Reading The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson while on a 9 hour plane ride home today. About halfway through, been reading it while on vacation. I'm enjoying it for my first book by Sanderson.
Just finished it the other day and am on to words of radiance. Felt the first two thirds of way was a slog the way he drops you in this world with NO hand holding but now I'm loving it. I like a little mystery but some of the stuff without explanation felt a little self important.
Anyway on to the second book, I hear a lot of people complain about his character writing, while complimenting his world building, but I'm loving both so far. Hope you enjoy the second book as much as I am so far
Just finished it the other day and am on to words of radiance. Felt the first two thirds of way was a slog the way he drops you in this world with NO hand holding but now I'm loving it. I like a little mystery but some of the stuff without explanation felt a little self important.
Anyway on to the second book, I hear a lot of people complain about his character writing, while complimenting his world building, but I'm loving both so far. Hope you enjoy the second book as much as I am so far
Recently finished listening to The Way of Zen by Alan Watts. I liked how he spent a lot of time on the development and history of Zen Buddhism, but I thought the discussion on the actual philosophy itself was kind of lacking. I think I'll go back and re-read Suzuki's Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind before I re-read this one, because I think Suzuki makes it easier to see how Zen applies in everyday life.
I finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman and Foundation by Isaac Asimov, they were both great. American Gods meanders a bit in some parts but everything comes together nicely at the end, the only thing i wanna say about Foundation is that i wanna be Salvor Hardin, such a cool character.
I've been feeling stressed and melancholic lately due to life and its various surprises. I would like to read something cathartic, my preferred genre is fantasy, but I am always willing to give anything a try. Any recommendations?
I've been feeling stressed and melancholic lately due to life and its various surprises. I would like to read something cathartic, my preferred genre is fantasy, but I am always willing to give anything a try. Any recommendations?
Going to try to start it tonight anyway. In general, I'm always reluctant to start a long book series, but it's often recommended, and I loved 11/22/63, so we'll see how it goes.
I recently tried to re-read the Harry Potter books, but stopped mid-way through The Chamber of Secrets. I realized that they're simply not enjoyable the 2nd time around for me, which really sucks.
Started this series late last year, up to the third book(pacing through it slowly). It's pretty remarkable stuff but keep in mind it doesn't really get going until Book 2. The Gunslinger is more of a short teaser, a prologue but an easy and quick read that will likely pique your curiosity into Drawing of the Three where the real shit begins.
I recently finished 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson, Carnival by Elizabeth Bear, and The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante.
2312 was decent although probably the least enjoyable of his books I've read, it seemed less than the sum of its parts. I liked the main characters Swan and Wahrum. They were by turns endearing and infuriating, with realistic talents, foibles and failings. I thought the take on gender was really great, I loved the 'future history' and terrarium and planetary/ terraforming science bits. The plot, such as it was, was fine. One main issue I have with KSR is he squashes history into far too brief a time frame and combines this with a human longevity I find unconvincing.
(Animals! Raining from the sky! wtf)
Carnival was pretty silly in some ways, but good fun. Two male diplomats from a patriarchal society are sent to negotiate with a matriarchal society (on a planet with 'ghost' aliens) where men are basically indentured servants. I thought the cultural stuff was fairly nicely done, but the relationship between the two men read like romance fluff.
The Story of a New Name is the second book in the Neapolitan Quartet. For most of it I was blown away, it is an amazing series. These people are so absolutely real, everything seems as if it is actually happening, every detail seems so true. The emotional honesty is exhausting. By the end I was pretty sick of all of the characters, though! The Neapolitan setting is also fascinating.
I am currently reading Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald and have just started Eon, by Greg Bear.
I just want to say thank you to whoever it was in an earlier thread who said Luna is like Game of Thrones on the Moon. Luna was already on my tbr pile but that moved it right up, and gosh I am loving it so far. It is so compulsively readable. I tried Eon when I was a teenager but gave up on it, I've no idea why, because I'm enjoying it a lot so far. (In other news my Farseer re-read has taken a bit of a hiatus.)
Aside from Salem's Lot, does anyone have any good vampire novels? The scarier the better. Urban fantasy not really my thing. I'll probably pick up Fevre Dream, but was wondering if there's any I've missed that are good.
Aside from Salem's Lot, does anyone have any good vampire novels? The scarier the better. Urban fantasy not really my thing. I'll probably pick up Fevre Dream, but was wondering if there's any I've missed that are good.
Wow I forgot I read the first book of The Passage. Good shout, I should finish the series. I'll check on Let The Right One In, because I liked the movie a lot.
I recently read The Name of the Wind and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and really liked the characters in both. I know they both have sequels that I'm planning on reading, but what other books would you recommend if I like those?
I recently read The Name of the Wind and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and really liked the characters in both. I know they both have sequels that I'm planning on reading, but what other books would you recommend if I like those?
Just finished The Name of the Wind and recently finished A Closed and Common Orbit. Orbit is one of the most feel good novels I've read in a loooooong time. It's also really great sci-fi.
If you haven't read The Lies of Locke Lamora I'd definitely recommend that as well. Strong characters, fun world, and snappy ass dialogue.
Just finished "Assassin's Apprentice" Robin Hobb and "Magic Kingdom for Sale-- Sold" by Terry Brooks.
I do not know if it is me being away from the fantasy genre so long or if my tastes have changed but they just fell flat for me. I recall liking the Shannara stuff when I was younger but this just did not click for me at all.
So I'm finally finishing A Gentleman in Moscow, which is the best novel that I've read in I'd say 3 or 4 years. Just a beautiful, excellent book that's also simply fun, inspiring, and uplifting. It's smart, flows so well, is easy to read, has a lot of depth, and is just excellent. I strongly recommend it to anybody who likes books.
And I'm currently listening to American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road, which is actually very good. It takes the Erik Larsen approach of dramatizing conversations or situations that happened, but may not have happened just as the author tells them, but it's not over the top like a lot of Silicon Valley lore books (Chaos Monkeys, I'm looking at you, a book I stopped listening to and deleted because it was so fucking cheesy and unrealistic in the dialog). The story of the SIlk ROad is a good one, and this follows both law enforcement and obviously the founder, and I'm really enjoying it. It's also not a stupid book, and while the author sometimes has to explain something and it's a little awkward, like "for teh lulz" or other internet phrases, it doesn't seem nearly as out of touch as most other authors approaching comments like those.
I started listening to Bob Honey Just Do Stuff, which is Sean Penn's...performance art thing or whatever. I really am not sure what to think of it so far at all. I'm about halfway through, it's a short audiobook.
I finished the first story of Murakami's Men Without Women. I know apparently people have been softer on his last novel or two, but I feel like all of his collections have been good.
I have been reading a lot of manga recently (like ... 80 volumes?), but I did manage to finish Blue Mars, The Case for Contention: Teaching Controversial Issues in American Schools, and start The Diamond Age.
The Case for Contention was really good. I really liked the attempt to create a taxonomy of controversial issues, to talk about how different kinds of controversial issues needed to be addressed in different ways. I also liked the discussion about the challenges teachers face given their lack of judicially recognized rights, the lack of public respect for teachers as professionals with a civic responsibility, and the challenges of when opinions are and aren't worth sharing. It's a book that I wish more teachers would read.
The Diamond Age is weird so far. Good weird, but weird.
Just finished "Assassin's Apprentice" Robin Hobb and "Magic Kingdom for Sale-- Sold" by Terry Brooks.
I do not know if it is me being away from the fantasy genre so long or if my tastes have changed but they just fell flat for me. I recall liking the Shannara stuff when I was younger but this just did not click for me at all.
Just finished The Name of the Wind and recently finished A Closed and Common Orbit. Orbit is one of the most feel good novels I've read in a loooooong time. It's also really great sci-fi.
If you haven't read The Lies of Locke Lamora I'd definitely recommend that as well. Strong characters, fun world, and snappy ass dialogue.
Re-reading Joe Hill's "Locke and Key". I'm up to Volume 3, kinda my least favorite of the bunch, but necessary given what lies ahead. Fortunately it's the quickest to read through. I'll take a break before diving into the brilliance of volume 4,5,and 6
20 years ago. I went through a phase of reading every fantasy book under the sun I could find. Robert Jordan, Margaret Weis,Tracy Hickman, RA Salvatore. I also tackled all the Star Wars extended universe stuff when it was being released. After years of reading I found myself going through all the American, Russian, English classics then tackling a lot of biographies of artists, politicians and musicians. I went through the entire beat generation and then I found myself just reading books on topics such as Everest expeditions or recent historical events focused between the late 70's through the late 90's.
I absolutely loved and re-read multiple times Dune and the Lord of the Rings trilogy so I figured it has been forever I will jump back into the fantasy genre. I joined a book group and some people recommended then I check out more things by Brooks and also look into Hobb. The issue I had with both was that there were some interesting characters and ideas that to me just were not fleshed out enough. I am going to give the second book in the Farseer Trilogy a chance and see where it goes.
For those of you who have finished Hobb's Fitz and the Fool trilogy, can you tell me if you prefer the ending of The Tawny Man to the new trilogy or not?
I just finished Fool's Fate and everything ended so perfectly that I don't know if I want to continue out of fear that it will be ruined lol.
Done with The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald; it was alright, and onwards and upwards with Waking Gods, book #2 in the Themis Files by Sylvain Neuvel.
It's a level of sci-fi I haven't read before, with an extensive references and discussion section in the postscript talking about the scientific elements of the novel.
I'm reading the third Kovacs book, Woken Furies. While I'm still wildly enjoying Morgan's world building, I'm not as much into it as I was with Altered Carbon and Broken Angels. It's a bit chaotic, somehow.
Anyone read other work from Morgan? Worth the time?
I'm also still working my way through Diamond's Collapse (interesting, but in typical Diamond fashion he can drone on a bit about details) and My Friend the Mercenary, which is fascinating stuff but I have to figure out where I left that book, lol.
For those of you who have finished Hobb's Fitz and the Fool trilogy, can you tell me if you prefer the ending of The Tawny Man to the new trilogy or not?
I just finished Fool's Fate and everything ended so perfectly that I don't know if I want to continue out of fear that it will be ruined lol.
Maybe you should leave it for ten years or so. Enjoy that perfect ending for a while.
I still haven't decided what I think of the final trilogy; I'm doing a complete series re-read in hope of a bit of clarity. I think most people feel the ending is fitting, though.
I've just taken delivery of crisp new copies of the first 5 Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy books. I already had the books, but they weren't matching editions so it looked messy. These ones are a set.
It's a level of sci-fi I haven't read before, with an extensive references and discussion section in the postscript talking about the scientific elements of the novel.
You're in for a treat. And it sounds like I have to try Echopraxia. I've known of it for awhile now but for some reason just haven't made it a priority to get to it.
I read terms of enlistment by marco klooz a few days ago, it was an mediocre sci-fi military novel in the vein of starship trooper, he wrote action really well but the characters were dull as hell and had no depth to them at all, no conflict nothing.
After that i wanted something more lighthearted and decided to give an Shadowrun anthology book a go called spells and chrome or something along those lines.
My fucking god, the stories in that book have been baaaad.
This is the level of dialogue the stories have.
"You're an idiot, you know that, right? Taking this on yourself"
He smiled. "baka."
"aho."
Edit: This conversation takes place in a coffee shop located in L.A
Or a dude who's name is moses and has a cybernetic tail and hair that looks like it's on fire who quotes bible verses while he kills people for "self defense" when they stand in his way and only uses knives because he likes the silence. There are multiple writers but up to this point every one of the stories has been fan fic level of quality. The stories either have mary sues in them, or the writer has no idea how to write dialog, or they go super edgelord with the stuff like the bible verse dude.. The book is a train wreck.
This is my third book of his! He quickly became one of my greatest joys in fiction. I've now read Cat's Cradle & Slaughterhouse-Five, and am looking forward to Sirens of Titan, Breakfast of Champions, and then the rest of his work. I know he gets extra non-linear and abstract in his later works, but even if they are complete tangential ramblings I'll still enjoy the way he says it. The man has the gift of gab and such a unique perspective.
Seriously, he's joined a short list of the things I love the most.
For those of you who have finished Hobb's Fitz and the Fool trilogy, can you tell me if you prefer the ending of The Tawny Man to the new trilogy or not?
I just finished Fool's Fate and everything ended so perfectly that I don't know if I want to continue out of fear that it will be ruined lol.
20 years ago. I went through a phase of reading every fantasy book under the sun I could find. Robert Jordan, Margaret Weis,Tracy Hickman, RA Salvatore. I also tackled all the Star Wars extended universe stuff when it was being released. After years of reading I found myself going through all the American, Russian, English classics then tackling a lot of biographies of artists, politicians and musicians. I went through the entire beat generation and then I found myself just reading books on topics such as Everest expeditions or recent historical events focused between the late 70's through the late 90's.
I absolutely loved and re-read multiple times Dune and the Lord of the Rings trilogy so I figured it has been forever I will jump back into the fantasy genre. I joined a book group and some people recommended then I check out more things by Brooks and also look into Hobb. The issue I had with both was that there were some interesting characters and ideas that to me just were not fleshed out enough. I am going to give the second book in the Farseer Trilogy a chance and see where it goes.
Do you think you would find them as compelling today?
I can't say anything about Brooks. I've only read one novel, The Sword of Shannara, and while I thought that it was derivative to the point of insult, I have heard that he gets better. I think that you'll find that Hobbs fleshes things out over the course of her trilogies, but she has a tendency to stack the deck against her characters in an obtrusive way.
I just want to say thank you to whoever it was in an earlier thread who said Luna is like Game of Thrones on the Moon. Luna was already on my tbr pile but that moved it right up, and gosh I am loving it so far. It is so compulsively readable. I tried Eon when I was a teenager but gave up on it, I've no idea why, because I'm enjoying it a lot so far. (In other news my Farseer re-read has taken a bit of a hiatus.)
You're welcome. The second book, Luna:Wolf Moon, is even more GoT-like. They have their own "red wedding" that makes the original pale in comparison.
Still reading Wild Cards. So, starting with book #18, they brought in an entirely new cast, almost all of whom are great. This three volume run (I'm on #20 now) is sort of a trilogy that introduces all the new characters, as well as dealing with a growing war between the Caliphate and the People's Party of Africa. War between Aces, including a young man whose power is a nuclear explosion. The quality has really picked up, in part because they brought a bunch of new writers in when they reset the cast, including people like Daniel Abraham (half of the team that writes The Expanse). If you're one of those people who liked early Wild Cards but got tired of them, #18 is a good place to jump back in.
I took a break from reading Huang Yi (RIP) and read some of Yue Guan's first book for a change of pace. I only meant to read the first hundred pages or so, but I'm now about 4000 pages in. It's been ages since I've been hooked by a book like this, and it's great!
Just finished "Assassin's Apprentice" Robin Hobb and "Magic Kingdom for Sale-- Sold" by Terry Brooks.
I do not know if it is me being away from the fantasy genre so long or if my tastes have changed but they just fell flat for me. I recall liking the Shannara stuff when I was younger but this just did not click for me at all.
Yeah, Terry Brooks does not age well. It's been ages since I read Assassin's Apprentice, but it never clicked for me either. I think that it was too dreary for my tastes.
I thought it might be you but I wasn't sure. I have Wolf Moon ready and waiting! Notice I am also reading Greg Bear. In fact I picked up Queen of Angels as well due to your rec to Mumei.
Read through "Dragon's Teeth", a new book from a found Michael Crichton manuscript.
It was OK, but very short. I'm curious if much was added past the manuscript, because it felt very bare bones (no pun intended).
The book is a fictional account of the Bone Wars, a real-life feud between two fossil hunters in the late 1800's, with a fictionalized rich college boy, traveling as a photographer, serving as the PoV character. The book doesn't spend nearly enough time on the actual Bone Wars, and much more on the PoV character's culture-shock of the frontier west.
Served as an OK afternoon read, but not much more.
Read through "Dragon's Teeth", a new book from a found Michael Crichton manuscript.
It was OK, but very short. I'm curious if much was added past the manuscript, because it felt very bare bones (no pun intended).
The book is a fictional account of the Bone Wars, a real-life feud between two fossil hunters in the late 1800's, with a fictionalized rich college boy, traveling as a photographer, serving as the PoV character. The book doesn't spend nearly enough time on the actual Bone Wars, and much more on the PoV character's (also a rich college boy) culture-shock of the frontier west.
Served as an OK afternoon read, but not much more.
So I'm finally finishing A Gentleman in Moscow, which is the best novel that I've read in I'd say 3 or 4 years. Just a beautiful, excellent book that's also simply fun, inspiring, and uplifting. It's smart, flows so well, is easy to read, has a lot of depth, and is just excellent. I strongly recommend it to anybody who likes books.
If you haven't read Towles' first novel, Rules of Civility, I highly recommend that too. I actually liked it more than A Gentleman in Moscow, though both were great.
One of Mordecai Richler's longer novels, coming in at just short of 500 pages, this is a sprawling, non-linear narrative that, as is customary of Richler's work, draws heavily on his own life experience, from his childhood in the Anglophone Jewish community in Montreal to his time in London (it's often overlooked that he wrote many of his most famous novels, including the iconic The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, in the period from 1954 to 1972 when he resided in England). Richler's biting, caustic humour pervades the book, which is rarely less than amusing on an episodic level, but I don't think the novel ever builds much in the way of narrative momentum. The novel is at its most interesting in its portrayal of the particular communal tensions inherent in Montreal's Jewish community at the time, and in particular the tenuous peace between them and the Francophone population. One must also note that it's a rare novel that begins with its protagonist
on trial for indecent assault (a charge only gradually revealed) that culminates in showing that he was actually guilty of the charge, and proceeds to lie at trial (though his accuser is also lying about his conduct, so...I guess Richler is pretty pessimistic about human conduct)
.
I'm starting to go through a collected edition of Percy Shelley's poetry and prose (the Penguin Classics publication), and have a few graphic novels to read.
Maybe you should leave it for ten years or so. Enjoy that perfect ending for a while.
I still haven't decided what I think of the final trilogy; I'm doing a complete series re-read in hope of a bit of clarity. I think most people feel the ending is fitting, though.
