What Are You Reading, Part 2

[DSC01 he/him]

I just read BoM, too. I don't get my hardcover until Friday (I doubt know if it sold out or if the local blizzard has messed up shipping), but I read the ebook on my phone. Sadly, I couldn't really read the broadsheets, but that'll save something for Friday. Definitely some great stuff in the book.

[Sunbird she/her]

Currently finishing up The Name of the Wind. Sadly I didn't love it and won't continue the series. I didn't hate it either. It was well told but just didn't seem to have anything that shocked me, the characters were just fine.......just wasn't feeling it at all. 

 

I'm considering the following series to which I'll leave it up to fate. First person to reply with the one I just have to read because it was so good I'll chance it. They are all fantasy series books. 

 

The Blade Itself

The Black Prism

Assassin's Apprentice

Garden's of the Moon

The Aeronaut's  Windglass

Theft of Swords

Of these, I have read The Aeronaut's Windlass and thought it was absolutely phenomenal--even better than the majority of the Dresden Files, if you've read those. Cool magic, political intrigue, likeable characters, the trademark Jim Butcher snark: this book has it all.

[Hood he/him]

I'm currently reading The Complete Essays by Michel de Montaigne. Quite insightful essays. Though some are less deep than others.

 

Now, I am all out for starting my essays, and articles with his style. Like "On the dangers of running series dc motor at no load".

[Left he/him]

I finished Mitch Albom's The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto. It was beautiful, it was by far my favorite Albom book since Tuesday's with Morie.

I'm listening to Crime and Punishment on cd, it's going pretty slowly right now though.

Still waiting for my copy of Bands of Mourning.

[Argent he/him]

I've moved on to City of Blades, the sequel to City of Stairs. I did gobble down Mistborn: Secret History quickly after The Bands of Mourning, and it was just a field day. 

[Orlion Blight he/him]

I've moved on to City of Blades, the sequel to City of Stairs. I did gobble down Mistborn: Secret History quickly after The Bands of Mourning, and it was just a field day.

I'm going to finish some Kafka first, but after that I think I'll read City of Blades.

[Pestis the Spider she/her]

Is City of Stairs any good? 

[Argent he/him]

It's great. I don't remember what made it great, but I loved it.

[Orlion Blight he/him]

Is City of Stairs any good?

I liked it as well. It's kinda a "detective" novel in that there is a mystery involved, and further it involves a "dead City of the Gods". In that vein, it falls between Elantris and Perdido Street Station. Like Elantris, religion and occupation are themes, and there's some levity as well(though not as much). Like Perdido Street Station, there's a nice atmosphere of undefined dread, though a lot end up being explained and the writing isn't as stylistic or gritty.

[Who Sharded?]

I've read all of those except The Aeronaut's Windlass.  Gardens of the Moon is definitely my favorite of those.  I'm also a fan of Sullivan's books, love most of Abercrombie's books after the first one, and really liked the sequel to The Black Prism (as well as his Night Angel Trilogy).  Assassin's Apprentice is well written but not really my thing.

 

Edit: wrong page.  I was talking about this list:

 

The Blade Itself

The Black Prism

Assassin's Apprentice

Garden's of the Moon

The Aeronaut's  Windglass

Theft of Swords 

Edited January 29, 2016 by Who Sharded?

[azninvasion99 he/him]

Took me a long while (kept getting distracted by Netflix, new Mistborn books, etc) but I finally finished The Lions of Al Rassan by GGK. What an incredible book, beautifully written. I'm stuck in that place between awe and emotional breakdown, still not really sure how I feel about that journey that book put me through. Highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it. 

[Mailliw73 he/him]

Took me a long while (kept getting distracted by Netflix, new Mistborn books, etc) but I finally finished The Lions of Al Rassan by GGK. What an incredible book, beautifully written. I'm stuck in that place between awe and emotional breakdown, still not really sure how I feel about that journey that book put me through. Highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it.

I second this wholeheartedly. It is amazing.

[Andarist he/him]

Took me a long while (kept getting distracted by Netflix, new Mistborn books, etc) but I finally finished The Lions of Al Rassan by GGK. What an incredible book, beautifully written. I'm stuck in that place between awe and emotional breakdown, still not really sure how I feel about that journey that book put me through. Highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it. 

 

Agree absolutely. The book had me in awe with its poetic language and stunning evocation of a dying civilization

[Orlion Blight he/him]

Reading a lot of books now. The idea is, come the new year, I can finish them all rather quickly and have a nice head start on my book-a-week goal! Hoo-rah!

 

1) The Trial - Franz Kafka

2) The Judging Eye - R. Scott Bakker

3) Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? - James Shapiro

4) Rights From Wrongs - Andy Bershowitz

5) We Have Only This Life to Live: The Selected Essays of Jean-Paul Sartre 1939-1975

6) The Spanish Civil War- Hugh Thomas (I don't expect finishing this for a while yet)

Looks like I've completed three of these, and read three others besides. I'm currently reading The Valley of Bones by Anthony Powell which is just fantastic. I'll probably bring the Sartre book around with me and whittle away at it bit by bit.

[Rayse]

Currently finishing up The Name of the Wind. Sadly I didn't love it and won't continue the series. I didn't hate it either. It was well told but just didn't seem to have anything that shocked me, the characters were just fine.......just wasn't feeling it at all. 

 

I'm considering the following series to which I'll leave it up to fate. First person to reply with the one I just have to read because it was so good I'll chance it. They are all fantasy series books. 

 

The Blade Itself

The Black Prism

Assassin's Apprentice

Garden's of the Moon

The Aeronaut's  Windglass

Theft of Swords

 

 

I have only read The Black Prism out of those, but I liked it, so read it.

 

 

for what its worth, there is a lot of discussion in this thread about the Malazan Book of the Fallen series (Gardens of the moon is from that) and a lot of people will tell you you can/should skip that one and get back to it basically because it drops you in with almost no hand holding to introduce the world to you.  That means it can be a bit tough to get in to.

 

 

I've read The Black Prism, Assassin's Apprentice, and about 400 pages of Gardens of the Moon. I gave up on Gardens because I still had no real idea of what was going on with the world, and I hated all of the characters. I'll get back to the series some day, probably, but I haven't yet.

 

I love most of Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings books. I didn't like the Dragonkeepers serie. There are 4 books in that one, and I just quit in the middle of the first one. I found it boring. The others are great, though. I actually read them in the wrong order by accident, but it didn't really matter that much. I read the Farseer trilogy first, then The Tawny Man trilogy, and Liveship Traders after that. It turned out that the last series took place in between the first two, there, but it happened in a different country, with very little overlap between plot and characters.

 

I read Lightbringer about a year ago, and I thought it was a really good series. I think that Weeks' writing is in the same school as Sanderson's in a way that one can't really say about any other author but Brian McClellan. I'm excited for the last volume to come out.

 

 

Of these, I have read The Aeronaut's Windlass and thought it was absolutely phenomenal--even better than the majority of the Dresden Files, if you've read those. Cool magic, political intrigue, likeable characters, the trademark Jim Butcher snark: this book has it all.

 

 

Thanks for all of the replies. I'm finishing up The Black Prism. I thought it was good not great. Part of that might be that I did it as an audio book and the narrator sounds like he's reading Bill and Ted's Excellent adventure. If you fill your commute with audio books like I do please do yourself a favor and read this one. To drive home the point I think they received a lot of complaints and realized their mistake because the other two books in the series have a different narrator. 

 

I did like a lot of the sarcasm in the Black Prism and the way some of the characters played off of each other. The magic was cool and inventive. I did find the tension within the plot to be more towards a younger audience that would like something like Twilight. I read a lot of books that my children read and have had them read things such as Pullman's dark materials, Harry Potter, Artimis Fowl and read things they were reading such as the Hunger Games series, the Divergent series, the Maze Runner Series, etc and enjoyed them all to some degree so I'm not saying older people (I'm mid 40's) won't like the Black Prism just that it's not for everybody. 

 

I think coming off of the first two Stormlight books late last year the bar is just so high in the fantasy genre for me right now. Historical fiction which is one of my other genres of choice I've recently read All the light we cannot see and Nightingale both of which were phenomenal. 

 

Still debating on my next fantasy book from the list I started with. 

[Guest]

Thanks for all of the replies. I'm finishing up The Black Prism. I thought it was good not great. Part of that might be that I did it as an audio book and the narrator sounds like he's reading Bill and Ted's Excellent adventure. If you fill your commute with audio books like I do please do yourself a favor and read this one. To drive home the point I think they received a lot of complaints and realized their mistake because the other two books in the series have a different narrator. 

 

OK. I have to give you bonus points for mentioning Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure 

 

I think coming off of the first two Stormlight books late last year the bar is just so high in the fantasy genre for me right now. Historical fiction which is one of my other genres of choice I've recently read All the light we cannot see and Nightingale both of which were phenomenal. 

 

Historical fiction huh? I do like the genre as well... I have checked the two books you listed. They sound great. I really need to spend more time reading, it is taking me forever to punch through Codex Alera. Then I figured I should read SoS and BoM, I have been waiting to finish my current read and I say I am slightly anxious about those. What if I don't like them?

[Rayse]

OK. I have to give you bonus points for mentioning Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure 

 

 

Historical fiction huh? I do like the genre as well... I have checked the two books you listed. They sound great. I really need to spend more time reading, it is taking me forever to punch through Codex Alera. Then I figured I should read SoS and BoM, I have been waiting to finish my current read and I say I am slightly anxious about those. What if I don't like them?

 

Thanks for the B&T's kudos. 

 

I haven't read SOS or BOM but I know what you mean. When Stormlight #3 comes out I pray it lives up to the expectations. I've currently read the first three Mistborn's and thought they were excellent but still not nearly as good as Stormlight. I was thinking of reading Elantris but I'm trying to spread out my Sanderson reading so I don't fly through all of them. 

[Kaymyth she/her]

 Then I figured I should read SoS and BoM, I have been waiting to finish my current read and I say I am slightly anxious about those. What if I don't like them?

 

 

 

Question...does...not...compute....

[WayneSpren he/him]

Then I figured I should read SoS and BoM, I have been waiting to finish my current read and I say I am slightly anxious about those. What if I don't like them?

I don't think its physically possible to "dislike" a Mistborn novel.

[Orlion Blight he/him]

If you do not like them, you'll just lose all your friends and bring dishonor to your family. No big deal

Edited February 2, 2016 by Lying Orlion

[Guest]

Now you all put so much pressure on me     

 

Seriously, I am always anxious when new books from a favored author come out, moreover since I didn't overly enjoyed Firefight. I realize both stories are very different and targeted towards different readers, but still I have some lingering fear. I also, initially, was waiting for the release of BoM since both books were so close in time. 

 

I have no excuse now   except finishing the book I am currently reading.

 

 

Thanks for the B&T's kudos. 

 

I haven't read SOS or BOM but I know what you mean. When Stormlight #3 comes out I pray it lives up to the expectations. I've currently read the first three Mistborn's and thought they were excellent but still not nearly as good as Stormlight. I was thinking of reading Elantris but I'm trying to spread out my Sanderson reading so I don't fly through all of them. 

 

It is rare I see someone make reference to oldies such as these   You've got to love Bill and Ted: a classic 

 

Stormlight Archive 3 is my most anticipated book ever and I have so many expectations I fear it is inevitable I will be disappointed. I am so afraid to read this one: I fear it will ruin too many things I have been taken for granted.  I know. Silly, but still.

[StormingTexan he/him]

SoS and BoM actually made me want The Lost Metal even more than SA3 and I didn't think that was possible.

Oh and I'm reading the Mistborn history novela right now which will blow your mind if your a Mistborn/Cosmere fan.

[Guest]

SoS and BoM actually made me want The Lost Metal even more than SA3 and I didn't think that was possible.

Oh and I'm reading the Mistborn history novela right now which will blow your mind if your a Mistborn/Cosmere fan.

 

Alright   I'll get to it. For my case, however, I seriously doubt anything can race up SA3 in terms of anticipation. 

[StormingTexan he/him]

Alright I'll get to it. For my case, however, I seriously doubt anything can race up SA3 in terms of anticipation.

I know I thought the same. Of course Mistborn has always been special to me because it's the first Sanderson books I read. What's going on in era 2 is just amazing though and man there will be a long wait for the final book. It will give us a lot to talk about though.

The history novela is probably the most important book so far Cosmere wise. I'm actually surprised Brandon pulled back the curtain so much (BoM as well to maybe a slightly lesser degree.)

On another topic I'm having a REALY hard time getting back into WoT. I'm about 25% through A Crown of Swords and feeling like I am forcing myself to complete it. I've stopped and started a few times now.

I think I'm going to do a Reckoners re-read real quick before Calamity is released. Then maybe I'll jump back on to WoT.

I also tried Brent Weeks The way of the Shadow about 30% through and not sure what I think about it at all. It's pretty dark.

[Kestrel she/her]

Finally got Bands of Mourning in the mail, so that.