What are you reading?

[Myrthos]

Frank Herbert and his son are very different writers. Where Frank Herbert spends a lot of time playing the psychologist for the main characters and goes into depths, resulting in me feeling disconnected at times (especially in Messiah), his son does not go into those depths.

The chapters in the books of the father are usually two or three times longer than a chapter in the books of the Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson, so less time is spent on characters in general per chapter but they usually also have more characters. I wouldn't call the characters superficial because of that, but they write the books primarily as an adventure and not as a proclamation, which is what I feel Frank Herbert is doing.

I also think they do it on purpose, because they don't want to take anything away from the original 6 books and give their own spin on things. As mentioned these books written by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson are of varying quality, but so are the books of the father in my opinion. I find it difficult to determine upfront which books are worth the read and which are not, so I just went all-in.
Besides that, the books are also written in sets of trilogies, so once started I also feel the need to finish that particular trilogy.

 

[Carnifex]

Now that I can truly understand, I'm the exact same way, once I've started a series I tend to stick it out, for better or worse, just to see how it all ended up. The one notable exception for me was Wheel of Time, I simply couldn't finish that series, even to this very day.

 

[Myrthos]

Yeah, Wheel of Time became a bit of a chore after book 5 or 6, can't remembered exactly. Could have been another book as well
I think if he hadn't died, we might be looking at some 20 books in the series, with another one coming. Not that it is a good thing he died, far from it.

 

[Carnifex]

Nod, my final read on Wheel of Time was the fourth book, that was sometime in the nineties and I've not gotten past that book then or now. And you're likely right about Jordan, with the way he wrote I've no problem at all believing that, in the end, had he endured, the novel count may have very well exceeded twenty.

 

[Carnifex]

This morning saw me conclude Kindness Goes Unpunished, book three of the Walt Longmire series. It starts off with our erstwhile Sheriff reading a story to some school children, then traveling to Philadelphia to meet up with his daughter and friends, and from there everything goes completely bonkers. Cady is in hospital with a horrific injury, her fiance is in the wind and suspect, and Longmire plus Dog and the Cheyenne Nation seem to have wandered straight into some huge drug-laden conspiracy. I had real trouble putting this one down, Johnson just writes so darn well, his characters seem all but alive and maybe lurking around the corner, waiting to have a chat or coffee. I'll be keeping on with this series for sure!!

Right now, though, it's back to all things Flavia! When we last saw our almost-teen prodigy, she was about to knock off for Canada to attend the same school that her mother had, in her youth. I'm about twenty pages in and already seriously hooked on As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust.

 

[Carnifex]

As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust is now in the completed slot, it was a great read, starting with poor Flavia being banished from the UK and then, at the conclusion of the current mystery, she was banished from Canada and sent back home! This book also included a small novella, which I appreciated so I didn't have to go through the effort of checking out another book, as it was smallish and only took twenty minutes to read.

And now I'm back in Wyoming with Longmire, book four, Another Man's Mocassins is underway and already we've got a body, at least one villain, and Walt getting seriously mucked up by a very large Human.

 

[Carnifex]

I finished Another Man's Mocassins this morning, a fine entry in the Longmire series. This one sees slavery come to the state of Wyoming, and all the baggage that tends to follow that institution. You also get a back-tale told from when Longmire was in the Marines, as it directly relates to the tale folding out in the present. This author can really nail interesting characters that contribute to a solid story, and have the reader enjoying every single word!

My next adventure will be back in the world of Dresden, as White Night will be cracked open later this afternoon.

 

[Carnifex]

I just completed White Night about two hours ago, and man, what a ride that book was. It starts off with what seems to be a minor mission for Harry, which then develops into this huge, all-encompassing battle between vampire factions, some of Dresden's friends/family, and even mobsters! I've never read this far into the series before, and I'm certainly going to continue.

Today though, I picked up the Searchers as my next read. Yup, this is the novel that the awesome film generates from, a book I've not re-read in decades, so in I dove. I'm about ten percent in so far, having read a huge forward about how the film was shot and some of the other works that were going on at the time. Great little tidbits that I enjoyed learning about.

 

[Shagnak]

I'm reading The Empire of Grass by Tad Williams. Alas, I bought the smaller paperback, and the print is tiny. My poor aging eyes.

 

[Carnifex]

Oh yeah, the varying sizes of print in books can truly throw me off at times. Another reason to embrace the kindle, I do love to actually hold and smell a book, yet the power of an electronic reader is pretty sweet.

And Tad Williams is good stuff, you should enjoy that, Shagnak!

 

[Carnifex]

Last night I wrapped up the Searchers. Le May does a great job with this novel, there's not a lot of combat yet what does happen is quick and brutal. This is one of those few times where I'd say the film is on par with the original source, the cast is damn near perfect and the locations give you a good idea of just how time the search encompasses. I'd only ever read this book once before and it's just as good now as it was the first time around.

Next up was to be either Longmire or Dresden, yet I seem to be waiting on both, so I've dipped back into the Wild Card series, book nine, Jokertown Shuffle. These set of books tend to be controversial with many readers, as it brings lots of new characters into the fold, rather than focusing on existing and established ones, for the most part.

 

[Carnifex]

This morning I wrapped up book nine of the Wild Card series, Jokertown Shuffle. Written in the mosaic format, this novel tells a few stories mainly focused on the Rox, a community of jokers that have made Ellis Island their own. At the beginning of the story they are a small, literally non-threatening group, while at the end they've declared themselves a sovereign nation and beaten back at least two attempt to retake the island. The characters involved for the most part are not main ones featured in earlier books.

Next up for me is book ten of the Dresden series, Small Favor. It started off with a literal snowball fight which escalated into a real battle, consider me hooked!

 

[Zloth]

Sanderson popped on to social media and revealed that he's got four new books coming out next year. Seems he was a bit bored over the last couple of years, so did a few novels on the side for fun. 3 are Cosmere, one isn't. Want'm, sight unseen? $40 for the ebooks. More for audio/print:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dragonsteel/surprise-four-secret-novels-by-brandon-sanderson/

It has already pulled in 12 million!

 

[khaight]

$13.5 million now. It's the second highest funded Kickstarter to date, in less than a day. Absolutely bonkers.

 

[duerer]

$13.5 million now. It's the second highest funded Kickstarter to date, in less than a day. Absolutely bonkers.

I've noticed a tendency that this crowdfunding business gets rather silly.

Seriously: $13Mil for a bunch of pulp books? $400Mil for an unfinished space game?
Tell you what: all should read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. . . is it a good book? is it a bad one? You will know.

 

[khaight]

Also swag boxes. Don't forget the swag.

I read Atlas Shrugged years ago. I thought it was very good.

 

[Myrthos]

So for 900$ I can get 4 hardcover books and 8 swag boxes delivered to my home. It feels like the cost vs value ratio is a bit off.

 

[khaight]

International shipping on the physical goods is what's driving that. There are a lot of non-Americans discussing this in the comments. On the other hand, if you eschew the physical side you can get four ebooks for $40 which is pretty reasonable.

 

[Carnifex]

Oh thanks for posting about this! Seems a no-brainer since I'll have to get the books anyways.

 

[Carnifex]

Small Favor came and went in what seemed record time. This entry in the Dresden tales sees Harry and pals in an all-out conflict with some pesky members of the Denarians, as well as some significant insight as to why Harry has been acting oddly in some of the past few volumes. His abilities also seem to be getting augmented in some mysterious fashion, and that likely doesn't bode well!

This afternoon I picked up Double Solitaire as my next read, this being book ten of the Wild Card series, and the first actual straight-up novel. Melinda Snodgrass has the honours here, and this will continue the Rox tales, as well as seeing Tachyon attempt to regain his body, though a lengthy trip to Takis will need to happen first.