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Shadow Chaser by Alexey Pehov. Eastern European fantasy > Western high fantasy fapping.

I'm into A Feast for Crows, and I remember why it's usually considered the weakest of the four books out so far. Some parts of it are excellent, but others just completely drag onward.

Hopefully its because all the good characters are in Dance With Dragons. Hence it would be extra specially awesome.

But I'm not holding my breath on that.

Myself, I'm reaching the end of the Young Hornblower Omnibus and then going to move on to the new New Frontier novel and then Dead Beat of The Dresden Files.

I finished my re-read of A Feast for Crows a few hours ago (I couldn't put it down).

It actually gets much better as it goes on. Even the Spoiler were much better and interesting on my re-read. Septon Maribald is a fascinating fellow.

I'm rereading Mario Puzo's the Family. His Borgia's don't seem to be having as nearly much fun as the people on Showtime, though.

I'm reading Bart Ehrman's Forged, about early Christianity.

Pelranius wrote:I'm rereading Mario Puzo's the Family. His Borgia's don't seem to be having as nearly much fun as the people on Showtime, though.

I got through about 50 pages before I stopped and gave up on that book.

Speaking of the Borgias, I just finished Gregory Maguire's Mirror Mirror. I loved how he melded the Snow White legend with 16th century Italy and the height of the Borgias.

New Zahn SW coming out soon, as well as the Thrawn 20th Anniversary trilogy (!!!). Can't friggin' wait, The Silmarillion is fucking killing me. I am literally aching to dip back into some good SWEU.

The Silmarillion was impossible for me to get through. I just stopped caring at some point as the random names just flowed past. I felt pretty bad, my sister got me the copy that matched my LotR set and my copy of The Hobbit, for my birthday. I've never had the heart to tell her I'm not a huge fan of Tolkien. She still tells me when she sees one of the movies playing on TV, as if I want to watch them again this quarter century.

Phantasee wrote:The Silmarillion was impossible for me to get through. I just stopped caring at some point as the random names just flowed past. I felt pretty bad, my sister got me the copy that matched my LotR set and my copy of The Hobbit, for my birthday. I've never had the heart to tell her I'm not a huge fan of Tolkien. She still tells me when she sees one of the movies playing on TV, as if I want to watch them again this quarter century.

I loved LotR and The Hobbit, but if I have to hear about fucking Feanor and Finarfin and Manwe and Melkor blah blah blah I'ma stab Gollum in the face.

Nothing new yet. Still waiting anxiously for October. Why?

One word. Snuff. Three more words. Sam freaking Vimes.

Heard an excerpt of Snuff read at a recent lecture by Pratchett I attended. Its classic Vimes.

And I finished Shadow Chaser.

Fucking great. Stop rereading Game of Thrones and read this series you twats.

weemadando wrote:And I finished Shadow Chaser.

Fucking great. Stop rereading Game of Thrones and read this series you twats.

I just read the free sample chapter for Shadow Prowler on Amazon. I'm underwhelmed, to be honest. The prose in particular was a major turn-off.

I'm still reading Forged, although I've also been reading Pakistan: A Hard Country by Anatol Lieven.

And the reams of unedited guff that comprises much of GoT is better?

Gotta remember that the series has been translated. And though the prose mightn't come through clean, the take on fantasy it gives is great.

Countdown: The Liberators by Tom Kratman. I know it's bad for me but I can't stop reading his books, this one's more or less A Desert Called Peace set on Earth in the present. Raise a mercenary army, go break things and kill people. I was satisfied. Yeah, I know, I don't exactly have much in the way standards here.

Steve wrote:Nothing new yet. Still waiting anxiously for October. Why?

One word. Snuff. Three more words. Sam freaking Vimes.

Fuck, I forgot. I hope it'll get the taste of Unseen Academicals out of my mouth.

weemadando wrote:And the reams of unedited guff that comprises much of GoT is better?

Much better.

Unfortunately, I must have accidentally pulled out my bookmark on Forged, because I can't find my place again. Oh well. I got the main point anyways, and Ehrman has had a tendency to belabor everything to death in his books anyways.

Pakistan: A Hard Country is still excellent. I recommend it for anyone interested in Pakistan.

JME2 wrote:

Pelranius wrote:I'm rereading Mario Puzo's the Family. His Borgia's don't seem to be having as nearly much fun as the people on Showtime, though.

I got through about 50 pages before I stopped and gave up on that book.

Speaking of the Borgias, I just finished Gregory Maguire's Mirror Mirror. I loved how he melded the Snow White legend with 16th century Italy and the height of the Borgias.

I didn't mind it, but I'm generally a sucker for period literature.

Am rereading the Force Heretic trilogy of the NJO just because (well, more like skimming it through).

weemadando wrote:And I finished Shadow Chaser.

Fucking great. Stop rereading Game of Thrones and read this series you twats.

Sell me on it. What's it about and why would I like it? I just read the cover flap in the store, and it sounded like a painfully by-the-numbers fantasy quest to find the magic heirloom to save humanity. The hero is a thief, apparently from a kingdom of thieves (or a guild?). What makes this any different from 1,000 other fantasy novels?

Hard to say.

There's still orcs, elves, goblins, magic and all that.

But there's something about the setting and characters that is different enough to the usual fantasy tropes.

It's not the greatest book that you'll ever read, but it's a nice, grittier/darker (but not grimdark, just that classic post-Soviet "the world is a cunt" view) on fantasy.

I'm currently reading Ubukata Tow's Mardock Scramble. This is the third Japanese sci-fi novel I've read recently and I've been impressed by all of them so far. While it wasn't as immediately gripping as All You Need Is Kill (ie. the best piece of written military science fiction), and it didn't have the strong pacing of Black Hole Sun, which was made up of short stories, it really grew on me. It's a gritty cyberpunk excursion into the unfortunate life of teenage prostitute Rune-Balot after she's blown up as part of a tax scam. Balot is saved by Doctor Easter and his Stuart Little meets T1000 partner Oefcoque and rebuilt as the Six Million Dollar Bishoujo with the innate ability to manipulate electronic equipment. They take her attempted murderer, Shell, to court.

Going to court in Mardock City involves having to fight off the defendant's grotesque hired assassins. It doesn't rely on sex and violence, and a lot of the first novel, The First Compression, is about Balot coming to terms with herself and her lot in life. As Balot comes to understand why she is the way she is and why she is afraid of Shell, it's hard to dislike her even if she is pretty maladjusted. The revelatory moment she has about Shell during her court appearance is pretty powerful. I hear that the second and third novels are actually mostly about gambling and the characters themselves, which will be interesting: a change from relying on bursts of violence. I'll be interested in seeing the animated adaptation that screened in Japan at the end of last year.

Just started in on the 6th Hitchhiker's book (Eoin Colfer). So far it feels less like Adams and more like someone doing their damnedest to approximate him, but it's not altogether that bad.

Mind of the Raven by Bernd Heinrich. It's a fun read about ravens and how their social lives work, mainly, and how they think. Quite nice.

I need to start back on House of Leaves again, though. I stopped in the middle of it because I was busy and haven't gotten back around to it yet.

I also need to get back into my goliath Wilderness Warrior by Douglass Brinkley, a 900 page behemoth biography about TR. It's also a good book, but luckily it's a biography so I don't feel so bad about putting it down.

Dalton wrote:Just started in on the 6th Hitchhiker's book (Eoin Colfer). So far it feels less like Adams and more like someone doing their damnedest to approximate him, but it's not altogether that bad.

Verdict: Meh. Too many guide interruptions, too many random names and way too disjointed, plus the ending sucked. Colfer gave it a fair go but it ain't Adams. And really, Wowbagger? Really?