[MTS]

Right now I'm reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke. It's quite good, I hope it keeps it up.

[Astra]

Started Nation by Terry Pratchett
1/10 into it, nothing special so far.

This post has been edited by Astra: 25 April 2009 - 07:46 AM

[Dr Trouble]

I just finished Turncoat by mai boi Butcher.

Damn fine read. Although I found that whole book alot more predictable then earlier attempts. Maybe because of a growing familiarity of Butchers books, I dont know.

[Slow Ben]

Just finshed Death Masks by Butcher. Man Dresden just keeps getting better and better. i just love the world and characters Butchers created. The story just keeps getting better and more interesting. I cant wait to see what happens next.

Starting Blood Rites in about 30 seconds.

[pat5150]

Just finished David J. Williams' The Burning Skies, sequel to last year's action-packed The Mirrored Heavens.

It's a great blend of military science fiction and dystopian cyberthriller that should appeal to fans of Richard Morgan.

Check the blog for the full review.

Patrick

[lokiman]

Just finished The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, and shortly before that one, Tom Lloyd's Stormcaller

[MTS]

Just finished Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch. To be honest, I was a little underwhelmed with this one. The plot seemed a little contrived, and some of the twists and innuendos seemed a little unnecessary. I don't think it possessed much of the panache that was inherent in the first one, which is a shame. Still, I enjoyed his world-building (or "city-building", rather) and the interactions of the characters, so I hope Republic of Thieves continues that trend of original world-building and lives up to the reputation of the first one. Hopefully we see it soon too...

[Deornoth]

I've just finished reading Neal Asher's 'Shadow of the Scorpion', two interconnected tales of the ECS agent Ian Cormac. It's a fun and fast paced read that's brimming over with hardcore gunfights and technology. Go a little bit deeper though and there were problems with the structure that really got in the way of my reading. My full review is over Here. I've got loads of books on the go right now but next up is Graham McNeill's Warhammer 40K tie-in 'Courage and Honour'...

[Use Of Weapons]

Am 2/3rds of the way through _Halting State_ by Charlie Stross. Epic awesomeness drips from every page of this book. Which is a slightly messy metaphor, but there's nothing messy about the plot (l33t bank heist in a MMORG that starts to leave actual dead bodies lying around in monkeyspace (aka real life)) or the prose. And Scotland is an independent nation-state member of the EU -- bet he had lots of chuckles writing that

[Dolorous Menhir]

Mappo's Travelling Sack, on Apr 27 2009, 06:50 AM, said:

Just finished Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch. To be honest, I was a little underwhelmed with this one. The plot seemed a little contrived, and some of the twists and innuendos seemed a little unnecessary. I don't think it possessed much of the panache that was inherent in the first one, which is a shame. Still, I enjoyed his world-building (or "city-building", rather) and the interactions of the characters, so I hope Republic of Thieves continues that trend of original world-building and lives up to the reputation of the first one. Hopefully we see it soon too...

The plot is kind of all over the place, isn't it? I enjoyed it, but you get through certain parts and think "did that have a point, apart from massively extending the length of the book?".

jitsukerr, on Apr 27 2009, 04:51 PM, said:

Am 2/3rds of the way through _Halting State_ by Charlie Stross. Epic awesomeness drips from every page of this book. Which is a slightly messy metaphor, but there's nothing messy about the plot (l33t bank heist in a MMORG that starts to leave actual dead bodies lying around in monkeyspace (aka real life)) or the prose. And Scotland is an independent nation-state member of the EU -- bet he had lots of chuckles writing that

I've seen that in the bookshop quite a few times and been strangely tempted. Should I go for it?

[Mentalist]

got my hands on a bunch of books by Vadim Panov, including his longest series "The Hidden city". Finished the first book, "Wars are started by losers" today

The setting's similar to the Dresden novels, but as it's written for a Russian audience, all the action takes place in modern-day Moscow. and all future books will be confined to Moscow as well--because, the Hidden City, Panov's version of the supernatural IS Moscow--the last refuge of magic-wielding races that came before humans and have been driven to near extinction by humans and are now confined to a single Hidden City.

The plot uses a number of cliches, but the story's fast-paced and and at no point did I find myself bored or tempted to put the book down. The existance of 3 separate, constantly-feuding clans fills the whole setting with tons of intrigue possibilites, reading similar to Lukyanenko's Watch sequence, though the accents are different and distinct.

overall, really liked this, if these books get translated, I'd recommend them as easy-reading urban fantasy, that's fairly simplistics but at the same time has enough details to make the world seem ric and believable.

[Werthead]

Red Seas is a troubled book. Some great ideas and the writing is strong, but it's structurally almost identical to The Lies of Locke Lamora, but more rambling and less focused. It also has a shockingly poor ending:

Spoiler

with Locke relying on two guys we've never met or even heard mentioned for help in the last couple of chapters. Given the lengthy scenes in the Sinspire elsewhere, it wouldn't have been hard for Locke to have met them earlier and set some stuff up.

Currently reading China Mieville's The City and The City, which has a central 'twist' to the story which is a doozy. It's given away pretty early on, but gives the first fifty pages a unique, "WTF?" feel which is really interesting. Once the twist is revealed the story gets going in earnest and it's great, if not quite up to Mieville's best. The only problem is that the twist, whilst, clever, is a little hard to swallow. It'll be very interesting to see what the widespread reaction to this is when it comes out.

[Valgard]

Currently reading The Corner a year in the life of an inner-city neighbourhood. This is by the two main creators of the wire David Simons and Ed Burns. Not far into it but so far it is great similar in style to Homicide a year in the killing streets, which was also a great read so am looking forward to reading what this has to offer.

[MTS]

I've just finished The Books of the South series by Glen Cook. It was quite good, but had nothing on The Books of the North. Just about to begin the Glittering Stone novels. Are they any good? I've heard it's a bit of a departure in terms of characters and concepts than the first two series, which I'm not sure is a good thing. The first three books were pure awesome.

This post has been edited by Mappo's Travelling Sack: 28 April 2009 - 09:47 AM

[Use Of Weapons]

Dolorous Menhir, on Apr 27 2009, 06:27 PM, said:

jitsukerr, on Apr 27 2009, 04:51 PM, said:

Am 2/3rds of the way through _Halting State_ by Charlie Stross.

I've seen that in the bookshop quite a few times and been strangely tempted. Should I go for it?

Definitely give it a go -- I doubt you'll regret it. Stross is doing some excellent work these days -- I've not read a bad book by him. And _Halting State_ is a standalone (though in the afterword interview he talks about a potential indirect sequel).

[Salt-Man Z]

Mappo's Travelling Sack, on Apr 28 2009, 04:46 AM, said:

I've just finished The Books of the South series by Glen Cook. It was quite good, but had nothing on The Books of the North. Just about to begin the Glittering Stone novels. Are they any good? I've heard it's a bit of a departure in terms of characters and concepts than the first two series, which I'm not sure is a good thing. The first three books were pure awesome.

The "Books of the South" isn't really a seperate series from "Glittering Stone". It's one continuous 6-book arc*, so if you've read the first two, you might as well read the next four to finish the story. They're a departure from the original trilogy, yes, but if you enjoyed the Books of the South, it continues on much like that. (In fact, much of Bleak Seasons consists of Murgen retelling events from the previous two books from his point of view.)

*(In fact, it's my private theory that the the Books of the South was initially planned as a trilogy, with the third and final book being called Glittering Stone--but the third book ended up ballooning into four more. This not only explains the "To be concluded in Glittering Stone" line from the end of Dreams of Steel, but also the delay before Bleak Seasons.)

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 28 April 2009 - 03:54 PM

[Deornoth]

Just finished reading Graham McNeill's 'Courage and Honour', the latest book in his Warhammer 40K Ultramarines series. There's not really anything new here (it's doing exactly what it's predecessor, 'The Killing Ground', does) but what it does do is done very well. My full review is over Here. I'm now well into C.C. Finlay's 'The Patriot Witch' and I have a horrible feeling it may go all Harry Potter on me...

[kcf]

I recently finished Starfinder by John Marco. It was a good story and all, but it's solidly a YA book without much cross-over appeal for adults (review).

I'm now reading A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin which is excellent so far.

[Dolorous Menhir]

Salt-Man Z, on Apr 28 2009, 04:54 PM, said:

Mappo's Travelling Sack, on Apr 28 2009, 04:46 AM, said:

I've just finished The Books of the South series by Glen Cook. It was quite good, but had nothing on The Books of the North. Just about to begin the Glittering Stone novels. Are they any good? I've heard it's a bit of a departure in terms of characters and concepts than the first two series, which I'm not sure is a good thing. The first three books were pure awesome.

The "Books of the South" isn't really a seperate series from "Glittering Stone". It's one continuous 6-book arc*, so if you've read the first two, you might as well read the next four to finish the story. They're a departure from the original trilogy, yes, but if you enjoyed the Books of the South, it continues on much like that. (In fact, much of Bleak Seasons consists of Murgen retelling events from the previous two books from his point of view.)

*(In fact, it's my private theory that the the Books of the South was initially planned as a trilogy, with the third and final book being called Glittering Stone--but the third book ended up ballooning into four more. This not only explains the "To be concluded in Glittering Stone" line from the end of Dreams of Steel, but also the delay before Bleak Seasons.)

I've got two Black Company trilogies under single covers - "Chronicles of the Black Company" and "The Books of the South". Never seen any more trilogies from the same run in the shops though, do you know if they are still to be released? I know there are a lot more Black Company books after those six.

[Salt-Man Z]

Oh, sorry, I should have thought of the omnibus editions.

The Books of the South was the publisher's "series" name for Shadow Games and Dreams of Steel, which, as I noted above, were concluded in the four Glittering Stone books.

The Books of the South omnibus collects those two books, as well as The Silver Spike, which is not part of that sequence, rather it's a sequel to the original trilogy that ties up the loose ends left dangling from The White Rose. (Which is why I generally recommend that people read The Silver Spike immediately following the first trilogy. I don't know why it was put at the end of the omnibus.)

I've seen it mentioned that the Glittering Stone books will be released later this year in two omnibus editions (as each individual book is 500-600 pages, about double the prior volumes) but I've yet to see anything official.

The Glen Cook wiki can give you some more information, but tread carefully beyond the front page, as spoilers abound.

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 29 April 2009 - 03:18 AM