[Andorion]

Down South, on 31 August 2017 - 02:59 AM, said:

Yeah I kept thinking about Hitler comparisons/conditioning for obvious reasons. He actually had

Spoiler

his own people try to kill him many many times though. The Wilson plot was dropped in bk 4 and just left alone till 60 or so page from the end of 9. People may have even forgotten it if they just read each as it was published and not back to back and it could feel to neat if that makes sense for a lot of people

I still think was a bad, bad guy though lol.

Also you can definitely tell from his author note that 1-9 was basically Act 1.

Spoiler

On the one hand, I want him to put in a big time jump so we get Safehold in space. Weber really does good space battles. On the other hand I really really want to see Merlin and Co. tackling all the secret equipment lying around and the huge orbital weapons platform. Unless they get rid of those, they won't be able to properly industrialise.

Overall I agree with you that Weber did a bad job writing antagonists in this series. Which is a pity, because he usually writes good antagonists. His Honor Harrington series has some very good intelligent antagonists.

BTW BK, do not attempt Harrington. After a very good 3-4 books the bloat returns with a vengeance. The series got so swollen it spawned 3-4 subseries, and then two books, one from a subseries and one from the main series repeated the same events from different PoVs. One subseries is about the pet of the main character!

[Morgoth]

I finished The Stone Sky. An excellent end to an excellent trilogy. I don't experience as many of those anymore as I would have liked.

[acesn8s]

Mentalist, on 30 August 2017 - 11:49 PM, said:

Finished "Iron Druid 3". Meh. This series is now relegated to " wait for sale" urb-f.

I think 3 or 4 was where I dropped the series.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Finished Newman's The Vagrant. This book was a surprise to me — when I first read the synopsis, I figured it would just be a ripoff of The Road, set in some post-apocalyptic world with a generic silent, brooding protagonist.

I was wrong. Instead, it's a highly inventive novel with little that is generic. Newman is a masterful namer of things; has a developed facility for catching small moments and shared experiences in an otherwise bleak world, and reflecting those on to the reader; spools out his worldbuilding slowly, building tile upon tile, until the final mosaic is laid out (not to say the plotting is complex — it's pretty straightforward, but feels weighted and layered with depth).

Also, a cute baby.

Also, a winged, one-eyed sword.

I'm looking forward to what he'll publish next.

[Andorion]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 31 August 2017 - 12:08 PM, said:

Finished Newman's The Vagrant. This book was a surprise to me — when I first read the synopsis, I figured it would just be a ripoff of The Road, set in some post-apocalyptic world with a generic silent, brooding protagonist.

I was wrong. Instead, it's a highly inventive novel with little that is generic. Newman is a masterful namer of things; has a developed facility for catching small moments and shared experiences in an otherwise bleak world, and reflecting those on to the reader; spools out his worldbuilding slowly, building tile upon tile, until the final mosaic is laid out (not to say the plotting is complex — it's pretty straightforward, but feels weighted and layered with depth).

Also, a cute baby.

Also, a winged, one-eyed sword.

I'm looking forward to what he'll publish next.

You missed the goat!

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Andorion, on 31 August 2017 - 12:12 PM, said:

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 31 August 2017 - 12:08 PM, said:

Finished Newman's The Vagrant. This book was a surprise to me — when I first read the synopsis, I figured it would just be a ripoff of The Road, set in some post-apocalyptic world with a generic silent, brooding protagonist.

I was wrong. Instead, it's a highly inventive novel with little that is generic. Newman is a masterful namer of things; has a developed facility for catching small moments and shared experiences in an otherwise bleak world, and reflecting those on to the reader; spools out his worldbuilding slowly, building tile upon tile, until the final mosaic is laid out (not to say the plotting is complex — it's pretty straightforward, but feels weighted and layered with depth).

Also, a cute baby.

Also, a winged, one-eyed sword.

I'm looking forward to what he'll publish next.

You missed the goat!

I was leaving that as a surprise!

I just realized that books 2 and 3 in this trilogy are already out — and seem to be even more well received than book 1. Purchasing now...

[amphibian]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 31 August 2017 - 12:08 PM, said:

Finished Newman's The Vagrant. This book was a surprise to me — when I first read the synopsis, I figured it would just be a ripoff of The Road, set in some post-apocalyptic world with a generic silent, brooding protagonist.

I was wrong. Instead, it's a highly inventive novel with little that is generic. Newman is a masterful namer of things; has a developed facility for catching small moments and shared experiences in an otherwise bleak world, and reflecting those on to the reader; spools out his worldbuilding slowly, building tile upon tile, until the final mosaic is laid out (not to say the plotting is complex — it's pretty straightforward, but feels weighted and layered with depth).

Also, a cute baby.

Also, a winged, one-eyed sword.

I'm looking forward to what he'll publish next.

Newman has already finished the series with two more books and a short novella. All are excellent and the third book is especially fun after the world changing the second book engages in.

[Chance]

Finished up the Stone Sky and well not my type of book at all while I can appreciate the first book for clever structure and telling three interesting stories that are interconnected in a fine way. I find very little of that in the later two books. They where kinda of preachy a lot of the time it seemed more like the author was doing the talking and thinking then the characters when going out of their way to explain the hardships, injustices they suffered and the stigmas their society put on them. I'm all for social comentary or philosophy in my fantasy or sf in fact thats when these generes usually excel but this was often heavy handed. All in all The Fifth Season was good the other two average at best.

This post has been edited by Chance: 31 August 2017 - 11:18 PM

[Andorion]

I am dropping Rise and Fall of DODO. I don't know why. I just can't seem to like it at all. I only made it 10% in, and yet whenever I read it I feel uneasy and irritated.

[Puck]

Finished Seven Surrenders by Ada Palmer. While I will definitely be reading the next two books in the series when they come out, I'm kind of on the fence about the series as a whole so far. I really liked some aspects of the first arc (the insanely interwoven storylines, the characters, the delivery, the themes), but I equally hated some other aspects (the setting especially, as well as the pointless sex scenes AFTER the point they were trying to make had already been made, and not in an elegant way thanks to the aforementioned sex scenes, and also some aspects of the story which quite obviously had to be unelegantly handled to enable the good stuff). That said, it's a debut, and as that it's a really strong one, wether I like the entire thing or not. Seven Surrenders was largely a wrapping up of events that got rolling in Too like the lightning, meaning it was mostly rewarding stuff despite taking longer to get to the point than the first book.

Anyway, on to The Traitor Baru Cormorant.

[Abyss]

Finished Abercrombie's HALF A KING and HALF A WORLD, right into HALF A WAR. Great fantasy this, 'classic' in some sense, terrific characters, solid pacing, lots of swords and minimal magic (and a big deal when it happens)... really JA writing at i think a tighter level than his FIRST LAW series.

[amphibian]

When is he going to get back into the First Law story?

[QuickTidal]

Started Pratchett's SOUL MUSIC. Already great of course!

[T77]

Andorion, on 01 September 2017 - 05:40 AM, said:

I am dropping Rise and Fall of DODO. I don't know why. I just can't seem to like it at all. I only made it 10% in, and yet whenever I read it I feel uneasy and irritated.

I didn't care for it either. But, I made the mistake of reading it through to the end.

[End of Disc One]

amphibian, on 01 September 2017 - 01:43 PM, said:

When is he going to get back into the First Law story?

That's his current project. I believe this is the most recent update on that:

https://www.joeaberc...-report-may-17/

[QuickTidal]

T77, on 01 September 2017 - 02:45 PM, said:

Andorion, on 01 September 2017 - 05:40 AM, said:

I am dropping Rise and Fall of DODO. I don't know why. I just can't seem to like it at all. I only made it 10% in, and yet whenever I read it I feel uneasy and irritated.

I didn't care for it either. But, I made the mistake of reading it through to the end.

This is good to know, I had this title down in evernote to watch for on Kindle deals. I'll skip it now.

[amphibian]

That's a pretty good plan he has. I hope he can do this as he wants because the method allows for a better story to develop.

[Abyss]

End of Disc One, on 01 September 2017 - 02:52 PM, said:

amphibian, on 01 September 2017 - 01:43 PM, said:

When is he going to get back into the First Law story?

That's his current project. I believe this is the most recent update on that:

https://www.joeaberc...-report-may-17/

amphibian, on 01 September 2017 - 03:30 PM, said:

That's a pretty good plan he has. I hope he can do this as he wants because the method allows for a better story to develop.

It is, and interesting that he acknowledges the risks it entails, tho i think Abercrombie is well enough established now that they're minimal for him.

[Abyss]

More or less all the sf/f books coming out Sept - Dec.

http://io9.gizmodo.c...n-yo-1798369094

[Andorion]

Reading the Delirium Brief.

Oh shit..