[Serenity]

Since Friday night I've read about 400 pages into Bakker's The Darkness That Comes Before. That's fast reading for me, so I'm obviously enjoying it. Also read a couple more Conan stories.

[QuickTidal]

Put a pause on EX-PATRIOTS as my brain was desiring some Historical fiction (don't worry, I'll be getting back to it) instead.

So I'm onto my 5th Sharpe book by Bernard Cornwell SHARPE'S PREY. So far, while the India (red-coated ranks) books of the series were quite fun, it's nice to move onto the proper war with the French by way of Copenhagen in this one. A couple of things from the out that I like....Sharpe is unhappy with the move from the ranks to the new 95th Rifles (a regiment I know he eventually loves) as he doesn't fit in (it's nice to not have him immediately fit actually, some good tension there)....but I have to say that the opening chapter with the fencing match and the subsequent set-up for the rest of the book was so deftly done that I didn't even see it coming!

Great stuff so far. I'm coming to love Sharpe more and more with each successive book.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 29 July 2013 - 01:17 PM

[Serenity]

Amazon.co.uk is currently selling a load of Bernard Cornwell's books cheap (£1.59 paperback, £1.51 Kindle), including the first five of the Saxon series, the Grail trilogy, Azincourt . . .

[Ukjent]

What's worth reading?

[Serenity]

The Grail Trilogy is worth a look. Haven't read the Saxon ones yet (just picked up 2, 3, 4, and 5 at that price, already have the first one on the shelf). His Warlord Chronicles are my favourites of his that I've read so far, but they're not in the sale for some reason />


ETA: Harlequin, the first book in the Grail trilogy, is normal price.

This post has been edited by Serenity: 29 July 2013 - 03:39 PM

[QuickTidal]

Graablick, on 29 July 2013 - 02:34 PM, said:

What's worth reading?

Saxon series is brilliant I've read all 6 of them so far. Azincourt is a great standalone read (though it shares the same time period as the Grail trilogy, The Hundred Years War)

[Tiste Simeon]

Azincourt & Stonehenge are ace & the Saxon ones are immense!

Took a couple of hours break from reading The Quarry to read The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. Superb little fantastical story that is easy to read in one sitting. Very VERY long way from American Gods. Gaiman is ace!

[Serenity]

QuickTidal, on 29 July 2013 - 04:11 PM, said:

Saxon series is brilliant I've read all 6 of them so far. Azincourt is a great standalone read (though it shares the same time period as the Grail trilogy, The Hundred Years War)

Tiste Simeon, on 29 July 2013 - 04:50 PM, said:

Azincourt & Stonehenge are ace & the Saxon ones are immense!

Glad I snapped them up at that price, then!

[polishgenius]

I thought Azincourt was really quite poor, myself. I'll probably try something else by Cornwell at some stage, but I wasn't impressed at all at first try.

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 30 July 2013 - 11:58 AM, said:

I thought Azincourt was really quite poor, myself. I'll probably try something else by Cornwell at some stage, but I wasn't impressed at all at first try.

Really? Perhaps I gave it a higher score because of all the wonderful Cornwell I'd already read?

I maintain that THE LAST KINGDOM (Saxon Bk 1) is not only a book that one should start with where Cornwell is concerned, but is probably the finest volume of written work of his I've read...with the 3rd volume of the series LORDS OF THE NORTH as a very close second.

AZINCOURT is a different beast because the protag is not a typical Cornwell protag (like Derfel, Sharpe, or Uhtred), and even then the book was Cornwell's attempt to show us the battle from more than one angle...and in that regard the battle is actually the protagonist...which I guess is what I took away from it. That was a striking POV. Almost no one besides Nicholas Hook in that book is very likable, and that includes the King.

[Tiste Simeon]

Just finished read The Quarry. Quite enjoyable really and considering the circcumstancea of its release, fairly emotional. However

Spoiler

I really struggled to like any of the characters except Kit (and possibly Hol) and found them all to be self absorbed & morally vacant. The scene where they were all doing coke annoyed me a lot and I initially found the character of Guy to be a first rate douche. I softened to him towards the end and I think Banks wrote himself into that character - saying "screw you" to the system & not giving a crap about anything any more. I still found it hard to connect with him or any of the others. Also, I think it is more depressing just from how cynical the whole tone is. There is no hope (not just for the cance cure but in anything it seems) and everything is bleak and worthless. Maybe thats the point but it still wasn't comfortable/uplifting!

Still, glad I read it and a fitting final novel for one of my all time favourite authors. Now reading a non-fiction book of Iain Banks' called Raw Spirit: In Search of the Perfect Dram. It's by Banks and it is about Whisky. Scotlands two finest exports!!

[polishgenius]

QuickTidal, on 30 July 2013 - 12:42 PM, said:

AZINCOURT is a different beast because the protag is not a typical Cornwell protag (like Derfel, Sharpe, or Uhtred), and even then the book was Cornwell's attempt to show us the battle from more than one angle...and in that regard the battle is actually the protagonist...which I guess is what I took away from it. That was a striking POV. Almost no one besides Nicholas Hook in that book is very likable, and that includes the King.

My main two problems were that I thought the characters were mostly poor - Hook was too Mary Sue, and

Spoiler

too conveniently in places for every important thing

whereas the villains where just mustache twirling ridiculousness - and that Cornwell's writing was in some places very awkward. I can't remember anything off the top of my head but I do remember thinking that his scene transitions were clumsy as hell. I like the notion of PoV swapping in a battle, but Joe Abercrombie for example did that much better in The Heroes.

[Ukjent]

QuickTidal, on 30 July 2013 - 12:42 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 30 July 2013 - 11:58 AM, said:

I thought Azincourt was really quite poor, myself. I'll probably try something else by Cornwell at some stage, but I wasn't impressed at all at first try.

Really? Perhaps I gave it a higher score because of all the wonderful Cornwell I'd already read?

I maintain that THE LAST KINGDOM (Saxon Bk 1) is not only a book that one should start with where Cornwell is concerned, but is probably the finest volume of written work of his I've read...with the 3rd volume of the series LORDS OF THE NORTH as a very close second.

AZINCOURT is a different beast because the protag is not a typical Cornwell protag (like Derfel, Sharpe, or Uhtred), and even then the book was Cornwell's attempt to show us the battle from more than one angle...and in that regard the battle is actually the protagonist...which I guess is what I took away from it. That was a striking POV. Almost no one besides Nicholas Hook in that book is very likable, and that includes the King.

I think i tried to read the last kingdom some years ago. It may be the translation, but I found the writing dull and uninteresting even though I liked the setting.

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 30 July 2013 - 02:04 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 30 July 2013 - 12:42 PM, said:

AZINCOURT is a different beast because the protag is not a typical Cornwell protag (like Derfel, Sharpe, or Uhtred), and even then the book was Cornwell's attempt to show us the battle from more than one angle...and in that regard the battle is actually the protagonist...which I guess is what I took away from it. That was a striking POV. Almost no one besides Nicholas Hook in that book is very likable, and that includes the King.

My main two problems were that I thought the characters were mostly poor - Hook was too Mary Sue, and

Spoiler

too conveniently in places for every important thing

whereas the villains where just mustache twirling ridiculousness - and that Cornwell's writing was in some places very awkward. I can't remember anything off the top of my head but I do remember thinking that his scene transitions were clumsy as hell. I like the notion of PoV swapping in a battle, but Joe Abercrombie for example did that much better in The Heroes.

That's a very apt POV of the book...and yeah if you don't like your heroes Mary-sueish to begin with, and the villains dastardly...then Cornwell may not be your cup 'o tea indeed.

But yeah, I liked next to no characters in AZINCOURT aside from Hook, and even he I didn't like nearly as much as Cornwell's regular Protags, so you make a very fair point.

[Overactive Imagination]

Just started Blood and Bone. The prologue was good!

[JPK]

Finished Abbadon's Gate. I am so damn glad that there are more books coming and this didn't end as a trilogy. I really cannot express my relief at that nearly enough.

Next up for me is The Summer Tree and my first taste of G.G.K.

[Tremolo]

Reading The Halfmade World/Felix Gilman : enjoying it so far and it is a nice change from the ususal 40k hack'n slash pulp which seems to be the only literature I am able to read these days.

[Ukjent]

Done with Fleshmarket close. Now I just have to find something else.

[Serenity]

Finished The Darkness That Comes Before. Liked it a lot, shall order the next one today, I expect.

Made a start on David Weber's On Basilisk Station this morning. How many different series can one reader have on the go at the same time before reaching critical mass, I wonder?

[QuickTidal]

In bits and chunks between fiction books I've been slowly making my way through THE NEW AGE OF ADVENTURE: TEN YEARS OF GREAT WRITING, which is an anthology of essays and other writing about exploration, and adventure, and basically world issues.

So far I'm more impressed with this book than any other non-fic anthology I've read.

A couple of the standouts so far:

THE LION IN WINTER by Sebastian Junger - About Ahmad Shah Massoud's mostly successful defense of Afghanistan against the Taliban, following 10 years of tribal fighting, and 10 years of Soviet occupation and war. FASCINATING stuff!

OUT OF THIN AIR - David Roberts - About the search for whether or not Mallory and Irvine actually summited Everest in 1924, some 30 years prior to Edumund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay doing it, after finding Mallory's body and the last sighting of him being only some 800 ft below the summit on the day both disappeared. Really compelling stuff, and the search goes on for Irvine's camera, which if found could be developed as the perpetual cold would have kept the film almost perfectly intact.

STOMPING GROUNDS - Paul Kvinta - Basically the story of rampaging elephants in northern India and how the villages have a constant battle between surviving the horrific rampages, and the fact that they are essentially gods and protected.

AMONG THE MAN-EATERS - Philip Caputo - Basically the true story of the two lions called The Ghost and The Darkness who ate many people during the construction of a railway in Tsavo (yes, the one that the fictional account in the movie named after the two lions with Kilmer and Douglas). Riveting account of strange behaviour by the lions.

OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH - Peter Lane Taylor - The story of a group of Jews who hid in AND survived in a cave system in the Ukraine during Nazi-occupied WWII era.

BAsically so far I've not read anything in the book that's steered me wrong, it's all great stuff! Highly recommended!

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 31 July 2013 - 01:23 PM