Signor Finzione

Wow, pal, spoiler alert!!

Hi Alanna, nice to meet you! It's easy to get addicted to those boxsets, isn't it? I find that Netflix has had a terrible influence on my TV-watching time. I've never heard of Castle, but my latest obsession is 24. Anyway, welcome to the forum! Hope you have fun here.

Oops . . . I acquired more books. The Works have a whole bunch of fantasy and SF on their website, and I managed to order 23 books for £35! Some of them arrived today - here's a picture: The rest should be arriving next week! I also received another book today: a free review copy of The Violent Century from Hodder. Here's a picture: And the synopsis from Amazon: For seventy years they guarded the British Empire. Oblivion and Fogg, inseparable friends, bound together by a shared fate. Until one night in Berlin, in the aftermath of the Second World War, and a secret that tore them apart. But there must always be an account...and the past has a habit of catching up to the present. Now, recalled to the Retirement Bureau from which no one can retire, Fogg and Oblivion must face up to a past of terrible war and unacknowledged heroism - a life of dusty corridors and secret rooms, of furtive meetings and blood-stained fields - to answer one last, impossible question: What makes a hero? It looks interesting, to say the least!

The Empire trilogy by Raymond E Feist. The main character, Mara of the Acoma, inherits power after the death of her father and brother and the near-destruction of their entire house. She must enter the male-dominated world of political intrigue, inter-house wars, assassinations and honour killings in order to try and re-build the Acoma. It's awesome.

So sorry to hear about this Devs. I really hope they manage to pinpoint what it is so they can fix it. Hopefully your calcium levels are okay and the injections will help.

I thought maybe it had been hidden by all your Robin Hobb books.

Hear, hear! Everyone has different tastes, and would do well to step back and respect those of others. Though, as Frankie says . . . haters gonna hate.

Acquired a few more books today. I ordered the following off Amazon with my monthly pay-day book spends, and they arrived today: I'm very excited to read both of them. I also happened to pop into The Works on my way home this afternoon and came out with these, all three for £5: I've never read them before but have heard good things from other people, so am looking forward to eventually reading these too!

Thank you BB.

Oh I'm so jealous!! I have mine on pre-order but don't think it's due to arrive until Monday. Happy watching!

Great review of Pet Semetary BB! I first read this when I was about 12 (at my dad's recommendation, shame on him!) and had nightmares for about a month. Totally agree about how it's hard to read yet even harder to put down.

Thank you! Yes, it's quite a bit shorter than the books I normally read, and being off work always helps my reading speed.

Review: 'Lexicon' by Max Barry Sticks and stones break bones . . . Words kill. Two years ago, something terrible was unleashed in an Australian mining town called Broken Hill. Thousands died. Few people know what really happened. Emily Ruff is one of them. She belongs to an elite organisation of 'poets': masters of manipulation who use language to warp others to their will. She was one of their most promising recruits - until she made a catastrophic mistake. Wil Parke knows the truth too, only he doesn't remember it. And he doesn't know why he's immune to the poets' powers. But he knows he needs to run. There's a word, they say. It shouldn't have got out. But it did. And they want it back... Let me start by saying that this novel has one of the most striking beginnings I’ve read in a long time. It’s horrifying and intriguing and fascinating all at the same time, and it dragged me in to the story immediately. As soon as I read page one I expected big and exciting things from Lexicon; and, for the most part, it did a great job in delivering them. Lexicon is a bit of a mixed bag genre-wise: the general set-up and pacing marks it out as a thriller, but there are elements of dystopia and SF in there as well. I don’t often read thrillers, but I found that the plot here – namely the idea of a secret society of ‘poets’ using language to manipulate others – kept me hooked. The pacing is great, the characters are likeable enough, and the setting (the Australian desert) is vivid and easily imagined. I also thought it clever how the author inserted fictional excerpts such as blog posts, emails and news articles, in between chapters: it really makes the idea of language manipulation within everyday society worryingly relevant. The main point of the story is that a ‘bareword’ – a word so powerful that it overrides all impulses and counter-acts the poets’ regular manipulations of language – is stolen from the society, where it is then used to devastating effect against an entire town of people. Much of the novel flits about in time between the two central protagonists: their stories eventually begin to converge until we finally uncover the mystery of what really happened at Broken Hill. The writer does a good job of building momentum throughout (although it does seem to stall a little, particularly at a point near the end where the story is drawn out into a needless final act). I also would have liked more details of the ‘magic’ words themselves, how they came to be found, and how the poets managed to acquire this particular word. The story suggests that a new ‘bareword’ is found roughly once every 800 years or so, and that the poets go hunting for them in areas of archaeological or geological significance. Since the words themselves supposedly originate with the Bible I think more historical details about how they were first acquired and used would have given the story an extra dimension. Still, I had a lot of fun reading Lexicon, which is Max Barry’s fifth novel. I’ll definitely be checking out others by him in the future. 4/5

I actually finished it yesterday (I'm off work with flu and didn't have much else to do). I really enjoyed it - I'll post my review shortly. How are you finding it? This has happened to me before as well.

Oh, I don't know, we could be waiting a while. I remember I read the excerpt from Dance with Dragons when he first posted it, years ago. When I finally got to read the book I got really confused at that point and wondered why I felt like I'd read it before. Thanks for the heads-up on this! Can't wait to go and look.

I totally agree. The pacing was great, although I do actually wish there had been more of their Order days in there. The scenes focusing on their friendship, such as during lessons and whilst telling stories in the dormitory, reminded me of Harry Potter, which I loved.

That comment of his makes me laugh, though, since his name also seems to be on the front of about 50% of that 'sea of zircons'.

I'm looking forward to seeing what it's like - I'm not even sure why I bought it the other week, as there are other books I wanted more, but something about it just seemed to grab me. (Maybe because 'Briar King' reminded me of 'King of Thorns'? ) Thanks. I haven't enjoyed a book that much since reading The Name of the Wind last year!

Oh, I hope you have chance to read Going Postal at some point. It's one of the funniest of his I've read so far. Good to know you didn't get lost in book #3! I think he keeps posting chapters from the fourth book on his website, but obviously I haven't gone anywhere near it for fear of spoilers. It's so pretty!

Review: 'Blood Song' by Anthony Ryan Vaelin Al Sorna's life changes forever the day his father abandons him at the gates of the Sixth Order, a secretive military arm of the Faith. Together with his fellow initiates, Vaelin undertakes a brutal training regime - where the price of failure is often death. Under the tutelage of the Order's masters, he learns how to forge a blade, survive the wilds and kill a man quickly and quietly. Now his new skills will be put to the test. War is coming. Vaelin is the Sixth Order's deadliest weapon and the Realm's only hope. He must draw upon the very essence of his strength and cunning if he is to survive the coming conflict. Yet as the world teeters on the edge of chaos, Vaelin will learn that the truth can cut deeper than any sword. Wow. I opened this book prepared to be disappointed: I knew it had received literally thousands of perfect scores on Amazon and Goodreads, and was somehow convinced that it couldn’t actually be that good. But . . . it really is. Wow. Blood Song is the first instalment in Anthony Ryan’s Raven’s Shadow series (the second book, Tower Lord, is out later this year), and it’s simply a stunning start to what will undoubtedly be an amazing series. The world and its mythology are vividly established, the story is exciting and, most importantly, the characters are impeccably introduced and developed. The main group of characters, the Order brothers, are almost as awesome as Scott Lynch’s Gentleman B@stards, and the main character, Vaelin, is now firmly established in my Top 10 Favourite Fantasy Protagonists (somewhere between Kvothe and Jorg). One of the main things I loved about the story was how it was entirely focused on one POV: that of Vaelin, abandoned as a child at the gates of a monastery by his father. Blood Song follows Vaelin’s journey as he and his new-found ‘brothers’ are trained and initiated into the order of battle-priests, where they are forced to undergo rigorous and dangerous tests of survival and skill. The rivalries and camaraderie between the boys is continually a joy to read, and I loved watching them develop as a group throughout years of training, during which their loyalty is tested as they confront dark plots and assassination attempts against their Order, and each endure personal trials of their own. The characters develop brilliantly, the battles are fantastically plotted and exciting, and the gradual reveal of the underlying plot is spectacular. The main story itself is framed by another narrative, written in first person from the POV of the man to whom Vaelin is narrating his story. This reminded me very strongly of Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicles, which is by no means a bad thing: as with Rothfuss, the switches are infrequent enough to not be annoying, and serve to show us more about Vaelin while also teasing us with hints about things we have yet to learn about. The ending – which came around far too soon despite the book’s 728 pages – is a perfect balance of resolution and cliffhanger, and I can’t wait for the release of Tower Lord later this year. 5/5

Hasn't it been pushed back once already? I'll definitely wait a while before I even start on Forge of Darkness! What do you have planned for June/July? I'm guessing . . . Abercrombie, Lawrence and Ryan? What else?

I'm not saying your opinion isn't valid; just that others might find it annoying when you enter threads just for the sake of utterly dismissing the books they're discussing.

I'm really glad to hear you enjoyed them all. I wasn't overly keen on The Colour of Magic or the Light Fantastic, but I did really love Hogfather, Going Postal, The Truth and Night Watch. I'm a huge fan of the Witches too - Nanny Ogg is adorable - and Death is so sweet in Hogfather! Guards! Guards! is actually next on my Discworld reading list, and I really want to read the new(ish) one Raising Steam. I'd love to buy them all and do a Big Pratchett Read, but wouldn't be able to decide whether to read them in publication order or in the 'groupings'. I remember loving the magic too, the Wards and the demons in the first book were a lot of fun. I do hope to read all three of them at some point this/next year, though am not sure whether to wait until the new one has been released . . . That would definitely expand your wishlist in a huge way!

Good to hear it! I've tried reading on a Kindle, and although it's handy and I do actually seem to read quicker . . . it's just not the same.

Perhaps you could reserve the right to not post needlessly negative and/or dismissive comments about how you dislike the subject of the thread in a way that doesn't contribute positively to the discussion? There are plenty of books I don't like. Why would I waste my time telling people how much I dislike them when I can spend that time more productively discussing things I do like?