[QuickTidal]

Chance, on 23 March 2026 - 05:42 PM, said:

Finishing up The Strength of the Few, I still think it is too grim for me to really enjoy it, but it is a well written and interesting book.

QuickTidal, on 23 March 2026 - 04:56 PM, said:

Deep in a Book hangover I can't escape. I've tried no less than 7 books in the last week or so and fell off all of them.

No idea what I could try to get out of this.

Pick up a favorite you haven't read in while, that isn't too heavy, something comfortably familiar. My go to is Lord of Light.

This may be what I end up doing, thanks man.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 23 March 2026 - 05:35 PM, said:

Abyss, on 23 March 2026 - 05:34 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 23 March 2026 - 04:56 PM, said:

Deep in a Book hangover I can't escape. I've tried no less than 7 books in the last week or so and fell off all of them.

No idea what I could try to get out of this.

I'm enjoying the heck out of Kingfisher's THE CLOCKTAUR WARS, if that's an option.

I've read them. They are great.

All good... let me suggest THE LEGEND OF ELI MONPRESS then. Similar whimsical tone, caper elements, fast pace, easy to get into, light but not fluffy, as it were.

[polishgenius]

Read Notorious Sorcerer. With a title like that how can you not? Great book too.


Pretty much exactly fits the description Abyss used for Eli Montpress tbh, very much seems in the same vein. The whole series is one of my favourite new reads of the last couple years or so.

eta: I feel like I should challenge Abyss to a recommendation swap now. I read Eli Monpress and he reads Notorious Sorcerer. En guard!

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 23 March 2026 - 07:37 PM

[worry]

The Notorious W.I.Z.

[QuickTidal]

Okay so I’m taking both Abyss and Chances advice and mashing them up…. I’m re-reading the Clocktaur War! Huzzah. Usrula Vernon’s prose is so cozy and funny that it’s bound to get me outta my funk.

[Chance]

Finished up The Strength of the Few and yeah there was a lot of reversals closer to the end which perhaps make the book a bit less grim but it was a bit of slog up to that point. Started up Shadow Upon Time which promises more of the same. I've generally enjoyed the Sun Eater books but they can also be very grim. Yet I'm curious to see if there is any twist to an ending the readers have known about since the first book.

QuickTidal, on 23 March 2026 - 10:10 PM, said:

Okay so I’m taking both Abyss and Chances advice and mashing them up…. I’m re-reading the Clocktaur War! Huzzah. Usrula Vernon’s prose is so cozy and funny that it’s bound to get me outta my funk.

Funny usually works. Sometimes we need to get back to the reason why we read which is some kind of enjoyment, entertainment most of the time. Its sometimes lost when we read heavier books which might be stylistically great, have great big ideas but just aren't that enjoyable.

This post has been edited by Chance: 24 March 2026 - 08:11 AM

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Currently about a third of the way into Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie which was a recommendation.

It's lovely. Hard to articulate beyond that, but the prose is so vivid and just a delight to read. Captures childhood incredibly well thus far.

JPK - if this isn't in your classics list, I think you would really enjoy it.

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 24 March 2026 - 08:31 AM

[JPK]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 24 March 2026 - 08:31 AM, said:

Currently about a third of the way into Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie which was a recommendation.

It's lovely. Hard to articulate beyond that, but the prose is so vivid and just a delight to read. Captures childhood incredibly well thus far.

JPK - if this isn't in your classics list, I think you would really enjoy it.

Thank you for the recommendation. Adding it now.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 23 March 2026 - 10:10 PM, said:

Okay so I'm taking both Abyss and Chances advice and mashing them up…. I'm re-reading the Clocktaur War! Huzzah. Usrula Vernon's prose is so cozy and funny that it's bound to get me outta my funk.

I WIN!!!!!

Good choice!

[Abyss]

polishgenius, on 23 March 2026 - 07:31 PM, said:

Read Notorious Sorcerer. With a title like that how can you not? Great book too.


Pretty much exactly fits the description Abyss used for Eli Montpress tbh, very much seems in the same vein. The whole series is one of my favourite new reads of the last couple years or so.

eta: I feel like I should challenge Abyss to a recommendation swap now. I read Eli Monpress and he reads Notorious Sorcerer. En guard!

Challenge accepted. HAVE AT THEE!!!

(one i finish Clocktaur and assuming Richard Morgan's just released No Man's Land remains irritatingly unavailable in Canada)

[Mentalist]

Finished "The Waste Lands". It's.... different.

Gonna be a few weeks until I'm at my parent's place to grab the next few Dark Tower books, so I'm going to go back to Cinder Spires in the meantime. I got Book 2, but think I'll need a quick re-read for "Aeronaut's Windlass" first.

[Abyss]

Mentalist, on 25 March 2026 - 04:50 AM, said:

Finished "The Waste Lands". It's.... different.

WASTE LANDS exists in a weird space in my head... when i first read it after a looong wait following DRAWING OF THE THREE it was kind of mind blowing. When i read it again ahead of King returning to the series it was less mind blowing and a little more wow was this guy high as fuck when he wrote this, but still enjoyable. As well a lot of the easter eggs and refs to other King books clicked because i had read them. It was totally worth the read, but not exactly the high point of the series for me.

Quote

Gonna be a few weeks until I'm at my parent's place to grab the next few Dark Tower books, so I'm going to go back to Cinder Spires in the meantime. I got Book 2, but think I'll need a quick re-read for "Aeronaut's Windlass" first.

If possible get your hands on the 'WARRIORBORN' novella between WINDLASS and OLYMPIAN. You emphatically do not neeeeeed to read it but it very fits nicely between and the additional character work is worthwhile.

If you can't get it easily msg me, i might know a guy.

[polishgenius]

Abyss, on 25 March 2026 - 04:04 AM, said:

Challenge accepted. HAVE AT THEE!!!

(one i finish Clocktaur and assuming Richard Morgan's just released No Man's Land remains irritatingly unavailable in Canada)

Looks like I'm gonna have to get the first three ombnibus. Partly because the collection only costs four quid more than each individually, and partly because the single books have covers so bad I'd be embarrassed to have them even though I read on ebook and no-one would see it.


Got Clocktaur on deck too, lol. But finishing Rogba Payne's Testimony of Blood is the first order of business.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Holey moley.

JL Odom's first two Land Of Exile books — By Blood, By Salt and A Haunt for Jackals — are so, so, so insanely good.

If you have not yet read them...please do. I don't even know what to compare them to, but everything is executed flawlessly. The plotting, the pacing, the characters, the history, the prose (oh man, the prose!), and the twists.

It's like GGK meets Gemmell meets Erikson meets Hobb (sorry, yes, these characters get wrung out like sponges).

(Oh, and she won the SPFBO 2025).

This post has been edited by Whisperzzzzzzz: 26 March 2026 - 12:08 PM

[Abyss]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 26 March 2026 - 12:08 PM, said:

Holey moley.

JL Odom's first two Land Of Exile books — By Blood, By Salt and A Haunt for Jackals — are so, so, so insanely good.

If you have not yet read them...please do. I don't even know what to compare them to, but everything is executed flawlessly. The plotting, the pacing, the characters, the history, the prose (oh man, the prose!), and the twists.

It's like GGK meets Gemmell meets Erikson meets Hobb (sorry, yes, these characters get wrung out like sponges).

(Oh, and she won the SPFBO 2025).

Intriguing. Any idea how many books are planned? ....i'm reluctant to start incomplete series' lately.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 25 March 2026 - 04:04 AM, said:

polishgenius, on 23 March 2026 - 07:31 PM, said:

Read Notorious Sorcerer. With a title like that how can you not? Great book too.


Pretty much exactly fits the description Abyss used for Eli Montpress tbh, very much seems in the same vein. The whole series is one of my favourite new reads of the last couple years or so.

eta: I feel like I should challenge Abyss to a recommendation swap now. I read Eli Monpress and he reads Notorious Sorcerer. En guard!

Challenge accepted. HAVE AT THEE!!!

(one i finish Clocktaur and assuming Richard Morgan's just released No Man's Land remains irritatingly unavailable in Canada)

polishgenius, on 25 March 2026 - 08:13 PM, said:

Looks like I'm gonna have to get the first three ombnibus. Partly because the collection only costs four quid more than each individually, and partly because the single books have covers so bad I'd be embarrassed to have them even though I read on ebook and no-one would see it.


Got Clocktaur on deck too, lol. But finishing Rogba Payne's Testimony of Blood is the first order of business.

k i'm ready, got some audible credits to burn and i feel the need, the need for read....
LET'S DO THIS


(like, whenever you're set, like nbd....)

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 25 March 2026 - 04:04 AM, said:

...assuming Richard Morgan's just released No Man's Land remains irritatingly unavailable in Canada)

This is all kinds of weird - i had a pre-order w audible.com, it was cancelled, i received a notification that the book was available, but neither .com nor .ca have it, not even chapters indigo which is sometimes a thing where they score exclusivity on a new book.

audible.uk has it but i dislike spreading my library around and i have no freebies.

Even weirder, amazon.ca has a June 30 drop date for the dead tree/ebook but the blurb is from one of his older books.

I wouldn't typically resort to the high seas for immediate gratification until i can use a credit but this is stretching my patience because every source everywhere says the book should be available.

[worry]

Abyss, on 26 March 2026 - 02:18 PM, said:

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 26 March 2026 - 12:08 PM, said:

Holey moley.

JL Odom's first two Land Of Exile books — By Blood, By Salt and A Haunt for Jackals — are so, so, so insanely good.

If you have not yet read them...please do. I don't even know what to compare them to, but everything is executed flawlessly. The plotting, the pacing, the characters, the history, the prose (oh man, the prose!), and the twists.

It's like GGK meets Gemmell meets Erikson meets Hobb (sorry, yes, these characters get wrung out like sponges).

(Oh, and she won the SPFBO 2025).

Intriguing. Any idea how many books are planned? ....i'm reluctant to start incomplete series' lately.

I looked into it after that post. It's a trilogy with the third book coming out some time this year. She originally wrote a huge manuscript 15 years ago encompassing the whole story, but in terms of publication it was split into three ground-up rewrites (including extensive editing, it seems) and she's finishing up the third one.

[Tiste Simeon]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 26 March 2026 - 12:08 PM, said:

Holey moley.

JL Odom's first two Land Of Exile books — By Blood, By Salt and A Haunt for Jackals — are so, so, so insanely good.

If you have not yet read them...please do. I don't even know what to compare them to, but everything is executed flawlessly. The plotting, the pacing, the characters, the history, the prose (oh man, the prose!), and the twists.

It's like GGK meets Gemmell meets Erikson meets Hobb (sorry, yes, these characters get wrung out like sponges).

(Oh, and she won the SPFBO 2025).

Dang it man I don't have time for more books and I can't believe you would

Oh hey they're only £8 for both on Kindle so I've snapped them up!

[Abyss]

Tiste Simeon, on 26 March 2026 - 03:15 PM, said:

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 26 March 2026 - 12:08 PM, said:

Holey moley.

JL Odom's first two Land Of Exile books — By Blood, By Salt and A Haunt for Jackals — are so, so, so insanely good.

If you have not yet read them...please do. I don't even know what to compare them to, but everything is executed flawlessly. The plotting, the pacing, the characters, the history, the prose (oh man, the prose!), and the twists.

It's like GGK meets Gemmell meets Erikson meets Hobb (sorry, yes, these characters get wrung out like sponges).

(Oh, and she won the SPFBO 2025).

Dang it man I don't have time for more books and I can't believe you would

Oh hey they're only £8 for both on Kindle so I've snapped them up!

it's always nice to watch you break like a twig.