Return of the Book Thread

[Morat20]

Never finished accelerando, Haemish summed it up pretty well, it was a little too self-aware for itself. Especially in the wake of the Eschaton books. (I'm still waiting for a return to that particular universe, by the way.)

He wrote it for free (yes, you can buy a copy, but I believe it was posted and still is entirely free), based off a short story, and I believe fueled entirely by a period of 16-hour days in the early 90s. :)

I sympathized, since I've had enough 'crunch times' at work to wonder what it was like to be elbow-deep when everyone was shifting, back when the first browsers were coming online, banks were moving towards an eletronic system, and basically the massive cluster-fuck of complex that is 'the internet' was being built by a million monkeys.

I'd imagine it involved a lot of booze, long days, and feeling constantly behind the curve.

I like the sort of flaky, self-aware sense of it.

[Sand]

I am coming after everyone who insisted I read Erikson.

You could try Glen Cook. The Black Company is excellent, I hear.

I have heard the same but havent started that story line yet.

Presently reading The Ghost King by Salvatore. Then will probably move onto the The Lady Penitent books 1-3 by Lisa Smeadman next.

Just been on a Forgotten Realms nostalgia kick recently. Are there any good books that came out about Toril post the Spell Plaque period anyone has read?

[Rendakor]

Just finished the Mistborn trilogy; very good. I picked up book 1 of Sanderson's new series; debating starting either that or his first WoT. I kinda want to wait until WoT is actually finished, for real, before reading any of the new ones but...

I also got The Black Prism by Brent Weeks, since the Night's Angel trilogy was cool. Is his new one any good?

[Grimwell]

I just finished the latest Wheel of Time book. I will admit that it's good, but it left me pissed off. Things are moving along nicely, and while Sanderson does not write exactly like Jordan, things are handled well and the writing is never a distraction.

Thing is, there were a few things that happened that left me going "Is this Jordan's idea or Sanderson inserting himself in there?" Not many, but a few and while they were neat in terms of writing and character, I don't think they did much for plot. Yes, I know that being let down by plot in the WoT is silly, he spent books on character... but still.


There were others, but this makes the point. It was a good book, and well written. I am impressed with Sanderson and will be reading his work after he's done with the WoT next year, but there were a few things where I was just left wondering why.

[Ingmar]

I just started reading Life on Air, which is David Attenborough's 2002 memoir. Much funnier than I was expecting, at least early on in the book.

http://www.amazon.com/Life-Air-Broadcaster-David-Attenborough/dp/0691113238

[Quinton]

Just finished Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay.  First book of his that I've read.  Enjoyable and well-told fantasy in a world of viking/anglo-saxon/celt analogues (the erlings, anglycns, and cyngaels, respectively).  Not a highly magical world, but not completely devoid of magic, nor quite as dark and gritty as ASoIaF or the like.  

EDIT:  Now reading Sailling to Sarantium which I think I am enjoying even more than LLotS.  The main character is a cranky, foul-mouthed mosaicist.

[Xilren's Twin]

I just finished the latest Wheel of Time book. I will admit that it's good, but it left me pissed off. Things are moving along nicely, and while Sanderson does not write exactly like Jordan, things are handled well and the writing is never a distraction.

I still dont know how they can tie things all up in one book that covered the remaining bits that have to occur before the last battle, the last battle itself, and the aftermath.  I get the feeling this series will have the same problem with long goodbyes that the LotR movies did.

To wit

[Vision]

Sometimes it's dressed up to the point of being indecipherable.  Usually the parts that seem a little sketchy to be divinely inspired, like the part where God summons two bears which maul forty-two children because they were taunting a Jew.

Also, "came into her" is a phrase you'll see repeated in the Bible several times.  Meaning should be obvious.

Can you please point me to that chapter?

[Ingmar]

Google 'bear old testament'.

[Sand]

I have no idea how he can get all this stuff tied up without severly rushing or leaving a bunch undone.

They never had any intention of doing so? They are merely going to keep publishing more books until more and more readers figure out the series is really a mobius strip. When it no longer becomes profitable to print they will end it.


Meanwhile I finished the Ghost King by Salvatore last night, the final in the Transitions Series for Drizzt and crew. While I liked the premise of the story the ending was kinda "huh? wtf?"

[Sheepherder]

Can you please point me to that chapter?

http://www.cracked.com/article_15699_the-9-most-badass-bible-verses.html

[Ingmar]

Pretty sure that passage is the justification for clerics having the Conjure Animals spell in 1e AD&D.

[Grimwell]

I have no idea how he can get all this stuff tied up without severly rushing or leaving a bunch undone.

They never had any intention of doing so? They are merely going to keep publishing more books until more and more readers figure out the series is really a mobius strip. When it no longer becomes profitable to print they will end it.


Meanwhile I finished the Ghost King by Salvatore last night, the final in the Transitions Series for Drizzt and crew. While I liked the premise of the story the ending was kinda "huh? wtf?"

[FatuousTwat]

Just finished Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay.  First book of his that I've read.  Enjoyable and well-told fantasy in a world of viking/anglo-saxon/celt analogues (the erlings, anglycns, and cyngaels, respectively).  Not a highly magical world, but not completely devoid of magic, nor quite as dark and gritty as ASoIaF or the like. 

EDIT:  Now reading Sailling to Sarantium which I think I am enjoying even more than LLotS.  The main character is a cranky, foul-mouthed mosaicist.

He is a fantastic author, the only books of his I haven't enjoyed was The Fionavar Tapestry series. My favourites are probably A Song for Arbonne and Under Heaven. The Lions of Al-Rassan is also excellent.

[Quinton]

I'm about 1/3 into the second Sarantine Mosaic volume, which I continue to enjoy massively, and have Lions on order from Amazon (I normally attack stuff like this in published order, but due to limited kindle availability of his older work I ended up going backwards from LLotS.

I've seen commentary in a few places that the Fionavar Tapestry is pretty lousy (I'd avoided the author after reading blurbs for FT that sounded horribly uninteresting) but the rest of his works are solid.

A very mild spoiler, perhaps, from near the beginning of Sailing to Sarantium:

[Reg]

The Fionavar Tapestry books weren't really awful they were just more generic fantasy that he wrote very early in his career before he found his niche doing near historical fiction with just a touch of magic.  I'll agree though that compared to any of his later work they're pretty bad.

[dd0029]

I decided to re-read most of David Weber's Honor Harrington book via the Baen CD thing.  Still kind of entertaining, but skimming is decidedly necessary.  Helpfully, he includes keywords to tell you when to start skimming which include, but are not limited to, any sentence beginning "Oh, I know, Of Course, But still, Lets not fool ourlselves, Nonetheless, To be completely honest" and anytime anything other than a shipname is italicized.  I'm about to give up the same place I did when I was reading in the more traditional fashion.  The wtf political ranting and protestant cloaked Heinlein shenanigans are just too much.  When was the last time a real live politician with an active dislike for the military actually found a place in an elected body?

[Morat20]

I decided to re-read most of David Weber's Honor Harrington book via the Baen CD thing.  Still kind of entertaining, but skimming is decidedly necessary.  Helpfully, he includes keywords to tell you when to start skimming which include, but are not limited to, any sentence beginning "Oh, I know, Of Course, But still, Lets not fool ourlselves, Nonetheless, To be completely honest" and anytime anything other than a shipname is italicized.  I'm about to give up the same place I did when I was reading in the more traditional fashion.  The wtf political ranting and protestant cloaked Heinlein shenanigans are just too much.  When was the last time a real live politician with an active dislike for the military actually found a place in an elected body?

Inside or outside America?

His political parties don't really map to America, which makes sense insofar as they're a sorta mashup of a few centuries of British politics with a hefty dose of post-WW2 stuff thrown in.

[Rasix]

Read through Nightwatch in fairly quickly.  Interesting and entertaining, even if it spends half of the time on the soapbox. Not quite sure what happened at the end, it wasn't very clear.  I'm guessing that's intentional at this point.   

[Trippy]

Can you please point me to that chapter?

http://www.cracked.com/article_15699_the-9-most-badass-bible-verses.html

[Sheepherder]

1 The hand of the LORD was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”

Yes, I imagine he does know.

[Bzalthek]

I never read any of the Dresden books, but I found all 12 on the cheap as audio books at the used book store and damn James Marsters does an excellent job narrating.  Very well done.  So I go back to McKay's to check other audio books and I see Black Company (1st book only) and as I hadn't read the books in a while I grab it.  I cannot stand the way this guy narrates.  Marc Vietor seems to want to make every sentence stilted and over dramatic.

[bhodi]

I never read any of the Dresden books, but I found all 12 on the cheap as audio books at the used book store and damn James Marsters does an excellent job narrating.  Very well done.  So I go back to McKay's to check other audio books and I see Black Company (1st book only) and as I hadn't read the books in a while I grab it.  I cannot stand the way this guy narrates.  Marc Vietor seems to want to make every sentence stilted and over dramatic.

James Marsters is one of my favorites, almost as good as George Guidall. I got used to Marc Vietor from the nightside series; he did that and a ton of older sci-fi before he started working for audible so I was already used to his delivery.

I even mentioned somewhere in this thread that when he did all the nightside books, his stilted over-dramatic reading of an already deliberately overdramatic series fit really well. Also, you may not know, but they switch audiobook narrators as the book writers switch, so he only narrates the books of croaker. He also becomes less stilted as the books continue; the first book of black company he was reading like nightside but he quickly realized it was a much more darker and serious series and adjusted accordingly.

[Bzalthek]

Ah, that's good to know.  I'll struggle through it then.  Thanks.

[bhodi]

Audible Frontiers finally finished up Sergei Lukyaneko's Nightwatch series. I've been waiting for it for a while, and the first book was good. Listening to the others now.

[FatuousTwat]

Finally finished The American Civil war. I can't remember the last time it took me an entire month to read a book, but then again, December is always really goddamn busy.

[MahrinSkel]

When was the last time a real live politician with an active dislike for the military actually found a place in an elected body?

Apparently you missed that most of the politicians in question are hereditary aristocrats, not elected.

--Dave

[NowhereMan]

Search informed me that Joe Abercrombie's been mentioned once before but I've just read his First Law trilogy. I'd read Best Served Cold, hadn't realised they're set in the same world (Best Served Cold follows on from the trilogy) but it was kind of interesting seeing some of the people only mentioned as shadowy figures pulling the strings from the follow up. If you like Fantasy and you like dark then you should read these books, he does a really good job of not getting cartoonish with bad shit happening nor of making any characters in any way two dimensional. I wasn't blown away by the writing but the plot and characters really felt top notch to me and are worth reading it for (imo) but I wouldn't say he's bad at all. Also they didn't feature constant, gratuitous sex scenes that seem to crop up way too much in generic fantasy books.

[Bzalthek]

Agree on the First Law trilogy.  It's like taking the tropes of traditional fantasy and making them all assholes like real people.  I enjoyed it tremendously.

[Morat20]

When was the last time a real live politician with an active dislike for the military actually found a place in an elected body?

Apparently you missed that most of the politicians in question are hereditary aristocrats, not elected.

--Dave

Some of the commons weren't supportive of the military, but their particular politics ran from outright socialism to full capitalism, and from utter pacifism to outright militarism, and then from pure democracy to faux democracy led by an aristocracy.

I think Weber's a little too cute by half by ending up with a 'centrist' government that looks utterly reasonable to, say, Americans and Brits and making the 'opposition' so goddamn clownshoes stupid, but he gets a bit better later and sorta retcons it the clownshoes stupid into "it only looks stupid, because their real goals are X and Y" wherein X and Y make at least some sense. (The Conservatives being, basicaly, proponents of their own hereditary power and being mostly limited to the House of Lords, and the Liberals being more socialist and pacifist without being blatantly anti-military -- he's moved them from "dumb-ass pacifist strawmen" to at least "incorrect in their belefs about the necessity or inevietability of this war, but at least not total assclown morons" and given them some redeeming features (an outright hatred of slavery, for one).

Still, trying to parse the politics of ANYONE there from an American perspective is pointless, especially since the motivations are taken off 17th Century France, Spain and Britian and filtered through modern European politics (which runs a lot more left than America does) and tossing in a real aristocracy, even if in decline.

It sounds a lot more complex than it is, especially since all you really need to know is "Main Character = Centrist, Crown = Centrist, Centrist=Effective, Not Clownshoes Stupid" and everyone else is mostly clownshoes unless they get their own POV chapter, in which case they're either villians or Not Clownshoes Stupid.

[Quinton]

Agree on the First Law trilogy.  It's like taking the tropes of traditional fantasy and making them all assholes like real people.  I enjoyed it tremendously.

Say one thing for Logen Ninefingers, ...

[JWIV]

Search informed me that Joe Abercrombie's been mentioned once before but I've just read his First Law trilogy. I'd read Best Served Cold, hadn't realised they're set in the same world (Best Served Cold follows on from the trilogy) but it was kind of interesting seeing some of the people only mentioned as shadowy figures pulling the strings from the follow up. If you like Fantasy and you like dark then you should read these books, he does a really good job of not getting cartoonish with bad shit happening nor of making any characters in any way two dimensional. I wasn't blown away by the writing but the plot and characters really felt top notch to me and are worth reading it for (imo) but I wouldn't say he's bad at all. Also they didn't feature constant, gratuitous sex scenes that seem to crop up way too much in generic fantasy books.

Funny you mention it.   Best served cold is available for 2.99 this month -

http://www.orbitebooks.com/offers/best-served-cold-for-2-99/

[Ironwood]

Except it's a retread of First Law and not as good.

So, you know.

[Khaldun]

Just finished Charles Yu's How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. I liked it quite a bit, but you'd have to like a modest dose of metafiction in your time travel story to get off on it.

Also Felix Gilman's The Half-Made World, which looks to be the beginning of a series. Also I thought very good--a touch of steampunk but not at all cliched, some interesting world-building going on.

[Quinton]

Except it's a retread of First Law and not as good.

So, you know.

I still found it to be an enjoyable read.

I do agree that First Law was better.