What BOOK(s) are you reading? ARCHIVE

About 3/4 of the way through The Wise Man's Fear. Enjoying it very much so far. I would say it actually reads quicker than The Name of the Wind, and it's a stronger book in general. Those who liked the first can gladly enjoy the second one.

Obviously, there's still 250 pages left, so there's plenty of time to botch it. I'm an optimist by nature though.

SanIlDefanso wrote:

About 3/4 of the way through The Wise Man's Fear. Enjoying it very much so far. I would say it actually reads quicker than The Name of the Wind, and it's a stronger book in general. Those who liked the first can gladly enjoy the second one.

Obviously, there's still 250 pages left, so there's plenty of time to botch it. I'm an optimist by nature though.

Yeah, I doubt the ending's botched, reviews have been glowing so far and Rothfuss did take his time with it (as opposed to, say, Sanderson).

Funny you say it reads faster than TNofW as that one is over 300 pages shorter than TWMF.

SanIlDefanso wrote:

About 3/4 of the way through The Wise Man's Fear. Enjoying it very much so far. I would say it actually reads quicker than The Name of the Wind, and it's a stronger book in general. Those who liked the first can gladly enjoy the second one.

Obviously, there's still 250 pages left, so there's plenty of time to botch it. I'm an optimist by nature though.

I'm in the middle of this one myself. I haven't had much time to read the last few weeks because I've been trying to get a house to move in condition, but I've been reading a few pages here and there every spare moment I can find.

I'm in full on woody mode for Joe Abercrombie's "Heroes". For the first time ever I'm thinking of pre-ordering it.

I'm in the midst of reading a collection of short stories called "The Beautiful & the Grotesque" by Akutagawa Ryunosuke. Akutagawa wrote a short story (not in this collection) called "In A Grove" which was the basis for the film "Rashoman". It was a bit of a slog trying to get through the first story. I don't think I'm going to continue on with it.

The one thing I will say about him and other Japanese artists is that they don't shy away from depicting the seedy underbelly of life.
Tatsumi Yoshihiro's manga collection " The Push Man" (among many other mangaka)continues this tradition.

Dr. Mabuse wrote:

I'm in full on woody mode for Joe Abercrombie's "Heroes". For the first time ever I'm thinking of pre-ordering it.

Pre-ordering? That shit is out brother! You can pick it up at the bookstore this afternoon! This is next on my list once I finish Wise Man's Fear.

jay718 wrote:

Dr. Mabuse wrote:

I'm in full on woody mode for Joe Abercrombie's "Heroes". For the first time ever I'm thinking of pre-ordering it.

Pre-ordering? That shit is out brother! You can pick it up at the bookstore this afternoon! This is next on my list once I finish Wise Man's Fear.

The UK edition (Gollancz) paperback with the nicer cover (axe over faux old-style map, matches the cover of the other fours books I have) is out in April, that's the one I ordered on Amazon.ca.

jay718 wrote:

Dr. Mabuse wrote:

I'm in full on woody mode for Joe Abercrombie's "Heroes". For the first time ever I'm thinking of pre-ordering it.

Pre-ordering? That shit is out brother! You can pick it up at the bookstore this afternoon! This is next on my list once I finish Wise Man's Fear.

Yeah it doesn't come out in Canada until the middle of April.
It's funny you mentioned "Wise Man's Fear" I'm picking that up from my local library today.

Columbob wrote:

jay718 wrote:

Dr. Mabuse wrote:

I'm in full on woody mode for Joe Abercrombie's "Heroes". For the first time ever I'm thinking of pre-ordering it.

Pre-ordering? That shit is out brother! You can pick it up at the bookstore this afternoon! This is next on my list once I finish Wise Man's Fear.

The UK edition (Gollancz) paperback with the nicer cover (axe over faux old-style map, matches the cover of the other fours books I have) is out in April, that's the one I ordered on Amazon.ca.

Yeah, I love those covers. This series has become my favourite to read. These would easily fall under my "need to read again and need to own" list of books.

Wow, I figured books were released throughout North America on the same date. Go figure. I think Abercrombie's one of the most exciting things going in fantasy right now. I love his style. The dialogue flows naturally, the characters are all seriously flawed and as believable as a charcter in fantsy can be, and he can be downright hilarious. I'm really looking forward to reading The Heroes. That axe cover is way cooler than my dinky American version too.

The hardcover US edition (Orbit) is available on Amazon.ca though, no idea if it's in brick & mortar stores though.

Hardcover has been in stores for about 5 weeks -- good stuff. I liked it slighlty better than "Best Served Cold".

Almalik wrote:

Just finishing up "The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters". Good book about 3 people thrown together and teaming up against a powerful cabal in a Victorian era/England-but-not fantasy world. I'd really recommend it, and thought I'd heard about it here but can't find any posts on it (perhaps my google-fu is weak).

Must have been on some other site I lurk about at and never post.

This book is so fun! It is one of the greatest high adventure books I've read.

My advice: DO NOT READ THE NEXT BOOK!

While there are a couple good action sequences, Dark Volume is just a disappointing mess. Everything that made the first book great is missing. I won't go too heavily into it in case you don't believe me, because the numerous points where you are angry at the book are the only things that actually illicit an emotional response.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John LeCarre, old, not relevant anymore but an enjoyable read. I picked it up after rereading The Spy Who came in from the Cold while the movie was on TV the other day.

Went to Rochester (UK) this Sunday and came under the spell of the castle and its siege in 1215. King John took the castle after a furious siege which included mining the outer wall and a tower of the keep. And even that didn't settle the contest. The defenders only surrender a week later when food ran out.

This led us to the rather unknown first Barons' War where John defended his rule against a rebellion by 2/3rds of his vassals, combined with Scotland and France. And all this happened after John had signed the Magna Carta (which surprised me), although half-heartedly.

Also, it turned out that John had his enemies largely beat by the time of his sudden death late in 1216.

Picked up Turner's King John, the evil king? as well as Carpenter's the Struggle for Mastery 1066-1284 at Gatwick on the way back. This is proving fascinating reading. SO far I'm learning about John's early life and administration of England and the French possesions (basically Western France from Normandy to the Pyrenees).

The Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare: the Middle Ages has a few pages with great maps showing the conflict and Hillaire Belloc's Warfare in England provides some brilliant insights in the geographical importance of royal castles such as Windsor and Dover.

All this makes for a great game, as the whole things is finely ballanced between John's control of strategic castles and highly trained and mobile army against a host of enemies which are in the end mostly a result of him being an utter prick. His death may even have saved England from French domination as John's young son Henry (III) was a much more agreeable monarch than French Louis.

So UK Fatties: make sure to visit Rochester (take Chatham Docks in one sweep).

Another tip is Lewes, which also has a nice castle and sets the scene for the first battle in that other Barons' War. Oh, I could talk about this for hours!

This book is so fun! It is one of the greatest high adventure books I've read.

My advice: DO NOT READ THE NEXT BOOK!

Wow, thanks for the heads up! I was planning on picking it up in the near future.