[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Andorion, on 24 June 2016 - 05:15 PM, said:

Abyss, on 24 June 2016 - 03:55 PM, said:

Andorion, on 24 June 2016 - 03:34 PM, said:

Finished Daniel O Malleys Stiletto. Different from Rook but still very very good

Seen these compared to Stross' LAUNDRY series.

Good to know.

Its like Laundry with Xmen in it

I'd read about Jean Grey's laundry or Colossus' laundry, but not Xavier's laundry.

[Mentalist]

Finished "Elric: revenge of the Rose" in commute read. Review probably tomorrow.
Moving on to the last (for now) Elric book- "Stormbringer!"

[Baco Xtath]

Abyss, on 19 June 2016 - 02:26 AM, said:

Baco Xtath, on 18 June 2016 - 11:53 PM, said:

Eyebook-wise, I'm 95% through Merrimack #3. Love this series. I'll probably take a break after this one...

Thats what you think now.

Dammit! You're right. I'm 25% through book #4 now. Really hard to read something else when I just want to find out who or what Kelly Blue's gonna fuck next. It's gold. Edit: Kerry Blue - can't believe I missed that.

Also just finished Hard Luck Hank #5: Stank Delicious. This series is hilarious. I recommend everyone try it. I've heard some call him the American Terry Pratchett though that's not accurate as he's nowhere near that funny but it is in the ballpark. Humor wise, I'd rank him below David Wong, Terry Pratchett, and Douglas Adams but funnier than Scalzi and most others.

This post has been edited by Baco Xtath: 29 June 2016 - 09:46 PM

[Abyss]

Baco Xtath, on 28 June 2016 - 11:59 AM, said:

Abyss, on 19 June 2016 - 02:26 AM, said:

Baco Xtath, on 18 June 2016 - 11:53 PM, said:

Eyebook-wise, I'm 95% through Merrimack #3. Love this series. I'll probably take a break after this one...

Thats what you think now.

Dammit! You're right. I'm 25% through book #4 now. Really hard to read something else when I just want to find out who or what Kelly Blue's gonna fuck next. It's gold.
...

I love it when a plan comes together.

[Andorion]

I just finished the first three books of the Pax Arcana series. As urban fantasy goes its really quite good

[Salt-Man Z]

A night or two ago I got to Chapter 16 or so in FL

Spoiler

(where Azathanai throw down in Dracons Hold)

and dang if that isn't the most exciting chapter of the series so far. (And hard to see how it could be topped.) It took almost half the book, but it's pretty darn gripping now.

[Maark Abbott]

Mentalist, on 24 June 2016 - 02:13 PM, said:

Finally buckled down and finished "Aeronaut's Windlass" last night.

The ending 3rd picked up and basically saved the book for me. The opening 2/3s felt too YA-ish. And it probably didn't help that I recently finished the "Ketty Jay" serie that did swashbuckling airships, but did it better, imho.

I bought this in hardback, because I like (not love) Butcher's work, and I lov steampunk and airships. I was not blown away by this book. There's lots of intriguing bits, but the execution wasn't amazing- fairly solid, but nothing super-exciting.

Given my experience with Codex Alera (almost hated book 1, adored book 2), i'll give the next volume a try in hardback as well. But if that fails to impress, this will get relegated to the "buy when the mmpb is out" list.

Next book for home reading will be tatterdemalion's "Purge of Ashes"

Moonstone Cannon... FIRE!

I'm about 1/3 of the way into Dancer's Lament just now.

[Chance]

Unusually for me I'm currently reading three books and not finishing any at my usual pace. War Factory by Neal Asher has been good but not as good as Dark Transformation was yet, its nearly finished. Also reading Jeff Salyards Veil of the Betrayers which is damned compelling for a book I'm more and more sure that I don't really like also nearly finished. Last but not least fairly rapidly moving through The Spider War with the comfort of returning to a familiar and great cast of characters.

Also recently finished up Yamada Monogatari series by Richard Parks a series of short stories which while simple where greatly entertaining and I'm a sucker for any good setting using japanese history and myth.

[T77]

Finished DL. I thought it was good, not great. As I was reading it I kept thinking that SE would have done a much better job with Dancer and Kellanved and I wish he had this story line.

This post has been edited by T77: 30 June 2016 - 02:02 PM

[Abyss]

Finished the earbook for MAGIC BITES, first in the Kate Daniels series.

I see a glimmer of why people like this, and also why I was warned the first book isn't where the series shines. The urban fantasy tropes are massive and unoriginal for the most part. It was like a pre-pr0n LK Hamilton Anita Blake book as waterered down by Charlaine Harris circa 2005. Narration was ok, some of the voices she does are grating.

It held my interest well enough to start the second, MAGIC BURNS (also in earbook) and 10 chapters in I already like it better, more depth and originality to the setting, better beasties. The tropes are still there tho. If this were a dead tree I would probably throw it against the wall the next time a male character expressed an interest in fucking Kate, overt or implicit. The 'tough as nails but sensitive but not model pretty but hardass but everyone wants to bang her' female lead thing has been done to death, undeath, abdeath, re-death, resurrection and death again. All we're missing is the mysterious past for good measure OH WAIT THERE IT IS....

[firvulag]

Just started reading the Trader's Tales series by Nathan Lowell. I was "warned" that although sci fi the series has no alien invasions or pirates or any traditional conflicts. It's about a young man who joins up with a trading vessel and from what I understand the series will follow him as his career takes up the ranks. I'm over half way through the first book and finding it surprisingly enjoyable

[amphibian]

I finished The Sudden Appearance of Hope, Claire North.

It's a very interesting premise, nearly derailed by the beginning being heavily dominated by a pastiche of things in the world that the author is upset with, rather than something that fits the itinerant thief character of Hope. The middle and end portions are far better and remind me of William Gibson or Elizabeth Bear's Jenny Casey books.

I give it 7 cleverly lifted Tiffany bracelets out of 10 and think that North has better books in her canon and in her future.

[polishgenius]

I think she needs to take a break from the 'Claire North' persona because you could make a plenty good (if on-the-nose) story out of the app techno-thriller and a plenty good story out of the forgotten girl thing, but there was absolutely no reason within the tech-thriller for the forgotten girl thing. It just felt like she added it in there because weird traits of identity and mind are what Claire North does.

Which is odd because the e-book only novella trilogy Gameshouse is nothing like that. It's also far better in my opinion.



I'm reading Cryptomonicon. I'm flagging in places, it's not Stephenson's best- partly that's because cryptography isn't of as much interest to me as his other subjects, but partly it's because the pacing is all over the place and he doesn't do the two-timeline thing nearly as elegantly as he thinks he does.

I mean, it's a lot of fun a lot of the time but I might need to take a pause soon, which would be a first for me on a Stephenson.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 30 June 2016 - 10:27 PM

[Andorion]

polishgenius, on 30 June 2016 - 10:23 PM, said:

I think she needs to take a break from the 'Claire North' persona because you could make a plenty good (if on-the-nose) story out of the app techno-thriller and a plenty good story out of the forgotten girl thing, but there was absolutely no reason within the tech-thriller for the forgotten girl thing. It just felt like she added it in there because weird traits of identity and mind are what Claire North does.

Which is odd because the e-book only novella trilogy Gameshouse is nothing like that. It's also far better in my opinion.



I'm reading Cryptomonicon. I'm flagging in places, it's not Stephenson's best- partly that's because cryptography isn't of as much interest to me as his other subjects, but partly it's because the pacing is all over the place and he doesn't do the two-timeline thing nearly as elegantly as he thinks he does.

I mean, it's a lot of fun a lot of the time but I might need to take a pause soon, which would be a first for me on a Stephenson.

Agree with this. The Gameshouse books are pretty good. But I dropped Sudden Appearance of Hope after a few chapters as the app and girl didn't seem to be tying together very well at all.

[amphibian]

TSAoH gets better as the plot moves out of the Middle East. The forgetfulness was alright for me and made the cat and mouse games much more interesting. What fell down for me was that the pastiche of things in the beginning came off too much like North herself being mad at practices in the Middle East, rather than the anger and discontent of a thief. The way the thief operated did not match what North had Hope tell us and was for a long stretch downright perpetuating exactly what North was mad about. I think North needs to slow down a little bit or have more challenging editors go over her work because that beginning feels like half cooked pie as opposed to the great ending

[amphibian]

Also, Cryptonomicon gets better as you find out why Stephenson is telling you about the mines and the Shaftoes. It's eerie at times what he wrote about back then as to what we see today.

[polishgenius]

Well, I'll keep at it, but for now I'm halfway into Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, a space opera debut from earlier in the year, and so far it's fantastic. If it keeps up as it's started it'll be a serious contender for my book of the year. Like much sci-fi now, it's selling some seriously weird concepts, but it does it very very well and is fitting a barn-burning, crowd-pleasing epic on top of that in grand style.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 03 July 2016 - 08:04 PM

[Andorion]

Reading Black Wolves by Kate Elliott. So far its a bit more complex and large scale than I thought it would be. Really liking it so far.

Overloaded schedule means I am only reading it during commutes which makes things a bit irritating as its not really a suitable commute book

[JPK]

I finished listening to White Night today. I can't believe how much of 7, 8, and 9 had slipped away from me. Butcher has so much that he has left to play with from these three that I'm surprised he hasn't revisited yet. I do remember 10, 11, and 12 much more clearly for me though. 10 because of the villain associated with books with a multiple of five, 11 because of the fantastic politics, and 12 because it's fucking 12. I can't wait to chew through these next few again!

Next up for the earholes will be The Scar by Mieville. I figure it's about time I dove in since I've owned it in several different formats for about 5 years.

[QuickTidal]

Finished the second Eisenhorn book MALLEUS, and was pretty damned impressed! These Inquisition books are almost as great as the Gaunt's Ghosts books (a lot of which I'm sure has to do with Abnett's amazing writing!). Ordered the 3rd and final book in that trilogy HERETICUS. After that, probably will have a go at the Ravenor books.


So then, at cottage weekend, I started THE DRAGON'S PATH by Daniel Abraham and for the first 25 pages or so (other than the prologue, which was intriguing) I was bothered by the weird setups occurring for each lead character chapter POV (except Cithrin's)...and the lack of anything beyond general description of the 13 races (I know that a better description exists at Abraham's website, but I'd love to see image to be sure of how they look)...and I assume that Firstborn are normal humans like us? I WAS going to put it down as possibly not for me...but since I was at the cottage for a further 4 days with nothing else to read, I persevered...

...and at page 150 I'm SO glad I did. Once I got a handle on the races (in general terms even) and the characters places in the overall world, plus the broad overview of the politics coming more into focus (Dawson's POV helped immensely with that), this book is fantastic. I think only Geder's chapters are a bit dry for me (they are fine mind you), but Marcus, Cithrin, and Dawson's POVs are all great now and I've settled into a solid groove while reading. If it continues like this and I continue to enjoy it this much, I'll grab the second book in short order.

Anyways, thanks for the recco PG...even if it took me a while to get into it, this has been great! I actually find that even though I'm at work, I'm chomping at the bit to get the day finished so I can read some more of it.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 05 July 2016 - 02:00 PM