Author Topic: Books (Read 174130 times)

superaielman · « **Reply #125 on:** August 18, 2008, 06:14:29 PM »

Rose Madder- reread most of this book earlier today. The supernatural shit and the dark tower tiein really suck, but the story of Rose fleeing from her husband and the Norman chapters are good. Norman's the best reason to read the book for sure. Crazy motherfucker, may be one of King's best villains just for how fucked up and realistic (Insane cop) it is compared to his norm.

Dhyerwolf · « **Reply #126 on:** August 19, 2008, 04:12:16 AM »

House of Chains- Finished this, picked up Midnight Tides, but then had issues. Felt like the first 4 books basically worked because they built off a large cast of characters introduced early (Making it easier to for me to follow Erikson's writing style!). Thinking that basically started over with brand new character sets would be difficult.

VySaika · « **Reply #127 on:** August 19, 2008, 04:34:59 PM »

Just finished reading The Snow Queen, and it honestly feels alot more...I dunno, complete? Yeah, complete works, then the two 500 Kingdoms books before it. Still not on the same level as Fairy Godmother, but that's not easy to pull off. Misty does seem to have trouble writing self contained books these days, though. Which is a bit dissapointing, because this book could have been written so that you didn't need to know anything about the previous books with so little effort. Nix out the throwaway referance to the Dragon Champions from book 2, and maybe spend an extra half-page explaining the Tradition when Aleksia is first talking about it, and boom, you suddenly wouldn't *need* to have read the other 3 to enjoy this one(though I'd reccomend reading them anyway, of course!).

I suppose the reason this is irking me a bit is because the 500 Kingdoms books aren't really a serial(is that the right word here?), just a series set in the same world. Has some of the same characters from book to book, but nobody is a Main Character in more then one. Each book has it's own crisis and conclusion, so you should be able to pick any individual one up and enjoy it(see the Redwall books for a good example of what I'm talking about here). But One Good Knight and Fortune's Fool rely waaaaay too much on the previous book(s) to really get into on thier own. But also without being actual continuations of a story either.

Bleh, I guess it's just the whole "not this but not that either" thing that's annoying me.

Anyway, picked up Charlie Stoss's Accelerando(sp?) while I was on vacation. That'll be the next book on my plate.

VySaika · « **Reply #128 on:** August 20, 2008, 11:10:47 PM »

Okay, I lied. Accelerando was not the next thing I read. As I was walking out to grab it, I saw Island in the Sea of Time, by S. M. Stirling, and thought I'd give that a read instead. Very glad I did, as the book is quite excellent. Basic premise here is that Something Happens to make the island of Nantucket circa 1998 AD switch places with it's circa 1250 BC self. The islanders' struggle to survive and even dare to prosper in the bronze age is quite entertaining, as are thier dealings with the cultures native to that time period.

Anyway, my head is swimming from spending most of today reading, so I'm going for a walk now.

Taishyr · « **Reply #129 on:** August 21, 2008, 01:04:03 AM »

The Gnostic Gospels, by Elaine Pagels: Excellent analysis of the actual beginning of Christianity and the arguments between the orthodox which assembled the Church and pretty much drove off all opposition and the gnostic Christians, whose opinions varied widely between the sensible to the flat-out new-age trippy insanity-level stuff at times. Interesting read, definitely.

...Yes, this is the sort of thing I read when I go for non-fiction. >_>

Sierra · « **Reply #130 on:** August 21, 2008, 03:56:05 PM »

Quote from: Taishyr on August 21, 2008, 01:04:03 AM

The Gnostic Gospels, by Elaine Pagels: Excellent analysis of the actual beginning of Christianity and the arguments between the orthodox which assembled the Church and pretty much drove off all opposition and the gnostic Christians, whose opinions varied widely between the sensible to the flat-out new-age trippy insanity-level stuff at times. Interesting read, definitely.

...Yes, this is the sort of thing I read when I go for non-fiction. >_>

Nothing wrong with that! *kicks Tai in the direction of The Barbarian Conversion, for the next episode of the epic saga!*

Dark Holy Elf · « **Reply #131 on:** August 25, 2008, 03:15:28 AM »

New Spring - Awesome.

Simultaneously a good book in its own right and a very valuable addition to the Wheel of Time as a whole. Moiraine was certainly the most overdue character in the series to get that kind of spotlight on her, and she makes a compelling and believable main character. Lan is excellent as well, and the book alone serves as an excellent painting for the more mature Lan we see in the main series. Both characters manage to develop notably in the course of the book, and their interaction is great. Siuan was also nice, even if she's mostly the character for Moiraine to bounce off when Lan isn't around (which to be fair is a lot of the time, including the whole first half of the book).

Some of the actual plot is made more predictable by the fact that it's been alluded to in the main series (just seeing the chapter title "Pond Water" served as a giveaway for certain events in the chapter...) and of course you know which major characters are still alive 20 years from now and which ones are not. But there are still some mysteries to be solved, and the "how" proves more interesting to learn about than the "what", in any case. This is how you do a prequel and don't fuck it up, and still add something very meaningful to your series.

Stuff like this is what makes Robert Jordan totally worth reading. One of Jordan's best works, and generally serves to cement my opinion of him and Robin Hobb being the best modern fantasy writers I've had the pleasure to read.

Captain K. · « **Reply #132 on:** September 06, 2008, 04:32:35 AM »

The Path of Daggers: Short book is short. Rand's battle plan was pretty sound - harass the Seanchan until they form a giant group, then drop tactical nuclear Callandor on them. Ah well, the best laid plans of ta'veren and men...

superaielman · « **Reply #133 on:** September 06, 2008, 05:03:25 AM »

Just about done reading the Worldwar series again. First four books are very good. Ludmilla/Jager/Molotov are all good PoV chapters. Sam's good as well. Jens is.. disturbing and sad, but also still a good read. No real complaints.

Colonialization had way too much Karen/Johnathan Yeager stuff. Kassquit's PoVs I also skipped. No I do not want to read her angst. Very good otherwise, wanted more chapters set in the Reich/Soviet Union though. Drucker, Moredicai, and Straha all had good PoV's here. Molotov was still good.

Homeward bound was 90% horseshit and 10% good material, OK went over it.

superaielman · « **Reply #134 on:** September 07, 2008, 03:51:07 AM »

http://peterahlstrom.blogspot.com/2008/08/rolling-up-wheel-of-time-panel.html

More information about a memory of light. It looks like it'll be 600k words. I can't wait! It's due out in 13 months.

Touches on a lot of general series information too. Rather nice. (We also get confirmation that Galad's meeting up with Perrin at the start of AMOL, but that wasn't exactly hard to figure out.)

AndrewRogue · « **Reply #135 on:** September 08, 2008, 08:35:17 PM »

Been recollecting various Discworld books sense I lost the majority of my collection a while back. Been sticking primarily to the Night Watch saga (best one, really!), but am toying with other random books.

As per usual, even on rereads, Pratchett's rhetoric is pretty unmatched in pure awesome.

Grefter · « **Reply #136 on:** September 09, 2008, 08:35:57 AM »

Illuminatus! - Finished finally. This series is pure unadulterated awesome and it is such a massively sexy piece of jaded leftist literature. It has the high goals of every leftist movement ever and the incredible low expectations of people that every cynic has and every leftist that has been burned by the people. Very lovely piece on the Anarchist movement for all that it is still a pipe dream.

Wonderfully damning and brilliantly funny with layers upon layers of subtle setup and all while not taking itself remotely serious (like every good cynic should. I mean melodrama? Please, that shit is tired.)

Thank you very much for reccomending it Hal (of all people! Hal reccomends me the greatest piece of anarchist literature I have read). Just generally good times. If you have any taste at all for irony and have payed attention to politics in the last fifty years then you must read this. A love for Lovecraft only helps.

Taishyr · « **Reply #137 on:** September 09, 2008, 11:02:45 AM »

Yes. Hal and I are both Illuminatus! fans. Granted, I was somehow under the impression you had read it as well, else I'd have also supported reading it. It is an awesome, awesome book, yes.

Grefter · « **Reply #138 on:** September 09, 2008, 02:03:06 PM »

I hadn't read it yet, I just talk like that normally when people get me into politics.

Hunter Sopko · « **Reply #139 on:** September 10, 2008, 03:07:30 PM »

Red Mars- Picked this up on Grefter's recommendation. Good stuff. Excellent characters, hard sci-fi. A bit... I dunno, pedantic? if I can call it that? for my taste, but the characters more than made up for it. Sort of like a Lord of the Rings for Sci-Fi, but one thats actually readable. Has that history textbook feel, is what I'm trying to get at. Rather than critique the plot, I'll go with the characters, since they are the plot.

SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT

Maya- Crazy bitch, but a believable one. Competant exterior hides a woman who doesn't know what she wants, and never will. Still fun as hell to watch.

Frank- Awesome. Kind of a dick. Okay, not kind of, a huge one. A likable one, at least. Definately redeems himself after the whole John thing, and it's really interesting to see him come around from how he thought John was acting to thinking exactly how John did. Liked the stuff between him and the Arabs. I'm at odds about his death. I don't think it did his character justice, but it definately highlighted how far he came that he'd sacrifice himself like that. Go, idiot, go.

John- Found myself a liking him a lot more than I thought I would based on the first chapter. His faux-detective story was amusing. Showed him for what he is. Well-intentioned, not always bright or successful, but still cunning in his own right and charismatic as hell.

Nadia- Awesome. Nothing like a construction woman. Bonus points for being, I think, the most stable character.

Arkady- All kinds of awesome. Someone needs to run as a Bodganovist for President. I'd vote for them. REALLY sad to see him go. His relationship with Nadia was excellently done.

Hiroko- Crazy bitch.

Ann- I oddly began to feel bad for her as the book went along. Can't say I disagree with her in theory.

Sax- A neat look at the level-headed scientist archetype. Especially near the end when he was becoming a bit unglued.

Phyllis- Bitch. Next.

Michel- Kind of a wasted character. The Homesick chapter was neat, but a waste of words anytime after that.

The Coyote- A dumb X-factor.

Oh yeah, before I forget. OLD PEOPLE SEX. Lots of it. Damn you Grefter. You tricked me.

Gonna pick up Green Mars soon.

Grefter · « **Reply #140 on:** September 10, 2008, 10:01:55 PM »

Old people sex rings true as the hang up of Kim Stanley Robinson throught all the series, but it is decidedly not pornographic, it is just another part of the humanist approach the book takes. Of course the author absolutely denies that it is "humanist science fiction", which I guess is fair enough depending on how you want to cut the semantics.

Hopefully you like Green Mars as well, watching the shift of focus to other characters makes stuff more interesting and the archetypes the characters are based on get more and more blured (Which really starts about half way through the book after everyone is introduced and actually isolated on Mars where there is no way for Earth to fuck with them anymore or so they think and they can be themselves.

Ann really only gets better after she takes a massive plummet (awesome characterisation, but for about a quarter of the next book she goes in directions that I can't respect. Sympathise with it, but not respect), only to peak back up when she gets her shit together.

Oh and Coyote gets some actual character straight up in Green Mars, so it gets less silly.

The books are just awesome. Also Bogdanov is a muddle of some old russian dudes, Wiki says Arkady Strugatsky and Alexander Bogdanov. I believe Arkady's politics is somewhat Similar to the real Bogdanov's.

VySaika · « **Reply #141 on:** September 20, 2008, 11:01:55 PM »

Picked up the first three Discworld books today after all the hype I've heard for them. Here's hoping they live up to it.

Grefter · « **Reply #142 on:** September 20, 2008, 11:27:41 PM »

Aaaaaaaaand hype roll failed.

They are good books, but Colour of Magic, Light Fantastic and... Equal Rites I believe is third(?) are not the best. Good, but it feels to me like Pratchett lacks the confidence in himself as a writer to do nearly as good a parody for a few books after that.

Still with the volume of pulp fantasy you and Jenna consume I am sure you will get a bit of a kick out of them.

Sierra · « **Reply #143 on:** September 21, 2008, 02:32:54 AM »

Seconding Grefter. Mort (book four) is the first excellent entry in the series, in my opinion. Again, this doesn't mean the first three are bad, just...not Pratchett's best work.

Hunter Sopko · « **Reply #144 on:** September 25, 2008, 06:17:37 PM »

On another King hitch. Started off with The Shining, since I'd never read the book. Excellent stuff, definitely unsettles you in a general sort of way. I know King had a whole flap about the movie, but I can't see how one would be able to make a movie that'd entirely do the book justice though. Kubrick's version, I think, was still awesome and about as good as you can make movie of the book. Don't see how you could make the movie both scary and true to the book without it being like 4 hours long. The different approach Kubrick took to Jack's madness worked and while a lot of stuff was left out, it's better to make a solid movie rather than overreach with a garbled mess.

But it's good to at least know what half that shit at the end was (man in the dog suit, etc). Not a bad way of giving a nod to the people who read the book, because even if you don't know what they all are, not knowing what it all is/means actually makes it more unnerving. Also interesting to know the scene with the two girls and the blood from the elevator was added for the movie.

VySaika · « **Reply #145 on:** September 25, 2008, 06:31:46 PM »

Well, I enjoyed Color of Magic and Light Fantastic well enough, and Equal Rites is shaping up to be interesting, so if it only gets better from here, I think I'll end up picking up the whole series sooner or later.

Grefter · « **Reply #146 on:** September 25, 2008, 10:05:24 PM »

Good. Sourcery always got me a bit blah when I was younger, but when I listened to it again this year I was suprised at it being better than I thought.

Witches only get better after Equal Rites. Granny Weatherwax isn't fully fleshed out idea in Equal Rites but is really in form next time she comes up.

Captain K. · « **Reply #147 on:** September 25, 2008, 11:48:34 PM »

Winter's Heart: Lots of things happened in this book, but you can sum it all up with RAND HAS SEX WITH EVERYONE.

Also, I correctly guessed the race of the Daughter of the Nine Moons several books ago. Yay me.

Shale · « **Reply #148 on:** September 29, 2008, 05:04:14 AM »

Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. - This really is everything Warren Ellis said it was. To quote: "It is people getting kicked, and then exploding. It is a pure comic book, and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. And afterwards, they will explode." It also has airborne attack koalas.

ALSO: Per Wikipedia, this is canon what the hell.

Grefter · « **Reply #149 on:** September 29, 2008, 08:53:57 AM »

Of course it is canon. It is only Warren Ellis if it isn't forcing you to take something so completely over the top ridiculous seriously when you really don't want to (Which is awesome).

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Author Topic: Books (Read 174130 times)

Taishyr

Taishyr