What are you reading?

Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov (trans. Constance Garnett)

If you liked it, read Moon Palace. Similar style, better story and execution (in my opinion).

Noted, thanks!

Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Loved it. Really need to get hold of ...on the campaign trail...

I'm almost finished bonfire of the vanities and debating either 'gold' by Asimov or 'Crime and punishment' by Dostoevsky. I want to have read the later before I go to Petersburg in November with the girlfriend.

Quote from: Crudblud on August 29, 2013, 09:50:59 AM

Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Loved it. Really need to get hold of ...on the campaign trail...

I'm almost finished bonfire of the vanities and debating either 'gold' by Asimov or 'Crime and punishment' by Dostoevsky. I want to have read the later before I go to Petersburg in November with the girlfriend.

Wait, you're not gay?

Quote from: Chris Spaghetti on September 03, 2013, 02:13:09 PM

Quote from: Crudblud on August 29, 2013, 09:50:59 AM

Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Loved it. Really need to get hold of ...on the campaign trail...

I'm almost finished bonfire of the vanities and debating either 'gold' by Asimov or 'Crime and punishment' by Dostoevsky. I want to have read the later before I go to Petersburg in November with the girlfriend.

Wait, you're not gay?

He's whatever is fashionable at the time. Vegetarian, gay, black. He just wants to be accepted.

Pretty sure I've been clear about my sexuality before. From memory, there may be an old 'post a picture' from 08 or so of me with my ex, not sure whether I've ever posted a pic of my current lass...

Pretty sure I've been clear about my sexuality before. From memory, there may be an old 'post a picture' from 08 or so of me with my ex, not sure whether I've ever posted a pic of my current lass...

I know.  I just remember laughing when someone first asked you that.

I found Eric disappointing but the one after that, Moving Pictures, is my favorite yet.

You're now almost as far through the series as I am.

Eric was indeed rather disappointing.  Too short, not much of an overarching story to speak of, the titular character should have been less annoying and more amusing, and I didn't even have the illustrated version.  Oh, well.  Let's see if Moving Pictures lives up to the hype.

Quote from: Roundy the Truthinessist on September 01, 2013, 08:01:31 PM

I found Eric disappointing but the one after that, Moving Pictures, is my favorite yet.

You're now almost as far through the series as I am.

Eric was indeed rather disappointing.  Too short, not much of an overarching story to speak of, the titular character should have been less annoying and more amusing, and I didn't even have the illustrated version.  Oh, well.  Let's see if Moving Pictures lives up to the hype.

Faust Eric is the only main Discworld book I haven't read. It's short so I'll probably read that next before I start on something heavier.

Went out and purchased some books...

Flann O'Brien - The Third Policeman
William Faulkner - Sanctuary / Requiem for a Nun (in a single volume)
Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels
Thomas Mann - Doctor Faustus (trans. H.T. Lowe-Porter)
Anaïs Nin - A Spy In the House of Love
Roberto Bolaño - The Savage Detectives (trans. Natasha Wimmer)

Total cost of £9.

Went out and purchased some books...

Flann O'Brien - The Third Policeman
William Faulkner - Sanctuary / Requiem for a Nun (in a single volume)
Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels
Thomas Mann - Doctor Faustus (trans. H.T. Lowe-Porter)
Anaïs Nin - A Spy In the House of Love
Roberto Bolaño - The Savage Detectives (trans. Natasha Wimmer)

Total cost of £9.

Charity bookshops are amazing.

I've finished Moving Pictures.  It started off a little slow, but it was pretty good once it got going properly.  And now I'm about to go through another bunch of them.

(some spoilers regarding A Song of Ice and Fire follow)




I finally finished (what's been written so far of) A Song of Ice and Fire.  George R R Martin really set the tone when he killed off his main character before the first book was even finished.  I knew I was getting into something special when Ned lost his head.

A Clash of Kings was great too, with all the carnage at Winterfell and the Battle of the Blackwater.  I have to say I was successfully hoodwinked when it looked like Theon had killed Bran and Rickon.  After what happened in A Game of Thrones there's a definite "anyone can die" vibe going on in this series.

A Storm of Swords was the best, by far.  My God, I think I fell in love with Dani when she unleashed her dragons on Astapor.  And all the deaths... how satisfying was it to see Joffrey finally get his?  And the way they ended it... with Tyrion killing Tywin and Shae before escaping his death at King's Landing... it's scenes like that that make him my favorite character in the series.  And all the while an apocalyptic-feeling storm raging through Westeros.  Arya with the Hound.  Samwell finally showing some backbone.  The Red Wedding... Littlefinger's murder of Lysa... the return to the narrative of Ser Barristan the Bold... the Red Viper's epic battle against the Mountain... Jaime's rescuing of Brienne from the bear... I could go on and on about this one.

The only one I didn't thoroughly enjoy was A Feast For Crows.  No Tyrion?  No Daenarys?  No Jon Snow?  I guess I can understand that Martin felt the need to split the characters up, but how do you expect to hold your readers' interest if you take the three best narrating characters out of it?  There was much I enjoyed, particularly the slow, self-inflicted unraveling of Cersei's control over King's Landing, but on the whole it felt limp and (frankly) something of a struggle to get through.

I read some negative reviews of A Dance With Dragons that seemed to suggest that the previous book was the beginning of a permanent downturn in the series' quality, but for me that one didn't disappoint.  I flat-out loved it, from Jon Snow's struggles to keep the Wall under control to Dani's struggles to keep her dragons under control.  Even some of the storylines that annoyed me in the previous book had me engaged in this one.  And Reek... unforgettable.  For not the first time Martin has made me look on a character I previously despised with sympathy.

And now, for the first time since I started reading the series near the beginning of the summer, I have to wait to read the next installment.  How frustrating.  Is Jon Snow truly dead (I'm guessing he is, but with the Red Lady around you never know)?  What will happen to Dani now?  And Varys... the chessmaster (or perhaps I should say cyvasse master)?  I love it.  Between Varys and Littlefinger, I think the Seven Kingdoms had better watch out because the people really pulling the strings are not the ones they might expect.

Martin had better hurry the fuck up with The Winds of Winter.   

Anyway, my thoughts.

I couldn't stand Dany's storyline in A Dance with Dragons.  There were some interesting parts to it, like the dragons, but so much time was devoted to the great moral dilemma of what to do about Meereen.   And of course, that's the justification for why she won't do what literally everyone (by which I'm referring to both the characters and fans of the books) wants her to do - go to Westeros already.  She can't go because then the people will starve.  But the problem with this is that Martin has given us absolutely no reason why we, as readers, should give a fuck about the people of Meereen.  We don't know them.  We barely ever see them.  They're in the background.  So why the hell should we care about them?

It's just not how fiction works.  You can't simply wave your hands at the readers and say, "Look at this.  This is important, because I say it's important.  Now care about it."  You've got to earn the stakes you set.  That works well with characters when you build them up, you tell us about them, get us to relate to them, sympathize with them - in short, to care about what happens to them.  And then when we're invested, you can threaten these characters, or kill them off, or save them, and we'll care because we have the emotional connection that allows us to overlook the fact that they're not real.  Without that connection, it's just an author saying that some fake people are going to die.  And who cares about that?

I'm not sure it matters what we think of the people of Meereen.  What matters is that Dani thinks the people of Meereen matter, and I think her reason for her conviction has been made clear (she is trying to avoid what happened in Astapor and Yunkai).  I think it's a matter of principle, and whether I agree with her decisions is irrelevant, because I agree that her motivations are plausible.

That being said... yeah, Dani's storyline was weaker in this one than in the other books.  The dragons saved it.  And yeah, she needs to get her ass to Westeros, but I understand making us wait from a storyteller's perspective too.

I do have a pretty harsh criticism of Tyrion's storyline, though.  I still love the character and the levity his chapters bring, but he has some 60s TV show Batman moments of insight in this one.  I know that he's been built up as a character who survives on his wits, but come on, I found it ridiculously implausible that he would be able to piece together that Young Griff was Prince Aegon the way he did.  And then he does it a couple more times, like all of a sudden it's his superpower.  It kind of took me out of it a couple times.

I've finished Moving Pictures.  It started off a little slow, but it was pretty good once it got going properly.  And now I'm about to go through another bunch of them.

Moving Pictures is easily one of my favourites.

"Why are all Mister Dibbler's pictures set 'in a world gone madde!'?"

"Because Mister Dibbler is a very observant person."

What annoyed me the most about Dani's chapters was that nothing ever happened. They were mostly descriptions of the scenery, build up to a little cliffhanger, and then off to a different character. When another Dani chapter came around whatever exciting thing that was about to happen in the previous chapter happened without us being able to read it as it happened, and we were back to descriptions of the scenery.

I think that Martin deliberately pulled the rug out from under a few characters in Dance of Dragons. I think he wanted to show that things are now so fucked up that even characters Like Dany and Jon that previously seemed to be winning the game of thrones were now just as powerless as the rest. Melisandre started looking a bit shaky as well.

I do have a pretty harsh criticism of Tyrion's storyline, though.  I still love the character and the levity his chapters bring, but he has some 60s TV show Batman moments of insight in this one.  I know that he's been built up as a character who survives on his wits, but come on, I found it ridiculously implausible that he would be able to piece together that Young Griff was Prince Aegon the way he did.

Yeah, that really just came out of nowhere.  I could see him concluding that Young Griff was high-born, but he had no reason to suspect that Aegon was even alive, let alone that he was Young Griff.  He might as well have accused Connington of being Rhaegar.

What annoyed me the most about Dani's chapters was that nothing ever happened. They were mostly descriptions of the scenery, build up to a little cliffhanger, and then off to a different character. When another Dani chapter came around whatever exciting thing that was about to happen in the previous chapter happened without us being able to read it as it happened, and we were back to descriptions of the scenery.

Heh, I remember that.

Moving Pictures is easily one of my favourites.

"Why are all Mister Dibbler's pictures set 'in a world gone madde!'?"

"Because Mister Dibbler is a very observant person."

NO U

You and Roundy both, huh?  Well, it wasn't quite my favorite.  That one (so far) would be Guards! Guards!  I can never resist a good police procedural.

Tyrion is the smartest man alive. He could single handedly bring Westeros to technological levels rivalling our own should he wish.

Tyrion is the smartest man alive. He could single handedly bring Westeros to technological levels rivalling our own should he wish.

Westeros goes steampunk.

I do not know why I spelled Dany wrong.

I do not know why I spelled Dany wrong.

Probably because I did.

Right now I'm reading Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar; I figured I'd take myself out of Westeros by reading something that has nothing at all in common with it.  I fully expect it to inspire me to great heights within a matter of weeks.

I just bought Finnegan's Wake and am looking forward to reading it next, to continue my journey through the works of James Joyce.  It seems daunting.  After reading the first couple pages I fear it appears to make Ulysses look like See Spot Run.  I'm a little scared.

I just bought Finnegan's Wake and am looking forward to reading it next, to continue my journey through the works of James Joyce.  It seems daunting.  After reading the first couple pages I fear it appears to make Ulysses look like See Spot Run.  I'm a little scared.

I wish you luck, sincerely.

Wyrd Sisters: Another one that was just okay.  The plot was a little too convoluted for my taste, especially in the third act, and it wasn't as funny as it could have been.  Also, I didn't like how the villains were portrayed.  In fact, I'm not really sure that I got what Pratchett was going for with their scenes.  Okay, I get that it's a parody of Macbeth, but most of the time the two of them were simply being weird.  They weren't particularly funny (with the one exception of the running gag of trying to wash his bloody hand - I laughed my ass off at that), they weren't particularly evil, they were just...weird.

Reaper Man: Now this was fantastic.  I don't want to gush over it like I'm Supertails or something, because I am a tough man, but I really loved every moment of this book.  Not only was it hilarious, it had some genuinely touching, heartfelt moments.  It's left me excited for moar.

Reaper Man and the Death books in general are inarguably the best of DW.

I'm about to start The Long War by Pratchett and Baxter with a degree of trepidation. The first in the series The Long Earth had a weak story but I loved the exploration of the world(s). I don't think that will work in book 2 of 3 and hope to see a stronger story.

Witches Abroad: This witches plotline is definitely not my favorite of the series, so I had lowered my expectations for this book quite a bit.  And while it was a little bit better than the previous two books in the arc, it still wasn't great.  Fairly enjoyable, but not great.  I do like the three main characters - in fact, I'd say that one of Pratchett's biggest strengths is how incredibly likable most of his characters are - but the story was just too obvious and predictable.

Three men in a boat.  Sounds kind of gay.

Faust Eric is the only main Discworld book I haven't read. It's short so I'll probably read that next before I start on something heavier.

Well?  Did you?

Quote from: Chris Spaghetti on September 06, 2013, 09:14:58 AM

Faust Eric is the only main Discworld book I haven't read. It's short so I'll probably read that next before I start on something heavier.

Well?  Did you?

I did. It was a pretty good old-school Discworld book. Thr descriptions of a beaurocratic Hell, the tribe's anger with the Ruler of the World, and the weary ancient general (Are Sam Vines and Rincewind related?) were amusing and raised a few chuckles.

All-in-all worth reading, but not a standout in the series.

~

I'm about half way through The Long War at the moment and although the plot isn't as tight as I'd like, I just love exploring the Long Earth. It reads almost as a travel guide to a place I'll never visit. If you didn't like the first one, this one is unlikely to win you overas it's very much more of the same.