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[Pocks]

I just finished Words of Radiance. I didn't find out until after I finished it, but it is recommended that you read Warbreaker before reading WoR.

Link here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0765360039/?tag=neogaf0e-20

I'm at the last couple hundred pages of this and I am in love. Can't wait to start book 2. How I wish this series was complete. Long way to go...

Good thing Sanderson is writes like a machine.

I'm just about to finish "The Way of Kings" and am eagerly looking forward to "Words of Radiance". I very much like the characters in this book even though I don't understand a lot of what is going on.

I am about 500 pages into Way of King. I really like the book so far..

I didn't love the first 300 pages or so, but I really enjoyed the second half. Words of Radiance is even better, though AngmarsKing701 brings up some valid criticism. I did not have the world immersion problem. I was totally enthralled and finished it in less than 3 weeks.

 

[Deleted member 125677]

I started reading this (on and off) a week or two ago. I chose the Fagles because it seems a nice balance between poetry and readability, and I want to actually finish it. I liked it the best out of all the samples on sites like these. The Lattimore is closest to the original work, though, and I gather it's the translation used by those studying Homer.

Maybe your library will have a few of them. Get all of them out, and see which one takes.

Hey, Necrovex.

mu cephei, thanks for the suggestion!

I'll just add that there are two newer translations out as well. Anthony Verity 2011 (here) belongs to the Lattimore school, which as you said, is the one scholars usually refers to. Stephen Mitchell 2012 (here) has also done a newer translation more close to Fagles.

Honestly, I think the cover alone is enough to to with Verity if you want one of the newer editions, lol.

As a Norwegian, reading the antique classics are much, much simpler. You'll get the one Peter Østbye translated back in the 1930s, and you'll like it!

 

[Dresden]

obligatory pimping of War Music by Christopher Logue due to mention of the Iliad

 

[TTG]

So I started Seveneves, it's pretty good. The most noteworthy thing so far(and this is really early) is Stephenson's prose. I don't remember Cryptonomicon as spectacular or particularly evoking, but it didn't have this feel to it. To put it bluntly, it felt like a crafted work of fiction and a lot of early scenes in Seveneves read like some journalist's/blogger's, a competent one mind you, article on the events transpiring in the story.

This is early and not spoilery, but hey:

Spoiler

WHAT ASTRONOMERS DIDN’T KNOW OUTWEIGHED, BY AN ALMOST infinite ratio, what they did. And for persons used to a more orderly system of knowledge, with everything on Wikipedia, this created a certain perception of incompetence, or at least failure to perform, on the part of the astronomical profession whenever weird things happened in the sky. Which was every day, actually. But most of them could be seen only by astronomers and so they were able to keep them a sort of trade secret. Blatantly obvious events such as meteorite strikes caused Doc Dubois’s phone to sing. The singing usually portended a series of appearances on talk shows where, among other things, he would be asked to explain why astronomers hadn’t predicted this. Why hadn’t they seen the meteor coming? Wasn’t it just the case that they were a bunch of good-for-nothing propellerheads? A little bit of humility seemed to go a long way, and if the pundits didn’t cut him off too soon he was frequently able to work in a plea for more government support of science. For members of the general public might not care about Wolf-Rayet stars in the Quintuplet Cluster, but they definitely saw why having hot rocks fall on one’s head was a good thing to avoid. He always called it the breakup of the moon. Not the explosion. The term began to gain traction on Twitter, with hashtag #BUM. Whatever you called it, it was an infinitely bigger deal than a single meteor strike. So it seemed to demand more explanation. But there was no way to explain it, yet. Meteors were easy: space was full of rocks too small and dark to be seen through telescopes, and some of them snagged on the atmosphere and fell to ground. But the breakup of the moon could not have been caused by any normal astronomical phenomenon. So Doc Dubois—who spent most of the next week on camera—got out in front of that issue at every chance, always leading with a frank statement that neither he nor any other astronomer knew the cause. That was the pitch, straight down the middle. Then he added the spin: This is absolutely fascinating. It is, as a matter of fact, the most fascinating scientific event in human history. It looks scary and upsetting, but the fact is that no one has been killed by it, save for a few drivers who swerved off roads, or rear-ended stopped traffic, while rubbernecking.
At A+0.4.16 (four days and sixteen hours after the breakup of the moon), he had to amend “no one has been killed” when a meteorite, almost certainly a chunk of moon rock, entered the atmosphere over Peru, shattered windows along a twenty-mile track, and smashed into a farmstead, obliterating a small family. But the message remained the same: let’s look at this as a scientific phenomenon and start with what we know. His friend was a video streaming site called astronomicalbodiesformerlyknownasthemoon.com, which kept a high-resolution feed of the rubble cloud running around the clock....

That sounds like something out of an article following this character around in the moments post a thing. Has it always been like this and I'm only picking up on it now? Does it sound ordinary and I'm just weird? It seems like a conscious stylistic decision to me. Somehow more than just straightforward and pared down.

This is probably too niche and specific for this thread, I just noticed a lot of posts about the book a little while back.

 

[siddhu33]

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell...pretty good so far.

 

[BlueDogAnchorite]

I just finished Words of Radiance. I didn't find out until after I finished it, but it is recommended that you read Warbreaker before reading WoR.

Link here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0765360039/?tag=neogaf0e-20



Good thing Sanderson is writes like a machine.





I didn't love the first 300 pages or so, but I really enjoyed the second half. Words of Radiance is even better, though AngmarsKing701 brings up some valid criticism. I did not have the world immersion problem. I was totally enthralled and finished it in less than 3 weeks.

Is Warbreaker related to the Stormlight Archive books?

Yeah for me I've been reading Way of Kings kind of slowly. So far, I really like the world and characters. I just find he can be wordy. Other than that, I really like the book so far.

 

[GillaTheGorilla]

Hopefully the last half of Anna Karenina.

I have this to read, how is it?

 

[Ashes]

I have this to read, how is it?

Widely regarded as a masterpiece.

 

[Woorloog]

Is Warbreaker related to the Stormlight Archive books?

Nearly all of Sanderson's works are semi-related, being set in the same "Cosmere" universe. There may be nods to other worlds but there's no required reading to get other Cosmere stories.

 

[Mumei]

Finished:

Loved it. I agree with the Kirkus review that the ending was a bit abrupt, and though it bothered me more than it appears to have bothered that reviewer, I still don't think it had more than a minor negative impact.

Ok, I actually laughed out loud at that tweet. She is a fantastic writer, there were moments in John Prester where I thought the book was pure genius. Just those adjectives and pretty turns are the devil. Hahaha.

I also really thought your link was an announcement for an
localization of Oyasumi PunPun. :-(

Hahaha. I didn't even consider that you would think of PunPun.

Yes, the original Chinese version.

I'm also re-reading the Witcher series in English. The translator for the Chinese version only knows how to translate, but not write. Different versions read like completely different books.

Excellent. I wish I were a polyglot, so I could read writers like Xueqin, Tolstoy, Cervantes, Neruda, Rumi, Goethe, Mann, Rimbaud, Kawabata, and on and on and on in the original languages. Not that there aren't great English translations, but still.

I'll just add that there are two newer translations out as well. Anthony Verity 2011 (here) belongs to the Lattimore school, which as you said, is the one scholars usually refers to. Stephen Mitchell 2012 (here) has also done a newer translation more close to Fagles.

Honestly, I think the cover alone is enough to to with Verity if you want one of the newer editions, lol.

As a Norwegian, reading the antique classics are much, much simpler. You'll get the one Peter Østbye translated back in the 1930s, and you'll like it!

Thanks, also!

 

[GillaTheGorilla]

Widely regarded as a masterpiece.

Excellent, looking forward to it even more now.

 

[You Know Nothing]

Yes, absolutely. There's such a deep sense of interiority to the primary cast. How far are you now?

Just finished up chapter one of The Postman. Learning more about Jude's past and why he is as broken inside and out as he is. I need a bit of a respite. That was emotionally draining and brilliant. I was able to infer relatively early what most likely happened to him but actually reading it play out later on was crazy.

 

[Mumei]

Just finished up chapter one of The Postman. Learning more about Jude's past and why he is as broken inside and out as he is. I need a bit of a respite. That was emotionally draining and brilliant. I was able to infer relatively early what most likely happened to him but actually reading it play out later on was crazy.

Ooh. So, now you are starting to get inside Jude's head. It's a contrast from the quotidian concerns of his friends in the first section.

 

[RepairmanJack]

I'm about a quarter into 11/22/63, and so far it's probably the most I've enjoyed reading Stephen King besides The Dark Tower series.

 

[Wensih]

I have this to read, how is it?

Oh I really love Russian Drama, so I really love it. I really love the unique personalities of each character; a lot of them are put in similar situations of infidelity, and they all handle it in a different ways. I really love the duality of some of the situations in this book, especially between Levin and Anna.

The widely regarded opion that Ashs spoke of is something that I would have to agree with. I think it's a masterpiece.

 

[Osorio]

About to finish Bodysnatcher by Juan Carlos Onetti

Then going into this:

 

[Atraveller]

Received The Art of Tangled and The World of the Witcher today from Amazon, original thought The World of the Witcher was just a combination of art from the trilogy, turns out it's a great introduction to Witcher lore (still comes with lots of great art).

Tangled's artbook is one of the best I've ever seen. It includes so many concept designs from different stages of development, and tons of amazing illustrations, I suppose getting stuck in development hell still has its upsides.

 

[Jag]

Nearly all of Sanderson's works are semi-related, being set in the same "Cosmere" universe. There may be nods to other worlds but there's no required reading to get other Cosmere stories.

More about the Cosmere.

 

[BlueDogAnchorite]

Nearly all of Sanderson's works are semi-related, being set in the same "Cosmere" universe. There may be nods to other worlds but there's no required reading to get other Cosmere stories.

Didn't know that. Thanks for the info!

 

[Dandy Crocodile]

Polished this off in one sitting last night.

It was a YA cancer book that didn't have insufferable dialogue and an unbelievable plot.
I really liked the voice of the teen narrator. He was funny and interesting and spoke like a teenager.
I even laughed out loud on multiple occasions, which is pretty damn rare for fiction. Good stuff, Earl is fab.

 

[VanWinkle]

Really loving Dawn of Wonder by Jonathan Renshaw. About 20% in, and he's a great writer. Formatting issues and grammatical mistakes are also pleasantly minimal considering it's a self-published 700 page book.

So far, I highly recommend it. No "fantasy" elements have shown themselves yet, though, which I find kind of interesting. It is just kind of an adventure novel thus far, but we'll see going forward.

 

[Lionheart1827]

Finished up the newest John Corey series book "Radiant Angel" by Nelson Demille and was kind of disappointed at how short it was. It was half the size of most of his other Corey books. Felt rushed imo.

Started reading Nemesis Games which is the latest book in the Expanse series. So far not bad. Still in the first 10% of the book though.

 

[Mumei]

There's a book sale in the lobby at work, and I picked up All The Light We Cannot See

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

After the revelation at the end of Damned, I'm not sure how this book is supposed to go.

The cover is disgusting after you find out what that is. Also, the book is terribly written. I liked the first but the style change for that one was horrible.

Rothfuss is doing an AMA over on r/books.

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

Finally (after 5+ months) finished Words of Radiance.

I'm going to go against most of GAF here and say "meh." 3/5 stars in my Goodreads review, but really 2.5 stars from me.

Some of my issues:
- It's too long. There's a solid 600-700 page book here, but it's mired in:
- Kaladin brooding. I don't need 200 pages of Kaladin brooding. Really. I get it.
- Shallan being clever. She's not really that clever. And her quips aren't funny.

- The biggest issue is that I felt I couldn't actually believe Sanderson's world. There was so much I felt he contrived to have occurred for the sake of making the book longer, rather than telling the story.

Anyway, I'm sure stones will be cast at me. There were parts that were amazing. Scenes that really hyped me up. The last 100 pages or so were actually really intense and had some "fuck yeah!" moments. Those who have read it know which ones I mean. But I really really could have handled the build up to those moments being about 40% fewer "words in abundance."

That and the whole dueling thing was a stupid strategy. My opinion, obviously.


Now onto something much shorter:

Loved that book. As an aside: when you finish it, please post what you got out of it in regards to Vizzini/Wallace Shawn's involvement in the film.

 

[You Know Nothing]

There's a book sale in the lobby at work, and I picked up All The Light We Cannot See

I read this not too long ago. It's enjoyable if a bit overly sentimental and I suppose you could argue its partial romanticization of World War II is a bit eye roll worthy. Although it does show plenty of the horrors of the war as well. And it certainly managed to portray characters whose fates I cared about. Von Rumpel and his quest for the immortality granting, cursed diamond the Sea of Flames are beyond rancid, though. Far too Hollywood and completely outside the realm of any possibility. In fact, the portrayal of Nazism is probably the book's major shortcoming. It all falls back on tired portrayals and archetypes that lack any real depth.

I felt the book sort of straddled a line between good, thrilling fiction and potentially great literature.

Some of Doerr's prose is utterly enchanting.

He listens to the notes and the silences between them, and then finds himself leading horses through a forest at dawn, trudging through snow behind his great-grandfather, who walks with a saw draped over his huge shoulders.

 

[survivor]

If you haven't, you should read Drown (directly follows the same characters and honestly sets the stage for a number of stories in this collection) and Brief and Wounderous Life of Oscar Woa, which is--in some ways--also directly connected to these characters.

Yeah I think I will be reading Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao next. I'm a bit surprised to see him connecting all his books with the same character, doesn't feel like something you see in these type of novels.


Finished reading Twinkle Twinkle by Kaori Ekuni. Follows two people and their "fake" marriage to get their parents off their back. Book alternates each chapter between the husband and the wife's point of views. I felt like the book just skirted around the issues it presented, but oh well, it was a quick and light read.

 

[Li Kao]

Ok Gaf, I seriously need help here. There is a short story I read a while ago but I can't for the life of me remember who wrote it and its title. Well, I think it's by Richard Matheson but...

It is REALLY short, I mean maximum a couple of pages, and I'm not even sure of that. Very brief but total efficiency.
So what follows is a complete and utter spoiler of the short story.

Spoiler

A man one day begins to hear voices. Shoutings, expletives, angered voices. Problem is, these voices comes from inside himself and they never shut up. A doctor noted the reality of the phenomenon as he was able to hear them, but ultimately could do nothing for the man. The story ends with the man having made peace with this disturbing illness and dying of old age... only for the author to note that when the man was autopsied, there were clearly scratches on his bones.

Loved it, short, efficient, perfect.
So can somebody help me and tell me who wrote the short story and it's title ?

 

[suzu]

Annihilation and Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

I plowed through the first book and it was pretty enjoyable and atmospheric. Got to the second book and was like "...oh". So I'm taking a break, hah. I also want to say that I really adore this series' cover art.

Reading this next. Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey

 

[Akahige]

Started Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett earlier, Discworld seems to get better with every book, I'm not that far in but I'm enjoying the quick and witty writing.

Annihilation and Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

I plowed through the first book and it was pretty enjoyable and atmospheric. Got to the second book and was like "...oh". So I'm taking a break, hah. I also want to say that I really adore this series' cover art.

This edition's artwork is great as well.

 

[Cade]

Man, it's funny to me how pretty much everyone hits Authority and goes "Oh." I liked Authority, but it was certainly a cockblock in book form for most of it.

And the Nemesis Games hype is real. I'm about 40% done with it and man this is a strange one. I'm liking it but it's a bit filler-y so far?

 

[British Monsoon]

Finished these, now I need some sci-fi. Probably gonna read Nemesis Games next.

Set in a fantasy world where demon spawn have conquered much of the world, a mysterious mute swordsman carries an untainted baby across infected lands to reach the Shining City. This was pretty good, got a few Gene Wolfe vibes in places.

Cool concept, with certain magic users possessing the ability to traverse between different versions of London, some helped by magic, some stripped of it, some destroyed by it. Story felt a bit rushed towards the end, but this was a pretty compelling read.

Yeah, this was pretty great. Not a terribly long novel, but it does well to retain the thread of story and character across, not only the span of humanities existence, but throughout numerous alternate, branching timelines as well. I always enjoy reading sci-fi & fantasy from non-English speaking authors, as you'll often find different concepts and conceits that might be entirely new.

 

[Maklershed]

Finished these, now I need some sci-fi. Probably gonna read Nemesis Games next.

This sounded interesting so I went to Amazon to see about buying it - $20.94 for the kindle edition! That wins the award for most expensive kindle book price I've ever seen.

 

[Cade]

This sounded interesting so I went to Amazon to see about buying it - $20.94 for the kindle edition! That wins the award for most expensive kindle book price I've ever seen.

Wow, that's nuts. I'll admit to paying exorbitant prices for the last two Expanse books because Hachette is terrible but I needed them day one, but $21? Damn.

 

[British Monsoon]

Huh, weird - it's £9.50 on Amazon UK, which is $14.50 - still pretty damn pricey for an ebook, though.

 

[Mr.Towel]

Yep, 20 bucks on kobo here in Canada. Fantasy Lone Wolf and Cub premise got me pretty excited but that's a bit too rich for my blood.

 

[Plasticine]

This sounded interesting so I went to Amazon to see about buying it - $20.94 for the kindle edition! That wins the award for most expensive kindle book price I've ever seen.

Not really interested in this book, but I wanted to see the insanity for myself. I couldn't find the Kindle edition on Amazon.com. Maybe the publisher, or Amazon, pulled it? The reviews are dominated by nothing but complaints about the pricing.

 

[Li Kao]

Ok Gaf, I seriously need help here. There is a short story I read a while ago but I can't for the life of me remember who wrote it and its title. Well, I think it's by Richard Matheson but...

It is REALLY short, I mean maximum a couple of pages, and I'm not even sure of that. Very brief but total efficiency.
So what follows is a complete and utter spoiler of the short story.

Spoiler

A man one day begins to hear voices. Shoutings, expletives, angered voices. Problem is, these voices comes from inside himself and they never shut up. A doctor noted the reality of the phenomenon as he was able to hear them, but ultimately could do nothing for the man. The story ends with the man having made peace with this disturbing illness and dying of old age... only for the author to note that when the man was autopsied, there were clearly scratches on his bones.

Loved it, short, efficient, perfect.
So can somebody help me and tell me who wrote the short story and it's title ?

Got it, must be 'The Screaming Man' by Matheson. So good.

 

[Mumei]

I checked out Stoner, Outlander, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle from the library today~

This sounded interesting so I went to Amazon to see about buying it - $20.94 for the kindle edition! That wins the award for most expensive kindle book price I've ever seen.

Pfft.

 

[User 479360]

Someone placed a hold on Ready, Player One just after I borrowed it again, it seems. I'm unable to renew it daily like I have been with 20th Century Ghosts, because of a hold.

My friend got it in a Loot Crate, though, so I borrowed it from him. He doesn't read -- though he said he'd maybe try to read this someday -- but I'd been hesitant about asking him because he wanted to keep the crates in perfect condition in case they ever became collectible.

But he ended up missing one and is now using stuff that came in them.

Now I can take my time with and enjoy the book.

 

[Piecake]

I checked out Stone, Outlander, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle from the library today~



Pfft.

Well, to be fair, University presses always seem to charge absurd amounts.

 

[Mumei]

Well, to be fair, University presses always seem to charge absurd amounts.

Frankly, you would want to own that in hardcover anyway.

 

[Maklershed]

Not really interested in this book, but I wanted to see the insanity for myself. I couldn't find the Kindle edition on Amazon.com. Maybe the publisher, or Amazon, pulled it? The reviews are dominated by nothing but complaints about the pricing.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OXHFR40/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Yeah looks like you can't buy it for Kindle now. However, it's still showing up on the author's page with a price displayed.

I checked out Stone, Outlander, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle from the library today~



Pfft.

lol man

 

[Matty77]

Started Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett earlier, Discworld seems to get better with every book, I'm not that far in but I'm enjoying the quick and witty writing.

Boy are you in for a treat, at least in my opinon. Equal Rites is when I think he really found where he was going and is the last Discworld book that I thought was uneven. After this he is running on all cylinders.

 

[suzu]

This edition's artwork is great as well.

Those covers look trippy! I like it.

Man, it's funny to me how pretty much everyone hits Authority and goes "Oh." I liked Authority, but it was certainly a cockblock in book form for most of it.

Yeah, I wanted more

Spoiler

Area X and a little less Southern Reach. Also the biologist is a more interesting protagonist to me

. I'll finish up the series eventually.

 

[Cade]

Those covers look trippy! I like it.



Yeah, I wanted more

Spoiler

Area X and a little less Southern Reach. Also the biologist is a more interesting protagonist to me

. I'll finish up the series eventually.

Don't worry, towards the end it starts getting weird again. And book 3 is full weird!

 

[kswiston]

For those interested, you can currently get the Kindle version of Crime and Punishment, along with the audiobook via audible for less than $4 total:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CO4DXLS

The ebook on its own is 99 cents, but considering that it not under copyright, you could get the Project Gutenberg edition for free.


I managed to finish the Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (by Douglas Adams) during the past couple of days. I didn't realize at the time that it was part of a series. They writing was witty, but I've seen the concept done better in other books.

 

[Mumei]

For those interested, you can currently get the Kindle version of Crime and Punishment, along with the audiobook via audible for less than $4 total:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CO4DXLS

The ebook on its own is 99 cents, but considering that it not under copyright, you could get the Project Gutenberg edition for free.

Not that I'm in the market, but how good is the public domain translation?

 

[kswiston]

Not that I'm in the market, but how good is the public domain translation?

I haven't read the book yet to comment on its quality, but the Project Gutenberg version is the Constance Garnett translation (which is the same as the kindle version on sale)

 

[RELAYER]

Not that I'm in the market, but how good is the public domain translation?

I suppose it depends on what you want in a translation.
It's by Constance Garnett, whose name as translator is particularly associated with Dostoevsky, but she also translated many Russian novels by other authors such as Tolstoy (whom she actually met) and Turgenev and I personally always seek out her versions especially.

Her versions are almost always the basis upon which subsequent translators begin their foundation.

Currently if you go to any message board the latest fad in the English speaking world of Russian literature are the relatively recent translations by husband and wife team Pevear and Volokonsky for their supposed greater accuracy and "modern" dialogue.

Garnett on the other hand is often criticized for her "outdated" Victorian English. Make of the words in quotations what you will.

It was by Garnett's efforts that Russian literature was largely introduced and made popular in the English speaking world, which is a feat that speaks for itself I think.
Personally I find Garnett's near contemporary vernacular to far better suit the novels, but everyone has their preferences.