I finished A Game of Thrones and immediately turned around and started on A Clash of Kings. This story has definitely managed to suck me in like few stories have in quite some time.
Any chance I can get the author? I typed it into google only to realize my folly. Amazon isn't bringing much up either.
Edit: Is it Richard Morgan? If so, sounds like it's up my alley. Sadly I can't seem to find it on Amazon.com, or .uk...so I might scrounge around a few bookstores near me to see if they have it.
edit: And it's called Thirteen in the US, by the way. I just like the other title so much more. But I really should have mentioned that early on, totally my fault.
Getting close to the end of Perdido Street Station and it's been a great experience so far. Miéville has created an extremely interesting universe and the included monster is frightening as shit. I'll dive into some more books of his after a brief pause.
Meanwhile, I just placed an order for my next books, stolen directly from this thread: The Shadow of the Wind and The Mortdecai Trilogy.
Crime and Punishment is probably the best book to start with. The only other book I think worth mentioning as a possible starting point is Notes From the Underground since it is by far the shortest of all of his major mature works, though in consequence it lacks the novelistic scope of the larger ones, being closer in some ways to a philosophical tract.
You can easily get free e-books of all of his major works from the Kindle store. The one issue I see is that there don't seem to be e-book versions of any of the superior recent translations, though the older ones are fine.
Ditto. I'm reading it now. It's a great book BUT Blade Runner seems to be loosely based on it. So far just about the only similarity is they both have a bounty hunting Rick Deckard and androids. :lol
Brothers Karamazov is unquestionably a greater work. If someone was going to only read one Dostoyevsky work in their life that should be it. However I suggested Crime and Punishment because it is substantially shorter, being half the length, so that I think it might be a more comfortable place to start. It depends on what kind of approach Stat Flow wants to take. Also, in the long run both are worth reading so that the time spent reading C & P will be in no ways wasted.
After the highly disapointing Humbling,
I continue my journey in Philip Roth books,
this time I got my hands on American Pastoral,
there's a bit of Human Stain in it at the begining, heck it's like all novelists begins this kind of novel the same way....
Someone contact an author to make something that will delve into the past and blablabla.
It's still incredibly well written.
Next up : Last of the Rabbit novel by Updike : Rabbit at rest
Brothers Karamazov is unquestionably a greater work. If someone was going to only read one Dostoyevsky work in their life that should be it. However I suggested Crime and Punishment because it is substantially shorter, being half the length, so that I think it might be a more comfortable place to start. I suppose neither of us knows for sure what approach Stat Flow wants to take. Also, in the long run both are worth reading so that the time spent reading C & P will be in no ways wasted.
Brothers Karamazov is unquestionably a greater work. If someone was going to only read one Dostoyevsky work in their life that should be it. However I suggested Crime and Punishment because it is substantially shorter, being half the length, so that I think it might be a more comfortable place to start. It depends on what kind of approach Stat Flow wants to take. Also, in the long run both are worth reading so that the time spent reading C & P will be in no ways wasted.
So, I'm a few pages into Rainbow's End and I'm starting to notice how this could be a little more complicated than I expected. I still think the comparison is probably mostly wrong, but it reminds me of reading Foucault's Pendulum, where I would have to read the same page multiple times to get a glimpse of what it's trying to convey just on the surface since everything sounds like a double-meaning metaphor or something.
The giant Adenoid thing had me completely dumbfounded
:lol . It might be a little intimidating, but nowhere near impossible and definitely enjoyable so far; the writing is genius and I shall continue reading. I can't say it's among my favorites so far, but after Murakami and Kundera it's a very welcome change of style and I'm getting into it.
Anyone else reading it for the first time? I thought it'd be cool to share impressions from other people just getting into it, or anyone who's read it before, really.
Edit: The Unbearable Lightness of Being was pretty good, it reminded me of Steppenwolf (which I read last month) at parts and it's pretty existentialist (which I'm starting to think is a synonym for nostalgic and depressing), but it's definitely a enjoyable light read if you don't let the themes set your mood after you finish it. Plus it gives some interesting glimpses of Prague under communism and being here it helps me put into context some of the recent history of the country and Prague in particular.
I disagree. While the last three Dark Tower novels aren't up there with the rest of the series, they have plenty of high points and they provide a decent ending. Not an amazing ending, alas (and I feel that had King written the last few novels one book at a time rather than getting through all three at once then we could have had amazing), but I was content with the finale and enjoyed all three of the final books. Besides, after four books and a couple of thousand pages, I don't think there's many people who would say, "Ah, to hell with it, I'm skipping the second half of the story.
It's been getting lots of great reviews, but I did *not* like it at all. The whole story could be summed up as Wizard of Oz in a steampunk world with zombies. While that *sounds* awesome, the whole vehicle that drives the plot is stupid-obvious.
Spoilered discussion of the plot:
If Briar only stopped being stupid in the first place and told her son everything, she could have stopped him from going into the ruined city. Something simple like, "Oh yeah, don't go looking for your dad b/c he's a crook and I know this because I saw him doing crooked things. Oh, and I shot him, so he's been dead for all of your life." would have been fine. I don't understand how in her mind, not telling her son anything and letting him believe all the rumors was better than just being honest in the first place.
I also hated Zeke and wished he had died in the end. He seems pretty stupid and inappropriate at important times. He never does anything smart. And I don't know why he's so mouthy when he has nothing to back it up. Maybe he's supposed to be a typical 15 year old boy, but that doesn't really make him likable at all.
And the whole wrap-up at the end? There was the complete build up of The Doctor being Blue and explaining his evil plans, and then a few pages of, "Haha, just kidding, tricked you! He's just some no-name guy who came from nowhere and now has delusions of grandeur!" Talk about unsatisfying ending.
Also, not really sure with all the anti-Chinese sentiment. Maybe it's supposed to in the old days, when everyone was racist against Asians, but considering they're the ones who are pumping breathable air into town, you'd think the ol' round-eyes would cut them some slack.
Considering I very heartedly disliked the characters and the plot of the book, is it worth reading the other 2 books of Clockwork Century? I'd really like to know more about The Blight, but didn't care much for the characters.
Picked up "Assholes Finish First" in the airport for something to read on the flight. It's not quite as funny as the first book but still an amusing short read. The RV Tuckerfest story had me in stitches.
Yes, it's still a collection of stupid, exaggerated, self masturbatory stories...but it's funny as hell.
For fans of sci-fi among us: Ted Chiang's latest novella, "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" is now available online. Click the cover, receive text.
I made a thread about it, but it's in game-side limbo for now because of my stupidness. :lol
Oh and here's my impressions on it:
Having never read a single Ted Chiang story (his compilation Story of Your Life: And Others has been on my to-get list for a long time, and I think it's about time I order it), I was kind of disappointed by this. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the story immensely, but I can't help but think it was a prologue to something much greater. His writing is pretty good if not a bit simple (not that it detracts from the quality of his writing, on the contrary he dealt with pretty technical topics adequately using non-technical terms most of the time) making the story really easy to get into.
However, I felt like I got lots of exposition, a minor conflict that could have gone much farther, a couple of subplots that went nowhere (romantic interest between the two human characters and the "alien" AIs) and a really uninspired open ending. I really think this could have benefited of being twice as long as it was, specially since the questions it raises and the universe it develops go in the right way, but feel really wasted in the context of the short scope of the novella. The human characters also feel a little uninspired at times. I still want to read his other stories, specially since I've read reviews echoing my impressions and mention his other stories don't suffer from similar issues, but I have to say this was pretty bittersweet overall. Unless the author plans to write some sort of continuation, that is. I feel, as I said before that this could be a pretty good beginning to a bigger work.
So, I'm a few pages into Rainbow's End and I'm starting to notice how this could be a little more complicated than I expected. I still think the comparison is probably mostly wrong, but it reminds me of reading Foucault's Pendulum, where I would have to read the same page multiple times to get a glimpse of what it's trying to convey just on the surface since everything sounds like a double-meaning metaphor or something.
The giant Adenoid thing had me completely dumbfounded
:lol . It might be a little intimidating, but nowhere near impossible and definitely enjoyable so far; the writing is genius and I shall continue reading. I can't say it's among my favorites so far, but after Murakami and Kundera it's a very welcome change of style and I'm getting into it.
Anyone else reading it for the first time? I thought it'd be cool to share impressions from other people just getting into it, or anyone who's read it before, really.
Edit: The Unbearable Lightness of Being was pretty good, it reminded me of Steppenwolf (which I read last month) at parts and it's pretty existentialist (which I'm starting to think is a synonym for nostalgic and depressing), but it's definitely a enjoyable light read if you don't let the themes set your mood after you finish it. Plus it gives some interesting glimpses of Prague under communism and being here it helps me put into context some of the recent history of the country and Prague in particular.
For fans of sci-fi among us: Ted Chiang's latest novella, "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" is now available online. Click the cover, receive text.
I made a thread about it, but it's in game-side limbo for now because of my stupidness. :lol
Oh and here's my impressions on it:
Having never read a single Ted Chiang story (his compilation Story of Your Life: And Others has been on my to-get list for a long time, and I think it's about time I order it), I was kind of disappointed by this. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the story immensely, but I can't help but think it was a prologue to something much greater. His writing is pretty good if not a bit simple (not that it detracts from the quality of his writing, on the contrary he dealt with pretty technical topics adequately using non-technical terms most of the time) making the story really easy to get into.
However, I felt like I got lots of exposition, a minor conflict that could have gone much farther, a couple of subplots that went nowhere (romantic interest between the two human characters and the "alien" AIs) and a really uninspired open ending. I really think this could have benefited of being twice as long as it was, specially since the questions it raises and the universe it develops go in the right way, but feel really wasted in the context of the short scope of the novella. The human characters also feel a little uninspired at times. I still want to read his other stories, specially since I've read reviews echoing my impressions and mention his other stories don't suffer from similar issues, but I have to say this was pretty bittersweet overall. Unless the author plans to write some sort of continuation, that is. I feel, as I said before that this could be a pretty good beginning to a bigger work.
I felt about the same with this novella too. It was also my first Chiang read. I felt that he could have explored a lot of interesting questions like do things we fabricate never have a soul by default? Where's the line between AI and being human? etc. Instead, he glosses over them for a watered down, soulless story.
Just finished my third Murakami novel, Norwegian Wood. Certainly more straight forward than Kafka on the Shore and The Windup Bird Chronicle, but undoubtedly Murakami and undoubtedly fantastic. I already have Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World waiting for me, but I'm going to read some other author's works first.
I will start reading 1984 tomorrow, which will be my first Orwell book. Can't wait.
Descendants of Nazis are hunting a chap whose clandestine job it is to disperse among Holocaust victims an enormous fund of Third Reich wealth.
It's ok. It's exciting without being terribly enjoyable. I sense, at about the halfway mark, that an epic doublecross is either about to occur or about to be revealed.
The Force Unleashed II novelization by Sean Williams is the novelization of a Star Wars action game. So it's got that going for it. It was better than the first novelization, but some of the action set pieces from the game just don't translate well to the page. And I never really could buy the central motivation of the main character, who may or may not be a clone (he doesn't know): trying to get back with his special lady, the galaxy, Rebellion, Empire, his apparent clone-ness, and Darth Vader be damned.
Magician: Apprentice by Raymond E. Feist. This is a semi-classic fantasy book from 1982. I am fascinated by fantasy from the 1980s and am going back to read it. I'm a newcomer to the genre. This book was very enjoyable if conventional. It is well-loved for a reason. Thirty years on it is probably cliched, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and will follow up with the rest in the Riftwar series.
I am about a third of the way into An Instance of the Fingerpost. Still making progress. I was glad when the narrator switched from the Italian. I am fascinated by Cromwell so bringing him more into things made me want to continue.
It's been getting lots of great reviews, but I did *not* like it at all. The whole story could be summed up as Wizard of Oz in a steampunk world with zombies. While that *sounds* awesome, the whole vehicle that drives the plot is stupid-obvious.
It was a pretty fun read. King's attempt at a children's fantasy book. I really enjoy his writing style but I have yet to ever read a book of his where I'm not a little dissappointed with the ending.
I'm going to read this next:
It's been about 20 years now and I still love the Drizzt characters and these books even if they are a shallow fantasy adventure story. The last one was good while the prior 2 or 3 before that were pretty terrible. Here's hoping the large gap in time will reinvigorate this series.
I started this on Sunday and I'm around half way through as of last night. I'm enjoying it. It took quite a beating in the game's official thread with one gaffer saying his wife started hitting the book. Seems like typical fantasy stuff to me - reminds me a lot of the first Codex Alera novel by Jim Butcher. Middle of the fantasy book bell curve stuff
It starts off great but its dragging in the middle right now and I don't like the newest addition to the cast.
Some were saying that the book was an outlet for Brad's crazy political / social beliefs but I'm not really seeing it.
Finished All the Pretty Horses and was actually surprised how much made it into the film version. Now all I have left in the Border Trilogy is Cities on the Plain, and I don't know how it's even going to touch this and The Crossing. My guess? It won't.
Just finished
It was supposed to be part of my steampunk month, but I don't think this book was steampunk at all. Not sure why so many people tagged it as steampunk on Goodreads. I'd say it's more sci-fi, time travel. Other than that, really enjoyed the book. It's short, sweet, has some poignant parts, some brilliant observations, and most amazingly of all, feels very modern for when it was written.
