Currently Reading

[Raid]

Grand, thanks. I'm tempted to just grab the next one, but I read Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings one after another, so I may go for something else next.

[Tommy]

So I finally got around to finishing the First Law trilogy 20-odd years after starting it, and, much as I enjoyed them as a whole, I'm left a little cold by the ending, and I don't mean that I've inadvertently touched the Other Side.

Spoiler

The finale leaves almost every character's story unfinished, and as I understand it they're not protagonists in later books. Jezal is miserable, West is near death, Glokta surprise-marries the woman that Jezal's been fawning over for three books for a fairly good reason but right at the end so we don't really see much of their relationship, Ferro runs off to kill the Gurkish emperor with her newfound power and Logen ends up plummeting into a river again. There's bugger-all closure for anyone except maybe Bayaz. Damnit, I've been reading these characters for three months, I want to see them either happy or back to the mud.

Are the other books in that setting worth picking up? I like Abercrombie's style, but I can't say I found the setting itself massively interesting (it's not bad by any means, just not all that unique) - the characters are what grabbed me.

So I read the first two about eight years ago, forgot the names of all the characters, what happened etc., but over the last few years tried to remember. And just now, I've inadvertently read the spoiler of the end

I'm currently reading Ninth House. Enjoying it thus far, albeit it somehow feels like a slow start which considering the beginning, seems odd.

[Sly Boots]

I spent the last few months working my way through the late Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who... series -there's three in total, starting with the most famous, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

(They actually continued the series following his death with another author, but I understand those are a bit shit so won't be bothering)

I did enjoy them, but would find them hard to recommend to others. That's largely because each of the three books opens with maybe 400 pages of dry explanations, in-depth descriptions of the Swedish business industry, long, fairly slow conversations that at face-value don't always seem to tie in with anything pertinent, and a rather meandering style that takes its sweet time building up to any kind of denouement.

And then following that there's about 100 pages of gripping, exciting, sometimes shocking action that totally justifies the investment you've made in the book to that point. So, a slightly tricky recommend but glad I persevered.

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I've now moved onto the first of the Expanse novels, having thoroughly enjoyed the TV show, and it's excellent. There's nine books already or something like that, so will probably keep me going for a while!

[Tommy]

Just finished watching The Young Team by Graeme Armstrong. Excellent, gripping and very readable. And also very grim.

[Alan]

Did the audiobook for the Garth Marenghi. It really needs to be taken in bite size chunks. Really enjoyed it at first, fucking hated it by the end


I finished the 10 books in the Shadows Of The Apt series by Adrian Tchaikovsky and while its enjoyable enough it lacks a lot of personality, especially after the Abercrombie books which are brimming with it. I much prefer his scifi.


Speaking of which, I went back to Abercrombie and started hitting the stand alone first law books and I have a major bone to pick. Why the bugger are they called the stand alone books when they are 100% a continuation of the story, characters and world? Ok the major arc is over but in no way are they stand alone and you'd be lost if you tried to consume them as such. If I knew this Id have kept going after reading the trilogy but now after reading the Shadows Of The Apt series my brain had a long time of "which series did X happen in?". So Ive now read Best Served Cold, The Heroes and I'm about 80% through Red Country and they're all great. There are turns the story takes that I don't particularly like but with this series and the oodles of personality it all has I can forgive it things like.... the real crappy bait and switch about half way through Best Served Cold. Overall they're great fun and always raise a chuckle. How have these not been optioned by HBO? :p

[Snowy]

I fucking loved The Heroes, I think it is my favourite of his books. His descriptions of Private Yolk and his dose of the shits had me howling with laughter. I think he referred to it as 'arse music' at one stage. Pretty much the entire book being one set-piece was great too.

[Sly Boots]

Love all of Abercrombie's stuff, can't believe none of it has ever been adapted for TV. Mind you, after Rings of Power and the like, maybe that's for the best!

[Snowy]

I think his previous career was something to do with tv productions, so he could absolutely nail a screenplay I would think.

[Alan]

So a few months ago I thought I'd give Hell Divers by Nicholas Sansbury Smith a shot. I wasn't sure if the game or novels came first but turns out they have nothing to do with each other at all even though they both debut in the same year! (Hell Divers vs Helldivers, big distinction!) They're not the best written. Hes prone to repeating use of a word in a short space which annoys me and it feels like he needs a better editor. (He jumped onto the car. The car groaned under his weight. He took a knee and crouched on the car - that kind of thing.) It dosent respect its own worlds rules and it has no consistency with radiation where at times its near instant death and at others the most irradiated places are no big deal. I have however found them to be very enjoyable in kind of an early to mid SG1 level of quality. They're dead easy reads, ridiculous and quite addictive..... as me finishing the 10th book may attest. I am feeling it may be time to wrap it up but when the 11th book drops I'll most likely be up for it!

The premise is after WW3 makes the earth uninhabitable the last of humanity survives on giant high altitude, nuclear powered airships. To get supplies such as fuel cells etc.. they send down Hell Divers who skydive to the surface in radsuits and once their mission is complete they pop balloons that take them back up to the airships. Naturally there are all sorts of mutated nasties on the surface that want to do them harm. There are some great ideas and world building even if the writing and world consistency are mid tier.




Also near finishing the Age Of Madness trilogy. Just great! The quality of the writing is night and day compared to Hell Divers on every level. I'm just over halfway through the last book and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sad that I've ran out of Midderland content. I'm not sure but I think I may even prefer this to the First Law trilogy. Looking forward to a full reread at some point with the fore knowledge of where the characters end up. I would be tempted to name a future pet Crummock-i-Phail because its a very fun name to say and most of my pets have been mad bastards.


Hows The Shattered Sea books? I read "YA novels" and I'm immediately put off.

[Sly Boots]

They're good mate, definitely wouldn't have said they're YA (I was put off initially by this as well), I guess they don't quite have the political complexity of the Age of Madness books but I enjoyed them a lot

[Hatredsheart]

I think they could maybe be classed towards YA because the protagonist is fairly young but I can't see it myself. I thought they were excellent personally.

[Snowy]

I am currently reading The book that wouldn't burn by Mark Lawrence. I really love his work - fantasy, but not the usual type by any means. This is the first in a new series, and I won't try to explain what it is about, mainly because I don't really know yet, but once again I am completely hooked.

If anyone hasn't tried his books, suggest starting with the Books of the Ancestor trilogy, which are just superb. Ideal for fans of Abercrombie, although nowhere near as cynical.

[Hatredsheart]

That's next in my "to read" pile, enjoyed all his previous stuff.
Currently reading "In plain sight- The Life And Lies Of Jimmy Savile " with a mixture of disbelief and simmering hate.

[Snowy]

I watched the Netflix thing on him with much the same feeling.

[Animalmother]

I'm not reading it but the last Game of Thrones book came out 12 years ago yesterday and still no sign of a new one.


I presume most people just don't care anymore. The final season of the show and Martin's faffing about killed all enthusiasm.