All the Literature and Reading Stuff...

[LittleRose]

I'm getting closer to the moment when I'll have finished several of my current favorite book series and can choose a new one to read. Oh, the bittersweet feeling between saying goodbye to some favorite characters and their worlds, and looking forward to new universes to discover, new people to meet, and new adventures to experience. I love it.

 

*checks endless list of possible candidates*

I think I have a slight problem here. Where do I go next? Dragon searching in the desert? Enter a bookworld for the first time since Thursday Next? Explore the stars? Solve crimes in Victorian London? Or hunt monsters in a the big modern day cities? It's a tough choice, but I'll get this.

[ShadySands]

The latest Iron Druid book came out so I now have that until the next Stormlight Archive book comes out

 

Might need to mix in some more Shadowrun novels as well

[Guard Dog]

An interesting story from the book I described above. Two german lieutenants on the run after the escpape made it was far as Gila Bend, just 10 miles from Mexico. The stopped to wash their clothes in a canal when they were found by a group of cowboys. When the cowboys heard who they were they were so impressed about how far they'd gotten they took them into town for a beer while waiting for the Sheriff to come get them. That's pretty cool.

[Raithe]

On some literary related news...

 

Scammers break the kindle store

[the_dog_days]

On some literary related news...

 

Scammers break the kindle store

Amazon and Steam have many of the same issues concerning scammers in the indie scene.

[Wrath of Dagon]

On some literary related news...

 

Scammers break the kindle store

That reminds me, just bought Asimov's first Foundation book for Kindle for $1.99 Loved that book when I was a teenager. Will have to see if either of us aged well.

[Bartimaeus]

On some literary related news...

 

Scammers break the kindle store

 

Psh, not really a scam - more exploiting, if anything. Here I was thinking this was going to be Amazon fixing their rental/textbook encryptions or something, which have been broken for some time...but uh, I guess it's the opposite: Amazon continuing to do nothing.

Edited July 19, 2017 by Bartimaeus

[GhostofAnakin]

Started reading the Malazan Book of the Fallen series:

 

 

Only about 3.2 million words left to read. Bit daunting with the thousands of characters and all, but at least the series finished. Unlike someone else's whose TV adaptation is the only closure we'll ever get. /bitter

 

I had trouble with that series.  I read the entire thing, so clearly I got through it, but some of the books were good while others dragged.

 

I think part of it was just the sheer amount of words, that at some point halfway through, everything just kind of all mingled together and I forgot/got confused about a few of the sideplots and characters.

 

I've given up on George Martin ever finishing ASoIF, too.  The guy is basically just living off whatever royalties he gets for the show and doesn't seem motivated at all to finish.

[injurai]

I'm sure fulfilling a legacy is motivation enough to finish the series. I think his health is more of a concern to whether he finishes than anything else.

[Guard Dog]

Now reading this:

 

 

and this:

 

 

The former might be of interest if you practice archery. I'm finding it interesting at least in terms of how to focus the mind on the target rather than the mechanics of stance, draw, release point, etc. The latter was recommended by a friend and I and definitely recommending it to anyone who has ever wondered where the hell Greenville Mississippi is or wondered what the hell the Pascagoula Run is (hint it does not involve running or the Jimmy Buffet Song) it's a pretty good read. I lived in Florida for many years. Most of my life in fact. My cell phone still has a 954 area code. I thought Florida was the weirdest and quirkiest place in the US. It may well be but Mississippi runs a close second.

[Guard Dog]

OK, last night I was flipping through A Storm of Swords, book 3 of A Song of Ice & Fire. If you only watch the TV show stop reading here. Nothing that follows applies to the Game of Thrones show.

 

The most interesting character in the books to me is Petyr Baelish. The book Petyr is much more complex and smarter than TV Petyr. He is one of the prime movers of the plot. So, in the last Alayne chapter of A Feast For Crows he explains to Sansa who Harrold Hardying and why he is important. He is Robert Arryn's heir because he is descended from John Arryn's younger brother who married a Waynwood daughter. Fine. Now go back to the last Caetlyn chapter in A Storm of Swords before the Red Wedding and you find a discussion between her and Robb about who his heir should be until Jeyene Westerling can give him a son. She is trying to convince Rob not to legitimize Jon and name him Robb's heir. Caetlyn tells her son that Ned's grandfather had a sister who married into House Royce in the vale. They had three daughters one of whom married a Waynwood and had another daughter who married an Arryn. 

 

That means Harrold Hardying might not just be the heir to the Vale, he might also be the heir to the North since Bran & Rickon are believed to be dead. That makes him a pretty important charcter and no wonder Baelish wanted Sansa to seduce and marry him.  Am I the only one who noticed this?

[majestic]

That means Harrold Hardying might not just be the heir to the Vale, he might also be the heir to the North since Bran & Rickon are believed to be dead. That makes him a pretty important charcter and no wonder Baelish wanted Sansa to seduce and marry him.  Am I the only one who noticed this?

 

I've read that theory before, not sure where. There's more secondary text these days than in the books. Apparently the World of Ice and Fire book confirms that Harry the Heir has a distant claim to the North, but I have never seen the family tree in that book. Might be petty but I refuse to get it (or any of the other side anthology projects) until the main series is finished.

 

I doubt that it's part of Lord Baelish's direct plan though, I mean Sansa currently has the best claim to Winterfell and therefore the North. He just wants Harry to marry Sansa because Harry's essentially a miniature Robert Baratheon and he thinks he can be the grey eminence in that setup. So that's also why he creates a fake Arya for Ramsay and his dogs to play with - Sansa has a better claim and can expose Jeyne Pool if necessary after all.

 

So really the only thing he wants Harry for is the only army not spent and ravaged by years of war. *shrug*

[Guard Dog]

I hope Rickon gets a better part in the books than he got in the show. Although the name of his Direworlf seems to indicate he won't:

 

 

shaggy-dog story
 

1.
a long, rambling story or joke, typically one that is amusing only because it is absurdly inconsequential or pointless.

Edited July 23, 2017 by Guard Dog

[Blarghagh]

Yeah, I always figured he wasn't very important to the story because of that. In the show, so far anyway, I feel justified in that.

 

I don't know if he's ever had a bigger role to play in the books. I've read a lot about the books, but I haven't read the books. I got halfway through the first book before I realized that it was only 25% story and 75% those for-fans books of extended universe stuff, and if I want to know THAT MUCH background stuff I'll just get an encyclopedia or go to the wiki. I realize the point of grounding the world in realism and history to make it immersive as hell, and it works well, I just thought it was overkill and made the book a slog to get through for me personally.

[Heijoushin]

As cheesy as it sounds, lately I've been reading LitRPGs (books about people stuck in MMORPGs... yeah, there's an actual genre for that). Awakens Online is pretty good example. Don't get me wrong, it sure isn't Shakespeare, but it captures the joy of playing an RPG. Also, the protagonist plays a Chaotic Evil character, which I enjoy.  

[aluminiumtrioxid]

 

It was certainly a fun book, but best fantasy of the last few years it ain't. Definitely curious about the rest of the series now, though.

[Heijoushin]

 

It was certainly a fun book, but best fantasy of the last few years it ain't. Definitely curious about the rest of the series now, though.

 

Yup, it's one of my favorite series. There are another 3 or so out already. All worth reading.

Edited July 29, 2017 by Heijoushin

[Blarghagh]

I just picked that one up, actually. Thanks for the endorsement of my decision.

[the_dog_days]

As cheesy as it sounds, lately I've been reading LitRPGs (books about people stuck in MMORPGs... yeah, there's an actual genre for that). Awakens Online is pretty good example. Don't get me wrong, it sure isn't Shakespeare, but it captures the joy of playing an RPG. Also, the protagonist plays a Chaotic Evil character, which I enjoy.  

 

Have you ever heard of Death by Cliché? Same genre, written by a guy who writes tabletop scenarios. Pretty good adventure comedy (lots of lovingly self deprecating humor about tabletop).

[Blarghagh]

Didya read Yahtzee's book, Mogworld?

[Guard Dog]

I've never heard of that book but the last reccomendation I got from aluminiumtrioxid was good. So I'll give this a shot.

[Bartimaeus]

Take Your Eyes Off the Ball by Pat Kirwan.

 

...Football offseason is too long.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

I've never heard of that book but the last reccomendation I got from aluminiumtrioxid was good. So I'll give this a shot.

 

It's a fantasy caper in the vein of the Ocean's series and Leverage, except with even more ridiculously omnicompetent protagonists (we're talking about Kvothe levels of Mary Sue). If you like that sort of thing, you're going to have great fun, otherwise not so much. The writing is decent, albeit not quite as clever as I'd wager the author imagined (still managed to get a few chuckles). The plot managed to surprise me... about once, but when I figured out that it was going to be a different kind of story than I first imagined, it was a fairly straight road to the finish line. Guessed the ending about three chapters before it happened. I'd say that's where the book's lean and strongly telegraphed structure works against it: the interludes set up a bunch of Chekhov's guns, and the book fires all of them eventually; normally, this would be a good thing, but when it comes to seemingly-irrelevant worldbuilding details, there's only a few times you can have those turn out to be pretty important before the reader figures out that this particular thing mentioned early on that didn't come into play yet is probably going to be a major fixture of the grand finale.

 

Btw., did book 4 come out yet?

Edited July 29, 2017 by aluminiumtrioxid

[Guard Dog]

Now reading this:

 

 

Also reading The Dark Tower by Stephen King. I know I throw a lot of shade his way when it come to the quality of his writing. But this story is so unusual I thought I might give it another try. So I checked the whole series out of the library. One thing I do have to admire though is the opening line of the first novella: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." That is brilliant. In one sentence, the FIRST sentence he introduces the antagonist, protagonist, central conflict and setting of a very complex story. And he does it in just 12 words. 

[Raithe]

Also reading The Dark Tower by Stephen King. I know I throw a lot of shade his way when it come to the quality of his writing. But this story is so unusual I thought I might give it another try. So I checked the whole series out of the library. One thing I do have to admire though is the opening line of the first novella: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." That is brilliant. In one sentence, the FIRST sentence he introduces the antagonist, protagonist, central conflict and setting of a very complex story. And he does it in just 12 words. 

 

The opening line is always a fun thing, and that was a great example of one that's pure win. One I always remember is technically two lines, but made a great opening : "To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband’s dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor." - (from  Deanna Raybourn's Silent in the Grave, an interesting little Victorian era set mystery).

 

I have to admit, Stephen King can be very hit or miss with me. He has lots of great ideas, but sometimes his writing works and others it's just annoying.