quote:Originally posted by Bicycle Repair Man: I've been re-reading Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Barsoom" series: John Carter! Swashbuckling adventure on Mars! Check your brains at the door!
These books are still, to this day, my favorite sci-fi series ever. ERB helped cement my love of sci-fi and fantasy. I just wish they'd get the damn movie made!
From: Utah | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Blacula: I don't read anywhere near as much as I used to, or should, but I'm trying to get back into it.
I've only read two books so far in 2007.
The first was the old Robert Ludlum thriller 'The Osterman Weekend' - it was a pretty good page-turner but it felt a little bit dated and the twist at the end seemed a bit silly.
The second was the new Nobel Prize-winning masterpiece 'The Road' - loved it!
Extremely well-written and completely engaging. He developed the bleak post-apocalyptic world so, so well. Almost too well! There is no doubting that this is a grim, dread-filled book.
But what makes it so moving is that at the centre of all this death and horror (and the horror is pretty unspeakable) is this amazingly pure love between a father and son. And so despite the extremely depressing nature of the book there's also an amazingly uplifting quality to it. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to everyone.
Don't feel bad Blacula. I recently got back into reading books about 3/4 years ago. I used to read a ton in junior high and high school. Between 18 and 26? I may have read one book. I was busy getting drunk I think.
I've been averaging a blazing speed of 5 to 6 books a year. My wife reads 12 to 18 books a year. Damn you fast readers!!!
I used to average at least one book a week all the way through grade school until I was first married. I read at least 50 books a year. Now I'm lucky to read five. Caroline does much better and probably reads around 20 or more.
quote:Originally posted by Arachne: I'm reading the uncut version of The Stand now. All 1150+ pages of it. I'm over halfway through and I'm still not sure if I like it or not.
As I mentioned a couple of pages back, my #1 book of all time. Don't know if I'd like it as much if the uncut version was my first read of it. If you don't wind up caring for the characters, probably everyone but the Walking Dude, I'd be surprised. That's why I re-read it so often. Its like visiting old friends.
From: Utah | Registered: Jul 2003
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I think it's not having a clue how it'll end that's bugging me. I haven't read much of King's work before. Actually, the first book of his I've read is The Gunslinger and that was just a week ago, and I can't say I liked how that ended.
In the foreword from The Stand it says the pages were cut at the request of the accountants not the editors, although King made the 400 pages of cuts himself. I think he wrote that there was more to Fran's relationship with her mother, for one thing. There was a lot of Trashcan Man's story cut, too. King said he didn't feel that cut worked well. He updated some stuff, too. The uncut version came out in 1990, when the story took place, so he made a few references to things he couldn't have known about in 1978. A Madonna song on the radio, for example. The copy I got from the library has illustrations.
-------------------- arachne3003.deviantart.com Current Obsession: Birds of Prey/Secret Six
From: Canada | Registered: Jul 2003
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This week I have read Neil Gaiman's "Stardust", and "Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town" by Cory Doctorow.
From Publishers Weekly
It's only natural that Alan, the broadminded hero of Doctorow's fresh, unconventional SF novel, is willing to help everybody he meets. After all, he's the product of a mixed marriage (his father is a mountain and his mother is a washing machine), so he knows how much being an outcast can hurt. Alan tries desperately to behave like a human being—or at least like his idealized version of one. He joins a cyber-anarchist's plot to spread a free wireless Internet through Toronto at the same time he agrees to protect his youngest brothers (members of a set of Russian nesting dolls) from their dead brother who's now resurrected and bent on revenge. Life gets even more chaotic after he becomes the lover and protector of the girl next door, whom he tries to restrain from periodically cutting off her wings. Doctorow (Eastern Standard Tribe) treats these and other bizarre images and themes with deadpan wit. In this inventive parable about tolerance and acceptance, he demonstrates how memorably the outrageous and the everyday can coexist. - Russell Galen.
From: Canada | Registered: Aug 2003
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Ain’t been on since early May so let’s see if I can remember what I’ve read:
The Hunter’s Blade Trilogy by RA Salvatore -The Thousand Orcs -The Lone Drow -The Two Blades
The Sell Swords Trilogy by RA Salvatore -Servant of the Shard -Promise of the Witch King -The Road of the Patriarch
The Black Company by Glen Cook
Two of “The Rogues” series in the Forgotten Realms Universe The Alabaster Staff by Edward Bolme The Yellow Silk by Don Bassingthwaite
I guess I’ll start with my favorites of this lot… the last two books of the Sell Swords trilogy (I read the first one a few posts back). The Sellswords are about Artemis Entreri and Jarlaxle who are both “villains” that came out of the Legend of Drizzt series… and at this point seem to be more interesting to Salvatore than Drizzt is. Salvatore manages to invest the reader into the rogue drow and ruthless assassin while weaving a complex array of intrigue, dragons, magic, ambition, and local politics into an amusing and entertaining tale. I don’t know if Salvatore has more Entreri stories planned, but I’m almost more interested in reading them than the Orc King Trilogy he’s supposed to be writing over the next three years.
As for the Hunter’s Blade Trilogy: Salvatore may be losing steam with his Drizzt books. Maybe he’s just told all of the interesting stories that Drizzt as a character has? Maybe he’s made some editorial decisions that detract from the series? I don’t know but The Hunter’s Blade trilogy had focus issues and didn’t seem to have much to do with Drizzt. Given that this has become the norm for the last 6 or 7 books in what is known as The Legend of Drizzt series, I have to acknowledge that Salvatore might need to step back and refocus the series as a whole. Don’t get me wrong, the books are written well but Drizzt seems to be becoming less and less the center of his own “Legend”. Most of the other characters are interesting but don’t deserve as much ink as the main character. I found myself skipping to chapters that had more to do with Drizzt and came back and read the other chapters afterward. I’ve found myself doing this type of thing with some Star Wars books I’ve enjoyed in the past. I don’t know if I should interpret it as a problem with the book or just being more interested in one plot thread more than another within the book. I suppose it’s a little bit of both.
The Black Company wasn’t what I was expecting. Once I got past my initial disillusionment and accepted the book on its terms, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Where as the strengths of most of the books I’ve read are the details, The Black Company doesn’t exactly concern itself with those. I expected a grim, gritty, fantasy about a mercenary military unit. Given that the series has earned a cult like following over the years I was expecting… I don’t know… just… more.
But Cook only visits the campaign when something major is about to go down jumping months ahead in time at various points in the book. I don’t remember him going into detailed physical descriptions of any of the main characters. He treats the story like a military historian who was imbedded with the troops. The action is almost incidental in the book as his fight descriptions generally amount to, “thousands of troops poured into hundreds of opposing troops who fought bravely, and killed many, but eventually tired out and gave ground.” What’s important in this book isn’t the action, or the characters, but the interactions between the characters, the tradition of the unit, and the realistic depiction of what massive conflict means. Glen Cook writes with authority. I can respect that. I’ll read the rest of the series and his other books too.
As for the Forgotten Realms’ Rogue books, they were distracting. The Yellow Silk was good. It boasts a tight plot with likeable protagonists and despicable villains. Further the story depends on consistent characters, a few surprises that you don’t see coming (and a few that you might), but throws in a touch of randomness (read fate) that elevates this book over standard fantasy fare. If a sequel ever comes out, I’d hunt it down in a heartbeat.
The Alabaster Staff starts off well but fizzles into standard fantasy fare by the end…strictly a pedestrian read. No going along for the ride on this one.
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This probably doesn't bode well but I forgot to mention another book that I read... The Night Boat by Robert McCammon
Since I so thoroughly enjoyed Boy's Life by McCammon I wanted to read some of his other works. So Night Boat was one of his first novels... and it showed. Not a terrible read but I won't be rereading this one anytime soon. It's about a cursed WWII German uboat that resurfaces some forty years later in a fictitious Carribean setting that was responsible for the uboat's original demise. It was a fairly mediocre story. It was more interesting from the standpoint in seeing McCammon's growth as an author than for anything that was actually going on in the story. I'm still going to read his other books though, that's how good Boy's Life was.
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From: NOVA by way of NOIN | Registered: Jul 2003
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Rereading The First American, The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin. He's awesome. How awesome? Well, if I had twins I'd probably name them Ben and Frank. (Unless of course they were girls, in which case I'd go with Hyah and Watha)
Registered: Dec 2006
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I'm kind of reading the same stuff as Arachne. Even though I've been meaning to read the Stand, I haven't started it yet, because I've become engrossed with the Dark Towers novels. Let me tell you Al--go ahead and read the second one, "The Drawing of the Three". Its far superior and really gets the story going. The first one is a bit 'out there' without a real coherent ending. You kind of have to accept it and move forward and then it all kind of comes back to it and makes sense.
I'm about 60 pages from ending 'The Waste Lands', the third book, and I'm enthralled. I'm especially looking forward to the fourth to learn about Roland's past.
*Then* perhaps I'll read the Stand before I read books #5-7. I really want to read Salem's Lot too, and maybe some other King books while I'm on a kick right now.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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Just finished the new Warren Zevon biography and am rereading some books from the 'Swallows and Amazons' series that I just got at a used bookstore.
quote:Originally posted by Cobalt Kid: Let me tell you Al--go ahead and read the second one, "The Drawing of the Three". Its far superior and really gets the story going.
I did read it, and I agree, it's much better. I started The Waste Lands, but I wasn't really in the mood for a series. I wanted something with and ending. I ended up getting Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. I really, really loved it. I'm like, two or three pages from the end of it tonight. Of course, it turns out there's two more books and a graphic novel is on the way. I haven't decided what I'm going to read next. Possibly one of Stephen King's anthologies.
-------------------- arachne3003.deviantart.com Current Obsession: Birds of Prey/Secret Six
From: Canada | Registered: Jul 2003
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Whew, finished the Count of Monte Cristo. It ended really strong!
Currently reading Voltaire's Candide. It's really good so far. I needed something short after the very long Monte Cristo.
From: Tampa | Registered: Mar 2004
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Kept things light and airy the last month or so. I only read two books.
The first was "The Darkest Hours" which was a Spider-man novel written by Jim Butcher. I picked it up because Butcher just seemed like such a natural to write the smart-mouthed, can't buy a break Peter Parker. It was a good, fast read. Mildly distracting with no heavy thinking and more than a few great character moments for MJ, Pete, Dr. Strange, The Rhino, Felicia, and just about everybody in the book except for the main bad guys.
The second book I read was a hoot. The name of it is, "Heroics for Beginners" and it was written by John Moore. I think the best way to describe the book is to say that it is like Austin Powers meets the fantasy genre... only it was written by an Engineer with a sense of humor. The book is written very well and extremely tongue in cheek; But the plot is still tight. I laughed and laughed at much of this book. Just a hoot.
Next up is "A Game of Thrones".
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From: NOVA by way of NOIN | Registered: Jul 2003
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I was busy getting drunk I think.![[Frown]](frown.gif)
My wife reads 12 to 18 books a year. Damn you fast readers!!!
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