What are we reading?

Started by Martok, March 05, 2012, 01:13:59 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 4 Guests are viewing this topic.

GDS_Starfury

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on August 17, 2013, 04:53:39 PM
I just started Ender's Game. Never read it before.

Next, who knows. I'd like to get Medium Raw read, maybe finish Tokyo Vice as well.

:o   Im always surprised when I hear that a wargamer just read this book for the first time.
its like mandatory reading at some point before you finish middle school.
Toonces - Don't ask me, I just close my eyes and take it.

Gus - I use sweatpants with flannel shorts to soak up my crotch sweat.

Banzai Cat - There is no "partial credit" in grammar. Like anal sex. It's either in, or it's not.

Mirth - We learned long ago that they key isn't to outrun Star, it's to outrun Gus.

Martok - I don't know if it's possible to have an "anti-boner"...but I now have one.

Gus - Celery is vile and has no reason to exist. Like underwear on Star.


BanzaiCat

I was never much of a sci-fi reader in middle school. Instead, I read books like Guadacanal Diary, A Night to Remember, and anything war- or battle-related.

I DID read Starship Troopers, and it's one of my favorites to this day, if that counts for anything. (I even have the board game from way back in the day; my dad played it all the time with a friend of his.)

Gusington

Just about done with Baneblade (WH40K) and moving on to Priests of Mars (also WH40K). Then it's on to my Big Honkin' Ancient Roman Reading list, with the imminent release of Rome II approaching quickly.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

Shelldrake

I am about half way through Storm Surge which is the latest Destroyermen novel by Taylor Anderson. Although I am enjoying the story, the number of plotlines is starting to get out of hand with no end in sight.
"Just because something is beyond your comprehension doesn't mean it is scientific."

Dean Edell

JasonPratt

#1009
Still on schedule, I finished Crossroads of Twilight, Book 10 of The Wheel of Time. The first new WoT book I've read since Book 9 was released back in whatever year that was. ... ...... 13 years ago? Really?

sigh.

(I knew reading this series was going to make me melancholy for reasons I sure as hell am not going to talk about on a public forum, plus also getting old. But dang.)

Anyway, yeah I'm still entirely glad I put off reading this until the series was finished. Because if I had waited another three years for Book 10, after the increasing disappointments of Books 6-9, and had spend a good 20 hours of my life reading this thing, hoping desperately that RJ was going to finally get things together -- I would have been UTTERLY LIVID! (Instead some friends of mine took the bullet and warned me off.)

As it is, strange as this is going to sound, from the larger perspective of knowing the series is finished and trusting those same friends that the last four books are worth the effort, I'm only ambivalent about CoT. If WoT is one ultra-large 14 volume book, CoT would be a draggy five or six chapters before the climactic last 1/3 (or thereabouts).

I feel reasonably sure if I ever decide to spend five months of my life reading this series again, I'll just skip CoT as an experiment and see what happens. So much of almost nothing happens, I feel kind of confident that what little does move forward would be summarized in Book 11 well enough that, having read Book 10 once originally I could go yep, no problem, I remember that, moving on.

Alternately, if I could find some way to transfer my Kindle files to a Word doc, and if I had raving insanity time and energy I didn't prefer to spend elsewhere, I might try an experimental fan edit of trimming down Books 6 and 7 to one book (since they largely deal with the same topics), Books 8 and 9 to one book (because like hell would I try to end a book on 10's material), and then trim Book 10 down to a novella extension of chapters for appending to the start of Book 11. Sure, the two fully compressed new books still wouldn't be as strong as Book 5, but they'd be punchier and move along more quickly than they do. Book 10 I suspect could be effectively trimmed to maybe seven chapters, and as such wouldn't be the strongest way to start Book 11, but God knows it would have to be better than it currently is.

Because seriously, I raise my hand on oath to heaven, I promise never to write a book with so little going on as CoT. Nowhere close. Practically every main group of the plot is stuck somewhere frustrating and boring FOR THE WHOLE BOOK, despite numerous chapters devoted to them nevertheless. (Not to Rand's side of the plot, thank Christ -- he only gets a few chapters -- but then most of the book is set a few days before, during, and after the climactic action from Book 9 way off in the distance.)

Let CoT be a lesson to all aspiring epic fantasy writers: if your characters are bored and miserable and unhappy 100% of the time, YOUR READERS WILL BE TOO!!!

I don't even think the main villains show up in this book, aside from a brief cameo appearance by Mesaana and the Superfade, which is nice while it lasts, but it's typical of this book that we get to see what Mesaana 'really' looks like while she's camping at the White Tower and yet absolutely no useful hints as to who she's operating as are revealed. (Other than denying the prevalent reader theory at the time, based on that character's introduction in a chapter five books previously with a Forsaken chapter icon that didn't seem to have one of the Forsaken in it. So... does that count as progress? By this book's standards, it does.)

This is the first (and I'm sure the last) book of the series not to even try to end on a climactic action sequence. 10% before the end, I'm still reading chapters that are dawdling along like we're somewhere in the setup 1/3 of another book; then 7%; then good Lord 5%; then suddenly when something vaguely important seems to be happening IT'S TIME FOR THE GLOSSARY THE BOOK IS OVER!

Never. I will never end out a book that way. I may not have an action sequence to end out Edge of Justice, but I provided a meaty Macro-Fight Sequence during the final third, and the chapters that do end out resolve a major foreshadowed incident with major crises. And if possible I won't release EoJ by itself (which I could have done several times in the past few years already), I'll release Song of Justice at the same time so people can move right along to finish out this part of the story and resolve a lot of plotlines.

Crossroads of Twilight, simply put, was not written for the sake of the readers, the ones who pay the bills. Nor am I cynical enough to believe it was written merely to sell one more book to fans desperately clinging to some hope the series would end well. The more I think of it, the more I suspect it this is a fleshed out first quarter to Knife of Dreams, where RJ thought certain plot things had to be slightly advanced, but catching readers up on various strands of the plot was taking so long that he didn't think it was going to work as the start of KoD and so puffed it out even more to try to make a book of it. (No, you should have reduced it and stopped indulging in every quirk of description of personal dress and habit for every hexiary minor character who drifts across the page.)

As Perrin himself (one of the three main heroes) says on page 671 (only 84% through the story), toward the end of an incident that seemed to be promising some interesting excitement but which literally amounts to winnowing weevils out of grain: "It was all an elaborate bit of nonsense, fluff and feathers."

I gather RJ finally started listening to his characters (and maybe his readers) while writing Book 11, but it was too late for him to live to see his own series finished.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Martok

Well done, Jason.  I myself didn't mind Crown of Swords and Path of Daggers so much -- they weren't great reads, but at least I didn't find them to be horrible -- but books 9 and 10 are absolutely brutal in terms of their lack of pacing.  (A snail dragging a 50 lb. weight moves faster.) 

I envy you; you're finally about to get back to the good stuff!  I'll have to be more careful about reading your posts from here on out (at least once you finish Knife of Dreams), as I don't wish to spoil things for myself.  ;) 

"Like we need an excuse to drink to anything..." - Banzai_Cat
"I like to think of it not as an excuse but more like Pavlovian Response." - Sir Slash

"At our ages, they all look like jailbait." - mirth

"If we had lines here that would have crossed all of them. For the 1,077,986th time." - Gusington

"Government is so expensive that it should at least be entertaining." - airboy

"As long as there's bacon, everything will be all right." - Toonces

JasonPratt

#1011
Yeah I'm trying not to post too many spoilers even for books 10 years oMG I FEEL SO OLD AND EMPTY!!!

Ahem.

My mini review for KoD is that the first 10% (which covers most but not all of the prologue again) is already better than the totality of CoT despite focusing mostly on minor characters; kicking off with the long-deserved butt-kicking of a major minor villain and the start of a strategic duel between ultra-generals (one of whom has never been seen before and the other of whom only showed up once before in CoT's prologue -- thus strengthening my theory that CoT and KoD could be usefully compiled) plus an appearance by one of the Forsaken announcing a hugely important slaughter (though off-screen). And while still a bit draggy in the usual ways, useful (also dangerous) contact is finally made between Perrin and the army he's been trailing for two books now.

You'll know what I'm talking about of course, and the feeling of THANK GOD FINALLY PLOT CONSTIPATION IS BEING RELIEVED OR WORDS TO THAT EFFECT!!
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Steelgrave

#1012
Just knocked off Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey as well as the second book in the series, Kill the Dead and I'm eagerly awaiting the third and fourth books to arrive from Amazon. Meet James Stark, aka Sandman Slim, a talented magician sent to Hell by a rival, where he spends eleven years fighting in the arena before escaping back to the different hell that is Los Angeles, seeking revenge against those who tore apart his life. Very crisp writing with sharp dialogue, a wicked sense of humor and plenty of action. Reminds me of Gaiman's American Gods in some ways, except more straightforward (you're not having to guess who the players actually are). Highly recommended for fans who can take a little dark humor with their fantasy.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5776788-sandman-slim

bob48

Sounds interesting Steelie - I may have to add 'em to my never diminishing 'want' list.
'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!

Staggerwing

Cool! Added to my wish list. Looks like there is a fifth book as well.
Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys

Steelgrave

#1015
Sweet. If you read 'em, let us know what you think. I'm thoroughly enjoying the books.

BTW, the series in order is:

Sandman Slim
Kill the Dead
Aloha from Hell
Devil Said Bang
Kill City Blues

Keunert

currently Tristram Shandy. what a great and strange novel.
Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
Oscar Wilde

Special K has too much class.
Windigo

Gusington

I put aside Priests of Mars...it is too techno-freaky-styley for me right now. I'll try again later. And now...on to some ancients reading.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

bayonetbrant

The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

BanzaiCat

I went to my son's high school last night (he's a freshman), where they had parents doing a follow-the-schedule thing. In his English class, I found out his first book to read is...Ender's Game.

She wanted to be sure they got a chance to read it before the movie comes out in November.