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What are you Reading Now?

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
Ditto. I tried Mistborn but lost interest after a while.

To the point about classics... just because something is old doesn't make it good, but the old ones that persist generally have something to offer that is special. Mary Stewart's Merlin series (The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment) are one of my favorites, richly written. Even though the story is ultimately predictable, Stewart made it unique. Her Merlin is the only one that I've read that felt "real" to me, and I've read a few, including Lawhead's series.

Glad I'm not the only one re: Sanderson.

I agree regarding Stewart as well. She did great work.
 

Lovi

Scribe
To Mythpoet, I didn't mean that any kind of fantasy is bad, because that is a subjective opinion. I just meant that I don't like to read the types of books that I don't like to read. Sure it's a tautology, but at least it's logically flawless.

I haven't read that much fantasy or anything else because mostly I lose interest in a book very quickly, and it takes a more original setting and hook to interest me enough to continue. The types of books I don't like are what I heard Brandon Sanderson call generic, and I obviously latched on to that because I didn't have any better knowledge and I think he's awesome. He said that there are people who like the generic type of fantasy that Terry Brooks for example writes, I haven't read any of his books mainly for that reason, and people who twist the tropes in interesting ways. I have an idea of what a generic story is so I prefer the trope-twisted ones because, like they're called, they're different. There will still remain an audience for the generic fantasy books, which means they're not bad.

The bottom line is that I just want to be entertained and the unexpected does that more effectively for me. The Discworld novels sound very interesting, so I'll definitely give them a try. I researched them a bit some months ago about the reading order and such, but didn't proceed to getting any because of this issue. Now I know better, thank you.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
If you're not that familiar with the genre at that time, what you're talking about as more generic is likely to be what you know. That was selling best at the time I think. But there was a lot of cool stuff. Mythopoet mentioned some good ones. And I'll throw out Emma Bull, Steven Brust, Angela Carter, K.W. Jeter, and Robert Holdstock as well.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
Yeah. Everyone has been there at one time, though, where their experience of the genre just isn't that broad. The 80s had all kinds of interesting, non-traditional fantasy. But unless you're really up on the genre you won't know about most of it. And bless you for mentioning Blaylock.

There's nothing wrong with being ignorant of a subject. But there is something wrong with making assumptions based on ignorance. When I discovered, some years ago, how ignorant of the fantasy genre as a whole I was I set out to correct that. I knew that if I wanted to be a good fantasy writer I should be more knowledgeable about what fantasy is and what writers before me have done. This is something I think every writer should do.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
If you're not that familiar with the genre at that time, what you're talking about as more generic is likely to be what you know. That was selling best at the time I think. But there was a lot of cool stuff. Mythopoet mentioned some good ones. And I'll throw out Emma Bull, Steven Brust, Angela Carter, K.W. Jeter, and Robert Holdstock as well.

You know, every time you start naming authors I end up hearing about someone new that I need to look up and add to my list. At this rate, I'll never be done. ;)
 

Jabrosky

Banned
The Assassins of Isis by Paul Doherty. It's not bad, I guess, but I've never been all that interested in mystery. I guess the convolutions in the plot are hard for me to follow.
 

Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
Just finished Gone Girl, our June Reading Group book. So now I have nothing to read for June. Well, I do have plenty to read, but no book in particular I'm thinking about or focused on starting or finishing.

I should finish The Name of the Wind, so that's probably what I'll do.
 

Ruby

Auror
I'm enjoying rereading 101 Dalmatians and trying to get into Gone Girl for about the fourth time. I noticed there's a discussion about Terry Pratchett on this thread. I've heard that he's very entertaining so I spent about three weeks trying to read Sourcery but I just had to give up as I couldn't make sense of it. I don't know why, as I enjoy reading humorous writing.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I noticed there's a discussion about Terry Pratchett on this thread. I've heard that he's very entertaining so I spent about three weeks trying to read Sourcery but I just had to give up as I couldn't make sense of it. I don't know why, as I enjoy reading humorous writing.

Sourcery is definitely not where I would recommend beginning his books. It's certainly not up there with the books I consider the better ones, though it's all right if you're already into the world. The thing with the Discworld books is that they're all technically stand alone books, so a lot of people will say you can just pick up any of them to get started. I disagree. There are several "series within the series" which focus on different groups of characters and have a more or less chronological order.

Rincewind is the main character that starts off the entire Discworld series. And his books go The Color of Magic > The Light Fantastic > Sourcery > Eric > Interesting Times > The Last Continent > The Last Hero.

Other storylines include:

Death and Susan Sto Helit: Mort > Reaper Man > Soul Music > Hogfather > Thief of Time

The Witches of Lancre: Equal Rites > Wyrd Sisters > Witches Abroad > Lords and Ladies > Masquerade > Carpe Jugulum

Ankh-Morpork City Watch: Guards! Guards! > Men at Arms > Feet of Clay > Jingo > The Fifth Elephant > Nightwatch > Thud!

Moist Von Lipwig: Going Postal > Making Money > Raising Steam

The Wizards of Unseen University feature in a lot of the books as a humorous b plot. And there are some that don't fit into any particular storyline as well and there's a great deal of cross over of characters throughout the whole series.

I'd recommend starting at the beginning of one of the "series within the series".
 

Ruby

Auror
Sourcery is definitely not where I would recommend beginning his books. It's certainly not up there with the books I consider the better ones, though it's all right if you're already into the world. The thing with the Discworld books is that they're all technically stand alone books, so a lot of people will say you can just pick up any of them to get started. I disagree. There are several "series within the series" which focus on different groups of characters and have a more or less chronological order.

Rincewind is the main character that starts off the entire Discworld series. And his books go The Color of Magic > The Light Fantastic > Sourcery > Eric > Interesting Times > The Last Continent > The Last Hero.

Other storylines include:

Death and Susan Sto Helit: Mort > Reaper Man > Soul Music > Hogfather > Thief of Time

The Witches of Lancre: Equal Rites > Wyrd Sisters > Witches Abroad > Lords and Ladies > Masquerade > Carpe Jugulum

Ankh-Morpork City Watch: Guards! Guards! > Men at Arms > Feet of Clay > Jingo > The Fifth Elephant > Nightwatch > Thud!

Moist Von Lipwig: Going Postal > Making Money > Raising Steam

The Wizards of Unseen University feature in a lot of the books as a humorous b plot. And there are some that don't fit into any particular storyline as well and there's a great deal of cross over of characters throughout the whole series.

I'd recommend starting at the beginning of one of the "series within the series".

Hi Mythopoet,

Thank you so much for posting this.

I do have a few of his books and recently watched the cartoon Wyrd Sisters which I thoroughly enjoyed. Maybe I shall have to start at the beginning. :eek:
 

Mythopoet

Auror
You can start the Witches of Lancre line with Wyrd Sisters, in fact, that may be better. Equal Rites is almost more of a prequel to the Witches in that only one of the three that star in the later books is prominent in Equal Rites. And the Witches just aren't as good without the interplay of all three.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
@Philip Overby: some time ago I made a list of Books To Read. Put it in a Google spreadsheet so I could access it from anywhere. Whenever I've "run out of books to read" I just pull up the list and grab something. My two latest from the list are Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, and The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington.

I don't always finish the ones I start. Not all of them catch my eye. But I note this in my spreadsheet and move on to another.

Not only do I find this helps me in deciding what to read next, it also reminds me of what I have read. It's also a list I've shared with my (grown) children in case they're looking for something, and it serves as a gift list if any family members are stuck for a birthday present idea.

I think having a life-long list of books I have read or intend to read is a Rather Good Idea.
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
I just finished Jim Butcher's Skin Game, the latest book in the Dresden Files series.

On the whole, I enjoyed it.
It's pretty much what you would expect from a book in the series: various supremely powerful enemies beat the crap out of Harry, but in the end he somehow manages to pull through anyway. In the end, that doesn't really matter. Sure, it's a nice, entertaining, action. There's once scene that got me quite emotional (which rarely happens), and there's plenty of excitement and cliffhangers and stupid puns, just like it's supposed to be.
So, that's that part; no surprises, entertaining, easily read.

I've read all of the books in the series so far and the thing that I really like about them is how the overarching story keeps moving forward. Characters change and grow, the world grows, there are things happening. This is true for this book as well. Characters from previous books are showing up, both on the good side and on the evil side. Some characters change in new and interesting ways and there's a definite cause for concern regarding some of them.

Summary: Yes, it's just like all the other ones in the series. No, if you've read all of the other ones, there's no reason to skip this one.
 

Destera

Acolyte
I just finished The Infernal Devices (Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince, Clockwork Princess) by Cassandra Clare.

I enjoyed it :) Even if it was boring by time to time, but then it was gripping, and exciting, and sad... I liked it :)
I have to say I cryied at the end...
It was, to tell the truth, my second book, and the first over 200 pages, I read in english.

Now I'm going to read Eragon again. I read it quite often in german befor, now I want to see how it is in english, so in original form...
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
Now I'm going to read Eragon again. I read it quite often in german befor, now I want to see how it is in english, so in original form...

I don't know how it is in German, but the English version may well be one of the worst fantasy novels I've ever read (or started to read; I spared myself further reading after only getting a little way into it).
 

Sir Kieran

Scribe
I don't know how it is in German, but the English version may well be one of the worst fantasy novels I've ever read (or started to read; I spared myself further reading after only getting a little way into it).

As a kid, I loved Eragon. I had no problem with the writing, and I quite liked Brisingr, despite the many complaints about that book. However, the fourth and final book was way too strained for me. Perhaps I had realized that Paolini was not such a great writer; I loved his story, though. It would have been nice for the last 50-75 pages of Inheritance to have cut down to 10.



I just finished reading A Dance with Dragons (my first time reading A Song of Ice and Fire); and then I finished Gone, Baby, Gone and Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane in a week. I'm not normally one for detective/criminal novels, but Lehane absolutely blew me away.

I am currently working on The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and I have started Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb; both are excellent so far!
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
@Sir Kieran:

Lehane is quite good. You'd probably enjoy a lot of his work. There are some other good detective writers, most notably Michael Connelly and Robert Crais.

I like Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm as well.

I don't remember exactly what it was about Eragon, but I remember I really had to force myself through the first chapter because I thought the writing was so bad. People complain about Meyer, but I thought Paolini made Meyer look like Dostoevsky. But it could just be my own tastes as much as anything. Clearly, Paolini captivated a lot of readers, and that's not a small thing.
 
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