[Andorion]

QuickTidal, on 15 July 2020 - 02:21 PM, said:

Andorion, on 15 July 2020 - 01:56 PM, said:

Started and finished Peace Talks...
I really really really need Battle Ground

Further confirming for me that I should wait to read both once BATTLE GROUNDS is out.

Its a Dust of Dreams - Crippled God situation.

[QuickTidal]

Finished STREAMS OF SILVER...it was decent, but not quite as good as Shard, taking a Drizzt break now to dive into other stuff...

and now I'm reading Leigh Bardugo's short story collection for Grishaverse folk tales, THE LANGUAGE OF THORNS: MIDNIGHT TALES & DANGEROUS MAGIC, and so far its wonderful. A really whimsical, but dark take on this type of book. Honestly, this is what TALES OF BEEDLE-BARD would be if Rowling had ever let herself make the HP folk tales be real dark as they usually are at their core, instead of too light and fluffy.

Sidebar: Man, I'm deep into being a hardcore Leigh Bardugo Grishaverse fan...In October, they are releasing THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS (THE ISTORII SANKT'YA) in hardcover. It started life as a prop for the Grishaverse TV show that's coming to Netflix, but the publisher made it into an account book full of info and images about the Saints. So I nabbed the shit out of that pre-order....and then they are also re-releasing the first Grisha book SHADOW & BONE in a fancy slipcase hardback edition and I nabbed that too. LOL. I'm a fanboy it appears. Oh, and a portion of the proceeds go to LGBTQ comnunities from both pre-orders, so that's cool too.

She is fast becoming one of my favourite authors of all time and has a place on my forever shelf. Amusingly her work sits between Tolkien and LeGuin. High fantasy company.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 16 July 2020 - 12:08 PM

[JPK]

20 Days of Sheep, on 16 July 2020 - 04:20 AM, said:

Starting Peace Talks. I wish this dumb Malazan reread hadn’t slowed my role on the Dresden reread which I only got up to bk 4 on. Let’s see how the meats processes this jumping in cold after the yrs long completion since Skin Game.

So far so good as of paragraph 1 lol.

So, if you hop over to the Butcher subforum there is a spoiler-free discussion where a couple of members did a great job summarizing a lot of the major events that left characters where they currently are plotwise.

[JPK]

20 Days of Sheep, on 16 July 2020 - 09:27 PM, said:

JPK, on 16 July 2020 - 03:04 PM, said:

20 Days of Sheep, on 16 July 2020 - 04:20 AM, said:

Starting Peace Talks. I wish this dumb Malazan reread hadn’t slowed my role on the Dresden reread which I only got up to bk 4 on. Let’s see how the meats processes this jumping in cold after the yrs long completion since Skin Game.

So far so good as of paragraph 1 lol.

So, if you hop over to the Butcher subforum there is a spoiler-free discussion where a couple of members did a great job summarizing a lot of the major events that left characters where they currently are plotwise.

Which thread? I see a Peace Talks spoiler free one but ain’t entered yet.

That's the one. It's safe. Obviously, don't click on a spoiler tag.

As for myself, I finished Peace Talks yesterday and I am now around the halfway mark on The Rhesus Chart. Tons of golden lines in this one.

[Abyss]

This....
https://www.reddit.c.../wiki/narrative

...is surprisingly good.
THE INTERFACE.
Story told in reddit posts. Some nice Lovecraft elements, creepy at times, very clever at times. Entirely free.

[T77]

Finished Peace Talks. I am in the minority in that I like Dresden, but don't love it, and this book did not change that. I do like what happened at the end though, and am looking forward to the next book.

[Cyphon]

T77, on 18 July 2020 - 12:17 PM, said:

Finished Peace Talks. I am in the minority in that I like Dresden, but don't love it, and this book did not change that. I do like what happened at the end though, and am looking forward to the next book.

I'd agree with that. Maybe my tastes have changed over time but I didnt get the same hit as for previous ones.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Thirded. Enjoyable enough but I think I'll give it the chance when Battle Grounds lands to see if I like it more reading both together.

[Chance]

Nearly done with Dark Age and well, I'm not sure I really like it. Some sections are awesome in a way few series ever are but others depend too much on stupidity and technological gimics, can't really decide if it was good or not.

This post has been edited by Chance: 19 July 2020 - 07:09 PM

[Abyss]

Chance, on 19 July 2020 - 07:08 PM, said:

Nearly done with Dark Age and well, I'm not sure I really like it. Some sections are awesome in a way few series ever are but others depend too much on stupidity and technological gimics, can't really decide if it was good or not.

Which parts depend on stupidity?
...use spoiler blocks pls...

[Abyss]

20 Days of Sheep, on 20 July 2020 - 02:25 AM, said:

Not reading any of the Dresden threads but I have to wonder if I’m alone at the 100 page mark if I’m thinking to myself “ok hurry up and getting going now Butcher!”?

I’m very meh about now which really fucking sucks after this years long wait.

Stop whining, keep reading.

[Chance]

Abyss, on 20 July 2020 - 04:13 AM, said:

Chance, on 19 July 2020 - 07:08 PM, said:

Nearly done with Dark Age and well, I'm not sure I really like it. Some sections are awesome in a way few series ever are but others depend too much on stupidity and technological gimics, can't really decide if it was good or not.

Which parts depend on stupidity?
...use spoiler blocks pls...

Lots of parts really and individually sure but basically everyone of the main characters get hodwincked into the horrendous places they end up by being really really stupid.

Spoiler

There is so much but one which stands out is you have a syndicate that helped in book 3 to smuggle in nuclear weapons into your capital and blew them up, what do you do over the next ten years answer A let them get bigger and more influential, B use your counter terrorism elite badasses to shoot them up a lot? (I might buy it if they where based in another equally powerful country but in your own country they wouldn't exist in a least treatening way a year after their support of nuclear terrorism.) So you knew all this time that your main weapondealer and industrialist was fucking over millions/billions of the people you say your all about giving rights and decent lives to an even worst extent than the slave lords you've replaced and you have done zilch nada and nothing to fix it for 10 YEARS!!!! and your wondering why current arrangements arent working and why the hell aggrivate that industrialist when you've already alienated all those poor working folk and you need every ally you could get? Using a senate as supreme commander with no one to tell them their joint political decisions make no military sense and put millions of soldiers in danger so we are not going to pull our fleet away. Knowing that you have a leak, that you have tratiorous senators and then going to a senate meeting where you are going to crush their entire plan, some sensible precautions (like a small army a block away) or putting that senator in your mind reading device sounds like a good idea, because you know they might fight back. If your going to use an exentric genius to build your doomsday device and you have fucked him over for the entire book perhaps have a death squad looking over his shoulders. Also that doomsday device he is building why don't you have someone near it who can stop it by say putting a rail gun slug into it if it should kinda be an obviously bad idea and a trap. If you've captured the most badass genocidal murder machine ever to live (the fear knight) A dont trust the guy who served him up on a platter, aced the lie detector test, is obviously too harmless to live and when that guy goes into a place where he cant be listend to with your exentric genius who hates your guts shoot him and B shoot the genocidal murder machine at the first sign that he could get free like a blackout. Also why are your high tech magic/power swords working when any other tech more modern then the 19th century doesn't after the EMP? I don't even know what to say about the Obsidians and Ephraim that was such a cluster fuck of stupidity that it beggars belief (the only reasonable assumption is that Sefi was lobotomized between books) or the Red Hand it shouldn't exist in its portrayed form, if there is a dozen military star ships in orbit it litteraly can't exist (it would go something like Traffic Control: Hello there unidentified suspicious vehicle leaving an supposedly unused mine, would you mind telling us who you are? Unidentified Terrorist Vehicle: Not really but we are honest miners promise. Traffic Control: Nah we kind of have to check that out redirect to airfield X where we will check that out. Unidifientified Terrorist Vehicle: Don't think so wroom in a different direction. Traffic Control: Our ships in orbit will kind of kill you if you don't comply unidentified flying vehicle. Unidientified Terrorist Vehicle explodes from orbital ordonance and a team is sent to check that suspicious unused mine.) (those ships in orbit would also kill any infiltrating Obsidians from beyond space and time that are not protected by magic cloaking fields which somehow hide their TORCHSHIPS from being noticed by anyone with half a brain at ridiculous distances.) I can buy a lot of this shit but not all of it together, it felt kinda good to write it down however so YAY

This post has been edited by Chance: 20 July 2020 - 06:22 PM

[Andorion]

So I finished The Return of the Incredible Exploding Man
This was such a strange book
Think Peter Clines' The Fold, only its from an external perspective and very little happens for 50% of the book. Basically the protagonist is on the outside trying to find out what's going on. Then weird things start happening and Boom! it all explodes in your face

[polishgenius]

I started a debut from earlier this year, The Unspoken Name by AK Larkwood. Really quite good so far. It's another young-lady-coming-of-age-in-strenuous-circumstances type dealio of the kind we've seen a few of lately, albeit in this one she doesn't go to a magic school or anything. Bit of Planescape: Torment (it's got a very cool world/s setup), bit of personal-political maneuvering, bit of Indiana Jones weirdly enough, tightly written with engaging characters.

A quick scan sees it recommended quite a lot for lovers of Gideon the Ninth. I've not read that yet so I can't speak to the comparison but a few people seem to think it's got comparisons to that but less hyperviolent and I know this board liked that one.

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 23 July 2020 - 07:02 PM, said:

I started a debut from earlier this year, The Unspoken Name by AK Larkwood. Really quite good so far. It's another young-lady-coming-of-age-in-strenuous-circumstances type dealio of the kind we've seen a few of lately, albeit in this one she doesn't go to a magic school or anything. Bit of Planescape: Torment (it's got a very cool world/s setup), bit of personal-political maneuvering, bit of Indiana Jones weirdly enough, tightly written with engaging characters.

Looked this up...this sounds fucking dope...I'm gonna grab it. I's only $14 on kindle...let's see if we can give this the double stamp, shall we PG?

[polishgenius]

QuickTidal, on 23 July 2020 - 07:27 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 23 July 2020 - 07:02 PM, said:

I started a debut from earlier this year, The Unspoken Name by AK Larkwood. Really quite good so far. It's another young-lady-coming-of-age-in-strenuous-circumstances type dealio of the kind we've seen a few of lately, albeit in this one she doesn't go to a magic school or anything. Bit of Planescape: Torment (it's got a very cool world/s setup), bit of personal-political maneuvering, bit of Indiana Jones weirdly enough, tightly written with engaging characters.

Looked this up...this sounds fucking dope...I'm gonna grab it. I's only $14 on kindle...let's see if we can give this the double stamp, shall we PG?

Fingers crossed. The rarest of the rare.

I hope I've not gone too early since I'm only like a third of the way through but yeah it's a very promising start.

[JPK]

Just finished up Stross' The Annihilation Score. I've been staying out of the ded-thread to avoid spoilers, but this one left me fairly dissatisfied, and I've really been enjoying the series up until this entry. Does the series get back on track after this one?

Next up is a Banks fix with Excession.

This post has been edited by JPK: 24 July 2020 - 06:32 AM

[Imperial Historian]

polishgenius, on 23 July 2020 - 08:03 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 23 July 2020 - 07:27 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 23 July 2020 - 07:02 PM, said:

I started a debut from earlier this year, The Unspoken Name by AK Larkwood. Really quite good so far. It's another young-lady-coming-of-age-in-strenuous-circumstances type dealio of the kind we've seen a few of lately, albeit in this one she doesn't go to a magic school or anything. Bit of Planescape: Torment (it's got a very cool world/s setup), bit of personal-political maneuvering, bit of Indiana Jones weirdly enough, tightly written with engaging characters.

Looked this up...this sounds fucking dope...I'm gonna grab it. I's only $14 on kindle...let's see if we can give this the double stamp, shall we PG?

Fingers crossed. The rarest of the rare.

I hope I've not gone too early since I'm only like a third of the way through but yeah it's a very promising start.

This does sound gpod... Waiting to see if it gets the double stamp before getting myself!

[Stalker]

JPK, on 24 July 2020 - 06:30 AM, said:

Just finished up Stross' The Annihilation Score. I've been staying out of the ded-thread to avoid spoilers, but this one left me fairly dissatisfied, and I've really been enjoying the series up until this entry. Does the series get back on track after this one?

Yes, absolutely, and I think that most would agree with your assessment. While Annihilation may have been a miss, the next three are great and raise all the stakes.

[Chance]

JPK, on 24 July 2020 - 06:30 AM, said:

Just finished up Stross' The Annihilation Score. I've been staying out of the ded-thread to avoid spoilers, but this one left me fairly dissatisfied, and I've really been enjoying the series up until this entry. Does the series get back on track after this one?

Yes very much so, the Annihilation Score is the weakest entry by far and The Nightmare Stacks which is the next one is probably one of the strongest if not the strongest. The next two after that aren't as strong as the Nightmare Stacks but they are pretty good.


Reading the Storm of Heaven third in the Oath of Empire series, a comfortable re-read in papper as I have the time (and the audiobook version I've got are shit) during summer vacation in between building car engines for fun and the rather rare sunny day.

This post has been edited by Chance: 24 July 2020 - 10:47 AM