Maelstrom Posted August 16, 2008 Report Share Posted August 16, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I've read Pettersson's books. They're not bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted August 18, 2008 Report Share Posted August 18, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The Vast White by our own Jason Waters. Extended review to come later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st barbara Posted August 19, 2008 Report Share Posted August 19, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Just read "The Planet Wizard" by John Jakes. Meh ! Just another "swords and lost technology" potboiler of the type that flourished in the 1960's. Nothing special. just started "World War : Striking The Blance" by Harry Turtledove. (I thought that it was about time I read the last of that series !) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamond Spear Posted August 25, 2008 Report Share Posted August 25, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... That was a good series, right up until the last book, which I found quite disapointing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted August 25, 2008 Report Share Posted August 25, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Volume 19 of Blade of the Immortal. Disappointing, mainly because it was rather thin when compared to vol 18. However, it does set up what looks to be an interesting clash in volume 20. I also read volume 22 of Usagi Yojimbo. More good stuff from Stan Sakai. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Democracy Posted August 25, 2008 Report Share Posted August 25, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Just finished Ilario by Mary Gentle. I am vaguely dissatisfied - less because it was badly written as to the fact that I dont think it lived up to Ash despite being set in the same world. I think I liked Ash due to its alternative history clash with the current modern day world with two perspectives on the story. A much more complex read than Ilario. Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted August 30, 2008 Report Share Posted August 30, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Astro City: Dark Age, book 1. Wow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenrisUlf Posted August 30, 2008 Report Share Posted August 30, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Astro City: Dark Age, book 1. Wow. Does it contain anything that the individual comics don't? And what did you think of the execution of Captain America the Silver Agent? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted August 30, 2008 Report Share Posted August 30, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I have the hardback, so it has some design and cover concept art. I need to re-read it, I think, and let it settle. It certainly was done better than the Death of Superman or Captain America. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenrisUlf Posted August 30, 2008 Report Share Posted August 30, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I have the hardback, so it has some design and cover concept art. I need to re-read it, I think, and let it settle. It certainly was done better than the Death of Superman or Captain America. Just imagine if Busiek had written the recent death of Cap and had total creative control. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundog Posted August 31, 2008 Report Share Posted August 31, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... By Schism Rent Asunder, by David Weber, sequel to Off Armageddon Reef. I have to say that I loved it, but I can also see how a number of people wouldn't. Be prepared: this is a book about politics. I'd actually compare it to Dune Messiah - much scheming, much preparation, not much in the way of action. (Dare I say I liked Messiah better than any of the rest of the Dune series?) Weber has caught on to the fact that changing a whole planet's society is a fundamentally political act - that all the military action has to be subservient to that. It's also a long book, longer than it's predecessor I think, but there's little wasted space. As well written as I've come to expect from Weber, and if it's not a page-turner, it's a great read for a long afternoon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. R Posted August 31, 2008 Report Share Posted August 31, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Recently finished Fortune's Fool by Mercedes Lackey. I wasn't expecting utterly mind blowing, but it was a nice book that kept my attention for the next few hours until I finished it. I liked her take on the tradition of stories. Here it is a very powerful magical force called The Tradition. It's the reason that the stories go the way they do. The trick is how to make the tradition work for you. That and the hero and heroine are likable. For me a kiss of death for a novel is if at any time in the first 1/4 of the book I say the following "I do not care what happens to any of these people." It's one of the reasons I couldn't stand Robin Hobb's Live Ship novels. I lost interest in the people. R. Scott Baker has very few likable people but you are interested in them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted September 4, 2008 Report Share Posted September 4, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I finally finished The Final Empire, which is the first of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn novels. I finished the book right after I got it signed by the author. I was surprised how YOUNG Mr. Sanderson is. He's only a couple of years older than me. Anyway, I really liked the book, and picked up the second in the series on Tuesday. It's about a very grim world, where you're basically a slave or you're a noble, but subject to the Lord Ruler's wishes. The Lord Ruler is extremely cruel, and apparently immortal. The book is about a group of skaa thieves working to overthrow his rule and to steal the contents of his treasury. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caris Posted September 4, 2008 Report Share Posted September 4, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Tanya Huff's Valour's Test - Weakest of the series and it looks like the final book of the series. I found the whole thing pretty predictable, and found it pretty sad that the main character took as long as they did to figure things out. I can't help feeling that this was intended to be a single book that the author got pressured to flesh out into something more, and that Tanya didn't really have a strong idea of what she wanted to do with this as a series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Mann Posted September 7, 2008 Report Share Posted September 7, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I just finished Edison's Conquest of Mars which I got from Project Gutenberg. It's been a while since I read material from that era, and had forgotten the typical tropes; Great Men of Science, beautiful and delicate Girls of Virtue, Indescribable Evil Beyond Human Comprehension, blah, etc. Fairly tedious, and yet, also, fairly nostalgic. There's a certain charm to these early stories, especially since we can see where our more modern tropes came from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted September 7, 2008 Report Share Posted September 7, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I just picked up and read Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus and The Goon: Chinatown and the Mystery of Mister Wicker. Both are excellent examples of modern pulp-era adventure and worth picking up for pulp and comics fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clonus Posted September 7, 2008 Report Share Posted September 7, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Hell's Gate and Hell Hath No Fury by Weber and Linda Evans. It's one of those cast of thousands war stories much like the ones Turtledove keeps churning out except that it doesn't rehash World War II. One side uses psionics, steam engines and gunpowder. The other side uses dragons, crossbows and magic spellware that they use via Personal Crystals. Both sides fight through roughly a dozen parallel uninhabited (except by colonists) Earths to try to get at each in an exercise in futility (since it's a war that's impossible to win given that the closer they get to the other side, the more their powers go on the fritz and the more the logistics become impossible.). Theoretically the war is caused by mutual misunderstanding...but honestly it's mostly the Arcanans fault even if there are good people on the Arcanans side. In fact, it's the Arcanans fault to an almost implausible degree. Collaborating with a woman seems to have helped leaven the carnography a bit. The novels also just seem to stop when they reach the requisite number of pages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted September 8, 2008 Report Share Posted September 8, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I just finished reading "Storm Front" by Jim Butcher. It's the first in a series about a private investigator/warlock in a "modern" world that still doesn't believe in magic. Vampires' date=' fairies, mystic cults...it's got all the stuff any good mystic Dark Champions adventure could want. It's quite entertaining and has given me a couple of ideas for magic-related stories/plot devices. Highly recommended.[/quote'] After enjoying the (now long cancelled) show, and the high praise from friends beating down on me to try it... I finally gave this one a read. I'm glad I did and will be getting the others. I find I enjoy first person narratives when it comes to reading, and Butcher does a great job at setting up "atmosphere" for want of a better word. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted September 8, 2008 Report Share Posted September 8, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... After enjoying the (now long cancelled) show, and the high praise from friends beating down on me to try it... I finally gave this one a read. I'm glad I did and will be getting the others. I find I enjoy first person narratives when it comes to reading, and Butcher does a great job at setting up "atmosphere" for want of a better word. I think you can some of the early books in a collected edition, Hermit. I haven't seen any in my neck of the woods, but someone posted a picture of one collection that said Wizard at Large. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted September 8, 2008 Report Share Posted September 8, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Recently finished "Tea with the Black Dragon" by R. A. Macavoy. Quite good, it reads like a classic fantasy story and reminds me of classic science fiction. Set in the modern day, it's about an elderly woman and her computer hacking daughter who gets into trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted September 8, 2008 Report Share Posted September 8, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Recently finished "Tea with the Black Dragon" by R. A. Macavoy. Quite good, it reads like a classic fantasy story and reminds me of classic science fiction. Set in the modern day, it's about an elderly woman and her computer hacking daughter who gets into trouble. There's a sequel to this that I want to find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanguard00 Posted September 10, 2008 Report Share Posted September 10, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... There's a sequel to this that I want to find. "Twisting the rope". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted September 10, 2008 Report Share Posted September 10, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... "Twisting the rope". I may read that - I'm currently reading Damiano by the same author - about a young Italian witch during the time of the city-states. He takes lute lessons from Raphael - an angel he learned to summon. Apparently the third book in this series (Raphael) has Oolong turn up in it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted September 10, 2008 Report Share Posted September 10, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Spirit Walker Michelle Paver Sequel to Wolf Brother and part of an overall series of books called the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness. While written for a younger audience, I find the ongoing story compelling. Each book is relatively short. I was able to finish Spirit Walker in an afternoon of not to diligent reading. If you are at all interested in running a prehistoric fantasy game, then I can't recommend these books enough. About to start Soul Eater, which is the third book in the series. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st barbara Posted September 11, 2008 Report Share Posted September 11, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Just finished "The Hounds Of Skaith" by Leigh Brackett. I like Brackett's work. "Burroughsian" adventure on far planets, fast moving and exciting. I was then intending to read one of my reference books (possibly one on comics) but got sidetracked by "Ramage's Challenge" by Dudley Pope; Napoleonic War adventure in the "Hornblower" tradition ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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