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What are you reading? (March 2011)

Bliany

Member
Ribbon said:
nLSIu.jpg

Ahh I really like this one. I need to go back and revisit some Vonnegut stuff.
 

Jerk

Banned
Tim the Wiz said:
I've swapped a colossus for a behemoth; finished Wise Man's Fear and started:

51FKUEeqMhL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


It's a bit melodramatic and annoying thus far, but it's the finale of Malazan's main narrative thread, so it's difficult to look away as the largest convergence yet approaches. A pity that so few of the players are ones which populated the earlier books - there has to be a comparative lack of connection with many of these Johnny-come-lately Ascendants and the like. Not far into it, though.

Same here.

Definitely better than Rothfuss' pap, but pretty disappointing overall.

Almost finished now. I am hoping that Erickson returns to the quality seen in Midnight Tides.

I would put that book up there with the best of Lynch, Martin and Abercrombie. All the others on the other hand...
 
Jerk 2.0 said:
Same here.

Definitely better than Rothfuss' pap, but pretty disappointing overall.

Almost finished now. I am hoping that Erickson returns to the quality seen in Midnight Tides.

I would put that book up there with the best of Lynch, Martin and Abercrombie. All the others on the other hand...

steve-erickson-latimes.jpg


Otherwise, disappointing to hear that it's still in the doldrums that far out. Almost feel like ditching it and finishing up my re-read of Flashman.
 

Jerk

Banned
Salazar said:
Let's all play the "doesn't belong" game.

I have only read 'Best Served Cold' and I thought it to be a fairly good novel.

Not as Good as 'Lies of Lock Lamora', 'Midnight Tides' or 'Storm of Swords' but pretty damn good.

Maybe the rest of his body of work is much worse, but from what I saw, it seemed fair to include him as one of the better writers in the genre.
 

Salazar

Member
One thing I will never understand is love for Zelazny.

I am reading 40K pulp, a collection of essays edited by Leo Damrosch on the study of eighteenth century culture, Shaftesbury's Characteristics, and—when I can grab it from my brother–some newish Peter F. Hamilton.
 

justin.au

Member
Bombshells by Joanna Murray-Smith. Didn't like it as much as Honour, but Meryl Louise Davenport's monologue was all kinds of brilliant. So sad I never got to see it performed by Caroline O'Connor.

Just started Everybody's Political What's What? on the advice of my grandfather and it's been really good so far. GB Shaw is just wonderful to read.
 

Karakand

Member
Esnel Pla said:
So, GAF, what were some of your favorite books from your required reading lists?
Dubliners
The Clouds
Gatsby

e: I'jaam also but I don't think it's good outside the vacuum of Arab prison / oppression lit, which I've had to read way too much of
 

Kud Dukan

Member
Gonna start rereading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss today, before diving into the sequel that just came out this week.
 

Salazar

Member
Rothfuss's attempts to evoke the transporting splendour of the music played in his books is grating a little.

Everything else is fine. Elodin is a boss.
 

CiSTM

Banned
GroteSmurf said:
H7bqN.jpg


About 40 pages in. Gives me plenty o' ammo.
I just came home from book store and bought that very same book :)

I also bought Merchants of Doubt. Some of my friends have been raving about it for some time now so I finally decided to give it a read. Gonna tart reading it right after this post.
OeF6l.png
 

Ratrat

Member
Best Served Cold was awful. First fantasy book I read after a few years break and I thought it extremely dumb.
 

Verendus

Banned
Shadow's Edge

2qsc6pv.jpg


Trying to finish this at the moment. The first book was pretty enjoyable overall. So far this has been a little slow, but I wouldn't necessarily say boring. I'm about 100 pages in. It should pick up soon hopefully.
 
Skipped over this in the long years between my youth and when I 'rediscovered' fantasy. Yep, a bit slow to get going just like everyone says, but Williams's prose is good, so it's not much of a chore to read...

512692KS1EL._SS500_.jpg
 
There's a sale on Zoo city at the Angry Robot Store. It's about $1.40 instead of $5 for the nxt three days:

http://www.angryrobotstore.com/fantasy/zoo-city-lauren-beukes.html


Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
from goodreads said:
Zinzi has a talent for finding lost things. To save herself, she's got to find the hardest thing of all: The truth. FILE UNDER: Modern Fantasy [Black magic noir / Pale Crocodile / Spirit Guardians / Lost stars]

I had it at the end of my to-read list, but for $1.40 there's not much of a risk.
 

Dresden

Member
Dresden said:
Finished Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, Flashman and the Mountain of Light, and Flashman and the Dragon recently.

I really am Flashman'd out--I want to read The Great Game but that's about it. Really am going to take a break from Flashman and just start this:

The%2B900%2BDays.jpg
This book has been fantastic so far.
 

thomaser

Member
Got a catalogue in the mail today from Library of America. It's sooo tempting to start a subscription, but I have no room for something like that. Some day, I will have a house with a library...

Does anyone here subscribe with LoA? Is it as awesome as it looks?
 

Karakand

Member
Death hung in the air like words misplaced, necromancy. I rolled some lizardpaper and lit it with my finger, scouring the scattered scrolls and shattered alembics for meaning in a black magic world. There was none. The spirit guardians had abandoned us, even my Pale Crocodile.
 
Small_Favor_The_Dresden_Files_Book_10-120457936970918.jpg


Book 10 of Butcher's Dresden series. I've blitzed through 1-9 in the last month. Harry Dresden is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters ever. Such a smarmy wise-ass! Shame the tv series never got off the ground...
 

Tyrion81

Neo Member
sparky2112 said:
Skipped over this in the long years between my youth and when I 'rediscovered' fantasy. Yep, a bit slow to get going just like everyone says, but Williams's prose is good, so it's not much of a chore to read...

512692KS1EL._SS500_.jpg

Amazing series. One of my all time favorites, though its been years since I've read it. I still have the last 3 books but somehow lost the 1st one somewhere along the way. I need to pick that one up again.
 
justin.au said:
Bombshells by Joanna Murray-Smith. Didn't like it as much as Honour, but Meryl Louise Davenport's monologue was all kinds of brilliant. So sad I never got to see it performed by Caroline O'Connor.
There's a clip on youtube showing a short snippet of each of the characters (except for one, I think) as performed by Caroline O'Conner. Even that little bit gives you an idea of how great it would have been.
 

Mifune

Mehmber
Tim the Wiz said:
steve-erickson-latimes.jpg


Otherwise, disappointing to hear that it's still in the doldrums that far out. Almost feel like ditching it and finishing up my re-read of Flashman.

That dude is the fucking shit. Nice guy, too.

What have you read by him?
 

Karakand

Member
Since I'm a douche ITT you'll all be happy to know I got cockblocked from seeing a Brecht performance last night. It was a shitty lib arts college performance too. (i.e. the only way to see him) :(
 

Jarlaxle

Member
Hyperion_cover-172x300.jpg


Just finished this. Really good read. I'm not usually into sci-fi too much but I thought this was excellent and will definitely have to check out more from Dan Simmons in the future.
I thought the section with Sol and his daughter Rachel getting younger and losing her memory every day was absolutely heart wrenching. Some truly sad and emotional passages there.

The+Darkness+That+Comes+Before.jpg


Just started this tonight. Very early into it but it seems really interesting. Seems to be a slower read initially which is not a bad thing, just writing that demands more attention and thought to it.
 
Just finished:

519GFiWSwML._SL500_AA266_PIkin3,BottomRight,-22,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg


Started reading this at Christmas time and didn't get a chance to really get stuck into it until last week... been home from work sick, so lots of reading time :).

My first Sanderson novel, and I really enjoyed it. Loved the ending, great way to set things in motion for the rest of the series.


Just started:

51-BgSfIJEL._SL500_AA266_PIkin3,BottomRight,-18,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg


I only read The Name of the Wind a few months ago, so the story is still relatively fresh in my mind... I am super excited for this one. Read about 5 or 6 chapters this morning, and it already has its hooks in!
 

Jerk

Banned
51DUM%2BeQbbL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


It has been some time since I have hated a protagonist as thoroughly as Kote. Longer still since I have held so much loathing for a character that I am supposed to like.
 

Salazar

Member
Jerk 2.0 said:
Longer still since I have held so much loathing for a character that I am supposed to like.

Eh, I don't see your cause.

Besides, one douche in fantasy fiction towers over all contenders.

Richard-Rahl-and-Mord-Sith.jpg
 
I am re reading

A+Storm+of+Swords.jpg


I'm dreading getting to you know where, but i look forward to getting to
Tyrions revenge on his dad. At least i think i remember it being in this book.

Anyway, i geeked out the last 10 minutes and read a wonderful summary or arguments on who Jon's parents really are. It gave me goosebumps as it did the first time i heard about the theory. God i love this series.
 

mike23

Member
Read these this past week:

DcPVh.jpg

I'm loving this series. I like young Kvothe a lot, but Kote is a bit pathetic. Undoubtedly there will be a good explanation for it though. Is this series a trilogy, or what?

0atNx.jpg
elb0L.jpg

Love the allomancy system in these. Hoping to see it expanded even more into book 3.

Starting this tomorrow hopefully:

QSb8j.jpg


I'm liking Brandon Sanderson so far, so maybe this after that:

qpnFk.jpg
 
Jerk 2.0 said:
Wise Man's Fear
It has been some time since I have hated a protagonist as thoroughly as Kote. Longer still since I have held so much loathing for a character that I am supposed to like.
I dunno. I think that's kind of intentional. Rothfuss seems like a big enough nerd to recognize all the tropes he's throwing around. I'm not far into WMF yet, but in NotW, you could definitely see some metatrope aspects working their way into this Mary Sue.

Think about your stereotypical Mary Sue author: Socially awkward/oblivious, self-victimizing, undeserved sense of superiority. That's Kvothe. Unable to connect to most of the people around him and perpetually stuck in the friend zone with the woman he's crazy for who is constantly running around with other guys. He feels he's unjustly persecuted by others but practically all of his problems come from running his mouth. His sense of superiority, is perhaps deserved, but he takes it to a level of arrogance that constantly backfires on him.

The story is very tropey but it seems to go back and subtly dismantle enough parts of that to make me think that there's a little more depth to the process than it appears.
 

Jerk

Banned
Dresden said:
I think Quoth is a pretty inoffensive lead, what's so bad about him? Asides from him being a Mary-Sue, but that's common enough in fantasy.

His extreme Marty Stu-ness is the main problem I have with him, but I was referring to his willful self-destruction.

Past the beginning of the first novel, just about all his ills could have been avoided had he had the littlest bit of common sense.

I am also very much annoyed by his fascination with Mary Sue.

MacGurcules said:
I dunno. I think that's kind of intentional. Rothfuss seems like a big enough nerd to recognize all the tropes he's throwing around. I'm not far into WMF yet, but in NotW, you could definitely see some metatrope aspects working their way into this Mary Sue.

Think about your stereotypical Mary Sue author: Socially awkward/oblivious, self-victimizing, undeserved sense of superiority. That's Kvothe. Unable to connect to most of the people around him and perpetually stuck in the friend zone with the woman he's crazy for who is constantly running around with other guys. He feels he's unjustly persecuted by others but practically all of his problems come from running his mouth. His sense of superiority, is perhaps deserved, but he takes it to a level of arrogance that constantly backfires on him.

The story is very tropey but it seems to go back and subtly dismantle enough parts of that to make me think that there's a little more depth to the process than it appears.

You misunderstand. While I do have an issue with the way he is written, I was not complaining about the writing. I just really dislike him as a character.
 

Fjordson

Member
Jarlaxle said:
Hyperion

Just finished this. Really good read. I'm not usually into sci-fi too much but I thought this was excellent and will definitely have to check out more from Dan Simmons in the future.
I thought the section with Sol and his daughter Rachel getting younger and losing her memory every day was absolutely heart wrenching. Some truly sad and emotional passages there.

The Darkness That Comes Before

Just started this tonight. Very early into it but it seems really interesting. Seems to be a slower read initially which is not a bad thing, just writing that demands more attention and thought to it.
Great choices. I just finished Hyperion two nights ago. Loved it so much. I'm already into the next book, Fall of Hyperion, and it's really entertaining right from the start.

Sol's story was crazy emotional. Such an unfathomable thing for a parent to have to deal with. I also loved the Consul's story. There were some big twists in there that I didn't see coming and I loved reading about the relationship between his grandfather and Siri.

I read the Prince of Nothing trilogy last year. I liked it a lot. Definitely is a dense read at times that demands a lot of attention to detail, but it's very rewarding as well.
 

Jerk

Banned
Salazar said:
Eh, I don't see your cause.

Besides, one douche in fantasy fiction towers over all contenders.

Richard-Rahl-and-Mord-Sith.jpg

True dat.

Perhaps I was a bit harsh with my post.

I am just tired of playing "what dumbass shit is Kote going to do now" as I page through the book.
 

Burger

Member
Commodore said:
The Count of Monte Cristo, for the first time. 300 pg/20% in and I'm hooked. I've known the story a long time, but the novel itself is something else. Love my Kindle.

If you really enjoy it, check out the audiobook, narrated by John Lee. He does a bloody excellent job of acting out the parts, his accents for all the spoken languages are brilliant, and it's thoroughly engaging.

I would have been helpless trying to figure out how to pronounce all the different names and places in the story.

http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B0030CNJZI&qid=1299398679&sr=1-1
 
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