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Since it's St. Patrick's Day weekend, I'm reading "Green" by Jay Lake. It's about a girl sold into slavery, trained to be the perfect lady, secretly trained to be an assassin, and then things go sideays.
La Femme Nikita?
This weekend I read The Name of the Wind, and Princess / Gods / Warlord of Mars.
Okay, I can see reading the first three Carter books in 2 and a half days, but you read Rothfuss as well in the same time period?
You need to get out more, Comrade Hawkshaw.
Also, how'd you like Rothfuss?
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I am starting the Horatio Hornblower series by C. S. Forester. I need some nautical inspiration.
And if you are finished with that series continue with Alexander Kent's Bolitho novels... and David Feintuch's Seafort Saga ("Hornblower in Space").
I have finished Iain M. Banks Surface Detail. Great ride, but you need to read it in one go. There are many different threads in the novel that confuse you if you have to stop reading. It is not his best novel, but still one of the best books (Top 3) I have read so far this year.
Now reading: S.M.Stirling The Protector's War.
I love the premise of the novels of the Change, but I am taking my time with this book, because other things (Translations & Co) are eating up all my spare time. (Back, you damnable things, back)
Knocked off the King time travel book over the weekend -- a bit too much "Back to the Future II" for my taste, but the very ending was actually good -- which figures, because apparently King threw out the ending he wrote and used the one his son came up with.
Also re-read "A Princess of Mars" in honor of having finally seen the (lame) movie this weekend.
I've put aside Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog because Intruder the latest book in C.J.Cherryh's Foreigner series finally arrived. (Other new arrivals: Game of Thrones DVD set and a puppy; it's been a rather busy weekend, but I digress.)
On the subject of Cherryh's Atevi: Advanced race guide can't see publication too soon!
OMG Kirth, you want awesome time travel stories, read Willis' stuff; To Say Nothing of the Dog is the funny one, but they're all good. One sentence explanation, you can't bring any objects back from the past or change events, so the only ones who use it are historians. The series (4 books and a novella) is centered around Oxford's history department.
I be reading Macbeth, The language, it burns, burns!
I've put aside Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog because Intruder the latest book in C.J.Cherryh's Foreigner series finally arrived. (Other new arrivals: Game of Thrones DVD set and a puppy; it's been a rather busy weekend, but I digress.)
On the subject of Cherryh's Atevi: Advanced race guide can't see publication too soon!
OMG Kirth, you want awesome time travel stories, read Willis' stuff; To Say Nothing of the Dog is the funny one, but they're all good. One sentence explanation, you can't bring any objects back from the past or change events, so the only ones who use it are historians. The series (4 books and a novella) is centered around Oxford's history department.
Ooh! Intruder is out? Awesome! I'll have to check it out at my library!
Yeah, they totally need an atevi-esque race. Powerful Build plus +2 to Knowledge (whatever Knowledge skill covers mathematics...maybe even Linguistics?). Maybe some lowlight vistion and keen senses.
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Well the first book is sort of Harry Potter / Valdemar / Harpers of Pern-y.Okay, I can see reading the first three Carter books in 2 and a half days, but you read Rothfuss as well in the same time period?
You need to get out more, Comrade Hawkshaw.
Also, how'd you like Rothfuss?
Meant to come back and edit this but I guess the time is up. I'll be honest, I mainly read for the escapism and pleasure. I'm no literary critic. The book was good enough for me to sit down and read it, but it didn't blow my mind the same way reading the first book of a genre or subgenre usually does.
I'll be reading the second one when I can get it cheaply.
I'm no literary critic.
Well, then, your opinion means nothing to me. Get out of here, Bob!
I am starting the Horatio Hornblower series by C. S. Forester. I need some nautical inspiration.And if you are finished with that series continue with Alexander Kent's Bolitho novels... and David Feintuch's Seafort Saga ("Hornblower in Space").
I have finished Iain M. Banks Surface Detail. Great ride, but you need to read it in one go. There are many different threads in the novel that confuse you if you have to stop reading. It is not his best novel, but still one of the best books (Top 3) I have read so far this year.
Now reading: S.M.Stirling The Protector's War.
I love the premise of the novels of the Change, but I am taking my time with this book, because other things (Translations & Co) are eating up all my spare time. (Back, you damnable things, back)
Thanks Oliver for the pointers. I got sidetracked by Harry Turtledove's new one Supervolcano: Eruption, first of a projected trilogy. I found it pretty meh. And I own pretty much everything Turtledove has written. I think that the middle of America getting blown up and covered in ash would do a bit more than what he posited, but as always YMMV.
The Emberverse series is very good, but I am stalled in the last book ATM. Have been since September. Stirling is just getting a little ...um..Mary Sue with his characters. When a writer starts loving the characters (or world) a little TOO much, it's time for boot camp at GRRM's 'Kill 'em all let the editors sort it out' writers wrokshop.
Speaking of Harry Turtledove, I need to reread my copy of The Guns of the South sometime or another.
I'm about halfway through White Tiger by Kylie Chan. Kung Fu Urban Fantasy set (mostly) in Hong Kong. Dips a LITTLE into paranormal romance which I'm not into so much, but thus far I like the characters and the story, while a little slow is interesting. I'm in 'till the end.
Kirth, have you been travelling again?
Gimme some credit, 'cuz. Says they were arguing CS Lewis vs. JRR Tolkien, and you know I can't stand either one!
P.S. FINALLY started Guns, Germs, and Steel last night.
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Kirth, have you been travelling again?Gimme some credit, 'cuz. Says they were arguing CS Lewis vs. JRR Tolkien, and you know I can't stand either one!
[Starts fistfight]
Also, after an interminable delay caused by excessive drinking and D&D playing, I just finished Breakfast of Champions.
Sob.
Anyway, I know it's got its problems, but sometimes I just love wikipedia.
Also, there was an article I linked a while back on FAWTL about some drunk woman who attacked a painting (hee hee!) which led to some talk about abstract expressionism. This reminded me of Vonnegut's Bluebeard. I had forgotten that Rabo Karabekian, the protagonist of Bluebeard first made his appearance in BoC. I have decided to scrap all of my book-reading plans to continue re-reading Vonnegut.
Finished "Oath of Fealty", "Kings of the North" and starting "Echoes of Betrayal" by Elizabeth Moon :)
Finished my audiobook Under the Dome. Typical King fare, nothing too great. If you enjoy the corruption and destruction of a redneck Maine town you'll enjoy this
Fun factoid for the Bolshegobbo: Vonnegut spent his waning years living in a quiet neighborhood on Cape Cod. I have always wanted to find his digs and drink {=P} a toast to his memory
Fun factoid for the Bolshegobbo: Vonnegut spent his waning years living in a quiet neighborhood on Cape Cod. I have always wanted to find his digs and drink {=P} a toast to his memory
Yeah, I believe he lived there for quite a while. IIRC, part of God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater takes place there, although that doesn't mean he lived there that early.
Anyway, if you ever figure out where, I'd totally join you for a pilgrimage. He probably is the author whose works have had the biggest impact on my life--after Marx and Co., of course.
Vonnegut spent his waning years living in a quiet neighborhood on Cape Cod. I have always wanted to find his digs and drink {=P} a toast to his memory
He also used my hometown as a frequent setting, and the Holmes & Watson pub there is as good a toasting-place as there is on this earth.
Vonnegut spent his waning years living in a quiet neighborhood on Cape Cod. I have always wanted to find his digs and drink {=P} a toast to his memoryHe also used my hometown as a frequent setting, and the Holmes & Watson pub there is as good a toasting-place as there is on this earth.
You just mentioned your hometown the other day and I've read Cat's Cradle something like a million times--except, of course, the time it was assigned for Junior English class in high school. Can't believe I didn't make the connection! EDIT 2: That is, it being your hometown.
EDIT: Do you like Vonnegut, Kirth?
EDIT: Do you like Vonnegut, Kirth?
Yeah, he's OK. I don't share the raving fandom that a lot of people have for him, mostly because (IMO) his mastery of the language wasn't quite the equal of the ideas he was trying to convey. Then again, I never actually got through anything of his other than Slaughterhouse Five, so that's a very limited sample from which to draw an opinion!
Sirens of Titan is an excellent piece of work (by Vonnegut).
Also fond of Venus on the Half-shell (written as Kilgore Trout).
For anyone looking to expand their Vonnegut horizons...
Definitely enjoyable, and well worth the read. Far better than his Taltos work.
From a literary standpoint, I still think The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars was his best effort.
Remind me to hide some morganti daggers in your pillows. >:
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Recently discovered in a closing used book store:
Stephen Brust's To Reign In Hell. Definitely enjoyable, and well worth the read. Far better than his Taltos work.
It's an incredibly well-written book, particularly considering how early in his career he wrote it. But I could only read it through once; it's too much like watching a slow-motion train wreck as various characters paint themselves into corners in different ways.
Slaughterhouse-Five was awesome. So was The Sirens of Titan. But if Kirth doesn't hate Vonnegut, then I feel no need to keep reading him. No, seriously, the library called and T.H. White's The Book of Merlyn is available.
Also, am continuing to slowly work my way through Allen Ginsberg. In fact, I think, with my Bible reading and what not, that I will dedicate 2012 to reading Jewish prophets.
P.S. FINALLY started Guns, Germs, and Steel last night.
That is a good book.
Finished "Night Of Knives" by Ian Cameron Esslemont. I am sure the book would be incomprehensible to anyone who hadn't read at least six or seven parts of Malazan Book Of The Fallen series. Now is time to start hunting for Return Of The Crimson Guard...
P.S. FINALLY started Guns, Germs, and Steel last night.That is a good book.
Yes, it is.
Did you locate a copy of Peake, Alitan?
Also, I think I figured out why I hang out here all day.
EDIT: I mean, other than not having a life. Also, "rarely" is probably the wrong word for my DVD-watching.
I don't watch television, rarely watch DVDs and reading after a hard half-day's work puts me to sleep--which then screws up my schedule. Messing about on the internet, however, is a breeze!
Read the introductory essay to The Book of Merlyn and nodded out. Which is no dig at Ms. Sylvia Townsend Warner--I thought it was a very good essay about T.H. White, his notes on Malory and the history of the composition of The Once and Future King.
Did you locate a copy of Peake, Alitan?
Not yet; still clearing the decks of my John C. Wright and Allistair Reynolds. Have introduced my mom to "Orphans of Chaos" et. al., and "Revelation Space." Had to interlibrary loan a couple of titles... don't want to overwork the system, so Gormenghast got back-burnered. But I'll get to it.
I feel somehow under-read and pathetic because I've never read Peake. I'll have to move it up on my list.
Just finished "Green" by Jay Lake, just started "Prospero Lost" by L. Jagi Lamplighter.
I feel somehow under-read and pathetic because I've never read Peake. I'll have to move it up on my list.
Yes! Finally! (I'm going to take this as about the closest I'm ever going to get to a victory over Stuffy Grammarian.)
Y'know, Kirth, just a feeling from thinking back over all the other books that you like and dislike, and I'm not sure I'd recommend Peake to you. But, as you probably know, he's a big favorite of Moorcock's.
But, as you probably know, he's a big favorite of Moorcock's.
Yup, and Zelazny references him a few times as well. One thing I like to do is read authors who like other authors I like; I warmed up to Steve Brust because of his fanboyism for Dumas pere and Robert B. Parker -- an odd combo that boded well for his taste, in my opinion.
Hey everybody, let's make Kirth read Samuel R. Delany; It will break his brain!
I read Plato's The Republic, even though it took me three attempts, because Kirth mocked me.
I think he should have to read The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as some kind of equalizing penance.
Also, I've never read Samuel R. Delany, either.
Delany's a very interesting writer.
Black and born before the civil rights movement, but light skinned enough to be mistaken for white; gay and born before the sexual revolution, but married at the age of nineteen; Dyslexic and born before they had the diagnoses, but was supporting himself during said marriage as a science fiction writer.
It all combines as nine kinds of weirdo in one body. (That's a compliment.)
While his writing is clear, as in simple words and sentences, his dyslexia makes reading require a lot of concentration, which he passes onto his readers.
I would start with one of his "simple" books like Empire Star or A Fabulous, Formless Darkness. (Originally published under the title The Einstein Intersection.)
Dhalgren is at the top of my desert island list, but it's so totally not a book for new to Delany readers that I can't exactly recommend it.
Delany's a very interesting writer.
Black and born before the civil rights movement, but light skinned enough to be mistaken for white; gay and born before the sexual revolution, but married at the age of nineteen; Dyslexic and born before they had the diagnoses, but was supporting himself during said marriage as a science fiction writer.
It all combines as nine kinds of weirdo in one body. (That's a compliment.)
Hmm. Reminds me of Allen Ginsberg. You know, if you substitute Jewish for black.
I am not taking suggestions at the moment (I have to read all of Robert E. Howard--EDIT: Rather, all of Conan as written by REH and Carter and deCamp--this spring, for one), but my interest is surely piqued.
Hey, Hitdice, you want to try to finish Kirth's puzzle over in The Movie Game thread?
You're not reading hard enough, Doodle!
Will check out Kirth's thing once I get back from errands.
Finished Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, except for the new chapter that apparently came out yesterday. I liked it a lot. Parts get into the does-he-know-that-I-know-that-he-knows-that-I-know stuff I found so fun in Death Note. I was less enchanted when Harry made some kind of not articulated major decision and then the POV immediately shifted to Hermione for eight chapters.
So I'm back to the Opium Wars and debating if I want to continue with it. The content isn't bad at all but the writing's pretty sterile. It feels like something halfway between a textbook and a regular text. I'd replace it with Allison Weir's Wars of the Roses.
Further complicating things, I took the tablet plunge two weeks ago and the thing is about the perfect device for reading scanned comics, some of which I've been meaning to read or re-read for years. Claremont's bondage fetish is so hilariously obvious that it's kind of charming.
Of course I can read books on the thing too. I'm not sure if I prefer tree carcasses or electron carcasses.