Well, one of the most common things you hear at the table when my friends play is "I have wood for sheep"... huh... this book may not be all ages appropriate.
I haven't read Angela's Ashes in a good many years, but i think there's a joke about that in there somewhere. Full disclosure, I might be thinking of 'Tis.
Possibly, I can't remember it from Angela's Ashes (though I last read it and saw the movie when I was about 12 or 13, so that could be why). Never read 'Tis, though I did read the memoir about his teaching career, Teacher Man.
I haven't yet stumbled across Teacher Man. Good read?
I haven't yet stumbled across Teacher Man. Good read?
Yeah it's pretty interesting. It covers his 30 year teaching career. Actually from memory there's a sheep shagging joke in there too, I think he told the students it on his second day and almost got fired.
I'm currently working my way through The Rithmatist, by Brandon Sanderson. Between that and Elantris, it seems that Sanderson can create magic systems like nobody's business. Is this constant throughout his writing, or does it flare up at some times and not others?
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I'm currently working my way through The Rithmatist, by Brandon Sanderson. Between that and Elantris, it seems that Sanderson can create magic systems like nobody's business. Is this constant throughout his writing, or does it flare up at some times and not others?
Sanderson's hallmark is rigorously defined magic systems. In fact, he coined "Sanderson's Law" of fantasy writing, which states that the ability of magic to resolve conflict is directly proportional to how well the reader understands how that magic works.
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I'm currently working my way through The Rithmatist, by Brandon Sanderson. Between that and Elantris, it seems that Sanderson can create magic systems like nobody's business. Is this constant throughout his writing, or does it flare up at some times and not others?Sanderson's hallmark is rigorously defined magic systems. In fact, he coined "Sanderson's Law" of fantasy writing, which states that the ability of magic to resolve conflict is directly proportional to how well the reader understands how that magic works.
Furthermore, I'd say that the magic systems in Elantris and The Rithmastist are among his weaker ones. For the magic system that is absolutely the best, I'd check out Mistborn.
Sanderson's hallmark is rigorously defined magic systems. In fact, he coined "Sanderson's Law" of fantasy writing, which states that the ability of magic to resolve conflict is directly proportional to how well the reader understands how that magic works.
I guess I should have done more Googling (read: any) before asking about the magic systems. After finding them, I have to say I agree with his second and third laws, too.
@Lord Snow: Believe me, I'll be reading Mistborn as soon as I'm able. My biggest issue is going to be catching up with this guy's output; it's ridiculous! Most writers I know of who write more than about one book/year are reduced to potboilers; that is not the case here.
If RDN and Lord Snow will tolerate another question: From what I can tell, The Stormlight Archive is set to be a long series; I would ask if it was a try at unifying his stories a la Stephen King's Dark Tower series, but it looks like he's already got that covered with his Cosmere idea. So, he puts Easter eggs in his books for people looking for Cosmere information, or is it more explicit than that?
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Most of Judy Thornton's dialogue in 'Slave Girls of Gor' only really makes sense/can be rendered even more disturbing if you read it in Snarf's voice.
Try it!
Just finished "reading" my first audiobook, REDEMPTION ARK (REVELATION SPACE #2, by Alistair Reynolds). Audible have that thing where you can get your first audiobook for free, so I decided I might as well see if audio is a medium that I find acceptable for books.
The results are a mixed bag. I do think I would have enjoyed the book better had I read it myself. However, the audiobook had two distinct advantages - one, the way the narrator did some of the voices created more realized images of some of the characters in my mind. Second, and perhaps more importantly, I could listen to the book while doing other things. While it took more time than I would have required to read it on my own, that time was always one that I would not have been able to utilize otherwise.
I don't think I will buy another audiobook though, mostly because of their prices - 2 or 3 times that of a normal kindle book. I don't want to overspend on books so getting the audio ones might actually reduce the number of books I read, which I don't care for.
** spoiler omitted **...
Word to the wise, The second book in the trilogy also acts as a sequel to Chasm City, which I would read next. Also worth checking out his collection of short fiction set in the same setting, which gives some background to other events in the book.
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I've got a copy of 'The Art of Marriage' by Tim & Beverly LaHaye. Apocalyptic Baptist sex tips FTW!
EDIT: Also had two '80s photos of a (fully clothed) previous owner in the back, looking nervous and clutching a snot-green telephone.
I've got a copy of 'The Art of Marriage' by Tim & Beverly LaHaye. Apocalyptic Baptist sex tips FTW!
EDIT: Also had two '80s photos of a (fully clothed) previous owner in the back, looking nervous and clutching a snot-green telephone.
I love little glimpses into peoples lives. Photos, journal entries, artwork, stuff like that. Always makes me wonder what their lives were really like.
And it's something you will never get with a Kindle :)
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I've got a copy of 'The Art of Marriage' by Tim & Beverly LaHaye. Apocalyptic Baptist sex tips FTW!
EDIT: Also had two '80s photos of a (fully clothed) previous owner in the back, looking nervous and clutching a snot-green telephone.
Funny story: When I moved to Los Angeles, I donated a whole bunch of old novels to the library. About 3 weeks later, I got a call from a good friend of mine who was browsing books at a used bookstore and found a paperback copy of The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice on the shelf, and inside the back cover was snapshot of me and my ex-boyfriend taken at my brother's wedding back in 2006. It was one of the books I had donated to the library, and somebody who knew me happened to be the one to find it.
I remember once I got a whole bunch of books from an elderly woman I used to help around the house after her husband passed away. When she was moved into a nursing home, she'd specified all of her books were to go to me. It was fascinating, because most of these hadn't been touched in years (sometimes more than a decade), so they were from before I really knew her (I was a teenager at the time) and it turned out that she'd used to do lists, memos, poetry she'd written and notes to and from her husband as bookmarks.
It was like this whole perspective on her that I'd never known before. She was someone that, even with the massive age difference, I'd considered a friend due to our shared interests, and I was so upset when she was moved not only into a nursing home, but one 8 hours away. I never saw her again, but finding those notes made it feel like she was still there in a way. Just found out she passed away a couple of months ago actually, not long before Christmas.
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Just reread The Changing Land, by Roger Zelazny (one of my favorite authors**). I'm amazed at how economical and yet efficient he is with descriptive text, particularly when dealing with characters. Multiple characters are presented in a compelling way, in some sort of shorthand that I can't even figure out. I'd use five times as many words, I suspect, and probably feel like I'd under-described the character...
And then there's fun fantasy bits like this;
Melbriniononsadsazzersteldegrandishfeltselior had seldom been exploited by terrestrial adepts, inasmuch as the use of a demon’s name was necessary in those rites binding him to service. One missed syllable and the conjuror would step from the circle smiling, to discover that the demon was smiling also.
Then, leaving the remains artistically disposed around the conjuring area, the demon would return to the infernal regions, perhaps bearing with him some small souvenir of an interesting interlude.
It was Melbriniononsadsazzersteldegrandishfeltselior’s misfortune, however, that Baran of the Extra Hand hailed from Blackwold, where a complex, agglutinative language was spoken…
** (Lord of Light remains my favorite Zelazny book, although Creatures of Light & Darkness and Isle of the Dead are also very cool.)
I just began reading A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos by Dava Sobel. I have enjoyed all her books; she's really good at literary history (not historical fiction, but history written so it's not as dry as dust -- that should be for archaeology :P).
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Finished CIBOLA BURN (THE EXPENSE #4), moving on to FIRES OF HEAVEN (WASTE OF TIME #5).
The story this time around was of somewhat special interest to me as it seemed to draw inspiration from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which I have the misfortune of living in. They name one of their spaceships Israel as a not-that-subtle clue, and when you look at the events through this lens, the applicability is inevitable - a group of settlers/squatters from the outer planets are trying to make a simple living on their new planet, yet the inner planet alliance and the UN (who's authority the belters do not accept) have decided that the land belongs to a group of scientists working for a company. The belters want a safe and private home, the company wants to make money, the scientists and engineers want to research and explore. The conflict feels like the middle eastern one as well, constant escalations by both sides making matters much worse than they have to be.
One of the things this series does *really* well is incorporate high minded principles into it's action packed plot in a way that's engaging, often funny, and never seems preachy or interferes with the pacing of the story. I really liked some of the concepts and ideas mentioned this time, and found myself agreeing with almost all of them. It feels like the authors get it.
The book was not perfect, and had some annoying weak points. A serious chunk of the reason why these books are so good is the POV characters, with Holden being a constant and new ones entering the mix each book. I didn't really like the new bunch. Havelock was very mild and never really grabbed my attention. Basia was OK, but suffered from the same problem. Elvi, now, she was the real low point. I didn't hate the character or anything, I just couldn't get why she was chosen as the viewpoint on the story. For almost all of it she is completely passive, caught up in an inner world of emotions and naive ideas. She is different than any other character we've seen in the series and I suppose there is logic in mixing things up, but really she never brought anything to the novel. At least Basia made sense because he was the belter perspective on the conflict and was a part of the resistence force. Elvi was just... uninvolved. Often, she understood much less than the reader about the situation.
However, all in all the book was a blast to read and the series continues to be on of the best I've ever read in any genre. I am highly anticipating the next book and the TV show.
To finish on an even higher note, the book had some really neat space engineering problems, as people found themselves bereft of many vital resources and in a crisis situation both on the planet and in orbit around it. Some of the problems I could solve myself, but some included really neat tricks and ideas, which certainly garnered the book some hard SF cred. I really liked that.
This was kind of a long thought segment, and I feel like I barely scratched the surface of the things I'd like to discuss in this book. I *really* like this series.
Lord Snow: I read their Star Wars novel a couple weeks ago. "Honor Among Thieves" I think it's called. It was really good. Han and Chewie, mostly, and they never translate Chewie, but they still give you the gist from everyone else's responses.
I've also read the first 4 of the Expanse, and like it a lot. :-)
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Lord Snow: I read their Star Wars novel a couple weeks ago. "Honor Among Thieves" I think it's called. It was really good. Han and Chewie, mostly, and they never translate Chewie, but they still give you the gist from everyone else's responses.
I've also read the first 4 of the Expanse, and like it a lot. :-)
Yeah I've heard that they had a star wars book, which for the first time made me want to read a star wars book... I'm still not quite convinced, though. Somehow the expended universe had never really caught my interest. I'll probably get there one day, if only for reading more words by James S.A Corey :)
Furthermore, I'd say that the magic systems in Elantris and The Rithmastist are among his weaker ones. For the magic system that is absolutely the best, I'd check out Mistborn.I'm currently working my way through The Rithmatist, by Brandon Sanderson. Between that and Elantris, it seems that Sanderson can create magic systems like nobody's business. Is this constant throughout his writing, or does it flare up at some times and not others?Sanderson's hallmark is rigorously defined magic systems. In fact, he coined "Sanderson's Law" of fantasy writing, which states that the ability of magic to resolve conflict is directly proportional to how well the reader understands how that magic works.
I just finished reading the Mistborn trilogy. I have been recommending to most of my friends. It is so excellent. I will need to pick up more of his stuff. I love how well he can layer things, and how no one plays idiot ball, they just get legitimately outplayed.
Anyone have recommendations for secondary world urban fantasy? It seems like a strangely barren niche. I'm thinking something like Sanderson's Allow of Law, but more modern. Or like the Dresden Files but in an alternate world.
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Yeah I've heard that they had a star wars book, which for the first time made me want to read a star wars book... I'm still not quite convinced, though. Somehow the expended universe had never really caught my interest. I'll probably get there one day, if only for reading more words by James S.A Corey :)Lord Snow: I read their Star Wars novel a couple weeks ago. "Honor Among Thieves" I think it's called. It was really good. Han and Chewie, mostly, and they never translate Chewie, but they still give you the gist from everyone else's responses.
I've also read the first 4 of the Expanse, and like it a lot. :-)
It was my first Star Wars novel since the old Del Rey Han Solo novels from the 1980s.
It was weird, because it kind to be riffing off of Firefly, which itself was riffing on the Millennium Falcon.
Or I'm seriously over-reading the use of the word "Shindig."
That they used precisely once.
If anybody's interested, the present Humble Bundle o' Books has anthologies of Harlan Ellison and Jack Vance among its offerings. Never read Ellison before tonight, though I've been aware of him for ages. Can never decide if I'd like to be his friend or want to strangle him.
I read "Repent Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman and I Have No Mouth But Must Scream all the same. Decent reads, but I feel like both have become so much a part of the geek canon that I've been through them before. I get the same thing about lots of classic movies. Proceeds go to Pat Rothfuss' charity, which forwards it to Heifer International.
On a lark, I put the things on my tablet's Kindle app rather than fiddling with PDFs and now I feel conflicted because I think I prefer the Kindle reading experience to the nook app I use...but Amazon is definitely more evil. Bummer, that.
Either way, I needed another break from reading about the nineteenth century.
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Anyone have recommendations for secondary world urban fantasy? It seems like a strangely barren niche. I'm thinking something like Sanderson's Allow of Law, but more modern. Or like the Dresden Files but in an alternate world.
I'm not sure I understand what you are looking for. Urban Fantasy is closely tied with "the real world" because many of it's tropes are taken from real mythologies and urban legends. So what will an urban fantasy book in a secondary world look like?
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I read 'First King of Shannara' by Terry Brooks over the weekend, which I didn't like much.
I am also, after a break of several years, trying to finish off the 'Anatomy of Melancholy' by Robert Burton, in between (since one Burton is never enough) having a go at vol. 1 of 'The Land of Midian' by Richard F. Burton.
Shameless self-promotion: I'm (very slowly) re-reading Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey and recording the process for posterity.
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Haven't kept up on reading any of the books I've started, but luckily I've got another 5 hour bus ride to New York in my near future. Hopefully, I'll finally finish that last Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser story.
Speaking of which, someone above, actually two someones I think, made a comment about the increasing amounts of perviness in the series towards the end. After reading about Fingers the Cabin Girl, I had a dream in which I was cavorting with a 14-year-old who turned out to be an undercover cop. When she slapped on the handcuffs, I woke up in a cold sweat. [Shudders]
Irl, I can't even look at women in their early twenties anymore because they look like children to me. [Shudders some more]
Anyone have recommendations for secondary world urban fantasy? It seems like a strangely barren niche. I'm thinking something like Sanderson's Allow of Law, but more modern. Or like the Dresden Files but in an alternate world.I'm not sure I understand what you are looking for. Urban Fantasy is closely tied with "the real world" because many of it's tropes are taken from real mythologies and urban legends. So what will an urban fantasy book in a secondary world look like?
I imagine it would look a lot like the Shadowrun setting, with magic and modern technology existing side-by-side in the open. I'm talking about a Middle Earth where the elves traded in their longbows for sniper rifles, and Sauron is a corporate fat cat whose army of orcs go to battle in boardrooms while wearing three-piece suits. That kind of thing.
Never read Ellison before tonight, though I've been aware of him for ages. Can never decide if I'd like to be his friend or want to strangle him.
I read "Repent Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman and I Have No Mouth But Must Scream all the same. Decent reads, but I feel like both have become so much a part of the geek canon that I've been through them before. I get the same thing about lots of classic movies.
I read those, and many other Harlan Ellison stories, but without a doubt, my favorite, by far, is "A Boy and His Dog."
I imagine it would look a lot like the Shadowrun setting, with magic and modern technology existing side-by-side in the open. I'm talking about a Middle Earth where the elves traded in their longbows for sniper rifles, and Sauron is a corporate fat cat whose army of orcs go to battle in boardrooms while wearing three-piece suits. That kind of thing.Anyone have recommendations for secondary world urban fantasy? It seems like a strangely barren niche. I'm thinking something like Sanderson's Allow of Law, but more modern. Or like the Dresden Files but in an alternate world.I'm not sure I understand what you are looking for. Urban Fantasy is closely tied with "the real world" because many of it's tropes are taken from real mythologies and urban legends. So what will an urban fantasy book in a secondary world look like?
The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick.
The Horns of Ruin by Tim Akers.
To a lesser extent, A Land Fit For Heroes series by Richard K. Morgan.
Also, China Mieville's Perdido Street Station.
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I imagine it would look a lot like the Shadowrun setting, with magic and modern technology existing side-by-side in the open. I'm talking about a Middle Earth where the elves traded in their longbows for sniper rifles, and Sauron is a corporate fat cat whose army of orcs go to battle in boardrooms while wearing three-piece suits. That kind of thing.Anyone have recommendations for secondary world urban fantasy? It seems like a strangely barren niche. I'm thinking something like Sanderson's Allow of Law, but more modern. Or like the Dresden Files but in an alternate world.I'm not sure I understand what you are looking for. Urban Fantasy is closely tied with "the real world" because many of it's tropes are taken from real mythologies and urban legends. So what will an urban fantasy book in a secondary world look like?
I don't know about modern technology blending with magic, but if you are willing to slightly band the definition there then flintlock fantasy or steampunk could serve.
Also, while it may not be *exactly* what you are looking for, many of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, especially the ones happening at Ankh Morpork, feel like they are a blend of fantasy and modern times even when the technology isn't quite there yet. You wouldn't see orcs wearing sunglasses and firing shotguns, but trolls in suits are definitely happening.
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A lot of Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series is urban fantasy with hints of scifi in the background.
Due to mild coercion I will be raising my nose from the restored-JSTOR-access scholarship binge that has characterized my reading lately, and reading some Dostoevsky instead. The Brothers Karamazov arrived in my possession on Wednesday and I will start tomorrow.
Beware Stinking Lizaveta!
Finished The Knight and Knave of Swords. Wow, Lieber turned into a dirty old man.
Not sure what's next. Back to Engels? McKillip? Or that copy of Herbert Aptheker's American Negro Slave Revolts that Mr. Comrade bought me for my birthday? Tough choices...
You could read yourself some Jacqueline Carey and join me and Mikaze over in the re-read thread. ;)
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[Adds to list]
Read the preface in the American Trotskyist edition of The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State which was nowhere near as good as the preface in the American Stalinist edition of the same back.
Probably helps that the latter let an actual anthropologist write it, while the former was written by some Barnesite hack.
Hmm, what next?
So, I gave up on my 1 page per minute Nook V1 yesterday and bought a new one that actually flips pages at a reasonable chunking rate.
Then I had to visit the store to spend my $5 credit (HAD TO, OK?) and bought To Kill a Mockingbird and preordered Go Set a Watchman.
Then I made my usual run through Barry Hugart's titles to request that they be made available on Nook and ZOMG! The Adventures of Master Li and Number Ten Ox are out for Nook!
So last night I read TKaM, which greatly eased my mind about GSaW after all the confusing, nasty rumors that have been floating around regarding that prequel. Even if it's a tenth of the book TKaM is, GSaW will be a real treat.
Then this morning, I re-read the best book in the world: Bridge of Birds (it's the first book of the Master Li and Number Ten Ox trilogy). Any D&D/Pathfinder player should appreciate this wild adventure full of myth and magic, sorcery and scholarship, greed and guile and goodness. I swear, after being ill for two weeks, that book finished the cure and I can now whip my weight in tigers.
Oh yes, almost finished the last of the Black Company books. I need to polish off the final 50 or so pages just to pick up anything I missed in reversing through the final chapters for 3 hours because of that damned broken Nook V1. Think I'll wait until the Bridge of Birds afterglow has faded, though. Much as I adore Glen Cook, Barry is the master. Damn.
It's the big annual book sale in Sweden, and I picked up Paris after the Liberation by Anthony Beevor, Arvid Horn - From Twelve to One by Gunnar Wetterberg, and The Outer Boulevards by Patrick Modiano.
Turned back to Lieber: Have this "Tor Double" volume which I thought was pretty neat. On one side is Fritz's Ship of Shadows. Flip it over and upside down and you can read Poul Anderson's No Truce with Kings. Pretty cool.
Vol. 3 of the War of the Wizards trilogy, 'Web of the Spider', by Andrew J Offut and Richard Lyons.
ANOTHER OFFUT!!!
Superb, of course, and also inspired me to write a song about Captain Tiana immediately afterwards. Yes, it was that good.
I finished Terry Pratchett's Moving Pictures, and loved it. Very funny book, with a lot of references to classic cinema that made me giggle. Currently reading it to my mother.
Got a few chapters into Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride (an urban fantasy with horror elements and dark humor), but I've had to shelve it to read Breakfast at Tiffany's for my book club. I'll need more Kahlua to make it through; it's feeling like a chore. At least it's short, because 20 pages in, it's yet to capture me. Why does every book club ever read this?