Which book are you reading currently? #7

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'The Moral Problem' by Michael Smith. Not so much for fun this one, but it's gotta be done for uni.

 

I recently read William Gibson's Neuromancer. Cyberpunk is great but somehow I did not enjoy this classic as much, maybe my expectations were too high. Sci-fi novels are generally a bit more difficult to read too (for someone to whom english is the third language), so that has to do with it as well. Nevertheless I shall proceed to read the entire Sprawl trilogy at least.

 

"Min kamp" (eng: My struggle) by norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgård. It was the norwegian book last year. It got high praise from critics, won several prizes and was all over the media.

It seems good thus far, and it'll be interesting to see if it catches on abroad.

 

Sounds familiar, did he write it in prison?

 

200 pages left of The Gathering Storm, right now. Will be done tomorrow, i think. As some chaps mentioned further up, Sanderson did do a very very good job with it. Its true what they say. He wrote it himself, based on the notes from Robert Jordan. The finale of the series is allready written though. RJ wrote the ending before he died.

 

Finished Threshold by Ursula K. Le Guin. I dunno - there was something I quite didn't like about it. Actually, I think there were quite a few things I didn't like about it, because it's hard to put a finger on any one thing and say 'I didn't like this!'. The ending annoyed me because it was so damn typical, but the general message behind it ... bleh. There were things there that I found interesting but would have been better if the plot and at least one of the characters was absent.

 

*arrives late to the party* Oh, Name of the Rose is nice. The Island of the Day Before was the first of his books I picked up - both have some lovely details.

As for me, finished A Scanner Darkly, Philip K. Dick, this weekend, completely by mistake. (I thought it was another book... long story.)

 

i could never get through the whole novel for some reason. the movie was okay though and i'm with everyone that the "rose" was that girl adso hooked up with. at least it's implied in the movie.

ender's game is one of the greatest sci-fi/fantasy books ever. and although i can't seem to remember much about enchantment, i remember quite liking it. will probably have to dig it out and give it a re-read.

i'm reading a long way down by nick hornby right now. almost done with it though. i have to pick something up within the next few days for my 4 and a half hour flight back home in a week.

anybody have anything to say about "Amsterdam" by Ian McEwan?

 

'Rides a Dread Legion' by Raymond E. Feist. I was positively surprised by this one. It felt more like I was reading Feist's earlier and better books again. Unfortunately it would seem that the second book in the Demonwar saga is nowhere near this one. Oh well... it is a must read anyway.

 

The Last of the Wine - Mary Renault. An historical novel about gays and gay life in ancient Greece; lean on action and long on ancient Greek philosophy and everyday life in Athens during the Peloponnesian Wars. It's an odd, but very interesting read.

 

I just started to read it. I got it for christmas i think. So far, I'm really caught in it. I'm not a big reader. I usually read in the bus or before going to bed. The small chapters in the book make it ideal for that (I dislike stopping in the middle of a page and I always have to reread a few paragraph to get in the mood again). And I especially like how each chapter reflects the point of view of a different character. You get bits and pieces here and there of what's happening while the wheel turns. It's very interesting and it adds a lot to the build up! I'm past half way and I will go buy the second book when I'll be nearing the end of this one.

 

Finished Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years Of Solitude over the weekend. Such a beautiful book, and one of the most unusual ones I've read. Love every page of it. His take on some of the themes suc as time, age and cycles really struck deep.

 

Finished The Ghost King. Latest Drizzt book. As as expected, it was an apalling 4th edition comercial. The sheer lameness of the 4th ed makes me want to quit the forgotten realms completely. its utterly ruined.

 

I know there are differences in the rules, but in the stories, what's different between 3rd edition books and 4th edition books?

 

The system changed drastically. Hence so do the characters and what they can do. 4th edition is the death of the Realms.

 

The stories now have 4th ed stuff in them, Triactus. Meaning the stuff they ruinied the forgotten Realms with, gets thrown in. In this case, its the Spell-Plague. Wich pretty much is just a "fast-forward" event, that serves to change the magic system in the world, to make it be alot more like the system in WoW.
Also they mess up the map alot, so its more like alliance vs horde. Add to that, they remove pretty much every high-level character that was in the world as well.
In this particular book, a few of those characters croaked purely because of the 4th ed changes.

 

Finished KJ Parker's "The company" and I highly recommend it.

 

I know that Ian Esslemont's Return of the Crimson Guard was released last year outside the US. It is about to be released here (finally). Has anyone read it?

 

I have, liked it a lot. It is on par with the best Malazan books and much better than "Night of Knives" in my opinion. It is essential Malazan reading.

 

Great! Thank you. I really like the Crimson Guard thread in the Erikson books. I read Night of Knives as well, and it was OK, but kinda dorky. Although I liked the Temper character and his flashbacks with the Sword.