[Abyss]

Utterly given up on Cronen's THE PASSAGE. Book has gone into the second hand shop box. Deleted the audio. Fuckit, i've got too much good stuff to read to struggle with this.

Now then... what to read next that isn't on Marvel Meth....?

[Baco Xtath]

Abyss, on 14 March 2014 - 01:57 PM, said:

Utterly given up on Cronen's THE PASSAGE. Book has gone into the second hand shop box. Deleted the audio. Fuckit, i've got too much good stuff to read to struggle with this.

Now then... what to read next that isn't on Marvel Meth....?

I did the exact same thing. As soon as part 2 started I said fuckit. If you haven't read Dirty Streets of Heaven (Bobby Dollar #1) and are able to get it on audio, do it. The narrator is great and it's an absolute blast. It would be an excellent palate cleanser.

[polishgenius]

Jeff VanderMeer's latest, Annihilation (the first part of his Southern Reach trilogy). It's difficult to sell really because it's a book best enjoyed knowing as little as possible going in, but suffice to say he's showing JJ Abrams how super-cryptic mysteries should be done. There's a touch of Christopher Priest in here too, but he's a better writer than Priest for my money.

Very good.

[Baco Xtath]

polishgenius, on 14 March 2014 - 05:05 PM, said:

Jeff VanderMeer's latest, Annihilation (the first part of his Southern Reach trilogy). It's difficult to sell really because it's a book best enjoyed knowing as little as possible going in, but suffice to say he's showing JJ Abrams how super-cryptic mysteries should be done. There's a touch of Christopher Priest in here too, but he's a better writer than Priest for my money.

Very good.

I really enjoyed this one but I felt like it could've(should've?) been twice as long.

[polishgenius]

I dunno. It definitely covers its ground quite quickly, but I think taking more time wouldn't leave enough ground for the future books.

Having now finished it, it's definitely a book where the sequels will affect how this one is judged. The total opposite of Ambergris where, although interlinked, the three books are plot and style-wise very disparate.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 14 March 2014 - 08:09 PM

[Chance]

Still going through the Vorksigan Saga and must say while somewhat varying in quality, I'm currently loving Mirror Dance easily the best so far.

If only the tech/military/space stuff was as good as the rest this one would have been truly great.

This post has been edited by Chance: 14 March 2014 - 08:15 PM

[QuickTidal]

Hey Abyss....did Meluch just called space "outer space" in THE MYRIAD?

Yikers. That threw me out of the narrative.

[McLovin]

Haha. Reminds me of Owen Wilson in ARMAGEDDON.

"And this is just space, we haven't even gotten to outer space!" Or something like that.

Sale week at Half-Price Books so I picked up DRAGON WING (Death Gate Cycle #1) and started reading that. The first 50 pages are quite tedious, then it gets suddenly interesting.

This post has been edited by McLovin: 15 March 2014 - 02:03 PM

[worry]

Finished Use of Weapons. I like that each of these Culture books so far has set a wholly different pace. This had the lowest plot-to-page ratio of the three I read, and I admired it greatly for that. I mentioned a while back how much I loved the 'turn' roughly halfway into Player of Games, and UoW is a much more gradual unveiling, that wicked punchline hit me in much the same way.

Now I'm gonna get to finally reading The Magician King. All that Lev Grossman talk got me in the mood for it.

[Solidsnape]

worry, on 16 March 2014 - 02:54 AM, said:

Finished Use of Weapons. I like that each of these Culture books so far has set a wholly different pace. This had the lowest plot-to-page ratio of the three I read, and I admired it greatly for that. I mentioned a while back how much I loved the 'turn' roughly halfway into Player of Games, and UoW is a much more gradual unveiling, that wicked punchline hit me in much the same way.

Now I'm gonna get to finally reading The Magician King. All that Lev Grossman talk got me in the mood for it.

One of my favourite banks books.

I love Zakalwe. This quote comes with me everywhere I go.

"In all the human societies we have ever reviewed, in every age and in every state, there has seldom if ever been a shortage of eager young males prepared to kill and die to preserve the security, comfort and prejudices of their elders, and what you call heroism is just an expression of this fact; there is never a scarcity of idiots."

Use of Weapons - Iain M Banks

[Tiste Simeon]

With you there on fave Banks book. PoG is probably my second fave. There are a couple of Culture books I haven't read yet though and they are kind of floating around on my TRP...

[Primateus]

I'm up to the fourth book in Simon Scarrow's Roman series. The book is called The Eagle and the Wolves

This is good stuff and I recommend you try them out. It's good solid swords and sandals fiction rooted in Scarrow's own background as a historian and in actual historic events. I'm not saying that there neccessarily was a centurion called Macro who had an Optio called Cato and that they were the commanding officers of the Sixth Century of the Fourth Cohort in the Second Augustan Legion. But each book ends with a brief explanation by Scarrow of the events that took place in the book as opposed to what to place in history, and that's good stuff too.

As far as I understand Roman history the fluff in the books stays mostly true to the source and it doesn't seem he's cutting any corners unneccessarily.

The pacing of the story is well kept and on a scale from Twilight to Toll the Hounds, the writing is pretty damn decent.

I recommend you pick up the first book, or borrow it from a friend or the library and then see where you go from there.

Oh, and I've also put an order in for the fifth and sixth book already, so I expect the quality story to continue.

This post has been edited by Primateus: 16 March 2014 - 06:15 PM

[Serenity]

Finished Reynolds' Redemption Ark - enjoyed it a lot. Then I read a couple of short stories from the New Space Opera anthology, and a few bits and pieces from The Penguin Book of Norse Myths. And now I'm on to Reynolds' Absolution Gap.

[QuickTidal]

The book hangover produced by finishing WoR, made it tough to get fully into the recent books I bought. I needed something extra special.

On whim, and based on the most recent volume in this series being in the top ten mystery reads on GoodReads for 2013...I grabbed THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE by Alan Bradley, which is the first in the Flavia De Luce series (now 6 books deep). It's about a precocious 11-yearld old girl named Flavia De Luce who lives in a rambling old Victorian country home in 1950's England with her father and two older sisters (Opehlia and Daphne), where she is obsessed with chemistry and solving mysteries.

It is, for lack of a better word, wonderful so far. It's got that kind of JK Rolwing-ish prose that is both workmanlike and easy, but with a very simple and evocative tone. Great fleshed out characters, and a pacey plot that hasn't slowed down at all.

This is the type of book you curl up on cold nights by the fire to read.

Great start to a neat series.

[T77]

Finished The Towers of Midnight by Jordan and Sanderson. I thought it was good with a lot of great parts, but there were also a lot of unnecessary sections that could have been removed. I'll give Sanderson a pass on this as he might have been trying to stay true to Jordan's outline.

I am about a third of the way into A Memory of Light and it is great so far.

I also finished The Light Fantastic by Pratchett and I enjoyed it.

[Gabriel Chase]

I currently have a rather remarkable and beautifully old–style adventure yarn on the go:

[End of Disc One]

I'm just a bit farther than you, BK. Awesome, awesome book.

[JPK]

Finished WoR this morning. All I have to say on the matter is: just keep reading guys, there is much more awesomeness before the end.

I also finished my re-read of Absolute Sandman vol 1. This is just one of those series that gets better every time I read it. Starting Vol 2 as my at home only read.

For travelling, I have at long last started Pyramids! I'm a little ashamed at how little Discworld I've read. To give an idea, I've been reading them in published order. I'll get up to par eventually.

[amphibian]

PTERRIFIC!

[Tiste Simeon]

100 pages to go in DoD & I'm enjoying it a lot more on this read.