The Spider's War by Daniel Abraham. Last book in the series... good so far!

Aaaaand finished. Great series!

Just finished Glen Cook - Black Company and started Shadows Linger. Black Company is pretty good, however my expectations were really high before I started to read it as lots people compared The Malazan Book of the Fallen with Black Company. I have to say I still like TMBoF more. It's much more complex. Black Company has a single POV character which makes the action pretty linear. Shadows Linger seems to be a bit better in this respect. Still the story is solid and it's refreshingly grey compared to the black & white world of many fantasy books/series. Having finished The Sword of Truth (and all the related stuff) just before the Black Company, I have to admit that I already like Glen Cook's writing more than Terry Goodkind's. On to new adventures.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes, awesomely enough it's almost a perfect continuation after the movie A Game of Shadows. :) Which is no end of perfect.

I also got sucked into Lord of the Rings one more time. This is why I keep saying things like, these are dark times Frodo, all the time.

Finished The Confusion and now moved on to the third book in the cycle: The System of the World.

Luckily enough for me, I started reading the Black company and then moved on to the Malazan world; a proper reading level-up :). I dont think many series can compare all that well to the Malazan books, so if you start expecting to see the same level of world building and sheer scale of innovative imagination, you are going to end up being disappointed.

Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium (Warhammer 40K book). It's getting a bit predictable, but I am still loving the great Commissar.

Interesting. I agree Malazan's plot is much more intricate, however I ended up not really caring about most of what happened (unlike Black Company - though I was curious also because of being a huge fan of the Myth games series from Bungie, which is clearly inspired by Glen Cook).

Anyway, on Malazan, the first 3 or four books were excellent - Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice have such huge payoffs... and then things kind of started going nowhere, from Midnight Tides (excluded - it is still pretty good IMO) onward or so, despite the fact that in the fiction the events happening were huge. Basically the characters stopped mattering, or what they did... not sure.

I still re-bought digital versions of both series, as they are very good (and I'm a completionist OCD enough). But I don't know... I think the Malazan series is trying to be too meta. It actually reminds me less of Blak Company and more of another series ... need to Google... ah yes, The Prince of Nothing by Scott Bakker. It's kind of the same style of very detached writing, intricate plot involving almost apocalyptic themes. And both very sociological themes at that - but Malazan is sociology via anthropology / archaelogy, whereas Prince Nothing is via psychology / religion... something like that... and it feels much uglier than Malazan, likely because of plumbing the depths of (in)human depravity. Never went on to the following sequels, stopped at the end of first trilogy, but maybe you'll find it to your taste.

Come on don't tell you me you didn't loved Tehol Beddict and his manservant Bugg :). I think exactly in Midnight Tides laid down Erikson the entire Tehol Beddict/Bugg story path. I just love the chemistry with those two.

If only it was indeed the entirety of their ark... You read the whole series yes? How did you think it progressed?

I mean they are not the only comic elements. And I did like said comic elements. The fumbling guy from Gardens of the Moon, the two necromancers... the lucky nomad become soldier. Even Karsa Orlong half the time.

And there are very epic moments. Memorable characters. Good writing. But if there is one meta theme across the whole thing it seems to be: time passes, and it all becomes dust. Or ash... How susprising the writer comes from an anthropology / archaelogy background heh? :)

If you ask me, he was a bit too effective at integrating the theme with the overall narrative ark. It's the book of the Fallen: So of course they fell. And for the last books... from the Bonehunters onwards I think... too much grinding - of the world, of the characters, of relationships... too many broken shards in the desert, too many broken individuals all over the story. There was no real victory - phyrric at best. Sacrifice and loss. In a way, despite its fantasy genre, it was a depressingly realistic series you know?

I enjoyed reading it as literature. Enough to rebuy it. And I have reread it. If I recall I reread each book pretty much as soon as I finished it - a lot of details throughout to indulge in. But it tasted of ash in the end.

Still, if you liked it, check out Scott Bakker's stuff. I couldn't continue that one, but it's also acclaimed... and maybe there's something about the Canadian psyche... You are absolutely right that the Black Company is only superficially similar. Scratch the surface and they are almost different genres. The influences are kind of obvious though.

Lithuanian: "Laivai ir Jūrininkai" by Aloyzas Každailis
Self-translated to English: "Ships and sailors" by Aloyzas Kazdailis

A book that more or less in historical manner describes how ships evolved, what types they were, who and where sailed them, etc. I like pirates, but when it comes to ships and sailing, turns out I am a complete dummy. Thanks to this book, I am getting smarter.

John Carter of Mars: Book 1 "The Princess of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

I quit Metro 2033 By Gllukofsky because the translation was practically schizophrenic, shame too since I really wanted a good post apoc novel to read.



I picked that up too since it sounded a lot like Fraser's "Flashman". How are you finding it?

I've read them all. There is a tragic feeling in it near the end, especially if I think for example at Icarium. But not everything turned to dust :). I've also read Esslemont's books which starting with Stonewielder became really good also. All in all probably what captured me beyond the writing is the world those two created.
I haven't yet read all of the Black Company books (still in book 2) so I guess the pace will pick up there too.

Rereading Fred Saberhagen's Berzerker real quick before the new Joe Abercrombie book comes out.

Mary Shelly's Frankenstein.

I quit Metro 2033 because of what I think is case of a poorly/cheaply translated work. There were a lot of good ideas that seemed to be muddled; almost kneecapped by the prose. Though it would not account for the almost stereotypical or archetypal Russian dialogue; Stilted, dumb and reeking of unearned machismo.

I bet that it reads much much better in Russian.

Currently am reading two books. History of Space and Time by Stephen Hawking and Lisey's Story by Stephen King.

Both are great authors and have read much by both of these guys. The first is great food for thought and the other is just junkfood for the brain. lol