What books are you reading now?
Moderator: Moderators
The end of "The Crippled God" surprised me...
Red_Rob wrote: I mean, I'm pretty sure the Mayans had a prophecy about what would happen if Frank and PL ever agreed on something. PL will argue with Frank that the sky is blue or grass is green, so when they both separately piss on your idea that is definitely something to think about.
I'm about two-thirds through Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld.
Summary:
It's 1914 Europe and World War 1 just started. Europe is mostly divided between the Clankers (steampunk walkers and war machines) and the Darwinists (genetic engineered technology. Seriously, instead of a zeppelin? They have a kind of whale, about sixty feet from is a direct line from its belly to its back, which is kept aloft by hydrogen exhaled by a kind of bacteria and various other engineered creatures integrated into it. Light is produced mostly by biolumescent organisms on board the whale, because you just DON'T use flames if you can help it.
http://www.tentimesone.com/wp-content/u ... 08/map.jpg
Got to give the author props for creativity. Some of the critters and the war-machines are pretty damn cool.
I'll let you know what I think of the actual plot and characters when i finish.
Summary:
It's 1914 Europe and World War 1 just started. Europe is mostly divided between the Clankers (steampunk walkers and war machines) and the Darwinists (genetic engineered technology. Seriously, instead of a zeppelin? They have a kind of whale, about sixty feet from is a direct line from its belly to its back, which is kept aloft by hydrogen exhaled by a kind of bacteria and various other engineered creatures integrated into it. Light is produced mostly by biolumescent organisms on board the whale, because you just DON'T use flames if you can help it.
http://www.tentimesone.com/wp-content/u ... 08/map.jpg
Got to give the author props for creativity. Some of the critters and the war-machines are pretty damn cool.
I'll let you know what I think of the actual plot and characters when i finish.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Done with Wise Man's Fear.
All in all, an enjoyable book, except:
1. Too many hanging frayed plot threads.
(Yes, I'm aware that's how it happens in real life. I'm also aware that people don't speak in books like they do in real life. Like, interjections and, uhm, stuff. Also, incomplete sentences.) Three chapters for a hangover, one paragraph for a stereotypically eventful sea journey (storm, pirates, etc). There's no rhyme or reason for these elaboration discrepancies. (Maybe the author doesn't know nautical terms. I found the book extremely easy to read, which wouldn't be the case if it was peppered with dictionary-class words.)
2. Title, WTF.
Other reviewers complain about lack of an antagonist, which is unfair to a loooong slice-of-life. The overarching theme is myth-busting (digging for facts) and myth-building (obfuscating facts): the hero searches for some info on the legendary villains and legendary badasses of yore, and the things that happen while he's at it become legends in their own right. "Things" have to do with magic, or love, or both. "Name of the Wind" refers to the hero searching for true magic (which is very rare and considered fiction by many), in particular, "the ever-changing name of the wind", and true wuv (by analogy, also presumed fictitious), embodied by a woman who keeps changing her name to evade suitors.
The words "wise man's fear" are encountered once, as a title drop, and refer to "the anger of a gentle man". Aaaaand... it is completely absent from the book. In 1000+ pages, no one suffers ill consequences for getting gentle men angry. In fact, no gentle men ever get angry. Wut.
3. No advancement of the overarching plot.
Disappointing, to say the least. The one revealed new fact was that the villains are a lot less powerful and mystical than the first book suggested. This would be a good development for a book espousing the virtues of enlightenment (think a glorified Scooby-Doo), but this book is very clear that stuff in the past was actually better: awesome magical artefacts, secrets and legacies abound. The first book had Harry Potter vs. Sauron and his nazguls. This book has Sailor Moon vs. generic bandit leader (Wiz 5, notable equipment: scroll of teleport, tactics: intended recurring villain, teleports the fuck away, does not engage the PCs for fear of being RLT'ed). If the trend continues, the third book will have Superman vs. kindergarteners playing cops and robbers.
4. As-you-know induced stupidity.
There's some decent culture-building, which goes along well with myth-building and myth-busting. However, for some reason (possibly to inject drama) the facts are not presented in an offhand manner, or explicitly as first-person author's words, but as "hero does something extremely retarded and gets chastised". Terribad.
5. Bad feminism.
Not terribad, just the regular flavor of bad. The default culture is patriarchal with all the prejudice against females taken for granted, the counterpart culture is matriarchal with all the prejudice against males taken for granted. The setup has a very "men from Mars, women from Venus" feel.
5.1. Actually, the culture itself is sort of meh: there are clever bits, but the result is pop-asian pop-communism. Airbrushed North Korea, seriously.
6. Gay issues fail.
Dear author: if you don't want gays in your book, gloss the issue over. But noooooo: first we have a faaaabuous artsy gay couple, then... nothing. There's that matriarchal society, where people believe sex and pregnancy are unrelated and men are completely unnecessary for conception (a more stupid version of patriarchal incubator women). When the hero brings up the correlation "no sex = no pregnancy", the woman he's talking to brushes it off with "who's so stupid as to abstain from sex?" Uhm... aren't there any lesbians then? No, they don't have any unreasonable taboos concerning sex. It just never occurs to any character or the author himself. Fail.
7. The ending of the main story falls flat.
The promised epic resolution the wrap-up chapters suggest is "My girlfriend had trouble breathing and I provided first aid by means of magic. Then we hang out and I got cockblocked." Which is a good way to make the reader know how a cockblock feels, but a shitty way to pause the narrative.
(The framing story has its high point immediately afterwards, which sort of offsets it.)
7.5. Motherfucking rosebud wallbanger finale DERP.
The main story in book 3 ends with the hero being remarkably rich, paying debts, repaying old favors and throwing a huge party. The source of his wealth is this: a wealthy noble has agreed to pay the hero's university tuition, and the hero subsequently strikes a private deal with the university treasurer to drive up the tuition and thus fleece the noble in exchange for a portion of the payment.
Now... brace for it...
Since tuition is set according to exam performance, he then proceeds to perform poorly at his end-of-term exams to rack up the tuition and thus get rich.
Uhm.
Well excuse me here.
It's one thing if the treasurer was sending fake requests for money and pocketing the difference. But this is not the case: the treasurer drafts exactly as much money from the noble as the ruling council sets, which should presumably all go into the treasury. The hero has no agreement with the ruling council; instead, he fucks up exams by saying stupid shit, being drunk, etc. In the very final chapter, one of the his enemies becomes chancellor and sets an outrageous tuition, the hero goes "haha pwnd" and uses the money to throw a party while laughing all the way. The whole thing reminds me of people on CharOp gloating about supposed "exploits" that do not actually work (and of Citizen Kane whom no one heard to say rosebud).
Moral: buy dead tree books. E-readers do not give the same satisfaction when thrown at the wall, their aerodynamics is all wrong.
8. Uhm I think you made a typo Eragon-level-originality DERP.
The shadow-cloak is named "shaed" in the faerie language (while the faerie language itself is yet another Elven). That's Saturday-morning-cartoon-subtle.
The good: everything else.
Daily events are believable, verbal quips are neat, children’s rhymes are still excellent and creepy, other poetry is still meh, the description of people’s perception of art is still awesome, major conflict resolutions are sufficiently epic.
Improvements (compared to Vol.1):
The characters in a framing story stopped being fucking annoying and started being really cool.
Jabs at the hereditary nobility. There *is* a stereotypical perfectly wise pop-zen-espousing community leader (meh), but hereditary nobility is mightily ridiculed and this is awesome.
All in all, an enjoyable book, except:
1. Too many hanging frayed plot threads.
(Yes, I'm aware that's how it happens in real life. I'm also aware that people don't speak in books like they do in real life. Like, interjections and, uhm, stuff. Also, incomplete sentences.) Three chapters for a hangover, one paragraph for a stereotypically eventful sea journey (storm, pirates, etc). There's no rhyme or reason for these elaboration discrepancies. (Maybe the author doesn't know nautical terms. I found the book extremely easy to read, which wouldn't be the case if it was peppered with dictionary-class words.)
2. Title, WTF.
Other reviewers complain about lack of an antagonist, which is unfair to a loooong slice-of-life. The overarching theme is myth-busting (digging for facts) and myth-building (obfuscating facts): the hero searches for some info on the legendary villains and legendary badasses of yore, and the things that happen while he's at it become legends in their own right. "Things" have to do with magic, or love, or both. "Name of the Wind" refers to the hero searching for true magic (which is very rare and considered fiction by many), in particular, "the ever-changing name of the wind", and true wuv (by analogy, also presumed fictitious), embodied by a woman who keeps changing her name to evade suitors.
The words "wise man's fear" are encountered once, as a title drop, and refer to "the anger of a gentle man". Aaaaand... it is completely absent from the book. In 1000+ pages, no one suffers ill consequences for getting gentle men angry. In fact, no gentle men ever get angry. Wut.
3. No advancement of the overarching plot.
Disappointing, to say the least. The one revealed new fact was that the villains are a lot less powerful and mystical than the first book suggested. This would be a good development for a book espousing the virtues of enlightenment (think a glorified Scooby-Doo), but this book is very clear that stuff in the past was actually better: awesome magical artefacts, secrets and legacies abound. The first book had Harry Potter vs. Sauron and his nazguls. This book has Sailor Moon vs. generic bandit leader (Wiz 5, notable equipment: scroll of teleport, tactics: intended recurring villain, teleports the fuck away, does not engage the PCs for fear of being RLT'ed). If the trend continues, the third book will have Superman vs. kindergarteners playing cops and robbers.
4. As-you-know induced stupidity.
There's some decent culture-building, which goes along well with myth-building and myth-busting. However, for some reason (possibly to inject drama) the facts are not presented in an offhand manner, or explicitly as first-person author's words, but as "hero does something extremely retarded and gets chastised". Terribad.
5. Bad feminism.
Not terribad, just the regular flavor of bad. The default culture is patriarchal with all the prejudice against females taken for granted, the counterpart culture is matriarchal with all the prejudice against males taken for granted. The setup has a very "men from Mars, women from Venus" feel.
5.1. Actually, the culture itself is sort of meh: there are clever bits, but the result is pop-asian pop-communism. Airbrushed North Korea, seriously.
6. Gay issues fail.
Dear author: if you don't want gays in your book, gloss the issue over. But noooooo: first we have a faaaabuous artsy gay couple, then... nothing. There's that matriarchal society, where people believe sex and pregnancy are unrelated and men are completely unnecessary for conception (a more stupid version of patriarchal incubator women). When the hero brings up the correlation "no sex = no pregnancy", the woman he's talking to brushes it off with "who's so stupid as to abstain from sex?" Uhm... aren't there any lesbians then? No, they don't have any unreasonable taboos concerning sex. It just never occurs to any character or the author himself. Fail.
7. The ending of the main story falls flat.
The promised epic resolution the wrap-up chapters suggest is "My girlfriend had trouble breathing and I provided first aid by means of magic. Then we hang out and I got cockblocked." Which is a good way to make the reader know how a cockblock feels, but a shitty way to pause the narrative.
(The framing story has its high point immediately afterwards, which sort of offsets it.)
7.5. Motherfucking rosebud wallbanger finale DERP.
The main story in book 3 ends with the hero being remarkably rich, paying debts, repaying old favors and throwing a huge party. The source of his wealth is this: a wealthy noble has agreed to pay the hero's university tuition, and the hero subsequently strikes a private deal with the university treasurer to drive up the tuition and thus fleece the noble in exchange for a portion of the payment.
Now... brace for it...
Since tuition is set according to exam performance, he then proceeds to perform poorly at his end-of-term exams to rack up the tuition and thus get rich.
Uhm.
Well excuse me here.
It's one thing if the treasurer was sending fake requests for money and pocketing the difference. But this is not the case: the treasurer drafts exactly as much money from the noble as the ruling council sets, which should presumably all go into the treasury. The hero has no agreement with the ruling council; instead, he fucks up exams by saying stupid shit, being drunk, etc. In the very final chapter, one of the his enemies becomes chancellor and sets an outrageous tuition, the hero goes "haha pwnd" and uses the money to throw a party while laughing all the way. The whole thing reminds me of people on CharOp gloating about supposed "exploits" that do not actually work (and of Citizen Kane whom no one heard to say rosebud).
Moral: buy dead tree books. E-readers do not give the same satisfaction when thrown at the wall, their aerodynamics is all wrong.
8. Uhm I think you made a typo Eragon-level-originality DERP.
The shadow-cloak is named "shaed" in the faerie language (while the faerie language itself is yet another Elven). That's Saturday-morning-cartoon-subtle.
The good: everything else.
Daily events are believable, verbal quips are neat, children’s rhymes are still excellent and creepy, other poetry is still meh, the description of people’s perception of art is still awesome, major conflict resolutions are sufficiently epic.
Improvements (compared to Vol.1):
The characters in a framing story stopped being fucking annoying and started being really cool.
Jabs at the hereditary nobility. There *is* a stereotypical perfectly wise pop-zen-espousing community leader (meh), but hereditary nobility is mightily ridiculed and this is awesome.
-
CatharzGodfoot
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I think it's worth mentioning that the book is illustrated. The author reminds me a bit of Iain Banks.Maxus wrote:I'm about two-thirds through Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld.
Summary:
It's 1914 Europe and World War 1 just started. Europe is mostly divided between the Clankers (steampunk walkers and war machines) and the Darwinists (genetic engineered technology. Seriously, instead of a zeppelin? They have a kind of whale, about sixty feet from is a direct line from its belly to its back, which is kept aloft by hydrogen exhaled by a kind of bacteria and various other engineered creatures integrated into it. Light is produced mostly by biolumescent organisms on board the whale, because you just DON'T use flames if you can help it.
http://www.tentimesone.com/wp-content/u ... 08/map.jpg
Got to give the author props for creativity. Some of the critters and the war-machines are pretty damn cool.
I'll let you know what I think of the actual plot and characters when i finish.
The law in its majestic equality forbids the rich as well as the poor from stealing bread, begging and sleeping under bridges.
-Anatole France
Mount Flamethrower on rear
Drive in reverse
Win Game.
-Josh Kablack
-Anatole France
Mount Flamethrower on rear
Drive in reverse
Win Game.
-Josh Kablack
Mmhmm. I finished that the other day. It basically serves to get the setting/characters established and go to the sequel, so not much really happens (apart from Alek being a jackass and then repenting). The sequel is titled Behemoth. I'll need to track it down.CatharzGodfoot wrote:I think it's worth mentioning that the book is illustrated. The author reminds me a bit of Iain Banks.Maxus wrote:I'm about two-thirds through Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld.
Summary:
It's 1914 Europe and World War 1 just started. Europe is mostly divided between the Clankers (steampunk walkers and war machines) and the Darwinists (genetic engineered technology. Seriously, instead of a zeppelin? They have a kind of whale, about sixty feet from is a direct line from its belly to its back, which is kept aloft by hydrogen exhaled by a kind of bacteria and various other engineered creatures integrated into it. Light is produced mostly by biolumescent organisms on board the whale, because you just DON'T use flames if you can help it.
http://www.tentimesone.com/wp-content/u ... 08/map.jpg
Got to give the author props for creativity. Some of the critters and the war-machines are pretty damn cool.
I'll let you know what I think of the actual plot and characters when i finish.
In other news, I got turned onto Christopher Moore. Just finished Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. I haven't laughed so hard since the first time I went through an article-crawl of Cracked.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
I got the fourth A Song of Ice and Fire book recently and finished it.
Annoyingly, only half the characters show up because it was originally going to be two books. So, basically, the Wall and Daenarys plots both fail to advance whatsoever.
The direwolves also fail to appear directly, except for a two-sentence cameo for Ghost. However, Nymeria is kicking increasing amounts of ass off-screen, and presumably is the source of some of the intermittent howling.
Annoyingly, only half the characters show up because it was originally going to be two books. So, basically, the Wall and Daenarys plots both fail to advance whatsoever.
The direwolves also fail to appear directly, except for a two-sentence cameo for Ghost. However, Nymeria is kicking increasing amounts of ass off-screen, and presumably is the source of some of the intermittent howling.
DSMatticus wrote:It's not just that everything you say is stupid, but that they are Gordian knots of stupid that leave me completely bewildered as to where to even begin. After hearing you speak Alexander the Great would stab you and triumphantly declare the puzzle solved.
Read the afterword.name_here wrote:I got the fourth A Song of Ice and Fire book recently and finished it.
Annoyingly, only half the characters show up because it was originally going to be two books. So, basically, the Wall and Daenarys plots both fail to advance whatsoever.
The direwolves also fail to appear directly, except for a two-sentence cameo for Ghost. However, Nymeria is kicking increasing amounts of ass off-screen, and presumably is the source of some of the intermittent howling.
See the part about the second book being half done already, and will be out soon?
Yeah, that's the book coming out this July. Four years later. I hate you for not having to wait four years.
The U.S. isn't a democracy and if you think it is, you are a rube.DSMatticus wrote:Kaelik gonna kaelik. Whatcha gonna do?
That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.
They've been saying A DANCE WITH DRAGONS is being published soon since November 2009. Amazon seriously had it up for pre-order and everything. (That's when I started paying attention. It was probably before that.)
IIRC, A FEAST FOR CROWS was published in 2005.
The series was set to wrap up this year, and there are still three books planned. Hopefully the HBO series will give the author some incentive to retrieve his cranium from his rectum.
I'm not reading anymore FIRE AND ICE books until (A) the series is finished, or (B) the author croaks and I know the series is permanently unfinished.
Game On,
fbmf
IIRC, A FEAST FOR CROWS was published in 2005.
The series was set to wrap up this year, and there are still three books planned. Hopefully the HBO series will give the author some incentive to retrieve his cranium from his rectum.
I'm not reading anymore FIRE AND ICE books until (A) the series is finished, or (B) the author croaks and I know the series is permanently unfinished.
Game On,
fbmf
Last edited by fbmf on Mon Apr 11, 2011 3:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I am aware of all that. But if you have tracked the Authors blog for the last four years, like I have, then you know that it was promised, and then rescinded, and then promised, and then rescinded, and then, about a year and a half ago, was said "For sure, not until the book is actually done will I even update this page." And then, about a month ago, it updated:fbmf wrote:They've been saying A DANCE WITH DRAGONS is being published soon since November 2009. Amazon seriously had it up for pre-order and everything. (That's when I started paying attention. It was probably before that.)
IIRC, A FEAST FOR CROWS was published in 2005.
The series was set to wrap up this year, and there are still three books planned. Hopefully the HBO series will give the author some incentive to retrieve his cranium from his rectum.
I'm not reading anymore FIRE AND ICE books until (A) the series is finished, or (B) the author croaks and I know the series is permanently unfinished.
Game On,
fbmf
I believe that it will in fact be out on the 12th of July.George RR Martin wrote:No. Sorry. Not done yet.
I'm close, though. Watch this space. When the book is done, you will read it here.
Meanwhile... there is news. Big news. The end is in sight, at long long last, and we're close enough so that my editors and publishers at Bantam Spectra have set an actual publication date.
A DANCE WITH DRAGONS will be in your favorite bookstore on
TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2011
Yes, I know. You've all seen publication dates before: dates in 2007, 2008, 2009. None of those were ever hard dates, however. Most of them... well, call it wishful thinking, boundless optimism, cockeyed dreams, honest mistakes, whatever you like.
This date is different. This date is real.
Barring tsunamis, general strikes, world wars, or asteroid strikes, you will have the novel in your hands on July 12. I hope you like it.
(For what it's worth, the book's a monster. Think A STORM OF SWORDS.)
The dragons are coming. Prepare to dance.
And hey... thanks for waiting.
―George R.R. Martin, March 3, 2011
The U.S. isn't a democracy and if you think it is, you are a rube.DSMatticus wrote:Kaelik gonna kaelik. Whatcha gonna do?
That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.
I've vaguely gotten the impression that it's actually in the publishing system now, so that date might be solid.
Regardless, AFFC:
Regardless, AFFC:
This might just be because I'm inexplicably good at predicting GRRM, but everything to do with the "sparrows" and the militant orders of the Seven felt like a slow-motion car accident where the cars were filled entirely by people I hated. My reaction to their first appearance was, "This is so going to bite someone in the ass." And it did. And it was glorious.
Dorne's plot doesn't really move much, but it retroactively explains an awful lot. Also, Viserys wasn't actually delusional; Dorne totally was going to rise to support him. The Taegaryen supporters are getting to the sort of absurd extent where I half expect Robb to come back from the dead and reveal he was working with Dany the entire time. Also, I'm beginning to wonder if the conspiracies boil down to them and Littlefinger, since between the two they seem to be behind every damn thing with the possible exception of the Red Wedding.
Likewise, Sam's plot doesn't really advance much, with it basically consisting of leaving the wall, arriving in Braavos, losing singer-jerk and Aemon, and arriving at the citadel for a massive realignment of perceptions. I'd been wondering just how Balerion the Black Dread got killed by some jerk with a sword/bow/ballista/giant catapult, and it turns out that actually the Archmaesters killed him and all the rest. So, yeah, don't fuck with the citadel. Also, the faceless men killed prologue narrator for a skeleton key to the citadel. That's going to matter two books from now, I expect.
Arya has taken up faceless man training and, in the process, reminded me just how many pseudonyms she's picked up. Then she added Cat of the Canals and bumped into Sam before performing an unauthorized termination on singer-jerk.
Zombie Caetlyn is on a big vengence kick, and Nymeria continues in her role as queen of the wolves, racking up an ever-increasing list of kills. Due to them all happening off-screen, it's really hard to say if she's beaten Grey Wind (I think he made it to 19 before dying, though it's been a while before I made the count and exact numbers of knight kills were pretty vague anyway), but she's up there.
On a related note, Cersei is extremely bad at... everything. Aside from recreating the holy militant orders and everything else leading up to her getting imprisoned by the faith, she has a high-quality loyalty detector that she is holding upside-down. Especially when pointing it at the ruler of Dorne.High Septon, talking to Cersei wrote:No.
Dorne's plot doesn't really move much, but it retroactively explains an awful lot. Also, Viserys wasn't actually delusional; Dorne totally was going to rise to support him. The Taegaryen supporters are getting to the sort of absurd extent where I half expect Robb to come back from the dead and reveal he was working with Dany the entire time. Also, I'm beginning to wonder if the conspiracies boil down to them and Littlefinger, since between the two they seem to be behind every damn thing with the possible exception of the Red Wedding.
Likewise, Sam's plot doesn't really advance much, with it basically consisting of leaving the wall, arriving in Braavos, losing singer-jerk and Aemon, and arriving at the citadel for a massive realignment of perceptions. I'd been wondering just how Balerion the Black Dread got killed by some jerk with a sword/bow/ballista/giant catapult, and it turns out that actually the Archmaesters killed him and all the rest. So, yeah, don't fuck with the citadel. Also, the faceless men killed prologue narrator for a skeleton key to the citadel. That's going to matter two books from now, I expect.
Arya has taken up faceless man training and, in the process, reminded me just how many pseudonyms she's picked up. Then she added Cat of the Canals and bumped into Sam before performing an unauthorized termination on singer-jerk.
Zombie Caetlyn is on a big vengence kick, and Nymeria continues in her role as queen of the wolves, racking up an ever-increasing list of kills. Due to them all happening off-screen, it's really hard to say if she's beaten Grey Wind (I think he made it to 19 before dying, though it's been a while before I made the count and exact numbers of knight kills were pretty vague anyway), but she's up there.
DSMatticus wrote:It's not just that everything you say is stupid, but that they are Gordian knots of stupid that leave me completely bewildered as to where to even begin. After hearing you speak Alexander the Great would stab you and triumphantly declare the puzzle solved.
Just read Empire by Orson Scott Card. He is definitely not trying to hide his political stripes anymore. The left is evil, the right is saintly while at the same time chastising both sides for being radical. All we need is a benevolent dictator. Unfortunately some of the things he suggests are somewhat true.
The internet gave a voice to the world thus gave definitive proof that the world is mostly full of idiots.
Empire is legitimately one of the funniest books I have read, simply because it is so bad.
I actually read the afterword where he chastises both ends of the political spectrum for being too radical before I read the novel. And, even though I knew Card was a rightwing nutjob, the afterword inspired me to go into the novel hoping for something interesting and sane. But that did not happen. It is seriously just a wacko conservative wetdream. And when it's not intellectually offensive, it's either factually incorrect or just really implausible.
I actually read the afterword where he chastises both ends of the political spectrum for being too radical before I read the novel. And, even though I knew Card was a rightwing nutjob, the afterword inspired me to go into the novel hoping for something interesting and sane. But that did not happen. It is seriously just a wacko conservative wetdream. And when it's not intellectually offensive, it's either factually incorrect or just really implausible.
Out beyond the hull, mucoid strings of non-baryonic matter streamed past like Christ's blood in the firmament.
I've gotten the entire Codex Alera and read the first two books. Tavi spends the second book doing ever-crazier things to resolve issues with his previous crazy ideas. He pulls a knife on a quarter-ton wolf-man less than a fifth of the way through.
DSMatticus wrote:It's not just that everything you say is stupid, but that they are Gordian knots of stupid that leave me completely bewildered as to where to even begin. After hearing you speak Alexander the Great would stab you and triumphantly declare the puzzle solved.
name_here: The entire Alera cycle is like that. Each book tries to top the next with what ridiculous act that Tavi does.
I read "PLucker" by Brom and it is a delightfully dark and twisted take on stories involving toys coming to life. I had originally checked it out thinking that I would read it and see if it was okay to use it as an introduction to horror for my 5-year-old. The story and the art were dark enough that it had me a bit creeped out. But awesome art and awesome story.
I also read "Inside Straight" from the Wild Cards universe of novels. It was a pretty decent read. The powers were original or a decent reworking of the normal superhero shtick.
I just finished "The Enterprise of Death" which was a damned awesome and very strange book. The story is about a necromancer who uses cannibalism and necrophilia as part of their powers and probably is the best description of what a Chaotic Neutral character could be.
I read "PLucker" by Brom and it is a delightfully dark and twisted take on stories involving toys coming to life. I had originally checked it out thinking that I would read it and see if it was okay to use it as an introduction to horror for my 5-year-old. The story and the art were dark enough that it had me a bit creeped out. But awesome art and awesome story.
I also read "Inside Straight" from the Wild Cards universe of novels. It was a pretty decent read. The powers were original or a decent reworking of the normal superhero shtick.
I just finished "The Enterprise of Death" which was a damned awesome and very strange book. The story is about a necromancer who uses cannibalism and necrophilia as part of their powers and probably is the best description of what a Chaotic Neutral character could be.
Ancient History wrote:We were working on Street Magic, and Frank asked me if a houngan had run over my dog.
So, the last two books of the Alera series have a lot less political maneuvering and a lot more
going on. The Vord are pretty damn scary.
DSMatticus wrote:It's not just that everything you say is stupid, but that they are Gordian knots of stupid that leave me completely bewildered as to where to even begin. After hearing you speak Alexander the Great would stab you and triumphantly declare the puzzle solved.
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Psychic Robot
- Prince
- Posts: 4607
- Joined: Sat May 03, 2008 10:47 pm
I finished that a few months ago. My main complaints were the number of writers working on the project made the quality inconsistent. The difference between Martin's writing and that of the fanfic authors is startling.I also read "Inside Straight" from the Wild Cards universe of novels.
Count Arioch wrote:I'm not sure how discussions on whether PR is a terrible person or not is on-topic.
Ant wrote:You do not seem to do anything.Chamomile wrote:Ant, what do we do about Psychic Robot?
P_R: Yeah, I definitely saw the difference. I also miss Zelazny's writing in the universe. The current set of characters are kinda cookie-cutter compared to the stuff Martin & Zelazny created originally.
Ancient History wrote:We were working on Street Magic, and Frank asked me if a houngan had run over my dog.
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RobbyPants
- King
- Posts: 5201
- Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2008 6:11 pm
I just started Cell, by Stephen King.
Last edited by RobbyPants on Fri Apr 29, 2011 12:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Currently checked out from the library: The economic naturalist : in search of explanations for everyday enigmas, by Robert Frank; Superfreakonomics : global cooling, patriotic prostitutes, and why suicide bombers should buy life insurance, by Steven Levitt; and Outliers: the story of success and What the dog saw : and other adventures, both by Malcolm Gladwell.
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PoliteNewb
- Duke
- Posts: 1053
- Joined: Fri Jun 19, 2009 1:23 am
- Location: Alaska
- Contact:
Just finished a re-read of "The King's Peace" by Jo Walton...even better second time through; caught some mythological allusions I'd missed the first time.
Picked up today:
--"Psion" by Joan de Vinge (read it before, about 15 years ago; thought I'd try it again)
--"Warriors" (fantasy anthology)...mainly to read George R.R. Martin's story "The Mystery Knight"
--"Marvels" (graphic novel by Kurt Busiek)
Also got the first volume of "Berserk", 'cause it was cheap. Looks decent so far.
Picked up today:
--"Psion" by Joan de Vinge (read it before, about 15 years ago; thought I'd try it again)
--"Warriors" (fantasy anthology)...mainly to read George R.R. Martin's story "The Mystery Knight"
--"Marvels" (graphic novel by Kurt Busiek)
Also got the first volume of "Berserk", 'cause it was cheap. Looks decent so far.
I am judging the philosophies and decisions you have presented in this thread. The ones I have seen look bad, and also appear to be the fruit of a poisonous tree that has produced only madness and will continue to produce only madness.
--AngelFromAnotherPin
believe in one hand and shit in the other and see which ones fills up quicker. it will be the one you are full of, shit.
--Shadzar
--AngelFromAnotherPin
believe in one hand and shit in the other and see which ones fills up quicker. it will be the one you are full of, shit.
--Shadzar
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PoliteNewb
- Duke
- Posts: 1053
- Joined: Fri Jun 19, 2009 1:23 am
- Location: Alaska
- Contact:
Man, I miss Croyd Crensen.Cynic wrote:P_R: Yeah, I definitely saw the difference. I also miss Zelazny's writing in the universe. The current set of characters are kinda cookie-cutter compared to the stuff Martin & Zelazny created originally.
I am judging the philosophies and decisions you have presented in this thread. The ones I have seen look bad, and also appear to be the fruit of a poisonous tree that has produced only madness and will continue to produce only madness.
--AngelFromAnotherPin
believe in one hand and shit in the other and see which ones fills up quicker. it will be the one you are full of, shit.
--Shadzar
--AngelFromAnotherPin
believe in one hand and shit in the other and see which ones fills up quicker. it will be the one you are full of, shit.
--Shadzar
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RobbyPants
- King
- Posts: 5201
- Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2008 6:11 pm
Just finished The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. It's basically a zombie apocalypse story... except with deranged crackhead vampires instead of zombies. I will likely be reading The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker next.
Psychic Robot wrote:but is it a bad enough game to rescue the President?Pathfinder is still a bad game
The Killing Joke is good. The Joker getting Batman to laugh is always awesome, partially because of how rare it is.RobbyPants wrote:I just read The Killing Joke and liked it.
See, there were these two guys in a lunatic asylum... and one night... one night they decide they don’t like living in an asylum any more. They decide they’re going to escape! So like they get up on to the roof, and there, just across the narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the town, stretching away in moon light... stretching away to freedom.
Now the first guy he jumps right across with no problem. But his friend, his friend daren't make the leap. Y'see he's afraid of falling... So then the first guy has an idea. He says "Hey! I have my flash light with me. I will shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk across the beam and join me." But the second guy just shakes his head. He says... he says "What do you think I am, crazy? You would turn it off when I was half way across."
Now the first guy he jumps right across with no problem. But his friend, his friend daren't make the leap. Y'see he's afraid of falling... So then the first guy has an idea. He says "Hey! I have my flash light with me. I will shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk across the beam and join me." But the second guy just shakes his head. He says... he says "What do you think I am, crazy? You would turn it off when I was half way across."
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.