What Are You Reading, Part 2

[Argent he/him]

I finished the Cycle of Hatred by Keith R.A. DeCandido (yet another Warcraft book) just in time to start working on Brent Weeks' latest Lightbringer installment, The Blood Mirror. I've been looking forward to it.

[DSC01 he/him]

2 hours ago, Argent said:

I finished the Cycle of Hatred by Keith R.A. DeCandido (yet another Warcraft book) just in time to start working on Brent Weeks' latest Lightbringer installment, The Blood Mirror. I've been looking forward to it.

I just got The Blood Mirror yesterday, and holy @#$% is it good! I couldn't read any until I got home from work, but I still got through over 400 pages last night. 

Spoiler

The plot twist early on (chapter 19--if you've read it, then you know exactly what I'm talking about) absolutely blew my mind. It turns the whole story on its head.

By the way, there are no actual spoilers above, but I feel like I'm referencing a spoiler so big that even vague allusions should be spoilered out right now. I'm very happy with this book and have the feeling that I am going to be very upset when I finish it and have to wait a long time for the final volume.

[Argent he/him]

53 minutes ago, DSC01 said:

By the way, there are no actual spoilers above, but I feel like I'm referencing a spoiler so big that even vague allusions should be spoilered out right now. I'm very happy with this book and have the feeling that I am going to be very upset when I finish it and have to wait a long time for the final volume.

I think I'll hold off on reading that anyway

[DSC01 he/him]

20 minutes ago, Argent said:

I think I'll hold off on reading that anyway

I am 90% certain that you'll know when it's okay to read it. 

[StormingTexan he/him]

Finished Morning Star. Again loved it. Now that I've completed the trilogy I think I go against the grain a little with liking the first book Red Rising the most but all were great. Excited to see this authors future works. 

I know a lot of folks here are mainly in to fantasy and not necessarily sci-fi but I think these books will speak to you none the less. These books are similar to Dune and Star Wars in that they are Space Operas and are more similar to fantasy in a sci-fi setting. It's much more about the characters and story than aliens and ray guns. 

 

I read The Obsidian Chamber the latest Pendergast book. I've read this series for years now and starting wonder if it hasn't run its course. 

Also re-read The Three Body Problem in preparation for reading the final two books in the trilogy now that they are out. It's always funny to me how I can enjoy a book much more the second time around. I guess I just have to be in the right mood sometimes when reading a particular book. 

On to the next one The Dark Forest.

 

[Who Sharded?]

I also feel like the Red Rising trilogy is better suited for fantasy fans than sci-fi fans.  The narrative is more like a fantasy story, where you have a relatively small group of characters who can affect change on a large scale.  I also think that people who have read a lot of hard sci-fi would balk at some of the science in Red Rising.

[StormingTexan he/him]

15 minutes ago, Who Sharded? said:

  I also think that people who have read a lot of hard sci-fi would balk at some of the science in Red Rising.

 No doubt. I enjoy hard sci-fi but it was clearly not the authors intentions. Took it at face value and tried not to dissect it too much. 

[Sunbird she/her]

19 hours ago, AngelEy3 said:

You know, that's something I never got into. Don't really know why not though . . . Vampires are cool and Bram Stoker's Dracula was a good read from what I can remember back in HS. I'll have to add those titles to my extensive "read before I die" list. 

Next up for me will be Hero of Ages, followed by either Alloy of Law or Elantris. My goal is to have at least the original Mistborn trilogy, Elantris, and Warbreaker finished before Arcanum Unbounded releases. 

If you're looking for vampire books, I can recommend plenty of better books/series than the ones I'm reading right now. I kinda just needed a "fix." XD

For example, Melissa F Olson's new-ish book from Tor, Nightshades, was pretty awesome IMO. Heck of a cliffhanger ending, though.

Some of my favorite books with vampires:

Written in Red, by Anne Bishop (first in her Others series; also includes shapeshifters and other supernatural stuff)

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, by Holly Black (a standalone based on a short story)

The Greyfriar, by Clay and Susan Griffith (first in a series)

The Immortal Rules, by Julie Kagawa (first in the Blood of Eden trilogy)

Skulduggery Pleasant, by Derek Landy (first in a series. The vampires aren't the main focus here, but they exist.)

Tantalize, by Cynthia Leitich Smith (first in a series)

A Night of Blacker Darkness, by Dan Wells (This one is...different, to say the least, and unfortunately only available in the USA as an ebook. I guarantee you'll laugh at it, though.)

[Briar King he/him]

Finished Outlander 3! Only took a month or more...

actually 3 lol

Edited October 27, 2016 by Briar King

[AngelEy3 he/him]

6 hours ago, Sunbird said:

If you're looking for vampire books, I can recommend plenty of better books/series than the ones I'm reading right now. I kinda just needed a "fix." XD

For example, Melissa F Olson's new-ish book from Tor, Nightshades, was pretty awesome IMO. Heck of a cliffhanger ending, though.

Some of my favorite books with vampires:

Written in Red, by Anne Bishop (first in her Others series; also includes shapeshifters and other supernatural stuff)

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, by Holly Black (a standalone based on a short story)

The Greyfriar, by Clay and Susan Griffith (first in a series)

The Immortal Rules, by Julie Kagawa (first in the Blood of Eden trilogy)

Skulduggery Pleasant, by Derek Landy (first in a series. The vampires aren't the main focus here, but they exist.)

Tantalize, by Cynthia Leitich Smith (first in a series)

A Night of Blacker Darkness, by Dan Wells (This one is...different, to say the least, and unfortunately only available in the USA as an ebook. I guarantee you'll laugh at it, though.)

Thanks! That'll be a good place to start from it sounds like.

[mattig89ch he/him]

Beware my refusals!  Muahahah.

I've started in on cold days in the Dresden files.  I don't really like ghost story, and I was having trouble reading through changes.  Changes isn't really a bad book, don't misunderstand.  But I knew what was happening, and what was coming next.  And I didn't want to go through those ups and downs again.  I actually talk about on the Jim Butcher forums.

I did have a bit of a slump too, and got some good recommendations from another forum I frequent.

[Briar King he/him]

Has anyone reading Lightbringer 4 notice how shoddy it is in terms of the chapter format? It's already the smallest bk I think with a 60+ pg glossary in back but what's making me mad is all chapters start on odd num pgs so there has been a number of blank even pgs thus making the book even shorter...the other 3 just skipp down a set num of lines from chap ends to start. Story is great though!

 

on pg 80 and there's only 2 such pgs but so far but im sure that will grow. It's just strange compared to 1-3 having blank pgs or large portions of blank pgs.

Edited October 29, 2016 by Briar King

[DSC01 he/him]

Yeah, there is a lot of that. It's possible that it's a result of the decision to do an additional volume. That is, Weeks had too much material for one book but not enough to do two books as long as the others in the series, so they padded out this entry with the formatting.

I think that you'll probably stop thinking about that in like 50-60 pages, though. 

Edited October 29, 2016 by DSC01

[Briar King he/him]

2 hours ago, DSC01 said:

Yeah, there is a lot of that. It's possible that it's a result of the decision to do an additional volume. That is, Weeks had too much material for one book but not enough to do two books as long as the others in the series, so they padded out this entry with the formatting.

I think that you'll probably stop thinking about that in like 50-60 pages, though. 

I was thinking the same thing but it's still shoddy of them to do just to take up paper room. I'm gonna try and count all blank pgs as I go. Normally I wouldn't care at all but this is dif since we had 3 bks already.

[Argent he/him]

Finished The Blood Mirror last night. Great book. Sometimes makes me think about the differences in the writing styles of Brent and Brandon - Brent is, for example, more prone to long speeches. I do feel that a certain major twist was a bit of a cheap shot, but I think it's done well enough that I can accept it. But on the upside most of the characters felt just great. 

I think I need to go back to my Warcraft books now.

[Hood he/him]

Discworld. Read Mort, and Guards Guards. Now I think I should try Equal Rites.

[Briar King he/him]

379 pgs in Lightbringer 4. Great story. This timeline issue is so OFF though. 1 arc only a few days have past from bk3 and all others months and seasons have past. Grrr

[AngelEy3 he/him]

Finished HoA (and the whole trilogy for the first time) on Monday night. Had been planning to start Elantris tonight, but I read the Prologue to AoL and had to stick with more Mistborn . 

Really enjoying Brandon's descriptions of the constables only being good for harassing common people and showing up late to emergencies. He seems to have an even better handle on reality than he does fiction. Which I suppose lends itself to writing great fiction in the first place. 

Edited November 3, 2016 by AngelEy3

[Who Sharded?]

7 hours ago, Briar King said:

379 pgs in Lightbringer 4. Great story. This timeline issue is so OFF though. 1 arc only a few days have past from bk3 and all others months and seasons have past. Grrr

You're 80 pages ahead of me.  This book can be frustrating at times, but then you hit a chapter with some awesome revelations and it's all worth it.  Great worldbuilding.  I agree about the timeline thing.

[Argent he/him]

7 hours ago, Briar King said:

This timeline issue is so OFF though. 1 arc only a few days have past from bk3 and all others months and seasons have past. Grrr

It feels weird, I agree. But it's not inconsistent, at least as far as I've been able to tell. It's just that some characters will remark on the passing of time, while others will not think about it at all, which usually implies (to most readers) that not much time has passed since the last time we saw that character. Karris, I think, is notorious in this - I could never keep track of her timeline.

[Ecthelion III he/him]

I read Alcatraz 1 yesterday and got book 2 today. They're brilliant.

[Dani she/her]

2 hours ago, Ecthelion III said:

I read Alcatraz 1 yesterday and got book 2 today. They're brilliant.

Nice, I bought book 1 yesterday. Will read it soon hopefully  

[Briar King he/him]

On 11/3/2016 at 8:34 AM, Argent said:

It feels weird, I agree. But it's not inconsistent, at least as far as I've been able to tell. It's just that some characters will remark on the passing of time, while others will not think about it at all, which usually implies (to most readers) that not much time has passed since the last time we saw that character. Karris, I think, is notorious in this - I could never keep track of her timeline.

It's finally caught up. It was clearly stated how long was passing but I brushed it off till a certain event just pushed my feelings to far more then 350 pgs in. I figured it had to fast forward for that arc and it def sped to it faster then a snap.

[Ammanas]

The Burning Isle by will panzo. A just released book by a new author. I've been looking forward to this one since they had a preview on the Barnes and Noble sci fi fantasy page several months ago. I'm liking it so far.

[Sunbird she/her]

At the suggestion of @Doctor12, I read the Doctor Strange comic arc The Oath. Highly enjoyable IMO, and I LOL'd a lot.

Today I also started (finally!) on J Scott Savage's Gears of Revolution, the second in his steampunk/fantasy series Mysteries of Cove.