[Traveller]

The Hundred Year Old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared.

This is a great light and funny book so far. If you're looking for a palate cleanser after something heavy this is perfect.

[Andorion]

Finished The Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee. Excellent sequel to Ninefox though two of the twists were very obvious.

[Mentalist]

Finished "The Judging Eye" re-read. Moving on to "White Luck Warrior"

[Slow Ben]

On my 4th reread, doing 7C first. Finished DG, onto HoC!

[End of Disc One]

On my first reread, just started Deadhouse Gates. This was the one that I didn't really enjoy the first time, and I figured it was the hype that killed it for me. Looks like I was right because I'm enjoying the hell out of it right now.

[the broken]

War Master's Gate. I am not a fan of how the writer is treating the Mantids.

Spoiler

While honourbound, they seem to have become more one dimensional so that other characters can dismiss their way of life and lecture them about thinking for themselves. They weren't like this before.

[worry]

Finished Joe Hill's The Fireman. It's an interesting mishmash of plots, particularly ones his pop has covered in his work, and there were even some Easter Eggs to King's work peppered throughout. The seemingly obvious connection is Firestarter, but there's actually not that many similarities. As an apocalypse story, it's nowhere near as ambitious as The Stand, rather more on the wavelength of Cell, though actually quite a bit better than that one (but there are plenty of The Stand references). It also tackles a favorite King motif: how communities implode, so much of the book is in the vein of Under the Dome or Needful Things, albeit with much narrower character focus. There's also a huge amount of Order of the Phoenix Easter Eggs too, which is kinda wacky, but nothing in this book is distractingly showy. Anyway, I found the characters enjoyable (or appropriately unenjoyable) throughout, the villains plausible, the stakes high enough, and the suspense effective. It's longish but very readable, as expected.

Now on to Dragon Haven.

[Tiste Simeon]

Finished The Death of Kings in the Uthred series and read the Pagan Lord as well. Still living this series but the 3 new books I picked up ages ago have been lent to a friend so I can't continue the series as I'm away.

So I read the Handmaids Tale. Or "The Trump Administration's Second Term" as I'm now calling it.

[worry]

Second term? Always the optimist!

[Abyss]

worry, on 30 July 2017 - 07:07 AM, said:

Second term? Always the optimist!

More like pessimistic realist. Anyhow, Canada stands ready to receive all the refugees.



Just Finished SENLIN ASCENDS. Comments in the ded-thread, short version: dragged at times for me, but overall worth the read. Fantastic setting.

In earbook, LAST DAYS OF NEW PARIS by Mieville. Holy artfuck, that was a weird read. Someone sets off a 'surrealism bomb' in WW2 Paris, art comes alive, demons show up, Nazis do bad things, brain says ouchie ouchie ouchie but fascinating short read, even so.

Onwards....

In pretty pictures, BLACK SCIENCE vol 6... one issue in and wow, the characters are so screwed... love this series.


In earbook, HARD LUCK HANK: SCREW THE GALAXY. At times perhaps a little too satirical for me, but i needed something frivolous after PARIS and it fits. Fun.

In ebook... i have THE UNHOLY CONSULT standing by... can't quite decide whether to wait for the earbook... December is a long time away.

In dead tree, at long last FIENDS OF NIGHTMARIA. Damn, i so so enjoy Erikson when he's having fun.

[Andorion]

Abyss, on 31 July 2017 - 02:45 PM, said:

worry, on 30 July 2017 - 07:07 AM, said:

Second term? Always the optimist!

More like pessimistic realist. Anyhow, Canada stands ready to receive all the refugees.



Just Finished SENLIN ASCENDS. Comments in the ded-thread, short version: dragged at times for me, but overall worth the read. Fantastic setting.

In earbook, LAST DAYS OF NEW PARIS by Mieville. Holy artfuck, that was a weird read. Someone sets off a 'surrealism bomb' in WW2 Paris, art comes alive, demons show up, Nazis do bad things, brain says ouchie ouchie ouchie but fascinating short read, even so.

Onwards....

In pretty pictures, BLACK SCIENCE vol 6... one issue in and wow, the characters are so screwed... love this series.


In earbook, HARD LUCK HANK: SCREW THE GALAXY. At times perhaps a little too satirical for me, but i needed something frivolous after PARIS and it fits. Fun.

In ebook... i have THE UNHOLY CONSULT standing by... can't quite decide whether to wait for the earbook... December is a long time away.

In dead tree, at long last FIENDS OF NIGHTMARIA. Damn, i so so enjoy Erikson when he's having fun.

Is Fiends never coming out in ebook or at least PB? The hardcover is mindblowingly expensive.


As for my own reading, I finished off a bunch of stuff.

Wildfire - the third book in the Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andrews - quite a few loose thread, wonder if they will extend the series.

How Green Was My Valley - Richard Llewellyn - A classic that turned out quite badly. Its a coming of age story, but its far too sentimental and nostalgic, far too narrow and self-righteous. Was not an enjoyable read.

The Aeneid - Finished it, liked it a lot. Still not close to Iliad though.


Starting a bunch of stuff:

Classics - The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera - started it, like it so far.

New releases - The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis

TBR - Low Town by Daniel Polansky - Love it so far.

This year reading targets - The White Luck Warrior by R Scott Bakker.

[Abyss]

Andorion, on 31 July 2017 - 02:55 PM, said:

Abyss, on 31 July 2017 - 02:45 PM, said:

...

In dead tree, at long last FIENDS OF NIGHTMARIA. Damn, i so so enjoy Erikson when he's having fun.

Is Fiends never coming out in ebook or at least PB? The hardcover is mindblowingly expensive.
...

The B&KB novellas always come out in pb eventually, but it can take years. Not really sure why other than maybe PS Pub likes to maximize profit on the short run signed and numbered editions.

I see amazon.com has the illustrated hb for $29US, which isn't bad but still alot for a short book, albeit one with some very very pretty (sick) pictures.

[Macros]

Andorion, on 31 July 2017 - 02:55 PM, said:

TBR - Low Town by Daniel Polansky - Love it so far.
.

[Macros]

Love the Low Town series, the trilogy from start to finish is ace

[QuickTidal]

Finished JLA Vol3, and it was really good. Then read JLA: HEAVEN’S LADDER because the Wiki mentioned that it contained the resolution to Adam Strange finding his way back to Rann and his wife and child…and was disappointed to find out that it’s relegated to one panel…boo. That said, it was a fine story (about middle of the road Waid), with solid art (Bryan Hitch).

Now I’ve started Michael J. Sullivan’s 2nd First Empire book AGE OF SWORDS, and it’s already great to be back with this crew!

[Mentalist]

I'm about 400 pages into the re-read of "White-Luck Warrior" . Only thing that grates me is Bakker's characters conflating "mind" and "soul". There should be a drinking game for how often people see stuff " in their soul's eye". It's the "mind's eye" , goddammit!

Beyond that, looking forward to starting "Great Ordeal". This series definitely reads better all at once.

[Abyss]

Mentalist, on 01 August 2017 - 03:24 PM, said:

I'm about 400 pages into the re-read of "White-Luck Warrior" . Only thing that grates me is Bakker's characters conflating "mind" and "soul". There should be a drinking game for how often people see stuff " in their soul's eye". It's the "mind's eye" , goddammit!
...

Actually, for Bakker i don't think those two things are the same.

[Andorion]

Finished Time of Contempt of the Witcher books.

The author still has no idea how to write an ending

The book is still extremely scattered.

Also Geralt the Witcher does nothing. Absolutely nothing.

If I had known that these books would be so much about Ciri I would have thought twice about going through them.

[Mentalist]

Abyss, on 01 August 2017 - 03:48 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 01 August 2017 - 03:24 PM, said:

I'm about 400 pages into the re-read of "White-Luck Warrior" . Only thing that grates me is Bakker's characters conflating "mind" and "soul". There should be a drinking game for how often people see stuff " in their soul's eye". It's the "mind's eye" , goddammit!
...

Actually, for Bakker i don't think those two things are the same.

Most often, I don't think his characters ever use the concept of "mind". (Except they outline insanity). Which is frustrating the psych major in me.

Anyways, there's enough epicness in the non-slog bits to make up for it all.

EDIT: Finished "White Luck Warrior" re-read. Gonna start "Great Ordeal" tomorrow.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 02 August 2017 - 03:24 AM

[JPK]

I've been listening to the Area X Annihilation trilogy compilation during my transit times for about a week now. I'm a bit over halfway through the whole thing, which means I'm a good bit of the way through book 2 and I just got one of the creepiest sequences I've dealt with in awhile

Spoiler

Whitby's fucking room, and Whitby himself creeping on Control and petting him while he's staring at the warped paintings. It's a simple sequence, but it made my skin crawl so much.

Long story short: I love VanderMeer.