Similar to the movie thread I thought it would be nice to have a thread to chat about RPG relevant books that aren't rulebooks that we may be reading. Fantasy, horror and sf are obviously welcome but so are crime or western novels and anything else that's been turned into an RPG.
Right now I just started the second book in Barbara Hambly's James Asher/vampire novels from the 90s. There were only two books in the 'series' and this is the sequel. The first, Those Who Hunt the Night, is a lot of fun, Asher is a detective in turn of the century London hired by a vampire to track down someone who is knocking off vampires. Hambly is a sturdy prose writer but even better plotter and no slouch when it comes to characterization either.
Hambly's vampires are few in number, have powerful sway over humans they use to get by as they are literally living corpses and need to disguise that they don't breathe or eat and give off a faint scent of rot.
Too early to tell if this will live up to the original, I usually avoid series or sequels for that reason, but if it is half as good it will still be worth my time.
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Once again I'll contribute Audio Books, since I just got back from a road trip to Kaneda.
I bought and listened to two of the Alex Archer Rogue Angel books (there are at least 52 currently, based on the highest title number I saw), making for three total. These are... bad, but frankly I've done all the Travis McGee audiobooks, so all my choices tend to be bad now.
The Setup is Archeologist and Celebrity (archeologist) Annja Creed is the chosen/sacred bearer of Joan of Arc's broadsword, which she magically summons to her hand from 'the otherwhere' as needed. While travelling the world filming her cheesy Archeology hit-show, Chasing Histories Monsters (river monsters?) she inevitibly scooby-doo's into some sort of horrific plot that requires that someone gets a swording.
The Good: The history, which almost always includes an opening chapter set in the past, is excellent. I'm guessing the research into other aspects (such as language) are generally excellent as well, at least it seems that way to me. Note that this is true even when the plot setup is patently absurd (such as: Having a lost mayan city in Wisconsin...)
The Bad: Despite having two immortals she can call up for favors and a sword that teleports, there is very little supernatural in the three books I've read. The sword seems to have no real special magic powers other than its 'elsewhere' ability and possibly indestructibility. The plots are Scooby-Doo levels of mundanity dressed up as spooky... though there are some freakish to the point of supernatural things going on... such as an entire living Incan city off the coast of Costa Rica that no one knows about, the afforementioned lost Mayan city protected by generations of psychotic little girls with an obsidian sacrificial dagger and so forth. Lastly the books are formulaic as hell in the smallest of ways. Annja will use her sword at least once to open a locked door while people are in the next room, she'll get her head knocked in by an ambush at some point (and/or drugged) just to make the fight's harder. She'll probably be knocked out several times and will be captured at least once (to solve the plot, since she apparently sucks at solving mysteries in any other way...), etc. Oh, and she will be betrayed at least once in a big way.
In fact in the last book (I read) she was betrayed twice. When travelling to an exotic island they were attacked by pirates who, it turned out, were working FOR the boat captain they'd chartered. This was chapter two, people! Oh, and the pirates wanted the treasure supposedly buried on the island they were travelling too... so why attack on the way TOO the island??? Sigh. Later the woman who hired her, and who was a likeable character for most of the book, turns out to be a sociopathic monster/rival treasure hunter who had hired Annja under false pretenses.
The Ugly:
Annja Creed is the worst sort of Mary-Sue character... even more unforgivable as "Alex Archer" is actually a half dozen or so authors (including at least one named Alex Archer... weird...). She's worst than most Mary Sue's in fact, because she is a crazy bitch. Two or three times per book she will have to 'one up' some random character by kicking their ass over some minor slight to prove how bad ass she is. Most of the supporting characters are written to be the worst sort of incompetent cowards, until they inevitably betray her and suddenly become nigh indestructable rage-machines who will, inevitably, run straight onto her sword when its time for them to finally die and be forgotten. I should point out that luring bad-guys to charge her and impale themselves on her sword is her favorite move, which may indicate how awful the action can be, though it isn't always. She snarks and antagonizes everyone around her and is usually as good, if not better, than the experts around her in various things.
Then there is the fact that these very short books (five hours on CD, vs 10~ for the Travis McGee mysteries or the Deathlands books, neither of which was known for being doorstoppers) tend to be dragged out by a combination of repetition of plot information, universally poor decision making from the main character (Plot driven by Stupidity) and other nonsense, which makes it hard to simply relax and let the story flow.
All in all, I think I'll give this series a pass moving forwards, and I'd recommend the same.
I'm not familiar with those books or that genre. But if anyone wants to talk about Ian Fleming, Frederick Nebel, Edward Aarons, E.C. Tubb, or Louis L'Amour, let me know.
Quote from: Dumarest;974584I'm not familiar with those books or that genre. But if anyone wants to talk about Ian Fleming, Frederick Nebel, Edward Aarons, E.C. Tubb, or Louis L'Amour, let me know.
those are 100 % valid and are defiantly good sources to mine for gaming stuff feel free to post on them.
Thanks for the review Spike, those books sound odd.
Fleming and Tubb are quality stuff. What's your favourite of each Dumarest?
For me, Fleming hasn't topped Casino Royale which almost reads like a Robbe-Grillett novel with its focus on surfaces, physicality and barely suppressed perversity. But then Grillett was influenced by Cain and Chandler, maybe even Fleming so I guess it makes sense. Second favourite Fleming is From Russia With Love.
E.C. Tubb seems to get a lot more love in his native England. I've only read three so far: Kalin, Eloise and Jondelle. What would be your favourite? Have you read any of his work outside of the Dumarest series? Those are harder to find.
Quote from: Voros;974759Thanks for the review Spike, those books sound odd.
.
Heh. I barely touched on the oddities. In two of the three books I 'read', the 'big bad' actually escapes only to be shot in the face by one of the aforementioned Immortal Buddies in a coda chapter, which is oddly specific (like the sword-door-opening). Also, I noticed the audio-book versions (which are 'directed' by the main voice actress) actually include a moment when the actress/director actually flubs a line and says 'Oops' in at least two of the three books, and its just left in there.
The Deadlands ones are better, mostly. I disagree with some of the choices for voice talent, but only a little. I just sorta got hung up on one that was more a 'clip show' reminiscence book rather than a fully plotted story and I just couldn't bring myself to continue. I'd rather read them than listen anyway, and I found I preferred the spin-off series set in either an alternate post-apoc, or the future of the deadlands post-apoc, I'm not sure which.
Quote from: Voros;974759Thanks for the review Spike, those books sound odd.
Fleming and Tubb are quality stuff. What's your favourite of each Dumarest?
E.C. Tubb seems to get a lot more love in his native England. I've only read three so far: Kalin, Eloise and Jondelle. What would be your favourite? Have you read any of his work outside of the Dumarest series? Those are harder to find.
I'll have to check my shelf and remember which story is which, there are so many. The only two I don't have are the last two, which are hard to find (at least, that is, at a price I'm willing to pay).
As for the Bond novels, I'm currently re-reading them in sequence and am just about at the end of
Goldfinger, which is 7th out of 12 novels (not counting two collections of shorts). Of the seven I've re-read, so far I liked
From Russia with Love and
Goldfinger best.
Casino Royale was good but I found it felt like Fleming was still feeling out what Bond was going to be about and the scope is very small and inconsequential.
From Russia with Love is especially interesting because of the sheer number of bad mistakes Bond makes. My least favorite was
Diamonds Are Forever, mainly because of the improbable mobsters used as the bad guys (the private train and ghost town just felt silly and unlikely to me).
I also have a non-Bond Fleming novel called
The Diamond Smugglers but haven't had a chance to read it yet. As for Tubb, I haven't read any of his books outside the Dumarest series so I would be interested in knowing more about them.
From Russia with Love is my second favourite Bond novel. He makes a lot of mistakes in CR too, is this intentional by Fleming or just a way to advance the plot? If your protagonist is perfect then the plot should grind to a halt.
Apparently Tubb's 50s space opera and his short stories are all worthwhile.
Well, I certainly find Bond more interesting because he is fallible and sometimes distracted. Imagine how boring it would be if he were always right. Another secret agent character/series I really like is the Sam Durell books by Edward S. Aarons. I find them more realistic (or realistic feeling, anyway) and grounded than the Bond novels, although I find his relationship with Deirdre to be dull for the most part and think things always pick up once she is off the page.
Eric Ambler's spy novels from the 30s are absolutely fantastic. Many were turned into very entertaining Peter Lorre/Sydney Greenstreet films in the 40s during the war.
Quote from: Voros;975091Eric Ambler's spy novels from the 30s are absolutely fantastic. Many were turned into very entertaining Peter Lorre/Sydney Greenstreet films in the 40s during the war.
I don't know him at all; I'll have to see what the library has. What's a good one to start with?
Another writer I need to get around to is Wodehouse as I hear the Jeeves & Wooster stories are good.
Not spies, but I love the Nero Wolfe / Archie Goodwin books by Rex Stout as well. I keep hoping for the chance to rip off some of the plots and mix them with Frederick Nebel's South Seas stories for a pulp game rife with mysteries and cliffhangers and air action in the South Pacific. Probably use Daredevils for that just because even Justice Inc. sometimes feels too record- eeping-heavy in the Hero Games tradition. Maybe GURPS.
Nero Wolfe use to pop up on PBS all the time no?
Quote from: Voros;975097Nero Wolfe use to pop up on PBS all the time no?
I have no idea! But they did a series on some cable channel with Maury Chaykin as Wolfe and he was really good. Timothy Hutton played Archie. It only ran for two seasons. Might have been AMC or A&E or something like that. I remember it being well done but haven't seen it in a long time. Maybe ten or fifteen years ago?
Yeah that must be it. Thanks I'll check it out.
Well, I did mention upthread that I have "read" John Macdonald's Travis McGee novels. All of them. They are classics for a reason, though I will admit that binge "reading" them like I did is not really good for your opinion on anything... the seams start to show when you're mainlining all 24 books.
Still, they are ripping good books. I'd say mysteries, but really there rarely is a real mystery in them (that is Travis generally knows whodunnit from the first chapter...), and... far more interestingly... as they were written over two of the most... exciting? culturally variant?... decades ever, they make for a curious slice of life. Macdonald would have been in his fifties when he started writing them in 1964, so he's an outsider to the youth culture that sprung up and carried through the seventies, which weirdly makes him a sympathetic witness for the audience (er, in the literary sense that we can identify with him and see things through his eyes... not the more common use of sympathetic).
Ross MacDonald also wrote a whack of fine detective novels that are more about mood and character than plot and mystery. Some of the later books touch on the 60s counterculture.
Westlake's Richard Stark novels are tough as nails and awesome. Haven't found a bad one yet.
Quote from: Voros;975342Ross MacDonald also wrote a whack of fine detective novels that are more about mood and character than plot and mystery.
Lew Archer?
Yep Lew Archer is Ross MacDonald's main detective.
Quote from: Dumarest;974584I'm not familiar with those books or that genre. But if anyone wants to talk about Ian Fleming, Frederick Nebel, Edward Aarons, E.C. Tubb, or Louis L'Amour, let me know.
Passin' Through aka the best Man with No Name. Also possibly the trope namer.
I think I've read every Louie L'Amour story except fir the Sackett series.
Anyone read Elmore Leonard's Westerns? I have a few but haven't cracked them open yet.
I haven't read any of his Westerns, but I have read about a dozen Leonard books and throughly enjoyed each and every one of them. I did see an Elmore Leonard western FILM not too long ago and seriously did not enjoy it.
What one was that?
Valdez is coming. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valdez_Is_Coming)
Haven't seen the movie, but I have the book, what was it you disliked?
Oh, god... where to begin....
Well, first it was amazingly lifeless and tedious, especially for a Leonard work. There were maybe two or three legit spicy exchanges... for example the "Rabbit Gun" scene leaps to mind. So it fails as entertainment. Mind you, it WAS well acted and well cast, so we have a real combination of writer and director failing to give this excellent cast anything to do.
Second the driving plot/story was just about the meanest, lowest grubbiest you can imagine. I can imagine good stories can be told about the small details, but the film tries to make a simple quest for money for a funeral into an epic revenge tail, and Epic Revenge just doesn't fit the scope, which leads me to point three...
Third: I'm more than a bit of a cynic when it comes to humanities capacity for violence and evil, and 'Valdez' challenged even me to swallow how very vicious and mean spirited everybody was. Well, I guess everyone except Valdez himself. The widow he's trying to collect money for doesn't seem to care about her murdered husband's burial, the husband was murdered because he was used as a scapegoat for the wife of a rich man to cover her own murder (of her husband), the wife's lover goes along with it because he's too stupid to realize she did it, and he's also a coward and a vicious sadist... on and on and on the litany of petty human failings, stacked like cordwood into this tiny handful of people.
Four: Also on the topic of Epic Revenge, the climax is a letdown. Valdez's EPIC REVENGE is... to humiliate the Rich Man (who, I'll point out, was so very sadistic, petty and vicious enough to crucify him and leave him to die... over being mildly persistant in asking for charity money...) in front of his own men. That's it. Its a high-noon showdown with no shooting. Could be an innovative and clever twist, but winds up just... dragging on until a random cut finally, mercifully, ends the scene.
I could go on, but eventually I'd have to re-watch the film to get the details right, and that's just not worth the price. Also, this is the book thread. ;)
Thanks, I plan on reading the book soon so it will be interesting to contrast.
Some of your description reminds me of the Western novella 'The Vultures of Whapeton' by Robert E Howard where the antihero at the centre of the story encounters not only a band of outlaws but a town of locals that are almost as untrustworthy, but even the protagonist is no angel.
It is a much harsher piece of work than the Conan stories, which have an underlying romanticism, and is up there with 'Red Nails' as one of the best things Howard ever wrote, apparently he considered it among his best as well. It is also one of his last stories before his death. Make sure you get the version with the original downbeat ending, it is available in Penguin's excellent Howard collection and the University of Indiana's collection of Westerns by Howard.
i'll look it up, thanks. howard is always a good read in my experience
Well I'm here to kick in A book review for
Walking the tree by
Kaaron Warren Published by angry robot press originally in 2010.
Now I'm not fully sure how else to say this but to put it lightly this book sucks. If I had to describe whats wrong with this book in A short sentence I'd say wasted potential.
It want you to be enamored with all the cultures of the tree that it never actually shows us.
Instead we get foot notes like the kind you my have in A unfinished draft. It talks about how they sing but not what they sing. the way the dance but not how they dance or why.
Amazed by the ecological diversity that isn't show cased enough to be interesting and in most cases isn't that amazing to begin with.
Let me expound on this A bit more here's the description from the back of the book.
QuoteBotanica is an island, but almost all of the island is taken up by the Tree.
Little knowing how they came to be here, small communities live around the coast line. The Tree provides them shelter, kindling, medicine – and a place of legends, for there are ghosts within the trees who snatch children and the dying.
Lillah has come of age and is now ready to leave her community and walk the tree for five years, learning all Botanica has to teach her. Before setting off, Lillah is asked by the dying mother of a young boy to take him with her. In a country where a plague killed half the population, Morace will otherwise be killed in case he has the same disease. But can Lillah keep the boy’s secret, or will she have to resort to breaking the oldest taboo on Botanica?
Now I know what you are thinking this sounds like A cool idea but calm your enthusiasm all most all of that is ether irreverent or essentially nonexistent in the book it self.
To explain in more detail I need to get A bit in the how the chapters are split up.
The 1st chapter is 117 pages long well written and pretty interesting and give the full set up from the back of the book. the 2nd chapter is about 55ish pages if I remember right and the 3rd is about 40. every chapter after that is about half the size of the 3rd chapter the smallest is 17 and the biggest is 25 pages in A book that something like 500 pages.
Now that might sound pretty normal but remember the 5 year journey? Whats not on the back of the book is that in each village they then stay for 28 days and then we have travel time some time over 100 days travel between locals.
This turns in to an even bigger problem at the end of the book where in A single chapter do to plot reasons the main character ends up traveling an extra 3 years for A total of 8 that is obviously intended to seem magical and wonder us but ends up being boring and flat.
Now I expect you are starting to see the problem there's simply not enough time to do anything let alone anything interesting.
Social political jockeying to hide the fact the kids sick? Nope. Discussions about what to do ? Nope.
That lack of detail slowly but surely mounts up and the book suffers.
There are several characters that should obviously be major characters but never have any screen time or diolog to be such in one case the one girl Ruth has only 3 or 4 lines of dialog in the whole book.
If the entire book was written like the 1st chapter it would atleast be interesting. It would also be A 2500 page epic but I'd take that over what this book is hands down.
The book even seems to be aware of this and for the majority of the book makes no mention of how he's doing. Not en-till the resolution of the book which is built A grand reveal that you have frankly likely guessed if you where paying attention.
Then we have the whole lack of A culture. It starts out interesting Being An island they worry A lot about not having kids with any one you are to closely related to (that's why they send girls of as teachers). Or like how she gets A bit of slack in being let go off to check on how her bothers wife's birth is coming ( less 50s there's A bunch of men standing out side and then they all pile in to see the new born baby and more Big red ones birth in A tank but much more graphic). But this like so meany other things gets irritating and tiring as the book go's on because it's used as A stand in for an actual culture. All we really get are how they make there bowls and dishes The occasional local belief and the same creation story that's slightly different from location to location but unlike real creation myths is to samey to be considered creative or interesting.
Then we have the plot or lack of plot would be A better phrase and the occasional random political shoehorning that is pretty much the author 2 second long political self masturbation, and the complete lack at A sense of the passage of time.
Which is rather important in A book about A multi year journey.None of which is helped by the fact that despite being explicitly told how well the school system works no one remembers enough about there schooling to know basic things that every one should know about some of the stops considering every one go's on these journeys.
You know little things like the village that at the greeting party that night will grab one of the teachers and break her legs so she has to stay. Or the village where abuse Isn't condemned it's condoned. You know little things people would kind of remember and worn people about.
All of this is on top of the fact that the book ends up being about pretty much nothing in the end of it all.
The great journey? No we would have to see it. The vastly different cultures of the tree? Again no we would have to see it. Female empowerment or strength? No again Morace pretty much has to drag her to the grand reveal. How nothing stays the same? No because the book would need to actually show the passage of time and the fact that the world does change around us.
Now I know what you are thinking damn he's being hard on this book and to be honest I am but for reason I wanted to like this book and I can see what it wanted to be.
The author has some talent but in all honesty I think they kicked this book out the door rather then finish it and do to that fact if I'm being honest I will think twice before I pick up another book by them.
As such I cannot recommend this book in any way not even to mine for gaming material what little is here would all be to easy to ether come up with on your own or get from other sources.
If you feel some desperate need to read this book read the first 3 chapter and the last 5 skip all the in between and if you pay more then A dollar you are being robbed blind.
Any advise for A guy who would like to read the Spanish books of chivalry???
Quote from: Warboss Squee;977022Passin' Through aka the best Man with No Name. Also possibly the trope namer.
I think I've read every Louie L'Amour story except fir the Sackett series.
I've also bypassed the Sacketts, although they show up in some of his other books as well.
Passin' Through is a good one. The titles tend to blend together for me. I'll have to look at the back covers to remember which novel is which.
Hondo is another good one I remember, especially the desert survival methods he talks about.
Maybe someday I'll get to the Sacketts, but right now I prefer the standalone books.
Quote from: Dumarest;981230I've also bypassed the Sacketts, although they show up in some of his other books as well. Passin' Through is a good one. The titles tend to blend together for me. I'll have to look at the back covers to remember which novel is which. Hondo is another good one I remember, especially the desert survival methods he talks about.
Maybe someday I'll get to the Sacketts, but right now I prefer the standalone books.
Radigan and Flint are must reads, imo.
Quote from: Warboss Squee;981244Radigan and Flint are must reads, imo.
Is
Flint the one with the cancer-stricken gunfighter?
Quote from: Dumarest;981503Is Flint the one with the cancer-stricken gunfighter?
Yep.
Quote from: Warboss Squee;981512Yep.
I get all the titles jumbled, there are so many of them. I'll have to look at my shelf and read the descriptions on the back cover in order to straighten them out and write more.
When one thinks of good books it is understandable if books based on video games don't come to mind.
There's usually a few exceptions to each rule, however. "Crysis legion" is one.
Crysis legion is an adaptation of crysis 2 and follows the game fairly well but not slavishly. It's written by Peter Watts, a biology scientist and hard SF author from Canada. This book has a lot of hard science in it, plus well written characters.
It works on several levels..
It works as a sf novel. It works as an action novel. It works as a military novel. It even works as a "superhero" novel given that the main character, from who most of the story is told by, is a standard issue marine who is sent to new York city as something is beginning to happen. His mission to rescue a scientist is derailed by an attack by mysterious forces that leave him mortally wounded.
Rescued by a mysterious soldier who talks like a marine he is implanted into an ultra advanced combat armor that is far beyond human teschology and tasked with saving humanity from an alien species that regards humanity as a weed on a planet they coinsider to be theirs.
The protagonist begins to realize the longer he wears the suit the more superhuman he becomes, and the less human he becomes, and that he may never be able to go back.
Peter Watts wrote a video game novel? Crazy. Hopefully they don't prevent him from continuing his own work, some good authors have disappeared down the licensed property book blackhole.
No chance of that. Watts only did crysis 2. I spoke to him a d said I wished he'd done an adaptation of crysis 3 and he said he would if they'd asked him to but they didn't. Meanwhile you should get crysis legion, it's pretty excellent.
Interesting sounding. A Crysis novel holds zero interest to me but if Watts wrote it that's a different story.
Quote from: Voros;981871Interesting sounding. A Crysis novel holds zero interest to me but if Watts wrote it that's a different story.
If you can find it you'll like it. It was a pretty intelligent story with Watts taking a few liberties with the storyline and speculating on some of the weak points. Also the main character was developed in depth, as was the effects merging with the nanosuit had on him. Also some science was thrown in for good measure.
So I'm About 1/3rd of my way though my current book as my last book review was my 1st long form book review is there any criticism that you guys can give to help me try improve my next review?
Quote from: kosmos1214;977904Well I'm here to kick in A book review for Walking the tree by Kaaron Warren Published by angry robot press originally in 2010.
Now I'm not fully sure how else to say this but to put it lightly this book sucks. If I had to describe whats wrong with this book in A short sentence I'd say wasted potential.
It want you to be enamored with all the cultures of the tree that it never actually shows us.
Instead we get foot notes like the kind you my have in A unfinished draft. It talks about how they sing but not what they sing. the way the dance but not how they dance or why.
Amazed by the ecological diversity that isn't show cased enough to be interesting and in most cases isn't that amazing to begin with.
Let me expound on this A bit more here's the description from the back of the book.
Botanica is an island, but almost all of the island is taken up by the Tree.
Little knowing how they came to be here, small communities live around the coast line. The Tree provides them shelter, kindling, medicine – and a place of legends, for there are ghosts within the trees who snatch children and the dying.
Lillah has come of age and is now ready to leave her community and walk the tree for five years, learning all Botanica has to teach her. Before setting off, Lillah is asked by the dying mother of a young boy to take him with her. In a country where a plague killed half the population, Morace will otherwise be killed in case he has the same disease. But can Lillah keep the boy's secret, or will she have to resort to breaking the oldest taboo on Botanica?
Now I know what you are thinking this sounds like A cool idea but calm your enthusiasm all most all of that is ether irreverent or essentially nonexistent in the book it self.
To explain in more detail I need to get A bit in the how the chapters are split up.
The 1st chapter is 117 pages long well written and pretty interesting and give the full set up from the back of the book. the 2nd chapter is about 55ish pages if I remember right and the 3rd is about 40. every chapter after that is about half the size of the 3rd chapter the smallest is 17 and the biggest is 25 pages in A book that something like 500 pages.
Now that might sound pretty normal but remember the 5 year journey? Whats not on the back of the book is that in each village they then stay for 28 days and then we have travel time some time over 100 days travel between locals.
This turns in to an even bigger problem at the end of the book where in A single chapter do to plot reasons the main character ends up traveling an extra 3 years for A total of 8 that is obviously intended to seem magical and wonder us but ends up being boring and flat.
Now I expect you are starting to see the problem there's simply not enough time to do anything let alone anything interesting.
Social political jockeying to hide the fact the kids sick? Nope. Discussions about what to do ? Nope.
That lack of detail slowly but surely mounts up and the book suffers.
There are several characters that should obviously be major characters but never have any screen time or diolog to be such in one case the one girl Ruth has only 3 or 4 lines of dialog in the whole book.
If the entire book was written like the 1st chapter it would atleast be interesting. It would also be A 2500 page epic but I'd take that over what this book is hands down.
The book even seems to be aware of this and for the majority of the book makes no mention of how he's doing. Not en-till the resolution of the book which is built A grand reveal that you have frankly likely guessed if you where paying attention.
Then we have the whole lack of A culture. It starts out interesting Being An island they worry A lot about not having kids with any one you are to closely related to (that's why they send girls of as teachers). Or like how she gets A bit of slack in being let go off to check on how her bothers wife's birth is coming ( less 50s there's A bunch of men standing out side and then they all pile in to see the new born baby and more Big red ones birth in A tank but much more graphic). But this like so meany other things gets irritating and tiring as the book go's on because it's used as A stand in for an actual culture. All we really get are how they make there bowls and dishes The occasional local belief and the same creation story that's slightly different from location to location but unlike real creation myths is to samey to be considered creative or interesting.
Then we have the plot or lack of plot would be A better phrase and the occasional random political shoehorning that is pretty much the author 2 second long political self masturbation, and the complete lack at A sense of the passage of time.
Which is rather important in A book about A multi year journey.None of which is helped by the fact that despite being explicitly told how well the school system works no one remembers enough about there schooling to know basic things that every one should know about some of the stops considering every one go's on these journeys.
You know little things like the village that at the greeting party that night will grab one of the teachers and break her legs so she has to stay. Or the village where abuse Isn't condemned it's condoned. You know little things people would kind of remember and worn people about.
All of this is on top of the fact that the book ends up being about pretty much nothing in the end of it all.
The great journey? No we would have to see it. The vastly different cultures of the tree? Again no we would have to see it. Female empowerment or strength? No again Morace pretty much has to drag her to the grand reveal. How nothing stays the same? No because the book would need to actually show the passage of time and the fact that the world does change around us.
Now I know what you are thinking damn he's being hard on this book and to be honest I am but for reason I wanted to like this book and I can see what it wanted to be.
The author has some talent but in all honesty I think they kicked this book out the door rather then finish it and do to that fact if I'm being honest I will think twice before I pick up another book by them.
As such I cannot recommend this book in any way not even to mine for gaming material what little is here would all be to easy to ether come up with on your own or get from other sources.
If you feel some desperate need to read this book read the first 3 chapter and the last 5 skip all the in between and if you pay more then A dollar you are being robbed blind.
I appreciate the detail but prefer my reviews to be a bit less plot summary. Give me the gist of the plot and then tell me what you think of the book. In a 'proper' review brief excerpts of the writing as an example of the style and quality of the prose is a good idea I think.
Quote from: Voros;986119I appreciate the detail but prefer my reviews to be a bit less plot summary. Give me the gist of the plot and then tell me what you think of the book. In a 'proper' review brief excerpts of the writing as an example of the style and quality of the prose is a good idea I think.
Under normal circumstances I Probably would not have gone so in depth on the plot of the book but given that the plot or lack of it as I mentioned in my review. As to excerpts I'm not adverse to the idea but I doubt I will as I don't have the book or movie in question in hand when I write up my stuff I do to from memory.
So I just started reading some fiction again, and why not bump this thread up?
So, way back in yon '80's I read a series of good space-opera novels, beginning for me with Agent of Change. Apparently these have become a 'thing' now that we have internets and the authors of this series have picked it up again in response to the fans.
Dear.
Lord.
Anyway: I just read Crystal Dragon/Crystal Soldier, a single book divided into two for 'reasons', and all of a sudden all the flaws I missed when I was younger kept leapign in my face trying to claw my eyes out.
The sad thing? They orginally wrote it back in their hey-day (86 or so) and didn't try to publish it because they didn't feel old and wise enough to do it justice, meaning they sat on it for twenty fucking years to polish and improve it.
One thing that occurs to me is that ALL of these books are lacking in a narrative structure. If I were in a generous mood I'd say that they are loosely based on the picaresque style. But I'm not feeling generous, so I'll say instead that they sort of meander to a close with the plot hanging out for the ride. They're thinly disguised romances, I suppose, but they can't even follow the usual romance narrative arc either.
In this particular case there is one glaring problem: They/it should never have been written to begin with.
I shall explain.
The 'Liaden Universe' stories largely focus on a space setting with a group of near-human space elves (know as the Liadens), especially Clan Korval, and their inevitable falling in love with some human woman who has mary sue levels of hidden depths and problems (look. Agent of Change was actually REALLY GOOD, ok? And at least one of the other books in the four or so I read followed those two characters, so got a lot of leeway for a: good characters and b: they'd already shot the meet and greet romance wad, so they had to actually focus a bit more on the story.)
Anyway: Clan Korval has a foundational myth involving the origins of their psychic tree, Jelaza Calzone, their founder (Cantra yos'Phelium), the smuggler captain who brought 'refugees' from somewhere else to found the Liaden Homeworld... and who gave her name to the Liad money (the Cantra), and so forth. Its actually a neat bit of world building in otherwise slim books.
So Crystal Soldier/Crystal Dragon?
Yeah. That's the story of Cantra yos'Phelium and her lover (Jela) who has a psychic tree, and their psuedo-picaresque romp around the galaxy before Jela dies, Cantra takes a whole bunch of refugees out of their dying universe into... um... our?... universe, making the Liadens alt-universe humans in our universe.
But, you know, its not told like a foundational myth, its told like the mostly boring mostly aimless adventures of a couple of mary-sues and pretty much pulls an ides of march on that cool bit of world building from the previously published books.
And, just to add insult to injury? the whole goddamn thing is written in some of the world stilted fake-formal space elf english crossed with a shitty take on Whedon-esque dialog, which gets super annoying after a couple of chapters.
Quote from: Spike;994695And, just to add insult to injury? the whole goddamn thing is written in some of the world stilted fake-formal space elf english crossed with a shitty take on Whedon-esque dialog, which gets super annoying after a couple of chapters.
Would you mind expounding on this for those of us who lack the point reference please?
Quote from: kosmos1214;994960Would you mind expounding on this for those of us who lack the point reference please?
Ugh. Well... I guess I can't do worse than to just give you a line from the book.
Quote from: Crystal Soldier"How," he said gently, "if you wer to know that even now it is whispered that soldiers are being bidden to forsake the emptiness of this arm for the comfort of the center? You, however, can still indulge your soldier's soul. You can be here, at the edge of decisive action, where matters of importance to all humankind will be determined. You may be a hero to Dulsey and all her..."
Jela shook his head, cutting off the Uncle in a way that likely wasn't too polite.
"This is a waystop for us, " he said; "a balancing of accounts with someone who risked her life for us. I've been a hero, and found it far more troubling than you might think. I'll continue travelling with Pilot Cantra, and we'll all part safely."
Now, in isolation that might not be too bad. A touch formal and wordy, but it could just be circumstances... but the whole damn book is written like that. Pilot Cantra? That's the other main character (Jela being the first, I guess)... that's right, the two main characters... who eventually admit they are (OF COURSE!!!) in love with each other, tend to refer to one another by formal titles. Most, if not all, of the time.
It doesn't really get the Joss Whedon style in-talk I mentioned, but there is a limit to how much re-reading I'm gonna do.
Steven Brust.
He's the one who writes Vald Taltos. He wrote a serries that takes place well before that "the Phoenix Guards" which as far as I know is based on the "Three Musketeers" the writting is wordy and over wrought, but thats the point.
Durast? Have you read them? I figure you will either love them or hate them.
Quote from: Spike;995881Ugh. Well... I guess I can't do worse than to just give you a line from the book.
Now, in isolation that might not be too bad. A touch formal and wordy, but it could just be circumstances... but the whole damn book is written like that. Pilot Cantra? That's the other main character (Jela being the first, I guess)... that's right, the two main characters... who eventually admit they are (OF COURSE!!!) in love with each other, tend to refer to one another by formal titles. Most, if not all, of the time.
It doesn't really get the Joss Whedon style in-talk I mentioned, but there is a limit to how much re-reading I'm gonna do.
Ah I can see the point It's A little to much for the whole book not because of the idea but at some point you are going to drop the long winded speak and say the equivalent of "Shoot the mofo thats shooting at us".
But I do agree the titles thing is going to be A bit much while depending on social standards it may be normal in public but in privet at some point that's going to drop off.And the rereading is A fair point as well I doubt I'd have to do to much rereading of lines but I know it would be slow reading.
Quote from: Headless;995939Steven Brust.
He's the one who writes Vald Taltos. He wrote a serries that takes place well before that "the Phoenix Guards" which as far as I know is based on the "Three Musketeers" the writting is wordy and over wrought, but thats the point.
Durast? Have you read them? I figure you will either love them or hate them.
I've pretty much read everything Brust ever wrote, at least up until fairly recently. Brust has a better ear for flow, and he is mimicking a very good author himself with the phoenix guard series (though... when he started getting into Sethra Lavode and the like the series started losing some of its charm. Still fun, however.)
Another key point here is that overwrought writing is layered on top of a story that sort of meanders towards its conclusion, rather than having an actual plot, and gives us mythic founding hero stories as just another mary-sue romance following what is now a rather tired formula from these particular authors.
Reading stories from these two Penguin collections on my nightstand. S.T. Joshi's series of horror writers for Penguin is excellent stuff.
Right now I give the edge to Machen. Re-reading 'The White People' is has lost none of its power, it is the rare piece of fiction worthy of the term visionary.
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I recently found a novel on my bookshelf, The Nimble Man, that I know I had read, but could not recall anything about it other than it was vaguely similar to... say... The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
So, having a day off, I read it.
And in reading it, I remember why I didn't remember it.
So, the set-up is that Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, secretly became an Immortal Wizard and fights against 'great evil (tm)' with his Menagerie of freaks. Specifically he's got a hobgoblin squire, a Faerie Girlfriend, Eve (of Adam and Eve fame, who is, in this case, ALSO the mother of all vampires), and Clay... as in Genesis.. God's Clay, from which he... er... HE shaped all life, but apparently just left lying around when HE was done with it. Oh, and a Pulp Hero who is also a Ghost, Dr Leonard Graves.
Its... an interesting group of characters. Some bold choices along the way. Apparently they did four of these books (Two authors), but stopped when they ran out of fans to justify making more. But back to This Book.
So the book starts with Doyle looking for his long lost mentor, Sanguedolce the Wizard, who is so powerful and awesome (and a right bastard as well) that his half century of absense from teh world of magic weirdos is apparently an earthshattering problem (no.. I'm not kidding about that!) as he 're-gathers' his Menagerie.
Only his ex-girlfriend's aunt, Morrigan, steals the crysalis holding Sanguedolce's sleeping body to use his power to open the prison of The Nimble Man and bring him into our reality. Who is the Nimble Man you ask? Er... he's... sort of Lucifer's stupid little brother, I guess? He's a rebellious Angel who was somehow slick enough not to get sent to Hell, and was instead imprisoned in Limbo or something.
So. Problems.
The book is massively self-referential. So much so that it manages to tell about half of a decent story for its page-count. We're told about twenty times how Dr. Graves (the Pulp Hero Ghost) can't rest until he finds how who assassinated him fifty years earlier. We're told a dozen or so times how Squire the Hobgoblin is... a Squire and how Hobgoblins walk Shadowpaths. Because, you know, we forgot how we were told that just a page earlier. We are reminded time and again how tough Eve is, and how much she LOVES fashion, and every bit of squabbling between Eve and Squire is accompanied by side comments from the narration about how they bicker because they like eachother or something. Nothing is just allowed to unfold, nothing is allowed to happen on its own, and so the decent ideas in the book aren't given any time to breath, to come to life... choked to death by the Authors (plural) inability to not point out what they are doing... constantly.
Not that there aren't other problems. Doyle is not even 200 years old yet (in the book) and yet his 'immortality' seems to put him on par with Clay and Eve, who have existed from the dawn of creation (earlier, I guess, for Clay?)... which... no. It doesn't. Not that there isn't a great amount of tradition in, oh, Vampire fiction to treat a sixty year old man who happens to be a vampire as some great ancient thing... like... I don't know any living sixty year olds, right?
There there is that whole weird subtext where if Sanguedolce ISN"T God the almighty in disguise then I'll eat my hat, even if nothing else in the book indicates that the authors are capable of that level of subtlety about their characters. And if he is, my god, what an asshole God is... though, I suppose, given what we know of Eve and Clay, is par for the course for this book. Its a weird stance to take: God is real, but he's a massive dickhead.
Sounds like an attempt at the kind of literary mashup that Jeter, Newman and Powers created sometime back in the 80s.
You spend a lot of time reading bad books and watching bad movies.
I'm a couple stories into The Horror on the Links: the Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin, Vol. 1 by Seabury Quinn, I picked up the Kindle version for a song. They're decent paranormal-detective fare, pulpy and fun, but the namesake detective is kind of annoying with his incessant French exclamations. Reading these makes me want to go re-read some John Silence or Carnacki stories.
Oddly, I'm more likely to comment on the bad ones. Good stuff gets a shrug and a meh, that was good when I'm done.
Actually, my next read is Ancillery Justice, which I understand actually deserved the awards it was nominated for (won?) a couple years ago. Then again, its the same format as Jennifer Government, which some people praised to high hell for me that I found to be rather... meh. Not, you know, super bad just... meh. I may still re-read it, in a few more years.
Quote from: Spike;1007646I recently found a novel on my bookshelf, The Nimble Man, that I know I had read, but could not recall anything about it other than it was vaguely similar to... say... The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
So, having a day off, I read it.
And in reading it, I remember why I didn't remember it.
So, the set-up is that Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, secretly became an Immortal Wizard and fights against 'great evil (tm)' with his Menagerie of freaks. Specifically he's got a hobgoblin squire, a Faerie Girlfriend, Eve (of Adam and Eve fame, who is, in this case, ALSO the mother of all vampires), and Clay... as in Genesis.. God's Clay, from which he... er... HE shaped all life, but apparently just left lying around when HE was done with it. Oh, and a Pulp Hero who is also a Ghost, Dr Leonard Graves.
Its... an interesting group of characters. Some bold choices along the way. Apparently they did four of these books (Two authors), but stopped when they ran out of fans to justify making more. But back to This Book.
So the book starts with Doyle looking for his long lost mentor, Sanguedolce the Wizard, who is so powerful and awesome (and a right bastard as well) that his half century of absense from teh world of magic weirdos is apparently an earthshattering problem (no.. I'm not kidding about that!) as he 're-gathers' his Menagerie.
Only his ex-girlfriend's aunt, Morrigan, steals the crysalis holding Sanguedolce's sleeping body to use his power to open the prison of The Nimble Man and bring him into our reality. Who is the Nimble Man you ask? Er... he's... sort of Lucifer's stupid little brother, I guess? He's a rebellious Angel who was somehow slick enough not to get sent to Hell, and was instead imprisoned in Limbo or something.
So. Problems.
The book is massively self-referential. So much so that it manages to tell about half of a decent story for its page-count. We're told about twenty times how Dr. Graves (the Pulp Hero Ghost) can't rest until he finds how who assassinated him fifty years earlier. We're told a dozen or so times how Squire the Hobgoblin is... a Squire and how Hobgoblins walk Shadowpaths. Because, you know, we forgot how we were told that just a page earlier. We are reminded time and again how tough Eve is, and how much she LOVES fashion, and every bit of squabbling between Eve and Squire is accompanied by side comments from the narration about how they bicker because they like eachother or something. Nothing is just allowed to unfold, nothing is allowed to happen on its own, and so the decent ideas in the book aren't given any time to breath, to come to life... choked to death by the Authors (plural) inability to not point out what they are doing... constantly.
Not that there aren't other problems. Doyle is not even 200 years old yet (in the book) and yet his 'immortality' seems to put him on par with Clay and Eve, who have existed from the dawn of creation (earlier, I guess, for Clay?)... which... no. It doesn't. Not that there isn't a great amount of tradition in, oh, Vampire fiction to treat a sixty year old man who happens to be a vampire as some great ancient thing... like... I don't know any living sixty year olds, right?
There there is that whole weird subtext where if Sanguedolce ISN"T God the almighty in disguise then I'll eat my hat, even if nothing else in the book indicates that the authors are capable of that level of subtlety about their characters. And if he is, my god, what an asshole God is... though, I suppose, given what we know of Eve and Clay, is par for the course for this book. Its a weird stance to take: God is real, but he's a massive dickhead.
I am fairly sure I've read that one. Had completely forgotten it.
Quote from: Warboss Squee;1008028I am fairly sure I've read that one. Had completely forgotten it.
Well... That WOULD be the problem now, wouldn't it? How can a book with so much awesome in the setup wind up being so very, very forgettable? That takes real talent!
Quote from: Spike;1008035Well... That WOULD be the problem now, wouldn't it? How can a book with so much awesome in the setup wind up being so very, very forgettable? That takes real talent!
I remember enough to believe your analysis is spot on.
Quote from: Spike;1007839Oddly, I'm more likely to comment on the bad ones. Good stuff gets a shrug and a meh, that was good when I'm done.
Actually, my next read is Ancillery Justice, which I understand actually deserved the awards it was nominated for (won?) a couple years ago. Then again, its the same format as Jennifer Government, which some people praised to high hell for me that I found to be rather... meh. Not, you know, super bad just... meh. I may still re-read it, in a few more years.
I read Ancillary Justice back when it won the award. It was not deserving of the hatred it got, but I am also not sure it was deserving of the award. It is a good story. When I first started reading it, I was really wondering why it won an award. As I read further, that was less of a mystery to me. It isn't the greatest science fiction though. If I had to give it a ranking it would be 4 out of 5 stars. It does a very odd thing though with pronouns in the book because it is narrated through the point of view of a ship's AI (which has trouble distinguishing men and women). In the end, I think that choice, while it produces some interesting things, made the story more confusing and made individual characters a lot harder to remember. Still the first book is a really good read. I would say the second book is a disappointment in comparison though.
I don't recall it getting any hatred, not even from the various puppy factions, same with Three Body Problem, which I haven't bothered to track down yet, seeing as my reading has dropped way off from what it was a decade or so ago. Was a time where finding me without a book in my hands or on my person was near impossible...
I'm reading George Saunders Lincoln in Bardo right now. His first novel, I've always liked Saunders funny surreal short stories. This is a surreal collage novel drawing on historical sources, newspaper articles, etc about Lincoln's dead son travelling through the Tibetan Bardo along with the spirits of the Civil War dead.
Pretty strange, it is interesting to see the old Burroughs' cut-up method used in a different way. I also feel that the Gaelic novel The Dirty Dust (a graveyard of the Irish dead talking), Robert Penn Warren's amazing Brother to Dragons (a slave murdered by Jefferson's nephews narrated by the ghost of Jefferson) and John Dos Passos USA trilogy have to be influences.
In terms of games, reading it I'm imagining a game that tries to use The Book of the Dead to structure a game around ghosts/spirits. The Wraith and Ghostwalk have both tackled the idea of an RPG where you play ghosts, any others?
Quote from: Spike;1008141I don't recall it getting any hatred, not even from the various puppy factions, same with Three Body Problem, which I haven't bothered to track down yet, seeing as my reading has dropped way off from what it was a decade or so ago. Was a time where finding me without a book in my hands or on my person was near impossible...
When it got the award, I think there was some negativity from the puppy thing as I recall.
I read the 3 body problem. I don't remember a puppy.
I have the dark forest? The next book kicking around but I haven't read it. 3 body was well written but poorly translated. I think. Its hrad for me to be sure since I don't read Chinese (either one) but I remember thinking the prose was clunky and dull in a couple spots.
Reading The House of Government by Yuri Slezkine, a very Russian sprawling history that draws on literature, memoirs and government documents to tell the story of an apartment block where many of the major Bolsheviks lived during the early years of the Revolution until their eventual dispossesion, exile or death under Lenin and Stalin.
Perhaps unlikely gaming material but I know there are a few CoC supplements set during the era and Night Witches by Morningstar and it seems there is some potential in playing the pre-revolutionary dissidents plotting against the Tzar, the Reds and the Whites during the Civil War or a Menshevik or true believer trying to flee and survive the purges.
Anyone read "the sand pebbles"? Its about the chinese revolution if I recall.
Actully come to think of it "three body problem" was too. Of my sample 100% of the books related to china are about the revolution.
I'm familiar with the film version of The Sand Pebbles but haven't read the book, is it good. The novel is written by Richard McKenna who wrote some very important sf short stories in the 50s, Hunter Come Home and Fiddlers Green are terrific.
Couldn't tell you if it was good. I read it when I was a teen ager and read everything good and bad with out knowing the difference.
Re-reading Andre Norton's Solar Queen books and Poul Anderson's Van Rijn stories in advance of possibly playing Traveller, if anybody wants to talk about those.
Quote from: Headless;1009247Couldn't tell you if it was good. I read it when I was a teen ager and read everything good and bad with out knowing the difference.
My experience tends to be stuff I didn't care for then I have discovered is better than I knew due to my lack of experience and/or maturity. But some stuff was just crap and I knew it...never finished most of those books as it was clear within the first hundred pages.
Finished Andy Weir's new book, Artemis. Great solid character driven hard science fiction. The book is a steal at twice the price.
Finally getting back to reading Tom Wham's novel for Iron Dragons. You can about see where Estes writing cuts off in around the first chapter and Wham takes over. Interesting setting that could have made for a fun RPG campaign. And it wouldnt be too hard to integrate the board game into say D&D or such.
One of these days I'll actually get around to reading all these Drizzt books a player handed off to me out of the blue. Or at least the first three which seem to get talked about the most.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]2006[/ATTACH]
Reading a nicely illustrated Hobbit adaptation someone gave me...so much better than the movies, no sex-dwarf leather fetishist costumes is always a plus.
Note this is not the book I said I was about A 3rd of the way threw earlier in the thread my real life got in the way and I ended up picking this up in the mean time but I am still chipping away at the other got 40 pages read just the other day.
The fallowing is A short review for the book Ready Player One.
Let me start by saying this book is A true joy to read and fast at that the language is simple but descriptive and never wanting.
The book opens with the main character explaining how he would like to set the record straight and starts at the beginning of his tail explaining where he was when he first heard of the death of one James Haliday and the message he left explaining that he was leaving his entire fortune to whom ever could find an Easter egg he had hidden in his most popular game the oasis. The oasis we find out is A sort of MMO social network high-bread that is so tied in to modern day to day life you real life survival can be effected by things that happen to you in the game. Then we learn it has been 5 years and that no one has found any thing. Now that is as far as I dare take the plot but this book is full of geeky references and pop culture and should be especially enjoyable for any one who frequents this thread. Every thing from dnd to star wars ,star trek and 80s movies get A mention. But what truly makes this book stand out is how it manages to take what would be A simple action adventure story some thing we have seen dozens of times before and make it A human story A people story. A story that meany A geek and non geek alike can relate to.
One late thing before I go is that If you are the type of person who likes to try and figure out the puzzles of A book before they are relieved this book does A good job at giving ample time to let you figure it all out on your own.
Actually on that note I would be A pretty good base line of the level of knowledge required to beat the book to the answers for any of you who may be wondering.
I have been doing the Condor Heroes trilogy again. They put out a new official translation of the first volume of Legend of Condor Heroes (which is the basis of the Brave Archer Movies), and I read a copy of it. I liked the translation, but they did make some odd choices with character names that I think will upset people. This prompted me to re-read Return of Condor Heroes (which doesn't have an official translation so I am reading a fan translation). Just finished the first volume and it is actually more entertaining on a re-read because I am able to take my time and pay more attention to the martial arts techniques and the way things are being planted for upcoming events in the plot. Also noticing more details.
Definitely recommend it if people like wuxia or kung fu. The Return of Condor Heroes is actually where the story for One Armed Swordsman comes from, and it is kind of a romantic take on the genre. There is also lots, and lots of stuff that is highly gameable. The sect that the protagonist, Yang Guo, belongs to is Ancient Tomb Sect, and he lives in this underground structure with his sifu, Xioalongnu. One of the interesting things about the book is Yang Guo is the son of one of the villains from Legends of Condor Heroes. And it is fun to watch the events from the first book carry over to another character, who reacts to them in a very different way than the protagonist from the first book, Guo Jing. So you'll have a character who might have been a serious villain in the first book, end up being the adopted Father of Yang Guo. The book is filled with colorful characters (like unbelievably stark and colorful), family drama, and amazing kung fu battles (some of which last a rather long time). It also connects to history in a way that doesn't feel jarring. It is set during the Song period as they Mongols are invading and taking over territory. And the whole story is one long saga that crosses multiple generations of characters.
I recently stared Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings. It's the first book in his 10-part series, The Stormlight Archive.
I've never dived into a fantasy series before and am enjoying it. The first book is about 1,200+ pages, and the sequels are only getting longer. However, the world building and character developments are well written.
Has anyone else read these books?
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8b/TheWayOfKings.png)
The only Sanderson I've read is the last 3 books of Wheel of Time. It was pretty good but not Robert Jordan. There were parts where I could see him (Sanderson) thinking, this book has already buried one author and it's not getting me, plot threads tied up!
Been re-reading Return of Condor Heroes and decided to do podcasts covering five chapters at a time. The first one was 10 chapters just to get the ball rolling:
Chapters 1-10: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-stukf-842c8c
Chapters 11-15: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-9ep79-8550c0
I've been reading Saxon: Book of Dreams by Tim Severin, which I picked up cheap at a library book sale. Severin is maybe better known as a travel writer, who specializes in recreating ancient voyages and writing about them, in books like The Brendan Voyage and so on. But apparently he's written some fiction series as well--one is about Vikings and another about pirates. This is the first book of a series which follow the adventures of a Saxon nobleman sent as a royal hostage to Charlemagne's court. The writing is nothing particularly special, but the book moves quickly and its hero Osric is appealing enough. In this first volume (I think it's a 3-book series) he falls in with Roland, who will die by the end. That's not a spoiler, since it is mentioned on the first page. Severin's version of Charlemagne's court is something of a mixture of history and the stories about Charlemagne's paladins from the Chansons de Geste and medieval romances.
It's getting me in the mood for something Carolingian, which is appropriate, since the Pendragon spin-off Paladin just became available.
I worked my way (at last) through Joe Abercrombie's Wizard's Law trilogy. I am not amused.
Leaving aside the manifold literary criticisms I have regarding the books (book 1: Has no plot. Book 2: Has a pointless plot (go to a place and get a thing. Oops. Thing not there, go home, find thing. Fuck you, Joe.), the biggest problem I have is that I'm now convinced that Joe Abercrombie is, in fact, a very bad person, a bully who has only learned that victims of bullying deserve to be bullied, because if they didn't deserve it, they wouldn't be bullied.
And that's just the start of the moral and ethical failings of his books. I mean: Two of his 'heroes' are serial killers...
Finished The Scarlet Pimpernel last night. Weird read for many reasons. I think the Baroness was probably a better playwright than novelist, as not much happens in the book, but there are pages and pages AND PAGES of internal monologues about la feelz.
Yet you can clearly see the seed germs for Zorro right there on the page. That said the single biggest complaint I have with it is that there is virtually no Scarlet Pimpernelling in the book whatsoever. Everyone talks about The Pimpernel, but mostly we get shots of Bruce Wayne being 'not-pimpernel' and Mrs Wayne waffling on about how she wishes good ol' bruce was half the man the Pimpernel or how horrible it is her brother has a date with Madame Guillotine.
Still a good read.
I read Rocket Girls by Housuke Nojiri and enjoyed it. It is well thought out adventure romp in the same vein as Heinlein's juveniles, but it is based on the difficulties and hazards of spaceflight while also having a Japanese female oriented touch of light comedy. The only drawback is that the english translation of the book feels a bit awkward due to the language differences when translated.
I've been 'reading' the Dead Six series by Larry Corriea and Mike Kupari. I think they are aiming for the Tom Clancy/Lee Childs audience, and given my one shot at the Jack Reacher series, I'm going to say they've managed to do just fine at meeting expectations. There's a very subtle shade of supernatural going through these things, or rather its somewhat blatent but sparely used and never explicit.
My big problem is the gear porn. I like guns and such as much as Big Larry, but honestly you don't need to tell me the fucking BRAND of your character's silencer every time you mention it. Or for that matter the BRAND of their fatigues in addition to the pattern. Every time. Seriously, I think the books would be about 10% shorter if the authors wrote like normal people instead of like paid shills for every manufacturer of guns, ammo and random bits of militaria they could find.
But its miles ahead of the first Monster Hunters International, so there's that.
EDIT TO ADD::: So I finished up the Trilogy and I was struck by another annoying trait of the books. In an attempt to make the over the top skilled good guys somehow more realistic than 'action heroes' the writers are almost too eager to mentally and physically destroy the characters... yet still they have to survive, participate and win in the end. Its almost masochistic, and often times means the 'action' starts to drag on and on, just so the hero can heroically come back from being on the recieving end of a horrific beating and still win in the end.
Seriously, Each of the two main heroes have a fight that ends the trilogy that seems to go on for four or six chapters (two or three chapters each) before somehow they win against all (like, seriously... ALLLLLLLLLL....) the odds. Valentine literally gets blown up with a 40mm grenade yet manages to rally to defeat the nigh unstoppable Psycho-bitch villianess assassin/billionaire/mob-boss AND push her nuclear bomb out of a 300mph bullet train despite it being in a several hundred pound box, while Lorenzo, the 40 year old super-thief gets curb stomped into oblivion by the 270lb steroid freak that outfights entire mercenary teams single-handedly yet still somehow wins, though he winds up going through somethign like THREE Deus Ex Machina to do it.
Oddly, I'm reminded a bit of my foray into the Kindle Harem-lit genre... after a few books you start skipping the sex scenes to get on with the story... only you can't really skip the masochistic violence. Like the Heroes you have to endure it to get to the end... Its such an extreme over-reaction to the untouchable action hero that its actually less believable that these guys didn't just give up after chapter one!
Oddly, I recall Monster Hunter International 1 did the same thing to Larry Correia's Self-Insert protagonist. Like he literally spends chapters 2-4 in a hospital bed, with everyone remarking at how bad ass he was for merely surviving the fight in chapter 1.
So, that's a thing.
I recommend checking out Larry's Grimnoir series. While it does contains a bit of gun-porn (this is LC after all) it focuses more on the superpowers and 1930s pulp hijinks. I also mostly agree with you in regards to Abercrombies stuff Spike. I pretty much hated all the characters in the First Law series. Sure this might be the authors intention, but it doesn't really make me want to read any more about them. Contrast Logan and Bayaz with say Karsa Orlong and Shadowthrone from Malazan. Both pairs are morally detestable beings, however the latter duo are far more likable characters in my opinion.
Recently I have alternated between R A Lafferty's corpus of work, and Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood cycle. Jungian archetypes and supernaturally empowered neanderthals abound. Also, just finished Kazuo Ishiguro's Sleeping Giant which was a nice one off.
I'll probably revisit Larry, since I've liked his work on Warmachine and his online essays/rants for some time, and I've heard he moved away from the Self Insert that so grated in MHI.
One day I'll have to check out the Malazan stuff, since i've been hearing its praises for... hmm... a decade or so? I dunno... I took almost 15 years off from reading because so much of new stuff was so stuffed with bullshit I couldn't stand any of it anymore... this from a guy who would put away a new paperback nearly every day.
I know how you feel in regards to the sheer amount of dreck that is being released these days. I hold off reading certain Gene Wolfe and Tim Powers novels so that I know that even if nothing good is coming out in the next little while I have something to look forward to. Malazan is huge, sprawling and has far from perfect but it is absolutely worth the read if you have the time.
For those that like the older R.E Howard style Planet Romance style tales, while going through my roommates book collection after her death was reminded that she had a nice collection of A. Merritt's books. I have only two. The Moon Pool, and Fox Woman which I believe have mentioned before. Kat also had The Face in the Abyss and her own copies of The Moon Pool and Fox Woman. And others. I believe Dwellers in the Mirage. Merritt's writings influenced other writers of the era. Lovecraft for example really liked Dwellers in the Mirage for its alien aspects.
The Moon Pool, from 1918, is an interesting one as it sprawls all over the place and follows a pair of travellers, The main hero, an Irish pilot. And his friend, a scientist. After alot of mishaps they end up transported to an underground world and face off against an ancient race and their creation. Overall it was a good read. but I ended up disliking the main character because he was so closed minded.
Face in the Abyss, written in 1923, I liked alot more and has an adventurer descend into an ancient underground civilization and contends with the machinations of an imprisoned demigod. Also notable as one of the prominent characters on the heroe's side is the lamia or yuan-ti-like Yu-Atlanchi. Note the slight similarity of names even to the D&D race.
Fox Woman I have not yet had a chance to read.
And for those who think gender bending established characters is a new thing...
Was recently reminded of a book that was in school way way the hell back in that bygone mythical era of the 70s.
Heraclea: a Legend of Warrior Women by award winning Bernard Evslin who did quite a number of books on mythology.
Heraclea is an odd one. It presents a sort of spin on the tale of Heracles and runs with the idea that the legends were based on an amazon woman named Heraclea who wanders the land and does most of the tasks Heracles is known for, but with odd twists and turns. It is actually not a bad book and is well written and Evslin puts his classical acumen to good use.