Return of the Book Thread

[glennshin]

was afraid of that...

Thought I might be missing out on an easier way.

[Ingmar]

I read The Forever War again last night. Made me want to re-read Hamilton. Because Hamilton is so very heavily influenced, but is much more fun to read. Golly some SF can be painful...

Would love to read some more detective SF of the kind that Hamilton does so well (in parts of his larger series and in his short stories), or even detective/mystery fantasy. But don't really know of any other authors who do it.

. Time to go back to lit theory and the classics... who said being a Uni student was fun?

The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher is fantasy detective stuff (I think in a modern setting though), but I haven't read it so I can't give it a thumbs up or down. It has been recommended to me, for what that's worth.

[Viin]

The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher is fantasy detective stuff (I think in a modern setting though), but I haven't read it so I can't give it a thumbs up or down. It has been recommended to me, for what that's worth.

They are light, fun reads - certainly can recommend if you like that kind of thing.

Finished the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, they were very good though I was a little disappointed in the end of the 3rd book. More twists and turns than your typical fantasy novel.

Finally started reading A People's History of the United States: 1492 - Present and after only about 2 chapters I can tell this will be an interesting book ...

[Mosesandstick]

was afraid of that...

Thought I might be missing out on an easier way.

Each page is 35 posts. Maths, easy! 

[Johny Cee]

I read The Forever War again last night. Made me want to re-read Hamilton. Because Hamilton is so very heavily influenced, but is much more fun to read. Golly some SF can be painful...

Would love to read some more detective SF of the kind that Hamilton does so well (in parts of his larger series and in his short stories), or even detective/mystery fantasy. But don't really know of any other authors who do it.

. Time to go back to lit theory and the classics... who said being a Uni student was fun?

Hmm.  Don't know Hamilton, since I got bored with Reality Dysfunction and wandered off and haven't bothered to check any of his other stuff out.  For fantasy:

Steven Brust's "Jhereg" novels.  Main character is more of a minor underworld crime figure, but most of the stories are mystery/suspense.  Brust's writing reminds me of Zelazny.

Glen Cook's "Garrett" books.  Mash up of noir detective fiction in a traditional fantasy world.  Sweet Silver Blues is the first, Old Tin Sorrows I think you would like as that one is the most brutal to it's characters... though some recurring characters means it's not a great first read in the series.  Cook's "Garrett" books are pretty much the inspiration for Butcher's "Dresden" books.

The Dresden books were mentioned, by Jim Butcher.  Lighter fare, great entertainment read.

Really the rest of the stuff that is loosely labeled detective/contemporary fantasy really doesn't have much of a detective angle.

Scifi:

Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon.  Touches of detective fiction, cyberpunk, some dystopian future elements.  There are two sequels that don't have any of the detective angle.

Gun, with Occasional Music is kind of similar I think... but it's been a few years since I read that.

[Viin]

Btw, if you like Jim Butcher's Dresden books you'd probably like his fantasy series too .. Codex Alera.

Actually, even if you don't like modern day supernatural/fantasy detective books, but like regular ol' fantasy, the Codex Alera books are pretty good. Certainly a couple of steps above the normal fantasy drivel.

[Ingmar]

I read the first few Dresden books over the last couple days. They're not bad, although the guy is basically ripping off Steven Brust's style in the first few Taltos books, which are themselves an "homage" to older noir books, so its pretty unoriginal in that sense. At times the dialogue gets *very* predictable in that way. Also his gender politics are kind of in retarded Robert Jordan territory in a way, although that may just be the whole noir style trope thing. He mentions having read the Gor books in his author's note though ( ) so I am not ruling out the possibility that the author himself is actually retarded that way.

The plots are reasonably clever, and the whole setting of it all is pretty neat though, so they're still entertaining me. These are also the first few books the guy wrote so I'm guessing/hoping he finds his own voice a little more in the later ones.

[Chimpy]

I am packing my books because I am moving to the house I am renting this weekend.

I love my books and never want to part with them, but they sure are heavy :(

[Murgos]

I thought the first Dresden book was mostly unreadable.  By three or four though Butcher has figured out pacing and developed his own style a bit so they are much better.

[Rasix]

I read the first few Dresden books over the last couple days. They're not bad, although the guy is basically ripping off Steven Brust's style in the first few Taltos books, which are themselves an "homage" to older noir books, so its pretty unoriginal in that sense.

Odd that I love the Dresden books and can't stand Brust at all.

On book 4 of my re-read of A Song of Fire and Ice. No way Martin finishes this before he dies.  I hope he has an outline somewhere. 

[Ingmar]

One thing I hate about genre books like these is they always feel like they have to spend a bunch of time explaining who the recurring characters are in a slight variation on the way they explained it in the LAST book. I know they do it so someone who picks up a random book in the middle can tell what the heck is going on, but it is still irritating. 

[Chimpy]

One thing I hate about genre books like these is they always feel like they have to spend a bunch of time explaining who the recurring characters are in a slight variation on the way they explained it in the LAST book. I know they do it so someone who picks up a random book in the middle can tell what the heck is going on, but it is still irritating. 

It is especially irritating in recent years when the publishers all want lower total word counts so they can make smaller books (and sell them for higher cover prices). I bet Robert Jordan wasted 30 pages a book on "well he grew up with this guy, who is this guy" comments. It is fine to occasionally remind readers how some obscure bit character is related to another, but doing for the main characters who each have had several hundred pages per book dedicated to them is annoying.

[lamaros]

On book 4 of my re-read of A Song of Fire and Ice. No way Martin finishes this before he dies.  I hope he has an outline somewhere.

He's pretty much stated he makes it up as he goes along, apart from very general points. Hence the whole 3 4 5 6 book series (though how long before it becomes 7?).

[JWIV]

While drinking sun and alcohol in almost equal amounts, I've been catching up on reading a bit.

Ex-KOP by Warren Hammond - continuation of a nice little Noir SF story.  I'm really enjoying this series a great deal.

Zoe's Tale - John Scalzi  -  I've enjoyed the Old Man's War stuff immensely and Zoe's tale is a nice little respin of The Lost Colony. 

[MahrinSkel]

For Noirish seat-of-the pants Sam Spade/Mike Hammer style fantasy, I still like the *other* Glen Cook series, Garrett P.I.  Taltos is over-plotted for noire (I like it, it's just that Vlad is too straight-forward in his morality to make a good anti-hero).

--Dave

[Sky]

Finally got in the second book in the Hamilton series I'm reading, there's a guy in another town who is inter-loaning them from our shelf, dammit. I got our copy of Pandora's Star off the outgoing shelf and he had to use another library's copy, but he beat me to the second one. Almost like the old serials, I had to wait a couple weeks to resolve the (literal) cliffhanger!

[Ironwood]

It's worth it.

Just DON'T read the 3rd follow up one or the one after that.  It makes your penis shrivel.

[Chimpy]

So I read Snow Crash finally while I was in the process of moving and really had nothing to do but read before passing out from exhaustion, finished it last night.

It was good, but for some reason I felt a little underwhelmed at the style of the ending. I guess it is because I have read so many comments about how the book was great that I had different expectations.

Now that I live 2 blocks from the library I will probably be checking more varied stuff out. I guess I will have to re-peruse the thread for ideas (again).

[lamaros]

Read A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters for a class. Pretty good book!

[Margalis]

It was good, but for some reason I felt a little underwhelmed at the style of the ending

I think that reason is "the ending sucks."

Really it's a weird book, the main plot is total nonsense and is almost entirely divorced from the action of the book. IIRC about halfway through there is a chapter or two of classic horrible "data dump" exposition where some library-bot or something just explains the entire plot to the reader. It would have been a better book without any real plot. The strength was the setting, the characters and the writing, the actual narrative was pretty terrible and trying to emphasize it more in the latter half was a mistake.

It's probably a better book if you read the first half then move on.

[Quinton]

Stephenson cannot end a book to save his life.  I really enjoy his writing for the most part, but I don't think he's ever managed to end a story in a truly satisfactory way.  Snow Crash contains some of my absolute favorite bits of Stephenson's work (the opening Deliverator bit is just glorious, for example) and some really really terrible pacing and info-dumping.   Diamond Age remains my favorite book by him (though it too ends rather abruptly).

I just started reading Triplanetary, which I gather is the start of the Lensman stuff by E.E. Smith, which I have often heard references made to, but never had read.  It's interesting to go from Alastair Reynolds (I think I am now caught up on all his Revelation Space stuff) back to the early days of sci-fi.

[Margalis]

Curious to hear what you think of Lensman stuff. I've read most or all of them. (May have skipped the last one)

It's been a long long time since I've read them but I would guess that they are both hugely influential and don't hold up very well by modern standards.

[FatuousTwat]

Finished House of Suns by Reynolds a couple of days ago, and barring the abrupt ending, it was great. Also just finished Grave Peril, and I have to agree with the other fans of the Dresden series, it's much better than the first 2.

[Murgos]

I just started reading Triplanetary, which I gather is the start of the Lensman stuff by E.E. Smith, which I have often heard references made to, but never had read.

It's been a awhile since I read the Lensman stuff but I would say it holds about about as well as the early Heinlein stuff or the first Foundation book.  It's fun, not too serious, and if you consider that at the time it was written cars and airplanes were brand new things, pretty perceptive.

[Samwise]

Stephenson cannot end a book to save his life.  I really enjoy his writing for the most part, but I don't think he's ever managed to end a story in a truly satisfactory way.

Have you read the Baroque Cycle?  I think the ending to that was highly satisfactory.

[Quinton]

Stephenson cannot end a book to save his life.  I really enjoy his writing for the most part, but I don't think he's ever managed to end a story in a truly satisfactory way.

Have you read the Baroque Cycle?  I think the ending to that was highly satisfactory.

I need to give it another go sometime.  I read the first book shortly after it came out, and never really got into the second one.

[Ironwood]

Stephenson cannot end a book to save his life.  I really enjoy his writing for the most part, but I don't think he's ever managed to end a story in a truly satisfactory way.

Have you read the Baroque Cycle?  I think the ending to that was highly satisfactory.

Really ?  How so ?

[Samwise]

It resolved all the major plot threads and .  Unlike Snowcrash and Cryptonomicon, which both just sort of stopped.

[Salamok]

Read A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters for a class. Pretty good book!

Can't be better than "The Cartoon History of the Universe"

[Khaldun]

Just finished Peter Watts' Blindsight. Very interesting in parts, distinctive twist on the first contact story, memorable characters. It had a touch of intellectual Mary-Sueism, meaning that the situation and characters were designed to flog Watts' particular views of evolutionary science, consciousness, linguistics and so on--there were moments where I felt I was listening to him lecture rather than imagine a story. Still, worth a read.

[Teleku]

It resolved all the major plot threads and .  Unlike Snowcrash and Cryptonomicon, which both just sort of stopped.

Don't forget the shit ending that was Diamond Age.

[Stormwaltz]

I have nothing with me here but a bag full of clothes. No computer, internet for one hour a day at a public library. I'm reading a lot. A pity I only brought one of my huge pile of unread books with me.

Finishing Iain M Banks' The Algebraist tonight. I wish Mass Effect could have been more like it. Started Guy Gavriel Kay's Last Light of the Sun. More when I have more than 7 minutes of internet time...

[apocrypha]

Nation by Terry Pratchett was good. Quite unlike most of his other stuff, bit more of a serious side to it, yet still often funny.

[schild]

I just want to say, having finished the first 5 Black Company books, that Glen Cook has largely managed to kill fantasy as a genre for me. It's so much better than everything else that I'm amazed people still write fantasy books. Just superb.

Started The Silver Spike last night, will read the Glittering Stone stuff when the omnibuses come out in Sept & Jan.

Next I'm doing Dread Empire and after that Instrumentalities of the night.

Eventually, maybe, I'll get to the PI and Starfisher stuff - probably not though.

Edit: For the record, I read all 5 Black Company books in a 2 week period. It was pretty much nonstop. It managed to tear me away from gaming the bulk of the time. Seriously, wow.

Edit 2: Also, people compare it to vietnam stories, but it feels like - at least to me - a recorded account of the medieval crusades, with people searching for god knows what and encountering god knows what (and who) except much more fantastic.

[Engels]

Looking for that on Kindle. Is this it?