[T77]

Finished The Doors of Eden, the latest from Adrian Tchaikovsky. I thought it was very good.

[Abyss]

Just Finished HARROW THE NINTH, comments forthcoming in the dedthread.

Am spoiled for high quality choice but felt like something fast and lowbrain, so went with HELL DIVERS VII: WARRIORS. It's more of the same from Nicholas Smith - wild battles, brave survivor people fighting freaky mutants, everything going bad and worse for humanity's remnants - and i am here for it.

[Aptorian]

Just read the first Binti book by Nnedi Okorafor.


I don't get why this book is Hugo award winning or highly rated. It's afro futurism which is popular but that's really all it has of interest. Everything else is paper thin or lacks depth. The book barely has a plot.

[Tsundoku]

Noooooo ...!

So when you go to claim, they were all illustrated-by-monks, autographed first editions, right.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 29 August 2020 - 09:59 PM

[JPK]

I don't know about a brick and mortar version, but HPB has a great online marketplace. I think it's definitely worth checking out the actual bookstore.

[Tiste Simeon]

Finished Proven Guilty! Onto White Night!

[Salt-Man Z]

Briar King, on 01 September 2020 - 04:08 PM, said:

Hey isn’t Half Price Books one of those groovy stores you fucks always praise? Trying to find stores close to my brothers house in west H Town.

JPK, on 01 September 2020 - 04:29 PM, said:

I don't know about a brick and mortar version, but HPB has a great online marketplace. I think it's definitely worth checking out the actual bookstore.

Half Price Books is indeed the shiz. They buy and sell any and all kinds of media, including books, comics, movies, music, video games, board games (I've purchased from all of those categories) and more. Browsing the clearance sections is always fun, with a chance to find some absolute steals. (Most of my purchases there nowadays involve $2 CDs and $3 Blu-rays.) If "H-Town" refers to Houston TX, you should be golden, as they're based in Texas. Use their store locator or just Google for the nearest locations. (Yes, I realize I come off as a HPB shill here, but I really do love the place, as they're more or less responsible for me being here at these forums.)

[Chance]

Started the collapsing empire mostly because it had been in the to read pile a while. Found it very boring for a while. Then it became rather awesome, not in a ass kicking way but more this is very nicely put together. Now starting book two with serious expectations.

This post has been edited by Chance: 04 September 2020 - 07:35 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

Finished White Night! Onto Small Favor!

Feels wrong spelling it like that...

[Abyss]

Xpost from the comics thread...

Abyss, on 06 September 2020 - 02:45 AM, said:

People.

THE SANDMAN audible full cast audio adaptation earbook... it's absofuckinglutely amazeballs.

Seriously. You know how you read something great and wish you could read it again for the first time?

It's that, for the comics. Three chapters in and I am blown.
the fuck.
away.

If you read and loved those comics, you need to listen to this.
If you have not read and loved those comics, I am judging you. Harshly.
And you need to listen to this, but maybe read the comics first.

[Macros]

Started Stoneweilder

[Aptorian]

I'm 1/3rd into the third and last Binti book. I think I hate this little series but it's just curious enough that I keep reading, suspecting there's some pay off at the end where all the nonsense makes sense.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 28 August 2020 - 04:41 PM, said:

...
Am spoiled for high quality choice but felt like something fast and lowbrain, so went with HELL DIVERS VII: WARRIORS. It's more of the same from Nicholas Smith - wild battles, brave survivor people fighting freaky mutants, everything going bad and worse for humanity's remnants - and i am here for it.

Realized i had Just Finished this and not offered any comments.
It's book 7. If you've been reading you know what you're getting... Big Hollywood style post apoc survivors v pirates and monsters and mutations and robots. Straightforward quests and shootemups. Characters so archetypical you knew them before you met them. Fast pace. Great action.
Entirely met expectations. Solid end to series. There's no wild twist or upgrade... if you like the series it's a very satisfying end, and every single pov or significant secondary character is utterly at risk pretty much the whole book which makes for a tense read.

[JPK]

Abyss, on 08 September 2020 - 02:00 AM, said:

Abyss, on 28 August 2020 - 04:41 PM, said:

...
Am spoiled for high quality choice but felt like something fast and lowbrain, so went with HELL DIVERS VII: WARRIORS. It's more of the same from Nicholas Smith - wild battles, brave survivor people fighting freaky mutants, everything going bad and worse for humanity's remnants - and i am here for it.

Realized i had Just Finished this and not offered any comments.
It's book 7. If you've been reading you know what you're getting... Big Hollywood style post apoc survivors v pirates and monsters and mutations and robots. Straightforward quests and shootemups. Characters so archetypical you knew them before you met them. Fast pace. Great action.
Entirely met expectations. Solid end to series. There's no wild twist or upgrade... if you like the series it's a very satisfying end, and every single pov or significant secondary character is utterly at risk pretty much the whole book which makes for a tense read.

It's worth noting that with Audible's recent Audible Plus change Hell Divers 1-4 are now free to listen to.

[Aptorian]

Finished the Binti series earlier.

These books are bad and the people nominating them for awards should feel bad.


These books are all substance with barely a flimsy plot. Made more frustrating by the fact that it introduces various fantastic concepts but utilize them poorly, merely making them ideas or obstacles that Binti bounce off of. There's no pay off to the books mysteries.

I'm also confused by the way this book utilised Afro futurism. I've only read a few books in this genre but this series - at least as seen from my White dude perspective - seems like one long attack on African tribal culture. Every single person from this African future earth, be they family, clan or nation is shown to be arrogant in their ignorance, full of prejudices, misogyny, conservative in their backwards traditions and just in general a stupid piece of shit. And Binti is such a goody two shoes she spends most of the book being abused by these people.

Terrible reading experience. They all deserve the Meduse wave of death.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 08 September 2020 - 02:31 PM

[QuickTidal]

Aptorian, on 08 September 2020 - 02:29 PM, said:

Finished the Binti series earlier.

These books are bad and the people nominating them for awards should feel bad.


These books are all substance with barely a flimsy plot. Made more frustrating by the fact that it introduces various fantastic concepts but utilize them poorly, merely making them ideas or obstacles that Binti bounce off of. There's no pay off to the books mysteries.

I'm also confused by the way this book utilised Afro futurism. I've only read a few books in this genre but this series - at least as seen from my White dude perspective - seems like one long attack on African tribal culture. Every single person from this African future earth, be they family, clan or nation is shown to be arrogant in their ignorance, full of prejudices, misogyny, conservative in their backwards traditions and just in general a stupid piece of shit. And Binti is such a goody two shoes she spends most of the book being abused by these people.

Terrible reading experience. They all deserve the Meduse wave of death.

That sucks to hear. I grabbed them all on a sale, and had yet to read them. Oh well.

[Chance]

Waiting a bit to read The Last Emperox after being a bit irritated with how simple Scalzi solves some of the plot points in the Consuming Fire. So reading through the Rigante series which is a very easy read but it is also extremely predictable since it does repeat quite a bit.

This post has been edited by Chance: 08 September 2020 - 06:28 PM

[JPK]

Hey Abyss have you read Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence? If you haven't, Audible Plus has the first book as a freebie. You should give it a listen.

[Abyss]

JPK, on 08 September 2020 - 11:32 PM, said:

Hey Abyss have you read Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence? If you haven't, Audible Plus has the first book as a freebie. You should give it a listen.

Noted, tnx. That's been on my TLP for a while.

[polishgenius]

I read the first Binti and thought it was pretty good. Just to throw that out there. Slight, but it is a short story/novella. I don't usually read them coz they don't offer me great value for time but I got it coz Okorafor is awesome and plan to catch the rest up someday.

Quote

I'm also confused by the way this book utilised Afro futurism. I've only read a few books in this genre but this series - at least as seen from my White dude perspective - seems like one long attack on African tribal culture. Every single person from this African future earth, be they family, clan or nation is shown to be arrogant in their ignorance, full of prejudices, misogyny, conservative in their backwards traditions and just in general a stupid piece of shit. And Binti is such a goody two shoes she spends most of the book being abused by these people.

I'm not really sure what the problem is here unless she goes way more OTT here then in her others (and I struggle to believe this can be harsher than Who Fears Death). Okorafor is proud of being African and reflects that in her work but some African cultural practices are horrific and she doesn't shy away from showing, and criticising, that either. It really doesn't sound different from a Western protagonist struggling against stupid, arrongant conservative Western cultural norms.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 09 September 2020 - 07:59 AM