In the early hours of Tuesday morning, I finished Tom Lloyd's The Dusk Watchman. This is the fifth, and final, installment to his Twilight Reign series. The author/series have come a long way. Review upcoming.
Returning to the mid-point of Butcher's Cursor's Fury, now that my Lloyd finale is out of the way.
Finished Robin Hobb's Mad Ship. This middle book brought lots of change to the Liveship Traders world. Most of the story lines were left open, but she found a pretty satisfying place to stop it. I'm still very impressed with her writing ability. She's a powerhouse. I'll start the third book after a brief intermission with some shorter novels to catch my breath.
Recently finished King's Cell. Thought it was decent, but he kinda killed the whole zombie thingSpoiler:
About to finish The Other Lands, book 2 in the Acacia trilogy. Really good stuff, on par with the first one. I'm loving the characters and the vast imagination. This book deals a lot more with, guess what?, the Other Lands, which are filled with crazy peoples and species.
I'm at about the halfway point of Robin Hobb's Royal Assassin. As I've said before, my first taste of her was the first book of the Soldier's Son trilogy, and I thought it was just awful. Now, I'm seriously reminded of C. J. Cherryh's Fortress series. Really good. Don't expect tonnes of action, but expect courtly intrique. Well done characterization in this one.
I finished The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. Usually I like Valente, but for some reason this one didn't work for me.
Next I'm planning to read City by Clifford Simak.
Yes I started this one yesterday and I have to say the same. So far I am really liking it. I enjoyed the Night Angel trilogy, but I have to say I am liking this series a little more. Kip is probably my favorite character in these books. Some of the things that come out of that kids mouth just makes me laughOriginally Posted by supremedarkness
Just finished The Blinding Knife and have to say really liked it especially the ending really liked the ending. What i dint like where all the chapters from the color prince side found them boring and wanted to get back to Gavin or Kip soon.
I finished To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Sad and honest.
Started The Affirmation by Christopher Priest
I am about 1/3 into it but it is odd...
Finished The Other Lands (amazing), but taking a break before I finish the trilogy due to my fear of tiring of a great series when reading back to back. I know, it's not sane.
I jumped back into Rise of Empire by Michael J. Sullivan, I'm on The Emerald Storm and this one's probably the best one yet. I'm loving it and that may be partially due to the nautical parts - can't resist me a good swashbuckler. Should finish this one shortly.
Finished Royal Assassin by Hobb last night. Or maybe I should rephrase that and say late hours of the early morning, if that makes any sense.
I was trying to explain the book to my husband, and as I was, I realized how worn and true the storyline was. It's fairly standard. I found myself having to defend it from his laughter. I realized that while the story is an often told one, that it is Fitz, the narrator, who makes the story what it is. The fact that he's very flawed and bumbles around botching a lot of stuff is what makes the story seem more fresh than it otherwise should. I still don't think I've convinced my husband.
Hi NickeeCoco, I finished that trilogy a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. Fitz makes mistakes like we all do and I think that's what makes him so endearing.
I want to read more of Robin's stuff, infact I have two of her series on kindle.
I'm currently enjoying THE BLADE ITSELF [ part 1 The First Law] about 76% through it or 3/4 in old money. I'll probably go straight onto part 2, borrowed that from the library.
NickeeCoco & ubergeek
I loved the first two trilogies.
If you are planning to go on, then my advice would be to read The Liveship Traders before The Tawny Man. The latter has far too many spoilers that will ruin The Liveship Traders.
I re-read The Farseer & The Liveship Traders trilogies twice and both time loved them to pieces. However, I hated The Tawny Man which I read after re-read of the former.
Astra, thanks for the advice. When I get back to reading Robin Hobb I'll start with the Liveship series.
Just finished Old Man's War. Starting The Way of Shadows tonight after a full day of football and beer drinking.
Glad to see other folks enjoying Robin Hobb. I like Tawny Man, myself, in fact when I first read it I loved it and was convinced Hobb was some sort of minor deity. [Not sure how I'd feel about it now, but would guess I'd still like it but perhaps not as wholeheartedly. Have not read Liveship Traders, must fix that.] Even I have to admit that even by Hobb's standards Tawny Man's pace is sometimes glacial. I know some people really, really do not like the ending, in that "this-retroactively-charbroils-my-whole-reading-experience-and-I-want-my-money-back" kind of way that happens occasionally, but personally I was okay with it. Problem to watch out for, though, perhaps.
Just finished Paul S. Kemp's first original novel, The Hammer and the Blade, a super-fun sword-and-sorcery romp that I thoroughly enjoyed and would provisionally recommend, with a couple caveats: 1: I was in exactly the right mood. 2: There's some slightly repetitive fistycuffs in the middle whilst the protagonists try to avoid doing something [being vague here], which is understandable but takes too long.
The apple falls close to the tree in the best possible way, in that the book feels like a bloodier, more mature version of a D&D story with the gamier elements ... if not removed then sidelined. One of my only major criticisms would probably be that the book might have let tomb robbers Egil and Nix do rather more actual tomb robbing and rather less being hauled around engaging in mine-is-larger square-offs with thuggish guard types. And the banter, while wonderful, could go for quality over quantity a tiny bit more -- though the running stream is definitely a feature not a bug.
The book's central plot problem is rather grim, and so is the solution to that problem, and it seems to me to fall into the trap hack-and-slash fantasy of this type sometimes does of being a conversation about the treatment of women in faux-medieval society which is often conducted entirely by male characters [I am not shoe-horning this in here; it is of direct plot relevance]. However, the book's last third does at least go for "conversation" rather than just slapping down a bunch of abuse and saying "isn't it awful?", drawing a direct line from the main characters' womanizing ways to the horrific abuse around which the plot centers and almost managing to weave together a story which hangs on damsels in distress whilst simultaneously offering metacommentary on the consistency with which this trope is deployed in sword-and-sorcery. It's a lot more successful than it could be in my humble opinion, but I half wish the next one would keep the ultraviolent sword-and-sorcery fun [and it really, really is fun] while finding a slightly different way to make its point.
Still working on The King's Blood. Don't want it to end. Also finished Ben Aaronovitch's Whispers Under Ground, which was fun and made me smile a lot, though I wish the series' main plot would kick up a gear, and N K Jemisin's The Shadowed Sun, which I thought was really, really good, in fact better than I was expecting. Hope to articulate why at some point, but I think this might be my favourite of her novels thus far. I certainly found it the most satisfying as a whole reading experience.
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