[polishgenius]

Azath Vitr (D, on 21 February 2020 - 04:49 AM, said:

polishgenius, on 20 February 2020 - 08:58 PM, said:

Under Heaven > Al Rassan > Sarantine > Tigana > Arbonne > Earth and Sky > Last Light > River of Stars for me, but I gotta reread River of Stars and Arbonne for a proper ranking. Also not read Brightness Long Ago yet.

I liked RIver of Stars more than Under Heaven, though they're both good (... but the Chinese source material is better).

While I've only studied classical Chinese a little, GGK provides a(n un)fairly typical post-Modernist misrepresentation of it. His prose is also just okay in these books.

I loved his other books when I was twelve.

What's the source material? I gather the events of Under Heaven mirror the real history of the time its based on very closely (the most of any of his books), but are there presumably Chinese stories also based around then?

I just re-read River and would move it up a few slots, above Earth and Sky and maybe Arbonne (pending a re-read of that), but it still has the issue for me that in the latter third it just starts skipping massive chunks of time, plot and character development at a time in a really haphazard fashion. It really feels like it should have been at least three books. Under Heaven is my favourite in that it's the precise opposite, of all Kay's books bar Al-Rassan it has the strongest, most consistent throughline (and it pips Al-Rassan coz it sticks the landing better).


I'm now reading A Brightness Long Ago and it's superb. Probably juuuust lacking the really great scenes of tension-shifting conversational intrigue that I love so much about his best work to put it in the top three, but it does other things better than Kay has ever done, in particular having some developments that are genuinely shocking by building character arcs independently of the major plot points that those plot turns can then disrupt.

[Mentalist]

Damn, I really need to buy Earth and Sky. Dunno why, but I just kept putting that one off.

[Salt-Man Z]

Finished Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree last night. So good! A huge, epic standalone fantasy. Global scope, conflicting religions, a little magic, a little romance, two kinds of dragons (Eastern-style and Western-style!) My only knock against it is that the climax felt fairly rushed, and thereby rather, well, anticlimactic. But the ending overall was fine. The author really could have milked this into a series, and on the one hand I'm glad (and impressed!) she didn't, but at the same time I kinda wish there was more...

[End of Disc One]

Salt-Man Z, on 05 March 2020 - 09:32 PM, said:

Finished Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree last night. So good! A huge, epic standalone fantasy. Global scope, conflicting religions, a little magic, a little romance, two kinds of dragons (Eastern-style and Western-style!) My only knock against it is that the climax felt fairly rushed, and thereby rather, well, anticlimactic. But the ending overall was fine. The author really could have milked this into a series, and on the one hand I'm glad (and impressed!) she didn't, but at the same time I kinda wish there was more...

I'll keep this one on my radar. It caught my eye at Barnes & Noble, as these big fat door stoppers often do.

[Mentalist]

Salt-Man Z, on 05 March 2020 - 09:32 PM, said:

Finished Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree last night. So good! A huge, epic standalone fantasy. Global scope, conflicting religions, a little magic, a little romance, two kinds of dragons (Eastern-style and Western-style!) My only knock against it is that the climax felt fairly rushed, and thereby rather, well, anticlimactic. But the ending overall was fine. The author really could have milked this into a series, and on the one hand I'm glad (and impressed!) she didn't, but at the same time I kinda wish there was more...

I've been eyeing this huge book in my bookstores for some time now.

Good to hear some endorsements. I'll have to grab it next time there's a hardback sale at Chapters.

[Abyss]

End of Disc One, on 05 March 2020 - 09:38 PM, said:

Salt-Man Z, on 05 March 2020 - 09:32 PM, said:

Finished Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree last night. So good! A huge, epic standalone fantasy. Global scope, conflicting religions, a little magic, a little romance, two kinds of dragons (Eastern-style and Western-style!) My only knock against it is that the climax felt fairly rushed, and thereby rather, well, anticlimactic. But the ending overall was fine. The author really could have milked this into a series, and on the one hand I'm glad (and impressed!) she didn't, but at the same time I kinda wish there was more...

I'll keep this one on my radar. It caught my eye at Barnes & Noble, as these big fat door stoppers often do.

Mentalist, on 05 March 2020 - 09:56 PM, said:

I've been eyeing this huge book in my bookstores for some time now.

Good to hear some endorsements. I'll have to grab it next time there's a hardback sale at Chapters.

Got it during the audible half price sale. Think I'll put it on deck for my next epic fantasy fix.

[Tsundoku]

Abyss, on 06 March 2020 - 05:31 AM, said:

End of Disc One, on 05 March 2020 - 09:38 PM, said:

Salt-Man Z, on 05 March 2020 - 09:32 PM, said:

Finished Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree last night. So good! A huge, epic standalone fantasy. Global scope, conflicting religions, a little magic, a little romance, two kinds of dragons (Eastern-style and Western-style!) My only knock against it is that the climax felt fairly rushed, and thereby rather, well, anticlimactic. But the ending overall was fine. The author really could have milked this into a series, and on the one hand I'm glad (and impressed!) she didn't, but at the same time I kinda wish there was more...

I'll keep this one on my radar. It caught my eye at Barnes & Noble, as these big fat door stoppers often do.

Mentalist, on 05 March 2020 - 09:56 PM, said:

I've been eyeing this huge book in my bookstores for some time now.

Good to hear some endorsements. I'll have to grab it next time there's a hardback sale at Chapters.

Got it during the audible half price sale. Think I'll put it on deck for my next epic fantasy fix.

Serious question Abby old cat - how do you check the maps when you're earbooking?

[Macros]

Finished up A meeting at Corvallis this morning.

A solid fun trilogy, with a real kicker of an ending.


Onto MoI now for the forum reread

[Abyss]

Tsundoku, on 06 March 2020 - 07:19 AM, said:

...
Serious question Abby old cat - how do you check the maps when you're earbooking?

Serious answer: i mostly ignore them. If i'm deeply curious i'll look at the map when i have time... they're usually attached as .pdfs to earbooks.... but i've never been the kind of fantasy/sf fan who needs to track events on a map.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 24 February 2020 - 04:20 PM, said:

Holding pattern post ASHLORDS waiting for Aaronovich's next Peter Grant book so roll on Scalzi's OLD MAN'S WAR: THE HUMAN DIVISION.


Each chapter is a more or less complete story contributing to a larger work. Some are great, some are just ok. I do enjoy how it builds the world from the series.


I did briefly start OLD MAN'S WAR: ZOE'S TALE but decided i could wait to get to that. It's a side story from THE LAST COLONY and knowing how things play out i found myself unengaged.

Abyss, on 25 February 2020 - 06:51 PM, said:

FALSE VALUE EARBOOK HAS LANDED and is being beamed directly into my head !!!!!

Just Finished FALSE VALUE. Great addition to the series, loads of fantastic character moments. Rock solid book in the series. More in the ded0thread.


Then Just Finished the last half of Scalzi's THE HUMAN DIVISION. Y'know... this is one of those rare moments where the earbook is superior to the text version, imnsho. The events are not that strikingly original, and Scalzi is a very good writer but, for my tastes, this is not his bestest... yet the earbook narrator, Wiliam Dufris, is amazing. Arguably, he does more to bring these characters to life than the actual book. I'm not slamming the book, but i'm pretty blown away by how much better it is because of the voicework of one person.

I will give Scalzi props tho, that considering the book is more or less a collection of linked but separate stories in the same setting, he constructs an overarching story that is properly gripping, nicely paced, and manages to give a fairly big cast ample time to shine.

Not sure if i'll take a break or move directly to OLD MAN'S WAR book 6 THE END OF ALL THINGS next.

[Salt-Man Z]

Abyss, on 06 March 2020 - 03:57 PM, said:

Tsundoku, on 06 March 2020 - 07:19 AM, said:

...
Serious question Abby old cat - how do you check the maps when you're earbooking?

Serious answer: i mostly ignore them. If i'm deeply curious i'll look at the map when i have time... they're usually attached as .pdfs to earbooks.... but i've never been the kind of fantasy/sf fan who needs to track events on a map.

Using maps in an ebook is seriously obnoxious as well (especially on an actual e-ink reader where I can't, like, have another tab open or something.) Priory has two maps, but they're basically just a high-level EAST and WEST map, and I fortunately found them to be perfectly unnecessary.

[Abyss]

Salt-Man Z, on 06 March 2020 - 06:34 PM, said:

....
Using maps in an ebook is seriously obnoxious as well (especially on an actual e-ink reader where I can't, like, have another tab open or something.) Priory has two maps, but they're basically just a high-level EAST and WEST map, and I fortunately found them to be perfectly unnecessary.

Can't you just bookmark and jump?


With a tablet i can even have the map side by side w text if i actually care to do so via screen cap. I generally don't. It's only the rare series like Malazan or SIF where i'm engaged enough to look at a map to see where things happened or how far apart things are.

[Salt-Man Z]

Abyss, on 06 March 2020 - 07:00 PM, said:

Can't you just bookmark and jump?

I could, but it's still annoying: Tap once to bring up the header menu, another tap to load the full menu, tap "View Notes & Marks" to bring up bookmarks, and then a fourth and final tap to select my map bookmark (assuming I don't have more bookmarks I need to scroll through.) And then it's two taps to get back to my place in the book (header + back). And with e-ink there's always that ever-so-slight delay to the touch controls and the screen drawing, so it always feels that much slower.

[Tiste Simeon]

I've got an old school Kindle so it's even more awkward. If I really need a map I Google it on my phone instead.

[Macros]

Hand draw you maps, have them beside you at all times

[Macros]

Finally starting my MoI reread

[polishgenius]

Abyss, on 06 March 2020 - 04:08 PM, said:

Just Finished FALSE VALUE. Great addition to the series, loads of fantastic character moments. Rock solid book in the series. More in the ded0thread.

Why must you turn MalazanEmpire into a house of lies?

[Abyss]

polishgenius, on 09 March 2020 - 09:15 AM, said:

Abyss, on 06 March 2020 - 04:08 PM, said:

Just Finished FALSE VALUE. Great addition to the series, loads of fantastic character moments. Rock solid book in the series. More in the ded0thread.

Why must you turn MalazanEmpire into a house of lies?

i didn't say when in the dedthread, did i?

[polishgenius]

Abyss, on 09 March 2020 - 03:34 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 09 March 2020 - 09:15 AM, said:

Abyss, on 06 March 2020 - 04:08 PM, said:

Just Finished FALSE VALUE. Great addition to the series, loads of fantastic character moments. Rock solid book in the series. More in the ded0thread.

Why must you turn MalazanEmpire into a house of lies?

i didn't say when in the dedthread, did i?

One thousand years in the future!!


(I'm just messing with ya)

[Stylo]

I'm on chapter 7 of House of Chains now. And yeah yeah I know this still probably isn't the thread to announce that I'm reading Malazan. I'm also reading... well, kinda pluggin away at a re-read of the Stand, more Wodehouse stories, a little Gene Wolfe, Zelazny, some non-fic about reading (Jo Walton's 'What Makes This Book So Great' which is more or less a compilation of TOR blog posts regarding SF stuff)... and thinking about picking up where I left off in Don Quixote (I hit one of those 'pastoral interludes' which while not bad may have halted my momentum at the time). Also getting strong Pynchon cravings but I really gotta try and limit how many God Damn Giant Books I pick up at once...

Oh yeah, and I was thinking of continuing to re-read what relatively little I've read of the Dresden Files. I got to I think book 5 and realized I'd forgotten a bunch of shit about vampires and presumably important characters.

Also whoever mentioned the Malaz Discord, I joined it a couple days ago, if it's the Moon's Spawn one anyway.

This post has been edited by Stylo: 10 March 2020 - 04:48 AM