[Aptorian]

The great thing about Warhammer is that you can spend days just reading the Wikipedia entries on WH lore alone.

[QuickTidal]

So I didn't want to jinx it if it had gone south on me before I finished, but I just read KING'S DRAGON by Kate Elliott (book #1 of the Crown of Stars series), and it was SPEC-TACULAR!

It's got a bit of the ASOIAF vibe to it, but with more fantasy and magic elements present and up front...and less overt bleakness and rape (though still some) for a medieval fantasy book. The characters are universally interesting...it switches between two major POVs (Liath and Alain), and some minor ones (Hanna, Hathui, Rosvita, Frater Agius and some others)...and ALL of them are really well paced and set out. So as you jump from section to section, POV to POV, you never get bored. Just a stunning first book inn a series. Sets up the world very well, pulls no punches on the world building (not QUITE as "throw you into the fire" as Malazan) and is helped by the mild allegories to Western Europe (though not as blatantly evident as Lawrence's Broken Empire is). She's also amazing at place and character names...like the two eldest daughters of the king are Sapientia and Theophanu. I also really love the concept off a world where the religion/god is shared between two a Lord and Lady, with the Lady dominant...as such, society and the church is dominated by a lot of women. It feels so fresh to read something like this. The other thing of note is how real everyone feels. Nobody here is making decisions because the plot demands them to, it's all happening so organically that you buy all of it.

I was so blown away by it that I ordered book two, PRINCE OF DOGS, and it arrives today so I'm jumping right into it!

Seriously. How I have not read this series till now is beyond me. Simply excellent. Easy 5 stars.

[Aptorian]

King's Dragon is 3.75 on Amazon. On to the pile it goes.

[QuickTidal]

Aptorian, on 27 June 2019 - 01:00 PM, said:

King's Dragon is 3.75 on Amazon. On to the pile it goes.

Hope you like it! Can't beat that price.

[Aptorian]

It's over 600 pages so I'm already weary of it.

In the mean time I've started up 16 ways to defend a walled city by KJ Parker. I'm 10% in and it's really good. The only other Parker book I've read, is the first book in the engineer trilogy, and it almost bored me to death. The least fantasy fantasy book I've read.

But the blurb interested me and reading the first page hooked me. Say one thing about Parker, he/she is smarter than the average bear.

Also just picked up Good Omens from the library but it might take the backseat to Super Mario Maker 2.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 27 June 2019 - 05:54 PM

[Aptorian]

About a quarter into 16 ways to defend a walled city now.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable tale. An empire and a capital city up to it's neck in a river of shit but the protagonist is an amazing swimmer. I love when an author writes a character that feels as competent as Orhan here.

Everything seems utterly fucked yet I can't wait to see what Orhan comes up with next.

[worry]

Aptorian, on 28 June 2019 - 07:00 AM, said:

An empire and a capital city up to it's neck in a river of shit but the protagonist is an amazing swimmer.

Metaphorically or...?

[Aptorian]

Time will tell

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 25 June 2019 - 05:21 PM, said:

... back to HELL DIVERS: WOLVES.
Again, candy, and this is book 4 in a candy sf actioner series. To his credit the author avoids the near video game like structure of the previous three and breaks the story and fight scenes up a little better - less 'story-fight-story-smaller fight-story-REALLY big fight', writes the characters a bit less archetypical (a bit), adds a little more intrigue and spin to the world building. Also, the action scenes are bonkers great and the way the series has gone, anyone can die so the stakes are very real.

About five chapters to go, if you enjoyed the series so far, this is probably the best book yet. Great fun, may jump straight into book five if the next RED RISING hasn't dropped yet.

If post apocalyptic shoot em ups aren't your thing, skip.

Just finished WOLVES .... yeah, that was a tonne of fun. There's a whole 'adventure at sea' element to this book that the author handles well... i can't guarantee he's ever been on a ship, but as with many things in the series, he makes it work well enough that sweating the details isn't worthwhile. Who care how a rudder actually works when giant sea beasties are trying to eat the boat? And why overthink the plot when it turns into a totally gripping gunfight? Still candy, but gooOOOOooood candy.

Went straight to HELL DIVERS 5: CAPTIVES. Four chapters in, i had to relisten to a fight scene once because wtf was that as insane as i think i just heard, twice because yes, yes it was, and again because wow! Plot remains one moustache twirl short of a parody, tho a sideplot just took a turn i wasn't expecting that could get very very cool and if it goes the way i expect (it usually does with this series) i give the author credit for effective foreshadowing.

[Aptorian]

I wanted to read something light so I checked out the Hell Divers series Abyss has been talking about.

First book is an easy enough popcorn read but I'm about 15% in and I don't really want to read anymore. The book is annoying me

It's doing a sorta good job of channelling 80s action films and video game shooters. But it's just kinda underwhelming and lacks the swagger of the action genre. The plot is poorly designed and the action is weirdly low key.

It makes the whole world seem more fraught than is necessary and simultaneously makes the soldiers and command look like amateurs. Like I don't believe these are elite soldiers, nor do I buy that they've been doing hell dives for centuries.

It's like the author wanted to write a cool homage to b-movies, but just wrote a b-movie.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 29 June 2019 - 08:35 PM

[Aptorian]

Not sure if this is an awkward jab at me or what but I was expecting to like it. I like shallow fiction written for entertainment. This just didn't seem very good.

[Abyss]

Aptorian, on 29 June 2019 - 08:29 PM, said:

I wanted to read something light so I checked out the Hell Divers series Abyss has been talking about.

First book is an easy enough popcorn read but I'm about 15% in and I don't really want to read anymore. The book is annoying me

It's doing a sorta good job of channelling 80s action films and video game shooters. But it's just kinda underwhelming and lacks the swagger of the action genre. The plot is poorly designed and the action is weirdly low key.

It makes the whole world seem more fraught than is necessary and simultaneously makes the soldiers and command look like amateurs. Like I don't believe these are elite soldiers, nor do I buy that they've been doing hell dives for centuries.

It's like the author wanted to write a cool homage to b-movies, but just wrote a b-movie.

Plot is basic at best, the action scenes get better, and their elite status is because of what they do... not Special Forces training. They actually are amateurs and the world is that fraught because those are the best they have.

Also the whole post nuke armageddon mutants everywhere thing.

But hey, I never said this was MoI.

[Andorion]

Reading the Bobby Dollar books. Tad Williams has done the impossible, he has made a protagonist dumber than early Dresden.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Finished Good Omens. Excellent book, and I feel like the TV series did a good job in knowing what to weed out. It's only the odd slight thing that feels a touch unnecessary but doesn't spoil anything.

Started re-reading The Lies of Locke Lamora. The system went down at work yesterday all day, and I'd finished the above and it was the first thing that stood out on my nip to the bookshop at lunchtime.

I loved the second one, Red Seas Under Red Skies, but I forgot how much I struggled with the first half of the first book. I... I just don't like the main cast. I seem to remember it picking up once things go wrong so I'm sticking with it (largely at this point to get to Red Seas).

[Aptorian]

I'm about 120 pages into Good Omens myself. I'm a bit more lukewarm on it. Maybe it's building to something but so far the story feels slow and the humor, if you can call it that, isn't really doing anything for me.

It sort of reminds me of when I bounced off the hitchhikers guide because I thought the humor was off.

[QuickTidal]

Took a short long weekend break from PRINCE OF DOGS to read the short new standalone Conn Iggulden sand and sandal, THE FALCON OF SPARTA which is a retelling of the March of the Ten Thousand (Xenophon and a tonne of Spartan and Greek mercenaries escaping hostile Persia). It's fine. The problem lies in the fact that Cyrus (The Younger), who is the catalyst for the March of the Ten Thousand Event (a real life event) when his treacherous brother (Artaxerxes) sets out to kill him, is a protagonist for a little shy of half the book...and that sucks because when I say catalyst, I mean that as history clearly recorded, Cyrus dies. The March is about scholar Xenophon leading all these mercenaries out of hostile territory all the while harried by Artaxerxes armies. So here you are getting to know, cheering on, and eventually loving the character of Cyrus...only for him to eat it as the thing that triggers the March. Xenophon is...fine....but here when juxtaposed against this liberal, forward thinking Persian Prince...he feels inadequate when the story/protagonist largely switches to him for the other over half the book. Iggulden tells the story well with not too much embellishment from history, but I just could not shake Cyrus while reading about Xenophon. As such, I think the work as a whole suffers. I have read one other book about this event, and that's Michael Curtis Ford's THE TEN THOUSAND (2002) and it seems to sidestep this issue by being about Xenophon from the get go (during his youth even, and education under Socrates), and only touching on Cyrus as an admirable, but secondary player for the whole tale.

Anyways, it's fine. THE TEN THOUSAND is better.

Back into PRINCE OF DOGS this morning. Man, I love this series!

[worry]

You're reading Crown of Stars? I must have missed that. That series improves with each book imo. I didn't love the first one, so if you already love the series, that's a good sign for things to come!

[QuickTidal]

worry, on 03 July 2019 - 06:46 AM, said:

You're reading Crown of Stars? I must have missed that. That series improves with each book imo. I didn't love the first one, so if you already love the series, that's a good sign for things to come!

Sweet! That’s good to know!

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 23 June 2019 - 03:59 PM, said:

Novik's Spinning Silver.

This was enjoyable, especially the rarely seen representation of Eastern European Judaism and folklore. I think Uprooted was a stronger story overall, but this one is absolutely worth the read.

On to Gibson's Count Zero.

[Zeto Demerzel]

QuickTidal, on 03 July 2019 - 10:15 AM, said:

worry, on 03 July 2019 - 06:46 AM, said:

You're reading Crown of Stars? I must have missed that. That series improves with each book imo. I didn't love the first one, so if you already love the series, that's a good sign for things to come!

Sweet! That's good to know!

I didn't love the first book and stopped reading the series at that point. From what I can remember, the setting was too reminiscent of medieval Europe for my liking, and the magic, such as it was, was hand-waved. Found Liath (?) too Mary Suey too.

I'll watch this space for thoughts/reviews on subsequent books, though. I do have the remaining books in my pile somewhere.