[Baco Xtath]

The Heroes is my favorite, followed by Best Served Cold, then Last Argument, then Red Country. I think mainly it's due to the larger casts in the previous. Don't get me wrong, I freak'n loved Red Country, especially Temple's humor and Lamb's badassary, but the others were just better in my opinion. They were 10/10 and TRC was just a 9.8/10.

[Abyss]

The thing i love about BEST is the caper feel to it. It's a revenge story that is also a military campaign and a revolution and it's both funny and brutal in turn.
The first three read very well together but don't stand alone as well. I enjoyed THE HEROES but at root it's battle story and less far ranging than BEST.
That said i've enjoyed every bit of Abercrombie i've read to date and he stays on my hb list. RED arrives along with Memories of Light and Gun Machine in Jan so pretty psyched for that run ONCE THESE COLD DAYS DRESDENCRACK TRIPS STOP THAT IS NO WAY NO FUCKING WAY HOW THE FUCK DID HE MAKE THAT HAPPEN AND MAKE SENSE AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH....

[worry]

I'm re-reading the ICE books (also known as the "Kiska ain't so bad and Kyle is a tribal plainsman not a whitebread boy band type dude" read) and alternating them with the last few Black Company books (have three to go). I might slip some room in there for Cold Days when it arrives. Maybe. Who knows? We'll see. Pffft.

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

QuickTidal, on 22 November 2012 - 03:21 PM, said:

As someone who didn't have the long waits for those middle books other people had I can tell you that a lot of the middle ones people complain about aren't quite as bad when you don't have to wait for them...tho CROSSROADS OF TWILIGHT is a piece of garbage with one event worthy of noting which you can look up. But stuff like WINTER'S HEART is not nearly as bad as people think...but if you'd waited a year for it, you'd be pissed.

Good to know. At the very least, I hope they're epic enough to fill the void that will exist after I finish The Way Of Kings and am waiting for the next Sanderson novel.

Defiance, on 22 November 2012 - 08:04 PM, said:

Going to delve into Tolkien's work for the first time since I was 10 or so (originally read the Lord of the Rings after I saw the first movie in theaters). I think I'm going to start with The Hobbit, move on to Lord of the Rings, and then pick up a copy of The Silmarillion (haven't read this one yet, although I've heard some people say it's Tolkien's best work even though it's incomplete). Depending on how ambitious I'm feeling, I might pick up some of the History of Middle Earth volumes after all of this to further explore Tolkien's world. The history and craft of creating fantasy worlds has always really intrigued me, and the amount of work Tolkien did is pretty mindblowing.

The Silmarillion is great, but it took me a couple of reads to appreciate. Have you read Unfinished Tales yet? I would do that before delving into the umpteen volumes of the History of Middle Earth. UT almost reads like a sequel to LOTR in parts, whereas HoMT is much more dry and scholarly.

[Defiance]

I'm about a fifth of the way through The Similarrion and I have about 3,000 words of notes so far (not all of them are necessary, but writing stuff down always helps keep it in my memory). I'm loving the book although I am already anticipating a reread, as the next time I go through I'll be able to just read it straight through, whereas right now I've taken a semi-scholarly approach to reading it.

I have not yet read the Unfinished Tales yet, but I do have the two volumes on my bookshelf along with The Lays of Beleriand. I'm planning on reading them after I reread The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I've also heard that The Children of Hurin is a good read which partially overlaps with a poem in The Lays of Beleriand.

[Stalker]

The Children of Hurin overlaps with everything. Not literally, but it seems that way. A large part (like 90%) of the story is already in the Similarrion, enough that to read The Children of Hurin is redundant. It's also partially in The Lays of Beleriand and the Unfinished Tales. Not to say that I don't like the story, because I do, just saying it is found everywhere.

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

Kruppe, on 23 November 2012 - 10:37 PM, said:

The Silmarillion is great, but it took me a couple of reads to appreciate. Have you read Unfinished Tales yet? I would do that before delving into the umpteen volumes of the History of Middle Earth. UT almost reads like a sequel to LOTR in parts, whereas HoMT is much more dry and scholarly.

HoMT = History of Middle...Thanksgiving??? I must've still been high on turkey when I typed that.

Regarding UT...it's more like a second appendix to LOTR. Sequel was probably a poor choice of words.

Anyway, if you want to see someone else's cliff notes to The Silmarillion, check out Paul Kocher's A Reader's Guide to the Silmarillion. He also has a great book of essays: Master of Middle-Earth: The Fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, which is one of my favorite nonfiction books about LOTR.

[Orlion]

Defiance, on 23 November 2012 - 10:58 PM, said:

I have not yet read the Unfinished Tales yet, but I do have the two volumes on my bookshelf along with The Lays of Beleriand. I'm planning on reading them after I reread The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I've also heard that The Children of Hurin is a good read which partially overlaps with a poem in The Lays of Beleriand.

Sounds like you have The Book of Lost Tales and not Unfinished Tales

The Second Part is important from a trivial perspective. It is the closest you will get to an account of the Fall of Gondolin that you will ever get. The rest is The Silmirllion in development.

Which is why I will always say the vast majority of the twelve volumes of The History of Middle-Earth is pointless unless you have to know how Tolkien developed Lord of the rings.

[Defiance]

Yeah, you're correct about having The Book of Lost Tales.


I don't plan on buying all of them at once, but I think I will eventually get the entire History of Middle-earth collection. I know that it's less story and more scholarly, but as I've said before I really enjoy learning about how other authors have constructed their fantasy worlds. How awesome would it be to get manuscripts of the games between SE and ICE as well as some of their early notes/drafts?

[Chance]

Picked up Blood and Bone and finished up the latest Iron Druid book Trapped in an attempt to quell the approching "Can't get Cold Days syndrom" because for that particular book my bookstore keep to release dates for the first time like ever. Argh...it didn't work and there are three days more of waiting.

At least Trapped was pretty decent for more or less a setup book and some scenes where epic but a few solutions/troubles where a bit too predictable. Still the story is growing in a good way.

Guess I'll have to try Blood and Bone next thought I probably should re-read som Esslemount stuff to even remember the overarching story and vast cast

[QuickTidal]

In the UK and Canada SE and ICE's books seem to come out before they do in the US. Chapter's release date in Canada is Dec.17th.

Sorry bro.

[Overactive Imagination]

Defiance, on 24 November 2012 - 09:18 PM, said:

How awesome would it be to get manuscripts of the games between SE and ICE as well as some of their early notes/drafts?

pretty damn fucking awesome.

[Macros]

I think blood and bone is lying at home waiting for me, Tuesday night if I'm correct.

[Ukjent]

Just done with the Air War, so now it's back to Microelectronic circuits .

[Use Of Weapons]

Finished _Cold Days_ in a sweat of anticipation and mounting excitement last night. So good!

Up next is _I Have Waited And You Have Come_ by Martine McDonagh, which I'm reading for Manchester's Post-Apocalyptic Book Club. Then I'll pick up _Blood and Bone_ again.

[End of Disc One]

Graablick, on 25 November 2012 - 06:25 PM, said:

Just done with the Air War, so now it's back to Microelectronic circuits .

How did you like it? I've only read the first two books but I'm eager to get back to it.

[Salt-Man Z]

Use Of Weapons, on 25 November 2012 - 06:32 PM, said:

I Have Waited And You Have Come

That's what she said.

[Salt-Man Z]

A Storm of Swords: So that's

Spoiler

the "Red Wedding".

Well, shit.

This post has been edited by Abyss: 26 November 2012 - 04:55 PM
Reason for edit: spoiler blocks because not everyone has read SoS.

[QuickTidal]

I took a break from reading while I polished off 6 Big Finish DOCTOR WHO audio's....but since I only have one ep left of the ones I bought and I can't buy more till the new year I needed something to read...but I wasn't ready for a whole book...and realized I had one or two books I was in the middle of...so I picked back up BLOOD OF THE MANTIS....we'll see how that goes.

[Abyss]

BLOOD AND BONE!
WooHOOOO!!! Jacaruku here i come!!!