[Serenity]

Made a start on The Silence by Tim Lebbon this morning.

[acesn8s]

Finished Sleeping Late on Judgement Day. William's delivered another solid book. Assail is next.

[Abyss]

Finished Buchanan's THE BLACK DREAM. Really fun book in a fun series. This author writes great action and can work wonders with a massive battle. Added some interesting new elements to the series. If you liked FARLANDER and HEART OF THE WORLD, this is worth the read.

[HiddenOne]

Started "the Myriad" last night, seems good so far

[Maark Abbott]

Onto The Black Company 2: Terrible Artwork now.

[polishgenius]

I've been blazing through Naomi Novik's Uprooted. Despite the touches of Polishness sometimes ringing false, this is absolutely fantastic. Just a real delight. If it finishes as strongly as it's been going so far it's gonna get a full-sized polishgenius-says-you-should-all-drop-what-you're-reading-and-read-this recommendation. I nearly missed my stop in both directions on my commute today.

[polishgenius]

So I finished Uprooted and it is indeed mega-wonderful.

Also, both the UK and US version covers are really damn cool. Shame I've got it in e-book version really.

[Andorion]

Finished Marc Turner's When the Heavens Fall.

As a book I found it to be surprisingly good, but I thought it a fell a bit short of great. I have an aversion to a theme developed in the book, but discounting that, I felt that even though the book began excellently the middle dragged a bit and the end... well it could have been better. One issue I noted was that the protagonists were a bit-overpowered. It didn't start off like that, but towards the end it started to grate. Also I would liked another PoV slightly distant from the convergence to give other perspectives.


Thats all I can say without explicit spoilers, but for a fantasy debut its good.

[Serenity]

Finished Tim Lebbon's The Silence last night. Kind of like an updating of classics like The Day of the Triffids and tapping in to more modern stuff like The Walking Dead, focusing on a family fleeing a swarm of carnivorous bat-like monsters as society crumbles around them. It's the end of the world as we know it. Sounds hokey, but he made it feel fresh and scary. I thought it was fantastic and bought his new book, The Hunt, immediately.

[Chance]

Still going through the Saxon Chronicle.

QuickTidal, on 29 June 2015 - 03:58 PM, said:

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

Yepp the second book was somewhat lackluster compared to the first and the third is proving quite a bit better but really only for the payoff coming towards the end.

Thought I wonder why Cornwall's authority figures are all in the spectrum of unlikeable to outright nasty, it takes away a bit from the story when anyone with power is going to be a bastard about it even to their apparent friends/allies.The approach works better in the Saxon series then in the Arthur one as one can imagine Uthred being quite a bastard and fairly unlikable to most everyone, but its still annoys me for some reason. Also Bernard is one of those authors whose portrayal of religion (or perhaps just christianity) make me wonder why people ever invented priests in these fictional worlds, such books make me hope for Lady's solution to that problem from the Black Company series. Having every second or third priest be at least mildly agreeable is a good idea otherwise why the hell are people supporting the religion much less converting to it like in the Saxon chronicle.

Probably my main problem with Cornwalls authorship is that he makes strong main characters who are not the storys main characters in many ways.

Still I must have something to read so I'll go on completing the series at least until I get Queen of Fire on sunday .

This post has been edited by Chance: 03 July 2015 - 04:24 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

Yeah you know things are bad when you're rooting for the pillaging pagans!

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Aside from finishing my Erikson re-read, I've had Caitlin Moran's How to Be a Woman on the go - pretty entertaining. Next up is The Hollow Crown by Dan Jones - non-fiction about the Wars of the Roses and the rise of the Tudors.

[QuickTidal]

Finished up Kristen Britain's FIRST RIDERS CALL, it's great but th series could use a bit less meandering. The main story is good, the meandering is a bit WOT.

Anyways, started on Sebastien De Castelle's second Greacoats book KNIGHT'S SHADOW, and of course it's awesome so far!

[Andorion]

Need some help sorting out my immediate TBR pile. I was considering adding a few series:

Sebastien De Castell's two Greatcoats books

James Corey's Expanse

I have heard a lot of hype about Corey, so does he live up to it? I have also heard a lot of good things about Castell.

I am also considering getting Elizabeth Moon's Deeds of Paksenarrion and Lois Bujolds Chalion series.

Would like to get some reactions on these two as well.

[worry]

It's 2015, you should have converted your TBR to a TRP by now.

[amphibian]

Andorion, on 06 July 2015 - 02:21 AM, said:

I have heard a lot of hype about Corey, so does he live up to it?

I am also considering getting Elizabeth Moon's Deeds of Paksenarrion and Lois Bujolds Chalion series.

Would like to get some reactions on these two as well.

James Corey is a pseudonym for two people: Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. I highly recommend the Expanse books. It's good sci-fi without being dreary and its action sequences are some of the best paced in the genre. Most people zip right through these with enthusiasm.

Elizabeth Moon is on a different wavelength with the Paksenarrion books. They're also good, but they can be a little simple-seeming if you aren't patient with it. Moon builds the world well via the characters' experiences in war and in life. Overall, the series has plenty of interesting characters with interesting backstories that almost always get explored in future books and Moon never allows the story to be simply "good paladin triumphs over evil". I also recommend it - but if you're ok with reading many books. I just finished Crown of Renewal recently and that's the only book that I thought was hurried or not super-solid out of ten books.

I haven't read the Chalion series, but LMB always writes good books.

[Maark Abbott]

I enjoyed the core Paksenarrion book(s), but you have to allow for that they're very, very 80s in tone. The end of Book 3 got quite sloggy and I didn't much care for the overall ending but the journey was the fun part.

[Andorion]

amphibian, on 06 July 2015 - 02:46 AM, said:

Andorion, on 06 July 2015 - 02:21 AM, said:

I have heard a lot of hype about Corey, so does he live up to it?

I am also considering getting Elizabeth Moon's Deeds of Paksenarrion and Lois Bujolds Chalion series.

Would like to get some reactions on these two as well.

James Corey is a pseudonym for two people: Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. I highly recommend the Expanse books. It's good sci-fi without being dreary and its action sequences are some of the best paced in the genre. Most people zip right through these with enthusiasm.

Elizabeth Moon is on a different wavelength with the Paksenarrion books. They're also good, but they can be a little simple-seeming if you aren't patient with it. Moon builds the world well via the characters' experiences in war and in life. Overall, the series has plenty of interesting characters with interesting backstories that almost always get explored in future books and Moon never allows the story to be simply "good paladin triumphs over evil". I also recommend it - but if you're ok with reading many books. I just finished Crown of Renewal recently and that's the only book that I thought was hurried or not super-solid out of ten books.

I haven't read the Chalion series, but LMB always writes good books.

Briar King, on 06 July 2015 - 05:01 AM, said:

I say go with Expanse easily. The 3 I read were just epic fun. Plus if you read now know SyFy is doing a TV series set for Dec this yr.

OK, so Corey is in my list now. Since I plan to tackle and finish Reynolds' Posiedon series, a bit of light sci-fi will work nicely as a balance.

[Andorion]

Maark, on 06 July 2015 - 03:54 AM, said:

I enjoyed the core Paksenarrion book(s), but you have to allow for that they're very, very 80s in tone. The end of Book 3 got quite sloggy and I didn't much care for the overall ending but the journey was the fun part.

Similar to WoT? Or Belgariad?

[worry]

It's more of a solo outing than either of those. Very focused on Paks and her experiences. I'd say it's largely a bildungsroman, just set in epic and military fantasy context. There's even a little bit of quest fantasy, but even then the book is most interested in Paks's development.