Please help me in wishing my co-host Amit a happy birthday today and here’s hoping that it’s a great year.
*Come on JordanCon invite us (all expenses paid of course) to JordanCon as a birthday gift for Amit*
Happy happy
Posted in Announcement.
– January 21, 2010
What I read in 2009
Or rather what I added to my librarything in 2009. Im going to try and do a couple of sentences on each book. These aren’t reviews so much as impressions I have of the books in question. I don’t remember plot points of a lot of the books so a review wouldn’t be right. The ratings are also based on how memorable I thought the book was.
1. Chronicles of the Black Company by Glenn Cook
Omnibus of 3 novels. Military fantasy. Really cool characters.
7/10
2. The Blade Itself (The First Law: Book One) by Joe Abercrombie
Book one of Joe Abercrombies excellent series. Dark, Gritty. Loren Ninefingers is a memorable character. Hes more brutal than al’Lan Mandragoran or Roland of Gilead, but hes also funnier. Pretty Badass character.
8/10
3. Before They Are Hanged (The First Law: Book Two) by Joe Abercrombie
Book Two of Joe Abercombies series. I enjoyed this one just as much as the first. Its hard to believe I was sympathizing with these characters as nasty as they were.
8/10
4. Last Argument of Kings (First Law: Book Three) by Joe Abercrombie
This dissapointed me. I didnt like how the series ended at all. I did not like what the wizard turned out to be. I did not like the very cynical ending.Im astonished at how many people thought this was the best book of the series. I thought it was by far the most disappointing.
6/10
5. Neuromancer by William Gibson
Is there really anything left to be said about this visionary book? Its not really my genre but still an excellent book.
8/10
6. Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
This is one of the most imaginative magic systems I have ever read. Brandon Sanderson does that so well, between Mistborn, Elantris and Warbreaker he has given us three unique systems that are comprehensive. Thats an amazing accomplishment.
9/10
7. Wolfblade (The Hythrun Chronicles: Wolfblade Trilogy, Book 1) by Jennifer Fallon
Jennifer Fallon is the best author I came across in 2009 that I hadnt read before. I ripped through the Wolfblade series. This one is the story of young Marla Wolfblade, the Princes sister, and how she holds her family and country together.
9/10
8. Something from the Nightside (Nightside, Book 1) by Simon Green
An urban fantasy noir. There is an alternate reality London and our hero needs to save someone who was kidnapped. I remember the book as funny and interesting enough that I got the second one. But I never got to reading the second book.
6.5/10
9. The Night Watch (Watch, Book 1) by Sergei Lukyanenko
Another Urban Fantasy, I really enjoyed this book, the idea of the Night Watch and the Day Watch and what Twilight meant.
8.5/10
10. The Novice (The Black Magician Trilogy, Book 2) by Trudi Canavan
Second book of the series. Deals with how an orphan girl deals with going to magical school. If it sounds a little like Hary Potter thats cause it is. I enjoyed it but it wasnt the most original book I had ever read.
7/10
11. The High Lord (The Black Magician Trilogy, Book 3) by Trudi Canavan
A vast improvement on the derivative previous book of the series.We get out of the schooland the city for that matter and start getting into the more interesting back story of Akkarin, and why he has Sonea learning what she is.
8.5/10
12. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
What a book! Seriously read this now if you havent yet. Its one of the most imaginative fantasy books Ive read. The hero is discovered one morning with a Leprosy type disease that has magical roots. He is dumped inside an abandoned city/fortress with others like him. And it takes off from there.
9.5/10
13. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
I thought Eragon was a good but flawed book. Yeah it had similarities with Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and Dragon Rider and Wizard of Earthsea and any number of classics. But it worked. The second book did not. And this one is a steaming pile of crap. I cant believe I actually finished it. I honestly dont know if I will finish this when the last book comes out. I probably will but not because I want to but because I have a niece and a nephew who are big fans and I would want to be able to talk about the book with them.
3/10
14. The Way of Shadows (The Night Angel Trilogy) by Brent Weeks
Excellent Trilogy from a new author. I thought it was an interesting idea to have the first 3 books available one after the other in the course of a few months. They also had a crazy ebook sale where I wound up buying the first ebook for something like $2. Its not a book for kids there are some seriously disturbing themes, but the action sequences in the book are incredible.
8.5/10
15. Shadow’s Edge (Night Angel Trilogy, Book 2) by Brent Weeks
Second book of the trilogy which introduced us to Kylar Stern and Durzo Blint. The world expands quite a bit in this book. Not as good as the first but still pretty damn good.
7.5/10
16. Beyond the Shadows (The Night Angel Trilogy) by Brent Weeks
Spectacular end to a very good series. Brent Weeks does a great job expanding on the Universe he created. Very satisfying Epic Trilogy.
9/10
17. Warrior (The Hythrun Chronicles: Wolfblade Trilogy, Book 2) by Jennifer Fallon
Another strong book by Jennifer Fallon. Here we meet Damin Wolfblade, Marlas son and Crown Prince of the land. Very fun book, Damin is an awesome character.
8.5/10
18. Warlord: Book Six of the Hythrun Chronicles by Jennifer Fallon
Last book of the Wolfblade trilogy and it does not dissapoint.Damin grows up and kicks all kinds of ass.
8.5/10
19. Medalon (The Hythrun Chronicles: Demon Child Trilogy, Book 1)
Another Trilogy from Jennifer Fallon. A fun romp with politics, war gods and all the rest you would expect. A minor quibble is that there are some continuity issues between the Woflbalde Trilogy and the previous Demon Child trilogy. Nt too surprising considering the Wolfblade trilogy takes place before the Demon Child one even though it was written later, but there are some spots where you go hmm… thats not right.
8.5/10
20. Treason Keep (The Hythrun Chronicles: Demon Child Trilogy, Book 2)
Second book and things really start moving here. Damin Wolfblade is back from the Woldblade trilogy. Also assuming a lot of importance in this book is the daughter of Hablet Adina.
9/10
21. Harshini (The Hythrun Chronicles: Demon Child Trilogy, Book 3)
The weakest of the Jennifer Fallon books I read this year. It wasnt bad per se, it just focussed on wrapping things up. There wasnt that much that was surprising here, which is not what Fallons style is.
7.5/10
22. The Lion of Senet (The Second Sons Trilogy, Book 1)
23. Eye of the Labyrinth (The Second Sons Trilogy, Book 2)
24. Lord of the Shadows (The Second Sons Trilogy, Book 3)
This is Jennifer Fallons best trilogy. What an outstanding cast of characters. The trilogy as a whole deals with the Second Sons of (mostly)Noble houses and the pains they go through to make their mark on the world. I dont think there is even a little magic in this book so if thats how you define fantasy you wont be happy. What we do get is an incredible world and an incredible story with memorable characters and some truly badass moments.
9/10
Ok. So thats about halfway there. I’ll get the rest up in the next few days.
Posted in Review.
– December 29, 2009
The Gathering Storm Review – Part 1: Characters
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So it took us long enough eh?
We actually recorded this almost 3 weeks ago, but almost at the end Marco had the power go out at his place, and we couldn’t get the last few mins done over the next 2 weeks. Finally decided lets cut it and post it(not like it isnt long enough as our first 60 min plus podcast) and we’ll cover whats left later.
So what do we cover? We decided to break the review into 2 parts. The first is going to give you our thoughts on various characters and how their story arcs progressed(Rand, Egwene) or didnt(Perrin, Mat), and in one notable case finally progressed but the progress didnt do anything to make the character less of an ass.
We discuss Rand, Egwene, Verin, The Rebel Aes Sedai, Siuan and Gareth Bryne, Mat and his group, Perrin and his group, Aviendha, Cadsuane, Nynaeve, Rands generals. We also discuss absent characters like Elayne, Lan, and Padan Fain.
It should be obvious but we spoil The Gathering Storm in every possible way we could think of, so please dont listen if you havent read.
Anyway drop us a comment, really love reading those.
Posted in Podcast.
– December 10, 2009
Review: Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
Contrary to my own rantings I do in fact read other things than WoT. So I decided to take a page out of Amit’s book…hurhurhur…ah…and do a review of a book I recently read (I actually read this while waiting for my tGS to be delivered).
What the jacket says:
“Springtime in Styria. And that means war.
There have been nineteen years of blood. The ruthless Grand Duke Orso is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling League of Eight, and between them they have bled the land white. While armies march, heads roll, and cities burn, behind the scenes bankers, priests and older, darker powers play a deadly game to choose who will be king.
War may be hell, but for Monza Murcatto, the Snake of Talins, the most feared and famous mercenary in Duke Orso’s employ, it’s a damn good way of making money too. Her victories have made her popular – a shade too popular for her employers taste. Betrayed, thrown down a mountain and left for dead, Murcatto’s reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance. Whatever the cost, seven men must die.
Her allies include Styria’s least reliable drunkard, Styria’s most treacherous poisoner, a mass-murderer obsessed with numbers and a barbarian who just wants to do the right thing. Her enemies number the better half of the nation. And that’s all before the most dangerous man in the world is dispatched to hunt her down and finish the job Duke Orso started…
Springtime in Styria. And that means revenge.”
What it’s about: The story is about revenge. Plain and simple. It’s brutal and bloody with one or two funny bits, but overall pretty serious. It reads easily, I’ll give the book that and though it was tagged as fantasy – there is very little fantasy in the story. There is also no underlying – big picture – plot. The entire story revolves around Monza’s quest for vengeance. Towards the end of the book I got bored with it, though I wanted to see the ending.The writing is not bad at all and there is certainly potential to take the world created here further and to enrich and colour the story of Styria.
Rating: It’s not a bad story and if you are in the mood for some gore and a relatively mindless afternoon of fun then I’d recommend it. Be warned though: the characters were a bit 2d for me with little to no real development in any of them.
What’s better: If you want blood and gore and vengeance the Malazan Book of the Fallen is probably your best bet.
Re-read: I won’t re-read this book any time soon if ever.
Posted in Review.
– December 8, 2009
Review of The Gathering Storm -Amit
After a discussion with Marco where it became clear that we weren’t going to be able to record something soon we thought we should at least write up some thoughts.
Here goes:
Like many many others I was a little apprehensive about this book coming out. I’m a huge Robert Jordan fan and I like Brandon Sanderson quite a bit too, but was a little uneasy with how the styles would mix. I am glad to say that my fears were unfounded. Sanderson mentions at the start of the book how he isn’t going to try and imitate RJ, but rather tell the story of RJs characters in his own voice. He succeeds. Despite some quibbles this was an extremely satisfying volume of the Wheel of Time.
Click through for a fuller plot review that includes spoilers for The Gathering Storm
Posted in Review.
– November 2, 2009
Review of The Gathering Storm – Marco
Please note that is a review of my thoughts on the Gathering Storm and as such it will be filled with spoilers for those of you who haven’t had a chance to get through it. So please refrain from reading this until you have completed what is to my mind one of the top 5 books in the series.
Posted in Review.
– November 2, 2009
Episode 10: Preview of the Gathering Storm Part 2
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In this episode we discuss what we want to see happen in the last books of the Wheel of Time. Marco and I first met discussing Wheel of Time on the Hall of Servants group on librarything.com . One of the discussions we had there when Brandon Sanderson was announced as the author who would complete the series was a discussion on what we thought would happen in the last book. We decided to revisit that discussion and see how are thoughts have evolved in the year since we had that discussion and What the fact that we will have 3 books instead of one did to our predictions.
If anyone wants to check out the original:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/45319
Posted in Podcast.
– October 16, 2009
Episode 9: Preview of the Gathering Storm Part 1
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We decided to break from our favourite moments in Wheel of Time Series to bring you a discussion of what we thought of the pre release content we got for The Gathering Storm. We discuss the Prologue and Chapters 1 and 2 in detail so if you dont want to get spoiled, this would be an episode to skip for now.
Part 2 which will be spoiler free is a discussion of what we are anticipating in The Gathering Storm, and I’m hoping we can get that up by the end of the week.
Posted in Podcast.
– October 12, 2009
Episode 8: Favorite Scenes from The Fires of Heaven and Lord of Chaos
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Got the next two books up and this is a long one. We get into the emergence of Matts awesomeness, my hatred of Luca Valan, the climactic scenes of every book and much much more. I think this might be one of our more intense discussions, we actually disagreed on something!
Also there is a question towards the end of the episode about the Maidens and whats happening with them towards the end of Lord of Chaos on the march to The Wells. I’d appreciate it if we could get some audience feedback on what is going on between Nandera and Sulin at that time.
Posted in Podcast.
– September 30, 2009
Episode 7: Favorite Scenes from The Dragon Reborn and The Shadow Rising
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
We discussed some of our favorite scenes from The Dragon Reborn and The Shadow Rising. The Shadow Rising is the favorite WOT book of Marco and myself, so we really get into it.
As always feedback is appreciated. Here are some ways to interact: If you look on the right sidebar there is a link to thewotcast facebook page, which you could become a fan of. I also made a twitter account @thewotcast though I dont know if we’ll be posting too much as of right now though it is set up to automagically tweet out the facebook page updates. And the email id is thewotcast@gmail.com, so send us comments and questions. We havent recorded in a while, but we will be recording quite a bit over this next month leading up to the release of The Gathering Storm, so if you would like dozens of people to hear your questions send us some.
Posted in Podcast.
– September 25, 2009
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