[Chance]

Going through Wind and Truth, its pretty decent but Sanderson should probably prune the character gallery. We don't need the POW of every secondary character and that is one of the reason these books bloat and could probably be half the length with much the same result. At the same time this series is an impressive deep dive in another world and probably the closest we get to Wheel of Time in these days both the good and the bad.

 polishgenius, on 16 January 2025 - 11:52 AM, said:

Now I'm reading In a Garden Burning Gold, by Rory Power, a book which early doors is coming off like a cross between Guy Gavriel Kay and The Library at Mount Char, and if that seems unlikely to you, well, try it yourself and tell me otherwise.

On that recommendation its added to the reading list.

[Abyss]

 Chance, on 16 January 2025 - 02:02 PM, said:

...

 polishgenius, on 16 January 2025 - 11:52 AM, said:

Now I'm reading In a Garden Burning Gold, by Rory Power, a book which early doors is coming off like a cross between Guy Gavriel Kay and The Library at Mount Char, and if that seems unlikely to you, well, try it yourself and tell me otherwise.

On that recommendation its added to the reading list.

hells yes!

[Tiste Simeon]

I finished Unsouled, the first book in the Cradle series and you guys were right. It really ramps up after he meets a certain character.

The whole world building and mythos in this world is fantastic and the revelation at the end was great and set up the rest of the series nicely. I shall be carrying on with it throughout the year.

[Abyss]

Just Finished Charlie Stross' A CONVENTIONAL BOY. Some weirdness here, it's a Laundry book, but a flashback that takes place circa 2010, and it's packaged with two stories, OVERTIME and DOWN ON THE FARM, that have been around for years and were packaged w ATROCITY ARCHIVES, i think. Then as a bonus there's a piece at the end w Stross discussing the crossover between Dungeons n Dragons and the rise of the radical right. All of which is to say, it's a good thing i really enjoyed BOY because an entire Audible credit for a five hour story and some repackaged stuff i already owned might have otherwise annoyed me, tho the Stross discussion piece is in fact very interesting.

BOY is great. A relatively straightforward story about Derek, a man who was arrested i error by the Laundry when he was 14 for playing DnD during the Satanic Panic, who spent the rest of life in a detainment camp but decides to go on the run to attend a TTRPG convention. It's.... honestly its brilliant, the kind of writing that yanked me into the Laundry stories way back and kept me there even when the series goes thru dips. There are easter eggs and call backs and references right thru to various DnD and other gaming elements, and little nuggets for the rest of the series. Derek is at once sympathetic and a victim and thoroughly engaging as a gamer on a mission with a few things he's learned from years in a Laundry prison camp. The choice of past/future High Priestess of the Black Pharaoh Iris as a second pov works well too. It's a very satsfying Laundry story, worth the time/money, and i hope like hell Stross plans to bring Derek back in a future book because dammit the guy still has a few dice left to roll.


Next up, back to Martha Wells and the STORIES OF THE RAKSURA vol 1.