The literary thread

[Calax]

Ok, I would have put this in the old book thread but that's been pretty much removed from the board so...

 

A few weeks ago I read the Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks. It piqued my interest after playing assassins creed two simply because it seemed like it was trying to cash in on the particular art design of the games.

 

 

 

Anyway, the basic story is one of a kid who's from the lowest of the low rung of society, a homeless orphan in the capital of a fantasy land... but is part of a sort of kids guild (they don't go into it) led by an older kid who beats people up, and then if any of the boys step out of line he basically turns that boy into his victim... sexually. According to the author that's actually taken from his wifes social worker backround but still...

 

Anyway, kid ends up being trained as a "wetboy" (who are basically magical assassins who never "miss") and becomes one of the best. It's a REALLY dark story and series of events in the books. It's biggest issue is that the book doesn't let off the gas to really give you a chance to breath. There's a TINY bit between the first two books but other than that there always is a sense of urgency in EVERYTHING the characters do. This really gets to be oppressive and made me actually end up forcing myself to put down the book so I didn't become too depressed and so that I could get a chance to catch my breath. And not only does he not let up off the gas, but he doesn't let up off the horrific things that keep happening which brings me to what ultimately led to my making this thread.

 

At about the midpoint (well a little before) of the second book, the main characters of the book end up being manipulated by a woman from the "chantry" (Basically an all woman magic school/organization) into doing things for her... but she also kidnaps (effectively) the pseudo daughter of the Main character, and ends up setting in motion events that basically lead to him being forcefully telepathically connected to another person... permanently. Then the woman later practically forces the woman that she had link to him to go the chantry (where she took the daughter of the main character) and enrolls them both into the classes there. Now the sense of time in this book is a little wonky, but basically this starts to fade into the background.

 

Now here's the issue... initially all this is brought up with suitable horror. Basically these two characters were manipulated into a form of psychic rape, and it's a woman doing it to a man (which is nice that it's not used for comedy). The two characters now are sharing each others thoughts, dreams, emotions, sensations, and the guy can't have anything remotely close to a loving relationship with the woman he loved BEFORE all this occurred because of the magic in this (I'll expand on the rings in a moment). BUT within a few chapters, it seems like any animosity that the characters should have felt towards the person who set them up for this basically disappears. They never really DO anything about this and the character actually becomes one of the people we're supposed to root for.

 

This has just been bugging me and has kept me up all night tonight being really pissed off (don't know why this is affecting me such...). If I were the guy in question here, I'd have knocked out the woman who could force me to do things, then promptly went, grabbed the manipulative bitch, and basically made her watch while I took everything she knew and loved, and put it to the torch, then smashed her precious chantry brick by brick in front of her eyes before leaving her in the middle of the rubble unable to do anything. And somehow I'm expected to ROOT for her in the climax of the trilogy and expected to feel that the victims in this whole situation are actually having something good happen to them when they're basically conscripted into the school!

 

I don't know why this pissed me off to the point of preventing me from sleeping but it has.

 

 

 

And so this all makes sense: The psychic rape was basically allowed by a pair of ancient magical rings that are supposed to be used by a couple in love, the rings put a spell on both parties that makes it so that their minds are intertwined (to the point where they have lucid dreams about the other where they can have sex), and there's a spell placed on the guy that makes him do whatever the woman orders. And these aren't hand rings, these are rings put through the ear, and then they magically seal so that the only way to "divorce" is to literally rip it out of your ear.

[Calax]

After that diatribe, gotta say I'm readign "Masters of Rome" again... still can be rough to read because there's no real sense of time (months can pass within the span of a page) and because things are so obviously bias in hindsight towards the Marius and Julius families.

[Tale]

So would you recommend it? The Night Angel Trilogy, I mean. It's been on my list for a while since some guys recommended it, but I was never certain if I would pick it up.

Edited February 15, 2011 by Tale

[Calax]

Overall it's pretty good, it's just there are a few things with it that really niggle at my brain. Not something plow through in one sitting.

[Guest The Architect]

For a second there I thought that guy was Hayden Christensen, especially with the hood and all.

[BicycleOfDeath]

Calax, I'm on Book II at the moment. Roughly 100 pages from the end and I have Book III purchased all ready. I really should be reading instead of lurking the web, but it's how I stay sane at the moment. Wake up in my car, shower at the depot, go to Starbucks until a couple hours before work, go to work, read for a couple hours before work starts, work, repeat.

[Raithe]

I picked up a book a couple of months ago, which turned out to be the first part in a trilogy. The House War by Michelle West (otherwise known as Michelle Sagara).. got quite into it, but then found out that it's connected to a previous series she had done.

 

Apparently x years ago she'd written a 6 part fantasy series (The Sun Sword), a nice sprawling epic woven over several years and multiple characters in different "countries/locales"...

 

But the author has gone back and created this new trilogy which in ways is a prequel about one of the characters from the Sun Sword series.. sort of fills in some of the background hooks, further explanations.. and then runs along to do scenes from her other books..but from the point of view of other characters.

 

Kind of reminds me of the way Webber's Honorverse has become.

That creation of a grand timescale, detailed universe... and then different books telling seperate stories but connected by the same events.... all part of a meta-plot.. but with certain books that you can read stand-alone without worrying about the overall story (even if you would get a better understanding by reading them all).

 

But I have to say I find myself straddling a line.. On the one hand I can be very cynical about that approach in a "this is an author trying to make as much money as they can" kind of way, but on the other I can actually find it works really well for creating a very fleshed out, believable universe and being interesting in how they create different perceptions and emotions.

 

That and I've got to admire the effort put into keeping things consistent and having all those connections and cross-connections...

[Guard Dog]

George RR Martin has fianlly finished A Dance With Dragons it seems. It now has a firm publish date. I guess it's time to break out the other books and start remembering what the hell was going on in them. It's been a while.

 

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/news.html

[Walsingham]

George RR Martin has fianlly finished A Dance With Dragons it seems. It now has a firm publish date. I guess it's time to break out the other books and start remembering what the hell was going on in them. It's been a while.

 

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/news.html

 

 

Good news, there.

 

I'm just reading Dan Abnett again. Simply too hard to justify reading inferior fantasy writers.

[Calax]

Abnett is awesome. I think I like his comic book stuff better however.

 

As to Martin, I gotta say I'm not exactly sure I like his work anymore. Sure he's got a good story and characters etc. But it's become to confusing and slow to keep track of (not to mention the speed he writes at). Also I'm a bit frustrated at the way he wrote the books with a the rebellion/succession war being left out of the books in general when it colors basically EVERYTHING in the series. As much as I sort of like the idea, I don't need to know that the Queen Mother is having lesbian intercourse with one of her ladies in waiting... seriously.

 

Oh, and finished "First Man in Rome". It gets a little better but to me it still feels... off. The author doesn't really give you a sense of time (In one chapter the Julius Ceaser family is said to have had 2 daughters... nothing else really marks the passage of time, just the fact that two "Julias" were born). And some of the characterization feels a bit to much like charicature (The girl who only grows up when she has to and ends up being a wino, all the autocrats are basically "marty stu" except for Sulla who ends up becoming an opponent to Marius, all the older politicians don't care about anyone but themselves, all the younger politicians are demagogues who force their will upon the Senate etc). And (this may sound weird overall) it glorifies the stiff formal style that the Ceaser family had (according to the author anyway), where dinner was served just so, nobody really talked, nobody really had fun etc etc. While a life where somebody might actually have a chance to have fun, or enjoys the holidays as they were meant to be is downplayed as "non roman" and thus disgraceful.

 

Ah well, back to Black Company one again while playing through Myth: The Fallen Lords.

Edited March 10, 2011 by Calax

[Guard Dog]

Just finished reading Chief of Station, Congo: Fighting the Cold War in a Hot Zone by Larry Devlin. VERY interesting read. It's a memoir by the CIA station chief at the US Embassy in the Congo during the Congos move to independence and subsequent civil war. A great perspective on history and I learned a lot about a part of the world I knew little about (central Africa).

 

Now reading Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

[Morgoth]

Now reading Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

And, is it a worthy sequel?

[Guard Dog]

Now reading Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

And, is it a worthy sequel?

So far so good

[Shryke]

George RR Martin has fianlly finished A Dance With Dragons it seems. It now has a firm publish date. I guess it's time to break out the other books and start remembering what the hell was going on in them. It's been a while.

 

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/news.html

 

wait, what?!

the Duke Nukem Forever of the fantasy book world is actually being released?!

 

my flatmate gave me the Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko to read. haven't started them just yet though. still finishing off the Golden Compass stuff

[Raithe]

Dang.. now I'm getting annoyed. That enjoyable fantasy series I've been reading.. I've read books 1-4. and I've got book 6 waiting on my shelf. But apparently I can either spend

[Tale]

Two short stories for you:

http://qntm.org/gorge

http://qntm.org/transit

[Guard Dog]

I finished Wise Mans Fear. It's good, really good, compared to many other books out there, just not it's predecessor. The story is sort of a mess actually, it does not stand o it's own like the Wind did, it will need a third title to clean it up. But don't get me wrong, it is well worth your time and it does advance the story quite a bit.

 

So, go buy it, you will like it, maybe not love it, but you will like it.

 

Now reading The Extra 2% by Jonah Keri. Perfect for the start of baseball season!

Edited March 28, 2011 by Guard Dog

[Tale]

I've started reading How Not to Write a Novel. I bought it for the humor, but it's inspiring me to try.

[Guest The Architect]

Don't bother if I'm not the lead character.

[Monte Carlo]

I've started reading How Not to Write a Novel. I bought it for the humor, but it's inspiring me to try.

 

Best advice I ever got for novice authors was write chapters 1 - 3, then dump chapter 1 and start your book with chapter 2.

 

It sounds crazy, but it can actually work.

[Oner]

Been reading some Battletech lately. Hunters and the clan invasion trilogy (can't remember the proper name atm), to be precise.

Great books, like 'em a lot.

 

Except the part where a guy comes up with a fake name inspired by - you guessed it, ****in' Shakespeare. Because there haven' been any noteworthy poets/writers/etc in the last ~1500 years.

Then he goes and calls radars primitive tech. Ungh.

Edited March 31, 2011 by Oner

[Calax]

Been reading some Battletech lately. Hunters and the clan invasion trilogy (can't remember the proper name atm), to be precise.

Great books, like 'em a lot.

 

Except the part where a guy comes up with a fake name inspired by - you guessed it, ****in' Shakespeare. Because there haven' been any noteworthy poets/writers/etc in the last ~1500 years.

Then he goes and calls radars primitive tech. Ungh.

You talking about

Fotch

?

 

Wait, are you doing the clans invading the Inner Sphere or the Inner Sphere going for the clan worlds?

 

And I liked MOST of the books in the Btech series. There were a few duds but for the most part they were all pretty good.

 

The main thing that bugged me was that Stackpole basically doesn't like to necessairly change his characters to suit the new series. I mean, Victor Davion and Corran Horn (sorta), Galen Cox is more like Tycho Celchu, Natasha Kerensky is Mirax Terrik.... He does start to branch out as he gets to more ancilliary characters who show up for a very short amount of time.

 

Worst thing to ever happen to Battletech was the decision by Fasa to go to "the dark ages" rather than simply back up to before the Clan invasions and go over the various other wars that'd taken place.

[Oner]

No, I meant Kai ...Allain? Or whatever.

 

I've read The Hunters (the Task Force Serpent story), but not it's sequels (library doesn't have them) and the Blood of Kerensky trilogy.

 

Love how Stackpole has every other character ~"spread his arms, as if trying to hug the entire room" or ~"put his arms together as if praying". It's like the Bioware DRAMATIC POINTING animation in novel format.

[Calax]

Oh, Kai Allard-Liao.

 

And yeah, the twilight of the clans series is pretty... interesting. Hunters is what, book three? I think that author got one other novel for them, and then that task force basically was referenced once near the end of the saga. Stackpole got two books in the series and the rest were sort of oneshots for authors to tell different war stories about the thing and then Victors return.

[Guard Dog]

Now reading Bloodheir by Brian Ruckley, the sequel to Winterbirth.