[Macros]

Finished Emperor's Exile, another solid Cato and Macro book.

Not the the best, not the weakest either. Apolloninus becomes a more likeable character.
No, not likeable, believable? He's too ruthless a bastard to be truly likeable.

The Aeneid next

[worry]

Aptorian, on 28 February 2021 - 05:48 PM, said:

I'm impressed, Kushiel'd Dart has one of the worst covers ive seen:

41FyoL29TAL._AC_SY400_.jpg

Ha, maybe the U.S. just historically has worse sff cover art, but this one doesn't even phase me. Middle of the road at worst.

[Aptorian]

Finished Wheel of Osheim, the third book in the Red Queen's War series by Mark Lawrence.

I'm not entirely happy with the ending, felt a bit... convenient, but an enjoyable read and great series overall.

I almost started to like Jal by the end which is quite an accomplishment. I feel like doing a reread of the Broken Empire after this, especially to see if various people show up in Rome in Emperor of Thorns - But I wont because life is short (Also I want more stories about the Necromancer Terminators from the bank).

As to what happens with the wheel I had to go google what happens at the end of Emperor of Thorns and I'm still not sure I understand who was pulling who's strings between Red Queens War and Broken Empire - But I'd like to read a book about what happens if you sent that wheel spinning forward. Does it just turn into the Never Ending Story had sex with Neil Gaiman?

As an aside I stumbled into a reddit thread with Lawrence arguing with some person who was unhappy with the depiction of a nuclear explosion and Lawrence just pulled the - I have a degree in Math and Physics and I'm a military scientist, Motherfucker! - card and had a good laugh.

Started up the third Willful Child book, Search for Spark by Steven Erikson.

Not feeling this one. Loved book 1, wasn't that hot on book 2 and I feel like Erikson completely ran out of inspiration in this third one - So far at least, hopefully it picks up.

[QuickTidal]

Finished THE HIDDEN CITY by Michelle West. I like this series, but the pacing is atrocious. The characters are interesting, so is the world and the story...but holy hell the pacing is in the toilet frequently. It's fine, I'm going to keep reading the series, but I doubt I will ever be able to roll from one book right into the next, so it will take me time to get through all of these books. I have the next 4 in the series.

------------------------

I've gone back to re-read the YA series that I feel SHOULD have inherited the Harry Potter crown. I like Percy Jackson (the one that claims that crown post-Potter) and all, but this series is just far deeper, darker, and overall better written.

Henry H. Neff's TAPESTRY series.

Finished THE HOUND OF ROWAN, which holds up as a nice entrance into the world, and I'm about 1/4 into book 2, THE SECOND SIEGE, and it's more good stuff. Any and all HP comparisons - and you could ABSOLUTELY level some at the series in Book 1 (Magic School, Euclidean Soccer instead of Quidditch as the school sport, Magical creatures, sketchy teachers, ect.) - fall away as the end of Book 1 goes for a complete crazy finale and the series ramps things into a totally different direction than Book 1, leaving both HP and Percy Jackson comparisons in the rearview. Anyways, much enjoying...probably more than I did the first time I read them. Still sad the 5th book was only ever an ebook though...that said, the new series in this world started already in a book called IMPYRIUM and I nabbed that in hardcover...which is also what prompted my re-read of TAPESTRY.

[Aptorian]

Sounds interesting, Tapestry goes on the list.

[QuickTidal]

Aptorian, on 01 March 2021 - 03:40 PM, said:

Sounds interesting, Tapestry goes on the list.

It's very YA to start out, so don't be discouraged. He's also an accomplished artist, so the chapter headers have his art in them as sketches.

Fun Fact: The lead characters' "charge" of magical beastie is a Black Forest Lymrill named Nick...a sort of tree-dwelling, forest Otter with porcupine quills made of metal...because part of his diet is ingots of metal.

[Aptorian]

We're encouraged to read or peruse children's and young adult books at work so that's no issue. I really should be reading more teenage garbage but a year from now I'll likely not be doing any front end work so who cares.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 01 March 2021 - 04:13 PM

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 09 April 2020 - 02:28 PM, said:

...on the fence with pushing thru or dropping this. Jemisin's THE CITY WE BECAME is RIGHT THERE calling to me...

Amusing to find this post because it took me til the end of the year to finally get around to reading it.

It was my last read of 2020, and it was GLORIOUS. So yeah, i Just Finished it almost three months ago but am overdue to praise it here.

I already like NKJemisin, her BROKEN EARTH trilo was an amazeballs read. I was expecting something similarly grim in an urban fantasy direction.
She did not give me that.

Instead, the book, still very much urbfant, is lighter, digs in deep to its many characters, does a really clever job of depicting New York City in a way that even people who have never been there will appreciate, has some crazy action, a satisfying end.
She also does phenominal work with the 'ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances' theme that i so love when done well. It's a great GREAT book and i'm not going to spoil a damn thing, just going to leave it at worth your money, worth your time. Read it.
READ IT READ IT READ IT.
The earbook narrator is near perfect. She even nails the 'accents' from the different parts of New York.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 19 February 2020 - 03:15 PM, said:

Just Finished the earbook to Scott Reintgen's ASHLORDS.

The author was completely new to me, the publisher put the (stunning) cover on a tweet, i read the blurb.... "phoenix horses"??? ok, bless audible's ever reliable no questions return policy, let's do this... And yeah, this was good fantasy. Great at times. Reintgen's past work is kid or YA... ASHLORDS treads on YA ground, i suppose, but really it's good fantasy for fantasy fans looking for entertainment and a nice level of originality.

At the core of the book is a cross country race between older teen riders on phoenix horses... every night their mounts burst into flame and 'die' and every sunrise they have to be resurrected by alchemy... different alchemicals create a horse with different properties. Endurance, savagery, speed, other things more supernatural. Mess up another rider's alchemy and they're stuck with what they get.

So based on that, maybe you're seeing HUNGER GAMES, maybe MAZE RUNNER, HIS DARK MATERIALS' daemons, possibly POKEMON. Sure... it's not hard to see those similarities, but Reintgen manages to avoid writing too close to the zeitgeist. The riders aren't conscripts, the horses are 'just' horses, not familiars. His world is interesting too, there are elements of technology, an internet of sorts. There are other magical elements at work in the world as well, nicely not overplayed. The key to the story tho are the three leads, each from a nation with a stake in the races. They start out trope-heavy but Reintgen keeps twisting when i expected him to turn, has characters do the opposite of what the reader might expect, but their decisions make sense.

Great pace, great action, the race scenes are riveting.

The end result is a solid book. To the extent that some of the YA marketing is offputting, i'd say ignore it. 'adults' will enjoy this book. It entertains and held my interest for the duration and i want more. It's a short listen, worth an audible credit, absolutely worth the price of the book and your eyetime.

Second / final book is out this summer. I'm in.

Just Finished the second/final book, BLOODSWORN. It was delayed by the pandemic but came out about a week ago and I had preordered.

Solid end to the story. The characters all get their own storylines that interweave nicely, the pace is great, the baddies are suitably bad. There are a couple of great twists. The action scenes border on riveting. This is still more YA than A but as w ASHLORDS, not annoyingly so.
If i'm going to be critical, i wanted more horse-alchemy. The Phoenix horses were the most interesting aspect of the world and while they're very much a part of the story, the revelations of what they can be are less 'wow' than in the first book, tho there is one scene in particular that was unlike anything i have read before...
I don't want to spoil it, so let's say it takes the idea of what a magically infused undead horse can do, multiplies it, and then uses it for military purposes to excellent effect.
Taken as a complete duology, this is a great story, and a fairly short read or listen. Worth your time n money.

[Aptorian]

Finished Search for Spark, the third Willful Child book by Steven Erikson.

I didn't think it was good, not outright bad but just okay in a disappointing sort of way. An actual plot doesn't emerge before halfway into the book and is then quickly discarded again in a matter of 50 pages to curve back to random bits of attempts at comedy. The book does have great moments where I was laughing out loud but it feels like a confused mess, that's just rehashing the same points that were made in book 1. At some point the constant complaints about politics, media consumption and smart phones stopped feeling on point and just turned into old man yells at young people and conservatives. Like okay hippie boomer.

I'm also confused by the books titles. They're only slightly meaningful in terms of the books content but I'm pretty sure that the titles of book 2 and book 3 should have been swapped, given the tiny amounts of plot.

Maybe I'd enjoyed book 2 and 3 more if I was knowledgeable of old Star Trek movies and Red Dwarf but I guess my nerd fu is just too weak.

Started up Honour Guard, the fourth Gaunt's Ghosts book by Dan Abnett. Good to be back with the familiar cast of characters - Without giving spoilers, I'm surprised that Gaunt is still leading a company of soldiers into war in book 4. I'd have expected the Warmaster to promote him to some kind of strategic role.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 02 March 2021 - 09:28 AM

[Aptorian]

Finished Honor Guard. Another good book by Dan Abnett.

I've gotta say though, I think there's a lot of plot stuff in here that moves the story towards its goal in very clumsy ways. I think Abnett is a good author but he doesn't have a lot of finesse. Maybe that's because the dude seems to write 2+ books a year.

Before starting The Guns of Tannith I'm going to read a few library books. I've got Edwin A Abbott's Flatland from 1884 lined up alongside Neil Patrick Harris's first Magic Misfits book.

[amphibian]

This Will Wight Unsouled book has a terrible beginning. I'm generally familiar with the "manhua" phenomenon and read a few of the big ones to get a sense of what they are.

Wight is trying to do that and it's not working at all for the first 50 pages. I'll give it another 50 pages, but if no improvement happens, I'm dropping it.

[Aptorian]

I am having a blast reading Flatland.

I expected it to be a fun take on world building through geometry and perspective, which it also is, but it seems to really be a commentary on class and gender, with the aristocracy being many sided and the poor being triangles. Women are reduced to being lines, people who are the lowest of the low - An invisible class, when they turn their side to you but also an incredibly dangerous class because when you don't notice them, their pointy end can kill you.

This book is fascinating.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 04 March 2021 - 07:35 AM

[Cyphon]

Sounds similar to a Jasper Fforde's Chromatic where he does similar in a world ruled by colour hues, and set in 1980s-esque England. Not his best book but if you like the style might be worth a look.

[QuickTidal]

amphibian, on 04 March 2021 - 05:26 AM, said:

This Will Wight Unsouled book has a terrible beginning. I'm generally familiar with the "manhua" phenomenon and read a few of the big ones to get a sense of what they are.

Wight is trying to do that and it's not working at all for the first 50 pages. I'll give it another 50 pages, but if no improvement happens, I'm dropping it.

I've heard that UNSOULED is a really blah book, even from Wight fans, and the worst in the series, and the rest get much better.

---------------------

Finished Tapestry Book 2 (THE SECOND SIEGE) last night and I clearly forgot how dark that series gets so quickly. Excellent second volume though.

---------------------

Started Will Wight's first Elder Empire book OF SHADOW AND SEA and HOLY CRAP it's really good so far. Granted I'm only 25% into it, but the concepts, the pacing, the characters? All fantastic. A unique world, and a really compelling plot line.

Oh, and as to Abyss's curiosity about reading order of the 6 books. There are two main characters on opposing sides of the world/conflict who each have 3 books telling their story over those three books from their POV in the world...and so....reading order is TECHNICALLY:

OF SHADOW AND SEA (Shera's book - assassins) and then OF SEA AND SHADOW (Calder's book - pirates/sea)

then onto OF DARKNESS AND DAWN (Shera), and then OF DAWN AND DARKNESS (Calder)

then OF KILLERS AND KINGS (Shera), and finally OF KINGS AND KILLERS (Calder)

Now, I expect you COULD read all of one POV and then all of the other POV, but you would likely spoil surprises and stuff? Not totally sure. Or you could flip the order and read a Sea book first and so on flipping the order.

Anyways, unique.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 04 March 2021 - 02:11 PM

[End of Disc One]

QuickTidal, on 04 March 2021 - 02:10 PM, said:

amphibian, on 04 March 2021 - 05:26 AM, said:

This Will Wight Unsouled book has a terrible beginning. I'm generally familiar with the "manhua" phenomenon and read a few of the big ones to get a sense of what they are.

Wight is trying to do that and it's not working at all for the first 50 pages. I'll give it another 50 pages, but if no improvement happens, I'm dropping it.

I've heard that UNSOULED is a really blah book, even from Wight fans, and the worst in the series, and the rest get much better.

---------------------

Finished Tapestry Book 2 (THE SECOND SIEGE) last night and I clearly forgot how dark that series gets so quickly. Excellent second volume though.

---------------------

Started Will Wight's first Elder Empire book OF SHADOW AND SEA and HOLY CRAP it's really good so far. Granted I'm only 25% into it, but the concepts, the pacing, the characters? All fantastic. A unique world, and a really compelling plot line.

Oh, and as to Abyss's curiosity about reading order of the 6 books. There are two main characters on opposing sides of the world/conflict who each have 3 books telling their story over those three books from their POV in the world...and so....reading order is TECHNICALLY:

OF SHADOW AND SEA (Shera's book - assassins) and then OF SEA AND SHADOW (Calder's book - pirates/sea)

then onto OF DARKNESS AND DAWN (Shera), and then OF DAWN AND DARKNESS (Calder)

then OF KILLERS AND KINGS (Shera), and finally OF KINGS AND KILLERS (Calder)

Now, I expect you COULD read all of one POV and then all of the other POV, but you would likely spoil surprises and stuff? Not totally sure. Or you could flip the order and read a Sea book first and so on flipping the order.

Anyways, unique.

Have you read the Traveler's Gate trilogy? So far I've read the first 2 plus the short story collection, and it's the only Wight I've read so far. It's pretty good and I especially enjoyed the second book. The magic system is like Sanderson's take on Malazan's warrens.

[QuickTidal]

End of Disc One, on 04 March 2021 - 02:29 PM, said:

Have you read the Traveler's Gate trilogy? So far I've read the first 2 plus the short story collection, and it's the only Wight I've read so far. It's pretty good and I especially enjoyed the second book. The magic system is like Sanderson's take on Malazan's warrens.

I own it all on ebook (another sale; got it along with the whole CRADLE series [except book 8] one day), but I've not started it yet.

I'll definitely be reading it, and I've heard that's what world Will is heading back into next with TRAVELLER'S BLADE trilogy.

I'm either going CRADLE after I finish ELDER EMPIRE, or TRAVELLER'S GATE.

[Aptorian]

Cyphon, on 04 March 2021 - 07:57 AM, said:

Sounds similar to a Jasper Fforde's Chromatic where he does similar in a world ruled by colour hues, and set in 1980s-esque England. Not his best book but if you like the style might be worth a look.

Do you mean Shades of Grey?

It's an interesting recommendation because in Flatland there is a chromatic revolution, where the various shapes begin adopting colours to paint the sides of their 2D bodies, changing the the way people identify and recognize other objects and creating social upheaval.

[Cyphon]

Yeah I did mean shades of grey, the name eluded me. Its the least of the Fforde books I've read so fair warning. Doesn't seem like he's published much non-YA in the last decade.

[Aptorian]

Finished Flatland by Edwin A Abbott. A really unique idea and execution of an abstract fantasy idea. Don't think I've ever read anything quite like it. I also think you could make a very sinister horror story on the concept.

Read another classic short story called The Machine Stops by E.M.Forster. Not a particular interesting tale but for the fact that it's a story about an automated world of social distancing with super computers and flying machines written in 1909 - And what happens when the machine stops working.

Also finished The Magical Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris. Heart warming story about a bunch of kids who try to foil a bunch of criminals with the help of magic tricks. It's a solid children's book, Neil Patrick Harris apparently can do no wrong.

On to the fifth Gaunt's Ghosts book by Dan Abnett, Gun's of Tannith.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 05 March 2021 - 07:10 PM