[Abyss]

Mentalist, on 18 September 2014 - 12:13 PM, said:

...
Right now debating b/w starting "Elantris" or "Cursor's Fury", which I intend to buy today.

Ukjent, on 18 September 2014 - 01:01 PM, said:

Easily Cursor's fury, Elantris was not that good. The book felt unpolished.

Seconded. ELANTRIS was fine, but having read Sanderson's WoT stuff by then, it was glaringly an early book by an author with a great imagination, still early at polishing his craft. It just barely held my attention to the end and most of the twists (admittedly not all but certainly the major one) were predictable.

Baco Xtath, on 18 September 2014 - 01:55 PM, said:

Also, 1/3 through City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett; it's very different from his usual style. This is one is set in a fantasy world where his others were set on Earth and the whole vibe and voice are completely different. It's still good but if you go in expecting the Troupe or American Elsewhere (both phenomenal books) you will be disappointed.

Noted. I have TROUPE and AELSEWHERE in the TRPFH and keep almost starting them. CITY is getting some major buzz over on io9 so i'm tempted.

Quote

Still reading Ash and Maelstrom, both still awesome.

Watts' MAELSTROM?

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 18 September 2014 - 02:14 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 18 September 2014 - 12:13 PM, said:

...
Right now debating b/w starting "Elantris" or "Cursor's Fury", which I intend to buy today.

Ukjent, on 18 September 2014 - 01:01 PM, said:

Easily Cursor's fury, Elantris was not that good. The book felt unpolished.

Seconded. ELANTRIS was fine, but having read Sanderson's WoT stuff by then, it was glaringly an early book by an author with a great imagination, still early at polishing his craft. It just barely held my attention to the end and most of the twists (admittedly not all but certainly the major one) were predictable.

Indeed. ELANTRIS being his first book it suffers from a lot of first time outing stuff. It's still quite entertaining, especially considering I bought it hardcover on a whim the week it came out. I was kinda proud when I met Sanderson at a signing, and he was impressed I had a 1st Edition hardback ELANTRIS.

Good book, but not a scratch on his latter work. He is writing a sequel to it apparently, or another book set in that world, so maybe best to wait till that comes out and read them both.

[Baco Xtath]

Abyss, on 18 September 2014 - 02:14 PM, said:

Watts' MAELSTROM?

Yep. Not as good as Starfish IMO but still good.

[Salt-Man Z]

Abyss, on 18 September 2014 - 02:14 PM, said:

I have TROUPE and AELSEWHERE in the TRPFH and keep almost starting them.

Do yourself a favor and pick up American Elsewhere. If it hooks you like it hooked me, you won't be able to put it down and will blitz through it in just a day or two.

[Mentalist]

QuickTidal, on 18 September 2014 - 02:36 PM, said:

Abyss, on 18 September 2014 - 02:14 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 18 September 2014 - 12:13 PM, said:

...
Right now debating b/w starting "Elantris" or "Cursor's Fury", which I intend to buy today.

Ukjent, on 18 September 2014 - 01:01 PM, said:

Easily Cursor's fury, Elantris was not that good. The book felt unpolished.

Seconded. ELANTRIS was fine, but having read Sanderson's WoT stuff by then, it was glaringly an early book by an author with a great imagination, still early at polishing his craft. It just barely held my attention to the end and most of the twists (admittedly not all but certainly the major one) were predictable.

Indeed. ELANTRIS being his first book it suffers from a lot of first time outing stuff. It's still quite entertaining, especially considering I bought it hardcover on a whim the week it came out. I was kinda proud when I met Sanderson at a signing, and he was impressed I had a 1st Edition hardback ELANTRIS.

Good book, but not a scratch on his latter work. He is writing a sequel to it apparently, or another book set in that world, so maybe best to wait till that comes out and read them both.

Did not know that. I knew there was another book sat in the Warbreaker world (goodreads told me that), but didn't know there was gonna be an Elantris sequel.

I'll probably get to it before then. I now have about 3hrs of reading time/day guaranteed due to my commute to and from work.

[Baco Xtath]

Salt-Man Z, on 18 September 2014 - 02:57 PM, said:

Abyss, on 18 September 2014 - 02:14 PM, said:

I have TROUPE and AELSEWHERE in the TRPFH and keep almost starting them.

Do yourself a favor and pick up American Elsewhere. If it hooks you like it hooked me, you won't be able to put it down and will blitz through it in just a day or two.

Y'all need to jump on the Troupe. It's awesome and I can't recommend it enough. Bennett does horror/fantasy really really damned well.

[Ukjent]

Just started Weeks The Broken Eye, better be good.

[Abyss]

Baco Xtath, on 18 September 2014 - 02:49 PM, said:

Abyss, on 18 September 2014 - 02:14 PM, said:

Watts' MAELSTROM?

Yep. Not as good as Starfish IMO but still good.

Agreed, same goes for bk3. The sheer alieness of STARFISH was lost once he left that setting, but within that limitation he still crafted an interesting story.

Baco Xtath, on 18 September 2014 - 04:28 PM, said:

Salt-Man Z, on 18 September 2014 - 02:57 PM, said:

Abyss, on 18 September 2014 - 02:14 PM, said:

I have TROUPE and AELSEWHERE in the TRPFH and keep almost starting them.

Do yourself a favor and pick up American Elsewhere. If it hooks you like it hooked me, you won't be able to put it down and will blitz through it in just a day or two.

Y'all need to jump on the Troupe. It's awesome and I can't recommend it enough. Bennett does horror/fantasy really really damned well.

Both noted, will likely cue one up after CAUSAL ANGEL. or maybe before.,,,

[Mentalist]

Read the prologue of "cursor's Fury"....Alera has a map now, which is an awesome development.

[Tiste Simeon]

Mentalist, on 19 September 2014 - 04:34 AM, said:

Read the prologue of "cursor's Fury"....Alera has a map now, which is an awesome development.

Yeah I think a fan made it & Butcher loved it so it became official, IIRC.

[QuickTidal]

Tiste Simeon, on 19 September 2014 - 04:58 AM, said:

Mentalist, on 19 September 2014 - 04:34 AM, said:

Read the prologue of "cursor's Fury"....Alera has a map now, which is an awesome development.

Yeah I think a fan made it & Butcher loved it so it became official, IIRC.

It's actually done by his webmaster Priscilla Spencer, who also appeared in the recent fantasy calendar of fictional women characters (as the three versions/possibilities of Molly that Dresden sees when he soul gazed her), but yeah he loved it and made it official. It's a gorgeous map.

[Tiste Simeon]

Aha I knew it was something like that. Also what fantasy calendar? Would like to see the pics from that!

[QuickTidal]

Tiste Simeon, on 19 September 2014 - 12:14 PM, said:

Aha I knew it was something like that. Also what fantasy calendar? Would like to see the pics from that!

It's one that Pat Rothfuss and Lee Moyer did for charity last year. I have a copy.

These are the author's who's female characters are featured in each month.



And here is the aforementioned Dresden/Molly month.

[Imperial Historian]

I loved the troupe, one of the best books I've picked up in a while.

Recent reads:
Elizabeth bears 'the eternal sky' trilogy, this was a great fun read with a well realised cast, and top notch world building, and great writing. That said the ending didn't deliver the punch I think it was supposed to, and yet I still can't figure out why.

The first of the Shiva trilogy by Amish, this was pretty poor I don't know if its the translation or it relies on greater knowledge of the Hindu religion to really understand but the writing was clunky and I really had to struggle to the end.

Samit basu- turbulence and resistance, these were just pure brilliant popcorn fun, up there with peter clines and wurm for great superhero stories.

Speaking of wurm I tried another online superhero serial superpowereds, nowhere near as good as wurm but if you want a simple superhero tale it's worth a read, there are enough mysteries laid down to keep me following.

Currently reading the Ramayana series by ashok banker, which is a novelization of the Ramayana poem and the perfect accompaniment to my India travels, this eBook is huge easily 2.5 times longer than Sanderson's words of radiance my previous largest ebook, its not the easiest book to read but worth a gander if you are interested in India.

[amphibian]

The Molly Carpenter month is brilliant.

I just finished Feersum Endjinn.

I wanted more, as it ended. Even the jumbled up writings of Bascule was brilliant - an example of it is below:

Quote

Woak up. Got dresd. Had brekfast. Spoke wif Ergates thi ant who sed itz juss been wurk wurk wurk 4 u lately master Bascule, Y dont u ½ a holiday? & I agreed & that woz how we decided we otter go 2 c Mr Zoliparia in thi I-ball ov thi gargoyle Rosbrith.

At first, that'll take a bit to work through, but when you realize Bascule is a terrific person and can empathize with him, it gets very easy to read - and very funny.

The whole book is suffused with humor - in a dry, dark way - and it's got the usual Banksian multiple parallel plot threads involving technology, human desire and a little bit of magic here and there to make the story go.

Banks was/is a global treasure and I'm ashamed I didn't get to his books when he was alive. This is basically a thought I continually run into when reading through his entire body of work (off and on, as you can probably tell from the other books I've reviewed here).

[Andorion]

Imperial Historian, on 19 September 2014 - 03:19 PM, said:

I loved the troupe, one of the best books I've picked up in a while.

Recent reads:
Elizabeth bears 'the eternal sky' trilogy, this was a great fun read with a well realised cast, and top notch world building, and great writing. That said the ending didn't deliver the punch I think it was supposed to, and yet I still can't figure out why.

The first of the Shiva trilogy by Amish, this was pretty poor I don't know if its the translation or it relies on greater knowledge of the Hindu religion to really understand but the writing was clunky and I really had to struggle to the end.

Samit basu- turbulence and resistance, these were just pure brilliant popcorn fun, up there with peter clines and wurm for great superhero stories.

Speaking of wurm I tried another online superhero serial superpowereds, nowhere near as good as wurm but if you want a simple superhero tale it's worth a read, there are enough mysteries laid down to keep me following.

Currently reading the Ramayana series by ashok banker, which is a novelization of the Ramayana poem and the perfect accompaniment to my India travels, this eBook is huge easily 2.5 times longer than Sanderson's words of radiance my previous largest ebook, its not the easiest book to read but worth a gander if you are interested in India.

Amish became popular in India through sheer hype and a total vacuum of INdian writers in the fantasy genre. i read the first book and was really turned off. Speaking as a history student, the type of history/myth he uses is just bad. Really bad. As an Indian i was embarassed when his books started getting a huge amount of publicity. And they are not translations. Samit Basu is way better though he does seem to be very heavily influenced by Terry Pratchett.

What places did you vist in India?

[Imperial Historian]

Yeah Amish books are everywhere on the backpacker circuit, and I've been seeing them a lot round the rest of asia. Reading the Ramayana it seems asher was trying to invoke that style but failed. I'd put the clunky English down to a bad translation but it seems its just a bad book.

I've been around Rajasthan (jaisalmer, jodhpur, Jaipur, udaipur) plus Agra Delhi and Amritsar. Currently in rishikesh then back to Delhi. The south will have to wait for another trip!

It surprises me India doesn't have a thriving fantasy market, the landscapes of India strike me as perfect inspiration.

[Serenity]

amphibian, on 19 September 2014 - 03:26 PM, said:

I just finished Feersum Endjinn.

I wanted more, as it ended. Even the jumbled up writings of Bascule was brilliant - an example of it is below:

Quote

Woak up. Got dresd. Had brekfast. Spoke wif Ergates thi ant who sed itz juss been wurk wurk wurk 4 u lately master Bascule, Y dont u ½ a holiday? & I agreed & that woz how we decided we otter go 2 c Mr Zoliparia in thi I-ball ov thi gargoyle Rosbrith.

At first, that'll take a bit to work through, but when you realize Bascule is a terrific person and can empathize with him, it gets very easy to read - and very funny.

Feersum Endjinn was the first Banks I read and it's still one of my favourites, mainly for the Bascule sections. So funny in places




I've got about 50 pages left to go of Meluch's Wolf Star. Then it's probably on to my third read through of Memories of Ice.

[QuickTidal]

DNF'ed Follett's WINTER OF THE WORLD. It was alright, but more of the same soapy family struggles slapped into the WWII setting. I got bored.

Started MAGIC STRIKES by Ilona Andrews.

[firvulag]

Just finished Laird Barron's excellent The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All. I'd already read two of the stories in other anthologies but the rest were still pretty awesome.

I'm now starting the Wheel of Time series. I had read all the ones that Jordan himself wrote but never got to the Brandon Sanderson ones. Since it's been a few years I decided to read them all from scratch.