HexMachina Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 Finished Revelation, by C J Sansom. This was probably my favourite in the Shardlake series so far, as I enjoyed the exploration of mental illness that ran throughout the book, especially as you are reading it from the perspective of a 16th Century narrator, with the limited understanding such a person would have. I thought it was a very accurate portrayal of various mental illness, the way they influence people's lives, and how societal pressures play a big part in them. The mystery part was good too of course, and I liked that Matthew once again got to interact with some prominent historical figures in a way that didn't feel too jarring. Can't believe I only have two more of these to go Best Served Cold is progressing slowly, though not for lack of enjoyment. Simply got caught up in Revelation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astromech Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 1 hour ago, W. Wrycthen said: That truly is saying a lot. WD is a pretty epic read. I'm pretty high on it having just finished it. It may change with time, but yes, I view it as favorably as Watership Down atm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garett Hornwood Posted April 11, 2016 Author Share Posted April 11, 2016 I finished my reread of Nixonland on Saturday and started the next book in Rick Perlstein's series on the rise of modern conservatism with my first read of The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan. I've also made progress with my long time reading of The Poetry of Robert Frost which I decided to mention on here just because. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted April 12, 2016 Share Posted April 12, 2016 I finished Nightblade by Ryan Kirk. Since he's an indie author I won't be too harsh but I can't recommend it. It's a story of emo, teenage, tragic, noble Jedi ninjas in a medieval Japan-ish setting. It's just all a bit bland and cliche and for a story with so many duels between badass "greatest warrior in the kingdom" he never describes a fight beyond "in three cuts it was over". Otherwise I'm on vol 3 of Book Of The New Sun and I'll pick up another alternate read too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astromech Posted April 12, 2016 Share Posted April 12, 2016 Black Robe, Brian Moore. I found the clash of cultures between Christians and First Nations very interesting. The action was sufficient to prop up the main theme which was the culture clash. Quick read with some gruesome events, but nothing too shocking for most readers on these boards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo498 Posted April 13, 2016 Share Posted April 13, 2016 Finished Pratchett's "Nightwatch". Hm, this sounds arrogant in way I dislike but I fear I have "outgrown" (maybe temporarily) Pratchett. This is considered one of the best ones of the discworld series and I can't say I am enthusiastic about it. I read a bunch of them in the early/mid 1990s and "re-discovered" the series when I found a forgotten or inherited copy of "Men at Arms" (in German) on my shelves two years ago or so and I liked this (despite the loss of wit in translation) quite well. Then I got "Reaper Man" which was not great but entertaining enough. Now Night Watch is supposed to be one of the best ones? Except for the time travel there is hardly anything "fantastic" (much less ironic subversions of fantasy) about it. It's too serious for all the silly and ridiculous fun of the earlier ones but I don't think it's serious enough to work as a serious book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted April 13, 2016 Share Posted April 13, 2016 Night Watch is (IMHO) one of the peaks of the series. It is the darkest of the series generally, but after it Pratchett throws the humour element under the bus, and swings towards a greater emphasis on social commentary. (In fact, the only post-Night Watch Discworld book I would definitely recommend is Going Postal). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted April 13, 2016 Share Posted April 13, 2016 7 hours ago, Jo498 said: Finished Pratchett's "Nightwatch". Hm, this sounds arrogant in way I dislike but I fear I have "outgrown" (maybe temporarily) Pratchett. This is considered one of the best ones of the discworld series and I can't say I am enthusiastic about it. I read a bunch of them in the early/mid 1990s and "re-discovered" the series when I found a forgotten or inherited copy of "Men at Arms" (in German) on my shelves two years ago or so and I liked this (despite the loss of wit in translation) quite well. Then I got "Reaper Man" which was not great but entertaining enough. Now Night Watch is supposed to be one of the best ones? Except for the time travel there is hardly anything "fantastic" (much less ironic subversions of fantasy) about it. It's too serious for all the silly and ridiculous fun of the earlier ones but I don't think it's serious enough to work as a serious book. Shut your mouth! NW is great because it was the most heartfelt exposition of what Pratchett was trying to teach us with all the earlier subversive parody (and before the later books got to preachy), and carried it off without the crutch of gags and pratfalls (however humorous they were in the earlier books). And I think it still has it's own version of humor, just a blacker, more world-weary type. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guinevere Seaworth Posted April 13, 2016 Share Posted April 13, 2016 On 06/04/2016 at 3:34 AM, Maia said: I love the Empire Trilogy too, it is one of the examples of the whole being much more than the sum of it's parts. Not a fan of either author's separate work. And, unfortunately, still one of the very few examples of speculative fiction where the protagonist _really_ only relies on power of the mind/manipulation instead of jumping into action at some point, sigh. I also really appreciate the effortless handling of time-jumps, since so many authors (GRRM among them, cough) seem to get mired in trying to depict the minutiae of characters getting from A to B, both geographically and plot-wise. I really noticed how time flies in Servant of the Empire. A full decade passes and all the action is political aside from a small military engagement in the desert. Yet, I found the novel riveting as so MUCH happens! Mara is still one of my favorite fantasy protagonists ever. I had just started Mistress of the Empire, but then I got the library ebooks, Caliban's War and Abaddon's Gate that I had on hold for months suddenly come available. And I haven't read the first book in the Expanse series, Leviathan Wakes. Given that the library ebooks are non-renewable, I might have to put Mistress of the Empire aside and tackle Leviathan Wakes by James Corey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 Finished King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. I'm half-way through April, but have only finished two books this month. In this case, the difficulty was that the 600 page book simply never gripped me (apart from a brief moment towards the end), and I've now learned to hate the time-differentiated parallel stories structure. It didn't work in Lynch's Republic of Thieves, and it doesn't work with Lawrence's book. Also, whereas in Prince of Thorns, Jorg was a true trainwreck to read about, he suddenly develops ethical boundaries in King of Thorns. He's less interesting now. Next up is Silence, by Jan Costin Wagner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starkess Posted April 16, 2016 Share Posted April 16, 2016 Started Ancillary Sword. So far nothing really has happened and I have no idea what the story/plot for this book is, but I'm not sweating it. Ancillary Justice started out slow and ended up being amazing, so she's earned a bit of leeway from me as a reader. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted April 16, 2016 Share Posted April 16, 2016 Finished off Silence. Probably Wagner's best, if only because of the highly memorable strangeness of the ending. Next up is something a bit more literary. House of Orphans, by Helen Dunmore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mushroomshirt Posted April 17, 2016 Share Posted April 17, 2016 On 4/1/2016 at 4:46 PM, Direwolves are totally sweet said: After a few disappointing reads, I have gone back to an old faithful. Tearing gleefully through The Heroes, after doing the same in only a few days for Best Served Cold. I am also planning a summer-long trip back through the Dresden novels, as I missed the last two. That's funny, coincidentally I just finished re-reading all the Dresden novels myself. Easy reading & enjoyable as I remembered them. On a side note I guess Jim Butcher was dragged through the whole puppygate thing around the Hugos last year. I understand that he was a passive participant. Also Pat Rothfuss put together a pretty funny T-shirt referencing Skin Game. (clicking the link could probably be considered a spoiler for Skin Game) Not sure what I'll read next... maybe another re-read of ASOIAF. Haven't found anything new I liked lately so seems like maybe I should just stick to what I know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isildur's Mane Posted April 17, 2016 Share Posted April 17, 2016 Finished Reading 'The Restaurant at the End of the Universe', by Douglas Adams. I loved it so much! I will have to buy the next one as soon as I have finished reading 10 books (the deal I've made to myself is to read 10 then buy some books, then read 10 and buy more and so on). That isn't too far away either. I went away for a week to do some writing and I also caught up on a lot of reading. I have almost finished 'Dangerous Women' and 'The World of ice and Fire'. I'm also halfway through 'The Last Battle', by C. S. Lewis. Then I can go on a book shopping spree!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted April 17, 2016 Share Posted April 17, 2016 I hate Snuff. In fact, I'll go so far as to invoke canon discontinuity on it - this over-powered bully isn't the Vimes I know, damn it. (Ditto with Raising Steam. As far as I'm concerned, the mainstream Discworld series ended with Thud!. I'll allow Tiffany Aching) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkynJay Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 8 hours ago, Leap said: Finished Snuff by Terry Pratchett, which concludes the City Watch series of Discworld. It was enjoyable, clever and amusing - as per every Discworld novel I've read so far. I think this one more than any other went to more pains to connect the story together. However, I did feel the plot was a bit more disjointed than it has been in previous texts. Reveal hidden contents Disappointed at how little of Carrot and Angua we saw - there wasn't even any particular resolution there - although perhaps Pratchett had planned to go back to that in a future book? The texts have focussed more and more on Vimes, which is fine because it's interesting, but at some point during Snuff I did find myself wondering if there would be something different than Vimes and Willikins. Also, the villains were a little disappointing. Stratford was threatening enough, but he didn't really add any new ideas to the text. In fact, we hardly saw any villains on page. Young Lord Rust's fate is cool, but we never get to meet him. We never really get to the black, as the snooker analogy has it. So yeah, the ending was a bit lacking I think, but still provided a nice, heart-warming resolution for Vimes, Sybil and Young Sam. And Fred Colon and Nobby Nobbs. As I rate them, the City Watch books: 1. Jingo 2. Guards! Guards! 3. Night Watch 4. Feet of Clay 5. The Fifth Elephant 6. Thud! 7. Snuff 8. Men At Arms Next up, I just bought a copy of Hobb's The Mad Ship, but I'm not yet sure if I'm going to read more Pratchett before I pick that up. If I do, I'll be reading Soul Music, the third book in the Death series. I'll never tire of this fane. 1 Night Watch 2 Feet of Clay 3 Guards! Guards! 4 Men at Arms/Jingo/Fifth Elephant 7 Thud 8 Snuff- Only on the list because Sybill gets some strong screen time finally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 I didn't like the post-Thud bully Vimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 This thread is sad, only three pages when the month is half over I recently read The Walking Dead Book 11 and Book 12. The Whispers were great, looking forward to Book 13 later in the year. I'm currently about halfway through The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey. I'm enjoying it a lot, but a formatting choice is driving me freaking crazy. There are many asides in sentences that are bracketed with dashes, but there is no space between the dash and the words before and after it, so every freaking time by brain tries to make it a hyphenated word-rather than the pause break that it should create-which is insanely frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 This place is dead lately, and I don't know why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starkess Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 I finished Ancillary Sword. It was good, but disappointing as a follow-up to Ancillary Justice. The scope didn't work for me, the plot seemed mostly just to be meandering about waiting for things to happen, and the book got so preachy. I don't like preachiness in my novels. Still, it was mostly written well and it was fun to see Breq again and it was a pretty quick read. Not terrible, but I do hope that Ancillary Mercy is more my speed (judging by the plotpoints set-up in this one, it probably will be). 43 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said: This place is dead lately, and I don't know why. Calm before the season 6 storm? I agree, it's been really quiet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.