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Re: Currently Reading

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2019 2:17 pm
by Hatredsheart
Cheers Alan, looks interesting, I'll pick up a copy.

Re: Currently Reading

Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 8:02 am
by Alan
Hatredsheart wrote:
Sat Aug 31, 2019 2:17 pm
Cheers Alan, looks interesting, I'll pick up a copy.
It does end pretty abruptly and its pretty thick with nerd culture. Depends on your tolerance to that because it was not too far from my limit of it. I did just buy the second one though!

Re: Currently Reading

Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 7:41 am
by Snowy
Mantis wrote:
Thu Aug 29, 2019 4:37 pm
I'm about half way through The Blade Itself by Abercrombie. I'm enjoying it but I have to say that I expected more given how highly praised he is. Glokta is an entertaining perspective and quite well done but the others seem somewhat cliche and one dimensional to me, and the writing is quite basic with little in the way of nice prose to distract from the lack of character. The dialogue between a lot of characters seems quite one-note too, it seems everyone is quite well spoken, sarcastic and says 'fuck' a lot.

It is good overall don't get me wrong, but I'm not sure I understand the hype.
You are on the opening book of a trilogy, let it surprise you :)

Re: Currently Reading

Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2019 10:51 am
by Alan
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33395557
Annnnd
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35506021

Finished the trilogy.

I really enjoyed them. Most of what I said about part 1 applies. Fun, easy, fast read. I suspect the timeline doesn’t hold up to scrutiny but as long as you don’t analyse it too much it’s fine! It’s mildly funny, mildly heart warming and would make a great TV series if they had enough budget.

It wraps up mostly well and definitely has a big conclusion to the trilogy. There are a few loose ends but I believe, in Douglas Adams fashion, there’s more than 3 books in the trilogy. I feel like it’s wrapped up enough for me right now though, I’ll give it a wee break before going back in.

Re: Currently Reading

Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2019 9:37 pm
by Snowy
I took a trip to London tonight for a talk and a book-signing by Joe Abercrombie, who was an extremely quick and funny interviewee. As a bonus, his interviewer was Joe Hill, son of Stephen King and a good author in his own right, and the two riffed on one another brilliantly.

Met a nice couple from Washington State who sat next to me - they were on holiday and spotted the signing so bought tickets. Made the lengthy queue to get some books signed pass a lot more quickly. Two books signed and a pic with Mr Abercrombie and back home before 11pm.

Perfect :)

Re: Currently Reading

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2019 9:34 am
by Stormbringer
Grand!

Re: Currently Reading

Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2019 7:34 pm
by Stormbringer
So, I've pretty much milked dry the short stories of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. There's still quite a bit more I could read (particularly from REH), but I think I've got through the best of their stuff now.

The next project is to read through the short stories of the third member of the "Weird Tales" triumvirate of the 1920s and 30s, Clark Ashton Smith. I made the joyous discovery, yesterday, that all his writings are hosted here:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/

See you on the other side, some time...

Re: Currently Reading

Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2019 6:51 pm
by Alan
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11564

Little girl gets lost in the woods and has to survive.

I think that might actually be my favourite King novel that I’ve read. It’s between that and Pet Sem. It’s short, to the point and didn’t get lost in waffle. High concept wham bam thank you mam. The baseball stuff initially put me off but it’s more light flavour than anything else. I do feel that he ages her wrong because I feel like 10-11 is a more believable age just like in my mind the kids in “It” are 13-14 but maybe I underestimate kids.

The ending is perfect too! I really liked the final paragraph.

Re: Currently Reading

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2019 8:55 am
by Stormbringer
I'm back on The Iron Lance after taking a break for almost A YEAR. It's strange how fast time flies these days. I also need to get better at reading consistently.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/739 ... earch=true

Re: Currently Reading

Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2019 9:54 am
by Stormbringer
I actually finished the above novel!

I'm now onto the next one in the trilogy...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/405 ... Black_Rood

The characters from the first novel are now old men and their grandchildren are the players here.

Re: Currently Reading

Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2019 4:47 pm
by Snowy
Currently reading this series:

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Nevernight-C ... 115&sr=8-1

Very good, finished the first in the series and onto the next, grimdark fantasy in a fantasy ancient Rome-type setting. Some very unusual elements to the books, both in terms of writing (footnotes from the narrator as you go along) and in terms of plot mechanics.

Re: Currently Reading

Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2019 5:18 pm
by Maturin
Mantis wrote:
Thu Aug 29, 2019 4:37 pm
I'm about half way through The Blade Itself by Abercrombie. I'm enjoying it but I have to say that I expected more given how highly praised he is. Glokta is an entertaining perspective and quite well done but the others seem somewhat cliche and one dimensional to me, and the writing is quite basic with little in the way of nice prose to distract from the lack of character. The dialogue between a lot of characters seems quite one-note too, it seems everyone is quite well spoken, sarcastic and says 'fuck' a lot.

It is good overall don't get me wrong, but I'm not sure I understand the hype.
Just thought I'd add my voice to yours. I found the series to be fairly middling. A couple of interesting characters - and a nice internal monologue with Glokta - but the overall storytelling was rather lacking a lot of the time, as if the whole thing needed to be restructured somehow.

It's a 3/5 trilogy at best for me.

Re: Currently Reading

Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 4:17 pm
by Alan
https://www.goodreads.com/series/137422 ... es-trilogy

I just finished these and boy thats a thing.

Mr Mercedes
Save some questionable computer plot points its actually pretty good. I really liked how it started and I'd be lying if the finale didnt give me a "yas! *fistpump*" kind of feeling. Good characters, decent plot, great visualisation and just a good solid detective crimey thing.

Finders Keepers
This feels really self indulgent - ie the plot is that a famous writers fan is basically driven insane because he didnt like how a book trilogy ends. Once you get beyond the rather cringey plot it was pretty enjoyable. Some great imagery in the final confrontation.

End Of Watch
Maybe Stephen was trying to mirror the Jimmy Gold trilogy from Finders Keepers because this one is baaaaad, like real bad. I cant really think of much I liked about it. The plot is just piss poor, the finale is utter rubbish and the McGuffin... *Picard facepalm*. Best pretend this one didnt exist.



As an aside we've watched S1 of the Mr Mercedes TV show and mostly that was really good. The computer messages before the paper letter were pointless but I guess you need to give some nice visuals to the TV people. Gleeson is just fantastic and I could watch him in just about anything. I would never have thought to cast him but he makes a great Hodges. I liked the piles of King easter eggs throughout though I'm not sure why Hodges would have a framed picture of the bridge from It but Jerome did have a Warhol style pop art quad Stephen King on his wall so anythings possible ;)

.....unfortunately weve watched 1 ep of season 2 now and it seems like they're jumping straight to the End Of Watch plot and to say I'm really nervous its going to be as shit as the book is an understatement!

Re: Currently Reading

Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2019 9:41 am
by Sly Boots
At some point this year I bought a bunch of the Witcher books on Kindle as they were on £1 deals, rounding out my collection. Having finished up with John Gwynne's quadrology I dived in the other night.

I started off with Sword of Destiny. This is another collection of quasi-linked short stories, which follows on from The Last Wish and comes before the full-length novels. While I've read TLW a couple of times and the first couple of novels, I'd not read this before - I think there was some publisher shenanigans and they brought out the English translated books out of sequence, so it wasn't available back then.

What I will say is that if you're in any way interested in the lore of particularly The Witcher 3, this is essential reading. This is the book where he first encounters a bunch of characters you meet in the game, including Ciri, Dudu and a bunch of other side characters from the games. There's also a lot about his relationship with Yennefer, and after reading SOD it's pretty clear that the Yen romance ending of TW3 is the canon ending. Having read this, I can't think of ending my playthrough any other way. The way it ends with Ciri as well got me recalling all the events with her in the game and got some -ahem- dust in my eye. (I don't know if it's a being-a-parent thing, but the cutscene where he finally finds Ciri absolutely rips me up every time, even after a fourth playthrough).

Taken as purely a reading experience I think it's quite wordy in places and tends to focus more on the characters and relationships rather than action, and I probably enjoyed reading TLW more, however the way it tied into the games I've spent hundreds of hours playing was great.

Although I've read next two novels before, it was a while back and SOD leads directly into Blood of Elves pretty much, so think I shall re-read those and do the whole series in sequence.

Re: Currently Reading

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2019 4:23 pm
by Snowy
I have just started the third in a series of 4 books, The Books of Babel by Josiah Bancroft.

Rather than try to explain the story, here is the blurb from the series' web page:
Blurb wrote:The Tower of Babel is the greatest marvel of the Silk Age. Immense as a mountain, the ancient Tower holds unnumbered ringdoms, warring and peaceful, stacked one on the other like the layers of a cake.

Thomas Senlin, the mild-mannered headmaster of a small village school, is drawn to the Tower by scientific curiosity and the grandiose promises of a guidebook. The luxurious Baths of the Tower seem an ideal destination for a honeymoon, but soon after arriving, Senlin loses Marya in the crowd. Senlin’s search for Marya carries him through madhouses, ballrooms, and burlesque theaters. He must survive betrayal, assassination, and the long guns of a flying fortress.

But if he hopes to ever find his wife, Thomas Senlin must do more than survive. This quiet man of letters must become a man of action.
It is a fantastic series, a real gem and one that anyone who likes a good yarn will enjoy. For some reason it reminds me a little of the Bioshock games, I think because it is set in such a weird and evocative location - the Tower. It is brilliantly written too, and has kept me guessing throughout the first two superb instalments. I have no doubt I shall enjoy the third just as much - can't recommend this series enough.