[Baco Xtath]

Finished the Steel Remains a couple of days ago and holy shit that's a good book. I could have done without some of the more graphic scenes but still, great read. While waiting for my copy of the Cold Commands from the library I've been reading the Red Wolf Conspiracy, which has been pretty good thus far. Also I've been listening to Thirte3n which has been pretty damn good. Once I'm done with all the Morgan stuff, maybe one of y'all can explain how Steel Remains' world is connected to Kovacs's - cause barring a semi-similarly named god in Steel Remains, I'm not really seeing anything. Also picked up Blood Rites from the library. A little dose of Dresden after Morgan will probably return my heart rate to normal.

[QuickTidal]

Baco Xtath, on 26 January 2012 - 04:46 PM, said:

I've been reading the Red Wolf Conspiracy, which has been pretty good thus far.

This is a good book....for 3/4 or so....then it kind of goes a bit south, but still manages to finish strongly.

Sadly, the second book is nigh unreadable. Reddick attempts to take some of the characters and ideas from the latter 3rd of TRWC that I disliked and make them interesting. They are not. Then sometime around the middle of the book I found out that this was the direction he was taking the story and I refused to go on.

Had great promise but fell flat on its face after the second bout of world-building. At least for me.

[polishgenius]

QuickTidal, on 26 January 2012 - 05:04 PM, said:

This is a good book....for 3/4 or so....then it kind of goes a bit south, but still manages to finish strongly.

Sadly, the second book is nigh unreadable. Reddick attempts to take some of the characters and ideas from the latter 3rd of TRWC that I disliked and make them interesting. They are not. Then sometime around the middle of the book I found out that this was the direction he was taking the story and I refused to go on.

Had great promise but fell flat on its face after the second bout of world-building. At least for me.

Would it be a great surprise to say that I disagree?

Well, partly. I agree with the general gist but not the extent. It took me a while to get into the second one- as in I put it down for several weeks more than once- and I didn't read it with as great an ease as the first one in general (it suffers from limited use of Ramanchi, easily the best thing in the series- but it all came together well in the end and some of the moments, particularly those with hints and revelations about the past of the series are interesting.
And the end had a hook for the third that was frankly great, and I am not pleased that my local bookshop doesn't seem to be stocking the series anymore. Though I will be getting it anyway soon enough.

The series as a whole has an odd tone to it because it's partly an almost Young Adult-ish tale and partly an almost Erikson-esque drenching of details that only come into play later alongside a fantasy non-standard setting with no Elves-and-dwarves familiarity.


On the other hand, I agree, OST is great from the start...

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 26 January 2012 - 05:28 PM

[QuickTidal]

200 pages into OST and goddamn I can't put the blasted thing down. Very good, so far ICE's best work IMNSHO.

[amphibian]

Baco Xtath, on 26 January 2012 - 04:46 PM, said:

Finished the Steel Remains a couple of days ago and holy shit that's a good book. I could have done without some of the more graphic scenes but still, great read. While waiting for my copy of the Cold Commands from the library I've been reading the Red Wolf Conspiracy, which has been pretty good thus far. Also I've been listening to Thirte3n which has been pretty damn good. Once I'm done with all the Morgan stuff, maybe one of y'all can explain how Steel Remains' world is connected to Kovacs's - cause barring a semi-similarly named god in Steel Remains, I'm not really seeing anything. Also picked up Blood Rites from the library. A little dose of Dresden after Morgan will probably return my heart rate to normal.

Read The Cold Commands and then head over to the Morgan sub-forum. We'll take care of ya.

[End of Disc One]

QuickTidal, on 26 January 2012 - 07:36 PM, said:

200 pages into OST and goddamn I can't put the blasted thing down. Very good, so far ICE's best work IMNSHO.

Also 200 pages in and loving every bit.

[Binder of Demons]

After reading Orb, Sceptre, Throne and being somewhat underwhelmed, i decided to go back and read some Dresden to cheer myself up. Halfway through Small Favor and it's still great.

[QuickTidal]

End of Disc One, on 26 January 2012 - 11:56 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 26 January 2012 - 07:36 PM, said:

200 pages into OST and goddamn I can't put the blasted thing down. Very good, so far ICE's best work IMNSHO.

Also 200 pages in and loving every bit.

I am now rounding the 300 page mark and shit is really starting to go down now.

[Defiance]

Finished OST at 2 in the morning. I loved it. I went into the book with zero expectations, and actually came out pretty impressed. The book has a handful of flaws, but overall I'm quite satisfied with how things progressed and all of the back story that we got.

Now, to resume my Malazan reread. Going to start Midnight Tides later today.

My girlfriend is just over 100 pages away from finishing Memories of Ice for the first time. Very jealous of her and greatly anticipating her reaction to

Spoiler

Whiskeyjack's death, the BBs getting wiped out, and everything at Coral in general.

This post has been edited by Imperial Historian: 27 January 2012 - 03:32 PM
Reason for edit: Added spoiler tags

[End of Disc One]

May want to edit that for spoilers Defiance. New readers sometimes come to this thread; in fact there was one regular user who had been here for ~5 years before even starting Malazan.

[JPK]

Can't believe how long it's been since I've posted anything in here. Knew I'd hit a rough spot in my reading schedule buy dayamn. Finished Warbreaker this morning. I can't believe it took me so long to get into the plot of this book. Once I hit the 200 page mark I couldn't put it down though. I think part of my problem has been that I've also been reading Initiate's Trial by Janny Wurts. It's good but after listening to 8 and a half books of the main character being an little emo bastard, I'm getting a little tired. Hoping my copy of OST arrives soon.

[Fist Gamet]

QuickTidal, on 27 January 2012 - 01:54 PM, said:

End of Disc One, on 26 January 2012 - 11:56 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 26 January 2012 - 07:36 PM, said:

200 pages into OST and goddamn I can't put the blasted thing down. Very good, so far ICE's best work IMNSHO.

Also 200 pages in and loving every bit.

I am now rounding the 300 page mark and shit is really starting to go down now.

Admittedly, yes, it is improving and you get a real sense of the pace increasing slowly as you read on. My problem was with the start and I feel ICE just tried to cram in too much, too quickly to set the scene for the rest of the story. About a quarter of the way in he starts to settle down and get on with telling the story.

[Morgoth]

It's pretty amazing to follow ICE's development as a writer. Id's say the OST is his best book by far when it comes to technique. I quite enjoyed it though I did feel that a couple of things seemed to be included and then forgotten.

[Use Of Weapons]

Finished Tom Holt's _May Contain Traces of Magic_. Enjoyable if lightweight. About to embark on my first classic novel of this year, which will be Conan Doyle's _The Sign Of Four_.

[Morgoth]

Readimg Reynold's new book. So far so good

[QuickTidal]

Finished OST...proper thoughts in Ded-thread...but overall while I enjoyed it and feel it's ICE's best to date....it ended up doing a bunch to disappoint me as well. mixed feelings.

Continuing on my read of Myke Cole's SHADOW OPS: CONTROL POINT.

[Salt-Man Z]

QuickTidal, on 29 January 2012 - 03:17 PM, said:

Finished OST...proper thoughts in Ded-thread...but overall while I enjoyed it and feel it's ICE's best to date....it ended up doing a bunch to disappoint me as well. mixed feelings.

Sounds like an ICE Malazan novel.

[QuickTidal]

Salt-Man Z, on 29 January 2012 - 07:24 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 29 January 2012 - 03:17 PM, said:

Finished OST...proper thoughts in Ded-thread...but overall while I enjoyed it and feel it's ICE's best to date....it ended up doing a bunch to disappoint me as well. mixed feelings.

Sounds like an ICE Malazan novel.

Yep, par for the course.

[Morgoth]

Morgoth, on 29 January 2012 - 02:38 PM, said:

Readimg Reynold's new book. So far so good

Finished Blue Remembered Earth today. At some point I honestly started to lose interest and towards the end I mostly kept going just to get to the finish. Very obviously a preamble to something with a much bigger scope, which hints at a better book two but I'm far from exited about the rest of the series now.

[Salt-Man Z]

Finished The Sword of the Lictor over the weekend. Looking for something shorter (and, presumably, lighter) before finishing my Book of the New Sun reread, so on a whim I picked up Matthew Stover's Magic: The Gathering novel, Test of Metal. I know nothing about M:tG other than that it's a card game, but I can't put the book down! Stover's so good. (It's just getting me more excited for Caine's Law!)