Return of the Book Thread

[ghost]

If arch-mage, sword armed (swords instead of arms), plate-mailed, undead Tyrannosaurs are something your brain can process without kicking you in the stem and causing instant blindness and paralysis then, enjoy.

This sounds absolutely awesome.  I'm getting it for the Nook right now.   

[AcidCat]

This sounds absolutely awesome. 

Hehe it is. I know some of the stuff from the Malazan books sounds ridiculous when explained like that, but it works in context. A lot of crazy shit goes down.

[Morat20]

This sounds absolutely awesome. 

Hehe it is. I know some of the stuff from the Malazan books sounds ridiculous when explained like that, but it works in context. A lot of crazy shit goes down.

That sounds a bit like the Dresden Files. Or the Codex Alera books. Although it's lampshaded in the latter, when someone goes looking for the main character by asking "Where is the stupidest, dangeroust, most insane place you can get into a swordfight with the Zerg Queen around here? Yeah, that's where he'll have taken the fight."

[Abalieno]

No, the insane-brood-mother thought that the character was one of her kids, so she ended up breaking most of his bones by hugging him.  Unfortunately for the Bad Guy, stealing that character pissed off the vain demi-god sorceress (with masked ninja/samurai butlers) and the undead neanderthal sword-master, who start taking apart one section of said bad guy's empire to get to the capital.

At this point of the conversation someone should point out that Erikson has sense of humor. Sometimes of a twisted kind.

[Johny Cee]

No, the insane-brood-mother thought that the character was one of her kids, so she ended up breaking most of his bones by hugging him.  Unfortunately for the Bad Guy, stealing that character pissed off the vain demi-god sorceress (with masked ninja/samurai butlers) and the undead neanderthal sword-master, who start taking apart one section of said bad guy's empire to get to the capital.

At this point of the conversation someone should point out that Erikson has sense of humor. Sometimes of a twisted kind.

Erikson likes NinjaPirateZombieRobots.  Sometimes this works really well, sometimes it doesn't....  but it tends to sound completely fucking crazy when you try to explain it to someone cold.

And the lizard/raptor things?  Are actually space-aliens complete with starships, some kinds of nanotech/genetic manipulation, and energy weapons....  though really they're pretty much extinct because of elf-dragon-wizards (who only finished them off after their Franken-clones mostly killed them).

[Threash]

Just finished the last Malazan book.  Immediately picked the first one back up.  Incredible series.

[AcidCat]

And the lizard/raptor things?  Are actually space-aliens

The K'Chain Che'Malle were actually native to the world Malazan is based in, one of the ancient elder races. Basically think of an evolution where dinosaurs were never wiped out, but continued to evolve in intelligence alongside the emergence of humanoids.

[Abalieno]

Sometimes this works really well, sometimes it doesn't....  but it tends to sound completely fucking crazy when you try to explain it to someone cold.

Malazan is the brother of LOST, Evangelion and, to a lesser extent, 20th Century Boys in their respective media.

Neither of these makes any sense if you try to explain to someone outside. Try to explain LOST, it's utterly ridiculous. The only difference, maybe, is that Malazan has a point and sticks to a precise pattern instead of "derailing" and going completely insane. I've not yet read the end, but from what I heard it's far less jarring than the ends of those other ones.

[Threash]

The end is perfect for the series. 

[tgr]

I've been reading about a third of the first book (the darkness that comes before) in bakker's first trilogy, the prince of nothing. It's ... not very remarkable so far. The writing's fine, but the story isn't very engaging. Is this more or less the consensus, and if so does it get better in the next few books?

[JWIV]

I've been reading about a third of the first book (the darkness that comes before) in bakker's first trilogy, the prince of nothing. It's ... not very remarkable so far. The writing's fine, but the story isn't very engaging. Is this more or less the consensus, and if so does it get better in the next few books?

It picks up a bit toward's the latter half.  The second and third books take off a bit more once the foundation has been laid.   That said, they're still pretty dense and there's definitely a bit of "I was a philosophy major" to the story. 

[Khaldun]

I've been reading about a third of the first book (the darkness that comes before) in bakker's first trilogy, the prince of nothing. It's ... not very remarkable so far. The writing's fine, but the story isn't very engaging. Is this more or less the consensus, and if so does it get better in the next few books?

If the mood isn't grabbing you by about 2/3 in, you're not likely to care for it much. There's some decent character work, some good world-building, but when it works (and doesn't) it's all about the mood. Reminds me a bit of David Zindell's Neverness books, both in terms of what's good and not-good about it.

[Arthur_Parker]

Anyone read Heroes yet ?

Just finished it, it's just more of the same except the bloody nine doesn't appear, not bad but I wasn't sold on the main female character and the ending was totally predictable.

[Ironwood]

Just finished the 3rd new Covenant.

Awful.  Woefully, woefully awful.

I'll finish up the series so none of you have to.  I'm just that nice.

Avoid.

[rattran]

I'm glad you're there to spare us. Finally read Gaiman's American Gods, decent enough book, but didn't match the gushing for it I've seen elsewhere. Reminded me of Jonathan Lethem's Amnesia Moon.

[Ironwood]

Actually, I'm glad to hear that;  I'd written in this very thread that while I thought was American Gods was written well, it just didn't excite me much.  I always thought it was because, well, I wasn't American.

 

[AcidCat]

Likewise, I found American Gods passably entertaining, but not really something I'd bother to recommend to anyone.

[Rendakor]

American Gods was disappointing after reading Good Omens.

[ghost]

Actually, I'm glad to hear that;  I'd written in this very thread that while I thought was American Gods was written well, it just didn't excite me much.  I always thought it was because, well, I wasn't American.

 

Commie.

Just kidding.  I actually agree with you guys completely.  It was a forgettable book, in my opinion.

[NowhereMan]

It was enjoyable enough I thought, though I'd hesitate to recommend it to someone simply because I don't think it's great enough to overcome the weird premise for someone who isn't really into that sort of thing. I liked it but it never quite managed to be good enough to not seem a bit up itself.

Recently read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead (because I never really bothered with classic Sci-Fi when younger, instead I read classic fantasy and got piles of absolute trash from my aunt who loves sci-fi but has no taste). Really good books, think I'm going to risk finishing the series despite hearing that it goes downhill somewhere in this thread. Also been persuaded to try Bakker by Jonny Cee.

Finally I read Gibson's Pattern Recognition, which had a similar thing to American Gods for me in the sense that some of the ideas in it were really interesting but the whole thing just didn't translate into a well written story. I enjoyed it but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone that I didn't think would enjoy the ideas behind it.

[Ingmar]

American Gods was disappointing after reading Good Omens.

Good Omens strikes me as about 75% Pratchett. American Gods is much more Gaiman-y, you can in general expect much less light-heartedness in general in his own stuff.

[Rendakor]

Yea I eventually figured that out; I read a lot of Pratchett before reading Good Omens, then tried out a couple of Gaiman's books (American Gods and Neverwhere, which was a decent read) before realizing I didn't much care for him.

[Samwise]

Anansi Boys (the sequel) is much much better than American Gods.

Neverwhere remains my favorite Gaiman novel, though.

[Khaldun]

I don't think any of his novels are great, though. Stardust is pleasant, but not fantastic. American Gods just struck me as kind of dumb.

[Arthur_Parker]

I got bored after a few chapters and didn't finish American Gods, that doesn't happen often at all.

[ghost]

Recently read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead (because I never really bothered with classic Sci-Fi when younger, instead I read classic fantasy and got piles of absolute trash from my aunt who loves sci-fi but has no taste). Really good books, think I'm going to risk finishing the series despite hearing that it goes downhill somewhere in this thread.

I just finished the Ender's books.  I have read a lot of sci fi in my day, and I have to say that I think that suggestions that the series falls apart are unfounded.  I found it to finish up very nicely.  I think a big part of why people don't like the follow up trilogy as much is that it isn't like Ender's Game at all.  The pacing is different, the writing style is different, and it is really a completely separate story, kind of like the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.  I would suggest at least reading Xenocide and Children of the Mind.  I haven't read anything past that yet, and I'm not sure if I will because I've got so many other things to read.

[Samwise]

I think Xenocide and Children of the Mind get a bad rap.  If nothing else, they wrap up Ender's story nicely.

The other "Enderverse" books vary in quality and never even come close to the quality of the first couple of books.  Ender's Shadow was pretty okay, but the series got sort of tedious after that.  I did like the "First Meetings" short story collection.

[murdoc]

Anansi Boys (the sequel) is much much better than American Gods.

Neverwhere remains my favorite Gaiman novel, though.

I agree completely with this post.

[lamaros]

I got bored [and pissed off] after a few chapters and didn't finish American Gods, that doesn't happen often at all.

I haven't read anything else by Gaiman. AG left me thinking he was a massive hack. Dunno if I'll brave the other recommendations here.

[Ironwood]

His short stories are awesome.

[lamaros]

His short stories are awesome.

I think it was reading his story in the 'Legends 2' (?) anthology that made me try AG to begin with, so you might have a point there.

[Khaldun]

Wendy McClure,  The Wilder Life, about Laura Ingalls Wilder's life and about all the various people that venerate the Little House books. Very good read, a lot of fun even if you haven't read the books.

[Arrrgh]

I got bored [and pissed off] after a few chapters and didn't finish American Gods, that doesn't happen often at all.

I haven't read anything else by Gaiman. AG left me thinking he was a massive hack. Dunno if I'll brave the other recommendations here.

The Sandman comics are good. I think most of his rep came from those.

His level of fame has always seemed greater than his level of skill.

[Engels]

Seconded. The Sandman comics are his masterpiece that make everything else he's ever done seem not that remarkable in comparison. And this is coming from someone who doesn't read comics. Ever. With the one notable exception.

[Johny Cee]

His short stories are awesome.

I think it was reading his story in the 'Legends 2' (?) anthology that made me try AG to begin with, so you might have a point there.

Gaiman's short stories are awesome, seconded.  You can track down quite a few of them online for free, including "A Study in Emerald" which is a great Sherlock Holmes/Lovecraft pastiche.