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Post by Chopper on Nov 10, 2021 11:41:45 GMT
Due to some flying in the area in Microsoft Flight Simulator, and the recent Afghanistan stuff, I picked up The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia by Peter Hopkirk.
It deals with Britain and Russia butting heads in Central Asia from 1800 to 1910 or so - Russia coveted India, and moved ever closer to its northwest frontier, and Britain responded by making political alliances in the buffer zone of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. Added to that was the fact that there was virtually no knowledge of Central Asia at the time, so both empires sent explorers and agents into the old Silk Road Khanates of Bokhara, Samarkand and Khiva with various degrees of success.
It's a rollicking read - for example it opens with the beheading of two English officers in the public sqare in Khiva - and follows the individual explorers and spies who mapped the region. It's Anglo-centric, so probably not great reading on the remote chance you're Russian or Turkic.
Also quite long; 600 pages in print and 800 on my Kindle. Very happy to have read it though, as it also explains how Russia came into possession of the 'Stans, Britains misadventures in Afghanistan, and all against the backdrop of the Great Powers jockeying for empire.
Back to some ropey science fiction or fantasy for me now, I think!
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 10, 2021 12:53:22 GMT
Anyway, here is another review of a fantasy thing (Is it low fantasy? Please don't write another essay at me sir, I'm ever so sorry) that I probably read A Little Hatred (the Abercrombie one) I didn't feel like reading the standalone novels, so went straight to plowing through the second trilogy. I recommend reading The Heroes but would skip the other 2 and Sharp Ends. There is nothing wrong with the 2 main novels but The Heroes is the only one I found to be as good as the original trilogy. (Actually probably better than any of the first 3 individually but weaker than the 3 combined. If that makes sense). (There is a Glokta chapter in Sharp Ends which is always welcome but overall it was substandard). I may read them once I'm done with the second trilogy. I don't doubt that they're well-written, they just looked pretty... incidental to the main plot, with characters that I didn't care all that much about. Speaking of the second trilogy, I can see why shitheads might not have cared for it. There's a lot that feels very contemporary and political. Woke, even! There's queer romances, a character very heavily implied to be transgender, etc etc. Not really an issue for me, but I can definitely see it being jarring for people who liked the first trilogy being a VERY HETEROSEXUAL sausage party.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 10, 2021 13:25:34 GMT
The Way of Kings: 9/10 Loses a point as it went on a bit in places and there was a limit to the amount of times I could read about devotaries, types of moving grass and lashings. That aside, it was a bloody good read that really needed more dwarves and hobbits. I was almost brought to tears by the ending, so any book that can do that is a good one. Though I've not slept in the last 32 hours, (wife's sick) so thinking about it, nearly being in tears is to be expected. I'm tempted to crack on with book 2, but book 1 was LONG and at times felt it. Some of the lesser characters I could have done without knowing. I was mostly interested in Kalidan, Shallan and Dalinor. The rest (including the lashings guy) and the fauna and magic system added several thousand words that could have been cut back a bit. But I really enjoyed it. I'm probably going to have to see how much it will cost* me to get that book about drugs and alcoholic mums. That better have some hobbits in it. Can't say "A heartbreaking story of addiction, sexuality, and love" is filling me with a great desire to read the thing... flaming book clubs always read worthy books. *£6 apparently. Oh well, who needs to eat.
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Post by PazJohnMitch on Nov 10, 2021 16:35:46 GMT
I recommend reading The Heroes but would skip the other 2 and Sharp Ends. There is nothing wrong with the 2 main novels but The Heroes is the only one I found to be as good as the original trilogy. (Actually probably better than any of the first 3 individually but weaker than the 3 combined. If that makes sense). (There is a Glokta chapter in Sharp Ends which is always welcome but overall it was substandard). I may read them once I'm done with the second trilogy. I don't doubt that they're well-written, they just looked pretty... incidental to the main plot, with characters that I didn't care all that much about. Speaking of the second trilogy, I can see why shitheads might not have cared for it. There's a lot that feels very contemporary and political. Woke, even! There's queer romances, a character very heavily implied to be transgender, etc etc. Not really an issue for me, but I can definitely see it being jarring for people who liked the first trilogy being a VERY HETEROSEXUAL sausage party. Fairly sure there are lesbians in the first trilogy. The Queen is heavily implied to be in a lesbian relationship with one of her handmaidens. Although it might not have been spelled out until Best Served Cold.
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Post by LegendaryApe on Nov 10, 2021 20:09:22 GMT
The Way of Kings: 9/10 Loses a point as it went on a bit in places and there was a limit to the amount of times I could read about devotaries, types of moving grass and lashings. That aside, it was a bloody good read that really needed more dwarves and hobbits. I was almost brought to tears by the ending, so any book that can do that is a good one. Though I've not slept in the last 32 hours, (wife's sick) so thinking about it, nearly being in tears is to be expected. I'm tempted to crack on with book 2, but book 1 was LONG and at times felt it. Some of the lesser characters I could have done without knowing. I was mostly interested in Kalidan, Shallan and Dalinor. The rest (including the lashings guy) and the fauna and magic system added several thousand words that could have been cut back a bit. But I really enjoyed it. I'm probably going to have to see how much it will cost* me to get that book about drugs and alcoholic mums. That better have some hobbits in it. Can't say "A heartbreaking story of addiction, sexuality, and love" is filling me with a great desire to read the thing... flaming book clubs always read worthy books. *£6 apparently. Oh well, who needs to eat. A fair assessment of the book. Brandon Sanderson loves his magic systems. I'd recommend a break before starting the next in the series
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 10, 2021 21:12:57 GMT
I may read them once I'm done with the second trilogy. I don't doubt that they're well-written, they just looked pretty... incidental to the main plot, with characters that I didn't care all that much about. Speaking of the second trilogy, I can see why shitheads might not have cared for it. There's a lot that feels very contemporary and political. Woke, even! There's queer romances, a character very heavily implied to be transgender, etc etc. Not really an issue for me, but I can definitely see it being jarring for people who liked the first trilogy being a VERY HETEROSEXUAL sausage party. Fairly sure there are lesbians in the first trilogy. The Queen is heavily implied to be in a lesbian relationship with one of her handmaidens. Although it might not have been spelled out until Best Served Cold. True, but it's a very minor plot point in the scheme of things. And it doesn't take.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2021 10:43:53 GMT
One chapter into Shuggie Bain and god is it an unpleasant read. The 15 year old lead has been groped by his 30+ year old female work colleagues and a much older guy at his bedsit seems to be grooming him and spying on him when he's in the bathroom. He gets back at people by mixing in "discharge from every orifice" into the taramasalata at work.
I can't say I'm enjoying this at all. Maybe it is true to life, but do I really want to read it? I'll give it one more chapter and if its still as bleak it can do one.
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Post by Chopper on Nov 11, 2021 11:14:56 GMT
One chapter into Shuggie Bain and god is it an unpleasant read. The 15 year old lead has been groped by his 30+ year old female work colleagues and a much older guy at his bedsit seems to be grooming him and spying on him when he's in the bathroom. He gets back at people by mixing in "discharge from every orifice" into the taramasalata at work. I can't say I'm enjoying this at all. Maybe it is true to life, but do I really want to read it? I'll give it one more chapter and if its still as bleak it can do one. Yeah, my dad got it based on the acclaim it got, and I read one chapter and had the same feeling. Too effing grotty for me; I would have stuck with it years ago but life's too short.
That reminds me to check back in with my dad about it
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Post by Bill in the rain on Nov 11, 2021 13:31:00 GMT
by mixing in "discharge from every orifice" into the taramasalata at work. Anyone who eats taramasalata deserves everything they get imho. The book summary sounds interesting, but not super happy. It sounds like a Scottish 'Moonlight'
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Post by Tonka (🐑,🪤) on Nov 11, 2021 13:40:58 GMT
I can definitely see it being jarring for people who liked the first trilogy being a VERY HETEROSEXUAL sausage party. I read that as being intentionally making fun of tropey power fantasy Fasntasy. The way I remember it most of the characters are rather ridiculous and/or mean, with the exception of the Barbarian. Did I give Abercrombie too much credit? But yes, definitely able bodied cis males. Watching The Dragon Prince for the first time and they really don't hold back on representation.
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mikeck
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Post by mikeck on Nov 11, 2021 14:33:55 GMT
I read House of Accidents by Chuck Wendig which I found to be a slog, at least until the end where it got a bit better. Guy seriously needs to find a better editor as it was even worse than Wanderers for waffling and as a result there was really little horror at all. Don't think I'll be reading anything else he does. Read Parable of the Talents too which, while not as good as Sower (hard to follow that up) was a really great apocalypse story. Seriously good writer. And if we're talking comics, read the first two volumes of Gillen's Wicked & Divine today which I'm definitely enjoying more than I thought I would. Love the mix of mythological gods. It's interrupted my reading of Black Science but I dislike the characters in that so much I'm struggling to return to it. I haven't read anything else by Wendig, but Wanderers is one of the best I've read this year, was absolutely enthralled throughout. Loved everything about it (even the waffling) Wicked & Divine is a fantastic series, I finally got all the trades last year and am itching for a re-read of the entire series, love the premise and love the artwork. Speaking of Gillen, the fourth volume of Die just arrived, so I'm about to re-read the third volume as a reminder and then finish the series (I believe it finished after 20 issues). I highly recommend Die (he has also written a whole roleplay rulebook for Die which he keeps iterating on and releasing the rules for free) it's a great concept and so far has been really well developed as a story. As for my recent reads: Recently finished The Last by Hannah Jameson which I highly recommend, I tore through it in two sittings. It is (yawn) another post-apocalyptic book, but this time is centred around a murder mystery. Definitely worth your time, it was in my pile of books to read for a while and I wish I'd pushed it higher up the pile. Which leads me onto another book I devoured this year, The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton, which similar to his previous book (the Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle) is a winding murder mystery set on a boat. It's very claustrophobic, takes a few turns for the unexpected and has a couple of fantastic central characters leading the hunt. Well worth your time.
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Post by mikeck on Nov 11, 2021 14:37:50 GMT
Not sure if anybody else uses bookshop.org but they are a fantastic way to buy books online and support independent booksellers. You can order from your local shops, or just nominate them as your bookshop and they receive some of the profits from your orders, great way to stick it to the likes of Amazon.
I get sometimes it's easier and quicker to pay less from the likes of Amazon, but I bloody love going into a bookshop, so when I don't get the chance I'd rather support using this site when I can.
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Immaterial
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Post by Immaterial on Nov 11, 2021 17:52:01 GMT
As there's too much Abercrombie in the last few pages of this thread, I'm just popping in to let you all know that I've finished 'The Wisdom of Crowds', but I'm not going to say what I thought of it. HAH!
Currently reading 'The private lives of elder things'- (Adrian Tchaikovsky and others), a collection of short stories with Cthulu beasties popping up in the modern world. Pretty good so far, although a couple of the stories are more novella length without adding much.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2021 7:50:08 GMT
Just started reading A Head Full of Ghosts, is it written like Sweet Valley High the whole way through?
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Post by lexw on Nov 13, 2021 18:13:59 GMT
Watching The Dragon Prince for the first time and they really don't hold back on representation. That actually has excessive representation - of mismatched "Celtic" accents! Whoever did their voice casting should be arrested. Also very confused as to how the older boy is supposed to be a "cool guy" - seems like a self-interested shit who stole from a person with more right to a thing than him. Otherwise it was pretty fun, especially a certain later character who is very "representation-y" but also rockin'.
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Post by Sarfrin on Nov 13, 2021 20:22:50 GMT
I read Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers. It's the final book in her trilogy set in the same universe. Like the other two, it's a set of lovely human (mostly) stories set in a sci fi universe. Of the three, it's the one where the stories could most easily be transposed to a more mundane setting and not lose much, although I'd probably never have picked it up if they had. Anyway, if you've read anything else by her you'll know what to expect.
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Post by Tonka (🐑,🪤) on Nov 13, 2021 21:03:21 GMT
Holy shit, there's a Station Eleven TV series coming out in a month.
Best post apocalyptic book I've read (and I've read a few) but not sure if a grim story about a killer flu is what we need this holiday season.
Fantastic book though.
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Post by 😎 on Nov 13, 2021 21:17:27 GMT
I dunno, The Stand did okay didn’t it?
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Post by Bill in the rain on Nov 14, 2021 1:12:32 GMT
I read Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers. It's the final book in her trilogy set in the same universe. Like the other two, it's a set of lovely human (mostly) stories set in a sci fi universe. Of the three, it's the one where the stories could most easily be transposed to a more mundane setting and not lose much, although I'd probably never have picked it up if they had. Anyway, if you've read anything else by her you'll know what to expect. I heard it jumps around between characters to a confusing degree. One review actually suggested picking out each characters chapters and reading them in series. I will get to it eventually, though the 2nd in the series didn't do as much for me as the first one. I have Station Eleven in the 'pile' of unlistend Audible books.. must get around to it.
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Post by Tonka (🐑,🪤) on Nov 14, 2021 7:06:53 GMT
I dunno, The Stand did okay didn’t it? I completely forgot about the new version of the stand. Was it good? I really liked the one with Parker Lewis.
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 14, 2021 8:16:27 GMT
As there's too much Abercrombie in the last few pages of this thread, I'm just popping in to let you all know that I've finished 'The Wisdom of Crowds', but I'm not going to say what I thought of it. HAH! I'm on the second one, and it's a bit... I don't know. A bit current and political? It's not that I disagree with the politics, just that I prefer them to be a bit more subtle when I'm reading fiction. This one basically has THIS IS TRUMP'S AMERICA written up on it in giant blinking letters, and when one character literally said "we have to make the union great again!" I had to tilt my head back before my eyes rolled right out of it. It's just a bit on-the-nose for me. Still good though!
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Post by ekz on Nov 14, 2021 10:19:45 GMT
Just finished reading book #1 of the black company books due to some of the earlier praise in this thread. Really enjoyed it! Felt a bit short but I was glad the writing style wasn't tediously descriptive. 8/10 Just started Shadows Linger, hoping it's just as good.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2021 11:43:23 GMT
Shuggie Bain DNF
I endured two chapters of this rancid shit and have deleted it. It's easily the worst book I've ever read and I honestly found it repulsive.
How people can find a book about child grooming, poverty,child groping, rape, physical abuse, adultery, foul language and alcoholism (all in two chapters) entertaining is beyond me. I didn't think the writing was anything special and the cultural references felt forced.
Bloody awful and has left me feeling I want a shower. I read both chapters with a growing feeling of incredulity and repugnance. Maybe it's real,(and I really think the author is reveling in the filth of it) but why the hell would I want to read about it? Life is too fucking short to read such grim bollocks.
The Booker prize committee must feel so bloody worthy, but this is not a good book. It's unrelenting misery. I almost feel like I want to format my Kindle as deleting it wasn't enough.
-10/10
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 14, 2021 11:57:28 GMT
I don't know for sure because I haven't read it, but I don't think people rate Shuggie Bain because they think it's "entertaining". Literature can make you feel all kinds of different things, evoke all sorts of feelings. And the misery might have a point; again I haven't read it, but I don't really think two chapters is really enough to judge it for that.
Anyway, it's cool if you didn't get on with it. I've read Man Booker winners before, loved some (The Sellout, Wolf Hall), didn't love others (Milkman). It's probably as big a mark of literary quality as one can get, but there's no accounting for taste. People like different things!
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Post by Sarfrin on Nov 14, 2021 17:11:58 GMT
I read Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers. It's the final book in her trilogy set in the same universe. Like the other two, it's a set of lovely human (mostly) stories set in a sci fi universe. Of the three, it's the one where the stories could most easily be transposed to a more mundane setting and not lose much, although I'd probably never have picked it up if they had. Anyway, if you've read anything else by her you'll know what to expect. I heard it jumps around between characters to a confusing degree. One review actually suggested picking out each characters chapters and reading them in series. I will get to it eventually, though the 2nd in the series didn't do as much for me as the first one. I have Station Eleven in the 'pile' of unlistend Audible books.. must get around to it. It does switch between characters every chapter but they have quite different jobs and families so I didn't find it overly confusing.
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Post by Chopper on Nov 16, 2021 12:01:03 GMT
Holy shit, there's a Station Eleven TV series coming out in a month. Best post apocalyptic book I've read (and I've read a few) but not sure if a grim story about a killer flu is what we need this holiday season. Fantastic book though. Check out Nevil Shute’s On the Beach for a different take on the post apoc book. If you can call a novel published in 1957 a ‘take’. But seriously, it’s excellent; keep an eye out for it on sale.
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Post by 😎 on Nov 16, 2021 12:06:26 GMT
I haven’t finished it yet but I’m two thirds through a book called The Lost Shtetl and figured I’d throw in a recommendation as it’s fantastic so far. A small Jewish village in the middle of a Polish forest gets cut off from the outside world around 1910, and it’s discovered in the modern day when a murder is suspected and someone leaves the village to seek help.
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Post by Chopper on Nov 16, 2021 12:12:59 GMT
I read the Raven’s Mark trilogy by Ed McDonald. It’s a grimdark(?) fantasy series where near-godlike wizards fight their battles for control of the world through various proxies, one of whom is a bounty hunter who has to untangle a grand conspiracy etc. World building is pretty good, characters are mostly sympathetic despite being bad ‘uns; all in all a pretty good tale.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2021 19:59:10 GMT
Gurkha - Better to die than live a coward. My life with the Gurkhas.
300+ pages and I've read it in a day. This was for me, a great book about a group I was lucky enough to briefly serve with and who I grew up with in Brunei and Hong Kong. The book was largely about the siege of Now Zad in Afghanistan but also about the author's early life and how he joined the Gurkhas. Probably not a book most would enjoy and it's not wondrously written, but it was a real insight and reminder to me.
9/10 (loses a point as I wanted more and I would have also liked some sort of background on the wider conflict that Now Zad was part of).
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Nov 20, 2021 10:18:59 GMT
The Wisdom of Crowds (the last Abercrombie for now) Very enjoyable, but less so than the other books. I'm not entirely sure why, but I can think of a few reasons -The real-world/pop-culture influences are a bit too in your face. Yes, it's the Russian Revolution, we get it. Yes, the main antagonist is basically the Joker, you don't need to keep spelling it out -I picked every single one of the plot developments. I guess when your series has a reputation for unexpected twists, maybe it becomes harder to think of new ones? Or maybe I've just become too used to them to be surprised? Either way I thought it was a lot more predictable But I think the biggest problem was that I really fucking hated Leo dan Brock, from the first book onwards. Not in the way that you're supposed to hate people because they're villains or whatever, more that I found the character really, really irritating. Their character didn't make sense, the character arc didn't make sense, they had no charm or charisma or anything, everything about them made me want to claw my eyes out. *cough* Anyway, I still heartily recommend the series! I just don't think it quite landed the ending.
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