[Andorion]

I really just have to chime in once again and say that the Oxford Time Travel book - To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis is awesome and hilarious. Great combo of Victorian comedies like PG Wodehouse and time travel.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 30 May 2017 - 01:50 PM, said:

Just started Rob Reid's YEAR ZERO in earbook. Actor John Hodgman narrating.
Glorious concept... aliens have been pirating Earth music for decades and just realized that they owe us a few trillions of dollars in licensing fees. A mediocre lawyer is hired to sort things out, mainly because he shares a name with a Backstreet Boy. Hilarity ensues. So do music and lawyer jokes.

...only i'm not quite convinced of the hilarity. Only about 15% in but some of the humour feels forced or gratuitous. Maybe it's me, the tone may be a little too light for what i was a feeling coming off KING OF THE WYLD. Will see.

I'm out. Book just moved from satire to outright slapstick, and not in a good way.
Trying Schwab's DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC.

[Tiste Simeon]

Finished The Pale Horseman, moved onto The Lords of the North and am now reading Sword Song. I forgot how much I love this series!

[Mentalist]

Abyss, on 30 May 2017 - 01:50 PM, said:

Chance, on 30 May 2017 - 09:30 AM, said:

Briar King, on 30 May 2017 - 05:06 AM, said:

The Witcher books that have recently come out States side are they good translations? Playing this game is fucking wild and now I must get them.............

AFTER SAFEHOLD.

The Last Wish is excellent the rest I found a bit tedious, not much to it after the basic ideas had been explained.

I really enjoyed The Last Wish, but found bk 2 was tedious and depending on who you ask, translation problems were part of that.

Now. Do you mean "Blood of the Elves" or the ACTUAL bk 2, "Sword of Destiny" that was released way later, because copyright reasons?

Because imho, "Sword of Destiny" is arguably THE best short story collection EVAR.

... and "Blood of the elves" makes much more sense after it

[Andorion]

Mentalist, on 01 June 2017 - 11:48 AM, said:

Abyss, on 30 May 2017 - 01:50 PM, said:

Chance, on 30 May 2017 - 09:30 AM, said:

Briar King, on 30 May 2017 - 05:06 AM, said:

The Witcher books that have recently come out States side are they good translations? Playing this game is fucking wild and now I must get them.............

AFTER SAFEHOLD.

The Last Wish is excellent the rest I found a bit tedious, not much to it after the basic ideas had been explained.

I really enjoyed The Last Wish, but found bk 2 was tedious and depending on who you ask, translation problems were part of that.

Now. Do you mean "Blood of the Elves" or the ACTUAL bk 2, "Sword of Destiny" that was released way later, because copyright reasons?

Because imho, "Sword of Destiny" is arguably THE best short story collection EVAR.

... and "Blood of the elves" makes much more sense after it

Agreed. Sword of Destiny was excellent and I will fight people over that opinion.

[QuickTidal]

Finished LIBRARY AT MOUNT CHAR, and that was one weird ass but kick ass read!

Spoiler

My only moderate complaint...is that the books denouement kind of happens at the 75% mark (with the death of David and the full execution of Carolyn's plan) and we get just over 100 pages of "tying up all the threads". Now that 100 pages also included the whole cypher about what Father was doing ect. but it's still kind of falls into "wrap up" territory. So I'd call that a bit long winded...but I was still so enthralled that it didn't really matter. Aside from that minor complaint, this book was excellent!

I am currently awaiting my new Kindle Paperwhite (ships today I think) to replace my old-as-shit (in eBook terms) Kindle3. But after it arrives, I've got an eBook or two to get to...probably gong to hit up Ilona Andrews CLEAN SWEEP, or S.M. Stirling's THE SUNRISE LANDS.

[End of Disc One]

Finished The Great Ordeal. Great book but I'm finding the writing to get more confusing. There were times where I almost had no idea what was going on. So far I rank both the Prince of Nothing and Aspect Emperor series, 2>3>1.

Started The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu. Love it so far and can tell it has a lot of potential.

[Abyss]

Andorion, on 01 June 2017 - 12:06 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 01 June 2017 - 11:48 AM, said:

Abyss, on 30 May 2017 - 01:50 PM, said:

Chance, on 30 May 2017 - 09:30 AM, said:

Briar King, on 30 May 2017 - 05:06 AM, said:

The Witcher books that have recently come out States side are they good translations? Playing this game is fucking wild and now I must get them.............

AFTER SAFEHOLD.

The Last Wish is excellent the rest I found a bit tedious, not much to it after the basic ideas had been explained.

I really enjoyed The Last Wish, but found bk 2 was tedious and depending on who you ask, translation problems were part of that.

Now. Do you mean "Blood of the Elves" or the ACTUAL bk 2, "Sword of Destiny" that was released way later, because copyright reasons?

Because imho, "Sword of Destiny" is arguably THE best short story collection EVAR.

... and "Blood of the elves" makes much more sense after it

Agreed. Sword of Destiny was excellent and I will fight people over that opinion.

Blood of Elves was released as bk 2 in my dimension.
It kind of sucked.

[Chance]

Abyss, on 01 June 2017 - 01:14 PM, said:

Andorion, on 01 June 2017 - 12:06 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 01 June 2017 - 11:48 AM, said:

Now. Do you mean "Blood of the Elves" or the ACTUAL bk 2, "Sword of Destiny" that was released way later, because copyright reasons?

Because imho, "Sword of Destiny" is arguably THE best short story collection EVAR.

... and "Blood of the elves" makes much more sense after it

Agreed. Sword of Destiny was excellent and I will fight people over that opinion.

Blood of Elves was released as bk 2 in my dimension.
It kind of sucked.

Sword of Destiny is passable but it is more of the same after The Last Wish and while Sword of Destiny obviously takes more care building up the cast it arguably is a much worse short story collection as the individual stories are much weaker . Still it is a lot better then the novels .

Blood of Elves do suck...the later books are a tiny bit stronger but tedious.

This post has been edited by Chance: 01 June 2017 - 01:27 PM

[QuickTidal]

Chance, on 01 June 2017 - 01:26 PM, said:

Sword of Destiny is passable but it is more of the same after The Last Wish and while Sword of Destiny obviously takes more care building up the cast it arguably is a much worse short story collection as the individual stories are much weaker . Still it is a lot better then the novels .

Blood of Elves do suck...the later books are a tiny bit stronger but tedious.

^^This is my general summation as well.

[Mentalist]

The books are not as good as short stories, true (though I obv disagree about SoD being worse than TLW. Pretty much every story in SoD is designed to hit you right in the feels) The meta-narrative Sapkowski throws in is kinda pointless, and there's bunch of meandering.

Still, "Time of Contempt" is the book "A Feast for Crows" should have been.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 01 June 2017 - 01:32 PM

[Chance]

Mentalist, on 01 June 2017 - 01:31 PM, said:

Still, "Time of Contempt" is the book "A Feast for Crows" should have been.

That actually makes a lot of sense to me, Martin and Sapkowski does a lot of things similiarly there and Sapkowski does it better.

This post has been edited by Chance: 01 June 2017 - 03:49 PM

[amphibian]

The nitty gritty is that Sapkowski is very much worth reading.

[Abyss]

Someone, spoilblock if needed, explain to me how SWORD makes BLOOD any better?


...because honestly, BLOOD kind of sucked.

It was choppy, the storylines barely connected, some of them went nowhere, there were pages and pages of previously unseen characters standing around babbling about sociology or something, and the Witcher's personality shifted almost scene to scene.

[Chance]

Abyss, on 01 June 2017 - 05:59 PM, said:

Someone, spoilblock if needed, explain to me how SWORD makes BLOOD any better?


...because honestly, BLOOD kind of sucked.

It was choppy, the storylines barely connected, some of them went nowhere, there were pages and pages of previously unseen characters standing around babbling about sociology or something, and the Witcher's personality shifted almost scene to scene.

With Sword of Destiny it makes some sense, without it its complete nonsens. It is basically the prologue to Blood of Elves establishing most of the preconditions for the book. Tried reading Blood of Elves before Sword several times and just no it doesn't work at all.

This post has been edited by Chance: 01 June 2017 - 07:09 PM

[Mentalist]

Briar King, on 01 June 2017 - 07:15 PM, said:

Exactly how much of that could be lost in translation vs just a bad book?

I want to get these. Looks like there are a few translators for current game cover style books.

I read them all together, translated (into Russian, which is same language family, so translations are easier) and in sequence.

I also noticed a small drop in quality in "Blood of the Elves" due to the major change in style- from short stories to a full-fledged epic novel--but I was already invested in the characters, and the plot kept pushing me along.

[polishgenius]

I've been reading A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall. Took a long time to take the plunge purely because the main character is called Zosia, a diminutive in Polish (from Zofia) and therefore hard to take seriously as the name of a legendary badass, but I'm glad I did coz it's really good.

[Mentalist]

Finished "Autumn Republic". Despite that first chapter that led me to believe there'd be a face-palm worthy misunderstanding underpinning the plot, things turned out well. Nothing earth-shattering, but solid musketpunk action. Adamat and Nila arguably stole the show, and they were awesome. I'm likely to check out the sequel trilo.

Next for commute I think I'll do "Wheel of Osheim"

[Mentalist]

Briar King, on 02 June 2017 - 12:12 AM, said:

Mentalist, on 01 June 2017 - 08:49 PM, said:

Briar King, on 01 June 2017 - 07:15 PM, said:

Exactly how much of that could be lost in translation vs just a bad book?

I want to get these. Looks like there are a few translators for current game cover style books.

I read them all together, translated (into Russian, which is same language family, so translations are easier) and in sequence.

I also noticed a small drop in quality in "Blood of the Elves" due to the major change in style- from short stories to a full-fledged epic novel--but I was already invested in the characters, and the plot kept pushing me along.

I ll get one after I finish a certain series some day and check it out. I'm enjoying the game to much to not try it.

The games spoil the books, a bit. But I'm pretty sure you hit that point already.

[Tiste Simeon]

Abyss, on 01 June 2017 - 05:59 PM, said:

Someone, spoilblock if needed, explain to me how SWORD makes BLOOD any better?


...because honestly, BLOOD kind of sucked.

It was choppy...

Yeah you'd think the book with the word SWORD in the title would be the choppy one...