What Are You Reading, Part 2

[Master Elodin]

Started reading The Inquisition, the sequel to Taran Matharu's The Novice. I'm about 2/3 through and have to say that the Gryphowl is my favorite demon EVER. Owl/cat hybrids are AWESOME.

See spoiler if you don't believe me. (Most of the Internet knows these creatures as "meowls.")

Still working on A Gathering of Shadows--90% done according to my Kindle's progress bar.

Update: finished AGOS and ARGH CLIFFHANGER. Expected release date for book 3: 2017.

Oh yeah, I read that recently. I have to say, though, I prefer Ignatius to the Gryphowl.

[Sunbird she/her]

Since I liked Clay and Susan Griffith's Vampire Empire trilogy and am still waiting on the library for the spinoff/sequel, I decided to try one of their other books, The Shadow Revolution. About halfway through at this point and I am liking it a lot. (I've especially enjoyed seeing Kate being a badchull and putting lecherous men in their places.)

 

Still working on The Inquisition; now more than 80% done.

[StormingTexan he/him]

Finished The Lies of Locke Lamora. I liked it but cannot say I am compelled to continue the series. At least not right now maybe later.

 

Started AlterWorld which I guess is a literary RPG and really like it so far. I actually gave up gaming a couple years ago it was taking over my life but find I really like books about gaming. This one is kind of like reading a persons experience from level one in a MMO. Sounds boring especially if you have never been in to MMORPG but there is a lot of nostalgia for me and it's the next best thing to gaming if you have given it up. 

[Sunbird she/her]

Finished The Inquisition. Another cliffhanger ending! (But thankfully not as agonizing as the one in Julie Kagawa's Soldier.) Also finished The Shadow Revolution.

 

I've just barely started Ratha's Creature by Clare Bell. So far it feels a little reminiscent of Kenneth Oppel's Darkwing.

[Left he/him]

I finished My Name is Asher Lev, it was fantastic.

I'm currently reading Tolstoy, A Russian Life by Rosamund Bartlet.

[DSC01 he/him]

I'm reading Lord of Chaos. This is my fourth read of The Wheel of Time. I just recently got to what I consider one of the neatest little things in the series, which is when one of the very minor characters has a Foretelling that exactly lays out the end of the series. Keep in mind, LoC came out in 1994 and A Memory of light was released in 2013, so it serves as a nice rebuttal to the argument that long fantasy series are always bloated, meandering works that the author began with no idea how to finish.

 

This is the quote (not a spoiler because you really have to know the ending first before you can really decipher it): "The lion sword, the dedicated spear, she who sees beyond. Three on the boat, and he who is dead yet lives. The great battle done, but the world not yet done with battle. The land divided by the return, and the guardians balance the servants. The future teeters on the edge of a blade."

[Zea mays]

I've just listened to Cursed and Taken, respectively, book 2 and 3 of the Alex Verus series. I do not know if I will continue with this one. It's happened. I found a series that does not utterly suck, but can be put down. I don't know, I just haven't really gotten to care about any of the characters. I do not know what makes me care deeply about some characters (random sampling: Kaladin, Kvothe, Snape, Lawrence and Temeraire, Lirael, Lyra&Will) but not so much about others. Alex Verus is alright, but he's not nearly as fresh and crisp and snarky as Harry Dresden, and he really suffers in the comparison. It's not that Jim Butcher is a much better writer than Brandon Jacka - they seem basically on the same level. I do not know what it is. It sounds better in French: Je ne sais quoi.

 

 

Meanwhile, (while waiting for League of Dragons) I'm listening to The History of the World in Six Glasses, which is delightful. So far I've learned how beer jump-started civilization, and Wine refined it. Eventually Coca-cola will lead to it's downfall, but that's several millennia away and I won't hear that part 'till tomorrow.

[Left he/him]

So I'm well into Tolstoy, and it's good. Not great, but good.

I'm also reading Forrest Gump, although just a little bit every once in a while. It's reminding me a Lot of Of Mice and Men, and I didn't like that book.

[WayneSpren he/him]

A Storm of Swords, by George RR Martin himself.

[Sunbird she/her]

On recommendation from another Sharder, I read Claudia Gray's Star Wars tie-in novel, Lost Stars, today, and it was STORMING FANTASTIC. I really hope she writes a sequel at some point.

[Orlion Blight he/him]

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman and Books Do Furnish a Room by Anthony Powell.

[Sunbird she/her]

Started reading another of Clay and Susan Griffith's books, The Undying Legion. About 80% through according to the progress bar on my Kindle and I am enjoying it. I've highlighted several funny quotes.

[Renoux she/her]

Just started reading The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis for the third time! One of my favorite books  .

[azninvasion99 he/him]

Watchmen is good, but Moore's Swamp Thing is soooo much better!

Little late to this post but...

Moore's Swamp Thing is incredible. #21 stands as one of my all time favorite issues, and Moore creates John Constantine in that run as well. Just fantastic. Also check out his Miracleman run, the last storyline is excellent.

Finished the Sarantine Mosaic by GGK, I felt the story at times was a little thin but I could read interactions between Valerius and Alixana all day. Jumping back into 2nd Powder Mage book now!

[Orlion Blight he/him]

Little late to this post but...

Moore's Swamp Thing is incredible. #21 stands as one of my all time favorite issues, and Moore creates John Constantine in that run as well. Just fantastic. Also check out his Miracleman run, the last storyline is excellent.

Finished the Sarantine Mosaic by GGK, I felt the story at times was a little thin but I could read interactions between Valerius and Alixana all day. Jumping back into 2nd Powder Mage book now!

I'm kinda reading Sarantine Mosaic now and have to ask: why is GGK considered a "literary fantasy writer"? His prose is just merely functional and unengaging. I'm kinda feeling disappointed in it right now.

[Zathoth]

Reading The Weird A compendium of strange and dark stories (110 stories of dark weirdness, from Kafka, Lovecraft, Neil Gaiman and so on and so on), Songs of a dead dreamer/Grimscribe by Thomas Ligotti (A fantastic collection of horror shorts), American Gods and The Furies of Calderon.

 

Orlion you should look into the first two if you haven't already. Especially Ligotti.

[Left he/him]

I finished Tolstoy, A Russian Life. It was pretty good.

[DSC01 he/him]

On to A Crown of Swords.

[Dunkum he/him]

I'm kinda reading Sarantine Mosaic now and have to ask: why is GGK considered a "literary fantasy writer"? His prose is just merely functional and unengaging. I'm kinda feeling disappointed in it right now.

heh, I like him well enough, but yea, I don't really get it either.  i'd add that he has a couple of quirks that kind of annoy me, like telling a series of events from one perspective, then cutting away at the end with a vague cliffhanger only to retell a part of them from a different perspective.  there are at least 3 or 4 examples from the sarantine mosaic that I can think of offhand.  it'd be fine if he only did it sparingly, but it happens so frequently it gets old.

[Briar King]

On to A Crown of Swords.

I really loved this one but I'm in a very huge minority with that feeling.

[Sunbird she/her]

A few days ago I picked up a Kindle book called Flash by Alex Hoagland after a girl I know from meeting her while she was dating my brother posted on Facebook that her own brother had written and self-published a book. (I know that's not really relevant, but I was amused by relating the convoluted trail of relationships that led to me reading this book.) I'm 56% done and it is reminding me a lot of the movie The Adjustment Bureau.

 

Also finally got around to starting the final book in Tyler Whitesides's Janitors series. I'm maybe a quarter the way through that one.

[Straw he/him]

Trying to get into wheel of time.

[Dunkum he/him]

I really loved this one but I'm in a very huge minority with that feeling.

I don't remember crown of swords, specifically, but I do remember being the only person who didn't seem to mind Crossroads of Twilight. 

[Briar King]

You and Terez are the only 2 I've ever heard this from. I thought it and bk 8 were oh so painful to slog through.

[AliasSheep]

I just finished The Gathering Storm, and Harmony, I don't think a book has ever made me want to cry from happiness before. I paused for a toilet break in the middle of a rather memorable encounter at the end of the book and I was so angry with Rand. And then I got back. And I read the rest of the book. And it was wonderful and beautiful and I can't put into words how much I love it. It's official, I'm hooked on the Wheel of Time again.