Love the vaggio, wish Artemisia Gentileschi got the 'complete works' book treatment too.
She should! I do not know much of her work, but her rendition of Judith Slaying Holofernes has a certain muscularity to it that I particularly enjoy.
Love the vaggio, wish Artemisia Gentileschi got the 'complete works' book treatment too.
I don't know why I couldn't get into Night's Master. I adored Tanith Lee's Wolf Tower series when I was younger.Night's Master is really good. I already picked up the sequel, Death's Master, for reading once I finish this book. I'm also ordering a book that has been out of print by the same author (Tanith Lee), titled Sounds and Furies. I'm using her style as a sort of study on mythological/dark fantasy writing.
I don't know why I couldn't get into Night's Master. I adored Tanith Lee's Wolf Tower series when I was younger.
There aren't enough Chalion books. It's unreasonable that there are 22 Foreigner universe books, 23 Wild Cards books, and only three novels and four novellas of Chalion. Someone fix that for me.
Maybe try the Vorkosigan books? Their flavor is different from the Chalion books, but it's still Lois McMaster Bujold and they're still great.There aren't enough Chalion books. It's unreasonable that there are 22 Foreigner universe books, 23 Wild Cards books, and only three novels and four novellas of Chalion. Someone fix that for me.
It is completely unreasonable.
But wait, I had no idea that Penric's Mission finally had a sequel.
Maybe try the Vorkosigan books? Their flavor is different from the Chalion books, but it's still Lois McMaster Bujold and they're still great.
By the way, are the newer Foreigner books any good? I loved the first couple of trilogies, but I don't know if I need more beyond that. {I tend to substitute "atevi" for "Japanese")
Sadly, the Sharing Knife and the Spirit Ring aren't as good as Bujold's other books.I dunno, because I only got about six in before giving up And sadly I've read all the Vorkosigan books and novellas. I guess I'll try The Sharing Knife.
I dunno, because I only got about six in before giving up And sadly I've read all the Vorkosigan books and novellas. I guess I'll try The Sharing Knife.
Michel Faber's superb novel will, if nothing else, definitely not make you want to travel back in time to the London of 1875, which has been conjured onto the page as a miasma of deeply unpleasant odors and things you must avoid stepping in or getting on your clothes. Rarely has a time period been depicted so vividly. But one shouldn't take from this that the novel is unpleasant to read, in any sense; Faber's prose is consistently engaging, and has a lively narrative voice that is in some ways a mimic of 19th century prose styles (talking to the audience every so often as if telling a story). It's an adaptive narrative voice, as well, shifting between a number of very different characters, from the very cynical (even if at times still hopeful) main character Sugar to, say, the childish whimsy and pathos of Sophie Rackham, who never grates as one fears she might.
Did you ever get around to reading The Goblin Emperor? I can't remember if we talked about it.
Heh, it took me a few months to get around to reading my copy. The length means it's a bit of a commitment.I bought this novel awhile ago and have it on my shelf! I can see it from where I am seated, and it stares at me, judging.
I did and we did
Heh, it took me a few months to get around to reading my copy. The length means it's a bit of a commitment.
Yeah I think it was just not what I expected from the author at all. I enjoyed reading mythology when I was younger (haven't really gotten back into it though) so maybe I'll pick it up again someday.It depends on what you like, I suppose. This reads like mythology, and so might come off as a little bit predictable at times (although there have been plenty of surprises). I personally was always interested in reading mythology (Greek, and especially Hindu/Indian mythology). I will definitely try some of her other works, as this format of loosely connected mythological stories does have its limits.
Michel Faber's superb novel will, if nothing else, definitely not make you want to travel back in time to the London of 1875, which has been conjured onto the page as a miasma of deeply unpleasant odors and things you must avoid stepping in or getting on your clothes. Rarely has a time period been depicted so vividly. But one shouldn't take from this that the novel is unpleasant to read, in any sense; Faber's prose is consistently engaging, and has a lively narrative voice that is in some ways a mimic of 19th century prose styles (talking to the audience every so often as if telling a story). It's an adaptive narrative voice, as well, shifting between a number of very different characters, from the very cynical (even if at times still hopeful) main character Sugar to, say, the childish whimsy and pathos of Sophie Rackham, who never grates as one fears she might.
Heh, it took me a few months to get around to reading my copy. The length means it's a bit of a commitment.
Ouch, that hurts.I confess, I do have commitment issues with very large books. It's even larger looking because it's not a mass market paperback!
Ouch, that hurts.
Speaking of recommendations, I'm interested in learning up on Indian history so are there any good overviews I can check up? I'd imagine that anything useful will have to start substantially earlier than Alexander's invasion.
How is S. ("The Ship of Theseus")?
Really intrigued but is it worth the price? Loved House of Leaves.
Michel Faber's superb novel will, if nothing else, definitely not make you want to travel back in time to the London of 1875, which has been conjured onto the page as a miasma of deeply unpleasant odors and things you must avoid stepping in or getting on your clothes. Rarely has a time period been depicted so vividly. But one shouldn't take from this that the novel is unpleasant to read, in any sense; Faber's prose is consistently engaging, and has a lively narrative voice that is in some ways a mimic of 19th century prose styles (talking to the audience every so often as if telling a story). It's an adaptive narrative voice, as well, shifting between a number of very different characters, from the very cynical (even if at times still hopeful) main character Sugar to, say, the childish whimsy and pathos of Sophie Rackham, who never grates as one fears she might.
The thing about long books. I'm about halfway through one that comes out to 6800 pages. It's weird to be reminded that 300,000 word books are actually very long.What hurts?
The thing about long books. I'm about halfway through one that comes out to 6800 pages. It's weird to be reminded that 300,000 word books are actually very long.
The thing about long books. I'm about halfway through one that comes out to 6800 pages. It's weird to be reminded that 300,000 word books are actually very long.
Chinese novels tend to be very long to begin with. The four classics are published in multiple volumes and range from about 800,000 to 1,000,000 words. Some of the most popular novels of the 20th century range from about 1-1.2 million words.I assume it is self-published and/or a fanfic.
There's a reason why no publisher will agree to publish anything anywhere near that length, even in parts
Nah, it's 锦衣夜行. I call it Brocade Guards, but that might not be the proper translation.Out of curiosity, is it worm you're reading? I recall that one being somewhere around 6000 to 7000 pages if converted into an ebook format. Or something.
Can I ask for a recommendation in this thread?
I'd like to start reading Charles Bukowski's stuff, can anyone recommend a good place to start?
The thing about long books. I'm about halfway through one that comes out to 6800 pages. It's weird to be reminded that 300,000 word books are actually very long.
Just finished A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki:
Fuck this book!
I mean if your friend fits into all that zen shit stereotype I can totally understand how they could eat this shit up. Every good review for the book on Goodreads is written by someone who looks exactly like how I pictured the main characters in the subplot.This book's the favorite novel of a close online friend of mine, goddamn I wasn't expecting that teardown lol.
Thanks for this. I'm mainly looking for a novel to dig my teeth into so i'll go for either of your two recommendations. I'll keep his poems in mind too!https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BKD8YOE/?tag=neogaf0e-20
That's a good start on the poems.
If you're looking to get into his prose, maybe start with Tales of Ordinary Madness or Ham on Rye.
Yeah, that's a pretty normal way to look at it. For the longest time, the longest book I ever read was the Lord of the Rings, and it rings in at 481K words. The first book to top that for me was To Green Angel Tower by Tad Williams at 520K, and that's pretty much my standard until I started reading Chinese novels.Oh. Well, that's a bit silly. Though a 900 page novel would probably be closer to 450,000550,000 range depending on how dense each page was. The Book of the New Sun (816 pages) is ~390,000; the coda The Urth of the New Sun (327 pages) brings it to just over 500,000 words. I think most people would say that a book over 500 pages is long, though. Maybe not long relative to the biggest books, but long compared to a typical book.
Yeah, that's a pretty normal way to look at it. For the longest time, the longest book I ever read was the Lord of the Rings, and it rings in at 481K words. The first book to top that for me was To Green Angel Tower by Tad Williams at 520K, and that's pretty much my standard until I started reading Chinese novels.
Over Christmas, I started reading Huang Yi's Twin Dragons of the Tang Dynasty, and it's a gargantuan book - around 5 million words. The writer I'm reading right now started writing seriously in 2006, and he's been writing 2 million words a year. It's nuts how books like this destroy all sense of perspective (and time). If the lists of the longest novels started including Chinese novels, other books may not make those lists any more.
Chinese novels tend to be very long to begin with. The four classics are published in multiple volumes and range from about 800,000 to 1,000,000 words. Some of the most popular novels of the 20th century range from about 1-1.2 million words.
The one I'm reading started life as a webnovel, and these tend to be even longer. His first (successful) novel was 3.6 million words and was published in 11 or 12 volumes. Note that these aren't fly-by-night books. They're popular enough to get TV adaptations.
It really depends. The books I'm talking about are all historical novels with an immense amount of detail and lot of historical figures so they're going to be really long to begin with. The Twin Dragons novel is also a wuxia adventure so it'll also have a ton of fictional characters and factions. Here's its ridiculously long character list.Is there a point to the length of those novels?
For instance, I've read The Story of the Stone, a 2500 page Chinese novel that in the English translation is probably around 1–1.2 million words, and the length is justified just by the sheer scope of the cast, which basically amounts to a small village of several hundred individuals and the attempt to recreate a world in copious detail. It's the same for other really long Chinese novels I've read, like Journey to the West or Three Kingdoms. What are they doing with all of that space in Twin Dragons of the Tang Dynasty?
The longer Chinese novels are all serial works, the older ones were published in newspapers and the newer ones start out as webnovels. As such, they're continually written and released so they don't really break down into individual books. When they get published as physical books I don't think that the individual volumes even get their own titles.And do they manage to maintain some kind of unity over the course of that length? Like, The Lord of the Rings is really one book, and while The Book of the New Sun was published separately as four books and a coda, it only makes sense as one book and a coda. But something like The Wheel of Time (over 4 million) books or A Song of Ice and Fire books (around 2 million) don't even aspire to come across as a something other than individual entries. It's difficult to hear you say five million for a novel without me thinking, "... This is why we invented editors."
They're singular novels. The volumes are usually just the title of the book and the number of the volume. Here's the Amazon listing of the Twin Dragons novel.Are these actual singular novels, or are they closer to something like Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, which has its many connected sub-arcs as "books" but really only makes sense if you read the entire thing?
It really depends. The books I'm talking about are all historical novels with an immense amount of detail and lot of historical figures so they're going to be really long to begin with. The Twin Dragons novel is also a wuxia adventure so it'll also have a ton of fictional characters and factions. Here's its ridiculously long character list.
On the other hand, even though it's one of the most popular Chinese novels in the last couple of decades, I think that it could definitely trimmed down a bit. I've put in on hiatus for the time being partly because of this, and partly because I've picked up Yue Guan's books and Yue Guan is a much better writer. The Brocade Guards book I'm reading right now is a historical novel set in the early Ming Dynasty, and it has a crazy amount of detail. Everything from the social system, to foreign affairs, to court politics, to warfare, to economics, and so on. It weighs in at 3.8 million words, and they're all justified.
The longer Chinese novels are all serial works, the older ones were published in newspapers and the newer ones start out as webnovels. As such, they're continually written and released so they don't really break down into individual books. When they get published as physical books I don't think that the individual volumes even get their own titles.
They're singular novels. The volumes are usually just the title of the book and the number of the volume.