[Slow Ben]

Picked up Crack'd Pot Trail myself this afternoon at B&N.

[acesn8s]

Traveller, on 13 September 2011 - 12:02 PM, said:

I've got The Lords of the North, by Bernard Cornwell. Having just read the first two two in the series (The Last Kingdom and The Pale Horseman) I thought I'd carry on with it - pretty good so far. Although, having read all his other stuff, there are a lot of character types that are very familiar.

Good though overall, the series (although unrelated) carries on chronologically, but not directly, from his Arthurian 'Warlord' trilogy, if you liked that.

Uhtred is my favorite of all Cornwell's characters.

[Salt-Man Z]

The past two weeks' acquisitions:

Passed on from my dad:
The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum
The Second Saladin by Stephen Hunter
Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

On clearance @ Half Price Books ($1-3):
Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges
Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons
Star Wars: Fury by Aaron Allston
Star Wars: Inferno by Troy Denning
The Folding Knife by K. J. Parker
Ben-Hur (leatherbound edition) by Lew Wallace
The Man in the Iron Mask (leatherbound edition) by Alexandre Dumas

I also picked up a copy of Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, but just discovered it's an abridged version. It was only $1, but I'm taking that sucker back.

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 14 September 2011 - 04:26 PM

[QuickTidal]

Traveller, on 13 September 2011 - 12:02 PM, said:

I've got The Lords of the North, by Bernard Cornwell. Having just read the first two two in the series (The Last Kingdom and The Pale Horseman) I thought I'd carry on with it - pretty good so far. Although, having read all his other stuff, there are a lot of character types that are very familiar.

Good though overall, the series (although unrelated) carries on chronologically, but not directly, from his Arthurian 'Warlord' trilogy, if you liked that.

LORD is my fave book in that series (and I've read them all so far up to and including THE BURNING KINGDOM), as it has some of the best action.

Yeah you can definitely lay Derfel on top of Uhtred and find many similarities, but After having 5 books of Uhtred, I like him better now than Derfel.

At any rate, just FYI the next book comes out in a few weeks (THE DEATH OF KINGS), which I will be reading ASAP!

[QuickTidal]

Salt-Man Z, on 14 September 2011 - 04:25 PM, said:

Star Wars: Fury by Aaron Allston
Star Wars: Inferno by Troy Denning

Have you not READ these yet? Oh man, the last book in that series is AMAZING! (INVINCIBLE) ...and I enjoyed both FURY and INFERNO, as when Denning and Allston are on their game they are really on their game!

[Salt-Man Z]

QuickTidal, on 14 September 2011 - 04:46 PM, said:

Salt-Man Z, on 14 September 2011 - 04:25 PM, said:

Star Wars: Fury by Aaron Allston
Star Wars: Inferno by Troy Denning

Have you not READ these yet? Oh man, the last book in that series is AMAZING! (INVINCIBLE) ...and I enjoyed both FURY and INFERNO, as when Denning and Allston are on their game they are really on their game!

Oh no, I've read them (checked out from the library.) I'm just filling in the gaps in my collection. And I actually thought Invincible was pretty terrible.

[Deorai]

Not necessarily today, but I treated myself to two books the other day.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

I've since read Neverwhere, and I have to say Gaiman is an impressive writing. The two or three of his books that I've read of his so far have been very interesting, highly entertaining and well written. I'll definitely be picking up more of his stuff in the future.

[Abyss]

Deorai, on 14 September 2011 - 05:38 PM, said:

...Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
... I have to say Gaiman is an impressive writing. The two or three of his books that I've read of his so far have been very interesting, highly entertaining and well written. I'll definitely be picking up more of his stuff in the future.

Do yourself a favour and read his SANDMAN graphic novel series. brilliant stuff.

[Deorai]

Abyss, on 14 September 2011 - 05:52 PM, said:

Do yourself a favour and read his SANDMAN graphic novel series. brilliant stuff.

I've heard good things about it, aye, so I think I will. Thanks for the suggestion!

[QuickTidal]

Salt-Man Z, on 14 September 2011 - 05:02 PM, said:

And I actually thought Invincible was pretty terrible.

[amphibian]

Abyss, on 14 September 2011 - 05:52 PM, said:

Deorai, on 14 September 2011 - 05:38 PM, said:

...Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
... I have to say Gaiman is an impressive writing. The two or three of his books that I've read of his so far have been very interesting, highly entertaining and well written. I'll definitely be picking up more of his stuff in the future.

Do yourself a favour and read his SANDMAN graphic novel series. brilliant stuff.

Be warned that the graphic novels take a couple of volumes to get going - the first one is a sort of horror/gorefest with some set-up to the absolutely brilliant stuff that will come later. It's not until you see Dream interacting with Death that Gaiman sort of "snaps into" the right mindset for the best Dream stories. The second volume is a sort of working out the tone and then the story seriously gets going in the third volume.

The series is completely worth the slow start and remains of the best achievements of the graphic art format. Its spiritual successor, Lucifer, has a similarly slow and brutal start to the series, but eventually reaches some stunning heights of creativity and boldness that amazed me.

[Abyss]

amphibian, on 14 September 2011 - 06:28 PM, said:

Abyss, on 14 September 2011 - 05:52 PM, said:

Deorai, on 14 September 2011 - 05:38 PM, said:

...Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
... I have to say Gaiman is an impressive writing....

Do yourself a favour and read his SANDMAN graphic novel series. brilliant stuff.

Be warned that the graphic novels take a couple of volumes to get going - the first one is a sort of horror/gorefest with some set-up to the absolutely brilliant stuff that will come later....

Agreed. 1 is ok. 2 is better. By 3, well, you see why it won all kinds of awards. Not only is the art generally stunning, but Gaiman is a genius with dialogue. Absolutely every line is crafted to move the story forward, nothing is wasted.


Back in the 'bought' zone, just pre-ordered OST from amazon.uk. .com and .ca are showing late Jan 2010, .uk shows early Dec 2011, so the British Empire wins again.

[acesn8s]

Deorai, on 14 September 2011 - 05:38 PM, said:

Not necessarily today, but I treated myself to two books the other day.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

I've since read Neverwhere, and I have to say Gaiman is an impressive writing. The two or three of his books that I've read of his so far have been very interesting, highly entertaining and well written. I'll definitely be picking up more of his stuff in the future.

I loved Neverwhere. It is still my favorite book by him. It hooked me once Richard noticed the change in how he was perceived after meeting Door.

I had such a surreal feeling about life for the next day or so.

[QuickTidal]

So if I hadn't mentioned it, the other day I picked up Erin Mogenstern's THE NIGHT CIRCUS which I am really looking fwd to reading. I thought it was YA, but no it's certainly not as in the first few pages the first character to utter a line of dialogue says "Aw, fuck!"...so consider me even more excited about it now.

Last night I grabbed some non-fiction (as I noticed the TBR pile had none left) and I picked up:

AGE OF WONDER: HOW THE ROMANTIC GENERATION DISCOVERED THE BEAUTY AND TERROR OF SCIENCE - Richard Holmes (which is all about London's Royal Society, exploration, naturalism, aeronautics, astronomy ect.)

IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS: LOVE, TERROR AND AN AMERICAN FAMILY IN HITLER'S BERLIN - Erik Larsen (which is about the American Ambassador in Berlin during 1933 and chronicles the rise of Hitler from Germany's Chancellor to the insane dictator he became seen through the eyes of American's. And just how something as atrocious as the Third Reich could ever have risen while the rest of the world ignored it as an anomaly that would go away)

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 16 September 2011 - 12:35 PM

[T77]

Finished The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan. I thought it was just OK. I'm trying to stick to a new rule of bailing about half-way into a book if it's not doing it for me. I was going to bail on this, but I knew where it was going and it did pick up in the second half, but in the end it left me with a very meh feeling. I was not that impressed with Morgan's writing. I doubt I will continue with the series unless the reviews are stellar.

[Use Of Weapons]

Today I picked up:

_Embassytown_ by China Miéville
_Tongues of Serpents_ by Naomi Novik

and Amazon delivered:

_Rule 34_ by Charles Stross

A fabulous weekend awaits!

[Mott]

Have just bought the illustrated Eric and The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett, both books and their illustrations looks extremely impressive and I've ordered Death Masks, already the summary of it is marking me nervous/excited.

[wade]

I just bought the LoTR trilogy again xD. And, my mother found a stash of old books (really quite old) in one of the apartments she was renovating, and my favourite of the stash by far is an original Unwin Books printing of The Hobbit. Oh how beautifully ugly that cover is It's printing year is 1968!
Oh, and she found The Silmarillion too, so that's a plus.

[Baco Xtath]

Bought Jack Vance's Dying Earth on amazon and I just won Terminal World, Century Rain, House of Suns, The Prefect, Chasm City, Redemtion Ark, and Absolution Gap (all hard backs or 7x10 paperbacks) on ebay for $15 and $4 shipping. I've already read all the Reynold's books except Century Rain, but I borrowed them from the library and I really wanted to own them. Birthday money, be gone!

[QuickTidal]

I bought THE LAST WISH by Andrzej Sapkowski for my Kindle is at seems to have decent reviews and I liked the first chapter I read online. We shall see.