Author Topic: Books (Read 174286 times)

Lady Door · « **Reply #675 on:** August 26, 2010, 04:49:21 PM »

Finished Ruled Britannica. Everything that bothered me about this book would prevent me from reading Turtledove's other fiction, at least those bits based in history other than the periods I'm interested in. Basically, his adherence to history can be cumbersome: it was difficult to get into the dialogue because it was "Elizabethan-y," and there was an awful lot of detail that did jack for the plot as a whole. This could easily have been a much shorter, much tighter book, and would have been better for it.

That said, he did a great job writing an alternate history without unnecessarily bending the historical figures to it. This did cause problems when his homage turned to pastiche (I'm looking at you, Womanizer Lope and Coward Shakespeare and Carouser Kit). Luckily, he wrote characters that were entertaining to follow nonetheless.

Started Red Mars. Only a few pages in, but I'm already liking it. Excellent!

metroid composite · « **Reply #676 on:** August 26, 2010, 07:01:46 PM »

Soulless - Gail Carriger

How to describe it? The book's cover says "a tale of vampires, werewolves, and parasols". It's set in 19th century polite English culture. Starring a heroine who considers her Italian heritage to be much more scandalous than the fact that she has no soul. Vampires will attack her, and she'll respond with "I daresay that was rather rude of you" and then smack them upside the head with her weighted parasol. The language (for both description and dialogue) feels straight out of a Jane Austen novel. The content is anything but (trying its hardest to create hilarious contrasts with polite Victorian English culture and show us how the characters react).

Overall, I definitely enjoyed it. Hard to take it seriously on any level, and the novelty does wear off to a degree, but it remained fairly entertaining throughout.

Lady Door · « **Reply #677 on:** August 26, 2010, 07:29:36 PM »

I'm glad someone read that. I've kept seeing it pop up, and I wondered if it would be worth a read. From what you say, looks like something I might pick up if it goes on sale or I can borrow it.

metroid composite · « **Reply #678 on:** August 26, 2010, 09:58:00 PM »

Sale? It costs, what, $7 new; what price are you holding out for?

Grefter · « **Reply #679 on:** August 26, 2010, 10:00:09 PM »

Maaaan $7 new? Stupid America and you stupid cheap books. I think next year maybe I should only pack 4 sets of clothes and 2 pairs of shoes so I can fill up my suitcase with books and CDs instead of clothes. Edit - And shoes.

Edit 2 - Oh yeah books

Boneshaker - Alright start, willpower to read now that I am back home and have my PC to fiddle with is low though.

Lady Door · « **Reply #680 on:** August 26, 2010, 10:04:22 PM »

$7? Hrm. I thought it was $16. And yes, that's not a shockingly high price, but you should see my bookshelves.

(Also, my wallet, but never mind that.)

Maybe I'll just wait until I can library it.

Edit: $7.99, so a mass market book. Curious. I thought it was larger format.

metroid composite · « **Reply #681 on:** August 26, 2010, 10:31:06 PM »

Quote from: Lady Door on August 26, 2010, 10:04:22 PM

$7? Hrm. I thought it was $16.

http://www.amazon.com/Soulless-Parasol-Protectorate-Gail-Carriger/dp/0316056634

$8, it looks like. ($7.99 MSRP). (With some vendors selling for $4, but Amazon Shipping counteracts that I'm sure).

Quote

Maybe I'll just wait until I can library it.

Fair.

I can totally see being thrifty to save $8. I more raise an eyebrow at waiting for say, a 30%-off sale and thus only saving $2 (cause $2 is like...the price of bus fare, so can be saved by not waiting for the sale and taking one less trip to the book store instead).

Lady Door · « **Reply #682 on:** August 26, 2010, 10:33:11 PM »

There's no point in waiting for a sale on a MMPB - I've never seen it happen. Bookstores get more just remaindering the things than they do clearance-ing them. I just thought it was one of those larger format books with the pretty paper which, while nice, are stupidly expensive for what they are (the $16-20 range).

Though, if it's only in paperback, waiting to library it might also be futile. I might just have to suck it up and pay the $8. GASP.

metroid composite · « **Reply #683 on:** August 27, 2010, 01:05:10 PM »

Hm, so I've always suspected that my opinion of RPGs is directly influenced by what RPG I played immediately before (if I played an awesome game before, the next game I play seems unspectacular). Turns out this phenomenon extends to books as well.

I should have taken a clue when, right after reading Blood Bound (which seriously impressed me) I read Soulless and thought "yeah, that was pretty good I guess". The next book I have on order is taking a while to arrive, so I began rereading Twilight 1 again (I'm collecting quotes for...nefarious uses). Oh god, Soulless crushes Twilight 1. Crushes.

Current impressions:

Mercy Thompson series (2 books read) > Parasol Protectorate series (1 book read) > Twilight Series (4 books read) > Sookie Stackhouse series (2 books read) > Vampire Chronicles (4 books read)

Cotigo · « **Reply #684 on:** August 28, 2010, 02:43:03 AM »

Quote from: metroid composite on August 27, 2010, 01:05:10 PM

The next book I have on order is taking a while to arrive, so I began rereading Twilight 1 again (I'm collecting quotes for...nefarious uses). Oh god, Soulless crushes Twilight 1. Crushes.

* Makkotah stares blankly at MC.

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #685 on:** August 30, 2010, 07:17:28 AM »

Mistborn –

Finished Book 1. Man, why didn’t anyone ever tell me to read this book!? *is shot in the face by Super*. Seriously, this is the first book in ages that has made me go back and read parts of it again right after I finished. Thumbs up and I'm really upset that I didn't bring Book 2.

Excal · « **Reply #686 on:** August 30, 2010, 07:30:53 AM »

How odd, that you decided to start Mistborn around the time I finally managed to get my brother to read it. (Granted, get him to read it went roughly like "Hey, do have anything that'd be good to read?" *Pulls Mistborn off the very convenient access shelf and hands it to him*)

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #687 on:** August 30, 2010, 07:53:30 AM »

Sweet. That way I can talk about it at length when we meet next! ^.^

superaielman · « **Reply #688 on:** August 30, 2010, 12:00:32 PM »

If I had to strangle or shoot everyone who didn't read Mistborn as soon as I recommended it, I'd have to kill everyone in the group besides CT/Dhyer/LD.

Taishyr · « **Reply #689 on:** August 30, 2010, 12:15:40 PM »

Well, I could have read it, but I likely would've gotten 20 or so paragraphs in before realizing I was totally failing at paying attention to it and put it back, soooooo

uh, right, books. Um, been trying to read a series by Stephen R. Donaldson (not sure if it has a name, friend tossed 'em at me) but attention span, lol, the usual.

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #690 on:** August 30, 2010, 02:06:41 PM »

Also, on a random note, Sanderson's first major in university being Chemistry? Least shocking thing ever after reading Mistborn. Maybe that's why I like it so much. >_>;;;

metroid composite · « **Reply #691 on:** August 30, 2010, 02:10:32 PM »

Iron Kissed - Patricia Briggs

Not what I expected at all. I suppose I assume anything within the detective genre is going to be formulaic. Iron Kissed does a very good job of being its own book, and not retreading subjects and themes covered in the first two books. Part of this is a bit of a gimme--Moon Called focused more on werewolves, Blood Bound focused more on vampires, Iron Kissed focused on the Fae. But the themes and story structure differ as well as the subject matter. Didn't impact me as much as Blood Bound, but I may also have had unrealistically high expectations. Certainly good, anyhow.

Sierra · « **Reply #692 on:** August 30, 2010, 08:38:15 PM »

Quote from: Taitoro on August 30, 2010, 12:15:40 PM

uh, right, books. Um, been trying to read a series by Stephen R. Donaldson (not sure if it has a name, friend tossed 'em at me) but attention span, lol, the usual.

Which one? I tolerated his sci-fi series but couldn't gt more than seventy-five pages into Thomas Covenant. Donaldson is unrelentingly vicious towards his own characters.

Shale · « **Reply #693 on:** August 30, 2010, 08:41:13 PM »

Oh God, Thomas Covenant. I tried three times to read Lord Foul's Bane and couldn't.

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #694 on:** August 31, 2010, 09:04:54 AM »

Quote from: Dhyerwolf on August 23, 2010, 04:37:39 AM

Didn't like the first half enough to read the second half though!

That applies to a lot of books for me! If I read a second half of a book it is a feat.

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #695 on:** August 31, 2010, 02:28:25 PM »

Hacking through The Great Hunt right now. I like the beginning of the book a lot, very action-packed. However, I sense travel in the future! I certainly hope we don't encounter a fight where I will have to ~~skip~~ read through pages of boring fight scenes!

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #696 on:** September 01, 2010, 01:16:56 PM »

So like a good Ciato I promised myself that I'd go to bed at like 1 a.m. in an attempt to try to recreate good sleeping patterns. What started as one hour of reading the Great Hunt before bed turned into a four hour, let's power through this book ordeal! I skipped anything to do with the ship people because it bored me, and half-skipped the two chapters where Egwene and bitch-whore (I can't spell her name) are dragged to the Way. Something exciting is happening in the Way and you are turning me to this bullcrap?

Good book, way better than Book 1, actually successfully captivatd my interest throughout aside from the parts I just complained about. After Mat stopped being a total bitch and got back to being a snarky, amusing bastard I was happy. I like all the main characters well enough except bitch-whore, and Rand in particular is turning out to be quite fun. I'm ready for some Mat POV time.

Not as good as Mistborn, though! I'm not sure if this will displease or make Super happy! It just feels like there is less character development in two books for anyone than Vin had in one, which is disappointing. Rand... definitely has some, at least! I think the Great Hunt has better plot but Mistborn has better characters. I just care about one thing more than the other!

Dhyerwolf · « **Reply #697 on:** September 01, 2010, 08:44:27 PM »

Quote from: superaielman on August 30, 2010, 12:00:32 PM

If I had to strangle or shoot everyone who didn't read Mistborn as soon as I recommended it, I'd have to kill everyone in the group besides CT/Dhyer/LD.

Of course not! My "Read mistborn" random chat lines existed months before yours did! (Although...with about 1% of the alacrity or consistency!)

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #698 on:** September 06, 2010, 01:40:52 AM »

Mistborn: Finished Book 2. I will talk more about the series when I finish book 3, but good stuff. I've read the first ten chapters of Book 3. SPOILERS of the end of book 2.

From the middle of Book 2 to the beginning of Book 3, my estimation of Elend's survival chances go from about 95% to about 5-10%. I actually hope he dies because I think it rounds out the character better if they do the right things with his death. I'll explain this more later if I finish the book and I see if my ideas materialize.

Captain K. · « **Reply #699 on:** September 06, 2010, 04:25:12 AM »

Read the Suikoden III manga. It was very good - much better than the actual game. Same plot, just told in a cohesive fashion instead of the badly done multiple viewpoints.

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Author Topic: Books (Read 174286 times)

Taishyr