[LadyMTL]

Tiste Simeon, on 01 March 2017 - 11:46 AM, said:

By heck, Mount Char is still a tenner on Kindle... Sheesh, money is a bit tight right now, going to put that on pause methinks.

Honestly, I think that it's worth the splurge. It's one of the few books that - IMHO - lived up to my expectations. I mean, I read it in less than 24 hours, and I can't remember the last time that happened.
Buy itttttt.

As for me, I'm still on Blake Crouch's "Dark Matter" and so far, it's intriguing. I just hope it doesn't become one of those 'guy trying to prove he is who he says he is' plotlines, as I've never been crazy about those.

[Stalker]

Abyss, on 01 March 2017 - 04:27 AM, said:

Started Gaiman's NORSE MYTHS in earbook, probably FIERCE GODS in ebook shortly based on PG's upthread comment.

Loved the book version of Norse Mythology so would be interested to see how you think the audiobook turned out. I've always liked the mythology (though never read the sagas or other in depth books on the myths) and was happily surprised to find them very readable, humorous, and interesting.

Currently finishing up Bernard Cornwell's Death of Kings in audiobook and the last book of Sanderson's Reckoners trilogy.

[polishgenius]

Chance, on 01 March 2017 - 10:57 AM, said:

polishgenius, on 28 February 2017 - 06:39 PM, said:

I've now started Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames, a debut heroic fantasy that reads rather like a cross between Unforgiven and The Blues Brothers, in a fantasy setting. Lot of fun and also rather affecting so far. A little concerned that it's going to be a series of episodic moments with no real plot build but we'll see how it goes. I'm definitely in till the end, anyway.

It might not be the best book I've read recently but it is damn entertaining kind of a parody on the fantasy genre, old heroes and especially the D&D rollplaying idea of dungeon delving. It is a very meta kind of book and I've got serious ideas about running a short series of RPG sessions based on a similar premise.

Yeah, so now I've finished it and I agree. I wouldn't quite call it a parody- definitely a send-up to a point but it's also got a sincere dedication to what it's doing and too much legitimate affection for its characters (who are awesome, all of them) for me to call it outright parody. Absolutely is taking the piss a lot of the time though.

It's not going to blow anyone's mind with its originality but as just a full-on bolt of pure fun it succeeds admirably. I'm definitely looking forward to the next one, especially as the author apparently deliberately closed off certain avenues in terms of taking the easy route of writing it in the epilogue.

[Mentalist]

"Behold the Man" was a fun little novella about a a neurotic failed psychiatry student obsessed with religious mysticism and Jung travelling back in time to 28 AD to witness the events of New Testament.

The story is as neurotic as the protagonist Karl Glogauer himself- frequently jumping into flashbacks of his messed up and awkward childhood and young adulthood.

The whole thing is an exploration of a search for purpose/meaning in religion, using time travel and living out/creating the myth.

I was kinda vary about having Moorcock tackle religion, but in the end it works, and the academic interest kinda supplants everything else that could come out of this (i.e, there's no atheist subtext here- Glogauer himself is an agnostic, and the whole whole thing is filtered through his attempts to understand the world and find meaning in it)

Interesting little diversion, all in all.

I think next for my commute reads I'll toss in tthe second "enclaves" spin-off book. -"The Hostages to Emptiness" by Vitaly Aboyan

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 02 March 2017 - 12:36 AM

[Macros]

Just finished The Immortal Throne by Stella Gemmell.

As good as The City, her full debut, the sequel seems to wrap up most of the open storylines quite well. But there's scope for a lot more to roll out in the setting.

An excellent cast of characters again and a very satisfying ending.
If you liked the city, pick this up

[Andorion]

Finished Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer -very complex book, not an easy read.

Now reading We Are Legion - We Are Bob. This is extremely entertaining

[worry]

Finished Claw of the Conciliator. I'm not in love with these books (yet?) like a lot of you are, but I'm enjoying them. A lot of the freewheeling joy of writing them shines through, especially in Claw (the myth and the play within were both wonderful).

I went on Youtube to find interviews of Gene Wolfe and found this crazy round table:


Harlan Ellison has a way of being abrasive even when you agree with him. Asimov is a nerd. Gene Wolfe seems like a good-natured guy for sure.

Next: I ordered Library at Mount Char but it didn't arrive yet, so I don't know what I'm gonna read next. But if you imagine like a 15 minute pause here I just went and looked at all my bookshelves and decided on Angels of Destruction by Keith Donahue. I loved The Stolen Child so it's about time I get to more of his work.

[JPK]

death rattle, on 04 March 2017 - 10:15 AM, said:

Finished Claw of the Conciliator. I'm not in love with these books (yet?) like a lot of you are, but I'm enjoying them. A lot of the freewheeling joy of writing them shines through, especially in Claw (the myth and the play within were both wonderful).

I had the same impression as you are having at the midway point. Sword of the Lictor was the one that started to tie everything together and make me start seeing the brilliance of the bigger picture which tipped New Sun from good to great in my eyes. Don't wait too long to get back in there, because you want the first two books fresh in your mind when you tackle the second half.

I've only about 2 hours left in The Girl with All the Gifts. I'll withhold too much of an opinion on this one until I actually finish it and Ando has as well. What I will say for now is that the strength of this piece was in the originality of the initial third of the story. But that's just like my opinion, man.

Next up on audio will be the full cast version of American Gods to prep for the show.

[Salt-Man Z]

death rattle, on 04 March 2017 - 10:15 AM, said:

Finished Claw of the Conciliator. I'm not in love with these books (yet?) like a lot of you are, but I'm enjoying them.

Yeah, after I read BotNS the first time, I thought it was just fine. But then I couldn't stop thinking about it. So I reread it later that year and have been in love ever since.

[Imperial Historian]

Jumping on the Library at Mount Char bandwagon after all the buzz here, had to import this one via book depository as it's still only available via expensive imported hardback in the UK, but well worth it. Adding my voice to the chorus of you should read this.

[Macros]

Waiting for a price drop on Mount char. Have more than enough books to read as it is anyway.

Finished up Around the World in Eighty Days and Five Weeks in a Balloon.
Jules Verne, it was a two book combo thing.
Quite short reads, very obviously written in a vastly different times. Frequent use of the N word in 5 weeks really caught me by surprise until I considered the time frame of it's setting and when it was originally written.
Short, fun books, both very much follow a formula of 'just about' on all their story lines. I gather that's something consistent in nearly all his adventure novels.

Need to catch up in my CoMC reading and going to start a culture novel, which I've been threatening to do for a long time

[Andorion]

Macros, on 06 March 2017 - 01:30 PM, said:

Waiting for a price drop on Mount char. Have more than enough books to read as it is anyway.

Finished up Around the World in Eighty Days and Five Weeks in a Balloon.
Jules Verne, it was a two book combo thing.
Quite short reads, very obviously written in a vastly different times. Frequent use of the N word in 5 weeks really caught me by surprise until I considered the time frame of it's setting and when it was originally written.
Short, fun books, both very much follow a formula of 'just about' on all their story lines. I gather that's something consistent in nearly all his adventure novels.

Need to catch up in my CoMC reading and going to start a culture novel, which I've been threatening to do for a long time

I would not call 20000 Leagues 'short'. Was it unabridged?

[Abyss]

Just finished NORSE MYTHS... fascinating to read/hear Gaiman's take on the classic stories, pretty awesome overall. There is a part of me that wishes he had gone a bit darker/twisted more often... the moments he does are some of the best in the book and i would have liked more of the because they were where having an author like this retell such classics really pays off, especially since, generally, we know these stories and how they end.

Started a Scalzi short story THE DISPATCHER in earbook (Audible was giving it away a while ago)... 1/2 way in, fascinating concept. Zachary Quinto is a great narrator.

[Macros]

Andorion, on 06 March 2017 - 01:32 PM, said:

Macros, on 06 March 2017 - 01:30 PM, said:

Waiting for a price drop on Mount char. Have more than enough books to read as it is anyway.

Finished up Around the World in Eighty Days and Five Weeks in a Balloon.
Jules Verne, it was a two book combo thing.
Quite short reads, very obviously written in a vastly different times. Frequent use of the N word in 5 weeks really caught me by surprise until I considered the time frame of it's setting and when it was originally written.
Short, fun books, both very much follow a formula of 'just about' on all their story lines. I gather that's something consistent in nearly all his adventure novels.

Need to catch up in my CoMC reading and going to start a culture novel, which I've been threatening to do for a long time

I would not call 20000 Leagues 'short'. Was it unabridged?

Words are for reading ando.

It was a two book combo. The two but one being Around the world in 80 Days and Five Weeks in a Balloon

[Salt-Man Z]

Currently reading Neal Asher's War Factory, the second book in his Transformation trilogy. I pretty much forgot everything about the previous book (Dark Intelligence), and this one follows up immedately on that, so I'm kinda lost at the moment, but it's still pretty good.

[worry]

Now we know how Ando reads so fast: he skips most of the words!

[Mentalist]

About 2/3s into "Victims of Emptiness" now, and things are ramping up.

I'm also sensing a meta-plot, since there's cross-reference to some of the stuff in the Enclaves spin-off I read earlier, "Flaming Ice". Some of the events seem contemporary, but that one was labelled as the 5th book in this spin-off sequence, while this is the 10th (with 11th the last, supposedly being a short stories anthology).

So now I think I'll actually have to buckle down and buy an e-reader to read the whole sequence to spot the meta-plot. As if I didn't have enough on my pile...

[Andorion]

Macros, on 06 March 2017 - 05:10 PM, said:

Andorion, on 06 March 2017 - 01:32 PM, said:

Macros, on 06 March 2017 - 01:30 PM, said:

Waiting for a price drop on Mount char. Have more than enough books to read as it is anyway.

Finished up Around the World in Eighty Days and Five Weeks in a Balloon.
Jules Verne, it was a two book combo thing.
Quite short reads, very obviously written in a vastly different times. Frequent use of the N word in 5 weeks really caught me by surprise until I considered the time frame of it's setting and when it was originally written.
Short, fun books, both very much follow a formula of 'just about' on all their story lines. I gather that's something consistent in nearly all his adventure novels.

Need to catch up in my CoMC reading and going to start a culture novel, which I've been threatening to do for a long time

I would not call 20000 Leagues 'short'. Was it unabridged?

For some reason I had 20000 Leagues on the brain and read 80 Days as that.

Sorry


Words are for reading ando.

It was a two book combo. The two but one being Around the world in 80 Days and Five Weeks in a Balloon

death rattle, on 06 March 2017 - 08:25 PM, said:

Now we know how Ando reads so fast: he skips most of the words!

Hah!

[acesn8s]

Taking my time with Fall of Light. There's a lot going on. I really should start a notebook to record some observations.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 06 March 2017 - 03:41 PM, said:

...
Started a Scalzi short story THE DISPATCHER in earbook (Audible was giving it away a while ago)... 1/2 way in, fascinating concept. Zachary Quinto is a great narrator.

Finished, great short story. Central concept is that if someone dies by another person's action (murder), they dissolve and wake up in their bed in the same state they were in hours before the death.
Protag is a 'dispatcher', a person legally authorized to kill people before they die of other causes so as to prevent a permanent death.

Worth the read, really well thought out sf.


Starting Carey's THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS.