[Aptorian]

Half way into Peter Newman's second Vagrant book "The Malice".

The more you read about these infernals and half-breeds and other creatures, the more sympathetic they seem. They're monsters but they long to be more than that.

It's making the stories less terrifying and grim but still pretty horrible. Mind you what we're learning about the Human population makes the distinction blurry.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 06 September 2019 - 03:12 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 06 September 2019 - 02:32 PM, said:

Abyss, on 06 September 2019 - 02:04 PM, said:

Abyss, on 05 September 2019 - 04:28 PM, said:

...

Now, on to Claire North's THE FIRST FIFTEEN LIVES OF HARRY AUGUST.

Y'know, for the level of praise this book has generated, it starts surprisingly slow.

Oh man I have so much love for this book. Stick with it. If you're doing it via Earbook too, the narrator is ace.

He iS, it's just there is so much 'life for a poor child in 1900s England' and minimal sf/f that i showed up for.
Hints, sure, the intro bit was interesting, but right now i feel like i'm listening to a Jane Austen novel. Maybe Dickens.

Aptorian, on 06 September 2019 - 04:06 PM, said:

Subsequent lives itterate on the first one so it pays off.

Just finished.

It was good, i liked. It held my attention, most of the time. The things i did not love were fairly subjective to my tastes, i think.



The core concept - a perpetual cycle of dying and being reborn into the exact same life - was well executed. I might argue that Ken Grim wood did it better with REPLAY, but Grimwood took a much narrower approach, focusing on the person. North goes wider, introduces other 'Ourobourans', and that's where this book really shines, engaging in the interplay between sort of immortals.

Spoiler

There were elements i did not enjoy as much... I found that the protagonist spends entirely too much time on his family and daddy issues, i would have preferred more time on his otherwise brief theological crisis and really much more interaction with the other immortals. That concept, that they are all advancing together though realities, that they only relive their own lives, and how the 'network' of the Cronus Club communicated back through time, child to dying adult where their lives intersected, ws what i really enjoyed about this book. Really i would have enjoyed more let's call it 'quantum reality espionage' .

Ultimately Harry's conflict with Vincent is the major conflict of the story and while i enjoyed that, the resolution came back to everyone's daddy-issues more than the intricate con Harry pulled over a series of lives, and that bugged me. In the end Vic gives Harry the key to taking him out because he feels bad about 'a' Harry - who as far as Vic is concerned is not the Harry he was besties with or even the Harry he worked closely with after that one - tried to save his life, unaware of their immortality. It's a clever turnabout, except that it runs contrary to everything else Vic was willing to do, and the strong suggestion that more than anything Vic wanted the previous Harry back, or the one before that. I follow the 'i don't want you to remember this' part, but the reveal of his origin just didn't ring right to me as the climax of the entire book. Also, while much was made of the quantum mirror, it was too deliberately vague just what it was supposed to do. Vic was already having huge success releasing tech concepts decades ahead of their proper time. It seemed as tho he could have 'won' just based on that. I read the mirror as a means to give him ultimate control over his own timeline - as in seeing each outcome from each action - but was left wondering if that was actually what the author intended.

Also, a personal preference, but just a little more action would have been nice. Once Harry went and became an international criminal mastermind, i was hoping for a more direct clash with Vic's resources - two immortals assembling small armies with the benefit of their past lives' knowledge - but we never got that.

All that said, it was a good book and i can see why so many enjoy it so much. Will check out something else by Claire North eventually.

Next up, back to Daevabad w S A Charabotay's KINGDOM OF COPPER.

[acesn8s]

I couldn't get into The Liar's Key, so I shelved it. Started The Ember Blade instead.

[Macros]

Aw man QT, you went and picked one of the weak Sharpe books. Pretty much anything published after Fortress is inferior

[Macros]

Clicking through my kobo to see what I have as a light hearted pallet cleanser after 84k.
Think I might have another Ciaphas Cain book

[QuickTidal]

Macros, on 09 September 2019 - 03:37 PM, said:

Aw man QT, you went and picked one of the weak Sharpe books. Pretty much anything published after Fortress is inferior

Ah, it's not too bad. I'm doing chronological order and it was up next...after that is RIFLES though.

[polishgenius]

I finally got to read The Missing of Clairedelune, the sequel to A Winter's Promise which I loved so much last year. Possibly didn't find it guite as captivating as the first but that's a pretty high bar- I still tore through it in two days. And it might well just have been that I expected it this time.
Mind, there was an odd decision regarding the treatment of a major antagonist from the first one.



Now I'm reading The Monster, the sequel to The Traitor Baru Cormorant, and good grief, I've not seen a step up in writing quality between an author's first and second books I think ever. I mean I like the first one well enough but there were all sorts of issues in the writing and structure and character building. This, so far, is orders better on every single level.

[Slow Ben]

After 2 moves I finally found my copy of TTH. Finally can roll on with the re-read after 9 month hiatus.

[Abyss]

polishgenius, on 09 September 2019 - 04:56 PM, said:

...Now I'm reading The Monster, the sequel to The Traitor Baru Cormorant, and good grief, I've not seen a step up in writing quality between an author's first and second books I think ever. I mean I like the first one well enough but there were all sorts of issues in the writing and structure and character building. This, so far, is orders better on every single level.

So much agree. I liked TRAITOR well enough, but MONSTER is a massive improvement on every level, character, action, humour, tension, hell just clarity of wtf is going on. I hope you enjoy as much as i did.

[Macros]

QuickTidal, on 09 September 2019 - 04:00 PM, said:

Macros, on 09 September 2019 - 03:37 PM, said:

Aw man QT, you went and picked one of the weak Sharpe books. Pretty much anything published after Fortress is inferior

Ah, it's not too bad. I'm doing chronological order and it was up next...after that is RIFLES though.

Is this a reread or first time?

There's a few Gotmisms in Rifles if you do a chrono as it was the first one published.
But shit yeah Rifles, Gold and Eagle are probably my 3 favourites.

Also, Prey comes between Trafalgar and Rifles.
If you're a completionist, read it, otherwise skip it

[QuickTidal]

Macros, on 09 September 2019 - 06:29 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 09 September 2019 - 04:00 PM, said:

Macros, on 09 September 2019 - 03:37 PM, said:

Aw man QT, you went and picked one of the weak Sharpe books. Pretty much anything published after Fortress is inferior

Ah, it's not too bad. I'm doing chronological order and it was up next...after that is RIFLES though.

Is this a reread or first time?

There's a few Gotmisms in Rifles if you do a chrono as it was the first one published.
But shit yeah Rifles, Gold and Eagle are probably my 3 favourites.

Also, Prey comes between Trafalgar and Rifles.
If you're a completionist, read it, otherwise skip it

First time reading them. I was going to skip PREY simply because I have a physical copy of RIFLES on hand to start, but now I'll skip PREY on principle too. Thanks!

[Macros]

I'd say (for me) Prey is the weakest of the post Fortress publications

[Macros]

But man are you in For a treat with the first few of the originals.


ETA I found alloy of law on the Link and read a few chapters. It'll do but I remembered I have Legend in my suitcase, it's always worth a reread....

This post has been edited by Macros: 09 September 2019 - 07:19 PM

[Slow Ben]

Slow Ben, on 09 September 2019 - 05:17 PM, said:

After 2 moves I finally found my copy of TTH. Finally can roll on with the re-read after 9 month hiatus.

Got to read for about 3 hours this morning. I’m still baffled how this was my least favorite book the first time I read this series. This book is amazing.

[Tiste Simeon]

Slow Ben, on 09 September 2019 - 09:48 PM, said:

Slow Ben, on 09 September 2019 - 05:17 PM, said:

After 2 moves I finally found my copy of TTH. Finally can roll on with the re-read after 9 month hiatus.

Got to read for about 3 hours this morning. I’m still baffled how this was my least favorite book the first time I read this series. This book is amazing.

Yes! TTH is definitely my favourite of the series.

[Abyss]

Tiste Simeon, on 09 September 2019 - 10:51 PM, said:

Slow Ben, on 09 September 2019 - 09:48 PM, said:

Slow Ben, on 09 September 2019 - 05:17 PM, said:

After 2 moves I finally found my copy of TTH. Finally can roll on with the re-read after 9 month hiatus.

Got to read for about 3 hours this morning. I’m still baffled how this was my least favorite book the first time I read this series. This book is amazing.

Yes! TTH is definitely my favourite of the series.

Third after MoI and DG for me.

[Maark Abbott]

Tiste Simeon, on 06 September 2019 - 11:39 AM, said:

Booo, Uthred over all!

And Maark if we're being correct, it's ærsling...

Such a cop thing to say.

Anywho, I'm at about 410/600 on Crown of Stars #6.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Sharpe were the Cornwell books I got into least (I think as a product of reading Warlord Chronicles first, mostly) - but I second the call for Eagles, Gold and Rifles being the pick of the bunch. I seem to recall having a soft spot for Battle too.

So yes, I sit firmly in the UHTRED! camp. And hearing the chap playing Leofric shout "arseling" over and over again in the series was a thing of pure beauty.

[Macros]

Battle yah, solid solid Sharpe action.

[Aptorian]

Just finished the second Vagrant book, The Malice.

It's not a bad book, like the first one it's downright heartwarming in the middle of all that grim grimness, but I feel like the first half of the first book promised something completely different than what the series actually delivered.

And the more you read the less grim the story actually is. It's more "the real monsters are us" than the epic Diablo vs High Tech Knights smackdown I was looking for.

I don't even know what the third book is supposed to be about. The infernals seem more sympathetic than the people. I wonder if the Seven/Six become the real baddies.