What books are you reading now?

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 8:25 pm

Cynic wrote:
Ancient History wrote:"Sexual Ideology in the Works of Alan Moore: Critical Essays on the Graphic Novels"
If that wasn't 40$ I would totally buy that book. It sounds awesome. Would you mind reviewing that for us (me)?

You can say "us," Cynic. I'm interested, too.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 8:33 pm

Maj wrote:
Cynic wrote:
Ancient History wrote:"Sexual Ideology in the Works of Alan Moore: Critical Essays on the Graphic Novels"
If that wasn't 40$ I would totally buy that book. It sounds awesome. Would you mind reviewing that for us (me)?
You can say "us," Cynic. I'm interested, too.

Count me in as well.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 8:51 pm

I'm mostly reading the bits relevant for my essay at the moment, but sure I'll throw up some thoughts when I get done with it.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 5:18 am

Darth Rabbitt wrote:
Maj wrote:
Cynic wrote:
If that wasn't 40$ I would totally buy that book. It sounds awesome. Would you mind reviewing that for us (me)?
You can say "us," Cynic. I'm interested, too.
Count me in as well.

Random note, Neil Gaiman is on record as saying Alan Moore scares the shit out of him in person. I think it's something to do with the Stare.

That, folks, is a Stare. You see it and immediately know you are being Stared at. By Alan Moore. He sees you. He sees inside you. He sees your hopes and fears, and what you think about Rorschach and V.

He sees you, and he knows you.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 7:03 am

You mean he knows about my AU high school R63 V/Rorschach slashfic?

echoVanguard · Post by **echoVanguard** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 3:29 pm

Recently finished Ready Player One and Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes. Ready Player One was definitely one of the most entertaining books I have ever read.

echo

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 5:22 pm

Prak_Anima wrote:You mean he knows about my AU high school R63 V/Rorschach slashfic?

He does.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 5:29 pm

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 7:44 pm

Maxus wrote:
Prak_Anima wrote:You mean he knows about my AU high school R63 V/Rorschach slashfic?
He does.

Damn, suppose I have to write it now...

K · Post by K » Fri Oct 26, 2012 6:14 am

Ok, so this is not a book. It's a very long and occasionally rambling blog post that seeks to eviscerate the sci-fi and fantasy being done today, and I found myself fascinated. Many of the other essays linked in the essay/post were equally thought-provoking. I don't agree with all of the conclusions, but for a lover of sci-fi the work of unpacking the essay is worth the effort.

Cowardice, Laziness and Irony: How Science Fiction Lost the Future

David Brin, noted sci-fi author, had this to say about it: Has 21st Century Science Fiction Gone Cowardly? Or Worse… Nostalgic?

Finally, this is one of the linked essays and it deserves to be called out because of the masterful writing: I Didn't Dream of Dragons

Fuchs · Post by **Fuchs** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 6:53 am

K wrote: Finally, this is one of the linked essays and it deserves to be called out because of the masterful writing: I Didn't Dream of Dragons

That essay felt really off to me. So the writer was shaped by english books - so what? Half the youth in europe and the US likely know more Manga heroes than classic children books. Is that a bad thing? Should they complain about imaging pokemon heroes instead of their "own" heroes? Should they complain that german artists write and draw "manga style" now?

Was my childhood stolen because I read english SciFi and not swiss SciFi (if there was such a thing). Should I feel colonized by German authors?

What matters is not where the stories are from, but whether or not they are well-writen. It's better to read a good manga than a bad swiss story.

Does the author really think western authors don't stereotype their own or neighbour culture? I've got a few "nice" works on Switzerland to look over, from Asterix to Heidi, stereotyping left and right.

K · Post by K » Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:04 am

Fuchs wrote:
K wrote: Finally, this is one of the linked essays and it deserves to be called out because of the masterful writing: I Didn't Dream of Dragons
That essay felt really off to me. So the writer was shaped by english books - so what? Half the youth in europe and the US likely know more Manga heroes than classic children books. Is that a bad thing? Should they complain about imaging pokemon heroes instead of their "own" heroes? Should they complain that german artists write and draw "manga style" now?

Was my childhood stolen because I read english SciFi and not swiss SciFi (if there was such a thing). Should I feel colonized by German authors?

What matters is not where the stories are from, but whether or not they are well-written. It's better to read a good manga than a bad swiss story.

Does the author really think western authors don't stereotype their own or neighbour culture? I've got a few "nice" works on Switzerland to look over, from Asterix to Heidi, stereotyping left and right.

I think the take-away lesson is not his overall point, but the perspective that shapes it. It is a view of a person who feels the weight of culture in a different way than I think a person in a first-world nation might.

Or maybe not. I think that it made me (and you) think is probably the important bit. Sometimes the questions are more important than the answers.

Fuchs · Post by **Fuchs** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:37 am

K wrote: I think the take-away lesson is not his overall point, but the perspective that shapes it. It is a view of a person who feels the weight of culture in a different way than I think a person in a first-world nation might.

Or maybe not. I think that it made me (and you) think is probably the important bit. Sometimes the questions are more important than the answers.

With regards to writing it feels to me as if it reduces people and characters to their culture (or gender, as an extrapolation). That's a bad thing. I also question the subtext of "white people shouldn't write about other cultures" - as if a writer should be limited to his or her own culture and gender.

First, there's research. People can research things they did not experience themselves in their childhood.

Second, being "true" to a culture is only important if that's the focus of a book or character. Writing about the plight of an indian widow in Bombay has different needs than writing about a broker who happens to be of indian descent. More important though is that there is no such thing as one true culture of a country. That's true in even a little speck of a country such as Switzerland, where there are quite distinct differences between the rural and urban areas, not to mention having 4 official languages, even more so when it comes to an entire subcontinent like India - or the USA.

And most important, people are different. Even siblings who grew up together can be very, very different.

A person's perspective is not determinded, but only influcned - to varying degrees - by their culture. A person's culture is also determinded by various influences, even more so in the age of the internet.

Mistborn · Post by **Mistborn** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 10:18 pm

I just started rereading the Wheel of Time in preparation for the last book.

So that's a thing.

Anyone else here awaiting the final book.

PoliteNewb · Post by **PoliteNewb** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 10:57 pm

Lord Mistborn wrote:I just started rereading the Wheel of Time in preparation for the last book.

So that's a thing.

Anyone else here awaiting the final book.

*raises hand* When's it supposed to hit the shelves?

Mistborn · Post by **Mistborn** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 11:49 pm

PoliteNewb wrote: *raises hand* When's it supposed to hit the shelves?

January 8th according to the website.

So do you share my opinion that the ones by Sanderson are better.

PoliteNewb · Post by **PoliteNewb** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 11:58 pm

Lord Mistborn wrote:
PoliteNewb wrote: *raises hand* When's it supposed to hit the shelves?
January 8th according to the website.

So do you share my opinion that the ones by Sanderson are better.

Hmmm...I'd say they are better than any of the ones Jordan wrote after Lord of Chaos. Crown of Swords was decent, and had some good Mat chapters, but in general that's where the quality saw a major decline, IMO.

K · Post by K » Sat Oct 27, 2012 12:49 am

Jordan was pretty obviously padding the story to sell more books. Now that he's dead and the series is being finished by ghost-writers, I don't see the point to reading it any more.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 1:01 am

Brandon Sanderson actually surprises me quite a bit with his writing. I'm not going to immerse myself in 7000~ pages of text just to read the last book or two that might be good.

I really do like Sanderson's original fiction. Each of his books has a decent mix of strong male and female characters. The characters are a little superficial but are better than most characters in modern epic-fantasy*. Sanderson's niche seems to be that he can create interesting and unique magic systems.

*modern epic-fantasy is any fantasy book over 800 pages. Wait... shit. that's all modern fantasy fiction.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 1:42 am

Completely off-topic

Dude, Cynic, I just noticed your new sig.

It got me to laugh. I love it!

On-topic

I dunno about the fantasy length observation. I read a fantasy book that clearly was setting up for sequels, had some epic qualities to it, but wrapped it up in three hundred pages.

I couldn't bring myself to go past Path of Daggers on Wheel of Time, though. Started off with some cool stuff at the beginning. Then just turned into "Nothing's happening", around book 5 as per Wheel of Time Abridged (which I'd link to if I could find it).

I mean, David Eddings wrote a twelve-book epic fantasy and managed to finish to wrap each book up in well under 500 pages, except for the last two, which ran about 600 a pop. And things actually happened in each of those books. Robert Jordan just stopped giving a fuck.

Mistborn · Post by **Mistborn** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 11:36 am

K wrote:Jordan was pretty obviously padding the story to sell more books. Now that he's dead and the series is being finished by ghost-writers, I don't see the point to reading it any more.

You could make an argument that the ghost-writer is better than the original don't let that particular issue push you away from the series

Maxus wrote: I couldn't bring myself to go past Path of Daggers on Wheel of Time, though. Started off with some cool stuff at the beginning. Then just turned into "Nothing's happening", around book 5 as per Wheel of Time Abridged (which I'd link to if I could find it).

Wheel of Time is not for everyone that's for sure. I never had much of a problem with the rambling padded nature of WoT but I read fast and enjoy slice of life stuff.

If you liked books 1-5 you should really like books 12-14 the problem is getting there. There is some major plot stuff in book 9, book 10 is the series low point skip it and you miss nothing of value and then book 11 is about as plot heavy as book 7 and also has good Mat chapters.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 4:14 pm

K wrote:Jordan was pretty obviously padding the story to sell more books. Now that he's dead and the series is being finished by ghost-writers, I don't see the point to reading it any more.

But it's being ghost-written by Brandon Sanderson.

My opinion on the books:

Book 1: There's a heap of Early Installment Weirdness, but the book is quite good.
Book 2: Rather excellent
Book 3: This one is great
Book 4: Also quite good!
Book 5: The padding begins. Specifically, Elayne and Nynaeve's amazing circus adventures. But it all picks back up in the later part of the book
Book 6: I haven't actually read this one in forever, my copy pretty much fell apart
Book 7: Quite excellent and full of many things happening
Book 8: I prefer the previous one, but things do indeed happen
Book 9: In which artifacts and careful planning show their full value.
Book 10: Both this and ASoIAF books 4-5 make me feel like they exist because there was just slightly too much plot for one book but not nearly enough for two.
Book 11: Things pick back up, as stuff starts happening again. Also, space-time goes completely to shit
Books 12 and 13: Very excellent, everything is finally getting wrapped up.

Mistborn · Post by **Mistborn** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 4:32 pm

name_here wrote: Book 6: I haven't actually read this one in forever, my copy pretty much fell apart

The ending to book 6 is pretty awesome

Galina Casban (Red Ajah head/secretly Black Ajah) bwahahaha finally I have captured the Dragon the great lord will be pleased.
Sevanna (leader of the Aiel who are butthurt about Rand becoming their leader): Not for long Rand is my husbano and I brought an army (with channelers)
Rand: ladies as much as I enjoy having you gals fight over me I'm a little tired after escaping from Aes Sedai custody by myself. I think I'll be leaving now. Allow me to introduce my badass army of male channelers though.
Asha'man: sup
Shaido Aiel: oh light why are we exploding?
Rebel Aes Sedai: we have arrived (to late to actually help of course)
Taim: Kneel before to lord Dragon or be knelt bitches.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 5:41 pm

See, most of WoT aside from the first two-three books seem to be shit. I couldn't get past book 5. The only way I'd be suckered into rereading WoT again is just so I can read the Sanderson books. But again, I'm not reading 8000 pages just so I can read the last few books.

Fuchs · Post by **Fuchs** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 6:14 pm

All I care about is whether Mat gets his happy ending or not.