[Mentalist]

Salt-Man Z, on 22 September 2015 - 05:14 PM, said:

Now moving on to A Nomad of the Time Streams, the Oswald Bastable omnibus, and it's already pretty interesting: soldier from 1902 gets caught in an earthquake and wakes up in an alternate-future 1972 featuring airships and rampant colonialism. Good stuff so far. The first-person POV in particular helps pull me in (as it did with the first Erekose book.)

Best of Moorcock's stuff I read so far.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 22 September 2015 - 07:08 PM

[QuickTidal]

So, THE AERONAUTS WINDLASS was out on the shelf a week early at my local Chapters/Indigo...so I'ma read me some new Jim Butcher!

[End of Disc One]

Briar King, on 22 September 2015 - 10:20 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 22 September 2015 - 10:11 PM, said:

So, THE AERONAUTS WINDLASS was out on the shelf a week early at my local Chapters/Indigo...so I'ma read me some new Jim Butcher!

Go fuck yourself!

Lol

[Andorion]

Briar King, on 22 September 2015 - 10:20 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 22 September 2015 - 10:11 PM, said:

So, THE AERONAUTS WINDLASS was out on the shelf a week early at my local Chapters/Indigo...so I'ma read me some new Jim Butcher!

Go fuck yourself!

Canadians have all the fun.

Hey BK get the National Guard! Its invasion time!

[worry]

LOL that's kind of true. QT lives around the most unscrupulous booksellers I've ever heard of.

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 23 September 2015 - 02:21 AM, said:

Andorion, on 23 September 2015 - 02:14 AM, said:

Briar King, on 22 September 2015 - 10:20 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 22 September 2015 - 10:11 PM, said:

So, THE AERONAUTS WINDLASS was out on the shelf a week early at my local Chapters/Indigo...so I'ma read me some new Jim Butcher!

Go fuck yourself!

Canadians have all the fun.

Hey BK get the National Guard! Its invasion time!

No shit buddy! That Canadian prick gets every book I want a week early every time and then has the nerve to tease me. He must pay.

LOL! It's not like ALL the time or anything...but it happens a lot...and I've gotten like 3 Butcher books 1-2 weeks early.

And you all know Abyss is headed out as we speak to grab a copy...cause if one Canadian bookstore has them out...

worry, on 23 September 2015 - 02:30 AM, said:

LOL that's kind of true. QT lives around the most unscrupulous booksellers I've ever heard of.

We're Canadian. We'll just apologize repeatedly.

EDIT: This book is pretty cool so far. Will post spoiler tagged running thoughts in the a Ded-Thread on the Butcher forum for those who get the book soonish.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 23 September 2015 - 12:50 PM

[Andorion]

So about halfway into BC 3, the White Rose, and I am finally empathizing with the characters. This is so strange. When I started Malazan I was heavily invested in QB and Kalam about 50% into GotM. This is taking me 2.5 books. But on the positive side this book is way better than the earlier ones.

Also there is something about Cook's writing that slows down my reading drastically

This post has been edited by Andorion: 23 September 2015 - 06:22 PM

[Maark Abbott]

I found that too. It takes me an age to get through any of his stuff, even though it's like 200 pages or so.

[End of Disc One]

Part of it is more words on a page, at least in the omnibus.

[Maark Abbott]

Now onto Mirror Sight.

[Puck]

Andorion, on 23 September 2015 - 05:58 PM, said:

So about halfway into BC 3, the White Rose, and I am finally empathizing with the characters. This is so strange. When I started Malazan I was heavily invested in QB and Kalam about 50% into GotM. This is taking me 2.5 books. But on the positive side this book is way better than the earlier ones.

Also there is something about Cook's writing that slows down my reading drastically

Maybe it's because the writing is pretty dense, so every sentence carries information and you can't skim over 'filler' stuff, if you get what I mean.

[Macros]

Is this butcher book his new steam punk ip?

[QuickTidal]

Macros, on 24 September 2015 - 01:13 PM, said:

Is this butcher book his new steam punk ip?

Yep, that it is. EDIT: Though as someone who dislikes hardcore steampunk (and most steampunk literature), it's not super steampunky...just takes cues from design ideas to make up his world and characters...and there is actually no "steam" involved at all. The world is less Industrial-Revolution-inspired Victoriana as it is Fantasy-Crystal-inspired Victoriana. If that makes any sense?

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 24 September 2015 - 01:25 PM

[Chance]

Finished up the Twelve Kings of Sharakai and the second half was considerably stronger then the first half, not enought to tempt me to read any continuation anytime soon but decent. Beaulieu really isn't my kind of author pointlessly flowery descriptions of irrelevant things and none at all for things I want to know about. Not to speak about his anoying habit of not explaining the use of arabic/fantasy language. Not to spend too much time bashing the book but this is one book that make me want to rant, probably because some editing could have made it considerably stronger as could less unreasonable teen angst and a fucking fantasy-logic description of how those sand ships work preferably the first time they appear but then I guess Beaulieu doesn't worry much about logic in this book, he seems more interested in painting vivid pictures and let his characters think about their feelings because they certainly can't express them in constructive fashions.

Now I'm going to re-read something safe and entertaining next .

This post has been edited by Chance: 24 September 2015 - 02:18 PM

[QuickTidal]

Chance, on 24 September 2015 - 02:09 PM, said:

Finished up the Twelve Kings of Sharakai and the second half was considerably stronger then the first half, not enought to tempt me to read any continuation anytime soon but decent. Beaulieu really isn't my kind of author pointlessly flowery descriptions of irrelevant things and none at all for things I want to know about. Not to speak about his anoying habit of not explaining the use of arabic/fantasy language. Not to spend too much time bashing the book but this is one book that make me want to rant, probably because some editing could have made it considerably stronger as could less unreasonable teen angst and a fucking fantasy-logic description of how those sand ships work preferably the first time they appear but then I guess Beaulieu doesn't worry much about logic in this book.

This was my biggest glaring complaint in the early pages of the book. A whole LONG chapter is devoted ENTIRELY to one pit match of combat between Ceda and a guy. A WHOLE. EFFING. CHAPTER. That kind of shit drives me insane. I don't need you to take upwards of 10-12 pages to explain a fight sequence to me. If its doesn't happen over a few pages, and we move on...I'm going to get bored. If I get bored in a action sequence, you've failed at your job as author. It's different if it's a multi-faceted, or multi-character fight or battle...that would require longer time to tell...but that first match for Ceda was irritatingly long. I honestly, don't think I'm going to read the rest of the book. I have FAR too much in my ToRead pile to go back to a book that I disliked so much.

[Andorion]

Puckstein, on 24 September 2015 - 11:04 AM, said:

Andorion, on 23 September 2015 - 05:58 PM, said:

So about halfway into BC 3, the White Rose, and I am finally empathizing with the characters. This is so strange. When I started Malazan I was heavily invested in QB and Kalam about 50% into GotM. This is taking me 2.5 books. But on the positive side this book is way better than the earlier ones.

Also there is something about Cook's writing that slows down my reading drastically

Maybe it's because the writing is pretty dense, so every sentence carries information and you can't skim over 'filler' stuff, if you get what I mean.

This exactly. Especially in book 1, where there is stuff like "So A defeated B in the Battle of XYZ and R number of cities have now been conquered. We were there and we did quite well"..... The first time this happened my reaction was "ok, fine, interesting.... hey! Wait a minute! What did you say happened?

[Gabriele]

worry, on 23 September 2015 - 02:30 AM, said:

LOL that's kind of true. QT lives around the most unscrupulous booksellers I've ever heard of.

Amazon.de has proven to be unscrupulous as well. Again.

This post has been edited by Gabriele: 24 September 2015 - 05:10 PM

[Morgoth]

The Familiar by Mark Danielewski is absolutely amazing. I dream of having a prose as incredible as he.

[Esa1996]

Reading The First Law at the moment. Started book 2 yesterday, around 15% into it. Really like the series. The characters, especially Glokta and Logen, are awesome. The world is also better than I expected going into the series, and the plot's not bad either. Can't pinpoint any clear main plot in it at the moment, but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't have one. Feels like it has three.

After this I'll either read Shannara in preparation for the TV series, or continue my re-read of WoT.

This post has been edited by Esa1996: 24 September 2015 - 07:48 PM

[polishgenius]

I hope all the people reading Shannara in prep for the TV show know to skip book 1, which they've already read anyway if they're familiar with LotR, and start with Elfstones. Or at least are aware that's what the show is doing.

amphibian, on 15 September 2015 - 05:00 PM, said:

Kai Ashante Wilson's The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps is incredible.

Flat out fuckin' amazing.

But it's short at 224 pages. I honestly think this book would be one of the all time best novel debuts if it were 400 some pages because 224 feels like the first half of clear, impactful greatness. As it is, it's pretty great and the characters and action are so vivid. It's a very well written "caravan guard has immense depths to him that few others know and has to get everyone safely to the next destination" story.

I first heard about it from Saladin Ahmed and I was a little hesitant because Ahmed doesn't have the same tastes I do (our Venn diagrams in reading/media consumption do not overlap much), but I took a chance. It paid off gloriously.

Those looking for exquisitely written, non-white, non-cookie cutter characters will get them here.

I read this on your rec. I wouldn't put it on as high a level as you evidently did, but it's certainly a book worth reading. My main problem with it, apart from the aforementioned shortness-that-leads-to-slightness, is that

Spoiler

the ending was both telegraphed so blatantly as to be completely unsurprising, especially if you put 2+2 together about the title, but not built up at all in terms of narrative tension. So it kind of dribbled out, plot-wise.

Character and writing wise it's excellent, though, and the world is very interesting.


Since you liked this, have you read anything by Martha Wells? It reminded me of what I've read of hers a lot. To the point where if I hadn't already known who it's by, the only thing that would have definitively given away that it isn't her is the vernacular of the brothers, which I'm pretty sure isn't her style (that talk took a while to get used to in this setting, gotta say. Worked fine in the end, though), and the sarcastic footnotes.



I read the first chapter of Twelve Kings of Sharakai and wasn't enthused. Given that I didn't much enjoy, despite greatly liking the premise, the first book of Beaulieau's previous series, The Winds of Khalakovo, I don't think I'll be carrying on any time soon.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 24 September 2015 - 08:40 PM