Two new Mistborn books just came out. The first is Bands of Mourning, third in the Wax and Wayne Trilogy. A fantastic book, The stakes are increased dramatically and a lot of things teased previously are seen, character development and world building here is fantastic, new uses and improvements in the magic system is shown and the reveals are really good. The last page was pretty jaw dropping.

The second is a Novella Mistborn Secret History and it is a must read if you are remotely interested in the Cosmere stuff. I can't say anymore without spoiling it but it is best you read it after Bands of Mourning.

 

Just finished Uprooted by Naomi Novik yesterday. After all of the good things I've been hearing about it I had to give it a shot, and it definitely deserves all the praise. What a fantastic book. Not perfect, but incredibly mesmerizing and refreshing.

My review:

 

Just finished Bands of Mourning, and I'm just giddy. The whole book was fantastic, but then those last few pages...Sanderson is a vicious tease of a writer. Can't wait for the next one. Onto Secret History once I've slept.

 

I have just finished morning star by Pierce Brown. Wow what a triology. Great writing, no character is safe and the possibility for more in the future.

 

It's Sanderson. He goes to take a shit and accidentally writes a trilogy on the way there.

 

He's ridiculous. He had writers block on the second book, so he wrote the third to see where the plot would go. Then he finished the second, thinking that the publishers would hold the third back. They didn't, so we got two installments in about three months, plus the Secret History novella. The man's a machine.

 

Okay, triple checked the the first post in the thread this time, and it looks like I can ask for recommendations, but I'm going to be pretty specific because there was already a good listing of books on the first page that a mod put there.

I've been working on a sports story, and I wanted to read some sports. But I'm not interested in reading about tons of worries about the drama surrounding sports so much as I want to read about the sports games.

So say there's a book about basketball that spends tons of time on the team dynamics and whatnot, but glosses over the games themselves, just giving some basic information on who scored and what the final tally was, etc. That's not what I'm looking for!

I want to read a book that spends a lot of time on the games themselves, almost like it's a book with really good fight scenes but instead of fight scenes it's sports games. Details like you get from really good fight scenes, but in sports instead!

I know there's some manga that do this but I'm a little more interested in prose writing than manga, but if there's a short manga (like <100 chapters) then that'd work too I guess, just it wouldn't help too much with the prose even if it's still awesome.

So I haven't read too many, is my point, of any length. I can look up sports stories and whatnot on sites like Goodreads (goodreads is a website that has a lot of book reviews and sometimes people get really pissy on it when they self-publish and then get bullied which is mean so be careful if you're doing that) but just knowing that it's a 'sports story' doesn't tell me where the emphasis is, and again I want to read details about the actual physical games (oh yeah, physical games preferred, not mental games like chess, but whatever works).

Thanks if you have recommendations I'd love to read them!

EDIT EDIT EDIT! Just in case I have to provide a recommendation when I ask for things or if I'm supposed to (I'm sorry if I am doing this wrong mods), uhm, I don't have a good sports recommendation (which is why I'm asking for one), but you can read free books legally here (https://www.gutenberg.org/). And The Little Princess (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/146) is actually a pretty solid book you can read there for free. Don't judge it because it's for girls!

 

Just finished Morning Star. The concluding part of Pierce Brown Red Rising Trilogy.

It starts slow but when the story gets going, it really gets going. Very satisfying conclusion to the story. I like the conclusion he gave the story, no fairy tale happy ending that the heroes win everything in the end and go on to live happily ever after as all their problems are solved and yet it wasn't grimdark. It was realistic and it fits the characters and tone of the story he was going for. It was one of my favorite ending for a revolution style book series of all time. Another high point was the characters with the exception of the one time they had the idiot ball to facilitate progression of the plot, they were excellent. Also liked the fact that the villains weren't made idiots to allow the good guys win.

The only flaw I could find in the book was that the major twist at the end of the novel felt a bit too obvious and telegraphed and there was no suspense from reading those chapters fell flat but that is just me nitpicking as that was just a minor issue

This year so far has been a great year for me in terms of novels coming out. First was the two new books by Sanderson then this one. I also have City of Blades, second in the Divine Cities series and so far it has been good. Calamity, Reckoners trilogy final book is coming out in a couple days on the 16th. Yet another book by Brandon Sanderson making it his third book release in 2 months (That guy is just completely insane and that has to be some type of record) and also The Last Mortal Bond, a book in Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne series is coming out March 15.

Considering we have books like Thorn of Emberlain (Locke Lamora), Peace Talks (Dresden Files), Guns of the Empire (Shadow Campaigns) and possibly Oathbringer (Stormlight Archive) coming out later in the year.

I kept Stormlight there cause it is Sanderson and given his track record he is going to break the estimation for a 2017 release.

 

Still have to finish Province of Fire before I can look forward to The Last Mortal Bond.

Lot of books on my to read list.

For one,the Mistborn stuff but I have to say, so far, I was not impressed by the Wex stuff. I couldn't really get over not having Vin any more. Is the third book so much better than the other two?

Also want to read The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie, The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson, Guns of the Dawn by Adrian Tschaikovsky, City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennet, A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall, Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie, Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis and The Mirror Empire by kameron Hurley.

Dinosaur Lords by Victor Milan is also still on the list but my enthusiasm has cooled down due to the lukewarm reviews.

If anyone has read any of those books, would love to hear their spoilerfree opinions on them.

Super looking forward to Guns of the Empire, loving Wexler's books. Just found out he wrote a book in 2005 bu unfortunately that seems to be out of print and unavailable as an ebook.

So many books, so little time >_>
sage1000 how was the first book of the Divine Cities series?

 

Nemrut: Bands of Mourning refers back to the original Mistborn trilogy a lot more, and the big plot thread of the Wax/Wayne trilogy really kicks off, and to some degree concludes. Also, there's a few things in it that are probably going to be very significant in the other two trilogies he has planned.

 

Nemrut: City of Stairs is very good. One of the things I enjoyed is that it is completely different from every fantasy novel. The mythology isn't featuring the usual kinds of gods, the setting also is different, not the usual medieval, modern day or post apocalyptic that is the standard fare in most fantasy stories. This allows it to explore completely different themes and feel refreshingly different from other fantasy novels. The world building is amazing and the plot isn't far behind. it starts slowly though but i don't think I dropped the book while reading until it finished.

As for the wax stories, book 3 is definitely better. The characters are better. Marasi become more likeable and Steris is the stand out character. Story fleshes out Mistborn lore far better than the other book, finally making this story look like something that matters and not just a pit stop.

Started Dinosaur Lords, can't remember why but I didn't get very far before dropping it.

Thanks for your rec, now my list of books to read has grown.

 

Dug around a bit and didn't find a template for recommendations or see this book mentioned anywhere else, so hopefully I'm not breaking any rules.

All the Light We Cannot See (goodreads) (wiki) is a 2014 novel by Anthony Doerr set during World War II. I actually bought it last year after seeing a recommendation for it online and enjoyed it thoroughly. The author has a real talent for imagery and the book contains a fascinating mix of fiction, science, and history, although the plotting can be a bit slow. It's happy and sad and beautifully written, and it ended up winning the 2015 Pulitzer if you care about accolades. Anyone who appreciates good literature should give it a try.

 

I take it you've read Michael Shaara's For Love of the Game?

 

No Perspicacity, I haven't! I haven't found any books yet like what I'm looking for. Thanks for the recommendation!

Edit: You got my first thumbs up! I can use thumbs ups! *thumbs up for you*

 

Thanks!

I'd say it's decent writing, though nothing near his Pulitzer Prize winning Killer Angels (arguably the classic Civil War war novel). For Love of the Game was published posthumously from an draft by Michael Shaara's son, Jeff Shaara, a writer of somewhat lesser skill.

 

I didn't read the post since I'm a third of the way through the book now (was re-reading Ender's Game when it first came out). Nevertheless, I'm on the fence with it right now. Author's done a good job playing off earlier relationship conflicts without repeating them. Only one character so far is even close to being a Mary/Gary sue within the book, but that overall character arc dispels that feeling due to the end of the last book.

Parts of the book, however, just felt . . . small. The first two books were epic adventures, this one so far, isn't (well, until the last chapter and a half, so it's getting there). Then again, every book so far has taken its time setting up the storyline.

Overall, the book, and the series, is well worth the read. As I've said somewhere else, in places, the writing crosses the line from fiction to true literary prose.

EDIT: Yeah, never mind about it feeling small. The epicness has returned.

 

It's been a slow week at work, so I've read the Rogue Agent series, by K.E. Mills. I'll try to avoid plaintext spoilers for the most part.

The books follow Gerald Dunwoody, a third grade wizard, after an incident which deals massive damage to his potentia. In book one, he goes to become the Court Wizard of King Lional the 43rd of New Ottosland, and things go downhill. Later books focus on Mellissande (princess of New Ottosland), Monk Markham (mad genius), Emmerabiblia (Monk's sister, and just as bad), and Reg the bird (not actually a bird).

Some issues:
- made up words out the wazzoo. All the countries are called things like Stolze, Lespruchia, and Bolonkiv. Made up names like Emmerabiblia, and lots of pseudoscientific words about Etheretic tranduscence, polarised thaumozones, and the like. Also, all cars are always referred to as jalopies. This adds a layer of zaniness to the stories, almost like it was written by a Seuss that was incapable of rhyming. This also allows the smart characters to throw buzzwords at each other without stating anything provably wrong, because it's all nonsense.
- I still have no idea what species of bird Reg is. I think she's some form of hawk or falcon. She's definitely not a chicken, and definitely some form of predatory, but that's it (unless I missed it, although I was actively searching for the information this time).
- All wizards and witches have magical cores, called potentia. They can be used to determine if the wizard you are looking at is the wizard you think they are, and they also carry the taint of dark magic when used by or on the wizard. Potentias might be sentient, and learning new spells can change them.


Actual spoilers below, proceed at your own peril

Spoiler

The ending of each book seems to come out of nowhere. In book three, Gerald is in Evil-Universe, fighting Evil-Gerald, and wins because his Reg takes a fireball for him, and then Gerald manages to bring the dragon from book one back to life to eat evil-Gerald. Book four has Bibbie casually kill two people because "Our crazy uncle had some strange books, lol", after a book and a half of Gerald agonising over the evil spells implanted into his magical core in book three, and wondering whether they've stained his soul too much.

In book three Reg dies, and then the replacement from evil-Universe (who isn't evil) comes back with not-evil-Gerald. Everyone gets really upset with each other, because they don't feel she's the real Reg. Obviously, this causes strife.

The books are light, at less than 400 pages, and I managed to get through each in a normal workday and commute. They're enjoyable, but don't expect fantastic things from them either. I'd probably rate them either 3 or 4 out of 5. Fun to read, but don't plan to come back to them soon.

 

So I just finished reading all of the Red Rising books after seeing the comments here and they are fucking awesome.

Spoilers for all books

Spoiler

The Fall of Olympus was fucking awesom te in the first book. The killing of Appolo more so. The best part of the second book was probably when he started the civil war and his conversation with the Sovereign. I would have been so fucking furious if I read the books before the release of the third especially because of the second book ending. I wanted to see more of the Sovereign and what she was thinking about. An interlude or two would have been good.

The third book was probably my favorite. I didn't see Cassius fake betrayal coming but I expected that come back especially when Darrus didn't think about his betrayal at all. I guess this is a weakness in the First Person POV.

It was very satisfying and a fun and fast read. I loved almost all of the characters in the books. I need to digest the books before thinking more. I would probably reread it a month or two later. Anyway I would love to read what the author releases next.

Peresphone's Song

 

In the past two days I've read the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson and I thought I'd leave a recommendation for the people who haven't read the series. Overall I'd rate the trilogy as a 4/5. With a small problem with there being one main problem lowering the score.

The Bad:
There were three magic sytems in the trilogy and the main protagonist used one of the three called Allomancy. This system involved the user ingesting an alchemical metal to burn it and gain a specific power from it. The problem comes from the limited number of metals that can be burnt. In the first book there are only 10 metals that can be burnt that are widely known about, and one of the is so useless it kjs only used once in the entire trilogy. In the third book there are fourteen known metals, with three of them not having much use and one being over used to the point of it becoming annoying. The limited number of metals, and therefore magic powers, meant that the use of magic quickly became me repetitive. This is especially true in the combat scenes as only five of the metals had any real combat use.

The Good:
There were many good things about the trilogy, and I'll briefly mention some of them here. Firstly, the world building was great. The world felt quite real and the author put a lot of effort I to fleshing out every aspect of the world. I particularly enjoyed reading about the different religions the author created, and the part they playe in the trilogy. Better than the world building were the characters. I found that the characters felt real and were more than just two dimensional cutouts designed to move the plot along. They were (mostly) likable and relatable which made me care more about the situations they got stuck in. The plot was good with there being quite a few twists that I didn't see coming but they made sense and had a purpose beyond the shock factor. Finally, even though one of the magic systems got a slight bit repetitive, all three of them were unique and fun to read about, with no particular system being more powerful than the others.

There are more books set in the same universe but a couple of hundred years later which I'll probably give a go at so e point. Right now I'm going to look for mistborn fan fiction but I doubt I'll find anything good since it was the worldbuilding and characters that made the trilogy good, something that a lot of fanfiction authors can't seem to write well.