[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 22 August 2019 - 02:53 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 22 August 2019 - 01:08 PM, said:

Aptorian, on 22 August 2019 - 12:54 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 22 August 2019 - 12:34 PM, said:

The hallmark of a good book is when I'm reading a big clunky-AF hardcover as I walk down the street to work from my transit stop because I didn't want to stop reading...

Now, I liked the first James Islington Licanius book (THE SHADOW OF WHAT WAS LOST) a lot. In fact, I liked it more than I'd ever expected to (I honestly had it pegged as a WoT clone, or similar and it's anything but). It had super compelling characters, a really interesting world with it's own crazy history, and was a pretty solid cracker of an opening volume for a trilogy.

I am nearing the halfway mark AN ECHO OF THINGS TO COME, and it's knocking me on my ass with brilliance. A LOT of the chapters of this book (through a certain POV character who I won't name; spoiler for Book 1) are focused on memories of world history and you'd think such seemingly info dump chapters would be boring, but my gods they are AMAZING and flesh out what's happening so well...but Islington knows enough to still keep a lot of the larger world machinations vague to make it all still so interesting (enough that I voraciously read as I walk down the goddamned street, risking injury for not looking where I'm going). I've already gone back and re-read the prologue to Book 1 again with new eyes, and it's so much richer. It's that kind of book series.

This series is going to end up on my top reads of all time list, I'm certain.

THE LIGHT OF ALL THAT FALLS can't come out soon enough!

Added them to my kindle library. I'll tell you what I think when I read them some time within the next decade.

Good stuff. Hope you digs it.

Will check it out when the trilo is complete.

I knew you would wait. I also know you'll dig it.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 22 August 2019 - 04:01 PM, said:

Abyss, on 22 August 2019 - 02:53 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 22 August 2019 - 01:08 PM, said:

Aptorian, on 22 August 2019 - 12:54 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 22 August 2019 - 12:34 PM, said:

The hallmark of a good book is when I'm reading a big clunky-AF hardcover as I walk down the street to work from my transit stop because I didn't want to stop reading...

Now, I liked the first James Islington Licanius book ...

THE LIGHT OF ALL THAT FALLS can't come out soon enough!

Added them to my kindle library. I'll tell you what I think when I read them some time within the next decade.

Good stuff. Hope you digs it.

Will check it out when the trilo is complete.

I knew you would wait. I also know you'll dig it.

I see they got Michael Kramer to narrate the earbooks, which automatically increases my chances of enjoyment by 33%.

[worry]

Andorion, on 22 August 2019 - 02:40 PM, said:

Finished The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind.
If you are looking for a short, good superpowers read, this is a good option.

Can you, without big spoilers, list a few of the things she moves with her mind? I trust you, I just don't wanna get this and it winds up she's moving around shopping carts at Walmart.

[Abyss]

worry, on 22 August 2019 - 06:11 PM, said:

Andorion, on 22 August 2019 - 02:40 PM, said:

Finished The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind.
If you are looking for a short, good superpowers read, this is a good option.

Can you, without big spoilers, list a few of the things she moves with her mind? I trust you, I just don't wanna get this and it winds up she's moving around shopping carts at Walmart.

Isn't the reason WHY she's moving shopping carts at Walmart more important?
I mean it's one thing if her job is to collect them from the parking lot and another if she's throwing them at a supervillain in the parking lot.

[worry]

True. Harry Dresden had a pretty good fight at Walmart iirc.

[Andorion]

BfuckinK, on 22 August 2019 - 08:02 PM, said:

Only on pg 221 of King of Thorns. Ugh 55 days so far.

I ain't ever gonna get to Licanus 1.

I don't understand how/why my reading speed has gotten so slow these past 5 years.

BK, have you tried audiobooks? If you are having trouble reading, maybe listening can help?

[Aptorian]

Have you tried turning the book upside down?

[QuickTidal]

BfuckinK, on 22 August 2019 - 08:02 PM, said:

I ain’t ever gonna get to Licanus 1.

Oh boy, Licanius 1 was great, but Licanius 2 is blowing my mind!

[Andorion]

BfuckinK, on 23 August 2019 - 02:12 AM, said:

Only exp I have with audio was when I was attempting to do that Monte Cristo club then. It was a fairly strange exp at the time. Different then reading for sure.

I think you might give it another shot. It might help with the slump

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Abyss, on 21 August 2019 - 04:20 AM, said:

Both want to stick you with the pointy end?

Yep.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Forgot to mention — I devoured Kirstein's The Lost Steersman and The Language Of Power. This series is criminally unrecognized.

Now I'll just have to wait for the concluding books to be published..

EDIT: Seriously, read these books. It's hard to say why without spoilers from the first book, but

Spoiler

they are the hardest of hard science fiction, hidden beneath the trappings of fantasy. Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic — until you apply the scientific method to it. Then it becomes logic.

This post has been edited by Whisperzzzzzzz: 24 August 2019 - 01:30 AM

[Maark Abbott]

I bought that book, Abyss.

[Abyss]

Maark Abbott, on 24 August 2019 - 10:52 AM, said:

I bought that book, Abyss.

Coldfire bk 1?
I hope you enjoy.

[Maark Abbott]

We will see. I've actually made a little progress with In The Ruins, too.

[Aptorian]

Read Benjanun Sriduangkaew's "And Shall Machines Surrender". It's a bad book.

It's an interesting premise. In a future city, on a Dyson sphere, a bunch of avatars for AI start commiting suicide. Two former mercenaries, turned would be enemies, have to work together to find the cause. Think Richard Morgan with no style or humor.

It's written in the most unambitious, most generic way possible. Filled with anachronistic and familiar tropes. That's disappointing but okay if there was more action. But there's not, because it's a very short book.

Instead there's a ridiculous amount of uncomfortable lesbian BDSM and virtual body mutilation. It's some of the least comfortable awkward erotic writing I've ever encountered, between two utterly unlikable psychopaths who're written like they're meant to be relatable.

The main protagonist, the doctor, is a former torturer, and uses this knowledge to hurt and pleasure people in a disturbing way. All of it presented like this is empowering and fine. There's something completely off about that. There's no reflection or guilt related to the doctor's former life, meaning there's no redemption in the eye of the reader.

The side kick is equally shitty. A former spy, who sold out friends and lovers for power, who shows no qualms about this history. An unappologetic traitor.

I looked up the author and apparently she? or he? Is a popular writer but apparently also a controversial Internet troll. It's weird to read that she's known for posting bigoted and homophobic content because And Shall Machines Surrender reads like Sci-fi for LGBTQ+ people. Maybe it's an awkward appology book?

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 25 August 2019 - 06:50 PM

[Andorion]

Aptorian, on 25 August 2019 - 06:46 PM, said:

Read Benjanun Sriduangkaew's "And Shall Machines Surrender". It's a bad book.

It's an interesting premise. In a future city, on a Dyson sphere, a bunch of avatars for AI start commiting suicide. Two former mercenaries, turned would be enemies, have to work together to find the cause. Think Richard Morgan with no style or humor.

It's written in the most unambitious, most generic way possible. Filled with anachronistic and familiar tropes. That's disappointing but okay if there was more action. But there's not, because it's a very short book.

Instead there's a ridiculous amount of uncomfortable lesbian BDSM and virtual body mutilation. It's some of the least comfortable awkward erotic writing I've ever encountered, between two utterly unlikable psychopaths who're written like they're meant to be relatable.

The main protagonist, the doctor, is a former torturer, and uses this knowledge to hurt and pleasure people in a disturbing way. All of it presented like this is empowering and fine. There's something completely off about that. There's no reflection or guilt related to the doctor's former life, meaning there's no redemption in the eye of the reader.

The side kick is equally shitty. A former spy, who sold out friends and lovers for power, who shows no qualms about this history. An unappologetic traitor.

I looked up the author and apparently she? or he? Is a popular writer but apparently also a controversial Internet troll. It's weird to read that she's known for posting bigoted and homophobic content because And Shall Machines Surrender reads like Sci-fi for LGBTQ+ people. Maybe it's an awkward appology book?

Thanks for reading this first Apt as it was on my list for this year and now I won't bother.

As far as I understand the author was in a huge controversy a few years back where they threatened and spread hate speech about many other authors.

[Aptorian]

It's weird too because it has a very high user review score but of course that's mostly useless in this day and age.

[worry]

If it's the same person, I believe QT discussed this author in one of his better rants a few years back. Very online-poisoned behavior.

[Andorion]

Accelerando is weirdly intriguing. I wish I had more time to read it slower

[Mentalist]

Finished "Crooked Little Vein". It was OK.

Moving on to "Blindsight" tomorrow