A Book a Day, to Keep Autumn Away... [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

Neftren

2012-05-27, 09:06 PM

So I've been a huge fan of books, mostly fiction in the Fantasy and Sci-Fi genres, but I'll read just about anything. University tends to eat up a lot of my time, and it's difficult to keep real books around as it is. So, now that I'm home for the summer, I've got a lot of reading I'd like to catch up on. Does anyone have any good suggestions for my reading list? Maybe we could do a collaborative book list or something. As a warning: I'm an incredibly fast reader, around one or two books a day, so if you have a suggestion, please let me know!

Reviews!
Across the Universe, Delirium, Fallen, Mistborn: The First Empire, Pirate Latitudes, The Guns of August, The Rogue Crew, Torment (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13371573&postcount=55)
Look Me in the Eye (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13381123&postcount=72)
The Graveyard Book, Passion, Mistborn: The Well of Ascension (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13407124&postcount=77)
The Name of the Wind, Mistborn: The Hero of Ages, Fallen in Love (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13444930&postcount=90)
The Alloy of Law, The Way of Kings, Altered Carbon (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13514904&postcount=97)
The Wise Man's Fear, The Gunslinger (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13554309&postcount=116)
The Amulet of Samarkand, American Gods, Divergent, Pandemonium (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13638899&postcount=130)
Fall of a Kingdom (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13643957&postcount=133)
Warbreaker, Rapture, Partials (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13731633&postcount=140)

The Current List:Title:|Author:|Status:
Partials (http://www.amazon.com/Partials-Dan-Wells/dp/0062071041)|Dan Wells| ★★★★★
Isolation (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13645264-isolation) (Partials #0.5)|Dan Wells| -- Release: August 28th --
Fragments (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13170596-fragments) (Partials #2)|Dan Wells| -- Release: 2013 --
Divergent (http://www.amazon.com/Divergent-Veronica-Roth/dp/0062024027)|Veronica Roth| ★★★★★
Insurgent (http://www.amazon.com/Insurgent-Divergent-Veronica-Roth/dp/0062024043/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b) (Divergent #2)|Veronica Roth| -- Holds Queue --
The Blade Itself (http://www.amazon.com/Blade-Itself-First-Law-Book/dp/159102594X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338170245&sr=1-1)|Joe Abercrombie|Unavailable
The Rogue Crew (http://www.amazon.com/The-Rogue-Crew-Tale-Redwall/dp/0399254161/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338170602&sr=8-1)|Brian Jacques| ★
The Guns of August (http://www.amazon.com/Guns-August-Pulitzer-Prize-Winning-Outbreak/dp/0345476093/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338170631&sr=1-1)|Barbara Tuchman|★★★
The Black Company (http://www.amazon.com/Black-Company-Chronicles/dp/0812521390/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338171247&sr=1-1)|Glen Cook|Unavailable
Assassin's Apprentice (http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Apprentice-Farseer-Trilogy-Book/dp/055357339X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338171271&sr=1-1)|Robin Hobb|Unavailable
The Name of the Wind (http://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicles-Day/dp/0756405890/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338171304&sr=1-1) (Kingkiller Chronicles #1)|Patrick Rothfuss| ★★★★★
The Wise Man's Fear (http://www.amazon.com/Wise-Mans-Playaway-Adult-Fiction/dp/1611066565) (Kingkiller Chronicles #2)|Patrick Rothfuss| ★★★★
Stranger in a Strange Land (http://www.amazon.com/Stranger-Strange-Land-Robert-Heinlein/dp/0441788386/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338171466&sr=1-1)|Robert Heinlein|-- Incomplete --
Banshee in the Well (http://www.amazon.com/Banshee-in-the-Well-ebook/dp/B006S4ZP2K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338171572&sr=8-1)|Robin Lovejoy|Unavailable
Delirium (http://www.amazon.com/Delirium-The-Special-Edition-ebook/dp/B00526ZKYS/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1338171635&sr=1-1)|Lauren Oliver| ★★★★★
Pandemonium (http://www.amazon.com/Pandemonium-Delirium-Lauren-Oliver/dp/006197806X)|Lauren Oliver| ★★★
Across the Universe (http://www.amazon.com/Across-Universe-Beth-Revis/dp/1595143971/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1338171843&sr=1-1)|Beth Revis| ★½
Wonder (http://www.amazon.com/Wonder-R-J-Palacio/dp/0375869026/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338171900&sr=8-1)|R. J. Palacio|Unavailable
Article 5 (http://www.amazon.com/Article-5-Kristen-Simmons/dp/0765329581/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338176477&sr=8-1[/URL)|Kristen Simmons|Unavailable
Fallen (http://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Lauren-Kate/dp/0385739133/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338172416&sr=8-1)|Lauren Kate| ★★★★★
Torment (http://www.amazon.com/Torment-Fallen-Book-Lauren-Kate/dp/038573915X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338518131&sr=8-1) (Fallen #2)|Lauren Kate| ★★½
Passion (http://www.amazon.com/Passion-Fallen-Lauren-Kate/dp/0385739176/ref=reader_auth_dp) (Fallen #3)|Lauren Kate| ★★★★★
Fallen in Love (http://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Love-Novel-Stories/dp/0385742614/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339858177&sr=1-4&keywords=Fallen+Series) (Fallen #3.5)|Lauren Kate| ★★★
Rapture (http://www.amazon.com/Rapture-Fallen-Lauren-Kate/dp/0385739184/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339858177&sr=1-1&keywords=Fallen+Series) (Fallen #4)|Lauren Kate| ★★★
The Graveyard Book (http://www.amazon.com/Graveyard-Book-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0060530944/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338172466&sr=1-1)|Neil Gaiman| ★★★
Pirate Latitudes (http://www.amazon.com/Pirate-Latitudes-A-Novel-ebook/dp/B002T9U302/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1338173312&sr=1-1)|Michael Crichton| ★★½
Under the Dome (http://www.amazon.com/Under-Dome-Novel-Stephen-King/dp/1439148503/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1338173347&sr=1-1)|Stephen King| -- Incomplete --
Duma Key (http://www.amazon.com/Duma-Key-Novel-Stephen-King/dp/1416552960/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338173407&sr=1-1)|Stephen King| -- Acquired! --
The Gunslinger (http://www.amazon.com/Gunslinger-Dark-Tower-Book/dp/0452284694/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338173441&sr=1-1)|Stephen King| ★
Look Me in the Eye (http://www.amazon.com/Look-Me-Eye-Life-Aspergers/dp/0307396185/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338173480&sr=1-1)|John Elder Robison| ★★★★
Mistborn: The Final Empire (http://www.amazon.com/The-Final-Empire-Mistborn-Book/dp/076531178X/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1338173641&sr=1-1)|Brandon Sanderson|★★★½
Mistborn: The Well of Ascension (http://www.amazon.com/The-Well-Ascension-Mistborn-Book/dp/0765356139/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338769257&sr=8-1)|Brandon Sanderson| ★★★★
Mistborn: The Hero of Ages (http://www.amazon.com/The-Hero-Ages-Three-Mistborn/dp/0765356147/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_c)|Brandon Sanderson| ★★★★★
Mistborn: The Alloy of Law (http://www.amazon.com/The-Alloy-Law-Mistborn-Novel/dp/0765330423)|Brandon Sanderson|★★★
The Way of Kings (http://www.amazon.com/Way-Kings-Stormlight-Archive/dp/0765365278/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338173679&sr=1-1)|Brandon Sanderson| ★★★
Into the Looking Glass (http://www.amazon.com/Into-Looking-Glass-Book/dp/1416521054/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338173716&sr=1-1)|John Ringo|Unavailable
Ruins (http://www.amazon.com/Ruins-Pathfinder-Orson-Scott-Card/dp/1416991778/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338257976&sr=8-1)|Orson Scott Card| -- Release: October 30th --
The Stars at War (http://www.amazon.com/Stars-at-War-Starfire/dp/0743488415/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338173819&sr=1-2)|David Weber| -- Local Library --
Off Armageddon Reef (http://www.amazon.com/Off-Armageddon-Reef-David-Weber/dp/B00132Q10M/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338173985&sr=1-1)|David Weber | -- Local Library --
Storm Front (http://www.amazon.com/Storm-Front-Dresden-Files-Book/dp/0451457811/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338177761&sr=8-1)|Jim Butcher| -- Acquired --
American Gods (http://www.amazon.com/American-Gods-Novel-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0060558121/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338177795&sr=1-1)|Neil Gaiman| ★★
The Amulet of Samarkand (http://www.amazon.com/Amulet-Samarkand-Bartimaeus-Trilogy-Pb/dp/075695195X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338177828&sr=1-1)|Jonathan Stroud| ★★★
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (http://www.amazon.com/Jonathan-Strange-Mr-Norrell-Novel/dp/0765356155/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338177872&sr=1-1)|Susanna Clarke| -- Acquired --
Altered Carbon (http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Carbon-Richard-K-Morgan/dp/1596061855)|Richard Morgan| ★★★★
Priestess of the White (http://www.amazon.com/Priestess-White-Five-Trilogy-Book/dp/0060815701/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338258819&sr=1-1)|Trudi Canavan|Unavailable
Warlord of the Air (http://www.amazon.com/Warlord-Air-Oswald-Bastable/dp/0586208887/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338258910&sr=1-1)|Michael Moorcock|Unavailable
Little Fuzzy (http://www.amazon.com/Little-Fuzzy-Henry-Beam-Piper/dp/1461068150/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338258968&sr=1-1)|Henry Beam Piper|Unavailable
Hyperion (http://www.amazon.com/Hyperion-Dan-Simmons/dp/0553283685)|Dan Simmons|Unavailable
The Mote in God's Eye (http://www.amazon.com/The-Mote-Gods-Larry-Niven/dp/0671741926)|Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle|Unavailable
Legend (http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Drenai-Tales-Book-1/dp/0345379063/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338343783&sr=1-1)|David Gemmell|Unavailable
Sword in the Storm (http://www.amazon.com/Sword-Storm-Rigante-Book-1/dp/0345432347/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338343823&sr=1-2)|David Gemmell|Unavailable
Ready Player One (http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline/dp/030788743)|Ernest Cline| -- Holds Queue --
Furies of Calderon (http://www.amazon.com/Furies-Calderon-Codex-Alera-Book/dp/044101268X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338344246&sr=1-1)|Jim Butcher| -- Friend's Collection --
The Warded Man (http://www.amazon.com/The-Warded-Man-Peter-Brett/dp/0345503805)|Peter Brett| -- Holds Queue --
Foundling (http://www.amazon.com/Foundling-Monster-Blood-Tattoo-Book/dp/B00394DG7S/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338769528&sr=1-1)|D.M. Cornish| -- Holds Queue --
Fall of a Kingdom (http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Kingdom-Farsala-Trilogy-Book/dp/0689854145/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338769559&sr=1-1)|Hilari Bell| ★★★★
On a Pale Horse (http://www.amazon.com/Pale-Horse-Incarnations-Immortality-Bk/dp/0345338588/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338769637&sr=1-1)|Piers Anthony| -- Sound Recording --
Here There Be Dragons (http://www.amazon.com/There-Dragons-Chronicles-Imaginarium-Geographica/dp/1416912282/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338769712&sr=1-1)|James Owen|Unavailable
The Fall (http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Seventh-Tower-1/dp/0439176824/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338769798&sr=1-1)|Garth Nix| -- Holds Queue --
Wit'ch Fire (http://www.amazon.com/Witch-Fire-Banned-Banished-Book/dp/0345417062/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338769908&sr=1-1)|James Clemens|Unavailable
His Majesty's Dragon (http://www.amazon.com/His-Majestys-Dragon-Temeraire-Book/dp/0345481283/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338769972&sr=1-1)|Naomi Novik| -- Holds Queue --
The Language Wars (http://www.amazon.com/Language-Wars-History-Proper-English/dp/0374183295/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338770040&sr=1-1)|Henry Hitchings| -- Holds Queue --
Snow Crash (http://www.amazon.com/Snow-Crash-Bantam-Spectra-Book/dp/0553380958/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338770090&sr=1-1)|Neal Stephenson| -- Holds Queue --
Stardust (http://www.amazon.com/Stardust-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0061689246/ref=pd_sim_b_2)|Neil Gaiman
Coraline (http://www.amazon.com/Coraline-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0380807343/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338772489&sr=1-1)|Neil Gaiman
Anansi Boys (http://www.amazon.com/Anansi-Boys-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0060515198/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338772331&sr=1-1)|Neil Gaiman
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Beasts-Magic-Carpet-Books/dp/0152055363/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338772588&sr=1-1)|Patricia McKillip
Riddlemaster (http://www.amazon.com/Riddle-Master-Patricia-A-McKillip/dp/0441005969/ref=pd_sim_b_1)|Patricia McKillip
Fool: A Novel (http://www.amazon.com/Fool-A-Novel-Christopher-Moore/dp/0060590327/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338772880&sr=1-1)|Christopher Moore
Witch World (http://www.amazon.com/Witch-World-Andre-Norton/dp/B000SVIOAO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338773227&sr=1-1)|Andre Norton
A Spell for Chameleon (http://www.amazon.com/Spell-Chameleon-Xanth-Book/dp/0345347536/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338773293&sr=1-1)|Piers Anthony
The Dragonriders of Pern (http://www.amazon.com/The-Dragonriders-Pern-Anne-McCaffrey/dp/0345340248/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338773607&sr=1-1)|Anne McCaffrey
Neuromancer (http://www.amazon.com/Neuromancer-William-Gibson/dp/0441569595)|William Gibson
Magician: Apprentice (http://www.amazon.com/Magician-Apprentice-Raymond-Feist/dp/0553564943/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339301163&sr=1-1)|Raymond Feist
The Darkness That Comes Before (http://www.amazon.com/Darkness-Comes-Before-Prince-Nothing/dp/1841494089/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339301216&sr=1-2)|R Scott Bakker
Knights of Dark Renown (http://www.amazon.com/Knights-Dark-Renown-David-Gemmell/dp/034537908X)|David Gemmell
Dark Moon (http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Moon-David-Gemmell/dp/0345458370)|David Gemmell| -- Holds Queue --
Echoes of the Greatsong (http://www.amazon.com/Echoes-Great-Song-David-Gemmell/dp/0345432320)|David Gemmell
Warbreaker (http://www.amazon.com/Warbreaker-Sci-Fi-Essential-Books/dp/0765320304)|Brandon Sanderson| ★★★★
The Lies of Locke Lamora (http://www.amazon.com/Lies-Locke-Lamora-Signed-Limited/dp/1596061049)|Scott Lynch
Everything Matters (http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Matters-Ron-Currie-Jr/dp/0670020923)|Ron Currie Jr.

Just some quick notes: If the book listed is the start of a series, assume I'm reading the entire series in order (i.e. don't suggest The Two Towers if you already see The Fellowship of the Ring, but The Hobbit would be an acceptable suggestion). If the book listed is already partway through a series, assume I've read the prior novels (i.e. if you see Mockingjay listed, then assume I've already read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire). If a book on the list is just outright terrible, let me know...

I'll be adding more over the course of the night, but for now... have at it!

Triscuitable

2012-05-27, 09:18 PM

Science Fiction

Michael Chricton: Prey; Jurassic World; Pirate Latitudes
Stephen King: Under the Dome; Duma Key; The Gunslinger
S.M. Stirling: The Island in the Sea of Time; Dies the Fire
James Patterson: When the Wind Blows

Non-Fiction

John Elder Robinson: look me in the eye

I'll add to this list as I remember or find more stuff.

Volatar

2012-05-27, 09:40 PM

Brandon Sanderson is in my opinion, the best author I have ever read. I highly recommend that you read everything by him, but for specific recommendations:

Fantasy:
Brandon Sanderson: The 3 4 books of the Mistborn Trilogy Series, and The Way of Kings, the first book in The Stormlight Archive.

I would also recommend some scifi:

John Ringo: The Looking Glass Series, which is just pure hilarious Scifi adventure.
David Weber: The Starfire series for some Space warfare, and The Safehold series for Naval warfare (Yes, sailing boats, yet still scifi. Trust me, it's awesome.)

Neftren

2012-05-27, 10:00 PM

For those of you wondering why I'm not just doing a Good Reads list, as Volatar pointed out to me on Steam, it's for a number of reasons, which I'll keep private for now, but I have good reasons! Anyways...

Science Fiction

Michael Chricton: Prey; Jurassic World; Pirate Latitudes
Stephen King: Under the Dome; Duma Key; The Gunslinger
S.M. Stirling: The Island in the Sea of Time; Dies the Fire
James Patterson: When the Wind Blows

Non-Fiction

John Elder Robinson: look me in the eye

I'll add to this list as I remember or find more stuff.

Ooh, Michael Crichton. I've read a bunch of his stuff. Some of it was pretty creepy, but I liked most of what I read (just stuff I pulled off my brother's bookshelf though, so only one or two books). Wait, is "Prey" the one about the nanites becoming self-aware and assimilating everyone...? I think I might have read that. I couldn't seem to find a listing for Jurassic World (did you mean The Lost World (http://www.amazon.com/Lost-World-Jurassic-Park-ebook/dp/B000FC1J76/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1338173277&sr=1-1)?), but I've added Pirate Latitudes.

I've added all the Stephen King books, and the Robison book, and hopefully the library will have them!

Brandon Sanderson is in my opinion, the best author I have ever read. I highly recommend that you read everything by him, but for specific recommendations:

Fantasy:
Brandon Sanderson: The 3 4 books of the Mistborn Trilogy Series, and The Way of Kings, the first book in The Stormlight Archive.

I would also recommend some scifi:

John Ringo: The Looking Glass Series, which is just pure hilarious Scifi adventure.
David Weber: The Starfire series for some Space warfare, and The Safehold series for Naval warfare (Yes, sailing boats, yet still scifi. Trust me, it's awesome.)

Added the Sanderson books. "Into the Looking Glass" (Ringo) looks oddly familiar. I might have seen it before at the library. Or maybe it's the cover... reminds me vaguely of Starship Troopers. I had some trouble tracking down the David Weber books (well, which books were the first in the series), but they're on the list now.

Triscuitable

2012-05-27, 10:21 PM

Ooh, Michael Crichton. I've read a bunch of his stuff. Some of it was pretty creepy, but I liked most of what I read (just stuff I pulled off my brother's bookshelf though, so only one or two books). Wait, is "Prey" the one about the nanites becoming self-aware and assimilating everyone...? I think I might have read that. I couldn't seem to find a listing for Jurassic World (did you mean The Lost World (http://www.amazon.com/Lost-World-Jurassic-Park-ebook/dp/B000FC1J76/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1338173277&sr=1-1)?), but I've added Pirate Latitudes.

I've added all the Stephen King books, and the Robison book, and hopefully the library will have them!

Yes, Prey is about the nanites. In that case, there's no point. And I was serious with Jurassic World. It's a two-book compilation for Jurassic Park and The Lost World, with a couple of chapters written to bridge the two novels. The end result is a monster of a hardcover.

You'll burn through The Gunslinger in an afternoon, but Under the Dome will take you maybe two or three days. It's huge. You might want to buy an onion for when you read Duma Key, however. You don't want people to go around thinking those tears are real.

Dumbledore lives

2012-05-27, 10:29 PM

Well I don't know if you've read them but The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher are pretty great, the first in the series being Storm Front and the most recent Ghost Story, there are 13 books so it is a bit of an investment but well worth it, and they are all really easy reads.

Otherwise I'd recommend pretty much anything by Neil Gaiman, with American Gods at the top of the list.

Cogwheel

2012-05-27, 10:44 PM

Basically all of Discworld, by Terry Pratchett. Maybe give the first five books or so a miss because they're rather less good, but still. Wonderful series.

Besides that... Bartimaeus trilogy, starting with the Amulet of Samarkand. By Jonathan Stroud. Again, very nice urban fantasy series.

Lastly, if you like Victorian era, highly atypical fantasy, I suggest Jonathan Stroud & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. Slow to start, absolutely massive, but my all-time favourite book. Excellent cast of characters, too, even if you will probably end up hating most of them. In any case, even more than the others, I can't possibly recommend this one enough.

Neftren

2012-05-27, 10:57 PM

I've added a new status section to indicate which books are on hold, unavailable at my local library, etc. I might read some of them as eBooks, as Volatar pointed out.

Yes, Prey is about the nanites. In that case, there's no point. And I was serious with Jurassic World. It's a two-book compilation for Jurassic Park and The Lost World, with a couple of chapters written to bridge the two novels. The end result is a monster of a hardcover.

You'll burn through The Gunslinger in an afternoon, but Under the Dome will take you maybe two or three days. It's huge. You might want to buy an onion for when you read Duma Key, however. You don't want people to go around thinking those tears are real.

Ah, I'll try to find the Jurassic World. If it's just two books combined, which one should I read first (assuming my library even has it).

The Gunslinger looks to be part of a series, so that should keep me going pretty well too. Depends on library availability mostly at this point.

Well I don't know if you've read them but The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher are pretty great, the first in the series being Storm Front and the most recent Ghost Story, there are 13 books so it is a bit of an investment but well worth it, and they are all really easy reads.

Otherwise I'd recommend pretty much anything by Neil Gaiman, with American Gods at the top of the list.

The titles sounds familiar. I'll put those on the queue, and if it turns out I've already read them, no harm done.

I've read some of Gaiman's other stuff with varying results. Angels and Demons (in collaboration with Pratchett... see below I suppose).

Basically all of Discworld, by Terry Pratchett. Maybe give the first five books or so a miss because they're rather less good, but still. Wonderful series.

Besides that... Bartimaeus trilogy, starting with the Amulet of Samarkand. By Jonathan Stroud. Again, very nice urban fantasy series.

Lastly, if you like Victorian era, highly atypical fantasy, I suggest Jonathan Stroud & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. Slow to start, absolutely massive, but my all-time favourite book. Excellent cast of characters, too, even if you will probably end up hating most of them. In any case, even more than the others, I can't possibly recommend this one enough.

I've read every single Discworld book (I was lucky enough to have Pratchett sign three of my books!!!). Probably among my favorite books of all time, though I've been rather disappointed with some of the newer books.

I think I've read the first two books in the Bartimaeus trilogy, but I'd have to go look at the covers again to be sure (my memory is mostly image based).

I'll look into the Clarke stuff.

Edit: Yes, I feel like I've read the Bartimaeus series, but I can't seem to place the plots, so it's as good a time as any to reread them! The same thing with the Susanna Clarke book (I'll venture a guess and say you meant to type Jonathan Strange, not Jonathan Stroud, who authored the Bartimaeus stuff :smalltongue: ).

Triscuitable

2012-05-27, 11:19 PM

Ah, I'll try to find the Jurassic World. If it's just two books combined, which one should I read first (assuming my library even has it).

The Gunslinger looks to be part of a series, so that should keep me going pretty well too. Depends on library availability mostly at this point.

Jurassic Park is the first book, followed by The Lost World. The Gunslinger is the first in Stephen King's colossal Dark Tower (pun) series, but the first book is short enough for anyone to learn what it is before deciding to delve further into it. It's a merged canon of all of King's other works, so a couple of other character from previous books appear due to universe-warping and whatnot. Even (white-text spoiler) King himself appears at one point.

Feytalist

2012-05-28, 02:37 AM

Kovacs Triogy (Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, Woken Furies) by Richard K. Morgan. Cyberpunk/neo-noir SF with a great narrative. One of the best series I've read.

Night Watch series (Night Watch, Day Watch, Twilight Watch, Last Watch) by Sergei Lukyanenko. Modern fantasy by a Russian author. It's translated, but the English translation is pretty good. The first book was adapted into two movies a coupla years ago, you might have caught it (Night Watch / Day Watch).

The Witcher series (The Last Wish is a collection of short stories, The Blood of Elves is the start of a longer trilogy) by Andrzej Sapkowski. Fairly dark fantasy series by a Polish author. Again, the English translation isn't bad. Adapted into a videogame series.

If you like SF, you've probably read the Dune series by Frank Herbert.

Age of the Five (trilogy starts with Priestess of the White) by Trudi Canavan. Straightforward fantasy series with an above-average narrative.

The Nomad of the Time Streams trilogy (starts with Warlord of the Air) by Michael Moorcock. Timetravelling steampunk SF. Moorcock is a great author.

turkishproverb

2012-05-28, 02:56 AM

Little Fuzzy, by H. Beam Piper

Kindablue

2012-05-28, 06:10 AM

It's dangerous out there; take a map. (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/09/flowchart_for_navigating_nprs_top_100_sff_books/)

Gnoman

2012-05-28, 03:48 PM

Try the first book in David Drake's RCN series. With The lightnings. I'm pretty sure the ebook is available free from the publisher.

Neftren

2012-05-28, 09:39 PM

So, I finished Pathfinder, by Orson Scott Card, today. Pretty interesting premise, though the whole time manipulation thing has my head spinning with all the crazy paradoxes.

If you guys are interested, I can probably do full reviews of every book I read. Just a little project I've been considering on the side I suppose.

Jurassic Park is the first book, followed by The Lost World. The Gunslinger is the first in Stephen King's colossal Dark Tower (pun) series, but the first book is short enough for anyone to learn what it is before deciding to delve further into it. It's a merged canon of all of King's other works, so a couple of other character from previous books appear due to universe-warping and whatnot. Even (white-text spoiler) King himself appears at one point.

Well, Gunslinger is on hold. I can't seem to find copies of Jurassic Park at my local library, but maybe one of the local universities will have it. Stephen King has so many books out there... I suppose it's tough to keep every single one of his books in a single library system.

Kovacs Triogy (Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, Woken Furies) by Richard K. Morgan. Cyberpunk/neo-noir SF with a great narrative. One of the best series I've read.

Oh many, Altered Carbon has such a fascinating synopsis. I absolutely cannot wait to read this. Added to the list. Fingers crossed that my library has it! :smallamused:

Night Watch series (Night Watch, Day Watch, Twilight Watch, Last Watch) by Sergei Lukyanenko. Modern fantasy by a Russian author. It's translated, but the English translation is pretty good. The first book was adapted into two movies a coupla years ago, you might have caught it (Night Watch / Day Watch).

Before I add this to the list, are there multiple translations, like with many other Russian -> English novels? If so, which one is best?

The Witcher series (The Last Wish is a collection of short stories, The Blood of Elves is the start of a longer trilogy) by Andrzej Sapkowski. Fairly dark fantasy series by a Polish author. Again, the English translation isn't bad. Adapted into a videogame series.

I've played the games. I tried tracking down the books a few years ago, but I wasn't able to locate any copies at the time. How similar are they compared to the games?

If you like SF, you've probably read the Dune series by Frank Herbert.

Yep. Dune was awesome.

Age of the Five (trilogy starts with Priestess of the White) by Trudi Canavan. Straightforward fantasy series with an above-average narrative.

I've added this to the list.

The Nomad of the Time Streams trilogy (starts with Warlord of the Air) by Michael Moorcock. Timetravelling steampunk SF. Moorcock is a great author.

An older book... interesting. This looks promising. Also on the list.

Little Fuzzy, by H. Beam Piper

Added.

It's dangerous out there; take a map. (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/09/flowchart_for_navigating_nprs_top_100_sff_books/)

This is rather immense. As much as I love flowcharts, I really don't have any strong preference towards either Fantasy or SciFi, hence the request for suggestions. :smallsmile: It's a rather expansive list though, thanks! I'll keep it bookmarked.

I should probably take the time to establish this (to everybody)... I don't necessarily have to read fiction or scifi. If you know a really good book, feel free to pipe up!

Try the first book in David Drake's RCN series. With The lightnings. I'm pretty sure the ebook is available free from the publisher.

Hmm, the publisher site seems to be selling the eBook versions. Do you have a link to a download? Pardon me. My Google Fu is weak today.

Volatar

2012-05-28, 10:29 PM

It's dangerous out there; take a map. (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/09/flowchart_for_navigating_nprs_top_100_sff_books/)

That map says that Mistborn is a finished series. This is (to my utter delight) horribly wrong.:smallbiggrin:

Helanna

2012-05-28, 10:41 PM

That map says that Mistborn is a finished series. This is (to my utter delight) horribly wrong.:smallbiggrin:

Well, at least the first Mistborn trilogy is self-contained. If I'm reading it correctly, it also lists Wheel of Time as a finished series, which is hilarious. I also disagree with its placement of The Name of the Wind (which I'm glad to see is already on the to-read list!) as being similar to Harry Potter with the main draw being 'a precocious lad at a school of magic'. Just . . . not even close.

Still, I do love me a good flowchart, and as long as I also am looking for more good fantasy to read over the summer, I believe I'll make use of it.

turkishproverb

2012-05-29, 01:03 AM

Added.

Cool. Might also try some shorter works by him. Paratime stories novel or otherwise were particularly fun.

Feytalist

2012-05-29, 01:49 AM

Oh many, Altered Carbon has such a fascinating synopsis. I absolutely cannot wait to read this. Added to the list. Fingers crossed that my library has it! :smallamused:

Yeah, the book's body-swapping tech is quite unique. The books are rather dark, so be warned, but the setting itself is so damn intriguing.

Before I add this to the list, are there multiple translations, like with many other Russian -> English novels? If so, which one is best?

As far as I'm aware, all four books were translated by one person, Andrew Bromfield. If you find an English version, it'll be his.

I've played the games. I tried tracking down the books a few years ago, but I wasn't able to locate any copies at the time. How similar are they compared to the games?

Yeah, they're very similar. You'll recognise the characters and setting, and the games capture the sort of sarcastic cynicism of the novels very well. With bits of humour in the most surprising places. One thing that is different is the protagonist, Geralt himself. The books are set before the games, so he still has all his memories.

Kindablue

2012-05-29, 05:04 AM

This is rather immense. As much as I love flowcharts, I really don't have any strong preference towards either Fantasy or SciFi, hence the request for suggestions. :smallsmile: It's a rather expansive list though, thanks! I'll keep it bookmarked.

I should probably take the time to establish this (to everybody)... I don't necessarily have to read fiction or scifi. If you know a really good book, feel free to pipe up!

Off that list, I'd specifically suggest Hyperion by Dan Simmons and The Mote in God's Eye Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. And, sorry, I read the OP as "suggest sci-fi and fantasy fiction to me." The Philip Marlowe books by Raymond Chandler are my favorite genre novel "series", though since there isn't really any continuity between them, it doesn't matter what order you read them in. The first one chronologically, The Big Sleep, is my favorite. But that's just, like, my opinion.

Megatron46

2012-05-29, 08:00 AM

"Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel- Booker prize winner and awsome book about Thomas Cromwell
"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" by Michael Chabon.
"Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" by Susanna Clarke

All bloody brilliant books!

Emmerask

2012-05-29, 10:29 AM

Fantasy

David Gemmell Drenai Series, Rigante series and Stones of Power
among the best series of books I´ve ever read

Raymond E. Feist Riftwar Saga

Science Fiction

E. E. Knight Vampire Earth
the ending was a huge letdown but the series was entertaining ^^

Michael A. Stackpole Blood of Kerensky Trilogy and Warrior Trilogy
ie his battletech novels

Tavar

2012-05-29, 11:11 AM

Just a note regarding the David Weber Books: some of his stuff(as well as works by other authors) can be found for Free on Baen's website, in the Free library section.

I'll suggest Ready Player One (http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline/dp/030788743X), by Ernest Cline. Basically a love letter to the 1980's, and nerd/videogame culture in general.

Also, Abarat (http://www.amazon.com/Abarat-Clive-Barker/dp/0060280921), by Clive Barker, is a good series. If you want to read it, you really need the paper editions, though, because the art is what truly sells it, at least for me.

Lord of Light (http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Light-Roger-Zelazny/dp/0060567236/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338307721&sr=1-1), by Roger Zelazny is also really good. Sci-fi mixed with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity. His other works, such as the Amber series (http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Book-Amber-Chronicles/dp/0380809060/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c) I've also found enjoyable. Note that the link to the series is to the compilation book.

Also, have you read anything by Jim Butcher?

Emmerask

2012-05-29, 11:14 AM

Also, have you read anything by Jim Butcher?

Dresden Files and Codex Alera have already been suggested (I think) else I would have suggested both myself :smallbiggrin:

/edit actually Codex Alera seems not to have been suggested so

Fantasy

Jim Butcher Codex Alera

Neftren

2012-05-29, 09:18 PM

Cool. Might also try some shorter works by him. Paratime stories novel or otherwise were particularly fun.

Hmm. Yeah I'm mostly limited by my library's availability. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask if they could order it.

Yeah, the book's body-swapping tech is quite unique. The books are rather dark, so be warned, but the setting itself is so damn intriguing.

As far as I'm aware, all four books were translated by one person, Andrew Bromfield. If you find an English version, it'll be his.

Yeah, they're very similar. You'll recognise the characters and setting, and the games capture the sort of sarcastic cynicism of the novels very well. With bits of humour in the most surprising places. One thing that is different is the protagonist, Geralt himself. The books are set before the games, so he still has all his memories.

Hmm, I think I'll skip the Witcher then. My local library system didn't have the Night Watch series, but I've sent a note to a University library asking if they have it.

Off that list, I'd specifically suggest Hyperion by Dan Simmons and The Mote in God's Eye Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. And, sorry, I read the OP as "suggest sci-fi and fantasy fiction to me." The Philip Marlowe books by Raymond Chandler are my favorite genre novel "series", though since there isn't really any continuity between them, it doesn't matter what order you read them in. The first one chronologically, The Big Sleep, is my favorite. But that's just, like, my opinion.

I've added Hyperion and Mote.

I'll check my library for which books from Chandler are available, and read their jacket covers I suppose, then I'll add those to the list. By chronologically, and "isn't really any continuity" I take it you mean in order of publication?

"Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel- Booker prize winner and awsome book about Thomas Cromwell
"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" by Michael Chabon.
"Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" by Susanna Clarke

All bloody brilliant books!

Jonathan Strange was suggested by someone else I think, and should be on the list... let me go check... yup.

I cannot seem to locate a copy of Kavalier and Clay in any local library system (I had this problem with Watchmen as well, and Maus). I'll keep trying.

Fantasy

David Gemmell Drenai Series, Rigante series and Stones of Power
among the best series of books I´ve ever read

Raymond E. Feist Riftwar Saga

Science Fiction

E. E. Knight Vampire Earth
the ending was a huge letdown but the series was entertaining ^^

Michael A. Stackpole Blood of Kerensky Trilogy and Warrior Trilogy
ie his battletech novels

I've added Legend (Drenai series?) to the list, and the Rigante series as well. Stones of Power starts with which book... Ghost King? Wikipedia seems to list the series as part of a greater series (I suppose it'd be called a subseries at that point).

Okay, so, before we even get into the subject of vampires... in Vampire Earth, are we talking about the murderous, bloodsucking bat-peoples, or are we talking about swooning-with-love Twilight vampires? Absolutely nothing against Twilight vampires at all (absolutely nothing against the book either; I haven't read it, I can't judge, and if that many people are head over heels for it... she has to have done something right... maybe...).

Just a note regarding the David Weber Books: some of his stuff(as well as works by other authors) can be found for Free on Baen's website, in the Free library section.

Ooh, I'll check this out. I do prefer a physical book whenever possible though.

I'll suggest Ready Player One (http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline/dp/030788743X), by Ernest Cline. Basically a love letter to the 1980's, and nerd/videogame culture in general.

This looks interesting. I've added it to the list. Hopefully my library has this.

Also, Abarat (http://www.amazon.com/Abarat-Clive-Barker/dp/0060280921), by Clive Barker, is a good series. If you want to read it, you really need the paper editions, though, because the art is what truly sells it, at least for me.

I've read all of Abarat, and yeah, the paper illustrations make it awesome.

Lord of Light (http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Light-Roger-Zelazny/dp/0060567236/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338307721&sr=1-1), by Roger Zelazny is also really good. Sci-fi mixed with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity. His other works, such as the Amber series (http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Book-Amber-Chronicles/dp/0380809060/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c) I've also found enjoyable. Note that the link to the series is to the compilation book.

Also, have you read anything by Jim Butcher?

I'll try to look into these. Some quick searching in the local library yielded no results.

Jim Butcher is on the list multiple times I think now. :smallbiggrin:

Dresden Files and Codex Alera have already been suggested (I think) else I would have suggested both myself :smallbiggrin:

/edit actually Codex Alera seems not to have been suggested so

Fantasy

Jim Butcher Codex Alera

Bam! Added. That was easy. :smallsmile:

Good news on the library front. Three books are ready for pickup at my library. I'll pick them up tomorrow, and then I can reserve three more!

Kindablue

2012-05-29, 09:34 PM

I've added Hyperion and Mote.

I'll check my library for which books from Chandler are available, and read their jacket covers I suppose, then I'll add those to the list. By chronologically, and "isn't really any continuity" I take it you mean in order of publication?

Yeah, chronologically. There is some continuity (like Marlowe's romance with Linda Loring), it's just that I don't think Chandler really expects you to have read the other books, so they all stand alone pretty neatly.

turkishproverb

2012-05-30, 12:38 AM

Hmm. Yeah I'm mostly limited by my library's availability. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask if they could order it.

A chunk of his books are in the public domain.

TheCountAlucard

2012-05-30, 05:21 AM

The Shannara series, by Terry Brooks.

Emmerask

2012-05-30, 05:50 AM

I've added Legend (Drenai series?) to the list, and the Rigante series as well. Stones of Power starts with which book... Ghost King? Wikipedia seems to list the series as part of a greater series (I suppose it'd be called a subseries at that point).

Yep, legend is the first book of the drenai series.
You can start the stones of power series either with Ghost King or with Wolf in Shadows (the other subseries).

Okay, so, before we even get into the subject of vampires... in Vampire Earth, are we talking about the murderous, bloodsucking bat-peoples, or are we talking about swooning-with-love Twilight vampires? Absolutely nothing against Twilight vampires at all (absolutely nothing against the book either; I haven't read it, I can't judge, and if that many people are head over heels for it... she has to have done something right... maybe...).

Actually the title of the book is misleading :smallbiggrin:
It is about aliens having conquered the world and the resistance of one small part of the us against them.
The "vampires" are genetically engineered killing/harvest machines that suck life energy out of people to transfer it to the aliens, humans in the books only call them vampires because they are very close to those mythical creatures ^^

Gnoman

2012-05-30, 03:28 PM

Hmm, the publisher site seems to be selling the eBook versions. Do you have a link to a download? Pardon me. My Google Fu is weak today.

Here's links to the first 3 books (The only ones that are part of the Free Library.)

http://www.baenebooks.com/p-469-with-the-lightnings.aspx
http://www.baenebooks.com/p-258-lt-leary-commanding.aspx
http://www.baenebooks.com/p-140-the-far-side-of-the-stars.aspx

Despite showing a price, the books are actually free. Baen regularly makes the older portions of it's library away for free both to encourage readers to obtain the rest of a series, and as a snub to DRM advocates. You can verify this by looking in the lower right-hand portion of the product page, where you will see something along the lines of:

Published 7/1/2000
SKU: 0671578863
Ebook Price: $4.00
Baen Free Library Book

Neftren

2012-05-31, 07:28 PM

Yeah, chronologically. There is some continuity (like Marlowe's romance with Linda Loring), it's just that I don't think Chandler really expects you to have read the other books, so they all stand alone pretty neatly.

Hmm, interesting. Alright I'll try to track down these books.

The Shannara series, by Terry Brooks.

So just looking at Wikipedia... where do I start? There are so many books... I guess when looking at large series, there's always the Narnia or Discworld Dilemma (hey that rolls off the tongue rather nicely!). Would it make more sense to read chronologically, or in order of publication?

Yep, legend is the first book of the drenai series.
You can start the stones of power series either with Ghost King or with Wolf in Shadows (the other subseries).

Okay, I suppose I'll just add both to the library holds system and read them in the order they come in.

Actually the title of the book is misleading :smallbiggrin:
It is about aliens having conquered the world and the resistance of one small part of the us against them.
The "vampires" are genetically engineered killing/harvest machines that suck life energy out of people to transfer it to the aliens, humans in the books only call them vampires because they are very close to those mythical creatures ^^

This sounds oddly familiar... was it made into a movie at some point? Either way, it sounds totally awesome. I'll go track down a copy.

Here's links to the first 3 books (The only ones that are part of the Free Library.)

http://www.baenebooks.com/p-469-with-the-lightnings.aspx
http://www.baenebooks.com/p-258-lt-leary-commanding.aspx
http://www.baenebooks.com/p-140-the-far-side-of-the-stars.aspx

Despite showing a price, the books are actually free. Baen regularly makes the older portions of it's library away for free both to encourage readers to obtain the rest of a series, and as a snub to DRM advocates. You can verify this by looking in the lower right-hand portion of the product page, where you will see something along the lines of:

Ooh, sweet! I'll probably read these when I'm between library books.

I finished Fallen yesterday. At first glance it seemed like a book for young teenage girls, but I found it oddly riveting. It raised some rather interesting questions about reform schools and friendship. I'm probably being too vague at this point, but I'd be giving away the rest of the book otherwise. It's quite good. I'd definitely recommend it to you guys. :smallbiggrin:

Need to Add... (note to self)
- Stones of Power
- Philip Marlowe
- Vampire Earth

Edit: Just finished Across the Universe. It was not that great. Not the worst I've read, but it wasn't great either. I'll have more on this book tomorrow probably.

Feytalist

2012-06-01, 01:18 AM

TheCountAlucard

2012-06-01, 01:23 AM

So just looking at Wikipedia... where do I start? There are so many books... I guess when looking at large series, there's always the Narnia or Discworld Dilemma (hey that rolls off the tongue rather nicely!). Would it make more sense to read chronologically, or in order of publication?I'd say go in order of publication; you'll spoil a lot less for yourself that way. :smallamused:

Neftren

2012-06-02, 12:52 PM

I see you're giving the books you've read ratings, heh. That's cool. Could always use some more book recommendations.

That Fallen book intrigued me, because there's another YA series out there, also called Fallen, also dealing with fallen angels, written by some guy called Thomas Sniegoski. It was made into a miniseries at one point. Bryan Cranston played Lucifer. Heh.

Indeed I have given them ratings. I realized I couldn't review every single book out there, so I'll just give them ratings for now, and hopefully I'll be able to catch up on the reviews at some point. Probably not though. I'm a huge procrastinator. :smallbiggrin:

As for Fallen, it's quite good, though part of that is just me being rather into YA fiction at this point. I get a lot of weird stares sometimes, but hey, I'm reading and not mindlessly shooting at stuff on a screen, so I think my parents aren't really going to push it too much.

I'd say go in order of publication; you'll spoil a lot less for yourself that way. :smallamused:

Alrighty, I'll go track those books down.

I'm actually on my way to the library now, but I'll have a more substantial post when I get back, and hopefully I'll have one or two reviews as well.

Need to Add... (note to self)
- Stones of Power
- Philip Marlowe
- Vampire Earth
- Shannara Series

1

Edit: Aaand, ten new books are in. Eleven books to read this week, as I didn't get to The Guns of August in time (ended up watching Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy instead).

I ended up crossing Under the Dome off the list (sorry Trisc!) and marked it incomplete. I dunno, I started it, and just didn't really like it. Maybe it's just me, and I've had a similar problem with Stephen King in the past. His writing just... doesn't hook me. Some books I kept reading, but mostly because I liked the subject. This one, it had an interesting premise, but he just kept going on and on.

Volatar, I finished the first Mistborn book. The mechanics are pretty awesome. The story was pretty good too (not riveting, so not a 4 or a 5), but I feel like I would have liked it more in a serialized format, similar to how Dickens published his books.

For everyone else, I've got a review of Mistborn and Fallen in the wings. I'm typing up a review of Across the Universe right now, and then I'll probably post those here after I'm done.

Folytopo

2012-06-02, 02:34 PM

SidCoolios

2012-06-02, 02:50 PM

(I'm Irazel, by the way)

Here we go,

The Warded Man and its sequel by Peter V Brett
Strange future world filled with demons and little hope, it's pretty good

Monster Blood Tattoo and its sequels by D. M. Cornish
(The first book is actually called Foundling)
It's targeted for a slightly younger audience I think, but it's still a very interesting world.

The Farsala Triology by Hilari Bell.
The first book is Fall of a Kingdom.
I read it a long time ago and remember enjoying it.

That's all I've got for you right now, I'll be back with more as soon as my
memory starts working again.

edit:

another series
The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K LeGuin
Very well written, awesome.

edit (version 2):

The Incarnations of Immortality by Piers Anthony
really cool blend of magic and science in a mostly modern world, lots of interesting thoughts on nature and religion. I only read the first 5 but they were very good.

Here, There be Dragons by James A Owen
It's an okay book, nothing amazing, but the last chapter is awesome. Totally worth the read. I haven't read the other books of the series, they might be good?

Garth Nix.
His two big series, Keys to the Kingdom, and The Seventh Tower are both great. They are for a younger audience but are still pretty enjoyable.

Astrella

2012-06-02, 03:08 PM

Hmm, let's see:

Anything from The Riftwar Cycle by Raymond Feist; it's a collection of trilogies and such set in the same universe with overarching characters. Starts with Magician, though you could start at any of the sub series.

The Banned and the Banished series by James Clemens, starts with Wit'ch Fire; has a decent female main character and has a lot of characters with different motivations.

Stuff by Markus Heitz is pretty good too; but I don't think most of his books have been translated into English...

Oooh, ooh, definitely read the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik; it's set during the Napoleonic Wars; but with dragons. Dragons with human crews serve as air forces and there's a lot of thought put into it. And there's quite a bit of ethics with the abolishment of slavery involved and parallels to the dragons who are sapient and capable of speech. I recommend it quite highly.

SaintRidley

2012-06-02, 08:45 PM

It's nonfiction and a bit academic, but I'd like to recommend The Language Wars by Henry Hitchings.

How can you pass up a book on the history of the arguing over the English language when it contains chapters with names like "The comma flaps its wings," "Unholy ****," "Technology says 'whatever,'" and "Of fish-knives and fist-****s"? That, and it's a cracking good read.

Faulty

2012-06-03, 08:32 AM

Hey sugarbaby.

Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson. Seriously so damn good. Post-cyberpunk with a hacker/pizza delivery boy/samurai name Hiro Protagonist and a courier skateboarding thrasher chick saving the world's hackers. Involves linguistics, mythology, cults, cyberspace and all sorts of other cool stuff in a well realized but playful cyberpunk future. Super fun stuff.

turkishproverb

2012-06-03, 01:24 PM

The Dracula Tape, by Saberhagen.

Neftren

2012-06-03, 07:40 PM

I would suggest The Death and Life of Great American Cities if you want a critique of cities. Also looking at the world sideways has some interesting stuff about design. In terms of novels i dunno man Maus might be alright.

Err, is this (http://www.amazon.com/The-Looking-Sideways-Alan-Fletcher/dp/0714834491) the book you're referring to, about looking at the world sideways?

I've read both Maus books.

(I'm Irazel, by the way)

Here we go,

The Warded Man and its sequel by Peter V Brett
Strange future world filled with demons and little hope, it's pretty good

Monster Blood Tattoo and its sequels by D. M. Cornish
(The first book is actually called Foundling)
It's targeted for a slightly younger audience I think, but it's still a very interesting world.

The Farsala Triology by Hilari Bell.
The first book is Fall of a Kingdom.
I read it a long time ago and remember enjoying it.

I've added these. I really liked A Matter of Profit, so I'm looking forward to the Farsala books.

The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K LeGuin
Very well written, awesome.

I've read the series already. My opinions are mixed. Not bad, but not out of the park either.

The Incarnations of Immortality by Piers Anthony
really cool blend of magic and science in a mostly modern world, lots of interesting thoughts on nature and religion. I only read the first 5 but they were very good.

Here, There be Dragons by James A Owen
It's an okay book, nothing amazing, but the last chapter is awesome. Totally worth the read. I haven't read the other books of the series, they might be good?

I've added the Incarnations book. Why do I get the feeling I've read "Here There Be Dragons"? Well, I guess it doesn't hurt to try and get the book and return it if I've read it before.

Garth Nix.
His two big series, Keys to the Kingdom, and The Seventh Tower are both great. They are for a younger audience but are still pretty enjoyable.

I've read both series. Wait, scratch that. I've read Keys to the Kingdom. Time to go look at the Seventh Tower then!

Hmm, let's see:

Anything from The Riftwar Cycle by Raymond Feist; it's a collection of trilogies and such set in the same universe with overarching characters. Starts with Magician, though you could start at any of the sub series.

Is this (http://www.amazon.com/Magician-Apprentice-Raymond-Feist/dp/0553564943/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338769850&sr=1-5) the Magician book, or ...?

The Banned and the Banished series by James Clemens, starts with Wit'ch Fire; has a decent female main character and has a lot of characters with different motivations.

Stuff by Markus Heitz is pretty good too; but I don't think most of his books have been translated into English...

Oooh, ooh, definitely read the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik; it's set during the Napoleonic Wars; but with dragons. Dragons with human crews serve as air forces and there's a lot of thought put into it. And there's quite a bit of ethics with the abolishment of slavery involved and parallels to the dragons who are sapient and capable of speech. I recommend it quite highly.

I've added Wit'ch Fire, and Temeraire to the list. Dragons and Napoleon somehow sounds awesome. I couldn't find anything by Markus Heitz in the local library system. I've sent a note to the university library though.

It's nonfiction and a bit academic, but I'd like to recommend The Language Wars by Henry Hitchings.

How can you pass up a book on the history of the arguing over the English language when it contains chapters with names like "The comma flaps its wings," "Unholy ****," "Technology says 'whatever,'" and "Of fish-knives and fist-****s"? That, and it's a cracking good read.

So is this some sort of treatise on the proper usage of the English language? :smallconfused:

Hey sugarbaby.

Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson. Seriously so damn good. Post-cyberpunk with a hacker/pizza delivery boy/samurai name Hiro Protagonist and a courier skateboarding thrasher chick saving the world's hackers. Involves linguistics, mythology, cults, cyberspace and all sorts of other cool stuff in a well realized but playful cyberpunk future. Super fun stuff.

Sounds awesome. Added to the list.

The Dracula Tape, by Saberhagen.

Hmm, you'll have to convince me on this one. I'm not super into vampire stories to be honest. My past experience has found them to be either incredibly gruesome, or incredibly soppy.

1

On another note, I've finished Torment. It was a rather disappointing sequel, but that's sort of the way the second of anything in a series turns out I think. I also finished Pirate Latitudes. Was this a real story or something? It seemed pretty interesting, though the pacing felt a bit off. It wasn't as gripping as Prey was, but then again, altogether different type of book methinks.

I've also finished reviewing the first three books I finished (Fallen, Across the Universe, uhhh, oh yes, Mistborn). I'm not sure whether I want to post these here. Would you guys be interested in them, or...? I mean, I figure many of you have already read the books (since you're suggesting them to me!). Anyways, let me know.

I'm a bit torn on which book in the stack to read next. I've been reading sequels of series for now, and picking shorter books to try and sneak in during car rides and such. It's the start of a new work week though, so I'm a bit torn on what book to start next. So, maybe you guys could vote on which book I should read next? :smallbiggrin:

To Recap:
1) Do you want to see my reviews?
2) Vote on the next book I should read!

Volatar

2012-06-03, 07:58 PM

Yes, you should absolutely post your reviews.

SaintRidley

2012-06-03, 08:00 PM

So is this some sort of treatise on the proper usage of the English language?:smallconfused:

Not a treatise on the proper usage of the English language. More of a history of the arguing about the correct usage of the English language and how it's kind of screwed up the way people think about their use of language (as well as the many odd and funny things that have come about as a result of such arguing).

Man on Fire

2012-06-03, 08:37 PM

Good Omens (http://www.amazon.com/Good-Omens-Accurate-Prophecies-Nutter/dp/0060853972/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338772107&sr=1-1) by Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman and while we're at it - Anansi Boys (http://www.amazon.com/Anansi-Boys-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0060515198/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338772331&sr=1-1) by Neil Gaiman - set in the same verse as America's Gods, but not really a part of the series, they can be read separately without knowledge of the other. Also, from Gaiman Coraline (http://www.amazon.com/Coraline-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0380807343/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338772489&sr=1-1), Stardust (http://www.amazon.com/Stardust-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0061689246/ref=pd_sim_b_2) and The Graveyard Book (http://www.amazon.com/The-Graveyard-Book-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0060530944/ref=pd_sim_b_1). Gaiman is just Gaiman, his style, plots and characters and great and you can easily fall in love with his works.

The Forgotten Beasts Of Eld (http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Beasts-Magic-Carpet-Books/dp/0152055363/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338772588&sr=1-1) by Patricia A. Mckillip and her Riddlemaster of Hed (http://www.amazon.com/Riddle-Master-Patricia-A-McKillip/dp/0441005969/ref=pd_sim_b_1) series, very romantic (but not in a "love story" sense, but rather romantic, idealistic spirit) and character driven books.

The Princess Bride (http://www.amazon.com/The-Princess-Bride-Morgensterns-Adventure/dp/0156035219/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338772214&sr=1-1) by William Goldman, only fantasy in bibliography of bestseller writer and more than just adventure story.

Fool (http://www.amazon.com/Fool-A-Novel-Christopher-Moore/dp/0060590327/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338772880&sr=1-1) by Christopher Moore, all Moore's books are heavily satirical and humorus and sometimes just bizarre, they are also set in one world and contains a lot of cameos, Fool is probably the most separated from them all and therefore the easiest to read.

Witch World (http://www.amazon.com/Witch-World-Andre-Norton/dp/B000SVIOAO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338773227&sr=1-1) by Andre Norton, pretty nice serious fantasy, at least first book, through it was some time since I read it (I recently got my hands on the next two, through).

A Spell For Chameleon (http://www.amazon.com/Spell-Chameleon-Xanth-Book/dp/0345347536/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338773293&sr=1-1) by Piers Anthony, very funny book and I head entire series is pretty good, at least to some point.

Ender's Game (http://www.amazon.com/Enders-Game-Ender-Orson-Scott/dp/0356500845/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338773393&sr=1-1) and Seventh Son (http://www.amazon.com/Seventh-Tales-Alvin-Maker-Book/dp/0812533054/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338773480&sr=1-1) by orson Scott Card, both starts of great series.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (http://www.amazon.com/The-Ultimate-Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy/dp/0345453743/ref=pd_sim_b_18) by Douglas Adams, humoristic and well-written sf series with very likeable protagonists.

The Dragonriders of Pern (http://www.amazon.com/The-Dragonriders-Pern-Anne-McCaffrey/dp/0345340248/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338773607&sr=1-1) by Anne McCaffrey, nice SF series with dragons (you read that right)

Lord Valentine's Castle (http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Valentines-castle-Robert-Silverberg/dp/0553144286/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338773668&sr=1-1) - actually a fantasy in SF scenery, through following books are much more in closer to SF in tone.

Pretty much anything by Stanisław Lem (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Stanislaw%20Lem&search-alias=books&sort=relevancerank) one of the greatest, through very hard on language sometimes, SF writers.

Also:
1) Post your reviews
2) Vote for Black Company.

Feytalist

2012-06-04, 02:09 AM

Astrella

2012-06-04, 07:05 AM

Is this (http://www.amazon.com/Magician-Apprentice-Raymond-Feist/dp/0553564943/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338769850&sr=1-5) the Magician book, or ...?

Yes it is; I forgot that my book is Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master put together.

turkishproverb

2012-06-04, 08:29 AM

Has someone mentioned Neuromancer? If you like cyberpunk you might as well start at the progenitor. Written by William Gibson. The rest of the Sprawl series is equally good.

Also, hell yes post reviews.

...You think THAT is the progenetor of cyberpunk? That 1980's book?

The Naked Lunchi s a predecessor, as is the film Metropolis (Technology helps cause the problems, dark urban environment with large mega-corporations oppressing workers). The 70's had a few cyberpunks, even if the name hadn't been coined.

Do androids dream of electric sheep is from 1968!

...Still, Neuromancer is an important book. And more than that, it's a good one.

Kindablue

2012-06-04, 09:38 AM

I'd like to read the reviews too.

...You think THAT is the progenetor of cyberpunk? That 1980's book?

The Naked Lunchi s a predecessor, as is the film Metropolis (Technology helps cause the problems, dark urban environment with large mega-corporations oppressing workers). The 70's had a few cyberpunks, even if the name hadn't been coined.

Do androids dream of electric sheep is from 1968!

...Still, Neuromancer is an important book. And more than that, it's a good one.
I'd say that while all of the component parts existed before Neuromancer, cyberpunk as a very specific aesthetic and attitude that could be parodied and copied didn't.

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

I always liked that line, and it makes me wonder if the fact that most digital TVs turn a mellow blue when not receiving any signal now was on purpose or just a coincidence.

Gnoman

2012-06-04, 03:46 PM

Err, is [URL=http://www.amazon.com

To Recap:
1) Do you want to see my reviews?

Naturally. One always does like to see how his recommendations were received, after all.

Neftren

2012-06-04, 09:02 PM

Whew, just finished Delirium. Very very good book. Reminds me of a cross between Brave New World, Equilibrium (the film), 1984, and The Island (the film).

I'm a little wiped out at the moment, so I'll hold off until tomorrow to respond to everybody's posts. I've been trying to finish up my website in the meantime.

pita

2012-06-06, 08:30 AM

The Darkness that Comes Before, by R. scott Bakker, and its sequels, are my favorite book series.
However, they're very divisive. They generally have only one character who is anything approaching likeable, and everyone else is a terrible terrible terrible person. If you can stand the total soul-numbing darkness and nihilism of the series, I recommend it. Otherwise, I'd try something more cheerful, like Elie Wiesel.

CapnRedBeard

2012-06-06, 09:52 AM

So many books...

Everybody should've read: Shogun by James Clavell, The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, The Illiad by Homer, Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald, 2001: A Space Odyssey...the sequels, any inclusive Edgar Allen Poe collection...

but there are just so many books for so many different reasons...

I like goofy stuff too like: Whales on Stilts by MT Anderson (srsly over-the-top ridiculous humor abounds here)

Historical stuff like: The Generalship of Alexander the Great by JFC Fuller, Ghengis Khan: His Life and Legacy by Paul Ratchnevsky

Sci-fi/Cultural awareness/political books like: 1984 by George Orwell. (scary stuff if you look at it) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Animal Farm also by Ray Bradbury

Horror/sci-fi/pop - basically everything ever written by Stephen King and Neil Gaiman. (I was one of the people that loved Neil Gaiman's Stardust.)

turkishproverb

2012-06-06, 10:11 AM

Sci-fi/Cultural awareness/political books like: 1984 by George Orwell. (scary stuff if you look at it) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Animal Farm also by Ray Bradbury

No it is not. But do read some Bradbury

CapnRedBeard

2012-06-06, 12:28 PM

No it is not. But do read some Bradbury

Good catch...should be also by Orwell...

Kurgan

2012-06-07, 01:41 PM

I am fan of C.J. Cherryh. She writes a good deal of science fiction, though most of it is in series I believe. She has a few standalone books you may want to investigate though, and some of the series are more just "all these books are in the same universe".

I personally like by her (while trying to avoid spoilers):

Faded Sun Trilogy: A dieing race seeking caught in the middle of humanity and another alien species.

Foreigner Series: Last I looked up to like 11 books, focuses on a human colony set up in unknown space, and their interactions with a local sentient species. This one is a continuous story rather than the "same universe" thing I mentioned above, so don't just start in the middle. :smallbiggrin:

Neftren

2012-06-09, 10:47 PM

Okay! Time to play catch up. A totally random, interesting tidbit... both books earning perfect fives so far were written by Laurens, have strong female protagonists in their teens, and seem to deal with rejection of the status quo... coincidence?! I think, errr... Anyways, I'm not sure what that says about me so far. :smallredface:

Anyways, I've caught up on all my reviews. You can see them all below. As a warning, some of them contain spoilers, so reader beware. Some of you have probably noticed I've been giving each book a rating, so you can check up on those on the main list.

As a side note, it would be of immense help if you guys preformatted your suggestions in the following format, so I can just plug it into the table.

Book Title (http://www.link-to-amazon.com)|Author

Fallen
I’m going to start by saying that I this book was oddly riveting, and that I moved the sequel to the top of the reading list as a result. I mean, seriously, at first glance, it could probably be the next “soppy girl meets hot young vampire” novel (yes, that novel, that everyone likes to lampoon or ignore), only replace all the vampires and werewolves with celestial beings of good and evil. I don’t think it’s really a spoiler at this point. You’ll probably guess it by the first two or three chapters… yeah, this book centers on a fight between angels, and … well, not demons, more angels, of the fallen sort, to be precise.

Before I continue on though, what drew me to this book wasn’t even the story. As others have pointed out to me, artwork often makes a book great. This is no exception. While there is no artwork inside the book, what drew me to this book, was the cover. A girl in a beautiful black dress, weeping over something, long black hair flowing behind her … is it a photograph? Despite never seeing her face, it really makes you wonder. Why is she crying? Sadness? Is it even a photograph? It seems too real to not be, but how on earth do you manage to convey that much emotion in something staged?

Back to the book though… I was surprised I finished it so quickly. Every single character was incredibly believable, or at least presented in a light that let the reader fill in the rest. Though, for what it’s worth, believable is rather subjective. Anyways, everything in the book built towards an inescapable feeling that something big, something ominous was going to happen. Two boys, vying for the hand of the main character… I knew just enough to keep me reading, but that was it. I wasn’t even sure which one I liked more (unlike my thoughts on another story with a girl and two boys, and a drunk mentor, all from a coal mine). All sorts of signs were presented along the way, but in such a crafty way that I ended up missing most of them until the very end, where the revelation hits, and you just go “whoah” and “did I really just read that?”

Sometimes, the hallmark of a good book is that it leaves you thinking but what about a phenomenal book? I’m already thinking before I even finish the first page. This book had me thinking before I even read the title, and maybe once, just once, I won’t be disappointed by a narrative sequel…Across the Universe
This book started off with a rather interesting premise. What happens when you go into stasis for a few centuries, and wake up early? Then again, it doesn’t really matter how good your premise is, if you don’t deliver on it. There was certainly potential here. Okay, okay, but onto the book then.

There’s a relatively small cast of characters, so you would think that the characters would be super developed, but this really isn’t the case. I learned a lot (or alternately, a little) about basically one person: Eldest. He’s basically your stereotypical despot, hiding everything behind a wall of justifications, and sure, leaders have to make certain choices to guarantee the survival of his crew, but after a certain point, it’s not really his crew anymore. They’re more like sheep, after you realize what he does to them. For all his glorious speeches and words, maybe he has designed the perfect system, but in doing so, becomes a leader in the mold of all the most hated men in the history of the world. It’s clear that he’s read about all the great leaders of the world (e.g. Abraham Lincoln, etc.) since he goes back and rewrites history. Why though? It’s not as if anyone is going to be reading the history. At his core, the actions of Eldest don’t always seem to be rational, but aren’t exactly those of a raving lunatic or madman either. He just feels like a glorified puppet for the author to convey some sort of idea across.

But what about Elder, you might ask? Such an indecisive fellow… I mean, he may as well not have been there. No, I’m serious. His impact on most of the book was minimal to the story. His friend Harley did more than him. I don’t know… maybe I’ve rambled on enough about this book. I liked the premise enough, but it just doesn’t deliver on it. There’s so much more I wanted to know, but it just ended up with the main characters running around on a tiny tin can. This might have made for a good film, but until I see said film, I think I’ll just leave it at this. Mistborn: The Final Empire
Allomancy is what the Force should have been. No, not some mystical force that surrounds us, binds us, and lets mystical people in brown robes wave their hands to make feeble-minded people do things. No, Allomancy has rules, a rather interesting set of rules at that. The way everything is centered around metals, broken down into their composite groups, and then the duality between internal and external effects, and the requisite alloys. Convincing a person to do something is more than just an idle wave of the hand. The way a person needs to actually convince another through manipulation of their emotions. There’s just this focus on detail that makes it seem very believable, as if such people could really exist (Allomancers, that is). Well, okay, some stuff is a bit crazier than others, but iron and steel could be realized in the form of a bunch of electromagnets strapped to your hands and feet. I am so over the Force at this point. Allomancy is awesome. Enough on the system that powers the world though… how about the book?

Well, the book itself was decent. I think I saw a lot of myself in Vin. The tendency to overthink everything… and there was a section that felt moderately inspiring. It made me think about how teams are formed through trust, not necessarily just association. Over the course of the book though, there were so many chapters and sections that just made the book feel really forced near the end. After a certain point, it was hard to tell who was really the main character here, well, until the very end … dancing around some spoilers for the moment. I’m starting to think this book may have been better if it was presented in serialized fashion, with chapters every week. There was so much time spent developing a few characters, but there were many others I wanted to know more about. A serialized fashion would have presented the opportunity to go more in depth about the history of each character in the crew.

Maybe that’s why this is a series. Hopefully future books will reveal more about each character. The last few chapters introduced a rather devilishly interesting creature as well. What exactly are the Kandra? Perhaps more importantly, why is this world covered in ash exactly, and what’s with all the mist? It seems as if the mist was hardly covered at all in the book, beyond the impression that everyone seems to be afraid of it for little reason at all… Torment
Okay, so, I’ll just start by saying I was rather disappointed by this book (which I was hoping would finally break the cycle of poor narrative sequels). Anyways, on to reviewing the novel…

While Luce was such a strong character in the first book, asking all the questions, trying to learn more about the greater conflict at hand, and so on, she seems to have devolved into the level of a petulant child in the second. I mean, sure you’re locked into a millennia old cycle of reincarnation with your angelic boyfriend, but that doesn’t mean you suddenly have license to ignore everything he’s telling you to do. I mean, seriously, you’re put at a school for your own protection, by a person you trust, and then told to stay put. So what does Luce do? The exact opposite. Smart? Mmmm, no.

To be fair, if I were Luce, I’d probably do a similar thing. Well, maybe not. I’d at least try to figure out what the entire story is. I mean, you’ve got an Angel and a Demon for your faculty. She doesn’t really go talk to them, except when required (i.e. for detention, and that’s basically it), despite the fact that they’ve been around since the destruction of two ancient cities and the creation of a pillar of salt (yes, those two cities). They might put some spin on the story, but then again, doesn’t everyone? In any case, it’s good that Luce asks all these questions and tries to find out more, but she’s hardly doing it in a rational way. I’ll just leave my complaints about her at that. Err, wait, hang on, one more thing…

Luce seems to have some crazy problem with staying true to her … true love? I mean, kissing another guy on the rooftops after your angelic boyfriend shows up practically every other night? Okay, part of this is Daniel’s fault, and another part can be attributed to the “locked into cycle of reincarnation” bit, but really? This seriously makes me question her character. Or at least attribute it to her hormones for now.

As for the plot? It felt pretty typical I suppose. Continuation of the previous story. Sort of the necessary glue between the first and third books in a trilogy (though I don’t think this is going to be a trilogy). I’m a little worried, but not enough to wholly discourage me from reading the rest of the series.Pirate Latitudes
This was a rather interesting look at naval expeditions during the 17th century. The way it was written made it seem as if it were based upon a true story. Basically, the novel starts out with a brief description of the distinction between piracy and privateering, and how the governor of Port Royal is funding various privateers to protect British assets in the Caribbean, via the harassment of Spanish colonies and convoys.

This book had a remarkable flair for describing in detail the motivations of everyone encountered, through a variety of methods. For instance, the woman accused of witchcraft, through her actions, proves to be a rather crafty individual, focused on moving up the societal ladder of The New World. Or for instance, the burning hatred that many of the crew, recruited for the secret journey (avoiding spoilers for the moment), feel towards this one Spaniard. Okay spoiler mostly blown, but oh well.

Another fascinating portion of the novel focused around all the various gadgets and inventions necessary to accomplish the impossible. It felt a bit like an olden-days spy novel, with an old, wizened man, inventing the hand grenade, time-delayed fuses, folding grappling hooks, and so on. It was especially amusing with the scenes involving rats. Rats are typically a scourge on ships, so to bring cages and cages of rats along … and then to be discovered en route!

I suppose the last thing I enjoyed about this was the vivid description of naval combat, and the choices and actions performed by every member of the crew, not just the captain. For instance, there’s a scene where the helmsman must place his trust in the spotter to successfully navigate through a reef. Or all the various naval combat scenes. Actually come to think of it, a lot of this book seems to revolve around trust. There doesn’t seem to be any true motivation for anyone to trust anyone else. I mean, they’re pirates… err, privateers after all. There’s a bit of a secret here too, so I won’t spoil anything.

Anyways, to wrap it up, there were one or two rather unbelievable scenes, which probably could have been cut from the novel altogether. As a whole though, this was a fun learning experience about 17th century life, and a bit of a discussion on various command and decision making processes, but that’s just me, and my interests. Worth a read if you haven’t got anything else, but nowhere near as gripping as some other books on the list. The Guns of August
Diverging from the Fantasy and SciFi themes for the moment, The Guns of August is one of those books everyone should probably read, or at the very least, should appear or be referenced in a War Literature course. I mean, yeah we all know that World War I was kicked off by the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, right? Right…? Okay okay, but history lesson aside, there’s a surprisingly large amount of information that ties into the start of World War I, which is all covered.

So let’s rewind a bit. The conditions for continental-scale war had been broiling for decades. Between Napoleon’s mucking about, the Crimean and Boer wars, a massive arms race between nations. A bit of this is covered in the latest Sherlock Holmes movie actually, if you fancy a dramatization. Anyways, you’ve got all these nations with big sticks and even bigger egos. What does it take to kick all of this off? Not Franz Ferdinand dying. The Guns of August reveals all the various assumptions and motivations behind the leaders of each of the great powers.

For instance, the alliance between Britain and France. You’ve got these two nations which have been alternately invading each other for centuries, and now they’re all playing nice together. I mean, this kind of thing doesn’t exactly happen overnight, or at least, it shouldn’t. A few royal visits seemed to patch things up rather quickly though.

Or consider the Belgians… poor Belgium. It seems as if whenever somebody wants to fight a war, they go through Belgium. I mean, clearly not the Swiss, because while both are flying the flag of “neutrality,” the Belgians don’t have a wall of mountains to hide behind. Anyways, what I found most interesting was the idea that for any military plan to succeed, the neutrality of Belgium must be violated. You’d think that the Germans could also build a set of fortifications along the French-German border and just deadlock things. That’s what it ended up doing on that front for most of the war anyways. Invading Belgium just made a whole bunch of people angry. Anyways, this was a rather fascinating section of the book.

There’s so much that goes into wars. I mean, from a logistical standpoint. This was a rather enlightening experience. A good lesson on how things ought not to go down, rather than play toy soldiers … with real soldiers. The Rogue Crew
I’ve always loved the Redwall series. I’m not sure why. I mean, it’s the same story every book. Some evil villain (typically a rat, stoat, weasel, fox, toad, snake, or lizard) is threatening some faction living in Mossflower (typically the shrews, hares, or Redwall). Few books buck the trend, and those are probably my favorite. In any case, this book was rather disappointing really. It seems to have lost the magic. Perhaps after reading so many other good books, this one is so overshadowed by the others? Well, perhaps some thoughts on the book will help to put some things into perspective (for myself that is, I don’t know about you).

Okay, so, this book starts off with a dream about a ship sailing across the plains to attack the Abbey. Then it jumps to the northern coast, where said ship is nearly sunk by the otters, and so on. Inevitably, the captain recovers with horrible injuries, and has some sort of vendetta against them. He goes back, then runs away when he sees they’re about to massacre him again, so he leaves and goes to attack Redwall. Err, okay? To be fair, the captain is probably one of the more rational actors in this book. For a villain, he’s rather admirable, even if he is rather vicious and excessively cruel (but hey, according to one Niccolo Machiavelli, that’s quite alright). Anyways, off to Redwall.

Meanwhile, the scene jumps to the hares, where they go looking for these otters, to form a navy to stop these corsairs from raiding the coast and leaving. Which makes me wonder… there are all these islands and stuff conveniently out of reach? Why is it that only the bad guys have ships anyways? Back to the story I guess. I should just stop narrating at this point. I’m doing a terrible job.

So, why is this so disappointing? I can probably attribute this to being predictable. The language is the same across nearly every book, with a variety of songs, poems, dialect, descriptions of the countryside. I think maybe it’s time to retire the Redwall series. All good things must end, and unlike some other exceptionally long series (for instance, one involving a world on a large disc…), there’s not really enough variety in settings and personality to write new segments of history. Oh, the last thing? It doesn’t really tie well into any of the other books… Even die-hard fans might come away a little disappointed from this one. That, or I’ve just outgrown Redwall as a series. I’m sorely hoping this isn’t the case though…
Delirium
Absolutely stunning … probably one way of describing this book. I wasn’t really sure what to expect going into this book. The cover was a pretty shade of sky blue, but beyond that, not much else. What I found was a brilliant interpretation of how society can go so wrong, in the name of preserving order. If you’ve seen the movie Equilibrium (yes, the one with the techno-martial-arts monks, and Batman), it kind of goes down that road, though a bit more surgical in approach (in both a physical and a philosophical sense). There’s also a bit of a similarity with Brave New World, in that the future of every person is basically determined ahead of time. Okay, moving out of the comparisons, and onto why this book is worth your while…

You’ve basically got two characters. Lena, our protagonist, and Miss Goody-Two-Shoes. Basically she’s spent her entire life trying to integrate into society after a rather scandalous event with her mother. There’s also Lena’s best friend, Hana, who is a bit like your stereotypical teen, pushing the envelope on everything, doing things because it fights authority, and so on. And then… everything reverses. It’s not Hana doing the craziest things… it’s Lena.

The entire book portrays an epic struggle within Lena. Her entire life, she’s spent “reprogramming” herself to fit into society, and yet she finds herself challenged by the meaning of love, as presented by her mother… as something that cannot be taken away. Everything got off to a slow start, but then started accelerating towards an inevitable conclusion. I was on the fence for most of the second half of this book as to the outcome. I was literally unable to put the book down; I had to find out the ending, be it heart-wrenching, or heart-warming. I’ll just say that it was heart-pounding at the very least.

Ending on a cliffhanger, I thought that was the end. So, it was to my surprise that I discovered this is actually the first book in a series! Book 1.5 looks to be about Hana, so that’s probably not a sequel in the traditional sense. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series, not only to find out what happens, but just because the perspectives of each side are laid out so masterfully, with arguments for and against each faction’s beliefs. Normally, I’m disappointed by book-to-movie adaptations, but this? I think this one would stand a decent chance, or at the very least, stand on equal footing with The Outsiders.

Helanna

2012-06-09, 11:10 PM

*Reviews*

The only one of these I've read is Mistborn, so I'll comment on that. And the only comment I have is "Please, PLEASE tell me you're going to read the next two?" They, uh, may answer a couple of your questions.

Neftren

2012-06-09, 11:14 PM

Not a treatise on the proper usage of the English language. More of a history of the arguing about the correct usage of the English language and how it's kind of screwed up the way people think about their use of language (as well as the many odd and funny things that have come about as a result of such arguing).

Hah! Okay, sounds fun! Fixed the typo on the reading list. :smallredface:

Good Omens (http://www.amazon.com/Good-Omens-Accurate-Prophecies-Nutter/dp/0060853972/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338772107&sr=1-1) by Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman and while we're at it - Anansi Boys (http://www.amazon.com/Anansi-Boys-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0060515198/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338772331&sr=1-1) by Neil Gaiman - set in the same verse as America's Gods, but not really a part of the series, they can be read separately without knowledge of the other. Also, from Gaiman Coraline (http://www.amazon.com/Coraline-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0380807343/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338772489&sr=1-1), Stardust (http://www.amazon.com/Stardust-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0061689246/ref=pd_sim_b_2) and The Graveyard Book (http://www.amazon.com/The-Graveyard-Book-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0060530944/ref=pd_sim_b_1). Gaiman is just Gaiman, his style, plots and characters and great and you can easily fall in love with his works.

The Forgotten Beasts Of Eld (http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Beasts-Magic-Carpet-Books/dp/0152055363/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338772588&sr=1-1) by Patricia A. Mckillip and her Riddlemaster of Hed (http://www.amazon.com/Riddle-Master-Patricia-A-McKillip/dp/0441005969/ref=pd_sim_b_1) series, very romantic (but not in a "love story" sense, but rather romantic, idealistic spirit) and character driven books.

The Princess Bride (http://www.amazon.com/The-Princess-Bride-Morgensterns-Adventure/dp/0156035219/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338772214&sr=1-1) by William Goldman, only fantasy in bibliography of bestseller writer and more than just adventure story.

Fool (http://www.amazon.com/Fool-A-Novel-Christopher-Moore/dp/0060590327/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338772880&sr=1-1) by Christopher Moore, all Moore's books are heavily satirical and humorus and sometimes just bizarre, they are also set in one world and contains a lot of cameos, Fool is probably the most separated from them all and therefore the easiest to read.

Witch World (http://www.amazon.com/Witch-World-Andre-Norton/dp/B000SVIOAO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338773227&sr=1-1) by Andre Norton, pretty nice serious fantasy, at least first book, through it was some time since I read it (I recently got my hands on the next two, through).

A Spell For Chameleon (http://www.amazon.com/Spell-Chameleon-Xanth-Book/dp/0345347536/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338773293&sr=1-1) by Piers Anthony, very funny book and I head entire series is pretty good, at least to some point.

Ender's Game (http://www.amazon.com/Enders-Game-Ender-Orson-Scott/dp/0356500845/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338773393&sr=1-1) and Seventh Son (http://www.amazon.com/Seventh-Tales-Alvin-Maker-Book/dp/0812533054/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338773480&sr=1-1) by orson Scott Card, both starts of great series.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (http://www.amazon.com/The-Ultimate-Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy/dp/0345453743/ref=pd_sim_b_18) by Douglas Adams, humoristic and well-written sf series with very likeable protagonists.

The Dragonriders of Pern (http://www.amazon.com/The-Dragonriders-Pern-Anne-McCaffrey/dp/0345340248/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338773607&sr=1-1) by Anne McCaffrey, nice SF series with dragons (you read that right)

Lord Valentine's Castle (http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Valentines-castle-Robert-Silverberg/dp/0553144286/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338773668&sr=1-1) - actually a fantasy in SF scenery, through following books are much more in closer to SF in tone.

Pretty much anything by Stanisław Lem (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Stanislaw%20Lem&search-alias=books&sort=relevancerank) one of the greatest, through very hard on language sometimes, SF writers.

Also:
1) Post your reviews
2) Vote for Black Company.

In reverse order... You'll notice that The Black Company is listed as unavailable, meaning neither my local library, nor university library, have the book. So, that one will have to wait until I either *acquire* an eBook version, my local library finally gets around to buying half the books on my wishlist, or somebody magically sends me a hardcopy. :smallbiggrin: In the meantime, vote for something that I've actually got on hand.

I read Good Omens a while back. I got it back before I knew who Neil Gaiman was. I actually picked it up thinking it was another Discworld novel actually, so I was a bit surprised when it wasn't. Anyways, I'll go and add Coraline, Stardust, and Anansi Boys to the list.

I'm interested in learning a bit more about the McKillip books. I've tentatively added them to the list for now though.

Fool ... this looks like a fun book! I'll try to track down a copy.

Witch World (http://www.amazon.com/Witch-World-Andre-Norton/dp/B000SVIOAO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338773227&sr=1-1) doesn't seem to even be available on Amazon... Eek! $137 for a new copy. Oh wait, $20 for a used copy. That's a bit better. Let's see if my library has this... I'll go ahead and add it to the list for now.

Looks like I've got another Piers Anthony book on the list. Chameleon should prove to be interesting at least, if an author's made it onto the list twice now.

I've read Ender's Game (nearly the entire series). Actually to be honest, I found most of the sequels to be rather boring. Ender's Game was the only book I truly enjoyed. Oh, and I guess I liked the books about Bean, but that was it. As for Seventh Son, I'm not really sure I want to read this. Convince me, beyond the "written by a good author" argument...?

I've got the complete, unabridged (with typographical errors!) version of the Guide. The specially bound version, with the black binding, cloth bookmark, and so on. One of my favorite books. :smallbiggrin:

Dragons, dragons are cool. I'll give this one a shot.

For the Stanisław Lem books... any particular one I should start with? Ideally I'd read them all, but I want to have room for other books this summer as well, so one to three suggestions perhaps?

Has someone mentioned Neuromancer? If you like cyberpunk you might as well start at the progenitor. Written by William Gibson. The rest of the Sprawl series is equally good.

Also, hell yes post reviews.

Hmm, I don't believe anyone's mentioned Neuromancer, so I'll go put that on the list.

Yes it is; I forgot that my book is Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master put together.

Okey, I've added Magician: Apprentice to the list.

The Darkness that Comes Before, by R. scott Bakker, and its sequels, are my favorite book series.
However, they're very divisive. They generally have only one character who is anything approaching likeable, and everyone else is a terrible terrible terrible person. If you can stand the total soul-numbing darkness and nihilism of the series, I recommend it. Otherwise, I'd try something more cheerful, like Elie Wiesel.

I've added this to the list. I'll give it a shot. :smallbiggrin:

So many books...

Everybody should've read: Shogun by James Clavell, The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, The Illiad by Homer, Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald, 2001: A Space Odyssey...the sequels, any inclusive Edgar Allen Poe collection...

but there are just so many books for so many different reasons...

I like goofy stuff too like: Whales on Stilts by MT Anderson (srsly over-the-top ridiculous humor abounds here)

Historical stuff like: The Generalship of Alexander the Great by JFC Fuller, Ghengis Khan: His Life and Legacy by Paul Ratchnevsky

Sci-fi/Cultural awareness/political books like: 1984 by George Orwell. (scary stuff if you look at it) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Animal Farm also by Ray Bradbury

Horror/sci-fi/pop - basically everything ever written by Stephen King and Neil Gaiman. (I was one of the people that loved Neil Gaiman's Stardust.)

Hmm, I don't believe I've read Shogun. I'd like to hear more about this...

I've read The Count of Monte Cristo, The Illiad (and The Odyssey), Huck Finn (and Tom Sawyer), Gatsby (this was not that great a book... or I must be missing something), 2001: A Space Odyssey, and I read a lot of Poe in middle school.

Whales on Stilts... what exactly are we talking about here?

I've also read 1984, Animal Farm (this is an Orwell book, not Bradbury :smalltongue:).

Fahrenheit 451, I read in middle school as well. Good book. Somewhat relevant given his recent passing as well...

Neil Gaiman is all across the list already, and Stephen King has a small block...

I am fan of C.J. Cherryh. She writes a good deal of science fiction, though most of it is in series I believe. She has a few standalone books you may want to investigate though, and some of the series are more just "all these books are in the same universe".

I personally like by her (while trying to avoid spoilers):

Faded Sun Trilogy: A dieing race seeking caught in the middle of humanity and another alien species.

Foreigner Series: Last I looked up to like 11 books, focuses on a human colony set up in unknown space, and their interactions with a local sentient species. This one is a continuous story rather than the "same universe" thing I mentioned above, so don't just start in the middle. :smallbiggrin:

Hmm, which one should I start with?

The only one of these I've read is Mistborn, so I'll comment on that. And the only comment I have is "Please, PLEASE tell me you're going to read the next two?" They, uh, may answer a couple of your questions.

Yes, I've got the second book right here next to me.

As for my reviews (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13371573&postcount=55), pardon the poor quality of writing. The first few are just to get back in the groove I suppose. A bunch are just my thoughts jumbled together. Hopefully they will improve over the course of the summer.

SaintRidley

2012-06-10, 01:27 AM

Man on Fire

2012-06-10, 07:48 AM

Convince me, beyond the "written by a good author" argument...?

It has a very interesting setting - alternate colonial America where magic, or rather native power, creeps from behind and starts getting more and more involved. Mostly interesting on showing us the lives of common people and siritual themes. it' stronly inspired by Mormon religion. it has that feel you can hardly find anywhere else.

For the Stanisław Lem books... any particular one I should start with? Ideally I'd read them all, but I want to have room for other books this summer as well, so one to three suggestions perhaps?

I'll say, start with what I started, the Cyberiad (http://www.amazon.com/The-Cyberiad-Stanislaw-Lem/dp/0156027593/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339332183&sr=1-1) - it's a series of SF Fairy Tales that are full of insane ideas and clever social satire. Adventurers of two mechanical engineers who can make pretty much anything. It's parent series, Fables For Robots (published in Mortal Engines (http://www.amazon.com/Mortal-Engines-Stanislaw-Lem/dp/0156621614/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339332253&sr=1-3) collection) is very similiar in tone, but without these two guys (except for 3 fables featuring them, that were re-assigned to Cyberiad later). For more serious works, try His Master's Voice (http://www.amazon.com/His-Masters-Voice-Stanislaw-Lem/dp/0810117312/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339332314&sr=1-1), humans try to decode signal from space, touches themes of our inability to communicate with aliens, that are prevalent in his works.

One more suggestion: Looking For Jake And Other Stories (http://www.amazon.com/Looking-Jake-Stories-China-Mieville/dp/0345476077/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339332670&sr=1-1) by China Mieville, because wow, those insane, often terryfing ideas this guy has. He can create amazing visions (titular story, Mirrors) or make you scared like hell (Details, The End Of Hunger). This guy is something else, really.

pita

2012-06-10, 02:20 PM

I forgot about Wild Cards, by George R. R. Martin. The premise of the series is that shortly after WW2, an alien bomb explodes over new york, sending a virus throughout the world. 90% of those infected die horrible deaths. 9% become terribly mutated. The fortunate 1% become "aces", with powers far beyond that of normal man. It's an incredibly realistic view of superheroes, rivalled probably only by Watchmen in scope and vision. It's about 70000 books, but only the first two and the last four are available. Fortunately, the last four feature mostly brand new characters, and are made to be more accessable to those who haven't read the first ones. I've only read 1-10 and the last four minus the last one, so I can't account, but apparently it gets too grimdark during the teens.

CapnRedBeard

2012-06-10, 03:57 PM

CapnRedBeard

2012-06-10, 04:43 PM

Whales on Stilts is just fun. Very quick read...very unusual premise...makes fun of itself and the whole Nancy Drew kid sleuths genre.

and yes there are whales on stilts. Many of them in fact...one might even imagine that they might be up to something...or one might find it completely commonplace.

turkishproverb

2012-06-10, 09:49 PM

Get an Octavia Butler book. :smallsmile:

Neftren

2012-06-10, 10:25 PM

You're not missing anything on Gatsby. Gatsby's terrible.

Something that could be fun, if you like fantasy as well (though predating most fantasy):

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

One of my all-time favorite stories right there.

Hmmm. Arthurian Legends are pretty fun, but they do get kind of old after a while. How is this one any different from the dozens of Gawain interpretations out there?

It has a very interesting setting - alternate colonial America where magic, or rather native power, creeps from behind and starts getting more and more involved. Mostly interesting on showing us the lives of common people and siritual themes. it' stronly inspired by Mormon religion. it has that feel you can hardly find anywhere else.

Hm, I think I'll pass on this one for now. I'm trying to avoid any Colonial America stories until after I've played Assassin's Creed III. :smallbiggrin:

I'll say, start with what I started, the Cyberiad (http://www.amazon.com/The-Cyberiad-Stanislaw-Lem/dp/0156027593/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339332183&sr=1-1) - it's a series of SF Fairy Tales that are full of insane ideas and clever social satire. Adventurers of two mechanical engineers who can make pretty much anything. It's parent series, Fables For Robots (published in Mortal Engines (http://www.amazon.com/Mortal-Engines-Stanislaw-Lem/dp/0156621614/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339332253&sr=1-3) collection) is very similiar in tone, but without these two guys (except for 3 fables featuring them, that were re-assigned to Cyberiad later). For more serious works, try His Master's Voice (http://www.amazon.com/His-Masters-Voice-Stanislaw-Lem/dp/0810117312/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339332314&sr=1-1), humans try to decode signal from space, touches themes of our inability to communicate with aliens, that are prevalent in his works.

One more suggestion: Looking For Jake And Other Stories (http://www.amazon.com/Looking-Jake-Stories-China-Mieville/dp/0345476077/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339332670&sr=1-1) by China Mieville, because wow, those insane, often terryfing ideas this guy has. He can create amazing visions (titular story, Mirrors) or make you scared like hell (Details, The End Of Hunger). This guy is something else, really.

Hmm, this sounds interesting. I'll try to dig up copies of these.

I forgot about Wild Cards, by George R. R. Martin. The premise of the series is that shortly after WW2, an alien bomb explodes over new york, sending a virus throughout the world. 90% of those infected die horrible deaths. 9% become terribly mutated. The fortunate 1% become "aces", with powers far beyond that of normal man. It's an incredibly realistic view of superheroes, rivalled probably only by Watchmen in scope and vision. It's about 70000 books, but only the first two and the last four are available. Fortunately, the last four feature mostly brand new characters, and are made to be more accessable to those who haven't read the first ones. I've only read 1-10 and the last four minus the last one, so I can't account, but apparently it gets too grimdark during the teens.

This sounds pretty awesome. Unfortunately, most of Martin's works are on extremely long holds at the library (probably due to the recent popularity of Game of Thrones). I have A Dance With Dragons on reserve, but I'm something like 470th+ in line, which is why I didn't even bother to put it on the list.

The library website is currently down as of this moment (which Man on Fire, if you're reading this part of the post, is why I have neglected to add your suggestions to the list). Hopefully it will be back up tomorrow afternoon, and I'll get around to adding everyone's suggestions.

Shogun is a fantastic novel about a English ship captain who lands in Japan during the sixteenth century. He lands (more like crash lands) during a period that is pivotal to Japan in that the nation is on the brink of all out war. Will this war tear the nation asunder or finally unite the people under one ruler? Which Daimyo has enough strength and intelligence to grasp the coveted title of Shogun? Where does our Englishman fit into this scene? His ship is wrecked...his crew is starving...and he doesn't speak the language of the very aggressive natives.

It's a historical fiction based action adventure romance thriller. Not a short book by any means...my copy weighed in at about 1,200 pages...and I've read it three times. Each time took me about 1 week. It's a book that absolutely captures your imagination and refuses to let go...

Hmm, Shogun seems like an odd reverse of a book review I heard on NPR, about a Japanese boy, shipwrecked on an island and picked up by New England Whalers... Basically the complete reverse. Well, maybe that's an oversimplification, considering I haven't even read Shogun yet. This sounds promising, but I'll put it on the backburner for now, while I try to chew through some of these series.

Whales on Stilts is just fun. Very quick read...very unusual premise...makes fun of itself and the whole Nancy Drew kid sleuths genre.

and yes there are whales on stilts. Many of them in fact...one might even imagine that they might be up to something...or one might find it completely commonplace.

Hmm, I'll try to find a copy then.

Get an Octavia Butler book. :smallsmile:

Err, pardon me. That just went over my head. Or was that directed at somebody else?

turkishproverb

2012-06-10, 11:01 PM

Octavia Butler was a great scifi author. I was saying you should read some of her work. :smallsmile:

Feytalist

2012-06-11, 02:12 AM

One more suggestion: Looking For Jake And Other Stories (http://www.amazon.com/Looking-Jake-Stories-China-Mieville/dp/0345476077/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339332670&sr=1-1) by China Mieville, because wow, those insane, often terryfing ideas this guy has. He can create amazing visions (titular story, Mirrors) or make you scared like hell (Details, The End Of Hunger). This guy is something else, really.

I seem to be one of the very few people who can't stand China Miéville's work. There's something about his writing style that rubs me the wrong way. I have yet to finish a single chapter without putting his book down in disgust. I think he tries to take the "weird" part of new weird a leeeetle too seriously.

Kindablue

2012-06-11, 05:58 AM

Hmmm. Arthurian Legends are pretty fun, but they do get kind of old after a while. How is this one any different from the dozens of Gawain interpretations out there?

It's been translated by J.R.R. Tolkien (http://www.amazon.com/Gawain-Green-Knight-Pearl-Orfeo/dp/0345277600), for one.

Kurgan

2012-06-11, 04:08 PM

Hmm, which one should I start with?

Hmmm...been awhile since I've pulled out the books, but I would say:

If you want something stand alone, Faded Suns Trilogy [really one book with three parts in it] or Hammerfall are pretty good.

If you are looking into a series, the Foreigner series starts with Foreigner. The other two books in the first series are Invader and Inheritor.

Man on Fire

2012-06-11, 04:17 PM

I seem to be one of the very few people who can't stand China Miéville's work. There's something about his writing style that rubs me the wrong way. I have yet to finish a single chapter without putting his book down in disgust. I think he tries to take the "weird" part of new weird a leeeetle too seriously.

Well, I couldn't stand Tolkien's narrative in Lord Of The Rings, so everybody up to their taste, I pressume.

Neftren

2012-06-11, 05:19 PM

It's been translated by J.R.R. Tolkien (http://www.amazon.com/Gawain-Green-Knight-Pearl-Orfeo/dp/0345277600), for one.

Yeah, but then we're straying back towards my argument against putting I believe it was Orson Scott Card's (or was it Garth Nix...) work on the list, simply because it was written by said author. Or in more direct form, "being famous doesn't automagically make all your works good." Does this translation do anything exceptional to stand out from the pack of other, similar legends?

Hmmm...been awhile since I've pulled out the books, but I would say:

If you want something stand alone, Faded Suns Trilogy [really one book with three parts in it] or Hammerfall are pretty good.

If you are looking into a series, the Foreigner series starts with Foreigner. The other two books in the first series are Invader and Inheritor.

Hm, I'll look into these.

turkishproverb

2012-06-11, 06:14 PM

Yeah, but then we're straying back towards my argument against putting I believe it was Orson Scott Card's (or was it Garth Nix...) work on the list, simply because it was written by said author. Or in more direct form, "being famous doesn't automagically make all your works good." Does this translation do anything exceptional to stand out from the pack of other, similar legends? .

Ok. I'll defend it.

Sir Gawain and the green knight is the quintessential, long thought lost, Sir Gawain tale, retold a number of times afterward. Tolkien's translation is a more poetic one than most, managing to keep the feeling of the text by taking certian liberties literalists would refuse, and in refusing lose more than they kept.

Remember, while Tolkien was an Author, he was before that and above that a linguist. Translating that work was his forte.

Neftren

2012-06-11, 09:29 PM

Okay, I had to think about posting this one, but I figured I'd take a risk.

Look Me in the Eye
This was a rather remarkable book. I’m not exactly sure where I want to go with this just yet, but in a way, this book hit close to home. Maybe I’m just prone to seeing myself in a lot of literature, or movies, etc. ...hmm, does that make me arrogant, just for saying that? Anyways, I don’t know if other people are like this as well. I figure it’s something similar to the psychological phenomenon of seeing faces in things (Pareidolia?). Anyways, back to the book.

The writing style was excellently paced for a lazy Sunday afternoon. I read a few short chapters in the morning, took a break, and read a few more. Short and to the point, and elegantly written. Every chapter fit nicely into the greater work, with short messages or lessons about Robison’s life. Actually it was rather interesting to read about how he ended up working for all these different people, companies, organizations, and so on. Now, I haven’t heard any of Pink Floyd’s music or watched recordings of their concerts, but just the descriptions of all the various special effects makes me kind of interested in looking them up now. Smoke belching out of a guitar? Or flying guitar suspended by invisible cable? Or get this one... rocket launcher airburst confetti shell guitar? I want one of those.

But what about the real focus of the memoir? From reading this book, Aspergers seems to be somewhat malleable. Social “functionality” improved and degenerated throughout the course of his lifetime, with corresponding shifts in intellect. It would be interesting to learn more about other famous people with Aspergers, just to compare their lives and stories. I sometimes wonder if it should even be called a mental “disorder” or “condition”. From another perspective, it might actually even be a gift (forgive me if I offend anyone by saying this). I mean, how many people do you know are phenomenally gifted at one and one thing only? You can teach somebody to interact in a social setting. Robison did it. Well, learned to do it. On the other hand, you can’t make somebody smarter overnight, turning them into genius inventors, entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, scientists, and so on. Sometimes, you just see things, and other times, you miss something entirely.

I suppose that’s one of the interesting things about reading memoirs. They’re a sort of window into another person’s life. Decades of experience crammed into a few pages as best as possible. There’s a whole life story out there, but the clock is ticking, not just for the author (I’m thinking along the lines of Tuesdays With Morrie), but also for us, to apply the knowledge acquired from reading about the lives of others.

I finished The Graveyard Book yesterday as well, but didn't have a chance to type all my thoughts up yet. I also just finished the third book in the Fallen series, which was quite good. Next up, probably Stranger in a Strange Land.

Volatar

2012-06-13, 07:56 AM

Oh it is so hard not to spoil Mistborn. So very hard. I keep writing things and then backspacing them. :smallredface:

Flickerdart

2012-06-13, 08:42 AM

Skip everything on your list and go read Roadside Picnic (http://lib.ru/STRUGACKIE/engl_picnic.txt), a sci-fi novel about a mysterious wasteland left behind by an unknown influence, and the men who explore it. Closest parallel of the setting would be to the STALKER games, which are very loosely based on it, but the book was written before Chernobyl happened and is frankly better off for it. I also recommend everything else by the Strugatsky brothers you can find, though some of their best stuff was never translated.

Neftren

2012-06-15, 09:56 PM

Oh it is so hard not to spoil Mistborn. So very hard. I keep writing things and then backspacing them. :smallredface:

I just finished the second book. The third book is on its way, and the fourth is sort of in limbo at the library administration center place thing. Umm, yeah.

Skip everything on your list and go read Roadside Picnic (http://lib.ru/STRUGACKIE/engl_picnic.txt), a sci-fi novel about a mysterious wasteland left behind by an unknown influence, and the men who explore it. Closest parallel of the setting would be to the STALKER games, which are very loosely based on it, but the book was written before Chernobyl happened and is frankly better off for it. I also recommend everything else by the Strugatsky brothers you can find, though some of their best stuff was never translated.

O.o this is quite a long read. I'm going to go copy this to my phone and read it on the subway I think.

Anyways, I'll have another batch of book reviews up soon. I've been putting a bit more time towards getting my website up and running, so it hasn't quite been a book a day, but hopefully I'll be able to catch up at some point.

pita

2012-06-16, 10:02 AM

I just finished the second book. The third book is on its way, and the fourth is sort of in limbo at the library administration center place thing. Umm, yeah.

The fourth one isn't really connected to the third: It's set hundreds of years later, with different characters and all. It's actually the first Sanderson book I didn't really like, though I'm in the minority.

Neftren

2012-06-16, 12:47 PM

I took the David Weber books off the holds queue. I know they're at the local library and in easy reach, so I'll just pick them up when I head there later today, assuming nobody has swiped them off the shelf this week.

I also added Partials (http://www.amazon.com/Partials-Dan-Wells/dp/0062071041) to the list, after hearing about it on Schlock Mercenary. Anyways, I've added Storm Front through Altered Carbon to the holds queue (check the OP for the current ordering). Keep the suggestions coming in! I'm trying to keep my holds queue as full as possible (cap of 15 books). :smallbiggrin:

The fourth one isn't really connected to the third: It's set hundreds of years later, with different characters and all. It's actually the first Sanderson book I didn't really like, though I'm in the minority.

Hmm, good to know. Well, I'm OCD about completing things, so it's on the list now. I went ahead and pre-emptively reserved several other series' books since the holds queue is so long for them (e.g. Divergent, I've been stuck at #22 for a week now, so I added the sequel).

Onto other matters... book reviews time!

1

The Graveyard Book
This was a bit of an odd book to read. I wasn’t quite sure what was going on initially, though I suppose the bit where the boy is taken in and gains special powers just by living in the graveyard kind of made sense to me. Well, made sense from a fantasy standpoint. In terms of how this played out, I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book. I mean, after all, it starts off with a set of vicious murders in the backdrop of a swirling night. Would this be some sort of revenge novel? Does Bod somehow use powers acquired in the graveyard to rain ghostly doom and destruction upon his enemies (actually yes?). Okay I’m probably taking it a bit too far at this point.

Anyways, perhaps what really stood out though was the stark contrast between Bod’s honesty compared to everyone else. I don’t seem to recall him ever telling a lie, or being unnecessarily deceptive, beyond protecting his identity. I’m pretty sure he keeps all his promises too; for instance, he returns the brooch to the Sleer. Okay, well, not all his promises, since he leaves the graveyard against the wishes of his guardians, so maybe this wasn’t such a great angle to examine.

I thought the inclusion of Scarlett was an excellent move as well. Bod’s past is already murky enough. After all, he’s never gone anywhere, and lives in a graveyard with a bunch of dead people. The result is that all his stories aren’t really his stories. They’re the former lives of all the ghosts in the graveyard, plus some embellishments, as noted by his schoolteacher while grading essays. Anyways, back to Scarlett. This girl that’s young enough to believe in Bod’s existence beyond an “imaginary friend” of sorts… that’s what Bod really needs I think. Well, at that point in his life, he just needed someone who wouldn’t judge him for what he was. Then to have Scarlett come back a decade later, (sorry, spoilers!)… and still believe! I felt rather vindicated in that whole mushy “hope for humanity” sense.

The ending was incredibly disappointing (in a good way). So maybe I shouldn’t call it disappointing. I suppose it was a gentle reminder that all things (good or bad) must end. At least this way Bod gets to move on without the pressure of being some sort of chosen one (though the book never did get around to explaining why he was special, only that he’s special…). Anyways, I was feeling relatively uninspired while writing this so… I’ll just call it quits on this one for now. Passion
Whereas Torment seemed to go through some necessary fluff and filler regarding the mechanism of transportation via announcers, plus some background on the whole shadows business, Passion gets right to the crux of the matter. Why are these two souls locked into this cycle of eternal love and reincarnation? I mean, after millennia, somehow Lucinda and Daniel seem to find each other… over and over again. I mean, only one of them retains their memory, so there has to be some reason for why they’re magnetically attracted to each other. This book was rather enlightening as to how this all started.

So while I left off with “Why! Why are you running away from all the people who have spent months protecting you!” I slowly changed my mind as I read the rest of this book. This is one of those personal journey quests that all great protagonists seem to go through. You know, one of those “voyage of discovery” types of narratives? Anyways, so here we are, stepping through centuries of history. It was rather interesting actually, watching Lucinda trace her past lives. I rather enjoyed reading the Moscow, Milan, and Versailles sections, but that’s the European history lover in me I guess.

An interesting portion of this book seems to be devoted towards seeing Daniel in a new light. Or rather, revealing more about him. Without giving any spoilers away, there was a bit of an interesting reversal of roles in a number of ways. First, there’s the whole “Daniel can’t seem to catch up with Lucinda” part, whereas it had always been Daniel calling the shots in the previous two books. Then there’s a little bit with Cam and the first “Lilith” (in a long line of Liliths), which completely revised how I saw the guy. Oh, and there’s this last guy, Bill, but I don’t want to spoil anything there, beyond the fact that his character is excellently written.

The very ending of this book left me a little puzzled though. All this jumping through time, and they haven’t made any catastrophic changes yet… and then we reach the very beginning (of where everything started). I mean, that’s not a spoiler, it was leading up to that point anyways. I don’t quite get the passage of time in this book, but perhaps all will be made clear in the following novel.

As for an unrelated piece of the puzzle, what’s the connection between Lucinda and Lucifer? I’m not sure this is some idle coincidence. Perhaps this is one of those masterful strokes, where the author has the entire story planned out already. Either way, this seems too hard to have magically worked in there. Either way, this had better be covered in the last book…Mistborn: The Well of Ascension
This book actually made a lot more sense than the first book did. I’ll just put that out there. There was a lot less focus on lots and lots of people. It was more a character study on the people I was actually interested in: Elend, Vin, and Renoux (OreSeur? Okay, that Kandra). It was also an interesting read on governments. Maybe I’m just a cynic, but the government created by Elend seems to be failing horribly, as I figured it would. It’s probably true too. People like to say lots of things and feel rebellious, but in the end, most seem to pick stability over freedom. I suppose it’s a good thing the crew is actually rather dedicated to preserving the city.

So, regarding Vin. I think Zane raised a lot of rather important points, forcing her to think about her role in everything. She really has become somebody else’s knife. As some mystical power that committed… okay is there even a word for “deposing a deity”? I suppose regicide will have to settle for now. Anyways, Vin seems to have gathered some degree of cult following among the citizens. I don’t think she really has a choice in whether or not she’s just another tool in a big game of politics, but it’s comforting to know that she can at least recognize as much.

We also didn’t see much of Elend Venture in the first book, beyond young and rebellious idealist. He’s rather capable in this book, which was refreshing. Okay, also a bit naïve, but few people are thrust from “rebellious youth” to “running entire cities” overnight. The whole conflict between who he is, and who he needs to be (or who Tindwyl seems to think he should be) was rather amusing to read actually.

It was also good to learn a lot more about the history of the world, for instance: Sazed’s measured and scholarly approach to knowledge. Or the conversations with OreSeur (or should I say TenSoon… gah! Name identity crisis!). What I don’t really understand is why this book is called “The Well of Ascension” when the well is found in the space of a very short period of time. That, and there’s relatively little knowledge on what the well is, or does (without spoiling anything). Perhaps the third book will be more revealing on this matter.

I did dock a star for a few small reasons though. It just dragged on longer than it probably should have. I’m not against long books by any means, but there were portions that felt unimportant with respect to the overall narrative. Then it also introduced some confusing elements. For instance, Marsh is their friend… right? So why did he go all crazy at the end (sorry for the spoiler)? So, yeah, I’m confused.

Emmerask

2012-06-16, 01:21 PM

Neftren

2012-06-16, 01:43 PM

So I just finished reading one of the few David Gemmell books I have not read.

Knights of Dark Renown (http://www.amazon.com/Knights-Dark-Renown-David-Gemmell/dp/034537908X) David Gemmell

While this standalone book is not his best work, I still think its absolutely worth reading because it very much shows Gemmels strength.
While other authors require 4+ books (wheel of time, song of ice and fire etc) Gemmel manages to put out a story of similar scope in just one book.

So even while the ideas are not unheard of (its a pretty old book 1989) and the "big twist" was forseeable I still very highly recommend it :smallsmile:

This sounds right up my alley! I've added it to the list.

I've also decided to scratch Strange in a Strange Land from the list. It has a really weak hook, and I've little to no motivation to read it after a rather confusing and disappointing first chapter.

Next up: Name of the Wind.

pita

2012-06-16, 03:16 PM

Mistborn: The Well of AscensionI did dock a star for a few small reasons though. It just dragged on longer than it probably should have. I’m not against long books by any means, but there were portions that felt unimportant with respect to the overall narrative. Then it also introduced some confusing elements. For instance, Marsh is their friend… right? So why did he go all crazy at the end (sorry for the spoiler)? So, yeah, I’m confused.
Book 3 explains a lot of the questions you asked, but especially this one. I recommend, after you finish it, to go through Sanderson's website. He has annotations for the books, that explain quite a bit, including behind the scenes things that happened that he didn't put in the books.

Man on Fire

2012-06-16, 03:26 PM

On Graveyard Book:

though the book never did get around to explaining why he was special, only that he’s special…

I always assumed that prophecy about Bod we self-fulfilling. He was said to be the one who wll cause downfall of Jacks and their actions to prevent it from happening are what triggered their destruction. Through I may misunderstand what you're reffering to, I have read Graveyard Book some time ago.

Neftren

2012-06-16, 09:05 PM

Book 3 explains a lot of the questions you asked, but especially this one. I recommend, after you finish it, to go through Sanderson's website. He has annotations for the books, that explain quite a bit, including behind the scenes things that happened that he didn't put in the books.

Oh! That's good to know. Yeah, I saw a summary of Book 1 in the back of Book 2. I just thought it was rather odd for Marsh to do that, especially since he basically wasn't in the entire book until the very end.

Overall though, Mistborn is an excellent series. Among the better ones I've read too. I've also got "The Way of Kings" next to me here, but I figured I'd finish the Mistborn books first, before starting another series and sidetracking myself. Are there any of his other works that you'd recommend?

On Graveyard Book:

I always assumed that prophecy about Bod we self-fulfilling. He was said to be the one who wll cause downfall of Jacks and their actions to prevent it from happening are what triggered their destruction. Through I may misunderstand what you're reffering to, I have read Graveyard Book some time ago.

Yeah, that's what I was referring to. It seems as if the Jacks basically invented their own downfall. I mean, Bod doesn't even do anything of his own accord to actively take out the Jacks, except for the very end, at which point, it's the last four Jacks anyways. Seems rather crazy to think that a boy with absolutely no special powers whatsoever ...

Okay good, so I didn't completely miss some important section of the book. :smallbiggrin:

thompur

2012-06-16, 10:16 PM

TheSummoner

2012-06-17, 02:48 AM

Shogun is a fantastic novel about a English ship captain who lands in Japan during the sixteenth century. He lands (more like crash lands) during a period that is pivotal to Japan in that the nation is on the brink of all out war. Will this war tear the nation asunder or finally unite the people under one ruler? Which Daimyo has enough strength and intelligence to grasp the coveted title of Shogun? Where does our Englishman fit into this scene? His ship is wrecked...his crew is starving...and he doesn't speak the language of the very aggressive natives.

It's a historical fiction based action adventure romance thriller. Not a short book by any means...my copy weighed in at about 1,200 pages...and I've read it three times. Each time took me about 1 week. It's a book that absolutely captures your imagination and refuses to let go...

I read this in High School and though I don't remember many of the finer details, I'll second the suggestion. I especially liked the twist that came near the end, though I won't spoil.

I also have two suggestions of my own, both Fantasy... The first is A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin (the first book in the series is A Game of Thrones). I wouldn't be surprised if this has already been suggested (infact, I'd be surprised if it hasn't), but it is without a doubt my favorite book series. A low fantasy world with no (well, very few anyways) characters who can clearly be defined as clearly good or evil. No evil overlords. No all-powerful wizards. Very little that is explicitly magical in nature, and the only dwarves are short humans rather than bearded guys who live in mines. The story is all about the power struggles going on between the various powerful families.

My second suggestion is a book that I just finished today. Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams. I'm not sure if you're an animal person, but if you are, and especially if you love cats, you'll probably enjoy this one. I picked this one up on a whim simply because the cat on the cover reminded me of my cat and I'm happy I did. The book is from the perspective of young a feral cat (the titular Tailchaser) who gets wrapped up events far larger than himself. Though the book is classified as Fantasy, the only thing it shares with more traditional Fantasy settings is the inclusion of actual physical gods (while Tailchaser interacts with them, he's more of a witness to events as they transpire than any sort of chosen one able to have any more effect than anyone else), that said, the animal perspective thing really does make it hard to place it in any other genre. A note if you do read this one, there's a glossary in the back with translations for the cat-terms that sometimes come up. While you can usually figure out the meaning through context quite easily, I do wish I had realized there was a glossary before I finished the book.

Feytalist

2012-06-18, 02:02 AM

So I just finished reading one of the few David Gemmell books I have not read.

Knights of Dark Renown (http://www.amazon.com/Knights-Dark-Renown-David-Gemmell/dp/034537908X) David Gemmell

Yeah, Knights of Dark Renown is a great book. Gemmell's standalone books are unfortunately usually underrated. Dark Moon (http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Moon-David-Gemmell/dp/0345458370) and Echoes of the Great Song (http://www.amazon.com/Echoes-Great-Song-David-Gemmell/dp/0345432320) are two other good books if you enjoy this one.

My second suggestion is a book that I just finished today. Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams.

I remember reading it back in school. It's a good book.

On The Graveyard Book; isn't it a children's book? That's the only reason I haven't bothered getting it. If it's good enough, I might give it a try.

pita

2012-06-18, 11:01 AM

Overall though, Mistborn is an excellent series. Among the better ones I've read too. I've also got "The Way of Kings" next to me here, but I figured I'd finish the Mistborn books first, before starting another series and sidetracking myself. Are there any of his other works that you'd recommend?

The Way Of Kings can't be called the beginning of a series, as it is the only book out. You can read it safely enough. While it ends on a cliffhanger, it manages to resolve most of the issues it brings up.
Warbreaker is my favorite Brandon Sanderson novel, for a variety of reasons, which I will not state for spoiler reasons. Safe to say: Read carefully.
EDIT- I can't believe I didn't mention The Lies of Locke Lamora. One of my favorite fantasy novels. The sequel doesn't quite match up, but then again, nothing really does. It's a mix between Ocean's 11 and A Game of Thrones with a twist of The Godfather. The main characters are a gang of con artists pretending to be a gang of thieves working for Capa Barsavi, a crime-lord, while actually conning nobles. The novel cuts between flashbacks of the main character's somewhat insane childhood and what happens as their current "game" begins to go wrong.

Neftren

2012-06-18, 08:41 PM

TheSummoner and thomper, I'll get back to your posts sometime later this week, time permitting. I'll also get to everyone else's book suggestions as well. I'm just a bit time strapped at the moment.

On The Graveyard Book; isn't it a children's book? That's the only reason I haven't bothered getting it. If it's good enough, I might give it a try.

I think it would be age appropriate for perhaps ages eight to fourteen? Nothing wrong with reading a childrens' book though. :smallsmile:

I liked it enough. Anything with at least three stars on my list is probably something I would suggest to someone.

The Way Of Kings can't be called the beginning of a series, as it is the only book out. You can read it safely enough. While it ends on a cliffhanger, it manages to resolve most of the issues it brings up.
Warbreaker is my favorite Brandon Sanderson novel, for a variety of reasons, which I will not state for spoiler reasons. Safe to say: Read carefully.
EDIT- I can't believe I didn't mention The Lies of Locke Lamora. One of my favorite fantasy novels. The sequel doesn't quite match up, but then again, nothing really does. It's a mix between Ocean's 11 and A Game of Thrones with a twist of The Godfather. The main characters are a gang of con artists pretending to be a gang of thieves working for Capa Barsavi, a crime-lord, while actually conning nobles. The novel cuts between flashbacks of the main character's somewhat insane childhood and what happens as their current "game" begins to go wrong.

Oh, it's the only book out? Interesting. In that case, I'll give it a start tomorrow, since it looks to be a rather lengthy tome.

Hmm, Warbreaker you said? What's it about?

Lies of Locke Lamora... I'll look into this.

Helanna

2012-06-19, 09:05 AM

Hmm, Warbreaker you said? What's it about?

I was actually about to check if you had Warbreaker on your list. The plot is that two countries whose values are diametrically opposed are on the brink of war. The king of the smaller country sends one of his daughters to marry the large country's God-Emperor, who's an evil monster. Only instead of sending his oldest, who has prepared her whole life for this, he ends up sending his youngest, who never bothered to actually learn anything about the other country. She has to learn to live in the High Court, while her older sister tries to rescue her. Plus it features Lightsong, one of the Gods of the court, who's trying to figure out why he became a god.

It's a mix of action and political intrigue, and it features one of Sanderson's trademark awesome magic systems. It's probably my favorite book of his.

JoeMac307

2012-06-20, 03:12 PM

I hope I don't repeat anybody, but this is a fairly long post and I didn't have a chance to read through all the suggestions:

Did anyone suggestion The Magicians and The Magician King by Lev Grossman? Very cynical, but fun. Bashes the heck out of Narnia, and is like a grittier, more sexualized Harry Potter.

How about Everything Matters! by Ron Currie, Jr? It is about a super-genius who starts hearing a disembodied voice in the womb, before he's even born that tells him the exact date and time of the end of the world.

Also, if you are into fantasy / horror / sci-fi with a bit of noir and counter-culture / alternative-sexuality thrown in, check out anything by Caitlin R Kiernan.

Also, a personal favorite of mine is The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. Awesome counter-culture / sci-fi / conspiracy theory / anarchistic mash-up from the 70s. It will help you see the Fnords! :smallwink: As they say, Holy Cow, and Wholly Chao.

If you want to read something outside of sci-fi / fantasy, try Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco... it's a bit of a difficult read, but awesome. The best conspiracy theory book I've ever read (although it deconstructions them).

Finally, I second all the suggestions for anything by Gaiman, Pratchett, and Susanna Clarke.

Neftren

2012-06-23, 12:37 PM

I was actually about to check if you had Warbreaker on your list. The plot is that two countries whose values are diametrically opposed are on the brink of war. The king of the smaller country sends one of his daughters to marry the large country's God-Emperor, who's an evil monster. Only instead of sending his oldest, who has prepared her whole life for this, he ends up sending his youngest, who never bothered to actually learn anything about the other country. She has to learn to live in the High Court, while her older sister tries to rescue her. Plus it features Lightsong, one of the Gods of the court, who's trying to figure out why he became a god.

It's a mix of action and political intrigue, and it features one of Sanderson's trademark awesome magic systems. It's probably my favorite book of his.

Oh, sounds good! I'll add this to the list along with everything else when I get the chance.

In other news, I just got ten books in from the library today, so I can start clearing through the backlog.

1

More Reviews! By the way, Volatar, your suggestions were awesome.

The Name of the Wind
This was a masterfully written tale tracing the growth of Kvothe from… young child to… young man? He seems much older than he really is. Well, at least, I don’t think he’s more than twenty-five or so years old? Still, reading this was like reading an autobiography from a third person perspective. I suppose the book was written that way intentionally, though at this point I think we’re the fourth dimension, no? It was rather interesting tracing Kvothe’s life from a character perspective. At different times in his life, his character changes entirely.

For instance, he starts off as this little kid in a travelling caravan of minstrels… okay, troupers. This would be what, the precursor to a circus? He learns to act and sing and dance. For the most part, it seems like his life is perfect, or perfect enough. Then this old guy comes along (and yes, it HAS to be an old guy, because what story is complete without one?) and teaches him all these cool things. So now we have Kvothe the little performer boy, to Kvothe the apprentice scholar. By now you’ve probably figured out that names have some measure of importance in this book (and I’m just casually tacking a few more on for fun). Anyways, it seems as if everything is going perfectly for Kvothe, and then of course, we have our catastrophe, setting up the rest of the novel.

The next thing we know, Kvothe is on the streets. I suppose I ought to call him Kvothe the beggar? Either way, any semblance of Kvothe the scholar, or the performer, seems to be erased. Even his lute is broken, if you’re the type to read into symbolism and such. I’m going to skip ahead a bit now since I don’t want to give away the book, so suffice to say, Kvothe the beggar turns into Kvothe the magician, and so on.

The fascinating part of this entire book is that Kvothe is somehow all of these people… performer, musician, beggar, scholar, wizard… yet at the same time, is none of these people. Rothfuss seems to have struck it on the nail when Kvothe’s friend notes that while Kvothe’s story is larger than life, Kvothe himself is hiding away, and by hiding away, Kvothe is losing all of his talents. Or in short, Kvothe is becoming what he believes he is… a simple innkeeper. This book left some unanswered questions at the end, but then again, it’s the first book in a series, and what we got was already an incredible work by itself. If I were feeling more intelligent right now, I’d go write a full character study on Kvothe, but that’s something for another time…Mistborn: The Hero of Ages
Of the three books in the series, this one was most definitely the best. I don’t think I’ve seen any other series wrap up so nicely. Sanderson managed to tie in things from the first book that I had totally forgotten. In hindsight, I now realize that the three books roughly follow the development of three systems of “magic” (or whatever you choose to call it).

At first glance, Allomancy seems to be the primary system in all three, and for the first book, it pretty much is. It’s the most common among the characters, and is probably the best described of the three. Then book two went into a great deal regarding Feruchemy. I didn’t really notice it at first, but book three turned into essentially a treatise on Hemalurgy. Did anyone else notice that at all? In any case, Hemalurgy really cleared up a lot of my questions regarding the Steel Inquisitors, Koloss, and even the Kandra. The way it was presented was also brilliant, especially with all the scenes involving Spook (Lestibournes?). It’s comforting to know that those of strong will can resist or even overcome the influence of Ruin (TenSoon and Marsh come to mind here). I just realized that Zane was pierced by a spike… so he wasn’t insane after all. I wonder how he was pierced. Was he Mistborn before or after the spike? And even Vin’s earring! That takes a massive amount of forethought and planning to pull off.

Among series, this is probably one of the finest that I have read. Sanderson is incredibly capable. Things that seemed unimportant became important and clicked in a way that I would have never thought possible. The love-hate relationship of the mists was explained quite well too! I love how it was tied into the Church of the Survivor. Superstition can really be a powerful thing. Oh, and the whole book revolving around the number sixteen was really a masterful stroke. It integrated so well that I kind of forgot about it by the time I started the third book. Sadly, I wasn’t able to go back and check the other books, but the idea with all sixteen metals, the sickness, the mists snapping people, and so on… are there sixteen different hemalurgical spikes? Or what about sixteen creatures created by Hemalurgy? I suppose the same question stands for Feruchemy. I suppose my only question… if Sazed is the Hero of Ages (is he?), who was the Announcer?

The other books may not have earned perfect scores, but this one definitely earns all five. Sanderson built such a compelling, realistic world together, with characters that live, breathe, and act like real people. It makes me wonder if anyone can do better. Whatever fantasy novel I read next will have a tough standard to beat. This series is one that I will most likely read again and again. It’s that good.
Fallen in Love
Okay so this wasn’t exactly part of the main story (I totally thought it was). It was a decent read, but probably one that can be skipped in the grand scheme of the series. What can I say about this though… hmmm…. Well, it was a rather short book, but as a collection of stories about Daniel and Luce’s friends, it certainly revealed a good deal of information about Arriane and Roland.

So this starts off with Shelby and Miles (those two Nephilim). I’m assuming you’ve read the previous books by the way. Anyways, there’s this whole soppy “I bought this for you! I bought that for you!” which wasn’t particularly interesting. Then they meet Roland (of the present day), who somehow managed to land up in the same timeframe of the Middle Ages, and somehow acquired a horse plus requisite shining armor. Roland is (was) apparently the Angel of Music, yet can’t write poems to impress anyone. That was rather amusing actually. It was rather strange learning that Roland fell because he was unable to pick between Heaven and Hell, but I didn’t learn anything about why he turned into a demon. An interesting thing to draw is that Cam and Roland loved mortal women… both of them are demons. On the flip side…

Arriane loved a celestial entity. Okay, demon, but still, fallen angel nonetheless. This one was a bit awkward with the whole concealed romance and all. I’m not sure what to make of this yet, and I don’t want to invoke the wrath of anybody, so I’ll just leave it at that. Setting aside Daniel for the moment (I think reincarnated Lucinda probably doesn’t count as “mortal” in the holistic sense), I’m wondering if the whole Demons <> Mortals, (Redeemed) Angels <> Other Angels is part of a larger pattern.

The most important thing to read from this book I think is that all of the characters we’ve met so far had something to lose. There hasn’t been anything about Gabbe or Molly yet, but I would presume something similar for them as well. That probably raises the biggest question. If everybody has something to lose… well, Lucinda is bound to grow old and die, right? What happens to Daniel then… I mean, even Roland reached that part. In some ways, that curse was also a blessing. Who else is lucky enough to see your soul mate every twenty years or so? I mean, even if they die, they’ll come back… This was a bit of a weird side-novel, so I’m just rambling again at this point. Hopefully the final book comes in soon.

pita

2012-06-27, 11:15 AM

Lies of Locke Lamora... I'll look into this.

It's by Scott Lynch. Sorry I didn't add that.

Connington

2012-07-03, 09:22 PM

Just popped in to say that I'm following avidly and that I'm impressed and somewhat frightened by your reading pace. I'll definitely be checking out the books you recommend. Oh, and to sieze the chance for a little Mistborn nerdery.

I just realized that Zane was pierced by a spike… so he wasn’t insane after all. I wonder how he was pierced. Was he Mistborn before or after the spike?

According to Sanderson (he has really cool annotations online), he actually was somewhat crazy before being pierced. Ruin can influence the minds of the insane (like Vin's mother), and he got him to pierce himself. He was naturally Mistborn, the single spike just gave him unnaturally strong and precise steel allomancy.

Are there sixteen different hemalurgical spikes? Or what about sixteen creatures created by Hemalurgy? I suppose the same question stands for Feruchemy.

Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy all use the same set of sixteen metals. Well kind of, but that's a story for another book. Sazed says somewhere in the book that the Lord Ruler only managed to make three hemalurgic creations, although not for lack of trying.

I suppose my only question… if Sazed is the Hero of Ages (is he?), who was the Announcer? According to Sanderson the whole position of the Announcer was fabricated by Ruin, to seduce Kwaan, and then Sazed.

Neftren

2012-07-04, 09:37 AM

Just popped in to say that I'm following avidly and that I'm impressed and somewhat frightened by your reading pace. I'll definitely be checking out the books you recommend. Oh, and to sieze the chance for a little Mistborn nerdery.

According to Sanderson (he has really cool annotations online), he actually was somewhat crazy before being pierced. Ruin can influence the minds of the insane (like Vin's mother), and he got him to pierce himself. He was naturally Mistborn, the single spike just gave him unnaturally strong and precise steel allomancy.

Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy all use the same set of sixteen metals. Well kind of, but that's a story for another book. Sazed says somewhere in the book that the Lord Ruler only managed to make three hemalurgic creations, although not for lack of trying.

According to Sanderson the whole position of the Announcer was fabricated by Ruin, to seduce Kwaan, and then Sazed.

Oh, interesting. I just finished the Alloy of Law, which was a bit of a fun side-story. It would actually make a pretty good film I think.

It's by Scott Lynch. Sorry I didn't add that.

Ah, thank you.

For those of you wondering about my silence, I've actually been without electricity for the past week, thanks to the ferocious storms... so I'll be getting back up to speed over the next few days.

dps

2012-07-04, 05:48 PM

Not knowing anything about you, your tastes, or what you've read before posting the request for suggestions:

Fiction:

A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle

Bambi, by Felix Salten

Galaxy 666, by Pel Torro

Non-Fiction:

The Politics of Glory, by Bill James

Eat the Rich, by P.J. O'Rourke

History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, by Samuel Elliot Morison

That last one might keep even a fast reader busy for a bit.

Neftren

2012-07-07, 10:43 AM

I cannot reccommend highly enough, the works of Robert J. Sawyer. He's a brilliant writer who has won more awards for his novels than anyone else in the Science Fiction and Fantasy fields.
My personal favorites:
*The Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy
Far-Seer
Fossil Hunter
Foreigner

*The Neanderthal Paralax Trilogy
Hominids(Hugo Award)
Humans
Hybrids

*The WWW Trilogy
Wake
Watch(Hal Clement Award)
Wonder

*The Terminal Experiment(Nebula Award)

*Mindscan(John W. Campbell Memorial Award)

*Flashforward(Basis for the TV series)
*Starplex
*Calculating God
*Illegal Alien
and his latest novel - Triggers

What I love about his writing is his very relatable characters,and his relatively hopeful view of science and the future.

I also reccommend the works of Jasper Fforde. Especially the Thursday Next series, and the Nursery Crime series. They are a lot of fun!

Okay, so the whole dinosaurs and neanderthals part doesn't really interest me too much. Any particular reason why they're good? Also could you go into detail about the WWW trilogy, and a bit more info on the last few books you listed as well?

Yeah, Knights of Dark Renown is a great book. Gemmell's standalone books are unfortunately usually underrated. Dark Moon (http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Moon-David-Gemmell/dp/0345458370) and Echoes of the Great Song (http://www.amazon.com/Echoes-Great-Song-David-Gemmell/dp/0345432320) are two other good books if you enjoy this one.

I went ahead and added those two books to the list as well.

The Way Of Kings can't be called the beginning of a series, as it is the only book out. You can read it safely enough. While it ends on a cliffhanger, it manages to resolve most of the issues it brings up.
Warbreaker is my favorite Brandon Sanderson novel, for a variety of reasons, which I will not state for spoiler reasons. Safe to say: Read carefully.
EDIT- I can't believe I didn't mention The Lies of Locke Lamora. One of my favorite fantasy novels. The sequel doesn't quite match up, but then again, nothing really does. It's a mix between Ocean's 11 and A Game of Thrones with a twist of The Godfather. The main characters are a gang of con artists pretending to be a gang of thieves working for Capa Barsavi, a crime-lord, while actually conning nobles. The novel cuts between flashbacks of the main character's somewhat insane childhood and what happens as their current "game" begins to go wrong.

Okay I finished The Way of Kings. Interesting book, though a bit long. I'll have a full review up later today.

I've added the Lies of Locke Lamora.

I was actually about to check if you had Warbreaker on your list. The plot is that two countries whose values are diametrically opposed are on the brink of war. The king of the smaller country sends one of his daughters to marry the large country's God-Emperor, who's an evil monster. Only instead of sending his oldest, who has prepared her whole life for this, he ends up sending his youngest, who never bothered to actually learn anything about the other country. She has to learn to live in the High Court, while her older sister tries to rescue her. Plus it features Lightsong, one of the Gods of the court, who's trying to figure out why he became a god.

It's a mix of action and political intrigue, and it features one of Sanderson's trademark awesome magic systems. It's probably my favorite book of his.

Added Warbreaker. Sanderson has proved to be pretty good so far (though I did find The Way of Kings a bit dry at first). Actually this is maybe a problem with all his works I've read so far. His beginnings are a bit lacking, but the endings all make up for it. Correct me if I'm wrong...

I hope I don't repeat anybody, but this is a fairly long post and I didn't have a chance to read through all the suggestions:

Did anyone suggestion The Magicians and The Magician King by Lev Grossman? Very cynical, but fun. Bashes the heck out of Narnia, and is like a grittier, more sexualized Harry Potter.

Hmm, I thought somebody else suggested this... evidently not. Which one of those should I start with?

How about Everything Matters! by Ron Currie, Jr? It is about a super-genius who starts hearing a disembodied voice in the womb, before he's even born that tells him the exact date and time of the end of the world.

Also, if you are into fantasy / horror / sci-fi with a bit of noir and counter-culture / alternative-sexuality thrown in, check out anything by Caitlin R Kiernan.

Hmm, I'll give Everything Matters a shot. As for Caitlin Kiernan, any particular books you enjoyed?

Also, a personal favorite of mine is The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. Awesome counter-culture / sci-fi / conspiracy theory / anarchistic mash-up from the 70s. It will help you see the Fnords! :smallwink: As they say, Holy Cow, and Wholly Chao.

If you want to read something outside of sci-fi / fantasy, try Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco... it's a bit of a difficult read, but awesome. The best conspiracy theory book I've ever read (although it deconstructions them).

Err... Fnords?

Not knowing anything about you, your tastes, or what you've read before posting the request for suggestions:

Fiction:

A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle

Bambi, by Felix Salten

Galaxy 666, by Pel Torro

Non-Fiction:

The Politics of Glory, by Bill James

Eat the Rich, by P.J. O'Rourke

History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, by Samuel Elliot Morison

That last one might keep even a fast reader busy for a bit.

I've read "A Wrinkle in Time".

Is Bambi the book any different from Bambi the Disney Animated Feature?

Reviews will be up later today. Finishing up the last few and trying not to be distracted by League of Legends. :smallbiggrin:

TheThan

2012-07-07, 02:22 PM

Neftren

2012-07-07, 03:08 PM

I just started reading the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I’ve finished the first book, A Princess of Mars, and am about to dive into the next in the series. So far it’s been fantastic, I strongly recommend everyone should read it. It’s nice to go back to some of the foundation of science fiction and fantasy.

I also strongly recommend the X-wing series by Michael A Stackpole and Aaron Allston. They are amazingly fun books to read. They are star wars books so if you’re a fan of the series these are sort of “must reads”. The best part is that you don’t have to have a ton of knowledge of the star wars universe to enjoy them either.

I've read both series. I really enjoyed the first few of the X-Wing series. I felt like it strayed off path though with the whole Wraith Squadron bit, though Piggy and Squeaky were two awesome characters. Yub Yub Commander!

Okay, review time!

1

The Alloy of Law (Mistborn)
Okay so this book wasn’t quite what I was expecting. You know that phrase “sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” or however it goes? Yeah that seems to have taken a backseat in this novel. Actually it seems like a bit of a fun setting to live in actually. From the cover, I figure it’s a bit of a Victorian-esque mid-19th century timeframe (if you can even compare this place to Earth). I was a bit confused by the beginning though. A lot of effort was put into describing Lassie and this criminal mastermind Tan, and they’re mostly forgotten in the rest of the book. That, and the book didn’t really explain how there are new Feruchemists if Sazed was the last one… anyways, plot holes aside…

I really liked the setting. I don’t know why, but I just keep going back to this. Maybe it’s just the whole revolvers and fancy hats and such. I feel like there’s a lot of potential here for another story. Actually come to think of it, this would make a pretty good film I think. The only problem would be in somehow presenting the history of the world and the magic system to people who haven’t read the books. I think the word here would be… accessibility? Yeah. Anyways…

Wax is a bit of a weird character. I mean, yeah he’s a House Lord, but he’s such a wimpy house lord. That, and there’s clearly this love triangle and he’s totally blind to it. Actually I’d probably be just as clueless, but he figures it out in the end, and still chooses to marry a person he’ll probably be annoyed with for the rest of his life. Maybe he’s just nuts I think.

Now, Wayne on the other hand is a much more interesting character. I would love to meet somebody like that in real life. I mean, he’s got a signature touch… everything revolves around having the right hat! Being able to change disguises again and again, and also change your accent completely. He also seems to be the brains of the outfit. Despite all the scenes with Wax drawing stuff on paper, it’s always Wayne that seems to intuitively recognize the bigger picture. Wax just walks into crazy situations. I’d like to learn more about where he came from. There wasn’t much detail about Wayne’s character. Just enough to pique my interest, but then there wasn’t any delivery or follow-through, so I suppose that was a little bit of a letdown there.

It was really nice seeing Marsh at the end though. That was a bit of a pleasant surprise. It didn’t really have any tie-in to the novel, but I thing it was throwing a bone to the readers. Maybe there’s something more here in the future?
The Way of Kings
This was a very long and rather confusing book. Maybe my brain just isn’t advanced enough to comprehend everything, but there were so many characters, and the frame of reference kept jumping back and forth. For instance, Shallan might be introduced, and then the story immediately shifts to Kaladin. Speaking of which… with so many characters, I found it difficult to like any particular one, except for Kaladin. Oh and I suppose Dalinor is likeable enough, because who doesn’t like the resident raving madman in charge of everything?

This book really lacks a focus, at least, in my mind. I think it would have been a better book if there were fewer characters, with more in-depth perspectives and chapters in their lives. Or perhaps this could be split into several books. A series doesn’t necessarily have to start with a single book. That’d be kind of a cool concept actually. Pick up any one of the starter books and then that could feed into an overall larger narrative.

I think I mentioned this before, but I feel that of Sanderson’s works that I’ve read so far, all of them have weak openings. Opening with a murder, and then immediately switching elsewhere, and then not coming back to the murder scene? I’m just confused at this point.

I don’t want to harp on this book too much though. While not as interesting or elegant as the Mistborn series style Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy, I did enjoy the magic system in this world. The Shardblades and Lashing are vaguely reminiscent of d20-style Psionics. What wasn’t really explained was why wearing Shardplate would prevent someone from performing Lashings…? Are Shardplates powered by Stormlight-infused crystals? If that’s the case, is it the same for Shardblades? Oh, and Soulcasting. I find it intriguing that there is an entire caste of magic-users that can basically transmute one substance into another. As demonstrated by Shallan, one doesn’t necessarily require the physical soulcaster trinket to convert substances… is that the case for all practitioners? The Ardents once tried to take control and failed, but they’re the institution controlling the Soulcasters I think, right? I wonder if they’re like the Templars in Assassin’s Creed… nominally “disbanded” or in this case, “without power” yet are really pulling the strings in the background…

I also found it interesting that the common weapon was a spear, not a sword. I wonder if there’s something deeper behind that. Why are swords reserved for more important people? After all, centuries of human warfare has led to the sword as the superior weapon… why the spear?
Altered Carbon
I will confess. I felt a little dirty reading this. I wasn’t really sure how the prologue fit into the whole book. It made Kovacs out to be some sort of criminal, when he really was part of some sort of interstellar commando police unit. I probably mangled his job description there. Probably. Anyways, the basic premise is that this guy blows his head off, and the police wrote it off as a suicide. As is aptly noted, this guy had absolutely no reason to blow his head off, and even if he were trying to commit suicide, even he knows that frying his brains won’t do the job, thanks to the whole technology developed where people can move their minds around between bodies. Okay that’s the cool part.

The ability to copy your brain, and then download it into another body? That’s just some serious cool. I’m not sure I’d go for it myself. As described, only the super rich can afford to keep cloning their bodies to stay young. Growing old over and over again would probably get old… hah. That, and to wake up in somebody else’s body every eighty years? That would just creep me out to no end. Still, it’s a pretty awesome direction to move towards. I think I recall reading something similar in a Star Trek novel, with people downloading themselves into android bodies, but this seems better thought out.

I think the one detractor in this book is how dirty it gets. Genetic manipulation to make your body secrete a telepathy-stimulant (read: narcotic, drug, etc.) when you’re aroused (and hopefully I don’t trip any red flags here)? Then cloning yourself multiple times, copying your mind into each of those bodies, and then seducing the main character? I’m not sure what to think at this point. If you’ve lived for three centuries, I’m sure you get bored of life at some point, but if this is what you’re turning to… I think I’ll stop pursuing this train of thought. I’m not sure I want to think about this anymore.

As for the mystery, there was a pretty awesome conclusion to the book. The first theory is totally plausible, with a lethal computer virus, but then we find out an even more devilish plan, and then everything slams into place. Envoy intuition I think it’s called in the book. I suppose that’s a bit of a Deus Ex Machina there, but everything has been setup properly, so it just clicks, and turns into a good ending.

Emmerask

2012-07-07, 04:20 PM

Well there could be several reasons why spears are the weapon of choice mostly speculation though on my part ^^

Most important I think is that swords are pretty much something akin to holy symbols in this world (Honorblades carried by the Heralds, Shardblades etc) and you don´t let anyone just carry such a symbol (even if its just an imitation of the symbol).

Maybe metal production/purification is just not good enough, a technology which is extremely important to create swords but rather no so to create a working spear.

As far as I remember the enemy consisted mostly of large brutish creatures and fighting against such an enemy spears are the superior weapon compared to the short sword (which is the sword that is superior to any other weapon in formation fighting).

Or maybe he just wanted something different from sword fights all the time who knows :smallbiggrin:

Flickerdart

2012-07-07, 04:25 PM

Spears aren't the weapon of choice - it's specifically stated that all lighteyes are allowed to and do use the sword. It's a rank thing, because spears are cheap and nobody really cares enough about darkeyes to allow them anything better.

I read Way of Kings recently too, and really wasn't a fan. In a thousand pages, practically nothing happened, and there are going to be nine more books.

Emmerask

2012-07-07, 04:27 PM

Hm what was the ratio of light eyes vs others is that stated in the book?

dps

2012-07-07, 06:26 PM

Is Bambi the book any different from Bambi the Disney Animated Feature?

The movie is an adaptation of the book. There are some significant differences. Some plot differences, but mostly it's that the book is much more serious in tone.

TheThan

2012-07-07, 10:03 PM

I've read both series. I really enjoyed the first few of the X-Wing series. I felt like it strayed off path though with the whole Wraith Squadron bit, though Piggy and Squeaky were two awesome characters. Yub Yub Commander!

yeah I see your point, Wrath squadron was the reverse of Rogue squadron. The rogues were the best of the Rebels, the wraiths, not really, the rogues were pilots first, covert ops second, the wraiths were covert ops first, pilots second. So really, it depends on which side of the coin you liked better.

The Wraiths came off as a cross between Hogan's heroes, and the dirty dozen. they were a bit silly and fun, but at the same time, very dangerous. They also had a touch of the underdog in them.

Neftren

2012-07-07, 11:47 PM

Most important I think is that swords are pretty much something akin to holy symbols in this world (Honorblades carried by the Heralds, Shardblades etc) and you don´t let anyone just carry such a symbol (even if its just an imitation of the symbol).

Okay this I think makes the most sense of all the potential arguments. Even within swords though, there are tons of variations, and you can always make more ornate weapons... Shardblades seem to exist in a class all by themselves really. I digress though. This is probably the reason why, though I don't think it was very well explained in the book.

Maybe metal production/purification is just not good enough, a technology which is extremely important to create swords but rather no so to create a working spear.[/Qupte]

Okay, but metal production can be set aside for the moment. Soulcasting can transmute from any substance to another (presumably of perfect purity). Remember the marble railing, carved out of wood, then soulcast? Even assuming soulcasting is a limited and expensive process, metallurgy is hardly a difficult industry to build and manage. I figure if you can make an iron or a steel spearhead, it's not that more difficult to extend that to making a sword... the only indication at this point would be a scarcity of metal, but then again, aren't they all wearing metal armor?

[Quote]As far as I remember the enemy consisted mostly of large brutish creatures and fighting against such an enemy spears are the superior weapon compared to the short sword (which is the sword that is superior to any other weapon in formation fighting).

So far the only creatures they've been fighting are each other, and chasmfiends. Oh and I suppose if you consider the Parshendi as "not-human" then yeah, the Parshendi, who fight with hammers, if I remember correctly.

A spear makes for a terrible weapon once the enemy is in your face, unless it's a shortspear, at which point it's no better than a longsword. If you're fighting a chasmfiend, the one that we've seen so far has been too big for spears to be of any use, and if you're running a large military, why would you equip your soldiers to fight one exceptionally rare, behemoth, when your everyday combat is against other humanoids?

To me, spears are mostly useful only against cavalry charges... and aren't horses relatively rare? Or am I mixing this up with another book...

Maybe you're right too, I dunno. Spears are a refreshing change from swords. :smallbiggrin:

Spears aren't the weapon of choice - it's specifically stated that all lighteyes are allowed to and do use the sword. It's a rank thing, because spears are cheap and nobody really cares enough about darkeyes to allow them anything better.

I read Way of Kings recently too, and really wasn't a fan. In a thousand pages, practically nothing happened, and there are going to be nine more books.

I suppose you're also right. Well, I'm more of the opinion that it's a status symbol, as Emmerask pointed out. Still, this is a culture based on competition and victory. If you wanted to secure a lot of gemhearts, ideally you would do so by preserving the lives of your troops, so as to maintain the strength of your army. Better weapons means your soldiers kill the enemy first. The lighteyes at the top of the food chain are clearly adept at battlefield strategy. Equipping everyone with a sword would seem to be the expedient option...

Hm what was the ratio of light eyes vs others is that stated in the book?

Well, if we judge by the bridge crew alone... that's what, 30 men to one lighteye supervisor. Roughly eight bridge crews, so around 120 men assuming every crew is at average or better strength. Dalinor has roughly eight thousand soldiers in his army, and doesn't use bridge crews, so that'd be 66 lighteyes for 8000 troops, which is clearly not the case considering the number of nobles, so I think maybe a realistic number would be 10:1? Maybe in that ballpark anyways.

The movie is an adaptation of the book. There are some significant differences. Some plot differences, but mostly it's that the book is much more serious in tone.

Hmm, okay. I'll think about this then. So, sort of the reverse of what happened with say, Starship Troopers?

yeah I see your point, Wrath squadron was the reverse of Rogue squadron. The rogues were the best of the Rebels, the wraiths, not really, the rogues were pilots first, covert ops second, the wraiths were covert ops first, pilots second. So really, it depends on which side of the coin you liked better.

The Wraiths came off as a cross between Hogan's heroes, and the dirty dozen. they were a bit silly and fun, but at the same time, very dangerous. They also had a touch of the underdog in them.

Yeah. I suppose the idea was kind of cool. Take all the bottom of the barrel people and shove them all together, but I get the feeling that would only happen in a book. I suppose to make interesting characters, yeah we need interesting people, so I can let that slide. I just felt like the story shifted away from characters I liked. I really wanted to learn more about Corran Horn, and so on (and yes, I've read I, Jedi). Barring that, it would have been fun to learn more about Wedge, Wes, Hob, etc. and all the original members of Red/Rogue squadron.

That, and the last book just didn't seem to fit at all. Oh, and, they captured a Super Star Destroyer and didn't really get to use it. That was a bit of a disappointment. :smallbiggrin:

AtS

2012-07-09, 12:16 AM

Feytalist

2012-07-09, 02:30 AM

Added Warbreaker. Sanderson has proved to be pretty good so far (though I did find The Way of Kings a bit dry at first). Actually this is maybe a problem with all his works I've read so far. His beginnings are a bit lacking, but the endings all make up for it. Correct me if I'm wrong...

I can see what you mean, but I've always liked his openings. He tends to use the cold open that is only tangentially related to the story, but provides a pretty good (to me) entrance to the setting. I've always liked the "show, don't tell" method of storytelling. It's only really lacking if you expect to be told everything right from the word go. But your point is also valid.

Okay, review time!

Altered Carbon

Heh. I did mention this book is really dark, but I suppose I should have warned you that it gets very... er, sleazy, as well. Morgan has a very low opinion of human nature, as you'll see in pretty much all of his other books.

Also, regarding the book's prologue, refer to my previous point. Morgan also uses the "show, don't tell" method here, and I think he does it very well. In fact, the whole novel assumes you know more of the setting than you rightly should, and just goes from there. Like the different techs' descriptions. (Like What the hell is a Sunjet, anyway?) It allows for a very visceral immediacy. But I'll allow that that's not everyone's cup of tea.

Also yeah, how exactly do you describe an Envoy? They're essentially brainwashed to be preternaturally aware, have total recall, and a supreme mental balance. But they all turn out psychotic anyway.

I hope this book hasn't put you off from reading the other ones. The next one, Broken Angels, is actually my favourite. It uncovers a bit of the mystery of the Martians.

Neftren

2012-07-10, 06:45 PM

I see that you have The Gunslinger but haven't read it. Read it. Right now, this instant. The Dark Tower is the best thing that Stephen King has ever written, and you are doing yourself a disservice by putting it off for so long.

I'll read this next then.

I can see what you mean, but I've always liked his openings. He tends to use the cold open that is only tangentially related to the story, but provides a pretty good (to me) entrance to the setting. I've always liked the "show, don't tell" method of storytelling. It's only really lacking if you expect to be told everything right from the word go. But your point is also valid.

Heh. I did mention this book is really dark, but I suppose I should have warned you that it gets very... er, sleazy, as well. Morgan has a very low opinion of human nature, as you'll see in pretty much all of his other books.

Also, regarding the book's prologue, refer to my previous point. Morgan also uses the "show, don't tell" method here, and I think he does it very well. In fact, the whole novel assumes you know more of the setting than you rightly should, and just goes from there. Like the different techs' descriptions. (Like What the hell is a Sunjet, anyway?) It allows for a very visceral immediacy. But I'll allow that that's not everyone's cup of tea.

Also yeah, how exactly do you describe an Envoy? They're essentially brainwashed to be preternaturally aware, have total recall, and a supreme mental balance. But they all turn out psychotic anyway.

I hope this book hasn't put you off from reading the other ones. The next one, Broken Angels, is actually my favourite. It uncovers a bit of the mystery of the Martians.

Oh no, not at all. Is this a series? I'll look into Broken Angels. Or rather, I should go put it on the list.

As for sleazy novels, The Wise Man's Fear got really... graphic at one point. I just finished that last night. :smallbiggrin:

Feytalist

2012-07-11, 01:40 AM

Oh no, not at all. Is this a series? I'll look into Broken Angels. Or rather, I should go put it on the list.

There's three novels in the Kovacs series. Altered Carbon, Broken Angels (http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Angels-GollanczF-Richard-Morgan/dp/0575081252/) and Woken Furies (http://www.amazon.com/Woken-Furies-Takeshi-Kovacs-Novel/dp/0345499778/). They're not direct sequels but they all kinda follow from each other.

There's also a couple of stand-alone novels, and his fantasy series, A Land Fit For Heroes. Two books so far, The Steel Remains (http://www.amazon.com/Steel-Remains-Richard-K-Morgan/dp/0345493044/) and The Cold Commands (http://www.amazon.com/The-Cold-Commands-Richard-Morgan/dp/0345493060/). He just started writing the third book. Also very good, but lots of gay sex, which some people have been very vocal about for some reason.

Neftren

2012-07-11, 09:35 PM

I see that you have The Gunslinger but haven't read it. Read it. Right now, this instant. The Dark Tower is the best thing that Stephen King has ever written, and you are doing yourself a disservice by putting it off for so long.

Okay, so I'm about halfway through The Gunslinger, and I'm so far not enthused. He's met a guy so far, ate some beans, slept with a bartender aaaand that's about it. Oh, listened to a rather strange sermon.

Am I missing something here? I'm just having a hard time getting into the book. Does it improve? If not, I'll at least finish the book since it's pretty short, but I'm not particularly going to go out of my way to read the rest of the series unless it picks up soon. :smallannoyed:

There's three novels in the Kovacs series. Altered Carbon, Broken Angels (http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Angels-GollanczF-Richard-Morgan/dp/0575081252/) and Woken Furies (http://www.amazon.com/Woken-Furies-Takeshi-Kovacs-Novel/dp/0345499778/). They're not direct sequels but they all kinda follow from each other.

There's also a couple of stand-alone novels, and his fantasy series, A Land Fit For Heroes. Two books so far, The Steel Remains (http://www.amazon.com/Steel-Remains-Richard-K-Morgan/dp/0345493044/) and The Cold Commands (http://www.amazon.com/The-Cold-Commands-Richard-Morgan/dp/0345493060/). He just started writing the third book. Also very good, but lots of gay sex, which some people have been very vocal about for some reason.

Ah hah! Yes I'll definitely look into getting these. I'm almost done with my small stack of books here. I should put some more books on hold at the library. I'm down to three books. I'll probably get to that tomorrow.

I might start posting my reviews on my own site, rather than the forums. I haven't thought too much about it yet, but if the books I'm reading continue to be rather graphic or mildly NSFW in nature, I'd rather not push my luck with the forum rules and such. I'll keep posting my reviews here for now though... I suppose until somebody complains.

JoeMac307

2012-07-11, 09:55 PM

Okay, so I'm about halfway through The Gunslinger, and I'm so far not enthused. He's met a guy so far, ate some beans, slept with a bartender aaaand that's about it. Oh, listened to a rather strange sermon.

Am I missing something here? I'm just having a hard time getting into the book. Does it improve? If not, I'll at least finish the book since it's pretty short, but I'm not particularly going to go out of my way to read the rest of the series unless it picks up soon.

I'm not a big fan of the Dark Tower, either. I read the Gunslinger and the Drawing of the Three and then kinda gave up on the series. Maybe I will go back to it one day, since so many people swear by it (including my mother), but I much prefer Steven King's the Stand, the Shining and even the Eyes of the Dragon to the first two books of the Dark Tower.

Hmm, I thought somebody else suggested this... evidently not. Which one of those should I start with?

Hmm, I'll give Everything Matters a shot. As for Caitlin Kiernan, any particular books you enjoyed?

Err... Fnords?

Sorry, I hadn't noticed that you responded to me until just now.

Question 1 - Start with The Magicians

Question 2 - I enjoyed Kiernan's Silk, as well as Threshold and Murder of Angels.

Question 3 - According to Wikipedia, "Fnord is the typographic representation of disinformation or irrelevant information intending to misdirect, with the implication of a worldwide conspiracy." IIRC, in the Illuminatus! Trilogy, one of the POV characters starts to see the word Fnord inserted into portions of the body of articles in the New York Times... The parts "they" don't want you to remember... It is a type of subliminal brainwashing of sorts

Gnoman

2012-07-12, 03:33 PM

Neftren

2012-07-14, 09:20 AM

I'm not a big fan of the Dark Tower, either. I read the Gunslinger and the Drawing of the Three and then kinda gave up on the series. Maybe I will go back to it one day, since so many people swear by it (including my mother), but I much prefer Steven King's the Stand, the Shining and even the Eyes of the Dragon to the first two books of the Dark Tower.

I've just been pretty disappointed with Stephen King so far. He writes so much, but I feel like there's little ... content? Maybe I'm just not in the right mindset or something, but he's just not hooking me as a reader.

Sorry, I hadn't noticed that you responded to me until just now.

Question 1 - Start with The Magicians

Question 2 - I enjoyed Kiernan's Silk, as well as Threshold and Murder of Angels.

Question 3 - According to Wikipedia, "Fnord is the typographic representation of disinformation or irrelevant information intending to misdirect, with the implication of a worldwide conspiracy." IIRC, in the Illuminatus! Trilogy, one of the POV characters starts to see the word Fnord inserted into portions of the body of articles in the New York Times... The parts "they" don't want you to remember... It is a type of subliminal brainwashing of sorts

Yeah I typically don't have much time to post during weekdays, so I catch up in big waves. I'll try to track down those books. I'll get around to adding them to my list at some point too.

Okay that Fnords thing is rather amusing. Err, which book is about that again?

The Gunslinger is more the first act of the story than a book in and of itself. To compare it with Lord Of The Rings, it's the part between the beginning and The Council of Elrond. It picks up in the second half, but it's not really a whole. Also, what's the copyright on your copy? There are two versions.

Hmmm. To be quite honest, I didn't actually like the Lord of the Rings. It's a great piece of work, but only because of grandness and scale of the epic setting. The Hobbit was a much better piece, in my opinion anyways.

I'll have my review up later today, but after reading the Gunslinger, I just didn't really feel invested in any of the characters. The only part I enjoyed was in the train tunnels, and that's basically it. :smallsigh: Maybe I'm just impatient.

Eldan

2012-07-14, 09:26 AM

Emmerask

2012-07-14, 09:34 AM

Yeah I didn´t really "like" Gunslinger and dark tower too, I don´t think its because of the long stretches of nothing happens. I read Wheel of time and that series is clearly the king of nothing happens and still mildly enjoyed each book.

I think it has more to do with the main character(s) in stephen kings books, I just can´t like them enough to be interested in what they are doing.
Actually quite similar to song of ice and fire now that all* of the characters I rooted for are pretty much dead it really is hard to read on.
On the other hand wheel of time while there are 100page+ passages where NOTHING happens I still could read it pretty good because there are some characters I rather like and want to succeed.

*except the Onion Knight GOGO onion knight!
(haven´t read the last book completely yet because of the issue I have with it so hopefully he doesn´t die a horrible death too)

Neftren

2012-07-14, 09:53 AM

Another important thing is that normal people can not see Fnord. It's a nonsense word that is only connected to the information you are not supposed to see. If you can see Fnord *they* know that you have broken through the conditioning.

Hmm. Hey isn't there a movie about this? I vaguely remember seeing a movie about a taxi-cab driver making up conspiracy theories and then blindly stumbling upon a real one...

Yeah I didn´t really "like" Gunslinger and dark tower too, I don´t think its because of the long stretches of nothing happens. I read Wheel of time and that series is clearly the king of nothing happens and still mildly enjoyed each book.

I think it has more to do with the main character(s) in stephen kings books, I just can´t like them enough to be interested in what they are doing.
Actually quite similar to song of ice and fire now that all of the characters I rooted for are pretty much dead it really is hard to read on.
On the other hand wheel of time while there are 100page+ passages where NOTHING happens I still could read it pretty good because there are some characters I rather like and want to succeed.

Hahaha alrighty then. Yeah it's hard to keep going when you don't care about anybody. Was kind of like the Way of Kings. I was tempted to just keep skipping ahead.

Anyways, I've gone and put a bunch more books on hold. Or tried at least. Half the list is unavailable, though I did manage to get one David Gemmell book (Dark Moon). I'm also skipping all the Jim Butcher books for now. Apparently my friend has every single book by Jim Butcher, so it'll be easier for me to just borrow the entire collection from him. :smallbiggrin:

Blah. On a Pale Horse is only available in Sound Recording... !!! :smallfurious:

Eldan

2012-07-14, 09:55 AM

Neftren

2012-07-14, 01:07 PM

I must admit, I never got through the Illuminatus! trilogy. Or ever far into it. It's too... weird for me. Not just hte premise, the writing style. The authors probably didn't really think much of small things like working grammar, linear time or coherent narrative,.

Interesting. Linear time and coherent narrative are two of my complaints about The Gunslinger...

Anyways, reviews!

The Wise Man's Fear
This was a rather… raunchy sequel to The Name of the Wind. I mean, the whole idea of a faerie that seduces you and then causes you to die of exertion while … erm… sleeping with her. Of course, since Kvothe is our main character, and main characters cannot die, he survives the ordeal of course. Then he takes his newfound “skills” and uses them on all sorts of other women. There’s a maid in a tavern… a warrior-lady who repeatedly beats him up while “training” him… wait make that two crazy warrior ladies. Yet with all his experience with women, he still somehow manages to bungle it with Denna. Okay I’m going to set this part aside now.

I had a harder time liking Kvothe in this part of his narrative. His quest for the Amyr seems to have taken a backseat to his current plans. He only gets as far as to ask the Maer about them, but doesn’t learn anything especially interesting. Oh the Cthaeh also told him a bit, but that’s basically it for the book. On a side note, I thought the Ctaeth was rather interesting, as it presents probably the best interpretation of future sight. After all, the future is never “certain” (or is it?). However, if given the ability to see every possible future, you could effectively cherrypick your words and actions in such a way to guarantee the future you seek. Much more intelligent than the “oh I can see the future, but the future isn’t always set in stone!” mumbo jumbo of other fantasy stories. I suppose the Ctaeth is rather twisted and sadistic in his own way.

Stepping outside the bounds of the “story” for the moment … it would seem that most people seek to be greater than life. This is reflected mostly throughout real life. Most everyone wants to be popular, or promoted at work, or be the authority on something. Recognition is a sort of positive feedback loop that many people strive for. Yet here we have Kvothe, who is basically doing everything he can to do the exact opposite. He seems to just want to disappear, but why? He can’t be much older than what, twenty-six? His narrative places him around age sixteen or eighteen maybe? Maybe to pull this back to the “present” in the book, now that Kvothe’s history is mostly made clear (except for where he ends up getting expelled from the university for good…), how does all this tie into the current reappearance of scrael and other creatures?

Before I finish this off, I just want to present my theory that Bredon is Denna’s mysterious patron. He goes off on mysterious trips every so often, and nobody knows where he goes. He’s a member of the Maer’s court, but without any official status or rank as far as I am aware… he clearly loves to play games, both with tiles, and more importantly, with people. Maybe I’m just connecting lines between nonexistent dots here. If there is somebody that would fit though…
The Gunslinger
I’d heard lots of good things about this book, but I’m rather disappointed. That’s probably an understatement. I had a really hard time getting invested in any of the characters. Roland (err, the Gunslinger, right? This wasn’t exactly made explicitly clear until the very end) felt rather bland. He tells all these stories, but they’re mostly just him taking advantage of people or beating them up for some reason or another. Does he make any sort of profound revelation or discover some important fact about himself? No… unless I missed something.

I’ll stop harping on Roland for a second. The book’s organization just didn’t really make that much sense either. So we’ve got Roland chasing this guy across the desert, and then we’re all of a sudden back in the town he was just in, where he sleeps with the bartender (okaaaay?) several times (ummm…) and then goes to a sermon. Afterwards, he murders everybody in the town and walks away as if nothing happened. Then the story shifts… again. Okay seriously, I’m not even sure where the current timeline is going, and then another one is introduced. Confused reader = bad. Maybe I’m just unsophisticated or insufficiently advanced to read this book. Somebody tell me if this is the case…

I think the one bright spot about the book though is Jake. You know, that boy he picks up in the abandoned gas station. Speaking of gas stations, I found the whole Amoco, Land of the Free scene with the gas hose in between an old guy’s legs while preaching, to be rather amusing, considering Amoco went out of business ages ago (or I should say, bought out by British Petroleum). Anyways, where was I… oh, right, Jake. So, Jake comes from New York, probably of a similar time. Clearly we’re on “Earth” or some similar version of it, where some sort of apocalypse has occurred. Jake seems to be from our Earth, or a similar Earth, as he makes references to many things that we’d be familiar with. His dad works for “The Network” which is probably a television station of some sorts. Anyways, we’ve got Jake stranded in an abandoned hovel (why is he here again…?) and rescued by Roland. It’s nice to know Roland has a soul. Err sorry, I’ll stop fixating on Roland.

Anyways, I think the most interesting part of the book was when they were travelling through the abandoned subway tunnels, and Roland has to save Jake from the creepy mutants, while pushing the cart. Roland almost leaves Jake behind too, but Jake eventually figures out he doesn’t really have anywhere else to go, which was probably the only enlightening phrase in the book (that I enjoyed anyways). I feel like sometimes you just need to point out the obvious… for impact. Anyways, I’m probably not going to read the rest of the series, unless somebody comes up with an exceptionally convincing argument otherwise.

Gnoman

2012-07-14, 01:29 PM

pita

2012-07-15, 02:06 PM

The Wise Man's FearBefore I finish this off, I just want to present my theory that Bredon is Denna’s mysterious patron. He goes off on mysterious trips every so often, and nobody knows where he goes. He’s a member of the Maer’s court, but without any official status or rank as far as I am aware… he clearly loves to play games, both with tiles, and more importantly, with people. Maybe I’m just connecting lines between nonexistent dots here. If there is somebody that would fit though…
It's either him or Cinder, is the general consensus. Both are very viable, though I think Cinder is more awesome, dramatically speaking. Dunno how to explain the Cinder connection, but it has to do with the interest he has in Lanre, all of the help with the research, and the brutality he enjoys.
I recently read Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and Rise of Endymion, and I have to say how much I love the first two. Actually, I really love Hyperion, but after reading it you kind of have to find out what's going on, so you should read Fall of Hyperion. And then get annoyed because that book only raises more questions. The Endymion books kind of almost help solve the mysteries, but only kind of almost.

Neftren

2012-07-15, 04:31 PM

The parts you seemed to like are pretty much the entirety of Drawing of the Three (book two.) You may find it worthwhile to read at least that far in the series. Plot synopsis:

Roland is on a beach where there is a series of doors. Each door leads to another where and another when. When he goes through each, he finds himselg sharing a body with another person. He eventually draws two of them into his where and when, and trains them as gunslingers.

Hmm, I'll consider it. At my current pace, I'll be finished with what's on my current list within one or two weeks. Then maybe I'll revisit the series.

I just find Stephen King's writing a bit hard to follow. It's not really engaging. He spends too much time telling me things that don't really matter, and it's just distracting.

It's either him or Cinder, is the general consensus. Both are very viable, though I think Cinder is more awesome, dramatically speaking. Dunno how to explain the Cinder connection, but it has to do with the interest he has in Lanre, all of the help with the research, and the brutality he enjoys.
I recently read Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and Rise of Endymion, and I have to say how much I love the first two. Actually, I really love Hyperion, but after reading it you kind of have to find out what's going on, so you should read Fall of Hyperion. And then get annoyed because that book only raises more questions. The Endymion books kind of almost help solve the mysteries, but only kind of almost.

Huh, I hadn't considered the Cinder angle. That would also fit I think, but then the question is whether this is pure coincidence or not. On the one hand, it fits much more nicely into the mysterious figure image. Has Denna described her patron at all? Hmm...

I wasn't able to get Hyperion I think. Let me go check...

JoeMac307

2012-07-16, 12:30 PM

Eakin

2012-07-16, 02:12 PM

Only read the first page of the thread, but I didn't see it on the list, so I'll suggest Banks' Culture series. Having read the first three I would probably read Player of Games to start with

Flickerdart

2012-07-17, 08:15 AM

Only read the first page of the thread, but I didn't see it on the list, so I'll suggest Banks' Culture series. Having read the first three I would probably read Player of Games to start with
Everyone keeps saying that. What's wrong with Consider Phlebas? I started with it and didn't mind it one bit.

Eakin

2012-07-17, 03:05 PM

Everyone keeps saying that. What's wrong with Consider Phlebas? I started with it and didn't mind it one bit.

I didn't hate it by any means, but if I hadn't heard about the culture series before reading it I would have felt pretty lost. Player of Games actually features a normal person from the culture as a protagonist and gives a better sense of both the utopia it is for a citizen living in it day to day, and also the sorts of efforts and manipulations the Minds of Special Circumstances are engaging in behind the scenes.

Phlebas spends an awful lot of time on weird side trips and strange detours that I don't think add a lot to the plot, although it does pick up by the middle.

The Culture is more of a setting than a series, so there's no real need to start with the first book and worry you're jumping into the middle of an ongoing story

Neftren

2012-07-21, 10:18 AM

So which one(s) am I adding to the list now? (@Eakin and Flickerdart)

Also, I just got a new set of books from the library, so I can resume my reading again. I'll have reviews up for The Amulet of Samarkand, American Gods, and Divergent up later today. I've decided to mark Duma Key incomplete. I just don't really like Stephen King's writing style right now... :smallsigh:

Eakin

2012-07-21, 12:34 PM

Flickerdart

2012-07-21, 01:55 PM

Emmerask

2012-07-21, 04:53 PM

Yes you are correct that they are formulaic and that the good guy thing is a big theme in most of his works, though not all of them.
Overall his writing style, the humor, the characters kept me entertained for every single book he has written (I think I actually have read all of them by now).

But tastes differ though as you said reading at least one book is not a bad thing :smallsmile:

Neftren

2012-07-21, 08:54 PM

So, I read a bunch of David Gemmel books on account of this thread, and I have to say...while they're good books, they are essentially all the same. There is a good guy, his incorruptible pure pureness has a positive effect on bad guys, then they all get themselves horribly killed fighting for the cause of good. So you might as well cross all but one off your list, and it doesn't terribly matter which one you pick.
Yes you are correct that they are formulaic and that the good guy thing is a big theme in most of his works, though not all of them.
Overall his writing style, the humor, the characters kept me entertained for every single book he has written (I think I actually have read all of them by now).

But tastes differ though as you said reading at least one book is not a bad thing :smallsmile:

Well, I've got Dark Moon right here. I think it was the only Gemmell book that my local library system had.

As for books being formulaic, I could make that case for a lot of authors.

Feytalist

2012-07-23, 02:29 AM

So, I read a bunch of David Gemmel books on account of this thread, and I have to say...while they're good books, they are essentially all the same. There is a good guy, his incorruptible pure pureness has a positive effect on bad guys, then they all get themselves horribly killed fighting for the cause of good. So you might as well cross all but one off your list, and it doesn't terribly matter which one you pick.

They are pretty samey, yeah. Most of them, anyway. They still end up being quite good, nevertheless. I think it's the settings that make it so, especially with the standalone novels. But I can think of at least two (namely Skilgannon and Waylander) that don't quite fit that mold.

But if you're going to read one, then it might as well be Dark Moon. It's my personal favourite.

Neftren

2012-07-29, 09:30 PM

Okay, so sorry about missing a few weeks. Ended up seeing Batman and then reinstalling OSX and Windows. Anyways, I'm back with five new reviews, and am a few chapters into Warbreaker, which is a pretty interesting read so far. One question here, which is... is this one of those books where everyone sees in greyscale (a la The Giver), and some individuals have the ability to see in full color? Otherwise I feel like I maybe missed something with the whole Breaths and colors.

Onto the reviews now...

The Amulet of Samarkand
It’s kind of creepy, this book. I mean, it’s understandable how a kid can grow up in a rough situation, but watching Nathaniel grow up to be exceedingly arrogant (not to mention stupid) was rather disappointing. For such a bright kid, you’d think that he would think at least one or two steps ahead. I get the feeling this book is one of those where you aren’t actually supposed to like the main character… assuming that Nathaniel is the main character. You know, that’s probably Bartimaeus.

Okay, so other than the whole “I will try to rip you to shreds at any available opportunity” affair, Bartimaeus seems like a rather nice fellow. I mean, yeah, Nathaniel’s got him over a barrel (is that the right phrase?), but he does go out of the way to try and help the kid, which is eminently respectable. Plus he’s smart and is smart enough to not flaunt it, so I guess I could call him pretty wise too.

As for the magic system portrayed in the book, I guess the whole deal with the “bound and enslaved demons are our source of power” makes enough sense, plus or minus a few pentacles, dribbly candles, some incense, and the like. One hole in the theory doesn’t quite make sense though, and maybe someone else can explain this part to me, but… if all power comes from demons, how are these wizards throwing fireballs at each other? I see no indication of hand-mounted portable demon-cannons. If I remember correctly, they just snapped their fingers… Or are they literally summoning demons and throwing them at each other?

Perhaps what didn’t make sense to me was why demons allowed themselves to be summoned. Are they prohibited or restricted from entering the human world of their own free will? I mean, clearly they don’t like being summoned. Why don’t they just bite the bullet, manifest on Earth for about a week and proceed to exterminate humans? I mean, they’re certainly capable enough, no?

Anyways, enough poking at plot holes for now. This was an average book I’d say. I didn’t really like any of the characters except for Bartimaeus. The whole addressing the reader was a fun touch, and everything (read: demon affairs, vision on various planes, etc.) was explained very well from the demon perspective. If the next few books center on Bartimaeus, I may revisit this series at some later date…
American Gods
So I’m going to just work my way through and maybe it will make more sense to me after… okay so, my understanding of the whole affair is that all the old gods that used to be worshipped, were cast aside when humanity “modernized” and began to “worship” these newfangled things, like “Media” or “Electronics” (I’m assuming that’s what the pudgy, fat kid in the limousine was supposed to be). Then we’ve got this guy Wednesday, who is repeatedly referred to as the Allfather, Grimnir, and so on. Okay so he’s Odin. Right? Moving right along then…

So the new gods like their shiny new position, and the old gods are wasting away. Wednesday wants to change that, so he gathers them all up, we meet Easter… who I think we’re supposed to find revolting, as some sort of disgusting, overweight lady, and a few others. I think there was a Hindu goddess in there somewhere too, correct me if I’m wrong. Then they decide to fight a war… Wednesday gets his head blown off… err what? I thought Wednesday was smarter than that… anyways, and then Shadow collects his remains, and then spends a bunch of time watching over the corpse… and then there’s this big reveal in the end, which I won’t spoil, but suffice to say, it was pretty crazy.

Anyways, what I found pretty odd was that the entire book centered around Shadow, and trying to keep him away from the action. I mean, we see Wednesday at the beginning, and then Wednesday repeatedly dumps Shadow in the most obscure places imaginable. Oh, right, then Wednesday gets his head blown off, and we find out that Shadow’s neighborhood friend is this creepy, thousand year old Rumpelstiltskin garden gnome… thing. Right, then Shadow spends a bunch of time… yeah never mind. I can’t seem to keep this book straight anymore.
Divergent
I don’t know why I’m so into dystopian settings this summer, but of the books I’ve read so far, Divergent is fantastic. The basic premise follows the idea that after I think it was a war, the survivors got together and wrote these manifestos outlining their thoughts on why society had collapsed, and so on. Then they formed these five factions, dedicated to working with each other to improve the world. On the surface it actually seems pretty commendable, especially considering the factions are Abegnation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite. There are a few small problems, such as having Abgnation be the sole representatives within the government, with the idea that the Abegnation are too selfless to become corrupt. Also, relying on one faction to protect you turns the whole thing into a sort of caste system. Over time, people inherently become distrustful of others, not because of the fault of any one person, but I think the book is moving towards the idea that humanity is perhaps inherently corrupt, and changes need to be made every so often to correct the course.

So the system as it stands seems to have worked out reasonably well for many many years now, but it’s starting to break down. This is especially evident in the selecting ceremony, where everybody chooses what faction they’ll be a part of, and people “changing factions” seems to be universally looked down upon. Anyways, the selection process is mostly predetermined through these tests in which upon coming of age, new members of society are injected with a serum that presents to them a set of choices which are meant to select their faction (though I can see a whole host of issues with this approach, since the test was a binary tree, which doesn’t guarantee a fair chance for every faction). Our character ends up being unable to decide between factions, which is evidently called being Divergent, which I’ll tell you upfront, is apparently very bad, and has to be kept secret.

Anyways, I don’t want to go too much into the plot since I think everyone should read this book, but… the whole narration centers on an overarching theme of facing our fears, and the various choices we make while growing up. I think there’s this underlying question being asked, whether we really make any choices out of free will, as opposed to merely choosing from a list of cleverly disguised options…
Pandemonium
So this book seemed to take the “tell the story from both ends” approach, with the scene jumping back and forth between the present, where Lena seems to have infiltrated the “Delirium-Free America” society in Manhattan, and some unspecified time in the past, when she was rescued by the people living in the wilds. I’m not a big fan of this approach, to be honest, since it has the potential to be confusing, so points off for this I suppose. Moving on…

I think it’s a bit silly how quick Lena is to abandon Alex. Now, I’m not sure how long it’s been since her escape from Portland, wait, stop. Okay, she escapes from Portland… but clearly not Oregon, because she travels 90 miles and arrives somewhere near I think it was Connecticut or New Hampshire… so, to Google! So evidently I was off by three thousand miles (3214.8 mi. to be precise, according to Google Maps). Okay, sorry about that. Now that makes more sense, back to Lena and Alex. Right, so…

Lena is single again of course, and is in Manhattan, and talks to this terminally ill guy who’s the poster-boy of the whole Delirium-Free America movement. Hmmm, well, duh, she falls in love with him. Awkward! So much for plot twists anyways… I don’t want to say this is stereotypical or anything. Does this fall under any trope? To be honest, the whole “Manhattan” story arc wasn’t all that interesting. I found myself paying more attention to the fact that an entire community has managed to stay hidden in the depths of the subway system, which is totally awesome. Every post-apocalyptic civilization needs to have its share of people living in an abandoned subway system.

To contrast though, Lena’s time in the Wilds felt much more engaging to me. There was a very real part in which Lena learns to grow up. Everything was given to her while she was within the confines of the Deliria-Free society (Portland). I found it interesting mostly because of how desperate things can get. Winter doesn’t seem all that bad when you have heat and a grocery store down the street, but when all that is gone… yeah I wonder how I would cope…

Anyways, the very end was a bit of a shell shocker. Part of me hates the fact that stories aren’t simple, cut and dry affairs, but on the other hand, I love books that totally turn things on end. I don’t want to spoil this for anyone, but it’s one of those “oh dear…” moments. If I had to sum up this book in a word, it’d probably be “awkward!” or something along those lines.

Okay make that four reviews. I'll get to Farsala tomorrow.

Kd7sov

2012-07-29, 11:00 PM

For what it may be worth, Priestess of the White and its sequels didn't really appeal to me. I don't remember why, at this point. I was willing to read them all, but they didn't make any kind of reread list.

Trudy Canavan's other series, the starting with The Magician's Guild, I do quite like, by contrast. As an example (minor spoiler), partway through the second book, I spent about five chapters saying that if a particular character "discovered", well into his adult life, that he was homosexual rather than the asexual he'd been presented as, I'd throw the book across the room. And then he did, and I didn't, because it was presented in a way that was actually believable, given what had already been revealed about the local magic system.

Feytalist

2012-07-30, 01:38 AM

American Gods

Heh. American Gods is pretty much Gaiman's love letter to rural America. It helps if you know a lot about mythology, to catch all the allusions. It also helps if you realise that the gods represented are simply aspects of the original old gods that the immigrants brought over to America. So the gods, that kobold, are copies that have been slightly altered from the originals. It also clarifies that part toward the end a bit.

It's also very strongly hinted that Shadow himself is an aspect of an old god that somehow lost his memory.

For what it may be worth, Priestess of the White and its sequels didn't really appeal to me. I don't remember why, at this point. I was willing to read them all, but they didn't make any kind of reread list.

Interesting. I felt that way with the Magician's Guild. The story was good, just not terribly original or memorable. Priestess of the White on the other hand had a few decent plot twists, memorable characters and an interesting story. And was generally very well written. To each his own, I suppose.

Neftren

2012-07-30, 07:10 PM

Heh. American Gods is pretty much Gaiman's love letter to rural America. It helps if you know a lot about mythology, to catch all the allusions. It also helps if you realise that the gods represented are simply aspects of the original old gods that the immigrants brought over to America. So the gods, that kobold, are copies that have been slightly altered from the originals. It also clarifies that part toward the end a bit.

It's also very strongly hinted that Shadow himself is an aspect of an old god that somehow lost his memory.

Yeah I ended up reading the entry on Wikipedia afterwards. It cleared up a few of my questions. Overall I didn't think it was that great of a book. I just found it hard to like any of the characters... oh wait, I did like his wife. Zombie wife that follows you everywhere and keeps you safe is kind of awesome.

And as promised, Farsala... not that I've been very good about staying on schedule. :smallsigh:

Fall of a Kingdom
I found this to be a rather interesting read from a philosophical and fundamental system of government perspective anyways. I should start at the beginning though. So we’ve got this sort of monarchy and feudal system in place, where the nobility wage war and protect the citizens, their foot soldiers and servants are their relatives, albeit bred and raised as peasants, and then we have the peasant class, which seems to be treated poorly. That bit is Farsala. Seems kind of interesting to have your peasant cousins also be your foot soldiers, and also have a peasant class that’s entirely removed from your peasant-raised cousins…

I’m more interested in the Hrum actually. These guys are like, the Roman Empire or something. They pave their roads, collect taxes, enforce what seems to be a pretty reasonable legal system, though they do keep slaves and embark on huge campaigns of conquest… their infantry are trained in formation fighting, utilizing shields in a shield wall. There seems to be a lack of siege weapons on both sides though… Anyways, as you probably already figured out, the Hrum are attempting to invade Farsala. The Hrum have special swords made of special steel, and their well-trained army, and the Farsalans have a poorly trained army, but have significant numbers of cavalry.

Just one problem now… our main characters are Farsalan, not Hrum. Throughout most of the book, I found myself liking the Hrum much more than the Farsalans. I mean, sure, the Hrum keep slaves, but supposedly they have a very real chance at earning their freedom. The Farsalans don’t keep slaves, but their peasants are treated poorly as it stands, so… I’d say a chance at freedom is probably better than years of oppression. In a typical book, the main character and their respective faction are usually things that we’re supposed to support or like in some way. I found one of the main characters to be pretty bratty (though she did get better). Then we’ve got another main character who seems to be stuck in his father’s shadow… and then we’ve got this angst-y peddler who ruins everything for the Farsalans and then feels bad about it.

At this point I’m not sure what to make of the story. I mean, yeah, the book is called Fall of a Kingdom, so I figure Farsala is pretty much going to get wiped off the face of the map, but is that necessarily a bad thing? The Hrum actually seem pretty reasonable, though Hrum governance wasn’t really covered in detail…

Gnoman

2012-07-30, 08:28 PM

Did you decide against the David Drake books I suggested? I don't see them on the list.

Neftren

2012-07-30, 08:52 PM

Did you decide against the David Drake books I suggested? I don't see them on the list.

Hmm, remind me again which ones those were? I probably just missed those accidentally.

Gnoman

2012-07-30, 09:49 PM

Here's links to the first 3 books (The only ones that are part of the Free Library.)

http://www.baenebooks.com/p-469-with-the-lightnings.aspx
http://www.baenebooks.com/p-258-lt-leary-commanding.aspx
http://www.baenebooks.com/p-140-the-far-side-of-the-stars.aspx

Despite showing a price, the books are actually free. Baen regularly makes the older portions of it's library away for free both to encourage readers to obtain the rest of a series, and as a snub to DRM advocates. You can verify this by looking in the lower right-hand portion of the product page, where you will see something along the lines of:

These are the ones I was referring to.

Neftren

2012-07-31, 07:01 PM

These are the ones I was referring to.

Huh, I must have missed those. I've downloaded them now. I'll hold off on adding them to the list for now, mostly since I'm lazy. :smallbiggrin: I'll probably get around to it this weekend.

Feytalist

2012-08-01, 01:57 AM

I'm back with five new reviews, and am a few chapters into Warbreaker, which is a pretty interesting read so far. One question here, which is... is this one of those books where everyone sees in greyscale (a la The Giver), and some individuals have the ability to see in full color? Otherwise I feel like I maybe missed something with the whole Breaths and colors.

I just noticed this. The idea I got is that everyone sees in colour, but some peoples' (and the Returned's) auras just made the colours brighter and more "true". I think it's somewhere described as very subtle, if you're not actively looking for it.

Very unique book, overall. I enjoyed it.

pita

2012-08-01, 04:13 PM

Breath is something like a soul.
The idea is that people with many Breaths can see a much better spectrum of colors than a human eye, that makes what you and I see seem like grayscale.

Neftren

2012-08-15, 12:50 PM

Okay, sorry for the two week absence. Rather busy at work lately. Here are some more of my thoughts on the various books...

Warbreaker
This was a rather interesting set of characters. I should say though that I think there were too many people that were the opposites of what we were supposed to expect. Okay maybe I should start with say… the mercenaries. So, the whole attitude with the humor and the whole “nobody trusts us” routine was totally true, in that people typically don’t trust mercenaries (often for very good reasons, or stupid reasons, or both), but when your mercenaries are blatantly declaring that they couldn’t be trusted, or could they? I mean, that’s kind of a dead giveaway. It’s sort of like the kid in a candy store telling the owner before he runs out that he didn’t steal anything. Maybe I’m just paranoid or naturally suspicious or whatnot, but if a person is openly declaring their trustworthiness, when trust is typically assumed between two normal, rational people... Anyways, I did like the mercenaries as characters though.

Okay, on a sort of tangent at this point, the whole breath system was interesting, though I prefer the Allomancy system over the breaths. I guess it makes sense, in that an awakener can breathe life into an object… except they don’t actually have to exhale and, well you get the idea. I think I have a bit better understanding of how the whole “seeing more color” works. I think the description of the various tiers allowed people to see more discrete shades of color, and possess perfect pitch (which didn’t really come up at all in the story). So that made sense. I guess when you reach some functionally infinite number of breaths, you become a super powerful being of immense capabilities. Okay wait, but if that’s the case, why can’t the God King heal himself? I mean, why do you need a comparatively (much) weaker Returned (deity) to heal you?

I guess while I’m on the subject of the God King, I thought it was rather clever of the priests. Their mission isn’t loyalty to the God King, but instead to protect this huge trove of breaths. Speaking of which, why did Vasher give away all those breaths in the first place? Or am I missing something here? If his last instruction prior to disappearing and then reappearing was to have the priests protect the breaths… I mean, this guy is clearly capable of protecting himself, and he disappeared for three hundred years. Why not just keep the breaths himself?

Anyways, I’m left with a bunch of questions, but all in all, this was an enjoyable book. I’m just not sure I like it as much as the other series I’ve read.
Rapture
Okay so major spoiler alerts. If you haven’t read the previous books, and intend to read this book, you should probably go read the previous books before reading this. Good? Good.

I’m not really sure what I was expecting from this book. I mean, yeah by now I think everyone following along has realized that Lucinda is some sort of counterpart to Lucifer, and that Lucinda is/was an angel. Total blooper here, but if she’s a fallen angel, why is she able to enter churches and such? I did think it was an interesting read in that if anyone outright tells Luce she’s an angel, she turns into a giant pillar of flame, so she has to figure it out on her own.

I guess what I’m wondering here is where Daniel fits into the whole picture. The whole book was building up to this “one powerful angel has yet to choose” reveal, and it totally wasn’t Daniel, but from a holistic sense, it almost seems as if Daniel is irrelevant. Right? All he does is carry Luce around, give her kisses whenever possible… I suppose he does recruit the Outcasts, but all in all, this conflict is way bigger than any of the other angels can handle.

I guess I’m a little disappointed in the ending. Luce gets her wings back, and then loses them two minutes later… and then there’s the whole “you may never see each other again” bit, and then in the epilogue, they’re back together again. I feel like the epilogue was put in to placate some fans, but I guess it just signals to me that the author couldn’t really decide one way or another. Or decided one way, but went the other. Maybe. I guess I’m rambling at this point, so to finish up I’ll just say it was a reasonable, average conclusion to the series. Partials
This book was awesome. I thought it was about a zombie apocalypse at first, for some bizarre reason. It sort of is actually, only replace every instance of the word ‘zombie’ with ‘genetically-engineered super-soldier’ with this killer virus floating around in the air that kills some 99% of the population. So that’s sort of the premise. Oh, and the virus survivors are all living on Long Island under a “Senate” only all the senators seem to be permanently in office, and are enacting totalitarian laws, forced pregnancies, etc. in the name of “preserving humanity” or some such statement. Basically they’re just a bunch of control freaks. On the mainland is where all the super soldiers are (dubbed “Partials”).

So in the midst of all this, we have Kira (I forget her last name), who is this sixteen-year-old medic (or should I say medic-in-training). Actually most of the military seems to be between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five or so. That’s not all that important I guess. Anyways, Kira gets the brilliant idea to try and solve the problem of this virus that’s killing all newborn babies, only this is a problem that researchers have been working on for about a decade now. Anyways, she guesses that since the Partials are immune to this virus, and they look exactly like humans, therefore there must be some way to bridge the gap. I suppose if I were a researcher, that would be a reasonable conclusion, only nobody in power actually agrees with her, or believes her (welcome to trope land, yay!).

If I had to say something bad about this book, I guess it would be the whole “nobody in power is ever smart or willing to try new things” trope. This book relies a lot on the fact that all the people at the top are lumps on logs, and all the people at the bottom are basically insignificant gnats. I suppose if we did have some sort of apocalypse, yeah, people are sheep, and that’s probably how it would turn out, but it’s still nice to know that somebody at the top is at least somewhat logical.

Anyways, they go looking for Partials, they capture one (obviously), and bring it back. We have a sort of semi-Stockholm syndrome I think, they go back to the mainland to return the Partial they caught, and everything kind of turns around. This was rather unexpected. I liked this part, where they’re in the Partials’ hospital. Anyways, there’s this huge story arc shift, where the last bit is just the requisite action scenes, and then there’s this totally epic conclusion. Actually now that I think about it, the whole book seems to center around the idea of trust. The Partials and the humans don’t trust each other… the Partials are governed by “The Trust” (a select few generals and such)… After all, society and government requires a fundamental level of trust, right?

I just finished Insurgent last night, so I'll probably have something up later, or maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, perhaps a discussion of Warbreaker is in order...