Susano Posted April 25, 2009 Report Share Posted April 25, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Let The Right One In -- John Ajvide Lindqvist's breakthrough horror novel of vampires and young love. Also an excellent movie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted April 25, 2009 Report Share Posted April 25, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I also understand that The Deed of Paksenarrion is taken from a D&D campaign. It sure felt like it, but having just read it, it was still darn good. Then again, I love Paladins so I maybe biased Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwiggins Posted April 25, 2009 Report Share Posted April 25, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Death's Daughter by Amber Benson It was.... Ok. not great. the grim reaper (the CEO of Death inc) and all top executives dissapear. So the next in line to take over is Deaths middle daughter who really wants nothing to do with the family business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted April 25, 2009 Report Share Posted April 25, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Dory Doctorow. Neat concept, but the execution left something to be desired. Apparently the main character was supposed to be irritating . . .? Read a bunch lately, but I'm so far behind that I'm not even going to try to catch up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozimus Posted April 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Academ's Fury...by Jim Butcher. I enjoyed the first book in this series (Codex Alera) and I am pleased to say that the second book does not disappoint. My friend EvilLuke once said, "This is the first fantasy series that I feel could be successfully translated into Hero without compromising too much." Having read the first two books, I must agree...in part. I do think it could be converted into Hero without a lot of compromise. I do not agree that it is the first fantasy series that this could be said. Martin's perpetually unfinished "A Song of Ice and Fire" series could be adapted, IMO. Zelazny's "Amber" series would also qualify. But I digress...in short, this book was a fun read that built up steam and roared to a satisfying conclusion. Butcher once again delivered the goods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clonus Posted April 26, 2009 Report Share Posted April 26, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... of compromise. I do not agree that it is the first fantasy series that this could be said. Martin's perpetually unfinished "A Song of Ice and Fire" series could be adapted, IMO. Zelazny's "Amber" series would also qualify. Not Amber. The powers in Amber are really loosey-goosey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted April 27, 2009 Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Having watched the BBC mini-series, I decided to re-read Neverwhere. A great setting, open for a lot of possibilities for other stories and adventures. Gamien might even write a sequel or two! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted April 27, 2009 Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Having watched the BBC mini-series' date=' I decided to re-read [i']Neverwhere[/i]. A great setting, open for a lot of possibilities for other stories and adventures. Gamien might even write a sequel or two! Are you aware of the roleplaying games? http://apresvie.livejournal.com/25441.html http://neverwhered6.tripod.com/intro.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gojira Posted April 27, 2009 Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I've been reading some of Jim Butcher's Dresden series. (One of the best things about HERO Games' Urban Fantasy is the bibliography. ) The first two books, Storm Front and Fool Moon are good but not great. They're pretty light reading, and not hard to knock off in an afternoon. The third book, Grave Peril, is a bit more polished. Butcher seems to be hitting his stride as a writer, or at least with the series. Three stars for the first two books, four (out of five) for the second. All are light but fun reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted April 27, 2009 Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Are you aware of the roleplaying games? http://apresvie.livejournal.com/25441.html http://neverwhered6.tripod.com/intro.html I'd seen one, not the other. I've considered adding Neverwhere to my worldbooks section. But I don't have the time, now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted April 27, 2009 Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... My wife's report on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was not positive enough to make me read it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted April 27, 2009 Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Having watched the BBC mini-series' date=' I decided to re-read [i']Neverwhere[/i]. A great setting, open for a lot of possibilities for other stories and adventures. Gamien might even write a sequel or two! I've now read, then watched Stardust. While the same basic concept, the stories vary quite a bit. I think part of it is due to the need to keep the film flowing... as it is Stardust the movie is 2 hours. Also, the end of the novel is rather anti-climatic. There's no dramatic showdown, Lamia discovers the star's heart is now gone, Ditchwater Sal looses her slave, and Septimus dies without ever getting close to his goal. Granted, it all works in the book, but not the visual spectacle a movie requires. On the other hand, I think the book is better in setting things up, it has more color, more flavor, more... sense of the strange. So you have the novel for those who wish a more sedate and flavorful fairytale, and the movie for the visuals and action. PS: Anasazi Boys will be next, I be thinking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawnmower Boy Posted April 27, 2009 Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... As promised, I read S. M. Stirling's Sky People, the first of his alternate-present sci-fis in which Mars and Venus turn out to be Earth-like planets in the old pulp tradition and Yankees and Commies go have Cold War games there. Overall, you get what you pay for: if you want more grown up action, I also liked Charles Stross, The Atrocity Archives, even if it does suffer from cut-and-pasteitis, and has plot holes almost as big as Turncoat. (Hey, the baddie that Mouse just tumbled is running away. Fetch, Mouse! Uhm, Mouse? Never mind, I guess Harry can try running'm down, instead.) This is a much more satisfying book (and version of the "primitive jungles of Venus") than the later Mars book, In the Court of the Crimson Kings. After introducing the West Bloc base at great length by the simple narrative technique of having the hero, Marc, escort some Earthie newcomers around, get into a love triangle, fight Bronze Age natives, and adopt a dire wolf cub, the principals of the triangle and some extras are sent off on a joint rescue mission to a Commie shuttle that's gone down on the other end of the continent. See, the Westies' dirigibles are solar powered, while the Easties have a [diesel, I presume: cool!] turbine. Dirigibles, as they do, get destroyed in a storm. Extras die, the love triangle is resolved leaving Marc out in the cold; and then the three run into a bunch of cave-Aryans (literally: they speak Indo-European). they are fighting Neanderthals assisted by the survivor of the Commie crash, who has been forceably enlisted by the Neanderthal shaman as Minister of Foreign Affairs and AK-47 Maintenance, as Neanderthals assume that these jobs are pretty much the same, anyway. Fortunately, our heroes save the day. All this said, in the interests of maintaining my role as the NGD's most tastelessly boundary-crossing critic, I'm going to point out that in the extended tour of the Base, we are introduced to Marc's housekeeper, and her nubile, Bronze Age on-the-make daughter. Maternal matchmaking is about as subtle as it ever is, but Marc thinks to himself that since science hasn't proven that the Venusians are Homo sapiens sapiens, and there is some slight residual language barrier, it would be "hinkie" for him to get together with this pretty, bright young girlie, who is only 7 years younger than he. Instead, he goes on chasing the scientist-lady who showed up on the last shuttle. I need a moment. There are over 100 Earth humans in the Westie base, more in the Eastie. The Westies regularly commute to the "only city on the planet," Bronze-Age Kartahoun,* for cultural interactions with a society that practices sacred prostitution. This has been going on for over a decade. And we are told that there is as yet no proof that Earth-humans and Venus-humans can interbreed, even though one of the lesser secrets of the setting is that they are, indeed, transplanted Earth humans, something that the Earth science of alternate-1988 cannot prove in the laboratory. Get your mind out of the gutter, by the way. Laboratories are for science. Now, Marc doesn't get the scientist-from-the-hood either. (And, yes, she is Black, and does talk that way occasionally, just as Marc uses an annoying Creole patois to himself and his puppy. Admittedly it is a minor plot point that Marc can speak French, but still...) But after he learns that cave-princess Part-Written-for-a-Young-Raquel-Welch-Ironically-Enough is an Aryan....look out, it's bunny time! Need I mention that the Aryans beat the Neanderthals, adopt all the inventions that Marc has been pushing, and then join him in an intercontinental migration so that they can soak up all the advanced Earth learning back at base? (Because look how well residential schools always work out!) I doubt that this whole "Ayran Supermen Are Our Superiors" vibe is intentional. But I doubt that I am inventing it, either. Really, Mr. Stirling: get a therapist. And so far I haven't even brought up the Asian girl who gets raped to death by the Neanderthals... *In keeping with Cold War space-race history, the East Bloc is first to Venus, West Bloc first to Mars. So on Venus, the East Bloc's base is in the sticks, while the Westies are next to Kartahoun. On Mars, the Easties have their embassy in the most powerful and advanced city state on the planet, while the Westies are way off to heck and gone in the Low Towns. Are people stupid in this alternate world, or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matrix3 Posted April 27, 2009 Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I've now read' date=' then watched [i']Stardust[/i]. While the same basic concept, the stories vary quite a bit. I think part of it is due to the need to keep the film flowing... as it is Stardust the movie is 2 hours. Also, the end of the novel is rather anti-climatic. There's no dramatic showdown, Lamia discovers the star's heart is now gone, Ditchwater Sal looses her slave, and Septimus dies without ever getting close to his goal. Granted, it all works in the book, but not the visual spectacle a movie requires. On the other hand, I think the book is better in setting things up, it has more color, more flavor, more... sense of the strange. So you have the novel for those who wish a more sedate and flavorful fairytale, and the movie for the visuals and action. PS: Anasazi Boys will be next, I be thinking. I recommend reading American Gods before Anansi Boys (if you haven't already). It isn't a sequal, per se, and they aren't the same tone, but there is some shared world going on that American Gods might set up for you. Plus, it's one of my favorite books, so go read it for that reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted April 27, 2009 Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I've read American Gods several times... so I might do that. But I liked the lighter tone of Anasazi Boys a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted April 27, 2009 Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The Dexter books by Jeff Lindsay Found Dexter in the Dark to be a bit out of character for the series - it was too much like Indiana Jones with the supernatural emphasis. Two Faction Paradox books- Of The City of the Saved... by Philip Purser-Hallard After death, outside the universe, every human that has ever lived and every variant of is ressurected to live in one city, the size of a galaxy. All these humans are immortal and invulnerable. But then one of them is murdered. - It's a different kind of murder mystery in the universe of Doctor Who I liked it. Warlords of Utopia by Lance Parkin What if every alternate universe where the Roman Empires survived and took over the world by 1940 was at war with every alternate universe where the Nazi's won World War Two? - A nice historical memoir by Marcus Americanius Scriptor also in the Doctor Who Universe. I liked this one too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sociotard Posted April 28, 2009 Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... "The Children's hospital" by Chris Adrian was well written. and long. and it made me speculate about the significance of several characters and possibile symbols, but never really resolved any of them. They're just sort of there, and when I got to the end and there was no answer, I was very frustrated. http://www.amazon.com/Childrens-Hospital-Chris-Adrian/dp/1932416609 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted April 28, 2009 Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... A George RR Martin RRetrospective: a collection of his short stories, novellas and TV scripts. Some I've read, some I hadn't, all good. Also interesting to know what he was doing during the "lost decade" when he apparently stopped writing (he was writing, just for TV) cheers, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozimus Posted April 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... A George RR Martin RRetrospective: a collection of his short stories, novellas and TV scripts. Some I've read, some I hadn't, all good. Also interesting to know what he was doing during the "lost decade" when he apparently stopped writing (he was writing, just for TV) cheers, Mark I think he is in another "lost decade"... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan D. Hurricanes Posted April 28, 2009 Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... A George RR Martin RRetrospective: a collection of his short stories, novellas and TV scripts. Some I've read, some I hadn't, all good. Also interesting to know what he was doing during the "lost decade" when he apparently stopped writing (he was writing, just for TV) cheers, Mark Are the short stories related to the novels or independent pieces? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southern Cross Posted April 29, 2009 Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I've actually read the following books this week:Claws That Catch by John Ringo and Travis E. Taylor.It's the third book in their "Dreen Wars" series and is well worth reading.I give it four and a half out of five,because the authors don't seem to be Queen fans.(The Vorpal Blade Two (the first Vorpal Blade was trashed by a Dreen battleship in the previous book) found what they called the TumTum Tree,which turned out to be an interstellar concert stadium that used the energy of a blue giant star to ionise the atmosphere of four Jovians to produce systemwide lighting effects and to resonate starships in order to produce sound for anybody watching in said starships.Since they were using the TumTum Tree to damage the Dreen ships with sonic resonance,why they didn't use We Will Rock You by Queen?)(The other half star is because they also printed the entirety of The Jabberwock by Lewis Carroll in the front of the book.) The other book I read was Skulduggery Pleasant The Faceless Ones by derek Landy.The third in the series,it's a children's urban fantasy series featuring Skulduggery Pleasant,the wisecracking skeletal magical detective and his fourteen-year old girl apprentice,Valkyrie Cain.This time they are trying to stop the Faceless Ones,a pack of Love craftian horrors,from destroying the world.They succeed,but at a great cost.I rank it as four out of five. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted April 30, 2009 Report Share Posted April 30, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... By the Sword by F. Paul Wilson. Finally sat down and went through this book. The hunt for Dawn Pickering and a missing sword cause enemies to collide with a little help from Jack. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenrisUlf Posted April 30, 2009 Report Share Posted April 30, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Just finished reading William Hope Hodgson's The Ghost Pirates. Surprisingly good for its age (originally published in 1909); basically, the plot is that mysterious spirits of some sort or another begin to overrun a ship at sea. Are they the ghosts of pirates? Or are they weird beings from some other dimension? And why do they attack the ship? The narrator never learns, and thus we never find out. The whole story maintains an incredible sense of creeping terror throughout; this book is what Lovecraft often tried to do but only rarely succeeded at. The book itself is billed as 'third in a series' with Hodgson's other novels Boats of the Glen Carrig and House on the Borderlands, but all three stand well by themselves. I'd call Glen Carrig the best -- it reads like Lovecraft doing a Bob Howard style pulp horror story, and doing it very well, but the other two are amazing as well. I give it five out of five spectral invaders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted April 30, 2009 Report Share Posted April 30, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Mind the Gap: A Novel of the Hidden Cities -- This 2008 novel by Tim Lebbon and Christopher Golden, reads like a poor-man's knockoff of Neverwhere. The main character, Jazz (jasmine) is on the run from the Uncles, powerful men who control her life, but she's not sure why. After her mother is murdered, Jazz flees, eventually ending up in the Underground, where she discovers a whole new society. The book felt like it was a young adult concept dressed up for adults. There didn't seem to be a lot of characterization, the action has hazy, and the resolution a but meh. I was far less than impressed and felt Un Lun Dun to be a far superior take on the whole "hidden city of London" concept. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Mhoram Posted May 1, 2009 Report Share Posted May 1, 2009 Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... By the Sword by F. Paul Wilson. Finally sat down and went through this book. The hunt for Dawn Pickering and a missing sword cause enemies to collide with a little help from Jack. CES Black Wind has been a favorite of mine since it was first released decades ago - so I enjoyed the tie-ins with By the Sword. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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