[SilentRoamer]

Well I finished Abercrombie's The Last Argument of Kings which concludes the First Law Trilogy.

I really dig Abercrombies style, it has a definite flavour of grim British humour and I find him so easy to read. I think i liked the second book the most of the trilogy for me with the last book coming in a close second and the first book least. Although, least in this instance still being quite a lot.

Anyway looking for my next read at the moment and really not sure what to go with. Any suggestions are welcome!

[Camlost]

I've been away for a while, so for an update:

I finished the Prince, King, and Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. I had a few qualms with each of the books separately, and a few small ones with the overall story, but would still recommend for anyone looking for first person grimdark. I might start a separate thread to discuss the trilogy and get other people's thoughts. It might be that I'm overlooking something or being too critical.

I usually keep a short story anthology at work to read on my lunch breaks. Since my last post I finished a great one on pirates called Fast Ships, Black Sails (can't remember the title editor at the moment, will edit later). Like most anthologies there are some weak shorts and some good ones. I think I lucked out with this one as there were only a few I didn't care for and more by comparison than by any fault of their own. I've moved on to The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling for my lunches and am quite satisfied. Disney is a poor facsimile. So far it has been a great example of someone who understands the folk tale and has quite expertly reproduced it.

I also burned through The Slow Regard of Silent Things, a non-story novella by Patrick Rothfuss. You have to be familiar with the character to contextualize the peculiarity of it, but it felt just right. I've even found the perfect t place for it on my shelf 

Right now I'm wrapping up Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I'm nearly done the fifth chapter and so far it has been an excellent collection of tragedies. The Wandering Jew's tale genuinely made me breath a sigh of despair and put the book down for a day; it was some heavy shit. Fucking love it though. I'll certainly be looking into the follow up.

Not sure what's next on the list, I have a bad habit of buying books faster than I read them, which I'm OK with. Always happy for suggestions too, and maybe they'll coincide with my pile of to-reads.

Read on my page brothers

[Madness]

You're going to have to read Fall of Hyperion immediately after .

[Camlost]

You're going to have to read Fall of Hyperion immediately after

I haven't made it to the Consul's tale yet, only the story he tells beforehand, but everything so far has made it seem as if his will be by far the worst. I'm excited and distressed for the ending; I want to know what happens and I don't want it to end lol

[Camlost]

Just finished. I found the Consul's tale to be not as tragic, but just as heavy. The story he tells for context moved me a bit. I get it now though Madness, I'll be picking up the second installment on my way home from work tomorrow. Are the following novels worth looking into, or am I going to find myself dragging through another latter-half-Ender-quartet?

[Wilshire]

latter-half-Ender-quartet syndrom

Honestly, both with Ender and with Hyperion, I liked the last two. Not superior quality as the first two, but imo worth the read. Maybe  its because I'm able to compartmentalize books or something... I dunno.

Even The Fall of Hyperion fails to meet the majesty of Hyperion, which remains my favorite SF book to date, but it is still extraordinary. Endymion and Rise of Endymion go off on a different tangent, following different threads and stories not really considered in the first 2 (not to mention 400 some years in the future), and do fall a bit flat when considering the series as a whole. I'd not say you lose out by skipping them, but I needed more from the Hyperion universe so I read on and am not (or refuse to be?) disappointed.

[Phallus Pendulus]

Lawrence and Abercrombie are fucking awful, and you guys should be ashamed of yourselves for recommending them.

[Garet Jax]

Lawrence and Abercrombie are fucking awful, and you guys should be ashamed of yourselves for recommending them.

+1... Which I am sure will earn me some damnation points.

[Camlost]

Lawrence and Abercrombie are fucking awful, and you guys should be ashamed of yourselves for recommending them.

Lol. They have their place. Like I said, if you're looking for first-person grimdark then the Thorns trilogy isn't terrible, a bit straight forward, but it fits a niche. Truth be told, of all the Abercrombie I've read, The Heroes was my favourite because it wasn't quest trope like the trilogy. As much as we're all TSA fans here, and I've said this in another thread, I often have a hard time recommending it to people who will genuinely get into it, so I try to tailor my recommendations to the reader more than the book.

Anyone read Lawrence or Abercrombie's second series? More of the same or something different?

[The Great Scald]

I have to agree with Jax and Phallus about those two authors.

Joe Abercrombie is decent for his genre - not great, but not awful either. I read the first of his "First Law" books, since they'd been recommended to me, and I found it entertaining to read but not especially interesting or thought-provoking. Nothing original about it, though - much of it was the same GRIMDARK DUUUDE and morally-conflicted protagonists and unfunny witty snark that we've seen a hundred times before in the fantasy genre. For a fun airplane book, it was fairly good, but not interesting enough for me to spend my time on the rest of Abercrombie's series.

Mark Lawrence is, however, fucking awful.

[Somnambulist]

Apologies for bogarting this thread even further, but thought it applicable considering the above comments on Mark Lawrence.  He reviewed TDTCB on Goodreads.  My favorite quote: "I perhaps wanted more focus and more character-time."  WTF?  Seriously, the whole book is 'character time.'  :|  Here's the link:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/393099027

[Wilshire]

Aren't his books first person with few characters? Compare that to TDTCB that has 5+ main characters, and I could see where he's coming from. Would be interesting to see his review on something like Gardens of the Moon which has even more.

[SilentRoamer]

Well my reading has been slow over the last 4-6 weeks mainly because of the amount of consultancy work I have taken on has effectively quadrupled. Hopefully over the school half term I can catch up a little bit.

I finished Isaac Asimov: The Stars Like Dust.

This has been my least favourite Asimov novel, which is not to say it was bad, it just wasn't up to usual Asimov standards. This is his first novel and even Asimov stated it was his "least favourite novel", so at least I agree with him there.

It is supposed to be the beginning of the Empire series but is before Trantor was even founded so has no real connection to the rest of the series. Even the premise of the ending defies what we know happens in the Empire and makes the whole thing moot.

2.5/5

Next I think I am going to continue Walter Jon Williams Dread Empires fall trilogy with The Sundering, the second in the series.

[H]

As per requested, I'll post what I'm looking to get done reading this year.

So far, I really only have 1 book read, being Light, by John M. Hamilton, which I didn't particularly care for.

I'd like to read at least a book a month though, so this month is The Mechanical, by Ian Tregillis.

That will be book 2/7.

After that, I'll either attempt The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, or see if something else tickles my fancy.

[Francis Buck]

I read Macbeth (third time around, the first being in high school, which barely counts). Still awesome. I need to check out some other Shakespeare stuff, as I am woefully under-exposed to his work, outside of a handful of movie adaptations and a few plays...I know people say they're not really "supposed to be read" per se, but I still like to because it's challenging and the experience is totally different.

I think my next Shakespeare might be Hamlet. I've never even seen any true adaptation of it (film or otherwise), and apparently the Lion King is based on Hamlet, and the Lion King is boss as fuck.