Infidel Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 The Warrior-Prophet by R. Scott Bakker - excellente. Marley and Me by John Grogan - similarly excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyBoy Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 Just started CELL by Stephen King yesterday. Not bad so far, although it's quickly getting predictable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lint Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 I recently bought Dune at the bookstore because someone brought it up in the Re-read thread, I had heard of it before but never picked it up. I'm glad I did because it's quite good so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 Eisenhorn by Dan Abnett. I think I'm turning into a Warhammer 40 k fan. I was just wondering if these books are really readable? I mean, over the years I've always loved the concepts and ideas in Warhammer, but I keep hearing the writing is awful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixodes Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 Just finished The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce.....A very well written little work that will be staying with me a long while. Just finished this last night. Very well written and I recommend it to others: 1) Joyce has a gift for prose. He has the ability to write wonderful descriptions, scenes, and diaglog with a minimal amount of writing. I really enjoyed the style. 2) He also has a talent for realistic depictions of characters. The children in the book were believeable and the situations honestly portrayed. 3) I've never liked coming of age stories. Maybe I have read too many, or maybe they tend to be too melodramatic. Joyce twisted the tale with the introduction of the tooth fairy, mixing in elements of fantasy in unexpected ways. I am glad I read this book. The best part is his description of the boy scout outing. I had a similar experience with scouting (although without the threat of sodomy!). I got the worst beat down of my life from the older scouts while we played capture the flag, so those scenes in the book resonated with me!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isis Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 Reading Peter Hoeg's Smilla's Sense of Snow. Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow. Dammit! What is it with having different titles in the UK and US when we speak the same language? I don't get this one any more than I do the Philosopher's/Sorceror's stone one. But anyway, Smilla, yes - great character, great story. Poor film adaptation, despite having two decent-ish actors in the leads. Well, not sure about Ormond, but I suppose she was okay. I also highly recommend The History of Danish Dreams and Borderliners by Hoeg, the latter especially. It's a long time since I read any of these but they are quality. Well hopefully I'll get through my re-read of LoR by the end of February After that I am accepting suggestions on which of the following books from the pile to read next: Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley The Once and Future King TH White The Alvin Maker Series by Orson Scott Card The Mabinogeon Tetralogy by Evangeline Walton The Lions of Al Rassan by Guy Gavriel KayI've only read T H White and Card of these titles. I do love the Alvin Maker stuff, I can't recall if it is up to book five or six, but it ain't finished yet, that's fersher. Not sure if you are one of the people who would rather not start an unfinished series. I hope he hurries up with this. Get on with the series, mister! I am presuming that there will be seven books in this series...anyone know any different? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley The Once and Future King TH White The Alvin Maker Series by Orson Scott Card The Mabinogeon Tetralogy by Evangeline Walton The Lions of Al Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay Depends on what you're looking for. Mists of Avalon -- great book, a little heavy handed. I wanted to strangle, well, just about everyone at some time or other. Especially that whiny bitch Gwenwhyfar. The Once and Future King -- hilarious read (especially the early book). Wanted to strangle...that whiny bitch Guinivere. Also Lancelot, the poor conflicted git. Because both of the above books use different versions of the Arthur mythos, you could be either 1) totally confused and pissed if you read them at the same time or 2) love the different tacks of two modern authors on the same theme. Lions of Al Rassan is a fabulous book, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olaf Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 Most people either hate or love THE MISTS OF AVALON. Few are indifferent to it. Beware that it is quite different from other Arthurian retellings. Most of the usual "action scences" and big battles are either absent or happen off-stage. It is not written as a historical but as a mythopoeic novel. Bradley mixes elements from 5th century Britain and mixes them with elements from the High Middles Ages (12 and 13th century). I think it is very original and well worth reading. People often claim that MISTS is anti-Christian. I think it is not. Bradley carefully distinguishes between Christians and the Church as an organization and throughout the whole there are Christians on Avalon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luzifer's right hand Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 I was just wondering if these books are really readable? I mean, over the years I've always loved the concepts and ideas in Warhammer, but I keep hearing the writing is awful. I found a best of WH 40 K thread in another forum and "Eisenhorn" was on top of the list. It is aweseome so far. I have read three other WH 40 k books before "Execution Hour" , "Shadow Point" and "Fire Warrior" were decent reads but nothing special. Fire Warrior does not really fit in the universe as a Tau kicks ass in it though. However one could claim that most other sources are form imperial pov and very biased against Xenos. However I don't have a "good" taste, I love reading pulp-SF for example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AverageGuy Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 I do love the Alvin Maker stuff, I can't recall if it is up to book five or six, but it ain't finished yet, that's fersher. I think it's finished. Card published the seventh book, The Crystal City, a year or so ago. I think that was supposed to be it. That said, I'd go with Bradley or Kay. Probably Kay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arvernian Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 40K fiction is pretty good for gaming fiction, if not as good as the Warhammer fantasy stuff. I've never read Eisenhorn but I really enjoyed Ian Watson's Inquisition War. Be warned however that as the series was written in the early '90s much of the background conflicts with more recent GW cannon. As long as I'm plugging GW stuff Drachenfels is an amazingly good book. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good dark fantasy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingslayer Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 I finished the Weatherford book, which was excellent. I'm starting on His Dark Materials (I found the trilogy used for three dollars ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isis Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 I think it's finished. Card published the seventh book, The Crystal City, a year or so ago. I think that was supposed to be it. Well. He never told ME he'd finished it. *tut* I guess I just got tired of waiting/checking to see if it was done yet. According to Amazon and OSC's site, The Crystal City is book six (I think I only read five books so far, Heartfire being number five). There is still one more to go to complete the series. But thanks for letting me know, I'm going to get hold of a copy of book six asap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galactus Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 I'm currently reading a Tong Lashing, and after that I'll be trying the third book in the Malazan series, to see if it gets any better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhaco Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 Recently finished Helprin's Winter's Tale. Helprin is awesome, and I'm both pissed and elated that I've only recently discovered him. His style and characters, his descriptions and setting, the atmosphere he creates, everything is amazing. While the ending was a little messy IMO, it was still a satisfying one. Memoir from Antproof Case remains my favorite of his, though. Just finished MacLeod's The Light Ages. It didn't do much for me. Despite all that they'd been through, the characters were mostly uninteresting, the plot was ultimately almost pointless, and with few exceptions the whole was mind-numbingly dreary. Didn't this book win a bunch of awards a year or two ago? Oh well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H von T Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 I've mostly been reading history lately and need a break. So now I've decided to go on a mystery binge. Last week I read Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane and Wolves Eat Dogs by Martin Cruz Smith. Lehane was disappointing. The story was not that interesting and Lehane's writing style left me unimpressed. I am surprised that he wrote Mystic River. He's not terrible, but I was expecting more. Pedestrian is the word I'm looking for. Wolves Eat Dogs really wasn't all that great, either. Good read for a rainy winter day in Oregon. I mostly like the main character, Arkady Renko. I have a weak spot for a melancholy, subversive Russian detective. I just started Elizabeth George's Payment in Blood. I've read 100 pages so far and really like it. I'm going to hit the library tomorrow to pick up a few more of her mysteries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Ent Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 Last week I read Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane [...]. Lehane was disappointing. The story was not that interesting and Lehane's writing style left me unimpressed. I thought that was a very good thriller. Could you explain to me why "Chuck Aule" is a funny name? I don't get it. (Not a native English speaker, so I must be missing something.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyarlathotep Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 Hm, finished Coetzee's Disgrace yesterday. Whilst it might not be the kind of a novel that I'd read outside my English class, it was a fairly interesting read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H von T Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 I thought that was a very good thriller. Could you explain to me why "Chuck Aule" is a funny name? I don't get it. (Not a native English speaker, so I must be missing something.) You got me. I spent about 10 minutes thinking about it and came up with nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaceBannon42 Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 You got me. I spent about 10 minutes thinking about it and came up with nothing. is it supposed to be pronounced Chuckle? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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