Busy time. In order not to have a mental meltdown, I've been finshing books.
For commute reading, finished, another one of Moorcocks'
Eternal champion novels--this one is "Kane of Old Mars" omnibus. Fairly typical heroic fiction, lots of obvious nods to the classic "Cities on Mars" fiction. Last book tries to get a bit more philosophical, but I didn't really buy it. Full review in ded thread.
Next up in commute reading will be "Zero Point", Asher's second
Owners novel
At home, fifnished "Dragon's Path', the first Dagger + Coin book. Liked it, will get sequels. here's my goodreads review:
Quote
Daniel Abraham's take on SFF is always an interesting and novel one--be it a rendition of Asian-fantasy in "The Long Price Quartet", a sci-fi meets detective story of "Leviathan Wakes", or, now--medieval banking and political intrigue, and a Goddess of Truth who wants to "eat the word"
Like previous works by Abraham, this is a charactr-driven work. Personally, I found most of his PoVs to be fairly archetypal, and there were several points where I could clearly see where the story was going (such as Cinthrin's grand attempt at subterfuge). While I can't say I loved any of the characters (I thought Geder to be quite likable, until he did a sudden 180 degree turnaround), they served, and the situations were interesting enough to keep me reading. There were a few tings that caught me by surprise, which is a pint in favour of the book.
And the setting itself--piecing together the history of the 11 races, from mere scraps, without cheating and going to a wiki--it's enjoyable, and likely to keep me reading.
Re: the aforementioned banking: this is nowhere as detailed (or tedious: take your pick), as Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, which did HUGE infodumps on the origins of modern financial system. Those parts are much more technical, and serve to drive the story around. This certainly isn't a run of the mill fantasy--it tries to go deeper than that, and this, inevitably, makes it messier, a la real life. Enjoyable nonetheless.
moving on, at home, gonna try Sapkowski's Hussite trilo, with Vol 1- "Narrenturm", or "Tower of Fools" in its Russian translation.
The problem with the gene pool is that there's no lifeguard
THE CONTESTtm WINNER--чемпіон самоконтролю
Jump Around, on 23 October 2011 - 11:04 AM, said:
And I want to state that Ment has out-weaseled me by far in this game.