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Post by eatersthemanfool on Mar 7, 2017 0:00:55 GMT -5
I couldn't find an old book thread to resurrect so I made a new one.
Nowadays it's mostly audiobooks for me, but I'm hoping with my upcoming schedule changes I'll be able to finish some of the paper books I bought but still haven't read.
Right now I'm really digging the audible version of Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson.
It's kind of hard to write about Sanderson, because depending on who and where you are, he's either the best fantasy author ever, or the guy who took a steaming dump all over Wheel of Time.
I put him somewhere in the area of Dean Koontz and RA Salvatore. Schlocky and formulaic but entertaining and occasionally surprisingly good.
Way of Kings is surprisingly good. It's high fantasy but without strong Tolkienesqe trappings. No elves, no dwarves, no wizards. A setting that isn't vaguely reminiscent of medieval England.
It's also like forever long and with more books coming.
Anyway, I'm enjoying it.
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Post by GamerL on Mar 7, 2017 1:01:51 GMT -5
Most recently I've gotten into the Anno Dracula series by Kim Newman, I've read all four books in the series so far. The first book is an alternate history sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula, the idea being what if Dracula was triumphant instead of killed at the end of the book, the result being that he goes on to hypnotize and marry Queen Victoria, thus becoming "Prince Consort" and de facto ruler of the British empire, now vampires have basically "come out of the closet" and live openly in London as the new aristocracy, but someone calling themselves "The Silver Knife" (aka Jack the Ripper) is murdering vampire prostitutes, stoking tensions between vampires and the "warm" (aka the living) and it's up to Charles Beauregard, secret agent of the Diogenes Club, which is taken from Sherlock Holmes (who himself is locked away in one of Dracula's prison camps) and a female French vampire named Genevieve, who is actually older than Dracula, to solve the mystery. From there the series becomes an alternate history of the 20th century, a world where vampires are just a fact of life, the second book is about World War 1, the third is set in 1959 Rome, Italy and the fourth 70s and 80s era New York City and Los Angeles. And one of the weirder aspects of the series is the fact that not only is this a world where vampires exist, but it's also a world where almost every fictional character you can think of exists, every book contains a slew of appearances from and references to fictional people of the eras in which the books are set, while this may sound like it can get tiresome, trust me when I say Kim Newman handles it well, but it still gets nuts just how many characters make appearances and the ways in which they do and Newman manages to create a world where all these characters coexist with real historical figures and it makes sense and never gets too ridiculous, it's a huge accomplishment, I mean this is a world where at one point George H.W. Bush meets Orlok from Nosferatu, isn't that hilarious? On top of that though they're just really well written books, Newman always upends expectations and the plots never go quite where you may be expecting, Dracula himself for example rarely appears throughout the series, he's more of a background figure, which serves to make him this legendary figure again. What's cool is there's actually a new book in the series that comes out in October of this year, this one is set in Tokyo in 1999, I can't wait to see Kim Newman's take on Japan.
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Post by eatersthemanfool on Mar 7, 2017 3:54:49 GMT -5
Most recently I've gotten into the Anno Dracula series by Kim Newman, I've read all four books in the series so far. The first book is an alternate history sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula, the idea being what if Dracula was triumphant instead of killed at the end of the book, the result being that he goes on to hypnotize and marry Queen Victoria, thus becoming "Prince Consort" and de facto ruler of the British empire, now vampires have basically "come out of the closet" and live openly in London as the new aristocracy, but someone calling themselves "The Silver Knife" (aka Jack the Ripper) is murdering vampire prostitutes, stoking tensions between vampires and the "warm" (aka the living) and it's up to Charles Beauregard, secret agent of the Diogenes Club, which is taken from Sherlock Holmes (who himself is locked away in one of Dracula's prison camps) and a female French vampire named Genevieve, who is actually older than Dracula, to solve the mystery. From there the series becomes an alternate history of the 20th century, a world where vampires are just a fact of life, the second book is about World War 1, the third is set in 1959 Rome, Italy and the fourth 70s and 80s era New York City and Los Angeles. And one of the weirder aspects of the series is the fact that not only is this a world where vampires exist, but it's also a world where almost every fictional character you can think of exists, every book contains a slew of appearances from and references to fictional people of the eras in which the books are set, while this may sound like it can get tiresome, trust me when I say Kim Newman handles it well, but it still gets nuts just how many characters make appearances and the ways in which they do and Newman manages to create a world where all these characters coexist with real historical figures and it makes sense and never gets too ridiculous, it's a huge accomplishment, I mean this is a world where at one point George H.W. Bush meets Orlok from Nosferatu, isn't that hilarious? On top of that though they're just really well written books, Newman always upends expectations and the plots never go quite where you may be expecting, Dracula himself for example rarely appears throughout the series, he's more of a background figure, which serves to make him this legendary figure again. What's cool is there's actually a new book in the series that comes out in October of this year, this one is set in Tokyo in 1999, I can't wait to see Kim Newman's take on Japan. That.. sounds pretty awesome. I'll have to check that out.
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Post by GamerL on Mar 7, 2017 6:17:52 GMT -5
That.. sounds pretty awesome. I'll have to check that out. I highly, highly recommend it, Newman has a real eye for atmospheric world building, the first book with it's foggy nighttime London of the living dead is goosebump inducing and even the most recent one has cool details like this world's version of Las Vegas, where on display in one of the casino lobbies is the cryogenically frozen body of Howard Hughes, who owns half the casinos on the strip, inside some sort of brass coffin like contraption that keeps him alive (which reminds me of Mr House from Fallout New Vegas)
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Post by Snake on Mar 7, 2017 12:05:18 GMT -5
And one of the weirder aspects of the series is the fact that not only is this a world where vampires exist, but it's also a world where almost every fictional character you can think of exists, every book contains a slew of appearances from and references to fictional people of the eras in which the books are set, while this may sound like it can get tiresome, trust me when I say Kim Newman handles it well, but it still gets nuts just how many characters make appearances and the ways in which they do and Newman manages to create a world where all these characters coexist with real historical figures and it makes sense and never gets too ridiculous, it's a huge accomplishment, I mean this is a world where at one point George H.W. Bush meets Orlok from Nosferatu, isn't that hilarious? On top of that though they're just really well written books, Newman always upends expectations and the plots never go quite where you may be expecting, Dracula himself for example rarely appears throughout the series, he's more of a background figure, which serves to make him this legendary figure again. What's cool is there's actually a new book in the series that comes out in October of this year, this one is set in Tokyo in 1999, I can't wait to see Kim Newman's take on Japan. Wow, sounds like a lot of fun! Plus, I had no idea "Orlok" was a character from another story, Nosferatu of all things. I remember playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and reading "Olrox's Room" -- thinking: Olrox? Who's Olrox? Dracula's cousin? (Although, the Japanese kanji seems to be closer to the actual spelling of Orlok with O-ru-ro-kku). *Staying on thread topic - I just finished reading "Shoe Dog," by Phil Knight (founder, CEO of Nike Inc). Fantastic life-story of a nobody in Oregon, who was just winging his shoe business. When they started as "Blue Ribbon," importing Onitsuka Tiger shoes, they were really just hanging by a thread with no positive cash balance; surviving on credit with Japanese bankers. I had a good time reading of all the trials and tribulations that had to put up with along the way. A real kind of underdog story.
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Post by moran on Mar 7, 2017 14:02:11 GMT -5
Finished reading Stephen King's Eye of the Dragon a few weeks back. Really liked it. I knew nothing about it going in other than it contained a certain King character, but was really surprised with his skill in writing fantasy. Dark Tower has touches of it, but reading a whole book in his style was entertaining. I know he was turned off of it because of the response, but I would really like to see him give it another go.
But, now I'm in the middle of Clive Barker's Books of blood. The stories can be hit or miss, but I'm enjoying it. It kills time on my commute.
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Post by ZenithianHero on Mar 7, 2017 16:01:05 GMT -5
If I am not reading young adult and light novels, it's picking up classic books.
Right now I'm reading A.S. King's Still Life with Tornado. I have most of her books after enjoying I Crawl Through It. Her writing described as surrealist, quite cloudcuckoolander in how some characters are. Still Life has the main character interacting with herself of different ages (younger and older) while she is in the middle of an existential crisis. Fun read so far.
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Post by GamerL on Mar 7, 2017 16:51:37 GMT -5
Wow, sounds like a lot of fun! Plus, I had no idea "Orlok" was a character from another story, Nosferatu of all things. I remember playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and reading "Olrox's Room" -- thinking: Olrox? Who's Olrox? Dracula's cousin? (Although, the Japanese kanji seems to be closer to the actual spelling of Orlok with O-ru-ro-kku). Orlok actually is Dracula's cousin in Anno Dracula, in the first book Dracula puts him in charge of running the Tower of London as a prison for vampires. Finished reading Stephen King's Eye of the Dragon a few weeks back. Really liked it. I knew nothing about it going in other than it contained a certain King character, but was really surprised with his skill in writing fantasy. Dark Tower has touches of it, but reading a whole book in his style was entertaining. I know he was turned off of it because of the response, but I would really like to see him give it another go. But, now I'm in the middle of Clive Barker's Books of blood. The stories can be hit or miss, but I'm enjoying it. It kills time on my commute. I've been meaning to get back into King, I went through a huge King phase in my late teens where I read a bunch but have steadily dropped off since other than keeping up with most of his current releases (most recently the new short story collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams) I honestly kind of forgot about Eyes of the Dragon, thanks for reminding me.
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Post by eatersthemanfool on Mar 7, 2017 22:25:57 GMT -5
I've been meaning to get back into King, I went through a huge King phase in my late teens where I read a bunch but have steadily dropped off since other than keeping up with most of his current releases (most recently the new short story collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams) I honestly kind of forgot about Eyes of the Dragon, thanks for reminding me. I read Revival last year and loved the shit out of it. It's one of my favorites now.
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Post by GamerL on Mar 7, 2017 22:51:07 GMT -5
I've been meaning to get back into King, I went through a huge King phase in my late teens where I read a bunch but have steadily dropped off since other than keeping up with most of his current releases (most recently the new short story collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams) I honestly kind of forgot about Eyes of the Dragon, thanks for reminding me. I read Revival last year and loved the shit out of it. It's one of my favorites now. I liked Revival a lot too, it's funny because the whole novel is basically one big build up to the ending, but it's never tedious and the ending is well worth the wait, that says a lot about King's talent. Interestingly Revival is so far his last supernatural focused novel.
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Post by eatersthemanfool on Mar 8, 2017 1:07:50 GMT -5
I read Revival last year and loved the shit out of it. It's one of my favorites now. I liked Revival a lot too, it's funny because the whole novel is basically one big build up to the ending, but it's never tedious and the ending is well worth the wait, that says a lot about King's talent. Interestingly Revival is so far his last supernatural focused novel. I don't think I've read anything since that. I will say that some of my favorite books of his have been written relatively recently. I loved Revival, and Lisey's Story was almost as good. In a way both of those stories are darker than anything he wrote previously. They're the sort that stick with you and bother you way after you've finished them.
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Post by jongoo on Mar 10, 2017 0:03:40 GMT -5
The Bible. (Man, I can practically hear the groans lol). I'm reading the New King James Version. It's a study Bible with commentary by John MacArthur, a pastor who really knows his stuff. Trying to read one chapter of the OT and one chapter from the NT daily. Don't have a study plan so just reading each from the beginning till end.
Picked up The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Had to choose from a couple different translations, didn't realize that they can be so different. I'll always have to do a little research before picking up anything translated. I'm only on the second chapter but so far so good. I get the feeling that of what they had at the bookstore, I picked up the best translation.
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Post by eatersthemanfool on Mar 13, 2017 18:12:47 GMT -5
The Bible. (Man, I can practically hear the groans lol). I'm reading the New King James Version. It's a study Bible with commentary by John MacArthur, a pastor who really knows his stuff. Trying to read one chapter of the OT and one chapter from the NT daily. Don't have a study plan so just reading each from the beginning till end. Picked up The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Had to choose from a couple different translations, didn't realize that they can be so different. I'll always have to do a little research before picking up anything translated. I'm only on the second chapter but so far so good. I get the feeling that of what they had at the bookstore, I picked up the best translation. I read a pocket new testament. Only read part of the old testament.
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Post by jongoo on Mar 17, 2017 20:23:27 GMT -5
If you get into the Old Testament, you may wanna skip a lot of it, at least the first time. Like in the first few books, you'll find good stories but a ton of stuff on law as well (extremely repetitive stuff). I think it's safe to kind of scan over those quickly if you don't want to skip them altogether. Psalms and Proverbs are great. And the prophetic words of, for example, Isaiah are great too (just remember who they are prophesying about). Plenty of good stories, like Job, Daniel, and of course, David.
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Post by eatersthemanfool on Mar 17, 2017 22:29:52 GMT -5
Finished Way of Kings, started the second book, Words of Radiance. It's.. damn I'm enjoying the series so far.
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