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General discussionBooks finished in 2016(309 posts)(309 posts)
(309 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted December 09, 2016
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andysheets1975: Yeah, unfortunately because the series used Fu Manchu and other characters licensed from the Sax Rohmer estate, Marvel has never been able to reprint it until now, and it appears that these omnibus volumes are going to be one-and-done with extra printings or editions in cheaper formats unlikely to come. I'm burning a lot of my disposable income picking them up.
I see now. It's a bummer still, even if it definitely looks like a great read. Sure thanks for mentioning this edition though.
Posted December 10, 2016
In the last couple months, I read all three books of Brian McClellan's Powdermage triology, and the shorts (novellas, short story collection) around it. I devoured it. I can't remember ever reading anything so engrossing for me.

It's flintlock fantasy. Basically, it's the French Revolution, but the old guard have mages, and the revolutionaries use gunpowder. I'd highly recommend checking it out!

(Comparison: My favorite book is James Clavell's Shogun.)

Also read and enjoyed this year: Sing the Four Quarters and its first "sequel" (Tanya Huff; her Summoning comedic modern fantasy was a riot). Definitely one of my favorite renditions of bards in media.. I guess earlier in the year the latest Patricia Briggs book came out (Dead Heat).

Working on Daphne Du Maurier's Birds + other shorts right now.

I'm enjoying being "done" [for now] with college and reading again.
Post edited December 10, 2016 by mqstout
Posted December 10, 2016
Just read "The Wall" by Jean-Paul Sartre. It is roughly 13 pages long but quite interesting. It was a good read indeed and I recommend you to give it a go, it's not really long but provides much.
Posted December 10, 2016
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Starmaker: I am genuinely curious what people like about these books (and by genuinely, I mean genuinely).
Forget the antagonist. This was one of the very first (if not the first) popular fantasy novels where the protagonist was completely unlikeable, while the surrounding cast was (for the most part) endearing. Okay, getting back to the antagonist, it was also one of the first - that I read, at least - where the unlikeable protagonist was mirrored by an antagonist that was equally unlikeable due to actually being pure evil. And not one of these generally contrived 'evil' antagonists that have some kind of sympathetic flaw where you can sympathize with them and understand (read:excuse) their motives; rather one that's just genuinely evil, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

*edit* It may be a product of timing, but I found it a seriously refreshing take on the fantasy genre when I read it. Do keep in mind that was when I was 14 or 15, so 35+ years ago. It may not fare as well today, since it won't seem nearly as fresh or original, but it certainly was back then.
Post edited December 10, 2016 by GR00T
Posted December 10, 2016
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Cavalary: In my case, the different worlds created and presented, the scale of powers and events that exceed anything possible in this one, and overall escapism. Know this world, it sucks, don't want to remain in it while experiencing creative stuff as well, thank you very much.
Thank you for the reply.
I must have been dropped on my imagination one time too many as a kid, because I'm unable to appreciate any book that isn't nonstop adventure or weird fact porn.

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GR00T: Forget the antagonist. This was one of the very first (if not the first) popular fantasy novels where the protagonist was completely unlikeable, while the surrounding cast was (for the most part) endearing. Okay, getting back to the antagonist, it was also one of the first - that I read, at least - where the unlikeable protagonist was mirrored by an antagonist that was equally unlikeable due to actually being pure evil. And not one of these generally contrived 'evil' antagonists that have some kind of sympathetic flaw where you can sympathize with them and understand (read:excuse) their motives; rather one that's just genuinely evil, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
I started reading the first book with really great expectations. I specifically seek out stories dealing with virtual reality and the humanity of fictional characters and the importance of virtual goals, so the synopses on the internet made it sound like bestest book evar, written just for me. Asshole goes to fantasyland, does nasty stuff to the populace for the lulz, then has to deal with the consequences? Awesome, shut up and take my money, clicky clicky mail tracker refresh.

Aaaaaand... ouch, the disappointment. I mean, that one big nasty thing that he does -- I'd be totally on board if he did it for the lulz (hell, I'd probably pick such an option in a playthrough if it came up in a serious RPG). I could also accept if the author was pushing some sort of Lord of the Flies idea, as in, every person is naturally evil and it's only familiar "civilized" surroundings that suppress the bestial tendencies and stop most of us from seriously considering and committing all sorts of pointless crimes. But in the book, the guy clearly has a psychotic episode and feels terrible all the way, really, nothing for me the reader to feel conflicted about. Then, yes, he's unlikeable, but so's everyone else, and in the end I just didn't care about anything that happened. Evil characters are written to be Evil-by-definition, like perfect spheres, and good characters are similarly defined to be Good, except some might have a Tragic Flaw (not more than one per person), represented by a hollow center -- instead of gloriously fractal manifolds that real people are. I was rooting for the bad guy to killmaimburn everyone (aren't Ultimate Evils a dime a dozen in fantasy?) but without any real feeling about the whole brownian motion thing, and stopped after the first volume.

(Contrast Kingkiller Chronicles, where Patrick Rothfuss (ineptly) tries to portray complexity by giving each character two random traits, which then react in surprising ways like codewords in a gamebook, and as a result there are at least three characters I would be happy to see triumph.)

(And as a positive example, one of my recent favorites: everyone is evil in fresh and exciting ways except two decent side characters, one of whom dies before the events of the trilogy and the other appears in seemingly random episodes trying to avenge him behind the scenes, then dies and destroys the setting literally on the last page. Whoa.)
Posted December 10, 2016
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Starmaker: (And as a positive example, one of my recent favorites: everyone is evil in fresh and exciting ways except two decent side characters, one of whom dies before the events of the trilogy and the other appears in seemingly random episodes trying to avenge him behind the scenes, then dies and destroys the setting literally on the last page. Whoa.)
Care to give a name for this positive example?

Anyway:

<span class="bold">Blessings of a Curse</span>

Another free read, this one picked up back in 2013, but still free anyway. Book 1 of a trilogy, won't be bothered with the rest in any way. But big and... odd book and review got away from me, so rather pointless to paste a 1600-word thing here, not even sure I could. So, link for the full thing, or here if you prefer on blog, and just conclusion below:

Overall, Blessings of a Curse can be seen as a guide or a manual for a huge and stunningly diverse fantasy world described in incredible detail and in which quite a number of writers could probably spend their entire lives placing stories, coupled with a nonfiction book presenting the author’s views about the “real world” and the changes he proposes, which generally deserve serious consideration and in plenty of cases represent good solutions to real problems. The story and characters, on the other hand, are a mere wrapping around those details and concepts, and so poorly written and developed and revealing such immaturity and lack of thought that they may make it difficult to pay proper attention to the matters that deserve it. Worse, at least the first part explores sexual fantasies that appear to be for, shall we say, the author’s personal use and which are disturbing to read regardless of the reasons why they were included, while later it exposes a quite terrifying and worsening God complex and some troubling ideas about what would be acceptable or even desirable on the part of those who are supposedly on the side of good.
Post edited December 10, 2016 by Cavalary
Posted December 11, 2016
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Starmaker: (And as a positive example, one of my recent favorites: everyone is evil in fresh and exciting ways except two decent side characters, one of whom dies before the events of the trilogy and the other appears in seemingly random episodes trying to avenge him behind the scenes, then dies and destroys the setting literally on the last page. Whoa.)
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Cavalary: Care to give a name for this positive example?
Shadow - Pattern - Memory by KJ Parker.
Post edited December 11, 2016 by Starmaker
Posted December 11, 2016
* The Dusk Of The French Upper Class * by Christophe Guilluy

Last book to date (september 2016) from Guilly in his series of socio-economic-geographic essays on the current state of the French society. As his vision of a divided France gets confirmed over the years, he rehashs some of his toughts but brings new sourced datas on the table. Also, as the title implies, a good portion of the book focuses on the "new" French upper class: the typical metropolitan guy with money and education who's advocating for globalization(as it supports his lifestyle contrary to the people class). The chapter dedicated to these new "bourgeois" is really interesting as it's backed up with lots of stats and observations rather than just doing some hipster-bashing. As the book was written pretty recently, it can bring up recent examples of the French classes fractures like the failure of the movement "Nuit Debout", the Benzema-Deschamps drama, the book "Jean-Pierre Timbaud Street" (reviewed earlier in the thread) and even drawing international parallels with the voting results of the Brexit.

So, the new content is really interesting and up-to-date but naturally, a good portion of the book feels like some "déjà-vu" if you've read his two precedent books before.

https://www.amazon.fr/Cr%C3%A9puscule-France-den-haut/dp/2081375346/
Posted December 11, 2016
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Starmaker: (Contrast Kingkiller Chronicles, where Patrick Rothfuss (ineptly) tries to portray complexity by giving each character two random traits, which then react in surprising ways like codewords in a gamebook, and as a result there are at least three characters I would be happy to see triumph.)
Is Kingkiller Chronicles good? I was thinking about giving it a try after The Dark Tower and I heard it's good.
Post edited December 11, 2016 by chibi23
Posted December 12, 2016
Pirate Latitudes - Michael Crichton

One of the best books I've read, it has pirates in it. I personally think he wrote it for fun, it was seemingly unpublished full manuscript until after his death in 2008.

Echo Burning - The fifth Jack Reacher Novel

It's a Jack Reacher novel, not much else needs to be said.
Posted December 12, 2016
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chibi23: Is Kingkiller Chronicles good? I was thinking about giving it a try after The Dark Tower and I heard it's good.
I know you didn't ask me but I'd highly recommend it. Does depend on what you want and expect though.

My quick reviews there:
The Name of the Wind
The Wise Man's Fear
The Slow Regard of Silent Things
Posted December 12, 2016
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Starmaker: (Contrast Kingkiller Chronicles, where Patrick Rothfuss (ineptly) tries to portray complexity by giving each character two random traits, which then react in surprising ways like codewords in a gamebook, and as a result there are at least three characters I would be happy to see triumph.)
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chibi23: Is Kingkiller Chronicles good? I was thinking about giving it a try after The Dark Tower and I heard it's good.
As a classic fantasy novel, it's bad, and the author is a major creepazoid. However, parts of it scratch my itches: slice-of-life with steganographic secret revelations, and the fact that it' advertized as a tragedy, so I'm looking forward to schadenfreude overload. However (again), it appears that the author overhyped, wrote himself into a corner, and the final volume isn't coming any time soon, so I can't recommend getting into it now.
Posted December 12, 2016
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chibi23: Is Kingkiller Chronicles good? I was thinking about giving it a try after The Dark Tower and I heard it's good.
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Cavalary: I know you didn't ask me but I'd highly recommend it. Does depend on what you want and expect though.

My quick reviews there:
The Name of the Wind
The Wise Man's Fear
The Slow Regard of Silent Things
Thanks, I'll take a look.
Posted December 15, 2016
* Jean-Pierre Bouyxou Versus The Red-Masked Woman * by Jean Rollin

One of the latest writings of the French horror/fantastic cult moviemaker Jean Rollin.

4 short novels (or the chapters of a bigger unfinished novel?) about J-P Bouyxou, a common guy (who actually really exists IRL and is a French movie critic and journalist) who always inevitably gets caught in some fantastic parallell world filled with brutality, old myths and mysterious women.

If you like Rollin's movies, it's a nice addition to get a better grasp at his thematics as like his films, the stories here always go into some kind of awaken dream/nightmare where eroticized women act like guide and portal to another world. Since then, the publisher went bankrupt and Rollin died so it's hard to know if it was a one-shot (it ends up on a cliffhanger) or if more material was intended.
Posted December 17, 2016
* Praise Of Borders * by Régis Debray

It's the text of a speech which was given by Debray in Japan in 2010. During that conference, he explores the various notions of borders in language and meanings (border, frontier, limit, etc.) and how this notion of separation helps identifying things/persons and intangible stuff. While the "writing" is overly stylized it gives enough food for thoughts in less than 100 pages.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionBooks finished in 2016(309 posts)(309 posts)
(309 posts)