What are we reading?

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

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mirth

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on August 29, 2013, 10:17:39 AM
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.

Pretty cool English teacher right there.
"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

Gusington

Just began Legions of Rome by Stephen Dando Collins, a history of every Roman legion.


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

-JudgeDredd

Bison

Quote from: Gusington on August 29, 2013, 08:56:45 PM
Just began Legions of Rome by Stephen Dando Collins, a history of every Roman legion.

This sounds quite interesting.

Gusington

About 25 pages in and thankfully it is quite accessible. It's about 600 pages but shouldn't be too rough as it is broken up nicely with maps, illustrations and photos. It's sort of like a small coffee table book.


слава Україна!

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

-JudgeDredd

Bison

I do like coffee and occasionally tables.

Gusington

You will dig this then. And it can be had for about 20.00. (Insert mom joke here)


слава Україна!

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

-JudgeDredd

Windigo

Quote from: Gusington on August 30, 2013, 08:27:57 AM
You will dig this then. And it can be had for about 20.00. (Insert mom joke here)

You must be feeling better, your sense of humour is back on track.
My doctor wrote me a prescription for daily sex.

My wife insists that it says dyslexia but what does she know.

Shelldrake

Quote from: Gusington on August 29, 2013, 08:56:45 PM
Just began Legions of Rome by Stephen Dando Collins, a history of every Roman legion.

Getting ready for Rome II eh?
"Just because something is beyond your comprehension doesn't mean it is scientific."

Dean Edell

Gusington

^O yes...ooooo yes....

Am almost back to normal Breezy. Even went running today. And then cramped in the heat.

But better, still.


слава Україна!

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

-JudgeDredd

JasonPratt

#1029
Quote from: Gusington on August 29, 2013, 08:56:45 PM
Just began Legions of Rome by Stephen Dando Collins, a history of every Roman legion.

Wishlisted that promptly!


So, finished Knife of Dreams (book 11 of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time) on schedule last night. Oddly, I feel like I just finished reading my first WOT book in 10 years, but that isn't true: Crossroads of Twilight was the first new WOT book I had read in 10 years!

On thinking about it, I decided that's because CoT never felt finished. People meander around setting up slightly for future events (all fluff and feathers as one of the main protagonists, Perrin, puts it himself in his last chapter of that book), and then the book just stops at the moment of the first real crisis point of the whole tome.

Things happen in KoD -- almost all the setup from CoT (and earlier) is resolved except for retaking the White Tower, and just about every important plot regarding the rebel Tower is still resolved along the way (mainly having to do with a set of murders being solved and a Forsaken being exposed).

I could tell immediately that KoD was going to be better (even without having heard from various friends and other readers) because right off the bat during the prologue (another amusingly long 12% booklength epic in itself) there's quite a bit of decisive action that doesn't involve retelling the events of a previous book from another perspective, including the dramatic defeat of one of the major minor villains (so to speak). I haven't finished reading the prologue of The Gathering Storm yet (itself only 8% length by the way, which also seems a good sign), but aside from an opening scene that drags out a bit too long (yet in a very Stephen Kingish way) focusing on a random Borderland farmer, there are already a number of interesting point of view advancements to the plot including the unexpected death of a minor ally from KoD. (From everything I've heard TGD is even better than KoD.)

My theory that CoT and KoD were originally intended to be one book advanced a little farther with the realization that the late Darryl K. Sweet's cover art for CoT illustrates a scene that doesn't occur until KoD! -- but then, his cover art for KoD depicts a scene that doesn't happen until TGD (I suppose) either! I can't really imagine that CoT, KoD and TGD were all intended to be one book: I have to suppose RJ changed his mind about what needed to happen on Mat's side of the plot in order to get to the cover scene (which I'm fine with because what's there instead is very good), but he must have originally intended that scene for the book because practically every time the plot goes back to Mat in KoD that scene is being foreshadowed. (I'm being vague as to specifics here in case someone doesn't want spoilers; it'll be obvious enough to anyone who keeps going up through Book 11.)

This did give me the idea that instead of converting Books 6&7, 8&9, and 10&11 into three books (which would work well enough although Book 9's climactic plot action isn't staged very well), I wish I could take a stab at converting books 6-8 and 9-11 into two books. Books 6-8 would be largely devoted to Rand freeing Illian from Sammael and then defending that country from the encroaching Seanchan invasion (on his side of the plot); and to the creation and growth of the Black Tower into a fearsome army support group (also on his side of the plot); while Elayne and Nyn discover how to settle the bad summer weather and deal with that side of the plot. Also, as annoying as the foolish competition over Perrin is, that could all be condensed into one book. ;) (His wife is captured at the very end of Book 8, and after that the competition naturally ends up through Book 11.) The Forses who had died but hadn't been balefired out of existence would return and Moridin would start consolidating his team back together instead of letting them compete against one another.

Then in the new book 7 (now books 9, 10, and 11), the Perrin vs. Shaido plot would be played out and resolved; the courtship of Mat and the Daughter of the Nine Moons would be introduced and resolved (Mat having been out of action all of Book 8 ) up to the point where they marry anyway; Rand would go into hiding from being hunted by the Forses, deal with his rebel Black Tower assassins, resolve (sort of) a huge plot point haunting the series since before Book 1, rest up from doing that, and get back in the saddle with a fight against an army of 100,000 Trollocs plus springing a Forsaken trap; Egwene would get the rebel White Tower moving and all the plot inside the WT (featuring mostly new minor characters) would be compressed into one book; and Elayne would go through all the mess of reclaiming the crown of Andor in only one book.

True, the resulting books might be significantly larger than any of the other books, say 1000 pages instead of 6 or 7 hundred, but plots would still move a lot faster relatively (since as it stands the books cover around 4200 pages total, possibly more). And true, much more of Book 11 would be retained than any of the other books by proportion, but I expect much more of Book 10 would be dropped by the same proportion. ;)

Unfortunately, unless I want to spend the time typing out those two compilation books by hand (at 1000ish pages each), I don't see any way to accomplish such a fan edit yet. Amazon naturally wants to protect its publishers' copyrights (which in principle I agree with) so its Kindle software prevents copy-pasting to other documents, and as of Win8 they hide their books in hidden folders split into fragments with hexadecimal titles so even if the fragments are found it won't be very obvious which fragments go to which books (making it more difficult to use 3rd party software to convert Kindle files to a pdf which can be copy-pasted from.) I do have direct access to the files from my Kindle on my older Macintosh, though, so maybe I can use a converter by that route... {puzzling}

If I did do the project, I'd have to restrict it to my own useage (and my Dad's perhaps, as he's almost finished with Book 2), since that would be copyright violation to have even one book (much moreso six books) of material wandering out free in the world, and that wouldn't be fair to TOR or to RJ's heirs. (Sanderson's final three books from RJ's notes wouldn't be touched on this plan.) Unless of course TOR decided to publish the results themselves, which isn't entirely impossible -- they actually have published extensive catchup summaries and notes by one of their editors/authors, despite those being also found totally for free on TOR's own website! -- but seeing as how I'm only a barely published author myself, it might as well be. Impossible, I mean. ;)


Oh well, the best thing I can say about KoD is that I almost felt like I was reading The Fires of Heaven (not quite, things don't move along that far or spectacularly), which I haven't felt like since, um, reading TFoH.  ;D SIX FREAKING BOOKS AGO!

And it's hard to believe that, if my reading stays on schedule, I'll finish WOT, really actually finish the series, finally, in 30 days.

The slog is well and truly over (I hope), and it's all downhill into and through the Last Battle(s) from here!
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!

Gusington

^You...are almost as easy as me.


слава Україна!

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

-JudgeDredd

Windigo

Quote from: Gusington on August 31, 2013, 04:41:55 PM
^You...are almost as easy as me.

Your wife says you're 30 seconds easy
My doctor wrote me a prescription for daily sex.

My wife insists that it says dyslexia but what does she know.

JasonPratt

Incidentally I was wrong, I may have been so much expecting another long prologue my eyes filled in some loops: the TGD prologue was only 5% of the book, not 8%.

ONLY FIVE PERCENT OF THE TEXT DEVOTED TO THE PROLOGUE!? -- WHAT WITCHCRAFT IS THIS??!?!
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!

Gusington

Breezy your Mom says I went 30 seconds too long.


слава Україна!

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

-JudgeDredd

Windigo

Quote from: Gusington on September 01, 2013, 09:34:06 AM
Breezy your Mom says I went 30 seconds too long.

..... errrrrr   Dad?
My doctor wrote me a prescription for daily sex.

My wife insists that it says dyslexia but what does she know.