Cool quote!Originally Posted by Contrarius
Cool quote!
Just started Hunter's Death last night. I really enjoyed the Sun Sword series and can't wait to dive into the House War series. Well once it's complete
Currently reading "Circle of Skulls" a forgotten realms novel by James P. Davis.
Before that I read "Lord of Souls" by Greg Keyes
I just finished Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan, and have moved on to Rise of Empire.
I'm really enjoying these books. There's an intentional simplicity to them that keeps the story from getting bogged down, but there's still plenty of historical and background information spread out to make the world feel full. I think they're a good mix.
We'll see how I feel after these two stories, but I suspect I'll dive right into the last two right after.
Durham's first two books were amazing, hopefully the final book continues in that manner. Although I will admit, hopefully with no spoilers, that at one point near the end I literally threw Acacia across the room. As ticked as I was I still couldn't help but finish it and quickly after the second book.
It's funny - I was just looking through the unread piles in here (i.e. the Omnibus Cave) and found a HC edition of one of the book's from West's House War series....[too lazy to go over there and look to see which one].Just started Hunter's Death last night. I really enjoyed the Sun Sword series and can't wait to dive into the House War series. Well once it's complete
Therefore, it looks as though I'll be shopping for the rest of that series as well. *sigh* I guess I'll just have to go buy more books.
Just finished Scarecrow Returns an over the top action adventure. Going to start Kings of Morning this weekend.
Thanks Tim - glad you liked the first book...and thanks for the support.
You're welcome. Halfway through the third story and having a good time. I've got a week off and I'm shooting to finish the series. Thanks for the great books.
I also just finished Theft of Swords and really enjoyed it. Definitely the type of book that is hard to put down. Needless to say I have already downloaded Rise of Empire to my kindle and am looking forward to this weekend to get some reading done.
I just finished rereading the entire Cal Leandros series -- including the latest installment, Doubletake, which was released on Wednesday.
This is not a perfect series by any means, but for the most part it really floats my boat. I don't much like Thurman's Korsak Brothers series, and I haven't read her Trickster books, but I think she's done pretty darned well with the Leandros books. As I mentioned the other day, these books really circle around various questions of identity throughout the whole series. I like the way Thurman handles these questions, I like the dark, sardonic, and also introspective tone in the midst of violence and general mayhem, I like the characters, in fact I like most things about the books.
In some other thread months ago I opined that in some ways these are like the Farseer/Assassin/Fool books by Hobb....and in a way, I think that's true. But I don't want anyone to get the idea that Cal Leandros, the main character, is some whiny emo kid or that Thurman writes huge tomes. Neither is true. I think they are similar in that Cal's interior experience is essential to the course of the books, and in that Cal is made to suffer constantly throughout the whole series -- but these stories are told with a much less romantic and more hard-edged bent than Hobb's stuff, and with much more economy of words.
And no, they aren't perfect. For one thing, there are multiple small problems with continuity throughout the series -- I dunno if Thurman does these consciously or if she just needs a better proofer, but for me they do get annoying at times. Also, sometimes there seems to be lots of repetition of facts that we already know (this may be bothering me in part because I just reread the entire series over the course of a few days). Also, from time to time there are IMHO failures of logic......but then again I suppose nobody's perfect. Oh, and finally -- in three of the books she switches repeatedly between two different first person POVs, which IMO is not always successful and can get distracting. I can see why she's doing it, but I don't think it always works.
In the last book in particular, I am really really annoyed at Thurman for a specific plot point -- first because she introduced that particular point at all (how could she do that!!!!!!!), and second because she then dropped it completely (I know perfectly well that she'll bring it up again in the next book, but I want it dealt with NOWNOWNOW!!). This isn't a cliff hanger as such, since she brought it up in the middle of the book rather than the end, but I am verrrrrrrrrrrrrry unhappy about it. Hmph. Also in the middle of the book, Thurman kind of threw the kitchen sink at us -- she introduced a whole scene with lots of extraneous filler characters for no particularly good reason, IMO in an attempt to create a crossover into her Trickster books (I can't say for sure, since I haven't read those). I found this rather annoying as well.
Anyway -- more than anyone wanted to know. Just had to get some of these ideas down in text!
Finished Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. It worked even better for me than Hard Boiled Wonderland, despite making me extremely angry with the author at some point for introducing some cute talking cats and then throwing the story into weird slasher horror movie. Intellectually I got the point he was trying to make, but
The book could also be titled Kafka Tamura and The Meaning of Life: a bit ambitious sounding, but that's what it really is about. Beside the horror, there's also humor, irony, music, love, friendship, loneliness, philosophy and everything in between. A good candidate for a re-read.
I have also finished my second Kane book by Karl Edward Wagner : Death Angel's Shadow. THese stories belong in the Sword and Sorcery Hall of Fame, more than holding their own when compared to Fritz Leiber or Robert E Howard..
To get in line with the rest of the sffworld crowd, I have started Percepliquis - final Riyria book. It took me a few chapters to get recapture the mood after the long wait since Wintertide, but I'm back in the saddle now.
Totally agree: it's just a shame they are so hard/expensive to get hold of these days...I have also finished my second Kane book by Karl Edward Wagner : Death Angel's Shadow. THese stories belong in the Sword and Sorcery Hall of Fame, more than holding their own when compared to Fritz Leiber or Robert E Howard..
Mark
Mark
Wow - a two-fer - thanks Khale. I love the instant gratification that the kindle (and similar devices) provide. Many is a night that I finish book 1 late and it's oh so easy to get the next book without watiting for a store to open or postage delivery. I'm glad you found Theft to be a page-turner and hope you enjoy getting a bit deeper into the over arching story that is a big part of Rise of Empire.
Algernoninc - Percepliquis is my favorite book of the series, although more than a few have said that Wintertide is theirs. Percepliquis is by far the largerst book and there is a lot to tie up in one story, but I did build the whole series for this book so actually the groundwork had been laid for some time so writing it was very easy. I hope you enjoy!
Last edited by sullivan_riyria; March 10th, 2012 at 07:46 AM.
Michael, am I pronouncing this correctly: per SEP leh kwiss?
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