[Gredfallan Ale]

I'm currently reading The King's Curse by Philippa Gregory. It's not something I would have bought myself, but one of my friends is a great fan of her works, so I decided to try one of Gregory's books. So far it's okay, not great, but not really bad as well. Do mind I'm only 70 pages in or so.

I'm contemplating doing another read of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, this time including the ICE novels as well.

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 29 September 2015 - 04:47 AM, said:

Bad thing is I can tell it's been out since the last shipment last Wens.. There's no discount stickers on them so they brought them out straight from crates instead of tagging them. I could have had it as long as QT has probably

If it helps, it's a pretty great book so far (I'm just over halfway through).

[Maark Abbott]

Tattersail_, on 28 September 2015 - 06:24 PM, said:

Maark, on 28 September 2015 - 11:07 AM, said:

Tattersail_, on 25 September 2015 - 06:34 PM, said:

Just finished the second book in the Kingkiller Chronicles. Wow, this is a must read for anyone. It's a shame it's not completed yet, (I didn't know when I started).

So I picked another series from the top 100 character list. As that's where I discovered Kvothe.

So I have started to read The Green Rider series. Karigan as the main star.

Book 1 is shaky. It picks up after that, though. Rather simplistic but I've found it to be very compelling and enjoyable.

Yes. I see what you mean about the simplicity. It's not as gripping as I thought it would be. I'm 25% in, and she has shown much incompetence and there's a lot of silliness. I dislike the horse being named The Horse. I dislike the 2 old cronies giving her gifts that a 2 year old could have drummed up. Basically I'm not turning the pages as quickly as I like because it seems childish.

Tattersail_, on 28 September 2015 - 10:25 PM, said:

Another gripe. The Green Rider who gives her the message has been galloping hard. It's an important message and I'm assuming haste would be imperative.

Oh my God.

Spends days travelling, meets them old women spends time with them. Has baths or whatever. Then is travelling for days again. Then gets injured and recovered for at least 4 days 4 nights and then when she is recovered she takes another day and night to build up strength.

By now people are already hearing rumours of what her message contains. Or at least part of it.

Then she gets captured and it's going on for days. This is all 26% into the book. For fuck sake I am knackered for her. I no longer give a shit about the message or her or her damn horse.

Tattersail_, on 28 September 2015 - 10:26 PM, said:

But I'm wondering why the hell the green rider who give her the message was galloping so hard. If it's taken her 789 weeks to get no where then what is he hoping to achieve. Jesus.

Honestly, the first book is far and away the weakest entry. The incompetence is addressed (because in fairness, how competent is a runaway 18 year old schoolgirl actually going to be?), the Horse gets a name. The old women were certainly pretty daft, though.

Anyway, once I finish Mirror Sight, I think it'll be something short and sweet. I've got the next three issues on my TRP of AOT on order but need something to get on with until they land (MS won't last me another week at this rate). Not really sure what I have upstairs that fits the bill, but we'll see.

Edit: should add the incompetence is addressed in the second book, not the first.

This post has been edited by Maark: 29 September 2015 - 11:21 AM

[Abyss]

AERONAUGHT'S WINDLASS has landed! Will sideline TOWER LORD for the moment.

[Baco Xtath]

Started listening to Cinder Sire #1. Unfortunately, I've been a bit of a binge and haven't bee able to focus for a while. I'll soon correct that and get back to my reading ways.

[QuickTidal]

Finished CINDER SPIRES #1 (great stuff, thoughts in dedthread)

Started WEAPON OF THE JEDI by Jason Fry.

[Andorion]

Almost finished Will Wights Of Sea and Shadow, shaping up nicely, and best of all Aeronaut's Windlass is here! So thats my next read, Shadows of the Apt on waiting.

[Maark Abbott]

Well, I bought The Aeronaut's Windlass, but apparently this is hilarious. I don't know why. Can anyone advise why the notion of "the ultra-grvmdvrk Maark reading Butcher" is so chortle-worthy? All I know is BK said something that pretty much made me need to own it. I have no idea what to expect beyond Harpoon Cannons and glass eyepatches.

ANYWAY.

Further thoughts on Mirror Sight, being that I'm close to finishing it (should wrap up the last 100 pages today). Spoiler tags as this is endgame stuff and QT / Tatts.

Spoiler

So it turns out Mornhavon IS still the villain, possessing Abmerhill and co-habiting with a Sea King!

Spoiler

AND the Eternal Guardian is actually Fastion! Zoom! Pow! Unexpect!

And yes, the linked videos were pretty much exactly how I reacted to the above events.

[Tattersail_]

Well the book ended strongly. I actually liked reading the parts of others in the book. Her dad, Mapstone, etc.

I'm not in a rush to go and get book 2 though.

Just started reading Darkness Falls, some end of days, vampire type of book from a first person point of view.

[Maark Abbott]

Fair cop. I'm still going to use spoiler tags regarding it because you might get further and I don't want to be a spoilerdick.

Once I'm done, I'll be onto Taw.

[polishgenius]

Well, I'm never going to finish WoT. Having started Eye of the World for the third time and this time finally getting some traction, going about halfway through, I eventually got annoyed after the fifteen billionth time the characters did something completely fucking idiotic and put it aside. I'll probably come back and finish at least this book, but I don't think this is the series for me, even as a fantasy megageek.


The book I picked up instead is a debut, The Tratior Baru Cormorant (known simply as The Traitor in some places including mine, but let's face it, the full one is a much better title). Early days yet but there's a lot of hype for this one and I'm enjoying it so far. Not too many books sell themselves explicitly as political fantasy, even in this day and age, but that's most definitely what this is.

[Tattersail_]

polishgenius, on 01 October 2015 - 08:33 AM, said:

Well, I'm never going to finish WoT. Having started Eye of the World for the third time and this time finally getting some traction, going about halfway through, I eventually got annoyed after the fifteen billionth time the characters did something completely fucking idiotic and put it aside. I'll probably come back and finish at least this book, but I don't think this is the series for me, even as a fantasy megageek.


The book I picked up instead is a debut, The Tratior Baru Cormorant (known simply as The Traitor in some places including mine, but let's face it, the full one is a much better title). Early days yet but there's a lot of hype for this one and I'm enjoying it so far. Not too many books sell themselves explicitly as political fantasy, even in this day and age, but that's most definitely what this is.

Your probably the only person in the world who doesn't like book 1 at least.

I guess you win at life by not doing anything idiotic ever.

[polishgenius]

Tattersail_, on 01 October 2015 - 08:42 AM, said:

I guess you win at life by not doing anything idiotic ever.

I'm sorry?

[Andorion]

Tattersail_, on 01 October 2015 - 08:42 AM, said:

polishgenius, on 01 October 2015 - 08:33 AM, said:

Well, I'm never going to finish WoT. Having started Eye of the World for the third time and this time finally getting some traction, going about halfway through, I eventually got annoyed after the fifteen billionth time the characters did something completely fucking idiotic and put it aside. I'll probably come back and finish at least this book, but I don't think this is the series for me, even as a fantasy megageek.


The book I picked up instead is a debut, The Tratior Baru Cormorant (known simply as The Traitor in some places including mine, but let's face it, the full one is a much better title). Early days yet but there's a lot of hype for this one and I'm enjoying it so far. Not too many books sell themselves explicitly as political fantasy, even in this day and age, but that's most definitely what this is.

Your probably the only person in the world who doesn't like book 1 at least.

I guess you win at life by not doing anything idiotic ever.

I don't think the first book is that important to liking the series. I had a hard time with it because about 50-60% felt like a LotR clone and a bad one. The second, third and fourth books are the standard.
@Polishgenius And if you are impatient with idiocy this early you may genuinely be in trouble, as this is nothing compared to 7 or 8.

[Maark Abbott]

If you are impatient with mopey idiocy, you will... Faile to finish the series.

A haaa.

[Maark Abbott]

Just finished Mirror Sight.

Spoiler

Bittersweet ending. Very bittersweet. You have to feel for someone who falls in love, get knocked up, then flung back in time to their own era, and nothing has happened because those people don't exist... And then they find a picture of the person who they loved and will never see again and remember everything.

Decent setup for the next instalment as well.

[polishgenius]

Andorion, on 01 October 2015 - 10:43 AM, said:

I had a hard time with it because about 50-60% felt like a LotR clone and a bad one.

This is another big part of the reason why I've had to take a knee on it. I'm told it breaks away from that in the second half so I will come back and see, but unless it's fucking mindblowing I doubt I'll be continuing with the series, not soon anyway- after all it's a pretty huge investment of time and attention and it's almost universally reported to turn into a right slog in the third quarter- and then it's ended by Brandon Sanderson, whose writing I'm not a huge fan of in any case.

[Andorion]

polishgenius, on 01 October 2015 - 11:37 AM, said:

Andorion, on 01 October 2015 - 10:43 AM, said:

I had a hard time with it because about 50-60% felt like a LotR clone and a bad one.

This is another big part of the reason why I've had to take a knee on it. I'm told it breaks away from that in the second half so I will come back and see, but unless it's fucking mindblowing I doubt I'll be continuing with the series, not soon anyway- after all it's a pretty huge investment of time and attention and it's almost universally reported to turn into a right slog in the third quarter- and then it's ended by Brandon Sanderson, whose writing I'm not a huge fan of in any case.

It starts improving dramatically from Book2, completely leaving the LotR mould, continues to rise, peaks somewhere around 5, then declines, hits rock bottom at 10 and then surprisingly 11 is right up there among the best in the series. Jordan went out on a high. As for Sanderson 12 was his first and weakest, but 13, 14 are really, really good. I would say they are better than Sanderson's Mistborn.

Regarding the middle books, the thing is there us usually some payoff to compensate for the mediocrity. 8 and 9 have really good ending parts. In fact I consider the climax of 9 to be among the best in the series

The only book with no redeeming feature is 10.

BTW looking forward to your thoughts on Baru Cormorant. Heard a lot about that book lately

[acesn8s]

Maark, on 01 October 2015 - 11:14 AM, said:

If you are impatient with mopey idiocy, you will... Faile to finish the series.

A haaa.

[amphibian]

Tattersail_, on 01 October 2015 - 08:42 AM, said:

Your probably the only person in the world who doesn't like book 1 at least.

I guess you win at life by not doing anything idiotic ever.

No, I didn't like Book 1 of Wheel of Time either. It wasn't until the end of Book 2 and Book 3 that I actually liked much of anything. Then it was alright, before nose-diving into the slog, which made me "nope" out of the series entirely after Book 10.

I usually don't mind not-good Book 1s of series because I read so unusually fast that it's just a couple days or maybe a week if I'm really busy. I can blow through the tough parts much faster than most people and thus if a series improves in the middle, I can get there without having too much of an enthusiasm drop. This helped me with Dresden Files and a few other series I now really like.

I just read Element of Fire by Martha Wells. If that's her first novel, I'm blown away. The lady can WRITE and she did the complex plot/interesting characters very well. I immediately bought City of Bones (on Kindle) and started reading that, which is good at least in the first third I've finished so far.

Thanks to polish_genius for getting me onto Wells.