My car is tired too. In fact, it’s not only “too” tired to do anything, it’s “four” tired. 
…so I put new tires on my car. Now it’s finally retired and can relax.
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Oh, btw I thought about suggesting couple more things for discussion if anyone’s interested:
- Takeshi Kovacs trilogy by Richard Morgan (I really liked those)
- Ilium and Olympos by Dan Simmons (though I strongly recommend against those - Ilium was interesting but follow up was very disappointing for me)
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I’ve awoken from my 2-month slumber and have returned to talk about the 3 books I’ve read.
First I read the 8th and final book in the City watch mini-series, Snuff, and if I’m going to be perfectly honest none of the books were good since the 4th book Feet of Clay. It does pain me to not like these (a strange concept) because they seem so beloved to so many people, and I feel as if I’m missing out. But I think in general, I just don’t really mesh with Terry Pratchett’s writing style.
Next, I read The Stand, the best of the 3 books I read, however not without fault.
All the characters, with 1 or 2 exceptions, were incredible, they were fleshed out, had depth and human flaws, I felt as if I knew them. And that’s really where this book knocks it out of the park, along with the atmosphere.
However, this book falls short a little past the halfway point, where I feel it kind of dragged on, skipping large sections of our character’s journeys, and focusing on the more mundane and slightly irrelevant parts of the story. Also, this is Stephen King so you already know the ending is kind of… disappointing.
The good more than makes up for the bad, so a solid read all in all. Can recommend if you like longer books (I believe this one is around 1300 pages.)
If anyone has read The Stand and wants to talk more in-depth about it, I’m all for it.
And lastly I read Best Served Cold, the 4th book in the First Law World, I know @Glider has been waiting for this.
Honestly a little disappointing, don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the book, there were just quite a few parts I didn’t enjoy.
I’ll start with what I liked, I liked all the characters (Friendly and Morveer especially) except for the 2 main characters. I also love Joe Abercrombie’s writing, phenomenal stuff.
I didn’t like the main characters mostly because sometimes they felt inconsistent, one moment they’re filled with compassion, and trying to right their wrongs, and other times they’re heartless monsters with no regard for human life. I think it’s possible to explain these sudden snip snaps in personality, but it just felt a little too fake for my taste, I can see others not having the same problem.
SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST 4 FIRST LAW BOOKS AHEAD. Another problem is I feel as if I’ve seen this story before, In the first 3 books you see a Northman in an unfamiliar place, trying to become a better man, and along the way forms an unlikely alliance with a vengeance and hatred consumed woman. And after predictably failing his quest to become a better man, he heads back north. The exact same thing happens here. While there are many obvious differences in these books (like how in the first 3 books it’s merely a subplot, and in this one, it’s the main plot), but I feel they’re similar enough to where I feel as if I’ve read and seen the characters and plot before.
Also, these are all my opinions, none of these books are objectively bad or good, just how I feel. If you liked or disliked one of these books that I didn’t, I would love to hear why.
TL;DR
Snuff = Bad
The Stand = Good
Best Served Cold = Disappointing
See ya’ll in another 2 months, off to read Kings of the Wyld. o/
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Yeah, I’ve been waiting for this 
Ok, so here go some serious spoilers for first 4 First Law books as well.
I really liked First Law trilogy but with Best Served Cold I was disappointed as well.
It feels a bit weird but I think that the twist at the end of trilogy was a huge factor that contributed most to me liking it. Weird part is that I figured lots of small parts - I knew why Jezal was a part of the expedition, I was suspicious of Bayaz, etc. But the ending still shocked me.
And now onto Best Served Cold.
I had 1 thing sort of spoiled for me when I started reading - I got an impression that Monza was almost universally hated, so I expected her to betray Shivers at the very end. And while I read it with this thought in the back of my mind I couldn’t help but give extra attention to characters flip-floping on the idea of betraying each other. But at some point I just and stopped caring. Before I was really curious and had bunch of question, for example:
- is Cosca an Eater? (he seems to live through awfully unlikely circumstances, seems suspicious)
- is Monza just mad lucky or is there anything else at play behind the scenes?
but as I stopped caring the curiosity died down as well.
And the twist didn’t do anything for me. I figured Benna’s role in all this fairly early and Shenkt motivation just left me cold.
So in the end I loved First Law trilogy but Best Served Cold (while not being bad) left me seriously disappointed.
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Edit
I wrote all of the below on mobile when I was away from home and was not at all ready to post, it appears that it was accidentally posted anyways, and I was not aware of that until now, about 4 days later. Consequently, there was no spoiler warning, I apologize about that and it has been fixed. I would clean up the text a little bit more but I can’t be bothered. Enjoy my nearly incoherent thoughts
SPOILERS FOR FIRST LAW BELOW
I agree with what you said about Best Served Cold, it kind of turns your curiosity off when characters are inconsistent or too predictable.
The first 3 books instead stimulated curiosity by having consistent yet mysterious characters, such as Bezal, Sulfur, Ferro, Quai, and even Logen for much of the trilogy.
These books also completely delivered on these characters’ mysterious backgrounds with Bezal being a puppeteer, Sulfur an eater, Quai being dead for most of the books, and so on. They delivered on the reader’s suspicions brilliantly.
However, I do have gripes about the trilogy, first of all, the ending with the stone in the house of the maker, it felt like a cop-out. Don’t get me wrong I loved the idea of having their quest fall flat, it took guts to write it that way, and it paid off immensely. However, what they sought being in the house of the maker the whole time felt less like a twist and more like an excuse.
Also, the lore twist at the end was beautifully done and built wonderfully on Bezals puppeteering.
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Finally, after literally 3 years of this thread being made, I will officially be instating the Chrono (By Chronies, For Chronies) Book Club. If enough Chronies are willing of course. The nature of the book club of course being that we all read the same book, at roughly the same pace, and then talk about it before moving on.
As the title suggests, this will be a democracy, which means I’m relying on you guys to pick/vote for books, with me acting as a last resort decider. So I will be setting up a basic poll filled with some of the main genres we’ll be reading, It’s important you pick all the genres you want to read, not only for the feedback it gives, but also so I know how many people will be participating.
- Fiction
- Non-Fiction
- Fantasty
- Sci-Fi
- Educational
- Drama
- Mystery
- Classics
0 voters
Make sure to tell me if I missed any important genres because I probably did.
Naturally, a genre poll won’t be enough to pick a book to read for this month, so if you have a book recommendation, author recommendation, or really anything, I’d love to hear it, or if you have multiple you could even start your own poll.
Also if you have any ideas on the more technical parts of this whole operation, such as how to get books out to everyone, how to improve the book choosing system, etc. I’d love to hear it as well.
My initial book ideas are
On December 6th, or possibly slightly sooner, I will be creating the post deciding the book, and the timeframe in which we will read it. I will make sure to make a post if there are any delays.
Now I have no idea how many Chronies are willing to do a book club, (@delenn13 and @Glider being the only ones who have mentioned it in recent times,) so if I see that there are dwindling participants, I will make the executive decision to cut this off. However, I don’t want to pressure anyone into joining because of this. I totally understand not wanting to be tied down by a reading club, that’s why it took me so long to form this club. So feel free to join or leave at any time.
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Want to do Japanese grammar textbooks?
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This might become a 4-year, 8-semester study with a planned semester abroad…
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I don’t know about you guys but I trust Chloe with 4 years and 8 semesters of my academic life.
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I can without a doubt confirm, if I were to read this book, it would without a single shroud of a doubt be the VERY BEST JAPANESE GRAMMAR BOOK OUT THERE that I would have ever read.
Also, I’m willing to write paid reviews at half the price Chloe does it.
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No way I am reading Japanese unless it’s audible 
I have been listening to mostly political books lately and a few biographies etc. Listening because i don’t have the time to sit down and actually enjoy a book. It’s hard enough to find time to play anything either. His neuropathy always gets bad during the winter and it has already started. He is already using a cane to get around. I have him on some new meds but they are taking time to work. As the doc says. The nerves weren’t destroyed over a week…we are talking years… So the meds are working slowly. He says the numbness isn’t as bad as usual.
So I will tentatively say yes…
Gonna give a heads up to @sewcraftyme too.
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I’m cautiously interested, I guess.
I do have some limitation as trying to stick to audio books as well but I’ll try to get whatever is decided upon.
Sadly I don’t have any book or organization suggestions.
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Thanks @Nateninja21 for the idea 
I won’t be in the book club, because I’m already reading the same books my wife is reading for her Book Club, just as a fun companionable thing to do (as long as the books are decent). 
I do wonder though, if there should be 2 separate threads, one for the Book Club, and one for other book discussions such as recommendations or deals. 
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The closest may be this thread so we could start one.
https://206.81.1.216/t/chronies-recommendations-children-books-sci-fi-science-fantasy-adventures-toys-games/15391
Man, when I was doing the search and reading some of threads/posts, I started tearing up. Now I know why a few others just left the forum.
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This is still my favorite chatting/gaming forum, made a few good friends/gaming buddies through here and the conversation here is usually much more civil/polite and non-toxic, as well as informative, compared to most other places. But I totally understand what you are getting at, this place also feels different, a lot different… Almost 2 years now… 
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Here are your links to a #free copy of “The Claiming” From Author @ikehamill
Amazon for Kindle Amazon.com
UK: https://tinyurl.com/27svyu7e
Book Funnel: for any eReader Download The Claiming
Get Ike’s newsletter packed with great Maine stories & links to #Free books:
Hint: This week look what happened it’s okay to say Ahhh, it’s so cute: I did
PS - not sure if this is where this should be but saw my name mentioned here so thought I’d test it out.
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Yea, was asking about being in a book club…LOL So the horse WAS pregnant…Cool.
And as always, thanks for the book. 
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If I am in the mood to laugh and cry at the same time, I know to grab one of her books. It’s a sure guarantee. You just can’t help yourself. 
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