What Are You Reading, Part 2

[DSC01 he/him]

You know, I just got to the first Mat chapter, and I have to say that on second thought, one could read his behavior as a reaction to finally being back with the Band, after months of first being continually sexually assaulted by Tylin, then completely disrespected by Tuon and the others he traveled with. Granted, the simple fact is that Brandon was writing Mat like he was still the immature prankster fresh from Emond's Field, but if one accepts that the book is canon as written and try to make sense of it accordingly, that is not at all an unreasonable way to interpret his behavior. In that light, yes, it's a step backwards for his character, but it is only temporary, after all. I know plenty of guys in their 30s who act like they're 22 again when they reunite with old college pals.

[Ammanas]

I'm taking a small break from my Black Company reread (after finishing Dreams of Steel) to start The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams. Its supposed to be a genre classic, so I thought I'd give it a try. Its been been on the back burner for awhile now; mainly because it seems like it embraces so many familiar tropes. I tend to go for books that try something different. 

[Left he/him]

47 minutes ago, Ammanas said:

I'm taking a small break from my Black Company reread (after finishing Dreams of Steel) to start The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams. Its supposed to be a genre classic, so I thought I'd give it a try. Its been been on the back burner for awhile now; mainly because it seems like it embraces so many familiar tropes. I tend to go for books that try something different. 

It does have many tropes, because it honestly started a lot of tropes. Yes Tokien, Eddings, and one other guy started a lot of the tropes, but Williams's Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy was another early influential fantasy writer. GRRM cited Williams's work as inspiration for GoT.

I absolutely love the books, after the first two thirds or so of the Dragon Bone Chair. The first part of Dragon Bone chair, yeah, it'll feel very trope ish. I think that if you keep reading the series there's a great chance you'll really like it, and that you'll see that since Williams helped create the tropes, the series is also actually quite different from formulized books that copy the tropes.

[Briar King]

MS&T is great old school fantasy. Enjoy. Perfect timing to as the new bks are coming soon so I ll def need a reread.

[Sunbird she/her]

1 hour ago, Briar King said:

MS&T is great old school fantasy. Enjoy. Perfect timing to as the new bks are coming soon so I ll def need a reread.

Halp a clueless Sharder out--what does MS&T stand for? I did a Google search and the only semi-relevant thing that turned up was Mystery Science Theater, but that's a TV show...?

[Left he/him]

6 hours ago, Sunbird said:

Halp a clueless Sharder out--what does MS&T stand for? I did a Google search and the only semi-relevant thing that turned up was Mystery Science Theater, but that's a TV show...?

Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. It's the name of the the trilogy by Tad Williams I was talking about above.

[DSC01 he/him]

I have to get back to that eventually. I started reading The Dragonbone Chair, and I just wasn't terribly interested. I ended up giving up after a while (I don't think I got very far). The same goes for The Malazan Book of the Fallen. I actually got about 400 pages in to Gardens of the Moon, but I gave up because I hated all of the characters so much that there was nothing to sustain my interest long enough for me to really figure out what was going on in the story. I think it just wasn't a good time for me to try to get into such a dark series.

[Briar King]

GOTM seems to be the hardest bk to down right love by new readers compared to other 9 for some reason. I loved it on 1st go. Those that get to bk 2 usually become hooked then at the emotional roller coaster it is.

 

mS&T is great if you don't mind old school fantasy.

[DSC01 he/him]

I don't know. I liked the Belgariad okay, but it was something where I appreciated the obvious influence it has had on contemporary fantasy more than the work itself. I admit I felt a bit the same when I tried to get into MS&T without success. It really has a lot to do with when I'm reading the books. I'll read or reread a series that I'm really into, then I start casting about for something else to read, and it often fails to catch my interest.

My plan for when I finish this Wheel of Time reread is to read some graphic novels that I've been wanting to get to (The Incal and Metabarons, mainly, but maybe the Bone collection I got a couple of months ago, too). I'm hoping that will work as a palate cleanser, and I'll be able to get into another series more easily.

[Orlion Blight he/him]

4 hours ago, Briar King said:

GOTM seems to be the hardest bk to down right love by new readers compared to other 9 for some reason. I loved it on 1st go. Those that get to bk 2 usually become hooked then at the emotional roller coaster it is.

 

mS&T is great if you don't mind old school fantasy.

I had a similar experience. I actually found Deadhouse Gates to be a little meh when I read it.

Now Memories of Ice! I say if you don't love that, the series isn't for you (and we can't be friends :P)

[Sunbird she/her]

@ScottLeft thanks for clarifying.

Update: finished reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter today and thought it was totally awesome. (I'm now thinking that I might want to watch the movie as well.) I was also very pleased to discover that there is a second book. :D

Edited July 8, 2016 by Sunbird

[Who Sharded?]

15 hours ago, Orlion Determined said:

I had a similar experience. I actually found Deadhouse Gates to be a little meh when I read it.

Now Memories of Ice! I say if you don't love that, the series isn't for you (and we can't be friends :P)

 

Totally agreed.  

[Sunbird she/her]

23 hours ago, Sunbird said:

@ScottLeft thanks for clarifying.

Update: finished reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter today and thought it was totally awesome. (I'm now thinking that I might want to watch the movie as well.) I was also very pleased to discover that there is a second book.

Have now made it more than halfway through The Last American Vampire, the sequel I mentioned above. I'm not enjoying it quite as much as the first one, but it's still quite good.

[DSC01 he/him]

Towers of Midnight!

[DSC01 he/him]

Oh, crap! I just realized that the next book in The Second Apocalypse comes out on Tuesday. Argh! I need to finish this reread, read The Prince of Nothing trilogy again, and reread the first two books of The Aspect Emperor so I know what's going on. It's been too long since I read that series. Noooooooo! Too many books.

Edited July 8, 2016 by DSC01

[Orlion Blight he/him]

A Natural History of Hell by Jeffrey Ford. It's a short story collection of awesomeness.

I'm also reading some Jean-Paul Sartre short stories as well 

[Left he/him]

Only You can Save Mankind. A non-Discworld book by Pratchett. 

[Briar King]

On July 7, 2016 at 7:01 PM, Sunbird said:

@ScottLeft thanks for clarifying.

Update: finished reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter today and thought it was totally awesome. (I'm now thinking that I might want to watch the movie as well.) I was also very pleased to discover that there is a second book.

 

Dont watch it! That bk is great! The movie is crap compared to it. It got the typical Hollywood treatment from bk to film and changed a lot and not for the better.

[Sunbird she/her]

7 minutes ago, Briar King said:

 

Dont watch it! That bk is great! The movie is crap compared to it. It got the typical Hollywood treatment from bk to film and changed a lot and not for the better.

Too late; already watched it. I didn't think it was all that awful, as adaptations go. (Although maybe that was because I spent a large portion of the movie distracted by thoughts of "Storm it, that actor looks SO familiar; where have I seen him before??" and "Dominic Cooper is very handsome" and "Hey look, it's Falcon!")

[Briar King]

I bought after seeing the trailer then read it just a few days before release. Almost the entire time in theater I was like Whaaaaa? Why? Lol that movie screamed movie makeover of the source. Kudos if ya didn't mind. Funny enuff my friend who didn't read really enjoyed it. It was all to fresh in my head at the time and crippled my opinion of it.

[Sunbird she/her]

I too was displeased with some of the changes they made in the vampire mythology--most notably the inability of vampires to kill other vampires--and Henry's back story, but I still enjoyed the movie as a whole. Those two things come a lot more into play in the second book, so if I were expecting a sequel movie I would probably be more up in arms about it (see the Eragon movie for an example of moviemakers' epic failure to plan for a sequel), but the book did cover like 50 years of Abe's life in significant detail, and there's no practical way to cram all that into a 2-hour movie and have it still be entertaining to a general moviegoing audience who have probably, as a majority, not read the book.

[Zea mays]

I am trudging my was through the Rye-Era* Revelations  series by Michael J. Sullivan. S'okay I guess. I like some one of the characters.

 

* Ok OK, it's actually spelled Riyria, but that's how the narrator pronounces it. 

[DSC01 he/him]

All right, moving on to A Memory of Light!

[Patar he/him]

Golden Compass, first book in the His Dark Materials trilogy. 

[Briar King]

Safehold 3 pg 323, Expanse 5 pg 56, & Outlander 3 pg 24. I've never read 3 at a time before.