[Bauchelain the Evil]

After Wert's glowing review and various positive comments on the boards, I picked up Prince of Thorns by mark lawrence. I agree with those who compared it to Abercrombie's work, albeit,IMO, lighter. I rather enjoyed all those references to our time, especially the notion that the builders may have been great craftsmen but had no imagination because they just built giant boxes and the need to carve steps inside elevator shafts. I also liked those short description of the Brothers at the beginning of the chapters.

All in all, worth a reading and will look forward to the next book.

[LadyMTL]

I have Prince of Thorns as a sample on my Kindle and I'm pleased to see that it seems to be liked (at least here, lol). I always find it helpful when I have opinions to go on, and that's difficult irl for me because I'm one of the few among my friends and family who read fantasy at all. So...thanks all!

[QuickTidal]

I'm reading my first Simon R. Green book, GHOST OF A CHANCE...seems like decent enough urban fantasy so far. I needed something lighter after finishing THE LIONS OF AL-RASSAN (which BTW was amazingly heart-wrenching and fantastic).

[Use Of Weapons]

Currently half-way through _The Neon Court_, third in the series by Kate Griffin which began with _A Madness of Angels_ and _The Midnight Mayor_. Great urban fantasy, and like Harry Dresden, protagonist Matthew Swift, urban sorceror (revived) has a knack for getting out of depth remarkably quickly. Comparisons to Dresden are apt in many ways, as Swift acts much like a private investigator in defeating threats to the magical landscape of London, gets similarly beat up, and has a variety of interesting acquaintances, including an apprentice who started off in a bad direction. But stylistically there's much more in common with Miéville, with perhaps a touch more humour and a touch less brazen inventiveness.

[stone monkey]

Currently reading REAMDE by Neal Stephenson

[QuickTidal]

Ugh....this Green Ghost book is.....bad so far. Is he always this repetitive? He repeats himself over and over from sentence to sentence. Like he'll talk about how dark and malevolent a presence is, and then talk about haw dark and malevolent a presence is (in slightly different words) in the next sentence. It happened all throughout the first 30 pages of the book so far...is this normal for Simon R. Green?

I'm a bit put off so far...

[End of Disc One]

Hurr Durr, on 13 September 2011 - 03:43 AM, said:

spoke a little too soon about Turn Coat. Holy crap that was something else. Straight on to Changes.

That's good to know. I'm about a third of the way into Turn Coat and it's a bit of a slow start but I have high hopes for it.

[polishgenius]

Lev Grossman's The Magician King. The sequel to The Magicians. I greatly enjoyed that one and I'm enjoying this one; I love Grossman's depiction of magic. It's very much a tribute to Narnia (some would say ripoff of), and it has a similar knack for those little moments of magic that CS Lewis did so well; no explanation or system, they're just cool and interesting.

[Abyss]

Mott, on 15 September 2011 - 01:37 PM, said:

Just finished reading Summer Knight and it really picked up in intensity and pace in this one, I thoroughly enjoyed it and am off to order the next. Harry as a character is a joy to read, I love how he still has the stubbornness to insult people even in dire situations, his battle cry near had me dropping the book into the bath in laughter.
...

It was also the moment the Dresdencrack GRABBED YOUR SOUL.

Seriously, the series gets even sicker from here on. Enjoy! WITH YOUR SOUL!!!!

stone monkey, on 15 September 2011 - 07:34 PM, said:

Currently reading Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey. It's a fantastic amount of fun. Like a much darker and more cynical Dresden Files. Completely lightweight and disposable, of course, but well worth reading.

Good to here - i have that sitting high in the TRP. i generally like Kadrey tho BUTCHER BIRD left me nonplussed.

QuickTidal, on 15 September 2011 - 08:01 PM, said:

amphibian, on 15 September 2011 - 07:42 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 15 September 2011 - 12:15 PM, said:

If you have ANY inkling to go on at all in the series...read THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED and then STOP.

Don't, for all that is holy, read TALE OF THE BODY THIEF and certainly DON'T subject yourself to the even worse MEMNOCH THE DEVIL. Those two books are on my all time hate list!

In my opinion, Memnoch the Devil is perhaps Rice's best work. She took the most risks and got truly inventive in some parts, while mostly succeeding with the "grappling with the cosmos and creation" theme the book has. The rest of the series are schlocky vampire books and after Memnoch, she got truly bizarre and lost most of her actual writing ability.

See, I always saw MEMNOCH as the beginning of her strange version of bible-thumpery (after spending her teens and twenties on Acid) and it really put me off...It became too much about uniting the disparate visions of god (pure good) and the devil (pure evil) and less about Lestat really. Most of the book he's kind of just along for the ride, and I want to say it felt like Lestat just "happened" to be there most of the time but the story is not his.

That's just my interpretation though, and why I didn't care for it.

It's also hard to fit it in with the history that QOTD presents, it's like a square peg.

QOTD is solid book but to get there one has to suffer thru INTERVIEW (awful) and L'ESTAT (decent). BODY THIEF was good enough, tho a let down after the events in QUEEN. MEMNOCH was... bleh. Silly baseless bible-thumpery, like she was trying to reconcile the existance of God in her vampires-verse and failing.

Hurr Durr, on 15 September 2011 - 09:36 PM, said:

Abyss, on 14 September 2011 - 04:47 PM, said:

Hurr Durr, on 13 September 2011 - 03:43 AM, said:

spoke a little too soon about Turn Coat. Holy crap that was something else. Straight on to Changes.

Strap yourself down.

Bwuhhhh. Holy f***. That... That... I think I'm going to go let my brain rest now. Dresden awesomesauce overload. I want to start Ghost Story now, but I'm not really sure that I can. Brain needs recovery time.

Toldja.

Before GHOST, track down the short stories EVEN HAND and AFTERMATH if you can.

QuickTidal, on 19 September 2011 - 01:00 PM, said:

Ugh....this Green Ghost book is.....bad so far. Is he always this repetitive? He repeats himself over and over from sentence to sentence......is this normal for Simon R. Green?

I'm a bit put off so far...

Afraid so. Green is a bit almost hit or mostly miss. His Drood stuff is ok if you don't even remotely try to analyse what you're reading, but the Nightside stuff is just repetitious boring by the numbers.

As for moi...

Martin Millar's DRAGONS OF BABEL... not bad. I loved the world he creates, where Elves ride Kawasaki motorcycles and snort pixie dust and dragons are magic beings folded into fighter jets. The main character, however, was only marginally interesting and kept pulling these Richard Rahl'esque new skills out of his hat whenever needed, plus the story was predictable. Good narrative telling a dull story in a cool setting, basically. Worth a second hand read or library but not new mmpb dollars, but i will keep an eye out for more from the author.

Ben Aaronovitch's MIDNIGHT RIOT/RIVERS OF LONDON was a totally fun read. It's more in line with Mieville's KRAKEN than Butcher's Dresden or Carey's Castor, but fun, nicely set, and sufficiently novel for 'yet another' urban fantasy first person pov under-powered do-gooder tries to save lives in big city. Seriously, i enjoyed it, worth the mmpb dollars and am glad i have the second book sitting in the trp.

And now... Butcher's Codex Alera finale... FIRST LORD'S FURY. Oh yes. Oh yes indeed.

[QuickTidal]

Having been utterly and completely put off by Simon R. Green, and a chunk of my TBR pile is at the gf's condo...and I was at my place last night...I had only a few books to choose from and I remembered I had picked up DRAGON WING (Death Gate Cycle Book 1) by Weis & Hickman...and damned if 50 pages in I'm enjoying the heck out of it so far. Some cracker stuff going on even within the opening chapters. Liking the idea of the floating islands and nations and that the Elves are seen as conquerors (so far).

Quite enjoying.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 20 September 2011 - 01:19 PM, said:

...DRAGON WING (Death Gate Cycle Book 1) by Weis & Hickman...and damned if 50 pages in I'm enjoying the heck out of it so far. Some cracker stuff going on even within the opening chapters....

It's a solid series and arguably better than their Dragonlance books or anything else they've written. The various worlds are well thought out even when they do a fairly traditional dwarves/elves/etc thing. And for a seven book run, they do an admirable job of keeping the plot moving and shifting the focus among the cast.

The only thing that bothered me is their tendency towards a 'entire book builds to one big finish' style, but that's a nitpick i suppose.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 20 September 2011 - 02:34 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 20 September 2011 - 01:19 PM, said:

...DRAGON WING (Death Gate Cycle Book 1) by Weis & Hickman...and damned if 50 pages in I'm enjoying the heck out of it so far. Some cracker stuff going on even within the opening chapters....

It's a solid series and arguably better than their Dragonlance books or anything else they've written. The various worlds are well thought out even when they do a fairly traditional dwarves/elves/etc thing. And for a seven book run, they do an admirable job of keeping the plot moving and shifting the focus among the cast.

The only thing that bothered me is their tendency towards a 'entire book builds to one big finish' style, but that's a nitpick i suppose.

Yeah, I can understand that as a nitpick. It's quite nice to be reading a series I know to be completed, and yeah so far this is much better than the DRAGONLANCE series (my intro to fantasy all those years ago). Even the footnotes (which usually annoy me in fantasy) are rather informative. So yeah, we'll see how this goes.

[Defiance]

Starting a reread of Malazan and bringing my girlfriend along for the ride

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 21 September 2011 - 02:57 AM, said:

I have been interested in Death Gate Cycle myself. Keep me informed on that Quick, I may get the first one if your impressed.

Made it to Page 160 now, and it seems like the two storylines are about to merge and I find it hard to put down, it's fairly unique with some really well hidden twists I wasn't expecting. Good stuff so far.

[Illuyankas]

Abyss, on 20 September 2011 - 02:34 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 20 September 2011 - 01:19 PM, said:

...DRAGON WING (Death Gate Cycle Book 1) by Weis & Hickman...and damned if 50 pages in I'm enjoying the heck out of it so far. Some cracker stuff going on even within the opening chapters....

It's a solid series and arguably better than their Dragonlance books or anything else they've written. The various worlds are well thought out even when they do a fairly traditional dwarves/elves/etc thing. And for a seven book run, they do an admirable job of keeping the plot moving and shifting the focus among the cast.

The only thing that bothered me is their tendency towards a 'entire book builds to one big finish' style, but that's a nitpick i suppose.

While I was never a massive fan of the Death Gate Cycle and feel it's YA at best, it's not terrible and you'll probably find things to like in it. Also look at you, Abyss, saying you find an 'entire book heading towards a massive climax offputting' while being an admin for the official forum for the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

As for me, finally found my copy of Pratchett's Nation, about a fifth through and enjoying it so far.

[Alrin]

Re-reading Paul S. Kemp's Erevis Cale trilogy. Having been right into the Realms when he first emerged on the scene I've watched him grow as a writer from the very beginning. It was with the Cale trilogy that he really upped his game for the first time, given the larger canvas he was granted to work with. It was also in the Cale trilogy that Riven's depth was first revealed. A supporting character in earlier works, the one-eyed assassin managed to steal every scene he was in and by the end of the series had well and truly eclipsed the titular Cale as my favourite character.

And Kemp only got better after this.

[T77]

Finished Water Sleeps by Glen Cook, a novel in his Black Company series - it was awesome! Some don't like the later Black Company books, I have really enjoyed them so far. On to Soldiers Live.

[Salt-Man Z]

In anticipation of getting Ghost Story from the library (I'm only 6th in line now!) I decided to check out Side Jobs. It's been over a year since I cranked through the first 12 Dresden books, and man, I'd almost forgotten just how much I love reading about Harry's adventures.

[QuickTidal]

So I finished DRAGON WING....

It was good...but the last 100 pages or so made me a tad annoyed.

Spoiler

killing off the guy I thought was the main character was kind of a dick move. LOL.

Beyond that the ending seemed a little too neat whilst also trying to be convoluted which made for...um....weirdness.

I liked it, but I'm not going to rush out to read the sequel...and is to wrong to dislike Haplo? Am I meant to like him? cause he's kind of a dickhead. I also hated Prince Bane... (pretty much every time he opened his yap)...but I loved Hugh, Alfred and certainly Limbeck.

Oh, and Illy was right, it is decidedly YA in flavour....not that I'm not down with that, but I just didn't think so initially and I did by the time I'd finished it.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 21 September 2011 - 06:43 PM

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 21 September 2011 - 06:42 PM, said:

So I finished DRAGON WING....

It verges on YA at times, tho the latter books are far darker and at times outright grim.
Some of your assumptions are... well... keep reading whenever you decide to and you'll see what i mean. The series does improve.