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[challenge-progress for=”Realm of the Elderlings” bg=”black” font=”white”] [book-info] Progress: Fool’s Errand 18% So.  Onto Fool’s Errand.  The first thing I’d like to comment on is, isn’t the cover art for the audiobook simply gorgeous?  I don’t normally pay much attention to covers, but that one really drew my eye. The lighting and the mysterious figures are beautiful.  They are much preferable to the paperback or hardback cheesy images. Secondly, with moving onto a new series I’m moving onto a new narrator for the audiobooks.  While I’d nothing against Paul Boehmer who narrated The Farseer Trilogy and Anne Flosnik of the Liveship Traders, James Langston seemed to me to be of a completely different calibre entirely.  Of course, that could be that he gave Chade a burr in his accent which reminded me of my childhood! Here’s a sample I am reminded that Hobb’s trilogies are VERY, VERY slow to start.  Fitz’s desire to shut himself off from his old life and those he loves to lead a quiet, sedentary life is beginning to annoy me now!  Let’s just get on with the adventure please.  I’ll need to bear that in mind when I start Fool’s Assassin that I’ll need to…

[challenge-progress for=”Realm of the Elderlings” bg=”black” font=”white”] [book-info title=”Ship of Destiny” author=”robin-hobb-2″] Progress: Ship of Destiny 100% complete.Progress: Fool’s Errand 4% complete.  Woohoo, two books down, three to go!  I finished Ship of Destiny today, the second longest of the five books I’m reading for the Realm of the Elderlings reading challenge.  I also started on Fool’s Errand, the first in the Tawny Man Trilogy.  Darn, I miss Whispersync for Voice already :o( The Liveship Traders series is quite differently structured to the Farseer Trilogy.  It contains multiple story strands and multiple points of view, whereas Farseer is purely from Fitz’ point of view.  The joy of the Farseer trilogy is getting to know Fitz and those he loves in great depth.  With the Liveship Traders, the characters didn’t speak to me nearly as much (Amber excepted) but I loved watching how all the disparate plots came together in a really satisfying ending.  I am looking forward to getting back to Fitz and the Fool though! Back with more tomorrow!

[challenge-progress for=”Realm of the Elderlings” bg=”black” font=”white”] [book-info title=”Ship of Destiny” author=”robin-hobb-2″] Progress: Ship of Destiny 58% complete. I made reasonable progress today, although I don’t have much to comment on.  The various plotlines are really starting to come together now.  I enjoyed the Kennit/Paragon interactions. More tomorrow!

[challenge-progress for=”Realm of the Elderlings” bg=”black” font=”white”] [book-info title=”Ship of Destiny” author=”robin-hobb-2″] Progress: Ship of Destiny 45% complete I made reasonable progress on my Realm of the Elderlings challenge today.  I’m now 45% of the way through book two.  In today’s reread I entered the section entitled Winter.  This is fitting as it’s the lowest point of most of the storylines in the Liveship Traders series: Dragon Tintaglia is despairing that she will be able to guide the tangle of sea serpents to the dragon spawning ground so that they can undergo their transformation.  She is doubtful if she will be able to persuade the humans to assist with redirecting the river.  The sea serpents themselves are losing hope of fulfilling their dragon destinies. Things aren’t going too well for the humans either; Bingtown is on the point of being destroyed either by Chalcedon or internal feuding, take your pick.  Reyn is distraught in his belief that Malta has perished in her flight from Tremaug with the Satrap. In actual fact, she must cater to the Satrap’s every whim in order to receive his protection necessary for her survival. Those on the Liveships Paragon and Vivacia aren’t doing that great…

[challenge-progress for=”Realm of the Elderlings” bg=”black” font=”white”] [book-info title=”Ship of Destiny” author=”robin-hobb-2″] Progress: Ship of Destiny 27% complete So I didn’t make a lot of progress today.  Darned work keeps getting in the way! A few thoughts on what I read today. Hobb is really pushing the contrast between Ronica and Serilla.  I can’t remember how that ends up, so I’m enjoying following that Bingtown storyline. The whole issue of women’s rights in Bingtown compared to the Chalcedon states and how it impacts Malta’s storyline is also very interesting.  It also ties into the Ronica/Serilla plot with their respective attitudes to power. Both of the Liveships – Vivacia and Paragon are going a bit nuts.  I don’t think good things can come of this. More tomorrow!

[challenge-overview] Progress:  Ship of Destiny 17% complete So, onto book two of my Realm of the Elderlings reading challenge, Ship of Destiny.  Ship of Destiny is the third in the Liveship Traders trilogy. I chose not to include the first two, Ship of Magic and Mad Ship in my reread for two reasons. One was time constraint to meet my deadline, the second is that I had dipped into the trilogy fairly recently (fairly recently being about 18 months ago).  I did a quick Wikipedia lookup to bring myself up to speed. So, a few thoughts. Whispersync for Voice, welcome back!  YAY!  I didn’t realise how much I missed it when I didn’t have it for Assassin’s Quest.  Sadly, I see it’s also missing from The Tawny Man.  Ah well. I miss Fitz and the Fool.  We do get to see the Fool’s alter ego, Amber and my heart just about broke when she mentioned the slave pin that had been given to her by her true love.  I’m not certain at which point we are supposed to realise that Amber is the Fool, but once you know she is, it’s hard to avoid picking up these little hints. I’m…

[challenge-overview showempty=”yes”] Progress:  Assassin’s Quest 100% complete So this weekend I powered through and finished Assassin’s Quest, the third book in the Farseer Trilogy.  As a side note, this book is not Whispersync for Voice enabled, so switching between the Kindle and audiobook versions was a hassle. I loved this book.  The two magic systems invented by Hobb – the Skill and the Wit – are tightly drawn and are used in very interesting ways. Each chapter begins with an excerpt from a history book which indicates the main theme of that particular chapter.  They tie in very nicely together. Initially the first book of the trilogy – Assassin’s Apprentice – is very slow and boring, but once the trilogy picks up, it moves along at a great pace. The Fool is one of the most intriguing characters for me in epic fantasy.  I look forward to continuing the character’s story in The Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies.  Of course now there is the prospect of even more Fool to come in the new Fitz and Fool trilogy :o) That’s all I have for tonight.  Onto Ship of Destiny!

Hello, and yes I am still here.  It’s been two months since my last post.  It’s been a challenging couple of months both at work and at home, and so my blogging has very much suffered.  Things aren’t going to quieten down in the foreseeable future, so I’ll blog when I can, making no promises.  I sincerely apologise to the publishers who have been kind enough to send me ARCs – I suspect that I will not be able to meet my commitments to review these books, but my responsibilities to my employer who pays our bills and family must come first.  At this point in time, reading needs to remain an escape without pressure to review. So onto the books I’ve read in the last couple of months. [book-info]One of the pure joys of my reading/listening time recently has been the audiobook of J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them narrated by Newt Scamander himself, Eddie Redmayne.  This was a wonderful surprise – I really wasn’t expecting it to be as entertaining as it was.  This is a “revised edition” film tie-in, to include an additional footnote by Scamander commenting on the events of the film and…

Happy new year everyone!  I hope 2015 is a good one for you.  It’s about time I got on and did my review of my reading year.  It was a good year in general.  I did have a couple of major reading slumps, which meant that this was the first time in many years that I didn’t make my GoodReads challenge.  I had set my challenge at 100 books of which I read 91, which isn’t too bad going, I suppose.  My challenge goal didn’t take account of the fact that this year I listened to far more audiobooks than previously.  These do take me much longer than reading a Kindle book, but are very enjoyable. Some stats One reason I love GoodReads is that is can give you some interesting stats and a record of your reading progress.  Here are some of mine. I read 91 books in 2014.  The longest of these was Brandon Sanderson’s Words of Radiance, which weighed in at a whopping 1,088 pages or 48 hours and 15 minutes of listening pleasure.  I gave my father-in-law this audiobook for Christmas – it will take him a bit of time to get through it! I rated…

This week has been pretty quiet in terms of reading.  I’ve pretty much spent all my time this week finishing my reread of Brent Weeks’ The Blinding Knife and following up with the new release The Broken Eye.  These books are HUGE.  The Broken Eye comes in at 816 pages or 29 hrs and 33 mins in audiobook format.  I won’t say too much more – my full review will come out next week, so keep an eye out for it if you want to know my thoughts on it. Coming so close on my reread of Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings reading challenge I’m rather epic fantasied out.  I definitely need to take a break with some cutesy contemporary romance – Rainbow Rowell, Stephanie Perkins, I’m looking at you – or some cozy cat mysteries or some contemporary urban fantasy such as The Dresden Files.  I suspect I’ll just flick through my Kindle’s library and see what takes my eye. Next week sees the release of the first in a collaborative contemporary fantasy series by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black, The Iron Magisterium, so that my hit the spot. Added to my library this week The Heir of Fire by…