Starkess Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 I finished The Briar King. It was a slow read for me. I found it enjoyable but very shallow. Things happened so fast or with little implication. Most of the characters did not feel fleshed out. Grumpy old loner with a heart of gold? Virtuous young knight, commonly born, tempted by love? :bang: Some good ideas here, especially in the beginning chapters, but the execution was frustrating. That said, I'll probably pick up the sequel, just maybe not right away. Somehow whenever I am in the middle of a book, I have like 20 I can't wait to read, but as soon as I finish a book, I'm like "shit, I have no clue what to read now." Weird. Going back to CJ Cherryh's Foreigner universe to start the second trilogy with Precursor. Unfortunately this isn't available for Kindle (WTF rage, I almost never read things in physical copy anymore), so my instant gratification is delayed as I had to order an actual book to be shipped to me. Mega lame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peadar Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Inspired by Mexal, I may have a go at The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough. I've always wanted to read it, but only recently has it turned up in the Kindle store... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geeodin Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Going to give Shogun by James Clavell a go. That should eat up the rest of the month for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbound Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Going to give Shogun by James Clavell a go. That should eat up the rest of the month for me.I think you'll be pretty happy with that. Hai, anjin-san Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Crow's Third Eye Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Going to start reading Ken Follett Fall of Giants tomorrow, as recommended to me by a cousin. I'm quite hopeful, it sounds like a good read Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Yeah I'm just going to say it. Cassandra Clare is a fraud and a thief.:link: I always like these kind of stories.eta: hmm, where's the link emoticon? I'll have to look when I'm not on my phone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Antony Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Inspired by Mexal, I may have a go at The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough. I've always wanted to read it, but only recently has it turned up in the Kindle store... read it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 :link: I always like these kind of stories.eta: hmm, where's the link emoticon? I'll have to look when I'm not on my phone.Google her and plagerism. (But spell it right). I'll see if I can pull up links, although I believe if you go to her first book on goodreads on e of the first reviews has a ver in depth, uh, analysis of the whole situation. Stupid connection... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kat Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Just finished The Twelve by Justin Cronin. Since there's no actual release date for City of Glass, I probably should have waited for later in the year to read this series. Oh well. It was satisfying but I'm afraid of forgetting details by fall or whenever the third book is supposed to come out. As soon as I finish the last ~30 min of the Consider Phlebas audiobook, I'll be starting with Player of Games. So far, 2014 has been a good reading year for me in terms of quality, as I've been catching up on stuff I meant to read for a while and seem to have started with all the good stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkynJay Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Ok, so since I last posted. Howl's Moving Castle. I have read four or five books by Jones, but never her best known until now. It was pretty good, and you can see her playing with fantasy tropes quite a bit before it was cool. Was this written before Tough Guide to Fantasyland? If so, a lot of the ideas were being floated already. Blood Oranges by Kathleen Tierney (pen name of Caitlen Kiernan). Urban fantasy parody, kinda of. Or perhaps a parody of bad parodies of urban fantasy. Also pretty good. Real crazy first person narrator that changes her story and admits to lying throughout. Honor Before Thieves- James S.A. Corey.Star Wars novel by Daniel Abraham and his partner. Quick tale set between New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. Best Star Wars release in several years. Now reading The Barrow by Mark Smylie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faint Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 I read The Fell Sword by Miles Cameron, which was somewhat of letdown compared to The Red Knight (with the exception Ghause Muriens, who was better than advertised). Too much of the book was setup for the third book but at least that one promises to be really good. I also tried The Grim Company by Luke Scull. In short, much better than I expected, although somewhat of an Abercrombie knockoff. Regardless, the story was fascinating enough and the characters pretty enjoyable as these things go. I'll definitely pick-up the sequel. And, lastly, I just finished The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley. While entertaining in parts, it was also fairly generic and I can't say it was all that memorable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procrastimancer Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 I finished Jeff VanderMeer's ANNIHILATION a few days ago and loved that. My expectations were high and it exceeded them. I'm reading Peter Higgins' WOLFHOUND CENTURY now and I want to say that it's pretty good, but there are some mixed feelings muddying the waters. I'm concerned about predictability, the growing amount of pov characters, and some smaller things that I haven't quite fleshed out. For the most part though, I'm enjoying it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deleted01 Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 Finished The Night Watch this week - enjoyable, interesting, but I was left wanting to know a lot more about the characters. A decent read, though.Started Shopping, Seduction & Mr Selfridge by Lindy Woodhead last night, as I love the ITV drama and am fascinated by the era. A good read so far, though I may alternate it with another book, as reading too much non-fiction (on top of the books for uni) gets a bit tedious for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3CityApache Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 I'm in the middle of Sand and it's definitely a good read. And it's getting better every page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowborn Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 Finished Return of the Crimson Guard, after little more than a month. I quite liked the idea of getting to know the Crimson Guard better, but this is the Malazan book I found the hardest to finish so far, the one I was the least interested in, especially coming after Reaper's Gale, which I loved. The first half or so seemed to go on forever without getting anywhere, I didn't like one of the storylines, everytime I got to that part I felt like skipping them, which has never happened with SE's books. Some details about the writing grated on me, like the swearing (it was like the characters namedropped every god they could think of with no consistency at all) and some dialogues. I found it hard to remember who was fighting for what side, there were lots of PoVs that felt irrelevant to the story. At first, it also seemed that ICE was trying to imitate Erikson's style, with poor results. Not all was bad though. After the 50, 55% mark it started to get better. Two characters that seemed irrelevant at first got more screentime and their stories were my favorites in the book. The pace picked up (or maybe we just started to spend less time with the non-interesting people), and by the end I was a lot more involved in the story. There were some very good scenes in the last three chapters or so. The ending was good; the writing improved, things happened, I don't know, but it left me wanting to read more, even though, when I was around 20% into it, I thought this was going to be my last Esslemont book. Now on to Toll the Hounds! I read the first two chapters and I have to say it looks very promising. I love Erikson. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagilki Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 Finally around to reading that Grim Company book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Crow's Third Eye Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 Finished Fall of Giants today, I enjoyed it wven more than expected. The upper class in WWI are dicks ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deleted01 Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 In bed with a stinking cold, so I started Women and Children First by Gill Paul. Seems pretty good, a drama based around the sinking of the Titanic. Just what I need to take my mind off this damn illness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Antony Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 In bed with a stinking cold, so I started Women and Children First by Gill Paul. Seems pretty good, a drama based around the sinking of the Titanic. Just what I need to take my mind off this damn illness. Feel better :) Starting Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deleted01 Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Feel better :) Starting Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel Thanks! :) Almost finished this book, as I've done little other than read and nap today. Not sure what to read next - I'm running out of historical fictions, which are my usual first choice when I'm feeling a bit crappy. Lawless is on my TRP, and I really enjoyed the film, but I also have a few Martina Cole books that are looking pretty likely.Hope you enjoy Wolf Hall as much as I did! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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