[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Finished Green Mars. I enjoyed it, and didn't really find it any worse than the first book.

Started The Greatship by Robert Reed.

[End of Disc One]

Reading Brian McClellan's Sins of Empire and it's great. I have no complaints so far. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who even remotely enjoyed the Powder Mage trilogy.

[Aptorian]

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer couldn't quite keep my interest so I put it aside. Started the first Dragon Lance Chronicles volume but I wasn't quite in the mood. Instead I picked up the first book of the Iron Druid Chronicles, Hunted. That managed to keep my attention.

I'm about a hundred pages into Hunted and I can't quite wrap my mind around the way Hearne has weaved his tale. The whole thing is written in such a strange way. Like it's one part Urban Fantasy and one part Sesame Street for Germanic Folklore. Everything from the characters, to O'Sullivan's powers, to the story feels so ... is "light" The right word? It's like the whole thing is written in this effortlessly entertaining but not very serious way that seems at odds with what keeps happening. People are gettin killed and bad people are coming for the protagonist but the nature of O'Sullivan being very strong and very old, means that everything is sort of just handled with a shrug.

It kind of reminds me of a more masculine version of the Charmed TV-show. Like the whole thing is very camp but also easily charming. Only the book is starting around Season 10 of Charmed.

It's fascinating to me. I can't tell if I think the author is very clever or if he's writing something approaching a power fantasy for fans of Urban Fantasy. What ever the case I like it.

[Abyss]

 Alternative Goose, on 17 February 2018 - 04:17 PM, said:

... Instead I picked up the first book of the Iron Druid Chronicles, Hunted. That managed to keep my attention.
...

It's fascinating to me. I can't tell if I think the author is very clever or if he's writing something approaching a power fantasy for fans of Urban Fantasy. What ever the case I like it.

A little of both. Hearne runs from brilliantly original and engaging to insultingly dumb. There’s enough of the former to hold my interest in the series, but wow, some of the later books really really get trite.

[Aptorian]

I could see that happening already now with the first book. However the character's are fun. I find myself laughing at the jokes the characters make between one another, which is always a good sign in terms of writing.

[Puck]

Finished Good Omens. Was a fun, light read while I was sick in bed.

Now a quarter into Footsteps in the Sky by Greg Keyes. Picked it up mostly because I liked the premise (I'm a sucker for any fantasy/sci-fi involving meso-american history/mythology; tends to be an insta-buy ending in disappointment, unfortunately). We'll see about the execution.

[polishgenius]

I'm reading Elysium Fire, the new Alastair Reynolds, a sequel to The Prefect (which has since been renamed Aurora Rising). Pretty good so far.

[Mentalist]

Finished "World War Z" . It was OK. I liked the international approach. Can't say I feel inspired to pick up any other of Brooks' zombie books.

[Andorion]

 polishgenius, on 17 February 2018 - 07:29 PM, said:

I'm reading Elysium Fire, the new Alastair Reynolds, a sequel to The Prefect (which has since been renamed Aurora Rising). Pretty good so far.

I liked it, but I thought The Prefect was better.

This book seemed to be a bit predictable, especially to anyone who has read a lot of Reynolds.

[Abyss]

 Mentalist, on 17 February 2018 - 10:31 PM, said:

Finished "World War Z" . It was OK. I liked the international approach. Can't say I feel inspired to pick up any other of Brooks' zombie books.

Doesn’t his other zombie books amount to the Survival Guide, which was a joke at best, and a bunch of comic adaptations spun off from WWZ?

[Tiste Simeon]

 Abyss, on 18 February 2018 - 03:15 AM, said:

 Mentalist, on 17 February 2018 - 10:31 PM, said:

Finished "World War Z" . It was OK. I liked the international approach. Can't say I feel inspired to pick up any other of Brooks' zombie books.

Doesn’t his other zombie books amount to the Survival Guide, which was a joke at best, and a bunch of comic adaptations spun off from WWZ?

Yeah you don't really need to read any of the others. WWZ (which IMO was incredible) was enough.

[Abyss]

 Tiste Simeon, on 18 February 2018 - 07:41 AM, said:

 Abyss, on 18 February 2018 - 03:15 AM, said:

 Mentalist, on 17 February 2018 - 10:31 PM, said:

Finished "World War Z" . It was OK. I liked the international approach. Can't say I feel inspired to pick up any other of Brooks' zombie books.

Doesn't his other zombie books amount to the Survival Guide, which was a joke at best, and a bunch of comic adaptations spun off from WWZ?

Yeah you don't really need to read any of the others. WWZ (which IMO was incredible) was enough.

Agreed.
...tho EXTINCTION PARADE wasn’t bad, tho that’s technically a vampire story set during a zombpocalypse.

I suspect that in a year or two we'll see some form of sequel book to WWZ, either more stories from the war, or, better, a full blown WWZ2 where he goes fast zombies or smart zombies or weaponized zombies or something else that offsets the status quo we see at the end of WWZ.

It will be a publishing blitz the likes of which are reserved for Harry Potter and SIF. And I do so hope it doesn't suck.

[Salt-Man Z]

Finished Star Wars: Phasma over the weekend. It's fine, nothing terribly special. My favorite part was probably the shoutout to Matt Stover in the acknowledgements.

Currently starting in on Kij Johnson's The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, which takes a fun spin on Lovecraft's "Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" by having a denizen of the Dreamlands go on a journey to track down a student who's eloped to the "waking world".

[Maark Abbott]

Slogging on through The Unholy Consult. Reading Bakker again reminds me of why he's such a big influence on my own writing style. And them characters. Awww yeah.

[stone monkey]

Finished George Orwell's Down and Out In Paris and London on the way into work this morning. If you've only read his novels, I think you're probably vastly underrating how good Orwell actually was. His non-fiction is riveting and (despite some, what appear to be, missteps primarily due to him being a man of his time, place and class) wonderfully humane.

I also recently finished Elysium Fire. Which was a perfectly serviceable read, but not anywhere near as good as The Prefect/Aurora Rising, which remains one of my favourite of Reynolds' books. As an aside: the UK cover of the hardback is pretty awful, I think. I got the US paperback version that depicts a stylised Glitter Band on a black background instead (and it was cheaper, even with shipping), it's much better.

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 19 February 2018 - 11:44 PM

[Maark Abbott]

Bakker is certainly putting a new spin on the concept of 'the meat sweats'. hoooh boy.

[Maark Abbott]

Man, I'm five chapters into TUC and I'm reminded of why Bakker is so damn fantastic. Man is terrible, and he portrays this beautifully. One must truly pity the weepers who can't slog.

[End of Disc One]

TUC is so good. It just gets better.

[Aptorian]

Finished the first Iron Druid book, Hunted, yesterday. Not bad. Not great. Pretty average urban fantasy with a Celtic twist. I feel like the books formula was straight out of Dresden Files. That's not a bad thing but like the early Dresden books, the story in very generic.

Is there a law that every Urban fantasy book has to have vampires and werewolves in them?

Anyway, I liked it well enough. I'll pick up some more Iron Druid Chronicle books when I chew through the latest stack of library books.

Just started up the second Sandman Slim book, Kill the Dead, today. Started out like the first book. It hits the ground running with Stark being on the hunt for a vampire (More vampires!) in broad daylight on a crowded street. I like how aggressive and "Hollywood" these books are written. It's an action film on paper.

This post has been edited by Alternative Goose: 21 February 2018 - 12:36 PM

[Abyss]

 Maark Abbott, on 21 February 2018 - 08:42 AM, said:

Man, I'm five chapters into TUC and I'm reminded of why Bakker is so damn fantastic. Man is terrible, and he portrays this beautifully. One must truly pity the weepers who can't slog.

 End of Disc One, on 21 February 2018 - 11:50 AM, said:

TUC is so good. It just gets better.

Agreed. Those last two books are just brilliant.

 Alternative Goose, on 21 February 2018 - 12:35 PM, said:

Finished the first Iron Druid book, Hunted, yesterday. Not bad. Not great. Pretty average urban fantasy with a Celtic twist. I feel like the books formula was straight out of Dresden Files. That's not a bad thing but like the early Dresden books, the story in very generic.

Is there a law that every Urban fantasy book has to have vampires and werewolves in them?

...

Apparently it IS a law, and a very annoying one at that. You'll make up your own mind, but i thought the vamps/weres elements were the weakest part of the series.


Finished Ruthanna Emerys' WINTER'S TIDE. Satisfying. I enjoyed the original take on the Cthulhu mythos, even if i found it a bit jarring from the usual. The finale suffers a bit for using magic as a catch-all problem solver, but the characters and world are solid, and overall i enjoyed the book and would consider reading the next one.


Started HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD and huh, this is not very good.