[T77]

Thanks for the comments on Covenant. I was thinking of putting this on the back burner for a bit, but being as book 7 was a set up I will press forward. I am hoping to read the last book not toot long after it's released.

As for Jordan's wife being his editor, I now remember that from the interview done after one of the audiobooks. Maybe it's harder for a spouse to trim a book down.

This post has been edited by T77: 09 October 2013 - 09:00 PM

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Is it time for the Donaldson already? I don't think I finished the last one yet. Need to get in that, but at this point u should just start over.

[Kaamos]

The Last Dark is out in a couple of days (I read the ARC months back...should purchase a proofed copy...then re-read the seventeen Tuonelas out of it. Going to get called a Lord Foul -class heretic, but I still consider the series better than Malazan.) .

This post has been edited by Kaamos: 10 October 2013 - 07:08 AM

[dietl]

I'm done with the first part of Faust and I can totally understand why it's so highly praised. I'm still struggling a bit with Faust II because it requires a lot of knowledge of greek mythology that I don't really have but I'm enjoying it anyway.

[QuickTidal]

Wow, no one told me that CHASM CITY is actually the codex for the entire REVELATION SPACE series. I would have been far better informed having read this before the main series.

Also, I'm on page 200 and it's awesome so far!

[amphibian]

QuickTidal, on 10 October 2013 - 05:24 PM, said:

Wow, no one told me that CHASM CITY is actually the codex for the entire REVELATION SPACE series. I would have been far better informed having read this before the main series.

Also, I'm on page 200 and it's awesome so far!

Awesome, our collective tactic of underselling it has you far more pleased than usual. Best of luck.

[Mentalist]

Finally finished Neal Stephenson's "Quicksilver". the massive first volume of the Baroque cycle.

immidiately went online to order the next two. And also "cryptonomicon"

Seriosly, this is "epic" writing at its finest. it's historical fiction...kind of, sort of. And if you consider that I don't really know much about English history of this period, I found the read to be absolutely fascinating. (even if Stephenson din annoy me by saying Razin's rebellion took place in Ukraine--it was actually on the Don, which is a whole different area. But it's such a minor nitpick in such a grandiose work that it really doesn't matter)

I LOVED Diamond age and Snow Crash, but haven't read Anather or Reamde, because neither description really grabbed me. I may need to reconsider now.

EDIT: to add what i'll read now. Since I need a radical change of pace, I think I'll give Hamilton's "Dreaming Void" a shot....

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 11 October 2013 - 04:36 AM

[amphibian]

Anathem is a slow burner. It starts off with hundreds of monks (co-ed) who live inside a gigantic clock (think the kind of millennium clock someone would build to last until the end of the world) in a half futuristic, half in-the-past world. Something important happens and kickstarts the story. Then things get freaky and fun, with a ton of talk between characters about some truly wild shit and then the action sequences start. They don't stop until the very, very end and even then, it's a pell-mell ride.

But you're faced with putting in some work before the fun starts. That probably turns people off.

Reamde is about games like World of Warcraft and how they can bleed over into the real world, if the real world was populated by people who are surprisingly competent at what they do and willing to get violent if things really go sideways. Fun book to read, but ultimately his most lightweight since Snow Crash.

You can't go wrong with Neal Stephenson, really. He'll give you some extremely fun action sequences, elaborate plots that are joys to discover, have his characters info-load you some abstract intellectual shit to work out on your own time and a vague sense of "I should be getting my shit together in the real world so I can do stuff like this".

[Morgoth]

dietl, on 10 October 2013 - 04:50 PM, said:

I'm done with the first part of Faust and I can totally understand why it's so highly praised. I'm still struggling a bit with Faust II because it requires a lot of knowledge of greek mythology that I don't really have but I'm enjoying it anyway.

Faust part 2 was written substansially later, and has a very different thematic focus from the part 1. Part 1, I'd argue. mainly focus on philosophy, what it means to live a good life, to be human, to be happy, love, the universe and everything. Part 2 on the other hand is mainly a critique of Goethe's contemporary society, with a number of actual figures of his time making an apperance, mostly in a rather unflattering light.

[QuickTidal]

Nearly done with CHASM CITY. Great stuff...my only issue is that Reynolds telegraphs nearly EVERY twist really early on. Not sure if that is intentional or not.

Started Michael J. Sullivan's THE CROWN TOWER, and it's nice to be back in this world, but get to see a younger Hadrian (I picture him as Bradley James from MERLIN) and Royce (Michael Fassbender, obviously)....not to mention MAJOR insight to Gwen, as she's a POV character this time out. Loving this stuff!

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 11 October 2013 - 02:07 PM

[yuna_anomander25]

started BLADE OF TYSHALLE by Matthew F@(k!n6 Stover on my phone,,

question:

Spoiler

will we see Kris Hansen again,, as a primal mage,, or is it a RAFO bit,, i kinda liked this guy from the prologue,,

didn't know that the aftermath of HEROES DIE would be something like what i am now reading,,
but i'm still stoked,, hopefully i could finish this in just a few days,,

[JPK]

yuna_anomander25, on 11 October 2013 - 03:36 PM, said:

started BLADE OF TYSHALLE by Matthew F@(k!n6 Stover on my phone,,

question:

Spoiler

will we see Kris Hansen again,, as a primal mage,, or is it a RAFO bit,, i kinda liked this guy from the prologue,,

didn't know that the aftermath of HEROES DIE would be something like what i am now reading,,
but i'm still stoked,, hopefully i could finish this in just a few days,,

RAFO. Also, hold on and fucking enjoy the ride.

[dietl]

Morgoth, on 11 October 2013 - 06:46 AM, said:

Faust part 2 was written substansially later, and has a very different thematic focus from the part 1. Part 1, I'd argue. mainly focus on philosophy, what it means to live a good life, to be human, to be happy, love, the universe and everything. Part 2 on the other hand is mainly a critique of Goethe's contemporary society, with a number of actual figures of his time making an apperance, mostly in a rather unflattering light.

I must say that I liked the first part much more but that's surely only because it's a bit easier to understand. There is so much you can get out of reading this masterpiece and it's really beautifully written.
Morgoth, you read 2 different translations, did you find any discrepancies between these versions? I recon it must be really hard to translate the text.

yuna_anomander25, on 11 October 2013 - 03:36 PM, said:

question:

Spoiler

will we see Kris Hansen again,, as a primal mage,, or is it a RAFO bit,, i kinda liked this guy from the prologue,,

Spoiler

Yes. I felt the same about Kris.

[Chance]

Been going through Steelheart by Sanderson and The Dragons Path by Daniel Abraham, as both are authors whose work I've got a hard time liking previously I was positivly suprised by both of them.

Steelheart is fairly light fare but I kinda belive its where Sanderson makes his best work. For YA stuff it gets fairly grim on occation, with a couple of expected and unexpected twists. I'll certainly pick up the next one .

The Dragons Path is harder to say anything about but I was caught from the first scene and will run through the rest of the series with haste.

This post has been edited by Chance: 11 October 2013 - 08:40 PM

[Overactive Imagination]

You haven't read Forge of Darkness?!?!?! whaaaaaaaaaaat!!!!

[Macros]

You're better reading FoD, if for nothing else to avoid spoilers on here I think.

Bst served cold can be read at anytime, if nothing else to set you up to read the fucking awesome Heroes

[dietl]

Finished Die Verwandlung by Kafka yesterday and The Death of Ivan Ilych by Tolstoy today. Both are quite short, which I was looking for. You could find some parallels between the two books because both protagonists lives change dramatically.

Ivan Ilych is mostly about living a good live, death and society and I think it wasn't really written for someone like me Maybe I could appreciate it more when I'm closer to death or something. It suffered a bit from translation, but I can't be sure, I don't speak Russian and I read it in English, which is also not my mother tongue. All in all it's still a very good book.

Die Verwandlung was more to my taste. It deals with the same major themes as the Tolstoy story bit in a quite different way and still leaves a lot of room for interpretation. While reading you get the impression that Kafka really thought hard about how it's like being an insect. I liked it very much and is way better than Kafkas Der Prozess imo, although it's been some years since I read it.

Next is Die Ermordung einer Butterblume (engl.:The murder of a buttercup) by Alfred Döblin and I really look forward to finding out who killed the poor little thing and why. Who knows, maybe it deserved to die a horrible death, maybe it was all an accident, maybe someone threw an apple at it....

[Ukjent]

Done with Republic of Thieves and I enjoyed it. Now its over to Alloy of law in lack of something else.

[Captain Beardface]

Currently listening to Tigana by GGK, with work, pregnant wife, and crazy work schedule I've had to switch to audiobooks. This is the third one actually, listened to Forge of Darkness because for some reason I struggled reading it, but I apparently put it down right about the time it got really interesting. I also listened to Reamde by Neal Stephenson as well.

[Solidsnape]

Tiste Simeon, on 08 October 2013 - 09:26 PM, said:

Minor detour to read V for Vendetta finished, GOTM started!

NICE!!!!
You doing a full re-read?