Mark Lawrence > Recent Status Updates

Really, really good - all the quality of book 1, expanding horizons. Questions being answered.

Very engaging. Despite all the battles, these books always feel relatively gentle, with a focus on people and relationships. All very well done.

Enjoying it a lot - just as good as the first 3.

Having DNFed two books in quick succession - one massively popular, one a little known self-published book - it's great to be reading something that I'm actively enjoying.

I can see the merits in this book, but the YA vibe is dialled up too high for this old man, so I'm going to put it aside.

Enjoying this a lot - is fun, bouncy, good pace.

This seems really familiar, so I must have picked it up at some time in the past, read a little, and got distracted away from it.

It starts well, so there's no reason I would have abandoned it on quality grounds.

Story, topic/themes aside, it was immediately apparent that this is a very well written book line by line. I'm enjoying reading it!

Staying very strong - I want to keep reading!

Still excellent - reminds me of Robert Redick's Sacrements of Fire in tone, setting, and the quality of writing.

Having a really good time with this one!

This is great! Really really good writing :o

If it carries on this good it will be in my top 3 SPFBO reads ever - but there's long way to go. Reminds me of Robert V.S Redick.

Enjoy this one. It's atmospheric, twisty, turny. Great setting.

I've started - not because I think it will win the SPFBO -- though there is a decent chance of that -- but because it finally surfaced through my tbr stack.

nearly there!

It's been a compelling read so far. Very atmospheric, great characters, lots of grim stuff, touches of levity and kindness to lighten the load.

What a breath of fresh air. I've been reading a poorly written book and then I changed to this one and it's night & day. Buehlman effortlessly paints the scene, gives you solid characters in a handful of words, keeps it all flowing, moving, mattering...

Excellent so far!

Big fights. Lots of magic and guns. Fun stuff!

Still enjoying it - though adding a third side to angels and devils feels a bit redundant...

all the short stories in hardcover, you say?

I'm enjoying this a lot.

It all feels fairly familiar, but it's well written and exciting. Getting through it quickly.

"I said dyspeptically."

-- not sure I've seen that one before :D

An interesting book.

The lowest dialogue content of any work of fiction I can remember reading.

The point of view character is hard to like, and everyone else is seen fairly perfunctorily through his eyes. And they're not likeable either.

However, the story is interesting and I'm keen to see where it goes now.

still interested - not sure where it's going - the story seemed to reach a natural end about 40 pages ago

Strong Neverwhere vibes and also some American Gods vibe.

Gives strong Neverwhere vibes.

The surreal 2nd London descriptions can get old quite quickly - dreamwork never have the impact that (fake) "reality" has because it's so arbitrary.

My literary fiction reading is not extensive but Moore has (for me) elements of Rushdie, of Joyce, and (strangely) Dickens.

I think his style won't gel with the majority of fantasy readers, and perhaps his origin in comics (I first read him in 2000AD) and the commerical success of his stories as films, will make the literati too sniffy to consider him.

I'm really enjoying this so far.

When I talk of the literary-ness of prose as the level of spice added to cooking, with different people having different tolerances - that neglects to mention quite how much skill is needed to turn that prose dial up. It's not just shaking the chilli powder containor.

Moore has great literary prose.

It's dialled up to a level where it risks becoming the main event - not Ulysses level, but maybe half way there. For some readers this may become an issue as they want story and plot instead of to marvel at the poetry of the language.

I'm enjoying it a lot - but it's early days.