[Macros]

Finished altered carbon.
Enjoyable enough, but Im not going to jump right into the next one.
I was sort on the right track with my early suspicions, but with the wrong motivations I guess.
Colour me about 25% surprised by the total fallout, but only because I didnt read enough into the back tracking thoughts of Takeshi and how he got set on his mission.

[Abyss]

Macros, on 09 September 2016 - 01:40 PM, said:

Finished altered carbon.
Enjoyable enough, but Im not going to jump right into the next one.
I was sort on the right track with my early suspicions, but with the wrong motivations I guess.
Colour me about 25% surprised by the total fallout, but only because I didnt read enough into the back tracking thoughts of Takeshi and how he got set on his mission.

I won't spoil, but for what it's worth, bks 2 and 3 are very different from CARBON (and each other). Same style, same Kovacs (more or less ), but very different kinds of sf stories.




Am 3/4 of the way through Bakker's THE GREAT ORDEAL and this may be the best epic fantasy I have read since The Crippled God.

[Macros]

Yeah Im 8℅ into broken angels.
Feels bigger already, being off world it gives off a little of gaunts ghosts feel to the wedge unit

[polishgenius]

Macros, on 09 September 2016 - 01:40 PM, said:

Enjoyable enough, but Im not going to jump right into the next one.

Macros, on 09 September 2016 - 03:49 PM, said:

Yeah Im 8℅ into broken angels.

If 'not jumping right in' is less than two hours, how fucking soon would 'reading the next one asap' be?

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 09 September 2016 - 04:31 PM

[End of Disc One]

Macros staples his books together so he can start the next book before he puts down the first.

[Abyss]

Time is a flat circle.

Kind of like a coaster.

...mmmm.... beer.

[worry]

End of Disc One, on 09 September 2016 - 05:50 PM, said:

Macros staples his books together so he can start the next book before he puts down the first.

Abyss, on 09 September 2016 - 06:39 PM, said:

Time is a human centipede

ftfy

[HiddenOne]

Salt-Man Z, on 06 September 2016 - 07:37 PM, said:

HiddenOne, on 06 September 2016 - 07:24 PM, said:

I'm going to try the first one, Saltman is normally trustworthy...

To be fair, I'm only a little into the first one, but #3 was strong enough for me to recommend the series just based on it. So far #1 seems maybe a little less polished than the third (which makes sense) and maybe a bit more straightforward, plot-wise (though that could obviously change.) On the plus side, it's engaging enough that I barely notice that the ebook formatting is pretty rough/rudimentary. (It seems like 1 & 2 were self-published, whereas 3 got a more professional production.)

I like it. So far the descriptions of how the girl's thoughts are visualized has captured my interest. And steampunk frogs on rollerskates. That's a new one.

[Macros]

polishgenius, on 09 September 2016 - 04:30 PM, said:

Macros, on 09 September 2016 - 01:40 PM, said:

Enjoyable enough, but Im not going to jump right into the next one.

Macros, on 09 September 2016 - 03:49 PM, said:

Yeah Im 8℅ into broken angels.

If 'not jumping right in' is less than two hours, how fucking soon would 'reading the next one asap' be?

Changed my mind, realised last night was travel time and wanted something relatively light to work on. About the 60% mark now but wont get touching it til tomorrlw, going into the city now tonget breakfast, watch the scum derby then out to anfiekd for the leciester game

[Salt-Man Z]

HiddenOne, on 09 September 2016 - 08:19 PM, said:

I like it. So far the descriptions of how the girl's thoughts are visualized has captured my interest. And steampunk frogs on rollerskates. That's a new one.

I finished it (G. Derek Adams' Spell/Sword) last night and quite enjoyed it. Fairly straightforward plot, but I love the characters, and Adams has a pretty wild imagination and a turn of phrase that leans toward the poetic every now and then. I'll be diving into #2 (The Riddle Box) next.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

I finally finished A Deepness In The Sky after slowing down my pace to savor it. What an incredible book! It immediately made its way up my list of favorites, and I will definitely be thinking about it for a while longer.

Pham is a motherfuckin' boss. I'd love a whole series about the Qeng Ho.

Has anyone read Children Of The Sky? It seems to be a divisive book - those who want to know more about the Tines love it, but those who want to explore the wider universe hate it. Thoughts? Should I read it if I fall in the latter camp? I think the Tines are intriguing and would like to learn more about them, but I'm not sure I'd enjoy it as much, knowing what I do about the entire universe.

[Macros]

Onto woken furies now.

Abyss was correct, addictive fun

[Mentalist]

Macros, on 11 September 2016 - 08:17 PM, said:

Onto woken furies now.

Abyss was correct, addictive fun

Too much sex in that one, imho

[Andorion]

Finished Charles Stross' Nightmare Stacks. A really good read, and there will be extended comments in the dedtrhread later.

Currently reading Theft of Swords

[Abyss]

Macros, on 11 September 2016 - 08:17 PM, said:

Onto woken furies now.

Abyss was correct, addictive fun

I WIN

[QuickTidal]

CHILDREN OF HURIN by Tolkien, which so far is excellent. I've obviously read the short version of this that is contained in THE SILMARILLION, but this one is nice as it's been fleshed out more and has more room to breathe as a result.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 12 September 2016 - 12:13 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

Finished the Mallorean, and I think I need to visit the optician now. Apparently over-stretching the eyes due to constant eye rolling is a thing...

Anyway, I'm onto the two prequel novels now. Belgarath the Sorcerer was actually the first Eddings book I ever read 16+ years ago so it's quite fun to read it again. But some of it is so painful. I can't stop.

[Salt-Man Z]

Onto the second Spell/Sword book: The Riddle Box looks likes it's going to be a "locked-room" mystery episode, but after only one chapter, the writing's improved from book 1, and things from book 3 make a little more sense.

[Macros]

Just finished Woken Furies. En par with the other two Id say, equal to the first two Caine books in popcorn action fun with a bit of intrgue.

Going to start Stardust by Gaimen tonight

[polishgenius]

Next suggested SF pitstop for Macros: Ian M Banks, starting perhaps with either Use of Weapons or Against a Dark Background. Seems like the sort of thing you might like, and while Banks is not overall a particularly similar author to Morgan, there is enough in common between those two books and the Kovaks series to make it a nice cross-step I reckon.



Not suggested: Stephen Baxter. Don't get me wrong, having finished the Xeelee omnibus I really really liked it... but I liked it in large part for its exploration of big, big SF ideas and from what I recall about your tastes, it's exactly the sort of thing that might put you off.
For those looking for that, though, and also for a scale that is just really completely bonkers, I highly recommend it. Not every story in it is individually huge- out of the four stories in the collection, Raft and Flux are quite small-scale, side-events in the wider field, but the places Ring, the centerpiece work, goes to are still blowing my mind a couple of days later. And he writes them very well, in terms of description. Some great mental images.


I'm now finally on to the second Eternal Sky book by Elizabeth Bear. Really enjoy her work. Glad I could finally get to this coz the first one was the first of her books I read and in between I've read, like, half her back catalogue waiting to be able to get this. Hope I can get the third sooner.