Just started another run through of The Black Company books.
I recently got Chronicles of The Black Company. It the omnibus edition and has first three novels. Haven’t started it yet though.
It’s a little rough to read in the beginning. You can clearly see Cook struggling to find his voice in writing. The story is great and the writing does improve.
EDIT: Just saw your username. I am eagerly awaiting the next Dresden novel also.
Yeah, the ending of the series. Can’t wait.
Read Britain’s Winterlight over the weekend. Was about the book I’d been expecting (entertaining but not brilliant fantasy adventure)—I just wish I’d been able to get it in MMPB instead of trade. (Yeah, I know, no F&SF publisher except Baen does MMPB format anymore. Annoying as hell when I’m trying to shelve things that shifted format in mid-series.)
I haven’t decided what I’m going to pull from my to-read stack for this Friday night, although I think I might go SF this time.
That’s a big pet peeve of me. I don’t care too much about the format of the books, bigger, small, hardcover, paperback etc. but I want whole series to be same format. I used to be similar about covers, but I have given up that battle. Though, I am losing the size battle too.
How is the Green Rider series in general? And is it finished, or still continuing?
I get the impression the series is continuing, or at least there were major plot strands still dangling at the end of Winterlight. It’s probably going to run to 1-2 more books, depending on whether the author intends to tackle the remaining potential antagonists serially or simultaneously. Currently the author seems more interested in producing side-story novellas.
In general, the series is . . . okay. I don’t seek out each new book in hardcover and then insist on reading it the same week, but I do keep coming back for more. The setting is pretty traditional (medieval technology, elf-analogues, magic is uncommon but extant), but the plot manages to be different enough to keep it from falling too deep into the LotR-clone trap. Part of that’s the protagonist—a very determined and fairly competent young woman, even if she does keep getting into trouble—and part of it’s that the author had the sense not to structure the thing as a group road trip.
My main issues with the series so far have been that it spends too much time on an issue involving the protagonist’s love life (I realize it’s a complicated situation, but it isn’t one that I’m especially interested in), and one volume has only tangential relevance to the main plot—what significant content it does have wasn’t enough to make reading the whole thing worthwhile to me. One complaint I’ve heard from others is that the horses are unrealistic, but an explanation for that does get provided eventually.
Ah, don’t want to start a long unfinished series right now. Thanks for the feedback!
Codex Alera. I got back into reading not long before the pandemic (great timing!) and have been pouring through fantasy and SciFi books like crazy. I can’t believe it took me this long to get to Codex. It’s so good!
Yeah, it’s a really interesting series. Which book are you on?
Just finished #3 and loved it.
I’m taking a short break to read Frugal Wizard (Sanderson) and the Goblin Emperor but I’ll be doing 4-6 back to back. I’m excited for these and for my new Joe Abercrombie books (first law 4-6)
I just finished Frugal Wizard yesterday, read the whole book in two days, it has been a long time since I did that. 😀
I have heard of Goblin Emperor but never read it, how is it?
I’m halfway through Frugal Wizard and it’s an interesting concept!
I haven’t started Goblin Emperor yet. I came across it one reddit when I was searching for good fantasy stand alones. Sometimes I need a single or double book series to break up these massive series.
Yeah, I do the same. I think I mentioned before, that I am reading Dresden Files these days. This was one of the standalone novel I read before starting the third book today.
Oh nice! I used Dresden to break up my big ones. Hard to consider Dresden anything other than massive. I enjoyed the whole Dresden files even though people complain about how it changed from the beginning. He does a good job of keeping things interesting.
I have only read first few books, didn’t find the next book, so stopped reading. Now getting all the books and reading from the beginning. They are really fun, but reading them back to back can be a bit boring.
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Still working my way through The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. Enjoying it, but it’s slowed down a bit in the middle, so I’m struggling to sit and focus as much.
Playing Diablo 4 and watching every Star Trek in chronological order may also be slightly affecting my current reading efforts.
Diablo 4 is great, how are you liking the first season? I have heard conflicting views on that.
As for Star Trek, that’s a big undertaking. I started with the published order (my choice of order, in pretty much all media forms) a long time ago. The original, than the next generation, gave up somewhere in the middle of DS9. Haven’t seen anything after that (except for the new one they did couple of years back, watched 2-3 episodes), but I have been getting an itch for some nice alien show recently, and since I can’t find anything good, may just resume DS9 from start.
The Golem and the Jinni sounds nice. Would love to hear what you think of it once you have finished it.
Hey thanks for the interest!
The season stuff hasn’t affected me so much because I’m still working my way through the campaign. The only thing I’ve noticed is the vulnerable stat nerf, but my druid werebear is still wrecking, so it’s not a deal breaker for me. I only play a little bit at night before bed so it’ll be ages before I’m dealing with endgame stuff. I love the game itself so far though. Only issue is a personal preference in that I hate feeling so isolated in dungeons. I miss in D2 when randoms would show up and join in, but D4 only does that in the world map.
The Trek thing is just the latest in a lifetime of trying and failing to get into the franchise. I’ve seen some TOS and TNG but that’s about it, and it never hooked me, so I thought I’d do something a bit different this time to try and give it another go. So far I’m really enjoying it, Enterprise is surprisingly fun!
As for the book, I’ve never enjoyed one so much that I was also desperate to move on from as this. It’s just so big, and too slow/slice of life for me. I’m reading it for the Magical Realism spot on this year’s reddit fantasy bingo and it’s definitely the most well written book I’ve read so far but my goblin brain wants swords and sorcery.
D2 is probably one of my favourite game ever. I have played D3, and beta of D4, and while I liked D4 a lot, it doesn’t come close to what D2 was.
I can understand the feeling, sometimes you just aren’t in the mood for something. In my opinion, it’s completely fine to leave it, you can always come back to it later, if you are in the mood, or not, nothing wrong with either. Life is too short, and there are enough books and tv/movies out there that we will never run out. So, why waste time on something that we aren’t fully enjoying?
Same! D2 is right up there for me, one of my childhood favourites.
I was so excited to complete the bingo challenge I’m reluctant to abandon the book, but usually I’m very much the same as you and drop books whenever I lose interest.
At this point though I’m starting to really resent the bingo. I’m just too slow of a reader, it’s going to be a struggle to finish it before April.
Yeah, I used to do these challenges before, but sometimes they become a chore. Why not change the rules for yourself a bit, if the book becomes a drag, you can just leave it midway, and consider it done for the bingo challenge. That’s what I do now, if I have have given it my best, for me it is as good as done.
Of course, if this is some kind of competition, then you should either finish it completely or don’t mark that item, but these bingo cards are just for fun, and made to broaden your reading genre/author/etc, so you decide how you take them.
I’m only in competition with myself, I suppose, but I did really want a custom flair for the subreddit… Which I no longer visit since joining here… Hmm. It’s beginning to feel less important.
I am dresden, destroyer of dreams! 😀
I’d been reading the First Law trilogy at night before bed for the last year and a half or so (I’m a slow reader when I fall asleep). Thought it was pretty good, and the perfect kind of story I needed. If grimdark could have pulp, it would be the First Law trilogy. Just overall very entertaining, the characters were fun and memorable, and this all balanced out the general bleakness of the setting. The running jokes were a lot of fun.
Now I’m probably going back to the Warrior Prophet (Prince of Nothing book 2), the other book I had been reading before bed before the First Law really grabbed me. I love Bakker’s writing and world building, so I’m excited to see where it goes.
First Law Trilogy is one of the best series that I hated 😀
I don’t like grimdark, I want more of “good guy beat bad guy, and they lived happily ever after”. Okay, not entirely true, but you get my point. So, while I didn’t like the story, or the characters, it was a really good series. I have read the main trilogy and the standalone Best Served Cold, planning the get The Heroes sometimes. When I need a dose of grimdark.
How is Prince of Nothing? Is it also grimdark? Would you recommend for something who generally doesn’t like grimdark, but would still read it if it’s a really well written book?
Prince of Nothing is one of the grimmest, darkest series I’ve read lol
Lots of atrocities committed in the name of religion, power, etc. Lots of visceral depictions of pretty serious subjects. Lots of philosophizing about pretty dark things.
Through it all though the characters are compelling and the story is engaging after a point. The world and characters feel very real, even some of the more outlandish ones. There’s certainly no “fun” in it like there was in the First Law books. I get the sense that it probably goes way too for in the grim dark direction for you, regardless of how well it’s written.
Not to be that guy, but Malazan strikes the perfect balance for me between a grimdark feel and a hopeful theme with fun characters. If you haven’t read it and have the time, those are always worth picking up.
Yeah, that doesn’t seem to be something that I would enjoy.
Malazan is on my wishlist, but I usually don’t have much time to read these, and these big series have started to look daunting now. Going to read it someday though.
Neuromancer. I bounced off of it years ago, probably because I was still in college, but now I’m reading for fun again, so here we go!
I have a distinct feeling that I once got a copy of Neuromancer from some used books sale, without knowing anything about the book, and then gave it away when I couldn’t get into the book after reading couple of pages. I was pretty young then, but I can’t be sure if the book was Neruomancer or some other one.
How are you liking the book?
I am liking it. It’s garish and dense in its details, in a way that helps it illustrate the cyberpunk world we’ve all come to picture in our heads. It’s also somewhat horny. Just in the first few dozen pages, I think I found the sex scene that made young me put it down, haha, but I’m powering through this time.
I’m approaching it like I would a pulpy corner novel, and that seems to be about more its speed. At least for this reader.
Interesting. I would try to get my hands on a copy.
Good luck! I’d love to hear your thoughts.
