September's Studious Search For Sonorous Snippets

[Mouse]

You're too kind.

[Perpetual Man]

Or you are too good

[HareBrain]

Originally Posted by Mouse

Really? I always thought most people said her Robin Hobb stuff was better than her Megan Lindholm stuff. I almost picked up her Harpy one a while back (can't remember the exact title!) and didn't. Have you tried her Liveship books?

I liked Wolf's Brother partly because of the subject, but also because it was so unassuming and small-scale. I thought about getting her harpy one but wasn't quite tempted enough by the blurb.

As for her Liveship books, I've just been to three bookshops and that was the only trilogy that wasn't represented at all! Would you say it was her best?

[Overread]

Originally Posted by Mouse

Really? I always thought most people said her Robin Hobb stuff was better than her Megan Lindholm stuff. I almost picked up her Harpy one a while back (can't remember the exact title!) and didn't. Have you tried her Liveship books?

She writes with a very different style in her Hobb works as compared to her Lindholm works - far more wordy and can be a bit heavy going (her middle books of trilogies can be particularly heavy going at times). I'm glad to hear about the thoughts on shamanistic research and accuracy with her wolf and deer books since, whilst I enjoyed them, I've no further understanding of the culture they are based upon.


As for the Liveship books I'm not surprised you couldn't get into Dragon - its kinda a second series in the Liveship line, which in itself is a very close spinoff the Assassins apprentice series. Dragon was also not considered her best, but I think its a book that many feel you need to have read the previous of to really understand and enjoy.

As for liveships specifically its a different style again to Assassin's Apprentice, a wider array of character viewpoints followed; not as many as in say something like A Song of Ice and Fire; what I'd consider a manageable number of viewpoints without getting lost. Also as its not centered around a lead character with depression (something that Assassins and esp her Shaman trillogy are) there pace remains a bit more easy to follow.
I'd consider it a good series, a shame if you've not read the Assassin's series, but you should easily be able to get into Liveships.



As for me been going through Joe Abercrombie's "The First Law" Trilogy and made it up to part way through the last book. Can't say if I like it or not at present, I enjoy several characters, but I can't help shaking the feeling that the author is stalling a lot of the time and that several characters are suffering from that "I want you here doing this, even though you really have no reason what so ever to" problem.
I think the 3 books read more like an intro book into a much longer book since even in the 3rd book, despite many events, things still feel that there is some stalling and building going on - too much for a 3rd book to stand on its own at the end.

[Hypnos164]

Originally Posted by Overread

As for me been going through Joe Abercrombie's "The First Law" Trilogy and made it up to part way through the last book. Can't say if I like it or not at present, I enjoy several characters, but I can't help shaking the feeling that the author is stalling a lot of the time and that several characters are suffering from that "I want you here doing this, even though you really have no reason what so ever to" problem.
I think the 3 books read more like an intro book into a much longer book since even in the 3rd book, despite many events, things still feel that there is some stalling and building going on - too much for a 3rd book to stand on its own at the end.

Currently listening to the First Law books on Audio (read them a couple of years ago too).

Isn't the "I want you here doing this, even though you really have no reason what so ever to" problem rather the point of his subversion of genre conventions?

None of the characters involved in the epic events (except one) wants to be involved in interesting times at all - instead of bold heroes setting out to save the world you have a bunch of deeply damaged people doing what they have to do to get by ... "you have to be realistic about these things".

In the end it seems to be a work that stands on its characters, they stay with you long after the plot has faded away.

In other news - finished The Algebraist by Iain M Banks - I liked the setting and the main story arc, but the descriptions never left me with a clear picture of the any of the aliens or their environments.

[Vertigo]

Originally Posted by Overread

As for me been going through Joe Abercrombie's "The First Law" Trilogy and made it up to part way through the last book. Can't say if I like it or not at present, I enjoy several characters, but I can't help shaking the feeling that the author is stalling a lot of the time and that several characters are suffering from that "I want you here doing this, even though you really have no reason what so ever to" problem.
I think the 3 books read more like an intro book into a much longer book since even in the 3rd book, despite many events, things still feel that there is some stalling and building going on - too much for a 3rd book to stand on its own at the end.

That's very much how I felt about them (but couldn't express it as well as you did ). Specifically I remember commenting at the end of the first book that I felt I had just read an introduction to the second book. I did enjoy them but I also felt somehow unfulfilled at the end.

Originally Posted by Hypnos164

In other news - finished The Algebraist by Iain M Banks - I liked the setting and the main story arc, but the descriptions never left me with a clear picture of the any of the aliens or their environments.

I've always thought, alongside Player of Games, that Algebraist was my favourite Banks book (not a common opinion I believe) however it was also one of my first Banks books and I have read a lot of other SF books since then (I blame this place!), so I might have to go back and read it again sometime.

[Glen]

H.G. Wells "War of the Worlds". Read it on my iPhone from the "SF collections" app and it made my recent train journeys a pleasure.

For some reason I was put in mind of Wells when I joined SFFC. He would have been one of the first sci-fi authors I read and I was fascinated by it all. WOTW still stands the test of time. Descriptive writing that makes you feel for the protagonist. Wells was great at making fear palpable and visceral, and he wasn't afraid to make his protagonists show their fear.

Some of the language is a bit dated. Not sure how a modern audience would take "I grew very weary and irritable with the curate's perpetual ejaculations". And if Wells uses the word "headlong" once he must have used it, well, a lot.

[AE35Unit]

Originally Posted by Glen

H.G. Wells "War of the Worlds". Read it on my iPhone from the "SF collections" app and it made my recent train journeys a pleasure.

For some reason I was put in mind of Wells when I joined SFFC. He would have been one of the first sci-fi authors I read and I was fascinated by it all. WOTW still stands the test of time. Descriptive writing that makes you feel for the protagonist. Wells was great at making fear palpable and visceral, and he wasn't afraid to make his protagonists show their fear.

Some of the language is a bit dated. Not sure how a modern audience would take "I grew very weary and irritable with the curate's perpetual ejaculations". And if Wells uses the word "headlong" once he must have used it, well, a lot.

Yea I read that one recently, excellent!
Try finding the 'sequel' by Garret Serviss:

http://sfaddict.blogspot.com/2010/09...n-to-mars.html

[Mouse]

Originally Posted by HareBrain

I liked Wolf's Brother partly because of the subject, but also because it was so unassuming and small-scale. I thought about getting her harpy one but wasn't quite tempted enough by the blurb.

As for her Liveship books, I've just been to three bookshops and that was the only trilogy that wasn't represented at all! Would you say it was her best?

I think it's her best, yeah. The characters (particularly the pirate captain) are far more complex. I almost didn't bother with it as I didn't think I'd like it, but I really enjoyed all three.

Originally Posted by Overread

She writes with a very different style in her Hobb works as compared to her Lindholm works - far more wordy and can be a bit heavy going (her middle books of trilogies can be particularly heavy going at times). I'm glad to hear about the thoughts on shamanistic research and accuracy with her wolf and deer books since, whilst I enjoyed them, I've no further understanding of the culture they are based upon.

Do you mean her Lindholm stuff is wordy or her Hobb stuff is wordy?

I've not read the Dragon Keeper etc. books yet, but agree with everything you say about Liveships.

Definitely recommend them to you, HareBrain!

[Overread]

Originally Posted by Hypnos164

None of the characters involved in the epic events (except one) wants to be involved in interesting times at all - instead of bold heroes setting out to save the world you have a bunch of deeply damaged people doing what they have to do to get by ... "you have to be realistic about these things".

Yes, but, realistically speaking, Ninefingers and Ferro, whilst somewhat damaged characters, feel so much like spare parts that don't belong through the main content of the first and second books. They feel like characters the author wants to introduce to us and take out of events, but who have no real reason to be going on the quest at all (aside from "magi said so" and that argument wears somewhat thin considering how individual each of the pair is).
It just grates a bit that whole section; which is a shame because it really picks up with the Northmen and Glotcka's (sp) parts. Heck I'd say the book would be worth reading alone just for Glotcka

Originally Posted by Mouse

Do you mean her Lindholm stuff is wordy or her Hobb stuff is wordy?

Ahh her Hobb stuff certainly - her Lindholm are mostly short single novels, some parts of series. Whilst her Hobb works are more akin in size and structure to Lord of the Rings - big books broken into 3s.

[Hypnos164]

Originally Posted by Vertigo

I've always thought, alongside Player of Games, that Algebraist was my favourite Banks book (not a common opinion I believe) however it was also one of my first Banks books and I have read a lot of other SF books since then (I blame this place!), so I might have to go back and read it again sometime.

I liked it, probably more than any of the recent Culture books - perhaps because he didn't have to spend so much time explaining why god-like minds can't just "fix it" - however, in the 20 years since I first encountered Banks' work some of the magic has gone - maybe my tastes changed, maybe his writing changed, maybe a bit of both.

Just finished Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch which I thought was one of the best urban fantasies I’ve read in some time – couldn’t put it down start to finish.

Next up (via the magic of kindle instant delivery) Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch

[j. d. worthington]

Earlier today I finished the Voß, Bierce, and de Castro piece, The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter (yippee! I actually finished something in less than a week!!!...). It's an odd piece, especially when considered as one of Bierce's writings (the prose of the English version is most definitely his), not entirely successful, as the denouement occurs rather abruptly (at least seemingly, though there is preparation for it throughout the work), but with a lot of passages of both beauty and weirdness throughout it, and the ending, which was apparently entirely Bierce's own, is perfectly suited to his rather biting view of human hypocrisy and self-deception, pungently ironic to the point of mordancy.

[dask]

Started this for Halloween:


This is humor done straight. Absurd, maybe? Everything seems well worked out, clicking smoothly like an atomic pocket watch. It's different, only read the prologue, but I'm liking it.

Finished Lowell's essay on witchcraft. Need to sit quietly and sort through my notes before I say anything more substantial than that it was great. No more writing off the cuff. Never seem to say what I want to.

[antiloquax]

Just ordered "Ass Goblins of Auschwitz" for my Kindle. My first foray into bizarro fiction.

[Hypnos164]

Originally Posted by Overread

Yes, but, realistically speaking, Ninefingers and Ferro, whilst somewhat damaged characters, feel so much like spare parts that don't belong through the main content of the first and second books. They feel like characters the author wants to introduce to us and take out of events, but who have no real reason to be going on the quest at all (aside from "magi said so" and that argument wears somewhat thin considering how individual each of the pair is).
It just grates a bit that whole section; which is a shame because it really picks up with the Northmen and Glotcka's (sp) parts. Heck I'd say the book would be worth reading alone just for Glotcka

On this second run though I think that is a fair point re Logan and Ferro - but Logan is just such a likeable character that I want to read about him even if he is rather superfluous to the plot; and I wonder if he ends up with so much narrative space because he was a much fun to write as to read?

And yes it is worth reading for Glotcka alone, everyone I know who has read the books finds him fascinating. Given who he is and what he does its quite a trick to have you rooting for him.