[End of Disc One]

Mentalist, on 29 March 2018 - 09:29 PM, said:

Finished re-read of "Canticle". Moving on to "Antiphon"(the last of the re-reads before diving into new books in this series with "Requiem" ); should make some good progress over the long weekend.

Holy shit, I used to see these books on the blogosphere all the time years ago, then Ken Scholes totally fell off the radar. How are they? I was considering reading these books back then.

[Mentalist]

End of Disc One, on 29 March 2018 - 10:33 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 29 March 2018 - 09:29 PM, said:

Finished re-read of "Canticle". Moving on to "Antiphon"(the last of the re-reads before diving into new books in this series with "Requiem" ); should make some good progress over the long weekend.

Holy shit, I used to see these books on the blogosphere all the time years ago, then Ken Scholes totally fell off the radar. How are they? I was considering reading these books back then.

Wert had some reviews in the review forum.

"Lamentation" is a really strong debut, and I really liked "Canticle".

Book 4 (which I haven't read yet) apparently did really poorly, which is why the series went on a very long hiatus, and the last book was only released this winter.

[Puck]

Finished The Will to Battle the other day (yeah, I' a slow reader), and Less plot progression than the other two books, I think, but wonderful writing and worldbuilding (those parts Palmer doesn't let drop off the face of the earth completely, anyway, looking at Africa here). Love the characters, storyline, philosophy, etc. Book four will be an instant buy.

Now, since I'm still on a sci-fi streak, on to Watts' Blindsight. So far it somehow manages to be more fantastical than the Terra Ignota series despite the latter being the one with unicorns. We shall see, but I'm enjoying it.

[Tiste Simeon]

100 pages into SW and I remember why, up until the Path to Ascendancy series was started, it was my favourite ICE book.

Even though Kiska is in it and I hate her.

[Mentalist]

Hmm, didn't expect this...

Finished "Antiphon" last night. Moving on to "Requiem" ...

I also read Wert's review of the series to date, and mostly agree. Antiphon is a slow, build-up book. For long periods of time nothing significalt happens (before the ending), and there are stylistic irritants- Scholes keeps re-using same expressions and entire paragraphs. Moreover, details of the plot are structurally similar to those in "Canticle" , but some characters have their roles switched- so that once again, you have a character spending half the book being tortured while his rescuers approach, while a person of power finds themselves helplessly caught up in the way of a rising new menace.

Add to this the fact that no one without a theological degree would really know what the hell an "Antiphon" is, and I can see why the interest in this series was reduced by this book.

I'm still curious about the plot, though, so onto "Requiem" it is!

[Macros]

Just started David Command warmaster series. I think it's warmaster. Set in the 100 years war.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Reading Simon Schama's History of Britain, or at least part one of it (it goes up to 1600AD and to be honest after that I'm not particularly interested).

It's a good read, Schama has an excellent turn of phrase. I particularly enjoyed his wry side-eye at the modern tendency to try and "fluffy" the Vikings a little, and adds a record of the Reeve of Dorchester leading the leader of a Viking "trading fleet" to the local royal keep and "was promptly thanked for his help with an axe in the face."

[Aptorian]

I've been trying to get through Iain M Banks "Consider Phlebas". I just can't get into it. I'm a hundred and thirty so pages into the book and it's just not doing much for me. Think I might drop it.

Comparatively I picked up the second Iron Druid Chronicles book "Hexed" yesterday and I'm breezing through it. The story still feels dumb but I like the telling of it.

[Mentalist]

About a third into "Requiem" and... this story is all over. Like, Scholes is introducing another layers of history, like he started to do in "Antiphon", but I'm struggling to see how any of it is going to be really relevant. Meanwhile the original cast is all over the place, doing things that seem tangential. The big bad is on the rise, and I really don't see where anything is going.

[QuickTidal]

Mentalist, on 02 April 2018 - 03:23 PM, said:

About a third into "Requiem" and... this story is all over. Like, Scholes is introducing another layers of history, like he started to do in "Antiphon", but I'm struggling to see how any of it is going to be really relevant. Meanwhile the original cast is all over the place, doing things that seem tangential. The big bad is on the rise, and I really don't see where anything is going.

I feel awful about his situation. It SOUNDS like he was dealing with medical issues and the loss of CLOSE family members (amidst the birth of his own kids, and some leftover PTSD), and I think like so many before him (Scott Lynch for example), it affected his craft in a hard, revealing way. REQUIEM almost certainly is the book that is most affected by it as it was the first of the series to be delayed-ish (2010 to 2013), and the BIG gap between books is from REQUIEM to HYMN (the final volume which just dropped in December 2017).

The good news is that HYMN (though I've not read past ANTIPHON yet) apparently finishes strong (I mean he was always best at endings anyways), and REQUIEM is the big anomaly book.

Time will tell, but I will finish out the series as the first book affected me on a level I can't describe. It was SO good.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 02 April 2018 - 04:04 PM

[Mentalist]

QuickTidal, on 02 April 2018 - 04:04 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 02 April 2018 - 03:23 PM, said:

About a third into "Requiem" and... this story is all over. Like, Scholes is introducing another layers of history, like he started to do in "Antiphon", but I'm struggling to see how any of it is going to be really relevant. Meanwhile the original cast is all over the place, doing things that seem tangential. The big bad is on the rise, and I really don't see where anything is going.

I feel awful about his situation. It SOUNDS like he was dealing with medical issues and the loss of CLOSE family members (amidst the birth of his own kids, and some leftover PTSD), and I think like so many before him (Scott Lynch for example), it affected his craft in a hard, revealing way. REQUIEM almost certainly is the book that is most affected by it as it was the first of the series to be delayed-ish (2010 to 2013), and the BIG gap between books is from REQUIEM to HYMN (the final volume which just dropped in December 2017).

The good news is that HYMN (though I've not read past ANTIPHON yet) apparently finishes strong (I mean he was always best at endings anyways), and REQUIEM is the big anomaly book.

Time will tell, but I will finish out the series as the first book affected me on a level I can't describe. It was SO good.

At this point I'm certainly gonna finish the series (I'll be getting an e-copy of "Hymn" as soon as I finish "Requiem"). I mean, I liked "Antiphon", for all of its un-even-ness and occasional meandering.
It's just frustrating when a series that started out "great" starts being merely "ok to good"

[acesn8s]

I finished Morgan's Thirteen this weekend! I decided to tackle a standalone novel instead of starting up a new series, so I picked Steve Boyett's Mortality Bridge.

Quote

Decades ago a young rock and blues guitarist and junkie named Niko signed in blood on the dotted line and in return became the stuff of music legend. But when the love of his damned life grows mortally and mysteriously ill he realizes he's lost more than he bargained for--and that wasn t part of the Deal.

So Niko sets out on a harrowing journey from the streets of Los Angeles through the downtown subway tunnels and across the redlit plain of the most vividly realized Hell since Dante, to play the gig of his mortgaged life and win back the purloined soul of his lost love.

Mortality Bridge remixes Orpheus, Dante, Faust, the Crossroads legend, and more in a beautiful, brutal--and surprisingly funny--quest across a Hieronymous Bosch landscape of myth, music, and mayhem; and across an inner terrain of addiction, damnation, and redemption.

[Abyss]

Just finished Bennet's AMERICAN ELSEWHERE. Great book, hits a lot of my favorites things... mysterious town in the middle of nowehere, Lovecraftian things beyond human knowledge, some humour, great action, engaging characters. Will absolutely be checking out his other books in the future. CITY OF STAIRS is already in the e/TRP/F.


I more or less gave up on Bancroft's ARM OF THE SPHINX in ebook, due to my divided feelings about SENLIN ASCENDS and my general inability to stay awake while reading ebooks for anything less than a massive megablockbuster of a book. I really did want to read ARM but just wasn't getting anywhere. Thankfully, the earbook was just released.... grabbed it, started, all good, am really enjoying it. The the elements of setting and character that i enjoyed from ASCENDS are there with less of the wandering and whining.

ETA: the end of Part I....

Spoiler

The Airship battle, where Senlin saves them by firing the harpoon through their own ship into the passing train below...

WOW!


In ebook, many options, none currently started. I did pick up ORIGAMY, by Rachel Armstrong, because Warren Ellis told me to. May try that and hope it holds my interest because there seem to be no plans for an earbook.


In pretty pictures having maxed out the DESCENDER tpbs (awesome), am resuming the complete read of Starlin's DREADSTAR . This is good comics. SF and fantasy, great shiny flawed heroes, evil villains, glorious art, aliens get punched, spaceships get blowsed up, the odd planet is nuked. The odd solar system too.

[JPK]

After finishing Ship of Magic I've decided to just alternate the Hobb books with lighter reading. That said, SoM did end up being nearly as strong as Royal Assassin by the end.

For the meantime I'm going to savor Interesting Times by Pratchett. It's so nice to be back with Rincewind.

[Mentalist]

70% into "Requiem" (Thanks, Kindle's progress-tracker!), and Scholes is seriously giving Erikson a run for his money in the "how-many-characters-that-are-presumed-dead-can-end-up-being-alive-or-resurrected-all-along" competition.

I'm not yet sure if it's a good thing or not.

EDIT: Finished "Requiem". Purchased "Hymn" on Kindle, read prologue, will probably finish the book over the upcoming long weekend (taking Mon as a holiday)

It definitely still feels like Scholes created a history too vast for his story to contain. And I'm not sure exactly where things are going, but I can kind of see the outline, so I'm curious if Scholes can finish in a strong and non-cliched manner.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 04 April 2018 - 11:12 PM

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 03 April 2018 - 03:04 PM, said:

... Bancroft's ARM OF THE SPHINX ... earbook was just released.... grabbed it, started, all good, am really enjoying it. The the elements of setting and character that i enjoyed from ASCENDS are there with less of the wandering and whining.

ETA: the end of Part I....

Spoiler

The Airship battle, where Senlin saves them by firing the harpoon through their own ship into the passing train below...

WOW!
...

Part II was even better. Loved the genuinely weird new level of the Tower, the opposition was interesting and shifted the game in the Tower somewhat, as did other revelations, and the finale was great action and funny...

Spoiler

The renegade hob force rushing the ship and being steadily cut down by the crew in front and Senlin and Edith in back until just one guy is left. Hee.

Also, Edith breaking her cyber-arm punching out the spider-eater bear thing was AWESOME.

Part III looks to be heading somewhere interesting as well.

Glad i gave book 2 a chance, it's really delivering.

[Andorion]

Bachelorluver, on 06 April 2018 - 04:07 AM, said:

Urgh I completely forgot how fucked up my copy of this book is. The print on some pages is eaten into the binding so I had to guess what was written on several sentences multiple times per page sometimes. I guess it straightens up as I never bought a 2nd copy. Speaking of that I really like the latest edition covers of 1-6.

This is one series I don't think I will be ever able to read. Fitz just isn't my sort of protagonist - he is just a bit too stupid and incompetent.


Reading Lovecraft's Necronomicon, like it a lot.

[QuickTidal]

Andorion, on 06 April 2018 - 03:58 PM, said:

Bachelorluver, on 06 April 2018 - 04:07 AM, said:

Urgh I completely forgot how fucked up my copy of this book is. The print on some pages is eaten into the binding so I had to guess what was written on several sentences multiple times per page sometimes. I guess it straightens up as I never bought a 2nd copy. Speaking of that I really like the latest edition covers of 1-6.

This is one series I don't think I will be ever able to read. Fitz just isn't my sort of protagonist - he is just a bit too stupid and incompetent.

Him constantly effing up and making poor decisions is part of his character growth. The second trilogy gives him more hindsight-based intelligence.

[Macros]

Just finished David Gilmans 'Master of War'

Thoroughly enjoyable read, I enjoy historical fiction immensely so anything half well written gets a thumbs up from me. I don't know much about the 100 years war, book 1 covers the battle of Crecy kind of.

It's not going to surprise you with any twists or turns, it's fairly straightforward common man making a name for himself on his own terms fare, but it is well written and clearly the setting is something the author knows about.

If you liked.....the war of the roses sequence by Iggulden (best well known comparison that I have read) then I'd say give book 1 of the series a rattle anyway, a bit less focus on the high and mighty, although they are there, a bit more, actually these were brutal and cruel times, chivalry be damned.


Probably start Ben Kane's 'Forgotten Legion' (damn you QT) next

[QuickTidal]

Macros, on 06 April 2018 - 05:12 PM, said:

If you liked.....the war of the roses sequence by Iggulden (best well known comparison that I have read) then I'd say give book 1 of the series a rattle anyway, a bit less focus on the high and mighty, although they are there, a bit more, actually these were brutal and cruel times, chivalry be damned.


Probably start Ben Kane's 'Forgotten Legion' (damn you QT) next

Well, it looks like you've gotten me back because that Gilman book sounds up my alley.

Hope you like Kane!