[Sixty]

I'm maybe 30 pages into RotCG (finally) and am very underwhelmed. ICE basically handed me Kyle's backstory in a couple paragraphs, flat out. I see grammar errors (or am noticing differences in grammar standards between British English and American English) that just sound awkward...like the flow is just bludgeoned by the errors.

Ehhh.

I'm hoping it gets better when familiar characters are introduced.

[Pilgrim]

Never really cared for RotCG much until I did a re-read, and then for some reason I found it great!
Based on board's recommendations, I've mostly finished Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon, and so far, so great. Fantastic story!

[stone monkey]

A Deepness in the Sky is a very different book to A Fire Upon the Deep; they could easily have been set in two different 'Verses. That said, it's still a great book and has a number of easter eggs for those who have read the other book (which is, internal chronology speaking, set somewhat later)

[LadyMTL]

Pilgrim, on 21 October 2009 - 04:06 PM, said:

Never really cared for RotCG much until I did a re-read, and then for some reason I found it great!
Based on board's recommendations, I've mostly finished Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon, and so far, so great. Fantastic story!

I also read (and loved) Altered Carbon. Actually, I've read all of the Takeshi Kovacs novels and I think AC is the best of the bunch.

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Annoyed by me costantly insulting Twilight a friend of mine decided to lend it to me so I could understand why it was so awesome.
At first it's just a bland, badly written book, but when the romance begins the book becomes awful! It's simply completely ridiculous and some of the things said in that book can only come from a scaringly twisted mind.

[Salt-Man Z]

Sixty, on 21 October 2009 - 02:44 AM, said:

I see grammar errors (or am noticing differences in grammar standards between British English and American English) that just sound awkward...like the flow is just bludgeoned by the errors.

I've decided to chalk it up to being a British grammatical style. Bugged the heck out of me in NoK, but I figured that was Esslemont's personal "style". Then earlier this year I read Karen Traviss' 7-book "Wess'har Wars" series; very British, and chock-full of that style of grammar. Suffice it to say, in the course of 7books, I adjusted to it pretty quick. I noticed it in some of Alastair Reynolds' stuff after that, and it was blatantly obvious when I then read RotCG.

It's still weird, but it doesn't phaze me anymore.

[Sixty]

I think it's more passages like:

RotCG MMPB p. 30

Quote

The wind gusted rain into Kyle's face and he shivered.

That reads like something that, frankly, a twelve year old would write. And I'm 95% sure that British English still demands a comma before the "and", which to me just sounds awkward (with or without the comma). Shortly followed by:

Quote

Don't want anyone stealing our thunder, Stoop had said grinning like a fool. But then, they'd all grinned like fools when Stalker put the plan to Trench. They trusted his local knowledge being from this side of Seeker's Deep, like Kyle himself.

Only the second to last sentence feels, well, "correct" to me. It's missing a comma after said, and the "like Kyle himself" bit seems extraordinarily out of place grammatically and a little heavy-handed. "his local knowledge being..." also sounds incorrect (stylistically if not grammatically). I dunno if it bothers anyone who's less of a grammar nazi, though.

[QuickTidal]

Bernard Cornwell's 5th Saxon Series book THE BURNING LAND. So far a great 5th volume. lots of action and more awesome Uhtred than you can shake the hammer of Thor at!

[Salt-Man Z]

@Sixty:

Yeah, that's exactly the stuff I'm talking about. It's like the comma has become a forgotten (or rationed) tool. Like I've said, this has been particularly conspicuous in British authors I've read lately. After half a dozen books or so it develops its own rhythm, but Esslemont in particular can still severely trip up a reader trying to parse his prose.

As for that last sentence, if I had to, I'd rewrite it like this:

Quote

They trusted his local knowledge, being, like Kyle himself, from this side of Seeker's Deep.

[Morgoth]

I just finished the four first books of the Vorkosigan saga which in the end turned out to be quite disappointing I thought. The only character I had any respect for by the end was Miles father who actually acted as his character was written to be.

Now I'm reading Old Man's War and I absolutely love it. Might be because it's a good sci fi story following the vor books which were not but it's anyways a pleasure. I'm trying to imagine my grandfather in all his grumpy old intellectual glory going out fighting aliens

[Morgoth]

New book by Jeff Vandermeer! It's called Finch and I've yet to read a page but am pretty psyched.

[Salt-Man Z]

Just passed the halfway point in Gene Wolfe's There Are Doors, and it's finally starting to maybe make some sort of sense.

[Slow Ben]

Picked up Martins Fevre Dream about 2 years ago at a used bookstore and finally drug it out of my "to read" pile.

[QuickTidal]

Just finished THE BURNING LAND by Bernard Cornwell, another great blood-soaked Saxon Series adventure with Saxon/Dane Uhtred, and I have a copy of ACADEMS FURY by Jim Butcher ready to go....didn't LOVE the first book, but giving the second a try, since Butcher can take a book or two to warm up....and he IS my fave author after all.

[Morgoth]

Now that I've read the whole Ambergris trilogy (City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek: An Afterword, Finch) I've got to say Jeff Vandermeer is brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. The details, and how they fit together over three books that have been published years apart is astonishing. I've got to re-read the two first books again now that I finished Finch

[teholbeddict]

Just finishing up Bones of the Hills, the last book in Conn Iggulden's Genghis Khan series. I have to say this trilogy was much more enjoyable and far better written thatn his Emperor series. I've gone from being unsure of his work, to being a fan. He's still on the lighter side where historical fiction is concerned, but he creates excellent characters and really grabs the reader's attention from beginning to end. Anyone who's a fan of the genre and looking for a quick read should give this trilogy a try.

[Deornoth]

Finished reading 'Nightlight, a parody of 'Twilight' by the Harvard Lampoon. It riffs off the same joke a little too much but it never failed to at least make me smile, if not laugh out loud. My full review is over Here. I'm still working my way through 'The Sad Tale of the Brother's Grossbart', a book that I think I'm enjoying too much to let the pages go quickly. I've got other books on the go as well...

[Darkwatch]

Just finished "Foundation and Empire" by Asimov. Far more solid than the "Foundation" but still lacking a bit in plot development.

[Deornoth]

Ended up staying up late last night to finish off 'The Sad Tale of the Brother's Grossbart', the tale of a graverobbing trek across Europe and the mayhem it causes. While I had some issues with the pacing and a story that verged on the repetitive I still enjoyed 'The Sad Tale...' immensely and would recommend it to anyone, really got into it and was sad to see the book end. My full review is over Here. I'm after something a little lighter now so am well into Karen Traviss' '501st' (an 'Imperial Commando' novel)

[Deornoth]

Finished reading Karen Traviss' '501st', latest in the 'Clone Commandos' series. While the pace was dictated by the nature of the plot, I still found it to be slower than the book needed. Other than that though, Traviss came up with the goods again and I had a great time with '501st'. My full review is over Here. I'm now finishing off the 'Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 20', not sure what's next after that...