Return of the Book Thread

[Arrrgh]

The Keyes Briar King series starts out very well, good stuff, but (imho) totally falls apart by the last book, which is wholly unsatisfying.

ouch...    I liked the first so much that when went to get the 2nd book, I said F'it and bought all of them.   In which book in the series did the shark get jumped?

It's more the very end of the last book than the whole last book. The ending is quite weak, but the rest is good enough that you might as well read them.

[Fraeg]

The Keyes Briar King series starts out very well, good stuff, but (imho) totally falls apart by the last book, which is wholly unsatisfying.

ouch...    I liked the first so much that when went to get the 2nd book, I said F'it and bought all of them.   In which book in the series did the shark get jumped?

It's more the very end of the last book than the whole last book. The ending is quite weak, but the rest is good enough that you might as well read them.

gotcha, thanks for the feedback

[Johny Cee]

Been reading some more Caitlin R. Kiernan.  Decent horrorish stuff, with the worst covers ever.  Heavily influenced by Lovecraft.  I really enjoyed The Red Tree, but haven't like any of the other books nearly that much.  Kiernan tends to concentrate on outsider type characters (punk rockers, goths, lots of lesbians, drag queens, drug addicts....)


Dan Simmons Carrion Comfort has been reissued.  I'm about 150 pages into the giant mmpb, and I'm really enjoying it. 

[schild]

Tokyo Vice might be the best non-fiction I've ever read.

[Abagadro]

So I've broken my self-imposed 15 year fantasy ban and started reading The Black Company just because so many people rave about it here. Have no fucking idea what is going on, but like the style quite a bit after 80 pages.

[schild]

Black Company was the first set of fantasy novels I made it through since puberty. I have not been able to even tap into any of his other shit. It just didn't grab me. Black Company however? First six books in 8 days.

[schild]

Ok yea, just finished Tokyo Vice (was 50 pages from the end when I posted). Everyone should read it.

[Teleku]

I've actually been meaning to read that.  Especially since I've been on the receiving end of the police in Tokyo  .

(not nearly as bad as the cops in Oakland)

[HaemishM]

WHORE ALERT:

I wanted to let those of you with ebooks know that I'm having a Christmas sale on the ebook versions of my novel, Under the Amoral Bridge. You can get it in a whole bunch of formats (.mobi, epub, rtf, pdf, lrf, palm, plain text) on Smashwords.com and on the Kindle for .99 cents from now until Christmas. Buy it, read it, review it and give me any feedback you want, no matter how savage. I've been happy with the critical reviews so far.

Whoring completed.

[NiX]

Looking for any suggestion for books about music and the history of it. Preferably stuff about classical artists. I have this urge to read up on the history of music and decided I'd start there.

[dd0029]

Just finished up a YA novel called "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan.  This was pretty good.  All about greek mythology.  Its the first of a series of five books called "Percy Jackson and the Olympians."  I reminded me in some ways of American Godsl, but sanitized for a younger audience.  It is also very much informed by Harry Potter.   Sort of the same basic type of story.  Young fellow discovers he's special, in this case a demigod in the greek sense, goes off to a special camp and then is sent off on a hero quest.  Perseus, or Percy as he's called, is 12 in the first book but he's had a much harder life than Harry did.  There's an odious stepfather character.  Ron and Hermione are also present, though Annabeth (Hermione) is more of a jock.  Grover (Ron) is pretty much the same, though he is a satyr.  Percy is a more interesting character than Harry was, much less bumbling.  He stops to think through things.  His puzzles are rarely solved by deus ex machina things.  While the book is "sanitized" for a YA audience, he does put in some disturbing elements and only puts a very thin sugar coat over the failings and depravity of the greek pantheon. 

[WayAbvPar]

WHORE ALERT:

I wanted to let those of you with ebooks know that I'm having a Christmas sale on the ebook versions of my novel, Under the Amoral Bridge. You can get it in a whole bunch of formats (.mobi, epub, rtf, pdf, lrf, palm, plain text) on Smashwords.com and on the Kindle for .99 cents from now until Christmas. Buy it, read it, review it and give me any feedback you want, no matter how savage. I've been happy with the critical reviews so far.

Whoring completed.

Just finished this. I am a whore for the genre, so I may be biased, but I really liked it.

[Sky]

Finally got caught up with Modesitt's Recluce series and started Peter Hamilton's Fallen Dragon. If I'm not Hamiltoned out by the end of it I might jump into the Void series, though I've been feeling an urge for rereading the original six elric books.

[Khaldun]

The Keyes Briar King series starts out very well, good stuff, but (imho) totally falls apart by the last book, which is wholly unsatisfying.

ouch...    I liked the first so much that when went to get the 2nd book, I said F'it and bought all of them.   In which book in the series did the shark get jumped?

It's more the very end of the last book than the whole last book. The ending is quite weak, but the rest is good enough that you might as well read them.

I even thought he was losing it a bit at the opening of the last one. But it's really the ending, yes, but it's bad enough that it affects your impression of the whole thing. Shame, really. I like Keyes.

[Evildrider]

So has anyone read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?  I only recently heard about it because Natalie Portman is working on the movie.

[Samwise]

So has anyone read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?  I only recently heard about it because Natalie Portman is working on the movie.

It sucks.  Really hard.

Basically, they got the title wrong.  It should have been called Pride and Prejudice Ninja Fanfic (with some zombies).  I'm hoping they completely throw the book out when they do the screenplay.  It would have been a great story if they'd done it a little more like Shaun of the Dead meets Austen and a little less like adolescent weeaboo wank fodder.

[Evildrider]

So has anyone read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?  I only recently heard about it because Natalie Portman is working on the movie.

It sucks.  Really hard.

Basically, they got the title wrong.  It should have been called Pride and Prejudice Ninja Fanfic (with some zombies).  I'm hoping they completely throw the book out when they do the screenplay.  It would have been a great story if they'd done it a little more like Shaun of the Dead meets Austen and a little less like adolescent weeaboo wank fodder.

So what you are saying is that I shouldn't have high hopes for the author's second novel, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, then?

[Brogarn]

So I finally got around to starting Cryptonomicon and I'm wondering if a) I'm not smart enough to read this book and b)this book is an adventure book written by mathematicians for mathematicians of which I am not one.

I'll keep plugging away, but I'm dubious.

[Samwise]

I'm not smart enough to read this book

 

Stephenson does tend to get overexcited about math.  He usually does a good job of making it accessible, though.  IMO.

[WayAbvPar]

So I finally got around to starting Cryptonomicon and I'm wondering if a) I'm not smart enough to read this book and b)this book is an adventure book written by mathematicians for mathematicians of which I am not one.

I'll keep plugging away, but I'm dubious.

If you can get through the arcane tangents he flies off on every 30 pages or so it is actually a really good book. Just part of his style- if you can't get past it you are going to want to skip the majority of his work.

[Samwise]

One of the things I really loved about Anathem is that it was the perfect setting for him to fly off on arcane tangents without it interrupting the flow of the story.

[HaemishM]

I finally started reading Stephenson's Diamond Age the other day. I loved Snow Crash and so far, I'm loving this but I was reminded why I constantly think when I write my cyberpunk that I'm not describing things in enough detail. It's because Stephenson just goes off on all sorts of descriptions of strange tech that could honestly be cut out for more mainstream appeal. I love that stuff but I can see how it would drive non-cyberpunk non-techies fucking nuts.

[Morat20]

So I finally got around to starting Cryptonomicon and I'm wondering if a) I'm not smart enough to read this book and b)this book is an adventure book written by mathematicians for mathematicians of which I am not one.

I'll keep plugging away, but I'm dubious.

If you can get through the arcane tangents he flies off on every 30 pages or so it is actually a really good book. Just part of his style- if you can't get past it you are going to want to skip the majority of his work.

Yeah, but then....for a some of his characters it makes sense. In Anathem, because they're all cloistered mathematicians -- they live for going off on weird math tangents. In Cryptonomicon because, well -- the main character is a D&D playing, systems administrator/computer programmer. Yeah, he's going to tangent a bit.

I find the bit about his experience getting his wisdom teeth removed to be one of the better ones, although I'm also fond of the general feeling of "I wish I hadn't just won that bet about Van Eck phreaking...."

[Viin]

Finally finished War and Remembrance, the historical fiction about WWII. Quite interesting, as I haven't spent a lot of time looking at the specific events of that time period. The book really helps gel sequencing of events (especially as they happen in the Pacific and Europe). 100% recommend this book to anyone who has any tickling of an interest in WWII or the 1940s in general - this and the previous book, The Winds of War.

Now starting the 2nd book in the Thomas Covenant series.. books are piling up faster than I can read 'em!

[Sheepherder]

No!  Bad!  Historical fiction is ungood.  Read this for you facist cousinfucking fix:

[Margalis]

Just read a compendium of devoted to the Nebula Awards for this year, it was pretty bad overall. Half of it was essays about the state of modern science fiction, and half of it was pretty mediocre science fiction.

[Vision]

No!  Bad!  Historical fiction is ungood.  Read this for you facist cousinfucking fix:

This book is great. I have the edition with the plain black cover featuring nothing other than a big white swastika. I had it on my desk and freaked out this kid who came to my house.

[Sheepherder]

The Wheel of Time, the last book number one:

What a shitty paced clusterfuck of wrapping up plot details six books too late.

[Quinton]

Goddamn, I am really enjoying these Steven Erickson books.  Just finished Reaper's Gale.  He's really good at a steady buildup and then a helluva finish.  I think GRRM is a bit better at characterization, some of Steven's rather insanely huge cast don't have as unique voices as would be ideal, but on the other hand there are quite a few highly distinctive personalities running around.  He's pretty brutal about killing characters off, often important ones, sometimes with particularly, cruelly pointless deaths.  It's not a nice world.

Tehol and Bugg amuse me to no end.

The Malazan Marines in the Bridge Burners and Bone Hunters remind me a lot of The Black Company (in a very good way).  

The two men watched as she ascended the gentle slope.  One was cradling a bizarre crossbow of some kind.  The other was playing with a handful of small polished stones, as if trying to choose one as his favorite.
...
"You are damned fools!"
"Just for that," the wizard said, "I'm not giving you my favourite stone."
...
"Tell me something, Quick."
"What?"
"Was that really your favorite stone?"
"Do you mean the one I had in my hand?  Or the one I slipped into her fancy white cloak?"

EDIT: silly typo in quote.

[Arrrgh]

If you like Tehol and Bugg try Bauchelain and Korbal Broach: Three Short Novels of the Malazan Empire. It has the same sort of humor.

[RhyssaFireheart]

If you like Tehol and Bugg try Bauchelain and Korbal Broach: Three Short Novels of the Malazan Empire. It has the same sort of humor.

I want to pick those up soon.  Besides which, it's now January 2010!  Where's my next Malazan book at?!?!?!

I took full advantage of my mom feeling guilty about not getting to help us out as often as she does the brothers and had her buy me 3 new books whilst at Borders.

Ilium and Olympos by Dan Simmons.  I'd been meaning to pick them up for a while now and this was a good time.

The Hidden City by Michelle West (Book one of "The House Wars" and part of the Sun Sword world).  I hadn't known this one was out in paperback at all yet, so I grabbed it up quick.  I love the world the author came up with and I'll put up with backstory in order to eventually get to the parts of the story I want to read (what happened to Jewel when she left the South and how the House War turns out).

[bhodi]

I burned through all of the dresden files in the past few weeks. Audiobooks for the first 4, then text, then audio for 10, then text for 11. Strange they did 10 before 5-9. I guess I'll have to wait until April for book 12. A terrific series, I heartily recommend it. I read 5-9 in two days.

The series (and the audiobook version especially) captured me in a way that I haven't experienced for a couple years. Big shoes to fill, and sadly, going back to Stephen King's just not doing it for me. I have sort of a 'complete audiobook collection' of his and listened to The Tommyknockers, Four Past Midnight, and part of Cell before I started on Dresden. It's sort of a catch-all library I hit when I have nothing better to listen to.

Looking back on it, the difference is remarkable. I doubt I'll ever finish Cell. There's simply no comparison. I'll have to rummage around for something new, I guess.

[Samwise]

I got a book called Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds for Christmas and blazed through it last week.  

All about the author's experiments with social and intelligent behavior in ravens, and significantly more in-depth and rigorous than the random stories about smart birds one read on the Internet.  Really interesting stuff if you're interested in wildlife, cognition, and/or evolutionary psychology.

[Johny Cee]

I got a book called Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds for Christmas and blazed through it last week.  

All about the author's experiments with social and intelligent behavior in ravens, and significantly more in-depth and rigorous than the random stories about smart birds one read on the Internet.  Really interesting stuff if you're interested in wildlife, cognition, and/or evolutionary psychology.

Sounds neat!  Been meaning to read up on ravens/crows...  The last two years, we've had huge flocks (murders?) of hundreds to thousands of crows that are supposedly "commuting" together into and out of the city to find food.  Good link here: http://www.crows.net/roosts.html

It's fairly disturbing when a couple thousand are all sitting in trees, usually staring at you and cawing.

Edit:

The end of a long drought! Some books I'm actually interested in reading are set for January release.

The new Steven Brust "Vlad Taltos" book is supposed to be released tomorrow, and Steven Erikson's Dust of Dreams is set to be released in the middle of the month.

Glen Cook has a couple reissues slated for January, including the first book of the "Starfishers" series which has been impossible to find under $50 for a while.  It's scifi rather than fantasy, and I want to say its loosely related to the Passage at Arms universe.

[Johny Cee]

I burned through all of the dresden files in the past few weeks. Audiobooks for the first 4, then text, then audio for 10, then text for 11. Strange they did 10 before 5-9. I guess I'll have to wait until April for book 12. A terrific series, I heartily recommend it. I read 5-9 in two days.

The series (and the audiobook version especially) captured me in a way that I haven't experienced for a couple years. Big shoes to fill, and sadly, going back to Stephen King's just not doing it for me. I have sort of a 'complete audiobook collection' of his and listened to The Tommyknockers, Four Past Midnight, and part of Cell before I started on Dresden. It's sort of a catch-all library I hit when I have nothing better to listen to.

Looking back on it, the difference is remarkable. I doubt I'll ever finish Cell. There's simply no comparison. I'll have to rummage around for something new, I guess.

King wrote some good stuff, but he's very much the kind of guy that churned out product for the $$$.  His early short story collections (Graveyard Shift, especially) are pretty good.  The first few Dark Tower books are wonderful.  Salem's Lot was excellent.  People generally rave about The Stand and The Shining.

I haven't been able to read most of his later stuff, though Under the Dome has had some decent reviews.

If you just want something you can turn your brain off and listen to while commuting or traveling...  Maybe Micheal Crichton.  Even if you zone out a bit, you can pick it back up. 

In the same vein for detective stuff:

Mike Carey (famous for comics, including a stint doing John Constantine) writes a similar type of series that mixes supernatural and mystery aspects.  The "Felix Castor" series is quite a bit darker.

Charlie Huston writes noirish hard-boiled novels.  The "Joe Pitt" books (series finished at 4 books I think) was pretty enjoyable, with a good take on vampires.  He's got a some other non-speculative crime books as well, and I really loved The Shotgun Rule.

Chandler is enjoyable, if you might like the old school detective/noir stuff set in the '30s and '40s.

Glen Cook's "Garrett" books were a pretty big influence on Butcher.  More traditional fantasy but with a '30s noir feel.  Lighter, with some good humor.  Long series, but mostly stand alone with some overarching background plots.  Sweet Silver Blues is the first, and the entire thing has been recently reprinted.

One of these days I'll convince someone else to pick these up....