[Macros]

I don't think I've read the 4th greatcloaks book, must get to it

[acesn8s]

Macros, on 30 June 2017 - 08:52 AM, said:

I don't think I've read the 4th greatcloaks book, must get to it

It's in my queue as well.

[Kruppe of Darujhistan]

Coco with marshmallows, on 29 June 2017 - 09:12 PM, said:

personally plowing through the rise and fall of DoDo

Read it on kindle in two days. Saw the hardcopy at B&N yesterday. Didn't realize it was such a doorstopper. Sure hope they're working on a sequel.

This post has been edited by Kruppe of Darujhistan: 30 June 2017 - 08:40 PM

[worry]

Finished Robert Jackson Bennett's The Company Man, and it's probably his weakest book -- definitely the weakest of the ones I've read, and the ones I haven't read all have strong reps (The Troupe, the City trilogy). It's a murder mystery of sorts set in a retrofuturistic industrial city, in the vein of like Bioshock, and there's a lot of good but just not that much great. It just seems a bit underdeveloped, particularly the city as well as 2 out of the 3 protagonists.

Now I'll dive into the Robin Hobb books I haven't gotten to yet, given all the Fitz talk lately.

[Macros]

Just finished NOD, by Adrian Barnes.

It's a very different style of book to what I would normally read, and my reading time was limited this week, but lashed through the second half there in about an hour, and it has an excellent ending.
For such an end of days scenario, it manages very well to contain the whole story to a very small, tightly knit arc and whilst it acknowledged the rest of world was going to shit as well all I really cared about was that small corner of Vancouver.

The post ending interview with the author is haunting, I had no idea what he had went through, after the publication of NOD, and as he states himself, his deterioration and debilitating due to the treatments are a horrific parallel of societies fall in the novel.

Read it, and then sit and stew on the universes horrid sense of irony when you read the interview

[Puck]

worry, on 30 June 2017 - 09:10 PM, said:

Now I'll dive into the Robin Hobb books I haven't gotten to yet, given all the Fitz talk lately.

Do tell how you find them, please. I liked and loved her first two trilogies in the setting respectively, but The Tawny Man was such a disaster for me I'm this close to swear off Hobb forever. I would if I hadn't already bought the Rainwild Chronicles before reading Tawny Man. I do want to know what happens to Fitz, but I'm not touching that series again if she hasn't moved on from writing her own fanfiction.

On topic, I'm currently on Clay's Ark, book three in Octavia Butler's Seed to Harvest series, and while I don't love it, I like it, especially since each book introduces something new. I just wish there were more than one plotline to each book, since I get bored easily with that kind of set up, but hey, it's a good book to bridge the time until tUC is released, what with the copious amounts of aliens and sex.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

What specifically turned you off in Tawny Man? (I enjoyed that trilogy, but would rank it lowest on my list out of all her miniseries).

[worry]

I liked Tawny Man too, but I feel an unhealthily strong kinship with the Fool. If Hobb wrote a trilogy covering Fool's trip to the laundromat, I'd love it.
I don't know what to expect from the Rain Wilds books at all, but I'll write about each one as I finish.

[Puck]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 02 July 2017 - 07:39 PM, said:

What specifically turned you off in Tawny Man? (I enjoyed that trilogy, but would rank it lowest on my list out of all her miniseries).

A lot, but I'll spoiler the detailed list..

Spoiler

- that excuse plot she started the first book with, then let it fizzle out unresolved because she didn't need it anymore to get Dutiful into the story
- that pointless 'will they or won't they' between Fitz and Fool, even though the part where Fool visits Fitz at the start of the first book makes it abundantly clear that no, they won't
- that forced subplot to create tension and jealousy between Fitz and Fool by introducing whatshername the huntswoman, which also went nowhere
- Thick, but I'm not holding that one against the books because I just personally dislike that kind of character.. my only problem ist that Fitz got to babysit him for a huge chunk of Fool's Fate
- the idiot ball everyone was juggling, especially after they get hit by important information in the head
- speaking of which, Hobb cannot, just cannot, write villains.. Regal was okay in the first trilo, Kennit was okay because he had a PoV, but the Pale Lady was a flat cardboard cut out of a villain that was evil for evil's sake and because reasons, none of which made sense
- speaking of which again, the torture porn that came out of nowhere and had no place in the story (unlike, say, the darn well written PTSD Fitz had after his stint in Regal's dungeon in the first trilo) other than to show how evil the Pale Lady was... her hide-out was like Evil Lair 101... her only motivaton was to prevent Fool from making the future he forsaw happen, but all she did was show off her evilness...
- no, seriously, that entire part of the book just lapsed into the worst torture fanfiction tropes out there, and what for? so that she could continue with hurt & comfort fanfiction right afterwards..
- I didn't mind so much that Fool was tortured to death, it was the HOW it happened, and especially the way it was written, the way she had Fitz think about it was plain disgusting to me... Fool's supposed to be his best friend, but all Fitz had to say about what happened to him was 'how pitiful'... excuse me? He's been treating Fool like shit for most of the trilogy but then suddenly he can't live without him anymore? I guess that's what Hobb tacked the 'Fitz has mommy issues and accidentally got rid of his own ability to feel anything while getting rid of his memories of mom way back when'-thing on.. basically, I felt like the entire section of the book was full of needless milking for the reader's feelings by going to extremes that did nothing for the story, for the characters, their development or the setting.. why the hell do you need to have a character skinned alive then thrown into the latrine pit when you've managed to create believable, painful to read but non-gimmicky situations in several previous books? to show Fitz's sudden lack of feelings? Nah, unfortunately, it just made the entire thing seem needlessly torture-porny and the explanation tacked on
- that entire part afterwards was just fishing for more 'feelz'
- then she had Fitz conveniently do a 'lost in space and time'-trip at the only time he could've cleared things up with Fool
- then, as if she hadn't thrown enough of the story's believability (is that even a word) out the window, Hobb throws EVERYTHING she'd just spent three books preaching about - ya know, that love exists without sex, that there are all kinds of love like familial and between friends, non-heteronormative relationships, an so on - RIGHT out the window by spending the next seventy or so pages on making everyone find their ideal love of the opposite sex, settle down with a house and probably a dog, and have potentially copious amounts of kids, presenting it as the only way to find happiness in life... because a fling you had in your youth is much more important than the friend you've just been willing to die for... and the only character not settling down to have kids at the end of Fool's Fate is Hap, seriously.. even the fourteen-year-old princess is pregnant.. speaking of which, that was the moment I noticed how much Hobb loves pregnant teenage girls, and leaving characters pregnant in general.. so far each trilogy has ended with at least one
- that last one is not exactly about this trilogy, but I've spoilered myself on the way a certain character from the Fitz and the Fool trilogy came to be, tand that's just one step above m-preg fanfiction.. no, just no

All of that rant is in addition to the fact that what little plot there is, is painfully and needlessly drawn out. They could've hopped on a boat at a particular point without spending several chapters on doing nothing. Stuff like that. That said, Royal Assassin also was about a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes in one place, but that actually is my favourite book in the entire series, because there Hobb creates tension without the need to endlessly drag out the plot - because there is a plot, not a bunch of slice of life that eventually leads nowhere but gives Fitz more to whine about alone behind closed doors.

Edit: The truth is, I was really happy to find a series that didn't present heteronormative sexual relationships as the be-all-end-all of happiness, then Hobb went and walked all over that.

worry, on 02 July 2017 - 08:14 PM, said:

I liked Tawny Man too, but I feel an unhealthily strong kinship with the Fool. If Hobb wrote a trilogy covering Fool's trip to the laundromat, I'd love it.
I don't know what to expect from the Rain Wilds books at all, but I'll write about each one as I finish.

^This. I love the Fool. The way Hobb treated him in Tawny Man is part of why I intensenly dislike that trilogy.

This post has been edited by Puck: 02 July 2017 - 09:10 PM

[Traveller]

Shogun. Yes, again. I was unable to download a new book at work so I started reading it as it was already on my kindle... now I'm totally hooked again.

Awesome book.

[Andorion]

Finished Fortune's Favourites, and 22% into Caesar's Women. The title made me a bit sceptical, but so far its been really good.

[Gabriele]

Andorion, on 03 July 2017 - 04:00 PM, said:

Finished Fortune's Favourites, and 22% into Caesar's Women. The title made me a bit sceptical, but so far its been really good.

I deem it the weakest of the series and the one where I keep skipping stuff on reread. It'll be interesting to see what you make of it.

[Andorion]

Gabriele, on 03 July 2017 - 04:33 PM, said:

Andorion, on 03 July 2017 - 04:00 PM, said:

Finished Fortune's Favourites, and 22% into Caesar's Women. The title made me a bit sceptical, but so far its been really good.

I deem it the weakest of the series and the one where I keep skipping stuff on reread. It'll be interesting to see what you make of it.

Some of the portions are irritating. I skimmed the Clodius part.

[Salt-Man Z]

Back from a 2-week vacation. I only read two books, but did so in the span of 6 days:

Mr Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett: Enjoyable, but I have the feeling it might not stick in my memory long. But the setting and storytelling are very atmospheric, and the prose is lovely at times.

But the real gem was Everything You Want Me to Be (published in the UK as The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman) by my high school friend and classmate Mindy Mejia. I pimped this one in the ebook thread back when it was on sale, but I hadn't read it yet. And holy crap. I read the first chapters one night, and then spent the next day tearing through the rest (staying up until 3am to finish it.) Amazing. Not a hint of SFF about it, just a murder mystery in small town Minnesota, but the way Mindy tells the story is great: first-person POVs by 3 main characters that alternate between the murder investigation and the months leading up to it, which keeps the reader guessing until right up to the very end. Read of the year, easy, and I'm not sure it can be topped.

[Andorion]

Salt-Man Z, on 03 July 2017 - 05:40 PM, said:

Back from a 2-week vacation. I only read two books, but did so in the span of 6 days:

Mr Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett: Enjoyable, but I have the feeling it might not stick in my memory long. But the setting and storytelling are very atmospheric, and the prose is lovely at times.

But the real gem was Everything You Want Me to Be (published in the UK as The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman) by my high school friend and classmate Mindy Mejia. I pimped this one in the ebook thread back when it was on sale, but I hadn't read it yet. And holy crap. I read the first chapters one night, and then spent the next day tearing through the rest (staying up until 3am to finish it.) Amazing. Not a hint of SFF about it, just a murder mystery in small town Minnesota, but the way Mindy tells the story is great: first-person POVs by 3 main characters that alternate between the murder investigation and the months leading up to it, which keeps the reader guessing until right up to the very end. Read of the year, easy, and I'm not sure it can be topped.

Marked down Everything You Want Me to Be on Goodreads. Its been some time since I read a decent murder mystery.

[Kruppe of Darujhistan]

Salt-Man Z, on 03 July 2017 - 05:40 PM, said:

Back from a 2-week vacation. I only read two books, but did so in the span of 6 days:

Mr Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett: Enjoyable, but I have the feeling it might not stick in my memory long. But the setting and storytelling are very atmospheric, and the prose is lovely at times.

But the real gem was Everything You Want Me to Be (published in the UK as The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman) by my high school friend and classmate Mindy Mejia. I pimped this one in the ebook thread back when it was on sale, but I hadn't read it yet. And holy crap. I read the first chapters one night, and then spent the next day tearing through the rest (staying up until 3am to finish it.) Amazing. Not a hint of SFF about it, just a murder mystery in small town Minnesota, but the way Mindy tells the story is great: first-person POVs by 3 main characters that alternate between the murder investigation and the months leading up to it, which keeps the reader guessing until right up to the very end. Read of the year, easy, and I'm not sure it can be topped.

I spent 32 years in Minnesota. Is the small town setting real or fictional?

[Salt-Man Z]

Kruppe of Darujhistan, on 03 July 2017 - 05:47 PM, said:

I spent 32 years in Minnesota. Is the small town setting real or fictional?

The town itself (Pine Valley, in southern MN) appears to be fictional, but (as someone who's lived in suburban Apple Valley almost all his life) all of the other details ring true. Shopping trips to "the city" are to the Miracle Mile mall in Rochester, for example. And Mindy's local; we went to Rosemount High School together, and both still live in the state.

[Salt-Man Z]

Andorion, on 03 July 2017 - 05:43 PM, said:

Marked down Everything You Want Me to Be on Goodreads. Its been some time since I read a decent murder mystery.

Come for the murder mystery, stay for the twisty-turny character development.

(I'm still thinking about it almost 2 weeks later.)

[Chance]

Finished City of Miracles and I'm going to have to hunt down everything this guy has written, not the best books I've read but by far the best ones from a new name for me. A bit heavy handed in the theme over plot department but I love some of the descriptions, action sequences and he has a very good set of protagonists. City of Blades was probably the high point for me but each of the books have great, good and merely decent sections. All in all very nicely put together. Is the rest of his writing in the same ballpark for quality?


Probably going for Legion of Flame next as Ryan hasn't disappoint me yet.

[polishgenius]

Chance, on 03 July 2017 - 09:20 PM, said:

Is the rest of his writing in the same ballpark for quality?

I've only read American Elsewhere by him outside of the series, so far, but that book is fucking awesome. Think I like it more than the trilogy.