The Books/Reading Thread

[TechnicalBarbarity]

... i'm actually almost done with the first book and love how fleshed out everything is. Gotta say S1 of the HBO series was pretty damn faithful to this book. I've been asking around for some recs and so far i've narrowed it down to either the Malazan books, Glen Cooks The Black Company or Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire Trilogy(which i actually picked up a few years back). I'm also thinking of finally giving the LOtR trilogy a shot(i read The Hobbit years ago). The Prince of Nothing series sounds pretty interesting too.

edit: i was gonna ask which of their books to check out but i see you edited them in.

 

[Dak]

... i'm actually almost done with the first book and love how fleshed out everything is. Gotta say S1 of the HBO series was pretty damn faithful to this book. I've been asking around for some recs and so far i've narrowed it down to either the Malazan books, Glen Cooks The Black Company or Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire Trilogy(which i actually picked up a few years back). I'm also thinking of finally giving the LOtR trilogy a shot(i read The Hobbit years ago). The Prince of Nothing series sounds pretty interesting too.

Well if you haven't read LoTR then that's obviously tops. S1 of HBO was faithful, and frankly up through Book 3 is still interesting, but the series really has a slow before then quick downward trend after the Red Wedding. I don't know enough about the other series you listed but if you like GoT, Gemmell's books are close to similarly "gritty, low magic" feel, without being a true series. Feist is a world builder par excellence above and beyond Martin, and just after Tolkien.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

yea i think i'll just jump into The Lord of the Rings once im done with this book.

On a side note, i ended up getting that Patton tome you rec'd me a few years ago but still havent got around to reading it.

Right now i'm totally into Leonard's old westerns and short stories. Would love some rec's on similar work.

 

[Dak]

yea i think i'll just jump into The Lord of the Rings once im done with this book.

One a side note, i ended up getting that Patton tome you rec'd me a few years ago but still havent got around to reading it.

Right now i'm totally into Leonard's old westerns and short stories. Would love some rec's on similar work.

Patton: A Genius for War?? Yeah the fucker is massive. I only read like 1/3 of it before getting derailed, and have been intimidated ever since with my schedule. I don't know Leonard....I've read a shitload of Louis L'Amour and I can recommend various stuff from him.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

Patton: A Genius for War?? Yeah the fucker is massive. I only read like 1/3 of it before getting derailed, and have been intimidated ever since with my schedule.

yeah man, i picked it up right before my tinnitus kicked in and ive pretty much stopped reading since then. Slowly trying to get back into it and yeah man that book is huge. I have the paperback version but i can still easily knock someone out with this thing lol.

I don't know Leonard....

pretty sure you've at least heard of some of his work...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmore_Leonard
... look at how many of his novels were made into movies.

I've read a shitload of Louis L'Amour and I can recommend various stuff from him.

Yeah ive heard of that name. Shoot me some recs. Maybe a top 5 or something.

 

[Dak]

Yeah ive heard of that name. Shoot me some recs. Maybe a top 5 or something.

His best books were mostly his non-westerns TBH. First should be The Walking Drum. Then there's the Sackett series. Of his westerns, I would start with Utah Blaine, Hondo, and Kid Rodelo.

Edit: Never heard of Leonard or his stuff other than "Get Shorty."

Edit: The Last of the Breed was also really good.

 

[TageRyche]

The first book is the only good one. Read some David Gemmell or Raymond Feist instead. I recommend Legend, Waylander, or The King Beyond the Gate by Gemmell, or the Serpantwar Saga or the Riftwar Saga by Feist (separate trilogies).

David Gemmell's fantasy novels were really good. I loved the first four books in the Drenai Saga.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

@Dak you haven't seen 3:10 to Yuma or the TV series Justified?

The Law at Randado is a pretty fun quick read that i think you might dig.

 

[Dak]

@Dak you haven't seen 3:10 to Yuma or the TV series Justified?

The Law at Randado is a pretty fun quick read that i think you might dig.

I saw 3:10 to Yuma while living in Yuma and was disappointed since it had nothing to do with Yuma. I watched an episode of Justified way back and was just not interested at the time... might be different now. I know nothing about Randado.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

I know nothing about Randado.

Some Mexicans get caught trying to steal cattle from some big bad cattle baron who runs shit. So him and a few of townsfolk decide that they should be the ones to decide the fate of dem mexicans instead of waiting for word to get back from Tucson on what to do with them. It's "their duty" and "god given right" ... but the deputy sheriff doesnt see it that way.

Justified ended up going down as one of my favorite series. IN THE DEEEEP DARRRK HILLS OF EASTERN KENTUCKKKY

Haven't seen the first 3:10 to Yuma movie, but the one with Russel Crow was the shiznit.

*edited for retarded typos

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

so
people keep mentioning the Lord of The Rings
but no one's gonna read any of the Forgotten Realms Books or Dragon Lance books??
War of The Spider Queen was fucking Awesome
war of the spider queen - Google Search

EDIT
@TageRyche
war of the Spider Queen takes place in Drizzt Do'Urden's universe, but it's completely self-contained and it doesn't have Drizzt in it

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

I don't read much in the way of fantasy books anymore. I think I read a Drizzt Do'Urden book a long time ago. He's a dark elf or something right? I can't remember which book it was but I remember liking it well enough. I've never read the Anita Blake stuff.

Anita Blake is modern-day
if you've been burned out on reading "crappy fantasy"
you might really enjoy Anita Blake
it's all first-person, which the author does as a way to do epic-level world-building without having to do those horrible-info-dumps that appear in Lord of The Rings

 

[no country for old wainds]

justified ist krieg

 

[Vegard Pompey]

I'm only 100 pages in but I think this is the best thing I've ever read. It takes place in the early 20th century and it's about a cigar craftsman who becomes a vagrant after being rendered unemployed by the industrial revolution. The story is a series of vignettes as he meanders around Sweden. The prologue contains a conversation about the merits of calling a whore a courtesan that also doubles as a conversation about beautifying life to make it bearable. The book flitters between kitchen sink realism and navelgazing like this. There's a gorgeously written sequence where the protagonist bids farewell to two friends who are emigrating to the US that hit me like a brick in the face maybe especially because my closest friends this past half year were the Erasmus students living in my dorm who have all recently gone back to their home countries. It touches on America's status as a promised land for Swedish emigrants in the 19th/20th centuries. The whole book's all about promised lands and vain hopes and dreams and shit. I'm reading this fucking thing ever on the verge of tears, my words can't do it justice. No idea if the existing English translation is any good - or readily available.

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

I'm only 100 pages in but I think this is the best thing I've ever read. It takes place in the early 20th century and it's about a cigar craftsman who becomes a vagrant after being rendered unemployed by the industrial revolution. The story is a series of vignettes as he meanders around Sweden. The prologue contains a conversation about the merits of calling a whore a courtesan that also doubles as a conversation about beautifying life to make it bearable. The book flitters between kitchen sink realism and navelgazing like this. There's a gorgeously written sequence where the protagonist bids farewell to two friends who are emigrating to the US that hit me like a brick in the face maybe especially because my closest friends this past half year were the Erasmus students living in my dorm who have all recently gone back to their home countries. It touches on America's status as a promised land for Swedish emigrants in the 19th/20th centuries. The whole book's all about promised lands and vain hopes and dreams and shit. I'm reading this fucking thing ever on the verge of tears, my words can't do it justice. No idea if the existing English translation is any good - or readily available.

this review is making me want to see how good or bad the english translation is

 

[TageRyche]

Today I finished reading the Kate Carlisle mystery Homicide in Hardcover.

 

[Einherjar86]

Picked up this fuckin' haul recently.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

what's the verdict here on the Wheel of Time series? Yay or gay?

 

[no country for old wainds]

think the consensus is that it starts out pretty cool then completely loses momentum and gets bogged down in book-length side plots. i never got very far into it though.

 

[Einherjar86]

I quit halfway through the third book. The Eye of the World is great though.