The Syndicate

Finished the Broken Empire Trilogy (aka Thorn Trilogy). Suffice to say I really liked it.

The premise is similar to A Song of Ice and Fire. A hundred kings are fighting to decide who will sit on a certain special throne, and they have to figure out and unite the empire before a certain undead threat arrives and destroys the world. The protagonist, Jorg Ancrath, is a child who watched his mother and little brother be killed as a result of that dispute between kings, and after learning that his father will do nothing about it, he runs away and joins a band of thieves. Over the years, he becomes their leader, and eventually comes back to get his revenge and make his own moves at the empire game. He is far from being a hero and he knows it, but he is extremely resourceful and pragamatic, tends to find the most unique solutions to problems (usually some bloody variation of cutting the gordian knot), so he may be just what the empire needs to stop the incoming undead threat.

It's very good. Particularly the last 2 books. First one is mostly good too, but it is a little harder to get into because the protagonist is a complete sociopath (in the first 50 pages, he kills multiple innocent people and rapes someone, so that can be an entry barrier for some people). But if you can get through knowing you don't have to root for the guy, plot stuff will eventually happen and he will start developing, so he will become more of an anti-hero as the story goes, which is represented by how the cover of each book has a lighter color than the previous one (but never fully white). The story tests the absolute limits on whether it's possible to redeem someone, and the way it ultimately resolves it is... unique, to say at least.

It also uses anachronic storytelling order, which is something I love. Each book has 2 or 3 narrative lines that are usually happening at different points of the timeline, and the stuff happening in the present makes more sense as you learn what happened a few years ago. There is one trip that takes the entirety of Book 2 and 3, while the other half of each book is influenced in the future by the things that happened during that trip. Each book has at least one huge plot twist that explodes near the end of the book as you learn what happened in the past, and changes your whole perspective.

Bottomline is, not a series for people who are sensitive to gore/violence (or rape, though those aren't particularly graphic) or require their narrator to have at least some semblance of humanity (at least in the first book), but after reading, I have to admit it is a very good series. It also fulfills that craving some of you may have for an actual, quality ending to a story similar to ASoIaF which doesn't extend endlessly or split in too many characters (Jorg is usually good at ensuring superfluous chartacters don't stay around, for that matter).

Reading Chrysalis. It's a web-novel:

https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/series/chrysalis

An AI wakes up and finds out the Earth has been attacked and destroyed by aliens. Every single human and every living being was killed, and the planet has been turned unihabitable. The AI apparently has the memories of a human, and feels like one.

It then spends the next 12 years developing and build the largest spacecraft in the history of humanity, so it can launch itself onto space and do the only one thing it has to: kill all the motherfucking aliens and get revenge.

But it gets interesting, when we learn the aliens are part of a galatic federation, so picking a fight with them means picking a fight with the whole federation. Furthermore, there are some ethical questions about whether an entire species can be guilty for the actions of a few members. So there is some cool plot going on.

Just finished reading Agatha Christie's Murder in the Links.

It's a pretty fucking great book. Has a zillion plot twists and like every book from Agatha, it's engineered to make you fail to guess them. Not my favorite book from her though, because they are all amazing. But great.

Let me guess, were you on G at 02/25/15?

So... I just finished The Murder of Roger Acrkoyd, by Agatha Christie.

I gotta say, this book is simply amazing. Recommended to anyone who likes mystery stories.

It starts boring but then it catches up and the ending.... holy crap, the ending.

I'm reading Agatha Christie's Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

So far it's pretty good. Love this writer.