Dunkum

been slowly making my way through Tad WIlliams's "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" trilogy. it isn't bad, but it just isn't grabbing me either. I'll try to finish it but part of that is just because I don't have anything else I'd rather be reading right now.

I can see that - Tress takes itself a bit less seriously. also Hoid is more actively involved in Tress, as opposed to Yumi, and that can help a bit as well because it sort of internally makes more sense that he would be talking about it. but as I recall (and its been a bit since I read either) he was also adding a lot more commentary in Tress, so for me at least it was more distracting. it more or less works sometimes, but there is definitely such a thing as too much.

He wasn't quite as bad in Yumi as he was in Tress. I think he more or less works in the storytelling segments in Stormlight, but those are much shorter - not long enough for it to become grating.

I'd probably pick this order over the one Brandon suggests in the other response - I think keeping the secret projects at the end of the current books works best, especially if you are trying to catch connections the first time through. but some notes: note 1: I agree with Brandon about Elantris being one of the weaker entries, and probably wouldn't start with it. Mistborn or Warbreaker would be my choices instead (I think Mistborn was actually where I did start so many years ago). that said, I agree with the list, if not necessarily the precise order, of the pre-stormlight books. note 2: personally I don't like the idea of jumping back and forth between Stormlight and Mistborn Era 2. I mean, i read them as they came out so I DID do that, but I wouldn't do it that way again. so if you'd prefer to read through one series before jumping to the next, then I'd have to recommend Mistborn Era 2 before Stormlight. there is not a huge amount of intersection there, and most of it comes from book 4 of Mistborn era 2 if memory serves, so if you wanted to retain something like the level of surprise that you would have had reading them as they came out, you could theoretically do SA 1-3 (including Edgedancer, and maybe Dawnshard if you want, though it can go later as long as it is before Stormlight 4) then Mistborn Era 2 (including Secret History where he puts it relative to those books) then Stormlight 4. but if you want to spot all the connections as soon as possible, then Mistborn Era 2 comes first. EDIT: i looked it up and I had the release order for Rhythm of War and The Lost Metal backwards. so to revise my note 2: to keep the surprise aspect you would do all of Stormlight before all of Mistborn Era 2.

do you know how similar The Narrow Road Between Desiresis to "The Lightning Tree"? I got the impression looking at it that it was essentially an expansion on that story to some degree, but I haven't actually read it to compare.

I was exaggerating some, but there are definitely a few people I have met for whom it seems to be a pillar of their identity and they will hear no ill spoken of it. my experience is just completely at odds with the line "no one is pretending it's the best thing ever" personally I think it's fine, and I'd probably like it a bit more if not for the sort of hype that surrounds it. but I also have plenty of gripes with, so I land firmly in the "overrated" group on that one. but part of that is just that it did get so much publicity. Lord of the Rings, Narnia, and A Song of Ice and Fire are probably the only fantasy series that are even slightly comparable on that front.

this baffles me. who have you been talking to? because every HP fan I have ever met DOES seem to think it is the best thing ever, and they will go on about it at length. its a fun enough series, but that level of hype is unsustainable.

huh - I'm not surprised about wine, but I was curious what WOULD make a useful disinfectant. based on google results, even most hard liquor isn't concentrated enough. you pretty much need to jump to grain alcohol or other types of things sold specifically for having a lot of alcohol.

Didn't realize Jim Butcher had finished a second book in the Cinder Spires series until I saw The Olympian Affair at the book store this afternoon, so starting on that today. I liked the first one well enough, but I read it so long ago that I barely remember anything about it or the setting. ideally i'd give it a reread first, but I don't have it on hand. if I get too confused i'll just look up a synopsis or something to refresh my memory

I'm firmly of the opinion that any time anyone suggests hiring J.J. Abrams for anything, they should just play the "somehow Palpatine returned" scene to remind them why that is a bad idea.

hadn't seen that one before. for what its worth I suspect it would work better in the proposed book than in the other 2, because that one IS his own story. his interjections were distractions in the other 2 in a way that wouldn't be the case there.

Not sure how controversial this is but: I don't like Hoid very much as a story teller. his little interjections can be amusing, but he jumps in too much with them and it hurts the flow of the story. very minor spoilers for 2 of the secret projects (probably unneeded at this point, but doesn't hurt to be careful):

calculus is....fine. Abstract Algebra is great though. I could do proofs all day. but not Linear Algebra, too many matrices - the worst thing in all of math

haven't read that one, but i've read a few from him and I didn't think any of them were quite as good as Tigana. not bad, but also never quite reaching that height.

the prologue says he has an "unusual weight" which I always interpreted as meaning he is heavier than he should be, but I'm having trouble finding other references in Warbreaker to his weight. they might be there, but i'm skimming through the physical book, so easy to miss them if they are.

not disagreeing, but grape is worse.

I don't think this is all that controversial. ther are few solid ones, but for the most part any enjoyment I get out of christmas music is highly tinged with nostalgia for when I was little I don't think this is controversial at all. grape is second only to licorice as a bad flavor

it makes sense, though i'd have to reread a fair bit to see if I agree. part of the problem is that we do tend to get a very limited amount of Seanchan perspectives, so its harder to gauge how consistently they are written.

Can you elaborate on that? i don't remember feeling like Brandon didn't handle the Seanchan well when I read it at the time, but if it wasn't as glaring as his first few Mat chapters then I definitely could have missed it.

yea, something like that would definitely put a different spin on it. if i'd been going in expecting that, i might have been a bit disappointed too. it would have flavored the read a bit differently at least

kind of, but I wouldn't put it that way, personally. I got more "unreliable narrator - cyberpunk edition" vibes than "secret agent with amnesia". Like I said, my read of the book wasn't going in a Jason Bourne direction. I don't really recall exactly what I was thinking at the time, but it was definitely closer to what we actually got. I can sort of see how you'd arrive there but it definitely wasn't how I saw it.

Sure, if you phrase it like that. but if you phrase things vaguely enough, you can make Mistborn sound like Little Orphan Annie. the question is, where did that come from? its not directly from the book that I can see. Is it from any pre-release material or interviews or some such? and to be clear that's an honest question - I went into all 4 secret project books blind. the only thing I knew going in is that 1 of them was non-cosmere - so if that quote is from Brandon, or someone affiliated with him, I agree it would be at least a little misleading

Is that the promise we got? I certainly never had that impression, but I also never read any promo material or the like. from just the book itself I never thought we were getting Jason Bourne.

Been playing Fire Emblem Engage the last couple days (was originally going to get 3 Houses but it was out of stock and I didn't feel like waiting). been enjoying it so far, though I probably have the difficulty set too low; but I felt like doing a low stress run first. my prior experience with Fire Emblem is that I hate losing characters and tend to replay a level over and over again until i get bored with the whole thing, so dropping the difficulty helps prevent that, though I may have overdone it slightly - my main character is practically untouchable, and often takes no damage even when hit.

huh, ok. didn't double check the timing on that one, but the basic point still stands. Perrin is one of the consistently better viewpoint characters, to me at least, and the hunt for Faile drags him down substantially, especially at the beginning. it does get better, as he focuses more on solutions vs problems, but for a while there his chapters are darker an less fun to read.