[polishgenius]

Baco Xtath, on 25 January 2013 - 06:20 PM, said:

No. He read it a couple months back and didn't care for it. I remember cause I'd read it shortly before and was baffled that he didn't like it.

This. Don't get me wrong, I quite enjoyed it while reading it, but I'd forgotten about it within like half an hour and have no real urge to read the rest.


The 'I'll keep an eye out' was for Abyss's current rec.

[stone monkey]

tbh I don't get the love for The Breach either; it's light reading at best but nothing earth shattering. Same with the Dresden books; enjoyable enough frippery imo but not anything that would make me want to rush out and buy them on the first publication day. Another one that I don't get the love for is The Milkweed Tryptych - I didn't actively dislike the first one, harmless enough entertainment I thought, but hardly the tour-de-force one would expect from reading some of the comments here.

De gustibus non est disputandum I suppose.

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 25 January 2013 - 08:05 PM

[yuna_anomander25]

just finished the other night, The Gap into Conflict: The Real Story by Stephen R Donaldson, i liked this more than his Thomas Covenant, and will definitely read the rest of his Gap and will also try his Mordant's Need. I've been reading past threads about TC and i read one post who notices that Donaldson's books always have rapist in them. pretty creepy thing, but anyways its still good, a little weird but overall its good, and how he switches the characters roles, definitely good writing.

so good that I re-watched Star Wars Ep 5: The Empire Strikes Back, my most fave of all Star Wars movies, i know its unrelated to the Gap, I just missed space-opera & hyperdrives, which is sort of like how they travel in the book, though in different terms and i like how he made a twist in that space-travelling method.

I read his afterword in the book, and how he's inspired and gave parallels to Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen(The Ring of the Nibelung), I've always been fascinated by that story of Siegfried and Brunnhilde, that I also re-watched the movie Dark Kingdom/Curse of the Ring, i know its not so good as say, The Lord of the Rings, in terms of production value, but since its the closest i could have which tells the tale, (and hey, they got Kristanna Loken there, so its forgivable, for me) though they changed a lot in there. will definitely hunt down the original four-part opera, in records or anything,

well, anyway, back on topic, just read the prologue of The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch, although its good and I will definitely continue this, I'm more hooked on Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice, since the two kind-of-like started with a kid aged 6 or something, but Lamora is already good at what he does, but Fitz is still innocent and his training won't start until some chapters later, i just started, and will continue this over Lamora, then get back on it, but both will be on hold once I got Altered Carbon, hopefully this Saturday

[yuna_anomander25]

and now that i renewed my interest in anything space-related, i will definitely add books in that genre, I planned on reading the original Dune, but since i still don't have it, I settled with Donaldson's Gap.
as much as I loved the original Darth Vader-Star Wars original trilogy, I'm of two minds about the novels, but I will add some of it, will check the good vs the bad of all the books,
on my radar: James S.A. Corey's The Expanse, Neal Asher's books, and will add others as I read recos about other Sci-Fi authors,
oh, and although it's not space-travel related, I'm also now considering Iain M Banks Culture novels

[worry]

Finished Water Sleeps. Best one yet. One more to go.

In between I started Godsdoom. Not that far into it, but fair warning, it appears that all these characters have Scandinavia-derived names and mythologies. I almost threw my kindle against a wall as I recoiled in horror and disgust, but heroically I resisted. Maybe I'll just boil it when I'm done. You can boil them right? Anyway, yah, I'll let you know (amph and whoever else) whether Mentalist is a Sherlockian mental marvel or just plain mental after all. Give me a few days.

[Traveller]

stone monkey, on 25 January 2013 - 08:03 PM, said:

Same with the Dresden books; enjoyable enough frippery imo but not anything that would make me want to rush out and buy them on the first publication day.
Another one that I don't get the love for is The Milkweed Tryptych - I didn't actively dislike the first one, harmless enough entertainment I thought, but hardly the tour-de-force one would expect from reading some of the comments here.

De gustibus non est disputandum I suppose.

I couldn't get into the first of the Milkweed Tryptych either. Maybe wrong timing or something, it just didn't grab me.

But Dresden? For shame!

[Salt-Man Z]

yuna_anomander25, on 25 January 2013 - 08:33 PM, said:

just finished the other night, The Gap into Conflict: The Real Story by Stephen R Donaldson, i liked this more than his Thomas Covenant, and will definitely read the rest of his Gap and will also try his Mordant's Need. I've been reading past threads about TC and i read one post who notices that Donaldson's books always have rapist in them. pretty creepy thing, but anyways its still good, a little weird but overall its good, and how he switches the characters roles, definitely good writing.

The Real Story is basically a prologue for the rest of the series. You are unprepared for what'll be coming.

Interesting point about the rapists. I'm not sure it applies to his non-SF Mick Axbrewder mysteries, though. If you end up liking enough of Donaldson's stuff, you should definitely check those out.

[amphibian]

Salt-Man Z, on 25 January 2013 - 09:14 PM, said:

Interesting point about the rapists. I'm not sure it applies to his non-SF Mick Axbrewder mysteries, though. If you end up liking enough of Donaldson's stuff, you should definitely check those out.

Donaldson is really interested in exploring the character's vulnerability to people they know and trust and how people deal with that unexpected betrayal, anguish and/or physical damage. There's a ton of betrayal in his books that aren't acts of rape. I believe that there are enough other acts of betrayal to show that he isn't "spamming" rape to get an emotional response or sickly fascinated with rape itself.

The Covenant Chronicles have only one rape in them. That was a test of the unreality of The Land for Covenant and once it was done, it had tremendous consequences for Covenant himself and upon the story. It wasn't there just to be there. For the Gap Cycle, there's more than one act, but it's used to show the horrors of slavery and in particular, sexual slavery. Betrayal and the weird mechanisms of trust that people use to deal with each other is an enormous theme of the Gap books. I don't remember the Mordant's Need books well enough to point to a rape if one occurred, but the theme of betrayal is indeed key there.

[Mentalist]

worrywort, on 25 January 2013 - 09:07 PM, said:

Finished Water Sleeps. Best one yet. One more to go.

In between I started Godsdoom. Not that far into it, but fair warning, it appears that all these characters have Scandinavia-derived names and mythologies. I almost threw my kindle against a wall as I recoiled in horror and disgust, but heroically I resisted. Maybe I'll just boil it when I'm done. You can boil them right? Anyway, yah, I'll let you know (amph and whoever else) whether Mentalist is a Sherlockian mental marvel or just plain mental after all. Give me a few days.

Hjerward has very heavy Norse influences, as far as worlds in that Multiverse go (the heaviest). Esp the Eastern continent. There's an explanation for that, but it'll be a spoiler. There are however a bunch of players non-native to it who aren't Norse. RAFO.

yuna_anomander25, on 25 January 2013 - 08:33 PM, said:

just finished the other night, The Gap into Conflict: The Real Story by Stephen R Donaldson, i liked this more than his Thomas Covenant, and will definitely read the rest of his Gap and will also try his Mordant's Need. I've been reading past threads about TC and i read one post who notices that Donaldson's books always have rapist in them. pretty creepy thing, but anyways its still good, a little weird but overall its good, and how he switches the characters roles, definitely good writing.

so good that I re-watched Star Wars Ep 5: The Empire Strikes Back, my most fave of all Star Wars movies, i know its unrelated to the Gap, I just missed space-opera & hyperdrives, which is sort of like how they travel in the book, though in different terms and i like how he made a twist in that space-travelling method.

I read his afterword in the book, and how he's inspired and gave parallels to Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen(The Ring of the Nibelung), I've always been fascinated by that story of Siegfried and Brunnhilde, that I also re-watched the movie Dark Kingdom/Curse of the Ring, i know its not so good as say, The Lord of the Rings, in terms of production value, but since its the closest i could have which tells the tale, (and hey, they got Kristanna Loken there, so its forgivable, for me) though they changed a lot in there. will definitely hunt down the original four-part opera, in records or anything,

That afterword blew me away. Book 2 is a whole different beast, but it's also very good.

As for myself, currently reading second book of Godsdoom-II liking it so far. A ton of foreshadowing, but not a whole lot of mind-blowing epicness. More thoughts when done.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 26 January 2013 - 12:05 AM

[kcf]

I finished up The Six-Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher the other day - it was a very pleasant surprise (review). I still owe reviews for The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman and Fortress Frontier by Myke Cole (I liked both).

For my next read I decided to get a Charles de Lint fix, so I'm reading Someplace to be Flying - I really like de Lint's writing.

[Overactive Imagination]

Only a few hundred pages left in The Crippled God! Shit's starting to go down!

Looking forward to finishing the book so I can go into the Crippled God forum and see what people have to say about it

[Pennywise]

Just finished the final story in Galactic North, and with that, the collection and the whole series. It took me a year and was my first experience with SF/space opera since childhood. At times it was hard going, because Reynolds' prose sometimes struggles to flow well enough to read comfortably. Overall, though, it was awesome. My mind melted repeatedly, and I'll definitely revisit the series again.

I hope Reynolds decides to return to this universe at some point. The Prefect deserves a sequel, and there is one element I find curiously missing. We've seen plenty of Chasm City/Yellowstone/Glitter Band society before the Melding Plague, and after, but never during. Given Reynolds' talent for writing squishy body horror (See Diamond Dogs, or Nightingale), a story of the city as it is falling apart would be awesome!

Now back to pondering what to read next... I don't think I am alone in seriously loving that feeling of perusing the TRP, weighing options and choosing between so much good stuff.

[Ain't_It_Just_]

amphibian, on 21 January 2013 - 03:44 PM, said:

Ain, on 21 January 2013 - 12:46 PM, said:

MASKERADE is done. It was kind of a battle,to be honest.

Now I'm reading, in a fit of impulse, Nam Le's THE BOAT.

I have that sitting on my dresser four feet away from me. A very strong book of short stories, especially the titular story. You probably will dig the Brazilian favela assassin one.

Yes, I'm not usually a fan of anthologies/short story collections but I'm starting to change my tune, that one was terrific! Though I can't be fucked reading the last story, I'm a bad person

Now I'm reading A Red Country....it is awesome. That is all.

[Ukjent]

Finished Fall of Reach yesterday and if it wasn't for good old Master Chief I would have put the book down way before it was done. And now it's finally over to Blood and Bone.

This post has been edited by Graablick: 26 January 2013 - 04:18 PM

[Salt-Man Z]

amphibian, on 25 January 2013 - 11:35 PM, said:

I don't remember the Mordant's Need books well enough to point to a rape if one occurred, but the theme of betrayal is indeed key there.

If I recall, there's at least two attempted rapes. But yeah, that's a great point. I'd posit that Donaldson's two main themes through all his work are betrayal and redemption.

[QuickTidal]

stone monkey, on 25 January 2013 - 08:03 PM, said:

tbh I don't get the love for The Breach either; it's light reading at best but nothing earth shattering. Same with the Dresden books; enjoyable enough frippery imo but not anything that would make me want to rush out and buy them on the first publication day. Another one that I don't get the love for is The Milkweed Tryptych - I didn't actively dislike the first one, harmless enough entertainment I thought, but hardly the tour-de-force one would expect from reading some of the comments here.

De gustibus non est disputandum I suppose.

EDIT: I'm just going to leave my comment on this post as, you could have just said "these aren't for me, even though they are clearly for others considering the mass enjoyment level."

The subtle jabs and putdowns just make you come off as petty SM.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 26 January 2013 - 10:17 PM

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

24. Ring by Stephen Baxter: I enjoyed this one. Probably not enough to pick up the previous Xeelee novels, which seem only tangentially related. But I will continue with Vacuum Diagrams at some point.

25. Threshold by Caitlin R. Kiernan: I still can't find any urban fantasy that I like. And no, don't recommend Dresden to me. But I'm not going to insult it either, so don't get mad.

26. Stupid History by Leland Gregory: A funny little book about historical myths and weird moments in history. Recommended if you see it in the bargain bin somewhere.

27. Star Trek Mirror Universe: Glass Empires: Way behind in my Star Trek reading. This is a 6 year old book for crying out loud.

28. Speaker for the Dead graphic novel by Aaron Johnston: Probably my 2nd favorite Ender book. The piggies were too teddy-bearish for my taste, but otherwise a great adaptation.

29. The Everything Vampire Book by Barb Karg et al.: I read way too many of these Everything / Dummies / Idiot's Guide books.

[QuickTidal]

Finished THE TERROR by Simmons...it was very good, but it's too long by a few 100 pages. Once it settles into the third act I began to feel the length as a chore...but it was still a totally satisfying ending, and a really, really good book! I'll be looking for more Simmons in future.

Next up, BLOOD GOSPEL by James Rollins & Rebecca Cantrell.

[Stalker]

Yeah, THE TERROR is a little longer than it needed to be, a few parts seemed to drag on, but overall it is another fantastic novel by Simmons. Simmons definitely did his research for the book, though, everything from the dates, locations, and people are directly from Franklin's lost expedition for the Northwest Passage. I think that even without the ice terror, this still would have been a great read.


But anyway, I've been working on Gene Wolfe's SHADOW AND CLAW. I haven't read Wolfe before but I see him mentioned on here from time to time.

This post has been edited by Stalker: 27 January 2013 - 04:04 AM

[QuickTidal]

Stalker, on 27 January 2013 - 04:04 AM, said:

Yeah, THE TERROR is a little longer than it needed to be, a few parts seemed to drag on, but overall it is another fantastic novel by Simmons. Simmons definitely did his research for the book, though, everything from the dates, locations, and people are directly from Franklin's lost expedition for the Northwest Passage. I think that even without the ice terror, this still would have been a great read.


But anyway, I've been working on Gene Wolfe's SHADOW AND CLAW. I haven't read Wolfe before but I see him mentioned on here from time to time.

There is one blatant mistake in the dates. The first chapter where the sled teams are sent out to leave the brass cylinders at the cairns and the first attack happens to the one team...it claims they leave in June of 1846...but the next chapter when we drop back to them coming home 5 days later, it's listed as June of 1847. It's supposed to be '47, but that one chapter mis-dates it to '46...and it blew my mind because it's in the chapter title...not hard to spot. Surprised the Editor's missed it.