What did you just read?

Void said:

I just recently started reading these, and am in the middle of Book V right now. It is amazing how close the first book is to something that actually happened to a group of us years ago. Not exactly, of course, but if our DM had a velvet cape and magic dice his reactions wouldn't have been much different than what happens here.

Spoilered discussion of some of my thoughts to this point.

Spoiler

I know it is on purpose, and perhaps there is a payoff later, but the unlikable factor with Tim is just through the fucking roof. Like, I genuinely want him to die just so I don't have to read about him, or other people bitching about him, anymore. The transition from malcontent to actual target of everyone's ire seemed way too abrupt too.

Cooper is awesome, but lately he hasn't been in the books enough. Maybe that changes soon.

The sheer amount of shit, piss, and barf in these novels is fucking awesome. Pretty sure I've never read anything even close to this quantity.

Cast is getting a little too big, honestly. Kind of ties in with my Cooper comment. I honestly don't care about Stacy at all, and the whole cast of the Whore's Head just has a tendency to get in the way I feel. Some of them are great characters, and I'd love to read more about them, but not to the detriment of the characters I really like. Speaking of, so far Dave has practically dropped off the fucking planet recently. Again, maybe that changes soon. Oh, fucking can't stand Dennis/Denise, despite the hilarity that COULD have been around a character that gets put in the wrong gender body like that, she's just fucking nasty and repellent. But Randy is actually a GREAT character. Really well done there.

The shit with Chaz being a bard is hilarious, and perfect. To me, he's enough of a "side character" that occasionally has a chapter about him to break up the chapters on the main characters. Unfortunately, instead we often get some Stacy or Tim shit that just makes me want to get back to Cooper or Julian, who is also a great character but only seems to lately be around so Stacy can be in the forefront.

And about your Katherine comment...I love Katherine! I particularly liked when she was getting all that Knowledge: Nature crap and smacked herself in the head to stop it. If she suddenly starts murdering people per your comment, eh, I'll probably still love her. In fact, I look forward to a nature-loving druid murdering people! Could do without the lame dark elf with her (and Tim), but since she often makes racist comments while trying to show she isn't racist, I guess I can live with it. Still, I'd rather Tim died, the dark elf (Tanner?) fucked off, and Katherine went on adventures with Cooper and Julian. And Dave I suppose. Oh, and Chaz so everyone can shit on him.

Still love the whole thing, don't get me wrong. And I've got a book and half still to read, plus 7 that is supposedly out now? So who knows what might happen then. But it started off really strong, and has sort of struggled the last book or two for me.

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You find out why about Tim in book 6 and 7.

Tiamat's Wrath - 8th book of the Expanse. Was... good? I guess. The series feels really long in the tooth and so much is being crammed into each book, I am not sure it will have a satisfying ending.

Also fuck them for charging $15 for an eBook.

Cold Iron - Miles Cameron
First book of the Masters & Mages series - epic fantasy, with early gunpowder level technology. Refreshingly avoids the main character being the amazingly awesome chosen one - he's more the John McClane type - wrong place, wrong time. An average student mage heading home for the holidays, he's caught up in a bandit attack on the inn he's staying at, which kicks off a series of increasingly implausible coincidences. As it turns out, a lot of those coincidences aren't actually coincidental, with various plots inside plots going on.
I liked this one quite a bit and will probably read the rest of the series. Ansu made me laugh, I've known people like that, technically an asshole, but charismatic enough that blatantly assholish behavior is just kind of endearing.

Tiamat's Wrath - James S.A. Corey
The god-emperor of Laconia goes looking for trouble - and finds it.
I'm not sure what he was expecting to happen; all things considered, the void aliens' response is probably on the mild end of the scale.
Teresa's friend was hilarious - of all the people in the universe you could pick to be besties with.

Burning Bright - Melissa McShane
Victorian England with magic of the innate and very focused variety. An unwanted daughter develops a talent as an 'extraordinary scorcher' ( someone who can both set things on fire and extinguish fires ). She sees this as a way out of a pretty restricted and boring life, and volunteers for the royal navy. They don't take women as a rule, but for someone who can set enemy ships on fire from beyond cannon range, they are prepared to make an exception.
This one was entertaining, although I found the world building a bit implausible - not a lot of thought was given to the implications of the various powers I think. For example, Ramsay can fly while carrying 10,000lb of cargo - there really should be some sort of explanation as to why he's a ship's captain and hasn't already sunk the entire French fleet by dropping boulders on them from a great height. There's also some talk about it being impractical to attack cannons with fire because they take too long to melt, kind of ignoring that it would take a very very brave man to try reloading a cannon that is on fire, regardless of how melted it is.


The Land: Predators - Aleron Kong
7th book of the Chaos Seeds series - I normally don't say much on ongoing books from a series - if you haven't read the previous ones any review is spoilers and if you have, you generally already know if you like it or not. I made an excpetion for this one because it was notable for being the most epic book I have read in years - it is huuuuge.
A shitload of stuff happens in it though - I really liked it, well definitely keep reading this series.


Gelato Messina - Nick Palumbo
For something completely different to the normal fare, this is a non-fiction book by the chef from Messina, about methods of making gelato, and includes a bunch of their popular recipes. ( Messina is a moderately famous gelato place in Sydney, Australia ). It was an interesting read on the background and science of gelato making, and having tried a few of the recipes they were pretty fantastic with budget home facilities. ( They have steps/procedure for home icecream maker stuff as well as the exact steps they use with commercial equipment ).

Went to Croatia with my girlfriend, and found an English bookstore. We don't have those in our town in Poland, so I bought a bunch of books by Joe Abercrombie. I listened to one of his books on audible, and loved his writing style. Bought one, finished it in two days, and bought two more. Here are my thoughts.

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie (Jan. 2011) - After completing a fantasy trilogy, the author decided to try his hand at a fantasy war novel. The result is what I believe is his strongest book. The focus of the book is a three day span that covers the start, course and ending of a single battle over a useless hill. Loosely based on the Battle of Little Round Top, it is less a study of military tactics and strategy, and more of a character study. Who wants to be a hero? Why? What does it mean to be a hero? These are the questions that spur the plot along. Through six viewpoint characters we see the origins and results of ambition. The Heroes does for fantasy war now what the Red Badge of Courage did for the Civil War one hundred years ago, but won't bore you to tears. Highly recommended. 9/10

Red Country by Joe Abercrombie (Oct. 2012) - With a fantasy war novel in the bag, the author decided to try a western. A fantasy western. It works better than it sounds. The main characters are an old man running from his past, and his adopted daughter - a woman with a will as strong as iron. When her two younger siblings are kidnapped by child thieves, the old man rekindles his forgotten personality in order to help his adopted daughter get them back. I won't give anymore away. Don't start with this one, but if you've read the rest by Abercrombie you should read this one. 6/10

Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie (April 2016) - This was a late addition to the setting, and I believe it was written to cash in on the popularity of the other books. This shows. It is a collection of short stories set during and inbetween the other books, and shows little events that other people reference throughout the course of the novels. I recommend it if you are a hardcore fan of Abercrombie. If not, skip it. There are better short story anthologies if you enjoy them. 5/10

Cmon, you cant 6/10 Abercrombie. Maybe if you compare it with Abercrombie, but compared to other fantasy books, Heroes is a 10/10, and the others are 9/10. Yes, even Sharp Ends.

wamphyr said:

Cmon, you cant 6/10 Abercrombie. Maybe if you compare it with Abercrombie, but compared to other fantasy books, Heroes is a 10/10, and the others are 9/10. Yes, even Sharp Ends.

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I was comparing them with each other. As far as fantasy goes, Abercrombie is top 3 of the guys writing nowadays. Sharp Ends was interesting, but not his best work. The Heroes is probably the finest fantasy novel I've read in eight years.

Have you read his Shattered Sea series? I'm thinking of picking them up and want to know how they stack up against the First Law series.

Holy Sister: book 3 in the book of the ancestor trilogy by Mark Lawrence. If you liked the others this had a fitting ending, I really like Lawrence, his settings are great. Very similar to the prince of thorns in formuala. He is a bit formulaic in he has these long setups with lots oh hints at deeper plots that all wrap up at the end maybe a little too quickly. I am pretty much audio only and the voice reading it is also good.

Campbell1oo4 said:

Went to Croatia with my girlfriend, and found an English bookstore. We don't have those in our town in Poland, so I bought a bunch of books by Joe Abercrombie. I listened to one of his books on audible, and loved his writing style. Bought one, finished it in two days, and bought two more. Here are my thoughts.

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie (Jan. 2011) - After completing a fantasy trilogy, the author decided to try his hand at a fantasy war novel. The result is what I believe is his strongest book. The focus of the book is a three day span that covers the start, course and ending of a single battle over a useless hill. Loosely based on the Battle of Little Round Top, it is less a study of military tactics and strategy, and more of a character study. Who wants to be a hero? Why? What does it mean to be a hero? These are the questions that spur the plot along. Through six viewpoint characters we see the origins and results of ambition. The Heroes does for fantasy war now what the Red Badge of Courage did for the Civil War one hundred years ago, but won't bore you to tears. Highly recommended. 9/10

Red Country by Joe Abercrombie (Oct. 2012) - With a fantasy war novel in the bag, the author decided to try a western. A fantasy western. It works better than it sounds. The main characters are an old man running from his past, and his adopted daughter - a woman with a will as strong as iron. When her two younger siblings are kidnapped by child thieves, the old man rekindles his forgotten personality in order to help his adopted daughter get them back. I won't give anymore away. Don't start with this one, but if you've read the rest by Abercrombie you should read this one. 6/10

Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie (April 2016) - This was a late addition to the setting, and I believe it was written to cash in on the popularity of the other books. This shows. It is a collection of short stories set during and inbetween the other books, and shows little events that other people reference throughout the course of the novels. I recommend it if you are a hardcore fan of Abercrombie. If not, skip it. There are better short story anthologies if you enjoy them. 5/10

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Have you read his Half A King series? It's YA but probably his most disciplined writing yet.

I second Shantaram. Excellent book.

khorum said:

Have you read his Half A King series? It's YA but probably his most disciplined writing yet.

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Ordered it last week. Should be here tomorrow!

Campbell1oo4 said:

Went to Croatia with my girlfriend, and found an English bookstore. We don't have those in our town in Poland, so I bought a bunch of books by Joe Abercrombie. I listened to one of his books on audible, and loved his writing style. Bought one, finished it in two days, and bought two more. Here are my thoughts.

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie (Jan. 2011) - After completing a fantasy trilogy, the author decided to try his hand at a fantasy war novel. The result is what I believe is his strongest book. The focus of the book is a three day span that covers the start, course and ending of a single battle over a useless hill. Loosely based on the Battle of Little Round Top, it is less a study of military tactics and strategy, and more of a character study. Who wants to be a hero? Why? What does it mean to be a hero? These are the questions that spur the plot along. Through six viewpoint characters we see the origins and results of ambition. The Heroes does for fantasy war now what the Red Badge of Courage did for the Civil War one hundred years ago, but won't bore you to tears. Highly recommended. 9/10

Red Country by Joe Abercrombie (Oct. 2012) - With a fantasy war novel in the bag, the author decided to try a western. A fantasy western. It works better than it sounds. The main characters are an old man running from his past, and his adopted daughter - a woman with a will as strong as iron. When her two younger siblings are kidnapped by child thieves, the old man rekindles his forgotten personality in order to help his adopted daughter get them back. I won't give anymore away. Don't start with this one, but if you've read the rest by Abercrombie you should read this one. 6/10

Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie (April 2016) - This was a late addition to the setting, and I believe it was written to cash in on the popularity of the other books. This shows. It is a collection of short stories set during and inbetween the other books, and shows little events that other people reference throughout the course of the novels. I recommend it if you are a hardcore fan of Abercrombie. If not, skip it. There are better short story anthologies if you enjoy them. 5/10

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Have you read Best Served Cold? Easily my favourite of his books - probably the most relentlessly brutal. The first book of his sequel trilogy to the First Law is out later this year as well.

Best Served Cold and The Heroes are my two of my top fantasy books of all time. I cannot endorse them enough, though to get the full effect you have to read the First Law trilogy first. Red Country is great, and Sharp Ends has the fantastic scene with Whirrun of Bligh and the girl who will "show us the sword."

Rereading Starship Troopers right now cause some of my kids are going through Romeo and Juliet and Animal Farm and I need something more butch. It's a really fun read.

Finished Rithmatist and Skyward recently, liked Rithmatist a lot. Reread Night by Elie Wiesel yesterday in a sitting. Still the best Holocaust book of that format.

Campbell1oo4 said:

Ordered it last week. Should be here tomorrow!

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Bear in mind it's his attempt at the Young Adult shelf so it won't have the same grit as the rest, but what's left is really tight construction and arguably his best pacing.

Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire trilogy is what I imagine what that series might have looked like if Abercrombie could indulge his usual style, and I honestly think it benefitted from the restraint.