re: Looking for a new book. How's the Lies of Locke Lamora?

I just wanted to chime back in about the Anthony Ryan books. I just finished Blood Song and started Tower Lord. Very entertaining, though I would place them slightly below the Gentleman Bastard Sequence so far.

Also, the Kingkiller Chronicles are another one I would highly suggest you listen to if you are into audiobooks. There are several sequences that make more sense (to me at least) when you hear them rather than read them off a page. Rothfuss doesn't plow through the story, but I've found that when I'm listening I don't really care as I'm still captivated by the story telling.

I finally got the book yesterday. The Metairie Barnes & NOble didn't have. ONly the westbank store had it. I don't drive to the Westbank if it can be avoided, so I had a co-worker pick it up for me.

I'm about 75 pages in, and so far, I'm enjoying the book. I'll update once I get further in.

quote:

---

i'll have to go bad and check it out when i'm not intoxicated

---

Nice. I had taken some Nyquil before reading so I had a similar experience.

Good to hear that Tower Lord holds up well. I just got it and the first two of the Lightbringer series by Weeks coming in the mail today, so I'll be starting Tower Lord this weekend myself.

As far as AFFc and ADWD goes:

quote:

---

Well right, I suppose I didn't mean it that way. I meant that when you compare them to the first 3, and really book 1 and 3, they aren't that good, but when compared to the genre as a whole, they are still pretty damn good.

---

See, I don't consider them to be nearly as good as most of the stuff coming out these days. I think they are decent, I'd consider AFFC a 7/10 and ADWD a 7.5/10 type books. But pretty much all of Joe Abercrombie, Steven Erikson, Anthony Ryan, Brent Weeks, Scott Lynch, Mark Lawrence, Daniel Abraham, KJ Parker, Brandon Sanderson's recent stuff, and Rothfuss are much better than those two books. They really don't hold up well to the genre these days. Ten years ago sure, but these days fantasy is at a much higher level.

quote:

---

As for starting and stopping, I didn't get that, though I hated the set up. I wish he would have just told his publisher to frick off and finished writing the books as he wanted to, which was actually one giant arse book.

---

What I mean by the starting and stopping is the books don't have the narrative structure necessary to e good books taken on their own. A good book has some sort of conclusion, even if it;s a minor story arc. AGOT ends with Ned's conclusion, Dany and the dragons, Jon and the wildlings, Robb and his council, each major arc has some sort of conclusion. The same is true for ACOK and ASOS. AFFC and ADWD do not have that, mainly because of page constraints (and Martin having people all over his arse to finish the book after 6 years). So that's what I mean by just stopping. ADWD in particular simply builds towards events that never occur, and each storyline just stops right before major events with no resolution at all. Makes for a terrible narrative structure and a crappy book when taken by itself.

quote:

---

I disagree with the notion that any part of the books is terribly written, but it has been some time since I read them, so I may be remembering them with nostalgia. I do remember thinking, "Okay, who gives a shite? Move on" a couple times, but I feel that way about a lot of fiction, including Patrick Rothfuss, who tarries way too long on unimportant shite like sex nymphs.

---

I consider Rothfuss to have superb prose, but A Wise Man's Fear had major issues and terrible writing throughout many parts, with the nymphs part being one of the key parts, so that's kinda what I'm talking about with AFFC and ADWD as well.

If you seriously think Mereen was well written in ADWD though, I think you do have serious nostalgia going on. You'd definitely be in the minority on that one. That entire section of the book was merely about treading water until Victarion gets there, and it shows. It's all the more apparent simply due to how extremely well written the Reek parts are, the contrast is just crazy.

quote:

---

almost picked up Blood Song before I got my friend to get Lies for me. When I finish Lies I may try Blood Song, or I may get the next Locke Lamora book. Depends on how much I like Lamora and whether or not I can wait to see how the story continues.

---

Yeah I'm one of those guys that has to take a break from a series after plowing through a book.

If I could do it over again, I'd read Lies, Blood Song, Red Seas, Tower Lord, Republic of Thieves in that order.

Then I'd read Way of Shadows, the Black Company, Shadow's Edge, Shadows Linger, Beyond the Shadows, and the White Rose in that order.

quote:

---

Which is not to say Red Seas is bad, just that Blood Song is that good

---

That's good to hear. It had good reviews on Amazon, but the people who gave it one star REALLY hated the book.

quote:

---

Then I'd read Way of Shadows, the Black Company, Shadow's Edge, Shadows Linger, Beyond the Shadows, and the White Rose in that order.

---

Ahh, good ole Glen Cook. Keeping it real in fantasy before Martin made it popular. I wish he'd write another Black Company book, even though the last book ends almost perfectly.

quote:

---

I have a question, and if its too much of a spoiler don't answer. But the book makes mention of an alien race that inhabited Camorr before humans. Does the book(s) ever expound on this? I'm curious who these aliens were and what's up with the Elderglass they left behind

---

There is not, as yet, much an explanation as to where those Elderglass formations come from.

quote:

---

Darn

---

I think he'll get into it a little bit at some point.