[amphibian]

Briar King, on 01 October 2017 - 08:20 PM, said:

The Grace of Kings. Any good? Hopefully before I leave BAM but I gotta go piss and the bathroom is locked so must be quick

It's pretty good. Written in a flat sort of way that's more like the Iliad and the Odyssey and Chinese history/myth than modern epics.

I would recommend it much much more than I would Under Heaven.

[polishgenius]

amphibian, on 02 October 2017 - 08:59 PM, said:

I would recommend it much much more than I would Under Heaven.

That hurt me somewhere deep inside.

[amphibian]

polishgenius, on 02 October 2017 - 09:58 PM, said:

amphibian, on 02 October 2017 - 08:59 PM, said:

I would recommend it much much more than I would Under Heaven.

That hurt me somewhere deep inside.

Apart from Lions of El Rassan, I mostly hate GGK's plotting and prose. And I've given him a ton of chances.

[Andorion]

Has anybody read anything by Tanith Lee? I am specifically interested in the Secret Books of Paradys series.

[Chance]

Andorion, on 09 October 2017 - 12:49 PM, said:

Has anybody read anything by Tanith Lee? I am specifically interested in the Secret Books of Paradys series.

Just read Night's Master which is both great and not very good at the same time. No clue if it is indicative of the author in general.

[Adhara]

"Red as Blood" is a masterpiece.

[Mentalist]

"Chronicles of the Long War" by A. J. Smith. Yhe blurb looks interesting, but I'm trying to tone down impulse buys. Anyone read this?

Edit: also Christopher Husberg, "Chaos Queen quintet"

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 15 October 2017 - 09:17 PM

[Andorion]

Has anybody read Anathem and Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson? What are they like?

[Mentalist]

Andorion, on 20 October 2017 - 02:33 AM, said:

Has anybody read Anathem and Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson? What are they like?

Diamond age is "the not-too-distant-future" with nano-tech. Kinda thematically similar to "Snow Crash", but without the random infodumps, I think (it's been a while since I read it)

"Anathem" is this ridiculously awesome epic sci-fi, that's prefaced with some ridiculously hardcore math/astrophysics infodumps for about half the book, and a setting that's very GotM-like in the sense of "here's a world history waaay in progress, we drop you in the middle, figure it out as you go!"

I think my reaction to it was "It's ridiculous that such a book exists, but I'm so glad it does"

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 20 October 2017 - 05:06 AM

[polishgenius]

Diamond Age is pretty good.

Anathem is all the way awesome. Peak Neal Stephenson, both in being really good and in being the ultimate expression of all his tics and styles in the best possible way.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 20 October 2017 - 05:11 AM

[Andorion]

Mentalist, on 20 October 2017 - 05:06 AM, said:

Andorion, on 20 October 2017 - 02:33 AM, said:

Has anybody read Anathem and Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson? What are they like?

Diamond age is "the not-too-distant-future" with nano-tech. Kinda thematically similar to "Snow Crash", but without the random infodumps, I think (it's been a while since I read it)

"Anathem" is this ridiculously awesome epic sci-fi, that's prefaced with some ridiculously hardcore math/astrophysics infodumps for about half the book, and a setting that's very GotM-like in the sense of "here's a world history waaay in progress, we drop you in the middle, figure it out as you go!"

I think my reaction to it was "It's ridiculous that such a book exists, but I'm so glad it does"

polishgenius, on 20 October 2017 - 05:10 AM, said:

Diamond Age is pretty good.

Anathem is all the way awesome. Peak Neal Stephenson, both in being really good and in being the ultimate expression of all his tics and styles in the best possible way.

Considering both of them for audiobooks. Good to hear the praise.

[polishgenius]

Quote

Diamond age is "the not-too-distant-future" with nano-tech. Kinda thematically similar to "Snow Crash", but without the random infodumps, I think (it's been a while since I read it)

It does have infodumps, but they're better disguised in the form of the book for large parts, so it isn't as obvious. And it is partly a sort of whodunwot mystery so it's less keen to tell you everything.


(not a major spoiler but this is something people might enjoy catching themselves so):

Spoiler

It's also a sequel to Snow Crash, not just thematically linked...

One of the reasons I love Anathem so much is that its entire setting is basically set up for infodumping, so the story doesn't grind to a halt because the infodumping is the story.

[Macros]

Mentalist, on 15 October 2017 - 09:10 PM, said:

"Chronicles of the Long War" by A. J. Smith. Yhe blurb looks interesting, but I'm trying to tone down impulse buys. Anyone read this?

Edit: also Christopher Husberg, "Chaos Queen quintet"

RE- chronicles of the Long war.

I read the first one and liked it well enough to read the second.

havent finished the series, havent had the time and my TRP is too big, and I don't feel overly driven to.

Im sure I have a review of it somewhere, but my memories of it now are of me finding it distinctly avergage

[Mentalist]

I know a few people have been talking up Martha Wells.

Now that I have access to Kindle, I'm interested in checking out her works.

What's the best place to start?

[amphibian]

Raksura

[Mistake Not...]

Has anyone read the "Evil is a Matter of Perspective" anthology?. It looks like there are some big names that have contributed, but I have been burned before with anthologies. I have read several from Martin and Dozois, but the only one that I have enjoyed basically every story was Songs of a Dying Earth. The Book of Swords was OK, but it was more of a 50/50 split with the best one being Scott Lynch's contribution. Is there more good than bad with the anthology in question?

This post has been edited by Mistake Not...: 27 January 2018 - 04:40 PM

[RACHEL]

I read the Evil is a Matter of Perspective anthology and I enjoyed it. Most of the stories made me want to check out other things written by the author. Its been a while but I know I felt like the kickstarter was a really good deal.

[Mistake Not...]

Thanks RACHEL!

[Salt-Man Z]

RACHEL, on 29 January 2018 - 01:50 AM, said:

I read the Evil is a Matter of Perspective anthology and I enjoyed it. Most of the stories made me want to check out other things written by the author. Its been a while but I know I felt like the kickstarter was a really good deal.

The Kickstarter was a ridiculous deal, with all the free ebooks it came with. I haven't gotten around to reading any of them yet, though...

[Aptorian]

Today I saw an old copy of a Dragonlance novel and got the urge to finally sit down and read some of these books.

I looked the series up on Google. There's at least a 164 Dragonlance books! Sweet baby Goodkind that's a lot of books.

Anyone have any recommendations about picking a choosing Dragonlance books? I read that there are some core, old Classic books called chronicles? Should I just read those?