Now Reading...
- Thread starter Rakosh
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Pellaz
Tigron of Immanion
Finished Weber's Mission of Honor (excellent, too) and have just now started S.M. Stirling's Dies the Fire, the first book of The Change. The author's politics might hamper my enjoyment of it...and I'm really wondering if all Wiccans behave as silly as the ones in the book. Still, I'm always up for a good post-apocalyptic yarn.....
Wandrail
I'm your Huckleberry
I love the idea of the post-apoc fiction, always loved books like The Stand and Swan Song, but could not get into Stirling's series. Found it just a bit too corny. I don't recall there being many real political overtones, though.
OrbWeaver
BECAUSE FALCONER
The Thousand Orcs by R.A. Salvatore. I got The Hunters Blade Trilogy from Sci-Fi Book Club recently. I haven't had a good dose of Drizzt in awhile.
But maybe it's just me, but it seems these novels lack the magic of the earlier ones. Even the novels centering around my favorite character, Jarlaxle, kind of come off as stale. I had to force myself to complete The Promise of the Lich King. Either Salvatore is getting stale in his writing, or maybe I've sort of outgrown it. I may have to re-read the Icewind Dale Trilogy to see if it's just me, or if it's the writing style. :/
But maybe it's just me, but it seems these novels lack the magic of the earlier ones. Even the novels centering around my favorite character, Jarlaxle, kind of come off as stale. I had to force myself to complete The Promise of the Lich King. Either Salvatore is getting stale in his writing, or maybe I've sort of outgrown it. I may have to re-read the Icewind Dale Trilogy to see if it's just me, or if it's the writing style. :/
AMBR
Metal Grandma
I think it's him not you. I had the exact same reaction to the exact same books. Too bad, I loved all the earlier Drizzt books. I don't know, but it just feels like there is too much emphasis on emotions and relationships or something. Not enough epic battle drama.
Pellaz
Tigron of Immanion
Second page or so?
We'll see where Stirling goes, though. I can agree; it might end up being a bit corny. That was one of the complaints mentioned in Amazon's reviews.
Not enough battle drama? I have to disagree. The entire series is based around the war between Obould's Orcs and Mithril Hall.
Without giving too much away to those who have not yet read the books, consider the things that happen to the female mage, the male elf Tarathiel , Pickle, and an entire Dwarven rescue party. Not to mention the continuous assault outside Mithral Hall's doors. Add that to Diizzt's ongoing solo massacre of Orcs in retribution to what he believed happened to one of his friends. That perception is based on a battle close to the beginning of the first book, and the battles only escalate from there.
As to the emotions it's a war. Loss -whether real, perceived, or real- tends to elicit those feelings.
These books are definitely different than the Icewind Dale series, as they are Slavatore's darkest since The Dark Elf Trilogy. However, they portray shear brutality and rage, rather than the depiction of an evil society.
I personally consider The Hunter's Blades trilogy to be Salvatore's best writing to date. Your mileage may vary.
OrbWeaver
BECAUSE FALCONER
I have no problem with dark. But at the moment, the writing just seems sort of stale. I'm almost done with the first book. It's an incredibly easy read.
Granted, this may have something to do with the fact that I just got done with a very large dose of David Eddings (the entire Belgariad and Malloreon series all in one go.) Salvatore's style is not nearly as dense as Eddings'. I really enjoy Salvatore (or at least I used to) so the fact that I'm having a bit of difficulty being so engrossed in his writing lately kind of bothers me.
Granted, this may have something to do with the fact that I just got done with a very large dose of David Eddings (the entire Belgariad and Malloreon series all in one go.) Salvatore's style is not nearly as dense as Eddings'. I really enjoy Salvatore (or at least I used to) so the fact that I'm having a bit of difficulty being so engrossed in his writing lately kind of bothers me.
All done. It's the sort of story where you have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen, but how the author *gets* there is the interesting part. Someone rather dryly described the writing as "very Swedish," which initially made me think "...well duh?" but it's true in a way that's kind of funny to me as an American. The word "competent" comes up frequently as a descriptive, something the Germanic type folks (Germany and NL as well as Scandinavia) value very highly. We do too, of course, but culturally we don't put quite so much emphasis on it. It's very cut-and-dried, direct, no beating around the bush, no conversational tone or flowery descriptives.
Also a bit violent. The original title in Swedish is "Men Who Hate Women" - hoo boy, yes. But again, it's very straightforward; the violence isn't deliberately drawn out to be sensational and disgusting.
And now I'm going to see if I can find the film with English subtitles, as my Swedish is currently limited to hi, thanks, and fuck you...
Orion Crystal Ice
Rider of the Astral Fire
Wandrail
I'm your Huckleberry
Second page or so?
We'll see where Stirling goes, though. I can agree; it might end up being a bit corny. That was one of the complaints mentioned in Amazon's reviews.
Ha...it has been a while since I tried to read it, but I guess the other things I didn't like about it stuck out a lot more in my mind than any leftie political messages.
It sucks though, because to me post-apocalyptic fiction has so many possibilities, yet remains a largely untapped genre (at least untapped by anyone with talent). Its kind of the ultimate escapist tale for the modern world.
Pellaz
Tigron of Immanion
Yep. That's one book you can whip through during a 15-minute break at work.
I can definitely see that. From my experience, many of the SCA members I know would be totally clueless in a post-apocalyptic, no-electricity, no-gunpowder world, yet there are lots of them in the book who aren't.
Hmm, one of the better ones I can think of offhand is Niven and Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer.
Steven Boyett's Ariel (which I read and critiqued earlier in the thread) was pretty good, too, although the ending was almost tooo bittersweet.
Wandrail
I'm your Huckleberry
Lucifer's Hammer is definitely a classic, worth a reread if I get that desperate for such a book - but I haven't even heard of Boyett. The blurb for the book on the author's site says:
Edit: And on this subject, if you've never read Robert R. McCammon's Swan Song, it is worth a shot. McCammon has written a lot of crap IMO, but two books I always liked of his were Swan Song and The Wolf's Hour.
Pellaz
Tigron of Immanion
Lucifer's Hammer is definitely a classic, worth a reread if I get that desperate for such a book - but I haven't even heard of Boyett. The blurb for the book on the author's site says:
I wasn't trying to imply that it was a realistic post-apocalyptic book, just that the presentation of a society post-disaster or "Change" was well-handled. In Boyett's case he starts the story well after the 'disaster' has taken place.
I wasn't aware that Swan Song was a post-apocalyptic book. I have it here somewhere and will have to dig it out, since it's been well-recommended to me before.
I thought McCammon's novel Boy's Life -- recommended to me by Kirk Hammett, no less -- was terrific!
Yippee38
Living the dream!
I liked Lucifer's Hammer, but I read that many, many years ago. Not really into that type of book anymore.
I'm currently re-reading the Dragonlance trilogy. The first two were easy reads, and fun to read. This third one is more of a chore to read. There are parts that are just poorly written (anything that is in the voice of the Chronicler guy is just crap). I'm more looking forward to finishing the book that finishing reading it.
I'm currently re-reading the Dragonlance trilogy. The first two were easy reads, and fun to read. This third one is more of a chore to read. There are parts that are just poorly written (anything that is in the voice of the Chronicler guy is just crap). I'm more looking forward to finishing the book that finishing reading it.
Harvester
The Promoter
guardian26
Mike the Cop
Lucifer's Hammer was a classic example of science fiction authors who are great at the science, but not so great at the fiction.
Just arrived from Amazon:
The two followups to Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Dan Simmons - Drood
Neil Gaiman - Fragile Things
I still have a couple of books left from my powells.com order to finish, too...
Just arrived from Amazon:
The two followups to Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Dan Simmons - Drood
Neil Gaiman - Fragile Things
I still have a couple of books left from my powells.com order to finish, too...
Wandrail
I'm your Huckleberry
That's often the way, unfortunately...I think its a good book though, but its one of those that's kind of better to remember than to try and read again. It seems a lot better that way.
Particularly in Sci-Fi I think a lot of authors do not concentrate on characters and the basic human side of things enough (things that get the reader invested), because the concentration is on the larger subject or on making a point. However high minded a concept may be, it still has to come down to simply being a good yarn at some point...at least for me.
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