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What books are you reading or have recently read?


Raak

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I just finished Skin Games by Jim Butcher, it's the latest book in the Dresden Files series.  I liked it, but I don't think it's Butchers best work.  It felt like a filler book for the most part.  I like what he did, I just didn't get the feeling that his heart was in it.  This could have been a fairly epic storyline, but it played out kinda.....underwhelmingly, slightly.  I don't want to give anything away, but I think considering the caliber of bad guy that was involved Butcher could have been a bit more....inventive.  He did bring in some nice elements, and I think handled the relationships very well.  Maybe it's coming down to having too many interesting characters and not having enough pages :D.  I WANT MAOR !!!!

 

I recommend this book, as I do anything else Butcher writes.  It's popcorn, but it's the most delicious kind of popcorn, chocolate covered bacon pecan pie popcorn.....

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I just finished Skin Games by Jim Butcher, it's the latest book in the Dresden Files series.  I liked it, but I don't think it's Butchers best work.  It felt like a filler book for the most part.  I like what he did, I just didn't get the feeling that his heart was in it.  This could have been a fairly epic storyline, but it played out kinda.....underwhelmingly, slightly.  I don't want to give anything away, but I think considering the caliber of bad guy that was involved Butcher could have been a bit more....inventive.  He did bring in some nice elements, and I think handled the relationships very well.  Maybe it's coming down to having too many interesting characters and not having enough pages :D.  I WANT MAOR !!!!

 

I recommend this book, as I do anything else Butcher writes.  It's popcorn, but it's the most delicious kind of popcorn, chocolate covered bacon pecan pie popcorn.....

Agreed!  Solid and tied up some story lines but not great.  Still a solid read for fans, though.

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+100000

This series is amazing, the last book is amazing.

Nah... Gotta be said: Jordan is the number one example why editors are important, and why famous authors go to hell once their editors stop editing, not realizing that the reason they were a best selling author in the first place was because of the editing. The world Jordan created is marvelous, the scope of the story is incredible, and the charcters are great. The pacing of the first six or seven books was wonderful. Seven or eight or so on (up until eleven, which is when I decided that Jordan had just wasted 2000 pages of my life on something that SHOULD have been told in 600) is poorly written garbage. His command of language is great. His ability to sustain a story is nonexistent.

 

Maybe it's better once the dude finally died, and I have a feeling I could skip everything else Jordan wrote and jump to the new guy without missing a godsdamned beat.

 

With that said, Jordan was a fine successor to Howard, and I really liked his pulp stuff.

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Some thoughts on Skin Game:

 

 

 

I love Michael Carpenter but he felt forced into the book. It was almost as if Butcher changed his mind halfway through the book about who should be watching Dresden's back. 

Also, Nicodemus should be Darth Vader levels of unstoppable awesome evil but he just felt, well, weak. He is one of my favorite book villains and he didn't feel right this time around.

I am SO glad that Harry will not end up with Molly. That was always wrong and it felt like Butcher was pushing that for a few books. I also really like the idea of Dresden's "children". I fully expect that they will be their own spin off series in the near future.

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Nah... Gotta be said: Jordan is the number one example why editors are important, and why famous authors go to hell once their editors stop editing, not realizing that the reason they were a best selling author in the first place was because of the editing. The world Jordan created is marvelous, the scope of the story is incredible, and the charcters are great. The pacing of the first six or seven books was wonderful. Seven or eight or so on (up until eleven, which is when I decided that Jordan had just wasted 2000 pages of my life on something that SHOULD have been told in 600) is poorly written garbage. His command of language is great. His ability to sustain a story is nonexistent.

Maybe it's better once the dude finally died, and I have a feeling I could skip everything else Jordan wrote and jump to the new guy without missing a godsdamned beat.

With that said, Jordan was a fine successor to Howard, and I really liked his pulp stuff.

I think not. With the scope pf story that he is wielding i think the books were nessesary to tie in all the little bits of the world.

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I think not. With the scope pf story that he is wielding i think the books were nessesary to tie in all the little bits of the world.

 

Sorry, no epic scope requires pages-long description of the clothes worn by a person that a minor character passed on the street. Also, given his continued Three's Company-style communication mishaps, I'm convinced that Robert Jordan has never actually met a woman, let alone interacted with one.

 

Edit: I understand that (apparently) what Sanderson did was awesome, and agree that how Jordan started was marvelous, but the middle parts really are really just bad, bad editing (or lack thereof).

 

EditEdit: Ha! Proof! Well, insofar as a Wiki quote is proof. I may be wrong about not having met a woman, but he married his editor, and she eventually stopped editing his work and gave him free reign: 

 

 
McDougal edited Robert Jordan's books until his death in 2007, though her role lessened as the years went on. In her words: "By the last of the Wheel of Time books, my role was primarily that of wife: keeping him fed and cared for—because after 20 plus years I had taught him everything I knew about storytelling and prose, and he had really become the wonderful writer that he was."[37] She eventually stopped picking up new authors, going into semi-retirement and limiting her work to her husband's books.

 

Editors, you make the rockin' world go 'round.

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Edit: I understand that (apparently) what Sanderson did was awesome, and agree that how Jordan started was marvelous, but the middle parts really are really just bad, bad editing (or lack thereof).

 

One of my online mud friends said long ago now about the editing of the later books something to the effect of what's next? 300 pages of character X contemplating what kind of toast to have for breakfast?

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Yarb, I don't feel any of the books were a let down. A book to me was never a marathon but casual reading. That said, I had no issues with any of Jordan's books. The story he created is so AWESOME I wouldn't care if a 5th grader wrote it. The sheer amount of side stories all being tracked at once is staggering, and it all comes together towards the end.

 

When I see someone tell me they got bored in the middle, sounds like to me they were in a marathon rather than casual. All stories do it, the middle did just fine in my opinion.

 

That said, I ALWAYS had difficulty putting the wheel of time books down...just one more page, chapter, etc :ph34r:

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Yarb, I don't feel any of the books were a let down. A book to me was never a marathon but casual reading. That said, I had no issues with any of Jordan's books. The story he created is so AWESOME I wouldn't care if a 5th grader wrote it. The sheer amount of side stories all being tracked at once is staggering, and it all comes together towards the end.

 

When I see someone tell me they got bored in the middle, sounds like to me they were in a marathon rather than casual. All stories do it, the middle did just fine in my opinion.

 

That said, I ALWAYS had difficulty putting the wheel of time books down...just one more page, chapter, etc :ph34r:

I just want to echo this.  IMO there are far more onerous books to read in the genre of fantasy.  His stuff does get a bit dry at times, but I never came away from a book feeling as though I wasted my time.

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Crocodile on the Sandbank, by Elizabeth Peters. Basically a Scooby Doo plot, but the period details (it's set in the 1880s) and the Egyptology are great, and there are some pretty funny bits in there, too. Unfortunately, it looks like a couple of the characters who I didn't particularly like become a bigger part of the later books, so I'm not planning on continuing on, but this one was pretty good.

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Parasite, by Mira Grant. Excellent SF/Thriller/Horror. In the near future, most people have their medical needs taken care of by genetically engineered tapeworms that live in them symbiotically and can dispense medications and such as needed. But there are a lot of gaps and unanswered questions about the development of the worms, and now some strange things are starting to happen.

 

Avoid the actual promo material for the book, even the blurb on the back/inside cover. It's got major spoilers in it.

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Just finished The Long Earth by Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett. Great book. A bit different, nobody does anything overly heroic. More of a "look inside" to a world vastly similar to ours but experiencing radical changes. Takes a realistic view of an unreal phenomenon. My only gripe is that I didn't know it's an unfinished series when I started it. I hate waiting for books three, four and five to come out. I had to wait ten years for Stephen King to finish the Gunslinger and it damned near killed me;)

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Just finished The Long Earth by Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett. Great book. A bit different, nobody does anything overly heroic. More of a "look inside" to a world vastly similar to ours but experiencing radical changes. Takes a realistic view of an unreal phenomenon. My only gripe is that I didn't know it's an unfinished series when I started it. I hate waiting for books three, four and five to come out. I had to wait ten years for Stephen King to finish the Gunslinger and it damned near killed me;)

I was disappointed in it, but I think that's because I went into it expecting a Terry Pratchett book with some filling in done by Stephen Baxter, when in fact, it's much more a Stephen Baxter book based on a concept by Terry Pratchett. I think if it had been promoted to me that way, I would have quite enjoyed it.

 

On the other hand, this also makes the (regrettably highly likely) prospect of Pratchett dying or losing so much function to the Alzheimer's that he can't write unlikely to have a major impact on the completion of the series. The Dark Tower would have been screwed if King had died before finishing it, but Baxter can definitely finish this one off solo if need be.

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The Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne

 

Basically, it is a cross between The Dresden Files and Percy Jackson.  Hearne wants to be Jim Butcher so badly!  I want to like it but I just can't.  I bought the first three books in a lot so I am determined to finish all three but it is a bit of slog.  I love that it focuses on Celtic mythos but it is just so internally inconsistent.  Plus, after 2100 years of hiding the main character basically starts to wipe every mythos he can find.  Plus, humans are just so outclassed they are insignificant.  Plus, Hearne's favorite word is "a$$."

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm listening to the audiobook of Kushiel's Dart, book one of the Kushiel's Legacy trilogy, having read the trilogy two or three times before.

 

Its a really good series. Some of my favourite all-time characters. Courtly intrigue, betrayal, and a spymaster-courtesan as heroine. Think Game of Thrones without the zombies or dragons and not as long-winded.

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