buyerofgadgets

Due to real life issues (health related but not mine) I've not posted anything for quite a while.  Just to let you all know that I'm now back to usual sporadic posting schedule...

On that note, HOW DID I MISS LARRY CORREIA HAS A NEW BOOK RELEASED SOON!  Sorry for the shouting but that was my reaction when I saw the review of Son of the Black Sword on Elitist Book Reviews (linked to in the post title).  I'm really not a fan of Baen's cover art but I don't care, it's a Larry Correia fantasy book so it's now on my TBR list.

  If you've read the Grimnoir Chronicles then Murder on the Orient Elite should just be added to your TBR list.  For those of you that haven't.

  Murder on the Orient is a short story set after the events of the Grimnoir Chronicles.  Jake Sullivan is informed a bomb has been smuggled aboard an airship and sets about finding it before innocent lives are lost.

  My immediate thoughts after reading Murder on the Orient Elite?  That it was a greatly entertaining read, I really miss the world of the Grimnoir, I want more!

 If you're in the market for the best action scenes mixed with interesting characters and magic system then go read the Grimnoir Chronicles starting with Hard Magic then you can read Murder on the Orient Elite.

  I should mention I listened to the audiobook version and the narrator does a superb job.  Although you wouldn't know it by listening, the narrator is Bronson Pinchot who played Serge in Beverly Hills Cop.

"It's jam-packed with airships, crazy sorcerers, privateers, warrior monks, and intelligent cats."

Sold!  I've always been a sucker for warrior monks, I think it's a legacy of watching too many martial arts movies with Shaolin Monks and wanting to play a monk in AD&D.

On a more serious note, I've liked every book I've read by Jim Butcher so I'll be giving this new series a try at some point (everytime I look at my TBR list I feel like Sisyphus pushing his boulder).

A couple of times every year I check if Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy is available in either ebook or unabridged audiobook.  I am always disappointed.

I know they're available in the USA so why not the UK?  Why can I buy the German translation but not the original English version?!  I don't pirate ebooks but situations like this makes me understand people who do.

  For 2014 I made a resolution not to start any book series that wasn't completed (any series I had already started didn't count) and available in ebook format at a reasonable price.  It's a resolution I've kept since 2013 but I won't be continuing it for 2015.

  There's no particular reason for this, I don't feel the need to hold myself to it anymore.  Any completed series will still take preference on my to-read list but I can allow myself the odd exception, probably starting with Brandon Sanderson's Rithmatist!

  However there is still one thing that will make me drop a new book series until it's completed.  Cliffhanger endings, they are a pet peeve of mine I even avoid season finales for tv series (until the next season airs) as they inevitably setup a climax that won't be resolved until the first episode of the next season.

  If the first book in a series ends in a cliffhanger I'll stop reading until the series is completed as I assume that each subsequent book in the series will end that way and I really don't care for the wait to find out how it's resolved.

  Anyway I hope anyone reading this has a happy 2015 filled with lots of good books!

OK, they're a year away from being available but they're still coming....

  In the UK from 1st January 2015 the VAT rate on Amazon's Kindle books will rise from 3% to 20%.  Basically the VAT rate charged is changing from the VAT rate at the seller's location to the VAT rate at the buyers location.

  I wouldn't mind so much paying 20% VAT on ebooks except that print books have a VAT rate of 0%!  That winds me up no end.

  While I can't justify spending hundreds of pounds to buy every book on my to read list before 1st January 2015 I think I'll be spending as much as possible.

The Ark Royal series starts with the familiar trope where Earth's colonies have been attacked by aliens which outclass Earth's starships except for one British ship, the Ark Royal.  There is a twist in that Ark Royal is not state-of-the-art but rather an old carrier that is only kept in orbit for political reasons.

  The series mostly takes place in space but any Earth based scenes take place in England which makes a nice change from the USA.  Any politics also have a very British slant with a nod to the aristocratic old boy network and the Royal Family.

  David Weber is the gold standard for military sci-fi (your opinion may differ) and while Christopher Nuttall isn't upto Weber's standards he still writes a good story.  The setting is not inspired in terms of technology, there is some evolution in technology and tactics but not a great deal and combat scenes are competently written.

 Where the author shines is writing very human characters and the effect the war has on them.  As an example the captain of Ark Royal is a drunkard and battles the urge to drink throughout.  The author has also created an interesting alien race although you don't find out much about them until the third book.

  My main critcism of the series is the pacing of the third book  The first two books are fast paced then you start the third book and it feels like you're moving at Six Million Dollar Man slow motion speed.  However the pace does pickup again about a third through the book.

  Be warned there are some graphic sex scenes but they're not incredibly long not more than a page at most.  If that doesn't bother you and you're looking for decent military sci-fi with better characterisation than most then Ark Royal is worth a try.

I don't think this is for me but some people might like to pay $9.95/month for all you can read.  Maybe if I retire with a big fat pension, they have all the major publishers signed up and it's actually available in the UK.  I don't think that combination is too likely...

It's an added bonus when one of your favourite authors comes across as personable and likeable.

  One of the casualties of my swtich to digital only books was Taylor Anderson's Destroyermen series which just wasn't available as ebook or on audible in the UK.  Happily for me the entire series so far is now available on Kindle so I can carry on reading it.

  Magician's End is the final book in the Riftwar Cycle series by Raymond Feist, what follows is more of an overview of the entire series, skip to the end for a mini-review of the book.

My experience of the Riftwar Cycle series

  The Riftwar Cycle is a series split into multiple two or three book sagas released over a span of 30 years.  The protagonist(s) change with each saga with main characters from previous sagas being relegated to supporting cast or killed off in the next saga with one exception who appears throughout the series to a greater or lesser extent.

  I read the first book, Magician, back in 1984.  Magician is very much a Dungeons and Dragons influenced fantasy with the typical tropes of elves, dwarves, dragons and a coming of age story.  What made Magician special was it just so well done, even now it's still one of my favourite books.

  Back then I only knew about books if they appeared on the shelves of my local bookshop so I was mightily annoyed when I found the third book in the series before I even knew a second book existed!  Anyway both books were of a similar quality.

  After the first saga the series starts to vary in it's quality.  The most inconsistent author I read regularly is R. A. Salvatore whose books I tend to love or hate.  Raymond Feist isn't quite so bad, more great to average but in my opinion he doesn't quite hit the same heights in the rest of the series.

  For me Feist's inconsistency is in the main characters.  Some characters I cared deeply for but others I didn't really care about that much and I'm one of those readers where, usually, that directly affects my enjoyment of a book.

Bits I don't like about the series

  Reusing the same name or a similar name.  Two families figure prominently in the series and sometimes descendants would have the same name or a similar name as a previous character which made keeping track confusing

  Cosmic epicness, while I like epic fantasy I do feel Feist goes a bit too far into the abstract with regard to the forces of evil.

  Lack of a coherent magic system, I have to admit this because I've changed as a reader and now have a preference for a well thought out magic system (I blame Brandon Sanderson for this).  Magic use in the Riftwar Cycle is poor because the same character can be very powerful or limited as required by the author without any real explanation.

What's great about the series

  I always find it hard work describing what I like about a book or series in this case. It's easier to criticise and why I rarely feel inspired to write reviews!

 Feist is great at writing on different levels and weaving them together. With regard to politics, he gives a clear explanation of what is happening, why and make it interesting.  With regard to characterisation Feist's characterisation is at it's best when he takes the time to introduce characters and show their growth throughout a book.  

  The build-up to battles, Feist will show the preparation of armies for an upcoming battle not just jump to the manoeuvring and clashing of armies which he also does well.  However Feist is not at the level of  Brandon Sanderson or Larry Correia when it comes to skirmishes or duels.

Magician's End

The blurb, at least part of it.

"Civil war is tearing apart the Kingdom of the Isles, for the throne lies empty and rivals are converging. Having spirited his beloved Princess Stephané safely out of Roldem, Hal – now Duke of Crydee – must turn his attention to the defence of the ancient realm so that a king can be anointed by the Congress of Lords, rather than by right of might.

But the greatest threat may well lie out of the hands of men. Somewhere in the Grey Towers Mountains something not of this world is emerging. It will require that alliances be made between mortal enemies if disaster is to be averted."

  Magician's End epitomises what I like and dislike about the series as a whole.  At the merely human and empire level there is a great interweaving of politics, action and personal interaction.  Feist is truly skilled when he keeps the story at that level.

  It's the journey to understand the nature of the final enemy I found to be boring and detracted to my enjoyment of the book.  There's a scene near the end that I disliked in that it seemed unnecessary and only there to show off the author's cleverness.

  Overall Magician's End is a fitting finish to the Riftwar Cycle and Feist absolutely nailed the epilogue.  The epilogue was just the perfect way to end the entire series.

  Into The Black is about the exploration vessel Odyssey on it's maiden voyage, flying straight into an interstellar war that's just started.

  The book blurb describes itself as military sci-fi that combines 'old-school space opera and modern storytelling' and I'd say that's a fair summation.  There's a decent amount of characterisation, the pacing of the book is fast and the author can do action scenes well both in space and on the ground.

    I like the method of FTL travel employed and it's effect upon the Odyssey's crew, how Earth's technology evolved in different direction from those of the races they encounter and gives the Odyssey a fighting chance in a hostile encounter despite having a generally lower tech base.

  Odyssey One is a series that I most definitely will be carrying on with.

Approaching the end of 2013 I can happily say I've kept the resolution I made at the start of the year.  I have not started reading any new series of books unless the series is complete, I've been tempted to break or bend a few times but I've stuck with it.

 This is one of the reasons my to-read list is so long but I think I'll be sticking with this policy.  A series must be complete, available in digital format and at a reasonable price before I start it.  I will be tested to the limit anytime Larry Correia, Brandon Sanderson or David Weber starts a new series though.....

I've decided to re-read the first two books in the Grimnoir Chronicles before starting the third and final book in the series. They were cracking books and I want to re-read them before diving into Warbound.

Path of Exile is a good action RPG, and it's just taken over any reading time I had.  Give it another month or two and I should be back to a better balance of reading vs gaming but for now my other source of home entertainment is taking up all my free time.

Although a special deal just came through from Audible....