[Ukjent]

Reading the first Iron druid or something, looks good enough.

[Chance]

Going through Redemption Ark and have a strange feeling that I must have read it at some point as some details feel so familar but can't think of having touched the book before.

Still that Reynolds fellow is certainly great writer.

[Serenity]

Just finished Morgan's Broken Angels. So different from the first book in so many ways and yet still so consistent. I thought maybe he dragged it out a little at the end, but I fecking loved it otherwise.

[worry]

I'm gonna read The Fault In Our Stars before the movie comes out, which is I don't know when but soon I take it. Just need something non-genre fic for a palate cleanser.

[Baco Xtath]

Just started Lamentation (Book 1 of the Psalms of Isaak) this morning. About 3 hrs in or so and I'm really digg'n this world. Magic, servitors, ...etc. Reminds me of Book of the New Sun (at least setting wise). And it's got four good narrators. Really stoked that there are 3 more already out in the series and they're at my library.

Finished Snow Crash and Broken Homes yesterday. The latter was great, though still not as good as the first two in the series and Snow Crash.....honestly, I hated it. Maybe in 92' it was edgy and cool but the lingo annoyed the shit out of me. Bill and Ted surfer slang and absurd dystopian job niches (pizza delivery man and courier) combined with lecture-esque plot explanations/info dumps, had me ready to turn the book off with an hour to go. I hung in and finished it and can't say that it was a good choice. Sorry to whomever enjoyed it - I didn't. Probably my least favorite listen, well, ever. I've quit others - Steelheart, the Devil You Know, Warded Man....etc - but it was usually due to bad narration, not targeted toward me, and, well, fuck Warded Man - hated that one too. They tie. Also started Sandman Slim. Decent thus far (1 hr in).

[Puck]

Finished Son of a Witch the other day and liked it a lot, enough to change my plans of only reading the first two in the series and decide to go and read the otehr two books as weel. Actually, I need to look into Gregory Maguire in general some more.

Next up is the Earthsea Quartet, it's been looking at me funny since the year started. I'm also reading Lessing's Laokoon on a whim, and it's a nice counter weight.

[Serenity]

Puck, on 26 February 2014 - 09:52 PM, said:

Next up is the Earthsea Quartet, it's been looking at me funny since the year started.

I got that one recently myself, along with another Le Guin - The Dispossessed, which I'm about to start.

[Tiste Simeon]

Baco Xtath, on 26 February 2014 - 09:23 PM, said:

Finished Snow Crash and Broken Homes yesterday. The latter was great, though still not as good as the first two in the series and Snow Crash.....honestly, I hated it. Maybe in 92' it was edgy and cool but the lingo annoyed the shit out of me. Bill and Ted surfer slang and absurd dystopian job niches (pizza delivery man and courier) combined with lecture-esque plot explanations/info dumps, had me ready to turn the book off with an hour to go. I hung in and finished it and can't say that it was a good choice. Sorry to whomever enjoyed it - I didn't. Probably my least favorite listen, well, ever. I've quit others - Steelheart, the Devil You Know, Warded Man....etc - but it was usually due to bad narration, not targeted toward me, and, well, fuck Warded Man - hated that one too. They tie. Also started Sandman Slim. Decent thus far (1 hr in).

So, Futurama but not funny?

[amphibian]

There's funny stuff, but it's still early Stephenson - which means he hadn't fully perfected the balance between action and getting complicated stuff across without being too heavy handed in the info dump.

There's plenty of laugh moments plus some of the better pirate/mobster/hacker/Eskimo ninja action you'll ever come across. But you have to be willing to take in some very strange stuff about Babylonian mythology and neurolinguistics as well.

Sushi K continues to make me laugh a decade after I first read his scenes.

[amphibian]

In Anathem, Stephenson said basically "Fuck it" and made the first half of the book a giant and well done info dump about astronomy, philosophy and logistics, then made the second half some of the craziest action in any semi-plausible book I've read.

The thing is whether you have the patience to work your way through the intricate concepts, understand them and then come out of the action scenes simultaneously smarter and wondering "WTF did I just read and why was it so fun?"

The remainder of his catalog isn't nearly as complicated and Snow Crash or The Diamond Age are the perfect intro books to see if he's a good fit for your brain.

[polishgenius]

I read The Kingdom of Gods, the third in the Inheritance trilogy by NK Jemisin. That was awesome. The first one was good but flawed and as a result it took me a while to get round to the rest, but this is an author improving by the book and I'm looking forward to reading her continued work a lot now. She knows how to make an absurdly magic-saturated world work - seriously, the one she made for Inheritance makes Malazan look like aSoIaF (though it isn't epic fantasy, so it's a whole different approach).

Recommended. Since her more recent books have even better reviews, I expect I'll read them soon.

[worry]

Hadn't heard of her, but sounds promising!

[Abyss]

polishgenius, on 27 February 2014 - 09:09 PM, said:

I read The Kingdom of Gods, the third in the Inheritance trilogy by NK Jemisin. That was awesome. The first one was good but flawed and as a result it took me a while to get round to the rest, but this is an author improving by the book and I'm looking forward to reading her continued work a lot now. She knows how to make an absurdly magic-saturated world work - seriously, the one she made for Inheritance makes Malazan look like aSoIaF (though it isn't epic fantasy, so it's a whole different approach).

Recommended. Since her more recent books have even better reviews, I expect I'll read them soon.

Noted. I read her first one and liked it. Surprised me.

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 27 February 2014 - 09:09 PM, said:

I read The Kingdom of Gods, the third in the Inheritance trilogy by NK Jemisin. That was awesome. The first one was good but flawed and as a result it took me a while to get round to the rest, but this is an author improving by the book and I'm looking forward to reading her continued work a lot now. She knows how to make an absurdly magic-saturated world work - seriously, the one she made for Inheritance makes Malazan look like aSoIaF (though it isn't epic fantasy, so it's a whole different approach).

Recommended. Since her more recent books have even better reviews, I expect I'll read them soon.

The first one was okay, but I wasn't fussed enough to go on with the rest or her new series.

[Abyss]

TOUR OF THE MERRIMACK bk 5, THE NINTH CIRCLE. Slower start than the previous books (no planets were eaten), with a few major changes for some key characters. Good pacing tho'. and most of these characters are now familiar so they can breath a bit. If you call a meteor chase 'breathing'.

[QuickTidal]

Reading A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Dickens. For the first time.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 28 February 2014 - 02:39 PM, said:

Reading A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Dickens. For the first time.

Darth Vader is Sydney's father.

[ffunky]

Just finished Michael J. Sullivan's Riyria series - and I must say - fantastic! Was a lot of fun, and really liked the characters.

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 01 March 2014 - 05:12 AM, said:

I've got less then 100pgs left of FoD and I'm still not to sure about it. Honestly I wish this was never written. Reminds me a lot of Lucas inventing new conflicting things in Star Wars prequels. Sure there have been some cool things but I'm just not feeling the new twist that I'm seeing.

I think that's what I liked most about FoD. It shows how unreliable and biased the narrator of the Malazan Main series was in their specifics about the past.

[worry]

Yah I'm on the same page as QT. I was positively delighted by FoD. That said, not sure the last 100 pages will turn you around BK, but it's also just part one of a trilogy so we don't know what connective tissues is yet to come.