Book Recommendations?

SallyNasty wrote:

To each his or her own! For me they are great superficial books that are great for listening while walking the dog or working out. Not high-brow by any means but the narrator is funny.

Wonder if opinions vary based on format? I also enjoyed the audiobooks as fun, light reads. Low involvement required, but with humorous narration.

I read them and liked them for what they were, but I was already a fan of the author from his comic strip.

You read three books in a series and hated them all?

The first was okay. The second was kinda bad. The third was atrocious, and shifted my overall opinion on the series hard against.

Had the same take, though I quit a short ways into book 2. Great concept, liked the first half of the first book, then it just kinda limped along. Figured maybe the author was just getting his legs, and I liked the idea enough that I gave the second one a shot. Big mistake.

I understand why people don't like them. They're far from my favorites, but I too enjoyed them.

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Just listened to Ubik by Philip K Dick. I think that was my first PKD. I enjoyed it, but I kept being pulled out by the ridiculousness of the technology. It was published in 1969 and took place in 1992. We have colonies on the moon and Mars, but still use record players, and everything is coin operated AI units (your door asks for $.05 to let you open it). It's so ridiculous. But at the same time, the general story and idea are really interesting. And the final paragraph makes you completely rethink what is going on.

Try the Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch next.

kaostheory wrote:

Just listened to Ubik by Philip K Dick. I think that was my first PKD. I enjoyed it, but I kept being pulled out by the ridiculousness of the technology. It was published in 1969 and took place in 1992. We have colonies on the moon and Mars, but still use record players, and everything is coin operated AI units (your door asks for $.05 to let you open it). It's so ridiculous. But at the same time, the general story and idea are really interesting. And the final paragraph makes you completely rethink what is going on.

It's near impossible to predict what technology will be like in the future. I feel like he gets partial credit for the coin-op, and micro-transaction concepts. Our credit and debit cards are used for almost everything. A little later today I'm going to stick my credit card into a parking meter and pay about $3. You can buy a small game on your phone for $0.99.

boogle wrote:

Try the Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch next.

My favorite reference from The Strain.

After the recent mention, I thought I'd give The Greatcoats a try, and finished the first book. It was a nice change; the writing's quite high quality, and the world he's built is both interesting and reasonably plausible, a low-magic, low-tech environment. It has weak and rare magic and single-shot pistols, with kind of a Renaissance feel, including the central arguments over who runs the government: the king, the nobles, or the peasants.

It's got a very strong Robin Hobb vibe, in that the protagonist reminds me a lot of FitzChivalry, but the author isn't as mean to his characters as Hobb. He doesn't exactly treat them well, but Hobb was damn near sadistic, where Sebastian de Castell is only somewhat abusive. The plot has some excellent twists and turns, and he plays fair, in the sense that suddenly things were obvious all along, when originally they weren't obvious at all. My only real complaint is that the main character is a little too persuasive, but I internally chalked that up to 'high charisma'.

It's an "Idealistic Protagonist v. World" trope; if you don't like those, you won't likely enjoy the tale at all.

I'm a few chapters into the second, and enjoying it too. These are solid books, with some meat on their bones, not just popcorn fantasy.

Malor wrote:

After the recent mention, I thought I'd give The Greatcoats a try, and finished the first book. It was a nice change; the writing's quite high quality, and the world he's built is both interesting and reasonably plausible, a low-magic, low-tech environment. It has weak and rare magic and single-shot pistols, with kind of a Renaissance feel, including the central arguments over who runs the government: the king, the nobles, or the peasants.

It's got a very strong Robin Hobb vibe, in that the protagonist reminds me a lot of FitzChivalry, but the author isn't as mean to his characters as Hobb. He doesn't exactly treat them well, but Hobb was damn near sadistic, where Sebastian de Castell is only somewhat abusive. The plot has some excellent twists and turns, and he plays fair, in the sense that suddenly things were obvious all along, when originally they weren't obvious at all. My only real complaint is that the main character is a little too persuasive, but I internally chalked that up to 'high charisma'.

It's an "Idealistic Protagonist v. World" trope; if you don't like those, you won't likely enjoy the tale at all.

I'm a few chapters into the second, and enjoying it too. These are solid books, with some meat on their bones, not just popcorn fantasy.

Totally agree with this, nice analysis.

I'm trying to read at the suggested pace of the reading group on Goodreads, and I held off on continuing with the story because I was getting too far ahead. I'll resume today.

Malor wrote:

It's an "Idealistic Protagonist v. World" trope; if you don't like those, you won't likely enjoy the tale at all.

I will probably miss out on some good books due to this, but I am soooo so done with this story archetype. I guess I've become a pessimist in my older age but I just find zero interest in this kind of character anymore.

AcidCat wrote:
Malor wrote:

It's an "Idealistic Protagonist v. World" trope; if you don't like those, you won't likely enjoy the tale at all.

I will probably miss out on some good books due to this, but I am soooo so done with this story archetype. I guess I've become a pessimist in my older age but I just find zero interest in this kind of character anymore.

When one of the central ideals is that the government should be of laws, and not of men, that the law should apply to everyone..... it doesn't bother me much.

So, I got through the Greatcoats series.

When I finished, and started to think about what I'd say, I started by mentally listing the things I didn't like. There are lots of small issues with these books; pacing problems, dropped threads, and injured characters who recover far too quickly are uppermost, but I could go on at some length.

But I realized that the reason these things annoyed me was because, when these books are firing on all cylinders, they are extraordinary. When this tale is working, it grabs you by the heart and does not let go.

AcidCat wrote:
Malor wrote:

It's an "Idealistic Protagonist v. World" trope; if you don't like those, you won't likely enjoy the tale at all.

I will probably miss out on some good books due to this, but I am soooo so done with this story archetype. I guess I've become a pessimist in my older age but I just find zero interest in this kind of character anymore.

I feel the same way. The savior's journey is an adolescent fantasy. At 47 years old, I'm rarely amused by this trope. These days I much prefer a gritty story about people who need to rely on each other.

Malor wrote:

So, I got through the Greatcoats series.

When I finished, and started to think about what I'd say, I started by mentally listing the things I didn't like. There are lots of small issues with these books; pacing problems, dropped threads, and injured characters who recover far too quickly are uppermost, but I could go on at some length.

But I realized that the reason these things annoyed me was because, when these books are firing on all cylinders, they are extraordinary. When this tale is working, it grabs you by the heart and does not let go.

I've finished the first book, and am planning to read the rest of the series as well. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It does require you to look past some of its weaknesses, for sure, but he got so much right with the storytelling that it was easy for me to really enjoy the ride.

I wonder if he'll continue to develop as a writer. He doesn't need to improve on much more to become a fantastic fantasy author.

"The Miracle of Dunkirk" by Walter Lord is currently on deep discount for Kindle at $1.99. Lord was a very well known historian focused on WWII, as well as a member of the OSS, so I'm betting it will be a good book. Apparently he based his work on first-person accounts, and he paid attention to the details, so I'm looking forward to this.

Finished "The Delerium Brief". I've enjoyed the series so far, but I did think Stross was walling himself into ever more difficult situations, and that continues here with a clever twist, from my perspective. (I tend deliberately towards naivete in reading novels, to better enjoy them and get closer to the character perspectives. I don't try to guess what's next from the author's perspective.)

Some of the previous books in the series are like "case studies" rather than high level histories, but this book is clearly intended to move the context and background to the front, resetting the stage for some interesting events to come. I like the choice; the previous book was a mission study, and there are only so many times a writer can do that before he's doing formula work. Stross avoids that here while still hewing to the difficulties his characters face from previous books, and he throws in some character advancement as well.

Say what you will about Charlie Stross, he's comfort reading to me. I like his style and this book delivers. Just don't expect him to turn into Ian Banks; he gets better at his own techniques and methods with each book and that is sufficient to make him one of my favorite authors.

I feel like Stross gets bored with the worlds he creates and will go and do something crazy just so he can play around in a different world.

It's weird, I hadn't really thought of Stross as a "comfort reader", since he's the author of Accelerando and Glasshouse, two of the more biting and discomforting sci-fi books written this millenium. But yeah, all of the Laundry Files stuff has been a bit comfort ready. If he drops another Glasshouse, he's really going to do a number on his newer fans.

Well, my latest comfort read is "It", so maybe my idea of comfort is different?

The new Greg Egan book has possibly his weirdest premise yet.

I'm really enjoying it.

Seth is a surveyor, along with his friend Theo, a leech-like creature running through his skull who tells Seth what lies to his left and right. Theo, in turn, relies on Seth for mobility, and for ordinary vision looking forwards and backwards. Like everyone else in their world, they are symbionts, depending on each other to survive.

In the universe containing Seth's world, light cannot travel in all directions: there is a “dark cone” to the north and south. Seth can only face to the east (or the west, if he tips his head backwards). If he starts to turn to the north or south, his body stretches out across the landscape, and to rotate as far as north-north-east is every bit as impossible as accelerating to the speed of light.

Every living thing in Seth’s world is in a state of perpetual migration as they follow the sun’s shifting orbit and the narrow habitable zone it creates. Cities are being constantly disassembled at one edge and rebuilt at the other, with surveyors mapping safe routes ahead.

But when Seth and Theo join an expedition to the edge of the habitable zone, they discover a terrifying threat: a fissure in the surface of the world, so deep and wide that no one can perceive its limits. As the habitable zone continues to move, the migration will soon be blocked by this unbridgeable void, and the expedition has only one option to save its city from annihilation: descend into the unknown.

Thanks to everyone who recommended Joe Hill's Locke & Key. It really was fantastic

This might be better suite to the Comics thread, but I read the trade paperbacks, so...

Hmmm it's been a while since I read through them. I think it's about time to do a reread... then maybe time for transmetropolitan and sandman again. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Thanks to everyone who recommended Joe Hill's Locke & Key. It really was fantastic

This might be better suite to the Comics thread, but I read the trade paperbacks, so...

The audio book is also a very well done production.

I've been reading (almost finished) Marcus Sakey's "Afterlife", after reading that Ron Howard is going to do an adaptation of it. It's billed as a "Paranormal Thriller", and while it has an interesting premise, and the writing is decent, I think it's more in the shallow end of the pool. As a movie, and book, it will appeal to people who are not deeply into horror or the weird genre popular today. But for people who are already fans, it's a bit workaday. Not a bad read, but Summer reading, if that makes sense, for horror fans. Horror thriller lite, as it were. For perspective, I thought Dan Wells "I Am Not A Serial Killer" and its follow-ons were more interesting and impactful, and those are not exactly towering Gothic or Lovecraftian sagas. (They do owe a lot to King, though, and are quite enjoyable.)

Then again, I don't view Game of Thrones as GrimDark, so what do I know?

"Rebellion", the third installment of English history by Peter Ackroyd, is up to his usual standards, and may be his best yet in the series. He of course touches on the important events starting with the accession of James I, but he uses them as guideposts. He tells multiple stories about the characters and movements and popular reactions that lead from one major event to the next, dipping into the intricacies of court politics in one chapter (as opposed to the whole damn book), and then looking at the diary of a middling wealthy trader's wife for another chapter. He fleshes out the character and motivations of the major players as best he can from first-person accounts, and reaches as far afield as popular ballads and commodity trading records to try to uncover trends that are not front-page historical material. It is a page-turner, even if you're not deeply into history; I showed a section to a co-worker, just where I was reading at the time, and he was fascinated that history could be so interesting.

If you have not read "The Plantagents" or "The Tudors" yet, well, you're in for a treat with those too. All three are highly recommended by me and very tasty on the mental palate.

ranalin wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

Thanks to everyone who recommended Joe Hill's Locke & Key. It really was fantastic

This might be better suite to the Comics thread, but I read the trade paperbacks, so...

The audio book is also a very well done production.

Oddly, audible only has the german versions.

Robear wrote:

"Rebellion", the third installment of English history by Peter Ackroyd, is up to his usual standards, and may be his best yet in the series. He of course touches on the important events starting with the accession of James I, but he uses them as guideposts. He tells multiple stories about the characters and movements and popular reactions that lead from one major event to the next, dipping into the intricacies of court politics in one chapter (as opposed to the whole damn book), and then looking at the diary of a middling wealthy trader's wife for another chapter. He fleshes out the character and motivations of the major players as best he can from first-person accounts, and reaches as far afield as popular ballads and commodity trading records to try to uncover trends that are not front-page historical material. It is a page-turner, even if you're not deeply into history; I showed a section to a co-worker, just where I was reading at the time, and he was fascinated that history could be so interesting.

If you have not read "The Plantagents" or "The Tudors" yet, well, you're in for a treat with those too. All three are highly recommended by me and very tasty on the mental palate.

Do you mean Ackroyd's "Foundation"? Or do you mean "The Plantagenets" by Dan Jones?

I'm a Plantagenet and Tudor whore. I've got all of these.

Forgot to mention I finished Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn last week.

Spoiler:

So...the fix for all of this was...apologize to Ineluki? Well, and for Miriamele to put an arrow in his (Elias') eye while he was surprised/weakened by the apology. OK, fine. I was honestly expecting it to be one of those 'everyone dies at the end' books that have gotten popular lately, and I was pleasantly surprised when Simon and Miri survived and hooked up in the end. Poor Isgrimnur, though, among many others.

It was a fantastic series otherwise, and it was a satisfying end despite what I say above.

Back on to the Malazan series. I'm about 1/4 of the way through Bonehunters at the moment.

Spoiler:

They just breached the wall at Egatan(?). Crump is dead if they ever find him!

Grimdark!

Natus wrote:

Do you mean Ackroyd's "Foundation"? Or do you mean "The Plantagenets" by Dan Jones?

I think I got them confused! I was indeed referring to Jones' Plantagent book, but I thought it was Ackroyds. The Tudors, though, is also Ackroyd. As you say, all of them are good.

Foundation grabbed on Kindle, thanks!

Thanks!