Return of the Book Thread

[Sky]

hopefully interlibrary loan will come through and I'll move on to Glen Cook's Black Company (sadly only the first three - haven't managed to find a copy of Books of the South just yet).

Nothing sad about it, those are the classics. I'm biased, though, as I read them when I was younger and as they came out, and never managed to read anything but the original trilogy until a couple years ago. I've read that original trilogy so many damned times, though. Also used to obsess over Moorcock's original six Elric books, too. Kind of the basis for the way I approached AD&D in the day, along with my singer who was a Conan nut.

[HaemishM]

ALERT! WHORE TIME!!!!

My blog novel series, The Bridge Chronicles, is up to two complete novels so far, all available on the blog linked in my sig below. For those who don't want to read a whole novel in the blog format, I bring you the original novel now in trade paperback form! I'm using a pretty good print-on-demand service called CreateSpace.com to sell the thing. Right now it's available on its own CreateSpace store. Sometime in the next two weeks, it'll be available on Amazon.com. The cost is $12, but this is a well-printed trade paperback size. I was actually stunned at how good the printing was on the proof copy. Here's a picture of the cover:


For the next two weeks, until the Amazon store is open, I'm offering the members of f13 a special discount. If you buy it at the CreateSpace link above, you get $2 off with the use of the discount code QYV9UDW9. I actually point you towards the CreateSpace link because even with the discount, I still make more there per book than I do at Amazon. Please buy my book.

/whoring

[Abagadro]

I'm not up on all the crazy lingo you youngsters use. What is a "blog novel" as compared to a regular old "novel." Was it posted in bits over time and then brought all together as a single work?

EDIT: Never mind. I clickied and read the answer to my question.  Cool.

[Sky]

I'm not afraid of that artsy avatard. Watch out for Uwe Boll.

[HaemishM]

The book's available up on Amazon now, for those interested. I'm going to keep the F13 discount code active on the CreateSpace store through next week (it obviously won't work on the Amazon link).

[Ingmar]

I have been reading Le Vicomte de Bragelonne FOR EVER. Seriously drags in the middle. I think maybe I didn't get the most engaging translation.

[Murgos]

I have been reading Le Vicomte de Bragelonne FOR EVER. Seriously drags in the middle. I think maybe I didn't get the most engaging translation.

Yeah, it can drag a bit.  It's set up for why things happen in The Man in the Iron Mask mostly.

[Ingmar]

I have been reading Le Vicomte de Bragelonne FOR EVER. Seriously drags in the middle. I think maybe I didn't get the most engaging translation.

Yeah, it can drag a bit.  It's set up for why things happen in The Man in the Iron Mask mostly.

The Man in the Iron Mask is part of it - I'm reading the whole thing in one volume, not the 'broken up into 3-5 books' version. 268 chapters  .

[Engels]

btw, I take it back about Glen Cook not being able to write. I started in on the 2nd book of the Chronicles and sure enough, the Shed 'narrator' shows developed writing skills. Still, the whole first book's narrator's grammar was poor, but not to the extent that it looked purposefully done to add flavor. Can't blame me for thinking the guy was semi literate.

[Arnold]

Thanks for the tip on Cook and The Black Company.  A friend recommended those books before, and I never got around to reading them.  I finished the collection of the first 3 books last night and picked up the one with the next 3 today.

I kind of lost interest in fantasy because there was so much schlock (hey, it was great when I was in 6th grade!), but these books were really refreshing. 

[Abagadro]

Been on a bit of non-fiction kick.

Read Idiot America which is very good. Pearce has a bit of HST in him.

Also just got through with Imperial Life in the Emerald City about the CPA that ran Iraq for a year and change after the occupation of Iraq. Pretty fascinating. You lose count of the number of times that there is a paragraph about a person holding a position that goes something like this: "He had been with USAID for two decades, had post-grad degrees from Harvard, Dartmouth and Berkeley, was considered to be the top guy in X in the entire U.S. Government, and was tapped to run X ministry. One month before the invasion, he was replaced with Ari Fleisher's brother."  That is not hyperbole, that is a nearly verbatim and there are examples, after example, after example. The key was placing political loyalty above competence. Again, and again. Was quite an amazing read.

[Khaldun]

It's one of the better anatomy-of-Iraq books, and yeah, the stuff about cronyism is or ought to be eye-opening. I'm not sure anybody could have prettied up the basic unworkability of the occupation, but I am sure that stuffing the occupation administration with clueless 26-year old Republicans fresh out of Bob Jones University made things much, much worse for everybody--Americans, Iraqis, the world.

[WayAbvPar]

Been on a bit of non-fiction kick.

Read Idiot America which is very good. Pearce has a bit of HST in him.

Also just got through with Imperial Life in the Emerald City about the CPA that ran Iraq for a year and change after the occupation of Iraq. Pretty fascinating. You lose count of the number of times that there is a paragraph about a person holding a position that goes something like this: "He had been with USAID for two decades, had post-grad degrees from Harvard, Dartmouth and Berkeley, was considered to be the top guy in X in the entire U.S. Government, and was tapped to run X ministry. One month before the invasion, he was replaced with Ari Fleisher's brother."  That is not hyperbole, that is a nearly verbatim and there are examples, after example, after example. The key was placing political loyalty above competence. Again, and again. Was quite an amazing read.

Must have been tough to read between the fingers of your permanent facepalm.

[Johny Cee]

btw, I take it back about Glen Cook not being able to write. I started in on the 2nd book of the Chronicles and sure enough, the Shed 'narrator' shows developed writing skills. Still, the whole first book's narrator's grammar was poor, but not to the extent that it looked purposefully done to add flavor. Can't blame me for thinking the guy was semi literate.

If I can ask, how often do you read first person narrative novels?  Especially first person with an unreliable narrator? 


The third omnibus of the Black Company is out now, which contains Bleak Seasons and She is the Darkness.  These are the two books that were impossible to find unless you wanted to shell out $50 for a dog-eared paperback copy on Ebay.

[Engels]

btw, I take it back about Glen Cook not being able to write. I started in on the 2nd book of the Chronicles and sure enough, the Shed 'narrator' shows developed writing skills. Still, the whole first book's narrator's grammar was poor, but not to the extent that it looked purposefully done to add flavor. Can't blame me for thinking the guy was semi literate.

If I can ask, how often do you read first person narrative novels?  Especially first person with an unreliable narrator? 

I've read enough of them. Enough to normally tell the difference between someone purpusefully written as semi-literate, and in this instance, a semi consitent grasp of grammar with very odd sudden lapses into bad sentence structure. It was not often enough to call it a 'style'. I am still not positive its a product of intent or a product of not having a good editor. Not sure what you're getting at.

[Sky]

I've read enough of them. Enough to normally tell the difference between someone purpusefully written as semi-literate, and in this instance, a semi consitent grasp of grammar with very odd sudden lapses into bad sentence structure. It was not often enough to call it a 'style'. I am still not positive its a product of intent or a product of not having a good editor. Not sure what you're getting at.

All books should be written in proper Queen's English? Adhering to strict grammar rules can only hurt fiction, because most people don't think or speak in proper grammar.

Also, semi consitent grasp of grammar lols. Additionally, purpusefully. 

[IainC]

Feersum Endjinn

[WayAbvPar]

Still trying to get a foothold in Anathem. It is tough going so far, but I am starting to get a feel for it and it should pick up. 'Earned' a $50 Amazon credit for completing a wellness survey, so I bought Seeing Red, The Return of the Black Company, Water Sleeps, and this. I have a copy of Soldiers Live somewhere from an old roommate. Glad I was finally able to get the books that precede it so I can read it!

[Samwise]

I had a hard time getting started in Anathem and it ended up maybe my favorite Stephenson book so far.  Persevere.   

[WayAbvPar]

I can just start to see it getting interesting, and the 25 made up words per page is starting to seem normal. I think I will make it.

[dd0029]

Read Lev Grossman's "The Magicians" this weekend.  I believe in the end I am more annoyed by the book than anything.  The author seems to have missed the point of speculative fiction.  A bunch of the ideas tossed off would have been interesting to explore but he never does anything with them.  The characters never grow.  I think that's what killed it for me.  There are occasional bits of character movement but they all revert back to the base line.  After nearly 8 years of book time, the main character is exactly the same self absorbed, self hating, whiny teenager he was on the first page.

[Viin]

ALERT! WHORE TIME!!!!

My blog novel series, The Bridge Chronicles, is up to two complete novels so far, all available on the blog linked in my sig below. For those who don't want to read a whole novel in the blog format, I bring you the original novel now in trade paperback form! I'm using a pretty good print-on-demand service called CreateSpace.com to sell the thing. Right now it's available on its own CreateSpace store. Sometime in the next two weeks, it'll be available on Amazon.com. The cost is $12, but this is a well-printed trade paperback size. I was actually stunned at how good the printing was on the proof copy. Here's a picture of the cover:
...

Good stuff Haemish. I liked it. The short story at the end I could have done without (seemed a bit disjointed compared to the rest of the novel). The printed book is actually pretty nice. The double-spacing threw me at first but was a non-issue after a few pages - however, it makes it seem a bit "amateur", though I know it would also make the book a lot thinner to go single spaced. Nice glossy cover.

I'd really like to see a book with all 3 volumes in it, printed like a "normal" book (no double-spacing).

I'll throw up a 5-star review for you on Amazon when I get a few extra minutes. And yes, I think it deserves 5 stars!

[Johny Cee]

Read Lev Grossman's "The Magicians" this weekend.  I believe in the end I am more annoyed by the book than anything.  The author seems to have missed the point of speculative fiction.  A bunch of the ideas tossed off would have been interesting to explore but he never does anything with them.  The characters never grow.  I think that's what killed it for me.  There are occasional bits of character movement but they all revert back to the base line.  After nearly 8 years of book time, the main character is exactly the same self absorbed, self hating, whiny teenager he was on the first page.

I think that's the point. 

The narrator is the same self-centered douchebag despite everything that happens to him right up until the end of the book.  It's a realist deconstruction of two of the most popular of the "coming-of-age" style fantasy stories (Wizarding School, Narnia/Campbellian mythic thing).

The book also broadly mirrors  the modern experience of attending an elite college or university: lots of pressure, emphasis on how special the students are, the push into debauchery/unhealthy drug and alcohol consumption to cope, and then you graduate and discover you aren't special...  you're just one in crowd.

I wasn't surprised when I found out the author was a Harvard grad.

On the ending:


I've been trying to read Alastair Reynolds' books, and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....  Revelation Space is like a primer on what's wrong with modern hard SF.  Poor characterization, needlessly convoluted plots, random plot jumps, and unclear motivations.  It's an interesting setting but a poor story.

[Khaldun]

Agree on Reynolds. I very very much wanted to like his work, but. I really don't think hard SF and good, vivid, human characterization are incompatible, but definitely some of the hard SF people treat it that way.

[Abagadro]

I love his stuff. I'm reading House of Suns right now.

[FatuousTwat]

I've been reading Richard K. Morgan. First Altered Carbon, then The Steel Remains, and now I'm about 1/2 done with Thirteen (Black Man for all you filthy racist non-'mericans).

Really enjoyed Altered Carbon, and I'm gonna be checking out the other 2 in the series. Wasn't too impressed by The Steel Remains, it wasn't just the multiple scenes of male on male buttsecks, although I guess I should have been expecting it after the graphic sex in Altered Carbon. I just didn't really care about any of the characters. Thirteen has been good so far.

[Khaldun]

I don't think he's quite hit the heights of Altered Carbon with the later books, but I appreciate him trying.

[Johny Cee]

Agree on Reynolds. I very very much wanted to like his work, but. I really don't think hard SF and good, vivid, human characterization are incompatible, but definitely some of the hard SF people treat it that way.

I love his stuff. I'm reading House of Suns right now.

I'm going to give Reynolds another couple of shots.  Especially since Revelation Space is his first novel.  It definitely sounds like he moves to more concrete and directed plots.

Sometimes, I notice it takes a while to get acclimated to an authors style.  I gave Neil Asher another shot after bogging down on a couple of his novels, and found him to be moderately entertaining.

[Margalis]

The other night I read a random scifi book I found in a box, The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber. I'm not a big Leiber fan, his stuff never left much of an impression on me, though I can't recall much of what he's written. (Mostly lighter hearted sword and sorcery stuff I think)

In this book a giant spaceship appears near the earth and fucks things up in an ID4 way.

Then someone gets on the spaceship and has sex with the cat-woman on board. (Spoilers!) The end.

It was kind of an interesting premise, though poorly executed, until the furry female showed up. Then it became hilarious. (ly awful)

[RhyssaFireheart]

Wonderful, now I get to wait until January for the next Malazan book to come out, and then however long for the final book of the series.  Ugh.  I CAN'T WAIT THAT LONG!

As for Reaper's Gale and Toll the Hounds - both were excellent books, as usual.  I rather like how Erikson did the narrative in Toll the Hounds, even though it took a bit of getting used to at first.  Now I really want to know just who or what Kruppe is.  And yeah, I was in tears at the end there.

I suppose in the meantime I can get the first book by Esslemont that is part of the series as well, although again, I'll have to wait until next year for the paperback to come out.  *sigh* 

[Johny Cee]

Wonderful, now I get to wait until January for the next Malazan book to come out, and then however long for the final book of the series.  Ugh.  I CAN'T WAIT THAT LONG!

You can order the next book from Amazon UK.  It was released there a couple of months ago.

[Arrrgh]

Wonderful, now I get to wait until January for the next Malazan book to come out, and then however long for the final book of the series.  Ugh.  I CAN'T WAIT THAT LONG!

You can order the next book from Amazon UK.  It was released there a couple of months ago.

Free shipping.

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/search?searchTerm=Dust+of+Dreams&search=search

[Johny Cee]

The other night I read a random scifi book I found in a box, The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber. I'm not a big Leiber fan, his stuff never left much of an impression on me, though I can't recall much of what he's written. (Mostly lighter hearted sword and sorcery stuff I think)

The "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser" short stories are his most well-known works.  It can be humorous, but it's definitely not light-hearted.  It's actually very, very melancholy. 

Leiber has a really sad story.  The guy won a number of Hugos and Nebulas, is still thought of as the Godfather of Sword & Sorcery, and was pronounced a Grand Master of Science Fiction by most of the major scifi orgs, but he was living in poverty during much of his later years. 

One of his novels, Conjure Wife, has actually been made into a film three times, with another attempt trying to get off the ground now.  (It's also considered one of the first Urban Fantasy stories).

The Wanderer actually won a Hugo in the mid-60's, though it sounds like one of those scifi novels that hasn't aged well.  I did really enjoy his The Big Time.



Finally managed to track down a book by Caitlin R Kiernan, The Red Tree.  About half way through, and I'm really enjoying it.  Snarky lesbian author protagonist who retreats to an isolated house in Rhode Island to deal with a bad breakup and health issues while trying to make her next deadline, told in a journal format.  Increasing paranoia and mental issues while slowly ramping up Lovecraftian horror/New England superstitions angle.

[Slyfeind]

The Big Time was great, imo. I don't know if Lieber invented the idea of diverse time soldiers from mixed eras, but he pretty much nailed it. Nothing too deep, that's just not his style, but lots of fun to see Roman gladiators hanging in a locker room with funky future aliens.

[Ironwood]

Fairly sure Dr Who did that first.