The Book Club: Fiction Discussion Thread

[SneeR]

Oh, jeez.  I read sooo much fantasy and sci-fi, it's kind of sad. 

Some of my favorite authors include Orson Scott Card, Dan Simmons, Jim Butcher, Terry Pratchett, Brandon Sanderson, Brent Weeks, Neal Gaiman, and Neal Stephenson.

Several months ago I read Ender's Game.  I really liked it; all along I was hoping that poor Ender would take revenge on his abusive mentors, yet I know that the ending was right for the book.

I don't know if I'll read the other books in the series; I hear that later in the series his political and religious beliefs bled into his work to the point where it became preachy.

Like Anita Blake, I read up to the point before the series jumped the shark.  That way, most of my memories are fond ones.  It's what I did with the West Wing TV show when Aaron Sorkin stopped writing for it.

I would go so far as to say that even the second in the series is too preachy, but I read, like, 4. they are still engaging, thoughtful, and well-written, they just have some REALLY heavy-handed messages.

[Libertad]

In the 2nd to 4th books, are we talking heavy-handed like Ayn Rand or Terry Goodkind (where the preaching gets in the way of the plot), or are we talking messages that actually add to the story and characters?  http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped

[Mooncrow]

In the 2nd to 4th books, are we talking heavy-handed like Ayn Rand or Terry Goodkind (where the preaching gets in the way of the plot), or are we talking messages that actually add to the story and characters?  http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped

In the second, at least, I would say it is mostly un-noticable.  There's a message there, but it's fairly innocuous, and the writing is really excellent.  Xenocide and Children of the Mind I hate because they're terrible books, no matter what message is behind them

[trappedslider]

RE: Ender's Game,I couldn't get into the rest of them,so i switched the Shadow Series

The otehr book series I wanna get into is both the WWW sereis by  Robert J. Sawyer and the NEwsFlesh series by Mira Grant

[radionausea]

I recently started reading Kraken by China meville

its pretty good so far. Anybody else read this? I am not that far into the book but so far it has me hooked

Yeah,  I really like Miéville.  I think I prefer his Bas-Lag books but I wasn't disappointed by Kraken or Embassytown. 
If you want a properly weird book then Miéville recommended this to me at a signing:

Cyclonopedia: Complicity with Anonymous Materials

I don't get the love for Sanderson.  Mistborn was fun to read but it was beach book material.  You could blitz through it without missing a thing if you had a particularly long shit to get through.

[radionausea]

Not to say that I didn't recommend Sanderson to my dad who has recently gone off involving stories.  He won't even pick up Erikson despite repeated urgings and we share similar tastes.

[trappedslider]

so,while reading the Dresden Files and reading marcone's parts, I keep hearing his voice done in the style of Rupert Throne from BTAS..anyone get that? lol

[Libertad]

What do people think of R.A. Salvatore's books?  I was thinking of starting out with the Icewind Dale trilogy.

[Mooncrow]

What do people think of R.A. Salvatore's books?  I was thinking of starting out with the Icewind Dale trilogy.

The early ones are fine, there are even some really good moments in a few of them - but they start to get bad pretty quick.  Stick to the Icewind Dale trilogy and the Dark Elf Trilogy and you should be ok. 

The Cleric Quintet is also pretty decent.

[Libertad]

You may be surprised to hear this from me, but I haven't read the original Dragonlance trilogy despite owning the 3.5 campaign setting.

Would you recommend them?

[InnaBinder]

You may be surprised to hear this from me, but I haven't read the original Dragonlance trilogy despite owning the 3.5 campaign setting.

Would you recommend them?

They're not great fiction,  but I'd recommend them solely because they inform the Campaign setting so much, not to mention the way certain archetypes have continued to play.

[altpersona]

What do people think of R.A. Salvatore's books?  I was thinking of starting out with the Icewind Dale trilogy.

The early ones are fine, there are even some really good moments in a few of them - but they start to get bad pretty quick.  Stick to the Icewind Dale trilogy and the Dark Elf Trilogy and you should be ok. 

The Cleric Quintet is also pretty decent.

i agree with moon.

i admit i havent given anyhting new than the quintet a chance... but i dont see that changing either.

i think iv read all the Ender series (in the last 3 months or so). the later books are less good than the older ones, but i disagree w/ some of the descriptions given them here.

cards a religious nut, no argument. but the books preach away from his theism.

the last couple, xeno and children are heavy handed, polyanna/mary sue what evers. but they did nicely tie up the series. 

i read he is gonna tie up the shadow books also, hopefully that will be good..

im currently on Heavy Time by CJ Cherryh.

i started one of her others sometime back but lost my place and didnt pick it back up.

i think you can feel the datedness of the writing, like reading p.Dick or asimov, but it still works.

she hangs out on another forum i frequent, i laugh my ass off when her characters curse and carry on... it seems way 'out of character'

after these three company books, iv told my boy i'll read hunger games that he's insisting on... i may just wait for the movie...

back to asimov, i would read them in his suggested order

http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/links/cool_sci_fi.html#asimov-suggested-reading-order

[altpersona]

iv read about 50 pages of the first dragon lance book. worst ever.

iv read some of the other tie in books, generally if its got a kender it in, i can finish it. except that iv given up on that first trilogy.

also the movie was ejo.

[Mooncrow]

At the time Dragonlance Chronicles came out, it was pretty amazing by the day's standards - epic fantasy was hard to find, and most of it was garbage.  It hasn't aged very well though, but I still enjoy Legends to an extent. 

CJ has some really good stuff - her Fortress series is fantastic.  The beginning of Heavy Time drove me nuts though - it ended up being really good, but that first trip back... christ, that dragged on. 

[altpersona]

i hear you, they (the 5) are just getting ready to head out... decker has gotten his temp license a few pages back..

iv been waiting and waiting and waiting... she's done a good job of translating the monotony and agony of having your hands tied... being generally screwed..

[radionausea]

Just endured the first book of The Black Company - does it get better? Because as it is I feel like I'm reading the dribblings of a 17 year old who's decided they're going to be a novelist.  It doesn't have any continuity, is full of tiny deus ex machinas and the characters are flat. 

I'd heard great things about this series.  If I feel this way about the first book is it worth me continuing? It would be the first time I've not finished a series so I probably will anyway but just want to know if its going to be an endurance test or a pleasant surprise.

[bhu]

Christopher Moores vampire trilogy is damn funny

[Mooncrow]

Just endured the first book of The Black Company - does it get better? Because as it is I feel like I'm reading the dribblings of a 17 year old who's decided they're going to be a novelist.  It doesn't have any continuity, is full of tiny deus ex machinas and the characters are flat. 

I'd heard great things about this series.  If I feel this way about the first book is it worth me continuing? It would be the first time I've not finished a series so I probably will anyway but just want to know if its going to be an endurance test or a pleasant surprise.

The Black Company is pretty much the best example of a purely plot driven series I can think of - characters pretty much only exist as a vehicle to drive the plot along.  The plot itself is pretty interesting, I guess, but without characters to care about or connect to, I had to give up 3 or 4 books in.  His Garret, PI series is a much stronger work, if still flawed.

[Hallack]

What do people think of R.A. Salvatore's books?  I was thinking of starting out with the Icewind Dale trilogy.

The early ones are fine, there are even some really good moments in a few of them - but they start to get bad pretty quick.  Stick to the Icewind Dale trilogy and the Dark Elf Trilogy and you should be ok. 

Yep.  Those I liked.  The rest saddened me to greater and greater degrees as I masochistically continued reading them. 

Currently I'm enjoying the latest in the Monster Hunter's series by Larry Correia.  Decent writing and just good ole monster killing fun. 

[Mooncrow]

What do people think of R.A. Salvatore's books?  I was thinking of starting out with the Icewind Dale trilogy.

The early ones are fine, there are even some really good moments in a few of them - but they start to get bad pretty quick.  Stick to the Icewind Dale trilogy and the Dark Elf Trilogy and you should be ok. 

Yep.  Those I liked.  The rest saddened me to greater and greater degrees as I masochistically continued reading them. 

Currently I'm enjoying the latest in the Monster Hunter's series by Larry Correia.  Decent writing and just good ole monster killing fun.

Heh, those are pretty entertaining; I wish the characters had a little more depth to them, but it's not the end of the world.  I like his new series better; the characters feel a little more fleshed out, and the series concept is pretty solid.