Robert Jordan is dead. He died September 16, 2007 from complications from primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy (cardiac amyloidosis).
No kidding here… I found out just a bit ago, because George Martin dedicated an entry on him on his blog. Checked up on wikipedia (see link), and it’s true.

Never thought this would happen… he was fighting so hard against his illness, doing so much better already. Guess we’ll never know how the Wheel of Time series ends now.
We’ll never get to Tarmon Gai’don.
What a crying shame… I am pretty bummed about it.

So I finished Red Seas Under Red Skies last night, and I thought I might spend some time this morning convincing the people who are not convinced yet that Scott Lynch is THE AWESOME. I thought that his first book was a bit better, and I’ll go into why I think this in a bit, but what makes Scott Lynch my hero is that the guy is my age, he’s a geek like we all are, he writes great, and it makes reading FUN. It’s been quite a while since reading has been semi-lighthearted uncomplicated fun for me. It made me giggle aloud no less than three times during the reading. And yet despite that, it’s always intelligent, there IS a plot, and the “oh SHIT” moments really work. I nearly chorused it along with the characters.

The Lies of Locke Lamora was just a bit better. For me it’s mostly a pacing issue, and part a characterbuilding issue. I felt like this book spent more time building up and the final deliverance was rather short. Especially the whole Sinspire job – I need to reread there, but I feel that Lynch used the same deception on us as Locke on his mark. I do love the way it turned out though. The way the Stragos issue was handled felt also rather satisfying (although the kind of justice is used is a bit harsh for my taste).
In the first book, the buildup to the large revelations was a bit shorter, compared to the big evening when everything came together.

The whole concept of the pirates was fun, though. Unlike many people, I have no particular love for pirate stories (sorry ;)), and when I heard the concept of Jean and Locke having to become pirates, I rolled my eyes a bit, I have to admit. However, since Robin Hobb’s liveship traders was also awesome, I decided to give it a whirl. And I was pleasantly surprised. I liked the storyline, I liked Ezri and Zamira. So all was peachy.

I’m curious where Lynch will be going with the characters from now on.
Chalk me up as a fangirl, here’s somebody who loves the sheer fun of this series!

I think you can establish that a book is engrossing if the reader of it is so engrossed in it that she ends up on tram 4 instead of tram 8 at 8.30 am in the morning in Rotterdam and thus has to WALK to work for half an hour.
Yeah, great going there Lannie

Had a great time last night, we went with Anneke and Frank to a Greek restaurant to celebrate the fact that Olli’s got a new job – in which he and Frank will actually be colleagues. We had lots of laughs and talks (and gossip – god, sometimes I miss the drama that was always going on at my old job. There’s ALWAYS something going on there). They left at 10.30 or something.
The food was great too, but maybe a bit too garliccy. I think I smell :S

Unfortunately, Robin Hobb’s latest, Renegade’s Magic is bloody engrossing so I keep going to bed too late this week because I’m reading. I read in the train, mostly, and if I have time during my lunchbreak – but it’s not going fast enough for me so I am reading when I go to bed as well. And seriously, going to sleep past midnight does not an awake Lannie make if I have to get up at 6.45 am again. On the bright side, I think this book is the best of the series. I’m about 2/3rd into it, and the plot is moving at a good pace, stuff is happening, and I’m curious as to how it’ll end. This is Hobb at her finest: if she wants to, she can move a plot along in a completely satisfactory manner and solve all issues, raise new ones, solve them too, and finish the book in a great way. She does it always at the end of her series, and I’m glad to report she’s still got it.
Some writers should take lessons with her

On a completely different note: I haven’t even packed yet for the vacation. Got most of my clothes washed and sorted out, but no packing yet. That’s going to happen tonight I hope

The other day during my lunchbreak I stopped by the ABC in The Hague and even though I had stuff to read in my bagpack (Jacqueline Carey’s Banewreaker, which is a decent read) I finally caved in and did what I’ve been avoiding like the plague for the past… I don’t know, year and a half? I bought Orson Scott Card’s Shadow of the Giant, the last installment in what they call the side-quel to the Ender Saga.

You will find a VERY LENGTHY essay/review on this book and basically my whole reading experience on this book saga under the Read More link.

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I just finished Feast for Crows.

O_O

fucking. awesome.

I knew I would like this one, because this part of the story deals with all the plotlines in & around King’s Landing, which is where most of my favorite characters hang out; but wow… the shit REALLY hits the fan in the capital of King’s Landing. *laughs delightedly* It was indeed awesome. I worry and fear for a few of the characters, and I cheer at the fate of others. *grins* George Martin… we’re not worthy.

I’m at 2/3rd in Feast for Crows by now and God, it’s so hard to tear myself loose from the story. I have to write, I know. But oh, the story. The sheer MESS that the Seven Kingdoms are in. The characters. Littlefinger’s cunning. Jaime’s rage and his struggle for honour. And oh, Cersei.
After a wait of five years, I finally know how the story goes on and it’s beautiful to be back there. So far, it’s totally satisfying my hunger for this series.

And I’m not even done yet.

Today during my (way too short) lunchbreak, I finished Robert Jordan’s Knife Of Dreams. Yes, I’m kind of surprised that I picked it up too, after totally skipping Crossroads of Twilight because I couldn’t be arsed, but I heard some good reviews and it’s been too long since I’ve read something new, so I read it anyway. And lo and behold, it’s not even all that bad. It’s actually even quite good at points. Because sweet people, Things. Get. Resolved.

The way the book is written, it’s very clear that Jordan made himself a list with bulletpoints called Things To Resolve In This Fucking Book, printed it out and hung it above his desk while sitting down to plan & write this book. I recognize it very clearly because that’s the way I worked when finishing up Balance for myself. I had clear goals for every passage I wrote. And so did Jordan. Every passage had something to accomplish, some hint, remark or action that the POV character did to push the plot along. It was a relief to read this after the sitting around and twiddling thumbs that most of the characters did in the last two or three books.
Still, the book has some faults. Some of the characters are clearly insufferable. I kept hoping for Elayne to trip over her shoelaces and break her neck, and Egwene was just a total fucking bitch. But for the rest; Rand had some very interesting screentime, Mat did some cool things, and let’s not forget Nynaeve who actually did some very constructive stuff. It was lovely to see everyone get off their lazy asses to realize that yes, Tarmon Gai’don is upon them and they should really sit down to do something about that.

I don’t think, however, that the next book will be the last one. He’ll need one more: 13 books in total. One for every Forsaken. *grins* No seriously, in the next book they need to resolve a rescue mission storyline, the WT needs to stand strong again, and then in the last book he can sit down to write the bloody Last Battle. He can’t do that all in one book, it’d be rushed to the point of awfulness. Robin Hobb can pull a thing like that off, but I don’t think Jordan can. Not everything writes as tightly as Hobb, and that’s okay.

Mmmm… happy anniversary, sweetheart. <3
Another month has passed!
How time flies when you’re having fun.

We celebrated with spare ribs and some quality time together, and isn’t it fun how such things can improve your mood greatly? Well, not only that of course, I also had a midday on the balcony with the Coldfire trilogy. I’m up to book 3 now. It’s been five years since I read it and it’s even better than I remember. So yeah, I’m having fun with that. Now only to find a job…

I just finished “Hell’s Half Acre” by Will Christopher Bear - the third one in the series, and the last one. And man, was that fucking brilliant. It read like a nightmare. *smiles*