What Are You Reading, Part 2

[StormingTexan he/him]

So I got about 3/4 of the way through Tigana and just completely lost interest. That is pretty rare for me. Maybe I will try and finish it up sometimes I find I am just not in the mood for a particular book at the time. 

 

I am almost done with Off to Be the Wizard. It is goofy as heck but a fun read which apparently I was more in the mood for. I will probably pick up the next one in the series. 

[Left he/him]

So I'm almost a hundred pages into Osman's Dream, the history of the Ottoman Empire I was talking about. It's actually quite good, but I feel like my knowledge of medieval European states is completely insufficient. So far the maps haven't been terribly helpful either as they tend to be very general, and the text very specific, so I can't match them together very well. 

Its pretty readable for a history book, and very very interesting. 

[Quadrophenia]

I finally read Brandon Sanderson's The Rithmatist! ... And, huh. Sort of the first time I ever found one of his works to be just... "okay." Not great, not a knockout like Elantris or Warbreaker, nor even as pure fun as any of the Mistborn Era 2 books. It's fine, sure, and there's plenty I like about it, but it sort of came off as a subpar ersatz Harry Potter novel to me. The plot doesn't even kick in until you're more than halfway over, and even then it feels like so little happens up until then. In contrast, Philosopher's Stone managed to compress so much in fewer pages, getting across more in terms of character and subplots and actual "kid heroes investigate mystery" shenanigans than The Rithmatist manages to accomplish in a hundred or so pages.

It feels underwhelming, I have to be honest. I love Sanderson's work, so reading a novel that's just... decent is almost worse than reading a book written by any other author that's just plain bad, heh heh. 

In the meantime, I'm currently reading Forrest Leo's debut comedic fantasy novel The Gentleman. 

Edited November 23, 2016 by Quadrophenia

[Ammanas]

@Quadrophenia I started reading The Rithmatist and put it down after a little bit because I wasnt't interested. After a while I gave the audiobook a try and ended up really enjoying it! Although, I bet Michael Krammer could make reading from a phone book sound thrilling. 

On another note I'm on the fourth book of The Shadow campaign series called The Guns of Empire. I've really enjoyed this flintlock fantasy series. 

[AngelEy3 he/him]

Just about to start Secret History for the first time. I'm so excited! There's always another secret!

[Sunbird she/her]

I've been reading Dan Wells's new book, Extreme Makeover, for the past few days. It makes me laugh a lot, but it also makes me sympathy-cringe and want to slap some of the characters.

[Ammanas]

I'm on The Providence of Fire (the second book in the chronicles of the unhewn throne trilogy by Staveley). I've been very impressed by this series so far and book 2 has broadened the scope and raised the stakes.

[Briar King]

I've read a total of 8 pgs of Safehold 5 since tues lol. FF 15 is taking 99% of my time and I'm not complaining one bit!

[AngelEy3 he/him]

4 hours ago, Briar King said:

I've read a total of 8 pgs of Safehold 5 since tues lol. FF 15 is taking 99% of my time and I'm not complaining one bit!

I wish I was playing FF 15... Had it storming pre-ordered and Amazon still hasn't delivered it. They are now saying that if I don't get it by Monday, I should contact them about other options... I should have had it on my doorstep with Tuesday's mail. It's been a sad week. Especially since I have a brand new Xbox One with no games to play... 

[WritingBookworm]

So I just finished Hero of Ages (bet none of you on this forum know who wrote that), and I'm now moving onto Glitter by Aprilynne Pike. The book's kind of like a female-led Breaking Bad set in dystopian yet 18th century culture-esque Versailles -- it's complicated. My expectations weren't too high, since it's been getting kind of low reviews on Goodreads, but I've actually been really enjoying it so far!

Edited December 2, 2016 by WritingBookworm

[Sunbird she/her]

Recently read two good books: Sands by Kevin L Nielsen and Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth. (Random side note: Every time I see Farnsworth's last name, it makes me think of Warehouse 13 and the little communication devices they use called Farnsworths. XD)

Just now, WritingBookworm said:

So I just finished Hero of Ages (bet none of you on this forum know who wrote that), and I'm now moving onto Glitter by Aprilynne Pike. The book's kind of like a female-led Breaking Bad set in dystopian 18th century Versailles -- it's complicated. My expectations weren't too high, since it's been getting kind of low reviews on Goodreads, but I've actually been really enjoying it so far!

Upvote for Mistborn, for your awesome username, and for your awesome profile pic.

[Oversleep]

I just lent Cloud Atlas from library. I think I may put off reading Stewart's Night Watch for later

[Briar King]

10 hours ago, AngelEy3 said:

I wish I was playing FF 15... Had it storming pre-ordered and Amazon still hasn't delivered it. They are now saying that if I don't get it by Monday, I should contact them about other options... I should have had it on my doorstep with Tuesday's mail. It's been a sad week. Especially since I have a brand new Xbox One with no games to play... 

That really sux! Take this time to go get the movie. You need/should watch before you even hit play.

[Zathoth]

@Ookla the Archer I read the original Doom Patrol. I am about to start Grant Morrison's run. Wish me luck.

[AngelEy3 he/him]

On 12/2/2016 at 11:17 AM, Briar King said:

That really sux! Take this time to go get the movie. You need/should watch before you even hit play.

Oh yea! The movie is fantastic. I've seen at a half dozen times already. Ended up having the game delivered late Saturday afternoon. I'm really happy with it so far

[Briar King]

19 hours ago, AngelEy3 said:

Oh yea! The movie is fantastic. I've seen at a half dozen times already. Ended up having the game delivered late Saturday afternoon. I'm really happy with it so far

Very good. Yea that movie was great is def a must watch 1st! I'm now at about only 30 pgs read in total since last tues. Everything is being put on hold to play. My Dvr is getting backed up lol. My reading will increase tomorrow as I think Iron Banner is on Destiny so I ll be reading inbetween matches atleast

[Retsam]

I finished Blood Mirror a week or so ago, and I wanted to give it some time to "settle" in my mind, and on the whole, I really enjoyed it.  The fact that this suddenly became its own book shows in that some of the plot lines simply stop rather than conclude; but on the whole I thought it was a a return to form after The Broken Eye, which I found to be just slightly inferior to the first two books in the series.  

I love all the Lightbringer plot twists, I honestly think they're one of the best parts of that story, and are just phenomenal in their own right: Weeks does a great job making his twists that aren't just shock value to the reader, but actually add layers of complexity and drama to the story itself (which is really helpful for rereads).  The big twist from the first book isn't interesting because it's a surprise: it's interesting in its own right narratively.  

That being said, I do feel that more could be done to foreshadow the twists: one thing I appreciate about Sanderson's occasional twists is that whenever they happen a whole lot of things suddenly become obvious foreshadowing in retrospect.  (e.g. "He will bear the weight of the world on his arms")  Whereas that doesn't seem to be the case with the Lightbringer twists very often.  It's one thing for the book 1 twists to be unforeshadowed, but when we're four books in, I think it would be nice if there was a bit more groundwork laid.  

In fact, with some of these latest twists, not only are they not hinted at by previous events, but the opposite is rather true: they're actually difficult to reconcile with the events of past books.  I imagine that some of those seeming inconsistencies will be addressed next book: I highly doubt Brent Weeks is just making this up as he goes along, so I think there's probably good explanation for those seeming plot holes, but it's a pretty strong indicator of how unpredictable some of these twists are: even if someone had predicted them, they probably wouldn't have withstood scrutiny on the likes of this forum.

---

Otherwise, I've started reading the web-serial Mother of Learning, which has been a touch less addictive than crack cocaine to me.  It's a time-loop story set in a school for magic where, (naturally) the main character gets stronger over time: basically it's all of my favorite tropes in a single story.  (And after being rather disappointed by the recent anime, RE:Zero, which had a similar premise; it's really nice to see this premise done so well)

It's a bit over 2/3rds done, according to the author (and it's currently some 300K words?), so I'm dreading catching up; but as ever, it'll probably be a fun story to speculate on.

It's the second web-serial I've really enjoyed, with Worm, which I read a couple years ago, being the first.  In between, I tried Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, and hated it.  All three are ostensibly "rationalist" fic: the protagonists all solve problems largely by clever thinking, not by sheer might: but HPMoR decided to beat the reader over the head with its views on rationality, violently and repeatedly.   

[Dunkum he/him]

Been meaning to reread the Harry Potter series for a while now.  originally was waiting for all the movies to be out and for some of the hype to die down a bit, but given the Fantastic Beasts movie just came out, I doubt that will happen any time soon, so I gave in and started.  so far i'm about 1/3 of the way through book 1 and it is even more mediocre than I remember it being.  nothing to revise my opinion that this is probably the most overrated series I have ever read.

[Briar King]

1 hour ago, Dunkum said:

Been meaning to reread the Harry Potter series for a while now.  originally was waiting for all the movies to be out and for some of the hype to die down a bit, but given the Fantastic Beasts movie just came out, I doubt that will happen any time soon, so I gave in and started.  so far i'm about 1/3 of the way through book 1 and it is even more mediocre than I remember it being.  nothing to revise my opinion that this is probably the most overrated series I have ever read.

I don't think it really got going till bk 4 then it was just straight fun imo. I bought 1-4 after watching 1-3 and finished 4 as the trailers for 4 started to come out.

[Jondesu he/him]

I got a copy of Warbreaker from the library (I read it previously, but only the version he posted online, which still needed editing, so I wanted to read the final version), but I haven't even cracked it open yet, while I got the notification that Arcanum Unbounded is ready for me to pick up at the library as well. 

[Ammanas]

12 minutes ago, Jondesu said:

I got a copy of Warbreaker from the library (I read it previously, but only the version he posted online, which still needed editing, so I wanted to read the final version), but I haven't even cracked it open yet, while I got the notification that Arcanum Unbounded is ready for me to pick up at the library as well. 

I feel like Warbreaker is the redheaded step child of the cosmere...it is constantly overlooked. The only system not to get a essay in Arcanum Unbounded. Great book!

[Quiver he/him]

12 minutes ago, Ammanas said:

I feel like Warbreaker is the redheaded step child of the cosmere...it is constantly overlooked. The only system not to get a essay in Arcanum Unbounded. Great book!

Warbreaker is Best Cosmere.

Anyway, I've recently finished the Wax/Wayne stuff. Currently reading some light novels between learning the rules for MAG.

[StormingTexan he/him]

33 minutes ago, Ammanas said:

I feel like Warbreaker is the redheaded step child of the cosmere...it is constantly overlooked. The only system not to get a essay in Arcanum Unbounded. Great book!

 I feel the same and think it is highly underrated. 

[Dunkum he/him]

2 hours ago, Briar King said:

I don't think it really got going till bk 4 then it was just straight fun imo. I bought 1-4 after watching 1-3 and finished 4 as the trailers for 4 started to come out.

been a bit since my original read through, but I do recall liking book 5 a lot more than the eariler books (though Harry himself annoyed me through the entire thing).  part of the point of rereading it was to try to reasses the series from a different standpoint, so we will see how that ends up, but so far it is not wowing me.

[marsoupial they/them]

9 hours ago, Jondesu said:

I got a copy of Warbreaker from the library (I read it previously, but only the version he posted online, which still needed editing, so I wanted to read the final version), but I haven't even cracked it open yet, while I got the notification that Arcanum Unbounded is ready for me to pick up at the library as well. 

Wait, Jond, your library has AU? 

My city's public library is pretty bad. We only have two Sanderson books (AoL and WoR; we used to have WoK but it's gone now ). We do, however, have the Night Vale novel, so that's a plus.