[MSJ]

Finished Dark Age(6), by Pierce Brown. Out of the 5 he's written in this arc/world, this one of the best. Highly recommend.

Finished that up tonight because A Little Hatred, by Abercrombie is out and im digging into it.

With all the changes in life I haven't read as much as usual. But, I'm getting back into the swing of it. And, have a huge TBR pile building and building. I think I can make 20 and salvage the year....

[Wilshire]

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North (25)

This was a wonderful book, and I say that as someone who doesn't typically enjoy time travel books, or whodunits, which this book heavily features. The writing is great, the pacing is well done, and the premise of living your life multiple times (and retaining your memory after each) is enjoyable and well explored. Its a short book, so I highly recommend it to anyone looking for something fun and fast to read.

Finished Dark Age(6), by Pierce Brown. Out of the 5 he's written in this arc/world, this one of the best. Highly recommend.

Finished that up tonight because A Little Hatred, by Abercrombie is out and im digging into it.

With all the changes in life I haven't read as much as usual. But, I'm getting back into the swing of it. And, have a huge TBR pile building and building. I think I can make 20 and salvage the year....

Glad to see some finished books, MSJ. You gotta keep reading, else how am I to get great suggestions? Also, its good news that Dark Ages was good. I'm not in a rush to get to Browns next series, but the original Red Rising trilogy was fantastic. Its nice to see an author have success.

Speaking of success, I'll be interested to know how A Little Hatred goes.

[Wilshire]

Kushiel's Dart (Kushiel's Legacy 1) by  Jacqueline Carey (26)
Carey is a fantastic writer. The main focus of the book is prose, with the setting being close enough to medieval europe that it could be alternate history / historical fantasy, with very little magic. This isn't normal something I seek out or enjoy, but Carey's writing was good enough to carry me through to the end.

Its a great book, drags a bit in the middle, but when it ended I found myself wanting to read more. The POT character is a trained courtesan, who navigates the intrigues of court and much more, though for plot spoiler reasons I can't really say more. For anyone looking to read something that's not so dark with great prose, I would recommend this novel.

The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower 1) by Stephen King (27)
This was my first King novel, and while it was a bit weird, I enjoyed it. I don't know what King is known for (other than horror and prolific), but I was impressed by the prose. Its a really short book - less than 7 hours of audio - so the world building seemed stilted, but there was enough  sprinkled in throughout to warrant picking up the sequel.

I've heard this is by far the worst in the series, so I was worried about this book and had low expectations. Maybe that colored my opinion about it, but if this is the worst the series has to offer then there's nothing to worry about. Hard to give it a strong recommendations, but there was also nothing in there to turn me away.

[H]

I've heard this is bar far the worst in the series, so I was worried about this book and had low expectations. Maybe that colored my opinion about it, but if this is the worst the series has to offer then there's nothing to worry about. Hard to give it a strong recommendations, but there was also nothing in there to turn me away.

Weird.  I read the first three a long, long time ago and I recall taking forever to get through the second one, seemed way "worse" (but not actually bad) than the first one.  Might just be a selective recalling on my part though, but I remember the first as pretty good.

I probably should finish that series one day...

[Wilshire]

Could be that the first one is so short you can't get a solid feeling for it. But also, in generally I find people don't like books that are confusing and throw you into the middle of a story that already happening. This is definitely what happens in Gunslinger, so I'm not surprised it is not fondly remembered by many.

[H]

Could be that the first one is so short you can't get a solid feeling for it. But also, in generally I find people don't like books that are confusing and throw you into the middle of a story that already happening. This is definitely what happens in Gunslinger, so I'm not surprised it is not fondly remembered by many.

I might also just be remembering parts from other books and figuring they were in that first one.  But I do recall liking it for how vaguely it sketched the past.  Of course, I read it probably 15 years ago, maybe even more...

[MSJ]

Finished up A Little Hatred by Abercombie (7) last night. Classic Joe. Very reminiscent of first book of first trilogy. Some action, plenty of laughs, but essentially a introduction to the plot, characters and threads of the story that we will follow throughout. As always with his stuff...highly recommended.

[Wilshire]

 Been waiting for a new series ever since I couldnt finish Red Country, so I'm very glad to hear you liked it.

[MSJ]

Been waiting for a new series ever since I couldnt finish Red Country, so I'm very glad to hear you liked it.

Also, we get some prophecy in these books. Dogman's daughter, Rikke (rhymes with pricker), has the Long Eye... I think with the success of ASOIAF, Joe thought a good idea to introduce this in his writing. Enjoyable....as always.

[Wilshire]

The Broken Eye by Brent Weeks, Lightbringer 3 (28)

I continue to be impressed with Weeks' writing. The books primary focus is on the plot, but the characters and relationships are unfolding in a complex way that really drives things along. I find myself feeling very strongly for many of the characters, which brings a solid poignancy to many scenes. Some plot twists you can guess or see coming, there are others that are shocking while still making sense in retrospect.

This is still something I highly recommend. It's not in the same vein as Watts or Bakker, but its great fantasy writing if geared more towards 'fun' than 'deep'.

[Wilshire]

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb 1)  (29)

This was a fun book. The main character is a jaunty 19 year old swordsman and she follows about a slightly younger necromancer as a body guard. The story prose begins a bit purple, which after finishing the story I'm happy to write off as 'first novel nerves'. Tamysn Muir does a good job throughout making the characters feel real, and the plot unfolds nicely. There's a lot of humor, which livens up a story that could be rather dark considering it follows around a group of Necromancers.

Maybe not as strong a showing as other recent new authors, like Pierce Brown with Red Rising, or Poppy War by RF Kuang, but its a solid read, and I'll absolutely be looking forward to her finishing this series. Plenty of world building, plot, and characters, to keep me interested.

If you're looking to read something published in 2019, or for new authors, this is a good choice.

[Wilshire]

The Blood Mirror by Brent Weeks (Lightbringer #4) (30)

Hey, I made it to 30, which was my goal for the year, only a month ahead of schedule. Pretty good.

As for the book, it was good. There's actually quite a bit of emotional depth in this one, clearly written by a man who thinks about relationships, especially marriage, a great deal. Rather refreshing for a series, and a genre, geared more towards other things.

I'm going to jump straight to book 5 from here and finish off the series before the year is out. Its a rather big book and I expect it will take a few weeks to finish. Very excited to see where this fantastic series ends.

[Wilshire]

The Burning White by Brent Weeks (Lightbringer #5) (31)

A brilliant end to a great series. It ends up being somewhat predictable and tropey, but there is sufficient foreshadowing throughout to make it not feel contrived. Look, I really, really enjoyed this series, and Burning White is the conclusion that it needed. Weeks did something really amazing with this series. The prose isn't complex, but the characters are. The plots are hyper intriguing, but watching the characters navigate it is very fun. The magic is outstanding throughout, though the worldbuilding gets shoved mostly into this last book which does dampen its reception. A bit too little too late - history is more interesting when you can watch it influence the characters, much less so when the book is largely over.

If you're ever looking for a fast, action-y book with heavy focus on magic and characters, absolutely pick this one up!


The Magician's Land (The Magicians #3) by Lev Grossman (32)

Hmm. As a whole this series was great, but I think it suffers from being 3 books when it could have been 2. The first book is where the majority of the worth is. Lev Grossman had a great idea, and really ran with it. The story is hilarious for those raised on Narnia and Harry Potter, its irreverent but with plenty of nods to where it came from, steeped in fantasy/scifi culture yet not afraid to poke fun.

But where book 1 was great all the way through, book 2 has a concurrent timeline to book 1 for most of the book (or at least half). I think this part of book 2 could have been sliced up and interspersed with book 1, creating a nice juxtaposition of the journey of the two heroes. Then, book 2 divulges into a mop up tying together some strangling, which may have been necessary for a standalone book 2, but could have largely been done without.

Book 3 similarly felt like it could have been reduced. Maybe second half of book 2 could have been added together with book 3, allowing for some of the fat to be trimmed and leaving us with a more satisfying finale... But this is not the case. The book does end the series nicely, and it felt shorter than the rest. The adventure not as grand, the stakes not as high, it follows the hero(es) through to the end of their stories, and leaves off like a movie does when it is wishing for a sequel but not really expecting to get it.

Its still a fun book, and a great series, but its a shame that most of the greatness is packed into the first 50% of the text (book 1 and half of book 2). This makes it difficult to recommend as a whole, even though I very much want to. Definitely anyone interested should check out the first book, without feeling hugely obligated to read book 2 (though its very worth it), but book 3 is largely miss-able unless you desperately need loose ends tied up.