The Books/Reading Thread

[Einherjar86]

I thought Gardens was great. It was Deadhouse that got me stalled, but I think it may have something to do with the fact that I'm a little burned out on fantasy at the moment. I'm going to finish it at some point and start Memories.

 

[Black Friday]

Gardens was a bit slow in starting for me. I just hope that the other books live up to the potential of the first one.

 

[no country for old wainds]

I thought Gardens was great. It was Deadhouse that got me stalled, but I think it may have something to do with the fact that I'm a little burned out on fantasy at the moment. I'm going to finish it at some point and start Memories.

yeah, deadhouse was the slowest going for me first time round, it's a lot heavier than gardens and it's kind of like starting another new series. the finish is pretty intense payoff though, and second time i loved it a lot more. all the stuff with felisin/heboric/baudin especially is burned into my mind, really emotionally fraught, vivid stuff, and i love all things mappo/icarium. plus it introduces toblakai, maybe my favourite character, definitely one of them.

memories of ice is easier going partially because it retains most of the characters from gardens.

 

[Einherjar86]

I know you've said that Deadhouse introduces your favorite character, and it's so cool that you say it's Toblakai, because I consider him a third-rate character because he plays such a small role. I'm psyched now that I know he has a bigger role to play.

The Mappo/Icarium plot is great; probably my favorite passages to read.

 

[skeptik]

GoD, recommend me non-gay fantasy to read that is not Tolkien, since I trust your thoughts more than everyone else here on this subject.

 

[Einherjar86]

Even though you're not asking for my opinion, I'll recommend you R. Scott Bakker's The Prince of Nothing trilogy. It's great adult fantasy.

 

[Evil?]

Anyone else here read any of Glenn Cook's Black Company books? I finished the first in the series last week, and while I did enjoy it, I was not eager to read the next. It was good, but not amazing.

 

[Einherjar86]

Anyone else here read any of Glenn Cook's Black Company books? I finished the first in the series last week, and while I did enjoy it, I was not eager to read the next. It was good, but not amazing.

I've never read Cook, but I've wanted to. I've heard reviews similar to yours, but I've also heard from others that it's a great read. I'll probably get around to it eventually.

 

[AchrisK]

Even though you're not asking for my opinion, I'll recommend you R. Scott Bakker's The Prince of Nothing trilogy. It's great adult fantasy.

What is "adult" fantasy?

 

[Einherjar86]

What is "adult" fantasy?

Fantasy that contains explicit sexual or violent content. For example:

Harry Potter = young adult fantasy (no sexual content, mild violence)

Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series = adult fantasy (strong sexual content and brutal violence; not for middle-schoolers)

That's about the best I can say. Books like Tolkien, Rowling, and that kid who wrote the Inheritance series are young adult fantasy. People like Martin and Bakker are adult fantasy.

 

[AchrisK]

So do things in that classification always include strong sexual content, or is it more like an "R" rating on a movie, which could be classified thus for a number of different reasons?

 

[Einherjar86]

Well, I said sexual content and violence, and most R-rated films deal with content of that nature. Language can also be involved, and some mature fantasy books contain that also; but usually they deal with subject matter that is too mature for young adult audiences (i.e. sexual depravity, incest, pedophilia, violence, rape, etc.). Also, most adult fantasy series contain complicated and intricate commentary on religious and societal matters that can find parallels in our own world.

In essence, adult fantasy reads much more realistically than idealistic, young adult fantasy.

 

[Black Friday]

Also, some adult fantasy hates your favorite characters.

 

[Zephyrus]

I finally had the time this weekend to finish Thucydides. Now I'm debating whether to read Plato's Timaeus and Critias or Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy.

 

[no country for old wainds]

GoD, recommend me non-gay fantasy to read that is not Tolkien, since I trust your thoughts more than everyone else here on this subject.

my favourite stuff is:
steven erikson - malazan book of the fallen series (first book = gardens of the moon)
glen cook - black company
scott bakker - prince of nothing trilogy (first book = the darkness that comes before)
china mieville - the scar (well, i prob like perdido street station most but i always think of that as more sci-fi)
stephen donaldson - the chronicles of thomas covenant (first book = lord foul's bane)

glen cook is pretty light reading, but he's really fun and metal as hell. he was among the first to really run with that whole morally ambiguous gritty stormy brooding dark fantasy thing, really influential on folks like bakker and especially erikson.

donaldson is in a class of his own, beats tolkien at his own game methinks, really mature challenging stuff but totally rewarding. the gap series is brilliant as well, and the lighter mordant's need although a lot of people don't seem to like that as much. totally love it, myself.

you might be more interested in the classics like 'voyage to arcturus', 'book of the new sun', 'chronicles of amber', 'tales of a dying earth', 'gormenghast' etcetc. those are the ones which will often get onto favourite lists of even the most fantasy-intolerant literary critics. i haven't read them all, and none of them recently, so i'll refrain from commenting.

 

[Addo_Of_Nex]

Now that I've actually got a somewhat steady income, I've decided to attempt to start reading actual material outside of internet articles and the like. I know absolutely nothing about books and ideal places to search for something I'm looking for, so I figured I would ask here. I'm looking for something that deals with an introduction to aesthetic study, and some sort of introduction to logic. I'm fully aware that my request sounds stupid, but any help would be great. Price isn't something I'm too concerned with, so suggest whatever seems fitting.

 

[The Creator of Failure]

A Song of Ice and Fire is an awesome book. First of all, the style is very good and the story itself is great as well. There's a plenty of characters you'll love and hate, so many twists that you'll never know what is really going on and what will come next, at some point in the end of the third book it seemed as if everything was getting clear, but then suddenly everything got complicated again... You won't be sorry if you read it.

As for Cook's Black Company, it was really nothing special. I don't know about the original English book, but Serbian translation was fucking stupid, it was almost all just short sentences and it seemed as the style itself was very bad, as if it was written by a school kid. I read it to the end only because I wanted to know how the story ends, but reading a book with such a bad style was very annoying.

There's a book festival in my city and I saw lots of great books I'd like to buy, but I'm broke - so typical. I only bought Tim Severin's Viking and a real story about a German soldier who was captured in the WW2 and convicted on 25 years of forced labour in a mine in Siberia, but he escaped and in 3 years survived 13 000 kilometers of the Siberian neverland. If someone likes war novels, I'd recommend Svenn Hassel's Legion of the Damned. Svenn was a German soldier who was forced to go to war in a so-called "Legion of the Damned" - it was a battalion made of the soldiers who were convicted for something and as a punishment they had to serve in that battalion, so he described everything that happened to them in the eastern front. It's very interesting because it's a real story and you get to see the war through the eyes of regular soldiers who were not Nazis, who hated Hitler and only wanted to survive.

Has anyone read Michael Moorcock's The History of the Runestaff? I saw it at the festival and it looks good to me, but I don't have any money...

I started reading a book about the Nordic and Anglo-Saxon runes

 

[AchrisK]

...

Has anyone read Michael Moorcock's The History of the Runestaff? I saw it at the festival and it looks good to me, but I don't have any money...

...

I have read some of Moorcock's Elric series, and maybe one other "eternal hero" type book of his. It was a long time ago, but I enjoyed them.

 

[Einherjar86]

I'm looking for something that deals with an introduction to aesthetic study, and some sort of introduction to logic. I'm fully aware that my request sounds stupid, but any help would be great. Price isn't something I'm too concerned with, so suggest whatever seems fitting.

I'm assuming nonfiction, right? Definitely not stupid, stuff like that is interesting. I'm anxious to hear what others say, seeing as how I typically don't read stuff like that. You can go online and search your terms. Your best bet is probably Amazon.com. You'll probably be able to find used books for cheap, especially on those subjects. I don't really know much about books on logic. As for aesthetics, I'd say look for anthologies or collections of Immanuel Kant and David Hume. Both were concerned with aesthetics and the sublime in their writings.

 

[tagradh]

the gap series is brilliant as well

I actually prefer this series to the Thomas Covenant books.

I just finished Toll the Hounds and started on Kevin J Andersons Saga of Seven Suns series. Also read Choke yesterday because loads of people on another forum recommended it and I'm glad I borrowed it from a friend. Chuck Palahniuk has to be one of the most overrated writers.