[Tapper]

Morgoth, on 21 January 2012 - 05:02 PM, said:

Finished Heroes Die, which was an excellent fantasy/sci fi/adventure yarn. Sadly there seems to be no copy of the sequel Blade of Tyshalle available anywhere.

Alas

Kindle. And no need to buy a Kindle, either - if you have a smartphone, you can install Kindle on that, and I think Blade of Tyshalle was around 6 euro or so on Amazon.

[QuickTidal]

Finished both THE BLACK COMPANY and SHADOWS LINGER from the first Cook omnibus and enjoyed both stories thoroughly. I am finally used to Cook's spartan style of writing! Woohoo! Anyways, I'm putting THE WHITE ROSE on a bit of a hold while I go off and finish...

THE HEROES by Joe Abercrombie, which when I got it I got halfway through before realizing I wasn't in the mood for something so gory, and it went back into the ToRead pile. started it fresh and am already enjoying it once again.

[amphibian]

Morgoth, on 21 January 2012 - 05:02 PM, said:

Finished Heroes Die, which was an excellent fantasy/sci fi/adventure yarn. Sadly there seems to be no copy of the sequel Blade of Tyshalle available anywhere.

Alas

Talk to Saltman-Z. I got my copy from him recently - which was the best packaged book in the history of humankind - and he usually keeps an eye out for Blade of Tyshalle copies.

QuickTidal, on 21 January 2012 - 05:39 PM, said:

Finished both THE BLACK COMPANY and SHADOWS LINGER from the first Cook omnibus and enjoyed both stories thoroughly. I am finally used to Cook's spartan style of writing! Woohoo! Anyways, I'm putting THE WHITE ROSE on a bit of a hold while I go off and finish...

THE HEROES by Joe Abercrombie, which when I got it I got halfway through before realizing I wasn't in the mood for something so gory, and it went back into the ToRead pile. started it fresh and am already enjoying it once again.

Be prepared for a stylistic shift in The White Rose. Cook takes an unexpected direction with much of the setting and it's awesome. Kinda like Midnight Tides in a way.

[Salt-Man Z]

amphibian, on 21 January 2012 - 08:24 PM, said:

Talk to Saltman-Z... he usually keeps an eye out for Blade of Tyshalle copies.

I do, but I only find like 1 per year. Don't hold your breath, is all I'm saying.

[LadyMTL]

I finally finished 1Q84 and I did enjoy it except...it didn't live up to my expectations. It started off really well and grabbed me right away but tbh I found it very slow going from about page 650 onwards. I can't say that I didn't like it but yeah, I was a tad bit disappointed. Anyway! Now I'm reading "Ready Player One" and after that, I'm all out of new books. Sigh.

[Abyss]

MOON OVER SOHO by Ben Aaronovitch.
Good fun. Sort of Dresden's bastard child in London.

should have it done just in time for OST to arrive.

[Otataral Toblakai]

Finished Legacy of the Force series (Star Wars). Nice one but the ending was a bit 'oomph' for me. Still miss the likes of Bane in the world of sith.

[polishgenius]

Abyss, on 23 January 2012 - 07:05 AM, said:

MOON OVER SOHO by Ben Aaronovitch.
Good fun. Sort of Dresden's bastard child in London.

I'm assuming you've read the first one, because that's the second one.

Decent books, so far. Promising for the series.

[Flawed]

Hyperion - Dan Simmons. Very good. Lent to me by my friend at work and he had better find the other books in the series cos im nearly finished with this one.

Anyhow, worth a read

[Serenity]

I've recently read:

The Sarantine Mosaic - Guy Gavriel Kay - loved it.

The Stand - Stephen King - first read this about 30 years ago, enjoyed it even more second time round.

Martyr - Rory Clements - really good debut for Elizabethan 'detective' John Shakespeare, a bit like CJ Sansom's Shardlake novels

[QuickTidal]

ORB SCEPTRE THRONE has arrived from the good ol' UK! I'm still reading THE HEROES and haven't decided if I'll attempt to start this one yet as well...

Still.

WOOHOO!

[Abyss]

polishgenius, on 23 January 2012 - 11:12 AM, said:

Abyss, on 23 January 2012 - 07:05 AM, said:

MOON OVER SOHO by Ben Aaronovitch.
Good fun. Sort of Dresden's bastard child in London.

I'm assuming you've read the first one, because that's the second one.

Decent books, so far. Promising for the series.

Yes, and agreed.
Arguably better than the first one. Emphasizes the mystery angle nicely and a takes an interesting approach to magic... plus 'jazz vampires'...

Flawed, on 23 January 2012 - 12:43 PM, said:

Hyperion - Dan Simmons. Very good. Lent to me by my friend at work and he had better find the other books in the series cos im nearly finished with this one.

Anyhow, worth a read

Very much so.

QuickTidal, on 23 January 2012 - 03:31 PM, said:

ORB SCEPTRE THRONE has arrived from the good ol' UK! I'm still reading THE HEROES and haven't decided if I'll attempt to start this one yet as well...

Still.

WOOHOO!

Tough call. While i still think BEST was his best book to date, THE HEROES is pretty awesome.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 23 January 2012 - 04:38 PM, said:

Tough call. While i still think BEST was his best book to date, THE HEROES is pretty awesome.

I think I may put HEROES back into ToRead pile as I can't seem to contain my excitement to read OST....it's sitting on my shelf at work right now, taunting me to start it.

[Abyss]

That was my problem when DANCE, TCG and GHOST STORY all landed around the same time.

[LadyMTL]

Abyss, on 23 January 2012 - 05:15 PM, said:

That was my problem when DANCE, TCG and GHOST STORY all landed around the same time.

Oh dear, that must have been quite a dilemma, seriously. I know when my copy of OST I'll be mighty tempted to drop "Ready Player One" and read OST instead but I think I'll hold off, since RP1 seems to be a really quick read.

[QuickTidal]

Maia Irraz, on 23 January 2012 - 05:28 PM, said:

Abyss, on 23 January 2012 - 05:15 PM, said:

That was my problem when DANCE, TCG and GHOST STORY all landed around the same time.

Oh dear, that must have been quite a dilemma, seriously. I know when my copy of OST I'll be mighty tempted to drop "Ready Player One" and read OST instead but I think I'll hold off, since RP1 seems to be a really quick read.

RP1 will take you less than 48 hours to read. It's a really FAST read, and really good.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 23 January 2012 - 05:32 PM

[MWKarsa]

I finished A Dance with Dragons the other day was it felt like a let down. I enjoyed A Feast for Crows even with some of the negatives I had seen and read about and I hear some grumblings about DwD but it really seemed like GRR channeled his inner Robert Jordan and decided to write a book that barely moved the central plot line and ended things with multiple characters in limbo. It started out great and got to many great characters but then seemed to lose it's way highlighted by the Daenerys' story line. I still enjoyed the read but once reading I had a huge sense of "That's it? What about this character, this storyline etc". Really hope GRR doesn't take another 5-6 years to write the next one or if he does he presents a much better entry into the series.

Got back into Sanderson with Well of Ascension and a couple of hundreds pages in- really enjoying it and it's ease of getting right back into the characters and story. Good stuff so far.

[worry]

Well, as you may or may not know, GRRM was originally just gonna skip ahead 5 years or something and do some of this stuff via flashback, but that became implausible. I think in writing ADWD he solidified in his mind where he's going, and while I don't agree that ADWD lacked forward motion in the plot, I can kind of see that in some spots it spun its wheels. I think ultimately that was in service to the plot, as place-setting -- I expect the last two books to be pretty much the thrilling end to a roller coaster ride, and I kind of think it will be a lot easier for him to write. The big wait wasn't just about this book, it was about everything to come, so now that he has it all figured out (big picture at least), the rest will come at a brisker pace.

[MWKarsa]

worrywort, on 24 January 2012 - 01:08 AM, said:

Well, as you may or may not know, GRRM was originally just gonna skip ahead 5 years or something and do some of this stuff via flashback, but that became implausible. I think in writing ADWD he solidified in his mind where he's going, and while I don't agree that ADWD lacked forward motion in the plot, I can kind of see that in some spots it spun its wheels. I think ultimately that was in service to the plot, as place-setting -- I expect the last two books to be pretty much the thrilling end to a roller coaster ride, and I kind of think it will be a lot easier for him to write. The big wait wasn't just about this book, it was about everything to come, so now that he has it all figured out (big picture at least), the rest will come at a brisker pace.

That's really good to hear- I didn't dislike this book it just seemed to set up certain story lines and then leave them alone but the Daenerys' one seemed to be the one that stalled the most. If GRR used this one to set up the next 2 that would be fantastic because he will have a lot of ground to cover and it done properly it should be an amazing finish to this series and one I can't wait to read. The main problem I had with this book that I failed to mention in my first post was Jon's story change.

Spoiler

Jon decides to not abandon the Wall when his father is killed and join Robb and since has become the Lrrd Commander but Ramsey Bolton's "bastard" letter suddenly makes him abandon everything he had been working for on the wall. He decides to ride south to attack Bolton on a split second decision and is totally OK that his brothers won't support that so it's own crime to leave. IMO it makes no sense that after all he's done and gone through to just abandon his post at this time. Getting knifed for it seems justified but I still can't understand the massive change to his character and resolve to maintain the Wall and his role there over a simple hate letter.

Hope it makes more sense later.

EDIT: reading the through the reviews of DwD in the other forum section so I'm getting some good answers there.

This post has been edited by MWKarsa: 24 January 2012 - 02:24 AM

[D'rek]

I have honestly not been enjoying Book of the New Sun at all so far, and Side Jobs just arrived, so putting down BotNS and starting Side Jobs tonight with Aftermath. We'll see how far I can get with Side Jobs before OST shows up and demands precedence.

Also re-read BF and am re-reading tLoLE and will re-read tHD soon. Am practicing taking notes on events and time references in preparation for my MBotF/NotME re-read where I plan to {a} read them all in chronological order and {b} record notes/quotes for any and all references to times and events for the purpose of timeline clarification