Greywind Posted September 16, 2012 Report Share Posted September 16, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The Omen Machine Terry Goodkind The war is over for the D'haran Empire. New series continues for the characters of The Sword of Truth series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted September 16, 2012 Report Share Posted September 16, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Picked up this book Cursed by Bendict Jacka on a whim at the wal mart. Read two chapters and picked up the other two books that were out with it. Read the first one, Fated, first. Alex Verus is a diviner and a minor mage. He is asked to recover a sealed artifact on pain of death by various factions. Then the real struggle begins as he tries to work things out and save the world. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psyber624 Posted September 16, 2012 Report Share Posted September 16, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Just finished "To Have and To Code" By Deborah Geary, another excellent book in her Modern Witch series (which i posted about on its own just a few minutes ago before finding this thread) Easily 5 stars, Recently finished "Silence" By Becca Fitzpatrick, 3rd book in her "Hush, Hush" series. 3 stars. YA Romance, Falling Angels and Nephlim (immortal humans). Not great but a decent read. "Enthrall Me" by Anne Violet, 2 stars. Sequel to "Enchant Me" shows SO much promise for a book, which basically sucked ass. Should have been 1 star but there was enough potential that wasnt realized to move it into 2. Modern Paranormal centered around Druidic Powers (which are almost indistinguishable from witchcraft really) "Craved" by Stephanie Nelson, 3 stars. Standard Witch/Vampire Romance Novel "Initiation" by Imogen Rose, 3 stars. Prequel to "Faustine", which I haven't read yet. Supernatural Academy series. Has some decently fresh ideas, but the writing is a little weak I could go on and on, all of those are in the last month. Its rare for me to find a good book tho, as my voracious reading appetite forces me to buy the .99-3.99 ebooks for my kindle. Occasionally I do find the gold nuggets tho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted September 17, 2012 Report Share Posted September 17, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Read Cursed by Benedict Jacka. Luna thinks her boyfriend is awesome, her boyfriend thinks he can master the monkey's paw, Benathulus thinks he can use Alex Verus to uncover a secret ritual to drain magic creatures and kill Verus for good measure. Alex Verus knows part of the future, knows he's in a lot of trouble, knows his allies are unreliable, and knows he has a secret weapon. he just doesn't know if he can win. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted September 18, 2012 Report Share Posted September 18, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Read Taken By Benedict Jacka. Alex Verus is hired to find out what happened to missing apprentices. That's when the trouble begins. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clonus Posted September 19, 2012 Report Share Posted September 19, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The Insidious Fu Manchu. Holy cow those guys get rescued by the girl all the time. I'm cataloguing all of Dr F.s deadly devices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranxerox Posted September 19, 2012 Report Share Posted September 19, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Heh, I just finished Mystery of D Fu-Manchu, the first book in the series. They get rescued by a girl all the time in it too. I got the Fu-Manchu Omnibus for my kindle. It has the first 3 books and cost me something like five bucks. I was planning on writing up the Devil Doctor after finishing the omnibus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st barbara Posted September 20, 2012 Report Share Posted September 20, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Recently read "The Amazon and the Warrior"by Judith Hand (The Trojan war from the point of view of the Amazons) and enjoyed it. Now onto "War Of Honor" by David Webber, the longest book in the series so far,over 900 pages ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sociotard Posted September 21, 2012 Report Share Posted September 21, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Existence, by David Brin I did like it. This is a first contact story, but it is one of the more original ones I've ever read. It is very hard SF so intersteller travel is not practical for meatbags. As such, the aliens are little probes. I don't want to give away too much, but the originality does make this worth reading, as does the in depth exploration of the Fermi paradox. The story does suffer somewhat from a lack of economy in story-lines. You know how videogames sometimes have lots of side quests that aren't strictly necessary for the whole? This book has a lot of that. Whole narratives could be edited out and not affect the story much. For example, his short story "Aficionado" appears almost completely unchanged, and has almost no impact on the central plot. The side quests are enjoyable reading, but for me they interupted the narrative arc. Also, one of the characters is a parody of Michael Crichton. David Brin has made it clear that he tired of Mr. Crichton's brand of Dire Warning science fiction, pointing out all the ways scientific progress threatens us all. So, there is a character in the book who makes scifi books and movies in the same vein as Mr. Crichton did. The character isn't evil or anything, but Brin goes out of his way to put egg the character's face. Repeatedly. With a global audience. Brin did give the character a happy ending, so at least there's that. Anyway, I do recomend the book. The first stuff I mentioned made all the rest worthwhile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozimus Posted September 21, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Brin did give the character a happy ending, so at least there's that. He must have liked Crichton quite a bit to have given him a "happy ending"! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted September 22, 2012 Report Share Posted September 22, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Read Ghost of a Dream by Simon Green. The Ghost Finders are involved with dehaunting a theater and dealing with the hammiest villain I have ever read in fiction. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozimus Posted September 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I just finished "Deliverer" by C.J Cherryh... This is the 9th book in "Foreigner" series and not surprisingly, sequelitis has taken residence in the basement like an adult child that just won't launch. And it is just about as welcome... Let me be perfectly clear...Cherryh is a favorite author of mine. "Downbelow Station" was a GREAT book! I thoroughly enjoyed her "Chanur" series. I even enjoyed roughly 6 of the 9 "Foreigner" series books I have read (despite Cherryh's tendency to obsess over mundane details). However, that being said, "Deliverer" feels like it was written by an author who has either run out of interesting ideas for this character or is simply typing words to fulfill a contractual obligation. What did I not enjoy about this book? I did not enjoy switching between Bren's (what I consider the main character and the reason I bought the book) and Cajeri's (a spoiled alien brat) point of view. I kept putting this book down whenever the point of view shifted from Bren to the whiny bratling Cajeri. I contemplated simply skipping the Cajeri parts but didn't for fear that something might prove interesting. Sigh. Cajeri, IMO, has always been an inconvenience for the main character to overcome, at best. Giving him equal billing was a horrendous mistake. ***Spoiler Alert*** The book only became mildly interesting when Cajeri was kidnapped. At that point, a welcome tension replaced the annoying whining. My enjoyment was less than it could have been because part of me actually hoped they would kill Cajeri off and end MY suffering! But even the "recover the kidnapped heir" plot device was mishandled by such a skilled/experienced author as Cherryh. A "deus ex machina" styled ending just left me feeling disappointed. ***Spoiler Ends*** In conclusion, if this had been a book by another author, I might have thrown it down in disgust early on. However, I trudged onwards trusting Cherryh to steer the book back onto a proper course. I doubt that I will read another "Foreigner" novel as I have begun to believe that Cherryh is milking the proverbial cash cow for all it is worth. This is a shame, because I derived a great deal of pleasure from some of her earlier books in this series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savinien Posted September 30, 2012 Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Yeah, the chronology is circumspect but I still love me some Malazan. Erikson dominates Esselmont, in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Read Monster Hunter Legion by Larry Correia. MHI is attending a monster hunting convention, and then the monster crashes the party. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hierax Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Lankhmar series: great stuff! Now I'm on to Amber as I work my way through the Appendix N reading list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozimus Posted October 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Lankhmar series: great stuff! Now I'm on to Amber as I work my way through the Appendix N reading list. IMO, the first 5 books of Zelazny's "Amber" series are among the best fantasy books you could hope to find. You are in for a treat!!! While not on the list, you might also consider "The Fionavar Tapestry" series by Guy Gavriel Kay and "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever" series by Stephen Donaldson. A word of warning about the Donaldson books...only buy "Lord Foul's Bane" (book 1, series 1). If you do NOT throw the book against the wall after reading about Covenant's despicable act (in the first 30 pages?) then you might consider purchasing books 2 and 3. I would stop there. "The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever" is quite a slog compared to the excellent first series. I never read the most recent chronicles (having heard from a friend the first book was terrible). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matrix3 Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... IMO, the first 5 books of Zelazny's "Amber" series are among the best fantasy books you could hope to find. You are in for a treat!!! While not on the list, you might also consider "The Fionavar Tapestry" series by Guy Gavriel Kay and "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever" series by Stephen Donaldson. A word of warning about the Donaldson books...only buy "Lord Foul's Bane" (book 1, series 1). If you do NOT throw the book against the wall after reading about Covenant's despicable act (in the first 30 pages?) then you might consider purchasing books 2 and 3. I would stop there. "The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever" is quite a slog compared to the excellent first series. I never read the most recent chronicles (having heard from a friend the first book was terrible). I heard people give the Covenant books high marks, so I got the first from the library, got to that point you mention, put the book down and thought for a bit, and returned the book to the library. On the other hand, I very much enjoyed Donaldson's Mordant's Need duology (Mirror of her Dreams and A Man Rides Through). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I read the first three Thomas Covenant books and I think they all suck. Mhoram here loves them. What you have to realize is that the "protagonist", or more accurately the POV character, is deeply, deeply flawed, so you have to be able to kind of put up with that. Back upthread, Lankhmar is fantastic. All of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Lord Foul's Bane is difficult. Covenant's "act" was a reflection of his broken-ness and he spent a lot of time trying to atone for it. After that book the series picked up quite a bit. The second trilogy seemed to be lacking a lot of direction from the first. Of the third I've only read the first book. Not bad for a start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teh bunneh Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Pretty much you either love the Covenant books or you hate 'em. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Seems that way. It took me about 4 months to read the first book. Rest of the series flew by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teh bunneh Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I put myself in the "love 'em" column. The thing about Covenant that folks should understand is... He does commit a reprehensible act in the first part of the book. No doubt about that. But in his mind, he believes he is in a dream. He believes there are no consequences to his act, any more than there are no consequences for anything you do in a dream. I've dreamed of murder, theft, all kinds of horrible things, and when I wake up there's nothing left of that act but a rapidly-fading memory. That's where Covenant thinks he is. Over the course of the books, he begins to discover that the Land and the people within it are real (or rather, whether they're objectively real or not no longer matters to him -- they become real to him), and the weight of his terrible actions (and inactions) bears down on him. It is, for my money, a very interesting study in human psychology. Covenant is very much an anti-hero, and is very passive throughout the whole thing so it's kind of hard to like him as a Hero. So I totally understand where people are coming from who don't like the books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted October 5, 2012 Report Share Posted October 5, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I didn't dislike them or like the first two Covenant triologies. I forgot them as soon as I read them. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted October 5, 2012 Report Share Posted October 5, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... No! You must love them. Love them! Or HAAAAAAATE them. There is no 'dislike'. We are a polarized, divided nation now! Why do you hate America? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted October 5, 2012 Report Share Posted October 5, 2012 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... No! You must love them. Love them! Or HAAAAAAATE them. There is no 'dislike'. We are a polarized' date=' divided nation now! Why do you hate America?[/quote'] Because I am a Republican. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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