What book are you reading?

[autococker04]

Finished “American Dirt” as always available option from the library, and it was another good one. Fictional account of a forced emigration from Mexico, I’d assume there is some truth to a lot of it, but I haven’t ever had to escape a country so I wouldn’t know.

[JonM]

I just finished the first Mistborn trilogy. Fantastic series! I can't wait to eventually get to the second trilogy. I have both Warbreaker and The Way of Kings ready to go now. I'm thinking I'll probably start with Warbreaker simply because it's a standalone story and I prefer to read through series novels all at once. We'll see. It seems that there are many conflicting suggested reading orders -- chronological, date of publication, various fan suggestions, and a different order proposed by Brandon Sanderson himself. It is possible that after Warbreaker, I may even delve right into The Alloy of Law just to wrap up the Mistborn series (at least until book 7 is eventually released). So many possibilities.

[Ironnerd]

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Two Towers
I took a trip to Michigan, about 12 hours each way, so I took along the Two Towers audio book. I did not enjoy reading The Fellowship of the Ring in book form, so I thought maybe, if I were trapped in a car for an extended period of time, the audio book would be better.

24 hours later, the book is still not finished and I need to ask what the hell do people see in J.R.R. Tolkien?

I will say I enjoyed The Hobbit. But Lord of the Rings is cool story poorly told. It seems like the actual story takes place between world building and bad poetry (that is also world building). I stopped at a rest area, and while walking the dog, looked through the fence at the woods beyond and thought...

Thadomere, son of Radomere who was ruler of the west and known to be wise and just, looked down to the bottom of the shallow glade to the cool dark tangle of stunted birch and hemlock and elm, and other trees not know in his land. Within the tangle of vine and branch and root he saw no movement from either wind, not bird, nor animal for this wood, which Thadomere recalled then was know to the people of Eros Daneth as Gur Dariem; the really thick woods, and also to the people of the south as Ran Diolle; the still wood, and the Hunters of Hammeth as Brinn Dannogh; the wasted wood. There were other names for this place. Lost names not spoken since before horses were known to the Riders of Rohan and before the birth even of Luthien, father of Earandil, father of Elrond. For neither the strongest gale nor brightest light of the noonday sun could penetrate its canopy of broad leaves and entangles branches. So thick was Gur Dariem, that even at it's thinnest place, no animal could find it way among the grabbing roots and clawing branches save for the R'goyim V'eaq which was by the time of Luthien know to the elves only as a nearly forgotten song.

[Insert tedious song here]

"Let's go around it," said Thadomere.

It's a nice story, and really nice movies, but, DUDE! I'm am shocked that at 2/3 the way through this story we still don't know the color (and meaning) of Samwise's poop.

Screw it, I'm going back to Larry Niven, at least Larry understands "Show, don't tell", and the protagonist always gets laid in his books.

[vijil]

Hah

Fair.

When it was written, it was groundbreaking.

The difference with modern fantasy is that it's far better written, but (generally, not always) nowhere near on the same level of originality and detail when it comes to worldbuilding. Tolkien designed entire languages after all. Functional, speakable languages.

And, to be fair, most fiction was crap back then. "Brave New World" (arguably more prophetic than 1984) was all about the ideas, but the writing was piss poor. I suppose the effort required to get published and so on back then was significantly more about who you knew and how much you could spend, whereas now anyone can throw something up on Amazon, meaning the pool publishers draw from is so much greater.

[Ironnerd]

I will agree with LotR being groundbreaking when released. And there was a lot of terrible writing that has since become "Classic must-reads".

I was REALLY disappointing with Sherlock Holmes. It genuinely sucks (although the BBC programme with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman is quite good).

The Barsoom novels are "okay" on a good day ... he does spend quite a bit of time driving home the idea that Deja Thoris is freaking HOT (and normally naked).

Narnia was a blast when I was a kid, and my kids liked it, but it's just not "there" for me anymore.

On the other hand, H.G. Welles and Verne (older works) are still pretty cool.

[Grendel]

The Lord of the Rings ("the Fellowship of the Ring", "the Two Towers" and "the Return of the King") audio books that are the most enjoyable and easiest to follow are the dramatic versions created by the BBC for their radio series in the early 80s. The way the ensemble did the performance gave color and images to the stories and the actors were very consistent in accent, tone and pronunciations. I think part of the problem now is that Tolkien stories have been shared and told in so many formats with adaption and changes that when you hear the original unabridged versions it gets confusing because of the differences between what you remember and what you are hearing. Thankfully I read all of Tolkien's works in middle school before I was exposed to any of the cartoons, audio adaptions and movies. So I was influenced by what the author actually wrote vs. what popular culture has done with them so I have a harder time listening to the adaptions, cartoons and movies then I do with the books.

I do agree that sometimes I want [wanted] to tell Tolkien to get on with it but you have to remember the time this was written and that poetry or poetic prose was considered high art in writing. One of the reasons I struggle with Dickens; he took a whole chapter to describe the face of the "criminal" in "Great Expectations".

Personally I love the depth of the background and inner thoughts Tolkien weaves into his epics and I occasionally reread most of his writings. The one exception is "the Silmarillion", I have never been able to wade my way through this book and would not recommend it to anyone who wasn't doing a biography or some type of paper on Tolkien. It makes my head hurt.

[vijil]

Ironnerd inspired me to read some Larry Niven, so I just got done with Bowl Of Heaven, which is about alien megastructures and stuff. It was pretty good I suppose. I like the old school "think big" approach to scifi. Generic space combats with a focus on the (directly relevant early 21C) social issues has become rapidly boring for me. Anyway it was ok but don't think I'll continue the series. All the mystery is gone after the first novel, and alien megastructure novels are very much about the mystery. Arther C Clarke and especially Greg Bear were better at this stuff. As a society we're becoming rapidly more introspective and less optimistic these days, so it's a nice break from that at any rate.

Just starting the Lost Fleet series. It's kinda cool with the realistic engagement distances and weapons and relativistic problems and lightspeed-data lag issues. It counters all that realism with generic naval ship layout and onboard gravity and inertia dampers, which... I dunno. Not sure what I think of it. I suppose it means the author can more authentically apply their own military experience on board ships, which makes some sense. Yeah, I'm ok with that. The bad guys are generic capitalist/fascists. They don't seem that compelling tbh, but maybe that'll improve. I feel like the corporate badguy trope has been done absolutely to death. Anyway on balance I'm enjoying it, especially from a military organisation angle.

At one point I started writing outlines for a military sci fi whereby all the crew were uploaded rather than physically onboard. The idea being that it gets around any gravity/crew numbers issues, lets me slow down or speed up time subjective to the crew (have a million crew, who cares, though that may constrain the ability to slow time), sorts out the long travel time issue (just hit pause...) and introduces all kinds of interesting philosophical questions.

[Ironnerd]

"A World out of Time" is a really good (and short) read.

I do like the uploaded consciousness idea. Pondered it myself, but it's hard to build drama when the crew has a back-up file.

[vijil]

Ironnerd fair point about drama. There are other ways - the odds don't have to be life and death for the main characters, even if they are for others. Of course you could play with systems being hacked and people being deleted mysteriously, and the idea that as the sum of your experiences, the older your backup and the more you've gone through since being backed up, the more truly you die when you die. Lots to ponder.

[Axel]

[...]Lord of the Rings is cool story poorly told. It seems like the actual story takes place between world building and bad poetry[...]

My first reaction was to get all nerd-fended, but my second was to admit that you have a fair point, with the caveat that it just wasn't written for you, or a popular audience at all.

Stephen King has written (I will butcher the paraphase badly but here goes) that the difference between writers of popular fiction and writers of high academic fiction is that the former asks "what will this work mean to my audience?" while the latter asks, "what will this work mean to me?" I think it's fair to say that Tolkien wrote this world primarily for his own satisfaction rather than trying to craft something for mass appeal. And there's nothing wrong with that, but to your point, the films have mass appeal among moviegoers that the books will never match among novel readers.

I love and am fascinated by the world he created but even I admit I didn't get through Return of the King, and reading The Silmarillion through? Ain't happening, even though I enjoyed reading Ainulindalë and thumbing through other bits.

You mentioned The Hobbit, and I totally agree. It was intended for a juvenile audience and as a result the readability is much more enjoyable

[Ironnerd]

My first reaction was to get all nerd-fended, but my second was to admit that you have a fair point, with the caveat that it just wasn't written for you, or a popular audience at all.

Thank-you, Sir. I do get the feeling that it was written for scholars... and there is no reality where I can be considered to be "popular".

I love and am fascinated by the world he created but even I admit I didn't get through Return of the King, and reading The Silmarillion through? Ain't happening, even though I enjoyed reading Ainulindalë and thumbing through other bits.

You mentioned The Hobbit, and I totally agree. It was intended for a juvenile audience and as a result the readability is much more enjoyable

I also like the world of Middle Earth, and often find myself watching YouTube vids about the history of the world and some of the theories (like who/what the hell is Tom Bombadill).

What I would love to find is something between Hobbit (or Narnia) and Lord of the Rings.

Look at how Frank Herbert built his world in Dune. It does not take a intellectual leap to figure out how things work in the Landsraad, and we don't need a deep history of CHOAM or theBene Gesserit to know they are basically jerks. We don't even know how the Fremen came to live on Arrakis. And we really don't need a long history of why the Hakonnen hate the Atreides.

Herbert, Niven, and Pournelle leave out a lot of the deep data and let the reader roll it over in their minds. Tolkien left nothing to chance (or imagination).

[JonM]

If you’re looking for a fantasy setting that has both a solid backstory and is easy to read, I really enjoyed the Mistborn trilogy. Sanderson is a modern fantasy writer who can weave together an enjoyable story and make the world it takes place in seem believable.

[jincay]

David Gemmell for the win! Is Drenai saga are really good, but I think his best book may be 'Stormrider' the last in the Rigante series.

I would thoroughly recommend him to anyone.

A close second would be Pratchett, his collaboration with Neil Gaimen, 'Good Omens' may just be the funniest book ever written

[Ironnerd]

Well... Pratchett and Gaimen would be hard to beat. I was curious about 'Good Omens'. May have to steal it form the wife.

[BLachance75]

More tragedy, accidents, death with some misery mixed in.

I just finished In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides. It was an interesting read but slow at times. Once they started on the actual story of the voyage it went good. I thought some of the backstory that they went into wasn’t necessary. If you are into early exploration or history it is worth checking out.

[Grendel]

Just finished "Resistance: The Gathering Storm" by William C. Dietz this is based on the video game "Resistance". I like Dietz as a Sci-Fi writer and this story had me enough intrigued in the the character Nathan Hale that I will give another story a shot. Definitely not high browed Sci-Fi but good escapism.

Now I am on to "Mech 1: The Parent" by B. V. Larson not far enough in to tell if I like it or not. I am hit and miss with B. V. Larson's books so we'll see.

I am also reading "Weight Lifting Is a Waste of Time: So Is Cardio, and There's a Better Way to Have the Body You Want" by Dr. John Jaquish and Henry Alkire. I am looking for a better way to stay in shape that actually works for someone well into middle age with a lot of injuries. My Orthopedist is really on me about joint damage (ankle, knee, hip and shoulder) but I need to do something because it is hard to keep the weight off without a good exercise regime. My mind and body wants to start running again but I know I'll just end up making things worse so looking at input on other ways (mindset) to get where I need to be without causing more damage.

[BretG]

Just finished "As On A Darkling Plain" by Ben Bova. Some interesting concepts, and I didn't understand the shifting narratives until I found out it was two short stories grafted together.
I like good cover art and found no connection between it and the story. The title also could not be matched to any part of the book either.
Overall, it's not recommended by me.

[Grendel]

Mis-matched art to story was pretty common with books from Ben Bova's time (when he was really cranking them out) and was the primary way to get people to pickup the book and buy it. I like a lot of Ben Bova's work and many of his titles are from very obscure references to something said in the book. Might have to see if there is a .pdf of that book and search for the phrase. That is the 4th book in his Watchman series, did you read the other 3?

[BretG]

No, didn't read any other of this series. I received 40lbs of sci-fi and fantasy paperback books from one my kids for Christmas and I've read about 5lbs worth so far. I really liked Gordon Dickson's Wolf and Iron.

[vijil]

I once did some cover art for a book. I read the book first

It's actually a good read, considering it's a first work from a complete unknown. I enjoyed it, more for the setting than anything. Pre-WW1 scifi.

Art is directly based on a scene in the book. The art is not very good, actually, but it did the trick and got me paid. Man, I could do so much better now...

Here it is:

https://www.amazon.com/Cold-War-Worl.../dp/B008RBGZ7G



Speaking of small time writers, this is probably my favourite sci fi short/novella: https://www.amazon.com/Ash-Air-Domin...al-text&sr=1-1

[Grendel]

Thanks, always looking for new authors went ahead and added both to my library!

[JonM]

I’ve completed Warbreaker and I’m now on to The Way of Kings. So far as the Cosmere books go, Warbreaker was the slowest to get started. Although, it did pick up about half way through. Sanderson also left the story wide open for a sequel. Should he write another book in this world, I would expect it to pick up much faster now that he has already established the rules and backstory for this world. The premise of power being dependent on breath and color is certainly a unique idea though. I think it took me a little longer to get invested in the concept than other ideas he’s had, but once I got used to the rules he set up, the story flowed better than it did at first. Overall, it was a good read, though not on the same level as books like Mistborn.

[Diomedes]

OH you're in for a treat. Just remember to be patient with The Way of Kings. You're gonna get plopped down on Roshar and have no idea what's going on. Don't be in a rush to have every question answered, and make sure you pay attention to the epigraphs. And be on the lookout for familiar names and faces.

[Diomedes]

Checking back in, you catch any friends from Scadrial in The Way of Kings? Any familiar-sounding (if not familiarly-spelled) names? Hint hint. Also, as you get into Stormlight Archive, be on the lookout for allomancy and feruchemy.

[JonM]

Yep. I mentioned them in my more recent post, but I believe they would be Wit and Felt. I may have missed some though.

[foughtwolf]

Just finished The Salvage Team penned my a person with a name I cannot hope to pronounce. I don’t get much reading time anymore so I do audible and Nathan Fillian did a superb job narrating other than a few times he gets a bit too whispery.

Now a few hours into Player of Games by Ian M Banks after a friend of mine suggested the Culture series. It’s an oddity but quite entertaining.

[Ironnerd]

Northrop Flying Wings

[BLachance75]

I just finished Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynne. If you’re into western history it’s worth a read.