If you're willing to wait until October 6th of this year, they'll be published in their own collection as "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms."

 

Hey, I am looking for some good spy/action books/novels, something ranging from the early Tom Clancy books to the new James Bond movies and wondered if DLP had some suggestions.

Interesting and believable plots, intriguing characters, well written-action and dialogue as well as a semi-realistic world is what I am looking for.

 

I've heard good things about Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré.
Not sure if that's exactly what you're looking for, though.

 

Something like that... though I would prefer something a bit more modern or with a bit more humour.

 

Can't help on the humor front, but Le Carre is still writing and has written some good books lately about more modern issues. I'm particularly fond of The Constant Gardner.

Again, may or may not be what you're looking for. He has a very particular style, and if you don't like it, you don't like it.

 

Just finished 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee after reading for 2 days.

I was quite taken by the - let's call it cheeky - wit from the PoV narrator, and also by the message about human nature conveyed throughout the book. In short: it was engrossing and thought-provoking, and kept me glued to it right up to the end.

As the story seems to be an American classic I don't think it really needs much in terms of recomendations, but I had to write something somewhere to say how much I liked it or I wouldn't have been able to sleep tonight.

Ps: It seems like there will be a sequel released in July 2015, 'Go Set a Watchman', which Lee wrote before Mockingbird and now decided to publish. Strictly speaking from a chronological PoV Mockingbird would be the prequel then, as Scout is apparently an adult in Watchman.

 

Queen of Fire. The last book in the Raven's Shadow Trilogy is out. I've just started reading and it off to a great start already. Some twists that were already expected are revealed and one that blindsided me that I should probably have seen coming. Hopefully it would be as strong or stronger than the first book.

 

In the middle of my Tower Lord reread. Really looking forward to the last book.

 

I loved Blood Song, but after I read (skimmed) a lot of the reviews for Tower Lord I held off of buying Tower Lord. It seemed to be very polarizing, people either loved or hated it. The switch to multiple PoVs was at the center of that split.
What's the general consensus on here?

 

I loved Tower Lord.

I found the end to be a bit disappointing, but that's only because it wasn't as amazing as the end of the first book.

Don't go into the book expecting the same as book 1 thought. Vaelin features, but not much comparatively.

It's still just as fast paced, and I really enjoyed both Learna and Frentis' story lines.

 

Tower Lord was a lot better on a second read, The first time the change in POV and additions of some characters I ended up disliking was the reason. The second read made it more enjoyable as the frentis storyline was in my opinion the best part.

 

The Price of Valour, the third book of the Shadow Campaigns series by Django Wrexler came out today.

Loved it. it had a few issues here and there, like

Spoiler

I wasn't a big fan of Jane's story line although I am really interested how that will go on, I doubt that this is the end of her, I can see her becoming a POV character, or at least, an interlude character in the next book.

Also, Winter gets promoted a bit too fast for my taste. She started of the series with a promotion to sergeant and pretty early in book three she has already reached the highest military rank possible. Kinda wish the series would take more time to see her get used to her higher command roles.

That said, whereas the first book was mainly military driven and the second book was scheming and politics, this book was a mixture of the two, with one half being the campaign with Winter and Janus and the other being the city stuff, dealing with schemers and plotters in back-alleys with the Queen and Marcus.

Spoiler

I really hope that what we saw between the Queen and Marcus was just momentary stuff and not foreshadowing for an eventual romance. That just seems out of place and unlikely and I hope the story doesn't get bogged down with that. I kinda doubt it, though, since the next book might be a campaign to a foreign lands, with Marcus going with the army, and the Queen should remain in the capital.

So, yeah, flintlock military fantasy with good characters, and interesting setting, and great action, with consistently good books.

Check it out. Also, yearly releases promised and delivered so far. Book 3 is out, 2 more to go.

 

Read through The Red Knight and its sequel, The Fell Sword.
I really liked them; the author's also written historical fiction novels, and I thought it really showed, in the armour descriptions, the tactics behind the battles, and the general feel of it. The setting being an alternate version of our world is very intriguing, too.

The many PoVs hurt both novels, though. It gives a better overview of everything, true, but it detracted from the story of the seeming protagonist, the Red Knight.
In general, I thought the sequel was a bit weaker than the first novel; its climax doesn't really reach the same heights as the siege of the first novel.

I'm eagerly awaiting the third book, though I don't know when it'll come out.

 

I picked up 'The Red Knight' a while ago. After finishing a third or so, I stopped reading. It was very confusing with so many pov. Setting is very detailed and while generally I love it, in this instance, it felt like it was too much to keep up with. Now, I know, it's all going to add up amazingly in the end, given the amount of good reviews I have read. But I just couldn't continue. Maybe it is because I was on a hectic schedule when I started it. But I am going to pick up it up again when I finish couple of books on my list first (Queen of Fire being the next).

 

Yeah the book can be a bit overwhelming at the start but I think that you will find out that effort really pays off.

I liked the PoV thing in the first book where it is used relatively sparingly and yet offers many interesting insights into the setting as well as characters.

The second one however truly suffers from having to many of them (though I think that this could change once the latter books are out and the various plots/characters get connected).


The third book should come out this autumn (October the 15th) and focuses on the tourney in Hardon - which should lead to some really interesting character interaction.

 

Tried to read the Red Knight but I found it to be pretty awful, tbh and couldn't get that far. Seemed to be written rather poorly, did not find any of the characters appealing and it seemed rather trite. It gets better?

 

Some things, like the characters and story, can be a bit confusing at the start and get better the further you get in the book but the writing style doesn`t really change. I personally like his attention to detail and the action/battlefield scenes are certainly some of the best I have ever read but the "tone" itself remains the same.

And I really don`t get your complain about it being trite/boring- in my eyes it has a very interesting setting and a intriguing start.

 

So I've re-read Blood Song and Tower Lord to prepare me for Queen of Fire. After reading that I`m somewhat dissapointed. Another good first novel (Blood Song) and sequels that fail to live up to the first.

I dont even know if its over or not? Was it a trilogy? Anyway mediocre stuff...

The Red Knight and Fell Sword were pretty good if I remember corectly.