[Baco Xtath]

Morgoth, on 01 August 2012 - 11:18 AM, said:

Read Cat's Cradle for the first time and thoroughly adored it.

I don't think there's a single Vonnegut book I didn't enjoy and Cat's Cradle is probably my favorite. I read most of them about 15 years ago but didn't read Jailbird, Player Piano, and Deadeye Dick until a couple of years ago. All three were really good, Jailbird more so. I really need to re-read all the Vonneguts and need to re-watch Mother Night (love Nick Nolte in that) and Slaughterhouse-five (will not re-watch Breakfast of Champions as I hated Bruce Willis in it - his acting was on par with Hudson Hawk).

[Baco Xtath]

Almost finished listening to Magician King and I'm about 5 hours into Market Forces - I love Morgan's audiobooks as read by Simon Vance. Still reading King's Blood and got Feersum Endjinn on deck.

[QuickTidal]

Finished CLOUD ATLAS re-read...the first time I read it "The Orison of Sonmi-451" (Futuristic Korea, which had been renamed Neo So Copros) section always was the best to me simply because I love the way it flows as a story...and this time it's the thick middle story (the only one that isn't split into 2 parts by how the book is assembled (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1) called "Sloosha's Cross'n 'N Evry'thing After" which is post-apocalyptic Hawaii...VERY dense reading because the English language has descended into like a primitive (of which the title is an example)...so it takes at least 10 pages or so until you are really able to grasp what the narrator is even saying and what words mean. But once you do that, it really becomes a great tale.

The whole book is a really, really solid read which could have been written by six different author's with the difference in "voice" that Mitchell employs. Great re-read.

I'm finishing up Gemmell's TROY: SHIELD OF THUNDER now, and I'm not sure what I'll read next...tempted by the novelization of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES by Greg Cox (just cause I like to see movies and then read their novelizations), but I've also got both LIFE OF PI ready on deck and Ian Tregillis' second book THE COLDEST WAR.

Beyond that FORGE OF DARKNESS will be dropping on my doorstep very soon since it's in transit....so there is that.

[JPK]

Having a bit of a tough time with Revelation Space. It's good, I'm just more a fan of fantasy than sci-fi so sci-fi tends to take me longer to read.
During my brain-digesting moments, I'm supplementing with the first Absolute Sandman though. So much tasty Gaiman brainbaby!

[yuna_anomander25]

finally finished with The Wise Man's Fear, this is the 1st time i have plodded through a 1000+ page tome again since Malazan, and my head hurts,
my thoughts:
1) I doubt the main plot could easily be resolved with the 3rd and last(?) book,
2) its slow, sluggish and nothing much happened, this could have been shortened to a few hundred pages,
3) many are correct, when they said that you could skip this one and know that you missed nothing much,
4) i hope in the 3rd book, PR will finally tell how he came to be the KingKiller, otherwise, it won't be called Kingkiller Chronicle if it wasn't even mentioned,
5) the positives: Elodin - the only LOL moments of the book, Vashet and Penthe, Auri and Devi (she's the only one I really like in this book)
6) idk, but thinking back, since Kvothe is hiding in his Inn, i doubt that the whole Chandrian plot was really finished, or if even he has fought them or let alone face them,

and finally, my wishful thinking:
7) I wish for the Chandrian, especially Cinder - to deal with Denna, seriously,
this would be the only series that if i could, i would want for the author to specifically kill a character,

This post has been edited by yuna_anomander25: 02 August 2012 - 10:54 AM

[Serenity]

Over the last few days I read Ghost Country (great fun!) and a few Peter F Hamilton short stories from Manhattan In Reverse.


Now I'm 200 pages into Forge of Darkness and it's really starting to ease up through the gears. Enjoying it muchly

[QuickTidal]

yuna_anomander25, on 02 August 2012 - 08:04 AM, said:

7) I wish for the Chandrian, especially Cinder - to deal with Denna, seriously,

We all hate Denna. No worries. I believe there may even be a contest to what is hated more Denna or drug addled dragon-cow.

[Tapper]

QuickTidal, on 02 August 2012 - 12:54 PM, said:

yuna_anomander25, on 02 August 2012 - 08:04 AM, said:

7) I wish for the Chandrian, especially Cinder - to deal with Denna, seriously,

We all hate Denna. No worries. I believe there may even be a contest to what is hated more Denna or drug addled dragon-cow.

I must have missed the memo.

Aka: I don't hate Denna. Explanation: the girl actually has a life and goals of her own to achieve, instead of only revolving around the protagonist and being in stasis when he's not there.

[End of Disc One]

Started the Forge of Darkness. Really glad to be back in the Malazan universe. This is very interesting.

[QuickTidal]

Tapper, on 02 August 2012 - 01:53 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 02 August 2012 - 12:54 PM, said:

yuna_anomander25, on 02 August 2012 - 08:04 AM, said:

7) I wish for the Chandrian, especially Cinder - to deal with Denna, seriously,

We all hate Denna. No worries. I believe there may even be a contest to what is hated more Denna or drug addled dragon-cow.

I must have missed the memo.

Aka: I don't hate Denna. Explanation: the girl actually has a life and goals of her own to achieve, instead of only revolving around the protagonist and being in stasis when he's not there.

You must have glossed over the bits where she acts like a high maintenance, betraying, whiney cow.

[Tapper]

QuickTidal, on 02 August 2012 - 01:57 PM, said:

Tapper, on 02 August 2012 - 01:53 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 02 August 2012 - 12:54 PM, said:

yuna_anomander25, on 02 August 2012 - 08:04 AM, said:

7) I wish for the Chandrian, especially Cinder - to deal with Denna, seriously,

We all hate Denna. No worries. I believe there may even be a contest to what is hated more Denna or drug addled dragon-cow.

I must have missed the memo.

Aka: I don't hate Denna. Explanation: the girl actually has a life and goals of her own to achieve, instead of only revolving around the protagonist and being in stasis when he's not there.

You must have glossed over the bits where she acts like a high maintenance, betraying, whiney cow.

You mean acting like a real person who knows she's attractive and that her attractiveness is her escape into a (materialistically) better life, a life Kvothe can't give her? She doesn't make the romantic choice, that's all - maybe hoping that one day she'll find a rich and nice bloke. Perhaps not sympathetic, but understandable. Don't get me wrong: Denna isn't a very likeable person. But Kvothe's infatuation with her (fueled by the attraction-repulsion thing she does), with Mr-I-go-through-women-faster-than-a-Ferrari-now-that-I-discovered-sex at the receiving end is understandable when confronted with her charm.

She's like that not-very-nice but incredibly charming girl who serial-dates the school jock and cries on your shoulder whenever she breaks up with him. A trophy GF but one with a mind of her own who's too good for the people she chooses. And still comes to you when she feels shitty, making you reach for words even if you have them for all the other girls.
She's not much different from Forrest Gump's Jenny, imho.
That, to me, is Denna, and as I said, I can't hate her .

[Abyss]

Tapper, on 02 August 2012 - 02:24 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 02 August 2012 - 01:57 PM, said:

Tapper, on 02 August 2012 - 01:53 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 02 August 2012 - 12:54 PM, said:

yuna_anomander25, on 02 August 2012 - 08:04 AM, said:

7) I wish for the Chandrian, especially Cinder - to deal with Denna, seriously,

We all hate Denna. No worries. I believe there may even be a contest to what is hated more Denna or drug addled dragon-cow.

I must have missed the memo.

Aka: I don't hate Denna. Explanation: the girl actually has a life and goals of her own to achieve, instead of only revolving around the protagonist and being in stasis when he's not there.

You must have glossed over the bits where she acts like a high maintenance, betraying, whiney cow.

You mean acting like a real person who knows she's attractive and that her attractiveness is her escape into a (materialistically) better life, a life Kvothe can't give her? She doesn't make the romantic choice, that's all - maybe hoping that one day she'll find a rich and nice bloke. Perhaps not sympathetic, but understandable. Don't get me wrong: Denna isn't a very likeable person. But Kvothe's infatuation with her (fueled by the attraction-repulsion thing she does), with Mr-I-go-through-women-faster-than-a-Ferrari-now-that-I-discovered-sex at the receiving end is understandable when confronted with her charm.

She's like that not-very-nice but incredibly charming girl who serial-dates the school jock and cries on your shoulder whenever she breaks up with him. A trophy GF but one with a mind of her own who's too good for the people she chooses. And still comes to you when she feels shitty, making you reach for words even if you have them for all the other girls.
She's not much different from Forrest Gump's Jenny, imho.
That, to me, is Denna, and as I said, I can't hate her .

I didn`t hate Denna. I hated how poorly written the entire 'unrequited puppy love bull with thinly veiled hidden agenda' plotline between her and Kvothe was.

The dragon-cow may have been silly but my teeth ached every time Denna and Kvothe were ``on screen`` together.

[QuickTidal]

Tapper, you just told me that Denna was unlikeable....but you can't hate her.

I'm pretty sure that means Rothfuss means us to dislike her.

And anyone who acted like she does in real life to me....would get this...

[Tapper]

I think Rothfuss wants us to be intrigued in her and therefore writes her ambivalently (with an agenda as Abyss also says - probably (unwilling?) servant of the Chandrian).

If so, then Rothfuss didn't get what he aimed at. I don't think we are to dislike her. Considering we get Denna from Kvothe's PoV and Kvothe does still seem in love with her or at the very least has very mixed emotions over her with regret and a sense of loss likely a component, it is imho not disliking Denna what Rothfuss aims at with her description.

And there's a difference between thinking someone's unlikeable and disliking that someone, as I tried to describe

[QuickTidal]

Tapper, on 02 August 2012 - 04:42 PM, said:

I think Rothfuss wants us to be intrigued in her and therefore writes her ambivalently (with an agenda as Abyss also says - probably (unwilling?) servant of the Chandrian).

If so, then Rothfuss didn't get what he aimed at. I don't think we are to dislike her. Considering we get Denna from Kvothe's PoV and Kvothe does still seem in love with her or at the very least has very mixed emotions over her with regret and a sense of loss likely a component, it is imho not disliking Denna what Rothfuss aims at with her description.

And there's a difference between thinking someone's unlikeable and disliking that someone, as I tried to describe

Fair enough sir.

[Salt-Man Z]

All I'll say about Rothfuss' series is that if you check out the Tor.com reread of those two books, you will come away amazed at what Rothfuss is building. There's a crapload of stuff hiding just under the surface of the text, puzzle pieces planted within plain sight that would make SE envious.

[End of Disc One]

Salt-Man Z, on 02 August 2012 - 05:04 PM, said:

All I'll say about Rothfuss' series is that if you check out the Tor.com reread of those two books, you will come away amazed at what Rothfuss is building. There's a crapload of stuff hiding just under the surface of the text, puzzle pieces planted within plain sight that would make SE envious.

I hope that is so because I'm only 100 pages into WMF and having a hard time staying interested. I've gotten the feeling that Rothfuss is just as self assured as Kvothe, and that they both think that all the details matter when they don't. But if they do end up mattering, that will be pretty cool.

[amphibian]

Salt-Man Z, on 02 August 2012 - 05:04 PM, said:

All I'll say about Rothfuss' series is that if you check out the Tor.com reread of those two books, you will come away amazed at what Rothfuss is building. There's a crapload of stuff hiding just under the surface of the text, puzzle pieces planted within plain sight that would make SE envious.

The thing is... we don't know if the payoff is that good yet. There hasn't been a real "Oh, this is the result of this, that and the other thing" moment yet in the series and it's because Rothfuss is a GD literary tease.

End of Disc One just said it very well: we don't know if what Rothfuss/Kvothe thinks is important really is important or awesome to us readers. I'm actually kind of ticked off at WMF in several parts for spending so long at the university, for being absolutely ridiculous about martial arts/combat and a few other things.

This post has been edited by amphibian: 02 August 2012 - 05:50 PM

[Abyss]

Also...

[QuickTidal]

Finished up Gemmell's TROY: SHIELD OF THUNDER, and it was very, very good heroic fantasy based on history. I think I'm officially a Gemmell fan now and will be delving into his back catalogue.

Will probably finish up another half done novel, Kristen Britain's GREEN RIDER....and hopefully when I'm done that FORGE OF DARKNESS will have arrived.

I crosseth my fingerinos.