[amphibian]

Tsundoku, on 09 December 2021 - 12:52 PM, said:

My suggestion is properly read the first 5 (esp 5 - The Fires of Heaven, my favourite),
mostly read 6 (some threads can be skimmed),
read the summaries for 7-10, and
then get back and properly read 11-14. 11 is where RJ got back on track and then 12-14 are Brandon Sanderson.

So I guess Maark is out for those last three but the rest of you might enjoy as they're a lot more concise ...

14 books of "yeah, on average this is barely ok" isn't my idea of a good time.

I do not recommend Wheel of Time to anyone anymore. There's so many better books to be getting to that it's fully a relic of the fantasy past for me.

[Aptorian]

Halfway into the Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaneimi. Just read this awesome fight scene.

I love these kinds of pseudo-hard sci-fi clashes in fiction.

Excuse the lack of paragraphs from my copy paste.

Quote

She tries to grab the thief and leave as quickly as she came, but the fog is faster, surrounding her wings in a layer of thick gel, trying to force itself down into her lungs, blocking her ghostgun ports. She fires a q-dot, in blind/stun mode. It goes off like a miniature sun. But the fog stays ahead. It turns into a white opaque cloud around the pinpoint of brightness, not letting out much more than a lava lamp. Then her wings’ waste-heat radiators are blocked too, and she has to drop back to slowtime. The tzaddik’s foglet-enhanced blow is like colliding with an Oortian comet. It takes her through a glass shelving unit and the wall behind it. The plaster and ceramics feels like wet sand when she passes through it. Her armour screams and a quickstone-enhanced rib actually snaps. Her metacortex muffles the pain; she gets up in a cloud of debris. She is in the bathroom. A monster angel stares at her in the bathroom mirror. More blows. She tries to block them, but they flow and snake around her arms. The tzaddik is out of reach, the foglets forming amorphous extensions of her will. Mieli is fighting a ghost. She needs space. She channels power from the fusion reactor in her thigh into the microfans of the wings. A mighty wind howls. The foglets scatter. She grabs a handful, swallows, sets a gogol to work on them. There. Outdated Protocol War combat fog. It will take the gogol a few moments to find the right countermeasures. Wings clear, she dumps enough waste heat to go into quicktime. Now approaching the tzaddik is a leisurely walk, ducking beneath static foglet tendrils, hanging in the air in her enhanced vision like frozen soap bubble streams. The tzaddik is a silver-masked statue. Mieli hits her, a carefully placed blow on a soft, human, base of her neck, just enough to take her out— —and her hand passes through a foglet image. The Gödel attack is a 120-decibel speaker pressed to her eardrum. Genetic algorithm viruses flood her systems, trying to get past the machines and into her human brain. The countermeasure gogol’s whiny voice says something. She launches it at the fog and shuts all her systems down. The sudden humanity feels like a bad cold. For a moment, she is helpless in the grip of the foglet tendrils, her wings hanging limply down her back. Then the countermeasures bite and the fog explodes into inert white powder. She falls to the floor, gasping, coughing, flesh and blood. Complete destruction reigns in the room: shattered furniture, glass and dead fog. The tzaddik stands in the middle of it, holding her cane. But she, too, is merely human now. To her credit, she reacts quickly, and comes at Mieli fast, with a kendo fighter’s shuffling steps, cane raised high. Without getting up, she tries to sweep the silver-masked woman’s legs from under her. But she just leaps up, lightly, impossibly high in the low gravity, and aims a blow right at Mieli. She rolls aside, follows through with a somersault that takes her upright, aims a blow at the tzaddik, only to find it painfully blocked by the cane—

[Cyphon]

Just finished MIDDLEGAME. Really enjoyed it as great ideas and very well written - would recommend.

My only criticism is I finished feeling like i couldn't really get at what the book was about apart from a very well crafted story. Was there a theme I just didn't pick up?

[Chance]

Finished Leviathan Falls and I'm not sure I really enjoyed this book all that much, but the epilogue made me laugh. Totally worth it just for those few pages and getting a conclusion for an on average rather awesome series

On to Risen I think.

This post has been edited by Chance: 11 December 2021 - 07:54 PM

[JPK]

Chance, on 11 December 2021 - 07:51 PM, said:

Finished Leviathan Falls and I'm not sure I really enjoyed this book all that much, but the epilogue made me laugh. Totally worth it just for those few pages and getting a conclusion for an on average rather awesome series

On to Risen I think.

Spoiler

I think I had two issues with LF. 1- yet again, too much focus on the humans. The Laconian that hounded them throughout the book in particular.
2- It felt a little too cyclical in nature. Jim being reunited with Pseudo-Miller just to finally "die" on Eros after everything. While it was a very appropriate ending for Jim (doing something rash and heroic though very very stupid) it wasn't the ending I wanted. Also, instead of dealing with the threat, just shutting down the gates? Ugh. We're at the same point the series started, just with lots of little disconnected colonies.

This kinda reminds me of the Battlestar Galactica finale in some ways.

[Tiste Simeon]

Finished the earbook of Name of the Wind by Rothfuss, thoughts in dedthread.

Doing my usual podcast catch up before deciding what story to listen to next.

[Chance]

JPK, on 11 December 2021 - 11:29 PM, said:

Chance, on 11 December 2021 - 07:51 PM, said:

Finished Leviathan Falls and I'm not sure I really enjoyed this book all that much, but the epilogue made me laugh. Totally worth it just for those few pages and getting a conclusion for an on average rather awesome series

On to Risen I think.

Spoiler

I think I had two issues with LF. 1- yet again, too much focus on the humans. The Laconian that hounded them throughout the book in particular.
2- It felt a little too cyclical in nature. Jim being reunited with Pseudo-Miller just to finally "die" on Eros after everything. While it was a very appropriate ending for Jim (doing something rash and heroic though very very stupid) it wasn't the ending I wanted. Also, instead of dealing with the threat, just shutting down the gates? Ugh. We're at the same point the series started, just with lots of little disconnected colonies.

This kinda reminds me of the Battlestar Galactica finale in some ways.

Spoiler

Totally agree on the Laconian hounding them, there is no reason to introduce new pow characters this late in a series.

I have a hard time attacking my "meeh" feelings for the rest of the book, it just didn't wow and it didn't explain anything in a interesting enough fashion to fascinate me. It just worked its way to an ending the best part of which was an immortal Amos welcoming people to earth a thousand years later

This post has been edited by Chance: 13 December 2021 - 07:01 AM

[Maark Abbott]

Tiste Simeon, on 08 December 2021 - 04:54 PM, said:

I, umm... Sheesh, ok... I just found the first 12 Wheel of Time books on my Kindle, plus the prequel one. Didn't know they were there (when I got it, someone loaded a bunch of stuff on there to get me started and I never fully looked into what exactly I have on there...)

I'm tempted you guys. Is it worth it? Debating launching myself into it...

I would argue yes. It can be a bit sloggy in the middle where Jordan gets ill and starts to decline, however overall the series was very enjoyable. End to ended it over the course of 14 months back in 2015 odd. The final book is really, really fucking good as well. Probably Brondobonks' best work. I couldn't put it down.

[Abyss]

Aptorian, on 11 December 2021 - 09:45 AM, said:

Halfway into the Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaneimi. Just read this awesome fight scene.

I love these kinds of pseudo-hard sci-fi clashes in fiction.

Excuse the lack of paragraphs from my copy paste.

Quote

She tries to grab the thief and leave as quickly as she came, but the fog is faster, surrounding her wings in a layer of thick gel, trying to force itself down into her lungs, blocking her ghostgun ports. She fires a q-dot, in blind/stun mode. It goes off like a miniature sun. But the fog stays ahead. It turns into a white opaque cloud around the pinpoint of brightness, not letting out much more than a lava lamp. Then her wings' waste-heat radiators are blocked too, and she has to drop back to slowtime. The tzaddik's foglet-enhanced blow is like colliding with an Oortian comet. It takes her through a glass shelving unit and the wall behind it. The plaster and ceramics feels like wet sand when she passes through it. Her armour screams and a quickstone-enhanced rib actually snaps. Her metacortex muffles the pain; she gets up in a cloud of debris. She is in the bathroom. A monster angel stares at her in the bathroom mirror. More blows. She tries to block them, but they flow and snake around her arms. The tzaddik is out of reach, the foglets forming amorphous extensions of her will. Mieli is fighting a ghost. She needs space. She channels power from the fusion reactor in her thigh into the microfans of the wings. A mighty wind howls. The foglets scatter. She grabs a handful, swallows, sets a gogol to work on them. There. Outdated Protocol War combat fog. It will take the gogol a few moments to find the right countermeasures. Wings clear, she dumps enough waste heat to go into quicktime. Now approaching the tzaddik is a leisurely walk, ducking beneath static foglet tendrils, hanging in the air in her enhanced vision like frozen soap bubble streams. The tzaddik is a silver-masked statue. Mieli hits her, a carefully placed blow on a soft, human, base of her neck, just enough to take her out— —and her hand passes through a foglet image. The Gödel attack is a 120-decibel speaker pressed to her eardrum. Genetic algorithm viruses flood her systems, trying to get past the machines and into her human brain. The countermeasure gogol's whiny voice says something. She launches it at the fog and shuts all her systems down. The sudden humanity feels like a bad cold. For a moment, she is helpless in the grip of the foglet tendrils, her wings hanging limply down her back. Then the countermeasures bite and the fog explodes into inert white powder. She falls to the floor, gasping, coughing, flesh and blood. Complete destruction reigns in the room: shattered furniture, glass and dead fog. The tzaddik stands in the middle of it, holding her cane. But she, too, is merely human now. To her credit, she reacts quickly, and comes at Mieli fast, with a kendo fighter's shuffling steps, cane raised high. Without getting up, she tries to sweep the silver-masked woman's legs from under her. But she just leaps up, lightly, impossibly high in the low gravity, and aims a blow right at Mieli. She rolls aside, follows through with a somersault that takes her upright, aims a blow at the tzaddik, only to find it painfully blocked by the cane—

It kills me how meh SUMMERLAND was after how good this trilo is.

[Aptorian]

Oh no, I just bought summerland! Eh, it was like 4 USD and I won't get around to reading it for years anyway.

Speaking of which, I finished Quantum Thief the other day. Still a solid 5/5 read. Surprisingly I remembered almost nothing about the book and as such it was entertaining and surprising all the way through.

I got to say the setting is marvelous. I think it's probably the most advanced fully fledged story universe I've read about. Technology has truly advanced so far that everything might as well be magic.

Also read a novella named This Census-taker by China Mieville. I think this is worst thing I've read from him.

It's a story about a boy who lives on a mountain with some kind of key-wizard with PTSD for a father. It's so busy being mysterious by not telling you anything that it becomes more annoying than entertaining. Everything is told through the garbled nonsense of a slightly idiotic child protagonist that I just wanted to strangle.

There's a lot of interesting weird stuff hinted at. The stuff that makes Mievilles books so good but it's only ever teased which I really find unforgivable.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 13 December 2021 - 07:06 PM

[Abyss]

Aptorian, on 13 December 2021 - 05:45 PM, said:

Oh no, I just bought summerland! Eh, it was like 4 USD and I won't get around to reading it for years anyway.

Forum search is your friend. It was a rare instance of DNF for me.

Abyss, on 04 January 2019 - 04:33 AM, said:

....
Started Hannu Rajaniemi's SUMMERLAND. Stopped a few chapters in. For the level of imagination and originality his JEAN LE FLAMBEUR trilo hit, this was trite, with far too much exposition. I love the idea of an espionage story set as this was crossing a populated afterlife ... but that was where it ended for me. Everything about it just felt done and tiresome. And far too much 'tell don't show'. ...

But hey, you might find it brilliant, what do i know?

[Macros]

Just finished Human Kind by Rutger Bregman.

Superb.

I'm sure people will claim he's cherry picking his arguments for his case (which ironically, is further fuel for his fire that cynicism is killing us), I would argue he has limited space to get his view across and he does it with aplomb.

Read it.

[JPK]

I finished Warmaster's Gate today. The last few books in the series have been damned good and this was no exception. I also appreciate that this is a series that actually has casualties in the main cast which isn't something I can say about all of the books I've read lately.

I'm going to meet the goal I set myself for 2021 and polish off Shadows of the Apt by jumping into the final book - Seal of the Worm.

This post has been edited by JPK: 14 December 2021 - 03:35 AM

[worry]

Finished Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Pretty charming, and I read it pretty fast for me. It's a space crew story, which I guess is the scifi equivalent of quest fantasy. Maybe it's just me, but I felt it was written like a season of TV, where each chapter could be an episode in itself, with an overarching season story line that ends in a big finale. Maybe that's a lot of books and I'm being daft, but it stood out to me in this one in particular.
Now starting Red Seas Under Red Skies (first time read).

[Salt-Man Z]

worry, on 16 December 2021 - 03:30 AM, said:

Finished Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Pretty charming, and I read it pretty fast for me. It's a space crew story, which I guess is the scifi equivalent of quest fantasy. Maybe it's just me, but I felt it was written like a season of TV, where each chapter could be an episode in itself, with an overarching season story line that ends in a big finale. Maybe that's a lot of books and I'm being daft, but it stood out to me in this one in particular.

I felt that way about LWtaSAP, too, probably why I ultimately think of it as a really-good-but-not-great book. I do feel like I loved it at the time, but it hasn't turned out to be particularly memorable as the years have passed. Having said that, it sets up the second book in the series, which made me feel a lot of feelings, and I absolutely LOVED it.

worry, on 16 December 2021 - 03:30 AM, said:

Now starting Red Seas Under Red Skies (first time read).

Enjoy! I know RSURS gets a lot of crap--especially on this board--but even if it has some glaring issues, there's still a lot to love about the book.

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 16 December 2021 - 04:50 PM

[Chance]

Finished up Risen last night staying awake longer than I really should. I'm up for anything Jacka writes next these books have been really good for the last few installments.

Now the only question is what next I really should do at least 4 books before new years to not end up with a new worst year for reading.

[Macros]

Finished Thursday Murder Club.

it was .... ok.

Not really my genre, and the nature of the cast means its hardly a breakneck paced book. a bit too Twe of an ending for me, but a likeable cast, entirely too many convenient macguffins though.
I can't help but wonder if this was a debut from a nobody and not Richard Osman how it would have sold

[worry]

Salt-Man Z, on 16 December 2021 - 04:48 PM, said:

Enjoy! I know RSURS gets a lot of crap--especially on this board--but even if it has some glaring issues, there's still a lot to love about the book.

Thanks! I know both of the sequels are divisive, but that just has me more curious rather than less.

[Tsundoku]

I didn't mind RSURS so ... worth a try anyway.

[Aptorian]

Macros, on 16 December 2021 - 06:22 PM, said:

Finished Thursday Murder Club.

it was .... ok.

Not really my genre, and the nature of the cast means its hardly a breakneck paced book. a bit too Twe of an ending for me, but a likeable cast, entirely too many convenient macguffins though.
I can't help but wonder if this was a debut from a nobody and not Richard Osman how it would have sold

Had the same feeling. I felt that it wasn't much of a mystery book at all, more of a pilot for a TV show.

Also didn't care for the diary chapters. They felt pretty superfluous, except as a kind of narrator.

But overall a very relaxed, low stakes read. It could grow to be a good series with an endearing cast.