I found Hyperion and it's sequel a bit of a plod. Does Drood differ stylewise?
Also I've read neverwhere and quite enjoyed it. The Marquis de Carabas from that book has a short story featured in Rogues... the short story collection edited by George R. R. Martin.
Michael Swanwick is an absolute trip. Iron Dragon's Daughter and the Dragons of Babel.
I would throw Max Gladstone into the ring as well. His books are a rather strange brew of creation mythologies, a fantasy world grappling with becoming a modern society after having thrown down their oppressors (the gods themselves), and law procedurals. Literally the first book is about a necromantic law firm that is investigating a public utility that runs on faith. The second book is about a professional risk manager doing a deep dive into a merger between two water utilities in an alt magic Aztec.
Oh and Felix Gilman too. Some really neat books about an endless shifting city.
JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
Max Gladstone's books keep catching my eye on the shelf at the library, but I've never bothered to figure out where the series starts. I guess I'll be picking him up!
I found Hyperion and it's sequel a bit of a plod. Does Drood differ stylewise?
Also I've read neverwhere and quite enjoyed it. The Marquis de Carabas from that book has a short story featured in Rogues... the short story collection edited by George R. R. Martin.
I think Dan Simmons adapts himself to different styles and genres pretty well, but if you found one to be a plod, you'd probably think that about all his work. Brief he is not.
I found Hyperion and it's sequel a bit of a plod. Does Drood differ stylewise?
Also I've read neverwhere and quite enjoyed it. The Marquis de Carabas from that book has a short story featured in Rogues... the short story collection edited by George R. R. Martin.
If you found Hyperion a plod I'd stay well clear of Drood
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers might be worth a look, fits that old London weirdness of sunless sea
Last night I bought more books
I pre-ordered the final Witcher translation (Lady of the Lake), A Song for Quiet (the follow-up to Hammers on Bone) and not one but TWO Star Wars novels, because I'm a trash person
I also bought So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson
I'm also still reading The Twenty-Year Death, The Simple Art of Murder and Wyrd Sisters, and also have yet to read Norse Mythology, which I bought last week
I'm drowning on dry land here, folks
edit: hey speaking of The Simple Art of Murder
Raymond Chandler is rightly hailed as the master of that form but TSAOM is a prime example of how even great writers sometimes gotta crank out some garbage for a paycheck
Most of the stories in it are pretty insubstantial
I found Hyperion and it's sequel a bit of a plod. Does Drood differ stylewise?
Also I've read neverwhere and quite enjoyed it. The Marquis de Carabas from that book has a short story featured in Rogues... the short story collection edited by George R. R. Martin.
I think Dan Simmons adapts himself to different styles and genres pretty well, but if you found one to be a plod, you'd probably think that about all his work. Brief he is not.
I still would take a look at Song of Kali or The Terror before you give up entirely, both of those books are dripping with atmosphere and I wouldn't say that they plod like some of the others.
Which I don't think plod at all honestly but I can see where that criticism would come from.
I found Hyperion and it's sequel a bit of a plod. Does Drood differ stylewise?
Also I've read neverwhere and quite enjoyed it. The Marquis de Carabas from that book has a short story featured in Rogues... the short story collection edited by George R. R. Martin.
Did you not read the Endymion books after the Hyperion books?
Because Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion are basically just the prelude to the "real" story. Much less plodding, I'd say.
Also yes to the above about Song of Kali and The Terror.
Max Gladstone's books keep catching my eye on the shelf at the library, but I've never bothered to figure out where the series starts. I guess I'll be picking him up!
Here's the publication order of the series. Some of the books take place before others and others after. I need to go back and start and just read straight through them as I got hung up partway through Full Fathom Five and it wqs a bit since I had read the others so it was hard to pick up on which characters had appeared in others and who were new.
I found Hyperion and it's sequel a bit of a plod. Does Drood differ stylewise?
Also I've read neverwhere and quite enjoyed it. The Marquis de Carabas from that book has a short story featured in Rogues... the short story collection edited by George R. R. Martin.
Did you not read the Endymion books after the Hyperion books?
Because Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion are basically just the prelude to the "real" story. Much less plodding, I'd say.
Also yes to the above about Song of Kali and The Terror.
I didn't... after fall of Hyperion I needed to move on to something a little more energetic.
I found Hyperion and Fall peaked my interest enough to keep me reading because I wanted to reach the conclusion, but not because I really enjoyed them.
JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
I'm about midway through Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. It's piecing together the story of a team of scientists and military folks uncovering alien artifacts on Earth, told through a series of World War Z-style interviews. The story itself is interesting, but there's a dry humor in the interactions between the nameless interrogator and the interviewees that has provided some of the funniest moments I've read recently.
The story might screw the pooch before the end, but I'm enjoying the writing very much so far.
I consider both Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion a masterpieces, and it's really hard to understand for me how can anyone consider them slow. It's obviously possible, but I simply love them too much to think about it.
Endymion and The Rise of Endymion meanwhile would be better to never exist. The second one is pretty good I admit, but Endymion is just so frustrating to read that Im not sure if I ever want to repeat that experience, while I read both Hyperion and Fall 4 times each.
I've been reading and enjoying Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror and last night I came across this bit about naughty sick medieval burns:
...a story of a game of truth-telling played at court before a tournament. A knight, asked by the Queen if he has fathered any children, is forced to admit he has not, and indeed he "did not have the look of a man who could please his mistress when he held her naked in his arms. For his beard was . . . little more than the kind of fuzz that ladies have in certain places." The Queen tells him she does not doubt his word, "for it is easy to judge from the state of the hay whether the pitchfork is any good." In his turn, the knight asks, "Lady, answer me without deceit. Is there hair between your legs?" When she replies, "None at all," he comments, "Indeed I do believe you, for grass does not grow on a well-beaten path."
I sped read Parable of the Sower this weekend. damn that good, had really interesting ideas about the nature of God in an oddly prophetic image of a declining America.
Also been working my way through The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu
I've been reading and enjoying Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror and last night I came across this bit about naughty sick medieval burns:
...a story of a game of truth-telling played at court before a tournament. A knight, asked by the Queen if he has fathered any children, is forced to admit he has not, and indeed he "did not have the look of a man who could please his mistress when he held her naked in his arms. For his beard was . . . little more than the kind of fuzz that ladies have in certain places." The Queen tells him she does not doubt his word, "for it is easy to judge from the state of the hay whether the pitchfork is any good." In his turn, the knight asks, "Lady, answer me without deceit. Is there hair between your legs?" When she replies, "None at all," he comments, "Indeed I do believe you, for grass does not grow on a well-beaten path."
I loved that book so much. People in the fourteenth century were such bitches.
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
I'm most of the way through The Long Way To a Small Angry Planet and I'm starting to panic because it's almost over and I've heard the second book doesn't have most of the same characters. I love these characters, and I don't want them to leave.
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Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
Yeah it's like the one Gaiman I've never really gotten.
Every other book of his, I've loved.
agreed. It's got fascinating world-building which ends up being pretty poorly utilized. I'm also totally over the 'callow youth' coming-of-age narrative, but that's not necessarily a dealbreaker if everything else is good.
I wonder if it being essentially a novelization hurt it? I dunno.
I'm most of the way through The Long Way To a Small Angry Planet and I'm starting to panic because it's almost over and I've heard the second book doesn't have most of the same characters. I love these characters, and I don't want them to leave.
that's correct and your feels are understandable
if it's any comfort, the second book is really good though
I'm most of the way through The Long Way To a Small Angry Planet and I'm starting to panic because it's almost over and I've heard the second book doesn't have most of the same characters. I love these characters, and I don't want them to leave.
that's correct and your feels are understandable
if it's any comfort, the second book is really good though
I made it to the end, and I'm good with where the next book is going. What a delightful, optimistic world the author has created. Very Roddenberry.
I know this is blasphemy to a lot of people but the one Gaiman book I didnt like was Anansi Boys.
Loved American Gods though.
I liked both, but I find that many people like one or the other but not both. The tone is so different that they may as well take place in different worlds. And Anansi Boys had way more of the Hugh Grant stuttering awkwardness that I think turns so many people off of Neverwhere.
JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
It's next on my list! Well, my hardcopy list, since that's what my library has, and I tend to go through ebooks more quickly. Anyway, as soon as I finish Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel I'm going to start on Three Parts Dead.
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Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
I lup Anansi Boys and American Gods but agree that there's a tonal shift between the two that might put people who liked the first off the second.
I am at work today and I've been trawling (slowly, thanks China internet) for new book recommendations. Added a lot to my wishlist, including the Max Gladstone books. When's the ebook bundle happening?
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
Finished United States of Japan by Peter Tieryas. Really good alt-history in the vein of Man in the High Castle. Dont let the cover fool you, yes there are mechs but they are not the main focus of the story, which is more about loyalty, censorship, subversion, and it's mostly a detective story really.
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
I'm most of the way through The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. It's really good so far. Definite shades of Seven Princes in Amber, with a straightforward weirdness that feels like a world Ray Bradbury would have created. Plus, the narrator has a way of casually dropping startling facts that make you stop reading for a little bit while a number of prior hints and allusions click into new patterns.
I just finished Bank's The Algebraist. I enjoyed it. It isn't a Culture book, but in a lot of ways it could easily be a Culture adjacent novel. The imagination on display is impressive as always. The characters are generally well written. There is a size and scope of the story/setting that few other authors manage to pull off. Nothing ends up being neat and tidy, but the big reveals end up all making sense on reflection, even if you didn't quite see them coming beforehand. It's a classic space opera, with a little bit more.
I continue to regret that I will not be able to read new books by him every few years.
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Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
I don't think I'm going to finish Birdsong. It's not that it's bad, and I'm disappointed in myself for giving up on a decent book, but I just ain't got the attention span for it.
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Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
I read American Gods but ehhhhhhh I didn't think it was great.
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
Some stuff I read recently during travel/conference down time:
Kings of The Wyld, by Nicholas Eames. Fantasy swords and sorcery heavily influenced by D&D (even has actual owlbears in it) where the main conceit is bands of mercenaries are treated like rock stars. Much better than that might suggest; it has every sign of being corny and shallow but it's surprisingly well written and even thoughtful and moving at times. The author's restraint from running the theme into the ground really pays off. There are a few unfortunate anachronistic references though; while thankfully rare they are jarring and not particularly funny IMO, but by no means ruin the story. Hoping for more in this setting.
Lotus Blue, by Cat Sparks. Life in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that maybe isn't quite fully post after all. It felt to me a little like a story from the "Last Day of War" youtube video; autonomous weapons that keep fighting after no people are left to run them is a big factor and the driving point of the plot. It has a good cast of characters but does that thing where it tells the same scene from different viewpoints which always feels a little 'jerky' to me, like watching a movie online that isnt buffering correctly so it jumps back a bit, but overall I liked it a great deal, I think there's more to be told in this setting.
Revenger, by Alastair Reynolds. Steampunk spaceships, if I had to sum it up. A little disappointing to me, there are some good ideas (it's largely a space heist kind of story) but the pacing is all over the place and the characters are largely undeveloped to the point of almost literal disposability. Oh, our navigator died, here's a new one, etc. Still, the setting is interesting and there is a lot stuff going on the background that could make for a much better sequel.
Currently finishing up Dr Potters Medicine Show by Eric Scott Fischl. The more I read it the less I like it but its relatively short so I'll finish it rather than dump it. "Late 19th century traveling circus with a dark secret" is right up my alley but the main protagonist is so vile and cruel (he has a predilection for sexual violence against women) that it's just hard to read and makes me feel bad for reading it, if that makes sense. If the author had dialed that back or channeled it to something else it would have been a vast improvement IMO, pretty much everything else is very good. It does have an admittedly slow start with what feels like too many characters but it comes together well later.
Posts
Drood too.
It spends...a lot of time in shady opium dens and disgusting, dripping sewers and catacombs.
I liked the opium dens and Dickens being a dick but at a certain point I just felt, "Man... this just keeps going, huh?"
I found Hyperion and it's sequel a bit of a plod. Does Drood differ stylewise?
Also I've read neverwhere and quite enjoyed it. The Marquis de Carabas from that book has a short story featured in Rogues... the short story collection edited by George R. R. Martin.
Gamertag - Khraul
PSN - Razide6
Michael Swanwick is an absolute trip. Iron Dragon's Daughter and the Dragons of Babel.
I would throw Max Gladstone into the ring as well. His books are a rather strange brew of creation mythologies, a fantasy world grappling with becoming a modern society after having thrown down their oppressors (the gods themselves), and law procedurals. Literally the first book is about a necromantic law firm that is investigating a public utility that runs on faith. The second book is about a professional risk manager doing a deep dive into a merger between two water utilities in an alt magic Aztec.
Oh and Felix Gilman too. Some really neat books about an endless shifting city.
I think Dan Simmons adapts himself to different styles and genres pretty well, but if you found one to be a plod, you'd probably think that about all his work. Brief he is not.
If you found Hyperion a plod I'd stay well clear of Drood
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers might be worth a look, fits that old London weirdness of sunless sea
PSN- AHermano
I pre-ordered the final Witcher translation (Lady of the Lake), A Song for Quiet (the follow-up to Hammers on Bone) and not one but TWO Star Wars novels, because I'm a trash person
I also bought So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson
I'm also still reading The Twenty-Year Death, The Simple Art of Murder and Wyrd Sisters, and also have yet to read Norse Mythology, which I bought last week
I'm drowning on dry land here, folks
edit: hey speaking of The Simple Art of Murder
Raymond Chandler is rightly hailed as the master of that form but TSAOM is a prime example of how even great writers sometimes gotta crank out some garbage for a paycheck
Most of the stories in it are pretty insubstantial
I still would take a look at Song of Kali or The Terror before you give up entirely, both of those books are dripping with atmosphere and I wouldn't say that they plod like some of the others.
Which I don't think plod at all honestly but I can see where that criticism would come from.
Did you not read the Endymion books after the Hyperion books?
Because Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion are basically just the prelude to the "real" story. Much less plodding, I'd say.
Also yes to the above about Song of Kali and The Terror.
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/g/max-gladstone/
Here's the publication order of the series. Some of the books take place before others and others after. I need to go back and start and just read straight through them as I got hung up partway through Full Fathom Five and it wqs a bit since I had read the others so it was hard to pick up on which characters had appeared in others and who were new.
I didn't... after fall of Hyperion I needed to move on to something a little more energetic.
I found Hyperion and Fall peaked my interest enough to keep me reading because I wanted to reach the conclusion, but not because I really enjoyed them.
I'll take a look at Song of Kali and The Terror.
Gamertag - Khraul
PSN - Razide6
The story might screw the pooch before the end, but I'm enjoying the writing very much so far.
Endymion and The Rise of Endymion meanwhile would be better to never exist. The second one is pretty good I admit, but Endymion is just so frustrating to read that Im not sure if I ever want to repeat that experience, while I read both Hyperion and Fall 4 times each.
Also been working my way through The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu
It was good I'm going to read more.
I loved that book so much. People in the fourteenth century were such bitches.
Yeah it's like the one Gaiman I've never really gotten.
Every other book of his, I've loved.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
agreed. It's got fascinating world-building which ends up being pretty poorly utilized. I'm also totally over the 'callow youth' coming-of-age narrative, but that's not necessarily a dealbreaker if everything else is good.
I wonder if it being essentially a novelization hurt it? I dunno.
that's correct and your feels are understandable
if it's any comfort, the second book is really good though
Loved American Gods though.
I made it to the end, and I'm good with where the next book is going. What a delightful, optimistic world the author has created. Very Roddenberry.
I liked both, but I find that many people like one or the other but not both. The tone is so different that they may as well take place in different worlds. And Anansi Boys had way more of the Hugh Grant stuttering awkwardness that I think turns so many people off of Neverwhere.
I am at work today and I've been trawling (slowly, thanks China internet) for new book recommendations. Added a lot to my wishlist, including the Max Gladstone books. When's the ebook bundle happening?
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
Also, there's a pretty sweet lion in it.
I continue to regret that I will not be able to read new books by him every few years.
Kings of The Wyld, by Nicholas Eames. Fantasy swords and sorcery heavily influenced by D&D (even has actual owlbears in it) where the main conceit is bands of mercenaries are treated like rock stars. Much better than that might suggest; it has every sign of being corny and shallow but it's surprisingly well written and even thoughtful and moving at times. The author's restraint from running the theme into the ground really pays off. There are a few unfortunate anachronistic references though; while thankfully rare they are jarring and not particularly funny IMO, but by no means ruin the story. Hoping for more in this setting.
Lotus Blue, by Cat Sparks. Life in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that maybe isn't quite fully post after all. It felt to me a little like a story from the "Last Day of War" youtube video; autonomous weapons that keep fighting after no people are left to run them is a big factor and the driving point of the plot. It has a good cast of characters but does that thing where it tells the same scene from different viewpoints which always feels a little 'jerky' to me, like watching a movie online that isnt buffering correctly so it jumps back a bit, but overall I liked it a great deal, I think there's more to be told in this setting.
Revenger, by Alastair Reynolds. Steampunk spaceships, if I had to sum it up. A little disappointing to me, there are some good ideas (it's largely a space heist kind of story) but the pacing is all over the place and the characters are largely undeveloped to the point of almost literal disposability. Oh, our navigator died, here's a new one, etc. Still, the setting is interesting and there is a lot stuff going on the background that could make for a much better sequel.
Currently finishing up Dr Potters Medicine Show by Eric Scott Fischl. The more I read it the less I like it but its relatively short so I'll finish it rather than dump it. "Late 19th century traveling circus with a dark secret" is right up my alley but the main protagonist is so vile and cruel (he has a predilection for sexual violence against women) that it's just hard to read and makes me feel bad for reading it, if that makes sense. If the author had dialed that back or channeled it to something else it would have been a vast improvement IMO, pretty much everything else is very good. It does have an admittedly slow start with what feels like too many characters but it comes together well later.