Book Recommendations?

bnpederson wrote:

I don't think anything Piers Anthony wrote isn't disgusting upon reading today.

John Norman's entire oeuvre is currently competing for that descriptor.

Natus wrote:
bnpederson wrote:

I don't think anything Piers Anthony wrote isn't disgusting upon reading today.

John Norman's entire oeuvre is currently competing for that descriptor.

Eh. Has he written an ode to pedophilia like Anthony's Firefly?

I stopped reading Anthony in the 70's, so... Yay?

Norman is in a different league, because he was writing porn. I actually read a few of his books in what, late middle school? Because the whole giant warriors riding giant birds was pret-ty cool to me. Until I realized that the irrelevant to me sex stuff was *the point*. I bailed hard and fast after figuring that out. Not my style.

(It's funny that I read Anne MacAffrey for the same reason - dragons! - but that turned out *entirely* differently lol.)

trichy wrote:

I read and enjoyed the Xanth novels by Piers Anthony when I was ten. I tried revisiting them a few years ago, and they're AWFUL with that kind of stuff.

It's always rough when you reread a beloved book from your childhood and realize that it's offensive/garbage.

There was a time when I was a stupid teen that I considered Piers Anthony my favorite author. Eventually I came to realize just how f*cking awful his stuff was. Not just Xanth, there's the Apprentice Adept series (where everyone but the 1% are forced to be naked all the time), the Bio of a Space Tyrant series, the Tarot series, and then there's Anthonology, a collection of short stories including one where human women are literally cattle and milked on a dairy farm.

Just, ugh. I blame my parents.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
trichy wrote:

I read and enjoyed the Xanth novels by Piers Anthony when I was ten. I tried revisiting them a few years ago, and they're AWFUL with that kind of stuff.

It's always rough when you reread a beloved book from your childhood and realize that it's offensive/garbage.

There was a time when I was a stupid teen that I considered Piers Anthony my favorite author. Eventually I came to realize just how f*cking awful his stuff was. Not just Xanth, there's the Apprentice Adept series (where everyone but the 1% are forced to be naked all the time), the Bio of a Space Tyrant series, the Tarot series, and then there's Anthonology, a collection of short stories including one where human women are literally cattle and milked on a dairy farm.

Just, ugh. I blame my parents.

What's really mindblowing to me is that all of those were just sitting in the middle school library. There was no oversight of the content of these books whatsoever.

The Incarnations of Immortality is a great series written by Anthony.

It's definitely a series written by Anthony.

Update from a couple weeks ago on my book backlog pile progress.

Poetry Adventure and Love by Ed Elgar
Tick (Book 1) by Allison Rose
Indecent Proposal by Jack Engelhard
Proximity: A Novel of the Navy's Elite Bomb Squad by Stephen Phillips
Progeny by Shawn Hopkins
Secrets in the Shadows by T.L. Haddix
Trapped on the Titanic by Tammy Knox
Rowena Through the Wall by Melodie Campbell
Pandora's Genes by Kathryn Lance
Tomfoolery by Lou Harper

Two more to go!

I could have actually completed this list except that I read the other two books in the "Rowena Through the Wall" series as well.

Secrets in the Shadows explored consequences of sexual abuse and incest and included suspense, mystery, and romance in a small-town. It's also a standalone book, which I like. Despite these topics, it wasn't too graphic.

Trapped on the Titanic turned out to be a young adult historic fiction plus ghost story which was fun! Lots of Titanic lore, but it enhances rather than gets in the way of the story.

Rowena through the Wall is an alternate world sexual fantasy/romance that takes place between the modern U.S. and an alternate very alpha-male patriarchal place called Land's End in which all the women have disappeared or died off from a curse, and of course all of the men there are "hunky". Two women visit there through a portal in a classroom wall. While I was interested in the storyline and there was more character development in the later books, I found the "romance" parts to be annoying. Literally a bodice (if not the entire dress)-ripper.

I haven't started Pandora's Genes yet, but looks like it's post-apocalyptic fiction.

Wrapped up Brandon Sanderson's Children of the Nameless (his free Magic the Gathering novella) a week or two ago and really enjoyed that. Definitely worth the read for the price of free.

I also trucked my way through the Spider-Man PS4 tie-in novel Spider-Man: Hostile Takeover. I'm not really one for tie-in stuff but I was really surprised by this book. It's a pretty fantastic Spider-Man story and a fun, quick read. I had issue with one character I won't go into detail about for spoiler reasons (a minor character, but still) who just didn't seem to act like a human would in some situations. But other then that very small issue I really liked it. Definitely worth a read if you like the comic/game

That reminds me, I read a DC novel recently that wasn't half bad. Catwoman: Soulstealer, by Sarah J. Maas who has some decent YA fantasy books I think. It mainly focuses on Selena Kyle as Catwoman, and Luke Fox as Batwing, with some other Batman rogues gallery people like Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn.

I've queued up a couple more of these books from DC Icons. Looks they've hired some mid-tiered authors to write some of these.

I finished the first book (2 books depending on how you split it) for Magician by Raymond E. Feist. I honestly didn't really enjoy it. It had some interesting pieces, but I like stories where it follows the main character and a couple of other central people. This one just felt like it was Pug, Thomas and EVERYONE else. It's like, ok, it's a book about a Magician. Give me Pug's story! Felt like forever between pieces and it was like the story of the world(s) here rather than the character and it didn't really work for me.

Don't think I want to go to the next books in the series. Already moving on to The Stormlight Archive series from Brandon Sanderson and so far it's definitely got it's hooks in. Interesting story so far, really curious to see how it all unfolds.

BlackSabre wrote:

I finished the first book (2 books depending on how you split it) for Magician by Raymond E. Feist. I honestly didn't really enjoy it. It had some interesting pieces, but I like stories where it follows the main character and a couple of other central people. This one just felt like it was Pug, Thomas and EVERYONE else. It's like, ok, it's a book about a Magician. Give me Pug's story! Felt like forever between pieces and it was like the story of the world(s) here rather than the character and it didn't really work for me.

Don't think I want to go to the next books in the series. Already moving on to The Stormlight Archive series from Brandon Sanderson and so far it's definitely got it's hooks in. Interesting story so far, really curious to see how it all unfolds.

It's almost unfair to compare Feist to contemporary authors like Sanderson. He was never really trying to push the boundaries of the genre, more like tell the best story he could using existing tropes. Compared to a lot of his contemporaries, I think he actually comes off pretty well. His books are still readable, if a little hackneyed, especially compared to guys like Goodkind and even Robert Jordan to a certain extent. You rarely come across an old Feist book and say, "Oh yeah, he was obviously a giant pervert." This is a low bar, but one that was apparently a difficult pull for fantasy authors from the mid 80's to early 90's.

I'm reading Seanan McGuire's "Into The Drowning Deep", written as Mira Grant, and it's a great ride. I think she uses the Mira Grant pseudo for her books that could be considered horror, so as not to confuse her myriad urban fantasy fans. Whatevs. This is a thrilling book about what happens when we actually find mermaids, and her knack for creating relatable characters is on full display. And as Stephen King and others have shown, relatable characters are the key to good horror.

Fun stuff.

I plan to start that one this afternoon, right after I finish Rosewater!

It'll be a bit of a conceptual shift, but I think that's a good pair. Rosewater is also character-driven. (I still need to read the sequel to that.)

Has anyone started "Black Leopard, Red Wolf"? I'm still at the very first pages. It's already dizzying. Marlon James is amazing. But not for the squeamish, or those sensitive to the darkness in the world. (No, seriously, if you were put off by the Malazan books, or other dark fantasy stuff, this may not be the epic fantasy for you...)

Robear wrote:

It'll be a bit of a conceptual shift, but I think that's a good pair. Rosewater is also character-driven. (I still need to read the sequel to that.)

Has anyone started "Black Leopard, Red Wolf"? I'm still at the very first pages. It's already dizzying. Marlon James is amazing. But not for the squeamish, or those sensitive to the darkness in the world. (No, seriously, if you were put off by the Malazan books, or other dark fantasy stuff, this may not be the epic fantasy for you...)

So many good books to read right now! I just bought Rosewater Insurrection and Into the Drowning Deep. And I have Black Leopard, Red Wolf on hold at the library. And I'm about 50% of the way through Clockwork Boys, which I also bought based on a recommendation here (it's excellent so far). Oh, and I have the last two of the Black Company books (the compilations) on my Kindle as well.

My wife's been complaining that all I want to do lately is read. Oops.

Robear wrote:

It'll be a bit of a conceptual shift, but I think that's a good pair. Rosewater is also character-driven. (I still need to read the sequel to that.)

Is it available in the US yet?

March 12, apparently. I had not realized lol. Sorry.

Next book in Wil Wight's Cradle series, Underlord, comes out March 1st. Looking forward to that.

bnpederson wrote:

Next book in Wil Wight's Cradle series, Underlord, comes out March 1st. Looking forward to that.

Nice.

I'm doing the Read Harder challenge from Book Riot again this year.

Just finished The Person You Mean to Be by Dolly Chugh.

It's about our bias and how we can use our privilege to be better allies.
For anyone reading some of the P&C threads here, it discusses a number of issues that are frequently mentioned there. I now better understand the "cookie" concept

Only $2 on kindle in US right now. I recommend it for anyone interested in learning more about privilege.

ranalin wrote:
Robear wrote:

It'll be a bit of a conceptual shift, but I think that's a good pair. Rosewater is also character-driven. (I still need to read the sequel to that.)

Is it available in the US yet?

Wow, I had forgotten when I listed it in my "to read" list that it wasn't out yet. Guess that's what happens when you preorder something that then gets into your digital pile.

I'm also about to hop into The Girl in the Tower, the sequel to the Bear and the Nightingale.

Anyone tempted by KU (kindle unlimited)?
$9.99 a month for access to ebooks, magazines (and newpapers I believe)
Seems like a great way to read series. Sub for a month and get access to all the books.
Saves money and space
I don't read enough but I'd like to. I'd like to see it folded into Amazon Prime or for a nominal additonal fee. Or it would be great (as a gift too) if they gave a discount for a year's sub. (say $70ish)

I can imagine this being a boon to Robear

fangblackbone wrote:

Anyone tempted by KU (kindle unlimited)?
$9.99 a month for access to ebooks, magazines (and newpapers I believe)
Seems like a great way to read series. Sub for a month and get access to all the books.
Saves money and space
I don't read enough but I'd like to. I'd like to see it folded into Amazon Prime or for a nominal additonal fee. Or it would be great (as a gift too) if they gave a discount for a year's sub. (say $70ish)

I can imagine this being a boon to Robear :P

I pick it up on sales. There is some good stuff, but it's limited. There's a lot of average stuff to bad stuff that fills out the offerings.

Right now, I'm on a 3 month for $.99 deal. I will get my use out of it, then not need to look at the service for several months because there just won't be anything I need to read immediately, then on the next deal, I'll catch up on stuff I like.

I keep thinking I'll get Kindle Unlimited for a bit at some point, but I always have such a huge backlog of books I already own that I'm still reading that I feel I would be paying for a service that I wouldn't really use. Also, many of the books I really want to read pretty regularly go on sale for $1 or $2 that I can just buy the ones I really want to read and have them always available no matter what comes in or goes out of KU.

Maybe once (or if) my backlog is under control and I'm more current, I will reconsider KU.

How are the magazines and other periodicals?

I got Kindle Unlimited because it's stuffed with all the stuff that my wife likes to read. Currently she's into Cozy Mysteries and supernatural romances. So it saves us a *lot* of, like, $2.99 purchases over time, since she'll run through a couple a week.

I read A LOT (just finished book 27 for 2019). I haven't gotten KU since the books they have aren't the ones I read. The overdrive app from my library has been a much better way to get ebooks.

When I feel like I'm in a reading mood I re-up with KU, and I have a wishlist that's basically KU titles that are kinda interesting. Long plane flights, vacations, those kinda times.

For the most part it's just fluff for me, none of it is all that interesting and some of it I'll drop immediately after reading the first chapter. And I go month-to-month so I don't have to bother with it when I'm not in the reading mood, when I'm more into video games or music or comics or whathaveyou.

MathGoddess wrote:

I read A LOT (just finished book 27 for 2019).

What in tarnation...?!