What are you reading?

Thanks for the tips.

@Thrasher
I know what you mean about Martin, and I do think he's a good storyteller. I just don't like the way he writes, sentence to sentence. It's all a bit clunky and sonorous, full of dead metaphors and clichéd phrases. I find myself groaning and tutting at the actual writing, and that pulls me out of it.

Actually, the groan-worthy style of writing is probably one of the main things that puts me off most fantasy novels.

dteowner said:

Start with The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. If that doesn't suck you in, we'll just go ahead and put you out of your misery.

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I'm coming out of the closet here and finally admitting to the world that I thought The Name of the Wind was only alright. It wasn't the masterpiece of prose that it was said to be. I liked it, but wasn't enthralled by it.

Korplem said:

I'm coming out of the closet here and finally admitting to the world that I thought The Name of the Wind was only alright. It wasn't the masterpiece of prose that it was said to be. I liked it, but wasn't enthralled by it.

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Burn the heretic! Its the only fantasy book I read twice! I don' think its masterpiece of proses (its good for fantasy maybe) but its something about the story I really enjoyed.

I've enjoyed Song of Ice and Fire, but man, the details the guy goes into are just way over the top. He'll spend 5 pages describing every person in a room, what colors their shield/banners are, what their history is, etc. Then either he kills half them off or they are just never heard from again. Its cool the first couple times, but its kind of over kill.

I also agree that he's been trying to do too much, trying to hit every one of the seven kingdoms (plus the free cities), when he really didn't need to. I'm glad they've cut a lot of that stuff for the show.

Still, its fantastic. While the last two books weren't to the level of the previous ones, they were still some of the top fantasy out there IMO.

blatantninja said:

I've enjoyed Song of Ice and Fire, but man, the details the guy goes into are just way over the top. He'll spend 5 pages describing every person in a room, what colors their shield/banners are, what their history is, etc. Then either he kills half them off or they are just never heard from again. Its cool the first couple times, but its kind of over kill.

I also agree that he's been trying to do too much, trying to hit every one of the seven kingdoms (plus the free cities), when he really didn't need to. I'm glad they've cut a lot of that stuff for the show.

Still, its fantastic. While the last two books weren't to the level of the previous ones, they were still some of the top fantasy out there IMO.

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Agreed on all fronts. I'm a sucker for political intrigue and the lot, and boy, do these books deliver in spades, or what… Slightly less in the final two, which is why I liked those less, but the first two are among the best novels I had the pleasure of reading. I love the morally grey characters, each with their own agenda.

Myself I'm reading Stephen King's "Under the Dome" right now, and thoroughly enjoying it. The slang gets a little hard sometimes for a non-native speaker (I'm reading it in English), but I'm managing.

Finished daylight war(3 installment ) from Brett. I liked it. Also finished half the world from Abercrombie. Also liked it. And last "the emperor's blades" by Staveley. Loved it.

Picked up Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga. Coming from Kim Stanley Robinson's philosophic stories with a deep focus on science and strong characterization to classic space opera where the SciFi is mostly a backdrop for action, drama and intrigue was not easy, but I'm managing.

I'm reading the omnibus editions and started with Cordelias Honor. The first book, Shards of Honor, I didn't enjoy too much.. the love story just didn't make much sense to me, although towards the end everything got a bit more interesting. The second book, Barrayar is fun so far - or maybe I just got used to the world and writing style. After that I'm probably going to dive into the actual Miles Vorkosigan stories.

Yeah, it's a far distance from Robinson's style, but I really enjoyed Shards of Honor. BTW, the Miles books starting with the Warrior’s Apprentice are much less romantic and political and a lot more about crazy plots and action.

I followed this reading order and enjoyed the backstories more for it.

http://arkhamarchivist.com/suggested-reading-order-bujold-vorkosigan/

I'm about halfway through the Assassin's Apprentice, and I'm really enjoying it. What surprises me is that I've either never heard of it, or simply forgot it at some point. For having the word assassin in the title, it is rather light on action, but the character development is top notch. I'll be getting the rest of the series to read, that is for sure.

blatantninja said:

Just finished Old Man's War. I have no idea how it ended up on my Amazon Wish List except that I may have added it instead of the Forever War by accident. Got it for Christmas from my Dad. The writing is a bit juvenile at times, and frankly it seems a bit confused as to what time period it occurs in (humans have been traveling in space for 200+ years, but the way it describes Earth you'd think it was the 1950's).

All that said, its AWESOME. I have a hard time finding Sci-Fi I really like and I REALLY liked it. I loved the way it portrayed the future as basically one big clusterfuck of galactic exploration and colonization. This is no Star Trek future with civilized discourse and federations.

Highly recommended.

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Just finished book 2 in the series. It's good, but not as good as the first one. That's not really a criticism, just an observation. Most of the reveal occurred in the first one and had to, so the second one is about a specific event in the war. It's good and by focusing on the special forces, it does allow for some more reveal moments, but there's just no way he could match the initial book. On to book 3 shortly!

Just finished an e-novel series called Vaetra Chronicles. The book tells a familiar story about an evil mage attempting to take over an Empire. What is nice about the series is that it mixes several different types of magic and has good explanations of each. The heroes don't win every battle and some victories are quite incomplete. This is very well edited too, which can be a problem for ebooks. There is romance, friendship, betrayal, and all the other components of a good story. Recommended.

http://smile.amazon.com/Vaetra-Untr..._kstore_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1JWHVW11DXZVRD29N7EW

Korplem said:

I'm coming out of the closet here and finally admitting to the world that I thought The Name of the Wind was only alright. It wasn't the masterpiece of prose that it was said to be. I liked it, but wasn't enthralled by it.

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Thank you. Finally I meet someone who feels the same way about the Kingkiller Chronicles as I do.

Admittedly it's been about 3 years since I read them so the details are a little fuzzy, but the one thing I do remember is how much I hated the main character. (Kvoth? Something like that?) He was just so awesomely awesome at everything he did. School, music, fighting, he was great at everything. None of the bad things that happened to him were his fault, it was always caused by someone else who was jealous or feared him. And then, as a virgin, he meets a sex goddess and outsexes the sex goddess because of course he does. He's more like a teenage boy's fantasy version of himself rather than an actual fleshed-out, believable character.

The plot itself, setting, side characters, etc. were decent. Nothing mindblowing.

The only parts the I really enjoyed were the non-flashback portions, with the brooding, troubled adult Kvoth. I liked that Kvoth a lot more than the Boy Wonder Super Kvoth I had to read about through most of the books.

Overall I was fairly disappointed. As a huge fan of Jordan/Sanderson/Erikson, I was really hoping this would live up to the works of those authors. Alas, it didn't for me.

Just finished The Crook Factory by Dan Simmons. I don't know why I continue reading his novels. While I enjoyed The Terror and Flashback, his novels are peppered with periods of going into minute details and boring narration. These periods were tolerable in the latter 2 titles I mentioned, but Crook Factory seemed to be nothing but boring oration. It was just not an interesting story. I had problems getting engaged with it from the start so maybe I missed something, but this one is not recommended.

Thrasher said:

BTW, the Miles books starting with the Warrior’s Apprentice are much less romantic and political and a lot more about crazy plots and action.

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Crazy plots.. no kidding. It's a roller-coaster ride of plot-twists. Some are over-the-top, sure, but a whole lot of fun. I'm near the end of the second Miles book now in the Young Miles omnibus. I'm glad I read Cordelia's story first, though, as I felt some incidents in Warrior's Apprentice had more impact that way. Already looking forward to reading the rest, although I'm not sure I can keep up with the speed.

Yeah, a lot of caper'ish plots that get Miles in and out of impossibly unlikely situations. The later books slow down and have more intrigue, so you should be able to keep up.

During most of past few months I didn't have my PC so I didn't do any gaming but that left me with lot of time read se here are books I been reading recently:

Powder mage-I read first book and all the prequels.Prequels where ok but the book was amazing.This book has it all, realistic and believable world, interesting characters, good magic system.One of my favorites

Nine princes of AmberAnothere book that goes into my favorites.Simply amazing.I ordered rest of the series and I can't wait for books to arrive.

Earthsea series Short but good epic fantasy books but first one, Wizzard of earthsea I finds the best.

Now section I call the deed of Sanderson.

Reckoners series which is Sanderson's twist on people with superpowers.Real page turners maybe not his best books but they are incredibly fun.

Elantris-His weakest book imo.I found it really dull.

Legion series which includes two very short books.Very strange and fun detective novels.This begs to be made into tv show.

Perfect state-Sanderson tries to write short sci-ti comedy and it turns out he is good and that too.He is provind to be rather versatile.

that won't be all from him as I plans to read Worlds of radiance second Mistborn trilogy some

Good ones, Nameless one. I love the feeling of reading good books for the first time.

Speaking of which, I finished the second Miles omnibus and am thinking of taking a Miles break, while sticking to the Space Opera genre. So, has anyone read both the Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton and the Revelation Space trilogy by Alastair Reynolds and can tell me which I should start with? Thanks!

Haven't read Alastair Reynolds but I have read the Night's Dawn trilogy and its pretty good, alot of mystery and interesting metaphysical reading.

@ Nameless one - You are going to absolutely love the whole Amber Series. It is one of the best I have ever read. Roger Zelazney was such an excellent writer and a master of the short story. If you ever get the chance read his short story entitled The Last Defender of Chamelot.

Jack Vance's Lyonesse Trilogy - the man was a bonified word smith and this high fantasy is top notch. His Dying Earth Series is very unique.

Glen Cook's Garret, P.I. series - really fun and very creative series about a freelance private investigator set in a fantasy world. Its Film Noir meets Fantasy and the combination is excellent.

RogerZelazney's Amber Series as noted.

Jim Butcher - The Dresden Files where Film Noir meets serious fantasy set in modern times.

The Amber series are actually all available in one large book from Amazon; best way to get them. You may note how much I think of them from the online name I chose MANY, MANY years ago!!