Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
March 28, 2024, 10:07:34 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Search:     Advanced search
we're back, baby
*
Home Help Search Login Register
f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  General Discussion  |  Topic: Return of the Book Thread 0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.
Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 ... 192 Go Down Print
Author Topic: Return of the Book Thread  (Read 1286204 times)
Johny Cee
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3454


Reply #70 on: July 13, 2006, 02:00:08 PM

Has anyone read Laura Resnick's Disappearing Nightly?  I've heard some offhand good things mentioned,  but haven't managed to find a copy yet.

I was scared off when I browsed upon it in a bookshop. It sounded a bit too Nancy Drew.

I think I did the same thing, Righ,  when I originally glanced over it.

It was later that I came across some positive comments on it.
WayAbvPar
Moderator
Posts: 19268


Reply #71 on: July 13, 2006, 02:39:41 PM

The Great Book of Amber : The Complete Amber Chronicles, 1-10 (Chronicles of Amber) . Ya, same thing. I have read them before, but I was itching to re-read them. Really glad they come in one edition now!

When speaking of the MMOG industry, the glass may be half full, but it's full of urine. HaemishM

Always wear clean underwear because you never know when a Tory Government is going to fuck you.- Ironwood

Libertarians make fun of everyone because they can't see beyond the event horizons of their own assholes Surlyboi
Righ
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6542

Teaching the world Google-fu one broken dream at a time.


Reply #72 on: July 13, 2006, 04:05:56 PM

Zelazny also wrote one of many decent post apocalypse stories that got mutilated on the screen: Damnation Alley. Tinseltown also screwed up On The Beach (Shute), A Boy And His Dog (Ellison), Make Room! Make Room! (Harrison) and The Postman (Brin). It's something of a tradition, and more recent the film, the more extreme the screwups, or so it seems.

The camera adds a thousand barrels. - Steven Colbert
Morfiend
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6009

wants a greif tittle


Reply #73 on: July 13, 2006, 04:21:38 PM

I just finished The Nymphos of Rocky Flats its a decent little book about Vampires and detectives and even some EBEs. I enjoyed reading it. It went by very fast, and the ending felt a tad rushed, but all in all a decent read. Specially if you like the Dresden Files type of stuff.

I now feel like some more Dresden Files, but I read them all. Anyone know of some thing similar?

P.S. Add Nymphos to spell checker?
Abagadro
Terracotta Army
Posts: 12227

Possibly the only user with more posts in the Den than PC/Console Gaming.


Reply #74 on: July 13, 2006, 04:25:02 PM

Quote
Zelazny also wrote one of many decent post apocalypse stories that got mutilated on the screen: Damnation Alley.

Any movie with Paul Winfield being consumed by flesh-eating cockroaches in Salt Lake City can't be all bad.


"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

-H.L. Mencken
Johny Cee
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3454


Reply #75 on: July 13, 2006, 04:38:11 PM

I just finished The Nymphos of Rocky Flats its a decent little book about Vampires and detectives and even some EBEs. I enjoyed reading it. It went by very fast, and the ending felt a tad rushed, but all in all a decent read. Specially if you like the Dresden Files type of stuff.

I now feel like some more Dresden Files, but I read them all. Anyone know of some thing similar?

P.S. Add Nymphos to spell checker?


A few off the top of my head:

Cook's "Garrett" books.  More a traditional fantasy world.  Except with mass corruption,  generations long war in the background,  and race animosity/riots.  If you read Butcher's afterwords,  he singles out Cook along with Tolkien, Zelazny, et al as an influence.  Very similar tone to the "Dresden" books.  They've been collected in omnibus "3 novels per book" collections.

Checking it out, Sweet Silver Blues is the first book in the series,  and you really want to read them in order.  Looks like the 2003 omnibus is now out of print....  So maybe this isn't a good choice.

Lord Darcy, by Randall Garrett.  A collection of short stories about an investigater in an alternative world (more Victorian England) where a kind of pseudo-magic rose instead of technology.  More Sherlock Holmes then hard-boiled.  Some author at Baen has a hard on about this guy,  so despite the fact the stories were written a while ago the collection is in print now.

Simon Green's "Nightside" books.  Have a similar feel.  Talked about them earlier in the thread.


There's alot of shit in the "supernatural detective" genre.  I'd skip over most of the stuff,  especially Hamilton and her ilk.

Murgos
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7474


Reply #76 on: July 13, 2006, 05:20:10 PM

Tinseltown also screwed up On The Beach (Shute), A Boy And His Dog (Ellison)...

I did the audio book of On The Beach on a road trip from south Fla to NYC, only a supreme act of will kept me from ramming the car into an innocent tree to bring an end to it all.

Also, how can you not like Don Johnsons big screen debut?

"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
Morat20
Terracotta Army
Posts: 18529


Reply #77 on: July 13, 2006, 06:10:33 PM

Philip Dick there fucking wrote anything happy. Dystopian hell all the way.

Are you drunk?
Let me rephrase that: If there's a book he wrote that didn't take place in a fairly bleak setting, in which screwed over characters tried to work out what the hell was wrong with their lives, I missed it. Admittedly, it's been almost 15 years since I read most of his books -- but I can't remember any that had a terribly happy ending.

Also, I seemed to have failed to place the word "never" between "there" and "fucking". His worlds and writing weren't happy bubble-gum places.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2006, 06:12:51 PM by Morat20 »
stray
Terracotta Army
Posts: 16818

has an iMac.


Reply #78 on: July 18, 2006, 02:16:19 AM

Mickey Spillane dies

Didn't realize he wrote Batman and Sub-Mariner issues in the 40's.

Anyways....Perhaps his brand of literature is considered low brow, but I think the man was a poet in his own way. Kind of like Rod Serling. Both of their styles were no less impressive than, say, Kerouac -- With stories more intriguing to boot.

Quote
         I used to be able to look at myself and grin without giving a damn about how ugly it made me look. Now I was looking at myself the same way those people did back there. I was looking at a big guy with an ugly reputation, a guy who had no earthly reason for existing in a decent, normal society. That's what the judge had said.
          I was sweating and cold at the same time. Maybe it did happen to me over there. Maybe I did have a taste for death. Maybe I liked it too much to taste anything else. Maybe I was twisted and rotted inside. Maybe I would be washed down the sewer with the rest of all the rottenness sometime. What was stopping it from happening now? Why was I me with some kind of lucky charm around my neck that kept me going when I was better off dead?
          That's why I parked the car and started walking in the rain. I didn't want to look in that damn mirror any more. So I walked and smoked and climbed to the hump in the bridge where the boats in the river made faces and spoke to me until I had to bury my face in my hands until everything straightened itself out again.
          I was a killer. I was a murderer, legalized. I had no reason for living.


[EDIT] Better article at the NYT.

Quote
In “I, the Jury,” Hammer became so angry at a female psychiatrist that he shot her in her “stark naked” stomach. (“Stark naked” was a phrase that Mr. Spillane rather liked.) As she died, she asked, “Mike, how could you?” To which Hammer replied, “It was easy.”

The Saturday Review of Literature summarized the book as “lurid action, lurid characters, lurid plot, lurid finish.” Anthony Boucher, reviewing it for The New York Times, called it “a spectacularly bad book.” But it enjoyed enormous sales and convinced Mr. Spillane that he could earn a living as a writer. He bought some land near Newburgh, N.Y., 60 miles north of New York City, built a cinder-block house there and proceeded to churn out his special brand of carnage. One bad guy was shot to death by a year-old baby, and in another book Mike Hammer wounded a malefactor just badly enough that he could watch him burn to death.
« Last Edit: July 18, 2006, 02:33:23 AM by Stray »
Ironwood
Terracotta Army
Posts: 28240


Reply #79 on: July 18, 2006, 02:28:55 AM



P.S. Add Nymphos to spell checker?


Yes.  Please Do.

"Mr Soft Owl has Seen Some Shit." - Sun Tzu
Surlyboi
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10962

eat a bag of dicks


Reply #80 on: July 18, 2006, 03:11:22 AM

Loved Patttern Recognition. (My ex has on many occasions accused me of being the male version of Cayce. Scarily enough, I did have her job for a while...) But then, I'll read anything by Gibson. Kludged economies or not, his plotlines have always been well-paced as far as I'm concerned. Neuromancer, for example, while in some cases highly implausible, reads like a Dashiel Hammett or Raymond Chandler thriller on crank. I love that. Besides, from the second I read, "The sky above the port was the color of a television tuned to a dead channel" I was in for the haul.

Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash (of course) which is brilliant for the first 75% of the book before coming to a muddled mess. Utterly forgivable, considering the opening sequence. Who of us wouldn't want to be "The Deliverator" for just one night? Especially if you need to make people listen to Reason. The Diamond Age actually made me cry in places.

Dick's A Scanner Darkly, which is like bad trip in print. Paranoid, depressing and altogether too real in some places. (The movie does it justice, BTW)

In non science fiction, there's the mysteries of P.J. Tracy that I'd highly recommend, starting with Monkeewrench A serial killer mystery that surrounds a group of game designers with a haunted past. It's a bit chick-litish, but it's damn good.

And of course, I'm going through my yearly read of The Great Gatsby and a couple of Shakespeare's selected works (Richard III and A Midsummer Night's Dream this go 'round.)

Tuned in, immediately get to watch cringey Ubisoft talking head offering her deepest sympathies to the families impacted by the Orlando shooting while flanked by a man in a giraffe suit and some sort of "horrifically garish neon costumes through the ages" exhibit or something.  We need to stop this fucking planet right now and sort some shit out. -Kail
RhyssaFireheart
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3525


WWW
Reply #81 on: July 18, 2006, 10:31:41 AM

Ironically enough, I bought the first books of the Dresden and Nightside series the day before this thread started.  Read both of them while also re-reading in order my Gibson books at the same time.  Finished Virtual Light last night, next up is Idoru.

Think I'm going to go down to the bookstore ("No! I do not want your stupid discount card!") this afternoon and pick up the second books in those series as well.  It's been a while since I've indulged myself in a book buying frenzy, and if I thought I could get away with it, I'd buy as many Dresden and Nightside books as the store had. (By get away with it, I mean explain to the husband why I just dropped about $100 at once on books that will probably last me a week or so).

I also subscribe to the Azimov's and Analog periodicals and have for at least 10 years now.  There are some great short stories in there, and some of the serials end up as full novels eventually (Like Allen Steele's Coyote stories).  It's a great way to read new shorts by well-known authors and to find new authors as well.

I've tried several times to get into the Amber Chronicles of books, and have never been able to finish them.  They just did nothing for me and after not being able to even read the first few books (and they weren't very thick IIRC) I finally donated them somewhere. 

The Legend of Nightfall was written by Mickey Zucker Reichert IIRC.  She also did the Renshai books.  Those were interesting, but I don't think I ever picked up the second trilogy for whatever reason.

I need to look over my Vlad Taltos books (have the trade paperbooks with 2 books in one) and see which I'm missing so I can catch up on those as well.


Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117

I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.


Reply #82 on: July 18, 2006, 11:16:35 AM

You should really get the discount card.
RhyssaFireheart
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3525


WWW
Reply #83 on: July 18, 2006, 12:26:56 PM

Honestly, if I bought more books there I would consider it, but the store is BAM Books a Million, and the only location I know of is down in the office building here.  I don't buy enough books here to make it worth it.  If I go down this afternoon and buy two books, that will probably make.. 6? I've bought here this year if that.  Probably just the 2 the other week and 2 today.

There is a Waldenbooks (are they Borders now?) that offers a discount card as well, but it's the same as at BAM.  I only stop in when I have time before my train leaves, and don't often buy anything there.  Once or twice a year isn't worth paying ~$10/year for a discount card.

I buy at Barnes and Noble or online which tends to be discounted already.  Or I hit up used book stores looking for older books that I missed. 

Now, if I still bought books like I did back in college and for a few years after I got out - then I'd be all over a discount card.  Buying 2-3 books every other week was not unheard of for me, so it would have definitely saved me money.  Plus, I don't care for the idea of paying for some annual card just so I can be privileged enough to be given a discount.  If it were a "buy 10 books, get the 11th free" deal, that didn't have a fee associated, I'd do that.  Just me I guess.

Xerapis
Contributor
Posts: 1473


Reply #84 on: July 18, 2006, 06:18:03 PM

I always liked The Coldfire Trilogy by C. S. Friedman.

Oh, and there was finally a sequel to The Legend of Nightfall.  Not as good as the first, IMO.

..I want to see gamma rays. I want to hear x-rays. I want to...smell dark matter...and feel the solar wind of a supernova flowing over me...
bhodi
Moderator
Posts: 6817

No lie.


Reply #85 on: July 18, 2006, 07:06:21 PM

Coldfire's a really good one. While we're on the subject, two good series that haven't been mentioned yet are the gap series Stephen R. Donaldson.. in fact none of his work, the three white gold wielder books, have been mentioned yet... and for cheesy pulp sci-fi goodness don't forget the lensman stuff by good ol' E Doc Smith.
« Last Edit: July 19, 2006, 05:27:24 AM by bhodi »
Morfiend
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6009

wants a greif tittle


Reply #86 on: July 18, 2006, 09:42:54 PM

I read the "Nightside" books the same way I watch "The OC" its a guilty pleasure, and you keep going even though you know it sucks. I couldnt finish the last Nightside book that just came out. I got halfway through and I read the last "Im John Taylor, and I find things. People run from me, cause of my reputation, its really not as bad as I make it seem, but nothing is as it looks in the Nightside". Jesus, you could probably find variations of that same line in every single chapter of his books and it just got to be to much. Honestly as authors go, he is pretty crappy. His best work being "Shadows Fall" (IMO).

Craving supernatural and detective stuff, I picked up The Vampire Files its a collection of the first 3 books by P. N. Elrond. Bloodlust, Lifeblood, and Bloodcircle. Dont let the horrible names fool you. It was a very absorbing read. Defenetly better that the nightside. Ugh. I shudder just thinking about that now.

Im John Taylor, I wear a white trenchcoat, I find things, thats what I do....
Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117

I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.


Reply #87 on: July 19, 2006, 06:46:24 AM

Quote
I buy at Barnes and Noble or online which tends to be discounted already.
My girlfriend has the B&N discount card. Despite the fact we both work in a library, thus mostly jot down ISBNs of interesting stuff, we always end up buying stuff. A trip to B&N is like a 4 hour excursion for us. Load up on books, find some comfy chairs and dig in.

The music section being hooked into allmusic.com is teh awesome, as well.
WayAbvPar
Moderator
Posts: 19268


Reply #88 on: July 19, 2006, 09:33:05 AM

The Barnes and Noble discount card works online too. I finally broke down and signed up, and it paid for itself in the first couple of months I had it (I have been buying books like a madman the past 6 months or so). Pretty good deal for $25 if you buy a lot of books.

When speaking of the MMOG industry, the glass may be half full, but it's full of urine. HaemishM

Always wear clean underwear because you never know when a Tory Government is going to fuck you.- Ironwood

Libertarians make fun of everyone because they can't see beyond the event horizons of their own assholes Surlyboi
Morat20
Terracotta Army
Posts: 18529


Reply #89 on: July 19, 2006, 09:36:05 AM

I read the "Nightside" books the same way I watch "The OC" its a guilty pleasure, and you keep going even though you know it sucks. I couldnt finish the last Nightside book that just came out. I got halfway through and I read the last "Im John Taylor, and I find things. People run from me, cause of my reputation, its really not as bad as I make it seem, but nothing is as it looks in the Nightside". Jesus, you could probably find variations of that same line in every single chapter of his books and it just got to be to much. Honestly as authors go, he is pretty crappy. His best work being "Shadows Fall" (IMO).

Craving supernatural and detective stuff, I picked up The Vampire Files its a collection of the first 3 books by P. N. Elrond. Bloodlust, Lifeblood, and Bloodcircle. Dont let the horrible names fool you. It was a very absorbing read. Defenetly better that the nightside. Ugh. I shudder just thinking about that now.

Im John Taylor, I wear a white trenchcoat, I find things, thats what I do....
I wouldn't be calling them literature, and I admit -- I read them because they're short, easy little mysteries. And I find the world he created interesting enough to steal for a PnP campaign.

Shadows Fall was good -- I loved Blue Moon Rising. I've only read one of his Deathstalker books, and I found it sort of so-so.
Johny Cee
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3454


Reply #90 on: July 19, 2006, 09:44:26 PM


I just finished The Nymphos of Rocky Flats its a decent little book about Vampires and detectives and even some EBEs. I enjoyed reading it. It went by very fast, and the ending felt a tad rushed, but all in all a decent read. Specially if you like the Dresden Files type of stuff.

I now feel like some more Dresden Files, but I read them all. Anyone know of some thing similar?

P.S. Add Nymphos to spell checker?



Other posibilities:

Brust's "Vlad Taltos" books --  Vlad is an assassin.  Highly magical world,  more like a "what would the world look like if we all had magic instead of technology".  Same kind of feel as the Dresden books for the first couple books,  different feel for some of the others.  Read in publication order,  since they aren't really written in chronological order.  Collected in omnibus volumes available everywhere.

Nightwatch --  Just came out in the States,  translated from the Russian.  Set in Moscow,  urban fantasy.  Read it tonight,  found it to be pretty interesting.  Being made into a movie now.
Johny Cee
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3454


Reply #91 on: July 19, 2006, 09:53:13 PM

I read the "Nightside" books the same way I watch "The OC" its a guilty pleasure, and you keep going even though you know it sucks. I couldnt finish the last Nightside book that just came out. I got halfway through and I read the last "Im John Taylor, and I find things. People run from me, cause of my reputation, its really not as bad as I make it seem, but nothing is as it looks in the Nightside". Jesus, you could probably find variations of that same line in every single chapter of his books and it just got to be to much. Honestly as authors go, he is pretty crappy. His best work being "Shadows Fall" (IMO).

Craving supernatural and detective stuff, I picked up The Vampire Files its a collection of the first 3 books by P. N. Elrond. Bloodlust, Lifeblood, and Bloodcircle. Dont let the horrible names fool you. It was a very absorbing read. Defenetly better that the nightside. Ugh. I shudder just thinking about that now.

Im John Taylor, I wear a white trenchcoat, I find things, thats what I do....

The Nightside books are very much a guilty pleasure reading.  The style is overblown and very, very pulpy.  I enjoyed Green's bursts of imagination, coming up with alot of great secondary characters and villains.

I read Elrod's books in high school, I think.  The first few are interesting,  because it's as much or more detective stories but the main character has a supernatural edge.  I read one or two of the later ones a few years ago and they really were more blah.

If you haven't read them,  I though Steakley's two books were really fun. 

Vampire$,  about a team of vampire hunters killing vamps for money with some support from the Vatican.  Made into a movie by John Carpenter,  fun in a bad B-movie way,  and a bunch of low rent sequals straight to Scifi.

Armor is a sci fi book that reuses the Jack Crow and Felix characters, but in a far future.  Exoskeleton wearing infantry in a war against insects.  Sort of the flipside to Starship Troopers.

Yes,  Steakley uses the same two characters in both books.  Even though one is set in the far future,  and one is set now.  It's odd, but interesting.
bhodi
Moderator
Posts: 6817

No lie.


Reply #92 on: July 24, 2006, 11:46:52 AM

Just to keep this thread alive, this list has been making the rounds for a few days, and I find I've read only about half the books on it. Not good.
WayAbvPar
Moderator
Posts: 19268


Reply #93 on: July 24, 2006, 12:43:55 PM

Just to keep this thread alive, this list has been making the rounds for a few days, and I find I've read only about half the books on it. Not good.


I have only read 8. Where do I turn in my nerd card?

In my defense, I have read tons more fantasy stuff over sci fi. Also, I prefer cyberpunk sci fi vs ships and robots and shit, which is grossly underrepresented on that list.

When speaking of the MMOG industry, the glass may be half full, but it's full of urine. HaemishM

Always wear clean underwear because you never know when a Tory Government is going to fuck you.- Ironwood

Libertarians make fun of everyone because they can't see beyond the event horizons of their own assholes Surlyboi
shiznitz
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4268

the plural of mangina


Reply #94 on: July 24, 2006, 01:13:12 PM

Only 7 and wtf is Starship Troopers doing at #5? It is a good story, yes, but it cannot compare to even the shadow of something like 1984.

I, too, have had a preference for fantasy over sci-fi.

I have never played WoW.
Strazos
Greetings from the Slave Coast
Posts: 15542

The World's Worst Game: Curry or Covid


Reply #95 on: July 24, 2006, 01:32:34 PM

3.5. I lose. Do I have to buy an e-Machine now instead of building my own system or something?

I MUST REPENT! What is my penance?

Fear the Backstab!
"Plato said the virtuous man is at all times ready for a grammar snake attack." - we are lesion
"Hell is other people." -Sartre
bhodi
Moderator
Posts: 6817

No lie.


Reply #96 on: July 24, 2006, 01:58:44 PM

I don't think it's an ordered list.
Johny Cee
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3454


Reply #97 on: July 24, 2006, 02:54:42 PM

I scored 18 or 19, not counting a couple I've skim-read.  It seems like an awfully shitty "top 100" list.

Alot of Asimov stuff is amazingly dated now.  Not the "history" so much as the story telling technique, mannerisms, the conversation between characters, etc.  Clarke has a little bit of the same problem, as does Dick.

Quite a bit of Dick's stuff got written to convey a particular point of belief the author held,  which then means the story flies in the face of research and commonly accepted theory since.

Heinlein, on the other hand,  has aged very well.

C.J. Cheryh is all over that list.  WTF?  I've tried to read a few of his/her books (the fantasy ones), and bogged down to the point I gave up.


It's sort of funny where the line between sci fi and fantasy gets drawn, no?

Books I was surprised to see on this list:

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
Lord of Light, by Roger Zelazny
Shadow of the Torturer, by Gene Wolfe
A Princess of Mars, by Burroughs
I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson


I mean....  I Am Legend is post-apoctlyptic, sure.  But it's about fucking vampires and the last man on earth.  That's scifi??

Shadow of the Torturer and Lord of Light are supposed to be far future settings,  but there's so many fantasy elements and unexplainable stuff going on I can't picture labeling it generic sci fi.  Frankenstein as well.

Not to mention,  why wasn't Lovecraft on that list if you're taking a very liberal definition of "sci fi".

Ahhh, well.
Morfiend
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6009

wants a greif tittle


Reply #98 on: July 24, 2006, 03:00:51 PM

Nightwatch --  Just came out in the States,  translated from the Russian.  Set in Moscow,  urban fantasy.  Read it tonight,  found it to be pretty interesting.  Being made into a movie now.


Funny, I picked this up a few days ago before reading this post. I played the demo of the game, and it wasnt horrible. I remember a thread about it here, saying it was from a very famous book in russian. Its not *great* and the plots are all a bit to twisty, you know some times when it smells like shit, and tastes like shit, its not always a fillet disgused as shit. Also, if my boss treated me like their boss does, I would have quit a LONG LONG time ago, but I guess in russia, its a bit more harsh, and so people except it. I think it loses a bit in translation also.

All in all not a horrible read. Its 3 books in one. I started on the third book last night. Also, the movie has already been made, you can get it on DVD at blockbuster. And since im reading the book, I might give the game another try.
Morat20
Terracotta Army
Posts: 18529


Reply #99 on: July 24, 2006, 03:23:49 PM

Frankenstein was the one of the first real sci-fi novels. That, the Time Machine, War of the Worlds.....they were the origins of the entire mode of storytelling.

Les Mis -- any Hugo, for that matter -- is a massively dense and prose-heavy work by modern standards. (The guy was effectively paid by the word, so he liked to drag it out). That doesn't mean you count it out a classic fiction -- it's merely in a style much different than the current.
shiznitz
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4268

the plural of mangina


Reply #100 on: July 24, 2006, 03:33:22 PM

I missed I Am Legend. Loved that one.

I have never played WoW.
Johny Cee
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3454


Reply #101 on: July 24, 2006, 04:22:22 PM

Nightwatch --  Just came out in the States,  translated from the Russian.  Set in Moscow,  urban fantasy.  Read it tonight,  found it to be pretty interesting.  Being made into a movie now.


Funny, I picked this up a few days ago before reading this post. I played the demo of the game, and it wasnt horrible. I remember a thread about it here, saying it was from a very famous book in russian. Its not *great* and the plots are all a bit to twisty, you know some times when it smells like shit, and tastes like shit, its not always a fillet disgused as shit. Also, if my boss treated me like their boss does, I would have quit a LONG LONG time ago, but I guess in russia, its a bit more harsh, and so people except it. I think it loses a bit in translation also.

All in all not a horrible read. Its 3 books in one. I started on the third book last night. Also, the movie has already been made, you can get it on DVD at blockbuster. And since im reading the book, I might give the game another try.

Heh.

I have a weakness for books that deal with spirituality/morality,  especially in a context of what's essentially atheism.  I found the differences between the "good" and "evil" sides,  and the moral relativity of the peace,  a very interesting background.

The story itself is too heavily plotted,  with too many twists and turns for the sake of twisting and turning.

I liked it better then Morphiend.  It was a fun and interesting read,  that didn't make me feel guilty about having read and enjoyed it.

Read The Lies of Locke Lamora last weekend.  Heist/crime caper,  following a group of thieves in a city that feels a hell of a lot like 16th century Italy.  Alchemy replaces technology,  with some advances beyond our tech (alchemical heating blocks over ovens/stoves, fruit trees that produce alcoholic fruit, etc).  Very, very little magic.

Modern vernacular.  The characters liked to say "fuck" alot.  At other times,  they're channeling a bit of Dumas.

Short summary:  Gangs of New York meets Oceans 11,  set in Ren Italy.
stray
Terracotta Army
Posts: 16818

has an iMac.


Reply #102 on: July 24, 2006, 05:11:42 PM

I'd read this thread more if it channeled Dumas (and "Books That Say 'Fuck' Alot" TM) more often.

Not trying to be a dick, but seriously.....These kind of discussions inevitably become the sci-fi and fantasy threads. I don't know how to jump in.
Murgos
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7474


Reply #103 on: July 24, 2006, 05:24:46 PM

I've read a lot of Dumas, what are you looking for?  A reccomendation?  Read the UNABRIDGED version of Count of Monte Cristo and the full 5 books of the Three Muskateers.

Really, the classics are just that.  Everyone is worth a read.  Even better they are usually cheap or available in multiple copies at the library.

Lately I've been working my way though the Aubrey/Maturin stuff by O'brien, my only complaint with them is that I know it's a finite experience.

Also, the first book of the Mazatlan Books of the Fallen sucks compared to the second and third.  If I had started with the first book I never would have finished it.  The second and third books are very strong though.

"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
Johny Cee
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3454


Reply #104 on: July 24, 2006, 05:40:29 PM

I've read a lot of Dumas, what are you looking for?  A reccomendation?  Read the UNABRIDGED version of Count of Monte Cristo and the full 5 books of the Three Muskateers.

Really, the classics are just that.  Everyone is worth a read.  Even better they are usually cheap or available in multiple copies at the library.

Lately I've been working my way though the Aubrey/Maturin stuff by O'brien, my only complaint with them is that I know it's a finite experience.

Also, the first book of the Mazatlan Books of the Fallen sucks compared to the second and third.  If I had started with the first book I never would have finished it.  The second and third books are very strong though.

I bought Twenty Years After a while ago,  and never got into it.  I love Three Musketeers and the Count though.

The Aubrey and Maturin stuff is pretty good.  Kind of episodic in the middle,  I felt,  but that could have been my fault as a reader.  I got into them and plowed right through so I was reading multiple books a day.  I did skip one book near the end of the series,  to my absolute chagrin when I read the next and found out what I missed. 

Mutiny on the Bounty is a classic,  and it's an amazing read.  The movie adaptions don't do it justice at all.

You can get Erikson's other Malazan books from the uk Amazon, since they won't be available here for some time.  Six in the series now,  and word from Erikson's advance readers is he's delivered the seventh in it's entirety for screening. 

Gardens of the Moon is weaker,  mostly I think because he hadn't found his own voice yet.  In parts it feels like a Martin ripoff, in parts a Cook ripoff.  Two and three are probably the best,  but the rest are pretty good.  They don't get any happier, either.  Some big deaths of major characters in the latest.

I started working my way through the "Sharpe" books.  Historical fiction,  British infantry in the Napoleonic Wars.  Enjoyable.

I really liked the "Hornblower" books, too.  Similar to the Aubrey & Maturin stuff.
Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 ... 192 Go Up Print 
f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  General Discussion  |  Topic: Return of the Book Thread  
Jump to:  

Powered by SMF 1.1.10 | SMF © 2006-2009, Simple Machines LLC