There's the original trio of books, three standalone sequels, and the second trilogy called Age of Madness (the first book of which came out last year, with the next set to drop this September). Add to that the short story collection Sharp Ends. Half a King/World/War make up the Shattered Sea trilogy, which is a different IP. Those are Viking-flavored YA Fantasy novels, quite enjoyable in their own right.
Probably give those a miss, quite enough to read as it is lol. I'm looking forward to the rest of the First Law though. First, though, Red Rising.
I'm halfway through The Lady of The Lake (The Witcher). I'm well on my way to one book a month, which was one of my new year resolutions. Hurrah. I do have Season of Storms lined up for reading as well and am debating whether I should read that next, even though it's not a continuation of The Lady of The Lake (from my understanding) or taking a break from the series and moving onto something else.
Well I finished my book called Always, by Sarah Jio. It took me a long time but I could finally turn over a leaf and begin something new. I was so relieved that the book offered some kind of happy ending. I’ve read too many books with catastrophic ends, it’s making me more and more of a pessimist every day. Guess what I just needed was something “happy” for once! I mean I’d like to see more of that in adult stories since there’s plenty more in children’s stories to keep them appeased. Unfortunately, I think I’m about to start another novel series which I’m anticipating will be kinda sad by the time I reach the end. It’s “His Dark Materials” by Phillip Pullman. Those who’ve already read it will probably know whether this anticipation of mine is correct or not
Been looking around for what to read. I'll try with a go at the ancient world; finish "The King Must Die" by Mary Renault and a book about the later Roman Empire.
I think I'll finally start Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut. He's one of my favorites and this will be my 10th novel of his. I've always heard this one (being his first) is written a little differently than his others. Let's find out!
By wild coincidence, that was the most recent and also tenth Vonnegut I read. How cool. As a fellow Vonnegut junkie, I have to say, it's not my favorite by a long shot, but it's still worth a read. It reminds me more of his mid-century sci-fi contemporaries than his later, more unique books. It could almost be an early PKD (also before his best work.) I think you'll like it.
I'm almost through with The Road. It took longer to read than I thought because life. It's good though. It's not going to make it into my top ten , but I feel incredibly connected to this book. I have a five-year-old, and the dialog reminds me of conversations we've had when something scared him (except that I'm far more verbose with my answers. Go figure.) McCarthy wrote the kid just perfectly, and it's punching me in the heart. I also started in on Consider This Chuck Palaniuk's writing manual. I love his work. Here's hoping it's less depressing than the writing manual I read recently, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. That was a clever and humorous book about how writing will NEVER MAKE YOU HAPPY. Yay. That was about a third of my takeaway anyway.
Man, oh man, do I love this book. It's bizarre, disjointed, on drugs, and the very thing that Harrison is talking about when he says he despises the religion of worldbuilding. Light 100% possesses a fully fledged, decadent, huge world. What it doesn't have (thankfully) is the feeling that the story is slave to the world, rather than the other way 'round. That's what he's talking about, yet he's always misunderstood. Every moment of a science fiction story must represent the triumph of writing over worldbuilding. Worldbuilding is dull. Worldbuilding literalises the urge to invent. Worldbuilding gives an unnecessary permission for acts of writing (indeed, for acts of reading). Worldbuilding numbs the reader’s ability to fulfil their part of the bargain, because it believes that it has to do everything around here if anything is going to get done. Above all, worldbuilding is not technically necessary. It is the great clomping foot of nerdism. It is the attempt to exhaustively survey a place that isn’t there. A good writer would never try to do that, even with a place that is there. It isn’t possible, & if it was the results wouldn’t be readable: they would constitute not a book but the biggest library ever built, a hallowed place of dedication & lifelong study. This gives us a clue to the psychological type of the world builder & the world builder’s victim, & makes us very afraid. - M. John Harrison The original essay.
It's not his best. Funnily enough, after we were discussing Jared Diamond the other day, I found a copy of Collapse that I never knew I had! Never read it before. On the Anasazi chapter now... very, very cool. I was kind of high when I started reading it, but it's still one of those "Whoa, duuuuude... no way!" Kind of books.
Awesome! My favorites: Mother Night, Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Galapagos. Breakfast of Champions was my first so that holds a special place. I own the massive 1000 page ultimate short story collection by Vonnegut but I underestimated how annoying reading a book that big is and haven't read much of it haha. That has every short story he's ever published though so it's pretty cool. It's a great book. I felt like an expert on Easter Island after reading that haha. A lot of the reading in that class was completely awesome considering it was a business class, which tended to have much drier reading. Ishmael by Daniel Quinn was also assigned in that class and loved it.
My tops would be The Sirens of Titan, Slaughterhouse Five, Cat's Cradle, Breakfast of Champions and Timequake. I still haven't read Jailbird, Deadeye Dick, Galapagos, Hocus Pocus or any of the short story collections. I will though!
Made no way forward with the book about Rome, so I switched to the first part of "Clouds above the Hill". I feel like I need some fiction and a novel after finishing "Collision of Empires".
I read two books today someone sent me and now I'm reading The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan until my food gets here.
I'm re-reading Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography by, well, Theodore Roosevelt. Published in 1913, author died in 1919 so it is legit free and out of copyright from Project Gutenberg. Not only a fascinating and flawed man, but quite the writer as well in terms of pacing and turns of phrase. Highly recommended.
Just finished Ben Bova and Les Johnson's book Rescue Mode . It was a book published by Bean. I have bought some digital books from them , but this is the first paper one . It is a little fat brick of a book and seems to be designed to have as many pages as possible. Chapters often end with blank pages and begin with a big heading and start in the bottom quarter of the page . The result is your a hundred plus pages in and almost nothing interesting has happened. I do feel a bit guilty being negative about this book , the two writers have invested time and skill in to creating something that I found to be dull and disappointing .
Let me know what you think. Have you read more Hemingway? I loved The Old Man and the Sea, but found The Sun Also Rises a little slow for my taste. A Farewell to Arms was next on my list, but I'm hesitant now that the last one bored me a bit.
Read those two when I was 17. I was very much disappointed with The Sun Also Rises and just put it down about fifty or so pages before it was done. Maybe you had to have been there to appreciate it. The Old Man and the Sea is too short not to read. I have read some of Hemingway's short stories. His writing style is quite minimalistic (trite, to be honest) but it allows you to appreciate the story rather than the language, which can sometimes be refreshing. I recently finished two major works of Steinbeck and I've had enough colorful descriptions for a fortnight. I've never even been to the US, but I have memories of California nonetheless!
You can only use and so many times in a sentence before it stops being poetic and starts being lazy. I'm sorry if I struck a nerve - I have two of his books on my shelf, and I enjoy his writing, but it is not the beautiful language that keeps me hooked.
Fifty pages in, A Farewell to Arms definitely seems like the type of book I wouldn't have any trouble finishing in a couple of days.
