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Reading The Storm before The Storm by Mike Duncan.

 KamikazeCanuck wrote:
Reading The Storm before The Storm by Mike Duncan.

I read that. PM me if you want to share notes......

 KamikazeCanuck wrote:
Reading The Storm before The Storm by Mike Duncan.

Read that too. Pretty fun read and a great companion to his seminal History of Rome podcast.

and funnily enough, currently reading The Storm Before the Calm: America's Discord, the Coming Crisis of the 2020s, and the Triumph Beyond by George Friedman

Soul Music

Kind of a stand alone in the wider tapestry of Discworld, though it brings in such stalwarts as Colon and Nobby, Death, Dibbler and the Wizards. It also debuts Susan Sto Helit, Death’s grand daughter.

Been a while since I last read this, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. As a music fan with a strong preference for Rock ‘n’ Roll I got so many of the silly little one liners, hidden in general dialogue.

I’d say this is notable for Pterry absolutely nailing the “meta” of the plot. He was an incredibly clever person, and had a knack for getting his point across without preaching or condescending. But in some of the earlier books, he didn’t quite express The Really Big Thoughts effectively. Here? He absolutely did.

My journey through Realm of the Elderlings continues. I am now on The Golden Fool and I'm loving it. Robin Hobb is now 8 books for 8 with me. I'm glad I have so many more of these books to read because I don't want to leave the Six Duchies any time soon.

If it’s not a rude question to someone clearly enjoying a series of books?

What’s the Unique Selling Point(s) for Realm of the Elderlings?

Only I’ve never heard of it before, but if you’re 8 for 8, I’m intrigued.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Soul Music

Kind of a stand alone in the wider tapestry of Discworld, though it brings in such stalwarts as Colon and Nobby, Death, Dibbler and the Wizards. It also debuts Susan Sto Helit, Death’s grand daughter.

Been a while since I last read this, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. As a music fan with a strong preference for Rock ‘n’ Roll I got so many of the silly little one liners, hidden in general dialogue.

I’d say this is notable for Pterry absolutely nailing the “meta” of the plot. He was an incredibly clever person, and had a knack for getting his point across without preaching or condescending. But in some of the earlier books, he didn’t quite express The Really Big Thoughts effectively. Here? He absolutely did.

I've been re-reading the Discworld books every few years since I discovered them at around 14 years old, and I still pick up new things each time. One of the most recent was a little throwaway line from Mustrum Ridcully towards the end of The Last Continent, where the storm is about to break and he says something like "We'd better run, we'd better take cover" - which this time round twigged as a line from Men At Work's 'Land Down Under'. I'm going to be a very sad old man when I finally have no more little references to get.

They’re like the Airplane! films in that regard. The more you watch/read, the more jokes you get or notice for the first time.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
If it’s not a rude question to someone clearly enjoying a series of books?

What’s the Unique Selling Point(s) for Realm of the Elderlings?

Only I’ve never heard of it before, but if you’re 8 for 8, I’m intrigued.

So its a little tricky in that some of the unique parts of latter books mean revealing bit spoilers (which I'm not going to do). Furthermore she actually slips between two different style of writing across the saga she made.

So I'll start by saying she's also one of my favourite authors as well and I'd strongly recommend picking up Assassin's Apprentice and starting at the very beginning of her huge saga she created.

This first trilogy follows a single character for the most part and dips you right into their thoughts as well as their actions. You follow them from youth as they grow up and change; you see every thought and process and you understand them. You also end up wanting to shout at them as they make mistakes and bad choices. Because you can see the inner workings of their thought process you understand why they made the choice even if you totally can see a better one glaring them in the face. Which is to say you get totally wrapped up and drawn into this lead character in a huge way.

The second Trilogy (liveships starting with Ship of Magic) is set in the same world; but features and almost entirely new cast and shifts from single to multi-character focus with several spread out separated storylines each going their own way that weave toward a major ending.




Like I said I don't want to drop spoilers on unique parts as I feel you'll enjoy it more to read but I will say she creates fantastic very realistic feeling characters that she gets fully behind. You really get a deep dive investment into the characters she makes. Meanwhile the way she creates the world setting means that you get a huge number of different perspectives and eventually if you go further into the saga you see how effects in one nation far removed from another have huge impacts on others. You see different peoples; magics; world views; cycles and more.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Crispy78 wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Soul Music

Kind of a stand alone in the wider tapestry of Discworld, though it brings in such stalwarts as Colon and Nobby, Death, Dibbler and the Wizards. It also debuts Susan Sto Helit, Death’s grand daughter.

Been a while since I last read this, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. As a music fan with a strong preference for Rock ‘n’ Roll I got so many of the silly little one liners, hidden in general dialogue.

I’d say this is notable for Pterry absolutely nailing the “meta” of the plot. He was an incredibly clever person, and had a knack for getting his point across without preaching or condescending. But in some of the earlier books, he didn’t quite express The Really Big Thoughts effectively. Here? He absolutely did.

I've been re-reading the Discworld books every few years since I discovered them at around 14 years old, and I still pick up new things each time. One of the most recent was a little throwaway line from Mustrum Ridcully towards the end of The Last Continent, where the storm is about to break and he says something like "We'd better run, we'd better take cover" - which this time round twigged as a line from Men At Work's 'Land Down Under'. I'm going to be a very sad old man when I finally have no more little references to get.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:They’re like the Airplane! films in that regard. The more you watch/read, the more jokes you get or notice for the first time.

I think one of the most amazing things is how he manages to layer his quotes and concepts. You can read his books without any deep understanding of the source material he's basing it on in the real world and the books are funny, engaging, entertaining and you don't feel that you're missing out. HOWEVER if you understand the core subject being focused on you can spot so many real world references, hints and nods that you can appreciate everything on a whole other level. It also never feels "tacky" and that's the real talent I think that many overlook because of how seamlessly he does it.

It also shifts - his very early books were very clearly more a commentary on fantasy at the time than of the real world; then it shifts into real world for the majority; however come nearer the end I feel like there's a sense that Discworld still has those parts but they are a little lesser. I think both as his mind was starting to be eaten horribly away; but also because I think Discworld by that point is so much a mammoth of its own thing that it was taking flight on its own.

Necrophim/Mechatopholes from the 2000ad Ultimate Collection.

And from the penultimate delivery, as around this time next month, I’ll have all 200 issues.

Necrophim is pretty rad, a tale set in Hell, when Lucifer has begun to lose his grip on power, and reality. Deals with a rebellion lead by Uriel. Very satisfying read. All the art is grey shade pencil work, which is right up my alley. Nice and clear too.

Mechastopholes. In which a daemon, kind of bound into a giant mecha, is part ark, part defender of the remains of humanity. Really frustrating this one, as the tale is ace but ended really abruptly. All the more so as it’s not clear why it ended so.

Next up is Harlem Heroes Vol 2, which I’m rather looking forward to.

Also made a start on Interesting Times

I've just finished The Master of Mankind, and really enjoyed it.

This has been my first Horus Heresy novel, and I was wondering if any of the other books in the series were worth hunting down.

(I seriously doubt I will read 60+ novels/audiodramas... )

I have also been working through the Discworld series.

I got part way through as a teen, and then got pretty burnt out on reading (Too many big fantasy epics), so I am determined to get through them all this time!

Finished Nightwatch the other day, it was good but as it mostly focuses on Vimes I really missed having the rest of the Guards characters around.

 Quixote wrote:
I've just finished The Master of Mankind, and really enjoyed it.

This has been my first Horus Heresy novel, and I was wondering if any of the other books in the series were worth hunting down.

(I seriously doubt I will read 60+ novels/audiodramas... )

Here is a nice list from another forum post that is a really good listing of all the choicest parts of the HH series:

 Da Boss wrote:
I made a reading list for Horus Heresy that sorts it into 5 mostly self contained trilogies. So you could read any or all of these that interest you:
Trilogy 1: Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames. First book is really strong, the second two are not great but do set up important plot stuff. Sets the stage and gets the ball rolling.
Trilogy 2: First Heretic, Know No Fear and Betrayer (Optional: Unremembered Empire) All three really good reads, First Heretic is a must read and the rest is about the battle between Loyalist and Traitor forces on the eastern side of the galaxy and how they prevented Earth from being supported.
Trilogy 3: Legion, Praetorian of Dorn, The Solar War. Espionage focused, Alpha Legion sneaking around and Imperial Fists trying to stop them. Introduces the Perpetual plotline, which I don’t like that much, but which does run through the Siege books if you want to read those.
Trilogy 4: A Thousand Sons, Prospero Burns, The Crimson King: Does the Thousand Sons and Space Wolves, and has some important stuff in for the broader plot. Prospero Burns is a better book than the other two but they’re all readable.
Trilogy 5: Scars, Path of Heaven and Master of Mankind: Scars and Path of Heaven are just really good reads, and Master of Mankind is good too and shows you the situation on Earth just before the siege.

I highly recommend the first two "trilogies" listed, and also enjoyed all the others on that list as well. If I was to compose a list of Horus Heresy must reads, it would look very much like the above. Also, if I had to choose one HH book above all the others, it would definitely be First Heretic!

The public library had an omnibus called The Last Phoenix , 1022 pages, containing the novels Fulgrim and Angel Exterminatus, plus a bunch of short stories.

It was the only Horus Heresy novel they had... is it worth a read?

Finally escaped the Last Continent. Definitely Pratchett’s weakest book as it’s just a barely connected string of cliches and smutty double entendres. If there is a wider commentary there I’m not clever enough to see it.

Onward to Reaper man and much better fare

I have a soft spot for Nightwatch as it was the book that cleansed my palate after slogging through the first half of whatever wheel of time book 10 was called before I gave it all up for lost. It was like my brain was on fire after having had it beaten to death with marshmallows by Jordan’s interminable sludge.

Interesting Times

Polished this off yesterday. As with most, if not all, Rincewind tales this is a fine read, but not Pratchett at his best.

Genghiz Cohen, the Silver Horde and Lord Hong are all fun characters to explore, especially Mr Saveloy. But Rincewind never really emerges from being Mr Plot Device.

Which to be fair is kind of the point of Rincewind. He’s someone Things Just Happen To, and never really stop happening to him. That’s the point of him as a character.

But when you compare him to the brilliance of Vimes, Granny, Moist et al? You just get a different and, for me, not as satisfying experience.

Main thing of course is the book is still plenty enjoyable, and shouldn’t be skipped.

 Flinty wrote:
Finally escaped the Last Continent. Definitely Pratchett’s weakest book as it’s just a barely connected string of cliches and smutty double entendres. If there is a wider commentary there I’m not clever enough to see it.

Onward to Reaper man and much better fare

I have a soft spot for Nightwatch as it was the book that cleansed my palate after slogging through the first half of whatever wheel of time book 10 was called before I gave it all up for lost. It was like my brain was on fire after having had it beaten to death with marshmallows by Jordan’s interminable sludge.

Yeah, The Last Continent is a bit of a slog, Pratchett went pretty overboard with tired pop-culture references and Aussie cliches for some reason.
I'm hoping that's not Rincewinds last outing as I really like the character, even though, as Mad Doc points out, he's not a particularly deep one.

You've also reminded me that I need to find out how The Wheel Of Time ended at some point, I think I got book 8 or 9.

Oh Rincewind will turn up again

But not, if memory serves, in a leading role after The Last Continent.

Make sure to get Eric in on the run. I don't think it ever appears in hardback, just graphic novel (and maybe paperback).

[update] It did get hardbacked, in collectors edition: https://www.discworldemporium.com/product/eric-discworld-collector-s-edition/

We are going through in character streams, so we did Eric and Interesting Times en route to Last Continent.

Regarding catching up with wheel of Time, I found it much more enjoyable to read Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series instead. The main plot points of the two series are absolute carbon copies of one another, with only minor deviations. I am assuming that anything substantial I need to know about wheel of Time I can get from Sword of Truth

Its just unfortunate that Sword of Truth got the bargain basement treatment on the telly. Maybe not as basementy as Shanarra, but its not far off.

 Quixote wrote:
The public library had an omnibus called The Last Phoenix , 1022 pages, containing the novels Fulgrim and Angel Exterminatus, plus a bunch of short stories.

It was the only Horus Heresy novel they had... is it worth a read?

Haven't read Angel Exterminatus but I wouldn't start with Fulgrim. It really is Part 5 of the series.

Angel Exterminatus was decent, especially if you have read the 40k novel 'storm of iron' as you see a lot of the main IW's characters from it in their 30k days. Never forgive gw for ignoring those characters when writing rules for heresy iron warriors and making up new ones. Plus you see Fulgrim's apotheosis.

Only because his big robe was in the wash.

Maskerade

Next up in my Discworld voyage. Blending Ankh Morpork with The Lancre Witches, in the crucible of Opera.

Again one of the entries I’ve only read once before, what seems a lifetime ago. But you really can’t go wrong with Granny and Nanny.

There’s almost a confessional tone to the book. With the third Lancre Witch, Magrat, largely removed from the action now she’s Queen, the early part almost reads as Pterry acknowledging the characters of Granny and Nanny need a third.

Which brings us to Agnes Nitt, and indeed Perdita X Dream.

I dare say a lesser writer would’ve simply gone back and brought Magrat back. But not our Pterry. He forges on, finding triumph in an adversity of his own creation.

Anyone read this? It sounds pretty interesting.

No, looks interesting though.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Anyone read this? It sounds pretty interesting.

Got it for Christmas, not managed to find the time to do more than flip through it so far though.

The Thief Of Time

Getting a bit further down my Discworld pile.
I think I probably should've read this one before Night Watch as it properly introduces the History Monks, but that didn't seem to cause any issues.

It was a good read, even if I don't particularly like Susan (I'm not sure why, I just find her kind of boring as a character).

Now I've got to try and work out which box the rest of my Discworld books are packed up in.

Needed something trashy for camping last weekend. Picked up Forgotten Ruin by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole. Terrible bullet porn, but the twist is that the Ranger force for which the authors have tremendous hard-ons for have been transported to a wacky D&D fantasy version of Earth, to do battle with the various classic fantasy denizens thereof.

I’m pretty sure I tried to write something like this for a school project when I was 12. The plot armour is tremendous. 200 rangers against about 10,000 assorted orcs, goblins, kobolds, etc. it appears that only bullets are capable of injuring anyone. A sky full of ballistic arrows and spears etc are only capable of landing conveniently nearby the heroic defenders. Utter tosh.


It Definately qualifies as trashy. It’s entertaining enough to finish, but I don’t think I’ll be getting the next one unless the last 3rd of the book can pull something truly stupendous out of a handy cavity.

Dashiell Hammett’s The Dain Curse.

The discussion on Hammett a few pages back convinced me to put the book on my list, and now that I’m reading it I am quite enjoying it. The prose is surprisingly modern for something written in 1928. It feels like it’s moving at a breakneck pace which makes me wonder how much crazier it’s going to get in the next 100 pages or so.