What Are You Reading?

[Chun the Unavoidable]

Now reading C S Friedman's In Conquest Born.

[Rob P]

Reading Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. About 15% in. I'm not bowled over by these novels that combine supernatural and the modern in a young adult sort of package. I'm too far in to quit now though

[Chun the Unavoidable]

An Intimate Knowledge of the Night, Terry Dowling. I think the first time I've read any of his.

[Xisor]

"The Rites of Passage" by Mike Brooks. It is decidedly wonderful.

Elements of crime thriller and police procedural to it, and also big swathes of aristocratic politics, whilst also feeling as intimate and low-key 2000AD/Necromunda-y.

It's ace, and reminds me I'm mighty excited to check in on the rest of the Novella's, Inferno etc etc.

I love the existing stable of quality authors,and even dipping into the archives as I've done with Necromunda & G&F, but with the new crowd it's pretty damn exciting too.

Thrilling, even.

With the Horror stuff, Inferno and the Novellas, there's a ton of good stuff to fill up my reading schedule.

And it's damn annoying too, as I don't stick to a schedule, and read slowly too, so I'm inundated with the good stuff.

[Fenris]

So,i finally managed to read something.More thanks to chance than anything else

This "something" are 2 short stories from the GW store anniversary collection.Specifically "One untended" and "Mercy"

One Untended is what i'd expect from a short Gotrek (and not-Felix) story. I don't know if it's on purpose but my mind couldn't avoid linking it to one of the original G&F shorts that started with a very similar premise and was one of my first point of contact with the WH universe. It doesn't have much space to breath (and not having picked up Realmslayer i'm a bit lost on the specifics of Gotrek in Age of Sigmar, even if they are easy to imagine) but it's not bad.
Also,the triple meaning of the title is a nice touch.

Mercy...Again,isn't bad per se but i feel on one hand it suffers from being short.On the other,the "enemy" situation seems to be at the same time too large scale and too small scale (the specific tha are mentioned call for a huge engagement but it gets resolved awfully easily).Still,the final "conflict" of the story is grimdark enough.

4 stories left.I'm mostly interested in the Blackstone fortress one,even if i got the ending spoilered to me while surfing the wh-web months ago already

[Chun the Unavoidable]

Actually reading something relevant to this echo-y forum: Dan Abnett's Titanicus.

[Firefox]

Actually reading something relevant to this echo-y forum: Dan Abnett's Titanicus.

Nearly picked that up myself the other day, but it lost out to "Berlin" by Anthony Beevor.

This place seems to have died a death - what's going on? Is there some other forum or do people just not forum anymore?

[Fenris]

People just vanished as time went.No idea where to

[Xisor]

Yeah, forums as a thing are substantially down on traffic. Fb groups, reddit and such seem to inherit most of the discourse. I assume Ao3 or whatnot actually take the fanfic, but I couldn't be authoritative on that front.

But at the same time: not to worry. It's quiet rather than ruined.

[Fenris]

Back on topic,i finally managed to start The eternal champion FOR REAL this time.Almost half way into it.

I sadly spoilered the most important plot point of the book for myself years ago so i'm mostly curious on the "why" it'll happen.The book's been dropping hints already

[Xisor]

Well into Novella Series 2, and roundly loving them. On Nate's "Severed" at the moment and it is just wonderful.

Necron stories PoV. Who knew.

[Therion]

WARHAMMER IS FOR EVERYONE EXCEPT FOR ME

[Major Rawne]

Just finished reading Blood And Iron by Henry Zou. Wow, it was so good! Felt very real.

Besides being entirely plagiarised I'm sure it was riveting.

Anyway it's been a hell of a time since a I popped by. Getting rather dusty in these parts. Currently got The Ouibliette on the go. So far not very horror at all rather domestic 40k, which is no real bad thing.

[Therion]

WARHAMMER IS FOR EVERYONE EXCEPT FOR ME

[Xisor]

Entirely might be overstating it - I only read the Zhou copy and didn't really care for it especially - but there's certainly widespread comment to the effect that it bears a sharp resmeblence to "House to House"(?).

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topi ... try3845366

[Rob P]

Currently reading Carrion Throne. About a third in.

I like some of the character building and plot but it's a little slow. Also, it doesn't feel Terra to me, but I have faith in Chris Wraight

[Rob P]

Finished The Carrion Throne. Enjoyed the main characters. I thought it handled the mystery genre far better than the Calpurnia books did. I also liked the inclusion of the lore snippet towards the end.

However, i felt that the plot was dull, the other characters were 1 dimensional and there was far too much description. I just don't have time for all that detail; it doesn't create a sense of wonder for me, it just bogs the story down and leaves me with glazed over eyes.

Now on to the Tau omnibus.

[Rob P]

Triple posting!

Just finished Fire and Ice preceded by Farsight.

Farsight - People really seem to slag off Phil Kelly in the Black Library reader sphere. I like his Tau and I like his writing. Nothing too fancy but the stories are generally good and he knows his lore really well. I liked his portrayal of the burgeoning Farsight 'the eight'. Took me ages to figure out Shoh was Shovah. There was a time jump (I think) that threw me too. But I liked what Kelly did and I liked the effort done with the orks and the parley.

Fire and Ice. I loved this one. It didn't end how I wanted it to end but I loved it none the less. It got pretty dark and it flirted with some nuance regarding the Tau and another faction. Good characters and GoT style death count.

I'm not sure whether to carry on with the Tau omnibus and got to Aunshi or whether to start reading Jen Williams Ninth Rain. I'll probably go the later before I burn out on Tau.

[Xisor]

A change is always good.

I'd agree, with Phil Kelly. I don't rate him highly generally, but at the same time I also find his work quite readable - easy to nip through and rarely (if ever?) dragging to a halt - and often doing some rather fun and interesting things. Hell, I remember I found his Farsight novel really quite good fun.

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Have you read any Justin D. Hill? I found him a good halfway house between thes lightly deeper, more polished "much ballyhooed" BL authors, and the light, easy going style of the likes of Phil. (And Graham McNeill's, when he hits his stride.)

Sort of... Straight, simple, uncomplicated? Stuff that wants to play with some neat ideas, and to explore the universe, but that isn't trying to mess about with the prose and structure too much.

His Cadia Stands hit that perfectly. It's a big story about all hell, literally, breaking loose. And yet it's also fairly basic. The characters and perspectives involved are varied, but it stuck to fairly simple stories within that, and mean that the characters weren't so convoluted in their situations that it was difficult to keep track of what's going on.

(And heavens, that's saying something, as Cadian don't strike me as the easiest set of characters to begin to breathe personalities into! Let alone distinctive ones.)

Maybe not a resounding, unqualified success - but for a good and quite focused Guard story, it also managed to be huge and epic, without being too much.

Really keen for getting round to the sequel, and even more so for getting properly into his "Terminal:Overkill" in Necromunda.

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Myself, I've been in a big Age of Sigmar binge.

All but one of the Callis & Toll stories by Nick Horst have been great fun, and very enlightening as to the feel of AoS.

Moreso, I've made big progress on the second omnibus of the Realmgate Wars. The stories are a touch samey, but at the same time, I'm really quite enjoying them.

Gav's Warbeast was really quite endearing, I can see why it was awarded its awards. (Far more deserving than McNeill's Sigmar trilogy's win!)

Bladestorm was a touch less glossy, but an enjoyable enough read and one I zipped through.

Fury of Gork was particularly enjoyable, though I could likely read anything of Josh's and still enjoy it. These three really breathed a huge deal more life into the Realms than the proceeding omnibus did.

(Call of Archaon's in Omnibus 2, despite being one of the first released - I didn't reread it, but really enjoyed it as an anthology - so much so that Clint's Wardens of the Everqueen was a touch dry/repetitive in comparison - though if anyone deserves a free pass for the grief/has of having the Old World ripped from under them, I can forgive Clint! [It was good, at that, just not his usual finest work.])

Mortarch of Night has been very good too - Josh and David present very complimentary takes on the various Stormcast and supporting cast, and do quite a tour of locales and madcap things amidst it. It's very pleasant.

Nearly finished it too, which means Lord of Undeath is shortly round the corner.

"Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?"
"Only the faithful!"

[Rob P]

I've really struggled to get into AOS and I really tried to approach it very optimistically.

Callis and Toll and anything away from the front line would be up my street, I reckon. I just can't get into the Stormcast Eternals.

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I've not read Justin D Hill, but I like guard and 'straight, simple, uncomplicated' is what I like.

I'll add to the list!