The Book Thread

[Flem274*]

currently having another go at american gods.

purchased and waiting for the poppy war by rebecca kuang and several sanderson books (arcanum unbounded, warbreaker, oathbringer) to arrive

massively pumped for the poppy war. a fantasy story based on chinese history that i've heard presents some themes in a fresh way? yes please.

other books i want to buy soon include the first law trilogy, rage of dragons and the witcher series.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Not read it in many a year, but I did enjoy American Gods a lot. Worth the second chance.

 

[Spark]

currently having another go at american gods.

purchased and waiting for the poppy war by rebecca kuang and several sanderson books (arcanum unbounded, warbreaker, oathbringer) to arrive

massively pumped for the poppy war. a fantasy story based on chinese history that i've heard presents some themes in a fresh way? yes please.

other books i want to buy soon include the first law trilogy, rage of dragons and the witcher series.

The Poppy War and The Dragon Republic are two of my favourite fantasy books I've read in ages, massively pumped for the final instalment later this year. Basically the series makes you think it's a Chinese mythology/historical spin on the "magic girl goes to magic school" story and then it... isn't any more.

Alas The First Law trilogy, which I also recently read, was not.

 

[Flem274*]

The Poppy War and The Dragon Republic are two of my favourite fantasy books I've read in ages, massively pumped for the final instalment later this year. Basically the series makes you think it's a Chinese mythology/historical spin on the "magic girl goes to magic school" story and then it... isn't any more.

Alas The First Law trilogy, which I also recently read, was not.

awesome. i watched a spoiler free interview with kuang tonight where she discussed her motivations, inspirations and themes for the series and im confident i've made a great choice.

you're the first person i've come across who doesn't like the first law. what do you think put you off that hasn't put off everyone else? i'm a bit skeptical of grimdark because of the edge lording potential but people pumping the characters in this is convincing me to try it.

 

[Spark]

awesome. i watched a spoiler free interview with kuang tonight where she discussed her motivations, inspirations and themes for the series and im confident i've made a great choice.

you're the first person i've come across who doesn't like the first law. what do you think put you off that hasn't put off everyone else? i'm a bit skeptical of grimdark because of the edge lording potential but people pumping the characters in this is convincing me to try it.

The prose is deeply mediocre - in particular the dialogue, where it suffers from a severe case of characters shouting 24/7! And this character is shouting too! And this one! And this one! There have been six exclamation marks in as many sentences! People do not actually talk like this! It gets pretty tiresome IMO, particularly when the rest of the prose is unremarkable at best.

I genuinely came close to just giving up halfway through the first book simply because I was getting so over the writing, although it did pick up a little after that. I also heard about the people pumping the characters but it honestly isn't that good. Like, it's decent, but not absolutely standout and I often found myself thinking "you're only doing/thinking that because the ~grimdark~ compels you to, not because it actually makes sense". Thematically it's interesting and there are interesting sociopolitical subtexts woven in, but not to the degree that I could overlook the fact the aforementioned point that every single character in the book must be borderline deaf, such is the relentless manner in which 80% of the dialogue is pitched. That's by no means the only one of the trilogy's sins, but it's the most emblematic IMO.

A shame because I read this trilogy purely so I could read A Little Hatred, which I was told was excellent. But it's down my list now.

 

[chasingthedon]

currently having another go at american gods.

purchased and waiting for the poppy war by rebecca kuang and several sanderson books (arcanum unbounded, warbreaker, oathbringer) to arrive

massively pumped for the poppy war. a fantasy story based on chinese history that i've heard presents some themes in a fresh way? yes please.

other books i want to buy soon include the first law trilogy, rage of dragons and the witcher series.

“Having another go at” suggests you didn’t get through it first time around - care to share why?

 

[chasingthedon]

Started reading Joe Boyd’s bio “My White Bicycles”. Superb read so far

 

[Flem274*]

The prose is deeply mediocre - in particular the dialogue, where it suffers from a severe case of characters shouting 24/7! And this character is shouting too! And this one! And this one! There have been six exclamation marks in as many sentences! People do not actually talk like this! It gets pretty tiresome IMO, particularly when the rest of the prose is unremarkable at best.

I genuinely came close to just giving up halfway through the first book simply because I was getting so over the writing, although it did pick up a little after that. I also heard about the people pumping the characters but it honestly isn't that good. Like, it's decent, but not absolutely standout and I often found myself thinking "you're only doing/thinking that because the ~grimdark~ compels you to, not because it actually makes sense". Thematically it's interesting and there are interesting sociopolitical subtexts woven in, but not to the degree that I could overlook the fact the aforementioned point that every single character in the book must be borderline deaf, such is the relentless manner in which 80% of the dialogue is pitched. That's by no means the only one of the trilogy's sins, but it's the most emblematic IMO.

A shame because I read this trilogy purely so I could read A Little Hatred, which I was told was excellent. But it's down my list now.

i am morbidly fascinated

“Having another go at” suggests you didn’t get through it first time around - care to share why?

dunno, just didn't stay with it.

 

[Uppercut]

“Having another go at” suggests you didn’t get through it first time around - care to share why?

I gave up on American Gods halfway through. Great concept but poorly written and the plot wasn’t interesting me at all.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Yeah I was about the same.

Tried to start Mary Beard's History of Rome too and got nowhere. Too personally affronted by the maps at the start

 

[GotSpin]

Yeah I was about the same.

Tried to start Mary Beard's History of Rome too and got nowhere. Too personally affronted by the maps at the start

SPQR was a really interesting read I thought

 

[Flem274*]

Yeah same. Her documentaries are good too.

 

[GIMH]

On the 4th Dexter book. Need something easy to read at the min as concentration is an issue of an evening (and at 11,43 clearly given I'm on CW despite an inbox that makes me want to cry). I enjoy those books but easy to see why they wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea.

I don't read much crime these days. Whenever I do though I still enjoy it. I guess that's the key, don't oversaturate it. Can become so much more samey than other genres otherwise.

 

[sledger]

currently having another go at american gods.

purchased and waiting for the poppy war by rebecca kuang and several sanderson books (arcanum unbounded, warbreaker, oathbringer) to arrive

massively pumped for the poppy war. a fantasy story based on chinese history that i've heard presents some themes in a fresh way? yes please.

other books i want to buy soon include the first law trilogy, rage of dragons and the witcher series.

I'm surprised you need to give American Gods a second go. I thought it was ace the first time. Based on the other things you like I'd have thought it would be right up your street.

The Witcher series is good as well. Have no doubt you will enjoy that.

 

[trundler]

Thinking I should crawl out of my exclusively nonfiction niche. The only fiction I've read is mediocre Dan Brown and 1984, which isn't far removed from the history stuff I usually read. Gimme something for the big boys.

 

[Spark]

Thinking I should crawl out of my exclusively nonfiction niche. The only fiction I've read is mediocre Dan Brown SMC 1984, which isn't far removed from the history stuff I usually read. Gimme something for the big boys.

I really fear for the quality of the history stuff you usually read...

 

[trundler]

Nah, not Dan Brown. Just 1984. As a history buff all the nonsense about Illuminati and Mary Magdalene being an object really put me off Brown. 1984 was a decent social commentary though. My current history read is still Our Oriental Heritage. It's ****ing massive.

 

[Flem274*]

haha he's been reading the durants, which while outdated in understanding, is thorough and ahead of its time.

i love a person who earnestly lists what each major greek city trades with other major greek cities. between their love for history and philosophy the durants could have written an amazing epic fantasy saga if they'd lived for 200 years instead of a normal human lifetime.

 

[trundler]

haha he's been reading the durants, which while outdated in understanding, is thorough and ahead of its time.

i love a person who earnestly lists what each major greek city trades with other major greek cities. between their love for history and philosophy the durants could have written an amazing epic fantasy saga if they'd lived for 200 years instead of a normal human lifetime.

I skip the bits to do with archaeology and prehistory given our understanding of those things has been greatly refined since their time. But as a general overview it stands the test of time.

 

[Flem274*]

Nah, not Dan Brown. Just 1984. As a history buff all the nonsense about Illuminati and Mary Magdalene being an object really put me off Brown. 1984 was a decent social commentary though. My current history read is still Our Oriental Heritage. It's ****ing massive.

have you reached the saucy egyptian love poetry yet?

it's the best thing about history. battle tactics are cool, but the characters and how things work day to day is where it's at. plus the best battle stories are the ludicrous ones, like a battle between rome and macedon starting early due to a rogue mule or caesar solving every problem by making an engineer build something cool.

the best alexander story is when he met the gauls and asked them what they feared the most. they looked at each other then turned back to him and said 'the sky falling on our heads' which kinda confused alexander but they seemed so earnest about it he shrugged and went with it.