871 replies to this topic

[Hjolmar]

Throne of Glass was indeed mediocre. The increasingly obnoxious romance subplot almost kept me from finishing it, although it was capped with a rather underwhelming fight scene that was solved pretty much by deus ex machina.

Edited by Hjolmar, 13 November 2014 - 08:55 AM.

[Nepenthe]

Kushiel's Scion, by Jacqueline Carey.

Her writing is lovely, but the stakes in the novel are not so high as in the trilogy before. And I'm missing the previous main character. I'm sure the new one will be just as good...eventually...but for this book he was pretty angsty.

[Supreme_Lurker_Primo]

Blood Rite by Jim Butcher. never in my life had I demonstrate so much anger and violence till this point. Now to mend the broken glass

[Socrates]

Re-read The House of the Spirits. It still is the best book I have ever read. If you like magical realism and altering POV books, then a must read. Plus the penultimate chapter still makes me crey. Probably will re-read the Karla trilogy or some Agatha Christie now that I am in a mystery mood.

[Hjolmar]

Just finished Sam Bowring's Broken Well Trilogy. Fairly solid build-up and somewhat cliche world-building but handled with enough pizzazz to make it worth it, only to be let down by a terribly cut short ending. Like, he realized he was running out of novel to wrap it up and bam boom bang ta-dah they win. I enjoyed the other 90% of the story though, although I do feel he overwrought his tale a bit, maybe.

[Socrates]

Finished the first Infected book by Scott Sigler, as recommended to me by Natureboy. 9 out of 10, would recommend

[Hummingmoon]

Tokyo Demons

(Volume 1, that is. I'm can't wait for volume 2 to come out on paperback. )

Edited by Hummingmoon, 29 November 2014 - 10:29 PM.

[Socrates]

Just finished The Name of the Wind. I sadly really hate Denna. Reminds me too much of Brett from the Sun Also Rises and I have a hard time with the Femme Fatale that she represents. Good book though that I have started the second already

9.3/10

[phanta]

Magician - Raymond E. Feist
4/5
Mostly good, but like most fantasy books there were several chapters where I didn't give a f*ck about the POV character and had a hard time getting through. Still better than all those Nasuada chapters in Eldest though

[You]

Sword of the Bright Lady World of Prime book one
By M.C. Planck

reading it over a few days was a nice change from reading all in one go.


4/5
I was surprised by how much I liked this story. Imo the description didn't quite match the story. I found myself turning the pages and suddenly coming to the end. Which obviously leads into the sequel, which I have to read now. Was kind of looking forward to more magic though.

[Nepenthe]

I just finished rereading The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss.

I tend to be very fast reader, which basically means that I end up skipping over some of the finer details, and foreshadowing. So rereading a book almost always gives me something new I hadn't noticed before (up to a point, of course). There were some cool little things I picked up this time, about...various people. And things. I read this book, ummm, something like four or five years ago? I didn't remember as much of it as I thought.

Going from being the protagonist's age (in his recalling), to being older gives a new perspective, too. The main character is a bit more conceited and brash than I remembered...

 

I would give it an 8.5/10 on this read-through. The story wanders around a lot--with Kvothe actually addresses in the novel-- but it still meant there was less of a driving force for the plot. The sort of 'interlude' chapters end up feeling very tedious, even though I can see now that they're just as important as the rest of the story. And I do definitely see why people call the main character a Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu. 

[Socrates]

Finished Wise Man's Fear.

I read through the first one too quickly. I may have thought it to be better than it actually is. But that is only due to the fact that this book's flaws are too apparent.

Nep says that Kvothe is a Gary Stu. To this regard I agree for the most part. Kvothe has a lot going for him in the first story: he can play the lute, he has a brain, and above all he has his dedication. However, he does have weaknesses ranging from his women issues to his pride. This generally leads to his problems throughout the first book. Sadly, WMF fixes this. At the end of the Day 2 for his story, Kvothe now is living somewhat comfortably and is a sex god, two of his major weaknesses resolved. While this generally is not a bad thing, it creates somewhat of a dilemma if he only has 1 true character weakness left with 1 book to go. Character should drive plot, not plot driving plot. In this regard, I really enjoyed the interludes in this story, as broken Kvothe is realistic. Also, making your main character have sex with almost every 'powerful' female character is fucked up. I don't even want to think about the scene about teacher-student relationships.

Another thing that stands out for me is the pacing becomes shit after Kvothe kills the bandits. The two big draws for the story on this day were the Ademre and the Felurian. The Felurian becomes a fuck fest for almost 100 pages, which kind of felt like a Deus Ex Machina. As to the Ademre, I had a difficulty getting through their dialogue as it was extremely bland. I understand that is supposed to be a point about their culture, as you lose the subtle body language, but how it was written made it extremely tedious to read. The worst part is that the best part of the second half of the book was a small adventure of Kvothe saving two girls.

I need more time to think before I give a rating. I'll probably ask Lan and Rol, followed by editing my current rambling post. Just a little disappointed with bitterness from the loss of potential

Edited by Socrates, 04 January 2015 - 02:26 AM.

[You]

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley"Dear You, the body you are wearing used to be mine."

4/5
Something a little bit different.

[Rol]

The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch

 

Took me ~100 pages to really get into it but it was really great, especially the second part of the book.

[phanta]

Hammered by Kevin Hearne

 

I'd probably rate this meh/10. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't really anything special either. I pretty much just read it to get to the end

[Misty]

Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman 7/10.  Maybe his best work as far as writing goes.  I personally think I enjoyed Sex, Drugs, & Cocoa Puffs more. 

[phanta]

Firefight - Brandon Sanderson

8/10

I preferred the first book, but like all of Sanderson's novels it was a good read

[exz]

Natsume Soseki's Kokoro.

 

Very solid work for sure. Was left speechless for a while after finishing it.

[You]

Oh right, finally finished

Until You're Mine by Samantha Hayes
Seems like it'll be a creepy read~

I'd been putting it off since i accidentally saw the last page, which gave away who the suspect was. Good job book people. It wasn't creepy creepy. And having figured out who the person was, it made for an interesting read actually, as I then knew who was doing what, etc. Plus I was able to notice some things I mightn't have. A good read, though a little slow in the beginning, and the suspicions put on the other person were a bit strong, and I would've liked if there was a bit more at the end.
3.7/5

[Lanfear]

Vicious - V. E. Schwab

4/5

It was very enterteining but I would've liked it more if the author had told the story in a more chronological order :/