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PlushCow posted:Last week I started reading Chronicles of the Black Company on ebook, an omnibus of the first three novels by Glen Cook. I remember hearing good things about it, and Steven Erikson cites it as a major influence of his for the Malazan series that I love, so I though I'd give it a go - and I couldn't get more than 10% through it before I stopped. Cook is definitely not for everyone, threadbare characterization and he rarely describes any element in detail. I do get your frustration about telling instead of showing, he does a lot of that in the first book. It improves later on in the series but it sounds like he's just not your bag. I really like Cook but I'm all over the place on the various series hes written, some are great and others are terrible. Cook influenced a lot of authors so sometimes it's nice to see where things originated, there's a character in his Dread Empire series that was the basis of Kruppe from Malazan for example but if you're not enjoying his writing style then it's probably not worth sticking it out.
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Jun 22, 2013 17:48
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Finally getting around to Assassin's Apprentice after trying out some self-published S/F stuff, does the rest of Farseer series hold up this well? I'm really enjoying it so far.
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Jul 10, 2013 14:24
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Is locke lamora a one-off, a finished series, or an unfinished series? Unfinished, two books so far and a third one comes out later this year. I can't remember how many there were supposed to be or if hes just stopping with the trilogy.
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Jul 12, 2013 19:04
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:That's the thing. If it's that good, I'll want to read the whole series right then, and I have enough running series as it is. It is going to take him a long time to finish the series at his current pace so if you think this will really be a problem for you I would find something else and revisit it later. I'm of the opinion that the second book wasn't very good anyway but that's neither here nor there.
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Jul 12, 2013 19:23
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What's the best starting point with Mieville? I've never read anything of his before, just heard praise about Bas-Lag. Should I start there or is his standalone work a better place to begin?
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Jul 13, 2013 05:41
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muike posted:How did John Steakley's Armor get published?? I'm kind of enjoying it but the Jack Crow parts are kinda really bad and the only parts I enjoy reading are about the cliche space marine badass king of another planet with a sweet name. It's a product of the 80s, the Crow parts were filled with early 80s cultural weirdness. The Jack Crow character definitely feels like nerdy author self-insertion though. It isn't a very good book but I enjoyed the Felix parts enough to muddle through. edit: whoops spelling The Gunslinger fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Jul 22, 2013 |
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Jul 22, 2013 20:58
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muike posted:I just feel like a 'tard every time I open up a new schlocky sci-fi book hoping for something literary instead of reveling in its pulpery. I mean I can appreciate that, but I always set myself up for disappointment. The framing story has a decent payoff if that's any consolation.
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Jul 22, 2013 21:09
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I know its not an awfully long book but wow you chewed through that one quickly. I felt the same about Ship of Fools, really enjoyed it but it had some pretty significant plot holes and dangling threads. Russo definitely seemed conflicted on what direction to take the story at times too. I liked that the ship was an aloof, almost indistinct presence, it made the awakening at the end of the book more disturbing and alien. Unfortunately the excellent climax is sort of wasted because their motivations are never explained and everything we can infer is based on the colony they encounter earlier in the book.
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Jul 26, 2013 03:53
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I don't know, I find Sanderson's characterization fairly thin and his writing mechanical. I remember someone explaining his books to me as though the magic systems were the high point but after reading a few I find that pretty ridiculous. They are easily the weakest points in the books and require no imagination from the reader. Similarly when he writes conflict it tends to be overly descriptive and full of repetition. I decided awhile ago his stuff is just not my cup of tea. Moving on to Mark Lawrence from a few pages ago, I felt really conflicted about The Broken Empire trilogy. He's essentially writing one lovely character the entire time, the books are full of ridiculous grimdark shock content and he meanders all over the place before finally deciding on an arch for the character and story. On the other hand his world building is stellar and feels wasted on the characters and story.
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Sep 10, 2013 18:15
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Walh Hara posted:The only reason I'm making this much fuss about it is because for some odd reason every single time his name is mentioned in here (no matter what context, even when no opinion is asked) there are instantly a bunch of people posting about how bad he is. I wouldn't mind that so much if they could convince me there are enough better writers in the same genre out there that merit the reading time more, but as it is I don't think that's the case. Err what? There's a thread for the author if you want to read mostly positive stuff from fans. People have their own opinions just like you. I don't think anyone is trying to convince others not to read or enjoy his stuff, they are just offering their own thoughts. Sure one person was dismissive but I think everyone else was pretty reasonable. How was Dust by Hugh Howey? I just finished that Broken Empire series and discovered I have nothing new on my Kindle. I stopped reading his stuff after the whole "suck it bitch" thing but I hear he offered a decent apology and hasn't done anything since so I'm curious if Dust gives any decent closure for the series. I recall being pretty disappointed with the second one so maybe I should just forget it though. The Gunslinger fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Sep 11, 2013 |
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Sep 11, 2013 21:15
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Geek U.S.A. posted:Anyone here read the latest Locke Lamora book? Looking for some impressions but scared of clicking on the series thread and getting insta-spoiled about everything. Loved the first book, thought the second was heavily flawed but at least ambitious and really disliked the latest one. Without getting into specific spoilers the plot is moving rapidly toward stereotypical fantasy departments where wizards solve everything and the evolving backstory of Locke feels ridiculous. It still has interesting characters but they are going through the motions so you never feel any tension or urgency. It is one of the most boring books by a good author that I've read, he's capable of much better.
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Nov 5, 2013 01:25
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I thought Fall of Hyperion was worth the read but it doesn't measure up to Hyperion. From the handful of his books I've read it just seems like Simmons can't end a story without going totally insane.
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Nov 29, 2013 01:05
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Megazver posted:This is a recommendation post I wrote recently somewhere else for people with my taste in Urban Fantasy. I am reasonably sure you'll like at least some of these. I am listing first books, when there's more than one in a series: I really liked your other recommendation post on martial fantasy, I read about 5 of the 7 you listed and thoroughly enjoyed them. Just wanted to say thanks a lot, I will check some of these out too. I thought that Anthony Ryan book was going to suck with its generic fantasy name and premise but surprisingly I thought it was the best of the bunch.
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Jan 6, 2014 23:40
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Yeah sorry just a brain fart, I meant military. I thought The Thousand Names was pretty good but that it suffered a bit from introducing the usual fantasy magical stuff far too late into the story. I had long since become accustomed to the more grounded approach it seemed to be taking then it pulls the rug out from under you a bit. Overall a good book, it felt the best elements of a Glen Cook novel without the simple, non descriptive narrative style he has.
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Jan 7, 2014 23:03
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Megazver posted:That... was not a problem I've had with it. I mean, it introduces the antagonists and has them explicitly do magic poo poo before it even introduces the protagonists. Yeah you're right, I forgot about that. I guess I just got used to the seemingly grounded not-British musket style warfare that made up the majority of the book and was ignoring other foreshadowing and magical elements (healing, super powerful foes, etc) that hinted about what it was building up to. The Gunslinger fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Jan 8, 2014 |
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Jan 8, 2014 00:01
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Since we're talking Blindsight anyway, some spoilery discussion that has always bothered me: Why does Sarasti attack the protagonist? I've never truly understood that moment in the book. Presumably to shock empathy or understanding back into him but I never really saw how it mattered at all in the context of what his job was. I enjoyed the book but found the ending kind of ridiculous. Vampires revolt and kill off the entire human species in a one sentence throwaway. I don't even see how that was possible given the supposedly small numbers of their population and the degree to which humanity was able to biologically re-engineer them.
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Feb 27, 2014 17:24
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quote:They are small numbers in incredibly important positions. And they are smarter than we are. Presumably vamps run all the security apparatus, so they program/can reprogram the drones, they own the comms network/run the economy. I see what you mean but for me at least it doesn't jive with some of what he presents in the book like Sarasti being controlled by the Captain AI the entire time. I know we're getting a sidequel or something so hopefully he'll explore that in more detail. It's funny actually, I was really happy with Blindsight when I finished but after a second read a bunch of little inconsistencies have started nawing at me. I really enjoy his ideas on consciousness and will but he also throws out a bunch of story elements that never seem to go anywhere.
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Feb 27, 2014 21:24
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VagueRant posted:If I finished and hated the first Black Company book - the second and third are not worth me trying, right? Yep, don't bother. I like Cook personally but I read most of his stuff a long time ago before newer authors took his style and did more with it. His characterization is very thin and he does a lot of handwaving of events using the unreliable narrator bit which grates after awhile. On a different note I finally found the right Banks book that worked for me - Player of Games. I did not care for Consider Phlebas at all and barely finished it. Player of Games took a bit to get going but was very interesting once it did. Just starting Use of Weapons now.
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Jun 6, 2014 17:04
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Menses at Work posted:I started out with a post that had too many details. I like reading, but I can't explain anything in writing at all. Someone else recommended The Thousand Names by Django Wexler which ranged from alright to good and reminded me a lot of Abercrombie. It has some flaws but the styles are pretty similar. For what its worth I couldn't get into The Emperor's Blades either despite my interest in the setting, the characters are just terrible in every way. I also enjoyed Blood Song by Anthony Ryan which was really cliched but very well executed and enjoyable. It flows really well, I read it in 2 days despite the page count.
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Jun 19, 2014 16:56
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Robot Danger posted:Not sure if I missed it or not, but has anyone finished Anthony Ryan's second book that was recently released? It doesn't seem to be getting as many favorable user reviews on Amazon compared to the first Blood Song, and from my understanding he had finished it while self publishing as well. Was hoping to hear a goon's thoughts on it. I guess I'll be the lone dissenter. I really enjoyed Blood Song, it was derivative but very well executed. Tower Lord I am having issues getting through, I'm roughly halfway along and not feeling it. It's been awhile and I've read a lot of books in between the two which doesn't help. I didn't mind the addition of extra character POVs but I feel kind of inundated with settings, locations and relationships that I'm not sure if I should remember or not. I'm having a hard time pinning down my other complaints at work here but it just doesn't flow as well as Blood Song.
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Aug 5, 2014 17:49
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Clark Nova posted:So it's sort of like Use of Weapons? Well played sir 
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Sep 5, 2014 17:13
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Finished Echopraxia last night, it was very...Peter Watts. It's hard to pin down why I didn't like it as much as Blindsight, I just found it more difficult to read and the characters felt pretty flat. He seemed to go even more overboard on exhaustive description but despite that I never had a good visual idea of what he was describing. I don't know if this is my fault for making assumptions but the timeline wasn't quite I had imagined either. It was a good read though and I did like it, I just didn't enjoy it as much as Blindsight. Thank god for the Kindle dictionary during the almost masturbatory biology sections.
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Sep 10, 2014 19:16
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:A friend of mine was talking to some authors about replicating pieces from their books (knives, masks, etc). I get what you're saying but Watts spends a lot of page space on descriptive elements alone. If anything its almost too much, you get conflicting shapes and ideas, its just a big jumble. For some reason I was able to fill in the blanks with Theseus and Rorschach but many elements of Echopraxia were just impossible to visualize. I probably would have been better off if he tried less even.
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Sep 11, 2014 00:40
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:Whoever mentioned it, thanks for recommending The Martian. Its outstanding! I blew through the whole thing in 2 days. Yeah I can't remember who mentioned it but I loved it too. The first book in awhile I tore through in a weekend. The humor got a bit repetitive after awhile but other than that fantastic book. I've moved onto City of Stairs, just a few chapters in but really enjoying the setting so far. Edit: spelling The Gunslinger fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 17:40
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I just finished up Willful Child by Steven Erikson. Maybe I was in the mood for a Kirk era Star Trek send up or my expectations were low but it was surprisingly good. It barely felt like Erikson, tightly edited with a trim page count, story doesn't overstay its welcome and some solid laughs. Towards the end it gets weird but I stuck it out since it was pretty short. I definitely enjoyed it more than Scalzi's Redshirts.
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Dec 9, 2014 20:41
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O Hanraha-hanrahan posted:Just finished The Three by Sarah Lotz. I'd be interested to hear some interpretations of the ending, because I mostly just thought "what the gently caress" and "is that it?". I finished it a few months ago after reading some recommendations on here and was really disappointed. I actually had to double check on Amazon that my copy didn't get truncated, that "ending" was bullshit. The lack of any actual plot or character resolution was so jarring that I felt a bit insulted, as if the author turned in half of the working copy and they said "gently caress it we'll publish anyway". There were some interesting events that showed promise interspersed with plot threads and characters that seem to go nowhere. It was an extremely frustrating book to read and I won't be giving the author a second chance. I've been mowing through A Land Fit for Heroes by Richard K Morgan, really enjoying it so far. Just starting The Dark Defiles, hopefully its as good as the previous books.
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Mar 10, 2015 04:40
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I am getting iffy on The Dark Defiles by Richard K Morgan. The first two books were pretty impressive and I could barely put them down but this one is just strange. The pacing is all over the place and its getting very distracting. This is the end of the trilogy I assume but it's filled with what feels like first book background and setup. Morgan did a lot of tell, don't show with many background aspects of the first books but seems to be reversing himself now. The story started out very non-traditional and tended to avoid most of the usual fantasy tropes and plot devices, now it feels like its heading for predictable territory which is disappointing. I don't know, I am getting frustrated with this and its a shame because I thought the first two books were excellent. Oh well less than 200 pages to go.
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Mar 17, 2015 16:59
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Khizan posted:The ending was unsatisfying because it was not an ending; it ended like book 3 of 4 instead of 3 of 3. Some people say that it's intentional because Morgan set out to turn the 'traditional fantasy' tropes on their head, but if that's the case, well... I don't think 'traditional fantasy books wrap up their plot' was a particular good trope to flip. I finished The Dark Defiles last night and I'm pretty unhappy, mostly because there was so much promise in the earlier books. I would love to know some background on how he chose that ending but oh well. I guess I will look into the Kovacs books sometime but I think I need a break from his stuff for awhile, that third book really bummed me out.
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Mar 18, 2015 18:23
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:I finished up The Steel Remains or whatever was the first book in that series is, over the weekend. Loved the ending, but man this dude writes some hardcore gay sex. Haha nope, if anything it gets more detailed. That's where you just turn on your magazine style reading and gloss over the page. I think the third book only had one segment in it so there is that I guess.
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Mar 18, 2015 21:52
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I thought Tower Lord was ok but I had forgotten much of the worldbuilding from the first book which didn't help. Blood Song was nothing original but it was just really well executed and flowed nicely, I think I finished it in a weekend. The Shadow Throne (follow up to The Thousand Names) felt a bit bloated but despite that some of the characters are starting to seem under developed. I still enjoyed it but I wish the author would spend a bit more time on Janus who is starting to become a bit of a plot device. Wexler finally devotes some time to developing an antagonist but the character is a mustache twirler through and through which is boring. City of Stairs was one of my favorite recommendations from this thread.
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Mar 19, 2015 19:21
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General Emergency posted:I've almost finished the second Gentleman Bastard's book and I gotta say... What the hell happened? The first one was great. A bit odd with the pacing at times but this second one feels like a total bait and switch. Some people say they're flawed but still enjoyable but I thought it was all downhill after the first book. Thorn was even worse than Red Seas in some ways. The pacing problems from the second book carry over and actually get worse, the tonal shifts are jarring unlike the first book, insipid love story between characters, the climax was ridiculous and introducing an antagonist at the end of the third book was just weird.
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Mar 30, 2015 15:59
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Ok I totally forgive Richard K Morgan for A Land Fit for Heroes because the Takeshi Kovacs books are really, really good.
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May 11, 2015 19:36
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I can't decide how I feel about The Explorer and The Testimony by James Smythe. The Explorer was an interesting story setup that had a lot of possibilities but in the end came off as pretty unsatisfying to me. I don't often go for hard sci-fi but the science in this was appalling. The latter half of the book is an exercise in frustration and feels like a different author polished it off. The Testimony was a mess, there's a lot of subplots that don't go anywhere and the structure did it no favors either. In both books Smythe sets up interesting mysteries then proceeds to take the reader through a convoluted journey without a real attempt to answer them. Sometimes the journey is the destination but these weren't deft enough to manage it for me. Perhaps I just need to read the first half of his books and just put them down. Or find something better. The Gunslinger fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Jun 16, 2015 |
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Jun 16, 2015 18:58
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Megazver posted:I mean, not really? Tower Lord was a swerve in a different direction from Blood Song and it was somewhat rougher, but I still enjoyed it. The reaction this time goes way beyond "this is not what I expected", though. I thought Tower Lord had a completely different tone and pace from the first book. It wasn't bad in it's own way but it felt like too much of a shift from Blood Song. I haven't read Queen of Fire yet and I'm not sure I'll bother, the reviews are absolutely scathing. Maybe I'll try the next Django Wexler book, Shadow Throne was a mess but at least I'm hearing better things about Price of Valour.
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Jul 12, 2015 04:38
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Megazver posted:Yeah, pretty much. You don't necessarily need a full on recap page - a lot of stories do just fine without one - but he just didn't bother with catching the reader up at all. Mark Lawrence did a brief recap in his latest one, explaining that it saves him wasting time and words re-introducing characters through patronizing plot elements. It was just a list of important characters and some context, a few pages long. I wouldn't mind if some of the bigger series started doing the same. I could not remember half of the characters in Tower Lord and that kind of thing would've been nice. It's hard to explain but with ebooks I've found it more difficult to memorize and associate things without the physical book, cover and etc to tie it all together.
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Jul 24, 2015 14:57
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Finished with Aurora, KSR somehow managed to make it depressing and uplifting at the same time. Really enjoyed his take on AI evolution and consciousness. It was my first book from the author and I'll definitely be looking into his older work now. Trying to get through Lock In by Scalzi but it is just not grabbing me, much like most of his other stuff. All of his work seems to suffer from poor characterization and a lack of any individual voice. It just feels like one big pastiche of bland dialogue. Readable but boring, I'm done trying with his books.
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Jul 28, 2015 13:54
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Khizan posted:In a way, The Lies of Locke Lamora is almost a problematic debut novel, though, because that's the standard he's held to now. He could write one good solid book a year for the rest of his life and never get a review that doesn't go "Meh, not as good as Lies" because most authors go their entire careers without ever writing one book that's that good, much less two of them. I've always thought that Red Seas and Republic got a bit of a bad rap just because they were being held up to the best book of the past decade. I don't know, I think that Red Seas and Republic both have significant issues regardless of comparisons to Lies. Red Seas has major pacing problems and some bizarre tonal shifts that felt almost self indulgent. The plot got increasingly dense and unlikely to the point of exasperation. Republic felt like one half of a decent story. I would've appreciated the time shifted narrative more if the present day portion wasn't so absurd and had any real stakes. Sabetha as a character felt shallow despite a healthy page count of setup and their relationship lacked any real chemistry. I know some people enjoyed the establishment of a true villain at the end but to me it seemed really forced and cliched. I have no real desire to see any more books in that universe. In fact I think it would probably be easier on Lynch if he was just able to work on something new. He seems to have some personal issues and the pressure of maintaining a lengthy series with a lot of expectations can't be helping. Forgetting fantasy for a moment I finally found a Reynolds book I like - House of Suns was an absolute delight and I could barely put it down at times. He have anything else of that caliber? I didn't care for Revelation Space and it really turned me off trying his other stuff for awhile.
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Aug 19, 2015 15:16
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Strom Cuzewon posted:I've just finished the trilogy, and I have never been so disappointed in a series. Not because it's bad, it's actually pretty decent, but because it starts so strong, has such an absolutely fantastic premise, and then completely fails to deliver on all that potential, and instead serves up utterly generic fantasy schlock. Yeah it was a frustrating series, the first book was interesting but it never really goes anywhere after that. Brain dead characterization, ridiculous plot and utterly predictable. In retrospect its not surprising that the author was a student of Sanderson, all of the usual bullshit from his books - hollow characters, overstays its welcome and overly concerned with its "magic system". I gave up towards the end of book 2 and moved onto The Grim Company by Luke Scull which was fairly generic but at least well executed.
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Oct 5, 2015 19:23
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oTHi posted:I have a soft spot for the Exile trilogy, and maybe the Icewind Dale trilogy, but the rest of his stuff is basically garbage (even Exile and Icewind Dale aren't especially good). There are far better D&D authors (for varying definitions of 'better'). I always preferred The Cleric Quintet by Salvatore but it is undeniably goonie as gently caress, again nostalgia goggles. Trying to read the wikipedia synopsis of the Drizzt stuff over the years is insane by the way.
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Oct 8, 2015 18:12
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Ornamented Death posted:The Terror is a decent 800-page book that would have been a really good 400-page book. It definitely overstays its welcome and the latter half of the book feels like an entirely different story but I still ended up enjoying it somehow. I've read few books like it, the combination of quasi-historical and supernatural elements was interesting. Simmons can't end a book to save his life but I'm used to that from other authors
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Oct 21, 2015 16:02
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