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xertrez posted:Just reread Relic and Reliquary by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I also read some of their other books that were relative to the greater storyline. Agreed. I made the mistake of reading most of Relic while on breaks of a night shift at work. Not the brightest idea - I was jumping at every little noise around me all night.
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May 23, 2014 20:26
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I finished up The Martian. Actually I didn't. I couldn't bear it any longer. The author's writing style was insufferable. He's got a bunch of characters who are essentially interchangeable and attached to lovely dialogue. A really poor, frustrating book that reads like a 16 year old wrote it. The Dog Stars was fantastic and so is Alas, Babylon. Both are very excellent post-apocalyptic novels with two very different, but engaging tones. bloops fucked around with this message at 00:38 on May 24, 2014 |
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May 24, 2014 00:24
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RC and Moon Pie posted:The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver): Beautiful language/wording and eloquent descriptions of people of the former Belgian Congo. I learned some things about politics that had never crossed my mind, though I have read and loved King Leopold's Ghost. Every character not named Orleanna Price? One dimensional as hell. I know this was pages ago but have not checked back here in a bit. I found the characters more fleshed out than you but that might have been because I was convinced the author had found my grandmother's memoirs. Still a better portrayal of the locals than many non Africans have managed
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May 24, 2014 02:54
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Just finished Old Man's War by John Scalzi. It was a good start to a sci-fi series: decent characters, good action and he built up a big universe to fill up with more stories. Would definitely try out more of this series. I wondered if James Cameron got some of the inspiration for Avatar from this book. The enhanced, green human soldiers really reminded me of that movie
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May 24, 2014 07:36
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Worst Person Ever by Douglas Coupland It was pretty good, silly but if you like the two main characters it's enjoyable all the way through.
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May 24, 2014 22:57
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I just finished reading Lolita by Vladmir Nabakov, and wow has anyone else ever read this? I can't really tell what the message the author was trying to get across was, it was pretty hosed up if you ask me. Why was it written from a characters point of view if the character was going to be such a creepy son of a bitch?
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May 25, 2014 04:06
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Just finished the Oath of Swords Series from David Weber. Really would recommend. Starting the Honor Harrington Series next. But was wondering if anyone has read the entire Recluse Series from L.E. Modesitt? I've read three books from that series but got kinda lost as the books don't seem to be in any order.
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May 25, 2014 09:09
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Sid Vicious posted:I just finished reading Lolita by Vladmir Nabakov, and wow has anyone else ever read this? I can't really tell what the message the author was trying to get across was, it was pretty hosed up if you ask me. Why was it written from a characters point of view if the character was going to be such a creepy son of a bitch? Not everything has to be clearcut right and wrong. The writing is beautiful and I actually found it to be a very enjoyable book. Of course the main character is creepy, that's the point.
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May 25, 2014 09:11
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Just finished "Beat The Reaper" - by Josh Bazell. Loved it! Perfect mix of snark and action. Wish it was a little longer though..
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May 25, 2014 11:58
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Rothana posted:Just finished the Oath of Swords Series from David Weber. Really would recommend. Starting the Honor Harrington Series next. But was wondering if anyone has read the entire Recluse Series from L.E. Modesitt? I've read three books from that series but got kinda lost as the books don't seem to be in any order. I've read all but the most recent. There is no specific order to the books, just events throughout the world and during different time points. Most of the books are basically the same, but I still love them. You might look into reading them in world chronological order. Apparently there is a new one coming out or is out already.
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May 25, 2014 15:44
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Sid Vicious posted:I just finished reading Lolita by Vladmir Nabakov, and wow has anyone else ever read this? I can't really tell what the message the author was trying to get across was, it was pretty hosed up if you ask me. Why was it written from a characters point of view if the character was going to be such a creepy son of a bitch? It must have been 8 years since I read it, but yeah - Nabokov nails the whole following a character who's really creepy yet still finding a common ground. Same kinda feeling as Portnoy's Complaint. But better executed.
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May 25, 2014 17:29
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calandryll posted:I've read all but the most recent. There is no specific order to the books, just events throughout the world and during different time points. Most of the books are basically the same, but I still love them. You might look into reading them in world chronological order. Apparently there is a new one coming out or is out already. Thank you for the link!
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May 25, 2014 21:52
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calandryll posted:Apparently there is a new one coming out or is out already. Yeah. I'd say it's pretty good, except I want to be clear: all Modesitt books are the same. If you don't want to read about someone coming to terms with how their higher-than-average power means they are morally required to assassinate people and take control from the shadows, Modesitt may not be for you.
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May 25, 2014 21:58
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Prince/King/Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence Which was entertaining, if not a world-moving book. The book falls into the trend of showing that medieval worlds tend toward Machiavellian horror rather than Arthurian utopia, which is fun, if a little unsettling. In contrast to ASoIaF, the author keeps his viewpoint firmly on a single character, who'se terriblness you can trace through the entire arc. The world these books are embedded in is genuinely interesting, although I found that it took more and more time in each book to really get hooked by the story. On the bright side, my never-ending lust for trashy fantasy can now be filled up by the new Dresden Files book.
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May 26, 2014 23:23
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From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris This one is pretty good. We deal with the fallout from the vampire summit in the previous book and Sookie's decision to let Quinn kill Anton. Sookie's romantic life picks up in this book with some resolution between Eric and Quinn. Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris The weres have finally come out of the closet and boy are the fundamentalists upset about that. Arlene also reveils her turn colors and tries to have Sookie killed and crucified as a message to the world. And, if that's not enough Sookie gets drawn into a war between two fairy factions and nearly dies. She still does not have the ability to blast light out of her hand, nor does Bill turn into a blood god.
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May 27, 2014 01:13
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I'm currently rereading the Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett - already through with The Game of Kings and Queens' Play, and now I'm on The Disorderly Knights. Is there a Dunnett thread here somewhere? I feel like it's the type of a book that should be welcome around here - it's action/adventure/politics/drama throughout Europe in the Renaissance, starting from the English/Scottish border during the "Rough Wooing" of Mary, Queen of Scots, and then moving to France, Malta, Istanbul, and Russia. Basically, a more realistic Game of Thrones, but with much more complex intrigues and plots and wonderful, utterly insufferable characters. It's one of the few books I've read that makes me want to talk about it.
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May 27, 2014 12:39
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meristem posted:I'm currently rereading the Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett - already through with The Game of Kings and Queens' Play, and now I'm on The Disorderly Knights. And what did you think of the House of Niccolo series (if you've read it)? Directly on topic, I recently got done with Adam Baker's Terminus. Can't say I liked it much. tl;dr - Zombies: New York, Viruses From Space, Dmitry Glukhovsky wants his plot back. Fills a wet afternoon. 2.5/5. It's a pretty much cut-and-paste zombie apocalypse thing that I picked up because the cover made it look like a Metro 2033 imitator (and the back-blurb of zombies, nukes and New York subway stations helped that impression). It had a cast of 2D cardstock characters who I never cared about enough to want them to live through their horrible and pointless search for a cure for Zombie Space AIDS or even disliked enough to want the Space Zombies to eat their faces. I was strongly reminded of early days James Herbert, a British pulp horror writer of whom Stephen King once said "[he was] never literary" and whose writing he described as "all crude power, no finesse." Everything was well-described and couched in those sort of short, sharp sentences that your English teacher told you to use when want to evoke tension, but the most interesting thing in the whole book was the weird space virus that turned people into slavering zombie cannibals. And Baker teases you with just enough info to make that a curiousity without ever actually coming to a definite resolution or explanation of it. The zombie apocalypse in prose makes a great place to do socio-political commentary. Jump scares and gory deaths alone don't make for a very good book. Baker's style makes his writing feel like a screenplay for a dumb zombie action flick, and it'd probably make a better one of those than it does a novel.
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May 28, 2014 16:43
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Wool - Hugh Howey Yes, I'm way behind the times in reading this book. I found the book to be a bit of a page-turner, especially the last fifth of it, but overall it was less than what I'd been led to believe it was. The wife is reading Shift now, so I'll read that soon I guess, but this struck me as too much in the same vein as Hunger Games (not plot-wise, just in the feel of the novel). Also just finished The Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfuss, which I enjoyed much more than Wool. It had an issue with seeming a bit samey, though. Challenge presented, knocked down. Next challenege presented, knocked down. And since this whole series is backstory, there's no real suspense as to survival, it's purely a "what comes next?". Still, though the story wasn't as fantastic as I'd hoped it would be, the writing was well done and I'm looking forward to the next book (what comes next!?).
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May 28, 2014 17:16
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Dr. Pangloss posted:Wool - Hugh Howey I'm one of the many who have praised Wool but I see where you're coming from. It really isn't great literature by any stretch of an imagination (haven't read Hunger Games to compare), the thing I loved about it was the world he created, how believable it was, the characters were believable (though forgettable) and the plot rocketed along, it really was a page turner. Having read the next two books, I enjoyed them for the most part and wasn't sorry I read them. There's more of this future world building and history regarding how they got there, returning to characters you'd forgotten about, and will forget about again. And a lot more page turning. He churned these 3 books out in about 2 years and it shows. He also self published Wool. When I think of Wool and its follow ups, the world and its characters (who I can't remember a single name of) are in a very memorable silo. I think the silo is possibly the most interesting thing. As a big fan of the Fallout games this isn't a bad thing. But if you're not interested in possible futures or what it's like to live in an isolated underground silo community, or how it all happened, or what happens next, then I wouldn't bother with the next books because you aren't missing any great writing or characters.
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May 28, 2014 17:50
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art of spoonbending posted:I'm one of the many who have praised Wool but I see where you're coming from. It really isn't great literature by any stretch of an imagination (haven't read Hunger Games to compare), the thing I loved about it was the world he created, how believable it was, the characters were believable (though forgettable) and the plot rocketed along, it really was a page turner. Yeah, I shouldn't have come off as negative as it seems I did. I enjoyed the book and the world he created is fascinating and just "realistic" enough to be quite vivid. The last fifth of the book I read in one go, so he definitely grabbed, and held, my attention.
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May 28, 2014 18:57
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Dr. Pangloss posted:Yeah, I shouldn't have come off as negative as it seems I did. I enjoyed the book and the world he created is fascinating and just "realistic" enough to be quite vivid. The last fifth of the book I read in one go, so he definitely grabbed, and held, my attention. You didn't come off as too negative at all, just kind of said that it was overhyped. And I was sort of apologizing for and explaining why it might have been overhyped, while recognizing that it really isn't that great... we don't all have to like the same things to the same degree. I love reading about other people's opinions of things I've read and glad you shared yours. I might have gone on a bit too much as to why I like it and if so, apologies! art of spoonbending fucked around with this message at 19:30 on May 28, 2014 |
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May 28, 2014 19:28
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art of spoonbending posted:You didn't come off as too negative at all, just kind of said that it was overhyped. And I was sort of apologizing for and explaining why it might have been overhyped, while recognizing that it really isn't that great... we don't all have to like the same things to the same degree. I love reading about other people's opinions of things I've read and glad you shared yours. I might have gone on a bit too much as to why I like it and if so, apologies! Ah, no worries! Definitely appreciate your perspective.
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May 28, 2014 19:30
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The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison, by Peter Earley It's probably the best nonfiction book about the people, conditions and daily life of inmates inside a maximum security prison. Swings between funny, depressing, insightful and gently caress THIS I'M NEVER GOING TO PRISON. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/997027.The_Hot_House?from_search=true
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May 29, 2014 05:30
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troublegum posted:And what did you think of the House of Niccolo series (if you've read it)? Outpost was WAY better than Terminus. The only thing Terminus brought to the table was the whole "Oh hey some kinda hive mind signal thingie, we haven't seen that before!" and that was it. The rest of the book was just basically a wet fart. Juggernaut was... not as good as Outpost but way better than Terminus.
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May 29, 2014 09:51
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Just finished Breakfast Of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. It is equal parts funny and sad and absurd. I could see where he was going or what he was trying to say for the most part but I'm definitely sure there are quite a few things that went over my head, especially since I am not American and not totally integrated into American culture of the last 50 years.
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May 29, 2014 09:57
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I'm reading the Song of Ice and Fire series, so I can keep up with all the Cool Kids. I finished A Clash of Kings last night, and am 40ish pages into A Storm of Swords. I want to be BFFs with Arya Stark.
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May 29, 2014 20:41
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RightClickSaveAs posted:I finished this some months ago and am still feeling pretty pleased with myself about it. The amount of detail about whaling was the most surprising thing about the book to me, I was not expecting that. I actually enjoyed it though, I feel I now know something about 1800's whaling, a subject that hadn't even crossed my mind in my entire life. Perusing back pages of this thread looking for my next read and saw this... This is intriguing enough to me to pick up ole Mr. Dick. I've been to the whaling museum in San Sebastian and it was a fascinating place.
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May 30, 2014 02:38
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I just finished Jeff Vandermeer's ANNIHILATION, which is the first of a trilogy. I really enjoyed the book and I felt it has some lovecraftain inspiration and it kept me turning pages. I am pretty excited to see where he plans to take this story because it could go a lot of different ways.
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May 30, 2014 04:25
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Proxima by Stephen Baxter. Basically it's set around 200-300yrs in the future, Earth has been hit by major environmental Jolts (causing millions of deaths and severe climate/geographical upheaval) and as a result there are now two major powers - the UN and China. The story starts off with two plot points side by side in alternating (mostly) chapters. The UN has exclusive access to "kernels" a mysterious but incredibly powerful, uhhhh, power source located in the crust of Mercury. China no likey. Kernels provide the opportunity for a journey to an exo-planet and we follow the experiences of Yuri - he's some kind of criminal because he (or his forebears - it's not made that clear!) was part of the energy-profligate past Heroic Generation which may or may not have caused the Jolts. Oh and these people being sent to the exo-planet are criminals and they're being used as a test to propagate humanity on this planet. Yes, a literal WTF there. The story seems mildly interesting with lots of little hints/teasers to keep you reading the next chapter but it just drags on and on and on then it suddenly becomes a mad rush at the end of the book. Really strange pacing, that. Also, the characters are quite annoying. Yuri is basically a loving lazy poo poo who can't make a decision. Stef is probably a robot. Mr King is a bombastic tosser with no redeeming features except he's rich and Australian. Earthshrine is like some kind of AI thing but he acts like a neckbeard by constantly explaining everything about his every action. Without actually explaining. There's also a talking truck. Now that I summarized it above, I started wondering if this is the second book in the series because there's just so much vagueness! But no, it's the first book in this series. I don't think I'll bother with the next book; this was almost as dreadful as long Earth. WastedJoker fucked around with this message at 13:17 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 13:06
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Halfway through Prelude to Dune by Brian Herbet and Kevin J. Anderson. While I'm enjoying the fact it's expanding the Dune universe, I keep spotting these glaring editorial errors, did no one proofread it?! Does anyone know if it's the same with all the others in the series?
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May 31, 2014 20:53
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Tanadon posted:Halfway through Prelude to Dune by Brian Herbet and Kevin J. Anderson. While I'm enjoying the fact it's expanding the Dune universe, I keep spotting these glaring editorial errors, did no one proofread it?! Yes, it's the same with all their books. I've read them all because I love the Universe, but it's more than a little sad how little care when into the craft of the book.
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Jun 1, 2014 05:08
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The good thing aobut Dune books is that they get progressively worse, starting with the original Frank Herbert ones and continuing through the awful Brian Herbert collaboration ones. So read them in the order that they were written and if you find you can't finish one then just stop because they only get worse from there on out. Everyone's stopping point depends on their tolerance for terrible fanfic.
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Jun 1, 2014 05:38
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I honestly don't understand how they were allowed to publish it in this state. withak posted:The good thing aobut Dune books is that they get progressively worse, starting with the original Frank Herbert ones and continuing through the awful Brian Herbert collaboration ones. So read them in the order that they were written and if you find you can't finish one then just stop because they only get worse from there on out. Everyone's stopping point depends on their tolerance for terrible fanfic. Thanks, I feel my tolerance level is not quite what it used to be. In that case, I'm going to more onto The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.
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Jun 1, 2014 10:07
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withak posted:The good thing aobut Dune books is that they get progressively worse, starting with the original Frank Herbert ones and continuing through the awful Brian Herbert collaboration ones. So read them in the order that they were written and if you find you can't finish one then just stop because they only get worse from there on out. Everyone's stopping point depends on their tolerance for terrible fanfic. Lol, this is exactly right. I am "glad" I read them when I had gobs of time to read, because after having kids, I have a feeling I'd have quit about three books in to the collaboration/expanded universe.
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Jun 1, 2014 21:47
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Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene. It wasn't as good a followup to The Power and the Glory's examination on Catholicism, but I still found it a fun and jaunty book. I'm working my way through the latter parts of Greene's bibliography and, while not as engrossing as his earlier and more wider-read stuff, they've all been dependable reads IMHO. Will probably try The Captain and the Enemy next.
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Jun 1, 2014 22:20
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The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling Well written, intricately plotted and full of beautiful character moments and observations but for goodness sake someone in that town needs to sit down, have a sandwich and cheer up. I felt under so much pressure to have either utter contempt or boundless pity for every character that I could never really build any affection for them. They were all either vehicles for suffering or devices for inflicting suffering on others. All very deep and meaningful I expect but not actually all that human.
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Jun 2, 2014 13:16
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Fargo Fukes posted:The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling I adore JK but I had the same problem with this book. I could appreciate how well it was written but it started bringing me down. I never finished.
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Jun 2, 2014 14:35
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Stoner By John Williams The life a man born on a poor farm in Missouri doesn't seems like it would be an interesting one, but holy poo poo is this one beautiful book. The prose used in this book, while simple, is both deep and honest in it's portrayal John Stoner's life. Maybe I'm a pussy little bitch, but I totally wept and the end. Simply a wonderful book.
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Jun 2, 2014 16:18
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Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe. I loved it! A fantastic YA fantasy story that is basically one huge tribute to JRPGs such as Final Fantasy & Legend of Zelda (in fact, there's an entire chapter which is essentially a remade LoZ dungeon). It's cute, touching, creative, and funny. The world of Vision was reminiscent of a Japanese version of Wonderland. Definitely a pro-read.
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Jun 2, 2014 16:43
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Just finished The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates. It was a tad overlong but one of the most bizarre books I've ever read to be sure - Stephen King called it the first 'post-modern gothic novel', which is pretty apt, I mean in what other novel would you have real life figures like Woodrow Wilson and Upton Sinclair in the same setting as vampires, devil abductions, and demon babies?
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