Reviewer
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Post by Reviewer on Apr 15, 2022 9:05:42 GMT
I would post more in this thread but I’m reading too many books this year (51 so far), some are audiobooks.
A couple of highlights:
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. American Prometheus by Kai Bird. The Winter of Frankie Machine by Don Winslow (every book of his has been a 5/5 for me so far). Night Watch by Terry Pratchett.
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lexw
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Post by lexw on Apr 15, 2022 9:13:54 GMT
Black Prism by Brent Weeks, unpalatable neckbeard fantasy wank. Avoid. I tried to read one of his books once, forget which, but that was certainly my reaction too - and I have broad tastes in fantasy even. I've literally read self-published books that weren't as bad.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2022 17:09:20 GMT
Along came a spider, the first Alex Cross book by James Patterson.
It was okay I suppose. A breezy read, but I honestly can't see why this became a phenomenon. Meandering plot, the mystery seemed to lose track of itself mid point and the last 20% felt very rushed and nonsensical.
Read this as after finishing Castle I thought I would see if I like the books that influence the series. Not so much was the answer.
Any recommendations for a better one in the genre?
6/10
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Post by Chopper on Apr 21, 2022 10:07:10 GMT
Any recommendations for a better one in the genre? Would be interested to hear recommendations too.
I finished A Small Town in Germany by John Le Carre. Unpromising to start with, being set mostly in the British Embassy in Bonn, a dreary, horrible-sounding city, during Britain's accession to the Common Market.
But wait! On the eve of these crucial negotiations, someone in the embassy seemingly defects to the Russians, taking a shedload of embarrassing material with them. Alan Turner, a lower class enforcer and bag of neuroses, is sent out from London to jar up the toffs in the embassy and try and track down the defector before it is too late...
So with Le Carre (I've only read a few of his books so far), as usual not all is as it seems. And as usual with the genre fiction at the time, the heavy cloud of Britain's post-war decline overhangs the narrative. He did a pretty amazing job with unpromising material; though I don't think you'll see this mentioned as one of his better novels, it is pretty excellent. Worth a punt on Kindle for 99p.
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Post by Dougs on Apr 21, 2022 11:28:20 GMT
Along came a spider, the first Alex Cross book by James Patterson. It was okay I suppose. A breezy read, but I honestly can't see why this became a phenomenon. Meandering plot, the mystery seemed to lose track of itself mid point and the last 20% felt very rushed and nonsensical. Read this as after finishing Castle I thought I would see if I like the books that influence the series. Not so much was the answer. Any recommendations for a better one in the genre? 6/10 James Patterson books are all the same - light and breezy, not terribly well written but enjoyable enough. Michael Connelly's Bosch series are better, can thoroughly recommend those for US crime. I also like a lot of Karin Slaughter stuff, some Harlen Coben and Patricia Cornwell on the forensic side Other decent UK crime writers include Colin Dexter's Morse, Ruth Rendell's Wexford, Ian Rankin's Rebus, and Val McDiarmid.
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nazo
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Post by nazo on Apr 21, 2022 14:34:02 GMT
This Charming Man - C.K. McDonnell Decent follow up to the Stranger Times. Good fun although the ending was a bit weak. Being Pratchettesque it perhaps suffered in comparison slightly from being read straight after a real Pratchett but it made me chuckle a few times and I'm looking forward to the next one. 4/5
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on May 13, 2022 9:47:12 GMT
I'm reading The Royal Assassin (Farseer trilogy 2) by Robin Hobb.
It's pleasingly old-fashioned, something I don't get a lot of with your modern GRIMDARK fantasy. The goodies are obviously goodies, the baddies are obviously baddies, and there's very few surprise plot twists. It's almost comforting in a way.
It does get a bit annoying, though, when you have someone who is so very obviously The Bad Guy, he is very obviously being The Bad Guy, and basically every major character knows that he is The Bad Guy. But nobody can do the obvious thing and just fucking assassinate him, because... uhhhh... honour? Duty?
Like I'm sure he will get his dues soon enough, but it's irritating that people (including professional assassins!) seem to be so CONFLICTED about just offing the dude.
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Post by drhickman1983 on May 13, 2022 9:55:28 GMT
Brandon Sanderson - Cytonic
The third in his Skyward series. I'm enjoying it a lot. Ostensibly it's a young adult series but that doesn't really matter.
It's a fun, fairly breezy read. What's fairly impressive is that each of the books really has had a different, distinct feel. This novel takes place almost entirely in the surreal Nowhere. It's a bit slow to start, but from the two thirds it picks up pace. It's not quite as good as Skyward or Starsight but it's not far off.
Sanderson does a really good job at describing events that are very fantastical, metaphysical even. There's a few nice twists and a good cast of characters.
The series does continue and I'm looking forward to the next in the series.
7/10
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Post by Dougs on May 13, 2022 10:39:39 GMT
False Witness - Karin Slaughter. 7/10. I like her thrillers, they rattle along and are generally pappy but reasonably entertaining. This was written and set at the height of the pandemic, so lots of refs to covid/long covid, masks, vaccines etc. All a bit jarring and will date it terribly. Was a deliberate decision though, and she addresses it in the notes. Was a bit weird though. Book itself was decent enough if a bit predictable.
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dogbot
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Post by dogbot on May 13, 2022 11:48:15 GMT
I'm reading The Royal Assassin (Farseer trilogy 2) by Robin Hobb. It's pleasingly old-fashioned, something I don't get a lot of with your modern GRIMDARK fantasy. The goodies are obviously goodies, the baddies are obviously baddies, and there's very few surprise plot twists. It's almost comforting in a way. It does get a bit annoying, though, when you have someone who is so very obviously The Bad Guy, he is very obviously being The Bad Guy, and basically every major character knows that he is The Bad Guy. But nobody can do the obvious thing and just fucking assassinate him, because... uhhhh... honour? Duty? Like I'm sure he will get his dues soon enough, but it's irritating that people (including professional assassins!) seem to be so CONFLICTED about just offing the dude. It's one of my favourite series, but I definitely know what you mean. It's worth reading ALL of the Realm of the Elderlings stuff, if you like the first ones.
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Post by Chopper on May 13, 2022 11:54:39 GMT
I'm reading The Royal Assassin (Farseer trilogy 2) by Robin Hobb. It's pleasingly old-fashioned, something I don't get a lot of with your modern GRIMDARK fantasy. The goodies are obviously goodies, the baddies are obviously baddies, and there's very few surprise plot twists. It's almost comforting in a way. It does get a bit annoying, though, when you have someone who is so very obviously The Bad Guy, he is very obviously being The Bad Guy, and basically every major character knows that he is The Bad Guy. But nobody can do the obvious thing and just fucking assassinate him, because... uhhhh... honour? Duty? Like I'm sure he will get his dues soon enough, but it's irritating that people (including professional assassins!) seem to be so CONFLICTED about just offing the dude. I was just thinking the other day, has the straightforward fantasy yarn gone away? By that I mean that we have all this crap now that is half torture porn and titillation, which I find unpleasant. Is there stuff out there that has a good story and doesn't think 'adult' means people acting like cunts? I couldn't think of much, but the Hobb books probably count. At the same time, I might just be longing for the simplicity of the big fantasy hitters of the past.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2022 11:58:39 GMT
I'm reading The Royal Assassin (Farseer trilogy 2) by Robin Hobb. It's pleasingly old-fashioned, something I don't get a lot of with your modern GRIMDARK fantasy. The goodies are obviously goodies, the baddies are obviously baddies, and there's very few surprise plot twists. It's almost comforting in a way. It does get a bit annoying, though, when you have someone who is so very obviously The Bad Guy, he is very obviously being The Bad Guy, and basically every major character knows that he is The Bad Guy. But nobody can do the obvious thing and just fucking assassinate him, because... uhhhh... honour? Duty? Like I'm sure he will get his dues soon enough, but it's irritating that people (including professional assassins!) seem to be so CONFLICTED about just offing the dude. It's one of my favourite series, but I definitely know what you mean. It's worth reading ALL of the Realm of the Elderlings stuff, if you like the first ones. I’d recommend the first trilogy then the liveship traders. the tawny man stuff though, my god that is straight up misery torture porn.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on May 13, 2022 13:17:11 GMT
I'm reading The Royal Assassin (Farseer trilogy 2) by Robin Hobb. It's pleasingly old-fashioned, something I don't get a lot of with your modern GRIMDARK fantasy. The goodies are obviously goodies, the baddies are obviously baddies, and there's very few surprise plot twists. It's almost comforting in a way. It does get a bit annoying, though, when you have someone who is so very obviously The Bad Guy, he is very obviously being The Bad Guy, and basically every major character knows that he is The Bad Guy. But nobody can do the obvious thing and just fucking assassinate him, because... uhhhh... honour? Duty? Like I'm sure he will get his dues soon enough, but it's irritating that people (including professional assassins!) seem to be so CONFLICTED about just offing the dude. I was just thinking the other day, has the straightforward fantasy yarn gone away? By that I mean that we have all this crap now that is half torture porn and titillation, which I find unpleasant. Is there stuff out there that has a good story and doesn't think 'adult' means people acting like cunts? I couldn't think of much, but the Hobb books probably count. At the same time, I might just be longing for the simplicity of the big fantasy hitters of the past.
I don't know that I can actually go back to this sort of thing without issue. Like I'm enjoying the series; I wouldn't be on book 2 otherwise. But I'm now so used to characters being unsentimental, genre-savvy realists, that it's difficult to go back to series where most of the characters are - let's not mince words here - really fucking dense. There are SO many conflicts in this series that could be resolved with a simple conversation. But no, you've got people being cryptic for the sake of being cryptic, people hiding information from each other for no reason, people saying "oh you just wouldn't understand" in response to perfectly reasonable questions, and the aforementioned OBVIOUS BAD GUY just allowed to do OBVIOUSLY BAD GUY THINGS, swanning around like an only-slightly-less-annoying Joffrey. Ok, rant over.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on May 13, 2022 17:49:44 GMT
I'm reading The Royal Assassin (Farseer trilogy 2) by Robin Hobb. It's pleasingly old-fashioned, something I don't get a lot of with your modern GRIMDARK fantasy. The goodies are obviously goodies, the baddies are obviously baddies, and there's very few surprise plot twists. It's almost comforting in a way. It does get a bit annoying, though, when you have someone who is so very obviously The Bad Guy, he is very obviously being The Bad Guy, and basically every major character knows that he is The Bad Guy. But nobody can do the obvious thing and just fucking assassinate him, because... uhhhh... honour? Duty? Like I'm sure he will get his dues soon enough, but it's irritating that people (including professional assassins!) seem to be so CONFLICTED about just offing the dude. That's fairly high on my Sci-Fi/Fantasy-list. Seems everyone agrees that it's kind of a classic.
At the moment I'm still reading Book of the New Sun, which has been interesting, but hasn't exactly flowed well. I honestly don't remember anymore when I started, but I have had some good sessions recently and there are only 100 pages left now.
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dogbot
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Post by dogbot on May 13, 2022 17:55:45 GMT
If you think Hobb is torture porn, don't read Terry Goodkind.
I mean, don't anyway, because it's shit.
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Post by Sarfrin on May 13, 2022 22:09:00 GMT
I read Sinopticon, a collection of Chinese SF short stories. Very good. Very different from hard sci fi like the Three Body Problem that's been more well known recently.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on May 14, 2022 19:56:06 GMT
By the way, has anybody read "The Chronicles of Amber"?
I was led to believe that it was one of the classics of fantasy literature. I read maybe a 100 pages of it before stopping maybe a year ago. The ideas are interesting, but the writing is awful and the plot development very quickly degenerated into some kind of cliched action story about some surprisingly boring supermen.
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Post by Bill in the rain on May 15, 2022 7:13:29 GMT
Nah. I got a couple of cheap ebooks by Roger Zelazny, but then it turned out they weren't actually by him and just had his name on the cover and were in his universe. So I didn't read very much of those.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on May 15, 2022 8:38:00 GMT
Nah. I got a couple of cheap ebooks by Roger Zelazny, but then it turned out they weren't actually by him and just had his name on the cover and were in his universe. So I didn't read very much of those. Oh, so his legacy has fallen prey to vultures* as well?
*vultures as in body-strippers, not the Starcraft unit and not like the bird either. I'm not sure why I thought this worth writing down...
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zephro
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Post by zephro on May 15, 2022 22:50:32 GMT
Just read the latest Rivers of London book, pretty good yarn, all over fun I'd rate it a Fleet/Thames
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Post by Chopper on May 18, 2022 9:47:21 GMT
I read Escape from Baghdad! by Saad Hossain.
It's set during the American occupation of Iraq, and features an unlikely duo of an arms dealer and a university professor who have teamed up to become black marketeers as society crumbles around them in Baghdad. They manage to lay their hands on one of Saddam's torturers, who buys his freedom by telling them he'll lead them to a vault full of gold in Mosul. They are assisted in this by a Marine called Hoffman, who is a dodgy figure in his own right, and who has been tasked by the brass to find a WMD, at all costs.
Things go spectacularly wrong when they cross a local Imam and his private militia, and bump into a member of an ancient sect devoted to alchemy and the search for eternal life.
It's a tour de force, with humour being the main selling point. It's a bit reminiscent of Catch-22, with the US military including and getting involved with a bunch of small-time crooks. But the plot stands on its own and it's really well done.
Some of the humour didn't land for me, but was sustained at a very high level (ie it is very funny) throughout.
Definitely pick it up on sale. I might even read it again soon.
(It was in the "THE 2019 WORLD SF BUNDLE" from Storybundle a while back).
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Post by Sarfrin on May 18, 2022 9:50:02 GMT
I read it via that bundle. I enjoyed it too. Good bundle that.
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Post by Chopper on May 18, 2022 9:52:37 GMT
Yeah, I was searching for the bundle it was in and the books I've read out of it so far are really good!
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Post by grandpaulrira on May 18, 2022 12:22:18 GMT
The complete Witcher series is 99p on the Amazon Kindle daily deal today.
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nazo
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Post by nazo on May 18, 2022 12:33:50 GMT
Yeah, I grabbed that earlier but I'm a bit miffed because I bought what was titled 'The Witcher 1' on an earlier deal, only to find out it was actually the 3rd or 4th book so that's 99p down the drain.
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Post by Bill in the rain on May 18, 2022 14:23:32 GMT
The complete Witcher series is 99p on the Amazon Kindle daily deal today. I only needed the last one, but still a good deal even for just that one. Thanks!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2022 14:26:50 GMT
Are they actually any good? I've heard the writing is a bit rough.
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dogbot
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Post by dogbot on May 18, 2022 14:29:53 GMT
I found them to be rather hard going. I'm not entirely sure if the translation is wonderful, but I thought the stories were a bit awkward, too.
They had their moments and they weren't terrible, but they weren't great either.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2022 14:32:46 GMT
Yeah I started and gave up pretty quickly. Couldn't really get into them.
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Rich
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Post by Rich on May 18, 2022 16:32:25 GMT
Perdido Street Station: New Crobuzon - China Mieville
A long but entertaining sci-fi/steampunk romp. The plot meanders a bit but the characters are fun and the city and the world(s?) it's set in is brilliant.
8/10
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