[Harvester]

Jeff Somers' The Electric Church was a very enjoyable read! This was my first trip to cyberpunk land and I shall revisit.

[Fist Gamet]

Harvester, on 09 January 2012 - 09:09 PM, said:

Jeff Somers' The Electric Church was a very enjoyable read! This was my first trip to cyberpunk land and I shall revisit.

Loved Somers' books, great stuff.

Recently read:
A Christmas Carol - splendid as always and perfect over Christmas
Treasure Island - then watched the Sky One adaption and was pleasantly surprised
Ill Fares The Land - pure awesomeness! Everyone should read this terrific book

Currently reading:

The Man Who Would Be King - lovely stuff so far
Final Empire: Mistborn Book One - decidely underwhelming...nudging towards disappointment...

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 09 January 2012 - 03:58 PM, said:

DEMONSTORM by Barclay.
And it's awesome.

...i have to add that almost the entire second half of this book is one long running battle and it's frikkin exhausting and brilliant. 60 pages or so to go and i'm seriously regretting not bringing it to read at lunch.


Going to take a break from fantasy after this and maybe dig out something from the action/thriller/shooty/'sploody side of the TRP... it's pretty top heavy with Rollins and Silva but i also have some guy called Gibbins (Atlantis, Tiger Warrior ... anyone know this guy?) standing by. Plus some Reynolds and Asher if i want to go sf. Oh, decisions decisions...

[QuickTidal]

Tonight I will either start Gene Wolfe's SHADOW & CLAW (recco'ed by many here, but mostly Salt Man Z), or get into another of my Christmas gifties with A CAVERN Of BLACK ICE by J.V. Jones (who is super hot BTW!).

Either way, I am spending the day and transit this evening with neither of those books and so I am slowly continuing my BLACK COMPANY Cook omnibus read. Every time I pick up the book it gets easier and easier to accept the "spartan style" of writing I was initially so put off by. Which is good, cause the story is awesome.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 10 January 2012 - 02:53 PM, said:

Abyss, on 09 January 2012 - 03:58 PM, said:

DEMONSTORM by Barclay.
And it's awesome.

...i have to add that almost the entire second half of this book is one long running battle and it's frikkin exhausting and brilliant. 60 pages or so to go and i'm seriously regretting not bringing it to read at lunch.


Going to take a break from fantasy after this and maybe dig out something from the action/thriller/shooty/'sploody side of the TRP... it's pretty top heavy with Rollins and Silva but i also have some guy called Gibbins (Atlantis, Tiger Warrior ... anyone know this guy?) standing by. Plus some Reynolds and Asher if i want to go sf. Oh, decisions decisions...

THE JUDAS STRAIN

that is all.

read it


read it now.

It callz....it callz....

[Salt-Man Z]

QuickTidal, on 10 January 2012 - 02:59 PM, said:

Tonight I will either start Gene Wolfe's SHADOW & CLAW (recco'ed by many here, but mostly Salt Man Z)

Be aware that you might want to have Sword and Citadel ready to follow up. Saying the The Book of the New Sun is a four-book series is like saying Lord of the Rings is a three-part series; really, it's just a single cohesive story split across X volumes.

[polishgenius]

Salt-Man Z, on 10 January 2012 - 04:07 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 10 January 2012 - 02:59 PM, said:

Tonight I will either start Gene Wolfe's SHADOW & CLAW (recco'ed by many here, but mostly Salt Man Z)

Be aware that you might want to have Sword and Citadel ready to follow up. Saying the The Book of the New Sun is a four-book series is like saying Lord of the Rings is a three-part series; really, it's just a single cohesive story split across X volumes.

Well, in some ways; but LotR was written as one book then split, whereas New Sun was quite clearly written as a quadrilogy and uses that fact for story purposes.

Still worth having it on hand.

I'm currently still reading the first book of the Long Sun, as it happens, after a recent New Sun reread.

Also doing some non-genre and reading Brighton Rock.

[Salt-Man Z]

polishgenius, on 10 January 2012 - 04:59 PM, said:

Well, in some ways; but LotR was written as one book then split, whereas New Sun was quite clearly written as a quadrilogy and uses that fact for story purposes.

True, but Wolfe did have the entire quartet written out in at least draft form before the first book was published. It's obvious when you read it, too.

[Salt-Man Z]

Myself, I recently read Patrick Lee's Deep Sky, which was mindblowing, if not quite as awesome as the previous entires.

Last night I started in on Wolfe's The Sword of the Lictor for the fourth time, continuing my attempt at the entire Solar Cycle.

[Abyss]

Salt-Man Z, on 10 January 2012 - 05:22 PM, said:

Myself, I recently read Patrick Lee's Deep Sky, which was mindblowing, if not quite as awesome as the previous entires.
...

It was awesome in a different way. BREACH and GHOST COUNTRY were great actioners. DEEP SKY doesn't just blow your mind, it MELTS it.

[tiam]

Finished reading The Dark Tower again after a number of years. Very enjoyable and epic in a different way to Erikson but im still not sure about the ending.

[worry]

Yah, the ending definitely fits in the series' focus on meta-fiction. Anyone complaining that it's a copout or an arbitrary left turn to what came before has missed the point. That said, it's still not particularly satisfying.

The worst stuff in the final books isn't the meta stuff to me, since that was developed all along. It's

Spoiler

Mordred (as yet another giant spider) and especially how Flagg ultimately ends up.

[QuickTidal]

'pon the recco of a few here I have started SHADOW & CLAW by Gene Wolfe.

So far I am 2 chapters in...baffled and lost...but like a true Malazan boy I'm enjoying and pushing forward!

[QuickTidal]

I'm about 40 pages in now and less baffled and enjoying...noticed the following already:

Spoiler

When Severian goes to visit the Curator of the Library there is a piece of art that is "a man in armor, with a gold visor with no eye holes of breathing holes who is holding a staff with a stiffened pennant on a desolate desert" that's clearly a picture of an Apollo Astronaut on the moon leading me to the notion this is the far flung future of earth....and the tower of matichin seems to have (at some point) been a rocket or ship of some kind since Severian describes moving into its lower level where the "propulsion system" was...so whether this is post-apocalyptic earth or another planet I don't know yet...though I AM curious how trees would eventually grow on the moon...unless it's not OUR moon.

So far I am finding it dense, complex and really quite enjoyable!

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 11 January 2012 - 02:25 PM

[T77]

QuickTidal, on 11 January 2012 - 02:24 PM, said:

I'm about 40 pages in now and less baffled and enjoying...noticed the following already:

Spoiler

When Severian goes to visit the Curator of the Library there is a piece of art that is "a man in armor, with a gold visor with no eye holes of breathing holes who is holding a staff with a stiffened pennant on a desolate desert" that's clearly a picture of an Apollo Astronaut on the moon leading me to the notion this is the far flung future of earth....and the tower of matichin seems to have (at some point) been a rocket or ship of some kind since Severian describes moving into its lower level where the "propulsion system" was...so whether this is post-apocalyptic earth or another planet I don't know yet...though I AM curious how trees would eventually grow on the moon...unless it's not OUR moon.

So far I am finding it dense, complex and really quite enjoyable!

Wolfe is very polarizing - people love it or hate it. Gene is one of my favorites and if you continue with the New Sun you will be blown away. I'm in the middle of the Short Sun books, Reading In Green's Jungles and it is fantastic. I did not think the Long Sun was that great though.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 10 January 2012 - 02:53 PM, said:

Abyss, on 09 January 2012 - 03:58 PM, said:

DEMONSTORM by Barclay.
And it's awesome.

...i have to add that almost the entire second half of this book is one long running battle and it's frikkin exhausting and brilliant. 60 pages or so to go and i'm seriously regretting not bringing it to read at lunch....

Finished DEMONSTORM...

Y'know, it's beyond a damn shame that the admittedly mediocre DAWNTHIEF turns so many people off the RAVEN series, because holymotherofalldragonfucknuts that finale was just INSANE. Seriously. I don't put Barclay in SE's league by a long shot, but that finale was right up there with some of the high points of the MBF.

Look... i'm not going to tell anyone to fight their way through six books just to read one awesome scene... or even the first trilogy, which i fully acknowledge is so-so, although i think that the second is flat out great from the start... ffs, Elf ninjas... but as a fantasy lit fan i thought that last bit was pure fantasy fan crackcocaine in action text form and a great great read.

In fact, y'know what... if you're one of the many who went off the series fast and early and you spot the book somewhere, just go read about five pages, maybe 30 pages from the end, and then tell me you don't want to know how the heroes got there in the first place and how it ends. Don't read the very end tho'... for the love of all gods DO NOT read the end.

- Abyss, satisfied customer.

[Salt-Man Z]

QuickTidal, on 11 January 2012 - 02:24 PM, said:

I'm about 40 pages in now and less baffled and enjoying...noticed the following already:

[...]

So far I am finding it dense, complex and really quite enjoyable!

You learn quickly, my young padawan.

A lot of BotNS first-timers struggle with piecing together the tiny clues that Wolfe leaves lying around, but as a seasoned Malazite, you've had years of experience exercising your thinkymeatz in a similar fashion, so I'm not worried about you finding your way.

It was when I figured out that picture during my first read that I realized I was getting into something really special.

[QuickTidal]

Salt-Man Z, on 11 January 2012 - 04:18 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 11 January 2012 - 02:24 PM, said:

I'm about 40 pages in now and less baffled and enjoying...noticed the following already:

[...]

So far I am finding it dense, complex and really quite enjoyable!

You learn quickly, my young padawan.

A lot of BotNS first-timers struggle with piecing together the tiny clues that Wolfe leaves lying around, but as a seasoned Malazite, you've had years of experience exercising your thinkymeatz in a similar fashion, so I'm not worried about you finding your way.

It was when I figured out that picture during my first read that I realized I was getting into something really special.

Indeed. I'm still on the fence about the book, but I have quickly figured out a few things that have impressed me (those I mentioned included), and I'm convinced that there is more to come. For example, I am POSITIVE that the first chapter in the graveyard is probably LITTERED with misinformation...like Mr. Eidetic memory missed a line of dialogue spoken to the heart-shaped-face woman by Vodalus cause he "didn't hear it"...yeah, I'm not buying that Severian.

I'm only like 6 chapters in and I've already had to concentrate really hard. LOL. It's work like the Malazan series is...but I know the rewards are bound to be worth it.

In fact, I like when books challenge me.

[McLovin]

I'll just third (or fourth) the BotNS love.

Wolfe's (or is it Severian's?) simultaneous ability to render scenes in minute detail yet trenchant refusal to tell you what is REALLY going on makes for a very unique reading experience. Be sure to bookend it with some lighter fare.

[Morgoth]

Severian is the very epitome of an unreliable narrator, and it's great!