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Post by DrStrangelove on Mar 12, 2022 10:54:17 GMT
I've read a number of books since the start of the year as I've not really gamed that much or watched any tv. I'm finding my stride in reading recently and want that to continue, so I'll try and post up a couple of reviews every now and again. I'll be careful about spoilers and have kept the review vague, but let me know if anything is deemed spoilery.
The Witcher series
I've always wanted to play the Witcher 3 but have put it off as I knew the books preceded it and don't like spoilers, especially as the Witcher 3 is so well regarded. I finally got round to reading them at the start of the year, I read all the books in January.
The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny
The first 2 books, are sensational. They contain short stories, some interlinked. They really spoil the reader, so well written and easily read. They just got hoovered up before the main series and they set the scene, characters and world fantastically. They are thoroughly recommended.
Blood of Elves, Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire, The Tower of the Swallow and The Lady of the Lake
I was not expecting the slower build in the main series books, I'd say it was disappointing, I don't like to go into books forewarned or read any synopsis/back pages and I guess that coming from the short stories I knew they were going to be a longer arc, but did not expect it to start so slow or do so little. The writing style was also different to the first 2 short story books as was the translator, which may have had alot to do with the different style.
However once I got through the first book the story started to play-out. I did get bored with the political wrangling and conspiring. I ended up speed reading some of the point of view of the extra characters for those chapters, but all in all it was a good story. I didn't like where the characters ended up though, thats Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri but also the extras in the main party or how the overall story ended. In hindsight I read through these quickly and could have taken my time on the chapters I didn't like, having finished the story I may have enjoyed those chapters more in context as it affects the overall kingdom.
I do have Season of Storms left to go, I'll pick that up after a break when I want to go back into the Witcher world.
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Post by Bill in the rain on Mar 12, 2022 13:28:28 GMT
Yep. Basically what I thought.
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Post by Tonka (🐑,🪤) on Mar 14, 2022 10:26:25 GMT
Imperial Twilight A book about the two centuries long buildup to the Opium Wars. A fantastic read full of fascinating historical events, like the british guy who wanted to explore China, and snuck in via India and made it all the way to Lhasa where he met with the Dalai Lama. O.o
The stuff about the two failed British envoys to see the emperor is almost too good to be true. Alas, it is a history book, and there's quite a lot of names and dates, so if you're not interested in the subject I think it will be a bit over powering. One thing that surprised me was the parallells between the Qing dynastys fiht against the White Lotus rebellion and Putins war on Ukraine. Both being bogged down by massive statewide corruption.
For fans of the topic
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Post by Bill in the rain on Mar 20, 2022 13:24:40 GMT
Harrow the NinthI haven't been this confused yet happy at the same time since that drunken night with sarfrin and the cabbage.
Still not 100% sure what happened, but it was a fun ride.
The audiobook performance is amazing, but it can be even harder to keep track of all the characters and events when you can't easily flick back a few pages to work out exactly which long dead character they're referring to this time.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Mar 20, 2022 13:39:01 GMT
I tried listening to the first one for a bit, but found the Millennial lingo a bit distracting. There's just something about a fantasy sci-fi setting that doesn't gel with one character calling another a "douchebag".
I didn't hate it, mind. It's a cool setting, and I mostly like the characters! Just found myself rolling my eyes at a significant chunk of the dialogue.
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Post by Sarfrin on Mar 20, 2022 16:08:29 GMT
Yeah, I found that jarring as well.
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Rich
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Post by Rich on Mar 20, 2022 16:28:33 GMT
Cage of Souls - Adrian Tchaikovsky (audiobook)
A very slow prison drama set in the far far future at the end of humanity. A brilliantly crafted world full of great characters and good humour, and narration by David Thorpe brings it all to life wonderfully. Only real criticism is that not a lot actually happens and I wish it was part of a larger series that really explored the world and how it arrived at the state it's in.
8/10
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2022 8:30:24 GMT
Cage of Souls - Adrian Tchaikovsky (audiobook) A very slow prison drama set in the far far future at the end of humanity. A brilliantly crafted world full of great characters and good humour, and narration by David Thorpe brings it all to life wonderfully. Only real criticism is that not a lot actually happens and I wish it was part of a larger series that really explored the world and how it arrived at the state it's in. 8/10 If you liked that then I suggest the Dying Earth series by Jack Vance. Or Songs of the Dying Earth, a series of short stories in the setting by modern authors.
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Rich
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Post by Rich on Mar 21, 2022 8:35:07 GMT
Cool. Will take a look.
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Post by Bill in the rain on Mar 21, 2022 8:59:55 GMT
I tried listening to the first one for a bit, but found the Millennial lingo a bit distracting. There's just something about a fantasy sci-fi setting that doesn't gel with one character calling another a "douchebag". I didn't hate it, mind. It's a cool setting, and I mostly like the characters! Just found myself rolling my eyes at a significant chunk of the dialogue. That's my favorite thing about it!
I did think I wouldn't like it when I read the free preview on amazon, but once it clicked with me I really liked it.
That said, it very much continues thought the books, so if it's something that annoys you then it'll annoy you throughout.
Is it Millennial? because that'll be a first if I've understood something millennial It struck me as being more like Taika Waititi's brand of humor - incongruously sticking in realistic reactions and chat into the kind of sci-fi setting where you wouldn't usually hear it.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Mar 21, 2022 9:02:26 GMT
It's cool if you like that about it. I just like it a bit less 🙂
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Post by Bill in the rain on Mar 21, 2022 9:47:14 GMT
I will let it slide... just this once.
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Rich
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Post by Rich on Mar 23, 2022 20:36:44 GMT
Remnant Population - Elizabeth Moon
Audiobook narrated by Suzanne Toren.
I remembered this sounding interesting when someone here described it a while back and it's free on Audible. An old woman chooses to stay behind and live out her life in solitude when her colony planet is evacuated.
It's pretty good. Ophelia is a great character that's different from the norm. A genuinely well written old person; a believable stubborn old grandma, fed up of everyone treating her like she's senile, and who just wants to be left alone and gets her wish.
I was worried that the premise of her just going about her day appointee on the planet would get boring but there enough in the book to keep it interesting without overstaying it's welcome.
8/10
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2022 21:04:09 GMT
The wisdom of crowds by Joe Abercrombie.
Hmm… I enjoyed the ride, but ultimately it is all a bit to nihilistic for me to actually say I enjoyed it. Page by page is great, I love the characters etc, but it is all so bleak.
I also did not like the false twists. One large one I predicted for ages, but thought would not happen, and not in a good way. When you use point of view characters it doesn’t work when they turn out to be unreliable narrators, if you are hearing their thoughts and then later on it turns out they were lying (not out loud, but their internal voice) it just makes it annoying not clever. Especially when their lies are so out of character and it it obvious it is a ruse.
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Post by Bill in the rain on Mar 23, 2022 22:07:31 GMT
Remnant Population - Elizabeth Moon Audiobook narrated by Suzanne Toren. I remembered this sounding interesting when someone here described it a while back and it's free on Audible. An old woman chooses to stay behind and live out her life in solitude when her colony planet is evacuated. That was me! Didn't expect anyone else to actually read it though! I enjoyed it too, but I wasn't really sure if it was actually good, or if was just a nice way to pass the time. Good to hear that it wasn't rubbish!
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Rich
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Post by Rich on Mar 23, 2022 22:45:47 GMT
'A nice way to pass the time' suits it perfectly.
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Post by Tonka (🐑,🪤) on Mar 24, 2022 8:11:17 GMT
I didn't hate it, mind. It's a cool setting, and I mostly like the characters! Just found myself rolling my eyes at a significant chunk of the dialogue. The language is incredibly important for me when I read a book. I've bounced off translations many times but that's a niche thing I guess. I stopped reading the Expanse books because they regularly described smells by combining two things; "It smelled like cordite and whipped cream" "the inside smelled of crushed violins and beeswax". It really annoyed me that such a small thing took me out of the suspension of disbelief so completely. I also gave up on Ada Palmers, allegedly brilliant, series due to the language.
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Post by nazo on Mar 25, 2022 9:45:05 GMT
Babylon 5: To Dream in the City of Sorrows - Kathryn M Drennan I don't normally bother with spin-off books of movies / TV series but I thought I'd give this one a go alongside my complete rewatch. Running roughly parallel to the events of S2, it covers Marcus' backstory, Sinclair's involvement with the Rangers after he left B5 and what happened with his fiance, Sakai. It's interesting enough background info for fans of the series but doesn't really add anything essential and the 'big mission' of the book is given pretty scant coverage and its fallout brushed over quite quickly.
3/5
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Mar 25, 2022 11:10:12 GMT
I also gave up on Ada Palmers, allegedly brilliant, series due to the language. Goodreads makes it look like that's not exactly unanimous and some of it sounds very much like your complaint.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Mar 31, 2022 1:12:11 GMT
I just found out that Cormac McCarthy is finally publishing again after 16 years www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/mar/09/cormac-mccarthy-two-new-novels-coming-in-2022-16-years-after-the-roadAnd the second one will have a female protagonist! Apparently "It’s a format for Cormac to allow Alicia to explore her obsessions, which from what I can tell happen to be Cormac’s obsessions." Which... hey, it's a positive development. But I have a suspicion that the reason he hasn't done female characters up to this point, is because he can't. I should trust him more than this, because he's one of the greatest living writers anywhere. But it reminds me of when The Martian guy had a female protagonist for his second book, and she was basically the same.
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Post by Chopper on Apr 2, 2022 16:00:35 GMT
Huh! I was big into him back in the day; looking forward to seeing how these turn out.
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Post by LockeTribal on Apr 3, 2022 9:07:11 GMT
"Did Ya Hear Mammy Died?" by Séamas O'Reilly.
A memoir about growing up in Derry during the 90s as one of a family of eleven children and the death of their mother. Wonderfully funny. I was reading it in bed over a few nights and found myself laughing out loud, annoying my wife in the process. She'd then get me to read it back to her and the two of us would be laughing.
I'll caveat the above by saying I may have found it so relatable as I too grew up in the 90s in North Donegal, not far from the border with Derry.
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lexw
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Post by lexw on Apr 4, 2022 11:13:31 GMT
Which... hey, it's a positive development. But I have a suspicion that the reason he hasn't done female characters up to this point, is because he can't. Yeah I mean that's my question, is it actually, in 2022, a "positive development" when a man who has shown limited talent at writing female characters per se and focuses largely on a certain kind of macho dude (who he writes very well) decides to write a female character? But McCarthy himself recognises his weakness here, so that's a good sign. The difference from Andy Weir though is that Weir is basically a fan-fiction-grade writer who happened to write a story where the plot and "procedural" elements (in this case, survival on Mars) were compelling enough that the absolutely terrible writing (from both an aesthetic and technical perspective), impossibly bad dialogue, and bland-as-hell one-dimensional characters didn't really matter. There was never any possibility of him writing a convincing female character because he can't even write a convincing male character. McCarthy is obviously an extremely talented writer, really at the opposite end of the scale from Weir, and as noted, recognises his limitations, so at least there's a chance he'll do something interesting. It's not like he's trying to write about Milennials or something which I doubt would be successful given he is 88 - both the protagonists of his new novels were presumably born in the 1940s or 1950s.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Apr 4, 2022 11:17:59 GMT
Yeah I feel a bit dirty for even mentioning those two in the same paragraph.
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Post by nazo on Apr 10, 2022 10:17:14 GMT
The Truth - Terry Pratchett
If it weren't for the fact this was written over 20 years ago I'd swear this was a very clever satire about Boris and co and fake news.
5/5
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Post by Dougs on Apr 10, 2022 16:40:01 GMT
Did Ya Hear Mammy Died. The memoirs of a guy growing up in Northern Ireland in the 80s/90s. It's a tough start, dealing with the death of his mum (obviously) but it's beautifully written, very funny, poignant with pathos a plenty. It's more a love letter to his dad really. Well worth a read imo.
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Post by Chopper on Apr 11, 2022 10:48:18 GMT
I'll caveat the above by saying I may have found it so relatable as I too grew up in the 90s in North Donegal, not far from the border with Derry. Donegal represent! I'm from the south of the county, but am living in LK at the moment. I read Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash by Tasha Suri, a two-book fantasy series with female protagonists in a South Asian setting. Possibly the game world is modelled on the Mughal Empire, and the world map closely resembles India and Nepal. There's a heavy supernatural layer on top of that, with the Empire thriving at the expense of the suppression of another race, who are linked to Djinn-type creatures. Both books were pretty good, though there was less action than I like. Empire of Sand in particular, didn't really get going (from my point of view) until the second half, but lots of buildup and exploration of themes such as women's role in that society, societal strictures causing a lot of pain etc. The second book builds even more on that, while developing a pretty good plot based on power struggles within the Emperor's court. I did struggle at times to get through them (due to lack of action - they are well written) but definitely a recommend if you find any of the above interesting.
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Rich
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Post by Rich on Apr 11, 2022 17:13:59 GMT
I occasionally do, but have been disappointed more than I've been pleased. Echo on that list sounds right up my street though. Sigh, disappointed again. Echo - Thomas HeuveltIt was in one of those Guardian recommend sci-fi/horror lists which I've previously bought from and been disappointed. This was bad and I gave up about 2/3 of the way through. Described as a Lovecraftian horror set around a climb in the Alps, and after a really strong opening chapter I thought I was in for something good. But no. The narrative alternates between a guy who's keeping a journal after a climbing accident and his boyfriend who's writing letters too him. There are two main problems. Neither of the protagonists write like real people, more like a writer who's keen to show off how he can fill a couple pages where a sentence or two would suffice. And it's just really dull. There's probably a good short story in there somewhere and I'd kind of like to see where it ends up, but reading as far as I got was a real chore. I won't be buying anything else from that Guardian list...
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Post by Leolian'sBro on Apr 15, 2022 0:40:39 GMT
Black Prism by Brent Weeks, unpalatable neckbeard fantasy wank. Avoid.
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Post by spacein_vader on Apr 15, 2022 1:22:22 GMT
The Truth - Terry Pratchett
If it weren't for the fact this was written over 20 years ago I'd swear this was a very clever satire about Boris and co and fake news.
5/5
Almost all of Pratchetts discworld books are brilliant satire of something, but that one is particularly good and relevant to today. A lie can be halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on...
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