What Are You Reading?

Thargor

Dan_Solo wrote: »

About 1/3 into The Great North Road. It's just too bloody long for the amount that seems to actually happen in it. Plus, besides the Stargates (yeah, that's what they are really) it doesn't feel like it's anywhere near as far in the future as it's supposed to be.
The story itself is OK though and well written, I'll be finishing it for sure.

Totally agree, the whole premise made no sense but the 2 things he seemed to focus >50% of the book on made absolutely no sense whatsoever to me:

1. Monster Murder Mystery around the convoy in the snow: Its a God Like creature that controls the output of stars and planetary ecosystems, why is it sneaking around getting injured when shot and swiping at the humans with claws?

2. The endless, endless search for that taxi in Glasgow, its the future and the whole police department had to get down on their hands and knees eyeballing this hologram of glasgow or whereever it was for months? There were no automated tools to say "Follow that car" or an AI or anything to do it for them?

After the Nights Dawn Trilogy and The Commonwealth Saga plus a few others like fallen Dragon he'll always be one of my favourite authors but holy crap Great North Road was badly written and dragged out, like a mediocre detective short story stretched into a novel.

Then again it had brilliant bits like the space planes they used to use to delay that (seemingly totally irrelevant as far as I could tell) virus thing, the society of the super-rich etc, seemed like a lot of wasted potential.

Dan_Solo

Thargor wrote: »

but holy crap Great North Road was badly written and dragged out,

Well I'm not sure I'd agree fully that it's "badly written" exactly. It's certainly badly paced, but I find the standard of writing itself in it pretty good. It just needs more going on to wrap those nice words around.
Depends on whether you mean "writing" as in prose or as in storytelling I guess.

Manach

Starting on Jim Butcher's Skin Game.

Thargor

Nah I thought it was badly written, better than 90% of new sci-fi but still disappointing for him, one of my fav authors as I said. I remember him using a lot of lazy adjectives over and over again and the constant repetition in general annoyed me.

OwaynOTT

Pratchett's Raising Steam. Let's see if it's a step up from Snuff and Unseen Academicals or if the downward trend is continued.

Dades

Bits_n_Bobs wrote: »

James S.A. Corey's Expanse (1-3) about halfway through the third. I've mixed feelings on this, it ticks a lot of my space opera buttons, however it's all a bit predictable and the lead characters are poorly realised. Nevertheless the central plot is ok thus far and I'm curious enough about the ending to stick with it.

Put it down for the second time recently. I agree the characters are paper thin, and for me the fascination the universe offered initially doesn't prop it up any more.

Dan_Solo

Thargor wrote: »

Nah I thought it was badly written, better than 90% of new sci-fi but still disappointing for him, one of my fav authors as I said. I remember him using a lot of lazy adjectives over and over again and the constant repetition in general annoyed me.

Oh, grand. I'm only 1/3rd in though, so if the whole story is repeated twice from here I'm sure I'll agree with you!

Thargor

Hope you didnt read those spoilers then! Ah it was an okay book I was just disappointed that it wasnt as good as his usual stuff, he must be due to release something else soon.

Dan_Solo

Thargor wrote: »

Hope you didnt read those spoilers then! Ah it was an okay book I was just disappointed that it wasnt as good as his usual stuff, he must be due to release something else soon.

Nay bother. This book is so long I'll have long since forgotten by the time I get to them...

old hippy

The penultimate Thrones book. Much improved (so far) on the Feast for Crows...

saucyleopard

Read Lion of Macedon again recently. Gemmell has to have been the best fantasy writer of all time with Pratchett as the best comic fantasy writer. One dead and the other with Alzheimer's. Might read Night Watch next,again just for the fun of it!

mcgovern

Finished Tower of Midnight which was good, a return to form for the series, but will still be glad to finish the series soon!
About 70% through Downbelow Station by CJ Cherryh, it hasn't really got going, don't think I'd bother with the rest of the series.

ixoy

68% into Brian McClellan's "Promise of Blood" the first book in his Powder Mage trilogy. Very enjoyable so far - it's an early industrial world following a military coup against a corrupt monarchy. It's quite magic heavy and innovative in a way that Brandon Sanderson would be proud of: the power mages use gun powder like a form of cocaine to fuel one form of magic and there's hints of other magic systems in play. Throw in the signs of a bigger threat and you've got what seems to be a promising series.

ixoy

ixoy wrote: »

68% into Brian McClellan's "Promise of Blood" the first book in his Powder Mage trilogy. Very enjoyable so far - it's an early industrial world following a military coup against a corrupt monarchy. It's quite magic heavy and innovative in a way that Brandon Sanderson would be proud of: the power mages use gun powder like a form of cocaine to fuel one form of magic and there's hints of other magic systems in play. Throw in the signs of a bigger threat and you've got what seems to be a promising series.

Started it myself the other night and really enjoying it. I'm a big fan of writers who set out their magic system early on and then struck by it. Far too many writers have a habit of changing their system to get themselves out of a corner.

OwaynOTT

Have sitting in the pile as well.

Zapp Brannigan

Orb, Sceptre, Throne.

This is the first book where I think Esslemont has found his voice. Love the Seguleh.

5live

Win a part in GRRMs next GoT novel.:)

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/book-news/game-of-thrones-fans-are-told-how-they-can-win-a-part-in-author-george-r-r-martins-next-book-30333820.html

Playboy

Just finished Words of Radiance by Sanderson. I enjoyed it but it wasn't as good as Way of Kings unfortunately. He focused too much attention on the wrong character, the character that was the weakest of the bunch. Not sure who advises him but he had the same issue in Mistborn, giving too many pages to the tedious characters at the expense of the interesting ones. He also writes female characters really poorly, he should read some Abercrombie to see how its done!

wyrn

A couple of chapters in on Thief's Magic by Trudi Canavan. Not sure how I feel about it. It's different, steampunk magic. Love the Black Magician trilogy, hated the follow ups. Age of the Five was okish. Hopefully this book will pick up the pace a bit.

5live

Just started 'Son of the Morning' by Mark Alder. Interesting so far. Set in England in 1330 and eerily similar to this thread:eek:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057198155

where Lucifer is the good guy and 'God' an usurper

pixelburp

Bits_n_Bobs wrote: »

James S.A. Corey's Expanse (1-3) about halfway through the third. I've mixed feelings on this, it ticks a lot of my space opera buttons, however it's all a bit predictable and the lead characters are poorly realised. Nevertheless the central plot is ok thus far and I'm curious enough about the ending to stick with it.

Dades wrote: »

Put it down for the second time recently. I agree the characters are paper thin, and for me the fascination the universe offered initially doesn't prop it up any more.

Picked up Abaddon's Gate yesterday, having only finished Caliban's War a day or so ago. The second book seemed to lose a lot of the steam & momentum that the first contained, but still enjoyed things enough to see how it all pans out.

I agree that everything seems painted in very broad strokes; sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The antagonists in particular come across as being from the 'Umbrella Corporation' school of villainy, where the business plan appears to be 'Cause the apocalypse. Repeatedly'. I actually like the main characters, they're a disparate enough group with distinctive voices - if a little cliché - that I find them appealing to follow. The series should work well for TV, so am hopeful ScyFy make a good fist of the adaptation. My only concern is that Holden's an idealist to a fault, the book calling him out on this, and if the script doesn't include this element, his naivety will derail the story.

Bits_n_Bobs

pixelburp wrote: »

The antagonists in particular come across as being from the 'Umbrella Corporation' school of villainy, where the business plan appears to be 'Cause the apocalypse. Repeatedly'.

Best business plan description ever

ronoc 1

are the mistborn books worth reading,need something tie me over until the new abercrombie and anthony ryan books come out.

shootermacg

ronoc 1 wrote: »

are the mistborn books worth reading,need something tie me over until the new abercrombie and anthony ryan books come out.

Personally I would have to say no, you'll regret the time spent reading it, when there's so many other books worth your attention.

ixoy

ronoc 1 wrote: »

are the mistborn books worth reading,need something tie me over until the new abercrombie and anthony ryan books come out.

I enjoyed them. They're an easy read, there's an interesting magic system and there's some good plot twists. It's a little rough around the edges (Sanderson's gotten better) but worth it. Better, in my opinion, than a lot of other series out there.

OwaynOTT

I'd agreed there with that opinion (of shootermacg) . If you must read Sanderson, why not try Stormlight Archive?
Or Bradley P Beaulieu's Lays of Anuskaya trilogy.
Or Ian Tregilis' The Milkweed Triptych trilogy.

ixoy

OwaynOTT wrote: »

I'd agreed there with that opinion (of shootermacg) . If you must read Sanderson, why not try Stormlight Archive?

It's definitely a better series but there's only two of ten books out so that might be frustrating.

Or Bradley P Beaulieu's Lays of Anuskaya trilogy.

Good call - not enough attention drawn to this series.

fenris

if you like Richard Morgan the "The Steel remains"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Steel_Remains is worth a read especially if you have read his Takeshi Kovacs books

OwaynOTT

ixoy wrote: »

It's definitely a better series but there's only two of ten books out so that might be frustrating.


Good call - not enough attention drawn to this series.

But two extremely long books, longer than some series out there.

Somehing a bit lighter would be Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant books. Mot sure how many, I think five, and the series isn't drawn to a conclusion yet but so e fun to be had. Just make sure not to read it on your kindle, as magic will play havoc with it. :P

Trojan

Finished Wool (1-5). Very good read, I look forward to reading more from Howey & Silo universe.

Probably technically not even scifi

. 4-5/5.