[QuickTidal]

Bought and started reading James Lovegrove's AGE OF RA, which is military sci-fi in which the 19 century explorations on the planet had resurrected "belief" in various gods, and the Egyptian gods rose the farthest and came into domination of the planet...and so far...it's pretty fucking cool.

[Morgoth]

 End of Disc One, on 02 July 2012 - 04:24 PM, said:

 T77, on 02 July 2012 - 02:34 PM, said:

Finished Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I started this a while ago and really liked the beginning, it slowly went downhill so I put it aside. I had the urge to get back to it and I'm sorry I did. As mentioned the beginning was good, and his battle scenes are decent, but nothing else worked for me. The characters and the plot were weak, and his writing is sub-par. Not to mention the premise is ridiculous.

Aside from your complaint about the premise, this is a common reaction to the first book. I and many others thought the second book was MUCH better, and I see a lot of people say books 4 and on are especially great. You may not want to write the series off.

Really? My impression was that most people found the second book to be the worst, but that many thinks the series gets better from book 3 and onwards. In my opinion book 2 is pretty terrible, and I have no interest in picking up any more of the series. Yet other people on this forum seem to find great enjoyment in the later books so I might have been wrong to stop where I did.

Still, I'm not picking that thing up again.

[Serenity]

Finished Iain M. Banks's The Algebraist. Found the first half of it quite tedious, but then it all kicked off and I really enjoyed the second half of it.

Started David Gemmell's Ravenheart this morning.

[QuickTidal]

Put down AGE OF RA to pick back up Farnsworth's RED, WHITE & BLOOD....which if you are a fan of his Cade series, this one so far is a humdinger! Already better than the 2nd book.

[T77]

 End of Disc One, on 02 July 2012 - 04:24 PM, said:

 T77, on 02 July 2012 - 02:34 PM, said:

Finished Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I started this a while ago and really liked the beginning, it slowly went downhill so I put it aside. I had the urge to get back to it and I'm sorry I did. As mentioned the beginning was good, and his battle scenes are decent, but nothing else worked for me. The characters and the plot were weak, and his writing is sub-par. Not to mention the premise is ridiculous.

Aside from your complaint about the premise, this is a common reaction to the first book. I and many others thought the second book was MUCH better, and I see a lot of people say books 4 and on are especially great. You may not want to write the series off.

Thanks! I will definitely read book 2 then. I thought the beginning of book 1 was great and I thought for sure I would like this book and series. Being the first book, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

Finally took the Stover-bait that's scattered all over these forums and started reading Heroes Die. I'm half-hoping I don't like it, since the next book is out of print and apparently rare. I suspect that will not be the case. At least the e-book is good and cheap, but I do not look forward to staring at my computer screen for 800 pages.

[QuickTidal]

 T77, on 03 July 2012 - 01:50 PM, said:

 End of Disc One, on 02 July 2012 - 04:24 PM, said:

 T77, on 02 July 2012 - 02:34 PM, said:

Finished Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I started this a while ago and really liked the beginning, it slowly went downhill so I put it aside. I had the urge to get back to it and I'm sorry I did. As mentioned the beginning was good, and his battle scenes are decent, but nothing else worked for me. The characters and the plot were weak, and his writing is sub-par. Not to mention the premise is ridiculous.

Aside from your complaint about the premise, this is a common reaction to the first book. I and many others thought the second book was MUCH better, and I see a lot of people say books 4 and on are especially great. You may not want to write the series off.

Thanks! I will definitely read book 2 then. I thought the beginning of book 1 was great and I thought for sure I would like this book and series. Being the first book, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Indeed, I had the IDENTICAL reaction to it as you did T77. Liked the beginning a lot and got really bored and annoyed by the rest...The second book IS better, and the 3rd book is even better than that. It's worth looking into the further books IMHO.

[Aptorian]

I will counter these recommendations of the Empire in Black and Gold's sequels and say that I thought the second and third book were just as bad if not worse in places. These books draaaaag their feet for miles of pages and very little happens and none of the main characters ever die. A shame really because I really like those Nazi bee's.

Then again I've heard that from the 4th book and forward it actually does pick up but I can't recommend the first three.

[End of Disc One]

 Aptorius, on 03 July 2012 - 04:23 PM, said:

I will counter these recommendations of the Empire in Black and Gold's sequels and say that I thought the second and third book were just as bad if not worse in places. These books draaaaag their feet for miles of pages and very little happens and none of the main characters ever die. A shame really because I really like those Nazi bee's.

Then again I've heard that from the 4th book and forward it actually does pick up but I can't recommend the first three.

The "very little happens" complaints in regards to books often confuses me. I guess it means more that "little I cared about happened." Because I thought the second book showed major progress in the war and had

Spoiler

three Malazan sized battles

within 450 pages, so I found the book to be pretty packed.

[Salt-Man Z]

At work I've started on Transformers Legends, the only official Transformers short story anthology. The first story by longtime TF scribe Simon Furman takes place during the end of the Beast Wars cartoon and is enjoyable so far.

[QuickTidal]

 End of Disc One, on 03 July 2012 - 04:50 PM, said:

 Aptorius, on 03 July 2012 - 04:23 PM, said:

I will counter these recommendations of the Empire in Black and Gold's sequels and say that I thought the second and third book were just as bad if not worse in places. These books draaaaag their feet for miles of pages and very little happens and none of the main characters ever die. A shame really because I really like those Nazi bee's.

Then again I've heard that from the 4th book and forward it actually does pick up but I can't recommend the first three.

The "very little happens" complaints in regards to books often confuses me. I guess it means more that "little I cared about happened." Because I thought the second book showed major progress in the war and had

Spoiler

three Malazan sized battles

within 450 pages, so I found the book to be pretty packed.

I was gonna say this as well...but sometimes arguing with Apt is not useful...LOL...but yeah I thought a LOT happened in Book 2.

[Aptorian]

Well obviously you are mistaken.

Yes things happen, but in between things happening there's just... nothing. Oh look! Cheerwell got captured again (or something like that) lets travel across the continent and find her. Cue Wheel of Time levels of boring travel description and introspective character monologues that make you hate the character and hope they die. Also the depth to the actual storylines are paper thin. For one thing, Master spy beetle guy is perhaps the worst spy in the history of spies. I have never heard of a guy who is a master in politics, intrigue and information analysis being so thoroughly bad at his job. Cheerwell is the token badly written horribly boring fantasy woman who makes you want tear you heart out. Engineer guy is a useless lump of emotional baggage. The only ones you can actually depend upon delivering is Tisamon and Tisamon girl because when ever they are around you know people are going to die. And then there's anti-hero Nazi bee guy who I so adore. I really like a good bad guy.

But T77s initial impression of the book was the same as mine and I really do not believe anything improves over the next 2 books. If anything they just become more and more frustrating because a completely seperate storyline begins revolving around that box of evil.

[Tapper]

Finished Bourdain's Medium Raw: a bloody valentine to the World of Food and the People who Cook. It's brilliant. Heavily opinionated, sarcastic, sometimes downright accusatory, orgastic when describing food and travel to the point where it gets near pornographic (and to a point where you think "yes yes, you did travel, you did go to top places, you know top chefs, you tasted great food, we know that by now"), it is clever yet blunt. Like the writer, really.

What sets this book apart from previous work and his series is that it is not primarily about food or Anthony Bourdain (as his tv series are) nor about the kitchen world (as Kitchen Confidential is) but instead, it is a serious reflection on the food world we see (and I'm both a bit of a snob and addicted to food porn): Kitchen Network, Hell's Kitchen and spin offs, why world class chefs attach their name to commercial crap, the economic crisis and its influence on the business, the critics and the way they're treated, the organic food surge and the commercial back to basic exploitation of the classics - against seven times the price it used to cost.

It's infotainment, written by someone with their foot in the door. I liked it. Liked it a lot, actually. It's not thick (280 pages in a pocket size), but it is entertaining and gripping. The book is basically a lot like Richard Morgan's Ringil, only then ankle deep in animal guts, blood and fish scales. A good gift for friends who love food and alcohol and are too cool for Deliah Smith, watch Nigella only for the way she sucks on her finger and think Ramsey's being a bit too much of a bad actor to take his programs seriously.

[Baco Xtath]

Started Caliban's War yesterday and I'm almost done; it's one of those books I just can't quit reading. Then I'll move on to Faith then some Asher or Hamilton. Or maybe I'll go the King's Blood route.

[QuickTidal]

Over halfway through Farnsworth's RED, WHITE & BLOOD and a couple of things.

1. There is A LOT of sex in this book. I'm no prude or anything, but it seems like there is slightly gratuitous sex in every other chapter. Oh and it's almost always "just sex" and the characters even express this need and say that they want nothing more than to "come and go to sleep"...Seriously, in 3 books no one has had sex because they love one another and it's ALWAYS hard and fast sex. It just seems one sided is all.

2. It spends a lot of time and plot concerning President's Curtis' campaign for re-election which figures heavily in with the baddie, and the various political and news-based factions involved in a Presidential race. I'm not a big fan of political anything, nevermind the machinations of the non-supernatural-involving characters trying to one up each other.

The book is good, and is even slightly better than the 2nd, but the two above things are kind of overshadowing Cade and Zack going after the baddie. It slows down the read a touch, but it's still good.

I'm hoping that in the 3rd act of the book we move away from political stuff and into full out supernatural beastie war. These books need to be LESS about the President himself (who is kind of vanilla anyways), and more about him sending Cade and Co. out to deal with various evil nasties...this book is concentrating too much on the Prez.

After this book I think it's time to go back to my Year Of Tolkien and read UNFINISHED TALES.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 04 July 2012 - 12:59 PM

[LadyMTL]

I've finished Glen Cook's Bleak Seasons and now I'm on She is the Darkness. I think I'll probably continue on and read the rest of his books now, seeing as how I've loved pretty much everything so far. I already have An Empire unacquainted with defeat waiting on my Kindle...perhaps it's time to go book shopping.

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

Just finished Running With The Demon and found it much more enjoyable than Sword Of Shannara. The preview at the back of the book appears to indicate that Brooks merges the two series via the Genesis of Shannara books...which I hadn't realized...

[QuickTidal]

 Kruppe, on 04 July 2012 - 06:07 PM, said:

Just finished Running With The Demon and found it much more enjoyable than Sword Of Shannara. The preview at the back of the book appears to indicate that Brooks merges the two series via the Genesis of Shannara books...which I hadn't realized...

The other two in that series are good as well (A KNIGHT OF THE WORD and ANGEL FIRE EAST), and then yeah he ties in a late-apocalypse earth (with a character tied to Nest) with the eventual beginning of Shannara (beginning with ARMAGEDDON'S CHILDREN) which is also a good trilogy.

[yuna_anomander25]

@ Quick Tidal - have you already acquired/read the Battle Royale book, can't remember the author's name, is it good? will you do a review of it? i smiled at it when i first saw it, there was a sticker in front of it, which says, "The Original Survival Game" - or something like that, obviously they are refering to The Hunger Games, though its not competition for me, i think i will add that to my TBR list,

[QuickTidal]

 yuna_anomander25, on 05 July 2012 - 12:00 AM, said:

@ Quick Tidal - have you already acquired/read the Battle Royale book, can't remember the author's name, is it good? will you do a review of it? i smiled at it when i first saw it, there was a sticker in front of it, which says, "The Original Survival Game" - or something like that, obviously they are refering to The Hunger Games, though its not competition for me, i think i will add that to my TBR list,

I own it, and it's very good and well worth reading if only to get insight into the various classmates. I won't be reviewing it as I read it years ago. Worth picking up though.