Book Thread Continued

[Yoda]

Got back into ASOF&I #3. I'm resigned to the fact that it's impossible to know every damn character in the book so I'm just sticking to the major who's and the where's

[Tooker]

I finished Wool just now (link to Amazon in my last post), and it was excellent all the way through.  People should read it. :)

[Yoda]

Almost done w/ GoT #3. Interested to see where this goes.

The rate people are dying off is interesting

[Tooker]

Keeping with my post-apocalyptic reading mood, I just finished The Dog Stars. It's quite good. Had a feel that reminded me of The Road quite a bit, although it's much less bleak. Sad things still happen, but it's a super-flu end of the world rather than The Road's nukes. (Or at least I think that was nukes.)

Next up is a new fantasy that's getting a lot of good buzz, Promise of Blood. It's book 1 of "the powder mage trilogy" - guns and magic together.

[Tooker]

Oooh - check this out.  Anyone remember the Lone Wolf choose-your-own-adventure/RPG hybrid books?  The author has made them available free to read/play at the following website in about a dozen different formats.

http://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Home

[MeshGearFox]

Finished Illuminatus!. Going to move on to some of the Samuel R. Delaney books I've picked up recently.

Did pick up Thomas Pynchon - V. today but that can wait. I need something shorter.

[Esper_Crusader]

Re-reading Swan Song by R. McCammon. One of my all time favorites.

[kyuusei]

Been sloooowly getting through A Storm of Swords. I'm barely ahead of the show, but not by much at all. Almost halfway through.

[Yoda]

FINALLY finished A Storm of Swords. I like where this is going.

Crazy epilogue

[dyeager]

FINALLY finished A Storm of Swords. I like where this is going.

Crazy epilogue

I'll give you the same advice I've been giving everybody. STOP NOW.

Nobody ever listens.

[Yoda]

Why?

[dyeager]

Why?

The actual editing stops after book 3.

I think part of the problem may be that originally, back in the late 90s when GRRM first started publishing these, his plan was to SKIP like 15 years of time between books 3 and 4. But he does not do that. This thing takes a hard right into Jordanville starting with book 4.

[dyeager]

But then again - if you enjoy detailed descriptions of what is in the larder at any given moment, you may very much enjoy these books. Far be it from me to say what is "bad" or "good" - but books 4 and 5 are definitely "different" in terms of pace, attention to minutiae, and pages spent describing what people are eating.

Also, I think it is fair to warn you that the "main" characters in the sense I'm guessing you mean it are not in book 4, so steel yourself accordingly if you decide to press on.

[dyeager]

Oooh - check this out.  Anyone remember the Lone Wolf choose-your-own-adventure/RPG hybrid books?  The author has made them available free to read/play at the following website in about a dozen different formats.

http://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Home

BTW Tooks - not sure how I missed this before now but holy cow this is awesome!!!

[Tooker]

Glad you caught it now, in that case. :)

Your comments about ASoIaF are interesting.  I only read the first book, decided it wasn't really for me, and put it down.  But I was recently reading a collection of short stories by George R. R. Martin, and he said something chilling in the intro.  To put it briefly, he said that he's had lots of series over the years that he just lost interest in and stopped writing.  I thought "man, if you do that with ASoIaF, you're gonna get lynched."

I'm reading Promise of Blood now, and it's pretty good.  Magic and guns, including magic based on gunpowder as well as other kinds.  Some interesting character bits that I'm hoping the author follows up on in the future, like the character who's trying to convince himself that he's not a gunpowder addict, and the issue of people having to work with someone who betrayed them in the past.

I'm reading it on my Kindle, and noticed that they added a new feature with the latest firmware update.  It watches how fast you're reading, and if you bring up the menu while in a book, it tells you how much time it'll take for you to finish the book.  Amazing idea for when you're about to go on a trip and aren't sure if your book is long enough to last you.