Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Shivertongue

Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 ... 22
31
Howard Tayler / Re: Do you want a hand?
« on: August 16, 2010, 09:16:16 AM »
Ha! I didn't even notice the hand thing. Yesterdays had me laughing for a solid five minutes, though.

Quote from: Peter Ahlstrom on August 16, 2010, 06:15:49 AM
Double punchline is awesome. Also, second panel must be a reference to the H2G2 text adventure.

Oh, wow... the Infocom game? That was frustrating and fun at the same time. Did you ever play the other one Adams wrote for Infocom, Bureaucracy?


32
Rants and Stuff / Re: These Stupid Titles IX: Still Without a Title
« on: August 14, 2010, 09:45:22 PM »
Well, you're level 4 and a Student of Servitude, so I'm going to assume you're being used AS a writing desk.

As for me... until I make two more posts, I got these pans handled. Nothing to fear from them.

33
Books / Re: What are you reading, part 3
« on: August 13, 2010, 03:16:16 AM »
Just finished Proven Guilty, the 8th book in the Dresden Files. Moving on to White Night in a few minutes. I'm still reading Gardens of the Moon, but I've shifted that into my "work book" slot (which is the book I bring to work and read during my breaks), at least until I finish the Dresden Files. The series is too awesome and compelling for me to put down, and honestly, knowing the next one is waiting there for me to start makes picking up Erikson to feel more like a chore.

34
Dan Wells / Re: How many people have you gotten to read I am not a Serial Killer?
« on: August 12, 2010, 11:02:59 PM »
Seventeen, but I haven't really been trying.

35
Books / Re: What are you reading, part 3
« on: August 10, 2010, 02:43:09 AM »
Quote from: Silk on August 09, 2010, 11:48:21 PM
Yeah, I've heard a couple people say before that Erikson takes time to get into. So far (at about 140 pages in) I'm still a little bit "meh" but I do find I'm more engaged with it than I was at 70 pages.

Shivertongue: Meh. Fans are lame. However, Erikson's fans aren't his fault. XD

Heh, I found myself having the same reaction at around that same area in the book. I was reading on my break at work a few hours ago, and came back inside, telling people "140 pages in and I think I've found the plot!"

It's safe to say I'm much more engaged in the story than I was before, although I'm still feeling a bit 'meh' about the whole book as well. I'm beginning to think it might have been better if the book had started with Darujhistan, rather than where it did.

mtlhddoc: That's a problem, in my eyes. It should not take several books to 'get into' something.

Edit: Just finished Furies of the Calderon, by Jim Butcher, in audiobook, read by Kate Reading. The first in the Codex Alera series, it is a rather traditional fantasy, in many ways formulaic and predictable.

Despite this, or maybe because of it, I loved every moment of it.

I don't know why - it could be that I've just been on a rather large Butcher kick for the past few weeks. I know others haven't cared for it, but I found it greatly entertaining and interesting. Some background reading I've done indicates the Alerans are similar to the Romans because they ARE Romans. The lost legion, transported to a new world centuries ago. I've already downloaded the second book in the series, and I'm looking forward to listening to it.

36
Books / Re: What are you reading, part 3
« on: August 09, 2010, 11:30:13 AM »
Well, as I've run out of Dresden books to read (have to wait a while before I have the money and time to pick up White Night and Small Favor) I've decided to take another stab at Gardens of the Moon. This will be my second attempt to read this, having grown bored about a year ago around page 60-something. Also, I got distracted around that time with some other books I can't currently remember, but were apparently vastly more interesting.

I'm at page 106 or so now, and while I'm not confused as other people seem to be (going by the Amazon reviews), I'm just... bored. I don't really care about any of the characters, what's going on, or why it's going on. I've heard the book picks up about halfway through, but to me this is a serious flaw in the storytelling - there's nothing to hook me for the first half of the book? Why am I expected to care enough to get to that point? Everything just ranks as mediocre to me at current - the characters, the story, the prose; it's all just "okay".

Anyway, since I always finish books I start, I'm going to do so this time around. And I'm going to read the next two, at the very least, since I own all three (Half-Price Books was having a sale; got them all for a total of $6). I've also heard that things start clicking into place in Deadhouse Gates, and you start to realize the "true brilliance of Erikson's writing" around this point.

That's an actual quote from a fan on Amazon, by the way. One of many. That's another issue I'm having with it, I think. The fans. So many claim that if you don't like it, that you simply don't 'get it,' and you're an idiot who should go read 'something simpler, and leave Erikson to the grown-ups'. The attitude is a real ringing endorsement.

Gah... okay, gonna end this now, before I start writing an essay on how fans ruin everything...

37
Books / Re: What are you reading, part 3
« on: August 06, 2010, 08:45:19 AM »
Quote from: Silk on August 06, 2010, 06:31:09 AM
I'm reading Erickson's Gardens of the Moon right now. I hate to say it--maybe I'm just not far enough into it--but so far it's not really doing anything for me.

My favourite review of Gardens of the Moon on Amazon starts with this:

Quote
Gardens of the Moon feels like it was originally a 10,000 page book, then there was a fire, and only 666 pages were saved.

Note this is a one-star review, and my referencing of it is not in any way my opinion of the book. I just enjoy reading 1-star reviews. XD

38
Books / Re: What are you reading, part 3
« on: August 06, 2010, 05:15:44 AM »
Finished Death Masks today, and now must wait for a bookstore to open so I can read the next book...

In the meantime, I pick up where I left off on Best Served Cold.

39
Reading Excuses / Re: June 23 - Silk - Fall, Stars, Fall - L
« on: August 04, 2010, 03:45:37 AM »
Quote from: Silk on August 04, 2010, 01:12:45 AM
Thanks for the comments, guys!

Yeah, I'm still waffling on the lights. I'm leaning hydroelectric... but we'll see. :)

Ooo... A city built into a cliff face, with a waterfall running down the middle to power the hydroelectric generators... I love that image.

40
Books / Re: What are you reading, part 3
« on: August 03, 2010, 07:51:41 PM »
Finished Grave Peril the other night, and went out and bought the next two books in the series. Less than 24 hours later, I'm a little more than halfway through Summer Knight. It's been some time since I've been this compelled by a series, and according to some subtext from  EBR, I haven't even gotten to the best books in the series yet.

Awesome ^^

Also managed to, finally, find a copy of Alcatraz vs The Knights of Crystallia at the library today. Only Alcatraz book they had in, and the only published Sanderson novel I haven't read.

Awesomesauce.

41
Books / Re: So I'm reading A Feast for Crows...
« on: August 03, 2010, 09:02:36 AM »
Quote from: Moggle on August 03, 2010, 08:07:25 AM
Quote from: Shivertongue on August 03, 2010, 06:11:42 AM
I find the story, as well as many aspects of the writing itself, to be remarkably compelling. My main issue with ASoIaF, is the characters.

As of A Feast for Crows, there are perhaps three characters left alive that I actually like. Their stories fascinate me far more than the rest, which means I have to slog through many large sections filled with characters I hate or simply don't care about in order to finally get back to a chapter with Jon or Arya or Daenerys. And Martin's habit of killing off his characters, in particular the ones that readers seem to like the most, prevents me from caring too much about someone else. I don't know of the latter has happened to anyone else while reading, but for me the violence and realism of 'anyone can die' has backfired - the ony time I care anymore is if it's one of the characters I like, and there are so few of those left.

When has Martin ever killed off a character that ppl may have really liked and grown attached to?   Even Eddie wasn't particulary interesting as far as characters go.  As for his son, Martin didn't even give him one POV page so readers barely even knew him before he was killed.  And did anyone really care that Joffrey and the Hound died?  I really don't understand where this myth got started that Martin is willing to kill off anyone.  Truth be told,  Martin hasn't killed off anyone that readers could possibly have grown attached to and a majority of the ones who are dead deserved it.


Okay... potential spoiler warning...







I'm serious.











Different people become attached to different characters. I became attached, quite quickly, to pretty much all of the Starks - although Sansa lost me, for the most part, about halfway through A Game of Thrones. I've started liking her a bit more since.

I found Eddard very interesting, personally. Eddard and Robb were among two of my favourite characters in the beginning, and I admit a fondness for Catelyn as well. Oberyn Martell, Khal Drogo, Jeor Mormont, numerous other minor and non-viewpoint characters that, unfortunately,  can't remember the names of because it's been how many years since A Feast For Crows came out, and I haven't picked up one of the books since.

A character need not be a POV in order for a reader to become attached to them. Yes, it made the impact of some deaths incredibly powerful, especially Eddard and Robb, but after a while I just got tired of it. And where Martin got the reputation... well, by doing it. Go to ASoIaF forums, and you'll find debate threads about who's going to die next, with the more likable characters considered the most likely.

42
Books / Re: So I'm reading A Feast for Crows...
« on: August 03, 2010, 06:35:51 AM »
Quote from: Jakobus on August 03, 2010, 06:31:14 AM
Reading from Cersie's PoV is like taking a hot iron to my brain. Unfortunately I can't skip those chapters, my conscience won't let me XD. At this point I'm just reading this book to say I've read it. Nothing is happening at all, and, in my opinion, is equivalent to Crossroads of Twilight. All I want to read is Arya's PoV. That's become the most interesting.

Yeah, I can't skip them either. I sate myself by shouting cuss words in my head at characters I hate while reading their POV.

43
Books / Re: So I'm reading A Feast for Crows...
« on: August 03, 2010, 06:11:42 AM »
I find the story, as well as many aspects of the writing itself, to be remarkably compelling. My main issue with ASoIaF, is the characters.

As of A Feast for Crows, there are perhaps three characters left alive that I actually like. Their stories fascinate me far more than the rest, which means I have to slog through many large sections filled with characters I hate or simply don't care about in order to finally get back to a chapter with Jon or Arya or Daenerys. And Martin's habit of killing off his characters, in particular the ones that readers seem to like the most, prevents me from caring too much about someone else. I don't know of the latter has happened to anyone else while reading, but for me the violence and realism of 'anyone can die' has backfired - the ony time I care anymore is if it's one of the characters I like, and there are so few of those left.

44
Books / Re: What are you reading, part 3
« on: July 31, 2010, 01:04:53 PM »
Just finished Palimpsest. Simply amazing. Red Seas Under Red Skies, and then this... both immensely satisfying, to the point where I worry that I might be spoiled for the next book I read.

Then again, maybe I need something less awesome to bring myself down from that...

45
Books / Re: What are you reading, part 3
« on: July 30, 2010, 06:54:13 PM »
Quote from: Bookstore Guy on July 30, 2010, 04:17:31 PM

Shiver: Lynch is full of awesome.  All the time.

Agreed. I only wish there was more of his stuff to read. I've read all of his serial novel, Queen of the Iron Sands,  that's been posted so far on his website, as well as Into the Stacks in the Swords and Dark Magic anthology. If there's any more of his work currently out there, I'd love to get my hands on it.

In other news, I don't recommend taking Palimpsest, by Catherynne M. Valente to work to read on your breaks. It is too hard to put down once you've picked it up, and I was late from my break yesterday because of it. I also didn't get to sleep until 5am this morning because of the awesomeness of that book.

Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 ... 22