Read the first book of the American Hippo Series, didn't really land. Won't be picking up the second book.
Started in to William Gibson's The Peripheral now.
Reading 'I am pilgrim'
'The Gutter Prayer' by Gareth Hanrahan had been sitting in my drawer of unread books for a couple of years.....finally gave it a shot and really enjoyed it. It would remind you of why you of why you became a fan of fantasy in the first place.....dripping with atmosphere, very inventive and just enjoyable to read. Onto the second book in the series now, early indications are that it might be even better....the quality of the writing seems to have gone up a notch.
Also read 'Earth, Air, Fire and Custard' by Tom Holt..... not sure about these books to be honest, plots are all over the place. Might stick to books by his KJ Parker alter ego in future.
Think I'm sold on the RJ Barker recommendation...had been planning to try him and will give this series a shot.
Re-reading Dune by Frank Herbert This time the whole lot not just book one which I read many years ago.
Didnt remember it like this at all and book 1 surely is a masterpiece.
Book 2 was a bit heavy going. From there it goes a lot into politics/religion and philosophy of rule & governance etc and book 2 is particularly heavy with it. But overall I am really enjoying it. Currently on 'God Emperor of Dune' and its really gripping.
Dreadgod is out, Cradle #11.
Finishing the Bitter Seeds trilogy by Ian Tregillis; I read Tregellis' later trilogy "The Mechanical" about Dutch clockwork robots, so thought I'd try this earlier one. Another alternate universe story from him, this time featuring Superhuman Nazis vs. British Warlocks as its pillar concept - but it has been far darker, more fatalistic than that one-line descriptor might read. In fact the entire 1st book was a constant sequence of awful, ruinous decisions that went beyond a simpler idea of "what if the Nazis won?" - to the extent that while I thought I didn't enjoy the book that much, here I am now finishing the trilogy, keen to see how on earth it all shakes out.
Trying to read Joe Abercrombies Half a King trilogy but just have no interest, really struggling with fantasy nowadays.
White Sands - Sanderson - decent story.
Torn now to start Stormlight or switch to a Scalzi Scifi series.
Go Scalzi as a palate cleanser!
I think I will. As an audio visual palate cleanser, tonight I'm going with: Hard to Kill. Yes the movie.
Read "jade War" which is worth reading but not excellent.
Then "three body problem" which was excellent.
After that I moved to "The last light of the Sun" which I am currently reading. Really good read, Guy Gavriel Kay who is probably my favorite author.
It is set in an analogue circa 1000 A.D. Wales, England and dealing with the Danes similar to "The last kingdom" (Bernard Cornwell who is another of my favorites), with a dash of Celtic Faeries thrown in. About 55% through that atm, really enjoying it. Would highly recommend.
My wife is urging me to read "the swift and the harrier" which is historical fiction by Minette Walters next. Also ahead of the film I may read "where the crawdad sings".
Giving up on this Joe Abercrombie Half A... stuff, completely sick of it already and now they've brought in my all time most despised cliche/trope: minor verbal misunderstanding between 2 love interests leads to chapters and chapters of dragged out crap before they inevitably get together at the end of the book, yawn.
It's really more of a young adult theme than abercrombies usual grim dark stuff alright. Not a patch in his other material although I think he was aiming at a different audience than normal.
Just finished Kaiju Preservation Society, my first Scalzi novel. As was said earlier, a great palate cleanser after a few bigger books. I'll likely pick some more of his once I've cleared a bit more of the backlog.
I did Scalzi - Collapsing Empire, solid Scalzi
Reading Robert Jackson Bennet - Foundryside - decent opening book, will stick with it and then back to Sanderson
First 9 Cradle books are free in 3 volumes, that's the best deal you're going to get this year, a great addictive read:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B7KTKNFH
Wow! Great value.
He's done this a few times now, Ive never seen an author give away the majority of their work like this over and over again.
Yep. I've never paid for a single title - got 9 free in various offers and the latest 2 via Kindle Unlimited. I suspect he makes his money from Kindle Unlimited if he's able to do that, where he gets paid by pages read.
The Last Watch by J.S. Dewes - book 1 of The Divide Series.
Interesting premise, I've started reading book 2. There's massive potential in the world being built, this could be a 5 or 10 book series if she decides to go that way.
'Dreadgod' by Will Wight, the 11th book in his Cradle series. This one didn't quite grab me as much as the previous works, mostly because of the absence of one character as well as how we got too little insight into Lindon. There's a sense now that everyone is almost too over-powered, lessening the threat. There were a couple of fun pairings in the book and I loved one of the Dread gods themselves but it just lacked a little something.
'Howling Dark' by Christopher Roucchio, the second book in his Sun Eater series. For me, this was a big step up from the first book. Whereas that was a Roman fusion of the Kingkiller Chronicles framework set against a Dune-esque universe, this book drops heavy Gothic-darkness reminiscent of Warhammer 40k. The grim universe was far more interesting for me and there was a much better sense of the vastness of the empire and the epic back drop. Whereas I hesitated reading this after book one, this was good enough to make me immediately move on to book three.
I don't see how one gets through 11 Will Wights. Fair play to you but after the first two, even though they were free they were junky teen fantasy. To each their own.
Finishing up Fonda Lee's "Jade War" series. O.K. writing with an obvious Asian setting and characters. Not great, not a deep think. Did rekindle my love of Asian food which I desperately miss living in Ireland :)
Don't bother after book 1 of Foundryside - turns into a romance novel.
Just finished first 2 books of RJ Barker's Tide Child trilogy. Really enjoying the series, I like that the protaganist is not the hero or a Mary Sue for the series and has an interesting character arc.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/258685-the-tide-child
Minor Spoiler:
Instead, they have a truly awful series of experiences. Seriously, there should be a meme about what could possibly happen next to Joron Twiner. He literally starts at the bottom of a drunken barrel and proceeds to get put through the wringer.
Next up is Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovskyfor a change of pace, before coming back to the final Tide Child book.
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City: The Siege, Book 1
How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It: The Siege, Book 2
Typical KJ Parker stuff: fast-paced, dislikable protagonist, unreliable narrator. A solid 4/5 for both.
Well Children of Time was great.
I'm not a massive fan of Adrian Tchaikovsky usually, as I tend not to like his characters. I tried to get in to the Shadow of the Apt series previously, but dropped it after 3 books as I found the main character too annoying.
It was similar this time round, however his use of multiple similar characters to tell a multi generation story means it doesn't matter as much.
And whatever else I may think of his work, Tchaikovsky is amazing at building well realised worlds and alternative societies.
This was great scifi.
Moving on to Gideon the Ninth now.
just finished a brightness long ago and all the seas of the world by Guy Gavriel Kay, and absolutely loved them.
i'm a huge fan of his and have read everything he's written, and whilst i can't say i enjoyed them all, and have found a couple terrible, all in all i love his work.
These 2 are set in the same world as children of earth and sky (mainly in Italy during the renaissance), and whilst they don't correlate directly with the first one, they are very closely related and can be viewed as a pair.
there are some brilliant characters in them and whilst the main story line of a brightness long ago isn't that strong, it's still a great story with some superb moments, and all the seas of the world is just a joy to read with some awesome new characters and a much stronger storyline.
highly recommended
