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The GOT Book Club

RaleighBlue said:
I haven't read much fantasy in a few years, but I have a few recommendations for anyone that enjoys the genre:

Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch. This is just good fun. It's well written with an interesting world and intriguing characters. It's the start of an ongoing series named The Gentlemen Bastards. The two following books were also excellent, but they are all fairly self-contained.

The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie. Basically anything by Joe Abercrombie if you're into the gritty, dark, violent kind of fantasy. It's hard edged, but very well written.

For more modern fantasy I recommend The City and The City by China Mieville. This is one of my favorite books of any genre.
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Some good shouts there RaleighBlue, but I'm mired in the third Scott Lynch book and my God it's mediocre, you can't seriously say it's excellent.
I quite liked the second as a brave departure to write something a bit different from the first. But the inadequacy of the third one is retroactively spoiling this - I think he's under huge pressure to produce something good with the next or he'll be joining the ranks of genre writers who had one real book in them.
 
Black Belt Jones said:
Some good shouts there RaleighBlue, but I'm mired in the third Scott Lynch book and my God it's mediocre, you can't seriously say it's excellent.
I quite liked the second as a brave departure to write something a bit different from the first. But the inadequacy of the third one is retroactively spoiling this - I think he's under huge pressure to produce something good with the next or he'll be joining the ranks of genre writers who had one real book in them.
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Entirely possible. I've only read the third book once (I read the first many times, and the second a few). And I read it fairly separated from reading anything else (by him or otherwise) so it may have just been residual glow from reading a book and getting back with Jean and Locke.

I don't even really remember the plot to that one much...which I chalked up to only the one read. So I defer to you. I also enjoy bad books from time to time when they scratch the right itch (see The Baroque Cycle for a prime example), so it well could have been that as well.

Locke and Jean and still two of my favorite characters in the genre though.
 
RaleighBlue said:
Entirely possible. I've only read the third book once (I read the first many times, and the second a few). And I read it fairly separated from reading anything else (by him or otherwise) so it may have just been residual glow from reading a book and getting back with Jean and Locke.

I don't even really remember the plot to that one much...which I chalked up to only the one read. So I defer to you. I also enjoy bad books from time to time when they scratch the right itch (see The Baroque Cycle for a prime example), so it well could have been that as well.

Locke and Jean and still two of my favorite characters in the genre though.
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I've read the three of them straight through for the first time so I guess I'm seeing a direct comparison.

Find The Republic of Thieves quite illustrative as to how hard it is to write good mainstream fantasy. Suspension of disbelief is pretty much a given from page one, but only up to a point. If stuff starts to suck then it's so easy to lose the reader - the amazing high-jinx of Locke and Jean gets a bit tiresome against a creaking backstory that no one cares about [an election (?!) and dreadful, page-deadening love interest]. The Lies of Locke Lamora is impressive to me because it's such a trad structure. He's not trying to show his arse and write something edgy and different, it's just superb craftmanship and storytelling.
 
Efcjake said:
I'm gutted that Disney completely erased the entire Star Wars Extended Universe established by hundreds of books that came after the originals so that they could rewrite the established narrative for toy sales.
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It awful really. I loved the old extended universe and all the amazing stories that came from it. I just hope that long-term they build a new one as good as the last. Even if it was started for shocking, money grabbing reasons, the simple fact that they've got Timothy Zahn back to write the new Thrawn novel (he's wrote the best Star Wars novels ever imo) makes me feel some hope that they could salvage something positive from this new universe.
 
Black Belt Jones said:
I've read the three of them straight through for the first time so I guess I'm seeing a direct comparison.

Find The Republic of Thieves quite illustrative as to how hard it is to write good mainstream fantasy. Suspension of disbelief is pretty much a given from page one, but only up to a point. If stuff starts to suck then it's so easy to lose the reader - the amazing high-jinx of Locke and Jean gets a bit tiresome against a creaking backstory that no one cares about [an election (?!) and dreadful, page-deadening love interest]. The Lies of Locke Lamora is impressive to me because it's such a trad structure. He's not trying to show his arse and write something edgy and different, it's just superb craftmanship and storytelling.
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Fantasy and Sci-Fi suffer from so many authors that get too fascinated with their ideas and worlds and leave the story (and actual quality in writing) in the back seat. I found this awful in Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. The story itself was just utter paint by number stuff, wrapped in a fairly interesting concept. I couldn't get over how godawfully predictable the plot was. But your mileage may vary, I know some people are far more interested in the world mechanics that I am (although I enjoy it in hard sci-fi).

And I forgot the love interest story. That was just boring. I think what I liked about Lies was the whole heist atmosphere. It was like a renaissance Venetian mob story.
 

RaleighBlue said:
Fantasy and Sci-Fi suffer from so many authors that get too fascinated with their ideas and worlds and leave the story (and actual quality in writing) in the back seat. I found this awful in Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. The story itself was just utter paint by number stuff, wrapped in a fairly interesting concept. I couldn't get over how godawfully predictable the plot was. But your mileage may vary, I know some people are far more interested in the world mechanics that I am (although I enjoy it in hard sci-fi).

And I forgot the love interest story. That was just boring. I think what I liked about Lies was the whole heist atmosphere. It was like a renaissance Venetian mob story.
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So I finished Republic of Thieves - some interesting developments at the end but I was too far gone with it to care much. That said, I hadn't been aware of what a struggle this book had been for the author. Was reading some interviews with him where he's been very frank about having a severe depressive period and how it smashed his writing schedule. It's impressive to hear him be so open, as it must be a hard thing to speak about even today - hope he can overcome it.
 
I mentioned it many pages ago but I have just finished rereading it on the Kindle. If anyone is into Cormac McCarthy style mixed with a bit of crime (they call it 'border noir'), then it is worth checking out The Rules of Wolfe by James Carlos Blake. Also been rereading some of James Sallis' crime stuff (he wrote the book that the film 'Drive' came from).
 
atrottel said:
I mentioned it many pages ago but I have just finished rereading it on the Kindle. If anyone is into Cormac McCarthy style mixed with a bit of crime (they call it 'border noir'), then it is worth checking out The Rules of Wolfe by James Carlos Blake. Also been rereading some of James Sallis' crime stuff (he wrote the book that the film 'Drive' came from).
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I'm a massive McCarthy fan and I can't believe I've missed this author.

Just ordered three of the " Wolfe " books on your rec and the reviews I've just read ;)
 
anjelikaferrett said:
another audio book to keep me company on the way to work. I'm still not sure If I'm "reading" it. The key phrase here is "read by the author" Bias aside , it's good, He's so far talked about his Irish Italian upbringing, his father's mental health issues that seemed to run in his side of the family and I now know the inspiration for The River.

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Let's get this out in the open - I love Bruce Springsteen. His music resonates with me like nobody else's can. His live performances are phenomenal ( apologies for that word but it fits here) I wouldn't kick him out of bed. But oh my goodness this book is dull. He's coming across as a bit of a self righteous t)t. I've just got to the bit where he has released Born To Run and I'm a tiny bit bored. With Bruce. Who is reading his book. To me. In my car. Never would have believed it.
 

Finished these two in the last month.

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latest



I'm about to start Bernard Cornwell's 1356.
 
Heard about this book on H&J a few weeks back, and it arrived today. Rejection.

Basically its a bloke who applied to every football club to be their manager! So its a load of application letters, and some club responses.

The author obviously knows his football, and football culture. His application to Liverpool could have been written by someone on here.

"When you type Liverpool FC into google there are about 5620000 results. I will be honest, I havnt read them all. But they are all there, and shows how big the club are, I believe I can be the manager to help the club back to former glories , and get us to 6000000 on google"

Very good.

Not found/read the Everton application yet.
 

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