Soldato
- Joined
- 13 May 2003
- Posts
- 8,963
Love that series of books nicely written a little humour and he’s banging them out to keep the overall arc moving.
What book are you reading...
- Thread starter agnes
- Start date
It's happened. I'm going down The Wheel of Time rabbit hole. 5 chapters into the series into book 1 and it's hooked me. Loving the characters and the setting. I'm using the glossary at the back of the book as well rather than winging it.
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Soldato
- Joined
- 13 May 2003
- Posts
- 8,963
I'd love to know your thoughts by the time you get to Book 8, it's a great series but many find it has a few flaws as it progresses. The highs are so high but.....
Caporegime
- Joined
- 9 Mar 2006
- Posts
- 58,009
- Location
- Surrey
My favourite of the dresden-a-likes are Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey and the Alex Verus series by Benedict Jacka. The first is much darker than Dresden.
I'm reading The Secret Commonwealth at the moment, about half way through and loving it.
Book 8 is where I stopped reading them. The first 6 books were really good, the very first book in the series is still one of the best books that I have ever read.
Thanks for the recommendations. Never heard of Sandman Slim, so that's going on the list. The Alex Versus novels are already on there and am going to read those next
I struggled with WoT around the mid point, but once I start something I pretty much have to force myself to finish unfortunately. That said, if you can make it to the last four books I feel that things pick up substantially, especially once Sanderson takes the helm to finish the series.
Thanks for the recommendations. Never heard of Sandman Slim, so that's going on the list. The Alex Versus novels are already on there and am going to read those next
I really enjoyed the Alex Versus series, I'm actually about to start reading Fallen. As an aside, while of a different genre, if you enjoyed The Dresden Files I'd recommend the Codex Alera series by the same author (Jim Butcher). For those after more Urban Fantasy I'd say Tad Williams' Bobby Dollar series is worth a look, although I'd say it's his weakest work overall.
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I hadn't known about "the slow down" the first time I read the series... and gave up at book 9. When I did a re-read about a decade later I was aware that the "hump" was well-known, but also had been told that actually loads of massive series-defining events and plots took place during those few books. So I focused on the big things and get through the slow points quite easily. They're definitely a drag, but the pay-off is well worth it imo.
The first book is decent, as is the second, but I reckon books 3-6 are brilliant fantasy fiction.
I keep meaning to try the WOT again but, I think of the amount of trash I would have to wade through and I go "nah, maybe next year"
Yes, the Codex Alera books are also on the list
But, I never heard of the Bobby Dollar books. I enjoyed Tad William's Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series. But, on a complete unexpected jump, I am not reading any more of the Rivers of London books for the moment. I have now moved onto this
Just One Damned Thing After Another (Chronicles of St. Mary's Book 1) by Jodi Taylor.
Was on my Kindle last night about to purchase the Second Rivers of London book, Night Witch, when my Kindle glitched out and I hit the "see what other customers bought" button by accident. Just One Damned thing after the other was top of the list. Looked interesting, clicked in, decided to try a sample and ended up buying it and reading for 3 hours straight before I forced myself to stop and go to sleep.
If you don't know the books, the series is about Time Travelling Historians operating out of a location called St. Mary's. It's a very addictive page turner. If you have a Kindle it's really worth Trying a sample.
Going through the Peter Grant series here on a whim after seeing it in the recommended list, but seems they are popular just reading this page alone. On book 4 after 5 days starting the first one (fast reader 
) and very much enjoying them.
Got the The Burning White on my list out in a few days to wrap up that series of books!
) and very much enjoying them.Got the The Burning White on my list out in a few days to wrap up that series of books!
Dogs Of War - Adrian Tchaikovsky: I actually enjoyed this more than Children of Ruin. A genetically and cybernetically altered combat team (Multiform Assault Pack) consisting of a dog, bear, swarm of bees and lizard are running missions in a dirty Central American war, as part of an experiment run by a mercenary corporation. When they find themselves out of contact, they start having to make their own decisions, and when discovered by the government, people have to decide if these living machines are responsible for the atrocities they have committed on the orders of their human commanders, if they deserve the rights to be treated as sentient beings, and where they might fit into society.
A clever book, mostly written from the viewpoint of the team leader (Rex), who in the end, just wants to be a good dog, despite being an eight foot tall monster outfitted with mini-guns who can bite a man in half. A good page turner that moves along nicely and gives you plenty to think about.
The Expert System's Brother - Adrian Tchaikovsky: Meh. I didn't really get on with this. A young man on an alien planet gets excluded from his tribe after accidentally getting contaminated during another person's expulsion ceremony. His body no longer in symbioses with the poisonous ecosystem, he's forced to travel far, and finds the truth about his world. While some of the ideas are good, the characters didn't really grab me.
Outer Earth (Tracer, Zero-G, Impact) - Rob Boffard: The Earth is trashed, and humanity's last outpost is a massive space station filled to the brim and creaking at the seams. Riley is a courier, a runner who acts like an unofficial postal service, who gets caught up in political machinations to take over control of the station. As a trilogy it's great, with a lot of good ideas and concepts, but starts to get a bit sentimental and a bit too concerned with Riley's love life by the end of the third book, but Boffard isn't afraid to do horrible things to his main characters, and the million people living on top of each other in the ageing space station that represents the last dregs of humanity.
John Dies At The End (John Dies At The End, What The Hell Did I Just Read, This Book Is Full Of Spiders: Seriously, Don't Touch It!) - David Wong: Ever wished that Buffy was darker and scarier, that she was two disorganized stoner waster nerds who can see and deal with the horrific creatures coming through from other dimensions to take over the world? That's what these books are. Creepy, funny, genuinely disturbing in places, it's full of twists and turns and generally brilliant.
Man In The Empty Suit - Sean Farrell: A man who spends his whole life time travelling meets up with his past and future selves for his own birthday party every year. He always wonders about the guy who turns up dressed in a James Bond tuxedo, and breaks the rules by bringing a woman with him. On his 39th birthday, he ends up being the guy in the suit, and this time he's got to work our who's killed the forty year old version of himself, before he becomes the dead guy next year. Clever and creepy, dealing with all the versions of yourself can be no walk in the park, especially when some of yourselves are out to kill you.
Repairman Jack - F. Paul Wilson: Meh. I read the first four or five books of this series. Jack has erased himself from society, but works as a repairman, fixing things that need doing (for a fee), even if that means a bit of incidental killing. Set in Wilson's universe, these fifteen books are a countdown to the end of the world. Jack seems to be entangled somehow in occult happenings that pop up in his regular adventures, but it's just too slow and drawn out, and feels somehow dated. You're better off reading the Joe Ledger books.
Lazarus War (Artefact, Legion, Origins) - Jamie Sawyer: In the future, humanity has spread to the stars and is in direct conflict with a swarm alien intelligence. Humanity's elite soldiers stay hidden on space ships and pilot drones from full immersion VR, but the drones are enhanced clones that your nervous system connects to, bigger, stronger, faster versions of yourself, and wielding all the oversized hardware you can fit into a sci-fi space opera. The story follows the man with the record for the most missions, and his team of commandos as they are sent to find out what happened to a fleet sent into enemy space to ask for peace, an expedition that included the main character's lover. Apart from the occasional bit of silliness (why does the main character always end up alone while his team has to be elsewhere?) it's a great action sci-fi series that takes drone operations to their extreme degree.
The story is followed up by the next trilogy where the main character is the newly promoted member of the first team, Eternity War series (Pariah, Exodus, Dominion).
Rise Of The Jain (The Soldier, The Warship, The Human) - Neal Asher: The next trilogy set in the Agent Cormac, Polity and Prador space opera universe. The story continues as the main characters try to deal with the potential disaster of the return of a highly competitive, hugely destructive alien race called the Jain. Massively advanced, hugely adaptable, the seeds of their technology are stashed around a protostar. Due to the machinations of a mad AI, all parties are manipulated into facilitating exactly what they are fighting to prevent. Dragon, Prador, Old Captains and the Polity are all involved. It feels like Asher is working towards a climax where instead of bits of old Jain bio-technology being misused and popping out to cause massive trouble, this time the big bads are coming in from off stage, with all their facilities intact. Asher always paints massive space battles in absurdly huge scale, and this time he goes further than ever, and we learn about the origins of the Jain and why they are no longer around. Anyone who's read the Polity novels knows what to expect, and Asher doesn't let us down and doesn't drop the quality of his writing.
The Merchant Princes (The Family Trade, The Hidden Family, The Clan Corporate, The Merchants' War, The Revolution Business, The Trade Of Queens) - Charles Stross: Despite being a massive Stross fan, I was always put off by the original covers on these books that implied it was his fantasy series, but nothing is further from the truth. These books are actually an alternate universe with not one, but two alternate earths, one a feudal world stuck in the middle ages, one a Britannia steampunk stuck in the 1800s. The main character (Miriam) from our earth finds out that she's actually a world-walker, part of the trading clan that wields huge power in the feudal world by being able to cross back and forth between our world and theirs. Her reappearance and refusal to give up her life and toe the clan line causes ripples of effect that alerts the US government to the clan's existence, at the same time as a civil war takes place in the feudal world, and a world war in the steampunk world.
Brilliantly written, there's no problem following all the complex story threads that Stross weaves, and the three different worlds are fully realised with politics, economics and government affecting their society as much as the technological level they are at. The main character being a woman (as are many of the main characters) are well written and gives an opportunity to contrast how they are treated in the different worlds where they are second class citizens in many respects, but it never feels preachy.
The story continues in the same universe set later on in Stross' new series Empire Games (Empire Games, Dark State) that extends into wars and paranoid espionage across the multiverse. Stross never fails to write high quality stories and characters that bend your mind, and this is no exception. His output has stalled out a bit this year due to the death of his parents, but if (like me) you've not read Merchant Princes thinking it wasn't his usual sci-fi, think again. It's a lost treasure of stories I've put aside for too long, and will do nicely to fill the gaps until next year's new novels. Another Stross must-read series.
If this sounds interesting, you might want to read Stross' Hugo winning novella Palimpsest as an aperitif if you want to get your brain properly bent by time travel and multiverse craziness.
A clever book, mostly written from the viewpoint of the team leader (Rex), who in the end, just wants to be a good dog, despite being an eight foot tall monster outfitted with mini-guns who can bite a man in half. A good page turner that moves along nicely and gives you plenty to think about.
The Expert System's Brother - Adrian Tchaikovsky: Meh. I didn't really get on with this. A young man on an alien planet gets excluded from his tribe after accidentally getting contaminated during another person's expulsion ceremony. His body no longer in symbioses with the poisonous ecosystem, he's forced to travel far, and finds the truth about his world. While some of the ideas are good, the characters didn't really grab me.
Outer Earth (Tracer, Zero-G, Impact) - Rob Boffard: The Earth is trashed, and humanity's last outpost is a massive space station filled to the brim and creaking at the seams. Riley is a courier, a runner who acts like an unofficial postal service, who gets caught up in political machinations to take over control of the station. As a trilogy it's great, with a lot of good ideas and concepts, but starts to get a bit sentimental and a bit too concerned with Riley's love life by the end of the third book, but Boffard isn't afraid to do horrible things to his main characters, and the million people living on top of each other in the ageing space station that represents the last dregs of humanity.
John Dies At The End (John Dies At The End, What The Hell Did I Just Read, This Book Is Full Of Spiders: Seriously, Don't Touch It!) - David Wong: Ever wished that Buffy was darker and scarier, that she was two disorganized stoner waster nerds who can see and deal with the horrific creatures coming through from other dimensions to take over the world? That's what these books are. Creepy, funny, genuinely disturbing in places, it's full of twists and turns and generally brilliant.
Man In The Empty Suit - Sean Farrell: A man who spends his whole life time travelling meets up with his past and future selves for his own birthday party every year. He always wonders about the guy who turns up dressed in a James Bond tuxedo, and breaks the rules by bringing a woman with him. On his 39th birthday, he ends up being the guy in the suit, and this time he's got to work our who's killed the forty year old version of himself, before he becomes the dead guy next year. Clever and creepy, dealing with all the versions of yourself can be no walk in the park, especially when some of yourselves are out to kill you.
Repairman Jack - F. Paul Wilson: Meh. I read the first four or five books of this series. Jack has erased himself from society, but works as a repairman, fixing things that need doing (for a fee), even if that means a bit of incidental killing. Set in Wilson's universe, these fifteen books are a countdown to the end of the world. Jack seems to be entangled somehow in occult happenings that pop up in his regular adventures, but it's just too slow and drawn out, and feels somehow dated. You're better off reading the Joe Ledger books.
Lazarus War (Artefact, Legion, Origins) - Jamie Sawyer: In the future, humanity has spread to the stars and is in direct conflict with a swarm alien intelligence. Humanity's elite soldiers stay hidden on space ships and pilot drones from full immersion VR, but the drones are enhanced clones that your nervous system connects to, bigger, stronger, faster versions of yourself, and wielding all the oversized hardware you can fit into a sci-fi space opera. The story follows the man with the record for the most missions, and his team of commandos as they are sent to find out what happened to a fleet sent into enemy space to ask for peace, an expedition that included the main character's lover. Apart from the occasional bit of silliness (why does the main character always end up alone while his team has to be elsewhere?) it's a great action sci-fi series that takes drone operations to their extreme degree.
The story is followed up by the next trilogy where the main character is the newly promoted member of the first team, Eternity War series (Pariah, Exodus, Dominion).
Rise Of The Jain (The Soldier, The Warship, The Human) - Neal Asher: The next trilogy set in the Agent Cormac, Polity and Prador space opera universe. The story continues as the main characters try to deal with the potential disaster of the return of a highly competitive, hugely destructive alien race called the Jain. Massively advanced, hugely adaptable, the seeds of their technology are stashed around a protostar. Due to the machinations of a mad AI, all parties are manipulated into facilitating exactly what they are fighting to prevent. Dragon, Prador, Old Captains and the Polity are all involved. It feels like Asher is working towards a climax where instead of bits of old Jain bio-technology being misused and popping out to cause massive trouble, this time the big bads are coming in from off stage, with all their facilities intact. Asher always paints massive space battles in absurdly huge scale, and this time he goes further than ever, and we learn about the origins of the Jain and why they are no longer around. Anyone who's read the Polity novels knows what to expect, and Asher doesn't let us down and doesn't drop the quality of his writing.
The Merchant Princes (The Family Trade, The Hidden Family, The Clan Corporate, The Merchants' War, The Revolution Business, The Trade Of Queens) - Charles Stross: Despite being a massive Stross fan, I was always put off by the original covers on these books that implied it was his fantasy series, but nothing is further from the truth. These books are actually an alternate universe with not one, but two alternate earths, one a feudal world stuck in the middle ages, one a Britannia steampunk stuck in the 1800s. The main character (Miriam) from our earth finds out that she's actually a world-walker, part of the trading clan that wields huge power in the feudal world by being able to cross back and forth between our world and theirs. Her reappearance and refusal to give up her life and toe the clan line causes ripples of effect that alerts the US government to the clan's existence, at the same time as a civil war takes place in the feudal world, and a world war in the steampunk world.
Brilliantly written, there's no problem following all the complex story threads that Stross weaves, and the three different worlds are fully realised with politics, economics and government affecting their society as much as the technological level they are at. The main character being a woman (as are many of the main characters) are well written and gives an opportunity to contrast how they are treated in the different worlds where they are second class citizens in many respects, but it never feels preachy.
The story continues in the same universe set later on in Stross' new series Empire Games (Empire Games, Dark State) that extends into wars and paranoid espionage across the multiverse. Stross never fails to write high quality stories and characters that bend your mind, and this is no exception. His output has stalled out a bit this year due to the death of his parents, but if (like me) you've not read Merchant Princes thinking it wasn't his usual sci-fi, think again. It's a lost treasure of stories I've put aside for too long, and will do nicely to fill the gaps until next year's new novels. Another Stross must-read series.
If this sounds interesting, you might want to read Stross' Hugo winning novella Palimpsest as an aperitif if you want to get your brain properly bent by time travel and multiverse craziness.
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That's the thing about WoT - you read the first couple and think no way can this series last the dozen or so books it does. The pace is pretty break neck and so much happens to the chars and plot that there's no way it can keep that up. And then it slows rather dramatically.
Going through the Peter Grant series here on a whim after seeing it in the recommended list, but seems they are popular just reading this page alone. On book 4 after 5 days starting the first one (fast reader
Got the The Burning White on my list out in a few days to wrap up that series of books!
I lost will with that series at the end, I heard the author is also a script writer and I felt the books were more TV scripts than books. Felt they were really thin on detail, although expecting visuals to fill the blanks, and the books felt extremely episodic and short rather than really developing a wider story.
I think I made it to book 4 then I chucked in the towel.
I've got a stack of about 20 unread books at the moment, I buy faster than I read, so wading through an eclectic mix ranging from the last of Painted Man series by Peter Brett, Capital by Karl Marx, It Could Never Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis and a load of Philosophy books
Currently reading Women by Charles Bukowski his semi autobiographical series, he lead the most deranged life and it's an amazing read.
I lost will with that series at the end, I heard the author is also a script writer and I felt the books were more TV scripts than books. Felt they were really thin on detail, although expecting visuals to fill the blanks, and the books felt extremely episodic and short rather than really developing a wider story.
I think I made it to book 4 then I chucked in the towel.
I've got a stack of about 20 unread books at the moment, I buy faster than I read, so wading through an eclectic mix ranging from the last of Painted Man series by Peter Brett, Capital by Karl Marx, It Could Never Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis and a load of Philosophy books
Currently reading Women by Charles Bukowski his semi autobiographical series, he lead the most deranged life and it's an amazing read.
Yeah it did become a bit so so for me at around book 4 and believe Author worked on Doctor Who scripts from what I recall seeing. Book themselves however in the end pushed through with it as I hate not knowing what happens and read the 7 books. Amusingly book 5-7 are pretty much a story arc proper. Annoyingly so actually as while that sounds good, Author really just padded out the content extensively in order to wrap it all up. More money I suppose.
Ahh painted man. Amusingly never read the last book, The core in that series so never know even now how it all ended (so much for hating not knowing what happens
)I loved the first Painted Man book, couldn't stand the later ones.
The characters all devolved into idiots, then there was the constant repetition. Arlen reverting to the country yokel way of speaking coupled with his sudden love interest are what finally killed it for me. I found that pretty much every major character became incredibly unlikable, and not in the 'well written antagonist' sort of way.
If I start reading a series I almost always have to finish it, even if I dislike what I'm reading I'll almost always push through. The Painted Man is one of the very few series' I've quit part way through and have been totally unwilling to bother finishing.
The last time I was so disappointed by an author was Anthony Ryan's Raven's Shadow series, incredible first book and things just became progressively worse from then on. Although I would say he redeemed himself with his Draconis Memoria series, which I very much enjoyed.
The characters all devolved into idiots, then there was the constant repetition. Arlen reverting to the country yokel way of speaking coupled with his sudden love interest are what finally killed it for me. I found that pretty much every major character became incredibly unlikable, and not in the 'well written antagonist' sort of way.
If I start reading a series I almost always have to finish it, even if I dislike what I'm reading I'll almost always push through. The Painted Man is one of the very few series' I've quit part way through and have been totally unwilling to bother finishing.
The last time I was so disappointed by an author was Anthony Ryan's Raven's Shadow series, incredible first book and things just became progressively worse from then on. Although I would say he redeemed himself with his Draconis Memoria series, which I very much enjoyed.
Yeah largely my thoughts on both series. Painted man was awesome and fresh, then got originally rubbish as it went on. Like you say, largely became a bunch of idiots part way through the series I thought, very intelligent and put together at start and slowly lost the plot.
Likewise, Blood Song was awesome. Tower Lord was mediocre. Queen of fire is utter garbage. Only book I can recall ever, I had to actually stop half way and check online I was reading the correct book. Never seen a drop off in quality so steep and that includes wheel of time books which go off the rails in the middle slightly. Left a sour taste in my mouth to be honest which is a shame as his other series does seem great. Also has released Ravens blade which has Vaelin in it again as a reset of sort which does seem solid.
Ive got the Core to read but echo the above from you chaps that's it's slowly devolved into drivel. It's another series (like GRRM) planned for a trilogy, starts making money, then makes up loads of extra stuff to make more money and it just doesn't work.
It's rather silly but the reason I still haven't read the Core is that it was so long between the last book and this one, and the last one was anything but memorable, I no longer have a clue who anyone is bar the main few characters and the book doesn't have a "in previous books" recap at the start, or a character guide of any sort and I genuinely can't be bothered to work out who everyone is again. I'll probably read it at some point but bought it day one, had the above issues and it's just sat on my bedside for about a year now
It's rather silly but the reason I still haven't read the Core is that it was so long between the last book and this one, and the last one was anything but memorable, I no longer have a clue who anyone is bar the main few characters and the book doesn't have a "in previous books" recap at the start, or a character guide of any sort and I genuinely can't be bothered to work out who everyone is again. I'll probably read it at some point but bought it day one, had the above issues and it's just sat on my bedside for about a year now
Ordered the new Lee Child Jack Reacher book......I keep hoping that he will return to the form of the first few books, the last few have been dire.
Still working through Mythos by Stephen fry, I started it just before I got bored with reading....nothing to do with the book.
Still working through the Graeme Obree Autobiography, found it quite a difficult read so far.
Still working through Mythos by Stephen fry, I started it just before I got bored with reading....nothing to do with the book.
Still working through the Graeme Obree Autobiography, found it quite a difficult read so far.
Sanderson writes at an extremely fast pace, the problem is he's working on 4-5 + different projects all at once. I'd personally rather he focused on one thing at a time, but apparently having different things to switch to helps him avoid burnout.