[Traveller]

 Baco Xtath, on 07 November 2013 - 11:27 PM, said:

 Traveller, on 07 November 2013 - 10:37 PM, said:

 Baco Xtath, on 07 November 2013 - 07:43 PM, said:

Just finished Blood Song (audiobook) about an hour ago and I have to say that this is probably my favorite fantasy listen/read of the year save Caine's Law. Really great stuff and I suggest everyone check it out.

Weird, I'm about 3/4 through and I'm finding it a bit of a trudge. It just reads like an account of events... there's none of the dark humour of the sort that makes Abercrombie and Stover so enjoyable to read; and no complexity or real intrigue, or anything new really.

On the verge of giving it up, to be honest, I just have no interest in the main character.

Everyone's tastes differ. Some people can't stand Malazan yet praise the Warded Man, Sword of Truth and stuff I couldn't stomach at all. I found Blood Song to be a more mature version of Name of the Wind and a much more likable main character - though the prose isn't as poetic, it was by no means bad.

No, it's a long way from being bad.. it just feels a bit too familiar after reading books like NotW, and the Codex Alera series. I'm just trying to pinpoint why it's not grabbing me... and I think it just suffers in comparison to the other great books that I've read this year, most of which have tried to add something new to the genre, rather than stick to the ''boy grows into world-saving warrior' story.

(Also, Sherin just seemed to be lifted from the Band of Brothers episode with the medic and the nurse.)

[Stormcat]

I am reading RoTCG and listening to Republic of Thieves. I picked up a lot of good suggestions to add to my pile.

[Baco Xtath]

 polishgenius, on 08 November 2013 - 06:48 AM, said:

 Baco Xtath, on 07 November 2013 - 11:27 PM, said:

I found Blood Song to be a more mature version of Name of the Wind

I get why some people might like Blood Song more than NotW (crazy people, but still) but I really don't see the mature thing...

I actually like NotW better than Blood Song (though this may change depending on the strength of the sequel) mainly because of the prose and I like my stuff fantastic; e.g. the stealing of the moon, the Chandrian, and all the myths and tales within ........As to the mature part, Kvothe is master of everything, he pranked people, Ambrose as typical rich bully, the jackass song, the Felorian sex sequence......etc. whereas in BS, schoolmates died through their trials, he wasn't the best at everything, death - lots of death,........again, it's just my opinion. Also, I listened to both and while both had great narrators, a lot can be missed and/or gained by listening instead of reading (BS's narrator was very serious and NotW's, Nick Podehl - my favorite - waxes poetic and is humorous).

[dietl]

 Salt-Man Z, on 08 November 2013 - 01:05 AM, said:

 dietl, on 07 November 2013 - 11:10 PM, said:

Did I miss any must-reads for Lovecraft fans?

Off the top of my head:

At the Mountains of Madness
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Rats in the Walls
The Dunwich Horror
The Music of Erich Zann

Really, if you like his stuff, track down as much of it as you can. Even some of his collaborations are great: Within the Walls of Eryx and The Curse of Yig, for two.

 Grief, on 08 November 2013 - 01:37 AM, said:

To add to Salt-Man's post, Dreams in the Witch House is probably my favourite Lovecraft, though I find him very hit or miss (well, honestly mostly miss), that one is great.

Thanks! I'll check them out right after The Idiot.
I agree with Grief that they are hit and miss but I think many work better after having read others. For example, The Tomb was the first I read and after reading The Call of Cthulhu and others you get a bit better idea what the horror is about.

[Abyss]

 Kruppe, on 07 November 2013 - 11:55 PM, said:

...As you can see from the numbering, I'm actually averaging about three quarters of a book per day.

You are my hero. When you're done with your TRP, can you start on mine? I'll even pay for the forklift.

 Salt-Man Z, on 08 November 2013 - 01:05 AM, said:

 dietl, on 07 November 2013 - 11:10 PM, said:

Did I miss any must-reads for Lovecraft fans?

...
Really, if you like his stuff, track down as much of it as you can. Even some of his collaborations are great: Within the Walls of Eryx and The Curse of Yig, for two.

This.
There are some weaker stories, but you can skim those easily. His entiure body of work isn't that massive tho', and worth your time.

and possibly your soul.

 Stormcat, on 08 November 2013 - 11:06 AM, said:

...I picked up a lot of good suggestions to add to my pile.

That's how it starts around here... and the next thing you know...

Spoiler

On the reading front, am at the finale of Campbell's LOST FLEET bk 5... i'm so hooked into this series now it's sick. Terriffic scenes of massive formations of space ships blasting the living fuckstars out of each other, and possibly the best character writing of any milSF author i have read.

[QuickTidal]

 Abyss, on 08 November 2013 - 03:13 PM, said:

On the reading front, am at the finale of Campbell's LOST FLEET bk 5... i'm so hooked into this series now it's sick. Terriffic scenes of massive formations of space ships blasting the living fuckstars out of each other, and possibly the best character writing of any milSF author i have read.

I tried the first one, but I found it FAR too much like BATTLESTAR though so I put it down...does that go away, and should I persevere and keep reading?

[dietl]

 Abyss, on 08 November 2013 - 03:13 PM, said:

and possibly your soul.

Oh, I lost my soul in an expedition into the Himalayas last year. (It might be better not to type this right now but I feel as if some mysterious dark force is leaving me no choice)
It all started with those weird dreams about this hidden city under the mountains, which I remember only fragmentarily. I phoned the professor of psychology from Miskatonic University, who was recommended to me by someone I deeply trust in those matter and he told me to ignore my nighmares. But after the call I was left with the impression that something was not right with the way he said it. I also remember a certain change in his voice as soon as I started to give him a more detailed destription of my dreams and I can't help but think that it was fear. So to lay my distress at rest I tried to call him back but since then it has proven for me to be impossible to get in contact with him in any way.....
.....
.....

.....

.....
.....

.....
Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.

......
......


......
......
.....and I hope no one will ever find this damned entrace, for it might be the end of human civilisation as we know it.

[king in chains]

finally began unfinished tales by tolkien after years of avoiding it

[Mentalist]

Still reading through Gav Thorpe. It's a pretty typical B-list fantasy: pseudo-Roman empire with some fantastical elements (tribesmen fight off giant lizards, nobility trains savage lion-like animals as steeds, and a humanoid reptilian race are the best fighters in the world). There's some magic, but so far Thorpe's taking the ASOIAF approach of kkeping it subtle and low-key.

The main story's about a general, and conflict with the King...and then the story goes all McBeth very quickly. I think I'm about half-way through the first book in the omnibus' trilogy, and it's good, but not great. I've seen a few typos, but nothing egregiously repetitive, the way some things were in "Nekropolis Archives". Will keep on reading.

[Abyss]

 QuickTidal, on 08 November 2013 - 03:54 PM, said:

 Abyss, on 08 November 2013 - 03:13 PM, said:

On the reading front, am at the finale of Campbell's LOST FLEET bk 5... i'm so hooked into this series now it's sick. Terriffic scenes of massive formations of space ships blasting the living fuckstars out of each other, and possibly the best character writing of any milSF author i have read.

I tried the first one, but I found it FAR too much like BATTLESTAR though so I put it down...does that go away, and should I persevere and keep reading?

Yes it goes away, fairly quickly i thought. A a basic point it's a military convoy stuck behind enemy lines and forced to fight their way home, which is very not BSG. Add in the interpersonal conflicts within the fleet and it goes in a far different direction.

The setup is a little blunt, but once the story starts moving it's pretty impressive.

The author manages to have evolving conflicts between the characters that are not repetitious, and amazingly for a milSF series, manages to make each fleet engagement at least a little, usually very, different from the prior ones.

I think it's worth your eyeballs and thinkymeatz time.

[polishgenius]

Having read Republic of Thieves earlier in the week, which I enjoyed but can't seem to muster any coherent thoughts on, I've just finished KJ Parker's Sharps. Thoroughly enjoyable and by Parker's standards surprisingly upbeat (which is to say, it's only crushingly depressing from some perspectives).

[stone monkey]

I'm currently reading The Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Thomas Ligotti. Which, rather remarkably, is non-fiction. The conspiracy of the title is Life and Consciousness, it appears. Ligotti, with his authorial (and philosophical) hat on, seems to think that these are bad things. The very worst things, even. To be fair, one could probably draw the same conclusion from reading his fiction. Surprisingly, it's also rather funnier than it sounds, so far. Presumably this is deliberate on his part.

[Ukjent]

Started with Harry Sidebottom Warrior of Rome and Richard Dawkins The selfish Gene

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

 Abyss, on 08 November 2013 - 03:13 PM, said:

You are my hero. When you're done with your TRP, can you start on mine? I'll even pay for the forklift.

I actually liked myself better when I valued quality over quantity. Picking up a new book here and there at the bookstore kept my TRP at a nice manageable level, and allowed for frequent re-reads of old favorites. The internet threw a giant monkey wrench into that plan. Weak-willed OCD soul that I am...

 king in chains, on 08 November 2013 - 04:12 PM, said:

finally began unfinished tales by tolkien after years of avoiding it

You're in for a treat. This is the very best of all the Christopher Tolkien edited Middle-earth supplements, imo.

[Overactive Imagination]

Reading the lyric booklet to the Relapse remastered version of Death's Individual Thought Patterns album. Best $15 I've ever spent.

[JPK]

The B&KB trade paperback is up for me. Once I finish that and CPT I'm fresh out of new Malazan to read. Guess it's time to start thinking of a re-read, huh?

I'm also reading Wolf in Shadow by Gemmell. Hard to believe this is where the stones of power books led. I mean, I can see the stones are still involved but the shift in setting is so severe. I mean the first two were set around the fall of the Roman empire and then it shifts to the stuff surrounding the Jerusalem Man and it becomes a post apocalyptic world.

This post has been edited by The Incredible Kitsu: 11 November 2013 - 09:46 PM

[QuickTidal]

Based off multiple recco's, I've pulled THE LOST FLEET: DAUNTLESS by Campbell back out of the ToRead pile and I'm giving it a fresh go...65 pages in and I'm enjoying it more than I did the first time I tried it (I hadn't gotten this far in the narrative that first try).

[D'iversify]

 Overactive Imagination, on 09 November 2013 - 04:30 AM, said:

Reading the lyric booklet to the Relapse remastered version of Death's Individual Thought Patterns album. Best $15 I've ever spent.

Prefer Human personally but great album.

Will crack on with the Sword & Citadel section of the Book of the New Sun, methinks, as soon as I'm done with my latest PhD chapter.

[Ukjent]

Done with the first book of Warriors of Rome and started listening to Dawkins - The selfish Gene.

[QuickTidal]

Almost done with LOST FLEET DAUNTLESS...and enjoy both the writing, and the characters but I wonder about two things:

1. The space battles are kind of meh. The whole relativistic thing irritates me. Especially how it keeps getting mentioned. "It will take ten minutes for this message to get to them and ten minutes back..." Campbell feels the need to keep telling me this over and over and over. I also never feel the threat because things aren't really happening in real time. Example:

Spoiler

Fleet jumps to Corvus system, and has time to mine the first set of Syndic ships to cross through, and then they have hours and hours to do stuff in-system before the main Syndic force arrives. I dunno, it never feels tense?

2. Is the series all these space battles? Are there ground battles, away missions to planets for stuff? I mean, in the first book the Marine team goes down to pacify a Syndic base in Corvus...but we sat up top with Geary and watched/heard about it. I kept thinking "I wanna be down there, in the thick of it!"...

3. (Secret bother #3) - No one, on either side thought up the idea of small, agile fighters? No one? Even the fast corvette's sound like they are fairly big. No 1/2 manned fighter ships?

I'm not asking if it gets better (it's very good, and easy to read)...I'm asking if it keeps this status quo for the whole time? If this whole series is Geary commanding from the bridge of the Dauntless and space battles only, I may give it up. Does it diversify and become about more than this book's mostly been about?

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 12 November 2013 - 02:01 PM