About 60% through "The Blacktongue Thief" (Blacktongue #1) by Christopher Buehlman
Enjoying it despite it being first person (not my preference). The world building is fantastic, interesting characters, and the plot is moving along briskly. I'll post a review when complete.
Anyone read Mother of Learning?
Free here: https://github.com/asdkant/bookify-mol/releases
"The Blacktongue Thief" (Blacktongue #1) by Christopher Buehlman
The underdog, anti-hero style main character narrates a fast paced adventure to save a far off country from invasion while he lurches from disaster to disaster under the kosh of a world spanning mafiosa organisation, stopping only to allow random folks slap him in the face in return for a free beer (really).
The world feels a bit like the world of The Witcher, and world building is superb: plenty of detail and history that would support a number of trilogies or a longer series. I enjoyed it despite it being first person, which isn't my favourite mode. The book works both as a standalone novel and as the first of a trilogy and the biggest negative for me is the pace is just a little bit too fast, reminiscent of KJ Parker novels. I'm looking forward to the next in the trilogy. 4/5
Yep, I read a bunch of web fiction particularly during the pandemic. I used the Pocket app to download and read offline.
MOL was the best of the bunch for me, fantastic stuff. I subbed to the author's Patreon for a few months in lieu of being able to buy the book.
Finished The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M John Harrison. Had to drag myself through it. It might be the fact that I read before sleep so my brain wasn't fully engaging, but on the face of it there was little plot, I don't even know if the sunken land rose in the end - I like when the science is thought through- but I'm left wondering if it was all just a metaphor for generational gaps or self discovery.
Read Neill Gaiman's Norse Mythology then, a few short stories/myths about the Norman gods from creation to Ragnarok. Interesting to compare with Marvels take on it.
Reading Bastion at the moment. Only the first book of the series is released, so not complete. It's more progression fantasy in the same style as Cradle, although the book is much bigger.
Finished John Scalzi's Redshirts; it didn't go in the direction I had guessed it might have, and overall found the story kinda petered out a little, never quite using the very stakes it otherwise established fairly well. Scalzi's dialogue and character writing remains something I have a thin appetite for; the cast often all sounding deeply interchangeable in their snarky and zingers.
Finished "The Burning Light" by Bradley Beaulieu and Rob Ziegler. Great, taut read, interesting post-environmental apocalypse world with all sorts of weird things happening. Highly recommended.
Finished "Seed" by Rob Ziegler, because I was so happy with Burning Light. Not quite as good a read as "Burning Light" but still pretty good, with a different take on weird post apocalyptic settings. A bit old (2011) but a nice find anyway, Ziegler doesn't appear to have published too much.
Just finished 'A Memory Called Empire' and its sequel 'A Desolation Called Peace'.
I consume science fiction in general and space opera in particular like a junkie. And every time I finish something that was worth sticking with I feel like I never gonna read something as good as that again. And yet somehow I manage to find something else again. Avid readers will probably know the cycle.
Some of my favourites are Banks' The Culture, Bujold's Vorkosigan. I love Murderbot. Just to name a few.
This time I ended up with Arkady Martine's books. Except for some poetry and short stories she's only got those two AFAIK.
Different to anything I ever read in style, outlook and reference and it really left a deep impression on me. It is very very good. Its wide, it builds a great universe it has deep and immersing characters and its different. Its relevant. Also from a male point of view it seems rather... female - making it more interesting again. I can t recommend it enough.
Have you tried Peter F Hamiltons Nights Dawn trilogy or Commonwealth Saga? I think they'd make your list easily if you did.
Neal Ashers polity universe is another masterpiece and theres a dozen+ books in it like Vorkosigan (way better than Vorkosigan and more "modern")
Thank you, yes, I know all of them. And enjoyed them too. Some more than others.
I probably did more or less all of the big series over the years. Culture. Hyperion. Ringworld. Agent Cormac. Dudley Bose. Edenists & Adamists. The Bobs. The Old Men. Lost Fleet. Honor Harrington. Vattas War. The Classics like Asimov, Clarke, Dune, Heinlein. You name it.
Could re-read some of those and probably after forgetting a good few too.
I guess I mentioned Vorkosigan cos its a more recent read for me and I like Bujold's style very much.
Edit: If only I could develop a taste for fantasy I'm sure there would be a whole host of excellent new stuff but I just can't help it, every time there is magic and unicorns and witches and sh1t I just go blank. Even though I liked LOTR and GOT. Which is weird cos a lot of sci-fi might as well be magic.
Probably worth picking up some of Joe Abercrombie's books. There's a small touch of magic, but it really doesn't have much of an effect on anything. They're pretty gritty, as easily brutal as GoTs.
Tide Child Trilogy - RJ Barker - really enjoyed it
Gideon the Ninth at the moment and enjoying it
Never Let Me Go by the guy who wrote Remains of the Day, sorry this one a Pulitzer and every other award going? It's so boring and depressing.
Klara and the Sun is on my list, I love Ishiguro
Finished a few recently:
* "When Jackals Storm the walls" by Bradley P. Beaulieu, the fifth book in his "The Song of the Shattered Sands" series. It took a little while to get going but the ending did tie things well together - almost too well because there's another book which, given how things got wrapped up, feels like a sort of Toy Story 4 added on.
* "Call of the Bone Ships" by RJ Barker, the second in his 'Tide Child' trilogy. I'll echo lordgoat above - this was very good. Best book of 2022 so far for me. I loved the prose and world building, really made for something that felt unique. Unlike many other sea-based stories that I've read, you really felt the power and fury of the ocean. Great stuff.
* "Feast and Famine" by Adrian Tchaikovsky. This is a collection of old short stories by him (a good few written before his Apt series). Nice range in them - modern urban fantasy, an Apt story, horror, sci-fi, etc. Not his highest quality work but a good showcase of his range.
* "Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir. I liked this initially but ... Weir's good with the DIY science (and that's fun) but his prose is weak and Grace (the 1st person narrator) comes across like an over-eager teenager than someone on a critical mission. It all felt like something that was self published (much like his previous 'The Martian' initially was). It's got a snappy pace but really lacked any sort of substance.
* "Uncrowned" by Will Wight, the seventh book in his Cradle series. More progression fantasy, this time with a big tournament designed to showcase a load of different challenges and fight sequences which Wight does very well. More lore unfolds and it's a breeze to read. At times it reminds me of animé but that's no bad thing. Solid popcorn fantasy.
Really can't get Tide Child out of my head. Loved it. I ripped through all 3 books in about 2 weeks and regretted it.
On the second 'Ninth' book by Muir, great story but christ her prose at times reads like Mean Girls (and I love the movie) but some sentences really detract from the story and, for me, are there to just sound cool and miss the mark by a long way. Really like the 'magic' style and am interested to see where the story goes.
Excellent rec on Tide Child thanks, never heard of it and now Im tearing through it.
Reading The Fall of Babel, the last book in the "Senlin" series by Josiah Bancroft. Was really looking forward to it, loved the previous books, but finding this an almighty slog....
Maybe it doesn't help that he's circling back at the start to tie up some previously dangling plot threads.
Happy for a few recommendations again.
Currently on second book of Tamsyn Muir's "ninth series" slowish to start but I thought the same of the first one.
Waiting on Sanderson's final Wax and Wayne book later in the year so would love a couple of decent series to bring me along.
Sci/Fi or fantasy but nothing too heavy like Eriksson for now. Have read most of the usuals recent favourites - Tide Child - old fav's - Feist, Scalzi, Sanderson
Was looking at the Jade City Series - anyone read?
not read jade city but it's been next on my list for a while as i read some great reviews and it sounds really intriguing.
i'm currently on the 5th book of the prince of nothing series by R scott Bakker and absolutely loving it. it's not quite as heavy as Erikson but definitely in that vein.
kings of the wyld might suit what you're looking for. i've recommended it before. it's a great first novel by Eames, and is pretty much a standalone book, although he did write another in the same world, which i thought was a lot weaker.
you could also try Guy Gavriel Kay. plenty of brilliant standalone and or 2 book series (especially the ones set in China, or the sarantine mosaic series, or Tigana). i love most of his stuff anyway, only a couple of duds imo.
Even though I'm a big 'Culture' fan I never tried any of Banks' other books. So I gave 'The Algebraist' a go and, my word, what a romp. He was just the master wasn't he?
I'm reading Sidewinders, the second book in Robert V.S. Redick's Fire Sacraments trilogy. Excellent stuff so far, I'd rate him as one of the best fantasy authors around these days...
Read the first three and liked them but can’t decide weather to read the last one.Just have a ton of other books I’d rather read.
Murderbot.
Recommended on here by loads and finally downloaded some episodes...
So easy to read. Really short books but so enjoyable.
For anyone that has read all books/stories/etc is there a 'best order' I've read 1-4 and not sure where to go next? Short story and then 5-6 and most recent short story?
I just listened to Stranger From a Strange Land on Audible and it's another instance where I'm blown away by how good the classics of the genre are.
The Heinlein book? I don't grok the title you're using ...
Is it 'in' rather than 'from'? I should have checked, 'in' would make more sense on reflection
Larry Correia's Servants of War: Steampunk WW1 with Giant Golems. Very enjoyable.
Some recent reads:
