What books are you reading now?

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 1:31 pm

Doing a side-by-side comparison of Richard A. Lupoff's Lovecraft's Book (1985) and Marblehead (2006).

ckafrica · Post by **ckafrica** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 2:59 pm

Cynic wrote:Plague dogs was also made into an excellent movie by the same guy who made the Watership down movie.

His book Maia was seriously not what I was expecting

npc310 · Post by **npc310** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 5:47 pm

I'm between books at the moment, looking for something quick and dirty. I've got A Storm of Swords queued up, but having just read the first two in the series in blitzkrieg fashion, I'm looking for something lighter and with a faster pace. Any suggestions?

I really enjoyed the Millennium Series Trilogy when I read it a few years ago. Something like that would be about perfect for my mood right now. Any suggestions?[/i]

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 6:57 am

ckafrica wrote:
Cynic wrote:Plague dogs was also made into an excellent movie by the same guy who made the Watership down movie.
His book Maia was seriously not what I was expecting

After reading this article, I expected that dude in Shardik to survive a little longer.

Richard Adams is killing and writing off interesting characters like no one's business.

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 11:15 am

npc310 wrote:I'm between books at the moment, looking for something quick and dirty. I've got A Storm of Swords queued up, but having just read the first two in the series in blitzkrieg fashion, I'm looking for something lighter and with a faster pace. Any suggestions?

I really enjoyed the Millennium Series Trilogy when I read it a few years ago. Something like that would be about perfect for my mood right now. Any suggestions?[/i]

How about a statistics textbook or a primer in basic economics?

If that doesn't work out, you might like Accelerando by Charles Stross.

Amethyst_Butterfly · Post by **Amethyst_Butterfly** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 2:02 pm

Cynic wrote:
Amethyst_Butterfly wrote:I am reading Raymond Feist books for the first time. I read Magician: Apprentice, and I am on Magician: Master now. I am thoroughly annoyed that I never discovered this author before- I love these books!
He did a 10th anniversary "author's cut" "Magician" which is basically the compilation of the two books. It has a few extra scenes and fleshes out Tomas a little bit more.

That's the version I have, by pure happenstance. I got them off Amazon for my husband and I just picked the cheapest ones in the best condition. It's still split into two books, but it's the authors preferred edition. Normally I read a lot faster than him, but he is keeping pace pretty well, keeping a book ahead of me!

Post by **fbmf** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 9:40 pm

Assholes Finish First by Tucker Max. When this next grad class is done, I'll probably do Hilarity Ensues to complete the trilogy.

Game On,
fbmf

Duke Flauros · Post by **Duke Flauros** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 8:42 am

Lies my teacher told me by James W. Loewn. A great book on the American educational system.

Doom · Post by **Doom** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 2:22 pm

Please Understand Me II

It's a big love-in for the Myers-Briggs personality test...thing reads like astrology, however. It's been a while since I read the I Ching, but tempted to go back and see if there's that much difference.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 2:44 pm

Secret Images: Picasso and the Japanese Erotic Print

There's actually a great essay in this book about the historical development of tentacle sex art in Western Europe during the nineteenth century.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 3:31 pm

Doom wrote:Please Understand Me II

It's a big love-in for the Myers-Briggs personality test...thing reads like astrology, however. It's been a while since I read the I Ching, but tempted to go back and see if there's that much difference.

There really isn't much difference.

-Username17

Blasted · Post by **Blasted** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 11:08 pm

Ancient History wrote:Secret Images: Picasso and the Japanese Erotic Print

There's actually a great essay in this book about the historical development of tentacle sex art in Western Europe during the nineteenth century.

Did that book inspire your fictional history piece "The Tentacle as Sexual Symbol"?

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 11:22 pm

No, "An Excerpt from 'The Tentacle As Sexual Symbol'" was based on a very early, very rough draft of a section from the essay/book I'm currently writing on (Working title: Sex & the Cthulhu Mythos), and then made into a piece of fiction. Secret Images is something I'm referencing to expand, refine, and support that section of the essay/book.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 2:50 am

I blame Amethyst_butterfly. But I finished Magician and then Jimmy the Hand. Feist is a decent fantasy author but he really does have the generic women need to be protected and they aren't worth anything. The princess is impetuous. The whore is strong willed but still a hurting creature. The wife of the protagonist literally says "that since he (hero) has the weight of two worlds on him, the least she could do is take care of him." That's her only role...

But the books are still entertaining and I am probably going to continue going through the books set in his universe. Why the fuck do all these fantasy authors have stupid views on women or sexuality? It really is hard to find good authors who have decent views on humanity. At the moment, George Martin, Bujold, and C.J. Cherryh are the only ones who come to mind for believable and humane characters. Even Cherryh isn't that great at the believable aspect.

But I am a glutton for punishment.

Amethyst_Butterfly · Post by **Amethyst_Butterfly** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 5:55 am

Cynic wrote:I blame Amethyst_butterfly. But I finished Magician and then Jimmy the Hand. Feist is a decent fantasy author but he really does have the generic women need to be protected and they aren't worth anything. The princess is impetuous. The whore is strong willed but still a hurting creature. The wife of the protagonist literally says "that since he (hero) has the weight of two worlds on him, the least she could do is take care of him." That's her only role...

But the books are still entertaining and I am probably going to continue going through the books set in his universe. Why the fuck do all these fantasy authors have stupid views on women or sexuality? It really is hard to find good authors who have decent views on humanity. At the moment, George Martin, Bujold, and C.J. Cherryh are the only ones who come to mind for believable and humane characters. Even Cherryh isn't that great at the believable aspect.

But I am a glutton for punishment.

Hah! And, what you say is true. Some authors seem to have a combination of being raised with crappy views and a severe lacking of social skills. But some authors I just love, no matter their faults. David Eddings, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman are some of my top authors. I think a lot of what draws me to a book is the character development and interaction. Though now that I look back, it does seem like the only ones REALLY fleshed out are the male characters.

Also, I think Feist books, at least some of them, were based on DnD games, and we all know that the female representation in the gaming world is much lower than the male representation- so the female characters in the books are not going to be as strong or fleshed out because they are just supporting or background NPCs.

erik · Post by **erik** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 6:27 am

Amethyst_Butterfly wrote: Also, I think Feist books, at least some of them, were based on DnD games, and we all know that the female representation in the gaming world is much lower than the male representation- so the female characters in the books are not going to be as strong or fleshed out because they are just supporting or background NPCs.

Heh, one of his books is actually the novelization of a DOS game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krondor:_The_Betrayal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betrayal_at_Krondor

I never played the game, but a couple friends in highschool did. Still, not having played the game, reading that book it certainly reads like it was from a game (which isn't a compliment in my mind).

I do hate when dwarves and elves get thrown into fantasy books. They didn't really feel like they belonged in Feist's Riftwarverse, and in fact they usually don't feel like they belong in most fantasy novel settings. Pity people can't just leave them out or replace them with something better.

Doom · Post by **Doom** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 9:48 am

I thought those games were based on his books. I remember reviewing them ages ago; the PC games came with an interview with him. He came across as so gawdawfully full of himself that I couldn't even stand to play the games.

PoliteNewb · Post by **PoliteNewb** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:08 pm

Doom wrote:I thought those games were based on his books. I remember reviewing them ages ago; the PC games came with an interview with him. He came across as so gawdawfully full of himself that I couldn't even stand to play the games.

The games were based on his books, but then in turn had books written about them, in an incestuous cycle.

Feist was all right, as fantasy authors go. Over the years I've noticed his poor treatment of female characters, and it hasn't sat well with me (though he got better; Briana was at least competent, and some of his later characters weren't quite so damselish). His Serpentwar series, at least the first couple books, was actually better than the Riftwar series, IMO.

Cynic, if you're looking for a decent treatment of women and sexuality in a fantasy series, try Jo Walton. Her 'fantasy' is very closely based on history (including myth), but it's good stuff, particularly on those issues.

Joel Rosenberg wasn't terrible when I read a couple of his Keepers of Hidden Ways books, but he wasn't great either.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:11 pm

Joel Rosenburg's two best books were D'Shai and Hour of the Octopus - especially the latter. Pity he never finished the third book.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:41 pm

In the afterword for "Jimmy the Hand", Feist does mention that the Midkemia setting was based of a role playing campaign that he was part of.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 4:17 am

The indie bookstore I try to keep in business got me an ARC of a book called The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams. It won't be out for a while, I understand. It was a freebie for me being a loyal customer (and that they take the time to do stuff like this for their regulars is why I'm going to be a regular for as long as I can).

It boils down to: the narrator is an angelic defense attorney. He doesn't call himself that, but that's pretty much what he is. When someone dies in his area, he (or one of the other angels in the area) show up at about the same time the demons do, a Judge manifests from heaven, and then they argue over whether the person deserves to go to Heaven or Hell.

It also contained a method of execution I'd never heard of, but is sufficiently horrible that I'm impressed. And old viking method called the Blood Eagle.

Seems sorta-generic urban fantasy. I do like how the narrator, one Bobby Dollar, is an admitted good guy. His job is to try to get people into Heaven by reason, pleading, and wheedling if that's what it takes. Sure, he might grump around some, but he likes that he's working for a good cause.

Sort of a refreshing break from all the antiheroes around these days.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 7:37 am

I'm reading The Orphan's Tales, by Cathrynne Valente.

It's Arabian Nights-style storytelling and holy shit I'm going to buy these books. This is straight-up art.

I made an outline. The stories, at one point, go six layers deep. And they all interconnect. Stuff happens because something else happened a thousand miles away, and something one character did, the fallout was felt by another character.

And the writing is...damn beautiful. Purple prose in a lot of places, but it's purple prose done RIGHT.

And the world and stories are weird and awesome. Lots of tragedy in there, mind you. But still, this is some gorgeous, gorgeous work.

There's two books in the series. Each book is divided into two stories--but this is some hardcore nested storytelling here. To pick a chain at random, A goose tells how she met a firebird, who tells how he met a dryad, who is being threatened by a wizard who tells her how he learned magic by way of explanation of WHY he isn't going to traipse around looking for shit any more.

Go read it.

PoliteNewb · Post by **PoliteNewb** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 7:05 pm

So I read "You Shall Know Our Velocity", on the advice of my brother. It was entertaining, but at the end wasn't sure how I felt about it in general. I will say the center interlude by Hand was extremely jarring for me, and actually lowered my enjoyment of the book.

Currently re-reading the first Wild Cards mosaic novel...damn the old stuff (by Zelazny and Walter J. Williams especially) was good.

Red_Rob · Post by **Red_Rob** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 7:44 pm

Cynic wrote:In the afterword for "Jimmy the Hand", Feist does mention that the Midkemia setting was based of a role playing campaign that he was part of.

From the wiki:

Wikipedia wrote:Midkemia was originally created as an alternative to the Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) role-playing game. When Feist studied at the University of California, San Diego, he and his friends created a new role-playing game based on their own original world of Midkemia. They called themselves the Thursday Nighters, because they played the Midkemia role-playing game every Thursday evening. After some time, when the group changed and began meeting on Fridays, they became known as the Friday Nighters. The original group have since formed a company called Midkemia Press, which has continued publishing campaigns set in Midkemia.

It has been acknowledged by Feist that the Tekumel setting from M. A. R. Barker's Empire of the Petal Throne was the source for much of Kelewar. The original D&D campaign which he based his books on had an invasion of the Mikdemia world by Tekumel. As a result, much of the background of Kelewar - the Tsurani Empire, the lack of metals and horses, the Cho'ja, the pantheons of 10 major and 10 minor gods - come from Tekumel. Feist claims to have been unaware of this origin when he wrote Magician.

The copy I have is from 1984 and is one volume (apparently it was split into two books for the American market, because reading is hard), with a long quote from Dragon magazine on the inside talking about how Feist was an "RPG designer" who decided to write a novel, another quote from Dragon on the front cover, and a third quote on the back cover. Seems he really liked the Dragon review.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sat Aug 04, 2012 5:33 am

Just passed a bit in the Orphan's Tales. Remember Frank's "Snakes are Books?" Replace snakes with lizards, and the complex reading devices with markings on the lizard's back. And now there's folks breeding them for more and more complex information.

"If the lizard which showed the method for creating a beautiful copper spoon were bred to one which showed a new technique for mining ten, eggs would hatch with fat babies carrying the instructions for beating out a bronze sword, or schematics for a water drill, or an epic poem dealing with two statues on opposite ends of a square who fell in hopeless love, one of copper and one of tin."