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[quote name='darkcecil32']Thanks!



I think my biggest issue was that GRRM was creating new conflicts and not resolving them, in addition to existing conflicts being left unresolved. I hate how he mentioned the alleged deaths of two important characters, seemingly in passing, as well. But I do agree that Brienne definitely evolved quite a bit through AFFC.[/QUOTE]
I haven't gotten to Feast for Crows yet, but all of my friends who have say the same sorts of things.

I bet it probably has something to do with GRRM's publisher forcing him to split book four in two. That's also caused a bunch of restructuring of chapters in Dance With Dragons, as well as removing certain stuff and putting it into Winds of Winter.

I'm sure that isn't the only reason book five has been so long delayed, but I've always gotten the sense from his blog entries and whatnot that the split really shook up his whole process in writing the series. Maybe I'm being naive, overly optimistic, or both, but I think once Dance With Dragons is out the door the last two will be easier for him to get done.
 
[quote name='Fjordson']I haven't gotten to Feast for Crows yet, but all of my friends who have say the same sorts of things.

I bet it probably has something to do with GRRM's publisher forcing him to split book four in two. That's also caused a bunch of restructuring of chapters in Dance With Dragons, as well as removing certain stuff and putting it into Winds of Winter.

I'm sure that isn't the only reason book five has been so long delayed, but I've always gotten the sense from his blog entries and whatnot that the split really shook up his whole process in writing the series. Maybe I'm being naive, overly optimistic, or both, but I think once Dance With Dragons is out the door the last two will be easier for him to get done.[/QUOTE]

I definitely hope so. I check his blog every now and then, and I think at one point he claimed to have more than one hundred pages written "already" for the sixth book (Winds of Winter, I think is the title) after rearranging things out of A Dance with Dragons.

The thing I don't get is his effort level/commitment to the series. I can understand taking your time to write a great book and there's nothing wrong with that. I think it's the fact that he's been writing far lesser stuff and doing many seemingly trivial things that seems to have irked many the wrong way. I mean, I can't really complain as I just started reading the series this year, but I really feel for his longtime fans that have waited 5+ years for ADWD.
 
[quote name='darkcecil32']The thing I don't get is his effort level/commitment to the series. I can understand taking your time to write a great book and there's nothing wrong with that. I think it's the fact that he's been writing far lesser stuff and doing many seemingly trivial things that seems to have irked many the wrong way. I mean, I can't really complain as I just started reading the series this year, but I really feel for his longtime fans that have waited 5+ years for ADWD.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, same here. I've only been into the series for about 4 months. Must be really rough for long time fans.
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On a slightly related note, I've been looking around for another quality fantasy series to get into after I finish Feast for Crows. I keep coming back to the Malazan books, it sounds super interesting and I've heard great things about it. However, my slight hangup is that when I look at sites like Amazon and Goodreads the reviews can vary wildly. Some say that it's extremely difficult to understand and that Steven Erikson's prose is really unreadable at parts.

Any CAGs out there who've read them that agree or disagree with that? It's not that I'm afraid of a challenging series, it's just that I do a lot of my reading in the midst of traveling for work so I don't always have large amounts of time to invest.
 
[quote name='Fjordson']Maybe I'm being naive, overly optimistic, or both, but I think once Dance With Dragons is out the door the last two will be easier for him to get done.[/QUOTE]

Actually, while trying to finish Dance, he yanked a lot of material from that and put it aside for the next book, so at least he has a head start. He's just gotta stay his ass at home, Tivo the football games, and finish this book. Otherwise HBO is going to catch up and point at their watches while saying "We'd like to start our next season anytime now, George."
 
I just got and finished The Road by Mccarthy. Holy shit, that was an intense read. I saw the movie right after and it wasn't great but definitely worth watching. The acting was superb.
 
[quote name='crunchb3rry']If you gave The Road a 9/10 in another thread, I'd say that qualifies as "great."[/QUOTE]
Yea, I suppose you're right. I was just comparing it to the book and we all know the book is always better.
 
[quote name='Fjordson']Yeah, same here. I've only been into the series for about 4 months. Must be really rough for long time fans.
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On a slightly related note, I've been looking around for another quality fantasy series to get into after I finish Feast for Crows. I keep coming back to the Malazan books, it sounds super interesting and I've heard great things about it. However, my slight hangup is that when I look at sites like Amazon and Goodreads the reviews can vary wildly. Some say that it's extremely difficult to understand and that Steven Erikson's prose is really unreadable at parts.

Any CAGs out there who've read them that agree or disagree with that? It's not that I'm afraid of a challenging series, it's just that I do a lot of my reading in the midst of traveling for work so I don't always have large amounts of time to invest.[/QUOTE]

I've only read two of the Malazan books. (The first and the third). And while they -are- good. They are confusing as shit too. I kept refering to the glossary in the back as well as checking the wikipedia page. There's over 5 distinct rces, sub-groups in those races. Each race has it's own gods and worship and each race has it's own magic system as well.

It is good, gritty, bloody fantasy though.
 
So I just finished this

And it was pretty good. Lesser authors would have dragged the first book out into three books, spending a whole book just on the main characters youth and development into the warded man.

This guy just sort of condenses it. However too much time is spent on the early childhood years at the village hamlet and too little on the building of the warrior stage.

Appearently it's been optioned for a movie as well.
 
Well I finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. What a great book. IMO, it's superior to the Bladerunner (even though Bladerunner is still amazing). The book is vastly dissimilar from the movie. Mak, you should give it a read when ya get a chance. It's short, easy and pretty amazing.

I'm moving on to Doctor Who: The Pirate Loop by Simon Guierrier. I love Doctor Who and I'm enjoying the book thus far.
 
[quote name='GhostShark']Well I finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. What a great book. IMO, it's superior to the Bladerunner (even though Bladerunner is still amazing). The book is vastly dissimilar from the movie. Mak, you should give it a read when ya get a chance. It's short, easy and pretty amazing.
[/QUOTE]


Nice. Thanks for the info. I just bought it for my Kindle.
 
[quote name='mr_burnzz']Yea, I suppose you're right. I was just comparing it to the book and we all know the book is always better.[/QUOTE]

That's one case I disagreed. Thought the movie was great, had read the book prior and didn't dig it that much. Just hated the writing style. And the movie with it's visuals etc. did a better job of getting the emotional impact across to me.
 
CAG I want your input on this. I have to choose a supplemental novel for my British Literature class and I've narrowed my choices (from the selections) to Brave New World and Great Expectations. Which one should I go for?

But on topic, I'm currently reading The Plague by Albert Camus.
 
[quote name='PhantomaZero']CAG I want your input on this. I have to choose a supplemental novel for my British Literature class and I've narrowed my choices (from the selections) to Brave New World and Great Expectations. Which one should I go for?

But on topic, I'm currently reading The Plague by Albert Camus.[/QUOTE]

Brave New World. It is a fantastic sci-fi/philosophical novel that deals with the many social issues that still plague us to this very day.
 
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I'm reading Star Wars: Stealth it is set during the Clone Wars cartoon time frame but is an adult novel. (There have been a bit to many references to how bad Anakin wants to get home to stick the dongsaber to Padme).

Not bad so far, not an award winner but not bad.
 
I enjoyed Brave New World the movie or miniseries with L. Nimoy waspretty bad but the book is good.

Since I just sorta moved and my stuff is in chaos I'm not even sure where I put my Game of Thrones but I just purchased Vol1-6 of Scott Pilgrim and now that I own it official-like I'm reading it again.
 
I'm really digging these Doctor Who novels. They're quick, easy reads and you'll probably be entertained if you're a fan of the series.
 
Finished Playback by Raymond Chandler in a day and a half.


I might have read it before, but I didnt seem to mind. Still a great book, tons of quotable lines.
 
[quote name='PhantomaZero']CAG I want your input on this. I have to choose a supplemental novel for my British Literature class and I've narrowed my choices (from the selections) to Brave New World and Great Expectations. Which one should I go for?

But on topic, I'm currently reading The Plague by Albert Camus.[/QUOTE]

Have you ever seen the movie The Island? Brave New World seems to have been a heavy source of inspiration for that movie (as far as I can tell), and if you enjoyed it, you should certainly enjoy Huxley's work.
 
[quote name='GhostShark']I'm really digging these Doctor Who novels. They're quick, easy reads and you'll probably be entertained if you're a fan of the series.[/QUOTE]

Which Doctor are you reading? I refuse to read/watch etc. anything with the 11th Doctor.

Also just started reading Force Unleashed II.
 
[quote name='Hell Monkey']Which Doctor are you reading? I refuse to read/watch etc. anything with the 11th Doctor.

Also just started reading Force Unleashed II.[/QUOTE]

I'm nearly finished with The Pirate Loop. It's with the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones so it's filled with awesome.
 
Finished The Pillars of the Earh. Overall it was kind of meh. Maybe I'd have liked it more if I hadn't watched the mini-series first. But the writing style is pretty boring, and the book as a whole ends up pretty dul when you know all the main plot points.

There are some differences between the two of course, but relatively minor. Some things happen a bit differently (someone dies differently, or for a different reason etc.), there's a bit of extra story at the end that goes beyond the end of the mini series (well kind of, some stuff that happens there happened in the miniseries as well), but that part wasn't particularly compelling in any event.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Finished The Pillars of the Earh. Overall it was kind of meh. Maybe I'd have liked it more if I hadn't watched the mini-series first. But the writing style is pretty boring, and the book as a whole ends up pretty dul when you know all the main plot points.

There are some differences between the two of course, but relatively minor. Some things happen a bit differently (someone dies differently, or for a different reason etc.), there's a bit of extra story at the end that goes beyond the end of the mini series (well kind of, some stuff that happens there happened in the miniseries as well), but that part wasn't particularly compelling in any event.[/QUOTE]

Totally agree. I found the main storyline interesting but I thought the book was in need of some serious editing.
 
Put Crescent and The Stand on hold to read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

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^That's one of my favourite sci-fi books ever. Good choice.
[quote name='RAMSTORIA']since I really liked the Farseer trilogy.[/QUOTE]
Glad to hear good things about Farseer. I'm about to start Assassin's Apprentice.
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I'm on the last third of A Storm of Swords right now. Holy shit. Keeps getting better and better. The
Red Wedding
seriously took me by complete surprise. I'm kind of
bummed about Robb, though. I like the Starks. Was hoping he would make it through the book.
 
[quote name='kill3r7']Totally agree. I found the main storyline interesting but I thought the book was in need of some serious editing.[/QUOTE]

I did it all as an audiobook while I was working. As an alternative to paying attention to my job it was still pretty good.
 
Started up The Crimson Shadow by R.A. Salvatore. It's really three books just put together under a new title: The Sword of Bedwyr, Luthien's Gamble, and The Dragon King.

Just reading the sample on Kindle, but it's good so far and I love most of Salvatore's stuff so I'm pretty sure I'll buy read the whole thing.
 
Reading Neverwhere by Gaiman. I read it once a long time ago and found it at a book swap for free. A really good, creative book. The mini series that BBC did is on instant watch for Netflix so I'll check that out next.
 
Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross.


I guess it's a second book in a series but that doesnt seem to matter. I love how Stross just introduces terms like 'bonephone' 'killhounds' and contrarotating spin wheels' and lets the reader figure out their purpose and design.

Older SF authors like Asimov, Brin or those guys would spend pages going into physics lectures of just how the ship worked or the satelite rotated. Stross just says hydrogen fusion expulsion and assumes you know what he's talking about.
 
Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. Written by same guy that did Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. Just getting into it, but a nice fun "take" on history.
 
[quote name='Fjordson']Finished Altered Carbon, great read. Definitely one of my favourite sci-fi novels that I've read in the last few years. The blend of that hard-boiled detective noir style and science fiction was awesome.
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27yu1oo.png


First 48 issues, over a thousand pages, for only $37 off Amazon. Only a few dozen pages in, but it's awesome so far.[/QUOTE]
Finally started Volume One TPB of The Walking Dead. Trying to get ready for the AMC TV series on Halloween.
 
Finished Blink by Malcolm Gladwell that I had been reading on the side. Like his other books, very enjoyable and interesting read. I might have liked this book more than the other two.
 
[quote name='rcpettit']Finally started Volume One TPB of The Walking Dead. Trying to get ready for the AMC TV series on Halloween.[/QUOTE]
Same here. A Storm of Swords has been taking up most of my time, but I'm almost done with that. I'll be really digging in these next few weeks.
 
I'd say wait until reading Walking Dead. Some of the stuff that happens in there will be 10x more surprising to watch on the show.
 
I just finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. It's a great book but I was surprised how many liberties were taken with Blade Runner in comparison. It definitely wasn't a 1 for 1 movie like The Road. Blade Runner just took basic concepts (ie there's a guy named Rick Deckerd and he hunts androids) from the book and did its own thing. For example,
Roy is more or less an after thought and Racheal and Luba were more of a presence in the book. Buster Friendly and the side plot with the preciousness of animals and Mercer/Mercerism is never even mentioned in the movie. Isidore is a dummy as opposed to an eccentric genius.
 
Just finished the first couple of books from the Vampire Earth series by E. E. Knight. They were all right. Entertaining simple reads and I will probably keep reading the series, but they are nothing that I would say you have to run out and read.
I also just read Monster Hunter Vendetta by Larry Corriea, which was fan-fucking-tastic. Anyone who likes horror or action movies should RUN OUT AND BUY this book. Both it and its predecessor, Monster Hunter International are amazingly fun reads.
 
[quote name='RAMSTORIA']im not about a third of the way through Golden Fool, 2nd book in the Tawny Man.[/QUOTE]

What do you think of it so far?

I recently finished the Farseer Trilogy and really enjoyed it. I was thinking about starting the Tawny Man Trilogy soon.
 
[quote name='kill3r7']What do you think of it so far?

I recently finished the Farseer Trilogy and really enjoyed it. I was thinking about starting the Tawny Man Trilogy soon.[/QUOTE]

really diggin it, lots of familiar characters, same writing style. the first book was a little slow because there was lots of "catch up" (its set 15 years after farseer) and generally setting up the trilogy. but all 3 books are longer than farseer books. its also focuses a lot more on (not a spoiler if youve read farseer)
the wit & old blood instead of the skill and the elderlings and also prince dutiful, not so much kettrickens reign as queen... at least so far
 
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Reading World of Warcraft: Night of the Dragon by Richard A. Knaak. I'm really enjoying this book as compared to Knaak's Stormrage.
 
Reading Star Wars The Last Command by Timothy Zahn. I'm a star wars fan but never read any of the books til now. awesome 3 part series.
Just ordered a nook from BB and spending most of my day searching inkmesh.com for cheap ebooks to fill it up with. Yes another addiction that will leave me broke.
 
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