[Coco with marshmallows]

Andorion, on 19 October 2014 - 10:31 AM, said:

That missing punch is what has been bothering me over the last 3 books or so.

That's what lead to my suspicions that Rhianna already has a hand in writing them on some level.

on topic, caught up on Schlock. Massive kudos to Howard Tayler - 14 years and counting of a daily webcomic with no breaks or filler weeks of any kind and significant over-arcing plot themes. Well done that man.

[Puck]

Finished Bear's Jacob's Ladder Trilogy. It started off with great ideas but a little bit wonky execution and got progressively better with each book. Of course, still feeling sci-fi-y, I immediately jumped into Norman Spinrad's The Void Captain's Tale, who's just truly great, so that highlights the former's shortcomings, however I would still recommend Jacob's Ladder, it needs more love. Coincidentally, it touches upon concepts I have a personal interest in and executes those well, which may or may not make me biased. Also, a new entry has been added to my list of 'Favourite characters of all time in fiction'

[amphibian]

Coco with marshmallows, on 19 October 2014 - 04:52 PM, said:

Andorion, on 19 October 2014 - 10:31 AM, said:

That missing punch is what has been bothering me over the last 3 books or so.

That's what lead to my suspicions that Rhianna already has a hand in writing them on some level.

on topic, caught up on Schlock. Massive kudos to Howard Tayler - 14 years and counting of a daily webcomic with no breaks or filler weeks of any kind and significant over-arcing plot themes. Well done that man.

I don't think it's due to Rhianna. I think it's due to a sharply dropped amount of revisions and editing. He doesn't have much time anymore and everyone has come to an agreement that it is better to get the books out rather than spend time on the revisions.

[Serenity]

I'm 160 pages into The Time Ships, Stephen Baxter's sequel to Wells's The Time Machine. Enjoying it so far.

[acesn8s]

And I finished Hawk this weekend. Another good Taltos novel.

I'll start The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms today. Once that is done I'll either start Shadowplay or Emperor of Thorns. I'm leaning towards Emperor of Thorns, just so I can finish the series. I've gotten to the point where I think I need some closure of all the series of books I'm reading.

[End of Disc One]

Getting close to finishing up The Broken Eye by Brent Weeks. Very solid novel. After that I plan to read Wintertide by Michael Sullivan, finish Assail, read The Widow's House by Daniel Abraham, and then Blade of Fucking Tyshalle by Matthew Stover. Looking forward to all of it. We'll see if my plans change.

[QuickTidal]

Started Mark Lawrence's PRINCE OF FOOLS, and I'm enjoying it. I've never been much for the Flashman-rogue type of character, but Lawrence does this sort of thing so well that I'm already into it at Chapter 5. It is also, as mentioned by others, funnier on the whole than Broken Empire. Good stuff so far.

[Abyss]

Finished Morgan's The Dark Defiles.It was awesome. More in a dedthread shortly, but fuck I really enjoyed this book.

[Baco Xtath]

Finished Ash: A Secret History. Holy shit, that was a long read. Didn't help that I only read it about 30 minutes a night. Anyway, great book. Great ending. Also, finishing Behemoth: Sepuku. Watts is a phenomenal author. His sic-fi is about as hard as it gets and scary as hell. Next up, Retribution Falls. I tried it about 4 years ago and didn't dig it but I'm going to give it another try.

Still listening to the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Matter, and Windup-Bird Chronicles.

[Andorion]

Baco Xtath, on 21 October 2014 - 01:43 PM, said:

Finished Ash: A Secret History. Holy shit, that was a long read. Didn't help that I only read it about 30 minutes a night. Anyway, great book. Great ending. Also, finishing Behemoth: Sepuku. Watts is a phenomenal author. His sic-fi is about as hard as it gets and scary as hell. Next up, Retribution Falls. I tried it about 4 years ago and didn't dig it but I'm going to give it another try.

Still listening to the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Matter, and Windup-Bird Chronicles.

What is Ash, and do you recommend it?

[acesn8s]

Picked up Emperor of Thorns, I decided to wait on starting The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

[Baco Xtath]

Ash: a Secret History by Mary Gentle is an alternate history of the late 1400s following the life of Ash, a mercenary leader, as she stands against the invasion of Carthage. It's really good. It does have some fantasy elements though I don't want to say what they are being as how I found them surprising and would consider them spoilers. It's about 1200 pages so it's a hoss of a read.

[amphibian]

Ash is the best military-specific alternate history I have ever read. The details are right in a way that's hard to explain, yet effortless.

I'm actually re-reading it now and am 200 some pages from the end. It's brilliant writing and Ash herself is a terrific protagonist.

After I get through the Richard Morgan re-read and read of Dark Defiles, I'm going to read Gentle's other books, starting with Ilario.

[Coco with marshmallows]

Archive trawl of gunnerkrigg court completed.

Kind of overdosed on comics for the time being, moved on to some non-fiction.

Sugong - The life of a Shaolin grandmaster.

Biography written by one of his students (with the necessary provisos that there's only one persons word for many of the things in the book) - 30 pages in and i'm already finding it fascinating.

[Chance]

Went through the latest Taltos novel Hawk and it was good, really good but as always they are far to short.

This post has been edited by Chance: 21 October 2014 - 07:25 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

amphibian, on 21 October 2014 - 05:57 PM, said:

Ash is the best military-specific alternate history I have ever read. The details are right in a way that's hard to explain, yet effortless.

I'm actually re-reading it now and am 200 some pages from the end. It's brilliant writing and Ash herself is a terrific protagonist.

After I get through the Richard Morgan re-read and read of Dark Defiles, I'm going to read Gentle's other books, starting with Ilario.

I started reading Grunts, got about 5% in and put it down. I do have Ash lined up but for whatever reason I really struggled with Grunts. Maybe it's because I was meant to find it funny and didn't or that the "parody" elements were just annoying I dunno. I'd be interested to know what you think.

[polishgenius]

amphibian, on 21 October 2014 - 05:57 PM, said:

Ash is the best military-specific alternate history I have ever read. The details are right in a way that's hard to explain, yet effortless.

Well, she did do a Masters degree in War Studies in preparation for writing it, so it's not surprising the details are good.

I love Ash. I didn't get into Ilario in quite the same way and have paused partway in, although that happened with Ash too the first time I tried it, so I will be going back. One issue was that there was one particular plotline in Ash that I did find annoying, and something similar occurred in Ilario, though I don't yet know if it resolves in the same irritating way.

Her other books are all also very different from those two and each other, from the synopses. I'll be trying them down the line too.





Me, I'm currently reading Theatre of the Gods by M. Suddain, a steampunk space opera. It's entirely as ridiculous as that prospect sounds. It's odd because it's not nearly as laugh-out-loud funny as it clearly intends to be, but somehow that doesn't detract from the overall entertainment factor. The jokes don't clunk, they just don't make me laugh. But it has a deliriously OTT atmosphere that nonetheless amuses me.

[QuickTidal]

I have waded into THE THREE MUSKETEERS, a book I have owned for at least two or three years and never read...while it took a few chapters to get into, I'm now fairly sailing along and enjoying it. I like that there was a whole chapter that describes where Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and d'Artagnan live, and their manservants...lol.

[Serenity]

Tiste Simeon, on 22 October 2014 - 07:16 AM, said:

I started reading Grunts, got about 5% in and put it down. I do have Ash lined up but for whatever reason I really struggled with Grunts. Maybe it's because I was meant to find it funny and didn't or that the "parody" elements were just annoying I dunno.

I had exactly the same experience with Grunts. Just didn't like it at all. I got a lot further into Ash, 50 or 60%, before I put it aside. I thought it started well and the first third was absorbing but, by the time I gave up, it seemed to have become quite bogged down and I was finding it a bit of a chore. I hate giving up on books, so I may return to it one day, but it wasn't for me at the time.



I'm currently 400 pages into Stephen Baxter's The Time Ships. I was quite wary of it to begin with but it's actually rather good.

[acesn8s]

QuickTidal, on 22 October 2014 - 12:48 PM, said:

I have waded into THE THREE MUSKETEERS, a book I have owned for at least two or three years and never read...while it took a few chapters to get into, I'm now fairly sailing along and enjoying it. I like that there was a whole chapter that describes where Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and d'Artagnan live, and their manservants...lol.

I reread The Three Musketeers every few years. It is a wonderful novel. I love the scenes in the Bastion Saint-Gervais and of course the famous meeting of D'Artagnan and Athos, Porthos, and Aramis.