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What are you reading? (February 2017)

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Z

Zona

Member
Muntu said:
Finished Half A King and I have to say, I thought it was just fantastic! For the longest time I thought I just couldn't get into fantasy anymore, but clearly it's because I've been trying to read too much super-high fantasy recently with all kinds of weird and contrived magic systems and spells and dragons and elves and dwarves and other stuff I just.. Rarely really care about.

Shattered Sea is at the other extreme, it's probably the most mundane fantasy world in a while when it comes to magic and while I think a tiny bit more fantastical stuff would've made it even better, I feel like the lack of spell-slinging, metal-eating, rune-drawing, color-draining weirdos is one of the biggest reasons I found it so very enjoyable.

There isn't really anything I disliked about this book. The characters were fun, Rulf and Nothing were particularly great and often hilarious. The story, while straightforward for the most part actually managed to genuinely surprise me a couple of times (
Nothing's true identity
reveal being by far the biggest holy shit moment) and there were some truly heartwarming moments. The pacing was fucking spot on, like perfect from beginning to end, rapid as hell in every respect but still slow enough to make me care about the characters. Particularly enjoy how damn fast and brutal the battles were. I don't enjoy reading about duels that go on for pages and pages. The world is a ruthless place, one mistake is enough to get you killed. When you get stabbed through the chest, you fucking die and that's it.

Best fantasy I've read in quite a while, and the fact that this a) isn't the best book in this particular series and b) this series isn't even the best Abercrombie has to offer makes me super excited to read the rest of this books too.

Now I just gotta decide which one to start reading next, The Blade Itself or Half The World.

e: the fact that Half A King was pretty stand-alone and the utterly coal black humor I've heard The First Law world is filled with makes me lean towards The Blade Itself.
Click to expand...

That's because
it's actually post apocalyptic. The map is recognizable if you assume rising sea levels, and try saying the names of the ruins out loud. On top of that I found the descriptions of what happens to people who spend too long in the ruins or bring something back to be a giveaway.
 
A

aravuus

Member
Zona said:
That's because
it's actually post apocalyptic. The map is recognizable if you assume rising sea levels, and try saying the names of the ruins out loud. On top of that I found the descriptions of what happens to people who spend too long in the ruins or bring something back to be a giveaway.
Click to expand...

Yeah, came across something about this when I ended up googling "shattered sea low fantasy" after seeing a bunch of people categorize it as high fantasy on Goodreads and I was like.. The fuck?

It's a pretty cool twist on the genre, or at least it is for me since this is only the second book (series) that I've seen do this.
Now I'm just bummed that most of Finland seems to be under the Shattered Sea lol. Would've been hilarious to see post-apocalyptic Finns run around.
 
A

AngmarsKing701

Member
Muntu said:
Yeah, came across something about this when I ended up googling "shattered sea low fantasy" after seeing a bunch of people categorize it as high fantasy on Goodreads and I was like.. The fuck?

It's a pretty cool twist on the genre, or at least it is for me since this is only the second book (series) that I've seen do this.
Now I'm just bummed that most of Finland seems to be under the Shattered Sea lol. Would've been hilarious to see post-apocalyptic Finns run around.
Click to expand...

I've only read the first book in the Shattered Sea series. Abercrombie is one of my favorite authors. Given how much you liked this, The First Law trilogy is going to blow you away.
 
K

Karu

Member
After reading Brubaker's Fatale-comic series I rediscovered my lust for horror, so I went along and bought Stephen King's Carrie as well as a collection of Lovecraft-short stories.
 
D

DemWalls

Member
Muntu said:
Now I just gotta decide which one to start reading next, The Blade Itself or Half The World.

e: the fact that Half A King was pretty stand-alone and the utterly coal black humor I've heard The First Law world is filled with makes me lean towards The Blade Itself.
Click to expand...

It's up to you, but if you choose The Blade Itself, I'd then advise you to read the sequels without taking a break, as they're not really standalone. In other words, if you were thinking something like this, I'd recommend not to go Half a King -> The Blade Itself -> Half the World...
 
B

Beyonce Beytwice

Member
zFDgurr.jpg
 
F

Funyarinpa

Member
Started to read Advice To A Young Scientist by Peter Medawar. It's pretty nice, though I feel that I should be reading it later in life (currently 17, and starting to struggle with applying to university in 3 different countries while trying to decide if I have the dedication to become anyone noteworthy).
 
A

aravuus

Member
DemWalls said:
It's up to you, but if you choose The Blade Itself, I'd then advise you to read the sequels without taking a break, as they're not really standalone. In other words, if you were thinking something like this, I'd recommend not to go Half a King -> The Blade Itself -> Half the World...
Click to expand...

I was actually thinking of going through them like that, but I suppose it wouldn't be too wise. Decided to go with The Blade Itself for now and if, hopefully when, I end up liking it as much as AngmarsKing above alludes to, it's not like I can read anything else before I'm done with the trilogy lol.
 
M

Mifune

Mehmber
wild wild rice said:
I got a little over halfway through The Tunnel and bailed. My eyes were reading words but my brain ceased to make anything of them. After that, I didn't pursue his other work despite really loving Omensetter. He's one of those writers I wish would stick to a slightly more traditional approach in his work.

I'll give him another shot some day, I'm sure. But now I really want to reread Omensetter...
Click to expand...

That sounds like my first shot at Gravity's Rainbow. (The second was revelatory, btw.)

I think I've heard Middle C is more accessible than The Tunnel - of course, that's probably not much of a feat - or at least not as soul-crushingly miserable.
 
T

Tawney Bomb

Member
Finished Babylon's Ashes a few days ago. It was fun even though not a lot happens this book, except wrapping up most of the threads from Nemesis Games. Hoping the next book gets them back on track.
 
E

elguero

Member
Just wrapped up It Can't Happen Here last night. It's a really eye-opening and accurate look at how fascism springs up in America but the novel is pretty flawed in presenting it. Forcing your way through a lot of marital drama to get to the next plot point regarding the political climate is frustrating and the protagonist is hard to root for. Finally getting around to reading Henry Thoreau's essays now.
 
S

severin

Member
Just finished A Gentleman In Moscow, and while it is as richly written as everybody suggests, it's also about 100 pages too long for me.

Also just done with The North Water. Bleak and brilliant. Next up: Lincoln In The Bardo. I'm going to try and savour this one a bit.
 
A

Atraveller

Banned
I was browsing my local online bookstore, and saw Ted Chiang's Story of Your Life and Others' Chinese translation, "Prophercy of Your Life". I fucking hated it when they do that. Gone Girl was "Control", lel.
 
A

aidan

Hugo Award Winning Author and Editor
Atraveller said:
I was browsing my local online bookstore, and saw Ted Chiang's Story of Your Life and Others' Chinese translation, "Prophercy of Your Life". I fucking hated it when they do that. Gone Girl was "Control", lel.
Click to expand...

Book titles are marketing tools and should be adjusted to suit an international market.
 
N

Nola

Member
Nola said:
Anyone have recommendations for funny/happy books? Need a bit of levity in my life right now.
Click to expand...

FlowersisBritish said:
I have two that are funny and I guess happyish? I'm currently reading The Disaster Artist that's about the real-life making of The Room, the single greatest bad movie ever made. It's such a bad movie, it's kind of amazing. And the process of it being made is equally as baffling. Very funny book with a few heartwarming bits. Another funny book you might like if you're in a fantasy mood in Mogworld by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. It stars an npc zombie enemy from any mmo you can imagine. Also very funny and the worldl is very very silly.
Click to expand...

BenjaminBirdie said:
Maria Semple's books are fantastic. Very funny, sharp stuff.
Click to expand...

besada said:
Carl Hiassen's Florida crime novels or Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. My go to airplane books, because it's hard to be miserable while reading them.
Click to expand...
Which Carl Hiassen novel do you suggest to begin with?

Thanks guys!! I added these to my goodreads list tagged as "humor" and recommendations so I can get to them all eventually. :)
 
M

Magus1234

Member
1700 page behemoth, all in epistolary.
Clarissa
or, the
History of a Young Lady
Comprehending
The Most Important Concerns
of
Private Life.
And Particularly Shewing
The Distress That May Attend The Misconduct
Both of
Parents and Children
In Relation to Marriage.
​

51wV6H%2B9gcL._SX305_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
 
B

besada

Banned
Nola said:
Which Carl Hiassen novel do you suggest to begin with?

Thanks guys!! I added these to my goodreads list tagged as "humor" and recommendations so I can get to them all eventually. :)
Click to expand...

Lucky You or Stormy Weather are both good starting places.
 
A

Atraveller

Banned
aidan said:
Book titles are marketing tools and should be adjusted to suit an international market.
Click to expand...
It's not like a reference or a pun doesn't translate well so you have to change it.

You haven't seen our localized movie titles, many action/adventure movies' titles are derived from the titles of actors' previous successful movies, which may or may not have been derived from other movies, on top of those, the OG titles that got copied a ton of times, sometimes don't even resemble the English titles. It ended up with many movies with generic and similar names that have nothing to do with their original titles. For example: John Wick is "Guarding Mission" in Taiwan.

The film companies are doing that less and less over the years, but this stupid practice is not dying as fast as I'd like.
 
M

MilkBeard

Member
Just finished A Game of Thrones. I enjoyed Martin's style quite a bit. I am going to read a few other books before I start on A Clash of Kings.

After that, as a palate cleanser, I read A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was interesting, although I admit not as interesting as I was hoping.

Currently, I am about 80 pages into Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic. Honestly, his style is not my bag, but I figured I'd give one of his books a try. It's entertaining enough, but I won't be reading another of his books after this.

My next planned book is Resurrection by Tolstoy. Considering that I am reading at a fairly decent clip, I will probably be starting this book in a week or so. After that, who knows.
 
W

wild wild rice

Member
Jimothy said:
6162WwTkg%2BL._SX311_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


Finished this bad boy last night. Fucking incredible.
Click to expand...

Another writer on my list of people to get around to.

Finished Lincoln in the Bardo. It's as good as everyone is saying and I'll leave it at that.

Just started Rachel Cusk's Transit as a sort of pallette cleanser. It's doing the trick. The writing is breezy with occasional deep, deep insights and a bit...feminine? It's like a surgical examination of the searching emotions we feel when experiencing change in life.

I think V. Woolf said women had been writing like men and that what they needed to do was build a more feminine prose and writing style. Jeanette Winterson managed to do this, I think. I don't think a man could have or would have written The Passion or Written on the Body. The way I described the first 50 pages of Transit to my wife was I feel like I'm viewing the world through an intelligent woman's eyes. She describes things and thinks about things very differently from the way I do, or male writers do.

I don't know. It's an incomplete thought at this moment, perhaps a bit generalized. But that's where I'm at.
 
A

Alucard

Banned
New Brandon Sanderson drinking game: read Warbreaker and take a shot every time the word ostentatious or ostentation is used.
 
A

Alucard

Banned
kswiston said:
Gaiman's Norse Mythology is a fun book. I knew some of the myths/stories covered, but not all of them.
Click to expand...

Mead fart!

Thor in bridal clothes!

It's fun and interesting. I'm on my third time through the audio book. I only do one a month with Audible, but this is the first time I've felt compelled to listen to something more than twice. I think it's because the book is actually fairly dense in terms of names and places, so I'm just trying to link and learn the details.
 
R

Rug Monkey

Member
Nola said:
Which Carl Hiassen novel do you suggest to begin with?

Thanks guys!! I added these to my goodreads list tagged as "humor" and recommendations so I can get to them all eventually. :)
Click to expand...

If you'd like to try some VERY british humour try Tom Sharpe. I'd start with Riotous Assembly and then Indecent Exposure.
 
F

Funyarinpa

Member
Alucard said:
Mead fart!

Thor in bridal clothes!

It's fun and interesting. I'm on my third time through the audio book. I only do one a month with Audible, but this is the first time I've felt compelled to listen to something more than twice. I think it's because the book is actually fairly dense in terms of names and places, so I'm just trying to link and learn the details.
Click to expand...

I'm taking it in very, very slowly myself. As I said, audiobooks are pretty difficult for me; I have to concentrate. That there are unfamiliar names makes the whole thing difficult. It's also dense, though I do like Gaiman's language and I love his narration. Currently in the tale about (spoiler?)
Loki stealing Sif's hair.
 
A

Alucard

Banned
Funyarinpa said:
I'm taking it in very, very slowly myself. As I said, audiobooks are pretty difficult for me; I have to concentrate. That there are unfamiliar names makes the whole thing difficult. It's also dense, though I do like Gaiman's language and I love his narration. Currently in the tale about (spoiler?)
Loki stealing Sif's hair.
Click to expand...

Eh, I don't think you have to post spoiler tags for myths. :) I like that one!
 
T

timetokill

Banned
Mutley said:
Recently finished:

514VBCKNEFL.jpg


First Ray Bradbury book as well. Beautiful writer. So poetically written with the hypernormalisation of behaviour not brought by the government but willingly done in a world of consumerism constantly needing to be entertained. Bradbury was a known luddite though, always a sceptic of technology and media which can bring about positive changes too but the world in which he creates has very similar parallels to ours.
Click to expand...

I love Bradbury.

I HIGHLY recommend reading The Martian Chronicles.
 
M

MrOogieBoogie

BioShock Infinite is like playing some homeless guy's vivid imagination
Yo I'm dying at how unabashedly insane Malazan is (Gardens of the Moon).

One of the central characters
finds himself awakened in a grim landscape with traveling souls. Turns out he's INSIDE the sword wielded by another character that has claimed all of these lives. Or some shit.
lmao

I don't even know if From Software could come up with some of these fucking crazy-ass concepts.
 
B

BumRush

Member
I have to go on business for a week and would love a quick / fun read. Genre doesn't matter too much, but I'd be down with some horror / suspense (or anything else). Any recommendations?
 
I

Incandenza

Banned
MrOogieBoogie said:
Yo I'm dying at how unabashedly insane Malazan is (Gardens of the Moon).

One of the central characters
finds himself awakened in a grim landscape with traveling souls. Turns out he's INSIDE the sword wielded by another character that has claimed all of these lives. Or some shit.
lmao

I don't even know if From Software could come up with some of these fucking crazy-ass concepts.
Click to expand...

Don't forget that the owner of that sword also pilots a floating mountain fortress and commands a flock of enormous ravens.
 
R

righthandmouse

Banned
lawnchair said:
just out of curiosity, what'd you like about the alchemist?
Click to expand...

I liked the the moral of the story. it was common sense while reading it, but for some reason it struck me. even when I knew it was coming.
plus the ending reminds me of a Zelda. basically for me it meant.. shit's not that bad where you are at.
 
Z

Zelenogorsk

Banned
MrOogieBoogie said:
Yo I'm dying at how unabashedly insane Malazan is (Gardens of the Moon).

One of the central characters
finds himself awakened in a grim landscape with traveling souls. Turns out he's INSIDE the sword wielded by another character that has claimed all of these lives. Or some shit.
lmao

I don't even know if From Software could come up with some of these fucking crazy-ass concepts.
Click to expand...

I didn't get far into GOTM but this post is making me want to retry it. That sounds cool as f*ck.

Also I finally got to Kvothe
taking a semester off at the University
and my interest has plummeted. Same thing happened for me during the Trebon section of Name of the Wind, Rothfuss really knows how to just murder the momentum.
 
P

Pau

Member
MilkBeard said:
Currently, I am about 80 pages into Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic. Honestly, his style is not my bag, but I figured I'd give one of his books a try. It's entertaining enough, but I won't be reading another of his books after this.
Click to expand...
Shame that you tried one of his worst books. :(
 
M

Mumei

Member
51-6n1JDeyL.jpg


I started reading this yesterday after finishing Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design (outdated but really wonderful prelude to the NOVA documentary) and it's really, really, really good.
 
A

aravuus

Member
120 pages into The Blade Itself.

a681a335f0.jpg


:')

Been loving every second of this. Other than that all I can say is that this book is goddamn hilarious.
 
L

lightus

Member
I'm about 180ish pages into Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey.

I understand the need to build up conflict and characters etc, but man, the book is really dragging.

Basically nothing has actually happened in the book so far. It's just been a lot of "Man, our current situation sucks huh? I'm really insecure in my ability to make decisions".

I'm sure it'll heat up soon, I wish it'd be sooner though.
 
K

kswiston

Member
lightus said:
I'm about 180ish pages into Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey.

I understand the need to build up conflict and characters etc, but man, the book is really dragging.

Basically nothing has actually happened in the book so far. It's just been a lot of "Man, our current situation sucks huh? I'm really insecure in my ability to make decisions".

I'm sure it'll heat up soon, I wish it'd be sooner though.
Click to expand...

The whole arc with Marko feels like "we now have a 9 book contract but not enough planned material for 9 books."

Sort of how the story in Mass Effect 2 felt in regards to its trilogy.
 
C

Christoff Yurievich

Member
Finished "A Man Called Ove" today and it's amazing. Truly amazing. I laughed, I cried, it was truly a sweet and lovely book. Everyone who wants some brightness in their life should read it.
 
M

MilkBeard

Member
You Know Nothing said:
Seriously, the first five books minus Mort aren't anything special. But once you get past that barrier, everything becomes magnificent.
Click to expand...
Well, if they get better, maybe I will skip ahead a few books after this to get to some better stuff. I've seen the TV movie version of Going Postal so I have a bit of context at least.
 
R

Ravensmash

Member
Still reading Kafka on the Shore.

I love it but a lot of it is flying over my head. I don't remember Wind Up Bird Chronicle having so much... philosophy and stuff.

I'm just getting through it though because I still like the unique style.
 
A

ATF487

Member
Just finished At the Mountains of Madness

Gave it three stars on Goodreads, it was a really cool premise but the narration took me out of it.
Too much talk of architecture and similarities to certain spooky Nicholas Roerich paintings
 
M

Mackenzie 92

Member
Finished up Lincoln in the Bardo. I know I'm in the minority, but I thought it was just OK. The format was really distracting and gimmicky and kept taking me out of the experience. It would have been a much better book if it was traditionally written and formatted.

Anyway, I'm on a fantasy kick and picked this up today (only $4.99 on kindle). It's a revenge tale, one of my favorite sub-genres.


Cold Counsel by Chris Sharp
 
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