[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 16 March 2021 - 04:02 PM, said:

Abyss, on 06 March 2021 - 05:07 PM, said:

Just Finished R S Belcher's SIX GUN TAROT and liked it so much I went straight into the sequel SHOTGUN ARCANA.
Great series so far, old west urban fantasy, and the earbooks are done with full voice casts, fx, and music. It's pretty great.
Both are part of what was labelled THE GOLGOTHA TRILOGY. I suspect I'll follow ARCANA with bk 3.

Just finished SHOTGUN ARCANA.
It was excellent. Raised the stakes, built up the world, expanded the cast, took the old cast in new directions... everything you want from book 2 in a fantasy series. Also 30 or so insane serial killers, pirate-ninjas, gunfights, Indigenous American mythos, renegade angels, and a killer earbook cast and production.
Straight on to book 3 QUEEN OF SWORDS.


ETA I did not know there was a book 4... GHOST DANCE JUDGMENT. Earbook due in April apparently!

They changed the cover layout design for Book 4...I would be beside myself annoyed by this.

That said, it sounds interesting AF, so I'll be looking into at least Book 1.

[polishgenius]

I hadn't realised books 3 and 4 were out, with the first two coming out soon after one another then Belcher took breaks to do other stuff and I stopped checking. That goes on the list.

Fun series.

[polishgenius]

Just started The Mask of Mirrors, first of the Rook and Rose trilogy, by MA Carrick (actually the joint pen name of Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms, neither of whom's books I've read individually).

Anyway it's so far a clearly-Locke-Lamora-inspired romp combining the shenanigans of a couple of congirls with politicking and I suspect some derring-do. And also lots and lots of really nice tayloring apparently. But anyway so far I am enjoying it immensely. It's a 700 page monster though so a looooong way to go.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 20 March 2021 - 11:28 PM

[polishgenius]

polishgenius, on 17 March 2021 - 06:08 PM, said:

Anyway it's so far a clearly-Locke-Lamora-inspired romp combining the shenanigans of a couple of congirls with politicking and I suspect some derring-do. And also lots and lots of really nice tayloring apparently. But anyway so far I am enjoying it immensely. It's a 700 page monster though so a looooong way to go.

200 pages or so in and it's realllly fun. I did tell a fib- official pagecount on the store is 700 but it's up as 500 on my e-reader so who knows what it really is in real life- but anyway I am about halfway in and still don't really know what the main thrust of the story is despite having multiple active plot threads and motives and aims for everyone involved, which is a neat trick. The TLoLL influence is clear but it's much more sprawling and content to slow-build even while stuff is happening.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 16 March 2021 - 04:08 PM, said:

Abyss, on 16 March 2021 - 04:02 PM, said:

Abyss, on 06 March 2021 - 05:07 PM, said:

Just Finished R S Belcher's SIX GUN TAROT and liked it so much I went straight into the sequel SHOTGUN ARCANA.
Great series so far, old west urban fantasy, and the earbooks are done with full voice casts, fx, and music. It's pretty great.
Both are part of what was labelled THE GOLGOTHA TRILOGY. I suspect I'll follow ARCANA with bk 3.

Just finished SHOTGUN ARCANA.
It was excellent. Raised the stakes, built up the world, expanded the cast, took the old cast in new directions... everything you want from book 2 in a fantasy series. Also 30 or so insane serial killers, pirate-ninjas, gunfights, Indigenous American mythos, renegade angels, and a killer earbook cast and production.
Straight on to book 3 QUEEN OF SWORDS.


ETA I did not know there was a book 4... GHOST DANCE JUDGMENT. Earbook due in April apparently!

They changed the cover layout design for Book 4...I would be beside myself annoyed by this.

That said, it sounds interesting AF, so I'll be looking into at least Book 1.

polishgenius, on 16 March 2021 - 06:49 PM, said:

I hadn't realised books 3 and 4 were out, with the first two coming out soon after one another then Belcher took breaks to do other stuff and I stopped checking. That goes on the list.

Fun series.

it IS.

Book 3 is moving along nicely. Leaves Golgotha with some of the cast and goes into the wider world, with a flashback parallel story i'm loving.

As with all the earbooks book 4 is being released in two parts. 1/2 is out already, 2/2 due in early April. Graphic Audio has a 50% off sale on now that drops the price below the audible credits equivalent.

[Maark Abbott]

Back on with Lord Foul's Bane. Goodness me but the prose in this is a cheeky little dick tickle isn't it!

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 19 March 2021 - 02:54 AM, said:

...

Book 3 is moving along nicely. Leaves Golgotha with some of the cast and goes into the wider world, with a flashback parallel story i'm loving....

Y'know that feeling when you read a fight scene so utterly breathtaking that you immediately need to read (listen to) it again? Not a battle, but a genuine one on one fight to the death between two utterly competent killers? That goes for pages (minutes) but feels like seconds?
Well... that. About 1/3rd into the book and holy fncking fuckstars... that was just... wow.
I mean, i know Belcher can write a solid fight scene, but this was just... this was end of TOLL THE HOUNDS level.

[Tiste Simeon]

Reading THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE and already loving it.

It is, at base concept, similar to THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF HOPE by Claire North but the execution is very different. Be interested to know if Schwab was inspired by HOPE or it's pure coincidence.

[Abyss]

Tiste Simeon, on 20 March 2021 - 11:08 AM, said:

Reading THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE and already loving it.

It is, at base concept, similar to THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF HOPE by Claire North but the execution is very different. Be interested to know if Schwab was inspired by HOPE or it's pure coincidence.

Pure coincidence. It's been raised w both authors many many times.
Glad you like, I very much enjoyed it.

[Tiste Simeon]

Abyss, on 20 March 2021 - 05:29 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 20 March 2021 - 11:08 AM, said:

Reading THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE and already loving it.

It is, at base concept, similar to THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF HOPE by Claire North but the execution is very different. Be interested to know if Schwab was inspired by HOPE or it's pure coincidence.

Pure coincidence. It's been raised w both authors many many times.
Glad you like, I very much enjoyed it.

I'm probably just over a quarter of the way through and I am so hooked. It's superb.

Interesting how both authors can have such a similar idea (though probably not that unusual...)

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Now that I've finished my Year of Malazan (AKA main series reread), I've been breezing through some other books.

Sullivan's entire Legends of the First Empire series: The history and worldbuilding was supremely enjoyable. It was great to see the entire backstory of his world laid out and how it had been heavily distorted by the time we reached the Riyria era. Unfortunately, the characters were nowhere near as well-developed as Royce, Hadrian, Gwen, and company. The First Empire crew mostly felt shallow (excluding Gifford, Imaly, and maybe Suri). I'm looking forward to his next series.

Muir's Harrow The Ninth: For a book in which so little actually happened for 3/4 of the book, I found this immensely enjoyable. Muir's writing just feels so baroquely visceral. She should write medical textbooks. I'm eager for Alecto to unravel the knot at the center of this series.

Currently reading Soule's Light of the Jedi. Lightly enjoyable up to chapter 10 so far.

This post has been edited by Whisperzzzzzzz: 20 March 2021 - 09:13 PM

[polishgenius]

Finished Mask of Mirrors. Really enjoyed it as a traditional city-based old-school fantasy romp. Just ramps and ramps and ramps while juggling identity games and cons and plots with a neat magic system (heavily focused on a sort of simplified tarot system, but crossing over with dream magic and sygil-based stuff).

There was one twist later on that felt a little cheap coz the book deliberately indicated against it earlier, but hopefully the sequel can do stuff with that.

[Abyss]

Tiste Simeon, on 20 March 2021 - 06:47 PM, said:

Abyss, on 20 March 2021 - 05:29 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 20 March 2021 - 11:08 AM, said:

Reading THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE and already loving it.

It is, at base concept, similar to THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF HOPE by Claire North but the execution is very different. Be interested to know if Schwab was inspired by HOPE or it's pure coincidence.

Pure coincidence. It's been raised w both authors many many times.
Glad you like, I very much enjoyed it.

I'm probably just over a quarter of the way through and I am so hooked. It's superb.

Interesting how both authors can have such a similar idea (though probably not that unusual...)

Publishers can also be to 'blame'. Like tv and movie production studios, they hear a competitor is about to release and hard push a 'urban fantasy book about memory' so they adjust the sched on the one they have in the can to ride the wave.
See literally everything ever published 3-6 months after Twilight became a thing.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 20 March 2021 - 01:36 AM, said:

Abyss, on 19 March 2021 - 02:54 AM, said:

...

Book 3 is moving along nicely. Leaves Golgotha with some of the cast and goes into the wider world, with a flashback parallel story i'm loving....

Y'know that feeling when you read a fight scene so utterly breathtaking that you immediately need to read (listen to) it again? Not a battle, but a genuine one on one fight to the death between two utterly competent killers? That goes for pages (minutes) but feels like seconds?
Well... that. About 1/3rd into the book and holy fncking fuckstars... that was just... wow.
I mean, i know Belcher can write a solid fight scene, but this was just... this was end of TOLL THE HOUNDS level.

...and then he goes and does it with a battle.

Holy. FUCK.
HOLY FUCKING STABBYFUCK.

...that was just...

...it wasn't even (i think) a key plot point in the story, it was like one minute the characters are in a more or less
classic fantasy puzzle solving thing where the only way they can survive is to
decipher the HOLY FUCK EVERYONE IS FIGHTING SO SO MUCH AWESOME
FIGHTING DID THAT CHARACTER JUST DO THAT,
DID THOSE TWO JUST DO THAT
AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH.

Wow.

What's also amazing is that there two parallel (but very much related) stories running here and the author is doing a great job of allowing for quieter beats in one while the other goes blazing apeshite crazy.

I was prepared for bk 3 to be a nice little sidequest from the main story from bks 1 and 2 and instead it's raising the bar.

[Zeto Demerzel]

Just finished book 4 of the Tales of the Ketty Jay and I don't remember reading any 'complete' series recently that was just so much damn fun. Was prepared for something that might perhaps be lacking a bit of heft but didn't find that to be the case at all. Would recommend the series wholeheartedly. This is what Firefly could've been without Fox's dickery.


On to Khaavren Romances 4 - The Lord of the Castle Black which is good fun as always. Also reading The Bel Dame Apocrypha 1 - God's War, and this one's proving to be difficult to get into so far

[QuickTidal]

1/4 of the way into Michelle West's HOUSE NAME, and it's excellent. Shaping up to be even better than CITY OF NIGHT.

And I'm also about 40% into the first Cradle book by Will Wight, UNSOULED, and it's good. It's good so far (not great yet), but I can see that where it's going and combined with the unique world building that it's going to be something special once the table is properly set in future volumes. The writing itself is lovely and simple and enjoyable. This is a series I probably won't regret getting into.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 22 March 2021 - 02:36 PM

[Imperial Historian]

QuickTidal, on 22 March 2021 - 02:35 PM, said:

And I'm also about 40% into the first Cradle book by Will Wight, UNSOULED, and it's good. It's good so far (not great yet), but I can see that where it's going and combined with the unique world building that it's going to be something special once the table is properly set in future volumes. The writing itself is lovely and simple and enjoyable. This is a series I probably won't regret getting into.

the first book in the series was okay, the later ones are pure popcorn fun and I loved every moment of them. These aren't great books by any measure, but boy are they a fun read.

[End of Disc One]

In Cradle news, book 9 was just announced with a release date of April 6. Yeah, he was supposed to be taking a sabbatical.

[QuickTidal]

End of Disc One, on 22 March 2021 - 05:27 PM, said:

In Cradle news, book 9 was just announced with a release date of April 6. Yeah, he was supposed to be taking a sabbatical.

Saw this. Cool news!

That said, it should be noted that the odds he wrote Book 9 while on the most recent sabbatical and it's still going out April 6th, audiobook and all...are slim. This was likely done before the sabbatical.

This isn't to say he didn't spend some Sabbatical writing Book 10...LOL! The guy is a machine.

[Abyss]

Zeto Demerzel, on 22 March 2021 - 08:16 AM, said:

Just finished book 4 of the Tales of the Ketty Jay and I don't remember reading any 'complete' series recently that was just so much damn fun. Was prepared for something that might perhaps be lacking a bit of heft but didn't find that to be the case at all. Would recommend the series wholeheartedly. This is what Firefly could've been without Fox's dickery.
...

The lack of earbooks for this series vexes me so so much.