Return of the Book Thread

[Murgos]

Anathem is all over the map.  It's everywhere.  At least the Baroque Cycle had different POV's for most of the different aspects of it.

I'm almost done with Anathem and this last bit has got me a bit annoyed frankly.

[Johny Cee]

Anathem is all over the map.  It's everywhere.  At least the Baroque Cycle had different POV's for most of the different aspects of it.

I'm almost done with Anathem and this last bit has got me a bit annoyed frankly.

Anathem was a bit of a slog at times, but I don't think it dragged as much as the Baroque Cycle could.  I broke down and put the Baroque Cycle on a hold a few times, and didn't really get energized to finish it until I read Cryptonomicon (which I loved).

[Johny Cee]

Funny interview with Glen Cook:  http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-glen-cook-interview.html

Caused a minor brouhaha amongst online sf/f bloggers and sites due to Cook's snarkyness.  The interview runs a book review/interview blog, and is famous for using the same (unimaginative) stock questions.  Mr. Cook seems to have channeled some of his characters a bit in replying.

[Murgos]

Anathem is all over the map.  It's everywhere.  At least the Baroque Cycle had different POV's for most of the different aspects of it.

I'm almost done with Anathem and this last bit has got me a bit annoyed frankly.

Eventually, after a couple of days, I'm fine with the ending.  I still think that the uh, method devised for reaching the Geometers, is on beyond silly and pretty much ruins the brilliant-minds-working-together-can-achieve-anything motif he spent all that time building.

[Viin]

Funny interview with Glen Cook:  http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-glen-cook-interview.html

Some funny stuff in there.

- Cover art has become a very hot topic of late. What are your thoughts pertaining to that facet of a novel, and what do you think of the covers that grace your books?

I generally hold my nose and try not to cry too much. You have no control. If you’re really lucky you get an art director who will let you use Vaseline when he bends you over. ...

- Anything you wish to share with your fans?

Thank you. Stop taking it so damned seriously. And get out there and buy backup copies of my stuff. I have kids in college.

[Hindenburg]

Finished reading the Eisenhorn omnibus.

Why would he stop writing about the chap when he finally made him interesting?

[shiznitz]

Several people have raved to me about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which is a translation of a Swedish novel called The Man Who Hates Women. ONe of my colleagues said he missed his subway stop the book was so gripping - AND HE WAS LISTENING TO IT ON HIS IPOD. I don't know if that means the book is really good or he is really stoned.

[Johny Cee]

Hmm, finished Turn Coat last night.

It was decidedly meh.  Entertaining, but not at the same level as the previous few books.


I'd like to see the series move back towards more episodic stories while gradually expanding the background plots.  Tie off some of the loose plot threads now, so the reader doesn't have to remember shit from 6 books ago that you really don't care about at this point.

I think Butcher writing two big series at a fast schedule is starting to affect the quality of his flagship series.


There's a new collection of Gene Wolfe short stories out now The Best of Gene Wolfe: A Definitive Retrospective of His Finest Short Fiction.  Link to Amazon.  If you haven't read Wolfe, you should pick it up.  His work is always interesting, ages well, and has a tendency to sneak up and mind fuck you.  Great, great writer.

[MahrinSkel]

I've read a couple of Kim Harrison's books.  Dropped it in the middle of book 4, I think.  Too much angst.  Too much author wish fulfillment.  I swear to god, virtually every male character was trying to get in the lead's pants by that point, and at least one of the female characters as well.  I seem to remember alot of blatantly dumb male behavior for the sole purpose of giving the lead a chance to rant at said dumb male.

Her latest one was kind of disappointing, it was obvious that she had something very different in mind for the reveal, and it was steamrolled over very poorly.  My daughter says that the publisher forced her to make the change.  I wouldn't buy them for myself, but since I've come this far and my daughter is getting them anyway.


If you think Harrison is too angsty, don't read Carrie Vaughn (Kitty series).  Entire *chapters* of expository angst from inside the head of the main character.

--Dave

[Johny Cee]

I've read a couple of Kim Harrison's books.  Dropped it in the middle of book 4, I think.  Too much angst.  Too much author wish fulfillment.  I swear to god, virtually every male character was trying to get in the lead's pants by that point, and at least one of the female characters as well.  I seem to remember alot of blatantly dumb male behavior for the sole purpose of giving the lead a chance to rant at said dumb male.

Her latest one was kind of disappointing, it was obvious that she had something very different in mind for the reveal, and it was steamrolled over very poorly.  My daughter says that the publisher forced her to make the change.  I wouldn't buy them for myself, but since I've come this far and my daughter is getting them anyway.


If you think Harrison is too angsty, don't read Carrie Vaughn (Kitty series).  Entire *chapters* of expository angst from inside the head of the main character.

--Dave

I think Harrison's first couple books were decent reads, she just gave in to following the general flow of most modern popcorn Urban Fantasy.  Same for Armstrong.  The Sookie Stackhouse books were decent reads, but felt a little retreaded by the time I got to the last couple.  I even thought Rachel Caine's first couple of Weather Warden books were enjoyable (especially since it was a strong female protagonist that didn't just behave like a man with a vagina).

Angst about real shit is fine.  Angst about stupid shit, like which one dimensional retarded male your going to pick, not so much.  It's just as bad, and just as uninteresting, as male author farmboy-to-hero wish fulfillment epic fantasy.

[FatuousTwat]

I'm about 3/4 done with Excession. So far I much prefer Use of Weapons.

[Ard]

Hmm, finished Turn Coat last night.

I just finished it tonight.  I don't think it was a bad book so much as it was a bridge in the storyline.

[bhodi]

Listened to METAtropolis, a short story joint-world thing with John Scalzi, Elizabeth Bear, Jay Lake, Tobias Buckell, and Karl Schroeder - the audiobook was nominated for the Hugo this year for best dramatic presentation, long form.

One short story written by each of them, It's pretty much a joint-venture future-view of how cities would evolve in the post oil economy; each author has a different vision of an eco-conscious city. There are some really cool ideas mixed into this book.

My favorite: "Turking". It's essentially a day-labor job service with a craigslist or ebay-like frontend - you can anonymously hire anyone to do anything, no questions asked. The thrust of the service is that you break a job up into small enough pieces that it becomes legal, fast, and secure for both the employer and the employee. You log into the website and there are jobs of all kinds available with a list of instructions and the amount of cash you get for each.

A benign example is package delivery. With the total collapse of the USA and it's breakup into city states, national postal mail is non-existent. Instead, you "Turk" the package - people can pick it up and take it in the general direction of where it needs to go, and they are paid by distance. The package is sealed and any courier (Turker) breaking that seal is voted down in the system and would have a hard time getting more jobs.

In the story, the protagonist is hired simply to stand at the corner of X and Y for a few hours and SMS a phone number every time a police car drives by. He's essentially a lookout but without breaking any laws. When he gets hauled in, there's really nothing they can charge him for except loitering. There's talk about entire armies 'Turked' into being and how it tips the balance of power in an insurgency - it can wreak havoc on an occupying force. The example they gave was Turking a number of local residents to walk around with fake guns to provide cover for the real people; if they get fired upon it becomes a media circus. It talks about the other side of things, too. Provocateurs being hired to stand in a peacefully protesting crowd to cause enough disturbance so that they can be leagally broken up and/or arrested. The list of things a creative person can do with the system is nearly endless, and there are some really unique tricks a clever person can pull, some of which are outlined or occur in the book.

That's just one of the cool ideas that I pulled out of the stories. I could write about several more. The audiobook is of very high quality and was quite enjoyable to listen to. I definitely recommend people pick the book or audiobook up.

[Rasix]

Hmm, finished Turn Coat last night.

It was decidedly meh.  Entertaining, but not at the same level as the previous few books.

I'd like to see the series move back towards more episodic stories while gradually expanding the background plots.  Tie off some of the loose plot threads now, so the reader doesn't have to remember shit from 6 books ago that you really don't care about at this point.

Fantasic.  So I'll have the same problem with this one as I did with the last.  Maybe I need to just buy it and reread the series so the threads are fresh in my mind.  That's too much effort.

[gryeyes]

Finished reading the Eisenhorn omnibus.

Why would he stop writing about the chap when he finally made him interesting?

The entire series is the back story to a character in one of the Inquisitor rule books. So its pretty much just filling in the blanks that lead up to that point. There is a spin off series Ravenor which is not as good. If you have not read the Ian Watson wh40k books i highly recommend them. The entire setting was so much more interesting back then. I just finished up Mechanicus was an entertaining pulp novel. I didn't like how an extremely vast event was seemingly minimized.

[apocrypha]

Sorry for the 2 posts in a row, but I've just read Bad Science by Ben Goldacre and I have to say it's the best book I've read for years. Started on Saturday night and simply couldn't put it down, cover to cover in 24 hours and I cannot remember the last time I did that.

It's a laymans explanation of how science is badly presented to us, by companies, governments, individuals and (most importantly) the media. He talks about homeopathy, evidence-based medicine, media health scare stories and pill companies - both "alternative" and mainstream, and I found it fascinating, engaging and superbly written. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

If anyone did read this book then you may be interested to know that Ben Goldacre has juts published a new chapter to this book, that he wasn't able to include in the original edition because the subject of the chapter, Matthias Rath, was suing him at the time.

It's chilling, frankly, and is about AIDS "dissidents" in South Africa and how Matthias Rath has made a fortune selling vitamin pills as a cure for AIDS whilst claiming that HIV is not the cause of AIDS but that anti-retroviral drugs are.

[Hindenburg]

The entire series is the back story to a character in one of the Inquisitor rule books. So its pretty much just filling in the blanks that lead up to that point. There is a spin off series Ravenor which is not as good. If you have not read the Ian Watson wh40k books i highly recommend them. The entire setting was so much more interesting back then. I just finished up Mechanicus was an entertaining pulp novel. I didn't like how an extremely vast event was seemingly minimized.

Hrm, I'm relegated to omnibuses. I'm assuming that you're recommending this?. Struggling with the fact that the writer named a character Jaq Draco.
Had Gaunt's Ghosts lined next, but Abnett's kind of a hack (really? a guy that writes wh40k fanfic for a living is a hack? really?  ). Might as well finish atlas shrugged.

[Xilren's Twin]

Hmm, finished Turn Coat last night.

I just finished it tonight.  I don't think it was a bad book so much as it was a bridge in the storyline.

Yeah, i'd agree with this.  The entire book just felt like stage setting to me as well.

[Ard]

[gryeyes]

Had Gaunt's Ghosts lined next, but Abnett's kind of a hack (really? a guy that writes wh40k fanfic for a living is a hack? really?  ). Might as well finish atlas shrugged.

Ian Watson also has a stand alone novel called Space Marine.In which space marines are psychotic latent homosexuals that is the best space marine geared book wh40k has to offer. Abnett is a hack and sadly he is also one of the better Black Library authors. Ian Watsons books while far from perfect are actually decent novels in their own right.He is an actual author and not just a genre fanfic hack. Reading the Watson era of wh40k and comparing it to abnetts light saber wielding jedi Inquisitors is a pretty sad experience.

[Hindenburg]

space marines are psychotic latent homosexuals

Ho.
Out of print, going for absolutely outrageous prices. Afraid it's not an option. The inquisition wars book I can get for 14 dollars, but at 12 usd shipping, fuck that.

[IainC]

Dan Abnett is one of the better Black Library authors. Gav Thorpe is pretty good too but the best without a doubt was Kim Newman (writing as Jack Yeovil). Graham McNeil who wrote Mechanicum is without a doubt one of the worst, his characterisations, descriptions, dialogue and plot holes are dreadful. Unfortunately GW keep putting him up to write books in series that I like so it's hard to just ignore his output entirely.

[gryeyes]

Dont believe i have ever read anything by Jack Yeovil. He writes in the wh40k branch?

[IainC]

Dont believe i have ever read anything by Jack Yeovil. He writes in the wh40k branch?

He wrote the Genevieve series (Drachenfels, Genevieve Undead, Beasts in Velvet) way back when GW was first getting into the fiction business. He's roughly contemporary with the first Gotrek and Felix books by Bill King. AFAIK, he has never written anything else for Black Library.

[Hindenburg]

I'm sorry, but I can't believe that a man with that sort of facial hair would ever be capable of writing anything related to vampires that did not revolve around slash.

[gryeyes]

Dont believe i have ever read anything by Jack Yeovil. He writes in the wh40k branch?

He wrote the Genevieve series (Drachenfels, Genevieve Undead, Beasts in Velvet) way back when GW was first getting into the fiction business. He's roughly contemporary with the first Gotrek and Felix books by Bill King. AFAIK, he has never written anything else for Black Library.

Ahhh that explains it i have only read wh40k related novels. Itto id recommend the "Horus Heresy" line of books. While i have many issues with their "lore" they are far above par. Space Marine has basically been disowned by black library so it will never be reprinted (even tho they claimed the same thing with the Draco books). It basically describes the process of becoming a space marine.

[apocrypha]

Finished "So Many Ways To Begin" by Jon McGregor lastnight, and was distinctly unimpressed with it unfortunately.

it's the story of one man's search for his past and how his life develops around that search - his career, his marriage, his fatherhood and his personal journey to find closure in his life, but the problem is that it's an entirely mundane life, told in a mundane way. McGregor attempts to portray how ordinary lives are dramatic for those they happen to but it just didn't work for me.

There were actually a lot of things in the protagonists tale that had some resonance for me - his wife is Scottish and the experiences of an Englishman trying to understand and relate to a different culture (I lived in Glasgow for 3 years and married a Scot from a Catholic background), the effect that depression can have on people's lives, the impact that redundancy has on you, etc. But despite those points of reference I found it impossible to actually relate to the main character, partly I think because I just didn't find him to be a likeable character. I understand that real people are flawed, most of us deeply so, but when character flaws get in the way of sympathising with the protagonist then it makes the drama of the book feel very distant.

He also used an odd device where when he was describing events that were second hand, i.e. the main character, David, recalling events that had happened to other people and been told to him, he would describe multiple different ways that they could have happened. It's clever in one way - it's a good approximation of the way we remember and imagine things, but I found it intensely annoying to read because it ended up making the story vague.

Anyway, TL:DR, I didn't like it and won't go out of my way to read any of his other books.

Decided to give Ulysses another go next so I'll either post here again in 2 weeks time to say I've given up on it again or I'll be back in 6 months time with my thoughts 

[Arrrgh]

Dont believe i have ever read anything by Jack Yeovil. He writes in the wh40k branch?

He wrote the Genevieve series (Drachenfels, Genevieve Undead, Beasts in Velvet) way back when GW was first getting into the fiction business. He's roughly contemporary with the first Gotrek and Felix books by Bill King. AFAIK, he has never written anything else for Black Library.

Those are collected in The Vampire Genevieve omnibus. They're a good starting point for warhammer fiction newbs as long as you keep in mind that they're the best of the lot. Some of the other stuff is good but it's mostly downhill after Genevieve.

[Quinton]

Finished Revelation Space, which I enjoyed greatly and am now reading Redemption Ark, set in the same universe (part of a trilogy I gather).  I'm a sucker for big 'ol slower than light ramscoop ships and such (something I liked about the world of A Fire Upon The Deep and A Deepness in the Sky.  Some fun takes on "why isn't there more intelligent life out there" in this series.

[FatuousTwat]

I really like that series, but for some reason I keep getting stuck on Absolution Gap. I get about halfway through it, and just quit. Don't really know why, I don't really remember disliking it.

Started The Darkness That Comes Before. It's ok. It already has some really overused tropes that I am thoroughly sick of.

[WayAbvPar]

Tore through Small Favor, which I loved. Butcher can't write Dresden books fast enough for me. I know they are lightweight, but I enjoy the hell out of them.

[murdoc]

"Snow Crash"

Why did it take so damn long for me to finally pick this up!?

[apocrypha]

"Snow Crash"

Why did it take so damn long for me to finally pick this up!?

That is a good book. Have you read The Diamond Age?

[Khaldun]

I really like that series, but for some reason I keep getting stuck on Absolution Gap. I get about halfway through it, and just quit. Don't really know why, I don't really remember disliking it.

Started The Darkness That Comes Before. It's ok. It already has some really overused tropes that I am thoroughly sick of.

I liked some of what he does in this series. But it gets really ponderous as it goes on, and he is way way too fond of the proposition that he's doing something that has philosophical weight to it. I really felt that if he'd had a editor who pushed back hard on him to make the prose leaner and cut down on the deadweight philosophizing in the second two books, it could have been a really classic series. As it is, way better than your average fantasy work, but that's a low standard to rise above.

[FatuousTwat]

I really like that series, but for some reason I keep getting stuck on Absolution Gap. I get about halfway through it, and just quit. Don't really know why, I don't really remember disliking it.

Started The Darkness That Comes Before. It's ok. It already has some really overused tropes that I am thoroughly sick of.

I liked some of what he does in this series. But it gets really ponderous as it goes on, and he is way way too fond of the proposition that he's doing something that has philosophical weight to it. I really felt that if he'd had a editor who pushed back hard on him to make the prose leaner and cut down on the deadweight philosophizing in the second two books, it could have been a really classic series. As it is, way better than your average fantasy work, but that's a low standard to rise above.

Are you referring to Reynolds or Bakker?