Still reading The Crystal Shard by R. A. Salvatore. First book of The Icewind Dale Trilogy, and The Legend of Drizzt / Forgotten Realms series (publication order).
Book is pretty fast paced and full of action. Really enjoying it.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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I’m currently reading the first book of the 3 body problem series. Still trying to decide if I like it or not even though I’m almost done with it.
I’ve read the English translations of the trilogy. If you like mystery, high-concept sci-fi, and epic storytelling, the series is pretty terrific. But if your into rounded and compelling characters, especially if those characters are women, your going to have a bad time.
Kinda reminds me of classic authors like Heinlein.
I read the entire trilogy a couple of years ago and I’ll say a couple of things about it: the big ideas are great and the plot is interesting but the characters and the actual mechanics of the writing are solidly mediocre at times. I’m not sure if that’s down to the translation between languages (Ken Liu’s two translations are much better than the middle book IMO) or just the style of the novels but it’s definitely a pain point for the series.
Parts of the later books read like bad western SF from the 60s or 70s and some of the later themes are ridiculously reactionary. Like women being incapable of aggressive choices necessary for survival or the decadent feminized men who are incapable of things in general. There’s some large scale human social critique involved later about societal wishful thinking that’s 100% on point but I won’t spoil that for you.
It’s definitely worth reading, pieces of the trilogy are great, but it also goes in decidedly reactionary directions at times as well. It’s sort of like reading Ringworld - lots of neat concepts with some chauvinistic social commentary.
Holy shit! Me too, except I’ve decided I like it. It is a compelling story. It goes a bit hard on the scientific accuracy which can kind of interrupt the flow, though.
I find the most interesting part is the insight of modern Chinese commentary of recent Chinese history. I wasn’t sure what popular sentiment was, or what criticism / critiques would be allowed to be published by the party.
Ah, I set the Witcher books down halfway through but gotta get back to them! Glad to hear you’re enjoying them. At least they’re mostly short-ish.
Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I’ve been on a bit of a Tchaikovsky binge lately. I read Children of Time years ago and enjoyed it, but for whatever reason, didn’t read anything else by him then. I had a copy of Made Things knocking around though, and I finally read it a few weeks ago and was so impressed I started reading him in earnest. This is the… let’s see… seventh book of his I’ve read lately.
He sort of reminds me of Michael Crichton. He’s not a particularly notable prose stylist - his writing is entirely competent and sufficient, but not in any way really remarkable. But he tells very imaginative stories very well, so he’s a satisfying read.
This one is a sort of political thriller wrapped around a mystery that plays out a bit like a science fiction update of a Lovecraftian eldritch abomination story, leavened a bit with Emily St. John Mandel style misfit spaceship crew slice of life. I’m enjoying it.
I have his Shadow of the Apt series, though haven’t started it yet. Your comparison with Michael Crichton is making me want to start it soon.
I haven’t read those yet, but I intend to. And I expect that, like every one I’ve read yet, they’ll be solid 7 or 8 out of 10 books.
That’s the thing that reminded me of Crichton. He has that same ability to start with some fascinating idea and run with it and deliver a solid, well-told and satisfying story, then move on to some completely different fascinating idea and run with it and deliver another solid, well-told and satisfying story. He’s not locked into any specific genre or any specific approach to telling a story - just whatever works for that idea, that’s what he does, and it just works.
I bounced off of Children of Time hard, finished, but hated it by the end. I might not have been so harsh if the praise for it wasn’t so high, but it just didn’t seem to deserve it imo. I think the premise was interesting, and it had good parts (I did enjoy the spider parts, though less towards the end), but things kept happening that eroded my suspension of disbelief for the setup until it collapsed completely. Looking back at the start of the novel, a bunch of the world building and piece setting just seemed silly under scrutiny.
I was thinking it was a 3/5, but when reading reviews it was the more thoughtful 1/5 and 2/5 reviews that reflected my feelings
Not to yuck your yum, and I certainly seem to be in the minority based on good reads
Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson. It’s the Third book of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. I just started it but the second book blew my mind. I really enjoyed the first book, Gardens of the Moon but at times it came across as a bit generic fantasy perhaps aimed at a bit of a younger audience but Deadhouse Gates fully flipped that on its head. For a high fantasy series the battles of ‘the chain of dogs’ in Deadhouse Gates particularly stood out to me as some of the best depictions of historical warfare I’ve ever read. While a few battles from the entire wheel of time series stick with me I don’t think I’ll ever forget the chain of dogs. Looking forward to seeing what’s to come from book 3. Highly recommend the Malazan Book of the Fallen if you’re into high fantasy. Don’t be intimidated by the crazy wordcounts, they’re easy reading so far.
I’m planning on doing this at some point but I am slightly intimidated by the length. I like to read a series through as a one shot and it’ll take around 6 months based on the audiobook length and my average rate. I think I might start it after I finish earthsea, but I might start a less hefty series instead
Oh man, I finished that series last year. Definitely some incredible parts, but it also drags a bit at the end. It finished with like 2000 pages of matching through a desert which was rough, but by that point you’ve read enough that you can’t stop.
Younger audience is a crazy critique though, I can’t say I ever though that.
Man, spoilers much? So much of the beauty of book four was having that click in my brain. There’s a reason Erikson doesn’t use his real name through dead house gates…
Not sure if Lemmy supports comment spoilers but that would have been the time to use them, might not be too late to prevent others from getting spoiled.
Two books:
- Bullshit jobs by David Graeber
- Crack-up capitalism by Quinn Slobodian
Finished Rhythm of War. The end hit hard, and I’m definitely impatiently waiting for Wind and Truth now.
Rhythm of War Spoilers
Right after Kaladin jumps through the battle for the tower were all super emotional, and I also really enjoyed Eshonai’s last ride with the Stormfather. I had kind of been holding out hope that she was Venli’s spren somehow, but I appreciated giving her that send off, at least.
I have used hard copies of Edgedancer and Dawnshard that should be showing up today to add to my collection, so I’ll probably start into those.
In the meantime I read book 5 of CJ Archer’s Glass Library series, The Secret of the Lost Ledgers. I think I prefer Glass and Steele over Glass Library so far, but that’s partly because magic was more secretive at the start of the arc.
edit: the novellas are itty bitty.
I wish I could experience all of Sanderson’s books again for the first time and agree Rythm of War was great! I can’t wait to get to Wind and Truth either. Being an audio book only guy though I’m going to have to wait a bit longer until I can continue that story!
Have you read Mistborn?
I’m mostly an audiobook guy, though I have both hardcover and audiobook preordered. I doubt I’ll really read the physical copies, but I recently decided to refresh my bookshelves with some of my favorites just for the sake of having them and the Stormlight Archive quickly became a favorite once I finally buckled down and just bought all the audiobooks to listen straight through.
I’ve read some of his random smaller stuff. I thought the premise of Rithmatist could have been a pretty fun VR game. I haven’t read Mistborn yet, but it’s definitely on my radar. One of my biggest things is availability, though. My binge on physical books the last couple weeks was an outlier, but I generally can’t afford to actually buy anywhere near as many books as I read. They’re mostly not as substantial as Stormlight Archive, but according to goodreads my new books this year are still comfortably in the triple digits, so I need libraries and subscription libraries to fill in most of the volume or I’d go broke pretty quickly. I definitely want to read Mistborn, but I’ll probably wait a while, because my self control on buying books can get me in trouble if I’m not careful.
The first mistborn book is a bit on the nose, it comes across as a bit of a weird mix of teen romance meets classic teen fiction rebels vs fascist empire. Probably not Sanderson’s best work as it is on the older side now, but it gets way way better after the first book (as many Sanderson series do). The Wax and Wayne mistborn books are awesome, so don’t give up after the first one!
