[Andorion]

Lycaenion, on 09 July 2014 - 08:17 PM, said:

David Gemmell's Troy series. Just finished Lord of the Silver Bow, am starting on Shield of Thunder.

Just curious, how do you find the Troy books? I have read Gemmell's Legend books and also those featuring that swordman - Skilgannon or something. Also the Rigante books. They were good, but somehow I have not been back to read Gemmell for a couple of years now. I was wondering what his other books were like and if they were worth a read.

[Lycaenion]

Andorion, on 10 July 2014 - 12:36 PM, said:

Lycaenion, on 09 July 2014 - 08:17 PM, said:

David Gemmell's Troy series. Just finished Lord of the Silver Bow, am starting on Shield of Thunder.

Just curious, how do you find the Troy books? I have read Gemmell's Legend books and also those featuring that swordman - Skilgannon or something. Also the Rigante books. They were good, but somehow I have not been back to read Gemmell for a couple of years now. I was wondering what his other books were like and if they were worth a read.

Gemmell's works are always worth the read. I have nearly all of his books and am looking to complete my collection. What I've read so far from the Troy series I like. I think it will be quite a great re-imagining of the tale of the Trojan war we all know.

[QuickTidal]

Lycaenion, on 10 July 2014 - 01:36 PM, said:

Andorion, on 10 July 2014 - 12:36 PM, said:

Lycaenion, on 09 July 2014 - 08:17 PM, said:

David Gemmell's Troy series. Just finished Lord of the Silver Bow, am starting on Shield of Thunder.

Just curious, how do you find the Troy books? I have read Gemmell's Legend books and also those featuring that swordman - Skilgannon or something. Also the Rigante books. They were good, but somehow I have not been back to read Gemmell for a couple of years now. I was wondering what his other books were like and if they were worth a read.

Gemmell's works are always worth the read. I have nearly all of his books and am looking to complete my collection. What I've read so far from the Troy series I like. I think it will be quite a great re-imagining of the tale of the Trojan war we all know.

The TROY series is easily his best IMNSHO. All three books are damned near perfection.

[Andorion]

Lycaenion, on 10 July 2014 - 01:36 PM, said:

Andorion, on 10 July 2014 - 12:36 PM, said:

Lycaenion, on 09 July 2014 - 08:17 PM, said:

David Gemmell's Troy series. Just finished Lord of the Silver Bow, am starting on Shield of Thunder.

Just curious, how do you find the Troy books? I have read Gemmell's Legend books and also those featuring that swordman - Skilgannon or something. Also the Rigante books. They were good, but somehow I have not been back to read Gemmell for a couple of years now. I was wondering what his other books were like and if they were worth a read.

Gemmell's works are always worth the read. I have nearly all of his books and am looking to complete my collection. What I've read so far from the Troy series I like. I think it will be quite a great re-imagining of the tale of the Trojan war we all know.

QuickTidal, on 10 July 2014 - 02:04 PM, said:

Lycaenion, on 10 July 2014 - 01:36 PM, said:

Andorion, on 10 July 2014 - 12:36 PM, said:

Lycaenion, on 09 July 2014 - 08:17 PM, said:

David Gemmell's Troy series. Just finished Lord of the Silver Bow, am starting on Shield of Thunder.

Just curious, how do you find the Troy books? I have read Gemmell's Legend books and also those featuring that swordman - Skilgannon or something. Also the Rigante books. They were good, but somehow I have not been back to read Gemmell for a couple of years now. I was wondering what his other books were like and if they were worth a read.

Gemmell's works are always worth the read. I have nearly all of his books and am looking to complete my collection. What I've read so far from the Troy series I like. I think it will be quite a great re-imagining of the tale of the Trojan war we all know.

The TROY series is easily his best IMNSHO. All three books are damned near perfection.

Thanx. Added to TBR list after Stover, as soon as I am done with Scott Lynch and Anthony Ryan.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Finishing up Dragon Haven after devouring Dragon Keeper. I'm a bit frustrated because I went to a B&N earlier today to get the third book in the series, City of Dragons, but, as I've come to expect, they didn't have it.

However, I did get Abaddon's Gate, so the trip ended up being worth it.

[Macros]

Andorion, on 10 July 2014 - 12:36 PM, said:

Lycaenion, on 09 July 2014 - 08:17 PM, said:

David Gemmell's Troy series. Just finished Lord of the Silver Bow, am starting on Shield of Thunder.

Just curious, how do you find the Troy books? I have read Gemmell's Legend books and also those featuring that swordman - Skilgannon or something. Also the Rigante books. They were good, but somehow I have not been back to read Gemmell for a couple of years now. I was wondering what his other books were like and if they were worth a read.

beaten to the punch here, but just to reiterate.
(In case anyone on the forum had missed how much I love this series, here it is again)

Troy is Gemmells best series by far, a fitting swansong for a great author.

[Macros]

Nearly done with the grim company, kind of meh, readable but nothing great.
want something great next, so hitting masters of Rome (based off this thread) instead of Valour

[Chance]

Finished up Word of Radiance a decent book, which I really enjoyed more then I expected from its predecessor. It will be interesting to see where he takes it next and perhaps how he will handle rapidly growing circle of the cast without getting even closer to WoT like pacing problems.

This post has been edited by Chance: 10 July 2014 - 06:44 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

Don't think I have actually read the Troy series by Gemmell. I know I always meant to, as I loved the Rigante books and "Legend" was pretty game changing when I first read it (didn't read too many of the other Drenai books unfortunately...)

[Avatar]

After House of Suns (nice!) and taking a pause after Bakker's first trilogy, I decided to do a reread of Dune. Started yesterday, 40 p in, and man, Frank Herbert can write. I'm especially excited about reading the 2nd - 6th books, having never read them before!

[Lycaenion]

Tisteon Simeonus, on 10 July 2014 - 09:02 PM, said:

Don't think I have actually read the Troy series by Gemmell. I know I always meant to, as I loved the Rigante books and "Legend" was pretty game changing when I first read it (didn't read too many of the other Drenai books unfortunately...)

Oh but you should! All his books are great reads

[Traveller]

Moon Over Soho.

I liked Rivers of London, but this is being a little slow going... Maybe because I'm not a fan of jazz. I'd prefer more magic and less jazz history... hopefully it will pick up soon.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 11 July 2014 - 01:05 PM

[QuickTidal]

Finished up Alan Bradley's 3rd Flavia DeLuce book THE RED HERRING WITHOUT MUSTARD (great read! Better than book 2)

Needed a non-fiction read, so I've grabbed Michael Haag's THE TEMPLARS: THE HISTORY AND THE MYTH...which so far is fascinating without being overly dense.

[Macros]

Garrow, the red shield

about 1/4 way in. Travel day tomorrow evening so hoping to have a good run at it then.
ok so far limited world building but a sense of the landscape is evolving. Vikings are always badass, and at least the author doesn't hold back and gloss over their many horrid parts

[Tiste Simeon]

Traveller, on 11 July 2014 - 01:05 PM, said:

Moon Over Soho.

I liked Rivers of London, but this is being a little slow going... Maybe because I'm not a fan of jazz. I'd prefer more magic and less jazz history... hopefully it will pick up soon.

As a huge fan of both jazz and its history I love the sound of that! Will possibly read that next!

[Ukjent]

Done with the third book of the Mongoliad and bought the 4. But I'm considering reading Heroes Die after/while finishing the three last Black Company books. Its a hard life.

[Andorion]

Started Tower Lord, Anthony Ryan and Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch. This is probably going to tick off a few people here, but I am finding Scott Lynch more entertaining than Ryan.

This post has been edited by Andorion: 12 July 2014 - 03:29 PM

[Baco Xtath]

Been on vacation the past week so not a lot of audiobooks knocked out. Though I did finish Tower Lord which I thoroughly enjoyed. Read 70% of Wool; not bad. Halfway through listening to American Elsewhere; really good. Robert Jackson Bennett is shaping up to be one hell of an author. Also doing a re-listen of Fractal Prince before next week's release of Causal Angel. So good.

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

A few from my cheap/free e-book pile:

119. 3 a.m. by Nick Pirog - Short, interesting who-dunit, in which the witness / suspect / amateur detective is the same person, and as an added twist, he has a disease that forces him to sleep 23 hours per day. Implausible, but fun.

120. The Beam: Episode 1 by Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant

121. Beyond the Rift by Peter Watts - Short stories by the author of Blindsight. I actually liked these better than his novels. Some authors just work better in smaller doses.

122. Creepies: Twisted Tales From Beneath the Bed by WPaD Publications

123. The Dog Said Bow-Wow by Michael Swanwick

124. Greener Than You Think by Ward Moore - An old, and supposedly classic, sci-fi novel. About 6 times longer than it should have been. Would have worked way better as a short story.

125. Haint Misbehavin' by Maureen Hardegree - A fun, charming, and laugh-out-loud funny story about a teen girl and her mischievous imaginary friend who is actually a real ghost. Self-published YA fiction at its finest. I wish I'd snatched up the whole series when they were 99 cents apiece.

126. The Island by Jen Minkman

127. The Mystery of Smugglers Cove by Paul Moxham

128. Oz: The Complete Collection by L. Frank Baum - I enjoyed The Wizard of Oz...but I really started to speed-read through the later stories. Unlike some classics, such as Alice In Wonderland, these Oz books just don't have much crossover appeal for adult readers.

129. Rainbeau Harley by Cerredwyn Horrigan - A touching, if slightly dull, coming of age story.

130. Snow White Sorrow (The Grimm Diaries) by Cameron Jace - Snow White is a vampire. The fairy tale genre is being overdone at the moment. Having said that, this one was fun. I'm already reading another volume in the series.

131. Technomancer (Unspeakable Things: Book One) by B.V. Larson

132. To Kill A Warlock: The Dulcie O'Neil Series by HP Mallory - Yeesh! Could not finish. Just awful, stereotypical, painful to read paranormal romance. Sookie Stackhouse this is not.

[Aptorian]

During the course of last week I read through Charles Stross third Laundry book "The Fuller Memorandum" and Richard Morgans "Black Man".

The Fuller Memorandum was pretty good. I was not overly fond of the first two books in the series because the way the universe and narrative is designed is slightly off from what I would normally expect from an Urban Fantasy/Horror/Spy story. The Fuller Memorandum is how ever a step up in my opinion. It's a bit more straight forward and its the first book where I think Bob Howard Secret Wizard Agent actually gets to shine.

I loved the revelations in this book, new info on CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN and I really liked the whole pyramid business. Very Lovecraftian.

I definitely need to get around reading the fourth book some time soon.

Black Man was also pretty good but it's a flawed, sometimes frustrating book. The blurb on the back of the book sort of cheats the reader because you are lead to expect that the book is a lot more breakneck action and explosions than what is actually to be found between the pages.

The book reads like somebody took the plot from Demolition man, took some concepts from The Island of Dr. Mureau or Gattaca and threw them into Heinlen's "Stranger in a Strange Land". It's been a long time since I read Stranger in a strange land but the similarities in the themes and plot are so great that I am surprised something isn't mentioned in the acknowledgments. It's a pretty awesome combination actually but the different angles some times clashes when it comes to pacing.

The book is so busy discussion human nature, genetics, culture, etc. that it seems to forget that this is a manhunt. The various trips and discussions between characters, much like Stranger in a Strange Land, seem like an excuse to portray various parts of humanity in the 22nd century as a reflection upon current political or sociological trends that are relevant today. That's all pretty cool I guess but at some point, when even on the last fucking page, our violent protagonist is still having existential quarrels, it gets a bit tedious.

Also, for all the talk about the violent nature of the Black Man in this book, Morgan never managed to sell me on the idea that some kind of specially designed sociopath was needed or even relevant. Go to any part of the world with extreme poverty or hardship, go to fucking Detroit, and you will find people that match the description of the Thirteens.