The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread Book • Page 88

I was definitely hoping it was heading in that direction, it certainly felt like they were barreling towards a conclusion mid book 2. The craziest thing is that most of the series action takes place within one week, besides like the opening chapters and the epilogue. That has to be the most shit I've seen happen in such a short period of time lol.

I think you might have told me that the first "arc" ended with book 4 back when I started, because I've always had that thought in the back of my head and wasn't sure if it was true.

 

Hopping back into the Gotrek & Felix audiobooks with Beastslayer. If you ever need a slump buster, I highly recommend these books. Jonathan Keeble is also a S-Tier narrator, especially with these books.

 

This first "Paths to Ascendency" book is so good. I definitely prefer ICE to SE for Malazan... may be the first ever with that opinion. (I've got a really good breakdown of my Malazan feelings, with more positives than you'd think based on my more recent posts, for once I finish all of the books I own.)

Sanderson's Defiant releases tomorrow, so I'll be pausing for that though.

 

... tomorrow?

 

I forgot books still do the correct thing and release on Tuesday still, haha.

 

"new releases on Friday" is ingrained at this point

 

It's the 21st here in the UK but ...... it's a fitting ending, shall we say!

 

Haha. Good point.

I like the Tuesday releases for books though. Nice to have some midweek excitement.

 

I just got an ARC of Empire of the Damned, i need to drop everything!!

 

@OwainGlyndwr So I read Runelords 5...It was good...Definitely setting up some stuff that could be excellent. It definitely didn't have the momentum that the first series had, like I really do mean it when I use the word "Perfect" constantly to describe those books, I'm being very literal. This was more on the good scale, while the Earth King series was on a masterpiece scale.

Admittedly, it did really bug me that the main character was 9 years old for about 90% of the book, I've made clear before my thoughts on kids in fantasy. If someone didn't have that hang up, they'd probably like it more. Also there's no Raj Ahten equivalent. Since the villains so far are the Loci they're literally the embodiment of evil, so there's not a lot of room of sympathy. (Quick side note: I am 110% for pure evil, just-want-to-see-the-world-burn villains, for example I can't stand that Marvel hasn't had like a good cackling evil villain since Thanos. It's just in this instance there is a Rah Ahten shaped hole missing)

I did still really love it though, I think it was the first time I dropped to 4 stars in this series on Goodreads...but also....4 stars is still really good.

The set up is brilliant though, and could go two different ways, if it goes the way I want it to A fall from grace for the main character where they become the villain I'll be super happy.

 

I'm really pleased to hear that it was enjoyable. I mentioned that I know some people were disappointed in the post–Earth King series, but—having not read them—my intuition was still along the lines of Earth King was perfect, but also Dave's an amazing writer, so I'll probably really enjoy the next books even if they're not the same level of perfection. And what you're saying seems to confirm that. Overall seems like it was a solid book and I'm glad you liked it! Itching to do a reread myself but too many things to clear out of the way first.

Agreed: fiction needs more good Raj Ahten characters haha. So incredibly well done.

 

Yeah that's exactly how I feel, and I really don't want my post to sound negative, I just know you know what I'm comparing it to.

 

Absolutely yeah. I think expecting the second sub-series to continue to build on the heights of the first could leave someone disappointed, and seeing a 4-star rating after the others all have 5 might make someone think there's some giant dip in quality or something. But I get it. 4 stars is a great rating for a novel by any metric. Super happy you enjoyed it.

 

New Murderbot came out this week, so I'll finally be doing some reading again. Kind of fell off in October.

 

Finally read Childhood’s End this week and what a great book. Thoroughly enjoyed it and sad I waited so long to read it.

 

Probably about time to start thinking about our annual gift exchange. Who's in this year?

 

Im down

 

Y'all helped me up my fantasy/sci-fi appreciation so much this year. I'm definitely in! :)

 

I enjoyed the last one so count me back in!

 

definitely

 

for sure in again, I've moved on to the sequel of the book I was gifted last year

 

Nice!! Reminds me I need to re-read some of his work to refresh my memory before book 3!

 

What has everyone received thus far?

Mickey Zucker Reichert - The Last of the Renshai (from @theagentcoma in 2021)

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Time (from @Vivatoto in 2022).

I read both of mine this year.

I know what I’m sending to whoever I get this year. I became far too obsessed with it and need to drag someone else down with me.

 

I got Hyperion by Dan Simmons two years ago and Shadow of the Gods last year, have read both and loved both

 

Shadow of the Gods has such a great cover.