Recently finished:
Kingkiller Chronicles book 2: The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
I thought the first book was very good, but this one was
really special. 5/5 stars, easily. It has a few shortcomings (slow beginning, annoying 3rd person interludes, a bit self-indulgent at times) but all that is obliterated by the huge amount of awesomeness on display. Honestly I haven't had time to fully reflect, but I think this is one of my favorite epic fantasy books ever. One complaint I see often about this series is that Kvothe is a Gary Stue, and I understand where people are coming from, but personally the book is just too much fun to let things like that bother me for long. Also, Kvothe is clearly an unreliable narrator, pumping himself up a little bit in the telling of the story, which mitigates the problem somewhat, at least for me.
Dresden Files book 3: Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
This was slightly better than the first two books. It seems that Butcher is not very good at writing beginnings, or at least he wasn't at this point in his career, because all three books have been difficult to get into, and all have finished much stronger than they started. The writing gets a little better with each book, and Butcher keeps expanding his universe with new characters and ideas. This one was especially good in that area, introducing some sub-plots and characters that I'm sure will impact later books in a big way. Also, the big action scenes were especially great in this one, and the entire second half of the book was a wonderful roller-coaster ride, even better than the second book.
Space Book 1: Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis
This was too heavy handed and preachy, but there was a smattering of good stuff (cool ideas, imaginative settings) to make it worth reading. I like Lewis's writing style generally, and I've heard that the later books in this series are better, so I'll probably give the next one a try at some point.
Revelation Space Book 2: Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds
I've been struggling through this book for months, and I finally buckled down and rushed through the last quarter. Really, this book is kind of a mess. The world building is great, and I love this universe. But Reynolds gets so caught up in the world building here that the story bogs down. I think you could probably halve the length of this without hurting it very much. Also, the ending is just so bad... I just can't describe it, such a failure. Some people think this is the best book in the Revelation Space series, but I thought the first book, despite being flawed in some of the same ways, was much better. The next book, apparently, is a continuation of the story from the first book, and despite my problems with this book, I'm still excited to read it. Reynolds really does have a great talent for worldbuilding, and this is one of the most interesting fictional universes I've ever come across. Hopefully future books in the series do a better job exploring that potential.
