Return of the Book Thread

[MahrinSkel]

I'm pretty sure I didn't finish the first Merchant Princes book (and can't remember the name).  Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise were awesome, I liked Halting State, and The Laundry stories are just a lot of fun.

--Dave

[FatuousTwat]

I making up a new word for Stross. He's a Technohipster.

[Johny Cee]

I making up a new word for Stross. He's a Technohipster.

Huh.  So Fatuous is a lolcat.

[HaemishM]

He's not wrong about Stross though. 

[Morat20]

He's not wrong about Stross though. 

No, he's really not. :)

I like the Laundry novels -- enough to have snagged the CoC adaptation and some old CoC adventures (woohoo for 80% off sales) that'll really easily adapt. Just bump it forward 80 years in time, throw in some occult iPhone apps and let people get hammered into insanity by something they shouldn't have been fucking with.

The Laundry stuff is pure nerd-fantasy. :) Lovecraft + IT bitching + Being a bad-ass spy.

Mahrin: I'm pretty sure he's done with the Estachon novels -- according to Stross, he "fucked it up". Something about screwing up how a big nasty time-traversing computer would work or some thing. You should try Glasshouse, if you haven't. It's set in, I think, the post-Accelerando universe, and the plot revolves around (among other things) what it really means, in day to day life, if you've got the ability to upload and download yourself, change bodies on a whim, and generally fuck around with your own conciousness.

[HaemishM]

I always thought Accelerando really had a terrible not-ending ending.

[FatuousTwat]

Accelerando felt like some kind of weird wish fulfillment fantasy with a huge side of .

Then again, I didn't finish it, so it could be just that first part.

[MahrinSkel]

Mahrin: I'm pretty sure he's done with the Estachon novels -- according to Stross, he "fucked it up". Something about screwing up how a big nasty time-traversing computer would work or some thing. You should try Glasshouse, if you haven't. It's set in, I think, the post-Accelerando universe, and the plot revolves around (among other things) what it really means, in day to day life, if you've got the ability to upload and download yourself, change bodies on a whim, and generally fuck around with your own conciousness.

Yeah, I've read the same explanations from him.  I think it's a bit of a cop-out (not like he can't ret-con his way out of just about anything if he really wants to, we're talking about time-traveling godlike AI's at war).  I think it's more like the same reasoning that led him to remove the talking cat from Iron Sunrise: He doesn't want to get stuck writing about hedonistic genetic fascism for the next 20 years.

--Dave

[Johny Cee]

Accelerando felt like some kind of weird wish fulfillment fantasy with a huge side of .

Then again, I didn't finish it, so it could be just that first part.

Well stated.  (I was aiming at "teasing" not "being a prick" with the lolcats comment.)


I managed to finish Glasshouse, though I nearly hurt myself rolling my eyes at good portions of it.  Everyone but the protagonist is a spineless moron who devolves into a not particularly well read Brits idea of '50s McCarthy suburbia, complete with neighborhood religion and a lynching.

And the climax was ass. 

[FatuousTwat]

Accelerando felt like some kind of weird wish fulfillment fantasy with a huge side of .

Then again, I didn't finish it, so it could be just that first part.

Well stated.  (I was aiming at "teasing" not "being a prick" with the lolcats comment.)


I managed to finish Glasshouse, though I nearly hurt myself rolling my eyes at good portions of it.  Everyone but the protagonist is a spineless moron who devolves into a not particularly well read Brits idea of '50s McCarthy suburbia, complete with neighborhood religion and a lynching.

And the climax was ass. 

Np, didn't think you were being a prick :)

[Johny Cee]

To change topic:

Just finished Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners, which is her second collection of short stories and an immensely well reviewed book for something that skirts the edges of the genre ghetto.  Really enjoyed it.  The cover is atrocious with a youngish woman holding a rabbit.  

People might like Felix Gilman's The Half-Made World.  It's a couple parts Weird West, couple parts alt-history/secondary world history.  

Also really liked Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris, which is autobiographical essays and really funny.  Took me a bit, but I realized his sister is Amy Sedaris (Strangers with Candy).


Right now, deciding whether to get back into Jeffrey Ford's Empire of Ice Cream or Tim Powers The Stress of Her Regard.

[Sky]

Security + Guide to Network Security Fundamentals. Whee.

edit: moved the rest to the IT Certs thread to avoid derail here. I'm getting better!

[Khaldun]

I think I mentioned Gilman's Half-Made World a ways back. I agree that folks hereabouts might well find it intriguing. Some very distinctive world-building going on.

Just started Gleick's The Information. Looks promising (if big).

[Johny Cee]

I think I mentioned Gilman's Half-Made World a ways back. I agree that folks hereabouts might well find it intriguing. Some very distinctive world-building going on.

Read Gilman's Thunderer as well, which was alright if not spectacular.  Mieville did this sort of book earlier and better, though at least I could finish Thunderer unlike Perdio. 


I'm also eying Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis.  Nazi super-science vs. British warlocks. 



Also, new Steven Brust novel next Tuesday!  Tiassa will pit Vlad against Khaavren! (supposedly).

[JWIV]

I think I mentioned Gilman's Half-Made World a ways back. I agree that folks hereabouts might well find it intriguing. Some very distinctive world-building going on.

Read Gilman's Thunderer as well, which was alright if not spectacular.  Mieville did this sort of book earlier and better, though at least I could finish Thunderer unlike Perdio. 


I'm also eying Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis.  Nazi super-science vs. British warlocks. 



Also, new Steven Brust novel next Tuesday!  Tiassa will pit Vlad against Khaavren! (supposedly).

What now!?  I nearly believe you said that the forthcoming novel, which is to say the novel not presently available but of the nature of being so momentarily if we are but patient, will contain both Vlad and Khaavren!

[RhyssaFireheart]

What now!?  I nearly believe you said that the forthcoming novel, which is to say the novel not presently available but of the nature of being so momentarily if we are but patient, will contain both Vlad and Khaavren!

I need to catch  up on the Vlad novels.  I've been getting the trade paperback versions which have 2-3 of each book in there so I've got to figure out which I have and which I need.

[Mazakiel]

I hadn't even realized there was one coming out soon.  Time to order. 

[ghost]

Started listening to Hitch Hiker's Guide this morning.  I love how listening to books, even one I've read 5 or more times, gives a completely different feel to the story. 

[Tmon]

The Malazan series has beaten me into submission.  I gave up halfway through book 7, I realized after the third 3 week renewal that I just wasn't going to make it.  Somewhere along I just got tired of keeping track of characters and places and trying to integrate events scattered all over space and time.  I'll probably come back to it some day but right now I need to read something that actually ends after 900 or so pages.  Maybe it's time to pull War and Peace down to the nook.

[HaemishM]

I'll probably come back to it some day but right now I need to read something that actually ends after 900 or so pages.  Maybe it's time to pull War and Peace down to the nook.

I'm not sure you can say something that just ends the characters and then goes on for another 50 pages about how historians are wrong about they way they interpret history because God did it is the proper change of pace. 

[Ingmar]

If you read the abridged version it leaves out all the crazy history theory stuff. There aren't many books for which I'd recommend not reading the full version, but that stuff is awfully skipable in War and Peace.

[Quinton]

Have you listened to the original Hitchhiker's radio show?  If not, well worth it.

[WayAbvPar]

The Malazan series has beaten me into submission.  I gave up halfway through book 7, I realized after the third 3 week renewal that I just wasn't going to make it.  Somewhere along I just got tired of keeping track of characters and places and trying to integrate events scattered all over space and time.  I'll probably come back to it some day but right now I need to read something that actually ends after 900 or so pages.  Maybe it's time to pull War and Peace down to the nook.

I just finished book 6 and did the same thing. The thought of starting another one made me vaguely queasy. I am enjoying the overall story, but every book has huge sections that just DRAG.

[ghost]

Have you listened to the original Hitchhiker's radio show?  If not, well worth it.

Not to any great extent.  That's a good suggestions. 

[Lucas]

Stephen King formally announced the release of an entirely new "Dark Tower" novel (a "fill in the gaps" one, if you want. No spoilers on the main series ending):

http://www.stephenking.com/promo/wind_through_the_keyhole/announcement/


Well, I guess that means even more material to use for Ron Howard & C.  

[Sky]

I'm in Toll the Hounds and still completely engaged with it. It's dragged here and there, but he improves as a writer with each book. It usually takes me a few days to start the next book after I finish one, but then I move steadily through it (I'm a slow reader, only fiction I've read since last April has been the Malazan series).

I thought book seven was one of the best-structured and balanced books thus far.

[Arrrgh]

Morlock Ambrosius, great sword and sorcery antihero.

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Ambrose-James-Enge/dp/1591027365/

http://www.amazon.com/This-Crooked-Way-James-Enge/dp/1591027845/

http://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Age-James-Enge/dp/161614243X/

[Xilren's Twin]

Ok, so I finished up the Malazan series with the Crippled God, and i can honestly say i'm glad it's done.  Every single freaking immortal just goes on and on with as much depressed emo self loathing and regret that i wanted them all to off themselves.
And i have to say, that last book seems to run almost opposite direction from the entire lead up series


Oh, and Karsa is criminally underused.

[Paelos]

Erikson had so much potential, but got bogged down in the same crap all fantasy writers do when they get successful. I hated every character but Karsa by the time I got fed up with the series. I made it through Tolls the Hounds and that was my breaking point. I disagree with Sky that is dragged in some places. It dragged through 700 pages of crap in the middle, followed by about 100 pages at the end of actual story development and interesting reveals.

I was tired of putting up with that.

[Johny Cee]

Erikson had so much potential, but got bogged down in the same crap all fantasy writers do when they get successful. I hated every character but Karsa by the time I got fed up with the series. I made it through Tolls the Hounds and that was my breaking point. I disagree with Sky that is dragged in some places. It dragged through 700 pages of crap in the middle, followed by about 100 pages at the end of actual story development and interesting reveals.

I was tired of putting up with that.

I agree Erikson went downhill, but I don't think it was typical fantasy writer breakdown.  In the middle of the series, starting with sections of book 5 and 6, he decided he didn't want to be a Fantasy writer anymore and switched to a more "literary" style where depressed nihilists whine and complain for hundreds of pages, and his philosphical musings started to eat up large portions of the book.

I think Fantasy writer breakdown and I think of an endlessly expanding story with "just one more" additional quest or book, and minor/bit characters getting dozens or hundreds of pages of viewpoint for no particular reason (see Martin, Jordan). 

It really seems like he didn't want to write heroic fantasy anymore, and just switched styles.  Their really wasn't any story creep, since it was always going to be 10 books and we covered everything that was set up before hand.  Readers signed up for a big action, big story heroic epic....  and the last three books I read had moved about as far away from that style as he could.

I will say that his characterization, which was a bit problematic early on, became fucking awful.   Every soldier sounded and talked and interacted the same way(and they were already bad knockoffs of Cook soldiers), every immortal-type started became more and more like the bad portions of Rake's character, etc.


He really needed to stop with yearly releases and write a couple of different books.

[Johny Cee]

Morlock Ambrosius, great sword and sorcery antihero.

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Ambrose-James-Enge/dp/1591027365/

http://www.amazon.com/This-Crooked-Way-James-Enge/dp/1591027845/

http://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Age-James-Enge/dp/161614243X/

These were really fun.  I didn't particularly think Blood of Ambrose was all that when I read it, but it was book that grew on me as time went on.  Pretty much enjoyed all of the next two.

For a taste, you can find links to various Morlock short stories on Enge's wiki page here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_enge

[Ard]

Oh, and Karsa is criminally underused.

Karsa's story is going to be finished in another out of series book.  At some point he realized he just flat out couldn't finish it in the main story line and get the main story finished in a reasonable fashion.  That and dreams of continued money hats.  I'm personally glad he's able to learn from George RR Martin's mistakes.

[Paelos]

I will read his Karsa books. Until then, I'm going to pretend he's gone into a Martin-style block.

[JWIV]

Erikson had so much potential, but got bogged down in the same crap all fantasy writers do when they get successful. I hated every character but Karsa by the time I got fed up with the series. I made it through Tolls the Hounds and that was my breaking point. I disagree with Sky that is dragged in some places. It dragged through 700 pages of crap in the middle, followed by about 100 pages at the end of actual story development and interesting reveals.

I was tired of putting up with that.

I'm really getting the impression that this might not be a series I want to commit to.  I just started the first book, which is okay so far, but really hasn't grabbed me.

[Paelos]

Without spoiling anything, I will say this. Erikson's an archeologist by trade. The first three books move really well. In the beginning of the fourth, you get the entire backstory of Karsa Orlong, the best character in the series.

At that point, you can stop and just wait for the Karsa books to come out. The rest of them devolve quickly into Erikson impressing his archeological vision that society is ever doomed to crumble no matter what we do, waiting only to be picked up by future generations and completely forgotten or misunderstood.