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What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...


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Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

 

Just finished Dead Beat, book 6 of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

 

Yeah, I'm late to the game

I'm enjoying the heck outta this series, and discovering that hulu has all 12 episodes of the ill fated TV adaptation was a nice treat as well. Of course the idjits cancelled it.

 

 

I saw him doing the foreshadowing about Sue from "her" first appearance, but it still raised a big smile. Of all the books so far, this was the one that I'd like to see on the big screen

 

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Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

 

I finally got around to reading Storm Front. I got quite irritated with Butcher through the first several chapters. He was so intent on making me believe Harry was a Man's Man that I wound up believing the opposite. Even his cat was manly! And then he spent the rest of the book whining whenever he had a moment to think about what he was doing. Uh-huh.

 

Quite a good example of why one should show, rather than tell, in writing.

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Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

 

Finished Chronicles of the Black Company. Crazy military-esque fantasy. I'm going to find the Books of the South collection and start on that.

 

Found and read The Books of the South collection. The first two novels pick up where Chronicles of the Black Company left off and ends on a cliff-hanger, which means I need to wait for the next Tor Collection. The third novel is a stand alone, and clears up some loose ends from Chronicles of the Black Company. A very interesting read that kept me turning the pages to see what would happen next. As with Chronicles of the Black Company it's epic-fantasy told from the POV from men in the 'trenches' (although the same men do have direct connections with the major moves and shakers).

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Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

 

Crud! I read Black Company about a zillion years ago. I was somewhat interested in it because the author and I share the same last name. The story itself didn't strike me as that good at the time, but I was firmly looking for another Tolkien. Maybe a zillion years of perspective will make me want to take the series off the shelf and look at it again. There goes what little spare time I have.

 

Thanks guys. :rolleyes:

 

 

 

 

 

:D

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Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

 

Crud! I read Black Company about a zillion years ago. I was somewhat interested in it because the author and I share the same last name. The story itself didn't strike me as that good at the time, but I was firmly looking for another Tolkien. Maybe a zillion years of perspective will make me want to take the series off the shelf and look at it again. There goes what little spare time I have.

 

Thanks guys. :rolleyes:

 

 

 

 

 

:D

 

 

Try "Gardens of the Moon."

 

I like Cook's Garrett books better than the Black COmpany anyway.

I would Sure as Hell rather be Garrett than ANY of the characters in the Black COmpany!

 

 

:eg::eg:

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Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

 

I finally got around to reading Storm Front. I got quite irritated with Butcher through the first several chapters. He was so intent on making me believe Harry was a Man's Man that I wound up believing the opposite. Even his cat was manly! And then he spent the rest of the book whining whenever he had a moment to think about what he was doing. Uh-huh.

 

Quite a good example of why one should show, rather than tell, in writing.

Honestly, having read further in the series, I think the reason he kinda pushes on that in Storm Front is to provide contrast, because Harry spends an immense amount of time getting ripped to shreds and having horrible luck with relationships. Very in keeping with the pulp-noir gumshoe theme.

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Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

 

The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. A tale of alien invasion through infiltration, it has the same feel as several other of this novels (Up From The Deeps, Day Of The Triffyds), in which mankind is threatened with extinction by parties unknown. In this novel and Up From The Deeps the true invaders are never really seen, and while the triffyds are obvious, it is never made clear where they come from. Anyway, it made for a quick read, although some of the dialogue took some effort (one of the characters speaks in some of the most convoluted sentences...) and it certainly is one of the better classic 1950s examples of British SF.

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Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

 

The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. A tale of alien invasion through infiltration' date=' it has the same feel as several other of this novels ([i']Up From The Deeps, Day Of The Triffyds[/i]), in which mankind is threatened with extinction by parties unknown. In this novel and Up From The Deeps the true invaders are never really seen, and while the triffyds are obvious, it is never made clear where they come from. Anyway, it made for a quick read, although some of the dialogue took some effort (one of the characters speaks in some of the most convoluted sentences...) and it certainly is one of the better classic 1950s examples of British SF.

 

 

It's a brilliant piece. Have you seen any of the movies?

 

Also, am I correct in assuming that Up From the Deeps is a rebadge of The Kraken Wakes?

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Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

 

It's a brilliant piece. Have you seen any of the movies?

 

Also, am I correct in assuming that Up From the Deeps is a rebadge of The Kraken Wakes?

 

Yes -- that's the American title. I had a copy of The Kraken Wakes? years ago.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

 

Hellboy: Oddest jobs edited by Christopher Golden. A collection of stories by various writers. My favorites were the Lansdale black train, Volk's monster boy, Benson's produce, and Nix's strange fishing. While all of these stories have Hellboy in them, most are about the people he encounters.

CES

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Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

 

Soul Eater Michelle Paver. The fourth book in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series.

 

Overall I like this series, but I'm starting to get the same-same feel. In many ways, the text describes how each character has some sort of epiphany, but their behavior is pretty much the same thing in each book. The descriptions of day to day hunting and gathering are interesting, but I really hope that there is more depth coming to the series soon.

 

Still, for being "juvenile fiction" the books are an easy, quick read. The notes on behaviors, beliefs, customs and techniques are just detailed enough that they can be adapted to some sort of "Stone Age" game setting.

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This review is longer than the book, but not as good.

 

The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8

by Thomas Ott

 

I have 'read' several wordless graphic novels and they all fail for me at some point. The Number was the first one that I got absorbed in. In fact, I thought it was excellent. It's a thick book, but it only takes about five minutes to read, depending upon how long you linger over the detailed scratchboard style art.

 

As soon as I finished it I handed it to a co-worker to read and she was making noises throughout the reading like "Oh no..." or "Did he really?"

 

Storyline: "When clearing up the cell of a prisoner who has been sentenced to death and subsequently executed, a prison guard finds a small piece of paper with a combination of numbers on it.

 

On the spur of the moment, he puts it into his pocket.

 

As the guard lives a solitary, monotonous life, the numbers on the paper awake his curiosity. To find out their hidden meaning could add a new meaning to his life as well, so the guard stumbles into situations in which the number or part of it seem to achieve a certain importance and offer him hints and possible solutions."

 

I'll stop there. It plays nicely with the ideas of coincidence and destiny. Not exactly numerology, but it does make you wonder about the significance of numbers.

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Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

 

I've finished two books as part of my "read while on the recumbent bike" plan.

 

The first was The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss. Not a fantasy book per se, it 's sufficiently fantastical for me to mention it here.

 

When I was young (which means something like 30 years ago), I owned a copy of The Swiss Family Robinson and read it over and over. So when I saw it on the shelf of the local Borders, I decided to pick it up and add it to me collection of 'classics' to read (which include Alice in Wonderland, Tom Sawyer, and Robinson Crusoe). The problem is, the version of my youth was some sort of revised adaption, meaning it was more of an adventure story, with large amounts of the original text edited. The version I picked up in Borders was a translation of the original novel. Wikipedia will explain what that means:

 

As written by Swiss pastor Johann David Wyss, and edited by his son Johann Rudolf Wyss, the novel was intended to teach his four sons about family values, good husbandry, the uses of the natural world and self-reliance. Wyss's attitude towards education is in line with the teachings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and many of the episodes have to do with Christian-oriented moral lessons (frugality, husbandry, resignation, cooperation, etc).[1] The adventures are presented as a series of lessons in natural history and the physical sciences...

 

The problem is, this results in a book that's dreadfully out of tune with modern knowledge, ideas, learning, and the like. While if finished it, it was a chore, and I quickly tired of the author expounding on how man was set on Earth to dominate the natural world, how his sons weren't intelligent due to their age, and how most character's first instinct on seeing an unknown animal was to shoot it. There's also a fantastical quality to the book, where no gets ill, no one needs to go to the bathroom, and certain structures are built in a matter of days, if not hours, which I find hard to believe considering the tools at hand. Still, if you want a resource of early 1800s role-play, it's not bad... it's just not the adventure yarn I thought it was.

 

Orcs Omnibus by Stan Nicholls.

 

This is a fantasy trilogy (with more to follow) in which orcs are the heroes and main protagonists. I read it all the way through, if only to finish it, and decided that I don't understand all the praise printed on the back cover and initial pages. It's not all that good. The plot is one of 'evil' humans despoiling the world and causing the magic to go away. An ice age is coming, the climate is changing, and the numerous races are drawn into conflict. Okay, so far so good.

 

The problems develop soon, when I realized the evil fanatical humans were thinly disguised Christians, while the noble humans were polytheists. In addition, the orcs' hatred of humans became repetitious and boring. In fact, now that I think about it, one issue I have is the Star Trek effect -- most all of the races were fairly uniform in culture. The orcs are noble warriors, the humans are fanatical despoilers, the mermen are peaceful, the nyadds are warriors, and so on. Not much variation.

 

Another issue is the sloppy writing. The orcs are never described (on purpose), but then, their culture comes out only in dribs and drags and it's hard to care about them because we can't identify with them. in addition, this means that many characters seems to gain and loose gear constantly. No one seems to wear armor, but helms and shields are mentioned, and yet our heroes live through many battles with only minor wounds. The 'elder races' (i.e. everyone but the humans), deplore how humans dig mines and cut down trees, yet many characters have fine steel swords or wooden dwellings -- where does the author think this stuff comes from?

 

While the idea is interesting -- looking at orcs in a totally new light, the end result was (IMO) poorly executed. If I want to read the adventures of a war band in a fantastical land, I'll go back to my Black Company collections.

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Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

 

I just finished Island on the Sea of Time by S.M Stirling.

 

This is a prequel of sorts to his Dies the Fire series of novels that I have not yet read. I really enjoyed this book and have managed to snag copies of the other two books in the trilogy from a local used book store.

 

Island in the Sea of Time deals with the story of the Island of Nantucket, its people and the US Coast Guard ship USS Eagle and crew. One evening a mysterious Event takes place and the Island and ship find themselves transported far back into time. By studying the placement of stars they are able to determine that they have been thrust back to about the year 1250 B.C.

 

The Islanders and Coast Guard crew must struggle to survive in their new reality on Bronze Age Earth. The first novel covers about the first three years of their adventures as they adapt and overcome the new problems that they face. They make friends and enemies among the people of the time and, of course, some of their own end up becoming enemies as well.

 

I think that the novel works because it is set far enough back in time that the historic record is very sketchy. The author is then able to fill in gaps in history in plausible ways and it makes for a very believable story. The story gives you the point of view of the Islanders, displaced in time, and the view of some of the important characters indigenous to the era.

 

I recommend it. :thumbup:

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Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

 

Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson.

 

The latest in the Malazan sequence this has direct links to quite a few of the previous works so they are required reading before you get to this one. Gardens of the Moon and Deadhouse Gates being particularly relevant.

It is good but involved.

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Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

 

I'm finally getting around to finishing Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I started reading it back when it was only a novelette feature in a sci-fi magazine, then read the first three books. The gap was so long before four that even though I actually bought the book I had lost interest in finishing it. I grabbed three & four on audio for a long road trip and my new longer commutes.

 

Re-reading three I find that I remember so little of it I may as well be reading it for the first time. Probably a good thing i picked it up, even if I'm not overly thrilled by it. King has always been a 50/50 writer for me; I either love it or I hate it. I remember loving the first Dark Tower and I absolutely love the character of Roland, the Gunslinger. The rest of the series has been very 'meh' for me. I'd still like to finish the series but overall it is just ok.

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Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

 

David Brin's Uplift series. I'd read The Uplift War and Startide Rising before but that was nigh on 20 years ago, so I had forgotten a few details. So I went back to the first book and reading the series all the way through. I'm halfway into book 5: Infinity's Shore.

 

Considering how old these book are, they've held up pretty damn well and the stories are all ripping yarns. I'm looking forward to finishing the last two books.

 

cheers, Mark

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Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

 

The last novel I've read that might fit into the Fantasy catagory was The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. I enjoyed it and recommend it.

 

One of the best Sci Fi novels I've read of late (and this was a few years ago) was The Time Traveler's Wife, which was just wonderful. The movie based on such seems to have stalled; I wondered how they were going to adapt it as the story is non-chronological. As of now, the movie has no firm release date.

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Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

 

Read A Lick of Frost by Laurell K Hamilton over the weekend and had a pleasant surprise. Honestly, I'm not sure why I'm still reading anything by Hamilton anymore, because I find the way she writes sex scenes extremely boring. This particular novel is part of the Merry Gentry series which started off as the more pornographic of the two series. Well this book only has two sex scenes. The first of which is almost 200 pages into the book.

 

The plot is resolving around court intrigue and actually seems to have moved forward the metaplot of the series. A few of the characters were actually interesting for something other than being a sex object.

 

On the other hand, the lead character is still some sort of uber female capable of just by existing making any and all males fall in love with her. (I'm over that part of it.)

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