Return of the Book Thread

[HaemishM]

Midway through Second Foundation (3rd of the original Foundation books) and man is it HARD slogging through. I was enjoying the series right up until the big main story in the second book about the Mule, the physic mutant. It just went off the goddam rails. Mostly it was due to every single character (but especially the clown) annoying the piss out of me, especially the woman Batya. So what happens in the 3rd book? The last half is dedicated to a story about HER GODDAMN GRANDDAUGHTER. I'm going to read it to the end, but I think after that I'm done with Foundation. A nice idea, but ultimately just not that interesting in execution.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Was I supposed to be so damn emotional at the end of Memories of Ice?  Just.. damn.

Now starting Midnight Tides and have The Bonehunters waiting in the wings.  Why'd I wait so long to read this series?  At least I'm not waiting on the next book in the series to come out (yet).

If you thought Memories of Ice was emotional, you're in for some real tears over the next three books, especially Reaper's Gale.  Can't comment on Toll the Hounds, since it's sitting on my desk waiting to be read still.

And schild, this is the point where I prod you to read these books again.

WTF!?!  Forums ate my post in the middle of proofreading it!

So yeah, I've already read House of Chains before I read Memories, because I couldn't find the 3rd book at the used book store and had to buy it new.  I'm into Midnight Tides now and I had to check on wiki about where it fit into the timeline, since it seemed to just ratchet off into space at first.  The Bonehunters is waiting and I'm glad to see that both Reaper's Gale and Toll the Hounds are out in mass paperback already (according to the Borders website), so I can just pick them up when I need to.  I really do not like reading hardbacks unless I have to, but I'm thinking I'll be impatient enough to buy hardback once I get to the last book once it comes out.

[Reg]

Midway through Second Foundation (3rd of the original Foundation books) and man is it HARD slogging through. I was enjoying the series right up until the big main story in the second book about the Mule, the physic mutant. It just went off the goddam rails. Mostly it was due to every single character (but especially the clown) annoying the piss out of me, especially the woman Batya. So what happens in the 3rd book? The last half is dedicated to a story about HER GODDAMN GRANDDAUGHTER. I'm going to read it to the end, but I think after that I'm done with Foundation. A nice idea, but ultimately just not that interesting in execution.

If you'd read them when you were 12 like everyone else you would have had a better time with it. 

[Viin]

Just finished the last book in the Night Angel trilogy. I was interested in a ninja/assassin book, so I picked this up while browsing at B&N a few weeks ago. Originally, I was a bit disappointed that it was in a fantasy setting (a little bit of magic, and on a fictitious world) as I wanted something set in ancient Japan. But I got over that real fast, these books are pretty fun to read.

The Way of Shadows is book one. I recommend these if you like fantasy with a healthy mix of angst, death, and torture.

(I've determined I like Trilogies a *lot* better than a series, unless the series is already complete. I *hate* waiting for the 28th book in a series to come out, only to find it only half a book and I have to wait until book 23,202 before it ends!)

[Ard]

If you're looking for a decent ninja series that's set in a faux Japan, the Tales of the Otori trilogy by Lian Hearn is pretty good.  The first book is Across the Nightingale Floor.  The cavaet here is do not read the epilogue book that was written after the initial trilogy, it'll make you hate the author.  The prologue is likely as bad, but I wasn't willing to continue on at that point and find out for myself.

[Viin]

If you're looking for a decent ninja series that's set in a faux Japan, the Tales of the Otori trilogy by Lian Hearn is pretty good.  The first book is Across the Nightingale Floor.  The cavaet here is do not read the epilogue book that was written after the initial trilogy, it'll make you hate the author.  The prologue is likely as bad, but I wasn't willing to continue on at that point and find out for myself.

Sweet, thanks!

[Phildo]

I thought the Otori trilogy was incredibly cliched, but that might be what you're looking for.

It was recommended to me by a 40-something lady while I was working as a bank teller a few years back.

[Margalis]

I couldn't make it all the way through the first Foundation so you're well ahead of me. I thought about slogging through it but then I saw that there were eleventy billion more books in the series.

[Reg]

The first 3 Foundation books are compilations of short stories written in the 40s and 50s.  They're horribly dated but still number among the most important books in the science fiction genre for people interested in that sort of thing. I wish Asimov had just stopped after those three but in the 80s he finally caved in to pressure and wrote some sequels and couple of prequels. He even tied the story in with his Robot stuff.

I think it was a mistake but I read them all anyway.

I don't blame people for not liking them. They're really just for fans of the genre at this point.

[HaemishM]

I can't see it getting any better after Second Foundation. The ideas behind the story are good - the original stories are for the most part, good (except for the Mule). But man, the execution of those last stories and the Second Foundation stuff is just annoying as hell.

[Reg]

Have you read his Robot stuff? I liked those a lot more than the Foundation books - the early ones especially.

[Ard]

I thought the Otori trilogy was incredibly cliched, but that might be what you're looking for.

It was recommended to me by a 40-something lady while I was working as a bank teller a few years back.

Oh, it's horribly cliched, but what did you expect by a fantasy novel about ninjas?  I mean, really.

[HaemishM]

Have you read his Robot stuff? I liked those a lot more than the Foundation books - the early ones especially.

Yeah, I read the Robots stuff much earlier in life and dug it. This stuff, however... not so much.

[Khaldun]

Midway through Second Foundation (3rd of the original Foundation books) and man is it HARD slogging through. I was enjoying the series right up until the big main story in the second book about the Mule, the physic mutant. It just went off the goddam rails. Mostly it was due to every single character (but especially the clown) annoying the piss out of me, especially the woman Batya. So what happens in the 3rd book? The last half is dedicated to a story about HER GODDAMN GRANDDAUGHTER. I'm going to read it to the end, but I think after that I'm done with Foundation. A nice idea, but ultimately just not that interesting in execution.

Yup. This is where it grinds to a hard, painful halt, and you realize that Asimov, nice interesting and smart guy that he was, had about a less-than-zero understanding of the emotional interior of human beings. He's kind of the anti-Mule, in a funny way. I give him this, he actually tried hard to overcome this in his Elijiah Baley novels (which eventually, and awkwardly, merge with Foundation). He failed, but at least he knew he had this problem as a fiction writer.

[Stormwaltz]

Lacking home internet appears to have been the best thing to happen to my reading life since college.

Still reading Last Light of the Sun, and over half done. At the same time, I'm reading Tony Gonzales' EVE novel The Empyrean Age (very... average), Ken Hite's Tour de Lovecraft, and Philipp Blom's The Vertigo Years: Europe 1900-1914.

Also, last weekend I re-read The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster. Simultaneously the best piece of fan fiction and the best Star Wars story I've ever read. (Which may say more about the merits of Star Wars novels than it does this story. You judge.)

[Khaldun]

Is that the one where it's Darth Vader's journal entries, and he talks about how Qui-Gon appears to him fairly frequently, etcetera? I actually remember being really shocked at how smart that whole thing was and how actually well-written, too.

[Johny Cee]

Not reading much fantasy right now, between the local Borders cutting the amount of stuff on display and a general malaise.

Just finished Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind.  Sort of a surreal story about a boy who falls in love with a rare book in post-WWII Barcelona, and attempts to trace back the story of the author.  Was good.

Reading The House of Leaves now, by Mark Danielewski (the singer Poe's brother). Is odd.

Picked up some Chandler as lighter reading, and I'm thinking of wading back into The Wages of Destruction, a economic history of Nazi Germany.

[JWIV]

Finishing up Shadowplay by Tad Williams and then I'm on to a bit of a Brandon Sanderson streak with Elantris, Mistobrn, and The Well of Ascension (all courtesy of my local library of course). 

[ghost]

The first 3 Foundation books are compilations of short stories written in the 40s and 50s.  They're horribly dated but still number among the most important books in the science fiction genre for people interested in that sort of thing. I wish Asimov had just stopped after those three but in the 80s he finally caved in to pressure and wrote some sequels and couple of prequels. He even tied the story in with his Robot stuff.

I think it was a mistake but I read them all anyway.

I don't blame people for not liking them. They're really just for fans of the genre at this point.

it's all really "the robot stuff" in the end.  It is all linked together.  I'm a big fan of how Aasimov kept his stuff timeless with his writing style.

Anyone read the new ones by Brin, Bear and whatsisass?  I didn't care for those at all.

[FatuousTwat]

Lacking home internet appears to have been the best thing to happen to my reading life since college.

While mine was out for a week and half last month, I think I read something around 15 books... Maybe I should quit the internet.

[Samwise]

Finished Anathem (finally).  A Stephenson book with a single narrator and a satisfactory ending!  Took a few hundred pages to ramp up, but I'm glad I stuck it out.

[Quinton]

I actually really enjoyed the start of Anathem (I liked the whole book), and didn't think is was particularly slow going.  I also enjoyed being thrown in the deep end with all the specific-to-the-world terminology at first.  I could see how it might annoy some people though.

Just finished Soldiers Live.  I had read the first 3 Black Company books years ago, but discussion here made me reread them and then the rest of the series.  Great stuff.  Kinda sad that I hit the end, though I think it ended reasonably well (though Cook has apparently said he's got two more books worth of Black Company material in his head, so who knows, maybe he'll end up writing some more).

[Ard]

Kinda sad that I hit the end, though I think it ended reasonably well (though Cook has apparently said he's got two more books worth of Black Company material in his head, so who knows, maybe he'll end up writing some more).

I didn't know this either, but schild pointed out that there ARE two more books coming up, and somewhere in the near future.  I can't remember the details, you'll have to kick him for it, but they are titled already.  Can probably dig up info on them pretty easily based on that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Cook#The_Black_Company

[Salamok]

I'm all for the Black company, I read it as it was released and gave up when he decided to take a decade long break.  Saying there are two more books around the corner is about like saying Martin is getting ready to release his next book.

[HaemishM]

Finally finished the last Foundation book in the original trilogy.


Decided to switch to some light reading, so I'm working through Che Guevara's Guerilla Warfare.

[murdoc]

Working my way through the Dresden books. Currently reading 'Dead Beat'. I keep saying that this'll be the last one, I'll read something in between, but as soon as one ends I grab the next one.

Book I read beforeI started back into the Dresden books was Lamb by Christopher Moore.

Loved it. It was ridiculous, silly, and intelligent all at once.

[Quinton]

I'm all for the Black company, I read it as it was released and gave up when he decided to take a decade long break.  Saying there are two more books around the corner is about like saying Martin is getting ready to release his next book.

Yeah, I'm not holding my breath or anything.  Was fine with the series ending where it did, but would not complain if he revisited that universe.

[FatuousTwat]

So I got an email today from TOR annoucing that the last WoT book was coming out a week early, and that they had a preview chapter!

It seems to be all over the place. Some parts are terrible, some are good. Well, see for yourself: http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=story&id=53532 (you have to sign up to tor.com.)

[JWIV]

Finished up with Elantris (definitely a first novel, but I liked it).   Moved on to Mistborn Trilogy.  Just finished the first book, and it's a bit kludgy at first, but it's got some neat ideas.   Enjoyable read if nothing else.  I suppose it is notable that he managed to make a female protagonist that wasn't a complete raving bitch or an oversexed male domination fantasy (oh the irony of him writing the Jordan novels) .

Going to finish up Sanderson probably by next week, take a brief tour through A Sword Edged Blonde and then, fingers crossed, hopefully interlibrary loan will come through and I'll move on to Glen Cook's Black Company (sadly only the first three - haven't managed to find a copy of Books of the South just yet).

[Riggswolfe]

Hmm...let's see.

I finished the DeepGate cycle. Odd books. Very creative but sometimes hard to read because the author almost seemed to enjoy his world too much.

I read a few more of my guilty pleasure urban fantasy type novels. (the kind of genre I'd put Dresden in).

Then I read a book called the Magicians by Lev Grossman. It was an odd experience for me. I greatly enjoyed the book. In fact, I read the second half of the book (around 200 pages) in one sitting. That said I never intend to read the book again and I found myself sometimes hating the main character at various points in the novel. I'm trying to think of a good shorthand description of the novel. Take the sort of jaded character Robert Downey Jr played in Less than Zero and throw him into a book that's part Harry Potter, part Narnia, part dissesction of these kinds of novels. Imagine people who have read these novels (the characters have) experiencing these kinds of events.

[bhodi]

Finished Peter Watt's blindsight as well (it was mentioned a few pages back). It's definitely thick with ideas, some of which the story seemed to be contrived to present. Still was a decent book. My favorite was "Intelligence implies belligerence", the pragmatic idea that all spacefaring aliens are automatically warlike, if not irrevocably hostile. I had not heard it before, maybe it's common. This is the reasoning:

Non-intelligent creatures don't make it into space.
Intelligent creatures construct tools to conquer external forces.
Once you develop enough tools to conquer the planet, this includes any other possible life therin, there are no additional natural forces spurring new development
The only other driving force spurring new development would be that of it's own kind.
It would take a truly epic struggle to push development to the point where they'd need to escape their own solar system
Therefore, any space faring species makes war on it's own kind and is therefore predisposed to war with others

There are holes, of course, like the need for raw materials, expansion space, other religious or in-born exploratory factors, but it's a neat idea. The other two where the optimist view (any propulsion technology also doubles as weapons and any warlike race would inevitably destroy themselves before they make it out-system) and the pessimist view (the chances of there being a race in the same galaxy at the same time close enough to make contact is vanishingly small).

Also read the algebraist which was a very good book, I hope he continues to make more, and a few random crummy ones (islands in the net, bruce sterling) (celestine prophecy, james redfield)

[Khaldun]

Blindsight is the kind of book you'd want other SF authors to read, just to widen up their ideas about what a first contact story might be. It's just that the weird alternate version of Mary-Sue that the book serves up gets a bit tiresome after a while. Most authors Mary-Sue themselves into a book; this guy Mary-Sued his entire intellectual belief system and cut every character to fit. It makes the novel a strangely flat experience even when it's showcasing some pretty compelling ideas.

[bhodi]

Yeah, I agree. It also felt that it should have been split into several books, there were too many ideas to explore to cram them in to one. Especially with the ending, which had nothing really to do with most of the book. There was so much potential there.

[Ard]

Finished up with Elantris (definitely a first novel, but I liked it).   Moved on to Mistborn Trilogy.  Just finished the first book, and it's a bit kludgy at first, but it's got some neat ideas.

The Mistborn books get a lot more consistent at the series goes on.  That one is a fairly good read overall.  His most recent book, Warbreaker, however is really high on the "meh" scale.  The sorta stuff I'd forgive in Elantris, being his first book, that I won't forgive in his fifth.  Too many made up words and poorly thought out concepts.

[Johny Cee]

Finished up with Elantris (definitely a first novel, but I liked it).   Moved on to Mistborn Trilogy.  Just finished the first book, and it's a bit kludgy at first, but it's got some neat ideas.   Enjoyable read if nothing else.  I suppose it is notable that he managed to make a female protagonist that wasn't a complete raving bitch or an oversexed male domination fantasy (oh the irony of him writing the Jordan novels) .

Going to finish up Sanderson probably by next week, take a brief tour through A Sword Edged Blonde and then, fingers crossed, hopefully interlibrary loan will come through and I'll move on to Glen Cook's Black Company (sadly only the first three - haven't managed to find a copy of Books of the South just yet).

I read about 20 pages of A Sword Edged Blonde in the bookstore and had to put it down.  It felt like an incredibly hacky knockoff of Cook's "Garrett" books.  Except the writing is terrible.