StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
Overall I think Lord Foul's Bane is a fine fantasy book
BUT
The rape scene is super gross, and while I understand the fucked up logic behind its inclusion, there are definitely other ways to get that same sort of thing across without a violent sexual assault
Overall I think Lord Foul's Bane is a fine fantasy book
BUT
The rape scene is super gross, and while I understand the fucked up logic behind its inclusion, there are definitely other ways to get that same sort of thing across without a violent sexual assault
I just don't like him even apart from that. He's such a thoroughly unpleasant protagonist, and not really in an interesting way.
StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
That probably won't change. He's a misanthrope, through and through.
Personally, I find him interesting in that - he's a man sucked into a magical world that has literally fixed at least some of his serious problems, and he's too pessimistic and miserable to enjoy or even believe it.
But if you aren't finding that interesting, I probably would suggest dipping right on out.
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Shortytouching the meatIntergalactic Cool CourtRegistered Userregular
the Wikipedia summaries for these books makes them sound like every fake fantasy series ever made up for a sitcom
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knitdanIn ur baseKillin ur guysRegistered Userregular
Yeah it’s bad and miserable and it doesn’t ever really get better.
“I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I finished Fingersmith last night. It continued to be extremely good.
Yeah it’s bad and miserable and it doesn’t ever really get better.
That's pretty much Donaldson's wheelhouse as a writer. The Gap Cycle might be even worse in terms of general misanthropy and hopelessness.
Man, that first full book of the Gap Cycle was haaarrsh, but I still loved the series. The setting was pretty much perfect for me, with a nice mix of politicking, properly weird external threat, and gripping action. But, I sure would be nervous describing the treatment of a female character in it to most people.
The Guns of August was fantastic. Good enough for me to want it to have kept going past September 6, 1914, straight through to World War II. Give me 10,000 pages of Barbara Tuchmann explaining seismic world events and the people involved in them.
My only wish is that she would've made a note of the hypocrisy of the outrage expressed by nations like England and the US over the atrocities committed by Germany in Belgium and France when those same countries committed far crueler acts in their respective colonies. Guess it's only an "outrage to humanity" when it happens to white people.
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Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
I highly recommend picking up The Deluge by Adam Tooze as a book that will make you feel outraged about the hypocrisy of Western nations all over again, this time as related to 1918 and period from the end of the war to the recession/eventual Great Depression.
"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 am listening to Dune for the very first time in preparation for Villeneuve's movie and...its pretty good!
But this guy's vocabulary sucks. There must be a way to describe Chani besides "elfin."
And that's just the most annoying example. He's constantly using the same words to describe things...over and over.
Pretty sure he thought the thesaurus went extinct with the other dinosaurs. :P
Seriously though this book is pretty great. Just finished "book 2" and that last scene was a helluva thing.
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Bloods EndBlade of TyshallePunch dimensionRegistered Userregular
I love the Thomas covenant books. They are rough and Thomas is more often than not a shit, but there are moments of just such raw human guilt and desire to do better from him that I cant help but keep reading.
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knitdanIn ur baseKillin ur guysRegistered Userregular
I just started Kingdom of Copper, sequel to City of Brass. Lots of new developments to drive the plot.
I’m pretty sure there was a substantial time skip after the prologue but it’s not really that clear. Only indication was a character mentions that they’ve known the protagonist for five years, and I know they just met in the first book.
“I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
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Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
Does the audiobook pronounce it correctly?
"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 highly recommend picking up The Deluge by Adam Tooze as a book that will make you feel outraged about the hypocrisy of Western nations all over again, this time as related to 1918 and period from the end of the war to the recession/eventual Great Depression.
Added to the list!
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knitdanIn ur baseKillin ur guysRegistered Userregular
Finished Kingdom of Copper
Big events! Revelations! Status quo uprooted!
And now I gotta wait a couple years for the trifold finale boooo
“I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
I had a long conversation with a girl at work the other day that covered a lot of topics including comparing different translations of The Odyssey, and I was finally motivated to pick up Emily Wilson's version so that I'll have some more ammunition for the next time it comes up
This is a bigger book than I remember!
I had a long conversation with a girl at work the other day that covered a lot of topics including comparing different translations of The Odyssey, and I was finally motivated to pick up Emily Wilson's version so that I'll have some more ammunition for the next time it comes up
This is a bigger book than I remember!
Man I haven't read the Odyssey since high school. I should pick it up again. I remember digging it pretty hard way back when.
Just picked up Calvino’s If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler and knocked out the first three chapters last night.
This is an odd book. I think I am enjoying it though? In some ways it is a bit of a trying read, and I am not becoming instantly enraptured like I did with Invisible Cities. But I’m certainly engaged.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
I read Kafka's Trial and Metamorphosis recently. I'm a sucker for the tragic and the absurd and while that would describe both these books, Metamorphosis worked a lot better for me than The Trial. I found The Trial very dry and even though it's a very short book, I felt it was dragged down by the minutiae of how the opaque court system works (or doesn't). I can't even decide which parts I would edit, I just know that it didn't have the same impact on me that Metamorphosis did.
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Your complaint about The Trial is the exact point it's trying to make, ironically.
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
Oh god, why is this a thing? Why is it for children?
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
I would have been all about that as a kid are you joking? Spiders are the best.
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
Spiders are rad. Spiders with human heads and hands and feet are a problem.
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Just picked up Calvino’s If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler and knocked out the first three chapters last night.
This is an odd book. I think I am enjoying it though? In some ways it is a bit of a trying read, and I am not becoming instantly enraptured like I did with Invisible Cities. But I’m certainly engaged.
The first couple of chapter ones are the hardest going, if I remember right.
I finished Fingersmith last night. It continued to be extremely good.
It is excellent and the way it ramps up from that first quite run of the mill first section is incredible
Yeah, it manages to make the twists and turns feel exciting and different without necessarily making them rote.
Obviously everyone talks about The Twist, the introduction to what the book really is, but for me, the biggest twist was a much smaller one shortly after it.
The reveal that Mr. Lilly was a weird Victorian pornographer and that that was the real reason he didn't let any of his servants see his books caught me completely off-guard, and turned everything from before on its head for me. It reminded me a bunch of a lot of crime noir stuff - rich people are inherently depraved and any of their hobbies should be assumed to be depraved unless otherwise specified.
I also finished Haruki Murakami's Men Without Women yesterday. This is the first of his books that I've ever read and I think I get the hype around him. These are simple stories told absorbingly well. At times, he gets a little navel-gazey in treating women as these beautiful, exotic, unfathomable creatures which can have the unfortunate effect of 'other'ing them. "They're different. They're special". Or maybe it's only the final story that does that and the ending is what's remained with me. What I have no doubt about is that his writing is very attractive. Barring the odd clunker of a simile here and there, he has that special ability to make everyday life feel lyrical.
It's interesting you say that, because I'd avoided Men Without Women for fear of encountering exactly that. I wouldn't say it's an omnipresent feature of his work, but it does crop up more often than not.
If you want to read more, I'd suggest checking out The Windup Bird Chronicle, I think it contains most of what is best about his writing.
Hey book thread, I'm looking for some recommendations in the subgenre of "cli fi" (climate change science fiction).
I'm surprised at how hard it is to find novels and stories that explicitly tackle this kind of pre-apocalyptic anxiety. Maybe the people who are really worried are too busy writing urgent non-fiction.
Hey book thread, I'm looking for some recommendations in the subgenre of "cli fi" (climate change science fiction).
I'm surprised at how hard it is to find novels and stories that explicitly tackle this kind of pre-apocalyptic anxiety. Maybe the people who are really worried are too busy writing urgent non-fiction.
New York 2140 is the first example that comes to mind
Posts
I'm certain I know what you're talking about, and if you're saying you regret not doing it, I will fix your error and actually do it.
BUT
I just don't like him even apart from that. He's such a thoroughly unpleasant protagonist, and not really in an interesting way.
Personally, I find him interesting in that - he's a man sucked into a magical world that has literally fixed at least some of his serious problems, and he's too pessimistic and miserable to enjoy or even believe it.
But if you aren't finding that interesting, I probably would suggest dipping right on out.
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
That's pretty much Donaldson's wheelhouse as a writer. The Gap Cycle might be even worse in terms of general misanthropy and hopelessness.
Man, that first full book of the Gap Cycle was haaarrsh, but I still loved the series. The setting was pretty much perfect for me, with a nice mix of politicking, properly weird external threat, and gripping action. But, I sure would be nervous describing the treatment of a female character in it to most people.
My only wish is that she would've made a note of the hypocrisy of the outrage expressed by nations like England and the US over the atrocities committed by Germany in Belgium and France when those same countries committed far crueler acts in their respective colonies. Guess it's only an "outrage to humanity" when it happens to white people.
"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
But this guy's vocabulary sucks. There must be a way to describe Chani besides "elfin."
And that's just the most annoying example. He's constantly using the same words to describe things...over and over.
Pretty sure he thought the thesaurus went extinct with the other dinosaurs. :P
Seriously though this book is pretty great. Just finished "book 2" and that last scene was a helluva thing.
I’m pretty sure there was a substantial time skip after the prologue but it’s not really that clear. Only indication was a character mentions that they’ve known the protagonist for five years, and I know they just met in the first book.
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
"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
Added to the list!
Big events! Revelations! Status quo uprooted!
And now I gotta wait a couple years for the trifold finale boooo
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
This is a bigger book than I remember!
Man I haven't read the Odyssey since high school. I should pick it up again. I remember digging it pretty hard way back when.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
And part of the size is the full hundred page introduction, which is quite good but not explicitly necessary
This is an odd book. I think I am enjoying it though? In some ways it is a bit of a trying read, and I am not becoming instantly enraptured like I did with Invisible Cities. But I’m certainly engaged.
aaaand bought. Hooray (and boo) for Amazon 1 click purchase and kindle editions. :biggrin:
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
The first couple of chapter ones are the hardest going, if I remember right.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
It is excellent and the way it ramps up from that first quite run of the mill first section is incredible
Hah. I get what you mean.
Yeah, it manages to make the twists and turns feel exciting and different without necessarily making them rote.
Obviously everyone talks about The Twist, the introduction to what the book really is, but for me, the biggest twist was a much smaller one shortly after it.
If you want to read more, I'd suggest checking out The Windup Bird Chronicle, I think it contains most of what is best about his writing.
I'm surprised at how hard it is to find novels and stories that explicitly tackle this kind of pre-apocalyptic anxiety. Maybe the people who are really worried are too busy writing urgent non-fiction.
New York 2140 is the first example that comes to mind
Also a good book in a general sense.
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