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Nemesis Of Moles posted:Speaking of VanderMeer - can anyone suggest any other books about spooky places full of mystery and weird poo poo that the protagonists explore? House of Leaves, Blindsight, STALKER and the Southern Reach books are all the kind of thing I'm talking about here. I read that book Night Film recently and it has a lot of stuff like this. In general the protagonists were exploring a Kubrick-like filmmaker's body of work and mysterious background, and more specifically the compound he spent most of his adult life on that also contains a lot of the sets he used in his movies.
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Mar 5, 2015 18:37
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General Battuta posted:You don't have to read it! Don't expect it all to lay out all the answers like a Wookiepedia article, but it gives solid evidence on the origin and layout of Area X, the events surrounding its creation, the behind-the-scenes shenanigans at Southern Reach and Central, and the events of the expedition in Annihilation. And that evidence comes in a way that's often pretty human and moving. You don't get any more Authority-style 'he watched the creepy videotape full of interesting things I won't describe to you. He was horrified. He left.' Being a cat? Am I missing something or do you want a rundown of his cat-life?
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Mar 5, 2015 20:33
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This makes me very happy. I don't think it's an exaggeration for me to say The Lies of Locke Lamora was the best fantasy novel I've ever read... full stop. Its sequels weren't quite as good, but still solid 9/10 books. I'm very excited for the next one.
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Mar 5, 2015 20:40
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I really love the atmosphere of this book I read when I was a kid: Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/350.Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land
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Mar 6, 2015 01:52
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Neurosis posted:Being a cat? Am I missing something or do you want a rundown of his cat-life? Hmm ... I thought he was a dog.
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Mar 6, 2015 22:45
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Lowly posted:Hmm ... I thought he was a dog. Nah, definitely a cat of some sort. Think it was a panther.
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Mar 7, 2015 11:35
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Speaking of whimsical fantasy books, I've been reading a bunch of Maguire recently. I got Out of Oz, so I re-read the Wicked Years series. The fourth book is a great wrap-up to the series and easily the best of the bunch. Now I'm about halfway through Egg and Spoon and I'm really impressed by it. He managed to make a village full of Russian peasants slowly starving to death a magical, whimsical place and I don't know how he manages that. Then things take off and get truly fantastic in both senses of the word. I'm reading it in small pieces so I get more sessions with the really cool stuff. Not a book to devour in one sitting, I'm savoring it in small bites and loving each one. It's also loaded with strong female characters, so it hits another criteria . Here, I'll steal a review from the Amazon page. The New York Times Book Review posted:Though the story bears some marks of a heroic quest, it is really a series of dreamy, expertly painted vignettes, set pieces both absurd and spectacular. … Maguire’s wit is shown to best advantage when in sync with his lush whimsy… In this surfeit of myth and mayhem, there are also moments of poignant quiet, when the grand quest of saving the magic of Russia recedes. In these moments, the human comes to the fore, and our focus narrows once more to a child longing for a parent, a mother longing for a child, the aching burden of living through suffering that life demands again and again. … It is impossible not to root for girls and watches and aunts alike, and to cheer their little victories as acts of grace.
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Mar 7, 2015 17:40
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mllaneza posted:It's also loaded with strong female characters, so it hits another criteria . criteria is plural
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Mar 7, 2015 20:17
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Finally got around to reading the Farseer trilogy and was wondering if the Magic Ship trilogy is worth it or if I should skip past it to the Tawny Man stuff since that seems to go back to dealing with the characters from Farseer while the magic ship stuff seems unrelated Chalced States(?) stuff.
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Mar 9, 2015 00:20
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Evil Fluffy posted:Finally got around to reading the Farseer trilogy and was wondering if the Magic Ship trilogy is worth it or if I should skip past it to the Tawny Man stuff since that seems to go back to dealing with the characters from Farseer while the magic ship stuff seems unrelated Chalced States(?) stuff. There are a few links although they aren't very obvious. You don't need to read the liveship traders trilogy to understand any of the later books but I'd recommend it as the quality is up there with the best of Hobbs work.
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Mar 9, 2015 00:33
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Speaking of Hobbs, how was her newer series in the Liveship dragon setting?
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Mar 9, 2015 01:05
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The Rain Wild Chronicles? It didn't really grab me, but I don't know if I was the intended audience. Some of it is very... Mills and Boon, let's say. Also, the whole "We're Elderlings now, so that means all of this belongs to us!" thing didn't sit right me me. So, a dragon sneezed on you and suddenly you're the sole heir and proprietor to the legacy of a millenia-dead race? Iunno, buddy, seems a little thin to me. To be honest, I think they would have been on solid enough ground just going, "Well, there's nowhere for us to be, and no-one's using this, so kindly go gently caress yourself." In conclusion: 7/10, probably less niche than the feeder fetish trilogy.
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Mar 9, 2015 01:49
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Hallucinogenic Toreador posted:There are a few links although they aren't very obvious. You don't need to read the liveship traders trilogy to understand any of the later books but I'd recommend it as the quality is up there with the best of Hobbs work. I guess I'll give it a try then and just move on to Tawny man and Rain Wilds afterwards.
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Mar 9, 2015 02:29
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Autonomous Monster posted:The Rain Wild Chronicles? It didn't really grab me, but I don't know if I was the intended audience. Some of it is very... Mills and Boon, let's say. I don't think it's supposed to sit right with you, everything about the dragon's return is subtly terrifying. It's one of the things I really like about the books. And I'd second that you don't need to read the Liveship trilogy to follow Tawny Man, but you ought to because it is good.
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Mar 9, 2015 06:09
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Autonomous Monster posted:Also, the whole "We're Elderlings now, so that means all of this belongs to us!" thing didn't sit right me me. So, a dragon sneezed on you and suddenly you're the sole heir and proprietor to the legacy of a millenia-dead race? Iunno, buddy, seems a little thin to me. What kind of genre would this be without the [spoiler]Rightful Heir to the land motif.
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Mar 9, 2015 06:26
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Hallucinogenic Toreador posted:There are a few links although they aren't very obvious. You don't need to read the liveship traders trilogy to understand any of the later books but I'd recommend it as the quality is up there with the best of Hobbs work. The Liveship traders trilogy was better than the Farseer trilogy, and far better than the Tawny man. As for the Rainwild Chronicles, they are solid work by Hobb, maybe not one of her highlights but clearly worth reading. Hobb is always worth reading though so...
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Mar 9, 2015 08:10
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I also preferred the Live ship stuff to the Fitz stuff by a lot. Despite me feeling like the Live ship stuff was just an old 80s My Little Pony fanfic with boats instead of horses.
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Mar 9, 2015 08:45
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Just finished The Three by Sarah Lotz. I'd be interested to hear some interpretations of the ending, because I mostly just thought "what the gently caress" and "is that it?". So were the kids possessed by time/dimension travelers or something? Because giving a different version of the beginning and the few hints about how they'd done this before seemed to suggest that. There was some genuinely creepy stuff in there but it kept teasing the really interesting aspects and never quite took off. Really needed a big shock ending, or at least something more substantial than a slow fade to black.
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Mar 9, 2015 12:34
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So my sister posed a book request to me, which was "Fantasy novel with a strong female protagonist, and a best friend who is also female." I am stumped, can't think of any off the top of my head--strong female leads are more common than in the past, but female lead without a sassy talking animal/dude friend is harder for me to tabulate. Going through my own reading lists for the past couple years doesn't produce much. I gave her Martha Wells's Wheel of the Infinite and Bennett's City of Stairs for being good books that meet at least the strong female lead part of the equation.
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Mar 9, 2015 18:07
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The Rook qualifies for Strong Female Lead but I don't remember it well enough to remember if she has any friends in it at all. There's always Mists of Avalon. A number of Robin Hobb's books probably qualify though I don't really like them. I need to read the Kushiel series at some point just so I can know if it's worth recommending for these kinds of polls. Terry Pratchett's Witches books all qualify, as does the Tiffany Aching YA series. Howl's Moving Castle is a great book and has a great female lead but yeah no female best friend really. It's an interesting question because it's sort of a bechdel test for fantasy. There's good fantasy *by* women, good fantasy with female lead characters, but neither necessarily has female-female non-romantic interaction as a focus point. On the other hand, Wheel of Time technically does pass the Bechdel test buuut talk about gender issues! Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Mar 9, 2015 |
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Mar 9, 2015 18:16
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Read The Deed of Paksenarrion (it's actually a trilogy, but I read it as a combined mega-novel). The hero (Paks) is a strong protagonist, and while she doesn't have a defined "strong female best friend", the world she's in is very gender neutral and half of her companions are strong females. I remember thinking that the world was remarkably egalitarian when I read it.
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Mar 9, 2015 18:18
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Most Catherynne Valente books should do you fine.
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Mar 9, 2015 18:20
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syphon posted:Read The Deed of Paksenarrion (it's actually a trilogy, but I read it as a combined mega-novel). The hero (Paks) is a strong protagonist, and while she doesn't have a defined "strong female best friend", the world she's in is very gender neutral and half of her companions are strong females. I remember thinking that the world was remarkably egalitarian when I read it. Yeah, that fits pretty well. I finished that a few months ago and it was a lot better than I thought it would be, as I was expecting basically a generic D&D novel.
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Mar 9, 2015 18:29
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RVProfootballer posted:Yeah, that fits pretty well. I finished that a few months ago and it was a lot better than I thought it would be, as I was expecting basically a generic D&D novel. That's almost exactly what it is -- it all follows D&D 1st edition rules very closely, right down to her magical warhorse appearing at 4th level -- but yeah, it's surprisingly good for what it is. If you're going to read that kind of fiction it's a better choice than a lot of other options (Dragonlance, etc.)
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Mar 9, 2015 18:31
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I still think it's hilarious that people like Patrick Rothfuss more like patrick hack who can't writefuss
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Mar 9, 2015 18:33
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Do they? I thought even the people who liked him were turned off by Wise Man's Fear. I know I was.
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Mar 9, 2015 18:35
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The Rook qualifies for Strong Female Lead but I don't remember it well enough to remember if she has any friends in it at all.
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Mar 9, 2015 18:35
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Those are some good suggestions in general, and The Rook is on my TBR list anyway so I'll give it a look and pass it on. Thanks all!
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Mar 9, 2015 19:10
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I need to read the Kushiel series at some point just so I can know if it's worth recommending for these kinds of polls. It's not.
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Mar 9, 2015 19:52
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anilEhilated posted:Do they? I thought even the people who liked him were turned off by Wise Man's Fear. He was never good.
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Mar 9, 2015 19:55
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No, but it was readable and showed sufficient promise to get better. Alas, it did not. Still, it didn't quite prepare me for the fanfiction-level writing in the second one. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Mar 9, 2015 |
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Mar 9, 2015 20:03
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When I visualized the first novel in my head, I saw a HUD in the lower-right corner at all times with Kvothe's current amount of money in each of the currency denominations that were used. If that's not descriptive writing, I don't know what is
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Mar 9, 2015 20:05
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corn in the bible posted:He was never good. I read his books because I'd seen them mentioned here and elsewhere but yeah after finishing WMF he's really just an average at best person who managed to get really loving lucky. Going from finishing the Riftwar books to reading Rothfuss was painful but I went from WMF to Sanderson's Stormlight Archives books which pretty much confirmed all belief that Rothfuss really is terrible. The worst parts of the Riftwar books were still better than Kvothe's Harry Potter Adventures and Stupid Erofic. Even The Cycle of Arawn, which I think I got for $2, was significantly better than the Kingkiller books. The only thing I've read recently that's possibly worse than WMF is the Demonsouled books, and only because they seem to be getting really monotonous.
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Mar 9, 2015 22:03
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Name of the Wind was a fine book. It would have been a great first book in another trilogy. Sadly it's followed by Wise Man's Fear which was more or less a training montage stretched across 800 pages. The second book is where poo poo is supposed to get escalated; it's a bad sign that the final book of the trilogy has basically no immediate plot threads to resolve or address from the previous book.
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Mar 9, 2015 22:15
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occamsnailfile posted:So my sister posed a book request to me, which was "Fantasy novel with a strong female protagonist, and a best friend who is also female." I am stumped, can't think of any off the top of my head--strong female leads are more common than in the past, but female lead without a sassy talking animal/dude friend is harder for me to tabulate. Going through my own reading lists for the past couple years doesn't produce much. Code Name Verity isn't fantasy but it is a great great book and will break your heart. angel opportunity posted:When I visualized the first novel in my head, I saw a HUD in the lower-right corner at all times with Kvothe's current amount of money in each of the currency denominations that were used. If that's not descriptive writing, I don't know what is Holy poo poo 
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Mar 10, 2015 01:21
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Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:I'm neck deep in a few books right now (Caliban's War, The Quantum Thief, Fall of Hyperion, The Children of Hurin) but I'm looking for a recommendation for my wife, who wants to get into something good. She was asking me for recommendations but I didn't really know what to recommend as I'm into different stuff. I'm a little late to this party, but if she's willing to read some YA books, The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede hits many of your points and is absolutely fantastic. A good fun quick read. Wiki quote:In which Princess Cimorene of the kingdom of Linderwall decides that being a princess is too boring and confining, leaves home to work for the dragon Kazul, and discovers and subsequently dissolves a plot by the wizards to take control of the King of the Dragons. Happiness Commando fucked around with this message at 01:41 on Mar 10, 2015 |
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Mar 10, 2015 01:37
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The Ninth Layer posted:Name of the Wind was a fine book. It would have been a great first book in another trilogy. Sadly it's followed by Wise Man's Fear which was more or less a training montage stretched across 800 pages. The second book is where poo poo is supposed to get escalated; it's a bad sign that the final book of the trilogy has basically no immediate plot threads to resolve or address from the previous book. Honestly, I wonder what was happening between him and his editors/publisher during all that time, since it seems like Wise Man's Fear took all the worst crap from The Name of the Wind and cranked it up to 11. I guess I was naively hoping that with all that extra time between books, there would be a tempering of the goony poo poo, but no such luck. I think the promise of the first book, despite the flaws, and the unusually long wait for the follow-up, along with the known long wait for the final book really didn't do the second book any favors. It's possible that Rothfuss could pull off a good ending, essentially redeeming Wise Man's Fear retroactively, but I'm going to need to see good reviews from people who didn't like Wise Man's Fear to even consider giving it a shot.
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Mar 10, 2015 01:48
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Happiness Commando posted:I'm a little late to this party, but if she's willing to read some YA books, The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede hits many of your points and is absolutely fantastic. A good fun quick read. Wiki Oh, drat, that's the name of that series.  I read it ages ago back in elementary school, and still occasionally remember bits and pieces. Never enough to figure out which series it was, so thanks for that! Now to just be patient, since there isn't a non-audiobook Kindle/eBook version available until this September, with a new intro and cover work, as far as I can find. I just don't have enough space for any more physical books and audiobooks are just too slow for me. 
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Mar 10, 2015 03:26
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O Hanraha-hanrahan posted:Just finished The Three by Sarah Lotz. I'd be interested to hear some interpretations of the ending, because I mostly just thought "what the gently caress" and "is that it?". I finished it a few months ago after reading some recommendations on here and was really disappointed. I actually had to double check on Amazon that my copy didn't get truncated, that "ending" was bullshit. The lack of any actual plot or character resolution was so jarring that I felt a bit insulted, as if the author turned in half of the working copy and they said "gently caress it we'll publish anyway". There were some interesting events that showed promise interspersed with plot threads and characters that seem to go nowhere. It was an extremely frustrating book to read and I won't be giving the author a second chance. I've been mowing through A Land Fit for Heroes by Richard K Morgan, really enjoying it so far. Just starting The Dark Defiles, hopefully its as good as the previous books.
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Mar 10, 2015 04:40
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occamsnailfile posted:So my sister posed a book request to me, which was "Fantasy novel with a strong female protagonist, and a best friend who is also female." I am stumped, can't think of any off the top of my head--strong female leads are more common than in the past, but female lead without a sassy talking animal/dude friend is harder for me to tabulate. Going through my own reading lists for the past couple years doesn't produce much. Charles Stross Merchant Princes is kinda sorta fantasy - it starts off a kind of hidden medieval world/secret princess setup, but midway through the second first release book (3/4 of the way through the first book of the revised trilogy) it gets a little more SciFi, and by the book after that it gets into a series about developmental economics, how the feudal system blows, and the surveillance state. Very strong female leads though, with women being the prime movers in the story and men being their catspaws in the B and C plots, but nothing in the way of dragons or elves.
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Mar 10, 2015 06:28
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