Books we've been reading V2.0

[Walsingham]

Up to my ears in old Chinese legalist texts about statecraft and warfighting. At first they were fascinating, and now they just strike me as irritatingly scatty and unstructured.

[Raithe]

Heh, I've got a nice copy of the Seven Military Classics of Ancient China and making your way through the seven different works (while interesting) can be very awkward with the way they were written.

 

It's that combination of the structure in how they were each written (which is different for each one), compounded by the style of translation..

[WDeranged]

 

I'm currently reading Perdido Street Station by China Meiville, I was put off by the wordy introduction but as soon as I got to the intimate love scene between a fat man and an insect woman I got interested, I wouldn't say I'm hooked but his writing style is very interesting and he uses lots of descriptive words that I have to look up 

 

Ugh. I absolutely hated that book. The cover art - yes yes - promised a rich World build coming alive through a fabulous monster hunt. What I got was a lot of disjointed gibberish spread thinly across too many pages.

 

It's one of the few books I have actually thrown away rather than give to a charity shop or keep.

 

 

 

I'm near the end and I've enjoyed it so far, I wish he'd explain things without resorting to so much magical science and some characters (eg. Lemuel Pigeon) are acting out of step with their established traits but the ride is fun, I especially like the Weaver, the singing, dancing mad god in the form of a spider.

[Guard Dog]

Now reading The Man in the High Castle by Phillip ****. I was wrong when I said there was no good sci fi.., this one is good

[Agiel]

Now reading The Man in the High Castle by Phillip ****. I was wrong when I said there was no good sci fi.., this one is good

 

Might I suggest Stanislaw Lem? Some of my favourites by him are The Cyberiad, The Star Diaries, and The Futurological Congress.

[melkathi]

Now reading The Man in the High Castle by Phillip ****. I was wrong when I said there was no good sci fi.., this one is good

 

That's why I suggested him to you

Though I haven't read that one.

 

What Scifi had you been reading up until now?

[Guard Dog]

 

Now reading The Man in the High Castle by Phillip ****. I was wrong when I said there was no good sci fi.., this one is good

 

That's why I suggested him to you

Though I haven't read that one.

 

What Scifi had you been reading up until now?

 

Lately, not much. I'm not a big fan of the genre in any way. But I've read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and the first six Dune books. I loved HHGTG but the Dune books started brilliant and got progressively worse and really he should have stopped at #3. I won't even get into what his son has churned out. I read all of John Scalzi's "Old Mans War" series and found them to be mediocre. Halderman's Forever War was a little better. Some of Larry Nivens books were just ok, others... I have no interest in the new stuff like Hunger Games and I think it's geared more to kids anyway. And I won't even touch the cartloads of franchise dreck of star wars and star trek  books. And holy crap are there a lot of them. I've read one of China Melivlle's books, don't even remember which one, it really did not make an impression on me, something about pirates on floating city. I read Slaughterhouse 5 and Flowers for Algernon in college and loved them. I've read a lot of HG Wells & Bradbury as a kid and enjoyed it.

 

I ordered this: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/philip-k-****-collection-philip-k-****/1101304598?ean=9781598530490 and started with book one, story one The Man in the High Castle. I'm halfway through it and really into it.

[melkathi]

Lately, not much. I'm not a big fan of the genre in any way. But I've read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and the first six Dune books. I loved HHGTG but the Dune books started brilliant and got progressively worse and really he should have stopped at #3. I won't even get into what his son has churned out. I read all of John Scalzi's "Old Mans War" series and found them to be mediocre. Halderman's Forever War was a little better. Some of Larry Nivens books were just ok, others... I have no interest in the new stuff like Hunger Games and I think it's geared more to kids anyway. And I won't even touch the cartloads of franchise dreck of star wars and star trek  books. And holy crap are there a lot of them. I've read one of China Melivlle's books, don't even remember which one, it really did not make an impression on me, something about pirates on floating city. I read Slaughterhouse 5 and Flowers for Algernon in college and loved them. I've read a lot of HG Wells & Bradbury as a kid and enjoyed it.

 

 

I ordered this: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/philip-k-****-collection-philip-k-****/1101304598?ean=9781598530490 and started with book one, story one The Man in the High Castle. I'm halfway through it and really into it.

 

 

 

Many people will agrree with you on the Dune books. Honestly, I wouldn't mind only having read the original book and not having read any of the rest. I think I mentioned it before somewhere, his son's books are the reason I have decided that should I ever become a famous author and have kids, in my will I'll forbid them from continuing my legacy

"Old Man's War" is enjoyable for people who like that kind of books, but "Agent to the Stars" is by far John Scalzi's best book and very much unlike that series - so you may still like it.

Let's face it, we just aren't the target audience for "Hunger Games". We are too old and too male. It's aimed at teenage girls.

I didn't really think you'd enjoy Haldeman. From what I understand his political views are very much not aligned with yours. Either way, stay clear from books 2 and 3 in the Forever War trilogy. I think Heinlein may be much more your thing.

 

That collection you ordered you can't realy go wrong with. Do let me know what you think of the books (especially And Now Wait For Last Year, as I really enjoyed that). I have no offline friends at the moment who read this author :/

 

 

 

edit:

anyway, anyone want to be friends on Goodreads?

Edited May 31, 2013 by melkathi

[Lexx]

Now reading The Man in the High Castle by Phillip ****. I was wrong when I said there was no good sci fi.., this one is good

It's too good, that's why his name is censored in this forum. :>

 

The book is great, but I felt that the ending was a little bit lacking. I think I expected a different ending, dunno why.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Lexx

[WDeranged]

I just started reading the first book in The Prince of Nothing series, so far it's OK but many people say it really kicks in around 400 pages...apparently Michael Kirkbride has a raging nerd boner for these books so there must be something worth digging for, has anyone else tried it?

[Walsingham]

Heh, I've got a nice copy of the Seven Military Classics of Ancient China and making your way through the seven different works (while interesting) can be very awkward with the way they were written.

 

It's that combination of the structure in how they were each written (which is different for each one), compounded by the style of translation..

 

On your point about translation. Is there maybe some non-lexical flow imparted by the shape of the Chinese script which you could only get from a skilled translator? Just a thought.

[Raithe]

 

Heh, I've got a nice copy of the Seven Military Classics of Ancient China and making your way through the seven different works (while interesting) can be very awkward with the way they were written.

 

It's that combination of the structure in how they were each written (which is different for each one), compounded by the style of translation..

 

On your point about translation. Is there maybe some non-lexical flow imparted by the shape of the Chinese script which you could only get from a skilled translator? Just a thought.

 

 

It's one of the things I've wondered about. The structure of written chinese is one thing. But also to consider, a lot of  those texts were originally produced before the written language was "codified" and "reformatted" as it were by the first Emperor. So how much that caused shifts in the original structure and language, before someone attempted to roll it into English.

[Walsingham]

 

 

Heh, I've got a nice copy of the Seven Military Classics of Ancient China and making your way through the seven different works (while interesting) can be very awkward with the way they were written.

 

It's that combination of the structure in how they were each written (which is different for each one), compounded by the style of translation..

 

On your point about translation. Is there maybe some non-lexical flow imparted by the shape of the Chinese script which you could only get from a skilled translator? Just a thought.

 

 

It's one of the things I've wondered about. The structure of written chinese is one thing. But also to consider, a lot of  those texts were originally produced before the written language was "codified" and "reformatted" as it were by the first Emperor. So how much that caused shifts in the original structure and language, before someone attempted to roll it into English.

 

 

Of course they could just be rubbish. I'm not attempting to re-read Clauswitz until they legalise marijuana.

[Labadal]

A Feast of Crows. I've read 100 pages so far. At this point, it is not even close to books 2 and 3.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Labadal

[melkathi]

A Feast of Crows. I've read 100 pages so far. At this point, it is not even close to books 2 and 3.

 

And it wont get close. Possibly the weakest of the books. Not that A Dance With Dragons is all that great, but at least it has its moments.

[Raithe]

A Feast of Crows was where I gave up on the series. I just found myself supremely uninterested in the survival of any of the characters.

[Kor Qel Droma]

I'm just about to start book three of the Wheel Of Time series. It's allright, so far, but there's what, 14 books in the series?

[Raithe]

I'm just about to start book three of the Wheel Of Time series. It's allright, so far, but there's what, 14 books in the series?

 

Yup. Book 5 & 6 can take a turn for the slow because it's starts getting into that stage of laying more background plots/arcs and characters on the world stage rather then purely focused on the core group.

Jordan died after completing book 11, Sanderson finished off the final 3 books, although Jordan had sketched out everything, including a serious mass of notes, sketches, assorted databases of all characters, goals, plots n plans. And Jordan's wife was the editor and recorded him talking through the final of the story. Oh, and Jordan also wrote the epilogue to the final book so Sanderson knew where he had to get to and how to get there.

[Guard Dog]

I think I am done with big, long, 6-14 book sagas that cannot help but drag at some point. If a writer can't wrap his story up in 1-3 book he needs to rethink his story! Think about the greatest works of fiction you've ever read, the stories that really made you think, were any of them a meter high when stacked? Didn't think so.

[melkathi]

*shrug* I try to write children's books. If the story can't be told in ten pages with large fonts (excluding illustrations), then its already too long.

[Malcador]

I think I am done with big, long, 6-14 book sagas that cannot help but drag at some point. If a writer can't wrap his story up in 1-3 book he needs to rethink his story! Think about the greatest works of fiction you've ever read, the stories that really made you think, were any of them a meter high when stacked? Didn't think so.

Think again, I really liked those two Neal Stephenson novels.

[Raithe]

On book news..

 

Iain M Banks is now deceased, and has joined that great library in the sky...

[melkathi]

...

Edited June 9, 2013 by melkathi

[Malcador]

Died pretty young, 59.

[Labadal]

Don't know if I have it in me to finish a Feast for Crows. I'm extremely underwhelmed by this book. I actually liked the first three books, but this one bores me to tears. It follows most of the boring characters in the series. Can't say I care much for Brienne, Cersei is boring and I can't really say the others have been very fun to read about either. I was looking forward to this book, why oh why did it have to disappoint me so? I'm expecting the following TV show seasons won't get as much praise if they don't come up with a lot of stuff.