[worry]

Finished Furies of Calderon. To be honest, I found it kinda wack. Not like a miserable failure or anything, but pretty bland. I knew to expect a fairly by the books fantasy beginning to the series, so the plot wasn't the problem. But in terms of what I know Butcher can do with character and dialogue, this was the bigger disappointment. There just wasn't much spark there. Anyway, I have them all, and I know by folks here that there's an uptick in book 2 and then big improvement especially after that, so I'll continue. That said, I'm gonna read something else before I dive back in. Figure now's as good a time as any to read Consider Phlebas.

[Rictus]

Halfway through Paul Kearney's Kings of Morning. It's the best in the series, i think. But dammit his books are far too short, or maybe I'm just comparing everything to Erikson these days...

[Macros]

@worry.

imnsho 3&4 are the best books in the series

[Mentalist]

Hagop, on 06 April 2013 - 11:59 AM, said:

Halfway through Paul Kearney's Kings of Morning. It's the best in the series, i think. But dammit his books are far too short, or maybe I'm just comparing everything to Erikson these days...

Have you read his "Monarchies of God" series? liked those a lot more than the Macht

[Overactive Imagination]

Getting toward the end of Summer Knight (just got the huge info dump where everything was explained regarding who killed SN) and it's pretty kickass.

This post has been edited by Overactive Imagination: 07 April 2013 - 07:59 AM

[Hound]

Finished 'The Devil You Know' (Castor #1) by Carey. I liked it, the story picked up towards the end, the beginning of the book took me a while to get into (comparing with the awesomeness that is the Dresden Files didn't help either). Looking forward to Vicious Circle and hoping for more Juliet.

Currently halfway through 'Red, White and Blood' (Cade #3) by Farnsworth. Haha, that confrontation between Cade and Zach's dad was priceless.

[Rictus]

Mentalist, on 06 April 2013 - 06:27 PM, said:

Hagop, on 06 April 2013 - 11:59 AM, said:

Halfway through Paul Kearney's Kings of Morning. It's the best in the series, i think. But dammit his books are far too short, or maybe I'm just comparing everything to Erikson these days...

Have you read his "Monarchies of God" series? liked those a lot more than the Macht

I breezed through KoM. The last battle was great, but that ending just felt abrupt, incomplete, not at all what I expected.
And thanks, I'll give them a try.

This post has been edited by Hagop: 07 April 2013 - 05:44 PM

[amphibian]

Hagop! Is that from the Perumov book or an Armenian background?

[Rictus]

amphibian, on 07 April 2013 - 05:10 PM, said:

Hagop! Is that from the Perumov book or an Armenian background?

Uh, no never read any of his stuff. I was referring to the closure of Kings of Morning.

[Morgoth]

So I finished Faith by John Love. An excellent sci fi in the vein of Cook and Watts I though. Space felt big, alien and frightening, which it should. The antagonist was inscrutable, impossible and fascinating. Upon completion I simply sat in my chair, tasting it, for quite some time. Not a perfect book, and perhaps not wonderfully paced, but a sci fi more than just a mediation on technology (though they can be fun too). I also very much enjoyed reading all the main characters which is exceedingly rare for the genre.

Deciding to go for something very different I started, and finished, Pulp by Bukowski. I adored it. I really did. Not perhaps a book I would have normally picked up, I have no experience with the author and have never been particularly enamoured with the detective noir genre. Yet it expanded way past my expectations and made me laugh several times in a bleak awful sort of way. I read in the introduction afterwards (never read an introduction before the book unless you want all the important plot points spoiled) that the author wrote the book after having been diagnosed with the cancer that eventually killed him, and I think that helped create the strange sort of atmosphere conjured by Pulp.

Anyways, both are great books in very different ways and deserve to be read.

[Serenity]

Finished The Lies of Locke Lamora - thoroughly enjoyed it. Now reading Iain Banks's Stonemouth, which I was always intending to read next, even before hearing his sad news.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

I've just finished the final Rainwild Chronicle, Blood of Dragons.

Decent enough ending, but I've never thought this series was her strongest. It has prompted me to re-read Farseer and Tawny Man at some point though.

[Serenity]

Finished Stonemouth. I've only read Banks's SF novels before now, so can't compare it to his other fiction. Generally I thought it was okay, if unspectacular.

Now starting on Abercrombie's Best Served Cold. I've been denying this one to myself for a long time. I want to savour it.

[MTS]

As mentioned in the happy thread, my copy of Blood and Bone arrived today. About 100 pages in at the moment and enjoying it so far.

[James Hutton]

I finished Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe just this morning on the train. I could only glimpse parts of the first layer beneath the story, let alone the ones below that, so I started reading it again then and there. Can recommend this if you like rereadability!

[Salt-Man Z]

James Hutton, on 10 April 2013 - 11:08 AM, said:

I finished Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe just this morning on the train. I could only glimpse parts of the first layer beneath the story, let alone the ones below that, so I started reading it again then and there. Can recommend this if you like rereadability!

Rereads are even better once you've read the entire Book!

[Morgoth]

Salty is a man of wisdom and class. Listen to his words.

[Salt-Man Z]

You're too kind.

I read The Book of the New Sun every December for four years straight before skipping it this past year. And man, do I miss it. Definitely going back to it this year.

[Morgoth]

Incidentally, I've just started American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennet. After having finished two rather quick (though excellent) books; Pulp by Bukowski and the Sorrows of Young Werter by Goethe, I thought it was time to hit another longer book.

[Salt-Man Z]

Morgoth, on 10 April 2013 - 04:56 PM, said:

Incidentally, I've just started American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennet. After having finished two rather quick (though excellent) books; Pulp by Bukowski and the Sorrows of Young Werter by Goethe, I thought it was time to hit another longer book.

Good luck with that! I read American Elsewhere in two days, it was so unputdownable.

I finished Moorcock's The City in the Autumn Stars, which, though often confusing, was still satisfyingly epic. Moorcock is certainly nothing if not ambitious! Now starting in on The Dragon in the Sword, which features my favorite (so far) incarnation of the Eternal Champion, John Daker/Erekose, but the setting seems really bizarre this time around.

Also starting my first reread of Toll the Hounds for the Tor.com thing.