[QuickTidal]

Finished ROAD BROTHERS by Lawrence. EXCELLENT stuff as I expected. Some great insider info on the Broken Empire characters....but as a huge fan of the Red Queen trilogy, the Snaga & The Nuban short story, and the Jalan one at the end were my absolute favourites!

After giving it a wide berth for being such a slog earlier in the year, I've decided to finally go back and try to get through/finish OATHBRINGER. We will see how this goes.

[Andorion]

Read Embassytown. I was very ambivalent about this book to start with, but ended up liking it.

Finished The Broken Eye. This is an excellent series!
Starting Abercrombies The Heroes and Perdido Street Station

[QuickTidal]

I am the Bachelorette, on 29 May 2018 - 03:52 PM, said:

I think I can confidently say I will never reread the piece of shit Slogbringer in full in the future. Will do certain parts for sure but otherwise Slogbringer is gonna be a massive skip mess.

I have missed insulting Slogbringer.

Every time I get hitched on a portion of it I'm tempted to just find a goddamn summary online and treat this as a bad entry. We will see if I make it.

EDIT: Was reading it over lunch, and I wonder if watching paint dry is the same level of boring? Fuuuuuuuuck this book man. I'm getting close to summary-ing this.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 29 May 2018 - 05:22 PM

[worry]

No applauding in the library, please.

[Andorion]

I am the Bachelorette, on 30 May 2018 - 03:35 AM, said:

Abyss can probably paint you a much better picture on why you should continue. I can't even type the proper book title or I could I suppose but I refuse to is more accurate. As far as I'm concerned I paid $34.99 plus tax for what was mostly garbage so I ll call it what I want as much as I want when I want not caring if my chosen title is stupid or not. I will praise a few sections in part 4 and the entire part 5 but holy fuck it was so challenging to get that far... I enjoyed the opening of the book but I think it was some 800 pgs(2 normal size books..) in between of pure slog.

Bk 4 will most likely be the make or break on if I'm willing to pay that much $ on hc or wait the year for pb(if I even care about SLA past that point). Hell bk 1 was $27.99 bk 2 $28.99 bk 3 34.99(though tbf the quality in binding was really jumped up compared to 1-2) so what kinda price tag can we expect by bk 10? I can easily see a $50 tag.

To be clear I very much applaud those who like it and wish I could have been one of them.

I have noticed something - I can read Sanderson really really really fast. I think the basic story and characterisation is so simplistic, that I don't really need any time to read it at all. Same goes for David Weber.

So while Sanderson is long, and sometimes boring, and sometimes cringeworthy, I skate through his books so fast and get to the payoff - big twist/big battle that I don't really mind.

[Maark Abbott]

I could have told you that Oatsbinger would be bad and it's have been free, kappa.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Tad Williams' The Dragonbone Chair. I'm about 80 pages in and...Simon is an idiot.

[acesn8s]

Chapter 10 of Caliban's War. Avasarala's cursing in the show is fun, in the book it is glorious!

[Andorion]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 30 May 2018 - 11:58 AM, said:

Tad Williams' The Dragonbone Chair. I'm about 80 pages in and...Simon is an idiot.

This....does not change.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Andorion, on 30 May 2018 - 12:30 PM, said:

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 30 May 2018 - 11:58 AM, said:

Tad Williams' The Dragonbone Chair. I'm about 80 pages in and...Simon is an idiot.

This....does not change.

That's...unfortunate. He's worse than Fitz!

[QuickTidal]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 30 May 2018 - 12:36 PM, said:

Andorion, on 30 May 2018 - 12:30 PM, said:

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 30 May 2018 - 11:58 AM, said:

Tad Williams' The Dragonbone Chair. I'm about 80 pages in and...Simon is an idiot.

This....does not change.

That's...unfortunate. He's worse than Fitz!

If it helps, it IS a big part of his character to be that. There is another lead character who ends up as his balance. Not sure how far you are in the story, so I won't say who. But on the whole he's surrounded by smarter people who temper his more idiotic tendencies.

________________________________________________________________


100 more pages into OATHBRINGER and it's suddenly great again. Am around Chapter 39 now and the bit with:

Spoiler

Dalinar and Navani being told by the Stormfather what the Heralds REALLY did ect. (after finding the nine honorblades in the rock at that old Desolation) and the preceding chapter with Rock's family showing back up...

...has sucked me RIGHT back into the story. Hopefully this continues and I don't end up in another slog section.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 30 May 2018 - 12:41 PM

[End of Disc One]

QuickTidal, on 30 May 2018 - 12:38 PM, said:

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 30 May 2018 - 12:36 PM, said:

Andorion, on 30 May 2018 - 12:30 PM, said:

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 30 May 2018 - 11:58 AM, said:

Tad Williams' The Dragonbone Chair. I'm about 80 pages in and...Simon is an idiot.

This....does not change.

That's...unfortunate. He's worse than Fitz!

If it helps, it IS a big part of his character to be that. There is another lead character who ends up as his balance. Not sure how far you are in the story, so I won't say who. But on the whole he's surrounded by smarter people who temper his more idiotic tendencies.

________________________________________________________________


100 more pages into OATHBRINGER and it's suddenly great again. Am around Chapter 39 now and the bit with:

Spoiler

Dalinar and Navani being told by the Stormfather what the Heralds REALLY did ect. (after finding the nine honorblades in the rock at that old Desolation) and the preceding chapter with Rock's family showing back up...

...has sucked me RIGHT back into the story. Hopefully this continues and I don't end up in another slog section.

I loved that Rock chapter. One of my favorite non-climactic chapters that Brandon has written.

[QuickTidal]

End of Disc One, on 30 May 2018 - 01:09 PM, said:

I loved that Rock chapter. One of my favorite non-climactic chapters that Brandon has written.

Agreed. He does JUST the right amount of lead-in to it with Rock continuing to look off towards the old war camps...where eventually they show up. It's deftly done.

[Abyss]

Andorion, on 30 May 2018 - 12:30 PM, said:

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 30 May 2018 - 11:58 AM, said:

Tad Williams' The Dragonbone Chair. I'm about 80 pages in and...Simon is an idiot.

This....does not change.

For the entire series.Just one of the reasons I disliked it.

[Abyss]

Mentalist, on 27 May 2018 - 09:55 PM, said:

Finished "Farlander". Can't say I'm a huge fan.

I'll wishlist book 2 on Kindle, but not in any hurry to read any more right now.
...

Book 2 was solid but can’t say it’s wildly different in any way that’s likely to change your view. Book 3 was more of the same, felt a bit rushed. I really liked the series, but if 1 didn’t hook you...

[Abyss]

Andorion, on 29 May 2018 - 02:55 PM, said:

Read Embassytown. I was very ambivalent about this book to start with, but ended up liking it.
....

Heh... I was utterly into it to start but felt it faltered and failed to stick the landing.

[Abyss]

acesn8s, on 30 May 2018 - 12:06 PM, said:

Chapter 10 of Caliban's War. Avasarala's cursing in the show is fun, in the book it is glorious!

Avasarala is a character who belongs in a Matt Stover book verbally beating people to death.

[Zetubal]

Just finished a German fantasy novel by a guy named Sam Feuerbach. Book's title is "Der Totengräbersohn", which translates to "The Gravedigger's Son". Have to say, I'm a bit baffled. Going into this, I kinda had high hopes, considering that the novel sits at a comfortable 4.8/5 stars on amazon with over 300 reviews. As far as the main plot goes, the novel is about the gravedigger's son, a youngster named Farin, who accidentally gets possessed by a demon (it happens). From there on out it's adventure time since all kinds of people want that demon for their own purposes. Ah, and there's some orphan girl in a totally different place of the world who goes through some hardships as well. No real connection between the two, though. The story is as standard and derivative as it gets. Evildoers with maniacal laughs in actual black robes, prophecies, bullies, grumpy teachers/masters, 2 innocent, good-natured protagonists who suffer under the thumb of cruel, cruel society, decadent priests, cheesy one-liners - the list goes on. I'm tempted to say that this is the most cliché fantasy novels I've ever read but the way Feuerbach writes actually makes it seems like he doesn't know any better. See, there's pretty much no self-awareness or reflection in the novel which creates this weird impression that Feuerbach writes fantasy as if the genre were a totally new thing. Reading this novel would probably have been a magical thing back in the thirties. Thing is, it was published last year.
What's also plain weird is Feuerbach's style as a writer. I don't know if it's his attempt at recreating archaic language used by a guy who never had formal education...but on several occasions I seriously wondered if the characters were supposed to be mentally handicapped. Reading how they talk and think is like watching a toddler walk. I mean, sure you could make the argument that it technically qualifies, but it's not exactly graceful.
Ah, and the name of the village where Farin's from is "Haufen" which means "Heap" or "Pile". In German, unless you specify what kind of "Haufen" it is, the default assumption is, you guessed it, a pile of shit. No kidding.

I'm weirdly intrigued to continue reading because, as it turns out, this was just the first novel of a trilogy.

This post has been edited by Zetubal: 31 May 2018 - 11:18 AM

[Salt-Man Z]

Abyss, on 30 May 2018 - 08:05 PM, said:

Andorion, on 29 May 2018 - 02:55 PM, said:

Read Embassytown. I was very ambivalent about this book to start with, but ended up liking it.

Heh... I was utterly into it to start but felt it faltered and failed to stick the landing.

Hunh. I found it pretty intriguing throughout, and then the end blew me away. Love that book.

[End of Disc One]

Are divisive endings common for China Mieville? I loved PSS but wasn't so hot on the ending...I've seen other people say they really liked the ending.