[Grimjust Bearegular]

Reading the Lies of Locke Lamora, The Blade Itself and Echo City.

The two first ones are meg. Can't really get into them, and feel no connection with the characters whatsoever. Echo City on the other hand is pretty good so far, very engaging story and interesting world, plus Erikson has said some nice things about it so...

Just finished The Long Earth - meh

and Prince of Thorns - I think he's trying too hard, and he's trying to make the book be too many things at once and I don't buy the main character as a fourteen year old AT ALL. But it has its moment. Might continue the series.

Also read The Explorer by James Smythe. Impressed! If you like movies like Moon, Sunshine, Solaris and Gravity you should definitely check it out. It's not groundbreaking, but it has some very interesting concepts and twists. The dialogue is a bit me, though.

[Chance]

On the final part of Absolution Gap and while Reynolds has some great ideas, occationally stunning descriptions but he really has problem getting the ideas seamlessly into the story resulting in info dumps which really throw me out of the story. Still the last thirds of his books have so far paid for any earlier lapses.

This post has been edited by Chance: 06 March 2014 - 11:19 AM

[Traveller]

Just finished Patrick O'Brians The Reverse of the Medal.

Really can't believe what happens to Jack Aubrey in this one. It's another mostly land-based story, set in London this time, with legal wrangling and espionage at the forefront again... and an incredibly moving ending.

Just starting The Letter of Marque now, because although these books don't end on total cliffhangers, they just finish... and leave the after effects of the finale to the beginning of the next book.

[Abyss]

amphibian, on 06 March 2014 - 06:30 AM, said:

... read a few more stories in the Dangerous Women anthology. Lev Grossman's The Girl in the Mirror NEEDS to be turned into a full length book. Think of a magic school full of high schoolers that's a mix of Hogwarts, the University from Rothfuss's books and a horror movie. Even better, one of the characters in the book thinks about which Hogwarts school she'd pick if it existed. There's an excerpt on Tor: http://www.tor.com/s...rossman-excerpt

This anthology seriously has some powerful, powerful stories in it. Megan Abbott's My Heart Is Either Broken will haunt you for a long time. Wrestling Jesus hit some serious buttons in me - think of actual wrestling (not the fake pro wrestling) combined with a training of a youngster and featuring a voodoo ice cold witch. Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm wrote a solid "slip into another world" story in Neighbors. Brandon Sanderson's Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell is the best thing he's ever written. Abercrombie and Butcher turn in solid stories as well.

I've only gotten to the beginning of the Gabaldon story, but this whole anthology has actually been worth the money. It's not just fluff surrounding GRRM or Butcher.

worry, on 06 March 2014 - 06:53 AM, said:

Oh yah, I finally finished Dangerous Women last week (though I skipped Grossman and Abercrombie for now). Agree with you 100% on Abbott and Lindholm's stories and think they're in the top three along with GRRM's history. That Gabaldon story is another highlight (never heard of her before this), the Wild Cards story (another first for me) was pretty great, and "Second Arabesque" kinda surprised me with how much I liked it. Some stories weren't to my tastes (some of the royal historical fiction stories) but there was really only one in the whole thing I'd consider a failure ("Hell Hath...") so I'm right on board with you about the whole anth.

More or less agreed... as an anthology, it certainly had a better level of quality overall than most of those i've read, even leaving aside the obvious blockbusters from GRRM / Butcher / Sanderson.
I liked Abercrombie's, btw. Took a solid character from RED COUNTRY and gave her an extra dimension worth reading. ...Gabaldon made me want to hurl the book thru a window, but that's her writing for me all the time, not just this story.

[amphibian]

I'll say this here because I figure it won't get out much further. There's a line in Diana Rowland's short auto-biography that really, really sets off warning bells. She's describing what she's done as jobs, personal accomplishments and books, then ends with "She has lived her entire life below the Mason-Dixon Line and is deeply grateful for the existence of air-conditioning."

There HAS to be a better way of describing her life in the American South without using the historically/culturally loaded phrase "Mason-Dixon Line". It probably isn't intentional racism, but that's a baaaaad way to describe one's past.

[QuickTidal]

amphibian, on 06 March 2014 - 04:53 PM, said:

I'll say this here because I figure it won't get out much further. There's a line in Diana Rowland's short auto-biography that really, really sets off warning bells. She's describing what she's done as jobs, personal accomplishments and books, then ends with "She has lived her entire life below the Mason-Dixon Line and is deeply grateful for the existence of air-conditioning."

There HAS to be a better way of describing her life in the American South without using the historically/culturally loaded phrase "Mason-Dixon Line". It probably isn't intentional racism, but that's a baaaaad way to describe one's past.

Huh. That's pretty bad. You really wouldn't expect someone to hang their hat on a phrase like that.

It's kind of like when people I personally know say they were 'gypped' with no idea about the fairly obvious connotations to the etymology of that word and how racist it is. I usually quietly tell them and then hope they stop using it.

[worry]

It's not quite Paula Deen, but it's in the same family of southern-pride-trumps-actual-history shrining of the antebellum that pervades.

[amphibian]

worry, on 06 March 2014 - 07:26 PM, said:

It's not quite Paula Deen, but it's in the same family of southern-pride-trumps-actual-history shrining of the antebellum that pervades.

That's really well phrased. I would rep it, but I want it more publicly known that this was a great sentence.

[Grimjust Bearegular]

Looks like I'll be picking up the Dangerous Women anthology. Have been wondering about it for a while.

[HiddenOne]

There's nothing wrong with Southern Pride, it's been the start of many excellent barbecues.

[worry]

Haha, I assure you I meant no insult to bbq and/or bbq pit manufacturers.

One more note on Dangerous Women though, if I have a complaint it's that the balance is a bit off. There are female villains/scoundrels/etc., there are plenty of clever alt-definitions (and outright subversions) of the term "dangerous" -- and I wouldn't excise any of these from the volume necessarily -- but there aren't enough straightforward kickass female protagonists. They're there -- the Sanderson story is a good example -- but I would have liked a few more to round out the collection.

[amphibian]

worry, on 06 March 2014 - 11:50 PM, said:

Haha, I assure you I meant no insult to bbq and/or bbq pit manufacturers.

One more note on Dangerous Women though, if I have a complaint it's that the balance is a bit off. There are female villains/scoundrels/etc., there are plenty of clever alt-definitions (and outright subversions) of the term "dangerous" -- and I wouldn't excise any of these from the volume necessarily -- but there aren't enough straightforward kickass female protagonists. They're there -- the Sanderson story is a good example -- but I would have liked a few more to round out the collection.

It's why I balanced it with Ash: A Secret History. She whoops butt again and again in that one without being over the top.

[worry]

Awesome. Will add that to the TRP asap.

[polishgenius]

amphibian, on 06 March 2014 - 06:30 AM, said:

Also read a few more stories in the Dangerous Women anthology. Lev Grossman's The Girl in the Mirror NEEDS to be turned into a full length book. Think of a magic school full of high schoolers that's a mix of Hogwarts, the University from Rothfuss's books and a horror movie. Even better, one of the characters in the book thinks about which Hogwarts school she'd pick if it existed. There's an excerpt on Tor: http://www.tor.com/s...rossman-excerpt

In case you're unaware, the college in question- Brakebills- is from his Magicians series of books and a major setting in the first one in particular. They really are excellent, too.

[amphibian]

That short story set in Brakebills is absolutely good enough for me to buy his books. Looks like Dozois got at least extra three sales to his authors from this.

[QuickTidal]

amphibian, on 07 March 2014 - 04:33 PM, said:

That short story set in Brakebills is absolutely good enough for me to buy his books. Looks like Dozois got at least extra three sales to his authors from this.

I've been on the fence about Grossman's series, but yeah that definitely makes me want to read them now.

[Abyss]

I finally broke and signed up for Marvel Unlimited. My reading for t' foreseeable future of moments consists of a tremendous amount of spandex.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 07 March 2014 - 05:18 PM, said:

I'm finally broke since I signed up for Marvel Unlimited. Purple monkey dishwasher.

Fixed that for you.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 07 March 2014 - 07:17 PM, said:

Abyss, on 07 March 2014 - 05:18 PM, said:

I'm finally broke since I signed up for Marvel Unlimited. Purple monkey dishwasher.

Fixed that for you.

Oh hey thanx, that IS better!

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 08 March 2014 - 12:12 AM, said:

QuickTidal, on 07 March 2014 - 07:17 PM, said:

Abyss, on 07 March 2014 - 05:18 PM, said:

I'm finally broke since I signed up for Marvel Unlimited. Purple monkey dishwasher.

Fixed that for you.

Oh hey thanx, that IS better!

LOL!