[Abyss]

Maark Abbott, on 09 August 2016 - 10:50 AM, said:

The Black-Sperm Warrior, page 490:

Well, it was only a matter of time before a Sranc raped someone to death. Gross.

To be fair, it was book 2. All we had in book 1 was a bunch of Sranc dumping their loads on the ground.




...also, dammit Maark. Ew.

[Baco Xtath]

I'm 8 hrs into the audiobook of White-Luck Warrior. I get pretty tired of all the sexual prose: bruised peach....actually, I can't really think of any good examples but if you're reading it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Otherwise, great stuff. Looking forward to the Great Ordeal.

[Morgoth]

I bought, opened and read China Mieville's new book - the Last Days of New Paris - in one sitting. I really like his new and shorter publications. The census taker was excellent and so was this. IT's weird and confusing and wonderful and you should all read it.

Also, it ends and then you realise that no, it didn't. And then that ends and you realise that, no, it didn't.

[HiddenOne]

Just finished Purge of Ashes and Lord of the SIlver Bow in the last few days, enjoyed both & will be looking for the sequels

[Macros]

I got my dad started on Lord of the silver Bow at the weekend, he's loving it.
It been like 3 months since my last Troy reread, I'm tempted to go again already I love it that much

[QuickTidal]

Macros, on 10 August 2016 - 01:51 PM, said:

I got my dad started on Lord of the silver Bow at the weekend, he's loving it.
It been like 3 months since my last Troy reread, I'm tempted to go again already I love it that much

I've gotta re-read that series. I've only read it once, but I loved it.

[Andorion]

I am reading Aliette de Boddard's Obsidian and Blood which is very weird but interesting

[Macros]

Just finished Eagle in the Snow by Wallace Breem.

Excellent book, thanks for the reco QT.
No really up close action scenes, which I'm used to in my Roman fiction, but superb battle descriptions. Starting The Legates Daughter here now, by Wallace Breem as well, as far as I can tell the three novels are standalones.

[QuickTidal]

Macros, on 10 August 2016 - 10:12 PM, said:

Just finished Eagle in the Snow by Wallace Breem.

Excellent book, thanks for the reco QT.
No really up close action scenes, which I'm used to in my Roman fiction, but superb battle descriptions. Starting The Legates Daughter here now, by Wallace Breem as well, as far as I can tell the three novels are standalones.

Glad you enjoyed it man!

[Mentalist]

"IN Dark Service" is coming along quite slowly. Mostly due to my RL time issues. I had some concerns about Ch1 pacing, but it's gotten better. I just lack the attention span right now to really dig into it at home.

In commute, finished "Cornelius Calendar". The later stories got as nonsensical as "The English Assassin"- the more modern, the more pointless.

I needed a palate cleanser, so went back to Adrian Tchaikovsky's "Guns of the Dawn". About 6 chapters in so far, and everyhting after the inital combat chapter has been a flashback, which is actually more interesting because it's about how a cuntry deals with domestic issues caused by the war effort, and it's a better topic than straight-up musketpunk (not to mention that Of Bone and Thunder probably dealt with that theme best of allt he things I read this year). Enjoying so far.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 18 November 2016 - 09:18 PM

[Macros]

Again it's a standalone. New universe, quite a good book though.

[End of Disc One]

Macros, on 12 August 2016 - 12:05 PM, said:

Again it's a standalone. New universe, quite a good book though.

He does have a new series out though. https://www.goodread...er-and-the-wolf

And a few other standalones that have come out since Shadows of the Apt. This guy writes faster than Sanderson.

Edit: It's not clear who you guys are referring to. I just assumed Adrian Tchaikovsky.

This post has been edited by End of Disc One: 12 August 2016 - 01:28 PM

[Maark Abbott]

Abyss, on 09 August 2016 - 06:52 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 09 August 2016 - 10:50 AM, said:

The Black-Sperm Warrior, page 490:

Well, it was only a matter of time before a Sranc raped someone to death. Gross.

To be fair, it was book 2. All we had in book 1 was a bunch of Sranc dumping their loads on the ground.




...also, dammit Maark. Ew.

lol

[Baco Xtath]

the first 1.5 hrs of the Great Ordeal is a summary of all that's come before. This series really is extremely epic in scale. I'm glad for the summary. Even having just listened to White-Luck, I hadn't realized some of the stuff that was actually happening until it was summarized.

[JPK]

After listening to the first 4 hours of QUEEN OF FIRE by Anthony Ryan, I decided to return it. I simply wasn't getting into it. I think I'll try to reread books one and two and tackle it in dead-tree format.

At the same time, I've found my dead-tree pace has halved in the past couple months. Due to that, a couple books that I've really been wanting to read have been sitting around getting 50 pages a week tops. With that in mind, I swapped THE WHEEL OF OSHIEM over to audio. Tim Gerard Reynolds makes a great narrator for Prince Jal. He's also the one who narrated Michael J Sullivan's Riyria books.

This post has been edited by JPK: 13 August 2016 - 09:15 PM

[worry]

Finished WOT9 Winter's Heart.

Spoiler

Liked this one quite a bit. It's probably my second favorite, after #4. Lots of previous book setup culminated in this one or at least was brought back into the fold in satisfying ways. Masema/Prophet, the Seanchan (including a few of the more complicated ones), the Borderlands kings and queens, Rand's three girlfriends finally get together. Mat actually had some interesting stuff to do. Far Madding was a cool setting, and had a decent Padan Fain cameo. The finale, w/ Rand and Nynaeve using the crystal ball things to cleanse the male Source while everyone else protected them from Forsaken was pretty cool.

That said, the climax could have been better. You don't really get the HOW of the cleansing. Most of Rand and Nynaeve's POVs are just mystical Source mumbo jumbo. RJ actually jumped around POVs here though, more than ever, and it was rad.

You get most of the reborn Forsakens' identities, but it's a mixed bag. I guessed the new bossman was Ishamael cuz I always thought he was coming back. I'm still working on the assumption that the Forsaken leader and the giant Myddraal are the same entity. And it was pretty clear that Cyndane was Lanfear. I was wondering if Moiraine would finally reemerge this book, but no dice. On the other hand, the lower level dude resurrection being Gargamel (aka Aginor) was a big whoop moment. Even worse than that was the reveal that he had been Dashiva this whole time. Dashiva was one of the most interesting Asha'man by far, and his badguy turn at the end of the last book was a disappointment. But turning out to be Aginor just sucked out all the interest the previous books generated. A huge, lame letdown. Still don't know who the man who came back as a woman is -- it's cool that she still uses the male Source though, as it's a neat trick. I was thinking Asmodeon, since he's one of the more interesting Forsaken, but now I'm betting it's someone lamer.

The end of Shadar Logoth was also a mixed bag, largely just because I thought the evil there was an awesome balance to the Dark Lord. I was hoping for a big conflagration of the Dark Lord, Mashadar, and Machin Shin going at each other in the end, but it seems that is not to be. Also the destruction of SL just confirmed how lame the finale of book 7 was. There was like a deliberate vagueness to whether Sammael was actually dead or not, but this pretty much confirmed it. And that makes all his scheming with the Shaido dumb as hell, since he got sucked into a one on one battle with Rand and ended up just like the other Forsaken. They're all pretty much idiots, and I don't know why I'm still surprised every time one of them marches straight to their doom regardless of all these supposed plans they've all been hatching. The Seanchan, the White Tower, Taim (possibly), the Black Ajah, the Whitecloaks, and even the Shaido (who I'm not super fond of) are all waaaay more interesting antagonists than most of the Forsaken.

There were a few random intriguing moments. The Prologue again is full of stuff that doesn't feature in the rest of the book at all, like those investigation in the White Tower. Noal (the old man who helps Mat w/ the Gholam) is a new mystery. So's this assassin who kills two random people in bed, and appears to be two people in one body.

Anyway my current rankings are 4 > 9 > 6 & 8 > most of the rest >>>>>>>>>>>>> 1. At this point though I'm expecting Crossroads of Twilight to be in the Top 3.

[Morgoth]

worry, on 15 August 2016 - 09:11 AM, said:

Finished WOT9 Winter's Heart.

Spoiler

Liked this one quite a bit. It's probably my second favorite, after #4. Lots of previous book setup culminated in this one or at least was brought back into the fold in satisfying ways. Masema/Prophet, the Seanchan (including a few of the more complicated ones), the Borderlands kings and queens, Rand's three girlfriends finally get together. Mat actually had some interesting stuff to do. Far Madding was a cool setting, and had a decent Padan Fain cameo. The finale, w/ Rand and Nynaeve using the crystal ball things to cleanse the male Source while everyone else protected them from Forsaken was pretty cool.

That said, the climax could have been better. You don't really get the HOW of the cleansing. Most of Rand and Nynaeve's POVs are just mystical Source mumbo jumbo. RJ actually jumped around POVs here though, more than ever, and it was rad.

You get most of the reborn Forsakens' identities, but it's a mixed bag. I guessed the new bossman was Ishamael cuz I always thought he was coming back. I'm still working on the assumption that the Forsaken leader and the giant Myddraal are the same entity. And it was pretty clear that Cyndane was Lanfear. I was wondering if Moiraine would finally reemerge this book, but no dice. On the other hand, the lower level dude resurrection being Gargamel (aka Aginor) was a big whoop moment. Even worse than that was the reveal that he had been Dashiva this whole time. Dashiva was one of the most interesting Asha'man by far, and his badguy turn at the end of the last book was a disappointment. But turning out to be Aginor just sucked out all the interest the previous books generated. A huge, lame letdown. Still don't know who the man who came back as a woman is -- it's cool that she still uses the male Source though, as it's a neat trick. I was thinking Asmodeon, since he's one of the more interesting Forsaken, but now I'm betting it's someone lamer.

The end of Shadar Logoth was also a mixed bag, largely just because I thought the evil there was an awesome balance to the Dark Lord. I was hoping for a big conflagration of the Dark Lord, Mashadar, and Machin Shin going at each other in the end, but it seems that is not to be. Also the destruction of SL just confirmed how lame the finale of book 7 was. There was like a deliberate vagueness to whether Sammael was actually dead or not, but this pretty much confirmed it. And that makes all his scheming with the Shaido dumb as hell, since he got sucked into a one on one battle with Rand and ended up just like the other Forsaken. They're all pretty much idiots, and I don't know why I'm still surprised every time one of them marches straight to their doom regardless of all these supposed plans they've all been hatching. The Seanchan, the White Tower, Taim (possibly), the Black Ajah, the Whitecloaks, and even the Shaido (who I'm not super fond of) are all waaaay more interesting antagonists than most of the Forsaken.

There were a few random intriguing moments. The Prologue again is full of stuff that doesn't feature in the rest of the book at all, like those investigation in the White Tower. Noal (the old man who helps Mat w/ the Gholam) is a new mystery. So's this assassin who kills two random people in bed, and appears to be two people in one body.

Anyway my current rankings are 4 > 9 > 6 & 8 > most of the rest >>>>>>>>>>>>> 1. At this point though I'm expecting Crossroads of Twilight to be in the Top 3.

Sometimes it's so hard to tell with you.

[acesn8s]

I finished Purge of Ashes over the weekend. Overall I enjoyed the book.

I've moved on to The Tattered Banner by Duncan Hamilton. I enjoyed The First Blade of Ostia, which is a prequel to his Society of the Sword series, and wanted to read his other stuff while still familiar with FBoO.

[QuickTidal]

Finished up the second Horus Heresy book FALSE GODS by Graham McNeill and it was a stellar, stellar follow-up to Abnett's opener. This was my first WH40k book NOT written by Abnett, and I really enjoyed it. McNeill seems to be of the same quality of storyteller as Abnett, just a tad less poetic and more workmanlike...which is not a slight on him, just the difference I noticed. I await my order of the 3rd book to arrive as I really can't wait to keep plowing along with this series.

In the meantime I'm checking out Ethan Hawke's RULES FOR A KNIGHT, which is quaint and interesting.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 15 August 2016 - 12:24 PM

[Puck]

Finished Hobb's Farseer Trilogy, of which I unfortunately disliked the end and thought book two was the best one. On to the Liveship Traders.