Return of the Book Thread

[ghost]

Looking for some of the Culture novels on audiobook.  Don't suppose anyone's had any luck with that, eh?

[Morat20]

Looking for some of the Culture novels on audiobook.  Don't suppose anyone's had any luck with that, eh?

Here. Looks to Windward appears to the only one, unless you'll accept the text-to-speech of a Kindle ebook.

[ghost]

That's what I found.  Oh well.  

What's been your experience with the text to speech stuff?

[Ingmar]

There's a reason the kindle lists it as an "experimental" feature, let's just say that.

[Morat20]

That's what I found.  Oh well.  

What's been your experience with the text to speech stuff?

Not great. Acceptable, I'd say, just for the variety -- I mean, if I was blind.

[ghost]

I may try  it out and see, then.  Between work and two kids about the only time I have to "read" is in the car.  That may be my only chance to get through the Culture series until I get my next vacation.  I did find the Uplift series, which is cool.  I like Brin, even though his stuff is a bit cheesy. 

[Ingmar]

Even when it is pronouncing words right, which it often isn't, it doesn't know how to accent some words to make stuff sound right. The first person who invents a text to speech thing that can give vaguely dramatic readings will make a mint. This is essentially an 'only if you're blind and have no other options' sort of thing currently, IMO.

[bhodi]

Er, I have mp3s to Consider Phlebas, Player of Games, Inversions, Look to Windward, and non-culture Against a dark background, and the Algebraist. They were definitely made.

You can probably find them all through filestube if you've got flexible morals and have exhausted other options. There are a ton of audiobooks in general on mediashare-type websites. Some are text to speech, but it's more of a rarity. I personally can't deal with text to speech.

[Chimpy]

So I have been checking out the last 15 years or so of Modesitt's Recluce books (the beginning of the space aliens fall to earth one disgusted me so much when it was new I had written the new ones off for years) from the local library. While I don't have anything specific to say about the books themselves, one thing has been driving me batty.

Some asshat who has checked all these books out before me fucking took a pencil (and even a couple times a pen) to correct the grammar/spelling/punctuation in the fucking books like it was a fucking high school term paper.

And half the time, their corrections are WRONG.

It only happens once every 20-30 pages or so. But damn if it is not annoying as hell.

[MahrinSkel]

It was too bad Heinlein became best known as a Scifi writer, in some ways.  Some of his best writing was in other genres, some written under pseudonyms (many of which have never been publicly acknowledged).  Expanded Universe gives a taste of that, but it would be really nice to have a collection put out of all his pulp magazine thriller and crime fiction that he wrote before his SciFi novels got traction.

--Dave

[Rendakor]

So I have been checking out the last 15 years or so of Modesitt's Recluce books (the beginning of the space aliens fall to earth one disgusted me so much when it was new I had written the new ones off for years) from the local library. While I don't have anything specific to say about the books themselves, one thing has been driving me batty.

Some asshat who has checked all these books out before me fucking took a pencil (and even a couple times a pen) to correct the grammar/spelling/punctuation in the fucking books like it was a fucking high school term paper.

And half the time, their corrections are WRONG.

It only happens once every 20-30 pages or so. But damn if it is not annoying as hell.

Cool story bro.

[Sky]

To be fair, the Modesitt books are fucking awfully edited. I don't think they even bother editing him anymore. Someone has corrected a couple of the books in our collection. The corrections bother me less than the shitty lack of editing.

Then there's the Lord-Protector's Daughter, which was so poorly written I put Modesitt On Notice. The Arms Commander was decent enough (for Modesitt), though.

[murdoc]

Flew through 'Changes' on the weekend. Very aptly named. I kinda rolled my eyes at the some of the realizations, but overall a fantastically entertaining read, as per usual.

[Sky]

Still in House of Chains, busy on another project so not much time to read. The opening bit with Karsa Orlong was my favorite thus far in the series, jumping the town wall with his horse, so many vivid scenes. Into the second act of the book, return to regular awesome Erikson.

[Chimpy]

To be fair, the Modesitt books are fucking awfully edited. I don't think they even bother editing him anymore. Someone has corrected a couple of the books in our collection. The corrections bother me less than the shitty lack of editing.

Then there's the Lord-Protector's Daughter, which was so poorly written I put Modesitt On Notice. The Arms Commander was decent enough (for Modesitt), though.

Pretty much all books in the 'genre' are horribly edited now. The last few Feist books I have read were probably even worse than the Modesitt ones editing wise.

[Cyrrex]

Still in House of Chains, busy on another project so not much time to read. The opening bit with Karso Orlong was my favorite thus far in the series, jumping the town wall with his horse, so many vivid scenes. Into the second act of the book, return to regular awesome Erikson.

Oddly, I have put down this series precisely because I know the next book or 12 in the series isn't about Karsa Orlong.  What a kick ass character.

[Reg]

Feist started off with a bang but hasn't really developed much as a writer. I remember reading Magician when it first came out and being blown away but the stuff he's writing now is still the same badly characterized D&D rip off novels. Ah well. He's still better than Hickman and Weiss.

[Sky]

I haven't read Feist since the Krondor:whatever trilogy.

[Arrrgh]

Still in House of Chains, busy on another project so not much time to read. The opening bit with Karso Orlong was my favorite thus far in the series, jumping the town wall with his horse, so many vivid scenes. Into the second act of the book, return to regular awesome Erikson.

Oddly, I have put down this series precisely because I know the next book or 12 in the series isn't about Karsa Orlong.  What a kick ass character.

He's in a couple of the later books.

[Sky]

Really makes me want to go back and read the earlier stuff, too. Like when you see his work from the perspective of the guys finding the boat in the flooded warren or when you meet him as the guardian of the desert chick. I imagine it adds a lot. Erikson is really spoiling just about all fiction for me :P

[Ard]

The only thing to be aware regarding Karsa is that despite him being in the other books, his story isn't going to be resolved in the main series.  Erickson already said his story was going to be wrapped up in a side book after the end.

On Feist, his writing ebbs and flows.  Some of the books are better than others, and it always feels like there's a trilogy of filler in between his better books.  His main story is wrapping up though, I think he's said that the trilogy that starts getting printed next year is the last one, and the name of the last book (Magician's End) is somewhat ominous.

edit for my own reading:
And just to make sure Ironwood stays pissed off, I'm nearly done with Shadowline by Glen Cook.  It's the first of the Starfishers books, and it's nearly as good as the Black Company was, and a great deal better than the recent Instrumentalities of the Night books.  Interesting scifi, takes place over the span of a few hundred years, and jumps around chronologically to slowly expose plot and character points.  Time to dig up the next one.  They've been reprinted recently, and the last book is due out in October.

[Johny Cee]

Really makes me want to go back and read the earlier stuff, too. Like when you see his work from the perspective of the guys finding the boat in the flooded warren or when you meet him as the guardian of the desert chick. I imagine it adds a lot. Erikson is really spoiling just about all fiction for me :P

The early books in the series, to about book 5, do have a great narrative over time as minor players in some places turn out to be big deal in others.


Erikson totally fucks up his timeline later, to the point where I don't give a shit.  Some of the Karsa stuff in the later books completely breaks the suspension of disbelief.  Time flows much faster some places, slower others. 

The whole style is supposed to be working towards a Big Bang convergance in the final couple hundred pages each book, but time gets soooo fucked up (not to mention weird traveling issues....  literally, some characters get to other continents before they left, or by the timeline, were picking their toes for 3 or 5 YEARS in which nothing happened and they are still traveling the exact same way you last saw them) you start to give the whole thing a confused shrug.


If I had to take a guess, up to Book 5 was pretty well plotted out with story and the background issues/history.  After book 5 or 6, two things happened:  Erikson jumped to a more "literary" style, which caused him to move the focus of his writing from action/story to philosophical monologues, and he ran out of background so started coming up with everything as he wrote.

There are some pretty bad retcons, character shifts, and issues later on in the books.


Style-wise, the early books are Glen Cook plus Tolkien, as updated by Martin.  The later drastically change that style, most reminding me of my limited experience with Donaldson or Peake.

[Lt.Dan]

I just started reading the Saga of the Seven Suns (Kevin Anderson).  Not impressed at all.  Too many characters and each story doesn't really get time to develop in each five page chapter.

I'm sorely tempted to abandon ship but thought it might get better.  Any thoughts on the series?

(PS this Glen Cook thread is starting to morph into the Erikson thread.  What's up with that?)

[Morat20]

I just started reading the Saga of the Seven Suns (Kevin Anderson).  Not impressed at all.  Too many characters and each story doesn't really get time to develop in each five page chapter.

I'm sorely tempted to abandon ship but thought it might get better.  Any thoughts on the series?

(PS this Glen Cook thread is starting to morph into the Erikson thread.  What's up with that?)

it's Space Opera, right? That's generally just how the genre goes. I only read the first book, I think. I got the second, but had forgotten what had happened in the first, so never read it.

[Johny Cee]

I just started reading the Saga of the Seven Suns (Kevin Anderson).  Not impressed at all.  Too many characters and each story doesn't really get time to develop in each five page chapter.

I'm sorely tempted to abandon ship but thought it might get better.  Any thoughts on the series?

(PS this Glen Cook thread is starting to morph into the Erikson thread.  What's up with that?)

It's okay.  Cook was a major influence on Erikson....  The seventh Malazan book was dedicated to Glen Cook.

[Chimpy]

Isn't Kevin Anderson the hack that helps Brian Herbert sodomize the Dune universe?

[Ironwood]

Kevin Anderson or Kevin J Anderson or, to give him his full title, Kevin J 'I can't write to save my fucking life and am a massive geek that needs nailed to a tree and pierced with a spear just for the irony because I think I'm Star Wars Jesus despite being unable to write a single convincing Star Wars Book' Anderson isn't all that good a writer.

Really.

[MumRaww]

I have a huge stack of books that I want to read but I just can't find the time:

Trees of Smoke
The Border Trilogy - I've read the first book.
Mason Dixon
A Single Man - Loved the arrogant, self-important movie. I think the book will be better.
Moby Dick
The Black Dahlia
Just Kids
The American - In preparation for the movie.

[ghost]

Currently I'm on Sundiver by David Brin.  It's quaint, but a good story.  

I just started reading the Saga of the Seven Suns (Kevin Anderson).  Not impressed at all.  Too many characters and each story doesn't really get time to develop in each five page chapter.

I'm sorely tempted to abandon ship but thought it might get better.  Any thoughts on the series?

I've read the entire series.  It is complete, warmed over shite.  Give it up now.  It certainly doesn't get any better. 

[bhodi]

About halfway through Simon R Green's Nightside series. It's pretty campy and he's got a touch too much of the 'all-powerful badass', but that's to be expected.. in the nightside. The first two books initially tried to take grim and dark to a new level but about halfway through it rolled over to somewhat funny instead. Whether it was by design or serendipity, who can say... in the nightside.

As I'm listening to the audiobook, the reader made it particularly entertaining; his straightman dramatic reading of "in the nightside" over and over again really put a smile on my face. It was clear he was enjoying himself, and the joke, too.



Sundiver was pretty good; I liked the idea of humans on a galactic scale entering a universe where everyone really is more powerful, populous, and has had thousands and thousands of years of a head start. Sadly, none of the books past the first two dealt with galactic politics. It's an interesting universe that could use more writing about, but I don't think it'll happen.

[shiznitz]

I just finished The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by Daniel Mitchell. It is historical fiction (barely) set in 1799 Japan.  The protagonist is a new arrival at the Dutch trading house off Nagasaki.  This book is filled with rich characters and amazing and amusing dialogue.  The dustjacket refers to a forbidden romance but that is a tiny part of the mesh of this story.  If you enjoyed the culture clash of Shogun then you will like this and it isn't 900+ pages.

[Johny Cee]

Caitlin R. Keirnan's The Red Tree was just nominated for a World Fantasy Award.  Epistolary novel.  A knocking on middle-aged lesbian author moves to deserted New England countryside to write after health scares and unexplained relationship issues.  Queue a subtle blend of psychological and Lovecraftian horror.

Really loved this book.  It really scratches the Lovecraft itch.

[Hoax]

Did a couple of searches (I don't keep up on this thread my reading list stretches for miles as it is) but I couldn't find a reference.

Has anyone read Steven Hall's The Raw Shark Texts? Or heard of the book even? I just finished it and found it to be a tremendous thing. Could have been a bit of right place right time for an interesting love story and I went into it with zero expectations (random pick up from a used book store) which can often make things seem better but I think I have to recommend it if nobody else has.

Some review text, edited to take out some of the plot info that is needlessly revealed.

[Phred]

Omg. 87 pages before I can second Tim Powers, my current favorite author. Even his juvenile stuff has redeeming features and yes Dinner at deviant's palace is a kick ass book. The only week one in his repetoir is Earth quake weather where he tries to meld 2 totally disparate books together. and interesting effort but ultimately it falls flat, imo. Everything else in his catalogue I wouuld recommend strongly. Try deviant's palace, the anubis gates or drawing of the dark. if they dont do anything for you jump into the ocean and explode.

 

[JWIV]

Just finished up Mockingjay (last book of The Hunger Games).   I'm usually not one for kid series, but I _really_ enjoyed this series overall.   Probably has something to do with the fact that Collins appears to have a bet with Martin as to whom can kill off more characters per page.   

On a side note, I have no idea what possessed me to recommend to my pregnant wife that she should read this.   Hormones + Children killing Children =  hormonal sobbing and blaming me for it