[MTS]

Just finished Neuromancer and about to have a crack at Weeks' Night Angel series.

[Fist Gamet]

Also Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield and I am surprised and pleased by how good it is. The writing is solid and consistent and it feels very authentic. The story following the actual battle at Thermopylae is very well done and amongst the most convincing portrayals of ancient warfare I have read.

[LadyMTL]

Fist Gamet, on 22 May 2010 - 07:50 PM, said:

Also Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield and I am surprised and pleased by how good it is. The writing is solid and consistent and it feels very authentic. The story following the actual battle at Thermopylae is very well done and amongst the most convincing portrayals of ancient warfare I have read.

I read that years ago (before I knew jacksh*t about Thermopylae) and really enjoyed it too. Actually, I still have it...hmm...maybe I should re-read it, after I finish this supposedly scary book called The Book of Lost Souls. I'm two-thirds of the way through it and it's barely creeped me out once, let alone flat out scared me. Anyway, I'm hoping it'll improve but so far, it's very meh.

[pat5150]

Just finished Naomi Novik's Tongues of Serpents.

And based on how much I've enjoyed the series so far, this one was a major disappointment. Looks like a proliferation of unnecessary sequels to me. . .

Check out the blog for the full review.

Patrick

[ObsoleteResolve]

Teatro Grottesco and My Work Is Not Yet Finished by Thomas Ligotti.

[kcf]

I finally got a review written for Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor. This is a very good book. African fantasy with shades of many, many sub-genres, but it's simply a beautifully told story.

I finished up Shadow's Son by Jon Sprunk last night - a review should be coming soon. Started The Passage by Justin Cronin - it starts out depressing as hell, it'll be interesting to see whree it goes from here.

[Harvester]

The Wheel of Time 1 - After reading MBotF I thought I wouldn't like it, I thought the classic hero's journey would be laughable in comparison, but it's growing on me.

[Salk Elan]

Aptorian, on 20 May 2010 - 08:19 PM, said:

The characterisation in Steel Remains, especially the main character, the gay warrior, is awesome. Much better than Weeks characters. But honestly, they are also telling two different kinds of stories.

The story in Steel Remains, especially the ending, is in my opinion, weaker than Weeks. I thought that Morgan completely dropped the ball on the ending, tying a half assed knot on an other wise interesting developing story. I thought the side stories surrounding the main character were weak and not really needed at all.

How ever, supposedly the book is going to be the first in a trilogy, so maybe it will make more sense some day.

On the ending I'm with you. The sudden twist was a bit over-rushed and not entirely comprehensible, and generally the book could have done with a quarter of the f**ks and sh**ts, especially since EVERYONE used them (even the "I-don't-speak-your-language-properly"-sister of the villain).

But the side-stories were well written and added a lot to the general atmosphere in my opinion (reminded me partly of Nights of Villjamur by Newton).

I, for one enjoyed it far more than Weeks (no sickly sweet romance, no hood damned mystical sisterhood, which I'm absolutely sick of).





Well, going to start my reread of MoI now.

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Finished Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie. Really liked it, Abercrombie is really a good writer, has a wicked sense of humour(I was chuckling for most of the book) and writes fights and battles really well. My only problem was that Bayaz's journey sort of lagged compared to the Northern setting and the parts in Dagoska, at least at the beginning. Then at one point(can't reall say which), even that part picked up pace and I have no complaints.And of course Glokta is a geat character.

I've already started Last Argument of Kings and I'm liking it so far.

[Salt-Man Z]

Starting Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth.

[stone monkey]

ObsoleteResolve, on 24 May 2010 - 02:54 AM, said:

Teatro Grottesco and My Work Is Not Yet Finished by Thomas Ligotti.

I've read the second one (although my copy is titled My Work Is Not Yet Done), I'm not sure I liked the title novella all that much; it had its points but I was expecting something that was a bit more "in your face"...

[Astra]

I just finished Beyond the Shadows, [Night Angel #3] by Brent Weeks.
My review
End of the journey.
Good and fitting final. Touching, moving with powerful emotions.
My deepest admiration is for Elena. Hat’s off.
Kylar, Durzo, Count Drake are my favourites. Even the Wolf.

However, there a few glaring drawbacks that I cannot dismiss.
First of all, the whole trilogy was a bit short on history of Midcyru. Brent Weeks has probably realised it and attempted to force feed us large chunks of it in the last book but it didn’t go very smoothly.
Second, too much was squeezed into one book. Too many events, too much info. It all felt a bit rushed. Not the ending, but the whole Beyond the Shadows.
A few questions were left unanswered or unclear? Such as,

Spoiler

why Kylar could not defeat magic of wedding rings with black ka'kari if it was devouring any other type of magic, or how did Elena come up with the idea/knowledge that Khali was a disembodied spirit who needed a willing person to sacrifice her body?

I would say that Brent Weeks has created superb characters but world building was a weak side of the Night Angel trilogy. All in all it is a very good story (7 out of 10), page turner.
I believe the ending is open enough to write more in Midcyru’s world, maybe with some familiar characters. Who knows? I am looking forward to read it.

Next book is The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

This post has been edited by Astra: 27 May 2010 - 02:24 PM

[Aptorian]

Astra, on 27 May 2010 - 02:23 PM, said:

I just finished Beyond the Shadows, [Night Angel #3] by Brent Weeks.
My review
End of the journey.
Good and fitting final. Touching, moving with powerful emotions.
My deepest admiration is for Elena. Hat’s off.
Kylar, Durzo, Count Drake are my favourites. Even the Wolf.

However, there a few glaring drawbacks that I cannot dismiss.
First of all, the whole trilogy was a bit short on history of Midcyru. Brent Weeks has probably realised it and attempted to force feed us large chunks of it in the last book but it didn’t go very smoothly.
Second, too much was squeezed into one book. Too many events, too much info. It all felt a bit rushed. Not the ending, but the whole Beyond the Shadows.
A few questions were left unanswered or unclear? Such as,

Spoiler

why Kylar could not defeat magic of wedding rings with black ka'kari if it was devouring any other type of magic, or how did Elena come up with the idea/knowledge that Khali was a disembodied spirit who needed a willing person to sacrifice her body?

I would say that Brent Weeks has created superb characters but world building was a weak side of the Night Angel trilogy. All in all it is a very good story (7 out of 10), page turner.
I believe the ending is open enough to write more in Midcyru’s world, maybe with some familiar characters. Who knows? I am looking forward to read it.

Next book is The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

I agree with all you criticism. A lot of the third book felt rushed. It felt like he was trying to cram as much story as the two prior books combined into it. Much more world building. New historical and personal revelations that turned things upside down. The final battle and the way "the precognition emperor wizard" guy turned mad was given way too little space to give it justice.

From what I gathered from the ending it looks like some kind of apocalyptic doomsday is coming to the world with real angels and devils, etc. in the mix. Personally, if Weeks continues to grow as a writer and he expands and improves the setting of the series I think it could become something great.

[kcf]

Finished up Shadow's Son by Jon Sprunk. Overall, it's pretty good - perhaps the dark fantasy (with assassins) equivalent of a beach read. Full Review

Now I'm reading The Passage by Justin Cronin - this is some really good writing. It really tugs on the heartstrings. So far, it's living up to the buzz.

[MTS]

After sitting on my to-read pile for like forever, I finally finished Fool Moon, and am moving on to the next one.

[Ain't_It_Just_]

Bauchelain the Evil, on 22 May 2010 - 03:51 PM, said:

Finished Manituana by Wu Ming. It's basically the American revolution seen from the natives' point of view. The first part was rather slow and seemed to go nowhere but it picked the pace in the second part and I enoyed it from there onwards although the the ending was a bit depressing. All in all a book I would reccomend.

Awesome. I'm doing the AR right now, so...

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Finished Last Argument of Kings. Man this book was fast-paced. Not only because it was crammed with fights, duels and battles. Simply the events follow each other with incredible speed and the twists abound. This book started at one point and finished at a completely different one. Also seeing how the ending is rather open(an understatement) I have hope he'll return to these characters and this particular storyline. To finish, I admire how Abercrombie turned Bayaz from a mysterious but still pleasnt character ina nasty, horrible, powercrazy person.

[polishgenius]

Finished The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi... didn't live up to the hype, for me. It had promise and some very good ideas, but it doesn't seem to have a definite idea of where it's going and winds up as a vague haze of concepts, themes, messages and plots.

On the other hand, if biopunk (I dislike that term, but I can't think of a better one so let's roll with it) takes off as a subgenre the way cyberpunk did, it could be an important book - I didn't like Neuromancer either. Although frankly it could have done a little more to differentiate itself more from cyberpunk - part of the hazyness seemed to come from Bacigalupi being undecided whether to borrow familiar cyberpunk shorthand for ease of use or distance himself from that movement entirely and make up entirely new trappings, vocabulary and tropes both.

Still, it's not a bad book, just not a great one.

[LadyMTL]

I just finished Annabel Lyon's The Golden Mean and next up is Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.
I really enjoyed Golden Mean, even tho sometimes I felt like the plot just meandered around...it was beautifully written and, for a story about Alexander the Great and Aristotle, wasn't difficult to get into at all.

[QuickTidal]

SANDSTORM by James Rollins...the only SIGMA FORCE novel I haven't read.