[Abyss]

Abyss, on 04 August 2015 - 04:48 PM, said:

Finished the MISTBORN trilogy in earbook. Will post thoughts elsewhere, but overall liked, didn't love.

Started Palanhiuk's DAMNED. Clever enough, but i'm not feeling it. Need to find something else to listen to.
...

So DAMNED actually got to the point i couldn't stand it... like literally oh god this is awful my ears are bleeding i need to listen to something else before my ears start bleeding.... so i flipped to Sanderson's WAY OF KINGS. I had planned to save this til i had cleared ALLOY OF LAW and more likely til the Stormlight series was further along, but fuckit i needed to purge my brainz of Damned... have to say, the beginning is truly engrossing and i'm right into it.

QuickTidal, on 04 August 2015 - 07:59 PM, said:

Grumble, on 04 August 2015 - 05:59 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 30 July 2015 - 01:07 PM, said:

About halfway through Wilbur Smith's first Courtney's book, WHEN THE LION FEEDS, and finding it wonderful so far!

Great Series !ENJOY !!! ... Takes me back more years than I would care to remember. I would also recommend his novel The Sunbird ( a personal favourite ) but all his stuff is great.

Thanks, yeah really quite enjoying it.

I read a bunch of Smith's Courtneys books way back and remember enjoying them. At their best they make you feel like you've read an enjoyable historical thriller and learned something. At their worse, they're fun popcorn, if trite.
LION was ok... i recall really enjoying LEOPARD HUNTS, among a few others.

Serenity, on 05 August 2015 - 12:39 PM, said:

About a third of the way through Blindsight. It's got me by the throat and won't let go.

Loved that book SO MUCH.
I envy you for the utter mindufckery you are about to experience for the first time.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 05 August 2015 - 03:17 PM, said:

I read a bunch of Smith's Courtneys books way back and remember enjoying them. At their best they make you feel like you've read an enjoyable historical thriller and learned something. At their worse, they're fun popcorn, if trite.
LION was ok... i recall really enjoying LEOPARD HUNTS, among a few others.

LION only slogs a bit through the gold rush stuff where the money is made...but British Ne'erdowell Duff Charleywood makes it enjoyable while they pan for gold and deal with claim rustlers (Duff and Sean's first meeting is one of the most memorable parts of the book). Otherwise I feel like I'm reading a classic 1940's African adventure story. Written by a guy who actually grew up there.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 05 August 2015 - 03:34 PM

[Chance]

Finished up Queen of Fire at last getting the momentum to get through the book which does take some time to get going. Why this book has a bad rep is beyond me, people who expect Bloodsong v3 rather then a much more complex book should have known better then after Tower Lord. It was an excellent ending to a good and fairly complex trilogy about a lot more then heroes bashing up the evil villains. We got a lot of fairly complex people with their own small stories, religion and philosophy being handled and the realities of war, attrocity and madness as well as some seriously interesting and clever story telling going around. All in all a very good book posibly not 5 out of 5 but close, I'll decide on it after reading the trilogy in a single pass.

Also went through Prince of Valor which I found good but one of those books who simply continue a series, not really being all that noteworthy while going on in well worn and fairly enjoyable tracks but not being exceptional in any way. Still it will be interesting to see if he goes through the entire history from revolution to waterloo.

This post has been edited by Chance: 05 August 2015 - 04:58 PM

[amphibian]

Chance, on 05 August 2015 - 04:57 PM, said:

Finished up Queen of Fire at last getting the momentum to get through the book which does take some time to get going. Why this book has a bad rep is beyond me, people who expect Bloodsong v3 rather then a much more complex book should have known better then after Tower Lord. It was an excellent ending to a good and fairly complex trilogy about a lot more then heroes bashing up the evil villains. We got a lot of fairly complex people with their own small stories, religion and philosophy being handled and the realities of war, attrocity and madness as well as some seriously interesting and clever story telling going around. All in all a very good book posibly not 5 out of 5 but close, I'll decide on it after reading the trilogy in a single pass.

I suspect that many of the people who fell in love with Blood Song only fell in love with Vaelin. The series going away from him for large chunks of time drove these readers to believing Ryan sucks as a writer - when it's the opposite. He grew in skill and in what he tackled in the books.

I do think there's some weak spots in Tower Lord and in Queen of Fire, but all in all, that's a very solid trilogy that he's finished in what... 2 years?

[Maark Abbott]

Just finished First Rider's Call (cheers QT, I've very much enjoyed these so far). Going to read the first two AOT mangas and then pick up The High King's Tomb.

[Tiste Simeon]

Finally started book 1 of the Void Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton. Can anyone tell me if I need to remember anything about the Commonwealth Saga to understand these books? Cos I can't. Otherwise a trip to Wikipedia might be in order.

[JPK]

Turns out that I wasn't able to listen to any audiobooks on the flight that I was hoping to, so I'm still chugging along on Towers of Midnight with Finch lined up for play as soon as I'm finished. I did get to start The Dark Defiles though finally. Damn, but I forgot just how engrossing Morgan is in his writing.

[Andorion]

Tiste Simeon, on 06 August 2015 - 12:15 AM, said:

Finally started book 1 of the Void Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton. Can anyone tell me if I need to remember anything about the Commonwealth Saga to understand these books? Cos I can't. Otherwise a trip to Wikipedia might be in order.

A few of the characters recur. Justin burnelli and her father being quite important ones. Later in the trilogy you also get Ozzy. And Paula Myo. The thing with the Void books is that they take some time to get going properly.

[acesn8s]

I finished up Nine Princes in Amber. It was ok. I think it is beginning to show its age, though. I'll probably read book 2 at some point, but there's enough in the queue that it is not a high priority.


I decided to try and finish up the Shadows of the Apt series, so I picked up The Sea Watch.

[Macros]

Really didn't like Amber at all tbh.

Reading A.J Smiths The Red Prince, third in the long war series.
I think reading it right after the second is helping me, enjoying it more than the second as I'm not reacquainting myself with characters.
The same niggles remain, people smiling smugly too often and the like, but still enjoyable fare

[QuickTidal]

Started into the 3rd Dark Tower book THE WASTE LANDS by Stephen King, and so far it's pretty good. Been a while since I read book 2, but King recaps at the beginning in my edition so that's helpful.

[Andorion]

QuickTidal, on 06 August 2015 - 12:54 PM, said:

Started into the 3rd Dark Tower book THE WASTE LANDS by Stephen King, and so far it's pretty good. Been a while since I read book 2, but King recaps at the beginning in my edition so that's helpful.

QT I believe the new Kate Daniels is out.

[QuickTidal]

Andorion, on 06 August 2015 - 03:02 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 06 August 2015 - 12:54 PM, said:

Started into the 3rd Dark Tower book THE WASTE LANDS by Stephen King, and so far it's pretty good. Been a while since I read book 2, but King recaps at the beginning in my edition so that's helpful.

QT I believe the new Kate Daniels is out.

It is indeed! I still need to read my copy of MAGIC BREAKS first though, but I'll be purchasing it and putting it into the TRP.

[LinearPhilosopher]

i need to find the motivation to finish that book on phenomenology... anyone have any ideas?

Like if i read fantasy its easy and enthralling got no issues there.

This post has been edited by LinearPhilosopher: 06 August 2015 - 06:38 PM

[polishgenius]

I read a very interesting book the other day, Sailor to a Siren by Zoe Sumra. Now, disclosure, the author is a user on the asoiaf forums who I know, not well, but we get along. But I didn't know this till I'd read three quarters and enjoyed it tremendously, so it didn't bias my viewpoint really.

Basically, it's a gangland thriller in a space opera universe with heavy hints of epic fantasy about it (despite the author never having read Malazan, the way things go down throughout the book bear a lot of comparison to Erikson's convergences, especially the city-set ones. A steady unrolling of chaos beautifully controlled by the author). Loads and loads of fun, and I'd have highly recommended it even if I didn't think the author is a top lady.




I'm now reading The Iron Ship by K.M. McKinley. It's a first book in a series, what seems like it's going to be a big, big epic fantasy in a world of both industry (there's steam in it, though it's emphatically not steampunk, at least not yet) and lashings of old-school-style magic. It centers around a core cast of a big ol' family of characters, all very different and a treat to read about so far, who all seem to be set to have grand adventures or intriguing intrigue to be involved in in one way or another. The author also brings an absolutely brilliant sense of place. Every location he's revealed so far has had me going 'wow that's awesome' (this goes back also to the big fantasy aspect - there's a lot of cool stuff in the setting). Absolutely love this sort of thing.

Now, some people will be put off by the fact that, although he's down for three books, the author would like to expand it out to as many as seven if this gets the attention it deserves. Me, I love big old series and if this continues as well as it's begun (I'm about 200 pages in), I'll be delighted to see it get the additional space the author would like.


It is kind of weird that the city and country said family are from is called Karsa, though.

[amphibian]

LinearPhilosopher, on 06 August 2015 - 06:37 PM, said:

i need to find the motivation to finish that book on phenomenology... anyone have any ideas?

I took a college course from Jacques Taminiaux on phenomenology and Husserl/Heidegger etc.

https://en.wikipedia...cques_Taminiaux

It was fascinating. But I benefited from it being 3x a week and lasting 3/4s a semester because he taught rapidly, saw that we all did the reading, understood the material and said "I'm done" halfway through the semester. He packed up and left for Belgium.

I think the best thing to do in regards to the reading is to get some good summaries/analysis from the internet, mark up your notes in the text itself and then get through 2 or 3 chapters a day. Some of this stuff is essays mashed together, or speeches put into writing, so it works very well in two to three hour dollops.

[Lycaenion]

Reading The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. Great book!

[Andorion]

Back on the Rob Thurman Cal Leandros books. Roadkill done, Blackout almost done. Must say Blackout is utterly hilarious.

[Andorion]

King Briar, on 08 August 2015 - 01:43 AM, said:

When are you going to read Calibans War?

Oh, silly me I forgot to put it on thread. I blasted through that entire series including Nemesis Games. Leviathan Wakes, Calibans War were awesome. Excellent, extremely entertaining books. Abaddon's Gate... was also very good.

Cibola Burn I didn't really like. The pacng and the structure didn't really work for me.

Nemesis Games was excellent. I did not expect Corey to go that far. People change the game board but very few authors break it. Now I am waiting for the next book.

[Serenity]

Abyss, on 05 August 2015 - 03:17 PM, said:

Serenity, on 05 August 2015 - 12:39 PM, said:

About a third of the way through Blindsight. It's got me by the throat and won't let go.

Loved that book SO MUCH.
I envy you for the utter mindufckery you are about to experience for the first time.

Bloody hell, you weren't kidding It completely blew my mind I loved it. One of the best SF novels I've yet read, I think