[End of Disc One]

Give it a break and read Grace of Kings

[Andorion]

Briar King, on 08 December 2017 - 03:29 AM, said:

Well a nice list for my slow ass anyway

I could link you to my Goodreads page BK. I have a special 2017 shelf.

Finished Empire of Ivory, really liked it.

65% into Dragons of Autumn Twilight....its good, but not strikingly so.

Another 100 pages into His Dark Materials. I am midway into the last book and everything is dark and miserable.

I just read the part where Lyra had to leave her daemon behind and it was heartbreaking.

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 07 December 2017 - 08:31 PM, said:

Oathbringer is by far the worst of the bunch so far. Slog slog slog. I keep hearing how good it is and I’m left smh wondering how this could be good. I haven’t been able to make it 50 pgs in the past 2 days. It has good parts but they are few and fucking far between. Slog slog slog slog slog slog slog slog slog slog slog bullshit slog.

Huge disappointment.

My god I stil have 450+ pgs left of this slogfest to get through to.

^^This. I put it back into the ToRead pile, and I'll wager Iw as so put off that I won't finish it till the new year at least.

DHL on the other hand is a fucking unbelievable JOY to read (only about 140 pages left in it).

[Abyss]

Briar King, on 08 December 2017 - 03:28 AM, said:

.... Atleast I ll have a nice list for 2017 list thread which should be coming anytime now.

Hint hint people

Too soon?

[Abyss]

Briar King, on 08 December 2017 - 02:22 PM, said:

Abyss, on 08 December 2017 - 02:11 PM, said:

Briar King, on 08 December 2017 - 03:28 AM, said:

.... Atleast I ll have a nice list for 2017 list thread which should be coming anytime now.

Hint hint people

Too soon?

Another week or so.

S'what i figured too. Just before xmas, all the Dec releases are done and we can dig in.

[champ]

Briar King, on 07 December 2017 - 08:31 PM, said:

Oathbringer is by far the worst of the bunch so far. Slog slog slog. I keep hearing how good it is and I'm left smh wondering how this could be good. I haven't been able to make it 50 pgs in the past 2 days. It has good parts but they are few and fucking far between. Slog slog slog slog slog slog slog slog slog slog slog bullshit slog.

Huge disappointment.

My god I stil have 450+ pgs left of this slogfest to get through to.

Get to around 300 pages left and it does start to pick up, the last 200 pages or so are actually pretty good... start the countdown to those pages... the silver lining.

[Chance]

Gotten to the first interlude of Oathbringer. I'm mostly thinking this is Wheel of Time 2.0 and more and more thinking that every PoW except Kaladin and Shallan are nearly a waste of papper. I could certainly live with less Dalinar he is just as much a hypocrit as his enemies think him so far and have been so for three books with the flashbacks he seems even more so so far.

This post has been edited by Chance: 08 December 2017 - 11:35 PM

[Baco Xtath]

Finished reading Thraxas book 1 and immediately hopped into book 2. It's similar to Garrett P.I. with a touch of Taltos. Really enjoyed it.

Earbook, finished Oathbringer. While Sanderson's writing seemed to have improved (not so immature in banter save Lopin and a couple other povs), it was slow slow slow. 55 hrs to listen to it. So glad it's over. Started Persepolis Rising and I'm about 1/2 through it after a day. Not overly enjoying this one either. Not bad but more human on human drama. I'm ready for some first contact. Next up, Artemis and Deadhouse Landing.

[Mentalist]

Finished "Katabasis", the sorta-sequel to " Mongoliad", written by some of the same authors.

Plot-wise, I liked it. It gave closure to 2 storylines from the "Mongoliad", with lots of characters getting either send-off, or (sometimes) happy endings.

Pacing was waaaay better- making the story tighter, instead of rambling on with more lines worked wonders.

In terms of writing... there's a lot of fighting scenes. The whole ForeWorld project is like that, to be honest- it's a bunch of guys who like martial arts and sword-fighting writing an alt-history fantasy with a mystical meta-plot, overseen by Neal Stephenson. I know next to nothing about fighting, so someone like Amph would be better at telling you if the fight bits are good or accurate. From my layman's perspective, they weren't annoying and they didn't interrupt the flow of the bookan which makes them more than okay. The description of the Battle of the Ice was pretty epic. I will probably order the last full-length novel which deals with the Grail storyline and takes place in Languedoc very soon ( I think I made my feeling about how awesome I think the Cathar Wars were clear).

[T77]

With all of these lukewarm comments on Oathrbringer I'm hesitant to start it. I just borrowed the audiobook from Hoopla. I've always thought that Sanderson was overrated and just slightly better than average. And I cannot believe that Oathbringer has a 4.9 rating on Audible with almost 5,000 ratings and 4.6 on Amazon with almost 500 ratings.

[Baco Xtath]

T77, on 09 December 2017 - 04:28 PM, said:

With all of these lukewarm comments on Oathrbringer I'm hesitant to start it. I just borrowed the audiobook from Hoopla. I've always thought that Sanderson was overrated and just slightly better than average. And I cannot believe that Oathbringer has a 4.9 rating on Audible with almost 5,000 ratings and 4.6 on Amazon with almost 500 ratings.

Oathbringer had around 500 5* reviews a day after it was released. So either these guys listened to a 55 hr book in a day or they're fanboys/girls whose reviews don't mean shit. It's not terrible but it is very slow compared to everything else he's done. Not terrible in comparison to Sanderson's other works. Compared to good authors, yes, it's terrible. Don't read any Malazan stuff then hop into this or you'll be sorely disappointed. I'd recommend reading some Robert Stanek first, then Oathbringer will seem brilliant. Then read some Malazan and you'll be in heaven. (Kidding about Stanek. Never read Stanek).

[Andorion]

T77, on 09 December 2017 - 04:28 PM, said:

With all of these lukewarm comments on Oathrbringer I'm hesitant to start it. I just borrowed the audiobook from Hoopla. I've always thought that Sanderson was overrated and just slightly better than average. And I cannot believe that Oathbringer has a 4.9 rating on Audible with almost 5,000 ratings and 4.6 on Amazon with almost 500 ratings.

Briar King, on 09 December 2017 - 05:40 PM, said:

T77, on 09 December 2017 - 04:28 PM, said:

With all of these lukewarm comments on Oathrbringer I'm hesitant to start it. I just borrowed the audiobook from Hoopla. I've always thought that Sanderson was overrated and just slightly better than average. And I cannot believe that Oathbringer has a 4.9 rating on Audible with almost 5,000 ratings and 4.6 on Amazon with almost 500 ratings.

Incase your staying out of the ded thread I just said that with this lvl of shitiness that bk 3 is I don't know how in a hurry I ll be to buy bk 4 with these price increases. This is the most expensive book I have ever bought and it's a fucking ripoff. Bk 4 will likely be even more $....

Baco Xtath, on 09 December 2017 - 10:21 PM, said:

T77, on 09 December 2017 - 04:28 PM, said:

With all of these lukewarm comments on Oathrbringer I'm hesitant to start it. I just borrowed the audiobook from Hoopla. I've always thought that Sanderson was overrated and just slightly better than average. And I cannot believe that Oathbringer has a 4.9 rating on Audible with almost 5,000 ratings and 4.6 on Amazon with almost 500 ratings.

Oathbringer had around 500 5* reviews a day after it was released. So either these guys listened to a 55 hr book in a day or they're fanboys/girls whose reviews don't mean shit. It's not terrible but it is very slow compared to everything else he's done. Not terrible in comparison to Sanderson's other works. Compared to good authors, yes, it's terrible. Don't read any Malazan stuff then hop into this or you'll be sorely disappointed. I'd recommend reading some Robert Stanek first, then Oathbringer will seem brilliant. Then read some Malazan and you'll be in heaven. (Kidding about Stanek. Never read Stanek).

I finished the book in less than 3 days.

I certainly did not find it to be as slow as many here have said, but that is because I read every SLA book for the worldbuilding and Sanderson got in a lot of worldbuilding in this book.

Without explicitly spoiling you, I believe that the Shallan chapters and the Dalinar flashback chapters have drawn flak.

In my opinion the Dalinar chapters did an absolutely excellent job in completing his character portrait which is very crucial to understanding many Alethi attitudes towards Dalinar in the previous two books. I found Shallan's chapters worrying and fascinating. There was some great character work done and some crucial plot events happened within them.

So, I don't think its as bad as you think. Just don't read it after immediately reading Malazan, and don't expect it to have the pace of the last part of Words of Radiance.

[End of Disc One]

I think the hype has hurt OB for a lot of people. WoR was awesome, then OB put on the brakes a bit. But I think it’s just as slow as TWoK which isn’t a bad thing, just probably not something you should get hyped for.

[Chance]

Briar King, on 10 December 2017 - 02:00 AM, said:

I have been wanting to do nothing but beat my head in with it since about pg 270-300.

Sounds pretty much like me part 1 is pretty good but there was very little worth reading in part two of this book. Part three seems better but it still isn't exactly fast moving or exciting more plodding along building up minor characters rather then advancing the story.

End of Disc One, on 10 December 2017 - 02:15 AM, said:

I think the hype has hurt OB for a lot of people. WoR was awesome, then OB put on the brakes a bit. But I think it’s just as slow as TWoK which isn’t a bad thing, just probably not something you should get hyped for.

No OB isn't anywhere close to WoR or TWoK in quality, there simply ain't any tension in more or less any of the narratives so far. It is also simply stupid at times.

Still going to finish it because i kinda like WoR and TWoK but it really needs to pick up or book four won't exactly be a priority.

This post has been edited by Chance: 10 December 2017 - 08:18 PM

[Salt-Man Z]

Just finished The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Very short on plot, long on heart. Moving on to book 2 and hoping that balances out a little better.

Briar King, on 10 December 2017 - 11:35 PM, said:

Right! Especially at these $ amounts!

The hardcover is $15 on Amazon.

[Andorion]

Reading The Steerswoman's Road by Rosemary Kirstein. A book with a rather unusual plot, but quite enjoyable.

[Esa1996]

Took 5 days to read Oathbringer and another 5 for Deadhouse Landing. Currently reading Wars of Light and Shadow 5, something which I would have described as impossible just a year ago (I read the first book in early 2016 and decided never to read the second as I hated the writing style and didn't really connect with any of the characters). I've come a long way from that though. Read the 2nd and the 3rd book back to back last summer, then moved on to WoT 9 re-read, Second Apocalypse 7, WOLAS 4, Oathbringer, Deadhouse Landing and now WOLAS 5. Five books into the series I must say that I like at least some of the characters and that the worldbuilding is also pretty good. What got me to start the second book and has kept me reading ever since is the plot however. Like ASOIAF the series could be described to have multiple main plots but the way they play into each other is far cooler than what they do in ASOIAF. It's pretty much a huge bunch of impossible problems where if you solve one you cause ten more, and with every new book the list of these seems to go up. I just really hope the author doesn't do some cop-out in the end and that she actually starts escalating some of these problems soon so it doesn't end up as one of those fantasy series where every war and conflict is suddenly solved in the last book. It does seem like it's slowly starting to escalate but it's still VERY far from what it might become based on all the stuff that has been foreshadowed.

[QuickTidal]

Finished DEADHOUSE LANDING by ICE (LOVED it, fuller thoughts in ded-thread) and have now moved on to my first Stephen R. Donaldson book ever, the first Mordant's Need book THE MIRROR OF HER DREAMS, and so far I quite like it. Just getting used to his writing style, but at about 50 pages in and I'm quite enjoying. So thanks to all who recommended it to me!

[Macros]

Just finished Dune Messiah .

Meh, not really for me, I enjoyed Dune, but Messiah left me kind of cold until the last. The last chapter or so was a page turner but a struggle for me to get that far.
I have the next two books here though, so probably will be reading them at some stage.

[Macros]

This is good to know.

Picked up Conn Igguldens latest there after Messiah.
Darien - Empire of Salt book 1.

Interesting setting, not sure where the location ties into the real world. Not a spoiler at all, it is, in some fashion, set on earth, post Roman empire.
But that's it, there's no real ties to the real world beyond mentions of Caesar and Carthage really.

Finished it there now, definitely and interesting character set, and a very tightly paced novel. I'd say Conn is becoming a better story teller as he goes, definitely reads a lot smoother than his first Caesar book (I enjoyed them, I know some don't)
I'll definitely be back for book two when it comes out.