[D'iversify]

 Maark, on 01 April 2015 - 12:34 PM, said:

Spoiler

OH MY GOOD CHRIST REVERSE FACEHUGGER

Say Cheese! *Channels Beetlejuice 'flashing' scene.

Just finished Fahrenheit 451 - reasonably good, bit preachy in parts and on occasion a bit ridiculous but otherwise enjoyable and refreshingly optimistic for a dystopian novel (yes, even given

Spoiler

it ends in the nuclear annihilation of America's major cities

).

This post has been edited by D'iversify: 02 April 2015 - 01:26 PM

[Abyss]

 Andorion, on 02 April 2015 - 04:39 AM, said:

Ketty Jay2 is increasingly reading like a modified Indiana Jones novelization

And not at all in a bad way. I'm really enjoying it.... the action scenes are more cinematic and frequent than the first one, so far (a little past 1/3rd thru).


Also enjoying Grossman's THE MAGICIAN'S LAND on earbook. I have to give Grossman credit, he manages to take the piss out of classic overdone fantasy tropes while still doing great fun versions of them.

[Andorion]

 Abyss, on 02 April 2015 - 02:22 PM, said:

 Andorion, on 02 April 2015 - 04:39 AM, said:

Ketty Jay2 is increasingly reading like a modified Indiana Jones novelization

And not at all in a bad way. I'm really enjoying it.... the action scenes are more cinematic and frequent than the first one, so far (a little past 1/3rd thru).


Also enjoying Grossman's THE MAGICIAN'S LAND on earbook. I have to give Grossman credit, he manages to take the piss out of classic overdone fantasy tropes while still doing great fun versions of them.

Finished Ketty Jay 2 and let me just say Wooding really ramps things up in this book. I like where this series is going.


Already started Ketty Jay 3

[amphibian]

I've read the entirety of CJ Cherryh's Foreigner series. (See attached screenshot for random proof, bc it's a 15 book series at the moment - ignore the recommended books at the bottom bc I share an Amazon/Kindle account with my mother due to ease of troubleshooting. Lady really likes her romance novels and targeted-to-ladies books.)

Some thoughts on Cherryh's writing (keep in mind that I read them all sequentially in a short period of time, so certain things jumped out):

1) This series began as very, very fresh and extraordinary look at how different alien groups get along in the context of diplomatic relations between species combining with technological disparities and an extinction level threat to humans on that alien planet. It shifted over time to an ever-growing band of characters solving political problems in one species' ruling class as they come up with sporadic action sequences. I didn't mind the shift that much, but it does feel like Cherryh fell in love with the characters and decided to tighten focus drastically after the mid-series expansion in scope. We get told in almost side-bar moments that crucial events happen elsewhere, but they're ignored because... authorial intent has us worrying about little things around Bren.

2) I think Cherryh is a wonderful writer with two big flaws in this particular body of work. Firstly, she recaps way too much when writing as Bren and a bit much when writing as Cajieri. She is either doing this as a reminder to herself or she doesn't trust the reader to know what came before - despite this being a 15 book sequence with a 16th, 17th and 18th apparently on the horizon. It gets damn annoying. Secondly, there's no real sense of danger to any of the important characters. Since the first book in 1994, we've had essentially zero on-screen subtractions from the cast, despite some very serious threats and what are supposed to be action sequences. The cast keeps on growing and everybody has their own flavor and role, but there's no real danger to anyone Bren likes because Cherryh won't get ruthless. Plot armor for the good guys, yaaay!

3) It's still worth reading because this series is something different. Sorta like a Downton Abbey in alien-verse and with more action sequences. Cherryh pulls it off with enough style that I mostly ignored how her atevi societal logic sorta falls off after a certain point. The above two criticims were emphasized by me power-bombing through the entire series in a month and change.

4) I think the book covers in total are kinda... problematic in a racism sense. Yes, Bren is a blond human among very tall black skinned aliens, but every cover has him in all white clothing when he's explicitly mentioned as rarely wearing that type of outfit and it looks like he's always leading them, when he's in fact subordinate to a couple of the aliens. That's probably not Cherryh's call, but these are covers that genuinely make me suspicious.

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[amphibian]

I tore through Touch by Claire North, which I thought was about a 4 star out of 5 book. Twists and turns aplenty, but it seemed weighed down by a weariness, rather than a worldliness, in the main character.

Read Skywalker's Dark Warrior. Interesting ideas, particularly for those who are familiar with Hindu mythology (as I barely am). Could use some more revisions and connecting scenes between characters, as well as some more imagery to work with.

I also re-read the Paratwa trilogy by Christopher Hinz. These are rather good sci fi books, marred by a couple minor flaws (one being a description of an alien as "Negroid" once in the third book, and an insistence on showing sexual deviancy = evil in all the books).

The overarching antagonists and their plot are quite good and the ways the protagonists have to act and counteract is well-thought out. The action scenes are great and rather reminiscent of Black Company vs. The Ten Who Were Taken, with lots of casualties and very real menace to the situations.

This post has been edited by amphibian: 02 April 2015 - 07:44 PM

[JPK]

I just finished Moving Pictures. all I have to say is Good Boy Laddie! Good Boy Gaspode!

I think it's time for more scifi so I'm starting The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi.

[Baco Xtath]

Finished Ancillary Sword earbook (yeah, I'm stealing that, Abyss.) I really enjoyed it. I loved the narrator and the book as a whole was fantastic. I hope she stays in this world i.e. Culture, and doesn't ended it with Mercy. Have this trilogy as a history to books set centuries later. Also started listening to Practical Demon Keeping for some laughs while I work (read this one about 8 yrs ago so time for a re-Moore). I'm off the wagon so actual reading is on hold until lazy afternons and freak'n fuckiti dont no whoshoitksdal.

[Abyss]

 Baco Xtath, on 02 April 2015 - 10:55 PM, said:

Finished Ancillary Sword earbook (yeah, I'm stealing that, Abyss.)

I take cash, cheques, credit cards, PayPal and internal organs.

[Tiste Simeon]

I just The 13 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers. What a book! It's like what I imagine would happen is Roald Dahl, JK Rowling and Douglas Adams sat down to write a book together. It kind of looks like a kids book - the author is a cartoonist & has illustrated it throughout - and I imagine kids would love it, but it is just as entertaining for adults (also at 700 pages a lot of kids might be put off.) It is funny, imaginative and wonderfully written. I highly recommended it as a relatively easy and extremely fun read.

As for my next book I am going on holiday on Sunday so I will be taking my Kindle and most likely starting on some Pratchett. I also have that "Look who's Back" book which I've heard a lot about.

Edit spelling

This post has been edited by Tiste Simeon: 03 April 2015 - 02:57 PM

[McLovin]

ABADDON'S GATE (Expanse bk 3) by James SA Corey

And from the local library:

TANEQUIL (High Druid of Shannara bk 2, which is overall Shannara book 13???) by Terry Brooks

[Mentalist]

Finished Sapkowski's "Narrenturm" i.e, "Tower of Fools", Book 1 in the Hussite trilo.

enjoyable historical fiction. pretty light fantasy elements. The plot's a bit meandering though, I was never really sure what's the point and where it's going.

Will certainly read the rest at some point, as I find the Hussite wars to be one of the most fascinating periods in European history, but as pure SFF, gotta say, it's not that great.

[Andorion]

Finished Lois Bujolds Vorkosigan 1: Shards of Honour. Also towards the last part of Ketty Jay 3.

Stray thought: Any news of SE is going to write any more Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas?

[Maark Abbott]

I don't know if anyone has... Broached the subject with him.

[Salt-Man Z]

 Andorion, on 06 April 2015 - 05:23 PM, said:

Stray thought: Any news of SE is going to write any more Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas?

He's under contract for a total of 9 B&KB novellas. We've seen 5 so far.

[worry]

I asked him on the last reread Q&A and he confirmed the nine and said he does have an endgame in mind for the novellas.

[Andorion]

 Salt-Man Z, on 06 April 2015 - 09:14 PM, said:

 Andorion, on 06 April 2015 - 05:23 PM, said:

Stray thought: Any news of SE is going to write any more Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas?

He's under contract for a total of 9 B&KB novellas. We've seen 5 so far.

 worry, on 06 April 2015 - 09:25 PM, said:

I asked him on the last reread Q&A and he confirmed the nine and said he does have an endgame in mind for the novellas.

Excellent. The more necromancy the better.

[Dolmen 2.0]

Just thought I'd mention the firefall series by Peter Watts was as awesome as I'd hoped.

Echopraxia was increadible.

Review by Tor.com

Bought the audiobook aswell. Beautiful quality and so much easier to follow

[Maark Abbott]

Warbreaker:

Spoiler

Well the God King revelation about 150-200 pages in was pretty predictable (although I was expecting it to be something along the lines of Hodorism).

[Mentalist]

 Maark, on 07 April 2015 - 07:03 AM, said:

Warbreaker:

Spoiler

Well the God King revelation about 150-200 pages in was pretty predictable (although I was expecting it to be something along the lines of Hodorism).

Warbreaker is very much a charactes-driven book. And Sanderson is good at many things, but interesting characters are NOT his Forte, imho.

I'm slowly chugging along with "Words of Radiance. About half-way, and feeling like we're getting bogged down before shit hits the fan. If the individual chapters were a few pages longer i'd probably lose interest by now, but the fact they are so short means I can take it in bite-sized chunks.

The other thing is, I don't know why, but the epigraphs from the in-book Words of Radiance are just not working for me- my eyes glaze over them. I think I may need to re-read the appendix to "The Way. Of Kings" to get a handle on the 10 orders and their Surges, and the Heralds.
Basically, I get what Sanderson is trying to do with the epic back history of x millenia, but unlike, say MBotF, it just doesn't feel organic.

Halfway through, and I remain firmly on the fence about this series.

[QuickTidal]

Started the 5th Kate Daniels book, MAGIC SLAYS by Ilona Andrews. Nice to be back in the thick of it. Book 5 started off with a heck of a bang!