The sequel to Red Rising, Golden Son has come out, cannot wait to finish the current series im reading to dig into this, the first one was a ripper.
just finished this book and it was awesome, cannot wait for the 3rd instalment.
Just finished Red Rising. Bought it yesterday and could not put it down, nearly missed my train stop !
This is a great book and this guy is a great writer. Best book I have read in a very long time.
Golden son is better I think
Have finished Golden Son. Yep it is good and this author doesnt really like things to go happy and peaceful does he. More twists than and turns than Vlad himself.
Got a lot of books for Christmas. Some good, some gross.
Just read Wilbur Smith; Desert God in a day or so. He used to write a good yatn, but now just lives on his name and puts out a book for Christmas to rake in the money I reckon. Very light weight read and very predicable story. It will make a good Disney Animated Movie.
I started reading him when I was about 10, my grandfather was a huge fan and introduced me, then left me his collection when he passed. Never great literature but yes, ripping yarns, boy’s own adventure type stuff.
I was saddened to read recently that as part of a new publishing deal, he now works with a team of authors, he outlines the plot and they fill it in. I think Desert God was the first release using this method.
It disgusted me when I read about it and the end result was just… pffft.
The last two with Hector Cross were a bit crap too, I reckon. Just seemed rushed.
It’s a pity when great authors start to sense their mortality and think that pumping out substandard pulp in a hurry before they shuffle off (read: Bryce Courtney) is the way to go.
Is that right Ding ?? Well his books and now these Clancy and Ludlum knock-offs are all the same. Pity as I really liked the read in all of them.
'Fraid so. I’d say it’s noticeable but his last few were not exactly stellar anyway. I never thought I’d be bored by a Wilbur Smith adventure, but his style seems to reflect a bit of “I can’t be bothered anymore”.
He’s worth a squillion, I guess he’s just exploiting his brand. Possibly no different to a film director or music producer in some ways, I guess. Still sucks balls though.
Anyone recommend a good book on Napoleon? The French leader not the Ice cream.
I’ve just started ‘How Far From Austerlitz’ by Alistair Horne, which is all about Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars. Only a couple of pages in, so can’t give you a review on this particular book, but the guy is a seriously good historian, and his stuff on France in the Franco-Prussian war of the 1870s, in the battle of Verdun in WW1, the fall of France in WW2, and the Algerian war were all top-class, so I have high hopes of this one too.
Anyone recommend a good book on Napoleon? The French leader not the Ice cream.
I’ve just started ‘How Far From Austerlitz’ by Alistair Horne, which is all about Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars. Only a couple of pages in, so can’t give you a review on this particular book, but the guy is a seriously good historian, and his stuff on France in the Franco-Prussian war of the 1870s, in the battle of Verdun in WW1, the fall of France in WW2, and the Algerian war were all top-class, so I have high hopes of this one too.
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Currently 30% through Blood Meridian by Cormac McCartney. He’s one cheerful ****
Blood Meridian probably features one of the most bad ■■■■ baddies , Judge Holden, in literary history.
It’s a helluva book, IMO better than The Road, No Country for Old Men or the Trilogy (All the Pretty Horses etc). The imagery in it stays in your mind forever.
I have just started the lies of Lockie Lamore. I have a feeling I am going to like it, I like the writing style. It reminds me of the kingkiller chronicles by rothfuss which if anyone hasnt read and likes fantasy books, give it a look.
LOL I started the first Locke Lamora book around the same time it seems. Finished last week and yep, was a good read. Will move onto the others shortly.
Currently 30% through Blood Meridian by Cormac McCartney. He’s one cheerful ****
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Currently 30% through Blood Meridian by Cormac McCartney. He’s one cheerful ****
Blood Meridian probably features one of the most bad ■■■■ baddies , Judge Holden, in literary history.
It’s a helluva book, IMO better than The Road, No Country for Old Men or the Trilogy (All the Pretty Horses etc). The imagery in it stays in your mind forever.
Yeah he’s just squashed a guys head with his bare hands. People talk about “grimdark” in fantasy… Nothing in the grimdark I’ve read comes close to Blood Meridian for violence, and not even 2/3rds through it yet.
The story told by one of the posse about The Judge harvesting salt petre from bat guana, grounding up charcoal then leading the group into a caldera to harvest sulphur was awesome.
“and there’s men in this company besides myself seen little cloven hoof-prints in the stone clever as a little doe in her going but what little doe ever trod melted rock? I’d not go behind scripture but it may be that there has been sinners so notorious evil that the fires coughed em up again and I could see well in the long ago how it was little devils with their pitchforks had traversed that fiery vomit to salvage back those souls”
He’s a strange writer. He goes from quite simplistic story telling of the form “this then this then this then this” and then all of a sudden will come out with something like the above.
Anyone recommend a good book on Napoleon? The French leader not the Ice cream.
I’ve just started ‘How Far From Austerlitz’ by Alistair Horne, which is all about Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars. Only a couple of pages in, so can’t give you a review on this particular book, but the guy is a seriously good historian, and his stuff on France in the Franco-Prussian war of the 1870s, in the battle of Verdun in WW1, the fall of France in WW2, and the Algerian war were all top-class, so I have high hopes of this one too.
Thanks HM I am going to seek this one out.
Just FYI, I got a fair bit further in this one last night - it seems to be focusing mostly on the slow decline of Napoleon’s power, and really only starts around 1800 when he already rules France, is married to Josephine, is at war with England, etc etc. There’s an awful lot of his career it just breezes over the in the first chapter before getting down to brass tacks, annoyingly enough. So it may or may not be what you’re after.
Very good deal at https://humblebundle.com/books for those who like sci-fi/fantasy and similar. Large bundle of mixed ebooks on a pay-whatever-you-think-it’s-worth deal, though some of it is only unlocked at certain payment thresholds. It’s not just no-names either. There’s Dan Simmons, Cherie Priest, Jack Vance, Tim Powers, Harlan Ellison and a bunch of others. Definitely worth a look.
Very good deal at https://humblebundle.com/books for those who like sci-fi/fantasy and similar. Large bundle of mixed ebooks on a pay-whatever-you-think-it's-worth deal, though some of it is only unlocked at certain payment thresholds. It's not just no-names either. There's Dan Simmons, Cherie Priest, Jack Vance, Tim Powers, Harlan Ellison and a bunch of others. Definitely worth a look.
unfortunately like most humble bundles the only things im interested in I already have.
Apparently the author of “Remains of the Day”, Kazuo Ishiguro, has gone all cross genre and released a fantasy novel called ‘The Buried Giant’. It’d want to be more compelling than Doris Lessing’s Sci Fi crossovers.
I’ve tickets to MTC’s production of Beckett’s “Endgame” in a few weeks so I started to flick through the text and ended up reading the lot. Some plays need to seen on stage to be appreciated, but not “Endgame”, it’s a miserable delight from start to finish. Colin Friels has the plum role of Hamm, a marvelous comical creation. I couldn’t help thinking that the great British Comic and self centred misanthrope, Tony Hancock, would have relished the role.
Reading the Shadows of the Apt books at the moment. Only two books in out of ten, but it’s quality stuff and I’m very much enjoying it so far. Sort of early-industrial military/political fantasy in which people are defined into races/cultures according to which variety of insect spirit their ancestors bonded to. Always nice to see someone managing to write fantasy that interestingly defies the tyranny of elves, dwarves, and dragons…
I don’t mind elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, trolls etc. but dragons are too ■■■■■■■ ridiculous, they’re always so powerful and yet all they do is chill in a cave for 99% of their life.
I've tickets to MTC's production of Beckett's "Endgame" in a few weeks so I started to flick through the text and ended up reading the lot. Some plays need to seen on stage to be appreciated, but not "Endgame", it's a miserable delight from start to finish. Colin Friels has the plum role of Hamm, a marvelous comical creation. I couldn't help thinking that the great British Comic and self centred misanthrope, Tony Hancock, would have relished the role.
I was gunna say, my cousin's in that, but he's in the Sydney one with Hugo Weaving, which is on now as well
Not particularly creative, whoever programs these theatre shows!
Hilary Mantel’s “The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher” was described by former British Tory cabinet minister Lord Tebbit, one of Thatcher’s advisers, as “a sick book from a sick mind”, an “endorsement” that would certainly look good on any cover jacket but sort of misses the point that it’s a piece of fictional alternative history. Anyway it’s but one story from a hugely entertaining and eclectic collection from one of our greatest writers. The stories regularly revisit the themes and locations of her pre “Wolf Hall” novels, and although it’s difficult to particularlise, I was taken with “Sorry to Disturb”, set in her early married years in a hellish Saudi Arabia as a very ill and reluctant partner to her geologist husband, and “The Heart Suddenly Fails”, a dark and yet affectionate account of obsessive illness and its wider impact. As always she’s mysterious and droll, just basically one of those preternatural beings who can’t wilfully write a flat sentence. I just hope this is the entrée before the final volume of the Cromwell trilogy.
P.S.:I borrowed it through the Mornington Peninsula Library Service’s “E-Book” collection which also has some of her other works. It won’t work on a Kindle so I had to use a laptop, one of the few times I could have done with an Ipad.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. I had a few interruptions so it took me ages to read such a short book. Overall pretty good as I love reading about prison conditions. Ending was not as good as I would’ve hoped, but considering the book it was probably appropriate.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. I had a few interruptions so it took me ages to read such a short book. Overall pretty good as I love reading about prison conditions. Ending was not as good as I would've hoped, but considering the book it was probably appropriate.
I reckon the movie, I think with Tom Courtenay, is worth a look too.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. I had a few interruptions so it took me ages to read such a short book. Overall pretty good as I love reading about prison conditions. Ending was not as good as I would've hoped, but considering the book it was probably appropriate.
I reckon the movie, I think with Tom Courtenay, is worth a look too.