Books discussion

[thespaceinvader]

Just started on Tom Lloyd's The Twilight Reign trilogy book 1: The Stormcaller

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stormcaller-Twi ... 0575079266

SO far I've only had time to get one chapter in, but it's pretty reasonable.

[Myrien]

Currently reading Tolkien's Unfinished Tales, but am not very far yet; just finished Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin.
I liked it very much; it is a nice addition to the Silmarillion, giving the events in more detail and telling the reader more about the plot.

[thespaceinvader]

I abandoned the Twilight Reign for a bit to work on a couple of the Dresden Files books, of which I've just finished Fool Moon, and made a solid start on Grave Peril. Very enjoyable, slightly pulpy, mystical crime drama in the truest of noir traditions. A hard-bitten detective in a long black duster, plenty of ghosts and ghouls and grislies, I'd recommend the Dresden Files.

[Myrien]

I am about to go down to the bookshop to order the first part of Song of Ice and Fire. I hope it will be as enjoyable as everyone says it is.

[thespaceinvader]

I read another chapter or so of the Twilight Reign, then abandoned it again to rush through The Lost, the latest Gaunt's Ghosts compilation, and the next book, titled Blood Pact. The Lost was as good as I recalled (particularly His Last Command and the Armour of Contempt, I'm less of a fan of Only In Death, but it's better than I remembered). Blood Pact was brilliant, and a very nice diversion from the pattern of Ghosts books, an interesting examination of what happens to your regiment of awesome badass scouts when they're on R&R.

[Rigor]

talking about badass...

im reading simultaneously (or rather, parallel - well u know what i mean)

ben thompson - badass: a relentless onslaught of the toughest warlords, vikings, samurai, pirates, gunfighters and military commanders to ever live

http://www.amazon.com/Badass-Relentless ... 788&sr=8-1

if it has not convinced u yet, this guy has got a website, and it convinced ME.

http://badassoftheweek.com

[Limabean]

just finished A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah. It's an autobiography by a former child soldier from Sierra Leone. Brutally honest and sometimes really disturbing. However, it is also very inspiring to think that someone can recover from this kind of childhood. Strongly recommended.

[thespaceinvader]

Once more, I've abandoned the Twilight Reign to read a Harry Dresden book. I fear, unfortunately, that I'm not doing the series any favours in reading even the first book so disjointedly. It's good fun so far, but i'm struggling to get into it. This is the problem with getting books to pass the time, ratehr than books you actively want to read.

[obnoxiousman]

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Second time!)

[Joram]

No offense, but your avatar is slightly disturbing.


I just finished re-reading The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey. Just like the first, time it was a fabulous book, and one I'd recommend, not to anyone, but to everyone. Especially considering how short it is.

What is surprising is that the whole story takes place in a hospital room, as Inspector Grant of Scotland Yard is recovering from a broken leg. He's bored to tears, and eventually one of his friend's brings him a series of portraits of medieval persons to cheer him up, knowing that Grant likes faces (and rather prides himself on his ability to read them). Grant has a pleasant few hours looking at the collection and seeing how they match up to their historic personalities. He looks at the last one for a moment; a worrier perhaps, someone too conscientious, used to great responsibility, a man who had the marks of having suffered ill-health as a child. He flips it over and finds out that it is Richard III; the hunchback, the murderer of the boys in the tower, evil incarnate, and the most maligned English king.

Disgruntled by his failure to detect any villainy in the face, Grant starts to wonder about Richard III. He starts pestering all of his visitors for information and history books. His curiosity eventually devolves into an all-out investigation into source documents to find out what Richard III really did with the two boys in the tower.


The history in this book is, to my understanding, completely accurate, though not entirely impartial. It is a fascinating mystery, and I consider this one of the greatest books of the English language; it is 1/100th the length of Moby Dick and still contains 100x the information.

DISCLAIMER: It might be a little difficult to follow the investigation if you know absolutely nothing about the English War of the Roses. If you pay attention as you go through, you should be all right. But this is not a "skimming" book. You'll probably get lost unless you keep track of who's who, and who is being referred to in every case. In that sense, this book is even better on a re-read.


SUMMARY: A short read that is well worth anyone's time. Care should be taken to make sure that one keeps the people involved straight, but family trees in the back help with this, as well as a general knowledge of the War of the Roses.

[Rigor]

i just wanted to click on the provided link but then i found none, so for me, it will fall into oblivion again.

i am reading wild swan at the moment http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Swans-Three- ... 088&sr=8-1

everything told me not to buy it, the title, the cover, the fact that i never heard about that one...

but then i just gave it a go and thought i read worse stuff already and this one seems to be nicely rated by a lot of people, so it must not be that bad.

to be honest, i was absolutely possessed to read this one, i just couldnt put it away. today for instance i told my colleagues on train that im going to read a book now because i was looking forward to reading all day long. after-work i came home and continued reading for 4 more hours.

and now to the story: its about injustice happening to the people of china who saw the communists rise. it explains in detail how the people supported the cause and behaved like they did, and the book will send u to a journey into the toughest time there was in history. even the european "dark" middle ages seemed like a trip to a spa compared to the heavy oppression that parents and grandparents of the modern chinese people had to endure. now that i have such an authentic image of how it must have been like to live in a world of constant harrassment with non stop surveillance and witch hunting tendencies through the private brigades of mao-worshipping fanatics i dont think anymore that there was a worse place to be.

[thespaceinvader]

I finally finished The Stormcaller (Twilight Reign Trilogy 1) - and I'd rate it as fair to good. It's reasonably well-written, but I have to say that it suffers by having an awful lot of characters and factions, many if not most of which are not really properly explained or introduced, so it remains quite difficult to actually follow properly.

The characters do develop well, and I can see a reasonably solid myth arc taking shape, but overall it could do with a touch more world building, and a touch less world to build. It relies a little too much on the reader's expectations of elves and dragons and vampires and the other fantasy kitchen sink aspects to inform their characterisation, and doesn't really characterise them very well itself as a result.

I'll certainly be reading the rest of the trilogy, but I wouldn't buy the books myself, I don't think. It was easy to read, though, and engaging. Just a lot of things were a little out-of-nowhere. Quite a few times the main character meets, apparently entirely at random, highly important characters just... out on the road, whilst travelling. It seems a little forced at times.

Don't get me wrong, it's a decent enough book, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it pans out, but it would definitely have benefited from being a lot less busy.

[Kingslayer]

I am about to go down to the bookshop to order the first part of Song of Ice and Fire. I hope it will be as enjoyable as everyone says it is.

It's themes are kind of adult-based. Not the kind of story you would want to read to your kids. Still, I'm 15 and I love them. The story is very intricate, and the chapters have a very unique style...

You also need a good memory, there are a couple hundred people at least that are moderately important to the storyline.

[Moribund]

I just finished off Robin Hobb's Liveships trilogy. It's very good, and I mean this in the technical sense, as in the narration and pacing is excellent. However it never really had any parts where I got really excited or really invested in the story.

[Myrien]

It's themes are kind of adult-based. Not the kind of story you would want to read to your kids. Still, I'm 15 and I love them. The story is very intricate, and the chapters have a very unique style...

You also need a good memory, there are a couple hundred people at least that are moderately important to the storyline.

I have finished A Game of Thrones and rate it as one of the best fantasy books I have read. It carried so much suspense, especially in certain scenes (e.g. when Bronn fought as Tyrion Lannister's champion); this was increased by the large number of cliffhangers (similar to the Otherland series); this did annoy me at a few stages, though, as it was slightly overdone.
It can create the effect that the reader only skims the next chapter to carry on with the more exciting part, which is neither good for author nor reader.
Anyway, I'll not continue droning on on a minor flaw in the book, and say that I fully recommend this. I will certainly be reading the rest.