[JPK]

 Briar King, on 17 February 2017 - 04:01 AM, said:

Never heard of Mount Char till a few pgs ago. Maybe I should add it to my 2035 pile.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

This could actually be a really good in-between book palatte cleanser for you like Arcanum was.

Don't deprive yourself of this awesomesauce.

[Abyss]

 Andorion, on 17 February 2017 - 03:32 AM, said:

Antics of a ballerina?

among other things, yep.

 JPK, on 17 February 2017 - 04:09 AM, said:

 Briar King, on 17 February 2017 - 04:01 AM, said:

Never heard of Mount Char till a few pgs ago. Maybe I should add it to my 2035 pile.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

This could actually be a really good in-between book palatte cleanser for you like Arcanum was.

Don't deprive yourself of this awesomesauce.

seriously.
not quite done but VERY impressed.

[Macros]

read How the Marquis got his Coat Back yesterday.

mini story from Gaiman in the neverwhere universe. fun as usual.

started Redcoat by Bernard Cornwell, about 50 pages in so far, mostly scene setting. its about the british occupation of Philli during the war of independence

[Salt-Man Z]

Mount Char was so (increasingly) bizarre and utterly unputdownable throughout, but it was only the very end that made me truly fall in love with it.

Still rereading Wolfe's Peace and it doesn't make any more sense than it did the first time, but man it's just so darn readable. If you like the parts of Book of the New Sun that Severian devotes to telling old stories, you'll love Peace, as it's all about an old man (or more likely his ghost) telling stories of his past, and more often than not the people in his stories are telling the stories...

[worry]

Quick Shadow & Claw LOL:

Spoiler

Severian executes a lady (on screen) and a horse thief (off screen). That very same night, he receives a letter from faux-Thecla to come find her and he immediately runs to the stable and steals a horse.

[worry]

4.9 stars.

[Andorion]

 Briar King, on 18 February 2017 - 04:31 AM, said:

1 to 5 stars. What's opinion on Black Company?

Only read the first three books. I would say 4 stars, 3 stars, 5 stars respectively.

The books are very different. Short machine-gun like prose, a very SE type not-going-to-explain-the-world style, and the entire series is from the PoVs of soldiers. So imagine Malazan only from Bonehunter PoVs. And a lot darker and more chaotic.

First book takes some getting into, I bounced off twice. Once you are in, its very good.

Second book is by comparison slower and duller, mainly because its doing a lot of setup.

Third book is excellent. Awesome character and story development.

Cook was the inspiration for a lot of Erikson, so I would always suggest reading him, but never the easiest of reads.

[Salt-Man Z]

I took me a bit to get into the first BC book. I think the style is what made it hard for me; the narrative jumped around, and the clipped terse style that Croaker uses took some getting used to. I liked the second book immediately, though. The third I remember almost nothing of, but it was good.

The three "middle" books are a mixed bag. "Silver Spike" is just okay, but almost mandatory to tie off some loose ends from the first trilogy. (And thus I would recommend reading it fourth.) The other two books are essentially an extended intro to...

The Glittering Stone quartet, which (when taken with the previous two books) makes for a fantastic 6-book arc. It's here that Cook really stretches his muscles and the story becomes an epic--not in the sense of scale, no, but in the layering and richness of the writing; quite a contrast with the style of the initial trilogy. These latter books feel very Eriksonian in a much different way that I find hard to articulate. If there's a complaint about them, it's that the story probably gets drawn out for a book or two more than is necessary, but there are some great cliffhanger endings to those books. They're just really really good.

[Andorion]

 Briar King, on 18 February 2017 - 05:30 AM, said:

My next project then. No clue why I've never read it these 10 yrs

Safehold?

[worry]

 Salt-Man Z, on 18 February 2017 - 05:20 AM, said:

The Glittering Stone quartet, which (when taken with the previous two books) makes for a fantastic 6-book arc. It's here that Cook really stretches his muscles and the story becomes an epic--not in the sense of scale, no, but in the layering and richness of the writing; quite a contrast with the style of the initial trilogy. These latter books feel very Eriksonian in a much different way that I find hard to articulate. If there's a complaint about them, it's that the story probably gets drawn out for a book or two more than is necessary, but there are some great cliffhanger endings to those books. They're just really really good.

The thing is, the scope of the story -- even in the first book -- actually IS pretty epic. It's just that the narration takes everything in such stride that it rarely feels that way, and that's what I think makes it so off-putting initially. Croaker is almost too realistic a take on someone in his position, so it's absolutely unlike most fiction -- especially fantasy fiction -- writing, and his priorities seem a little off. But it's a neat trick, focusing so much on character-building instead of traditional world-building, because Cook gets to the good stuff anyway -- just through a previously uncharted route.

I agree that the later books feel more Eriksonian than the first few though, for a number of reasons that shouldn't be discussed.

[Salt-Man Z]

 death rattle, on 18 February 2017 - 05:56 AM, said:

The thing is, the scope of the story -- even in the first book -- actually IS pretty epic. It's just that the narration takes everything in such stride that it rarely feels that way, and that's what I think makes it so off-putting initially. Croaker is almost too realistic a take on someone in his position, so it's absolutely unlike most fiction -- especially fantasy fiction -- writing, and his priorities seem a little off. But it's a neat trick, focusing so much on character-building instead of traditional world-building, because Cook gets to the good stuff anyway -- just through a previously uncharted route.

It's actually quite a bit like a lot of Gene Wolfe's work, where there's a big huge sprawling story going on all around, but you have to piece it together yourself since the narrator can only give you his limited perspective (and usually has other priorities, anyway.)

[worry]

I was gonna say the same thing, but figured I was too Wolfe-noob to be reliable. Totally different voices and milieus but just an incredibly deft hand with a difficult storytelling path.

[Puck]

Every time the Black Company gets mentioned I want to run off and reread ALL of it. I don't know what exactly it is about Cook's style, probably a whole bunch of things that come together, but I absolutely adore his writing style and characters and it was love at first book for me. I love how he tells an epic story through the very limited perspective, with the current narrator's priorities being elsewhere at that. Somehow, the first chapter of the first book managed to be one of my favourite first chapters ever, I may have read it upwards of 30 times.. Can't really say why I'm such a Cook fangirl. I'm a big sucker for unique prose and humor, and he delivers big time there for me. I even bought the first trilogy in French, for the lulz (and meaning to polish off my French using them at some point).

This post has been edited by Puck: 18 February 2017 - 11:03 AM

[JPK]

 Briar King, on 18 February 2017 - 06:08 PM, said:

 Puck, on 18 February 2017 - 11:01 AM, said:

Every time the Black Company gets mentioned I want to run off and reread ALL of it. I don't know what exactly it is about Cook's style, probably a whole bunch of things that come together, but I absolutely adore his writing style and characters and it was love at first book for me. I love how he tells an epic story through the very limited perspective, with the current narrator's priorities being elsewhere at that. Somehow, the first chapter of the first book managed to be one of my favourite first chapters ever, I may have read it upwards of 30 times.. Can't really say why I'm such a Cook fangirl. I'm a big sucker for unique prose and humor, and he delivers big time there for me. I even bought the first trilogy in French, for the lulz (and meaning to polish off my French using them at some point).

Holy shit I just read the 1st 3 paragraphs and was blown away. Felt like Pale. I'm going to enjoy this when I actually start it.

Yeah, they're good. I loved the first trilogy, but then almost dropped the series after that because I felt that Shadow Games (book 4 and the first of The Books of the South) was much weaker than the first trilogy. Dreams of Steel and Bleak Seasons (books 5&6 respectively) have both been 4-5 stars for me though, and I'm really looking to diving back in soon.

[Macros]

Couldn't help myself, lifted Norse Mythology earlier. Read half of it in one sitting. Likely finish tomorrow before going back to redcoat

[Abyss]

 JPK, on 18 February 2017 - 06:20 PM, said:

 Briar King, on 18 February 2017 - 06:08 PM, said:

 Puck, on 18 February 2017 - 11:01 AM, said:

Every time the Black Company gets mentioned I want to run off and reread ALL of it. I don't know what exactly it is about Cook's style, probably a whole bunch of things that come together, but I absolutely adore his writing style and characters and it was love at first book for me. I love how he tells an epic story through the very limited perspective, with the current narrator's priorities being elsewhere at that. Somehow, the first chapter of the first book managed to be one of my favourite first chapters ever, I may have read it upwards of 30 times.. Can't really say why I'm such a Cook fangirl. I'm a big sucker for unique prose and humor, and he delivers big time there for me. I even bought the first trilogy in French, for the lulz (and meaning to polish off my French using them at some point).

Holy shit I just read the 1st 3 paragraphs and was blown away. Felt like Pale. I'm going to enjoy this when I actually start it.

Yeah, they're good. I loved the first trilogy, but then almost dropped the series after that because I felt that Shadow Games (book 4 and the first of The Books of the South) was much weaker than the first trilogy. Dreams of Steel and Bleak Seasons (books 5&6 respectively) have both been 4-5 stars for me though, and I'm really looking to diving back in soon.

I made it to WATER SLEEPS but lost interest. I agree with the praise for the books up to SHE IS THE DARKNESS without hesitation. After that I found the series tone changed in way that didn't work for me.

 Macros, on 18 February 2017 - 09:33 PM, said:

Couldn't help myself, lifted Norse Mythology earlier. Read half of it in one sitting. Likely finish tomorrow before going back to redcoat

Have it in earbook, VERY looking fwd to it.

[polishgenius]

I'm now onto Four Roads Cross, the fifth book in Max Gladstone's Craft sequence. Some of the best fantasy around, this is.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 20 February 2017 - 11:20 PM

[Mentalist]

finished "Magic Bleeds".... fun, fun, fun.

Next in commute: "Causal Angel", the last of the Jean Le Flambeur trilo.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Chasm City. It's a big shift to get into the mindset of Reynolds after coming from a Robin Hobb book.

[JPK]

 Whisperzzzzzzz, on 22 February 2017 - 04:57 AM, said:

Chasm City. It's a big shift to get into the mindset of Reynolds after coming from a Robin Hobb book.

I'm curious to see if you fall into the love-it or hate-it crowd on this one. What order have you been reading them in?