I’d probably recommend people reading the Expanse series. Because the TV show hits the airwaves later in the year and we all know how joyful it is to be a smug, spoiler filled ■■■■.
PS: it’s science fiction.
Just finished Prince of Thorns, halfway through King of Thorns, by Mark Lawrence.
It’s fantasy. First person mostly, following a very evil, ruthless, mean somabitch. Yet as the reviews say, I do find myself gunning for him and find him a compelling and even sympathetic character.
I’m not usually one for the ultra-violent fantasy. It’s usually scholck crap. But I’ve really enjoyed these. The story telling and pacing is good and Jorg is a very well developed character.
Not for everyone, but if you’ve been umming and ahhing about getting it, I suggest getting it.
So don't read it, nobody's forcing you. But don't pick up a fantasy book then have a crack at it or the author for you hating the whole genre.Quitter.Sorry, I got half way through your post and got bored.Lol.
I got this far & laughed so hard I popped a rib…
“his efficiency and ability to paint indelible pictures with a few carefully-crafted paragraphs”Thats so the opposite to reality.
It was probably in old old blitz when I spoke on JRR, but I read the Hobbit as a kid, & went on later to LOTR, at maybe 12 - 13?
Remembered getting into it but not finishing it.
So when the movies are coming out a mate gets it & reads it & I borrow it to do the same. I get halfway through & it all comes back to me why I didn’t finish it the 1st time. It was like deja vu.
I’d put money on it that I stopped & consigned it to the bin on exactly the same page. A more long winded, unending, unmitigated borefest I’ve not encountered.
Fantasy is hard enough, but 10 15 pages describing some hollow they camped in o/nite in a forest was beyond ridiculous. I’ve never been back to the genre in books movies or TV, life is too short to waste on such things.
Lightweight SFF just gives me no reason to invest in the story.
Someone recommended the hunger games books to me. “There was a girl who was poor and everything was hard then she went in a competition against people better prepared and won and all the bad guys got what was coming”. Plastic characters, no weight to anything, predictable action, conclusion. Guessed the whole story from the first chapter, and was right. Eye roll.It’s the depth & detail that builds the attachment to characters. The craft of Tolkein (or any great fantasy writer) isn’t in the story, it’s in the back story, the world.
If you were picking up a 1200+ page book expecting to knock it off quickly, then that’s on you.If you want an action book, pick up an action book.
It’s mainly non fiction nowadays really, but any book but fantasy mate.
Like I said, life’s just too damn short to waste on something not based in any semblance of reality.
Anyone that has the time to wade through so much long winded unimportant boring sludge just to get to the end of a fkn fairytale, I do not envy.
Rather create & live my own.
“Hey, I hate soup, I’m gunna order the soup OH MY GOD I HATE SOUP”…
FWIW (out of interest) what do you find more fantastic - a Game of thrones type thing or those schlocky Matthew Reilly/Tom Clancy type action books?
Cos I gotta say if you’re reading LOTR or ASOIAF and not picking up any realism, (lack of) humanity, political manouvering (all very real and pretty well depicted) - you’re missing a fair bit.
And if you find any of the “and then I shot the russian guy and diffused the bomb and saved the day la la la” books realistic, then, well, you’re on a whole other level.
Good fantasy - good writing full stop - works on different levels.
A hell of a lot of my favourite authors (other than fantasy & non-fiction I read a lot of beat & beat-inspired stuff) delve into the fantastic at least as much as the ‘fantasy’ novels I read… there’s such a thing as an allegory…
I had a couple of goes at fantasy when I was young and absolutely hated it.
I had a couple of goes at fantasy when I was young and absolutely hated it.Yeah it's not for everyone (is anything?) but picking it up knowing you're going to hate it is a whole different thing.
I had a couple of goes at fantasy when I was young and absolutely hated it.There is LOT'S of crap out there. Most of it is just there to tell a story - much like HAP's description of Reilly/Clancy. Grog inherits a big sword, kills some stuff in some awesome fight scenes and saves the day.
The best stuff, IMO, puts more weight on the characters than the quest. Which really IMO holds true for all genres. A good plot with ■■■■ characters is wasted. A rather nothing plot but with engrossing characters and significant internal development is far better. i.e. The Great Gatsby isn’t good because it’s an amazing story (kid makes a friend, some people die, the end), it’s great because it has distinct, unique characters and they develop throughout the book. The genre of fantasy is no different. Fantasy just implies a setting, what happens in that setting doesn’t need to be constrained by god-touched kids with magic powers and a mysterious, ill-defined bad guy seeking world domination.
I mentioned the Tom Clancy/Matthew Reilly stuff because to me that is a lot less believable than any fantasy I’ve read.
Unbelievably bad guys are impossibly powerful & unbeatable but all-american good guy figures out a way to beat them and saves the world and gets the girl and ‘murica is perfect again, yaaaay. Absolutely unbelievable. It’s a D grade JCVD movie script.
I have a similar issue with a lot of the detective series’. Stupid random plot device = perfect solution.
The setting may be real, the story & characters are far from it.
GRRM (Tolkien to a lesser extent) is the other way around, a real story in a fantasy world.
I’m not entirely sure why people would read a book/watch a show that is in the mundane normal world. I have to put up with that every day - I live in the damned thing. I don’t want to have to spend my leisure time wallowing in it too, even the augmented versions that show up in tv shows and books. So give me something fantastical, well written, and unordinary.
I'm not entirely sure why people would read a book/watch a show that is in the mundane normal world. I have to put up with that every day - I live in the damned thing. I don't want to have to spend my leisure time wallowing in it too, even the augmented versions that show up in tv shows and books. So give me something fantastical, well written, and unordinary.
“Rather create & live my own.”
I'm not entirely sure why people would read a book/watch a show that is in the mundane normal world. I have to put up with that every day - I live in the damned thing. I don't want to have to spend my leisure time wallowing in it too, even the augmented versions that show up in tv shows and books. So give me something fantastical, well written, and unordinary.I like ones where people are getting murdered. It makes me think of you.
Lots of crime fiction that’s just absolute tosh, and worst thing is, it’s often popular…James Patterson, Patricia Cornwell. Guys who develop characters like Michael Connelly and Robert Crais are among the best.
I’m reading a guy called Louis Tracy…an English “crime” writer of the Edwardian era. I got it on Kindle for about $4 and I’m on to my seventh full-length book, and I’m only 15-20% of the way through. Boy, it’s different reading writers who really try to get the grammar right. Lots of words have changed their spelling and meaning since then…I knew “inquire” was an alternative to “enquire” but it appears many “en-” words used to be spelt with an “in-”.
Also bought Gideon Haigh’s book on a convicted Melbourne murderer called Kerr tonight. He’s a top writer, not just on cricket.
One issue with kindles is that they don't always work with online e libraries collections - which are improving in content and access. Many local libraries have e libraries, with 3 week loans mostly, and there are good legitimate online sites like Open Library but none work on my kindle and I have to use a computer although I gather some e readers can work with short term loan type sites. I've had a kindle touch for 5 years or so and it's now like an extra limb. The kindle white has different lighting I gather and appears to look more like computer screen lighting. My eyes have no problem with my current kindle but I struggle if I'm too long in front of a computer screen. Does anyone here with a kindle white know if the white is "kind" to old eyes?
you can set brightness, bump it up for brighter rooms/ outside. tone it down for night reading.
Reminiscing about your twenties?I'm not entirely sure why people would read a book/watch a show that is in the mundane normal world. I have to put up with that every day - I live in the damned thing. I don't want to have to spend my leisure time wallowing in it too, even the augmented versions that show up in tv shows and books. So give me something fantastical, well written, and unordinary.I like ones where people are getting murdered. It makes me think of you.Lots of crime fiction that’s just absolute tosh, and worst thing is, it’s often popular…James Patterson, Patricia Cornwell. Guys who develop characters like Michael Connelly and Robert Crais are among the best.
I’m reading a guy called Louis Tracy…an English “crime” writer of the Edwardian era. I got it on Kindle for about $4 and I’m on to my seventh full-length book, and I’m only 15-20% of the way through. Boy, it’s different reading writers who really try to get the grammar right. Lots of words have changed their spelling and meaning since then…I knew “inquire” was an alternative to “enquire” but it appears many “en-” words used to be spelt with an “in-”.
Also bought Gideon Haigh’s book on a convicted Melbourne murderer called Kerr tonight. He’s a top writer, not just on cricket.
Reminiscing about your twenties?I'm not entirely sure why people would read a book/watch a show that is in the mundane normal world. I have to put up with that every day - I live in the damned thing. I don't want to have to spend my leisure time wallowing in it too, even the augmented versions that show up in tv shows and books. So give me something fantastical, well written, and unordinary.I like ones where people are getting murdered. It makes me think of you.Lots of crime fiction that’s just absolute tosh, and worst thing is, it’s often popular…James Patterson, Patricia Cornwell. Guys who develop characters like Michael Connelly and Robert Crais are among the best.
I’m reading a guy called Louis Tracy…an English “crime” writer of the Edwardian era. I got it on Kindle for about $4 and I’m on to my seventh full-length book, and I’m only 15-20% of the way through. Boy, it’s different reading writers who really try to get the grammar right. Lots of words have changed their spelling and meaning since then…I knew “inquire” was an alternative to “enquire” but it appears many “en-” words used to be spelt with an “in-”.
Also bought Gideon Haigh’s book on a convicted Melbourne murderer called Kerr tonight. He’s a top writer, not just on cricket.
Half-volley on off.
Watson would still be lbw.
One issue with kindles is that they don’t always work with online e library collections - which are improving in content and access. Many local libraries have e libraries, with 3 week loans mostly, and there are good legitimate online sites like Open Library but none seem to work on my kindle and I have to use a computer although I gather some e readers can work with short term loan type sites.
I’ve had a kindle touch for 5 years or so and it’s now like an extra limb. The kindle white has different lighting I gather and appears to look more like computer screen lighting. My eyes have no problem with my current kindle but I struggle if I’m too long in front of a computer screen. Does anyone here with a kindle white know if the white is “kind” to old eyes?
One other issue with the kindle touch is I’m yet to find an effective and reasonably priced waterproof cover, the old button push ones were better and you didn’t have the problem of an over sensitive screen going haywire when reading in the bath - and to all those scoffing, reading in the bath is one of life’s underrated pleasures. I use a plastic sleeve wrapped tight which is ok - just. And it’s not just for the bath, what about the bookworm surfer with all that time to use while she’s waiting for a decent wave?
I'm thinking about getting a Kindle, can someone give me tips/suggestions?make sure its paperwhite, life changing experience.
Thanks, biggest change will be more room in my book shelf! I’ve run out…
I presume you get what you pay for, but is there much difference with the generations?
I'm thinking about getting a Kindle, can someone give me tips/suggestions?
make sure its paperwhite, life changing experience.
I’m thinking about getting a Kindle, can someone give me tips/suggestions?
The 6-part recent BBC serial was watchable…or better!
I was so looking forward to reading Saul Bellow’s acclaimed “Henderson The Rain King” that it was a bit disappointing to find the early and middle sections a tad tedious. I was going to say a thankless laborious duty but Bellow is still worth reading, even at his most windy. Whenever I considered shelving it he’d toss another brilliant passage at me and on I would soldier, much like the irritating and reluctant hero of this Yankee in an African King’s Court adventure. I was partly to blame too because I took it in small doses when in retrospect I can see it needs to be swallowed in a hurry. Anyway I dashed through the final quarter and got the payout. Bellow took time getting there but the final section is dazzling and heart wrenching and touching and uplifting, just as I’d initially thought it would be before my faith wavered. So Bellow does get away with one great quarter but I’m struggling to support those, including Bellow himself, who call it his best novel.
So I'm currently spending a month traveling around Southern Africa and thought I'd take War and Peace with me as it's big and a classic. My god but it's so boring....has anyone read it, and if so, does it get interesting at some stage?
l put off reading it for years. Started it once, put it down for 10 years or so, came back to it. Found about 100 words in it, l had never heard of, and l don’t just mean the Russian names. In the end l looked at it more as a giant essay against the dictatorship of Napoleon. An ambitious work. but not a favorite. l won’t read it again, not as enthralling as Gone With The Wind.