[Maark Abbott]

Aptorian, on 13 December 2019 - 03:17 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 13 December 2019 - 08:08 AM, said:

Really? None of you miserable chucklefucks laughed at my GGK joke? I hate you all.

It was so bad that I'm no longer sorry Britain is leaving the EU.

May your tea be tepid evermore, sir.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Finished Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama. The mystery pulls at me...

[Maark Abbott]

Wait,

Spoiler

Aelis is dead already? That kind of came out of nowhere

.

[Abyss]

About 1/3rd of the way thru HELL DIVERS 6: ALLEGIANCE... i was NOT expecting this to be as good as it is.
Would not suggest anyone who tried the series and bailed come back for this, but if you read thru the end of bk 5, there's more of what you want here, if what you want is desperate, driven characters with hi-tech weapons, running around a contaminated world, trying not to be eaten by mutant monsters, shot by insane androids, or stabbed in the back by other desperate, driven people who are also running around a contaminated world, trying not to be eaten by mutant monsters, shot by insane androids.

[QuickTidal]

My Discworld read had reached a serendipitous moment as my next "Death" book was coincidentally THE HOGFATHER, so I'm reading that for the first time...at Christmas...and it's WONDERFUL.

[Gothos]

BfuckinK, on 16 December 2019 - 09:53 PM, said:

Spoiler

apparently this Pa is from Bk3 which I picked out last night and flipped through who was on featured in someone named Bull’s chapters and I HAVE no memory of any of it. Ugh this is super rare for me but it keeps happening with this series. Is Pa supposed to be Drummer on the show?

Spoiler

Series Drummer is an amalgamation of Sam, Pa and Bull at the very least, maybe more

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Miller's A Canticle For Leibowitz.

[JPK]

Finished Bloody Rose this morning. Enjoyable, but not mind-blowing. I loved the Prince reference.

Next up I'm starting something that will have Abyss rubbing it's tenticly-bits in glee. Stross' Atrocity Archives.

[Abyss]

JPK, on 18 December 2019 - 06:09 PM, said:

Next up I'm starting something that will have Abyss rubbing it's tenticly-bits in glee. Stross' Atrocity Archives.

Our Dread Pharaoh approves.

[Andorion]

Finished the final Forver Fantasy book by Rachel Aaron. Nice ending to the series.
I actually gave the Anita Blake books a shot. The first book has a paper thin plot and makes no sense.


I also read something different - another take on Sherlock Holmes, set in a near-future dystopian US. A Study in Honour. I really really liked it.

[Maark Abbott]

Well doesn't Gorhaut seem like a lovely place

[Salt-Man Z]

Last weekend I finished Becky Chambers' Record of a Spaceborn Few, her third "Wayfarers" book. Like the second book, it's essentially a standalone with only a very slight (in this case microscopic) connection to the first book. It deals with the Exodan Fleet, those humans who left Earth in generation ships, who were eventually given a star to orbit by the Galactic Commons, but otherwise still remain in their ships (as generations of them have known nothing else.) I like what Chambers was trying to do here, but though the ending works well on an emotional level, it was a lot of work to get there. The story bounces between 5 (6?) POVs showing different aspects of Exodan society (including a child who wants to leave for a planet, an older woman tasked with showing a visiting alien dignitary around, a "grounder" whose ancestors came from the Fleet and wants to return.) But there's no real urgency to the different narratives until about 2/3 of the way through, when they finally start coming together. Still good, but maybe the weakest of the series.

Last night I finished Sarah Chorn's Seraphina's Lament, which I started back in February, but then set aside about halfway through when I started reading a ton of comics. Pretty dark fantasy heavily influenced by Russian history, and how it ends is not what I expected (though of course it was heading in that direction the entire time.) Mostly works as a standalone except for the sequel hook at the end. (I believe it will be a trilogy.) Pretty good for a debut! It did feel a little rough around the edges, but her prose is generally quite lovely, and I'm interested to see where the story goes.

[Mentalist]

Finished "Lies sleeping" the next Peter Grant book. Feels like the end of an arc, and Peter's sudden growing is a bit of an unexpected development. Good book though: ended up finishing the last 120 or so pages at home, once things started to escalate.

EDIT: summing up my thoughts on the book. I'm actually getting the impression Aaronovitch is building up a few secondary characters to give them their own time in the spotlight. Guleed getting a PoV role feels almost inevitable at this point.

For the last 2 remaining commute days, gonna be reading more "Beyond Redemption". I'm about 100 pages into that, and it's a pretty interesting setting.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 22 December 2019 - 01:44 AM

[Aptorian]

Started Sword of Destiny, the second Witcher book.

I'll tell you, this Yennnefer sorceress is a bit of a fruitloop. I didn't like her in the first book and I didn't like her in the Witcher video game. She's such a self-absorbed, rude, greedy little trollop!

Story is cool though.

[Maark Abbott]

Just as a point of interest because people sometimes rail at Bakker for how his series treats the ladyfolk, but did GGK get this for Gorhaut? If not, I call shenanigans

[Mentalist]

Aptorian, on 20 December 2019 - 05:12 AM, said:

Started Sword of Destiny, the second Witcher book.

I'll tell you, this Yennnefer sorceress is a bit of a fruitloop. I didn't like her in the first book and I didn't like her in the Witcher video game. She's such a self-absorbed, rude, greedy little trollop!

Story is cool though.

There's not supposed to be any "normal" characters in the Witcherverse. That's kind od the whole point that the games miss a little bit.

EDIT: Finished "Beyond Redemption". THoughts are in the ded thread but the short version is, I found it interesting, but it didn't blow my mind. Will keep an eye out on the next books.

Taking a 1-day reading break, but tomorrow after work I'm gonna grab volumes 4 in Traitor Son Cycle and Dagger and Coin series, so that'll be my holiday reads.

EDITAGAIN: Mission Successful! already 100 pages into "Plague of Swords" after starting it on the commute back home.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 24 December 2019 - 02:32 AM

[Andorion]

Read quite a bit
Finished Blood Price by Tanya Huff. An early 90s urban fantasy. Its really quite good.

Also finished an Indian fantasy - The Simoquin Prophecies by Samit Basu. Highly recommended.

Finally, I stayed up last night to finish Deepwoods by Honor Raconteur. Slice of LIfe Guild fantasy. Enjoyed it.

[Tsundoku]

Andorion, on 25 December 2019 - 01:48 AM, said:

Read quite a bit
Finished Blood Price by Tanya Huff. An early 90s urban fantasy. Its really quite good.

Also finished an Indian fantasy - The Simoquin Prophecies by Samit Basu. Highly recommended.

Finally, I stayed up last night to finish Deepwoods by Honor Raconteur. Slice of LIfe Guild fantasy. Enjoyed it.

And that was just yesterday!

[Andorion]

Tsundoku, on 25 December 2019 - 05:04 AM, said:

Andorion, on 25 December 2019 - 01:48 AM, said:

Read quite a bit
Finished Blood Price by Tanya Huff. An early 90s urban fantasy. Its really quite good.

Also finished an Indian fantasy - The Simoquin Prophecies by Samit Basu. Highly recommended.

Finally, I stayed up last night to finish Deepwoods by Honor Raconteur. Slice of LIfe Guild fantasy. Enjoyed it.

And that was just yesterday!

Lol you are actually correct.

I finished Simoquin and Deepwoods yesterday. Blood Price was the night before that.

[Tsundoku]

Don't you have a better half? And a job/study? Where the hell do you get the time? Speed reader?

Yeesh.

For my part, I just finished The Grey Bastards. Took a little while to get going, then it really hit it's stride and didn't let up. Great fun, interesting developed characters and a cool concept.

Five rampaging orcs out of six.

Will definitely read the sequel, The True Bastards.