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Got around to picking up Richard K. Morgan's The Steel Remains and quite enjoyed it and have moved on to the second book, The Cold Commands. It reminded me a bit of The Name of the Wind, without the protagonist talking himself and his exceptional abilities up, constantly, and it only deals with his youth in flashbacks for the most part. For those who get all   over sex scenes though, ya'll should probably steer clear  , although they're very much an important facet of the character's personality and how the plot plays out.."How did you convince them to take you with them and eventually let you go?" "I sucked his dick and hosed him in the rear end... A lot!"  Hieronymous Alloy posted:I dunno. This is an interesting little genre game to think about. I haven't actually read any Hugh Cook so I'll have to give him a look. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Jan 12, 2015 |
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Jan 12, 2015 17:33
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Yeah these are actually pretty fun, though only the first (maybe the second) qualifies as "well written" imho. Yeah, Brooks writing went from decent to factory mode after he finished the first three word and void books. The Shannara trilogies he pumps out now make me sad because he could have done so much more with the back story but instead does this: [Firstname] Ohmsford and their [sibling] leave home because they were dumb / village attacked / reason, go to some other place where they meet a Druid who may or may not be a long lost ancestor, then they trip over an elf prince[ss] and a rogue and head off to [place] to get [macguffin] which if not retrieved with result on the world ending because [warlockdemonrobots] will escape from their age old magic prison on which the lock is failing. The Druid dies in the second book or early in the third and often but not always, one of the ohmsfords is picked as the Druid successor. If they're not picked the elf whoever is. The elf will probably trip over the elf stones at some point in the quest and then conveniently lose them right before the fight with the big bad only for them to be found again conveniently in the next trilogy. 
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Jan 12, 2015 18:46
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Hedrigall posted:I loving loved it. Maybe I will reread it. The bit near the end where he goes back in time to the events of the prologue, that blew my mind. Yeah, Redemption of Althalus is a pretty cool book. Say what you will about the Eddingses, they have a LOT of practice at writing generic kitchen sink fantasy, and they do it very *well*.
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Jan 12, 2015 19:26
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Hedrigall posted:- I loved the poo poo out of Redemption of Althalus by David Eddings as a kid, it's like the first big fantasy novel I read, but I understand that if I tried to read it these days it'd be pretty awful Speaking of Eddings and comfortable fantasy, you might want to check out (or return to) his two Sparhawk trilogies (starting with The Diamond Throne). I reread those every few years, and they're a fun, quick read -- nothing too heavy, mostly the good guys beating up or tricking some bad guys who deserve it. I'm not sure I would similarly recommend the 10 books of the Belgariad and Mallorean, but the Sparhawk trilogies are not much time investment and might fit the bill.
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Jan 12, 2015 20:26
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Yes, Eddings was immediately who I thought of when I read the word "cozy". I didn't recommend them because he said he wanted to avoid massive series' though. I once had an acquaintance who described those books as "like a warm blanket I can wrap myself up in to feel comfortable".
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Jan 12, 2015 21:08
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syphon posted:Yes, Eddings was immediately who I thought of when I read the word "cozy". I didn't recommend them because he said he wanted to avoid massive series' though. Do what I do, don't re-read the David Eddings books every year, just marry someone who does, and get that warm fuzzy feeling from her recounting your favorite moments from the books. Tbh, I know the Belgariad and Malloreon have their faults, and a lot of people don't care for them at all, but if it weren't for the first couple of books in the Belgariad being not that great, I probably would reread the series more often.
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Jan 12, 2015 21:13
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Here's a recount of Eddings for you: Women are shrewy but long-suffering for the men they love. The hottest ones are tiny and redheaded. Men are doofy and like to smash things, and also turn into zombies when it comes to going fishing. The older you get, the less you give a poo poo about legality and (sometimes) morality.
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Jan 12, 2015 21:24
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coyo7e posted:Here's a recount of Eddings for you: This mostly applies to the Belgariad/Mallorean. The characters are more varied in the Sparhawk books. Sephrenia isn't particularly shrewish.
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Jan 12, 2015 21:28
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Eddings writes to a formula, but it's a decent enough formula and competently enough executed that they're enjoyable to read. Which is good because you're basically reading the same story four times.
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Jan 12, 2015 21:31
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Eddings was basically like Gemmell was. He found a formula that worked, and he stuck to it.
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Jan 12, 2015 22:43
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Eddings was basically like Gemmell was. He found a formula that worked, and he stuck to it. Don't get me wrong I loved Eddings when I first got into fantasy, but he probably hosed up my view on gender for years, if being an angry supernerd didn't already. Lets not forget, it's not 'he' it's 'they', but apparently uncredited for quite a few years. Which kinda tells you what you need to know. Also whomever said the Ghibli Howls Moving Castle, that movie is cozy as gently caress. I should probably read the book, I'm told it's much different.
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Jan 12, 2015 22:58
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Unrelated: is The Emperors Blades by Brian Stavely at all decent?
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Jan 12, 2015 22:59
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Zeitgueist posted:is The Emperors Blades by Brian Stavely at all decent? Yes. First 7 chapters: http://www.tor.com/features/series/brian-staveley-the-emperors-blades io9 gushing review: http://io9.com/the-emperors-blades-may-be-the-years-breakout-epic-wa-1500335590
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Jan 12, 2015 23:25
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Zeitgueist posted:Unrelated: Yes, definitely. It reminded me a bit of Blood Song (which is entirely a good thing in my book), and it was definitely worth reading. I believe the sequel is due out tomorrow, too.
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Jan 12, 2015 23:49
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If anyone is into cyberpunk, transhumanism and how much of a poo poo hole our world is going to be, you should check out this book I helped publish. Making this post because we reduced the price! http://www.amazon.com.au/LIVID-Francesco-Verso-ebook/dp/B00M1YXCQW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421103133&sr=8-1&keywords=livid Oh, also it's translated from Italian. Reading The Three Body Problem was interesting because it seems translated works all have that slight shift in cadence and style.
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Jan 12, 2015 23:54
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ulmont posted:io9 gushing review: Ambivalent.
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Jan 13, 2015 04:06
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thehomemaster posted:If anyone is into cyberpunk, transhumanism and how much of a poo poo hole our world is going to be, you should check out this book I helped publish. Making this post because we reduced the price! Does it have a lot of really weird extended metaphors? I remember the last translated from Italian book I read being like that. Anyway, that looks interesting, I'll be checking it out once I finish off some of the pile of books I got going right now.
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Jan 13, 2015 04:54
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Kalman posted:Eddings writes to a formula, but it's a decent enough formula and competently enough executed that they're enjoyable to read. In the introduction to The Rivan Codex he (or they?) lays the formula out for you. With bulletpoints, IIRC. coyo7e posted:It reads a lot like Mazirian the Magician, or Lieber, imho. It does get kinda dark at times but a lot of it is pretty fantastical, spoken-myth style.. I don't know what you actually call that type of prose, similar to the end of The Magicians in Fillory, where the protagonist just sort of rushes between decades etc within a couple of sentences, reminded me a lot of the end of The Wizards and the Warriors where the protagonist is literally riding mountains to reach his destination like it's nbd. Would that be considered Homeric? Or is there a more-appropriate term? Gonzo bizarreness? I have no idea how you can descibe these books as cosy, even if some of them have happy endings (e.g. 2 and 8), they're mostly about horrible rogues and alien invasions and people getting their limbs eaten by giant weasels and then spending the next year regrowing them and having sex. They're nothing like Homer or myth and I encouagre you to read both, they're really good and Homer is actually pretty accessible. Hieronymous Alloy posted:If you like Dianna Wynne Jones just read everything she's ever written, I have yet to read anything of hers that was bad, and it all fits that comfy fun feeling you're talking about. I'd especially recommend "Dark Lord of Derkholm" and its companion book, The Tough Guide to Fantasyland. That's the one I'd recommend for cosiness, along with its sequel Year of the Griffin, but not all of her stuff is at all cosy e.g. The Time of the Witch (the child abuse here is autobiographical http://www.leemac.freeserve.co.uk/autobiog.htm [seriously, read this]) , Aunt Maria, and the end of Fire and Hemlock.
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Jan 13, 2015 05:11
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savinhill posted:Does it have a lot of really weird extended metaphors? I remember the last translated from Italian book I read being like that. Anyway, that looks interesting, I'll be checking it out once I finish off some of the pile of books I got going right now. No but there is quite an absurd sex scene.
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Jan 13, 2015 05:45
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So I just finished The Dark Defiles and I mostly liked the ending, although I thought the The Dweena are actually humans reveal was a bit much. I really liked Ringil finally getting the gently caress with the Dark Court's plans and how he left Archeth coming back to wreck poo poo to the imagination. There seem to be a fair number of folks who didn't care for the ending, what didn't y'all like?
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Jan 13, 2015 08:01
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Just finished Tim Powers' The Drawing of the Dark and really, really enjoyed it. I recommend it to anyone who may have liked his oft-recommended book Declare. It's a historical fantasy book about an old and busted irish mercenary, magic beer, and a struggle to save Western civilization. It has some seriously good moments, and quite a few 'oh poo poo' ones. If you liked Declare you'll like this as well, although I feel that it's not as tightly written. Also if you like American Gods I think you'll love this.
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Jan 13, 2015 08:37
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House Louse posted:In the introduction to The Rivan Codex he (or they?) lays the formula out for you. With bulletpoints, IIRC. Yeah that actually kind of ruined it all for me. I'd had no problem reading his stuff before, even though I knew it was so samey, but seeing the sausage factory really put me off it.
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Jan 13, 2015 08:57
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neongrey posted:Yeah that actually kind of ruined it all for me. I'd had no problem reading his stuff before, even though I knew it was so samey, but seeing the sausage factory really put me off it. Yeah but then you have that bit where the guy encases some random bandit in solid rock and watches him suffocate and the rest of the heroes are all "what the gently caress dude?" and suddenly you're back having fun.
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Jan 13, 2015 09:06
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Patrick Spens posted:So I just finished The Dark Defiles and I mostly liked the ending, although I thought the The Dweena are actually humans reveal was a bit much. I really liked Ringil finally getting the gently caress with the Dark Court's plans and how he left Archeth coming back to wreck poo poo to the imagination. There seem to be a fair number of folks who didn't care for the ending, what didn't y'all like? I liked the more open ending, it fit right into the story.
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Jan 13, 2015 09:25
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cultureulterior posted:Just finished Graydon Saunders's The March North. I really have to recommend it to people who like The Black Company- it considers a world where hyperpowerful magicians of the Taken kind rule everywhere, except in one land, where people know how to combine into magical squads and so are able to control them. It's a first book, so it has some issues because of that, but to me it was really good. That was a really fascinating, interesting book that I feel like I only grasped like two thirds of what actually happened. It's such a bizzare, alien world that the main character takes so matter of factly, combined with a first person view that does not feel obligated to explain anything that's going on, because after all it's perfectly normal, to the point where it was slightly frustrating in that it was so interesting but required me to go back and reread a couple pages several times to get an idea of what just happened. I don't think I've seen a writing style like that in any other book, to the point where it's difficult to describe - it seems like something different than just 'first person'. Hell, I'm pretty sure that there's not a single 'he' or 'she' in the entire book, even when referring to other people. In fact, I don't think we ever even get told the main character's name. He's The Standard-Captain, or "I". It was really good though, even though I'm still kind of fuzzy on everything that happened in the ending, and why. Also, the whole house-sized, metallic-boned fire-breathing multi-horned near-indestructible multi-jawed grumpy and lazy sheep that grazes on metal, and corpses, and enemy soldiers, and carnivorous trees made out of eels as casually as grass, created as a pet by a terrifying millenia old sorceress who has slain tens of thousands and conquered nations, but looks and acts like a kindly old grandma that knits and drinks tea on the back of her death-sheep was pretty amazing. Wolpertinger fucked around with this message at 10:41 on Jan 13, 2015 |
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Jan 13, 2015 10:25
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Zeitgueist posted:Unrelated: Yes! It's very thrilling, exciting fantasy full of exciting monsters and magic and crazy poo poo. I found I had been yearning for that sort of thing without even realizing it. Highly recommended. I got an advance of the sequel, too, and it's very good.
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Jan 13, 2015 10:42
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Patrick Spens posted:So I just finished The Dark Defiles and I mostly liked the ending, although I thought the The Dweena are actually humans reveal was a bit much. I really liked Ringil finally getting the gently caress with the Dark Court's plans and how he left Archeth coming back to wreck poo poo to the imagination. There seem to be a fair number of folks who didn't care for the ending, what didn't y'all like?
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Jan 13, 2015 17:15
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coyo7e posted:Uhh did you read the first two? Because your first spoiler was actually made clear in the first book, and the second book as well. I guess I missed that, where was it revealed earlier?
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Jan 13, 2015 19:53
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House Louse posted:In the introduction to The Rivan Codex he (or they?) lays the formula out for you. With bulletpoints, IIRC. I go back to the first one (Wizard War / The Wizards and the Warriors) every few years for a re-read, but yeah I would not call that cozy or Homeric.
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Jan 13, 2015 22:15
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Wolpertinger posted:It was really good though, even though I'm still kind of fuzzy on everything that happened in the ending, and why. I think quite a bit of the ending, the invasion from the Paingyre and the splitting of the nation in two, was setup for the next books in the series- Saunders mentions on Goodreads that there's like three more books in the series he's envisioned, so I'm hopeful. Wolpertinger posted:Also, the whole house-sized, metallic-boned fire-breathing multi-horned near-indestructible multi-jawed grumpy and lazy sheep that grazes on metal, and corpses, and enemy soldiers, and carnivorous trees made out of eels as casually as grass, created as a pet by a terrifying millenia old sorceress who has slain tens of thousands and conquered nations, but looks and acts like a kindly old grandma that knits and drinks tea on the back of her death-sheep was pretty amazing. Eustace! That whole recursive demon thing was fantastic, and the revelation that Halt had been secretly breeding high-quality independents I also loved the ghost horse you could only feed if you had 'never consumed a human soul, never slaked wrath by wide killing, and, oh yes, never coerced a bound demon into a shape empty of all but pain'
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Jan 14, 2015 00:31
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cultureulterior posted:I think quite a bit of the ending, the invasion from the Paingyre and the splitting of the nation in two, was setup for the next books in the series- Saunders mentions on Goodreads that there's like three more books in the series he's envisioned, so I'm hopeful. Yeah, I'm not entirely sure why the nation had to be split in two, though. Also, by the end I'm still not entirely sure if (non-dead) people could actually somehow physically enter some magical space generated by the standard or if it was just some sort of metaphorical space for their mind link thing, and they just lugged it around. They kept on giving the impression of both.
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Jan 14, 2015 01:34
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A few months I read the first book of "The Wheel of Time" and now I'm starting the second in the series. I remember reading in TBB that some of the middle books in this series are insufferable and from that come the question, which ones should I skip or skim?
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Jan 14, 2015 01:57
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All of them.
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Jan 14, 2015 02:05
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Patrick Spens posted:So I just finished The Dark Defiles and I mostly liked the ending, although I thought the The Dweena are actually humans reveal was a bit much. I really liked Ringil finally getting the gently caress with the Dark Court's plans and how he left Archeth coming back to wreck poo poo to the imagination. There seem to be a fair number of folks who didn't care for the ending, what didn't y'all like? It felt like a very messy ending without many satisfactory answers. We have an ending for Gil, which concluded his arc but was just kind of odd. So Hjel is Gil? Okay... Why would Dakovash do that? What were the Dark Court really about overall? Who knows! But we'll have a neat little circular time loop anyway involving them just 'cos. I also wanted some vindication for the Dakovash = Kovacs theory since it seemed too appealing to me for it not to be true. Morgan seemed to not really know what to do with Archeth and Egar, other than the idea of Archeth becoming empress, so he just shunted them off somewhere to spend the book travelling, separate from the real action. I didn't really care if Egar's little tribe drama got resolved since it was all just a pretext to get him back to Imperial lands anyway and we didn't spend that much time with it, so that whole endeavour just seemed like time-wasting to me, even if it's meant to be some neat way to set Archeth up with the seed for a personal army. The time they spent with the Helmsman didn't really amount to much, either. You could take that bit out and it wouldn't really affect the rest of the book in any substantial way. The Helmsmen have some kind of malevolent plans if Archeth doesn't perform as desired, okay, cool, that's interesting - but it didn't lead anywhere. It seemed messy, poorly planned out and a total letdown compared to the earlier books.
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Jan 14, 2015 02:11
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Talas posted:A few months I read the first book of "The Wheel of Time" and now I'm starting the second in the series. I remember reading in TBB that some of the middle books in this series are insufferable and from that come the question, which ones should I skip or skim? If you like the general style of the first one, then you probably will like 1-6....7-10 kinda goes off the rails and up it's own rear end, and then Jordan kinda got his poo poo together for 11 and started wrapping stuff up. People disagree on what the absolute worst drivel is, probably 9/10, I would skim those 12-14 were intended to finish the series as one book, but would have been enormous, and were cowritten posthumously with Sanderson, a fellow writing machine who is obsessed with magic systems and thinly veiled character tropes. In all honestly I think Jordan had some good writing in the first half of the series but just needed some editing later on. Zeitgueist fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Jan 14, 2015 |
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Jan 14, 2015 02:28
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Rough Lobster posted:Just finished Tim Powers' The Drawing of the Dark and really, really enjoyed it. I recommend it to anyone who may have liked his oft-recommended book Declare. It's a historical fantasy book about an old and busted irish mercenary, magic beer, and a struggle to save Western civilization. It has some seriously good moments, and quite a few 'oh poo poo' ones. I was kind of lukewarm on this book. It felt like it had some promise in the early chapters, with discovering the hidden magic in Europe and the mythology, but then it kind of fizzled out and not much of interest happened. The protagonist was also quite passive and didn't have much development as things went on. I liked Declare and The Stress of Her Regard, but I thought this was quite a bit weaker. Incidentally,  but Powers also got some things wrong about weaponry from the period, particularly swords, which is unusual given how thoroughly he researches.
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Jan 14, 2015 02:58
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Neurosis posted:It felt like a very messy ending without many satisfactory answers. We have an ending for Gil, which concluded his arc but was just kind of odd. So Hjel is Gil? Okay... Why would Dakovash do that? You missed the importance of that scene. Gil was the one that saved baby-Hjel, not Dakovash. The implication being that Dakovash is Gil, just hundreds or thousands of years removed (remember that time is screwed up in the Grey Places). quote:What were the Dark Court really about overall? Who knows! But we'll have a neat little circular time loop anyway involving them just 'cos. I also wanted some vindication for the Dakovash = Kovacs theory since it seemed too appealing to me for it not to be true. It's kind of absurd that you're dinging the author for not confirming your pet fan theory. Seriously, stop and think about how ridiculous that is for a second. The Dark Defiles is pretty much the perfect ending for the series because it takes the whole making GBS threads on tropes thing into the meta realm by making GBS threads all over the trope that everything needs to be wrapped up with a nice bow by the last page. Morgan satisfactorily finished the story he started in The Steel Remains and left himself a number of plot hooks that he can either develop with a future book/series or just leave hanging forever because, again, he finished the story he started.
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Jan 14, 2015 03:01
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quote:You missed the importance of that scene. Gil was the one that saved baby-Hjel, not Dakovash. The implication being that Dakovash is Gil, just hundreds or thousands of years removed (remember that time is screwed up in the Grey Places). Dakovash tells the family to call the baby Gil. They mishear him and call him Hjel. Giving Gil a new start like this follows thematically from the book, where Gil is told that he is too broken to ever truly appreciate a better and more peaceful world. Ornamented Death posted:It's kind of absurd that you're dinging the author for not confirming your pet fan theory. Seriously, stop and think about how ridiculous that is for a second. My comment was more obiter dicta than an actual criticism of the book, no need to get in a tizzy. quote:The Dark Defiles is pretty much the perfect ending for the series because it takes the whole making GBS threads on tropes thing into the meta realm by making GBS threads all over the trope that everything needs to be wrapped up with a nice bow by the last page. Morgan satisfactorily finished the story he started in The Steel Remains and left himself a number of plot hooks that he can either develop with a future book/series or just leave hanging forever because, again, he finished the story he started. I don't really agree at all since the whole thing felt like Morgan coming up with a loose draft then shrugging his shoulders and going "Yeah... This'll do."
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Jan 14, 2015 04:03
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Neurosis posted:Dakovash tells the family to call the baby Gil. They mishear him and call him Hjel. Giving Gil a new start like this follows thematically from the book, where Gil is told that he is too broken to ever truly appreciate a better and more peaceful world. Well...no. Earlier in the book, one of Hjel's people tells Gil the story of how Hjel was saved by Dakovash as an infant. That's what we're seeing at the end, and it's pretty clear it's Gil, not Dakovash, that saves baby Hjel (notice how he's carrying around Ravensfriend?). For your theory to work, Gil was literally loving himself through three books. Plus we've seen Gil's family and there was never any hint of a doubt that they were his real family. I just think the book didn't go the way you expected and you're calling that sloppy. I maintain that's the entire point because it would be dumb for Morgan to have a predictable, neat ending after all the work he did subverting so many other tropes. The only thing I consider even remotely sloppy is having the Dragonbane be killed by a dragon because that is kind of predictable.
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Jan 14, 2015 04:19
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Paolo Bacigalupi's The Drowned Cities is really good. It's also a really loving depressing book about child, and genemod, soldiers fighting over the flooded ruins of America. It's probably in the same sequence as Ship Breakers, only uglier. I recommend it, but have something cheery on standby because drat, that's grim.
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Jan 14, 2015 04:55
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