[Cyphon]

Changed my mind, rather than starting House of Chains early I'm going to read Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama. I dont think I've ever read any Clarke before...

This post has been edited by Cyphon: 30 March 2020 - 09:49 AM

[Aptorian]

It's been decades but I recall liking Clark's space oddysey books. Especially 2010.

[Aptorian]

Finished Red Rising. I'm luke warm on that book. It has it's moments, it has great characters but it also has weird choices, lulls in the pacing, storyline shifts that I do not care for, inconsistencies in Darrow's smarts. It some how managed to make me deeply engrossed, rooting for the characters and then annoyed and indifferent every five pages

If it wasn't for the praise I've heard from you guys the past year I don't think I'd continue but I'll give it another go. Think I'll wait with the sequel till I can order a copy via the library.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 30 March 2020 - 01:32 PM

[QuickTidal]

Aptorian, on 30 March 2020 - 05:48 AM, said:

It's been decades but I recall liking Clark's space oddysey books. Especially 2010.

They are excellent. I steered clear of them for so long because I didn't like 2001 the movie....but after I read them I was blown away, and yes especially 2010.

[Cyphon]

Powering through a quarter of Rendezvous with Rama so I can start HoC reasonably soon and enjoying it so far. Apart from the passage about how women shouldn't be in space coz boobs and zero gravity will distract men and cause accidents...

This post has been edited by Cyphon: 31 March 2020 - 09:27 AM

[Aptorian]

Then who will tend the space kitchens and do the space laundry?

[Cyphon]

Super monkeys called 'Simps' apparently. The exposition about the simps immediately follows the section about space boobs. 2.75 more times effective than normal domestic workers according to time and motion studies. Freeing up the astronauts to do the work who all have caucasian names...

Clarke had clearly thought this through.

This post has been edited by Cyphon: 31 March 2020 - 11:25 AM

[Tiste Simeon]

Go on Reddit and look for the subforum called Simps.

But not when you're around others...

[Cyphon]

Thank god for google previews. How did you know about that?!

[Macros]

He thought it was a forum for people who liked 'SIMPly dead'

[Macros]

Finished Library at Mount Char.

I liked it, didn't love it the way most of you seemed to, dark for sure in places, and a bittersweet ending I guess but not blown away. Had I went into it cold with no hype or expectations it probably would have been a bit more fun, but still where I'm at is where I would be at

[Abyss]

Macros, on 31 March 2020 - 02:07 PM, said:

Finished Library at Mount Char.

I liked it, didn't love it the way most of you seemed to, dark for sure in places, and a bittersweet ending I guess but not blown away. Had I went into it cold with no hype or expectations it probably would have been a bit more fun, but still where I'm at is where I would be at
am cold and dead inside.

Fixed.

[Macros]

Blah blah abyss


Starting Feist's King of Ashes, my aim is 2 books off my TRP along with each Malaz reread.

Starting House of chains tomorrow as well

[QuickTidal]

Finished THE FIFTH ELEPHANT, spectacular Pratchett as usual!

Guy Gavriel Kay has been doing readings on FB from his house in Toronto (he's done one from SARANTINE, TIGANA, and LIONS so far), and this prompted me to realize I've yet to read THE CHILDREN OF EARTH & SKY (let alone A BRIGHTNESS LONG AGO), so I've started that. Starts off pretty strong, we'll see where it goes.

[Macros]

Briar King, on 31 March 2020 - 05:17 PM, said:

Is that the new one I told you about over a year ago?

Yep, first thing I saw on the shelf that I haven't read before

[End of Disc One]

To BK and anyone who cares about the Dandelion Dynasty, I asked Ken Liu on Reddit how long he expects the next book to be. As often happens, book 3 grew into two books which will be published separately.

"As I mentioned elsewhere, what I thought of as TVT turned out to be actually two books So it will be divided into two volumes and published separately. They are both fairly big books -- I'll leave it at that "

[Zeto Demerzel]

Just finished Traitor Son 2 - The Fell Sword and am 2/3rds of the way through the earbook of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.

The former, I enjoyed. Was hard-hitting, meticulously researched (although I could've used a bit less armour porn), featured brutal action and some big events, and had hints (and more) of big happenings elsewhere. Had to roll my eyes a time or two at the Kay-esque archetypal hero but I could live with that.

The latter has been boring. It is coasting on feel-goodness (which it, admittedly, does well) and is wafer thin on plot and characterisation. The less I say about the "science" part, the better. Kizzy's long and farsical description of tunneling was a particular lowlight. Our young heroine has a dark past she's trying to escape. Boo hoo. Only the reveal makes you go, "That's it???" Nothing much has happened really. Even a pirate raid is boring and feel-goody with everyone having a nice cup of tea and a chat at the end of it. Not seeing the Firefly comparisons, nor do I get the claims anointing Chambers as Bujold's successor.This is a far cry from the Vorkosigan saga.

[Cyphon]

Finished Rendezvous with Rama. Really enjoyed that, lots of unanswered questions and bits left to speculate. You can easily see why it's in the SF masterworks list. Last Line is ace. Would pick up more Clarke again.

Interesting that Rothfuss said in his review that the sequel damaged his opinion of this book. Anyone read the sequel and have an opinion? Unlikely I'll read the sequel/for a while so curious as to why without learning too much of the detail.

Onto HoC!

This post has been edited by Cyphon: 02 April 2020 - 01:14 PM

[Macros]

Finished King of Ashes earlier.

Definitely darker than Feist's other works, and a bit more polished than the tail end of the Midkemian cycle, where he just got...bored? Lazy, I dunno.

However, man does he like a bastard son as an orphan blacksmith!

[polishgenius]

Cyphon, on 02 April 2020 - 01:09 PM, said:

Interesting that Rothfuss said in his review that the sequel damaged his opinion of this book. Anyone read the sequel and have an opinion? Unlikely I'll read the sequel/for a while so curious as to why without learning too much of the detail.

I haven't re-read the sequels and I certainly never will, so my memory of specifics isn't there, but I can tell you they are really, truly not worth reading. They're not written by Clarke, and they replace the elegant hard SF mysteries of the first one with a shite socio-political soap opera that couldn't in the end give two farts about mystery. Dreadful.