[worry]

I've never seen Prometheus.

[Baco Xtath]

 worrywort, on 22 June 2012 - 03:32 AM, said:

I've never seen Prometheus.

It's about flesh eating geese and insomnia, so, yeah, it's already been done.

[worry]

[Morgoth]

I finished Railsea yesterday, and must say I enjoyed it much more than Embassytown and The City and the City. This time around the setting didn't overwhelm the story I felt, if that makes any sense to you guys.

It's truly a joy to read authors of fantasy who genuinely have a good grasp of language and prose. Few do, it seems to me.

[Abyss]

 Morgoth, on 22 June 2012 - 07:59 AM, said:

I finished Railsea yesterday, and must say I enjoyed it much more than Embassytown and The City and the City. This time around the setting didn't overwhelm the story I felt, if that makes any sense to you guys.

It's truly a joy to read authors of fantasy who genuinely have a good grasp of language and prose. Few do, it seems to me.

Agreed - Mieville was in brilliant form with his use of language here. I actually enjoyed his 'talk directly to the reader' interludes, and the way they played on expectations of where the story 'should' go next. And the key narrative tick, which i won't spoil, initially irritated me but when he explains it i thought it was just brilliant.

Your point re the setting is interesting, because intrinsically none of the storylines themselves are all that original, but the way they are done, in this fairly original setting (yes 'railworld' has been done elsewhere, but it didn't have giant moles) makes it all come together very nicely.

I had read that this was a YA book, but despite its young protags and lack of sex or bloody violence (there's violence, but nothing like a Bas-Lag book), i found the overall story fairly mature. Not Embassytown-mature, but adult enough.

All of which is to say this is Mieville having fun and doing a brilliant job of it.

[QuickTidal]

Thanks for the slump recco's all, but I dug into the ToRead pile and began William Dietrich's THE DAKOTA CYPHER, which is the equivalent of what would happen if you mixed the Sharpe Books with James Rollins and Ancient Aliens, and as a quick read it's scratching the itch.

and being a Miéville fan I WILL read RAILSEA, just not yet.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 22 June 2012 - 03:41 PM

[yuna_anomander25]

i'm currently almost halfway down to Summer Knight and enjoying it, esp Bob the Skull
i'm curious, if Harry Dresden(and all other wizards for that matter) is prone to destroying/not in tune w/ electrical devices, how come he can still drive his Beetle?
doesn't it(all cars) still have electrical devices in them?

and reading a few chapters of Deadhouse Gates:
it really amazes me, when you realize, a specific character/s you have grown to love/like in recent books, have already been there, was already introduced before,

This post has been edited by yuna_anomander25: 23 June 2012 - 01:53 AM

[amphibian]

 yuna_anomander25, on 22 June 2012 - 10:32 PM, said:

i'm currently almost halfway down to Summer Knight and enjoying it, esp Bob the Skull
i'm curious, if Harry Dresden(and all other wizards for that matter) is prone to destroying/not in tune w/ electrical devices, how come he can still drive his Beetle?
doesn't it(all cars) still have electrical devices in them?

Buddy, you need to get outside and learn about the real world by doing stuff in it.

The old 1960s era VW Beetle Dresden drives has basically nothing magic-cookable in it. As purely mechanical as cheap old clunkers get.

[worry]

Also, don't post spoilers unless you put them behind a Spoiler tag.

[yuna_anomander25]

 amphibian, on 22 June 2012 - 10:37 PM, said:

The old 1960s era VW Beetle Dresden drives has basically nothing magic-cookable in it. As purely mechanical as cheap old clunkers get.

thanks, just curious, just stuff that comes into mind at the moment, a Bumble-bee type of car is what comes to mind,
haven't done any research, will be doing that next time, before i post, sorry,

fixed

This post has been edited by yuna_anomander25: 23 June 2012 - 01:54 AM

[amphibian]

 yuna_anomander25, on 22 June 2012 - 11:17 PM, said:

thanks, just curious, just stuff that comes into mind at the moment, a Bumble-bee type of car is what comes to mind,
haven't done any research, will be doing that next time, before i post, sorry,

Research? All you need to know is that electronics started getting into cars for real around the 1980s.

The VW Beetle was basically the biggest mass produced "it gets where it's going" car on the planet for about 30 years, thus parts are cheap, plentiful and easy to work with. It's why Dresden can keep driving a car despite it getting smashed up so often in his magical escapades.

That's it. Keep toodling around and doing what you do. Get outside a bit more often though so you pick up really random facts that someone like me wouldn't know about other things. The VW thing is really a common tidbit though...

[Salt-Man Z]

Doesn't Harry explain that a couple times in the early books anyway?

[worry]

I believe yuna mentioned that Summer Knight is the first Dresden he's reading. While I would beg him on my hands and knees to never ever ever start a series from the middle for the rest of his life, it's too late for Dresden. (Glad you like it though, yuna).

[yuna_anomander25]

 worrywort, on 23 June 2012 - 04:21 AM, said:

I believe yuna mentioned that Summer Knight is the first Dresden he's reading. While I would beg him on my hands and knees to never ever ever start a series from the middle for the rest of his life, it's too late for Dresden. (Glad you like it though, yuna).

yeah, thanks for the advice, i'll heed it from now on, as i just can't resist, the bookstore where i bought my Dresden & TGS-RJ/BS was having a mall-wide sale, that was the only copy i saw, or maybe i just missed a few, most likely the latter, and mostly i could catch-up from there, it just struck me curious, as i said the image i thought up was a Bumblebee-type(the vintage type not the camaro) of car, so my apologies,

well, i just have to make do with what i had, i'll definitely acquire the rest from book 1, i think i saw the latest, just can't remember the title, after CHANGES,

[Nocturnal]

Currently reading Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky. I loved The Karamazov Brothers, so I'm having high expectations for this too.

[amphibian]

 yuna_anomander25, on 23 June 2012 - 04:44 AM, said:

the image i thought up was a Bumblebee-type(the vintage type not the camaro) of car, so my apologies,

It is the vintage type. Looks something like this - but more dented, less color-matched and less clean:

 patchworkbeetle.JPG (53.19K)
Number of downloads: 0

[Baco Xtath]

 amphibian, on 23 June 2012 - 10:15 PM, said:

 yuna_anomander25, on 23 June 2012 - 04:44 AM, said:

the image i thought up was a Bumblebee-type(the vintage type not the camaro) of car, so my apologies,

It is the vintage type. Looks something like this - but more dented, less color-matched and less clean:

 patchworkbeetle.JPG (53.19K)
Number of downloads: 0

Now that looks like a wizard's car!

[yuna_anomander25]

 Baco Xtath, on 23 June 2012 - 11:34 PM, said:

 amphibian, on 23 June 2012 - 10:15 PM, said:

 yuna_anomander25, on 23 June 2012 - 04:44 AM, said:

the image i thought up was a Bumblebee-type(the vintage type not the camaro) of car, so my apologies,

It is the vintage type. Looks something like this - but more dented, less color-matched and less clean:

 patchworkbeetle.JPG (53.19K)
Number of downloads: 0

Now that looks like a wizard's car!

yeah, that was what i had in mind, albeit pure yellow, didn't know it was purely mechanical before,

and i just finished Summer Knight, all i could say is - WOW!!!
i have somewhat liked Elaine, and also Maeve,
by the way, there is some few reference of Star Wars in the book, is Jim Butcher a big fan of Star Wars?

[amphibian]

Excellent - we now have another Dresden Files convert!

 yuna_anomander25, on 24 June 2012 - 01:19 AM, said:

by the way, there is some few reference of Star Wars in the book, is Jim Butcher a big fan of Star Wars?

Dresden is (and since Butcher sometimes uses Dresden as a stand-in for his own pop culture quips, yes, Butcher loves Star Wars).

If you liked Summer Knight, you can keep going in the series, but I'd recommend looping back to the beginning because a few events early on in the series have big repercussions later. The first couple books are decent, Grave Peril gets pretty good and Summer Knight is the kick-off point to how awesome the series gets.

[Orlion]

 Nocturnal, on 23 June 2012 - 10:26 AM, said:

Currently reading Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky. I loved The Karamazov Brothers, so I'm having high expectations for this too.

Loved Crime and Punishment. The Karamazov Brothers is on my reading list. Which translation are you reading?