When I did the comparison of Dragon Tattoo I was pretty tempted to write my own translation of the first chapter and try it out on you guys, just to see if it was any better.
I probably need to read more Swedish novels to find one that's actually worth spending the time to translate properly.
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Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
I 've an even better idea. At the next EuroPax you can read us translated Swedish bedtime stories.
My favorite King novel was Salem's Lot, and I also liked John Connolly's The Killing Kind. house of leaves was alright. I haven't read much else in modern horror.
Does anyone have any favorite horror short stories or novels that they'd like to pass on? Anything particularly scary?
are you down with short story collections?
acquire and read Poe's Children. modern horror stories in the vein of Edgar Allen Poe
John Connolly's Nocturnes is a good short horror collection if you're in the mood for more of him, but Poe's Children is by far my first recommendation
I'm not enjoying the book I'm reading currently, The Hundred Year And Man Who Climbed Out A Window And Disappeared. It's a quirky story written in such a flat, boring way.
I liked the original, it's not great literature but it's entertaining. "Flat and boring" was the same issue the Millenium trilogy translation had. The translators are both native English speakers which might be the issue, there's a ton of nuance lost just in the first pages of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo that's obvious to me but probably wouldn't be to a non-native Swedish speaker.
I wonder why they keep using English speakers to translate Swedish books, it's not exactly hard to find a Swede who's fluent in English.
I read up on this and the translations of bestsellers are rushed out the door with a quickness to capitalise on buzz with almost no focus on quality. They even fly translators to an isolated location to cut down on them leaking plot points and the like.
Fuck off and die.
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Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
That's very interesting. I wonder how much that is mitigated by a book not being a bestseller - I suppose a great deal of it is down to how responsible the publishing house is. And how much sway an author might have in a translation's final appearance. Or even how an author-translator relationship gets started - Haruki Murakami's novels are pretty much all done by the same two or three guys.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
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Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
Giving up on that book. If it's a translation issue that's making me not enjoy it then I don't see much point in persevering. Not like the translator is going to change halfway through.
So now I'm starting Carrion Comfort. I'm sure this will be a fun read.
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Captain Marcusnow arrives the hour of actionRegistered Userregular
acquire and read Poe's Children. modern horror stories in the vein of Edgar Allen Poe
John Connolly's Nocturnes is a good short horror collection if you're in the mood for more of him, but Poe's Children is by far my first recommendation
Sounds interesting. Thanks!
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
I think his "last public interview" back in January has made it clear at this point that Alan Moore is a dude whose money and reputation for eccentricity have insulated him from the mental health help I think it's increasingly apparent that he needs
and I'm not even talking about the shamanic magic stuff, although I know to dudes on the internet that seems like the WEIRDEST THING. But you hear about how he's pretty much driven away or cut all contact with his former friends and colleagues, doesn't like leaving his house, and his comic work for the last five or ten years has been a catalog of Victorian literary characters having sex with one another, and it's just like Alan Moore pls
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
I think I like Gibson's short stories a little more than his novels overall
man I love Gibson's short stories so much but on the other hand I think he has legit grown as a writer in some ways, particularly in his ability to write women
and while I can practically recite Burning Chrome from memory I also can do this with the opening chapter of Virtual Light, which may be my favorite fictional evocation of future LA ever
Hey, book thread. I've been thinking that I don't really know all that much about world history. On a lark, I decided I would follow the Assassin's Creed timeline on my knowledge quest. So can anyone recommend the definitive accounts or just really good non-fiction books on the Crusades, the Renaissance, the American Revolution, the era of piracy and the French Revolution?
Is it just me, or did it feel like somewhere near the end of the book the author decided to throw out the 500 remaining pages of story and hurriedly conclude it? It just felt so rushed to me compared to the pace of the rest of the book in a way.
Hey, book thread. I've been thinking that I don't really know all that much about world history. On a lark, I decided I would follow the Assassin's Creed timeline on my knowledge quest. So can anyone recommend the definitive accounts or just really good non-fiction books on the Crusades, the Renaissance, the American Revolution, the era of piracy and the French Revolution?
Finally got around to reading and finishing Steven Hunt's The Kingdom Beyond the Waves, the second in his Jackelian series and....well basically all the problems evident in the first book are here too. It makes an attempt at what I've chosen to call Elder Scrolls Plot, in which you the reader are dropped into a world and good day sir, figure it out. Which on the face of things isn't a bad way to tell a story! It's just Hunt seems so in love with his various broad strokes of steampunky pulp novel fluff that he can't wait to tell you about all of these gee whiz ain't that cool things, only he refuses to take the time to properly show you a thing before he puts it away in lieu of another shiny thing.
It's...exhausting to read, I suppose. I found myself barely introduced to the cast before we got into an out-of-nowhere pitched battle in the last bastion of civilization before the great dark mysterious jungle, and the pace never slowed over the next 500 pages. And then you get to the end and I'm still not really sure who any of these people are. Everyone has exactly one dimension: the transhuman lady professor/chosen one, the salty sea captain who I think is literally the captain character from Tintin, the evil capitalist.
And Hunt is all: But you don't have time for that! Kaboom! Now those creatures that live in the sky I only sorta mentioned earlier are EVERYWHERE RUN RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!!
I finished The Rhesus Chart and hell yeah Charles Stross, that's what I want from a Laundry book. I really really enjoyed it and I'm very curious about where he's taking the story. Now that he's
taken Dumbledore away
it seems like he's moving towards the endgame but I wonder about how, since
a major part of the story has always been that Bob's a bit of a bumbler who at least partially lucks into wins and if he's the Eater of Souls now it moves him way towards superhero territory. I don't think it'll spoil the series, I'm sure there will always be more major players for Bob to bump into, but it changes the tone a bit. I think.
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BaidolI will hold him offEscape while you canRegistered Userregular
Hello, book thread. I enjoy a good Fantasy series, and seem to running dry on new things to read. I've already read through the Malazan series, which many of you appear to enjoying currently. I have also recently gotten through Kirsten Britain's Green Rider series, Anthony Ryan's Raven's Shadow series, Michael J. Sullivan's Riyria books, and Brandon Sanderson's Stromlight Archive (which is about everything I want in my books). I got through Joe Abercrombie's First Law series a while back, but that ended up being too dark for my tastes. Wheel of Time is already done and I have not touched A Song of Ice and Fire yet because I know too much from pop culture and will probably wait until several years after the series finishes to forget most of what I know.
What else can you recommend?
I haven't read it but it's on my list, the Temeraire? series by Naomi Novik, I've heard good things. Like dragons are used to fight in the napoleonic wars.
Also, I saw a book called Shanghai Sparrow by Gaie Sebold that caught my interest so I snapped a pic to remember it next time I had money for books.
That's my method when I find myself browsing the bookstore shelves.
@Dead legend I picked up the first book of the Temeraire today. I'm not usually big on Alternate History, but, you know, dragons. I'll see how it goes.
Hello, book thread. I enjoy a good Fantasy series, and seem to running dry on new things to read. I've already read through the Malazan series, which many of you appear to enjoying currently. I have also recently gotten through Kirsten Britain's Green Rider series, Anthony Ryan's Raven's Shadow series, Michael J. Sullivan's Riyria books, and Brandon Sanderson's Stromlight Archive (which is about everything I want in my books). I got through Joe Abercrombie's First Law series a while back, but that ended up being too dark for my tastes. Wheel of Time is already done and I have not touched A Song of Ice and Fire yet because I know too much from pop culture and will probably wait until several years after the series finishes to forget most of what I know.
What else can you recommend?
I haven't read it but it's on my list, the Temeraire? series by Naomi Novik, I've heard good things. Like dragons are used to fight in the napoleonic wars.
Also, I saw a book called Shanghai Sparrow by Gaie Sebold that caught my interest so I snapped a pic to remember it next time I had money for books.
That's my method when I find myself browsing the bookstore shelves.
@Dead legend I picked up the first book of the Temeraire today. I'm not usually big on Alternate History, but, you know, dragons. I'll see how it goes.
Some of the conceit wears a little thin towards the later books, for me at least, but its plenty fun and enjoyable. Slightly more depth than a beach read or something but not overly complex.
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Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
So, Carrion Comfort
I'm a short ways in and am really not down with the rapey scenes with the slimy movie guy. I get they're meant to be uncomfortable reading but it's a bit much. Can anyone tell me if there's a lot of this throughout the book?
Maybe I'll just start skimming these chapters. I like the rest of it so far.
I'm a short ways in and am really not down with the rapey scenes with the slimy movie guy. I get they're meant to be uncomfortable reading but it's a bit much. Can anyone tell me if there's a lot of this throughout the book?
Maybe I'll just start skimming these chapters. I like the rest of it so far.
Man, I can see why they stopped turning those into films. Not sure Kenneth Williams could make that work.
I'm a short ways in and am really not down with the rapey scenes with the slimy movie guy. I get they're meant to be uncomfortable reading but it's a bit much. Can anyone tell me if there's a lot of this throughout the book?
Maybe I'll just start skimming these chapters. I like the rest of it so far.
There isn't. They do it to set up his character but it pretty much stops.
Hello, book thread. I enjoy a good Fantasy series, and seem to running dry on new things to read. I've already read through the Malazan series, which many of you appear to enjoying currently. I have also recently gotten through Kirsten Britain's Green Rider series, Anthony Ryan's Raven's Shadow series, Michael J. Sullivan's Riyria books, and Brandon Sanderson's Stromlight Archive (which is about everything I want in my books). I got through Joe Abercrombie's First Law series a while back, but that ended up being too dark for my tastes. Wheel of Time is already done and I have not touched A Song of Ice and Fire yet because I know too much from pop culture and will probably wait until several years after the series finishes to forget most of what I know.
What else can you recommend?
I haven't read it but it's on my list, the Temeraire? series by Naomi Novik, I've heard good things. Like dragons are used to fight in the napoleonic wars.
Also, I saw a book called Shanghai Sparrow by Gaie Sebold that caught my interest so I snapped a pic to remember it next time I had money for books.
That's my method when I find myself browsing the bookstore shelves.
@Dead legend I picked up the first book of the Temeraire today. I'm not usually big on Alternate History, but, you know, dragons. I'll see how it goes.
Some of the conceit wears a little thin towards the later books, for me at least, but its plenty fun and enjoyable. Slightly more depth than a beach read or something but not overly complex.
I literally never get tired of every single dragon being intensely jealous of every other dragon/jewels/jewels they don't own.
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MattitudePaste Pot PeteKicking The BucketRegistered Userregular
I finished The Rhesus Chart and hell yeah Charles Stross, that's what I want from a Laundry book. I really really enjoyed it and I'm very curious about where he's taking the story. Now that he's
taken Dumbledore away
it seems like he's moving towards the endgame but I wonder about how, since
a major part of the story has always been that Bob's a bit of a bumbler who at least partially lucks into wins and if he's the Eater of Souls now it moves him way towards superhero territory. I don't think it'll spoil the series, I'm sure there will always be more major players for Bob to bump into, but it changes the tone a bit. I think.
Having also just finished The Rhesus Chart I share your curiosity. And your enjoyment!
In terms of
Bob leveling up, I think his own ineptitude and lack of self-belief, as well as the ever-looming fear of K syndrome will prevent him from becoming too much of a badass. Especially now that a wedge has been driven between him and Mo. And now we're in CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN, I think everything in terms of magic and nasties and big bads is going to get whacked up to 11, so Bob needs the upgrade to be on level pegging.
I do also remember reading somewhere that Rhesus and the next two are a deviation from the original plan, so the endgame might be a little further off than we think. I think in terms of In-universe time the books have been going slower, so maybe we're going to decompress a little from here on out, so we get to experience the full horror of
CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN
:
Man, I just love the codenames in this series.
I got this Tumblr and I don't know how to use it.
Decide on the next line by the rhyme when I choose it.
Also I put songs on YouTube
The musings of this lonely rube.
Hello, book thread. I enjoy a good Fantasy series, and seem to running dry on new things to read. I've already read through the Malazan series, which many of you appear to enjoying currently. I have also recently gotten through Kirsten Britain's Green Rider series, Anthony Ryan's Raven's Shadow series, Michael J. Sullivan's Riyria books, and Brandon Sanderson's Stromlight Archive (which is about everything I want in my books). I got through Joe Abercrombie's First Law series a while back, but that ended up being too dark for my tastes. Wheel of Time is already done and I have not touched A Song of Ice and Fire yet because I know too much from pop culture and will probably wait until several years after the series finishes to forget most of what I know.
What else can you recommend?
I haven't read it but it's on my list, the Temeraire? series by Naomi Novik, I've heard good things. Like dragons are used to fight in the napoleonic wars.
Also, I saw a book called Shanghai Sparrow by Gaie Sebold that caught my interest so I snapped a pic to remember it next time I had money for books.
That's my method when I find myself browsing the bookstore shelves.
"Dead legend" I picked up the first book of the Temeraire today. I'm not usually big on Alternate History, but, you know, dragons. I'll see how it goes.
Some of the conceit wears a little thin towards the later books, for me at least, but its plenty fun and enjoyable. Slightly more depth than a beach read or something but not overly complex.
I literally never get tired of every single dragon being intensely jealous of every other dragon/jewels/jewels they don't own.
Other than the author being very fond of semicolons, the first book was a good light read. I might pick up the next few when I return it to the library.
I don't know if anyone has read John Darnielle's Wolf in White Van yet, but it came out recently and was pretty powerful. It's pretty heavy and raw, deals with a lot of issues on suicidal tendencies and isolation, and I tweeted at him to let him know that I enjoyed the book and he tweeted back and retweeted a random stupid joke I told on the twitters and then well, this happened.
My husband is reading through the Dresden Files for the first time. He is on the 10th book or so but had picked up the 14th and skimmed it for some reason. I asked if it had spoiled anything for him.
His response: "Not really, plot armored Harry Dresden survives through book 14!"
I read The Magician's Land while on vacation. I absolutely loved it! I had some serious problems with the first two books in the series, but I feel like this book totally made the series worth it to me. The characters are finally grown up.
I'm reading The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks; I read the first book in the series on recommendation of someone in this thread but only now am getting around to the second book. On the up side, it's easy to remember everyone in this story, which is nice.
The way Weeks handles gender feels weird, though. So many authors of epic fantasy (I can think of very few exceptions I've actually read) seem to focus on gender essentialism in their work that it just comes across as... weird
Come to think of it, what are some good epic fantasy stories by female authors?
I remember really liking Robin Hobb's stuff, especially the Farseer and Liveship Traders trilogies. I can't recall how well they handle gender though, read them in junior high. Farseer has a male protag, but Liveship Traders has a lady one. also pirates and nautical adventures
if you're fine with mixing fantasy with young adult and/or scifi, Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea, and Tamora Pierce's stuff have come highly recommended by people I know. haven't read them yet myself though
I'll probably read LeGuin, I loved Left Hand of Darkness and recently read a short story collection by her, Changing Planes, which was very good
...Also I just got to the part where
Aglaia beats Teia with a riding crop
This
This is a sex thing, isn't it
It felt like a sex thing when Jordan did it, (if you tell me that guy wasn't turned on by girls wearing collars I will call you a liar) but it's different here, somehow
Come to think of it, what are some good epic fantasy stories by female authors?
Lois McMaster Bujold, one of the best female SF authors, started doing fantasy about ten years ago and has two series out, "The Curse of Chalion" series and "The Sharing Knife" series.
I wish more dudes on the internet knew about her. She's won a clutch of Hugos but never quite hit the blockbuster level; in the past twenty years, though, she's been quietly amassing a resume of genre material that is feminist and progressive but also hugely entertaining.
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
Come to think of it, what are some good epic fantasy stories by female authors?
Lois McMaster Bujold, one of the best female SF authors, started doing fantasy about ten years ago and has two series out, "The Curse of Chalion" series and "The Sharing Knife" series.
I wish more dudes on the internet knew about her. She's won a clutch of Hugos but never quite hit the blockbuster level; in the past twenty years, though, she's been quietly amassing a resume of genre material that is feminist and progressive but also hugely entertaining.
I've only read that one sci-fi series of hers that was offered in ebook format for free awhile back, but it was pretty damn good and I would gladly recommend more of her books based on that alone.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
I've been burning through the Iron Druid series over the last couple reads. It's been pretty fun, if pretty light reading. I just finished the 7th book and now time to wait for the new ones.
Posts
I probably need to read more Swedish novels to find one that's actually worth spending the time to translate properly.
are you down with short story collections?
acquire and read Poe's Children. modern horror stories in the vein of Edgar Allen Poe
John Connolly's Nocturnes is a good short horror collection if you're in the mood for more of him, but Poe's Children is by far my first recommendation
"Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back"
I've become hesitant to recommend it to people cause it's really horrible.
well written! also horrible.
It is so amaaaazing
I used it last year for the Halloween thread so I'm not going to use it this year, but man.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
I read up on this and the translations of bestsellers are rushed out the door with a quickness to capitalise on buzz with almost no focus on quality. They even fly translators to an isolated location to cut down on them leaking plot points and the like.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
So now I'm starting Carrion Comfort. I'm sure this will be a fun read.
Sounds interesting. Thanks!
sigh
I think his "last public interview" back in January has made it clear at this point that Alan Moore is a dude whose money and reputation for eccentricity have insulated him from the mental health help I think it's increasingly apparent that he needs
and I'm not even talking about the shamanic magic stuff, although I know to dudes on the internet that seems like the WEIRDEST THING. But you hear about how he's pretty much driven away or cut all contact with his former friends and colleagues, doesn't like leaving his house, and his comic work for the last five or ten years has been a catalog of Victorian literary characters having sex with one another, and it's just like Alan Moore pls
man I love Gibson's short stories so much but on the other hand I think he has legit grown as a writer in some ways, particularly in his ability to write women
and while I can practically recite Burning Chrome from memory I also can do this with the opening chapter of Virtual Light, which may be my favorite fictional evocation of future LA ever
Is it just me, or did it feel like somewhere near the end of the book the author decided to throw out the 500 remaining pages of story and hurriedly conclude it? It just felt so rushed to me compared to the pace of the rest of the book in a way.
This is a pretty good overview on the Crusades
http://www.amazon.com/The-Crusades-Authoritative-History-Holy/dp/0743268601/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0
PSN- AHermano
It's...exhausting to read, I suppose. I found myself barely introduced to the cast before we got into an out-of-nowhere pitched battle in the last bastion of civilization before the great dark mysterious jungle, and the pace never slowed over the next 500 pages. And then you get to the end and I'm still not really sure who any of these people are. Everyone has exactly one dimension: the transhuman lady professor/chosen one, the salty sea captain who I think is literally the captain character from Tintin, the evil capitalist.
And Hunt is all: But you don't have time for that! Kaboom! Now those creatures that live in the sky I only sorta mentioned earlier are EVERYWHERE RUN RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!!
@Dead legend I picked up the first book of the Temeraire today. I'm not usually big on Alternate History, but, you know, dragons. I'll see how it goes.
Some of the conceit wears a little thin towards the later books, for me at least, but its plenty fun and enjoyable. Slightly more depth than a beach read or something but not overly complex.
Maybe I'll just start skimming these chapters. I like the rest of it so far.
Man, I can see why they stopped turning those into films. Not sure Kenneth Williams could make that work.
There isn't. They do it to set up his character but it pretty much stops.
I literally never get tired of every single dragon being intensely jealous of every other dragon/jewels/jewels they don't own.
Having also just finished The Rhesus Chart I share your curiosity. And your enjoyment!
In terms of
I do also remember reading somewhere that Rhesus and the next two are a deviation from the original plan, so the endgame might be a little further off than we think. I think in terms of In-universe time the books have been going slower, so maybe we're going to decompress a little from here on out, so we get to experience the full horror of
Man, I just love the codenames in this series.
Decide on the next line by the rhyme when I choose it.
Also I put songs on YouTube
The musings of this lonely rube.
I made a thread once. It didn't end well for me.
Other than the author being very fond of semicolons, the first book was a good light read. I might pick up the next few when I return it to the library.
Link
If you like really big fantasy books and/or Brandon Sanderson, go nuts
BASHFUL INCENDIARY best incendiary y/n?
(it took me an embarrassingly long time to work that one out)
Twitter is weird.
The way Weeks handles gender feels weird, though. So many authors of epic fantasy (I can think of very few exceptions I've actually read) seem to focus on gender essentialism in their work that it just comes across as... weird
Come to think of it, what are some good epic fantasy stories by female authors?
if you're fine with mixing fantasy with young adult and/or scifi, Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea, and Tamora Pierce's stuff have come highly recommended by people I know. haven't read them yet myself though
...Also I just got to the part where
This
This is a sex thing, isn't it
It felt like a sex thing when Jordan did it, (if you tell me that guy wasn't turned on by girls wearing collars I will call you a liar) but it's different here, somehow
This hasn't happened in forever
Lois McMaster Bujold, one of the best female SF authors, started doing fantasy about ten years ago and has two series out, "The Curse of Chalion" series and "The Sharing Knife" series.
I wish more dudes on the internet knew about her. She's won a clutch of Hugos but never quite hit the blockbuster level; in the past twenty years, though, she's been quietly amassing a resume of genre material that is feminist and progressive but also hugely entertaining.
I've only read that one sci-fi series of hers that was offered in ebook format for free awhile back, but it was pretty damn good and I would gladly recommend more of her books based on that alone.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981