What Are You Reading?

mcgovern

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Anyone read Patrick rothfuss new book? based on Auri, I brought it during the week but I'm trying too finish off do electric sheep dream of androids

I finished it a few days ago, it was ok, but I wasn't a big fan. As Rothfuss himself notes, it doesn't go anywhere, there is no plot as such, its just a few days in the life of Auri, going about her normal business.
I also finished Data Runner, which was very good and only £1.88 on Amazon. It reminds me of Snow Crash, which is one of my favourite ever books.
After those, I read Red Rising by Pierce Brown. Only £0.98 on Amazon, and it seemed like another YA Dystopian novel, so I didn't have high hopes for it.
It is a YA Dystopian novel, borrowing heavily from the likes of The Hunger Games and even Ender's Game, but its very, very good. It's a real page turner, with a lot of action, I'd definitely recommend it.

keane2097

Rothfuss is a seriously annoying character at this stage.

He's written two moderately decent fantasy novels and acts as though he's John Updike or something. Just write the end to your average bloody trilogy you gimp!

Taltos

keane2097 wrote: »

Rothfuss is a seriously annoying character at this stage.

He's written two moderately decent fantasy novels and acts as though he's John Updike or something. Just write the end to your average bloody trilogy you gimp!

1st book in the series was very promising.
2nd book, really left me underwhelmed, don't think I'll rush out for the finale. Shame really, some great promise but just thrown away.

Need something new to read myself, toying with getting the Witcher books (yes, in part due to the incoming game...)

keane2097

Taltos wrote: »

1st book in the series was very promising.
2nd book, really left me underwhelmed, don't think I'll rush out for the finale. Shame really, some great promise but just thrown away.

Need something new to read myself, toying with getting the Witcher books (yes, in part due to the incoming game...)

I actually enjoyed both books quite a lot, but his pompous behaviour definitely makes me like them less since I'm inclined to read them with the fact that the author thinks he is a towering genius of some sort lodged in my subconscious.

Trojan

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Looking like Doors of Stone won't be out this year either and Rothfuss is doing neither a Jordan or a Martin. The difference is both of those writers were quite prolific in the earlier part of their fantasy writing career.
Jordan was pumping out a book a year for quite a while.

Well, I was thinking specifically of Jordan publishing the New Spring prequel when he could have been writing book 11 of his 12 book series (which had recently had a significant decrease in pace of publishing schedule):

"Fans objected when he took some time off to expand a short story into a prequel novel called New Spring, so he decided to shelve his plans for additional prequels in favor of finishing off the last two volumes in the series"

In this case, Rothfuss had all 3 books finished (finished!) before book 1 was ever published. Now I know he's had very large rewrites, but why prioritise this prequel which appeals to what he's admitted is a very limited audience over getting book 3 out?

It's absolutely his right to publish in whatever order he and his publishing house want to, and personally I think he was wrong to do it this way.

I do think book 1 was fabulous, arguably one of the best fantasy debuts ever. Book 2 was a massive disappointment, particularly in light of how good book 1 was.

OwaynOTT

Trojan wrote: »

Well, I was thinking specifically of Jordan publishing the New Spring prequel when he could have been writing book 11 of his 12 book series (which had recently had a significant decrease in pace of publishing schedule):
.

Yeah his pace slowed down later into the series but at that stage he had given us either 8 or 9 books in just over ten years. Could be forgiven for taking a slight break and still releasing some wot material.

ronoc 1

read city of stairs,its about the investigation into a historian who has been murdered while researching the history of a city that was once the seat of gods.very impressed by the book,has a great plot and some memorable characters.well worth reading it.

Zapp Brannigan

There was a post on reddit that made sense. They said that Rothfuss enjoys his 'celebrity' status too much. He knows people want the next novel but he's happy to ride the hype and keep booking gigs and guest speaker slots all while supporting the Worldbuilders charity.

Not necessarily a bad thing he's doing but I would like to see how he ends the trilogy considering how little of Kvothe's life we've seen.

OwaynOTT

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

There was a post on reddit that made sense. They said that Rothfuss enjoys his 'celebrity' status too much. He knows people want the next novel but he's happy to ride the hype and keep booking gigs and guest speaker slots all while supporting the Worldbuilders charity.

Not necessarily a bad thing he's doing but I would like to see how he ends the trilogy considering how little of Kvothe's life we've seen.

Hard to argue with any of that. He needs to finish on a high note if the trilogy us to be seen a great one.

Raging_Ninja

Been reading a bunch of books.

Willful Child by Stephen Erikson - essentially Star Trek with an insane captain not too different from a few of his Malazan characters.

Influx by Davis Surrey - pretty damned good book.

The Martian by Andy Weir - just amazing.

Ancillary Justice - not so sure about this. Need to think about it before lookin b at the next one in the series.

Dan_Solo

I finished Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban. I can't say it was easy going... probably the only book written entirely in "future English" about a pot smoking post apocalyptic Punch and Judy puppeteer I'm likely to read this lifetime. 7/10 from me, but more for the ambition than anything.
Now then, the rota says "new SF" is next, and I don't mind a bit of cosmic balance after that by going for something a bit more mainstream, so the Sand omnibus is next for me. Never read anything by Howey.

Thargor

Really not enjoying this Black Prism series with the colour-based magic from Brent Weeks, nowhere near as much as the Durzo Blint stuff anyway, seems to have been a major nose dive in quality between the two series. Also the world is blander than bland, you get the names of a couple of towns with forest in between, nothing to distinguish them from a million other fantasy towns.

Sephiroth_dude

keane2097 wrote: »

I actually enjoyed both books quite a lot, but his pompous behaviour definitely makes me like them less since I'm inclined to read them with the fact that the author thinks he is a towering genius of some sort lodged in my subconscious.

Same here, I enjoyed the 2nd book more though.

Thargor

They really were 2 incredible bits of fantasy in the sea of complete pish that gets released nowadays, even in the slower parts I just loved the way he wrote them. What exactly has been said about not seeing the next one in 2015?

OwaynOTT

Thargor wrote: »

They really were 2 incredible bits of fantasy in the sea of complete pish that gets released nowadays, even in the slower parts I just loved the way he wrote them. What exactly has been said about not seeing the next one in 2013?

It's 2015, so it's concrete we won't be seeing it in 2013.

Thargor

Damn you, I knew some smartass would be in before my slow internet let me fix it.

OwaynOTT

Thargor wrote: »

Damn you, I knew some smartass would be in before my slow internet let me fix it.

Ah now, my internet is terrible slow also so you had your chance.

I think Rothfuss said something on his twitter recently that put a pin in Door of Stone for this year.

Sephiroth_dude

Would be great if it was released this year, I also got the first book in the Silo series (wool) too read, looking forward too reading that actually.

Trojan

Rothfuss pisses me right off.

But I'll still be pre-ordering Doors.

(Back on track, finally reading Feist's last Midkemia book, Magician's End).

OwaynOTT

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Would be great if it was released this year, I also got the first book in the Silo series (wool) too read, looking forward too reading that actually.

Wool was a very good read but I never finished a Shift or begun Dust, the two followed books.

keane2097

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Wool was a very good read but I never finished a Shift or begun Dust, the two followed books.

The one I read was "Wool Omnibus" I think, trying to figure out what would be the next one to read is a little confusing - seems like it could be Shift?

Bits_n_Bobs

ronoc 1 wrote: »

read city of stairs,its about the investigation into a historian who has been murdered while researching the history of a city that was once the seat of gods.very impressed by the book,has a great plot and some memorable characters.well worth reading it.

Have to second that - also just read it and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I also just finished The Thousand Names by Django Wexler. I skimmed much of it - the first two thirds seemed to consist mostly of military tactics / battles for and rather conventional characters. It did pick up towards the end, probably enough to nudge me into getting the second one.

Buford T. Justice XIX

keane2097 wrote: »

The one I read was "Wool Omnibus" I think, trying to figure out what would be the next one to read is a little confusing - seems like it could be Shift?

Yeah, Wool then Shift and Dust last.

Wool was excellent, he wasn't afraid to kill off the main charachters anyway.

Just coldn't get into Shift at all, there seemed to be no sympathetic charachters in the first quarter or so that i read but it may have improved later.

OwaynOTT

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Yeah, Wool then Shift and Dust last.

Wool was excellent, he wasn't afraid to kill off the main charachters anyway.

Just coldn't get into Shift at all, there seemed to be no sympathetic charachters in the first quarter or so that i read but it may have improved later.

Might want to spoiler that, maybe.

I got about half way through Shift I think, maybe it was a bit less but the shift in stories led to be losing interest. Didn't seem to work as well as it did in Wool and after getting interested in the before silo stage, which took me a while, I was disappointed when the focus moved to inside the Silo again.

Has anyone read Howey's Sand?

keane2097

Just got City of Stairs on Audible so will be giving that a go over the next few days on foot of the recommendations here.

OptimusTractor

Before I get too far in the The Way of Kings. Do Sandersons books follow any sort of order? Am I better starting off in another book?

OwaynOTT

OptimusTractor wrote: »

Before I get too far in the The Way of Kings. Do Sandersons books follow any sort of order? Am I better starting off in another book?

Most of his books fall within his loosely based cosmere but I would say you are okay to read them in any order really, as long as you read each individual series in chronological order.
Like read the first mistborn trilogy first but even then, if you wanted to, you could read them in reverse order.
I read them like this:

Mistborn one (wasn't too pushed to finish the series)
Elantris
Way of Kings
mistborn 4 (heard good things but never finished it, yet)
words of radiance (in the to read bundle)

ixoy

OptimusTractor wrote: »

Before I get too far in the The Way of Kings. Do Sandersons books follow any sort of order? Am I better starting off in another book?

Nah. There's vague ties in them - more like Easter Eggs really. I read the original Mistborn trilogy, Elantris, the two published Stormlight Archives novels and The Emperor's Soul (also in the Cosmere universe). Have yet to read "Alloy of Law".
From reading his blog there'll be some point where the order matters but not for a few years yet.

OwaynOTT

ixoy wrote: »

Nah. There's vague ties in them - more like Easter Eggs really. I read the original Mistborn trilogy, Elantris, the two published Stormlight Archives novels and The Emperor's Soul (also in the Cosmere universe). Have yet to read "Alloy of Law".
From reading his blog there'll be some point where the order matters but not for a few years yet.

Have you seen how many possible books and series and sequels and prequels he has in mind for the cosmere?
I think he is being far too ambitious and ultimately hemming himself in as well and he isn't going to improve much as a writer because of it too.

I read Steelheart there recently and while it has a good idea, not wholly original as it reminds me of Wild Cards at times, his overall quality as a writer hasn't improved much from Elantris and Mistborn.
Steelheart was very poor in places. The main character coming in and taking over the little revolutionary cell is a bit ridiculous.

It's a pity there wasn't some sort of mixture between Rothfuss and Sanderson, as that would be an excellent fantasy writer.

OptimusTractor

32-40 books or something like that, which supposedly is not a ridiculous amount according to himself.