With regard to Brust, if you didn't like Jhereg maybe give The Phoenix Guards a shot. It's done as a Dumas pastiche. Or try Agyar.
I'd say it depends what you don't like. If it's the style, then The Phoenix Guards might work. Or the epistolary Freedom and Necessity. If it's something else..let us know. I've always thoroughly enjoyed Jhereg, so am intrigued where the issues are.
Brust's style in the Jherg books is a tad...off I guess? Oddly stilted in a way. I like the books alot and am working my way through them again. The writing improves as the series goes along.
With regard to Brust, if you didn't like Jhereg maybe give The Phoenix Guards a shot. It's done as a Dumas pastiche. Or try Agyar.
I'd say it depends what you don't like. If it's the style, then The Phoenix Guards might work. Or the epistolary Freedom and Necessity. If it's something else..let us know. I've always thoroughly enjoyed Jhereg, so am intrigued where the issues are.
I'm reading the Taltos books for the first time as well and the thing I seem to struggle with is a sense of place. I feel like the action occurs in borderline vacuum conditions, which makes it hard to create a real understanding of context. I'm in the middle of Yendi right now and feeling just... An absence of anything more iinvolved than a street name and a one-off reference to where the action is taking place is not quite immersion enough for me and I continually feel like I'm getting bumped out of the story. The books are incredibly fun, but I definitely struggle with them in that regard.
I find them fun and as i said I found the writing gets better as the series goes along
I concur.
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LibrarianThe face of liberal fascismRegistered Userregular
Finished Dan Simmons' Terror yesterday and really really REALLY enjoyed it. Agree with everyone here, it is one of his best books I read, easily the best next to Drood(I know that is not the popular opinion). I still have not read Hyperion but got it on the shelf, along with all the follow ups, so something to look forward to.
Terror Shpoilersh:
Considering the thing that was Flashback I was a bit afraid when Hickey/Manson got introduced as the bad guys that Simmons would go off to weird opinion land and show us the evil that is gayness. So I was pleasantly surprised when Bridgens and Peglar showed up and were easily the nicest and most intelligent guys in the book.
I also really liked that Crozier kinda got away and got a happy ending.
Loved the idea but the book can't decide if it wasn't to be historical fiction or fantasy horror. The monster is ultimately superfluous and it's just ... sad.
Got the final book in Jeff VanDeerMeer's Southern Reach trilogy
looking forward to that one like hell
Such a good series. Strongly suggest to anyone who likes really weird horrorish stuff. No books I've read in years have such a feeling of creeping all encompassing dread
Read "The girl with all the gifts" by Mike Carey. It's well written and I liked it. Really wish Carey's sales would pick up, because compared to the rest that's being published in the genre he's like a "literally giant".
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knitdanIn ur baseKillin ur guysRegistered Userregular
I loved his Lucifer comic series, and I read a few of his Felix Castor books, but they became a little hard to find in the States for some reason.
“I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
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Grudgeblessed is the mind too small for doubtRegistered Userregular
Just finished The Scar (no, not that one), but the fantasy novel by Russian writer pair Marina and Sergey Dyachenko. It's a stand-alone novel, although part of a larger cycle that is not yet translated from Russian AFAIK.
It's a comparatively low key story that is sometimes rather poetic, and quite unique. It feels quite... European, in a non-Angloamerican way. Not that I don't like British or American fantasy, but it's nice to read something different once in a while. Strongly recommended.
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TurksonNear the mountains of ColoradoRegistered Userregular
I just finished Republic of Thieves and read the other Gentlemen Bastard books earlier a few weeks ago.
I loved them all, but I got some serious issues:
I love the world building. Loved how dangerous and alien it was. Except for the damn Bondsmagi.
Red Seas under Red Skies: This book seemed kinda disjointed and it was really hurt by a lack of flashbacks of Locke's past. Really seemed liked it could have been two separate books, Locke the Revolutionary and Locke the Pirate. Honestly thought it was the weakest of the three.
Whereas I thought Republic of Thieves might have had too much flashback. And I'm not sure how the Karthian elections effect the the bondsmagi. There didn't seem to be enough political chicanery. And I really, really hated Patience and especially loathed her last pages with the Falconer. It makes no sense that she's fine with killing off almost a quarter of all the bondsmagi and having the rest retire from the world and not fucking kill the Falconer who she's previously acknowledged as a psychopath.
So I finally finished The Maltese Falcon, almost out of spite, on a long bus trip last week.
I hadn't seen the movie in years so I forgot about the "payoff." I generally like Noir and pulp and detective stuff, but I did not like that. Like at all.
I finally started Perdido Street Station on the ride back, which has been sitting on my shelf for a few years. We'll see how the hype train goes. I'm liking it so far (as much as anyone can tell from 2 chapters)
This summer, I sat down and powered my way through most of The Culture novels by Iain M. Banks. I'd read Consider Phlebas previously, and while it was interesting enough, it didn't really grab me and pull me in. This summer, I was able to read all the rest including the short stories, minus Player of Games and Excession.
And I really enjoyed them. Each story worked well as a story (and the story-telling got smoother the more recently published they were in general) and also worked well on deeper levels. For a number of the stories, the really interesting part is how success or failure of those involved in the particular events contained within doesn't really matter in the end because the story was never really about the individual events. They are all stories that give you a lot to think about for many days afterwards and I found that deeply satisfying.
My favourites were probably Inversions and Look to Windward, but I enjoyed them all. Contrary to many, while I appreciated Use of Weapons the big reveal didn't have much impact because I'd figured it out fairly early on and so then ending was a bit disappointing.
Also, Mistake Not...* is one of the best ship names I've run across to date
*
Short for Mistake Not My Current State Of Joshing Gentle Peevishness For The Awesome And Terrible Majesty Of The Towering Seas Of Ire That Are Themselves The Milquetoast Shallows Fringing My Vast Oceans Of Wrath
If you didn't like the first volume of something don't read the second. That's how bad trilogies get bought. Or bad dekalogies.
Leonard or Gibson is always worth reading.
the Malazan books are a little different. there was like 8 years between the first and second books and he did get much better as a writer
although if made up words don't appeal to you epic fantasy may not be your bag
I've no problem with made-up words an sich, my problem was that the book started with a list of characters and the first 5-10 of them were only described with a made-up word. Made-up words are fine, they just need context. The list probably would have worked better as an appendix rather than at the start as it's a pretty long list. The book itself is a big improvement over the first one though. Haven't finished it yet, halfway through.
Idoru was great, definitely one of my favourite Gibson reads so far.
Mr. Paradise was decent Leonard, a bit too familiar for me though (familiar as in the story went exactly as I expected it to. Maybe I've read too much by him. It strongly reminded me of Rum Punch.)
Steam/Origin: davydizzy
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TraceGNU Terry Pratchett; GNU Gus; GNU Carrie Fisher; GNU Adam WeRegistered Userregular
This summer, I sat down and powered my way through most of The Culture novels by Iain M. Banks. I'd read Consider Phlebas previously, and while it was interesting enough, it didn't really grab me and pull me in. This summer, I was able to read all the rest including the short stories, minus Player of Games and Excession.
And I really enjoyed them. Each story worked well as a story (and the story-telling got smoother the more recently published they were in general) and also worked well on deeper levels. For a number of the stories, the really interesting part is how success or failure of those involved in the particular events contained within doesn't really matter in the end because the story was never really about the individual events. They are all stories that give you a lot to think about for many days afterwards and I found that deeply satisfying.
My favourites were probably Inversions and Look to Windward, but I enjoyed them all. Contrary to many, while I appreciated Use of Weapons the big reveal didn't have much impact because I'd figured it out fairly early on and so then ending was a bit disappointing.
Also, Mistake Not...* is one of the best ship names I've run across to date
*
Short for Mistake Not My Current State Of Joshing Gentle Peevishness For The Awesome And Terrible Majesty Of The Towering Seas Of Ire That Are Themselves The Milquetoast Shallows Fringing My Vast Oceans Of Wrath
Player of Games (which I just re-read) and Excession are usually considered two of the stronger books of the Culture. Player of Games is my personal favorite I think.
I think there's a lot to be said for Look to Windward but I'm one of those weird people who thinks Consider Phlebas is incredible. Perhaps because I read it when it came out and I was only 17 or so, and easily impressed.
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SummaryJudgmentGrab the hottest iron you can find, stride in the Tower’s front doorRegistered Userregular
So I picked up The Magician King from the local library and I've been absolutely tearing through it. I think it might be my favorite of the three so far, although I'm only about a fifth of the way through. It's hitting all of the setting dressing I liked in the first book, but with all of the character development of the second.
"The world does not deserve Mayakovski. "
Some days Blue wonders why anyone ever bothered making numbers so small; other days she supposes even infinity needs to start somewhere.
So I picked up The Magician King from the local library and I've been absolutely tearing through it. I think it might be my favorite of the three so far, although I'm only about a fifth of the way through. It's hitting all of the setting dressing I liked in the first book, but with all of the character development of the second.
"The world does not deserve Mayakovski. "
The Magician King is the second one. The third, (which I didn't even know was out so thanks!) is called The Magician's Land, apparently.
So I picked up The Magician King from the local library and I've been absolutely tearing through it. I think it might be my favorite of the three so far, although I'm only about a fifth of the way through. It's hitting all of the setting dressing I liked in the first book, but with all of the character development of the second.
"The world does not deserve Mayakovski. "
The Magician King is the second one. The third, (which I didn't even know was out so thanks!) is called The Magician's Land, apparently.
Ah yeah, Land was the one I was speaking about.
I just finished it, as well, and it was wonderful. It's a fitting end to the trilogy.
"What about Reynard? Do you know if she caught him?"
"Caught him? She gutted him like a furry red fish."
The coin's edges were sharp and newly minted. On one side was the image of a wild goose in flight. On the other was a face, a young woman in profile: She was Emily Greenstreet.
SummaryJudgment on
Some days Blue wonders why anyone ever bothered making numbers so small; other days she supposes even infinity needs to start somewhere.
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Mike Danger"Diane..."a place both wonderful and strangeRegistered Userregular
For anyone else who might be interested, Barnes and Noble has signed copies of William Gibson's new novel available for preorder.
If there's any fans of realistic magicalism, a bunch of Gabriel Garcia Marquez books are apparently on Kindle now.
This post made me pick up Love in the Time of Cholera. That is quite the prose going on there! I got it for free somehow, but it sat unread on my shelf because the cover announced it was a love story and part of Opera's Book Club, neither of which are strong endorsements for me. Glad I'm reading it though, very interesting and I've barely scratched the surface.
The Damned United was pretty great. The film is well worth watching as well. It's about Brian Clough, patron saint of my city, the greatest football manager who ever lived, and the brief time he spent managing Leeds United, a club he had vilified to all and sundry. It's the best book about sport I've ever read.
Now I'm reading Tracey Thorn's autobiography. Bedsit Disco Queen, about her life as half of Everything But The Girl.
For anyone else who might be interested, Barnes and Noble has signed copies of William Gibson's new novel available for preorder.
I'm a little worried about this. I thought Pattern Recognition was the best of the Blue Ant trilogy, I liked that Gibson had dropped out of cyberpunk for post-911 present future fiction. Now it seems like he's going back to future technologies, but I think I liked him better when it was people getting perfectly pressed bacon in a Canadian diner and ruminating on where that container truck full of cash disappeared to.
I guess it'll all be in how he does it.
Some days Blue wonders why anyone ever bothered making numbers so small; other days she supposes even infinity needs to start somewhere.
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Mike Danger"Diane..."a place both wonderful and strangeRegistered Userregular
Maybe I've been influenced unfairly by that Cory Doctorow blurb, but it sounds like this is something somewhere between the Sprawl/Bridge stuff and the Blue Ant stuff, which is exactly what I want: plenty of what is happening right now, but a taste of something a little further out on the edge as well.
Whereas I thought Republic of Thieves might have had too much flashback. And I'm not sure how the Karthian elections effect the the bondsmagi. There didn't seem to be enough political chicanery. And I really, really hated Patience and especially loathed her last pages with the Falconer. It makes no sense that she's fine with killing off almost a quarter of all the bondsmagi and having the rest retire from the world and not fucking kill the Falconer who she's previously acknowledged as a psychopath.
The answer to the elections is not at all. It's really just an MMO game for the Bondsmagi to obsess over and devote their energies to as opposed going out into the world with their magic and drawing the attention of whatever Patience seems to think is out there waiting for a nice high magic environment to stomp around in.
The only real effect of the elections is that it fuels their little social ladder climbing game that is Bondsmagi society.
Been doing my first reread of Book of the New Sun since I read it like five years ago.
I'm on my first attempt, 300 pages in, and am still struggling to find value and meaning. It's certainly interesting much of the time, but the experience itself so far is less than I would have expected. Hopefully it's going to come together at the end and with discussions among other readers.
PSN: Kurahoshi1
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knitdanIn ur baseKillin ur guysRegistered Userregular
I feel like Book of the New Sun suffers from the curse of high expectations. I had pretty much the exact same experience, and I was picking up on some of the things that apparently blow people's minds, but my mind was not blown.
“I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
Bedsit Disco Queen was ace, and required reading for anyone interested in 80's UK music that isn't Duran Duran, about whom Tracey Thorn is hilariously contemptuous. Now, some Stefan Zweig and some John Wyndham stuff I picked up in a second hand bookstore yesterday.
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I'd say it depends what you don't like. If it's the style, then The Phoenix Guards might work. Or the epistolary Freedom and Necessity. If it's something else..let us know. I've always thoroughly enjoyed Jhereg, so am intrigued where the issues are.
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
I'm reading the Taltos books for the first time as well and the thing I seem to struggle with is a sense of place. I feel like the action occurs in borderline vacuum conditions, which makes it hard to create a real understanding of context. I'm in the middle of Yendi right now and feeling just... An absence of anything more iinvolved than a street name and a one-off reference to where the action is taking place is not quite immersion enough for me and I continually feel like I'm getting bumped out of the story. The books are incredibly fun, but I definitely struggle with them in that regard.
Uncanny Magazine!
The Mad Writers Union
I concur.
Terror Shpoilersh:
I also really liked that Crozier kinda got away and got a happy ending.
Loved the idea but the book can't decide if it wasn't to be historical fiction or fantasy horror. The monster is ultimately superfluous and it's just ... sad.
looking forward to that one like hell
Such a good series. Strongly suggest to anyone who likes really weird horrorish stuff. No books I've read in years have such a feeling of creeping all encompassing dread
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
Anybody have any idea whether ms. Bujold is going to write another in the series any time soon?
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
It's a comparatively low key story that is sometimes rather poetic, and quite unique. It feels quite... European, in a non-Angloamerican way. Not that I don't like British or American fantasy, but it's nice to read something different once in a while. Strongly recommended.
I loved them all, but I got some serious issues:
Red Seas under Red Skies: This book seemed kinda disjointed and it was really hurt by a lack of flashbacks of Locke's past. Really seemed liked it could have been two separate books, Locke the Revolutionary and Locke the Pirate. Honestly thought it was the weakest of the three.
Whereas I thought Republic of Thieves might have had too much flashback. And I'm not sure how the Karthian elections effect the the bondsmagi. There didn't seem to be enough political chicanery. And I really, really hated Patience and especially loathed her last pages with the Falconer. It makes no sense that she's fine with killing off almost a quarter of all the bondsmagi and having the rest retire from the world and not fucking kill the Falconer who she's previously acknowledged as a psychopath.
I hadn't seen the movie in years so I forgot about the "payoff." I generally like Noir and pulp and detective stuff, but I did not like that. Like at all.
I finally started Perdido Street Station on the ride back, which has been sitting on my shelf for a few years. We'll see how the hype train goes. I'm liking it so far (as much as anyone can tell from 2 chapters)
And I really enjoyed them. Each story worked well as a story (and the story-telling got smoother the more recently published they were in general) and also worked well on deeper levels. For a number of the stories, the really interesting part is how success or failure of those involved in the particular events contained within doesn't really matter in the end because the story was never really about the individual events. They are all stories that give you a lot to think about for many days afterwards and I found that deeply satisfying.
My favourites were probably Inversions and Look to Windward, but I enjoyed them all. Contrary to many, while I appreciated Use of Weapons the big reveal didn't have much impact because I'd figured it out fairly early on and so then ending was a bit disappointing.
Also, Mistake Not...* is one of the best ship names I've run across to date
*
I've no problem with made-up words an sich, my problem was that the book started with a list of characters and the first 5-10 of them were only described with a made-up word. Made-up words are fine, they just need context. The list probably would have worked better as an appendix rather than at the start as it's a pretty long list. The book itself is a big improvement over the first one though. Haven't finished it yet, halfway through.
Idoru was great, definitely one of my favourite Gibson reads so far.
Mr. Paradise was decent Leonard, a bit too familiar for me though (familiar as in the story went exactly as I expected it to. Maybe I've read too much by him. It strongly reminded me of Rum Punch.)
Adolescence of P-1
the other day. Excellent, read.
http://vxheaven.org/lib/mtr00.html
Not entirely sure if that's allowed but it appears the entire book is online for free.
Player of Games (which I just re-read) and Excession are usually considered two of the stronger books of the Culture. Player of Games is my personal favorite I think.
sooo good
The Magician King is the second one. The third, (which I didn't even know was out so thanks!) is called The Magician's Land, apparently.
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
Ah yeah, Land was the one I was speaking about.
I just finished it, as well, and it was wonderful. It's a fitting end to the trilogy.
"Caught him? She gutted him like a furry red fish."
This post made me pick up Love in the Time of Cholera. That is quite the prose going on there! I got it for free somehow, but it sat unread on my shelf because the cover announced it was a love story and part of Opera's Book Club, neither of which are strong endorsements for me. Glad I'm reading it though, very interesting and I've barely scratched the surface.
Now I'm reading Tracey Thorn's autobiography. Bedsit Disco Queen, about her life as half of Everything But The Girl.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
I'm a little worried about this. I thought Pattern Recognition was the best of the Blue Ant trilogy, I liked that Gibson had dropped out of cyberpunk for post-911 present future fiction. Now it seems like he's going back to future technologies, but I think I liked him better when it was people getting perfectly pressed bacon in a Canadian diner and ruminating on where that container truck full of cash disappeared to.
I guess it'll all be in how he does it.
The only real effect of the elections is that it fuels their little social ladder climbing game that is Bondsmagi society.
well now I know what to start re-reading tonight
I'm on my first attempt, 300 pages in, and am still struggling to find value and meaning. It's certainly interesting much of the time, but the experience itself so far is less than I would have expected. Hopefully it's going to come together at the end and with discussions among other readers.
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
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