[Andorion]

I Got Crabs, on 29 October 2016 - 03:02 AM, said:

How did you like DT 1? It really takes off in 2. 1 is so simple imo compared to the others. I assume it was ebook? Where you able to see the artwork the bk comes with? I love my copies with the artwork mixed in them

Yup it was way shorter than what I was expecting. I liked it. Took me some time to get used to the writing style, but I find the world fascinating and the scale seems to be off the charts. Roland is a compelling character.

What I am a bit concerned about is the nature of the worldbuilding. The world in question is either alternate earth or far future earth. Which is fine. But I am getting the hunch that there will be a number of portal type crossovers with our world and I am a bit sceptical of portal stuff. But lets see

And yeah I saw the illustrations, they are really good

[Abyss]

I Got Crabs, on 29 October 2016 - 04:07 AM, said:

Glad you saw them. 2&4 have some fucking weird artwork but I believe Micheal Whelan(Stormlight covers) did most of the others. I won't spoil it but most King stuff is Tower connected like Cosmere is. You just start picking up on things in early bks. I can reco a few of them. I will say there was pretty drastic shift in his writing of series from 4-5. At that time he was almost killed by a car and you can see the difference in style. I've not read him in 10+ yrs so no clue if he ever got back to old King.

Not really. Some of his short story stuff is pretty consistent but his novels style definitely evolved over time.

[Abyss]

I Got Crabs, on 30 October 2016 - 04:57 AM, said:

Abyss, on 30 October 2016 - 03:57 AM, said:

I Got Crabs, on 29 October 2016 - 04:07 AM, said:

Glad you saw them. 2&4 have some fucking weird artwork but I believe Micheal Whelan(Stormlight covers) did most of the others. I won't spoil it but most King stuff is Tower connected like Cosmere is. You just start picking up on things in early bks. I can reco a few of them. I will say there was pretty drastic shift in his writing of series from 4-5. At that time he was almost killed by a car and you can see the difference in style. I've not read him in 10+ yrs so no clue if he ever got back to old King.

Not really. Some of his short story stuff is pretty consistent but his novels style definitely evolved over time.

Sounds like I ll be better off not reading them and just read pre car that I haven't yet. I do have Keyhole already that I will read at some point. I would make an exception on day 1 if Talisman 3 ever gets out.

Evolved but not in a bad way, just to be clear. I outgrew King, came back after a decade+ when he finished TDT. I have not been tempted to pick up more of his work but I have no regrets about reading that series.

[Puck]

FINALLY managed to finish The Judging Eye, life got in the way too much. LOVED it. Even the slog of slogs. On to White-Luck Wartior

[Mentalist]

First 120 pages of "The Crimson Campaign" have a lot less Tamas and a lot more Adamat than I was led to believe. This is a VERY good thing, since I found Tamas to be dull and cliched. My hope for me liking this series is re-kindled.

[Abyss]

Just Finished MAGIC SHIFTS by 'Ilona Andrews'. Solid book, nice change of pace and scope from the previous massive epicness of the last book. Have a few short stories in the series next....

[polishgenius]

The Dragon Hunters by Marc Turner, the second in the Chronicles of the Exile.


Taken on its own terms it's a good fun series and I do recommend it, but oh my gosh it's indebted to Malazan so very hard (and it doesn't stand up to that comparison). I'm fairly sure some of the similarities are meant to be deliberate winks but the winks don't come across so well.

It does have a bit more control than Malazan though. Rather than each book being sprawling, weaving affairs, so far (to this point, about halfway, in book 2 at least) they're more focused on the affairs of a few characters all focusing and moving towards the same thing or at least in the same location, to, yes, converge as the book goes on.

It's decent fun, anyway. If you're after some big-magic fantasy, it's worth a look.

[Macros]

I'm considering just ditching a crown of cold silver and moving on to the Free by Ruckley, or one of the other books on my TRP. Really not interested at all in it any more, at 65%

[End of Disc One]

I Got Crabs, on 01 November 2016 - 11:10 PM, said:

Macros, on 01 November 2016 - 09:57 PM, said:

I'm considering just ditching a crown of cold silver and moving on to the Free by Ruckley, or one of the other books on my TRP. Really not interested at all in it any more, at 65%

What aurthor is it?

Alex Marshall. I loved it but might as well give up if you're not enjoying it at 65%.

[Salt-Man Z]

Recently finished Bone Swans by C.S.E. Cooney. She's a family friend and kinda-protégé of Gene Wolfe, who gives the book a gushing introduction. The work itself is a collection of five fantasy novellas. They're all very good, and a few of them take cues from fairy tales: "How the Milkmaid Struck a Bargain with the Crooked One" riffs on Rumpelstiltskin, while "The Bone Swans of Amandale" features a take on the Pied Piper (as well as the Grimms' Juniper Tree, which I'd never heard of before.) "Life on the Sun" is a more straightforward fantasy, but with a few neat twists. I found "Martyr's Gem" to be the most moving of the bunch, and "The Big Bah-Ha" (Wolfe's favorite, and it feels like something he might have written) mashes up the post-apocalypse, clowns, and Lovecraftian monsters to interesting effect. Highly recommended.

Currently reading John Hornor Jacobs' Southern Gods, which, after an attention-grabbing prologue, is turning into a nice Lovecraftian mystery.

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 02 November 2016 - 03:36 AM

[EmperorMagus]

I'm reading an 80s sci-fi book called Schismatrix. I discovered it while looking for something to sate my cyberpunk-post humanity craving (i.e. I wanted to read revelation space without rereading it).

The book is quiet obviously the precursor to The Revelation Space, and despite the fact that it's almost 30 years old it does not feel aged at all. I love the author's take on post humanity and the world he has built. Despite the fact that the story takes place in the solar system (or in circumsolar orbit as the author calls it), it conveys the feeling about vastness of space and the irrelevance of human race as a whole quiet well. Furthermore, I love the crisp, brutal tone of the protagonist.

I'm only halfway through the book, but at this point, I would not give it 10/10. The ideas and world building are great and I can almost see where the story is going, but I have this feeling of disjointedness about the whole thing. As if the author did not know the point of all the different arcs he was writing. I'm hoping this is resolved by the end of the book. Another problem I've found (and this problem is exacerbated because I'm simultaneously listening to FoL and SE's writing is superb) is that the descriptions in this book are wordy and long without being particularly emotion inducing. The author also did a semi-infodump for the first 10 pages of the book which was off putting.

Overall, this is the first book in almost six months to grip me hard enough that I've kept reading it (except for FoD and FoL), and I love it despite its flaws. It's also uncanny how much influence Alistair Reynolds has drawn from Schismatrix, at some point I could completely see the future of this world as the present of the Revelation Space series

[QuickTidal]

Started AHSOKA by E.K. Johnston, and it's a damned fun read so far!

About 150 pages left in WARS OF The ROSES: BLOODLINE too, which is still great.

[Andorion]

Started Janny Wurts' Curse of the Mistwraith. Anyone else here read this?

[Mentalist]

Andorion, on 03 November 2016 - 01:24 PM, said:

Started Janny Wurts' Curse of the Mistwraith. Anyone else here read this?

We talked about this earlier. I read the first 3, need to find time to get back to it. It's a good, but VERY slow-burning series

[Kruppe of Darujhistan]

Neal Stephenson's Seveneve and Cook's first Black Company novel. I hope the latter is everything fans here have said about it.

[Andorion]

Mentalist, on 03 November 2016 - 02:58 PM, said:

Andorion, on 03 November 2016 - 01:24 PM, said:

Started Janny Wurts' Curse of the Mistwraith. Anyone else here read this?

We talked about this earlier. I read the first 3, need to find time to get back to it. It's a good, but VERY slow-burning series

Oh yeah I remember. I just started it, and its giving off an extremely epic feel in a rather oldish style - like pre-Wheel of Time almost. That is not a bad thing at all though. I quite like it so far.

[amphibian]

The Blood Mirror is quite good - several story lines get fully developed and we're in a good spot for the next book (perhaps the final one?).

I quite like Weeks's decisions regarding the paths of several characters - particularly Kip and Karris. I do think one section (involving the higher level politics) didn't quite show how long all this book was taking in-world, while the others did.

[Abyss]

Well into Clines' THE FOLD.Great fun SF so far. Interesting protagonist. Nice reminder how good Clines is after the mediocrity of Ex-Isle.Earbook narrator is so so, but the story doesn't suffer.

[polishgenius]

polishgenius, on 01 November 2016 - 09:51 PM, said:

The Dragon Hunters by Marc Turner, the second in the Chronicles of the Exile.

Have finished this now, and I have to say, the second half was badass, everything comes together in a hectically entertaining way. Really good finale. A big step up from the first book overall, based on that.


Now started The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 03 November 2016 - 06:21 PM

[Mentalist]

Andorion, on 03 November 2016 - 03:53 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 03 November 2016 - 02:58 PM, said:

Andorion, on 03 November 2016 - 01:24 PM, said:

Started Janny Wurts' Curse of the Mistwraith. Anyone else here read this?

We talked about this earlier. I read the first 3, need to find time to get back to it. It's a good, but VERY slow-burning series

Oh yeah I remember. I just started it, and its giving off an extremely epic feel in a rather oldish style - like pre-Wheel of Time almost. That is not a bad thing at all though. I quite like it so far.

It's got a similar whimsical tone to the original Thomas Covenant (without the angst). It gets very "epic-tragic" in parts, and the premise of the world is engrossing.

But it's very much one of the "must make brain work to enjoy" books for me, which is why I still haven't started the 3rd arc.