Author Topic: What are you reading, part 3  (Read 311256 times)

WriterDan

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1230 on: April 21, 2010, 05:18:25 AM »
I also finished Jim Butcher's CHANGES.  It was awesome.

I find this extremely interesting.  With how many things Butcher has been working on lately, and how horrible the last two books seemed to have been, do you think there's any chance that Butcher tried a ghost writer on the last two books but decided that it wasn't working after all?  :D  How different are the last two books from this most recent one?  Crazy that there could be soooooo much variation within a single series by a single author.  I should probably try to read another one of these.

PS--I finished Servant of a Dark God and was pretty underwhelmed by it.  There seemed to be a decent story/world-building/characters, but the story-telling was really hard for me to enjoy.  Took all the tension and mystery out of it.  So, I pretty much lost interest early on, but pushed through to the end because of the good review from EBR.  The conversations in it are well done, the action scenes not so much, and the prose was decent.  All the sentences that began with conjunctions didn't change though.  I mean, I do this to a certain extent in my own writing, but this was really distracting.  Frustrating, more like.
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Shivertongue

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1231 on: April 21, 2010, 06:50:34 AM »
PS--I finished Servant of a Dark God and was pretty underwhelmed by it.  There seemed to be a decent story/world-building/characters, but the story-telling was really hard for me to enjoy.  Took all the tension and mystery out of it.  So, I pretty much lost interest early on, but pushed through to the end because of the good review from EBR.  The conversations in it are well done, the action scenes not so much, and the prose was decent.  All the sentences that began with conjunctions didn't change though.  I mean, I do this to a certain extent in my own writing, but this was really distracting.  Frustrating, more like.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned it before, but I felt the same way. The prose in particular was an issue for me, in that it contained far more telling than showing. I enjoyed it, though, in the end, but not as much as I thought I would.
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Bookstore Guy

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1232 on: April 21, 2010, 03:41:28 PM »
I also finished Jim Butcher's CHANGES.  It was awesome.

I find this extremely interesting.  With how many things Butcher has been working on lately, and how horrible the last two books seemed to have been, do you think there's any chance that Butcher tried a ghost writer on the last two books but decided that it wasn't working after all?  :D  How different are the last two books from this most recent one?  Crazy that there could be soooooo much variation within a single series by a single author.  I should probably try to read another one of these.

PS--I finished Servant of a Dark God and was pretty underwhelmed by it.  There seemed to be a decent story/world-building/characters, but the story-telling was really hard for me to enjoy.  Took all the tension and mystery out of it.  So, I pretty much lost interest early on, but pushed through to the end because of the good review from EBR.  The conversations in it are well done, the action scenes not so much, and the prose was decent.  All the sentences that began with conjunctions didn't change though.  I mean, I do this to a certain extent in my own writing, but this was really distracting.  Frustrating, more like.

No, I doubt he used a ghost writer.  He doesn't have that many projects going on.  Books 10 and 11 in the Dresden series were mostly set up, and they suffered heavily from it.  Had Changes (book 12) been the same way, I would have given up on Butcher.  Changes is very similar to books 7-9 in the series.  Which is good.  As for variation in a series, it happens all the time, especially in long series.  Jordan did it, EE Knight, Butcher, Erikson to a lesser degree, Bakker, every mystery author, and most horror authors.

As for Servant, yeah, it had problems, as do most first novels.  I had no issue with the action sequences at all.  I felt they were clear.  It was like a less complex version of a Martin story set "on the range."  I've read the 1st third of Brown's 2nd novel, and it is much better.
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WriterDan

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1233 on: April 23, 2010, 09:08:30 PM »
Finished The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray and will definitely be reading Retribution Falls now.  :)

Back to Infoquake.

Just ordered the triplet-book of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach along with a copy of Patrick Rothfuss's Not-a-children's-storybook.  Really intrigued by the Rothfuss book and quite looking forward to it.

Saw mention a couple weeks ago too that KJ Parker has a new novella coming from Subterranean Press:  Blue and Gold.  Hope it's as good as Purple and Black was.  Man.  I still get urges to go back and read that one all the time.
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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1234 on: April 23, 2010, 09:44:03 PM »
I just discovered that my middle-of-nowhere Texas town opened a used book store a few months back.  I celebrated a bit too early though.  The place was tiny and their fantasy section consisted of two very small shelves.  Still, I picked up  Writers of the Future Volumes XX through XXII.  I'll be doing some reading since I'm trying to crack that nut :)
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Peter Ahlstrom

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1235 on: April 24, 2010, 08:34:08 PM »
do you think there's any chance that Butcher tried a ghost writer on the last two books
LOL, this is the silliest thing I've read in weeks. :)
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WriterDan

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1236 on: April 27, 2010, 04:50:14 AM »
LOL, this is the silliest thing I've read in weeks. :)

Of course it was!  I am the King of Silly.  Well, okay, maybe just a minor Duke...  LOL
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WriterDan

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1237 on: April 27, 2010, 05:53:32 AM »
Hey Steve,

Are you going to be reviewing Watcher of the Dead by J.V. Jones sometime soon?  I just read a review that Don D'Ammassa did and I'm not at all encouraged by it.  The line that killed me was:  "Most of their personal stories come to some sort of resolution during the course of the novel, but the greater conflict remains open ended..."  The third book just stagnated for me.  And here I was hoping for something great.  This series is beginning to sound a whole lot like the Kingdoms of Thorn and bone series by Greg Keyes that I read .  After getting through all four books in that series, I still never had any kind of concrete idea as to who was the bad guy and why everything was happening.  Jones is much the better writer in my opinion, but this lack of real story progression is just killing me.
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mtlhddoc2

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1238 on: April 27, 2010, 01:52:46 PM »
Reading Turtledove's Worldwar series. Pretty good, if a little on the light side.

guessingo

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1239 on: April 27, 2010, 02:55:14 PM »
Guns of the South is probably his best book. I like the way he has this radical historical changes (Robert E. Lee gets AK-47s), but then tries to figure out how historical characters would really act. He does a tremendous amount of research for his books.

I read about a dozen books by him. I never finished the world war series. It went on and on. His books are formulaic, so after about a dozen I got bored with him. Then again a dozen books is quite alot of books by one author.

He has another series (not from guns of the south universe) where the South wins the Civil War and projects it forward to World War 1 and World War 2. He takes a very pessimistic and left wing view of history that does get a bit annoying. However, it is done well. I made it to part way through World War 1 in this series before moving on. They were done well.

Bookstore Guy

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1240 on: April 27, 2010, 03:40:50 PM »
Hey Steve,

Are you going to be reviewing Watcher of the Dead by J.V. Jones sometime soon?  I just read a review that Don D'Ammassa did and I'm not at all encouraged by it.  The line that killed me was:  "Most of their personal stories come to some sort of resolution during the course of the novel, but the greater conflict remains open ended..."  The third book just stagnated for me.  And here I was hoping for something great.  This series is beginning to sound a whole lot like the Kingdoms of Thorn and bone series by Greg Keyes that I read .  After getting through all four books in that series, I still never had any kind of concrete idea as to who was the bad guy and why everything was happening.  Jones is much the better writer in my opinion, but this lack of real story progression is just killing me.

Yeah.  Review should be coming shortly.
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Sigyn

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1241 on: April 27, 2010, 05:00:35 PM »
I'm reading Memories of Ice. I am so happy.
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Bookstore Guy

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1242 on: April 27, 2010, 11:10:48 PM »
I'm reading Memories of Ice. I am so happy.

Awesome.

I'm finishing up DRAGONFLY FALLING.  I have China Mieville's KRAKEN in the mail.  I will read it soon.  Until then, I may go for NIGHTS OF VILLJAMUR.
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WriterDan

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1243 on: April 28, 2010, 06:38:29 PM »
I'm reading Memories of Ice. I am so happy.

Memories of Ice is an amazingly freaking awesome hunk of fantastical love.  Enjoy it!
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Patriotic Kaz

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Re: What are you reading, part 3
« Reply #1244 on: April 29, 2010, 06:06:19 PM »
Finished Ghost Brigades and am halfway through Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming by Zelazny and again halfway through Smoke Ring by Niven
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