[End of Disc One]

You know what you should do Abyss? Read Codex Alera.

I still haven't read it but I think you need to.

[Abyss]

End of Disc One, on 14 April 2011 - 04:55 PM, said:

You know what you should do Abyss? Read Codex Alera.

I still haven't read it but I think you need to.

You're right that i need to but i CAN'T!!!!

...It's like i've been dumped and can't start a new relationship.... so i'm engaging in flings of little substance and meaningless short term gratification... easily forgettable as soon as the next distraction comes along to fill my free time and lure me away from anything resembling actual thought, filling my head with shallow characters and gratuitous action and shiny 'splosions and ....

...y'know, this is starting to sound good...

[Salt-Man Z]

I just don't understand the hate for Red Seas Under Red Skies; I thought it was great, even if it did fall short of the bar set by Lies.

[Salt-Man Z]

I just finished Matthew Stover's Iron Dawn. It was good, not great. Definitely worth checking out for a Stover fan; this is obviously the guy who would go on to write Heroes Die. Iron Dawn is part of a duology set in the Mediterranean back in the Bronze Age, featuring a trio of mercenaries: Barra (the main character), a Pictish "princess", Leucas, an Athenian warrior, and Kheperu, a slimy Egyptian alchemist/sorceror. I found the book a little slow-moving at times, and Stover overuses the device where he starts off a chapter a ways out from the end of the previous chapter, then goes into flashback mode to fill gap before continuing on from the "present"--but the action is rocking, the setting is unique, and the characters are fantastic.

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 14 April 2011 - 07:53 PM

[Fist Gamet]

Mentalist, on 14 April 2011 - 02:36 AM, said:

Finished "Under Heaven". Goddamn, Kay is good.

Ha, me too! Kay has been bold enough to play around a bit with the structure and style and he does it so well. Great characterisation again here, and a good story. The dialogue is absolutely top notch, the tension palpable. As always, the emotional strings were tugged and pulled and the ending both sad and satisfying, imho.

Now started 'The Windup Girl' and enjoying the style immensely.

[acesn8s]

rereading The Blade of Tyshalle. Just got done reading the Hansen, Michaelson, Ballinger portion (which is one of the few parts I remember about the book - besides Hari's current condition). Looking forward to rediscovering the plot. Gonna get the ebook version of Caine Black Knife when I'm done with Blade.

[stone monkey]

I'm a couple of hundred pages into The Pale King by David Foster Wallace (which, due to his suicide in 2008, is subtitled: An Unfinished Novel) It's kind of difficult to quantify the reading experience, as almost every word you read is weighted down with my knowledge of his untimely death, the realisation that I'll never read a new work from him for the first time ever again and the imaginings of what could have been had he lived to complete it to his own satisfaction (albeit, partial, as the man was allegedly something of a perfectionist) All the usual DFW quirks are present and correct though, that combination of laugh-out-loud funny and utterly heartbreaking, the copious footnotes and his little metatextual games with the reader

Spoiler

for example, the author's foreword is 70 pages into the book and urges you to go back and read the "this is a work of fiction"bit on the copyright page while heavily stressing that this disclaimer is, in fact, a lie put there at the behest of his publisher's lawyers to avoid any possible litigation on publication and that what you're reading is actually 100% true and totally happened to him and the people therein... despite the fact that both you, the reader, and he, the writer, know that the book is indeed a complete work of fiction and so The Big Lie is itself a Big Fat Lie... I totally love that kind of stuff, makes me grin like a loon

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 14 April 2011 - 08:31 PM

[Salt-Man Z]

acesn8s, on 14 April 2011 - 08:21 PM, said:

rereading The Blade of Tyshalle. Just got done reading the Hansen, Michaelson, Ballinger portion (which is one of the few parts I remember about the book - besides Hari's current condition). Looking forward to rediscovering the plot. Gonna get the ebook version of Caine Black Knife when I'm done with Blade.

Chapter Zero is just fantastic. "Couldn't you have just asked?"

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Finished The Warded Man by Peter V Brett. I liked it. Nothing mindblowing but it was a solid, throroughly enjoyable read.

[acesn8s]

Salt-Man Z, on 14 April 2011 - 08:56 PM, said:

acesn8s, on 14 April 2011 - 08:21 PM, said:

rereading The Blade of Tyshalle. Just got done reading the Hansen, Michaelson, Ballinger portion (which is one of the few parts I remember about the book - besides Hari's current condition). Looking forward to rediscovering the plot. Gonna get the ebook version of Caine Black Knife when I'm done with Blade.

Chapter Zero is just fantastic. "Couldn't you have just asked?"

Ha! I almost felt sorry for him and Ballinger . . . until I remembered what Ballinger was going to do right beforehand.

[MTS]

Turn Coat is my personal favourite. Either that or Small Favour.

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 17 April 2011 - 04:30 PM, said:

Ok Abyss here goes...Im now reading Storm Front. Im 1 chapter in and already got a chuckle out of it.

So which book is the best of the Files?

Abyss will tell you DEAD BEAT....and to that I would agree and add DEATH MASKS and PROVEN GUILTY to the best list...and of course CHANGES.

[HoosierDaddy]

Small Favor is probably my favorite.

[Salt-Man Z]

QuickTidal, on 18 April 2011 - 01:08 AM, said:

Briar King, on 17 April 2011 - 04:30 PM, said:

Ok Abyss here goes...Im now reading Storm Front. Im 1 chapter in and already got a chuckle out of it.

So which book is the best of the Files?

Abyss will tell you DEAD BEAT....and to that I would agree and add DEATH MASKS and PROVEN GUILTY to the best list...and of course CHANGES.

I gotta second Death Masks. I didn't much care for Summer Knight (a pretty lonesome opinion if this forum is any indication) but DM reeled me in completely. I consider it to be the book that truly hooked me on the series.

[Salt-Man Z]

I'm on the second of Stover's Barra novels, Jericho Moon. It's starting off much more quickly than the first book, which is good, but it looks like Barra, Leucas, and Kheperu might be facing off against the Israelites, which—as a Christian—has me a little wary. So far so good though.

[Use Of Weapons]

Started _The Master and Margarita_ this morning on the train to London. I'm now halfway through and reckon I'll have polished it off by the end of the day. Loving it so far!

[Tapper]

jitsukerr, on 18 April 2011 - 11:32 AM, said:

Started _The Master and Margarita_ this morning on the train to London. I'm now halfway through and reckon I'll have polished it off by the end of the day. Loving it so far!

It is an awesome book. I can recommend Heart of a Hound, also by Bulgakov. It is a short story.

[acesn8s]

jitsukerr, on 18 April 2011 - 11:32 AM, said:

Started _The Master and Margarita_ this morning on the train to London. I'm now halfway through and reckon I'll have polished it off by the end of the day. Loving it so far!

I agree, it is an awesome book.

Time to start listening to The Stone's Sympathy for the Devil.

[MTS]

Now I'm onto John Scalzi's Old Man's War, very good so far.

[QuickTidal]

I am halfway through both GRIDLINKED by Neal Asher and my first re-read of Alastair Reynolds' REDEMPTION ARK.

Both are teh awesome!