[Slow Ben]

Wow! Now I'm really excited to read it!

[Stalker]

Yeah, I've heard some very critical reviews about Brett and have been avoiding it thus far. Fortunately, I'm not lacking good books to read.

I finished GGK's River of Stars , it was another excellent offering though I preferred Under Heaven . I really liked the references to the prior book and thought that the passage of time between the two felt very natural, obviously mirroring the dynasties of China and problems they faced.

I also read all six of Campbell's Lost Fleet novels over the past four days. I'm glad I saw them praised here, because those were fun books. They have the advantage of being short enough to be a fast read but filled with enough action to make you keep reading and reading. Great stuff.

[QuickTidal]

Reading Jay Kristoff's STORMDANCER.

I seem to recall someone saying that they found it to be distastefully stereotypical in bad ways...

...but I am not finding that AT ALL. In fact, it's arguably very informed about the feudal Japanese culture it uses as a template for his fantasy world.

Moving tattoos, griffins that are half eagle half white tiger, a fume choked sky with a caste civilization system split into clans all ruled by a shogunate.

It's phenomenally addictively written with a strong female lead.

Bottom line, I'm LOVING this book. I'll weigh in when I've finished, but so far it's excellent!

[EmperorMagus]

Reading Blood Song by Ryan Anthony.
I love it so far. There has not been a lot of new stuff but the character development has hooked me.

This post has been edited by EmperorMagus: 19 May 2013 - 04:35 AM

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

The King Beyond the Gate - David Gemmell.

Not his strongest so far for me (about 200 pages in), but maybe it will grow

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

I just finished Mieville's The Scar, which was a great read! Now I'm really looking forward to Iron Council but I'm going to read Bank's The Business first.

[Mentalist]

Hey guys, I'm back from vacation.

While enjoying back-breaking labour at my grandma's place in the country, I've sneaked in some reading time to read one of the "classics"-- The Tale of Two Cities . Read it in Russian, however, and I fear it has lost much in the translation. Or it could be I'm just really oblivious to the deep emaing of such "classic" books, since I did't find War and Peace all that mindblowing either, and that one i read in its native Russian.

Oh, and I've also finished Lavie Tidhar's Bookman Histories omnibus. Angry Robot is quickly becoming my favourite publisher, as they are yet to do me wrong. "Bookman" was a solid, imaginative, action-filled steampunk ride. "Camera obscura" took all that was awesome about Book 1, and then added wuxia elements, and dumper even MORE references to awesome 19th century works weaving an even better plot, imho, with an awesome conclusion.

The third book, "The Great Game" was somewhat weaker, I thought. I wasn't enamoured with the authoir shifting focus back to the same part of the world dealt with in Book 1, since I'd have preferred Tidhar explore a brand new area as he did in Book 2, rather than re-tread old ground from a new angle. The plot was also too similar to Book 2 for my liking, and the ending, whilst suitably ambiguous for this type of story, felt a bit weak in execution to me.

That being said, ymmv wrt the plot of Book 3, and i'd strongly recommend people give this omnibus a shot, becuase whilst i'm not sure this is always "steam" punk, this is certainly genre punk literature at its finest.

[Abyss]

Tidhar reco noted, moved it to the top of the TRP once NECESSARY EVIL and the remainder of the RIYRIA REVELATIONS are done.

[Salt-Man Z]

So Ricardo Pinto's The Chosen started out really good, began to drag a bit around the halfway point, and (now that they've reached Osrakum) has picked right back up again. I'm having the occasional difficulty processing Pinto's prose into visuals, but when I can, they're astounding. The one that's most blown me away: a beach covered with pebbles, where every single pebble has been hand-carved into the likeness of a fish or shell or other sculpture. Just...wow.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 19 May 2013 - 09:58 PM, said:

The King Beyond the Gate - David Gemmell.

Not his strongest so far for me (about 200 pages in), but maybe it will grow

Train to London and back for work, so finished this today. Not one of his best but still enjoyable.

On with an old favourite - White Wolf!

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 20 May 2013 - 02:33 AM, said:

QuickTidal, on 19 May 2013 - 03:17 AM, said:

Reading Jay Kristoff's STORMDANCER.

I seem to recall someone saying that they found it to be distastefully stereotypical in bad ways...

...but I am not finding that AT ALL. In fact, it's arguably very informed about the feudal Japanese culture it uses as a template for his fantasy world.

Moving tattoos, griffins that are half eagle half white tiger, a fume choked sky with a caste civilization system split into clans all ruled by a shogunate.

It's phenomenally addictively written with a strong female lead.

Bottom line, I'm LOVING this book. I'll weigh in when I've finished, but so far it's excellent!

This sounds kinda badass esp since I've been on this Clavell streek.

You should really read this BK. It's a blast. Inventive fantasy/steampunk world based off Feudal Japan that's overrun and razed by a guild who found a drug to harvest and basically enslave the clans into submission through fear and drug-use...plus fantastical animals, ninja's, and badass samurai.

[yuna_anomander25]

finished with Blood of the Mantis, it's shorter than the previous 2 books and even though it was shorter, it still took me a few days to finish this (with my sister giving birth to her 2nd child and busy days, that is), the first half had me remembering most of the plots and who's who of the series, fortunately it isn't the WoT, so before i knew it, i'm enjoying it and finished it last night,,

after i read BotM last night, i inserted a read of Donaldson's The Illearth War and Hobb's The Royal Assassin, only read a few chapters from this and only after i finished a book,,

now deciding which to read next,,

[D'rek]

I'm reading Abraham's The Long Price Quartet - finished Shadow in Summer a little while ago and about a 3rd of the way through Betrayal in Winter. I'm not totally enthralled by this quadrilogy yet, but it's enjoyable. The Khaiem culture and magic system are pretty neat, I think it is just the small-scale-ness of the plot that keeps it from becoming really gripping - this is really not a story about world events but about the personal lives of only a few people. But sometimes that's a welcome change from the many huge epic series, so I can be happy with that.

There's this really silly thing in the first book where the Khai culture involves people using many different 'poses' as expressions and short statements. Sometimes it seems like a tool for the author to be a really lazy writer, because you'll get a conversation where instead of some dialogue showing you that a character is frustrated, it just says "Jimmy made a pose of frustration". I was occasionally annoyed by this in book 1, but thankfully book 2 is not so saturated in poses.

[Abyss]

Finished QUANTIM THIEF, comments in the ded-thread.

Now finishing the TtH re-read. Have to say i'm enjoying the fuck out of it.

NECESSARY EVIL on deck, tho Lovegrove's AGE OF VOODOO is offering a certain level of silly sf/actioner temptation.

[End of Disc One]

D, on 21 May 2013 - 04:46 PM, said:

I'm reading Abraham's The Long Price Quartet - finished Shadow in Summer a little while ago and about a 3rd of the way through Betrayal in Winter. I'm not totally enthralled by this quadrilogy yet, but it's enjoyable. The Khaiem culture and magic system are pretty neat, I think it is just the small-scale-ness of the plot that keeps it from becoming really gripping - this is really not a story about world events but about the personal lives of only a few people. But sometimes that's a welcome change from the many huge epic series, so I can be happy with that.

I found this series moderately enjoyable but it left a lasting impression. You're right about it being more about a few characters than the world.

[Mentalist]

D, on 21 May 2013 - 04:46 PM, said:

I'm reading Abraham's The Long Price Quartet - finished Shadow in Summer a little while ago and about a 3rd of the way through Betrayal in Winter. I'm not totally enthralled by this quadrilogy yet, but it's enjoyable. The Khaiem culture and magic system are pretty neat, I think it is just the small-scale-ness of the plot that keeps it from becoming really gripping - this is really not a story about world events but about the personal lives of only a few people. But sometimes that's a welcome change from the many huge epic series, so I can be happy with that.

There's this really silly thing in the first book where the Khai culture involves people using many different 'poses' as expressions and short statements. Sometimes it seems like a tool for the author to be a really lazy writer, because you'll get a conversation where instead of some dialogue showing you that a character is frustrated, it just says "Jimmy made a pose of frustration". I was occasionally annoyed by this in book 1, but thankfully book 2 is not so saturated in poses.

Book 2 gets progressively better. Book 3 is really strong. Book 4 has a different pace, but as EoDO said, it leaves a strong impression

[lastname]

D, on 21 May 2013 - 04:46 PM, said:

I'm reading Abraham's The Long Price Quartet - finished Shadow in Summer a little while ago and about a 3rd of the way through Betrayal in Winter. I'm not totally enthralled by this quadrilogy yet, but it's enjoyable. The Khaiem culture and magic system are pretty neat, I think it is just the small-scale-ness of the plot that keeps it from becoming really gripping - this is really not a story about world events but about the personal lives of only a few people. But sometimes that's a welcome change from the many huge epic series, so I can be happy with that.

There's this really silly thing in the first book where the Khai culture involves people using many different 'poses' as expressions and short statements. Sometimes it seems like a tool for the author to be a really lazy writer, because you'll get a conversation where instead of some dialogue showing you that a character is frustrated, it just says "Jimmy made a pose of frustration". I was occasionally annoyed by this in book 1, but thankfully book 2 is not so saturated in poses.

Personally, I thought the poses - as a sort of physical language - were a neat idea. But the good thing is that you can gloss over them without losing much.

You do get to see other people and places in later books. You also see the potential consequences of actions that seem limited in scope early on. But these books are still not "epic fantasy" in true door-stopper fashion. No gazillion-century spanning history or a kabillion nations here, I'm afraid. I found these books a lovely read, nonetheless.

[Mentalist]

Finished "Knights of the Breton Court" by Maurice Broaddus. The blurb in the back boasts "genuinely unlike anything you've ever read". For once that is true.

It's like King Arthur mythos meets "Requiem for a Dream" (the drug movie). Also throw in some more traditional urban fantasy tropes (like hidden world of magic that only the few can see). The combination makes for a powerful piece of writing, albeit probably one of the darkest works I've read in a while.

Next up, I need to figure out my work situation, so i'll be reading for a while will be job ads (probably). As far as books are concerned, I'd like to give "Les Miserables" a spin.

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

106. The Last Stand Of Chuck Norris by Ian Spector - 4th in a series of Chuck Norris joke books. I admit, I can't get enough of these. "When Chuck Norris was on Noah's ark, the dragons scuffed his snakeskin boots. That was all it took."

107. Black Hole Sun by David Macinnis Gill - I thought this would be your traditional YA space opera. But it was more of a story about a space cowboy vs. cannibal monsters...or something. I know...sounds weird enough to be right up my alley...but it wasn't.

108. The Doomsday Vault by Steven Harper - Another swing and a miss for steampunk. Someday... Someday...

109. The Chanur Saga by C.J. Cherryh - I think I finally figured out why I can't get into Cherryh novels. The word-count : interesting-things-happening ratio is just too high.

110. Odalisque by Fiona McIntosh - Okay, now we come to the star of the bunch. Game-of-Thrones-worthy political intrigue, complete with too-clever-for-his-own-good little person - "'mad' dwarf jester Pez." Two sequels and another same-universe trilogy immediately wishlisted.

[Abyss]

Kruppe, on 23 May 2013 - 03:37 PM, said:

... I think I finally figured out why I can't get into Cherryh novels. The word-count : interesting-things-happening ratio is just too high.
...

EXACTLY!