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[Narag]

How are the Witcher books as a whole? I usually like to read the lore behind the games I play.

Never really got too far into the second but The Last Wish is basically clever fairy tale subversion via short stories framed around Geralt's recovery. Opening short story is the basis for the opening cutscene with the Striga in the first game.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Anyone else picking this up? Seems to be getting some good buzz.

wanna read this so bad

 

[Gordon0Freeman]

Can anyone provide me a link to a timeline of the House of Suns?

 

[noal]

Definitely +1 for A Short History Of Nearly Everything; I loved it and am due another re-read soon.

Finished Misery by SK and really enjoyed it especially as I haven't seen the film. It looks like I'm going to get through some of my King backlog and I've decided to start Cell; not far into it but it all seems to be kicking off very quickly!

 

[Pau]

Finished two out of four stories from Four Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula K. Le Guin. My mum thought it was a self help book. She was disappointed to learn that I was just reading my usual sci fi.

 

[Mr.Ock]

Just finished Little Brother by Doctorow. I cringed so many times. It tried really too hard with the "nerdy" hacker and internet stuff

I think Young Adult literature might not be for me anymore. And that's sad

Next:

 

[Alcotholic]

Just finished

Now I'm halfway through

 

[Jay Sosa]

Finished Forever War by Filkins, brilliant book.

Read through the second and third hunger game books within a week, second one was good, third one great. Overall a very entertaining read.

 

[charlemagne]

Nope. Wrong.

ha, fair enough. What was it you thought made it so great? Maybe it's the writing style putting me off or something.

 

[TestMonkey]

Just started:

As far as I can tell it's a Bollywood sci-fi / fantasy story. Kinda different. Writing is pretty good so far.

 

[Nymerio]

Just started:

As far as I can tell it's a Bollywood sci-fi / fantasy story. Kinda different. Writing is pretty good so far.

Really underrated books. I've only read the first two books and they're really good. Can't say anything about the third though. The setting is really interesting: There's a futuristic society that has discovered some kind of parallel fantasy world with elves and magic and everything else you'd expect from such a world. They have "actors" that enter this world and go on adventures that are recorded and can be experienced by the viewers through some kind of matrix like interface.

 

[NekoFever]

How are the Witcher books as a whole? I usually like to read the lore behind the games I play.

I really liked The Last Wish, which is a short story collection and ties the most closely in with the games. Less so The Blood of Elves and Time of Contempt (came out here last month), which I thought were good rather than great.

Time of Contempt has [non-specific spoiler, but I know how funny some people get]

Spoiler

less Geralt in it than the other two

, which I didn't go for. Plus a lot of politics that'll really lose you if you struggle to remember who's king where, etc.

 

[sparky2112]

ha, fair enough. What was it you thought made it so great? Maybe it's the writing style putting me off or something.

I should note that I haven't read the second book yet, which is supposedly a bit of a stylistic departure from the first.

I shouldn't have been so dismissive of your comments, because her prose certainly takes a minute to adjust to. I don't know how to describe it, exactly, as I haven't read another author who writes in quite the same way - it's almost a meta-novel. But Mantel's 'voice' (for lack of a better term) is incredibly strong, and I don't think the same material in the hands of another writer would have been nearly as compelling. I got the feeling on pretty much every page that Mantel gave each word a specific purpose, and there was zero filler. Yes, I'm rambling.

 

[ShaneB]

Finished "The Summer Son" last night, gave it 4/5. Was hoping for more emotional impact given the themes, but I still liked it.

 

[Verdre]

How are the Witcher books as a whole? I usually like to read the lore behind the games I play.

Just so you know, the actual writing in The Last Wish is stilted and a bit dubious. Whether this is a translation issue or true to the original, I don't know, but just a warning. I thought the actual book was okay despite that.

 

[Jag]

Just so you know, the actual writing in The Last Wish is stilted and a bit dubious. Whether this is a translation issue or true to the original, I don't know, but just a warning. I thought the actual book was okay despite that.

I've actually heard that which is what kept me away from them altogether.

 

[jtb]

finally getting around to reading Tenth of December by George Saunders. the hype was really strong with this one...

 

[Rafy]

I started Ender's game less than 24 hours ago, finished it a few hours ago.
Holy shit, what a book!!! I am eager to read the rest of the series.

 

[Mr.Swag]

Reading Cuckoos Calling right now
Like it so far. Half way through.
After this I'm gonna finish Slaughterhouse Five, and then I'm gonna start Sirens of Titan.

Once I read those 2 I'll have read like 5 Vonnegut novels this year.

 

[Alpende]

I'm almost done with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Took me over a year.

 

[Mackenzie 92]

I started Ender's game less than 24 hours ago, finished it a few hours ago.
Holy shit, what a book!!! I am eager to read the rest of the series.

Read Speaker for the Dead and then stop.

 

[suzu]

I started Ender's game less than 24 hours ago, finished it a few hours ago.
Holy shit, what a book!!! I am eager to read the rest of the series.

First book is the best. The rest you can skip (read Speaker of the Dead if you like). lol

 

[Switch Back 9]

Now moving on to:

Cause I've heard it's pretty awesome.

I enjoyed the crap out of that book. Nothing revolutionary as far as Fantasy goes, and the writing is not stellar...but it was fun and the magic system was cool as fuck. A whole discipline of magic that revolves around guns and gunpowder is pretty awesome.

 

[Jay Sosa]

I started Ender's game less than 24 hours ago, finished it a few hours ago.
Holy shit, what a book!!! I am eager to read the rest of the series.

Liked it as well (finished it a month ago) but what bothered me is that everything sounds really dated.

 

[Empty]

Finished The Spy Who Came In From The Cold yesterday. It was a slow starter for me, but it once it picked, up around 50 pages in, I couldn't put it down. This book kept me in real suspense until the last few pages, and dis so with a subtle touch that you are not going to find in most spy novels. The scene in which Mundt is put on trial is handled so deftly that I actually went back and reread it after I finished the book. All the pieces that had been expertly moved by LeCarre up to that point come into place, and there is a great aha moment that you experience at the same time as the protagonist.

I love how cynical Leamas is towards his profession, and the state of the world in general. I Imagine it's how anyone would feel after a lifetime of espionage. This is one those books that I am kicking myself for not reading before. It is definitely in my wheelhouse when it comes to what I think makes a great novel: it's smart, biting, the prose are simple yet effective, and it's a very lean book (248 pages). I'll definitely be returning to LeCarre for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy sometime later this year.

i just read this and thought similarly. as someone who loves cold war espionage and finds sparsely written prose very evocative, i'm a bit miffed i didn't try it before.

 

[jacobs34]

finally getting around to reading Tenth of December by George Saunders. the hype was really strong with this one...

A couple of stories in this collection, "Escape from Spiderhead" and "Home", really blew me away. There's been a little backlash to the initial praise, but I thought the book was excellent.

 

[Mifune]

A couple of stories in this collection, "Escape from Spiderhead" and "Home", really blew me away. There's been a little backlash to the initial praise, but I thought the book was excellent.

The title story is magic. I loved this book. It left the writer in me a bit distraught as Saunders makes it look so easy.

 

[Haly]

I can't think of the last time I read a sci-fi/fantasy novel where the "alien" society was actually alien and not just a historic society extrapolated to a new setting.

If anything, this is anthropological fiction.

 

[jacobs34]

The title story is magic. I loved this book. It left the writer in me a bit distraught as Saunders makes it look so easy.

Yeah. Saunders and Vonnegut are the "make it look easy" masters, a big part of why they are two of my favorite authors.

 

[Piecake]

I enjoyed the crap out of that book. Nothing revolutionary as far as Fantasy goes, and the writing is not stellar...but it was fun and the magic system was cool as fuck. A whole discipline of magic that revolves around guns and gunpowder is pretty awesome.

I tried reading it and didnt really like it. Like you said, the writing is mediocre and I think the characters are pretty blah as well. I didnt get too far into it, but the magic system really didnt do anything for me. Course, even if it was really cool I wouldnt have kept with it since a good magic system isnt something that can carry a book for me

 

[VGChampion]

Reading The Stand now but it's not hooking me yet. I've heard praise for it but everyone is so unlikable I feel depressed after a chapter.

 

[Pau]

I can't think of the last time I read a sci-fi/fantasy novel where the "alien" society was actually alien and not just a historic society extrapolated to a new setting.

If anything, this is anthropological fiction.

That's a very apt term for it. Her stuff is amazing and I do wonder why there isn't more science fiction like it.

 

[Haly]

Too difficult?

 

[charlemagne]

I should note that I haven't read the second book yet, which is supposedly a bit of a stylistic departure from the first.

I shouldn't have been so dismissive of your comments, because her prose certainly takes a minute to adjust to. I don't know how to describe it, exactly, as I haven't read another author who writes in quite the same way - it's almost a meta-novel. But Mantel's 'voice' (for lack of a better term) is incredibly strong, and I don't think the same material in the hands of another writer would have been nearly as compelling. I got the feeling on pretty much every page that Mantel gave each word a specific purpose, and there was zero filler. Yes, I'm rambling.

I definitely started enjoying it more once I'd adjusted to her prose, so I'm thinking maybe it just clicked too late for me.

 

[ShaneB]

Started this last night...

Some Are Sicker Than Others

 

[Mackenzie 92]

^ Sounds pretty good, let me know if it's any good.


Bought a couple of the daily deals today


The Red Knight by Miles Cameron


The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

 

[Maklershed]

NEW THREAD ...

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=74198883#post74198883