[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

Wanderer, on 28 April 2012 - 04:17 PM, said:

The Final Empire - Brandon Sanderson

Halfway through and it's quite enjoyable. His dialogue really needs some work though. There have been moments where I had to put the book down because of how cheesy it is.

Best Served Cold - Joe Abercrombie

Halfway through this as well. I'll finish it eventually.

Why are you reading two books at the same time?

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast, on 28 April 2012 - 06:16 PM, said:

Why are you reading two books at the same time?

Oh my. If Wanderer's reading habits bother you, I'm not even going to mention how many books I read at the same time. You would curse the heavens and weep.

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Number of downloads: 0

Let's just say I've read and enjoyed these books "recently":

The Briar King by Greg Keyes (It sort of struck me as a poor man's Game Of Thrones. Not quite as epic, but a great read nonetheless. I've already purchased the sequel.)

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (Again, I liked it so much that I immediately bought the sequel. I think I'll read Elantris first, though.)

The Magic Of Landover, Volume 1 omnibus by Terry Brooks (I did not care for the first Shannara book and will not continue with that series. But I heard that Steve Carrell will be starring in a movie version of Landover, so I thought I'd give Brooks another chance. I'm quite enjoying it, so far.)

[Mentalist]

Kingdoms of THorne and Bone is a great series. and yes, the similarities with ASoIaF are many, though it gets better. just avoid the fourth book. Pretend it never happened.

[JPK]

Having to put The Shadow of the Wind aside for the time being. It's not that I'm not enjoying it... Far from it actually. I just don't feel that I can give this book the attention it needs right now. So I'm leaving it beside my bed for sometime when I can just spend an afternoon solely devoted to it, cause I feel that doing anything else would be a horrible crime against this story.

This does seem like it'd be an excellent opportunity to reread Dragon Weather by Lawrence Watt-Evans though. Great time for some brain candy.

[Slow Ben]

Starting Wind Through The Keyhole tonight.
More Dark Tower goodness!

[worry]

I didn't mind book 4, but I didn't exactly love the first three. Actually I'd say books 1 and 4 are okay (4 edging out 1), and books 2 and 3 are pretty good.

[Mentalist]

worrywort, on 29 April 2012 - 07:06 AM, said:

I didn't mind book 4, but I didn't exactly love the first three. Actually I'd say books 1 and 4 are okay (4 edging out 1), and books 2 and 3 are pretty good.

YMMV. I tend to cut the first book of the series more slack, since it's also setting up the world. Therefore, expectations for the last book go up. And with the Born Queen, i found it pretty awful, b/c book set the series up for an epic-looking ending.

EDIT: and I will repeat what I say every time the series is brought up: the composer story arc was THE most original thing I've ever read in a fantasy novel. ever.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 29 April 2012 - 03:21 PM

[Fist Gamet]

Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast, on 28 April 2012 - 06:16 PM, said:

Wanderer, on 28 April 2012 - 04:17 PM, said:

The Final Empire - Brandon Sanderson

Halfway through and it's quite enjoyable. His dialogue really needs some work though. There have been moments where I had to put the book down because of how cheesy it is.

Best Served Cold - Joe Abercrombie

Halfway through this as well. I'll finish it eventually.

Why are you reading two books at the same time?

You mean, you don't? I normally have three on the go and flick between them depending upon my mood. Makes it waaaay easier to get through less than exciting sections of some books.

[worry]

Yah, the composer was definitely (and very much to my surprise) my favorite character/storyline in the whole thing, by far.

[Baco Xtath]

About 20 pages into The Gone-Away World and I'm really enjoying it thus far. The writing is reminiscent of Palahniuk, which I enjoy and if it were a movie it'd be a Guy Richie flick, which is also a good thing. So, the writing is good and the concept is very interesting.

Finished Echo City last night. It was pretty good, I guess. I didn't like some of the writing; I don't think an author should use words like crap, muff, or stuff like that, it really jars me from the story. The concept was original though and it was good enough that I would say give it a read if you've got it, or see it for cheap, but I wouldn't tell you to buy it new.

[Salt-Man Z]

Finished John Dies at the End. Couldn't put it down, I was thoroughly enthralled from start to end; but now that it's over, I'm not entirely sure what to think. It's by turns terrifying, hilarious, ridiculous, and thoughtful, but the story never quite feels like it's made up its mind to take itself seriously or not. It's definitely the first chapter in an ongoing series (the second book comes out this fall, I believe) but it pretty much stands on its own. Certainly worth picking up to read over the weekend.

Now back to Star Wars: Cloak of Deception.

[Serenity]

Over the last few days I finished Butcher's Death Masks (brilliant) and Cornwell's Heretic (okay) and am about halfway through Andy McNab's Remote Control, which is shite but I'll be glad to read it and get it off my TBR pile

[QuickTidal]

So RECLUCE...over a 100 pages in now and I get the feeling I am actually looking at perhaps the end of a long history of events, and thus the unsympathetic character or Lerris (amongst the other dangergelds) are anomalies in a system that has worked for a long while, like the assholes who refuse to line up with the rest, the stray hair that won't conform. It's QUITE interesting on that level. I don't side with Lerris much at all...but again I assume that to be the point since I've heard that as the series goes on more and more is revealed of earlier and earlier histories of the world showing how exactly things got to where they are...and I like that. It seems like it might be an interesting journey to get there and see what came before.

I'm also astonished by the fact that A. I thought this would be at least similar to WOT and it isn't AT ALL. It's compelling in its own way and that way isn't really stomping on anyone else's tropes. and B. How easy the prose is to read, and how he doesn't seem to get bogged down in any heavy descriptiveness.

Anyways, like I said, enjoying so far.

[Serenity]

Don't know if this has been mentioned before, but I just read that Stella Gemmell has written her first solo fantasy novel:

http://www.thebookse...la-gemmell.html

[MTS]

Solzhenitsyn's August 1914 and Ken Follett's Fall of Giants at the moment.

[Tapper]

Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast, on 28 April 2012 - 06:16 PM, said:

Wanderer, on 28 April 2012 - 04:17 PM, said:

The Final Empire - Brandon Sanderson

Halfway through and it's quite enjoyable. His dialogue really needs some work though. There have been moments where I had to put the book down because of how cheesy it is.

Best Served Cold - Joe Abercrombie

Halfway through this as well. I'll finish it eventually.

Why are you reading two books at the same time?

You don't?

I'm currently reading 4 (Kissinger's Diplomacy, Buchanan's Farlander, Holland's Millenium, Gibbons Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) and plan to start my re-read of Caine's Law somewhere this week, inspired by Amph and Saltman-Z. If you also count the brothers Karamazov (which is not so much being read as being unfinished), I'd be reading 5.
Basically, there's something for every moment of the day and any mood. Kissinger is scientific, Farlander is for in bed, Holland's infotainment and Gibbons is very, very dry so only good for 30-60 minutes of reading a day, and while I may lose a few % enjoyment out of each due to reading so many different things at once, I seldom have problems keeping track... it's mostly an issue of reading a bit of each regularly.

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

In response to both Fist Gamet and Tapper:

I don't! I couldn't. I mean...I can't really explain it but it just seems to be so wrong.

I find that if I'm enjoying a book, I just want to keep reading it. Attempting to divide my attention and time between a number of different books would probably reduce my enjoyment of all of them.

[QuickTidal]

Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast, on 02 May 2012 - 12:18 PM, said:

In response to both Fist Gamet and Tapper:

I don't! I couldn't. I mean...I can't really explain it but it just seems to be so wrong.

I find that if I'm enjoying a book, I just want to keep reading it. Attempting to divide my attention and time between a number of different books would probably reduce my enjoyment of all of them.

I'm with the other two, that while I might be enjoying a certain book, sometimes it's needed to switch gears midway and read something else. I can usually do 2, sometimes 3 books at one time.

I will only devour certain books in one go...

[End of Disc One]

QuickTidal, on 02 May 2012 - 12:43 PM, said:

Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast, on 02 May 2012 - 12:18 PM, said:

In response to both Fist Gamet and Tapper:

I don't! I couldn't. I mean...I can't really explain it but it just seems to be so wrong.

I find that if I'm enjoying a book, I just want to keep reading it. Attempting to divide my attention and time between a number of different books would probably reduce my enjoyment of all of them.

I'm with the other two, that while I might be enjoying a certain book, sometimes it's needed to switch gears midway and read something else. I can usually do 2, sometimes 3 books at one time.

I will only devour certain books in one go...

Same here, especially with how slow I read. I don't want to spend several weeks on just one book. Unless it's Dresden or something of similar pacing and length, I will usually split books in halves.

[Salt-Man Z]

I didn't used to read more than one book at a time. But now I have whatever book I'm currently reading, plus a book (usually short stories) that I read at work, plus the book for Tor.com's Malazan reread.