[Bauchelain the Evil]

Finished Altai by Wu Ming which could be considered a sequel to their most famous work, Q. It tells of Yossef Nasi's machinations to make Cyprus the New Sion and ends with the battle of Lepanto.

Usually their books have a slow beginning and then pick up. Altai instead had a strong beginning, lapsed somewhere in the middle and picked up again by the end(which was rather depressing).

All in all I liked it. But then, I'm a huge fan of their works.

This post has been edited by Bauchelain the Evil: 27 July 2010 - 08:25 AM

[Abyss]

 teholbeddict, on 26 July 2010 - 03:29 PM, said:

 Abyss, on 26 July 2010 - 02:47 PM, said:

Now into Cook's She is the Darkness. And it's draaaaaaaaaging now...

Well I wish I could tell you it's going to pick up pace, but unfortunately it never does. ...

Seriously this is brutal. I own it so i'll finish it sooner or later but i've read half of RCG and an Ellis GN while getting through the first 100 pages of She... and whenever Fuller Memorandum gets here it will be pushed back further. It could be ages before i bother getting the last two.

Author self-destruct is a frustrating thing to read. I hear Cook has been back on with his recent efforts but wow The Black Company is losing me in a big way.

[Salt-Man Z]

I don't know what your problem is. She Is the Darkness was my favorite Black Company book. A couple of great twists, and the end will leaving you reeling!

[Salt-Man Z]

As for me, I'm currently in the middle of 4 books, the most recent of which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Tales of Unease, featuring 15 short stories of horror/creepiness. The standout story is Lot No. 249, which seriously freaked me out, reading it in bed, at night, by flashlight.

[MTS]

Yeah the Glittering Stone books were really a lowpoint for me, the Books of the South were building up to what should have been an awesome finish, but unfortunately it never panned out.

Me, I've finished Shadow and Claw and now onto Sword and Citadel. My God I love this series. Gene Wolfe has to be one of the greatest writers still writing today.

[Harvester]

 MTS, on 28 July 2010 - 03:29 PM, said:

Me, I've finished Shadow and Claw and now onto Sword and Citadel. My God I love this series. Gene Wolfe has to be one of the greatest writers still writing today.

Are they really that good? I am playing with the thought of buying them, but I really do not know what to expect.

[ansible]

 Harvester, on 28 July 2010 - 07:30 PM, said:

 MTS, on 28 July 2010 - 03:29 PM, said:

Me, I've finished Shadow and Claw and now onto Sword and Citadel. My God I love this series. Gene Wolfe has to be one of the greatest writers still writing today.

Are they really that good? I am playing with the thought of buying them, but I really do not know what to expect.

Yes, they are really that good. Amazing, in fact.

[Roland_85]

They are better. If you pay attention while reading.

[Harvester]

That sounds like books to my liking, thanks!

[Daeghrefn]

I needed a break from epic fantasy, and more importantly I needed to read something with some closure, so I've been reading Agatha Christie's Poirot novels. Poirot's Christmas and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd are probably my favourites thus far simply because their respective plot twists are so ingenious that I was nearly struck into insensibility when the revelations started to pile on.

[Salt-Man Z]

 Harvester, on 28 July 2010 - 07:30 PM, said:

I really do not know what to expect.

The best way to approach something by Gene Wolfe, especially TBotNS.

[Calm Bringer Of Peace]

R.scott bakers prince of nothing series. I'm on the third book and can't let it go. I have the fourth in waiting.

If your interested in gene wolf I recomend Latro in the mist and the Knight and wizard tandem. Awesome.

I'm also reading nova again. Its a book by samuel r.delany. I named my mass effect cahracter after lorq von ray. recomended. Oh....einstien intersection.

[Roland_85]

 Calm Bringer Of Peace, on 29 July 2010 - 12:08 AM, said:

R.scott bakers prince of nothing series. I'm on the third book and can't let it go. I have the fourth in waiting.

The Prince of Nothing trilogy is - to me - the single greatest work of contemporary fantasy I've read to date.

This post has been edited by Roland_85: 29 July 2010 - 12:31 AM

[Abyss]

 Salt-Man Z, on 28 July 2010 - 03:26 PM, said:

I don't know what your problem is. She Is the Darkness was my favorite Black Company book. A couple of great twists, and the end will leaving you reeling!

i hope so because right now circa pg 250ish i'm reeling from boredom.
Shadowgames was good. Dreams of Steel was better. Bleak Seasons was okay but so far She Is is like 'Bleak Seasons part two where even less happens but we talk about it more'.

[goldmill]

She is the Darkness does slow down a bit but the later books get much better, IMO. Water Sleeps and Soldiers Live are two of my favorite books in the series.



Currently reading Sanderson's Elantris. Digging it so far (about 160 pages in). This is only my second book by him (already read Warbreaker).

[Salt-Man Z]

 Abyss, on 29 July 2010 - 01:23 PM, said:

Shadowgames was good. Dreams of Steel was better. Bleak Seasons was okay but so far She Is is like 'Bleak Seasons part two where even less happens but we talk about it more'.

Well, Bleak Seasons and She Is the Darkness are Murgen's books, so that makes some sense. I can't promise the rest of the series will move faster (probably the only complaint I could come up with regarding the Glittering Stone books, though it honestly didn't bother me much) but the final two books will each feature both a time-jump and a new narrator, so some of the same-ness will be alleviated.

[Fist Gamet]

Gotta make a choice, Curse of Chalion or Diamond Age...decisions, decisions. Just finished the terrific Lions of Al-Rassan and maybe need a wee change of genre.

[Slow Ben]

Just finishd Perdido Street Station. It was somewhere between OK and pretty good.

Story was good and i liked the characters. Just never really clicked with me. Felt like i was sloggnin along through most of it.


Resuming my 5th re-read of the Dark Tower with Wolves of the Calla after taking a little break.

[Astra]

Finished Breaking Dawn.
It was not as bad as I thought it would be.
It was OK. Good ending. A couple of nice twists. Probably on par with Twilight, while New Moon and Eclipse were bad.
All in all, the series is ...weak. Twilight film was better than the book. On the other hand it was a good easy reading when I needed one.

Today and probably tomorrow I read a few chapters from A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, then I am going to read The Host.

This post has been edited by Astra: 30 July 2010 - 06:16 PM

[Astra]

 Bauchelain the Evil, on 22 July 2010 - 04:39 PM, said:

Astra, I beg you, don't do it. The first three were absolute shit but compared to Breaking Dawn they're the Divine Comedy

I am sorry to disappoint you and Sombra
But Breaking Dawn was way better than soap operas New Moon and Eclipse.