[QuickTidal]

Finished Brian Staveley's PROVIDENCE OF FIRE. It's a really solid book, and in a lot a LOT of ways better than the first book.

BUT

Spoiler

Valyn annoyed me throughout the novel, because he literally stumbles from bad decision to bad decision...and this all culminates in him aiming to kill Il Tornja in the midst of Il Tornja's army. I mean stupid doens't even cover it. But then we come to the biggest annoyance/contrivance in the book. Adare, who KNOWS that Il Tornja is a Cesstriim who is thousands of years old and nigh unkillable (by a human) and that there is WAY more to him staying alive than Adare having been convinced...and she dooens't tell Valyn when he's freaking the fuck out at the end, instead she just says "you don't know everything, you don't understand." but fails to tell him why, so he attacks Il Tornja anyways, and she stabs him? Like WTF? The ONLY reason I can come up with for the author to have played it out this way was that he needed Valyn to be ina specific psotiion for the 3rd book, and this was the only way to get him there. Otherwise it's just stupid.

So great book, with one truly annoying character...and a really contrived moment at the end.

Going to start on Peter Orrulian's THE UNREMEMBERED.

[polishgenius]

QuickTidal, on 28 June 2015 - 01:46 PM, said:

Going to start on Peter Orrulian's THE UNREMEMBERED.

I hope you got the polished-up re-release authors-preferred version. I want to know if it's any better than the original which got a pretty dreadful reception from a lot of people but no-one yet seems to have taken the plunge on it.

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 28 June 2015 - 03:37 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 28 June 2015 - 01:46 PM, said:

Going to start on Peter Orrulian's THE UNREMEMBERED.

I hope you got the polished-up re-release authors-preferred version. I want to know if it's any better than the original which got a pretty dreadful reception from a lot of people but no-one yet seems to have taken the plunge on it.

I did get the authors preferred version.

[Mentalist]

I read it back in 2013. my brief review should be somewhere in this thread.


I found it quite a drag. Some okayish interest concepts, but quite tedious overall. I'm vaguely interested in seeing if the story goes anywhere in Bk 2, but haven't seen it released (and not all that surprised)

[QuickTidal]

Mentalist, on 28 June 2015 - 05:11 PM, said:

I read it back in 2013. my brief review should be somewhere in this thread.


I found it quite a drag. Some okayish interest concepts, but quite tedious overall. I'm vaguely interested in seeing if the story goes anywhere in Bk 2, but haven't seen it released (and not all that surprised)

They have the sequel at chapters. Saw it yesterday.

[Mentalist]

QuickTidal, on 28 June 2015 - 05:56 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 28 June 2015 - 05:11 PM, said:

I read it back in 2013. my brief review should be somewhere in this thread.


I found it quite a drag. Some okayish interest concepts, but quite tedious overall. I'm vaguely interested in seeing if the story goes anywhere in Bk 2, but haven't seen it released (and not all that surprised)

They have the sequel at chapters. Saw it yesterday.

in mmpb? based on bk 1, this one doesn't warrant anyhting else

[JPK]

I'm finally starting to make progress on a couple of books again after a short stallout.

Firstly, I finished Reaper Man. I can tell I've hit the books where Sir Terry found his stride. The Fresh Start Club, the Wizards, Death, Azrael... I could really keep going on all the awesome points of this book for awhile. I don't think it quite topped either Moving Pictures or Pyramids for me, but it was fantastic all the same.

I'm about halfway through Heretics of Dune on audiobook as well. So far my biggest surprise has been the much stronger focus on sex in this book than previous installments. I also like the young Ghola.

The only other thing of import is that I've started Wolves of the Calla. It's so nice to be back with the ka-tet. I even like how Eddie mirrored some of my thoughts about the previous book with his thoughts about how time finally seems to be moving again. I know it had a lot to do with the years long gap between books for and five, but Wizard and Glass was seriously slow at times and I think King may have known it.

[Puck]

The Incredible Kitsu, on 28 June 2015 - 07:42 PM, said:

The only other thing of import is that I've started Wolves of the Calla. It's so nice to be back with the ka-tet. I even like how Eddie mirrored some of my thoughts about the previous book with his thoughts about how time finally seems to be moving again. I know it had a lot to do with the years long gap between books for and five, but Wizard and Glass was seriously slow at times and I think King may have known it.

Interesting. Wizard and Glass was and remains my favourite in the series. I remember not being too happy about going back to the present.

[JPK]

Puckstein, on 28 June 2015 - 08:58 PM, said:

The Incredible Kitsu, on 28 June 2015 - 07:42 PM, said:

The only other thing of import is that I've started Wolves of the Calla. It's so nice to be back with the ka-tet. I even like how Eddie mirrored some of my thoughts about the previous book with his thoughts about how time finally seems to be moving again. I know it had a lot to do with the years long gap between books for and five, but Wizard and Glass was seriously slow at times and I think King may have known it.

Interesting. Wizard and Glass was and remains my favourite in the series. I remember not being too happy about going back to the present.

Wizard and Glass took me about four tries to finally finish. Young Roland was a grade a idiot and the scenes between him and Susan were painful to read. I get why the book is vital to the series, but an entire book of flashback in the middle of the journey was rough. I will say it had the entire chunk with Blaine in it's favor though. One of the coolest scenes I've ever read in a book.

[worry]

It's my favorite too. I liked 3 & 4 best.

[QuickTidal]

Mentalist, on 28 June 2015 - 07:34 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 28 June 2015 - 05:56 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 28 June 2015 - 05:11 PM, said:

I read it back in 2013. my brief review should be somewhere in this thread.


I found it quite a drag. Some okayish interest concepts, but quite tedious overall. I'm vaguely interested in seeing if the story goes anywhere in Bk 2, but haven't seen it released (and not all that surprised)

They have the sequel at chapters. Saw it yesterday.

in mmpb? based on bk 1, this one doesn't warrant anyhting else

No, hardcover.

But yeah I gave it about 60 pages before giving up in (pretty much) disgust.

It's generic, but disguised with fancier prose to try to make it fly...which did nothing but annoy me. Characters deal with random shit out of the blue for no reason. It's just a mess and nothing about it made me WANT to keep reading it. At all.

Anyways, doing a re-read of Kristen Britain's FIRST RIDER'S CALL so I can move on to HIGH KINGS TOMB with the second book fresh in my head.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 29 June 2015 - 01:05 PM

[Chance]

Finished up A Grace of Kings a few days ago and found it a very lackluster read. There was huge potential in a lot of different parts of the book but they only materalized in a few scenes here and there while the author rushed through enough stuff to fill three books in the course of one. Also it seems my threshold for pretend language is fairly low as it anoyed me each time poetry was first in pretend language then translated.

Also finished up The Boy with the Porcelain Blade which feelt like a very strange mix of young adult and fairly explicit horror. Its vivid descriptions made for a startling contrast to A Grace of Kings where descriptions of most things where brief in the extreme. Still it made me want to read what comes next even thought the next one won't skip ahead anything in my reading queue.

Just began The Saxon Chronicles by Bernard Cornwall having had them lying around for ages but unimpressed by his arthur stuff have not been motivated to try it. Started out with very low expectations and so far it seems very promising.

This post has been edited by Chance: 29 June 2015 - 02:51 PM

[QuickTidal]

Chance, on 29 June 2015 - 02:50 PM, said:

Finished up A Grace of Kings a few days ago and found it a very lackluster read. There was huge potential in a lot of different parts of the book but they only materalized in a few scenes here and there while the author rushed through enough stuff to fill three books in the course of one. Also it seems my threshold for pretend language is fairly low as it anoyed me each time poetry was first in pretend language then translated.

Also finished up The Boy with the Porcelain Blade which feelt like a very strange mix of young adult and fairly explicit horror. Its vivid descriptions made for a startling contrast to A Grace of Kings where descriptions of most things where brief in the extreme. Still it made me want to read what comes next even thought the next one won't skip ahead anything in my reading queue.

Just began The Saxon Chronicles by Bernard Cornwall having had them lying around for ages but unimpressed by his arthur stuff have not been motivated to try it. Started out with very low expectations and so far it seems very promising.

The first book and third book are my faves in that series. The third book especially was AMAZEBALLS.

[Primateus]

I'm back to reading Simon Scarrow's Eagle series. I'm currently up to Centurion, which is the first book in the series that doesn't include "Eagle" in the title. This is good stuff that I definitely recommend people pick up for some light reading. It's well written and well researched, with obvious artistic licenses of course.

[Andorion]

Briar King, on 30 June 2015 - 01:55 AM, said:

Is it historical fiction or just fiction?

The same way most of Conn Iggulden's stuff is historical fiction. I ttinvolves historical themes from the Roman period but the artist take s alot of liberties with the details to make the books more entertaining.

[Andorion]

Briar King, on 30 June 2015 - 03:08 AM, said:

I may look into them later in the yr or early next year. I'm about burned out on Rome ATM and I still have 3/4 of Rome 6 to read followed by 7. At least 7 is about 400+ pgs shorter then all the others.

Ed: that's if they don't cover Ceasar/Antony,Augusts era. Idk if I could handle reading that age again so soon

No. Later. Post Nero.

[Maark Abbott]

Just finished Dalglish's A Dance of Cloaks. Thoughts (plus spoilers, within tags).

- Pace is reasonably fast without feeling rushed
- Plot was actually pretty believalbe
- Decent characters, nothing earth-shatteringly original but they fit the mould of the setting, like a more violent version of the Thief universe's City. Also some unexpected deaths in there that I really didn't see coming.

Spoiler

Kayla

- Dark setting without becoming grvmdvrk *claw*. The core focus seems to be on the main character having been trained to be an unstoppable killing machine, and then questioning this training.

This post has been edited by Maark: 30 June 2015 - 02:12 PM

[polishgenius]

Finally finished When the Heavens Fall. The Malazan influences are always very, very obvious, but in the end it's quite different in structure- everything evolves around one single fairly simple core concept, rather than several completely separate plots running at once, and while there is military in it, there's no part of it you could really call military fantasy.

It's also not quite as well written as SE - the action is fun, but doesn't set the nerves to jangling, and the characters are fun and quite cool, but don't generate awe the way SE can. It seems harsh to compare, but in terms of the type of character he's using, and of the setting itself, it's utterly unavoidable. There's also a significant part of the ending that I was very unconvinced by on an emotional level - like, he didn't sell to me that certain characters would act the way they did.
Despite that, I'd definitely recommend it to Malazan fans feeling the lack of release this year. And there are a couple of plot hooks for later books that could get very very tasty.

Also: halflings in this world are really fucking scary, judging by the exemplar we see.

[worry]

polishgenius, on 30 June 2015 - 07:11 PM, said:

Also: halflings in this world are really fucking scary, judging by the exemplar we see.

Ah so he went with the realism angle from our world instead of Tolkien's fantasy take on them, I see.

[Tiste Simeon]

I finished reading Sourcery by Terry Pratchett & have gone on to a bit of nonfiction called Psychopath by Jon Ronson