OB book recommendation

faust82 · October 11, 2012, 10:12:52 AM

Those that enjoy McNab and Ryan (like me) should also check out Stephen Leather. His Dan "Spider" Shephard series is excellent!

For me, it's more and more Lee Childs. I enjoy the Reacher books immensely. On the surface, it looks like hack jobs, but the uncompromising character of Jack Reacher makes it an excellent read.
Too bad they chose Tom ****ing Cruise for the movie... How the heck will that man act two feet taller and 100lbs heavier?

Benny · October 16, 2012, 04:20:40 PM

The Magician is scraping by at the moment. [SPOILER=plot]It's very Lord of the Rings but I'm not sure if that's a bad thing as I thought the Fellowship was boring and wordy. This seems to fly by, the section in the mines (how familiar) was handled well but somehow reminded me of an old Stephen Jackson/Ian Livingston book for those who have real reading pedigree.

I've got as far as a super magician who at first meeting I assumed was a Jimmy Saville fan as he sneaks up on Pug and pretends to be a tramp. I think he's called Sauron or Mordor something like that so I feel like I'm talking to an old friend. Don't get me wrong, it's alright so far and if I was rating it out of 10 I'd say I'm still reading it which is no bad thing. I've not given up and it's a bit of a page turner, if I didn't have it on my iPad I would have given up during the sea voyage to wizard land.

I'm disappointed he didn't throw man fat at the Princess Carline of Monaco(is that a typo) before he left Crydee but there we go, personal tastes. Not literally I might add. I'm fairly sure he and Tom or Spud or whatever his sword weilding friend is called will end up fawning over each other like the 2 openly camp hobbits in LotR but we shall see. [/SPOILER]

So Mr Tobius, if I am in the area of Huntingdon, which is possible I will pop in and buy you an ale and bore you with tails of mining ore with goblins and axe wielding. Failing that you'll find me in Derby exercising my will to live.

Quote from: BrotherTobious;359472Well if you start to enjoy it you could come to the lan and let me know in person

TeaLeaf · October 18, 2012, 07:49:37 AM

Finished it, it reminded me of a lot of things, but probably as it was written earlier it is the other things that borrowed from this? Enjoyed it if not enthralled by it. Have embarked on book 2 to see if the Penfold review of improvement holds true!

TeaLeaf · October 22, 2012, 09:17:28 PM

Book 2 was faster paced than book 1, but overly short (for reasons that will become apparent when you read it), about halfway through book 3 atm.

Benny · October 23, 2012, 12:02:20 PM

Maybe I'm confused. My copy has book 1 and book 2 in it. Book 2 being the part where Pug is no longer Pug and is Malcolm or whatever name he gets. Is that the real book 2 or is that book 2 of book 1 and there's another book 2 that I have to buy?

TeaLeaf · October 23, 2012, 12:05:30 PM

Book 1: Magician (Milamber appears for first time)
Book 2: Silverthorn
Book 3: A Darkness at Sethanon

Book 2 & 3 follow the same story, it's just split at the end of Book 2 with the rest to follow in Book 3.

Gandalf · October 23, 2012, 12:12:46 PM

Book 1. Magician
Book 2. Silverthorn
Book 3. A Darkness at Sethanon

That completes that trio, but you then have a myriad other books in the Riftwar series. I suggest the Empire series which tells the story from the other planet's perspective.

Book 1. Daughter of the Empire
Book 2. Servant of the Empire
Book 3. Mistress of the Empire

Benny · October 23, 2012, 01:38:50 PM

Right, so now I'm losing interest. I quite like the book so far, but I'm not going to spend the next 5 years trawling through every incarnation of it. Not when I have this to read.

I'll stick out book 1 (with the built in book 2) and there better be a decent end or Toby is getting it. Once I've decided what 'it' is.

Benny · November 08, 2012, 12:00:29 PM

Right, finished this a few days ago. What do I think I hear you ask....

It was alright, the writing both annoyed and pleased in equal measure, I found there were great jumps in the plot from people leaving places and scrapping to suddenly being at the destination. It felt like there are great untold pieces as the sotry was crammed in. That said at 750 pages long I emerged having not felt like I'd read that much in terms of story.

The story of Milamber had so much more in it and the final closure with Carline was weak as was the Martin Longbow story arc. The more I think abuot it, the more unfinished stories there were, Macros, Tomas etc. Tomas being in conflict due to magic valheru stuff then suddenly all resolved, don't worry about it.

I enjoyed the book, I've rarely stuck with something that weighty and am yet to be arsed to finish LotR Fellowship because I get bored of all the Galadriel forest mirror crap. I might read the next but found the political and wordy pieces boring and in equal measure the waiting for Milamber to unleash after the initial magic encounter was frustrating.

Still, I guess I owe you a pint Toby.

BrotherTobious · November 08, 2012, 12:16:55 PM

Well I am glad you enjoyed some of it mate, I really enjoy it and the stories after do get better but then they do drop off. As I think Pen and Gandy have stated, looking forward to catching up and the pint mate

smite · November 08, 2012, 07:50:10 PM

As previously mentioned; All of the books and various series are good but Raymond can drag on a bit with some characters.

Other recomendations:
The Night Angel Trilogy - By Brent Weeks. The best series i have read....and Re-read
The Way of Kings (2 books so far) - By Brandon Sanderson. A bit slow in places but very good story line.
The Painted Man & Desert Spear - By Peter v Brett. Battle between man and demons.