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The Book Thread

Red_Ink_Squid

Well-known member
the romance of the three kingdoms is indeed based on the three kingdoms period. apparently it has a ridiculously long dramatis personae though.
Love the Romance of Three Kingdoms. One of my absolute favourite novels.

Definitely not for everyone though as you do need to keep track of scores of near-identical (to this westerner's mind) character names to make sense of all the different story strands and sidepoints.

Given the apparent preference for historical fiction and Trundler appearing to me to meet the geek threshold required to enjoy a book like that, I would recommend it to him.
 

Flem274*

123/5
just finished edgedancer. if you like lift, this novella is good. it has a very light tone to it but it works because the story is told through the eyes of an illiterate sassy 12 year old with magic powers. any 12 year old would become a sassy little **** to adults if they could do magic. it's wholesome and fun and im glad i read it before returning to the main series.
 

vcs

Well-known member
well if you like history read historical fiction or fantasy with a heavy emphasis on history nerding.

so lord of the rings (fantasy) or pillars of the earth (historical fic) are my picks for you.
+1 on Pillars of the Earth. Excellent book. Great TV series as well.
 

honestbharani

Well-known member
Something with philosophical/historical undertones. Not full on Thus Spoke Zarathustra though. Tough nut to crack.

Daddy by Loup Durano.. set in WW II times. Fictional but also paints a picture of life during war and full of abstract philosophical thoughts.. Best part is I read it when I was 12, so not even a teenager. I get the feeling you might like it.

But one word of advice when it comes to reading fiction, try to always read with an open mind. If you hate it, you hate it but don't literally judge the book by the cover or the synopsis. Books, movies,, music etc. are areas where its very easy to fall into the in thing of the day but ultimately, don't cheat yourself out of what you genuinely like because of peer pressure, which can easily come from Reddit or even CW today, if we are being fully honest.
 

Teja.

Global Moderator
So I have read Hound of Baskervilles a few times over and it's one of my favourite books in the genre. I have read most of the Sherlock Holmes short stories at some point or the other. However, I had not read the other 3 Sherlock novels and have been wanting to for a while.

I was unlucky enough to start and finish the first sherlock novel 'Study in Scarlett' in audiobook form today. The first half of the novel was decent, standard sherlock fare with him visiting the murder scene and having strange people visit him with information etc.

Around the half way mark, sherlock apparently 'solves' the case and is about to explain himself but suddenly the book takes a 2 hour diversion and goes to mother****ing utah with Doyle putting in a 8th grade effort to describe desert scenery for 15 minutes and then does some sort of factually inaccurate crash course on the history of mormonism through the prism of fetishized American christendom. To top it all off, then Doyle, who wirtes all women like lobotimized five year olds, decides to write the worst love story I have ever read involving a dude who hates mormons and pretends to be one, his manic pixie braindead daughter and this invincible 'savage' indiana jones character who we are are repatedly told has all the qualities and skills of the american indian people and spends all his time with the american indian people, but obviously is still white because doyle doesn't have the balls to go all the way.

This really stupid diversion to the main story which is probably the worst thing that Doyle has ever written is half of the ****ing sherlock holmes novel and takes up 2+ hours of absolutely tortourous listening in audiobook form.

Yes I feel ripped off because I was suckered into reading 50% of the book (at which I point I can't realisitically stop reading) and then cliffhanged right before the solution and made to persevere this gigantic cluster**** of doyle's terrible hot takes on society to get to the answer to a whuddunit. The main story was also not anywhere close to good enough to compensate. It's about ethics in murder mystery authorship damnit.

Minus 50/10. Who the **** edited this book.
 
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vcs

Well-known member
Haha I remember being absolutely nonplussed by that garbage when I read it as a kid. I was <15 and would read any old rubbish back then because I had near infinite time on my hands but even then I found that diversion ridiculous.

The Hound of Baskervilles is very good, but I found The Sign of Four to be an absolutely exceptional novel. Especially as a kid, that flashback story of them going to a fort to steal the treasure during the Sepoy Mutiny was incredibly exciting because we were learning that stuff in history classes around that time.
 

honestbharani

Well-known member
So I have read Hound of Baskervilles a few times over and it's one of my favourite books in the genre. I have read most of the Sherlock Holmes short stories at some point or the other. However, I had not read the other 3 Sherlock novels and have been wanting to for a while.

I was unlucky enough to start and finish the first sherlock novel 'Study in Scarlett' in audiobook form today. The first half of the novel was decent, standard sherlock fare with him visiting the murder scene and having strange people visit him with information etc.

Around the half way mark, sherlock apparently 'solves' the case and is about to explain himself but suddenly the book takes a 2 hour diversion and goes to mother****ing utah with Doyle putting in a 8th grade effort to describe desert scenery for 15 minutes and then does some sort of factually inaccurate crash course on the history of mormonism through the prism of fetishized American christendom. To top it all off, then Doyle, who wirtes all women like lobotimized five year olds, decides to write the worst love story I have ever read involving a dude who hates mormons and pretends to be one, his manic pixie braindead daughter and this invincible 'savage' indiana jones character who we are are repatedly told has all the qualities and skills of the american indian people and spends all his time with the american indian people, but obviously is still white because doyle doesn't have the balls to go all the way.

This really stupid diversion to the main story which is probably the worst thing that Doyle has ever written is half of the ****ing sherlock holmes novel and takes up 2+ hours of absolutely tortourous listening in audiobook form.

Yes I feel ripped off because I was suckered into reading 50% of the book (at which I point I can't realisitically stop reading) and then cliffhanged right before the solution and made to persevere this gigantic cluster**** of doyle's terrible hot takes on society to get to the answer to a whuddunit. The main story was also not anywhere close to good enough to compensate. It's about ethics in murder mystery authorship damnit.

Minus 50/10. Who the **** edited this book.

That's coz the diversion was what Doyle actually wanted to write about but Holmes was the only way he could make a living at that time.
 

Athlai

Not Terrible
Just finished "This is how you lose the time war" by Ama El-Mohtar and it was absolutely a treat.

It's more love poetry than science fiction but FMD I think she hits it out of the park. I've never experienced a piece of fiction quite like it and as someone who has fallen in love through correspondence before, it just does it so very well.
 

Flem274*

123/5
warbreaker showed up in the mail today but the poppy war is very late and usps haven't provided a tracking number. hmmm.

full oathbringer review only athlai and gimh will skim read. full spoilers for the book and maybe words of randiance and hero of ages ahead.

this book has convinced me on the series. it's fantastic, easily the best of the three releases.

dalinar's flashback arc has been raved about elsewhere. all i will add is that tanalan goon did everything he could to provoke that response, like jesus man put your pride to one side when it's clear you can't win. do it for your people.

my favourite moment in the book was where dalinar, who in his prime was considered peak alpha male in this society and still has that gravitas, went to see renarin reading and studying in public. what renarin was doing by doing 'girl stuff' in his culture was basically dressing up in a pink tutu and wiggling his bum in western culture while singing in a high, camp voice and big papa dalinar just strolls in and shows legitimate interest in what his son is doing, therefore saying to the wider world this is ok because if dalinar kholin thinks it is worth doing then it must be. alpha af, what a total daddy.

i enjoyed shallan in this book too when the love triangle wasn't being fisted in there. her mental fragmentation was believable, her spren pattern is best spren as always and her gradual taking of the lead in shadesmar was really enjoyable. shadesmar was where she showed some true maturity and did her best to get everyone else out alive. she also made the obviously correct choice in the triangle. my kaladin thoughts are well known but even independent of that, kaladin is not ready to love someone else and the pair would bring out the worst of their mental illness in each other. trust me, i know, i've been there irl.

adolin was a great dude as usual. it's pretty impressive sanderson has taken jock manuel mcchad and made him both a really likeable guy and interesting due to him being an underpowered normie in a world rapidly escalating in supernatural events. his 50kg soaking wet girlfriend could kill him without trying, and this makes his leadership qualities, his ability to be friends with anyone and his fighting skill believable and enjoyable. he would have been op immediately pre-story. i want to be friends with him. i also feel sorry for his dead spren maya and i hope that relationship is explored in future because there is so much potential.

kaladin failed in this book over and over again, and i found him more interesting for it. i still don't like him but it was good to see him brought back down to earth. he's been functional for far too long given his mental state, and him freezing up then being unable to 'let go' later in the book, then failing at the very end was pretty interesting. plus he was a total bro to those parshendi he met, so his hero/martyr complex that borders on narcissistic was more bearable. syl is wrong, the guy needs a hobby, some family time and to make some friends. he's not ready to love someone else when he can't even love himself.

syl improved a lot for me in this book. part of it i think was because she becomes tangible in shadesmar. im finally getting into her character now, and while human-spren comparisons are probably fraught with danger she has the patience of a saint. her character seems more fleshed out than before. i also think, if kaladin is to have a relationship and if spren can even have them, syl-kaladin works once kaladin is on his feet. can you even bang a spren? someone needs to ask this on reddit. im already going to post my kaladin essay on r fantasy in a reasonable way to see how flamed i still get.

lift is moving into the narrative more though she didn't stand out. szeth's emo is balanced nicely by that talking sword who is cheesey but hilarious. jasnah is a pragmatic genocidal psycho. someone needs to off taravangian immediately. i like the kooky heralds. the lopen and rock are still best side characters. poor elhokar.

moving into the broader themes, i loved the reveal that the humans used to be/are the bad guys. it makes sense since i was wondering how the hell they could have evolved in a world that cops a category 5 hurricane every week and what a big dick move to tackle colonialism. that's going to be hard to land for a white author unless he throws traditional endings out the window. his version of satan is interesting but feels very latter day saints. odium being a mix of indulging people not taking responsibility for their actions and getting carried away with their passions is a nice spin but also very christian. not sure i will like the resolution here but odium is interesting so we'll see.

losing so bad in kholinar was also cool. i enjoyed that entire trainwreck. our characters left the city broken failures. perfect.

onto the ending, i understand it's not universally loved in the fandom but i adore it. it was character driven and i called this for dalinar since the end of book 2. it shares elements with hero of ages and i understand it's accused of deus ex machina but i would argue it isn't. the ending wasn't dalinar's temporary demi-god status, the ending was him taking ownership of his war crimes and accepting himself, and that he has and will continue to be a better man than he was. this gave him the strength of character to reject odium and accept but not be conquered by 'the thrill'. everything else here was just fancy set dressing. the contrast with kaladin losing because he can't come to terms with his issues was really well done.

the whole magic...thing...whatever it was, was very hero of ages and i don't get it but i don't really care about magic system mechanics unless they influence character and im sure sanderson, being captain consistency in systems, will explain wtf that was. still, dalinar's temporary ascension to becoming a new god to replace the dead god was the logical culmination of his arc. i know he's a person again but i think his ending will be becoming unity full time. i do agree szeth becoming one of the bros should have been on screen.

the very end with big papa daddy dalinar learning to read and write so he could write a new way of kings aka kinda their version of machiavelli, and he called it oathbringer...that scene is perfect.
 

Athlai

Not Terrible
Huzzah it's another sledgermas miracle. I knew you'd like that book best with the Dalinar flashbacks.

And yes you can bang sprens in my head Canon.
 

Heboric

Well-known member
One cant read too many of those Warhammer 40K books in a row, turned my brain into mush.

Can there be such a thing as 'too much' action
 

Teja.

Global Moderator
I've heard a lot about Ponniyan Selvan (which is supposed to be the GOAT tamil novel) from my tamil friends and have always wanted to read it but could not due to not being able to read the langauge and the qualities of translations not being the best.

It is historical fiction set in 10th century AD Tamil Nadu (or the state with Chennai as CW knows it) with a heavy focus on political intrigue, espionage, religious conflicts of the time, just everything I love - spanning over 2300 pages.

Finally I've been recommended an English translation which is actually great to read and doesn't lose the historical detail or the spice of the book. I'm sure it won't be quite as good as the original Tamil but really really pleased tbh: https://www.projectmadurai.org/pm_etexts/pdf/pm0278_01.pdf
 

honestbharani

Well-known member
You can't read Tamil, vcs? Any of Kalki's works really should be read in Tamil. The movie coming out soon will be hopefully fittingly awesome as the epic.
 

honestbharani

Well-known member
Its too bad... But if you understand tamil, see if you see a tamil version printed in English. Like I said, with Kalki the dialogues and lines are as important as the theme and the story itself.
 

honestbharani

Well-known member
Its impression is everywhere btw. I recently saw an interview where director KS Ravikumar mentions the character names of the two main femate characters in Padayappa (Vasundhara and Neelambari) were inspired by Ponniyin Selvan as Rajini is a big fan of the book.
 
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