Books, Books?, Books!, Books...What are YOU reading? aka the WoT, GoT, Orson Scott Card thread

[Zetanio]

I still can't believe I finished Words of Radiance in 4 days. Fastest 1100 pages ever.

Same, I was in so deep I was dreaming about and then waking up and reading more. Was a pretty weird week.

[Souj]

Alright, Emperor of Thrones was pretty good. I liked that trilogy quite a bit.

my backlog is getting a little bit more manageable. I want to reread Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, but the next thing I'm going to read is Sanderson's Arcanium Unbound.

And then that just leaves; I Robot, It, The Davinci Code, Contact, Mick Foley's autobiography, Brent Week's Broken Eye & Blood Mirror, Abercrombie's The Blade Itself, Anthony Ryan's Waking Fire, Jemisin's Fifth Season, the three gentlemen bastard books (which at this point I think I'm just waiting for the 4th book), the last 3 books of the R Scott Bakker Prince of Nothing books(once the last comes to paperback), Warhammer 40k Grey Knights Omnibus & Ultramarines Omnibus.

So yeah.

[Gustave]

Just started R.A. Salvatore's Homeland. It's the first book I've read by the author.

Are most of his books in the same universe/same world? I believe chronologically that Homeland is first but not published first. Should I start with this one or by publication date.

Mid October I'll start running back through Words of Radiance, Warbreaker and maybe the relevant Arcanum Unbounded stories in prep for Oathbringer.

[Zetanio]

Just started R.A. Salvatore's Homeland. It's the first book I've read by the author.

Are most of his books in the same universe/same world? I believe chronologically that Homeland is first but not published first. Should I start with this one or by publication date.

Mid October I'll start running back through Words of Radiance, Warbreaker and maybe the relevant Arcanum Unbounded stories in prep for Oathbringer.

RA Salvatore's stuff is best read in chronological order but honestly I would read Icewind Dale trilogy first because it kicks the world off the right way imo.

I have read these since Aug 1 (Armada and RP1 were rereads with my GF to show her how shitty they were)

The Last Colony (Old Man's War, #3)
The Ghost Brigades (Old Man's War, #2)
Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1)
Earth Below, Sky Above (The Human Division, #13)
The Human Division #12: The Gentle Art of Cracking Heads
A Problem of Proportion (The Human Division, #11)
This Must Be the Place (The Human Division, #10)
The Observers (The Human Division, #9)
The Sound of Rebellion (The Human Division, #8)
The Back Channel (The Human Division, #6)
Tales From the Clarke (The Human Division #5)
A Voice in the Wilderness (The Human Division, #4)
We Only Need the Heads (The Human Division, #3)
Walk the Plank (The Human Division, #2)
The Dog King (The Human Division, #7)
The B-Team (The Human Division, #1)
House of Spies (Gabriel Allon #17)
Armada
Ready Player One
The Black Widow (Gabriel Allon, #16)
Omerta
The Sicilian
The Godfather

[Wulfgang]

Picked up the first book of the Faithful and the Fallen series by John Gwynne and am a pretty big fan. Multiple POV narrative with similar overall power dynamics / political intrigue / warfare as ASoIaF, but in a viking-esque setting. Burned through the first book this weekend and am on #2 now.

[Intrinsic]

Zet, you read Armada even once after the shitshow that was Ready Player One? I am disapoint. Just started the Magicians Trilogy, about halfway through book 1 and gotta say, not seeing the hype here.

[synistar]

Magicians is passable. Needless to say, I didn't like Quinn, Eliot, or Janet much throughout the entire Trilogy. Now the FTB members in Book 2 carried me enough to complete the series.

[Zetanio]

Zet, you read Armada even once after the shitshow that was Ready Player One? I am disapoint. Just started the Magicians Trilogy, about halfway through book 1 and gotta say, not seeing the hype here.

It took like 4 hours. Had to prove a point.

Magicians was adapted to that terrible show right?

I have a copy of that around but I'll skip it now.

[synistar]

The show was a hot mess. The book is YA fantasy that suffers from a MC you can't really enjoy that much. Show adapted him 1:1 and made me hate him more.

[Zetanio]

The show was a hot mess. The book is YA fantasy that suffers from a MC you can't really enjoy that much. Show adapted him 1:1 and made me hate him more.

Damn. That was my complaint about the show.

Passsss.

[BaneTheBrawler]

buddy got me hooked on the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson, the guy who finished Wheel of Time.

so fucking good. highly recommend. might even get into wheel of time if this is any indication of the quality.

[mallister]

the last three WoT books were waaaaay better than anyone expected.

[Gustave]

@Zetanio I'll start with Icewind then. Couple chapters in and Homeland hasn't grabbed me yet.

buddy got me hooked on the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson, the guy who finished Wheel of Time.

so fucking good. highly recommend. might even get into wheel of time if this is any indication of the quality.

Check out his other works in the Cosmere ( universe Stormlight takes place in). They are all good, you might want to check out Warbreaker when you finish or even between book 1 and 2. I don't want to say to much without spoiling but I regret reading Stormlight before Warbreaker. The third book will release in November. It's like 500k + words.

I believe there are 13 books + Arcanum Unbounded which is a collection of short stories that take place in the Cosmere. 35+ books are planned iirc.

[synistar]

buddy got me hooked on the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson, the guy who finished Wheel of Time.

so fucking good. highly recommend. might even get into wheel of time if this is any indication of the quality.

Good luck. Book 3 comes out in November.
Add Warbreaker and Mistborn (Books 1-3. Still a fight over the quality of 4-6) to your reading queue while your at it.

[Gustave]

Good luck. Book 3 comes out in November.
Add Warbreaker and Mistborn (Books 1-3. Still a fight over the quality of 4-6) to your reading queue while your at it.

I really enjoyed 4-6 + Secret History. They are short either way. I think the two stormlight are longer than all of Mistborn combined.

[Marootsoobutsu]

RA Salvatore's stuff is best read in chronological order but honestly I would read Icewind Dale trilogy first because it kicks the world off the right way imo.

RA Salvatore is best read by not reading him. He's a horrible author, who had a singular character who was beyond his capacity to expand upon. The fact of his success is a celebration of mediocrity that makes weep for humanity with nearly as much vigor as Trump's election.

[Zetanio]

RA Salvatore is best read by not reading him. He's a horrible author, who had a singular character who was beyond his capacity to expand upon. The fact of his success is a celebration of mediocrity that makes weep for humanity with nearly as much vigor as Trump's election.

Calm down killer. The first few sets of books aren't the worst thing ever.

The quality declines substantially during Stone of Tymora and the Cleric stuff is readable but not very good. Legacy of the Drow and beyond is just him getting milk money.

[Marootsoobutsu]

Calm down killer. The first few sets of books aren't the worst thing ever.

The quality declines substantially during Stone of Tymora and the Cleric stuff is readable but not very good. Legacy of the Drow and beyond is just him getting milk money.

Drizzt, as a character, was a fantastic creation... yes, he's overly reliant on any of a half-dozen tropes, but they mostly blend well.

Beyond Drizzt, though, the entirety of the cast is vapid-- and the forced admiration of this character for a bunch of simpering nothings is painful.

His exploration of death would insult a child, and his unwillingness for the unpleasant to be permanent (or even particularly unpleasant), doesn't fit with the depth and meaning that Drizzt's tropes and past demand. The plot is empty, both from its meaningless and the fact that each of them is essentially a collection of holes.

I'm fine with light high fantasy-- the kind where everything is happy in the end-- and D&D-based books often strive toward that style. And fine; it's not usually my gig, but it's doable. Hell, Lord of the Rings is that way. Great. But Drizzt isn't a character who should invite that. In a morality play, consequences matter. Except with Salvatore, they don't. There are no consequences for any of the good guys. Not really. There are minor inconveniences at worst. Other people pay the blood price, but not anyone that the reader ever cares about. It's phenomenally lazy and contradictory.

Salvatore is a gutless, cowardly author who spent series after series committing the character assassination of his own creation. He took something with the potential to revitalize and even, to a degree re-legitimize the fantasy genre, and he squandered it. He created something that had the promise of genuine literature, and he reduced it, painfully and over decades, to a caricature of hipster of oh-so-edgy prospect.

There are strictly worse writings. There are many novels and short stories that have never had a character even as good as Salvatore's awful collection of second-fiddles. But in terms of wasted potential, of creating something and then lacking the courage to let it move beyond your initial vision and to where the character's truth demands he goes-- to where the universe that creates and shapes that character must descend and arise-- there are few examples that surpass Salvatore.

[Zetanio]

But how do you REALLY feel about him?

[Wulfgang]

buddy got me hooked on the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson, the guy who finished Wheel of Time.

so fucking good. highly recommend. might even get into wheel of time if this is any indication of the quality.

Stormlight Archive is the best active/recent epic fantasy series by a country mile and, if it continues in the same trajectory, will be one of my favorites ever up there with Malazan Book of the Fallen, KKC, etc.

Replace the Preds logo with a headshot of Rothfuss and you have my current feelings on KKC: