Books

[Captain K.]

Still no Books topic on the new board?  Huh.

Eye of the World:  So I'm reading this and thinking, "This sounds familiar.  This sounds *really* familiar."  Then I realize.  The beginning of Eragon is exactly the same, event for event.  Way to be a massive ripoff, Eragon.

Anyway, after I got to some parts I hadn't read before, it was pretty good.  A bit too reliant on coincidences for my tastes, but I guess that's kind of the point with the "Web".

[CompmanJX3]

I knew something was missing.  Winter break reading:

Shadow of the Hegemon - I read (or attempted) the original Ender saga when I was in like sixth grade.  Probably a bad idea.  Ender's Game I found (and still find) awesome, but the others were over my head, I think.  I should probably reread them.  That said, the Bean saga, two books in, is more fun.  More political intrigue, more action, less aliens.

Rendezvous with Rama - Awesome.  2001 was my first exposure to Clarke, and it was awesome, but I like this a lot more.  The eeriness of the whole thing and the vivid pictures it allows the imagination to form are just awesome.  I've only read two of his books now, but Clarke is damn good at suspense, it seems.  I need to read more of his stuff.

The Left Hand of Darkness - Pretty strange novel, but good job by Leguin characterizing such a completely different world and its response to the arrival of a human "envoy".  Got a little boring during the trek across the ice, but that's far enough into the novel that you're already hooked.  Great writing, but not as much fun as the other things I've read recently.

Watchmen - I don't usually read graphic novels, mostly because I'm too impatient to pay much attention to the pictures, so I kind of have to force myself.  But I heard this was pretty much the best so I picked it up.  Good decision on my part.  The story is awesome and the characters are even more awesome.  Rorschach is pretty much the most badass person ever.  I'm not a huge fan of comic book artwork from an aesthetic perspective, but the way Moore and Gibbons integrate the art with the text, especially with regards to the "comic book within a comic book", is phenomenal

[Grefter]

Most things by Alan Moore are a cut above the usual chaffe Comp.  Look up V.

I have not been reading and this is pathetic.

[Sierra]

Mostly good stuff there, Compman. Ender's Game is excellent, but I'd say don't bother rereading the sequels. They get progressively less interesting as time goes on.

Rendezvous With Rama is indeed a lot of fun, but the series gets more strung out and unfocused as it proceeds. If you really liked it (as did I), you might want to try the second for the same sense of mystery (and some funky aliens). Exploring the ship really is a lot of fun. Unfortunately, like many series that get their effectiveness from keeping you wondering, it's less than rewarding once you actually get answers. Rama, unfortunately, wraps up with one of the lamest and most literal deus ex machinas I've ever encountered. It's best not to go past the first one or two books.

Also seconding everything you said about The Left Hand of Darkness (and adding nothing more, because at least Le Guin had the good sense to not expand her standalone book into a series!)

Watchmen does indeed kick ass. Pick up more of Moore's stuff if you liked it that much, as he is indeed that much groovier than other comic book fare. V for Vendetta should be next, as Grefter noted, but I am also quite fond of Top Ten (a very fun, cast-driven series set in a city populated entirely by superheroes. Sends up a lot of the familiar archetypes while paying homage to them. Even if you don't dig that angle, the characters are awesome).

[Grefter]

Moore tends to work with archetypes and flesh them out into full bodied characters I find.  Everything in Watchmen is an archetype, so is pretty much everything in V.  I don't think you can get more cliched than Captain Marvel/Miracle Man (which I have not read) and Swamp Thing by all fairness should have been a really tired old plot by the time Moore got his hands on it.

[Sierra]

Yep, this is one of the reasons I like the guy so much. I appreciate seeing someone who obviously grew up on a medium analyze it so thoroughly that they can honor all the old tropes while breathing new life into them (see Cave Story for a videogame example!)

Aaaanyway, I'm picking up the massive Discworld reread again for obvious reasons. I'd stopped at Carpe Jugulum on account of not liking it much the first time through. Still think it's one of the weakest books, but "bad" Pratchett is still quality work. On Fifth Elephant now. Yay, Vimes! Probably my least favorite of the Watch books, but still entertaining.

[ThePiggyman]

Got some books for Christmas (The Thief Lord, Dragon Rider and Inkheart), and I've started to read them.

The Thief Lord - So far, a good book. I very much Prosper and Bo, and the gang of children in hiding all have their charms. Don't know a whole lot about the Thief Lord himself yet, but Prosper's getting into the stealing business, so maybe soon.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Been reading a biography of Einstein recently. Screw fiction! Anyway, it's a pretty interesting read - the science is naturally fascinating to me, but the politicals and personality of the man himself and how they shaped him, and hence modern science in general, is neat. It's pretty heavy and I'm not a fast reader, though, so it'll take a while.

Other than that, WoT reread is stopped in Book 7, which is familiar territory for me. Never did write a summary of Book 6, oh well. I'm also looking at picking up the new Robin Hobb trilogy at some point, given that eight of the nine of her books that I've read rank among my favourite fantasy titles.

[Cotigo]

Dreamsongs:  Eh.  It's all right.  Some of his older short stories aren't that good, but they are just that:  his older short stories.  Enjoy the parts about R.R. Martin's life, at least.

Dance of Dragons needs to come out already.  I demand more Tyrion.

EDIT:  NEB, what's the title of the Einstein Biography?  It sounds like something I might want to pick up at some point.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Einstein: His Life and Universe, by Walter Isaacson.

[IhatethisCPU]

>_>

Rereading the Discworld series(Skipping Eric), the HGttG Trilogy, and books one and two of Melanie Rawn's Exile Trilogy.

Trying to find my collection of P.G. Wodehouse novels. Having no luck whatsoever.

[BaconForTheSoul]

Gunslinger, part of the Dark Tower series by King.

Umm... it was really boring.  The pace was slow, the plot was mehish, and not really a fan of the style King wrote with in this one.  However, in his forward he even said that book 1 is unlike the rest in every way, and although he didn't say it outright I think he didn't like book one.  Guess this means I have to give book 2 a shot.

[VySaika]

Opened Fortune's Fool last night around 10:30 PM. Closed it around 4:00 AM. Hadn't read anything new in awhile, so kinda amused to see that my old habits of "Open Book->ignore everything until book is finished->look at clock and blink as I try to figure out how it got so late" are still in place.

[Twilkitri]

Out of interest, does anyone here read Tom Holt at all?

[Shale]

Only Paint Your Dragon and Open Sesame so far, but I liked them a good deal.

[Twilkitri]

I've read 10 of them, and they range from mehish to pretty good. Haven't read either of those so I'll have to look at getting them some time.

Of the ones I've read, Odds and Gods would have to be the worst. Unsure of which I'd call the best, but My Hero, Flying Dutch, and Expecting Someone Taller are up there. I'd include Valhalla in that except it's been years since I read it so I might be thinking it's better than it actually is (also I don't even remember if that's the actual name of it).

[BaconForTheSoul]

Read 3 Laymon's in 3 days.  Darkness Tell Us, After Midnight, and the Beast House.  Most recent one from like '97 or something like that.  Standard Laymon.  People die, people have sex, couple of plot twists, etc.  Keeps me interested, but I think I'm about ready to read Book 2 of the Dark Tower series.

[Ranmilia]

So I finished A Game of Thrones and will be moving on to the rest of the Ice & Fire series in short order.

The writing style is fantastic, kept me turning pages and reading instead of skimming.  The content, on the other hand... the book cut off at a very unsatisfying spot, and what did go on was pretty much standard, predictable fare.  After 800 pages, nothing was resolved except for developments that were painfully obvious in the first 100 pages.  Hopefully the rest of the series won't be quite as predictable, but I'm not betting on it.

Predictions for future books:
- Cat dies, Sansa sacrifices herself for something, Robb may die late in the series, the other Starks (and Snow) survive.
- Tywin is the only Lannister at serious risk of death in the near future (next book).  Cersei and probably Jaime will survive entirely too long.  Joffrey will die before they do.  Tyrion will live to the end of the series.
- Stannis will come in and rock a lot of face, but ultimately fail, though possibly only in the last book.  His biggest threat is the incoming southern horde.
- The next book will focus on Renly a fair bit and he will likely be dead by the end of it.
- Benjen is alive and hanging out with Jim Raynor or whatever the outlaw king's name is.  He may not be alive for too long after Jon finds him, though.
- The source of the wights will never be fully explained.
- Daenerys will survive for a long time, possibly to the end.
- There will be an unlikely alliance between one of the far northern and one of the far southern factions.
- The Hound will redeem himself.

[Grefter]

Ooooh interesting predictions Al.  Very interesting in the places where you are correct on the rough parts of the events but not quite on what takes part in them.

[Ranmilia]

Read the prologue of Clash of Kings.  Forget everything I said about Stannis, he's a jerk.  Way to ruin the hype everyone laid on him in the first book.

[Grefter]

Yyyyep, my thoughts exactly.

[Dhyerwolf]

Finished up the Otherworld series. Generally badass, and the ending came together really well. Did a good job at sustaining the momentum for several books, and seeing all the created worlds was pretty cool (The giant house one was my favorite, I think). The books were all nice and thick, and the protaginists were quite interesting for the most part.

[Sierra]

Agreed on some points, Dhyer (the giant house world was awesome). Not so much on the ending, though. Did *spoilers* really have to come back? Fun series overall, though.

[Grefter]

I need to finish that series, but the massive bulk of the books kind of put me off them.  I tried to get through book 2 but the books actually manage to be of size that even as a fairly avid reader who will chew throw some mind boggling sized books and series, I just had enough of the author and the book 3/4 of the way through.  They were good books and the first one really blew me away, just no way I could continue reading it.  They are just enormous books.

Edit - Let me rephrase that.  They are "Oh shit I stayed up reading all night it is 6 in the morning" good while also only having got through 1/4 of the book where that under normal circumstances gets you one almost finished.

[Yakumo]

Heh.  I kinda feel the same as Grefter.  I've actually managed to get through the first three, just haven't gotten around to finishing the fourth.  They're just too big to sit down and casually read, I guess.