[QuickTidal]

Tiste Simeon, on 21 January 2021 - 03:58 PM, said:

Onto the next thing which is THE EARTHSEA series by Le Guin. I got the fantastic illustrated omnibus edition for my birthday last year. It's been years since I read them so I'm looking forward to it.

Fair warning. I have that version and while it's LOVELY...it's an absolute bastard to read. It's heavy AF....it's a "lap sitting" or "on the table in front of you" type of read as a result...you cannot hold it up above you as you lay down. I tried and it was exhausting.

[Tiste Simeon]

QuickTidal, on 21 January 2021 - 04:27 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 21 January 2021 - 03:58 PM, said:

Onto the next thing which is THE EARTHSEA series by Le Guin. I got the fantastic illustrated omnibus edition for my birthday last year. It's been years since I read them so I'm looking forward to it.

Fair warning. I have that version and while it's LOVELY...it's an absolute bastard to read. It's heavy AF....it's a "lap sitting" or "on the table in front of you" type of read as a result...you cannot hold it up above you as you lay down. I tried and it was exhausting.

Haha that's just asking for a broken nose!

[Aptorian]

I'm about two thirds through the Never Ending Story and I think I now know why the movie was only based on the first half of the book. It's because The Never Ending Story reads like two books, with a good ending in the middle and a sequel that's not as fun as the second part.

I'm having to force myself to read an hour and then go do something else to get through the second half.

Starting up Foley is good instead. It's Mick Foley's second auto-biography. Like the first one, Foley is a very engaging writer.

[Gabriele]

Aptorian, on 21 January 2021 - 12:25 PM, said:

Hundred and twenty pages or so into The Never Ending story. This book is delightful. It's a children's book so the language isn't to heavy or flowery and the locations and characters are colorful and fairytale like. And the whole world is full of boundless creativity. This is basically everything I want out of a fantasy book.

Did you know Atreju actually has green skin and blue hair? Also the luck dragon is decidedly more chinese and less hairy dog-like.

The book is so much better than the movie.

[Gabriele]

Aptorian, on 22 January 2021 - 08:02 PM, said:

I'm about two thirds through the Never Ending Story and I think I now know why the movie was only based on the first half of the book. It's because The Never Ending Story reads like two books, with a good ending in the middle and a sequel that's not as fun as the second part.

I'm having to force myself to read an hour and then go do something else to get through the second half.

Stick to it. The end is less specatacular than the movie, but more emotionally satisfying and more realistic. imho.

[Gabriele]

QuickTidal, on 21 January 2021 - 02:19 PM, said:

Yllana, on 21 January 2021 - 01:51 PM, said:

I wonder if there are any recent fantasy books of similar scope to Malazan. I feel they either go down the Grimdark route too much or they are older, more "innocent" books like WoT or something. The last series with really interesting world building I read was Red Rising, but where is that 6th book....
Thanks for the info on Unhewn Throne, I think I'll just give the first book a shot.

UNHEWN is good and I enjoyed it. Definitely has an Asian flavour to it, so that's refreshing in high fantasy. The last book is divisive, but I liked it.

I would also check out John Gwynne's Faithful & The Fallen series if you've not yet. I read book 1 only so far but quite enjoyed it. It's kind of like Joe Abercrombie without the bleakness and much higher fantasy elements.

I got the first trilogy on my TBR pile. Right now I'm rereading a bunch of David Gemmell novels and Nicholas Boyle's Goethe biography. Two massive doorstoppers of it. I think it takes someone interested in the Weimar Classicism to get through those monsters; they are no recreational read.

[Aptorian]

Gabriele, on 23 January 2021 - 02:48 PM, said:

Aptorian, on 22 January 2021 - 08:02 PM, said:

I'm about two thirds through the Never Ending Story and I think I now know why the movie was only based on the first half of the book. It's because The Never Ending Story reads like two books, with a good ending in the middle and a sequel that's not as fun as the second part.

I'm having to force myself to read an hour and then go do something else to get through the second half.

Stick to it. The end is less specatacular than the movie, but more emotionally satisfying and more realistic. imho.

Finished it and you're right. The ending is worth it and has a real, lessons learned, personal growth aspect to it.

I could see what the author was doing as the kid learned and grew and had some very harsh consequences. It was interesting from childhood perspective but just very frustrating to follow compared to the more heroic first half.


I like the endless, ageless aspect of Fantasia. If I were the family of Michael Ende or his estates publisher, I'd invite as many established authors as I could find to write stories for the Never Ending Story universe - and keep the idea alive and growing.

[Mentalist]

Yllana, on 21 January 2021 - 10:53 AM, said:

haven't posted here in a while...I've totally run out of fantasy series I'm interested in and are kind of desperate. My favourite authors are taking their sweet time with their books and Goodreads is so not helpful. So..
Does anyone have experience with the Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne books? Are they worth reading and on what level compared to MBotF? Any other good, modern series you could recommend?If I should put this into a separate thread, please tell me *bow*

For less grimdark modern epic, go with "Traitor Son" cycle.

[Macros]

Shit yeah, great reco

[T77]

Even better is Masters and Mages.

[Mentalist]

Finished "Blackest Heart". My thoughts: HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

On the one hand, plots within plots within plots within plots.

On the other: we're getting a bit of "Ze dark ones are coming". Though there's ways to handle that well (Crimson Empire trilo ended up doing that, and I still enjoyed how it was done).

So, yeah. I'm gonna grab the next book, cuz I remain intrigued. The author really plays around with the "chosen ones" trope in pretty much every possible way; so at this point I'm kinda lost as to what to expect--which is generally a very good thing.

Also, the battle sequence in the end was pretty epic.

Moving on, gonna go for some sci-fi with "Blue Remembered Earth" next

[Macros]

Finished games house.

Just ok, I didn't find the characters overly engaging, fun premise but overall I felt it could have been done better. A bit of a let down given how much I like Norths work

[QuickTidal]

Read THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH by Pullman. It’s was fine...not as good as the first and WAY dark. My least fave by him if I’m honest.

Started VALOR by John Gwynne.

[Abyss]

Yllana, on 21 January 2021 - 12:05 PM, said:

Quote

me and quite a few others accuse it of being a bit too stupid to be good a lot of the time.

stupid how? Any other recent series you could recommend right now? I'm not really into Grimdark, but do like my books gritty.

VE Schwab, SHADES OF MAGIC trilo. Earbook or text.


Start it now, thank me later.

[Aptorian]

Read Embassytown by China Mieville.

Excellent book. As always, Mieville's stories are fascinating, weird and wildly imaginative. It's a book about a human settlement, a small colony on an alien world, where humans barter and exchange concepts with a deeply alien species, who's strange form of communication shapes their entire understanding of the world around them. There's a turn in the middle of the book, the story's crisis around which the plot revolves, but I didn't really buy it or understand why it's not handled differently, so I was reeling for a bit but otherwise a great story.

5/5 walking flesh power generators.

[worry]

I'm finally reading Kushiel's Dart. I didn't realize it was 1000 pages when I started (on ebook), but it's been very slow going for me despite the writing being very good and sharp. I find the intrigue stuff depressing rather than exciting -- maybe because there's very little 'fantasy' present, I dunno. The protagonist is also a bit too horny even for me, but that's not a roadblock, just an observation. One of the horniest protagonists I've ever encountered. Anyway, it will take me another month to finish the last third, but it's worth persevering however soul-crushing it turns out to be I guess.

[amphibian]

It stays horny, but somehow that moves into the whole series having a very decent story line.

I actually think it's worthy of "all time classic" status now that I've read more widely.

[Abyss]

Aptorian, on 25 January 2021 - 09:03 PM, said:

Read Embassytown by China Mieville.

Excellent book. As always, Mieville's stories are fascinating, weird and wildly imaginative. It's a book about a human settlement, a small colony on an alien world, where humans barter and exchange concepts with a deeply alien species, who's strange form of communication shapes their entire understanding of the world around them. There's a turn in the middle of the book, the story's crisis around which the plot revolves, but I didn't really buy it or understand why it's not handled differently, so I was reeling for a bit but otherwise a great story.

5/5 walking flesh power generators.

Liked did not love. Great concept, interesting setting, interesting aliens depicted in a nicely non-human way.
The end...

Spoiler

where the protagonist sorts things out by shaking the aliens' hands and pointing a lot, struck me as weak. It was not absurd, because the story to that point suggested no one had the sheer guts to ever do that, and the aliens had never been removed from their own environment and thrust into a human setting until then, BUT... the species had been interacting for decades, and given the weird, at times emotionally and physically challenging roles the aliens assigned to the 'actors', it made little sense that they had never interacted with humans enough before then to achieve the revelation that happened in the finale.

... but that's a complex view of a complex story and I cannot deny it was an interesting read and held my attention.

[Aptorian]

Abyss, on 26 January 2021 - 04:38 AM, said:

Aptorian, on 25 January 2021 - 09:03 PM, said:

Read Embassytown by China Mieville.

Excellent book. As always, Mieville's stories are fascinating, weird and wildly imaginative. It's a book about a human settlement, a small colony on an alien world, where humans barter and exchange concepts with a deeply alien species, who's strange form of communication shapes their entire understanding of the world around them. There's a turn in the middle of the book, the story's crisis around which the plot revolves, but I didn't really buy it or understand why it's not handled differently, so I was reeling for a bit but otherwise a great story.

5/5 walking flesh power generators.

Liked did not love. Great concept, interesting setting, interesting aliens depicted in a nicely non-human way.
The end...

Spoiler

where the protagonist sorts things out by shaking the aliens' hands and pointing a lot, struck me as weak. It was not absurd, because the story to that point suggested no one had the sheer guts to ever do that, and the aliens had never been removed from their own environment and thrust into a human setting until then, BUT... the species had been interacting for decades, and given the weird, at times emotionally and physically challenging roles the aliens assigned to the 'actors', it made little sense that they had never interacted with humans enough before then to achieve the revelation that happened in the finale.

... but that's a complex view of a complex story and I cannot deny it was an interesting read and held my attention.

I agree. It all happened way too fast and magically.

Furthermore:

Spoiler

There was a lot about the drug crisis that I didn't like. Why didn't they just hide/kill EzRa when they knew he was contaminating the Hosts. It's not like he wielded special power then.

And since the story insists that you need two people vocalising the Language, and can't be reproduced by a machine, how does EzRa spread the addiction via broadcasts and recordings?

Still I just enjoyed the ride.

[JPK]

Starting a fucking reread of fucking Heroes Die. Fuck yeah!