Timstar Posted April 23, 2014 Author Share Posted April 23, 2014 (edited) We stayed in Bwlch-Llan, about half way between Lampeter and Aberystwyth, in a converted Church, it was pretty incredible! We had beautiful weather the first two and last days and a bit cloudy but still nice on the third. Saw some dolphins off the coast which I had no idea you could do, also went to the second largest castle in the UK - Caerphilly Edited April 24, 2014 by Timstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 Great review, Tim! I think I'll read Misspent Youth again once I've read the Commonwealth series, I might get more out of it then. I'm glad you enjoyed Misspent Youth . Those photos are beautiful! I'm glad you had a good time . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Signor Finzione Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 Wow, I had no idea you could see dolphins in Wales! Caerphilly castle looks awesome. (I bet you secretly walked around pretending you were in Game of Thrones? ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted April 25, 2014 Author Share Posted April 25, 2014 (I bet you secretly walked around pretending you were in Game of Thrones? ) No secret about it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobblybear Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Nice review of Misspent Youth. I shall add it to my wishlist. I'm reading Pandora's Star at the moment, so it will be interesting to see the connections between the two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted May 2, 2014 Author Share Posted May 2, 2014 The Ace of Skulls - Chris Wooding Synopsis As Vardia descends into chaos, Captain Frey is doing his best to keep his crew out of it. He's got his mind on other things, not least the fate of Trinica Dracken. But wars have a way of dragging people in, and sooner or later they're going to have to pick a side. It's a choice they'll be staking their lives on.Cities fall and daemons rise. Old secrets are uncovered and new threats revealed.When the smoke clears, who will be left standing? Review After the third book the author was unsure whether to make this an ongoing series or end it soon to focus on other work, loving the series so far I was hoping for the former but, alas, it was not to be. So here we have the final book of the exciting, swashbuckling, steam-punkish, fantasy-like, not-quite-SF but definitely hilarious series that is The Tales of the Ketty Jay. If the rest of the series could be compared to Firefly (which it often is) then the final book is definitely more akin to the film Serenity. It's bigger, it's longer, it's darker but still retains all the brilliant character interactions, humour and fun adventure that made the series so great. The action is frequent and sometimes complicated but Wooding does a great job or describing it that it never becomes 'messy'. The book is longer than the others but not longer than it needs to be, all the characters get the attention they deserve, with their stories coming to fantastic and realistic conclusions. As the characters had been so well set up in the previous novels Wooding was clearly able to have a lot of fun with them this time around with Pinn and the ships cat 'Slag' been my particular favourites. As I can't say it any better then the review I read on Wertzone I will just quote it here: "In terms of the story, we are again whisked across Vardia, from the capital city of Thesk to a vast, Mississippi-style delta and to exotic islands and back again. There are robberies, infiltrations of enemy bases and epic battles at snowcapped mountain villas. There are massive aerial engagements, dodgy mid-air boarding actions and, erm, fierce cat-to-mouse combat scenes deep in the bowels of aircraft. It's the sort of narrative that cries out for words such as 'romp' and 'fun'. As with its three forebears, The Ace of Skulls is a highly enjoyable action-adventure novel with some excellent characterisation. It's also resolutely not grimdark: whilst there are genuine moments of horror, ultimately the ending is positive and the series bows out on an emotional high." It is a shame that Wooding did decide to end it here, this was a series I was very much looking forward to following its progression through 10, 20 books! But at least we get a great ending to a great series with not a bad book in it. Which is more than you can say for many series. Overall 9/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 Great review ! I'm glad you enjoyed this book, it sounds pretty good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Signor Finzione Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 Great review of The Ace of Skulls, Tim - great to know the series ends on a high note. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted May 6, 2014 Author Share Posted May 6, 2014 (edited) Great review ! I'm glad you enjoyed this book, it sounds pretty good! Thanks, I'd highly recommend the series! Great review of The Ace of Skulls, Tim - great to know the series ends on a high note. :nod: I started and gave up on Ancillary Justice about 150 pages in. Characters were bland and emotionless, the story and the setting wasn't described well at all so I couldn't picture what was going on or where. I also finished Thunderball which was a good, solid Bond story. Edited May 6, 2014 by Timstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted May 6, 2014 Share Posted May 6, 2014 Ace Of Skulls sounds good Tim- the description reminds me of Jack Vance's Showboat World and the other stories set on Big Planet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Signor Finzione Posted May 7, 2014 Share Posted May 7, 2014 Hmm, I've been eyeing up Ancillary Justice for a while due to all the hype. Shame you didn't enjoy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted May 7, 2014 Share Posted May 7, 2014 Shame about Ancillary Justice. I shall give it a try at some point soon. Must get back to the Ketty Jay books at some point, no idea when, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted May 7, 2014 Author Share Posted May 7, 2014 Shame about Ancillary Justice. I shall give it a try at some point soon. Must get back to the Ketty Jay books at some point, no idea when, though. Shame about Ancillary Justice. I shall give it a try at some point soon. Must get back to the Ketty Jay books at some point, no idea when, though. Yeah I'd be interested to see what you guys make of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted May 8, 2014 Author Share Posted May 8, 2014 (edited) Happy Hour in Hell - Tad Williams (Audio book narrated by Tim Flavin) Review It's hard to give a synopsis here without spoilers for the first book. Happy Hour in Hell continues on from where The Dirty Streets of Heaven left off, but instead of Bobby Dollar getting caught up in events beyond his control, this time he is on a hell of a mission. Whereas most of the first book was set on Earth with several scenes in Heaven, you might've guessed that HHH is set mostly in hell. In order to make a story line set in hell, Williams needed to make a convincing, vivid setting, and he certainly achieves this. Much of the book is dedicated to describing the horrors of the infernal pit, some inspiration taking from religious doctrine, some from literature such as Danté but much from Williams' own imagination. And horrendous they are indeed, there is far too much foul, disgusting and horrible imagery for me to even begin to cover. But it wasn't simply gorey and graphic like a novelisation of the Saw films would be, Williams was much more clever than this and goes to great lengths to show what a bad place hell really is. Unlike he describes heaven as airy and mystical, hell is a much more tangible place with horrific sights, smells and torture. Although it's clearly aimed at older readers I wouldn't describe it as gritty and nasty in the same way Abercrombie is, but it certainly isn't PC. Around all this description is a nicely woven story that goes along at a fairly steady, if a little slow, pace. There are some brilliant and unforgettable characters such as Rip-Rash the evangelical ogre with an axe buried in his face who takes cargo up and down the river Styx on his tug-boat, lovingly named after his wife - 'The Nagging-Bi*ch'. and he's one of he friendlier creatures Bobby encounters. I didn't want to buy the big hardback or wait for the paperback to come out and my library didn't have any copies so I decided to get the audio book, the narration is pretty darn good. Great array of voices especially for the various creatures and daemons that have a far from normal human phenotype! Although I really enjoyed it the only thing that irritated me was there was a lot of 'summing-up' of the events that had led Bobby to whatever ridiculous situation he was and repeating again of all that he would have to achieve to get out of it and how impossible it sounded. I understand it being used occasionally to make sure the reader isn't lost in the complex mix of plot, description and ideas but it is done a few times too many. Other than that it is pretty great, can't wait to read the final book; Sleeping Late on Judgement Day. Overall 10/10 Edited May 8, 2014 by Timstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Signor Finzione Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 Great review Tim! I really like the sound of this series, and have had TDSoH on my wishlist since you reviewed it. Glad you're still enjoying the series so much! How long do you have to wait until the next one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted May 8, 2014 Author Share Posted May 8, 2014 Great review Tim! I really like the sound of this series, and have had TDSoH on my wishlist since you reviewed it. Glad you're still enjoying the series so much! How long do you have to wait until the next one? It's due out later this year I believe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted May 9, 2014 Share Posted May 9, 2014 Glad to hear you enjoyed it Tim. The first one will be staying on my wishlist until I've caught up with Dresden, though (which'll be in about five years or so ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 Great review, I'm glad you enjoyed the book . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted May 13, 2014 Author Share Posted May 13, 2014 (edited) Guardians of the West - David Eddings Review Continuing on 8 years after the events of The Belgariad, the first half the book is dedicated to catching up with all the characters and reminding us of the various locations around the world. Although the start of a new series, Guardians of the West feels like a continuation of the same story, and though it has been a while since I finished The Belgariad I found myself slipping easily back into Eddings' world and loving every minute of it. Eddings' has done well with his character development, to change them realistic-ly over the 8 years but still retain the same personality and mannerisms that made me love them in the first series. This especially applies to Ce'Nedra who is older, maturer and wiser but when a crisis arises she falls straight back into her old panic-y self. Silk is also as brilliant as ever but didn't have much to do in GotW. I still feel the same way about Garion, he is a little frustrating at times but I think that is Eddings' intention. When comparing something like this to the Wheel of Time it is clear to see how much benefit concision can bestow on this type of story, at less than half the length of the average WoT book it stills packs a lot more in whilst never feeling rushed and giving us relate-able, lovable characters at the same time. As it is the first in a new series as well as a continuation of an old story it was always going to be difficult setting it up, and personally would have liked it to have got going a bit sooner. But 200 pages isn't bad going at all, but I would highly recommend having read The Belgariad beforehand otherwise it will be a struggle. Once it did get going I was more hooked than Silk's nose Overall 9/10 Edited May 13, 2014 by Timstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Great review Tim! I have a lot of Eddings' books on my TBR. I'm glad you enjoyed Guardians of the West . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Totally agree about Ce'Nedra! It did take a while to get going, as I recall, but in the end I felt the series was a really good successor to The Belgariad. I remember it as being more of the same with a cast of characters I loved, which was exactly what I wanted at the time. I hope you keep enjoying it. Do you think you'll go on to read the Sparhawk trilogies? Too early to bring those up, probably, when you've only just started The Mallorean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted May 13, 2014 Author Share Posted May 13, 2014 Do you think you'll go on to read the Sparhawk trilogies? Very probably! but I still have the 'Belgariad related' books to read as well Great review Tim! I have a lot of Eddings' books on my TBR. I'm glad you enjoyed Guardians of the West . Thanks Gaia! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Very probably! but I still have the 'Belgariad related' books to read as well So do I Well, that's not strictly true, as I have read most of Belgarath the Sorcerer but then at some point I decided I wanted to do another re-read of 'The Belgariad' and 'The Mallorean' and then read Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress - and I've never got round to it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timstar Posted May 13, 2014 Author Share Posted May 13, 2014 (edited) So do I Well, that's not strictly true, as I have read most of Belgarath the Sorcerer but then at some point I decided I wanted to do another re-read of 'The Belgariad' and 'The Mallorean' and then read Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress - and I've never got round to it Haha that sounds familiar, you could do that instead of your Malazan re-read But have read The Elenium and Tamuli books? Edited May 13, 2014 by Timstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Haha that sounds familiar, you could do that instead of as well as your Malazan re-read Fixed! Mind you, I don't think either is likely to happen any time soon . . . But have read The Elenium and Tamuli books? Yes, I have. They pretty much follow the same sort of quest formula but they're great fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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