[Salt-Man Z]

 polishgenius, on 03 July 2017 - 10:19 PM, said:

I've only read American Elsewhere by him outside of the series, so far, but that book is fucking awesome.

100% yes.

[Baco Xtath]

I've listened to all of Bennett's stuff. He's definitely one of my favorite authors. Y'all need to check out the Troupe. Great book. Company Man was probably my least favorite but it was still really good and worth a read.

Almost finished with Red Sister by Lawrence. Enjoyable but not as much as his previous stuff imo. The old "prodigy in school/training" is a little old. Also reading Hunters and Collectors on polish's rec. Pretty crazy but lots of fun.

I was going to give the sequel to Wake of Vultures a try but the reviews have me hesitating. Next is either Skullsworn or the End of the Day, not sure which.

[JPK]

I'm still slowly chewing through Assail, and I'm happy that I'm taking my time with this because as others have previously stated, it's excellent. I'm a little over halfway through:

Spoiler

ICE is seriously nailing siege warfare here, and having the Beast preying on the Kanese army for the reason that he is, is a very well handled twist.

For story time with the Boo, I've started back in with Redwall again after a bit of a stall while I was a bit over-stretched. Basil Stag-Hare is still fucking awesome. I think I'm going to finish this one and veer away from more Redwall for awhile though, because Jacques was a bit more focused and descriptive of his warfare than I remembered, and I'd like to keep it lighter with the Boo for awhile yet.

Finally, I'm a bit into Soldiers Live. Cook has done some things with this one that I really like so far, and done a couple things that I'm really not a fan of.

Spoiler

like: Croaker's POV is a very welcome return. Especially with him in a "clueless" advisor role. The passage where he realized that Sleepy had outplayed him and got all of the old-timers out of her way by "letting him" convince them to follow Bowalk to Khatovar was fantastic. The deaths of Gota ance One-eye were also very well handled I thought. The image of Gota drinking herself to death with a smile on her face... so good. One-Eye's death at the hands of Bowalk instead of the slow wasting of the stroke was honestly a relief as well. I hated the thought of him going out that way.


Dislike: Goblin just returned and was sent back to the Khatovar party. WTF Cook!? I'm not going to be happy either way this story could play out. Him burning to death while suicide-ramming Kina with the standard was the perfect ending for him. He went out like a fucking BOSS! I don't know if it's really him, and he's been Kina's playtoy this whole time, or if it's a trick of Kina's, but either way I'm really disliking this.

[Tiste Simeon]

Flipping Redwall man... Amazing stuff! Finbarr Galedeep is one amazing dude.

[Mentalist]

Finished Magic Rises , the next Kate Daniels novel. Eh, I still can't say I overly care for shapeshifter politics, but some bits of the meta-plot were nice.

Been powering through commute books, while my at-home reading has seriously dipped (basically since I've still not had any time at all to read "Land Without Joy" before digging into Godsdoom-2).
So I think I'll try "The Emperor's Blades" as next commute read.

[Andorion]

Halfway into Caesar's Women. This book is becoming rather average. Nothing much is really happening.

Towards the end of Osman's Dream. This book is a slog.

[QuickTidal]

Nearing the halfway mark in THE WITCHWOOD CROWN and it's still completely engrossing and excellent. I think Jarnulf and Snenneq may be my fave new characters.

More mid book thoughts in ded-thread.

[Vengeance]

 Andorion, on 05 July 2017 - 01:49 PM, said:

Halfway into Caesar's Women. This book is becoming rather average. Nothing much is really happening.

Towards the end of Osman's Dream. This book is a slog.

Caesars women is the political rise of Caesar. I have read it a couple of times. Compared to the other books in the series it doesn't have hardly any military action. It does lay the political ground work that will come into play for the next 2 books though.

[Vengeance]

 Mentalist, on 05 July 2017 - 12:48 AM, said:

Finished Magic Rises , the next Kate Daniels novel. Eh, I still can't say I overly care for shapeshifter politics, but some bits of the meta-plot were nice.

Been powering through commute books, while my at-home reading has seriously dipped (basically since I've still not had any time at all to read "Land Without Joy" before digging into Godsdoom-2).
So I think I'll try "The Emperor's Blades" as next commute read.

Let me know what you think about the Emperors blades. I have had it on my list for a while and still haven't managed to get to it.

[Andorion]

 Briar King, on 05 July 2017 - 09:36 PM, said:

 Vengeance, on 05 July 2017 - 02:10 PM, said:

 Andorion, on 05 July 2017 - 01:49 PM, said:

Halfway into Caesar's Women. This book is becoming rather average. Nothing much is really happening.

Towards the end of Osman's Dream. This book is a slog.

Caesars women is the political rise of Caesar. I have read it a couple of times. Compared to the other books in the series it doesn't have hardly any military action. It does lay the political ground work that will come into play for the next 2 books though.

I was going to say the same.

To me where this one shined was in the political insight into the

Spoiler

rivalry of Pompey and Crassus after the whole Spartacus issue with Caesar acting as the peace keeper.

. They hated each other. The title is very much apt to history/his future.

Yes it's the weakest book and she even acknowledges this in the txt saying this is the book/time period that some of Cicero's scrolls are missing/lost/destroyed. Atleast I remember reading this somewhere but I believe it was said either at the end of 3 in notes or before the start of 4.

Bk 5 will leap back on the epic train I promise.

Yeah, I suppose having a setup book makes sense. I will power through this and then hope there is a nice lengthy take on Caesar's military exploits.

[Andorion]

 Briar King, on 06 July 2017 - 04:05 AM, said:

No worries on that note I promise!

I wanted to ask something else, a bit off-topic from Rome. I am wondering whether to start a new thread over it.

About three years back I decided I would read and finish all of the big-name, big series fantasy authors. I would do this on an annual basis.

I had already done Tolkien and Erikson.

So far I have done:

Robert Jordan: All of Wheel of Time.

Brandon Sanderson: All the published Cosmere books

Guy Gavriel Kay: Lions of Al-Rassan, and Tigana.

Mark Lawrence: Prince of Thorns series, Prince of Fools series.

Pat Rothfuss: All published books

GRRM: All published books

Glen Cook: The first Black Company trilogy

Janny Wurts: All books of the Wars of Light and Shadow

R. Scott Bakker: Prince of Nothing done, Aspect Emperor: 1 book done.

So which authors am I missing?

Donaldson? Terry Brooks?

More female authors?

[Abyss]

Stover.
You're fucking missing fucking Stover and his Acts of Caine series, which is fucking glorious.

[worry]

These aren't recommendations per se, just major names/series:

Raymond Feist
Kate Elliott
David Eddings
Jaqueline Carey
Gene Wolfe

[JPK]

Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos books.

[Andorion]

 Briar King, on 06 July 2017 - 04:53 AM, said:

Robin Hobb.

Joe Abercrombie

I still reco Greg Keyes to

I have finished Safehold 8. Total time 105 days. That was a stellar and BLOODY ending bit!

Started Safehold 9 the last. Hopefully it doesn't take near that but bk 8 was 929 pgs and this one is smaller. Phew

Robin Hobb - Read the first two books of Assassin's Apprentice. I am not at all sure. I dislike books where protagonists are always miserable, underpowered and stupid, and Hobb seems to specialise in this.

Abercrombie - read the first trilogy. Good, not great, fantasy subversion is a bit too on the nose for me.

Talk to me more about Greg Keyes.

Safehold 9 will probably leave you wanting more.

 Abyss, on 06 July 2017 - 05:19 AM, said:

Stover.
You're fucking missing fucking Stover and his Acts of Caine series, which is fucking glorious.

Read the first two, first was excellent, second was good, but felt a bit overdone. I think my dislike of portal fantasy stains my appreciation of that series.

 worry, on 06 July 2017 - 05:21 AM, said:

These aren't recommendations per se, just major names/series:

Raymond Feist
Kate Elliott
David Eddings
Jaqueline Carey
Gene Wolfe

Raymond Feist - ah yes, the only one who competes with Terry Brooks in terms of volume. Read Magician, loved it, will eventually read the rest, I suppose, though I have heard the series becomes average very fast.

Kate Elliott - read Black Wolves, loved it, will read more.

Eddings - read all of Eddings

Carey - Not at all sure about the Kushiel books, I thought they were fantasy erotica?

Gene Wolfe - read Book of the New Sun, liked it.

 JPK, on 06 July 2017 - 05:26 AM, said:

Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos books.

Read a few, liked them, will eventually read more.


I want to know more about Donaldson and Ursula Le Guin

[Tsundoku]

 Briar King, on 06 July 2017 - 04:59 AM, said:

Terry Goodkind!

You Southerners and your wacky japes.

Try working your way through David Gemmell's or Harry Turtledove's various series.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 06 July 2017 - 11:59 AM

[Andorion]

 Tsundoku, on 06 July 2017 - 11:54 AM, said:

 Briar King, on 06 July 2017 - 04:59 AM, said:

Terry Goodkind!

You Southerners and your wacky japes.

Try working your way through David Gemmell's or Harry Turtledove's various series.

I think BK is trying to kill me.

Gemmell:

I have read all the Druss and Waylander books. Also the Rigante series. Eventually I plan to read the Troy trilogy.

Turtledove:

I don't know... I like concept of Turtledove's alternate histories a lot, but his choice of PoVs put me off. He selects everyday people, while I prefer more senior level PoVs so as to have a more grand strategy based idea of military conflicts.

I liked his Guns of the South though, also his Darkness series as well as The War that came Early or whatever it was called.

Surveying his books, I get the feeling he is a bit obsessed with the American Civil War.

[QuickTidal]

 Andorion, on 06 July 2017 - 12:05 PM, said:

Eventually I plan to read the Troy trilogy.

Speed up getting to this one.

This trilogy is my fave of Gemmel's work. It's a stunning historical fiction series.

[Salt-Man Z]

 Andorion, on 06 July 2017 - 04:18 AM, said:

So which authors am I missing?

Donaldson? Terry Brooks?

Well, yes, you're obviously missing both of these. Donaldson and Brooks together are responsible for kickstarting the current epic fantasy genre, having launched their series with Tor at the same time in 1977. Outside of Tolkien and maybe GRRM, they might be the most important names in the genre.

I can't personally recommend Brooks, but Donaldson's stuff is amazing. Not just the 10 Covenant books (which are fantastic), but his "Mordant's Need" fantasy duology, and the 5-book sci-fi Gap Cycle. (He's also got some murder mysteries, a couple short story collections and novellas, as well.)

You need to read more Glen Cook, too. Finish the Black Company books. Then you've got the Garrett P.I. mysteries, the Dread Empire series, and like a billion other minor series and standalones.

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 06 July 2017 - 01:03 PM

[Mentalist]

Paul Kearney, David Abraham.

If you want to go old-school, there's also the Weis & Hickman duo.