[Use Of Weapons]

Just finished 'Old Man's War' by John Scalzi after hearing about it for ages. Wow, it's actually pretty good, isn't it? Will definitely be getting the sequel.

Currently reading 'Winterbirth' by Brian Ruckley, Book 1 of 'The Godless World'. Pretty dark fantasy, shades of G R R Martin combined with J V Jones, with a smattering of Hobb's Farseers. Great debut, in any case.

[Use Of Weapons]

And I've got 'The Blade Itself' waiting in the wings

[Werthead]

Deornoth;375436 said:

I've just finished reading Peter V. Brett's 'The Painted Man'; a tale of humanity's struggle against demons and the consequences of a young boy's decision to fight them himself. It sounds a bit of a cliche, and sometimes it is, but once you get past the first few pages what you find is a fast paced, character focussed tale that certainly sucked me in and had me wanting to find out what happened next. The blurb says that fans of Feist and Gemmell will love 'The Painted Man' and I can see this being the case. If you're into stuff that's a little deeper though then this might not be for you... My full review is over Here.
I've now got Kristin Cashore's 'Graceling' on the go and then it may be time to see if Tim Lebbon is as good as I've heard...

Excellent. The Painted Man is my first ARC from Voyager (albeit via Amazon Vine), and may be my next book to read after I finish The Blood Knight and maybe something else (don't want to read two epic fantasies back to back).

[Deornoth]

Werthead;375935 said:

Excellent. The Painted Man is my first ARC from Voyager

Snap! It was a tough one to call as Brett isn't an Erikson, Martin or Abercrombie etc but just ended up being just plain good fun.

I've just finished reading Michael Moorcock's 'The Ice Schooner', the tale of a frozen earth and the men who pilot... er... ice schooners across it's surface. For a book that's only 157 pages long there's a hell of a lot going on, almost too much as the ending seems a little rushed and anti-climatic. It's still an entertaining read though and one that's worth picking up if you fancy a quick read or if you've never read anything by Michael Moorcock and want to give him a go. My full review is over Here.
Still working my way through 'Graceling'...

[Ganymed]

Been reading "The Bonehunters", but then I kinda lost interest before the last book, which IMHO is one of the worst parts SE has ever produced.

So I went and ordered "Last and First Men" by Olaf Stapledon, which is to be honest kinda dull and boring. The majority of the book is about the "First Men", which I didn't really find interesting at all. Maybe it gets better, so I will try to continue.

I also ordered "Earth Abides" by George R. Stewart, which I find very interesting and well written. Reminds me of "The Stand" but without all the last battle between heaven and hell mumbo-jumbo. No action as such, but I would recommend that if you're interested in post-apocalyptic settings.

Next on the list: "Return of the Crimson Guard" and of course "Toll the Hounds".

[caladanbrood]

I've got a cracking selection to chose from at the moment, gromit. The Steel Remains, Brasyl, Iron Angel, Acacia, Last Argument of Kings... so I'm reading Al Reynolds' House of Suns instead

[DarkGothicGirl]

I am rereading the Twilight books.

[Werthead]

Been rereading Wheel of Time and just finished Book 3. Taking a break to read Max Brooks' World War Z. Also expecting the new Hamilton this week.

[caladanbrood]

I'm hoping you mean Peter F, not Laurel K... Release date?

[Use Of Weapons]

Ganymed, on Aug 28 2008, 04:35 PM, said:

So I went and ordered "Last and First Men" by Olaf Stapledon, which is to be honest kinda dull and boring. The majority of the book is about the "First Men", which I didn't really find interesting at all. Maybe it gets better, so I will try to continue.

I also ordered "Earth Abides" by George R. Stewart, which I find very interesting and well written. Reminds me of "The Stand" but without all the last battle between heaven and hell mumbo-jumbo. No action as such, but I would recommend that if you're interested in post-apocalyptic settings.

Both incredible books. L&FM is great, what an imagination! But not a story, in the proper sense. I read it as a non-fictional history book about a fictional setting. Makes more sense.

Earth Abides is just awesome. And a really bittersweet ending, perfect.


I'm currently reading _Before They Are Hanged_, Joe Abercrombie's sequel to _The Blade Itself_. I think Inquisitor Glokta is one of the best characters in fantasy.

This post has been edited by jitsukerr: 29 September 2008 - 12:49 PM

[mocker]

my subterranean edition of Lies of Locke Lamora
ole!

think i mite read through the tawny man trilogy again soon i never quite made it to the end last time!

[Astra]

Since my last post in this topic I have finished:

The Gathering Storm - [Crown of Stars 5] - by Kate Elliott
Hard to Be a God by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Doorways in the Sand by Roger Zelazny

Nothing spectacular besides The Gathering Storm which was very good.

Started and gave up on:

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Could not continue with so much theological gibberish, and 3 pages long descriptions of one building or a gate. Got about 1/4 into the book...

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Omg. Just stupid and boring. Got about o1/3 into the book...

Reading right now A Sundial in a Grave: 1610 by Mary Gentle
Started quite well but then some disgusting perverts' couplings almost made me puke. I barely manage to continue. I really hope that the book is going to get better soon...1/10 into it so far.

[pat5150]

Just finished Paul Kearney's excellent The Ten Thousand.

Good pace, grim setting, superior characterization, bloody battles -- The Ten Thousand is Paul Kearney writing at the top of his game.

The novel is a brutal and uncompromising tale of warfare and survival written by one of the most underrated talents in the fantasy genre.

Check the blog for the full review.

Patrick

[Spindrift]

Am almost finished Anathem, It's pretty fantastic. I'm depressed that it's nearly over

[alt146]

Also reading Before they are Hanged. Glockta & the various northmen are all pretty interesting Almost done with it, the third one is waiting Then maybe old man's war.. So may books, so little time

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Halfway through A Clash of Kings. Good book but for now I prefer A Game of Thrones

[murphy72]

Reading John Connolly's Every Dead Thing. P.I. story that starts out pretty bloody.

[casrot]

Like a lot of people, I'm working my way through Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy. Just starting into Last Argument of Kings. I'm almost as excited reading this as I was reading Erikson and Bakker.

[Chance]

Going through the gap series by Donaldson and must say the first one is pretty much the best novel I've read in a long time...perhaps there is more to Donaldson then I thought...

While and besides those A history of world societies and some other history lit for school

This post has been edited by Chance: 04 October 2008 - 05:20 PM

[Werthead]

The WoT reread has reached The Shadow Rising. Probably the best book in the series, but the male-female relationships are becoming eye-strainingly bad. Luckily that's tailing off now and the actual story is taking over instead.

Should polish that off tomorrow, just in time (hopefully) for my review copy of The Temporal Void to show up.