[Abyss]

JPK, on 05 August 2024 - 04:56 PM, said:

Abyss, on 05 August 2024 - 04:22 AM, said:

Next up, Carol Berg's SONG OF THE BEAST.

I've actually got this one queued up for the near future as well. I'm curious to see your thoughts on it because it's a reread for me, but it's been 15-20 years since I read it so my recollection is limited to vague positive vibes.
...

About 2/3rds and enjoying it. It's very much an older style of fantasy, two povs, one MC, the lore is there but it isn't deep, the pace is steady towards a specific goal, and since it's a standalone there's a nice sense of moving the story to a conclusion. More when i'm done but so far so good.

[polishgenius]

About halfway into James SA Corey's new one, The Mercy of Gods, starting a new series. Good stuff. It's interesting how it drops us into a way bigger, more out-there setting than Expanse- basically a huge space opera - but tells it from a smaller perspective, essentially almost entirely from the view of one team of scientists. Like looking up at the universe from the ground.

[Abyss]

polishgenius, on 06 August 2024 - 08:45 PM, said:

About halfway into James SA Corey's new one, The Mercy of Gods, starting a new series. Good stuff. It's interesting how it drops us into a way bigger, more out-there setting than Expanse- basically a huge space opera - but tells it from a smaller perspective, essentially almost entirely from the view of one team of scientists. Like looking up at the universe from the ground.

Am very divided on starting this. I stalled on EXPANSE until four books in, which was an absolute treat to marathon, and the wait between more books wasn't bad.

This is book one. Franck n Abraham are steady workers, and my inclination is to wait for a few more books in before i start this.


But i REAAAAAAALLLLY enjoyed The Expanse.

...how self-contained is it PG?

[polishgenius]

Abyss, on 07 August 2024 - 03:56 AM, said:

...how self-contained is it PG?

Not very if I'm honest. It's basically a prologue.


Anyway, there is a very Daniel-Abrahamish character/plot moment at the end here.



I was wondering how this was gonna set itself apart* since this is a lot closer to the other big spacey SF series around right now, but that limited perspective and the way the characters develop achieves that.

It's pretty pretty different to Expanse, though.

*I mean, for the nerds who read this kind of thing all the time. Obviously Expanse way broke out of the niche, so even though it won't go that big this probably isn't competing for sales or status.

[JPK]

Sorry, I accidentally deleted this when I went to edit it. I just wanted mention I'm moving this here from the "Has anybody read" thread. I also wanted to clarify that I'm reading this in ded-tree so audiobook mileage may vary.

 Abyss, on 09 August 2024 - 03:06 AM, said:

 JPK, on 08 August 2024 - 06:57 PM, said:

Have any of you read Helene Wecker's THE HIDDEN PALACE? The is the sequel to THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI. I've been pushing myself on this one and I'm trying to decide if I should dnf this at 30%, which feels odd because I really loved the previous novel.

Spoiler

I'm just having a hard time with how slow this one is moving. I see where it's going with the slice of life aspects as well as the social commentary about gender, but I'm really feeling a lack of any sense of urgency in the novel at all. For the first, you had everything going on with Chava trying to make a life for herself and the Wizard in the background, but this one seems to be really lacking that at this point, instead starting to shift it's focus to a new Golem and Jinni pairing. Does this pick up, or should I expect it to stay on this general path?

Nope, am rather curious whether you stick w it.
I found the first one slow as well, but it was a well constructed pace that didn't lose or bore me even if i had to adjust my usual preferences, which, to be fair, was exactly what i was looking for at the time. Maybe just wrong time for this read?

I have decided to stick with this and made some more progress into it over the last couple of days. I'm right around the halfway mark. I want to see how this wraps itself up but enough parts have started shifting into place over the last hundred pages that I do find myself more engaged than I had been.

At this point I think I'm going to end up liking the book, but not loving it like I did the first.

[polishgenius]

Currently reading Miles Cameron's latest*, Breaking Hel, the third and final of his series about a rebellion against the gods. As per usual for Cameron, lots of epic battle goodness, although tbh there are moments where I think he could stand to take a pause and let the battles breathe. He did in his first series, Red Knight, and the one in the third book is still my favourite battle outside of Malazan in the last 20 years or so. That said, he's also definitely building to something.

Also: I had kind of already suspected that this series was set in the same 'verse as that first one, but just now it was confirmed (rather neatly). Not sure about the one he wrote in the interim but I suspect so too tbh.


*by a week, lol, he released the second in his space opera series the week before

[polishgenius]

I read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, which was good.


Then I read Robert VS Reddick's Master Assassins, the latest in his more recent series after concluding the Chathrand sequence. Bit of a switch in a few ways, one being that it's gone from a very ocean-centered setting to a desert, but more importantly, the Chathrand series is quite whimsical in places whereas this is... not. It's also, at least in the first book, a lot more focused- that ties in with the whimsy, a bit, but the first in general was quite sprawling and had a lot of strands going on. Whereas this clearly has details in the background but the plot itself is knife-sharp. Basically a 300-page chase thriller in a magical desert.



Anyway, it's really good, I tore through it- but I do have to add a warning, in that the inciting incident of the plot is that one of the evil faction rapes a child, and while it's not graphic or anything it's not off-page and I really did not need that in my fantasy romp. Quite frankly if I didn't already have trust for Redick from the first series I'm not sure if I'd have continued. I get why it was there- Redick needed the main character reacting with mindless rage so he has him stumble upon it- but I feel like he could have presented it differently at least. Especially since after that moment, though sexual violence is something that comes up in the plot, it isn't anything like that kind of edgy.




Anyway now I'm on to These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs, a space opera of the imperial skullduggery type that won the most recent Philip K Dick award. Very sharp opening.




I'm on a bit of a roll these last two weeks, which is nice beccause I've been reading very slowly till now this year.

[amphibian]

polishgenius, on 15 August 2024 - 10:04 PM, said:

I read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, which was good.


Then I read Robert VS Reddick's Master Assassins, the latest in his more recent series after concluding the Chathrand sequence. Bit of a switch in a few ways, one being that it's gone from a very ocean-centered setting to a desert, but more importantly, the Chathrand series is quite whimsical in places whereas this is... not. It's also, at least in the first book, a lot more focused- that ties in with the whimsy, a bit, but the first in general was quite sprawling and had a lot of strands going on. Whereas this clearly has details in the background but the plot itself is knife-sharp. Basically a 300-page chase thriller in a magical desert.



Anyway, it's really good, I tore through it- but I do have to add a warning, in that the inciting incident of the plot is that one of the evil faction rapes a child, and while it's not graphic or anything it's not off-page and I really did not need that in my fantasy romp. Quite frankly if I didn't already have trust for Redick from the first series I'm not sure if I'd have continued. I get why it was there- Redick needed the main character reacting with mindless rage so he has him stumble upon it- but I feel like he could have presented it differently at least. Especially since after that moment, though sexual violence is something that comes up in the plot, it isn't anything like that kind of edgy.




Anyway now I'm on to These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs, a space opera of the imperial skullduggery type that won the most recent Philip K Dick award. Very sharp opening.




I'm on a bit of a roll these last two weeks, which is nice beccause I've been reading very slowly till now this year.

Redick's sequel to Master Assassins, Sidewinders, is one of my favorite fantasy books ever.

[JPK]

I finished up my reread of the main REVELATION SPACE trilogy yesterday with ABSOLUTION GAP. I know it's been a decade since I've read that book but I'm really surprised at what I remembered about it and what I had somehow managed to forget.

Spoiler

I had remembered a large amount of the Hela plot, as well as that there was an encounter with Skade which leads to the death of Clevain. I had somehow completely forgotten about everything involving Aura though and I'd really love to understand HOW COULD I FORGET THAT!? Seriously, how does one forget about a psychic fetus kidnapping implant?

Long story short, I forgot how *weird* this last book got. I'll be continuing with this universe soon with the Perfect Dreyfuss novels but next up is Sebastien de Castell's first book in the Greatcoats sequel series PLAY OF SHADOWS. I thought the interlude novel CRUCIBLE OF CHAOS was really enjoyable so I'm really looking forward to this one.

[Tsundoku]

 Tsundoku, on 28 July 2024 - 12:02 PM, said:

 Tsundoku, on 27 July 2024 - 02:12 PM, said:

 Tsundoku, on 05 October 2020 - 09:53 AM, said:

Just finished Son of a Liche - The Dark Profit Saga 2, by J Zachary Pike.

Book 1 was "Orconomics: A Satire".

Dear God, so much fun. Takes the piss out of the GFC, standard fantasy tropes, politics, marketing, racism, etc etc etc. Some hilarious pop culture nods to Lassie, Vader and Luke, Trump and the list goes on.

Underneath it all is also a very entertaining read. It's fast paced and doesn't any more time than necessary on introspection but it's still in there, as is character development and a very engaging plot.

Thoroughly recommended. The third book "Dragonfired" isn't out yet but here's a tracker:

https://www.jzachary...ks/Dragonfired/

Eight introspective zombies out of nine.

Finally got to start Book 3: Dragonfired. 21% in and it's so far just as much fun as the previous 2.
Heartily recommended and it would make a fucking brilliant 3 seasons of TV. Or 3 long-form graphic novels.

Forgot to add the obligatory map:

https://www.jzachary...img/ArthMap.gif

Finished. Very satisfactory and enjoyable. Highly recommended, but not one for the grimdark fans.

Six weird-ass living statues out of seven.

[polishgenius]

 amphibian, on 16 August 2024 - 05:32 AM, said:

Redick's sequel to Master Assassins, Sidewinders, is one of my favorite fantasy books ever.

It's definitely on the list but since, in a burst of optimism, bought about twenty books to throw onto my to-read pile in about five days last week, it's gonna have to wait a bit.

 polishgenius, on 15 August 2024 - 10:04 PM, said:

Anyway now I'm on to These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs, a space opera of the imperial skullduggery type that won the most recent Philip K Dick award. Very sharp opening.

Finished this. Yeah, entertaining slice of backstabbing, manipulation and blowing shit up, led by fun characters. With, it has to be said, a background of genocide survivorship that makes it more than just a throwaway romp.



It's increasingly clear that a lot of the stuff that was previously the domain of medieval epic fantasy has been taken over, in popularity or at least publisher trust, by space opera and space fantasy. Obviouly the two/three genres have always been related (it's no coincidence that most of the 80s/90s 'Tolkienite' fantasy boom had as much plot similarity to Star Wars as LotR really) but there's a really notable increase in amount and variety of big, epic, dance-of-empires type space stuff in the last ten years, and getting more so.


I can't say I'm displeased by that.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 18 August 2024 - 09:46 PM

[Mentalist]

Finished re-reading "The Blade Itself". Gonna try to do "Before they are hanged" while I'm at my parent's place for the week.

[pat5150]

I've been reading a lot of non-fiction works focusing on the Middle East in the last year or so. A while back, another reviewer recommended Kim Ghattas' Black Wave and I finally read it. Boy was it it a brilliant and well-researched book! Most of the works I've read so far focus on one country/region, but Ghattas fills most of the gaps found in those other books and demonstrates how the conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia spread across the length and breadth of the Middle East and had repercussions everywhere around the globe.

Even the CIA recommends this one:

While other journalists and scholars have written about specific aspects of this story, to this reviewer’s knowledge, none have attempted the kind of sweeping examination of the Saudi-Iranian rivalry and its impact on the Middle East—and beyond—as has Ghattas. Her achievement is significant and should be required reading for anyone who seeks to better understand how we got here, particularly those whose duties or responsibilities necessitate it. Intelligence officers, in particular, will find nuanced explorations of the roots of many of the regions’ current conflicts, but also glimpses of the deeply-held hopes for a better future among some of the people who live there.

If you're interested in the rise of extremism and how it affected the Middle East and the West, Kim Ghattas' Black Wave covers a lot of ground and is a fascinating read. Furthermore, it's an accessible work that can be enjoyed and understood by neophytes and aficionados alike.

If you only want to read one book on the topic, make it this one! You can find our more about Black Wave here​​​​​​​.

[Tiste Simeon]

You intrigued me enough to buy a copy Pat!

[pat5150]

Tiste Simeon, on 21 August 2024 - 03:59 PM, said:

You intrigued me enough to buy a copy Pat!

It's a great read, you'll see!

[Ain't_It_Just_]

Currently reading Love In the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, my girlfriend recommended it. It's a little dense at times but I must say I am enjoying the vivid descriptions of the city and the time period, and there is a surprising amount of humour. Also, I have something of a soft spot for old fashioned romance and unrequited love.

[worry]

I've read that one! Vivid is exactly the word I would use for it. Maybe the most makes-you-feel-the-setting book I've ever read.

[Mentalist]

Having had an extra long trip home due to all the various scheduling mishaps and delays (a 3 hour trip turning into almost 7 hours), i ended up finishing the re-read of "Before they are hanged"


.......



At which point I also binged through "The Last Argument of Kings" and half of "Best served Cold" before calling it a night yesterday. And I finished re-reading BSC tonight.

I suspect "Heroes" might take a bit longer, but then again, a long weekend is coming.

Seems like at the very least I might catch up on the First Law books by the end of the year.

[Ain't_It_Just_]

Mentalist, on 28 August 2024 - 05:32 AM, said:

Having had an extra long trip home due to all the various scheduling mishaps and delays (a 3 hour trip turning into almost 7 hours), i ended up finishing the re-read of "Before they are hanged"


.......



At which point I also binged through "The Last Argument of Kings" and half of "Best served Cold" before calling it a night yesterday. And I finished re-reading BSC tonight.

I suspect "Heroes" might take a bit longer, but then again, a long weekend is coming.

Seems like at the very least I might catch up on the First Law books by the end of the year.

Wht would you say your favourite Abercrombie book is? Mine is probably The Heroes, but I could be persuaded.

[Mentalist]

Ain, on 29 August 2024 - 10:23 AM, said:

Mentalist, on 28 August 2024 - 05:32 AM, said:

Having had an extra long trip home due to all the various scheduling mishaps and delays (a 3 hour trip turning into almost 7 hours), i ended up finishing the re-read of "Before they are hanged"


.......



At which point I also binged through "The Last Argument of Kings" and half of "Best served Cold" before calling it a night yesterday. And I finished re-reading BSC tonight.

I suspect "Heroes" might take a bit longer, but then again, a long weekend is coming.

Seems like at the very least I might catch up on the First Law books by the end of the year.

Wht would you say your favourite Abercrombie book is? Mine is probably The Heroes, but I could be persuaded.

BSC for the Count of Monte Christo vibes (which happens to be one of my favourite childhood novels).
But I'll get back to you once I'm done with Red Country re-read. Shouldn't be long, since I'm currently on Day 3 of "Heroes" already.