[polishgenius]

Salt-Man Z, on 11 January 2020 - 05:59 AM, said:

polishgenius, on 11 January 2020 - 12:01 AM, said:

Yeah, there's three full novels and a novella.

What's the novella? The only other thing I've seen by her is TO BE TAUGHT, IF FORTUNATE, but that's set explicitly outside the Wayfarers universe.

Ah that's what I was thinking of, I thought it was in it.

[Tiste Simeon]

Tiste Simeon, on 31 December 2019 - 04:58 PM, said:

Finished the earbook of TO GREEN ANGEL TOWER PART 1 and I think I'll go straight into part 2. It didn't feel like such a slog as the first two books and I really began to actually enjoy it. Only 32 hours to go!

I think this one will feel quite quick actually as there is a ton of story to wrap up:

Spoiler

Miriamelle and Simon falling in love and their confrontation with Elias;
Who or what Pryrates is;
Who or what Kamaris is;
The whole mystery surrounding Kamaris come to think of it;
The defeat of the Norns;
The defeat of the Storm King;
The taking over of Naban by Josua & co;
The final showdown between the brothers;
The mystery of Brightnail/memory and what King John actually got up to;
Hopefully a nice violent end to Maegwynn because she annoys me;
Jeriki rogering the Norn Queen with Sorrow;
An intense and far too graphic sex scene between Binabik and Kantaka the girl troll.

OK so maybe not all those things will happen but I reckon most will and probably more I've forgotten. I'm looking forward to it.

Well flipping heck I'm nearly 10 hours in and LITERALLY NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. There is so much story that needs to be dealt with and it has just been mostly two people meandering around, making mistakes and bickering. Honestly I thought after the last one it would pick up a bit but right now I just want it to end...

[Zeto Demerzel]

Tiste Simeon, on 12 January 2020 - 12:07 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 31 December 2019 - 04:58 PM, said:

Finished the earbook of TO GREEN ANGEL TOWER PART 1 and I think I'll go straight into part 2. It didn't feel like such a slog as the first two books and I really began to actually enjoy it. Only 32 hours to go!

I think this one will feel quite quick actually as there is a ton of story to wrap up:

Spoiler

Miriamelle and Simon falling in love and their confrontation with Elias;
Who or what Pryrates is;
Who or what Kamaris is;
The whole mystery surrounding Kamaris come to think of it;
The defeat of the Norns;
The defeat of the Storm King;
The taking over of Naban by Josua & co;
The final showdown between the brothers;
The mystery of Brightnail/memory and what King John actually got up to;
Hopefully a nice violent end to Maegwynn because she annoys me;
Jeriki rogering the Norn Queen with Sorrow;
An intense and far too graphic sex scene between Binabik and Kantaka the girl troll.

OK so maybe not all those things will happen but I reckon most will and probably more I've forgotten. I'm looking forward to it.

Well flipping heck I'm nearly 10 hours in and LITERALLY NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. There is so much story that needs to be dealt with and it has just been mostly two people meandering around, making mistakes and bickering. Honestly I thought after the last one it would pick up a bit but right now I just want it to end...

That book picked up nicely in the latter half and I quite enjoyed it, just as I did the first two books. I'm now just over two-thirds of the way through 'To Green Angel Tower Part 2' and I have no idea how this series ever got wrapped up. We get endless descriptions of two characters bumbling around, being foolish, getting themselves into trouble, and getting rescued ad nauseum. There's some interesting bits happening elsewhere but it seems like most of it is off-screen. And we still have no idea about the motivations and goals of the big baddies. Either that or I've just missed plot points all over the place.

[Macros]

Finished GotM reread.

Starting the Three Musketeers today after work

[Tiste Simeon]

Zeto Demerzel, on 13 January 2020 - 10:52 AM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 12 January 2020 - 12:07 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 31 December 2019 - 04:58 PM, said:

Finished the earbook of TO GREEN ANGEL TOWER PART 1 and I think I'll go straight into part 2. It didn't feel like such a slog as the first two books and I really began to actually enjoy it. Only 32 hours to go!

I think this one will feel quite quick actually as there is a ton of story to wrap up:

Spoiler

Miriamelle and Simon falling in love and their confrontation with Elias;
Who or what Pryrates is;
Who or what Kamaris is;
The whole mystery surrounding Kamaris come to think of it;
The defeat of the Norns;
The defeat of the Storm King;
The taking over of Naban by Josua & co;
The final showdown between the brothers;
The mystery of Brightnail/memory and what King John actually got up to;
Hopefully a nice violent end to Maegwynn because she annoys me;
Jeriki rogering the Norn Queen with Sorrow;
An intense and far too graphic sex scene between Binabik and Kantaka the girl troll.

OK so maybe not all those things will happen but I reckon most will and probably more I've forgotten. I'm looking forward to it.

Well flipping heck I'm nearly 10 hours in and LITERALLY NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. There is so much story that needs to be dealt with and it has just been mostly two people meandering around, making mistakes and bickering. Honestly I thought after the last one it would pick up a bit but right now I just want it to end...

That book picked up nicely in the latter half and I quite enjoyed it, just as I did the first two books. I'm now just over two-thirds of the way through 'To Green Angel Tower Part 2' and I have no idea how this series ever got wrapped up. We get endless descriptions of two characters bumbling around, being foolish, getting themselves into trouble, and getting rescued ad nauseum. There's some interesting bits happening elsewhere but it seems like most of it is off-screen. And we still have no idea about the motivations and goals of the big baddies. Either that or I've just missed plot points all over the place.

Yes! Exactly! At this moment I can't imagine it ending satisfactorily... I got so frustrated when

Spoiler

they finally seem to be getting somewhere and wait here's another twist because Brightnail is missing! Get on with it!

[QuickTidal]

Tiste Simeon, on 13 January 2020 - 01:21 PM, said:

Zeto Demerzel, on 13 January 2020 - 10:52 AM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 12 January 2020 - 12:07 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 31 December 2019 - 04:58 PM, said:

Finished the earbook of TO GREEN ANGEL TOWER PART 1 and I think I'll go straight into part 2. It didn't feel like such a slog as the first two books and I really began to actually enjoy it. Only 32 hours to go!

I think this one will feel quite quick actually as there is a ton of story to wrap up:

Spoiler

Miriamelle and Simon falling in love and their confrontation with Elias;
Who or what Pryrates is;
Who or what Kamaris is;
The whole mystery surrounding Kamaris come to think of it;
The defeat of the Norns;
The defeat of the Storm King;
The taking over of Naban by Josua & co;
The final showdown between the brothers;
The mystery of Brightnail/memory and what King John actually got up to;
Hopefully a nice violent end to Maegwynn because she annoys me;
Jeriki rogering the Norn Queen with Sorrow;
An intense and far too graphic sex scene between Binabik and Kantaka the girl troll.

OK so maybe not all those things will happen but I reckon most will and probably more I've forgotten. I'm looking forward to it.

Well flipping heck I'm nearly 10 hours in and LITERALLY NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. There is so much story that needs to be dealt with and it has just been mostly two people meandering around, making mistakes and bickering. Honestly I thought after the last one it would pick up a bit but right now I just want it to end...

That book picked up nicely in the latter half and I quite enjoyed it, just as I did the first two books. I'm now just over two-thirds of the way through 'To Green Angel Tower Part 2' and I have no idea how this series ever got wrapped up. We get endless descriptions of two characters bumbling around, being foolish, getting themselves into trouble, and getting rescued ad nauseum. There's some interesting bits happening elsewhere but it seems like most of it is off-screen. And we still have no idea about the motivations and goals of the big baddies. Either that or I've just missed plot points all over the place.

Yes! Exactly! At this moment I can't imagine it ending satisfactorily... I got so frustrated when

Spoiler

they finally seem to be getting somewhere and wait here's another twist because Brightnail is missing! Get on with it!

The Trilogy-to-Quadrology thing that Williams always seems to get himself into is pretty crazy. He did it with MS&T and he did it with Otherland....and to be honest, I expect it MIGHT happen with THE NAVIGATOR'S CHILDREN (that it will be split into two volumes)....because Williams has serious trouble with endings, the 3rd book always seems to get away from him and become four entirely needlessly.

That said, I felt satisfied with the ending of MS&T...and yes some stuff didn't get wrapped up and other stuff feels rushed...

I will add that one of the things that bothered me "wrap up-wise" about the book gets its own novella in THE HEART OF WHAT WAS LOST. So look fwd to that.

[Tiste Simeon]

Problem is I'm a bit frustrated by it all QT I just want to have it done regardless of how satisfied I am. I doubt I'll return to Osten Ard again I can't be bothered. He does have a problem letting things get away from him but he spends so long dithering with unnecessary fluff he could have used that space to actually finalise bits.

Having said that I loved Otherland so much I wonder if I would be annoyed with it now?

[Abyss]

Tiste Simeon, on 13 January 2020 - 02:44 PM, said:

Problem is I'm a bit frustrated by it all QT I just want to have it done regardless of how satisfied I am. I doubt I'll return to Osten Ard again I can't be bothered. He does have a problem letting things get away from him but he spends so long dithering with unnecessary fluff he could have used that space to actually finalise bits.

Having said that I loved Otherland so much I wonder if I would be annoyed with it now?

Leaving aside my running hatred of singing elves, Tad Williams is in part directly responsible (along with Weis&Hickman, JRR Tolkein, and Lloyd Alexander that i can remember offhand) for my dislike of travelslogue in fantasy, where massive chunks of the story deals with, to quote upthread's dead on description "We get endless descriptions of two characters bumbling around, being foolish, getting themselves into trouble, and getting rescued ad nauseum." with a healthy dose of telling the reader how cold it is. And its always cold... i swear for every nice endless hot desert or vast forest there are sixteen stories with characters getting lost somewhere wintery. FFS, i live with endless winter six months a year... how about a sweaty endless tropical island once in a while (ICE, if you're reading this, please set the entire next trilogy in a BLOOD AND BONE type jungle and i'll buy two copies) ?


OTHERLAND doesn't escape this... i love so much about OTHERLAND (and so much more than MS&T), and even leaving aside a couple of plotlines that really should have been cut, the characters spend SO MUCH TIME moving from place to place that by the end of the fourteenth book even when they actually get somewhere it feels as tho we're just killing time til the finale.

[Abyss]

Just Finished Scalzi's OLD MAN'S WAR, GHOST BRIGADES, and short story/same universe THE SAGAN DIARIES.

OLD and GHOST are pretty great. I won't say that they wildly reinvent the mil SF field, but they nice humanize it... you have all the (excellent) action, but the characters are a bit more relateable than the subgenre usually provides for. I liked the shift from world setup and large scale conflict in OLD to special forces in GHOST. I like the idea that humans at age 75 can give up their lives in exchange for youth if they're willing to be a soldier in a universe full of aliens looking to kill and/or eat humans. And i like the idea that the same tech is used to create essentially child supersoldiers. Its these elements that set the series outside the usual humans vs aliens in spaaaaaace thing. Earbook narrator is great.

SAGAN... Scalzi says in the forword it's an experiment he did in response to a contest winner's request. It's basically a stream of consciousness narrative getting inside the head of a main character from the first two books and while initially interesting because the character is interesting, it lost me after a few minutes. No fault of the narrator.

Thus fortified (or something), on to book 3 in the series, THE LOST COLONY.

[QuickTidal]

Tiste Simeon, on 13 January 2020 - 02:44 PM, said:

Problem is I'm a bit frustrated by it all QT I just want to have it done regardless of how satisfied I am. I doubt I'll return to Osten Ard again I can't be bothered. He does have a problem letting things get away from him but he spends so long dithering with unnecessary fluff he could have used that space to actually finalise bits.

Having said that I loved Otherland so much I wonder if I would be annoyed with it now?

That's a fair note and I can't argue that.

Though I will say that if you don't want to read the next whole Osten Are series...at least (after a long break probably) read THE HEART OF WHAT WAS LOST....it's a novella, and so is very short and is probably the tightest thing that Williams has written for my money.

[Vengeance]

I just started the first of the witcher series (Blood of Elves). Since I enjoyed the show so much I figured I should probably get around to reading the books.

Also I gave up on Williams years ago. For all of the reasons above. It just got to be a slog to get through.

[RACHEL]

Do you know that you need to read the two short story collections first? The Last Wish and then Sword of Destiny and then Blood Of Elves. If you don't read in that order I am not sure how you will be able to get what is all going on without the background provided in the short stories.

[Mentalist]

Finished "Labyrinth Index" . That certainly went places.

Now, gonna toss "The Prefect" as my commute book, and start "Shogun" at home.

[Zeto Demerzel]

Abyss, on 13 January 2020 - 03:50 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 13 January 2020 - 02:44 PM, said:

Problem is I'm a bit frustrated by it all QT I just want to have it done regardless of how satisfied I am. I doubt I'll return to Osten Ard again I can't be bothered. He does have a problem letting things get away from him but he spends so long dithering with unnecessary fluff he could have used that space to actually finalise bits.

Having said that I loved Otherland so much I wonder if I would be annoyed with it now?

Leaving aside my running hatred of singing elves, Tad Williams is in part directly responsible (along with Weis&Hickman, JRR Tolkein, and Lloyd Alexander that i can remember offhand) for my dislike of travelslogue in fantasy, where massive chunks of the story deals with, to quote upthread's dead on description "We get endless descriptions of two characters bumbling around, being foolish, getting themselves into trouble, and getting rescued ad nauseum." with a healthy dose of telling the reader how cold it is. And its always cold... i swear for every nice endless hot desert or vast forest there are sixteen stories with characters getting lost somewhere wintery. FFS, i live with endless winter six months a year... how about a sweaty endless tropical island once in a while (ICE, if you're reading this, please set the entire next trilogy in a BLOOD AND BONE type jungle and i'll buy two copies) ?

OTHERLAND doesn't escape this... i love so much about OTHERLAND (and so much more than MS&T), and even leaving aside a couple of plotlines that really should have been cut, the characters spend SO MUCH TIME moving from place to place that by the end of the fourteenth book even when they actually get somewhere it feels as tho we're just killing time til the finale.

I don't want to give the impression that I've hated MST. I'm now three-fourths of the way through book 4 (or the 2nd half of book 3, however you want to split it). I've enjoyed most of MST immensely, which is what makes the current going all the more frustrating.

Just read a passage where Tiamak and Strangyeard make a remark along the following lines:

Spoiler

They mention that the motivation of the Storm King is still a complete puzzle as is their nascent plan involving the three swords

Getting a bit late in the day for that, no?

There's also some seemingly important events that've been completely glossed over in an effort to give Simon (and, to a lesser event, Miriamelle) even more time to be miserable, hurt, cold, lost, and his usual mooncalf self </rant>

[Zeto Demerzel]

RACHEL, on 13 January 2020 - 07:46 PM, said:

Do you know that you need to read the two short story collections first? The Last Wish and then Sword of Destiny and then Blood Of Elves. If you don't read in that order I am not sure how you will be able to get what is all going on without the background provided in the short stories.

Seconded. Also, episode 1 of the TV series is straight from The Last Wish so its well worth starting the book series there.

This post has been edited by Zeto Demerzel: 14 January 2020 - 06:27 AM

[Macros]

Restarted Titus Groan as a work lunch break read as well

[Andorion]

Has anyone here picked up Tchaikovsky's Cage of Souls?
This book is quite strange even by his standards though I am really enjoying it.

[Chance]

Re-reading The Protectors War and its pretty nice, been thinking of a re-read of the entire Emberverse for a while maybe I'll get to however many books there are now. Edit: Didn't realize the series ended last year with Sky-Blue Wolves so now I'm certainly finishing it .

This post has been edited by Chance: 15 January 2020 - 11:39 PM

[Macros]

Emberverse?
What is this, do I need it in my life?

[QuickTidal]

Macros, on 16 January 2020 - 06:31 AM, said:

Emberverse?
What is this, do I need it in my life?

So....yes and no.

You know how on The Walking Dead they only really just show them "surviving" for years in pockets of people and it's annoying because no one ever builds and defends a city or creates a new gov't infrastructure ect.? Well in the Emberverse an "event" in Nantucket basically happened in the late 1990's and the world changed...this disables most forms of modern technology such as electricity, high-pressure steam-power, combustion, computers, electronics, guns, car and jet engines, and batteries, people quickly adapt, relying on swords and bows. Throwing the world back into a largely pre-industrialized state. But instead of Walking Dead "survival" groups band together in different parts of the country, fortify cities and locations and rebuild. The main group we follow are people who bonged to Wicca/Pagan groups (leading to a sort of Celtic society in the mountains of the Western US), immigrant Scandinavians, including daughter who loved Tolkien and basically makes her own "Dunedain" rangers on horseback, and a former black ops soldier who kills a bear. They initially get into it with a sort of despot king who rules over Oregon with an iron fist, and a penchant for cruelty...who used to be a university history professor.

It goes from there, and each series jumps in time/distance from the Change...I think the most recent books take place like 60 years after the first book.

They are good. And they are bad. The good is that mostly they tell a really solid story of a post-apocalyptic world filled with regular people doing regular people stuff in a completely irregular world. The bad is that they are DENSE, and a lot of what they get into depends largely on the weird choices off who survived...Clan Mackenzie are the biggest group in the books, and so you see most of the stuff through their POV which is decidedly "Wiccan"....so that might be offputting. Also, the one lead guy from there first trilogy (the black ops former soldier guy) is....irritating because he's such a rah-rah American solider bad ass....like yeah, we get it.

They also don't just concern The States. Survivors from the UK, and even Japan enter into the books later on, which is always interesting. Japan is interesting because they had no trouble jumping back to a feudal system with a Daimyo as lead.

Try the first book DIES THE FIRE and see if you like it. If you can get through it and enjoy it, you will most likely dig the series. Also note that there is a companion series that shows the "Change" even from the other side....which I won't explain here....but worth the time too.

Chance, on 15 January 2020 - 11:37 PM, said:

Re-reading The Protectors War and its pretty nice, been thinking of a re-read of the entire Emberverse for a while maybe I'll get to however many books there are now. Edit: Didn't realize the series ended last year with Sky-Blue Wolves so now I'm certainly finishing it .

Holy shit, I didn't know it ended either...I was not finished every book where I last left off...but maybe it's time for a re-read for me as well to finish it up.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 16 January 2020 - 01:21 PM