What are we reading?

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

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Martok

#1350
Quote from: Greybriar on March 08, 2014, 06:04:07 PM
Quote from: Martok on March 08, 2014, 01:30:37 PM
....I am rereading the entire Wheel of Time series from beginning to end -- straight....

Oh my God! That's may be even worse than the guy who claims that George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels are published so far apart that he rereads all the books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series each time a new book in the series is published.
Heh.  In fact, that's kind of why I'm rereading the entire WoT series.  I would reread it whenever a new novel was released -- I pretty much had to, as so much had transpired in the previous novels that I would've been hopelessly lost if I had simply jumped into the newest book "cold". 

However, getting through books 7-10 really wore me down.  Mercifully, Knife of Dreams was released in paperback soon enough after I finished book 10 that I didn't have to reread the series yet again (and even more mercifully, KoD moved quickly and wasn't a slog).  However, by that point, I had already decided I wasn't going to reread the series for the umpteenth time unless & until it was actually finished.  And since all the other books I owned were the paperback edition -- and I'm OCD :P -- I refused to buy the Sanderson novels until they were available in paperback as well. 

What this boils down to is that I didn't purchase/read Knife of Dreams (book 11) until early 2007.  Therefore, given the aforementioned stipulations I'd forced myself to adhere to, it's now been a full seven years since I last read WoT.  And given the large cast of characters and absurd number of interweaving storylines, I knew I was going to have no choice but to start at the beginning again.  ::) 



Quote from: Greybriar on March 08, 2014, 06:04:07 PM
I'll pray for you, Martok.
LOL!  Thanks Greybriar.  I could probably use the help.  ;) 




Quote from: MetalDog on March 08, 2014, 08:53:26 PM
I always knew there was something a little off about Martok.  Now I know what it is ;)
A lifelong fascination with musical theater?  ;D 

"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

Gusington

^Give my regards to Broadway.


слава Україна!

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

-JudgeDredd

WallysWorld

Finally finished Hugh Thomas' tome on the Spanish Civil War.

A very good read with exceptional details on the politics of the conflict and behind the front lines.
"I used to be with it, but then they changed what *it* was. Now what I'm with isn't *it* and what *it* is seems weird and scary to me." - Abraham Simpson

Arctic Blast

Quote from: Greybriar on March 08, 2014, 06:04:07 PM
Quote from: Martok on March 08, 2014, 01:30:37 PM
....I am rereading the entire Wheel of Time series from beginning to end -- straight....

Oh my God! That's may be even worse than the guy who claims that George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels are published so far apart that he rereads all the books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series each time a new book in the series is published.

I'll pray for you, Martok.

Ha! I've got a friend who re-read the entire Wheel of Time series every time a new book came out. He's just a bit of a fan...

Martok

Quote from: Arctic Blast on March 09, 2014, 12:59:46 PM
Ha! I've got a friend who re-read the entire Wheel of Time series every time a new book came out. He's just a bit of a fan...
If he did that for when books 7-10 were released as well (especially Winter's Heart and Crossroads of Twilight -- dear gods, those two took forever to get through), then I'm afraid he may have crossed the line from "fan" to "masochist".  :P 

Don't get me wrong:  I truly do love the series, warts and all, and books 1-6 plus 11 (Knife of Dreams) are a joy to read.  But to reread the series just for books 7-10 simply isn't worth it -- not by themselves.  You only read those four books so that you can get to books 11-14 (as I am now).  Would that I could travel into the past and warn myself of that...  ::) 

"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

Arctic Blast

Quote from: Martok on March 09, 2014, 04:05:41 PM
Quote from: Arctic Blast on March 09, 2014, 12:59:46 PM
Ha! I've got a friend who re-read the entire Wheel of Time series every time a new book came out. He's just a bit of a fan...
If he did that for when books 7-10 were released as well (especially Winter's Heart and Crossroads of Twilight -- dear gods, those two took forever to get through), then I'm afraid he may have crossed the line from "fan" to "masochist".  :P 

Don't get me wrong:  I truly do love the series, warts and all, and books 1-6 plus 11 (Knife of Dreams) are a joy to read.  But to reread the series just for books 7-10 simply isn't worth it -- not by themselves.  You only read those four books so that you can get to books 11-14 (as I am now).  Would that I could travel into the past and warn myself of that...  ::)

Yep, that's exactly what he did. So when book 14 came out, he re-read 1-13 first.

He's kind of insane.

Mr. Bigglesworth

Quote from: Gusington on February 20, 2014, 09:50:24 PM
Just chiming in as I always do when I finish one book and move on to another. About to start The Eagle Has Fallen by Brian Young, about the disappearance of Rome's 9th Legion in Britain.

There was a movie about that. Guy goes across England and Scotland to find the eagle, then fights his way back to the Roman frontier.

The Eagle
201114A1hr 54m

Average of 559,228 ratings:                            3.6 stars


Haunted by the disappearance of his father, who vanished with the Roman Ninth Legion on an expedition into the north of Britain, centurion Marcus Aquila sets out to unravel the mystery and recover the legion's eagle standard.

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/The_Eagle/70130141?sod=search-autocomplete
"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; "
- Shakespeare's Henry V, Act III, 1598

Gusington

Thanks! I know what I'll be doing later.


слава Україна!

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

-JudgeDredd

JasonPratt

Quote from: Greybriar on March 08, 2014, 06:04:07 PM
Quote from: Martok on March 08, 2014, 01:30:37 PM
....I am rereading the entire Wheel of Time series from beginning to end -- straight....

Oh my God! That's may be even worse than the guy who claims that George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels are published so far apart that he rereads all the books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series each time a new book in the series is published.

I'll pray for you, Martok.


Heh, I did the same thing myself last year; there are reports waaaay back upthread for my impressions on the 'slog' as I reached those books again, and then for the unread books as I reached them. (Thus inspiring Martok to put room on his schedule for the remaining books himself.)


Martok, for what it's worth I can 100% guarantee that despite the nods to LotR in the first book, Sanderson and/or RJ doesn't pull out any giant spiders toward the end. :)
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Martok

Quote from: Arctic Blast on March 09, 2014, 07:56:26 PM

Yep, that's exactly what he did. So when book 14 came out, he re-read 1-13 first.

He's kind of insane.
LOL!  Well I'm a little nuts too.  :P 

That being, said, I wouldn't bother rereading the first eleven books again if I had a better memory for all the details in them.  For better or worse, though, I *don't* have a better memory, and so I must go back and start from the beginning; I'd be hopelessly lost otherwise, and well do I know it! 

"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

Gusington

Shadow of Empires: The Historic Vlad Dracula by Sir Jens also not so good. It's more like a pamphlet written by non native English speaker :/ and took me a day and a half to read, which is lightning speed for me. If anyone is remotely interested please don't buy it, I will ship it to you.

Going to try Stoker's Manuscript by Royce Prouty before the Vlad: Last Confessions book by CC Humphreys.


слава Україна!

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

-JudgeDredd

skeptical.platypus

Under a Graveyard Sky is flat out bad. The overall plot has some wings, which keeps you aloft through the first quarter; possibly through the fall of NYC, but the latter half is composed almost entirely of boat clearing. This is not particularly interesting after the first, and setting up a series of small clearings that seem to exist only to remind readers that bullets ricochet does not lead to a climax when a much bigger boat should be cleared.

Hands down the worst part is the characterization. There isn't any. The characters are nothing more than archetypes of Hyper Competence nicely carved out so there is something sort of to do for each family member, although it's unclear now that the wife even exists. She may be mentioned after NYC, I don't recall. There may be one entire genuine moment for the characters in the whole novel -- when the Hyper Competent Combat Daughter is pissed off that the Hyper Competent Scientist Daughter is mistaken for being the zombie killer.

The true protagonist is the Hyper Competent Combat Daughter, and unfortunately, Ringo forces her to have two types of interactions -- with zombies, and with adult males who are invariable surprised, doubtful, and then gushing because of her competence. We are supposed to be amused with this about every 50 pages or so. It's a mildly interesting gag when she complains about not wearing enough body armor and weapons when the family first travels through NYC. It's already boring as hell when we have to wade through the inevitable security check where she produces one weapon after another to everyone's surprise. But wait -- it's original! This time it's a teenaged girl!

By the time we get to the description of the sub coxswain rolling on the deck laughing (iirc, literally) at the HCC daughter saying mean things to zombies while shooting them, and telling his captain, "you have to hear this," Ringo has passed "lazy," collected his $200, and gone straight to insulting his audience's intelligence.

Finally, the combat is dreary, and perhaps even less fleshed out than the characters. Ringo obviously had a few set pieces in mind -- these are the only scenes in the novel that have any color and depth. The Last Concert is NYC is an example of this. However, the combat after is literally just a series of "You take the left, I'm on the right." "Reloading!" comments, with tactical descriptions like, there were too many zombies in that direction, so they kept moving the other, and various ways of mentioning that the zombies kept coming from unpredictable directions.

This is carried out throughout the novel. Very very little tension. No tactical overview beyond "boats have narrow passageways." Zombies come when you make noise, but sometimes they are slow, so you wait after you've killed a few. Descriptions of engagements that go little beyond "she shot one, and then another one when it came around a corner." There is some talk about personal weaponry, armaments, and ammo, but I can't imagine enough even for fetishists.

If this is anything remotely like his other works, Ringo is not an author I'm interested in reading.
The Law of Unintended Consequences, Seattle Pride Variant: The only city on the planet that can guarantee your purchase of recreational marijuana is from a stoner making $15/hr.

Martok

#1362
So I'm now a dozen or so chapters into the first WoT novel, Eye of the World.   I have to admit that while I'm aware some folks really struggle with it -- the most common critique is they find the pacing to be rather glacial -- I'm just not having that problem myself (happily!).  Maybe I'm just a sucker for good world-building (which IMO this book does in spades). 




Quote from: JasonPratt on March 10, 2014, 10:58:52 AM
Martok, for what it's worth I can 100% guarantee that despite the nods to LotR in the first book, Sanderson and/or RJ doesn't pull out any giant spiders toward the end. :)
I can't tell you how relieved that makes me.  8) 

"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

MetalDog

Martok, my frustration with WoT is definitiely the glacial pacing.  Having said that, I didn't mind the first four or five books.  I was interested in the characters, the plot, the world, all of it.  I just figured he would pick up the pace eventually.  Then I got to book 8 and then 9 and if anything, it just got worse.  That's when I said, "Fuc* it!  I'm out."  I certainly wish you good luck in getting through all 1400 books.  AND retaining your sanity ;)
And the One Song to Rule Them All is Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones


"If its a Balrog, I don't think you get an option to not consent......." - bob

Martok

Quote from: MetalDog on March 11, 2014, 06:37:45 PM
Martok, my frustration with WoT is definitiely the glacial pacing.  Having said that, I didn't mind the first four or five books.  I was interested in the characters, the plot, the world, all of it.  I just figured he would pick up the pace eventually.  Then I got to book 8 and then 9 and if anything, it just got worse.  That's when I said, "Fuc* it!  I'm out."  I certainly wish you good luck in getting through all 1400 books.  AND retaining your sanity ;)
Heh, thanks.  :) 

I certainly don't blame you for giving up when you did.  I actually found the pacing in books 7 & 8 (Crown of Swords and Path of Daggers) to be tolerable enough, but it's not hard to see why it was too much for a lot of folks. 

In contrast,  Winter's Heart and Crossroads of Twilight are indeed absolutely tedious.  It was only the knowledge that Knife of Dreams picked up the pace again (and pretty dramatically so) that gave me the impetus to keep on slogging through to the other side.  Personally, I believe only the most hardcore/masochistic fans could be said to truly enjoy those two.  ::) 


I can honestly say that I feel KoD is worth getting to.  However, it's difficult to truly believe that when you're in the midst of the almost-brutal slog of WH and CoT one must endure to make it to that point. 

"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