Book Recommendations?

I am with you entirely Tenebrous.

I'm in agreement with you both.

Spoiler:

I mean, its like they both love being miserable more than each other. I really want to grab her by the shoulders and shake her while yelling at her to grow up. Kvothe, too. Way too smart for his own good. He can justify anything when it comes to her. 90% of the hang ups in their relationship comes from her side of the table and yet he finds a way to blame himself every single time.

I agree with the last three views on the relationship.

It's unhealthy and I really think Patrick may be writing from experience.

It really strikes me as the geek kid who pines for the girl who is damaged and slightly out of their league. She toys with him, maybe even loves him, but can't commit to the relationship. Almost high school 101.

Am I off base?

infromsea wrote:

I agree with the last three views on the relationship.

It's unhealthy and I really think Patrick may be writing from experience.

It really strikes me as the geek kid who pines for the girl who is damaged and slightly out of their league. She toys with him, maybe even loves him, but can't commit to the relationship. Almost high school 101.

Am I off base?

It's essentially a high school story, so I'd say you hit the nail on the head.

Rothfuss also wrote an advice column in college, I feel like a lot of the interactions could come from that experience.

Today's Kindle deal: all of the Wicked books for $2/each.

I read the first book before the musical came out, and once it came out I was like 'Wait, what?'.

Are the other books post-musical as good?

(Edit: Not that I guess it matters that much, because hey, cheap! *click*)

CaptainCrowbar wrote:

I've recently been reading a couple of series that I can recommend. They have two things in common: both series are about London coppers investigating the supernatural, and they're both written by former Doctor Who writers. (There must be something in the BBC's tea.)

Ben Aaronovitch has written three books about Constable Peter Grant, with more to come: Rivers of London (inexplicably retitled Midnight Riot in the US), Moon Over Soho, and Whispers Under Ground. PC Grant discovers that the murder witness he just interviewed is in fact a ghost; the discovery that he can see ghosts gets him assigned to "the Folly", Scotland Yard's small and underfunded magical crimes unit. Magic isn't public knowledge in this world, but most of the upper ranks of the police and government know it exists - they just wish it didn't, and would like the Folly to stay quietly in the background so they don't have to think about it, please. Aaronovitch's writing is a really expert mixture of horror and humour; Grant's first person voice is fun to read, but don't assume this is one of those lightweight series where the major characters always get out unscathed in the end. Oh my god no.

Paul Cornell's London Falling is in a somewhat similar vein (only one book so far, but more are promised). Four detectives investigating the mysterious (not to mention impossible) death in custody of a top gangster get thrown in the supernatural deep end and are very reluctantly forced to admit it's all real. This is much more grim-'n'-gritty in tone than the PC Grant books, although I wouldn't say there's more actual violence.

If you liked Ian Tregillis's Bitter Seeds, or Charlie Stross's Laundry books, I think you'll like these.

Captain, you are freaking me out. I have read every book that you recommended here in the last few months.

I really enjoyed the first two PC Grant books. I was mildly amazed to discover that the author was a TV writer, as his grasp of English policing procedures is really detailed and accurate; I assumed that he was an ex-copper. I didn't enjoy the third book as much, but that may have been due to my internal hype. I think I may have plugged these books a few pages ago.

I found Cornell's debut novel to be very interesting, though he needs to work on his characterisation a bit. I suspect that it is a bit of a throwback to his work on comics, where you only have a few panels to establish a character. I have been a fan of his comics for years, though most of them them have been slightly obscure titles for Marvel, and have been cancelled before the end as a result.

If you like the above, I will cautiously recommend Vampire State Of Mind by Jane Lovering. It was free for iOS in Starbucks this week, and I grabbed it as it is set in York, where I lived for a few years. Lovering is a writer of romantic fiction, which does show through a bit, but she is pretty self aware about both it and the Anne Rice tendency in vampire books.

The world is one in which, after a hundred years of war, there is a treaty between humans and Otherworlders. The lead is a city Council worker tasked with keeping an eye on the vamps, when she is not eating biscuits or thinking about eating biscuits. One reference to distracting ever-fashionable vampires using leaflets from the local designer outlet made me laugh out loud. My recommendation is cautious as I haven't finished it yet, but I am optimistic that she won't slide into any of the usual traps.

necroyeti wrote:
infromsea wrote:

I agree with the last three views on the relationship.

It's unhealthy and I really think Patrick may be writing from experience.

It really strikes me as the geek kid who pines for the girl who is damaged and slightly out of their league. She toys with him, maybe even loves him, but can't commit to the relationship. Almost high school 101.

Am I off base?

It's essentially a high school story, so I'd say you hit the nail on the head.

You're right, and it's depressing, because Rothfuss is such a strong writer. His world building, plot, most characters, many individual scenes, and storytelling ability are all so strong that his weaknesses (Denna and sex goddess are the worst for me) really stand out.

At least it's a great story with some high school elements as opposed to a high school story with some great elements, which is what I thought of Harry Potter.

Well it's worth remembering that Kvothe is still young in book 2. That doesn't excuse the sex goddess, however.

I'll have you all know that Sexomancy is a legit practice.

Grenn wrote:

I'll have you all know that Sexomancy is a legit practice.

It was more like erotic pokemon stadium.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Well it's worth remembering that Kvothe is still young in book 2. That doesn't excuse the sex goddess, however. :)

All true. It's certainly better than the pining in Eragon or the emotional transcendence of Guy Gavrial Kay.

Does Abercrombie really have the best personal relationship writing in fantasy? Someone give me a better informed opinion.

Of course you'd say that, Zapp.

Squee9 wrote:
Grenn wrote:

I'll have you all know that Sexomancy is a legit practice.

It was more like erotic pokemon stadium.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Well it's worth remembering that Kvothe is still young in book 2. That doesn't excuse the sex goddess, however. :)

All true. It's certainly better than the pining in Eragon or the emotional transcendence of Guy Gavrial Kay.

Does Abercrombie really have the best personal relationship writing in fantasy? Someone give me a better informed opinion.

Robin Hobb is probably the best.

One vote for Ellen Kushner.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Of course you'd say that, Zapp.

I've studied it for years on my own.

Necessary Evil (Part 3 of the Milkweed Trilogy) is out today! Woo hoo!

If you haven't read the first two books, they can be found here and here.

Description of Book 1 wrote:

It’s 1939. The Nazis have supermen, the British have demons, and one perfectly normal man gets caught in between

Raybould Marsh is a British secret agent in the early days of the Second World War, haunted by something strange he saw on a mission during the Spanish Civil War: a German woman with wires going into her head who looked at him as if she knew him.

When the Nazis start running missions with people who have unnatural abilities—a woman who can turn invisible, a man who can walk through walls, and the woman Marsh saw in Spain who can use her knowledge of the future to twist the present—Marsh is the man who has to face them. He rallies the secret warlocks of Britain to hold the impending invasion at bay. But magic always exacts a price. Eventually, the sacrifice necessary to defeat the enemy will be as terrible as outright loss would be.

Alan Furst meets Alan Moore in the opening of an epic of supernatural alternate history, the tale of a twentieth century like ours and also profoundly different.

My god, it's full of stars.

The latest StoryBundle (think Humble Bundle, but for books) may be of interest -- it has a video games theme, and includes the following:

The Making of Karateka by Jordan Mechner
Generation Xbox: How Videogames Invaded Hollywood by Jamie Russell
Kill Screen Magazine Issue 2: Back To School + Issue 6: Change by Kill Screen Editors
Constellation Games by Leonard Richardson
Killing is Harmless: A Critical Reading of Spec Ops: The Line by Brendan Keogh
Confessions of the Game Doctor by Bill Kunkel

If you pay more than $10, you get all of the above plus three extras:

Videogames: In The Beginning by Ralph H. Baer
The Making Of Prince Of Persia by Jordan Mechner
250 Indie Games You Must Play by Mike Rose

Serengeti wrote:

Necessary Evil (Part 3 of the Milkweed Trilogy) is out today! Woo hoo!

If you haven't read the first two books, they can be found here and here.

Description of Book 1 wrote:

It’s 1939. The Nazis have supermen, the British have demons, and one perfectly normal man gets caught in between

Raybould Marsh is a British secret agent in the early days of the Second World War, haunted by something strange he saw on a mission during the Spanish Civil War: a German woman with wires going into her head who looked at him as if she knew him.

When the Nazis start running missions with people who have unnatural abilities—a woman who can turn invisible, a man who can walk through walls, and the woman Marsh saw in Spain who can use her knowledge of the future to twist the present—Marsh is the man who has to face them. He rallies the secret warlocks of Britain to hold the impending invasion at bay. But magic always exacts a price. Eventually, the sacrifice necessary to defeat the enemy will be as terrible as outright loss would be.

Alan Furst meets Alan Moore in the opening of an epic of supernatural alternate history, the tale of a twentieth century like ours and also profoundly different.

I am waiting to pick this up untill it has wispersink with audible. Got an Audible credit waiting for this one.

Serengeti wrote:

Necessary Evil (Part 3 of the Milkweed Trilogy) is out today! Woo hoo!

If you haven't read the first two books, they can be found here and here.

Description of Book 1 wrote:

It’s 1939. The Nazis have supermen, the British have demons, and one perfectly normal man gets caught in between

Raybould Marsh is a British secret agent in the early days of the Second World War, haunted by something strange he saw on a mission during the Spanish Civil War: a German woman with wires going into her head who looked at him as if she knew him.

When the Nazis start running missions with people who have unnatural abilities—a woman who can turn invisible, a man who can walk through walls, and the woman Marsh saw in Spain who can use her knowledge of the future to twist the present—Marsh is the man who has to face them. He rallies the secret warlocks of Britain to hold the impending invasion at bay. But magic always exacts a price. Eventually, the sacrifice necessary to defeat the enemy will be as terrible as outright loss would be.

Alan Furst meets Alan Moore in the opening of an epic of supernatural alternate history, the tale of a twentieth century like ours and also profoundly different.

I picked it up for my Kindle last night - I got stuck waiting for one of my kids to finish one of their activities and (somehow) I remember the title of this, Very early in, but interesting stuff so far.

I'm a month late sharing, but Goodreads.com was purchased by Amazon for data mining. Here's a bookseller perspective I agree with: http://e2.ma/message/xpoxb/xlh1ei

http://read.rifflebooks.com/ This place isn't bad if you want an online replacement.

I'm curious: has anyone ever read the Riddle-Master trilogy? I'm waiting for my next Culture book to arrive and I decided to re-read this series.

Squee9 wrote:

I'm a month late sharing, but Goodreads.com was purchased by Amazon for data mining. Here's a bookseller perspective I agree with: http://e2.ma/message/xpoxb/xlh1ei

I'm not sure this is the best thread for discussions on that's but I don't think I could disagree with this article more nor could it be more disingenuous (the kind of tactic these "professionals" would never use). The opening half is virtually all about government spying and first amendment rights. This has nothing at all to do with Goodreads or Amazon, neither of which are governments, or report data to governments, and neither of which is collecting data you don't give to them, through the use of their services and sites (ie nobody is spying or conducting warrentless searches).

Regarding data mining in general if companies feel they can find things I prefer and supply me with good deals in those areas, I'm not surer I see to much downside. I'd much rather targeted marketing rather than generic marketing.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

I'm curious: has anyone ever read the Riddle-Master trilogy? I'm waiting for my next Culture book to arrive and I decided to re-read this series.

Yup yup. Good stuff!

It's funny, Amazon has their own Kindle-branded Goodreads-style site, but it is awful. I hope they can avoid poisoning Goodreads. In case it goes bad, an alternative I like is Library Thing.

Has anyone read this:

Cronox wrote:
Squee9 wrote:

I'm a month late sharing, but Goodreads.com was purchased by Amazon for data mining. Here's a bookseller perspective I agree with: http://e2.ma/message/xpoxb/xlh1ei

I'm not sure this is the best thread for discussions...

Just some awareness for the book crowd, political discussions can happen elsewhere if people feel like it.

In book news, I'm about half way through the first Sanderson Wheel of Time. His writing fits the style, and the plot points seem to be coming a much swifter pace. Feels like it will be a good conclusion trilogy.

I finished reading Tears in Rain last night. Yes it was somewhat inspired by Blade Runner and even makes reference to that line in the film. It was sort of a futuristic cyberpunkish detective tale. My main complaint is that the end happened really quickly and was a bit too neat.

Serengeti wrote:

Necessary Evil (Part 3 of the Milkweed Trilogy) is out today! Woo hoo!

And done. So, so good. Loved the trilogy!