In The Quiet Twin Vyleta wanted to consider how the Nazi regime affected the lives of ordinary Viennese (nearly all of them flawed characters), and set most of the story within a single apartment block. The book kept me reading with some urgency to find out what happened next, but given the era and situation, don't expect any happy endings.
rjbull:
It starts with A Darkness Forged in Fire, that almost lost me in the beginning. But I'm glad that I stuck it out through that bit of exposition, as the rest of the read firmly grabbed me.-wraith808 (August 12, 2016, 09:16 AM)
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A dangerous strategy for an author. I started Gardens of the Moon, first of Steven Erikson's Malazan Empire series, which opens on a protracted scene where two people, neither introduced, pick their way through a scene of World War 1 level carnage - with no explanation whatsoever. I put the book down. I picked it up again a few weeks later and finished it, but it was a close-run thing whether I'd bother.
wraith808:
It starts with A Darkness Forged in Fire, that almost lost me in the beginning. But I'm glad that I stuck it out through that bit of exposition, as the rest of the read firmly grabbed me.-wraith808 (August 12, 2016, 09:16 AM)
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A dangerous strategy for an author. I started Gardens of the Moon, first of Steven Erikson's Malazan Empire series, which opens on a protracted scene where two people, neither introduced, pick their way through a scene of World War 1 level carnage - with no explanation whatsoever. I put the book down. I picked it up again a few weeks later and finished it, but it was a close-run thing whether I'd bother.
-rjbull (August 14, 2016, 03:58 PM)
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Totally agreed. But I think he fell victim to two things.
1) New author
2) the Genre, as I said, was Gunpowder Fantasy. That first part was pure fantasy.
rjbull:
[...] I think he fell victim to two things.
1) New author
2) the Genre, as I said, was Gunpowder Fantasy. That first part was pure fantasy.
-wraith808 (August 14, 2016, 04:27 PM)
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That sounds like he needed a good editor to suggest improvements. Perhaps publishers and agents don't bother any more.
You said you read a lot. How do you pick what books to read next, given the vast number available and limited time to read? Do you frequent favourite review sites, and if so, which?
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