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Aiming for 52 again but may update depending on progress. Also aiming to do more reviews. https://www.goodreads.com/thespaceinvader Though goodreads seems to be crashed right now.
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Jan 3, 2014 00:39
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First one down: Last Light by Alex Scarrow. Terrifyingly plausible is what the dust jacket said and it did not lie. The logical part of me recognises that conspiracy types stuff of this nature isn't realistic - but also that the points made about the interdependency of the global economy are concerningly valid. And it was a well-written, pacy and interesting story to boot. Well worth picking up.
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Jan 4, 2014 00:41
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Busy couple of days: 2: A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C Clarke. I first started this probably 15 years ago, but it was a copy in a library on board a ship, and I couldn't take it away with me, and didn't finish in time. It's a great book given its age, as with all of Clarke's work I've experienced so far, but it similarly suffers a little for its age in relation to gender politics etc. It's also interesting that, in a book written between Sputnik and Apollo 11, Clarke's assumption was that the Russians would be the first to make it... 3: Prador Moon by Neal Asher. Good book, good introduction to the author, but short. Definitely going to follow up with more from this author. 4: Embedded by Dan Abnett. I've not read a lot of Abnett's non-40k fiction, but what i have read of it is good and this is no exception. Good action, interesting concepts, well-rendered characters, and I liked the ling-patched swearing, it was a fun addition. In general the language was done well for relatively near-future SF - different enough to be noticeable, but not different enough to be annoying. 5: Currently in progress on a reread of The Player of Games by Ian M Banks. As good as I remember. (Had to accompany fiancee to a hospital checkup so spent a lot of time on buses and in waiting rooms. All relatively short books and I read fast...)
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Jan 9, 2014 00:08
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5: Finished reread of The Player of Games - spent most of it trying to remember where the ending spoiler happened (i.e. Mawhrin-skel is Flere-imsaho) which was a little distracting, but otherwise it was good. Moving on to 6: Hilldiggers by Neal Asher. Having enjoyed Prador Moon I'm continuing that series.
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Jan 11, 2014 01:00
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thespaceinvader posted:Moving on to 6: Hilldiggers by Neal Asher. Having enjoyed Prador Moon I'm continuing that series. 6: Hilldiggers by Neal Asher. So, it turns out, it wasn't continuing the series at all, and was actually both a very recent book and the last chronologically in the verse, but fortunately also stand-alone so I didn't gently caress up too badly picking it. Good book though, enjoyable, and twisty at the ends. I'm looking forward to picking up more Asher.
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Jan 18, 2014 00:05
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thespaceinvader posted:6: Hilldiggers by Neal Asher. So, it turns out, it wasn't continuing the series at all, and was actually both a very recent book and the last chronologically in the verse, but fortunately also stand-alone so I didn't gently caress up too badly picking it. Good book though, enjoyable, and twisty at the ends. I'm looking forward to picking up more Asher. 7: The Science of Superheroes by James Kakalios. FIancee bought me this one on a whim. Interesting and well-written, but didn't teach me much I didn't already know, so kinda difficult to get into. Read it with more interest when it talked about the history of comics than when it was desperately stretching for real-science analogues to 'explain' superpowers (The Invisible Woman becomes invisible because she stretches her electron energy levels so she reflects/absorbs in UV, guys, really, really, guys? Guys?) The writer has charisma, but he kind of missed the point of comics for my money. It was better when he was talking basic F=ma type stuff using a leaping Superman than trying to explain poo poo like invisibility and mocking unstable molecules. 8: The Gabble and other stories by Neal Asher. Almost finished on this, and really enjoying it. Some of the world/species-building is fantastic, and I'm really enjoying Geronamid as a character - we met him a bit in Hilldiggers, but it's nice seeing him properly here.
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Feb 1, 2014 10:54
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thespaceinvader posted:8: The Gabble and other stories by Neal Asher. Almost finished on this, and really enjoying it. Some of the world/species-building is fantastic, and I'm really enjoying Geronamid as a character - we met him a bit in Hilldiggers, but it's nice seeing him properly here. 8: Finished the Gabble - a very interesting book of short stories giving fascinating glimmers into a universe I'm intending to spend a lot of time in this year. Moved on to: 9: Gridlinked by Neal Asher.
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Feb 2, 2014 09:55
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thespaceinvader posted:8: The Gabble and other stories by Neal Asher. Almost finished on this, and really enjoying it. Some of the world/species-building is fantastic, and I'm really enjoying Geronamid as a character - we met him a bit in Hilldiggers, but it's nice seeing him properly here. 8: Finished The Gabble and Other Stories. I hope that knowing what the Gabbleducks are won't ruin my reading of the rest of them, but I did definitely like the book. I'm most looking forward to reading the Spatterjay series atm, but thus far I've not been able to actually find a copy of The Skinner, so I'll have to look further afield. 9: Gridlinked by Neal Asher. Enjoyed it a lot, liked the main character well enough, but felt the conclusion was kinda rushed and a bit hard to follow. Definitely carrying on with Asher, definitely liking his work. But to an extent, happy that I've thus far found all his books either in the library or in the remaindered bookshop in Oxford where everything costs £2. I love that shop. 10: The Line of Polity, again by Neal Asher. I've heard a lot about Masada thus far in Asher's work, so it's interesting to finally see what it's like.
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Feb 8, 2014 12:07
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thespaceinvader posted:10: The Line of Polity, again by Neal Asher. I've heard a lot about Masada thus far in Asher's work, so it's interesting to finally see what it's like. 11: Brass Man again by Asher. I'm almost certain I've read this before, but a LONG-rear end time ago. Good so far. I never really got Mr Crane previously, but he's coming across a lot more interesting now. Good fun.
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Feb 13, 2014 00:39
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thespaceinvader posted:11: Brass Man again by Asher. I'm almost certain I've read this before, but a LONG-rear end time ago. Good so far. I never really got Mr Crane previously, but he's coming across a lot more interesting now. Good fun. 11: Finished Brass Man. I'm still not absolutely sure whether I read this before or not. Some of it seems really familiar, some of it really doesn't. I may have started it but not finished it. Whatever, I liked it, more than the prior two in the sequence. Asher's growing experience shows through, I think - its ending didn't rely on the slightly cliche unspoken plan guarantee of the first two, but was still surprising - if perhaps a little on the deus ex machina side, but Cormac's newfound abilities do promise to be explained later... 12: Polity Agent, again by Asher. I continue my lightning raid on his collected works from various sources. This one's from the library. So far, it's good, and there's a lot more to learn about the worlds.
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Feb 15, 2014 13:32
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thespaceinvader posted:12: Polity Agent, again by Asher. I continue my lightning raid on his collected works from various sources. This one's from the library. So far, it's good, and there's a lot more to learn about the worlds. 13: The Line War by Neal Asher. Not actually started this one yet, felt too ill D: I have to say the series is dragging a bit for me now though, mostly because I really, REALLY want to start on Spatterjay. Fortunately, I have a long train journey coming up.
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Feb 18, 2014 17:36
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thespaceinvader posted:13: The Line War by Neal Asher. Not actually started this one yet, felt too ill D: 13: Being off sick gave me plenty of time to read when it turned out I couldn't really look at a screen for long without my eyes watering. Line War was good, but I coulnd't help but feel the ending was just a TINY bit out of left field - clearly, the man behind the man behind the man thing is something Asher enjoys - the same thing happened with Hilldiggers, but I felt like this one was just a bit of a stretch. Still, it does go some way to explaining quite why Cormac et al read as so legendary in the chapter headers. 14: The Skinner by Neal Asher. I've been looking forward to this one. I must start it.
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Feb 19, 2014 18:38
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thespaceinvader posted:14: The Skinner by Neal Asher. I've been looking forward to this one. I must start it. 14: The Skinner - highly enjoyable. Not unpredictable, but straightforward, schlocky fun. Asher's constant teasing of Spatterjay and Hoopers pays off well. I feel he's by far at his best when working with (vaguely) human characters dealing with (vaguely) human problems in weird ecologies. Getting away from the AIs and galaxy-spanning stuff really helps. Plus, Hoopers are great. 15: Voyage of the Sable Keech. Spatterjay gets a bit bigger and more galaxy-spanning but remains human enough... for now... Pegged Spatterjay-infected Prador as being bad loving news early on, but as it turns out, for entirely the wrong reasons, so it kept me guessing a bit. 16: Orbus. A satisfying conclusion to an interesting series. I want more Spatterjay. I'll probably post a full review of this sequence when I've had some time to mull it over. 17: The Technician by Neal Asher. Again, Asher is at his best dealing with freaky ecologies (freacologies?), and Masada delivers, but again I find it tends to peter off a little when big AIs and giant galaxy-spanning threats get involved. It just gets a little too... unreal. Asher's a good writer, but I kind of feel he needs to stick to his oeuvre a bit more, and break away from aping Banks quite so much. 18: Currently reading Shadow of the Scorpion again by Asher. I think this will be my last Asher for a while, but I'm not sure what's next.
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Feb 28, 2014 00:11
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thespaceinvader posted:18: Currently reading Shadow of the Scorpion again by Asher. I think this will be my last Asher for a while, but I'm not sure what's next. 18: Shadow of the Scorpion was great, not Asher's best, but still pretty decent, and nice to get a bit of historical background on Cormac. 19: Happy Hour In Hell by Tad Williams. The first Bobby Dollar book I very much enjoyed last year, so I'm looking forward to the second.
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Mar 2, 2014 23:05
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thespaceinvader posted:19: Happy Hour In Hell by Tad Williams. The first Bobby Dollar book I very much enjoyed last year, so I'm looking forward to the second. 19: Happy Hour In Hell by Tad Williams. I'm... kind of conflicted about this one. Tad Williams can write, and when he hits the emotional heartstrings properly, his work is really quite interesting and well-written, and I get the sense that there's a bigger underlying story here than traditional 'God-versus-devil' stuff. His Hell is an intriguing conception of Hell, and his demons and devils are again, interesting, varied, and in most cases well-conceived. But then he throws in poo poo like extended jellyfish-vagina rape, in detail just as lovingly-described as the voluntary sex scenes and it makes me almost stop reading in disgust. I guess to some extent that's its purpose (it's difficult to inspire true disgust in a reader, and Hell should do that), but nonetheless, it seemed unnecessary. And yeah, Bobby's a colossal loving dumbass at the end. He was so careful to ensure Eligor promised he would release Caz by name in exchange for the feather whilst he was in Hell, but he forgets to do so at the exchange - presumably if he's done so, byt the letter of the law established, Eligor might actually have handed her over? I'm not really sure. But anyhow, given it's got me talking this long, it must have been decent. Not sure what's next. I want to read Hard Magic but I can't find it, hard copy or ebook.
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Mar 9, 2014 11:02
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thespaceinvader posted:Not sure what's next. I want to read Hard Magic but I can't find it, hard copy or ebook. Herp derp, it was: 20: Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson. What a ride, as usual. I enjoyed finding out more about Roshar (though, I have to say, frustratingly little, still, he really is milking the system on this one), but I couldn't give it full marks simply because it just didn't feel quite so... original as Mistborn, which was my first and still the best Sanderson. In particular, Kaladin and Szeth's final fight echoed mistborn pushpull combat so closely that without reading which magic was being used, it almost could have been either, especially at the end when Vin was powered by Preservation. Not to mention Lift, who basically WAS Vin. Young girl thief using powers gained from eating food to do somewhat outrageous thievery, and calling her powers odd and incorrect names. Yup, Vin. I know, this is at least partly because Cosmere and all, but it bugs me a little. It was super-cool, but it still bothered me, and I still can't help but feel BranSan wants to write a cartoon in places. Also, I'm really waiting for the ball to drop, again per Mistborn, in part three that there are actually 16 Surges, rather than 10, and the ones people have been missing are outrageously useful. So, all in all, Words of Radiance was good and interesting, but I don't quite think it was Sanderson at his best. 21: Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal. I mostly know the author from Writing Excuses, but I've read and been impressed by some of her free short fiction, so hopefully she'll be as good in novel-length.
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Mar 20, 2014 00:54
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thespaceinvader posted:21: Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal. I mostly know the author from Writing Excuses, but I've read and been impressed by some of her free short fiction, so hopefully she'll be as good in novel-length. 21: Shades of Milk and Honey was really pretty great actually. I wouldn't normally expect to enjoy a Jane Austen-era romance novel, but it was engaging, interesting, and made me care about the minutia of the characters - the magic helped, but wasn't obtrusive (other than giving lots of excuses for swooning and fainting) - realistically, it was a romance novel with magic, rather than an alternate history fantasy with romance. I'm looking forward to continuing with the series. 22: Glamour in Glass, again by Mary Robinette Kowal.
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Mar 22, 2014 20:39
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thespaceinvader posted:21: Shades of Milk and Honey was really pretty great actually. I wouldn't normally expect to enjoy a Jane Austen-era romance novel, but it was engaging, interesting, and made me care about the minutia of the characters - the magic helped, but wasn't obtrusive (other than giving lots of excuses for swooning and fainting) - realistically, it was a romance novel with magic, rather than an alternate history fantasy with romance. I'm looking forward to continuing with the series. 22: Glamour in Glass was good. I'm enjoying these. THere's not a lot more to say about them, though, they're fairly light romance with magic (and spies, quite character driven. 23: Without a Summer is in progress. I think I should more than hit my target, I'll probably bump it up some in fact.
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Mar 26, 2014 21:33
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thespaceinvader posted:22: Glamour in Glass was good. I'm enjoying these. THere's not a lot more to say about them, though, they're fairly light romance with magic (and spies, quite character driven. 23: Without a Summer was good, the whole series was good, if a little short and light. It's a very interesting take on alternate history in a period and genre that doesn't see much alternate history, and Kowal's forte is writing interesting character interactions, which is the bulk of these books. She also, for a non-Brit, has got the British attitude down perfectly. 24: Imagerby L E Modesitt Jr, mostly because Kobo and Goodreads keep recommending it and they had it in the library. So far (two or three chapters in)... the main character seems like a smug little fucker I want to slap a bit, but I gather from the dust jacket that the book's about to do that for me, so I'll see how it goes.
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Mar 27, 2014 23:50
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thespaceinvader posted:24: Imager by L E Modesitt Jr, mostly because Kobo and Goodreads keep recommending it and they had it in the library. So far (two or three chapters in)... the main character seems like a smug little fucker I want to slap a bit, but I gather from the dust jacket that the book's about to do that for me, so I'll see how it goes. 24: Imager bugged me. It bugged me because Modesitt was writing something which was close to alternate history, but too far off to actually BE alternate history. The map is Paris, the Collegium is Notre Dame/Ile de la Cite. The days of the week are in French, except for the ones that are missing letters and Sunday. But the societies and religions are SO distant from our own as to alienate me. All of which is a shame because it kind of spoils what would otherwise be a neat and well-written book, as does the protagonist being a bit too perfect. But it was good enough to get me into the next two, albeit from the library. Pretty light, fluffy fantasy fare, but enjoyable enough if you can get over the fact that it's set in Paris instead of somewhere made up. 25: Imager's Challenge in progress.
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Apr 4, 2014 21:16
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thespaceinvader posted:25: Imager's Challenge in progress. 25: Imager's Challenge was fine, but not exceptional. If I hadn't got it at the library, I probably wouldn't have bothered with it. But that being said, it was enjoyable. I'll admit to being pretty disappointed with how quickly and boringly the whole High Holder Ryel thing wrapped up, though. I was expecting a final act, and I got about half a chapter of serious anticlimax and confusing coldness. 26: Imager's Intrigue is in progress - but it's going to be the last in the series I bother with. I'm never terribly impressed with Modesitt when I try his work unfortunately.
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Apr 6, 2014 22:42
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thespaceinvader posted:26: Imager's Intrigue is in progress - but it's going to be the last in the series I bother with. I'm never terribly impressed with Modesitt when I try his work unfortunately. 26: Imager's Intrigue was, again... fine, but fell apart quite a lot the minute I started looking at it funny. Not impressed. 27: Empress by Karen Miller. My first by this author, I'm interested to see how it goes. Engaging so far.
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Apr 11, 2014 21:30
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thespaceinvader posted:27: Empress by Karen Miller. My first by this author, I'm interested to see how it goes. Engaging so far. 27: Empress was really quite good actually. Well written, interesting characters, an unusual culture with unusual-feeling language patterns that at the same time weren't (too) distracting or obnoxious. An interesting magic system which was explored, shown rather than told. Overally a very good book though the ending did feel just a little obvious pretty much as soon as Dmitrak was conceived. 28: The Riven Kingdom again by Karen Miller. Next in the series. About two pages in so far.
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Apr 16, 2014 21:10
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thespaceinvader posted:28: The Riven Kingdom again by Karen Miller. Next in the series. About two pages in so far. 28: The Riven Kingdom was good, very good. I really felt for the main characters, I was duly horrified for them when the evil 29: Hard Magic; Grimnoir Chronicles #1 by Larry Correia. I am basically reading it on the recommendation of the Writing Excuses podcast and finding it... fun, but not exceptional. The real issue I have with it is that it's not properly noir and with a title like that, it really should be. It's not in first-person narration, and that really messes with my expectations of what it's going to do. It's OK, but not exceptional.
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Apr 26, 2014 10:36
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thespaceinvader posted:29: Hard Magic; Grimnoir Chronicles #1 by Larry Correia. I am basically reading it on the recommendation of the Writing Excuses podcast and finding it... fun, but not exceptional. The real issue I have with it is that it's not properly noir and with a title like that, it really should be. It's not in first-person narration, and that really messes with my expectations of what it's going to do. It's OK, but not exceptional. 29: Hard Magic gets a near-complete reversal from me. Once I'd figured out that despite what the dust jacket said, it WASN'T a magical noir detective story set in the thirties, which it was trying SO hard to seem like in the first few chapters, and just settled in to enjoy it for what it is (fun magical adventure/spy story, not noir in the slightest), I really enjjoyed it, to the point that I was up til about 1am last night reading (but not finishing) it - it's drat long. Finished it this morning and had a great time. Heartily recommend it. 30: Hammer of God by Karen Miller is next. Intrigued to find out how the series concludes. Then probably more Larry Correia.
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Apr 27, 2014 11:57
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thespaceinvader posted:30: Hammer of God by Karen Miller is next. Intrigued to find out how the series concludes. Then probably more Larry Correia. 30: Hammer of God... drat. DAAAAMN. Good book. Really good. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was genuinely scared for the characters at the appropriate moments, genuinely cared about their plights and problems - and despite it being a little under-described, really enjoyed the magic system. A++ would read again. Not sure what's next.
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Apr 30, 2014 20:53
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thespaceinvader posted:Not sure what's next. 31: The Innocent Mage by Karen Miller. Decent enough, but the protag's annoying accent is already starting to hack me off, and I could swear blind I've actually read it before way back when. I'll find out, I guess.
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May 2, 2014 22:30
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thespaceinvader posted:31: The Innocent Mage by Karen Miller. Decent enough, but the protag's annoying accent is already starting to hack me off, and I could swear blind I've actually read it before way back when. I'll find out, I guess. 31: The Innocent Mage: yup, definitely read this before, I remembered the ending well before it happened. It's OK, I guess, but the bad guy suffers from incredible stupidity, having demonstrated his powers of outright mind control, he proceeds... not to use them ever again and then nearly die in a coach accident... 32: The Awakened Mage suffers from the issue noted above in that the bad guy somehow doesn't just use his ridiculously-better-than-everyone-else magic to gently caress poo poo up. Otherwise it's not bad, I like the characters, particularly now that Asher's more or less lost the irritating accent, and the book's fun but... you can tell it was written before Godspeaker.
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May 9, 2014 22:40
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thespaceinvader posted:32: The Awakened Mage suffers from the issue noted above in that the bad guy somehow doesn't just use his ridiculously-better-than-everyone-else magic to gently caress poo poo up. Otherwise it's not bad, I like the characters, particularly now that Asher's more or less lost the irritating accent, and the book's fun but... you can tell it was written before Godspeaker. 32: The Awakened Mage was again... fine. Not fantastic, a couple of really key plot holes (for instance, what with Morg thoroughly owning Durm's entire mind, why didn't he know about the diary; there was another too, much later on but it's slipped my mind. But overall it just all seemed a little too convenient - the prophecy demanded Asher succeed and he did. There wasn't a lot of... challenge to it. A lot of difficulty, but the characters just felt carried along by this one ancient dude's mystical visions. 33: A Blight of Mages because I'm not feeling terribly imaginative, it was what the Kobo store suggested, and I couldn't find Valor and Vanity which is what I wanted to read. It may not be out in the UK yet, but Writing Excuses implied it had been released stateside.
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May 11, 2014 23:45
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thespaceinvader posted:33: A Blight of Mages because I'm not feeling terribly imaginative, it was what the Kobo store suggested, and I couldn't find Valor and Vanity which is what I wanted to read. It may not be out in the UK yet, but Writing Excuses implied it had been released stateside. 33: A Blight of Mages was OK, but honestly none of the Dorana books thus far have been a patch on The Riven Kingdom et al, which I really enjoyed. Blight would have been a lot better if the protags weren't a pair of collossal idiotic arrogant pricks. 34: The Book Thief because it was around and fiancee had finished it. So far it's OK, but the occasional interludes in funny typography asking and answering side questions etc are really bugging me. Stop trying to be ~~##**ART**##~~ and just get on with the loving story.
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May 23, 2014 19:01
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thespaceinvader posted:34: The Book Thief because it was around and fiancee had finished it. So far it's OK, but the occasional interludes in funny typography asking and answering side questions etc are really bugging me. Stop trying to be ~~##**ART**##~~ and just get on with the loving story. 34: The Book Thief was strong, interesting and random asides... aside... well-written, but I couldn't help but feel that the end was wildly abrupt, and the conceit of it being narrated by death was a bit... lost. 34: Skin Game. Nuff said. 7 or 8 chapters in thus far, and enjoying it.
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May 29, 2014 22:26
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thespaceinvader posted:35: Skin Game. Nuff said. 7 or 8 chapters in thus far, and enjoying it. 35: Skin Game. gently caress me, I knew Jim Butcher is widely held to be a massive goon, but what a MASSIVE GOON is Jim Butcher. And holy hell, he's come a long way since Storm Front. I had an absolute blast with Skin Game, and now I'm seriously considering reading the whole thing a second time round immediately, just so that I can notice where Grey was passing messages to Harry, because I didn't for the life of me peg that twist until it happened. It was extremely well-hidden by the fact that so much poo poo constantly happens to poor old Harry that everything being entirely against him felt entirely natural. I laughed out loud at Spot. I cheered at the goony-as-gently caress loving lightsaber of the cross and generally had an absolute wail of a time. Fantastic fun. Not sure what's next. I'm tempted to do a full reread of the Dresden Files at this point.
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May 31, 2014 15:58
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thespaceinvader posted:35: Skin Game. gently caress me, I knew Jim Butcher is widely held to be a massive goon, but what a MASSIVE GOON is Jim Butcher. 36: Think Like a Freak by Stephens Levitt and Dubner. Enjoyable and thought-provoking, but a little light compared to their normal fare - around the size in hardback of their normal softcovers and in a really big font... and the last fifth was references and index. Good, but too short. Then picked up Side Jobs by Jim Butcher, but only read a couple of stories from it so I'm not counting it. Next is a collection of short stories by Peter F Hamilton, but I can't remember the title. I think it's Manhattan in Reverse but I'll confirm shortly.
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Jun 2, 2014 20:24
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thespaceinvader posted:Next is a collection of short stories by Peter F Hamilton, but I can't remember the title. I think it's Manhattan in Reverse but I'll confirm shortly. 37: Manhattan in Reverse by Peter F Hamilton. Very good set of short stories, fascinating very interesting, lots of thought-provoking stories, and great to have Hamilton's imagination in short stories, rather than giant doorstoppers. 38: The Alchemist by Paolo Bacigalupi. I really like Bacigalupi's work and this is no exception, but I'm slightly disappointed to find it's only 60 pages long. Next is The Excecutioness, set in the same world but a different author whose name I forget. Humble Ebook Bundle is good times.
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Jun 6, 2014 21:52
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thespaceinvader posted:
39: The Excecutionessby Tobias S Buckell. Very good. I really like this world, and I like the characters both Bacigalupi and Buckell have brought me - and it makes me want to find more Buckell. I'm just disappointed that both are only 60-page novellas. I wanted some full-length fiction in this world, espeially by Bacigalupi, whose work I REALLY like. 40: The Sword & Sorcery Anthology introduced by David Drake. Thus far I've read a Conan story, which was interesting and makes me want to finally get round to reading Howard.
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Jun 9, 2014 19:17
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thespaceinvader posted:40: The Sword & Sorcery Anthology introduced by David Drake. Thus far I've read a Conan story, which was interesting and makes me want to finally get round to reading Howard. 40: As with most anthologies The Sword & Sorcery Anthology was a varied read. Some of the stories really, really grabbed me, carried me along and made me care a lot, and I want to read more by those authors. Some (in particular the Gray Mouser one) I just found hard to follow. SO I need to go back through the authors, check who wrote the ones I liked, and read more of their work... 41: Lovecraft's Monsters edited by Ellen Datlow. Another anthology from the humble ebook bundle, and similarly varied in quality and tone. Really enjoyed some of the stories, others fell really flat. It's not a genre I'm particularly attached to either, though it has its moments. Still plugging through this one.
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Jun 21, 2014 17:38
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thespaceinvader posted:41: Lovecraft's Monsters edited by Ellen Datlow. Another anthology from the humble ebook bundle, and similarly varied in quality and tone. Really enjoyed some of the stories, others fell really flat. It's not a genre I'm particularly attached to either, though it has its moments. Still plugging through this one. 40: Lovecraft's Monsters was solid. I particularly liked the Frankenstein story and Remnants. Still not wildly sold on the whole Cthulhu mythos thing though. 41: Shambling Towards Hiroshima by James Morrow. Excellent, all told. An interesting memoir about a fun what-if scenario, mixed in with some important thoughts about the end of WW2, survivor guilt, and godzilla. Well worth a read, if a little brief. 42: JAM by Yahtzee Croshaw. Very good fun, this. I wasn't expecting much, but it really defied my expectations. An interesting concept, a fascinating apocalypse, and a reasonably well-thought-out plot. Good fun, again well worth a read. Run out of books now in the humble bundle so I'm going to get onto Stardust which I've long been meaning to read.
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Jun 26, 2014 22:40
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thespaceinvader posted:Run out of books now in the humble bundle so I'm going to get onto Stardust which I've long been meaning to read. 43: Stardust by Neil Gaiman. In a rare departure for me, I read the book WELL after watching the movie. I saw the movie first in the cinema when it came out... holy gently caress 7 years ago... and absolutely loved it. So, I had high expectations from the book, but I went into it knowing (spoilers OMG) that it was a very different, somewhat darker story - more Grimm, less Disney, on the fairy tale scale. And it really is a very, very different story. Almost nothing is the same, up to and including the protagonist's name. But nonetheless, I really, really enjoyed it. In the book, there's simply more room, to explore the magic a bit more, the history, to drop hints about Trist(r)an's heritage, which honestly isn't that well-telegraphed in the film, but conversely, the film develops its own areas - Captain Shakespeare, in particular, is a magnificent character entirely absent from the book. I was slightly disappointed by his absence, but not by much. The overall plot arc is a lot longer and deeper-feeling, with Tristran and Yvaine having a little more time together before falling madly in love, and generally having more space to explore the Faerie. Overall, I had a blast, I enjoyed the two as... almost, separate but related stories, different ones set in the same world, maybe (faerie stories are often cyclical, after all), and I'd heartily recommend either. 44 and 45 are The Primarchs, a Horus Heresy short story collection, and The Departure by Neal Asher, but I'm not sure which I'll finish first as I left the former at a friend's house after starting it the other day. I enjoyed the first story, and got halfway through the second. Then started The Departure afterwards, which is intriguing so far. I'm really wondering whether it's going to be in the Polity setting or not, I just can't peg it yet.
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Jul 2, 2014 21:48
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Wittgen posted:I would second pretty much all of this. They're different, but they are both good. Stardust the film is a really good quirky Hollywood happy fantasy movie. Stardust the book is a really good bittersweet fairy tale. Both are worthwhile depending on the mood you're in. Haven't read The Princess Bride. Probably should do.
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Jul 4, 2014 21:24
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 10:34 |
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thespaceinvader posted:43: Stardust by Neil Gaiman. In a rare departure for me, I read the book WELL after watching the movie. I saw the movie first in the cinema when it came out... holy gently caress 7 years ago... and absolutely loved it. So, I had high expectations from the book, but I went into it knowing (spoilers OMG) that it was a very different, somewhat darker story - more Grimm, less Disney, on the fairy tale scale. And it really is a very, very different story. Almost nothing is the same, up to and including the protagonist's name. But nonetheless, I really, really enjoyed it. In the book, there's simply more room, to explore the magic a bit more, the history, to drop hints about Trist(r)an's heritage, which honestly isn't that well-telegraphed in the film, but conversely, the film develops its own areas - Captain Shakespeare, in particular, is a magnificent character entirely absent from the book. I was slightly disappointed by his absence, but not by much. The overall plot arc is a lot longer and deeper-feeling, with Tristran and Yvaine having a little more time together before falling madly in love, and generally having more space to explore the Faerie. 44: The Primarchs was... fine, much like most HH novels. It was a library book, what can you do? 45: The Departure was pretty decent, albeit quite a lot darker and more apocalyptic than Asher's work usually feels - and clearly not in the same universe as the Polity. Interesting, looking forward to the next one. 45: Angel Exterminatus by some Horus Heresy author. So far, so Horus Heresy. They're all fine, very few of them are better than fine. Perturabo is a massive goonlord.
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Jul 11, 2014 22:33
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