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ixoy's reading log

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  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "Iron Angel" by Alan Campbell, Book 2 of the Deepgate Codex trilogy.

    This book felt wildly different to the first instalment, spending a lot of its time in Hell and/or with its various denizens. A lot of this was very imaginative but it sometimes felt Campbell only had a loose plot built around this. The novel feels quite disjointed - the three parts don't gel well together and only tie together in the last couple of chapters in what was a rushed climatic battle, that didn't have the payoff you'd hope for.
    It's not a bad novel and it certainly is never boring, but there's something about it that makes me long for the more solid, less fantastical, "Scar City".


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "Honoured Enemy" by Raymond E. Feist and William R. Forstchen - part of the "Tales of the Riftwar Series".

    This novel was... perfunctory. It was decidedly average - the title almost gives the plot away because there's very little of it. Two opposing sides must join together for their survival - they're hated enemies each but can you guess what's going to happen as they travel together? Simple tales can be told effectively and make a really enjoyable read, but I was never drawn into this. The characters were no more nor less thinly sketched than an average Riftwar instalment and the writing was more detailed than Feist might do alone, but I still found it all quite dull and obvious. It had none of the intrigue that I read Feist for and perhaps, expecting something else, I was bound to be that bit disappointed. Neither bad, nor good - just forgettable.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Well I finally finished "Black Jade" by David Zindell, the 3rd book in his EA cycle. The fact that it took me this long isn't a particularly good indicator.

    The problem is one I've found with the previous instalments in the series - it often feels like a string of (somewhat clichéd) set pieces strung together loosely. The characters embark on a quest (of course) to find a prophet (ho hum) and encounter the usual assortment of hardened desert warrior types and mythical creatures.
    The spin here is not just that the story is told in the first person, but that his view strongly influences our perception of the other characters. Elahad (our protagonist) is a passionate person, a sort of almost bipolar emo. It's actually a core plot element that, as a sort of empath, he feels extremes of emotions but it does mean that we have to wade through many, at times tedious, passages of hyperbolic descriptions of the beauty and love he feels and the fiery hate he feels for the evil over lord.

    To be fair the pace picks up quite a bit in the final third, and it breaks away from some of its earlier flaws. It's a nice touch to try and deal with saving the world from the evil over lord through emotions rather than violence. It's just a shame that the philosophical elements behind all this seem a pale comparison to those explored in his Neverness/Requiem for Homo Sapiens series. Strip out about a third of the book, reign back in on the heavy introspection and there's a good novel underneath. As it is, it was too tedious and too much of a chore.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Much quicker read this time - finished "The Voyage of the Sable Keech" by Neal Asher, the 2nd book in his Spatterjay sequence.

    The world here is still interesting but I don't think Asher expanded on it much from the previous instalment. This meant that I was treated to some of the same descriptions of the world's flora and fauna that I read before albeit re-worded.
    The cast is largely the same as before. I found the Old Captains blended a bit but that the more exotic characters - the alien Hive representative, the Prador - were unqiue enough to hold my interest.
    The plot itself built upon a pivotal event of the first book. In fact it was an event that I wasn't too satisfied the first time around but that was satisfyingly dealt with here. The various other plot strands converged into a decent, action-packed ending which is typical of Asher. It's fair to see that he's able to wrap up an instalment quite well.

    I enjoyed this one but just felt that it lacked some of the fevered originality I saw when I first visited this created world. Perhaps in the next book ("Orbus"), Asher will enrich the world a bit more (even though it is a fascinating ecology).


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished J.V. Jones' "A Sword from Red Ice", Book 3 in her Sword of Shadows quintet.

    First off - the bad. Very little happens in the 677 pages here. It's perhaps because Jones' is juggling too many characters but you could summarise the story quite easily. It may also be because she's contractually obliged to produce a five book series and has to stretch out a trilogies worth. Either way it results in a novel lean on action.

    The good stuff - it didn't really matter. Despite the pace, I really enjoyed this. This is quite surprising as it'd been nearly seven years since I read the previous instalment (thanks to publishing issues and then my own reading backlog). Yet I was able to quickly return to the world thanks to her detailed descriptive writing. She's created a pretty bleak snow-bound world that seems quite well researched - tough and uncompromising.

    She's taken to populating it with realistic characters and this, coupled with her attention to detail, made it very engaging. Sure there's a lack of humour at times but I still found myself drawn to the character's plights and their varied personalities. Only one character's plot line seemed to dive into cliché for a while but it was nicely resolved by the end.

    Overall impressed with the series and looking more forward to the next two books than I was before I read this one.


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  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "System of the World" by Neal Stephenson, the final volume in his Baroque cycle.

    It's a bit of a doorstop - 887 pages of what could be considered only 1/3 of a 3k novel. It continues to describe the birth of the Industrial Revolution through the eyes of fictional characters who interact with real historical figures (such as Isaac Newton and the various royal factions of the time).

    I thought this was perhaps the best instalment in the cycle (apparently it's not a trilogy) primarily because it featured Daniel Waterhouse (an ancestor of the protagonist of 'Cryptonomicon') and interactions with the scientific figures of the time. Waterhouse is a likeable character and Stephenson has done a freakishly good job with his research, recreating the London of the early 18th century. The sense of detail is astounding and quite an education. The downside is that he can get bogged down in it and the flowery prose that he uses - you could cut the novel's page count in half and lose no plot but you would lose some atmosphere and some damn fine writing.
    There's also the fact that he puts aside the characters he spent the last two books on (a blessing when it comes to Eliza - a somewhat sore point for me in "The Confusion"). It's a bit of an oddity to cast them aside at this point.

    Having said all this, historical novels are not my passion (although Stephenson insists that it's science fiction due to a plot on Alchemy and its treatment of the sciences). Too little happens at times and it can vary whether Stephenson's writing skill and research can always cover these deficits. It's certainly a very very impressive piece of writing but part of me is more at home with space operas and epic fantasy and wished for him to lean more towards "Snow Crash" again.
    Highly recommended for readers of historical fiction interested in the change from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution and a guarded recommendation for all others.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "The Charnel Prince" by Greg Keyes, the second book in his "Kingdom of Thorn and Bone" quartet.

    I enjoyed this one, much like the first. It's got a nice brisk pace - too often fantasy novels have long, endless chapters to wade through. Here we've got short (10 or so) ones that ensure the reader isn't bored. That's helped of course by having some decent characters - for the most we're following on the stories of those encountered in the first and there's definite character growth, something that often stagnates in other series.
    The world isn't particularly original - although it's good to see a sort of Spanish influence instead of just traditional Britain. The magic system is quite good, based on the passage of Saints, and it plays a very important role in the plot arc.

    Well worth of a read, based on the first half of the series that I've read.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "Spirit Gate" by Kate Elliott, the first book in her "Crossroads" series.

    I really enjoyed this one. It's a tale of a land that's under threat from a mysterious outside force, with the land's towns being eroded by this unknown force. Protecting them are reeves - peace-keepers on giant vicious eagles and we follow one of these. Thrown into the mix are strangers from a foreign land whose own story weaves into the mix.

    Elliott has done some nice world building here. It's refreshing to see a fantasy world not formed from Medieval Europe (there's a definite Mid-East / Eastern vibe here). It makes for an interesting cultural backdrop and Elliott unfolds it well, without ever seeming to info dump.
    The characters are quite well drawn. Unusually she only introduces some of them halfway through the book and, at times, she'll drop the story of some of them for over a hundred pages. It doesn't grate too much as, inevitably, their stories start drawing in but it may distract some. What she does do right though is get into the mindset of someone of that culture - something she did successfully in her "Crown of Stars" series. Too many books have their characters act with a 20th/21st century mindset.

    The story does move rather slowly, but that's Elliott's style as she likes to enrich the world around her, and is quite a descriptive writer (reminding me of J.V. Jones who I read recently). The resolution seems a little rushed though, but contrasted against the quality before and it's not a big complaint. Hopefully the rest of the series (7 books in total!) will live up my expectations raised here.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "Jimmy the Hand" by Raymond E. Feist and Steve Stirling - the last in his "Legends of the Riftwar" collaborative series.

    The story fills in some background on Jimmy the Hand (one of the favourites of the older series). Like most of Feist's work the pacing is brisk and the characters, while never filled with any real depth are sketched well enough that they're easy to work with.
    The plot is a little weak and in fact the plot of the first third bears next to no link with that of the second. That's a bit disappointing. More disappointing is that this latter section of the book removes the focus away from Jimmy far too much - shifting the viewpoint to too many other characters and not the titular one. They're not bad characters per se - it's that you'd expect more Jimmy in his own book.

    Criticisms aside, I enjoyed this much as I do most of the Riftwar series. It's just an average instalment though and I felt he could have done more.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "Halting State" by Charles Stross.

    In this novel (Scotland, c. 2018) there's a robbery within an MMORPG (think of it as a very-advanced VR form of "World of Warcraft"). A team of an auditor and programmer are called in to investigate how this occurred (it affecting the company's security credibility) and then uncover some much bigger plots.

    The novel has an unusual style - it's split between three characters with each chapter switching to a different character and telling their story in the second person. Presumably this is a homage to old text adventures / adventure books (which the author played) but it's not really a great tactic when the characters aren't that well sketched.

    The plot itself is quite interesting, although there was more of "reality" than I'd have hoped for and less of the virtual worlds. It's also an extremely techie book - that's fine for me, as I've a computer science background (like the author) but it might throw others off as, for all the side explanations, you'd still lose out without that knowledge.
    The pace is quite good and, like with much of Stross' work, it's fiercely imaginative (although I don't believe the world will advance as quickly as he predicts and he sort of glossed over the finer points of interfacing into the VR world). The unravelling of all these plot points though is a bit uneven at times and - despite the stakes being raised - it never has the emotional impact or long-term game planning that I felt he accomplished so very well in "Glasshouse".

    It's all still worth a read - especially (as was the author's intention) if you're a CS person looking for a sci-fi book based around the projected future of networks, databases, and IT infrastructure. It also has a great cover and an excellent interview at the end. It's just not as good as some of his other works and I could never, fully, get drawn into the story.


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  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "The Father Thing" by Philip K. Dick - the third volume collecting all his short stories.

    Much like with any collection, it's a mixed bag. Certain themes re-occur regularly and it's not at all hard to spot the political worries of the time (namely communism). Dick also though explores social themes and questions the mechanics of a labouring society in different stories. Most of them fit a theme of sort - the man (always a man, women are nearly always 2nd class citizens) is often a bit down trodden and forces his way to some form of realization. Generally there's a sting in the tale or a twist - sometimes it's very easy to see and the story loses its effectiveness, other times the journey is enough.

    There's no stand-out favourite story in here, although the titular "Father Thing" is as good as any of them. "War Veteran" is smart and the likes of "The Golden Man" is thoughtful. There's some duff ones in there (it came as no surprise to see "Misadjustment" was never re-published until this collection) but if you've enjoyed the first two collections, you'll find more to treasure here. While some of the trappings and characters seem archaic, the smart thoughts behind them can still remain fresh.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "Under the Dome" by Stephen King.

    This story has a great premise - a town cut off from the world suddenly, as if beneath a large glass dome. Nothing goes in, nothing goes out. And, in a sort of insane Big Brother, you watch as the people cope.

    There's a large set of characters in this and they're fairly familiar to anyone who has read a few King books. They're generally well fleshed out, although some of the secondary characters are a bit flat. Also worth mentioning that King writes teenagers very poorly - the language that comes out of their mouth seems straight from an '80s movie and very forced. It's a little bit surprising as the rest of the conversations, among the adults, flow quite well.

    The plot is interesting enough, although there's one particular strand which is highly contrived so as to deliver a big set piece. It's also a little hard to believe that the town devolves as quickly as it does or that people are so gullible - although that perhaps is one of King's points. After all the true horror here is what people do to one another, etc.

    A lot of people express disappointment at the ending and, although I can see where they're coming from, I'd disagree. There's a suitably epic moment and the resolution (which is a little bit Koontz like, as others have pointed out), actually works as it fits with what we've seen before.

    It's not quite up there with "IT" and "The Stand", but "Under the Dome" is a very enjoyable piece of work by King.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "The Escapement" by K.J. Parker, the final book in the Engineer trilogy.

    The story is primarily a large seige between two opposing factions. What's interesting is how the primary character has (quite literally) engineered all the parts towards his desired goal. There's no magic in this series - only cold logic and the applications of engineering principles to both engines and people. The characters, often narrating in a cynical style, are morally ambivalent, very much of the belief the ends justifies the means (to sometimes a horrific degree). It's got quite a unique style as a result, making it engaging.
    Less engaging is Parker's overly detailed descriptions of engineering (much as I found with forging in the Scavenger trilogy).

    The ending is quite suitable with deserved fates for all characters. It might like an "oomph" but is very much in keeping with the tone of the series. Recommende overall, with the cautious note that it can be slow in parts but worth it to see such a different manner of approach to fantasy.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "Cowl" by Neal Asher. It's a non-Polity time travel story. Essentially two future factions war it out over time, with one faction determined to permanently disrupt the timeline through their leader (and super villain) Cowl.

    Time travel generally shows up in short story form, allowing for smart paradoxes. Fleshing into a novel requires a bit of thought and Asher achieves this quite well, taking into account paradoxes using the concept of a "probability slope" and organic tech.
    The time frames jumped back to are primarily pre-civilization - that's an excuse for Asher to once more rev up with the big vicious beasts he loves so much, in this case it's the dinosaurs. The heroes he puts up against them are fairly thinly sketched, but as I've mentioned before, he only uses characters as an end to the story - Cowl, for example, is in the same mould as the Skinner of Skeller, a pumped up super villain and quite fun as a result.

    While the premise is good and all, the writing at times feels a bit unpolished. I wondered if this was something he wrote prior to getting his Polity series published and then got released after his initial successes. The plot is fairly well contained but at times the pace of it is a bit "And suddenly...". It's still enjoyable though because, as abrupt as the pacing may seem, it never lags. You're never bored.

    It's not up to his Agent Cormac series or the Spatterjay sequence, but it's a grand one-off time travel story.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "Last Argument of Kings" by Joe Aberrcrombie - the final book in his First Law trilogy.

    This was a series that got better with each book and this third one is excellent. All the characters and plots are drawn together and it never feels contrived. The plot is good - it won't astound you but there's enough decent world building in it. What's far more interesting is the visceral tone of it - Abercrombie has a way of making the world seem far more real than many fantasy series. He doesn't shirk from the violence of characters in both the real terms and their thoughts.
    It's characters though that are the strongest point. It's cheap to just label them as "shades of grey" - rather he's created some real, believable people. They've got fears, hate, love, dark and good thoughts. The character of Glokta, the torturer caught up in events, is particularly interesting - bitter, self-loathing, prone to all acts of violence to keep himself alive and yet , somehow, you can still feel sympathy for the crippled body.

    There's a very satisfying final battle and Abercrombie refuses to come up with a pat ending (and, of course, leaving scope to return to the world). One of the best and most satisfying conclusions to a fantasy series I've ever read.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "Matter" by Iain M. Banks, a sci-fi novel set in his Culture universe.

    This one is a little bit of a disappointment by the standards of other Culture novels. It's down a lot to the pacing, something that I noticed many other reviews picked up on. This in turn is down to the setup of the story - it starts off as a sort of fantasy novel, where a king is cruelly betrayed and the son must flee to avenge the death. The sci-fi comes in because this fantasy world is one of many nested worlds contained with a giant Shellworld, one which a variety of the galaxies big players are involved with (including the Culture and, as their agents, Special Circumstances).

    The ShellWorld is an interesting idea but the problem is there isn't quite enough plot here for the novel's length. This means that there's a pacing issue in the middle, where one of the characters travels across the Galaxy, meeting different cultures in order to get to the point. It's good to see more of the galaxy fleshed out, and meet the Culture's peers from other races, but it doesn't always gel well. Other plot strands also slow down and some of the characters undergo more unwelcome changes.

    Towards the end, for the last hundred pages or so, the pacing picks up a lot and the ideas flow much quicker. The finale is suitable adrenaline pumping and the epilogue is neatly done. I felt though that, if more prudently edited, the novel could have had a much tighter focus and been something that was very good rather than just decent.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "Crack'd Pot Trail", the fourth Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novella.

    I think this was perhaps the weakest of the series so far. For a start it hardly features the two necromancers or even Emancipor Reese, instead focusing on a poet travelling with a large party of (somewhat) diverse characters on their trail. The party is struggling for food and so, through the tale, the various poets regale the party with tales in order not to become the next meal...

    Like the other novels in this series, there is some high enjoyable twisted black humour. Less enticing is the narrator's perchance for long-winded sentences. Now that's something that's crept into Erikson's work as he's progressed, but it seems more prevalent here - there's some quite torturous sentences to unravel. Often it's worth the reward to get the neat imagery but it can slow down the flow at times. The author does, again, go off on tangents - you're either used to this now or not. Some are interesting (his social commentary on writers as artists) but at times it's a bit long-winded.

    The characters are fairly standard Erikson archetypes - in that there's layered motivations but not too much emotional depth and of course you know not to get too attached...

    The presentation of the book is nice but the colour plate illustrations were perhaps too dark and hard to discern.

    I enjoyed it overall but perhaps not as much as I had hoped. I know he's capable of better so hopefully his next work, the conclusion of the Malazan Books of the Fallen, will be better.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished Raymond E. Feist's "Wrath of a Mad God", Book 3 in the Darkwar Saga.

    Events from the saga come to a head here. For longer-term fans there's also a lot of references to different series over time with characters returning and their arcs finishing (along with some annoying factual errors). Without going into spoiler-territory, there are some very big events in this book - so much so that they're almost lost amidst each other towards the end.
    Some of these events feel very "deus-ex machina" and there's a bit of ret-conning going on I think. It means that the plot is a mixture of exciting and frustrating, depending on how willing you are to believe Feist had a master plan or not.

    As to the actual writing of the book... Firstly, like with the previous instalment, there are far too many typos. It's not just misspellings but words used incorrectly. I don't think there was much in the way of proof reading or, for that matter, editing. At times Feist re-uses the same phrases and descriptions mere sentences apart - something any editor would have zoned in on. I'm not sure if the deadlines are tight or not but it does detract from the story.
    Thankfully there's a very good pace to it all and, with the events described above, I was never left bored and kept wanting to move on. After it all, it felt a bit like a dessert - nice, kind of bad for you and not ultimately that satisfying as a meal. Recommended for Feist fans but not his best work either.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "Permutation City" by Greg Egan.

    This is a book dealing with virtual reality but in a very detailed and carefully considered manner. People have Copies of themselves within these universes, allowing Egan to ponder questions as to whether the Copies are equal to the originals and what exactly is consciousness. As the novel progresses, these questions are delved into further - if you can edit your virtual self (after all it's only software algorithms) are you still the same person?
    The ability to explore such concepts are some of the biggest reasons I love science fiction and Egan is excellent at presenting scenarios to investigate them. Admittedly some of the theories in here pushed my brain and were almost on the verge of absurdity and yet not possible to refute.

    Less satisfying are the characters here, who are fairly one dimensional and more mediums for the concepts. The plot also can can jump about the place a bit and the end is a little bit too neat.

    Overall it's another worthy book. It's not always easy (Egan is very hard sci-fi) but worth reading for showing again the range of questions science fiction enables you to explore.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "The Blood Knight" by Greg Keyes, the third book in his "Kingdom of Thorn and Bone" series.

    Like the other two instalments it moves along nicely, although the pacing is a little bit off here, starting a little bit slowly.
    Characterisation is strong, particularly with Anne whose transition to her regal role is very well done.
    Also good is the use of language as a plot - Keyes obviously spent a bit of time with linguistics and it adds a depth of history to the world.

    There's enough left for a good final instalment which I hope will measure up to the first three.


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  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge" by ... Vernor Vinge! It's a collection of - wait for it - Vernor Vinge's short stories, spanning about three decades. (As an aside, I was reading these stories concurrent to the novel "The Blood Knight". I don't read that fast...).

    These stories date very well. One of the oldest, for example, quite accurately predicts the CGI "Lord of the Rings". Others explore giant networked PCs and Vinge's belief in a singularity. There's a nice variety in them as well, although naturally there's a variance in quality (for example didn't care for "The Peddler's Apprentice" at all but loved "The Babbler").
    More than enough here to make me read more Vernor Vinge (just as well too, as I already had picked up another of his books!).


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 11,924 ✭✭✭✭RolandIRL


    i see you're big into Stephen King and other fantasy/sci-fi books as well. i kinda agree with your review of Under the Dome. ending was kinda anti-climatic, but a good read overall.

    do you have any other authors you like in the fantasy/sci-fi genre? i've a good few king books to read yet but i find it hard to get into a different author. any recommendations?
    thanks


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "Kraken" by China Miellville (well finished it awhile back).

    I enjoyed this, as I usually do with China's work. The plot is fairly straight forward - an revered preserved Kraken is stolen by cultists who hope to use it lead London towards an Armageddon.
    China's take on it is to show a London with a bizarre underside to it - full of odd cultists worshipping odd deities. It's a London where the ocean is worshipped and where someone can build a sonic screw-driver. It's replete with references, including nerd pop-culture including talking about building working phasers and sonic screw-drivers.

    It also has China's prose, his wonderful use of language. There are so many evocative turns of phrase. China also makes up words (or dredges ones up that have been cast from dictionaries due to disuse). In the hands of many it would drag down the story but here it just adds to the mystery of the other London (in many ways a more adult version of his "UnLunDun".)

    It's far more insane and pulse rushing than his previous "The City and the City", both equally strong works. "Clive Barker on acid" was a good description I read. Not as fine as "The Scar" but an excellent read from Mr. New Weird.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "Lisey's Story" by Stephen King.

    Primarily this a novel about grief as Lisey Landon copes with working through the memories of her dead husband as well as coping with her troubled sister. A lot of this then involves flashbacks to her past (and indeed flashbacks within those) as she unlocks memories she had repressed.

    The fantastical element comes from her husband's past and his family's dark secrets. It's an important element but, as with much of King's work, it's most important as to how it affects the characters.

    The novel though is a little long in places. It could have been pruned more (something King even talks about in the afterword). Lisey can grate at times and her husband, Scott, actually (to me) seems kinda irritating at times. Other bits though are done very well - the grief, Scott's horrific childhood, etc. It's not his strongest work but it feels among his most personal.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,444 ✭✭✭Dohnny Jepp


    You seem to have a similar taste to msyelf! Not sure if you read it, but you should check out the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Its a lot of books and a lot of pages but well worth the read.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "Hilldiggers" by Neal Asher.

    I was a little bit disappointed with this one. One of my favourite things about Asher is his crazy inventiveness with alien life, which was only really peripheral here. Instead it's primarily about a civil war conflict between manipulated siblings whose real motives are very obvious from early on. These characters are not very interesting - even if it's never Asher's strong point (as he admits), they generally get carried away in a fast plot, which is largely absent here. Even the Polity aspect is distant, making it feel disconnected from his other novels (and not in a good way).

    It's not a bad novel, but it's never a good one either. Definitely weaker than his Agent Cormac and Spatterjay series.
    You seem to have a similar taste to msyelf! Not sure if you read it, but you should check out the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Its a lot of books and a lot of pages but well worth the read.
    I've read the first and second chronicles and working on the final one :) Good fantasy, even if it doesn't move at as fast a pace as many modern series do.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "The Gathering Storm" by Brendan Sanderson and Robert Jordan, the 12th book in "The Wheel of Time".

    As I was growing weary of the series, I didn't really have concerns about a new writer taking it over (even though I was unfamiliar with his works). I was right not too because Sanderson has done a good job. In fact it's the best book in the series since "Lord of Chaos" (Book 6).
    What's good is that Sanderson picks up the pace. Things happen. They're important things too. Primarily it's focusing on two characters - Rand and Egwene and there's some excellent characterisation here. It's entirely consistent with how Jordan wrote them but pushes them in interesting directions.
    The prose is also leaner. Yes, the book is 750+ pages and at times it slows down a little. Sanderson though doesn't, for example, spend excessive time detailing the clothes people are wearing. Nynaeve barely tugs her braid. In fact she's the best written she's been in ages - again more emotion creeps in here. There's even time for a rather sweet love story.

    I didn't like everything here. Some characters annoy me and the arrogance of the Aes Sedai still grates (which, of course, it's somewhat meant to). There's enough goodness though to restore my faith in the series. I ploughed through the final half of the book much more quickly than previous volumes. That says enough.


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Forgot that I recently finished "Fragile Things", a collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman.

    This is my first introduction to Gaiman in the written form (although I've read some of the Sandman series). There's quite an eclectic mix here - there's a number of poems, there's stories commissioned for album sleeves, as well as a number of award-winning pieces.
    Gaiman has an good fantastical style - it's quite unique. His stories are primarily set in our world, but the underside of it - in the secret clubs and small country houses where strange things happen. Among the most inventive here was the excellent "Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire" and the smart "A Study in Emerald" (which is a great Holmes / Cthulu mashup). There's some there that are slight and weak as well and others are too brief to be of any substance. Nonetheless it did make me want to read more of his work (which is as well as I have "The Graveyard Book" on my bookshelf).


  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "Shadow Gate" by Kate Elliott, the second book in her Crossroads trilogy.

    It's a worthy sequel to the first instalment. The milieu is interesting here as it looks to the East for inspiration, rather than the typical Western setting for fantasy novels. This provides a rich setting for the story and Elliott is very good at getting her characters into the mindset of their era and place. Too many fantasy authors give their characters a 21st century mindset but Elliott is not afraid to have her main protagonists believe in their culture's value, even if it includes concepts like slavery. It really helps add depth to the novel.

    The characters themselves are well drawn, and feel very natural. There's no requirement for demi-gods or mysterious mages. Even the cadre of Guardians, who have strong magical powers, feel like they're regular power who've been gifted (which is itself an important plot element). It's also got some of the strongest female characters in a fantasy series.

    The plot itself is good as the events from the first book - detailing an army slowly invading a land - are expanded on as well as mysteries explained. There's not a massive amount of action set pieces but there's some very memorable ones - Elliot describes some of the most disturbing scenes and actions I've ever come across in a fantasy novel. Thanks for that Kate.

    Two-thirds of the way in and I've really enjoyed the series. More tightly written and original than her "Crown of Stars" septology, I look forward to seeing how it concludes.


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  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,978 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    Finished "Once Upon a Time in the North" by Philip Pullman.

    It's a short story relating a tale of Lee Scoresby, a character from "His Dark Materials". There's not much to the tale but it's told well. The book itself is beautifully illustrated and packaged, including fake news articles and a pullout board game. Top marks for presentation.

    It's not substantial but a lovely treat for fans of the series.


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