[Baco Xtath]

Salt-Man Z, on 29 January 2016 - 03:33 AM, said:

Baco Xtath, on 29 January 2016 - 01:37 AM, said:

Don't know if I'm just becoming a prude or what but I stopped listening to the Last Werewolf after making it about 60% through. What the fuck? Why this guy has to say "cunt" every fucking time he refers to a vagina, I have no idea but I'm fucking sick of it.

If he's from New Zealand/Australia (maybe? [citation needed]) I think it's a fairly casual slang word there. Doesn't really help those of us from a culture that considers it one of the most offensive words possible, though.

No, he doesn't use it in that context. They use it in place of bloke, or mate, or asshole, or jerk - it's a pretty versatile word down there. He just uses it every time he's referring to a vagina, which is all the time. I don't care if people use it but he's probably said cunt thirty times at the 60% mark. It's noticeably excessive and it annoys the absolute hell out of me.

Serenity, on 29 January 2016 - 12:12 PM, said:

amphibian, on 28 January 2016 - 03:06 AM, said:

Mentalist, on 28 January 2016 - 02:17 AM, said:

Serenity, on 27 January 2016 - 08:15 AM, said:

EmperorMagus, on 27 January 2016 - 06:35 AM, said:

I finally finished Absolution Gap. The book was mediocre and the ending was horrible. There is so much wasted potential in this series.

Do you mean the whole seven-book series, or just the trilogy? If you haven't already, try Galactic North. It brings things to a far more satisfactory conclusion, IMO.

I've got one chapter left to read in Cherryh's third Foreigner book, Inheritor. As usual, she's dropped in some info right at the last which blows the story wide open. Love it.

SEVEN?????

I only read the trilo + chasm city....

There is a prequel in the Yellowstone Glitter Band times called The Prefect.

The two short story collections make six and seven. All are worth reading.

I think the only Reynolds book that isn't worth reading is Pushing Ice and that's because of a lackluster ending. It's not a Revelation Space book. Poseidon's Children is a slow burn trilogy and ends up in great places. House of Suns was a fun ride and I've not read the other novel he did.

House of Suns is my favourite, alongside Chasm City. Terminal World wasn't bad but it felt . . . incomplete, somehow. I haven't read Century Rain as yet. Some of his short stories are fantastic, not just the ones set in the Revelation Space universe. Zima Blue is well worth a look.

I've read/listened to everything by Reynolds at least twice - except Century Rain (only once) and Deep Navigation, and there's one or two rare ones I've yet to get my hands on. He's, by far, my favorite scifi author. Oddly enough, my favorite is Poseidon's Children. It's just brilliant in my opinion. The evolvarium, chinging, .... just so many fantastic ideas and it's not set too far in the future. A lot of people felt let down by the series but I feel like it's a masterpiece.
And, again oddly enough, House of Suns fell from the top couple spots after a re-read - not entirely sure why, but it did. Terminal World is fantastic - it's similar to Perdido Street Station; not the plot, or species, or.....really much anything I can nail down- but it has the feel like he read PSS, loved some ideas, then used or was influenced by them. It's great fun regardless. Chasm City is phenomenal. Just phenomenal. Probably one of the single best scifi books around.

[QuickTidal]

Reynolds is great. And I still hold that his very best work are his short stories and novella's...my absolutel fave being the first story in GALACTIC NORTH called THE GREAT WALL OF MARS. It's such a simple little tale, but so incredibly good.

And then there is DIAMOND DOGS...which is probably the most compelling novella I've ever picked up. It's one of those stories that grabs you by the jumblies and won't let go.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 29 January 2016 - 01:09 PM

[polishgenius]

Abyss, on 27 January 2016 - 09:45 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 26 January 2016 - 06:41 PM, said:

Read Ex-Patriots today. Like the first it's good proper popcorn fun, but it's lacking... I dunno, a little wow-factor?

Have you finished the book?

Yeah.

I like it, but I just wasn't as grabbed by the big cool moments as I wanted to be.



I also read The Shadow Throne, the second book in The Shadow Campaigns by Django Wexler, which has kind of a similar problem.

[QuickTidal]

Finished RED RISING by Pierce Brown...it's good. It got better as I read (not the breakneck pace I was promised by most reviews), but a lot of it is still hackneyed as hell. I like the concept, but the execution is off. Will read book 2, but not chomping at the bit to do so.

In other news, I started QUEEN OF FIRE by Anthony Ryan finally...got 100 pages in and have put it down in disgust. I'm not sure what happened between BLOOD SONG and now....but all the POV's that worked fairly well in TOWER LORD are gone, and in their place are interchangeable POVs without the distinct voices. I mean certain people don't even SOUND like those people anymore. And WTF has happened to Lyrna? She used to be interesting. Vaelin has become Mr. Unkillable General Man...and not...much...else. Put it this way, the most interesting characters in this one at this point were NON-POV's like Weaver.

Man...I'm SO disappointed. I may pick it up again down the line...but right now I'm just annoyed.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 29 January 2016 - 02:26 PM

[Serenity]

Baco Xtath, on 29 January 2016 - 12:42 PM, said:

Deep Navigation, and there's one or two rare ones I've yet to get my hands on.

Thanks for reminding me about that one - I've got it sitting on the shelf but haven't read it yet.

[Slow Ben]

Slow Ben, on 26 January 2016 - 01:10 PM, said:

Finished up Cinder Spires. Good book, excited to see where it goes.


Started The Emperors Blades last night on a reco from my brother. I know literally nothing about this book, although I'm assuming there is/was an emperor and he has/had blades, so we'll see.

Fuck that. Blade of Tyshalle just arrived.

[Salt-Man Z]

Slow Ben, on 29 January 2016 - 02:45 PM, said:

Fuck that. Blade of Tyshalle just arrived.

Aw yiss.

- - - - - -

I just finished The Book of the New Sun for the sixth time last night. Man, I love this book. Love it. My reread went a bit long this year (I started it in early December) so I'll probably skip Urth of the New Sun this time, and move onto something else...

...which will be my reread of Courtney Schafer's The Tainted City. A little nervous about this one, since I don't like what the author does to what was started in the first book. But I have the third book now, so I'm putting my trust in her to bring things back together nicely.

[acesn8s]

I'm about 60% of the way through The Air War. I'm really digging this section of the series. Love the dog fighting.

With all the recent BotNS loving going on, you've inspired me to take another crack at it. Once I finish The Shadows of the Apt, I'll reread SotT and go from there.




Bastards....

[Abyss]

Cal n Nik bk 2, MOONSHINE, is significantly better than book one. Those massively irritating metaphors and cliches are mostly gone. There are other things i could nitpick, but fuckit, as something to have on earbook during commute or whatever, it's good fun.

Lynch's REPUBLIC OF THIEVES... i'm pushing along but its barely holding my interest.

[Slow Ben]

Abyss, on 29 January 2016 - 07:42 PM, said:

Lynch's REPUBLIC OF THIEVES... i'm pushing along but its barely holding my interest.

The only emotion I felt when I finished that book was relief.

Thank God I'm done and I can read something/anything else.

[Baco Xtath]

Slow Ben, on 29 January 2016 - 10:09 PM, said:

Abyss, on 29 January 2016 - 07:42 PM, said:

Lynch's REPUBLIC OF THIEVES... i'm pushing along but its barely holding my interest.

The only emotion I felt when I finished that book was relief.

Thank God I'm done and I can read something/anything else.

The only book that has let me down harder is Armada.

[polishgenius]

I didn't hate Rep of Thieves, but I didn't love it either. The backstory bit was pretty dull and the main thread had potential but was very bitty, more a bunch of petty pranks than one master-heist like you'd expect from these lot. There was enough there that I'm still eager to continue the series, certainly the finale moved the plot on in a big way on several levels, but the actual book was messy.

If you want to read an imo more together, better structured (though short) version of the election games, I recommend the first of the Gameshouse trilogy of novellas, by Claire North (actually I recommend all three, but the first one is specifically comparable here).

[Baco Xtath]

polishgenius, on 29 January 2016 - 10:47 PM, said:

I didn't hate Rep of Thieves, but I didn't love it either. The backstory bit was pretty dull and the main thread had potential but was very bitty, more a bunch of petty pranks than one master-heist like you'd expect from these lot. There was enough there that I'm still eager to continue the series, certainly the finale moved the plot on in a big way on several levels, but the actual book was messy.

If you want to read an imo more together, better structured (though short) version of the election games, I recommend the first of the Gameshouse trilogy of novellas, by Claire North (actually I recommend all three, but the first one is specifically comparable here).

Yeah, Republic of Thieves was more Bottle Rocket/the Campaign type criminal shenanigans versus their earlier Ocean's Eleven. And the flashbacks, I thought, were irrelevant. I bought all the Gamehouse books a couple weeks ago and am looking forward to reading them.


Edit: Should have compared it to Burn After Reading

This post has been edited by Baco Xtath: 29 January 2016 - 11:27 PM

[Mentalist]

I felt it was all right. Mind, I grew up with crooked politics and still follow them back home, so it felt quite nostalgic.

The flashback sequence was a bad teen comedy. The revelation in the end was neat though.

All that said, Lynch was never an insta-buy author for me, so my expectations are adjusted accordingly. I buy all his stuff TP to look samey on my shelf.

[Andorion]

The thing about Republic was the lack of resolution. The election was and in fact always felt like a pretext to get Locke to come to terms with his past. Not only was that not achieved, the ensuing revelation felt like it was undoing Locke's character arc

[Andorion]

Finished Shadows of Self, comments in the Sanderson thread, on to Bands of Mourning

[JPK]

I finished TH1RTE3N this morning. Holy hell, I think that's Morgan's strongest work. The amount of spot-on social commentary that he crammed into this is unbelievable. I can't wait for his next one now.

Next up on audio is Deadhouse Gates.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Reading Shadow of the Torturer has made me realize that it's been a long time since I've last felt it necessary to read a book with a dictionary (in this case, dictionary.com and a Wolfe glossary site) by my side.

This post has been edited by Whisperzzzzzzz: 31 January 2016 - 07:50 PM

[QuickTidal]

Finally decided to dive into Isaac Asimov's FOUNDATION series. About 50pages into the first book (FOUNDATION, not PRELUDE) and I'm rather enjoying it so far. It's been a while since I last read Asimov (the I,Robot books), but the ease of his prose is everpresent.

[T77]

Salt-Man Z, on 29 January 2016 - 03:59 PM, said:

Slow Ben, on 29 January 2016 - 02:45 PM, said:

Fuck that. Blade of Tyshalle just arrived.

Aw yiss.

- - - - - -

I just finished The Book of the New Sun for the sixth time last night. Man, I love this book. Love it. My reread went a bit long this year (I started it in early December) so I'll probably skip Urth of the New Sun this time, and move onto something else...

...which will be my reread of Courtney Schafer's The Tainted City. A little nervous about this one, since I don't like what the author does to what was started in the first book. But I have the third book now, so I'm putting my trust in her to bring things back together nicely.

Next up you should read The Short Sun for the first time. You will thank me for it.