[BOOKS] what are you currently reading / have just read

[LightBR]

I struggled through a couple of them, love the first one to the point I pre ordered the HB for the second but there were so many characters I didn't like chapters for and sighed when it was their turn I couldn't do it

I hope you enjoy it and if you like epic fantasy then I highly recommend the malazan book of the fallen , they stand tall above any other fantasy imho

I completely understand that. It is definitely not a read that'll please everyone due to these slower sections and the multiple PoV chapters. He actually put in more PoVs in Oathbreaker lol. I'll Put your recommendation on my to read list for 2024, appreciate it.

[LightBR]

If I'm braking any rules by posting in sequence pls let me know. Yesterday Sanderson put out a "Navigating the Cosmere" video, where he shows his suggested reading order for his work, I thought it'd be interesting to put it here.

[molliewoof]

I completely understand that. It is definitely not a read that'll please everyone due to these slower sections and the multiple PoV chapters. He actually put in more PoVs in Oathbreaker lol. I'll Put your recommendation on my to read list for 2024, appreciate it.

I think it's more the writing style for me, sorry to bang on about malazan but they are my favourite book series, the series is 11k ISH pages long and I think the person with the longest pov time has something like 4% in their pov. A guy on Reddit did a spreadsheet and it has 450 odd povs.

Erikson has a very ermm elusive (???) writing style, with little to no exposition.I've said this here before I think but In a very early chapter for shallan, maybe her first, someone says ' oh shallan you're so smart and witty' to which she responds with a witty retort that shows this (I didn't think it was but that was what it was meant to do).

That doesnt happen in Erikson books, you see people having conversations where they are fully aware of the what they are talking about but you aren't. You know who the smart and witty ones are because of what they do.

There are also a lot of slow parts in malazan but you kind of spend your time trying to plug the holes in your knowledge of the world from what's going on.

So I'd say it's more writing style. I love those books

[LightBR]

I see what you mean, once I'm done with my Sanderson backlog I'll definitely check ta series out.

[Frogguh]

I think it's more the writing style for me, sorry to bang on about malazan but they are my favourite book series, the series is 11k ISH pages long and I think the person with the longest pov time has something like 4% in their pov. A guy on Reddit did a spreadsheet and it has 450 odd povs.

Erikson has a very ermm elusive (???) writing style, with little to no exposition.I've said this here before I think but In a very early chapter for shallan, maybe her first, someone says ' oh shallan you're so smart and witty' to which she responds with a witty retort that shows this (I didn't think it was but that was what it was meant to do).

That doesnt happen in Erikson books, you see people having conversations where they are fully aware of the what they are talking about but you aren't. You know who the smart and witty ones are because of what they do.

There are also a lot of slow parts in malazan but you kind of spend your time trying to plug the holes in your knowledge of the world from what's going on.

So I'd say it's more writing style. I love those books

The series is 11k pages IF you only read the ten books in Malazan Book of the Fallen. You've also got the first of The God Is Not Willing trilogy, the first two books of the Kharkanas trilogy, the Bauchelain and Korbal Broach stories (which I LOVE), and all the books by Esselmont. I believe there are over thirty books at this point in the Malazan world. I've read all of them multiple times. Absolutely fantastic.

Fair criticism to both authors. You will notice instantly that Erikson is the superior author. Esselmont has a very straightforward style, and his books often have multiple PoV characters that get switched frequently. He also tends to have at least one PoV character who is portrayed as a bit dense, and he uses that character to ask questions to get plot exposition from others. That said, his books are smaller and have to cover all the peripheral story going on around the main story, which is the Book of the Fallen, so he has a lot to cover. And there is a ton of good story in them. The main series will have awesome characters who appear briefly and then disappear without a trace, leaving you to wonder who in the world they were and what they were doing. Esselmont fills in those details.

Erikson, on the other hand, can sometimes get carried away with the philosophy and musings of characters. When they get introspective they all tend to ramble in their thoughts in rather depressing ways, but also even the least educated character will sometimes express high-level reflections that would do any philosophy major proud. He always does eventually remember the book has a plot that needs to be explored and gets back to it, but there is definitely a lot of that.

And I second the part about reader knowledge, first time you read Malazan you will spend a lot of time baffled, but if you read them a second time all sorts of realization light bulbs will be going off in your head. Amazing series that I would highly recommend.

When you get to Tehol and Bugg, you'll be glad you read it.

[molliewoof]

The series is 11k pages IF you only read the ten books in Malazan Book of the Fallen. You've also got the first of The God Is Not Willing trilogy, the first two books of the Kharkanas trilogy, the Bauchelain and Korbal Broach stories (which I LOVE), and all the books by Esselmont. I believe there are over thirty books at this point in the Malazan world. I've read all of them multiple times. Absolutely fantastic.

Fair criticism to both authors. You will notice instantly that Erikson is the superior author. Esselmont has a very straightforward style, and his books often have multiple PoV characters that get switched frequently. He also tends to have at least one PoV character who is portrayed as a bit dense, and he uses that character to ask questions to get plot exposition from others. That said, his books are smaller and have to cover all the peripheral story going on around the main story, which is the Book of the Fallen, so he has a lot to cover. And there is a ton of good story in them. The main series will have awesome characters who appear briefly and then disappear without a trace, leaving you to wonder who in the world they were and what they were doing. Esselmont fills in those details.

Erikson, on the other hand, can sometimes get carried away with the philosophy and musings of characters. When they get introspective they all tend to ramble in their thoughts in rather depressing ways, but also even the least educated character will sometimes express high-level reflections that would do any philosophy major proud. He always does eventually remember the book has a plot that needs to be explored and gets back to it, but there is definitely a lot of that.

And I second the part about reader knowledge, first time you read Malazan you will spend a lot of time baffled, but if you read them a second time all sorts of realization light bulbs will be going off in your head. Amazing series that I would highly recommend.

When you get to Tehol and Bugg, you'll be glad you read it.

I've only read the ten, I started gotm again this year with the intention of including all the others this time but I should have included them in my numbering anyhow

I agree with everything you have said that I can (as Ive only read ten).

I think because Erikson created a world in a way that I love so much, when I initially gave nok a go, a while ago, I hated it because it wasn't what I loved, I've moved on from that now, having audio booked it a little while falling asleep and am quite looking forward to it.

It shows you how much it upgrades your reading that in the prologue I didn't realise it wasn't an abbatoir on fire and in the first chapter they didn't know what sorrys name was and sorry is what she'd introduced herself as a few pages before lol.

Small things but I keep shaking my head at the things I missed and those two were just in the first 20 ISH pages lol.

[xskarma]

Just started on Empire of the Damned, the sequel to Empire of the Vampire, by Jay Kristoff. The first chapter already delivered so have high hopes for the rest.

[LightBR]

Done with Oathbringer now 300 pages into Rhytym of War. As expected the ending of Oathbringer was great, speaking of RoW the lore bits related to the Cosmere presented in the begining was really nice, made me want to branch out to the other shard worlds stories.

[Skizzit]

Done with Oathbringer now 300 pages into Rhytym of War. As expected the ending of Oathbringer was great, speaking of RoW the lore bits related to the Cosmere presented in the begining was really nice, made me want to branch out to the other shard worlds stories.

If you haven't already, I recommend reading the two novellas as well, Edgedancer and Dawnshard. They are not key to the overall plot but are nice little expansions on some of the smaller characters. Edgedancer in particular is one of my favorite parts of the series but mostly cause I just adore Lift as a character.

[LightBR]

If you haven't already, I recommend reading the two novellas as well, Edgedancer and Dawnshard. They are not key to the overall plot but are nice little expansions on some of the smaller characters. Edgedancer in particular is one of my favorite parts of the series but mostly cause I just adore Lift as a character.

I most definitely will.

It seems RoW was the book Sanderson decided to include Cosmere lore and references in The Stormlight Archive series, I don't remember having this clear and upfront talk of other worlds and shards in the previous books? When I thought the little taste of it was over I was treated to quite a bit more of it in the sequence of the book, nice.

[PgStckr]

The End and the Death, vol.3 by Dan Abnett

I love his writing, and I wolfed two previous volumes down in an instant and with pleasure
But the third volume is fail.
I'm so very sorry over that, not to mention vol.3 being THE last Heresy era book.
It was not a bang.

[Twdft]

After finally getting an ebook reader (Kobo Libra 2) to read the one book I bought it for I bought a couple others so it doesn't sit so alone on my device.

Done reading "Indemnity Only" by Sara Paretsky, the first V. I. Warshawski novel. Hardboiled crime novel, it's pretty much a female Philip Marlowe in early 1980s Chicago. I liked it well enough.

Also:

Just started Morningstar, the third book of the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown. My daughter recommended these books and I love them more than I would have expected. Such a fascinating and bleak world.

Omnibus ebook of these three books was just €6 so I thought wth let's give it a try. A couple chapters into Red Rising, quite intense. Thanks for that suggestion.

[hellhamster]

Children of Time by Tchaikovsky. It's alright so far.

[DarkAmbient]

Carpathians by Paul Dixon - 7/10

A solid first contact story, set in a galaxy run by corporations. An easy read, with some interesting ideas about the technology humans might develop to make interstellar travel possible. Good world building and some memorable characters. Let down slightly by an abrupt ending that begged a sequel.

[callipygoustp]

Slowly working my way through James SA Corey's Leviathan Falls.

[AcidicSyn]

I am on Book 19 of Discworld, Feet of Clay.

so far 8.5/10, some continuity is a little rough in the early books, but now its just so great. I am loving all of the tiny little references to earlier stories that get zero explanation.

Bill Door needs a hug.

[Skizzit]

Randomly came across this series called Spellslinger by Sebastien de Castell that sounded like a fun premise, a sort of outlaw fantasy western and decided to give it a spin. Sadly, I was pretty disappointed by it. It isn't terrible and I did end up finishing the series but it just never quite lived up to the initial premise. There are just a number of interesting ideas that are introduced but nothing is really ever done with them. Little of the world is ever really explained and that would be fine if instead it was more about character growth but that really isn't the case either. The main character doesn't really change all that much and is more or less the same person at the end as he was at the start. Side characters get way more growth. It also ends in a rather anti-climatic way with many plot points unresolved and even as a letter of sorts from the author that more or less says "why don't you use your imagination to figure out what happened next." I did really enjoy the first book, but it slowly went downhill from there. The talking squirrel-cat is the best part of the series by a mile.

Think I am going to give those Sanderson one-off novels he released last year a go finally. In the mean time re-reading The Mark of the Fool just cause it is fun as hell.

[liyroot]

Home Deus (Yuval Harari). Pretty good if you have fun thinking about what the future might be like.