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Post by Wizzard_Ook on Jun 4, 2024 18:24:22 GMT
First Person Singular - Murakami
A collection of short stories, that are typical Murakami really. Oddly shaped body parts, music references galore, wells and holes and things happening just beyond the periphery all told from the viewpoint of men who are a little lost or think too much. Apart from cats. I can’t recall any cats but there is a talking monkey. Nothing new then! But it does give a nice insight into how Murakami thinks, and each story has it’s own quirk and atmosphere that make his work so popular. Not essential but they leave a nice imprint.
Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett
A really well written book that is fiercely angry, somber and funny at the same time. It’s basically an Anti war book with lots of socks down trousers jokes as he tackles gender roles. Not much is spared from Pratchett Ire, whether it’s state religion, the people in charge or the futileness of war itself but it’s incredibly nuanced and humane and as a cast that is so incredibly easy to root for and a cast that seems to, going by various Reddit threads I have read through, given trans folk and LGBT community a cast they feel at one with and a place where they feel seen. You don’t really need to read the Reddit threads it’s all there on the page. It’s great. Ranks in the S Tier for me.
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ekz
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Post by ekz on Jun 20, 2024 9:35:57 GMT
Book #2 in the shadow campaigns series - the shadow throne.
Whereas the first book took me months and months to complete, this was over in less than 2 weeks and that's only because of work.
It focused significantly less on the shit the author can't do well (make battles/war even remotely interesting) and much more on what he does do well (political intrigue, interpersonal relationships and loosely weaving them all together).
4/5
Now reading the third book and I'm about 40% in just a couple of days. Brilliant stuff.
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Post by Bill in the rain on Jun 27, 2024 2:19:14 GMT
Monstrous Regiment is one of the few Discworld ones I haven't read. It's already on the wishlist though. The Armoured Saint - Myke Cole (Audible Plus) I won't lie, I picked this partly for the cover and partly because it wasn't too long. It's quite short for a fantasy book (200 pages), and yet it takes ages to get going. As is mandatory with fantasy books, it's part of a trilogy. The setup is basically 40k, but in fantasy times. (Wizards are banned because they let demons into the world. Emperor died to stop the demons. Now dogmatic military/fanatic order hunts down all wizards in the name of the Emperor, who everyone worships. ) The problem is that it takes ages to get anywhere. I really hate it when the back blurb on the book describes an interesting setup, but then the entire book is basically getting to the point described on the back! I felt like I was spending the entire book waiting for things to actually start. I wanted to know what happened after the setup! It doesn't help that the main character, despite having a bit of fire at times, spends most of the book being pretty passive, making mistakes, and apologizing all the time. It's only really in the last 2 chapters that things start moving and she's forced into action. So now I'm left trying to decide if the next book is going to be be much better, because things are finally starting, or if I've had enough. Maybe if the next one was included in Audible Plus I'd give it a go, but I'm not sure I want to use up a credit on it.
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Binky
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Post by Binky on Jul 2, 2024 7:54:21 GMT
Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up
I, a 44 year old man-child, picked up this book after reading such headlines as “Feisty and funny” and “Absolutely Hilarious”. Or even “Captures exactly what it’s like to be in your 40s”.
Ok, sure.
I mean, it’s not. Not at all. It’s for a very select group of people. The Holly and Phil crowd. The people that think Michael McIntyre is the peak of comedy genius.
I didn’t laugh once. Not once through its 500 pages. It was very clear early on that this book is very much aimed at a particular group of women, and that’s fine and maybe I should have stopped reading early doors when I got to: “So I went to therapy…. Of the retail kind. As I hit the high street I feel immediately cheered up.”
But I didn’t. I wanted to read it all so that I could review it in the knowledge that I’d read every word. To its credit, that was something that was easy to do. The chapters are mostly written as bitesized diary entries of sorts which makes getting through the book pretty easy. There is nothing to challenge the reader at all, and that’s fine.
It is however, stuffed full of cliches. If you’ve got any sense whatsoever, you’ll know exactly what’s coming page after page. Maybe, for some, that’s the point. For me, it just meant another eye roll. Another sigh of desperation.
It’s the story of a childless, husbandless (GASP) woman with elbows who starts a podcast (though you wouldn’t know because it’s never fucking mentioned), reconnects with old mates, meets an old lady, and walks a dog a bit.
This is the McDonalds of books. Apparently hugely popular with certain people, but completely devoid of any nutritional value whatsoever.
It’s not for me, Clive.
1/5
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ekz
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Post by ekz on Jul 7, 2024 4:16:35 GMT
I have since finished books 3, 4 and 5 of the shadow campaigns since my last post, so now the series is finished. I'm genuinely sad as I am whenever I know the world my brain has lived in for weeks/months has ended and I won't be returning.
Genuinely brilliant, majority of the first book aside.
I'd rate the last 3 books a solid 4.75/5 and the series as a whole a 4.5/5.
Thanks to whomever it was on here that recommended the series to me all those months (years probably now) ago.
Now I have to go back and try and find the post with the recommendations to start something new!
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Post by Nemesis on Jul 7, 2024 16:30:16 GMT
A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms.
GRRM writing a short story? Yeah. Well, three in fact. Thoroughly enjoyed this, illustrations were a nice addition. Dunk and Egg. Such a funny partnership. I would say I'm hoping for more, but we all know how that ends, right? The stories, although touching upon the wider political landscape of the time, are much more to do with the locals and their conflicts and it works really well.
8 clouts on the ear out of 10
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otto
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Post by otto on Jul 11, 2024 8:30:24 GMT
I'm just reaching the end of Naomi Novik's Scholomance trilogy (A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate, The Golden Enclaves), they are the best thing I've read in a long time. Think Hogwarts with tighter writing, more sex and violence, less transphobia. I came to these via a recommendation but was a bit sceptical, as I have also read a couple of Novik's Temeraire novels which I don't rate so highly. These though are the tits.
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Rich
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Post by Rich on Jul 11, 2024 21:23:09 GMT
Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson (audiobook)
This was dull, long and I'm not entirely sure why I finished it. The narrator was fairly good though which made listening to it easy.
A princess is forced to marry an evil king to stop their nations going to war, but he may not actually be that evil. There priests and other generic non trustworthy types. There are living gods and magic but it's all really, really dull. Nothing really happens for most of the book until the end which is just a massive exposition dump by the obvious good guy who turns out to be a bad guy and some deus ex machina to conclude it all.
Avoid.
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Post by LegendaryApe on Jul 11, 2024 21:27:28 GMT
Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson (audiobook) This was dull, long and I'm not entirely sure why I finished it. The narrator was fairly good though which made listening to it easy. A princess is forced to marry an evil king to stop their nations going to war, but he may not actually be that evil. There priests and other generic non trustworthy types. There are living gods and magic but it's all really, really dull. Nothing really happens for most of the book until the end which is just a massive exposition dump by the obvious good guy who turns out to be a bad guy and some deus ex machina to conclude it all. Avoid. Necessary reading though for some later books in the Cosmere series
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Rich
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Post by Rich on Jul 11, 2024 22:05:32 GMT
I don't think I'll be worrying about that.
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Post by drhickman1983 on Jul 13, 2024 7:33:54 GMT
Rutherford and Fry’s Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything* (*Abridged)
Listened to this as an audio book where Hannah Fry and Adam Rutherford both narrated, so it very much felt like an extension of their Curious Cases podcast.
It's one of those popular science books that looks at a wide section of history, science and science history. By their own humourous admission the "abridged" caveat does a lot of heavy lifting.
It's very enjoyable. I'm not sure how much I actually retained, being an audio book I listened to whilst walking I find my attention wanders at times, so I'm still not convinced this is the optimal way for me to absorb books.
But what I did listen to was very good. I really like both the authors writing and delivery, and they do a very good job at presenting scientific ideas in an easily digestible way.
It's not a groundbreaking book, but it's not trying to be. But it is fun and engaging, and a very solid popular science book.
8/10
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Post by skalpadda on Jul 13, 2024 20:21:09 GMT
drhickman1983 Thanks, I'm always on the lookout for pop-sci to listen to while going to sleep. I don't mean "Hö hö, science boring make sleepy", it's that I can't listen to novels because I get too wrapped up in the narrative, but if it's too boring my mind just wanders off. Pop-sci books tend to hit the ideal spot inbetween.
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ekz
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Post by ekz on Jul 14, 2024 6:10:52 GMT
I have since read this trilogy: www.goodreads.com/series/273120-burningblade-silvereyeOverall, the pacing is much better. But as with the thousand names series, it just ends so abruptly. I really struggle with the beginning of any fantasy novels when they're introducing new names, animals, etc so the first quarter of the first book was hard for me. But once my mind aligned all 3 books were a very easy read. Overall I don't have the attachment to the world or characters as I did with the thousand names series, but it was a significantly better read. I'd rate it 4.75/5. For reference, the only authors I'd rate as a 5/5 are Bryce Courtenay and Wilbur Smith. Not sure if that helps at all but I figured I'd throw it out there as I'm giving these such high scores.
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Post by Bill in the rain on Jul 18, 2024 13:27:38 GMT
All Systems Red - Martha Wells (Murderbot Diaries #1) (audiobook)
I mainly listened to this because it was part of the free Plus ones on audible, and because it was only 3 hours long.
It was good I guess, but very slight.
The main hook is the Murderbot's inner monologue being a bit snarky, and jokes like him mainly wanting to just binge watch tv shows. So there were a couple of laughs, but it always felt a bit forced to me. Not sure how much of that was the delivery though.
The story itself wasn't particularly interesting.
Enjoyable enough filler, but I'm not quite sure how it got so well regarded.
Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson (audiobook) This was dull, long and I'm not entirely sure why I finished it. The narrator was fairly good though which made listening to it easy. A princess is forced to marry an evil king to stop their nations going to war, but he may not actually be that evil. There priests and other generic non trustworthy types. There are living gods and magic but it's all really, really dull. Nothing really happens for most of the book until the end which is just a massive exposition dump by the obvious good guy who turns out to be a bad guy and some deus ex machina to conclude it all. Avoid. I didn't think it was as bad as that, but it was very dry and seemed mostly focused on setting up a logical magic system for some kind of RPG more than telling a dramatic story. I read the free unpolished version though.
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ekz
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Post by ekz on Jul 20, 2024 7:04:13 GMT
I read both www.goodreads.com/series/254488-empire-of-the-vampire this week. Absolutely shattered I can't read it to conclusion. I'd never have started if I knew it was an incomplete series. Fucking. Brilliant. Books. It has been years since I've felt so immersed in a story, where every page felt like I was balls deep in VR watching it all happen around me. 5/5. Amazing.
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Post by Bill in the rain on Jul 20, 2024 10:20:37 GMT
Having just finished All Systems Red by Martha Wells, I grabbed a random Star Wars Legends book off the shelf that i bought ages ago, without any expectation of it being great, because it was dirt cheap.
Having read a few chapters i just glanced at the cover, and noticed that the author's name, which I'd never bothered to even look at, was - Martha Wells. 😮
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Post by simple on Jul 20, 2024 18:49:17 GMT
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Post by dfunked on Jul 25, 2024 9:09:52 GMT
@ekz I picked up the first one last night and ended up still reading it after midnight, so seems like a solid recommendation so far! Although I probably should've waited for him to finish the trilogy too...
I've lost track of what I've reviewed here recently, and I've probably been reading more over the past year than I had in the past decade before it.
Iain Banks - Whit - 7/10 This one was a late teen favourite of mine (probably because of the Morag plotline), but it didn't quite grab me this time. Still a good story, but it can be an absolute slog at times. I came very close to skipping pages during some of the religious sect exposition.
Iain Banks - The Crow Road - 8/10 Now that was a bit more like it. It skips all over the place like a skippy thing, but somehow manages to do so while still maintaining a gripping flow to the story. Prentice's redemption arc is well done, as you probably intensely hate the little shit to begin with, but he grows into a great central character.
William Gibson - Virtual Light - 7/10 I enjoyed Pattern Recognition fairly recently, but didn't feel compelled to carry on with the rest of that trilogy at (Bignell?) Ditto for this and the Bridge trilogy, really. It's an entertaining read, and relatively short which was quite nice for a change, but I'm not in a massive rush to carry on with the next book.
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Post by Bill in the rain on Jul 28, 2024 14:28:17 GMT
Codename Villanelle (audible)
Otherwise known as - The Killing Eve source material.
This was reasonably fun. Wikipedia says they're novellas, but it didn't feel that short (6hrs) so I'd have called it a novel. Not too long either though, but it does basically stop just as things are getting going.
Tone is somewhat different to Killing Eve, and while a lot of the basics are the same, some of the characters and the situations they appear are a bit changed around.
It's lacking the dark humour and romance edges that Killing Eve had, being more of a straight up spy/assassin story so far. Then again, the main characters haven't even met yet. That's not to say Vilanelle doesn't enjoy killing people, she's just a bit less quirky about it and more coldblooded. And she certainly shags a lot of people. Just random people.
Enjoyable enough time waster, which at least reminded me I should probably watch the last season of Killing Eve, even if none of the later seasons have matched up to the first one.
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Post by rhaegyr on Jul 29, 2024 10:08:40 GMT
Fellowship of the Ring
Decided to do my yearly read early this year after all the talk in the film thread a few weeks ago.
I mean, is there even any point scoring it? It's Fellowship of the Ring.
A lot of the fun always comes from forgetting the differences betweem the films and the books (and not just Bombadil). Narsil being reforged early doors at Rivendell, Aragorn ready to take on his destiny (rather than be the reluctant hero), Gandalf being gone from the Shire for 17 years(!) and lots of other little changes.
In fact, I will score it - top bollocks/10.
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Post by barchetta on Jul 30, 2024 0:31:12 GMT
I know there are cheaper outlets, but I picked this up in Waterstones to check the blurb and saw it was £22. How long have standard hardbacks been over £20? I must have been off the reading wagon for longer than I thought.
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ekz
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Post by ekz on Jul 30, 2024 4:10:51 GMT
I just half hour ago finished the final book in the Nevernight Chronicles. www.goodreads.com/series/164599-the-nevernight-chronicleSpecifically in books 1 and 2 I can see where he borrowed (even inversely) and improved upon the formula in his Vampire Empire books. Great read, but doesn't capture the magic of his most recent work. 4.25/5
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ekz
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Post by ekz on Jul 31, 2024 0:32:37 GMT
Struggling to find another book to sink into. Tried to read Tigana, which is lauded as a masterpiece, but I find the prose insufferable.
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ekz
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Post by ekz on Aug 1, 2024 23:28:29 GMT
I read www.goodreads.com/book/show/13543121-between-two-firesIt did enough to keep me turning pages, but even after finishing it the most emotion I can muster for it seems to be just... "meh". Don't miss the characters or the world. Just meh. I think I'm being generous when I say 3/5.
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ekz
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Post by ekz on Aug 4, 2024 0:13:56 GMT
The lesser dead - same author as above More meh. Maybe even meh-ier. Couldn't keep me immersed enough to detach from reality which is the goal here. 2.75/5
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ekz
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Post by ekz on Aug 8, 2024 0:14:31 GMT
The blacktongue thief - also from the same author as above
Significantly better than the other 2 books of his I read. Not sure exactly why I prefer it so much more than the others, but it's night and day.
4/5
I haven't found anything else that piques my interest to read yet, would be open to recommendations if anyone has any.
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Rich
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Post by Rich on Aug 8, 2024 5:56:56 GMT
World War Z (audiobook)
Some books are made for the audiobook format and this is definitely one of them. A series of interviews about life during a zombie apocalypse, it's told superbly and (a couple of dodgy accents aside) genuinely feels like you listening to real people just telling their story. Some are better than others, but it's a great and original example in a fairly oversaturated genre.
9/10
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ekz
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Post by ekz on Aug 22, 2024 23:33:04 GMT
I finished Tigana. It was so much nothing until about 80% through and then it got genuinely good. 3.5/5.
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Post by Mark1412 on Aug 23, 2024 20:03:34 GMT
I'm enjoying the time to actually read with some time off work.
Read Sea of Tranquility by the author of Station Eleven which, though I can't remember many details from it, I remember being really good.
She has a lovely writing style, and it starts really strong. Lost me a bit towards the end and bits about pandemics felt too close to now. Doesn't quite hit as hard as it set up to, though it is clever in how it ties multiple timelines together. Good, low-key sci-fi. 7/10
Reading the new James S A Corey book now they've finished with The Expanse. Verrrrrry different. Not completely sold yet but their books are so easy to read. Halfway through without realising it.
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mikeck
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Post by mikeck on Aug 28, 2024 8:49:50 GMT
Just finished The Glutton by A.K.Blakemore, so hard to put into words what I read, but it's essentially an iteration of an old French myth brought to life with such compelling prose. The authors descriptions are fantastic and bring life to some fairly gruesome scenes.
The Glutton in question is someone who following an act of violence against them develops an all consuming hunger and becomes something of a sideshow act (to start).
Very original, and a very good read.
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