Books discussion

[Gambit]

I really recommend Bean's saga (the Shadow Series) after Children... actually I would have recommended it before Speaker, but you're too late for that now.

[Moribund]

Damn. *Snaps fingers*. Well, after careful consideration I've decided that I love the entire Ender series, so I guess I'll have to give the Bean end of things a try.

Started reading "The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo" by Stieg Larsson. I got the whole series for my birthday.

[Rigor]

maybe too trivial to ask but...how is it ?

[Moribund]

How is "The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo"? Excellent as expected. There are some stylistic faux pas(es) (how do I pluralize this? :S) that I chalk up to translation, but I'm 3/4s done and it is pure good story telling,

It IS a bit spoiled for me as I saw the movie (which I recommend to everyone), but it is still HIGHLY enjoyable.

[lmelior]

Just finished The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. The author is better known for her science fiction Vorkosigan series, but I saw this at a library book sale and remembered that its sequel won the Hugo a few years ago.

Now I managed to be one of the first to snag Brandon Sanderson's latest, The Way of Kings, from the library. This 1000-page monster with gorgeous artwork is the first in a planned 10-book series, which of course would make me hesitant to read. But, since this is Brandon Sanderson we're talking about, I'm confident it will have a very satisfying ending.

[Rigor]

10 !!!!!!!! books series ?!?!? omgomgogmogmogmgomgomg i hope this guy is blessed and doesnt die at book-age 8!

[Velensk]

I liked (most) of Bujolds science fiction better than her fantasy stuff but have never been sure why.

To be on topic: I am reading 'Three Hearts and Three Lions' which is supposedly a classic. It reminds me very much of The Seventh Sword series (though it was probably written earlier).

[Moribund]

I finished the Millennium series by Stieg Larsson last night, it was extremely good. I am vaguely disappointed, but that is because it was honestly too good and had too much dignity. I truly wanted it to milk itself ad have Blonvkist and Salander go on cute little mystery solving adventures, and tie up all the loose ends later. But, it had more dignity than that and the sequels were different stories, continuing the story of the characters, and giving closure.

I think I will start reading it over again.

[Cybermouse]

Just started on The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Absolutely (and morbidly) fascinating, and I'm only a few chapters in.

Other greats for me were the Inheritance cycle, aka Eragon (and I'm eagerly anticipating the fourth and final novel), and The Host by Stephanie Meyer, which I hear she is planning a couple sequels for. The Artemis Fowl hexology? is a nice, long, engaging read, and The Wrinkle In Time series is also quite good (and by 'good' I mean legendary).

Anything by Neil Gaiman is also highly recommended, primarily Neverwhere.

[thespaceinvader]

The Runelords series by David Farland, beginning with the Sum of All Men http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sum-All-Men-Run ... 1841495603 - good books, with a long game story-wise and an interesting magic system (though I can't help but feel that sticking with the Endowment magic alone, rather than tacking on the Four-Elements system too, would have made the book feel a little less busy, albeit the Earth King storyline would have had to be rethought), but by no means perfect. However, there are a lot of them, so there's plenty of time to improve. The characters are well-thought out and offer a lot of development, and the real villains seem well-foreshadowed, as does the (still potential as of the early part of book two) heel-face-turn of Raj Ahten. Overall, well worth your time.

I also recently read Russell Kirkpatrick's Across the Face of the World http://www.amazon.co.uk/Across-Face-Wor ... _rhf_p_t_1 - and I won't be continuing with the trilogy. The book is really nowhere near as good as it could have been. It's generic, derivative and the characters are dull and uninteresting - Stella in particular, who is more or less completely flat throughout. It makes a lot of the classic mistakes of beginning fiction - primary among them being telling, rather than showing. In case anyone does want to read this, I'll spoiler the major example I see:

Spoiler:

Hal. From the first time the Right Hand was mentioned, I KNEW it was him (or, possibly, he was a magician/angel analogue sent to guide the Right Hand, Leith). How? Because the first time he's mentioned as a character, the book tells us he is special, and people always like him more than would seem appropriate. To SHOW this would have been to have someone (probably Stella's betrothed, Druin, killing a second bird of his characterisation and hers with one stone) abusing him (or someone else, and Hal stopping him) then finding himself unable to remain angry with Hal. We would have found out for ourselves, rather than being told, that Hal isn't quite normal, and the mystery would have been maintained

Not to mention a whole slew of painful anachronisms, particular among them being the Haufuth being put on a diet by his wife. In a village barely above subsistence agronomy on the economic scale, where the lack of a single man is a serious dent in the village's capabilities. Being fat should have been a mark of wealth and success, not something to avoid. Similarly Wira's alcoholism is told in far more modern terms than I would expect of a medieval setting. And not really foreshadowed effectively. Nor is Stella's brother's drink problem (the first time I remember it being mentioned is shortly after Wira's, rather than early in the book...), making the whole 'Wira's a drunk and Stella will hate it' story feel like a horribly tacked-on problem.

The book has been praised for its well-developed world and back story. And, clumsy biblical allegories in the mythology aside (the Most High=God; the Right Hand=Jesus; the Undying Man=Lucifer; the First Men=Adam and Eve, more or less, or the pre-Flood society; the Fountain of Life=the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; etc etc etc ad nauseam) it does. It reads like a geography and earth-science history textbook. The author uses the fairly dull stern-chase quest story (and many interminable stories-round-the-camp-fire) to tell the history and geography of his world, rather than using the history and geography of his world to tell the story. And it gets in the way. I consistently found it difficult to understand what was going on, and where they were. I was thoroughly confused by the Widuz, and where they came from. One should not have to refer to the maps (more than FIVE maps and 3D projections...in a fantasy book) constantly to figure out the story. On that note, the wacky wayside tribes felt tacked on - the Fenni, the Fodhram, the Widuz, each came up in one chapter and was immediately hugely significant in the next, without any foreshadowing. Perdu, for instance - the brothers Storrsen could have mentioned that they had a cousin who disappeared on the moor years before, and ascribed his disappearance to the mysterious men who lived there. They could have mentioned seeing aurochs, but never close enough to hunt. The Widuz, the Fodhram could easily have mentioned constant raids by them, rumours of human sacrifices. but the foreshadowing was shoved in after the fact.

So yeah, this book promised much (particularly the cover quote from Trudi Canavan of Black Magician Trilogy and Age of the Five fame ("Never since Tolkein have I been so awed"), something which I wonder about - does it mean what it says, or does it mean 'wow this book's sure derivative of Tolkein'?) but sadly failed to deliver beyond the very basics. Not recommended, but if you're bored and have it in the local library, it'll fill your time.

EDIT: the other annoying thing: the way the author constantly insists on naming each and every geological feature, no matter how unimportant, first in the local 'language', than in english, even if noone in the scene would have any clue what it should be called. ConLangs can work well, but only if you're good at them. Another place where he shouldn't have tried to be Tolkein.

[Midnight_Carnival]

I'm reading various Sumerian legends about Inanna - all I can say is don't look up Mesopotamian literature if you are under 18!

I finished reading my friend's fantasy novel, or as much of it as she has written so far. If you managed to get past the about 12 chapters of background and characters reflection and autopsychoanalysis it's well written, the plot really takes off after chapter 14 (4 chapters before the end) -nuff said.

I'd love to read a good fantasy story right now, but I read most of the good ones in my local library and asking for fantasy for some reason earns you the same kind of look I expect you'd get if you walked up to a woman you didn't know and asked her "are you interested in artificial insemination?" -people around here seem to have a major problem with fantasy or science fiction.

[styles1005]

Hmm . . . Not much. I've been trying to eat read more "literary" stuff, but it's been slow going. Part of the cause of that is that it requires rather more thinking than your average fantasy or science fiction - there's a lot more going on than "here's the hero, here's the bad guy, what's s/he going to do about it, and will it involve the (obligatory) love interest?" Been trying to find stuff by John Gardner, but the local library system doesn't have much - I've only been able to find Grendel, The Sunlight Dialogues and Freddy's Book, the first of which I rather liked, the second of which I got about halfway through, and the third of which I never got to - I stalled a bit of the way through The Tempest, by Shakespeare.

[johndh]

Responding to Hate at School: a guide for teachers, counselors, and administrators published by Teaching Tolerance.

[Rigor]

its good to admit ur reading a disappointing book, be assured ur not the only one who has to chew the books sometimes endlessly. i found it interesting that u posted the hate at school topic, and with one google search i found already the pdf http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED437466.pdf funny isnt it

i smehow cant love ebooks i dunno why...they feel too un-book-like.

as for spaceinvaders suggestion i think ill make sure ill get one copy of the earth-man-book, i think we have an at least one-sided good taste

[Hulavuta]

Hmm, reading Timeline for school (You can basically read any book, since they use "AR" so they get computer tests for almost every book that's still around). (And yes, I'm planning to read all the Crichton books. A shame there won't be anymore.)