[Morgoth]

Briar King, on 21 May 2013 - 08:37 PM, said:

The Great North Road: Peter F. Hamilton?

It's like Hamilton had a strange kind of amnesia where he forgot that he's written the commonwealth books. Had I not read the commonwealth books I would have liked it. However, having read them the Great North Road felt much like a revamp of the same setting just with our most recent technological developments taken into account.

[Abyss]

Mentalist, on 27 May 2013 - 04:01 AM, said:

yuna_anomander25, on 27 May 2013 - 01:21 AM, said:

David Windgrove's (sp?) Chung Kuo series? any thoughts?

There's an ongoing thread in the featured reviews subforum. I haven't read them myself, but i heard pretty good things

I read the original 8 book series. Loved 1-6, despised 7, couldn't make myself read 8.

Supposedly this new longer version corrects some of the problems with the original series and builds on some of the better parts. On that basis, when it's complete, i may consider picking it up.

[Coco with marshmallows]

Briar King, on 01 July 2013 - 10:59 PM, said:

Blood Song(A Raven's Shadow) bk by Anthony Ryan?

God damn psychic,

just about to ask this myself, saw it on the shelf in town today. Blurb is intriguing, but then again, they're designed to be.

[Abyss]

Amazon review counts can be suspect.

[Salt-Man Z]

Briar King, on 02 July 2013 - 01:20 AM, said:

Yep it's got 865 reviews on Amazon 755 of which are 5 stars. This is becoming a must checkout in the future for sure...

Abyss, on 02 July 2013 - 02:34 AM, said:

Amazon review counts can be suspect.

Goodreads has a 4.62/5 avg on 2908 ratings (including a couple from users whose opinions I respect.)
LibraryThing has a 4.5/5 avg on 13 ratings.

[Coco with marshmallows]

Salt-Man Z, on 02 July 2013 - 04:41 AM, said:

Briar King, on 02 July 2013 - 01:20 AM, said:

Yep it's got 865 reviews on Amazon 755 of which are 5 stars. This is becoming a must checkout in the future for sure...

Abyss, on 02 July 2013 - 02:34 AM, said:

Amazon review counts can be suspect.

Goodreads has a 4.62/5 avg on 2908 ratings (including a couple from users whose opinions I respect.)
LibraryThing has a 4.5/5 avg on 13 ratings.

Taking on board the fact that i respect your opinion, i've gone ahead and bought it. PResently reading the Coldest War, but will progress to this after, and will report back.

[Pig Iron]

Briar King, on 01 July 2013 - 10:59 PM, said:

Blood Song(A Raven's Shadow) bk by Anthony Ryan?

Also liked it, definitely reading sequel when it comes. In a sense typical fantasy, but he does something quite his own with it that I can't put my finger on.

[EmperorMagus]

Briar King, on 01 July 2013 - 10:59 PM, said:

Blood Song(A Raven's Shadow) bk by Anthony Ryan?

I loved it.

[Serenity]

Pig Iron, on 07 July 2013 - 01:44 PM, said:

Briar King, on 01 July 2013 - 10:59 PM, said:

Blood Song(A Raven's Shadow) bk by Anthony Ryan?

Also liked it, definitely reading sequel when it comes. In a sense typical fantasy, but he does something quite his own with it that I can't put my finger on.

This, exactly. I'm reading it at the moment and at first glance it seems like the sort of generic fantasy that I run a mile from these days, but the characters are so good and there's always something interesting happening. It's a real page-turner. Good stuff.

[Coco with marshmallows]

just to add, i'd say pretty much exactly what Serenity says.

Nothing ground breaking, just good, solid fantasy.

[Salt-Man Z]

S. P. Somtow's Riverrun trilogy? Saw the omnibus at HPB today. Neither LibraryThing nor Goodreads have much to say in the way of reviews.

[amphibian]

Briar King, on 17 September 2013 - 11:56 PM, said:

Elizabeth Moon?

I've read the full Deeds of Paksenarrion series. It's pretty good, despite being pretty black and white. Moon never lets Paks be a staid goody good, perfect warrior type and the story is very unanticipated in spots.

I recommend it. The books are nothing like Malazan or Wheel of Time. They are more like Quantum Leap, the tv show, with Sam spending a lot more time between leaps of situation.

[acesn8s]

I also read the Paks series way back in the day...late 80s, early 90s. It was okay.

[QuickTidal]

amphibian, on 18 September 2013 - 06:26 AM, said:

Briar King, on 17 September 2013 - 11:56 PM, said:

Elizabeth Moon?

I've read the full Deeds of Paksenarrion series. It's pretty good, despite being pretty black and white. Moon never lets Paks be a staid goody good, perfect warrior type and the story is very unanticipated in spots.

I recommend it. The books are nothing like Malazan or Wheel of Time. They are more like Quantum Leap, the tv show, with Sam spending a lot more time between leaps of situation.

I'd go the opposite opinion of Amph on her work...I read the first Paksennarion book and did not finish it...got about 3/4 through and wanted to not only wing the book against the wall, but I hoped when I did that it would tear through that wall and travel through the air over hill and dale, eventually hitting Moon's editor in the head.

So yeah. Did not like.

[Salt-Man Z]

All you need to know is that Caine is a Paksenarrion fan.

[Imperial Historian]

I've not read any of Moon's fantasy, but her standalone book, Speed of Dark I thought was fantastic.

Her other sci-fi series are both fairly entertaining but a step down in quality I thought. As Amph said things aren't particularly complex, but if you are looking for light entertainment it's worth a read. I'll probably check out the paks series at some point.

[amphibian]

QuickTidal, on 18 September 2013 - 02:24 PM, said:

I'd go the opposite opinion of Amph on her work...I read the first Paksennarion book and did not finish it...got about 3/4 through and wanted to not only wing the book against the wall, but I hoped when I did that it would tear through that wall and travel through the air over hill and dale, eventually hitting Moon's editor in the head.

So yeah. Did not like.

Really? I would have thought you'd enjoy the slight subversion of the genre tropes and the surprising decency of the characters. The series is a good use of time and energy.

Moon is fairly good at building flexibility into her stories in an organic way, meaning that she'll write many of her characters to have hints towards fully realized backgrounds, while keeping them focused on the task at hand. This background of side characters becomes important later on in the series as the narrative focus wanders away from Paksenarrion herself (which is a great thing because too much of a paladin is never a good thing). It's very much like Dan Abnett with the Gaunt's Ghosts in that very little in the series development seems forced or intrusive because the elements or building blocks were laid in long before.

The Gird mini-series is particularly nice and does a terrific job of showing the courage and costs of speaking out against injustice, human frailty and what the process of really building towards something societally and morally better is like - while keeping it firmly grounded in one of the most likable characters in the entire series (Gird himself).

Moon's not a "scorch your brain with literary fire" author. She's hitting doubles over and over again, with the occasional triple mixed in, without striking out and building up a huge lead over time.

[worry]

The original trilogy is a couple decades old. I've read it and agree generally with amph. I don't really have an RPG background, so that stuff didn't phase me much, but I still recognized and enjoyed the playing with the paladin tropes...essentially sending a female paladin through a fairly realistic -- in fantasy context -- set of hells that's impossible to get through unscathed. Admittedly this happens the most in books two and three. She's not a fantasy iconoclast in the sense of SE/ICE's author heroes, but a little originality went a long way for me. She's recently (as in 2009 I think) returned to the series and it's still ongoing (3 out, 5 books total or something like that), but I haven't picked up the new stuff.

EDIT: And I see there's some prequely stuff she released somewhere in between too. So not actually sure what book you have.

This post has been edited by worry: 19 September 2013 - 01:16 AM

[amphibian]

Briar King, loop back to the original Paks books (Sheepfarmer's Daughter, Divided Allegiance and Oath of Gold, or the omnibus The Deed of Paksenarrion).

You've got book 1 of the 2nd Paks series and there's a Gird duology that really works well in between the Paks series.

Again, I do recommend them and Moon's a good writer. Very inclusive, makes all her characters 3D and doesn't get too goody goody or annoying with the black/white dynamic.

[worry]

Dwarves in the first trilogy:

Spoiler

They are mentioned as existing in the world but if I recall correctly Paks only meets one for a short time in some military or bureaucratic building and they're not a factor in the trilogy. It's largely people-focused as far as intelligent beings go, with what I'd call encounters with other beings on occasion some bigger than others.