[Macros]

Hairshirt, on 24 November 2016 - 04:25 PM, said:

I'm re-reading Acacia which I enjoyed the first time around when I first got into fantasy. I am really struggling to get through it this time. I've made it halfway through the second book and can't get through a few pages without putting it down.

I couldn't get through it first time

[Hairshirt]

Macros, on 24 November 2016 - 09:45 PM, said:

Hairshirt, on 24 November 2016 - 04:25 PM, said:

I'm re-reading Acacia which I enjoyed the first time around when I first got into fantasy. I am really struggling to get through it this time. I've made it halfway through the second book and can't get through a few pages without putting it down.

I couldn't get through it first time

I think it was the second fantasy series I read after ASOIAF. I started late in life with fantasy, it's odd how much my taste has changed in a few years.

[Kruppe of Darujhistan]

Salt-Man Z, on 23 November 2016 - 05:05 PM, said:

Unfortunately (or not, depending on your point of view) I made the jump from Tolkien almost directly to Stephen R. Donaldson and then Erikson, so the likes of Feist and Eddings are completely unpalatable to me. (I read both Magician and the Belgariad on my wife's recommendation, and couldn't stand either one.)

The guy who originally turned me on to Donaldson has been trying to get me to read the Belgariad for decades. I went so far as to buy the book and read the first 100 pages but that's about it. Not sure if he's read Erickson. Maybe I'll make a deal with him and read Eddings if he'll do SE.

[End of Disc One]

I'm in the middle of a bunch of books, but most notable right now is Bakker's The White Luck Warrior. I'm between 1/3 and 1/2 way through and wow. This had a slow start, but damn if Second Apocalypse isn't some of the very best fantasy out there when it hits the high notes. Like with Erikson, it's not always exciting, but for my money these are the two best fantasy authors I've read when they're at their best.

[Mentalist]

Finished re-reading Finch . Wow.

That's honestly the only word I have. I forgot everything . So this was like reading it for the first time all over again. And it's brilliant all over again.

So now gonna be moving onto the "Southern Reach" trilo, finally.

In commute, about 50 pgs left in "Laughter of Carthage". Things picked up in America, but peacetime does not make for a plot as exciting as the war-torn Russian Empire.

Debating slotting in something else before I move on to Bk3. Guess it'll depend on how Moorcock ends this one.

[Andorion]

Finished Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson which was a huge bust. The last part of that book went into an absolute death spiral though things were never really that good to begin with.

Also finished Slaughterhouse 5. The book was very meh for me. Once you understand what he is trying to do - write an incoherent narrative to reflect the incoherence of war and trauma, the book becomes very boring and irritating.



Currently reading Obelisk Gate. Jemisin continues her Fifth Season form with panache

[Abyss]

Kruppe of Darujhistan, on 26 November 2016 - 06:37 PM, said:

Salt-Man Z, on 23 November 2016 - 05:05 PM, said:

Unfortunately (or not, depending on your point of view) I made the jump from Tolkien almost directly to Stephen R. Donaldson and then Erikson, so the likes of Feist and Eddings are completely unpalatable to me. (I read both Magician and the Belgariad on my wife's recommendation, and couldn't stand either one.)

The guy who originally turned me on to Donaldson has been trying to get me to read the Belgariad for decades. I went so far as to buy the book and read the first 100 pages but that's about it. Not sure if he's read Erickson. Maybe I'll make a deal with him and read Eddings if he'll do SE.

No matter how you slice it, the Belgariad is YA fantasy. Sure it could be a decent intro for an adult not familiar with what else the genre has to offer, but otherwise it is what it is. I imagine many adults who read it early and reread it still keep some of the nostalgic enjoyment, me included, but if SIF or MBF is your thing, the Belgariad is Sesame Street to Game of Thrones.
Tho Silk is still one of the greatest fantasy characters ever created.

[Abyss]

polishgenius, on 23 November 2016 - 05:56 PM, said:

Abyss, on 23 November 2016 - 06:11 AM, said:

polishgenius, on 22 November 2016 - 09:49 PM, said:

Abyss, on 22 November 2016 - 08:22 PM, said:

Still better than The Redemption of Al.

Which is still better than The Dreamers.

I can excuse that book. It was his first, and not really fantasy in the sense that The Belgariad was. It's everything after where so much went sideways.

The Dreamers is his post-Althalus series, his last work. It's yet another on the let's-write-the-Belgariad-again churn.

It is awful. The second book in it is the first book ever that I didn't finish. He broke me. Literally flicked a switch in my brain, since then I don't finish books all the time.


Sometimes I think that I think that I had a lucky escape- I don't think I've ever come across anyone else who has read them or tried, I can only think that the others who did did finish and the effort killed them.

Oh sorry I mixed The Dreamers up with The Losers... you're absolutely right that series was awful. The ten page preview i just barely read of it, anyways.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 20 November 2016 - 08:16 PM, said:

Having finished MAGIC BINDS in earbook, started Ernest Clines' ARMADA. And yes, I know, I know.... wanted something frivolous after the awesome/extended KATE DANIELS series binge and Peter Clines' (no relation) excellent THE FOLD. I can bail any time. And will if the protagonist spends any more time explaining how hot his mother is or otherwise solid narrator Will Wheaton is required to do much more of that awful voice for the ship AI. ....

ARMADA turned out to be ok. I'm glad I library'd it, but wouldn't have felt ripped off it I had paid mmpb price.

It felt a lot like it was the first novel Clines should have written before his READY PLAYER ONE masterpiece.
Entertaining, at times predictable, loaded with 80s video game and movie nostalgia but a bit hamhanded about it. More than once the characters themselves are pointing out the shortcomings of the plot and that's never a good thing but in the context of the story it works well enough.
I wanted a frivolous short easy read (listen), it delivered what I wanted. Wil Wheaton did a solid narration again.

[Baco Xtath]

I put down Miles Cameron's Plague of Swords. There's a part where he keeps saying him/her, he or she, and it goes on, and on, even though they establish that it's a woman. After about 30 minutes of listening to it and being very annoyed, I returned the book to audible. It's probably easier to read something like that as I generally don't read word for word but listening to it was excruciating to me. Disappointing as I really enjoyed the series. Could've just been my mood at the time. Sometimes I get annoyed with Peter F. Hamilton for polyps and geneered, (gene + engineered).

[QuickTidal]

Properly stuck into Jeff Smith's Complete BONE, and Abyss was right (as usual), this gets DAMNED good around the second and third volume. Will likely get a chance to finish it this time.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 28 November 2016 - 06:23 PM

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 28 November 2016 - 06:21 PM, said:

Properly stuck into Jeff Smith's Complete BONE, and Abyss was right (as usual), this gets DAMNED good around the second and third volume. Will likely get a chance to finish it this time.

Yeah, it goes from cute to good to mad fucking epic. Great great book. Glad you like.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 28 November 2016 - 07:32 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 28 November 2016 - 06:21 PM, said:

Properly stuck into Jeff Smith's Complete BONE, and Abyss was right (as usual), this gets DAMNED good around the second and third volume. Will likely get a chance to finish it this time.

Yeah, it goes from cute to good to mad fucking epic. Great great book. Glad you like.

Yeah, I think the moment I knew I was reading something special was when...

Spoiler

Gran'ma Ben tries to stop Kingdok out in the wilderness and after immobilizing Fone Bone, he basically drop kicks Gran'ma repeatedly off camera (after he had his arm cut off by Thorn). I'm sitting there thinking "holy crap, this is brutal!"

[Mentalist]

Finished "The Laughter of Carthage", the second Colonel Pyat novel.

Pyat ends the second part of his journal on a high note. I'm tempted to jump right into part 3 to see how he'll manage to screw everything up (and what outlandish ways he'll come up with to blame everyone but himself for what happened), but I think I'll hold off for now.

So now in commute I'll either read the second of the new mistborn novels (may need a quick re-read of "Alloy of Law" to re-familiarize myself with nu-Scadrial), or finally bite the bulle and read Kearney's "Kings of the Morning" (which I want to read to finish the trilo b/c completionist OCD, but also kinda dread b/c I felt "Corvus" was an unnecessary sequel).

Either way, looking @ a re-read for the rest of this week.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 28 November 2016 - 10:42 PM

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 28 November 2016 - 08:36 PM, said:

Abyss, on 28 November 2016 - 07:32 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 28 November 2016 - 06:21 PM, said:

Properly stuck into Jeff Smith's Complete BONE, and Abyss was right (as usual), this gets DAMNED good around the second and third volume. Will likely get a chance to finish it this time.

Yeah, it goes from cute to good to mad fucking epic. Great great book. Glad you like.

Yeah, I think the moment I knew I was reading something special was when...

Spoiler

Gran'ma Ben tries to stop Kingdok out in the wilderness and after immobilizing Fone Bone, he basically drop kicks Gran'ma repeatedly off camera (after he had his arm cut off by Thorn). I'm sitting there thinking "holy crap, this is brutal!"

Yep.That's the exact moment things take on a dark note. And while the cute and shiny elements don't go away, neither does the darkness. Yet it remains an acceptable children's story as well as an adult fantasy epic. It's pretty amazing what Smith managed to do.

[Abyss]

Finished the SHADOWED SOULS anthology. The DRESDEN FILES Molly story is all good. REALLY good actually.

The CAL LEANDROS story is ok if you enjoyed that series before it fell apart.

I cannot say much good about the rest of the stories in the book. Kat Richardson's PEACOCK IN HELL was decent, I suppose.

[acesn8s]

I didn't make any progress on The Red Knight during the Thanksgiving holiday. I'm starting to feel like the book's plot is meandering.

[Abyss]

WILLFUL CHILD: THE WRATH OF BETTY.
By that Erikson dude.
In ear book.


One hour in and I have laughed to near death. May have to avoid listening at the gym.Honestly, the first book I read in ebook form and enjoyed, but in earbook, with MacLeod Andrews' narration... even the stardates are hysterical.The names... the meta moments... seriously, if you are thinking about getting this, consider springing for the earbook or audible it.

[Tiste Simeon]

Did not even know that was out...

[Gabriele]

Baco Xtath, on 28 November 2016 - 06:10 PM, said:

I put down Miles Cameron's Plague of Swords. There's a part where he keeps saying him/her, he or she, and it goes on, and on, even though they establish that it's a woman. After about 30 minutes of listening to it and being very annoyed, I returned the book to audible. It's probably easier to read something like that as I generally don't read word for word but listening to it was excruciating to me. Disappointing as I really enjoyed the series. Could've just been my mood at the time. Sometimes I get annoyed with Peter F. Hamilton for polyps and geneered, (gene + engineered).

I never finished the first book because of that sort of issues. I've read self published books that were better edited than his stuff. Which is a pity because it is the sort of story I usually like. But I can't ignore all those spelling, gender, geography and continuity mistakes; I'm too much of an editor myself. What did the publisher do, except for printing the books?