Originally Posted by DOMINATOR912 that clown. Gave me nightmares through most of my childhood.

Ha yeah I'm only 5% in so far and its pretty damn creep already. Just imagine looking down over a poorly lit bridge to see a clown standing in the middle of a creek with a baloon in his hand staring back at you.

Finished up Heechee Rendezvous and on to the final book - The Annals of the Heechee


The Annals of the Heechee by Frederik Pohl

(still working on It as well)

Be warned, dmaul: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news...s-Effect-Novel

Yeah, MSUHitman already posted about it in another thread, so I'll avoid that book.

I didn't think the first 3 Mass Effect novels where anything great anyway.

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Has anybody read the Malazan books (by Erickson)? I know they get a lot of praise from high fantasy fans, but I'm wondering what a more middle-of-the-road reader thinks. This thread is usually good for that kind of perspective, people read a lot of different books without getting bound to a genre.

So if anyone's read them, I'd appreciate your thoughts. Thanks!

Originally Posted by dothog Has anybody read the Malazan books (by Erickson)? I know they get a lot of praise from high fantasy fans, but I'm wondering what a more middle-of-the-road reader thinks. This thread is usually good for that kind of perspective, people read a lot of different books without getting bound to a genre. So if anyone's read them, I'd appreciate your thoughts. Thanks!

I've read 3 or 4 of them and they're okay. They're dark, bloody and violent. They're also very confusing. There are like 10 differnt races, all with their own belif systems, schools of magic and what not. Two of the races have very similar names.

I had to keep this open during reading the books. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invadin..._Fallen_series
I mean, there's like 4 different races that start with Tiste.

The characters are good and believable though with decent character arcs to their stories instead of the standard "hero goes on a journey" fantasy trope.

Originally Posted by eldergamer The characters are good and believable though with decent character arcs to their stories instead of the standard "hero goes on a journey" fantasy trope.

Yeah, this is what I've heard from a friend who's admittedly a hardcore fantasy reader. He only acknowledged the difficulties you (and others on the internet) pointed out by stating that the first book could be "tough to get through." Riiiight.

I think I might tackle the first and see how it goes.

EDIT: I wound up going into Joe Abercrombie's First Law series. Yep, I've been feeling like fantasy lately. I'm not a big fan of Abercrombie's writing style, which aims to mimic an oral storytelling more than provide detailed descriptions, but I love his characters, especially Glokta and Jezal. He still uses a few familiar types (the world-weary barbarian, the crafty magus), but overall he's not afraid to advance a story using bold characters that have been made original by piecing together other tropes and simply making these characters a focus. I love it when a compelling story is told from the perspective of a character I don't respect.

Anybody have a suggestion of a book(s) about exploration of space, particularly exploration of the unknown or an unknown object. Or any books that are very Mass Effect-esque?

Unrelated: Just finished the 4th and final book of the Heechee Saga (Annals of the Heechee). The saga was great but the 4th book was nothing to write home about unfortunately.

I think my next hard copy book shall be The Mote in God's Eye


The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven

Still working through It on the Kindle

Makler...

A year or so ago I finished Morgan's Broken Angels and Woken Furies, which are the last two books of the Takashi Kovacs trilogy. They deal with a few mysteries surrounding space artifacts and forgotten interstellar cultures, and these mysteries frame the larger explorations of the worlds and cultures the author has created. The whole trilogy is pretty good hardcore, action scifi. Morgan clearly enjoys writing characters within military/corporate hierarchies and the dynamics and attitudes that come out of that. That may be a turn-off, I was a little tired of it after the last book.

(By the way, Morgan's "sleeve" technology is really well handled, it allows for very interesting twists on story telling conventions. It's one of my favorite technologies in any scifi, it's very slick yet doesn't get bogged down in detail.)

Another fun but much goofier exploration of a world and artifact is John Varley's Titan. It's just straight-up weird, the creatures and the world itself. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Titan is a good book. It's part of the reason scifi and fantasy fans get stigmatized, it can be embarrassing in places. But it's fun, dammit. So what if it's trashy and *very* dated? In its defense, the protagonist isn't half bad, it's just hard to be taken seriously in the world Varley creates.

Titan especially is easy to get through, it goes fast. Broken Angels and Woken Furies have some bloat to them, but Morgan's technologies and politics make the ride interesting. If you read one of them, hope you'll discuss them here!

Started A Clash of Kings this week. I'm only about 50 pages in, but it's already great. I've already bought the next two as well, but I think I might continue to read a different book in between these novels.

Originally Posted by Maklershed Anybody have a suggestion of a book(s) about exploration of space, particularly exploration of the unknown or an unknown object. Or any books that are very Mass Effect-esque?

I particularly enjoyed Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama. It fits very well into your criteria.

I'd also recommend Spin. While it's not about exploring space or unknown objects, it is about exploring a bizarre change to the planet, which I found to be unique.

And, one of my favorite books, The Sparrow, which follows the story of the first group to travel to the first planet found to have life, though I would warn that the story is told from an anthropological stance. It gets into some very deep and dark themes, particularly with the exploration of faith, though it is not a religious book.

Originally Posted by Maklershed Anybody have a suggestion of a book(s) about exploration of space, particularly exploration of the unknown or an unknown object. Or any books that are very Mass Effect-esque? Unrelated: Just finished the 4th and final book of the Heechee Saga (Annals of the Heechee). The saga was great but the 4th book was nothing to write home about unfortunately. I think my next hard copy book shall be The Mote in God's Eye The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven Still working through It on the Kindle

Hyperion by Dan Simmons has a pretty cool universe. Travel is more by teleports than ships though.

currently maybe 470 or so pages into The complete hammer's slammers Vol 3.

Gods and generals ended up taking me more than a month to finish wasn't reading a whole lot.

Originally Posted by Maklershed Anybody have a suggestion of a book(s) about exploration of space, particularly exploration of the unknown or an unknown object. Or any books that are very Mass Effect-esque?

You might like Stephen Baxter's nasa trilogy, Voyage titan and moonseed.

Or maybe the Xeelee sequence for farther future stuff could perhaps count for the unknown.

Mass Effect-esque makes me think space opera

Pandora's Star by perter F hamilton
I will second, The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons

Originally Posted by evantrees currently maybe 470 or so pages into The complete hammer's slammers Vol 3. Gods and generals ended up taking me more than a month to finish wasn't reading a whole lot. You might like Stephen Baxter's nasa trilogy, Voyage titan and moonseed. Or maybe the Xeelee sequence for farther future stuff could perhaps count for the unknown. Mass Effect-esque makes me think space opera Pandora's Star by perter F hamilton I will second, The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons

Clarke's Rendvous with Rama is a good "explore a alient object" type book.
Jack L Chalker's Well World series as well. Most of those are pretty dated.

Larry Niven's Ringworld series fits as well.

I'm currently reading:


It's okay. got it from the Borders closeout sale. Sort of a fanciful detective novel. Not your standard noir tale. But it doesn't quite go far enough afield for my taste.

(Especially when the last thing I read was the vastly weird Perdido Street Station)

Originally Posted by eldergamer (Especially when the last thing I read was the vastly weird Perdido Street Station)

Good weird, though, right? I liked both Perdido and The Scar.

I've moved on to the second book in Abercrombie's First Law series. I really liked the characters in the first, but I'm getting the feeling that I'm losing touch with these books. One thing I don't like is that the fight scenes seem like they get the bulk of his attention...really wish he'd invest some of that energy into the surroundings, world mythology, or non-fisticuff character interaction.

It just seems like a waste of some really interesting characters (who are now lifeless or being largely ignored in the second book). I'm not sure where this series is going, but I'm hoping it picks up. If anyone's made it through all 3, any clues are appreciated. I'll ditch this thing if I have to, I'm crazy enough to do it.

Originally Posted by dothog Good weird, though, right? I liked both Perdido and The Scar. I've moved on to the second book in Abercrombie's First Law series. I really liked the characters in the first, but I'm getting the feeling that I'm losing touch with these books. One thing I don't like is that the fight scenes seem like they get the bulk of his attention...really wish he'd invest some of that energy into the surroundings, world mythology, or non-fisticuff character interaction. It just seems like a waste of some really interesting characters (who are now lifeless or being largely ignored in the second book). I'm not sure where this series is going, but I'm hoping it picks up. If anyone's made it through all 3, any clues are appreciated. I'll ditch this thing if I have to, I'm crazy enough to do it.

I just finished the second about a month ago. I had a maybe 4-6 month break between the first and the second book so I had forgotten most things.
The second was pretty good although the ending was the definition of anti-climatic.

I'll pick up the third from the library eventually, but I'm not interested in it if it's going to be more of a court-politics vs battle agaisnt the eaters.

I couldn't get into First Law. Bought all three from an Amazon bundle deal, but read 2/3 of the first one and just kinda lost interest.

These post-Martin fantasy books that try to be for "adults" and sorta fall flat. I really got tired of the whole genre way back when Terry Brooks kept his Shanarra series going when he should have stopped it at Talismans. Martin got me into his books to an almost obsessive level, but all the other authors failed to get me back into the genre.

"God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales" by Penn Jillette

Originally Posted by crunchb3rry I couldn't get into First Law. Bought all three from an Amazon bundle deal, but read 2/3 of the first one and just kinda lost interest. These post-Martin fantasy books that try to be for "adults" and sorta fall flat.

I don't read em all, so I don't know about fantasy in general. I think First Law's first book had promise, I consider it an accomplishment that the author got me interested in his menagerie of selfish assholes, a few of which were identifiable in spite of being torturers or teenage nobles.

One I've read whose reputation puzzles me is the Name of the Wind books. Not that it's bad, but why all the fuss? Even GRRM went out of his way to praise the last one. I can't think of a protagonist I care less for than Kvothe.

Originally Posted by gravel Started A Clash of Kings this week. I'm only about 50 pages in, but it's already great. I've already bought the next two as well, but I think I might continue to read a different book in between these novels.

I'm halfway through a Clash of Kings, which I am enjoying as well.