That is pretty much the take everyone i know of had on the ending, so you’re not alone there.
Kind of makes me not really care whether or not he writes any more in the series, he’s destroyed my interest by taking the direction he took.
Yeah I'm fine with The Lies of Locke Lamora being one of my favorite standalone books (and it works great as a standalone), with a cute optional bonus episode about Locke and Jean: pirates.
Steam, LoL: credeiki
+3
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
I didn't mind it that much. Although I'm not sure how much was just me being so excited for another book in the series.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
"I will come back and break every bone in your body again. And again. If I do it every day, I'll soon get really good at it," Thor carried on, sounding slightly more cheerful.
Thor looked interested. He had already broken a great many weapons over the years, normally by hitting things with them.
Loki looked as guileless as he could, which was amazingly guileless.
But my favorite part at this point
Loki fucks a horse to win a bet.
+5
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
Just finished How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler by Ryan North (writer of Dinosaur Comics and others). This is not a serious survival guide on how to rebuild civilization after the apocalypse. This is a very meta overview of technological history that is written as if it is a guide for time travelers*, penned by a disgruntled underpaid writer who knows that his boss Chad won't do any serious proofreading or even reading past page 1 of any chapter so he can bash Chad and complain about his job and the fact that he isn't paid enough to go back in time and tell his past self not to take this job. Ryan North is supposedly transcribing this book from a book he found in Precambrian rocks that had been printed on some advanced futuristic polymer, so while the book has its own footnotes supposedly by the original author, North has his own personal set of endnotes to clarify some of the stuff in the text.
So really you can think of the book as Ryan North humorously wondering why hot air balloons, compasses, and stethoscopes took so dang long to be invented when they're not hard, and also talking about how certain nifty machines work. Fun and educational.
*There is a footnote advising anyone who travels to when Leonardo da Vinci is alive to slip him a copy of the book and let him run with it. "He's super down for it."
Also time travel works by creating a new timeline from the point of divergence when a time traveler shows up. It won't cause a time paradox to mess with things, just possibly a better timeline where people learned to use alcohol for cleaning wounds, stopped doing bloodletting, and da Vinci gets to experiment with electricity. Though early on the guide recommends if you *really* want to alter a timeline's human history, go back to that 150,000ish year period where there were anatomically modern but not behaviorally modern humans, teach them language and a few other tricks, and get history started significantly earlier.
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
My library doesn't have an e-book copy of Skyward, and that makes me sad.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
Can someone spoil the ending for Path Of Radiance for me real quick? Just started Oathbringer, and I'm trying to remember what all happened.
They made it to the special city and Adolin killed Sadeas. Dalinar bound the Stormfather as his spren. Jasnah lives. The bad red storm is going to pass over the world and its going the wrong direction so all the defenses won't work. Szeth was defeated but rescued and will be a radiant for the justice guy
It's a good version of the greatest hits myths, and definitely worth a read if anyone isn't familiar with the stories.
He doesn't do anything wildly interesting (which isn't a criticism of how he writes/tells them!) with them, and there's obviously nothing 'new' there, but I'd be happy to recommend the book to anyone wanting to read some Norse myths for the first time.
My friends have recommended LitRPG books for a while now as pulpy fun books that i can devour very quickly. They really are. Like, they are shlock and author fantasy inserts and all that stuff but i can't seem to get enough of them. Send help!
Just finished listening to The Power by Naomi Alderman this morning
(super major spoilers)
Man, this was just a really powerful (possibly pun intended?) book. Some of the things that really got to me were just some of the small things along the way when men started to adapt to the women being in power like the "airheaded" man on the news that was just there for his looks, or the Tunde's changes in behavior in the forest when he really becomes afraid (his acting to get Roxy to free him from the cage). It just very jolting about how much of that goes on that I am obvious to (as a white man) that has made me say on occasion that we should just let women run the world and it'd be a better place, but even that the book answers is not a good idea either (i.e. all that happened in Bessa Parra) and that everything is more complicated than you think it is. And even just the end where the history author is looking to get his book published, and his editor/reviewer/colleague so non-threateningly suggests it might be better publishing it under a woman's name...
Two scenes that will stick with me are that rape scene with the brother of Roxy (probably even more so than the Bessa Parra scene) just because of how much I imagine it mirrors scenarios that go on with sexual assault everyday all around the world, and the surgery that removed Roxy's skein which was just felt so traumatic to be given such a gift and have it taken away by the people she trusted.
Amazing book, A+, would read again, but only after snuggling with some puppies to make me feel good about life again.
P.S. On the lighter side of things, apparently now that I bought The Power, Audible thinks I should be reading all of Jane Austin's books and adaptations. Take from that what you will...
chrono_traveller on
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett
Finished Gaiman’s collection of Norse mythology and can definitely recommend it for anyone else that’s never sat down and read the myths before. The writing style reminds me a bit of Stardust, simple and straightforward.
Can someone spoil the ending for Path Of Radiance for me real quick? Just started Oathbringer, and I'm trying to remember what all happened.
Huh you reminded me I never finished Oathbringer (had to go check my Kindle app to be sure). Path of Radiance was a slog that took a second attempt to get through it as well.
It's a really fun, really tropy D&D-esque story about a group of old adventurers who have to get back together to save one of their daughters. It takes the idea of 'bands' of adventurers and kind of turns them into 'rock bands', with bookers and front men and groupies and all the other business involved.
There's nothing particularly new or unique about it, but it's funny and a lot of fun to read with some very enjoyable characters.
I definitely recommend it if you're down with all that.
Look at me. Look at me. Look at how large the monster inside me has become. Crunch Crunch! Munch Munch! Chomp Chomp! Gulp!
+4
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knitdanIn ur baseKillin ur guysRegistered Userregular
edited October 2018
I’m not really enjoying The Library at Mount Char.
I don’t know exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn’t whatever this is.
I’m almost getting a YA vibe from it.
It’s reminding me a bit of how I felt reading The Voorh to be honest. Too much weirdness for the sake of weirdness, not enough plot and characterization.
knitdan on
“I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
The recent Kate Bishop Hawkeye tpbs are on sale (digital versions) so I picked those up. First one is excellent.
The series was sadly cancelled, but the writer, Kelly Thompson, is currently doing multiple other titles for Marvel including West Coast Avengers, which is basically a follow-up to Hawkeye). So if you like this series, you might check out any of those (Rogue&Gambit/Mr&Mrs. X, Jessica Jones and soon Captain Marvel are her other titles.)
Remember cool author lady Sarah Gailey? The one who wrote about an alternative history where we flooded the Mississippi, ranched Hippos and had cool western adventures with great representation on this new massive swamp/lake? Yea, that was a fun pulpy adventure story.
She just wrote a five minute read that is gonna bounce around in my head for the next couple months. There is a huge amount of weight in this story and it is amazing.
AbsalonLands of Always WinterRegistered Userregular
Finished The Witchwood Crown by Tad Williams, beginning the new trilogy that follows the defining Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy (Martin and Rothfuss point to Williams as a major influence).
I appreciate the characters, world, plot structure and variety in settings as well as seeing what happened after the end of the first trilogy, but there is a bit too much set-up and too few actual developments. Also, a bit reliant on "good guys won't sit the hell down to share their findings and worries because dumb distractions" and that's the fantasy equivalent of "We need to split up".
"I will come back and break every bone in your body again. And again. If I do it every day, I'll soon get really good at it," Thor carried on, sounding slightly more cheerful.
Thor looked interested. He had already broken a great many weapons over the years, normally by hitting things with them.
Loki looked as guileless as he could, which was amazingly guileless.
But my favorite part at this point
Loki fucks a horse to win a bet.
Well actual norse mythology has loki transforming himself INTO a horse and getting fucked which is where odins horse came from it was loki's child.
Remember cool author lady Sarah Gailey? The one who wrote about an alternative history where we flooded the Mississippi, ranched Hippos and had cool western adventures with great representation on this new massive swamp/lake? Yea, that was a fun pulpy adventure story.
She just wrote a five minute read that is gonna bounce around in my head for the next couple months. There is a huge amount of weight in this story and it is amazing.
Yeah, that was one hell of a read (and apparently, the print version will do all the editor notes and responses as actual handwritten notes.)
The story hits home too, especially after the revelation of Amazon's failed ML recruitment tool that was abandoned because they made it sexist - in this story, Toyota puts into their self driving AI's decision matrix information on endangered species - and that causes it to value a woodpecker over a child. But nobody wants to talk about ML systems taking their cues on values from the data they're fed, because it would upset the apple cart.
Finished The Witchwood Crown by Tad Williams, beginning the new trilogy that follows the defining Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy (Martin and Rothfuss point to Williams as a major influence).
I appreciate the characters, world, plot structure and variety in settings as well as seeing what happened after the end of the first trilogy, but there is a bit too much set-up and too few actual developments. Also, a bit reliant on "good guys won't sit the hell down to share their findings and worries because dumb distractions" and that's the fantasy equivalent of "We need to split up".
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn is a SUPER SLOW burn so I'm not shocked the sequel is too.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
It's a really fun, really tropy D&D-esque story about a group of old adventurers who have to get back together to save one of their daughters. It takes the idea of 'bands' of adventurers and kind of turns them into 'rock bands', with bookers and front men and groupies and all the other business involved.
There's nothing particularly new or unique about it, but it's funny and a lot of fun to read with some very enjoyable characters.
I definitely recommend it if you're down with all that.
I'm reading this right now! You've hit the nail on the head. If this isn't based on a D&D campaign I'd be amazed, and if not there should be one made from this setting, and I want to play in it.
Just finished Life Before Man, a novel about marriage and adultery and consciousness of one's place in society. Atwood has the most insightful and nuanced looks into how people are in relationship to others; it's so good to read a book that is so acute and perceptive.
Margaret Atwood tier list:
Top tier: fantastic
The Edible Woman, Lady Oracle, Life Before Man, Cat's Eye, The Blind Assassin
Middle Tier: good books
The Handmaid's Tale, The Robber Bride
Bottom tier: still fine
Surfacing, Bodily Harm, Oryx and Crake, The Penelopiad
Not yet read:
Alias Grace (I think? I don't remember it if I have), the sequels to Oryx and Crake, The Heart Goes Last, Hag-Seed
oh no, that's not actually a lot of books
I thought there was a whole set of older Atwood books I didn't know about, but it seems like there aren't...Some of books from the 70s and 80s are really extremely good and I wish more people would read them!
Steam, LoL: credeiki
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
You're a monster! The handmaid's tale and Oryx and Crake are the best things Atwood has written by miles.
It's interesting actually as your list isn't an inversion of mine, it's just randomised. Probably a sign she's a good author with diverse style
For me, off the top of head and it's been a while for some of these
A*: Oryx and Crake, The Handmaid's Tale
3+: The blind assassin
3: The edible woman, alias grace, the heart goes last
3-: the robber bride
Bottom tier but as you say still fine: Oryx and Crake sequels,Hag-seed
I can't remember enough about the others to even be sure which I've read
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
You're a monster! The handmaid's tale and Oryx and Crake are the best things Atwood has written by miles.
It's interesting actually as your list isn't an inversion of mine, it's just randomised. Probably a sign she's a good author with diverse style
For me, off the top of head and it's been a while for some of these
A*: Oryx and Crake, The Handmaid's Tale
3+: The blind assassin
3: The edible woman, alias grace, the heart goes last
3-: the robber bride
Bottom tier but as you say still fine: Oryx and Crake sequels,Hag-seed
I can't remember enough about the others to even be sure which I've read
I actually vastly preferred The Year of the Flood to Oryx and Crake. It felt like Atwood had a lot more interest in the characters than she did in Jimmy and Crake.
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
Given how good Oryx and Crake was I am tempted to do a back to back reread. Maybe the sequels are better with more immediate memory of things
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
You're a monster! The handmaid's tale and Oryx and Crake are the best things Atwood has written by miles.
It's interesting actually as your list isn't an inversion of mine, it's just randomised. Probably a sign she's a good author with diverse style
For me, off the top of head and it's been a while for some of these
A*: Oryx and Crake, The Handmaid's Tale
3+: The blind assassin
3: The edible woman, alias grace, the heart goes last
3-: the robber bride
Bottom tier but as you say still fine: Oryx and Crake sequels,Hag-seed
I can't remember enough about the others to even be sure which I've read
I think that Atwood’s most distinctive strengths are in her portrayal of social relationships and the unspoken currents that govern them, and so much of the pleasure of reading her books is this sense of—yes, that is! what goes unspoken in so many interactions between men and women; that is! what this person would feel like and act like in these recogngizeable circumstances that perhaps I haven’t experienced but they’re so pervasive and yet unexamined usually. Her work in more fantastical settings has less of this, as the setting takes priority and the circumstances of the relationships are less recoggnizeable and there’s no recognition of like, aha, this is how the social dynamics of a situation are subtly changed because one person comes from a waspy background and the other one doesn’t.
I only read oryx and crake in high school and only remember thinking it was a little silly. Handmaid’s tale I reread more recently, and while I like it and think it’s very good, it’s a different sort of novel than what I want from Atwood. I also don’t like that the setting is sort of meant to be plausible rather than entirely alternate or fantastical, because it simply doesn’t feel plausible to me, and I don’t like that. It also doesn’t have a good sense of Boston about it, even though that’s where it takes place.
Trying to read All Our Wrong Todays but I’m not sure I’m going to be able to finish this much self pity.
I don't know how far you're into the book, but it has different phases some of which are a bit easier to read than others. Overall, I liked it, but I can certainly understand where that criticism is coming from.
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett
Posts
Kind of makes me not really care whether or not he writes any more in the series, he’s destroyed my interest by taking the direction he took.
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
Yeah I'm fine with The Lies of Locke Lamora being one of my favorite standalone books (and it works great as a standalone), with a cute optional bonus episode about Locke and Jean: pirates.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Some random choice passages so far:
But my favorite part at this point
So really you can think of the book as Ryan North humorously wondering why hot air balloons, compasses, and stethoscopes took so dang long to be invented when they're not hard, and also talking about how certain nifty machines work. Fun and educational.
*There is a footnote advising anyone who travels to when Leonardo da Vinci is alive to slip him a copy of the book and let him run with it. "He's super down for it."
Also time travel works by creating a new timeline from the point of divergence when a time traveler shows up. It won't cause a time paradox to mess with things, just possibly a better timeline where people learned to use alcohol for cleaning wounds, stopped doing bloodletting, and da Vinci gets to experiment with electricity. Though early on the guide recommends if you *really* want to alter a timeline's human history, go back to that 150,000ish year period where there were anatomically modern but not behaviorally modern humans, teach them language and a few other tricks, and get history started significantly earlier.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
It’s not officially out (aside from review ARC’s) until November I believe.
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B06XKNHGN1
(Not sure if it’s purchasable outside the UK - I’d give it a shot if I didn’t already own it)
Let they who have not...
Thanks for that, I’ve been waiting for it to go on sale, having heard marvellous things, and that is a sale and a half.
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
It's a good version of the greatest hits myths, and definitely worth a read if anyone isn't familiar with the stories.
He doesn't do anything wildly interesting (which isn't a criticism of how he writes/tells them!) with them, and there's obviously nothing 'new' there, but I'd be happy to recommend the book to anyone wanting to read some Norse myths for the first time.
Blizzard: Pailryder#1101
GoG: https://www.gog.com/u/pailryder
(super major spoilers)
Two scenes that will stick with me are that rape scene with the brother of Roxy (probably even more so than the Bessa Parra scene) just because of how much I imagine it mirrors scenarios that go on with sexual assault everyday all around the world, and the surgery that removed Roxy's skein which was just felt so traumatic to be given such a gift and have it taken away by the people she trusted.
Amazing book, A+, would read again, but only after snuggling with some puppies to make me feel good about life again.
P.S. On the lighter side of things, apparently now that I bought The Power, Audible thinks I should be reading all of Jane Austin's books and adaptations. Take from that what you will...
Huh you reminded me I never finished Oathbringer (had to go check my Kindle app to be sure). Path of Radiance was a slog that took a second attempt to get through it as well.
Nintendo ID: Incindium
PSN: IncindiumX
It's a really fun, really tropy D&D-esque story about a group of old adventurers who have to get back together to save one of their daughters. It takes the idea of 'bands' of adventurers and kind of turns them into 'rock bands', with bookers and front men and groupies and all the other business involved.
There's nothing particularly new or unique about it, but it's funny and a lot of fun to read with some very enjoyable characters.
I definitely recommend it if you're down with all that.
Crunch Crunch! Munch Munch! Chomp Chomp! Gulp!
I don’t know exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn’t whatever this is.
I’m almost getting a YA vibe from it.
It’s reminding me a bit of how I felt reading The Voorh to be honest. Too much weirdness for the sake of weirdness, not enough plot and characterization.
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
The series was sadly cancelled, but the writer, Kelly Thompson, is currently doing multiple other titles for Marvel including West Coast Avengers, which is basically a follow-up to Hawkeye). So if you like this series, you might check out any of those (Rogue&Gambit/Mr&Mrs. X, Jessica Jones and soon Captain Marvel are her other titles.)
She just wrote a five minute read that is gonna bounce around in my head for the next couple months. There is a huge amount of weight in this story and it is amazing.
https://firesidefiction.com/stet
I appreciate the characters, world, plot structure and variety in settings as well as seeing what happened after the end of the first trilogy, but there is a bit too much set-up and too few actual developments. Also, a bit reliant on "good guys won't sit the hell down to share their findings and worries because dumb distractions" and that's the fantasy equivalent of "We need to split up".
Yeah, that was one hell of a read (and apparently, the print version will do all the editor notes and responses as actual handwritten notes.)
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn is a SUPER SLOW burn so I'm not shocked the sequel is too.
I'm reading this right now! You've hit the nail on the head. If this isn't based on a D&D campaign I'd be amazed, and if not there should be one made from this setting, and I want to play in it.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Margaret Atwood tier list:
Top tier: fantastic
The Edible Woman, Lady Oracle, Life Before Man, Cat's Eye, The Blind Assassin
Middle Tier: good books
The Handmaid's Tale, The Robber Bride
Bottom tier: still fine
Surfacing, Bodily Harm, Oryx and Crake, The Penelopiad
Not yet read:
Alias Grace (I think? I don't remember it if I have), the sequels to Oryx and Crake, The Heart Goes Last, Hag-Seed
oh no, that's not actually a lot of books
I thought there was a whole set of older Atwood books I didn't know about, but it seems like there aren't...Some of books from the 70s and 80s are really extremely good and I wish more people would read them!
It's interesting actually as your list isn't an inversion of mine, it's just randomised. Probably a sign she's a good author with diverse style
For me, off the top of head and it's been a while for some of these
A*: Oryx and Crake, The Handmaid's Tale
3+: The blind assassin
3: The edible woman, alias grace, the heart goes last
3-: the robber bride
Bottom tier but as you say still fine: Oryx and Crake sequels,Hag-seed
I can't remember enough about the others to even be sure which I've read
I actually vastly preferred The Year of the Flood to Oryx and Crake. It felt like Atwood had a lot more interest in the characters than she did in Jimmy and Crake.
I think that Atwood’s most distinctive strengths are in her portrayal of social relationships and the unspoken currents that govern them, and so much of the pleasure of reading her books is this sense of—yes, that is! what goes unspoken in so many interactions between men and women; that is! what this person would feel like and act like in these recogngizeable circumstances that perhaps I haven’t experienced but they’re so pervasive and yet unexamined usually. Her work in more fantastical settings has less of this, as the setting takes priority and the circumstances of the relationships are less recoggnizeable and there’s no recognition of like, aha, this is how the social dynamics of a situation are subtly changed because one person comes from a waspy background and the other one doesn’t.
I only read oryx and crake in high school and only remember thinking it was a little silly. Handmaid’s tale I reread more recently, and while I like it and think it’s very good, it’s a different sort of novel than what I want from Atwood. I also don’t like that the setting is sort of meant to be plausible rather than entirely alternate or fantastical, because it simply doesn’t feel plausible to me, and I don’t like that. It also doesn’t have a good sense of Boston about it, even though that’s where it takes place.
I don't know how far you're into the book, but it has different phases some of which are a bit easier to read than others. Overall, I liked it, but I can certainly understand where that criticism is coming from.