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What BOOK(s) are you reading?
Gary Sax wrote: I remember liking Guns of August but feeling it was very dry compared to the best histories. A very "overview" sort of history that's vital but doesn't electrify.
I actually liked the dryness, but I was also listening to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast on the same period which leans way towards the colorful side. So I kind of had a balance to offset any dryness that may have been present. I really liked how it bounced from government to government over each time period to cover how they were each responding to the new "inputs" being presented to them.
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- Dr. Mabuse
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Dr. Mabuse wrote: I'm re-reading the First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie and by god, are these books ever good!
I just finished re-reading Abercrombie's The Heroes, and it's good too.
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- Sagrilarus
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I'm not big on fiction but this one was especially well grounded. Good read.
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It's merely okay. The mid-20th C. racial prejudice exposition is a bit too much for my tastes.
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I have just started the new book from Joe Abercrombie, A Little Hatred. More great writing. He really has a nice way of tying in events from the other books in this universe.
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This one feels like it’s setting me up for a huge twist.
Reads somewhat like a D&D campaign.
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It is, and it isn’t, the book you’re expecting.
Giant psychic, balloon-gliding spiders have reduced mankind to the Stone Age.
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Yugblad wrote: I'm deep into SPIDERLIGHT - in my quest to read all books featuring giant spiders!
This one feels like it’s setting me up for a huge twist.
Reads somewhat like a D&D campaign.
How are you finding Tchaikovsky's books? I really enjoyed Children of Time (a little bit more than simply 'Spiders in Spaaace') so sought out a couple of his other Sci-Fi novels. Dogs of War was okay, I haven't yet been able to get into the Tripods book. Apparently the sequel to Children of Time is lacklustre so I'm wondering if he's a one-hit wonder and if his fantasy writing is any good?
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Two things about Bakker really grate on my nerves. One, the names. So many fucking names!! Names of people and cities and countries and religions, and almost none of them matter. I suppose he thinks he's adding background color, and showing off how very detailed and impressive his world-building is. But it comes off as just obnoxious noise. I've been reading fantasy novels for about 30 years now, so I'm pretty comfortable with weird fantasy names, but Bakker pushes the limits of my patience. It's almost like technobabble in a Star Trek episode -- it's just words that don't mean anything that are there to fill space.
The second thing is more of a writer quirk. The majority of the story is told from a limited, third-person point of view. The POV moves around to different characters, but you're only ever inside one person's head at a time, seeing events from that person's eyes. Pretty typical stuff. But then he does this thing when he's describing big picture events, like a big battle. It's like he pulls the camera WAAAAAAY back, and suddenly you're reading this omniscient, voiceless point of view. Instead of seeing the battle through the eyes of a character, it's like you're reading a dry, history textbook for a few pages. He does that all the time, and it's such a jarring, disorienting experience.
The book is also suuuuper grimdark, with lots of horrible people with suspect motives doing horrible things to one another. It takes a subtle hand to pull that off without descending into bleak nihilism. Bakker is not nearly as talented as, say, Martin or Abercrombie or Erickson, who deal in similar themes. Why should I care about ANY of these people when they're all fucking awful? There's no Tyrion or Logan Ninefingers to add some much-needed gallows humor.
Anyway, yeah, I think I'm done with R. Scott Bakker. I think I'm going to read some Bernard Cornwell next, as a bit of a palate cleanser.
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mezike wrote:
Yugblad wrote: I'm deep into SPIDERLIGHT - in my quest to read all books featuring giant spiders!
This one feels like it’s setting me up for a huge twist.
Reads somewhat like a D&D campaign.
How are you finding Tchaikovsky's books? I really enjoyed Children of Time (a little bit more than simply 'Spiders in Spaaace') so sought out a couple of his other Sci-Fi novels. Dogs of War was okay, I haven't yet been able to get into the Tripods book. Apparently the sequel to Children of Time is lacklustre so I'm wondering if he's a one-hit wonder and if his fantasy writing is any good?
I'm really enjoying Spiderlight - I have Children of Time ready to go next.
I like to approach things in reverse order!
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I also read The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell based on my brother's recommendation. I have not read Cornwell, but I though it was a fairly engaging historical fiction with a lot of ties to actual history. I am curious to read the rest of the series, which I have because my brother dropped off a box of books last time he visited.
I just started Lenin: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror by Victor Sebestyen. I've only read the introduction and prologue, but based on those I anticipate it will be a quick, fast paced read. The writer's style is much more fluid and vivid than Pipes' work, though it might give up some of the scholarly edge as a tradeoff.
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- Sagrilarus
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