[JPK]

I finished Changes on my way to work. Even after my third time through, the emotional impacts in this one still hit hard.

Next up I'm going to do a listen of House of Chains. Damn but it's good to be back with Karsa.

[Macros]

Well.
Just pick shit up and try it.
If it doesn't work, dump and move on.

Have you read Gemmells Troy Trilogy? I feel like I don't recommend it enough...

[Macros]

Also, abyss.
No.
Silly stealth attack stab. Shark, jumped, lasers pew pew pew.
Same same for star wars walkers

[Mentalist]

Puck, on 09 December 2016 - 11:10 PM, said:

^What Ment said. I have similarly high standards as you (though in different fields, for example, if the prose is not on par with what I want, it becomes a problem for me), but I've learned to look for the good sides (read, those I enjoy, which are not necessariry the same one sothers enjoy) in a book as long as those less good ones are at least readable. Still, while many easily call a book great I simply cannot do so unless it ticks off all of my must-haves and consequently often come off as snobby and opinionated when passing judgement on a book. I admit to having read books just to see just how bad (from my point of view) they can get. It's all about finding an angle that works towards making a book readable for you. I have by now arrived at the conclusion that not every book I read has to be up to my ideal standards, since it makes me appreciate those that do even more.

This.

I confess to having few things I absolutely cannot tolerate in my SFF (clear good v. evil with nary a shade of grey is one of them). And arguably I have VERY high standards as to what makes a book "amazing" (which is smth Goodreads is not great at marking, given how many 5s I give, but then write long posts here noting all the little things I didn't particularly like). But precisely because this is a hobby, I don't expect to like everything about every book. Generally, I have 2 criteria- world-building (Does the author's imagined world hook me) and pacing (Am I interested enough to keep the book from becoming a chore). As long as teh 2 ingredients are there, I'm willing to try almost any kind of SFF (with the abovementioned caveat on the black and white).

but obviously, this is a deeply personal thing, and it really depends on what your goal is when reading.

[Andorion]

EmperorMagus, on 09 December 2016 - 09:14 PM, said:

First of all, Codex Alera was a great four book series and a (at best) mediocre six book series. Yes, the epicness was really ramped up at the end, but there are a lot of books that try to be epic and very few books without plot holes.

Second, I apologize if I sounded like I was fishing for recommendations up thread; there was no such intent. The problem I have with having a TRP is that I have very specific tastes in books and some things put me off a series so hard that I can never look at it the same. For example, I only like reading hard sci-fi (i.e. hard sci-fi is the only genre of science fiction I've touched in the past two years). So if there is a book with excellent characters, plot, pacing, and everything else but the science is non-existent and/or blatantly wrong I can't really read it. On the other hand, there are very few books that have everything mentioned above as well as science. That is the reason I'm not reading the rest of the Culture books, they are great, but they don't have the things that make me tick.

Similarly, I highly prefer my books to be a part of a series. There are very few authors who can create characters that I care about in a single book. Consequently, there are very few standalone books that I start. Lions of Al-Rassan was a very well written book, but I never got more than halfway through it because I just didn't care about the characters, nor did I care about what happened to them by the end of the book (although the very, ehem, well written sex scenes were part of the reason as well. Listening to them on the bus was really uncomfortable).

So the problem with me using Goodreads or Amazon is that they show me books based on what other people have read. Most of those books I don't even care enough to start. I haven't used the Tor site, so I can't comment on it much. I agree that this thread has a ton of excellent recommendations. That's why almost every single book I start is something I've seen mentioned on here.

Not to sound too snobby, I do have a few guilty pleasures. I read a lot of first person adventure romance crap that no self respecting person would touch with a ten feet pole. I even like (sorta, it's nostalgic) Sword of Truth.

EM if you are looking for a standalone, have you read Library at Mount Char? If not, try it. Have you read A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet? Highly recommended.

[EmperorMagus]

Macros, on 10 December 2016 - 12:20 AM, said:

Well.
Just pick shit up and try it.
If it doesn't work, dump and move on.

Have you read Gemmells Troy Trilogy? I feel like I don't recommend it enough...

Gemmell one of the first authors I read in English. Unfortunately, his works get a bit repetitive after a while. I have finished the first book in the Troy trilogy but it didn't hook me.

@Puck: I try to do that sometimes, unfortunately I'm rarely successful. Hence my eternal search for more books to read.


@Mentalist: The amount of time I spend searching for new books is ridiculous. I once went ten pages deep into a google search trying to find a logical military sci-fi series that wasn't infested with right wing crap. Came out the other end empty handed of course.

Sometimes the searching results in great finds though, I recommend the Death's Head series to anyone who like military/cyberpunk scifi with great characters and dark humor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death's_Head_(series)

[Andorion]

Mentalist, on 10 December 2016 - 12:24 AM, said:

Puck, on 09 December 2016 - 11:10 PM, said:

^What Ment said. I have similarly high standards as you (though in different fields, for example, if the prose is not on par with what I want, it becomes a problem for me), but I've learned to look for the good sides (read, those I enjoy, which are not necessariry the same one sothers enjoy) in a book as long as those less good ones are at least readable. Still, while many easily call a book great I simply cannot do so unless it ticks off all of my must-haves and consequently often come off as snobby and opinionated when passing judgement on a book. I admit to having read books just to see just how bad (from my point of view) they can get. It's all about finding an angle that works towards making a book readable for you. I have by now arrived at the conclusion that not every book I read has to be up to my ideal standards, since it makes me appreciate those that do even more.

This.

I confess to having few things I absolutely cannot tolerate in my SFF (clear good v. evil with nary a shade of grey is one of them). And arguably I have VERY high standards as to what makes a book "amazing" (which is smth Goodreads is not great at marking, given how many 5s I give, but then write long posts here noting all the little things I didn't particularly like). But precisely because this is a hobby, I don't expect to like everything about every book. Generally, I have 2 criteria- world-building (Does the author's imagined world hook me) and pacing (Am I interested enough to keep the book from becoming a chore). As long as teh 2 ingredients are there, I'm willing to try almost any kind of SFF (with the abovementioned caveat on the black and white).

but obviously, this is a deeply personal thing, and it really depends on what your goal is when reading.

I think I would be interested in reading your Goodreads reviews. I also hate the Goodreads stars system. In my reviews I usually use three criteria - world building, character arcs, quality/structure of the story.

I have to admit though, I do get distracted by big explosions. After all what got me into Malazan was a literal flying city, the battle of Pale, and dragons!

As for Alera, the only thing I remember from the last part of the series was that

Spoiler

someone turned a city into a volcano

which was very cool.

[EmperorMagus]

Andorion, on 10 December 2016 - 01:32 AM, said:

EM if you are looking for a standalone, have you read Library at Mount Char? If not, try it. Have you read A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet? Highly recommended.

The Library at Mount Char is one of the few standalones that hooked me from start to finish. That book was excellent in almost every way (a few months later and I honestly cannot remember one fault with the writing.) I will check out "A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet", anything that is named alongside tLaMC should be excellent.

[Andorion]

EmperorMagus, on 10 December 2016 - 01:42 AM, said:

Andorion, on 10 December 2016 - 01:32 AM, said:

EM if you are looking for a standalone, have you read Library at Mount Char? If not, try it. Have you read A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet? Highly recommended.

The Library at Mount Char is one of the few standalones that hooked me from start to finish. That book was excellent in almost every way (a few months later and I honestly cannot remember one fault with the writing.) I will check out "A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet", anything that is named alongside tLaMC should be excellent.

Planet is sort of the opposite of Char. Its this beautifully written character drama SF. I immediately thought of it when you said that you needed to relate to characters.

Edit: I assume you have read Robert Jackson Bennett - City of Stairs, City of Blades?

And Ian Tregillis?

This post has been edited by Andorion: 10 December 2016 - 01:48 AM

[worry]

Have you tried Narnia?

[EmperorMagus]

Andorion, on 10 December 2016 - 01:47 AM, said:

EmperorMagus, on 10 December 2016 - 01:42 AM, said:

Andorion, on 10 December 2016 - 01:32 AM, said:

EM if you are looking for a standalone, have you read Library at Mount Char? If not, try it. Have you read A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet? Highly recommended.

The Library at Mount Char is one of the few standalones that hooked me from start to finish. That book was excellent in almost every way (a few months later and I honestly cannot remember one fault with the writing.) I will check out "A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet", anything that is named alongside tLaMC should be excellent.

Planet is sort of the opposite of Char. Its this beautifully written character drama SF. I immediately thought of it when you said that you needed to relate to characters.

Edit: I assume you have read Robert Jackson Bennett - City of Stairs, City of Blades?

And Ian Tregillis?

I just realized something very embarrassing. My sister used to read this book series which started with "City of Bones" and it was the sort of YA literature that I ignored by default. I've been ignoring the Divine Cities trilogy under the assumption that it was a continuation of that.

People with doctorates writing fiction are most of my favorite writers (SE, C.J. Cherryh, Alistair Reynolds, Peter Watts). I admit I have not checked out Ian Tregillis either. A physicist writing alternate history should be ... interesting?

[EmperorMagus]

death rattle, on 10 December 2016 - 02:00 AM, said:

Have you tried Narnia?

Narnia is the BEST.

(just kidding I never got to the end of the first book in middle school)

[Andorion]

EmperorMagus, on 10 December 2016 - 02:00 AM, said:

Andorion, on 10 December 2016 - 01:47 AM, said:

EmperorMagus, on 10 December 2016 - 01:42 AM, said:

Andorion, on 10 December 2016 - 01:32 AM, said:

EM if you are looking for a standalone, have you read Library at Mount Char? If not, try it. Have you read A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet? Highly recommended.

The Library at Mount Char is one of the few standalones that hooked me from start to finish. That book was excellent in almost every way (a few months later and I honestly cannot remember one fault with the writing.) I will check out "A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet", anything that is named alongside tLaMC should be excellent.

Planet is sort of the opposite of Char. Its this beautifully written character drama SF. I immediately thought of it when you said that you needed to relate to characters.

Edit: I assume you have read Robert Jackson Bennett - City of Stairs, City of Blades?

And Ian Tregillis?

I just realized something very embarrassing. My sister used to read this book series which started with "City of Bones" and it was the sort of YA literature that I ignored by default. I've been ignoring the Divine Cities trilogy under the assumption that it was a continuation of that.

People with doctorates writing fiction are most of my favorite writers (SE, C.J. Cherryh, Alistair Reynolds, Peter Watts). I admit I have not checked out Ian Tregillis either. A physicist writing alternate history should be ... interesting?

Bennett is utterly fantastic. Some very imaginative stuff.

Tregillis - I haven't read the Milkweed books, but his Clockwork Century stuff is excellent

[Abyss]

Macros, on 10 December 2016 - 12:21 AM, said:

Also, abyss.
No.
Silly stealth attack stab. Shark, jumped, lasers pew pew pew.
Same same for star wars walkers

Have you considered that maybe the problem is that you are cold and dead inside?

[Macros]

yes.

I discarded the notion as illogical, I find the idea of a spirit and soul farcical.

[Abyss]

What about emotionally cold and dead inside?

[worry]

Finished Towers of Midnight. Thought it was very solid, and jumped up there to right below #4 for me. Will the Sand-man pull off the big finale?! We'll see! Hopefully I can knock this one out at the same pace.

Spoiler

The Eelfinn and Aelfinn were kind of a disappointment this time around though, and I keep expecting Mat to have some sort of reaction to the destruction of Shadar Logoth and it never comes, but everything else I was happy with. My one prediction -- and it only occured to me very recently -- is that Taim is Demandred. Which if true kinda sucks, cuz that means another "grey" character is actually just evil, and it also means the Black Tower had two Forsaken in it. But it makes the most sense, at least right now. I do like how Sanderson actually included IN THE STORY reasons for why the Forsaken are actually generally pretty sucky.

This post has been edited by death rattle: 11 December 2016 - 04:11 AM

[worry]

@BK

Spoiler

Because the Dark One preferred them to be backbiting losers who would claw at each other at least as much as they carried out his orders. It seems like even they don't really understand him. His goal isn't power, it's corruption and ultimately destruction, of everything. The Chosen think they're gonna rule the world once the Dark One wins, but my guess is they would eventually fare just as badly as everyone else, and then be destroyed w/ everything else. That seems to be what Ishamael is coming to understand, and the rest aren't.

Unless of course he turns out to be a generic Dark Lord type in the end after all, which would be a real shame.

[the broken]

Rereading first three Lightbringer books by Brent Weeks.

What I love about these books is that he's able to subvert tropes without holding them in contempt. In a lot of deconstructiony stuff, you can see the author standing up and going 'look at me, I am so smart for doing this', or characters pointing and laughing at a character that tries to play things straight. But that doesn't really happen much here, like in cases where Gavin is pointing out flaws in a general's plan, it's not so much because he's inherently better as that he made all those mistakes in the last war. It's... fair to all sides in a way I like.

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 11 December 2016 - 11:51 PM, said:

Yes he's awesome.

I ll be rereading Night Angel at some pt before the new bk comes out. I think he's going back for 3 more after LB ends.

I'd be all for New Night Angel books!

One of these days I'll get thought Lightbringer. That day is not now. I've tried three times.