Author Topic: Books (Read 174381 times)

Grefter · « **Reply #500 on:** January 05, 2010, 09:45:34 PM »

Eh, just may as well listen to some Grateful Dead while reading Hesse or something. Is just very sterotypical (Bonus points for the Ashley being in California).

Jo'ou Ranbu · « **Reply #501 on:** January 05, 2010, 09:46:30 PM »

Not disputing that.

Lady Door · « **Reply #502 on:** January 05, 2010, 10:19:20 PM »

I also happen to live in the Bay Area, which is about as "California" as you can get (unless you're going for the beach stereotype). Does it help or hurt the image that I just graduated from the Seat of the Civil Rights and Creative Substance Use college? Might have been better if I'd had this thought last year. >_>

Grefter · « **Reply #503 on:** January 18, 2010, 02:17:49 AM »

Mistborn - Finally finished this and it is indeed totally worth reading. Sanderson definitely does come from the Jordan school of writing (Not that he hides this), this means short abrupt ending. Seriously like 40 pages from the end I think it was before one of (many) twists I was suspecting I was about to be totally cock blocked and have the book be nothing but a strung out series thing. Thankfully not, but I was worried in a justified way because as I say, he comes from the Jordan school of writing. The climax is right at the end of the book, this does make for an explosive ending, but it does mean the shift in gears when you have 30 pages left to resolve everything is really jarring and it tempts me to resent the rest of the book taking that long, but yes the pay off is there (this time, occasionally you are bound to get a Path of Daggers) and while effective I still question whether the choice to save up all those climaxes at once is worth it. It is like Tantric Prose or something. It is fine when your author is delivering but when they don't the whole thing kind of spirals out into ASoIaF territory (Decided not to touch any more of that stuff past Game of Thrones until it is finished).

I don't see the Lord Ruler hype, the title still sounds like The Blackboard Monitor, the character is just kind of there. Going for the Emperor Palpatine thing but he just has no presence whatsoever when he isn't there (fitting and accurate extrapolation of the tendencies of real world Dictatorships however), the book really does play out far more like Book 1 of the Farseer Trilogy without having the ever pervasive villain that is Regal to just fuck everything up for the main character and really give you a strong antagonist. The twist with Lord Ruler was dangled in front of your face for about half the book and it is pretty much the last of the plot twists resolved and yet from all the things at the climax is pretty much the first one introduced. Sure there is points here and there that make you second guess it (in the flavour text at the start of chapters at that), but meh, still not much of a payoff for it.

But yeah everything else said about the book? Pretty spot on. Characterisation is not Hobb level, but generally speaking it is higher quality than Robert Jordan did, very good world building and an interesting different application of magic. Well worth reading when you are after some slightly stronger than generic pulp fantasy.

Edit - To clarify this was book 1 of the series only.

Dark Holy Elf · « **Reply #504 on:** January 19, 2010, 05:06:07 PM »

I think the greater Lord Ruler hype comes from later books when you start to learn what he did and why he did it and there is more to him than "evil dictator" (not that there is anything wrong with a book having an evil dictator character, reasonable enough real villain there). I'm not really on board the hype train though so someone else may have to weigh in. Then again maybe we should probably avoid weighing in until you've finished the series.

Grefter · « **Reply #505 on:** January 19, 2010, 09:50:09 PM »

It is implied that he was doing something more to protect the world. I still fail to care. Even then it isn't really anything amazingly unpredictable or shocking. It is all incredibly human which is the whole point of the book, at the end of the day he was a human that was a dick but he most certainly wasn't what was first presented as. The character can only be expanded on in a very small space fleshing out the implide back story and that is about it. All I can do is yawn at that. There are better more interesting characters in the books to fixate on.

Dark Holy Elf · « **Reply #506 on:** January 19, 2010, 10:06:52 PM »

Pretty much, yes. Idly, which characters are you digging so far?

superaielman · « **Reply #507 on:** January 20, 2010, 03:17:51 AM »

I thought TLR made perfect sense in the context of the world, and worked for that. He had almost no screentime, but the book still builds a fairly complete picture of the character.

Rashek felt very competent. He is at the very end of his rope by the time the books roll around (His decision to give the Steel Inquisitors control over his priests is not a good one.), but he still is trying. It's cool how he builds up the impact immorality has on someone both good and bad, to the point where he is so powerful that even the good guys wonder at times if he really does deserve to rule.

He and Kelsier are pretty much opposite sides of the same coin. Both are selfish men who give up their lives to save the people in their own way. It's a little distasteful how much the books end up forgiving a thousand years of brutal tyranny, but it also builds a world setting where said tyranny makes sense. It's all pretty cool.

It also helps that he is bouncing off Kelsier, who is probably the most memorable character in the series.

He doesn't really get a lot of screentime, but he works very well.

Grefter · « **Reply #508 on:** January 20, 2010, 03:30:47 AM »

The obvious ones, Vin and Kelsier are both shades of other characters I like with Fitz and the Fool from Hobb's work, bits of Matt in here and there, Silk from Eddings' works. Most of the others really needed more screen time to take centre stage for characters I would say I am digging, but none of them were bad and they were all a pleasure to read when they were there really. Marsh and Dockson are probably the ones I wished had more. Dockson just to see how a Plantation slave managed to get so far with so little and Marsh to know exactly what can break a man so much that he is willing to go from the leader of a resistance to while not a collaborator but one who doesn't want to fight anymore.

Edit - Lord Ruler certainly did work for the setting, but so do a lot of villains. I think you are being overly enamored with the character because of the setting. The setting is good fun, but the character himself isn't amazing. There is plenty of villains that fit their setting and go above and beyond. I am really going to hype Prince Regal here again as a character that just completely and totally crushes him.

superaielman · « **Reply #509 on:** February 02, 2010, 03:21:02 PM »

Book 2 and 3 rereads done. Book 2 is good but dragged some this time, probably since I'm impatient to get to the main story. Nothing really changed as far as character/scene worth goes.

Book 3 is 80% setup. Some of it needed to be done, but the beginning and the White Tower stuff with the girls just drags outside of Mat being healed and Egwene's trip through the rings. The ending of the book is fantastic, as is Be'lal getting owned like the loser he is.

Weirdness I found in the book: Rhuarc more or less borrowed a quote Rahvin said ("I hope to see you before the change comes vs see the world before it changes"). Maybe it just refers to Rand, but that was an odd line. We'll probably see at least one big Aiel Darkfriend somewhere in the books.

metroid composite · « **Reply #510 on:** February 06, 2010, 09:38:22 PM »

Started reading Twilight.

After the first chapter I had pretty much concluded that I liked her writing style, and liked it enough that I'd probably enjoy the rest of the book even if it was about moss growth cycles. So far, I was right: extremely entertaining.

Have to agree with QR's warning, though: Bella is a dumbass

Bella: "I'm fairly positive my boyfriend is a vampire. He didn't turn down my invitation to the beach until he heard it was in a spot that Jacob later told me Vampires couldn't visit, and he sometimes speaks with unfamiliar cadences and phrases that would better fit a turn-of-the-century novel." (Two observations I hadn't even noticed; I guess she's allowed to have momentary flashes of intelligence)
Bella: "Even if he is, fuck it I still like him."
*next morning*
Bella: "OOOOH Sunshine! Sunny! Sunny! Sunny!"
Bella: "Wait, why isn't my Vampire boyfriend at school today? I want to enjoy the sunshine with him!"
Bella: "I can't think of a single reason why my vampire boyfriend wouldn't be here unless he doesn't love me. I AM FEELING REJECTED AND IT IS RUINING MY SUNSHINE MOOD."

Lady Door · « **Reply #511 on:** February 09, 2010, 10:12:35 PM »

Took a short break from books. Didn't plan it, but I just hadn't felt like reading. Whatever.

Picked up again last week.

I read:
Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer
Old Man's War by John Scalzi
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazney

Am reading:
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Hominids is sold in the science fiction/fantasy category, but I don't know why. You see, I've read a few romances -- mainly the extremely corny bad fantasy kinds, like my favorite about the Viking who is sent into the future by a randy she-whale and falls in love with a veterinarian -- and THIS is a romance. It's a romance about a parallel-dimension Neaderthal, but that really doesn't stop it from being what it is. You see, the female lead gets raped early on in the story, and she comes to terms with trusting men because the male lead is just so male and yet his misplacement in this world makes him so uncomfortable and his parallel-Earth society makes men so sensitive that they just cry at the beauty of the world! Man. But whatever, it has SCIENCE (of an admittedly dubious fashion) and, also, a series. Amusing, and I normally love Sawyer's stuff, but this was a little much.

Old Man's War I picked up because a) I have been reading "Whatever," Scalzi's blog; b) the Barnes and Noble by me was closing and this was on the shelf. Aside from being ridiculously prurient at times, and also dispensing with the need to give the characters more to say than "Fuck!" when surprised/angry/whatever, it was pretty decent. An interesting concept and an interesting character. If you like Asprin's Phule series, you'd probably like this. It is also a series, and I may pick up the sequels.

Lord of Light is kind of an interesting way to segue into reading Siddhartha. You see, the Lord of Light? A character who is also known as Siddhartha, Buddha, a handful of other names, and Sam. I think this one might be most interesting after I finish reading Siddhartha because it is at once an exploration of religion and man's adaptation to it as it is also a war/fantasy/SF type story. I love Zelazney -- the Amber series was one of my first favorites -- and this is very Zelazney.

Looking into what I might pick up next, but I think I still need to work through the backlog on my shelves. It may be time to sell a few books to the used bookstore to feed my habit.

Jo'ou Ranbu · « **Reply #512 on:** February 11, 2010, 01:11:28 AM »

Michel Foucault - The Order Of Things: An Archeology of Human Sciences

* Jo'ou Ranbu reads the first chapter.

...
...
...

HOLY SHIT.

Taishyr · « **Reply #513 on:** February 11, 2010, 01:38:15 AM »

Grefter · « **Reply #514 on:** February 11, 2010, 08:45:00 AM »

There is three normal reactions to Foucault.

Holy what the fuck is he doing with this language. Foucault has a tendency to invent works where he needed to, these words made sense, but reading whole sentences can take a lot of effort.

Holy what the fuck is this guy saying. Foucault is difficult and sometimes tends to need a good background in what he is talking about to get what he is on about, there is a reason he is slowly introduced towards the end of first year courses if at all when his work is going to be covered indepth.

Holy what the fuck this is some of the best shit I have ever read. Because Foucault is that damned good.

I am betting on option 3.

Jo'ou Ranbu · « **Reply #515 on:** February 11, 2010, 08:42:31 PM »

Quote from: Grefter on February 11, 2010, 08:45:00 AM

There is three normal reactions to Foucault.
(...)
Holy what the fuck this is some of the best shit I have ever read. Because Foucault is that damned good.

Fucking word. He got me sold on the mind-bending analysis of a Velasquez painting in the first twenty pages.

Otter · « **Reply #516 on:** February 11, 2010, 10:01:33 PM »

Quote from: Grefter on February 11, 2010, 08:45:00 AM

Foucault is that damned good.

Sartre, Camus, and Foucault are the three most urgent reasons to learn French, I think. Les Mots et les choses is one of those books you read in translation that make you start working harder in class just so you can read the original sooner. Basically listen to Grefter.

Grefter · « **Reply #517 on:** February 12, 2010, 12:06:39 PM »

If you are going to go learn French and be able to read the originals then you owe it to yourself to read some of his Lectures. They are notorious for getting average students amazing marks when they were being knocked off just after his death when they were not so widely known. Apparently they are just amazing reads and the university he taught at in France kept trancripts of a great number of them.

Cotigo · « **Reply #518 on:** February 12, 2010, 11:25:02 PM »

Some of his lectures are translated into English, too. The Order of Discourse was a pretty interesting read.

Grefter · « **Reply #519 on:** February 22, 2010, 08:00:12 AM »

Hocus Pocus - You know what? I give up on trying to work out which of Vonnegut's books is the best and just say he hasn't written anything yet that I have not felt amazingly positive towards. This is a book written by a WW2 veteran about the Vietnam War and how human the whole damned thing is. At the end of the day, tragically unrelentingly human. He makes me so angry about some of the small bullshit injustices he writes about and then goes "Meh is all human yes yes?" and his characters tend to reach that point as well. A wonderful reminder of that whole human condition thing that almost reminds me why I studied Psychology in the first place. Instead of just reminding me how fucked up humanity is it reminds me why humanity is so fucked up.

These are all very positive emotions for me. Powerful work as always tweaks your around from vindicative anger to ennui and ending the whole thing in a bitter sweet little positive note essentially about how everyone is going to die (not nearly as literally this time). I really suck at explaining how that is a positive message, but yeah especially in this book that quote about how he coats a sugary pill in bitter sweet cynicism or whatever really applies.

He tells you the cold hard ugly bitter truth about human brutality and the reminds you how great it is when people hug.

superaielman · « **Reply #520 on:** February 27, 2010, 05:01:44 PM »

Finished up path of daggers in my WoT reread. He splits things up too much. Even the best PoV in the books (Egwene) suffers some from all the minor characters that get screentime.

Oh. Sanderson's spoiler about 'big thing the WoT fans missed'- Rand started hearing voices after entering the world of dreams in the flesh. Lews Therin's voice appears in book 4 first, right after he fightins Ishamael in the stone of tear.

Feldschlacht IV · « **Reply #521 on:** February 27, 2010, 05:16:44 PM »

I don't read as much as I should, but I did manage to read through Mass Effect: Revelations. Fastest I've ever read a book, Mass Effect is just that interesting.

Anthony Edward Stark · « **Reply #522 on:** February 28, 2010, 11:54:52 PM »

Is that the one with Saren and Anderson?

Captain K. · « **Reply #523 on:** March 02, 2010, 04:41:51 AM »

Mistborn Trilogy: Read it, loved it. Sanderson is the king of action scenes. You can vividly see every coin being pushed and cane being swung in your mind. Loved the small blurbs before each Chapter, and how you don't realize who's making them until the end. Loved how everything was connected together. Loved TenSoon.

Hated Spook. God what a terrible character. From the faux-Cockney slang that noone else in the series uses, to going Super Saiyan in book 3, he was just horrible. Also didn't care for the political intrigue in book 2, but that was just dull rather than bad.

Edit: Loved Yomen too.

BaconForTheSoul · « **Reply #524 on:** March 02, 2010, 04:06:56 PM »

Finished Bite by Richard Laymon. Not even close to being his best work. I'll give Laymon credit for making a 100 page car ride interesting... but this is definitely one of his bottom 5 IMO. Also, it's the last book of his that I had yet to read so sadly... no more Laymon for me.

A Lonesome Night in October will definitely go down as the best book he wrote. A car ride for 100 pages isn't that exciting, but taking a walk through a completely fucked up town definitely was.

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Author Topic: Books (Read 174381 times)

Taishyr