[wade]

After finishing House of Chains, The Quarry by Damon Galgut (bloody weird book. Definitely recommend it) and all three Bauchelain and Broach tales (The Healthy Dead had me laughing out loud at school. Ridiculously funny) I started reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, and I think I've seen some of you talk about it. But I really don't like this book. Must needs force myself to finish it.

[QuickTidal]

 the more interesting wade-newb, on 29 May 2012 - 12:49 PM, said:

After finishing House of Chains, The Quarry by Damon Galgut (bloody weird book. Definitely recommend it) and all three Bauchelain and Broach tales (The Healthy Dead had me laughing out loud at school. Ridiculously funny) I started reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, and I think I've seen some of you talk about it. But I really don't like this book. Must needs force myself to finish it.

NEVERWHERE is one of (not including his work with Pratchett on GOOD OMENS) Gaiman's first prose books. Up to that point he'd written almost exclusively for comics. Therefore it suffers from the same thing a lot of first time "author" prose works suffer from. It's interesting, but never particularly compelling. I found I had more sympathy for Door than I did Richard (who we are meant to identify with). Overall it's a clever take on an alternate reality layered on top of existing London with fairly decent characters and a passing story. It is by no means representative of Gaiman's body of work, and personally is my least favourite of his books, and the only one I've only read once (I've read pretty much everything else he wrote multiple times). The work you should judge him by would be AMERICAN GODS, STARDUST, and THE GRAVEYARD BOOK all of which are absolutely stellar...and both his short fiction books SMOKE AND MIRRORS and FRAGILE THINGS are brilliant beginning to end. But yeah, Neverwhere is a tough beast from earlier in his career, and I can understand you not caring much for it.

[JPK]

 amphibian, on 29 May 2012 - 03:41 AM, said:

 The Incredible Kitsu, on 28 May 2012 - 07:12 PM, said:

Over the last few days I've finished off my reread of Caine's Law, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max, and World War Z by Max Brooks. Digging my heels into A Betrayal In Winter a little more seriously now, and have my eye on the first Elric book to follow it up.

That's a pretty good list of books. If you're looking for more Max, he has more books out and they're also fairly good. I disagree very much with the large groups of Internet people who hate him enormously.

Have you read Richard Morgan's stuff? Or Alastair Reynolds? Or Daniel Abraham?

I've read all of Morgan's work except for Market Forces, which is currently on my trp, and as for Abraham, I've also recently been through A Shadow of Summer (thus why I'm onto the second book of the long-price quartet) and his co-op Leviathan Wakes. I LOVED Leviathan Wakes so much it made me go looking for the Long Price books.

As for Reynolds, he's one that I haven't devoted any brain-matter to yet. Do you have a suggestion on where to start on his works?

[Salt-Man Z]

 The Incredible Kitsu, on 29 May 2012 - 01:58 PM, said:

As for Reynolds, he's one that I haven't devoted any brain-matter to yet. Do you have a suggestion on where to start on his works?

Revelation Spaaaaaace!

[QuickTidal]

 Salt-Man Z, on 29 May 2012 - 02:57 PM, said:

 The Incredible Kitsu, on 29 May 2012 - 01:58 PM, said:

As for Reynolds, he's one that I haven't devoted any brain-matter to yet. Do you have a suggestion on where to start on his works?

Revelation Spaaaaaace!

^^Seconded. Though if you want a crash course on the universe it occupies read his short fiction anthology GALACTIC NORTH first.

[Salt-Man Z]

Just because once you start in, you're going to want to know the rest:

Revelation Space - trilogy book 1
Chasm City - standalone, but goes here in both chronology and publication
Redemption Ark - trilogy book 2
Absolution Gap - trilogy book 3
The Prefect - standalone, takes place before the other novels
Diamond Dogs/Turquoise Days - related novellas
Galactic North - short stories mostly set prior to the novels, though the titular story goes way out into the future

[Abyss]

 Serenity, on 29 May 2012 - 10:51 AM, said:

 amphibian, on 29 May 2012 - 03:41 AM, said:

 QuickTidal, on 28 May 2012 - 04:06 PM, said:

I had The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay lent to me by a friend YEARS ago and I've never read it, though he always maintains how good it is. I really ought to get around to it one of these days. Good to hear others liking it!

Very good book. However, The Yiddish Policeman's Union is a better written/more emotional book that got less acclaim due to being really effin' weird.

Oh, shall have to try that one then, as I'm enjoying K&C so much. Thanks for the tip

Seconded. brilliant alt hist detective story, but VERY unusual setting and not everyone's cuppa.

 QuickTidal, on 29 May 2012 - 12:59 PM, said:

 the more interesting wade-newb, on 29 May 2012 - 12:49 PM, said:

... I started reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, and I think I've seen some of you talk about it. But I really don't like this book. Must needs force myself to finish it.

NEVERWHERE is one of (not including his work with Pratchett on GOOD OMENS) Gaiman's first prose books. ...Neverwhere is a tough beast from earlier in his career, and I can understand you not caring much for it.

Yep. It reads awkward. Entertaining enuf, but not up to his usual brilliance and a bit jarring if you've already read his SANDMAN or other stuff.

 QuickTidal, on 29 May 2012 - 02:59 PM, said:

 Salt-Man Z, on 29 May 2012 - 02:57 PM, said:

 The Incredible Kitsu, on 29 May 2012 - 01:58 PM, said:

As for Reynolds, he's one that I haven't devoted any brain-matter to yet. Do you have a suggestion on where to start on his works?

Revelation Spaaaaaace!

^^Seconded. Though if you want a crash course on the universe it occupies read his short fiction anthology GALACTIC NORTH first.

Thirded. Brilliant brainfuck of a book. the sheer scope of what Reynolds comes up with there...

[QuickTidal]

 Salt-Man Z, on 29 May 2012 - 03:08 PM, said:

Diamond Dogs/Turquoise Days

DIAMOND DOGS still utterly melts my brain, aside from the quiet brilliance of THE GREAT WALL OF MARS (my fave RS Reynolds short piece), DIAMOND DOGS is my go-to, tell people about, this will fuck you up in such a good way, story. I've read it three times and it gets better each time I read it.

[polishgenius]

 Abyss, on 29 May 2012 - 04:53 PM, said:

 QuickTidal, on 29 May 2012 - 02:59 PM, said:

 Salt-Man Z, on 29 May 2012 - 02:57 PM, said:

 The Incredible Kitsu, on 29 May 2012 - 01:58 PM, said:

As for Reynolds, he's one that I haven't devoted any brain-matter to yet. Do you have a suggestion on where to start on his works?

Revelation Spaaaaaace!

^^Seconded. Though if you want a crash course on the universe it occupies read his short fiction anthology GALACTIC NORTH first.

Thirded. Brilliant brainfuck of a book. the sheer scope of what Reynolds comes up with there...

Fourthed, with the addendum that if you do read the Galactic North anthology, you probably shouldn't read the actual story Galactic North itself, since that's kind of a capstone to the main trilogy and might spoil things.

If you want to get a Reynolds taster without jumping into a huge series though, you could just as easily start with Terminal World or Pushing Ice (though Pushing Ice is very much a tribute to Arthur C. Clarke and might not showcase Reynolds' individual style that well that well.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 29 May 2012 - 05:04 PM

[QuickTidal]

 polishgenius, on 29 May 2012 - 05:03 PM, said:

Fourthed, with the addendum that if you do read the Galactic North anthology, you probably shouldn't read the actual story Galactic North itself, since that's kind of a capstone to the main trilogy and might spoil things.

Indeed. Sorry I forgot to mention that bit. I believe that the last two stories in the anthology NIGHTINGALE and GALACTIC NORTH itself both take place around or after the 3rd book in the series (ABSOLUTION GAP), so yeah read all but those.

The stories just serve well to give you a good grounding in the races and tech of the universe, and I found them immensely helpful.

[Salt-Man Z]

I read Galactic North last (expect for The Prefect, which I haven't gotten to yet) and I thought it worked well as a kind of retrospective look at the universe, plus the forward-vision of "Galactic North" itself (which should def be read last, I agree.)

If you're coming in fresh, and plan on reading everything, then maybe you might as well just do it chronologically? When I reread these, that's the way I'll be doing it. Looks like Wert's put together a chronology of all the stories.

[wade]

 QuickTidal, on 29 May 2012 - 12:59 PM, said:

 the more interesting wade-newb, on 29 May 2012 - 12:49 PM, said:

After finishing House of Chains, The Quarry by Damon Galgut (bloody weird book. Definitely recommend it) and all three Bauchelain and Broach tales (The Healthy Dead had me laughing out loud at school. Ridiculously funny) I started reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, and I think I've seen some of you talk about it. But I really don't like this book. Must needs force myself to finish it.

NEVERWHERE is one of (not including his work with Pratchett on GOOD OMENS) Gaiman's first prose books. Up to that point he'd written almost exclusively for comics. Therefore it suffers from the same thing a lot of first time "author" prose works suffer from. It's interesting, but never particularly compelling. I found I had more sympathy for Door than I did Richard (who we are meant to identify with). Overall it's a clever take on an alternate reality layered on top of existing London with fairly decent characters and a passing story. It is by no means representative of Gaiman's body of work, and personally is my least favourite of his books, and the only one I've only read once (I've read pretty much everything else he wrote multiple times). The work you should judge him by would be AMERICAN GODS, STARDUST, and THE GRAVEYARD BOOK all of which are absolutely stellar...and both his short fiction books SMOKE AND MIRRORS and FRAGILE THINGS are brilliant beginning to end. But yeah, Neverwhere is a tough beast from earlier in his career, and I can understand you not caring much for it.

Thanks for the insight! I do find myself loving the concept of Neverwhere, so it's good to hear Gaiman's actual writing ability got a lot better! Little off-topic, you might've seen recently he did a speech for some fancy university somewhere. It was a very inspiring speech. You should probably listen to that speech if you haven't yet.

And you were the one I remembered having spoken about Neverwhere. More specifically, Neverwear, if I remember correctly?

[QuickTidal]

 the more interesting wade-newb, on 29 May 2012 - 07:23 PM, said:

Little off-topic, you might've seen recently he did a speech for some fancy university somewhere. It was a very inspiring speech. You should probably listen to that speech if you haven't yet.

And you were the one I remembered having spoken about Neverwhere. More specifically, Neverwear, if I remember correctly?

I have him on FB and he posted that video of the speech there the day after they shot it and posted it. I watched it. I love just hearing him talk to be honest. LOL

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 29 May 2012 - 07:45 PM

[polishgenius]

I thought the writing in Neverwhere was fine myself but if you like the concept of it you should totally, at some point, read Un-Lun-Dun and Kraken, both by China Mieville.

 QuickTidal, on 29 May 2012 - 07:45 PM, said:

I have him on FB and he posted that video of the speech there the day after they shot it and posted it. I watched it. I love just hearing him talk to be honest. LOL

Heh. He has one of the great voices. It's up there with Morgan Freeman and Stephen Fry.

[Ukjent]

Just started with 1984 by Geroge Orwell after finishing Trudi Canavan's Priestess of the White, an enjoyable read and I think that I will buy th rest of the trilogy.

[Slow Ben]

I looooove 1984. Such a good read.


On to Toll The Hounds in my Genebackis re-read.

[Ukjent]

I can understand why you love 1984. It took my a couple of minutes to get the hold of the writing, but then I was sold. Just to bad it screwed up my sleep since i had an chemistry exam today .

[rhulad]

Turn Coat

[Abyss]

RAVENSOUL by Barclay.
This is how you write an epic fantasy end-of-the-world story. THIS!

[Serenity]

Finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (brilliant book) and wanted to read some science fiction next. Pulled several books off the shelf (The Algebraist, Shadow of the Scorpion, Mockingbird, Childhood's End) then came to the conclusion that I wanted to try a space opera by an author new to me, so it became a choice between James Corey's Leviathan Wakes and John Scalzi's Old Man's War. I chose the latter, purely because it was cheaper on the Kindle, but I reckon I'll end up reading both anyway.