[firvulag]

Andorion, on 05 February 2015 - 01:49 AM, said:

firvulag, on 04 February 2015 - 07:24 PM, said:

It's taken me just over four and a half months but I finally managed a full continuous read of the Wheel of Time series. I'd read most of them over the years but stopped after Robert Jordan's death. Since I'd forgotten a lot of what had happened I thought it would be best to start from the beginning rather than the books that Brandon Sanderson had worked on. Overall, I loved the series and thought Sanderson did a great job with the last three books.

I'm currently reading some lighter fare with the first book in the Ark Royal trilogy which basically chronicles aliens attacking earth and proving that most of our space warships are crap except for an old nearly mothballed ship with an alcoholic captain. Really good fun

Hey nice to hear somebody else tried this! I did the same last year and it was quite an experience.

I remember how much faster you read the books than I did lol

Maark, on 05 February 2015 - 05:19 AM, said:

I remember my WoT read. If I can, I always read a series start to finish in one go. It took me about 14 months to power through it.

After having to wait 5 years between books 4 and 5 of game of thrones (not read book 5 yet) I now refuse to read any series unless it's complete, makes things so much easier

[Maark Abbott]

Spoiler: GRRM dies

Sanderson finishes it

[Andorion]

Maark, on 05 February 2015 - 07:40 AM, said:

Spoiler: GRRM dies

Sanderson finishes it

And when Sanderson fails to finish SLA?

[Maark Abbott]

Andorion, on 05 February 2015 - 08:34 AM, said:

Maark, on 05 February 2015 - 07:40 AM, said:

Spoiler: GRRM dies

Sanderson finishes it

And when Sanderson fails to finish SLA?

Sanderson will never miss his Service Level Agreement*.

*huehuehue

[T77]

Finished The Crimson Campaign by Brian McClellan, book two of his powder mage trilogy. After reading the first half of book one I thought this guy had potential to be something special. After the second half of book one and now book two, I must say he's good, but I wouldn't put him in a top tier author category just yet. In fairness, I think these are his first published novels, so maybe he will improve. He certainly isn't bad and I would say he's better than the average fantasy author and the books were good reads.

I also finished a little while ago The Magician King and The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman, books two and three of his Magicians trilogy. They were good, I enjoyed them and the series as a whole.

I also finished Guards Guards by Pratchett. I've seen this mentioned as one of the better Pratchett novels, but i must say I didn't connect with it. I've read all the Discworld novels up to this point and I really enjoyed The Color of Magic and Sourcery, the rest I just thought were OK. I'm still on the fence about Pratchett. I can see why he's highly regarded by the two books I liked, but the rest I found just meh.

[End of Disc One]

T77, on 05 February 2015 - 09:21 PM, said:

Finished The Crimson Campaign by Brian McClellan, book two of his powder mage trilogy. After reading the first half of book one I thought this guy had potential to be something special. After the second half of book one and now book two, I must say he's good, but I wouldn't put him in a top tier author category just yet. In fairness, I think these are his first published novels, so maybe he will improve. He certainly isn't bad and I would say he's better than the average fantasy author and the books were good reads.

Thanks for the input. This has been on my radar, and it looks good but I really only have time for the top tier stuff. I'll see what people say about the third book which comes out soon.

[Andorion]

Cajun King, on 06 February 2015 - 01:27 AM, said:

End of Disc One, on 06 February 2015 - 12:28 AM, said:

T77, on 05 February 2015 - 09:21 PM, said:

Finished The Crimson Campaign by Brian McClellan, book two of his powder mage trilogy. After reading the first half of book one I thought this guy had potential to be something special. After the second half of book one and now book two, I must say he's good, but I wouldn't put him in a top tier author category just yet. In fairness, I think these are his first published novels, so maybe he will improve. He certainly isn't bad and I would say he's better than the average fantasy author and the books were good reads.

Thanks for the input. This has been on my radar, and it looks good but I really only have time for the top tier stuff. I'll see what people say about the third book which comes out soon.

I only read bk 1 but i thought It was pretty damn good. I just haven't had time to get and read bk 2 like I planned.

There were some complaints that he went a bit OTT with the abilities of the protagonists. But considering the opposition, I didn't think so. Though in this whole "Gunpowder Fantasy" genre, I am a staunch supporter of Django Wexler.

[Andorion]

33 chapters into Elantris. The book levelled up surprisingly well. At the moment I am kind of waiting for the hammer to fall. There are 2-3 storylines where I am sure something very big is going to happen very soon.

[QuickTidal]

Finished up book 4 of Will Hill's DEPARTMENT 19 series ZERO HOUR and it was pretty damned spectacular. The finale is nothing short of amazing!

Now onto Robin Lafevers GRAVE MERCY (Assassin nuns in alt-Medieval France who worship at the altar of the god of death).

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 06 February 2015 - 11:31 AM

[amphibian]

T77, on 05 February 2015 - 09:21 PM, said:

I also finished Guards Guards by Pratchett. I've seen this mentioned as one of the better Pratchett novels, but i must say I didn't connect with it. I've read all the Discworld novels up to this point and I really enjoyed The Color of Magic and Sourcery, the rest I just thought were OK. I'm still on the fence about Pratchett. I can see why he's highly regarded by the two books I liked, but the rest I found just meh.

Guards, Guards is where Pratchett develops his strongest character, Vimes.

The books after this point will rise in quality markedly until you reach the height of Night Watch. Pratchett turns Ankh-Morpok into a better Darujhistan and really bites heavily into the sly satire while delivering fun stories.

Keep going and yes, Ricewind pops back up with his crazy adventures.

[QuickTidal]

amphibian, on 06 February 2015 - 01:50 PM, said:

T77, on 05 February 2015 - 09:21 PM, said:

I also finished Guards Guards by Pratchett. I've seen this mentioned as one of the better Pratchett novels, but i must say I didn't connect with it. I've read all the Discworld novels up to this point and I really enjoyed The Color of Magic and Sourcery, the rest I just thought were OK. I'm still on the fence about Pratchett. I can see why he's highly regarded by the two books I liked, but the rest I found just meh.

Guards, Guards is where Pratchett develops his strongest character, Vimes.

The books after this point will rise in quality markedly until you reach the height of Night Watch. Pratchett turns Ankh-Morpok into a better Darujhistan and really bites heavily into the sly satire while delivering fun stories.

Keep going and yes, Ricewind pops back up with his crazy adventures.

^^This. The Watch books just continue to get better and better with each successive volume (and add newer and better characters...like my fave Detritus!)

[amphibian]

My favorite Detritus moment, which is from Night Watch:

Quote

The sound of running feet indicated that Sergeant Detritus was bringing some of the latest trainees back from their morning run. He could hear the jody Detritus had taught them. Somehow, you could tell it was made up by a troll:

'Now we sing dis stupid song!'
'Sing it as we run along!'
'Why we sing dis we don't know!'
'We can't make der words rhyme prop'ly!'
'Sound off!'
'One! Two!'
'Sound off!'
'Many! Lots!'
'Sound Off!'
'Er ... What?'

This post has been edited by amphibian: 06 February 2015 - 03:35 PM

[Salt-Man Z]

So hey, I recently finished James Enge's Blood of Ambrose, and it was not at all like I was expecting. I was expecting something a bit more...I dunno, offbeat. But it was more-or-less played straight, and done well, at that. Enge likes to twist things around so you have no idea where the plot is going to actually go, which was a lot of fun. And for all that it's the first book in the Morlock Ambrosius trilogy, Morlock himself is merely a supporting character, which was surprisingly refreshing. Good stuff.

Next I read his free Morlock short story, "Traveller's Rest", which was fine. (I got it off Amazon a few years ago, but it's not there anymore, though it's available on Pyr's blog.) I'm currently reading the second book, This Crooked Way, which is a fix-up of earlier Morlock stories that take place after Blood of Ambrose. Good stuff.

[A Demon Llama!]

Just finished Andy Weir's The Martian. Really enjoyable.

[T77]

amphibian, on 06 February 2015 - 01:50 PM, said:

T77, on 05 February 2015 - 09:21 PM, said:

I also finished Guards Guards by Pratchett. I've seen this mentioned as one of the better Pratchett novels, but i must say I didn't connect with it. I've read all the Discworld novels up to this point and I really enjoyed The Color of Magic and Sourcery, the rest I just thought were OK. I'm still on the fence about Pratchett. I can see why he's highly regarded by the two books I liked, but the rest I found just meh.

Guards, Guards is where Pratchett develops his strongest character, Vimes.

The books after this point will rise in quality markedly until you reach the height of Night Watch. Pratchett turns Ankh-Morpok into a better Darujhistan and really bites heavily into the sly satire while delivering fun stories.

Keep going and yes, Ricewind pops back up with his crazy adventures.

Thanks! I will continue. In the two books that I really liked I can see his brilliance and why he is so highly regarded.

And thank you QuickTidal, as mentioned I will keep going.

This post has been edited by T77: 07 February 2015 - 03:07 AM

[T77]

End of Disc One, on 06 February 2015 - 12:28 AM, said:

T77, on 05 February 2015 - 09:21 PM, said:

Finished The Crimson Campaign by Brian McClellan, book two of his powder mage trilogy. After reading the first half of book one I thought this guy had potential to be something special. After the second half of book one and now book two, I must say he's good, but I wouldn't put him in a top tier author category just yet. In fairness, I think these are his first published novels, so maybe he will improve. He certainly isn't bad and I would say he's better than the average fantasy author and the books were good reads.

Thanks for the input. This has been on my radar, and it looks good but I really only have time for the top tier stuff. I'll see what people say about the third book which comes out soon.

To be fair, most of the reviews for the first two books on Amazon are very positive, so I may be in the minority. So, maybe my slightly less than glowing review is to be taken with a grain of salt. Where he really sines IMO is in his characters.

[Andorion]

Finished Elantris, and The Emperor's Soul.

Elantris was a really good book. At one point I thought i could guess the ending but there were some unexpected twists which kept it interesting. There are a couple of concerns though, but I will post those in the Elantris thread. (I am assuming there is one)

Absolutely loved Emperor's Soul. Part Heist narrative, part something else, part art - really nice story. If this is a sample of the later Sanderson, I can see my Sanderson read is going to be really entertaining!

Now on to Mistborn

[Gabriel Chase]

QuickTidal, on 06 February 2015 - 03:00 PM, said:

amphibian, on 06 February 2015 - 01:50 PM, said:

Guards, Guards is where Pratchett develops his strongest character, Vimes.

The books after this point will rise in quality markedly until you reach the height of Night Watch. Pratchett turns Ankh-Morpok into a better Darujhistan and really bites heavily into the sly satire while delivering fun stories.

Keep going and yes, Ricewind pops back up with his crazy adventures.

^^This. The Watch books just continue to get better and better with each successive volume (and add newer and better characters...like my fave Detritus!)

Interesting. I read so much Pratchett in my youth, but actually did stop after Guards! Guards! (which I loved). Which is the next one in the series?

[Andorion]

Gabriel Chase, on 07 February 2015 - 03:29 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 06 February 2015 - 03:00 PM, said:

amphibian, on 06 February 2015 - 01:50 PM, said:

Guards, Guards is where Pratchett develops his strongest character, Vimes.

The books after this point will rise in quality markedly until you reach the height of Night Watch. Pratchett turns Ankh-Morpok into a better Darujhistan and really bites heavily into the sly satire while delivering fun stories.

Keep going and yes, Ricewind pops back up with his crazy adventures.

^^This. The Watch books just continue to get better and better with each successive volume (and add newer and better characters...like my fave Detritus!)

Interesting. I read so much Pratchett in my youth, but actually did stop after Guards! Guards! (which I loved). Which is the next one in the series?

If you mean the Vimes arc, then read Men At Arms, Feet of Clay, Fifth Elephant, Night Watch, Thud, Snuff in order. If you don't want to follow a particular arc, then just read in publication order.

[Andorion]

Question: Is Mistborn a double trilogy? As in Final Empire to Hero of Ages is one arc and Alloy of Law starts another Arc? Or is it a continuous hexalogy? Can I stop with Hero of Ages?