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What are you reading? (January 2015)
- Thread starter Maklershed
- Start date
Christoff Yurievich
Member
I'm enjoying it so far. I've heard some people say the characters are lacking, but I'll see how it goes. So far I enjoy the premise and the plot, but I'm only about a fifth of the way through it.
Probably going to read the whole series straight through.
How does he have so many books out there? Are they all up to par, or do some suffer because of the quantity?
He's a machine. You will always know you're reading a Sanderson book, but there's nothing particularly exceptional about them unless you really like what he does.
Edit: Of the books I've read, I'd say he mostly manages to maintain a fairly consistent quality.
Finished The Amulet of Samarkand. It was okay. Could have benefited from not being so long. Interested to see where it goes, but I can't say I really like either of the main characters.
Now onto No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal: Race and Class in Elite College Admission and Campus Life.
Now onto No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal: Race and Class in Elite College Admission and Campus Life.
He treats writing like a 9 - 5 job.
The final lines wouldn't have had that impact in a short story or - horror of horrors - an essay.
Right. I think his work suffers in that the way he approaches his writing means that he tends to engage in a great deal of repetition, to recycle plot structures across different works, and has workmanlike prose. Even though I enjoy reading Sanderson's books - he's one of the best in fantasy when it comes to plotting; he knows how to make likable characters; he can write an action scene well - I don't think his work is good in the same way that I think that, for instance, Le Guin or Beagle's work is good.
Tragicomedy
Member
Dude writes full time every day. He is the anti-GRRM. He also apparently keeps very detailed outlines for each of his series that specify what he will cover in any given book.
Quality-wise, I find his stuff is always consistently good to excellent. This is especially true when you factor in the sheer quantity of stuff he puts out. He writes strong stories, with great details, fun worlds, and cool characters. His dialogue can sometimes be a bit clunky, and he has a few idiosyncrasies that can be a bit off-putting ("Storms!").
In summary, he is among the better fantasy writers working today. He isn't an amazing writer, but that doesn't prevent me from enjoying the heck out of his stuff. You can do a lot worse than reading his books.
He's the Marvel pictures of fantasy books.
Hm, well, I'm only about a quarter of the way through one of his books now, but I can say that his world building is pretty great. So far it's not Lord of the Rings or ASOIAF huge, but the ideas are very interesting.
His prose isn't anything amazing however, but it's not rubbish. I also haven't noticed any sort of attempt to comment much on the human condition or anything. That's not really a fault though, because his writing is entertaining. I'm just saying I don't know if it's the kind of fantasy that would be studied academically, or at least lend itself to that much.
I'm not sure what I'm trying to say at this point, haha. I guess I mean to say it seems very much so like "genre fiction" and doesn't make any pretenses about being high literature or anything. Which is totally fine.
His prose isn't anything amazing however, but it's not rubbish. I also haven't noticed any sort of attempt to comment much on the human condition or anything. That's not really a fault though, because his writing is entertaining. I'm just saying I don't know if it's the kind of fantasy that would be studied academically, or at least lend itself to that much.
I'm not sure what I'm trying to say at this point, haha. I guess I mean to say it seems very much so like "genre fiction" and doesn't make any pretenses about being high literature or anything. Which is totally fine.
*dead*
Mm. I can take Sanderson's work for what it is and appreciate it on that level, definitely. If he were aspiring to more and falling flat on his face that'd be more of a problem for me than what he is doing - which is trying for run of the mill genre fiction, and doing a very entertaining job of it.
Maklershed
Member
Bought it
Junior Mint
Member
In the way he ended up delivering the story at least, it very much felt that the characters and the story itself came at the expense of getting the idea of big brother across to the reader. I'll give the last quarter of the book a pass (
the breaking down of Winston was done well IMHO
It doesn't help that the book feels as if it was written with a hammer and chisel instead of pen & paper (or typewriter). I found the world building enjoyable for a bit but the same ideas are repeatedly beat across your head and it became a very tedious read.
Started reading Old Man's War because of this post. I'm enjoying it so far, but the characters (for the most part) are bugging me for a few reasons: 1) they talk and act more like college students than the 75 year-olds they're supposed to be 2) the characters are too interchangeable; everyone is The Witty Smart-ass, and 3) the main character doesn't have enough (any?) flaws. I'm hoping that changes as the book progresses.
Incandenza
Banned
Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle
Blew through this one over the past couple days. It's very, very good. And relentlessly depressing. One of those things where you finish it and you're not really sure what to do with yourself.
I saw in the 50 books thread that you were reading JR. Liking it more this time?
I'm a little over halfway through The Recognitions and it's pretty amazing.. At times it's so dense and challenging that I forget how much I had been enjoying it, but then I'm through the rough patch and it's more entertaining than ever.
sparky2112
Member
That's not me you're thinking of, but...funny you should mention Gaddis - I did make a run at JR about fifteen years ago and only made it about half way. I just wasn't mature enough as a reader at that point. I would have a totally different experience with it now.
I did just get a book that gets compared to The Recognitions - Evan Dara's The Lost Scrapbook. I'll post on that whenever I get around to reading it.
Tragicomedy
Member
All those complaints remain, at least through the second book. Different protagonist, equally as perfect. It's quite annoying.
1) Yeah, he writes Whedon characters.
2) See 1.
3) Yeah, both John and Jared are pretty "strong" characters, neither of them having any particular flaws that I can think about right now. John is sort of Scalzi's avatar, there's a short story where he's basically Scalzi's mouthpiece on some of his political thoughts. But overall, I didn't mind it that much.
The perfect characters things is what makes me think of them as "pulpy", and not particularly deep or thought provoking books (although the technology that exists in those books can make one think of some pretty great questions!). They're not philosophical journeys, though. They get new bodies, they shoot aliens, and victory is had. A protagonist with massive flaws is an unnecessary distraction at that point.
I dunno, kind of rambling, but in short: Scalzi writes light, (ultimately) happy stuff. Good guys win, bad guys are proved to be well-intentioned or dead/defeated. Protagonists with massive flaws? Not really in line with that.
I might not keep going after this book, then. I dunno, we'll see. The stupid characters who get wiped out kind of bother me, too, like
. They just seem like caricatures whose sole purpose is to die to make the author/reader pump their fist. Just rubs me the wrong way, I guess.
I've only read a handful of Sci-Fi novels, but it sounds like something closer to Iain Banks may be what I'm looking for.
The racist guy at the beginning, and Watson
I've only read a handful of Sci-Fi novels, but it sounds like something closer to Iain Banks may be what I'm looking for.
Yeah, I wanted to like it more as well, my complaints about Old Man's War was that I actually liked the concepts and world building happening, and then the actual War parts happen, and I just couldn't care at all.
I am currently reading this and it is absolutely fantastic. I am only about 1/3rd of the way done, but so far it is my favorite of the Oxford series and will likely be my favorite history book if it continues to be this good.
If you only read one book on this period, this is definitely the book to read.
I am about halfway through this, and I am not much of a fan of this. There is a severe lack of history books that give an overview of the gilded and progressive ages, so I thought this would be a decent read until the Oxford comes out. It really isnt. Maybe it will improve, but the vast majority of it seems to be about election politics, not about legislation that was passed or supreme court cases, etc. I mean, there is that, its just that elections seem to take up 2/3rds of the space. And in a 180 page book covering the entire gilded age it is starting to get a bit ridiculous.
The blurbs in the back claim that this shows that this is an important part of our political history. This book definitely doesnt prove that. All it does is give you the impression that tariffs and monetary policy was a big deal, politics was passionate and contentious, and sometimes Northerners complained about Southerns terrorizes blacks and taking away their rights, but doing nothing.
It is definitely an important period because we saw the destruction of reconstruction thanks to liberal republicans and others, the focus on big business and industrialization, and class conflict and class violence saw a huge increase. Instead of spending time mostly discussing that, the author mostly talks about elections. It gets very repetitious and dull after a while. I'll still finish it since I am almost done, but not an impressive book.
What really sent me over the edge was in book 4 (I think)
the way Siuan Sanche and Lean are treated when they were stilled. They make their way to the rebels only to be treated like idiots. I mean, they were their leaders previously and you'd think that their input may actually be valuable. They probably weren't their leaders for nothing. And don't even get me started on Egwene, I just know that she'll end up Amerlyn Seat or whatever it's called and at that point I'd probably just throw my kindle at the wall.
Does it eventually get better? Because I'd give it another chance if knew it'd improve.
Please just ditch Scalzi and do this. Or M. John Harrison.
Yes, he is! And I absolutely love his work. It's not high prose, his characters are weak sometimes and he has a visible formula for plotting things, but it works.
That said, I'm 68% through Firefight and I'm liking it more than Steelheart. I couldn't put it down yesterday. The mechanics he creates are just so damn engaging. Action and Setting are phenomenal in this book. Can't wait to reach the climax!
Edit: Oh, and his characters are especially corny in this one. David's thing with bad metaphors is over the top...
[Wheel of Time Book Spoilers~]
Mm.
It actually makes me feel like the Aes Sedai were given the idiot ball, so that Siuan and Leane could be super manipulative. I don't know. I don't feel like his explanation for underestimating them rang true to me. And Egwene's insistence upon going into DreamlandplacethatIcannotspellwithoutlookingitup despite the injunction against it and the extremely steep price she could pay it caught makes me feel especially contemptuous of her. Needless to say it'll all work out for her in the end.
Would also like to know whether the Wheel of Time books ever get better, I got somewhere through either the 6th or 7th book (
) but dropped it part way through. The frantic jumping between characters and the females in general annoyed me to no end.
the one where Rand gets thrown into a box or something
sparky2112
Member
Somebody referred to Sanderson as the 'Marvel Pictures of fantasy books'. Scalzi is the equivalent in sci-fi.
Tragicomedy
Member
You've gone too far. Sanderson's characters are far more interesting and distinguishable than anything Scalzi puts down on paper.
If Sanderson is equivalent to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then Scalzi is 20th Century Fox releasing Fantastic Four.
sparky2112
Member
Christoff Yurievich
Member
I need to read that again. I keep seeing the Kindle version for sale but with how many footnotes and such there are, I'm not sure I could do that.
I'm interested in seeing the TV series but I can't tell when it's going to air. Funny that in imdb.com it says "Ratings: 9.3/10 from 32 users" but...no one's seen an episode.
I just read that they were working on a movie and that Julian Fellowes was working on a draft. I think that if anyone could pull off that time period it would be him. Just have to look out for water bottles and the like.
A Fish Aficionado
I am going to make it through this year if it kills me
Oops.
Yeah, you probably should give JR another shot. I first read Gravity's Rainbow about ten years ago and didn't get much from it. The second reading a year or so ago was a revelation.
Maybe going a little too harsh on Scalzi; I think he's a perfectly entertaining writer. It's just that if you want something a little more deep or thought-provoking, Old Man's War is probably not the place to get it.
I haven't really had time to dig into Lock In, so it might be better about being interesting and less witty.
Heinlein wrote a lot of super-skilled and eloquent characters, but that didn't really cause detriment to his books.
Also, anyone able to recommend some good superhero novels? Looking for straight up superheroics style kind of thing, not like the "Ex-" series (zombie apocalypse). I really enjoyed Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain, wondering if there was any other good stuff along those lines (and maybe not YA).
I haven't really had time to dig into Lock In, so it might be better about being interesting and less witty.
Heinlein wrote a lot of super-skilled and eloquent characters, but that didn't really cause detriment to his books.
Also, anyone able to recommend some good superhero novels? Looking for straight up superheroics style kind of thing, not like the "Ex-" series (zombie apocalypse). I really enjoyed Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain, wondering if there was any other good stuff along those lines (and maybe not YA).
Tragicomedy
Member
I haven't seen the Gilmore Girls, but maybe I was a bit harsh on him. I've only read two of Scalzi's book, but The Ghost Brigades was a mess. It felt like a bunch of random scenes loosely tied together. The series may improve, but I'm not sure I'll give it another shot.
Everyone should see Gilmore Girls. Like now. Stop reading and watch it.
Mumei, I'll do a book(s) swap with you: I'll read 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell' as my next fiction, if you will also read both 'My Traitor's Heart' and 'Cry, The Beloved Country.'
TestMonkey
Member
Soon I Will be Invincible by Austin Grossman.
I'm going to finish Old Man's War first, then I will totally get to these guys. I'm just going to treat it like a summer popcorn flick the rest of the way.
I also read Old Man's War and that was enough to know that I don't want to read any more Scalzi ever again. I loved the premise at the beginning, but he just completely ditched anything possibly interesting and made the blandest, most unoriginal story possible.
By this do you mean, "I'd like to read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell next anyway, but maybe this way I can get you to hurry up on moving those two books up higher on your interminable queue?"
:3
Psssssh. Sorry Mumei, without this deal, it looks like I have several Murakami books (book 3 of 1Q84, and Wind-Up Bird Chroncles), and House of Leaves to read for my fiction selection.
