Signor Finzione

I'm not sure I like the idea of "living in perfect egalitarian squalor"; surely the real solution to the issue is 'compromise'? I also disagree completely with the sweeping statement at the beginning that "most men" are characterised by their "domestic disregard". This isn't true at all in my experience, and in the experience of most people I know. It's interesting how many different perspectives there are on so-called 'immanence', and whether housework should be considered a 'vice' for women. Personally I don't look forward to housework, but I don't mind doing it, because it's necessary and because you can take pride in the end result. As long as it's fairly balanced between whoever is in the house (and I do think that, if someone is at home all the time while their partner is at work, they do have a responsibility to do more around the house), then there's no good reason not to do it. Interesting article, Pontalba, and one that's sure to cause different reactions in different people. I stayed well out of range of the NYT comments page on this one!

Mmmmffffgglllmmmmffff. *unzips mouth* I can see why you wouldn't want to read the blurb - I guess they can be pretty spoilery, though usually I find this only applies to sequels. For myself I like to read the blurb AND an extract (preferably from a random page in the middle of the book) so that I know what I'm getting myself into. For example, I loved the sound of the blurb for Ursula leGuin's Earthsea Quartet, but didn't like the extract I read at all. Whereas with The Black Prism, I didn't like the Amazon extract, but what I'd read on the blurb and about the series itself made me want to give it a go. So I like a bit of both.

I was surprised too! No, though it's a good job I didn't post this on the Malazan forum.

Review: 'The Blinding Knife' by Brent Weeks Gavin Guile is dying. He thought he had five years left – now he’s got less than one. With fifty thousand refugees, a 'person of dubious parentage' son and an ex-fiancée who may have learned his darkest secret, Gavin’s got problems on every side. As he loses control, the world’s magic runs wild, threatening to destroy the Seven Satrapies. The old gods are being reborn and their army of colour wights is unstoppable. The only salvation may be the brother whose freedom and life Gavin stole sixteen years ago. Earlier this year The Blinding Knife beat King of Thorns and Red Country to win the Gemmell Legend award. Since Joe Abercrombie is one of my favourite authors and Mark Lawrence’s King of Thorns is one of the best books I’ve read in 2013, I expected big things from Brent Weeks’ fifth novel. And I’m pleased to say that he totally delivered them. The Blinding Knife is the second book in the Lightbringer series. It picks up where the first book, The Black Prism, left off, and seamlessly continues the story of Kip and company. Unlike a lot of second books, this one doesn’t use info-dumps to convey information from the first book, and it doesn’t feel like it’s stalling or just filling in the gap before the big finale. Just like the first book, it’s full of action and great characters, and there is always something happening that is both exciting and relevant to the plot. What I liked most about The Blinding Knife is that the characters continue to develop in interesting ways. My favourite character from the first books was Kip, and this book focuses a lot more on him, continuing what is essentially his coming-of-age story. Despite being the son of the most powerful man in the world, Kip has to constantly overcome obstacles: he’s fat, he’s illegitimate, he has little experience with using his magical talents, and he has enemies who are constantly working to use him to undermine his father. Weeks writes Kip’s character in a way that makes him likeable and strong and yet also very human, the end result being that we spend most of the book hissing at his enemies and cheering him on. The other characters are just as interesting. The Blinding Knife introduces us properly to the Prism’s father, Andross Guile, who harbours a mysterious secret and whose schemes run much deeper than anyone suspected. His slave Grinwoody is almost as villainous as he is (despite only featuring as a very marginal character), and the main ‘antagonist’ – The Colour Prince – is actually quite sympathetic, his reasons for what he does being quite logical. Other characters from the first book feature again as PoV characters, and undergo very interesting character arcs: the main one here is Liv, who is struggling with the conflict between what she has learned and what she had previously spent her whole life believing. I was a bit disappointed that Karris was somewhat side-lined in this book, but I suppose you can’t have everything. I’m not a huge fan of cliff-hanger endings, and The Blinding Knife leaves us on one hell of a cliff-hanger, but since the next book comes out next year I’m not too frustrated. I suppose. The writing is smooth and captivating, the action scenes are brilliant and well-written, the main characters are three-dimensional, and the unique magic system is becoming more and more interesting the more we learn about it. I was originally annoyed at this book for being voted as better than King of Thorns: I’ll now grudgingly admit that maybe, just maybe, it is. My rating: 5/5

Sorry, I assumed you'd read the summary before buying the book! *zips mouth shut*

Noooo, it just says about it being special on the Amazon summary. (Spoilers? Me?? )

Yeah, that could get confusing. I'm looking forward to getting/reading The Winter King seeing as both you and Steve gave it a perfect score.

Ah, no exceptions here then? Ooh, you'll have to do a 'Best of 2013' for all the magic swords you've read about this year.

I'd probably have to start again, since I've forgotten most of what happened. All I really remember is mad king George, the talking gargoyles, the dead soldiers, and the ships in the rain. Great to hear it has a good ending, though.

Glad you enjoyed it VF. I started reading JSAMN a few months ago, and while I really enjoyed it at first I ended up getting stuck about halfway through and just giving up. Perhaps I'll go back to it when the TV series gets made.

Aw, Devi, you should never apologise for this. Everyone here reads what's going on with you out of choice, and because they care. You can spill your guts out - that's what we're here for. I'm sorry you have such a hard time. I hope they find something very soon that will help you. Love and hugs!

Glad you enjoyed the McKillip book. Will you be reading the other one now?

That's hilarious. :lol: Reminds me of why I used to be a member of Malazan.

Quidditch through the Ages - JK Rowling

Nice! I have Retribution Falls on my Christmas list - it's good to know the series remains enjoyable as it goes on.

Ooh, I see what you did there. And wheelie bins! (Even on bin-collection day )

Well, they are very pretty.

I know it's proper MASSIVE, and it looks really odd on my shelf. But I got it back when I worked at The Works - it was £2.99, and I bought it last Christmas on the day staff get 50% discount. (God I miss that place ).

Have you seen Waterstones' response? http://www.waterstones.com/blog/2013/12/introducing-o-w-l-s/#more-15525 "Putting O.W.L.S. into commercial use will take a number of years as it takes ages to train owls to do anything and we only just thought of it this morning."

They're like those little parachute things in The Hunger Games.

Awesome! Nothing wrong with a huge TBR . . . A blog I read recently posted a Q&A thing for readers about favourites fantasy series/authors, and a few commenters said McKillip was one of the best authors they'd ever read. I've had The Red Knight sat on my shelf for about a year now. I'll read it when you do.

World War Z is a great book, hope you enjoy it.

Or K'arris. Thanks! Yeah, I've heard the second book is brilliant. So far, so good! Most people rate the Night Angel trilogy really highly too, though, so maybe you'd enjoy that more than I did.

We used to have one on campus at Salford Uni, but that's gone now too. Welcome, though!

Did the extended version include a scene where James Nesbitt turns to the camera and says with a wink: 'That's why dwarves use Fairy'? In the bog-standard version of the film I think ol' Barry sings a little song about torture, but that's it as far as I can remember. The only others were the dwarves' misty mountains song (which I love!) and yeah, the washing up one. Blunt the knives, bend the forks, smash the bottles and burn the corks . . . Yeah, I've watched it far too many times.