OMG BOOKS! ... for people who read books

[r00]

I definitely need to check out something by China now.  Sounds great!

That reminds me of how awesome Neil Gaiman's cameo in "The Guild" web series was. (his bit starts at 3:47 in that video).  "Ya know, your stuff is okay if you like universally aclaimed awesome graphic novels and such."   

That season also has cameos from Stan Lee, Brent Spiner, Kevin Sorbino, and a host of other comicon type stars.

[Goose]

Finished Lord of Chaos: Book VI of The Wheel of Time.

Waaaaaay better than books 4 or 5.  My previous complaints about the previous volumes taking 20 chapters to get their shit together and move on are gone with this one.  The plot takes off right from the get-go (or rather, once you get through the bloody 30,000 word "prologue"), and rips along pretty nicely through all 1,000 pages.  Things are obviously a little complicated at this point, and the number of plotlines is slowly expanding, but its all surprisingly manageable, and still extremely interesting.

I don't think these books are particularly film-able but there's one scene at the final battle in this book that would make for some serious cinematic gold.  The series revolves around people who can "channel" (essentially "use the force"), and the fact that for the last thousand years any man who could channel has ended up going insane due to damage done to "the force".  This book ends with...
[spoiler]...the first battle in a thousand years where men used their channeling abilities en masse in battle.  40,000 soldiers rush 200 channeling men, and the men just sit there, and on their commanders order "use the force" to make the attacking force explode, row by row.  Every soldier essentially becomes a bomb, body parts and gore everywhere, and anyone not hit directly by a channeling man ends up getting killed by a the sword in their neighbors arm as it flys off their torso and stabs them in the face.  Absolute unmitigated chaos, and the way "the force" should've really worked in the massive Jedi battles in the Star Wars prequels.[/spoiler]

Seeing that scene on film would be a beautiful, disgustingly awesome thing.

[rynne]

Haven't I been telling you guys?  China is brilliant!  N, you must read Embassyville next, and then you can work backwards through his other stuff.  My favorite contemporary writer now, along with Caitlin R. Kiernan.

You have! I've been interested for a while. I just wanted to start with the squid-cult one, and for whatever reason it was difficult to find.

[boofu]

Finished A Dance with Dragons, and that leaves me caught up with A Song of Ice and Fire books...wow. I haven't read something great and epic like this since Dark Tower, LOTR, Dune...it's great. It's a very depressing world, hard to tell who the good guy is and not everyone makes it out alive.

The 6th book needs to get here. This fat greasy fucker better not die before he finishes the books.

I've never read the new dark tower books, so I'm going to start reading there...and I owe it to read the series all the way through again. I just finished The Gunslinger, and starting on book number 2 tonight...

[Goose]

Finished Isaac Asimov's Forward the Foundation last night, so I'm done the prequels of the Foundation series.  The last half of the book seemed a little slapped together to sum up the final few decades of Hari Seldon's life, and it really felt like this was something thrown together to string the last book and the original series together as quickly as possible.  If Asimov hadn't died before this book was originally published, some editing might've been done, but it is what it is.  I can move on to the original series now.

In the end, it was really, really hard not to see some startling parallels between the decline of the Galactic empire that led to Seldon's creation of the Foundations and the way the United States has headed in the last decade or so.  The speech given by the judge at Seldon's trial could've easily been given by just about anyone at the Occupy protests. 

I also managed to figure out how to buy a book from Chapters' Kobo store, rip the DRM off that shit, and get it onto my Kindle.  Saved about $3 on A Crown of Swords: Book VII of The Wheel of Time that way.  Seriously MacMillan, what do you think you're doing forcing Amazon to charge more for the eBook than the paperback version.  Are you nuts?!

[Nadia]

Just read Ender's Gamer by Orson Scott Card. Super fantastic. Trying to fly through Ender's Shadow because I put Speaker for the Dead on hold at the library before I realized that I didn't have to read the books in any particular order. And since Ender's Shadow is a parallel to Ender's Game I went ahead and checked that out. Is anyone else familiar with these stories? I haven't decided which books I want to come next.

[Goose]

The Ender's series is on my to-read list as well, and it took me a while to make sense of what exactly I was planning out to read.  The diagram on the Ender's series Wikipedia page doesn't help alleviate the intimidation.



In the end, I figured just reading through things by publication date would be a good a plan as any, but I've been told by people who have gone through it that reading the main saga without delving into the Shadow side is a very bad idea.

[rynne]

My understanding is that Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead and Ender's Shadow are the only must-read books (I'll vouch for the first two). Apparently Xenocide and Children of the Mind have serious issues with lack of focus. My friend tells me Ender's Shadow gives an awesome alternate telling of Ender's Game but the Shadow series likewise goes off the rails pretty quickly.

[chimera]

rynne: I know I suggested Michael Cisco to you, I thought you might find this article/interview interesting:
http://www.omnivoracious.com/2011/05/writing-on-the-edge-authors-michael-cisco-and-brendan-connell-on-weird-fiction.html

[rynne]

Ah, thanks! That's an interesting article, especially since I feel like I'm not in touch with many current authors who write in styles I like (hence my interest in Weird Tales).  I think I forgot to write Cisco's name down before.  As it turns out now is the prefect time for recommendations, because Mrs. rynne has been asking me what I want for Christmas and I haven't been able to come up with much so far. *adds Cisco and Connell to list*

[luna]

finished the girl with the dragon tattoo
it was excellent,  can't wait to see the movie now

next up the girl who played with fire

[luna]

also happy that the new kindle update gives the option to share on fb once you finish a book since it never worked the old way for me

[Aaron]

I've been reading A Clash Of Kings and while I have been slowly (I read it in spurts, a hundred pages and then a while later another hundred.) I have liked everything about it so far. BUT (its a spoiler but not a huge thing, I won't say who, just what. It won't ruin anything till after you read it. And then it won't be ruined cuz you read it...)

[spoiler] I really liked the lack of magic and what not it was just dude a kills dude b and what not. And that any sort of magic is way off in some other land. Not next door. BUT the fact that magic/spells whatever kill two people, it kinda erks me. And it happens so out of the blue.  Its not a HUGE deal, but for something that hasn't had any magic or crazy stuff (YA other then dragons, and The Others) it's odd to me that he would suddenly add magic into it. I don't hate it, and will keep reading, but what the hell?  [/spoiler]

[Aaron]

Finished it today, and bought book three. I'm digging the books. Good stuff. However, I want him to be done with the last one, I don't want to have to wait for the last two to come out... I also like that while they are long books (book 2 and this one) are both over 1000 pages, but they don't drag and get boring. Or if it is boring, only like 10 pages till the next person takes over...

[boofu]

[spoiler]You have to understand that magic in the books is really, really limited but its there. Blood magic is one of them, which the two instances of people being killed are a part of. In later books Mellisandre becomes more of a focus, and you find out...things. [/spoiler]