What books are you reading now?

Blicero · Post by **Blicero** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 9:27 pm

I don't know. I picked up Anathem and read the first 30 pages or so at the library, but I just couldn't get into it. Something about the style seemed fundamentally worse than the excellence of Cryptonomicom and Snow Crash. I might give it another try later.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 12:55 am

Blicero wrote:I don't know. I picked up Anathem and read the first 30 pages or so at the library, but I just couldn't get into it. Something about the style seemed fundamentally worse than the excellence of Cryptonomicom and Snow Crash. I might give it another try later.

Anathem -- is fucking DYNAMITE.

It's old school cryptonomicon and snow crash rolled into one. but you just have to get into it.

a lot of it is the setting and how he at times isn't that subtle about changing the names of the rules. But the wit is there and and it's good. It gets better and better as the pace gets moving.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 4:20 pm

So, how good is a Song of Fire and Ice?

A person whose opinion I value says that it rocks your socks off, but I think that I've heard grumbling from the Denizens about this book on occasion.

TOZ · Post by **TOZ** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 4:33 pm

A Song of Fire and Ice is very much an imagining of what medieval society is like, I'd say. The entire story revolves around the politics of the nobility, making marriages and alliances, mixed with the usual bloodshed that comes from that. The cast of characters requires an index you could almost sell as a separate book, and effectively none of them have plot armor. At times I feel like the writing is overwrought, and the few peeks of fantasy and supernatural events are barely enough to count. But it certainly does pass the time. If you're wanting more sword and sorcery than medieval soap opera, it probably isn't for you.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 9:27 pm

I very much like it; however if you're not so good with tragic endings... Or tragedy at all... Don't read it. There's no real rhyme or reason to what main characters are killed off.

Which does make it a ride, when you're reading it.

-Crissa

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:10 pm

Lago PARANOIA wrote:So, how good is a Song of Fire and Ice?

A person whose opinion I value says that it rocks your socks off, but I think that I've heard grumbling from the Denizens about this book on occasion.

I'm sad to say this but wait to see if Martin the author croaks before he finishes the series or not. I'm tired of authors who don't finish their series that are pretty damn decent.

I might be cruel by saying that. But it's a harsh truth and somebody had to say it.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 1:23 am

The first three books of ASOIAF are very good. The fourth is wandering towards Jordan-ism. I hope that trend corrects itself, I really do.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:57 pm

Martin isn't in ill health, he just can't seem to write in sequential order, which is the order he wants to publish it. I've been to a couple of readings...

-Crissa

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 1:25 am

I meant that compared to the first three books, not much actually happened in book four. Not nothing like you got in some of the WoT books, but certainly not 750 pages worth.

I'm reminded of when my friend showed me The Name of the Wind claiming it was his new favorite book, and my response after reading it was that A Wizard of Earthsea told a complete story very satisfactorily in 200 pages, and TNOTW managed to complete one subplot in 650.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 3:29 am

angelfromanotherpin wrote:I meant that compared to the first three books, not much actually happened in book four. Not nothing like you got in some of the WoT books, but certainly not 750 pages worth.

I'm reminded of when my friend showed me The Name of the Wind claiming it was his new favorite book, and my response after reading it was that A Wizard of Earthsea told a complete story very satisfactorily in 200 pages, and TNOTW managed to complete one subplot in 650.

I had a 14-year-old reading sword of truth in front of me the other day in my house. I'm...not the biggest fan of Goodkind but he was saying something along the same lines as your friend and TNoTW. I remembered my Amber books. Zelazny could tell whole stories in 100-200 pages. In fact, I had to bring up the The Book of Amber up to spread some old school Fantasy love.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 3:52 am

I'm in the process of getting Pawn of Prophecy back from a friend (long story).

I want to re-read the Garion books because, of all things, I'm pissed at the network media.

Why?

There's a new series on NBC called "Merlin".

And it's not like they're retreading the same old tired Camelot bullshit again, oh no! This time, Merlin and Arthur are the same age!

And Arthur's a bullyboy with his brains in his biceps and picks on Merlin because Merlin is very uncoordinated and he's a medieval nerd and all that.

And what changes Merlin's opinion and makes him decide to devote his life to aiding Arthur is a badly CGI'd (think Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie quality here) dragon showing up and telling Merlin, "Destiny says so."

"Oh, okay. Destiny says so, so I'll do it."

There has been one decent thing to show up:

A bad guy was cheating in a tournament, using a magic shield which made his coat of arms of three serpents becomes three actual serpents. He'd get close, they'd rise off the shield and bite the opponent.

Which, the snakes were fucking huge, three or four inches across, and there's no way that the numerous spectators could have in any way avoided seeing them, but it's a cool magic item and I may plagiarize the concept at some point.

But, really, I'm fucking tired of king Arthur being 'fantasy' on TV.

They could serialize all twelve of the Garion books and I'd probably buy the DVD, I'd be so glad to get something other than fucking Arthur and Merlin.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 4:33 am

Maxus wrote:arthur-merlin stuff

and here i was about to pick up tad williams because it was vaguely related to the fisher king. don't know if he's any good. but i was bored. i've had my heavy pynchon and stephenson reading done for a while. i think want something a little simpler and i think Tad williams can give me that by the looks of wiki.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 7:07 pm

A brainwave went off today and now I want to find and read the some of the epics--Roland, that Celtic guy, that one from India, and all that. Problem is, finding them could be tricky. Has anyone ever read the medieval epics and the ones from cultures that WEREN'T Greece and Rome?

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 9:00 pm

Maxus wrote:A brainwave went off today and now I want to find and read the some of the epics--Roland, that Celtic guy, that one from India, and all that. Problem is, finding them could be tricky. Has anyone ever read the medieval epics and the ones from cultures that WEREN'T Greece and Rome?

Wiki, gutenberg, and libraries are your friends. :-D

Le Chanson De Roland - The Song of Roland - http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/ ... les=850393 ( ENglish translation on gutenberg)

Cú chulainn - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%BAchulainn#Literature (see the end for translated separated links)

Mahabharatha - http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/7965 - It's supposed to be a good translation as it's one of the few complete unabridged translations... but it doesn't keep the Verse form which annoys me.

Ramayana - Older Hindu Epic - That is on Gutenberg as well | I trust this translation more than I trust the other one because it actually keeps the canto and poetical format - http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24869/24 ... 869-h.html

Epic of Gilgamesh - Babylonian - http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11000

And the best for last... my favorite bookmark.

A collection of Norse, Saxony, some christian, irish, literature in pdf, img, and other formats - remember to download rather than to just click. THe site is made as an educational site is mainly a critical edition of the EDDaS but offers other stuff connected to it. - http://www.septentrionalia.net/etexts/index.php#on

If you want to buy books, amazon is your friend and so is their book shop.

Um japanese epics i know of are mostly novels written by eiji yoshikawa and as far as i know only two have been translated into english and she was from the last 200 years. MIyamoto musashi and Taiko. Both are awesome possum. The other epics like Heike and and sun wu kong and stuff are just not translated as far as i know in book format.

Um, I'm pretty sure I've got many of the "common" epics.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 9:02 pm

Maxus wrote:A brainwave went off today and now I want to find and read the some of the epics--Roland, that Celtic guy, that one from India, and all that. Problem is, finding them could be tricky. Has anyone ever read the medieval epics and the ones from cultures that WEREN'T Greece and Rome?

Yes, I have. If your library isn't up to snuff, Gutenberg.org will probably be very helpful to you.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 9:09 pm

Yeah, I read the gutenberg project books via them being scattered in a MUD a long time ago... My local library didn't have copies of most of them.

-Crissa

Heath Robinson · Post by **Heath Robinson** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 9:10 pm

Reminds me that I need to finish reading Njal's Saga.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 10:38 pm

Crissa wrote:Yeah, I read the gutenberg project books via them being scattered in a MUD a long time ago... My local library didn't have copies of most of them.

-Crissa

That must have been the most awesome MUD of all time.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 10:54 pm

It's still out there: http://lostsouls.org/

-Crissa

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 4:12 am

Thanks for reminding me of the existence of Project Gutenberg.

I went on a binge and picked up a lot of epics from throughout history. God know how long it'll take me to read them all.

And it's weird. I feel like a more cultured person, just by having the Ramayana and Song of Roland on my harddrive.

To continue:

Were it not for these things being, like, a bazillion pages long, I'd print them and bind them.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 4:23 am

Oh, Finnish Kalevela is awesome too. I totally forgot about that. I can't spell today. forget the actual spelling is. but that is one of the best epics of the world.

Check out serbian epic poems on wiki also. looked into that after you were talking about epics. they still do it. really cool.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 5:25 am

If you get a chance, go see Moon. It's in limited release now, so go look and see when it might come near you... I know most of you don't live near art theaters, alas. It has some clips on youtube and whatnot.

Crunchy sci-fi, no aliens, no evil computers, a few tech that doesn't quite exist today, but are plausible, at least. Very nice.

-Crissa

TarkisFlux · Post by **TarkisFlux** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 5:48 am

That looks interesting. Thanks Crissa.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sun Jul 05, 2009 7:01 am

Okay, I've been reading Watchmen again.

And I think I've figured out the Comedian's joke.

He recognized that crime and society had gotten so bad that the only effective solutions law outside the law. "Who watches the watchmen?" Think about that. That's a pretty bleak and depressing bit of dark humor. So the Comedian set out to become part of the joke. Several characters comment on this--either perceiving him as being deliberately amoral, or recognizing that the Comedian was self-created reflection of the 20th century, or that he had a sick sense of humor. So, yeah, no matter how brutal the Comedian was, he was allowed to continue--and he knew it. All in the name of the Joke. Hell, Ozymandias mentions that the Comedian's breakdown to Moloch may have been spurred by 'professional envy'; if you've spent your life savoring the irony of being a government-sponsored and well-rewarded psycho for hire who committed atrocities to see if people caught on or to prove you could, and then encounter someone who's doing what you do, on a grander scale, for the probable betterment of mankind...Well, that's pretty hard.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Sun Jul 05, 2009 3:43 pm

Maxus wrote:Okay, I've been reading Watchmen again.

And I think I've figured out the Comedian's joke.
- snip spoiler - snip -

That joke actually got me back to Heinlein and good sci fi marine life novels. Space Cadet or Starship Troopers might have been the one. Both are good.

If you want a good sci-fi/army/1st person POV read, Robert Heinlein is the way to go.

I wonder how many of his novels my library has...