What Are You Reading?

machalla

Heffoman wrote: »

Yes the two series are linked only separated by a few years. They arguabley are the same series in eight books.

Be warned though it is heavy going at times and its not for everyone. It is also incredibly bleak and violent. But not gratuitous.

For me I love the prose at his turn of phrase. And the battle scenes when they do occur are suitably epic and colossal in scale.

Thanks for that. I'll have to take a look. At least they seem to be defined series without the usual never-ending torrent of books.

They sound interesting and thanks all for the suggestion. I hope I take to this more than I did the Malazan series.

Thargor

ixoy wrote: »

14% into "The Unholy Consult" by R. Scott Bakker, the fourth book in his Aspect-Emperor series and the one that's also wrapping up the events of the previous trilogy.

It's excellent so far - very very bleak though. Bakker has some beautiful turns of phrase and again his philosophical insights are strong (which they'd want to be given how core they are to the entire series!). The sense of epic scale in this is as grand as any series I've read and really hope the conclusion pays off after over a decade in the world.

Heffoman wrote: »

Echo all the above. Just started into it last night. One of the best series of books I have ever read. Some of the characters in it are just masterful.
A series that doesn't get the recognition it deserves.

Ive had them for ages and never knew they were so highly regarded, was just in the mood for a fantasy series but was saving the newest Fitz trilogy for a holiday in October, thanks.

shootermacg

Thargor wrote: »

Ive had them for ages and never knew they were so highly regarded, was just in the mood for a fantasy series but was saving the newest Fitz trilogy for a holiday in October, thanks.

I've read quite a lot and I would rate the PoN series as the very best I've ever read. Its that good. It starts slow (first hundred pages) it then becomes some of the best fantasy ever written.

david75

Listening to the audiobook of A wrinkle in time. Saw the trailer for the film yesterday and decided to jump to it. It's wonderful so far. Really advanced as a supposed kids book goes.

Thargor

ixoy wrote: »

14% into "The Unholy Consult" by R. Scott Bakker, the fourth book in his Aspect-Emperor series and the one that's also wrapping up the events of the previous trilogy.

It's excellent so far - very very bleak though. Bakker has some beautiful turns of phrase and again his philosophical insights are strong (which they'd want to be given how core they are to the entire series!). The sense of epic scale in this is as grand as any series I've read and really hope the conclusion pays off after over a decade in the world.

Heffoman wrote: »

Echo all the above. Just started into it last night. One of the best series of books I have ever read. Some of the characters in it are just masterful.
A series that doesn't get the recognition it deserves.

shootermacg wrote: »

I've read quite a lot and I would rate the PoN series as the very best I've ever read. Its that good. It starts slow (first hundred pages) it then becomes some of the best fantasy ever written.

Right, for the first 250 pages of this it was just non-stop rapid-fire of very similar sounding placenames and character names and unending mentions of historical events being thrown at you with zero clue what was going on, and just as I was about to throw in the towel and scratch it off as another disappointment the

Holy War

kicks off and it all clicks into one of the best fantasy books I've read in years, I basically read the whole first book over the last two days, its nearly perfect, sometimes its David Gemmel, sometimes its First Law (before it got sh1te), sometimes its Malazan level greatness.

Usually when you read a book like this there are some POV chapters where you have to force yourself through to get to the good stuff, in this every single plot thread is gold and there are a lot of them, its pure quality, I really hope he keeps it up for the rest of the series.

He really should release them with proper covers, the ones I see in the shop with that picture of a random mans face in a circle make them look like the cheapest of fantasy novels when its actually one of the best things Ive read in ages...

keane2097

Is that starting with 'The Darkness That Comes Before'?

Is it a typical fantasy length behemoth?

Thargor

Yeah they're fairly big books and there's a couple of series, I'm delighted, haven't had decent fantasy in so long...

miamee

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Heading into Assassins Fate now to say so long to a bastard.

Reading this myself at the moment. I'm about 2/3 of the way through and I don;t want it to be over!

david75

miamee wrote: »

Reading this myself at the moment. I'm about 2/3 of the way through and I don;t want it to be over!

Be interested to hear your thoughts once you're done.

Thargor

Holy crap the Prince of Nothing/Aspect Emperor stuff is insanely good, everyone should read it. The writing is so rich and the characters are so deep and well developed, its like a psychology/philosophy textbook crossed with a great fantasy series, the way Kellus dissects peoples personalities is so interesting, Im forcing myself to not rush through other chapters to get to his. The combat and magic is amazing aswell, its as good as Malazan and GoT imo. Totally agree with this review on wiki:

“The Darkness That Comes Before is something special... A stunning first book, brilliant setting and characterisation, and if this was just a warm-up then the entire series is going to set a new standard for fantasy writers everywhere. Go read it now, as the publisher's blurb proclaims - ‘Something remarkable has begun...’”
–The Alien Online

david75

Thargor wrote: »

Holy crap the Prince of Nothing/Aspect Emperor stuff is insanely good, everyone should read it. The writing is so rich and the characters are so deep and well developed, its like a psychology/philosophy textbook crossed with a great fantasy series, the way Kellus dissects peoples personalities is so interesting, Im forcing myself to not rush through other chapters to get to his. The combat and magic is amazing aswell, its as good as Malazan and GoT imo. Totally agree with this review on wiki:

That's the kind of genuine excitement about a book or series that makes me go buy it. I'm the same about the farseer books. Bought the lot. I hope I love em. Thank you.

mcgovern

Queen of the Tearling wasn't bad but I don't think it was interesting enough for me to continue the series.
I started Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer. I must have got it confused with something else, because it is nothing like I expected. It is basically just an outline of a plot (that never progresses) as an excuse to go off on ramblings about philosophy, theology, art, history... basically anything other than the story. Not sure how this was nominated for so many awards, rally struggling with it, so much so that I went and read The Doomed Earth (book 10 and final in Mission Earth Series) by L. Ron Hubbard. It was terrible, pure tripe. But it was still better than Too Like the Lightning.
As a complete change of pace I started Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, a YA book about a 12 year old criminal mastermind from Dublin. It's quite fun and an easy read, exactly what I needed!

Manach

Fata Morgana by Stephen Boyett - basically a WWII / Timeslip hybrid. There are echoes of the Destroymen series. Overall I am enjoying it, a pleasant summer read.

nhur

nhur wrote: »

Started reading Asimov...

- in march ...

and i just started the last book this morning - great stuff. (though wasn't too enamoured with the last one i read)

Nate--IRL--

Halfway through Fall of Hyperion at the moment. I'd bought Hyperion years ago and never read it. When I did get around to it, it was not the book I was expecting at all. I bought Fall of Hyperion and Endimyon (sp) before I'd gotten half way though, I was enjoying it so much.

Nate

Zapp Brannigan

Now that it's a finished trilogy I'm reading Fool's Assassin.

It's mighty slow so far (about 40% through).

Trojan

Did a full read of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. I hadn't read 8-15 so started again from the start, and it's pretty damn good too. On occasion it does come across as a little bit formulaic, but the author throws in enough interesting twists to avoid it being a big issue. Once or twice the deux ex machina endings are irritating, but for the most part it's fine.

And after reading Rivers of London series and thinking the humour was superior there, actually there's not a whole lot in it - both are very enjoyable and comparable.

Looking forward to seeing how Butcher closes out the series - I think he's getting set for a 3 novel closing arc. I'm looking forward to seeing how the island features in that.

nhur

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

It's mighty slow so far (about 40% through).

i hear ya... think the first liveship trilogy was her best...

reece289

Nate--IRL-- wrote: »

Halfway through Fall of Hyperion at the moment. I'd bought Hyperion years ago and never read it. When I did get around to it, it was not the book I was expecting at all. I bought Fall of Hyperion and Endimyon (sp) before I'd gotten half way though, I was enjoying it so much.

Nate

Great book. You really need to read the second one straight away as its one story..

Dades

reece289 wrote: »

Great book. You really need to read the second one straight away as its one story..

I'll second that. I loved the first one but struggled a few years later with book two as I lost track of that universe.

Thargor

Dont miss his Ilium series either, its a kind of recreation of the Iliad with post humans fighting as Greek Gods in the solar system with intelligent machines studying them, brilliant books.



Hyperion is still one of the best sci-fi series Ive ever read though.

ixoy

Thargor wrote: »

Dont miss his Ilium series either, its a kind of recreation of the Iliad with post humans fighting as Greek Gods in the solar system with intelligent machines studying them, brilliant books..

On a contrary note, I was very disappointed in this series after really loving Hyperion/Endymion. It seemed very weak next to it.

Thargor

Its definitely not as good as Hyperion but hes a really good writer, I like his style.

ixoy

ixoy wrote: »

14% into "The Unholy Consult" by R. Scott Bakker, the fourth book in his Aspect-Emperor series and the one that's also wrapping up the events of the previous trilogy.

It's excellent so far - very very bleak though. Bakker has some beautiful turns of phrase and again his philosophical insights are strong (which they'd want to be given how core they are to the entire series!). The sense of epic scale in this is as grand as any series I've read and really hope the conclusion pays off after over a decade in the world.

So yesterday I was at 66% into the book with massive events happening and I go to the next page.. And it's the beginning of a glossary over a hundred pages long followed by two short stories. Be prepared if you are on the Kindle where it's not clear.
The conclusion does not pay off but I the only journey is fantastic and there's a probably among the first most epic battles of sword and sorcery I've ever read, including the Malazan books.

Good news is there's a third arc planned (which I hadn't realised). The title of the arc was actually only a revealed yesterday afternoon (good timing for me). It'll be a while away as Bakker hasn't started it or even got a contract yet to write it.

david75

Listening to some Pratchett audiobooks. Man when he's funny he's laugh out loud funny

miamee

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Heading into Assassins Fate now to say so long to a bastard.

miamee wrote: »

Reading this myself at the moment. I'm about 2/3 of the way through and I don;t want it to be over!

david75 wrote: »

Be interested to hear your thoughts once you're done.

I finished this on Friday. First of all, I only discovered these books by accident last year and started reading Fool's Quest before realising it was part two of a trilogy so I went back and read Fool's Assassin then Fool's Quest and now Assassin's Fate. Little did I know that they were a trilogy in a bigger range of stories so I feel like I may have missed out by reading the last trilogy first. Anyway, I digress.

I thoroughly enjoyed Assassin's Fate. There were parts that I enjoyed less than others and at times I had no interest in reading about Amber/Fool but I'm not sure if that was what was intended or not, were we supposed to detach from him as Fitz was becoming more distanced from him. I really want there to be more about

Bee as she gets older, she's a great character.

I found it hard to follow a lot of the names of the characters on the liveship for some reason, maybe I was saturated with new characters at that stage so I probably didn't engage fully with them. The River Wilds sounded interesting and I see there is a trilogy based on them so I may have to go back and read more from the start. Do they all need to be read in order? Or just pick a trilogy and go for it?

keane2097

About one third of the way through The Darkness That Comes Before (Prince of Nothing first book).

I think someone else made a similar observation a while back, but for the first good chunk of the book there is a lot of auld random people/race/place name gobbledigook dropped in every other sentence with no hints as to what they are before or after.

This seems to be a fairly ham-fisted attempt at world building in the style of Erikson or Tolkien where the author imparts the sense of layers of pre-existing culture and history by allusions to stories and peoples that we don't always get to hear about first hand. In this book, this is not balanced particularly well and is kind of annoying. The most problematic element is that the author uses borderline unpronounceable names (or at least names that it's very unclear how you are supposed to pronounce) for almost everything. You at times get the sense that you are reading a book that has been translated badly as you stumble over names and places every second line that I'm guessing I will never see again.

Having duly laced it up to now, this book is good :pac: The characters so far are great - my normal bugbear with fantasy is characters behaving stupidly, here they are smart, nobody missing the obvious or behaving irrationally for the sake of the plot.

I just read the first battle scene last night and it is class, so excited at the prospect of seeing more of this.

Hopefully the prose settles down with all the throwaway names as they are adding nothing.

shootermacg

keane2097 wrote: »

About one third of the way through The Darkness That Comes Before (Prince of Nothing first book).

I think someone else made a similar observation a while back, but for the first good chunk of the book there is a lot of auld random people/race/place name gobbledigook dropped in every other sentence with no hints as to what they are before or after.

This seems to be a fairly ham-fisted attempt at world building in the style of Erikson or Tolkien where the author imparts the sense of layers of pre-existing culture and history by allusions to stories and peoples that we don't always get to hear about first hand. In this book, this is not balanced particularly well and is kind of annoying. The most problematic element is that the author uses borderline unpronounceable names (or at least names that it's very unclear how you are supposed to pronounce) for almost everything. You at times get the sense that you are reading a book that has been translated badly as you stumble over names and places every second line that I'm guessing I will never see again.

Having duly laced it up to now, this book is good :pac: The characters so far are great - my normal bugbear with fantasy is characters behaving stupidly, here they are smart, nobody missing the obvious or behaving irrationally for the sake of the plot.

I just read the first battle scene last night and it is class, so excited at the prospect of seeing more of this.

Hopefully the prose settles down with all the throwaway names as they are adding nothing.

Very accurate thoughts there, can't argue with the first impressions, they're pretty much bang on.

I too remember getting bogged down at the start, it just jumps in there, right in there as if things would have happened if you had not even been there to witness! It definitely lends the book a sense of being and a solidity.

After reading the whole series, I find the way he handles the history in an off-hand way allowing the conversations to lure you in, without necessarily explaining anything at that time, does give the history a sense of happening whether you are reading or not.

He does feed you this history throughout the series, when he feels it's relative to the plot, so I wouldn't worry about it. Keep with it.

As for his naming of events etc, it does go from the simple and meaningful to the unpronounceable, but again this adds to feel for me, which i actually like.

Keep us updated with your thoughts on the series as you read on, very interesting and accurate.

nhur

keane2097 wrote: »

About one third of the way through The Darkness That Comes Before (Prince of Nothing first book).

Ur a bit ahead of me... I'm about a fifth of the way thru (having finished all the asimov books) and defo getting bogged down in the names and language issues.... Seems like there are more made up words than not... And I had no trouble with erikson... But with all the praise this series has gotten on this thread I'll persevere

Manach

Monster Hunter Siege, book 6 in the series. Guns, Ghoulies and Sabaton. Enjoyable.