What are you reading this year 2020?

[Pawndream]

I've been reading N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth series.

Completed the first two books and will pick up the third from the library this week. They have been fascinating reads, but also frustrating at times. There have been a few points where I have been tempted to give up on it, but then I buckle down and refocus. Overall, it's been an enjoyable, if not challenging read.

After I read this next book and complete out this series, I am going to read a popcorn book series for a change of pace, probably Cleric Quintet (which I've never read).

 

[Nellisir]

I've been reading N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth series.

Completed the first two books and will pick up the third from the library this week. They have been fascinating reads, but also frustrating at times. There have been a few points where I have been tempted to give up on it, but then I buckle down and refocus. Overall, it's been an enjoyable, if not challenging read.

After I read this next book and complete out this series, I am going to read a popcorn book series for a change of pace, probably Cleric Quintet (which I've never read).

I gotta say, NK Jemisin has become one of my favorite authors. Broken Earth didn't quite do it for me, but the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms certainly does. And I'm going to reread Broken Earth because I read it as it was released, which always messes with me a bit because of the year-long wait between books...

I finished Sister Alice, by Robert Reed. Overall, I gotta say 4/10. It's technically fine. Just pointless and...I mean, I finished it a day and a half ago, and I can't remember the ending. Draw your conclusions accordingly. Lots of hard sf buzzwords and concepts that don't go anywhere or do anything except serve as an excuse to handwave people into gods (not really kidding there.) This is basically 2/0 for Mr Reed. I've liked his short story work in collections, but it's not cutting it in novels.

Have started Century Rain, by Alastair Reynolds. I like it better already.
Also bathroom-reading my way through The Mythic Odysseys of Theros. I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of WotC's "Here's a new setting and a bunch of character options to explore a new way of motivating/aligning your character and possibly the campaign" model (looking at you deities of Theros/guilds of Ravnica/dragonmarks of Eberron). I like the theory, but it's starting get old. Theros, at least, doesn't feel like it necessarily gets enough support in the book to run a campaign without a lot of extra work.

 

[Pawndream]

I gotta say, NK Jemisin has become one of my favorite authors. Broken Earth didn't quite do it for me, but the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms certainly does. And I'm going to reread Broken Earth because I read it as it was released, which always messes with me a bit because of the year-long wait between books...

Yeah. As I mentioned, Jemisin is definitely talented, but the three narrators the story is told from is sometimes jarring and I have a hard time understanding some of the "magic-babble". But still, going to finish out the series and will look for the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms as a future read...after I read something light and breezy

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is so darn good!

So, here's a question for my fellow book-minded people. I'm trying to remember the title and author of a book I had a long time ago. The cover was similar in style to Boris Vallejo, if not by him, and featured a man (wearing army fatigues maybe) with a grenade launcher facing off against a demon. The book itself was a portal fantasy and the main character was some sort of current or former military. It would've been published in the 80s most likely. Anyone got any ideas? My google-fu hasn't been able to turn it up.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is so darn good!

So, here's a question for my fellow book-minded people. I'm trying to remember the title and author of a book I had a long time ago. The cover was similar in style to Boris Vallejo, if not by him, and featured a man (wearing army fatigues maybe) with a grenade launcher facing off against a demon. The book itself was a portal fantasy and the main character was some sort of current or former military. It would've been published in the 80s most likely. Anyone got any ideas? My google-fu hasn't been able to turn it up.

Emoji = because I can't think of anything...

 

[dragoner]

Sorry, drawing a blank as well.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Yeah, I'll keep searching, trying to dredge something up. There might have been a motorcycle on the cover as well, but maybe not. Parts of it sound like Mary Gentle's Grunts, but I know that's not what I'm thinking of.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is so darn good!

So, here's a question for my fellow book-minded people. I'm trying to remember the title and author of a book I had a long time ago. The cover was similar in style to Boris Vallejo, if not by him, and featured a man (wearing army fatigues maybe) with a grenade launcher facing off against a demon. The book itself was a portal fantasy and the main character was some sort of current or former military. It would've been published in the 80s most likely. Anyone got any ideas? My google-fu hasn't been able to turn it up.

Is it...

the Doom one looks the closest

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Heh, Doom did come up a lot in my searches. But I think I found it! I decided to try searching by artists similar to Frazetta. This came up when I looked for covers by Ken Kelly:

Published in 1988 and it mostly fits the details.

 

[Nellisir]

Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is so darn good!

Hundred Thousand Kingdoms pushes my buttons like they're broken. And that scene? Where whats-her-face gets seriously pissed off at the thing?

Anyways, Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is a "lighter" read than Broken Earth. More traditional, but still amazingly well-written. Some authors have a gift for writing that's effortless to read; NKJ is up there. (BE gets twisted because of the shifts in narration. HTK doesn't have those shifts.)