[Slum]

Dag;317288 said:

Oh-oh... That bad...?

Well, I'm still at the beginning. Let's see what the first 100 pages bring... and should it really be a disaster, well - it was Mr. B's money, he found it on sale last week.

I thought so... But I don't know, you might get a kick out of it. Seeing as how you're on an Erikson forum, however, I doubt it. It's basically a mishmash of all the cliches SE avoids like the plague...and it's more of a YA title than anything else, even though it isn't marketed as such.


I just got my hands on Butcher's Small Favors. Let the good times roll!

[Abyss]

Zanth13;317317 said:

well I finished The Giver (just a small book to read at work when there was nothing else to do)

and of course I am still reading

Return of The Crimson Guard

I'm sure i've said this elsewhere but
DIE.

- Abyss, finishing LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS.

[Optimus Prime]

Just finished another re-read of House of Chains, for some reason I feel I missed a lot of that book more than any other in the series...weird.

Now I'm going to tackle The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick. That and A Time of Treason by David Keck as well.

oh...and to quote my buddy Abyss....regarding you bastards with RotCG...

Quote

DIE.

[Mentalist]

Pig Iron;317606 said:

Reading "Birth of the Mage" too, in translation (not English). He might be one of the best fantasy-authors I've read. Hopefully there will be more translations coming, preferrably in English. Godsdoom: The Book of Hagen was totally wild!

I've read Lukyanenko too (Last Watch is on pre-order). Are there other good russian fantasy/sf-authors? Remember reading the Strugatskij-brothers a long time ago, but other than that I dont know. I speak a little Russian, but unfortunately not enough for Perumov.

Well, Perumov is the grand-daddy of Russian fantasy--Strygatskys were also really good, but they were mostly SF

Lukyanenko's made a name for himself ("Last Watch" is AWESOME, btw), but there are TONS of other writers.
Pig Iron, f you read any russian, try the site www.mirf.ru--it's the biggest Russian SFF magazine and it has tons of good authors.
Taking a look at my private stash (A pirate CD with a tonst of SFF on it--don't judge me too harshly, I come from a place that doesn't know the meaning of the words "intellectual property" and "copyright"), several names pop up
Kir Bulychev--he wrote alot of SF, round the same time as the Strugatsky brothers.
Marina + Sergey Dyachenko--I've read their "Wanderers" cycle, it was fairly interesting
Hayetskaya, Henry Lion Oldie, Nikitin, Truskinovskaya--all of these have written a lot but I haven't yet read anything by them (lousy days, only having 24 hours each.. not enough time...)
another big, "classic" one is stanislaw Lem--he's Polish, so you may have more luck finding his works. Yefremov is also pretty good, though dated.
Tjurin was one of the early cyberpunk writers in Russia.. i'll be reading him once i'm done with Perumov and move into some cyberpunk to broaden my horizons.
Vladimir Vasiliyev has some good space opera/cyberpunk stuff, reputedly. Only thing I read by him was a novelization of the game X-com (commonly know as "UFO")--and since I loved the original game to death, I may be biased there

Overall, though, as a relatively new genre, fantasy in Russia is booming right now. Problem is, of course, with a population of about 160 million, Russian authors can write for Russians only--not counting the people in CIS that are Russian-speakers and will also buy it. So getting any of these books in English is a big challnge.. which really is a shame.

[Zanth13]

Abyss;317723 said:

I'm sure i've said this elsewhere but
DIE.

- Abyss, finishing LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS.

now now, Abyss and Xander, jelousy doesnt become you....

actual it does

and Im still reading ROTCG (i know im slow...)

but just to let you know I just read about two pages worth of awesome last night which completely redeemed any misspellings the book may have had... I actually had to get up and PM a forum member (im to scared to venture into ROTCG forums cuz of spoilers I dont want to see) because of how awesome the scene was...

oh and I dont even think im half way done yet with the book...

[Optimus Prime]

Well at least the book is awesome.

I won't begrudge you getting a copy Zanth...I'm glad you've got something over there to occupy your time that helps decrease the shittiness...even if it's just a little

[Pig Iron]

Great thanks for your answer Mentalist. I actually thought with Perumov it would be worth it to try and brush up on my Russian. I really like the feel of the (very little) Russian fantasy I've read. Lem is great BTW.

[Mentalist]

Finished "Wanderings of the mage"...

wow

the book reads as a pretty standard "hero saves X", with the occasional interludes filling in the details of the other storylines. The main plotline is action-packed and paints a better picture of the new world, but is otherwise, fairly unremarkable as far as stories go.

The last chapter BLOWS it all away. Seriously. Everything.
needless to say, I'll be starting "Loneliness of the mage" very soon... like, right now.

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Finished "THe Chameleon Shadow" by Minette Walters

[pat5150]

Just finished Richard Morgan's The Steel Remains.

It's no secret that fantasy became nastier and more violent in recent years. Dark and brooding epics have irrevocably altered the genre, or so it seems. Had it been released a decade ago, The Steel Remains would have made quite a splash. In 2008, however, the book is following established paths and not uncharted waters.


Make no mistake: The Steel Remains is a good book. It's simply not the great novel which everyone appear to have anticipated. Richard Morgan, through likely no fault of his, is a victim of the hype and his own reputation. The author has raised the bar extremely high, and it was probably unfair of fans to expect him to raise it even higher by jumping genre.


My only advice: Don't believe the hype the way I did. If you like dark and gritty fantasy novels, then chances are that you'll enjoy The Steel Remains. Just don't expect the book to make an impression similar to that of GRRM's A Game of Thrones when it came out.


Regardless of the fact that it's nowhere near as groundbreaking as advertised, The Steel Remains is nevertheless an entertaining and action-packed read. If you go into this one with the appropriate expectations, there's no reason why you shouldn't enjoy it.

Check the blog for the full review!

Patrick

[Quick~]

The lies of locke lamora, I'm finding it rather refreshing.

[Slum]

I just started an Elric omnibus..not bad so far.

[Dr Trouble]

I just finished The Blade Itself for the first time.

I have had the first two books in the series for a while now, but have been far to busy to read anything. But on the eve of my last day of work, I picked it up and started reading and enjoyed it.

I don't think its as fantastic as some comments I've seen through the internet have hailed it, but its certainly worth the read. I must admit to not really being caught in the novel until the line;

Quote

"Hurt?" The Bloody Nine threw back his head and laughed. "I'll fucking show you hurt!"

I sat up and took notice

Now I am eagerly tearing my way through "Before They Are Hanged".

[Astra]

Just finished The Burning Stone [Crown of Stars, Book 3] by Kate Elliott.

As its predecessors it has some flaws. Sometimes too much of unnecessary descriptions, on some occasions it is a tedious read but mostly it is a very interesting book. Plot lines become more clear and show a promise for future intrigue. Quite often I could not put down the book, just wanted to read on and on to learn what is going to happen.
7 out of 10

Now, a short respite from Epic fantasy when I am going to read The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia

[Dr Trouble]

Kate Elliott, My old nemesis ... I see my curses have failed ...


Almost finished with Before They Are Hanged. Its basically the same as The Blade Itself.

[Astra]

Trouble;325997 said:

Kate Elliott, My old nemesis ... I see my curses have failed ...


Almost finished with Before They Are Hanged. Its basically the same as The Blade Itself.

You didn't like Crown of Stars?

[Sir Thursday]

Trouble;325997 said:

Kate Elliott, My old nemesis ... I see my curses have failed ...


Almost finished with Before They Are Hanged. Its basically the same as The Blade Itself.

Fortunately, Last Argument of Kings is different and much better .


Sir Thursday

[Dr Trouble]

Astra;325999 said:

You didn't like Crown of Stars?

I only read the first 5 books, so I can't say if it got better. But from what I read, I hated. The shreds of good she had in her story she ruined with that Whore of a main character and her annoying habit of explaining everything almost Goodkind-esque(Not a word?). I got to the bit where she was a angel with fire wings or some such floating around and all she could do was bitch. Thats when I a decided that even the interesting Male character couldn't save it (As you can see I've forgotten all the names).


Sir Thursday>> I hope so! I'm putting alot of effort into reading the two books back to back. So I do want some pay off . I can see it leading to something large, So I'm not worried.

[Mentalist]

I've had a day off today
As such, I was finally able to finish "Loneliness of the Mage"--the 4th installment in Perumov's "Keeper of the swords"
I totally loved the first book--it was truly epic and could easily stack up to the best I've ever read (As far as I'm concerned, Perumov will forever be "the Russian Erikson". The second book was a radical change in style from the first, really shifting to a single main PoV with a number of "Interludes". Book 3, while action-packed, was somewhat bland in the "yawn, we;ve seen this all before" variety, with the exception of the last 20 pages or so, that illustrated the epicness of the series in the best traditions of the "Neo meets the Architect" kind of way.

In Book 4, the plot thickens. A lot. While it retains the "main plot + interludes" layout, the Interludes now take up much more time (compared to the 6 or 8 in "Wanderings", "Loneliness has about 20 of them). Perumov goes back to the epicness of the first volume with a massive final convergence that made me stay up till 2 AM in a desperate need to finish reading it.
This book also highlights one of Perumov's weaker points--his secondary characters really lack fleshing out, their singularity being blamed for "the circumstances they were raised in". This is sort of annoying, since Perumov dedicates a decent amount of pages to these characters, but such things really do get lost in the story, which is engulfing and overwhelming. Those final 70 or so pages can honestly (imho) rival some of the best scenes in MBotF.
"loneliness of the Mage" closes a second sub-cycle of the Series, setting the scene for the explosive "War of the Mage quartet". Needless to say, I am REALLY looking forward to it.

[Mushroom]

Just Finished the Knight By gene Wolfe.

Was pretty good overall I thought, pretty much what I would expect from wolfe. No where near the literary level of Book of the New Sun though.
Looking forward to starting the Wizard Now, Second and last book in the Duology.