Return of the Book Thread

[Salamok]

Just finished the Name of the Wind (thumbs up), after glancing around for it everytime I was in a bookstore for the last year and a half, I finally found a copy.  The fact that they had a shitload of them after such a long dry spell indicates the sequel will be hitting shelves soon. 

[Khaldun]

Not scheduled for publication until March 2011. Which could well change (again) but not to a sooner date, I would assume.

[Johny Cee]

Not scheduled for publication until March 2011. Which could well change (again) but not to a sooner date, I would assume.

That's a firm date, as in the author has said the last rewrite and all the major corrections are done and in.  It's still so far off because of the marketing, scheduling and politics that go on around expected genre best-sellers.

For the same reason, even if GRR Martin finished Dance this week, the release date would be likely be set some time mid next year at the earliest.

[ghost]

Currently I'm listening to the Song of Ice and Fire series as I drive back and forth to work.  Tyrion Lannister is pretty much awesome. 

[HaemishM]

Just finished Pat Cadigan's Dervish is Digital. I only read it because she's considered a cyberpunk author, but I didn't like it at all. There were a few nuggets of interesting stuff in there, but it was confused and unfocused like she didn't know what story to tell. I don't think I'll read her again without any really glowing recommendation on the book.

Started on Tolstoy's War and Peace. I always forget just how much I love 19th Century Russian literature.

[ghost]

While a different era, I finished up Gulag Archipelago a few months ago.  That is a tough read....

[Ghambit]

Can anyone recommend a good book club wherein I can trade my stuff?
If genre-specific, I'd suppose it'd have to be sci-fi/fantasy, non-fiction, and reference.

[Vision]

Adding to the already extensive list, I read the first Black Company book due to the recommendations from this thread.
I was certainley not dissapointed.

I can't wait to get the rest upon returning to the States. (English books are expensive in Japan)

Thanks for those who suggested it.

[Ironwood]

ARGGG

[Johny Cee]

Read Under Heaven by Guy Gaverial Kay this weekend.  Historical fiction with a hint of the fantastic, this time set in 8th Century China.  Excellent read that just breezed along.

Also about 2/3rds of the way through The Passage, which is the Big New Horror Novel and has a load of hype behind it.  Very readable. 

[pants]

Read Under Heaven by Guy Gaverial Kay this weekend.  Historical fiction with a hint of the fantastic, this time set in 8th Century China.  Excellent read that just breezed along.
 

Guy Gavrial Kay does a lot of stuff like this.  Theres a pretty standard LOTR-ripoff series of his - the Fionavar Tapestry - which is nothing special.  But his pseudo-historical stuff - Tigana, the Last light of the Sun, the Lions of Al-Rassan and Sailing to Sarantium are all really well done (I've got a Song of Arbonne, but never managed to make it more than about 30 pages into that one).  I hadn't heard of Under Heaven, have to check it out.

[Reg]

Give Song for Arbonne another chance. It gets really good if you persevere.

[FatuousTwat]

I agree, his Fionavar stuff was kind of meh, but all of his stand alone stuff so far is excellent (I haven't read the Sarantium books or Under Heaven).

[Reg]

The Fionavar books were the first things he ever got published and it shows. Since then his stuff has had progressively less magic in it until it's more historical fiction/alternate history than fantasy IMO.

[Johny Cee]

Okay, I plowed through The Passage in two days.  Amazingly readable, considering it's 750+ pages.  It's The Stand meets I am Legend, pretty comparable to early Stephen King.  Or a better characterized and more interesting World War Z replacing zombies with vampires.

[Sky]

About 200 pages into Memories of Ice. Thanks again to everyone who's discussed Erikson over the years. Took me a while to get to them, but so worth it. Going to be a great summer sitting in the backyard sipping a cold one reading some great fiction.

[FatuousTwat]

Okay, I plowed through The Passage in two days.  Amazingly readable, considering it's 750+ pages.  It's The Stand meets I am Legend, pretty comparable to early Stephen King.  Or a better characterized and more interesting World War Z replacing zombies with vampires.

It's in my to read list, I'll have to bump it up.

Has anyone else read any of J.V. Jone's stuff? I'm a big fan of The Barbed Coil.

[Ingmar]

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.

Or don't. I found the prose to be awful. I put it down after about 200 pages because the dialogue was so terrible, and I almost never put books down without finishing them.

[pxib]

I devoured Chuck Klosterman's most recent essay collection, Eating the Dinosaur and was so delighted by its high/lowbrow anaylsis of pop culture and modern history that I've been recommending him to everybody and am in the process of working through his other books. Why is football the most self-righteously liberal sport in America? How is Ralph Nader like Rivers Cuomo? How is the Unabomber like Chuck Klosterman? What could Kurt Cobain have learned from David Koresh?

Fun stupid stuff to make you feel smart.

[tgr]

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.

Or don't. I found the prose to be awful. I put it down after about 200 pages because the dialogue was so terrible, and I almost never put books down without finishing them.

Not sure if I've read that exact book, but I remember Elizabeth Moon's books to be quite good. The only books I've thrown down in disgust because they were awful have been Melanie Rawn's series, and Terry Goodkind.

I picked up Brandon Sanderson after a tip from this thread, and he's been one of the better pageturners I've found for a while.

[bhodi]

I think she's an acquired taste. I read Speed of Dark and it was... just OK, even though it won some awards and got rave reviews from a few of my friends.

[Morat20]

Not sure if I've read that exact book, but I remember Elizabeth Moon's books to be quite good. The only books I've thrown down in disgust because they were awful have been Melanie Rawn's series, and Terry Goodkind.

Have you read Battlefield Earth? I read the whole thing, because it was so bad I couldn't not finish it.

I did toss Goodkind's books aside once he transcended the "author viewpoint" thing and entered into "Shouting a poorly written version of the already-crappy Atlas Shrugged" at me.

I only stuck with it that far because I enjoyed the way he tortured his main characters. I get the hero is supposed to suffer, but damn....

[ghost]

Have you read Battlefield Earth? I read the whole thing, because it was so bad I couldn't not finish it.

Compared to the movie it's spectacular. 

[Quinton]

Just finished rereading Deadhouse Gates and am reading Memories of Ice.  If anything, they're better the second time through -- all kinds of little, subtle references leap out and details that seemed like throwaway scene-filler or background material jump out as actually quite important to the overall story.

[Johny Cee]

Okay, I plowed through The Passage in two days.  Amazingly readable, considering it's 750+ pages.  It's The Stand meets I am Legend, pretty comparable to early Stephen King.  Or a better characterized and more interesting World War Z replacing zombies with vampires.

It's in my to read list, I'll have to bump it up.

Has anyone else read any of J.V. Jone's stuff? I'm a big fan of The Barbed Coil.

It's the best horror novel I've read since The Red Tree.  Speaking of which, more people need to read The Red Tree, by Caitlin R Kiernan.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Just finished rereading Deadhouse Gates and am reading Memories of Ice.  If anything, they're better the second time through -- all kinds of little, subtle references leap out and details that seemed like throwaway scene-filler or background material jump out as actually quite important to the overall story.

Uhh, am I now a standard by which others measure how quickly they read?    Would it make a difference if I said I was kind of going slow this time around?

I've started House of Chains even though I've not quite finished the last few chapters of Memories of Ice yet.  There's only so much crying I can do over words on a page.  Yes, the events really do get to me, because it sucks to see that stuff happen (not saying anything because some still haven't started reading the series yet for some damn reason).

Anyways, like I said before, I can not believe how much was in the earlier books that I'm picking up on now on the second go around.  Just lots of details that were mentioned and now that I have a deeper framework to hang them on, so much more of the story is clearer at an earlier point in time.

There is a lot of stuff in the earlier books that jumps on out a reread, especially if you've read all nine books so far.  Stuff that only makes sense or takes on significance once you have the greater framework to hang things on.

I'm all caught up now.  Got impatient while reading Toll the Hounds and jumped into Dust of Dreams.  Hooo boy!  That was a cliffhanger ending and now I'm stuck waiting how long until the final book comes out.  I find it really curious that Erikson never presents anything from Tavore's point-of-view.  All our knowledge of her is tied up in the observations of others around her.  It's an interesting technique considering we've gotten PoVs from some pretty damn minor characters that were killed off and yet Tavore is this complete enigma.  

[Quinton]

 I find it really curious that Erikson never presents anything from Tavore's point-of-view.  All our knowledge of her is tied up in the observations of others around her.  It's an interesting technique considering we've gotten PoVs from some pretty damn minor characters that were killed off and yet Tavore is this complete enigma.  

Interesting point. I don't think we've ever seen Laseen's POV either.  I wonder if we'll get a chance to see through Tavore's eyes in the last book.

I also feel like even with a solid ending to the 10 book series there are a lot of interesting side-stories that could be explored (and it sounds like Erikson has some interest in exploring them once he's done) that would allow us to see more bits of this very large world. 

[tgr]

Have you read Battlefield Earth? I read the whole thing, because it was so bad I couldn't not finish it.

No, but when I google the book and find out the author is the scientology inventor (or one of them, whatever, I don't care), well let's just say it doesn't exactly make me feel too hopeful of its content.

I might almost have to take a peek, just to see how bad it really is.

I did toss Goodkind's books aside once he transcended the "author viewpoint" thing and entered into "Shouting a poorly written version of the already-crappy Atlas Shrugged" at me.

I only stuck with it that far because I enjoyed the way he tortured his main characters. I get the hero is supposed to suffer, but damn....

I didn't mind the stories of Goodkind, what I did get pissy about was how the main chick managed to go from ultrahappy to sobbing up the nile on essentially the same page. I hate characters that are literally 2D.

And Melany Rawn's books, well, from what I remember of the one book I tried to read (and I literally had nothing else to do at the time), and I imagined it was like living in a highschool teenage girl's head, with extreme nuances of how to interpret something one way or the other. I got plenty of that when I read the empire trilogy of feist and wurts, but at least there was some sex and violence in amidst all the annoying minutae.

[Stabs]

Rachel Caine - Weather Warden series. The main reason I mention this is to alert people to the ambush that got me. I found this series in the public library in the Sci Fi section. The books say "Murder, mayhem, magic, meteorology - and a fun read" according to Jim Butcher, Dresden Files author.

What they don't say is that they are crossovers from the romantic novel genre.

If you can get past the idea that every third character is a moody hunk secretly in love with the heroine then they're actually quite good contemporary magic stories in the vein of Charmed. I'm quite enjoying them but I definitely felt ambushed.

Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson - Hunters of Dune. While I think Dune is one of the finest sci fi novels ever written they slapped so many sequels on that by this stage the plot devices are leaking badly. Where do I start? Despite everything being planned out by a prescient mastermind humanity is screwed and lurches from one disaster to another to another, only squeaking through by luck. Despite there being women around who can remember what Agamemnon had for breakfast no one can remember where Earth was. The secrets of the Ginaz swordmasters have also been forgotten despite every fifth character being Duncan Idaho. The novel that follows this was a tad better if only because at the end I could breath a sigh of Thank Fuck That's Over.

Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson - Winds of Dune. This is set after Dune Messiah, a long time before Hunters and before the plot collapsed under its own weight. For anyone who has read Frank Herbert's Children of Dune it's rather painful to get into because it rehashes content from that for about 100 pages with almost nothing new. It then turned into a nice original story that was devious and Duney. Which surprised me, I was really only reading it for completionism but can actually recommend it. Turn to page 100 and read from there.

Kevin J Anderson - The Edge of the World - Terra Incognita Series. This should have been great. It's another crossover novel taking the rather out of fashion nautical genre and blending it with military fantasy. It doesn't quite work. The nautical stuff is laid in heavily early on then rather neglected for the second half of the novel. The military fantasy is somewhat soured by the fact that both countries are ruled by a single monarch with autocratic powers who is determined to be a pacifist but goes on with the war for somewhat contrived reasons. There's too many characters. In fact there's so many characters that even the author gets bored of keeping track of them calling someone someone else's second wife when she is in fact his third.

It's a trilogy and he's churning out more but it didn't start well with Edge. Robin Hobb's Liveship books remain the only novels to have successfully blended nautical with fantasy which is a great pity. I want to read about pirates, mutineers, dragons and wizards in the same story but only Hobb is able to write it well.

Katharine Kerr - Daggerspell et al, Deverry series I recently read the entire series in order, 15 volumes, written 1986-2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Kerr#Deverry_novels
Don't worry though you can pick up any one of them and it will read fine. It might be slightly easier to cope with the unusual chronology if you start at the beginning but it shouldn't matter much.

They're outstanding. Every now and then in Sci Fi/Fantasy a writer comes along and does a ton of research for a novel. Lord of the Rings was based on a lifetime study of ancient nordic legends. Dune was the product of 5 years of research and revealed (then) cutting edge insights into the comparitively new fields of ecology and sociology.

Deverry also benefits from outstanding research. Kerr's strengths are linguistics and history. So names have coherent themes. Elven names sound like Tolkien Elven names. Deverry names sound Welsh. And so on for different areas. And the military fantasy benefits from the writer understanding how some historical battles were won, they're interesting and credible. The magic incorporates elements of medieval and occult traditions. The plots are interesting and devious and each sub-story unfolds neatly. The unconventional chronology works well.

I read the first one in 1986. It's taken her a long time to get the rest done but it's quite an opus now.

[Johny Cee]

Rachel Caine - Weather Warden series. The main reason I mention this is to alert people to the ambush that got me. I found this series in the public library in the Sci Fi section. The books say "Murder, mayhem, magic, meteorology - and a fun read" according to Jim Butcher, Dresden Files author.

What they don't say is that they are crossovers from the romantic novel genre.

If you can get past the idea that every third character is a moody hunk secretly in love with the heroine then they're actually quite good contemporary magic stories in the vein of Charmed. I'm quite enjoying them but I definitely felt ambushed.

I quite liked the early Weather Warden books.  Yah, it does have some romance elements, but it's actual romance.  One guy/one girl share true love and the world is keeping them apart.  It bucks alot of contemporary fantasy trends by having an attractive female protagonist who is characterized as an attractive modern woman, rather than a female ass-kicker who is convinced she's ugly but every male character wants to sleep with her.  I also don't remember any "attempted rape as characterization", which shows up all the fucking time in that genre.

The main character is basically a (from Buffy) mid-series Cordelia as magic-type.  Still kind of sarcastic, still fashion conscious, yet there is that core of wanting to do the right thing.

[Ard]

Interesting point. I don't think we've ever seen Laseen's POV either.  I wonder if we'll get a chance to see through Tagore's eyes in the last book.

Read the Return of the Crimson Guard if you haven't.  It's up there with Dust of Dreams for the wtf factor, but it does cover a relevant part of Laseen's story, albeit, through Possum's eyes again.

[Quinton]

Interesting point. I don't think we've ever seen Laseen's POV either.  I wonder if we'll get a chance to see through Tavore's eyes in the last book.

Read the Return of the Crimson Guard if you haven't.  It's up there with Dust of Dreams for the wt factor, but it does cover a relevant part of Laseen's story, albeit, through Possum's eyes again.

I have, but yeah, still no clear picture into her thinking.  Certainly some insight nonetheless.  Definitely curious to see what comes after RotCG storywise, as it certainly does end on bit of a "whoah, shit" moment...

[dd0029]

Finished up the first of Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet, A Shadow in Summer.  I really enjoyed it.  Not really sure why though.  The plot is fairly standard.  I think it's the world building that was most interesting.  The characters were fairly interesting though fairly slim.  It has a slightly Asian feel which is an interesting change of pace.  The book covers are interesting, but entirely misleading.  They look vaguely scifi or steampunk.  This is fairly high fantasy instead.  Magic is there, but is very rarely used.  Looking forward to starting the next in the series.

[HaemishM]

FREE SHIT ALERT!

If you have an eBook reader and you want to read one of my novels (but haven't wanted to buy it), today is your lucky day! I'm giving away my first novel in eBook today only - Monday, 6/21/10. Just go to Smashwords.com and add Under the Amoral Bridge to your cart, then use the coupon code EP62B at checkout to get the book free. If you like it, please consider posting a review on Smashwords or Amazon, because those reviews go a long way towards giving me much needed exposure. Enjoy!

With the whoring done, I finished Pat Cadigan's Dervish is Digital and started on that epic masterpiece everyone talks about but few read, War and Peace. I love me some Russian lit.

[Ingmar]

War and Peace is great - are you reading abridged or unabridged?