after finishing the WOT series, and what a series, i started mistborn. book 1 done, book 2 midway. good series so far.

i really enjoyed it. the second trilogy is shaping up nicely also.

b2 fin
b3 inc

book 3 done
i didnt see sazed being the hero. good stuff.

b4 done, good read
ironeyes!

Premise?

fantasy, a world where people can use metal to manipulate the world. strength, speed, emotions etc. and surprisingly easy to read.

b5 done
that was really very tragic.

b6 done, loved it
wtf is going on with other gods and this other hemisphere. cant wait for answers

doing the novella now, then on to some other series while i wait for more mistborn

novella done. good stuff, great world.

on to catch up with the pendergast novels

last 3 pendergast novels read, fully caught up to date
not sure whats next

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon this book (and the other two in the trilogy is amazing)!
I'm currently going through the russian classics after finishing the classic dystopian novels.

gonna read the cotton malone novels (steve berry)
also reading vietnam: a history
https://www.amazon.com/Vietnam-History-Stan...w/dp/0140265473

on cotton malone series book 9 or something now
3/4 way done with vietnam history book. amazing the mistake after mistake politicians have made there for 300 years

also started mistborn yesterday
128 pgs in, bk 1

p183

I like this book but I have to admit, I don’t love it. Something feels awkward in the way the male writer writes a teenage female protagonist. She’s weirdly flat — her emotions and behaviors seem cliche and phoned in, generally inauthentic.

I will do my best to finish the book. I don’t hate it, but at times I’m pretty sure I could write something better. It is written at no higher than a high-school reading level. Very (overly) simple prose with the occasional dictionary word. Also a great deal of repetition and limited variety in word choice.

sanderson certainly sucks at writing women, but i will say i think he gets better. its easy reading for sure too, but i thought it was an interesting world. fantasy seems to get a pass on writing if they create a good world, and that he does.

pg322

Starting to enjoy this more, now that there is at least semi-regular action punctuated with productive character advancements such as Vin taking up her role as debutante spy.

My biggest reservation about the book — that the protagonist’s plot was too wide-reaching and far granter than the world that has thus far been created — are fading away. The story is progressing and the world is filling in, albeit slowly.

As the story develops the girl becomes more logical/three-dimensional and I’m appreciating being let in on more backstory about the enemy. Because the author didn’t quickly reveal the antagonist’s motivations and drives, but illustrating him as a shadowy and mysterious god-like figure not only didn’t make me fear him — I don’t think such a being is possible — it made me insensitive to his wants, needs, drives, and motivations — the essential ingredients to developing empathy for a character in fiction, suspending disbelief, and accepting them as a plausibly real construct.

This writer knows the best way to lose my attention in a book — spending time going to detail about mundane inconsequential elements and constantly repeating info (see; Vin’s training for 30 pages). Skip it, like the way you skipped months of her being comatose. Let it be implied.

I am also dissatisfied by the provided foundation and general presentation of the allomantic theory of magic. Different? Yes. Clever? Maybe. Genius? No.

____

pg386

Getting more into it The “world” is growing into a scope in which the plot is starting to seem at least feasible.

We’ve moved past the training stages — the planning is underway — and I am pleased.

pg 474

enjoying it much more now, but very confused by the 9th metal (gold). poor explanation thus far imo

bk 1 done

p good

this is a strange observation but the author used the word "maladroitly" far too many times. Definitely no fewer than 8 times.

starting book 2; it's got me hooked

barns & noble didn't have book 2 loose so i had to extract it from a box set. i feel kinda bad but it was the same price and i'll probably buy book 3 there anyway...

i thought about just buying the box set and returning book 1 as if it was the original one i bought but im not sure i still have the receipt

poh well, leggo. this one is 252,000 words. at 318 words/min it should take me 13 hours 15 minutes of focused reading.

bk 1: Feb 24-Mar 6: 214,752 words in 11 days
bk 2: Mar 7-Mar ??: 252,739 words in ?? days (prediction: 13-14 days, done Mar 19-20)

This post has been edited by nakedsalmon on Tue - Mar 7 2017 - 21:34:08

i appreciated how the story gave more depth to the "bad guy"
if you are so inclined, after this trio, read the second trio. more of a western feel. then, read the lost history (short story, but world building). dont read it before the second trio though imo.

I also recommend Elantris. As a standalone Sanderson book its quite good.

im going to get around to reading all of his work, just finishing up a couple things first.

@ naked
https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/5y7...era_of_fantasy/

the timing is perfect, the simplicity of the writing came up with many yays and nays for it.

finished all the cotton malone books
finished elantris and warbreaker, liked them both
started stormlight archive

finished the way of kings
what a fantastic book, and a great world sanderson built.
started words of radiance

i started Malazan Book of the Fallen. On book 2. Quite good, definitely epic.

sci-fi: takeshi kovacs series, the culture series,
dystopan novels: 1984, brave new world, we, kallocain
paul auster: the book of illusions, moon palace, invention of solitude, new york trilogy
russian: crime and punishment, dead souls
humans: power of habits, man's search for meaning, originals, thinking fast and slow, homo sapiens, the road less traveled, war of art, the dorito effect
finance: a random walk down wall street, how an economy grows and why it crashes, the martian
misc: extremely loud and incredibly close, the little prince, le comte de monte-cristo, atlas shrugged, medea

that + some books I can't remember last 2 years. I recommend all except war of art.