polishgenius Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 It's as if Anthony Ryan and Ernest Cline were in a contest to write the most disappointing book of 2015. I've not read either and won't soon, but both are getting absolutely savaged everywhere. Shame, really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 That sums up Ready Player One too. He's consistent at least. Oh good, I thought I was the only one who hated that garbage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
First of My Name Posted July 18, 2015 Author Share Posted July 18, 2015 Finished Revival by Stephen King. There's not a lot to it in the end, but it's enjoyable. Ending was unusual but good.I'm going to read Shogun by James Clavell next. I bought it a few months ago, partly because of the praise it received on this forum. I'm really looking forward to this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HexMachina Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 Today I finished up The Lions of Al-Rassan and started and finished The Picture of Dorian Gray. Next up will be reading A Court of Thorns and Roses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farseer2 Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 I'm in the middle of Dawn of Wonder by Jonathan Renshaw. So far it's a very typical "country boy ends up going to the big city and undergoing elite training" type of story but I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I tend to like these types of stories so it's right up my alley. Anyone else read it? Yes, and I loved it. I think it's a very interesting new author. The plot is quite classical, but the treatment is different enough not to feel more of the same (the fact that there is no big prophecy and the main character is not destined to be the long-expected savior of anything helps). The problem is that now I have to wait for the next book... That reminds me why I usually try to wait until series are complete, but I had heard very good things about this one and I decided to go ahead, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mexal Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 Yes, and I loved it. I think it's a very interesting new author. The plot is quite classical, but the treatment is different enough not to feel more of the same (the fact that there is no big prophecy and the main character is not destined to be the long-expected savior of anything helps). The problem is that now I have to wait for the next book... That reminds me why I usually try to wait until series are complete, but I had heard very good things about this one and I decided to go ahead, I finished it last night and really really enjoyed it. Not terribly original but well enough executed that I wanted to keep reading. Good stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unJon Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 Just finished The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis. It was really great. Thanks Red Eyed Ghost for another spot on rec! I didn't realize it was the start of a trilogy though. Ugh. Anyone read his other series about Germany with Superman and England with demons? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HexMachina Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 Just finished The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis. It was really great. Thanks Red Eyed Ghost for another spot on rec! I didn't realize it was the start of a trilogy though. Ugh. Anyone read his other series about Germany with Superman and England with demons? I've recently read it too. Thought it was great and looking forward to seeing it pan out. Already impatient for the next book *sigh* I'll probably pick up his WWII inspired books some time too. I was rather disturbed when reading one part of the book [spoiler] Where Visser has brain surgery conducted on him while.still conscious. And then pretty much anything he did after he had his Free Will removed (because of his thoughts, mostly). Disturbing stuff [/spoiler] I also found that [spoiler] I initially had the image of French = good, Dutch = bad. But then Berenice had her experiments on Lilith and I began to realise that really the French arent all that much better after all [/spoiler] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unJon Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 HEM, Yes was totally disturbed by that. It was also a cool and visceral way to explore the philosophical themes in the book without bald-faced exposition. Also had the same revelation as you did about the two sides of the conflict. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 Just finished The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis. It was really great. Thanks Red Eyed Ghost for another spot on rec! I didn't realize it was the start of a trilogy though. Ugh. Yeah, sorry about that. Glad you enjoyed it though :thumbsup: I've recently read it too. Thought it was great and looking forward to seeing it pan out. Already impatient for the next book *sigh* I'll probably pick up his WWII inspired books some time too. I was rather disturbed when reading one part of the book [spoiler] Where Visser has brain surgery conducted on him while.still conscious. And then pretty much anything he did after he had his Free Will removed (because of his thoughts, mostly). Disturbing stuff [/spoiler] I also found that [spoiler] I initially had the image of French = good, Dutch = bad. But then Berenice had her experiments on Lilith and I began to realise that really the French arent all that much better after all [/spoiler] [spoiler]As soon as they began the cutting on Visser, I knew where it was going to end, but it was still rough to read it as it happened. I loved the scene when Jax freed the huge airship, and I was really sad it didn't survive. What personality it had! I can't recall, but did it say how Berenice learned the mechanicals' language? I like how quickly "Clockmakers lie." spread, and I can't wait to see how the story progresses.[/spoiler] ETA: I just looked and to my surprise book 2, The Rising, is scheduled to be released on December 1st. Anyone read his other series about Germany with Superman and England with demons? Already impatient for the next book *sigh* I'll probably pick up his WWII inspired books some time too. You both should. They are fantastic. I think I enjoyed them even more than I did The Mechanical. I still need to read Something More Than Night though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 I finished it last night and really really enjoyed it. Not terribly original but well enough executed that I wanted to keep reading. Good stuff. It's kind of annoying when a self-pub book gets really good reviews but is only available on Amazon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tears of Lys Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 Just finished Wise Man's Fear. I liked it a lot. I wonder if some people think it is slow, but I could have read a book twice that long. I didn't realize that the "3rd" Kingkiller chronicle book out is not really the 3rd book but actually just a novella about a secondary character. Oh well, guess I am waiting for Kingkiller book 3 and Winds of Winter. Not really sure what to read next, so I started Name of the Wind again. I'm noticing a few interesting tidbits so far:[spoiler]Young Kvothe mentions Lady Lackless in a rhyme he heard from some kids playing jump rope.Kvothe references "spending the night" with Felurian, not some indeterminate amount of time (possibly almost a year)[/spoiler]While you're waiting for the third book in the Kingkiller Chronicle, do a little searching on this site for some of the many threads about this series. I think your head will spin when you read some of the interesting tidbits folks pick up from this series! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. X Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 Just finished The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis. It was really great. Thanks Red Eyed Ghost for another spot on rec! I didn't realize it was the start of a trilogy though. Ugh. Anyone read his other series about Germany with Superman and England with demons? I highly, highly recommend the Milkweed books. Great fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maester Llama Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 I know nothing about why Klein isn't shelved in sff, but I strongly suspect it's because his publisher / the retailers are thinking that Ready Player One made a fuckton of money and that therefore they should shelve his shit in general fiction / the bestseller table / wherever Armada's potential to make another fuckton of money can be maximized. I'd be surprised if he himself was in any way opposed to being shelved in sff; he seems to love it. Armada is waiting for me at the library. I am not enthusiastic but will try it because it is there. Finished Karen Lord's The Galaxy Game, the sequel to her controversial sf novel The Best of All Possible Worlds. ["Controversial" in the sense that a lot of people hated it, some because they thought it had coodies -- the plot is in part a romantic comedy -- and some for other reasons.] Some really interesting ideas in pretty desperate search for a plot and a structure. Oscillates back and forth between focusing on the teenage protagonist trying to move beyond domestic trauma and figure his life out on the one hand and the project of keeping the galaxy in balance on the other and has trouble finding a throughline that knits the two together. Lord's style in this series seems to be to tackle really really heavy shit like genocide on the macro level and domestic abuse on the micro without ever showing them ever ever ever, alluding to the horror slantwise so it hovers and lingers and we have to parse it on our own, and it's a really cool style in theory I think, but for me there's just not enough here in terms of surface-level story content -- the book plays with a lot of interesting plot arcs, but frequently drops them and moves on before they can grip. Also finished The Wolf Border, by Sarah Hall, which is contemporary fiction with one alternate history element to do with a very recent political event that was probably still up in the air when Hall finished the manuscript. The novel's about the reintroduction of wolves to a land reserve in northern England, and the ways the head of the project's work and family life intersect as she reconnects with her brother and becomes pregnant, reconnecting with stereotypically "civilized" elements of humanity even as she works to "rewild" England in a small way. Super super British: lots of family drama; tons of class stuff. Gentler and more pro-family connection, in some ways, than I was [unfairly, only having read Daughters of the North] expecting from Hall. Lots of beautiful sweeping descriptions of landscapes and a moving exploration of maternity. Liked it. And I read Touch by Claire North. Can't compare it to Harry August, but I found the book quite enjoyable. It has some character trouble, but the plot's propulsive and the explorations of different lives and the ethical ambiguities of the central character's way of living -- stealing bodies and snuffing out the minds that inhabit them for as long as she / he is in residence -- are compelling. North finds really inventive ways to use the body-hopping without ever breaking her own rules. Fun book with enough going on under the hood in terms of themes to make the thrillride feel somewhat nutritious. And the observation of places, and of people but without lingering too long on secondary characters, and the sweeping passages of action and introspection based around the speculative concept of body-hopping, play to North's strengths as a writer, I think [North is also Kate Griffin.] I endorse Tregillis' WWII Milkweed books. They're awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unJon Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Bought first Milkweed book. Starting it now. Thanks guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Durckad Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Finished up Half A King a few days ago. It was good, enjoyable, vintage grimdarkian Abercrombie. Maybe it was a bit too predictable and I don't think the prose matched some of his better writing in Best Served Cold, Heroes, and Red Country but it was good, short, and had a great pace. Started up Seveneves and holy crap just by reading a few paragraphs you can tell that this is a Neal Stephenson book. Enjoyable so far, but I'm not too far into it yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
all swedes are racist Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 About to wrap up Abbadons Gate. Definitely enjoyed the first half more than the second... But I thing this book is the point in the series I've gone from "whoa, yeah!" To "Aaggghhhh!!! What?!" Will probably try to pick up Cibola Burn and Nemesis Games tomorrow before work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astromech Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 I finished Paris 1919. An interesting overview of the Paris Peace Conference and most of its problems. It treated the personalities pretty heavily: Wilson, Clemenceau, Lloyd George. However, Margaret Mitchell's conclusion wasn't really consistent with the rest of the book. I started Joe R. Lansdale's The Bottoms after reading some recommendations in the truly scary novel thread. I like it so far. Creepy Southern horror. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HexMachina Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Thanks Lyanna, REG, unJon and Mr. X. I'll read the Milkweed books...sometime...hopefully. And great news about book #2, hope that date is accurate :) I'm still plodding through A Court of Thorns and Roses. Its...proving tricky to get through. The characters feel flat and lifeless, I feel no connection at all to them. And at 60% there really doesnt seem to be a great deal that has happened either. Well, no, there have been things happening, but they just feel like the author is writing several scenes that don't really form a cohesive narrative. The world/setting also seems rather empty, or superficial. Scratch the surface and there's nothing really there. I'll finish it, but I see its the first in a trilogy, which I'm unlikely to continue unless there is some serious improvement in the last 40% of the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Antony Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Finished Lionheart by Sharon Kay Penman which was quite good though probably my least favorite of her Angevin books so far. Still her research and detail is incredible as always and it had some of her best battle scenes for sure. Gonna start A Kings Ransom tomorrow. Also reading Red Dragon by Thomas Harris since The Hannibal TV show is about to do their version of it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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