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What are you reading? - May edition
- Thread starter Witchfinder General
- Start date
ElectricBlue187
Member
Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
This book is not my usual sci-fi style and it's very looooonnnnnggg but it's so good I can't stop reading it
Fuck. So I have to slog through another 500 pages of this book to get to the good stuff. This is the reason fantasy has such a bad reputation. It's like playing a fucking J-RPG; filler is the literary equivalent of grinding levels.Scribble said:
And the first book -- A Game of Thrones -- had no filler whatsoever and is probably the best mainstream fantasy novel written since Robert Jordan's first 3 filler-free WoT novels. This second book is chock full of the stuff.
JzeroT1437
Member
Just finished
Moving onto
Moving onto
npm0925 said:
Gene Wolfe is top of the pops in fantasy. The sun serie are his best works, his standalones aren't quite as good. There's nothing else in fantasy/sci-fi that comes close. Wolfe is more like Nabokov or Borges than Jordan so you'd want to look into Invitation to a Beheading or Lolita or Borges complete fictions.
A little over a quarter through the unabridged "Tale of Genji" by Murasaki Shikibu. Fairly complex with tons of characters, but this edition is great at making things clear, with extensive notes, character lists, maps and so on.
Also reading Lao Tsu's "Tao Te Ching", so I'm in an old Asian phase right now. It only consists of 81 short poem-like texts. I take it slow, though - this isn't meant to be read through in a hurry. That wouldn't be very Tao, now would it? Very nice edition, by the way, with the text in both English and Chinese, and with lots of beautiful b&w photographs. Good extra-material as well. It's very relaxing to contemplate it slowly.
npm0925 said:
Nabokov is best. All the wordwork that was in Book of the New Sun is just an imitation of what Nabokov did in Lolita. I think the book is hilarious, especially if you're getting all of his french jokes(they have a book if you don't speak it but most of the stuff is basic) and it's pretty much a must read. Invitation to a Beheading is his most fantastical work though it was originally written in Russian so it lacks the superlative prose that Lolita has. Don't read the back of the book, Vintage spoils the story on it like idiots.
Tim the Wiz
Banned
npm0925 said:
Is there anything better than Gene Wolfe in fantasy? Probably not.
I think the Chalion books by Lois McMaster Bujold are the only things that do come close. Everything by Robin Hobb is also great. Sean Stewart, Tim Powers and Neil Gaiman are up there as well.
Malazan is very enjoyable, perhaps even a guilty pleasure. However, the problem is that Erikson has a habit of meandering along through hundreds of pages towards a goal that might or might not be acted upon in this novel, the next or even further down the line. This is made partway understandable by the fact that it's a ten-part series. Still, there's so much he does right, especially with the trilogy of novels that follow his first. It's truly epic and vast in its scope, so much so that I'm absolutely gob-smacked at some points, if somewhat unappealing for those uninterested with genre fiction.
Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastard sequence could be the funniest and most entertaining thing in fantasy. The Black Company novels by Glen Cook are gritty, satisfying affairs. Tad William's Memory, Sorrow and Thorn is somewhat generic, but it hits an emotional strand not many fantasy works do. I also hear his sci-fi work is better. All three are solid, and very readable.
Guy Gavriel Kay is an established name that can do wonders. Lynn Flewelling is not as established, but has a lot of potential in my mind. Ursula K. Le Guin is past her best, but the first Earthsea book is a classic. Robert E. Howard is always a pleasure to read. And I should probably stop rambling.
Stephen R. Donaldson and R. Scott Bakker? Overrated, but decent.
Terry Brooks, Terry Goodkind, Salvatore and their ilk? Terrible.
Raymond E. Feist? If you ever thought you'd love for a particular novel to never end, well, this author proves that this is the worst idea you could wish for. After a solid six or seven novels, he moves into some truly horrific tripe and elongates a storyline well beyond its welcome, but still manages to bring out a glimmer or two of quality once in a while. I think his Dirty Dozen-esque novel is probably his best, and that came at the latter end of his career. The point at which that Hawkins kid evolves into a globe-trotting James Bond-type in a fantasy setting is where I jumped ship. Frustrating at best, and infuriating at his worst.
Of course, these are only recommendations and one man's Speed Racer is another man's Speed Racer. I should also mention that I haven't read Steven Brust, David Gemmell (can never get past the first couple of pages in his books, to be honest), Moorcock, Kate Elliott, China Miéville, Patricia A. McKillip, Jim Butcher or Abecrombie yet. All of which I've heard some good things about.
npm0925 said:
I agree, it's one of the reasons why I often feel that Martin is sometimes over-praised. However, A Game of Thrones, as you said, is a great book. The second meanwhile is decent at best, and of course, nothing really happens until the second half of the novel. A Storm of Swords will blow you the hell away, though. It's one of the reasons the author is called GRRMurder after all. :lol
A Feast For Crows is somewhat disappointing as well, but Martin split the book in half so that all the character POVs which are actually most enjoyable to read are in A Dance With Dragons. An abysmal editing choice, really. If you want, split it in half so that it's a two-volume whole, but taking away the high points of the tale as you set up the pathways of the supporting characters is not good enough... and quite boring, really.
Back on topic, I'm finally onto reading something new. Umberto Eco's The Island The Day Before. Looks very interesting, and my appetite is definitely whetted after Foucault's Pendulum.
Which ones were those?npm0925 said:
I couldn't finish, what I thought was the first book, The Eye of the World due to the excessive filler...maybe I was reading them out of order
Also, after reading A Game of Thrones, I finished both of the next two ASOIAF books in four days and couldn't get beyond page 130 in a Feast for Crows, again, due to excessive filler
btw: I ordered The Name of the Wind
shawnlreed
Member
Being new to GAF, only recently did I start reading these 'What are you reading?' threads, and I have had some great reads thanks to everyone's recommendations.
The Name of the Wind is one of the most enjoyable books I've read in years.
The Name of the Wind is one of the most enjoyable books I've read in years.
mambadragon
Banned
Just finished Audacity of Hope. Ordered American Gods, Blood Meridian, and a few comics from Amazon but got the free shipping so it takes like 10 days. I'm thinking of picking up either Blindness or Motherless Brooklyn to read until they arrive. Any suggestions?
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=278855Gattsu25 said:
Cosmic Bus
pristine morning snow
njp142 said:
Oh man, flip a coin or something, because they're both phenominal. Motherless Brooklyn will cause instantaneous Lethem-lust, though, and you'll be out buying anything of his you can get your hands on.
Kuro Madoushi
Unconfirmed Member
Reading Chuck Palaniuk's "Snuff"
I find more and more that I like the beginning and middle of his books, but the ends fall flat.
I find more and more that I like the beginning and middle of his books, but the ends fall flat.
Guileless
Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
Enojado said:Wish I was reading stuff half as interesting as what has been posted in this thread. I am reading, and will be for the next 2 months, lots of bar books so I can relearn (and in some cases learn for the 1st time) enough law to hopefully pass the CA bar for the 1st time.
When I was studying for the bar, I read graphic novels exclusively. Nothing else was possible after hours of staring at the text in my bar books. You could try that.
Continuing on The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, just finished Tao The Ching by Lao Tzu. Genji will take a looong while, so I need other books at the same time. So I just started this:
The Dark Tower vol.1, The Gunslinger, by Stephen King. My first King-book. All the Dark Tower-books have stood in my bookshelf for a while now, so why not just start them? I don't read much fantasy or sci-fi, but sometimes I get a craving. Expectations are high!
The Dark Tower vol.1, The Gunslinger, by Stephen King. My first King-book. All the Dark Tower-books have stood in my bookshelf for a while now, so why not just start them? I don't read much fantasy or sci-fi, but sometimes I get a craving. Expectations are high!
Kastro said:
first time reading.. I'm in love. Anyone know anything similar?
Punch, very hard, in the face, anyone, who tells you to read perks of being a wallflower.
You could try YSKOV by Eggers. It's probably his best work although there is a lot of gimmicky bullshit which gets pretty annoying.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
This book is morbid, yet humorous, and very interesting. The title pretty much sums it up - it tells about the various things that happen to bodies after their former owners give them to science.
Some parts of the book make me cringe a little, but I can't put it down.