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rock2much posted:I finished The Girl With All the Gifts and I liked it a lot. I don't know if the premise is supposed to be a surprise or not. If it's assumed that the reader immediately knows about the "twist" it's still an enjoyable read. Not sure what you mean by twist. The choice the one character makes at the end? Or the ... Encounter the main characters make? Sorry I'm on mobile and not sure how to hide spoilers.
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May 1, 2015 20:51
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frenchnewwave posted:Not sure what you mean by twist. The choice the one character makes at the end? Or the ... Encounter the main characters make? Sorry I'm on mobile and not sure how to hide spoilers. That the girl is a zombie. Yea, I know. It's painfully obvious but the two people that recommended it told me that they couldn't describe much about the book without giving away the story. I'm glad there's more to the story than just that but if even the Amazon.com description is leaving out, maybe everyone else thinks it's a spoiler. I couldn't imagine anyone reading it and going "I wonder what's wrong with her? Is she a cyborg??? Maybe she has ebola???" then getting all  at chapter 66 or whenever.
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May 1, 2015 21:14
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Oh curock2much posted:That the girl is a zombie. Yea, I know. It's painfully obvious but the two people that recommended it told me that they couldn't describe much about the book without giving away the story. I'm glad there's more to the story than just that but if even the Amazon.com description is leaving out, maybe everyone else thinks it's a spoiler. Oh my. I think it's clearly revealed in the first chapter. Like, the author alludes to it at first, which I guess could be overlooked, but then I think it's pretty much explicitly stated. The "surprise" for me was that the girl flips the script and by the end has the teacher in captivity and goes on to build her own tribe of slightly domesticated zombie kids. When all along you think she's on the side of the human race. But yeah, I enjoyed it. The middle got a little long winded but it was a good read.
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May 1, 2015 22:56
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Re: The Girl With All the Gifts, yeah, it seems weird to me that everyone, including me right now, acts like it's a spoiler that Melanie is a zombie even though that becomes really apparent really fast. The real twist is the same twist as in I Am Legend, that the humans become the monsters/abnormals in a new society and what used to be monstrous is now the dominant species/society.
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May 2, 2015 02:13
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Finished Good Omens. I liked it, the characters were enjoyable (especially the Angel and Demon were are buddies) and the escalation at the end was well handled. The funniest part was the biker who kept renaming himself when trying to join the 4 Horsemen.
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May 2, 2015 03:20
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Mojo Threepwood posted:Finished Good Omens. I liked it, the characters were enjoyable (especially the Angel and Demon were are buddies) and the escalation at the end was well handled. The funniest part was the biker who kept renaming himself when trying to join the 4 Horsemen. Here's to you, dark destroying angel No Alcohol Lager.
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May 2, 2015 05:26
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Is this thread an acceptable place to  about a lovely book we just finished or is there a separate thread for that?
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May 2, 2015 14:26
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Go for it, I know I'm much better at writing bad reviews than good ones.
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May 2, 2015 14:39
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Tell us about the Dragon Horse, Nettle. You know you want to.
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May 2, 2015 15:00
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And The Thorn Birds! God drat Dragon Horse, I actually gave it away to the charity shop yesterday, let somebody else torture themselves. I just finished some terrible kids book about dragons, "Wings of Fire", because a kid on my friends list thinks it's the best book ever written, after Eragon of course.  It was alright but nothing special. I wouldn't recommend, it except maybe to my dragon obsessed kid cousin...
Nettle Soup fucked around with this message at 15:15 on May 2, 2015 |
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May 2, 2015 15:09
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Klaus88 posted:Is this thread an acceptable place to
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May 2, 2015 15:28
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Lawen posted:Re: The Girl With All the Gifts, yeah, it seems weird to me that everyone, including me right now, acts like it's a spoiler that Melanie is a zombie even though that becomes really apparent really fast. The real twist is the same twist as in I Am Legend, that the humans become the monsters/abnormals in a new society and what used to be monstrous is now the dominant species/society. It might be obvious if you read/watch tons of genre stuff, especially horror, but it might not be to someone who doesn't and only has only ever seen the unthinking, moaning type of zombie.
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May 2, 2015 17:23
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I'm gonna have to deny the thread it's rant, instead here are my thoughts on The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell, an odd little jaunt through a post-apocalyptic zombie infested south. It's oddly optimistic for a book set after the end of civilization as we know it and it reminds me of The Road and Stakeland, if you're one of the six human beings who've actually seen Stakeland. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I wish Mr. Bell had properly formatted his drat dialogue.  I'm continuing my zombie kick with Trudge by Shawn Chester. It's not nearly so promising. 
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May 2, 2015 21:09
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savinhill posted:It might be obvious if you read/watch tons of genre stuff, especially horror, but it might not be to someone who doesn't and only has only ever seen the unthinking, moaning type of zombie. I have to disagree. I am not really into the genre and the only zombies I'm familiar with are the type in walking dead or 28 days later. The author has Melanie eating worms, gray skin, cold to touch, wearing a nuzzle, and tempted to bite her teacher within the first chapters of the book. I don't think it's meant to be a plot twist, just a minor "huh, this is going to get interesting" once you crack open the book.
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May 2, 2015 22:01
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Yeah, that part of Melanie's character is hinted at from the first few chapters, and stated outright less than a quarter into the book. It's barely a spoiler. However, I do feel like it's one of those books that works best when you go into it knowing nothing except the title, like I did - the waves of realisation are really fun as they hit you. I read two short books today! They were about as different as it's possible to get. By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept, by Elizabeth Smart. Short and powerful, this is a classic poetic story of a torrid love affair. Some absolutely gorgeous turns of phrase, and even though some parts feel a little muddled, you can feel the emotions bursting off the page. It gave me hecka feels, as the kids say nowadays. Starfish Girl, by Athena Villaverde. This book is billed as "Bizarro fiction", but I was definitely not expecting what I got. It's an oceanic post-apocalyptic biopunk story about fish-people. The story follows two of them: there's an anemone razorgirl (well, poison-dart-girl) who's written like someone's World of Darkness character, who meets a Manic Pixie Starfish Girl called Ohime who wears purple and black lolita dresses and claims to do magic with shells. Also she's menstruating, which is (unironically) vital to the plot. Also there's an evil barnacle-covered doctor, sexual assault, giant killer clams, a fish-person brothel (with a LOT of graphic and bizarre fish-person sex, with half a DeviantArt gallery's worth of fetishes going on), a shark man with a circular saw instead of a dorsal fin, and dialogue like "I told you the day you hosed me would be the day you died." Tonally it's wildly inconsistent; there are scenes of excessive gore and sex, but the writing style is closer to a young adult novel. It's very short, and a lot of it feels rushed, to the point where even doubling the book's length might not give the characters or set-pieces time to breathe. It almost reads like someone writing down the minutes from an undersea-themed WoD campaign. And yet despite all that, I didn't hate it! It had some fun moments and some good ideas, and since this is the author's first book I'd be interested to see where she goes in future. Gertrude Perkins fucked around with this message at 00:09 on May 3, 2015 |
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May 3, 2015 00:07
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I've never read The Girl with All the Gifts and I knew about her being a zombie just from blurbs about the book. It's the worst kept secret.
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May 3, 2015 00:12
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That's also not the twist. The real twist is that Melanie is going to end the human race as we know it, and that was telegraphed by her wishing she was called Pandora. Pandora doesn't only mean "gifted with everything", it also means "giver of everything" - and if you know the Pandora myth you can guess that she's going to follow it and let all of what we would perceive as evil out of the box.
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May 3, 2015 01:55
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Just finished the Scott Meyer 'Magic 2.0' Off to be a wizard. Already diving into the second book. Really funny series.
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May 4, 2015 02:52
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ShadowMoo posted:Just finished the Scott Meyer 'Magic 2.0' Off to be a wizard. Already diving into the second book. Really funny series. I read the first book last week too and thought it was fun. I'm not sure if it's intended as Young Adult, there's pretty much no sex/violence/bad words and it's a pretty light read. I think if I'd run across it in my nerdy teens I would've absolutely loved it. As a nerdy middle aged guy it was enjoyable but a bit too simplistic. I may pick up the sequels the next time I need something to read on a plane or the beach but I'm not in a big hurry.
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May 4, 2015 13:07
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Dead Wake by Erik Larson. I'd been waiting for it to be available from the library for a while, and was impressed. 2015 is the year of non fiction for me so far.
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May 5, 2015 15:59
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Saga, Vol. 4 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. The best one yet. Still funny, beautiful, surprising, weird and gripping all at once. Necroville(Terminal Café in the USA), by Ian McDonald. It's 2063, and thanks to nanotechnology, the dead walk the Earth and lead ordinary lives as an oppressed segment of society. That's an interesting enough premise on its own, but throw in four distinct narratives that shape and warp around each other, heavy cyberpunk and transhumanist overtones, reanimated dinosaurs, a crunchy spacefaring subplot, AND have it all take place over the span of 12 hours. It shouldn't work nearly as well as it does; I loved it! The twists are surprising, the resolutions satisfying, there's a good mix of action and intrigue, and McDonald put a lot of thought into how his premise changes life in human society. Even as a postcyberpunk novel written in 1994, this doesn't feel that dated at all (especially compared to, say, Snow Crash), even though it wears its influences on its sleeve. Fun, fast-paced and dense with cool ideas.
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May 7, 2015 01:58
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I finally got around to reading Animal Farm by George Orwell, and holy poo poo that book was good. It seems very clear the the book was originally written as a parody of the soviet union however the message that it gets across is still very relevant to the modern world. Normally when I read books I set myself a minimum of one chapter per day, just to keep me going, but I didn't need anything of the sort for this.
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May 7, 2015 20:32
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PEPSI for TV-GAME
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Worldshatter posted:I finally got around to reading Animal Farm by George Orwell, and holy poo poo that book was good. It seems very clear the the book was originally written as a parody of the soviet union however the message that it gets across is still very relevant to the modern world. Normally when I read books I set myself a minimum of one chapter per day, just to keep me going, but I didn't need anything of the sort for this. Yeah, it's obviously specifically about the Soviet Union, but it's also generally about any new government that sets out to be different from the old government.
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May 7, 2015 20:48
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Snak posted:So I always take a book to work with me to read on my lunch break. One of my coworkers noticed this and asked if I had ever read any Dean Koontz. I told him that I hadn't and he said he and his wife read all of them and got me one out of his car. Not wanting to be rude, and knowing nothing about Dean Koontz except that he was popular and sometimes polarizing, I figured what the hell. The book he gave me was Innocence. I recently gave Koontz a shot for the first time, as well. I randomly selected Phantoms, and I actually enjoyed it. I mean, it's certainly not great or anything, but it's a fun, quick read. Now I'm reading Night Chills, and it's pretty awful. I'm about halfway through and I don't know if I'll actually finish it. I might give Hideaway a chance, just because I liked the lovely film adaption when I was a kid. Finished The Girl on the Train last night. Loved it. The ending was a bit predictable and felt rushed, but still a really fun read.
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May 8, 2015 21:05
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I just finished American Gods (the authors preferred text version, which is basically like a directors cut from what I gather) after picking it up on a whim a week ago. That was really good.. I haven't actually read a book all the way through since high school, but think I might try getting back into reading if I can find some more books that I like as much as I liked that.
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May 11, 2015 01:29
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Just finished Feet of Clay. It was a decent "detective" story but nothing earth shattering. Going to take a Pratchett break for a bit and go back to Pynchon
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May 11, 2015 02:43
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I wound up reading Andy Weir's The Martian while I was on vacation. I really enjoyed it. The character you're following through the book is a really strong character even though he has nobody to interact with through most of it. Edit: For a book with such technical NASA style problems, the author does a fantastic job of explaining it in a way that a layman can understand. DeathSandwich fucked around with this message at 02:52 on May 12, 2015 |
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May 12, 2015 02:48
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Finished Neal Stephenson's Reamde and while entertaining, I felt that the book really didn't need to be 1000+ pages long. You could cut out several hundred pages worth of Stephenson just rambling on about geographical trivia and the MMO game and it'd still be a good read.
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May 12, 2015 10:36
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Archer666 posted:Finished Neal Stephenson's Reamde and while entertaining, I felt that the book really didn't need to be 1000+ pages long. You could cut out several hundred pages worth of Stephenson just rambling on about geographical trivia and the MMO game and it'd still be a good read. True for every Neal Stephenson book.
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May 12, 2015 16:27
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Archer666 posted:Finished Neal Stephenson's Reamde and while entertaining, I felt that the book really didn't need to be 1000+ pages long. You could cut out several hundred pages worth of Stephenson just rambling on about geographical trivia and the MMO game and it'd still be a good read. That comment could apply to just about every Stephenson novel from Cryptonomicon onwards.
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May 12, 2015 16:30
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Sergeant_Crunch posted:I just finished American Gods (the authors preferred text version, which is basically like a directors cut from what I gather) after picking it up on a whim a week ago. That was really good.. I haven't actually read a book all the way through since high school, but think I might try getting back into reading if I can find some more books that I like as much as I liked that.  Keep at it! Maybe try Good Omens next?
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May 12, 2015 17:02
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Nettle Soup posted:
Yeah Good Omens would be the perfect book to read after American Gods. It's a great collaboration between Gaiman and Pratchett. And If you like that one, then you might want to try some of the Discworld books too. If you prefer just Gaiman, Ocean at the end of the lane was a pretty good one he finished recently. It's pretty short though.
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May 12, 2015 17:32
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Just read Before They Are Hanged, the second book of Abercrombie's The First Law series. I thought the first one was good, but the second book blew it out of the water. Great character development and driving plotlines. I wanted to do a quick read before moving on to the final book of the trilogy so I read Ready Player One on the recommendation of a bunch of friends. Really didn't like it. All the references were incredibly forced, the writing sucked, and the plot was super cheesy. Ugh.
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May 12, 2015 17:42
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JuniperCake posted:Yeah Good Omens would be the perfect book to read after American Gods. It's a great collaboration between Gaiman and Pratchett. And If you like that one, then you might want to try some of the Discworld books too. If you prefer just Gaiman, Ocean at the end of the lane was a pretty good one he finished recently. It's pretty short though. Nettle Soup posted:
Sounds good, I'll pick it up soon. I like what I've read from Gaiman (Sandman, American Gods) and I hear good things about Pratchett.
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May 13, 2015 00:43
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Out of curiosity, I read Bill Bruford: The Autobiography, about the prog/jazz drummer. Bruford wrote it himself and actually did a good bit of research to cite arguments for what makes up the bulk of the book, his opinions on the music business. Far from a traditional biography, except for the first chapter, it's a collection of small barely-connected pieces shoved into larger chapters. The chapters are based on questions he's been asked frequently, but their contents in relation are like a hyperactive child. Interesting for a single read, but glad I didn't buy it.
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May 13, 2015 07:24
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I just finished The Rook by Daniel O'Malley (recommended by this thread) and I really enjoyed it. It's the story of a supernatural English government agent that's trying to find out who's trying to ruin her life and why. The ending left some things unresolved but the author's site says that he plans on making a series out of it. The back stories of the characters were given at good points in the book and it had way more humor than I expected.
rock2much fucked around with this message at 15:34 on May 13, 2015 |
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May 13, 2015 15:30
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I just finished Last Winter, We Parted by Fuminori Nakamura. Fun quick read. If Blue Velvet-era David Lynch directed Oldboy with Hannibal Lecter as the bad guy, you would get this book. Now I'm reading Candide by Voltaire. Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 16:06 on May 14, 2015 |
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May 14, 2015 16:02
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Franchescanado posted:I just finished Last Winter, We Parted by Fuminori Nakamura. Fun quick read. If Blue Velvet-era David Lynch directed Oldboy with Hannibal Lecter as the bad guy, you would get this book. This description sold me.
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May 14, 2015 20:10
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rock2much posted:I just finished The Rook by Daniel O'Malley (recommended by this thread) and I really enjoyed it. It's the story of a supernatural English government agent that's trying to find out who's trying to ruin her life and why. The ending left some things unresolved but the author's site says that he plans on making a series out of it. The back stories of the characters were given at good points in the book and it had way more humor than I expected. Reading this now, based on thread recommendation. The sequel is coming out in January 2016!
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May 15, 2015 22:39
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Reread White Noise over the past few days; first read it a decade ago and was underwhelmed, but wanted to revisit it with a (more) mature literary background. Could barely get through the insufferable smirkfest again; every last bit of dialogue and commentary is overwrought and try-hard, iconic of that self-aware postmodern aren't-I-clever crapola. I get why it's a (nominally) important novel but good god. I was hot on reading Falling Man next, but am putting it off indefinitely. Should I bother with any other Delillo or no?
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May 16, 2015 03:56
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