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Author Topic: Books  (Read 101443 times)
Zapranoth
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« Reply #15 on: January 11, 2007, 10:31:05 PM »

Oh, also re-read all the Neil Gaiman books recently.

If you like brilliantly written, beautiful but bleak and dark fairytales, read _American Gods_, _Stardust_, and of course the estimable _Neverwhere_.
I have a feeling a lot of people  on this board would enjoy Gaiman.
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BeyondTheGrave
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Punks not Ded sez Rich


« Reply #16 on: January 11, 2007, 10:34:12 PM »

Oh, also re-read all the Neil Gaiman books recently.

If you like brilliantly written, beautiful but bleak and dark fairytales, read _American Gods_, _Stardust_, and of course the estimable _Neverwhere_.
I have a feeling a lot of people  on this board would enjoy Gaiman.

Oh I have. My avatar is Death from his comic series "Sandman". I have Neverwhere but I haven't read it yet.
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Most of all I hate dancing then work,exercise,people,stupidpeople

Yaddo 42
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Where's that brick.......


« Reply #17 on: January 11, 2007, 11:08:10 PM »

I've seen Bryson on C-Span, during the Book TV programming on weekends. He seems interesting, just haven't taken the plunge and tried any of his stuff yet. Thanks for the recommendations.
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sideorderofninjas
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« Reply #18 on: January 11, 2007, 11:20:34 PM »

Just finished "Dune: Battle of Corrin."
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SideOrderOfNinjas
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BTM
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« Reply #19 on: January 11, 2007, 11:43:50 PM »


Let's see... I'm reading On Basilisk Station by David Weber and Flight of the Nighthawks by Raymond Feist.

I just got done reading Just Another Kid by Torey Hayden,  America Alone by Mark Steyn, and Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison.

Also, I need to re-check Wizard and Glass by Stephen King from the library again (got halfway through it before I had to return the book.)   
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Derf
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« Reply #20 on: January 12, 2007, 10:13:41 AM »

Derf, I'm a huge Pratchett fan. A friend loaned me Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore, I read it about the time I started reading Pratchett (can't bring myself to refer to him as PTerry on a regular basis). I hated PD, since the plot was obvious and stitched together (to me) and found the humor rather mild after Pratchett. Does he get better?

I enjoyed Practical Demonkeeping, but it was his first novel, so keep that in mind. His humor is very different from Pratchett, so it is difficult to compare the two. Pratchett depends more on clever turns of phrase and funny descriptions (which I love) while Moore depends more on situational humor. That's not to say Pratchett never uses situational humor; he does, but his main tool is clever descriptions. Moore does use clever turns of phrase, but he depends much more on situations. Maybe Moore should be considered more of a "light fantasy" writer than a "humorous fantasy" writer. If you are interested in reading anything else of his, I'd recommend something like The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove (Stupidest Angel, which I'm reading now, is a sequel to this book) or Island of the Sequined Love Nun for a better story line. If you read mostly sci-fi / fantasy, Moore may not appeal to you; most bookstores don't seem to know whether to put his books in the sci-fi section or the general fiction section--he kind of borders on both, putting regular people in fantastic situations. If nothing else, his titles would make great B-movies, which is part of the reason I picked up his stuff in the first place.

Since I'm here anyway, I'll add to my favorite authors list:

Diana Wynne Jones
Jo Clayton
L. Frank Baum (soft spot from childhood)
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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #21 on: January 12, 2007, 10:29:38 AM »

"Mystic Warrior" by Tracy Hickman. The first book in the "Bronze Canticles" series. Usually he writes in conjunction with Margaret Weis, but he is writing this one in conjunction with his wife, Laura Hickman.

Three worlds. The world of man, which is ruled over by dragons. The world of the fairy or fae, which is at war with itself. And the pre-industrial world of the goblin, which is salvaging the machinery left behind by the previous inhabitants of the world. The book follows one or two characters from each world. The connection is that all the characters appear in the dreams of the other characters, which, of course, the characters are trying to make sense of.

Somewhat more dense and with less action, though the action seems to pick up in the second volume, than I am use to reading. And there is a somewhat religious overtone to the book.
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Famous Mortimer
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« Reply #22 on: January 12, 2007, 10:30:35 AM »


I recently finished House of leaves, wich was a very strange, yet fascinating book.
I second this, I recently finished it too and it's brilliant, strange, fascinating and one of those books that I immediately gave my friend to read as I loved it.
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Yaddo 42
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Where's that brick.......


« Reply #23 on: January 13, 2007, 06:14:34 AM »

Thanks for the info, Derf, I'll bear it in mind. I read very little scifi/fantasy these days, part of Pratchett's appeal to me was his humor where most of the stuff being recommended to me was the usual multi-part epic series made up of one brick-sized book after another. I keep meaning to plunge back in, got some China Mieville and Phillip Pullman books cluttering up the place I need to take a shot at.

Around here C Moore is pretty firmly in the straight fiction at the bookstores, Pratchett winds up in fiction and scifi/fantasy. At least they quit breaking him up willy-nilly and started putting the new release hardbacks in one section and the mass market paperbacks in the other.

The one part of PD I did like was the witch/pagan character. The part fleshing out how she had escaped her bad marriage and reinvented herself was well done. I found the character attractive or appealing (in my mental image of her anyway) and wanted more of her in the story. She reminded me of the friend who loaned me the book , but with her IRL rough edges smoothed out.

If anyone is curious, I started the Italo Calvino book yesterday. Not sure if the smooth writing style is due to him or the translator, but I'm liking it so far.
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Viktorcrayon
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« Reply #24 on: January 13, 2007, 11:42:56 AM »


I recently finished House of leaves, wich was a very strange, yet fascinating book.
I second this, I recently finished it too and it's brilliant, strange, fascinating and one of those books that I immediately gave my friend to read as I loved it.

That's very cool!!! I really really enjoyed it.
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Dennis
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I'm sorry, did I break your concentration?


« Reply #25 on: January 13, 2007, 12:05:57 PM »

I just finished "Grunts", sort of Lord of the Rings told from a orc's point of view, after the final battle a band of surviving orcs takes shelter in a wizards castle. The wizard has been traveling between dimensions and bringing stuff back, apparently he brought back an entire USMC supply depot, everything from boots and bayonets to attack helicopters and tanks, and the stuff has a spell on it, the more you handle it the more you know about it. I wound up thinking of the orcs as people for the most part, all the rest of LOTR people are there too, dwarfs, elfs, etc. there is even an invasion by aliens. I have to say I really enjoyed this book, any LOTR fan should read this, it's great.
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trekgeezer
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« Reply #26 on: January 13, 2007, 01:35:20 PM »

Just finished reading "Blood Rites", Jim Butcher's sixth Harry Dresden book and just started reading the seventh in the series "Dead Beat" .

My next up will be "Hunters of Dune" the first in the two part sequel (written by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson) to Frank Herbert's "Chapterhouse Dune".


Yes Zapranoth, I like Neil Gaiman. I have read Neverwhere, American Gods, and just read Anansi Boys a couple of months ago. I've also read Good Omens, the book he wrote with Terry Pratchett.
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And you thought Trek isn't cool.
RCMerchant
Bela
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« Reply #27 on: January 14, 2007, 07:28:46 AM »

Just finished Robert Heinlan's Number of the Beast,and working on Stranger in a Strange Land. Number of the Beast is quite bizzare,with a group of intergalactic  travelers jumping in and out of alternate universes,(including a world of literary charecters!)
On the table in front of me is a copy of Calvin T. Becks HEROS of the HORRORS, which I refrenced in setting up the Lon Jr. poll. It has bios on Chaneys Sr. and Jr.,Bela Lugosi,Boris Karloff,Peter Lorre,and Vincent Price.Lotsa cool pictures too!
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Pilgermann
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« Reply #28 on: January 17, 2007, 02:58:08 PM »

I'm reading Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick.  I've been meaning to read some of his work for a while so I thought I'd pick this up at the library.

For bathroom reading I'm working on Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Recently I re-read Pilgermann by Russell Hoban (bet you can't guess where I got my screen name!).  I'll probably read it at least once a year.  It takes place during the Crusades of the 11th century, and starts with a character who refers to himself as 'Pilgermann' (from the start he is dead and exists only as "waves and particles" and says he's made a covenant with God that requires everything from him forever).  At the beginning of his story he's just slept with the town tax collector's wife (he's a German Jew and she's not Jewish).  After leaving her home he's intercepted by a mob of Christian peasants who've been making their way through the town, killing all of the Jews.  He's castrated, his genitals are fed to a pig, but the tax collector who happened to be leading the mob orders them to leave Pilgermann alone, sparing his life.  Pilgermann has a vision of Christ who tells him that God is no longer He but It, and It has nothing to do with mankind any longer.  He goes on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and along the way he's accompanied by Death (who brings people to their end by raping them), and various other characters who're dead (like a bear and the bear's owner who believed that the bear was God).  Much more occurs, but it's all pretty complex stuff that deals with religion, existance, morality, etc.  It's a very addictive book.

Hoban has become one of my favorite authors.  He's written a lot of children's books, but his novels are his best work.  Riddley Walker is a fairly famous post-apocalyptic work of his, although it gets some hate because it's written in a broken and twisted form of English.

I need to pick up a copy of Amphigorey Again.  It has some unreleased Edward Gorey stuff, plus some books that aren't in print on their own.1
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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #29 on: January 25, 2007, 03:21:33 PM »

While Tolkien is probably the best known name among fantasy writers, he is not the first writer of fantasy. Some forty fantasy writers, who preceded Tolkien, are featured in "Tales Before Tolkien: the Roots of Modern Fantasy" edited by Douglas A. Anderson. About half of the forty, have an example of their work featured in the book.

What I learned from the selections, which range from 1827 to 1930's, is how much the style of writing has changed, even from 70 years ago.

And even though fantasy, you do get a look at what life was like during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Thus as tomorrow's readers will get a look at what life was like in the first half of the 21st century from the fantasy writings of today.
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