Little Chicago: Thanks for telling me about Madness of Angels. That is probably the best insanity shown not told ever.

At first I thought the pronoun useage was mistakes in editing/copying to kindle edition. When I understood the truth....:awesome

The descriptions are pretty good and the plotting is nice. I could see some of the twists but others completely blew me away.

Also the magic system is really nice. Paint warriors are amazing!

 

Since there isn't a master list of to-read books I started a group at GoodReads.com and started to add the books from this thread but.. Its taken me 20 minutes to add the books on the first page alone.

So instead of adding them all myself if people are interested they can join the group and add your own favorite books.

Dark Lord Potter @ Goodreads.com

I've made the group public so people can freely join and add books. If we get enough interest going the group can go private and have mods to accept invites from DLP members only, what books are added, discussions, etc.

I've also added a few shelves that DLP might like (ex. unique magic systems).

 

Okay, I've just finished reading the War of the Flowers and I have to agree that it's a fantastic book. Theo is definitely not an action hero, but his reactions to the events around him and the growth he goes through as a character at the very least nudge him into hero territory.

Spoiler

My favourite parts of the book are basically these three:

1) The irrha attacking Theo while he's at home. I just have this hilarious mental image of a crippled bum smashing through a door, with a woman's foot where his should be, a black guy's hand, and bits and pieces missing where there should be something. It's like imagining the Kool-Aid Guy barging through a serious sci-fi novel.

2) The dragon attack. Of course this was going to be up there. It's fucking dragons. On a related note, the Grimms taking down three of the fuckers when they've only fought creatures about 12 feet long before is pretty freaking awesome too.

3) The Terrible Child. I saw the reveal coming a long way before it actually happened (since, you know, Changelings are swapped with human children), but that didn't detract from the creepiness of the kid at all. I'd been reading so much hype about it from the maid characters and such that I figured it would just be a let down when he finally appeared, but damn was I wrong. First impression being of him eating a pixie really hit home. Perhaps because I liked Applecore as a character it hit me harder, but that was some seriously messed up shit.

All in all I fucking loved the book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy, even if they're not sick of the general action/adventure fantasy mould.

5/5

 

Added a few. Cheers for making it. Be good to get a Library of sorts going for original fiction.

 

Cinda Williams Chima not Claudia I think, but as far as YA and general fantasy even, go, it's pretty good, I'd reccomend it.

 

I would suggest reading it again. There are a lot of subtle themes and plots running in the background that don't get directly mentioned, and that's something a lot of people seem to miss from the reviews I've read. It really makes the world feel alive, more than any of the characters themselves, and that's a sign of some fantastic world building. The characters, while not your standard fantasy fair, are realistic enough for me to connect with them on a level that most heroes simply can't.

 

Agreed, and the next book in the series (The Minority Council) has just been released - definitely my next purchase.

In other areas, I've just finished the second book of the Malazan series, and I'm thoroughly enjoying them so far (y'know, despite it being miserable as fuck). Really great world, decent writing, and lots of cool characters.

 

Hey guys just got the Earth sea books from a friend but am not sure whether I should spend my time on them, are they good?

 

The original trilogy definitely are; the later books get a little weird though.

 

Finally got my hands on and finished Terry Pratchett's latest Discworld novel Snuff.

City Watch being my favorite sub-series of Discworld and with starring Sam Vimes, I had high hopes for it - especially since Night Watch and Thud! were so good - but I have to say I was disappointed for the most part. I liked Feenay and the sense of Vimes finally passing the torch onto the next generation, and the fight on the Wonderful Fanny, but that's about all.

The story, much like Unseen Academicals with orcs before it, (re)introduced the goblins. It wasn't exactly wrong, but I was really hoping that, after Fifth Elephant and Thud! with the emphasis mostly on Dwarfs, Vimes & co. will actually go to visit the Trolls this time in the mountains and see how they really live, as hinted in the other books. I mean, didn't Detritus say in Thud! that Vimes didn't really know the Trollish situation? It would've been great to visit Diamond King of Trolls for, say, the signing of Koom Valley Accord and fighting crime on the way.

Otherwise, the "morals" of the story seemed too heavy-handed. But the most annoying part for me is the feeling of deviation of Vimes, Vetinari and Wilikins from their previously established characters.

Overall, just an average read in the Discworld series.

 

Just finished Orb, Sceptre, Throne which is the latest book set in the Malazan world. I would recommend reading all the other books before strating this as it has major spoilers. This was a very interesting read as alot of information was revealed about lots of different things.

All in all a fantastic read.

 

Picked up every single Forgotten Realms book out there. Lot's of good books there, currently going through the basics with Legend of Drizzt series and my personal favorite in the Erevis Cale titles, but I figure besides those, I might get a jump into War of the Spider Queen.

 

West Pacific Supers by K.M. Johnson-Weider, a wife and husband pair.

Essentially the NBA or NFL for Superheroes. It focuses on one of the better teams on the west coast, but with views from the villains they are facing and the vigilantes in the city. It was a good quick read, though it has about 100k words, and it showed a more realistic take on modern day superheroes.

 

Kudos for doing that. I hadn't spent much time at GoodReads, and this will give me a reason to do so.

I'll be honest and say this sounds terrible, but I'll bet the synopsis for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone sounded pretty lame back in '97 or so.

...

ON TOPIC:

I've just finished The Cider House Rules by John Irving and it's very, very good. This is the second Irving book I've read (the first was A Prayer for Owen Meany) and despite TCHR not approaching the wonderful APFOM, Irving is fast becoming my favorite author. The characters in TCHR - Homer Wells, Dr. Larch, Wally, Candy, Melony, even Nurse Edna and Nurse Angela are memorable and fleshed-out. They are all given full personalities, and this is made even more amazing because Irving somehow manages to subvert that sacred cow of "show, don't tell," at least in the early parts of the book.

The story starts with Homer Wells and the orphanage at St. Clouds, though it actually spans decades, from Dr. Larch's beginnings to the end, which I won't spoil. I saw the movie adaptation about twelve years back and liked it (from what I remember) but the novel is much, much better (as usual) and covers so much more than the movie that they're only superficially alike. While there are a couple contrived coincidences, this book requires less suspension of disbelief than APFOM.

I have no illusions that Irving's stuff is "standard" DLP fare or even something most of DLP enjoys (that is not a dig, as many at DLP enjoy and can wax poetic about genres that either don't do it for me or can't hold my interest for long - different strokes and all that), but if and when you're looking for a character-driven novel that's not "genre" fiction, this one is a good bet. The topics of identity, duty, love, and sacrifice, not to mention abortion and morality, are laid out without judgment, and I really felt for all the characters - even the ones I didn't like.

While I can never say enough about A Prayer for Owen Meany and how indelible a picture it left for me of Owen, Hester, and others, I don't think I'll forget Dr. Larch, Homer Wells, Melony - even Rose Rose - anytime soon. The next Irving novel I plan to read is A Widow for One Year or The World According to Garp.

...

Also, I've started reading Stephen King's Full Dark, No Stars, and it's a struggle so far. I'm a few dozen pages into the first story - "1922" - and it has yet to grab me. It doesn't feel like King's writing (which is not necessarily a bad thing, it just is) and of the three characters I've seen, none of them are likable or make me root for them in any way.

I'll keep going, because one, I want to see if it gets better or more engaging, and two, they're short stories (or novellas?) so I can at least finish the first one without investing weeks of scarce reading time.

 

I've just started reading Sacré Bleu by Christopher Moore. I'm a pretty big fan of his stuff, personal favourites being A Dirty Job and Lamb: The Bible According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.

As should be apparent, he writes humour. Anyone else ever tried reading some of his books?

The description for Sacré Bleu from the insert is:

Apparently he researched the hell out of the time period - and it shows in the writing even just two or three chapters in.

 

Just finished Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes. Overall, it was a good read and I don't think I've ever read anything like that; mainly because of the many perspectives and various politics which were going on.

I think the only one of the main characters I didn't like by the end of it was Gorst. He didn't seem to grow like the other characters did and I grew more and more tired of him.

 

I think Joe wanted to show us not all characters grow so much, just like Nicomo Cosca in Best Served Cold.

Only a couple more months until (A) Red Country. Old!Bloody-Nine will be awesome.

 

Yeah, I figured as much. Just thought it was a shame since Gorst felt like a character who really needed some growth, from an in-universe perspective. Ah well.

Now excuse me whilst I re-read the entirety of the Dresden Files. I've had an unopened copy of Ghost Story sitting on my shelf since the day it came out. How the hell I managed to avoid any spoilers, I don't know.