[Baco Xtath]

Just started reading Tainted Blood having finished Dark Ascension...........and, shit, I read #4 before #3. I was wondering why a couple of things were the way they were. Fuck it. Going to start that Small Angry Planet one polish spoke of. Also, I'm giving up on Imajica. 21 hrs in. I'm not a fan of explicit sex in my books - I have a hard time with Richard K. Morgan's stuff (no pun intended) - and this book is all kinds of kinky fucked up and it's all the fucking time. It's like he wrote this at a time in his life when he just discovered anal or porn or both. Instead, I'm 8 hrs in to Sword of the North and starting Times of Rice and Salt. Also, just finished the Flicker Men; it was pretty good. Nothing great but alright.

[Binder of Demons]

 Baco Xtath, on 15 January 2016 - 01:57 AM, said:

Also, I'm giving up on Imajica. 21 hrs in. I'm not a fan of explicit sex in my books - I have a hard time with Richard K. Morgan's stuff (no pun intended) - and this book is all kinds of kinky fucked up and it's all the fucking time. It's like he wrote this at a time in his life when he just discovered anal or porn or both.

It's a pity that it puts you off that much, cos for all of that, it's a great book. Totally fucking nuts (pun intended), but he has some imagination.

don't know if you had previously read any of his other books, but if not, then you could try WEAVEWORLD, which I seem to remember being pretty mild in terms of sexual content (if any?) while having a pretty damn cool story. But that might have just been in comparison to IMAJICA?

[Baco Xtath]

 Binder of Demons, on 15 January 2016 - 02:23 AM, said:

 Baco Xtath, on 15 January 2016 - 01:57 AM, said:

Also, I'm giving up on Imajica. 21 hrs in. I'm not a fan of explicit sex in my books - I have a hard time with Richard K. Morgan's stuff (no pun intended) - and this book is all kinds of kinky fucked up and it's all the fucking time. It's like he wrote this at a time in his life when he just discovered anal or porn or both.

It's a pity that it puts you off that much, cos for all of that, it's a great book. Totally fucking nuts (pun intended), but he has some imagination.

don't know if you had previously read any of his other books, but if not, then you could try WEAVEWORLD, which I seem to remember being pretty mild in terms of sexual content (if any?) while having a pretty damn cool story. But that might have just been in comparison to IMAJICA?

I don't know. I'll probably end up finishing it, one of these days, but right now, I'm a bit over it. It's on my sansa so I'm sure at some point I'll go back to it. I have Weaveworld on my kindle so I'll be giving it a try at some point. Hell, I may actually read the rest of Imajica, I have the ebook and it's easier for me to skim in print form.

[Abyss]

 Baco Xtath, on 15 January 2016 - 02:39 AM, said:

 Binder of Demons, on 15 January 2016 - 02:23 AM, said:

 Baco Xtath, on 15 January 2016 - 01:57 AM, said:

Also, I'm giving up on Imajica. 21 hrs in. I'm not a fan of explicit sex in my books - I have a hard time with Richard K. Morgan's stuff (no pun intended) - and this book is all kinds of kinky fucked up and it's all the fucking time. It's like he wrote this at a time in his life when he just discovered anal or porn or both.

It's a pity that it puts you off that much, cos for all of that, it's a great book. Totally fucking nuts (pun intended), but he has some imagination.

don't know if you had previously read any of his other books, but if not, then you could try WEAVEWORLD, which I seem to remember being pretty mild in terms of sexual content (if any?) while having a pretty damn cool story. But that might have just been in comparison to IMAJICA?

I don't know. I'll probably end up finishing it, one of these days, but right now, I'm a bit over it. It's on my sansa so I'm sure at some point I'll go back to it. I have Weaveworld on my kindle so I'll be giving it a try at some point. Hell, I may actually read the rest of Imajica, I have the ebook and it's easier for me to skim in print form.

IMAJICA is a brilliant book. Don't cheat yourself because of two, maybe three scenes.WEAVEWORLD is good, but IMAJICA is Barker at the height of his skill.WEAVEWORLD has some pretty fucked yup sexy times in it too... Arguably more. You can't really read Barker and avoid that stuff.

[Solidsnape]

Can't seem to get into Anansi Boys as well as I did Americam Gods.
I also noticed there's a novella called Monarch of the Glen, can anyone vouch for its decency.
I really enjoyed American Gods, and read The Ocean before that which was brilliant. Reminded me so much of James Herbert.

[polishgenius]

 Baco Xtath, on 15 January 2016 - 01:57 AM, said:

Just started reading Tainted Blood having finished Dark Ascension...........and, shit, I read #4 before #3. I was wondering why a couple of things were the way they were. Fuck it.

Ah, oops.

And sadly we've gotten the news that, for now, at least, the publisher won't be picking up the series for more, so Dark Ascension is where it ends. It's not completely hopeless because sales of the series do appear to be growing as time goes on, but yeah, not ideal.


I ended up liking Small Angry Planet a lot. It was the ideal book for a week of commutes where I was feeling a bit rough. Just very likeable.

Then I read An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir, something like a mixture of the Triwizard Tournament with the Hunger Games in a quasi-Roman setting... it wasn't bad.

[QuickTidal]

So, I can't read HELL HOUSE anymore...two nights of nightmares is enough for me to need to put it down unfinished.

Probably onto NEMESIS GAMES now.

[firvulag]

Near the end of Magician's Land, the third book in the Magician's series by Lev Grossman. Can't wait to see how it all ends.

It's one of the better reviewed series that actually lived up to the hype. A lot of other series, in my opinion, have been woefully disappointing. The first Expanse series and Broken Empire being chief among them, as well as Small Angry Planet.

Makes me wonder if other series like the Ancilliary Justice will be good or not.

After I finish Magician's Land think I'll go for the Bobby Dollar trilogy by Tad Williams, though now that City of Blades is out that's tempting me too!

This post has been edited by firvulag: 15 January 2016 - 12:37 PM

[Mentalist]

 Solidsnape, on 15 January 2016 - 04:47 AM, said:

Can't seem to get into Anansi Boys as well as I did Americam Gods.
I also noticed there's a novella called Monarch of the Glen, can anyone vouch for its decency.
I really enjoyed American Gods, and read The Ocean before that which was brilliant. Reminded me so much of James Herbert.

Anansi Boys is a fantasy coming of age/rom-com. Don't expect "American Gods" or "Good Omens" out of it, and try to enjoy it for what it is.

[QuickTidal]

 Mentalist, on 15 January 2016 - 02:30 PM, said:

 Solidsnape, on 15 January 2016 - 04:47 AM, said:

Can't seem to get into Anansi Boys as well as I did Americam Gods.
I also noticed there's a novella called Monarch of the Glen, can anyone vouch for its decency.
I really enjoyed American Gods, and read The Ocean before that which was brilliant. Reminded me so much of James Herbert.

Anansi Boys is a fantasy coming of age/rom-com. Don't expect "American Gods" or "Good Omens" out of it, and try to enjoy it for what it is.

Yeah, Agreed.

I would even argue that aside from some of the more small fantastical elements, that ANANSI BOYS is in the completely wrong section of the bookstore. It should be in the regular lit section, while AG is in Fantasy. ANANSI BOYS may be one of the most contemporary stories that Gaiman has yet written (barring maybe THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE).

[Chance]

Finished up Alif the Unseen and pretty sure it was a decent book with occational moment of being very poor and others of being utterly brilliant. I really wanted to like it more and occationally did, most everything concerning the Jinn was great. But the novel is way too optimistic and often very young adult. I suspect its another of those books (which rather common recently) which gets a lot of extra praise for being outside the box more then actual qualities. I also guess it was a better book when it was released then it is now with the outcome of the revolutions in the middle east making it look hopelessly idealistic at times.

Also finished Donaldsons novella Kings Justice and found it fairly entertaining nothing extraordinary but a very nice contrast from Alif the Unseens not entirely mature writing with Donaldsons very uncompromising narrative.

This post has been edited by Chance: 15 January 2016 - 03:13 PM

[Abyss]

 Baco Xtath, on 14 January 2016 - 10:36 PM, said:

 Abyss, on 14 January 2016 - 03:34 PM, said:

That said, at the 45% point HOLY SPACEFUCK DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Yep. Shit just got real. Can't wait for that episode to hit.

If the tv series actually gets this far along, they will have to triple the budget.

And it will be worth every dollar.


NEMESIS GAMES spoiler...

Spoiler

DAMN RIGHT YOU CAN'T TAKE THE RAZORBACK!!!!!!!!!

Holy rocketfuck, when did Alex become my favorite storyline in this book!!?!?!?!!!

[Mentalist]

Finished "A Crown for Cold Silver". The second half started a bit weak, as the big buildup it had got a bit botched, but it recovered nicely. And the ending left me VERY interested. It's not quite a cliffhanger... but I'm VERY intrigued to see where this is going. Gonna be on the lookout for the sequel

At home, I finshed my re-read of "Assail", thus completing a full Malaz re-read. Still have FoD to do, but I'll keep that closer to when FoL actually streets in April.

So now I'm a tad lost as to what to dig into next. I think for my commute read I'll do something completely different, reading the second bobby Dollar book, "Happy Hour in Hell". While at home I'll go back to the Hussite trilo by sapkowski and read Warriors of God.

[Maark Abbott]

Well, Kate Elliott quickly took a turn for the very dark.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Michael Wood's In Search of the Dark Ages. Didn't realise when I picked it up how old it was (80s) and thus I suspect quite a bit has moved on since it was written, but it's an enjoyable enough dip into various aspects of Dark Age Britain. So far had Boudica, the origins of Arthur, the Sutton Hoo man and currently finishing up the section on Offa. Alfred the Great up next I believe!

[Chance]

 Maark, on 16 January 2016 - 11:06 AM, said:

Well, Kate Elliott quickly took a turn for the very dark.

It will continue to grind you down with such stuff for another few books, so prepare if your going ahead.

[Studlock]

Cormac McCarthy is one of the few living American masters but Blood Meridian is his best book, his master piece in which all his themes, and talents, balled up into one horrific western. Others I enjoy, No Country For Old Men was great, but better as a film, the Road was great as well, but none really reach the heights of of Blood Meridian.

[amphibian]

 Raging Cajun Gator King, on 17 January 2016 - 03:44 AM, said:

Damn I'm only 58 pgs in Blood and hot damn this is amazing. Are his other books this fantastic? If so I ll be adding Cormac on my must buy list.

His Border series is very good (starts with All The Pretty Horses) and his shorter works you're already somewhat familiar with - The Road, No Country For Old Men. Suttree is a bleak comedy of sorts and The Orchard Keeper is messed up village life.

Blood Meridian is the clear best in terms of writing, but he works with emotions more in his other books. You'll understand what I mean later.

Love the Cormac.

[Abyss]

NEMESIS GAMES done. Total win of a story. Loved it.
Resuming NIGHTLIFE in earbook, and trying Lynch's REPUBLIC OF THEIVES.
Trying bcs while I enjoyed LIES I really didn't think much of RED, and if this is more the latter than the former, I'm inclined to read something else. I'm trying to be more draconian with my TRPs these days.
...actually that goes for NIGHTLIFE too.

[Stalker]

Finished The Dread Wurm by Miles Cameron. Great addition to the series and looking forward to the final volume next year. The author certainly seems to know his stuff when it comes to medieval armor, weapons, fighting, etc. Also cool that he writes locations based on the general area where I live (Adirondack Mountains of New York).

Then started Blood Meridan as it's all I've seen here the last few days. Does this book really not use quotation marks at all? Or is the ecopy I got from overdrive wrong? It's very difficult to follow for me.