What Are You Reading, Part 2

[Kari he/him]

7 minutes ago, NamelessThirteenth said:

Is the wheel of time realy worth my time (pardon my pun)? I mean, I've trid to read the Eye of the World, but the pacing felt a bit slow to me.

Does the pace get better?

It is slow at times, but it gets faster-ish. It's a slow series in general, but gets fast at times.

[Dunkum he/him]

11 minutes ago, NamelessThirteenth said:

Is the wheel of time realy worth my time (pardon my pun)? I mean, I've trid to read the Eye of the World, but the pacing felt a bit slow to me.

Does the pace get better?

it does...and then it gets worse again.  I don't mind it so much, personally, but a lot of people will tell you that the pace slows down to a crawl somewhere around book 7 and deosnt pick back up until Brandon takes over.  book 10 is pretty much universally considered the worst one, in that nothing much of significance happens during the entire thing(though I personally find books 1 and 2 to be the worst).  so take all that however you will.  my personal advice, if you get through book 3 and stll dont want to continue, then it is definitely not for you.

Edited November 18, 2017 by Dunkum

[Briar King]

I’m pretty mad at my brain. My recall is usually pretty great and yet while I’m reading Oath my brain is blanking on way to much so I had to pull out bk 2 and skim the last 100 pgs last night... ugh

[Ammanas]

@Briar King @AngelEy3 This might be of interest to both of you:

https://www.tor.com/2017/11/13/the-stormlight-archive-thus-far/

[AngelEy3 he/him]

1 hour ago, Ammanas said:

@Briar King @AngelEy3 This might be of interest to both of you:

https://www.tor.com/2017/11/13/the-stormlight-archive-thus-far/

That was a huge help! Thanks 

[Storming Radiant he/him]

My copy of Oathbringer has finally arrived, so I'll be putting The Great Hunt down for a while..

[Draginon he/him]

Finished Knights of Crystallia last night. Would've finished sooner but I went to the signing in Houston and I was driving most of the time. I love the silliness of the series and didn't see the twist villain at the end. It's hard for me to find a character in this series that I don't like since they are all so lovable!

Now I'm onto the big guy, Way of Kings.

[MistbornAlpaca he/him]

Uh... Oathbringer... Duh!

[Kari he/him]

Just started Fellowship of the Ring. It looks like I might enjoy it.

[AngelEy3 he/him]

7 hours ago, Hunt2man said:

Just started Fellowship of the Ring. It looks like I might enjoy it.

First timer, for real? Have fun. The most magical times of my youth were reading LOTR over and over again. 

[Egomere]

Currently re-reading Mistborn but I've recently started reading like crazy again, - I tend to go through a frenzy of reading for a few months then slow down to almost nothing (like maybe a few books a month rather than 20 or 30 (I devour books)).

Recently read; Red Rising Trilogy, Kingkiller Chronicles, Lightbringer series, Spellslinger and several others and have now got to the slow down stage to wait for the final books of series to be released (next year for a few of them).

Have heard of the Gentleman Bastard series but not got round to it yet, might request them for a christmas present from peoples.

[Flying she/her]

On 11/21/2017 at 1:12 PM, Hunt2man said:

Just started Fellowship of the Ring. It looks like I might enjoy it.

Lord of the Rings is really good. It's right next to Stormlight Archive on my favorite books of all time list. Have fun reading it! 

[Scyora she/her]

I just finished Warbreaker! (Like Elantris, it took a little time for me to get caught. But then...I loved it!)

Now, I'll start Way of Kings!

 

[Hood he/him]

My aunt came from US and brought this. I asked for paperback, but got hardcover.

 

[Orlion Blight he/him]

2 hours ago, Hood said:

My aunt came from US and brought this. I asked for paperback, but got hardcover.

 

Awww, she wanted you to have the book! 

Right now, it is only in hardcover in the US. It'll come out in paperback in about a year. 

[Briar King]

No spoilers here but I’m 600+ pgs in Oath and have been having a day by day increasingly hard time willing myself read it since around the 300 mark.

[Ammanas]

1 hour ago, Briar King said:

No spoilers here but I’m 600+ pgs in Oath and have been having a day by day increasingly hard time willing myself read it since around the 300 mark.

I don't know if this helps or not, but I have found that you really have to approach Stormlight Archives with a certain mindset.

These are not tightly plotted books that quickly move the story along. These books are all about loosing yourself in the world, getting to know characters (and seeing their development), and finding how it all relates to the cosmere.

If I recall correctly you are currently reading Grace of Kings by Liu...these two series couldn't be more different, (in terms of pacing) but I enjoy both for different reasons.

[Silverblade5 he/him]

Currently reading The Last Dog on Earth

[Kari he/him]

Just started the WoT book 8, and judging how my library just got edgdancer. 

I'm guessing Oathbringer isn't far behind. Te suspense is killing me.

[Briar King]

11 hours ago, Ammanas said:

I don't know if this helps or not, but I have found that you really have to approach Stormlight Archives with a certain mindset.

These are not tightly plotted books that quickly move the story along. These books are all about loosing yourself in the world, getting to know characters (and seeing their development), and finding how it all relates to the cosmere.

If I recall correctly you are currently reading Grace of Kings by Liu...these two series couldn't be more different, (in terms of pacing) but I enjoy both for different reasons.

Yep I brought that up a few days ago in the Oath thread on Malazan. It’s spoiling me with its fast pace with as little bloat as is possible with short clips.

[Ammanas]

@Briar King I'm pretty sure the plan is for him (Ken Liu) to release book three in Fall of 2018...I am really excited to see how it turns out. I emailed Ken Liu and he told me it that book three will end with a complete story, but that he has ideas for other stuff to do in that world depending on if his stuff sells well enough that his publisher wants/allows him to write more in that setting.

The closest thing I have found to Grace of Kings way of telling a story is The Legend of the Galactic Heroes by Tanaka. This series is a huge deal in Japan and they have 5 of 10 translated into English with more coming soon. If the title of the series is turn off then don't let it be. This is basically The Prussian Wars in outer space and is a great series so far!

Edited November 28, 2017 by Ammanas

[StormingTexan he/him]

I’m in the mood for some sci-fi anyone have any good recommendations? 

[Ammanas]

5 minutes ago, StormingTexan said:

I’m in the mood for some sci-fi anyone have any good recommendations? 

The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey

The legend of the galactic Heroes book series by Tanaka. 

The Culture series (Start with The Player of Games) by Banks

Edited November 30, 2017 by Ammanas

[StormingTexan he/him]

7 minutes ago, Ammanas said:

The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey

The legend of the galactic Heroes book series by Tanaka. 

The Culture series (Start with The Player of Games) by Banks

Thanks I’ve been meaning to check out the Culture Series. I tried Expanse but couldn’t get into  it. 

[MistbornAlpaca he/him]

I"ve been going back to some classics, including A Wizard of Earthsea, by Leguin, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, by Twain, and Harry Potter.

I would just like to comment on how influential A Wizard of Earthsea has been. While I'm not certain it was influencing these authors, there are definately relationships in the magic and story.

• The first 2 or 3 chapters felt very much like Harry Potter... Or I should say, Harry Potter felt very much like these first few chapter.
• The naming magic felt very reminiscent of Name of the Wind, except Earthsea came first
• On the subject of naming, the old language felt very much like Eragon, except again, Earthsea came first
• The whole thing with turning into beasts and them eventually overcoming you felt very much like the Wit magic from the Farseer Trilogy, but Earthsea came first

There are so many relationships between Earthsea and other popular fantasy books, and I love Leguin's style. If anyone hasn't read it, I would highly recommend it!

As for Harry Potter, I read the whole series 3 or 4 times 5 or 6 years ago, but now I'm getting my 9-year old sister into it with a reading contest. For every Potter book she finishes before me, she gets a candy bar, but I can only read for 10 minutes a day. So far, I'm winning, about 3/4 through book 1.