[End of Disc One]

I finished Tigana a few weeks ago and I honestly didn’t think it was that slow. I found it to be medium paced. No complaints aside from maybe one sex scene that read like pure author wish fulfillment.

Apt you’re going to hate The Dragonbone Chair when you get to it.

This post has been edited by End of Disc One: 28 May 2019 - 10:32 PM

[Dadding]

Macros, on 28 May 2019 - 05:38 AM, said:

About 120 pages into Blackdog now. By K.V Johansen.

Pretty good so far

K. V. Johansen lives in my hometown, let me know if it's any good, I've been thinking of reading it for a while.

As for me, finished the first three WHEEL OF TIME books, on to Book 4. It's decent. Not earth-shattering, but decent.

[End of Disc One]

Lackluster Bachelorette, on 28 May 2019 - 10:51 PM, said:

Spoil which sex scene for me please.

I’m on mobile and don’t remember the code for spoilers, but it happened in a castle in the southern area of the Palm.

[pat5150]

Just finished Bradley P. Beaulieu's Beneath the Twisted Trees and you can read my review here.

Good, but not quite as good as the last two volumes.

[Abyss]

Just finished SeanMiranin McGrantguire's short ROLLING IN THE DEEP and plunged (hee hee see what i did there) right into INTO THE DROWNING DEEP, ten chapters in now.

ROLLING is a short story, and it holds no surprises and doesn't try to... the author tells you right at the outset how the story is going to end (badly, with no survivors)... it's a gutsy way to write, but framed in the context of a 'ghost ship' Mary Celeste nautical disaster mystery type thing it works very well. Even as the story beats are predictable... you can pretty much see every violent death coming paragraphs before they happen... the author nicely reproduces that horror movie style where the viewer knows the jump scare is coming but sticks with the story anyways.

It also serves as perfect setup for INTO, where the story very deliberately follows the events in ROLLING without the foreshadowing... in effect the tension in ROLLING is even more effective in INTO because i'm wondering how/whether these characters will have better luck than the first set.




Very enjoying this. Earbook narrator for both is generally great... does a few too many adult female voices as 'semi-obnoxious teenage-girl' but it's not offputting.

[Salt-Man Z]

Abyss, on 31 May 2019 - 03:11 PM, said:

Just finished SeanMiranin McGrantguire's short ROLLING IN THE DEEP and plunged (hee hee see what i did there) right into INTO THE DROWNING DEEP, ten chapters in now.

ROLLING is a short story, and it holds no surprises and doesn't try to... the author tells you right at the outset how the story is going to end (badly, with no survivors)... it's a gutsy way to write, but framed in the context of a 'ghost ship' Mary Celeste nautical disaster mystery type thing it works very well. Even as the story beats are predictable... you can pretty much see every violent death coming paragraphs before they happen... the author nicely reproduces that horror movie style where the viewer knows the jump scare is coming but sticks with the story anyways.

It also serves as perfect setup for INTO, where the story very deliberately follows the events in ROLLING without the foreshadowing... in effect the tension in ROLLING is even more effective in INTO because i'm wondering how/whether these characters will have better luck than the first set.

I do want to read ROLLING eventually, but I feel like INTO recapped it enough that it's not strictly necessary. (And though I got INTO for $3, I've yet to see ROLLING go under $5.) INTO is definitely awesome, though.

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 31 May 2019 - 03:31 PM

[Abyss]

Salt-Man Z, on 31 May 2019 - 03:30 PM, said:

Abyss, on 31 May 2019 - 03:11 PM, said:

Just finished SeanMiranin McGrantguire's short ROLLING IN THE DEEP and plunged (hee hee see what i did there) right into INTO THE DROWNING DEEP, ten chapters in now.

ROLLING is a short story, and it holds no surprises and doesn't try to... the author tells you right at the outset how the story is going to end (badly, with no survivors)... it's a gutsy way to write, but framed in the context of a 'ghost ship' Mary Celeste nautical disaster mystery type thing it works very well. Even as the story beats are predictable... you can pretty much see every violent death coming paragraphs before they happen... the author nicely reproduces that horror movie style where the viewer knows the jump scare is coming but sticks with the story anyways.

It also serves as perfect setup for INTO, where the story very deliberately follows the events in ROLLING without the foreshadowing... in effect the tension in ROLLING is even more effective in INTO because i'm wondering how/whether these characters will have better luck than the first set.

I do want to read ROLLING eventually, but I feel like INTO recapped it enough that it's not strictly necessary. (And though I got INTO for $3, I've yet to see ROLLING go under $5.) INTO is definitely awesome, though.

Yeah it's odd that ROLLING, shorter, hasn't gotten the sale treatment, and only just got an earbook like a year after INTO when the film was announced. It's variously marketed as book 1, book 0.5 and the prequel to the DROWNING DEEP series, and before recently it was virtually not marketed at all while INTO was called 'book 1'... all just confusing.

I'm only a third into INTO so i can't say whether it's worth it beyond the basics of a fun well written short story. There are a few points from ROLLING that i'm curious to see whether arise in INTO.

[Chance]

Finished up the Reluctant Swordsman quartet and found it pretty decent with moment of pure awesome.

Started up The Stone in the Skull since the description sounded pretty interesting and wanted something with no expectations on it.

[Aptorian]

Been reading a bunch of small stuff in between Tigana.

"De Ansatte" (The Employees) by Olga Ravn. It's a peculiar book told as numbered entries from a series of witness accounts between councillors and "The employees" on a space ship.

Basically a space ship travelling to some unknown destination containing both human and human-like employees pick up a bunch of alien artifacts and things start to unravel from there.

It has the potential for a sinister or creepy story but it's not horror that drives the descent, it's human and human-like introspection and the human condition, affected by the distance from Earth that the story centers around.

A weird book.

Read a short illustrated print of JK Rowling's University speech at Harvard in 2008 or 2009 called "Very Good Lives". I guess it might be inspiring to some but seeing as it was sold for 200 DKK originally it seems like a waste of pages to me.

Read book 3+4 of the Danish comic/book series "Taynikma". These are decidedly meant for small boys, yet I find myself enjoying them. They have a quality similar to The Last Airbender if a bit simpler.

Currently reading "Den som blinker er bange for døden" (He who blinks is afraid of death) by Knud Romer. I've been looking forward to this book. Not so much the story itself but the work of the author.

Knud Romer is an infamous writer, advertisement agent, TV-personality and generally eccentric intellectually weird guy.

I've seen him speak a couple times, latest at an annual librarian event, and he's mezmerising. He's one of those people who you listen to and you're unsure if you're being bullshitted or you're listening a genius level authority on litterature and culture. Seems a bit of both.

[Aptorian]

Finished Tigana. This is a thoroughly mediocre book. Certainly well written but fleshing out characters is not an excuse for writing almost 800 pages when the actual story is so thin. I wasn't bored reading Tigana but I wasn't entertained either.

Also finished Den der blinker er bange for døden by Knud Romer. This is the third book of this kind I've read this year and beyond keeping tabs on significant Danish litterature, I don't understand why anyone reads these kinds of books.

It's a depressing recollection of a painful childhood from Denmark's post war era, about the close-mindedness of rural Denmark and the generations of lives that were destroyed by WW2.

Important and poignant? Sure. A fun read? Certainly not. I'd rather read about the Mhybe in Memories of Ice

Jumped into the 4th Cormoran Strike book, Lethal White, by JK Rowling. Dear me, I don't know if I'll make it through this book.

The book picks up after the cliffhanger wedding ending of the last book and jumps straight back into the relationship nonsense of the past three books. Like, I get that this is a detective novel for women but cooome ooon!

[Macros]

Started my Calgars Siege at the airport this morning

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 22 May 2019 - 01:57 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 22 May 2019 - 01:06 PM, said:

Finished EMPIRE OF GRASS....man, Williams really upped the ante in this one, and now I'm curious how it will all end...the middle of the book is a TAD slow (heyoooo!)...but otherwise this was better than even THE WITCHWOOD CROWN. And now the long wait for THE NAVIGATOR'S CHILDREN.

Started on Melanie Rawn's EXILE: THE RUINS OF AMBRAI, which is pretty interesting right off the bat because it's a matriarchal society. Only a few chapters in, but it's VERY well written so far.

Shoot, when I started reading it last week, I had assumed the Osten Ard follow-up trilogy was completed. Witchwood Crown was published in 2017, then Empire of Grass in 2019. I guess we'll be waiting until 2021 for Navigator's Children.

Finished up Williams' The Witchwood Crown. A solid start to this trilogy. It was great to compare this to Dragonbone Chair to see how much tighter his writing has gotten.

What next — Neuromancer or Tiamat's Wrath? These are the only two books I brought with me to Mormonia.

[Andorion]

Reading lots of stuff
Transformation by Carol Berg - 30% in and this book is excellent. I love it.

The Warship by Neal Asher - sequel to the soldier, initial chapters only, looks good.

Dawn of Wonder by Jonathan Renshaw - not impressed after 12 chapters.

[QuickTidal]

Started THE HIDDEN CITY by Michelle (Sagara) West, and though it's early days (only around page 100) it's very good. It's very much like a Tad Williams book, being that it can be overly verbose, but it services that in terms of setting and mood, and the action/activities are intesting enough to keep you reading. Quite enjoying it so far.

[Abyss]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 03 June 2019 - 05:11 AM, said:

...What next — Neuromancer or Tiamat's Wrath? These are the only two books I brought with me to Mormonia.

Oooh... tough one.... since you've waited decades to get to NEUROMANCER, i'd say TIAMAT so you can talk to the cool kids about it, then make up for your tardiness with NEURO' (which, having read thrice, i think is amazeballs, btw).

[End of Disc One]

I'm reading my first K. J. Parker book, Colours in the Steel, and it's pretty awesome. Someone on reddit told me to not read this one first since it's hard to read, but I'm really not finding that to be the case. Very enjoyable sense of humor, and I'm surprised that the technical stuff doesn't bore me.

[Andorion]

End of Disc One, on 03 June 2019 - 03:54 PM, said:

I'm reading my first K. J. Parker book, Colours in the Steel, and it's pretty awesome. Someone on reddit told me to not read this one first since it's hard to read, but I'm really not finding that to be the case. Very enjoyable sense of humor, and I'm surprised that the technical stuff doesn't bore me.

I have read his Folding Knife and 16 Ways to Defend a Walled City and been very impressed. I own Colours in the Steel, will have to pick it up soon.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 22 May 2019 - 02:54 PM, said:

...
Now three chapters into THE HOD KING.... it astounds me how much i enjoy this considering how little i enjoyed SENLIN ASCENDS.

So HOD KING lost me. Enjoyed part 1 but part 2...


...BOOK SPOILERS here...

Spoiler

I was good thru the Senlin chapters... enjoying the setting, the character, Senlin's quest to find his wife despite other things...
and that part ended with her thoroughly unsubtle rejection of his rescue effort... but ok, fine, that was sort of inevitable.

Then Part 2 moves to Valeta's pov... and meh. Too cutesy, too obvious, too predictable, tedious... basically so much of what i disliked about SENLIN ASCENDS. I liked Valeta back in ARM OF THE SPHINX but here i'm finding the things i enjoyed are being lost in a dull story running entirely too long.

...so given my ambivalence towards Part 2, i took a break for Mira Grants short story ROLLING IN THE DEEP, was drawn in and moved ahead to the book INTO THE DROWNING DEEP, and as i'm closing on the end of that i find myself not really wanting to go back to HOD KING vs something else.


Anyone want to argue i should give it a further chance?

[Aptorian]

Not finishing a book could give you mentally blue balls.

[Andorion]

Abyss, on 03 June 2019 - 04:22 PM, said:

Abyss, on 22 May 2019 - 02:54 PM, said:

...
Now three chapters into THE HOD KING.... it astounds me how much i enjoy this considering how little i enjoyed SENLIN ASCENDS.

So HOD KING lost me. Enjoyed part 1 but part 2...


...BOOK SPOILERS here...

Spoiler

I was good thru the Senlin chapters... enjoying the setting, the character, Senlin's quest to find his wife despite other things...
and that part ended with her thoroughly unsubtle rejection of his rescue effort... but ok, fine, that was sort of inevitable.

Then Part 2 moves to Valeta's pov... and meh. Too cutesy, too obvious, too predictable, tedious... basically so much of what i disliked about SENLIN ASCENDS. I liked Valeta back in ARM OF THE SPHINX but here i'm finding the things i enjoyed are being lost in a dull story running entirely too long.

...so given my ambivalence towards Part 2, i took a break for Mira Grants short story ROLLING IN THE DEEP, was drawn in and moved ahead to the book INTO THE DROWNING DEEP, and as i'm closing on the end of that i find myself not really wanting to go back to HOD KING vs something else.


Anyone want to argue i should give it a further chance?

To be honest I am not that compelled to even start it.

The weakness of the series IMO is the sub par worldbuilding. All the creative effort has gone into the Tower, but the Tower does not exist in a vacuum. The vacuum needs to be populated.