Anyone Reading Anything Good?

[Kell Sangros]

Im like 50 pages in , what drew me to it was David Bowie (Im a big big Bowie fan) he wanted to do originally base Diamond Dogs off of 1984 but Orwell's estate said No he had all this material written but yeah its very relevant today

scary

The last classic I read was Little Women back in my early 30s

[Ordona Vandorak]

I disagree Jay. I think Rothfuss deserves the praise, but I'm also biased towards that style.

Right now I'm reading the Grishaverse trilogy and it's pretty good. I kinda got into the universe backwards because I read Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom first, not knowing that there were books she'd published first that had some impact on it (returning of a few characters, mainly). Still, a really good read.

[Jay Mertaal]

The first Rothfuss book blew my mind, but I was quite disappointed with the second. Just felt like he was treading water after a really strong start. I mean, it's still a great book, and I enjoyed it, but it definitely didn't pass on the torch of the first book.

I think my problem was that the first book made the promise of doing something pretty special and different with the genre, while the second brought it back down to "just another fantasy series", albeit a very well written one. Joe Abercrombie on the other hand, made that promise with his first book, and kept it with the rest of the series.

I also found the second book a little too full of cliched "Kvothe is great at everything" and "Kvothe is a sad washed up figure": He'd done plenty of it in the first book but it was beginning to irritate by the second. Yes, we get it, we're over it. So should you be. But mostly it was the fact that the pace changed from an ever escalating epic drama to more of a high school drama mired in a town which wasn't nearly as interesting as the changing landscape of the first book. Don't promise epic drama and then deliver teenage drama.

In terms of craft though, his prose is fantastic. I should also point out that I haven't read "Slow Regard". I'm looking forward to the next book, but a little afraid that he's decided to stretch out the series because it's popular- certainly that's how the second book feels.

I really am a fan of trilogies. Beginning, middle and end. This commercial tendency to make long sprawling series which re-visit the world time and time again with only the loosest over-arching narrative holding them together smells of money, and not of literature.

[Jay Mertaal]

As a sidenote, I feel somewhat similar about the latest two books of the GoT series- they were treading water, almost as if he hadn't worked out how to tie all the loose ends together in a satisfying conclusion, and so was faffing about and slowing the narrative down as a stalling tactic.

I'm actually glad the TV show has ploughed on past the books, although this last series moved a bit too fast for my liking.

[Kell Sangros]

He needs to finish with books 6 and 7 at this rate Ill catch up before Winds is Up (took me 2 years to read the 2nd book but just had a daughter at the time so life was kinda crazy)

[Zechs Merquise]

Almost down Dune. Think Good Omens next.