Susano Posted July 17, 2008 Report Share Posted July 17, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I challenge you to NOT make character sheets upon reading this! Accepted! Wait.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clonus Posted July 17, 2008 Report Share Posted July 17, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The bad: The character voice wandered a little bit. Usually it was pretty clear who you were reading, but every now and then Fatale and Doctor Impossible start to sound a bit too much like each other. That may have been intentional on some level, but it can be a bit jarring to realize that the "voice" that sounded like Fatale, was actually the Doc talking to Baron Ether. I was disappointed that Fatale never accomplished anything. She could have at least started to figure out what was going on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted July 17, 2008 Report Share Posted July 17, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I was disappointed that Fatale never accomplished anything. She could have at least started to figure out what was going on. Yup. And then she pointlessly brutalizes a prisoner. I do like complex characters and satire, but "The good guys are no better" isn't really the message I want from my Super-tainment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nexus Posted July 18, 2008 Report Share Posted July 18, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I'll be starting this pretty soon. Good to hear some positive from board members. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
proditor Posted July 18, 2008 Report Share Posted July 18, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Yup. And then she pointlessly brutalizes a prisoner. I do like complex characters and satire' date=' but "The good guys are no better" isn't really the message I want from my Super-tainment.[/quote'] Then never, ever, ever, ever, ever read From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain by Minister Faust. Soon I will be Invincible has respect for it's genre and it's hangups. Doc Brain makes fun of them and makes you feel stupid for liking some of them. In fact, I disliked this book so much, I'm tempted to ruin the ending by giving away the BIG surprise, but nah, I'll spoiler it. After basically making mock of the entire genre and all associated with it, it then lets the bad guy win. It lets him completely and utterly destroy the good guy down to disgracing his name and legacy forever. Seriously, I wanted to find the author and punch him after finishing the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted July 18, 2008 Report Share Posted July 18, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... It was a remarkable piece of storytelling. And yet I couldn't touch Earth and feel no desire to read Kiln People or --that other one. Should I give Brin's other work a chance? I've only read his other Uplift stuff, which was also good, but not as much. For really epic scale SF, there's Brin, Vinge, Banks, and to a lesser extent Haldeman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nexus Posted July 18, 2008 Report Share Posted July 18, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Well, I just finished Saving Charlie yet? It covers the events that occurred when Hiro went back in time to try and save Charlie Andrews from being murdered by Sylar. It was a good read; fast and entertaining. The author has a very personal voice and seems to have a good grasp of, and even affection for the characters that really comes across in her style. I was surprised a book where I knew that outcome and that it was tragic could hold my attention so well. I'd rate it quite a bit higher than most the novels based on a tv or film franchise. If you are Heroes fan or even a casual viewer I recommend it. I feel like there were some eastern eggs and connections I was missing particularly near the end when Hiro's powers go a little wonky. I know some viewers disliked the predestination angle in the show and it comes up a great deal in this book so I thought it was worth mentioning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted July 20, 2008 Report Share Posted July 20, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The Spider: City of Doom by Norvell Page. Pulp hero the Spider takes on the City Destroyer who is wrecking the city by using a new acid on the steel inside skyscrapers and on the Brooklyn Bridge, The Faceless One who is running an arson extortion scam, and The Council of Evil, gangsters marked by the Spider who have joined together to get revenge. The only thing wrong with the book in my opinion are the little endpieces with Norvel Paige as a detective. They're okay but I don't really care about them and wished they were moved to their own book somewhere else. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Democracy Posted July 20, 2008 Report Share Posted July 20, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... It was a remarkable piece of storytelling. And yet I couldn't touch Earth and feel no desire to read Kiln People or --that other one. Should I give Brin's other work a chance? One of my favourite books ever was The Practice Effect by David Brin. Not a brilliant piece of story telling but a clever turn around on the way the world works. Obviously The Postman is another good story, don't be put off by the Kevin Costner film. (links are to sample chapters on David Brin's website). Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozimus Posted July 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I liked "Startide Rising" but hated the next Uplift book...seemed hokey to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clonus Posted July 21, 2008 Report Share Posted July 21, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon, the end of her Vatta's War series. Big shock, the Vattas win. Well, the ones of them who are left. For a book with a gigantic space battle climactic to the entire series though, I have to confess I was a little foggy about what was going on except I know they won at the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenrisUlf Posted July 21, 2008 Report Share Posted July 21, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The Spider: City of Doom by Norvell Page. Pulp hero the Spider takes on the City Destroyer who is wrecking the city by using a new acid on the steel inside skyscrapers and on the Brooklyn Bridge, The Faceless One who is running an arson extortion scam, and The Council of Evil, gangsters marked by the Spider who have joined together to get revenge. The only thing wrong with the book in my opinion are the little endpieces with Norvel Paige as a detective. They're okay but I don't really care about them and wished they were moved to their own book somewhere else. CES I've read some of those stories. The Spider was, for my money, the wackiest and most cadaver-filled pulp series ever written. And considering just how many times NYC was depopulated in Spider stories, you have to wonder why anyone would choose to live there after a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
proditor Posted July 21, 2008 Report Share Posted July 21, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Two for one, as I've been reading a lot in the last week. Jhegaala by Stephen Brust It's good. I'm actually still sort of digesting it. There is a lot of the familiar Vlad banter mixed with the hair trigger desire for casual violence that makes Vlad a somehow beloved character. Loiosh is awesome as always. But this is a weird tale on a couple of levels. I'll spoiler so as not to ruin any of the other books for people. It's another of his out of sequence books, as Spellbreaker is still hanging around. It revolves around a trip Vlad takes to the East during the initial days of his exile from Dragaera City. House Jhereg factors in to the background, at first only a little, but in the end a lot more. The story reads well, and on a lot of levels it's like coming home. However thereturn of the familiar cast would be a welcome thing, as Vlad is just enhanced by Morrolon et. al. Still, a solid Vlad tale, and I give it a healthy 4 Jhereg out of 5. Next... Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse by Victor Gischler Hmmm. It's an interesting read. It makes a lot of assumptions about the nature of man, and I'd love to say that they're wrong, but I think I'd be lying unfortunately. The book is over the top, at times funny, at times morbid. It's Post-apocalypse at it's best and worst. I definitely have to give Gischler credit for one very important thing though, and that's finding a way to make the hero sympathetic and identifible. It would be more difficult to get in to the mind of one of the other survivors, but Mortimer provides a very good "every day joe" view of this strange new world. The cameo by Ted Turner must be read to be believed. Imagine that society collapses, and humanity grimly clings to the knife's edge of survival. Slowly over time, we struggle back from the brink, and some of us band together to try and remake society fomr the ashes of our own hatred and anger. What form would it take? Why a Go-Go bar of course. And not just any Go-Go bar, but the one and only Joey Armageddon's Sassy-A-Go-Go. Because nothing unites humanity like a combination strip show, bar, trading post, right? Siddle up to the bar and plunk down your Armageddon dollars to buy some hooch, a gun, a slave, whatever. And if you're a Platinum card holder, well, what's left of the world is your oyster. Just ask our intrepid hero, Mortimer. Formerly an inusrance salesman who waited out the end of the world in a well stocked cabin, we join him 9 years after tha fall as he attempts to rejoin the human race. Joined by Bill, the shootist amd Shiela the stripper, they journey across the world with only their wits and a lot of guns to protect them. I quick read, I think it also earns some credit by staring fairly unflinchingly at some really unsavory aspects of humanity. It is also absolutely going to offend some people. If you suspect that you might be even a little thin skinned, you might want to give this one a pass entirely. I give it 3.5 Armageddon dollars out of 5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted July 21, 2008 Report Share Posted July 21, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I've read some of those stories. The Spider was, for my money, the wackiest and most cadaver-filled pulp series ever written. And considering just how many times NYC was depopulated in Spider stories, you have to wonder why anyone would choose to live there after a while. They have the disguised Empire State and Chrysler building crashing down with the Brooklyn Bridge to kill thousands apiece as a terror device. I was thinking shades of 9/11 when I read that part. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveZilla Posted July 26, 2008 Report Share Posted July 26, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... It'll have to wait. I'm reading Footfall now. I just finished Footfall. It was pretty good. I'm not a fan of a large cast of characters. The first part of the book before the aliens showed up just seemed to drag on and on*. It picked up once the Aliens showed up. But still, with the large cast of characters, it felt somewhat fragmented having to constantly jump back and fourth amongst all the groups. And it seemed that several of the character threads just went nowhere. There were parts where it was difficult to understand what was happening, and I have a tendency to skim those parts so as to not bog down my reading pace too much. I'll likely re-read it now that I have a better idea of *who* each of the characters are, and can then focus on the bits that were fuzzy. Overall, I'd give it about an 7.5, maybe an 8. *Aside: "It's a Dragon!" "What kind?" "An Andon!" "Oh, a Drag on And On. They're harmless." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted July 26, 2008 Report Share Posted July 26, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I'm currently working my way through the Harry Dresden series and enjoying them quite a bit. These are what the Anita Blake series could (and should) have been. It'd be a great world to run a Dark Champions or low-level supers campaign in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted July 26, 2008 Report Share Posted July 26, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Harbingers by F. Paul Wilson. Repairman Jack learns that all of his family's deaths are due to the Ally wanting a weapon to deal with his enemy. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted July 26, 2008 Report Share Posted July 26, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Mouse Guard 1152 -- fun stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clonus Posted July 26, 2008 Report Share Posted July 26, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I'm currently working my way through the Harry Dresden series and enjoying them quite a bit. These are what the Anita Blake series could (and should) have been. It'd be a great world to run a Dark Champions or low-level supers campaign in. Try Simon Green's Nightside series or Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson novels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewing Posted July 26, 2008 Report Share Posted July 26, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I'm currently working my way through the Harry Dresden series and enjoying them quite a bit. These are what the Anita Blake series could (and should) have been. It'd be a great world to run a Dark Champions or low-level supers campaign in. I've been re-reading them. Just re-read Dead beat, through WHite Night. When Small Favor comes out in Paperback, I will re-read it. I got it from the Library to read it the first time. Next book in the series is due out on my BIRTHDAY, 10/14/08. I think I know what I will be getting. I also HIGHLY recommend the Furies of Calderon series. :thumbup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st barbara Posted July 27, 2008 Report Share Posted July 27, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I've just finished reading "no472 Cheyne Walk" A F Kidd & Rick Kennett, a book of stories written in 2002 featuring William Hope Hodgson's character "Carnacki The Ghost Finder". Variable, as this type of collection often can be, but containing a couple of really good stories, including one ("The Roaring Paddocks") set in Australia ! (No real surprise as one of the authors, Rick Kennett, is an Australian) I have since started Lionel Fenn's "The Once And Future Thing" for a bit of a lightweight break ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozimus Posted July 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Harbingers by F. Paul Wilson. Repairman Jack learns that all of his family's deaths are due to the Ally wanting a weapon to deal with his enemy. CES Just a friendly reminder...please be careful about unannounced spoilers. Readers of the Repairman Jack novels may want to find this tidbit out through the natural course of reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted July 28, 2008 Report Share Posted July 28, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Just a friendly reminder...please be careful about unannounced spoilers. Readers of the Repairman Jack novels may want to find this tidbit out through the natural course of reading. Sorry, Bozimus. I'll write a more obscure spoiler for the next one which I a mgetting ready to start. (as an aside, does anybody else have problems finding Wilson's books in the the bookstore? I had to special order mine.) CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozimus Posted July 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... No problem, cysphrett! Answer to your question...I had a terrible time finding the first book, "The Tomb", of the Repairman Jack series. I have not tried to find the others, since I haven't read "The Tomb" yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted July 28, 2008 Report Share Posted July 28, 2008 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... And considering just how many times NYC was depopulated in Spider stories' date=' you have to wonder why anyone would choose to live there after a while.[/quote'] Cheap rents Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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