Return of the Book Thread

[WayAbvPar]

Dance With Dragons Publication Date Revealed
http://shelf-life.ew.com/2011/03/03/dance-with-dragons-date/

A Dance With Dragons will be published on July 12. The manuscript is huge — the publisher estimates the hardcover edition will run more than 900 pages, putting it about the same length as the longest book in the series, A Storm of Swords. Schedule your summer vacation accordingly.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What took so long?

GEORGE R. R. MARTIN: I’m not sure I have a good answer. If I did, I would have taken less time. It’s enormous. It’s as long as A Storm of Swords. It’s very complicated. I have a lot of characters and points of view. And I’ve been doing a ton of rewriting, trying to get it where I wanted it to be. Some of these chapters I’ve rewritten more times than I can count before I’m satisfied with them.

Can you tease something from the book?

I don’t want to spoil any surprises. I can say all the characters people have been waiting for are there: Daenerys, Jon Snow, and Tyrion. There’s also new characters, and viewpoints from characters who did not have viewpoints before.

And me without my bomb shelter built. FUCK.

[ghost]

And me without my bomb shelter built. FUCK.

This was all foretold with the Mayan calendar.  A bomb shelter won't help you. 

[pants]

Well crap, suppose this means I have to dig the rest out and re-read them all...

[Salamok]

Well crap, suppose this means I have to dig the rest out and re-read them all...

And this is bad how?

[Mosesandstick]

Is it me or does he not really seem interested in finishing the story, but just wants to keep going?

[ghost]

Who knows, Moses.  It wouldn't be an issue if they weren't so goddamned well done.  It does display signs of not having an end in sight before he started because he opens as many new threads of plot as he closes as the story goes along. 

[Mosesandstick]

I know, I just feel as if the series keeps doing a -->  as more and more plot threads remain open. I found it increasingly difficult to grasp the overall story, which is annoying since his writing is that damn good.

[pants]

Well crap, suppose this means I have to dig the rest out and re-read them all...

And this is bad how?

Because I have to go digging through my old bookcase downstairs, and that place scares me - I'm sure theres all kind of creepy crawlies down tehre waiting for this opportunity to devour me...

[Morat20]

Because I have to go digging through my old bookcase downstairs, and that place scares me - I'm sure theres all kind of creepy crawlies down tehre waiting for this opportunity to devour me...

Huh. I just have to select the "Song of Fire and Ice" category on my kindle.....:P

I wish kindle did nested categories, though, but since they're really just glorified tags...

[Sand]

Well Shit. He must have read this thread and saw I wasnt going to read his series since it didnt look like he was going to finish it.
Now I have to go buy them all, luckily with Border's closing their stores I can get them for 50% off.

[Xilren's Twin]

Finished a Wise Man's Fear and find myself strangely dissatisfied with it.

[FatuousTwat]

I'm not too surprised... He seemed to have a monster case of secondbookitis.

[Johny Cee]

Finished a Wise Man's Fear and find myself strangely dissatisfied with it.

I'm not too surprised... He seemed to have a monster case of secondbookitis.

No.  Rothfuss was trying to sell the first draft of the entire trilogy for years.  What happened was he hit a home run on his debut, so his publisher kicked the manuscript back for extensive rewrite...  then he had a baby, an illness, and one of his parents had cancer.  

If Name hadn't hit the bestseller lists, the entire trilogy would be out now.


Just like the first book, this one is amazingly readable even if you could beat a small child to death with it's 1000+ pages.  

Some of the interesting theories:

[FatuousTwat]

I'm not too surprised... He seemed to have a monster case of secondbookitis.

If Name hadn't hit the bestseller lists, the entire trilogy would be out now.

That is what I was talking about. First book was a mega success, so the second book has to live up to the first one, therefore requiring much more time spent with rewrites and editing (which seems to half the time just make stuff worse).

[Lucas]

Stephen King's next book announced: " 11/22/63 " (in stores November 8th, 2011):


http://www.stephenking.com/promo/11-22-63/announcement/

[Ironwood]

My, that'll be utter shit.

[HaemishM]

Yeah, not too enthused about that one. The Dark Tower is really the only thing after IT that I've read of his which didn't feel like variations on a familiar theme.

[ghost]

I haven't enjoyed Stephen King since I graduated from middle school.  The only book I think he's done that is worth a damn is the Stand, and the Dark Tower series is pretty good too, although I don't rate it in the top of my library.  I went back and reread It back in the mid 90s and it was just fucking awful. 

[Ironwood]

I agree.  He really, really should have stayed on the drugs.

If I read one more book of his about a writer/teacher in Maine, I'd go mental.

[Reg]

I liked his early stuff. Salem's Lot, the Stand, and the Shining were all classics. After that, not so much.

[bhodi]

I enjoyed the tommyknockers and of course his short story stuff, different seasons, etc.

[Rasix]

Oh dear, that sounds dreadful.  And I like most King I've read.  Granted it's not a lot (Stand, Salem's Lot, Dark Tower, Eyes of The Dragon (infantile, but amusing)).

Going back to reread A Song of Fire and Ice now that I have 4 months to get through them all.  My Game of Thrones is starting to look a bit worse for wear now.  Always a lot fun going back through this series.

[Khaldun]

About halfway through Rothfuss.

I can't quite figure out why I like his baseline character work and stage-setting. There is something about it at times that seems one slight step away from filking and Mary Sue fantasy but damn if it isn't likeable, moves along as a clip. But at the same time, halfway through, it feels like a huge stall, with almost no progression of the narrative--I feel so far as if it's "Name of the Wind: The Forgotten Chapters".

We will see.

[K9]

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.

(Sorry for digging up a month-old quote)

I have had some downtime recently so I actually did this and found my old copies of Mossflower, The Legend of Luke and Outcast of Redwall; I was pleasantly surprised by how well the books have aged, the quality of writing holds up even as an adult reader. They're a cinch to read too; I hope I'll read them to my kids one day, he really is a great storyteller, it's a shame he died.

[Khaldun]

Finished Wise Man's Fear.

About halfway through things definitely move along much faster. I could have done with a compression of the first 300 pages as they very much repeat the tone of the last half of Name of the Wind. Not bad. Some interesting things. Wondering a bit at how he's going to shoehorn everything that seems to still need to happen into the 3rd.

[Salamok]

Finished Wise Man's Fear.

About halfway through things definitely move along much faster. I could have done with a compression of the first 300 pages as they very much repeat the tone of the last half of Name of the Wind. Not bad. Some interesting things. Wondering a bit at how he's going to shoehorn everything that seems to still need to happen into the 3rd.

I sort of felt the exact opposite, I enjoyed the 1st half more and the second half felt rushed (and yet paradoxically felt like a grind at the same time).


I am pleased to hear that a 2nd trilogy is planned to carry the story into the future, I was wondering how he would get us caught up to current and then bring the entire story to some sort of close with only 1 book left.  Time will tell but so far I am feeling like Rothfuss will be able to bring the story to a successful close (and not go all Jordan on us with a never ending stream of new plot elements that could never in 100 books get resolved).

[Khaldun]

[Sheepherder]

RE: GRRM

He will finish his series once he runs out of characters.

[Chimpy]

So I just now finished my quest to read the unabridged Les Miserables.

I think I know where William Goldman got the inspiration for S. Morgenstern now...

[WayAbvPar]

RE: GRRM

He will finish his series once he runs out of characters pizza money.

More likely scenario.

or actually

RE: GRRM

He will NEVER finish his series once he runs out of characters

[ghost]

Still working on Atlas Shrugged.  I've been reading it forever and still am only about 1/5 of the way done.   

Also finished up Xenocide and am most of the way through Children of the Mind.  Overall the story has been good and the writing decent but I'll be damned if
I also bought the Gap series for my iPad so that should be interesting.  I'm starting to accumulate more books than I can reasonably read that way. 

[HaemishM]

Finished a decent self-pubbed supernatural thriller novel, Coombe's Wood by Lisa Hinsley. It wasn't spectacular, but it was well-written. For a $.99 cent Kindle ebook, it's a decent enough read if you like kind of supernatural suspense stuff. There were elements of Stephen King in it, but not in the bad way. It could certainly have used more of the supernatural bits earlier on in the story, it used the tell don't show method of exposition in some awkward ways and got a little muddled in the middle. But I'd give it 3 stars out of 5.

Started reading Critical Condition, a non-fiction book I picked up from a library sale about the fucked up state of healthcare in the US circa 2004. It's a bit shrill in places, to the point where it kind of loses the point in its zeal to demonize the corporations at every level of the healthcare industry (which isn't necessarily wrong, just gets a bit old as it belabors the point for pages). Not to get too political, but our system is totally fucked and the authors really take great pains to make you realize that.

[cironian]

Just finished the 6 books of the Merchant Princes series by Charles Stross. Very fun alt-history world hopping series with some neat ideas about what might happen if worlds on different levels of development start to interact.

It has its share of decisions by the characters, but at least most of them are explained in the text by a lack of understanding of each others cultural backgrounds or panicked CYOA. On the upside, knights with machine guns.

[Morat20]

Just finished the 6 books of the Merchant Princes series by Charles Stross. Very fun alt-history world hopping series with some neat ideas about what might happen if worlds on different levels of development start to interact.

I read the first one, liked it, and just could never seem to start hte second one. OTOH, Rule 32 (sequel to Halting State) has already been submitted. Stross was bitching on his blog that, once again, he turned in a manuscript only for something to change and fuck his plot. Only this time he couldn't rewrite it, and that's why he HATES 'near future' sci-fi.

I think he said it was delayed the first time because of the werid minority-government the UK ended up with. The second change had to do with some hole-in-the-wall pub that was notorious for getting absolutely no cell or internet signals, EVER, showing four bars on his phone when he went there for a drink. I'd imagine it's previous 'off the cell grid' status was a plot point of some sort.

[Johny Cee]

Just finished the 6 books of the Merchant Princes series by Charles Stross. Very fun alt-history world hopping series with some neat ideas about what might happen if worlds on different levels of development start to interact.

I read the first one, liked it, and just could never seem to start hte second one. OTOH, Rule 32 (sequel to Halting State) has already been submitted. Stross was bitching on his blog that, once again, he turned in a manuscript only for something to change and fuck his plot. Only this time he couldn't rewrite it, and that's why he HATES 'near future' sci-fi.

I think he said it was delayed the first time because of the werid minority-government the UK ended up with. The second change had to do with some hole-in-the-wall pub that was notorious for getting absolutely no cell or internet signals, EVER, showing four bars on his phone when he went there for a drink. I'd imagine it's previous 'off the cell grid' status was a plot point of some sort.

Rule 34.  Rule 34 is the rule about porn and the internet.

Edit:

I find almost everything by Stross to be massively disappointing.  I dropped Halting State with 60 pages left, and can't remember if I finished the first Merchant Prince book.  He has strong steaks of techno fetishism and blog induced know-it-allism.  Generally, my eyes get rolling and I don't make it through his books.

Atrocity Archives and the Jennifer Morgue I quite liked, though, as well as "A Colder War".