[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 05 January 2025 - 08:35 PM, said:

Now I'm reading Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries, which has been on my radar for a while and which so far is everything I wanted it to be- clearly inspired by Susannah Clarke but much more immediate, more on-the-ground, less sprawling and more... well, cozy.

Let me know how you like it. I loved it, so it would get the double stamp.

I have book 2 lined up to read this year and book 3 is out in February.

[worry]

polishgenius, on 05 January 2025 - 08:35 PM, said:

Then I read Dragonfruit, by Makiia Lucier, a charming little YA adventure about searching for wish-granting dragon eggs in a pacific-based milieu. The ending is a little contrived, but I liked it.

I liked this too. It'd make a good gift for both YA-reading adults or younger folks (like tweeners and above), as it's pretty parent-safe but also not condescending.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 04 January 2025 - 09:24 PM, said:

pat5150, on 04 January 2025 - 03:33 PM, said:

Just finished Tad Williams' The Navagator's Children and oh shit what a disappointment.

It's too bad, because the endgame was quite good. However, a 300+ pages epilogue killed all the momentum and turned this into a boring slog that totally erased all the good things that took place earlier.

This new series is an unworthy sequel to what remains one of the seminal works of fantasy out there.

Yeah but you bizarrely hated the first one of this series and I loved it…so mileage may vary.

Tiste Simeon, on 04 January 2025 - 04:23 PM, said:

I mean if anyone knows how to write a massive slogfest with a disappointing ending it's Williams so that's not too surprising IMO

See I figure that since you didn't like the first series that this one would be more to your liking. It's very different and Williams has honed his craft to be much tighter since then. Shrug.

pat5150, on 05 January 2025 - 01:13 AM, said:

Wait till you reach that interminable epilogue and tell me that his craft is much tighter nowadays. This is the sort of filler that makes Sanderson's bloat feel concise.

Tiste Simeon, on 05 January 2025 - 07:49 AM, said:

Sadly I was so put off by the first series I've no desire to read anything else in that world.

This isme. MS&T is core responsible for my dislike of slogfeste fantasy, farmboy chosen ones, mysteriously mystical elves, and numerous other tropes.

I adored OTHERLAND despite it being roughly 1.5 books too long, and WAR OF THE FLOWERS is one of my favorite urban fantasy books ever, but in the fantasy zone Williams and I were done back when the elves had a sing-off while the other races were stabbing each other in the faces. I couldn't raise any enthusiasm for SHADOWMARCH and cannot for this.

[Tiste Simeon]

I'm exactly the same Abyss. I have very fond memories of Otherland. No idea if I'd enjoy it nowadays.

[polishgenius]

QuickTidal, on 06 January 2025 - 02:54 AM, said:

polishgenius, on 05 January 2025 - 08:35 PM, said:

Now I'm reading Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries, which has been on my radar for a while and which so far is everything I wanted it to be- clearly inspired by Susannah Clarke but much more immediate, more on-the-ground, less sprawling and more... well, cozy.

Let me know how you like it. I loved it, so it would get the double stamp.

Yeah I really like that. There's been a few wintry faerie stories in recent years- Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver, The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden- but this is definitely the best of the lot (although if you haven't read the second of those it might also be of interest to you).

It also nails down the tricky aspect of a main character who's really prickly and unsociable but never really descends into unlikeable. There's a book I tried recently- The Spellshop, by Sarah Beth Durst, which is to some extent rather clearly inspired by this- which is charming in almost every way and I really want to like it, but the MC is so unsociable and prickly that even when she has a point - which she doesn't always- it becomes unpleasant. I'll give it another shot coz I'm sure overcoming that will be the point and then I'll enjoy it, but Fawcett never falls into that trap in the first place. A joy all the way through.

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 06 January 2025 - 07:27 PM, said:

Yeah I really like that. There's been a few wintry faerie stories in recent years The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden- but this is definitely the best of the lot (although if you haven't read the second of those it might also be of interest to you).

I have a copy loaned from my sister-in-law, but have not read it yet.

polishgenius, on 06 January 2025 - 07:27 PM, said:

It also nails down the tricky aspect of a main character who's really prickly and unsociable but never really descends into unlikeable. but Fawcett never falls into that trap in the first place. A joy all the way through.

Agreed. Emily makes so many decisions that I would IRL too if I were presented with the situations she is, so I didn't just enjoy her character but I found a lot of common ground. When they are done I'll likely sit them next to Clarke on the ForeverShelf in my library as part and parcel of the same or similar themes executed well.

[polishgenius]

Anyway, looks like a full-bore, no caveats, both-of-us-loved it double stamp on this one.

[Tsundoku]

How many times is that now?
Better be careful, there's 3 funny looking horsemen just outside looking very impatient.

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 06 January 2025 - 07:49 PM, said:

Anyway, looks like a full-bore, no caveats, both-of-us-loved it double stamp on this one.

Huzzah!

Tsundoku, on 06 January 2025 - 08:57 PM, said:

How many times is that now?
Better be careful, there's 3 funny looking horsemen just outside looking very impatient.

LOL, perhaps as we age we align more and more?

[Tsundoku]

Pretty soon you'll both be voting Conservative.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: Yesterday, 01:18 PM

[QuickTidal]

Tsundoku, on 07 January 2025 - 01:18 PM, said:

Pretty soon you'll both be voting Conservative.

NEVER! I know they say you get more conservative as you age, but I find the opposite is true and that I slide further left the more the right stagnates and wants to keep everything the same. I want a better world for my kids, the Conservatives have never offered me that.

[Tsundoku]

QuickTidal, on 07 January 2025 - 01:38 PM, said:

Tsundoku, on 07 January 2025 - 01:18 PM, said:

Pretty soon you'll both be voting Conservative.

NEVER! I know they say you get more conservative as you age, but I find the opposite is true and that I slide further left the more the right stagnates and wants to keep everything the same. I want a better world for my kids, the Conservatives have never offered me that.

Sure, you say that now Grandpa, but give it a few years when the kids these days are shitting you and you're yearning for the good old days when they were respectful and there was law and order, god dammit ...

[polishgenius]

Given that I'm also going further left as I get older...





Anyway, next I read Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, a heist story of sorts about a Yoruba nightmare god and a succubus stealing an artefact of importance to another god from the British Museum. A lot of fun. A sequel doesn't seem to have been announced yet, but I'd read the shit out of it.


Now started The Forge in the Forest by Michael Scott Rohan, sequel to The Anvil of Ice which I read aaaaaaages ago then re-read last year. This one's new to me. It's part of the Winter of the World, a series consisting of this original trilogy in the 80s and what appears to be a set of standalone follow-ups in the late 90s into 2001. It's an entertaining setting, harking back to pre-Tolkienite Conan-esque fantasy but in a world, as the name implies, in the midst of an ice age. I really enjoy the setting, got that mysterious, unexplained magic feel that a lot of modern epic fantasy avoids.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: Yesterday, 07:13 PM

[pat5150]

Came home from work last night only to discover that I had been given access to an e-ARC of Guy Gavriel Kay's Written on the Dark in my inbox.

I was wondering whether or not stopping reading Mark Lawrence's The Book That Held Her Heart and jumping right into this one, and to no one's surprise I caved in and dived right into the GGK. Three chapters into it and it's very good so far. It usually takes a while for Kay to draw you into his tales, but this one sucks you in right from the get-go.

[JPK]

 pat5150, on 07 January 2025 - 09:43 PM, said:

Came home from work last night only to discover that I had been given access to an e-ARC of Guy Gavriel Kay's Written on the Dark in my inbox.

I was wondering whether or not stopping reading Mark Lawrence's The Book That Held Her Heart and jumping right into this one, and to no one's surprise I caved in and dived right into the GGK. Three chapters into it and it's very good so far. It usually takes a while for Kay to draw you into his tales, but this one sucks you in right from the get-go.

ARCs for both GGK and Lawrence? You do realize the sheer amount of hate you're courting?

[pat5150]

JPK, on 07 January 2025 - 10:25 PM, said:

ARCs for both GGK and Lawrence? You do realize the sheer amount of hate you're courting?

Small beer, really!

Imagine the hate when I was the only reviewer with page proofs of Reaper's Gale, Toll the Hounds, and Dust of Dreams back in the day!

[Tiste Simeon]

 pat5150, on 07 January 2025 - 11:05 PM, said:

 JPK, on 07 January 2025 - 10:25 PM, said:

ARCs for both GGK and Lawrence? You do realize the sheer amount of hate you're courting?

Small beer, really!

Imagine the hate when I was the only reviewer with page proofs of Reaper's Gale, Toll the Hounds, and Dust of Dreams back in the day!

I remember those dark days. I'm fairly sure there was talk of forming mercenary bands to track you down and steal said copies!

[QuickTidal]

pat5150, on 07 January 2025 - 09:43 PM, said:

Came home from work last night only to discover that I had been given access to an e-ARC of Guy Gavriel Kay's Written on the Dark in my inbox.

I was wondering whether or not stopping reading Mark Lawrence's The Book That Held Her Heart and jumping right into this one, and to no one's surprise I caved in and dived right into the GGK. Three chapters into it and it's very good so far. It usually takes a while for Kay to draw you into his tales, but this one sucks you in right from the get-go.

Let us know if it's better than the last. I loved CHILDREN OF EARTH & SKY and A BRIGHTNESS LONG AGO, but found ALL THE SEAS a bit lacking (style good mind you, it's GGK, but lacking his usual aplomb).