What Are You Reading, Part 2

[Left he/him]

I finished Toungues of Serpents and Crucible of Gold. Reading Blood of Tyrants now. I have to say I see why it was recommended to me to stop at Victory of Eagles which I did previously. It just seems like one of those series that goes on a little too long. Mange this book will change my mind.

Tongues of serpents is definitely Bad, but I thought that Crucible helped pick it up a little, and Blood was honestly really good. I don't think it's necessarily gotten as good as the original, but it's definitely better than the mid series.

[StormingTexan he/him]

I'm optimistic about Blood of Serpents because I like the way it started and has been interesting so far.

[Zea mays]

Yeah, Tongue of Serpents in definitely the weakest link in the Temeraire series.  I didn't really dislike it because A) Having happened upon some fan reactions beforehand, I knew going in that nothing much will happen, and It's set in Australia.

[Argent he/him]

Update time!

 

I finally finished Empire Ascendant, the second book in Kameron Hurley's Worldbreaker Saga. I don't remember much of the first book, but I think my overall reaction was similar to how I felt when I finished Mirror Empire - confusion. Worldbreaker is so different, in so many ways, I find it distracting and difficult to relate to. Much of it has to do with gender and sexuality, and while I no longer find non-heterosexual characters to be novelty in a story, I don't think I am quite ready for people who choose their genders (and often change their decision), people who physically change their gender, and peoples that have more than two genders (and therefore more than two gender pronouns). Maybe I am not thinking flexibly enough, maybe Hurley's writing is a little ahead of its time, or maybe she is just weird. I don't know.

 

Outside of that, however, outside the genders I couldn't get used to, and the sentient man-eating trees, and the world where any kind of touch requires verbal consent - oh, and outside the large numbers of characters, both major and minor dying - Empire Ascendant wasn't a bad read. I just find it difficult to praise it specifically. 

 

I needed a break after how complicated I found Empire Ascendant, so I went and read Brandon's Defending Elysium (which I had read a long time ago and remembered almost nothing of) and Firstborn (which I hadn't read at all). I liked both, but I think the former was noticeably stronger. I could live with a sequel. 

 

And now, because I am bad at learning lessons, I am reading Fall of Light, the second book in The Kharkanas Trilogy (a.k.a. the Malazan prequels). I am something like 50 pages in, and I can already tell this is going to be exhausting read - I keep forgetting how heavy Erickson's language can be, and how even the village idiot speaks like a philosopher. 

[Vissy]

Reading the First Law trilogy right now. It's been a great journey, in my opinion. I saw complaints about the plot earlier; looking back at this, I kind of agree, there was not much of a plot going on in the beginning. But I enjoyed the characters, and I wanted to see what happened to them. Though I disliked Ferro and Jezal at first, they quickly grew on me - and Sand is just absolutely delightful. They are true-to-life characters, with thoughts that are shockingly realistic and close to what I often myself find thinking. It really puts to perspective how vain everyone can be. But this ruggedness is also a weakness on the non-POV characters, because we don't get to feel their inner thoughts and experience empathy for them. 

[AliasSheep]

Currently reading Knife of Dreams, time I finished The Wheel of Time.  Unfortunately, I can't seem to get hooked on it properly, so I'm still reading it in really small doses.  Hoping that I can actually get hooked soon, because else I don't see this as being wonderfully interesting.

 

 

Update time!

 

I finally finished Empire Ascendant, the second book in Kameron Hurley's Worldbreaker Saga. I don't remember much of the first book, but I think my overall reaction was similar to how I felt when I finished Mirror Empire - confusion. Worldbreaker is so different, in so many ways, I find it distracting and difficult to relate to. Much of it has to do with gender and sexuality, and while I no longer find non-heterosexual characters to be novelty in a story, I don't think I am quite ready for people who choose their genders (and often change their decision), people who physically change their gender, and peoples that have more than two genders (and therefore more than two gender pronouns). Maybe I am not thinking flexibly enough, maybe Hurley's writing is a little ahead of its time, or maybe she is just weird. I don't know.

 

Outside of that, however, outside the genders I couldn't get used to, and the sentient man-eating trees, and the world where any kind of touch requires verbal consent - oh, and outside the large numbers of characters, both major and minor dying - Empire Ascendant wasn't a bad read. I just find it difficult to praise it specifically. 

 

That series seems really, really interesting.

[Argent he/him]

Conceptually it is. It's why I stick with it. But it's something I read almost entirely so I can get some exposure to the type of content on it, I find it difficult to enjoy.

[Orlion Blight he/him]

Update time!

Maybe I am not thinking flexibly enough, maybe Hurley's writing is a little ahead of its time, or maybe she is just weird. I don't know.

Perhaps all the above!

I've been meaning to read the first book, but I'll probably read Fall of Light first... And a bunch of other books... Why is there never time enough to read? It's not faaaair!

[Sunbird she/her]

So I read Kill Shakespeare, Vol. 1, and although I enjoyed it and plan to try to get my hands on Vol. 2 to read, one thing really bugged me: whoever was writing the dialogue obviously doesn't know how to use the pronouns "thou" and "thee." Verbs were often conjugated wrong when used with "thou," and several times "thee" was used as the subject of a sentence. (I just took an Early Modern English class last semester, so this stuff is fresh in my mind.)

[Trizee]

Finished The Kite Runner and Best Served Cold. I thought Kite was a very good book, but it wasn't really my type, so I don't think I'll be reading more of Husseini's books. Best Served Cold was a definite step up from the First Law trilogy, I really enjoyed it.

 

I'm now reading Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch and it is amazing.

[Left he/him]

So I finally got Mistborn Secret History. So far it's really good, but I wish I'd gotten it sooner so that I knew less of the spoiler stuff beforehand. There's just been no way to avoid all the SH spoilers on the shard...

I'm still working on Otherland, hopefully I'll finish by the end of the month.

[Orlion Blight he/him]

So I finally got Mistborn Secret History. So far it's really good, but I wish I'd gotten it sooner so that I knew less of the spoiler stuff beforehand. There's just been no way to avoid all the SH spoilers on the shard...

I'm still working on Otherland, hopefully I'll finish by the end of the month.

Yeah, I broke my rule of not reading ebooks in order to avoid that specific problem. My friend is able to hold off on it because she does not frequent the Shard, but me? No way!

Hope I wasn't part of the spoiling problem!

[Left he/him]

Yeah, I broke my rule of not reading ebooks in order to avoid that specific problem. My friend is able to hold off on it because she does not frequent the Shard, but me? No way!

Hope I wasn't part of the spoiling problem!

Yeah it's the first ebook I've bought too.

I haven't paid attention to who's less careful about spoilers, it's just kind of an osmosis issue.

[Eki]

Just finished The Lies of Locke Lamora. I really liked it! It took a while to get used to the viewpoint though (third person cinematic? I'm not even sure), I'm so used to reading third person limited or first person. Also, the real life quotes in between parts kind of took me out of the story... Nitpicking, I know, but I don't really understand why they are there...

I'll continue reading the series for sure!

[The Invested Beard]

Reading David Eddings' Elenium for the first time since I was a teenager. Yeah Eddings' has his problems and detractors, but it's one of the series that got me into epic fantasy in the first place so I give him a pass. I have a big soft spot for his writing.

 

So far with a few exceptions I've found that it holds up pretty well to this day (for me).

[AliasSheep]

Reading David Eddings' Elenium for the first time since I was a teenager. Yeah Eddings' has his problems and detractors, but it's one of the series that got me into epic fantasy in the first place so I give him a pass. I have a big soft spot for his writing.

 

So far with a few exceptions I've found that it holds up pretty well to this day (for me).

 

The Belgariad was one of the first really big (really big for me at the time) epic fantasy series I read, so it will always hold a place in my heart, even if I ever do go back to reread it and find it to be absolutely awful.

[Left he/him]

Update: Finished M:SH. It was really good. I guess I pretty much had figured out everything that happened through WoB's and unfortunately just absorbing tidbits about it here on the forums. Still really enjoyed it.

[The Invested Beard]

The Belgariad was one of the first really big (really big for me at the time) epic fantasy series I read, so it will always hold a place in my heart, even if I ever do go back to reread it and find it to be absolutely awful.

 

Yeah same here.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

Update: Finished M:SH. It was really good. I guess I pretty much had figured out everything that happened through WoB's and unfortunately just absorbing tidbits about it here on the forums. Still really enjoyed it.

The reason I love that book so much is that it's all Kelsier's PoV and I love him.

 

The part where he misses Dox's death and Preservation or Ruin tells him that Dox died cursing his name crushed me.

[AliasSheep]

The reason I love that book so much is that it's all Kelsier's PoV and I love him.

 

The part where he misses Dox's death and Preservation or Ruin tells him that Dox died cursing his name crushed me.

 

I think the book makes up for it by having Kelsier deck both Ati and Leras.  Those were by far the best things to happen in Secret History.

[Orlion Blight he/him]

I think the book makes up for it by having Kelsier deck both Ati and Leras. Those were by far the best things to happen in Secret History.

I loved those parts!

[Mailliw73 he/him]

I think the book makes up for it by having Kelsier deck both Ati and Leras. Those were by far the best things to happen in Secret History.

Definitely some of the best moments, especially the first one.

[Briar King]

Just finished The Lies of Locke Lamora. I really liked it! It took a while to get used to the viewpoint though (third person cinematic? I'm not even sure), I'm so used to reading third person limited or first person. Also, the real life quotes in between parts kind of took me out of the story... Nitpicking, I know, but I don't really understand why they are there...

I'll continue reading the series for sure!

1st was a huge treat. 2 is really good though not on the lvl as 1. 3 I just down right hated so so much sadly.

[IndigoAjah he/him]

Lies of Locke of Lamora is one book that is crying out for a TV adaptation

[Sunbird she/her]

Finished reading Blood of Tyrants (Temeraire #8) today and made it more than halfway through Codex Alera #6... Murphy's Law seems applicable right about now.