Return of the Book Thread

[WayAbvPar]

Snow Crash was more generic cyberpunk; DA had more character development and emotions and such. It is a much deeper story. That being said, I think they would both be interesting to see translated onto the screen. Cryptonomicon would be even better, but it would have to be 5 hours long or chopped into a couple of movies.

Snow Crash would work as a Johnny Mneumonic-like action flick (I know it was terrible, but it is one of my guilty pleasure flicks that I can't turn off when it see it). DA works as an actor's vehicle, since the story is more about the development of the main character and not as much about the technology/dystopian society. 

[Morat20]

More news to make you geeks happy:

Clooney and Sci Fi Channel making a Stephenson mini-series

Diamond Age, based on Neal Stephenson's best-selling novel The Diamond Age: Or a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, is a six-hour miniseries from Clooney and fellow executive producer Grant Heslov of Smokehouse Productions.

Never read it.

They should really do Snow Crash, not Diamond Age. DA is a lot more brainy than Snow Crash and less visual.

I like Stephenson -- don't get me wrong -- but Snow Crash highlights his flaws as a writer. The first thirty fucking pages were brilliant. After that, it steadily declined into a crap ending. But there were enough great flashes throughout the book to make it worth it.

He's the most uneven writer I've ever read, but virtually every damn book has several really great -- worth reading the book just for itself -- moments buried in it. And his endings are universally crap. And also, the old chick from the Victorian Phyle was the skateboarding chick from Snow Crash.

[HaemishM]

I don't see how you could say that about Snow Crash. It was gold from start to finish.

[Morat20]

I don't see how you could say that about Snow Crash. It was gold from start to finish.

Change the ending, and remove the first thirty pages and I'd agree with you. But after that intro? It just couldn't live up to that. I find his endings pretty weak -- I suspect he finds that the least interesting part of the book. (His characters, their backstories, those little random asides, and the complex worlds he builds -- I'd bet money that's why he writes. Plot is very secondary).

I do think The Diamond Age would make better television than Snow Crash. I think Cryptonomicon would bore the fuck out of everyone on TV. The Baroque Cycle, if you edited it heavily, might make a good movie. Fuck, it's all pirates and ninjas these days and it has both.

[HaemishM]

Interface would be a good one. It's written by Stepehenson and his uncle under the name Stephen Bury.

[Lt.Dan]

I liked Diamond Age but I think it kind of wrapped up pretty quickly at the end.  I was expecting more a collapse of the world as we know it ending.  Not sure how the whole "sex as a computer" thing is going to transfer over but I can't wait to see :D

[Sky]

I'm getting toward the end of Alector's Choice, the fourth Corean cycle book by Modesitt. Last night I was reflecting how much I thought the Vlad Taltos stuff sucked in comparison, the characterizations in that book were just so completely unbelievable and shallow, the situations never seemed realistic. The gritty detective pulp fiction style pulled me in, but by book three or four I had to bail. Modesitt, otoh, can entertain me ad nauseum, I read all the Recluse except maybe the last one.

[Morat20]

I'm getting toward the end of Alector's Choice, the fourth Corean cycle book by Modesitt. Last night I was reflecting how much I thought the Vlad Taltos stuff sucked in comparison, the characterizations in that book were just so completely unbelievable and shallow, the situations never seemed realistic. The gritty detective pulp fiction style pulled me in, but by book three or four I had to bail. Modesitt, otoh, can entertain me ad nauseum, I read all the Recluse except maybe the last one.

I like Modesitt -- I've got the bulk of his books kicking around. He's got a really strong and particular writing style that he has absolutely no desire or interest in modifying, and his work is frequently self-derivative. His has a specific plot in his Recluce novels that he follows -- I can't tell whether it's an artistic choice (the whole notion of Recluce sort of rests on a balancing of forces, so you end up with variations of the same conflict anyways), whether he likes exploring subtle variations of the same idea, or whether he's got one decent fantasy story in him and he's told it 20 times.

His science fiction is similar -- strong repeating themes. He seems rather interested in the ethical problems caused by increasing technology, and it shows up over and over again.

Fuck if I know what I think of his work. They're an easy read and enjoyable, and I like his later stuff more than his earlier stuff.

I've only read the first three Corean novels. I found the ending of the third one more than a bit rushed.

[Sky]

Yeah, I agree. There was almost another novel needed to wrap that up and he left a lot dangling. He's picked up some of the threads in the next book, but the second trilogy is set 1000yrs before the first trilogy. Again, a Modesitt plot device from Recluse. But hey, if it ain't broke...

[Morat20]

Yeah, I agree. There was almost another novel needed to wrap that up and he left a lot dangling. He's picked up some of the threads in the next book, but the second trilogy is set 1000yrs before the first trilogy. Again, a Modesitt plot device from Recluse. But hey, if it ain't broke...

I think the Recluse novels I liked best were the pair that dealt with Cerryl and the pair that dealt with Lorn. Nice to see a different side to it.

[Abagadro]

I haven't read his fantasy (don't read fantasy) but I do like his Sci-Fi. I agree that he recycles themes quite a lot but I like the themes he uses in his futuristic stuff so I'm cool with it. I picked up Parafaith War cold without knowing anything about it or him years ago and while I was reading it I said to myself that this guy had to have a lot of experience with Mormons. Only later did I find out he lives here in Utah.

[Morat20]

I haven't read his fantasy (don't read fantasy) but I do like his Sci-Fi. I agree that he recycles themes quite a lot but I like the themes he uses in his futuristic stuff so I'm cool with it. I picked up Parafaith War cold without knowing anything about it or him years ago and while I was reading it I said to myself that this guy had to have a lot of experience with Mormons. Only later did I find out he lives here in Utah.

The Parafaith War was the first book of his I read. I started on his fantasy books after that. He did a sequel of the Parafaith War called The Ethos Effect that was interesting, but not nearly as good. I enjoyed Gravity Dreams and I'm still trying to decide what I thought of his newest one.

[Rasix]

Finished books one and two of Erickson's "Malazan Books of the Fallen". Whomever said start with two, I'd really not advise that to anyone.  Parts of 2 just come across as big buckets of "WTF?" if you haven't the background you get from 1.  The Fiddler, Khalam, Crokus, Apsalar stuff loses a lot of meaning without this. From 1 you'll walk away with a greater understanding the warrens, the Jahgut and Imass, the Azath, and the political and geographical aspects of the empire.

1 just felt like a great setup, although I'll agree that both books are self contained.  Just so much of 1 bleeds over into 2.

Anyhow, time to get the rest of the books.

[Johny Cee]

Finished books one and two of Erickson's "Malazan Books of the Fallen". Whomever said start with two, I'd really not advise that to anyone.  Parts of 2 just come across as big buckets of "WTF?" if you haven't the background you get from 1.  The Fiddler, Khalam, Crokus, Apsalar stuff loses a lot of meaning without this. From 1 you'll walk away with a greater understanding the warrens, the Jahgut and Imass, the Azath, and the political and geographical aspects of the empire.

1 just felt like a great setup, although I'll agree that both books are self contained.  Just so much of 1 bleeds over into 2.

Anyhow, time to get the rest of the books.

The whole Chain of Dogs storyline has alot more draw then anything in Book 1, though,  which is why alot of people say start with book 2.  The Felisin storyline is kind of interesting, too, though I got really tired of the character.

Memories of Ice,  book 3, is HUGE.  It's also one of the best of the series.  If you don't tear up a bit at the end,  you have no human emotions.

For everyone else that follows the series:

Amazon UK is listing the next book,  book 7 Reapers Gale, as being released on May 7th.  Word is that Erikson is well along on book 8 now, too.  Yes,  I will be preordering...  heh.

The series is slated for 10 books,  with provisional plans for a release a year,  which Erikson has come close to keeping up with unlike other authors reference on this thread.

Esselmont (Erikson's best friend, and the guy that helped build the lore/world) is doing a series of standalone books in the same world that flesh out important events that are referenced in the Malazan series but not shown.  Night of Knives, his first Malazan book about the night the emperor is assassinated, will be out in wide release later this year.  You can still usually find the limited editions being sold used for a good chunk of change.

[Hoax]

Going through a mostly fluff period of reading:

Finished Battle Royale in two days, need to see the movie now.

Currently I'm finishing up the Brother's War which is supposedly the best MtG book every written.  I'm inclined to agree, while the editing isn't great and sometimes I feel like I'm being treated like an 8yr old because the author really drives home certain character motivations without leaving anything to imagination.  Overall I've found it quite enjoyable.  Similar to how the Horus Heresy trilogy was so good in the inescapable tragedy sort of way.  But while this story means less to me, its also one whose details I had never seen before. 

[HaemishM]

Finished reading the Joseph Campbell and have started on Worse than Watergate. Through the first chapter or so, this book is really good, well-written, the kind of thing that keeps you reading. It's not dry in tone at all, like you might expect a polemic to be.

[Hoax]

I'm reading the second book in Mtg's Artifacts Cycle Planeswalker and its really quite good.  For a beer and pretzel fantasy/scifi writer I like this Lynn Abbey's characterization of the cast.  The whole plot of this second book is really really interesting but I'll skip the spoilers.

I'm also working on The Road by Cormac McCarthy but really its hard reading something so bleak.  Quite well done (about halfway through it) but the tale of seemingly the last two sane people alive in America after some kind of apocalyptic war is some pretty depressing stuff.

[Johny Cee]

I'm reading the second book in Mtg's Artifacts Cycle Planeswalker and its really quite good.  For a beer and pretzel fantasy/scifi writer I like this Lynn Abbey's characterization of the cast.  The whole plot of this second book is really really interesting but I'll skip the spoilers.

I'm also working on The Road by Cormac McCarthy but really its hard reading something so bleak.  Quite well done (about halfway through it) but the tale of seemingly the last two sane people alive in America after some kind of apocalyptic war is some pretty depressing stuff.

Hmm...  The Road is supposed to be McCarthy's comeback novel after the poor reception of No Country for Old Men.  Have that one on my "to read" pile,  right after I finish the new bio of Octavian/Augustus Ceaser (title Augustus).  Almost picked up Cicero, too.

The MtG Urza/Planeswalker trilogy is supposed to be the high point of the adaption books.  I sometimes read the first book in one of the new trilogies (come out to match sets) just to get some flavor for the cards.  Mostly, it's not great stuff written by Wizards stable of authors left over from the novelization of DnD.

I soooo need the new Glen Cook novel.....

[Margalis]

About Snowcrash - the start was awesome. A lot of the characters were neat as was the atmosphere and world. However the plot was a mess. Especially the data-dump parts where the main character was talking to the librarian. It failed the old "show don't tell" rather dismally, as the plot was almost entirely laid out in a boring block of exposition.

It probably would have been better without any real plot at all.

[Morat20]

About Snowcrash - the start was awesome. A lot of the characters were neat as was the atmosphere and world. However the plot was a mess. Especially the data-dump parts where the main character was talking to the librarian. It failed the old "show don't tell" rather dismally, as the plot was almost entirely laid out in a boring block of exposition.

It probably would have been better without any real plot at all.

Accelerando is feeling like exactly what you describe. "Here's the fucked up chaos of the future world. And it gets worse by the day." I'm liking it, more than Spin (which I liked).

[Hoax]

I'm reading the second book in Mtg's Artifacts Cycle Planeswalker and its really quite good.  For a beer and pretzel fantasy/scifi writer I like this Lynn Abbey's characterization of the cast.  The whole plot of this second book is really really interesting but I'll skip the spoilers.

I'm also working on The Road by Cormac McCarthy but really its hard reading something so bleak.  Quite well done (about halfway through it) but the tale of seemingly the last two sane people alive in America after some kind of apocalyptic war is some pretty depressing stuff.

Hmm...  The Road is supposed to be McCarthy's comeback novel after the poor reception of No Country for Old Men.  Have that one on my "to read" pile,  right after I finish the new bio of Octavian/Augustus Ceaser (title Augustus).  Almost picked up Cicero, too.

The MtG Urza/Planeswalker trilogy is supposed to be the high point of the adaption books.  I sometimes read the first book in one of the new trilogies (come out to match sets) just to get some flavor for the cards.  Mostly, it's not great stuff written by Wizards stable of authors left over from the novelization of DnD.

I soooo need the new Glen Cook novel.....

I'm really having a hard time with the McCarthy book because I started it like two weeks late.  It is finally sunny again and I really dont feel like reading anything depressing.  I may put it aside for now, but that wasn't to say I didn't think well of the story or the storytelling.

As for the Urza/Planeswalker story, really this second book may be the best adaption book ever.  Which is tough to say because there were tons of Battletech books I really loved.  The dynamic between Urza who is now a crazed planeswalker with the mightstone and weakstone for eyes and a thing grown in a vat on Phyrexia were a great read.  Really other then some areas where logic in the plot is skimmed to keep the pacing going it really was quite a read imho.  Its nothing amazing except when you compare to all the other D&D, Mtg, Battletech, etc books out there.  I tried to look up the author but it doesn't seem like she's ever written anything that might showcase talent.  Just some long fantasy series called Thieves World which sounds like crap, stealth classes are ghey.

[Lt.Dan]

Plowing through Asimov's Foundation novel.  Damn, that's a fantastic book.  Old school sci-fi, playing on determinism and with a very clever plot.  Definitely worthy of its place in any sci-fi top ten list.

[Johny Cee]

Plowing through Asimov's Foundation novel.  Damn, that's a fantastic book.  Old school sci-fi, playing on determinism and with a very clever plot.  Definitely worthy of its place in any sci-fi top ten list.

Heh.  Which one?

I read the original novel(s) last year around this time.  The original Foundation stuff is decent,  but I felt it had a real dated feel to the dialogue/themes.  The plots got progressively worse for each story as well,  and I lost all interest after reading a couple of the '70's additions to the series.

Compare and contrast to Heinlein (or Wolfe or Leiber).  Most of his works still feel very relevant/contemporary and he was writing through the same time period.

[Hoax]

McCarthy has been set aside and my reading pace has slowed.  I've been overjoyed with the purchase of a $7 copy of Bradbury Speaks the first section "About Writing" is total tripe, skip it.  I have found the second section about Science Fiction to contain several very interesting essays and have added some of his stuff I haven't read onto my list of books to obtain.

[Flood]

Well let's see I have mowed down quite a few books recently because of my new living conditions.


I read The Tyranny of Night too.  Same feeling, I liked it but I found it pretty congested at times with all the factions.  Remembered to pick up Cartomancy by Michael Stackpole.  He isn't the greatest technical writer but I like his books anyway.  The book is part of 2 of however many, and I think it was better than book 1, A Secret Atlas.  My favorite Stackpole books are the DragonCrown War books, with my fav being The Dark Glory War. 

Fulfilling my all consuming desire for more zombie material: Monster Nation which is the sequel yet prequel of Monster Island.  Both are good reads, but the first book is the better of the two.  Mainly because I'm more into the "biological" area of zombie genesis than the whole mystical side.

Right behind zombies I've been on a huge Warhammer riff.  I much prefer the 40k stuff to the elder lore, but I love all the stuff out of the Black Library.  To wit in the last month or so I went through Let the Galaxy Burn, The Ultramarines Omnibus, The Soul Drinkers Omnibus and all 3 of The Horus Heresy cycle.  I could go on but let's jut say I have read every single 40k book available right now...I think (Grey Knights 1-2, Dawn of War 1-3, Ravenor 1-3, Space Wolf, Grey Hunter, etc.)  Waiting on the upcoming Space Wolf Omnibus.

Whew, after all that I'm actually currently reading The Riders of the Dead, which is a regular Warhammer novel, but it's really a great book with all sorts of cavalry action in it so far.





 

[Johny Cee]

Just read Simmons' The Terror, his first new book since Olympos.  Talk about a book that fell apart in the last act...

I loved loved loved the first 2/3.  Two ships of a British Artic exploring party, frozen in pack ice for years?  Strange creature hunting and killing the men?  Bizarre native Inuit showing up?  Great build up,  for not much.

It feels like someone took any of the better books on the polar explorers (check out the Shackleton books, if you get a chance), mixed with some O'Brian/Forester British Navy drama,  and snuck in large doses of Poe and Lovecraft (Ae!)

And the last act was horrid.

Edit:  The mad, drunken Irish captain got huge points for his Book of the Leviathan stuff. 

Some spoiler:








Honestly,  I expected the direction of the finale to head into completely fucked up Lovecraftian "everyone dies or goes mad!" territory.  Instead,  our main character is miraculously saved and we quickly get force fed some noble/mystical savage tripe with a side dose of how bad the Europeans are into a completely anti-climatic ending.

[Morat20]

Man, that's what Simmons does. He puts together this great concept, this great world -- and then fucks it up by explaining it and resolving it. Hyperion? Great book. Fall of Hyperion? Not so much. Ilium? Awesome. Olympus? Falls apart.

Also, the last line of Ilium?. Saying that to the Gods was just fucking awesome.

[Murgos]

I liked Illium enough to pick up Olympus.

Meh, I can't get through the first quarter of the book.  I end up putting it down and forgetting about it.  I think I've read two or three other books since I started it.

[bhodi]

This makes me cry... may or may not be accurate, jenkins group survey.

1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
57 percent of new books are not read to completion.
70 percent of books published do not earn back their advance.
70 percent of the books published do not make a profit.

[WayAbvPar]

80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.

God that is sad. Not only in a 'doomed to ignorance' way, but in a 'never get to experience the wonder of reading' way as well.

[Sky]

I dunno, that's questionable.

Firstly, what defines 'book'? Lots of people read Chilton's manuals but won't touch fiction. Lots of people read how-to books, Dummies books (which I love!), self-help books, cookbooks, financial books, etc.

Secondly, I only started going to bookstores again when I started dating a librarian who likes to go linger there. But I read a ton of library books and buy a lot of books online every year.

Amazon.com and bn.com alone make me question that 80% figure. Can 20% keep them profitable to the levels they are?

Finally, more than 57% of new books don't deserve to be read to completion.

[Margalis]

I find those results very hard to believe. 80% of entire families did not buy or read a book?

That doesn't pass a common sense test. Surely more than 20% of families have kids of school age who must read books.

[Sky]

Walmart has books. In fact, Walmart is the only 'bookstore' in my town 

[Xilren's Twin]

For those who enjoyed Startship Troopers and the like, may want to check out Old Man's War by John Scalzi.  Just came out in paperback so this may be old news to some, but it's a quick fun read in the same genre as ST and some Deitz's books.  Not nearly as deep as ST but still I liked it.

[Johny Cee]

For those who enjoyed Startship Troopers and the like, may want to check out Old Man's War by John Scalzi.  Just came out in paperback so this may be old news to some, but it's a quick fun read in the same genre as ST and some Deitz's books.  Not nearly as deep as ST but still I liked it.

Better or worse then Steakley's Armor?