Be sure not to die before you read Ancillary Justice.I'm four and a half chapters into Ancillary Justice, and I'm still waiting for the plot to show up. There hasn't been even the slightest hint of a goal or motivation for the protagonist. I'll probably give it the rest of Chapter 5, but then I'm moving on.but, DUDE, *everyone* is saying this book is great. *everyone*.
Yeah, but I don't think I've seen anyone praising the book say anything about the plot or characters. Almost all the praise has been about the genderless language of the narrator. I guess if referring to everyone as "she" is all it takes to make a book fascinating for you... *shrug*
To be fair, the beginnings of the plot did show up in the second half of Chapter 5. Apparently, the protagonist wants to kill somebody. Why?... Not sure. How?... Well, she needs a special gun, apparently (special in what way? No clue). But hey, the narrator can't tell the difference between men and women! How cool is that, amirite?
Just finished A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernon Vinge. A lot was very good, especially the quasi-hivemind packs of Tines, but a lot of it was kind of vague, like WHY there are different regions of technology/speed/thought? And what kind of evil the big evil was doing? And what some alien species looked like, exactly.
Just started ReaMde by Neal Stephenson. So far, it reminds me of the beginning of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In a good way.
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...
Anyway, just finished Summer Knight (Dresden Files #4) and started reading Elantris (Brandon Sanderson's first published book). Let's just say that his capabilities as a writer have improved vastly over the years. Elantris has so far been very heavy handed in the way it presented the setting, and the main characters are just written very poorly. The man who's written Mistborn, Warbreaker, and Steelheart is ten times better than that. Given that he's written Mistborn only a year later, it's astonishing just how much he's improved.
...
I actually really enjoyed Elantris. Sure, not as polished as his later work, but I thought it was a lot of fun. I still haven't got around to reading Words of Radiance yet, need to do that though. That said, while I enjoy his work, I don't share the attitude my friends seem to be taking to Brandon Sanderson, that he's the literary equivalent of the Second Coming (no idea who the original was, but seriously, the way they're talking, it's insane).
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Gotta love Vance. Space Opera is literally that: an opera company takes a tour of the galaxy to bring the gift of music to aliens everywhere. Expecting to be met with accolades, they instead encounter the following:
Can't wait to see what the next planet brings. No footnotes yet, though, alas.
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Be sure not to die before you read Ancillary Justice.I'm four and a half chapters into Ancillary Justice, and I'm still waiting for the plot to show up. There hasn't been even the slightest hint of a goal or motivation for the protagonist. I'll probably give it the rest of Chapter 5, but then I'm moving on.but, DUDE, *everyone* is saying this book is great. *everyone*.
Yeah, but I don't think I've seen anyone praising the book say anything about the plot or characters. Almost all the praise has been about the genderless language of the narrator. I guess if referring to everyone as "she" is all it takes to make a book fascinating for you... *shrug*
To be fair, the beginnings of the plot did show up in the second half of Chapter 5. Apparently, the protagonist wants to kill somebody. Why?... Not sure. How?... Well, she needs a special gun, apparently (special in what way? No clue). But hey, the narrator can't tell the difference between men and women! How cool is that, amirite?
Well, I didn't read the book yet, so I don't really know. Plus, my comment was kind of tongue in cheek.
I will say this though - I almost never stop reading a book because it seems directionless in the opening act. I prefer a book to have a strong, understandable narrative early on, but I have the patience to forgive a lack of such a thing. I would have never gotten three books into Otherland otherwise :P
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I actually really enjoyed Elantris. Sure, not as polished as his later work, but I thought it was a lot of fun. I still haven't got around to reading Words of Radiance yet, need to do that though. That said, while I enjoy his work, I don't share the attitude my friends seem to be taking to Brandon Sanderson, that he's the literary equivalent of the Second Coming (no idea who the original was, but seriously, the way they're talking, it's insane)....
Anyway, just finished Summer Knight (Dresden Files #4) and started reading Elantris (Brandon Sanderson's first published book). Let's just say that his capabilities as a writer have improved vastly over the years. Elantris has so far been very heavy handed in the way it presented the setting, and the main characters are just written very poorly. The man who's written Mistborn, Warbreaker, and Steelheart is ten times better than that. Given that he's written Mistborn only a year later, it's astonishing just how much he's improved.
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Well, I'm, like, 3 chapters into the book. And it's not that the book is bad, exactly (and I feel confidant all sorts of original, neat magic-system ideas will start popping up soon), but the quality of the writing itself is just not comparable to his other works - and it's not like his writing in the other works is the big draw, either.
Brandon Sanderson is my current favorite fantasy writer (George R. R. Martin doesn't count because of his glacial publishing rate). I really, really enjoyed all of his books that I've read so far, and I think he is taking the genre to some truly interesting directions. I really appreciate his orderly, logical approach to magic, and his ability to astonish me with plot twists continues even as I strain my brain while reading, looking for every little clue. His fight scenes are really good too, and he is occasionally funny (Lightsong comes to mind).
I have not started Stormlight archive out of a sense of trepidation from long, yet to be fully written fantasy epics.
I got one book into it. I guess I do not forgive as easily as you.
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I got one book into it. I guess I do not forgive as easily as you.
Otherland, you mean? the end of book 1 was the time I was most excited about it. The first book concluded in an elegent fashion that tied up several story threads and set things up for an exciting continuation.
Now I keep finding excuses to postpone reading number 4 :(
Be sure not to die before you read Ancillary Justice.I'm four and a half chapters into Ancillary Justice, and I'm still waiting for the plot to show up. There hasn't been even the slightest hint of a goal or motivation for the protagonist. I'll probably give it the rest of Chapter 5, but then I'm moving on.but, DUDE, *everyone* is saying this book is great. *everyone*.
Yeah, but I don't think I've seen anyone praising the book say anything about the plot or characters. Almost all the praise has been about the genderless language of the narrator. I guess if referring to everyone as "she" is all it takes to make a book fascinating for you... *shrug*
To be fair, the beginnings of the plot did show up in the second half of Chapter 5. Apparently, the protagonist wants to kill somebody. Why?... Not sure. How?... Well, she needs a special gun, apparently (special in what way? No clue). But hey, the narrator can't tell the difference between men and women! How cool is that, amirite?
Nah, that's not the cool part at all. I was afraid that would distract people from the meat of the book, which is far more interesting. That's simply an artifact of the major society in the book. As the plot thickens and you become more accustomed to the pronouns, that whole issue should fade.
I don't mind a book with long exposition, particularly in a new, standalone setting. And as far as jumping on a bandwagon goes, I expected to dislike it and was initially disappointed at the pronoun gimmick. What grabbed me was the character concept (I'm all about character), which I thought became obvious early on. And by the end, the plot was rather dizzying. It reminded me of Zelazny's 'fuege state' battles in that one book of his... um, Creatures of Light and Darkness.
Believe me, I'm not a best seller junkie. I actually enjoyed the book and am sorry you are not.
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My local comrade buddy is entering a contest on Michael Moorcock's website to write Eternal Champion fan fiction. I think. Apparently, you can compose your story on the website and then others (Michael Moorcock?) can comment on them as you write, but he isn't brave enough to try that.
At one point, my local comrade was planning a series of fan fiction about Stormbringer's sibling, Mournblade (right?), but that has been set aside for the moment so that he can write a story about Pax Tetchup, a transgendered communist Eternal Champion in a world ruled by techno-arcanists.
He has written seven pages thus far in which Pax has sex with a farmgirl, gets chased away by transophobes, and gets caught in the throbbing purple vines of the Tangled Mistress, Elemental Queen of Plants. In the first seven pages.
My local comrade buddy is entering a contest on Michael Moorcock's website to write Eternal Champion fan fiction. I think. Apparently, you can compose your story on the website and then others (Michael Moorcock?) can comment on them as you write, but he isn't brave enough to try that.
At one point, my local comrade was planning a series of fan fiction about Stormbringer's sibling, Mournblade (right?), but that has been set aside for the moment so that he can write a story about Pax Tetchup, a transgendered communist Eternal Champion in a world ruled by techno-arcanists.
He has written seven pages thus far in which Pax has sex with a farmgirl, gets chased away by transophobes, and gets caught in the throbbing purple vines of the Tangled Mistress, Elemental Queen of Plants. In the first seven pages.
*Brain asplodes* What the hell... I must read this!
You know...I really love the hell out of the Otherland series, and consider it to have some of the best villains I have read in fantastic literature. Although saying that, I recently put reading the third Shadowmarch book on hold, due to a certain plot event which just rendered quite quite a bit of the character arc for a particular character pointless.
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Finished the collection of Walter Benjamin. I liked the "theses on the philosophy history" the best of the essays, perhaps because it was either a) most clearly written, or b) most clearly translated. The didactic-materialist basis for his theses was over-done, but he brings up a critique of it himself (perhaps it was overdone FOR the purpose of deconstructing it, but we'll never really know), in the form of his critique of historical progress - he just doesn't take it that further step that maybe Derrida and the post-modernists take it (I read Derrida so long ago I can't remember).
Now I'm onto a collection of Nalo Hopkinson essays/short fiction that is part of a "controversial SF authors" series. Her writing doesn't FEEL controversial to me, but maybe I haven't examined it in the kaleidoscope of its implications for the genre...maybe.
Didactic materialism?
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George R.R. Martin's "Suicide Kings". It's...okay, I guess. I like the IDEAS behind it, it's just a bit...off in it's execution. Too grimdark for my taste, though I like the villain. He's pretty cool.
It's not really fair to only credit Martin on a Wild Cards book. There are like 13 other authors in there.
Finished Defenders. It wasn't bad. Would have made a lot more sense if he just used AI combat drones instead of bioengineered giants.
Time for The Crusader Road.
Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain by Richard Roberts.
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My local comrade buddy is entering a contest on Michael Moorcock's website to write Eternal Champion fan fiction. I think. Apparently, you can compose your story on the website and then others (Michael Moorcock?) can comment on them as you write, but he isn't brave enough to try that.
Good news! And it gives me an idea for a story about a vendor of exotic diseases in Nadsokor. Now all I have to do is get off my luxuriantly pelted behind and write it...
Just finished A Book of Voyages, edited by Patrick O'Brian - a compilation of traveller's/sailor's accounts from the 16th-18th centuries, including some pretty grim accounts of starvation/cannibalism/shipwreck, and so on. Fascinating.
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I finished the Nalo Hopkinson book, "Report from Planet Midnight." The transcription of her speech at the international sci-fi convention was the best part of the collection; it digs into race issues in fantasy/sci-fi. The two fiction stories were good, but the one about Caliban and Ariel I liked better than her time-travel story (since I <3 Shakespeare & seeing people mess with Shakespeare*). The author interview was alright, but some of the interviewer/editor's questions were weird: e.g. "What kind of car do you drive?" - wtf kind of question IS that? As if a car or its possession say something specific about a person and her work! Answer: Hopkinson doesn't have a car and doesn't drive in LA; very similar to Ray Bradbury, in that he also wrote sci-fi in LA and didn't drive.
*except for "Shakespeare in Love." I can't stand that movie!
Gotta love Vance. Space Opera is literally that: an opera company takes a tour of the galaxy to bring the gift of music to aliens everywhere. Expecting to be met with accolades, they instead encounter the following:
One alien criticizes the composers' childish lack of comprehension of the underpinnings of music, bans the troup against playing for a larger audience of his fellows (lest their awful discord cause psychological distress), and charges a hefty sum for his recommendations.
Another audience is enthralled with the "pretty noises." Accustomed to slavery as a universal truth, and assuming the performance was something like a Tupperware party, they attempt to buy two oboeists and a soprano from the director. Can't wait to see what the next planet brings. No footnotes yet, though, alas.
That sounds awesome.
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Didactic materialism?Dialectical materialism.
Vive le Galt!
Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain by Richard Roberts.
I think I read this! It was pretty funny if it's what I think it is.
Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain by Richard Roberts.I think I read this! It was pretty funny if it's what I think it is.
It's about a high-school girl whose parents are both superheroes who is just coming into her powers, along with some friends, and getting accidentally labeled as supervillains(-in-development) when they butt heads with another child-of-a-superhero who's a school bully. It doesn't help that the main character's superpower is mad science. Haven't gotten much farther than that yet.
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Just finished A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernon Vinge. A lot was very good, especially the quasi-hivemind packs of Tines, but a lot of it was kind of vague, like WHY there are different regions of technology/speed/thought? And what kind of evil the big evil was doing? And what some alien species looked like, exactly.
The Suns of Scorpio, by Alan Burt Akers - superior S&P, best I've read outside of Edgar Rice Burroughs, anyway, and possibly edging ahead of Lin Carter, too...
And Nomads of Gor: the first book raised unrealistic expectations, I think, and this one is less fantastic adventures of twit from Brizzl and more catalogue of ways to humiliate attractive young women (there are no old, or even middle-aged, women on Gor, apparently). Still, only 40 pages in, and a plot may develop if I persist with it.
It's about a high-school girl whose parents are both superheroes who is just coming into her powers, along with some friends, and getting accidentally labeled as supervillains(-in-development) when they butt heads with another child-of-a-superhero who's a school bully. It doesn't help that the main character's superpower is mad science. Haven't gotten much farther than that yet.Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain by Richard Roberts.I think I read this! It was pretty funny if it's what I think it is.
Nope! I read about a nerdy boy who was actually a supervillain.
It's about a high-school girl whose parents are both superheroes who is just coming into her powers, along with some friends, and getting accidentally labeled as supervillains(-in-development) when they butt heads with another child-of-a-superhero who's a school bully. It doesn't help that the main character's superpower is mad science. Haven't gotten much farther than that yet.Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain by Richard Roberts.I think I read this! It was pretty funny if it's what I think it is.Nope! I read about a nerdy boy who was actually a supervillain.
You wouldn't be referring to Evil Genius by any chance would you? First book in a trilogy by Australian author Catherine Jinks, about a child prodigy who has been hacking into high security networks and finds out that his father is an evil genius?
George R.R. Martin's "Suicide Kings". It's...okay, I guess. I like the IDEAS behind it, it's just a bit...off in it's execution. Too grimdark for my taste, though I like the villain. He's pretty cool.It's not really fair to only credit Martin on a Wild Cards book. There are like 13 other authors in there.
Exactly, and they all have their own tastes and flavors. Lucky7, have you read the other books in the series? I just finished book 5, including GRRM's apology for having to tie three disparate story arcs together after the writers and editors butted heads a time or two.
Now off to finish "The War of the Souls" trilogy before picking up Wild Cards Book 6.
Finished The Crusader Road. Pretty good, even if it wouldn't make my top 5 Pathfinder Tales books. There's a twist you see coming way too far in advance, though, and I dislike how some of the villains were handled. But there's plenty of derring-do, some good fight scenes, and a portrayal of fey that's quite good.
Starting The Age Atomic by Adam Christopher. It's the sequel to Empire State, which I read a couple years ago when Seattle was snowed in.
The migrant farmworkers just showed up in The Cider House Rules, Sherlock Holmes was testing his wits against the Ku Klux Klan in "The Five Orange Pips" and the library called to say that the requested copy of V.I. Lenin's Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism has arrived.
I wonder whatever happened to my old copy...
Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes
I've still not found any fantasy novels by Fitch.
Before that I finished off Elizabeth Moon's Paladin's Legacy series. I'd say it was good, but things resolved a bit too easily, and the bad guys never really felt like a as huge a threat as the protagonists treated them.
You wouldn't be referring to Evil Genius by any chance would you? First book in a trilogy by Australian author Catherine Jinks, about a child prodigy who has been hacking into high security networks and finds out that his father is an evil genius?It's about a high-school girl whose parents are both superheroes who is just coming into her powers, along with some friends, and getting accidentally labeled as supervillains(-in-development) when they butt heads with another child-of-a-superhero who's a school bully. It doesn't help that the main character's superpower is mad science. Haven't gotten much farther than that yet.Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain by Richard Roberts.I think I read this! It was pretty funny if it's what I think it is.Nope! I read about a nerdy boy who was actually a supervillain.
Nope. I forget title and author, but it was about an evil genius kid, who "pretended" to be nerdy as his "disguise," but really did run a global evil league of evil. I think he had evil blimps too.
What about Melony, though? She was hard, like a melon!
I haven't been progressing very quickly in The Cider House Rules due to socialist activism and increased hours at work. They just got the news that Wally was shot down over Burma.
Anyway, I did want to register my disappointment that the best character in the book didn't even make it into the film, unless you include the one scene where the girl makes a pass at Tobey Maguire by following him around with her tongue stuck out. But I think Melony is supposed to be older than Homer.
And the screenplay was written by John Irving, which makes it all the more disappointing.
Vive le Melony!
I'm continuing my Hugo Awards reading with Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross. It's better than Ancillary Justice so far, but the plot feels unfocused (much like Ancillary Justice, it feels like plot takes a back seat compared to showing off the worldbuilding). And the description of the Church of the Fragile rings hollow to me; it doesn't seem to have any theology, or offer any salvation, or provide any of the other functions of real-world religions besides ritual.
And the screenplay was written by John Irving, which makes it all the more disappointing.
Confession:
I enjoyed the movie...and not entirely because of my unending lust for Tobey Maguire. Michael Caine was also great, if not sexually appealing. I clapped my hands in delight at what I immediately dubbedAs soon as we met those characters I got the vibe, but kept telling myself that they wouldn't go that way. Then they did!
Also really appreciated the positive portrayal of abortion.
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And the description of the Church of the Fragile rings hollow to me; it doesn't seem to have any theology, or offer any salvation, or provide any of the other functions of real-world religions besides ritual.
The church of the hollow is actually quite interesting if you've read Stross's earlier novel, Saturn's Children which is set in the same universe except only a couple of centuries after the last human died.
The religion was made to organize not the promises of salvation or the divine, but to create an organization that continues to carry out the (now) ancient mission of preserving the last humans until such a time as a world is found for them. Androids are designed to always follow the orders of humans, so the moment a human comes back the entire android race, in theory, should bow down and welcome the return of the fragile overlords. I suppose its kind of how some Christians are actively working toward an apocalypse because they want Jesus to come back sooner than later.
I'm finishing up The Companions by R.A. Salvatore. I thought I was pretty close to being bored with the world's most famous dark elf and his buddies but I'm actually quite invigorated by this story, still not quite as interesting as his Sellswords trilogy, but fun none the less.
And the screenplay was written by John Irving, which makes it all the more disappointing.Confession:
I enjoyed the movie...and not entirely because of my unending lust for Tobey Maguire. Michael Caine was also great, if not sexually appealing. I clapped my hands in delight at what I immediately dubbed ** spoiler omitted **.As soon as we met those characters I got the vibe, but kept telling myself that they wouldn't go that way. Then they did!
Also really appreciated the positive portrayal of abortion.
While Cider House Rules isn't my fav film of all time, I hear you on the Toby Maguire desire. One of the great disappointments of my life is that This is not a real movie=)
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Lords of Mars by Graham McNeill. It's the second book of a planned trilogy. Excellent work, especially if you're a fan of the Mechanicus.
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Finished ELANTRIS by Brandon Sanderson yesterday. Moving on to THE BLACK LUNG CAPTAIN by Chris Wooding.
ELANTRIS thoughts: Perhaps unsurprisingly, the weakest Brandon Sanderson book I've read yet. While there are several things I liked about the book, it was also deeply flawed - too many coincidences and last minute saves made the plot feel contrived, and the writing is weak. However, this is still one of the more intelligent fantasy books out there, and the magic system was interesting enough.
Lords of Mars by Graham McNeill. It's the second book of a planned trilogy. Excellent work, especially if you're a fan of the Mechanicus.
I usually wait for trilogys to complete before reading them (although I read Pariah as soon as it came out) but I've been thinking about reading that trilogy early too, my understanding is that it has connections to Storm of Iron and is generally awesome. Been an increasingly happy fan of McNeills since Fulgrim .
And the screenplay was written by John Irving, which makes it all the more disappointing.Confession:
I enjoyed the movie...and not entirely because of my unending lust for Tobey Maguire. Michael Caine was also great, if not sexually appealing. I clapped my hands in delight at what I immediately dubbed ** spoiler omitted **.As soon as we met those characters I got the vibe, but kept telling myself that they wouldn't go that way. Then they did!
Also really appreciated the positive portrayal of abortion.
Samnell: Dude, you want The Hotel New Hampshire; That's the Irving book (or movie for that matter; it's no wonder Rob Lowe's life was ruined by a sex tape!) you want to read.
Doodles: I just wonder how much ended up on the cutting room floor. If ever there was a book that deserved a six hour Best of Youth type adaptation, it was The Cider House Rules. I enjoyed the movie, I just really would have enjoyed all the parts of the book they didn't include, and I'm perfectly willing to sit on the couch watching TV for 6 to 8 hours all in a row like a fat slob.
What, I read a book once; the cover was blue. :P
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Samnell: Dude, you want The Hotel New Hampshire; That's the Irving book (or movie for that matter; it's no wonder Rob Lowe's life was ruined by a sex tape!) you want to read.
And the screenplay was written by John Irving, which makes it all the more disappointing.Confession:
I enjoyed the movie...and not entirely because of my unending lust for Tobey Maguire. Michael Caine was also great, if not sexually appealing. I clapped my hands in delight at what I immediately dubbed ** spoiler omitted **.As soon as we met those characters I got the vibe, but kept telling myself that they wouldn't go that way. Then they did!
Also really appreciated the positive portrayal of abortion.
As I said in the Author is Dead thread, reading John Irving is like reading Charles Dickens, but with a bunch of perverts (he prefers the term "sexual outsiders") thrown in for good measure.
Anyway, Sam, if you liked the movie, just imagine there being a sullen, overweight female orphan who is searching Maine for Homer, gets attacked by two orchard workers intent on
Vive le Melony!
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The other thing about John Irving novels is they always have some interesting facts and lessons for the youth. In the past, I've posted about how The Water-Method Man taught young Doodlebug to keep his genitalia clean; everything I know about the hijras of India, I learned from A Son of the Circus; etc., etc.
This time I learned about marsupial anatomy. Spoilered for incredible vulgarity, obscenity, and the misclassification of hamsters as marsupials:
"Twin t@*@s! Can you believe it?" Bucky asked Homer.
"Right" said Homer Wells.
"Is that all you can say?" Bucky asked. "Don't you get it? If you was a hamster, you could f+~! another hamster with your buddy!"
"Why would I want to do that?" Homer asked.
"Two c#&#s!" Bucky said enthusiastically. "You got no imagination....."
[Later] "Look at it this way," Bucky whispered to him, near the end of class. "If Debra Pettigrew had two t@&!s, she might let you into one of them."
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I'm so, so glad that the [redacted] spangled [redacted] of PiPu still waves o'er this thread.
It's slave girls with fat ankles o'clock in Nomads of Gor. Also reading The Greatest Traitor - the life of Roger Mortimer, who fell in love with Queen Isabella (she wuvved him back, too), deposed and imprisoned (and probably murdered, although no-one can prove it was via red hot poker, as legend has it) Edward II, and generally had a right old time of it in 13th century England. Fewer 'sexual outsiders' than John Irving, but more public disembowelments/on-battlefield castrations, or so I should imagine.
Just started The Silk Map by Chris Willrich. I loved the first book in the series (The Scroll of Years) and the sequel doesn't disappoint.
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I'm reading Dumas' complete works. In the middle of Twenty Years After right now. Great source for gaming politics and plots!