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[Book]: Rhymes With

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  • A Dabble Of TheloniusA Dabble Of Thelonius It has been a doozy of a dayRegistered User regular
    edited May 2020
    vamen wrote: »
    vamen wrote: »
    I also appreciate a good one-off or trilogy. I also quite like when an author makes a trilogy (or similar short series) with a beginning-middle-end, but then does another book/series in the same world. I use Mark Lawrence as an example there, though Sanderson also did it with Mistborn.

    There's certainly a lot to be said in favor of smaller tales that actually get completed in a decent amount of time and I absolutely understand where you're coming from.

    Have you read any Joe Abercrombie? His books sound a lot like what you like - self-contained trilogies and novels set in a the same world. He's my favorite fantasy author right now.

    I have only read the First Law series. I struggled with it a little bit because I find it difficult to read from the POV of unlikable characters - which is funny to say since I love Mark Lawrence's first series so much - so I had a tough time getting through Glokta's parts. But I absolutely loved Logan and the world building.
    That was also the first one with a character like that that I was able to finish. I've never managed to get through Thomas Covenant, for example. Maybe that helped me open up to those characters a little bit and that may be WHY I was able to enjoy The Broken Empire series. I plan to read more of his work in the future. In fact, I bought the first of his new series a while back, just haven't gotten around to it yet.


    Brody - That's not a bad idea. Even if I wrote a blurb after each chapter it might be helpful. A little more work, but I'm willing to put in a little extra effort if it makes for a richer experience.
    I was trying to finish up Malazan after being 7 books deep but taking a 5 year break. I found a 'reread' of the series which has great information, but it feels like the reread articles are almost as long as the book! =)

    The First Law trilogy is by far my least favorite of his books.

    Agreed. He's gotten progressively better and better. Red Country is one of my favorite novels now. Who knew that a low fantasy, trail rider, gold rush western mixed with a tale of a colonial, conquistador, inquisition was what I needed in a book?

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  • SeptusSeptus Registered User regular
    But is it still strongly recommended to read First Law before the standalone books?

    PSN: Kurahoshi1
  • CptHamiltonCptHamilton Registered User regular
    Septus wrote: »
    But is it still strongly recommended to read First Law before the standalone books?

    I have only read the First Law trilogy and Best Served Cold but I think only Best Served Cold is even related to the First Law books, so I don't think it'd matter if you wanted to read, for example, Red Country.

    Finished Sanderson's Skyward. It was fine. Predictable, though I was off a bit in my guess as to what the big twist reveal would be. Most of the way through Scalzi's Dispatcher now. I wish it were longer. There's a lot you could do with the concept so it's a bummer that there's not a lot of it.

    On to King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon next. There are a small handful of King books I haven't read and after If It Bleeds I'm in the mood for more King (If It Bleeds is some good King, btw, though it kind of presupposes you've read The Outsider for the title story, which is a significant chunk of the collection).

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  • vamenvamen Registered User regular
    Oh that's interesting. I thought the books were good even if they weren't my favorite. Definitely eager to read some of his newer stuff now.

    I'm really curious what happened to a specific character from that series but I've heard it has not yet been addressed.

  • V1mV1m Registered User regular
    Septus wrote: »
    But is it still strongly recommended to read First Law before the standalone books?

    They provide the context and world-building, so yeah they're not absolutely essential... but advised

  • PhillisherePhillishere Registered User regular
    V1m wrote: »
    Septus wrote: »
    But is it still strongly recommended to read First Law before the standalone books?

    They provide the context and world-building, so yeah they're not absolutely essential... but advised

    Characters also carry over into later books.

  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    M-Vickers wrote: »

    Great deal at that price!

    However, quick caveat: while this trilogy works stand-alone, it also kind of wraps up things that have been going on for *counts* about ten books before this trilogy.

  • Solomaxwell6Solomaxwell6 Registered User regular
    vamen wrote: »
    vamen wrote: »
    I also appreciate a good one-off or trilogy. I also quite like when an author makes a trilogy (or similar short series) with a beginning-middle-end, but then does another book/series in the same world. I use Mark Lawrence as an example there, though Sanderson also did it with Mistborn.

    There's certainly a lot to be said in favor of smaller tales that actually get completed in a decent amount of time and I absolutely understand where you're coming from.

    Have you read any Joe Abercrombie? His books sound a lot like what you like - self-contained trilogies and novels set in a the same world. He's my favorite fantasy author right now.

    I have only read the First Law series. I struggled with it a little bit because I find it difficult to read from the POV of unlikable characters - which is funny to say since I love Mark Lawrence's first series so much - so I had a tough time getting through Glokta's parts. But I absolutely loved Logan and the world building.
    That was also the first one with a character like that that I was able to finish. I've never managed to get through Thomas Covenant, for example. Maybe that helped me open up to those characters a little bit and that may be WHY I was able to enjoy The Broken Empire series. I plan to read more of his work in the future. In fact, I bought the first of his new series a while back, just haven't gotten around to it yet.


    Brody - That's not a bad idea. Even if I wrote a blurb after each chapter it might be helpful. A little more work, but I'm willing to put in a little extra effort if it makes for a richer experience.
    I was trying to finish up Malazan after being 7 books deep but taking a 5 year break. I found a 'reread' of the series which has great information, but it feels like the reread articles are almost as long as the book! =)

    Was it the Tor reread? I was following along with it when I read Malazan and I thought it was well worth it. Not only did it help me notice a lot of details and connections I missed because I have a poor memory, I thought a lot of the commentary was good. At least one of the commentators is a professional editor, they picked up on so many interesting things.

  • SyphonBlueSyphonBlue The studying beaver That beaver sure loves studying!Registered User regular
    I really enjoyed the First Law trilogy

    until the end

    I don't need a book to have a satisfying, happy ending for everyone

    But I do need it to have an ending

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  • PhillisherePhillishere Registered User regular
    SyphonBlue wrote: »
    I really enjoyed the First Law trilogy

    until the end

    I don't need a book to have a satisfying, happy ending for everyone

    But I do need it to have an ending

    I don't actually think the first trilogy is an accurate representation of where he is at now as a writer. It's just in the awkward place of being where he defined his favorite setting, established several core recurring characters, and let the audience know the overall stakes and national politics behind the events of his later novels.

    The easiest way to describe the change is that the trilogy is his reaction to fantasy epics, with all the characters being subverted tropes of the standard party members and the politics far messier than Good vs. Evil. His later books draw their inspiration from different sources - actual history and historical epic - and feel more like fantasy Dorothy Dunnett than George R.R. Martin/Tolkien understudy.

  • vamenvamen Registered User regular
    vamen wrote: »
    vamen wrote: »
    I also appreciate a good one-off or trilogy. I also quite like when an author makes a trilogy (or similar short series) with a beginning-middle-end, but then does another book/series in the same world. I use Mark Lawrence as an example there, though Sanderson also did it with Mistborn.

    There's certainly a lot to be said in favor of smaller tales that actually get completed in a decent amount of time and I absolutely understand where you're coming from.

    Have you read any Joe Abercrombie? His books sound a lot like what you like - self-contained trilogies and novels set in a the same world. He's my favorite fantasy author right now.

    I have only read the First Law series. I struggled with it a little bit because I find it difficult to read from the POV of unlikable characters - which is funny to say since I love Mark Lawrence's first series so much - so I had a tough time getting through Glokta's parts. But I absolutely loved Logan and the world building.
    That was also the first one with a character like that that I was able to finish. I've never managed to get through Thomas Covenant, for example. Maybe that helped me open up to those characters a little bit and that may be WHY I was able to enjoy The Broken Empire series. I plan to read more of his work in the future. In fact, I bought the first of his new series a while back, just haven't gotten around to it yet.


    Brody - That's not a bad idea. Even if I wrote a blurb after each chapter it might be helpful. A little more work, but I'm willing to put in a little extra effort if it makes for a richer experience.
    I was trying to finish up Malazan after being 7 books deep but taking a 5 year break. I found a 'reread' of the series which has great information, but it feels like the reread articles are almost as long as the book! =)

    Was it the Tor reread? I was following along with it when I read Malazan and I thought it was well worth it. Not only did it help me notice a lot of details and connections I missed because I have a poor memory, I thought a lot of the commentary was good. At least one of the commentators is a professional editor, they picked up on so many interesting things.

    It was indeed! They definitely picked up on a lot of details I missed, so I got quite a bit out of it. It also made me realize I need to be a more attentive reader. Or SOME thing...they picked up details in the books (that I have read twice) that I never once saw.

  • OremLKOremLK Registered User regular
    edited May 2020
    SyphonBlue wrote: »
    I really enjoyed the First Law trilogy

    until the end

    I don't need a book to have a satisfying, happy ending for everyone

    But I do need it to have an ending

    It was also just too cynical for my mindset these days. I don't have a problem with tragic endings if they have a point, but my memory of it (it's been awhile since I read it) was it was that kind of nihilistic "everything sucks. Well... bye." Kind of ending. Which is absolutely my least favorite thing.

    OremLK on
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  • BrodyBrody The Watch The First ShoreRegistered User regular
    OremLK wrote: »
    SyphonBlue wrote: »
    I really enjoyed the First Law trilogy

    until the end

    I don't need a book to have a satisfying, happy ending for everyone

    But I do need it to have an ending

    It was also just too cynical for my mindset these days. I don't have a problem with tragic endings if they have a point, but my memory of it (it's been awhile since I read it) was it was that kind of nihilistic "everything sucks. Well... bye." Kind of ending. Which is absolutely my least favorite thing.

    Also, I feel like he tried so hard to make character counter to the typical tropes that he just ended up making equally 1 dimensional characters, just in one-off molds.

    "I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."

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  • PhillisherePhillishere Registered User regular
    edited May 2020
    Brody wrote: »
    OremLK wrote: »
    SyphonBlue wrote: »
    I really enjoyed the First Law trilogy

    until the end

    I don't need a book to have a satisfying, happy ending for everyone

    But I do need it to have an ending

    It was also just too cynical for my mindset these days. I don't have a problem with tragic endings if they have a point, but my memory of it (it's been awhile since I read it) was it was that kind of nihilistic "everything sucks. Well... bye." Kind of ending. Which is absolutely my least favorite thing.

    Also, I feel like he tried so hard to make character counter to the typical tropes that he just ended up making equally 1 dimensional characters, just in one-off molds.

    That's the central problem with the trilogy. He's trying very hard to subvert everything, and it becomes this mess of grimdark and ultimately unsatisfying reveals ("Wow. I totally didn't peg that that asshole was actually a bad 'un").

    What the following books do is to tweak this approach by abandoning the fantasy archetypes. They are more "Realistic European history with a fantasy veneer", which allows him to work with a greater range of characters and create a tone that's more grounded and less intentionally grimdark.

    Phillishere on
  • vamenvamen Registered User regular
    Brody wrote: »
    OremLK wrote: »
    SyphonBlue wrote: »
    I really enjoyed the First Law trilogy

    until the end

    I don't need a book to have a satisfying, happy ending for everyone

    But I do need it to have an ending

    It was also just too cynical for my mindset these days. I don't have a problem with tragic endings if they have a point, but my memory of it (it's been awhile since I read it) was it was that kind of nihilistic "everything sucks. Well... bye." Kind of ending. Which is absolutely my least favorite thing.

    Also, I feel like he tried so hard to make character counter to the typical tropes that he just ended up making equally 1 dimensional characters, just in one-off molds.

    Agreed. I liked a few characters, but that one...forgot her name... that is mad all the time, super violent, and does nothing but cuss. I hated her with every fiber of my being. She was super flimsy and you could feel the author's hand any time she was around.

  • KanaKana Registered User regular
    So since Harrow the Ninth was delayed because of Covid stuff they ended up putting up the first act of the book as a free kindle download on amazon. Which was partly nice, but also partly incredibly cruel because now I really want more. Stylistically it is radically different than Gideon the Ninth, and yet it also returns to the first book in some weird, interesting ways.

    massive spoilers for Gideon the Ninth and act 1 of Harrow the Ninth... Also probably none of this will even make any fucking sense unless you've read it all anyway.
    So we rejoin Harrow shortly after the end of book 1, and she's still massively fucked up. Even more fucked up, actually. She still has Gideon's broadsword and is rather obsessed with keeping it with her... But besides that Gideon has been completely retcon'd from not only her memory, but seemingly everyone's memory. Instead Harrow has detailed flashbacks to the events of book 1, except now things are subtly but fundamentally different. Remember Ortus, Harrow's original cavalier, who gets like 5 lines about him in book 1? Well now he went with Harrow, and also he's... Actually kind of great? Harrow and Ortus argue about poetry a lot. And for some reason in this version Teacher chooses to give out a lot more information about the test and how it works. Also Abigail and Magnus, the nice but kinda boring 5th house necromancers who bite it early in book 1? Alternate Timeline Harrow gets to have some cool conversations with her and Abigail thoroughly freaks her out. It really sells the idea that yeah, it's no wonder the baddie killed them off first! It's really kind of a cool repurposing of characters who sorta got the shaft in book 1.

    So Sane Harrow left herself a bunch of sealed letters with various "open in case of..." instructions, presumably right before she did whatever exactly she did with her memories (if it was indeed her?). Her current version of her timeline/memory is that Gideon did exist, but died in the mass poisoning of the ninth's children back in the day. But there's little subtle ways in which that story doesn't really line up - obviously one being that Harrow keeps dragging around this big-ass sword that didn't belong to Ortus. Plus she keeps saying how she's a failing of a lyctor, how she's only half a lyctor, her other half is gone - her other half, of course, being Gideon's soul. She remembers Ortus sacrificing himself for the ascension ritual, but she never really thinks about Ortus's soul being with her now. And she has a vision of a red-headed corpse that completely freaks her out - and it takes a lot to freak out Harrow.

    All of this would sorta suggest that Harrow just mindfucked herself to cope with her grief over Gideon, but also if you read book 1 closely, there's something Very Weird going on with Gideon. In book 1 she takes injuries and energy drains that should have left her as a twitching corpse, and instead she's fine the next day. As a child her whole creche was killed with nerve gas... But baby Gideon's cradle was right under the airvent where the poisons were administered and she was fine. Her mother supposedly escaped from a space-based prison and landed at the ninth house... But we also get the subtle suggestion that her mother maybe died in the fall, disappeared, and then the ninth house just found a baby there in her place. At any rate the folks in the ninth house were spooked as hell by her. And then at the end of book 1 nobody can find Gideon's body. So... Gideon's definitely still around, somewhere, in some form. But also how the heck does Gideon being unkillable interact with her sacrificing her soul to be combined with Harrow?

    Well, Crazy Harrow is now seeing visions of the Body from the Tomb. In book 1 we knew kid Harrow had kind of a crush on this mysterious frozen lady in stasis, but there sure as heck was never any suggestion that Harrow had seen visions of her ever since her childhood. But now she's constantly hanging around silently, and I feel like it's noticeable that Harrow's physical descriptions of The Body are really unclear. Most significantly, Harrow can't really specify what color hair she has. But then like, is Harrow just imaging Gideon AS the body, or does this tie into Gideon's weird magic nature in the first place, and Harrow's just not making the connection? Or something else entirely?

    Anyway also we spend a fair amount of time hanging out with the God Emperor of the Dread Space Necromancer Empire and he's... Extremely chill. He seems rather perpetually put upon by everyone's mindless worship of him. Which is also a little weird because his evil space empire also totally invades planets and sucks all the life out of them, and nobody really seems to view that as a very big deal. He's pretty likable for a Dread Space Necro-Emperor though.

    Anyway yeah there's a whole lot going on in this book so far

    A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
  • credeikicredeiki Registered User regular
    omg Kana now I'm dying to read this book but I don't know when it comes out and I am not willing to read only part of it and then feel sad there isn't the rest

    that sounds like such a cool direction the series is going

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  • vamenvamen Registered User regular
    Welp, fine fine. I guess I'll start that Gideon series next.
    I'm afraid to google for fear of any spoilers, but is it planned trilogy?

  • KanaKana Registered User regular
    vamen wrote: »
    Welp, fine fine. I guess I'll start that Gideon series next.
    I'm afraid to google for fear of any spoilers, but is it planned trilogy?

    Yeah, it's been a planned trilogy from the start

    A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
  • SyphonBlueSyphonBlue The studying beaver That beaver sure loves studying!Registered User regular
    Brody wrote: »
    OremLK wrote: »
    SyphonBlue wrote: »
    I really enjoyed the First Law trilogy

    until the end

    I don't need a book to have a satisfying, happy ending for everyone

    But I do need it to have an ending

    It was also just too cynical for my mindset these days. I don't have a problem with tragic endings if they have a point, but my memory of it (it's been awhile since I read it) was it was that kind of nihilistic "everything sucks. Well... bye." Kind of ending. Which is absolutely my least favorite thing.

    Also, I feel like he tried so hard to make character counter to the typical tropes that he just ended up making equally 1 dimensional characters, just in one-off molds.

    That's the central problem with the trilogy. He's trying very hard to subvert everything, and it becomes this mess of grimdark and ultimately unsatisfying reveals ("Wow. I totally didn't peg that that asshole was actually a bad 'un").

    What the following books do is to tweak this approach by abandoning the fantasy archetypes. They are more "Realistic European history with a fantasy veneer", which allows him to work with a greater range of characters and create a tone that's more grounded and less intentionally grimdark.

    He tried so hard to subvert everything he subverted the very concept of "endings"
    Ferro doesn't get an ending, she fucks off to the desert to get revenge again, no resolution

    Logen doesn't remain King, he jumps out of a window, no resolution

    West is dying (?), but he....doesn't, and also doesn't get better no resolution

    Jezal keeps trying to act like he's growing, but when given the chance he ALMOST stands up to Bayaz and his "wife", very minor resolution

    Bayaz remains somewhat evil, fucks off somewhere, no resolution

    A plague is ravaging the city, but do we learn ANYTHING about it, or do anything to stop it? No

    The only ones who actually get ANY kind of ending are Glokta and Ardee

    An extremely frustrating ending to what I thought was a really good trilogy up to then

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  • knitdanknitdan In ur base Killin ur guysRegistered User regular
    edited May 2020
    Harrow the Ninth preview stuff
    I think all the conversations Harrow has with Ortus are shortly after she first receives the summons to the Lictor trials. Shortly before the beginning of book 1.

    She keeps referring to a Body and i don't think it’s the one from the locked tomb. It physically helps her on occasion after she becomes a Lictor. Presumably she’s animating a dead body through necromancy. Obvious candidates are the body of Ortus( can’t recall if his body was ever recovered) or Gideon (whose identity Harrow has blocked out of her mind)

    But also, the list of names in the beginning has a Lictor named Ortus...is this the original 1000 year Lictor, whom the Ortus we know is presumably named for? Or did the Emperor figure out a way to use Ortus to make another Lictor?

    Edit: also! There’s reference to something horrible she does involving Ortus while trying to become a Lictor at age 9. Like maybe she killed him by accident and has been spending the last ten years doing a Weekend at Bernie’s with his corpse.

    knitdan on
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  • The Zombie PenguinThe Zombie Penguin Eternal Hungry Corpse Registered User regular
    edited May 2020
    Harrow the ninth:
    I've bounced off hard, sadly. Though, i've figured out why - It's so heavy on the false memories, dissoaciton from time etc, that it's actually pretty triggery for me as someone who's dissoactive.

    Oh well! Not every book needs to fit.

    Network effect is freaking good, as an aside. On my second read through currently.

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  • VanguardVanguard But now the dream is over. And the insect is awake.Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    I finished Clark Ashton Smith's The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies. My first outing with CAS, they feel like a hybrid of Fritz Leiber and HPL. I found the collection somewhat mixed, with the earliest stories not particularly good whereas the back half was exceptional. The "Vaults of Yoh-Vombis" definitely made my skin crawl. I skipped the poetry at the back because I am not interested in reading fantastical verse (would rather either look at the ancient epics or do something more modern).

    I'm also 1 issues away from finish Hellboy Omibus 2: Strange Places. It's just so good. I'm glad it was collected in a more digestible form.

  • PhillisherePhillishere Registered User regular
    Vanguard wrote: »
    I finished Clark Ashton Smith's The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies. My first outing with CAS, they feel like a hybrid of Fritz Leiber and HPL. I found the collection somewhat mixed, with the earliest stories not particularly good whereas the back half was exceptional. The "Vaults of Yoh-Vombis" definitely made my skin crawl. I skipped the poetry at the back because I am not interested in reading fantastical verse (would rather either look at the ancient epics or do something more modern).

    I'm also 1 issues away from finish Hellboy Omibus 2: Strange Places. It's just so good. I'm glad it was collected in a more digestible form.

    Fantastic verse was so prevalent in the era because editors paid more per word for verse than prose.

  • NoneoftheaboveNoneoftheabove Just a conforming non-conformist. Twilight ZoneRegistered User regular
    I very much dislike modern fantasy, with its popularity and YA tendancy to end up as forgettable cinema shlock. Give me the classics that invented a genre, give me Robert E Howard's "The coming of Conan"... Wait, yeah... It ended up as largely forgettable hollywood shlock too. Ok, fine. Modern fantasy still sucks though, and if you blend it with sci-fi I will go Harlan Ellison levels of rant on your keister.

    I'm going to my local library today to pick up some Ambrose Bierce civil war collected works and horror shorts, and see if I can also get Grady Hendrix's book, "We sold our souls".

  • VanguardVanguard But now the dream is over. And the insect is awake.Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited May 2020
    Speaking of, I started The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian yesterday. Just read the first story but it was real fucking good.

    I also finished How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell. Books railing against social media are a crowded genre but this is, delightfully, not that. Or at least not exclusively - it's definitely in the book's DNA but it spends more time cataloging ways of resistance, both current and in the time prior to the internet. Those methods are pretty simple: engage your community, make time for reflection, be here now etc.

    Vanguard on
  • nexuscrawlernexuscrawler Registered User regular
    I got to read a ARC of Harrow. There's alot going on. I feel like I need to reread both books to actually understand the half of it.

  • NoneoftheaboveNoneoftheabove Just a conforming non-conformist. Twilight ZoneRegistered User regular
    Vanguard wrote: »
    Speaking of, I started The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian yesterday. Just read the first story but it was real fucking good.

    I also finished How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell. Books railing against social media are a crowded genre but this is, delightfully, not that. Or at least not exclusively - it's definitely in the book's DNA but it spends more time cataloging ways of resistance, both current and in the time prior to the internet. Those methods are pretty simple: engage your community, make time for reflection, be here now etc.

    Ooh, I fancy a little something over nothing. I'll see if I can pick this book up too. Sounds like a topic I can dig!

    The first volume of this Conan saga collection is indeed great and has many of the best shorts Howard wrote on the character, I am told.

  • MahnmutMahnmut Registered User regular
    Murderbot... good. The new novel nails it; plot tight, characters developed, heartstrings pulled. We get to spend time with big characters from the novellas, and it would be a 100% satisfying conclusion to the series (with clear room for more adventures in the setting/cast). <3

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  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    Howard wrote weird, punchy stories with more than a trace of BDSM fetishism and racism, but his stuff feels vibrant and alive in a way a lot of fantasy I’ve read doesn’t.

  • knitdanknitdan In ur base Killin ur guysRegistered User regular
    edited May 2020
    I got to read a ARC of Harrow. There's alot going on. I feel like I need to reread both books to actually understand the half of it.

    I did a full reread of both (whoops i mean Gideon and the Harrow preview) and i still don’t really understand the half of it.

    Except for noticing a few minor things at the end of Gideon that ft in with what we’ve seen of Harrow

    knitdan on
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  • NoneoftheaboveNoneoftheabove Just a conforming non-conformist. Twilight ZoneRegistered User regular
    Bogart wrote: »
    Howard wrote weird, punchy stories with more than a trace of BDSM fetishism and racism, but his stuff feels vibrant and alive in a way a lot of fantasy I’ve read doesn’t.

    Well, yeah some of Howard's work is probably a paycheck ambition to mass market appeal of its time where the hero fights a dark skinned foreigner. And I haven't come across any blatant racism that wasn't of its time beyond a typical cowboy western against the Natives. A work that is without nuance or care for culture differences or introspection on barbarity of Conan himself, being somewhat of a "grey area hero, who is out to fight for himself." It's really only a typical macho power fantasy that seems to dominate the work and embarrass most any grown adult reading the material in public to some degree for how women are mostly treated as damsels in distress. It's also probably one of the originators of Sword and Sorcery. So I concede to admit that I have a taste for some shlock material too, despite the flimsy veneer of an older is better reading material mindset that should probably quiet down after your polite correction.

  • KanaKana Registered User regular
    I got to read a ARC of Harrow. There's alot going on. I feel like I need to reread both books to actually understand the half of it.

    Whaaaa not fair!

    A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    Oh, I have no idea whether modern fantasy is better than old stuff or not. I haven't read much 21st century fantasy at all. I enjoyed most of the Conan stories when I read them for the first time a few years ago, and the vitality they retain after about ninety years is remarkable.

  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    Howard's action sequences are fantastic and rarely matched, and his description is both fast paved and incredibly, vividly evocative. Like when he describes some crumbling ancient tomb, or luxurious yet decadent palace, it's conjured up so brightly and powerfully in your head. He had his flaws but he was a bloody good writer of adventurous, heroic prose.

  • vamenvamen Registered User regular
    Solar wrote: »
    Howard's action sequences are fantastic and rarely matched, and his description is both fast paved and incredibly, vividly evocative. Like when he describes some crumbling ancient tomb, or luxurious yet decadent palace, it's conjured up so brightly and powerfully in your head. He had his flaws but he was a bloody good writer of adventurous, heroic prose.

    I never expected to say this, but now I want to read Conan.

  • vamenvamen Registered User regular
    edited May 2020
    I put Mark Lawrence's Book of the Ancestor series to bed around 1AM last night. Lawrence has been one of my favorite authors ever since his Broken Empire trilogy but, while I liked this series, I definitely didn't love it. The last ~20% of the final book had some of my favorite moments of the entire trilogy, so at least it went out on a high note and I enjoyed it enough to check out the new book he just released that takes place in the same world (though I gather in a different era). It just didn't grab me in the same way.
    I think one of the main issues I have is no fault of the book's; I'm weary of stories taking place in schools. Ever since Harry Potter, it feels like so many tales are set in locations like this, and I loved it at first but it has quite worn out its welcome for me. While this didn't take place in literal school, it was close enough. Basically, Catholic school I suppose! On the plus side, the rare times anyone ventured outside of the school made it feel more exciting than it otherwise may have. The locations visited were also all (mostly) quite interesting, just like the world itself had an interesting setup.
    Also, the world has a very soft magic system which I have grown to enjoy less than hard magic systems simply because there are so many times that something that happens with the magic system feels like a deus-ex machina. That was the case several times for me throughout the story. That's likely more of a 'me' issue but I thought I'd point it out.

    Not really spoilers but I'm going to spoiler it anyway:
    I felt like they tied up most of the loose threads by the end but not all of them were tied as tightly as I'd have liked. Still, everything coming together in the final battle very overall VERY satisfying. It's more the fate of certain elements remain (purposefully) open.

    Potential actual spoiler related to one or two lines of the final few chapters:
    The reference to Taproot made me sit straight up in bed but I can't decide if it was just a fun reference or an actual tie-in.


    Not sure what I am going to start next, but all the chatter in here is making me lean heavily toward Gideon the Ninth.

    vamen on
  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    vamen wrote: »
    Solar wrote: »
    Howard's action sequences are fantastic and rarely matched, and his description is both fast paved and incredibly, vividly evocative. Like when he describes some crumbling ancient tomb, or luxurious yet decadent palace, it's conjured up so brightly and powerfully in your head. He had his flaws but he was a bloody good writer of adventurous, heroic prose.

    I never expected to say this, but now I want to read Conan.

    Nah you definitely should, it's genuinely great and really easy to read

  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    Recursion, by Blake Crouch. Ever had that daydream where you imagine travelling back in time into your younger self, with your current memories? Yeah, that's the central conceit of this novel. Things get freaky pretty fast, because it turns out that when you catch up to the point where you diverged the timeline, the whole world suddenly remembers both timelines.

    It's set in 2018 (...and various years before that, obviously), and there are plenty of references to smartphones, Facebook, etc. That dates the book, and for me that somehow made it feel dated, because who knows how well that would be holding up years from now? Feels like something more experienced authors (...or their editors) avoid doing for just that reason.

  • CptHamiltonCptHamilton Registered User regular
    Echo wrote: »
    Recursion, by Blake Crouch. Ever had that daydream where you imagine travelling back in time into your younger self, with your current memories? Yeah, that's the central conceit of this novel. Things get freaky pretty fast, because it turns out that when you catch up to the point where you diverged the timeline, the whole world suddenly remembers both timelines.

    It's set in 2018 (...and various years before that, obviously), and there are plenty of references to smartphones, Facebook, etc. That dates the book, and for me that somehow made it feel dated, because who knows how well that would be holding up years from now? Feels like something more experienced authors (...or their editors) avoid doing for just that reason.

    On the one hand, yeah, Facebook and iphones will date work but on the other hand if you're writing about modern characters in a Western nation leaving social media and smartphones out of it seems like it would also be conspicuous. And efforts to replace brand names with made-up equivalents to try to weather the tides of time always seem a bit silly to me. When someone keeps going to MyBook or similar I feel like it sticks out more to me than just saying "Myspace" would have. Sure, it's dated, but I notice that once, think, "The early 2000's were a different time" and move on.

    Has Crouch's writing improved over time? I tried reading Pines because I was hoping it might be better than the TV show based on it and the writing was so bad I gave up about 25% of the way through, and I don't generally give up on books once I start them. The synopses for his newer books sound interesting but that first impression was pretty dire.

    PSN,Steam,Live | CptHamiltonian
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