[Whisperzzzzzzz]

I'm 40 pages into The Forever War, and I'm not sure what to think. It hasn't hooked me yet, but I'm expecting it will soon, considering all the praise it has.

[Chance]

Morgoth, on 08 October 2015 - 05:58 AM, said:

Chance, on 07 October 2015 - 01:53 PM, said:

His multiple byzantium/east rome histories are very good.

Yeah? That's good to hear. I've been struggling to find those books as they are out of print for some reason. I will stumble upon them eventually though!

Well stocked university or city libraries may well be the place to look, it's where I read them years ago.

[polishgenius]

I'm reading Ancillary Mercy by Anne Leckie right now, the Imperial Radch trilogy closer. I remember when the first one came out to great hype and a few of you were like 'well I'm gonna wait till the series is done before I get in on this'. Well, now it's done, so get in on it, anyone who fancies a tricksy space opera in the tradition of Banks, but with a bit more of a military flavour.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 08 October 2015 - 10:04 PM

[amphibian]

polishgenius, on 08 October 2015 - 10:03 PM, said:

I'm reading Ancillary Mercy by Anne Leckie right now, the Imperial Radch trilogy closer. I remember when the first one came out to great hype and a few of you were like 'well I'm gonna wait till the series is done before I get in on this'. Well, now it's done, so get in on it, anyone who fancies a tricksy space opera in the tradition of Banks, but with a bit more of a military flavour.

I just picked up my copy of this.

First, I need to finish The Death of the Necromancer - which is kind of a mind-warp due to fastforwarding a couple hundred years from the last time we were in Ile-Rien.

Thanks again for turning me onto Martha Wells.

[polishgenius]

I haven't read Death of the Necromancer yet, I'm a fairly recent Wells convert myself. Did the two stand-alones (City of Bones and Wheel of the Infinite) first, only read Element of Fire a short while back. I'm enjoying spacing her stuff out a bit.

But yeah, I'm really surprised she isn't more talked about, she's excellent.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 09 October 2015 - 09:12 AM

[Mentalist]

Finished Traders' War, the second "Merchant Princes" omnibus by Stross.

The pacing sucks in this book. The novelty's worn off, and the main character of the first 2 books spends most of this volume under various types of house arrests, to the point where her chapters/sections were easily the most boring part of the book.

Some of the other storylines were better, but it sometimes seemed that Stross is juggling too many balls, and he keeps trying to add more facets to the story- to the point where I don't really see a way to resolve it all nicely. Also, he completely dropped one of the main plot strands from the first volume, without any real resolution in a kind of "and we're not really gonna talk about them anymore. We hope they won't show up again for a while"-type manner.

The ending picks up, as a whole bunch of things unravel at once and a convergence happens. But i'm not sure if this can be resolved neatly. Also, there's a possible Deus Ex Machina being set up, and i'd be annoyed if that was the ending. I'm certainly gonna grab volume 3 next time I see it, but this wasn't really all that great.

Next incommute reading I'll give "Welcome to the Madhouse" a spin--it's a book by S.E. Sasaki, a local writer who apparently was one of SE's advance readers, and whom I bumped into last week at my local bookstore where she was promoting the book. I told her I'd review it, so It's been moved up the commute list.

At home, I'm most likely gonna finish tBH in the Malaz re-read this weekend, and gonna move on to RG.

[Maark Abbott]

Andorion, on 07 October 2015 - 03:29 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 07 October 2015 - 02:58 PM, said:

Abyss, on 07 October 2015 - 02:14 PM, said:

Chance, on 07 October 2015 - 01:53 PM, said:

Finished up Cinder Spires 1... he should have put more thought into the physics of his air battles which while hugely entertaining didn't really make sense now and then.

I don't think we read the same book. I thought that was some of the most well thought out/written airship v airship action i've read.

Agreed. The airship battles was some of my fave stuff.

I absolutely loved the battles. I think Butcher gives a lot of space to the physics. He talks about the consequences of a too fast dive, he talks about ascent and speed. Plus you have to consider the energy source. Lift and trim crystals don't have to work in the way we understand physics

I liked it when Galcian was all 'READY THE HYDRA CANNON!'.

[Andorion]

Finished Empire in Black and Gold, now onto Dragonfly Falling

[EmperorMagus]

I'm reading "Like Water for Chocolate" for a class and it is painful. The book is so horrible I want to shoot myself in the head at the end of every paragraph. It's like someone decided to write the most sexist, bad written book possible and then got The Yearded One to edit it.

This post has been edited by EmperorMagus: 11 October 2015 - 11:07 PM

[Andorion]

Briar King, on 12 October 2015 - 12:01 AM, said:

Andorion, on 11 October 2015 - 02:21 PM, said:

Finished Empire in Black and Gold, now onto Dragonfly Falling

Hope your liking it. I enjoyed bk 2 but that's the one that seems to be least liked by people and at time when it was new they swore off the series sadly.

Actually I read the first three many years back. But rereading book 1 has shown me that I only remember only the broadest of storylines.

I'l post some thoughts in the dedthread.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Tad Williams' Otherland. I'm really enjoying it so far, about halfway through.

[Serenity]

Briar King, on 12 October 2015 - 12:01 AM, said:

Andorion, on 11 October 2015 - 02:21 PM, said:

Finished Empire in Black and Gold, now onto Dragonfly Falling

Hope your liking it. I enjoyed bk 2 but that's the one that seems to be least liked by people and at time when it was new they swore off the series sadly.

That's what happened to me - I never got past the second book.



I'm currently halfway through The Tropic of Serpents, the second of Marie Brennan's 'Lady Trent' books. Great stuff.

[acesn8s]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 12 October 2015 - 03:36 AM, said:

Tad Williams' Otherland. I'm really enjoying it so far, about halfway through.

I'm working my way through it as well.

[polishgenius]

I started Willful Child. Wasn't overly impressed unfortunately, mostly because it just isn't funny and in fact the constant jokes about his sexual voraciousness got old really really fast. And whereas I've read comedies that weren't funny that I liked anyway because there was enough going on otherwise to pull me in (Theater of the Gods by M. Suddain for example, which compensates for a lack of real lol-funnies by having several very cool characters and also just being absolutely bonkers), I'm just not getting that here - there's a bit of fun adventure but, you know, not that much.


I also started The Dark Defiles, finally. That's more promising.

[Puck]

A few chapters into Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente. My first book by her, and I'm liking it so far even though I usually dislike fairytales-themed books. But I'm having problems to focus on a book, so anything where I manage to read a chapter in one go is a win atm.

[stone monkey]

I fairly recently read Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach Trilogy. All three are very good, if very different, books. The first, Annihilation, is quite remarkably creepy, the second, Authority, is amazingly paranoid, and the third, Acceptance, is completly mental.

[Serenity]

I read the first Southern Reach book recently and really enjoyed it. Must get the second one soon.

Briar King, on 12 October 2015 - 06:35 PM, said:

Serenity, on 12 October 2015 - 09:33 AM, said:

Briar King, on 12 October 2015 - 12:01 AM, said:

Andorion, on 11 October 2015 - 02:21 PM, said:

Finished Empire in Black and Gold, now onto Dragonfly Falling

Hope your liking it. I enjoyed bk 2 but that's the one that seems to be least liked by people and at time when it was new they swore off the series sadly.

That's what happened to me - I never got past the second book.



I'm currently halfway through The Tropic of Serpents, the second of Marie Brennan's 'Lady Trent' books. Great stuff.

Try again. It's fun

Sir, yessir!


Made a start on Cornwell's The Empty Throne. Wanted to read it before the tv series starts in the UK and ruins how I've always imagined the characters

[Baco Xtath]

Just started Ancillary Mercy and Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits. Both good so far, though I'm only about an hour and a half into each.

[Abyss]

Halfway thru Ryan's THE TOWER LORD. Contrary to majority opinion, im finding it better than BLOOD SONG. More interesting characters, marginally more original ideas and storylines.
In earbook, still working thru WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE. Am a bit ambivalent about this, more when I'm done.

[amphibian]

Martha Wells - Death of the Necromancer

I found this to be 360 pages of what seemed like a fantasy Dumas novel without the annoying goody-goody musketeers. I loved it. A straight revenge plot carried out through heists turns into something very different and parts of the plot/characters relate subtly back to The Element of Fire (which was the first Ile-Rein book) without making the other book a "must-read" in order to understand this one. Wells makes Valiarde and his main partners relatable and gives the Necromancer a pretty good evil plot to work with.


Neal Stephenson - Seveneves

This might be the most "Neal Stephenson" book he's written. Probably not the best introduction point to him (Snow Crash is still that), but it's a surprisingly moving story that only slows a bit in some places as he does the patented NS info-dump on orbital mechanics, space manufacturing etc. NS has had a great run since he finished the System of the World books with Anathem, REAMDE, and this all being fascinating. I honestly think he read Moby Dick long ago and went "I want to do exactly that with things and practices of today/the future." The initial intro of a Neil deGrasse Tyson-like character fades out to much more interesting characters, so don't feel like the book isn't for you if Dubois annoys you. Many, many STRONG women characters in this one.

Next up, I'll either read Ancillary Mercy or The Fifth Season.