Which book are you reading currently? #3

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Just finished One Hundred Years of Solitude - it rocks (in a very slow way).

Will start Nineteen Eighty-Four tomorrow. Hoorah for great works of literature and stuff

 

Found out that I should read The Da Vinci-code, since I've heard so much about it. So, now I'm reading it...

 

American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

I should read more for matriculation exam. Chemistry, maths and stuff like that.

 

hope you've got some happy juice hidden somewhere because that's going to be extremely depressing.

 

I picked up The Sword of Shannara on a whim, and have been devouring the Shannara books for about a month straight. I've read all up to the Talismans of Shannara, which I began this morning. After that, I'm hoping to get the First King of Shannara read (perhaps by the end of the week? Who knows!)

I really don't know why I hadn't picked up these books earlier! Stupid, stupid man!

 

Come on, Falstaff! Those Shannara books are AWFUL. A dark lord threatens to cover the lands with a second darkness unless some small meek hero can go on a hopeless mission to stop him, with help from an old mysterious wizardy guy and a rangery fighter guy. Sounds like a cheap Lord of the Rings to me. Those books are so formulaic and so unoriginal.

 

The Haunter of the Dark, Omnibus 3 by H.P. Lovecraft. How's that for a slice of fried gold?

 

H.P Lovecraft is great. I have read almost all his stuff.
Not only his books capture a great grimness, but I find his racial slurs and sterotypes to be pretty funny.

 

I think it's called "The Damage Done" by Warren Fellows, about an Aussie who spent something like 11 and a half years in a Thai prison for transporting drugs.

 

... Are you serious ...?

 

I currently finished the newest and last Shannara book. Very good, I feel weird now that I have no great fantasy series to read. *waits for rude remarks of scepticism*

@Shannara Haters:
The Shannara series was started in the 70's. Back then they weren't exactly considered "formulaic" or "unoriginal" seeing as they came before most other fantasy books. All the fantsy books since then have copied from Shannara. (or tolkiens books) So the idea of a "meek hero" saving the world on a hopeless journey against the "dark lord" was considered very creative.

 

The problem isn't that they're too formulaic, it's that they just aren't that good

Stephen R. Donaldson, Steven Erikson, George R.R. Martin, Anne Bishop, Jacqueline Carey, and Robin Hobb all do far superior work. And that's just to name a few

 

Shannara are mostly crap but it still has its place as beginners fantasy. I also found those books about the knight of the word or something strangely appealing, which shows that Brooks can do something cool when he wants to.

I am myself reading Luke Rhinehart's "The Dice Man" and this is very intruiging reading.

 

Aik, are you asking if I'm serious that that is the plot (meaning you haven't read it) or are you asking if I seriously think the plot is that simple?

Anyway, still reading Robin Hobb's The Mad Ship which is great.

 

Are you serious that that's the plot (I having not read it)? I mean - I know this guy gets bagged out as a shoddy Tolkien clone ... but that's really low

 

@Svyatoslav: I didn't care for Lovecraft, I thought all his stories were basically the same. For me, he went so far overboard in decribing the grimness or horror he was trying to create that he killed the experience for me. I prefer the more psychological approach of letting the reader determine for him/herself just what constitutes the perfect horror.

@Atari Man: Shanarra was formulaic even back in the 70's. The "meek hero saves the world in the face of hopeless evil" theme is an ancient one. At least Tolkien paid proper homage to his folkloric roots. Brooks isn't bad if you take his stuff as a light, fluffy read rather than a strong example of epic fiction.

 

You have a point. I read almost all his work, so I got tired after a while: The stories/tales are too alike.

 

Wow. Didn't know that I'd be starting a fight here... At any rate, I'm enjoying the Shanarra books - they're fun at the very least, if not what some of us may look for in "true, overwhelming, epic, hardcore" fantasy fiction. (Although I don't know that I'd necessarily call it "fluffy" ).

Whatever. Anyways. Finished Talismans, moving on to First King. Then I think it's time for a break from Brooks. No idea where I'll go next...

 

I am back home and finally I am starting on getting some serious reading done. I started and finished Harry Potter 6 on the trip home and I finished the Live Ship Trilogy today.

Harry Potter 6 was o.k. but it seemed like the plot was really not going anywhere until the very end.

The Live Ship Trilogy was decent but no where near as good as the Farseer Trilogy. I was hoping for a good ending to pull everything up a notch like the Farseer Trilogy had but instead we had a fairly conventional and tame happy ending.

 

Carrie. If you need to ask who by then shame, shame, shame on you.