[worry]

Finished an Xmas haul book: "The Book of Hidden Things" by Francesco Dimitri. His first book written in English, as he is a native Italian speaker/writer. And reportedly an acclaimed one. Unfortunately, this particular book wasn't very good, for my tastes at least. At the low low end of low fantasy, and a couple protagonists (out of 3 POVs) who are just not great personalities to spend time with -- not like in an antihero way. A lot of weird sexism in this book, and while it might be character-based and deliberate, it's actually not that easy to tell. Not that I'm demanding prescriptive writing, but in this case it was significantly off-putting. It did have some interesting stuff in it -- Southern Italian setting, some arcane goings-on, some local mafia stuff, some tough family relationships -- but the balance of things was these dudes navel-gazing. Ah well! Score: 2 out of 5. *** I would be interested if anyone has read any of his other stuff though, for a compare & contrast.


Now I'm reading Piranesi, which I reckon is short and sweet?

[Tsundoku]

Finished A Practical Guide to Conquering the World. Not a big book by any means but it was certainly fast paced.
And as per usual for KJ Parker finished with a whimper more than a bang, but at least this time it seemed to make sense and the humour was a bit more world weary/tongue in cheek than dark.

Overall not a bad trilogy, glad I read it even if the 3 protagonists came across a bit similar, and the author does like to scene-info dump (always to the point and interesting though, unlike the excesses of late era Jack Whyte)-scene-info dump. It works in shorter format novel, would not recommend for a doorstopper.

7.5 unpronounceable lost civilisations out of 10.

[Tiste Simeon]

I finished the audiobook of Kingkiller (thoughts in dedthread).

For some reason instead of listening to one of the new books I have in my Audible account I really had a hankering to go through the Red Rising trilogy again.

So I've started that again, man I love this series. Excellent narrator, superb story!

This post has been edited by Tiste Simeon: 21 February 2022 - 01:13 AM

[Abyss]

Just Finished Michael Cole (no relation to Myke Cole)'s THRESHER. It's a monster book, about a giant thresher shark that stalks a quiet seaside town. It is exactly what you think, characters are archetypes with obvious plotlines to motivate them, there's the jaded vet cop, the spunky rookie, the excited scientist, the opportunist politician, the cold-blooded mercenary shark hunter.... we know who these people are within a page of meeting them and their primary purpose is to get eaten by the shark, or not. I like a dumb monster book once in a while and was in the right mood for his.... It's good fun, and the shark attack scenes are well written action. The occasional homages to JAWS are obvious and got a lol. I picked this up on an audible 2-4-1 sale and enjoyed it.


Am now 6.5hrs into ML Wang's THE SWORD OF KAIGEN and seriously considering DNFing.


I'm getting a similar vibe to last year's PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE, its like a book written for a YA audience but the author doesn't want it to be YA so every so often they throw in some adult relationship/sex elements. The worldbuilding isn't bad but it has holes in it that might be explained later but are pretty gaping at this point. The characters are trite (and in contrast to THRESHER where i expect/want trite, i like my purportedly epic fantasy characters a little deeper). There is way way too much info-dump exposition. The foreshadowing is the opposite of subtle. There is a thinly veiled Batman homage character whose name is 'Robin' ...i wish i was joking about that.

There is what to like here... hints that the characters will become more engaging, an interesting magic system not over-explained, a backstory to the Asian-themed world that suggests an deeper past even if the immediate future is glaringly obvious. ...but at 6.5hrs into a 24hr book my commitment is wavering. With PRIORY i resorted to skimming to the end and didn't particularly enjoy.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 23 February 2022 - 07:02 PM, said:

I'm getting a similar vibe to last year's PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE, its like a book written for a YA audience but the author doesn't want it to be YA so every so often they throw in some adult relationship/sex elements.

This is the BEST description of PRIORY that aligns with how I felt.

It's also pretty clear to me because Booktok (the group of people who discuss books on TikTok) ADORE that book, but their bread and butter content is almost exclusively Young Adult stuff, or the graduated YA with Spicy-Romance stuff (my wife is currently reading ACOTAR and can attest)...so the fact that this YA masquerading as more adult fare makes much sense and was probably a reason I DNF'ed PRIORY...I described it as "trying too hard".

Also, speaking of BookTok, they are all JUST discovering WOT and Sanderson's work, so it's kind of interesting to watch a whole cottage industry of YA readers start to graduate up the fantasy ladder, and if PRIORY helps them do it, so be it.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 23 February 2022 - 07:16 PM

[amphibian]

Eternal summer for book lovers is just about as bad as it is elsewhere. Hahaaaa. We did this to ourselves...

[Abyss]

There's clearly a market for this sort of NSYA fantasy lit, I'm just not it.

I realize that much of what I enjoyed in THRESHER is what is throwing me out of KAIGEN, but one is a book about a giant shark swimming around eating people and the other purports to be much less... superficial, but isn't (for me).


Obviously the answer is that I need to find more epic fantasy involving giant sharks swimming around eating people... MEGALODON V TIAMAT!

[amphibian]

I finished Shards of Earth, the Adrian Tchaikovsky science fiction book. It's incredible and quite different from Children of Time/Ruin. I'm really pleased with how Tchaikovsky is able to build up characters that are different even in stories that are heavily space based and the story here is an absolute corker.

At times, I felt like I was reading an Alistair Reynolds book focused on a Yellowstone civilization, at other times, it was like A Memory Called Empire (Arkady Martine), and throughout it was its own book. Just a great time all the way through.

[QuickTidal]

Finished up DESOLATION ISLAND by P'OB, and it was another cracker with some really insanely great moments. I adore this series.

[QuickTidal]

Got a physical copy of RHYTHYM OF WAR, and I know I said I was off the Stormlight train (after stumbling with the eBook version) but I dove back in and I’m enjoying it A LOT more this time through. So I’m back baby!

[worry]

QuickTidal, on 06 March 2022 - 01:03 AM, said:

Got a physical copy of RHYTHYM OF WAR, and I know I said I was off the Stormlight train (after stumbling with the eBook version) but I dove back in and I'm enjoying it A LOT more this time through. So I'm back baby!

It's as the prophecy foretold.

Spoiler

[QuickTidal]

worry, on 06 March 2022 - 01:54 AM, said:

QuickTidal, on 06 March 2022 - 01:03 AM, said:

Got a physical copy of RHYTHYM OF WAR, and I know I said I was off the Stormlight train (after stumbling with the eBook version) but I dove back in and I'm enjoying it A LOT more this time through. So I'm back baby!

It's as the prophecy foretold.

Spoiler

Fun fact: first concert I EVER went to was Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine with my dad. I had a crazy crush on her and my dad (who hates anything but classical music) bought tickets and took me when I was 12.

[worry]

That rules! Very rarely does someone follow "fun fact" with an actual fun fact, but you did it.

[worry]

On the personal front -- I finished Piranesi. Pretty good! Wouldn't be on my faves list or anything, but no major complaints.


I've got a long wait at the library for Wayfarers 3, so I started A Crown For Cold Silver -- I think a big hit with amph & Mentalist? So far so good, though it's a longy so it might take me a while.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

worry, on 06 March 2022 - 04:53 AM, said:

On the personal front -- I finished Piranesi. Pretty good! Wouldn't be on my faves list or anything, but no major complaints.


I've got a long wait at the library for Wayfarers 3, so I started A Crown For Cold Silver -- I think a big hit with amph & Mentalist? So far so good, though it's a longy so it might take me a while.

A Crown For Cold Silver and the rest of that series are great. You're in for a bitter, curmudgeonly, battle-hardened time.

I finally am caught up on all of Michelle West's Essalieyan series. While I do think the overall series is severely underrated, I also think that West needs an editor with a heavier hand. I'm curious about what her upcoming self-published books in the series will be like — worried her worst excesses will go unchecked, but excited to get more of the Den and my BFF Kallandras.

I started and am about halfway through Addison's The Goblin Emperor. It's...boring. Does it get any better? Is it just Maia being moved from meeting to meeting with no idea what's going on, like flotsam on the tides, for the entire book? I thought this book was highly reviewed...

While I'm considering stopping Goblin Emperor, I'm plowing through Jacka's last Verus book, Risen. Verus is clearly overpowered and some of the ways Jacka is making him weaker are a bit contrived. Still, it's a romp and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

This post has been edited by Whisperzzzzzzz: 06 March 2022 - 06:59 PM

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 23 February 2022 - 07:02 PM, said:

...now 6.5hrs into ML Wang's THE SWORD OF KAIGEN and seriously considering DNFing.


I'm getting a similar vibe to last year's PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE, its like a book written for a YA audience but the author doesn't want it to be YA so every so often they throw in some adult relationship/sex elements. The worldbuilding isn't bad but it has holes in it that might be explained later but are pretty gaping at this point. The characters are trite (and in contrast to THRESHER where i expect/want trite, i like my purportedly epic fantasy characters a little deeper). There is way way too much info-dump exposition. The foreshadowing is the opposite of subtle. There is a thinly veiled Batman homage character whose name is 'Robin' ...i wish i was joking about that.

There is what to like here... hints that the characters will become more engaging, an interesting magic system not over-explained, a backstory to the Asian-themed world that suggests an deeper past even if the immediate future is glaringly obvious. ...but at 6.5hrs into a 24hr book my commitment is wavering. With PRIORY i resorted to skimming to the end and didn't particularly enjoy.

Abyss, on 24 February 2022 - 05:14 AM, said:

There's clearly a market for this sort of NSYA fantasy lit, I'm just not it.
...

So I Just Finished SWORD OF THE KAIGEN.
Look as a general rule I dont like to dump on books, bcs someone worked hard to write the damn thing an get it published and I would rather not crap on that effort. But once in a while something gets a lot of hype and I give it a shot and... meh. Last year it was PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE, this year I guess this is it, and I'm not actually going to crap on it entirely because there was what to like, so work w me here...

This earbook is 24 hours long. It was originally self published and of course the earbook does not change anything.
I suspect that a professional editor would have seriously trimmed the first half of this book and reduced the initial 9.5 hrs to something like 4. The info dumps are long and boring and repetitive. There are many, many, many scenes that exist simply to reiterate a point already made - effectively- in an earlier scene. Again. Again again. There are a handful of short action scenes that are fun and well written, and then immediately back to info dump and repeat rinse repeat. Also the author has a habit of writing in weird little omniscient foreshadowing asides like 'they would never know how true their words were'. It's tiresome and annoying and I almost DNFd at least thrice.

Then we get to the middle. A big action piece.
AND IT IS GLORIOUS.
Seriously, for almost two whole hours this book is absolutely jaw dropping. The fight scenes are INSANE, the fantasy lit elements amp up to 11, the characters, whom we've now spent 9.5 hours with and know far better than we needed to, pay off nearly EVERYTHING. Even fairly minor supporting characters have moments that are brilliant. Also, the level of character risk is GRRM'esque in its brutality. I was gripped, spellbound, I had to listen to it again as soon as I was done listening to it.

....and the rest of the book is basically a 12 hour long epilogue. Less info dump but still too much repetition.
Also, personal pet peeve.... if your fantasy world has jets and guns and satellites, you need a really good reason for armies clashing with swords... better than 'honor'.



But damn... that middle part. I will, give this author another try just on the strength of that.

So, if you want an Asian style fantasy story and are feeling more patient than I was, you may enjoy this book more than I did. If you're prepared to be patient w an author for a partial, but killer, payoff, you may enjoy this.


Next up, Peter Clines newest, THE BROKEN ROOM.
VERY psyched for this.

[Chance]

Been reading a bit regular thrillers the last few months, starting with the first few Jack Reacher books.

Starting a re-read of Empire of Silence since book 4 is soon to arrive.

[Dadding]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 06 March 2022 - 06:59 PM, said:

I started and am about halfway through Addison's The Goblin Emperor. It's...boring. Does it get any better? Is it just Maia being moved from meeting to meeting with no idea what's going on, like flotsam on the tides, for the entire book? I thought this book was highly reviewed...

Finished it earlier this year and it's probably the worst book I've read since Mistborn. Boring political drama that's not very complex at all, main character is the only enlightened character in a sea of flimsy two-dimensional antagonists, uninspired worldbuilding with no purpose.

This post has been edited by Dadding: 08 March 2022 - 07:42 AM

[Ain't_It_Just_]

I am slogging my way through Don Quixote. I have enjoyed it, there have been moments where I have burst out laughing, but Hood's breath it is a tough read some days. Not really the sort of thing you just casually leaf through - you need to pay a hell of a lot of attention.

Other than that I got through BEWILDERMENT by Richard Powers in a few days. I read his book THE OVERSTORY and this was along the same lines, eco-fiction with beautifully written first-person narrative and excellent turns of phrase, but I think it wasn't as good. Owing to the protagonists of the book (without going into too much detail) you kind of feel talked down to at times. Still, a good read.

[amphibian]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 06 March 2022 - 06:59 PM, said:

worry, on 06 March 2022 - 04:53 AM, said:

On the personal front -- I finished Piranesi. Pretty good! Wouldn't be on my faves list or anything, but no major complaints.


I've got a long wait at the library for Wayfarers 3, so I started A Crown For Cold Silver -- I think a big hit with amph & Mentalist? So far so good, though it's a longy so it might take me a while.

A Crown For Cold Silver and the rest of that series are great. You're in for a bitter, curmudgeonly, battle-hardened time.

I finally am caught up on all of Michelle West's Essalieyan series. While I do think the overall series is severely underrated, I also think that West needs an editor with a heavier hand. I'm curious about what her upcoming self-published books in the series will be like — worried her worst excesses will go unchecked, but excited to get more of the Den and my BFF Kallandras.

I started and am about halfway through Addison's The Goblin Emperor. It's...boring. Does it get any better? Is it just Maia being moved from meeting to meeting with no idea what's going on, like flotsam on the tides, for the entire book? I thought this book was highly reviewed...

While I'm considering stopping Goblin Emperor, I'm plowing through Jacka's last Verus book, Risen. Verus is clearly overpowered and some of the ways Jacka is making him weaker are a bit contrived. Still, it's a romp and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

What drew me forward in Marshall's Crimson Empire series was that in addition to the curmudgeon stuff, there were a group of new people learning how this bonkers world works without being so sour about everything. Marshall did a fantastic job mixing things up, especially with Maroto figuring out how to keep going despite very very silly or awful setbacks.