Now Reading...

[jaimek]

A while ago I had mentioned rereading the first three Diana Gabaldon Outlander books. I got a Kindle for Christmas, and have since been plowing through the *rest* of the books, because now? I can read while I'm walking to work. \m/

(of course, that means all the other books I've bought in the last two or three months are still sitting on the shelf waiting for me to find couch time to read them...)

 

[metalprof]

Just finished:

Now reading:

or, when I only have a few minutes at a time:

 

[VenomGA]

Black Tooth Grin. It's a book about Darryl Abbott of Pantera

 

[Justin G]

Taking a break from a full stack of zombie novels.

 

[Magius]

 

[Harvester]

to be followed by...

 

[Riceloft]

LOVE IT!

I'm about 1/3 of the way through the 8th book in the Wheel of Time series. Robert Jordan sure can waste away paragraphs at a time on senseless things, but overall this is a great, great story. Can't wait to get to the books Sanderson wrote/is writing.

 

[Justin G]

LOVE IT!

I'm about 1/3 of the way through the 8th book in the Wheel of Time series. Robert Jordan sure can waste away paragraphs at a time on senseless things, but overall this is a great, great story. Can't wait to get to the books Sanderson wrote/is writing.

Paragraphs? You're at the point in the series where all but about 10 pages of each book is wasted.

 

[jaimek]

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118048854#.Txha-pHsBos.facebook

^^ Warner Brothers and Dan Lin will be doing a movie of Tad Williams' Otherland. I'm excited - I might be one of the very few people who love that series more than MST.

 

[TheLongshot]

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118048854#.Txha-pHsBos.facebook

^^ Warner Brothers and Dan Lin will be doing a movie of Tad Williams' Otherland. I'm excited - I might be one of the very few people who love that series more than MST.

Course, my first reaction is that they'd have to cut 3/4 of it to fit in a movie running time. My other reaction is that it might actually improve the story by doing it.

While I enjoyed the journey, I thought the ending was kinda lame.

 

[Justin G]

Reading (and really enjoying) this one.

 

[jaimek]

Rereading:

(I am so totally getting my money's worth out of my Kindle - except that all of the books that I've bought so far, save one, I've already paid for in paper in the past. I've mostly been buying the books that I love to reread on a regular basis, and a few - like this one - that I picked up for about three bucks on sale.)

 

[Magius]

 

[Bamafan]

Reamde by Neal Stephenson. I can't summarize it as I am only about halfway through, but it is a winner so far: World of Warcraft type game, computer hackers, pot smuggling, spies and international terrorists. Who could ask for more?

 

[Harvester]

 

[booB]

I am STILL reading Deadhouse Gates by Erikson. I have a pretty serious question for the Erikson fans in the audience. I have been working on this book slowly but surely for months now, and it has mostly bored me to tears. I could barely keep the locations straight in my mind, and I didn't like most of the characters; they were largely dry and one-dimensional, save for Kalam (one of my favorites from Gardens of the Moon) and Duiker. However, I kept reading because I wanted it to get better, and then because I simply wanted to finish it before I wrote off Erikson forever. Then, at about the 70% mark on my Kindle, it started getting really good, because the plot lines actually started to reach some sort of point, and the characters finally started going through some changes (Felisin and Icarium especially).

My question is: Does this tend to happen with all the books in the series? Or, is Deadhouse Gates sort of an odd-man out, a much thicker and slower read than the rest? If the latter is true, then I could see myself continuing with the series, but if it's the former, then I'm afraid this series simply isn't for me. I much prefer the more colorful and dynamic characters and backstory-rich approach of authors like GRRM and Scott Lynch.

 

[jaimek]

My question is: Does this tend to happen with all the books in the series? Or, is Deadhouse Gates sort of an odd-man out, a much thicker and slower read than the rest? If the latter is true, then I could see myself continuing with the series, but if it's the former, then I'm afraid this series simply isn't for me. I much prefer the more colorful and dynamic characters and backstory-rich approach of authors like GRRM and Scott Lynch.

You're probably not going to particularly enjoy the rest, honestly. If you were to read anything else in that series, I'd suggest Memories of Ice and House of Chains, because those were enjoyable, but after that it goes right back to being SO large in scope that I can't keep up. You really need a series bible while reading it just to figure out what's going on and what it means in the long run.

(I do, admittedly, have a WoW character named Tattersail.)

 

[Anomander Rake]

Malazan Books of the Fallen is the greatest story ever told!!!! Erikson doesn't baby you, you have to be dedicated to it and work to grasp his style, but it is so worth it. Deadhouse Gates was awesome. When... (SNIP)

(**User spoilers please. Why ruin it for others?**- Glenn)



...died I wept. Finished The Crippled God a few months ago and was just blown away.

 

[Justin G]

This is a fairly typical zombie novel as far as the plot, but it's a cut above the norm in terms of style and characters.

 

[booB]

You really need a series bible while reading it just to figure out what's going on and what it means in the long run.

My only beef with my Kindle is that it's so hard to navigate a book, when compared to a hardcover or paperback. I did remember to bookmark the Dramatis Personae and the glossary when I read these books, after having trouble following Gardens of the Moon the first time around. It helps a lot, especially with an author who uses so many of his own made-up words and doesn't give a lot of background on characters; I'm constantly forgetting who X is, or what Y means, and I'm always having to look stuff up.

Malazan Books of the Fallen is the greatest story ever told!!!! Erikson doesn't baby you, you have to be dedicated to it and work to grasp his style, but it is so worth it.

I hear that a lot, but none of the fanatical Malazan followers can ever describe to me what it is that draws them into the series, or why it's so worth the herculean effort of following the books. GRRM, for example, writes the best and most fleshed-out characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading; the plot is gravy, as I could gladly read any number of books about these characters doing absolutely anything, or nothing at all.

Lastly, thanks to Glenn for removing the spoiler before I saw it. Not a good way to get someone else excited about your favorite book series. I just recently started enjoying Deadhouse Gates, and understanding *sort of* where the plot is going; if it had been spoiled for me at this point, I probably would have put down the series entirely.