Interests:All things Malazan, sundry sci-fi and fantasy, history, Iron Maiden
Posted 02 September 2017 - 03:12 AM
Honey Cups, on 02 September 2017 - 02:58 AM, said:
Bout 120 pgs left of Tigana. Wow these past 80 pages have been gripping. As I suspected I did this book a grave disservice not reading it by itself and dividing my time and attention.
Is people's problem (no future spoilers please) with this book only the
Spoiler
incest
? I still maintain that it works within the rules of the religion GGK setup and that it's more out of place in GoT where mortals decided this was the way it had to be in certain circles. Ed: or I should say not had to be but what they wanted I guess. Also they did it to
Spoiler
reproduce. Gross! Dianora did it to keep her brother alive!
it is still weird but it works in its way.
This is a compelling novel and if this is GGK's least liked/controversial book then I'm going to be in for a true treat I suspect on his other books. This guy can write.
For me it was the ending. It seemed to fizzle out after a good build up.
Location:The call is coming from inside the house!!!!
Interests:Interesting.
Posted 02 September 2017 - 03:39 AM
Andorion, on 02 September 2017 - 03:12 AM, said:
Honey Cups, on 02 September 2017 - 02:58 AM, said:
Bout 120 pgs left of Tigana. Wow these past 80 pages have been gripping. As I suspected I did this book a grave disservice not reading it by itself and dividing my time and attention.
Is people's problem (no future spoilers please) with this book only the
Spoiler
incest
? I still maintain that it works within the rules of the religion GGK setup and that it's more out of place in GoT where mortals decided this was the way it had to be in certain circles. Ed: or I should say not had to be but what they wanted I guess. Also they did it to
Spoiler
reproduce. Gross! Dianora did it to keep her brother alive!
it is still weird but it works in its way.
This is a compelling novel and if this is GGK's least liked/controversial book then I'm going to be in for a true treat I suspect on his other books. This guy can write.
For me it was the ending. It seemed to fizzle out after a good build up.
But yeah Lions is mind blowingly good.
Oh sure, why not...Warning WHOLE BOOK SPOILERS
Spoiler
It's the incest that does absolutely nothing for the story... dude could have been looking for his sister, they didn't need to bang. Or else write her as his ggirlfriend, betrothed, whatever.
It's the random detour to a random demon invasion story that makes no sense and has nothing to do with the actual plot of the book.
It's that thirty seconds thought and the big spell making everyone forget Tigana has gaping holes in it even allowing for 'magic!'.
It's the blue wine thing that's never explained.
It's that no one remembers Tigana but apparently its prince can enslave mages for no particular reason other than being the prince of Tigana. But not the big bad Mage of the whole story.
It's the weak ending.
It's that reading it for the first time after SARANTINE and LIONS, it's just weak.
...so yeah, that.
THIS IS YOUR REMINDER THAT THERE IS A 'VIEW NEW CONTENT' BUTTON THAT ALLOWS YOU TO VIEW NEW CONTENT
Reading Sorcerer to the Crown and it is delightful but not particularly deep. The language would annoy me on some days but it is a very nice contrast to what I've read recently.
My Malazan re-read has reached Reaper's Gale. I have to say that TBH and so far Reaper's Gale I'm finding the irritations I had with them when reading them on release a lot less of an issue when taken in the context of the whole series read relatively quickly together.
Finished The Stone Sky. Absolutely loved it. Out of all her work this series best integrates a whole host of vital real world issues like environmentalism, colonialism, slavery, oppression,genocide, and exploitation, and draws immensely stirring lived reactions to all of them. I'm so impressed that each book used parallel storytelling, but changed it up for each one in ways that served the story perfectly. And through all this it managed the feat of executing one of epic fantasy's most familiar scenarios in a genuinely original way.
They came with white hands and left with red hands.
Honey Cups, on 04 September 2017 - 05:37 PM, said:
Maark Abbott, on 04 September 2017 - 07:55 AM, said:
Honey Cups, on 03 September 2017 - 10:35 PM, said:
WoK is hurting my hands. I don't think this is going to be a binding contract to tackle before OB.
Escape while you still can.
I did. I kept looking at it and asked myself if I really wanted to read 2K pages of emo Kaladin again and the answer was no. I ll look up the summaries of 1&2. My memory is pretty strong still about the books.
You need to try book 2. Lift makes it all better.
There is literally not enough money in the world to persuade me to try book two of... of... THAT. I feel sullied by your mere suggestion of it, sir!
Firebrand continues to move along. The pacing seems a little off compared to Blackveil and Mirror Sight - when things happen, they happen explosively and out of the blue, and it's not always feasible to see why they're happening at all. Then again, it's epic/heroic fantasy which I've been away from for a while. It's pretty good, considering it's out of my genre.
I don't remember if I mentioned but I'm up to the end of issue four of the School-Live!/Gakkou Gurashi! manga (which will please D'rek-sama immensely) and it's fantastically grim. At points, it exceeds Bakker for sheer levels of PLEASE STOP grimness. It actually makes me want to write again, which I sorely, sorely need to do.
Location:The call is coming from inside the house!!!!
Interests:Interesting.
Posted 06 September 2017 - 02:18 PM
Abyss, on 05 September 2017 - 05:06 PM, said:
...
On the more productive side i have maybe an hour left in bk 3 of the SHATTERED SEAS trilo earbook, and it is reasonably fucking awesome.
All done. Very enjoyed this.
The running critiques i've seen elsepost are that this is Abercrombie-lite, or YA. Have to disagree, but it's a qualified disagreement.. if you only read HALF A KING, then yeah, i can see how you got there. The protagonist is a young prince, exiled, has to become a man, grow up, overcome obstacles, gather companions, and get home to regain his throne. It's a very, very trite storyline, tho i give JA credit for pace and solid characters to keep it moving, with enough twists and death that it's not entirely predictable.
But HALF A WORLD... nope. Not YA. Shit gets grim, stabbing happens, if this is YA the subgenre has gotten very mature when i wasn't looking because HUNGER GAMES didn't go this ugly (tho close, now that i think about it). The change in pov protagonists was solid, Thorn in particular just a great 'warrior woman in training' type and her action scenes are pure JA crack.
And HALF A WAR. Damn. Bayaz back in THE FIRST LAW world could take lessons.
The characters did tend to be 'younger' (late teens early 20s), the sex was minimal and not as icky and JA writes in TFL series, and the action is bloody and ugly. Overall i really enjoyed reading (listening) this trilo in one swoop. It had solid action, fun characters, never dragged.
spoilers spoilers spoilers
Spoiler
Damn, Yarvey went near full Dark Overlord by the end there. Book 1 hinted at that, bk 2 a little more, but the scope and sheer cold of what he set up by the end was just (awesome) insane.
Thorn was awesome. I loved every one of her fights in bk 2... the fight vs 7 men was amazing, her duel with Gorum at the end was near perfect, even if his trick-move was obvious.
Raithe grew on me in bk 3, as he was supposed to i suppose. Cole less so, but he served his purpose showing the scope of what Yarvey did. Skara was solid... her growth from scared refugee to Queen worked well.
I liked the supporting cast... Rin was fun, Sketcher was awesome, Queen Laythlen one of my favorite supporting characters in a while, Nothing/Euric and Gorum were great warrior types.
BEST SERVED COLD remains my favorite JA work, followed by RED COUNTRY and THE HEROES but i would say SHATTERED SEAS is a better read (if perhaps not better story) than the original FIRST LAW trilo.
THIS IS YOUR REMINDER THAT THERE IS A 'VIEW NEW CONTENT' BUTTON THAT ALLOWS YOU TO VIEW NEW CONTENT
Recently read Saladin Ahmed's short story collection, Engraved on the Eye. Really good stuff. (It's free on Kindle, too!)
Today at lunch I finished up Octavia Butler's first Earthseed book, Parable of the Sower. Almost felt like a YA book, but very mature and absolutely bleak. Dang, man.
"Here is light. You will say that it is not a living entity, but you miss the point that it is more, not less. Without occupying space, it fills the universe. It nourishes everything, yet itself feeds upon destruction. We claim to control it, but does it not perhaps cultivate us as a source of food? May it not be that all wood grows so that it can be set ablaze, and that men and women are born to kindle fires?"
―Gene Wolfe, The Citadel of the Autarch
Interests:All things Malazan, sundry sci-fi and fantasy, history, Iron Maiden
Posted 09 September 2017 - 01:11 AM
Finished reading a lot of stuff
1. American Gods by Neil Gaiman - I absolutely loved this book. Adored it.
2. Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer - my second attempt at Southern Reach and noq I have been sucked in! WIll read the other two pretty soon.
3. Red Sister by Mark Lawrence - great new series, but decidedly less violent and shocking than Broken Empire. Reminded me of Harry Potter
4. All these worlds by Dennis Taylor - nice book to finish the trilogy
5. Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro - I loved reading this book. It was funny, poignant, amazingly well-written and very historically evocative. Also with Remains of the Day I finish my 24 book classics challenge. I will post a seperate thread on this later.
Interests:Sacrificing myself for everyone else's greater good!
Posted 09 September 2017 - 03:43 PM
Honey Cups, on 09 September 2017 - 05:00 AM, said:
I ll let ya know. I'm actually dreading bk 2. Didn't like that one much. It's short though.
Yeah, book 2 is unquestionably the weakest. However, there is a ton of stuff in there to watch for during a reread. So much set-up and foreshadowing.
I've been making really slow progress in anything that isn't audio lately, but I've still been chipping away at Howl's Moving Castle during storytime. I have loved the Miyazaki adaptation for years, but it's amazing to me how different the book is. How much better the book is. Has anyone around here had experience with the sequels?
Help
Honey Cups, on 02 September 2017 - 02:58 AM, said:
