Kevin's Watch

CovenantJr wrote:Incidentally, Loremaster, did you totally abandon The Samsarin? I was thinking about it the other day.

I finished the second part of the novel in 2006 - the book was at 300 pages at that point. Despite my enthusiam for the first part, the second left we questioning whether I had failed. I read through it and there was something lacking to it. Further, once again I had overly complicated things by introducing too many ideas.

However, I have sent a copy of the manuscript (just part one) to thefirst. I hope she likes it, and if so, I may return to it.

What did you think of it, Cov?

If anyone's living in the uk and has a 'Bookends' in their High Street, there's some good bargains to be had....

RoTE pb £1.50
Mordant's Need (both in one volume) £3
Anansi Boys (Gaiman) hb £2.50
Various Richard Morgan £1.50
Various Terry Goodkind £1.50
that anarchist sf writer £1.50 each
Lies of Locke Lamora £1.50

Nothing I wanted that I didn't already have though

I've learned over the last few years that Waterstone's stock tends to vary from store to store more than other chain stores usually do. In Newcastle, for example, the Waterstone's has a pretty good SFF section, with a larger number of imported or small press titles in stock on a regular basis. The Waterstone's in the MetroCentre, on the other hand, has a pretty decent comics/graphic novels selection. That's the one I was at today.

I purchased:

The Arrival, by Shaun Tan.
A true graphic novel, in that it is entirely wordless. Beautiful artwork, and the book itself is very well put together--a good example of book as artifact.

Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse vol. 1, Birds, Bees, Blood & Beer, by Ben Templesmith.
A strange one, about a sentient worm occupying a well-dressed corpse, with a mechanical sidekick who looks like half of ZZ-Top.

Both of those I picked up because of mentions on Jeff VanderMeer's blog, among other places--the same goes for my previous graphic novel purchase, Alice in Sunderland.

dukehenry wrote:

Lord Mhoram wrote:How can you not be impressed by A Game of Thrones?

Honestly, the characters weren't interesting for me. Well, not all of them - but most just didn't have the substance that I was hoping for. The general storyline just didn't hold my interest...this was the first book in a long time that I actually put down about half way through and debated whether or not I should finish it.

After deciding that I am not going to read any of the others, I did read the backs to the remaining books to get a general idea of where the story was going, and I will be honest - I didn't see the worth it spending $15 a pop to keep going. The time investment just wasn't there.

I don't know if it was the 5+ POV method used, the characters themselves, or just the plot itself. Or, perhaps all of the super-positive reviews the book received tainted my impression of it...perhaps I expected more than was reasonable.

its a shame cos they do get better .. (personally loved them all and am eagerly awaiting the next) .. i recently recommended GRR Martin to a work colleague and he struggled with a game of thrones too .. but truly they do get better. i think the first book of almost every series is a bit slow .. a lot of contextualising and scene setting

the characters do become rich and vibrant ..

its like the same colleague i recommended Martin to told me to get into Steve Erikson .. he loves it .. but .. eek .. i found the first book a tad torturous!

... different stokes for different folks eh?

Sky, if you've been reading Erikson, you will instantly be Lucimay's new best friend....

Picked up a couple of books by Sheri S. Tepper at the used bookstore a few weeks ago: "The Gate Into Women's Country" and "Shadow's End". I finished "The Gate Into..." and am currently about 3/4 of the way through "Shadow's End". I hadn't read any of her stuff before. She's pretty good. A *very* feminist viewpoint, tho....

niice
.. a new best friend!!!

hope your right ali .. cos I wasnt a fan of the first book but from all accounts I need to read it again ..

the Gate Into and Shadows End .. both fantasy works?

Welcome back, Skyweir!!

Skyweir wrote:niice
.. a new best friend!!!

hope your right ali .. cos I wasnt a fan of the first book but from all accounts I need to read it again ..

the Gate Into and Shadows End .. both fantasy works?

Sci-fi, actually. "The Gate Into" is set in a post-apocalyptic earth society. "Shadow's End" (which I finished last night) is set on several different worlds and has an environmental message as well as the feminist-ish stuff.

I haven't read much sci-fi lately; thought it was time to branch out a little bit.

edit: Oh, I guess it's "The Gate TO Women's Country", not "...INTO Women's Country."

whoa .. they sound ((M)))

I picked up Insomnia by Stephen King today, second hand for $8-

Northstar by someone called Pacifici landed yesterday!

Just bought Brokedown Palace by Steven Burst, and read the prolouge, man it looks so cool! I'll be hard pressed to discipline self to finish A New Earth and My Sister's Keeper with this bad boy lying around.

Just bought A Game of Thrones/A Clash of Kings from mobipocket for 8 bucks. One of these days, I'm going to read the first 4 books of ASoIaF again (could be next year, could be 5 years from now, but it will happen), and I couldn't pass that deal up. I want to do the re-read with e-books to make it easier to keep track of everything. And recently, I noticed that ereader wasn't carrying AGoT anymore, so I panicked. Every once in a while, books get pulled from e-sales for some bizarre reason. Mobi only offers them together, but at the price for one, so it's a pretty sweet deal.

Wow, this has been an awesome week for books for me. First, I used a year-old book voucher to finally get the new Terry Pratchett, Making Money, and the last David Gemmel book, Troy: Fall of Kings, on Tuesday.

Today, with only about 100 pages of Troy left, a parcel arrives for me, courtesy of Fist & Faith, (to whom I cannot express my thanks adequately), with Gates of Fire, and the next 3 Malazan books.

Watchers...what an awesome bunch of people. My thanks to all of you. *bows deeply*

--A

Not SF/F, but I picked up Scott Bakker's Neuropath today.

Ooo, the description of that one intrigued me when it was discussed earlier, Murrin. I look forward to your review of it.

Yes Murrin. Very interested in your take on that one. Keep us updated!

Picked up Toll The Hound today. Just as I suspected, Waterstones had it cheap - £9 off

Just bought Bank's Use of Weapons with the B&N gift card my Dad sent me for my b-day.

One of my top 3...er...4 Banks books.

--A