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Everything posted by Karsa Orlong
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Vikings 3x01. My first experience with streaming anything directly to the tv. Quite impressed with the quality.
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Oh hell, yes! It's a fantastic trilogy, and the only one I've read that's come close to SE in terms of style and content. The first book is great, the second book is one of the best fantasy novels I've read to date, and the third . . . Well the third fell victim to my usual 'bit of a let-down after the brilliance of the middle novel' syndrome, but I suspect that was more down to me trying to rush through it and getting a bit of author 'burn-out' than a problem with the book itself. I should've left a bit more time between reading each one, but I was enjoying it so much . . . I reviewed them a couple of years ago: The Darkness that Comes Before The Warrior Prophet The Thousandfold thought
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Soggy, gravy-soaked chips are wrong on every level as far as I'm concerned. Eww.
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Stop it!
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Well this is annoying http://thewertzone.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/scott-bakkers-unholy-consult-delayed.html I've been waiting for the last book to be published before starting the second trilogy
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Ray Donovan 3x01 & 3x02 - oh dear Lord, those characters are seriously messed up Defiance 3x05. Crikey
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Where's the review of Desolation Island? Did I miss it??
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You're not alone, Michelle! I found last year that my enjoyment of some books was being greatly affected by the first point - by my refusal to give up on books - and especially by the pressure I was putting on myself to reduce my TBR list. The latter was driving me to distraction, and it ended up in a situation where I was forcing myself to read books that I may have been really keen on when I bought them, but then found I'd lost interest in completely. I'd be reading them, constantly checking how much I had left to read, not concentrating on them because I was already deciding what to read next, and generally rushing to finish books and ruining whatever chance I may have had of enjoying them in the first place. Also, I found keeping a count of how many books I'd read in the year, and always trying to keep up with or beat the previous year's total was another self-imposed pressure that I didn't need, as was giving scores with reviews. I didn't include a TBR list in my reading log this year. Seeing that list written down and constantly fluctuating, inevitably with an upwards trend, was adversely affecting my pleasure in reading. Not having it there staring at me this year has been such a relief. I have no idea how many unread books I now own, and I'm not bothered by it. I have no idea how many books I've read so far this year, either. I'll read what I want to read, when I want to read it. If I see a book I want, I'll buy it (the Kindle Daily/Monthly Deals have seen a lot of me this year!). Undoubtedly, some of them will never get read by me. Oh well. The upshot is that I'm not rushing to finish books so much. I'll get there when I get there. I'm feeling much more relaxed about reading now. I hope you can find that sweet spot, too!
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I happened to see a few minutes of Sharknado 3 last night, and was fortunate enough to see George RR Martin get what's been coming to him for a while now https://twitter.com/SharknadoSyfy/status/624038134116974593
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Kind offer, but nah, it's okay thanks If I do read any more of them I'll get 'em on Kindle Yeah, it is the Underdark. It really needed more atmosphere. The book I'm reading now is set in the Arctic Circle and it's making me feel so cold because it's so well described. Homeland should've had the same effect with the darkness, imo
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I read three or four of his books back then: The Satan Bug, When Eight Bells Toll, Where Eagles Dare and I'm sure there was another one, too, but I can't remember which one Anyway, I'm enjoying HMS Ulysses a lot. It's making me feel very cold! I may just have bought the first couple of Winston Graham's Poldark books in today's Daily Deal.
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Okay, I'd never heard these guys until half an hour ago, but I'm sold
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I might have . . . Something completely different next: making a start on Alistair MacLean's HMS Ulysses. Haven't read one of his books in . . . well, probably not since the early 80s
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I felt much the same way as you about Before I Go To Sleep - I found the writing style very uninvolving and a bit stilted, I seem to remember. I couldn't relate to any of the characters, and the plot - such as it was - was very predictable. I think, for me anyway, all the hype worked against it.
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My reading has been quite sporadic over the past couple of weeks, as you can imagine. I've read a couple of books but I'm not going to write proper reviews of them. They were: Savage Run (Joe Pickett Book #2) by C. J. Box In Savage Run—C.J. Box's acclaimed follow-up to his career-making debut Open Season—game warden Joe Pickett looks into the bizarre death of an environmental activist...and what he finds is bigger and far more sinister than anything he imagined. This is the third of Box's novels that I have read. They've all been enjoyable, easy reads, so this one was great to take on holiday because it was easy to pick up and put down and not have to remember the details of a particularly complicated plot. I like Joe Pickett as a character because he's far from infallible - he can't even shoot straight So when he gets in dangerous situations, as he inevitably does, I'm never quite sure how he's going to get out of it. There was a reasonable build-up of tension in this one, although I found the ultimate solution somewhat anti-climactic in an 'oh, is that it?' kind of way. There are some good supporting characters, too. It also has one of my favourite openings ever, just because it's bonkers: "On the third day of their honeymoon, infamous environmental activist Stewie Woods and his new bride, Annabel Bellotti, were spiking trees in the forest when a cow exploded and blew them up. Until then, their marriage had been happy." Say what, now? The next book was: Homeland (The Legend of Drizzt Book #1) by R. A. Salvatore In exotic Menzoberranzan, the vast city of the drow is home to Icewind Dale prince Drizzt Do'Urden, who grows to maturity in the vile world of his dark elf kin. Possessing honor beyond the scope of his unprincipled society, can he live in world that rejects integrity? I don't know what made me read this. Okay, I do. I was in Indigo, a bookshop in a shopping mall somewhere outside Calgary, and really wanted to buy something. I'd picked up the one Vernor Vinge novel I have left to read, Rainbows End, and my idea was that I was only going to buy a book that was a) difficult to get hold of at home in the UK, and b ) not available on Kindle. I failed, because it turns out this entire series is on Kindle , but I've long been kind of curious about this Salvatore chap because his books always seem to be highly rated. So I picked it up and read the first page and kind of liked what I read. Reading books set in worlds created within a game universe isn't something particularly new to me. Erikson and Esslemont created their world using just such a method. The difference is that they created their world from scratch, whereas it appears that Salvatore has been given a mission, by the publishers, to write within pre-existing parameters. So here we have elves, dark elves, various types of dwarf, goblins, giant spiders etc etc etc. It's all been done before, and better. What managed to pull me through it was the darkness. This is a really dark story, where even the central family, the Do'Urdens, are intent on assassinating each other to move up the greasy ladder of power. Drizzt himself - the third son - only survives his birth because . . . well, that would be spoiling! It's a nasty, dangerous world that Drizzt comes into. And, naturally, he develops a conscience, and wants to forge a new way. His character, and his relationship with a mystical, otherwordly panther called Guenhwyvar, are what make the novel just about rise above the mundane. The other intriguing aspect is that these are Dark Elves, or drows, who live in a subterranean city. I liked the idea, but the execution didn't really create the atmosphere I was hoping for. I wanted to feel the shadows and the walls closing in on all sides. I'd read a review that said this does indeed happen, but I didn't feel it. Strangely, after finishing it, I've found I'm kind of missing the world. Will I go back for more? I doubt it, but you never know.
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That looks interesting. £1.79 on Kindle. Hmmm . . .
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Thanks Janet I hope you do get to go - great scenery, and the people are so friendly! Oh, and you've got to try poutine, cos I was too scared to
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That's far too polite
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Yeah, I thought that, too. Still seems bonkers to me that they were keeping those things secret in the first place, though
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Stunning Is it really a week ago already? This guy must've been standing just a couple of rows below me, cos it's almost exactly the view we had. ETA: On another note, I don't understand how anyone can go to see a band and stand there not moving at all. I just don't get it I was rocking my socks off all the way through, I've never waved my arms around and punched the air so much in my life
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My Sky box managed to fail whilst I was on holiday, so thank heavens for On Demand Catching up on Wayward Pines, up to ep 8. It's getting dumber and dumber Defiance 3x03. And this show is getting better and better
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If you have to ask . . .
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I don't think you know what a spoiler is!