What Are You Reading, Part 2

[Darkness Ascendant]

Hardly a spoiler, actually. There is a kandra who shows up fairly early, chapter 3-4, his name is VenDell. He is the quest giver in this book

yes but I have only read up to book 3 in the Mistborn series

now I'm curious

[Hood]

Finished Storm Front. I loved it. I loved Dresden's dialogues. Though they were not as good as Locke Lamora's. Still it was hugely entertaining. Now, I am onto Fool Moon.

[maxal]

Age definitely isn't inherently good or bad, so long as the writing is up to snuff.  Tolkein was published decades ago and LoTR still holds up better than most series. Plus 1987 is when Mort was published, and is therefore the first time we really got an in depth look at Discworld's Death. I'd rate that book higher than pretty much every single work I know of by at least a few more recent authors (cough Rowling cough).

 

I agree with this post. Simply because something dates from the last century does not mean it isn't worth reading/watching. The 80s aren't exactly prehistorical times either, some of us grew up in the 80s...

 

This being said, I did notice certain trends when it comes to both movies and books. In fact, I'd argue the trends I notices in movies, at the turning of the century, are now being seen in books. It is something I wanted to write for a while, just to see what others take was on it.

 

Being huh older than the average forumer, I happen to have been old enough to witness a certain change when it comes to movies. It started in the 90s, about when special effects and CGI started to blossom. A whole new world was then discovered and movie makers thought they had to extensively use it. It wasn't long before movies became lame excuses to display a wide series of special effects with little plot development to hold them together. Mission Impossible 2, Matrix 2, Star Wars Episode 1 are all movies which suffered from this trend: little story, no character development, just a string of endless special effects which generally included a car race or two. Those were terrible movies, pretty movies, but quite empty plot wise. It was all about pacing, pacing, pacing, action, action, action, visual effects, visual effects visual effects while completely forgetting the key element which makes stories compelling: character development and wise plotting. The slow movement of a story, the quiet building up of tension, back in the days where special effects weren't so easy to make, producers had to play on their viewers emotions and sense of dread in order to create good movies. Alien 1 and 2 are a good example of this.

 

Somehow, this was lost, somewhere around 1997. Today, I would say this trend is slowly moving away as recent movies seem to have got back some of the 80s playfulness while investing more on character development then they were in the past. I am hardly an expert though, considering the fact I don't see many movies nowadays, so others may have something to add on the matter. These merely are my impressions.

 

This being said, the reason I talked about movies was to fall onto books as I have noticed or I am noticing a growing trend in books. Pacing seems to be the new word. If a book is guilty of not presenting an action sequence in too many pages, readers would call it boring, saying "nothing happens" and discard it as if stories had to be endless strings of battle.... Just as movies were at the turning of the century. 

 

How many comments I have read, mostly on Reddit, of people stating they found WoK boring because "nothing happens"... Plenty happens in WoK, but the book isn't just one giant fight which I fear is what some readers were expecting. I worry about this growing trend, probably because I saw what it did to movies and I didn't personally like it, hence I worry. In the past, we have seen authors such as GRRM or Jordan making their story derail by focusing too hardly on side plots and not enough on the main one: I fear they may have set a trend. The trend of "what not to write" and hence authors, even our own beloved Brandon, have decided on a common accord to focus on pacing and making the main arc move forward, no matter the cost. 

 

I have just finished Codex Alera. I thought the story was a good one up until the last books where its weaknesses became more obvious and overly annoying. What were they? The fact the story focused practically solely on Tavi which as to be one of the most boring character ever. Why is he boring? Because he is perfect, he has no edge, no drama, no emotions: he is bland. On the reverse, side characters such as Crassus and Maximus had a promising start, they had edges and great potential for drama, but they were painfully under used up to the point where they became nothing more than lackeys, completely irrelevant and unimportant to the overall main story arc. When I realized these characters would never be more than minor underdeveloped characters, I lost most interest I had in the series. It was also re-emphasis by having Kitai joined the rank of Tavi as one of fantasy most boring and one dimensional character: to think I liked her in the first books. 

 

What happened in this story? How could something which started up so well, with a good idea, a good setting, good start-up characters to begin with? Pacing. It was all about the pacing to get to the end battle which was won in the same way, every single book. There were other reasons, but pacing was one and I worried.

 

I am worried we are starting a new trend in books, one where action and pacing takes it all, superseding the need to explore the characters more as these scenes aren't action-filled and thus deemed boring by some. I fear that, by writing too many action-paced stories, authors have created the expectation, within readers, that a story had to written in such way.

 

As a result, I wouldn't discard any story written in another century: there was good in older stories. There was more cliche, true, but stories such as WoT carried such an intensive development: I wouldn't have seen it reduced in order to concentrate more. It would have removed everything which makes it so unique... IMHO.

 

As to the topic at hand, I have ordered SoS and BoM. They should get here shortly.

[StormingTexan]

yes but I have only read up to book 3 in the Mistborn series

now I'm curious

Sounds like a good reason to read the Era 2 books then. They are awesome!

[Rayse]

Just finished Rise of Empire which is Riyria #2 and started Heir of Novron which is #3. Excellent characters and action. I'd highly recommend the series. I do half my series reading and half audiobooks. This series is audio and I'd highly recommend the narrator who does an excellent job. 

 

Also finished Royal Assassin Farseer #2 which unfortunately wasn't as good as book #1, which I liked a lot, rewash. Without spoilers I will read #3 since it still has a ton of potential and the plot has to be different given the ending of #2 but not right away. I usually love reading series from start to finish when possible but not with this one. The above post references pacing vs character development. Book #1 did this very well and the magic was great. There's a lot of court politics in both books but in #2 it just bogs down for forever with no real point to enhance the plot or what we already know about the characters. The last third of the book it does pick up and really ends on an up-note so we'll see. 

 

I'm about a third of the way through Storm Front which is a fun easy read to this point. I'm hoping I really like it because it intersects my fantasy genre with my wife's detective drama and it would be nice to read the same thing. The last common book we read was in her genre Gone Girl which I thought was highly overrated and predictable. Before that both of us and our oldest two daughters read both Hunger Games and Divergent. Both of which I liked for what they were, young adult fantasy. It's fun to talk to your kids about the books which makes them better for me than if I just read them for myself. 

Edited March 4, 2016 by Rayse

[StormingTexan]

Just finished Rise of Empire which is Riyria #2 and started Heir of Novron which is #3. Excellent characters and action. I'd highly recommend the series. I do half my series reading and half audiobooks. This series is audio and I'd highly recommend the narrator who does an excellent job.

Glad to hear this. I just bought the first book in the series on a whim since it was on sale for $5.95 on Audible. I've actually found a few new authors I really like when they do these sales.

[Moonskin]

Finished Bands of Mourning that I really enjoyed (more that Shadows of self). I just bought "The once and future king" that I've been meaning to read for a very long time and it really is enchanting 

 

(out of curiosity after some of the last posts here, I discoverd that it had been published in 1939! I knew it was a classic, but I did not know that it was that "old")

[Dunkum]

@maxal

 

don't want to quote the post because that is a long wall of text but I did want to add a word or two.  on the bit about pacing, this bothers me a lot too, especially in books, in fact, where things are a bit less visual.  You don't need a big fight scene or whatever to be interesting, and the fact that some people seem to think that you do is very infuriating.  I'm probably even more tolerant about this sort of thing than you are.  I mostly don't mind when GRRM and Jordan go off a bit on the side characters, and I'm apparently in the very small minority who enjoyed Crossroads of Twilight (I will go to my grave thinking it is a better book than Eye of the World).  Also think that Feast for Crows is better than most people give it credit for.  make of those what you will, but I'm digressing a bit here.  my point is basically that you're definitely right that there is more to an interesting story than just fights and battles.  in fact, a story that was all fights would likely be more boring, ironically.  A well done fight scene is great (I love Kaladin's in WoK and WoR) but in order for it to really hit home, you need all that tension building beforehand.  Kaladin's scenes at the end of WoR are all the more powerful because of what came before.

[Sunbird]

I ended up only finishing 2 out of the 3 novellas in "Three Slices" because I couldn't stand the immediate crassness in the last one, the one by Chuck Wendig. *adds Chuck Wendig to mental blacklist of authors I have no desire to ever read*

 

I managed to work out a method by which I was able to read on my Kindle while working (albeit at a slower pace than I can when I'm undisturbed), so I've devoured 70% of "Staked," the latest Iron Druid book, today.

[maxal]

@maxal

 

don't want to quote the post because that is a long wall of text but I did want to add a word or two.  on the bit about pacing, this bothers me a lot too, especially in books, in fact, where things are a bit less visual.  You don't need a big fight scene or whatever to be interesting, and the fact that some people seem to think that you do is very infuriating.  I'm probably even more tolerant about this sort of thing than you are.  I mostly don't mind when GRRM and Jordan go off a bit on the side characters, and I'm apparently in the very small minority who enjoyed Crossroads of Twilight (I will go to my grave thinking it is a better book than Eye of the World).  Also think that Feast for Crows is better than most people give it credit for.  make of those what you will, but I'm digressing a bit here.  my point is basically that you're definitely right that there is more to an interesting story than just fights and battles.  in fact, a story that was all fights would likely be more boring, ironically.  A well done fight scene is great (I love Kaladin's in WoK and WoR) but in order for it to really hit home, you need all that tension building beforehand.  Kaladin's scenes at the end of WoR are all the more powerful because of what came before.

 

Actually, having GRRM and Jordan go off on side characters is something I absolutely love. It goes back to pacing: I do not mind if the story is not moving forward at a great pace, as long as I get to read a... story. Some of those side characters arcs are among my favorites: Jaime Lannister, Theon Greyjoy (it was a real tear jerkier that one: it had to be included), Samwell Tarly (come on who didn't like seeing little Samwell finally grow up a spine?), the Aes Sedai who tried to uproot the black Ajah in the White Tower (I love those chapters, I was sadden to see the plot die and amount to nothing, in the end), Androl to only name a few. I wouldn't have wish for the authors to remove those side stories in order to focus more on the main arc despite some fans protest.

 

Feast for Crows wasn't the best book of the series, but it still offers us several great arcs... Apart from those mentioned above, Cersei was delightfully hateful to read. I loved those. I loved hating her and wishing her ill. The problem with the book isn't the fact the author chose to play out his secondary characters, it is the fact he choose to do so while removing all of his readers favorites... He should have put more Arya in book 4 and fans would have been happier. Jon and Dany for book 5 was sound choice. Brienne also didn't work out so well... Turns out she is quite boring to read as a main protagonist: she should have remained a side. The Iron Isle story arc also wasn't overly compelling, but huh not all arcs will please everyone. I don't mind if there is one arc I don't like so much if I enjoy most of the others.

 

Nowadays though, it seems as if authors are scared of their side characters, they are scared to give them a voice. The pacing! The story has to move forward: it must absolutely not give the appearance of stalling and giving larger role to side characters is now the no-no thing to do. It has now become a massive pace killer... Don't get me wrong, good pacing is important, BUT making the characters solely work for the pacing isn't exactly better. Sometimes, you need the side stories to make your story... interesting... as strange as it may sound.

 

Perhaps I am writing those things because I have just finished Codex Alera and I found it a prime example of what I tried to illustrate. Everything was sacrificed to the temple of pace and the main story arc, but it turned being a rather boring one carried with characters who become boring due to being forced to focus solely on this cursed main arc. The story would have been infinitely better if the author had chosen to wisely play his side characters: he had material there, but he chose not to exploit it. This obsession over pace has, IMHO, ruined what could have been a good story.

 

I believe it is the existence of the side arcs, the minor characters who rise up which creates the richness of a world by making it bigger than one hero's playground. I wish for authors to stop being scared of their side characters who may have out grown their initial role, I wish they wouldn't see them as danger for the "pacing"... Slow building of characters is just as important as the large battles, in fact I'd argue without characters to root for, the large battle becomes horribly boring.

 

Brandon however knows how to write good battles scenes which aren't boring or endless. He knows which key element to focus on to make them breath-taking to read. He knows how to make a climax fulfilling, unlike the Codex Alera which failed to create one. It is a skill he truly possess, but we are just too books in... it usually takes more than that to get a clear impression of a series. 

 

Still I worry about this trend on pacing... Hopefully, I am just talking none sense which was triggered by my sour mood over a series I thought had promises, but failed to meet them.

 

I am tired of being disappointed by the unfortunate books I end picking.

[Sunbird]

Finished the rest of Staked today and started on Night Owls, a book I heard about through BookBub. I'm about 20% in and haven't formed a definite opinion of it yet.

[Trizee]

Wow, it's been a month since I lasted posted here. This is what I've read:

Calamity which was amazing

Bluescreen by Dan Wells, though it was a decent book, I felt it wasn't on par with the rest of Dan's work. I heard that it's to be the first book in a long series, so I hope the following books are better. This is what happened with the Partials series- I thought the first book was only okay, but the next two books were amazing.

I made an attempt at both Card's Lost gate and Jim Butcher's Storm Front, but stopped in the middle of both because they were just too 'dirty' for me.

I read Mark Lawrence's Prince of Thorns and though while reading it I found it hard to put down, I've decided I didn't like it. The main character is just a horrible person, rape and murder are everyday actions for him. I just couldn't make myself like him.

I'm now reading The Lies of Locke Lamora, and though I'm only 50 pages in, I' m thoroughly enjoying it. The prose is beautiful and thw dialogue is great, so that I have big hopes for this book.

I would also like to add my voice to those who say they enjoy a slower pacing. I think that for a book to be truly grand it needs to have a slower pace. I too am of the opinion that CoT was a great book. I would only like to mention that I think writing such books takes a certain skill rhat not all writers possess, and we can't blame authors for not being Jordan or Martin.

[Left]

I finished Soul Music, and boy was that good! Probably my favorite Death book since Mort, although Hogfather was really good too.

I'm about half way through Crucible of Gold, and it's improved quite a bit over the last Temeraire book. I'm also about a third of the way through listening to Dodger, a non-discworld Pratchett.

There's a good chance I'll start Codex Alera book two this week.

[Robinski]

"Rogues" ed. by GRRM and Gardner Dozois. Just started, so currently finishing Joe Abercrombie's 'Tough Times All Over' - interesting idea, still trying to decide if having '15' pov's in a short story is clever or super-annoying.

[maxal]

 I would only like to mention that I think writing such books takes a certain skill rhat not all writers possess, and we can't blame authors for not being Jordan or Martin.

 

Oh I certainly don't... I simply wonder if we are facing a trend in books similar to the trend I saw happening in movies at the turn of the century. I am always sadden when I hear so many new readers who give up on Jordan because it is "too boring" or "too slow paced". Jordan? Boring?   

 

There's a good chance I'll start Codex Alera book two this week.

 

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the Codex Alera as you move forward... As you could see, I ended being disappointed, mostly by book 5 and 6. Book 2 and 3 were actually quite good. 

 

For my part, I had reserved SoS and BoM at the local library. I also wanted to reserve Powder Mage, but it was only available in French   so looks like I am going to have to buy it if I want to read it. Since I was out of books, I settled for a third already available choice... I went for a sure pick: Ken Follett third century trilogy book. I wasn't sure about the modern time story, but so far, it is quite good. I didn't know many of the historical aspects he chose to focus on, so it is bound to be instructive, for me.

 

Library hasn't call for SoS and BoM yet, there was a waiting list, but should be fast enough though.

[Dunkum]

"Rogues" ed. by GRRM and Gardner Dozois. Just started, so currently finishing Joe Abercrombie's 'Tough Times All Over' - interesting idea, still trying to decide if having '15' pov's in a short story is clever or super-annoying.

That the one where the PoV switches to whoever has just stolen the mcguffin every time it gets taken?  I remember that.  I think I changed my mind on how clever/annoying it was about 8 times through the story.

 

Also don't know if you've read Rothfuss's Kingkiller chronicle books, but I basically think "The Lightning Tree" is the best story from the waorld that I have read.

[Sunbird]

Wow, it's been a month since I lasted posted here. This is what I've read:

Calamity which was amazing

Bluescreen by Dan Wells, though it was a decent book, I felt it wasn't on par with the rest of Dan's work. I heard that it's to be the first book in a long series, so I hope the following books are better. This is what happened with the Partials series- I thought the first book was only okay, but the next two books were amazing.

I made an attempt at both Card's Lost gate and Jim Butcher's Storm Front, but stopped in the middle of both because they were just too 'dirty' for me.

I'm now reading The Lies of Locke Lamora, and though I'm only 50 pages in, I' m thoroughly enjoying it. The prose is beautiful and thw dialogue is great, so that I have big hopes for this book.

I would also like to add my voice to those who say they enjoy a slower pacing. I think that for a book to be truly grand it needs to have a slower pace. I too am of the opinion that CoT was a great book. I would only like to mention that I think writing such books takes a certain skill rhat not all writers possess, and we can't blame authors for not being Jordan or Martin.

 

I also think Calamity was amazing. However, I kind of have the opposite opinion as you about Dan Wells's books--I enjoyed the first 2 Partials books more than the 3rd and was quite entertained by Bluescreen. (I guess we both agree that Fragments was awesome, though!) Have you read his John Cleaver series yet? I think they're his best books.

 

Thanks for warning me away from Lost Gate. I have also found myself disappointed with the kind of content in Orson Scott Card's books, though i haven't read nearly as many as some people. I would've thought that as an LDS author, he would write cleaner stuff. As for the Dresden Files... I had to significantly raise my tolerance level for foul language in order to read those. Even now, that series about hits my limit for what I'm wiling to put up with. I do put up with it mainly because I like Harry Dresden too much to stop reading about him.

 

Lots of people have been talking about this Lies of Locke Lamora; I will have to go investigate it...

 

As for slower pacing, I think it works in some books and for some authors and not in others. In my opinion, there needs to be something interesting or at least relevant to the plot going on at all times, but that thing doesn't necessarily have to be fight scenes and car chases and explosions all the time. Regular old conversations can be critically important too. My favorite example of a slow-burning plot that absolutely works is Brandon's own Stormlight books. Yeah, they're a storming 1000 pages long, but they're never boring because there's always something interesting going on, or something that makes you ask questions, or explorations into the strange world of Roshar. And all that slow buildup is totally worth the explosive, mind-blowing climax.

[IndigoAjah]

Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie. Which is... interesting

[IndigoAjah]

Oh I certainly don't... I simply wonder if we are facing a trend in books similar to the trend I saw happening in movies at the turn of the century. I am always sadden when I hear so many new readers who give up on Jordan because it is "too boring" or "too slow paced". Jordan? Boring?   

 

 

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the Codex Alera as you move forward... As you could see, I ended being disappointed, mostly by book 5 and 6. Book 2 and 3 were actually quite good. 

 

For my part, I had reserved SoS and BoM at the local library. I also wanted to reserve Powder Mage, but it was only available in French   so looks like I am going to have to buy it if I want to read it. Since I was out of books, I settled for a third already available choice... I went for a sure pick: Ken Follett third century trilogy book. I wasn't sure about the modern time story, but so far, it is quite good. I didn't know many of the historical aspects he chose to focus on, so it is bound to be instructive, for me.

 

Library hasn't call for SoS and BoM yet, there was a waiting list, but should be fast enough though.

If they think Jordan's pace is slow, they should avoid the likes of Stephenson! (whom I adore) Or even Gaiman!

 

I quite like mixing up the pace of my books, same with films, always depends on my mood and how I feel my attention span is doing

[Mailliw73]

Sunbird, I haven't read Dresden Files, so I can't compare, but Locke Lamora has quite a bit of language. Just a warning!

[Straw]

I am currently on book 5 of the Dresden files.

I'm now reading The Lies of Locke Lamora, and though I'm only 50 pages in, I' m thoroughly enjoying it. The prose is beautiful and thw dialogue is great, so that I have big hopes for this book.

You're soooooo lucky. I have been waiting three months to get it from the library and still do not have my hands on it.

[Orlion Blight]

Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie. Which is... interesting

I liked it! It certainly is not his best, but I was satisfied with it.

And you're not kidding about Donaldson's pacing. All first books in his series (with the exception of The Wounded Land) are slowed down by his setup.

[Sunbird]

Sunbird, I haven't read Dresden Files, so I can't compare, but Locke Lamora has quite a bit of language. Just a warning!

 

Thanks for the heads-up!

 

I started and finished Mistborn: Secret History today. SO AWESOME. I loved seeing the "behind the scenes" of the original Mistborn trilogy. Makes me want to go back and re-read them.

 

I also plowed through about half of a book called Chasing the Skip by Janci Patterson. It's about a teen girl whose absentee father is a "bounty hunter" of sorts (he hunts down and arrests people who pay bail and then don't show up for their court date, and gets paid for doing it), and she ends up tagging along with him on his job after her mom disappears. I like it so far.

 

I also plan to start reading sometime soon Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, a book that one of my friends on GoodReads recommended to me.

[maxal]

I once picked up Jonathan's strange, but I admit I was discouraged by the size of it   I am ashamed to say it. This one is a massive brick! I'll probably try it at a time when I am in a mood for something this thick.

[Infinite Citadel]

Currently in the middle of Towers of Midnight (so close to being done with the series, it's been a blast )