[Aptorian]

Just received the last books in the Belgariad, that I ordered. I found them in a box with this mammoth.

It's the fifth book in the Outlander series. It's 1200 pages. It's huuuge.

Spoiler

 big book.jpg (291.82K)
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[HoosierDaddy]

BK, I use Book Depository from UK for Malazan. Free shipping from UPS or Fed Ex.

[Aptorian]

A rare HoosierDaddy appears in the wild!

[HoosierDaddy]

It teleported away!

[Aptorian]

Two chapters into Shadow of the Torturer. The first volume in the Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe.

This is not bad at all. Bit archaic writing style in places. I had to look up a word in the very first sentence but this is solid fantasy/sci-fi.

[Maark Abbott]

Never read Stormlight if you actually have tastebuds. May as well be licking a water treatment plant filter.

[Tsundoku]

Maark Abbott, on 18 April 2019 - 07:58 AM, said:

Never read Stormlight if you actually have tastebuds. May as well be licking a water treatment plant filter.

Get enough of you doing that and you'll solve London's fatberg problems.

[Mentalist]

Hmm. I feel like I need to do a New Sun re-read/ Long Sun read soon as well.

[QuickTidal]

Maark Abbott, on 18 April 2019 - 07:58 AM, said:

Never read Stormlight if you actually have tastebuds. May as well be licking a water treatment plant filter.

I'm not sure anyone was talking about Stormlight here?

Is this like tourettes where you can't help yourself just lashing out at other authors randomly for no reason to a bunch of people who like that author?

[Aptorian]

People who live in Star Wars 8 glass pot houses should not throw Stormlight archive stone kettles.

Back to books.

I finished A Career of Evil, the third Cormoran Strike book. I didn't really like this book.

There's this formula the books follow where Strike and Ellacot do a lot of meat and potatoes detective work that doesn't really lead anywhere particular and then Strike has an epiphany, that Ellacot is not party to. It's annoying.

But more pressing there was all this relationship bullshit in this book that felt very forced and annoying in the middle of a story about a serial killer. Like, the attraction between Strike and Ellacot is an obvious story, but it's a story for a much later book.

Ellacot's character got a lot of much needed growth and I came to have a lot of respect for her. She's complex. But then there's this badly written schism between her and Strike because of the tension they're under, leading to a final confrontation that is sold so poorly, that I almost dropped this series all together thirty pages from the end.

I've already made a reservation for the fourth book that just came out but if this weird work/love relationship continues to be written this awkwardly I'm out.

As for Shadow of the Torturer I'm about ten chapters in. This is slow going. Well written but I'm starting to suspect this is not a series that has a real tempo.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 18 April 2019 - 01:33 PM

[QuickTidal]

Aptorian, on 18 April 2019 - 01:31 PM, said:

People who live in Star Wars 8 glass pot houses should not throw Stormlight archive stone kettles.

The difference is that I only bring up my dislike of a certain SW film when it's relevant to the conversation at hand (like when we are talking about SW)...not on random threads where no one is talking SW.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

QuickTidal, on 18 April 2019 - 01:34 PM, said:

Aptorian, on 18 April 2019 - 01:31 PM, said:

People who live in Star Wars 8 glass pot houses should not throw Stormlight archive stone kettles.

The difference is that I only bring up my dislike of a certain SW film when it's relevant to the conversation at hand (like when we are talking about SW)...not on random threads where no one is talking SW.

Maark is presumably reading Stormlight Archives.

[QuickTidal]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 18 April 2019 - 01:48 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 18 April 2019 - 01:34 PM, said:

Aptorian, on 18 April 2019 - 01:31 PM, said:

People who live in Star Wars 8 glass pot houses should not throw Stormlight archive stone kettles.

The difference is that I only bring up my dislike of a certain SW film when it's relevant to the conversation at hand (like when we are talking about SW)...not on random threads where no one is talking SW.

Maark is presumably reading Stormlight Archives.

That would astonish me since I think he read the first and loathed it more than anything else he's read...if he is reading it, I take back what I said, but I gotta wonder why he went back after hating it so much?

[Salt-Man Z]

Reread a couple of Wolfe stories last night, both from Starwater Strains:

"The Seraph from Its Sepulcher" is such a great setting; I love stories about missionaries to alien planets. Even better when the aliens go through an actual metamorphic cycle and how that fits with the Christian message of being "born again". My favorite line is when the alien tells the priest: "If you were more like Christ, you would understand us better." And then Wolfe pulls one of his "wait, what just happened" endings, and I love it.

"Lord of the Land" is, in Wolfe's own words, a Lovecraft story. Very creepy, and it goes a little crazy before it finally makes sense at the end. And then the final scene sticks in your head and makes you wonder what it means exactly. Fantastic.

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 18 April 2019 - 04:17 PM

[Andorion]

Finished Holy Sister.

Good. Not as good as I wanted it to be. Its not really over, is it?

[pat5150]

It is. But there is a new trilogy set in the same universe coming up next year. With different characters.

[Andorion]

pat5150, on 19 April 2019 - 02:16 AM, said:

It is. But there is a new trilogy set in the same universe coming up next year. With different characters.

Oh. I would have liked Nona and Co. to resolve the Moon and the encroaching ice issue.

[Aptorian]

Finished chapter 14 in Shadow of the Torturer.

Just read this bit:

Quote

The peltast said, “But Lochage—” shooting such a look of hatred toward me that I thought he might attempt to do me some harm when I left the bartizan.

“Show this fellow you are indeed of the torturers’ guild.”

The peltast was relaxed, so there was no great difficulty. I knocked his shield aside with my right arm, putting my left foot on his right to pin him while I crushed that nerve in the neck that induces convulsions.

Severian just went from a monastic school boy to a badass in a split second.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 19 April 2019 - 07:25 AM

[Aptorian]

Finished Shadow of the Torturer and began The Claw of the Conciliator

If Wolfe wasn't such a good writer I think I would have liked Shadow less than I do. Not much actually happens in this first book. A great many tales are told and Severian is well introduced but the book doesn't move far from the middle to the end. And the end isn't much of an end at all, It seems to me that The Book of the New Sun is meant to be read as a hole while the I individual books aren't stand alone.

Claw certainly starts up like you're picking up from the last page of Shadow. Only more confusing.

[Salt-Man Z]

Aptorian, on 19 April 2019 - 07:24 AM, said:

Severian just went from a monastic school boy to a badass in a split second.

Not that I don't agree with you (love that scene), but keep in mind this is Severian writing his memoirs, so he might just be making himself look good here. (And does that even matter? I don't know, but it's something to think about.)

Aptorian, on 19 April 2019 - 02:59 PM, said:

Not much actually happens in this first book.

A great many things of import actually happen, but you won't realize it until much later. Regardless, the first bit that takes place in the Citadel is one of my favorite parts of the entire series, just for the atmosphere it creates.

Aptorian, on 19 April 2019 - 02:59 PM, said:

It seems to me that The Book of the New Sun is meant to be read as a hole while the I individual books aren't stand alone.

Exactly right. Stopping after Shadow would be akin to quitting Lord of the Rings after Fellowship. The last book in BotNS brings events full circle, and Severian himself takes pains to explain some things (and you'll likely have figured out some other stuff by that point, too.)

Aptorian, on 19 April 2019 - 02:59 PM, said:

Claw certainly starts up like you're picking up from the last page of Shadow. Only more confusing.

There's a pretty obvious jump in time of at least a couple of days. Perhaps the most confusing bit is that the ending of Shadow is never actually explained.