Support NeoGAF

[Alebeard]

The Black Company is the only Cook I've read. I'm on book seven now, and the series is so consistently good.

BC is my favorite kind of fantasy. Dry. Arid Desert Dry and about the people. I'd heard he was suppsed to write more BC books, but I dont know if those sill exist. His Scifi stuff is pretty excellent too.
Dragon Never Sleeps was great, I need to pick up StarFishers, its a Space Opera about Norse Mythology and Submarine like warfare.
Dread Empire was really enjoyable. Its like the precursor to epic military fantasy you can taste a lot of malazan like vibes in it. (Book 1 was in 1979)
Instrumentalities of the Night is very bizarre. Good, and very bizarre. Cook is one of the few authors that I've read that really likes to let his stories span globes and continents and that another reason I love his stuff.

Croaker is a bro.

 

[ZQQLANDER]

reading Malzan Book of the Fallen just finished Bonehunters
Basically the best fantasy out there. I've done all of Glen Cooks work, Abercrombie and ASoIaF and Malazan blows them all out of the water. Except maybe Black Company. but thats just because The Black Company is well, The Black Company

I've been looking for something other than GoT so I picked up the first Malazan Book and The Name of the Wind. Started Gardens of the Moon the other day and I feel that its very engaging in part because of the writing style. Erikson certainly doesn't feed the readers information, you gotta earn it.

This is my first real venture into SciFi and was wondering what people thought of GoT compared to the Malazan and Kingkiller Chronicle books.

 

[Jintor]

Continuing through this now the next book "turning point" is out

Had it like two years and I'm just under half way

I found the translation (or maybe just Miyazaki) incredible onerous and irritating, lol

 

[X-Frame]

Started The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease (by Daniel E. Lieberman) today and so far it's quite interesting, and the book comes recommended by Kelly Starrett from MobilityWOD.

 

[Alebeard]

I've been looking for something other than GoT so I picked up the first Malazan Book and The Name of the Wind. Started Gardens of the Moon the other day and I feel that its very engaging in part because of the writing style. Erikson certainly doesn't feed the readers information, you gotta earn it.

This is my first real venture into SciFi and was wondering what people thought of GoT compared to the Malazan and Kingkiller Chronicle books.

Malazan has all of the feels.
Its an experience, Gardens is easily the weakest of the books, and still its a great book.

 

[Fusebox]

Not sure if anyone saw, but we launched a Q&A feature at Goodreads. One of the authors we've included in the launch is Hugh Howey of Wool fame. So if you have a question to ask him, feel free to here and he can pick which ones he wants to answer:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/3064305/questions

Nice one, the Silo saga is a fantastic story. I don't have any questions but will keen to read the Q&A.

 

[ShaneB]

Yeah like this too. Scott Sigler, Mark Lawrence, Patrick Ness and Patrick Rothfuss are all pretty fan friendly.

If I ever get around to reading those GFL books, I'll be sure to send Sigler a hello.

Wow really? I never even thought of contacting the author like that. I always feel like I'm infringing and that they have tons of fanmail or something. Aw this makes me happy.

I never thought of doing that either. When I was really young, we wrote a program on the Commodore 64 to decipher some secret language used by Piers Anthony in his Xanth books. We mailed the dot matrix print out of the code to him with the translations and got a letter back thanking us. I thought it was the coolest thing at the time.

Glad to point it out to you both! After I read Cyberstorm, the author actually contacted me, and thanked for the review and all that, and asked if I wanted to get advanced copies of his next work. And since I tend to check out a lot lesser known books, I guess it's a bit easier to get in touch with those authors.

 

[HotHamWater]

I just finished Dune.

sogood.gif

What a crazy awesome story. Loved the world building and the knife fights, really tense and well done.

I know it is polemic, but should I continue on reading the sequels? I'm kinda curious on how especially Alia develops in the future, even though I thought the book in the end was really satisfying and self-contained.


Now to Childhood's End!

Quoting this because it didn't get a reply and is relevant to my interests.

 

[AngmarsKing701]

If I ever get around to reading those GFL books, I'll be sure to send Sigler a hello.





Glad to point it out to you both! After I read Cyberstorm, the author actually contacted me, and thanked for the review and all that, and asked if I wanted to get advanced copies of his next work. And since I tend to check out a lot lesser known books, I guess it's a bit easier to get in touch with those authors.

You'll see most of the authors active on social sites these days. They really need to be to keep the fanbase given today's access to people. It's amazing to me that I've had conversations with Joe Abercrombie, Guy Gavriel Kay and others. When I wrote a review of Abercrombie's Half a King he actually commented about it on Twitter and we had a little back and forth.

Mark Lawrence and Brian McLellan are also great guys and very engaging.

 

[Alebeard]

Quoting this because it didn't get a reply and is relevant to my interests.

you should read Dune Messiah, Children of Dune and maybe God Emperor of Dune. At least the following two. everything else is downhill from there. For the love of god dont read the K.J. Anderson/Brian Herbert books.

 

[VanWinkle]

The Kindle Paperwhite is so awesome. It let me get back into reading. Right now I'm reading a book called Off to Be the Wizard. I'm only about 40% in, but it's quite good so far.

I'm really happy to find this thread. I didn't know it existed.

 

[Mackenzie 92]

If I ever get around to reading those GFL books, I'll be sure to send Sigler a hello.

Yeah was trying to talk him into doing a downloadable GFL videogame lol. Was surprised he responded. Said the series wasn't popular enough yet, but he had looked into it.

You'll see most of the authors active on social sites these days. They really need to be to keep the fanbase given today's access to people. It's amazing to me that I've had conversations with Joe Abercrombie, Guy Gavriel Kay and others. When I wrote a review of Abercrombie's Half a King he actually commented about it on Twitter and we had a little back and forth.

Mark Lawrence and Brian McLellan are also great guys and very engaging.

Abercrombie is the only one who has ignored me haha.

 

[stufte]

Just started reading it, but wow. If science textbooks were as inspiring as this, there'd be so many more scientists in the world.

 

[Nakho]

you should read Dune Messiah, Children of Dune and maybe God Emperor of Dune. At least the following two. everything else is downhill from there. For the love of god dont read the K.J. Anderson/Brian Herbert books.

Thanks, will check it out once my Kindle Paperwhite arrives (only the original Dune has been released physically here in Brazil :/ )

 

[Wiktor]

Finished

Liked it a lot more than I thought I would after couple first chapters. The narration was plain awesome, with the main character's personality heavily coloring pretty much every scene. It started nice, but halway through the pieces started to fit together and created a suprisingly good detective plot. Which is refreshing, because most of the time urban fantasy uses those type of stories solely as excuse to do the fantastical. Here the crime plot was actually meaty and well developed. Very nice. Will read next volumnes from the series in future.


Now I've started to read:

I never gave a damn about Halo universe, but I love the precursors/ancients trope in sci-fi and most of all Greg Bear rarely dissapoints.

 

[Professor Chaos]

 

[DeadTsar]

Currently reading Snow Crash and Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Dracula suprisingly holds up pretty well despite the years

 

[ShaneB]

You'll see most of the authors active on social sites these days. They really need to be to keep the fanbase given today's access to people. It's amazing to me that I've had conversations with Joe Abercrombie, Guy Gavriel Kay and others. When I wrote a review of Abercrombie's Half a King he actually commented about it on Twitter and we had a little back and forth.

Mark Lawrence and Brian McLellan are also great guys and very engaging.

Yeah, exactly. Given how accessible the authors are in various ways, I'd imagine they certainly like to chit chat and spread the word and just get their name out there in all sorts of ways.

Yeah was trying to talk him into doing a downloadable GFL videogame lol. Was surprised he responded. Said the series wasn't popular enough yet, but he had looked into it.

Yeah, maybe those books will be a summer read this year.

Really liking "Look Me In The Eye", what a decorated life he's lead. Crazy stories!

 

[nakedsushi]

Yeah, exactly. Given how accessible the authors are in various ways, I'd imagine they certainly like to chit chat and spread the word and just get their name out there in all sorts of ways.

I forgot that I _did_ contact an author recently. It was Hugh Howey and mostly I wrote him to congratulate him on writing such an awesome series and succeeding thru the self-publishing. But now that he's book-famous, I'm scared to contact him again, heh.

 

[Plasticine]

Finished Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. This was the first "new" Stephen King book I've read since Cell. That book was hyped as his return to horror, and I was pretty disappointed by it. Having already been turned off of King by Insomnia, I decided to tune out completely. When I heard King was tackling a sequel to The Shining, I honestly never thought I'd read the thing. But when I got a copy of the Cemetery Dance edition as a "bonus" in an EBay auction, I thought I'd give it a shot.

I definitely don't regret reading the book. In fact, I really rather enjoyed it. King is a great storyteller. His style is folksy and really down to earth. I could practically hear an elderly north eastern voice reading the words as I turned through the pages. Unfortunately, like your grandpa or older uncle when they tell a story, King's bound to get a little long-winded. Doctor Sleep definitely is a long and rambling affair. King spends a lot of time on things that, frankly, could have been chopped down or excised altogether. While the AA element is important, King devotes pages to the program when only a few paragraphs would suffice. The time he devotes to AA would have been better served on the True Knot. While they're the monsters of the book, I never really felt like they were monstrous or even scary. I needed to see more of their evil ways than what King provided.

Up next:

I've enjoyed all of Joe Hill's work, but never got around to his latest. Don't know why. I was honestly really excited when it was released but it just sat on my shelf. Since I just finished his father's latest, it felt like the right time to check it out.

 

[Siegcram]

Hey, just got approved and since these threads were one of my most frequently visited ones, might as well start here.

Currently re-reading pretty much everything Hunter S. Thompson has ever done, as well as his german successors-in-spirit for my bachelor thesis.

Balancing that out with some comics

Thanks for all the cool suggestions in these threads and I'm looking forward to contribute to them from now on. Cheers!

 

[Opiate]

I have never participated in this thread!

I have just finished rereading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I am now reading Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

 

[Maklershed]

Has anyone read One Summer: America, 1927? Any quick reviews?


One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson

 

[okayfrog]

Been reading the James Bond novels over the past month, month and a half. Almost finished with Diamonds Are Forever, the fourth book. Wanted to stop at 5, but then I realized that there are 14 novels altogether, so I might just stop after reading the 7th (For Your Eyes Only).

 

[Alebeard]

Hey, just got approved and since these threads were one of my most frequently visited ones, might as well start here.

Currently re-reading pretty much everything Hunter S. Thompson has ever done, as well as his german successors-in-spirit for my bachelor thesis.

Balancing that out with some comics

Thanks for all the cool suggestions in these threads and I'm looking forward to contribute to them from now on. Cheers!

Blacksad is magic

 

[AngmarsKing701]

I forgot that I _did_ contact an author recently. It was Hugh Howey and mostly I wrote him to congratulate him on writing such an awesome series and succeeding thru the self-publishing. But now that he's book-famous, I'm scared to contact him again, heh.

When I'm book famous I'll still answer fans. I'm sure Howey will too. He's another who is pretty good at responding on Twitter. Not saying they respond to everyone, by the way.

 

[Shiv47]

Has anyone read One Summer: America, 1927? Any quick reviews?


One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson

Very enjoyable. Stuff that I knew superficially in many cases, given more depth and breadth.

 

[Maklershed]

Very enjoyable. Stuff that I knew superficially in many cases, given more depth and breadth.

Sweet, thanks.. Doing something new and purchased it via audible. Gonna listen to it while I'm away. Thanks to piecake for the simple but genius idea of listening to history audiobooks (since I cant seem to stomach fiction audiobooks).

 

[wilflare]

Just started reading it, but wow. If science textbooks were as inspiring as this, there'd be so many more scientists in the world.

I think I actually bought a kindle version of this :O
btw, any chance we'll see color e-ink in the future haha

 

[obin_gam]

Regarding alastair reynolds revelation space series: is chasm city neccesary reading afterr the first book, or could i just skip it and go directly to redemption ark?

 

[Rug Monkey]

Reading Lawrence in Arabia, after seeing it here

Lawrence is coming out of it rather well, although that's not difficult with the breathtaking stupidity and arrogance on show ...

"In his army’s nighttime march on the town of Dujaila in central Iraq, the 36th Indian Infantry Brigade had become disoriented in the dark. Rather than stop at their preassigned forward position to wait out the dawn artillery bombardment of the enemy, segments of the brigade had continued on across the barren Dujaila plain and directly into the Turks’ forward line. More specifically, they had stumbled squarely up the approaches to “the Citadel,” a forty-foot-high earthen fortress that commanded the surrounding flatlands and formed the strongpoint of the Turkish defenseworks. It sounded like a blueprint for slaughter, but it hadn’t quite played out that way. The runner who appeared at Aylmer’s headquarters that morning reported that, by all appearances, the fortress was either deserted or manned by a tiny skeleton guard; the 36th Indian Infantry Brigade was at the gates of the Citadel, and it was theirs for the taking."

The incompetence of what followed defies belief ...

"Fenton Aylmer was clearly not a man who liked surprises, even good ones. After hastily conferring with his senior commanders, it was decided that the preemptive capture of the Turkish stronghold posed too great a departure from the battle plans already worked out to be adequately supported. The 36th Indian was ordered away from the Citadel and back to the main British line; from there, they could recross the plain and seize the fortress once the opening artillery bombardment had been completed. When finally the British bombardment commenced—not at dawn as planned, but at 8 a.m.—all element of surprise had been lost, the Dujaila Citadel hurriedly manned by Turkish troops ferried over from across the river. It was another hour before the British frontal assault began. Very quickly, another four thousand imperial troops had fallen in no-man’s-land, without a single one reaching the Citadel."

and General Aylmer's punishment for this fiasco?

"Perhaps in recognition of his uneven achievements in Iraq, as well as his attempted cover‑up of the Citadel fiasco—his official battle report would make no mention of the 36th Indian’s report—his knighthood would be delayed until 1922."

 

[Cameron122]

Yeah like this too. Scott Sigler, Mark Lawrence, Patrick Ness and Patrick Rothfuss are all pretty fan friendly.

Heh I chatted with Mark Lawrence on Twitter once. Nice guy, fun books.

So I;m looking for some epic scope space opera to read. Any suggestions? Read Dune, Foundation, Hyperion, etc. Any newer stuff?

 

[Wiktor]

Heh I chatted with Mark Lawrence on Twitter once. Nice guy, fun books.

So I;m looking for some epic scope space opera to read. Any suggestions? Read Dune, Foundation, Hyperion, etc. Any newer stuff?

Vorkosigan Saga and The Snow Queen Cycle? From newer stuff Leviathan Wakes. And if you don't mind military focus The Lost Fleet.

 

[Piecake]

Reading Lawrence in Arabia, after seeing it here

Lawrence is coming out of it rather well, although that's not difficult with the breathtaking stupidity and arrogance on show ...

"In his army’s nighttime march on the town of Dujaila in central Iraq, the 36th Indian Infantry Brigade had become disoriented in the dark. Rather than stop at their preassigned forward position to wait out the dawn artillery bombardment of the enemy, segments of the brigade had continued on across the barren Dujaila plain and directly into the Turks’ forward line. More specifically, they had stumbled squarely up the approaches to “the Citadel,” a forty-foot-high earthen fortress that commanded the surrounding flatlands and formed the strongpoint of the Turkish defenseworks. It sounded like a blueprint for slaughter, but it hadn’t quite played out that way. The runner who appeared at Aylmer’s headquarters that morning reported that, by all appearances, the fortress was either deserted or manned by a tiny skeleton guard; the 36th Indian Infantry Brigade was at the gates of the Citadel, and it was theirs for the taking."

The incompetence of what followed defies belief ...

"Fenton Aylmer was clearly not a man who liked surprises, even good ones. After hastily conferring with his senior commanders, it was decided that the preemptive capture of the Turkish stronghold posed too great a departure from the battle plans already worked out to be adequately supported. The 36th Indian was ordered away from the Citadel and back to the main British line; from there, they could recross the plain and seize the fortress once the opening artillery bombardment had been completed. When finally the British bombardment commenced—not at dawn as planned, but at 8 a.m.—all element of surprise had been lost, the Dujaila Citadel hurriedly manned by Turkish troops ferried over from across the river. It was another hour before the British frontal assault began. Very quickly, another four thousand imperial troops had fallen in no-man’s-land, without a single one reaching the Citadel."

and General Aylmer's punishment for this fiasco?

"Perhaps in recognition of his uneven achievements in Iraq, as well as his attempted cover‑up of the Citadel fiasco—his official battle report would make no mention of the 36th Indian’s report—his knighthood would be delayed until 1922."

Oh god, that was definitely the most absurdly ridiculous stupid decision in the book, but the one that takes the cake for me is the whole Gallipoli campaign. The sheer quantity of stupid decisions needed to cause that complete clusterfuck was truly impressive

 

[Bazza]

Finished Ring by Baxter last night, probably my favorite of Xeelee books so far, although I wasn't entirely happy about how things ended for the humans

Spoiler

I thought them being stuck in a newly formed universe with no real chance to properly settle down and rebuild was a little harsh and poor Garry, left stranded

Annoyingly the next book in the series is a collection of short stories, I don't mind that its not a standard book in the series just that its not bloody available on Kindle (I wish it was the first time but it seems to be regular problem, I have had to buy several physical short story collections that are included in certain book series') and I have to wait till tomorrow to continue the series.

 

[RepairmanJack]

Finished Storm Front the first Dresden Files book. Overall I thought it was ok. There were things I liked and things I didn't like but it was enough to at least keep me reading, especially with them being such a quick read. I really didn't like the whole eye pairing thing

Spoiler

and how it was basically how he ended up solving most of the mystery. It just kind of seemed lazy.

I liked a lot of the characters even though there seemed to be very little meaningful character interaction. Most of the time the other characters just seemed like scene filler and really didn’t seem needed.

Overall just ok. I'll keep reading though because it was a fast read and I've heard it gets better.

 

[Bazza]

Finished Storm Front the first Dresden Files book. Overall I thought it was ok. There were things I liked and things I didn't like but it was enough to at least keep me reading, especially with them being such a quick read. I really didn't like the whole eye pairing thing

Spoiler

and how it was basically how he ended up solving most of the mystery. It just kind of seemed lazy.

I liked a lot of the characters even though there seemed to be very little meaningful character interaction. Most of the time the other characters just seemed like scene filler and really didn’t seem needed.

Overall just ok. I'll keep reading though because it was a fast read and I've heard it gets better.

I really enjoy them, looking forward to Skin Game on Tuesday. While several characters appear to be just filler content, but i think as you read more of the books the world and characters are built up a little more each time.

 

[fredrancour]

Malazan has all of the feels.
Its an experience, Gardens is easily the weakest of the books, and still its a great book.

I've only made it through book 3 of them, but (malazan book 2 and 3 spoilers)

Spoiler

The Chain of Dogs may have been the most emotionally painful story arc I've read. Duiker and Coltain got done dirty in almost every way imaginable.

I'm still glad to hear all the love for The Black Company though, I love all those books to death. I hope Glen Cook does eventually write those last 2 ideas he has.

I'm about halfway through The Blade itself and it's been really disappointing so far. No particular aspect is grabbing me very hard.

I think this outburst of hopeless fantasy addiction is winding down after 3 mistborn books, 3 malazan books, and this attempt at The Blade itself.

 

[ekka4shiki]

Just finished reading L'Étranger by Albert Camus few days ago. Or maybe it was yesterday. I can't be sure.

 

[ShaneB]

Vorkosigan Saga and The Snow Queen Cycle? From newer stuff Leviathan Wakes. And if you don't mind military focus The Lost Fleet.

Speaking the Leviathan Wakes/The Expanse, I went to Amazon to buy book 4, Cibola Burn, and I'm not seeing a kindle edition anywhere. Am I missing something? I'm sure it was there to preorder before. Bizarre, looks like it got pushed back a couple weeks as well =(

 

[Mr.Towel]

Speaking the Leviathan Wakes/The Expanse, I went to Amazon to buy book 4, Cibola Burn, and I'm not seeing a kindle edition anywhere. Am I missing something? I'm sure it was there to preorder before. Bizarre, looks like it got pushed back a couple weeks as well =(

There's been some strange conflict between amazon and the publisher leading to preorders getting taken off the site
http://observationdeck.io9.com/amazon-vs-hatchette-1580489150

http://gizmodo.com/when-amazon-plays-dirty-you-lose-1580596374

 

[ShaneB]

There's been some strange conflict between amazon and the publisher leading to preorders getting taken off the site
http://observationdeck.io9.com/amazon-vs-hatchette-1580489150

http://gizmodo.com/when-amazon-plays-dirty-you-lose-1580596374

That was going to be my first assumption, figured it was a publishing issue, wacky stuff. Thanks for the links.

edit again: really loving "Look me in the Eye" as I near the end. Really wonderful stuff, and emotional stuff hearing him talk about being a Dad. 2nd edit: Which means I think what I read after this will be another book by him "Raising Cubby", although "Running with Scissors" written by his brother sounds like a wacky read too.

 

[Alebeard]

I've only made it through book 3 of them, but (malazan book 2 and 3 spoilers)

Spoiler

The Chain of Dogs may have been the most emotionally painful story arc I've read. Duiker and Coltain got done dirty in almost every way imaginable.

I'm still glad to hear all the love for The Black Company though, I love all those books to death. I hope Glen Cook does eventually write those last 2 ideas he has.

I'm about halfway through The Blade itself and it's been really disappointing so far. No particular aspect is grabbing me very hard.

I think this outburst of hopeless fantasy addiction is winding down after 3 mistborn books, 3 malazan books, and this attempt at The Blade itself.

I really dig abercrombie's work. Loved the First Law books. it really comes into its own as the series progresses.
I'd urge you to keep on with the Malazan. Every book builds on to the previous one and gets better and better. Besides, you need to at least get to the best duo in fantasy writing; Tehol and Bugg (book 5). Seriously. Best Duo in fantasy books. all of them.

If you liked black company you should totally check out Cooks Scifi stuff. Its also excellent and space opera-y

 

[fakefaker]

Finished up 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami last night. If it was 600 or 700 pages it would have been fine, but talk about being repetitive and meandering at full length. War and Peace is a cakewalk compared to this boring monstrosity.

Gonna go full action now and get that last book outta my system with Heaven's Queen by Rachel Bach.

 

[War Peaceman]

Finished up 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami last night. If it was 600 or 700 pages it would have been fine, but talk about being repetitive and meandering at full length. War and Peace is a cakewalk compared to this boring monstrosity.

I finished that the other night, having left it at book three for a year or so. I liked it a lot more after that break, but I think it could easily have been half the size and be equally meaningful and thought-provoking. Compare it to Sputnik Sweetheart and you can plainly see the value of a good editor.

I've just started Lolita, by Nabokov of course. The prose in this is glorious and indulgent. I think I am going to like this book, particularly as I enjoy stories with morally unsound characters.

 

[ShaneB]

Finished up Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's by John Elder Robison , and it was very emotional for me. I will be giving it a 5/5 when I write a review later tonight.

 

[survivor]

Trying out some new stuff that I'm not that used to. I liked Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf so I went with something by him and read through Human Chain, collection of poems. I'd say most of them went over my head, seems like my vocabulary knowledge isn't up to par with his writing. I feel like I need to explore some more poets, maybe read some anthology to find someone I can enjoy, I also read Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish which I enjoyed a lot. Written in rhythmic verses that probably seems like a gimmicky writing style, but I liked it.

It also looks like I finished my Goodreads challenge for the year. Put down 20 books and now I'm done so I guess no more reading stuff till 2015. I should probably look into increasing the count for next year.

 

[fakefaker]

Just curious what you guys think of this whole Amazon vs. Hachette thing going on. I'm all for business until they start acting like bullies.

Stray punches in a corporate slugfest knocked spectacles from authors’ noses and left readers with black eyes this week, after Amazon, the online retailer, stopped selling certain titles published by Hachette, the multinational publisher. The move came after weeks of lesser measures by Amazon to put pressure on Hachette.

Amazon has been fighting with the publisher over undisclosed aspects of a deal under which Amazon brings Hachette’s books to market.

Amazon stopped selling certain Hachette books on Friday, including JK Rowling’s latest detective novel and a new thriller offering by Adam Brookes. Other Hachette books, such as Joshua Ferris’ new novel, appeared to be for sale as usual, although under a large banner advertising “similar items at a lower price.” Still others were being sold at non-competitive prices. A hardcover edition of bestselling author Jeffery Deaver’s new novel, The Skin Collector, cost $17.99 on barnesandnoble.com on Friday – and $25.20 on amazon.com.

Amazon halts sales of some Hachette books

 

[Piecake]

Just finished with this

The book follows the life of an English professor who teaches at a Missouri college during the early 20th century. If that sounds dull, you would be wrong. It is the best novel that I have read in a long time.

The prose is simply beautiful. It is just so visually and emotionally evocative that you just get absorbed into the story. I honestly haven't felt like that reading a book in a long while. The characters are fantastic as well. They treated with such brutal honesty that you cannot help but sympathize and care about them.

I was honestly blown away at how good it was, and I will definitely check out the author's other novels.

 

[Wiktor]

Finished Storm Front the first Dresden Files book. Overall I thought it was ok. There were things I liked and things I didn't like but it was enough to at least keep me reading, especially with them being such a quick read. I really didn't like the whole eye pairing thing

Spoiler

and how it was basically how he ended up solving most of the mystery. It just kind of seemed lazy.

I liked a lot of the characters even though there seemed to be very little meaningful character interaction. Most of the time the other characters just seemed like scene filler and really didn’t seem needed.

Overall just ok. I'll keep reading though because it was a fast read and I've heard it gets better.

The first two Dresden novels are merelly decent. Third one is good, then from 4th onward the quality explodes to become propably the very best urban fantasy on the market.