[polishgenius]

I've been re-reading Yoon Ha-Lee's Machineries of Empire (Ninefox Gambit and sequels) and I like it even more than I did the first time. It's just as much gruesome, morally-fucked up imaginative military space opera fun with inappropriately charming characters and dashings of background skullduggery, but I'm now seriously impressed with how well it sets up later developments with tiny asides earlier on.

[Macros]

Finished Wizard of earthsea

Interesting. And you can draw a clear line of influence to some newer authors, Rothfuss in particular.

The writing at times felt a little jarring in how simple and short some massive things were and how drawn out seemingly simpler things are. But good to read over all

[Tiste Simeon]

I like to pick up crime thrillers cheap at charity shops. I get a lot of dross as you might suspect but occasionally there's some ace stuff. Just finished reading a book called The Blackhouse by Peter May and it's rather good. A detective gets sent back to the remote island of Lewis in the Scottish Hebrides because a murder is committed with a similar M.O. to one he's investigating in Edinburgh. It was nothing groundbreaking or game changing but it was a jolly good read that kept me going. Cost me 40p!

[Andorion]

I just finished Patrick Ness' The Ocean Was Our Sky.
What a very strange book.

[QuickTidal]

Halfway through EMPIRE OF GRASS, and it's stunning. The pacing is hardcore on point. Somehow Tad learned how to shorten chapters a bit since MS&T, meaning the pace of the various plot threads in this book are happening a decent clip.

Loving this!

[Aptorian]

Andorion, on 17 May 2019 - 01:31 AM, said:

I just finished Patrick Ness' The Ocean Was Our Sky.
What a very strange book.

What did you think of that ending? It came out of left field I thought.

QuickTidal, on 17 May 2019 - 01:14 PM, said:

Halfway through EMPIRE OF GRASS, and it's stunning. The pacing is hardcore on point. Somehow Tad learned how to shorten chapters a bit since MS&T, meaning the pace of the various plot threads in this book are happening a decent clip.

Loving this!

What's the forum consensus on Memory, Sorrow and... Thorns? Never got around to reading it.

[QuickTidal]

Aptorian, on 17 May 2019 - 02:52 PM, said:

What's the forum consensus on Memory, Sorrow and... Thorns? Never got around to reading it.

Possibly/Probably my fave high fantasy series below Tolkien if I'm ranking them.

I love it so much I have a framed print of the Whelan art for TO GREEN ANGEL TOWER on our Master bedroom wall.

And I am enjoying the sequel series (LAST KING OF OSTEN ARD) just as much.

There is just something about the characters, and the fleshed out world that really hits home for me and says "Fantasy".

[Aptorian]

Well, shit. I might put that towards the top of the wobbly stack of books to read then.

Anyone completely out off by the series?

[Aptorian]

Pshah, who listens to the cat?!

[End of Disc One]

I'm about 200 pages into Tad's first book of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. It's pretty good so far. Everyone says that the beginning with Simon in the castle is boring but I loved it. It's getting kind of weird now but it's also showing some of Tad's range. I look forward to continuing.

[QuickTidal]

Lackluster Bachelorette, on 17 May 2019 - 03:30 PM, said:

Abyss

Abyss's problem with MS&T boiled down to "The Norns/Hikeda'ya have occasional 'magic' that comes from chanting/singing" which occurred in exactly one scene, in one book, at one siege. It's not exactly a complaint that can be levelled at the series as a whole by a long shot.

And quite frankly, the Norns "threat" is so much more than any magic they might possess.

[acesn8s]

I'm on a reread right now, just started the 3rd book. It's not action packed and I'm a little frustrated by how the main character doesn't seem to really do anything, things tend to happen to him.

The prose is above average, the world build is strong, the magic system in undefined enough to remain a mystery. If you want a series that requires you to focus on what is going on, as opposed to multi-tasking, you'll probably like it.

[Aptorian]

Dragonbone Chair has been discarded by my library. But I found it on Libby.

Thought I'd do the professional courtesy of recommending the Libby app from Overdrive. It allows Library users from across the world to get access to international releases - That includes lots of fantasy ebooks for the thrifty readers. It's got audio books as well.

I'll still recommend people buy the books of the authors they like though.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 17 May 2019 - 06:08 PM

[Aptorian]

Just for you I made a cross country reservation for Tigana. It'll probably be home by Wednesday.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 17 May 2019 - 04:29 PM, said:

Lackluster Bachelorette, on 17 May 2019 - 03:30 PM, said:

Abyss

Abyss's problem with MS&T boiled down to "The Norns/Hikeda'ya have occasional 'magic' that comes from chanting/singing" which occurred in exactly one scene, in one book, at one siege. It's not exactly a complaint that can be levelled at the series as a whole by a long shot.

And quite frankly, the Norns "threat" is so much more than any magic they might possess.

Actually no, that's just the scene where I threw the book away and ignored it for a few days.
Keeping in mind I read the entire series, and much else by this author, my problems with it were...

- travelogues... so many characters spending chapters slogging from point a to b;

- victims... most of the cast are bystanders to more interesting people doing interesting things that don't involve the cast;

- weak, poorly developed baddies who are basically evil for the sake of the baddie being evil;

- very little happens through each doorstopper and then something big happens, the end.

[Aptorian]

Ah, the Wheel of Time/Sword of Truth model.

[worry]

Finished Golden Son -- Red Rising book 2 -- and I enjoyed it pretty much start to finish. Even the minor quibbles I had with the first one went down more smoothly in this one (any macro-level quibbles, I'll reserve for now). Again, the forward momentum in this series is incredible, one of its great strengths. Even though they're not much alike, it reminds me of the Breach books in that way. A capable protag proactively navigating genuine threats, with frequent yet plausible twists being thrown at him -- or, in a way that makes this book stand out, creating twists himself for his enemies to endure. Reflecting on that issue acesn8s mentions about Simon only having things happen to him, this is very much not that.

Anyway, now I'm reading the whale book.

[End of Disc One]

worry, on 17 May 2019 - 07:28 PM, said:

Finished Golden Son -- Red Rising book 2 -- and I enjoyed it pretty much start to finish. Even the minor quibbles I had with the first one went down more smoothly in this one (any macro-level quibbles, I'll reserve for now). Again, the forward momentum in this series is incredible, one of its great strengths. Even though they're not much alike, it reminds me of the Breach books in that way. A capable protag proactively navigating genuine threats, with frequent yet plausible twists being thrown at him -- or, in a way that makes this book stand out, creating twists himself for his enemies to endure. Reflecting on that issue acesn8s mentions about Simon only having things happen to him, this is very much not that.

I know I've made this comparison before, but I get some real Caine vibes when reading the Red Rising trilogy. I would not want to stand in the way of either Caine or Darrow.

[worry]

I haven't read the Caine books. I heard they are Rated R for Language.

[Mentalist]

Finished Shadowline , the first book in Glen Cook's "Starfishers" space opera trilo.
As the blurb proclaims, it's cribbed from the Eddas. And if you were a fan of all the Greek tragedy pathos SE inserted towards the end of tBH and RG (SPOILER WRITTEN BY ME TIPSY; DO NOT READ IF YOU DID NOT READ RG, FOR THE LOVE OF BURN/GOD/ABYSS?)

Spoiler

RIP Trull, the most meaningless unnecessary death ever

you will ADORE all the fatalism and pre-determination in "Shadowline". It's a Ragnarok in space, with private armies playing the roles of Aesir, and also a humanoid aliens being giants (?). It's weird and also amazing. Too early into Book 2 to be able to assess where the series is going, but super-strong start. Glen Cook remains THE most underrated SFF writer EVER

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 18 May 2019 - 07:12 AM