[Defiance]

Finished The Silmarillion four or five days ago. Fantastic book, it puts The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in and entirely new context.
There's something special about A Game of Thrones. One of my favorite parts about it is that, while it's a well-paced book, it also allows you to fully enjoy the beauty of the Westeros world. Of course, Westeros is just as great (or terrible) of a place in the other books, but you rarely get to experience its joys in such a relaxed manner since the threats in the first book are largely indirect for awhile. Still, it ties with A Storm of Swords for my favorite book in the series, although I agree with you guys; the problems in Feast and Dance found their roots in Storm, but what really made things different is that Storm handled things perfectly, whereas the latter two stumbled.

Not sure what I'm going to read right now. I've been wanting to get back into The Wheel of Time series since I read the first 7.2 books seven years ago, but after reading half of the first book I just didn't find myself to be that interested in what was going on. I found that the characters nuances were starting to get annoying as well - Lan always has to leap on and off his horse (I think Jordan was trying to make him sound badass, but after the fifth time it just becomes silly), Thom/Lan constantly grumbling/grunting/making weird noises to themselves, and such. This, combined with the fact that the female characters were already pissing me off wasn't a good sign, given that the women just get worse as the series progresses and meld into a being of pure evil, a vagina to rival Sauron's Eye, doesn't help (granted, not all women fell into this, if I recall from seven years ago Min and Moiraine were okay...but that's two characters out of too many to count). A part of me wants to force myself to get over these things and just try to enjoy the books for what they are, as it would be nice to have the series under my belt. On the other hand, there's so much else out there to read, and a fourteen book series is a huge commitment.

I might start reading The Black Company again (I have the first omnibus, have read the first two of three books so far), or check out The Name of the Wind which has been sitting on my bookshelf unread for a year or two now.

[QuickTidal]

 yuna_anomander25, on 01 December 2012 - 04:27 AM, said:

FINALLY finished with Last Argument of Kings, that took quite some time, and now i have a few comments and questions,

i have never liked Bayaz, ever since,

Spoiler

and now i find him more evil than all the villains put together, i actually wanted Logen & Ferro to knock him senseless, when they talked with him,

i find the ending a little anti-climactic, but i know that it paved the way for the plot for the next books, Best Served Cold, The Heroes & Red Country,

but question:
is Ferro's story resolved in the stand-alone books, or will it be resolved in the next 3 books,
if it is RAFO, then good, but if it wasn't touched in the stand-alones then i will wait for it in the next trilogy,

that's one of my fave things about those books...

Spoiler

Abercrombie kind of swindles you into thinking he's on the good side...but he's actually worse than almost everyone else and is just an unrepentant dickhole

...I remember thinking that was very clever on JA's part.

[Baco Xtath]

I'm about 50 pages into Rise of Ransom City. It feels like a Mark Twain fantasy western - like a work of art. I had to read Lightbringers and Rainmakers first because Ransom City is set as an autobiography of Henry Ransom and Lightbringers is a short story/novella of Ransom's letters to his sisters (not sure if the read was necessary but it was an enjoyable quick read). When I got Rise, I had no idea what it was going to be about; kind of assumed it was going to follow Creedmor or at least another agent of the gun but it doesn't and I'm fine with that. Anyway, Rise is really good so far and I'm pleased that Gilman seems to be more concerned with producing literature/art rather than blockbusters.

[Salt-Man Z]

Stayed up to the wee morning hours finishing A Storm of Swords. Oh my gosh, you guys, this book.

[End of Disc One]

How can one not like Bayaz. One of the most entertaining characters for sure.

[Salt-Man Z]

So, about ASoS. I think I'd read that GRRM planned to have a 5-year gap before AFFC, which makes perfect sense now. It's not that ASoS wraps everything up, but a lot of arcs are ended, converge, or reach a moment where they can stop and take a breath.

What didn't make sense was knowing that he had to split AFFC into two books, based on geography, because the story had gotten too sprawling. By the end of ASoS, there are like half a dozen major plotlines still going.

Spoiler

Jon, Arya, Sansa, Tyrion, Dany. Maybe Jaime.

Certainly there were more at the book's start! Anyway, so I'm not planning on reading AFFC until next year, but I picked it up to flip through and check the chapter POVs. I looked at seven chapter headings before I got to one that was in the previous books, and of the other six, I only recognized two the characters! So I'm guessing some serious sprawl does set in with AFFC.

Still looking forward to digging in, probably in early March, as the MMPB of ADWD doesn't come out until the end of that month. We'll see if I can hold out that long, anyway.

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 01 December 2012 - 06:38 PM

[Baco Xtath]

 Baco Xtath, on 01 December 2012 - 03:53 PM, said:

I'm about 50 pages into Rise of Ransom City. It feels like a Mark Twain fantasy western - like a work of art. I had to read Lightbringers and Rainmakers first because Ransom City is set as an autobiography of Henry Ransom and Lightbringers is a short story/novella of Ransom's letters to his sisters (not sure if the read was necessary but it was an enjoyable quick read). When I got Rise, I had no idea what it was going to be about; kind of assumed it was going to follow Creedmor or at least another agent of the gun but it doesn't and I'm fine with that. Anyway, Rise is really good so far and I'm pleased that Gilman seems to be more concerned with producing literature/art rather than blockbusters.

Let me qualify that blockbuster statement a little: Gilman could've made a book about the final showdown of the Line and the Gun, the conquest of the Yet-made world, the Folk and their magics, and an epic battle for creation itself - instead he wrote an autobiography about an inventor living in the world where this is all going on. Thus far, it is fantastic but I myself would've been tempted to go with the money-maker rather than art (though I'm sure this will still sell very well - as it should).

[Chance]

Finished up the Quantum Thief and Fractal Prince after having the first one lying around for a while and must say I shouldn't have put off Hannu Rajaniemi this far, easily the best SF I've read in a while. The sheer imagination of those books are simply well hard to describe.

[amphibian]

 Chance, on 01 December 2012 - 10:14 PM, said:

Finished up the Quantum Thief and Fractal Prince after having the first one lying around for a while and must say I shouldn't have put off Hannu Rajaniemi this far, easily the best SF I've read in a while. The sheer imagination of those books are simply well hard to describe.

Check out Appleseed by John Clute. It's of a similar vibe, but much, much lighter in overall tone. Also a one-off.

[yuna_anomander25]

@ End of Disk One - well, i tried, but i find him as an arrogant prick, at least Jezal improved as a character, also the ones i like in the books are Logen, Glokta & Ferro, i even like Nicomo Cosca a little, and reading the blurbs from Best Served Cold, i think i would really like Monza Murcatto,

@ Briar King - don't worry, no major event was spoilered, its just his character/attitude we are discussing,

but i would really like, if Abercrombie comes up with a prequel story about the Old Empire and the real story behind Juvens and Kanedias, definitely would read this even if told from Bayaz POV,

[Defiance]

Just switched my Kindle over to the UK to pick up Blood and Bone. $15 is an atrocious amount of money to pay for a digital version of a book, but the lady bought it for me so I can't complain.

[polishgenius]

 yuna_anomander25, on 02 December 2012 - 03:47 AM, said:

@ Briar King - don't worry, no major event was spoilered, its just his character/attitude we are discussing,

Not being funny like, what's being discussed here is a pretty major fucking spoiler for someone who's not read the trilogy, specific events or not.

[Imperial Historian]

 polishgenius, on 02 December 2012 - 10:02 PM, said:

 yuna_anomander25, on 02 December 2012 - 03:47 AM, said:

@ Briar King - don't worry, no major event was spoilered, its just his character/attitude we are discussing,

Not being funny like, what's being discussed here is a pretty major fucking spoiler for someone who's not read the trilogy, specific events or not.

Agreed, spoiler tagged. Please try and keep this thread free of spoilers.

[QuickTidal]

 yuna_anomander25, on 02 December 2012 - 03:47 AM, said:

@ End of Disk One - well, i tried, but i find him as an arrogant prick, at least Jezal improved as a character, also the ones i like in the books are Logen, Glokta & Ferro, i even like Nicomo Cosca a little, and reading the blurbs from Best Served Cold, i think i would really like Monza Murcatto,

Spoiler

eh...not really. She's worse than Bayaz. Which is part of why BSC is such a good book, it's filled with villains.

Even tho I don't think that a character's dickishness is a "spoiler"....

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 03 December 2012 - 12:40 AM

[polishgenius]

 QuickTidal, on 03 December 2012 - 12:38 AM, said:

Even tho I don't think that a character's dickishness is a "spoiler"....

Normally, no. In the case of Abercrombie

Spoiler

it's a pretty big part of the point of the first trilogy that it presents what seem like standard fantasy tropes then breaks out the Crowbar of Cynicism and brutally murders them. Knowing that Bayaz is actually a giant dick rather than the grumpy-but-well-meaning Belgarath-alike that he's initially shown as rather colours the readings of the books.

[Coco with marshmallows]

just picked up Pierre Pevel's third book in the Cardinal's Blades series. So started a re-read of them, obviously.

[Serenity]

I finished Gemmell's Troy Trilogy - loved it, up there with the best of his work. Thought Stella did a marvellous job finishing it off - really couldn't see the join.

Read The Long Way Home by John McCallum, about he, his brother and their friend escaping from a POW camp during WWII.

Just started Tim Powers' The Stress of Her Regard and it's very promising so far.

[worry]

I'm on Chapter 5 of Cold Days. I can already tell this is going to be the worst book ever written!

[Abyss]

 worrywort, on 03 December 2012 - 08:01 PM, said:

I'm on Chapter 5 of Cold Days. I can already tell this is going to be the worst book ever written!

I told you to just stick to those Charlaine Harris vampiresex books.... but did you listen.... noooOOooooo....

[kcf]

Well, I've gotten myself rather behind on reviews. I still need to write-up reviews for Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht (excellent - probably the best book I've read this year), Zoo City by Lauren Buekes (good, but I expected it to be better), and Shadow Ops: Fortress Frontier by Myke Cole (excellent). I'm currently reading The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman, which is turning out to be very good - subtle, intelligent writing. I've heard great things about it, now I'm wondering why I waited so long to read it.