Michael Smith > Recent Status Updates

LITERALLY ABOUT TO MEET BINABIK FOR THE FIRST TIME (AGAIN!!)!!

Oh, this books still has the power to move and captivate me, more than a decade since I first picked it up! AAAAHHHHHHHHHH

THE FEELS ARE STRONG!

I will take a breath, and resume.

Oh how I missed this! Took me a few pages to get into the mindset of Fitz again, but I'm delighted to be back in his part of the world!

LOOOOOVE THIS ALREADY!

Finished chapter two. Can I say, I missed this? Sure, I never stopped reading The Realm Of The Elderlings, but I won't deny that The Rain Wild Chronicles felt like a departure, in both tone and quality, from the three previous trilogies. I'm ecstatic to be back with Fitz. At some point, I will read these trilogies again, but back to back.

Robin Hobb, Tad Williams and Sarah J Maas are taking over my life!

I've passed the turning point, where the story goes from peaceful to the true start of chaos. It has terrifying scenes, and slow, ponderous and surreal journeys through the belly of the great castle. It's so...heartbreaking. Every time I read this book, I quietly dread the chapters dealing with Simon and Morgenes fatal confrontation with Pryarates, and yet I eagerly anticipate what comes next, for one: Binabik ☺️

I was going to wait til after I finished the Throne Of Glass series (which I massively preferred to Hobb's Rain Wild Chronicles quartet), but...I can't wait any longer!

It feels a bit jarring to suddenly have Fitz and his voice in my head, it's been so long since I finished The Tawny Man trilogy. But it's like meeting an old friend for the first time in years! So much to catch up, and so much to enjoy reading...

Can't believe I am working my way through this book as fast as I am (Goodreads have the page count wrong, this volume is a weighty tome at well over 900 pages long).

The story is now heading towards chaos. I love how Tad Williams slowly builds towards this, requiring the reader to be patient. I already know how much this lays off, but it's still sad that so many don't. Love this book more than I can say!

I always feel a little sad, knowing around this point in the book that the peace of decades is over, replaced by the gradual building of rebellion, the undercurrents of war sparking into life whilst the characters I love (and have loved for years) are about to fall headfirst into chaos, butchery, and confusion. Again, many say this is boring. I say the story is brewing. It sets my heart racing every time.

Chapter 6: The Cairn On The Cliffs

The death of King John Presbyter is a turning point. This is roughly where we start to see the subtle but fast moving tide of darkness fall upon the land. The funeral scene in this chapter is brilliantly written, with more insight on the religion of the land, and we come to understand how wonderful and peaceful his reign was, his subjects unprepared for what is to come. A+ writing.

Chapter 4: Cricket Cage

In just one chapter we learn in great detail (exhausting for Simon, truly fascinating for me) the early history of the wars of Osten Ard. In one chapter, we learn centuries worth of essential backstory, setting up for the reader all the political backstory needed to work our way forward with this grand epic. I never understood how people found this boring. I love the time spent with Morgenes.

I remember not long ago wondering if Sarah J. Maas would live up to the potential the first couple of books so obviously had.

Well, let's say I thought she may in years to come, but at this point I know she already has.

A slower paced novel, hence my slower paced reading. But every page is to be savoured. Fantastic character study, this book is a massive improvement on the two previous, also great, instalments.

Forgot how much I love Rachel, and the scene detailing Simon's birth, with subtle foreshadowing of his importance, remains one of my favourite scenes. Elias and Josua, the divided brothers; our first sighting (although we don't know it yet) of Miriamele; Morgenes and his stories...the details are so vivid, so real, I forget this is a story and start wondering if I am getting lost in my own memories. I love this book!

The representation of disability in a protagonist (Chaol) is unusual in fantasy and quite endearing. Had you told me around the time I first started this series that Maas was going to explore so many diverse themes, and even pause the main story to devote an entire book to search for a cure, I'd have found it difficult to believe you.

The series started off cheap, only to evolve into something priceless.

The foreshadowing here:

Where did that breeze come from?
A voice seemed to whisper, whisper, the words too faint to hear.
Perhaps he ran his hands across this same stone....
A whisper on the wind: We will have it back, manchild. We will have it all back....
Clutching the neck of his coat tight against the unexpected chill, Simon got up and climbed the grassy slope, suddenly lonesome for familiar voices and light.

This is a short little book, and a reread. Just fancy a little pulpy horror to pass the time. Still enjoyable!

Once again, I've started The Dragonebone Chair, by Tad Williams. How come? Well, simple: this is the start of my all time favourite work of fiction: Memory, Sorrow And Thorn.

I have been known to simply read, for comfort, the first couple of chapters. However, whilst I am reading this again for the zillionth time, this will be my first time listening to the audiobook, which is brilliantly narrated by Andrew Wincott.

I feel ashamed I haven't yet finished this fantastic trilogy! Picked it up again today, dead set on finishing it before I finish the Throne Of Glass series, and start the final Robin Hobb "Elderlings" series.

I will definitely be reading these again.

Yeah, I absolutely love this book. Perhaps due to the fact that I have devoured the six previous instalments so ravenously, I find myself slowly immersing myself into this seventh, and penultimate, instalment. But it's fantastic, and like so many books this year, I wish I'd just get my act together and read it faster!

Now I'm getting closer and closer to the ending, I am surprised that, even though this particular series hasn't impressed me on the same scale as either the two Fitz trilogies or the Liveships Traders, I am still heavily invested in the characters (even the ones I do not care for) and their outcomes.

So it makes me wonder, am I really not enjoying this series, because it appears I may actually love it...😂

This is such hard work! I've raced through all the previous books, but the final two books in the Rain Wild Chronicles have done me in!

Still have a way to go, but I did pause this book for a couple of months.

Some fans love this series, some don't, many have skipped it entirely. I say it's essential reading. But it's ponderous too.

Well, been in a bit of a reading slump. Gone from reading four books at a time to, well, just the one (I still have two other books to finish but...meh...time).

This one felt a little anticlimactic after the stunning ending of Empire Of Storms, but now it's just started to kick into gear. Woop woop!