Sharp Ends [December 2018]

[Angela, I'm Silverfox lost]

Buddy Read starts 27th July.

[Siobhan]

Is anyone planning on reading this tomorrow?

[Diana Stormblessed]

How did I miss this? I thought we had moved this one to August to give a month break?

[Siobhan]

I think most people wanted to move it back, not sure when to.
But I was just checking if anyone else was still wanting to read it now, can't remember if Arkadeb had decided. :)
I'll pop it back on the shelf and wait for you all.

[Siobhan]

Just checked Red Country, I think the general consensus was December.

[Diana Stormblessed]

I'm good with December. I need a First Law breather.

[Barry]

December might work for me.

[Anni]

I will read it in December, sorry Siobhan! ;)

[Anni]

When would you like to start? I want to finish the series this year, so beginning of Dezember would be best for me. Maybe 1st? What do you think?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Was this serendipity?... or did you see me mention it in the other thread?

December is fine with me...

[Anni]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Was this serendipity?... or did you see me mention it in the other thread?

December is fine with me..."

Nope, I saw your comment there :)

[Angela, I'm Silverfox lost]

Reactivated thread. Buddy read starts 1st December.

[Anni]

I still haven't finished Red Country, so I'll be late again 😅

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Sir Anni wrote: "I still haven't finished Red Country, so I'll be late again 😅"

That's everyone and everything, of late... I keep forgetting to add this to my BRTracker... I'm behind on November reads, because I keep binging Fever instead of catching up...

Unread:

Monster Baru Cormorant -- Nov 14th
Harry Potter #6 -- Nov 26th

December 1st -- Sharp Ends, Riyria Chronicles #4, Riftwar Saga #4, Invisible Library #5
December 3rd-8th -- 3 more books (excluding the Fever book I already read)
December 10th -- 3 books (including the Fever book I'm reading right now)

This is probably my lowest priority, so you and Laura will probably beat me to it...

[Laura]

Ha ha! I wish!
I'll try and finish Red Country by tomorrow evening and then I have to hurry up and get going with the 3 due Codex Alera.
I also have Onyx and Ivory and Destiny's Conflict open. And will start Black Dagger Brotherhood on the 5th.

That Way Lies Camelot and Xoe need to be finished this week also for a challenge in another group, and I've got an ARC coming up for review these days.

So I'll probably eat your dust and join very late with Anni.

At least Anni and I can keep each other company that way! :D

Btw- I may fall out of Red Sister, The Amulet of Samarkand and Red Knight. Will try to catch up with 2 of those later in the month. Now... No Way!!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Laura wrote: "Ha ha! I wish!
I'll try and finish Red Country by tomorrow evening and then I have to hurry up and get going with the 3 due Codex Alera.
I also have Onyx and Ivory and Destiny's Conflict open. And..."

You just need to read Red Sister before March, so you can read Grey Sister in March, and Holy Sister when it comes out in April :D

Problem solved...

[Anni]

Laura wrote: "Ha ha! I wish!
I'll try and finish Red Country by tomorrow evening and then I have to hurry up and get going with the 3 due Codex Alera.
I also have Onyx and Ivory and Destiny's Conflict open. And..."

I won't be able to finish Red Country tomorrow... I'll be happy, if I manage to finish the second part 🙈

[Diana Stormblessed]

I'm going to be late, too. I have 4 books on the 1st, none of which I've started yet. Should we push this one back by a week or so if that's easier for everyone?

[Anni]

Diana Stormblessed wrote: "I'm going to be late, too. I have 4 books on the 1st, none of which I've started yet. Should we push this one back by a week or so if that's easier for everyone?"

Great idea :)

[Diana Stormblessed]

Anyone else starting? I'm starting today.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Diana Stormblessed wrote: "Anyone else starting? I'm starting today."

Hope to start soon-ish... I'm slowly getting caught up with everything... it's also my last week of BR start dates of the year :)

5 BRs behind, including this one and the last Codex Alera that starts today...

5 BRs left for the year, including 2 I signed up for in the past 24hrs...

[Anni]

I'll need a little more time, but I'm looking forward to read your thought once I started :)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

It's easy to catch up when you just decide not to read a half dozen books :)

I'll get to this, for sure, this weekend... this is the only book I was still behind on, that I didn't cut... and I cut some things that hadn't arrived yet, as well... my schedule is wide open, all of a sudden...

[Diana Stormblessed]

I finished this one this morning. It was... ok. It's a bunch of short stories about familiar characters. Because it was just a bunch of short stories I found it lacking depth. And the last story I thought was out of character. I'd love to discuss that one with someone else.

[Anni]

I hope to finish Red Country today or tomorrow, I will be here then imediately ;)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

First story: (view spoiler)[I feel bad for thinking "go get tortured, Glokta"... not very likeable... (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Second story: (view spoiler)[Not sure what the point of this story was, other than to see a bit of Severin(sp?) pre-Glokta, and that presumed Eater... altho I can't place that Eater... is she one from the main series, or the one that worked with the MC in one of the side books?

EDIT: Looking at the wiki, I think I mean the 3rd story/chapter... the 2nd one must have been super short, because I only have vague memories of it... (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I don't particularly want to read these stories all at once, it seems... and Diana's mini-review didn't help... so I decided I'll break this up over the next week or so, in between other books... probably read the 3rd & 4th story tomorrow, unless they're longer...

[Anni]

Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "I don't particularly want to read these stories all at once, it seems... and Diana's mini-review didn't help... so I decided I'll break this up over the next week or so, in between other books... p..."

I will start today :) I'm not sure how many stories the book contains, but if you like to, I would join you reading 2 stories a day?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

The table of contents shows about a dozen stories/chapter... each one jumps ahead a couple years, from 570 to 592... looks like it shifts back and forth, between the characters from the 2 stories I remembered, so far...

[Diana Stormblessed]

Yeah, the time jumping didn't help. I was really not expecting the timeline to be how it was.

[Anni]

I only remembered that there was some kind of order in the short stories, here's what Petrik wrote in his review:

"Unlike most anthologies, there is a sense of structure here because it was done in a chronological order, with a new character, a female duo, Javre and Shev making appearances several times as if they’re the main characters."

First Story, A beautiful Bastard (view spoiler)[ Haha, I agree, Glokta wasn't really likeable and the whole time I thought about Karma... Still it was somehow nice to see Glokta again :) And it was also funny to meet the young West and Tunny. (hide spoiler)] If I had to rate it, I would give the story 3.5-4 Stars, maybe 4 for the nostalgic moments of seeing known characters :)

Second Story, Small Kindnesses (view spoiler)[ I think the part about Javre and Shev being kind of main characters of this book, might answer your question, Iain :) And I also liked this one. It was nice and short and made me smile a lot of times. (hide spoiler)] 4 Stars

I'm positively surprised so far, maybe because my expectations were quite low... But so far I really enjoy the book. It's not like the other First Law books, of course not, but as they feel a little lengh-y sometimes (especially book 2, 4 and 5), I find these shortstories refreshing :)

[Diana Stormblessed]

The Shev stories were my favorite. In general I liked the stories (except for the very last one). It was just wasn't what I was expecting going it. I didn't realize this was a book of short stories.

[Anni]

Diana Stormblessed wrote: "The Shev stories were my favorite. In general I liked the stories (except for the very last one). It was just wasn't what I was expecting going it. I didn't realize this was a book of short stories."

Oh ok, I see how expecting a full novel and getting this can take away the reading pleasure...

[Anni]

Third Story, The Fool's Job(view spoiler)[ Lot's of blood an chopping off limbs... Typical Abercrombie. I liked the part with the red socks (because yeah, I really like socks 😅) and how ridiculous the job turned out in the end made me laugh, but still I wasn't really invested in this one... Might be the characters, I think "The Heroes" was my least favourite book of the series, especially because of the really large cast of characters... (hide spoiler)] 2.5 - 3 Stars

Fourth Story, Skipping Town(view spoiler)[ Again, I really like the humor and the banter between Javre and Shev, but this story was a little too short to be really interesting... (hide spoiler)] 3 stars

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Sir Anni wrote: "I only remembered that there was some kind of order in the short stories, here's what Petrik wrote in his review:

"Unlike most anthologies, there is a sense of structure here because it was done i..."

First story: Agreed... I was so conflicted... because GLOKTA... I love him in the original trilogy... even as I said we probably shouldn't...

Second story: I'm glad we're getting more of these characters... they're new/interesting... and I agree... the semi-standalone chapters, and the fact I'm taking it slow, is increasing my enjoyment...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Sir Anni wrote: "Third Story, The Fool's Job[spoilers removed] 2.5 - 3 Stars

Fourth Story, Skipping Town[spoilers removed] 3 stars"

Third story: Just felt like typical Northmen, to me, so your rating seems about right...

Fourth story: This might become a problem with the whole book... looking at the chapters, only 1-2 of them are especially long... most top out at 30 minutes at my listening speed, and many are shorter than even that...

(view spoiler)[listening to Jevre talk her way around succor was hilarious, tho... then Shev was like "psst... you're embarrassing yourself..." lol...

I wonder if these Fifteen will feature in the new trilogy... this is a new faction, right? (hide spoiler)]

[Anni]

Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "Sir Anni wrote: "Third Story, The Fool's Job[spoilers removed] 2.5 - 3 Stars

Fourth Story, Skipping Town[spoilers removed] 3 stars"

Third story: Just felt like typical Northmen, to me, so your ra..."

Haha yes! This part was hilarious :) But it was the other way round, Shev was the one babbeling!

And I agree taking it slow with this one was a great idea. I don't think I would enjoy the stories that much listen to them straight after another...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Sir Anni wrote: "Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "Sir Anni wrote: "Third Story, The Fool's Job[spoilers removed] 2.5 - 3 Stars

Fourth Story, Skipping Town[spoilers removed] 3 stars"

Third story: Just felt like typi..."

I'm terrible with names... I took them from your comment above... thought I'd picked correctly...

The internet described their story as Forest Gumpian... apparently, they're going to bump into most of the main characters from the main books over the course of this book...

[Anni]

Fifth Story, Hell (view spoiler)[ Hmmm... I liked this one, maybe because I just finished Red Country and Tempel's backstory was referred to often (hide spoiler)] 3.5 stars

Sixth Story, Two's Company (view spoiler)[I LOVED the beginning, I even listened to the first 10 minutes again after finishing it :D Maybe I was in a silly mood, but I couldn't stop laughing :) and I really liked Whirrun in The Heroes, so it was nice to see him again! (hide spoiler)] hmmm... Well... 5 stars! :)

[Anni]

Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "The internet described their story as Forest Gumpian... apparently, they're going to bump into most of the main characters from the main books over the course of this book... "

Sounds good :) So far I enjoy their stories more than the ones only focussing on characters/events of the previous books.
I hope you're right with what you said before and it will also have bits of the new book. Will be interesting to get to know more of the order Javre was part of.

Seventh Story, Wrong Place, Wrong Time (view spoiler)[ The idea of seeing events of book 5 from different perspectives wasn't bad... But I ended up a little bored. (hide spoiler)] 2 Stars

I started the next one, but are too tired to finish today... I'll add it to tomorrows stories :)

[Anni]

Eighth Story, Some Desperado (view spoiler)[ It was nice to see Shy again and the story wasn't boring, but I don't feel like it adds anything I couldn't have lived without... :D (hide spoiler)] 2.5 - 3 Stars

Ninth Story, Yesterday (view spoiler)[ This one feels similar to the 7th story... But here at least we saw Gorst as a familiar face. I guess therefor I liked it a little better, but this wasn't too exciting as well... (hide spoiler)] 2.5 - 3 Stars

As the next one is nearly 2 hours long, I will listen to it tomorrow, together with the way shorter 11th story. This way there will only be 2 stories left, plus the authors interview at the end :)

I'm looking forward to the next Shev and Javre story!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I need to catch up... will make sure to do that tonight, at work...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I listened through to Some Desperado... I agree that Two's Company has been the best story so far... I also found the banter here hilarious... I also loved how in the combat Jevre was all"Leave mypartner alone", but the second battle was over, it was back to "henchman, at best" :D

[Anni]

Tenth Story, Three's a Crowd(view spoiler)[I liked this one. This one was a little more serious and I like how it added to the character depth. The conversations between Shev and Javre are hilarious, but sometimes I really like the drawn conclusions and their motivations. Even through told in a rough or flippantly way, it doesn't mean there's nothing serious beneath.
Still I'm not sure I understand/ like the end of the story... That the whole time it was Javre's mother hunting her. (hide spoiler)] Still, 4 Stars

Eleventh Story, Freedom(view spoiler)[ Hmmm... This one was... different? It's nice to see, that the strange storyteller/ author lived a long life, but this story wasn't at all what I thought he would write... It was an ok story, I guess it was meant to be funny, but actually I wasn't that entertained.

On the positive side I really liked that Abercrombie narrated the story himself :) (hide spoiler)] 2.5 Stars

[Anni]

Twelfth Story, Tough Times All Over (view spoiler)[ I'm a little disappointed that this is the end of Javra and Shev's story... I didn't expected a Happily Everafter, it's Abercrombie after all, but they were barly there in the story AND we never get to know what's inside the package, maybe this will be important for the next book?

On the other hand I really enjoyed the way the story was told and the changd between different POV. (hide spoiler)] 4 Stars

Thirteenth Story, Made a Monster(view spoiler)[ I know you said, you found this story out of character, Diana... But I don't see it that way... After all it happened before the original trilogy and Logan said the whole time that he had done really bad things in his life and it always seemed like he tried to be a better human. I like Logan and a story where he's finally happy would have been a nice surprise, but I found this one rather conclusive. It explained why he feels bad about his past and it explained how Logan and Bethod became enemies.

Plus, I'm wondering what the visit of the magus' helper with the different eye-colours meant... Did Bayaz set up the whole war of the Northmen? (hide spoiler)] 3 Stars

[Anni]

I also liked the interview at the end :) In total that makes around 3.3 Stars for me.

[Diana Stormblessed]

Sir Anni wrote: "Twelfth Story, Tough Times All Over ..."

Finally I can discuss the last story! (view spoiler)[I found it out of character not because he did some bad stuff. I never expected Logan to be a good guy. I found it out of character because Logan is all about peace and survival. Killing the guy's son was very against that. Mainly, there was no point it it. Logan in the other books isn't afraid to kill and get his hands dirty, but he kills for a reason. This killing was not only pointless, it went against his chief's orders. I just can't reconcile it in my head. (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Haven't finished yet, but regarding Bayaz: (view spoiler)[almost certainly... from everything we've learned about Bayaz, he's orchestrated almost everything in the series, so far... his actions have been about trying to stay relevant in a world where magic is losing power to technology... and it doesn't sound like it's going to get any better in the new trilogy, which has been described as a world in the middle of the Industrial Revolution...

For all Bayaz's high and mighty talk throughout the series, he's just as bad as Khalul and the other mages who became Eaters for power... he's just been more discrete about it (with the exception of when he was eating amid a pile of corpses in Red Country, I think)... then there's the growing list of Eaters that worked for him over the years... Shenkt from the Mercutto book & the master of disguises from the main trilogy... (hide spoiler)]

[Anni]

Diana Stormblessed wrote: "Sir Anni wrote: "Twelfth Story, Tough Times All Over ..."

Finally I can discuss the last story! [spoilers removed]"

Ok, I see your point! (view spoiler)[ And I think it's true that Logan only want to survive, but Ninefinger won't. He's just mad and killing is fun to him and therefor he doesn't need a reason.
I think the difference between Logans older self, we see here and his newer self in the other books, is that he's trying to control that Ninefingers-part of him way more. He's trying to stay Logan and not "shift" into Ninefingers, except when he really has too, for example fighting for his life or people he cares about.
I don't think it's out of character that it was different, when he was younger. That he became his mad self more often and now he's regretting it. That he only needed a small nudge to get angry and mad. I'm not sure why it happened here, but maybe it has something to do with the loss of his family? In the first book he visited his old village, where he used to live with his wife, child and father. I'm not sure when the raid happend in which they got killed, but maybe it was before these short story and jealousy or revenge made him turn into Ninefingers?

That's of course only my point of view and I guess it's unnecessary to say, but with only text as communication you never know how something might appear. Only because I understand it in another way, I don't think that you're wrong :) (hide spoiler)]