What Are You Reading?

ixoy

11% into "Sailing to Sarantium" by Guy Gavirel Kay, the first in the Sarantine Mosiac duology. Enjoying it so far - Kay's talent of being able to just write well is far ahead of most of his genre contemporaries and the story seems to have a good sense of political intrigue.

Thargor

Reading Seal of the Worm to finish off Shadows of the Apt, really great series it turned out to be and he produced them at a rate I wish more authors would match. Good to see it seems to be focusing on the 2 best characters

Totho and Drephos running The Iron Glove

a lot more aswell, they should have had their own series.

I was on a Citylink bus yesterday trying to read The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams but I had to give up on it, the cliches were layered on too thick, not his fault as it was written in the 80's but disappointing as his Otherland series is still an amazing read, anyone who's read it might recognize my username. I just couldn't take another "castle kitchen helper boy who's good at climbing and knows all the secret passages, apprenticed to the castle magician, his parents were actually blah blah blah, long and perilous journey required..."

Sesudra

Thargor wrote: »

I was on a Citylink bus yesterday trying to read The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams but I had to give up on it, the cliches were layered on too thick, not his fault as it was written in the 80's but disappointing as his Otherland series is still an amazing read, anyone who's read it might recognize my username. I just couldn't take another "castle kitchen helper boy who's good at climbing and knows all the secret passages, apprenticed to the castle magician, his parents were actually blah blah blah, long and perilous journey required..."

I'd urge you to stick with it! Without spoiling anything, I know it starts off looking very samey and by the numbers but he does some very interesting things with the formula as the series progresses. He's recently announced he's coming back to the same fictional world for a new trilogy starting next year

Thargor

Already read the Wikipedia entries which were nicely detailed, sorry but didn't really see much new there and 90% of what I read is sci-fi/fantasy, just couldn't get into it. Goodreads and Amazon seem to back me up with a lot of 1/2/3 star reviews aswell with a lot of complaints about cliches and the same old sh1t even when his other stuff is all rated as solid gold. These are apparently the books that tipped GRRM into deciding to try writing epic fantasy aswell so maybe I am missing something...

ixoy

Thargor wrote: »

These are apparently the books that tipped GRRM into deciding to try writing epic fantasy aswell so maybe I am missing something...

I thought it was an excellent series, although I did read it a long time ago at this point. It was almost seen as a more modern re-imagining of the epic of "Lord of the Rings".
From your perspective it seems clichéd but, in some ways, it's been influential enough to create those clichés. A victim of its own success maybe if you've read a lot of fantasy that was written since then.

Sesudra

Thargor wrote: »

Already read the Wikipedia entries which were nicely detailed, sorry but didn't really see much new there and 90% of what I read is sci-fi/fantasy, just couldn't get into it. Goodreads and Amazon seem to back me up with a lot of 1/2/3 star reviews aswell with a lot of complaints about cliches and the same old sh1t even when his other stuff is all rated as solid gold. These are apparently the books that tipped GRRM into deciding to try writing epic fantasy aswell so maybe I am missing something...

Like Ixoy, I read them years ago - in fact, they were the first big fantasy trilogy I read as a youngster and I've read and enjoyed everything Williams has put out since, so the series has a lot of nostalgic value for me which might be colouring my view slightly!

OwaynOTT

I never read read Magician, Dragonbone Chair and other such fantasy books when I started out and only went to read them much later and found I couldn't stand them.
I'm glad I didn't enjoy them as Feist's stuff seems fairly poor overall.

fenris

Just started Promise of Blood, enjoying it so far.

I had a similar experience with the Dragonbone Chair, loved it the first time round, found it tedious when I reread it a few years ago, possibly because it was fresh and new when it came out and now the cliched imitations are better than the original, also it is possible that my tastes may have changed over the decades!

Manach

Starting Sandman Slim. Gumshoe film noire meets Faustian mythos. So far okay, but nothing special.

djjdomahony

Only ever yours by Irish Author Lousie O Neill - great book

Bits_n_Bobs

About 80% through Nexus by Ramez Naam. I'm slightly torn by wanting to moan about there being too much exposition and agreeing with one of the reviewers who said something like it was cyberpunk bourne identity...so I guess all in all it's a bit of an uneven read in terms of pacing - fast/slow/insanely fast/etc. Nevertheless I've got the second one lined up already!

Gertrude2

Just getting stuck into the "Helliconia" trilogy by Brian Aldiss. They've been reissued in one volume as a Gollancz SF Masterwork. That should take a few months.

Paddy Samurai

Only started it today ,so time will tell.

keane2097

Finished the Powder Mages one, quite good

Cunning Alias

Just finished Metro 2033. It is a fantastic setting but the flow was a bit strange. It being translated from Russian probably doesn't help. Its has a few incredible chapters in the final 1/3. It is worth reading just for the setting.

Now on to "Foundation and Earth". I am enjoying it but I have lowered my expectations compared to the first main 3 Foundation books (which are incredible).

Morag

Reading Neptunes' brood and trying to catch up on the rest of my Charles Stross books cos he said on twitter he's coming to Shamrokon.

ixoy

Reading "Heroes Die", by Matthew Stover the first in his "Acts of Caine" series. 16% in and it's an interesting mix of science fiction and fantasy. Pretty refreshing.

Morag wrote: »

Reading Neptunes' brood

Saw it had been discounted to £1.99 for this month, which is great. Am probably going to try and read some more Laundry novels ahead of it. Only read the first two so far.

Thargor

ixoy wrote: »

Reading "Heroes Die", by Matthew Stover the first in his "Acts of Caine" series. 16% in and it's an interesting mix of science fiction and fantasy. Pretty refreshing.

Let us know how you get on with that please as I have that series on my pile. Heard good things but the cover is offensively bad:



Im reading Hugh Howies new one, SAND, very good so far, grabbed me faster than WOOL did anyway.

OwaynOTT

Thargor wrote: »

Let us know how you get on with that please as I have that series on my pile. Heard good things but the cover is offensively bad:



Im reading Hugh Howies new one, SAND, very good so far, grabbed me faster than WOOL did anyway.

I'd be interested to hear what you think of Sand.

InReality

The cover is terrible , but i liked the book. Have re-read it which I don't do very often. Although re-reading mistborn book 4 now , sanderson just writes so many good books .

keane2097

Read the first story in the Wool omnibus the other day, hit me like a tonne of bricks - very good!

pH

I've given up half way through Tower Lord, how an author can go from one of my favorite books of the year (Blood Song) to an un-finishable mess for the sequel is beyond me but there you have it.

I hated the multiple perspectives, I detested the chichedness of the "new" characters, but most of all I found it kind of childish and boring. On the bright side, from a brief skim of the amazon reviews at least I've missed the ending, which by all accounts makes the rest of the book look great in comparison.

TwoShedsJackson

pH wrote: »

On the bright side, from a brief skim of the amazon reviews at least I've missed the ending, which by all accounts makes the rest of the book look great in comparison.

Well I'm at 90% so I'll look forward to that...

No question it's not nearly as good as the first one, still enjoying it though.

bradyle

pH wrote: »

I've given up half way through Tower Lord, how an author can go from one of my favorite books of the year (Blood Song) to an un-finishable mess for the sequel is beyond me but there you have it.

I hated the multiple perspectives, I detested the chichedness of the "new" characters, but most of all I found it kind of childish and boring. On the bright side, from a brief skim of the amazon reviews at least I've missed the ending, which by all accounts makes the rest of the book look great in comparison.

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

Well I'm at 90% so I'll look forward to that...

No question it's not nearly as good as the first one, still enjoying it though.

Hmm I'm just starting this and t isnt grip[ping me as well as I hoped...assumed it was just a slow start bit worried now!!

ancapailldorcha

Finally got back to Memories of Ice. It's getting quite good and I've no idea why I put it down.

TwoShedsJackson

pH wrote: »

I've given up half way through Tower Lord, how an author can go from one of my favorite books of the year (Blood Song) to an un-finishable mess for the sequel is beyond me but there you have it.

I hated the multiple perspectives, I detested the chichedness of the "new" characters, but most of all I found it kind of childish and boring. On the bright side, from a brief skim of the amazon reviews at least I've missed the ending, which by all accounts makes the rest of the book look great in comparison.

Finished it, didn't find the ending any better or worse than the rest of it. A notable step down in quality from the first book.

ronoc 1

just finished reading half a king,it was a good solid read but with the reviews its been getting i was excepting it to be slightly better.It was just for an abercrombie book it didnt feel very memorable.

donegal_man

About half way through Scott Lynch "The Republic Of Thieves" and to be honest starting to get a bit bored with it all. Loved the first two books but just finding this one a bit of a drag. I'll probably stick with but not sure I'll bother with the next one (whenever it appears).

Thargor

OwaynOTT wrote: »

I'd be interested to hear what you think of Sand.

Sand is great alright, nothing spectacular writing-wise just a pure page-turner like Wool, wish I had the whole series to binge on though, read the whole thing in 2 days.

OwaynOTT

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

Finished it, didn't find the ending any better or worse than the rest of it. A notable step down in quality from the first book.

Is this the general consensus on Tower Lord?
Is it a case of runaway expectations after Blood Song or is the book such a bit tame after the astounding debut?