Author Topic: What are you reading, part 3  (Read 311107 times)

Renoard

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #765 on: June 22, 2009, 02:53:16 AM »
So.  Finished A Darkness at Sethanon.  Was anticlimactic and riddled with magic bullets just as I remembered. After the fall of Armengar everything else was downhill and a bit trite.
You can always get what you want if you never count the cost.

Patriotic Kaz

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #766 on: June 22, 2009, 05:20:49 AM »
My last re-read of the Amber series was only Corwin just because Merlin in comparison is dull....i mean Corwin is like General Paton on Super-Roids.....
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Renoard

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #767 on: June 22, 2009, 04:06:47 PM »
Merlin is a bit of a let down.  For a chaos beast, you'd expect a more alien and unconventional personality.  I think he just spent too much time slumming with Luke.  It made him far to human.

Just got to the mid point of Magic's Pawn by Mercedes Lackey and I won't be reading further.  I feel taken advantage of, because I wasted time on what I did read of the book.  Just glad it was borrowed from the library.  If I'd paid for it well then I'd really be steamed.
You can always get what you want if you never count the cost.

mtlhddoc2

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #768 on: June 22, 2009, 05:57:30 PM »
Just finished Toll the Hounds by Erikson...   the whole series is just weird, I mean, I like the books, but he is long winded, often descibes things in incredble detail, and then have them not matter a whit. A friend of mine called it "Ann Rice Syndrome".

The big issue for this whole series for me is that the magic systems are a mess. It is like he makes it up as he goes along.

sortitus

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #769 on: June 24, 2009, 08:22:13 AM »
I do think that Merlin pulls a lot more stupid mistakes than Corwin, but that's the nature of the story. Coming of age and all that jazz. I do like Merlin's story a bit though, and I think that part of his normalcy comes from the general idea that people are people, even if they can turn into a demonic monster at will. Since humanity is all we know, all we can do is base everything else off it. Besides, Corwin is himself a supernatural being, so let's not begrudge Zelazny his philosophical exercises, even if it does leave the books laden with too much Freudian psychology. The not-quite-pop-culture references keep it fun. :D

I just started The Color of Magic for the first time, and guess what greeted me in the first chapter? A reference to Amber! (First new paragraph on the page, first sentence.) I'll be back in a few days and let you know what I think of the next stack of books.
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The Jade Knight

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #770 on: June 24, 2009, 10:06:13 AM »
Have I mentioned I'm translating a Middle Walloon fencing manual into English?  I think that counts as reading...
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Sigyn

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #771 on: June 24, 2009, 05:35:20 PM »
I'm reading Princess of the Midnight Ball. I love fairy tales.
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Patriotic Kaz

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #772 on: June 24, 2009, 11:46:23 PM »
I like merlin it's just corwin is SOOO much cooler... i thought it was funny someone tried to kill Merlin every year on my b-day


P.S. That is Larry Niven's b-day also
« Last Edit: June 26, 2009, 11:39:43 PM by Champion Kaz »
"Words are double edged blades. Only the great and the foolish play with knives." - Kaz the Buddah

"Take off your sandals, for you are posting on holy ground." -  Yahweh Kaz

"Chaos, go to your room!" - Momma Kaz

WriterDan

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #773 on: June 26, 2009, 10:47:39 PM »
WARNING:  Slight spoilers for This Is Not a Game, by Walter Jon Williams.

Which unforgiveable did the author pull?

Reader manipulation.    He sets up a secondary, very probable, betrayal scenario toward the end of the book, then proceeds to completely over sell it.  But it flops, because in the end, the secondary betrayal isn't there.  Nothing is.  And the main character blows it all off by saying "crazy, complicated stuff like that only happens in the fiction I write, not in real life."

He sets us up by KNOWING that as fiction readers we're EXPECTING for there to be something more.  But there isn't.  Not only did that make the ending totally flop for me, but it pissed me off to the extreme.  If he didn't want to make a crazy, complicated ending, then just don't make it that way.  Don't set things up to look like it and then (essentially) point your finger at your reader-audience and say "Ha, ha.  Stupid you.  You fell for it."  I read books for the fun stuff.  Not because it's real.  If I wanted real, I'd pick up a non-fiction book.

Augh!

Sorry, guess I should just shut up now.  It just totally torqued me.

Don't worry about the suggestion, Sigyn.  I had been planning on reading him anyways, and this book ended up being a shorter one than the one I had planned on picking up.   Like I mentioned, I liked the rest of the book quite a bit.  It was just the end that totally ruined it for me.  I might pick up another one by him in about 10 years or so.  It might just take that long for me to get past this.  I'd still take another suggestion from you any time.  :)
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haperez

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #774 on: June 28, 2009, 03:26:21 AM »
I am reading the study series, just finished poison study and i love it...

anyone has a comment about the farseer trilogy?? is it worth reading ?

Renoard

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #775 on: June 28, 2009, 04:09:45 AM »
Just re-read Bear's Eon, about to start Feist's second series set on Midkemia.
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FantasyAngel

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #776 on: June 28, 2009, 11:47:43 AM »
Haperez,  I thought the farseer trilogy was really good.   For me it was something different as it was the first book I'd read that was from a first person vp.  I think it had a good story and loved the characters, in fact I got quite involved with them.
I was recommended the book myself and would certainly recommend it to anyone else.
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Peter Ahlstrom

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #777 on: June 28, 2009, 05:21:07 PM »
The Farseer trilogy will not leave you feeling happy at the end. Fitz really gets a raw deal. To find his happy ending you have to read all the way to the end of the Tawny Man trilogy, and it's best to read the Liveship trilogy before reading the second book of the Tawny Man trilogy.

Pesonally I think the Liveship books are better than either the Farseer trilogy or the Tawny Man trilogy. But all together they're pretty good.

(She wrote herself into a corner in the last Farseer book and ended up retconning some stuff from the first book, but that's the only real flaw.)
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ErikHolmes

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #778 on: June 28, 2009, 07:23:11 PM »
(She wrote herself into a corner in the last Farseer book and ended up retconning some stuff from the first book, but that's the only real flaw.)

She did? To be honest, I didn't notice. What did she retcon?

I read the Farseer and Tawny Man books, but couldn't get through the Liveship ones. (I might have made it half way through the first book, but who knows, I might go give them another try later on).
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Patriotic Kaz

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #779 on: June 29, 2009, 03:16:24 AM »
Assassins apprentice isn't a bad read...got it for free on my da's kindle
"Words are double edged blades. Only the great and the foolish play with knives." - Kaz the Buddah

"Take off your sandals, for you are posting on holy ground." -  Yahweh Kaz

"Chaos, go to your room!" - Momma Kaz