Return of the Book Thread

[NowhereMan]

Like I said I read Best Served Cold first. In that order it definitely ruins some of the surprises but it definitely serves to cover any of the 'retread' elements since you can treat the First Law as a prequel and it's always interesting seeing how things came to be the way they are. Not sure whether that's worth more or less knowing how the First Law trilogy turns out before you read it but you can't have both. After all you've got to be realistic about these things.

It's also interesting the extent to which it seems you can judge a fantasy book by its cover. I first saw the second (I think it was) book in a bookshop 3 or 4 years and had decided it looked like a really good book and then proceeded to not buy it because it cost too much or, whenever I had gift tokens to spend, the shop only had the second and third books in (yes the internet would have fixed this, shut up I'm an idiot). Also my favourite bits of the books

[Quinton]

Also my favourite bits of the books

I love how First Law delights in taking typical fantasy tropes and totally subverting them. 

[Ironwood]

Yes and No.

[Khaldun]

[Johny Cee]

Yes and No.

Yep.


I haven't mentioned much about Abercrombie mostly because he's one of the recent severely over-hyped Fantasy authors that people are raving about online at various blogs & forums.  He's pretty active online, and is reasonably funny, if you want to look up his blogs/interviews.

[JWIV]

Working my way through the Shadow series by Tad Williams.  Just finished Shadowrise.  I know Tad goes at a certain pace, but this series is slow and dragged out even by his standards.     

[ghost]

Reading (uhm, listening to) The Colour of Magic.  I'd never read any discworld stuff.  I have to say that it's light and entertaining, which is exactly what I wanted.  Finished up with the second Brin uplift trilogy for the second time.  I left disappointed again, although I have to commend him on his ability to make an interesting world to put the story in. 

[HaemishM]

Tried to read a self-pubbed work called Thin Blood, but just had to give it up about halfway through. I couldn't get into it, even though the writer wasn't a bad writer. She just had characters I didn't care about and twists to the story that I also didn't care about.

Picked up William Gibson's Spook Country for $.50 cents at a Big Lots on clearance and started reading that.

[Morat20]

Reading (uhm, listening to) The Colour of Magic.  I'd never read any discworld stuff.  I have to say that it's light and entertaining, which is exactly what I wanted.  Finished up with the second Brin uplift trilogy for the second time.  I left disappointed again, although I have to commend him on his ability to make an interesting world to put the story in. 

Discworld...changes, right around the third or fourth book he wrote. The first two -- Color of Magic and the Light Fantastic, are stock paradoies. Decently done, but parodies.

After that, he apparently decided he wanted to write something more.

Don't get me wrong -- it's still funny as shit. It's just...funny as shit as a story, in a surreal world.

If you want a feel for him in his prime, try Wee Free Men, Small Gods or his Gaiman collaboration -- Good Omens. It's not Discworld, but it's a great book.

[Reg]

Is he still writing or has the early onset Alzheimer's put him into retirement?

[Ingmar]

Still writing last I heard. He may not be for much longer though as I also seem to recall reading he was looking into 'assisted suicide' because he hates the condition so much.

[Ironwood]

Um, not quite - He was campaigning on behalf of the movement as it's, er, a close issue to him, but he's never really come out and said 'I'm Going To Kill Myself'.

I can understand his view, though I don't share many other of his political leanings.

[JWIV]

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.

Just finished reading Best Served Cold and was pretty underwhelmed by it.  For a book full of sex and violence, it surprisingly dragged on - I think he has a tendency to focus too much on the minutiae of his action scenes and in doing so saps the energy from them.   

[ghost]

Just finished reading Best Served Cold and was pretty underwhelmed by it.  For a book full of sex and violence, it surprisingly dragged on - I think he has a tendency to focus too much on the minutiae of his action scenes and in doing so saps the energy from them.   

You have time to read with a new baby?  Must be sleeping well.

I was thinking about picking this series up.  This doesn't sounds like a great endorsement. 

[JWIV]

Just finished reading Best Served Cold and was pretty underwhelmed by it.  For a book full of sex and violence, it surprisingly dragged on - I think he has a tendency to focus too much on the minutiae of his action scenes and in doing so saps the energy from them.   

You have time to read with a new baby?  Must be sleeping well.

I was thinking about picking this series up.  This doesn't sounds like a great endorsement. 

Newborns sleep a lot.  Would be easier if I we didn't have to keep a 2 yr old occupied though.   But anyhow, talking with folks elsewhere, the consensus really seems to be you need to start with First Law - it sets up a lot of the foundation and details that are needed.   A friend of mine read Best Served Cold first and was a bit underwhelmed by it, then read First Law and came back to Best Served Cold and found it a completely different experience.

[Johny Cee]

Reading (uhm, listening to) The Colour of Magic.  I'd never read any discworld stuff.  I have to say that it's light and entertaining, which is exactly what I wanted.  Finished up with the second Brin uplift trilogy for the second time.  I left disappointed again, although I have to commend him on his ability to make an interesting world to put the story in. 

Discworld...changes, right around the third or fourth book he wrote. The first two -- Color of Magic and the Light Fantastic, are stock paradoies. Decently done, but parodies.

After that, he apparently decided he wanted to write something more.

Don't get me wrong -- it's still funny as shit. It's just...funny as shit as a story, in a surreal world.

If you want a feel for him in his prime, try Wee Free Men, Small Gods or his Gaiman collaboration -- Good Omens. It's not Discworld, but it's a great book.

The tone and writing style of the Discworld books really changes after the first two Rincewind books (Colour and Light).  Generally, the books are divided up by the groups that Pratchett deals with, and depending on what your preferences you will really like a couple and not care for some of the others.

The City Watch books (starting with Guards! Guards!) is my favorite.  Never cared too much for the Wizards storyline or the Witches books.  Really enjoyed Hogfather (which covers much the same ground as Small Gods, but in a better fashion).

The Discworld wikipedia page does a good job of breaking down the books based on sub-series.  Basically, try a couple of the first books in each and see which one you like, follow from there.

[ghost]

Newborns sleep a lot.  Would be easier if I we didn't have to keep a 2 yr old occupied though.   But anyhow, talking with folks elsewhere, the consensus really seems to be you need to start with First Law - it sets up a lot of the foundation and details that are needed.   A friend of mine read Best Served Cold first and was a bit underwhelmed by it, then read First Law and came back to Best Served Cold and found it a completely different experience.

You have the same setup I do-  3 month old and 25 month old.  Mine don't sleep.   

At all. 

i'll get First Law and see how I like it then.  I'm looking for something new to try to read over the next year.  Or two.

[Morat20]

Still writing last I heard. He may not be for much longer though as I also seem to recall reading he was looking into 'assisted suicide' because he hates the condition so much.

He dictates rather than writes now, I think -- and I believe he's considering assisted suicide should his condition degenerate past a certain point.

Johnny Cee: The Witches books got very solid near  the end, but I admit the Guards (and his stand-alones) remain the best. However, the Witches also include the Tiffany Aching books, which should be ready by everyone, just on general principles.

Thief of Time was quite good, but I still think Nightwatch is probably the best he'll ever write. He hasn't gone downhill -- Going Postal, Makling Money, Thud, and I Shall Wear Midnight are all excellent (as is Unseen Academicals, though it means more if you've read Carpe Juglum), but Nightwatch remains the best, in my opinion.

[NowhereMan]

Yes and No.

For content, I've recently discovered the Kindle app for my phone and all the free classic books available. I think my reading time is going to be pretty full for the forseeable future.

[ghost]

If you want a feel for him in his prime, try Wee Free Men, Small Gods or his Gaiman collaboration -- Good Omens. It's not Discworld, but it's a great book.

So I bought a hard copy of Wee Free Men and realized that I had already listened to it in an audio version a few years ago.  It was pretty damned good.  I found a reading order guide and think I'm going to go with that.  I own Good Omens, but have yet to look at it.  I may do that after the current listen to Ender's Game that I'm on. 

[Reg]

Definitely read Good Omens. It's one of my all time favourite books.

[Mosesandstick]

Brian Jacques passed away recently. He was one of the reasons I got in to books and fantasy, I feel like actually picking a Redwall book up again after so many years.

[ghost]

Moved into Speaker for the Dead.  This will be my first read through it.  So far, so good. 

[Ironwood]

It's ok as far as it goes, but it's the END for decent sci-fi writing for Card.  Enders Game was barely concealed religioni, Speaker for the Dead at least has a POINT for the religion, but anything he's written since is utter, utter twaddle of the highest order.  It's like Koontz.

Stop thinking of the Lord and get back into the drugs...

[ghost]

Yeah, when I tried to get into it the first time I could see Card slipping into that mindset you're talking about. 

[bhodi]

I finished Daniel Suarez's Daemon+Freedom books.

I searched but it was only mentioned on page 96 of the thread. Pretty technical geeky stuff when he starts talking about actual computer security, but the story is good. I recommend it to anyone who likes techno-thrillers and isn't scared off by acronyms such as TCP, DHCP, Netbios, and DNS.

[LK]

I'm reading "The Disease to Please" by Dr. Harriet Braiker. It is doing wonders to highlight how fucked in the head I am. I'm not even exaggerating when I say every other passage reads out of my mental playbook. I'm hoping it'll lead to a more positive, fulfilling life. It's been pretty shitty living like I do so far.

I've been on self-help kick lately after I felt myself going down the wrong path of depression. I never used to mark up my books; I didn't want to "taint" them. So far I've been making notations and dirtying up the book to a significant degree just so I'll remember the really, really poignant stuff.

[Chimpy]

Update on my Les Miserables journey: I am now just over halfway through the book!

My god the guy loved his adjectives. 

[Salamok]

Update on my Les Miserables journey: I am now just over halfway through the book!

My god the guy loved his adjectives. 

I tried this with the Count of Monte Cristo and gave up sometime during the 200 page jaunt through the countryside.

[Khaldun]

Card is a fantastic example of Bobby Fisher syndrome. Whatever was fueling his creative drive, it imploded a good while back and started him hurdling down into the abyss where whatever a writer thinks is creative is whatever confirms his increasingly addled visions of truth. If you're a shit-eating lunatic playing to 85-year olds on Fox News, that might be a smart market move, but for an SF writer, it surely cuts you off from a pretty significant portion of the paying customers.

[ghost]

Card is a fantastic example of Bobby Fisher syndrome. Whatever was fueling his creative drive, it imploded a good while back and started him hurdling down into the abyss where whatever a writer thinks is creative is whatever confirms his increasingly addled visions of truth. If you're a shit-eating lunatic playing to 85-year olds on Fox News, that might be a smart market move, but for an SF writer, it surely cuts you off from a pretty significant portion of the paying customers.

I think I know exactly what it was that gave him Ender's Game.  He has a monologue at the end of my audio version where he is talking about how he got the idea for Ender's Game because his brother was into sci fi and they were pretty close.  The idea came from his brother's time in boot camp or officer school or what have you in the military and how he hated the fact that they drove you down to bring out the best in someone.  After that it pretty much wrote itself, I suppose.  When he starts getting into his own ideas, or things he had to come up with himself, it was shit.  Well, it's not shit, it's just not anywhere near up to Ender's Game standards.  He's still a ton better than Kevin J. Anderson even when he's at his worst.

[Ironwood]

That's because Kevin J Anderson is literary Cancer.

[LK]

After completing a book on Introverts and Extroverts as part of an on-going series in self-discovery, I moved on to a book called delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger.

It's a very informative book showcasing the impact of our society moving from one that prioritized forgetting into remembering due to cheap digital storage, the Internet, and social networks. It gets a little speculative in parts but Viktor does a good job proving his point and also acknowledging any counter-points. The book also gives a wonderful perspective on how advancements in storage technology over the history of man has reached a point in recent years that is contradictory to societal and human nature.

[ghost]

Well, I'm over halfway through the Speaker for the Dead now.  Unless he royally fucks it up before th end he's written another pretty damned good book.  I do get a bit irritated by the short sightedness of the highly intelligent, highly educated characters in the book though. 

[Merusk]

It gets worse later.  I read The Hegemon about 2 years ago and while I can't think of the specific details right now, I do remember wondering why Bean turned into such a drooling, short-sighted twit.