Return of the Book Thread

[HaemishM]

I have never been able to finish a Piers Anthony book. My biggest problem with him (besides the fucked up sexual shit) is that his writing style is awful. As I read the books, it sounds in my head like an audiobook voiced by the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons.

[RhyssaFireheart]

The Incarnations of Immortality series would have been fine if he'd just left it at the original 5 books.  It was adding the fucked up books about Satan and God that really messed it up and drove the concept into the ground, IMO.  The rest of the series wasn't bad (and I've actually reread it fairly recently, like within the past year or so) although he did try way to hard to be clever with all the interacting family relationships. 

I've been rereading some of my older series and do fine for the first few books, then I start getting impatient and flipping through the pages of later books just looking for particular parts I remember.  Most recently I did this with Marian Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels.  I can still enjoy the standalone novels, but after a while, all the feudalism and women bitching about their lot in life and culture clash stuff just gets on my nerves.

Maybe I'll go read some of my Tepper books, like The Gate to Women's Country.  I like that one a lot.  Or Grass.

[bhodi]

The ideas behind the Incarnations of Immortality and the Apprentice Adept series were both really interesting. I loved them both- when I was 13. I am sure they would be awful now. If only a talented writer had come up with them...

I feel the same way, though I re-read them in my early 20s, they definitely feel like young adult fiction. Maybe I have a high tolerance for that sort of thing, I really enjoyed them when I was a teenager, my tastes have evolved a bit but they definitely aren't schlock, even now.


Finished Mistborn. That was a pretty amazing series of books. I like the writer. I think he should have taken over wheel of time around book 5.

[Samwise]

Been reading the Mercedes Thompson books by Patricia Briggs.   Modern fantasy, sort of in the same general vein as the Dresden stuff (which I've also just started on recently), but more  and IMO better written.

[Chimpy]

Finished Mistborn. That was a pretty amazing series of books. I like the writer. I think he should have taken over wheel of time around book 5.

But where would repressed people get their dose of lesbian spanking and pot washing drudgery porn?

[dd0029]

After some morbid curiosity after reading the "OH JOHN RINGO NO" thing, I felt the perverse need to read some.  I ran across this site that has all of the Baen Free CDs and decided now's the time.  I did know enough to stay away from the referenced Paladin of Shadows series, so I thought I'd try Into the Looking Glass, the first of one of his other CDs.  It starts off with an interesting enough premise, a particle physics experiment gone wildly wrong flattens a Florida town and start spitting out interstellar gates.  Being a Baen book there's bound to be some entertaining rowdiness showing up and it does.  Things escalate to where we're tossing nukes around the continental US.  Our main character is a superman redneck neo-con particle physicist:

"with a body that only required two hours of sleep a night, a mind like an adding machine and the energy level of a ferret on a pixie stick." 

Women are kind of thin on the ground, but do come in for sweet lines like this,

"Robin had squeezed into the door behind him and it was a sensation he thought he'd remember for the rest of his life, of watching mushroom clouds reaching for the troposphere, roiling and pregnant with evil, while two small but firm breasts pressed into his shoulder blades. He noticed that he was extremely horny."

Ringo proves his old school France hate in this book from 1990 by oddly linking France with Pakistan and China in deciding to ignore the nuclear test ban treaty at the opening of the book. There's some fun bang, bang action here but it's awash in thin characters, a weak plot and a hard driving ideological slant that gets a wee bit annoying with some fine prose like this when a gate opens at the end of the book in the Middle East.

"Any word on what we we're going to do?" Bill asked.

"Well, the Teams are sitting back, watching the tube and laughing in their beer." Miller answered. "The Ayrabs (sic) can't fight for shit. There's a lot of cultural reasons for it...Wait a year and there won't be enough mujaheddin left on earth to bury the bodies...The ragheads will also see,clearly, what the U.S. can do if it cares enough to send the very best. Nuclear weapons rising where the mullahs cannot ignore them."

[Chimpy]

Picked up from the library and read all 3 Mistborn books over the weekend.

Really liked them. The evolution of how the motivations of characters are perceived as new things come to light was interesting. Usually it is "RAWR so and so bad, YAY so and so good" with little smatterings of "VOILA bad guy saved!". The characters and events seemed to all be painted in varying shades of gray which was interesting.

Now I need to find something else to read at the library. Whomever checked out the first Malazan book has not turned it in yet and it was due a week ago  .

[murdoc]

I'm rereading the Malazan books on my Kindle and it turns out book 3 and 7 aren't available for download in Canada, which is really 

I've been looking at the Mistborn books, so I think that when I get caught up with Erikson's books I'll read those next.

[Sky]

We're getting in the first of the last order before full austerity budget went into place - seeing three malazan books on the shelf makes me smile. Getting in the 9 malazan, teh full black company run, the elric run, and the esslemont stuffs. And that's it for at least two years for anything but bestsellers 

[bhodi]

I read a bit of the John Ringo series where aliens come to earth and start flattening everything, and only the Angry Bob's gun hoarders of middle america can survive. It's still pretty painful.

[ghost]

Yes!  Found the Black Company on audio book.   

[Ard]

the elric run

Which elric one, are you talking about the new reprint?  I've got most of the white wolf omnibuses of Moorcocks works from the 90s, and some of the earlier paperbacks, but I still don't recognize some of the stories even in the first new book.  Am I missing anything interesting here?

This one in case there's any real question on version:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013TX6EY/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=0TH1KZ1VW61TF3GB68XY&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938811&pf_rd_i=507846

Finished up The Way of Kings finally.  I like Sanderson's writing style, but man he needs to lay off all the deus ex machina and actually let his characters resolve problems.  If he keeps this up, the last book in this series is going to be... something.... 

Started reading the last Starfishers book from Cook.  It already started out by creating random character conflicts that kinda go against the end of the second book, which worries me some.  Barely into it though, but it's been a good ride so far.

[bhodi]

Yes!  Found the Black Company on audio book.  

Yeah, it was just released. I'm listening to it as well. Same narrator (Mark Vietor) who did the nightside novels as well. He's a good author.

I was waiting until the new page to mention it :)

[Sky]

Which elric one, are you talking about the new reprint? 

http://www.amazon.com/Elric-Stealer-Chronicles-Emperor-Melnibon%C3%A9/dp/0345498623

http://www.amazon.com/Elric-Tanelorn-Chronicles-Emperor-Melnibon%C3%A9/dp/0345498631

http://www.amazon.com/Elric-Sleeping-Sorceress-Chronicles-Melnibon%C3%A9/dp/034549864X

I have a couple sets of the original six paperbacks, looking forward to comparing them when we get them in.

[ghost]

Yes!  Found the Black Company on audio book.  

Yeah, it was just released. I'm listening to it as well. Same narrator (Mark Vietor) who did the nightside novels as well. He's a good author.

I was waiting until the new page to mention it :)

I just bought all of them.  My wife is going to kick my ass.

[MahrinSkel]

After some morbid curiosity after reading the "OH JOHN RINGO NO" thing, I felt the perverse need to read some.

The "Legacy of the Aldenata" series are just good fun sci-fi warporn in the Starship Troopers tradition, with some redneck "Southern Warrior" glorification thrown in, and a healthy dose of "Gung Ho" (as a genre) tropes.  After that, his writing just kind of degenerates like later Heinlein (but without the strokes and in high speed) as he indulges his political and sexual fantasies.

To do a little name dropping, I hung out with him and his crew at DragonCon one year.  Fun guys to drink with, but neither side of the exchange was very impressed.

--Dave

[Ard]

I have a couple sets of the original six paperbacks, looking forward to comparing them when we get them in.

My only real complaint is that he has too many reprints and rewrites of his stuff, and sometimes under different names.  I have no clue what's actually new or not anymore from him.  The white wolf omnibuses were actually really well done, but it mostly focused on his non-elric stuff, which I personally like more.  I really should figure out which books from that series I'm missing and track them down.

[Morat20]

After some morbid curiosity after reading the "OH JOHN RINGO NO" thing, I felt the perverse need to read some.

The "Legacy of the Aldenata" series are just good fun sci-fi warporn in the Starship Troopers tradition, with some redneck "Southern Warrior" glorification thrown in, and a healthy dose of "Gung Ho" (as a genre) tropes.  After that, his writing just kind of degenerates like later Heinlein (but without the strokes and in high speed) as he indulges his political and sexual fantasies.

To do a little name dropping, I hung out with him and his crew at DragonCon one year.  Fun guys to drink with, but neither side of the exchange was very impressed.

--Dave

I ended up just turning to Weber for my war porn. Admittedly, it's gotten a little luridcrous with the Macross Missile Storms but he at least seems to have taken that under consideration. Although I am looking forward to the Solarian League's introduction to modern warfare, and loved the (equivilant) introduction of submarine warfare.

For those who don't read the Honor Harrington books, he's basically playing "Let's play Horatio Hornblower, but over the course of the war evolve from galleons to battleships to radio to aircraft carriers and submarines.". Subs-equivilants are new, and were used in a Pearl Harbor style of attack. Albeit a far more effective one. (Imagine Pearl Harbor had not only sunk a giant chunk of the US's best and brightest, but had also blown up the factories and shipyards that built and supplied them -- including all the ammunition factories -- killing virtually everyone with experience or skill at making ships, guns, missiles, etc -- and then taking a pot shot at Los Alamos during a meeting of "Everyone who could possibly be useful for the war effort, Science Division" as well).

The Solarian League, however, is still stuck sailing galleons. Well, ironclads. They however have about 47,000 times larger navy, and equivilant industrial base and population. It's very much "Britian and France have been going at it for two centuries, while Spain has loafed around being rich and having a giant Navy no one ever attacks".

[Murgos]

Just to tie the couple of posts together Weber and Ringo did a collaboration a few years ago that I recall was pretty decent, The March Up Country.  It's a future telling of the Anabasis (which means Go Up Country basically).

[dd0029]

Just to tie the couple of posts together Weber and Ringo did a collaboration a few years ago that I recall was pretty decent, The March Up Country.  It's a future telling of the Anabasis (which means Go Up Country basically).

Yeah, I read that and really enjoyed it.  They balance each other out very well.  That's why I was so surprised to see the Oh John Ringo No thing.  I would like to see more, but they seem to be more interested in their other projects.

[Khaldun]

Just did Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan: YA steampunk fantasy based on the First World War. Pretty damn good read, actually.

[Morat20]

Just to tie the couple of posts together Weber and Ringo did a collaboration a few years ago that I recall was pretty decent, The March Up Country.  It's a future telling of the Anabasis (which means Go Up Country basically).

Yeah, I read that and really enjoyed it.  They balance each other out very well.  That's why I was so surprised to see the Oh John Ringo No thing.  I would like to see more, but they seem to be more interested in their other projects.

I'd imagine that, somewhere in Weber's beardy little head (I don't know if he has a beard or not, but frankly all I can think of when I read him is the overly beared war-gaming types), a voice screams "JOHN RINGO NO!" and edits that out for him

Collaborations have got to be difficult. If nothing else, you've got writers used to more or less complete creative control -- well, aside from editors -- having to share the playground. Neil Gaimon and Terry Pratchett reputedly did Good Omens and supposedly had a good time, but ruled out trying another collaboration. I know Feist and Wurts did the Empire Riftware novels (well worth reading, not like his latter crap) and apparently both their spouses mock-threatened them with divorce if they ever tried it again.

[Murgos]

I'd imagine that, somewhere in Weber's beardy little head (I don't know if he has a beard or not, but frankly all I can think of when I read him is the overly beared war-gaming types)

So, out of curiosity I just GIS'd for David Weber.  Heh, there is a man that looks like he would be perfectly happy behind an enormous sheet of plywood covered with an Advanced Squad Leader map or War in the Desert, thousands of little card board counters and a small mountain of dice.

[Morat20]

I'd imagine that, somewhere in Weber's beardy little head (I don't know if he has a beard or not, but frankly all I can think of when I read him is the overly beared war-gaming types)

So, out of curiosity I just GIS'd for David Weber.  Heh, there is a man that looks like he would be perfectly happy behind an enormous sheet of plywood covered with an Advanced Squad Leader map or War in the Desert, thousands of little card board counters and a small mountain of dice.

You know what? I applaud those people. They know what they like, they do it, and fuck you if you think it's weird. :) I love going to gaming cons just to watch the Really Serious types with thier massive hand-painted armies squinting for line-of-site interacting with the caped Vampire LARPers all bitching about Twilight.

[Ironwood]

Just finished Pillars of the Earth and, by hell, it's a good read.

Expected it to be utter shite and the first chapter was all 'ho hum' and then BANG, you're in.

Great read.

[HaemishM]

Just finished Pillars of the Earth and, by hell, it's a good read.

Expected it to be utter shite and the first chapter was all 'ho hum' and then BANG, you're in.

Great read.

Did you see the Starz mini-series of it? I'm just wondering how close to the book the series was.

[Ironwood]

No, I haven't, but I'm being told it deviates slightly ;  which is entirely expected.  The novel itself is long and spans a fair chunk of time, so I would imagine any show would really have to condense it a lot.

It surprised me how 'not dense' the book is for all that.  It's a real page turner and doesn't hesitate to throw the reality of life then right into your face.

[Chimpy]

If I hate Pillars of the Earth I am going to blame you, Ironwood!

Was the only book I could remember people saying was good off the top of my head that was on the shelf when I stopped at the library today.

[Ironwood]

Like everything in this thread, you might like it, you might not;  But it's damn well written.  And it's interesting.

Also, you can totally imagine Swearengen the Priest.  :-D

[Chimpy]

Damn that book is hard to put down. I got through more than half of it before I passed out at 7 am. 

[JWIV]

I was susprised, but i did really enjoy Pillars when I read it.  The sequel - World Without End, isn't as good, but still worth a read.

[Chimpy]

What's not to like about a book where a mother uses the word "cunny" when reciting an abridged version of the birds & bees to a 10 year old?

[dd0029]

Finished up David Weber's new one, Out of the Dark.  What a bad idea.  He might have been able to do an alien invasion with vampires and partisan fighters at one time, but not anymore.  The blowing up was cool, but that was relatively few and far between.  He spent the first third of the book introducing the mostly American cast and their families.  There's also a "wonderfully" inverted Independence Day moment when the aliens hack the internet through an Iranian coffee shop.  And because this is a David Weber book, he had to have some convoluted reasoning for the good guys to massively out tech the bad guys, even though the bad guys are alien invaders from space.  Even with all of the problems, it might have been a good book if he was a better writer.  These people talk nonstop in enormous paragraphs saying the same thing over and over and over and everyone is exactly the same.  Though I do have to say that his bad guys were not mustache twirling villains this time,  their mistakes were mostly believable.  And the vampires?  They only showed up halfway through the book and did just about nothing until the last chapter or two when the handfull of them kill all of the aliens.  All of them, by grabbing hold and riding the exterior of the alien drop ships as they retreat from the planet.

[FatuousTwat]

Yeah, I read that in the Warriors anthology edited by Gardner Dozois and G.R.R.M.

Probably the weakest of the bunch.

[Chimpy]

So ya, I finished Pillars of the Earth (yes, I only started reading it less than 36 hours ago).

Definitely a book that was difficult to stop reading. First book out of the regular fiction section I have read in years.

Now I am going to watch the mini-series over the next few days and see how much it sucks or not!

But I think I am going to take a few days off from reading books and focus on something more productive.