1776 by David McCullough is okay. Not my style of writing at all tho. Oxford's history of the Revolution looks more my style, is recommended by /r/AskHistorians as the starting place for reading up on that war, and is on Audible, so I know what I'm reading next.
Oh, and I got Volume VI of the complete papers of Andrew Jackson for my birthday so that's top priority.
This is Round 2.5 of 1Q84. Still hate Ushikawa, still hate parallel universes, still going to read this a third time.
-Unreasonable griping brought to you by Esso Gasoline, put a tiger in your tank.
Everyone I've thrown that book at either hates it with a passion or loves it with equal fervor. All agree that it's physically not a good book to have thrown at.
This is Round 2.5 of 1Q84. Still hate Ushikawa, still hate parallel universes, still going to read this a third time.
-Unreasonable griping brought to you by Esso Gasoline, put a tiger in your tank.
Yeah, I had a hard time finishing that book. And in the end I just didn't feel like it was worth it. I sorta remember liking Ushikawa the most in it though. Maybe not. I know I severely disliked Aomame despite her pretty solid intro and just wish her story wasn't in the book.
Yeah, I had a hard time finishing that book. And in the end I just didn't feel like it was worth it. I sorta remember liking Ushikawa the most in it though. Maybe not. I know I severely disliked Aomame despite her pretty solid intro and just wish her story wasn't in the book.
My gripe is that with the whole parallel universes analogy being things that existing but never interacting, any tension being built up between Ushikawa and Accidental Love Interest is completely meaningless and unfulfilling. Then that thought train lead me to being mad at how his character arc was ultimately worthless.
I just started Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe. It started out as, oh, this is Japan's Harry Potter. But now it's a pretty compelling, if somewhat linear and predictable (so far) story.
I just started Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe. It started out as, oh, this is Japan's Harry Potter. But now it's a pretty compelling, if somewhat linear and predictable (so far) story.
I've had that book on my shelf for years and I keep saying I'll read it, but something else always catches my attention instead so I put it off. One of these days...
Light review from halfway through. There's a compelling start in there, there's this first act that is almost a story unto itself. After the first act is the second first act, which is the start of the actual story.
I've been reading a string of fantasy and sci-fi lately and am about to restart The Great Ordeal (I had to set it down because of the move). However, I have to give a shout to Mindy Kaling's two books Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) and Why Not Me? as well as Tina Fey's Bossypants. All three were fun, quick reads. They were perfect for the kind of pick-up and put-down reading my schedule has afforded of late.
Greg's mixing things up with A Being So Gentle: The Frontier Love Story of Rachel and Andrew Jackson by Patricia Brady. It's not great, but it's the only Rachel-centric book published. Given that I'll be reading her papers myself anyway, it only needs to serve as a broad guide to the timeline of Rachel's life to provide context for what I'll be reading next.
Caught up on Leviathan Wakes and the rest of the available Expanse series (up through Nemesis Games)
I much enjoy the overall story but I'm finding a lot of individual nitpicks I don't like. The story is usually fun, the setting is usually solid sci-fi stuff and is one I love exploring, and the POV characters are usually people I want to know more about.
But a lot of scenes I wouldn't miss if they were cut, and almost all of the pacing is action-adventure sci-fi vs more mental hard sci-fi which means the action scenes and conflicts and space battles that rightly do take the spotlight most of the time are great. But when we're dealing with ideas of religion in a space-faring society or the ideas of family heritage or motivations for travel or what-have, it hits on some themes but doesn't seem to explore them other than as plot engines.
Anyhow, looking for more solid space-based tales of exploration and discovery that adhere to the general concepts of hard sci-fi (no magic bullshit, no mysterious FTL, no handwavey exceptions) But really it seems the pickings are slim for anything that is recent and doesn't suck? Any ideas?
You are literally describing the Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds. It consists of three books you can read in any order (The Prefect, Chasm City and Revelation Space) and then two more books in the trilogy that follows the story on from Revelation Space (Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap).
To be honest, it was pretty painful reading Leviathan Wakes because it rips off so many features of Redemption Ark specifically, down to even using the same names for the same type of character (The Butcher of ... who turns out to a be a misunderstood villain who is now on the good side). It feels like the authors read an amazing series and thought "Let's just do that again, but dumber, and so we can sell it as a TV show."
That's not the first time someone mentioned that series and so I'm glad you seem to recommend it too. I'll check it out, what would be the best starting point?
It depends on what you like. As I said, the first three titles can be read in any order.
Do you like he sound of a police procedural action drama set in a "utopian" cloud of a thousand space habitats orbiting the most prosperous human planet? Then The Prefect is a good place to start.
If you want a multithreaded story about generational colony ships, civil war and noir-style investigations in a city devastated by a nanobot technological plague, then go for Chasm City.
If you want the epic start to the main series, go for Revelation Space. It also works as a standalone book, so don't worry about trying it out and going on to the two above books.
Just read the first two books of The Stormlight Archive. I hadn't read anything by the author (Brandon Sanderson) before, but the setting really drew me in. I think I'm on a "fantasy but not thinly-veiled northern Europe setting" kick, what with this, The Great Ordeal, Molly Tanzer's The Pleasure Merchant, and Scott Hawkins' Library at Mount Char.
Just read the first two books of The Stormlight Archive. I hadn't read anything by the author (Brandon Sanderson) before, but the setting really drew me in. I think I'm on a "fantasy but not thinly-veiled northern Europe setting" kick, what with this, The Great Ordeal, Molly Tanzer's The Pleasure Merchant, and Scott Hawkins' Library at Mount Char.
I really enjoy Sanderson's ability to make a story dark and viceral without using gratuitous tits and violence. I mean, I have nothing against the two, but it's overdone in a lot of modern fantasy these days.
I've got a friend who recommends books all the time, but I'm skeptical as to whether we have similar taste. He's been into Stormlight Archive recently, and also The Demon Cycle (The Warded Man/The Painted Man). Those of you with fine taste in novels, let me hear your thoughts.
The setting of Stormlight Archive (a place where a giant stormfront crosses all of civilization with some regularity) ties in really well with the flora and fauna (plants retract into their shells, animals are more insect and crustacean than mammal), society, and "magic" (there's an abundance of spirits and oddities that are treated as mundane, among other things). The story has a lot of high notes so far, and blends world-shaking consequences with (sometimes more visceral) personal consequences.
It also does a similar trick to what Bakker's doing in Aspect Emperor, where it shows you some myths and preconceptions of the inhabitants of the world and then says, "no but seriously, what if the things they believe are objectively real?"
I've got a friend who recommends books all the time, but I'm skeptical as to whether we have similar taste. He's been into Stormlight Archive recently, and also The Demon Cycle (The Warded Man/The Painted Man). Those of you with fine taste in novels, let me hear your thoughts.
I have consumed the first two books of Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive and the first four books of Brett's The Demon Cycle as audio books. Here are my thoughts:
Sanderson's writing has improved significantly since the Mistborn series. His universe is even more consistent, intricate, and inventive, the plot is more engaging, the characters are more developed, the dialogue is slightly improved, the characters are more believable, and the political, philosophical, and theological themes of the books are less blunt and more nuanced. My one gripe concerns a chunk of the second book in which one of the POV characters, Kaladin, channels Vin (of the Mistborn series) levels of annoyance. It is approaching unbearable. I hope the third book rectifies the issue.
My scores, for what they are worth: World Building Score: 9/10 Plot: 8/10 Character Development: 7/10 Dialogue: 5/10 Pacing: 7/10 Portrayal of Women/Feminist Reading Score: 7/10 Overall Entertainment Value: 8/10 Overall Quality Value: 7/10
I have invested too much time into The Demon Cycle to stop now; however, had I known that the early promise of the series and my forgiveness of the sometimes infantile writing would become a tortured slog of increasingly annoyance, I might not have invested such time. I can't give the series a fair rating because it is so inconsistent. Read or listen at your own risk.
I agree with Kate's review, while The Stormlight Archive generally does a great job in portraying mental illness, it completely misses the mark when dealing with Kaladin's (word of god here) Seasonal Affective Disorder. It just completely breaks down when you have a world that constantly changes seasons, making him seem inconsistent. This is made even worse since it's never stated in the text.
I'm pretty on board with the upcoming books, specially since my main man Dalinar is getting a spotlight in book 3.
Just read the first two books of The Stormlight Archive. I hadn't read anything by the author (Brandon Sanderson) before, but the setting really drew me in. I think I'm on a "fantasy but not thinly-veiled northern Europe setting" kick, what with this, The Great Ordeal, Molly Tanzer's The Pleasure Merchant, and Scott Hawkins' Library at Mount Char.
Guys, you should all just read The Fifth Season. It's right up this alley.
I had issues with the Stormlight books, but the setting wasn't one of them.
Just read the first two books of The Stormlight Archive. I hadn't read anything by the author (Brandon Sanderson) before, but the setting really drew me in. I think I'm on a "fantasy but not thinly-veiled northern Europe setting" kick, what with this, The Great Ordeal, Molly Tanzer's The Pleasure Merchant, and Scott Hawkins' Library at Mount Char.
Guys, you should all just read The Fifth Season. It's right up this alley.
I had issues with the Stormlight books, but the setting wasn't one of them.
I just bought the Inheritance Trilogy by the same author as the Fifth Season, but haven't started it yet. Have you read that? If so, what were your thoughts?
It depends on what you like. As I said, the first three titles can be read in any order.
Do you like he sound of a police procedural action drama set in a "utopian" cloud of a thousand space habitats orbiting the most prosperous human planet? Then The Prefect is a good place to start.
If you want a multithreaded story about generational colony ships, civil war and noir-style investigations in a city devastated by a nanobot technological plague, then go for Chasm City.
If you want the epic start to the main series, go for Revelation Space. It also works as a standalone book, so don't worry about trying it out and going on to the two above books.
Started the Chasm City audiobook. On like chapter 6. I'm gonna give it the fair due but immediately I'm realizing the dialogue is so goddamn proper and expository, and well, annoying. Indeed it's more egregious than a few books I've read or listened to recently. I mean, yeah, Sci Fi isn't a bastion of awesomely written characters; and it's pert-near a trope for the writers to take the phrase 'drop science' literally, but, I'm still thinking, just for example, maybe assassins should not talk like scholars? Even if the author has some reason contrived, couldn't they just uncontrive themselves?
I guess one thing I do love about the Expanse series is that the character interactions and dialogue usually, usually mind, doesn't make me go "who the literal fuck talks that way?" The dialogue sense of Daniel Abraham at least is pretty compatible to my ear.
I'm reading this Chasm City and thinking everyone could explain things with about half the words and with a larger percentage of coloquial ones. In a crisis I don't need people saying something like "brace for longitudinal shockwaves" to random people. In reality the future will probably be creole and shitty memes, so he'd probably realistically say, "sah gonna be get fuckin' lit in 'ere fam!"
OK reading nothing but that for 500 pages would get old I agree. Still, there's a balance.
But like I said, gonna give the story its shake anyway, figure the language will stop bothering me and hope the story gets me hooked. Just posted cuz I noticed the contrast where I rarely was bothered by dialogue reading the "knock off" but yet this precursor is rustlin' mah jim jims.
It depends on what you like. As I said, the first three titles can be read in any order.
Do you like he sound of a police procedural action drama set in a "utopian" cloud of a thousand space habitats orbiting the most prosperous human planet? Then The Prefect is a good place to start.
If you want a multithreaded story about generational colony ships, civil war and noir-style investigations in a city devastated by a nanobot technological plague, then go for Chasm City.
If you want the epic start to the main series, go for Revelation Space. It also works as a standalone book, so don't worry about trying it out and going on to the two above books.
Started the Chasm City audiobook. On like chapter 6. I'm gonna give it the fair due but immediately I'm realizing the dialogue is so goddamn proper and expository, and well, annoying. Indeed it's more egregious than a few books I've read or listened to recently. I mean, yeah, Sci Fi isn't a bastion of awesomely written characters; and it's pert-near a trope for the writers to take the phrase 'drop science' literally, but, I'm still thinking, just for example, maybe assassins should not talk like scholars? Even if the author has some reason contrived, couldn't they just uncontrive themselves?
I guess one thing I do love about the Expanse series is that the character interactions and dialogue usually, usually mind, doesn't make me go "who the literal fuck talks that way?" The dialogue sense of Daniel Abraham at least is pretty compatible to my ear.
I'm reading this Chasm City and thinking everyone could explain things with about half the words and with a larger percentage of coloquial ones. In a crisis I don't need people saying something like "brace for longitudinal shockwaves" to random people. In reality the future will probably be creole and shitty memes, so he'd probably realistically say, "sah gonna be get fuckin' lit in 'ere fam!"
OK reading nothing but that for 500 pages would get old I agree. Still, there's a balance.
But like I said, gonna give the story its shake anyway, figure the language will stop bothering me and hope the story gets me hooked. Just posted cuz I noticed the contrast where I rarely was bothered by dialogue reading the "knock off" but yet this precursor is rustlin' mah jim jims.
That's interesting because for me, that same overly academic style of dialogue (even skewing towards monologue) is one of my favorite features. It seems like I crave that particular kind of unrealistic prose. For example, it's present in many of my favorite moments of X-files, It might be the only reason I like the Monogatari series, and even Ghost in the Shell is constantly hitting that same button for me. It never occurred to me that other people might find it grating. I would have anticipated boring maybe, but not annoying in the way you describe!
Comments
Oh, and I got Volume VI of the complete papers of Andrew Jackson for my birthday so that's top priority.
-Unreasonable griping brought to you by Esso Gasoline, put a tiger in your tank.
I much enjoy the overall story but I'm finding a lot of individual nitpicks I don't like. The story is usually fun, the setting is usually solid sci-fi stuff and is one I love exploring, and the POV characters are usually people I want to know more about.
But a lot of scenes I wouldn't miss if they were cut, and almost all of the pacing is action-adventure sci-fi vs more mental hard sci-fi which means the action scenes and conflicts and space battles that rightly do take the spotlight most of the time are great. But when we're dealing with ideas of religion in a space-faring society or the ideas of family heritage or motivations for travel or what-have, it hits on some themes but doesn't seem to explore them other than as plot engines.
Anyhow, looking for more solid space-based tales of exploration and discovery that adhere to the general concepts of hard sci-fi (no magic bullshit, no mysterious FTL, no handwavey exceptions) But really it seems the pickings are slim for anything that is recent and doesn't suck? Any ideas?
To be honest, it was pretty painful reading Leviathan Wakes because it rips off so many features of Redemption Ark specifically, down to even using the same names for the same type of character (The Butcher of ... who turns out to a be a misunderstood villain who is now on the good side). It feels like the authors read an amazing series and thought "Let's just do that again, but dumber, and so we can sell it as a TV show."
Do you like he sound of a police procedural action drama set in a "utopian" cloud of a thousand space habitats orbiting the most prosperous human planet? Then The Prefect is a good place to start.
If you want a multithreaded story about generational colony ships, civil war and noir-style investigations in a city devastated by a nanobot technological plague, then go for Chasm City.
If you want the epic start to the main series, go for Revelation Space. It also works as a standalone book, so don't worry about trying it out and going on to the two above books.
Sanderson's writing has improved significantly since the Mistborn series. His universe is even more consistent, intricate, and inventive, the plot is more engaging, the characters are more developed, the dialogue is slightly improved, the characters are more believable, and the political, philosophical, and theological themes of the books are less blunt and more nuanced. My one gripe concerns a chunk of the second book in which one of the POV characters, Kaladin, channels Vin (of the Mistborn series) levels of annoyance. It is approaching unbearable. I hope the third book rectifies the issue.
My scores, for what they are worth:
World Building Score: 9/10
Plot: 8/10
Character Development: 7/10
Dialogue: 5/10
Pacing: 7/10
Portrayal of Women/Feminist Reading Score: 7/10
Overall Entertainment Value: 8/10
Overall Quality Value: 7/10
I have invested too much time into The Demon Cycle to stop now; however, had I known that the early promise of the series and my forgiveness of the sometimes infantile writing would become a tortured slog of increasingly annoyance, I might not have invested such time. I can't give the series a fair rating because it is so inconsistent. Read or listen at your own risk.
I'm pretty on board with the upcoming books, specially since my main man Dalinar is getting a spotlight in book 3.
I had issues with the Stormlight books, but the setting wasn't one of them.
I guess one thing I do love about the Expanse series is that the character interactions and dialogue usually, usually mind, doesn't make me go "who the literal fuck talks that way?" The dialogue sense of Daniel Abraham at least is pretty compatible to my ear.
I'm reading this Chasm City and thinking everyone could explain things with about half the words and with a larger percentage of coloquial ones. In a crisis I don't need people saying something like "brace for longitudinal shockwaves" to random people. In reality the future will probably be creole and shitty memes, so he'd probably realistically say, "sah gonna be get fuckin' lit in 'ere fam!"
OK reading nothing but that for 500 pages would get old I agree. Still, there's a balance.
But like I said, gonna give the story its shake anyway, figure the language will stop bothering me and hope the story gets me hooked. Just posted cuz I noticed the contrast where I rarely was bothered by dialogue reading the "knock off" but yet this precursor is rustlin' mah jim jims.