[Maark Abbott]

 Maark, on 10 July 2015 - 01:26 PM, said:

 QuickTidal, on 10 July 2015 - 12:32 PM, said:

 Maark, on 10 July 2015 - 11:36 AM, said:

About 50 pages into The Lost World. Some people just got eaten by dinosaurs. I never, ever suspected THAT would ever happen in something with a Jurassic Park logo on it.

Spoiler

At one point a T-Rex Bull actually gets its jollies off on the side of a car to mark it IIRC...so that's kinda out there for the series.

What a load of wank!

Damn, that theropod had spunk!

[QuickTidal]

Why do all the books you end up reading have so many *ahem* "little swimmers" in them Maark?

[Maark Abbott]

 QuickTidal, on 13 July 2015 - 03:06 PM, said:

Why do all the books you end up reading have so many *ahem* "little swimmers" in them Maark?

I suppose that a tyrannousaur is essentially a Synthese?

[Abyss]

 Maark, on 13 July 2015 - 03:12 PM, said:

 QuickTidal, on 13 July 2015 - 03:06 PM, said:

Why do all the books you end up reading have so many *ahem* "little swimmers" in them Maark?

I suppose that a tyrannousaur is essentially a Synthese?

This would explain a lot.


Especially the feathers thing.

[Maark Abbott]

 Abyss, on 13 July 2015 - 03:34 PM, said:

 Maark, on 13 July 2015 - 03:12 PM, said:

 QuickTidal, on 13 July 2015 - 03:06 PM, said:

Why do all the books you end up reading have so many *ahem* "little swimmers" in them Maark?

I suppose that a tyrannousaur is essentially a Synthese?

This would explain a lot.


Especially the feathers thing.

Genarro sat quivering, glad that he was on the toilet. But then the dinosaur opened its giant maw, and he knew true fear as it spoke those words that would haunt him for the remainder of his time on this earth.
"Who are the Dunyain?"

[Abyss]

 Maark, on 13 July 2015 - 03:38 PM, said:

 Abyss, on 13 July 2015 - 03:34 PM, said:

 Maark, on 13 July 2015 - 03:12 PM, said:

 QuickTidal, on 13 July 2015 - 03:06 PM, said:

Why do all the books you end up reading have so many *ahem* "little swimmers" in them Maark?

I suppose that a tyrannousaur is essentially a Synthese?

This would explain a lot.


Especially the feathers thing.

Genarro sat quivering, glad that he was on the toilet. But then the dinosaur opened its giant maw, and he knew true fear as it spoke those words that would haunt him for the remainder of his time on this earth.
"Who are the Dunyain?"

And then the t-rex raped him.
A lot.
Seriously, t-rex black goo all over the frikkin place. Jurassic spunk, that was.
Helluva way to go, even for a lawyer. Spunk came spiralling down and all that.

Fixed.

[End of Disc One]

Finished the third Black Company book, The White Rose. It was pretty good but I enjoyed the first two books more. Anyway that completes the first omnibus. Is there any point where you guys would recommend stopping, or do you recommend reading all 10 books?

[Salt-Man Z]

 End of Disc One, on 13 July 2015 - 06:44 PM, said:

Finished the third Black Company book, The White Rose. It was pretty good but I enjoyed the first two books more. Anyway that completes the first omnibus. Is there any point where you guys would recommend stopping, or do you recommend reading all 10 books?

My vote is to read them all. That said, the second "half" of the series has a much different scope and pace, which a lot of people don't care for, but I didn't mind. I preferred the more "epic", more drawn-out plot of the Books of the South to the jumpier, episodic storytelling of the North.

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 13 July 2015 - 07:36 PM

[Puck]

I vote for reading them all as well, however, if you are looking for a good point to take a break without having to fear forgetting important information, now - after book 3 - is a good point. Also, The Silver Spike is very much hit & miss and stands on its own beside from the rest of the series post book 3. Everything else is pretty much a continuous storyline, so up to you if you can drop it if you decide you don't like it fter all.

This post has been edited by Puckstein: 13 July 2015 - 07:52 PM

[Abyss]

I say all.
Admittedly i bailed out at bk 8, but it's a series that (for the most part) rewards back-to-back reading. If it doesn't work for you, you'll know easily enough.

[worry]

I say all because the books get better and better, and the finale is wonderful.

On a whole other note, Ernest Cline's followup to RPO is getting absolutely torn to shreds everywhere I see a review -- and the more I hear about it, the more deserved it seems. Not sure if I will even bother with it.

[End of Disc One]

Thanks guys, for now I'll definitely plan to keep on going with the series.

Regarding taking breaks between books, I've found that the Wikipedia summaries have actually been pretty good as refreshers, at least for the first two books so far.

[worry]

The series gets more and more serialized as it goes, is the issue there. But little breaks won't be a problem.

[Baco Xtath]

 worry, on 13 July 2015 - 08:16 PM, said:

On a whole other note, Ernest Cline's followup to RPO is getting absolutely torn to shreds everywhere I see a review -- and the more I hear about it, the more deserved it seems. Not sure if I will even bother with it.

Well, I just canceled my pre-order of Armada. I thought it sounded hokey, a very blatant ripoff of the Last Starfighter. But, I loved RPO so I figured I'd pre-order.

Finished Marko Kloos's Angles of Attack, the third book in his Frontlines series. I'm really enjoying these. They're similar to B.V. Larson's Undying Mercenaries, but much less ridiculous and B movie-esque. Where the latter is like the movie Starship Troopers, Frontlines is more like War of the Worlds. Anyway, still recommending them.

[amphibian]

When The Heavens Fall by Marc Turner

As a first book of a series, it's a better start than Gardens of the Moon.

Turner very much is influenced by Erikson and the other storytellers who start in media res within larger worlds. That's an influence that's written across every bit of this book and obviously, it's something I like as a reader. However, he drops the philosophizing levels greatly and most of the characters have little time to think ahead of the next few hours or the next day because THERE IS SO MUCH ACTION GOING ON. This is a good thing for a first book and certain sections have a Mad Max: Fury Jungle feel to them.

I do think that there are certain moments where Erikson really, really makes the reader/me feel something - despair, hope, joy, sadness, happiness - and Turner doesn't do that (yet). I'd have to go back and re-re-re-re-read GotM specifically to see if Erikson had much of those moments in the early going (as I started Malazan with an advance copy of Memories of Ice and backtracked).

Turner's very much worth reading and has potential to be quite good. I hope he gets a chance to embiggen the world even further (as it sometimes seemed small due to the action being centered around one particular region and others being fast-traveled in by the greedy gods). YMMV.

[worry]

Have you (or has anyone else here) done outside reading to see how long the series will be, how much he's outlined, etc? One of SE's huge advantages was knowing (almost) exactly where he was going from the start, so the seeding was possible and the payoffs really landed.

[amphibian]

 worry, on 13 July 2015 - 09:19 PM, said:

Have you (or has anyone else here) done outside reading to see how long the series will be, how much he's outlined, etc? One of SE's huge advantages was knowing (almost) exactly where he was going from the start, so the seeding was possible and the payoffs really landed.

Right now, the series is planned at six (with Books 2 and 3 being released in 2016).

I got the strong feeling from the quick interviews I've read that he's had most of these first three books ready to go before the first came out (not explicitly stated, plus he talks about editing heavily and redoing certain segments). He's said that he's now working on the fourth.

[Andorion]

 amphibian, on 13 July 2015 - 09:14 PM, said:

When The Heavens Fall by Marc Turner

As a first book of a series, it's a better start than Gardens of the Moon.

Turner very much is influenced by Erikson and the other storytellers who start in media res within larger worlds. That's an influence that's written across every bit of this book and obviously, it's something I like as a reader. However, he drops the philosophizing levels greatly and most of the characters have little time to think ahead of the next few hours or the next day because THERE IS SO MUCH ACTION GOING ON. This is a good thing for a first book and certain sections have a Mad Max: Fury Jungle feel to them.

I do think that there are certain moments where Erikson really, really makes the reader/me feel something - despair, hope, joy, sadness, happiness - and Turner doesn't do that (yet). I'd have to go back and re-re-re-re-read GotM specifically to see if Erikson had much of those moments in the early going (as I started Malazan with an advance copy of Memories of Ice and backtracked).

Turner's very much worth reading and has potential to be quite good. I hope he gets a chance to embiggen the world even further (as it sometimes seemed small due to the action being centered around one particular region and others being fast-traveled in by the greedy gods). YMMV.

I thought the book started off fine, but ended up with an overpowered protagonist problem. Did you feel this?

[amphibian]

Nah. The most powerful beings were well countered and it was the smart ones who dealt with the end of the convergence. Their powers were set up from the beginning and made sense throughout.

The attrition of the jungle fights was well done.

[Nicodimas]

Execution Cycle at the moment..

Really Fun!