[QuickTidal]

Well, I finished STAR WARS HEIR TO THE EMPIRE by Zahn yesterday...and thought I'd be going on to something else before continuing the series (possibly even into VORTEX the 6th FATE OF THE JEDI book), but I found myself totally cliffhung at the end of HEIR and bought a copy of DARK FORCE RISING right away...so I'm about 100 pages into that. Haven't decided if I'll cap out the series by following it directly with THE LAST COMMAND or not, but if the second book is as good as the first I probably will. It suits the BluRay set coming out at the end of this week of the 6 films, as I'll probably be in the proper mood to watch them come this weekend.

[Abyss]

Baco Xtath, on 11 September 2011 - 01:26 PM, said:

..., I read Heroes Die and then Altered Carbon, and damn if polishgenius didn't call it. Caine and Kovacs are birds of a feather. I loved both books but since neither required instant sequel reading, I figured I'd dole out the pleasure while hitting some other must reads first.

There area few similarities between Morgan and Stover's styles and their respective lead characters. Notably the use of violence and bad fucking language.

The key thing about Morgan's ALTERED CARBON is that with it's two sequels BROEKN ANGELS and WOKEN FURIES you have a complete series about Kovacs. That rocks.

Stover's CAINE series is technically complete with the second book BLADE OF TYSHALLE, but then he went and fucking wrote a fucking third one CAINE BLACK KNIFE that's fucking brilliant and we have to fucking wait until fucking next year for the fourth, CAINE'S LAW.

[Baco Xtath]

Abyss, on 12 September 2011 - 03:25 PM, said:

Baco Xtath, on 11 September 2011 - 01:26 PM, said:

..., I read Heroes Die and then Altered Carbon, and damn if polishgenius didn't call it. Caine and Kovacs are birds of a feather. I loved both books but since neither required instant sequel reading, I figured I'd dole out the pleasure while hitting some other must reads first.

There area few similarities between Morgan and Stover's styles and their respective lead characters. Notably the use of violence and bad fucking language.

The key thing about Morgan's ALTERED CARBON is that with it's two sequels BROEKN ANGELS and WOKEN FURIES you have a complete series about Kovacs. That rocks.

Stover's CAINE series is technically complete with the second book BLADE OF TYSHALLE, but then he went and fucking wrote a fucking third one CAINE BLACK KNIFE that's fucking brilliant and we have to fucking wait until fucking next year for the fourth, CAINE'S LAW.

Wait. Are you saying that the use of violence and language is where they differ or where they're the same? Because that's what I was talking about. I agree that their styles differ but the fucking language and fucking violence are on fucking par with each-fucking-other (I fuck'n thought at fuck'n least).
Seriously though, I loved both books and I'm looking forward to the next of each, but I'll probably wait until the new year and get that bitch started off right. Right now, I'm looking forward to Leviathan Wakes, Midnight Mayor, some Death Masks, Appleseed, some Vandermeer, Long Price Quartet, and some Culture to finish the year off. My "to read" list is in constant flux. I'm craving some space opera and some new weird at the moment.

[kcf]

I finished up The Sacred Band by David Anthony Durham - it's a satsisfying conclusion to the Acacia trilogy. (review)



I'm now reading The Edinburgh Dead by Brian Ruckley, which is turning out to be very good.

[JPK]

spoke a little too soon about Turn Coat. Holy crap that was something else. Straight on to Changes.

[McLovin]

On a three-pronged reading track:

AFFC (ASOIAF #4)

Death Masks (Dresden #5)

Broadsides: The Age of Fighting Sail, 1775-1815. Nonfic about naval warfare during this period.

[Abyss]

Hurr Durr, on 13 September 2011 - 03:43 AM, said:

spoke a little too soon about Turn Coat. Holy crap that was something else. Straight on to Changes.

Strap yourself down.

[worry]

Just finished 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill. Horror short story compilation. Quite a few winners in there. And now I'm starting the Long Price Quartet. Couple pages in, it's already unique and intriguing.

[Harvester]

Random Thoughts on Random Books

Dan Simmons' Drood

What a mess. It started promising, but fell apart very quickly.


George R. R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons

No, just no. I don't want go on a rant here. I hated it.


Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves

Daring, intriguing, labyrinthine. Good read!


Jasper Kent's Thirteen Years Later

Surprisingly enough, it had me hooked. The vampires in the Danilov Quintet are still as unoriginal as they get, but I love Russian history. Far better than expected.


Jim Butcher's Death Masks

Wow, what a book.


Michael Connelly's The Poet

A good, if not very good thriller with a weird ending.


Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat

I... don't know, I really don't.

This post has been edited by Harvester: 15 September 2011 - 10:55 AM

[acesn8s]

Finished Best Served Cold by Abercrombie and have moved on to Empire in Black and Gold by Tchaikovsky.

The Insect-kinden remind me of Brust's Dragaerans, only with matching physical attributes.

[QuickTidal]

Harvester, on 15 September 2011 - 09:07 AM, said:

Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat
I... don't know, I really don't.

If you have ANY inkling to go on at all in the series...read THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED and then STOP.

Don't, for all that is holy, read TALE OF THE BODY THIEF and certainly DON'T subject yourself to the even worse MEMNOCH THE DEVIL. Those two books are on my all time hate list!

[QuickTidal]

I am currently on the last of the THRAWN trilogy THE LAST COMMAND by Timothy Zahn, which is good...

...but I also picked up this season's IT book THE NIGHT CIRCUS by Erin Morgenstern which is calling to me from the TBR pile, so I'll likely get stuck into that tonight as well.

[Mott]

Just finished reading Summer Knight and it really picked up in intensity and pace in this one, I thoroughly enjoyed it and am off to order the next. Harry as a character is a joy to read, I love how he still has the stubbornness to insult people even in dire situations, his battle cry near had me dropping the book into the bath in laughter.

While waiting for the next one to come I'm undecided between starting A Feast for Crows or Death and the Penguin, I think I'll start crows and hope it goes fast since I have the latest one waiting to be read.

[stone monkey]

Currently reading Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey. It's a fantastic amount of fun. Like a much darker and more cynical Dresden Files. Completely lightweight and disposable, of course, but well worth reading.

[amphibian]

QuickTidal, on 15 September 2011 - 12:15 PM, said:

If you have ANY inkling to go on at all in the series...read THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED and then STOP.

Don't, for all that is holy, read TALE OF THE BODY THIEF and certainly DON'T subject yourself to the even worse MEMNOCH THE DEVIL. Those two books are on my all time hate list!

In my opinion, Memnoch the Devil is perhaps Rice's best work. She took the most risks and got truly inventive in some parts, while mostly succeeding with the "grappling with the cosmos and creation" theme the book has. The rest of the series are schlocky vampire books and after Memnoch, she got truly bizarre and lost most of her actual writing ability.

[QuickTidal]

amphibian, on 15 September 2011 - 07:42 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 15 September 2011 - 12:15 PM, said:

If you have ANY inkling to go on at all in the series...read THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED and then STOP.

Don't, for all that is holy, read TALE OF THE BODY THIEF and certainly DON'T subject yourself to the even worse MEMNOCH THE DEVIL. Those two books are on my all time hate list!

In my opinion, Memnoch the Devil is perhaps Rice's best work. She took the most risks and got truly inventive in some parts, while mostly succeeding with the "grappling with the cosmos and creation" theme the book has. The rest of the series are schlocky vampire books and after Memnoch, she got truly bizarre and lost most of her actual writing ability.

See, I always saw MEMNOCH as the beginning of her strange version of bible-thumpery (after spending her teens and twenties on Acid) and it really put me off...It became too much about uniting the disparate visions of god (pure good) and the devil (pure evil) and less about Lestat really. Most of the book he's kind of just along for the ride, and I want to say it felt like Lestat just "happened" to be there most of the time but the story is not his.

That's just my interpretation though, and why I didn't care for it.

It's also hard to fit it in with the history that QOTD presents, it's like a square peg.

[JPK]

Abyss, on 14 September 2011 - 04:47 PM, said:

Hurr Durr, on 13 September 2011 - 03:43 AM, said:

spoke a little too soon about Turn Coat. Holy crap that was something else. Straight on to Changes.

Strap yourself down.

Bwuhhhh. Holy f***. That... That... I think I'm going to go let my brain rest now. Dresden awesomesauce overload. I want to start Ghost Story now, but I'm not really sure that I can. Brain needs recovery time.

[LadyMTL]

I am currently reading "Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world" by Jack Weatherford. I'm only on chapter two but so far...wow. After that it'll be Crack'd Pot Trail, yay!

[Binder of Demons]

For some reason i got to thinking about BABYLON 5 recently and so i am currently re-reading a trilogy by Jeanne Cavelos called "THE PASSING OF THE TECHNO-MAGES". I remembered really enjoying this series when i read it over 10 years ago, and i must say I'm enjoying it again since i have forgotten most of the plot. Since the Techno-Mages were in one of my favourite BABYLON 5 episodes ever, I'm delighted to read more about their history, and what they got up to during the Shadow War.

For fans of Babylon 5 I definitely recommend reading her trilogy if you can get your hands on it. Can be tough to find though. I'm currently finishing Book2: Summoning Light, and things are about to get really hairy.

[QuickTidal]

So I finished the Thrawn trilogy last night (good stuff all the way through with a few things I wasn't expecting) by Zahn.

Taking a break from STAR WARS for a bit I went back to THE LIONS OF AL-RASSAN by Kay which in the weeks between putting it down for a bit has not gotten stale, nor had I forgotten anything that had gone on...and it's currently just as damn fine a read as it had been before.