What Are You Reading?

Raging_Ninja

Thargor wrote: »

I thought it was cringeworthy to be honest, such lazy amateur writing and boring characters, total grind to get through. I just kept picturing how good it could have been if a decent author had done it.

Better than twilight.

Thargor

They both share the same leaving cert English standard of bland writing imo, although I only read the first 20 pages of Twilight standing up in a bookshop.

That reminds me, are the True Blood books any good? I heard they're different from the series. (Can you tell Im badly stuck for something to read yet?)

OwaynOTT

Thargor wrote: »

They both share the same leaving cert English standard of bland writing imo, although I only read the first 20 pages of Twilight standing up in a bookshop.

That reminds me, are the True Blood books any good? I heard they're different from the series. (Can you tell Im badly stuck for something to read yet?)

The Martian by Andy Weir, Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajneimi, Sea of Ghosts by Alan Campell, Rivers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch, anything by Joe Hill, Throne of Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Dark Eden by Chris Beckett, retribution falls by Chris Wodding, Red Knight by Miles Cameron, Emperors Blade by Brian Staveley, Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawerence, Emperors Knight by Mazarkis Williams, Promise of Blood by Brian NcCellan, Songs of the Earth by Elspeth Cooper, Wolfhound Centrury by Peter Higgins, Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregilis, Blood Song by Anthony pRyan, Grim Company by Luke Scull, Theathreof the Gods by M Suddain, and a Wheel of Time.
Any of those before you check out True Blood, after considering Twilight.

fenris

The Skullduggery Pleasent series is worth a look, Irish author and set around the Dublin area.
Easy reading with a lot of sniggerworthy bits.

Vokes

Thargor wrote: »

Anyone know when Blood Songs sequel is out? No fixed date from a quick search.

July 3rd according to Amazon UK. Which I'll be getting; really liked Blood Song - good strong finish to it leaving me wanting more.

mcgovern

I finished Blood Song, like lots of others here have said, its very very good, and I'm really looking forward to the next book in the series.
For something different, I started House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.

shockwave

Reading The republic of Thieves, I dont think its as good as the others. Im about halfway through and im starting to get bored.

Nody

shockwave wrote: »

Reading The republic of Thieves, I dont think its as good as the others. Im about halfway through and im starting to get bored.

It picks up in the final chapters so keep at it; there is some major things coming your way.

AnCapaillMor

The godling chronicles, very meh so far.

Trojan

(Re: Hunger Games)

Thargor wrote: »

I thought it was cringeworthy to be honest, such lazy amateur writing and boring characters, total grind to get through. I just kept picturing how good it could have been if a decent author had done it.

I read it with an expection of Young Adult, and so although I was pleasantly surprised that's not to say it'll be winning literary awards. I didn't find it a grind at all though, so I think we have different reading preferences, I read the 3 books over a weekend or so.

ixoy

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Any of those before you check out True Blood, after considering Twilight.

A very good list. Now I'm assuming you've read the bigger authors - Erikson, Hobb, Sanderson etc. Some smaller authors worth reading who haven't yet gotten a wider audience:

Kameron Hurley's Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy
Bradley P. Beaulieu's The Lays of Anuskaya trilogy
Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt series

OwaynOTT

ixoy wrote: »

A very good list. Now I'm assuming you've read the bigger authors - Erikson, Hobb, Sanderson etc. Some smaller authors worth reading who haven't yet gotten a wider audience:

Kameron Hurley's Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy
Bradley P. Beaulieu's The Lays of Anuskaya trilogy
Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt series

Others could have been added to that list as well like Daniel Abrahamnand the likes of Sanderson, some of is stuff is great, was left out as being obvious choices.
The gist of it all is that nobody should ever be stuck for a new book to read without having to resort to super trash like Twilight.
Also left out classics like Forever War, Flowers for Algernon, The Stand, Fahrenheit 451, Catch 22 and so many more exceptional reads.


Re: Bolded - Only read the first but it was excellent and it's a pity the series didn't get more exposure.
Have book 2 on my kindle but it's part of a massive backlog of stuff but I'm starting to make some head way into that.

Kameron Hurley's trilogy is on my to read this year if I can list.

Is the Shadows of the Apt series the one with people being some sort of animal human hybrids?

wyrn

I'm just going to give a little bump to the Boards Goodreads group page.
I think I might hold out on Blood Song till the next one is released.

I'm currently reading the final book of the Galactic Mage trilogy. Amazon sent me the book free. First book was ok but it's tough finishing the rest. The series had so much potential but it fell flat. It's a pity because I was really looking forward to a sci-fi/fantasy cross over.

Might finally start The Fractal Prince. Loved The Quantum Thief. Just with all the travelling I've been doing lately, I find myself reading more and more young adult books. Same for me with The Hunger Games. I quite enjoyed them as I knew they were YA and finished them quite quickly. Sometimes it's nice just to read a book and finish it without worrying if you've missed some major plot point or set up.

Can now finally make a dent on my long To Read list.

Paddy Samurai

About 200 pages in and lovin it

shootermacg

Just finished the Mistborn trilogy, just so so really. Picked up a bit towards the end but, not really my kind of thing.

Just started Gardens of the Moon. It definitely jumps around a bit, but it is looking like the kind of book that makes me feel the need to to pick it up and read it. If it holds me half as well as the Prince of Nothing series, I'll be happy.

Notus

shootermacg wrote: »

Just started Gardens of the Moon. It definitely jumps around a bit, but it is looking like the kind of book that makes me feel the need to to pick it up and read it. If it holds me half as well as the Prince of Nothing series, I'll be happy.

The greatest fantasy series ever written, you should enjoy

Zapp Brannigan

Night of Knives. Esslemont is always a step down in writing style for me (at least for his first few novels) but I love mixing his books in with the main series as there's so much more information available to you.

ixoy

OwaynOTT wrote: »

. Re: Bolded - Only read the first but it was excellent and it's a pity the series didn't get more exposure.

Yep - he also got screwed over by the collapse of Nightshade books a while back.
Quality wise the second book is right there with the first. I reckon I'll read the third in the next couple of months. The world is quite original so it is still standing out in my head. I've a massive backlog (ridiculous one really) but I've decided that I should wrap up some trilogies before reading new ones.

Kameron Hurley's trilogy is on my to read this year if I can list.

Well worth it on the basis of the first two books anyway. She's jumping into the epic fantasy series next and I'm interested to see what she produces. Has some good blog posts as well.

Is the Shadows of the Apt series the one with people being some sort of animal human hybrids?

Yep, that's the one. I know a few others have tried it here and not been mad on it but I enjoy it and the premise/setting keeps me interested as my desire to see fantasy in the bog-standard Europe settings wanes.

ixoy

Jumping between a few books:

Main book is "Traitor's Gate" by Kate Elliott, the third book in her "Crossroads" trilogy. Read book two in 2010 so I'm taking a bit of time getting back into it - would have been an even longer gap except I've made a recent commitment to finishing series before tackling books one or two of new series (which is mostly what my backlog is made up of!).
It's decent but I'm finding progress a bit slow and can't put my finger on. Something's a little flat and not involving. Will continue on and hope my interest picks up.

Also reading:
"Divided Loyalties" by Gary Russell. It's part of the BBC's Previous Doctor Adventures (from well before the re-launch). I've a huge number of these books unread and, like above, am trying to tackle them. This one is a Fifth Doctor adventure and features the Celestial Toymaker (from the First Doctor's era). It's a bit all over the place but it's short, if nothing else.

"Elisabeth Sladen: An Autobiography". I mention it purely because Liz Sladen is the most famous of the Doctor's companions from "Doctor Who" (she was Sarah Jane Smith). Find the writing a little scattered but I'm about to get to her Doctor Who years so looking forward to that.

"Saturn's Children" by Charles Stross. Only 3% in but it does seem to have Stross's creative madness already. Looks like it's a world populated by AIs alone so that could be interesting.

OwaynOTT

ixoy wrote: »

Yep - he also got screwed over by the collapse of Nightshade books a while back.
Quality wise the second book is right there with the first. I reckon I'll read the third in the next couple of months. The world is quite original so it is still standing out in my head. I've a massive backlog (ridiculous one really) but I've decided that I should wrap up some trilogies before reading new ones.


Well worth it on the basis of the first two books anyway. She's jumping into the epic fantasy series next and I'm interested to see what she produces. Has some good blog posts as well.


Yep, that's the one. I know a few others have tried it here and not been mad on it but I enjoy it and the premise/setting keeps me interested as my desire to see fantasy in the bog-standard Europe settings wanes.

The Russian flavour to the world is a definite hook of his series. He wasn't the only author to get shafted by Night Shade, which is a shame. Night Shade's troubles was unfortunate too, as they were willing to push more original and different fantasy books.
Another author who got shafted by his publisher is Ian Tregillis. Tor had some serious editor failings and his books were severly delayed and got a fraction of the planned support. You should check out his trilogy, it's quite good.

My interest in European centric epic fantasy has waned a little bit but the swing towards Arabic settings is getting a little over done as well.
European settings with some originality being mixed in with other settings would help. As a setting it shouldn't be ignored totally.

Sleepy

Finished A Memory of Light over the weekend and am taking a little break from Fantasy with Howard Marks' "Mr Nice" which has been on my "to-read" pile for years. Have to admit I loved the last few books of The Wheel of Time, absolutely devoured them and was glad to see that they didn't shy away from killing off a few main characters in the final battle. All in all, I've enjoyed the series but it really could have been something special if it had been better edited.

Torn between Blood Song which I've seen so many recommendations for here and Feist's Riftwar Saga for my next read and really wishing The Winds of Winter was out!

Sephiroth_dude

Still Struggling through lock lomora lol,are the mistborn books any good? Are they easy to get into?

OwaynOTT

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Still Struggling through lock lomora lol,are the mistborn books any good? Are they easy to get into?

It's as easy to get into as a curry cheese fry from Supermacs.
The first book was good but rather shallow, some - if not most - of the characters are one dimensional.
The humour is appalling at times and Sanderson tries way too hard to be funny only for it to fall flat too often.
The action scenes are really inventive due to the series dynamic magic system and I think this metal based magic system is the main draw of the books.
The central concept of the evil overlord winning is something I haven't read before, despite it being underused at times, is another boon of the books.


How far are you in Locke Lamora? I struggled for the first hundred pages or so as well and then the book just took off for me.

shootermacg

OwaynOTT wrote: »

It's as easy to get into as a curry cheese fry from Supermacs.
The first book was good but rather shallow, some - if not most - of the characters are one dimensional.
The humour is appalling at times and Sanderson tries way too hard to be funny only for it to fall flat too often.
The action scenes are really inventive due to the series dynamic magic system and I think this metal based magic system is the main draw of the books.
The central concept of the evil overlord winning is something I haven't read before, despite it being underused at times, is another boon of the books.


How far are you in Locke Lamora? I struggled for the first hundred pages or so as well and then the book just took off for me.

The writing is pretty bad. The world is pretty good. The magic is fair. The story isn't too bad but could have been 1000 pages rather than 2000. It does wrap up pretty well.

There is a lot better out there. Average.

OwaynOTT

shootermacg wrote: »

The writing is pretty bad. The world is pretty good. The magic is fair. The story isn't too bad but could have been 1000 pages rather than 2000. It does wrap up pretty well.

There is a lot better out there. Average.

I've only read the first one Final Empire but I thought the world building left a lot to be desired.
And I've got to disagree about the magic, it really gave us some interesting scenes.
Agree with regards to the writing, Sanderson comes across as an ideas man who loses interest quickly and moves on to the nest idea. Look at his output over the last few years, it a bit eclectic - albeit still within the fantasy parameters - and has quite a high volume.
If he could spend more time with editing and redrafting, there could be an improvement in his writing and the final effort but I can't see that happening any time soon. His planned book load looks to continue his current trend.

Raif Severance

OwaynOTT wrote: »

I've only read the first one Final Empire but I thought the world building left a lot to be desired.
And I've got to disagree about the magic, it really gave us some interesting scenes.
Agree with regards to the writing, Sanderson comes across as an ideas man who loses interest quickly and moves on to the nest idea. Look at his output over the last few years, it a bit eclectic - albeit still within the fantasy parameters - and has quite a high volume.
If he could spend more time with editing and redrafting, there could be an improvement in his writing and the final effort but I can't see that happening any time soon. His planned book load looks to continue his current trend.

IMO, Sanderson should either be a Game Designer or start his own Videogame Company.

His Books tends to read like a Rule Book/RPG Campaigns with Stories.

I think his Books will translate really well, into Videogames.

keane2097

Finished "The Scar" by China Mieville at the weekend. The ending was a little bit flat but overall it was very good. The man writes unbelievable prose.

Reader Old Man's War now. Reminds me a lot of Ender's Game, very enjoyable so far.

shootermacg

OwaynOTT wrote: »

I've only read the first one Final Empire but I thought the world building left a lot to be desired.

I agree, it was a pretty simplistic model, and pretty small scale, more like a country rather than a world.

The magic was OK, very simple with a few flaws (using coins for any sort of forward movement would just push the coin in most cases, considering relative mass) I personally prefer my magic to be more...arcane.

Sephiroth_dude

OwaynOTT wrote: »

It's as easy to get into as a curry cheese fry from Supermacs.
The first book was good but rather shallow, some - if not most - of the characters are one dimensional.
The humour is appalling at times and Sanderson tries way too hard to be funny only for it to fall flat too often.
The action scenes are really inventive due to the series dynamic magic system and I think this metal based magic system is the main draw of the books.
The central concept of the evil overlord winning is something I haven't read before, despite it being underused at times, is another boon of the books.


How far are you in Locke Lamora? I struggled for the first hundred pages or so as well and then the book just took off for me.

Page 136, ill stick with it.

TwoShedsJackson

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Page 136, ill stick with it.

I would - the hops back and forward in the timeline make it not the easiest book to get into, but it starts coming together very nicely after that.