[Fist Gamet]

Finally got to the end of Echo City. I sooooo wanted to like this book but I find I still cannot decide if I actually did. I mean, there was pretty impressive stuff in there, some great imagination and a genuine touch of creativity often missing, I feel. But, and it's a pretty big but, it just wasn't very exciting. Seems that we spent the whole book building towards a climax that was over too quick and there just wasn't enough 'action' throughout. Anyhoo, possibly just my preferences more than anything else.

Now...Fool Moon...

[Aptorian]

I'm about 2/3rds through "Whitechapel Gods". Not quite sure if I am finding this to be a great read or just a good read. It's a really interesting book, but I'm not sure Peters himself is sure where he is going with this book. It is taking a pretty simple story idea, "find, retrieve and use the MacGuffin" and packing it in a lot of really cool but not that well utilised background information. I find myself not really caring much about the main story or characters, and instead being enthralled with the concept of this steam punk nightmare that is Whitechapel. There's not nearly enough focus on Baron Hume, Mama Engine and Grandfather Clock for my liking.

This could have been as great an experience as Perdido Street Station but the book doesn't seem to have the same ambition.

[QuickTidal]

I'm about a quarter of the way into THE LIONS Of AL-RASSAN (see thread) and enjoying it wholeheartedly, but today I also picked up the 20th Anniversary Edition of STAR WARS: HEIR TO THE EMPIRE by Zahn and couldn't help diving into that as well since I've never actually read it...and so far it's not only really good, but Zahn & Co's annotations written this year (and run in the side's of the pages from chapter to chapter of the hardback book) are absolutely fascinating, including things like Sith not being anything in 1991 past a title Vader had...so much so that to speak of a fallen Jedi who embraced the dark side (Joruus C'baoth in HEIR) he had to basically invent a term and chose the simple "Dark Jedi" when describing him. Or things like Zahn invented Coruscant (location, type of planet ect.) since in the original trilogy the seat of the Emperor's power was simply called The Imperial Center. It's interesting to hear what Lucasfilm and Co would allow him to write about (since even then George was considering the prequels I think, or at least leaving himself open to them.), for example Joruus C'Baoth was originally going to be an early clone of Obi-Wan Kenobi that the emperor had made prior to the Clone Wars in the testing stages of cloning and who had gone insane (putting a nice twist on a future fight between him and Luke)...but apparently Lucasfilm didn't want Obi-Wan touched since the prequels would establish more about his backstory.

Basically it's like this, I've read a lot of Expanded Universe Star Wars books and comics....but never tried Zahn before now...and he's as good as Stover (if not better). this guy is a master of this shared media.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 05 September 2011 - 07:50 PM

[T77]

Finished Ghost Story - there seem to be mixed feelings about this one, I really enjoyed it and thought it was one of the better ones in the series. I feel his writing has improved a lot and I like the slower pace, it did not feel as much of a bad action movie as previous ones did. Looking forward to the next one.

[McLovin]

QuickTidal, on 05 September 2011 - 07:46 PM, said:

Basically it's like this, I've read a lot of Expanded Universe Star Wars books and comics....but never tried Zahn before now...and he's as good as Stover (if not better). this guy is a master of this shared media.

I'm a huge fan of the comic version of the Thrawn trilogy (as HEIR and sequels are known now). I may go back and re-read now. Star Wars fandom owes a lot to him. I didn't like everything he introduced into the EU, but still a landmark series.

Meanwhile, finally finished ASOS, on to AFFC, in my long re-read march to ADWD. I admit I experienced some GRRM fatigue in the middle, before the Red Wedding sent the book into overdrive. I'm a little worried whether I'll hit a similar wall in AFFC, which is the weakest of the books. Anyway.

And still reading the final Hornblower book (Admiral H in the West Indies). Not really a book so much as a collection of short stories. Which is fine, actually - makes for good train reading. And it really makes me want to learn more about naval warfare and just general sailing of that period. Anybody got a nonfiction recommendation related to that?

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 01 September 2011 - 03:13 PM, said:

Abyss, on 01 September 2011 - 02:42 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 01 September 2011 - 02:02 PM, said:

Abyss, on 01 September 2011 - 01:18 PM, said:

The upside is a list of authors for me to avoid avoid avoid.

Could you be a bit more specific?

Sure - So far Jo Beverly, Carrie Vaughn, M.L.N. Hanover, Cecelia Holland have all failed to impress, but there are still Gaiman and Jacqueline Carey stories (among others) ahead that may salvage this.

I've oft wondered about Vaughn and Hanover and figured I should steer clear, so I'll continue to feel that way now. Thanks Abyss.

polishgenius, on 01 September 2011 - 03:46 PM, said:

MLN Hanover is a pseudonym of the mighty Daniel Abraham, you utter heathen.

I can't comment on his Hanover work, not having read it, but he is perhaps my favourite current author with his proper name, so I'll get round to it eventually, though it's not as highly regarded as his regular fantasy work.

Not having read his other stuff at this point, all i can say is his pseudonymic urban fantasy short story work was unimpressive.

All in all re the SONGS anthology, all i can say is that Butcher brings it with a solid Dresden short that is already appearing in SIDE JOBS, Gaiman writes a classic bit of Gaiman short story, which is to say clever and readable but not worth the purchase on its own, Melissa Snodgrass writes an entertaining sf story and Peter (The Last Unicorn) Beagle does a nice job with his contribution. And the rest is bleh. Fans of Hobb or J Carey may enjoy their works but i have yet to like anything by those authors and these romantic angst ridden shorts did nothing to change that. Diane Gabaldon's story was the first one i've read by her and while i enjoyed her actual writing, the story itself was unsatisfying and turned into a thinly veiled promo piece for her other books.

Library-worthy at best if you're a Butcher fan who doesn't already have access to SIDE JOBS.

Aptorian Sharktopus, on 05 September 2011 - 05:33 PM, said:

...I find myself not really caring much about the main story or characters, and instead being enthralled with the concept of this steam punk nightmare that is Whitechapel. There's not nearly enough focus on Baron Hume, Mama Engine and Grandfather Clock for my liking....

I wish i could disagree with you, but in fact you reflect a lot of what i thought about the book (which makes sense but i'm told the binary mind-overwrite nanovirus will wear off eventually, sorry for the resultant headaches).

I did enjoy the characters a bit more than you did, especially for being 'ordinary people' in a thoroughly fucked up supernatural steampunk nightmare sitch, but ultimately the best part about the book was the setting.

The lack of explanation didn't bother me in that the characters themselves never receive an explanation beyond the gods being beyond them.

QuickTidal, on 05 September 2011 - 07:46 PM, said:

... STAR WARS: HEIR TO THE EMPIRE by Zahn and couldn't help diving into that as well since I've never actually read it...... I've read a lot of Expanded Universe Star Wars books and comics....but never tried Zahn before now...and he's as good as Stover (if not better). this guy is a master of this shared media.

I've read quite a bit of Zahn and this was probably his best work til them or since, especially in the context of what he had to work with.

On a certain level i thought the Kenobi clone storyline may have worked better, but in the end i enjoyed how Jorrus was written (especially since, at that point in time, he was the first Jedi Luke, or the reader, had encountered outside of the films). And Thrawn, of course, was awesome... how do you not love a commander who looks at a race's art and then tactically kicks their asses all over space.


200 pages into ALERA bk 5 and lovin' it.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 06 September 2011 - 02:50 PM, said:

200 pages into ALERA bk 5 and lovin' it.

You haven't reached my fave line yet (I don't think at the 200 page mark)...but you will, and you'll know it when you read it.

What I wouldn't give to read that book for the first time again!

[Dolmen 2.0]

Reading fool moon at the moment. Really enjoyed storm front. Jim Butchers story telling was...not what I expected. Yet i am quite caught up in the life and times of good ol Harry dresden.

Also rereading work by Brent Weeks. his ideas are just so much fun!

This post has been edited by Dolmen: 06 September 2011 - 03:06 PM

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 06 September 2011 - 06:58 PM, said:

Dude...Zahn owned the EU back in the good ole Bantam days. Im glad your liking it and very surprised that you ve never read his EU work before. His greatness that Ive read are: Outbound Flight(prequel era), Heir trilogy, Thrawn duology(really cool) and Survivors Quest(kinda the ending of Outbound Flight). He has written a few others but I havent really wanted to read cause I dont like going back in time so far now that we are 43yrs or so after ROTJ.

Yeah, loving it.

It's funny, but my glut of SW EU reading has chosen me this years Halloween costume. I'm doing up Pre-Cadeus Jacen Solo!

[Aptorian]

Abyss, on 06 September 2011 - 02:50 PM, said:

Aptorian Sharktopus, on 05 September 2011 - 05:33 PM, said:

...I find myself not really caring much about the main story or characters, and instead being enthralled with the concept of this steam punk nightmare that is Whitechapel. There's not nearly enough focus on Baron Hume, Mama Engine and Grandfather Clock for my liking....

I wish i could disagree with you, but in fact you reflect a lot of what i thought about the book (which makes sense but i'm told the binary mind-overwrite nanovirus will wear off eventually, sorry for the resultant headaches).

I did enjoy the characters a bit more than you did, especially for being 'ordinary people' in a thoroughly fucked up supernatural steampunk nightmare sitch, but ultimately the best part about the book was the setting.

The lack of explanation didn't bother me in that the characters themselves never receive an explanation beyond the gods being beyond them.

Finished it this morning. Yeah. It ended like I expected. Sort of disappointing and not crazy enough. Peters never invested enough imagination and energy into the bad guys or gods for me to feel any real trepidation from them. Too much focus on the body horror and not enough on the actual power of these creatures. I found the idea of a simple chinese herbal extract being able to make you into a mental god pretty idiotic in its simplicity. Likewise the apparent impotence of the Gods was boring. And Baron Hume was so sorely misused that I want to cry.

All in all I am left thinking that this book would have been a lot more fun if it didn't take itself so seriously. There should have been a lot more Darth Vader and Terminator to Scared and Hume and less Hannibal Lecter.

Dolmen, on 06 September 2011 - 03:04 PM, said:

Reading fool moon at the moment. Really enjoyed storm front. Jim Butchers story telling was...not what I expected. Yet i am quite caught up in the life and times of good ol Harry dresden.

The first two books are somewhat different from the later books. He experiments with a lot of ideas, namely the potions, in these books and a lot of stuff is removed or altered for better story telling in the later books. Just wait for the 3rd book and the awesome that is the 4th.

This post has been edited by Aptorian Sharktopus: 06 September 2011 - 07:32 PM

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 06 September 2011 - 07:49 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 06 September 2011 - 07:21 PM, said:

Briar King, on 06 September 2011 - 06:58 PM, said:

Dude...Zahn owned the EU back in the good ole Bantam days. Im glad your liking it and very surprised that you ve never read his EU work before. His greatness that Ive read are: Outbound Flight(prequel era), Heir trilogy, Thrawn duology(really cool) and Survivors Quest(kinda the ending of Outbound Flight). He has written a few others but I havent really wanted to read cause I dont like going back in time so far now that we are 43yrs or so after ROTJ.

Yeah, loving it.

It's funny, but my glut of SW EU reading has chosen me this years Halloween costume. I'm doing up Pre-Cadeus Jacen Solo!

lmao! Go for it. Speaking of Jacen..Did you know my ex wife(who hates SW) named our daughter Jaina? Then when our son came along he was destined to crowned "Jacen" but atleast we got her to shorten that one to Jace. Here's some shit and giggles for ya to...Both of their middle names start with A...and our last name begins with a G...so do you get the connection even further here??? Both my kids intials are JAG...

Dude, wait...your kids names are Jacen and Jaina?

That's fucking cool. LOL.

Yeah, Jag, that's hilarious! Jagged Fel (I assume)

Your daughter is the Sword of the Jedi...how's that feel?

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 06 September 2011 - 08:13 PM

[Aptorian]

Oh so many inappropriate comments come to mind.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 06 September 2011 - 03:01 PM, said:

Abyss, on 06 September 2011 - 02:50 PM, said:

200 pages into ALERA bk 5 and lovin' it.

You haven't reached my fave line yet (I don't think at the 200 page mark)...but you will, and you'll know it when you read it.

What I wouldn't give to read that book for the first time again!

400 pages. Still love.

Was the line

Spoiler

"Knowledge is your weapon. Now kill them with it."

... ?

[Tattersail_]

I just started on the Well of Ascension. The first book was awesome. I love the fact that certain characters died and how it ended. I enjoyed it and have got through a good 200 pages of this one already. Easy to read and very enjoyable

[Tattersail_]

Also what are peoples thoughts on Stephen King's The Dark Tower Series?

[worry]

I liked it, including the last three books. I also had problems with it, not exclusive to the last three books. It's definitely Stephen King at his most self-indulgent, as it's basically him mashing up all the genre lit he loved as a kid (and obviously still loves), and that comes with his best and worst idiosyncrasies. That's only natural, given how personal a work it is.

The fourth book, out of the seven total, is something of a stand-alone work...it's book-ended by the main plot. But it really is one of the very best things King has ever done, and I'd say the whole ride is worth it for this book alone.

The sixth book is probably the most controversial for its step into blatant metafiction, in a story with so many beloved characters (and which by the way was a couple decades in the making), but I wasn't so mad at that. The series had always been exactly that all along, just not quite so blatantly. But there are some obvious touchstones in The Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit, and lots of stuff I don't remember right now, from very early on in the series. If you're at all interested, I'd say go for it.

[acesn8s]

Tattersail, on 07 September 2011 - 08:04 AM, said:

Also what are peoples thoughts on Stephen King's The Dark Tower Series?

I lost interest in the series around book 3. I just wasn't emotionally invested in the characters.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 07 September 2011 - 05:10 AM, said:

QuickTidal, on 06 September 2011 - 03:01 PM, said:

Abyss, on 06 September 2011 - 02:50 PM, said:

200 pages into ALERA bk 5 and lovin' it.

You haven't reached my fave line yet (I don't think at the 200 page mark)...but you will, and you'll know it when you read it.

What I wouldn't give to read that book for the first time again!

400 pages. Still love.

Was the line

Spoiler

"Knowledge is your weapon. Now kill them with it."

... ?

Nope.

Only unspoiler if you'd read past the end of Chapter 16 Abyss

Spoiler

If Tavi was not mistaken in his estimate, Warmaster Lararl of the Range of Shuar had something like a quarter of a million of them.

And they weren’t what had frightened him.

The plains at the base of the plateau, all of them, all of them, for as far as the eye could see… glowed softly green.

They were covered in the croach.

And the croach was covered in Vord.

There was no way for him to count them. Simply no way. There were too many. It was like staring down at an uprooted anthill. Black forms moved everywhere, seething over the landscape below, rushing and flowing in organized channels that reminded Tavi uncomfortably of a network of veins pulsing with dark blood. They spread from horizon to horizon, all moving forward, an inexorable pressure being exerted upon the massive Shuaran fortifications.

The Canim fought. They had already piled chitinous black corpses into miniature mountains, but still the Vord came on.

And the world behind them was nothing but dark, alien shadows and eerie green light.

Varg stared down on the land below with an expression and posture Tavi had never seen on any Cane. His ears had simply slumped, falling limply in slightly different directions. The dark fur not covered by his armor almost seemed to go flat against his skin. He stared for long, silent moments before he finally said, in a whisper, “Tarsh in command of Molvar. Molvar, the mighty fortress. Built to defend Shuar against my people.”

Max made a hissing sound of sympathetic pain.

Tavi bowed his head.

Varg turned flat, dull eyes to Anag. “When?”

“Almost two years ago,” Anag said. He looked from the battle back to the rest of them. “Narash was only the first to fall, Warmaster. The other ranges are gone. They’re all gone.”

“Gone?” Varg said.

Anag looked back down to the battle, his manner weary. “Only Shuar remains.”

I was fucking floored by that bolded line after that paragraph.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 07 September 2011 - 12:58 PM

[Slow Ben]

acesn8s, on 07 September 2011 - 11:45 AM, said:

Tattersail, on 07 September 2011 - 08:04 AM, said:

Also what are peoples thoughts on Stephen King's The Dark Tower Series?

I lost interest in the series around book 3. I just wasn't emotionally invested in the characters.

I love it.

Its probably my 3rd favorite series behind Malazan and Dresden.

I've probably read the series 5 times.

[Rhand]

Wow. I can't even imagine reading Song of Susannah a second time... That was total crap. First 5 were pretty good, with book 4 being really, really good and the last book combined a bit of all.
The ending was soooo sad