I finished The People in the Trees. That ending was WELP
W E L P
Now think about A Little Life!
I finished The People in the Trees. That ending was WELP
W E L P
Now think about A Little Life!
Wow from one end of the spectrum to the other!Finished Ready Player One this morning. A fun read. I enjoyed most of the shameless 80s nostalgia. The solutions to whatever problems and conflicts arose were a bit too convenient for my tastes, but I was fine just along with the ride.
Next up: The Lathe of Heaven.
I finished Borne. It is a beautiful, sad, hopeful book, full of deeply strange images and creatures, as well as compassion, love, betrayal, fear, and ultimately hope.
I think it's fair to call it a dystopian novel, as most of the story takes place in a wrecked city, covered in toxic filth, ruled over by a sadistic and malign sixty foot tall flying bear named Mord. Humanity, in fear of Mord and his proxies, lives as scavengers. They eke out life in the margins, living in the center of a perpetual storm. The only luxuries they have are cast-offs from an earlier age, where biotechnology must have flowed freely. They can get drunk on minnows, or relive other people's memories. They have beetle-weapons capable of burrowing into flesh and exploding their venom sacs. The landscape is littered with dangerous and toxic artifacts. Children have been tampered with by unknown forces, mutated and changed into vicious killers.
In the center of this chaos, are Rachel and Wick, just trying to get by, until Rachel finds a blob of goop while scavenging.
It's a book that addresses family, betrayal, ecological destruction, and identity, but refuses to sink into the hopelessness that many dystopian novels do. It is a deeply human and humane novel about people in terrible circumstances doing the best they can for themselves and others.
Unlike the Southern Reach novels, it is told in a reasonably straightforward manner. In short, while there are twists and revelations, not every single narrator is wildly unreliable. There's still plenty of ambiguity here, because it's Jeff VanderMeer and ambiguity is part of his tool chest, but it's in the situations, rather than the narrative itself. In short, I think people will have much less trouble with Borne than some did with the Southern Reach novels.
I really enjoyed it, and the climactic section is a real treat, especially. I became very fond of all the characters, human and in, by the time I finished. I wished for better endings for all of them, but didn't feel brutalized at how things were left.
aw snap
I do think thatMaia makes Fitz look bad, but I also think that Miles is the one I usually think to compare him to.
Now think about A Little Life!
Sins of Empire the new Powder Mage book is on sale for $2.99. Buy this book people.
Sins of Empire the new Powder Mage book is on sale for $2.99. Buy this book people.
I'm sorry, I can't work out if you compare Miles to Maia, or to Fitz! Who was it? I would more readily compare Fitz and Miles - their desire for recognition as well as the long-form getting to know them - but then there is an inner self belief I think Miles and Maia share which Fitz doesn't have. But I don't have a good grasp on Miles yet.
This novel. I like how it starts out as a buddy novel between four young, well to do New Yorkers and then turns into a tome of sadness and despair 20% into the book.
Never have I had such mixed feelings about a novel before.
I'm currently reading a Clash of Kings. I just got into Fantasy and I'm loving this series. After I catch up what series should I read next?
hmmm id take either tbh.Do you want to read something similar or something different?
hmmm id take either tbh.
Mixed between, like, sadness and rage?
??awwwwwwwwwwww snap
Some of Ursula K. Le Guin's recommended books seemed to be parts of different series. Are they standalone? Or were they so good that they were singled out?You should check out this topic. You'll see both science fiction and fantasy responses there.
Now is probably the best time to start Robin Hobbs' Farseer Trilogy, the first series of books set in her Realm of the Elderlings universe, because the most recent trilogy is just now wrapping up.
I finished Borne. It is a beautiful, sad, hopeful book, full of deeply strange images and creatures, as well as compassion, love, betrayal, fear, and ultimately hope.
Haha definitely. I'm just picking off my "to read" list, but I also try change up the more challenging books with some easy reads. Certainly enjoying The Lathe of Heaven so far (about a third of the way through). I love the premise, but I also find myself looking up words a bit too often (thank god for the dictionary function in e-readers). I really need to improve my vocabulary. Sadly often when I look up words while reading, they don't register long term. Maybe I should start writing them down, but I feel that would be even more / too interruptive to the reading process and would really get in the way of my enjoyment of a book.Wow from one end of the spectrum to the other!
Slowly breaking through every canonical Sherlock Holmes story (novels, short stories, etc).
It should go without saying that these are great. They always paint a wonderful picture in the mind.
Sins of Empire the new Powder Mage book is on sale for $2.99. Buy this book people.
But what if I haven't read the original trilogy?
Le Guin's science fiction books (and short stories) tend to all take place in the same universe called the Hainish Cycle. But they work as stand alone novels. I don't think any character ever appears in more than one story but a planet will probably appear more than once.??
Some of Ursula K. Le Guin's recommended books seemed to be parts of different series. Are they standalone? Or were they so good that they were singled out?
But what if I haven't read the original trilogy?
I contrast Miles with Fitz, normally. You brought up Maia and Fitz because of the timing of my rereading The Goblin Emperor so close to the release of the newest Fitz and Fool novel, though for whatever reason I don't normally think to make that comparison.
I think it's mostly because, well, Fitz grew up being trained for a particular role (sneakity sneaking and assassinations and spying and whatnot) and despite being told he's good at it (or in recent novels, how good he used to be), he's ... honestly seemed kind of incompetent on a grand scale. Maia, by contrast, stumbled into things when he was 18. He wasn't trained for that role (Idra, his nephew, was).
I think that Miles and Fitz have more in common in that respect (Miles had more agency in his life path, of course, but he certainly knew what he wanted as early as Fitz was being trained). And yeah, there is also that element that you talked about in their character. I also think of them as similar typesboth characters who are supposed to get by on their wits and guile. It's just that after I read the Farseer books, my first thought was, "This [bad thing] definitely wouldn't have happened like if Miles were in this story,"
I hadn't really thought of them as similar types, that's interesting;they both are supposed to get by on their wits, it's just thatFitz repeatedly failsthings always go wrong for Fitz! but I think because I read the Farseer books first, it more seems to me that Miles is astoundingly competent to the point that winning is almost his defining personality trait. Maybe it was the type of stories they were, or maybe it was Bujold imbuing the text with Miles' self belief, but in Cetaganda and Labyrinths I had no doubt he would succeed and wasn't concerned for the outcome (of course some bad stuff happened in the previous volumes though). But I have a long way to go.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is only £0.99 for Kindle on Amazon UK.
I got a notification that's it also $1.09 on Amazon US, but it's showing up at $7.99 for me. Strange.
Also, what's the consensus on the Stormlight Archives on here? I think it's the highest rated fantasy book series of all time on both Amazon and Goodreads, and it came in second only to ASOIAF on Reddit's top sci-fi/fantasy series of all time (with a difference of only like 15 votes).
Is it really that good? I'm sure the Oathbringer hype is helping, but every time I read about Brandon's updates it's always like, "Look how long this book is!" I don't give a fuck, why do people get such hard-ons over word counts?
This superfluous "trait" of the series and the fact that one of Sanderson's most appealing qualities is that he constantly churns out books makes me inclined to question the quality of his works. But man, the feedback for SA is wild. Not quite ASOIAF levels, but I can't think of anything closer (Kingkiller).
So, do you guys like it? Is it a genre-classic?
Innocence so constantly finds itself in a false position that inwardly innocent people learn to be disingenuous. Finding no language in which to speak in their own terms, they resign themselves to being translated imperfectly. They exist alone; when they try to enter into relations they compromise falsifyinglythrough anxiety, through desire to impart and to feel warmth. The system of our affections is too corrupt for them. They are bound to blunder, then to be told they cheat. In love, the sweetness and violence they have to offer involves a thousand betrayals for the less innocent. Incurable strangers to the world, they never cease to exact a heroic happiness. Their singleness, their ruthlessness, their one continuous wish makes them bound to be cruel, and to suffer cruelty. The innocent are so few that two of them seldom meetwhen they do meet, their victims lie strewn all around.
It's a bit of an obvious/cliché recommendation, but I really enjoy the Forgotten Realms series, specifically R. A. Salvatore's Icewind Dale Trilogy. FR is the basis for most well-known, "traditional" Dungeons & Dragons campaigns (including BioWare's Baldur's Gate), and Salvatore is one of the writers that fleshes that universe out and makes it such a pleasure to explore.I'm currently reading a Clash of Kings. I just got into Fantasy and I'm loving this series. After I catch up what series should I read next?
Are any of the star wars novels worth reading?
The original thrawn trilogy is surprisingly fun. I recommend the audiobooks - there are some on audible with sound effects and music. It makes for a really fun listen.Are any of the star wars novels worth reading?
I listened to the audiobook of People in the Trees. I immediately deleted and got a refund. I was so disgusted I didn't even want it in my digital library.I finished The People in the Trees. That ending was WELP
W E L P
That is messed up. I've read Way of Kings and its nowhere near top 10 material for the genre.The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is only £0.99 for Kindle on Amazon UK.
I got a notification that's it also $1.09 on Amazon US, but it's showing up at $7.99 for me. Strange.
Also, what's the consensus on the Stormlight Archives here? I think it's the highest rated fantasy book series of all time on both Amazon and Goodreads, and it came in second only to ASOIAF on Reddit's top sci-fi/fantasy series of all time (with a difference of only like 15 votes).
Is it really that good? I'm sure the Oathbringer hype is helping, but every time I read about Brandon's updates it's always like, "Look how long this book is!" I don't give a fuck, why do people get such hard-ons over word counts?
This superfluous "trait" of the series and the fact that one of Sanderson's most appealing qualities is that he constantly churns out books makes me inclined to question the quality of his works. But man, the feedback for SA is wild. Not quite ASOIAF levels, but I can't think of anything closer (Kingkiller?).
So, do you guys like it? Is it a genre-classic? How does it compare to something like Malazan, which I most recently read?
Thanks, I'm going to pick a few up during sales.Le Guin's science fiction books (and short stories) tend to all take place in the same universe called the Hainish Cycle. But they work as stand alone novels. I don't think any character ever appears in more than one story but a planet will probably appear more than once.
She has two fantasy series: The Earthsea novels starting with A Wizard of Earthsea and Annals of the Western Shore starting with Gifts. The more famous one is the former.
I'm one of those who think the Stormlight Archive is so far just a mediocre series with waaaaaaay too many words and unnecessary scenes. I'd rather have a tighter story than these massive tomes. I especially thought the 2nd book could have been 300-400 pages shorter.The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is only £0.99 for Kindle on Amazon UK.
I got a notification that's it also $1.09 on Amazon US, but it's showing up at $7.99 for me. Strange.
Also, what's the consensus on the Stormlight Archives here? I think it's the highest rated fantasy book series of all time on both Amazon and Goodreads, and it came in second only to ASOIAF on Reddit's top sci-fi/fantasy series of all time (with a difference of only like 15 votes).
Is it really that good? I'm sure the Oathbringer hype is helping, but every time I read about Brandon's updates it's always like, "Look how long this book is!" I don't give a fuck, why do people get such hard-ons over word counts?
This superfluous "trait" of the series and the fact that one of Sanderson's most appealing qualities is that he constantly churns out books makes me inclined to question the quality of his works. But man, the feedback for SA is wild. Not quite ASOIAF levels, but I can't think of anything closer (Kingkiller?).
So, do you guys like it? Is it a genre-classic? How does it compare to something like Malazan, which I most recently read?