drspacemanspliff

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Of Blood and Bone (A Time of Dread, A Time of Blood, A Time of Courage)

Sequel series to The Faithful and the Fallen.

Premise:

We’re 140 years after the end of the previous series. The impact of the climax from Wrath is incredibly significant. And we get to explore parts of the map that weren’t explored in the previous series. Hard to really talk about the setting without spoiling it, but let’s just say we have some new races of beings that are settling down in the Banished Lands.

Characters:

Major improvement in the characters in this series. I think he looked at how simplistic people were in the last series and took it as a specific challenge to push himself. Drem is clearly autistic/anxiety coded, and I loved reading his thoughts. Riv has major rage issues. Characters much more openly bear their trauma and mental problems, and it is well done.

Gwynne did this thing where he would pair an emotionally repressed character with a carefree and openly emotional character and see how they interact and change each other. He did it with pairing Riv with Bleda and pairing Drem with Cullen. Pushing the characters to the forefront was a great decision, as they ended up being much more interesting than the previous series.

I liked Fritha, too. I enjoyed the nuance to her character and exploring what broke her faith. I like how that tied in

What I liked:

Overall a stronger series than the previous one. Less clear lines of good versus evil, but that was still a major theme of the series. I like the feeling when I read about goodness being rewarded because life is such a miserable pit of despair and I read fiction to escape from it. I’m fine with the harsh reality of misery (hello Fitz), and I enjoy good triumphing over evil. Goodness is the right choice and I like seeing how our characters benefit from just being good to each other.

More shield wall is always a positive.

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(Non spoilers)

I read the John Gwynne books in February. I read them in publication order starting with The Faithful and the Fallen, and then the Of Blood and Bone trilogy, and then the Bloodsworn Saga. I had a good time, they were really quick reads.

The Faithful and the Fallen (Malice, Valor, Ruin, Wrath)

Premise:

This starts out with a classic Chosen One, humble farmboy growing up etc. Feels YA at first, but it definitely grows up with the series. This time in a Viking style setting! We spend a lot of time in the village throughout the first book. We get a few POV characters, but Corban is our main guy. It’s a very small world. Basically a culture rebuilding after a cataclysmic event several hundred years ago (maybe thousands, I forget). He does a pretty good job of exploring the different lands and their cultures. The differing cultures are fairly shallow, but it didn’t bother me.

Characters:

There were actually a few characters that I really liked! I generally liked the characters, but Veradis and Cywen and Maquin were standouts. I actually liked Corban quite a bit as well. Of course, I must include Storm, Corban’s wolven companion. Just a wolf the size of a horse, and a very very good girl.

I really hated at least two of the villains, so good work there. Part of the problem with drawing out the conflicts until the end is that the villains just keep doing evil acts and it feels somewhat repetitive?

What I liked:

The book features the development of a shield wall as their new superweapon. Gwynne writes very intimately during the shield wall scenes, and it’s incredibly compelling.

The series really worked for me in a lot of ways. The simplicity of the plot was acceptable because it was already a fairly traditional structure. I have read so many books that subvert or reject traditional fantasy tropes, so it was a nice change to read a modern tropey fantasy book that dives right in.

Not everything can be Wheel of Time. But with all these POV characters and how quickly we jump between them (some chapters are less than a page), everything felt somewhat shallow. Robert Jordan would devote an entire book to what would be a multi-chapter subplot in one of these books. So it felt like a bunch of montages of “oh and then they did this for 6 weeks so now he’s good at it”.

Minor spoilers (still vague):

Some of the misery was too miserable. And he tends to delay some of the resolutions and settlings of grudges until the big final battle. Which leaves us with pieces of shit just surviving constantly and being allowed to do more awful things. It would be nice to resolve some of the conflicts over the course of the books rather than the very end, but it definitely made the end exciting.

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Realm of the Elderlings fanart community is so amazing. My Beloved and Nighteyes and some foolish badgerlocked man.

Art by OdinnCormai

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My next up is this series, The Faithful and the Fallen by John Gwynne. I’m going to read all his books, and I’m just starting book 4 of this series today, so I’ll probably be done this weekend. I like it so far. Very traditional fantasy series that works its way into grimdark territory. I actually really like a couple of the characters! Fun to see him grow as an author.

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I read the Licanius trilogy in January. The series is very much an exciting adventure story that edges its way into epic fantasy. With the Jordan/Sanderson comparison right on the cover, you can see while reading exactly why they were compared. Many elements feel directly influenced by Wheel of Time or Stormlight Archives. This is not a bad thing in my opinion, I thought it was a very fun read.

Aside from a few, the characters in this series are fairly thin and cliche. It made the trilogy feel like classic fantasy because of that. The plot was much more interesting than the characters, and I wish we could have gotten more deep with them. There were tropes that he could have written in that he avoided, and there were several that he gladly dove into.

Time travel. It was very well-handled. I’m surprised to be saying this, but the dismount was incredibly satisfying and did a great job of supporting the themes of the series.

Plot was fantastic, characters were “good” to “great” on whatever nonsense scale I’m using. The trilogy is very easy to read, and aside from a few monster names that I couldn’t keep track of, very easy to follow. I could see the trilogy being more enjoyable when read over a few weeks rather than laboring over them with gaps in between.

Asha and Caeden were my favorite characters.

This is hard to talk about without spoilers. Check out this trilogy if you want, it’s a quick read.

And have to add, this is the author’s first book. Quite a bold first book, tbh, taking on time travel in a fantasy setting. I look forward to The Will of the Many

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My new year’s resolution was to post about the books that I read. I like reading a lot of fantasy and sci-fi, and my favorite thing to do afterwards is to seek out the fandom and all the memes. Well it’s mid-February, so I’m late. It would be funnier to do this in December, but I actually want to do this. So I’ll be doing that now here, everything’s fine here, how are you?

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I thought it would be funny to get one of those shirts but with all Shallan’s personalities. Now l regret not getting a wild theory added as the last one. Like &Kelsier

But l realized l can’t wear this shirt out and about. What if l spoil it for someone

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Randy Savage Upon Adelaide

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Spoilers through Words of Radiance and Warbrwaker

IS THAT FUCKING NIGHTBLOOD?!?!?!???

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Despite my drawing skills, l hope this makes sense.

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Started The Way of Kings the other day. Found another Hoid, and now l guess l have to reread Mistborn to see where he pops up.

By the way, Way of Kings is amazing and none of you spoil me or l’ll tell Sazed on you.

[drspacemanspliff]

Shrimp. Shramp. Shrump!

Shellebrate the wonderful world of shrimp (and their shrimp-like friends) with this playful parody of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”. We promise by the end, you’ll want to hug a deep-sea shrimp, squeal about cleaner shrimp, and be fascinated by mysid shrimp!

If you weren’t shrimpressed before, we’re sea-rtain this song will krilly change your tune!

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I started Mistborn at the beginning of the year, and got through Bands of Mourning. I am currently reading Elantris. My cousin told me that Lost Metal ties into other Cosmere, so l’m going to do Warbreaker and then Stormlight, and then Lost Metal.

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I made a Plane Axe from the game The Forest. With upgrades

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Credit: u/cybershoe

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Thrift store haul.

Choke Canyon looks like a whole thing.