[Salt-Man Z]

You can stop after the 1st, 3rd, 4th or 6th Dune books. (I really enjoyed the final three, though they're quite different.) Avoid anything not written by The Man Himself like the plague.

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 16 July 2012 - 06:33 PM

[Salt-Man Z]

I've yet to finish Tigana, for which I feel terrible. It's really good, I swear, I'm just not feeling compelled to pick it up ever. (In a bit of a major reading slump this summer.) So over the weekend I started on Crack'd Pot Trail.

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 16 July 2012 - 06:35 PM

[Abyss]

Salt-Man Z, on 16 July 2012 - 06:34 PM, said:

I've yet to finish Tigana, for which I feel terrible. It's really good, I swear, I'm just not feeling compelled to pick it up ever....

I, for one, applaud your lack of motivation to expend time on this that you could spend on an SE book, however brief.

[stone monkey]

It's a crying shame that the SE book in question is that one though. I actually thought it wasn't that good. (Pretty awful in fact)

[Salt-Man Z]

It's...different. I'm enjoying it, though.

[worry]

I thought it was by far the best B&KB novella, and did a lot of metatextual things well that were done less well (though still entertainingly) in Revolvo.

[QuickTidal]

worrywort, on 16 July 2012 - 07:33 PM, said:

I thought it was by far the best B&KB novella.

I agree. I thought it the best one as well.

[drinksinbars]

just finished the first kushiel trilogy by Jacqueline Carey. Enjoyed it, but fairly grim in places. good read though

[JPK]

Finished Deep Sky yesterday. Dear god that series was fantastic. I think my favorite of the three was the Ghost Country though. Dear god that was a mystery that I failed to crack before it was dropped on me.

In current times I'm right about the 300 page mark in The Shadow of the Wind. Holy Fuck. I started it a few months ago during a busy period in my life and promised myself that I would put it down until I could devote a day or two to just this book. Well I started this again last night and I'm so glad that I did. QT, thank you for recommending this one so strongly, I really doubt that I would ever have found this otherwise.

[McLovin]

Finished SILVERTHORN. Surprising how little I remembered about that book, but I guess it has been a long time. Almost went to A DARKNESS AT SETHANON, but am consciously trying to mix it up to avoid burnout (and finishing off the dresdencrack).

Currently doing THE CTHULHU MYTHOS

and

ELF QUEEN OF SHANNARA

[QuickTidal]

The Incredible Kitsu, on 17 July 2012 - 04:13 PM, said:

Finished Deep Sky yesterday. Dear god that series was fantastic. I think my favorite of the three was the Ghost Country though. Dear god that was a mystery that I failed to crack before it was dropped on me.

In current times I'm right about the 300 page mark in The Shadow of the Wind. Holy Fuck. I started it a few months ago during a busy period in my life and promised myself that I would put it down until I could devote a day or two to just this book. Well I started this again last night and I'm so glad that I did. QT, thank you for recommending this one so strongly, I really doubt that I would ever have found this otherwise.

Re: DEEP SKY. Indeed. I think we all owe Abyss the finders fee for Patrick Lee. The guy wrote a phenomenal series.

Re: SHADOW OF THE WIND. Hey no problem! I tell everyone about that one because it affected me so profoundly. Very glad you are enjoying it!

[Abyss]

The Incredible Kitsu, on 17 July 2012 - 04:13 PM, said:

Finished Deep Sky yesterday. Dear god that series was fantastic. I think my favorite of the three was the Ghost Country though. Dear god that was a mystery that I failed to crack before it was dropped on me.

Told you so.
A mindfuck and a half, that Patrick Lee trilo. All of you must needs to go read them immediately.

And i tend to agree that GHOST COUNTRY was the best. The last 25 pages or so are perhaps the bestest example i have ever read of how to build tension in an action scene finale in text form.

Quote

In current times I'm right about the 300 page mark in The Shadow of the Wind. Holy Fuck. ...

Brilliant book and the one responsible for reminding me that a story doesn't require mages or starships to be gripping. I'm way way overdue to pick up the sequel THE ANGEL'S GAME.



Ruckley's BLOODHEIR (Godless World, bk 2/3) hasn't disappointed me yet. I like the world he's built with its viking/celtic roots and history that goes way back but not too far back. His action scenes are suitably brutal and while the story is moving along in predictable ways, the writing holds my interest. Similarly the characters are far from original but he gives them enough personality and depth to involve me. I do give him credit for the level of ambiguity in his 'bad guys'. He (so far) never goes so far as to make anyone teeth-gnashingly evil. I also like how limitted the 'magic' elements generally are in the story and the reason for it.

Bk 3 FALL OF THANES is standing by, tho i may break for Aaronovich's UNDERGROUND WHISPERS before finishing Ruckley's series.

[Hound]

Finished BEST SERVED COLD by Joe Abercrombie. A very good and entertaining read, dark and gritty, but with a lot of (also) dark humor. Liked the (sometimes minor) return of a few characters from the BLADE ITSELF trilogy. Looking forward to reading THE HEROES.

Also finished THE JUDAS STRAIN by James Rollins. I think my favorite SIGMA novel to date. Very actionpacked, a few laugh out loud moments (Monk, LOL) and lots of elements I like in these kind of books (pirates, cannibals, viruses to name a few).

Read the last two RAIN WILD CHRONICLE books by Robin Hobb, in Dutch. Maybe not the best fantasybooks ever, but I enjoyed Hobb's first 3 trilogies a lot. Hobb is very good with making her characters 3-dimensional, however I was a tiny bit put off with all the angsting and whining by some characters. The dragons made up for that, though (Kalo!).

Last but not least, THE DOOMSDAY KEY by Rollins. Enjoyed this SIGMA novel a lot too. THE JUDAS STRAIN was maybe a tiny bit more actionpacked, although the book had some nice cliffhangers (not that I ever really feared for Gray & co, but ok..) and action scenes.



Not quite sure what to read next. Maybe another SIGMA novel (THE DEVIL COLONY, followed by BLOODLINE). Or LORD OF EMPERORS by GG Kay.... Or THE HEROES by Abercrombie.... Difficult choices

[QuickTidal]

Hound, on 17 July 2012 - 05:31 PM, said:

Also finished THE JUDAS STRAIN by James Rollins. I think my favorite SIGMA novel to date. Very actionpacked, a few laugh out loud moments (Monk, LOL) and lots of elements I like in these kind of books (pirates, cannibals, viruses to name a few).

Last but not least, THE DOOMSDAY KEY by Rollins. Enjoyed this SIGMA novel a lot too. THE JUDAS STRAIN was maybe a tiny bit more actionpacked, although the book had some nice cliffhangers (not that I ever really feared for Gray & co, but ok..) and action scenes.

JUDAS is my second fave after MAP OF BONES...and I'm not going to lie a big portion of the reason is the involvement of Angkor Wat.

As to DOOMSDAY:

Spoiler

I LOVED the action setpiece with the burning peat bog...that was TENSE!

DEVIL COLONY is decent (though not on par with the previous installments), but BLOODLINE was a big letdown for me. I hope it's not a sign of the series slipping in quality.

[Slow Ben]

Finished Wind Through The Keyhole by King last night.

NIce little entry into the Dark Tower world. Nothing spectacular, but i'm always up for more Dark Tower goodness.

Back to finish up Cooks Garret books next.

[stone monkey]

The Amazon Fairy was good to me today; The Apocalypse Codex arrived in the post this morning. Which was handy, as I finished off devouring Whispers Undergound last night.

[Use Of Weapons]

The thing about Dune that both the movie and the miniseries got wrong is that the main character is Lady Jessica, not Paul.

Read the 6 original novels, AND THEN STOP. Do not even feel tempted to read the travesty that is Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson's attempt to cash in on them. The prequel and sequel novels are UTTER GASH.

[Abyss]

Use Of Weapons, on 17 July 2012 - 07:00 PM, said:

The thing about Dune that both the movie and the miniseries got wrong is that the main character is Lady Jessica, not Paul.
...

Your geek-penis is showing.

[amphibian]

Use Of Weapons, on 17 July 2012 - 07:00 PM, said:

The thing about Dune that both the movie and the miniseries got wrong is that the main character is Lady Jessica, not Paul.

Read the 6 original novels, AND THEN STOP. Do not even feel tempted to read the travesty that is Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson's attempt to cash in on them. The prequel and sequel novels are UTTER GASH.

This is pretty good advice. However, you can actually use the wiki summaries to get a decent idea of what the idiot son and KJA's writing involve and what may possibly have been in Herbert's mind for future Dune books (I guaran-damn-tee that he'd have handled the return of the thinking machines 1000x better).

[Abyss]

amphibian, on 17 July 2012 - 07:31 PM, said:

... what may possibly have been in Herbert's mind for future Dune books (I guaran-damn-tee that he'd have handled the return of the thinking machines 1000x better).

You can even add a few more zeroes there. I would have loved to read Herbert's take on that.