Books The BOOK thread

Books read in the last month -

Making Money, The Light Fantastic, Thief of Time - all Pratchett and all very good.

Cat-nappers - Typical Wodehouse.

Books issued yesterday - Reaper Man, Witches Abroad, The Truth. - all Pratchett.
 
Just finished reading David Gemmell's Trojan War Trilogy (now that its finally out in paperback) Wow. What can I say? David is simply the greatest author I have ever had the pleasure to read. I know a lot of people view his works as maybe too 'simplistic' , but I like to think his books are aimed at the heart and not the head. I've never read any other author than can move me like Gemmell. I was a bit reluctant to pick up Fall of Kings, the final book, as David died after only writing about 70-80 000 words and his wife Stella, a novice author, finished it. But I'm glad I did. A simply superb take on the Trojan war. I can read DG's books over and over, and I can't wait until I re-read this trilogy. Stella has done herself, and David proud.
 
Finally, some activity in this thread.

Finished Asimov's Foundation series this week. I hate myself for not having read it earlier. Absolutely fascinating stuff. I can now appreciate the influence of the series on the entire genre. I love Asimov's simplistic style and how we says so much with so few words. The twist endings to all three books were great too ... totally unexpected. All those of you haven't read Foundation, please do.

Starting with either 'Trainspotting' by Irvine Welsh
or
'The Illustrated Man' by Ray Bradbury.
 
The_Red_Hope said:
Finally, some activity in this thread.

Finished Asimov's Foundation series this week. I hate myself for not having read it earlier. Absolutely fascinating stuff. I can now appreciate the influence of the series on the entire genre. I love Asimov's simplistic style and how we says so much with so few words. The twist endings to all three books were great too ... totally unexpected. All those of you haven't read Foundation, please do.

Starting with either 'Trainspotting' by Irvine Welsh
or
'The Illustrated Man' by Ray Bradbury.
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Foundation, the trilogy itself, is great. Foundation's Edge is also good. The others aren't so good, especially when he tries to tie his entire oeuvre together.
 
So I have heard. I've only read the original trilogy - Foundation, Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation. I have Foundation's Edge too ... But I thought I'll stop right here and start something else.
 
The most frustrating thing I find is that Foundation series is unfinished. Foundation and Earth set things up nicely for a climactic final book, but Asimov died before he could finish.
 
Didn't he write Foundation and Earth after Foundation's edge ? From what I've heard, it tidies up all the loose ends but opens up a whole new way of thinking - right at the end.

The two prequel novels are also supposed to be pretty good. I think the last prequel 'Forward the Foundation' was finished just before his death.
 
The_Red_Hope said:
Didn't he write Foundation and Earth after Foundation's edge ? From what I've heard, it tidies up all the loose ends. The two prequel novels are also supposed to be pretty good. I think the last prequel 'Forward the Foundation' was finished just before his death.
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Oh, you haven't read it... :nervous:

Sorry. There's a big twist at the end of Foundation and Earth.
 
Yeah i just edited my post above. :smirk:

So what are your other favourites - Sci fi or otherwise ?
 
The_Red_Hope said:
Yeah i just edited my post above. :smirk:

So what are your other favourites - Sci fi or otherwise ?
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A Song of Ice and Fire is the series I want the author to finish before he carks it.

For more recent stuff I like Alistair Reynolds' dystopian sci-fi, China Mieville's first two Bas Lag books (not Iron Council), and Richard Morgan's pond scum hero books.

Otherwise you can't beat people like Asimov or Robert Heinlein. Or Terry Pratchett.
 
SmashedHombre said:
Just finished reading David Gemmell's Trojan War Trilogy (now that its finally out in paperback) Wow. What can I say? David is simply the greatest author I have ever had the pleasure to read. I know a lot of people view his works as maybe too 'simplistic' , but I like to think his books are aimed at the heart and not the head. I've never read any other author than can move me like Gemmell. I was a bit reluctant to pick up Fall of Kings, the final book, as David died after only writing about 70-80 000 words and his wife Stella, a novice author, finished it. But I'm glad I did. A simply superb take on the Trojan war. I can read DG's books over and over, and I can't wait until I re-read this trilogy. Stella has done herself, and David proud.
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I'm going to look this up. It better be all that you say it is.
 
Recently, I've been re-reading the books that I read a number of years back..

Anyone here into Star Wars EU?
 
Currently reading A House for Mr. Biswas by Naipaul and enjoying it.

Next is 100 years of Solitude.
 
Currently reading War and Peace. Will post upon finishing...........in 2023
 
Just bought "Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk. Has anyone read it?

I loved "Fight Club", but never got around to reading his newer ones until now.

I just finished "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain(A Cook's Tour-Food Network and No Reservations-Discovery) and its fecking brilliant! He's an amazing writer and his life story to a point written in this book was unreal and hilarious throughout the entire book!

Has anyone else read it?? If not, you should! Once you start it, you won't put it down.
 
mehro said:
I'm going to look this up. It better be all that you say it is.
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Do it. They're not his best books, his Rigante and Drenai novels are far better. But its a fantastic take on the Trojan war, of course its still fictional but it gives you such a superb insight into that paticular time period, so much so that you can almost believe its all entirely true. His take on the city of Troy falling to the famed 'Trojan Horse' was cleverly done. Although to be fair I kind of new he was going that way with the horse from day 1, he already hinted at it in the Lion of Macedon series. Apparently this is the trilogy he always wanted to write, and you can tell he used some of his older novels to try out plots and ideas to see how they would work. Its just a shame he never lived to finish it.

Yes I'm a book geek. Shut up.
 
:confused: Nothing wrong with reading. I read a book a week myself. Best thing in the world.

One can never be a book geek in my book. One can be a biker gimp.
 
mehro said:
:confused: Nothing wrong with reading. I read a book a week myself. Best thing in the world.
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You're right there mehro. Infact that's probably the most rightest you have ever been. You should definitely pick up a David Gemmell book if you get a chance. Except Echoes of the Great Song which isn't really his best work. He's not everyones cup of tea, but even if you don't like the genre or time period, most can appreciate the way he builds his characters and the human emotions of fear and courage he explores. Ask Hectic, he will back me up
 
mehro said:
:confused: Nothing wrong with reading. I read a book a week myself. Best thing in the world.

One can never be a book geek in my book. One can be a biker gimp.
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I see you slyly added in that last sentence there. I'm not a biker gimp, I just liek wearing the tight leathers
 
SmashedHombre said:
You're right there mehro. Infact that's probably the most rightest you have ever been. You should definitely pick up a David Gemmell book if you get a chance. Except Echoes of the Great Song which isn't really his best work. He's not everyones cup of tea, but even if you don't like the genre or time period, most can appreciate the way he builds his characters and the human emotions of fear and courage he explores. Ask Hectic, he will back me up
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I'll get it once I'm done with the books I have currently issued. Now that I am finally graduating I'm trying to read as much as possible before I lose access to the university library.
 
spinoza said:
A Song of Ice and Fire is the series I want the author to finish before he carks it.

For more recent stuff I like Alistair Reynolds' dystopian sci-fi, China Mieville's first two Bas Lag books (not Iron Council), and Richard Morgan's pond scum hero books.

Otherwise you can't beat people like Asimov or Robert Heinlein. Or Terry Pratchett.
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Yeah, I completely agree. Big fan of Pratchett, Asimov and Heinlein myself. I have all the ASOIAF books (so far) bought, can't wait to get started.

Currently reading Martian Chronicles by Bradbury. Class !!

Next on my To-read list include :

HP Lovecraft : Shadow of Death (Anthology of Short stories)
Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe
Hyperion - Dan Simmons
 
I actually have all the ASOIF books as well and haven't really read them. I think its because I bought Book 3, Part 1 in error under the impression it was actually book 1, part 1 and it made very little sense. At the moment I am on Book 8 of Simon Scarrows Roman Legion series though, when I have finished it I might go back to ASOIF, now that I actually have the first books.
 
Finished "Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said" by Philip K Dick. Not bad.

Decided to finally start reading Red Cavalry (1926) by Isaac Babel. Has anyone read it?
 
SmashedHombre said:
I actually have all the ASOIF books as well and haven't really read them. I think its because I bought Book 3, Part 1 in error under the impression it was actually book 1, part 1 and it made very little sense. At the moment I am on Book 8 of Simon Scarrows Roman Legion series though, when I have finished it I might go back to ASOIF, now that I actually have the first books.
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Well worth it... well, until you get to the end of Book 4 to realise that it will be another year before Book 5 comes out, and probably 4 or 5 years after that to Book 6.
 
spinoza said:
You haven't started?!? :eek:

You should stay at home on the sofa for a few days, make sure you have food and drink close at hand, and dive in. You don't want to be interrupted.
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:D I know...I'm really excited about starting the series.

I remember reading somewhere that 'A Dance with Dragons' is due out September 30th. I've heard how fans have been frustrated with the amount of time GRRM takes between books... which is one reason why I haven't started. I don't want the same situation that happened with Robert Jordan and WoT. Was absolutely gutted when he passed away (without completing the series) .
 
Mihajlovic said:
Finished "Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said" by Philip K Dick. Not bad.

Decided to finally start reading Red Cavalry (1926) by Isaac Babel. Has anyone read it?
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Yes, "Red Cavalry" was short, but pretty good, but that was probably down to that being of special interest to me. For some time I read just about anything I could find in that genre (if there is such a thing). Sholokov's Don books, Mironov's accounts of the Civil War, Bulgakov's "The White Guard", Tolsoty's "The Cossacks", and probably a few others I can't think of offhand. "Red Victory" and "The White Generals" were also good (non-fiction) reads.
 
Since we seem to be on a Sci-Fi bent, I might recommend Robert Forward as a worthy author. He's in the "hard" sci-fi class where the characters and their personalities take a back seat to the science. "Dragon's Egg" and "Starquake" revolve around the evolution of life and civilization on a neutron star. "Rocheworld" is about a journey to a strange inhabited binary planet system in a revolutionary ship.
 
The_Red_Hope said:
:D I know...I'm really excited about starting the series.

I remember reading somewhere that 'A Dance with Dragons' is due out September 30th. I've heard how fans have been frustrated with the amount of time GRRM takes between books... which is one reason why I haven't started. I don't want the same situation that happened with Robert Jordan and WoT. Was absolutely gutted when he passed away (without completing the series) .
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To be fair I got bored of the WoT series at about book 6, it seemed to take a lot of time and words to not really go very far. Started off brilliantly and had so much potential, I just feel it was dragged out a bit too much. Blasphemy I know, but I put it down after book 6 and wasn't really too anxious to pick up the next one, like I am almost always am with every series I read.
 
SmashedHombre said:
To be fair I got bored of the WoT series at about book 6, it seemed to take a lot of time and words to not really go very far. Started off brilliantly and had so much potential, I just feel it was dragged out a bit too much. Blasphemy I know, but I put it down after book 6 and wasn't really too anxious to pick up the next one, like I am almost always am with every series I read.
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Yeah, I have to agree that the series went south after 'Lord of Chaos'. He should have wrapped up the entire story in about 5-6 books at most. The plot didn't really go anywhere in the last couple of books and his annoying habit of introducing close to 200 new characters with each book was extremely frustrating to say the least. But I followed it through until 'Knife of Dreams' - Book 11, because I was too damn curious to know what would happen to all the lead characters. And the series really promised an epic-kick-ass-mother-of-all endings.
 
I kind of wishI had read through to the end now, but I felt book 6 was a bit of a let down. It was very drawn out, and most of it was spent recapping the previous 5 books. Its the only towards the end it started to pick up the pace again. But the rest of the book I found was hard work. I started A Crown of Swords, but it seemed to start with the same slow pace that Lord of Chaos had. I would like to know how it all eneded, but I was quite young when I started reading it and was losing my enjoyment of the series. I might pick up again from book 7 but to be honest its been a good 5-6 years at least and I can barely even remember a lot of the characters
 
Its practically impossible to remember the million characters that he introduces a week after reading the books - 5 to 6 years is a long time. I needed the help from fan sites/character lists to get into the books each time I started a new one.

I guess if you have other/better things to read , don't bother with the rest of WoT. But if you have the time to devote, read the remaining 5 -6 books at a stretch. I've learnt there is no point reading the books in between others because picking up the plot and remembering the characters after reading something else is IMPOSSIBLE.
 
The_Red_Hope said:
Its practically impossible to remember the million characters that he introduces a week after reading the books - 5 to 6 years is a long time. I needed the help from fan sites/character lists to get into the books each time I started a new one.

I guess if you have other/better things to read , don't bother with the rest of WoT. But if you have the time to devote, read the remaining 5 -6 books at a stretch. I've learnt there is no point reading the books in between others because picking up the plot and remembering the characters after reading something else is IMPOSSIBLE.
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Agree with that. As I said I'm currently reading Simon Scarrow's ROman Legion series, which is another very long series. I took a break about book 6 and read a few things in between, but the good thing about the series is it is so easy to pick back up again. I think with WoT I would probably have to start again from the beginning.

If you liked the WoT series though I would recommend the Second Sons Trilogy by Jennifer Fallon. In terms of character adaptation and evolution and the way the story unfolds, I thought it bore resemblance to WoT. But its a much more enjoyable read, infact its easily one of the best series of books I have read. And it's obviously a lot shorter at only 3 books
 
SmashedHombre said:
Just finished reading David Gemmell's Trojan War Trilogy (now that its finally out in paperback) Wow. What can I say? David is simply the greatest author I have ever had the pleasure to read. I know a lot of people view his works as maybe too 'simplistic' , but I like to think his books are aimed at the heart and not the head. I've never read any other author than can move me like Gemmell. I was a bit reluctant to pick up Fall of Kings, the final book, as David died after only writing about 70-80 000 words and his wife Stella, a novice author, finished it. But I'm glad I did. A simply superb take on the Trojan war. I can read DG's books over and over, and I can't wait until I re-read this trilogy. Stella has done herself, and David proud.
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Haven't read the last book yet, as it isn't in book stores here. Sad to hear he's passed away, as he was one of if not the best fantasy writers out there.
 
As no doubt a few others have, I've read Tony O'Neill's Red Army General.
Cracking read for someone who was 10-15 years too young to be there at the time. Currently cracking on with Men In Black, which pretty much continues the first but with a different style which saves it seeming too much like just more of the same.
 
uae said:
Haven't read the last book yet, as it isn't in book stores here. Sad to hear he's passed away, as he was one of if not the best fantasy writers out there.
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He passed away about 2 years ago mate. He had only written about 70 000 words for the last book in the Troy Trilogy as well. His wife Stella finished it, with Davids guidance before he died. I found myself trying to pick out lines and paragraphs that may have been written by her and not David but shes done such a great job. If you have read the other 2 then you have to finish it. I know its stupid as everyone knows the story of Troy, but I still found myself hoping the City wouldn't fall, that somehow Agememmnon would fail. And I agree, he was the best ever fantasy writer, no question in my mind. I could read his books over and over again and never get bored of them.
 
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