[Stalker]

Yeah, like the editors, I missed that too. You are right about the dates, of course, should be '47.

[Chance]

Just finished up the bulk of Gaunt's Ghost novels after having the series recommended to me continuously for ten years or so. Must say positivly surprised since I didn't really expect to finish all the available books much less find some of the novels pretty good. Necropolis, Traitor General, Honour Guard and Salvation's Reach being quite good and occationally brilliant sf military fiction even with the 40k universe being rather absurd and sometimes silly.

Probably should pick something rather different next.

This post has been edited by Chance: 28 January 2013 - 12:59 AM

[worry]

Yah try the Battlescrewdriver 50G books next. There's nothing like it.

[Mentalist]

Finished Book 2 of Godsdoom-II . The story is starting to pick up, but still meandering. Given there's at least 4 more books to go, that's not surprising. Still feels rather set-up-ish, but there was some neat background on some of the stuff in the Consistent. Based on all the "interludes" in the end of Book 1, I'm waiting for Perumov to bring many more characters from the cast of "Chronicles of the Rift" into play.

The reviews of all of Perumov's Consistent stuff are a work in progress, I'll post them all when I'm done I think.

having given that a break, I'm now reading James Lovegrove's "Age of Zeus". It's nice light popcorn reading, fairly enjoyable so far.

[QuickTidal]

Wow, about 100 pages into James Rollins & Rebecca Cantrell's THE BLOOD GOSPEL and so far it's AMAZING!

Basically it's like a Sigma novel if you mixed in some really compelling urban fantasy aspects to the bowl.

Great characters so far: A disillusioned archeologist, An American Ranger team leader, a militant priest from the Vatican (a Knight of Christ)...all of whom get some great character development even in the first section.

For those who enjoy Rollins Sigma books...this is defo for you.

[T77]

Salt-Man Z, on 25 January 2013 - 05:42 PM, said:

I'm sure it's the latter; he said he'll watch out for it.

I wasn't excited to start in on Blood and Bone, mostly due to OST being so disappointing, but darn if it isn't enjoyable so far. The one annoying thing of course is that ICE is trying to play needlessly coy; we all know who the "Warleader" really is, so just go ahead and name him, already! Geez.

Gotta say it's weird reading BaB at the same time we're doing the Tor.com reread of RotCG. "Wait, Shimmer misses Blues? Didn't I just read that? Oh yeah, different book."

I'm reading Stonewielder and struggling with it. It's not bad, but it's far from good. After being disappointed with RotCG I was getting down on ICE to the point of contemplating not reading him anymore. Good to hear you like BaB. I really liked NoK, so i'm not totally down on ICE.

Also, finished Cruel Zinc Melodies by Glen Cook. Another great Garrett book. On to Gilded Latten Bones, this is the last Garrett book, though a new one is due in July.

[Abyss]

Cocoreturns, on 25 January 2013 - 06:27 PM, said:

Just to chime in on Breach - I read it after seeing the hype on here, but didn't think it was amazing.

It was good, don't get me wrong, but its not something i'm ever likely to bother re-reading...

polishgenius, on 25 January 2013 - 07:06 PM, said:

... Don't get me wrong, I quite enjoyed it while reading it, but I'd forgotten about it within like half an hour and have no real urge to read the rest. ...

stone monkey, on 25 January 2013 - 08:03 PM, said:

tbh I don't get the love for The Breach either; it's light reading at best but nothing earth shattering. Same with the Dresden books; enjoyable enough frippery imo but not anything that would make me want to rush out and buy them on the first publication day. Another one that I don't get the love for is The Milkweed Tryptych - I didn't actively dislike the first one, harmless enough entertainment I thought, but hardly the tour-de-force one would expect from reading some of the comments here.

De gustibus non est disputandum I suppose.

Traveller, on 25 January 2013 - 09:12 PM, said:

...I couldn't get into the first of the Milkweed Tryptych either. Maybe wrong timing or something, it just didn't grab me.
...

Commies, the lot ot you. You'll like it BECAUSE I SAID YOU SHOULD LIKE IT.

...or to each their own and ymmv with anyone's recos.

That said, i stand by my reco that ONCE CROWDED SKY is worth time and money.


Am now reading Weston Ochse's SEAL TEAM 666. It's mil sf/urban fantasy with the classic special forces team tasked with hunting down evil supernatural stuff. I can only say 'adequate' so far... the author has some fun ideas and writes his characters well, but the abruptly shifting pov, omniscient narrator randomly chiming in and poor language choices (ie: "the walls were covered in arcane symbols in chinese and english"... if they're ARCANE symbols how exactly are they in chinese and english....? ) drag the book down at times. Good enough to finish, but no reco just yet.

[Salt-Man Z]

T77, on 28 January 2013 - 03:25 PM, said:

I'm reading Stonewielder and struggling with it. It's not bad, but it's far from good. After being disappointed with RotCG I was getting down on ICE to the point of contemplating not reading him anymore. Good to hear you like BaB. I really liked NoK, so i'm not totally down on ICE.

See, I really liked SW, though I thought ICE failed to stick the proverbial landing at the end. BaB is reminding me a lot of it, so far. Exploring a new continent is where ICE shines, IMHO.

[Hound]

QuickTidal, on 28 January 2013 - 02:25 PM, said:

Wow, about 100 pages into James Rollins & Rebecca Cantrell's THE BLOOD GOSPEL and so far it's AMAZING!

Basically it's like a Sigma novel if you mixed in some really compelling urban fantasy aspects to the bowl.

Great characters so far: A disillusioned archeologist, An American Ranger team leader, a militant priest from the Vatican (a Knight of Christ)...all of whom get some great character development even in the first section.

For those who enjoy Rollins Sigma books...this is defo for you.

Good to hear you're enjoying the book

[Pennywise]

I'm about a quarter through Paul Kearney's The Ten Thousand. Really, really loving it so far! I have no experience with military fantasy, outside of the battle scenes in Game of Thrones and The Blade Itself, but this is a very captivating read. No unnecessary detail, yet enough to paint a vivid picture of the world and the filthy state it's in.

The Macht host is about to land in the Empire, so I expect excrement to hit the cooling device shortly.

[QuickTidal]

Pennywise, on 28 January 2013 - 07:07 PM, said:

I'm about a quarter through Paul Kearney's The Ten Thousand. Really, really loving it so far! I have no experience with military fantasy, outside of the battle scenes in Game of Thrones and The Blade Itself, but this is a very captivating read. No unnecessary detail, yet enough to paint a vivid picture of the world and the filthy state it's in.

The Macht host is about to land in the Empire, so I expect excrement to hit the cooling device shortly.

When you get a chance you should check out Michael Curtis Fords's THE TEN THOUSAND which is a fictionally embellished accounting of the actual events from history with the Greeks and Persians...which is of course where Kearney got the idea...but yeah, his version is VERY good!

[Mentalist]

Popcorn reading is evil. Stayed up till 5 Am last night reading "Age of Zeus".

The book is light, character development is pretty meh, action is non-stop, and the concept is exactly what the blurb says--soldiers in futuristic power armor vs Greek Gods + monsters. The story isn't anything to write home about, it serves. The big twist was too similar to the first reveal in "The Age of Ra" to really make me gasp--and the breadcrumb trail was all there.

Nonetheless, I couldn't put the damn thing down till 5 AM until it was done.And it's the type of book I'll probably re-read eventually, just for some moments of pure coolness. So was it worth my money? yeah, i'd say so. If you want a light read that won't tax the brain too much, it's a good choice. Kinda like a Michael Bay blockbuster.

next, not sure what i'll read. all this talk of Ten Thousand makes me want to re-read it before reading Corvus , but I've also got Alloy of law and the first Ketty Jay book sitting on the shelf. Leaning towards Wooding right now, because I've been meaning to try that one since forever.

[Abyss]

Mentalist, on 29 January 2013 - 08:37 AM, said:

Popcorn reading is evil. Stayed up till 5 Am last night reading "Age of Zeus". ... I couldn't put the damn thing down till 5 AM until it was done....

I had the same reaction to AGE OF ODIN. Total popcorn read, totally catches you up like a silly action flic.


MP3 of Doctorow's FOR THE WIN is annoying me... the actual events are interesting but every so often random characters burst into extended discussions of economics that are either painfully basic or over-long... and i can't just ffwd because inevitably some key point is dropped in somewhere.


Ochse's SEAL TEAM 666... i keep getting the sense that the author really wanted to write a deep meaningful/worshipful novel about the glory of the Navy SEALs and then slotted in the supernatural elements... which is a shame because he has some fun ideas on the supernatural front... still has my attention, but RED COUNTRY is sitting there calling to me...

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 29 January 2013 - 03:46 PM, said:

MP3 of Doctorow's FOR THE WIN is annoying me... the actual events are interesting but every so often random characters burst into extended discussions of economics that are either painfully basic or over-long... and i can't just ffwd because inevitably some key point is dropped in somewhere.

And therein lies the rub with Doctorow's work. It can be very good, but more often than not he infuses WAY too much "agenda" into his fiction. I feel like screaming at him to write separate non-fic books for his agenda stuff and full on fiction for his made up stuff. It smacks of "trickery" to me the way he does it...especially with FOR THE WIN.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 29 January 2013 - 04:32 PM

[stone monkey]

First things first:

So I finished Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds. I'm a little conflicted by this one. Reynolds writing has been getting better over the years, I think. He's no pyrotechnic prose stylist by any means, but he is much more accomplished at the craft of writing - putting the words together - than he was at the beginning of his career. The ideas in this one, a much closer and more recognisable future than most of his other work, are very interesting. Although I do think that The Mechanism (and the ethical and political issues around it) was underused. I was disappointed with the revelations at end of the book though, which struck me as a bit of a cop-out. I am, however, very interested to see where he's going to take this.


On to other business:
I was toying with the idea of behaving like, y'know, an actual adult. But fuck that! That's no fun at all...

QuickTidal, on 26 January 2013 - 10:09 PM, said:

stone monkey, on 25 January 2013 - 08:03 PM, said:

blah blah blah The Breach... blah blah blah Dresden books... blah blah blah The Milkweed Tryptych
etc.

EDIT: I'm just going to leave my comment on this post as, you could have just said "these aren't for me, even though they are clearly for others considering the mass enjoyment level."

The subtle jabs and putdowns just make you come off as petty SM.

Erm... What the actual fuck? (to paraphrase the great Warren Ellis)

It's certainly an interesting rhetorical tactic to state yourself personally offended by someone who disagrees with your opinion and who also says why they do so. And btw ask anyone who's met me, I'm so very far from subtle that I wouldn't be able to see it even if I used the Hubble Telescope. So yeah...

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 30 January 2013 - 12:36 AM

[Overactive Imagination]

Reading Last Argument of Kings.. pretty solid so far. I'm not really sure what to expect will happen in the end.. the Union crushes Bethod and that's that? The Gurkish attack? It feels weird reading stories with a smaller, more standard kind of storyline after finishing the Malazan series.

This post has been edited by Overactive Imagination: 30 January 2013 - 12:36 AM

[QuickTidal]

stone monkey, on 30 January 2013 - 12:32 AM, said:

Erm... What the actual fuck? (to paraphrase the great Warren Ellis)

It's certainly an interesting rhetorical tactic to state yourself personally offended by someone who disagrees with your opinion and who also says why they do so. And btw ask anyone who's met me, I'm so very far from subtle that I wouldn't be able to see it even if I used the Hubble Telescope. So yeah...

My wording of "subtle"...was sarcasm...but I suppose I disguised that too well?

Anyways, I posted before I properly thought about your comment and snap reacted. I found it overly dickish when I read it the first time without reason to be...but upon second thought I suppose it doesn't have to be construed how I saw it.

Sorry.

[worry]

Wait a minute, them's not fightin' words.

[QuickTidal]

worrywort, on 30 January 2013 - 04:38 AM, said:

Wait a minute, them's not fightin' words.

Meh, he's right, I went off half-cocked and he called me on it. I have no issues owning up to being an ass.

[worry]