Author Topic: Books (Read 158898 times)

superaielman · « **Reply #950 on:** January 20, 2012, 01:29:37 PM »

Fool Moon: Was okay. Thought the first and third book were better (About halfway through the third). Best scene in the book was Harry talking to his subconcuious/intution.

Shale · « **Reply #951 on:** January 21, 2012, 01:36:35 AM »

Something that I didn't forget about in Suicide Squad but is still amazing: Grant Morrison being killed by a Mayan werewolf.

I was going to read Queen & Country next, but I may have to ditch that for Secret Six because Suicide Squad left me wanting more. As usual.

superaielman · « **Reply #952 on:** January 21, 2012, 05:15:19 PM »

Grave Peril- Much, much better Fool Moon. Michael is a great partner/foil for Harry.

Summer Knight- About halfway through. Butcher really is starting to get into a groove at this point. The books are very quick reads- pulpy is one term for it, but I don't think it quite does the novels justice. His constant nods to earlier books is a great touch, and the dialog is still razor sharp. (I lost it at the Penthouse letters reference in regards to Mauve trying to seduce him.) The 'Buffy meets Marlowe' is pretty accurate- The banter, the quirky sidekicks, the staggering array of evil and supernatural lined up against Harry makes for a hell of a tail. He spends most of the books in some kind of state of physical agony, but ends up kicking ass in some form or the other. <_< It reminds me more of a really awesome DL writeup than anything else, down to the main good guy being ran by his hormones and picking fights with far stronger beings- and still somehow surviving it. I don't think Butcher would be worth a goddamn as a swords and spell writer, but his style is perfect for these books.

Harry is in the mold of Michael Westen/Bruce Wayne/Sam Beckett below the banter and hormones- a guy who has a dark side, but is absolutely unwilling to deviate from doing what he thinks is right regardless of personal cost.
Poor Murphy.

Shale · « **Reply #953 on:** January 21, 2012, 07:01:06 PM »

Secret Six: Ragdoll is fantastic.

Edit: Oh, MAN. Cid, you really need to read this book. And not just for the part where Ostrander comes back to write a Suicide Squad arc.

Sierra · « **Reply #954 on:** January 22, 2012, 05:21:35 AM »

What is this thing you are talking about.

Shale · « **Reply #955 on:** January 22, 2012, 06:23:35 AM »

Secret Six is Gail Simone writing a villain team-up book with Deadshot in it, which is reason enough to draw a parallel with the Squad, but it also has a pretty amazing sense of humor, frequent Wall cameos, and Bane declaring himself the father figure to Vandal Savage's estranged lesbian daughter.

Clear Tranquil · « **Reply #956 on:** January 22, 2012, 04:37:39 PM »

Farseer Trilogy- Finished. Really liked the interaction between Fitz and the Fool in book 3 and the Fool in general really. Need to reread Books 1/2 because I have a feeling I might have missed underlying subtext there. Also grew quite fond of Kettle even if she was supposed to be the stand in for Chade or something. The lack of Chade himself and substantial Burrich was noteable in the last book. Sadness. Though Kettle made up for it some and the Fool definitely did especially with his actions during the finale/final fight ^_^ Apart from this the ending felt quite rushed, Kettle's goodbyes/ending felt rushed (well nothing at all really happened here if I remember right, apart from it being noted she'd said goodbye and then was gone >_>) Kettricken's future/condition felt rushed, the end of Regal felt rushed, the explanation for the Raiders felt rushed. Probably because it all happened at once!

Kettricken became my favourite female character, well either her and Kettle with both of them up there~

superaielman · « **Reply #957 on:** January 25, 2012, 07:15:11 AM »

Death masks/blood rites/dead beats are done. This series really picks up quite nicely after book 3, since all the seeding starts to pay off.

The entire final charge of Harry in Dead Beats will not be topped. Necromancers animate ancient warriors? Fuck that noise. Harry summons a fucking *ZOMBIE T-REX* to deal with that. That is so over the top that I couldn't help but laugh.

Clear Tranquil · « **Reply #958 on:** January 27, 2012, 12:39:30 AM »

Picked up three books this afternoon, Book 3 of the Hunger Games - Mockingjay, The Haunting of James Hastings (which was an impulsive buy, I picked it up and read the back of it, seems quite interesting) and Fool's Errand (I tried to resist jumping back into the world with these characters so soon but >_>)

Just reached the reunion with Fool and Fitz in Chapter 5. Second time I've become teary eyed in the book already (first was when Fitz realised his granduncle still loved him and the way in which the scene played out, probably effected me so much because of the old man thing and how close I am to my own grandpa <_< Also I skipped Chapter 4 because I wanted to get to this chapter already *nodnods* >_> It was worth the wait. I was lucky the book shop had the first book in this series and not just the second and/or third. Well actually it only had the first book so.

Probably going to try and put it down for a while and read the one shot or finish off the Hunger Games though because I probably shouldn't stay in one world or be invested in the same particular characters (mostly the Fool though the wolf is quite awesme too!) for so long at a time <_<

superaielman · « **Reply #959 on:** January 28, 2012, 05:43:49 AM »

Almost caught up with the Dresden Files books. Finished changes; still need to read side jobs. Don't have too much to say, other than the books were fantastic fun. Side characters like Marcone, Morgan, and Thomas really grow into fun characters over the course of the books. Butcher's style benefits tremendously from keeping the setting in one place and with one PoV character. That lets him both maintain his insane pacing and keep doing good character work.

Edit: Ghost Story was okay but definitely not as cool as the last book. definitely curious as to where the series goes from there.

Idun · « **Reply #960 on:** January 30, 2012, 05:36:57 AM »

Adorno and Horkheimer just suckerpunched me in the face tonight, since I had over 500ish pages to read this week, a reading group, two meetings with a professor on top of needing to eat. God damn, not a fan of Marcus Wood (another book) but I totally turned into mind jelly when reading the Dialectic of Enlightenment and an extremely inaccessible German art catalog. I'm slowly falling into barbarism (re: yeah, I skipped 15 pages flatout. And?)

O ya, and I have another halfbook to read by Wood on Tuesday, hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Luther Lansfeld · « **Reply #961 on:** January 30, 2012, 07:00:15 PM »

Sarmiento and Gruber, Ocean Biogeochemical Dynamics, tears. 67 pages of pure ocean science.

Hunter Sopko · « **Reply #962 on:** January 30, 2012, 07:02:17 PM »

Quote from: Ciato on January 30, 2012, 07:00:15 PM

Sarmiento and Gruber, Ocean Biogeochemical Dynamics, tears. 67 pages of pure ocean science.

Read Blue Mars instead. 400 pages of pure ocean science

With Old People Sex!

Shale · « **Reply #963 on:** January 30, 2012, 09:04:03 PM »

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: about halfway through and I am utterly mystified as to how this became a thing. I mean, I'm liking it, but the translation shows in stilted language and odd turns of phrase, the first 40 pages are journalistic minutae interesting to me and no other living human, and, 250-ish pages into a book that calls itself a “thriller,” not a damn thing has actually happened outside of flashbacks. The Da Vinci Code had so, so many flaws, but slow pacing was not among them.

Anyway, Larsson finally finished the setup for the mystery around page 210, and the time since then has been spent on the main character (a) moving and (b) conducting interviews with the cast of a Murder She Wrote episode.

. . . .oh, wait. See what I did there? I said it was “the main character” doing those things, but it wasn't. It was the male lead, not the hacker chick the book is named after. And yet I'm thinking of him as the main character. That's because the titular tattooed lady basically doesn't exist. I mean, she has scenes where the author tells us what a badass private investigator she is, but she hasn't actually done a single thing to affect the course of events in the plot. Nada. Although from her latest flashback the support system for mentally ill individuals in Sweden is seriously fucked up, so I can't say the book hasn't taught me anything.

On the plus side, the mystery itself is Ace Attorney-riffic, and specifically put me in mind of case 3-5, so that's an instant point in the book's favor. Plus the main character is a heroic reporter. So I'm enjoying the read, but for reasons totally unrelated to the quality of the writing.

Captain K. · « **Reply #964 on:** January 30, 2012, 11:05:37 PM »

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: Get out of my mind, Shale.

I just finished it this morning. The writing is amateurish. At first I wasn't sure if it was the writing itself or the act of being translated from Swedish. Then he starts doing things like including website urls in his text. Facepalm.

But the writing does get better as it goes along, and it becomes quite the pageturner. There is also the curious decision to have the climax of the novel at approximately 2/3rds of the way through it. This is a big gamble, because if we're not already interested in the characters, there's no reason for us to stick around for *that* much of an after-party. Luckily, the gamble pays off and you do indeed stick around to see more of these characters.

My biggest complaint is how Salandar doesn't immediately taser the fuck out of Blomkvist upon their first meeting. Sure it advances the story, but it's very inconsistent with her character established in the first part of the book.

But yeah, overall it was good. Now I can go see the movie.

Shale · « **Reply #965 on:** January 31, 2012, 01:02:21 AM »

Quote from: Captain K. on January 30, 2012, 11:05:37 PM

My biggest complaint is how Salandar doesn't immediately taser the fuck out of Blomkvist upon their first meeting. Sure it advances the story, but it's very inconsistent with her character established in the first part of the book.

This is the scene I just read. OUT OF MY MIND.

And yeah, the book picked up a lot in the last hundred pages or so. Stuff happened! The mystery advanced! Lisbeth actually did something instead of having the narrator proclaim her rebellious awesomeness! I'm still in it for the reporting.

Edit: Totally agreed on the amateurish details. When Larsson spent two paragraphs on the specs of Lisbeth's new iBook I wanted to punch his corpse in the face.

Grefter · « **Reply #966 on:** January 31, 2012, 06:46:50 AM »

Established franchise is the answer as to why this is a thing.

superaielman · « **Reply #967 on:** February 15, 2012, 08:49:16 PM »

News: I'm getting put into the final wheel of time book as an Aiel.

Views: http://gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs/126331_o.gif

Clear Tranquil · « **Reply #968 on:** February 15, 2012, 09:55:29 PM »

Stalking Sanderson finally paid off?

Hahaha congratulations!

Dark Holy Elf · « **Reply #969 on:** February 16, 2012, 12:48:31 AM »

Nice! I'll keep a look out.

Captain K. · « **Reply #970 on:** February 16, 2012, 02:35:34 AM »

There's going to be an Aiel named Super? Little weird, but okay. Congratulations.

Bobbin Cranbud · « **Reply #971 on:** February 17, 2012, 04:21:51 AM »

That and the fact Sanderson is writing the new WoT books is almost, almost enough to convince me to try the series again.

... but not quite. Still, congrats, Super. That's really cool.

Veryslightlymad · « **Reply #972 on:** February 17, 2012, 09:58:34 AM »

Hell yeah, Super. Congratulations.
~~~
Hearts of Smoke and Steam

There were times during this novel where I felt like "You know what? I could get published someday if this person did", but not in a way where I thought "This writing is bad".... more like "I think that I can write at about this level easy enough". Self-confidence? In my VSMs?

At any rate, the actual book was worth reading, if you read the first of the Society of Steam novels, The Falling Machine, but it's a bit different---in the first book, everyone, from the heroes to the villains seemed very, very competent, efficient, and just plain good at what they do--in this book, everyone makes dumbassed mistakes except for... uh.... some of the villains. Some. Most amusingly is the daredevilesque badass called "Anubis", who has a "I'm a double-agent" thing going on, but.... really, he just sucks all the time. Like, pretty much everything he does in the book is failure. It's funny. (I'm also vaguely sure that Anubis is black, or, as the book so happily terms "A negro", given that someone immediately recognizes a secret about him by seeing a small hole in the BACK of his costume. There's a lot of talk in the book about "Negroes", largely because one of the villains is a KKK-themed guy called the "White Knight". I am not making this up.)

OK, you know what, I enjoyed this book, but I think I might just be a better writer. IN FAIRNESS to Mr. Mayer, it is only his second novel, and as I did find it quite enjoyable and fresh (although lately Steampunk fiction is becoming a real "thing") I suspect that he'll grow into something greater. I'll certainly continue to read the SoS books as they come out.

Captain K. · « **Reply #973 on:** February 17, 2012, 11:46:37 AM »

A Discovery of Witches: I would say it's a Twilight ripoff. Awkward woman with hidden power falls hard for super-cool vampire. But there's enough science and history mixed in to make it a hell of a lot smarter than Twilight.

But! The book is designed to be a series, and as such, nothing really happens. It's all just buildup for the next two books. This is not the way to write a series. Hunger Games has sequels, but the first book is a complete story in and of itself and stands on its own. Same with Mistborn. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo climaxed early, but at least it had a climax. This book does not. All buildup and no climax leaves you with literary blue balls.

Shale · « **Reply #974 on:** February 17, 2012, 04:49:31 PM »

Finished the Millennium trilogy (AKA the Dragon Tattoo books). What a weird set of reads. Good overall story, good characters. Neither Lisbeth Salander nor Mikael Blomkvist fits nicely into generic protagonist boxes – Salander is antisocial to the point where it damages her life in tangible ways over and over, Blomkvist's manwhoring even gets on polygamists' nerves. And the villains are pretty well-drawn, although we don't get to spend much time with them before they go down. Blame that on the books being so slow to develop – every one starts with a good 50-100 pages of background and infodump, then setup, and then the plot finally gets moving around page 200. The third book changes that up a bit, since it picks up right where part 2 left off, but the infodump still shows up eventually. It also has problems with the idea of “tension.” The good guys spend nearly the entire book a step ahead of the bad guys. They know it, the reader knows it and the bad guys don't. Thus the “climax” is everything playing exactly into the heroes' hands (although the last fight is nifty). This is why the old cliché where the only plan that goes right is the one the reader doesn't know about is so tried and true – it's not really exciting to see things happen exactly as we're expecting them to.

Now I need to track down the movies (Swedish version, from what reviews I've read). Should be fun – the books would benefit tremendously from an editor, and even a long movie based on them would be edited down substantially.

Started on Old Man's War (John Scalzi's first book) this morning, about sixty pages in. Good stuff so far. I was expecting something more brutal than the actual “youth” treatment, but this looks like it'll have some entertaining fallout regardless.

News:

Author Topic: Books (Read 158898 times)

Idun