Kevin's Watch

The MMORPG one might have been Snow Crash. My favourite by a long shot.

--A

Currently on The Cruel Stars by John Birmingham.

Go Tell The Bees That I am Gone, Book...9...in the Outlander series.

--A

Spiral Jacobs wrote:Currently on The Cruel Stars by John Birmingham.

Finished this and went on to the sequel, The Shattered Skies. It's all good fun but not overly original. Several very familiar tropes and occasionally the rather lazy notion that hundreds (thousands?) of years into the future, people will still be referencing 1980's pop culture.

Well, finished Outlander 9.

Now trying to decide whether to start the Expanse books, (the GF is busy with them, so potential bottleneck), or go back to Banks.

--A

Finished The Shattered Skies. I really hate it when it turns out the next and final book is still a year away. My memory is too bad for that!

Anyway, I finished it right on the day that Tamsyn Muir's Nona the Ninth came out, so yay! Finally back to foul-mouthed necromancer lesbians...in spaaaaaace!

Finished gardens of the moon and started on Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I’m probably give the 2nd malazan a chance but didn’t really like gotm.

Personally, I thought gardens was great. But many people struggled with it. The most often cited reason is because you just get dumped into the middle of everything, and the author doesn't take it easy on you. A lot of information and a lot of characters just coming at all times.

Those who did have a problem with it, but continued anyway, say the next book is a great improvement. And even though I didn't have a problem with the first, i agree. His writing seems to have improved quite a bit. I've read the first four books three times. (Which, by itself, is extraordinary. I read very slowly, and even books I love take a long time. So having read these three times just tells you how much I love them.). Each time I read Deadhouse Gates, I think there can't be a better book in the world. And then I continue on to Memories of Ice, and stand corrected.

Still, what are you going to do. Malazan is not everyone's cup of tea.

inkinen wrote:Finished gardens of the moon and started on Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I’m probably give the 2nd malazan a chance but didn’t really like gotm.

If you still don't like it after DHG, then quit with a clear conscience.

For me, I didn't enjoy GotM at all the first time (which is why I recommend Night of Knives to begin), but DHG blew me away.

(Oh, I'm reading Matter by Ian M Banks.)

--A

Avatar wrote:The MMORPG one might have been Snow Crash. My favourite by a long shot.

--A

Uh, uh, Av - it was called REAMDE.

Banks is a bit of a strange author by accounts isn't he?

I read Consider Phlebas, if that's how it's spelled. I've seldom been so disappointed. That was the end of Banks for me.

peter wrote:Uh, uh, Av - it was called REAMDE.

Banks is a bit of a strange author by accounts isn't he?

Hmmm, never heard of it. Shall keep an eye out.

And yes, probably not to everybodies taste. Consider Phlebas is not one of my favourites, that spot probably goes to Player of Games for the Culture books, although my all time favourite of his is Against A Dark Background. (You might like that one Fist...it has solipsist mercenaries who wear psychedelic camouflage, and an intelligent gun that can drop an anvil on somebody. )

The Culture books are perhaps an acquired taste though, they're very sprawling, mostly completely disconnected from each other, and not even always easily recognisable as such, and are sometimes not about the Culture at all.

Actually, I'd never really thought of it, but yes, he may be (have been) a bit strange. (I like his sense of humour though.)

Half of another non-Culture book (Feersum Enjin) is written entirely phonetically, which is a bit of a slog.

Worth the effort to my mind, but can see how it might be a bit confusing / frustrating.

--A

inkinen wrote:Finished gardens of the moon and started on Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I’m probably give the 2nd malazan a chance but didn’t really like gotm.

As others have said, Deadhouse Gates (and Memories of Ice after that) is a vast improvement.

And the Hyperion Cantos...sheesh I cannot even remember how many times I've reread them books. So good.

Trip report on Nona the Ninth: as with the previous books, it's baffling, strange, full of situations and conversations and hints that will probably make sense later on. Doggedly sticking to it, trusting the author.

Read the first of the "Expanse" books, Leviathan Wakes, and busy now on the 2nd, Caliban's War.

Sorta shades of the Gap tbh. I wonder if the authors are fans?

--A

Doing a re-read of Seventh Decimate and the War Within in preparation for The Killing God release.

StevieG wrote:Doing a re-read of Seventh Decimate and the War Within in preparation for The Killing God release.

Sounds good. I re-read Seventh Decimate in 2020 and reread The War Within last February. I'm eagerly anticipating the release of The Killing God.

StevieG wrote:Doing a re-read of Seventh Decimate and the War Within in preparation for The Killing God release.

I'm doing that as well as soon as the preordered book magically appears on my Kobo.
Re-read Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower over the last few days and have now started Semiosis by Sue Burke. I hadn't heard of it, but Adrian Tchaikovsky mentioned it on Twitter so why not?

Abaddon's Gate, book 3 of The Expanse.

--A

Cibola Burn, book 4 of The Expanse.

--A

So I read The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. Thought it was fantasy, maybe. Then an Arthurian offshoot, then maybe allegory. Still not sure what it was. That's probably a bad sign.

I liked his Remains of the Day and especially Never Let Me Go, but this one was just all over the place.