[Andorion]

Got a bunch of reading done since I last posted.

I read In Shining Armour and Legend Has It by Elliott James. Solid continuations to a very good urban fantasy series.

Finished Guns of Ivrea by Clifford Beal. Not a bad book, but somehow I didn't really like it that much.

Finished Baptism of Fire. At last a semblance of a proper climax.

Also finished The Difference Engine by William Gibson. Awesome book, though confusing at times.

Currently reading The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham. Not really liking it. Pretty banal.

[Chance]

Finished Thieftaker and Thief's Quarry two pretty ordinary urban fantasy novels in a series which mostly gets interesting as it is set in Boston just before the revolution and I know little of that era. Major irritation is that like with many of these urban fantasy series with powerful protagonists, they get into a lot of situations that really shouldn't be problems for them if they used their powers a tiny bit more freely. Sure they are supposed to be nice people and nice people respect the law and rights of even really bad people but still...

This post has been edited by Chance: 17 August 2017 - 02:25 PM

[Abyss]

Andorion, on 17 August 2017 - 06:52 AM, said:

...

Also finished The Difference Engine by William Gibson. Awesome book, though confusing at times.
...

Actually that was Gibson writing with Bruce Stirling.

I had such mixed feelings about that book.
On the positive side, brilliant concept, well explained, very intricate world to work within, really drawing on both authors talents.

On the other, the plot was thin and was resolved by events that more or less had nothing to do with the plot, which i found meh after so much buildup.
Worth the read but requires a bit of 'just go with it'. One of those books you feel smarter for having read.

[QuickTidal]

So…I am nearing the end of HEX-RATED by Jason Ridley…and while it has been good, somewhere around the mid-way mark a whole SLEW of things began to stand out hard in the negative..and took the series from Dresden/Castor/Grant level fun urbfant….to closer to Hearn-level stuff. AKA serviceable, but nothing great and some glaring issues.

I’m gonna throw my reasoning in spoilers but they aren’t really “plot” spoilers…so proceed with whatever caution you like.

Spoiler

So basically the cool bits of this are the main overarcing plot, which includes Magic (stage and otherwise), Nazi occultism, Japanese demon snakes, dark-ass black magic where sigils are carved into flesh to curse and use people, the 70’s setting is super unique and the list of characters are varied and interesting most of the time (aside from some cardboard villains).

Here are my issues:

1. Protagonist (POV-we are in his head) James Brimstone is…not the most likeable guy. At an early point a sex scene comes out of nowhere, and while it made a LITTLE bit of sense (again, through his PoV of the character) the next few get more and more lascivious and grandiose. He has sex with around 4 or 5 porn actresses over the course of the book. And every one of them thinks sex with him is some heavenly experience and his member is bigger than the average joe…to which he not only agrees, but we have access to his thoughts where he thinks he’s pretty damned awesome. The sex scenes therefore feel like a one-sided masterbatory fantasy, rather than a union of the two people. He also use a magic that allows him to kind of slow down time (during which he holds onto this by reciting poetry in his head) for him so that he can act and fight faster than his opponent…meaning he’s kind of unstoppable. He also (as a result of being in the Korean war AND the Circus where the bodyguard was a Japanese martial artist) has the martial skill of Bruce Lee and can nearly one-finger death punch people, knows pressure points that can knock you out, disable you, cause you unending pain…ect. So he’s got kind of superhero powers…and that magic is never REALLY explained. He basically feels like Ridley’s personal superhero dream. Heroes should be flawed. One of the best things about Dresden (for example) is how often he loses, or is knocked down and the villain escapes…Brimstone is some omnipotent badass warrior magic guy…who is almost NEVER in peril (no matter how much time Ridley devotes to trying to convince us he is), and as such those action sequences become pedestrian. Also, there are moments of clear sexism in Brimstone’s head. He cruises alongside a bunch of girls who all kind of hit on him from their car…and when he shines them off the lead one who came on to him becomes a nasty asshole…as if to say that Brimstone can reject a woman who comes onto him, but the woman can’t take the rejection and would lash out at him…which feels sexist to me. She can’t have you so she gets mad? Hmmmm...

2. There are REALLY strange moments scattered throughout that serve little purpose except to show how much smarter Brimstone is over the plebs around him in LA. One of them is right after a fight sequence, he’s outside a movie theatre showing MASH and a bunch of teens are talking about what MASH is about…and he stops to school these kids (remembering he’s around 40) on what MASH is REALLY about…for no discernible reason whatsoever. It’s not the first time something like that happened or the last. It’s just really odd. It contributes nothing to the story, nor to the character of Brimstone...and it actually FELT like it was the author lecturing the reader on these things...

3. It feels like the world of the supernatural in this is WIDE open with many, many myths and legends and religions and such being accurate…but it’s touched on in TINY increments to the detriment of the tale. We are given the barest of info on each given topic (with the Nazi Thule society given the longest explanation…and even that is weak) and only enough to pertain to each thing. A particular standout is a moment where a macguffin shows up in the story and a tiny explanation is given about it…and then it’s forgotten for a long time.

4. He’s not a good PI. Like a really BAD PI. This is supposedly his first job as a private investigator. I can’t go into more detail without spoiling plot points…but sufficed to say….he’s not a good PI and I wonder why he has this job.

I wanted to think more of this book. At the beginning and for a good portion of the book I was really enjoying it…but as it went on, the problems that poked their heads up got worse and worse.

I would definitely read a second book in this series, but I’m not in for the “series” by any stretch…he’s got a lot of work to do as an author to make me not go from a book to book basis.

Sorry all. I wish this was better news.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 17 August 2017 - 03:24 PM

[Andorion]

Abyss, on 17 August 2017 - 02:48 PM, said:

Andorion, on 17 August 2017 - 06:52 AM, said:

...

Also finished The Difference Engine by William Gibson. Awesome book, though confusing at times.
...

Actually that was Gibson writing with Bruce Stirling.

I had such mixed feelings about that book.
On the positive side, brilliant concept, well explained, very intricate world to work within, really drawing on both authors talents.

On the other, the plot was thin and was resolved by events that more or less had nothing to do with the plot, which i found meh after so much buildup.
Worth the read but requires a bit of 'just go with it'. One of those books you feel smarter for having read.

I felt like it was a book very much in love with certain concepts as well as certain ways of telling a story in a gorgeously well imagined world. Plot coherence and even completion and continuity did not seem to be a priority for the authors.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

We have a book club at work and I've just finished the August book, Sarah Parry's The Essex Serpent.

To say it's not the kind of book I would pick up normally (half the reason I joined, to expand my reading a bit) I really thoroughly enjoyed it. Victorian gothic novel concerning how a group of people affect one another's lives in different ways, and in particular how close some of them become despite their huge differences, all set against the backdrop of the myth of the Essex Serpent in an age of a dawning interest in the natural sciences. Definitely worth a go!

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 17 August 2017 - 06:17 PM

[Mentalist]

Had to go out of town for work today. Extra-long commute means I finished the second book of "Godsdoom-2" and now I'm ready to dive into "The Ashes of Asgard" , which I never read before.

Book 2 still has a lot of set-up, and some awkward relationships being established. But puzzle pieces are slowly sliding into place and a conspiracy (based on a series of misunderstanding and set-up) is starting to take shape. Hedin and Rakot, the New Gods, have a lot of problems coming their way, and the problem, of course, is as always trying to figure out which of the many potential manipulators is pulling the strings here.

[polishgenius]

Finished Blackwing. Yeah, that was fun, recommended.


Started The Stone Sky, which I forgot was out until JPK mentioned it above. Yaaaaaaay! This series is awesome. Everyone who hasn't been reading it yet should be.

[worry]

I got it but I timed my reading schedule all wrong!

[Andorion]

Started reading The Great Ordeal. 150 pages in. Extremely good so far.

Also started reading Legion of Flame.

[Abyss]

Re Wecker's THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI...

JPK, on 08 August 2017 - 08:10 PM, said:

The Zafon comparison is a very apt one, and I would personally continue to add Susannah Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell to books that are akin to it. Yes, it's a slow burn, but it's very muchly meant to be. The book does have conflict, but it's not the focus of the story, rather than a tool used to highlight the growth of the two "monsters" into, arguably, the most human in the book.

Andorion, on 09 August 2017 - 02:22 AM, said:

QuickTidal, on 08 August 2017 - 05:34 PM, said:

Andorion, on 08 August 2017 - 05:06 PM, said:

Abyss, on 08 August 2017 - 04:34 PM, said:

Andorion, on 08 August 2017 - 03:37 PM, said:

Abyss, on 08 August 2017 - 03:11 PM, said:

...
Started Helen Wrecker's THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI, earbook, about 1/3rd in.

Very interesting premise, much 'quieter' than my usual reading, closer to Carlos Zafon than Jim Butcher. The titular characters are fascinating, but i'm yet unsure how much i enjoy to tangential other povs... may depend on how well the whole thing comes together. Could line up with either of the above comments.

ANDO, did it stick the landing for you in the end or no?
...

The issue with Golem and the Jinni hits quite late. Generally the narrative slows down after the 50% bit. There are two timelines and the punch of the ending lies in how these two are synced up. IMO the author bungled it, and so the end is unsatisfying.

However I have not seen this opinion to be shared by a lot of people.

Noted you're cold and dead inside, will see how it plays out.

What I really appreciated about this book though was its extremely authentic and textured portrayal of immigrant New York. It made me want to read a history of this period.

If it helps, I also thought that the author bungled the landing, on what was a really interesting book.

Did you get the feeling that the author tried a bit of a handwavy infodump to resolve the final crisis?

Just finished.
This was a good book. It is small in scale, stays very human and deals far more with the characters emotions and development than an actual defeat the bad guy plot, yet it works, and it's worth the read if only as a well written change of pace from the usual urban fantasy stabby shooty sploody festers we usually get.
I understand why some feel the author failed to stick the landing, and I can almost agree with them except that in the bigger context of the actual book, written as it is, the ending works. I might say 'works well enough', ... it didn't drag the book down for me overall.
The magic is quiet. Unknown, well hidden, rare, and almost an aside but for the fact that the titular protagonists are magical creatures who find themselves lost in late 1800s NYC. I liked the Wrecker really embraced and apparently researched the immigrant experience and time period for this book.

Spoiler

The ending... the problem with the end, imnsho, lies with perhaps the only problem with the book... Saleh is not a very good bad guy. He starts out as a weird old shaman, becomes a fairly pathetic figure when we get his history that frankly does little to make hm seem to be a threat, then suddenlyhe gets mad crazy powers that are ridiculous considering how pathetic he was thus far (if he could mindfuck everyone why was he a hermit living on a hillside, and then a penniless immigrant?), so when he actually became a threat to the characters it was jarring in a bad way. Also, his,ultimate downfall because his past lives fucked with him just made no sense. That said, the hint that his next incarnation or the one after that would be as the child of the golem and the jinni was a fascinating twist that went further to making him interesting than most else.
But all that aside, I enjoyed the Jinni and the Golem as interesting characters, the supporting cast held my attention even when they were fairly ordinary people, I really enjoyed how the two supernatural beings were wrapped into the folds of their respective ethnic backgrounds and both accepted and rejected elements, and the interaction betweeen the two was fascinating and fascinatingly written.

So overall, I enjoyed and thought it was worth reading, or earbooking.

[Andorion]

Finished The Great Ordeal, loved it, especially the way he concludes the Sorweel and Serwe narrative.

Halfway into Legion of Flame by Anthony Ryan, very very very good so far.

Also halfway into God's War by Kameron Hurley. I really appreciate the intricate world building she has done, but I don't really like the details of the world. While I do respect the effort and creativity, this style is not really for me.

Halfway into The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham. Apart from one brief portion I find myself massively indifferent to this book.

[JPK]

I just finished The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin. That was a very solid ending to a really unique series. I can't wait to see what she dreams up next. If any of you have been hedging on this series and waiting for it to be completed before starting it, now is the time! They also have a great narrator if you're into audiobooks (coughabysscough).

Next up for me is Warriors of tree Storm, the 9th Saxon Tales book by Cornwell.

[Tiste Simeon]

Seeing a lot of love for Jemisin. Where would the best place to start be?

[worry]

She hasn't been around that long, so you could start at the beginning and still finish her bibliography by end of year. And I'd kind of recommend that, since her newest series is her best, and it's nice to save the best for last. Her first tril is great, has an increasingly interesting cosmology, and is in my opinion immediately engaging because she's one of the best character writers in the business. It's especially great if you love mythologies and how they develop. There's a couple novellas that expand that world even more, too. Between the two trilogies is a duology that has a crazy good setting, characters, and plot, but the first book is slightly frustrating in its smallish scope...but the second book expands just enough to dazzle and even improve the first book in retrospect. The newest trilogy (though I haven't read the new final book yet admittedly) is a masterpiece of imagination and empathy.

Edit: I don't mean I recommend abandoning everything to finish all her books by end of year, the timeline was just demonstrative. I just mean 'start at the beginning' isn't crazy advice here.

This post has been edited by worry: 20 August 2017 - 08:45 PM

[acesn8s]

Finally finished Bakker's The Judging Eye. It was a good book, but I felt like I was on the slog with the Skin Eaters at times. I may take a break and read something else before starting the next book in the series. I don't want to take too much time, as I don't want to forget too many details between books.

[Mentalist]

You think THAT was a slog?

THE SLOG OF SLOGS!!! is yet to come (but the rest of the plot-lines become pretty brilliant/terrifying/disgusting).

[Abyss]

I did find it particularly sloggy.

[polishgenius]

Abyss, on 21 August 2017 - 08:30 PM, said:

I did find it particularly sloggy.

Just soggy.

[End of Disc One]

No sobbers on the slog!