Return of the Book Thread

[Ironwood]

Speaking from long years of experience, Clinical Depression is just no fun at all.  His writeup covered how bad it can actually get.  His 'Suck my Dick' to the anti-medication crowd was also well done.

[dd0029]

Finished Hold Me Closer Necromancer by Lish McBride. The Harry Dresden is strong in this one. It's on the border betwen YA and regular adult urban fantasy about a slacker college dropout who is rather comically/rudely made aware that he's the titular necromancer. The world building is kind of slim, but the characters make up for it. About the only real complaint I have is that everyone takes a few too many things that should be more than a little hair raising, completely in stride. I see that there's a second out and a third due this year, but this one at least stands fine on its own.

[dd0029]

I read The Walls of the Universe by Paul Melko this week. This is a modern Heinlein juvenile, if you liked those, you will most likely enjoy this one.  The basic premise is a young farm boy is out in the field when he sees himself coming towards him. It turns out to be another version of himself from a different dimension who has device to let him move among the dimensions. It's pretty obvious where things are going from the start as the new fellow convinces our fellow to try out the device. Our fellow finds out the thing only goes one way and the other guy wanted found a life like his own and he wanted it. This all happens fairly early in the book. The narrative then splits to follow both fellows as they adapt. It's not terribly deep and somewhat by the numbers, but it is fun, there are some mildly unexpected twists and it taps some of that gee whiz "SCIENCE" that's missing from a lot of current scifi.

[Salamok]

The sequel to Sanderson's Way of Kings is out now, hopefully I'll be reading that in the next week or so.

[Chimpy]

The sequel to Sanderson's Way of Kings is out now, hopefully I'll be reading that in the next week or so.

Uhm, Amazon is saying March 4th release date.

But, my library did let me put a hold on the book which is listed as "On Order"

[Salamok]

The sequel to Sanderson's Way of Kings is out now, hopefully I'll be reading that in the next week or so.

Uhm, Amazon is saying March 4th release date.

But, my library did let me put a hold on the book which is listed as "On Order"

You are correct Sir! I did not notice the purchase button was a pre-order button, you would think Amazon would wait until it was available before recommending it to me as a purchase.

[Abagadro]

Read Cornelius Ryan's three books on WWII: Longest Day (about D-Day), A Bridge Too Far (about Market-Garden), and The Last Battle (about taking Berlin).  Really amazing how much research he did and how he constructs things based upon individual narratives. Highly recommended if you like that subject.

[Chimpy]

You are correct Sir! I did not notice the purchase button was a pre-order button, you would think Amazon would wait until it was available before recommending it to me as a purchase.

It has been sitting in the sidebar of my "my account" pulldown for like 2 months 

[Tmon]

Uhm, Amazon is saying March 4th release date.

But, my library did let me put a hold on the book which is listed as "On Order"

mine too, I'm 29 on the list but they've ordered 10 copies so I'll only have to wait until April to read it, unless I break down and buy it when it releases.

[Viin]

Next book on my list is Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. Starts out pretty savage, so not sure what to expect but have heard pretty good things about it.

Just finished this trilogy - quite good. The first book is pretty brutal, and I had a hard time getting into it, but by the end I was hooked and flew through books 2 and 3. I recommend this trilogy if you can stomach the first book. The most interesting part was watching the main character grow from the terrible terrible kid in book one to a somewhat likable, but still evil, guy in book 3.

[Johny Cee]

Next book on my list is Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. Starts out pretty savage, so not sure what to expect but have heard pretty good things about it.

Just finished this trilogy - quite good. The first book is pretty brutal, and I had a hard time getting into it, but by the end I was hooked and flew through books 2 and 3. I recommend this trilogy if you can stomach the first book. The most interesting part was watching the main character grow from the terrible terrible kid in book one to a somewhat likable, but still evil, guy in book 3.

The first book suffers from trying too hard to hop on the modern fantasy "gritty"/"realistic" trend (basically it's Clockwork Orange during the Hundred Years War), but it gets toned down and is a good trilogy.

A similar book that marries some knights on horseback with more gray characters is The Red Knight, which I quite enjoyed.

[Cyrrex]

I have been reading the Ender series by Orson Scott Card...figured I should at least check out the first few books.  I understand that OSC is considered a douche around here for whatever reason (as if his Mormonism wasn't reason enough), but had also heard that the first few books are worthy sci-fi.

The first book, I thought, was really very good.  Good concept, and quite well executed for the most part.  I'll admit to being more or less riveted.  I then read Speaker for the Dead, which is technically the third book, even though it seems the official second book (Ender in Exile) was written after the series was thought to be finished.  Oh well, not like it actually ruined anything.  Anyway, Speaker was quite a different book altogether, which I did not expect at all.  It was pretty good on it's own merits, if not quite as compelling as the first book.  After that, I guess it sort of goes downhill.  I know it is sci-fi, but still some things begin to stretch at plausability a little too much.  Too much deus ex machina being invoked, for one thing.  His plot needed an ability for instantaneous travel across the universe, and boom, ten minutes later they know exactly how to do it because that's what happens when smart people talk to each other.  Etc.  I continue to read the series, because I don't like leaving this shit hanging.  Thankfully the last book, which is sequentially actually the second book, goes back in time to where Ender is young.  Much better.

To sum up:  first book is pretty good, if you like the genre.  After that it is a decidedly mixed bag, but happily one can read the first book and then just leave it after that, because it has a firm enough ending.

[Ironwood]

I think the 'whatever' is because he's a vile conservative homophobic closet kiddy-fiddler.

Most of which comes through in his writing once you start analyzing it.

Also, he's a shit writer whom I enjoyed in my youth before I knew any better.

[Cyrrex]

Heh, I'll keep that in mind as I finish off the last book.  I definitely picked up on the conversative vibe, but not really any of the more depraved stuff.

[Chimpy]

Heh, I'll keep that in mind as I finish off the last book.  I definitely picked up on the conversative vibe, but not really any of the more depraved stuff.

I picked up on it in Ender's Game (I read it a couple years ago for the first time) and I only knew that people thought Card was a reprehensible human being, no specifics to why.

[Cyrrex]

Care to elaborate?  I am cursed in that I have the ability for any book or movie I am watching that I turn off a switch and just allow myself to be entertained without thinking too deeply.  Or maybe blessed is a better word.  And well, it isn't like I don't think about what I'm reading, I just usually am not thinking about the things the author might be trying to send to me through their craft.  I drove several of my English teachers crazy, you can imagine.

Not trying to put you on the spot if you don't remember.  I can't quite see it as I think back unless I am really stretching things...okay, he gets confronted in the shower while naked and kills a guy by ramming him with his head.  I suppose their could be some symbolic meaning there?  He also probably loves his sister more than what makes me comfortable, but that doesn't seem a likely message for him to be getting across.  Some of his superiors kind of "love" him, but it never seemed to be anything other than father-like to me.

[Chimpy]

I honestly don't remember specifics, I just know that there were facets of how things were described that raised flags when I read it. I have read a lot of books since then.

[Pennilenko]

I drove several of my English teachers crazy, you can imagine.

That's because...

[Cyrrex]

Haha, yeah, I did a lot of that.  Because most of the time, the author was just describing the color of the curtains.

[Rasix]

Read the Bean books.  Or don't.  I liked the Ender series before reading those.  It kind of sours the whole experience.

I get the disdain for English teachers/class, but being thick headed is going to drive them insane.  It's literature, not phonics. 

[Pennilenko]

Read the Bean books.  Or don't.  I liked the Ender series before reading those.  It kind of sours the whole experience.

I get the disdain for English teachers/class, but being thick headed is going to drive them insane.  It's literature, not phonics. 

I get that some authors might include a little hidden meaning here and there. English (literature) teachers, for the most part, read too damn much into shit in order to justify the fact that they are mostly fucking useless and need to justify their paychecks. Since writing education has mostly been separated from literature in high school and college, literature classes have been self sustaining bullshit for a long time.

[Chimpy]

Let me guess, you work in computers? 

[HaemishM]

He also probably loves his sister more than what makes me comfortable, but that doesn't seem a likely message for him to be getting across. 

If his relationship with his sister (and her relationship with their brother) in the first book doesn't creep you out, then you probably won't see what anyone is talking about with the kiddy-fiddling. There was a really strong incest vibe I got from all 3 of those characters - not to mention they are all super-intelligent super-annoying Mary Sues.

[Ironwood]

Actually, that chart is horrendously wrong.  If anyone is trying to teach you what 'The Author Intended' rather than what the text says, they're doing it all wrong.  Authorial Intent does Not Signify.

On the other hand, Card wrote a book about an old man that kidnapped, abused and killed young boys.  So there's that.

 

[Ironwood]

He also probably loves his sister more than what makes me comfortable, but that doesn't seem a likely message for him to be getting across. 

If his relationship with his sister (and her relationship with their brother) in the first book doesn't creep you out, then you probably won't see what anyone is talking about with the kiddy-fiddling. There was a really strong incest vibe I got from all 3 of those characters - not to mention they are all super-intelligent super-annoying Mary Sues.

It's pretty much spelled out that Peter was abusing Valentine in ways that he could not with Ender.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Was going to say, wasn't Valentine afraid Peter was going to rape her or something close at some point?  Ironwood got there before me.

[Pennilenko]

I really don't mean to rip too harshly on literature teachers. It's just that I have had a few problems with more than a handful of them, in situations where they have insisted that my own personal writing contained meaning that I subconsciously put in there, when the reality was that I just wrote any damn thing to meet the word count so I would not get a bad grade.

[Salamok]

Songmaster was one of the first Card books I read and it pretty much put me on alert, as that was one of his first books the hints aren't subtle.

[Ironwood]

Was going to say, wasn't Valentine afraid Peter was going to rape her or something close at some point?  Ironwood got there before me.

That's not true, I never touched Valentine.

[Phildo]

Famous Novelists on Symbolism in Their Work and Whether It Was Intentional

It was 1963, and 16-year-old Bruce McAllister was sick of symbol-hunting in English class. Rather than quarrel with his teacher, he went straight to the source: McAllister mailed a crude, four-question survey to 150 novelists, asking if they intentionally planted symbolism in their work. Seventy-five authors responded. Here’s what 12 of them had to say.

[Ironwood]

Songmaster was one of the first Card books I read and it pretty much put me on alert, as that was one of his first books the hints aren't subtle.

Treason was pretty fucking blatant, but Lost Boys really, really, really was just fucking sordid.  As if the old man wasn't enough, the young bloke who like changing nappies to see baby parts was just all kinds of wow.

Seriously, Card, get some fucking help.

[Shannow]

Famous Novelists on Symbolism in Their Work and Whether It Was Intentional

It was 1963, and 16-year-old Bruce McAllister was sick of symbol-hunting in English class. Rather than quarrel with his teacher, he went straight to the source: McAllister mailed a crude, four-question survey to 150 novelists, asking if they intentionally planted symbolism in their work. Seventy-five authors responded. Here’s what 12 of them had to say.

According to the end of that story the kid went on to become an English professor (which automatically got my internet hoax senses tingling). That would be rather awesome if true.

[Ingmar]

Read this if you're curious about where the 'authorial intent doesn't matter' school of thought comes from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorial_intent

[Ironwood]

Or don't.  And don't fucking study it for four years either.

[lamaros]

Read the Bean books.  Or don't.  I liked the Ender series before reading those.  It kind of sours the whole experience.

I get the disdain for English teachers/class, but being thick headed is going to drive them insane.  It's literature, not phonics.  

I get that some authors might include a little hidden meaning here and there. English (literature) teachers, for the most part, read too damn much into shit in order to justify the fact that they are mostly fucking useless and need to justify their paychecks. Since writing education has mostly been separated from literature in high school and college, literature classes have been self sustaining bullshit for a long time.

You've never met any authors have you?

English teachers err in they they often just repeat the rote 'meaning' in books that their education system provides them, which is truly awful when students are fully engaged and wanting/thinking more, but they don't err is saying that many authors spend a lot of time and effort to put stuff in there more than the surface-fucking-obvious.

That doesn't mean that you should read trying to work from the author, though.

Or don't.  And don't fucking study it for four years either.

I thought one year was more than enough. And that's with half the year taken up by holidays...