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16 hours ago, Triskele said:

So confused about Blood Meridian.  Heard so many good things, read maybe like the first 1/3, quit not only in despair but in boredom.  Ought I persist?  

Well, if it isn't Eponine.  

 

If it was most other people asking this question, I'd agree with Eponine.  But for you @Triskele I think being someone who read Bakker all the way through, you might appreciate it.  There are quite a few specific scenes that might jump out at you, and it's not that long (I know, this is relative)  

 

 

 

 

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#1 - The Kingdom and the Elves of the Reaches by Robert Stanek

#2 - Stone of Tears by Terry Goodkind 

#3 - Blood of the Fold by Terry Goodkind 

#4 - Temple of the Winds by Terry Goodkind 

#5 - Soul of the Fire by Terry Goodkind 

#6 - Faith of the Fallen by Terry Goodkind 

#7 - The Pillars of Creation by Terry Goodkind 

#8 - Naked Empire by Terry Goodkind 

#9 - Chainfire by Terry Goodkind 

#10- Phantom by Terry Goodkind 

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On 7/11/2019 at 11:22 PM, Darth Richard II said:

Well I hate McCarthy and all his works...so...no? I am the super minority opinion here though.

And for Gilman yeah The Revolutions wasn’t as good as his others. I always forget about that one. Loooove the other 4 though. No idea if he’s ever going to write again. 

I check the 'G's every time I am in the bookstore in the hope that I'll see it.  Unlikely as if Gilman had a new book coming out I'd have heard about it....hopefully.  I still look, though.

I also hate McCarthy. 

 

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On 7/11/2019 at 10:32 PM, Eponine said:

I was going to ask if something happened to him. But it looks like he's active on Twitter. 

Thunderer/Gears of the City are my favorite fantasy books. Maybe my second favorite books of all time (Blood Meridian is first, hands down). With no disrespect intended, I believe he had one big, complex, emotional, inventive, fully-populated story to tell, maybe one that he'd been ruminating on for years before he wrote it down, dreaming about taking a break from his career as a lawyer to get it on paper (I'm hardcore speculating here). The Half-Made World had one idea (that got stretched a bit thin IMO), fewer characters, less world-building, but was still well-written. And The Revolutions... I don't know, it just felt smaller all the way around. Less of a plot, weaker characters, a half-formed idea. I hope he's sitting on another big story and will get the chance to write it. I don't believe he's the type of writer that has a full story ready to go every few years. 

(Thread hijack, I've also been looking for a Thunderer/Gears of the City tattoo idea, and since the book has fans in here, PM me if you have any suggestions. My first thought was The Bird with its power allowing the children to fly after it, but it struck me that it would come across as world's most basic tattoo + Peter Pan which is soooo not the look I'm going for, ugh ugh ugh! And if you haven't read the book, also not the tone of the story either. OTOH, I do have a Blood Meridian tattoo that really doesn't match the tone of the book quite, since "tree of dead babies" seemed a bit much...)

I don't really have any suggestions but this is an awesome idea.  I do love the imagery on the cover of Gears of the City with the gears and the mountain looming over the rooftops.  Bit much for a tattoo maybe.  Hope you find something you like.   

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No particular order here...

1.  A storm of swords- martin

2.  Use of weapons- banks

3.  The lies of locke lamora- lynch

4.  Lamb- moore

5.  Before they are hanged- Abercrombie

6.  Retribution falls- wooding

7.  Survivor- Palahniuk

8.  Leviathan wakes- Corey

9.  Assassins apprentice- hobb

10.  Old man's war-  scalzi

Much harder than I thought.  It was very hard to narrow this down.

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2 hours ago, Triskele said:

Well fucking get on with it, man.  When I praised you upthread I meant that shit, but I don't want to wait for your results Rothfuss-style.  Give me my list!

He list is already written doubting primate, it just hasnt been published yet!

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@Triskele If it hasn't been six years, it's been close. Too much floob for personal communication because what am I here for if not to stream of consciousness post in other people's threads, got busy in my personal life, plus a dab of board drama.

Can you spoiler tag what happened with Bakker in like 2 sentences? (I read the PoN but none of the Aspect Emperor and was not impressed). If not I'll Google it but have no intention of trying to back-read the 500 threads...

I'm with Darth Richard on Rothfuss. (I think, maybe I lack context on his specific grievances).

I have feelings about Denver housing prices since we just bought a house last Autumn. I simultaneously hope they get better (because a lot of people who make a lot less than I do can't afford to live near their work) and worse (at least, I hope that the price of my own property goes up).

Let me know when you make it out to Red Rocks, I'd still like to meet up, although I no longer run a monthly BWB meeting, see: off the board for 6 years. 

I think when I was last on the board, I was about to get married, which I did.

I decided with no input from inchoate yearnings to have a baby, which I did. She is three.

I considered moving but everywhere suitable either was much more expensive or had much worse weather, and Mr. Eponine was dragging his feet about looking for other job opps, so I didn't. 

Already mentioned the house.

I have been spending less time reading and more time knitting, but part of that has been that I haven't encountered many books recently that felt particularly compelling.

When we next have the opportunity for a new president, I will be putting less effort into the primary and more into the general. I confess to enjoying the caucus even though I know it's all kinds of problematic, because it forces neighbors to gather and talk in person. 

 

 

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I am enjoying this information about Bakker immensely. Couldn't be happier if I'd read it myself Much happier than if I'd read it myself since I find much about the books insufferable despite having interesting ideas. But isn't there supposed to be a part 3? 

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On 7/12/2019 at 1:37 AM, Triskele said:

So confused about Blood Meridian.  Heard so many good things, read maybe like the first 1/3, quit not only in despair but in boredom.  Ought I persist?  

Well, if it isn't Eponine.  

 

People tend to have quite strong opinions about Blood Meridian one way or the other. It is the slog of slogs and not for everyone.

I wouldn't persist if you didn't enjoy the first third. It's not as if it changes much from there.

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1 hour ago, Eponine said:

I am enjoying this information about Bakker immensely. Couldn't be happier if I'd read it myself Much happier than if I'd read it myself since I find much about the books insufferable despite having interesting ideas. But isn't there supposed to be a part 3? 

Maybe. He had no publisher for it at the moment and has said he won’t crowdfund or self publish.

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On 7/11/2019 at 11:37 PM, Triskele said:

So confused about Blood Meridian.  Heard so many good things, read maybe like the first 1/3, quit not only in despair but in boredom.  Ought I persist?  

Well, if it isn't Eponine.  

 

For me, it's the use of language--harsh, otherwordly, surreal in its use of grammar and vocabulary-- coupled with the harsh deconstruction of the Wild West mythos that cements it in my personal pantheon of favorites. But as said elsewhere, if you're not digging the first third, it isn't going to shift gears later on.

Blood Meridian is the only of his novels I'd re-read, though, except maybe Outer Dark. Most are slogs, and his later books (The Road, Old Country) are IMO pale shadows of his peak (Child of God through Blood Meridian).

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17 hours ago, Eponine said:

@Triskele

Can you spoiler tag what happened with Bakker in like 2 sentences? (I read the PoN but none of the Aspect Emperor and was not impressed). If not I'll Google it but have no intention of trying to back-read the 500 threads...

 

 

Bakker wanted to include his glossary in the final volume, which would have pushed it to GRRM-esque doorstopper size. His publisher didn't pay much attention to him. Bakker entered re-negotiations to make TAE a four-parter and conspired with someone who sometimes posted here to raise a ruckus about how Bakker was being mistreated (and RSB fabricated a shucks-poor-lil-me persona on his blog), how the books weren't being given attention or any editorial oversight, etc. A minor ruckus was raised, enough to (we assume) split the last book into two. 

If this weird drama wasn't enough, the third book was actually pretty good but the last book shifted from grimdark to edgelord in several places and appeared to have little editorial oversight in the prose. Worse, all the revelation stuff was mostly bunk, with the actual reveal/final "twist" being cool on the surface but empty in reflection. After all Bakker's hyperbole about how he was reinventing the wheel across nearly a decade, the paucity of the end result, along with the publication drama, along with some, ahem, choice quotes from Bakker on an ill-advised As Me Anything--it did not go over well with his small but relatively rabid fanbase.

 

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52 minutes ago, kuenjato said:

Bakker wanted to include his glossary in the final volume, which would have pushed it to GRRM-esque doorstopper size. His publisher didn't pay much attention to him. Bakker entered re-negotiations to make TAE a four-parter and conspired with someone who sometimes posted here to raise a ruckus about how Bakker was being mistreated (and RSB fabricated a shucks-poor-lil-me persona on his blog), how the books weren't being given attention or any editorial oversight, etc. A minor ruckus was raised, enough to (we assume) split the last book into two. 

If this weird drama wasn't enough, the third book was actually pretty good but the last book shifted from grimdark to edgelord in several places and appeared to have little editorial oversight in the prose. Worse, all the revelation stuff was mostly bunk, with the actual reveal/final "twist" being cool on the surface but empty in reflection. After all Bakker's hyperbole about how he was reinventing the wheel across nearly a decade, the paucity of the end result, along with the publication drama, along with some, ahem, choice quotes from Bakker on an ill-advised As Me Anything--it did not go over well with his small but relatively rabid fanbase.

 

Heh, that's all, uh, a nicer way to say it then I would have. Not sure how much I can say but the person he uh, conspired with, did a lot more then that, in various places.

Short version though: Bakker shot his career in the foot, then stabbed it, set it on fire, and threw it in the ocean.

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38 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

Heh, that's all, uh, a nicer way to say it then I would have. Not sure how much I can say but the person he uh, conspired with, did a lot more then that, in various places.

Short version though: Bakker shot his career in the foot, then stabbed it, set it on fire, and threw it in the ocean.

I'm not aware of the full extent of it, just what went on around here -- in particular, someone claiming to have read the whole book, and giving raves across the board, when in reality he'd only seen TGO. That, and the bullshit campaign to email Bakker's publisher demanding the release of the last book(s), and how that campaign was conducted here.

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