frankie Posted May 31, 2014 Share Posted May 31, 2014 The Dirty Streets of Heaven - Tad Williams I really like the cover! And like you, the title alone got me interested Nice review, this is going on my wishlist! And I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the sequel, too, another series to read and enjoy Night Shift - Stephen King Synopsis Stephen King's first collection of short stories Review This was a real mixed bag, I know that will always be the case with short stories, some appeal, some don't. But it seemed even more so with this collection compared to his others. A lot of people say this is his best collection and contains all the 'classic' King's but I think he was still finding his style at this time. There are certainly some crackers in there: Graveyard Shift, The Mangler, Trucks, to name a few but there were also some instantly forgettable ones. There weren't any real stinkers but there were a few that were just 'meh'. Luckily they were short. Some great, some good, some mediocre but a nice variety of stories and styles that are great to dip into between novels. Overall 7/10 The Mangler! I've seen the movie, it's by far the crappiest King movie I've seen (and I've seen a few duds). I don't remember if I've read the short story or not... In the collection, was there a short story about a boy who was visiting his Grandma? I think I've read one of his short story collections as a kid, but I have no idea what the book was called and if I read all of the stories. I'd recommend King's novellas, too. Have you read any? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted May 31, 2014 Author Share Posted May 31, 2014 I don't remember a story about a boy and his Grandma but there well could have been. I read the book gradually over about 4 months. Yeah I have read most of the novellas, I think all of them except the Four Past Midnight collection. I do prefer them to the short stories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted May 31, 2014 Share Posted May 31, 2014 Not sure whether I will keep reading or not, I wouldn't mind having a crack at the sequel; Caliban's War. Must admit, I've had that for a while and have had no inclination to read it. In fact, I can't remember much at all about Leviathan Wakes now, so I guess it didn't have a lasting impact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted May 31, 2014 Share Posted May 31, 2014 Again I don't know how accurate it is but Loki was a pretty pathetic character, been caught almost straight away then begging for mercy before been let go and repeating it all over again. From what I've read of the Norse myths so far, that does seem to happen a lot, although I can't say Loki has come across as a pathetic character in them, just manipulative Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobblybear Posted June 1, 2014 Share Posted June 1, 2014 It's a shame Leviathan Wakes wasn't as good as the synopsis sounds. It sounds like it would be a great read from the description. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted June 1, 2014 Share Posted June 1, 2014 Great review of The Gospel of Loki, it's a shame you didn't enjoy it so much though . I hope your next read will be better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted June 1, 2014 Author Share Posted June 1, 2014 Must admit, I've had that for a while and have had no inclination to read it. In fact, I can't remember much at all about Leviathan Wakes now, so I guess it didn't have a lasting impact. That's a shame, but I'm not surprised to hear it. From what I've read of the Norse myths so far, that does seem to happen a lot, although I can't say Loki has come across as a pathetic character in them, just manipulative I understand him being manipulative and betraying people, he just came across as such a baby when it didn't work out It's a shame Leviathan Wakes wasn't as good as the synopsis sounds. It sounds like it would be a great read from the description. Yeah I had higher hopes for it but nevermind Great review of The Gospel of Loki, it's a shame you didn't enjoy it so much though . I hope your next read will be better. Thanks! Started the next Mallorean book and it is great so far Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 (edited) Thanks! Started the next Mallorean book and it is great so far That's great . Edited June 2, 2014 by Athena Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontalba Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 Leviathan Wakes - James S.A. Corey Synopsis Humanity has colonized the planets - interstellar travel is still beyond our reach, but the solar system has become a dense network of colonies. But there are tensions - the mineral-rich outer planets resent their dependence on Earth and Mars and the political and military clout they wield over the Belt and beyond.[/size]Now, when Captain Jim Holden's ice miner stumbles across a derelict, abandoned ship, he uncovers a secret that threatens to throw the entire system into war. Attacked by a stealth ship belonging to the Mars fleet, Holden must find a way to uncover the motives behind the attack, stop a war and find the truth behind a vast conspiracy that threatens the entire human race.[/size] Review I was looking forward to getting into a new space opera series, especially one that I knew would be on the lighter side than Peter F. Hamilton. James S.A. Corey is the pen name of Ty Frank and Daniel Abraham so I was interested to see how it would work, but I wasn't blown away by Abraham's The Dragon's Path. The novel follows two characters from their alternating points-of-view, Captain Holden and hard-boiled investigator Miller. It was not surprising to learn that each author wrote one view point then edited each others. I found I was enjoying Holden's chapters a lot more, the character seemed a lot more real and like-able. The story was OK but it went far too slow for the bulk of the story, I think it needed to be 100 pages shorter, or maybe they just needed to be stricter with their editing. It started off strong but then seems to deteriorate as it goes and I found myself caring less about the characters or the plot. But it wasn't all hopeless, there were hints at something bigger and better to come as well as a few great moments that really clawed my attention back again. Not sure whether I will keep reading or not, I wouldn't mind having a crack at the sequel; Caliban's War. But I will wait to see if it comes down in price at all. Overall 6/10 I've had this on the stack a long time. Been sort of on the fence about it though. Great review. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted June 13, 2014 Author Share Posted June 13, 2014 (edited) Finally moved house! It was a big ordeal but managed to hire, load, drive and unload the van all by ourselves Here's our new place: Now we have to clean our old place top to bottom and unpack everything! Gonna take a while, especially with all the books Not had much time for reading but did manage to finish Something More Than Night on audio book as well as the 2nd Mallorean book. Reviews will be along shortly Edited June 13, 2014 by Timstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 Your house looks very nice !! Good luck with cleaning and unpacking. I hope you'll post pictures of your book shelves when it's all done. I look forward to read your reviews, particularly the one on the second Mallorean book. I keep thinking I should give the series another chance, at the very least try to re-read the first book (I own the first book). Have fun exploring the neighbourhood too . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 Looks lovely, Tim, congrats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna Begins Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 Good wishes to you & your family in your new home! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted June 13, 2014 Author Share Posted June 13, 2014 Your house looks very nice !! Good luck with cleaning and unpacking. I hope you'll post pictures of your book shelves when it's all done. I look forward to read your reviews, particularly the one on the second Mallorean book. I keep thinking I should give the series another chance, at the very least try to re-read the first book (I own the first book). Have fun exploring the neighbourhood too . Looks lovely, Tim, congrats! Good wishes to you & your family in your new home! Thank you all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Signor Finzione Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 Congratulations on the successful move Tim! The house looks ace, and I'm glad everything went smoothly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobblybear Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 Looks nice, Tim. Congrats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted June 16, 2014 Author Share Posted June 16, 2014 (edited) Something More Than Night - Ian Tregillis (Audio book narrated by Scott Brick) Synopsis Raymond Chandler inspired murder mystery set in Thomas Aquinas’s vision of Heaven. It’s a noir detective story starring fallen angels, the heavenly choir, nightclub stigmatics, a priest with a dirty secret, a femme fatale, and the Voice of God. Somebody has murdered the angel Gabriel. Worse, the Jericho Trumpet has gone missing, putting Heaven on the brink of a truly cosmic crisis. But the twisty plot that unfolds from the murder investigation leads to something much bigger: a con job one billion years in the making.Because this is no mere murder. A small band of angels has decided to break out of heaven, but they need a human patsy to make their plan work Review What do you get if you take Bobby Dollar and put him in a Sin City-like noir world, add in some quantum mechanics and dash of ontological relativity? Something more than a normal novel that's for sure! After reading Tregillis' brilliant Milkweed Triptych I was intrigued to see what he would do next. Something More Than Night is a bizarre blend of theology and detective noir with language that reads like poetry much of the time. To give a great example here the first paragraph from the book: They murdered one of the Seraphim tonight.Gabriel streaked across the heavens like a tumbling meteor, his corpse a fireball of sublimated perfection. He had been a creature of peerless majesty, but now the throes of his death etched the firmament.His wings, all six, shed embers of incandescent grace as he skidded across the night sky. And when he opened his mouths to scream, the Earth could do naught but shudder. The roar of his lion’s visage registered a 5.2 on the Richter, six hundred miles east of Kyoto. The bellow of his ox’s muzzle roused a dormant volcano in Hawaii. The shriek of his eagle aspect crumbled chimneys in Seattle. The inaudible cry from his human face left people from Melbourne to Perth weeping in troubled slumber, dreaming of colors that no longer existed and sounds that hadn’t been heard since the Earth was just magma and poison. Meanwhile, turbulence roiled a cloud of dark matter sleeting through the solar system. I stayed outside, drawing smoke into my lungs until the final cinders of shattered Seraphim faded from the junkyard sky. I finished my cigarette while Gabriel’s final echoes dissipated. The light of a distant quasar twinkled with chromatic aberration as the fine-structure constant gave him a farewell salute from the twenty-first decimal place. After hearing that I knew I was in for a treat. We are then introduced to the two main characters, the fallen-angel-cum-private-investigator Bayliss and the recently deceased red headed Molly (aka Flame-top, monkey, gal, meat-bag etc..) both of whom are great vivid characters that play perfectly off each other. The noir language is laid on thick and heavy through Bayliss and Tregillis doesn't miss a trick to get some more in there at any opportunity. The theological concepts are also difficult to grasp at point... and I'm Christian! I won't go into what they are (or at least what I think they are) but they include: Pleroma, Magisterium, The Mantle of Ontological Consistency, Nephilim, The Voice of God and all the choirs of angels in their traditional form (I.e. four heads, six wings etc). I don't think the audio book was the best way to read this, there were many sentences where I needed to stop and take stock of what I just heard, understand it then apply it to the story. Because I couldn't do this I don't feel like I got the most out of it, so to me it felt like a bit of a mess as it was difficult to put the events into context. That's not to say I didn't enjoy what I did understand though. It's certainly not an easy read, but it is a rewarding one. A quick note on the narrator Scott Brick, I have only previously listened to one other of his narrations which was The Bourne Identity and I didn't get on with it particularly well but his monotonic and emotionless voice kind of works in a noir style story. But it's still not brilliant. I enjoyed it but got lost at certain points and I feel like I haven't grasped the full scope of the story. So my score probably doesn't accurately reflect the book. I think I will buy it in paperback when it's released and give it another go. Overall 7/10 Edited June 16, 2014 by Timstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 It sounds like an interesting story, it's a shame you felt you couldn't get the full picture, maybe it'll be better when you read it in paperback . I enjoyed reading the first paragraph, it's quite nicely written. I think I personally probably wouldn't get a lot of the Christian references, so it might not be for me, but it's great to read your review anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 Something More Than Night - Ian Tregillis (Audio book narrated by Scott Brick) Synopsis Raymond Chandler inspired murder mystery set in Thomas Aquinas’s vision of Heaven. It’s a noir detective story starring fallen angels, the heavenly choir, nightclub stigmatics, a priest with a dirty secret, a femme fatale, and the Voice of God. Somebody has murdered the angel Gabriel. Worse, the Jericho Trumpet has gone missing, putting Heaven on the brink of a truly cosmic crisis. But the twisty plot that unfolds from the murder investigation leads to something much bigger: a con job one billion years in the making. Because this is no mere murder. A small band of angels has decided to break out of heaven, but they need a human patsy to make their plan work Review What do you get if you take Bobby Dollar and put him in a Sin City-like noir world, add in some quantum mechanics and dash of ontological relativity? Something more than a normal novel that's for sure! After reading Tregillis' brilliant Milkweed Triptych I was intrigued to see what he would do next. Something More Than Night is a bizarre blend of theology and detective noir with language that reads like poetry much of the time. To give a great example here the first paragraph from the book: After hearing that I knew I was in for a treat. We are then introduced to the two main characters, the fallen-angel-cum-private-investigator Bayliss and the recently deceased red headed Molly (aka Flame-top, monkey, gal, meat-bag etc..) both of whom are great vivid characters that play perfectly off each other. The noir language is laid on thick and heavy through Bayliss and Tregillis doesn't miss a trick to get some more in there at any opportunity. The theological concepts are also difficult to grasp at point... and I'm Christian! I won't go into what they are (or at least what I think they are) but they include: Pleroma, Magisterium, The Mantle of Ontological Consistency, Nephilim, The Voice of God and all the choirs of angels in their traditional form (I.e. four heads, six wings etc). I don't think the audio book was the best way to read this, there were many sentences where I needed to stop and take stock of what I just heard, understand it then apply it to the story. Because I couldn't do this I don't feel like I got the most out of it, so to me it felt like a bit of a mess as it was difficult to put the events into context. That's not to say I didn't enjoy what I did understand though. It's certainly not an easy read, but it is a rewarding one. A quick note on the narrator Scott Brick, I have only previously listened to one other of his narrations which was The Bourne Identity and I didn't get on with it particularly well but his monotonic and emotionless voice kind of works in a noir style story. But it's still not brilliant. I enjoyed it but got lost at certain points and I feel like I haven't grasped the full scope of the story. So my score probably doesn't accurately reflect the book. I think I will buy it in paperback when it's released and give it another go. Overall 7/10 Can't wait to read this (although I will wait for the paperback, so I guess that's not true! ). Great review, Tim. Shame the audiobook spoiled it a little - another nail in that particular coffin as far as I'm concerned (not that it needed one!). Love the extract you included - I can almost hear the laconic drawl from here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted June 16, 2014 Author Share Posted June 16, 2014 Shame the audiobook spoiled it a little - another nail in that particular coffin as far as I'm concerned (not that it needed one!). I knew you would like that. Hopefully be released in paperback soon. It sounds like an interesting story, it's a shame you felt you couldn't get the full picture, maybe it'll be better when you read it in paperback . I enjoyed reading the first paragraph, it's quite nicely written. I think I personally probably wouldn't get a lot of the Christian references, so it might not be for me, but it's great to read your review anyway. They're not your average Sunday church references, so I think many people would struggle unless their familiar with Danté's or Aquinas' writings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 They're not your average Sunday church references, so I think many people would struggle unless their familiar with Danté's or Aquinas' writings. That makes sense. I'm not Christian so I don't go to church, I think most of them would be over my head. I've had lectures on what's in the Bible when I was in school but I don't know a lot of the detailed things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna Begins Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 I like the cover Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted June 16, 2014 Author Share Posted June 16, 2014 I like the cover It's great isn't it! It captures the essence of the book pretty well ...even has the obligatory GRRM praise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Signor Finzione Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 This sounds brilliant, Tim. Another one added to the wishlist! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted June 20, 2014 Author Share Posted June 20, 2014 I finished Wolf of the Plains - the first Conqueror book by Conn Iggulden. It was quite good, I love the story as it's a previously unexplored area for me but I think the characters and battles fell a little flat compared to what I'm used to with Cornwell. Iggulden was great at showing the personal struggles of the characters during the battle but I couldn't really get a feel for the overall scope and events as they unfolded within the battle itself. I will certainly be reading the next one (especially as I have already bought it) but it may be a case of borrowing the remainder if it doesn't grab me more, but I am eager to learn more Genghis Khan and I was impressed by the amount of research that must of gone into it. Overall 8/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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