[Tsundoku]

worry, on 01 January 2019 - 05:47 AM, said:

I never stopped believing!

[acesn8s]

Been off work for the holidays the past 2 weeks. I didn't do any reading. I spent my time playing video games instead. I hope to finish The Library at Mount Char by next weekend.

[Morgoth]

The Monster Baru Cormorant is so far as great as the first one.

[Maark Abbott]

Volume 2 of "I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level". It's entertaining enough considering it's fluffy flutter.

I still don't feel up to reading full length novels again yet.

[Cyphon]

Just finished the Emperor's Blades, first book in Brian Staveley's unhewn throne series. Really well written and put together book and I can see why I few people on here have said it's worth a read. While being a good example of it's kind I did finish it feeling a bit like, 'is that all?'. I suppose I was looking for something a bit different beyond the norm of fantasy books or that's what I'd taken from the recommendations. I like walking down the well worn path of traditional epic fantasy - I suppose I kind of want to know what to expect and whether to keep an eye out for ebooks on the rest of the series.

I felt the same about first of the milkweed trilogy but have kept the sequel on the to read list based on forumites recommendations - I'm wondering if this is a similar case?

This post has been edited by Cyphon: 03 January 2019 - 12:48 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

Today I started the Earbook version of The Fifth Season. The narrator is strange but oddly I feel her voice fits the way the narrative is structured. The second person perspective is weird but I guess I can get used to it. I have no idea what is happening though. Some dude managed to rip a hole in the sky and kill millions for some reason? Then it hasn't effected the woman whose son is dead and she has some secret that only the Doctor man knows about?

It's intriguing enough for me to continue but the way it's written is going to take a bit of getting used to I think. I've got all three on Audible so I'm definitely in but it's been awkward getting into it this far.

As for IMAJICA which I finished just before Christmas... It was a fascinating concept and I loved the world building but it just didn't seem alien enough to me, and the initial journeys of Gentle and Pie across the reconciled world's didn't really convey any wonder of being on a totally new planet. I thought Gentle was a really poorly written character. No scratch that I thought all of them were really poorly written. I didn't really like any of them. Certainly not any of the main characters. They all seemed to get really angry with each other at the slightest provocation and I never got that. Pie could have been amazing and he certainly started really cool and mysterious but he ended quite blandly.

Speaking of, the names of people in this were stupid and ridiculous.

Maybe it was the narrator? He seemed to do every male as a pompous upper class idiot and some of the falsetto voices he did for the women were a bit cringe worthy. I dunno. Overall I did enjoy it but more for the concept and the ideas and themes behind it then the execution.

[QuickTidal]

Maark Abbott, on 03 January 2019 - 08:45 AM, said:

I still don't feel up to reading full length novels again yet.

Hey man, when you're in a slump, you gotta re-start small and work your way up. Take your time, it will come back.

Cyphon, on 03 January 2019 - 08:56 AM, said:

I felt the same about first of the milkweed trilogy but have kept the sequel on the to read list based on forumites recommendations - I'm wondering if this is a similar case?

Milkweed is one of those series that only REALLY guts you clean out once you realize what's really going on, and you don't get into that until the end of Book 2. I liked the first book, but it was the second book that made me realize I was REALLY reading something special.

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

On my front, after deciding to dip into some of the finalists of Mark Lawrence's 2018 SPFBO (Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off), I read THE BLOOD KING by Keith Ward (sidebar: The finalist is actually the 3rd book in the Red Proxy series, THE ANOINTED, but when I looked it up and found out there were two books preceding it, I decided to hit up the first one from a few years back). When I started it I wasn't sure I was going to get into it...but a short subway ride later I was 100% in, and considering it turned out this first book is only a novella (123 Pages; this would explain why it was only $3 on amazon) I bashed through it in like two days. And it's such a great little tease of the world with a clincher of an ending that I IMMEDIATELY bought the next two books in the trilogy as I sat on the bus. It's that good. It's not often I find Self-Published authors I like this much, but man Mark Lawrence's Blog-off is already batting a thousand with me for titles (I grabbed two other finalists too, so I'll chime in on those when I get to them).

I'll give a little taster of the world: If you're rich enough, you can buy "proxies" from poor people, which are newborn babies that have their life-span magically taken and infused into the buyer, giving them 80 more years or however long the Span-seer (the person who does the transfer) says the child would have lived. The child dies during this process, and the buyer gets unnaturally long life. Now imagine an evil and mad king who has lived 278 years this way, and is suffering from sickness brought on by the "transfer magic", hell bent on conquering the world and killing everyone in his way.

Sufficed to say, if you're interested, this first novella is a short and tight story and is only a couple of bucks over at amazon. Give it a go and see if you're into it. I certainly was.

[Tattersail_]

Age of Assassins book 1 of The Wounded Trilogy was fantastic. I was sceptical at first as I hadn't heard anything about it but I really enjoyed it. The world was dark and moody and the plot was quite intriguing. As this was mostly based on mystery, a sort of Sherlock Holmes who is it sort of plot with lots of action and feels tied in I am hoping book 2 will be as good.

[Mentalist]

Cyphon, on 03 January 2019 - 08:56 AM, said:

Just finished the Emperor's Blades, first book in Brian Staveley's unhewn throne series. Really well written and put together book and I can see why I few people on here have said it's worth a read. While being a good example of it's kind I did finish it feeling a bit like, 'is that all?'. I suppose I was looking for something a bit different beyond the norm of fantasy books or that's what I'd taken from the recommendations. I like walking down the well worn path of traditional epic fantasy - I suppose I kind of want to know what to expect and whether to keep an eye out for ebooks on the rest of the series.

I felt the same about first of the milkweed trilogy but have kept the sequel on the to read list based on forumites recommendations - I'm wondering if this is a similar case?

IMHO, Milkweed is overrated.

I also did very little reading over the holidays, but for the past few days I've been back at it with a vengeance, making solid progress with the second "Traitor Son" book Fell Sword

[Abyss]

Counterpoint: MILKWEED is great. Ffs it's British sorcerors vs Nazi mutants during WW2.

Just finished BROTHERHOOD OF THE WHEEL 2:KING OF THE ROAD. Great fun. No prizes for brilliance but fast paced action in a fun urban fantasy world with great yet very human characters. Sons of Anarchy vs werewolves and cops vs killer clowns... I enjoyed. Minor complaint that

Spoiler

the two storylines barely intersect, are effectively completely separate....

But that's barely a thing.

Started Hannu Rajaniemi's SUMMERLAND. Stopped a few chapters in. For the level of imagination and originality his JEAN LE FLAMBEUR trilo hit, this was trite, with far too much exposition. I love the idea of an espionage story set as this was crossing a populated afterlife ... but that was where it ended for me. Everything about it just felt done and tiresome. And far too much 'tell don't show'.

Moved along to Jonathan French's THE GREY BASTARDS. Muuuuch better. War-hog mounted half orc border patrol mercs ftw.

[Maark Abbott]

QuickTidal, on 03 January 2019 - 02:13 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 03 January 2019 - 08:45 AM, said:

I still don't feel up to reading full length novels again yet.

Hey man, when you're in a slump, you gotta re-start small and work your way up. Take your time, it will come back.

I wonder if a slump is the right word, it's more like a... crevasse. Yes, that seems more sizeable. Still, reading something a little brainless and slice-of-life seems to be helping bit by bit. What I really need though is a good Bakkakening.

[JPK]

So after reading three Robin Hobb books in a row I decided to try something different and crack open Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente. I'm about 20% into it now and wondering if I should continue. On one hand, it has some gorgeously written prose in any section that features the city. On the other hand, I can't figure out if this is actually going to develop into anything beyond the pattern that has been set up:

Spoiler

A random hookup with another bearer of a part of the map, and then a trippy dream sequence about a part of the city.

Would someone that has read it be able to weigh in and help me figure out if I'm just wasting my time here?

This post has been edited by JPK: 04 January 2019 - 04:40 PM

[polishgenius]

There is definitely an endgame, yeah, it's not just a series of vignettes like that. It's quite a fractured novel still but it coalesces.

[Tsundoku]

QuickTidal, on 03 January 2019 - 02:13 PM, said:

I'll give a little taster of the world: If you're rich enough, you can buy "proxies" from poor people, which are newborn babies that have their life-span magically taken and infused into the buyer, giving them 80 more years or however long the Span-seer (the person who does the transfer) says the child would have lived. The child dies during this process, and the buyer gets unnaturally long life. Now imagine an evil and mad king who has lived 278 years this way, and is suffering from sickness brought on by the "transfer magic", hell bent on conquering the world and killing everyone in his way.

Sounds like an article on DJT and the 1%.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 05 January 2019 - 07:07 AM

[Zetubal]

Last time I posted in this thread, couple days before Christmas, I had just finished the first Black Company novel. Since then, I've actually finished both the second (Shadows Linger) and third novel (The White Rose), and I am now reading the fourth one, Shadow Games. Have to say, the series really grows on you. I really enjoyed the plot around Marron Shed in the second one and was subsequently sad at the end. To me, that guy is an antihero done right. The White Rose was also fairly good, I liked the narrative gimmick of jumping between timelines and perspectives, even though at times it was a bit frustrating how little progress Croaker's story made between these jumps.
Probably some of the best stuff about this original trilogy is how it retains the small-scale up and close personal feeling even in grand battles. By comparison, some other fantasy stories seem almost disjointed when they describe large battles and how the protagonists experience them - as if the two were separate things. Black Company does a much better job at retaining sort of a narrative unity.
The fourth book (I'm like halfway through) is again very intriguing with all the mystery surrounding the guys in Taglios, the Company's history, and the Shadowmasters though the latter seem fairly cliché at this point.

On a side note: Having read these books, I find it really obvious to see how Erikson pays hommage to Cook's Black Company in his books. Which is a good thing, mind you.

This post has been edited by Zetubal: 05 January 2019 - 10:48 AM

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Tsundoku, on 05 January 2019 - 07:06 AM, said:

QuickTidal, on 03 January 2019 - 02:13 PM, said:

I'll give a little taster of the world: If you're rich enough, you can buy "proxies" from poor people, which are newborn babies that have their life-span magically taken and infused into the buyer, giving them 80 more years or however long the Span-seer (the person who does the transfer) says the child would have lived. The child dies during this process, and the buyer gets unnaturally long life. Now imagine an evil and mad king who has lived 278 years this way, and is suffering from sickness brought on by the "transfer magic", hell bent on conquering the world and killing everyone in his way.

Sounds like an article on DJT and the 1%.

Is this only available as an ebook?

[Tiste Simeon]

Tiste Simeon, on 03 January 2019 - 01:07 PM, said:

Today I started the Earbook version of The Fifth Season. The narrator is strange but oddly I feel her voice fits the way the narrative is structured. The second person perspective is weird but I guess I can get used to it. I have no idea what is happening though. Some dude managed to rip a hole in the sky and kill millions for some reason? Then it hasn't effected the woman whose son is dead and she has some secret that only the Doctor man knows about?

It's intriguing enough for me to continue but the way it's written is going to take a bit of getting used to I think. I've got all three on Audible so I'm definitely in but it's been awkward getting into it this far.

Well what a difference a few more trips to work makes! Wow, FIFTH SEASON is just incredible stuff now. The narrator and the style of writing has *seriously* grown on me and I am really loving the three entwining orogen stories that are so far completely unrelated. Really hooked now.

Though I have to giggle whenever the study of their powers is mentioned the way she says it makes it sound like erogeny which to me sounds like the study of the erogenous zones... Which, when you take into account the horrific breeding ideas that the have in the fulcrum I guess isn't too far off the mark... That was somewhat uncomfortable.

The second person perspective is still weird but I'm ok with it. Not sure the reason behind it but it doesn't throw me out.

This post has been edited by Tiste Simeon: 05 January 2019 - 02:38 PM

[Mentalist]

Finished "Fell Sword". Quite liked where all the plot lines went, and the ending gives a good set-up for future books.

Now, turning to my somewhat New Year's resolution of not buying more books until I thinned down the numbers of already purchased books: I'll start Hobb's "Ship of Magic" at home, and take the last Bel Dame Apocrypha book, "Rapture" as commute.

[JPK]

Mentalist, on 05 January 2019 - 03:23 PM, said:

I'll start Hobb's "Ship of Magic" at home

I'm excited to see your thoughts on this one. That trilogy was my favorite read of last year.

[Cyphon]

JPK, on 05 January 2019 - 03:54 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 05 January 2019 - 03:23 PM, said:

I'll start Hobb's "Ship of Magic" at home

I'm excited to see your thoughts on this one. That trilogy was my favorite read of last year.

Seconded as an excellent trilogy that I read last year and that I went on a bit of a journey with. Struggled with some of the first book but the trilogy pay off and character development is really good.

Started reading The Sparrow as my fiction book and one of my Christmas presents.

Non fiction read at the moment is the dyslexia advantage. I recently got a diagnosis as dyslexia so this my getting my head around it and framing it positively book.

The other non-fiction book I finished recently was the biography of Einstein by Walter Isaacson which was excellent. A good read and appreciation of Einstein's strengths and weaknesses and explains his theories and physics in a way that the layman, i.e. me, understood as I read it. Whether i understand it now and could explain it is another question...

This post has been edited by Cyphon: 05 January 2019 - 11:04 PM