[JPK]

In audiobook I've started The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. I remember seeing people mention good things about this on here in the past, but the quality of this has still taken me by surprise. The story itself is nothing what I was expecting going into it, but I think it's due to my preconceived notions of what a half-goblin emperor in charge of elves would be. She has done a great job making her goblins very different than the Tolkien standard.

The other book that I've started is Ash and Silver by Carol Berg. She is seriously one of my favorite writers. She did an ama over on reddit at the beginning of the month where she described several of her series better than I ever could.

Spoiler

Out this month is my newest novel ASH AND SILVER, the second of a two book series called the Sanctuary novels. A privileged young sorcerer/portrait artist's life falls apart when he abruptly loses his job and ends up drawing identity portraits of the dead. Matters go south from there, because Lucian's world is on the verge of collapse from a civil war, a mysterious, unending winter, and political corruption that stretches back centuries. By the end of the first book, DUST AND LIGHT, he seeks sanctuary (ah, you get that connection) in a mysterious military Order with badass consequences.
I seem to have a habit of doing things like that to my heroes and heroines. I've written five series and one standalone novel, set in five different worlds, and I love playing god for complicated, imperfect people. Like the sorcerer/warrior who fights demons inside human souls (TRANSFORMATION). Or the drug-addicted, ne'er-do-well, one-time sorcerer who ends up in a monastery where a secret cadre foresees the world on the brink of a dark age (FLESH AND SPIRIT). My novels of the Collegia Magica (starting with THE SPIRIT LENS) features a partnership between a failed student of magic, a broody necromancer, a fop with a bigger secret than either of them, and the daughter of a convicted traitor. I call those books a "double-agent murder mystery set in an Isaac Newton/Galileo kind of world where science is shoving magic to the margins."

If this doesn't get you guys to give her a shot, I don't know what will.

[Morgoth]

I got several books for christmas, and have started two of them.

Children of time by Adrian Tchaikovsky seems very promising the hundred or so pages I've gotten into it. Some Reynolds to it I feel, with millenia passing during travel.

Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner is the history of the CIA, and a very critical history indeed. Weiner portrays an intelligence service incapable of fulfilling it's basic function, namely to gather intelligence. It's a harsh portrayal, but also a well sourced one. It's been reviewd well, though the CIA did not agree as shown by their own review of the book. It's an amusing read.

[Baco Xtath]

The Incredible Kitsu, on 27 December 2015 - 05:02 PM, said:

In audiobook I've started The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. I remember seeing people mention good things about this on here in the past, but the quality of this has still taken me by surprise. The story itself is nothing what I was expecting going into it, but I think it's due to my preconceived notions of what a half-goblin emperor in charge of elves would be. She has done a great job making her goblins very different than the Tolkien standard.

Yeah, there's really nothing spectacular or even great about the book yet somehow I thought it was really good

[Andorion]

8 chapters into Shadow of the Torturer in Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, and so far I really like it.

[Salt-Man Z]

I myself am currently on my 6th read of Book of the New Sun (nearing the end of Claw of the Conciliator). How I love this book.

[Baco Xtath]

I'm currently 1/2 way through listening to the Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack: Burton and Swineburne book 1. Nothing extraordinary but definitely good enough that I'll be continuing on with the series. Steampunk with a Laundry feel to it. Plus, I've exhausted all my light listens so I really don't have a hell of a lot more to listen to.

1/2 way through reading Iron Night: Generation V #2. Like the first in the series, surprisingly good. I highly recommend this series.

[Mentalist]

Making my merry way through "Blood and Bone" re-read. Just like the first time, the atmosphere is great, pacing a tad off, plot is a snoozefest. Taking it in in small chunks (a chapter a day), even though overall I have much more free time now.

Only 2 days at work this week, not sure if I'll actually finish my commute read before New Year, but I'll try.

[Macros]

Decided to finally read feist's final 5 books, I avoided it for a long time, but reread sethanon there and decided to reread the serpent war saga. Have them all in ebook format, decided to grit my teeth and see how it all plays out. Will require rereading tue conclave books and running right through, have forgotten too much

[Andorion]

Lots of people in the house so didn't get much time to read, only seven chapters progress into Shadow of the Torturer, so chapter 15 at the moment.

I think Severian is having a really weird dream at the moment

So far, the way Severian's story is being told reminds me a lot of the older authors, like Dickens or RL Stevenson.

I like the way Wolfe does his exposition - a random factoid thrown into a memory, thought or sentence and a bunch of these accumulating over time to slowly build up a picture.

There is a lot of strange word usage, but they are not really hindering my comprehension yet.

[Mentalist]

Finished Sixty Days and Counting before New Year, woop!

Not really a grand finale, there's a bit of a "happily ever after" vibe to it, but it's a good time for positivity like that. Although it's not as earth-shattering for me as the previous 2 volumes, gotta say, this trilo affected me profoundly, I probably read it at just the right time (the whole "growing up" thing adults gotta do...) It's certainly gonna be a fondly remembered series.

[Abyss]

Macros, on 30 December 2015 - 08:40 PM, said:

Decided to finally read feist's final 5 books, I avoided it for a long time, but reread sethanon there and decided to reread the serpent war saga. Have them all in ebook format, decided to grit my teeth and see how it all plays out. Will require rereading tue conclave books and running right through, have forgotten too much

Masichist much?

[Andorion]

23 chapters into Shadow of the Torturer and things are definitely getting weird.

Spoiler

The book seemed to suddenly change in tone a lot. So far Severian was this quiet gloomy depressed guy, suddenly he meets these two seriously wierd showmen, who just as suddenly disappear, then he meets this crazy girl whose clothes keep on tearing, they go on a carriage ride worthy of a James Bond film, destroy an altar and apparently cause the Claw of the Conciliator to disappear, and then get dragged into multiple side stories. Also i am fairly certain somebody tried to explain FTL travel through light and mirrors.

Wolfe is now using Indian words. I have caught three so far, muni, Urvasi, and Puravasa. Muni means ascetic, which is the sense in which Wolfe uses it, He just name dropped Urvasi, who according to Puranic mythology is an Apsara - a heavenly dancer. I have no idea about Puravasa as the literal translation makes no sense.


Also the way the story meanders, and the way characters pop in and out reminds of Indian fairy tales where the hero embarks on a journey and gets caught up in many incidental things along the way.

[Andorion]

23 chapters into Shadow of the Torturer and things are definitely getting weird.

Spoiler

The book seemed to suddenly change in tone a lot. So far Severian was this quiet gloomy depressed guy, suddenly he meets these two seriously wierd showmen, who just as suddenly disappear, then he meets this crazy girl whose clothes keep on tearing, they go on a carriage ride worthy of a James Bond film, destroy an altar and apparently cause the Claw of the Conciliator to disappear, and then get dragged into multiple side stories. Also i am fairly certain somebody tried to explain FTL travel through light and mirrors.

Wolfe is now using Indian words. I have caught three so far, muni, Urvasi, and Puravasa. Muni means ascetic, which is the sense in which Wolfe uses it, He just name dropped Urvasi, who according to Puranic mythology is an Apsara - a heavenly dancer. I have no idea about Puravasa as the literal translation makes no sense.


Also the way the story meanders, and the way characters pop in and out reminds of Indian fairy tales where the hero embarks on a journey and gets caught up in many incidental things along the way.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Just finished Duff McKagan's It's So Easy (and Other Lies) which I think Terez recommended - thank you!

Gave it to the other half for Christmas, he read it in about four hours flat so I picked it up right after. Really, really good read. No romanticising and rockstar bullshit - it's a very honest and humbling book and often very funny. He seems like the sort of person you'd like to sit in the pub with and chat to. Also, he doesn't dig the knife into anyone (even when arguably deserved), which is a refreshing change.

[worry]

About halfway into The Shadow Rises by RJ. Way more enjoyable than any of the first three books, for some reason. There's even been a few successful bids at humor! Like before this, David Eddings was Chris Rock next to RJ, and now all of a sudden I've loled multiple times.

On the other hand

Spoiler

Perrin, the one likable Two Rivers dude, just spanked his girlfriend. RJ, you got some splainin' to do!

[Andorion]

worry, on 31 December 2015 - 10:42 PM, said:

About halfway into The Shadow Rises by RJ. Way more enjoyable than any of the first three books, for some reason. There's even been a few successful bids at humor! Like before this, David Eddings was Chris Rock next to RJ, and now all of a sudden I've loled multiple times.

On the other hand

Spoiler

Perrin, the one likable Two Rivers dude, just spanked his girlfriend. RJ, you got some splainin' to do!

Uh.. Worry are you reading WoT for the first time or is it a reread?

[worry]

First time.

[End of Disc One]

worry, on 01 January 2016 - 02:03 AM, said:

First time.

I hope WoT goes easier on you than Perrin did on Faile

[Andorion]

worry, on 01 January 2016 - 02:03 AM, said:

First time.

Oh! Ok...So...tell me, how do you feel about spanking in general?

[worry]

Save that kind of talk for PMs, you rascal!