Return of the Book Thread

[Murgos]

I'm currently reading Euclid's The Elements, well, books 1 & 2 anyway.  I must have something wrong with me because I'm reading it for fun.  Not only that but I just finished QED a little while ago.

Well, I don't have trouble sleeping so I guess that's a good thing.

[Margalis]

I liked Interview but I could barely read The Vampire Lestat. The character was cheesy and the book had a very different feel overall. After I finished that I was cured of Ann Rice forever. She descended into self-parody almost immediately.

[Johny Cee]

Just picked up:

Brass Man by Neil Asher
The Algebraist by Ian Banks
Latest Gaunt's Ghost novel

Bout a third of the way through Brass Man and it's meh.  I've never read him before,  and I realize I'm starting with a sequal.  I actually don't mind starting in the middle of series and figuring out background info from context.  Story is meh-ish, plotting meh. 

Going to try and get up to speed on the Banks novels.

Warhammer 40k is a guilty pleasure.

I just finished Michael Swanwick's Dragons of Babel.  Very entertaining.  Steampunkish, with alternate history and heavy mythological touches.  I'd been looking for some of Swanwick's stuff for a while, but seems like it's never in stock in bookstores.

[Abagadro]

The Algebraist by Ian Banks

I read that a month or two ago. I didn't like the universe quite as well as his Culture books but he has a good villain and characters in this one. He gets a bit more playful than in some of his others.  Plot is sorta standard but his books usually aren't that much about the plot anyways.

[Morat20]

The Algebraist by Ian Banks

I read that a month or two ago. I didn't like the universe quite as well as his Culture books but he has a good villain and characters in this one. He gets a bit more playful than in some of his others.  Plot is sorta standard but his books usually aren't that much about the plot anyways.

It's been awhile since I read any of his non-sci-fi stuff, but IIRC, that's a lot more plot driven. I liked The Algebraist. It did feel quite playful in places.

[Rishathra]

Brass Man is definitely meh but don't let that put you off of Neal Asher.  It is by far his worst one.  Gridlinked, Cowl, and The Skinner are all excellent.

[Ironwood]

The Skinner was vaguely ok.

Trouble with Asher is his style.  I've always found his books a job to read and unfun in the extreme.

[Johny Cee]

Been playing EVE rather than read,  so haven't really made much more progress on Asher or Banks.

Wanted to let folks know that Glen Cook's The Dragon Never Sleeps is being rereleased on February 1.  I have yet to read it due to difficulty in finding a copy,  but it's pretty well regarded.  Used to make top 20 on the outdated "best of scifi/fantasy" listing (here's an old link: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/6113/t100256.txt). 

[Rasix]

Been playing EVE rather than read,  so haven't really made much more progress on Asher or Banks.

You're doing it wrong.  I got a lot of reading done playing EVE, of course, less in 0.0.

Reading The Bonehunters at the moment.  Erikson keeps coming up with inventive ways to destroy cities.  I'll definitely be picking up The Dragon Never Sleeps, although I've got a stack of unread Cook as is.

[lamaros]

I've nearly finished Pursued By Furies: A Life of Malcolm Lowry and have really enjoyed it. I felt at first that I was never going to get through it in the couple of weeks I had it out from the library, but have found it very interesting, informative and amusing. The length and detail of the biography is amazing. My only issue with the book is that Bowker's obvious dislike of Aiken and Marjorie sometimes goes beyond mere reporting and includes unnecessary personal criticisms.

Still, an amazing account of a writer and an alcoholic.

[Sky]

Just finished Modesitt's Flash. Great book, lots of fun. Continuing through the standalones we have on the shelf here, I just started  The Eternity Artifact.

Stopped by B&N over the weekend and got Robert Howard's Sword of Solomon and a nice collections of HP Lovecraft's favorite horror tales (Poe, Chalmers, Bierce, etc).

[murdoc]

Finished 'Legend', perfect book to read on the Train on the way to work. Will definitely take a look at some of Gemmell's other books.

[Johny Cee]

Just finished Modesitt's Flash. Great book, lots of fun. Continuing through the standalones we have on the shelf here, I just started  The Eternity Artifact.

Stopped by B&N over the weekend and got Robert Howard's Sword of Solomon and a nice collections of HP Lovecraft's favorite horror tales (Poe, Chalmers, Bierce, etc).

Will check out Modesitt's book.  I think he writes well,  and can come up with some great concepts....  I do think that he sometimes milks his series a little too long.  I just recently found out that he's also a Williams grad.

I have Howard's Solomon, Kull, and Bran Mak Morn collections on my shelf to get to one of these days.  Wasn't as motivated to tear through it as the Conan collections.

I either own or have eyed buying that collection of Lovecraft's favorite horror stories.

[Johny Cee]

Finished 'Legend', perfect book to read on the Train on the way to work. Will definitely take a look at some of Gemmell's other books.

Gemmell is a great entertainment read.  It's not great literature, but it's damn fun.  Make sure to pick up Waylander.

[Xilren's Twin]

I've been reading the Dread Empire and Black Company collections that came out recently, I'd forgotten just how good Cook is at what he does.  Though finally getting to read Dread Empire, I've found Erikson's Malazan borrows a bit more from Cook than I had initially realized.  Especially in the Mocker/Kruppe area. 

...speaking of Erikson, on the Bonehunters now and is it just me or was Greyfrog's speech pattern ripped wholesale from HK47?

Placating tone.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Morat20]

Will check out Modesitt's book.  I think he writes well,  and can come up with some great concepts....  I do think that he sometimes milks his series a little too long.  I just recently found out that he's also a Williams grad.

I sort of agree  on the milking, but on the other hand -- his longest series (Recluce) is something like 12 or 14 books. The longest "story" is a sequel (there are like three or four paired books), and he's jumped around all over the time line and done something rather interesting in giving alternative points of view. (You get all the "White Mages Suck" stuff, and then he starts throwing out the white mages perspective and things aren't even remotely the same).

On the other hand, almost all his books tell the same sort of story. His sci-fi (Flash, Parafaith War, Ethos Effect, Eternity Artifact, The Octogonal Raven) have very similiar characters facing very similar problems -- the only real difference is the technology and the specifics of their ethical solution. (His sci-fi books are, at base, almost entirely about ethics in one way or another). I actually enjoy them for that reason, and the characters, plots, and problems (ethical and otherwise) are different enough to keep me interested.

So far, I think I've enjoyed his Corean books the most.

He is a good writer, and he hasn't yet fallen into Alan Dean Foster's habit of spending WAY too much time with the prose and too little time with the story. (Alan Dean Foster has, as best I can explain it, gotten to the point in his career where he doesn't really need to think about characterization or plot that much, and so spends all his writing effort on flowery prose. I've actually had to look words up on occasion, something I haven't had to do for a fiction book since I was 12.)

[Johny Cee]

Will check out Modesitt's book.  I think he writes well,  and can come up with some great concepts....  I do think that he sometimes milks his series a little too long.  I just recently found out that he's also a Williams grad.

I sort of agree  on the milking, but on the other hand -- his longest series (Recluce) is something like 12 or 14 books. The longest "story" is a sequel (there are like three or four paired books), and he's jumped around all over the time line and done something rather interesting in giving alternative points of view. (You get all the "White Mages Suck" stuff, and then he starts throwing out the white mages perspective and things aren't even remotely the same).

On the other hand, almost all his books tell the same sort of story. His sci-fi (Flash, Parafaith War, Ethos Effect, Eternity Artifact, The Octogonal Raven) have very similiar characters facing very similar problems -- the only real difference is the technology and the specifics of their ethical solution. (His sci-fi books are, at base, almost entirely about ethics in one way or another). I actually enjoy them for that reason, and the characters, plots, and problems (ethical and otherwise) are different enough to keep me interested.

So far, I think I've enjoyed his Corean books the most.

He is a good writer, and he hasn't yet fallen into Alan Dean Foster's habit of spending WAY too much time with the prose and too little time with the story. (Alan Dean Foster has, as best I can explain it, gotten to the point in his career where he doesn't really need to think about characterization or plot that much, and so spends all his writing effort on flowery prose. I've actually had to look words up on occasion, something I haven't had to do for a fiction book since I was 12.)

My take:

Modesitt spends a great deal of effort to set up some early world-building that will lead to interesting stories.  The first few books usually explore those themes in a well-written manner,  with a good mix of multi-book story, single book plot, society development,  and character development.  By book 3 or 4,  he's finished with the interesting original themes but continues to crank out well-written books that don't cover much or any new ground.

The Recluce books,  which I stalled out on starting with the Chaos viewpoint ones, really fell into this trap.  Young man sent out into the world, gets in adventures, discovers that his early life/training allows him to come to a place of emotional maturity/acceptance of the world and find True Love, this lets him do some crazy magic/engineering thing to win.

That summary sounds awful depreciatory,  so I'll say again that I really liked his first few books.  Good attention to detail,  and the long sections on the ordinary life of a character are actually very engaging.

The Corean books were pretty interesting as long as it was about a guy caught up in a war,  making ethical choices,  and trying to get home to his wife.  Modesitt lost me with the introduction of the crazy-evil-bodysnatchers from another dimension here for all thier resources.  Basically,  when he started the shift in story from a man vs. uncaring world to a more traditional "epic hero quest" storyline.

Honestly,  I haven't picked up any of the other Corean books (want to say stopped at 3 or 4?) so I may have extrapolated too far with limited information.


I enjoyed the "Ghosts of Columbia" books because they're more of a straight up spy/intrigue plotline in an alternate history,  and haven't picked up any of his scifi yet.

[Margalis]

I'm almost done with the book of Cordwainer Smith stories. I'm a little dissapointed in that I'd already read more of them than I thought, including most of my favorite ones.

It's really odd stuff, beyond weird or imaginitive and into "this guy's brain just works differently" territory. Interesting that he was an expert in psychological warfare.

It's hard to describe the appeal of his stuff. His characters are weak and his stories are not plot-driven at all. The writing style is not standout. The appeal is all conceptual. It's not future fantasy and it doesn't really read much like typical far-future speculative fiction either. Hard to think of another author like him.

"The game of rat and dragon" and "scanners live in vain" are probably my favorites.

[Johny Cee]

I'm almost done with the book of Cordwainer Smith stories. I'm a little dissapointed in that I'd already read more of them than I thought, including most of my favorite ones.

It's really odd stuff, beyond weird or imaginitive and into "this guy's brain just works differently" territory. Interesting that he was an expert in psychological warfare.

It's hard to describe the appeal of his stuff. His characters are weak and his stories are not plot-driven at all. The writing style is not standout. The appeal is all conceptual. It's not future fantasy and it doesn't really read much like typical far-future speculative fiction either. Hard to think of another author like him.

"The game of rat and dragon" and "scanners live in vain" are probably my favorites.

Dammit.  I keep forgetting to pick up Cordwainer Smith.  I've made a note to do it 3 or 4 times now,  and just slips my mind.

[Reg]

Hmm. You both forgot to mention just how furry some of his stories are.

[Margalis]

Is he the inventor of the catgirl?  I do find myself thinking that from time to time, as if some Japanese guys read his stuff and ran with it. Kind of a funny thought.

His affinity for animals really comes through in the stories. For example I love the description of the dog family that finds Vom Acht in "Mark Elf." (Or maybe "Queen of the Afternoon") It's such a weirdly romantic notion that dogs have become intelligent but are still man's best friend and love getting scratched on the head. And then there is "The Game of Rat and Dragon", especially the final lines.

Edit: Cee did you give up on Books of Blood? Did you see my list of stories I thought were the standouts?

[Johny Cee]

Is he the inventor of the catgirl?  I do find myself thinking that from time to time, as if some Japanese guys read his stuff and ran with it. Kind of a funny thought.

His affinity for animals really comes through in the stories. For example I love the description of the dog family that finds Vom Acht in "Mark Elf." (Or maybe "Queen of the Afternoon") It's such a weirdly romantic notion that dogs have become intelligent but are still man's best friend and love getting scratched on the head. And then there is "The Game of Rat and Dragon", especially the final lines.

Edit: Cee did you give up on Books of Blood? Did you see my list of stories I thought were the standouts?

Not quite given up,  but I'm letting it rest a bit before plowing back in.  Sometimes it's just a tone/style adjustment before I really start to get into a story.

[Margalis]

You'll see more erections and hear more about bowels in Books of Blood than in the entire rest of your life. I do remember that sort of weirded me out at first.

He also has a fair amount of range. Some of his stories are just fucking weird, some are Lovecraftian, some are funny, some are just awful (in a good way), some are ghost stories, some are rifts on familiar themes, etc. And that continues into Books of Blood volume 2 as well. Very diverse.

I'm usually not one that pays a lot of attention to writing style but I did notice his was evocative, descriptive and dense with meaning and detail. One of his stories in volume 2 has probably my favorite writing in horror fiction. (Describing someone who may or may not be death incarnate)

[Sky]

Finished The Eternity Artifact. Maybe the best of Modesitt's scifi stand-alone stuff. Really enjoyed it. Picked up The Elysium Commission, hasn't grabbed me yet. Kind of in the mood for something different right now, I just blasted through a bunch of Modesitt scifi.

[Johny Cee]

Read through Cryptonomicon in 4 or 5 days.  Enjoyed it very much.

Maybe I'll be motivated enough to pick up System of the World where I left off half way through.

[Phildo]

Read through Cryptonomicon in 4 or 5 days.  Enjoyed it very much.

You're a scary man.

[Johny Cee]

Read through Cryptonomicon in 4 or 5 days.  Enjoyed it very much.

You're a scary man.

Did I mention I worked all those days?

Tax season supercharges my reading speed.

[Sky]

My fiancee is a crazy speed reader. She uses my pc to update her Good Reads profile, a couple days ago she added some Clapton biography. I hadn't realized she was reading it, I usually know what she's reading, so I asked her if she had read it that morning. Yep. She's scary. But not as scary as her cat lady friend who reads multiple books a day.

[Endie]

If someone speed-reads then they miss a lot.  You can choose to churn through books or you can choose to pick up the nuances and appreciate the work that the writer has put into them (though I admit that biographies of Eric Clapton are probably best read as quickly as possible).  I can "read" a book in an afternoon, sure.  But I have gained less from it than I have acquired from the accompanying Cliff's Notes.

This isn't sour grapes from someone who doesn't read quickly: since I was born in a certain week in a certain year in the UK I am part of a lifelong national study which gathers a wide variety of data (BCS70, if anyone is really interested).  As part of this I undergo periodic testing on reading ability, speed and comprehension, and I literally test off the scale for reading speed and comprehension.  But I am also aware (having been exposed to a speed-reading evangelist on a horrible plane flight, and having then done some research of my own to ascertain the vaule or otherwise of his claims) that studies show you're not going to get much above 10 words per second sustained reading spead (averaging half that if not college-educated), and at that rate comprehension is beginning to fall off.  The Guiness Book of Records people claming 25,000 words per minute are circus show types.

[bhodi]

You should be able to read a book in an afternoon; one page per minute is about what I read, and that's fast but not speed reading or circus freak fast.

Given that a books are a few hundred pages, many, if not most, can be finished starting after lunch and before dinner. It really doesn't take that long if reading is a hobby and you devote as much time to it as other people devote to TV shows or mmorpurgers.

Cryptonomicon is of course an exception, that thing's over a thousand pages right? I never got into it; too many characters to keep straight.

[Sky]

I read very slowly. I like to let my imagination really take hold of scenes and experience the moment. If a book has characters with interesting accents, I like to imagine them speaking that way and often mutter the parts out loud, to the amusement of my fiancee.

Just got in Olbermann's book, first on the holds list for it! Good timing, as I left the Modesitt book in the truck at the shop.

[Johny Cee]

I think I have an average reading speed of 60-100 pages an hour.  Dense or complicated writing is slower until I get a framework for how to digest the text.

Authors I'm familiar with (so I know their style, general vocab, etc.) I'll get up to 150 pages an hour,  but at that point I'm just reading the first couple of letters of each word and running it through my internal template on that author, then rough checking it against word/sentence/paragraph length.  It's not really reading as much as reconstructing the text.

I always scored in the 99th percentile on reading comprehension tests.

[Morat20]

I think I have an average reading speed of 60-100 pages an hour.  Dense or complicated writing is slower until I get a framework for how to digest the text.

Authors I'm familiar with (so I know their style, general vocab, etc.) I'll get up to 150 pages an hour,  but at that point I'm just reading the first couple of letters of each word and running it through my internal template on that author, then rough checking it against word/sentence/paragraph length.  It's not really reading as much as reconstructing the text.

I always scored in the 99th percentile on reading comprehension tests.

Oh, thank god I'm not the only one. :)

I can't do it with Stephenson, though, despite having read a lot of his work. But Pratchett, Modesitt, Alan Dean Foster, Stephen King...anyone really prolific, yeah. (They also tend to write far less densely than, say, Stephenson).

[Phildo]

I think it's fair to stop calling Stephenson's works books and start calling them tomes.

[WayAbvPar]

I am very speedy reader too, but Stephenson bogs me down. As I get age, it seems better to take a bit more time with things I read for pleasure to savor and enjoy them. Anything official or for work? I blaze right through it, since it is usually very straightforward and written at a 5th grade level or so.