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I finished Lamentation by Ken Scholes recently. After reading all the good reviews of it on Amazon, I have to scratch my head a little. The plot was really thin, the characters were lousy and everything that was cool about it had a tiny bit of "screen time". So many wasted opportunities. I appreciate trying to tell one huge story from several viewpoints and I do get tired of brick-thick fantasy novels but it really needed to be longer and better developed. It's set up as the first book in a series, but I honestly can't imagine wasting any time on it after this first book.
And I don't know that much about the use of carrier pigeons back in the day, but it seems like Scholes imagined them like fantasy email or text messaging. And you know what the worst way is to tell the reader how awesome your hero character happens to be? Having someone say,"He's quite a formidable man" every few chapters so that you get the idea. Blech.
I finished Lamentation by Ken Scholes recently. After reading all the good reviews of it on Amazon, I have to scratch my head a little. The plot was really thin, the characters were lousy and everything that was cool about it had a tiny bit of "screen time". So many wasted opportunities. I appreciate trying to tell one huge story from several viewpoints and I do get tired of brick-thick fantasy novels but it really needed to be longer and better developed. It's set up as the first book in a series, but I honestly can't imagine wasting any time on it after this first book.
And I don't know that much about the use of carrier pigeons back in the day, but it seems like Scholes imagined them like fantasy email or text messaging. And you know what the worst way is to tell the reader how awesome your hero character happens to be? Having someone say,"He's quite a formidable man" every few chapters so that you get the idea. Blech.
Interesting. A lot of people seem to be excited about this one, calling it this year's Scott Lynch or Joe Abercrombie, but the extracts I've read seem to be pretty unenthralling.
Reapers Gale...by Steven Erickson.... 7th book of the malazan Book of the Fallen Series.... Excellent Series...Great Characters...Very interesting take on Magic
A Feast of Crows George RR Martin, 4th book of A Song of Ice and FIre...for the 2nd time...in anticipation of the Fall release of Dance
with Dragons...which has been postponed for 3 very frustrating years... Song of Ice and Fire might be the modern crown jewel of Fantasy
A Feast of Crows George RR Martin, 4th book of A Song of Ice and FIre...for the 2nd time...in anticipation of the Fall release of Dance
with Dragons...which has been postponed for 3 very frustrating years... Song of Ice and Fire might be the modern crown jewel of Fantasy
Hate to be the cynic here, but the Fall date is still just a placeholder. George had said it would make it out by Fall if he finished by the end of June, but he's still not done as of June 22nd. Though at least he's unstuck.
Patrick Curtin
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Roleplaying Game, Campaign Setting, Companion, Battles Case Subscriber)
Just began Cathedral by the Sea for my new book. It seems to be similar to Ken Follet's masterpiece Pillars of the Earth.
Patrick Curtin
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Roleplaying Game, Campaign Setting, Companion, Battles Case Subscriber)
Fragile Things - Short Fictions and Wonders, an anthology by Neil Gaiman. This is the first thing I've read by Gaiman, and I can't believe what I've been missing. Absolutely spectacular writing.
Gaiman's a great writer. I came upon him late as well, but I recommend his other novels American Gods and Anansi Boys highly.
Hate to be the cynic here, but the Fall date is still just a placeholder. George had said it would make it out by Fall if he finished by the end of June, but he's still not done as of June 22nd. Though at least he's unstuck.
Word. There is no way this is coming out in the Fall in the United States. A UK release in November isn't totally impossible but is still very unlikely unless he finishes imminently, and since he's off to Finland for a convention, that seems unlikely.
Annoyingly, a few UK Waterstones branches have put up signs saying "Now available to preorder," based on out-of-date information from Voyager Books. People who pre-order it now expecting to get it in the autumn are likely to be disappointed.
Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: A Biography - by Edward Rice
Amazing! Allow me to paste a blurb...
'Soldier, spy, swordsman, linguist (29 languages!), proto-anthropologist, adventurer, explorer, eroticist, prolific writer and poet, and seeker after hidden gnosis - Richard Francis Burton was all of this and more. While no single biography can capture the entirety of this amazing life, Edward Rice's book is an insightful, fascinating treatment of this larger than life man, and deserves to be read by all who wish to know Burton.
While Rice's book covers the whole of Burton's life and career, its concentration and strengths are on his period of greatest adventuring and exploring, from his introduction to India and the East as a soldier and spy for the East India Company, through his exploits in Arabia, and his explorations in Africa. Rice lingers long over Burton's wanderings in India, exploring in depth how Burton immersed himself in Eastern languages, customs, religions, and thought until he could easily pass himself off as a native.
Burton's most famous exploits - the pilgrimage to Mecca disguised as an Arab, penetrating the sacred and forbidden city of Harar in East Africa (the first European to do so), and his explorations of Central Africa, searching for the source of the Nile, are all covered in depth, with great detail.
And he took a Somali spear through the face and lived to talk about it. Just incredible stuff!
Finished the Deepgate Codex Trilogy (Scar Night, Iron Angel, God of Clocks) by Alan Campbell (one of the designers of Grand Theft Auto). It cheesed me off a bit. The first book is excellent, mixing elements of the New Weird with Neil Gaiman and steampunk. The city of Deepgate is a brilliantly original and atmospheric creation and the characters were interesting.
Then it all went off the rails. The 'real' story turned out to involve characters and situations not even mentioned in Book 1 who turn up out of nowhere in Book 2. We also leave Deepgate behind in favour of rather ordinary secondary world fantasy towns and a prolonged trip through Hell, which would be more interesting if Campbell had come up with something more original rather than throwing together some Dante-esque ideas with Gaiman's depiction of Hell from Sandman. Book 3 then brings in time travel to fix things, and all dramatic tension flies out the window.
It's annoying because there is so much stuff here that is really good, with superb characters like John Anchor and Carnival remaining interesting and a story that, up until the mid-Book 3 deus ex machina eruption, is pretty compelling. He's also a funny writer, and there are a few moments in each of the three books that inspire genuine belly-laughs. But the trilogy falls apart towards the end and never really lives up to the promise of Book 1.
Now reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Galileo's Dream.
Just read Robert Howard's The Hour of the Dragon, fun, wish there were more cultural depth, up next are Bujold's Chalion books or four remaining Howard's.
Dead Beat, by Jim Butcher.Wait 'til the tenth book, that's the one I most remember of the series.
I'm looking forward to it. Meanwhile, I'm on to Proven Guilty.
I'm looking forward to it. Meanwhile, I'm on to Proven Guilty.
Hmm. Down near the bottom of the series for me, along with Fool Moon. But some important stuff does happen. And Dead Beat really is great.
I wasn't that fond of the start of Blood Rites either, but the ending was great.
Just finished Dune for my sci-fi book club and it was a fantastic read. I'm seriously considering moving on to the second book.
Now I have to finish Robots Have No Tails (Yaaa for Planet Stories!), A Game of Thrones (last months book for book club), and Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life.
Ok...let's see what's on my docket. Just finished "The Summoner" by Gail Martin and I really want to read the rest of them. It was a pretty solid fantasy read. Just finished rereading "Soon I will be Invincible". Still a really awesome book at the top of my list. The "Bubba Ho-Tep" novel that the movie was based on. And finally "Prometheus Rising" by Robert Wilson. It took two attempts and I still don't know if I like it or not. I can't even really tell if it's new age mumbo jumbo or science-y psychology. But it was free so I read it.
Now, I'm working on "Thinking Critically" by John Chaffee, Machiavelli's "The Prince" and "Dune" because everyone keeps mentioning it. Maybe I'll throw in something less cerebral if something piques my curiosity. Or if chapters get's the other two novels I mentioned above.
Patrick Curtin
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Roleplaying Game, Campaign Setting, Companion, Battles Case Subscriber)
I've begun reading the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series of late. I kept hearing about them as the iconic rogues of swords and sorcery stories and after reading Swords and Deviltry I have to say I'm hooked.
This series is probably the closest to an actual 'D&D' feeling world, most likely because Gygax doted on the series.
Interesting nerd trivia: Fritz Lieber is the son of two Shakespearian actors who also worked in early Hollywood, and he had bit parts in some early screen movies himself. Many take his early involvement in Hollywood as his inspiration for Lankhmar and its weary cynicism/grey morality.
Just started The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan....very creepy so far...Oooo - is it good?
I bought it Friday, finished it last night :)
I thought it was very good...some nice creepy parts. I think it may have been because of Del Toro's influence, but I seemed to really visualize how it would look/play out as if it was a movie. I don't think there are any plans (yet) to make it a movie, but they could.
The only down side was that I didn't read the inside cover, so I didn't know it was the first of a trilogy, the other 2 due to come out in 2010 and 2011. I tend to read quickly, and couple that with a complete lack of patience, so I tend to not buy trilogies/series until they are either all released, or about to be all released.
Resuming the Discworld reread marathon. Finished Mort, moving onto Sourcery.
Read The Strain a while back. It's a good book, not high art by any means but a decent horror story with a real sense of menace. It's got Del Toro's signature style all over it and you could imagine him sketching out the monsters in it with real glee.
Interestingly, it was originally a TV pilot for Fox. Fox, in their traditional kick-the-creator-up-the-ass way (see also Whedon, Joss), asked Del Toro for many changes such as more fights and explosions. Del Toro told them to get stuffed instead and took his script off to turn it into a bestselling novel trilogy instead. Apparently some other TV networks are now interested in it.
"The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World"
"Big money is intoxicating. During the great bubble of the late 1990s, I escorted one of the newly really rich to be interviewed at CNN, where I headed the financial network. "I just made $400 million today," he boomed, taking the stairs two at a time. The air around him seemed charged with electric good fortune ... "
You can cheat too, and watch the > PBS 2 hour video < of the book online.
Radavel
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Roleplaying Game, Campaign Setting, Companion, Modules Subscriber)
Currently reading "Baa Baa Black Sheep" by Greg Boyington, "Once an Eagle" by Anton Myrer, "The Coldest Winter" by David Halberstam, and "Inferno," by Dante
I didnt even know that Boyington had written a wartime account until i saw it on the shelf at school, picked it up, read the first few pages and had to read it.
he was also a p40 pilot with the flying tigers, didnt know that, didnt sound like he enjoyed much of that time.
great read, i imigaine that it would be hard to find, it was written in '58.
Well, our next sci-fi book club book is Kindred by Octavia Butler, so I've started that. Very well written so far and I like how she's using the time travel as a metaphor for slavery. Least that's how I'm reading it.
Also just finished Lord of Spiders from the Planet Stories line. Ugh, I wish I'd read another Brackett book instead. Consider me done with Moorcock's Burroughs pastiche. Still plugging away at Game of Thrones and looking to start Storm Dragon by James Wyatt next.