Intruder by CJ Cherryh. Most recent paperback release in the Foreigner series. More of the same SF setting political intrigue. I continue to love Cherryh's development of alien culture as witnessed by the lone human.
Last Dark by Stephen R. Donaldson. This is the final volume in the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. I started reading the Covenant books right around 1982. Initially, they were a slog for me (I was 12 and Donaldson's vocabulary is intense even at 40+). The entire series moved me and continues to move me on each subsequent re-read. Admittedly, the protagonist is not a terribly likable individual, but the setting and its inhabitants, in my opinion more than make up for Covenant. The Giants and the haruchai, two incredibly different people, amaze me. So, after 31 years, the series finally comes to a close (though most people thought that that was the case with the publication of White Gold Wielder ~25 years ago. After having had the opportunity to revisit the series with new works, I'll be sad to once again have to adapt to the idea of no new works, but I can easily see myself going back to reread the entire Chronicles time and again.
Mistborn series by Brandon Sandersen. So far, I've only read the first three. I'm being waved off of the fourth by a co-worker. I enjoyed the series quite a bit, though there were times when dialog choices really pulled me out of the story as they felt too modern for the setting and context. Given the person that directed me toward the series, I was pretty shocked by just how dark and violent it was. It was probably also the most original "magic" system I've seen since Steven Erikson's warrens.
I had a co-worker direct me towards the Sanderson Mistborn stuff too. I was a little hesitant because I don't know the guy well enough to know if his credibility is any good. So, you dug it, huh? Tell me, How do you feel about Robert Jordan?
Jordan is hot and cold for me. There were some high points in the Wheel of Time, but he lost his way about half way through the series and only occasionally found it after that. Sanderson, on the other hand, picked that series up and did a nice job, in my opinion, bringing it to a succinct closure in a pretty satisfying manner. After reading both series, I think that it's safe to say that Sanderson did a nice job of modulating his voice to more closely match Jordan's.
Good answer. It may have been an unfair question because I don't like Jordan. I guess that's not right. I read the first 4 wheel of time books and really enjoyed the first one but I couldn't handle the snails pace. To be fair though I'm not a huge Tolkein fan either so it may just be "high fantasy" I have issue with. My favorite example of the genre would be David Eddings Belgariad Clean, good characters, beginning, middle and satisfying end. So, hearing that Sanderson is more streamlined and to the point is the best possible answer.
I'm not going to claim that I don't occasionally enjoy some wordiness in my reading selections. I've been through Tolkien a couple of times, though I still haven't tackled the Silmarillion. I'm a huge fan of George RR Martin (and have been since long before A Game of Thrones was trendy). Donaldson and Erikson are also pretty wordy.
Jordan, when he was on his game, did some great stuff (including some pretty decent work with Conan as I recall). Unfortunately, it just didn't hold out.
I haven't actually read any Eddings, though I've had a couple of people, including the person that loaned me the Mistborn books, strongly encourage me to read them.
I might ask for a couple of definitions from your description of preferences: "Clean, good characters, beginning, middle and satisfying end." In particular clean - does that mean no dangling plot threads? Clean characters (bathing fetish fiction?)? Virtuous characters? Something else?
For the most part I mean clean storytelling. This is one way in which I think Joe Hill is superior to his father. He stil has the ability to turn a phrase but without the diareaah of the word processor. I read a book called Vellum: the book of all hours By a cat named Hal Duncan. (Apologies if any of you are fans) It was the most convoluted, in desperate need of an editor, things I have ever seen. It involved multiple incarnations of souls in multiple timelines throughout the multiverse (which sounds awesome initially) but it was so caught up with being impressed with itself that it lost clarity and sense. In comic book terms I frequently praise Mark Waid for his craftsmanship. That is what a I mean by clean. The most important sentence in any text is the first one, and then the next and the next...
Understood. Glad it wasn't the bathing fetish fiction option.
So, based on that, Erikson is probably out. Though Erikson, when on his game, is completely magical.
Drake tends to keep his stories pretty tight, but he writes series with the mentality that all of the books are also stand alone so they get fairly repetitive.
Have you tried anything by Scott Lynch? First book of his first series is the Lies of Locke Lamora. Third book just came out. The series is basically fantasy heist fiction. Only read the first two so far, but they were very enjoyable.
Joe Abercrombie seems to be pretty tight in his writing style. Not as sparsely worded as Glenn Cook (who reminds me of a palatable, fantasy-based Hemingway) but not convoluted.
Cleanliness is next to godliness...uh...but not in the dictionary.
I may give Sanderson a go. And the Lynch stuff sounds really interesting I may browse around for that too. I have the, I think 5, books of Eddings Belgariad in a two volume set if you ever want to borrow it.
I'll have to check out Eddings. One of the reasons I don't read a lot of fantasy is because often I feel like the writers fill up space with things that should have remained in their background notes. I'm on the fifth draft of a novel myself, and I find that I'm pretty ruthless when it comes to trimming things that don't move the plot forward, or that could be filled in by the reader's own imagination without wasting time making them plow through it, so I have little patience for when a writer meanders into a lecture about the world they've created.
What was it that Mark Twain once said? Something like "I didn't have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one instead?"
A fantasy writer for people that don't like high fantasy is Stephen R Lawhead. He uses a lot of Celtic influences in his books. His excellent Pendragon Cycle grounds the Arthurian legend in Roman, Celtic, and Atlantian legend. The series begins at the end of Roman occupation of Britian; it was really enjoyable. I highly recommend the first 3 in that series (Talesin, Merlin, Arthur); it was originally a trilogy. I also recommend his stand alone book Byzantium.
Yes! I've read a ton of Lawhead's stuff. I'm currently waiting for The Shadow Lamp to become available at my library. It's the 4th in his Bright Empires series. It's a time-travelish type story. The series is pretty good so far, but if he introduces yet another character in this book... :-w There are enough dangling plot threads already!
Wrapped up Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff last night. It's taken me a while to get back to this one after it having me taken even longer to pull it off of the read pile and starting it. The book is full of amazing anecdotes and stories regarding Project Mercury, but, for me, the Wolfe's style was oftentimes frustrating. I think that I will be reading more about the space program but will likely not be going back to Wolfe for any other offerings.
Overall, I think that I found the sections on Chuck Yeager, in particular his experiences with the NF-104 to be particularly amazing.
The stories of the experiences of the Mercury Seven were very interesting, but it felt very much like there was a pretty strong bias in the way each of them were being portrayed.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman I'm about 1/3 through and really enjoying it. This the 10th anniversary Nook version that was on sale a few months back, and this is also my first time reading one of Gaiman's novels.
It's a big departure from the books I've been reading (Hiaasen, Wrestling, Deighton)
American Gods by Neil Gaiman I'm about 1/3 through and really enjoying it. This the 10th anniversary Nook version that was on sale a few months back, and this is also my first time reading one of Gaiman's novels.
It's a big departure from the books I've been reading (Hiaasen, Wrestling, Deighton)
Wrapped up Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff last night. It's taken me a while to get back to this one after it having me taken even longer to pull it off of the read pile and starting it. The book is full of amazing anecdotes and stories regarding Project Mercury, but, for me, the Wolfe's style was oftentimes frustrating. I think that I will be reading more about the space program but will likely not be going back to Wolfe for any other offerings.
Overall, I think that I found the sections on Chuck Yeager, in particular his experiences with the NF-104 to be particularly amazing.
The stories of the experiences of the Mercury Seven were very interesting, but it felt very much like there was a pretty strong bias in the way each of them were being portrayed.
Next up Glen Cook's Reap the East Wind.
I have a book called The Mercury 13 you can borrow sometime if you want. It is about the female astronauts that were in training at the same time. The out performed the men in every measurable category, resistance to heat, cold, isolation, etc. but they were never allowed to fly.
Wrapped up Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff last night. It's taken me a while to get back to this one after it having me taken even longer to pull it off of the read pile and starting it. The book is full of amazing anecdotes and stories regarding Project Mercury, but, for me, the Wolfe's style was oftentimes frustrating. I think that I will be reading more about the space program but will likely not be going back to Wolfe for any other offerings.
Overall, I think that I found the sections on Chuck Yeager, in particular his experiences with the NF-104 to be particularly amazing.
The stories of the experiences of the Mercury Seven were very interesting, but it felt very much like there was a pretty strong bias in the way each of them were being portrayed.
Next up Glen Cook's Reap the East Wind.
I have a book called The Mercury 13 you can borrow sometime if you want. It is about the female astronauts that were in training at the same time. The out performed the men in every measurable category, resistance to heat, cold, isolation, etc. but they were never allowed to fly.
Will definitely take you up on that. I mentioned your nudge toward Belgariad to my co-worker. She got near giddy with glee and also offered to bring them in. I think that I'm going to try to knock off the last East Wind and the final two Dread Empire books and hit a different genre for a book or two before hitting any other fantasy books.
Just picked up The Magic of Recluce By L.E. Modesitt, Jr. It is the first book in a 13 book series. I know absolutely nothing about it. $2 at Goodwill. Any reviews one way or another?
Read the first 8 or so. The first 3 or 4 are pretty enjoyable. There comes a point in the series where he seems to start telling the same story from the opposite perspective. Same thing happened toward the end of Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series.
Just read Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon. It's supposed to be a kid's book. But, wow! It reads like a WWII thriller. Recommended.
I try to read at least one classic a year that I haven't read before. This year I am reading "The Count of Monte Cristo". I am about 3/4 of the way through, it has gotten rather slow but still generally enjoyable.
I try to read at least one classic a year that I haven't read before. This year I am reading "The Count of Monte Cristo". I am about 3/4 of the way through, it has gotten rather slow but still generally enjoyable.
I try to read at least one classic a year that I haven't read before. This year I am reading "The Count of Monte Cristo". I am about 3/4 of the way through, it has gotten rather slow but still generally enjoyable.
Agreed. I am about 3/4 of the way through too and it basically stops once he returns to Paris. But that's 19th century french literature for you! Les Miserables was an amazing story that could have been 450 pages shorter. But it was the time of writers being paid by the word...
I try to read at least one classic a year that I haven't read before. This year I am reading "The Count of Monte Cristo". I am about 3/4 of the way through, it has gotten rather slow but still generally enjoyable.
Agreed. I am about 3/4 of the way through too and it basically stops once he returns to Paris. But that's 19th century french literature for you! Les Miserables was an amazing story that could have been 450 pages shorter. But it was the time of writers being paid by the word...
Yeah this Paris stuff alternates between interesting and super boring. I thought once they got out of Rome it would speed up haha. Anyway I am excited to finish it. I have a feeling that most of the questions I have wont get answered but I am ok with it. Like you said, its very 19th century french literaturey.
I try to read at least one classic a year that I haven't read before. This year I am reading "The Count of Monte Cristo". I am about 3/4 of the way through, it has gotten rather slow but still generally enjoyable.
Agreed. I am about 3/4 of the way through too and it basically stops once he returns to Paris. But that's 19th century french literature for you! Les Miserables was an amazing story that could have been 450 pages shorter. But it was the time of writers being paid by the word...
Also you can really feel them getting paid by the word sometimes. There are literally chapters where something happens then someone walks into the room and they explain in detail what just happened a few pages ago.
I try to read at least one classic a year that I haven't read before. This year I am reading "The Count of Monte Cristo". I am about 3/4 of the way through, it has gotten rather slow but still generally enjoyable.
Agreed. I am about 3/4 of the way through too and it basically stops once he returns to Paris. But that's 19th century french literature for you! Les Miserables was an amazing story that could have been 450 pages shorter. But it was the time of writers being paid by the word...
Also you can really feel them getting paid by the word sometimes. There are literally chapters where something happens then someone walks into the room and they explain in detail what just happened a few pages ago.
Wasn't it also common back then for novels to be serialized in magazines before being published whole? I know that was often the case with Dickens. Some of that repeitition is probably to remind readers what happened a week or month ago.
So I guess "writing for the trade" has been around longer than we realized.
One of the worst offenders of being paid by the word is Mark Twain. I'm currently reading a Kindle collection of his complete works. His first two books, both travelogues with a little biography mixed in, have been over 600 pages. There are chapters consisting almost entirely of things like newspaper articles (by other writers) or court transcripts. You can just sense him realizing a deadline is near, and he better send the publisher something to make his paycheck fat enough.
Comments
So, based on that, Erikson is probably out. Though Erikson, when on his game, is completely magical.
Drake tends to keep his stories pretty tight, but he writes series with the mentality that all of the books are also stand alone so they get fairly repetitive.
Have you tried anything by Scott Lynch? First book of his first series is the Lies of Locke Lamora. Third book just came out. The series is basically fantasy heist fiction. Only read the first two so far, but they were very enjoyable.
Joe Abercrombie seems to be pretty tight in his writing style. Not as sparsely worded as Glenn Cook (who reminds me of a palatable, fantasy-based Hemingway) but not convoluted.
I may give Sanderson a go. And the Lynch stuff sounds really interesting I may browse around for that too. I have the, I think 5, books of Eddings Belgariad in a two volume set if you ever want to borrow it.
I picked up The Book Thief.
Overall, I think that I found the sections on Chuck Yeager, in particular his experiences with the NF-104 to be particularly amazing.
The stories of the experiences of the Mercury Seven were very interesting, but it felt very much like there was a pretty strong bias in the way each of them were being portrayed.
Next up Glen Cook's Reap the East Wind.
I'm about 1/3 through and really enjoying it. This the 10th anniversary Nook version that was on sale a few months back, and this is also my first time reading one of Gaiman's novels.
It's a big departure from the books I've been reading (Hiaasen, Wrestling, Deighton)
I really enjoyed The Magicians and The Magician King. Magician King is a bit more typical in its structure.
That makes sense.
Fairly well done book on the Asian horror/dark fantasy cinema. Filled with over 40 well written reviews/essays.
So I guess "writing for the trade" has been around longer than we realized.
One of the worst offenders of being paid by the word is Mark Twain. I'm currently reading a Kindle collection of his complete works. His first two books, both travelogues with a little biography mixed in, have been over 600 pages. There are chapters consisting almost entirely of things like newspaper articles (by other writers) or court transcripts. You can just sense him realizing a deadline is near, and he better send the publisher something to make his paycheck fat enough.