[Andorion]

So finished Janny Wurts' Grand Conspiracy. Onto Peril's Gate.

Also finished The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carre. Holy shit people, this is an ice-cold book.

[Baco Xtath]

Abyss, on 11 February 2017 - 07:27 PM, said:

Finished Sanderson's ARCANUM. All good Cosmere fun. See ded thread for spoileriffic thoughts.
Now... either LIBRARY ON MOUNT CHAR or PETER GRANT 6: THE HANGING TREE.
Tough call.

Having listened to all three, Mount Char is definitely your best option.

[Macros]

Andorion, on 12 February 2017 - 01:55 AM, said:

So finished Janny Wurts' Grand Conspiracy. Onto Peril's Gate.

Also finished The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carre. Holy shit people, this is an ice-cold book.

Perfect description.

[QuickTidal]

Andorion, on 12 February 2017 - 01:55 AM, said:

Also finished The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carre. Holy shit people, this is an ice-cold book.

And this is the one that the ;people who made THE NIGHT MANAGER are next adapting for tv too!

[Abyss]

JPK, on 11 February 2017 - 07:29 PM, said:

Abyss, on 11 February 2017 - 07:27 PM, said:

Finished Sanderson's ARCANUM. All good Cosmere fun. See red thread for spoileriffic thoughts.
Now... either LIBRARY ON MOUNT CHAR or PETER GRANT 6: THE HANGING TREE.
Tough call.

MOUNT CHAR. Do iiiiiiiiiit.

Andorion, on 12 February 2017 - 01:16 AM, said:

Abyss, on 11 February 2017 - 07:27 PM, said:

Finished Sanderson's ARCANUM. All good Cosmere fun. See red thread for spoileriffic thoughts.
Now... either LIBRARY ON MOUNT CHAR or PETER GRANT 6: THE HANGING TREE.
Tough call.

Mount Char. No contest.

amphibian, on 12 February 2017 - 01:26 AM, said:

Mount Char is the better choice.

Baco Xtath, on 12 February 2017 - 03:14 PM, said:

Abyss, on 11 February 2017 - 07:27 PM, said:

Finished Sanderson's ARCANUM. All good Cosmere fun. See ded thread for spoileriffic thoughts.
Now... either LIBRARY ON MOUNT CHAR or PETER GRANT 6: THE HANGING TREE.
Tough call.

Having listened to all three, Mount Char is definitely your best option.

I feel like you're all trying to tell me something...

[polishgenius]

I agree, definitely read The Hanging Tree.

[Tiste Simeon]

I really don't think you would like Mount Char.

Tiste, may or may not have read Mount Char or know anything about it...

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Do you like your bread toasted or just warm?

[Abyss]

polishgenius, on 12 February 2017 - 08:44 PM, said:

I agree, definitely read The Hanging Tree.

Tiste Simeon, on 12 February 2017 - 08:48 PM, said:

I really don't think you would like Mount Char.

Tiste, may or may not have read Mount Char or know anything about it...

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 12 February 2017 - 09:55 PM, said:

Do you like your bread toasted or just warm?

Oh.. ok, i'll just start that Goodkind reread then.




...also, about 1/3rd of the way in LIBRARY.... ok damn that it some great writing / fucked up shit there.

[QuickTidal]

Finished my re-read of THE CROWN CONSPIRACY. Still a super fun, opening romp for the rest of the series.

And now onto the print version of ATLAS OBSCURA by Dylan Thuras, Ella Morton, and Joshua Foer...which so far is an excellent atlas/travelogue of all the weird and wonderful places around the world you may or may not know about.

[polishgenius]

Abyss, on 13 February 2017 - 03:49 PM, said:

...also, about 1/3rd of the way in LIBRARY.... ok damn that it some great writing / fucked up shit there.

Just wait until it starts getting weird.




Speaking of weird, I started reading Arc d'X by Steve Erickson. Starts off with an intimately grim portrayal of Thomas Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings and then segues to... well, weird shit. There appears to be a time-travel/dimension shift via the medium of murder and then we're in a theocratic dystopia of some sort and having all sorts of fever-dream-feeling happenings. There's a bit of a feel of early-order non-M.-Banks here, bit of Christopher Priest, that kind of thing. Good so far, but I'm not sure it's not going to end up being more clever than likeable.

[worry]

Finished Mr. Shivers. Liked it quite a bit. It's like half horror half paranormal fantasy in the Neil Gaiman sense, though not very similar stylistically. Much more Americana-from-the-inside. It's not quite as good as American Elsewhere (or American Gods for that matter), and it's rarely scary, but I found a lot of the dialogue bang-on, some wonderfully written narrative passages, and it's quite thoughtful with a pretty ambitious set of themes.

Now I'll tackle the Claw half of Shadow & Claw.

[Abyss]

polishgenius, on 13 February 2017 - 05:34 PM, said:

Abyss, on 13 February 2017 - 03:49 PM, said:

...also, about 1/3rd of the way in LIBRARY.... ok damn that it some great writing / fucked up shit there.

Just wait until it starts getting weird. ...

Just read the part with ...

Spoiler

the phone call to a certain high placed US gov official

...that was nuts, just ramped the stakes waaaaaaay up.

[Tiste Simeon]

Abyss, on 13 February 2017 - 08:58 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 13 February 2017 - 05:34 PM, said:

Abyss, on 13 February 2017 - 03:49 PM, said:

...also, about 1/3rd of the way in LIBRARY.... ok damn that it some great writing / fucked up shit there.

Just wait until it starts getting weird. ...

Just read the part with ...

Spoiler

the phone call to a certain high placed US gov official

...that was nuts, just ramped the stakes waaaaaaay up.

Must have missed it somewhere but I have no idea what book you're talking about...

[JPK]

Tiste Simeon, on 13 February 2017 - 09:57 PM, said:

Abyss, on 13 February 2017 - 08:58 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 13 February 2017 - 05:34 PM, said:

Abyss, on 13 February 2017 - 03:49 PM, said:

...also, about 1/3rd of the way in LIBRARY.... ok damn that it some great writing / fucked up shit there.

Just wait until it starts getting weird. ...

Just read the part with ...

Spoiler

the phone call to a certain high placed US gov official

...that was nuts, just ramped the stakes waaaaaaay up.

Must have missed it somewhere but I have no idea what book you're talking about...

The Library at Mount Char.

[Macros]

Just finished The Nights of Villjamur.

I would say one or two things were telegraphed in early, but definitely a solid opener. Will read the second book in the next week or two.
Well enough realised world and a few decent characters. Although Den is almost a bit too much of the stereotype. Eh he's a likeable character I guess.
The best character is easily Rumex, looking forward to seeing how his story pans out given how the book ended.

Next up - The Man Who Was Thursday

[JPK]

I've been chipping away at The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar for the last couple of weeks as my current ebook. I can't remember which one of you (Abyss or QT maybe?) was raving about it at the time, but I originally saw it mentioned on this thread, bought immediately, and left it sitting buried in my etrp ever since. That was a mistake. This book is insane in the best possible ways.
There is very little I feel I can say about this book without going into spoiler territory but it starts out with a young man going to see an illicit play about the Lizard Kings that have taken over an alternative London. During this play, a terrorist called The Bookman has sabotaged a book that is used for a prop and turns it into a bomb killing a couple of the actors and causing damage and general mayhem. Then things go crazy.

[Abyss]

JPK, on 14 February 2017 - 03:30 AM, said:

I've been chipping away at The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar for the last couple of weeks as my current ebook. I can't remember which one of you (Abyss or QT maybe?) was raving about it at the time, but I originally saw it mentioned on this thread, bought immediately, and left it sitting buried in my etrp ever since. That was a mistake. This book is insane in the best possible ways.
There is very little I feel I can say about this book without going into spoiler territory but it starts out with a young man going to see an illicit play about the Lizard Kings that have taken over an alternative London. During this play, a terrorist called The Bookman has sabotaged a book that is used for a prop and turns it into a bomb killing a couple of the actors and causing damage and general mayhem. Then things go crazy.

Not me, I ultimately borderline hated the series.Great concepts, execution utterly didn't work for me.

[JPK]

Abyss, on 14 February 2017 - 04:16 AM, said:

JPK, on 14 February 2017 - 03:30 AM, said:

I've been chipping away at The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar for the last couple of weeks as my current ebook. I can't remember which one of you (Abyss or QT maybe?) was raving about it at the time, but I originally saw it mentioned on this thread, bought immediately, and left it sitting buried in my etrp ever since. That was a mistake. This book is insane in the best possible ways.
There is very little I feel I can say about this book without going into spoiler territory but it starts out with a young man going to see an illicit play about the Lizard Kings that have taken over an alternative London. During this play, a terrorist called The Bookman has sabotaged a book that is used for a prop and turns it into a bomb killing a couple of the actors and causing damage and general mayhem. Then things go crazy.

Not me, I ultimately borderline hated the series.Great concepts, execution utterly didn't work for me.

So I'm about 1/3 of the way through the second part of book 1 and find that is been rather solid so far. Can you go into any more detail about where it fell apart for you? Spoiler-free if possible? Honestly, I'm mostly just curious because I don't find my reading preferences differing from yours very often. As I've mentioned previously, I'm pretty sure you're directly to blame for about 1/3 of the stuff on my trp.

[Mentalist]

JPK, on 14 February 2017 - 03:30 AM, said:

I've been chipping away at The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar for the last couple of weeks as my current ebook. I can't remember which one of you (Abyss or QT maybe?) was raving about it at the time, but I originally saw it mentioned on this thread, bought immediately, and left it sitting buried in my etrp ever since. That was a mistake. This book is insane in the best possible ways.
There is very little I feel I can say about this book without going into spoiler territory but it starts out with a young man going to see an illicit play about the Lizard Kings that have taken over an alternative London. During this play, a terrorist called The Bookman has sabotaged a book that is used for a prop and turns it into a bomb killing a couple of the actors and causing damage and general mayhem. Then things go crazy.

Parts 1 and 2 are great. 3 tapers off quite a lot, mostly because it retreads same ground as 1, instead of doing smth new, and the pacing slows down.

Oh, and it was me that pushed it, back in 2013.