[Tsundoku]

*sigh*

I had a $20 and $50 book voucher from Xmas so I just used them and bought:

Dan Brown - The Lost Symbol (it was $49.95 down to $19.99 in hardcover)
David Gemmell - Shield of Thunder (Troy Part 2)
KE Mills - The Accidental Sorcerer (looked interesting)
RA Salvatore - The Orc King (OK, I don't mind Drizzt occasionally so sue me)

All stuff I wouldn't mind but wasn't going to use my own cash for, or pay full price.

[Morgoth]

Just finished the Collector Collector, acquired as a result of my long time forum-stalking of SM. Twas a good read, light and funny with quite a bit of depth found here and there.

Also read Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels. I was told this was supposed to be close to a modern master piece, and though it had its charms the author tended to get bogged down in what seemed to me to be inner monologues written not because they had any worthwhile content but because they seemed at a glance to be deep and meaningful. Also, I got the impression that the author used long descriptions of Nazi atrocities towards jews as a get out of jail free card whenever she was stuck.

It was a powerful story, no doubt about it, but at the same time it annoyed me quite a bit.

[QuickTidal]

About 100 pages into THE ACCIDENTAL SORCERER by K.E. Mills.....fun stuff so far!

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 17 January 2010 - 06:08 AM

[QuickTidal]

Huh...I got about 200 pages into The Accidental Sorcerer by K.E. Mills, and had found it kind of lackluster, and then the gears switched and it got suddenly darker, and even that couldn't save it for me. Sadly I put it down.

I've now sat down with a string of books I didn't enjoy, I need something kickass...

...so today I am going to buy HEROES DIE by Matt Stover. I hear good things, hope it's good.

[stone monkey]

Morgoth, on 16 January 2010 - 11:56 AM, said:

Just finished the Collector Collector, acquired as a result of my long time forum-stalking of SM.

When did this start happening?

And should I be checking the tree outside my window?

[Morgoth]

stone monkey, on 17 January 2010 - 07:28 PM, said:

Morgoth, on 16 January 2010 - 11:56 AM, said:

Just finished the Collector Collector, acquired as a result of my long time forum-stalking of SM.

When did this start happening?

And should I be checking the tree outside my window?

You think I'm some kind of low tech amateur stalker? Oh pulease

[Tsundoku]

Morgoth, on 17 January 2010 - 10:39 PM, said:

stone monkey, on 17 January 2010 - 07:28 PM, said:

Morgoth, on 16 January 2010 - 11:56 AM, said:

Just finished the Collector Collector, acquired as a result of my long time forum-stalking of SM.

When did this start happening?:oAnd should I be checking the tree outside my window?

You think I'm some kind of low tech amateur stalker? Oh pulease

I just heard from the Admins - HE'S POSTING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE!!! GET OUT NOW!!!

[stone monkey]

Good job I'm not there... Just as long as he's not going through my underwear drawer...

[kcf]

I finsihed up Sleepless by Charlie Huston - this books is great - depressing, but great. And it's a bit different from other books of his. I can see it making a number of best of type lists. (full review).

I'm now reading the new Erikson novella, Crack'd Pot Trail.

[Chance]

After In the court of the crimson kings I decided to get to SM Stirlings second change trilogy and must say great fun especially if one catches how the story mirrors Lord of the Rings. On the second book Scourge of God and must say good shit while nothing revolutionary.

[Salt-Man Z]

I'm kinda getting bored with John Brown's Servant of a Dark God, but I'm close to the end. I put it off last night and picked up one of my new Lovecraft collections instead; read Dagon and The Nameless City. Decent stuff, but I really think with Lovecraft, the longer the story, the better it is.

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Finished Shadow and Claw by Gene Wolfe which collects The Shadow of the Torturer and The Claw of the Conciliator.

The Shadow of the Torturer is perhaps the most complicated book I've ever read. It has so many meanings and deep thoughts that Bakker's philosophical musings or Erikson's messages are limericks in confront. Add to that that there were so many parts when I was thinking "What the hell?"(one in particular is the scene in th jungle hut) and I was having a fair headache. Now, I have no problems with this, but I also felt that nothing really happened in this book and that there were lots of page filled for naught. As such I wouls have probably abandoned reading it which was a pity because thecharacter was very promising( he's a torturer, nuff said) and I can a recognis a great worldbuilding when I see it.

Fortunately The Claw of the Conciliatorflowed much easily and gripped me from the beginning to the end. There were still some complex points( notably DR Talos's Play which was filled with so many allegories I could hardly understand it) but as I said that was not a problem.

In short, I'm really happy I got the omnibus, because if I had read only The Shadow of the Torturer I don't know if I would have continued reading the series. But after The Claw of the Conciliator I'll definetly do.

[Salt-Man Z]

Bauchelain the Evil, on 18 January 2010 - 06:21 PM, said:

(General BotNS awesomeness.)

Congrats, man. That's such an awesome book/series. I have the 4-book-in-one-volume SFBC hardcover omnibus, and I heartily recommend picking it up (readily available used from AbeBooks) if you end up really liking the series.

I also recommend reading the 5th book, The Urth of the New Sun; it's not strictly necessary, but it does shed a lot of light on the series. And then do a reread of the series while it's still relatively fresh in your memory. I just did my first reread almost exactly a year after my first read, and while I enjoyed it the first time, it blew me away the second.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 17 January 2010 - 03:38 PM, said:

...
...so today I am going to buy HEROES DIE by Matt Stover. I hear good things, hope it's good.

It's not good.

It's BRILLIANT.

- Abyss, fan.

[Salt-Man Z]

No, it's FUCKING brilliant.

[Fist Gamet]

Quicksilver, atm, and I still don't know what to make of it. It's not gripping me, and I can't help but feel the story is being drawn out needlessly. I do like his work, and I love the intelligence of his writing...still, I am having to alternate with a reread of Broken Angels to get through it.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 18 January 2010 - 08:10 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 17 January 2010 - 03:38 PM, said:

...
...so today I am going to buy HEROES DIE by Matt Stover. I hear good things, hope it's good.

It's not good.

It's BRILLIANT.

- Abyss, fan.

I picked it up, looking forward to it bigtime.

[Aooga]

Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson.

In my 4th week of reading now and still not halfway through. Not that it's bad or anything. Just not clicking it seems. Nothing else more enticing waiting on the shelf to motivate me to read faster. Just have to soldier on I guess.

[Deornoth]

Finished reading Seamus Cooper's 'The Mall of Cthulhu', where a coffee making slacker stands in the way of an evil plot to raise Cthulhu in the middle of a shopping mall in Providence. 'Mall of Cthulhu' suffers in that it tries to be too many things for a book that's only 235 pages long. It's a lot of fun though and one that I'd recommend to those who like their gods with lots of tentacles! My full review is over Here. I'm now finally finishing off 'Muse & Reverie'...

[QuickTidal]

I know a lot of people don't have any love for R.A. Salvatore on here, but I'm currently plowing my way through the Dark Elf Trilogy (Homeland, Exile & Sojourn) and this being my first experience with Drizzt Do'Urden, I am really surprised not only with how much I like the easy writing style that Salvatore has, but also how kickass of a character Drizzt is. I like this series. Not to mention how fast I can read the books (It's been 2 days and I am halfway through book II).

Just saying.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 20 January 2010 - 06:43 PM