[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 27 February 2012 - 01:03 AM, said:

worrywort, on 26 February 2012 - 09:57 PM, said:

Also, I'm reading The Breach now, based on word of mouth from this board (QT? I forget). It's not a genre I normally read, but I'm certainly willing to give it a shot.

The Patrick Lee bandwagon is run by myself, Abyss and SaltmanZ. Enjoy it!

Damn right!
Wwort, just go buy GHOST COUNTRY and DEEP SKY now. Save yourself the panic when you finish BREACH and realize you don't have them.

Serenity, on 29 February 2012 - 12:58 PM, said:

I'm about halfway through Replay by Ken Grimwood. It's very good so far.

I've heard good things about that book. Hard to find.

Salt-Man Z, on 29 February 2012 - 06:09 PM, said:

... on my Kindle I'm reading a novel-length piece of late-90s Transformers fanfic by Belinda Kelly called Andraxus; despite a fair amount of typos, it was a revelation when I read it back then, and it's just as amazing now.

You sir, are a brave, brave man for stating that in public.

Tapper, on 01 March 2012 - 10:33 AM, said:

Morgoth, on 01 March 2012 - 09:27 AM, said:

Gander, on 01 March 2012 - 03:52 AM, said:

...I think I'll start Desert Spear by Peter Brett next. First one was pretty good.


ETA: 4, not 3.

Unless you enjoy rape as the basis for character development I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. I thought the book was painful, and I quite enjoyed the first book although I did get annoyed at yet another reincarnation of Evil Muslims!!!!11

This. I did think the second book was better written, though, but as you say, several story elements are definately dodgy and/or stereotypical and/or a reminder of Badkind's way of handling female character development.

Hrm.... i just finished WARDED MAN, and while i wasn't blown away, i did enjoy it enough to consider picking up the second.
Will perhaps delay that now.

Baco Xtath, on 01 March 2012 - 06:22 PM, said:

Finished White Night, and though it was awesome, I think I still liked Dead Beat more:

Spoiler

I mean, how can you beat a zombie T-Rex controlled by polka, played by Butters, and ridden, devastatingly, through a horde of zombies.

...

ANSWER to your DEAD BEAT spoiler question...

Spoiler

You CAN'T. it's a major failing on the part of Butcher literature the universe.

Binder of Demons, on 02 March 2012 - 03:18 PM, said:

If you could find it easily, I'd recommend HEROES DIE by Matthew Stover (which is the first of the "Acts of Caine" novels). The first book is a brilliant intro to a great character (Caine). The reason I'd confidently suggest this is that I haven't seen a negative FUCKING review here so far, where there will often be at least one dissenting voice.
...

Fixed for StoverMODE.

Serenity, on 06 March 2012 - 09:24 AM, said:

Finished Cowl, which I thoroughly enjoyed (I'm increasingly convinced, with each of his books that I read, that Neal Asher is mad, lol), ...

I loved COWL. Such a time travel brainfuck of a trip.

Fist Gamet, on 08 March 2012 - 07:34 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 07 March 2012 - 02:14 AM, said:

While reading my thriller, I have also started (finally) the BLADE OF fucking TYSHALLE by Matt mutha-fuzuckin' Stover.

FUCK YES!

Pretty fucking jealous...

Morgoth, on 08 March 2012 - 08:48 PM, said:

just started Blade of Tyshalle myself

QuickTidal, on 09 March 2012 - 01:39 PM, said:

Tapper, on 09 March 2012 - 08:54 AM, said:

Morgoth, on 08 March 2012 - 08:48 PM, said:

just started Blade of Tyshalle myself

You and QT are in for a treat, if the utterly depressing situations of the early book won't deter you.
Read it on Kindle on my phone and imho, it is one of the most amazing genre books I ever read despite loathing almost everyone and almost every event in it.

Yeah, parts of the opening were definitely bleak. But that didn't deter me as I'm still going strong, I think I'm just coming up to the part where the Company's "plan" is coming into play.

I still dig Caine, but I also gotta give credit to Kris now as well. Raithe seemed bizarre at first, but now he's making sense in my head.

Loving it so far, in fact I'm liking it even better than the first book.

QuickTidal, on 09 March 2012 - 05:25 PM, said:

Salt-Man Z, on 09 March 2012 - 05:21 PM, said:

Anyone else (Quick?) going on to read Caine Black Knife for the first time before Caine's Law drops in 25 days?

That is the plan (though not immediately, probably in the next two weeks). I found a copy of the book at the store, so I've got it in the ToRead pile.

Salt-Man Z, on 09 March 2012 - 05:29 PM, said:

Sweet. I'll be rereading it beforehand, probably right after I finish the John Carter omnibus. Though I confess I picked it (CBK) up last night and read the first chapter (as I like to do) and man if it wasn't difficult stopping there.

Fucking right.
I am so fucking psyched for CAINE'S LAW.

BoT is a dark dark book and a jarring change from the first book, but oh, the pay-off... the pay-off is so, so so very massive.
And after that, CAINE BLACK KNIFE is pure fucking candy.

Hound, on 10 March 2012 - 03:07 PM, said:

At the moment reading The Breach by Patrick Lee. After that continuing with Ghost Country. So far I like it
...

Come to the ded'thread when you're done. We need more brains to discuss this series!


So aside from the above ref'd WARDED MAN, i finished Watts' MAELSTROM, sequel to STARFISH and the second book in his RIFTERS series.

After STARFISH's brainfuckingly clausterophobic psychological-sf underwater setting and dense writing, MAELSTROM was a massive shift to a more macro-level world-wide story. Worked and does some very interesting things with the characters who survived STARFISH, altho not as interesting a book overall. Still worth reading (i mean ffs it's FREE). Now about 100 pages into the final book BEHEMOTH and it's a nice improvement, incorporating some of the best parts of both previous books. Watts is a genius and i still can't believe he just gives these books away.

[Macros]

doin a bit oe a feist reread, betrayal at krondors ties to the game are brutally obvious this time for me, it really does read like an rpg, when theyre running from village to village

[Serenity]

I finished Cornwell's Harlequin over the weekend and am now about three quarters of the way through Chris Carter's The Crucifix Killer, which is a bit rubbish but moves fast enough to keep me reading.

[acesn8s]

UseOfWeapons, on 11 March 2012 - 08:52 PM, said:

Would have to agree with amphibian -- Bakker is a solid writer, with flashes of spectacular world-building and characterisation.

I'm currently reading the second Riyria omnibus.

I love Bakker's world and magic system, top notch. Hated the main character, and the brutality of the suffering made me squirm at times (not a good kind of squirming either). I'll pick up the 2nd trilogy when book 3 is done.

[End of Disc One]

Just started Dragonfly Falling. I enjoyed the first book but this one looks like it has the potential to be much better.

[D'rek]

Halfway through OST and I don't care if the final convergence is about The Rope getting tied up with his own garotte and only breaking free to save the day because of Tufty/Fluffy the dead cat showing Cotillion that he could channel the Warren of Love all along and then it ends with an inspriing musical number because the first 100 pages of OST absolutely cemented it as "buggering awesome".

Then again, I'm a crazy person who actually liked RotCG...

[End of Disc One]

I didn't know you had to be crazy to like RotCG! I loved RotCG and OST even moreso.

[Tapper]

D, on 12 March 2012 - 02:28 PM, said:

Halfway through OST and I don't care if the final convergence is about The Rope getting tied up with his own garotte and only breaking free to save the day because of Tufty/Fluffy the dead cat showing Cotillion that he could channel the Warren of Love all along and then it ends with an inspriing musical number because the first 100 pages of OST absolutely cemented it as "buggering awesome".

Then again, I'm a crazy person who actually liked RotCG...

I'll side with you on RotCG being a very good read, imho, despite a shortcoming or two (Kyle).

[Salt-Man Z]

Finished A Princess of Mars last night, and it was good, pulpy fun. From what I've heard of the movie that just came out, they added a ton of stuff to pad it out, which makes no sense to me, as the book as is would make a perfectly-awesome 90-to-120-minute action/adventure flick.

Started in on The Gods of Mars, too.

[QuickTidal]

Salt-Man Z, on 12 March 2012 - 03:38 PM, said:

Finished A Princess of Mars last night, and it was good, pulpy fun. From what I've heard of the movie that just came out, they added a ton of stuff to pad it out, which makes no sense to me, as the book as is would make a perfectly-awesome 90-to-120-minute action/adventure flick.

Started in on The Gods of Mars, too.

I don't know who told you that they added stuff to pad it out. They didn't.

Spoiler

The differences as thus: The way Carter gets to Mars is a little different with early introduction of the Therns and an amulet device, there is no atmosphere plant and asphyxiation plot point. Instead, the Therns (more specifically Matai Shang) show up earlier than in the books (GODS OF MARS is all about them) and so they added that instead of the atmosphere plant (which worked for me) and they tweaked a bit about Carter's return journey, and there is no mention of his staying on MArs for 9 years before being shoved back to earth...though it's ambiguous enough to not guess at how long after he becomes Prince of Helium that he travels back to earth. Other than that it's fairly spot on for staying true to the source material. They didn't ADD anything really, just changed how he got there and the missing Atmosphere plant, early intro of the Therns...all of which I can see benefiting the second film(if there is one).

So whoever told you they padded it out either hasn't read the books or was upset by those minor changes.

Oh and I loved the movie.

[Dolorous Menhir]

amphibian, on 11 March 2012 - 06:17 PM, said:

Dolorous Menhir, on 11 March 2012 - 05:32 PM, said:

I'm definitely not one of his fans, but I can say that the series gets worse, not better. Whether you like it or not will depend on your taste and preferences.

Define "worse". You're doing a disservice to a fairly well respected author here by slamming the series in a drive-by.

If I'm going to object to something and tell people about it, I'm giving them exactly what I disliked about it and the reasons why that all adds up to something I don't recommend buying if you share similar tastes to mine.

I do admit that I rather like Bakker's Prince of Nothing work - although I do not much like Bakker the human being. The writing shows an admirable quality of being near-completely resistant of anticipation, well paced and an imaginatively put together world, history and future.

Worse, in this case, is defined as: "The Warrior Prophet" and "The Thousandfold Thought" were not as good as "The Darkness That Came Before".

You seem interested in my thoughts on the topic - you're in luck, as I posted two detailed reviews in 2007. The first seems to have been lost due to forum moves, but you can see the second here.

It relates to the first series only. I have no intention of reading his subsequent works.

[Serenity]

Finished The Crucifix Killer, which was pretty bad, and started Revenger by Rory Clements, the second of his John Shakespeare novels

[QuickTidal]

Reading George Macdonald Fraser's first FLASHMAN Papers book. It's funny how I thought it would be hard to get on side with a protagonist who is a scoundrel, a coward, a liar, a cheat, a womanizer ect., but the prose is all so tongue-in-cheek and "aware" of itself, and even Flashman is self-aware about how much of a dick he is and that anyone who thinks otherwise deserves what they get. I am finding it endlessly entertaining. There is also the notion that there is a new FLASHMAN movie in the works and Michael Fassbender is up for the lead (which is a crazy coincidence since when I was reading it he was the first actor to pop into my head as playing the character).

Anyways, much enjoying.

[rhulad]

Finished Grave Peril by Jim Butcher, and now about a third of the way through American Gods by Neil Gaiman

[LadyMTL]

rhulad, on 13 March 2012 - 02:33 PM, said:

Finished Grave Peril by Jim Butcher, and now about a third of the way through American Gods by Neil Gaiman

I'm reading American Gods as well. I'm about halfway through (as of last night) and I love it! I've already downloaded a sample of Anansi Boys for my Kindle and if it's half as good as AG I'll probably end up getting it.

My next read is going to be a total change of pace: Ian Mortimer's The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England...just cos it sounds really interesting and I love history-type books.

This post has been edited by Maia Irraz: 13 March 2012 - 10:13 PM

[JPK]

Finished The Emerald Storm and The Breach over the last couple days. I've been having a hell of a time keeping focused on reading lately. Really starting to bug me. Think I'm going to treat myself to a reread of one of my all time favs Good Omens to see if I can kick my reading appetite back into shape.

[QuickTidal]

About 100 pages into the first FLASHMAN book (George MacDonald Fraser): it is quite the biting satire on the Golden Victorian Age of Britain as seen through the eyes of a boorish, cheating, liar, womanizer ect. who cowardly tries to get out of situations, only to fall ass backwards into fame and heroism. It's completely unrepentant about the fact that British folk in the 1800's were entirely caste-based and the upper class treated not only lower caste Brits as secondary citizens, but also any and all foreigners. Reading it makes me think of British History as seen through the eyes of The Major from Fawlty Towers. It's VERY interesting, quite funny, and not at all politically correct...but GMF has researched the hell out of the era's and incidents which he writes.

So here is what happened. I rounded the 150 page mark of FLASHMAN on the transit tonight and started to think: As funny and crazy it is to have a lead who is all the above things, I think even an Anti-Hero needs to have redeeming qualities (at least for me) to really draw me in. Flashy is completely unrepentant and I kept thinking to myself "Huh, I think I'd rather read about Sharpe who indeed is a hero, albeit one with some foibles and darkness" as I read it. Especially because of the war aspect.

So I've put it down and I bought my 3rd Sharpe book SHARPE'S TRIUMPH.



Yeah, I'm weird, I know it.

I think this may be the reason I could never fully get on board with Monza Murcatto in BSC. Huh, whodathunkit...I need a lead with a little heroism.

Also, nosing back into BLADE Of fucking TYSHALL...Stover simply does not disappoint!

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 14 March 2012 - 11:43 PM

[Mentalist]

Finshed Chaos and Order , the 4th Gap book by Donaldson.

ok, this series is just brilliant. I don't know how things could've gotten more tense then they were in book 3, but it's apparently possible.

The one thing that gets me the most are his characters. Almost all of them are so horrifically flawed, it would usually make me sick (and it did, when I've read other authors who tried this *cough* John Marco *cough*), but in the case of Donaldson, it all works so flawlessly. I mean, the series doesn't really have a huge cast--really, there's maybe 15 important characters, and the main page time is devoted to a total of like 6, but the story between them is so well conceived, that a 600-page volume, filled with (essentially), plots and counter-plots, and betrayal pileups amongst the cast ends up being one of the most fascinating page-turners I have ever read.

and now I despair, because the very last volume appears to be sold out on Chapters, leaving me to howl in utter dismay.

Next on the reading pile is probably Asher's "Voyage of Sable Keech", but not until I get reasonably caught up in all my coursework.

[Slow Ben]

Finally caved and read "The Hunger Games" on the ole ladys suggestion.

Its about what you'd expect. Very simple writing, but a decent story. I enjoyed it, but it wont ever get a re-read and i dont know if i'll read the next or not.

I read it all in 2 flights from New Orleans to Spokane, plus a layover, so its a damn quick read too.

[worry]

The next two are quicker and better (and ballsier for YA reading), IMO, but I wouldn't call it universally vital or anything. Just enjoyable and worth the time.