Return of the Book Thread

[Xilren's Twin]

I just finished his (Weber's) A Mighty Fortress and enjoyed it greatly, although there wasn't quite enough military ass-kicking for my tastes. I think he's done a fairly good job of keeping the side with the immortal, future-tech having advisor evenly balanced with their low-tech counterparts. (The future tech side is still restricted to wind, water, and muscle power -- the religion that both sides ascribe to is a very anti-technology one, and while the 'good guys' more or less know it's a bunch of bullshit, their subjects still believe). Having the 'good guys' not only be massively outnumbered, but having to work only the edges of technological advances more or less keeps it balanced.

Im enjoying this series as well; my only concern is how far he's going to take it time wise.  It going to take forever just to get to the point where they can have a widespread religious enlightenment and do a grand reveal, which i dont see happening before the end of the current crop of characters lives, let alone bootstrap back up into space and figure out what to do about them aliens in the closet....

Hope this doesnt turn into a wheel of time milk a thon.

[Rasix]

Crossroads of Twilight may be the worst book I've ever read front to back under my own free will.  Quite literally nothing happened.  The chapter titles were so ominously bland. "A Talk with Siuan"  WOOO HOOO. 

I don't feel that bad about it, however.  I knew it was going to be this bad.

Onwards.

[MahrinSkel]

I just finished his (Weber's) A Mighty Fortress and enjoyed it greatly, although there wasn't quite enough military ass-kicking for my tastes. I think he's done a fairly good job of keeping the side with the immortal, future-tech having advisor evenly balanced with their low-tech counterparts. (The future tech side is still restricted to wind, water, and muscle power -- the religion that both sides ascribe to is a very anti-technology one, and while the 'good guys' more or less know it's a bunch of bullshit, their subjects still believe). Having the 'good guys' not only be massively outnumbered, but having to work only the edges of technological advances more or less keeps it balanced.

Im enjoying this series as well; my only concern is how far he's going to take it time wise.  It going to take forever just to get to the point where they can have a widespread religious enlightenment and do a grand reveal, which i dont see happening before the end of the current crop of characters lives, let alone bootstrap back up into space and figure out what to do about them aliens in the closet....

Hope this doesnt turn into a wheel of time milk a thon.

Seems like there are three possibilities:

Although Weber is quite capable of spinning an extremely long series on (witness the Harrington series), they generally continually move forward (unlike WoT, which just went in circles).  He's not going to make us go through a blow-by-blow recapitulation of the entire evolution from the Age of Sail through the development of space travel (especially since the restrictions he's put on himself kind of preclude both steam and electricity without a long interlude for superstition to fade or a magic wand in the form of the imprinting technology).

--Dave

[WayAbvPar]

Crossroads of Twilight may be the worst book I've ever read front to back under my own free will.  Quite literally nothing happened.  The chapter titles were so ominously bland. "A Talk with Siuan"  WOOO HOOO. 

I don't feel that bad about it, however.  I knew it was going to be this bad.

Onwards.

I wonder if we can get Sanderson to go back and rewrite books 7-10 to make them less paijnful?

[Morat20]

Mahrin, I'm figuring #2. The stuff under the temple is -- besides lighting and climate control -- the control shit for the kinetic bombardment array. Which, although Merlin doesn't realize it and consideres it the primary problem, one of his almost allies already has the key for. It might be something else that can be 'used only once', but I suspect it's the array.

I figure this one will go through Holy War and the Empire of Charis becoming established akin to Protestantism, and his work with the Royal College and the Brethen ensuring a steady stream of 'changes' over time that will naturally erode the Church's position on technology as the Brethen work within the Church of Charis.

I don't know if he'll even bother with the series past that -- once the Church of Charis, with the Brethen working inside it, is established -- they'll progress back to Federation Era tech with full knowledge of the Gbaba one way or another. He might write out that war, but it's close to his Harrington books in tech and tone.

He really seems like the age of sail and the way wars spur technology growth. The sticking point on tech is something I can't even imagine how he's going to tackle without first having a few generations of society used to technical growth and Enlightnment era thinking and scientific inquiry. One you get "Scientific inquiry" you can start showing the various rules and laws in their Book are based in science (like a supposed curse on the making of white phospherus -- which is just the natural consequences of fucking around with WP and not knowing how damn dangerous it is -- or the dietary rules for sailors to prevent scurvy). He's made the point that half the damn book is basically rules that make sense if you understand basic chemistry, biology, or science -- but without them are just mystical laws of God. Get science, and you undermine the book by turning magical into understandable.

[Sky]

I'm now sifting through marketplaces for Malazan books. Bought the new one at B&N pretty cheap, got a coupon code for another one, bought two more cheap ($6-9) on their marketplace (all hardcover, a couple book club editions). I likey, the list of authors I buy is very short: Lovecraft, Cook, Howard. Now Erikson :)

[Ard]

Don't forget the books written by Ian C. Esslemont (Night of Knives and The Return of the Crimson Guard).  He's Erickson's partner in crime, and is writing side stories in the same setting.   I'd put these off until you've gotten a few books into the main series, strictly because they assume knowledge of the setting.

There's also Bauchelain and Korbal Broach by Erickson, which is a series of short side stories from a pair of characters later in the series.  I'd wait until you actually run across them (I think it's in Memories of Ice) before reading the short stories though.

[Johny Cee]

I'm now sifting through marketplaces for Malazan books. Bought the new one at B&N pretty cheap, got a coupon code for another one, bought two more cheap ($6-9) on their marketplace (all hardcover, a couple book club editions). I likey, the list of authors I buy is very short: Lovecraft, Cook, Howard. Now Erikson :)

For Erikson, the first six books are good buys and are very re-readable.  I'd suggest borrowing the 7th, since the 7th - 9th have a similar style. 

The last few books are very different style-wise from what came before.   

[Rasix]

Yah, the 7th book was a really jarring experience for me.  I still haven't really gotten over it yet or really forgiven him for it.

I'll probably start re-reading the entire series (once I'm done with the current WoT), because picking it up at Toll with more than a year (almost 2) between reading the last will be difficult.  Might read some more Cook in between though.  I keep wanting to try and get into the Dread Empire stuff.

[shiznitz]

The last book I read isn't the typical genres discussed here, but if you like US history and want to read about rich rednecks getting poor and rich again, while fucking each other over, then I recommend The Big Rich about the families that made their fortunes in Texas during the 19th century.  It is well-written with many entertaining stories.

[Sky]

I don't list a lot of books I read, mostly the non-fic stuff. Right now I'm reading a cool book on axes that's mostly war stories of the guy being a badass in ww2. Also several books on wood finishing and of course a couple classical guitar songbooks. My fiancee just plopped Eat This, Not That on my end table to peruse, not that there's much you can't figure out on your own there.

[Chimpy]

So last week I read the entire crop of books related to the Childe Cycle by Gordon R. Dickson. I had read Dorsai! a number of years ago but had not read anything else.

The over-reaching concept of the series was interesting, but it did feel on the last one The Chantry Guild he had lost some of his inspiration and was just writing the book to try and finish what he had planned from the beginning (which he never actually did).

If you are interested in some nice short sci-fi books, Dorsai! , Necromancer, and Tactics of Mistake are definitely worth the read.

[Samwise]

I picked up the latest Ender book at the airport and enjoyed it about as much as I've enjoyed most of the recent books -- which is to say, not as good as the first four, but not bad by any means.  It's basically an expanded version of the last chapter of Ender's Game, detailing what happened to him between the end of the war and (OMG SPOILER) finding the cocoon that he's carrying around at the start of Speaker for the Dead.

Since I had a lot of time on the plane, I also reread The Path to Rome by Hilaire Belloc, which I can't remember if I've recommended here before.  It's a narrative of a real-life pilgrimage from France to Rome in the early 1900s (before WWI).  Very interesting look at a Europe that no longer exists, and the author has an entertaining habit of veering off on tangents at the slightest provocation.

And since after all that I had to fly back, I also read (and reread) The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, a recent Tolkien publication (something JRR wrote a long time ago and then lost that his son Christopher has since dug up and assembled into book form).  It's based on some old Norse stuff that Tolkien long ago made a project out of collecting, unifying, and translating into English (with his typical obsessive-compulsive attention to detail in preserving the feel of the original).  I don't read a lot of poetry normally, so it took me a while to get into the habit of slowing down enough to "hear" the words in my head, but once I cleared that hurdle I found it very compelling.  The form is based around alliteration and metric symmetry within each line.  Here's an excerpt:

[Sheepherder]

It's based on some old Norse stuff that Tolkien long ago made a project out of collecting, unifying, and translating into English

"Old Norse Stuff?"

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

[Samwise]

I couldn't be arsed to flip through the lengthy foreword for the correct definitions of "epic" and "saga" to recall which was accurate to use and in which number.  Hence "stuff".  

[Sheepherder]

*Sigh*

Sigurd (Old Norse: Sigurðr) is a legendary hero of Norse mythology, as well as the central character in the Völsunga saga. The earliest extant representations for his legend come in pictorial form from seven runestones in Sweden and most notably the Ramsund carving (c. 1000) and the Gök Runestone (11th century).

As Siegfried, he is the hero in the German Nibelungenlied, and Richard Wagner's operas Siegfried and Götterdämmerung.

The plot revolves around a magic ring that grants the power to rule the world, forged by the Nibelung dwarf Alberich from gold he stole from the Rhinemaidens in the river Rhine. Several mythic figures struggle for possession of the Ring, including Wotan (Odin), the chief of the gods. Wotan's scheme, spanning generations, to overcome his limitations, drives much of the action in the story. His grandson, the hero Siegfried wins the Ring, as Wotan intended, but is eventually betrayed and slain. Finally, the Valkyrie  Brünnhilde, Siegfried's lover and Wotan's estranged daughter, returns the Ring to the Rhinemaidens. In the process, the Gods and their home, Valhalla, are destroyed.

Huh.  You can probably see where this is going, lets try another tack:

Sigurd agrees to kill Fafnir, who has turned himself into a dragon in order to be better able to guard the gold. Sigurd has Regin make him a sword, which he tests by striking the anvil. The sword shatters, so he has Regin make another. This also shatters. Finally, Sigurd has Regin make a sword out of the fragments that had been left to him by Sigmund. The resulting sword, Gram, cuts through the anvil. To kill Fafnir the dragon, Regin advises him to dig a pit, wait for Fafnir to walk over it, and then stab the dragon

Túrin Turambar (pronounced [ˈtuːrɪn tuˈrambar]) is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. First introduced in The Silmarillion, he is the primary protagonist  and a tragic hero (or anti-hero) of the novel The Children of Húrin...

...They journeyed to the hidden fortress of Nargothrond, where Gwindor had lived before. He gave Beleg's black sword Anglachel to Túrin now, who had it reforged and renamed as Gurthang, "Iron of Death". Túrin hid his own name, eventually becoming known as Mormegil or the Blacksword of Nargothrond, because of his prowess with Gurthang...

...Turambar decided to ambush the Dragon as he crossed the ravine of Cabed-en-Aras and to try stabbing him from beneath.

Huh.  I wonder why Tolkien bothered to translate this.  I guess we'll never know.

EDIT: Needs bold and awesome.

EDIT: And I would bet my left nut you've heard portions of Wagner's Ring cycle.

[Samwise]

Oh, your complaint was that I didn't make clear that the literature Tolkien spent a good chunk of his early career studying and translating had a strong influence on the books he wrote later?  Yeah, I can see how that might have to be spelled out.   

[Reg]

Golly, it's almost like humans have a few story themes that they like to hear told over and over again.  Apparently, not every single popular book or movie is totally original. Someone should tell James Cameron about this!

[Abagadro]

Golly, it's almost like humans have a few story themes that they like to hear told over and over again.  Apparently, not every single popular book or movie is totally original. Someone should tell James Cameron about this!

[Sheepherder]

Oh, your complaint was that I didn't make clear that the literature Tolkien spent a good chunk of his early career studying and translating had a strong influence on the books he wrote later?  Yeah, I can see how that might have to be spelled out.   

Not really, just needed a segue to avoid going back into details of book series most appropriately measured by weight rather than page count which still aren't finished.

Also, what Abagadro did.

[FatuousTwat]

Golly, it's almost like humans have a few story themes that they like to hear told over and over again.  Apparently, not every single popular book or movie is totally original. Someone should tell James Cameron about this!

The Hero With a Thousand Faces

Has anyone read the edition that came out in 2008, and does it differ significantly with the previous (2nd?) edition?

[dd0029]

Finished up The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert Redick.  I liked it, but there are a number of unsatisfying elements that dampened my enthusiasm. It's a first book and the writing shows, however, the plot and the story appear to have been well thought out.  It could have ended a wee bit earlier than it did, the epilogue felt kind of tacked on like the editor said he needed to have some sort of closure to the first book in a series.   The book jacket does not do much for the book.  The characters, for the most part, are caricatures and vague ciphers, existing in very stark shades of gray.  That was my biggest problem.  They pick an aggressively gray path, neither good nor evil, rarely giving adequate understandings for why.  I might wait for this series to be completed before starting (first book was in 2008 and the second just came out), but it's worth a read.

[FatuousTwat]

Whoa, this thread died.

I finished A Song For Arbonne, and it was fucking excellent, just like all Kay's other works have been.

Just (re)started the Elric saga.

[Chimpy]

Since I finally got off my ass and got a library card at my new address (library is 3 blocks away) I have been picking up stuff I had never read that people have mentioned.

I just finished all of the Black Company books. I liked them but I didn't get the "these books are 100x better than any other books ever" vibe that other people have seemed to get. There wasn't anything that particularly annoyed me, but I didn't get any greater sense of enjoyment out of them than other books I really enjoyed over the years.

[Ironwood]

Latest Abercrombie is exactly like the other ones.  And, therefore, not worth it.  Skip.

Or, read it and skip the trilogy, thus saving yourself money.

Also, I thought I'd best mention Black Company, just in case this thread flips to a new page.  Still not read them.  At all.

 

[dd0029]

Just finshed Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey.  Very reminiscent of Harry Dresden.  The world is not quite as realized, but the Stark character is channeling lots of that Harry Dresden vibe.  Definitely the start of a series.

[Samwise]

Latest Abercrombie is exactly like the other ones.  And, therefore, not worth it.  Skip.

Does it have Logen in it?

[Ironwood]

Kinda.

It has Caul Shivers in it (If you remember him, Logen killed his brother).  Half-way through an accident befalls him and, basically, he IS Logen from that point on.

Yes.

Yes.

I know.

It's that fucking stupid.

[Sheepherder]

You've probably all read this one before.

[Johny Cee]

Been reading some non-fiction:

With the Old Breed, by EB Sledge.  This is one of the books that the Pacific was based off of, written by Sledgehammer who after the war went on to get a PhD in zoology.  Decent read.

Empires of the Sea, by Roger Crowley.  Book on the 16th century wars between the Turks and Barbary pirates versus Christendom and the Knights of Malta.  Good read.  Lots of galley warfare in the period between medieval warfare and modern warfare, where cannon, muskets and flamethrowers could share the battlefield with elite archers and knights.  Heavy emphasis on the pirates and slaving to feed the ever hungry galleys.  Covers the sieges of Rhodes and Malta pretty thoroughly.  Great read.



I manged to pick up very good condition original hardback copies of Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune at a used book store.  Read both ages ago, but I've been meaning to reread the rest of the original Dune novels for some time.

[Engels]

Just getting into Elizabeth Moon's Oath of Fealty, a sequel to Deed of Paksenarion. If you have never heard of Deed of Paksenarion, please, do yourself a favor and pick it up. Its in the vein of The Black Company.

I also just got Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larson. Can't wait to get into that one, but I am a one-book-at-a-time kinda dude.

[bhodi]

Here's my quarterly list of shit I went through (all of it in audiobook form)

Peace Corps: The great adventure - I lied. This was a book. A selection of essays written by people who were in the Peace Corps. If this is 'join us' propaganda, it wasn't done very well. It's your pretty standard stuff - squalid living conditions on a dirt floor for 2 years, dealing with suspicion and superstition, coming in very idealistic and then getting backhanded by reality. More than half of them were a thousand words detailing their awful life but ending with "... but it was a great experience" without giving much of any reason why it was - the stuff some of them went through was pretty awful. There are some good characters and some great effort made by residents, and some of the stories were fairly heartwarming, but in the end you can't help but think that you'd be willing to lose a limb to avoid doing what these people volunteered for. It was an interesting read, if nothing else than to emphasize how bad it is in 3rd world countries.

George Carlin: Last Words - Pretty interesting. There was a lot I didn't know about the guy. He tells his autobiography very similar to Lewis Black while living a similar kind of life. Fairly enjoyable but I ended up listening to it in parts because it started to get long.

Ian M. Banks: Against a dark background - Utter shit. I liked the culture novels and loved the Algebraist, this was not one of his better books. Nonsensical and uninteresting at the same time, it was really grueling to push to the end. I was really disappointed.

Ricky Gervais Guide to.. - It's basically the BBC radio show adapted to audiobook/podcast format. 52 minutes each, 10 episodes. Some of them are quite funny, some of them had me rolling. All were good. I think this is coming to HBO and I'll definitely watch.

Dennis Lehane: Shutter Island - A pretty solid suspense/mystery novel. I saw the trailers for the film, but never saw the film, and recognized the name. I've been wanting to also read mystic river, which I hear is more of the same. I was a little disappointed in the ending, but not enough to detract from my overall enjoyment of the book.

Short stories:
Arthur C Clarke: All the time in the world - Enjoyable, standard Clarke fare.
Harlan Ellison: Compilation - I stumbled on a bunch of them, his talks at MIT, Voices from the edge volume 1, a BBC production of Soldier, a NPR production of Repent Harlequin, some others; all good; if you like Harlan you like him, if you hate him you hate him. I like.

[murdoc]

I had to sit in the emergency room at the hospital for 7 hours on friday night and got through 3/4 of 'John Dies at the End'. I was laughing so much that a lady got up and moved away from me. Haven't enjoyed a book this much in a long time.

[Johny Cee]

Kinda.

It has Caul Shivers in it (If you remember him, Logen killed his brother).  Half-way through an accident befalls him and, basically, he IS Logen from that point on.

Yes.

Yes.

I know.

It's that fucking stupid.

The substantial internet hype for Abercrombie has been noticeably dieing off.  I was disappointed enough in Last Argument of Kings that I didn't bother to pick up Best Served Cold (the novel from a year or two ago) and don't have any interest in this latest one. 


Have you read any Jeff Vandermeer, Ironwood?  I think you might like him.

[Khaldun]

Just read N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Not bad. I thought it was going to be a story of political infighting in a fantasy setting, but it really turns more into an interesting take on the relationship between fantasy-realm gods and humans. Was surprised to see it's supposed to be the first book of a trilogy: I have no idea where the story can go from the conclusion.