The book thread

[Rhindeer]

It is, it is!

I really wanna see the movie when it comes out in theatres. *__* The movie looks like it's really well done. At least, from what I gather from the previews. And the book is just...awesome.

[Goldie]

AH!  I saw a preview for that and I really really really really want to see it too!  But it was advertised as "To be released in select theaters"  *sobs*  I hope it comes either here at Elizabethtown, or back in Maryland....it looks so good!!!!!  And Geisha's are really interesting to begin with!  Perhaps I shall get the book and read it when I go back to the library ^_^

And BTW, Eldest....is great!  I was a little perturbed by how quickly everything seemed to move in the beginning, but it improved....and....I really want to say something about it....the ending...omg the ending!! I did a happy dance because I was SO RIGHT, but then I felt horrible because now things are so messed up for the main characters.....oh man......

But now I'm at a loss...should I start reading Watership Down?  Or the Last Unicorn?  *ponders*

[Rhindeer]

Ahhh! I hope it's released here, then! O.O If it's not, I'm gonna be mad. I wanna see that movie so bad! Agh! Geishas are very interesting!

Aaand... O.O Oh man. Um...well...I love them both so much so...AHHH! Okay, um, The Last Unicorn is shorter! So...that would mean you could get through with that faster and then get to read Watership Down! XDD

[Goldie]

LOL!  Well then!  The Almighty Rhi has spoken!  *hails*

[Anonymous]

Speaking of books, I have begun my initial work on my anti-christ story. It's not the anti-christ clche that fill up the theatres...end of days..the exorcist..amityville horror and whatnot. This story is about my black metal personality Aethyr. It takes place in modern day time, and is strongly based on real life places, churches, and yes, court cases/court sessions.

A small sample of it (two parts of it that will be editted for good reason!) can be seen on my deviant art gallery. //noxcaladoxia.deviantart.com

I should be finished with much of it by next christmas. It will span over a few years..book time but, will actually be only a year in real time. Unless some drastic happens then this book wont be released but, with me in charge...nothing is going to stop it!

[Anonymous]

How i would absolutely LOVE to read Corridor de Cocaine again..such an amazing book.

*le sigh* i have no library card here..:( *tear*

[Anonymous]

I mostly read fantasy stuff - like, say, G.R.R.Martin or Robert Jordan(though his spanking fetish is getting -really- annoying, I don't need that every ten pages, thank you). Terry Prattchet too, of course, I have all books by him ^^

Currently I am reading a series of books that has managed to impress me quite a bit indeed.
Steven Erikson - Stories from the Malazan books of the Fallen. It is basically a story about an empire called "The Malazan empire" and the world it exists in. Oh, and of course the conquests of that empire. It's not just an evil empire either - which doesn't mean they are good, few people are good or evil in these books.
Aside from the empire and it's wars on two different continents,there are ancient cultures, elder and younger gods, undead shapeshifters, rebellions. It's scope is simply enormous. Oh, and the author - while not being feminist, since he's a guy - shows even a culture where - unlike most fantasy stories - gender does not even matter much. When the Malazan characters act, you'll notice that a lot of the soldiers are female, as is the empress(who killed the old emperor and his master assassin a couple years back ^^ or did she?), as are her mages, assassins, and even her high advisor/right hand.
Magic is also handled -extremely- original in this setting - and it is one of the few that incoorperates magic in a realistic manner - ie how it is used, for what purpose. We are not talking about mages who spend all their time in a tower reading books, we are talking about battle-trained mages, cadre-mages, who walk among their fellow soldiers, shielding them from spells, and striking back. Assassins quite often use magic as well, which makes sense, since quite often their targets are mages, too.
All in all, it is simply very nicely contructed.

It is, however, quite hard to get into - and obviously not to everyones liking(they are also, in part, quite brutal - war is not a happy happy place).
But fits what -I- like perfectly(well, aside some of the descriptions, very very brutal). A highly, extremely original world, ancient mysteries, many multifacetted characters - what more would I want? ^^ Well...the last two books in the series, I'd like to have them.
Now.

[Rhindeer]

I mostly read fantasy stuff - like, say, G.R.R.Martin or Robert Jordan(though his spanking fetish is getting -really- annoying, I don't need that every ten pages, thank you).

LMAO!! So I'm not theonly one that noticed that! XDD YAY!

*coughs* My unrelated Wheel of Time rant... >.>

The Wheel of Time series has started making me very sad...I'm currently stuck on book 9. Heh...got stuck around page 100 before I just. Couldn't. Read. Anymore. ^^;; That series started out with a bang and I was addicted to it up until around book 6, but, at least in my opinion, it's slowed to a crawl and all the characters now sound the same. ;_; I can't really differentiate between them anymore, save by their names. Especially the female characters--there's like only 3 female character molds, and all the tough gals have turned into complete lovestruck wimps. Bah. And I no longer like Rand. He can go die. XDD I used to love him to death, too, but now I don't even care about him anymore. Only thing that keeps me reading at this point is that I've already invested so much in it, so darn it, I wanna know how it ends. XD I'm rooting for the Forsaken. >.> If only Asmodean was still around...

My personal opinion: Robert Jordan's mistake was expanding out way too BIG. I mean he has, what...like 50 main characters and thousands of lesser characters? Yeesh. He just got carried away...and lost a lot of characterization that way. Now all the characters are clones of each other...not to mention his annoying tendency to reduce all the strong female characters into stupid wimps. GRAH. Aviendha and Min ROCKED! Now they're both wimps. And all three of them loving Rand oh-so-muuuuch and Rand not being able to make up his mind and wanting to screw all of 'em--and them not minding that! *headdesk* It was cute at first, now it's just...making me stabby. XDD Especially when it comes to Aviendha. WARRIOR AVIENDHA! The Aviendha who took no BS and kicked butt, no questions asked! And now...look at her! *sobs* She's a wimp!

Of course, it's all due to the web and blah...but at this point, it just looks like it's one big gratuitous screw fest. Mighty Rand and his harem of mindless ninnies. Guh.

Now I just have to one day pick book 9 up again...and read it...may be a while, though...many other fantasy books have been occupying my time. >.> <.<

Okay...I'm done...just needed to get that out of my system. XD

*coughs*

I'll have to check out that war series you mentioned, Fennel! It sounds awesome! Bwahaha...brutal, eh? I like. XD

[Anonymous]

Favorite books (in no particular order)
Wheel of Time series
Harry Potter (what can I say, it's a good series)
The Dragon Rider Series** (if I can figure out the chronological book order)
umm....uh...there's more...i just can't think of them right this moment O.o
but basically anything that has magic/magic-type stuff/mystal creatures/that kind of stuff, I'm good with

Currently Reading: Wizard's First Rule, don't remember the series' name and i'm too lazy to look right now

Hate: books with no action and/or 'filler' and/or no point, etc. etc.


On an unrelated note
Comments about Wheel of Time rant*:

Note: If you haven't read through about book....nine actually, there might be some spoliers in here.

I agree about Jordan having too many characters, what with the Sea Folk, Knitting Circle, and others, waaaay to many people >.<. And having just about all actual main female characters swooning over somebody. Yet it does make the plot very expansive. And Asmodean  may BE alive...just in a different body, because Mordin (or whatever his name is, can't remember) is presumed to be Ishamel, just in a different body. And somewhere after or in book nine, the characters start to be un-clone like of each other again, or maybe I just don't see it O.o. Anywho, there's my comments.


*I copy and pasted the rant into Microsoft Word and upped the font size :P
**Don't think this is the real name of the series

[Anonymous]

New Fave Books List (*coughsbirthdaycomingupin2monthsrhicoughs*)

1) Corrido de Cocaine- Arturo Strong (Great great author)
2) Intensity- Dean Koontz (Very first book recommended to me from my 8th grade english teacher)
3) Lords of Chaos: Rise of the Bloody Satanic Metal Underground (Got it already ^_^)
4) The Dirt- Motley Crue (If you ever wondered what goes on when a band is on tour...this is the absolute answer)
5) Anything by Max Lucado
6) Choosing Death- *can't remember the author right now but it's about the death metal scene* (Absolutely brilliant!!)

Yup, that's my list...so I don't read much..i will again. I wanna get back into reading certain types of books to help aid with mine. I'll list those later

[Anonymous]

My personal opinion: Robert Jordan's mistake was expanding out way too BIG. I mean he has, what...like 50 main characters and thousands of lesser characters?

DO NOT read the series I mentioned then ^^;. That series easily puts Jordan to shame with its amount of characters. Not even trying. In the very first book, you already have almost as much characters as Jordan has in several XD Granted, they are not clones, and the females don't turn into wimps(not at all, and I've yet to see a female soldier there worry about her appearance in battle. And there was quite an amount, including several characters. The only female who did that a lot did in jest, and mostly because she really didn't care, since she was a half goddess, and had the tendency to roast people with magic, not weapons)

 
I do agree with your rant on Jordan. He really has big trouble with female characters and their characterisation. Even -I- do better male characters, and I have a reputation of sucking at them horribly. Yet even I can manage, say...five different types. Or maybe even six!

His attitude on, say, homosexuality is also questionable to put it mildly. Oddly, while there is not even a passing mention of male homosexuality, there is a -lot- of female one. And I mean -a LOT-. The Aes Sedai place is full of it. He even aknowdledged that his "pillow friend" simply means "lesbian". Yes, really. Yet, most named characters who are like that seem to be either villains(one of the forsaken cares for both genders), corrupted(Elaine), or outright abusive(a certain Shaido).  Have yet to see it appear in a positive context.

I really like some of the history bits he does, and the forsaken in general, but some other things...are meh-ish xD And Rand should shut up.

[Anonymous]

I'm currently reading Dragon and Soldier, the second book out of the Dragonback series. I've failed to read the first one, but I'm beginning to understand the story pretty well. :3 It's a Science-fiction.

There's one part that amuses me, and I used it as part of my signature on another site.

"These things are called control collars. Their sole purpose in life is to choke the living daylights out of you if you try to run or make trouble."

Lovely.

XD

[Anonymous]

Just wondering if anyone has read anything by China Meiville? He's probably one of my favourite authors. Writes kind of creepy and very interesting books. The Scar is the best one in my opinion.

Karl Schroeder is also a great author. He writes some great science fiction dealing with nanotech and virtual societies and other good stuff. Uh, he's also my uncle, so I shamelessly plug his books as much as possible.

[Anonymous]

dude.... i just bought star wars: the dark nest trilogy III: the swarm war, and am about halfway through it.

THIS.  BOOK.  FUCKING. ROCKS!


in like the second chapter, luke declares himself the absolute dictator of the jedi order.  i mean... how awsome is that?!

so, in case any of you guys are into the whole star wars thing, i definitely recommed any of the new jedi order books, as well as this trilogy im reading.  by the time your done reading em, you will never be able to say star wars isn't fuckin deep and philisophical ever again!

[Anonymous]

The Devil's Notebook- Anton LaVey...read if you want a good laugh lol.

[Goldie]

*revives*

I am bringing this thread back from the depths of the GD forum because....well...because books pretty much are amazing XD  Hurray!  Not to mention, now that the semester is finished, I have a TON of books that I want to update because they're FREAKING FANTASTIC!

Firstly, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is phenominal!  It's really short, about 100 pages or so, we read it in American Lit, and....the symbolism....O_o  *dies*  There is SO MUCH in that novella!  SO MUCH SYMBOLISM!  When you finish reading and start thinking back on all the events, and on the naturalism thrust upon you....it's mind boggling....and fantastic.  *nods*

Also, The Awakening by Kate Chopin.  At first when you start reading you wonder why in the nine levels of Dante's hell are you reading it?  But then, once you finish, and you think about all of the naturalism, and how awesome it is to have a progressive woman in a time where women are compliant...and how she couldn't fit into society and THAT'S why the book ended the way it did.....I don't want to give away the ending...but it was fantastic!  I LOVED it!  But it is one that you have to sit down with the intention of finishing and contemplating, otherwise you just won't get through it.  XD haha

Aaaannnnddddd, back on my fantasy book lists (because fantasy is my ultimate favorite genre) I have SO MANY FOR YOU!

If you haven't read Juliet Marillier, YOU MUST!  She is the most innovative, phenominal writer I have EVER encountered.  She uses celtic/gaelic lore in her novels, and they're breathtakingly beautiful.  The first series I read by her was the [Sevenewaters Trilogy which blew. me. away.  Right now I'm working on The Dark Mirror from the Bridei Chronicles, and just....*dies*  there are simply no words for how beautiful these stories are.  You get attached to the characters instantly, and I'm so addicted to it that I even read it while running....lol.....But yes, please please PLEASE for the love of amazing Fantasy, READ JULIET MARILLIER!  Any of her books are marvelous!

Next is Deborah Hale's novels The Wizard's Ward and The Destined Queen.  Basically, she takes a fairly simple story, young girl, destined the rule the world is brought up in humble surroundings after her mother leaves her there when she's first born.  It's pretty much a fairy tale told for adults....a rags to riches, growing-up journey full of just amazing imagery...and it's beautiful.  Deborah Hale...every sentence is like a piece of godiva chocolate melting on your tongue...and she really makes a simple, epic, fairy-tale into a gorgeous piece of literature.  You will be attached the moment you finish the first few pages!

Finally, this was my find over the summer, and I love it so much that I must share it with you.  Jacqueline Carey wrote The Kushiel Legacy trilogy.  It's one of the most interesting, different, fantasies that I have ever encountered.  At first, I was very apprehensive because it's extremely graphic....and the first 50 or so pages of the first book made me cringe, but the story is captivating....and has become one of my favorite trilogies of all time.  The books are about a woman named Phedre who is, pretty much, a cortesan.  But in her world, this is a position of highest honor and she is actually in the worship of the gods in this profession.  She's almost a priestess in a way.  And while she is...cortesan-ing...lol...she also plays the part of a spy.  I can't really say any more other than Carey creates this world and throws you into it, and you get caught up in the intrigue and the plots, and the betrayal, and the characters, and EVERYTHING!  It's a gorgeous piece of writing and I would recommend it to anyone old enough to handle the adult content.  Beautifully written...absolutely beautiful.  After the books about Phedre (the first three), Carey recently released Kushiel's Scion which is about someone else (I don't want to give it away!  Because you don't meet him until later in the first three....lol)  Highly recommended.  My ultimate favorite.  Each book is about 900 pages, and I finished the first two in a week.  If that says anything. XD


So yes, my novel update is finished!  Hurray resurecting threads!

[Anonymous]

I still stick by The Wheel of Time books and I can't wait for the last book. x] I read somewhere that Jordan said that the twelth book will end the main plot, even "...if I [Jordan] have to make it two thousand pages long."

Two thousand page book...That should keep anybody occupied with reading it for a LONG while. xD

[Anonymous]

Gold speaks the truth about The Kushiel Legacy, the series is wonderful, albiet a bit graphic at the beginning (not for me, after reading Sade. I've yet to read anything more sexually graphic than Sade.) I'd also like to point out that the series isn't quite sleazy graphic, but Phedre's a masochist so some of the scenes are a tad kinky. Goldie reccomended the series to me after asking if I got the name Hyacinthe from the series. I've yet to read the third book, since I doubt they sell the series in my friendly neighborhood bookstore - which is a big major shame.

Some of my favorite books (besides the Kushiel Trilogy) are:

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman: A sort of alternate ending for Bram Stoker's novel. In this book, Dracula is the Prince Consort of England and Jack the Ripper is killing vampire prostitutes. I found this book by chance in a library back in Georgia and loved it even though it'd be another couple years before I got the chance to read Dracula! There are plenty of in-jokes from other gothic novels from Dracula's period. Books don't make me cry all too often (I get choked up plenty though), but one part in AD had me bawling.

Firebringer and The Sight by David Clement-Davies: At their most basic levels these books are about a prophecy among animals (red deer in Firebringer and wolves in The Sight) and the plot follows the prophesized one. I can't stack them against Watership Down however, since I haven't gotten around to reading it yet ^_^;; However, I've heard that Firebringer is a lot like Watership Down...

A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin: I wanted to live in Westeros after reading the first book in this series. The amount of detail in this series boggles my brain.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden: Surely I don't need to ramble on about why this books rocks my socks.

On the other hand, here are some books that weren't quite to my taste:

Billy Budd by William Melville: It didn't help that Melville most shamelessly plugs one of Hawthorne's stories in the first chapter (that also got me thinking too much about the letters my lit teacher claimed Mel sent Hawth. *shudders*). It's a Christ allegory... but that didn't turn me off, it was that I couldn't focus on the book for more than eight seconds. I'd get confused, or bored, or start thinking about something else and once I fell asleep. My lit teacher told us that we should have considered ourselves lucky we didn't have to read Moby Dick, like her other class did. I felt jipped.

Justine, or the Misfortunes of Virtue by the Marquise de Sade: First off, Justine is a twit. She spent her entire life (most of the book is written in first person, as she's telling her tale to her sister) running from the clutches of one asshole to another.  The book does live up to its name though... sort of... every character with an ounce of morality gets flattened somehow because they're all twits. Justine manages to survive because she's extremely lucky, but she still gets hosed at the end (if you want to indulge Sade, Nature was simply fed up at how Justine managed to live so long and took matters into her own hands). Those that aren't the morality police aren't too much better though, they just talk endlessly about why they're right and the morality police are WRONGWRONGWRONG. >.>  <.<
On a side note, I did like the wife of the pedophile with the blood fetish (see above: haven't read anything more sexually graphic than Sade.).

[Anonymous]

The Wheel of Time is good, but I got pretty burnt out after...um...fourth or fifth book.

I shall get back to reading them, but it'll have to wait till summer.

[Goldie]

Gold speaks the truth about The Kushiel Legacy, the series is wonderful, albiet a bit graphic at the beginning (not for me, after reading Sade. I've yet to read anything more sexually graphic than Sade.) I'd also like to point out that the series isn't quite sleazy graphic, but Phedre's a masochist so some of the scenes are a tad kinky. Goldie reccomended the series to me after asking if I got the name Hyacinthe from the series. I've yet to read the third book, since I doubt they sell the series in my friendly neighborhood bookstore - which is a big major shame.

LOL!  That is how it happened isn't it?  Oh dear....I'd practically forgotten about that!  XD  And hurray!  I'm glad you started reading them, even if you haven't finished ^_^  Amazon is amazing when it comes to buy books that local bookstores might not own >_>  Luckily for me Waldens and Barns & Noble both carry the series ^_^ bwaha!



And I've always walked by The Sight and Firebringer.....always was a little apprehensive to pick them up.  Given, I noticed them first when I was in middle school and they seemed a bit too lengthy for me at the time, which is probably why.  Hmmm....I'll have to grabe those then!

As for another Juliet Marillier rant.....I finished The Dark Mirror and Blade of Fortriu in the Bridei Chronicles and I'm practically DYING for the third to be released in May!  in MAY!  I'm going to die....seriously....just kill me now..... So to pass the time, I'm reading Foxmask and Wolfskin (not really sure what the series is called) and it's a lot different, but very similar to her other works.  Instead of Ireland/Scotland mythology, it's Norse, which is really fun, and really loveable!  I'm not terribly far into them as of yet, but they're just as good as her other works!


My current project, after Wolfskin and Foxmask, I went out and bought four of the Sword of Truth series (there's a rediculous amount in the series...like 12 or so... O_o  what have I gotten myself into?) but I heard they were fabulous...so gotta start somewhere, yes?  yes...that's what I thought!  ^_^

and that's pretty much it on my book update!