[werewolfv2]

some books/authors are general fiction and not Sci-Fi or Fantasy (as in Russo).

My rating deals with several factors, including but not limited to (and in no order);
Story
World Building
Characters
How much fun it was to read
Re-read factor

I also am loath to give anything higher than a 9/10. I like to leave a cushion in case I find "the perfect book" So I think folks can add a .5 or even a whole point to books that Ive given at least a 7.5 to and up.


Richard Russo - Nobody's Fool 9/10
The Darkness that Comes Before (Prince of Nothing) - R. Scott Bakker 9/10
City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer 9/10


The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch 8.5/10
Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog) - Jerome K. Jerome 8.5/10
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman 8.5/10
George R.R. Martin - Song of Ice and Fire Series 8.5/10
Richard Russo - Straight Man 8.5/10
Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover 8.5/10
Blood Follows : A Tale of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach by Steven Erikson 8.5/10
Deadhouse Gates - Steven Erikson 8.5/10
Memories of Ice - Steven Erikson 8.5/10
Midnight Tides - Steven Erikson 8.5/10


Perdido Street Station - China Mi?ville 8/10
Body Count - William Huggett 8/10
The Bone Dolls Twin - Lynn Flewelling 8/10
Veniss Underground - Jeff Vandermeer 8/10
Finn Mac Cool - Morgan Llymelyn 8/10
The Black Company - Glenn Cook 8/10
Anne Bishop - Black Jewels Trilogy 8/10
David Gemmell - Legend (Drenai Tales, Book 1) 8/10
Michael Malone - Handling Sin 8/10
The Jackal of Nar by John Marco 8/10
The Grand Design by John Marco 8/10
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman 8/10
Thud!: A Novel of Discworld by Terry Pratchett 8/10
Gardens of the Moon - Steven Erikson 8/10
The Iron Tower (trilogy) by Dennis L. McKiernan 8/10


Roger Zelazny - The Great Book of Amber 7.5/10
The Bonehunters - Steven Erikson 7.5/10
The Healthy Dead - Steven Erikson 7.5/10
The Saints of the Sword by John Marco 7.5/10
Quest for Lost Heroes - David Gemmell 7.5/10
Fargo Rock City - Chuck Klosterman 7.5/10
The Briar King - Greg Keyes 7.5/10
Tad Williams - Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series 7.5/10
The Twins (Gemquest) by Gary Alan Wassner 7.5/10
Dreams Made Flesh by Anne Bishop 7.5/10
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett 7.5/10
Mutineer's Moon by David Weber 7.5/10
The Armageddon Inheritance by David Weber 7.5/10


The Woody -Peter Lefcourt 7/10
His Majesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik 7/10
Black Powder War 7/10
House of Chains - Steven Erikson 7/10
The Golden Ocean - Patrick O'Brian 7/10
Barry Hughart - Bridge of Birds 7/10
David Eddings - The Belgariad Series 7/10
The Novels of Tiger and Del by Jennifer Roberson 7/10
The Deed of Paksenarrion - Elizabeth Moon 7/10
Heather Gladney - Song of Naga Teot series 7/10
Hyperion - Dan Simmon 7/10
ht of Knives "A Novel of Malaz" by Ian Cameron Esslemont. 7/10
Tears of Artamon (trilogy) by Sara Ash 7/10
Magician: Apprentice (Riftwar Saga)- Raymond Feist 7/10
Path of the Fury - David Weber 7/10


Mickey Zucker Reichert - Renshai Series 6.5/10
Thone of Jade - Naomi Novik 6.5/10
Soldier of the Mist - Gene Wolfe 6.5/10
The High-Tech Knight (Adventures of Conrad Stargard, Book 2) by Leo A. Frankowski 6.5/10


James Clemens - The Banned and the Banished series 6/10
Paul Edwin Zimmer - The Lost Prince (Dark Border, Vol. 1) 6/10
The Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons 6/10
SINFUL ONES by Fritz Leiber 6/10
Midnight Falcon - David Gemmel 6/10
Liveship Traders (book 1 Ship of Magic) Robin Hobb 6/10

[warmsoda]

Though I'm still about a hundred pages from finishing Memories of Ice, I would have to say it scores at least a 9 for me... The humor, the action, the background being revealed, the pacing, it's all really working for me.

Blood Follows and The Healthy Dead would be 7 and 7.5, respectively... I actually find the characters more interestingly depicted in MoI.

And Perdido Street Station would be about 8.5, with Mieville's The Scar being a 9, and Iron Council being a 7.

[Dolorous Menhir]

Why are you on the forum???? Finish Memories of Ice already!

edit: whoever gave me negative rep for this post, I was just surprised that someone would get to the last 100 pages of MoI and then stop in the middle of the climax. I would just finish it right away, I wasn't suggesting they leave the forum until they had read it.

[Werthead]

Right. Maintaining a bit of a 'usual suspects' theme here, but what the hell!

The Silmarillion - JRR Tolkien - 10/10
A Storm of Swords - George RR Martin - 10/10
Memories of Ice - Steven Erikson - 10/10
The Reality Dysfunction - Peter F. Hamilton - 10/10
The Prestige - Christopher Priest - 10/10
Dune - Frank Herbert - 10/10
Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke - 10/10

A Game of Thrones - George RR Martin - 9/10
Deadhouse Gates - Steven Erikson - 9/10
The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch - 9/10
Helliconia Spring - Brian W. Aldiss - 9/10
Chasm City - Alastair Reynolds - 9/10
Pandora's Star - Peter F. Hamilton - 9/10
The Lions of Al-Rassan - Guy Gavriel Kay - 9/10
The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien - 9/10
The Separation - Christopher Priest - 9/10
Small Gods - Terry Pratchett - 9/10
Fevre Dream - George RR Martin - 9/10
Tigana - Guy Gavriel Kay - 9/10
Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke - 9/10
Tales of the Dying Earth - Jack Vance - 9/10
The Neutronium Alchemist - Peter F. Hamilton - 9/10
Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett - 9/10

The Warrior Prophet - R. Scott Bakker - 8/10
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman - 8/10
Midnight Tides - Steven Erikson - 8/10
The Naked God - Peter F. Hamilton - 8/10
A Clash of Kings - George RR Martin - 8/10
Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds - 8/10
The Darkness That Comes Before - R. Scott Bakker - 8/10
Gardens of the Moon - Steven Erikson - 8/10
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman - 8/10
Helliconia Summer - Brian W. Aldiss - 8/10

The Bonehunters - Steven Erikson - 7/10
American Gods - Neil Gaiman - 7/10
House of Chains - Steven Erikson - 7/10
Judas Unchained - Peter F. Hamilton - 7/10
The Thousandfold Thought - R. Scott Bakker - 7/10
Helliconia Winter - Brian W. Aldiss - 7/10

[werewolfv2]

perfect 10s?

ouch
now what happens when you read a book even better than something you have given a 10 to? hehe

[Sir Thursday]

A few queries regarding authors I haven't heard of on those lists:

Werthead said:

The Prestige - Christopher Priest - 10/10

What makes this one so good then? Care to explain?

werewolfv2 said:

Richard Russo - Nobody's Fool 9/10
Richard Russo - Straight Man 8.5/10

Never heard of Russo before...what makes him rank so highly in your estimation?

I'll put one of these together and post it when it's done.

Sir Thursday

[Werthead]

werewolfv2;111248 said:

perfect 10s?

ouch
now what happens when you read a book even better than something you have given a 10 to? hehe

Give it an 11

Quote

What makes this one so good then? Care to explain?

From my Review archive:

The Prestige is the ninth novel by the British SF author Christopher Priest. It was first published in 1995 and won the World Fantasy Award for that year. It is Priest's best-known novel and apparently his most successful.

The Prestige is the story of two feuding magicians from the late 19th Century, the aristocratic Rupert Angier and his working-class nemesis, Alfred Borden, and how that feud affects later generations of their families, personified in the mid-1990s by Borden's descendent Andrew Westley and Kate Angier. A strange mystery has haunted Andrew's life and his search for the answer leads him to Kate and the story of the feud.

From there the novel takes us back some 130 years and relates, in two seperate sections, the life stories of Alfred Borden and Rupert Angier. Borden's story is told as a somewhat (deliberately) confused narrative, supposedly a commentary on a book on stage magic, but Borden's need to tell his story takes over and he goes into detail about his life and the feud with Angier. We learn that Borden develops an incredible magic trick which no-one can fathom, a trick which is then improved upon by Angier, to Borden's fury. The narrative then switches to Angier's more formal diary. Angier's story forms the bulk of the novel and takes us through his youth and his slow beginnings at the art of magic until his fateful meeting with Borden and the consequences of that meeting.

Priest tells his story by shifting between four first-person narratives (Andrew and Kate in the present, Rupert and Alfred in the past), altering his prose style between the two periods with apparent ease and painting these four central characters and the other characters described in their tales with depth and layers. As well as giving an insight into the world of stage magic he brings turn-of-the-century Britain to life with its slow, reluctant letting go of the old century and its embrace of the new, symbolised by the power of electricity. Electricity itself is nearly a character in the novel, the awe which Angier holds it in described with a nearly fetish-like quality and brought to life through the historical figure of Nikolai Tesla, who plays a minor but key role in the narrative.

The Prestige is a puzzle built upon twists, turns and conflicting mysteries. It's like an M Night Shymalan film but one where the twist you were confidently expecting is suddenly yanked out of sight and something unforseen being dropped in its place. Some may question whether if this is really an SF novel, so subtle are the ideas being explored here, but by the end of the book more overt SF elements have emerged and it is a tribute to Priest's writing that he keeps things firmly grounded in reality. The ending, when it comes, may strike some as abrupt, but on another level it is the perfect, ambiguous ending to a nearly perfectly-tuned mystery. The Prestige is one of the most finely-written, 'different' SF novels I've ever read, and firmly recommended to all. 5/5

The Prestige is being turned into a movie and will be released at the end of October 2006. The film version seems to concentrate on the extensive flashback sequences and the framing sequence set in the present seems to have been dropped. The film stars Christian Bale as Alfred Borden and Hugh Jackman as Ruper Angier (yep, Batman versus Wolverine!) and is directed by Christopher Nolan, famous for Memento and Batman Begins. The film also co-stars Scarlett Johansson, Michael Caine and Andy Serkis, and will feature a cameo by David Bowie as Nikolai Tesla. Normally movie adaptions of great novels are to be feared, but with a genuine talent like Nolan behind the lens and good actors in front of it (and I think Jackman could be sensational as Angier), I am cautiously optimistic. The fact that Nolan was keen to ensure the film's script met with Priest's approval was a wise decision.

[werewolfv2]

Sir Thursday;111325 said:

Never heard of Russo before...what makes him rank so highly in your estimation?

ahh..

I should have made a note on my post I guess

some of the books are not fantasy/sci-fi and are just general fiction.

Russo is a very very good author. He blends the real world, humor and emotion into vastly enjoyable books.

(just gonna steal info off Amazon.com here)

Nobodys Fool - Sixty-year-old Sully is "nobody's fool," except maybe his own. Out of work (undeclared-income work is what he does, when he can), down to his last few bucks, hampered by an arthritic broken knee, Sully is worried that he's started on a run of bad luck. And he has. The banker son of his octogenarian landlady wants him evicted; Sully's estranged son comes home for Thanksgiving only to have his wife split; Sully's own high-strung ex-wife seems headed for a nervous breakdown; and his longtime lover is blaming him for her daughter's winding up in the hospital with a busted jaw. But Sully's biggest problem is the memory of his own abusive father, a ghost who haunts his every day. As he demonstrated in Mohawk (Random, 1986) and The Risk Pool (Random, 1989), Russo knows the small towns of upstate New York and the people who inhabit them; he writes with humor and compassion. A delight.

----

Straight Man - st Jane Smiley came out of the comedy closet with Moo, a campus satire par excellence, and now Richard Russo has gotten in on the groves-of-academe game. Straight Man is hilarious sport, with a serious side. William Henry Devereaux Jr., is almost 50 and stuck forever as chair of English at West Central Pennsylvania University. It is April and fear of layoffs--even among the tenured--has reached mock-epic proportions; Hank has yet to receive his department budget and finds himself increasingly offering comments such as "Always understate necrophilia" to his writing students. Then there are his possible prostate problems and the prospect of his father's arrival. Devereaux Sr., "then and now, an academic opportunist," has always been a high-profile professor and a low-profile parent.
Though Hank tries to apply William of Occam's rational approach (choose simplicity) to each increasingly absurd situation, and even has a dog named after the philosopher, he does seem to cause most of his own enormous difficulties. Not least when he grabs a goose and threatens to off a duck (sic) a day until he gets his budget. The fact that he is also wearing a fake nose and glasses and doing so in front of a TV camera complicates matters even further. Hank tries to explain to one class that comedy and tragedy don't go together, but finds the argument "runs contrary to their experience. Indeed it may run contrary to my own." It runs decidedly against Richard Russo's approach in Straight Man, and the result is a hilarious and touching novel

[caladanbrood]

Wait, wolf, Blood Follows is the best book you've read? An odd decision...

[werewolfv2]

caladanbrood;111424 said:

Wait, wolf, Blood Follows is the best book you've read? An odd decision...

I find it more than a little odd myself, I also tend to dislike short stories in general.... go figure:confused: it did manage to dodge an issue that a longer story tends to have, there wasnt any filler and there wasnt any part that I either disliked or bored me.

I just really really liked it. I havent re-read it in awhile so it might get bumped down a touch when I do.

[edit]
Come to think of it, I guess I will bump it down right now. I forgot on key factor in my ratings, the re-read factor. As a short story its re-read factor is far less than a longer, more indepth book.

[warmsoda]

werewolfv2;111434 said:

... As a short story its re-read factor is far less than a longer, more indepth book.

Really? I tend to enjoy rereading short stories, and only a handful of novels have I made a point of rereading. I don't know how many times I reread William Gibson's Johnny Mnemonic or Burning Chrome...

Probably has more to with the amount of time I am willing to devote to a rereading...

[werewolfv2]

I tend to miss more details in a longer book than in a short one