I was given Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines by David Unaipon as a gift from one of my granddaughters. Fascinating stories and worth reading, only about 280 pages and I could not put it down.
I was never taught any of this history when I was at school, especially the so-called Black War in Tasmania.
it is interesting that he, in and of his own work, is popular enough to hold his on convention and get good turnouts. Mistborn does read like it was placed to be a movie one day, and his prose is kinda weak so if people struggle with that, the other writers will have to do a lot of heavy lifting.
Plus so much is written and hes not apparently the type to not finish a book/series unlike (GRRM) so there will be a good skeleton for the production company and director to roll with
Whilst I did enjoy the first 2/3 of the book, I felt it dragged a bit in places. The last 1/3 certainly picked up the pace and I loved it even though it was extremely grim. I’m looking forward to starting the second instalment of this trilogy.
Finished the prequel to Hot Ground by Lisa Ellory, Private Prosecution.
Matthew Deacon is a prosecutor in Perth who hooks up with Lil Constantine, who’s found murdered the next morning. He’s quickly cleared by the 2 cops investigating, one of whom is Jessy Parkin. Because of something Lil said to him, he’s very suspicious of this one guy, Sam, who turns out to be her brother-in-law, Sam, a prominent defence barrister. He investigates, and then gets accused of having kiddie ■■■■ on his computer and then gets badly beaten up and becomes addicted to Endone.
Rattling good yarn. A good 9/10 and one to follow.
Started King Tide, a debut by Luke Johnson, who was a physio at Geelong FC. A girl’s body is found, buried in the sand at the beach of Leganes Bay in SW Victoria. She went missing 2 or 3 years ago and was assumed to have run away. It’s pretty clear it’s all based in Port Fairy, which names a few key Port Fairy things except that PF doesn’t have a high school.
The boys who were involved with the girl are connected via the daughter of the Anglican vicar who’s just returned to the town.
Looking forward to the rest of the book.
I was a little excited to read that one of my all-time favourite writers Bill Bryson (self-proclaimed “retired author”) has a new book coming out.
However, it’s just an updated version of his tome ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’ which I already have, so I don’t think I’ll bother.
Finished book #2 in the Poppy War trilogy. I am enjoying this series very much. The character development of the secondary characters has been fantastic. I have trouble liking the main character (Rin) at times, but that’s okay, I can understand why she us like she is. On to the third!
The author’s note at the beginning of The Burning God males me feel like everyone is going to die. I’m expecting Rin to go, but Kitay would be hard to take. Even though they’re joined spiritually, I hope he somehow makes it.
I though this series got better the deeper it went. I especially loved the magic system. The world building wasn’t anything spectacular, but it didn’t need to be imo. I thought the ending was excellent. I always feel a bit sad when I finish a series and say goodbye to the characters, even in this case when they weren’t especially likable (except Kitay).
Amazing to think that R.F Kuang started these books when she was 19. What a talent! I will need to get my hands on Babel fairly soon, I hear good things about this book.
This is the only book of hers I have read. I really wanted to like it more, and the characters were well developed, but ultimately the plot and style - history and fantasy intertwined - just wasn’t convincing enough for me.
Coincidentally, the book I’d read previous to that was also set around Oxford - Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. This was more my cup of tea and I thought it was excellent.
I absolutely loved this book. It did take a whilento get going but when it did, oh boy! How fantastic I still have 4 (possibly 9?) to go. I went to pick up the second book (Words of Radiance) today, but none on the shelf and will have to wait a week before I can get my hands on it at my local bookstore. I saw The Blade Itself on the shelf, so will get stuck into that in the meantime.
Just finished Kate Horan’s second book, On the Edge. Nel Foley is a Sydney GP who gets a phone call telling her that her doctor father has just died of a heart attack in their home town on the southern coast of NSW, 5 hours from Sydney.
Nel goes home and reluctantly offers to run the practice till they can find a replacement. She’s reluctant because half the town believes that she was instrumental in the death of the local MP’s daughter, 16 years before. She believes that it was the girl’s ex, who’s now participating in some heavy-duty DV.
Damn good read and a good follow up to her first book, Inheritance.
I’m about halfway through The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie and I’m loving it. It’s a bit different to the fantasy books I’ve read lately and didn’t expect to find it quite funny in parts given it’s a grimdark fantasy. Joe’s descriptions of the character Glokta are quite something!
I don’t think I will be reading much other than fantasy for the foreseeable future, it seems to fit for the world we’re living in at the moment (for me anyway). I wasn’t a fantasy reader until very recently when I picked up the Earthsea books and was immediately drawn in. I guess it makes sense given I devoured Stephen King and Anne Rice books as a teenager.
Man that is an excellent trilogy. I could not put it down. The action/fight scenes are so visceral, and the characters are so interesting. Great choice.
I actually walked into the book shop intending to buy the second book in another series, but they were sold out. Glad I walked out with this and will finish this series before the other one, even though I really loved the other one.
I read those when they came out, and I had mixed feelings, mostly to do with the ending because like you, I was a big fan early on in the series. Although this was somewhat probably due to the tenor of the 00s, the times they came out. The Red Wedding had just come out on paper, and between GRRM and KJ Parker and Abercrombie and R Scott Bakker and others, grimdark was the big thing in fantasy fiction. I was just getting a bit weary of it by then.
Spoilers for the end of the series.
The big revelations about Bayaz and Quai, and how Jezal is reduced to a cowering factotum living in contradiction to all his principles while Glotka wields real power, really rubbed me the wrong way. I don’t mind a downer ending now and again, but there seemed to be a deeper cynicism at work in these books, something degrading and contemptuous of the very concepts of hope and virtue and principle. It was all a bit Dark Helmet - “Evil will always triumph because good is dumb” - except played completely straight. The bad guys won because they were the bad guys, because being a bad guy was a bit like a superpower that made you smarter and better than any naive fool who dared hope for better. There’s a certain secret knowledge available only to monsters and it means that the monsters will always be in charge and it’s useless to oppose them. The Silence of the Lambs and its sequels carried some of the same baggage, Dexter too. It left a very bad taste in my mouth, there’s a lot of poor fantasy fiction where the heroes have ridiculous plot armour, but in this era, the villains seemed to get it and the authors felt like they were on the villain’s side. I read a little bit of Abercrombie after that, but I found it increasingly a hard slog. Best Served Cold was good, but in The Heroes he went back to old habits and I kinda wrote him off.
It’s a criticism based on my personal tastes rather than objective literary criticism, and I know Abercrombie has a lot of fans. Your mileage may vary, of course.
I’m at the opposite end of that spectrum, I just can’t get enough of it right now. Maybe I’ll have a different view to you given those circumstances. I will read your spooler text when I’ve finished the trilogy, and will let you know my thoughts.
I plan to read one of his trilogies after I’ve finished First Law and Stormlight. Engineer, Fencer and Scavenger all look inviting.
Very different from what I have been reading lately. Best book I have read this year.
I love the extremely diverse characters in this book and the way Joe puts you in their head. It is very amusing the way they all view each other, and particularly Glokta. I swear my back starts hurting when I read from his pov.
Picked up Before They Are Hanged yesterday and looking forward to seeing how this trilogy transpires.
Outstanding. I am in love with this trilogy. The characters are just wonderful. Picked up book three today and walked out carrying it like I was cradling a Faberge egg.
I’m reading some grim dark for the first time.
The Broken Empire series by Mark Lawrence, just finished the first one - Prince of Thorns.
Not really sure what I think yet. If I’m going to read a story in fantasy or sci-fi where a protagonist is a real piece of work I haven’t found a match for Donaldson, even with whatever is broken in that man to re-use a certain act.
Just finished this. 9.5/10.
I loved it. An epic journey. I do love me a good trilogy, you can really settle in and see the characters develop in all sorts of ways. Would recommend.
Spoilers and repy to HM’s spoilers:
Sometimes my views change the longer I sit with a book but my initial reaction is that it’s a grimdark series, and I don’t expect a happy finish, especially the world in which this book was built. The ending was definitely a gut punch. Everyone was either back to where they started (Logen and Ferro), or were worse off. The clues with Bayaz were there all along. The way he dealt with that Practical that disturbed his bath was one.
The journey through the books was amazing, imo. Glokta was without doubt one of the best characters I have ever read. He both horrified me and made me laugh, and for a guy that actually almost wished death upon himself, the way the book ended for him was strangely satisfying for me given what a ruthless ■■■■■■■ he was. I loved the final scene with him, Sult and Rews/Pike. Perfection!
I don’t feel cheated by the ending at all, sometimes you don’t get the rainbows and sunshine. Life is definitely that way. Maybe my own cynical view of the world atm, is shining through? Lol.
But! If I was going to be picky, the scene where Threetrees’ northern gang ambushed West and Burr didn’t make sense to me, I mean, how did they know they’d be there and for them to just conveniently take off from the rest of the guard was a bit unbelievable. Also, when Fenris the Feared took off mid-battle when the northeners were battling the shanka. He’d just dealt Threetrees a fatal blow and had them on the ropes, only to just up and go. Hmmm. May be I missed something?
