[Aptorian]

Finished Kelanved's Reach. Best book Esslemonts written. Hope he writes another seven of these.

I'm half way into the third Belgariad book but got sidetracked when I peeked inside the latest Laundry Files book, The Labyrinth Index. That opening paragraph hooked me and the first chapter doesn't disappoint..

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 27 March 2019 - 07:55 PM

[Abyss]

 Aptorian, on 27 March 2019 - 07:53 PM, said:

... when I peeked inside the latest Laundry Files book, The Labyrinth Index. That opening paragraph hooked me and the first chapter doesn't disappoint..

Neither does the rest of it.

[Maark Abbott]

 Aptorian, on 27 March 2019 - 07:53 PM, said:

Finished Kelanved's Reach. Best book Esslemonts written. Hope he writes another seven of these.

I'm half way into the third Belgariad book but got sidetracked when I peeked inside the latest Laundry Files book, The Labyrinth Index. That opening paragraph hooked me and the first chapter doesn't disappoint..

He'd need to write seven to have one book long enough to fit in with Malaz, aye.

[Aptorian]

There's definitely a lot of material left out but as an alternative to Erikson's slower pace in later books, these prequels are a breath of fresh air.

[Macros]

so by this token, the KB&B books aren't malazan cause they're not depressing slogs?

Just finished the first 5 books of Amber.

meh, the first 3/4 were fun, the last got a bit protracted in the journeys through shadow and pages upon pages of shift descriptions.

not sure if I fancy another 700 pages of it right now for the second Pentology

[Cyphon]

Just finished River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey. Hippos abound! Definitely not a book for Maark. Fun concept and I needed something easy to read, even if there is some dark stuff in the book. Great ending but I find myself on the Maark side of life in that it was too short and the character development was lighter than I'd like and it was very fast paced so it took away from being able to engage with what happened.

Would recommend if you need something easy to read and have two hours to spare. Shame that the concept wasn't fleshed out more.

Not sure what I'll read next.

This post has been edited by Cyphon: 28 March 2019 - 11:51 AM

[Maark Abbott]

 Aptorian, on 28 March 2019 - 10:27 AM, said:

There's definitely a lot of material left out but as an alternative to Erikson's slower pace in later books, these prequels are a breath of fresh air.

 Macros, on 28 March 2019 - 11:12 AM, said:

so by this token, the KB&B books aren't malazan cause they're not depressing slogs?

Just finished the first 5 books of Amber.

meh, the first 3/4 were fun, the last got a bit protracted in the journeys through shadow and pages upon pages of shift descriptions.

not sure if I fancy another 700 pages of it right now for the second Pentology

"therewasthisguycalledwuhimanddancerdidsomestuffnowhe'sshadowthroneTHEEND"

- Rush to Ascendancy

Honestly, I doubt I'll read Kellanved's Speed, Deadhouse Speeding was an absolute letdown for me. I can't stand stuff being glosses over and that series was (to that point) so much gloss that it may as well have been a top coat of paint.

[QuickTidal]

Finally started on Phillip Pullman's THE BOOK OF DUST: LA BELLE SAUVAGE. I bought it the day it was released, but I had been holding off reading it because I know it's the first of a trilogy and I didn't want to wait too long for Volume 2 (THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH, which drops in Oct. of this year), but could not wait any longer, so I dove in.

Only a few chapters in so far, but it's GREAT, and it's SO wonderful to be back in this world! And Malcolm is a great protagonist to follow.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

 QuickTidal, on 28 March 2019 - 01:14 PM, said:

Finally started on Phillip Pullman's THE BOOK OF DUST: LA BELLE SAUVAGE. I bought it the day it was released, but I had been holding off reading it because I know it's the first of a trilogy and I didn't want to wait too long for Volume 2 (THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH, which drops in Oct. of this year), but could not wait any longer, so I dove in.

Only a few chapters in so far, but it's GREAT, and it's SO wonderful to be back in this world! And Malcolm is a great protagonist to follow.

You're in for such a treat!

[QuickTidal]

 TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 28 March 2019 - 02:22 PM, said:

 QuickTidal, on 28 March 2019 - 01:14 PM, said:

Finally started on Phillip Pullman's THE BOOK OF DUST: LA BELLE SAUVAGE. I bought it the day it was released, but I had been holding off reading it because I know it's the first of a trilogy and I didn't want to wait too long for Volume 2 (THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH, which drops in Oct. of this year), but could not wait any longer, so I dove in.

Only a few chapters in so far, but it's GREAT, and it's SO wonderful to be back in this world! And Malcolm is a great protagonist to follow.

You're in for such a treat!

Super excited!

[Abyss]

 Abyss, on 22 March 2019 - 02:19 AM, said:

O'Sullivan's THE ROOK.Light urban fantasy spy-fi stuff, fun. Excellent earbook narrator makes it more engaging than the otherwise unsurprising story might be.About 75% thru and if it ends as strong as it's been i'll Probably jump right to book 2 unless the next EXPANSE arrives.

Just finished ROOK, satisfied.

It's abit light, and there's a tonal shift to near comedy about 2/3rds of the way thru that's almost jarring (tho, when it's funny, very much funny), but overall it was an enjoyable urban fantasy take on the 'superagent in super secret agency loses memory, has to fake they know what they're doing while solving crime, saving world' story. Great earbook narrator really sells it. The main character(s) is/are engaging. The supporting cast are fairly cardboard but the way the story is written that's not problematic. Some of the pov shifts from first to subjective third to omniscient third are less than smooth, but again, not problematic. Despite those 'flaws', using the term loosely, the book never lost my attention, and i went right into the sequel STILETTO.



ETA.....ooooh, TV SERIES THIS SUMMER DID NOT KNOW THAT!

https://twitter.com/...143345926922240

[worry]

I finished Permafrost, then read the spoiler posts by Apt and stonemonkey: turns out, I kinda agree with both!

Spoiler

I thought sm's point about taking into account the future-future of time travel, and the idea of competing interests from further upstream was on point. It was a really great idea, executed well. From a literary standpoint, the decision to make the "present" and "past" of the story both near-future to us laid the groundwork for that twist. And the plausible circumstances of the "present" are really scary -- I dunno if insects have a pan-genetic self destruct option, but the way catastrophes can cascade was close enough to make the Scouring extremely uncomfortable. The stakes feel very real.

Where I agree with Apt most is regarding Miguel. I think he gets the short shrift. I don't think we necessarily need the confrontation on page (though I too expected it), but I do think we could have gotten 5-10 more pages of getting-to-know-the-squad, life around the ships material, that would have humanized him (and his loss to the team) a lot more. Everyone else gets something (even Margaret) that leaves Miguel a bit of a blank. Maybe there's something I didn't pick up though about why that is -- I know he had the most severe language barrier, so there's that. It would have been cool if Miguel was subtly changing (on page) due to future machine tinkering in ways the reader but not the protag could pick up? Or maybe that woulda been one too many layers, I dunno.

Anyway, overall I liked it, but I would have liked a somewhat longer version of the same story more. Not to sound like Maark, I don't need a doorstopper, but this story is all lean no fat. If something like that tinkering stuff with Miguel did exist and I missed it though, it'd definitely raise my opinion even higher. Reading sm's thoughts on Cho already did a bit.

[Mentalist]

Into Part 3 of D.O.D.O. and i'm pining for a good Stephenson info-dump. They're often hinted at, but never actually happen.

On one hand, it arguably improves the pacing. OTOH, id doesn't really feel like a Stephenson book without those.

[stone monkey]

I get the feeling that it is very likely that this story will be up for awards when the Hugos and Nebulas and whatnot come round. So, some more of my noodling on Permafrost - primarily because I actually read it again, a couple of days after I first read it, to check my thinking (something I only very rarely do)

Spoiler

Because we only see Valentina's perspective, whatever happened to Miguel (i.e. him essentially being brain-hacked by the White Machines) must have happened in the previous, aborted timeline after she pilots Tatiana (and we must assume that she somehow failed in her mission in that version; which is why the others were sent back), so we can't ever see it because her later actions (in the new timeline) erase it. Miguel's lack of characterisation would seem to be a stereotypical big pointer to "He's going to be a baddie", so perhaps it would have been far more interesting, from a character perspective, had it turned out to be Antii who was suborned by the White Machines, and Miguel became someone Valentina had to learn to trust, and get to know, while they were in the past.

A thought that occurred to me on my second reading is that the White Machines' meddling with the past (or perhaps a previous version of Permafrost) may actually have been the cause of the Scouring - all they needed was the active MRIs, after all, and we know it was possible to physically send back something the size of a grain of pollen. Especially given that it's mentioned that it was originally thought to be a bioweapon. Also, maybe the reason that Antii, poor Vikram, and Miguel couldn't get back to their time is that their interaction with Valentina and each other (thus prompting Valentina's later actions), or even the fact they went back in the first place, served as a sufficient condition to erase their timeline - so it wasn't there to go back to.

I do like the concept of the 4D spacetime monobloc as a crystalline lattice, with paradox as deformations within the structure leading to wholesale rearrangement. However I was expecting Reynolds to go the whole hog and eventually start talking about phase changes, and was a bit disappointed when he didn't

The story itself is a piece of precisely tuned clockwork imo, which is kind of my kryptonite as far as sf stories go; I really enjoy doing the mental work to figure out how the machine functions. In that respect it reminds me a bit of the film Primer

Spoiler

i.e. once you figure out that there was at least one overarching loop you didn't see, the whole thing falls into place

If you're in the mood, and have very slightly less than £1 to spare, you might want to look at Reynolds' short story Sleepover. That one is conceptually even weirder - and he says he wants to turn it into a novel one day, which completely boggles my mind.

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 29 March 2019 - 12:26 AM

[Macros]

Started Anthony Ryan's Blood Song

[Aptorian]

 Abyss, on 28 March 2019 - 02:39 AM, said:

 Aptorian, on 27 March 2019 - 07:53 PM, said:

... when I peeked inside the latest Laundry Files book, The Labyrinth Index. That opening paragraph hooked me and the first chapter doesn't disappoint..

Neither does the rest of it.

15% in. It's so good. Like the second half of the last book, it tickles me that the series has gone full apocalyptic.

We're way past putting out occult fires and now we're just trying to adjust to being on fire, while various baddies compete to be even more on fire.

I have no idea what the hell is going on but it's awesome.

[Andorion]

Finished Alastair Reynolds' Permafrost.

I am deeply impressed. Generally I don't like time travel stories, but the way Reynolds structured this... I will need to reread it again, but this is one of his darkest and sharpest creations.

Also finished Seth Fried's The Municipalists. Funny and thought provoking. This author is promising.

[stone monkey]

 Briar King, on 30 March 2019 - 01:53 AM, said:

I just got done looking that up since you fuckers won't shut up about it. Is it really only 176 pgs or is that a mistake on Amazon page? I have yet to read an AR book.

It's a novella, so that's almost certainly correct. Seeing as it's less than £3 for the ebook, and you'd easily pay more than double that for a new novel in ebook form (which might not be all that much bigger), so it's not actually terrible value for money on a per page cost.

His novels - hard sf space operas in general - usually clock in at 500 pages or so.

At this rate I get the feeling that I should be charging him commission

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 30 March 2019 - 02:07 AM

[worry]

I did buy Sleepover too (well, I had a $1 credit so it was freeeee to me) but yah you should.

[Aptorian]

Finished Labyrinth Index by Charles Stross. Great book. Great shift in the parameters The Laundry works within. I was expecting something more catastrophic but the ending didn't disappoint.

Also finished The Belgariad book three. These books are great little palet cleansers between books.

I started up Patrick Ness' "The Knife of never letting go" but put it back down again. I don't like the way that book is written at all. I've heard great things about the series but I'm gonna read some Cormoran Strike instead.