Author Topic: Books (Read 174065 times)

Grefter · « **Reply #1325 on:** February 14, 2016, 12:48:25 AM »

Might Angel series is super trashy. It was fun when I read it but it could easily be a D&D tie in book with how trashy it is.

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #1326 on:** February 16, 2016, 05:47:00 AM »

I've read the first 75 pages, and yeah, pretty trashy. Very male centric as well (which is why I rarely take recommendations for books from men that aren't vetted by me as trustworthy).

Grefter · « **Reply #1327 on:** February 16, 2016, 06:27:47 AM »

Oh gods yes it is. I barely think of trashy pulp as being representative. White dudes writing about dope white dudes end to end in pulpy genre fiction.suck it Andy.

It is probably okay as a burner read, but mostly as a moment in time for an author. The release cycle for an authors first book THAT aggressive is pretty interesting to see.suck it hard

He pretty much had 0 chance for public feedback between book 1 and 2 from memory and book 3 is a bit beater because of it, but it is still super trashy.yeah u like that don't u

Shale · « **Reply #1328 on:** February 27, 2016, 04:37:15 PM »

Bands of Mourning: I liked this way more than Shadows of Self, to the point where it's a bit confusing to think of them being written back to back. Where Shadows felt episodic and a bit pointless, Bands has some solid additions to the overall Mistborn setting, finally pushes the plot that Alloy of Law teased into the spotlight, and sets up some interesting Cosmere stuff. I'm not a huge fan of the way it retcons the end of the first trilogy, but I'll live.

Dhyerwolf · « **Reply #1329 on:** February 29, 2016, 02:26:29 AM »

I think Brent Weeks' second series (which I do like better myself) is better on gender balance (although the main two characters are men, the women around them are definitely their equals in skill and personality).

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #1330 on:** March 30, 2016, 11:56:19 PM »

Gave up on the Brent Weeks experiment...

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - I've been having trouble reading this too. First person isn't always the best to start with, and the plot is a little slow moving and the storytelling style is choppy. We'll see if I decide to stick with this one either.

Dark Holy Elf · « **Reply #1331 on:** May 22, 2016, 08:01:30 PM »

Read through Innocent Mage and Awakened Mage by Karen Miller.

I liked the first book quite well. Some neat character work and point of view work here, and had a lot of neat situations/discussions to read about. I felt Miller succeeded at making may buy the perspectives of multiple characters, even when they disagree strongly, as they do often. Prince Gar is a pretty cool character and Asher is at least a unique, much more blunt and working-class take on the everyman hero (although the second book ended up souring me on him).

The second book was frustrating, as it pissed away several of its more interesting side characters and politics, and had a couple major idiot ball and plot contrivance sequences, and the last quarter of the book seemed to consist mostly of the characters bitching at each other like children.

1. The reasoning for letting Asher do weather magic makes no sense and I don't buy either that Gar would propose it or Asher would agree. It completely contradicts both characters and pretty much creates a Bad Situation because the plot demands one.
2. Morg randomly regains the ability to possess people at the most narratively convenient instant, and generally spends the rest of the book acting like an insufferable villain Stu until he can be killed by random bullshit superpowers. I enjoyed the character's PoVs at first but he really wore thin.
3. The series has three major characters who could be described as morally grey: Durm, Fane, and Jarralt. Siiiiiiigh. (Darran kinda counts I guess, he's cool. Certainly my favourite of the supporting cast.)

But I enjoyed the good parts enough to keep reading this author, so Empress is up next.

AndrewRogue · « **Reply #1332 on:** June 06, 2016, 05:57:54 PM »

Redshits: A Novel with 3 Codas

This was slightly different than expected in a lot of different ways. Very punchy, if much, much sillier than expected. If the premise sounds interesting, I think it's worth a read.

Critical Failures (1)

Haven't had a "trapped in a tabletop RPG" book in a while (which is far superior to the trapped in an MMO trope), so hey, started this. The system is a pretty unabased DnD 3.X clone, which is fun. On the whole, it's... kind of a silly book. I'm a little torn on the characters who are... kinda assholes, but kinda not? Book also ends in a rather unexpected place. All told, will probably give the rest of the series a shot once I plow through the remainder of my audiobook backlog.

Excal · « **Reply #1333 on:** June 06, 2016, 10:34:16 PM »

Quote from: AndrewRogue on June 06, 2016, 05:57:54 PM

Redshits: A Novel with 3 Codas

Ah, i see you enjoyed SO3 the novelization. Definitely a fun romp that could have gone wrong in oh so many ways but manages to skate by on strong characters and not overstaying its welcome. Also, having the characters live in a setting where technobabble science can appear almost entirely randomly and has reality warping powers that the characters can harness and use makes oh so much more sense than somehow creating a phantasmagorical keystone that allows the nigh impossible trip from fiction to reality, and just leaving it sitting there when you decide to destroy the world.

Grefter · « **Reply #1334 on:** June 06, 2016, 10:44:14 PM »

It still works with the whole paragraph Excal

This was slightly different than expected in a lot of different ways. Very punchy, if much, much sillier than expected. If the premise sounds interesting, I think it's worth a read.

Dhyerwolf · « **Reply #1335 on:** June 09, 2016, 08:06:18 AM »

JK Nemisin- The Fifth Season. Nemisin's writing and ideas just keep getting better. I'm about 75% of the way through this and I love it. Nemisin always builds unique worlds, but this one is utterly captivating. I'd love for this to be a very long series just for how fascinating the world is. And it looks like book 2 is out in paperback in August.

AndrewRogue · « **Reply #1336 on:** June 13, 2016, 06:00:07 PM »

Welcome to Night Vale - A Novel

So, having never listened to the podcast before, that was an experience. Very funny. The audiobook read was stellar (shock, amaze). The writing style was a bit strange though, utilizing a surprising amount of repetition in parts. Also has some issues with working in an inherently strange setting (when everything is strange, making certain things also stand as extra strange is challenging and it is sometimes hard to understand why one thing bothers characters and another doesn't.

That said, enjoyed it immensely. If you want some Twilight Zone, Lovecraft, whatever, weirdness, but funny, give it a look.

AndrewRogue · « **Reply #1337 on:** June 28, 2016, 07:19:46 AM »

The Windup Girl

It's literary sci-fi. It sorta feels like exactly what I'd expect literary sci-fi to be.

Dark, gritty, full of terrible tragedy, florid language, prostitution, rape, etc.

It has some real high points (anything related to spirituality in the book really worked for me), but... eh? At the end, I'm kinda left wondering what the point was, as it were.

Two dead main characters, one main character whose status is a mystery, one who is alive and doing a thing that may destroy Thailand, and one alone in the empty, flooded ruins of Bangkok who will now usher in the end of humanity.

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #1338 on:** July 19, 2016, 07:20:28 PM »

I read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I will echo some of Super's comments about the book - very good writing style, pretty bad storytelling. Devi is my pick for randomly awesome character, but a lot of the other characters made very little impact on me. I'll pick up the second book at some point.

Next is The Riven Kingdom by Karen Miller.

AndrewRogue · « **Reply #1339 on:** July 19, 2016, 11:25:33 PM »

Oh right.

Dragonvein, Book 1

Meh. Felt like bog standard fantasy. Didn't do anything interesting.

superaielman · « **Reply #1340 on:** July 20, 2016, 02:20:56 AM »

Quote from: Luther Lansfeld on July 19, 2016, 07:20:28 PM

I read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I will echo some of Super's comments about the book - very good writing style, pretty bad storytelling. Devi is my pick for randomly awesome character, but a lot of the other characters made very little impact on me. I'll pick up the second book at some point.

Next is The Riven Kingdom by Karen Miller.

I seriously cannot wait for you to read book 2. It has so much promise at first and then it develops into such a embarrassing trainwreck that you expect Shion to be introduced as Kvothe's next love interest.

superaielman · « **Reply #1341 on:** July 22, 2016, 11:08:44 AM »

The Barbed Coil by JV Jones- Picked up this in the library a few days ago and read the first 100 pages last night. (Only six years after Dhyer or Gref or both recommended her to me!). Fantastic so far. She has a really easy to get into writing style and her characters are very compelling. Definitely going to finish this and read more of her stuff.

metroid composite · « **Reply #1342 on:** August 02, 2016, 08:30:46 AM »

Morning Star.

Third in the Red Rising trilogy, and...it's pretty weak TBH. I loved the first book, thought the second book was pretty good. The third book I put down for a few months before finishing. I think the problem is that by the time the third book was out, it was already known that this trillogy would be a movie. So...it's written like a movie. We normally know the inner thoughts of the main character, but there's a long stretch where he knows everything is faked and part of the plan, but the audience does not. It's the kind of twist that works in a movie where nobody knows the inner thoughts of a character, but feels inconsistent in a book. In an abstract formulaic way I still liked it, good characters, good premise, but it fell flat as a book for me.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

(minor SPOILERS that are revealed very early)

Yeah, it exists. The protagonists are pretty well-done. The antagonists--fucking Voldemort again? Really? Dude's been dead for 20 years. (His servant was cool, though).

dunie · « **Reply #1343 on:** October 08, 2016, 04:43:10 PM »

Just finished Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones. It's on the serial killings in Atlanta at the end of the 70s. Reading this book shortened what little distance I had. Fiction isn't enough insulation. I'm going to move onto Fifth Season.

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #1344 on:** October 23, 2016, 04:24:58 AM »

I finished the Riven Kingdom, finally. Good book, but it takes me a while to get through the books in this series for whatever reason. Female lead is pretty enjoyable if a bit of a generic feminist-empowerment character, and the male lead is pretty unusual in that he's pretty much just some dude. Definitely some interesting religious takes in the book, particularly with Zankadar.

I'm currently halfway through The Serpent's Shadow by Mercedes Lackey. Fast-paced and solidly written characters.

superaielman · « **Reply #1345 on:** October 23, 2016, 01:58:37 PM »

Quote from: Luther Lansfeld on October 23, 2016, 04:24:58 AM

I finished the Riven Kingdom, finally. Good book, but it takes me a while to get through the books in this series for whatever reason. Female lead is pretty enjoyable if a bit of a generic feminist-empowerment character, and the male lead is pretty unusual in that he's pretty much just some dude. Definitely some interesting religious takes in the book, particularly with Zankadar.

I'm currently halfway through The Serpent's Shadow by Mercedes Lackey. Fast-paced and solidly written characters.

I know what you should read next: *waves around a copy of Wise Man's Fear* How can you resist the adventures of Kvothe's magic penis?!

Dhyerwolf · « **Reply #1346 on:** October 26, 2016, 02:56:03 AM »

I like that you now attack with Rothfuss books the way you would attack with say...Xenosaga 3. That's about what the books deserve...

superaielman · « **Reply #1347 on:** October 26, 2016, 08:00:06 PM »

Those books are bad and should be a running joke instead of being subject to the hype it gets.

Excal · « **Reply #1348 on:** November 08, 2016, 04:45:55 AM »

WoT Reread: Been my main project for the better part of 2016. Currently on Book 11. Despite my memories of Knife of Dreams being good, I had forgotten how much of the early book is the romantic adventures of Mat and Slaver Queen. At least I finally got to Moiraine's letter, even if that's another two books until it pays off. Can't wait until I get to whoever is next, be it Elayne or Rand. They've both been consistently excellent.

Dhyerwolf · « **Reply #1349 on:** November 14, 2016, 08:56:57 AM »

Blood Mirror- Book 4 of Brent Weeks' Lightbringer series. For some reason, I thought this was the final book, but there's clearly another forthcoming. The series is defintely good at deliviring both action and plot twists.

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Author Topic: Books (Read 174065 times)