[Abyss]

amphibian, on 01 August 2013 - 08:02 PM, said:

http://www.infinityp...es/quietwar.htm

Very fun short story that's a futuristic sci-fi soldier come home to a small town western setting. Tony Daniel wrote the bleep out of that story.

No kidding. Great read. Written in '96 but not the least bit dated, as it should be.

[T77]

Abyss, on 01 August 2013 - 05:02 PM, said:

Serenity, on 01 August 2013 - 03:50 PM, said:

...
I'm 30% of the way through Weber's On Basilisk Station and bored out of my skull so far.

This is the main reason that i have yet to read the Honor Harrington series, notwithstanding that i genuinely enjoy most things Weber. I got BASILISK STATION for free, years ago, have started and dropped it easily six times.

I suspect part of the problem is that most Weber i read was written years later and his style and pacing seriously improved. BASILISK starts slooooooooow and has a bunch of milsf tropes so overplayed i can't quite manage to move along past them.

Glad you mentioned this as I did not care for OBS and thought Weber wasn't for me despite him seeming to be well liked by most. I will have to give him another try.

[worry]

Finished Perdido Street Station. Some pretty cool stuff, in fact lots to admire, but I can't say I fell in love with it. I dunno, this might sound dumb coming from a fantasy reader, but I might have a personal prejudice against hybrid creatures. I don't like centaurs, I don't like manticores, I don't like gryphons, I don't like chimaera, and I didn't like the khepri or the cactus or the battletoads. Conceptually, that is. Individual characters/cultures were drawn well enough. On the other hand, I absolutely loved the slake-moths, the Weaver, the representative from Hell, and various other denizens of the city (especially the presence, hints, and revelations about Jack Half-A-Prayer and the Eyespy Killer -- very well seeded).

I already have the other two books, looking forward to getting into The Scar as it seems to be the real champion in the set.

Now I'm reading Light In August. TS&TF was so good that I didn't want to wait much longer to read more.

[birthSqueeze]

James Hutton, on 01 August 2013 - 07:38 PM, said:

End of Disc One, on 01 August 2013 - 06:50 PM, said:

James Hutton, on 01 August 2013 - 06:28 PM, said:

James Hutton, on 28 July 2013 - 08:51 PM, said:

Next: FURIES OF CALDERON by Jim Butcher.

Finished it yesterday, couldn't put it down. I'm officially on the Butcher train now!

Finished the second one recently. I thought it was a more interesting story but had a less epic finish. Quite enjoyable but still not a top tier series yet for me.

I see Butcher as a great light read inbetween more heavy stuff (would that be top tier?) like for instance SE or Gene Wolff. Like I said, I couldn't stop reading Furies just like the last book by Butcher I read (Dead Beat). That may not be top tier necessarily, but I found it thoroughly enjoyable!

His novels are fun to read, but not nearly as rewarding as SE, Robin Hobb, Brandon Sanderson, China Mievelle, Dan Simmons, etc. The Dresden Files is really fun to read, but I didn't care much for the Codex Alera after Furies.

[worry]

Haha. Nah those are mutants! Not some donkey with dragonfly wings, a scorpion tale, and manatee nipples.

[amphibian]

The beings within Perdido Street Station and Bas-Lag as a whole are often mutants. The Torque alluded to at certain times is much like a deranged and dangerous form of the Ooze that produced the TMNT mentioned above. The cactopic stain is usually linked to Torque.

Some of the beings did evolve or were transplanted from elsewhere and elsewhen and some are pure magic.

[worry]

I figured that was the case, and it's not a deal-breaker by any means. I just have the immediate visceral reaction to it that some people have to seeing Achilles' Heel or Adam's Apple in MBOTF (which, funnily enough, I had no problem with). If the author manages to grab me despite all that then that's really all that matters.

[Use Of Weapons]

Reading: Ben Aaronovitch's _Broken Homes_, 4th in the series. Started well -- characters are great. Will see how it finishes.

Been re-reading loads of blasts from my past on Kindle via SF Gateway recently. Finally managed to finish Sheri S Tepper's True Game set of three trilogies (love the True Game trilogy, am fond of the Mavin trilogy, but could never get the first or third books in the Jinian trilogy). Also reread Michael Scott Rohan's "Winter of the World" original trilogy, and have the sequels waiting in the wings. Possibly my favourite single sensawunda moment in fantasy in _The Hammer Of The Sun_'s denoument.

Went on a bit of a shopping spree with a friend, and via cross-recommendations have ended up with the following:

Nick Harkaway: _Angelmaker_
Paul Cornell: _London Falling_
Christopher L Bennett: _Only Superhuman_
David Brin: _Existence_

And remembered that I had actually bought a copy of _Wurms of Blearmouth_ from PS Printing at BrightonCon last year, but never got round to reading it -- for shame!

[worry]

Awesome, that's like finding 20 bucks in a jacket you haven't worn for a year. Wurms never even came out in the US. There's like a limited deluxe hardcover edition from PS that amazon sells, but no domestic paperback or e-book options at all. I was gonna say maybe they're waiting to release several in one volume like the first three, but Tor put out Crack'd Pot Trail on its own, so I dunno what gives.

[Serenity]

Finished On Basilisk Station. It's only redeeming quality, for me, was that it was free for Kindle. Didn't like it at all.

Shall probably make a start on Bakker's The Warrior-Prophet today.

[Chance]

Serenity, on 03 August 2013 - 09:09 AM, said:

Finished On Basilisk Station. It's only redeeming quality, for me, was that it was free for Kindle. Didn't like it at all.

Some of the follow ups are quite a bit better but they do continue in the same style.

Been starting to listen to Deadhouse Gate after being completly unable to get the time or motivation to continue my re-read of the Malzan Books so far its great as it should be.

Guess I'll tossin in Eye of God by Rollins and Kill City Blues in between parts but thats only a couple of hours each.

This post has been edited by Chance: 03 August 2013 - 12:45 PM

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

worry, on 02 August 2013 - 11:51 PM, said:

I dunno, this might sound dumb coming from a fantasy reader, but I might have a personal prejudice against hybrid creatures. I don't like centaurs, I don't like manticores, I don't like gryphons, I don't like chimaera, and I didn't like the khepri or the cactus or the battletoads.

Sunflower The Centaur finds your opinion offensive.

 sunflowerwatermelon7cs.jpg (16K)
Number of downloads: 0

[Tiste Simeon]

Taking a break from Raw Spirit to read some old Asterix comics I found at my parents house! Love it!

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

154. The Year's Best Fantasy And Horror 2008 edited by Ellen Datlow - A better than average anthology. I guess they take the word "best" seriously. Still a mixed bag, with the stories getting progressively less interesting. Seemed to skew towards horror...not much that I would have considered fantasy...

155. The Nerdist Way by Chris Hardwick - Fun and funny guide to a successful nerd life.

156. Blindsight by Peter Watts - There's probably some good stuff in here, but it didn't work for me. My brain is very finicky when it comes to hard SF.

157. The Forbidden Game by L. J. Smith - I wanted this to be Jumanji for teens, but it was pretty much just cookie cutter teen girl fantasy fiction.

158. The Lambkins by Eve Bunting - Kids' book about an old lady who kidnaps kids and shrinks them down to keep in her dollhouse. Good concept, but the simplicity of the story worked to its detriment. I would like to see this plot in a YA, or even adult, horror novel.

159. Babylon Steel by Gaie Sebold - I wanted this be Star Wars Cantina + wormholes, but it wasn't. Dangit, why can't authors read my mind and retroactively write their books the way I want them to?

160. Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton - I really liked this at first, but I eventually became lost in a sea of plot threads. A shame, because there's nothing better than a giant tome of a sci-fi novel. I'm reading The Reality Dysfunction now, and hopefully I'll be able to follow that one better, because I really like Hamilton's writing style. He's sort of an SF Tom Clancy.

161. The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rafaniemi - I really wanted to like this one, because it seemed vaguely reminiscent of Tad Williams' Otherland (which I loved). But I just found it really hard to follow.

162. Royal Exile by Fiona McIntosh - As much as I loved McIntosh's Odalisque, this one just bored me.

[Serenity]

350 pages into Bakker's The Warrior-Prophet. Really enjoying it so far.

Also read another Conan story, The Pool of the Black One. Not one of the better ones.

[Tiste Simeon]

Finished reading Iain Banks' "Raw Spirit: In Search of the Perfect Dram." It is all at once part travel guide to Scotland, part nostalgia trip, part autobiography, part political rant & of course a great guide to single malt whisky. I enjoyed it a lot (don't read much non fiction) and it was filled with his usual wit. However he seemed to cram loads of stories into each chapter and it often got confusing as to what he was talking about as there was no clear distinction between the stories... A good read though.

And you will be pleased to know I have just started HEROES DIE by Matthew Stover. Nearly 20% in already and I am flippin' loving it! Superb blend of sci-fi and fantasy and I love the dystopian future set against the almost medieval fantasy world. Pure brilliant!

[Tiste Simeon]

Also I like Caine a lot more than Hari.

[Salt-Man Z]

Tiste Simeon, on 05 August 2013 - 02:39 PM, said:

And you will be pleased to know I have just started HEROES DIE by Matthew Stover. Nearly 20% in already and I am flippin' loving it! Superb blend of sci-fi and fantasy and I love the dystopian future set against the almost medieval fantasy world. Pure brilliant!

I am pleased indeed.

[Salt-Man Z]

For myself, I finished King of Thorns over the weekend. It was good, but I got a little weary of the formula of: Jorg in trouble, doesn't have a plan -> gets out of it because of a plan he set in motion long before but forgot about until just now. And nothing gets telegraphed in advance, Chekhov's Gun-style; it's always revealed shortly before being put to use. Thankfully, Jorg's voice and story are compelling enough that I can overlook the mildly-annoying structure.

Also last night, I finished up Borges' Book of Sand, and started in on his Shakespeare's Memory. Both fantastic (of course.)

[Tiste Simeon]

Salt-Man Z, on 05 August 2013 - 04:09 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 05 August 2013 - 02:39 PM, said:

And you will be pleased to know I have just started HEROES DIE by Matthew Stover. Nearly 20% in already and I am flippin' loving it! Superb blend of sci-fi and fantasy and I love the dystopian future set against the almost medieval fantasy world. Pure brilliant!

I am pleased indeed.

My life revolves around pleasing Internet people I have never met, so I'm glad!

Also, flipping heck this book kicks butt! Not as much profanity as I had been lead to believe...