[Abyss]

Andorion, on 09 August 2017 - 04:08 PM, said:

...
A couple more things -

Spoiler

The WLW was basically created by the Earth Goddess cult in opposition to Kelhus, right? So why didn't he kill Esmenet as well and bring total chaos?

Also if Cleric was the actual Nonman king, and the Nonmen have fallen and joined the consult isn't Kelhus basically sending his kids as hostages to the Consult?

re the WLW,

Spoiler

because he has a more important target and she's his way there.

re the Nonmen,

Spoiler

not all of them... even Cleric was just nuts, not fullblown Consult. ....and this IS Kelhus we're talking about, so, y'know, he might just have a plan, or two, or six.
That probably require someone to bang.

[Puck]

Andorion, on 09 August 2017 - 04:08 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 09 August 2017 - 04:01 PM, said:

Well, he just

Spoiler

Killed Maithanet

. That's kind of a big deal.

I'm nearing the end of "the Great Ordeal" and some things that are casually dropped by are blowing my mind. I think I might be forced to go back to PoN and find the bits where Akka is explaining the metaphysics of sorcery, tho, because it suddenly becomes relevant, and i'm not sure I'm getting stuff.
Aiming to finish GTO today and start "Unholy Consult" asap.

Oooohh, I knew I was missing something very big. Honestly the "home" parts of the narrative have been a bit confusing.

A couple more things -

Spoiler

The WLW was basically created by the Earth Goddess cult in opposition to Kelhus, right? So why didn't he kill Esmenet as well and bring total chaos?

Also if Cleric was the actual Nonman king, and the Nonmen have fallen and joined the consult isn't Kelhus basically sending his kids as hostages to the Consult?

Re WLW:

Spoiler

It's elaborated upon more later, but tehnically speaking, Yatwer is blind to what's going on and her tools are limited by that. She wants Kellhus dead and is blind to subtleties like using Esmenet to get there.

Re the Nonmen:

Spoiler

Yeah, very much so. Again, more on that later when they actually get there, but yeah, he's sending them to the Consult's allies, but those allies are so nuts I'm not sure the fact of being Consult allies still registers with them.

On a similar note, I'm about to finish The Unholy Consult. Mixed feelings, but the gist is that I feel like there was too much filler in the last two books and the already tenuous clearity of the writing has suffered. Also, the repetition in tUC is getting on my nerves big time. Like, I get it, Golgotterath is TEH EVIL^TM, you've said that about ten times in five pages. The action itself, though, is superb.

[Mentalist]

To add on WLW:

Spoiler

I'm pretty sure it was Maithanet himself who noted that Esmi remains a "believer" and so she is "pure" in the eyes of Yatwer, which is why Kellhus left her in charge- because he expected the Gods to strike out against him, and he put her in a position to "blunt" their strike so to say.

As for WLW... he basically exists in his own version of The Shortest Path-like probability trance- only a divine one. Which means he moves from event to event in a sequence that brings him closer to the confrontation with Kellhus, which is Yatwer's will.

There's more elaboration on this in the GTO. And a lot of really messed up shit happens everywhere.

[End of Disc One]

All this talk is making me want to pick up TUC. I had been holding off because I felt like I needed to read a few lighter books first. But I think I'm almost ready.

[Mentalist]

The ending of "The Great Ordeal" was SO good! Will be many spoiler posts in Bakker thread.

Starting tUC right now!

[End of Disc One]

McGillicutty. Funny because I just came across that name in The Library at Mount Char. Also funny because Weber must not be right in the head.

[QuickTidal]

End of Disc One, on 10 August 2017 - 01:59 AM, said:

McGillicutty. Also funny because Weber must not be right in the head.

Yep, that's Dennis McGIllicutty.

Fucks sake I'm glad I stopped reading those books. LOL

[Salt-Man Z]

Read the first chapter of The Golem and the Jinni while getting my oil changed this morning. Really liking it so far.

Yesterday I finished up James Thomas Flexner's Washington: The Indispensable Man, a fantastic, even-handed biography of George Washington. Really, really good, and still only $2.99 at Amazon.com.

Before that, I had been on a bit of an ALIENs kick. Started with the first movie's novelization by Alan Dean Foster; I've only seen it once (compared to Aliens, which I've probably watched a dozen times) and that was close to 25 years ago, so it was fun revisiting it. Foster writes it as a almost a hard sci-fi novel, with the monster only appearing near the end, which worked pretty well. Then I read the new(ish) canonical novel trilogy. (Annoyingly, references to the first movie came from the film and not the novelization; understandable, but it felt like things didn't quite jive a bit.)

Out of the Shadows makes a questionable decision to give Ripley another unrelated Alien encounter between the first two movies, only to hit the reset button on her at the end. And a lot of it is either retreading old ground or trying to one-up Aliens. ("How about Ripley takes on a whole hive of queens!") That said, it works quite well as like an alternate-universe's take on a second Alien film. Pretty decent, overall.

Sea of Sorrows is a sequel to that, where Ripley's descendant takes on the same hive in the future. (Though how it survived the end of the first book, I don't quite understand.) The beginning bugged (ha!) me, and the ending was too open-ended, but otherwise it was eh, fine.

River of Pain has no relation at all to the previous two books. Instead, it's a prequel to the second film, and is thus entirely unnecessary. Perhaps its worse sin is featuring Ripley--complete with adapting numerous complete scenes from the movie--even though she doesn't factor into the plot at all. And of course, being a prequel, we know that fate of pretty much all these people anyway, so what's the point? That said, Christopher Golden succeeds by making you really care about the characters, which I was not expecting.

[Esa1996]

Re-reading Wheel of Time 9 at the moment. I finished Wars of Light and Shadow 3 at the end of July, and hadn't yet got my copy of TUC so I began reading WOT and then I got TUC the next day Don't want to leave it only partly read so I'll read it first, then TUC and the onto WOLAS 4.

[QuickTidal]

Finished AGE OF SWORDS by Michael J. Sullivan...2nd in the First Empire series.

Um.

It was not good.

I mean, the first book had set up some cool ideas and though they were seemingly trope-worn...I enjoyed the look at historical Elan that we saw in Riyria...but book 2 just doubled down on those tropes instead of doing anything interesting with them (now we have dwarves who are good at working metal who live underground and are surly! for one example). And the humans (or Rhunes) seemingly in the first book were at LEAST an Bronze Age civilization...who were divided into villages/fort towns....but for some reason (and revealed in book 2) they've not invented the wheel, writing, or POCKETS. All of which is invented...by the same person over the course of about three chapters. I'm not shitting you. The one character goes from the idea that she can draw pictograms on the ground which people can understand....to writing in short order. On a stone tablet no less. The wheel is invented because they need to travel away from their community fast and don't know how to transport all their stuff. So they have woodworking enough to build lodges to live in and furniture...but somehow the fucking WHEEL has escaped them? Seriously. I can't make this up. An all this while two other societies (the Frey [Elves] and the Dherg [dwarves]) have not only invented this stuff but are pretty much Iron Age or later in their civilization...and they all live on the same damned continent. I just....I can't.

I have always been Sullivan's fan. His Ryiria books, though not overly complex, are a blast to read...and even the first book in this new series was fine with a few great sequences...but this second book was just bad. Like I wanted to put it down bad. And I kept reading because I hoped that the story might trump all my issues with it...but it's pretty flat and boring and predictable. I've been collecting these hardcover...and now I kind of wonder if I'll hold off on the 3rd book and se what the reviews are like..because off the back of this one, I'm not excited to read another in this series.

Started HEX-RATED by Jason Ridler this morning though, and I'm already 15% into it and it's a complete blast so far! Dresden fans will probably like this....though it's not (that I can tell) a full-on supernatural world...it has magic...but it's the detective POV and the setting (1970's Hollywood) that sell the thing. James Brimstone is a wonderfully wry character to be in the head of (it's first person POV) and I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

[QuickTidal]

Finished AGE OF SWORDS by Michael J. Sullivan...2nd in the First Empire series.

Um.

It was not good.

I mean, the first book had set up some cool ideas and though they were seemingly trope-worn...I enjoyed the look at historical Elan that we saw in Riyria...but book 2 just doubled down on those tropes instead of doing anything interesting with them (now we have dwarves who are good at working metal who live underground and are surly! for one example). And the humans (or Rhunes) seemingly in the first book were at LEAST an Bronze Age civilization...who were divided into villages/fort towns and fight with weapons they obviously forge....but for some reason (and revealed in book 2) they've not invented the wheel, writing, or POCKETS. All of which is invented...by the same person over the course of about three chapters. I'm not shitting you. The one character goes from the idea that she can draw pictograms on the ground which people can understand....to writing in short order. On a stone tablet no less. The wheel is invented because they need to travel away from their community fast and don't know how to transport all their stuff. So they have woodworking enough to build lodges to live in and furniture...but somehow the fucking WHEEL has escaped them? Seriously. I can't make this up. An all this while two other societies (the Frey [Elves] and the Dherg [dwarves]) have not only invented this stuff but are pretty much Iron Age or later in their civilization...and they all live on the same damned continent. I just....I can't.

I have always been Sullivan's fan. His Ryiria books, though not overly complex, are a blast to read...and even the first book in this new series was fine with a few great sequences...but this second book was just bad. Like I wanted to put it down bad. And I kept reading because I hoped that the story might trump all my issues with it...but it's pretty flat and boring and predictable. I've been collecting these hardcover...and now I kind of wonder if I'll hold off on the 3rd book and se what the reviews are like..because off the back of this one, I'm not excited to read another in this series.

--------------------------------

Started HEX-RATED by Jason Ridler this morning though, and I'm already 15% into it and it's a complete blast so far! Dresden fans will probably like this....though it's not (that I can tell) a full-on supernatural world...it has magic...but it's the detective POV and the setting (1970's Hollywood) that sell the thing. James Brimstone is a wonderfully wry character to be in the head of (it's first person POV) and I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 11 August 2017 - 11:54 AM

[Andorion]

QuickTidal, on 11 August 2017 - 11:51 AM, said:

Finished AGE OF SWORDS by Michael J. Sullivan...2nd in the First Empire series.

Um.

It was not good.

I mean, the first book had set up some cool ideas and though they were seemingly trope-worn...I enjoyed the look at historical Elan that we saw in Riyria...but book 2 just doubled down on those tropes instead of doing anything interesting with them (now we have dwarves who are good at working metal who live underground and are surly! for one example). And the humans (or Rhunes) seemingly in the first book were at LEAST an Bronze Age civilization...who were divided into villages/fort towns and fight with weapons they obviously forge....but for some reason (and revealed in book 2) they've not invented the wheel, writing, or POCKETS. All of which is invented...by the same person over the course of about three chapters. I'm not shitting you. The one character goes from the idea that she can draw pictograms on the ground which people can understand....to writing in short order. On a stone tablet no less. The wheel is invented because they need to travel away from their community fast and don't know how to transport all their stuff. So they have woodworking enough to build lodges to live in and furniture...but somehow the fucking WHEEL has escaped them? Seriously. I can't make this up. An all this while two other societies (the Frey [Elves] and the Dherg [dwarves]) have not only invented this stuff but are pretty much Iron Age or later in their civilization...and they all live on the same damned continent. I just....I can't.

I have always been Sullivan's fan. His Ryiria books, though not overly complex, are a blast to read...and even the first book in this new series was fine with a few great sequences...but this second book was just bad. Like I wanted to put it down bad. And I kept reading because I hoped that the story might trump all my issues with it...but it's pretty flat and boring and predictable. I've been collecting these hardcover...and now I kind of wonder if I'll hold off on the 3rd book and se what the reviews are like..because off the back of this one, I'm not excited to read another in this series.

--------------------------------

Started HEX-RATED by Jason Ridler this morning though, and I'm already 15% into it and it's a complete blast so far! Dresden fans will probably like this....though it's not (that I can tell) a full-on supernatural world...it has magic...but it's the detective POV and the setting (1970's Hollywood) that sell the thing. James Brimstone is a wonderfully wry character to be in the head of (it's first person POV) and I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

Interestingly QT, there can be advanced civilizations who did not have the wheel - the Mesoamerican cultures like the Mayans for example.

So that is not too outlandish. What is outlandish is that one person invented the wheel and writing so fast.

BTW I have not read the book.

[QuickTidal]

Andorion, on 11 August 2017 - 12:24 PM, said:

Interestingly QT, there can be advanced civilizations who did not have the wheel - the Mesoamerican cultures like the Mayans for example.

So that is not too outlandish. What is outlandish is that one person invented the wheel and writing so fast.

BTW I have not read the book.

Oh indeed. I'm just bothered by the combination of factors, one of which is the speed in which they are designed (axles and all) in an afternoon (no shit), but also that the rest of the continent have this tech and probably have had it for centuries...within easy view of some of these human villages.. but they've never asked about it or copied it....oh, and the same person invents "pockets" on the same afternoon. It was a banner day for the greatest Engineer who ever lived...apparently.

[Andorion]

QuickTidal, on 11 August 2017 - 12:49 PM, said:

Andorion, on 11 August 2017 - 12:24 PM, said:

Interestingly QT, there can be advanced civilizations who did not have the wheel - the Mesoamerican cultures like the Mayans for example.

So that is not too outlandish. What is outlandish is that one person invented the wheel and writing so fast.

BTW I have not read the book.

Oh indeed. I'm just bothered by the combination of factors, one of which is the speed in which they are designed (axles and all) in an afternoon (no shit), but also that the rest of the continent have this tech and probably have had it for centuries...within easy view of some of these human villages.. but they've never asked about it or copied it....oh, and the same person invents "pockets" on the same afternoon. It was a banner day for the greatest Engineer who ever lived...apparently.

Yeah that is incredibly unlikely, especially as the wheel and axle is actually a pretty complex mechanism that spread through cultural dispersion. It is theorised that the two reasons the American cultures did not have the wheel was the isolation and lack of proper beasts of burden.

That the wheel existed on the same continent ought to have been enough to ensure it spread.


Pockets though....why didn't they have pockets? Of course traditional Hindu clothing consisted of basically long unsewn cloth for millennia - lots of stitched embroidery but no sewn clothes... so clothing is not always logical.

[QuickTidal]

Andorion, on 11 August 2017 - 01:03 PM, said:

Pockets though....why didn't they have pockets? Of course traditional Hindu clothing consisted of basically long unsewn cloth for millennia - lots of stitched embroidery but no sewn clothes... so clothing is not always logical.

They wear "leigh mor's" which are basically early kilts (like you see in Braveheart)...so I can KIND of see it...but I dunno...pockets seem like such an easy "I want to carry stuff on my person" invention. Maybe I'm overthinking it? they do at least have sewing though.

[End of Disc One]

Too bad to hear about Age of Swords. I remember Sullivan saying a while back that it was his favorite of the series, but I've seen a lot of mixed reviews. But it's common that an author's or artist's favorite work is not the same as the fan favorite.

[Tsundoku]

"In the Shadow of the Sword" by Tom Holland. I've been on a bit of a history kick lately.

[QuickTidal]

End of Disc One, on 11 August 2017 - 01:51 PM, said:

Too bad to hear about Age of Swords. I remember Sullivan saying a while back that it was his favorite of the series, but I've seen a lot of mixed reviews. But it's common that an author's or artist's favorite work is not the same as the fan favorite.

Yeah, I recall that too. I'm pretty down about it. I've not disliked any of his work till now.

Tsundoku, on 11 August 2017 - 01:55 PM, said:

"In the Shadow of the Sword" by Tom Holland. I've been on a bit of a history kick lately.

Spiderman wrote a book?

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 11 August 2017 - 02:09 PM

[Tsundoku]

QuickTidal, on 11 August 2017 - 02:08 PM, said:

Tsundoku, on 11 August 2017 - 01:55 PM, said:

"In the Shadow of the Sword" by Tom Holland. I've been on a bit of a history kick lately.

Spiderman wrote a book?

He's very precocious.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 11 August 2017 - 11:51 AM, said:

....

Started HEX-RATED by Jason Ridler this morning though, and I'm already 15% into it and it's a complete blast so far! Dresden fans will probably like this....though it's not (that I can tell) a full-on supernatural world...it has magic...but it's the detective POV and the setting (1970's Hollywood) that sell the thing. James Brimstone is a wonderfully wry character to be in the head of (it's first person POV) and I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

I can't even give you a hard time over this because i was already going to buy the book.
Still, the straining pixels in my eTRP send their collective hatred your way.