I stopped read it because it hit me in the feels! I kept putting it off because i was afraid of the emotions
Well, finally finished the last Expanse book Leviathon Falls. It was a bittersweet moment; I'm a fan of happy endings - the heart of the series was the crew of the Roci and I was hoping they would Epstein Drive off into the sunset - but that didn't quite work out, you can read it for yourself and find out why. It was a good ending, a fitting ending, given all that had gone on before, but not quite what my book ending expectations always craves. The whole series was well written and consistent, which for a series as long as this one was well done. Perhaps there were aspects of the last book that could have been left out, without affecting the story, but in the end it was all good. So, now that my reading life has been returned to me after nine novels and five shorts, I'm off to the Jade City by Fonda Lee, a book my sister gave to me for Christmas and one that she has been asking me about. Since she's read the book I gave to her I'd better read this one, hadn't I. Certainly has good reviews.
I loved the show, especially the first couple of seasons, and the consensus seems to be that it doesn't quite do the books justice. I love the setting, and wouldn't mind exploring it in greater detail. Yes, I should definitely leap into this. I've been meaning to read more Sci-Fi anyway. Currently reading the last book in the series, Jade Legacy, and my goodness these are good. Hope you enjoy it!
You should, it's a bit daunting reading so much (500 odd pages each), never read such a large series before, but the whole is worth it, the world is big and fun to visualize. Writing is good, and the story keeps you engaged. There is definitely more to the books than they could ever show, even though the series was so well done, lots more to explore as you make your way through the novels. Right, good to know, was hoping someone else out there had read this because it's a new author and series to me.
I picked up Peter McLean's Priest of Bones on the say-so of @Bone2pick, I believe it was? As a sort of a nice, short breather between larger books. Well! It certainly isn't nice, but it is short, and also very good. It's gritty as anything, and the plot moves like a bull seeing red. It doesn't meander one bit, and that is good. Don't mistake me, I like a good meander more than most readers (Titus Groan/Gormenghast being my joint favorite books of all time, and one could argue they're mostly meander) but sometimes you just want a story to get on with it already. I love gangster stories, and war stories, and this is very much both of them. It has a strong first person voice, which I appreciate to no end. I can tell this is hugely inspired by the show Peaky Blinders, but that doesn't bother me. It does its own thing and does it well. I'll be picking up the rest of this series and no mistake.
Can't place the plot right offhand, but my copy of The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes is only six feet away, so...
It was one of his earliest cases (pre-Watson). His old classmate who is an aristocrat has him come to investigate his butler going missing. The central pivot of the story is an English Civil War era ritual where the Musgrave men would do a recitation of a saying. His classmate just thought it was an archaic coming of age thing men in his family did. It ends up being more important than that. I won't spoil the rest.
Hm. I don’t have that one in the copy I’m reading. I thought The Man With The Twisted Lip was quite impressionable, though. It’s about a homeless man who gets sent to prison on suspicion of killing another gentleman who’s gone missing. Turns out the homeless guy IS that missing gentleman in disguise (wha-?). Guess keeping the secrecy of that disguise was more important to him than acquitting himself of those murder charges (!) For a 19th century story, I thought that one was pretty advanced for its time. I’ll have to find the Musgrave Ritual in another copy somewhere that has it and find out if it’s every bit as good as you say
@Night Herald I'm glad Priest of Bones worked for you. I'll probably read the next book in the series sometime next month. As to what I've recently read: I DNF'd The Scar just shy of its halfway point, finished Dune Messiah (commendable, but short of what I'd hoped), and finished the delightfully depraved Beyond Redemption. I highly recommend the last book for readers who can stomach nightmarishly cruel and ugly fantasy stories. Currently reading: The Vengeful Spirit by Graham McNeill, and The Darkness that Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker.
Oh man... You're in for one hell of a ride with The Darkness that Comes Before... That's high up on my wanting-to-reread pile, that is.
I don't know if you are into audiobooks but if you like public domain ones I use Librivox. They have an app and you can find classics read by volunteers. Some are better than others but you can't be free. I know they have all the Sherlock Holmes books because I have them all downloaded
Due to the recent kerfuffle, I went out and found a copy of Maus, which I'd never read before. Dunno, but I was surprised by how unsympathetic the MC was. An honest retelling of him and his life, I hope.
Since it’s been a while, I’m rereading The Traitor Baru Cormorant to refresh myself on the setting and side characters before starting The Monster Baru Cormorant. 10/10, I’m ready to get hurt again.
Interested to see how you'll like The Monster, it's very different. Definitely worth it, if you liked The Traitor (and who didn't?) but yeah...very different. I'm reading Cherie Dimaline, The Marrow Thieves. It's fine. The apocalypse part isn't terribly original, but she does a good job with the post-apocalypse part. Characters actually plan ahead for when there won't be any more bullets for their guns! So they learn archery, etc. As opposed to the usual post-apocalypse convention of people just getting infinity bullets from nowhere, long after every bullet factory has fallen into ruin. I love it when people actually think through these things.
The Grave Maurice by Martha Grimes. Part of the Inspector Richard Jury series, of which, this is the first I've tried. It's good but not really "mystery" yet. My mom tells me this one is a bit of a departure from her normal fare, with some secondary characters taking the spotlight. It's a little wonky in the POV and gentrified in its contents, but I'm liking it.
Currently making my way through the Thursday Murder Club. Not really been a reader of cozy mysteries before but I'd recommend it.
I'm currently reading King's IT, and I intend to crack open Peter McLean's Priest of Lies sometime today.
I am re-reading Greg Bear's Anvil of Stars, the sequel to Forge of God. Don't remember much of this second book, but there were bits and pieces of the first one that stuck in my mind and when I recently finished it for the second time I was blown away. Bear is one of those binary "holy fuckballs/yeah, there were some good ideas in there" writers, but Anvil was absolutely amazing so I have high hopes for my (re)read of the sequel.
Bear is excellent, but generally pretty dry. You have to be in a Greg Bear mood, but he can certainly deliver.
I like Greg Bear's "Blood Music." What a ruthless story. It's like a bloodthirsty Asimov. Awesome! The original story was probably 20k words and then he rewrote it into a full novel. Honestly, the short version is better. It's not a summary. It's the first quarter of the full novel. I think it has matrixitis. ma·trix·i·tis | \ ˈmā-triks-ˈī-təs \ (noun) A writing affliction in which the plot and character arc have been resolved, but for monetary reasons, the story continues. i.e., "Bro, The Exorcist II: The Heretic, has hella matrixitis." haha (laughing at my own joke) The original is still worth a read. Very creepy but with a classic sci-fi sense of discovery.
2034: a novel of the next world war TL/DR: save your money. My boss gave out copies to read for our monthly meeting. He was robbed. My time was robbed. If "show don't tell" is an unwritten rule of writing, the two authors who contributed to this thing decided that they should tell everything and show little to nothing...cause why not. The pacing was terrible. You could tell they had points of the story they wanted to hit and just put enough sentences together to get between them. Imagine reading a book on World War II and the Battle of Midway gets two sentences only listing casualties and who won. Massive plot holes throughout, unexplained technologies and technologies that are used, don't have the results that their real-life counterparts would produce. The only way I can see how this thing made it to print was one of the authors was Admiral Jim Stavridis, a highly decorated and respected officer. His skill in the Navy, however, did not translate into novel writing. Its more like a PowerPoint presentation of possibilities on how a third world war could start and some of its possible outcomes with just enough story between bullet points to string it together. Whatever editor let this get within 100 feet of a printing press needs tacks in the heel of their shoes for a week in penitence.
He's got two or three excellent books. Forge of God, Psychlone, and we'll see about Anvil of Stars. Darwin's Radio and its sequel Darwin's Children had interesting ideas but absolutely sucked as novels. I know that I read Eon but that was back in high school, and I don't remember being overawed by it. But I'm still too scared to try Psychlone again. That book still makes my skin crawl over thirty years later.
