Book Thread Continued

[Tooker]

All of the peasants were transported there from the city of Metropolis on one of the DC multiverse worlds before it was destroyed during the 1985 crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths.  They used to live on a world with superheroes, and were used to losing relatives and having the city destroyed on a weekly basis, so despite their current living conditions, they still consider it an upgrade.

[Logick]

He is on the list of people to read on my quest to dig fantasy books.

I don't know if I could call him fantasy, people call his books weird fiction, which I think is more suited for him.  If you want fantasy books that don't ride on Tolkien tropes I recommend GRRM A Song of Ice and Fire and Steven Erickson's Malazan Book of the Fallen.

I've only read Perdido Street Station by him, but I do recommend. It's not as deep as it can appear, but the imagination is fantastic.

Perdido Street station is good, but his post Bas Lag books, Unlundun, The City and The City, Kraken, Embassytown, and so far Railsea, are REALLY good.  And Embassytown(which is hardcore sci fi) is incredibly deep.

[dyeager]

[Logick]

Lots of people commented on the Penny Arcade folks view of Mieville's work, realizing they mainly read "mainstream" sci fi novels and such, I'm guessing that his books are just not meant for them.

[dyeager]

Aren't Mieville's sales enough to call him "mainstream" at this point? I mean once you've won some Hugo awards you probably qualify right? I don't know I'm just asking.

[Logick]

Aren't Mieville's sales enough to call him "mainstream" at this point? I mean once you've won some Hugo awards you probably qualify right? I don't know I'm just asking.

The penny arcade guy only read half of city and the city and didn't understand it and accused him of being smug.   Mieville's books are geninuely different people call them Weird Fiction.  This is why I love his books, while alot of writers are formulaic, he paints a different world, he's like the Frank Zappa of scifi/fantasy :P.  I also love how even those the Bas Lag books made him known, he no longer writes books in that world, he's not obliged to.

[Yoda]

Took me a while to read the last 3rd or so of a Clash of Kings. formulating my thoughts. Certainly a wild ending.

[kyuusei]

Finished The Girl Who Played With Fire. WTF @ Zala.

Bought The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest but I think 120 pages is enough for one day.

[Yoda]

I like the sequel, "The Girl That Made a Ham Sandwich"

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So A Clash of Kings:

Enjoyed it very much, except for a few points. I liked the structure of the book except how there'll be something going on in one characters "chapter" and then the book moves on to another character and we're left to find out what happened in the other in a pretty mundane dialog between characters. "such and such has done X and Mr. B has been doing Y..." etc.

[Dincrest]

Ashok Banker's Ramayana is fantastic, but I'm putting that on hold to read Mistborn.

[GrimReality]

Finishing up Sandman book 4: Season of Mists. It's been bizarre as hell, but fun. I'll keep going.
I got my next book in the mail yesterday. Cavern of Black Ice by J.V. Jones. First book in the Sword of Shadows series. The name sounds crazy generic, but I saw all sorts of acclaim for them, so I decided to go for it. Anyone out there read them?

[(Tunnels)]

Been reading Richard Morgan's The Steel Remains lately, and after a rocky start, I've warmed up to it. I'm about half-way, and I think I'm finally starting to understand where the characters are in relation to each other, cause there sure as hell wasn't a map included to give any indication where these places are. I really enjoy how he has set up the novel; the main character has his viewpoint chapter ever odd chapter, so chapter 1, 3, 5, 7 etc. are the main char's chapters, while the even chapters alternate between the other two main characters, with one having his on chaps 2, 6, 10 etc., and the other having hers on 4, 8, 12 etc. It keeps things fresh, without distancing the events so far that I don't remember what the hell is going on anymore.

[Yoda]

one of the things I love the best about A Song of Ice and Dice:

(this isn't really a spoiler but i play safe)

I really like how semi-important characters disappear and are still referenced. We're left to wonder if they're alive or making an impact in some way somewhere. Benjen Stark, Ser Barristan to name a few. 

[GrimReality]

Ok, so I decided to read the second Hunger Games book before Cavern, as I'll get through it a lot faster. I'm only a short ways in, but I already kind of know where it's headed. Let's hope it throws me for a loop or two.

[Esper_Crusader]

I'm reading the new Dark Tower book; The Wind Through The Keyhole.  So far, so good.