Just finished up the 5th book in the Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski. Two more to go, Swallow’s Tower and Lady of the lake. I enjoy the concept, writing and characters, but I have to say, the series is a hodge-podge collection of short stories, novellas and maybe novels, that are really unfocused, or to put it kindly really meander. Worth one read, but I doubt I’ll be going back unless the last two books really pull it together.
^Thanks for keeping up the reviews. I'm still quite interested to check out the series. Are all the stories in the same world or featuring a running cast of characters?
I am currently about a quarter or so into Tad Williams The Dragonbone Chair. A slow start, but I am really enjoying it. And I am mostly through Seords & Dark Magic, which is turning out to be a fantastic and varied anthology.
Originally Posted by Theli
The story has evolved/devolved into a sort of typical quest type of story. The Witcher character has softened up considerably, which is both good and bad. So far, lots of unanswered questions and under developed plot points. It’s all holding together, but barely. Having said all that, the writing is pretty good, especially the action scenes and the characters continue to be interesting. As I said, enjoyable as a once read and done, unless he closes out strong. Many of the characters continue through the narrative and the story does take place more or less in the same universe. After all, we are dealing with magic. Additional characters are also sprinkled in. Not bad, but not up to the likes of Abercrombie, Cook or Brett.
I'm a week into China Mieville's Three Moments of an Explosion. This is my first attempt at reading anything by him. A few friends of mine can't get into him, so I thought that this collection would be a good way to explore his writing.
A few of the stories were really enjoyable, but there have been quite a few that I've been very meh on. My feeling about this book so far is very similar to what I felt when I was reading the Jack Vance Treasury - just not that into it.
This book shouldn't take me a week to read.
I tried him once.... couldn't finish the book. Embassytown. Had a real cool concept, and I really liked the overview, however....for whatever reason(s), I just could not finish it. I might be try him again - I've heard very good things about Perdido Street Station, but I have so many other books on my shelves that I haven't gotten to yet, that it's not a priority.
Perdido Street Station and The Scar are brilliant. Pretty dense reads and not always pager turners, but simply brilliant.
I have also read City and the City and thought it was really good, but not in the same league as Perdido and Scar.
Last edited by bsaenz24; 02-12-2016 at 08:09 PM.
Fair enough. I often wonder what is lost in translation too. Polish is quite different from English in pretty much all aspects, closer to Russian. And I've often heard a lot is missed in language and nuance from translating Russian to English. Which isn't necessarily the same with Latin based language or even Germanic.
Nice to here Brett lumped with Abercrombie and Cook! Love both of them, and just bought my first Peter V. Brett book recently.
Warded Man by Brett is an all time favorite!
So, how good is War And Peace translated? Anyone here read it? I tried reading it, y'know. Really tried. But what confounded me was the fact that the French wasn't translated. I bought the Signet Classic edition. Maybe they weren't saying anything meaningful, or, they could have been saying something profound about the meaning of life. Thing is, I don't know because I can't read French. So, why spend all that time translating the Russian, which I am sure was very difficult, and not the French, which I suppose would have been easier to translate. I could read it on the PC, and have google translate tabbed, I suppose, but, I hate reading books on my PC ( but I read a lot of message board posts. Funny, innit?).
I'm reading The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam, by, Barbara W. Tuchman. Great read. If you like historical non-fiction, I highly recommend it. Guns Of August is supposedly her top book, so I'll get that next from the library.
Jus finished up The Influence by Bentley Little. Good and typical Bentley Little book. Now going to to read Bastion by Simon Clark. Then on to another novel I have been putting off.NOS4A2.
Well just finished "The Eaters of the Dead" by Michael Crichton, most may know the film adaption "The 13th Warrior".
Worth reading, but the film is much better.
Finally finished The Ritual by Adam Nevill - it was a long read, and pretty good overall. The ending seemed abrupt considering how long the descriptives were at times, which is one drawback for me. Pretty good survival, lost in the woods type of read.
I am now reading Slade House by David Mitchell - it is my first Mitchell book. Quite an odd, but interesting start to it!
Agree. Was an awesome flick. One I've watched many times.
Can't believe I've waited this long to read Duma Key but I'm rounding third and headed for home. Wow, what an amazing read and story! There are several of King's book that I still have yet to read for some reason or another I never seemed to have gotten to. I'm really wanting to dive into The Talisman soon but I'm holding out that it will be a trilogy and I can read them all back to back.
Spoiler!
Most of the way through The Dragonbone Throne by Tad Williams, looking to start up The Last Wish for a group read on Goodreads next month.
Strawberry Man by Eric Shapiro. Circus Boy (Based on the TV series) by Gordon Grimsley.
Cap
Last edited by c marvel; 02-24-2016 at 03:56 AM.
Books are weapons in the war of ideas.
Finished Slade House by David Mitchell - really liked this one. Good flow, good story line with back story included. Would definitely read more by him (wouldn't mind to read The Bone Clocks).
Now - some classic sci-fi Arthur C Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama
Rendezvous with Rama was a pretty good read, and despite it's age, did not feel dated one bit - one of the great things are Clarke as a writer!
This weekend, I stumbled upon an author signing/promotion at my local Chapters. Picked up his short story collection (debut book) The Space Between Houses. Jumping into that, and hoping to see local write Christian Laforet have some success - maybe one day we will be hearing about him in the pages of CD magazine even!!!!
I love this book!
Did you read the sequels??
sk
No, not yet. I may have RAMAII on my shelf - would have to check. I know it's easily available. I think I will try to track it down if I don't have it. There are quite a few questions left unanswered, or Clarke left a lot open for a sequel (even though I believe that wasn't his intention when he wrote it). I really enjoy Clarke's work - as dated as they are in terms of when published - most of the time, you can't even tell. My Dad had his entire collection, but lost it all (and his other sci-fi stuff, Asimov, Star Wars books, others like Anne McAffery, as well as an OMNI magazine collection) in a flooded basement about 15 years ago.
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