What Are You Reading, Part 2

[Dunkum he/him]

5 hours ago, rmmateus said:

I've never heard of it either. I just got mine on kindle because I can't bear to read my editions in portuguese. Here in Portugal they divided the 5 books in 20 tiny ones. It's awful

I saw some European Wheel of Time versions like that, where they split an already preposterously long series even more.  don't understand it for the life of me.  I guess they'd have to split Way of Kings and Words of Radiance into 3 book each over there.

[Ammanas]

Ok This is my last post about Glen Cook for awhile I promise. The thing I like about his books is that they are about ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances. He is also not afraid to tackle thoughts and ideas that lurk deep within a person, but which we rarely admit even to ourselves. I just read a passage that reminded of this attribute of his writing

[Draginon he/him]

25 minutes ago, Dunkum said:

I saw some European Wheel of Time versions like that, where they split an already preposterously long series even more.  don't understand it for the life of me.  I guess they'd have to split Way of Kings and Words of Radiance into 3 book each over there.

How long did those 14 books get from what you saw? Japan is also pretty bad since I've heard they don't like publishing anything longer than 300 pages.

[Erandeni he/him]

@rmmateus@Dunkumhere we have a publisher like that, every book larger than 500 pages is split, It happened with WoT and The Sword of Truth. Fortunately this didn't affect WoK or WoR, and other publisher released WoT like it was meant to be.

Edited August 12, 2017 by Idealistic

[Dunkum he/him]

9 hours ago, Draginon said:

How long did those 14 books get from what you saw? Japan is also pretty bad since I've heard they don't like publishing anything longer than 300 pages.

I didn't see the full series, but I think the ones I saw were split in 2.  so the full series would end up around 30  books if they did that for all of them

[rmmateus he/him]

@Idealistic @Dunkum They translated 4 WoT books in Portugal and they were not split. But they stopped translating claiming the story loses interest after. But I've seen plenty of Wot editions in Europe that were split. Here, it is one publisher in particular that does this. They've also split The Hero of Ages. As for ASOIAF, they first split each book in two, and then in four. That's one of the reasons I no longer buy books in Portuguese, and they're expensive too.

[Oversleep]

OK, is anyone here a fan of King's Dark Tower? I'd want to give it a try someday but from what I've heard there are some crossovers with other books and I wonder how big are they and what I would need to read. Please explain by comparing it with Cosmere crossovers to help me understand

[Draginon he/him]

1 hour ago, Oversleep said:

OK, is anyone here a fan of King's Dark Tower? I'd want to give it a try someday but from what I've heard there are some crossovers with other books and I wonder how big are they and what I would need to read. Please explain by comparing it with Cosmere crossovers to help me understand

I read the books a few years back. The crossovers tend to get on the small and big end. One character who shows up for the last three is a major character from Salem's Lot and another one comes from, I might be wrong, the ones co-authored with Peter Straub. There are references all over the place, like psychics that are practically similar to Carrie and Charlie from Firestarter, to Randell Flagg to the Crimson King, one character who's true appearance is described similar to Pennywise's true form, the fourth book is in the Topeka of The Stand. But despite the references I have listed here, there's a lot more I didn't put in because I don't remember them all, you can still enjoy the books without really needing to read King's other books, but if I had to recommend some I would say read Salem's Lot before the fifth book and read one with Flagg at some point to really know what he's like, otherwise the references are there just for the observant reader. Heck I haven't read all the books that do get referenced and I still enjoyed the series.

If I had to compare anything here to the Cosmere, it's deeper than the connection between Warbreaker and Stormlight but at the same time like the different references to the other worlds that get thrown in.

Hope that helps.

[Briar King]

You should read them and the rest of the DT linked books. Some are only linked by a few short words and some are much larger. King is a fantastic author.

[Sami she/her]

Just finished Patrick Rothfuss's A Wise Man's Fear and it was sooooo good! I'm looking for more fantasy/dystopian/awesome books to read. Any suggestions?

[AngelEy3 he/him]

15 minutes ago, Sami said:

Just finished Patrick Rothfuss's A Wise Man's Fear and it was sooooo good! I'm looking for more fantasy/dystopian/awesome books to read. Any suggestions?

Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks 

ASOIAF by Martin

Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne by Stavely 

First Law Trilogy by Abercrombie 

Malazan Book of the Fallen by Erickson 

Anything by Neil Gaiman or Stephen King. (maybe not anything of King's, but a whole lot) 

[+Extesian he/him]

56 minutes ago, Sami said:

Just finished Patrick Rothfuss's A Wise Man's Fear and it was sooooo good! I'm looking for more fantasy/dystopian/awesome books to read. Any suggestions?

Book of the New Sun. It's theoretically scifi, a dying Earth scenario, but presented as fantasy

[Sami she/her]

1 hour ago, Extesian said:

Book of the New Sun. It's theoretically scifi, a dying Earth scenario, but presented as fantasy

 

1 hour ago, AngelEy3 said:

Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks 

ASOIAF by Martin

Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne by Stavely 

First Law Trilogy by Abercrombie 

Malazan Book of the Fallen by Erickson 

Anything by Neil Gaiman or Stephen King. (maybe not anything of King's, but a whole lot) 

Hmm I'll check them out. Thanks 

[Oversleep]

16 hours ago, Briar King said:

You should read them and the rest of the DT linked books. Some are only linked by a few short words and some are much larger. King is a fantastic author.

I don't have *time* for so many so big books.

To put it in Cosmere terms: I don't have time to read Elantris just because Galladon shows up for one scene in Way of Kings. However, I will read Warbreaker before Words of Radiance.

[AngelEy3 he/him]

I'd say the important ones to read are The Stand and Eyes of the Dragon. They both feature Flagg as a main antagonist. 

[Draginon he/him]

@Oversleep I agree with @AngelEy3 on the Flagg books, but I'd maybe add Salem's Lot to understand Father Callahan's story since he's in the Warbreaker situation. Outside of those everything is more supplemental to every other book while also having some other books being supplemental to understanding some things in DK, like the Men in Yellow that pop up later on. But the supplemental books are more in the Elantris example you put.

[AngelEy3 he/him]

1 minute ago, Draginon said:

@Oversleep I agree with @AngelEy3 on the Flagg books, but I'd maybe add Salem's Lot to understand Father Callahan's story since he's in the Warbreaker situation. Outside of those everything is more supplemental to every other book while also having some other books being supplemental to understanding some things in DK, like the Men in Yellow that pop up later on. But the supplemental books are more in the Elantris example you put.

Thanks for adding Salem's Lot. Forgot all about it there. 

[Draginon he/him]

1 hour ago, AngelEy3 said:

Thanks for adding Salem's Lot. Forgot all about it there. 

It's kind of amazing when you put it in the least amount of books we've got two doorstoppers and a short novel before Oversleep can really get into the Dark Tower.

[Briar King]

3 hours ago, AngelEy3 said:

I'd say the important ones to read are The Stand and Eyes of the Dragon. They both feature Flagg as a main antagonist. 

Insomnia, Talisman/Blackhouse, Hearts in Atlantis(just one story).

[Orlion Blight he/him]

The Warrior Prophet by R Scott Bakker. Just finished the battle around the Plains of Mengedda. Exciting, great stuff! I'll post more in the Second Apocalypse topic if I have time. 

Edited August 14, 2017 by Orlion On a Cob

[Who Sharded?]

The battles in The Warrior Prophet are so good.  Probably my favorite battles that I've read.  

[Left he/him]

I finished Assassin's Price last night, the latest Imager book by L.E. Modesitt Jr. It was better than the last two books in the trilogy because it was far less derivative of the series as a whole. It may be the first time Modesitt has ever written a non-magic user as the main character in his fantasy novels. It's at least the first one that I've come across. It was a good change in any case, and definitely a breath of fresh air. 

This afternoon I read volumes 3-5 of Psyren. It's one of the best constructed and thought out manga I've read, although the paneling is weak and it's taken me a remarkably long time to get the characters straight. What's impressed me the most is how they've managed to take kind of stock shonen characters, plot, action, and setting, but make them feel far more grounded and unique than a run of the mill shonen series. When people get hurt, they really get hurt. Characters have a very human mix of logic and emotion. It's all very unusual for the genre, and while the paneling and art can make some things confusing( and a meh translation doesn't help) it's still a very impressive series. I'm definitely going to go to the effort of finishing the series. 

[Leiasqz she/her]

On 8/15/2017 at 10:30 PM, Left said:

I finished Assassin's Price last night, the latest Imager book by L.E. Modesitt Jr. It was better than the last two books in the trilogy because it was far less derivative of the series as a whole. It may be the first time Modesitt has ever written a non-magic user as the main character in his fantasy novels. It's at least the first one that I've come across. It was a good change in any case, and definitely a breath of fresh air. 

I enjoyed it too! It was refreshing to be allowed to know more than the main character for once (normally they figure out the riddles and then don't tell what they've figured out, but this time I knew some of the answers from the previous books).

On topic: After Red Sister, I've started Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb on Audible. Still on The Broken Eye in proper book form though. Might take a bit longer to read now since school started and I'm stuck with a brick of a book called "Introduction to the Practice of Statistics"...

[Ammanas]

Rereading Echoes of the Great Song by David Gemmell. Just as good as the first time I read it. A great story!

[AngelEy3 he/him]

Starting Red Country in a few minutes. It was a tough choice between it and Kings of the Wyld. Went with Red Country cause I should really finish the series.