Currently Reading

[Alan]

Ancillary Sword
Uhm... Ancillary Justice ended with a rather galactic quaking event, this entire book might as well be a retelling of Encounter At Farpoint. It’s a decent enough story but it’s so low key and inconsequential feeling after what happens in book 1 it feels small. It doesn’t feel like it follows on and feels more like a side story. Especially for the middle third of a trilogy it feels like more should have happened.

I guess I need to get Mercy now......

[Alan]

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35827220

I enjoyed that a fair bit. I was put off by the child like writing of Rex at first but once you get into dogbrain it works well. It’s like if Snake Eater was more coherently written and snake was replaced by a dog, a bear, a monitor lizard and a swarm of bees. Yup. It sounds daft but it works!

[Hatredsheart]

Read it, loved it.
His novella Ironclads is also an okay read.

[Stormbringer]

I've got a little bored of novels, so I am currently attempting to read through the entire bibliography of Robert E. Howard. He wrote about 200 short stories in the space of a decade (spanning the 1920s and 30s), so it's taking a while. Good fun though!

[Snowy]

I am trying for the nth time to break into Steven Erikson's Malazan books of the fallen series.

I think I may be cracking them, but holy crap you have to work at them. They are really dense, dark tales and you get precisely zero hand-holding or exposition, you have to work your own way through. I finished Gardens of the Moon at what must be the third or fourth time of asking, enjoying it immensely by the end. Deadhouse Gates was similarly epic, but in such a bleak and brutal setting. When you read stories by authors you tend to get escapes for at least some of the players, but the ending of the chain of dogs story arc is so bleak.

I have started on Memories of Ice now, and it feels like this one might go some way at filling in the blanks in the backstory, although I have no doubt that I will have to work it out myself.

Enjoying the series in a masochistic kind of way.

[Achtung Englander]

Reached the 1/2 way mark. It is very interesting and tragic at the same time

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46125971-chernobyl

[Hatredsheart]

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/405 ... -chernobyl

This is supposed to be a really good one about that, on my kindle to read next

[Mantis]

I am trying for the nth time to break into Steven Erikson's Malazan books of the fallen series.

I think I may be cracking them, but holy crap you have to work at them. They are really dense, dark tales and you get precisely zero hand-holding or exposition, you have to work your own way through. I finished Gardens of the Moon at what must be the third or fourth time of asking, enjoying it immensely by the end. Deadhouse Gates was similarly epic, but in such a bleak and brutal setting. When you read stories by authors you tend to get escapes for at least some of the players, but the ending of the chain of dogs story arc is so bleak.

I have started on Memories of Ice now, and it feels like this one might go some way at filling in the blanks in the backstory, although I have no doubt that I will have to work it out myself.

Enjoying the series in a masochistic kind of way.

A series I have also tried to get into for years too but am always put off by the enormous amount to work through. I think I nearly finished Gardens of the Moon once and was quite enjoying it, I don't recall what made me put it down.

Speaking of lengthy series. I've just started reading the Discworld novels.

[Rusty]

I bought about 7 Terry Pratchett hard back books from a charity store. I still have loads of discworld ones to track down too.

[Snowy]

I am trying for the nth time to break into Steven Erikson's Malazan books of the fallen series.

I think I may be cracking them, but holy crap you have to work at them. They are really dense, dark tales and you get precisely zero hand-holding or exposition, you have to work your own way through. I finished Gardens of the Moon at what must be the third or fourth time of asking, enjoying it immensely by the end. Deadhouse Gates was similarly epic, but in such a bleak and brutal setting. When you read stories by authors you tend to get escapes for at least some of the players, but the ending of the chain of dogs story arc is so bleak.

I have started on Memories of Ice now, and it feels like this one might go some way at filling in the blanks in the backstory, although I have no doubt that I will have to work it out myself.

Enjoying the series in a masochistic kind of way.

A series I have also tried to get into for years too but am always put off by the enormous amount to work through. I think I nearly finished Gardens of the Moon once and was quite enjoying it, I don't recall what made me put it down.

Speaking of lengthy series. I've just started reading the Discworld novels.

I am still going. They are a very strange set of books - on the one hand I am enjoying the story unfolding but they are soooo long. There are some lengthy passages of dialogue, both between characters and also introspection, that are really hard work, but at the same time it is a cracking story. I have never read a series I don't think that divides me so much over whether or not I am enjoying reading it.

[Sly Boots]

What do you reckon about John Gwynne, Snowy?

I just started my first book of his, Malice, and maybe I've been spoiled by my six-month long Abercrombie binge, but having trouble getting into it. It's fine, I guess, but it's not really popping for me like Abercrombie, Martin or Mark Lawrence. He seems very popular though, so maybe it's just me.

[Snowy]

It’s a good series Sly, worth persevering with.

Is it as good as Mark Lawrence or Joe Abercrombie? No, but they are writers of spectacular ability - it is a good series though.

Incidentally Abercrombie is doing a book tour soon, I have a ticket to the London evening session - if you fancy it bag yourself one too.

[Stormbringer]

Currently reading (for the second time) Skull Face by Robert E. Howard. I last read it in late 2018, but enjoyed it so much I wanted to give it another go. It's one of, I think, only two novels he wrote -- the bulk of his work being short stories.

It's heavily riffing on Sax Rohmer's Dr. Fu Manchu books from a couple of decades earlier, but with a more "eldritch" twist.

[Mantis]

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.

[Alan]

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32109569

I did not like this up till the accident. Too pandering then I really enjoyed it up to the split personalities then I hated it for a few chapters but then it really grew on me and I tore through the rest.

It’s a very simple and easy read but it’s actually deceptively smart. It feels dumb but it’s very intelligently crafted. Also the character name choices I initially hated so a great job of keeping tabs on who is who and where which could have been confusing with more generic names.

Yeah I’m surprised but I really liked that despite my misgivings.