[Aptorian]

On a whim I started Glenn Cook's first Garrett P.I. book, Sweet Silver Blues. For some reason I thought the Garrett P.I. books were regular detective books but it turns out it's sorta 1940s Urban Fantasy.

The writing is sort of strange, kind of old timey but not quite the caricature of Detective Noir narrative you might expect if somebody was doing an homage.

Probably shooting myself in the foot here starting two different fantasy series that are 10+ books.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 12 July 2022 - 05:23 AM

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

Full acknowledgement that I have read pretty much everything Glen Cook has written, and loved most of them.

The Garrett P.I. books are mostly stand alone, not a long continuous series. No reason to try reading through them all at once. There are one or two lackluster books in the series, but nothing as far off as The Silver Spike in the Black Company series.

Much of Cook's writing can come across as old timey. This fades in the later Garrett books, but is really evident in the Dread Empire books.

[Aptorian]

I definitely won't be reading them all consecutively.

I'm finding Garret flirting with/lusting for the gnome ladies a bit disturbing. Call me a bigot but there's something obscene about the size difference.

[QuickTidal]

 Abyss, on 12 July 2022 - 02:52 AM, said:

 QuickTidal, on 18 January 2021 - 02:32 PM, said:

[...

While I wait for that I've started Roshani Chokshi's THE GILDED WOLVES, which is cool so far but I'm not far in (it's like SIX OF CROWS, but in our world with Magic houses and in the 1800's) so far. Not a long book, and it turns out it's YA....but it doesn't read like YA so I was surprised to learn that. So it's a magic heist book with ancient families who can do crazy stuff and run the world sort of...I have the sequel too in the ToReadPile, so hopefully it's good. I've heard good things.

The YA vibe is really throwing me out of this book a few chapters in. It's very by the numbers so far.
Anyone have an opinion that might convince me to stick with it?

I dumped it halfway through the second book. It ended up staying very meh for me in the end.

[Aptorian]

Finished Sweet Silver Blues by Glenn Cook.

Not bad, not amazing. I kind of like that the story and setting is kept minimal. If you're familiar with detective noir you know the kind of story Cook is telling but I would also had liked a bit more world building and lore dumps.

Guess you're just supposed to assume standard fantasy World Building is at play and the rest follows.

I did find the cover highly misleading though.

https://images.app.g...j8aAMNFBDjkEC28

That's an UZI that gnome is holding but the story is pure fantasy. No guns, just bows, swords and clubs. I was kind of hoping to see Garrett gunning down some bad guys.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 13 July 2022 - 07:11 AM

[Aptorian]

125 p. into Unsouled by Will Wright.

A certain winged character just showed up and kicked the book into overdrive. I was entertained by the story untill now but not necessarily hooked.

Now I need to see what happens next. This chapter coupled with the weird cyberspace/time travel interlude suggests this series will go some crazy places.

[polishgenius]

I read The Hands of the Emperor, which several of you were raving about last year and this. Definitely a delight. I would suggest that, as much as I personally agree with the idea and enjoy the presentation, the frequent digressions onto effective systems of anti-poverty politics weren't really necessary for the story. But ultimately that's a minor thing. For an 800+ page novel about beaurocracy, it didn't drag. Brilliantly written. I really love the way the details of the world are drip-fed, too.

Interesting that Goddard wrote this apparently specifically as an introduction to her world, and does recommend it as the first thing to read. I'll be seeking out more of her work, anyway.

[QuickTidal]

 Aptorian, on 13 July 2022 - 03:08 PM, said:

125 p. into Unsouled by Will Wright.

A certain winged character just showed up and kicked the book into overdrive. I was entertained by the story untill now but not necessarily hooked.

Now I need to see what happens next. This chapter coupled with the weird cyberspace/time travel interlude suggests this series will go some crazy places.

This was the moment I realized the story was headed somewhere special. It's actually a really well known moment to most fans of the series as it glimpsed how vast the world of the series is.

Spoiler

The various people/places she shows Lindon are SO COMPELLING.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 14 July 2022 - 05:57 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

 polishgenius, on 14 July 2022 - 04:46 PM, said:

I read The Hands of the Emperor, which several of you were raving about last year and this. Definitely a delight. I would suggest that, as much as I personally agree with the idea and enjoy the presentation, the frequent digressions onto effective systems of anti-poverty politics weren't really necessary for the story. But ultimately that's a minor thing. For an 800+ page novel about beaurocracy, it didn't drag. Brilliantly written. I really love the way the details of the world are drip-fed, too.

Interesting that Goddard wrote this apparently specifically as an introduction to her world, and does recommend it as the first thing to read. I'll be seeking out more of her work, anyway.

I just remembered I picked this up on Kindle when it was randomly reduced. Definitely need to crank it up the TRP...

[worry]

Finished Wayfarers 4. Lovely way to finish things up.

[Chance]

Finished up my re-read of Library at Mount Char which is still wonderful.

Threw in the new dresden novella The Law afterwards and while it was fine, it isn't one of the stronger Dresden shortforms.

Tried to re-read Empire of Black and Gold with the idea to get through the entire series, only got to the start of Seawatch last time but bounced off it hard this time. I remember it getting better and better along the way but no I don't think I'll get through this series.

No clue what to read next but vacations are starting so maybe one of the several books I only got in papper.

This post has been edited by Chance: 15 July 2022 - 04:47 AM

[Tiste Simeon]

 worry, on 15 July 2022 - 01:19 AM, said:

Finished Wayfarers 4. Lovely way to finish things up.

I'm... Not enjoying the third one quite as much... I just don't really find the characters quite as engaging and it's taking me a while to get through. I definitely want to finish it and I'm not *hating* it as such but it's so far the weakest IMO (could be proven wrong by the end though!)

[worry]

I felt that way initially, the characters took an unusually long time to grow on me, but then it turned a corner that made me love it. I dunno, it was alienating (no pun intended) and then it just...wasn't.

[Tiste Simeon]

 worry, on 15 July 2022 - 10:04 AM, said:

I felt that way initially, the characters took an unusually long time to grow on me, but then it turned a corner that made me love it. I dunno, it was alienating (no pun intended) and then it just...wasn't.

Yes I was reading it as I wrote that post. About 3 minutes after I posted I really got into it haha. About 100 pages left and I'm really invested now!

For reference

Spoiler

the scene with Eyas and the "Host" guy whose name momentarily escapes me, talking about death was so stunningly written I was astonished! Then the death of Sawyer and Kip hearing of it drew me in like I hadn't been so far!

Dunno if it was the same place for you but those things all happened within a short space of each other and made a huge difference to how I was enjoying it.

[worry]

Yup that's pretty much the same point.

[Salt-Man Z]

I had the same feelings with Wayfarers 4. It definitely turned a corner, but took a while to get there. Lovely book, but still only my third or fourth favorite of the series. (Best to least: 2,4,3/1.)

[Slow Ben]

My reading new books has turned to shit in the last year or so. So damn busy with life and work its just been easier to re-read old stuff than try something new. I think it went Malazan, Dresden, back to finish Malazan, Broken Empire, and i'll wrap up the Dark Tower this weekend. Pretty sure the last new material i read was to wrap up the Dagger and the Coin. Yikes.


Finally getting into my TRP thats been neglected for years (decades?) at a time.

Either starting The Steel Remains, Library at Mt. Char, Red Sister, The Scar, Black Knife, or Apt has reminded me I still have 3 or 4 of the Garretts to finish.

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

Just finished A Crown for Cold Silver, and don't really see the reason for the praise it has received. I lost interest in most of the main characters by the halfway point, and all but one or two by the end. I expected more world building from something of that length as well. I have the next two sitting around, but will come back to them later.

Spoiler

Most of the main characters come off as thick. And not in the humorous way that makes the Lot Lands first book work, but in a "let's make bad decisions and base things off of errant preconceptions" way, similar to the middle books in the Wheel of Time. I lost interest in Zosia as a character very early on, which probably didn't help.

 Slow Ben, on 16 July 2022 - 08:53 PM, said:

Either starting The Steel Remains, Library at Mt. Char, Red Sister, The Scar, Black Knife, or Apt has reminded me I still have 3 or 4 of the Garretts to finish.

My pick would be Mount Char next. That was fantastic.

This post has been edited by Gwynn ap Nudd: 19 July 2022 - 05:46 AM

[QuickTidal]

Re-reading CHILDREN OF DUNE to prep for GOD-EMPEROR which I've never read.

[Tiste Simeon]

 Gwynn ap Nudd, on 19 July 2022 - 05:43 AM, said:

Just finished A Crown for Cold Silver, and don't really see the reason for the praise it has received. I lost interest in most of the main characters by the halfway point, and all but one or two by the end. I expected more world building from something of that length as well. I have the next two sitting around, but will come back to them later.

Spoiler

Most of the main characters come off as thick. And not in the humorous way that makes the Lot Lands first book work, but in a "let's make bad decisions and base things off of errant preconceptions" way, similar to the middle books in the Wheel of Time. I lost interest in Zosia as a character very early on, which probably didn't help.

 Slow Ben, on 16 July 2022 - 08:53 PM, said:

Either starting The Steel Remains, Library at Mt. Char, Red Sister, The Scar, Black Knife, or Apt has reminded me I still have 3 or 4 of the Garretts to finish.

My pick would be Mount Char next. That was fantastic.

Totally agree. Mount Char is one of the best stand-alones I've ever read!