2013 Reads: January

1. Oryx & Crake – Margaret Atwood
This was dystopian, post-apocolyptic fiction for adults. This and The Handmaid’s Tale, also by Atwood, are always some of the first books to come up in conversations about the best books that fit that profile. It didn’t change my life the way I expected it to, but I don’t know if that’s because I didn’t think it was that great, or if it’s just because I had high expectations.

2-6. Amber: The Corwin Cycle – Roger Zelazny
These are apparently standards of fantasy. They’re older, and they read like the books my dad used to suggest to me when I was younger, but that’s not bad. It’s just that the voice of books written in the 70s-80s is so different than books written now, and it takes a little getting used to.

I then started the 6th book of Amber, but I had two problems. One, it was about Corwin’s son, not about Corwin, and I always have a really hard time switching main characters because I care so much about the “real” main character. It frustrates me. Two, I’m reading these books on my kindle, and I find questionably-legal copies of them, which means that they aren’t all well-edited. The 6th book was randomly missing paragraphs, I am convinced, because it’s either that or it just didn’t make any sense.

I also started the Malazan series, but I found it confusing. Too many names, of both people & places, that I was having a hard time keeping straight. I think I could read it if I tried again with a paper book so it’s easier to page back and forth and figure it out.

This afternoon I went to the library and checked out several actual books, so I’m going to try to get through The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy next.