Currently Reading

[Animalmother]

I'm going to make a confession. I haven't read a book in about ten years, maybe more.

So this year I've decided to get back into it with Dave Grohl - The Storyteller. A loose collection of anecdotes from over the years. About a quarter through so far and I have to say, really enjoying it.

I love reading, I don't think that since I learned to do it I have ever not had a book on the go.

[Alan]

I dont suppose anyone has read the Shadows Of The Apt series by Adrian Tchaikovsky? I'm a book and a half in and I'm not sure its grabbing me enough to go much farther. I wasnt too keen on the first book at first but by the end I thought it was perfectly fine. Since I have books 1-3 I figured I'd keep going and so far book 2 is perfectly fine. I feel its missing some personality and character or just some spark. Its a bit serious and moderately trudging because of it.

Its a fantasy series but instead of elves, dwarfs etc.. the different races while humanoid have insectile traits both physical and of an inherent magical power, though not magic. The beetle-kinden are short, stout and good builders (so... dwarfs) and may develop night vision and clumsy flight. Ant-kinden are builders that can develop a hive mind psychic link between the whole township making them adept fighters since they all see everything that every other ant sees etc... Then all the races are split into apt and non-apt. Apt understand machines and can work them, non-apt are so mechanically inept they cant even understand pulling the trigger of a crossbow or opening a door handle yet they are generally adept in magics where the apt barely even believe in magic.... even though they can do things like sprout wings and fly. I think thats where a lot of it breaks down for me, I'm not keen on the hard line between technology and magic. Apt folk seem perfectly fine that ant-kinden can all read each others minds but when a moth-kinden visits another characters dreams that's impossible! Perfectly fine that wasp-kinden shoot lightning bolts from their palms as their "sting" too, thats not magical, thats just scie... genetics?

I'm just curious if anyone had read it and had thoughts on the series as a whole. 10 books is a hell of a commitment if it doesn't pay of. I do really like Tchaikovsky scifi so I'm inclined to keep going because of that.

[Alan]

Ok, currently reading Absolute Pandemonium, Brian Blessed's autobiography and I'm very much enjoying it. Everyone is either wonderfully terrific or a fat useless bastard. Every event is a hyperbolic trippy reinterpretation; he has multiple superpowers from being able to distinguish individual instruments in any recording to being able to see the molecular structure of leaves. Its half self help book in that I actually believe that Brian believes more in me than even my own mother. National treasure!

Also started Raven's Edge: A Raven's Tale Adventure. S'good so far!


I also picked up The Vietnam War by Geoffrey Ward because its been bugging me that I know next to nothing about Nam beyond what Predator taught me and fuck sake its rough. I mean, "duh" but fucks sake all the same. The parallels between whats happening in Ukraine right now are kind of astounding. I didnt actually know anything about the book it was just decently rated so I grabbed it but its apparently based on a TV series which I may or may not track down, the book was decent though. One of the quotes that sticks in my mind was "in the Americans movies, its all about them. We are only there to be saved, raped or killed" and they certainly have a point.

Read Gwendys Final Task by Stephen King and Chizmar and its shite. Just absolute shite. Gwendys Button Box was fun, Gwendys Magic Feather was shite and Final Task is even worse. I think he know it was shite because hes shoehorned in a bunch of Kingverse stuff in there that is also shite and takes away from the referenced material.
The Kingverse stuff is

Spoiler

Dark Tower

[Animalmother]

That Vietnam War series was or still might be on Netflix. I never got around to finishing it but I remember it was pretty grim alright.

[Raid]

Some mini reviews of things I've read recently:

The Player of Games: I can't say I was as enthused at the plot of this one as I was with Phlebas, but it's far better written and the setting and continuation of the world building were more interesting. I thought Gurgeh was perhaps a little too one-dimensional, but I loved the concept of Azad being a political tool rather than just a game (I can't say with 100% certainty that it'd be a worse way of choosing our leaders than what we have in reality).

The First Law: The Blade Itself: I read this back when I was a student (rapidly approaching 20 years ago now, which is a terrifying thought), and while I think it absolutely still holds up, I can't help but feel like I reacted to the character of Glokta quite differently this time. Everything about him is just unpleasant, and unfortunately that carries into my feelings towards those early chapters featuring him. His depiction is incredibly effective, as I assume that feeling of unease is entirely intentional. I'll re-read the second book this year I reckon, and I never did finish the trilogy back in the day, so I'm looking forward to Last Argument of Kings. I seem to be bouncing between sci-fi and fantasy at the moment, because I immediately went into...

The Use of Weapons... which I hated. I'm not sure how much of it I lay at the feet of the author, as I'm so often exhausted by the time I sit down to read on an evening that I may well miss things, but I just found this often confusing and just not very interesting. It doesn't have half of the exciting depictions of advanced technology that Games had, The Culture itself feels more like a background than any significant part of the story, but I just didn't gel with the way it kept bouncing between flashbacks, some of which I just didn't think were well written or well-separated from the main plot. There's a section that reads like a fairy tale, where no characters are named and the author relies entirely on pronouns. I don't understand what he was going for. Hell, I don't even know why the character Zakalwe was sent in to extract was important - I guess I missed something early on between Sma and Zakalwe, but nothing happens with Beychae at the end either, so was he really worth going to all the trouble for? I honestly enjoyed the first chapter of Excession, which I picked up immediately after, more than the entirety of Weapons.

[Sly Boots]

Also started Raven's Edge: A Raven's Tale Adventure. S'good so far!

[ManBearSquid]

1984

Just finished reading this for the first time and it was great. I can see why it's so revered.

[Hatredsheart]

1984

Just finished reading this for the first time and it was great. I can see why it's so revered.

Putin probably sees it as a textbook

Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.

[ManBearSquid]

Aye, it's eerie how much it resonates with the world today.

[Alan]

https://www.waterstones.com/book/garth- ... ed8f7ef993



Featuring blood, blood, blood and bits of sick.

[Animalmother]

I just watched the first episode of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. Jesus how did I miss this

[Alan]

I just watched the first episode of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. Jesus how did I miss this

You’re in for a treat!

[Raid]

So I finally got around to finishing the First Law trilogy 20-odd years after starting it, and, much as I enjoyed them as a whole, I'm left a little cold by the ending, and I don't mean that I've inadvertently touched the Other Side.

Spoiler

The finale leaves almost every character's story unfinished, and as I understand it they're not protagonists in later books. Jezal is miserable, West is near death, Glokta surprise-marries the woman that Jezal's been fawning over for three books for a fairly good reason but right at the end so we don't really see much of their relationship, Ferro runs off to kill the Gurkish emperor with her newfound power and Logen ends up plummeting into a river again. There's bugger-all closure for anyone except maybe Bayaz. Damnit, I've been reading these characters for three months, I want to see them either happy or back to the mud.

Are the other books in that setting worth picking up? I like Abercrombie's style, but I can't say I found the setting itself massively interesting (it's not bad by any means, just not all that unique) - the characters are what grabbed me.

[Hatredsheart]

I enjoyed the The Age of Madness trilogy, same world but a decade or two in the future, just at the start of the industrial revolution.

[Sly Boots]

So I finally got around to finishing the First Law trilogy 20-odd years after starting it, and, much as I enjoyed them as a whole, I'm left a little cold by the ending, and I don't mean that I've inadvertently touched the Other Side.

Spoiler

The finale leaves almost every character's story unfinished, and as I understand it they're not protagonists in later books. Jezal is miserable, West is near death, Glokta surprise-marries the woman that Jezal's been fawning over for three books for a fairly good reason but right at the end so we don't really see much of their relationship, Ferro runs off to kill the Gurkish emperor with her newfound power and Logen ends up plummeting into a river again. There's bugger-all closure for anyone except maybe Bayaz. Damnit, I've been reading these characters for three months, I want to see them either happy or back to the mud.

Are the other books in that setting worth picking up? I like Abercrombie's style, but I can't say I found the setting itself massively interesting (it's not bad by any means, just not all that unique) - the characters are what grabbed me.

Many (not all) of these characters crop up in his other novels, recommend reading Best Served Cold, The Heroes and Red Country next. He doesn't really do closure because the characters keep returning. You can read those in any order, pretty much. That's the published order though - they are standalone but there are a few references that follow that chronological order.

Then do the Age of Madness trilogy in order, even more closure on character arcs in that.