Return of the Book Thread

[FatuousTwat]

I really enjoyed Curse of Chalion and Paladin of souls, but I haven't looked for anything else of hers since those.

[gryeyes]

Cant wait for the Scarlet Gospels, hellraiser novel he has been sitting on for ages. Has anyone read his series for children?

[ghost]

Cant wait for the Scarlet Gospels, hellraiser novel he has been sitting on for ages. Has anyone read his series for children?

I have read one of them-  The Thief of Always.  It wasn't particularly memorable, but had a cool cover so I kept it in my library.  I will probably read it again sometime.

Another update that I forgot to mention last night:

Finished up Sandworms of Dune and Hunters of Dune recently too.  Both are interesting in that they finish up the story of Herbert's Dune.  The ending is going to leave some people wondering "what just happened?", but I would still recommend them.  Yes, I would recommend even though I would like to see Kevin J. Anderson's fly ridden corpse dragged through Somalian streets (well, not really but he is a putrid author).

[ghost]

I really enjoyed Curse of Chalion and Paladin of souls, but I haven't looked for anything else of hers since those.

I haven't read these, but my wife says that The Sharing Knife series is just as good if not better.  If you haven't read the Vorkosigan novels they are quite good.  There is a good bit of humor that I tend to like.  They do get a bit romance novel-ey, but that's okay, so does RR Martin.

[gryeyes]

I have read one of them-  The Thief of Always.  It wasn't particularly memorable, but had a cool cover so I kept it in my library.  I will probably read it again sometime.

Ya not that one, he has an entire series called Abarat or something similar. Thief of always is a great book read it when i was like 10. Never mention those "Dune" books again they don't exist.  Face fucking his fathers corpse for some cash what an asshole.

[ghost]

Never mention those "Dune" books again they don't exist.  Face fucking his fathers corpse for some cash what an asshole.

I don't mind that part.  I mind Kevin J. Anderson being fucking incompetent.  He makes Robert Jordan look like Tolkein.

[gryeyes]

I believe they are supposedly co-written with Herbert Jr.? The problem was Herbert Jr. claims all of the new books are based on ample detailed notes left by his father. When its blatantly obvious they are not, thats the "raping his fathers corpse" aspect. Them being horrible and directly contradicting the real dune books is just icing on the cake.

[stu]

Just finished Eco Barons by Edward Humes. Good stuff with lots of interesting environmental info.

I picked up Matter, the newest (?) Culture novel, from the library. I haven't read anything from this series yet. Do I need to start with Consider Phlebas? If so, I'll just return Matter and wait for Consider Phelbas to become available.

[JustinMead]

anyone read the Mars trilogy?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_trilogy

Currently on Blue mars. I haven't touched it since school ended, and I lost my bookmark for it. :welp:

Great series so far, its a little slow but its kept me entertained enough for me to almost finish it :P

[Ironwood]

Just finished 'Postman Pat and the Giant Snowball'.

Fairly predictable ending.

[apocrypha]

Just finished 'Postman Pat and the Giant Snowball'.

Fairly predictable ending.

 

[Arrrgh]

Just finished Eco Barons by Edward Humes. Good stuff with lots of interesting environmental info.

I picked up Matter, the newest (?) Culture novel, from the library. I haven't read anything from this series yet. Do I need to start with Consider Phlebas? If so, I'll just return Matter and wait for Consider Phelbas to become available.

You can read the Culture books in any order. Matter isn't bad, but some of the others are far better.

[Margalis]

IMO Cliver Barker's work declines in chronological order. I'm not a big fan of Imajica, Great and Secret Show is unreadable. (Barker doing bad Stephen King)

[FatuousTwat]

Just finished Eco Barons by Edward Humes. Good stuff with lots of interesting environmental info.

I picked up Matter, the newest (?) Culture novel, from the library. I haven't read anything from this series yet. Do I need to start with Consider Phlebas? If so, I'll just return Matter and wait for Consider Phelbas to become available.

You can read the Culture books in any order. Matter isn't bad, but some of the others are far better.

As someone suggested earlier in the thread, Consider might be a good entry into the series because it takes place during a time that is discussed often in later books. Other than that, have at it.

[stu]

Thanks!

I finished B is for Beer recently. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys beer.

[Quinton]

I really enjoyed Curse of Chalion and Paladin of souls, but I haven't looked for anything else of hers since those.

I read Curse this weekend, after seeing it mentioned in the thread.  Good stuff. 

[RhyssaFireheart]

So the mother-in-law was through town on her way home from the brother-in-law's place (we're in flyover country between the in-laws on the east coast and the west coast) and her biggest desire was to goto a "real" bookstore.  One trip to Border's later, with their spiffy buy 4 get 1 free sale and I'm now the owner of the first Stephen Erikson Malazan book - Gardens of the Moon.  I think people have said that it's better to start with book 2 first, but I didn't see it on the shelves right off, so first book it is.  I'm looking forward to starting it.  

I don't get to read it until I'm done with the other 3 books I got (husband got two of his own, which is a separate mini-rant) - the Riftwar Legacy trilogy by Raymond Feist.  I started rereading my older books again and picked the Riftwar quartet since I hadn't read it in a while.  Felt like filling in the books I never bought just because.  I enjoy his writing, the plots are too completely out there and the narrative (except for the occasional typo, wth?) isn't total crap.  It's a nice read for me.

The rant bit - gods I was reminded why I never freaking buy hardbacks.  I find it awkward to hold the books to read and they just cost too damn much.  Husband likes Orange County Chopper, sees book out by Paul Sr.  Wants book so we buy it - $24.95 and the damn thing is no thicker than a fucking cheap Harlequin romance novel!  Yeah, could have gotten it cheaper online, but we don't buy that many books anymore and were at the store... Of course, my paperbacks costing 7.99 is one of the reasons I hardly buy books anymore either.  *sigh*  And I love me my scifi/fantasy, too.

[Murgos]

The amount of money the Teutuls have made off that show is obscene.

[Mosesandstick]

Read Life of Pi. I guess I don't get it to the same extent that other people do. I find it an enjoyable fantastical story but not the revelation that other people seem to experience when they read it.

[dd0029]

I haven't read these, but my wife says that The Sharing Knife series is just as good if not better.  If you haven't read the Vorkosigan novels they are quite good.  There is a good bit of humor that I tend to like.  They do get a bit romance novel-ey, but that's okay, so does RR Martin.

I am not sure I would say that they are better.  They aren't bad, but they are different.  The romance thing plays a much larger, more central, part in the whole series.  There is world building, but it is no where near as strong or pervasive.  She is more interested in exploring the characters and their relationships.  From what she lays out, the world is interesting, but it is a fairly minor character when compared to anything else I have read of hers.  This series gives the feel of a traditional version of a tame - ie non explicit - urban fantasy than the romance found in something like Martin.  I would recommend the first as its a good story, but be aware that the romance aspects dominate the follow ups.

[Chenghiz]

anyone read the Mars trilogy?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_trilogy

Currently on Blue mars. I haven't touched it since school ended, and I lost my bookmark for it. :welp:

Great series so far, its a little slow but its kept me entertained enough for me to almost finish it :P

I read the trilogy this spring. I really enjoyed it, it was a nice break from the Literature I had been reading, without being totally brainless.

[FatuousTwat]

the first Stephen Erikson Malazan book - Gardens of the Moon.  I think people have said that it's better to start with book 2 first, but I didn't see it on the shelves right off, so first book it is.  I'm looking forward to starting it.

I don't know about needing to read it first, but his style is very different for the rest of the series, and if I remember correctly, it doesn't even deal with the same characters for a few books.

I don't get to read it until I'm done with the other 3 books I got (husband got two of his own, which is a separate mini-rant) - the Riftwar Legacy trilogy by Raymond Feist.  I started rereading my older books again and picked the Riftwar quartet since I hadn't read it in a while.  Felt like filling in the books I never bought just because.  I enjoy his writing, the plots are too completely out there and the narrative (except for the occasional typo, wth?) isn't total crap.  It's a nice read for me.

I really liked his first 3 or so series, but the last few have been sub-par.

[ghost]

Re read A Canticle for Liebowitz yesterday.  Wow that is good.  The follow up, not so much.

[Margalis]

I started reading a collection of Harlan Ellison short stories. Thought I would love it but so far I'm not into it, overwritten for my taste. Everything is described with 5 different sets of adjectives and analogies.

[Khaldun]

Just finished Eco Barons by Edward Humes. Good stuff with lots of interesting environmental info.

I picked up Matter, the newest (?) Culture novel, from the library. I haven't read anything from this series yet. Do I need to start with Consider Phlebas? If so, I'll just return Matter and wait for Consider Phelbas to become available.

I think The Player of Games is the best first Culture novel to read.

[Khaldun]

Working on a Takeshi Kovacs book by Richard Morgan, Woken Furies. Good so far, much better than the 2nd one, which I thought was weak compared to the great first book.

Xenophon's Retreat is a solid read--a commentary on the famous narrative by the Greek mercenary and politician Xenophon that describes the difficulties suffered by Greek mercenaries who backed the wrong side in a Persian civil war in 401 BC and had to make their way out of heart of the Persian Empire to the Black Sea. Very clearly written and unsentimental in the best way.

[NowhereMan]

Just finished Eco Barons by Edward Humes. Good stuff with lots of interesting environmental info.

I picked up Matter, the newest (?) Culture novel, from the library. I haven't read anything from this series yet. Do I need to start with Consider Phlebas? If so, I'll just return Matter and wait for Consider Phelbas to become available.

I think The Player of Games is the best first Culture novel to read.

I've started with Phlebas and, while it was a decent introduction and gave a good account of some history that seems to be referenced a lot I didn't enjoy it as much as some of the other I've read. I don't think there's really any necessary order to them, frankly I think they get better as you read more of them just because you're more familiar with the universe and the main civilsations. I think I might have gotten more out of Phlebas if I'd been discovering what this whole Idiran war thing actually was all about rather than being introduced to the Culture and the galaxy. But then you've got to start somewhere...

[Sky]

I find it awkward to hold the books to read and they just cost too damn much.... Of course, my paperbacks costing 7.99 is one of the reasons I hardly buy books anymore either.  *sigh*  And I love me my scifi/fantasy, too.

Liiiiiibrary!   But srsly, I love hardcovers. My fiancee does the fiction here and she has a tough time finding hardcovers for older damaged books, the first two Hamilton books in the trilogy I'm reading were split into two each. Four paperbacks! Because she couldn't find hardcover editions for them at the time. Now I'm on the final novel and it's the single hardcover, it's so much nicer. And I agree, books are getting spendy, I pretty much only buy reference books now (music instruction, songbooks, home improvement).

The amount of money the Teutuls have made off that show is obscene.

I like the show, they were defintely hack builders when they started, if you saw any of the other bike shows that were on when they started. Rick should have more money than all of them combined if it went by hard work and talent. Anyway, these days I watch more to read between the lines and not what they're trying to present to the public. You can catch alot by watching what's happening in the background, since so much foreground is staged. And the whole thing with Jr leaving the big cash cow, if that's not a setup for some drama, he's a total fucking tool. And wonder what happened to Vin, he seemed like a nice guy. Probably got tired of picking up the slack for millionaires on a shit salary.

edit: Ah, cool on Vin and Cody: http://www.vforcecustoms.com/

[Murgos]

There was an interview with Sr. on a business show a couple of years ago and the focus of the show wasn't bikes or any of the 'fluff' it was on the retail marketing of their toys and clothing lines and etc...

Anyway, the interviewer was trying to get Sr. to commit to a dollar figure for revenues, and although they beat around the actual number the end inferred value was low-to-mid triple digit millions a year.

So, you know, once you realize the bikes aren't important other than as a way to get people to buy OCC shirts at Target the show loses a lot of it's interest.  Particularly when I imagine that most of the angst on the show is probably just generated as an end product of greedy millionaires fucking each other out of additional millions while not including the supporting cast, that helped make them what they are, in the windfall.

[FatuousTwat]

Liiiiiibrary!  But srsly, I love hardcovers. My fiancee does the fiction here and she has a tough time finding hardcovers for older damaged books, the first two Hamilton books in the trilogy I'm reading were split into two each. Four paperbacks! Because she couldn't find hardcover editions for them at the time. Now I'm on the final novel and it's the single hardcover, it's so much nicer. And I agree, books are getting spendy, I pretty much only buy reference books now (music instruction, songbooks, home improvement).

I have to talk to someone about this, and I figure since you are a librarian, you could understand my rage.

My town recently built a really nice library near a pond that floods every 3 years or so, but that's fine, because the pond has a floodgate. Well, the pond flooded last year, and no one thought to open the floodgate... 6 months later and the library is finally open again.

[Sky]

There was an interview with Sr. on a business show a couple of years ago and the focus of the show wasn't bikes or any of the 'fluff' it was on the retail marketing of their toys and clothing lines and etc...

Well, that's what I mean about watching the background. That's pretty obvious and has been for a looong time. Back the first year they aired people around here (granted, I'm in NYS) had OCC logo stuff. I used to laugh and ask them where their West Coast Chopper gear was. Or their bike :) If I had a few bucks, I'd toss Vinnie the money for one of his t-shirts :)

Twat:  (also, I'm not a librarian)

[gryeyes]

I have to talk to someone about this, and I figure since you are a librarian, you could understand my rage.

My city built a new library about 12 years ago. 6 years ago they tear it down including every structure near it to complete a new "town center" forcing multiple businesses/restaurants to relocate to another city. Its 6 years later and the construction is about 10% complete. The new library wont even be on the table until the "town center" is completed. They have gone through 3 contractors and 2 lawsuits so far. The library is relegated to this tiny office space behind a gas station. Where you literally look through box's to find books. Multiple millions of dollars wasted not including the value of previous library they tore down.

[FatuousTwat]

I have to talk to someone about this, and I figure since you are a librarian, you could understand my rage.

My city built a new library about 12 years ago. 6 years ago they tear it down including every structure near it to complete a new "town center" forcing multiple businesses/restaurants to relocate to another city. Its 6 years later and the construction is about 10% complete. The new library wont even be on the table until the "town center" is completed. They have gone through 3 contractors and 2 lawsuits so far. The library is relegated to this tiny office space behind a gas station. Where you literally look through box's to find books. Multiple millions of dollars wasted not including the value of previous library they tore down.

Awesome. While ours was closed, they just set a desk up and a couple of book cases for orders in the town hall. It worked well for me, but I order all my books from the library online, anyone who didn't was screwed.

[RhyssaFireheart]

@Sky - Yeah, I used to use the library much more than I do now, but my problem is that I enjoy keeping my books and rereading them multiple times.  It's awkward to do that with hardbacks, IMO.  I have about 800 paperbacks that I've kept for assorted reasons, almost exclusively SciFi/Fantasy since I don't read anything else.  At the price of hardbacks, that would be a slightly larger fortune spent.


Re: OCC - I like watching sometimes with the husband, but early on it got to be very apparent that most of it was edited for TEH DRAMAZ!! and such.  I knew Vinnie left because of money disputes (I think that was it, the Teutels getting paid the big monies and the works actually doing the job getting skimped) but I hadn't realized Cody left as well.  Without Rick and a few other guys, I don't think the show would have been as good.  Some of the guys that have joined since the start come off as total goofs though, like Jason.  I'd kill for his Cintiq though, without a second thought. 

The show may have started out as "let's show this family who's making custom choppers" but it quickly morphed into a big business for all sorts of other things to make money and the bikes are second bananna now.  Otherwise why pay attention to Mikey taking Len? skeet shooting or knocking out bricks in the basement of a "boutique" for Juniors girlfriend.  Now it's almost as much about their "wacky antics" as anything else. 

[stu]

Just finished Eco Barons by Edward Humes. Good stuff with lots of interesting environmental info.

I picked up Matter, the newest (?) Culture novel, from the library. I haven't read anything from this series yet. Do I need to start with Consider Phlebas? If so, I'll just return Matter and wait for Consider Phelbas to become available.

I think The Player of Games is the best first Culture novel to read.

I've started with Phlebas and, while it was a decent introduction and gave a good account of some history that seems to be referenced a lot I didn't enjoy it as much as some of the other I've read. I don't think there's really any necessary order to them, frankly I think they get better as you read more of them just because you're more familiar with the universe and the main civilsations. I think I might have gotten more out of Phlebas if I'd been discovering what this whole Idiran war thing actually was all about rather than being introduced to the Culture and the galaxy. But then you've got to start somewhere...

Looks like I'm going to wait until Consider Phlebas becomes available on the first of next month. Right now, the Miami Public Library system only carries the latest novels from the Culture series as well as Banks's non-science fiction work.

Until then it's The Devil's Horsemen: The Mongol Invasion of Europe () and Crime, by Irvine Welsh ().