Return of the Book Thread

[Ironwood]

The Hydrogen Sonata.

It was ok.  Another Culture book.  I really can't remember the last one he did that had a tangible point.

[Khaldun]

Just about to start it. Kind of frustrated with Banks in that same way, though. Love the setting, lots of nice little thoughts, but they're all sort of picaresques of a kind--stuff happens, people amble along, there is something sort of flat and personality-less about everybody and you get the feeling that nothing is ever really, really at stake except for a few people in the story and even they are sort of anodyne about it all, typically.

[Ironwood]

The trouble is, he's almost writing for the people who are going to deconstruct his work.  There was AN AWFUL LOT going on under the surface of THS, but the trouble was there wasn't a hell of a lot going on above that surface.

He's also fallen into that trap of pretty much making the minds the focus of The Culture - inevitably - and as a result they're usually the bulk of the characters and, thus, terribly, terribly boring.

[Rendakor]

I just finished Knife of Dreams (after reading chapter summaries for books 8-10); I liked it a lot because it had a lot of action and not much braid-tugging. Mat's my favorite character and he featured largely which is a big plus. My only problem with reading the series now is that I can't wiki someone if I don't remember them, because I risk series-ending spoilers; WoT has a ton of characters, and Jordan doesn't mind shelving some for a book or two.

I'm about a hundred pages into The Gathering Storm and enjoying it so far.

[ghost]

Finished Crown of Swords (finally) and am now starting Winter's Heart.  I'm glad he condensed his God Emperor down into only 5 books, or thereabouts.

[shiznitz]

I finished book 10 of the Malazan series, The Crippled God.  This series had some tough slogging in some of the books but I found the ending really well done and fulfilling.

[dd0029]

Mat's my favorite character and he featured largely which is a big plus.

I'd be interested to hear what you think of Sanderson's Mat. I seem to be in a small minority that thinks he completely whiffed Mat.

The more I think about the last book, the worse it fairs. It was long and surprisingly dull. I can't lay the entire blame on Jordan for it either. I'm not sure Sanderson can really end things satisfactorily. Granted the last Mistborn book is the only series ender from him that I know of, but A Memory of Light felt an awful lot like that one.

Read two new ones this week. Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines. This was originally self published and got picked up by an imprint of Random House. This was a fun mashup of zombies and superheroes. It's pretty much by the numbers, but they are fun numbers. I also read Forging Zero by Sara King. This is another self published book and was a disappointment, if only because it just missed being really good. Earth is taken over by an ancient galactic civilization and all children from 5-12 are impressed into the galactic army. It has echoes of Ender's Game, Starship Troopers and a bit of Forever War. Unfortunately, it ignores some of the more interesting ideas suggested by the story. Instead we have children put through a boot camp experience lifted right out of Full Metal Jacket.

[Rendakor]

I'll let you know; don't think I've had a chapter of him yet in AGS.

[bhodi]

I really liked the two leading up to the last book, but maybe that was because it was such a relief being jerked forward by the pacing. I don't think sanderson does big battles well, and his take of the world is just a lot more glossy than Jordan's.

[Chimpy]

I seem to be in a small minority that thinks he completely whiffed Mat.

I don't know anyone who particularly likes Sanderson's Mat versus Jordan's. Sanderson doesn't really have that much experience writing the "lovable rogue" type character, I can't think of any of his other books I have read that had anything close. But I have not talked to anyone who didn't think that he was much better at writing both Rand and Perrin. I felt both of those characters came across as much more human and less of the annoying caricatures they were in the later Jordan books.

[Rendakor]

I like Sanderson's Rand a lot better, and don't really mind his Mat (halfway through AGS now); Perrin hasn't had enough screen time for me to decide, and he seems to be on the cusp of a character change so I'll wait and see.

Man did I forget how much I hated Gawyn though, Elayne's brother; he's like a bad parody of a standard fantasy hero: "Save love interest, hate 'bad guy', protect princess." Bleh.

[Sheepherder]

I like Sanderson's Rand a lot better, and don't really mind his Mat (halfway through AGS now); Perrin hasn't had enough screen time for me to decide, and he seems to be on the cusp of a character change so I'll wait and see.

Man did I forget how much I hated Gawyn though, Elayne's brother; he's like a bad parody of a standard fantasy hero: "Save love interest, hate 'bad guy', protect princess." Bleh.

You are going to be super pissed about Perrin.  Specifically the part where you spent three books reading about him being a mopey douchebag before he goes through a training montage, takes a level in super saiyan, and begins to deliver righteous shitkickings to evil.

[Merusk]

Perrin can suck it.  Jordan's or Sanderson's he's a whiny twit with no real place in the narrative.  I swear that's why Jordan separated him from the group for so damn long and stuck him out in the middle of nowhere dealing with -ultimately- trivial things.   He had such potential as a character but from the moment he and FAIL started bumping uglies onward he was just a horrible super-emo douche.

Sanderson's Matt is just a touch out of step, but I blame that on Jordan's notes.  Jordan's Matt always had this sense of, "I know I'm getting away with shit here, but can you really blame me?!"  Sanderson's has this sense that Matt doesn't know he's roguish and honestly believes he's the mature upstanding citizen he makes all the claims to be.

The biggest failings of AMOL - to me - were the quick-cut pacing of a battle that's spread-out across the entire book and the way he describes the battles.  The pacing felt like he was trying to describe a storyboard for a movie instead of writing and it was the writing-equivalent of shaky-cam.

Jordan's best battle scenes painted a broad picture with fewer words, giving details on aftermath or intense focus for a moment.  Go read the Dumai's Wells again and it's an incredibly short, focused part of the book.   Sanderson's go in to detail about every swing, swipe, weave or cut and suffer for it.  One swordfight in particular takes almost 2 chapters to get through.

[dd0029]

Sanderson's Matt is just a touch out of step, but I blame that on Jordan's notes.  Jordan's Matt always had this sense of, "I know I'm getting away with shit here, but can you really blame me?!"  Sanderson's has this sense that Matt doesn't know he's roguish and honestly believes he's the mature upstanding citizen he makes all the claims to be.

The biggest failings of AMOL - to me - were the quick-cut pacing of a battle that's spread-out across the entire book and the way he describes the battles.  The pacing felt like he was trying to describe a storyboard for a movie instead of writing and it was the writing-equivalent of shaky-cam.

Jordan's best battle scenes painted a broad picture with fewer words, giving details on aftermath or intense focus for a moment.  Go read the Dumai's Wells again and it's an incredibly short, focused part of the book.   Sanderson's go in to detail about every swing, swipe, weave or cut and suffer for it.  One swordfight in particular takes almost 2 chapters to get through.

Got it in one there on both of them. That's probably the best description of my problem with Mat. There's also the outright buffoonery thing with the scripts and whatnot that got to me.

On Rand, I can't really say how much of the change is Sanderson or just the narrative arc transforming him into a messiah figure.

[Rendakor]

I'm halfway through TToM now, with Perrin still doing fuckall. Sigh, I really wish he'd just gotten killed off. He's going through the exact same thing Mat and Rand went through, like, 5 or 6 books ago at least, except in a more whiny and emo fashion. "I'm not a leader, I don't want power, wah wah wah." Good to see I'm not the only one who just calls her Fail. At least she hasn't been getting a ton of focus lately.

I can tell Mat's different, and to me it's mostly that the way he talks (both aloud and to himself) is slightly off; it's close enough though that it doesn't really bother me.

[dd0029]

Wait until the last book. Of the weak parts, her nonsense is the weakest. It makes no sense. It starts out completely in left field then wanders out of the park for who knows what reason then it just dropped.

[shiznitz]

I just finished John Dies at the End.  Loved it.  Is the sequel good or just a cash grab?

[Sky]

About a third into the 3rd of Zahn's Modhri cycle. Fun actiony sci-fi detective pulp.

[ghost]

I seem to be in a small minority that thinks he completely whiffed Mat.

I don't know anyone who particularly likes Sanderson's Mat versus Jordan's. Sanderson doesn't really have that much experience writing the "lovable rogue" type character, I can't think of any of his other books I have read that had anything close. But I have not talked to anyone who didn't think that he was much better at writing both Rand and Perrin. I felt both of those characters came across as much more human and less of the annoying caricatures they were in the later Jordan books.

I don't see how it could be worse than Jordan's bullshit end-of-life books. 

[Rendakor]

I just finished John Dies at the End.  Loved it.  Is the sequel good or just a cash grab?

The sequel is decent. It's not as funny, and stumbles a bit by letting characters other than David narrate, but wasn't bad.

[ghost]

I'm reading Chronicles of Narnia to the kids right now as their bedtime book.  I've never read them before, and I'm happy so far at how decent the story/writing is.  It's awesome seeing the oldest boy totally entranced with the story.  Four is a fun age. 

[Reg]

Stop after "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader."  The books after that start to go to hell.

[ghost]

My volume is set up with The Magician's Nephew first. 

[Engels]

Stop after "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader."  The books after that start to go to hell.

Couldn't disagree more. As a kid, my favorites were A Horse and His Boy and the Silver Chair. Puddleglum ftw.

[Rasix]

I'm reading Chronicles of Narnia to the kids right now as their bedtime book.  I've never read them before, and I'm happy so far at how decent the story/writing is.  It's awesome seeing the oldest boy totally entranced with the story.  Four is a fun age.  

4's a good age for that? Hmm, I don't think my boy would be ready for the <redacted> scene at that age (he's 4 in June).  Kid scares easy and kill/death isn't really part of his vocabulary at this point.

Started Sanderson's "The Way of Kings".  Not a huge fan of Sanderson, but I was looking for something to read and the e-book was $3.

edit: didn't want to spoil it for you.

[Ironwood]

That's a fantastic pic of Puddleglum.

Tom Baker played him.  Did a good job.

[ghost]

I'm reading Chronicles of Narnia to the kids right now as their bedtime book.  I've never read them before, and I'm happy so far at how decent the story/writing is.  It's awesome seeing the oldest boy totally entranced with the story.  Four is a fun age.  

4's a good age for that? Hmm, I don't think my boy would be ready for the <redacted> scene at that age (he's 4 in June).  Kid scares easy and kill/death isn't really part of his vocabulary at this point.

Started Sanderson's "The Way of Kings".  Not a huge fan of Sanderson, but I was looking for something to read and the e-book was $3.

edit: didn't want to spoil it for you.

Graeme is pretty cerebral for his age.  He loves reading.  We've done LOTR, the Hobbit , Redwall and the Wizard of Oz before this.  He can't get enough of a good book, it seems.  His brother, however, is asleep in 2 seconds (hence the level of book, lol)

[Reg]

I entirely forgot about "The Horse and his Boy."  That was a good one not to be missed.  Puddleglum, I just wasn't thrilled with.  Can we at least all agree that "The Last Battle" was a travesty that would actually melt your face if you read it though?

[ghost]

The Hydrogen Sonata.

It was ok.  Another Culture book.  I really can't remember the last one he did that had a tangible point.

I've only made my way through three of them.  I can't say that any necessarily had tangible plots, at least in the traditional sense.

[Threash]

I seem to be in a small minority that thinks he completely whiffed Mat.

I don't know anyone who particularly likes Sanderson's Mat versus Jordan's. Sanderson doesn't really have that much experience writing the "lovable rogue" type character, I can't think of any of his other books I have read that had anything close.

Kelsier?

[Salamok]

I seem to be in a small minority that thinks he completely whiffed Mat.

I don't know anyone who particularly likes Sanderson's Mat versus Jordan's. Sanderson doesn't really have that much experience writing the "lovable rogue" type character, I can't think of any of his other books I have read that had anything close.

Kelsier?

That was my thought too.

[Shannow]

Stop after "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader."  The books after that start to go to hell.

Well in the last battle don't they literally do that?   Not that I realized this at the time, I wish no one had ever told me about the whole Christianity angle of Lewis's writing.

[lamaros]

If you're reading books to your kids get Arthur Ransom's Swallows and Amazons. So, so good.

[Soln]

+1 great adventure and imagination in the real world.

[Morat20]

The Hydrogen Sonata.

It was ok.  Another Culture book.  I really can't remember the last one he did that had a tangible point.

I've only made my way through three of them.  I can't say that any necessarily had tangible plots, at least in the traditional sense.

No. Even his regular fiction is like that. The plot is there mostly to make people interact. Not like a true character driven piece, but...

I dunno, I'm sure a lit major would have a ton of words for it. But his books aren't exactly about the plot. His books are mostly about everything BUT the plot.

Like, um....can't recall the name, the one prior to the Hydrogen Sonata? The one about the Hells? The whole war thing wasn't really the point (in fact, the most important part wasn't the war -- but who was cheating). It was about...how a world where you don't necessarily have to die would handle death. What societies can and might do where the afterlife is something you can design, where punishment (and coercion and society's abilty to enforce it's own moral visions) can go.

And about what a superpower might do about it, especially if it's self-constrained. Call it a book about moral relativism, meddling, cheating, and self-justifications. The whole...plot...was there mainly to see those things happen.

Sorta. It's been awhile since I read it. :) Iain Banks books are never about what they're about. :)