[JPK]

I polished off Islington's THE WILL OF THE MANY on Saturday and I'm happy to report it ended on a strong note. I'm very much in for the sequel next year.

I had a long drive for work today so I listened to all of THE CASEBOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES which polishes off the massive audiobook omnibus of the 9 Doyle novels narrated by Stephen Fry. I would recommend this to someone that is interested in the classics for sure. Fry clearly has a deep love and passion for the novels and I would argue that they're pretty much timeless.

Next up I'm finally getting to Cornwell's EXCALIBUR. I'm ready for some heads to roll in this one.

[pat5150]

QuickTidal, on 18 November 2024 - 05:09 PM, said:

It's funny, I know Pat loved the Sun Sword series over the House series, but I struggled to finish the Sun Sword series over the last year as it's SO dragged out....but the House series feels fresher to me as a result. That said, it's West so she still uses 1000 words when 50 would do...she freely admits to this...so YMMV.

It's probably going to take me a few years to finish out the House series though as I'm only on book 4 of that and there are 9 I think, because I find them more digestible after long breaks in between. It's the farthest thing from a binge series that exists.

It's probably going to take a while for West to finish the new series, so you should have ample time to get through the House War books in time to read the finale.

[QuickTidal]

pat5150, on 19 November 2024 - 04:20 AM, said:

QuickTidal, on 18 November 2024 - 05:09 PM, said:

It's funny, I know Pat loved the Sun Sword series over the House series, but I struggled to finish the Sun Sword series over the last year as it's SO dragged out....but the House series feels fresher to me as a result. That said, it's West so she still uses 1000 words when 50 would do...she freely admits to this...so YMMV.

It's probably going to take me a few years to finish out the House series though as I'm only on book 4 of that and there are 9 I think, because I find them more digestible after long breaks in between. It's the farthest thing from a binge series that exists.

It's probably going to take a while for West to finish the new series, so you should have ample time to get through the House War books in time to read the finale.

100%. I have a print on demand copy of the first one from the final series, but I know it's just going to sit while I plug away at the House War.

[JPK]

Regarding the EXCALIBUR blurb:

Spoiler

The blurb talks of reignited love. How on earth can Guinevere be redeemed after the events at the end of ENEMY OF GOD?

[Abyss]

Start/stopped a few things and bounced back to Martha Wells' Raksura bk 4, EDGE OF WORLDS.
It seems i'm enjoying the series too much to take a break. About an hour in.... yeah, good call.

[QuickTidal]

Ryan Cahill's OF BLOOD AND FIRE..

Prologue: Oh this is...wait WTF....Oh, I want to know more about THAT. That was cool.

Chapters 1-10: Oh this is cool. old school type classic fantasy, almost cozy. These characters are cool and interact well. What a lovely little town.

Chapter 11: Whoa, who are they? Oh well THAT'S not dark or anything!

Chapter 12: Oh this world is WAY bigger than I thought, and many more things seem to be in the offing....ok all these new characters are ALL cool. Wait....holy fuck...

Chapter 13: WAIT, HOLY FUCK....


Me at work....chomping at the bit to read more.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

JPK, on 19 November 2024 - 06:13 PM, said:

Regarding the EXCALIBUR blurb:

Spoiler

The blurb talks of reignited love. How on earth can Guinevere be redeemed after the events at the end of ENEMY OF GOD?

Can't wait for you to read it and come back with thoughts!

Tiste pretty much liveblogged his thoughts on the trilogy at me as he read them and I remember him saying something similar until he got there... Cornwell does such a great job with her.

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 21 November 2024 - 01:39 PM

[JPK]

Spoiler

I really liked the bit in the opening when Derfel is contemplating how at it's heart this is a story of women, especially as you would expect it to be one of men. Well written bit there.

Fuck you Lancelot. Of course you ran straight to the Saxons. Smarmy little weasel. Cerdic can get fucked right next to him.

At least they're slightly balanced by Aelle. His gift to Derfel was beautiful. "Send a kiss to my granddaughter for me".

And then there's the absolute glory that is Merlin. He lights up every scene he's in.

Derfel: "I brought you Excalibur."
Merlin: "I can see that with my own eyes. I'm not blind, you know. A little deaf at times and the bladder is feeble, but what can one expect at my age?"

This post has been edited by JPK: 21 November 2024 - 04:53 PM

[JPK]

As soon as I posted that I got another gem from that character

Spoiler

"He also recommends, as I recall, wrapping a woman's breast band about the skull to cure an aching skull. But the remedy doesn't work. How could it? The magic is in the breasts not in the band. So it is clearly far more efficacious to bury the aching head in the breasts themselves. Remedy's never failed me, that's for sure."

I love him so much.

[Tiste Simeon]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 21 November 2024 - 01:37 PM, said:

JPK, on 19 November 2024 - 06:13 PM, said:

Regarding the EXCALIBUR blurb:

Spoiler

The blurb talks of reignited love. How on earth can Guinevere be redeemed after the events at the end of ENEMY OF GOD?

Can't wait for you to read it and come back with thoughts!

Tiste pretty much liveblogged his thoughts on the trilogy at me as he read them and I remember him saying something similar until he got there... Cornwell does such a great job with her.

Liveblogging my thoughts AT you makes it seem like I was constantly ranting at you and you had no choice but to suffer my random th...

Oh wait yeah that tracks.

[JPK]

Through part 1. Holy shit.

Spoiler

I'm in complete shock at that the events of the Rite
Poor Gawain. At this point I'm really interested to see if they're going to have Morgan move into the antagonist role but it looks like the setup is for Nimue to take it instead.

Still not seeing how Guinevere can be redeemed after the scene involving her receiving the news of Arthur's remarrying. She's just so cold. "Tell him I wept, it's what he wants to hear.".

Will continue through part 2 during lunch.

This post has been edited by JPK: 21 November 2024 - 06:46 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

Finished The Darkness at Sethanon, the final book of the original Riftwar Trilogy. Fantastic book, especially after the slight let down that was Silverthorn.

It does make me want to get the Empire trilogy he wrote with Janny Wurts but I have enough to read without buying more books for now.

[Tsundoku]

Tiste Simeon, on 23 November 2024 - 06:12 PM, said:

Finished The Darkness at Sethanon, the final book of the original Riftwar Trilogy. Fantastic book, especially after the slight let down that was Silverthorn.

It does make me want to get the Empire trilogy he wrote with Janny Wurts but I have enough to read without buying more books for now.

No! Get it now! You know you want to. They're a quick read ...

[Abyss]

Tsundoku, on 23 November 2024 - 08:10 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 23 November 2024 - 06:12 PM, said:

Finished The Darkness at Sethanon, the final book of the original Riftwar Trilogy. Fantastic book, especially after the slight let down that was Silverthorn.

It does make me want to get the Empire trilogy he wrote with Janny Wurts but I have enough to read without buying more books for now.

No! Get it now! You know you want to. They're a quick read ...

Agreed. They ARE that good.

[Tiste Simeon]

Ugh you guys are the worst.

[QuickTidal]

Tiste Simeon, on 23 November 2024 - 06:12 PM, said:

Finished The Darkness at Sethanon, the final book of the original Riftwar Trilogy. Fantastic book, especially after the slight let down that was Silverthorn.

It does make me want to get the Empire trilogy he wrote with Janny Wurts but I have enough to read without buying more books for now.

So I went on a bit of a spree in the last 6 months. I'd only ever read Magician properly and had found (quite by accident at the used books store) the copies of both MAGICIAN books with art done by Janny Wurt's hubby, artist Don Maitz which I found stunning...so of course, being ME, I needed to seek out more Feist books that he might have done art for and Ebay'ed copies of SILVERTHORN, A DARKNESS AT SETHANON, PRINCE OF THE BLOOD, and KING'S BUCANEER that Maitz also did...so I own them, but I've not yet read them. They are current;y packed for the house move, but I'm thinking it might be time to check them out.

And I will of course have to find his cover versions of the Empire trilogy too.


Bonus Note: I love his art so much that I grabbed Dave Duncan's entire 'A Man & His Word' series with cover art by Maitz, where I learned online from Don (on reddit of all places) that the model he used for Inosolan was a blonde FedEx woman in the 80's who used to bring stuff to their house regularly. What a fascinating tidbit.

[champ]

Tsundoku, on 23 November 2024 - 08:10 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 23 November 2024 - 06:12 PM, said:

Finished The Darkness at Sethanon, the final book of the original Riftwar Trilogy. Fantastic book, especially after the slight let down that was Silverthorn.

It does make me want to get the Empire trilogy he wrote with Janny Wurts but I have enough to read without buying more books for now.

No! Get it now! You know you want to. They're a quick read ...

If it helps, Feist's later books are terrible so you won't have to buy all his books!

[Briar King]

And here is me debating on throwing away those Feist I own as the computer room is slowly becoming my son’s den and room is being made. Way too many bins of books with not enough cases to put them on. The Expanse books are likely going in the trash soon to.

[JPK]

Briar King, on 26 November 2024 - 03:51 AM, said:

And here is me debating on throwing away those Feist I own as the computer room is slowly becoming my son’s den and room is being made. Way too many bins of books with not enough cases to put them on. The Expanse books are likely going in the trash soon to.

Don't you have somewhere you can donate them to?

[Briar King]

Not anymore unfortunately