Lightray Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 The Wheel of Time - 1st Book I have never seen characters written so winy before. It set my teeth on edge. I couldn't finish it. Sorry, just my opinion. You've never seen characters so whiny before because you haven't read the successive books. Count yourself lucky to have escaped that soul-deadening mistake, and go read something good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... You've never seen characters so whiny before because you haven't read the successive books. Count yourself lucky to have escaped that soul-deadening mistake, and go read something good. Sounds like I'll enjoy them about as much as I enjoyed Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever then. Which is to say not at all. Thanks for the heads up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... What are the plots for the Wheel of Time? I have seen them mentioned but could never bring myself to pick one up. I think part of it is Jordan used to write historical soap operas, and I think the other is I rarely pick up anything that I can't get a good reccomendation for. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narratio Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Plot lines in the Wheel of Time books? Difficult to say. But I think it can be summarised as The prohesied King, found among peasents, returns. With friends he beats the bad guys, restores peace and order and then dies. I've read the first 9, mostly as an act of will power, I would not let him beat me. It's safe to say that 2 inch thick book advances the plot by about 3 paragraphs in any normal book. Just re-read Starship Troopers for the 24th time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Owl Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... What are the plots for the Wheel of Time? In his childhood, Jordan was severely bullied by Ents, and he hates all trees. He writes 1000 page screeds of nothingness. Just when you think he has a destination in mind.... nope. Buy another book! Sorry, I'm still cranky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightray Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 Please rate it... What are the plots for the Wheel of Time? The theme is that time is circular: the actions of the great figures of the past will be repeated again by their current incarnations/analogs. The plot? Well, truth be told it hasn't moved that far along. In the past, a King Arthur-like figure known as The Dragon defeated a "Dark Lord" type, at great cost and essentially destroying civilization. Now, the same "Dark Lord" is growing in power again, Rand al'Thor is The Dragon Reborn, and is doomed to repeat the whole process, apparently. His friends and companions have their own destinies to fulfill -- and there're dozens of them, so there are a small Mongol horde of plotlines. However, those plotlines never progress. Jordan keeps adding new plotlines, undoing previous plotlines, and slowing down the plots' progression to such an extent that the book where I quite essentially took up the entire, bloated book to go over one day. FWIW, with the RPG out, there may be some websites with good summaries if you're interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Thanks guys. Sounds like the first half of Intensity. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewing Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Thanks guys. Sounds like the first half of Intensity. CES I was told Intensity was AWESOME, but I couldn't get past... I don't know, maybe 1/4 of it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Intensity is the slowest Dean Koontz book I have ever read(and I have read a lot of them). I think you can throw the first half of the book away without hurting it. If you sit down to read it again, G, read the initial crime, then skim until the heroine wrecks her car to stop the RV. That's when it picks up and really goes along, I think. On the other hand, the movie condenses the material with only small changes if you can find it. John McGinley plays the villain. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ura-Maru Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The Wheel Of Time: If Dune and Neo Genesis Evangelon had an illegitimate child, you’d get something very close to The Wheel of Time. Except with every fantasy theme ever written crammed in, instead of the giant robot ones. The Quesach Haderach is a sort of samurai/Akira/Jesus guy. And the Fremen know kung fu. And there’s spanking. Actually, it’s not nearly as bad as some people are saying. He’s needed tighter editing from day one (having your wife as your editor is probably not a good idea) but the first few, (maybe even the first several) were actually quite good. Sure, the female characters were annoying, but if you avoid fantasy and SF with annoying or badly written female characters, that leaves you with a very small number to choose from. The whole idea is a bit pompous, but most of the earlier ‘fantasy bits’ were actually pretty well done. (The Mat/Dagger thing was much better than the Ring/Frodo inspiration, as was that shinaren traitor guy/Boromir thing. And the whole sword in the stone bit was pretty clever) It’s only around book seven, where he started blatantly spinning his wheels, did so many fantasy fans decide he was irredeemably evil. The books on CD (I drive a LOT, unfortunately) are VERY well done, though. I’ve been going through them the last few months, and they reminded me why I liked the series. To begin with, anyway. Now if only they’d come out with a CD version of A Game Of Thrones . . . Now as for what I’ve been reading . . . actually, I’m stuck in the middle of the Sand Wars series, a crap ‘military’ SF series from the 80's. I refuse to stop in the middle of a book I actually paid for, though, so I’m going to have to schlogg through it eventually. The last SF I actually finished was Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars series. Started off very good, but slowed down a lot once the ‘cynical bastard’ character was killed off. This kind of political/worldbuilding story NEEDS a cynical bastard to keep it grounded in the real world, or it turns into Star Trek. Which is pretty much what it did, about halfway through book 2. Well, not that bad. But if you’re going to reel me in with hard SF, don’t go boosting the tech level and political lecture level to Roddenberyesqe proportions. We need a term for the point at which a good SF story turns into an eye-gougingly preachy sociopolitical lecture. The ‘Heinlen Barrier’ perhaps? And has anyone, on any space mission, ever, actually obeyed the ‘no sex with the rest of the crew!’ part of the rulebook? ‘We realize that your trapped on a small spacecraft in close proximity for years, in constant risk of imminent death, and that you’re almost certainly never coming home, even if you succeed. But you’ll all keep your hands to yourselves, right?’ On the good side, Robinson manage to squeeze in at least one good slap at pretty much every major political or religious philosophy out there. It’s good to see non-partisan sniping once in a while. And it does have a runner up for the ‘character going from a bland cipher to incredibly cool in one chapter’ award. Fantasy: Banewreaker, by Jacqueline Carrey. A nifty concept, (typical fantasy from the Dark Lord’s lieutenant’s point of view) but she tries a bit too hard to cram in extra fantasy tropes. The big problem, though is virtually none of the characters are either interesting or likable. (The one exception, a very minor ‘bad guy’ who ends up hanging around with the ‘party of heroes’ for a little while, gets almost no screen time, and then a dragon falls on him) Which is very odd, because, apart from being erotic, likeable, interesting, and well written characters was the big strength of the ‘Kushil’ books. Though I guess technically, the last Fantasy I read was the latest Berserk collection (up to #7) That series is incredible. Made a very weird sandwich with the Samurai Assassin and Here Is Greenwood collections, though, which came out on the same day . . . -- If you thought WOT was whiny, I’d suggest avoiding anything by Robin Hobb . . . The Fitz books were great, (except for the utter cheat at the end of the sixth one) but people do whine. Hard to believe the same person wrote those awful Liveship books, though . . . When you’re actually rooting for the rapist pirate guy to kill all the heroes and take their ship, something’s gone horribly, horribly wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewing Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Intensity is the slowest Dean Koontz book I have ever read(and I have read a lot of them). I think you can throw the first half of the book away without hurting it. If you sit down to read it again, G, read the initial crime, then skim until the heroine wrecks her car to stop the RV. That's when it picks up and really goes along, I think. On the other hand, the movie condenses the material with only small changes if you can find it. John McGinley plays the villain. CES I got to where she was hiding in the back of the RV with a knife, but too scared to move, iirc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Though I guess technically' date=' the last Fantasy I read was the latest [b']Berserk[/b] collection (up to #7) That series is incredible. Made a very weird sandwich with the Samurai Assassin and Here Is Greenwood collections, though, which came out on the same day . . . I am undable to comprehend the liking people have for BERSERK. Of course, I adore HELLSING, so I also realize I'm not one to judge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I got to where she was hiding in the back of the RV with a knife' date=' but too scared to move, iirc...[/quote'] There's a killing at a gas station I think, then they get to his house. That's when the book all of sudden takes off with the twists and turns. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magmarock Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Just finished reading The Da Vinci Code. Again. For the second time. Ok, It's a quick read. Should be a movie within a year or two, me thinks. Mags Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewing Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I am undable to comprehend the liking people have for BERSERK. Of course, I adore HELLSING, so I also realize I'm not one to judge. I didn't watch much, was interested, but... Now HERE IS GREENWOOD was fun. kind of like the old "Kimagura Orange Road." except that I hated the OVA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northstar Posted June 7, 2005 Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The novel adaptation of the Fantastic Four movie. (Yes, I couldn't wait...) It was not bad, written by Peter David, whom I mentioned elsewhere this evening in reference to his work on X-Factor. I thought that I would hate the new Dr. Doom... actually, he is portrayed pretty well -if- you can get over that it isn't the classic Dr. D we all grew up with. It's Johnny & Reed who bother me. Johnny is depicted to be way too much of a pain in the ass, & Reed is portrayed as a science nerd with poor self esteem. (Instead of being the confident leader/father figure he is/was in the classic series.) I believe this is how they are depicted in the Ultimate series, whence from the new Doom is also drawn, but I've not read it. My impression though is that the movie will still be pretty damn cool. The story makes a lot more logical sense minus the Stan Lee Silly Science, & do I understand why they went with this rendition. Hurry, June, go by! July almost here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted June 7, 2005 Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Fool's Fate by Robin Hobb wherein the second trilogy of the Farseers is ended. This also ties up all the loose ends from the first trilogy as well. It was better than the previous two books. You have to read those to read this one and really you need to have read the original trilogy as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightray Posted June 7, 2005 Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 Should be a movie within a year or two' date=' me thinks.[/quote'] It's being filmed *now*, with Tom Hanks as the lead. They apparently weren't allowed to film in Wesminster (IIRC), though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st barbara Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Okay. I have just finished a novel "adaption" taken from the "Charmed" tv series. "Kiss Of Darkness" by Branden Alexander. I din't have high expectations of this so it was O K. I am about to start "The Sleeper In The Sands" by Tom Holland. This looks to be very "Pulpish" (as I mentioned on another thread). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guzalot Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I just finished Pandoras Star by Peter F Hamilton last night. A brief synopsis here: On the first manned mission to Mars, pilot Wilson Klime irks the mission commander by overriding the automatic computer programs and taking over the controls to land the spacecraft on his own. Upon touchdown, Klime smirks to himself, "And I made it happen, not some goddamn machine." But even more irksome is that amidst all the NASA pomp and circumstance of the landing ceremony, the crew learns that they aren't the first humans on the planet after all. In fact, they're being laughed at by a cocky long-haired dude in a cheap space suit that looks like something out of a 1950s movie. Nigel Sheldon and his partner Ozzie Isaac have invented a wormhole technology that allows instant planet jumping, thereby taking all the drudgery and expense, if not the romance, out of space travel. In one stroke, they've eliminated the need for the NASA bureaucracy. And their invention sets them up to head a family-based oligarchy that will rule commercial and political transactions for years to come and that, thanks to life-extension technologies that provide virtual immortality, they will also be able to head for aeons to come. By the 24th century, humanity has expanded extensively through the cosmos, making planet jumps through a trainlike system that passes through one wormhole to the next. Though a few alien species are encountered, notably the elflike and enigmatic Silfen, for the most part humanity continues to expand into the cosmos unhindered. But then astronomer Dudley Bose (whose first name reflects his personality) witnesses a seemingly impossible envelopment of the Dyson Alpha planetary system by some kind of artificial shielding system, an event repeated at the sister star Dyson Beta. This anomaly, requiring a civilization of immense technical advancement far beyond human capability to power up such a containment, not only launches Bose out of a mediocre academic career, but launches an interstellar spaceship piloted by none other than Wilson Klime to investigate. In wanting to know whether this unknown civilization represents threat or opportunity, the mission unwittingly unleashes, as the title suggests, a catastrophic series of events. The only question remaining is, who is responsible? Overall it was an excellent read. Because humans use wormholes to go from planet to planet (imagine taking a train and passing through a gateway to arrive instantly on another world) an interstellar navy was never developed. All of the aliens so far encountered are non-hostile so self-defense isn't seen as an issue. What happens when a hostile species suddenly appears? I highly recommend this book but be warned; it is part one of two so it ends on a cliff-hanger. That's not so bad, but there is no indication anywhere on the book that it is 2-part series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Finished the Da Vinci code last week and this week finished Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. Very funny. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karmakaze Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold. This is another one in the Chalion series. I rather liked it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted August 25, 2005 Report Share Posted August 25, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Just finished War of Honor by David Weber. The book shows how politics can affect the road to war. Very well done indeed. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoneDaddy Posted August 25, 2005 Report Share Posted August 25, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I think someone decided that it would make a great book by a kid for kids. That' date=' and kids of the right age group apparently ate it right up. I mean, come on, if you're 13-15 do you really care what someone who is 37 (like me), might say about the book?[/quote'] That and it really isn't bad as fantasy goes. It's twice the book Sword of Shannara is (damning with faint praise? maybe) and therefor is eminently publishable. The protagonist is likable, the antagonists hatable, the magic enviable - what more could you want? It's at least as good as the Hercules: the Legendary Journeys TV show was. Which means that even if it stinks, it good enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoneDaddy Posted August 25, 2005 Report Share Posted August 25, 2005 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The White Mountains, by John Christopher, 1967 (an old book, sure, but new to me). It clearly is, but does not claim to be, a sequel of sorts to War of the Worlds. The long feared reinvasion occurred, followed by an occupation. Neat book about three boys coming of age by traveling to join the resistance. If it had a sequel I would read it (and maybe it does...) The target age is probably 10-15 or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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