So the summer comes to end and I have another book for the last warm days of the year.

I Know Not: The Legacy of Fox Crow

Protagonist wakes up in the aftermath of a massacre in a small castle and has lost his memories. He finds out that he is a capable swordsman and after some time ends up as the bodyguard of a travelling noblewoman.


It is First Person and I really liked the tone, dark and sarcastic, of it. While the storyline is a bit linear and real surprises are on short supply it also avoids most cliches and similar things. The fight scenes are also extraordinary.

I would give it 4/5.


And for those who one book is not enough I have Thraxas

It is a Sword and Sorcery series that parodies the typical detective stories and is funny as hell.

It has 9 books and the author has plans for at least 3 more.

4/5 if you like the genre otherwise 3,5/5

 

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson has been out for a few days now. Anyone read it? It's next on my to-read list.

I read the Iron Druid Series by Kevin Hearne and overall I've liked it. The first three books were good and the third one was the best one for me. Thor is a fucking asshole.

After that it began going downhill. The major reason I hated the last three books was the shitty romance plot with Granuaile. I have no idea what's so special about her and why Atticus is in love with her. Another major peeve was the ever increasing number of gods who is after Atticus. There was just something vital missing in the last three books. Anyway the books are a short and fun read.

I've also read the first three books of Alex Versus novel after getting recs from the urban fantasy thread. I loved all three. It was a lot of fun. The only problem I had was in the first book where the name Luna made me think of HP Luna every single time. After that, the next two books grew her characters a lot which helped in differentiating them.

 

Wait he's started on another series? I kind of wish he'd concentrate on the Stormlight archives but at least instead of waiting for years for the next book we can get the next instalment of the other series.

I just read the blurb and it seems like its going to be similar to to Hard magic, only without the alternate history stuff.

 

I'm reading it now. So far, I am enjoying it more than I've enjoyed a lot of his books. Sanderson is never going to be a great writer, but he can occasionally be a good one.

I do have me a soft spot for superheroes. All the usual moralizing Sanderson tropes and RPG character sheet mechanics are here, but you have to love the fact that he seems to have written this book as an excuse to make a super-nerdy comic book geek the guy who saves the world. Oh, Brandon Sanderson, you super-nerdy geek.

Will post a full review when I am finished.

 

Just came here to post about Steelheart by Sanderson. Read it this past weekend. For the most part really enjoyed it. Some great twists thrown in at the end that are well woven throughout the story. You'll figure out one or two, but you will not get them all. In typical Sanderson fashion, it has a very "Mistborn" feel to it, it terms of themes. Super evil presence, renegade group trying to take down evil empire, etc etc. I don't want to post any spoilers, but the part I liked most about it was the way he presented superpowers - no shocker that every "Epic" as they're called has a weakness (which can be more or less anything, but often correlates to the superpower) - but the weaknesses are done in such a way, that it really makes people who aren't Epics capable of having a fighting chance, if they're smart and outfitted correctly.

The superpowers are also quite different from Mistborn. Much less rigid of a "magic" system.

 

I read Steelheart last week as well, and also enjoyed it. Probably not Sanderson's strongest work, but I liked most of the characters, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing future books set in this world.

As for Quick Ben's concern about Sanderson writing too many different things at a time, Sanderson himself has said that he writes best and fastest when he's writing multiple series- when he gets tired of writing one he takes a break by writing another.

 

Finished reading Steelheart. Loved it. A bit predictable at crucial plot points, but enjoyable nonetheless.
I do wish some side characters were explored a bit more though. The ending was a bit...disappointing isn't the word I want to use. It was a bit "meh". Good news is that the next book seems to be based on one of the good plot points that came out of the storyline. I

Looking forward to the next book!

 

As promised, my review of Steelheart.

 

Remember Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes, which I recommended way back when?

It's going for £0.99 on most ebook stores at the moment, at the behest of the author himself. Whatever excuse you made before is now invalid. Buy the book.

 

Eugh, I still need to finish the second two books in the main series, as well as the rest of the Malazan books, I have a lot of reading ahead.

 

I don't know what would be the correct thread for this, so I'm asking it here:

I'm trying to find/identify a book that I have heard about recently on the bus.

I managed to hear these details:

- It has Satan/Devil masquerading as a 'debt-collector'
- A family of weird people, that supposedly made the deal with Satan in exchange for special powers.
- Town people cursed (by the above family) to be monsters and forced to live in the forest.
- It may or may not feature silver in some way.

 

I just finished reading Darren Shan's Procession of the Dead (first book in the series) and enjoyed it quite a lot. The writing and narration were excellent and I liked the strange twists.

Dark, violent, a mob city with mysterious Incan references.

 

Very much a YMMV recommendation, but I really enjoyed The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin.

If you hate my Alexandra Quick series, you will probably hate it. If you like my Alexandra Quick series, then you might like it.

Also, the ebook is now available cheap.

 

I recently finished reading Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel, and can't recommend it highly enough. It tells the story of the rise of Thomas Cromwell through the court of Henry VIII, and it tells it beautifully.

 

Looking for some recommendations on medium weight books (in terms of being thought provoking) and some heavy books the typy would highly recommend that changed the way you looked at things. There are a lot of 'classics' but choosing which to read is very difficult. I'm also looking for books that help you become more "well-read" but given that is highly subjective I'll just take everything and make my ow list from what I get.

 

Well, if you have any interest in English/British history I can recommend Foundation: The History of England Volume I.

It's an overview of English history (the first volume of a 6 part series), which takes you from prehistoric England (e.g. Stonehenge) through to Henry VII (whose death ushered in the Tudor era, the subject of the next volume).

The format is essentially "one chapter per king", with a short chapter between each "King Chapter" which describes some aspect of English life in those times, e.g. what houses were like, what roads were like, medicine during those times.

It's all pretty interesting. I've learnt a fair amount from it, and perhaps more importantly put a lot of my prior knowledge into the correct chronological order and historical context.

One downside of such an overview is that a lot of claims are made which you just have to take on trust -- especially in the earlier chapters, when we're talking about history before records, he makes several claims that leave you wondering "how on earth do we know that?". You get a lot of information about what happened, but not so much information on how we know it.

Still, the coverage is reasonably detailed, and the focus of the book is on continuity between ancient times and the present day -- a great many present day English towns and villages have been continually inhabited since pre-Roman times. It's also fun tracking the slow development of Parliament through the ages. I'm definitely planning to read the whole series.

 

Is it just England or the British Isles in general?

 

It's just England in volume I (though wars with Wales and Scotland feature). After the union of the crowns and then, later, the union of the states, I imagine it will also include Scotland. The same with Ireland -- probably Ireland will become included in Volume III when Cromwell hops across and commits genocide.