[Morgoth]

acesn8s, on 08 March 2013 - 02:21 PM, said:

The Old Man's War by Scalzi. I seem to be in a SciFi mood at the moment.

An excellent book. Sadly I felt there was a pretty steep decline in quality in book 2. Thankfully, Old Man's War works great as a standalone.

[Abyss]

amphibian, on 07 March 2013 - 09:59 PM, said:

Abyss, on 07 March 2013 - 03:14 PM, said:

amphibian, on 07 March 2013 - 03:10 PM, said:

CJ Cherryh's Morgaine series is really frickin' good...

Can you elaborate on what you liked? I liked the setting, but found it slow and repetitious, and bailed after the second book.

I'm not sure what you found repetitious about the series. ...

I found that

Spoiler

each book consisted of an extended separation between the two protags, with short periods of Morgaine running around being myserious and enigmatic and overlong segments of Vanye being conflicted while surviving primitive fallen civilization settings and slogging through bad weather. Her motives varied between too complex or not complex enough, and Vanye's attachment to her seemed forced. The bad guys' supposed charisma read like the author saying 'he's a charismatic leader because i say he is'.

.

Also, Cherryh's style of long drawn out build-up to not-so-big finale just didn't work for me. I suppose it comes down to an author's particular writing not working for a particular reader.

[pat5150]

I just finished James Clavell's Shogun and it was by far one of the most memorable reads of my life!

Set in feudal Japan, as a tale of love and war so vast in scope, I feel that it's something that most fantasy fans could enjoy.

Check out the Hotlist for the full review. . .

Cheers,

Patrick

[Dutch]

pat5150, on 09 March 2013 - 09:09 PM, said:

I just finished James Clavell's Shogun and it was by far one of the most memorable reads of my life!

Set in feudal Japan, as a tale of love and war so vast in scope, I feel that it's something that most fantasy fans could enjoy.

Check out the Hotlist for the full review. . .

Cheers,

Patrick

Watch the mini series, it will also be one of the most memorable things you ever have watched.

[Dutch]

Briar King, on 10 March 2013 - 04:05 AM, said:

pat5150, on 09 March 2013 - 09:09 PM, said:

I just finished James Clavell's Shogun and it was by far one of the most memorable reads of my life!

Set in feudal Japan, as a tale of love and war so vast in scope, I feel that it's something that most fantasy fans could enjoy.

Check out the Hotlist for the full review. . .

Cheers,

Patrick

Hmm something just screamed at me to go order this book in Amazon. Any other books by this author worth ordering so I can hit the $30 mark?

On the top of my head.

Tai Pan, Gajin (both set in feudal Japan) and perhaps King Rat (set in a Japanese prison camp during WWII).

There's also Noble House sitting on my shelf, but that one I haven't read yet, the other three mentioned before I did enjoy big time.

[Dutch]

It has bin a few years since I read them so I checked the books and realized that I made some mistakes.

Tai-Pan is set in Hong Kong and Gai-Jin is set in Japan of 1862.

[Abyss]

Finished John Love's FATH. Totally enjoyed the book, am vaccilating on whether the end was brilliant, or a clever cheat. Either way, a book worth reading.

Skipped and jumped my way to the end of Gibbins' ATLANTIS. I won't be bothering with his other books. Decent action, neat setting, but way way way too much exposition, clunky dialogue and unoriginal characters with an overdose of 'oh isn't that conveeeeeeeenient'.

Next up, RED COUNTRY. BRING ON THE BLOODY NINE!!!!!!!

[T77]

Just finished The Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers. This was the first novel of his I've read. I enjoyed it and thought it was good.

[amphibian]

Abyss, on 08 March 2013 - 07:36 PM, said:

Also, Cherryh's style of long drawn out build-up to not-so-big finale just didn't work for me. I suppose it comes down to an author's particular writing not working for a particular reader.

That's alright.

The Morgaine series doesn't have an ending per se or maybe Cherryh just wanted to have the series end with a near infinite number of possibilities. They're still very well written in my opinion, but I can understand why people wouldn't want to pick this up expecting to be amazed.

[Abyss]

amphibian, on 11 March 2013 - 02:20 PM, said:

Abyss, on 08 March 2013 - 07:36 PM, said:

Also, Cherryh's style ...

That's alright.

...I can understand why people wouldn't want to pick this up expecting to be amazed.

i won't quite say i expected to be amazed so much as part way through bk 1 i was looking fwd to it and then was disappointed. The first book builds to what should be a decent finale and, imnsho of course, only barely delivers. Then the second book does the same thing. The third was going in the same direction when i bailed out.

That said, Chrryh has a certain style and obviously given her extensive and long-running back-catelog piles of people dig what she's cooking.

[End of Disc One]

Finished The Crown Conspiracy by Michael J. Sullivan. That was really good. Absolutely no complaints.

I think I'll get back to Abercrombie next with The Heroes.

[acesn8s]

Morgoth, on 08 March 2013 - 06:42 PM, said:

acesn8s, on 08 March 2013 - 02:21 PM, said:

The Old Man's War by Scalzi. I seem to be in a SciFi mood at the moment.

An excellent book. Sadly I felt there was a pretty steep decline in quality in book 2. Thankfully, Old Man's War works great as a standalone.

I breezed through OMW. Fun read and some cool ideas. I'm struggling getting into Ghost Brigades. I think I'm finally getting to the stage where the main character emerges. Hopefully things will pick up.

Pat, after reading your review of Shogun I'm itching to get a copy. I tried reading king Rat, as it was the first novel in the Asia series he wrote, but never got into it.

[Salt-Man Z]

Briar King, on 11 March 2013 - 07:04 PM, said:

Shit wait a min did I fuck up?

Google, my good man.

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 11 March 2013 - 07:43 PM

[Salt-Man Z]

I'm currently finishing up Theodore Homa's Archimedes' Claw, which isn't very good, but is at least enjoyable (and short!)

Next up will be Peter Clines' Ex-Heroes.

[Abyss]

Briar King, on 11 March 2013 - 07:04 PM, said:

...Shit wait a min did I fuck up ordering Shogun 1st? I looked at those other books he wrote but they all took place in different eras with dif characters. Is there a story connection I ll be missing?

don't panic. SHOGUN reads just fine by itself.

[worry]

Hope you watched The First Samurai before that, or you missed like half the story.

[worry]

Actually it's prototypical, I've had that one saved for a few years now.

[Mentalist]

Finally managed to finish Revelation Space Not sure if this is just because of my schedule right now, but I found myself really struggling with the pacing of this book. The concepts were quite nifty though I really do detest the trope of

Spoiler

the tragic hero driven by a singular character flaw, that everyone and their dog knows about, tells the character about, but, alas, he's SO FLAWED he cannot help it,

, so that soured it a bit for me as well. That being said, there were some really cool ideas in the book, and as hard sci-fi it was a good read.

gonna give Redemption Ark a shot next, if I feel more of the same from it then I may give Reynolds a break...

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 12 March 2013 - 07:23 AM

[Morgoth]

I've picked up Declare by Tim Powers and I'm enjoying it so far. Excellent, over the top cold war spy thriller with heavy lovecraftian undertones.

[Serenity]

Made a start on The Way of Kings this morning. Love the artwork in this book.