Return of the Book Thread

[croaker69]

Looking for that on Kindle. Is this it?

Yes, it looks like the first 3 books bundled together.

[Johny Cee]

I just want to say, having finished the first 5 Black Company books, that Glen Cook has largely managed to kill fantasy as a genre for me. It's so much better than everything else that I'm amazed people still write fantasy books. Just superb.

Started The Silver Spike last night, will read the Glittering Stone stuff when the omnibuses come out in Sept & Jan.

Next I'm doing Dread Empire and after that Instrumentalities of the night.

Eventually, maybe, I'll get to the PI and Starfisher stuff - probably not though.

Edit: For the record, I read all 5 Black Company books in a 2 week period. It was pretty much nonstop. It managed to tear me away from gaming the bulk of the time. Seriously, wow.

Edit 2: Also, people compare it to vietnam stories, but it feels like - at least to me - a recorded account of the medieval crusades, with people searching for god knows what and encountering god knows what (and who) except much more fantastic.

  

One of my fiercest joys is people discovering the sheer awesomeness that is Glen Cook.

Bleak Seasons and She is the Darkness are both very, very hard to find in the original paperback.  She is the Darkness was going for as high as a couple hundred for a copy in good quality, though the price has dropped a bit since then.  

The omnibus of those two books is set to be released on September 15, though, from Tor.  The Return of the Black Company.

Supposedly, the final two books (Water Sleeps and Soldier's Live) will be collected in an omnibus set to be released this January called The Deaths of the Black Company.

The rest of Cook's back catalogue is getting rereleased by Nightshade books now.  

[Johny Cee]

The new artist doing all of Cook's works is pretty fucking good for a fantasy book cover illustrator.  Examples:

[Johny Cee]

I have nothing with me here but a bag full of clothes. No computer, internet for one hour a day at a public library. I'm reading a lot. A pity I only brought one of my huge pile of unread books with me.

Finishing Iain M Banks' The Algebraist tonight. I wish Mass Effect could have been more like it. Started Guy Gavriel Kay's Last Light of the Sun. More when I have more than 7 minutes of internet time...

I really like Kay, though I haven't read as much of him as I would like...  mostly because I'm too lazy to track down his books online.  I believe Kay was the guy that Christopher Tolkien brought in to clean up and finish up some of The Silmarillion for publication.

I enjoyed Last Light, if that's the one with vikings and saxon England.  Historical fiction with a slight magical realism twist.  Really reminded me of Finn Mac Cool which I liked alot.

[lamaros]

Was googling about and managed to notice that you can read Pope's translation of the Odyssey online here:

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h/homer/h8op/

I've never read the Pope version myself but I have heard it is worth it.

But sure the eye of Time beholds no name
So bless’d as thine in all the rolls of fame;
Alive we hail’d thee with our guardian gods,
And dead thou rulest a king in these abodes.’

“‘Talk not of ruling in this dolorous gloom,
Nor think vain words (he cried) can ease my doom.
Rather I’d choose laboriously to bear
A weight of woes, and breathe the vital air,
A slave to some poor hind that toils for bread,
Than reign the sceptred monarch of the dead.

[Sky]

I'm debating spending like $400 on a collection of the softbacks in poor condition just not to have to wait til September.

Or you could go to the library. I read through all of them via inter-library loan.

Just finished Hamilton's Judas Unchained (AND YOU HIT THE GROUND RUNNIN'). The 2-part Commonwealth series was much better than his first trilogy. The silly bits were mostly nipped off, he was writing with better pacing and much more concise. He's a good author for those with ADHD or who can only read in snippets, he breaks things up nicely so almost every short bit is filled with some plot or action.

Might take a break and try and catch up with the voluminous Modesitt, I think he's added a book to every setting plus a standalone since I last read him.

[WayAbvPar]

Sky, you will be proud- I finally activated my library card. First thing I read was Total Access: A Journey to the Center of the NFL Universe . If you are an NFL fan it is a fantastic read- some really funny stories. And I was even at one of the games he mentions 

I also picked up Soccerhead: An Accidental Journey into the Heart of the American Game. About 3/4 through it. It is uneven, delving far deeper into the history of American soccer, but there is some good stuff there too. Definitely worth a library checkout!

Next up are A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century and Endymion.

[Samwise]

I'm wading through Anathem now.  Don't know if I'll manage to finish it before it's due back at the library.  I'm not sure yet if I like it.  Some of the concepts are interesting, but the story is going nowhere and all the made up words are pissing me off.

[Sky]

Sky, you will be proud- I finally activated my library card.

Woohoo! There really is all kinds of great stuff at the commie media center. 

[lamaros]

Would love to read some more detective SF of the kind that Hamilton does so well (in parts of his larger series and in his short stories), or even detective/mystery fantasy. But don't really know of any other authors who do it.

Recently read The Sword Edged Blonde... Fantasy/detective. I enjoyed it.

Heaps thanks for this recommendation. Book arrived yesterday and I've been enjoying it overnight. Not finished yet but it has been awesome up to now. Exactly what I had hoped for, and more!

[Arrrgh]

Would love to read some more detective SF of the kind that Hamilton does so well (in parts of his larger series and in his short stories), or even detective/mystery fantasy. But don't really know of any other authors who do it.

Recently read The Sword Edged Blonde... Fantasy/detective. I enjoyed it.

Heaps thanks for this recommendation. Book arrived yesterday and I've been enjoying it overnight. Not finished yet but it has been awesome up to now. Exactly what I had hoped for, and more!

The Henghis Hapthorn books are great detective/dying earth novels. The earth of the series is entering a millennial transition from  scientific dominance to magical dominance so you get detective/fantasy as well.

[JWIV]

Finishing Iain M Banks' The Algebraist tonight. I wish Mass Effect could have been more like it. Started Guy Gavriel Kay's Last Light of the Sun. More when I have more than 7 minutes of internet time...

Picked this up the other day.  I'm liking it, but it starts off a bit rough.  Of course, that may have been the sleep dep.

[Sky]

I'm back in Modesitt's Recluce series, trying to rush through some of the older books so I can remember what's going on when I read a few new ones I haven't read yet.

Right now I'm on The Chaos Balance, the second angels novel after Fall of Angels. It's overall a decent book but I'm getting a bit annoyed with the repetition I didn't notice the first time I read it. I get it, the main character is questioning the use of force. I FUCKIN' GET IT. Don't really need him to reflect on it every chapter. Seriously, every chapter he appears in he has a reflection on the use of force. Sheesh.

[Samwise]

Modesitt's books are pretty much all like that.  For some reason I really like the Recluce series anyway.

[Chimpy]

Modesitt's books are pretty much all like that.  For some reason I really like the Recluce series anyway.

I think it has to do with the fact that, while some of his plots are meh and the dialogue and inner monologues get old, he writes good characters. The central character in every one of his books I have read is not some hollow archetype, they are people.

[dd0029]

Just got done with my first re-read of the Wheel of Time for the first time since the last book in preparation for the new Sanderson continuation coming in October.  The late books are not quite as bad as I remembered, though I did skip most of Crossroads, way too much angst and nonsense for even a dedicated fanboi.  Knife of Dreams was a giant leap back up from the CoT gutter with wonderful new ways of blowing things up.

For those interested, the Encyclopaedia WoT has a really good set of chapter by chapter summaries for each book. 

I did have a couple of new thoughts this read through.  First, the dress straightening and braid tugging must be something you become inured to because it seemed appropriate mostly, rarely did it seem just tossed in.  It happened at the right times for the right reasons, unlike the overwhelming amount of punishment that comes up in the later books.  Jordan had to have been some sort of closet sadist or masochist.  There's a shit ton of corporal punishment in the later books.  He didn't dwell much on the beatings, but he sure as hell lovingly described the pain afterward.  Also, sex leapt out of the closet and danced around in a decidedly tawdry fashion. 

I still like it though.  There aren't many other worlds as fully developed.  Additionally, his time horizons tend to make much more sense in some ways.  I never can understand these fantasy books with multi tens of thousands of years of history with next to no advancement.  I also really like how this is a story of a renaissance on the brink.  Lots of new developments or redevelopments are happening.  It helps to bring the world to life.

[Chimpy]

I re-read them all before I moved at the end of July. I think a lot of why the themes get darker and more saucy later on is because you sort of see the characters move from Pleasantville to something more like a normal world, and all of the "evil" is breaking loose.

Of course, we do have to remember that these books were written over an almost 20 year span of time, so there is bound to be some tonal differnces based on the environment he was living in while writing the later books.

[Samwise]

The central character in every one of his books I have read is not some hollow archetype, they are people.

I think it would be more accurate to say that they are person.  Almost all of his books have the exact same protagonist with a different name and set of magic powers.

[Sheepherder]

I re-read them all before I moved at the end of July. I think a lot of why the themes get darker and more saucy later on is because you sort of see the characters move from Pleasantville to something more like a normal world, and all of the "evil" is breaking loose.

Did you miss the entire first book?  Winternight in Two Rivers?  The ferry on the Taren? The inn in Baerlon?  Shadar Logoth?  The murderous brigands, suspicious locals and guards, and assassins along the Caemlyn road?  Perrin's decision crossing the plain, as it pertained to Egwene?  Mat's strange affliction?  Moraine's entire purpose (think about it, the entirety is rather unpleasant, no?)

Robert Jordan gets neckbeardy later, not dark.

[Salamok]

The central character in every one of his books I have read is not some hollow archetype, they are people.

I think it would be more accurate to say that they are person.  Almost all of his books have the exact same protagonist with a different name and set of magic powers.

I just like that the guy can tell a well rounded story w/o the need to blunder on through 5-10 books wandering off on tangents that quckly head no where.  The downside is that it is the same story over an over and instead of getting better with each retelling they seem to get worse.

I do wonder off and on how much 9/11 may have had an impact on him, pretty much every story he tells is from the viewpoint of a suicide bomber who manages to survive.

[dd0029]

Modesitt has a moderately interesting blog he posts to about once a week.  From that I get the sense he's a moderately socially liberal, financial conservative living in Utah.  Which explains Mormons showing up in just about everything.

http://www.lemodesittjr.com/blogs/blog/index.html

I believe his experiences in the air force and being an environmentalist working for a Republican house member had more impact on his writing than 9/11.  Unlike Orson Scott Card who flipped the fuck out.  Which is too bad, I really used to like his stand alone fantastic fiction.

[Abagadro]

Ok, you've all talked me into trying Glen Cook, but I don't like fantasy. Which Sci-Fi of his should I pick up first to get a good taste? I have a $25 amazon gift certificate to kill so I could pick up 3 or 4 books.  I might go for his Garrett stuff too as I like detective/noir stuff so you can add that to consideration.

[Engels]

I just started the Black Company saga, and its good. The guy has a great imagination, and awsome story telling ability. He can't write for SHIT, but somehow it doesn't get in the way.

[Rasix]

Ok, you've all talked me into trying Glen Cook, but I don't like fantasy. Which Sci-Fi of his should I pick up first to get a good taste? I have a $25 amazon gift certificate to kill so I could pick up 3 or 4 books.  I might go for his Garrett stuff too as I like detective/noir stuff so you can add that to consideration.

The Dragon Never Sleeps is considered one of his better novels.  It's a stand alone and very Sci-Fi. I didn't love it, but it was worth a read.  I still have Passage At Arms, which I've yet to crack open. Apparently, it's a u-boat in space type story.

Black Company is fantasy.  Very good, especially early on, but fantasy.  

[Samwise]

I'm about 300 pages into Anathem and it's starting to pick up.  Yay!

[Draegan]

I just finished Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet.  Great book.

[Murgos]

The Dragon Never Sleeps is considered one of his better novels.  It's a stand alone and very Sci-Fi. I didn't love it, but it was worth a read.  I still have Passage At Arms, which I've yet to crack open. Apparently, it's a u-boat in space type story.

Black Company is fantasy.  Very good, especially early on, but fantasy.  

I liked both of them very much but Passage at Arms is a very recognizable story that's well told and very tight and is much more of a character study so I think it would be easy for someone to get into.  The Dragon Never Sleeps sprawls around a little more and is more 'epic' in scope, though it's not a very large book by any means, it just covers a lot of ground.

For stand alone fantasy that you don't have to invest in a series I recommend The Tower Of Fear, it's only one book but it's noticeably Cook's style.

[Johny Cee]

I just started the Black Company saga, and its good. The guy has a great imagination, and awsome story telling ability. He can't write for SHIT, but somehow it doesn't get in the way.

I disagree about the writing.

It's a first-person narrative, from a character who's supposed to be a soldier, physician, and a touch of an amateur historian.  He sounds like what he is:  a working-class/low middle-class guy, with some education, who actually lives in his world.  Still a large romantic streak, though mostly it's been paved over by amoral pragmatism and the grind of living.  Croaker is also a part-time unreliable narrator, though it's cheating to point out where he's fibbing since it goes towards the theme of the first three books.

The subtext built by the short, staccato sentences; the black humor, understatement, and sardonic quip....  There are no infodumps, wild expository language, or the like.  All of which is pretty common in mainstream sff.

The differences in the narrative voice become clearer if you read other of his books with different narrators.

The first person narrative throws many people.  The fact that nothing happens on the surface many more.  How anachronistic the whole thing feels.  Literally, you could replace a couple references from swords to assault rifles, mail to flak vests, horses to trucks, and it could be a modern war novel.

[Johny Cee]

Ok, you've all talked me into trying Glen Cook, but I don't like fantasy. Which Sci-Fi of his should I pick up first to get a good taste? I have a $25 amazon gift certificate to kill so I could pick up 3 or 4 books.  I might go for his Garrett stuff too as I like detective/noir stuff so you can add that to consideration.

Garrett is the most traditional fantasy world in setting of any of the books, though it's played straight up as noir.  (Down to the fact that, for years, the covers of the books put the main character in a trenchcoat, fedora and holding a gun.)  Almost no fantasy tropes, many hard-boiled and mystery tropes.  It's an actual noir world, though: authority is largely cruel and corrupt, a generations spanning war has sucked away a good portion of the male human population (leading to population immigration of non-humans, to fill the workforce), crimelords are more powerful than the ineffective (and corrupt) civil authority, and lots of poverty. 


Passage at Arms is the best place to start, if you mostly do scifi.  Most traditional overall scifi story, but with the same feel and first person narrative.  /ditto Murgos

The "Starfishers" is a trilogy of scifi books that are out of print until later this year, loosely related to Passage at Arms.... which I've never read because it was obnoxiously expensive for ratty paperbacks on ebay.

The Dragon Never Sleeps is more typically Cook style and was very well reviewed at the time of it's release, but might be bad to jump into as your first book. 


If you like the style, try some of the fantasy.  It doesn't feel like traditional Tolkien fantasy, nor the "historical fiction as fantasy" of Martin.  Garrett feels almost nothing like it.

[Sky]

I do wonder off and on how much 9/11 may have had an impact on him, pretty much every story he tells is from the viewpoint of a suicide bomber who manages to survive.

wat

I'm thinking he may have some ghost writers, or is pushing out novels so quickly the quality is suffering. He's always been solid, if predictable, but the Lord-Protectors Daughter, the newest book of his I've read, was really, really sloppy.

[dd0029]

I didn't get that one at all.  He said he was trying something different, but it was mostly just the same character in a different body.

Imager is his latest and while the basic adolescent growth story is repeated, it's in a very interesting world.

[Sky]

He could say he was writing a recipe for baked crab, it was lazy and sloppy writing. I've read more than enough Modesitt to be familiar with his style and his basic theme (and lulz on his blog claiming he doesn't reuse themes!). I like the theme, I've read almost everything he's written and we support him at the library. But LP's Daughter was a stinker.

Kind of like Feist with the Krondor:whatever trilogy, though I think LEM was worse. I managed to get through Feist's bum trilogy with just some muttering, my fiancee was getting pretty tired of my complainst about LP's Daughter.

[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).

[FatuousTwat]

Had a lot of time on my hands lately, my comp has been down for about 2 weeks.

I've read all of Jim Butcher's stuff except for Turn Coat and the last 2 Codex Alera books, good stuff...

I'm about 75 pages from finishing The Prefect... Holy shit, has Reynolds dialog always been this fucking terrible? I cheered when the guy in the polling sphere died, if I had read him call Thalia "girl" one more damn time I would have quit reading.

I just started the Black Company saga, and its good. The guy has a great imagination, and awsome story telling ability. He can't write for SHIT, but somehow it doesn't get in the way.

I disagree about the writing.

It's a first-person narrative, from a character who's supposed to be a soldier, physician, and a touch of an amateur historian.  He sounds like what he is:  a working-class/low middle-class guy, with some education, who actually lives in his world.  Still a large romantic streak, though mostly it's been paved over by amoral pragmatism and the grind of living.  Croaker is also a part-time unreliable narrator, though it's cheating to point out where he's fibbing since it goes towards the theme of the first three books.

The subtext built by the short, staccato sentences; the black humor, understatement, and sardonic quip....  There are no infodumps, wild expository language, or the like.  All of which is pretty common in mainstream sff.

The differences in the narrative voice become clearer if you read other of his books with different narrators.

The first person narrative throws many people.  The fact that nothing happens on the surface many more.  How anachronistic the whole thing feels.  Literally, you could replace a couple references from swords to assault rifles, mail to flak vests, horses to trucks, and it could be a modern war novel.

I agree... One of the things I always enjoyed about the series is how the style changes from narrator to narrator, it keeps it fresh (at least for the first several books).

[Ard]

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.