[QuickTidal]

Hound, on 17 May 2013 - 01:53 PM, said:

I started reading Inferno too and I couldn't agree more about what you spoilered, seriously, the stupidity, oh my oh my..... And don't get me started about that stupid Mickey Mouse watch, GET OVER IT LANGDON!!!! argh! The story so far failed to grab me, I find the plot uninteresting, the characters stupidity jarring (it pulled me right out the story) and... I dunno, it's all so... dull? Bland? I really liked Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code, I even enjoyed the other books to some extent, but this one? Nah, I doubt I'll finish it.

Ah well, a few weeks and we'll have The Eye Of God by Rollins :-)

Spoiler

Also, has Brown even SEEN Boticelli's MAP OF HELL? The thing is ancient, and cracked and blurry...that you could discern ANY added letters on the legs of the ppl in the ditches in the 8th circle (legs of which would arguably be less than a millimeter wide on the actual painting) even blown up is a HUGE leap in believability.

...and I was thinking the same thing about Rollins latest coming out. I was like...thank the gods that the next Sigma book is on the way.

[Hound]

QuickTidal, on 17 May 2013 - 02:46 PM, said:

Hound, on 17 May 2013 - 01:53 PM, said:

I started reading Inferno too and I couldn't agree more about what you spoilered, seriously, the stupidity, oh my oh my..... And don't get me started about that stupid Mickey Mouse watch, GET OVER IT LANGDON!!!! argh! The story so far failed to grab me, I find the plot uninteresting, the characters stupidity jarring (it pulled me right out the story) and... I dunno, it's all so... dull? Bland? I really liked Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code, I even enjoyed the other books to some extent, but this one? Nah, I doubt I'll finish it.

Ah well, a few weeks and we'll have The Eye Of God by Rollins :-)

Spoiler

Also, has Brown even SEEN Boticelli's MAP OF HELL? The thing is ancient, and cracked and blurry...that you could discern ANY added letters on the legs of the ppl in the ditches in the 8th circle (legs of which would arguably be less than a millimeter wide on the actual painting) even blown up is a HUGE leap in believability.

...and I was thinking the same thing about Rollins latest coming out. I was like...thank the gods that the next Sigma book is on the way.

Spoiler

And what about that assassin pulling her gun IN BROAD DAYLIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE F*CKING STREET while Langdon & co where sitting there and watching and doing nothing!!! Seriously! These people!
Oh and Langdon's remarks on the British doctor's HIGH IQ and her not knowing everything got on my nerves really fast.

And indeed, I googled Botticelli's Map of Hell (a high-res one) and it is completely indiscernible. Anyway, I couldn't detect any letters whatsoever.

Yeah, thank god for Sigma! Even Rollins' worst is leaps and bounds better than Brown's best. On the plus side, I didn't have to pay for Inferno.

[QuickTidal]

Hound, on 17 May 2013 - 04:41 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 17 May 2013 - 02:46 PM, said:

Hound, on 17 May 2013 - 01:53 PM, said:

I started reading Inferno too and I couldn't agree more about what you spoilered, seriously, the stupidity, oh my oh my..... And don't get me started about that stupid Mickey Mouse watch, GET OVER IT LANGDON!!!! argh! The story so far failed to grab me, I find the plot uninteresting, the characters stupidity jarring (it pulled me right out the story) and... I dunno, it's all so... dull? Bland? I really liked Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code, I even enjoyed the other books to some extent, but this one? Nah, I doubt I'll finish it.

Ah well, a few weeks and we'll have The Eye Of God by Rollins :-)

Spoiler

Also, has Brown even SEEN Boticelli's MAP OF HELL? The thing is ancient, and cracked and blurry...that you could discern ANY added letters on the legs of the ppl in the ditches in the 8th circle (legs of which would arguably be less than a millimeter wide on the actual painting) even blown up is a HUGE leap in believability.

...and I was thinking the same thing about Rollins latest coming out. I was like...thank the gods that the next Sigma book is on the way.

Spoiler

And what about that assassin pulling her gun IN BROAD DAYLIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE F*CKING STREET while Langdon & co where sitting there and watching and doing nothing!!! Seriously! These people!
Oh and Langdon's remarks on the British doctor's HIGH IQ and her not knowing everything got on my nerves really fast.

And indeed, I googled Botticelli's Map of Hell (a high-res one) and it is completely indiscernible. Anyway, I couldn't detect any letters whatsoever.

Yeah, thank god for Sigma! Even Rollins' worst is leaps and bounds better than Brown's best. On the plus side, I didn't have to pay for Inferno.

Yep, it seems like every paragraph in this book has something else aggravating about it.

I paid for the book, but because of members rewards at my bookstore, I only paid $9 for it total...so I'm not out a lot.

[amphibian]

You're still doing the literary equivalent of buying a Paula Deen cookbook, QT.

Now where is your perspective on the Evangelion 3.33 movie?

[QuickTidal]

amphibian, on 17 May 2013 - 05:34 PM, said:

You're still doing the literary equivalent of buying a Paula Deen cookbook, QT.

Oh, I'm aware. LOL. I knew that going in. Even with lowered expectations it's crapola.

amphibian, on 17 May 2013 - 05:34 PM, said:

Now where is your perspective on the Evangelion 3.33 movie?

I've not watched it yet. I've been waiting for the English dub (as I saw 1.11 and 2.22 in theatres here)...but I've been tempted to watch the subbed version. I will chime in on the Anime thread when I do so. I'm quite excited to get to it.

[acesn8s]

Abyss, on 16 May 2013 - 02:27 PM, said:

Orlion, on 14 May 2013 - 03:03 PM, said:

Abyss, on 14 May 2013 - 03:45 AM, said:

Kruppe, on 13 May 2013 - 09:56 PM, said:

...

100. The War of the Worlds, Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies by H. G. Wells and Eric S. Brown - My search for a decent mash-up novel continues. Closer, but no cigar.

...

EX-HEROES and sequel EX-PATRIOTS. Superheroes, zombies, pure fun. Go get em.

Sheesh, won't people just stop trying to bastardize classics? (Not refering to Abyss' suggestions. Those sound like original works, not a cheep attempt at writing)

My suggestions are as you say, but the WotW thing, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and the rest of their ilk, are spoofs, not quite 'bastradizations'. And for reasons incomprehensible, as most of them are pretty weakly written, they seem to make money, so i think we're stuck w the genre until it runs out of classics to mess with.

QuickTidal, on 16 May 2013 - 12:50 PM, said:

Dolorous Menhir, on 16 May 2013 - 05:22 AM, said:

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. Tough going. Sentence structure and flow of language strangely difficult. Nothing against the author, read Neuromancer years ago and loved it.

He went a bit weird later in life...IDORU was the first novel I noticed where the sentence structure went wonky...ALL TOMORROWS PARTIES was the same.

As much as i deeply love the SPRAWL trilo, i thought THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE was dull (shocking because i like Sterling too), and VIRTUAL LIGHT is where Gibson started to derail for me, and i really didn't enjoy PARTIES or IDORU and stopped reading his stuff. PATTERN has been in the TRP for years without any sign of moving up any time soon, and that only because Warren Ellis praised it and i spotted it in a 2ndHS. I want to like everything he writes because NEUROMANCER fuck, but even so...

I stopped after Virtual Light also. At some point I'll probably do another reread and pick up his last few novels. Maybe...

[D'iversify]

James Hutton, on 17 May 2013 - 02:17 PM, said:

I finished the Prince of Nothing trilogy's final book THE THOUSANDFOLD THOUGHT by R. Scott Bakker. I really liked these books, will probably read them again and will buy/read the Aspect Emperor trilogy as well.

Certainly do so, The White Luck Warrior I consider Bakker's best book alongside The Darkness That Comes Before.

[Abyss]

Briar King, on 17 May 2013 - 08:54 PM, said:

Hey I've got 2 James Rollings books staring right at me but I've read them or anything by him. The Last Oracle, The Judas Strain.

You'll have no trouble following them, but fyi those are like bks 3 and 4 in the SIGMA FORCE series.

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 17 May 2013 - 08:54 PM, said:

Hey I've got 2 James Rollings books staring right at me but I've read them or anything by him. The Last Oracle, The Judas Strain.

Both of those are solid entries...but read THE JUDAS STRAIN first as events in LAST ORACLE follow them spoiler-wise.

[Slow Ben]

Little brother gave me Brett's "Warded Man" to read. I still barely have time to do anything but work and sleep, but I'm gonna try and find time.

[Ukjent]

The warden man and desert spear are ok, but the third book is shit.

[EmperorMagus]

Graablick, on 18 May 2013 - 07:41 AM, said:

The warden man and desert spear are ok, but the third book is shit.

Agreed.
Fucking cliffhanger.
The first two books are not anything special but good enough for a read. I would have preferred to read Summer Knight for the 10 thousandth time rather than read that book the first time.
The cover was nice though.

This post has been edited by EmperorMagus: 18 May 2013 - 07:59 AM

[Puck]

Veniss Underground by Jeff Vandermeer. Slow going because of little time to read, but I really do love this one. The images just jump at me and that's always a good sign.

I also read The Aquariums of Pyongyang by Kang Chol-Hwan and Pierre Rigoulot last week, which was not as mind blowing as it's touted to be, even considering the subject. There are better books on that general topic, like Comrades and Strangers by Michael Harrold, which is what I'm also reading now, a few pages at a time.

Also, haven't posted in ages in this thread. That's what uni reading does to one's reading time.

[Hound]

Briar King, on 18 May 2013 - 03:32 AM, said:

Oh also Rollings has another alias: James Clemens where he delves into Fantasy! Anyone tried him?

Yep, I did, years ago. One word: avoid.
I've only read the "Banned and the Banished" books, but it's just your basic farmboy/girl who discovers she's the heir to some ancient power and then has to save the world and all that kind of nonsense.

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 18 May 2013 - 03:32 AM, said:

Abyss, on 18 May 2013 - 02:55 AM, said:

Briar King, on 17 May 2013 - 08:54 PM, said:

Hey I've got 2 James Rollings books staring right at me but I've read them or anything by him. The Last Oracle, The Judas Strain.

You'll have no trouble following them, but fyi those are like bks 3 and 4 in the SIGMA FORCE series.

Yeah I looked it up after I typed that and saw there's a few before these 2. Also this iPhone always cuts out words I'm trying to type. I tried saying I've NOT read any by him and the not disappeared on me.

Oh also Rollings has another alias: James Clemens where he delves into Fantasy! Anyone tried him?

Yep. It's formulaic stuff. Nothing mind-blowing.

For my money, you want a little supernatural with your Rollins adventure...try THE BLOOD GOSPEL by Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell....it combines the thriller stuff of the Sigma series, and mingles it with vampires. Really solid fun (only one book out in that series so far).

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 18 May 2013 - 01:03 PM

[QuickTidal]

EmperorMagus, on 18 May 2013 - 07:58 AM, said:

Graablick, on 18 May 2013 - 07:41 AM, said:

The warden man and desert spear are ok, but the third book is shit.

Agreed.
Fucking cliffhanger.
The first two books are not anything special but good enough for a read. I would have preferred to read Summer Knight for the 10 thousandth time rather than read that book the first time.
The cover was nice though.

I'm really glad that there are others who feel this way. The blogging community at large seems to think the sun shines out of Brett's ass...and they refuse to say anything against his work.

I could not stand his books, and I was beginning to feel like an outsider.

[Morgoth]

Brett is about as lazy a storyteller as is to be found within the genre. The absurd amount of character development through rape is more than borderline unpleasant, and the introduction of the series only muslim culture as the worldly villain was also more than a little uncomfortable.

It started out as an interesting idea, only to devolve into a bastard child of the most unpleasant aspects of Goodkind and Heinlein. With no quality of prose to hide the glaring inconsistencies in character development and plot.

[worry]

Finished Horns, and gotta say I very nearly loved it. It's not particularly literary and its scope is pretty narrow, but it does what it sets out to do almost exactly right.

Now onto Alera 3. Hooray.

[Baco Xtath]

QuickTidal, on 18 May 2013 - 01:04 PM, said:

EmperorMagus, on 18 May 2013 - 07:58 AM, said:

Graablick, on 18 May 2013 - 07:41 AM, said:

The warden man and desert spear are ok, but the third book is shit.

Agreed.
Fucking cliffhanger.
The first two books are not anything special but good enough for a read. I would have preferred to read Summer Knight for the 10 thousandth time rather than read that book the first time.
The cover was nice though.

I'm really glad that there are others who feel this way. The blogging community at large seems to think the sun shines out of Brett's ass...and they refuse to say anything against his work.

I could not stand his books, and I was beginning to feel like an outsider.

I made it through about half of Warded Man before I tossed it in disgust. You are not alone.

I'm listening to the Gone-Away World. I read it about a year ago and it became my favorite book next to the Scar. Anyway, listening to it has made me appreciate it so much more. Fucking book is fantastic. Also listening to the last book in the Gap Cycle. Am reading Farlander and thus far it's pretty good.

[polishgenius]

QuickTidal, on 18 May 2013 - 01:04 PM, said:

I'm really glad that there are others who feel this way. The blogging community at large seems to think the sun shines out of Brett's ass...and they refuse to say anything against his work.

I could not stand his books, and I was beginning to feel like an outsider.

Come back to the Westeros boards. They hate him there.

I thought the first one was okay, though a few scenes were needless, but not enough to get the rest.