[Chance]

Finished up The Steel Remains re-read and will continue on to The Cold Commands, such a joy to read these and it kind of feels like I've been reading kids stories for the last few books. Profanity, buckets of blood, grit and uncompromising main characters really make it seem a lot more real and believable.

Dadding, on 21 August 2020 - 10:36 AM, said:

Abyss, on 21 August 2020 - 01:57 AM, said:

Dadding, on 19 August 2020 - 06:57 PM, said:

I finally finished the Wheel of Time. It only took me 1 year, 5 months, and 9 days. I haven't enjoyed listening to it since Book 3, and I'm never reading another book by Brandon Sanderson...

And the award for Greatest Fantasy Lit Feat of Masochism goes to...

Mama didn't raise no quitter

Tried the same earlier this year since I've not re-read the last few books of the series, but hell no lost interest for the slogg by book 5 or something.

[QuickTidal]

I only managed the middle books by skimming them largely...and one of them Illy just told me the main piece of relevant action/event that occurred in it in a spoiler window, so I skipped that book entirely thankfully.

WOT starts out with such promise, but the middle books are such an interminable slog of leatherleaf trees, arms angrily crossed over breasts....and braid tugging.

[champ]

WoT was the first ever series I failed to complete, bought the first 6 books and dropped it through book 4. It just never seemed to get anywhere, doubt I'll go back to it either.

[Dadding]

I'm glad I'm not alone then. Even by the end, with all the action, I was so done with what I had to put up with I couldn't let go and just enjoy the conclusion. Still, since it tops so many Best Fantasy of all Time lists, I felt like I had to read it. I started Kushiel's Dart the other day and I'm loving that in comparison, even with all the weird sex stuff.

[Cyphon]

I think WoT suffers for the fact you can go through it all in one go. The natural gap of publication made it easier to read. I wonder if the Amazon production will enable an abridged version.

85 percent through Reapers Gale. The most jarring but of the reread of this book is the narrative leaps between chapters. I think it's like HoC in that it's one of the more straightforward reads of the series.

Listening to Harrow the Ninth on earbooks. Tamsyn Muir is such a great narrator.

[Mercury]

Perfect day out with my auntie hitting up some sales. I’m walking away with A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar, C is for Corpse, D is for Deadbeat, E is for Evidence, F is for Fugitive, G is for Gumshoe, & H is for Homicide by Sue Grafton. On our way to other sales shortly and I have picked up book 1 to start while I wait.

[Tiste Simeon]

Cyphon, on 21 August 2020 - 04:23 PM, said:

Listening to Harrow the Ninth on earbooks. Tamsyn Muir is such a great narrator.

I love the earbooks too (though I think Moira Quirk is the narrator - Muir is the author?) Struggling with Harrow though because my commute is relatively short now compared to what it used to be so I never have enough time to truly get into it...

[Cyphon]

You're right, got them mixed up. My bad. I'm only listening to them wheni do chores so I'm getting through it... slowly...

[Traveller]

Sat up and finished Toll the Hounds last night.

There's not even a thread yet so I guess I'm a bit early.

Those last chapters really require a long single session to finish up.. he just keeps hitting and hitting with multiple confrontations and convergences.

Almost gets messy.. but just manages to keep it under control. Like with RotCG, there are a couple of threads that maybe, maybe could have been lost? Endest Silann musing on Kharkanas.. everything with Clip... gods he does nothing, nothing.

But then we have Karsa. Traveller. Kallor suddenly given a pov and ends up screaming 'do none of you realise what this is doing to me?' when he fights Spinnock Durav.

Murillio. Holy shit that really still pulls no punches; it's circumstance and blisters and poor timing and grief, all so visceral and real and so sad.

Loved the way the Imass found in the mine was all set up to come and rescue Harllo or something (as other Imass have done in other books) and then ends up as a new steaming pile in Raests garden.

I'm not sure about the whole Stonny/Harllo/Snell thing. Who the hell calls their first child Snell anyway?

Trygalle side quest was awesome.

I'll leave the rest for a reread thread when y'all catch up.

[Mentalist]

Since I read "Kellanved's reach in one sitting, I'm now 100-odd pages into "Oathbringer".

Sanderson's pacing appears to have improved. Though it sounds like he's building up Kaladin for another breakdown. If that happens, I swear I will burn these books.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Traveller, on 22 August 2020 - 06:46 PM, said:

I'm not sure about the whole Stonny/Harllo/Snell thing. Who the hell calls their first child Snell anyway?

'English: nickname for a brisk or active person, from Middle English snell "quick", "lively", in part also representing a survival of the Old English personal name Snell or the cognate Old Norse Snjallr.'

https://www.ancestry...n?surname=snell

'the father of the first person named Snelling most likely was named Snell.'

http://www.snellingc...mily-index.html

Listening to The Shadow of What Was Lost right now....

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 23 August 2020 - 12:14 AM

[Abyss]

Mentalist, on 22 August 2020 - 11:33 PM, said:

Since I read "Kellanved's reach in one sitting, I'm now 100-odd pages into "Oathbringer".

Sanderson's pacing appears to have improved. Though it sounds like he's building up Kaladin for another breakdown. If that happens, I swear I will burn these books.

*guy sets up lawnchair to watch the show.gif*

[Chance]

Mentalist, on 22 August 2020 - 11:33 PM, said:

Since I read "Kellanved's reach in one sitting, I'm now 100-odd pages into "Oathbringer".

Sanderson's pacing appears to have improved. Though it sounds like he's building up Kaladin for another breakdown. If that happens, I swear I will burn these books.

Your not going to be disappointed who hasn't wanted to burn a that much waste of paper.

I'm still somewhat irritated at that book.

This post has been edited by Chance: 24 August 2020 - 01:37 PM

[QuickTidal]

It won me over in the last couple of hundred pages but before that it was the biggest slog Sanderson has yet produced...

[Tiste Simeon]

You guys will summon Maark if you're not careful.

In other news, finished Dead Beat! Onto Proven Guilty!

[Macros]

Just finished Court of the Broken Knives.


Eh

I don't know. Plot, Cast and world building are all solid. The protagonist goes through a full wheel of pitiful disgust to almost likable to full blown maniac fairly tightly.

But the prose, with its chapter by chapter shifting from third to first person and back. A lot of the sentence structure I found jarring as well.
Which was frustrating as it was an interesting tale, and a way to watch the world ender myth come to life well. But damnit if I couldn't get past my annoyance at the writing.

Don't think I'll follow up


ETA, the second protagonist goes through an almost similar cycle, in more mild degree, which make for interesting parallels in differing motives and loosely similar devastating outcomes

This post has been edited by Macros: 25 August 2020 - 01:15 PM

[End of Disc One]

Mentalist, on 22 August 2020 - 11:33 PM, said:

Since I read "Kellanved's reach in one sitting, I'm now 100-odd pages into "Oathbringer".

Sanderson's pacing appears to have improved. Though it sounds like he's building up Kaladin for another breakdown. If that happens, I swear I will burn these books.

Kaladin suffers from clinical depression, so he's bound to slide backwards every now and then

[Macros]

Starting how to rule an empire and get away with it
KJ Parker.


I enjoyed 16 ways a lot so this was a no brainer

[Andorion]

Read a bunch of stuff recently - Declaration of the Rights of Magicians - loved this book!
My Valdermar read - Finished By The Sword and Exile's Honour
I am reading Michelle West now, I have finished Hidden City and City of Night - I absolutely loved both books, one of the best character writers at the moment.

[polishgenius]

I started reading The Tyrant Baru Cormorant. Very good, so far, but being 800 pages of non-stop frantic twisting, I felt the need to interject it with something else, and settled for Isabel Steiger's The Empire's Ghost, a fantasy debut from a few years ago, which I'm enjoying a lot. It piles all the fantasy tropes you can think of together in one - there's dashing thieves and rogues, large scale clash of nations, an unprepossessing (probably) orphan boy, a witch-queen, a ruthless wannabe emperor and his put-upon advisor, some rooftop assassination, a fellowship going on a quest... but somehow it's all fitting together very nicely and hitting that nostalgia spot perfectly without feeling old.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 27 August 2020 - 09:31 PM