The roster continues to expand and several of the characters you mention proceed in very interesting directions. Anyway, I’m glad you’re enjoying it more and hope I’m right that you’ll continue to do so.
An informative look through the history of books, in all their various forms from ancient times to modern days. The most recent bits are a tad dated, but that’s to be expected when dealing with the speed of technology. For me, the most interesting part of reading through the history was how many different ways people tried to hold back progress in spreading literature, from suppression of more advanced publishing techniques to outright censorship. In the end, the attempts to hold back the tide always fail and the books make their way to more people.
If you’re a Lovecraft fan, or a Pooh fan, you’ll love this short mashup.
I finished the final book in The Expanse. It was a long journey, well worth it. Perhaps the most entertaining and well-realized space opera ever. What a wild, fantastic ride full of well-drawn and sympathetic characters. I think I loved every minute of those 9 lengthy novels (and several interstitial novellas, which I read as well.) Daniel Abraham is, I think, one of the most underrated authors in genre fiction today. I’ll miss waiting for the next Expanse novel.
They seemed to be pretty clearly doing a GRRM… in… space… kind of thing (albeit toned down in certain respects) so I honestly didn’t think they’d ever finish it.
I think they’re much more optimistic about human nature than GRRM is, The books aren’t gritty, and they’re more than willing to have you really like and become comfortable with their characters. I think it’s much more similar to traditional space opera like the Culture series, or Reynolds’s Revelation Space novels or Simmons’s Hyperion Canto, than any of ASoFaI. There’s a tendency to compare any story with epic scope to Martin’s work, but epic fiction existed long before Martin.
And Abraham is one of those authors who consistently meets deadlines. I had no doubt they’d end when they said they would.
I guess I should give that series another shot. I really enjoyed the first two books but the third put me off hard. Part of it was Clarissa (who I hated with the heat of a thousand burning nuns and kept hoping would just die), part of it was Holden never learning a damn thing (sort of a long-standing itch with the series, of the two I always preferred Miller), and part of it was what looked like a conscientious shift from hard sci fi to something less grounded. Being prepared for that last one would probably help, it came as a complete surprise (and a significant disappointment) at the time.
Part of it was also just losing touch with previous characters that I really liked while introducing (to my mind) vastly less interesting leads.
The sci-fi is pretty hard throughout the series. Certainly they make some hand-waving toward “unknown physics” to explain the capabilities of the protomolecule, the ring gates, and the dark gods outside ringspace. And the Epstein Drive is kind of magic tech (though it’s specifically not reactionless, just very very efficient.) But other than those, trajectories, light lag, thrust gravity, transit times, communications, etc are all realistic in a way that is unusual for space opera.
And Clarissa’s character arc is one of the greatest things about those novels :)
I guess I really should try to get into Book 6 again then. I loved Books 1-3, but Book 4 was my favorite. Book 5 was a really dark turn for the series, but still very good. But Book 6 suddenly shifted to the perspective of the bad guys and I just kept trying to stay awake during those segments and I couldn’t, so I tried skipping the bad guy’s chapters, and suddenly I didn’t really understand what was going on. I need to just reset and try again.
I’ve completed reading VE Schwab’s Shades of Magic fantasy trilogy, and though it felt uneven in places, overall it was really good. Interesting world-building, decent plot (though it drags in some places and speeds by in others), and most importantly some really intriguing characters with all kinds of flaws to go with their power. More if you’re interested in my short reviews of each book (one, two, three). If you like moderately-dark fantasy, this is a fun adventure.
I concur about the new Reacher authors except I think it’s Child’s brother he’s co-writing with now.
I did read the last one (the first one they co-wrote) but have no plans to read any more. It wasn’t “bad”, but there’s a drop off and the whole Reacher series has been treading on thin ice as it is for a long time.
Ah, brother, thanks. I will say that The Sentinel didn’t ring any alarms for me, but this one is an entirely different kettle of stinking fish.
One of the frustrating this with the series is somehow Reacher has reached the impression of being Frankenstein’s monster in height and size. He’s about 6’5, 250. Which is about what I am. Certainly not lock the children in the house size.
The idea behind the Reacher stories I liked. There doesn’t need to be any sort of major story arc, and if you miss a few it’s no bother. The formula is pretty simple, and makes for an enjoyable quick read.
The last two books, though, with his brother have not been good. The premise has to do more heavy lifting than it should, and maybe Lee was a more talented writer than I gave credit to.
The next one I will just wait for the library book.
They are, or were, also mystery books-lite, which did a lot to elevate them. Nothing on an Agatha Christie level, but it was generally Reacher trying to work through a mystery or a crime scene, with occasionally surges of ultra-violence. I reread the first five and in a couple there’s barely any brawling at all, something which did definitely change later, but it still had that undercurrent of good noir punchiness and a mystery to solve. Reacher always had at least a veneer of a reason to care whether personal or just to try and help someone per his god complex of justice.
To your point about size, it was also that he always looked like a scruffy drifter and somehow was genetically gifted to the point that he maintained a Dwayne Johnson body as well. 6’5" is the short side of “damned tall” and 250 is the mid size of “damned big” but of course shape matters too. I’m 6’2" 215 and I count that as “you know that guy, he’s tall and pretty big (though really ‘heavy’ is more accurate for my crumbling infrastructure.)” If I were describing you to differentiate, I’d say something like, “You know, Mark, the big motherfucker.”
I don’t doubt that they will continue to do some stories in the universe, but this last book pretty much precludes any more stories with the main characters. No real spoilers, but the way it ended was surprisingly dark and final (I enjoyed it a lot).
I just finished the first Shades of Magic book for a work book club (and then proceeded to miss the discussion!) and I thought it was… okay. I liked how things unfolded in the first half, but the second part of the book didn’t engage me as much. Trying to decide whether to continue…
Well, if you decide to keep going, know two things: the second book ends in a cliffhanger so you’re gonna want to commit to the third as well; and there are both very interesting well-crafted stretches, and long repetitive boring sections. My recommendation would be to continue if you liked the characters and want to know how they get along, but don’t bother if you’re looking for lots of additional exploration of the worlds or want edge-of-your-seat plot twists.
I read a thing called War of the Maps by Paul McAuley, who has apparently written a bunch of other stuff I haven’t read.
This is a pretty straight-up action/adventure story about a retired lawman going after an escaped criminal mastermind that he arrested back in his lawman days. This is against a backdrop of a sort of “fallen world”, the remnant of a highly technological society which has regressed back to something like an early industrial revolution level. And also some people have magic-like powers, for some reason.
It’s good. Well written, interesting characters, some cool plot twists. I found some of the action a bit confusing. As far as I know, it is not part of any series, just a one-shot. Probably the most interesting and unusual thing is that the lawman comes from one country, but his adventure takes him to another with a very different political system; and there is some discussion among the characters of the various advantages and disadvantages of each. There’s not a lot of this though, it only comes up a few times.
I’ve read some MacAuley - the best novel by him imo is Cowboy Angels, which doesn’t appear to be on Kindle in the US unfortunately. A very interesting take on alternate worlds imo.
I’m through the first five books in the Alex Verus series and having a great time with it. Plenty of urban fantasy action, with a well-imagined world (as long as you don’t think too hard about the logic of the whole “magic hidden from the world at large” thing) and a good number of interesting characters. It’s a little annoying watching Alex and friends repeatedly make poor decisions that put themselves in danger, but they’ve all got varying levels of emotional scars that explain it, and the stories are good enough to enjoy regardless. A good shrink sure would simplify their lives, though.