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Reading the Kyle Swanson sniper series, sadly not in order as not all are available. Fantastic read full of twists and turns. Plus revenge which is always good.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 whembly wrote:

WoT is one of the most well-rounded series I've ever read.

I "game of thrones" like Cable show would work really well imo.

Part of what put me off for so long, was the Tom Clancy level of description for every. little. thing. that ever happens in the books. I was also hesitant to keep it up, being that the last few books were written by that other guy, based on Robert Jordan's notes; but my friend who convinced me was saying that those books are actually the best of the whole series because they read so much better. Apparently the new guy took the approach that by book 12, you certainly know what the feth is going on, and he doesn't need to waste 100 pages of 700 redescribing Rand and Perrin and the 33 other main characters in book 1 levels of detail. This allowed for him to write a better, more rounded story... So, I guess I'll be finding out in the coming months.

Brandon Sanderson is probably the best thing to happen to fantasy literature in the last three or four decades. He writes giant fantasy epics and yet is able to keep things moving the whole time. Compare with GRRM and Robert Jordan who keep spinning off new POV characters and then feeling the need to keep showing events from the viewpoint of each and every one of those characters, forever. Sanderson generally chooses a couple and that is it for the book, with a few interludes from different characters who don't keep coming back every sixth chapter to show the same events from a slightly different perspective.

Also http://coppermind.net/wiki/Sanderson's_Laws_of_Magic

Is an excellent way to look at magic powers.

 Bromsy wrote:


Brandon Sanderson is probably the best thing to happen to fantasy literature in the last three or four decades. He writes giant fantasy epics and yet is able to keep things moving the whole time. Compare with GRRM and Robert Jordan who keep spinning off new POV characters and then feeling the need to keep showing events from the viewpoint of each and every one of those characters, forever. Sanderson generally chooses a couple and that is it for the book, with a few interludes from different characters who don't keep coming back every sixth chapter to show the same events from a slightly different perspective.

Also http://coppermind.net/wiki/Sanderson's_Laws_of_Magic

Is an excellent way to look at magic powers.

I have also massively enjoyed Mark Lawrence's "Broken Empire" trilogy for much the same reasons... the books themselves are written in the style of a journal/autobiography type deal... You're given fairly sparse information, but what you do get allows you to paint a really damn good picture of how things look/work. And then, occasionally, that get's flipped around (such as the main castle in the series). But, each book is fairly short as fantasy books go, around 300 some odd pages, but they are well written with good action, good plot and some interesting takes on various fantasy elements.

I'm rereading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, a book I haven't read since I was ten. Also reading Death by Black Hole, by Neil Degrasse Tyson

The Iron Heel, by Jack London

It's good

I've just finished a bit of a binge on Iain M Banks' Culture novels. Except Matter and Consider Phlebas; I just wasn't in the mood for those ones.

Of the ones I read, it confirmed by position that Use of Weapons and Look To Windward are my favourites. Zakalwe in UoW is a horrendous human being, but is so broken I can't help feeling sorry for him anyway. It's the doomed quests for redemption that he and Major Quilan from LtW follow that make the books for me.

I still think that Against a Dark Background is my favourite Iain (M) Banks novel, though.

Have you read The Algebraist? I think that's his other major non- Culture SF novel.

Yes, read 'em all. The Algebraist and the novels that came after it, Matter, Surface Detail and The Hydrogen Sonata are all rather anticlimactic. I can only assume it's a deliberate choice, to make us focus on the journey and not the destination. I'm not entirely sure I like that approach, though.

And then there's Feersum Endjinn, the one with the infamous "phonetic" sections. Not nearly as bad as it's made out to be once you figure it out. Mind you, I read that after I'd read Trainspotting, so perhaps I'd had good practice.

Going back to the late 80's early 90's and reading the Iain M. Banks "Culture" novels. Right now the "Use of Weapons." Since I'm deep into playing "Beyond the Gates of Antares" it's a good match. Well, not exactly a match of course but still similar enough for me.

Has anyone read the Disc World series and care to weigh in? It looks pretty good and seems like its up my alley.

 jreilly89 wrote:
Has anyone read the Disc World series and care to weigh in? It looks pretty good and seems like its up my alley.

Marvelous books. Some better than others but all good.

Just finished reading Deathfire: Into the Ruinstorm by Nick Kyme and started Ravenlord: Freedom bought with blood by Gav Thorpe.

In the last 4 chapters of WoT's Shadow Rising. Which apparently, not counting the prequel New Spring, is only book 4 of 13. I might take a break to catch up on some other book series that have come out since I started reading it and then come back.

DCannon4Life wrote:

 jreilly89 wrote:
Has anyone read the Disc World series and care to weigh in? It looks pretty good and seems like its up my alley.

Marvelous books. Some better than others but all good.

What he said.

Here's a chart to follow if you're looking to focus on the different arcs in the series:



I've read all of the Watch and Death novels, as well as the Industrial Revolution books (apart from Raising Steam, which follows after Making Money). I'm working my way through the Rincewind and Witches books.

Each series kind of has its own theme going. The Watch novels are mystery/political books, Death novels deal with personified concepts (holidays, rock 'n' roll, time). The Industrial Revolution looks at technological advancements in a fantasy world. And the Rincewind/Witches novels are all about turning fantasy tropes on their heads (which the whole of the series do as well, really).

 jreilly89 wrote:
Has anyone read the Disc World series and care to weigh in? It looks pretty good and seems like its up my alley.

I read the first one many years ago when it came out. Even though I thought it was good, somehow I never got into the series and now it kind of looks too big to start. Perhaps if they come out on Kindle pretty cheap...

That chart is useful.

 jreilly89 wrote:
Has anyone read the Disc World series and care to weigh in? It looks pretty good and seems like its up my alley.

The first disc world book I ever read was Reaper Man back in 97, purely because of the cover art of death in a straw hat. Worked out that it was one of the funniest books I've ever read and pulled me in to the disc world universe.

Agreed wonderful books - very clever comedy with a bit of pathos and plenty of drama.

It's the wealth of characters that I love the most. The one that gets me is a certain vampire with a passion for flash photography...

 xKillGorex wrote:
It's the wealth of characters that I love the most. The one that gets me is a certain vampire with a passion for flash photography...

Good character, though not quite up to the heights of the various Dibblers, in my opinion

Would someone who disliked THHGTTG like the humor in Discworld? Honestly, it sounds pretty similar in 'hilarity' to THHGTTG from the way people talk about it, but I'd be willing to give it a chance if it people who rolled their eyes at Adams still found Pratchet enjoyable.

On a similar note, I'm a couple chapters into Stross's Accelerando and it is insufferable. I've liked his short stories and Laundry novels for the most part, but eugh, this is one is painful.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Would someone who disliked THHGTTG like the humor in Discworld? Honestly, it sounds pretty similar in 'hilarity' to THHGTTG from the way people talk about it, but I'd be willing to give it a chance if it people who rolled their eyes at Adams still found Pratchet enjoyable.

On a similar note, I'm a couple chapters into Stross's Accelerando and it is insufferable. I've liked his short stories and Laundry novels for the most part, but eugh, this is one is painful.

The humour in Discworld is different to Hitchhikers, working more with Pratchett's satire and parody than Adams' mad slapstick. There is a much more coherent plot in Discworld books as opposed to the Hitchhikers books.

I too found Accelerando unendurable and had to shelve it after a couple of chapters, but somehow I came back to it a few months later, and the second time I was able to keep going and I actually enjoyed it in the end.

It was a very bad introduction to Stross, as I've enjoyed all his other books very much. (I haven't read any of his Fantasy stuff.)

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 xKillGorex wrote:
It's the wealth of characters that I love the most. The one that gets me is a certain vampire with a passion for flash photography...

Good character, though not quite up to the heights of the various Dibblers, in my opinion

Ha true enough, all great characters. Even greater coming from one mind just a shame there will be no more.

 Hulksmash wrote:
In the last 4 chapters of WoT's Shadow Rising. Which apparently, not counting the prequel New Spring, is only book 4 of 13. I might take a break to catch up on some other book series that have come out since I started reading it and then come back.

There's 14 books, unless you count the prequel (then it's 15)


I'm about 1/3 of the way through book 2 of WoT, but I am probably just going to "slog" through the entire series, buying books 12-14 once I get there (I currently own books 1-11). Should still take a while because I'm reading it as my "I got done reading school stuff and now I need to wind down for the night" book.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 Hulksmash wrote:
In the last 4 chapters of WoT's Shadow Rising. Which apparently, not counting the prequel New Spring, is only book 4 of 13. I might take a break to catch up on some other book series that have come out since I started reading it and then come back.

There's 14 books, unless you count the prequel (then it's 15)


I'm about 1/3 of the way through book 2 of WoT, but I am probably just going to "slog" through the entire series, buying books 12-14 once I get there (I currently own books 1-11). Should still take a while because I'm reading it as my "I got done reading school stuff and now I need to wind down for the night" book.

Yeah, my personal reading time has been a bit reduced so it's taking me far, far longer to read the books than I like. Meaning I might need a different book as a break in between. Normally 11k pages would be less than a month but it's been 2 now and I'm only at around 3200....

I have just finished Filmish, a graphic book by Scottish cartoonist Edward Ross, published in November 2015.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Filmish-Graphic-Journey-Through-Film/dp/1910593036/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455103888&sr=8-1&keywords=filmish+a+graphic+journey+through+film

Subtitled “A Graphic Journey Through Film”, Filmish examines key aspects of cinema in seven chapters; The Eye, The Body, Sets & Architecture, Time, Voice & Language, Power & Ideology, and Technology & Technophobia.

The art style is plain black and white without even ziptones. The character faces are cartoony, recogniseable as their originals, easy to view, attractive and expressive.

Taking visual examples from a wide variety of films, and weaving in commentary from academics and critics, Ross looks at the history of film, its power to entertain, to inform but also to deceive and mislead audiences.

I am afraid that white patriarchical authoritarians are liable to find a number of things to annoy them in this theme. The argument presented is that the dominance of white men behind the camera for most of film’s history, has helped construct a language of cinema that determines the principal way we perceive and understand film.

This “male gaze” unconsciously or deliberately can project subtle messages about gender, minority and race roles. In the case of propaganda, these techniques become more obvious, and in the case of things like the Hays Code, the system of social control is overt. Censorship is also considered as an aspect of this control of the medium by a particular power group “for the good” of the lower orders.

But this is not a shrieky social diatribe, it is an interesting critical look at these aspects of cinema. The book also points out ways that directors, actors and audiences have found to subvert or avoid these dominance structures.

Read it and judge for yourself if there is any truth in these ideas.

The final chapter considers how film is essentially a technical medium that is constantly changing. For a century cinema was the monopoly tool of big power groups like the major studios and governments, The author finds great hope for renewal in modern digital technology that has made film making accessible to nearly everyone, and empowered industries like “Nollywood” -- the Nigerian micro-film making business.

As well as the seven graphic chapters there are extensive footnotes for the quotations, a filmography, and a bibliography of the books used as reference material.

Looking outside its comic book presentation, this is actually a significant piece of critical work that introduces a lot of very interesting ideas about film in relation to society. The cartoon format makes what could have been a dry introductory textbook on film studies into an accessible, enlightening and enjoyable read.

Highly recommended!

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:
I have also massively enjoyed Mark Lawrence's "Broken Empire" trilogy for much the same reasons... the books themselves are written in the style of a journal/autobiography type deal... You're given fairly sparse information, but what you do get allows you to paint a really damn good picture of how things look/work. And then, occasionally, that get's flipped around (such as the main castle in the series). But, each book is fairly short as fantasy books go, around 300 some odd pages, but they are well written with good action, good plot and some interesting takes on various fantasy elements.

I just came here to post about this same series, which I just finished. I found it excellent. I'd raise it above GRR Martin and Robin Hobb, but behind Steven Erikson's Malazan series, and put it level with Patrick Rothfuss and his "The Name of the Wind" which I also rate very highly.

I believe I shall try some Brandon Sanderson next.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I too found Accelerando unendurable and had to shelve it after a couple of chapters, but somehow I came back to it a few months later, and the second time I was able to keep going and I actually enjoyed it in the end.

It was a very bad introduction to Stross, as I've enjoyed all his other books very much. (I haven't read any of his Fantasy stuff.)

All I've read by him are the A Colder War and Missile Gap shorts, and plenty of his blog posts. I'm intrigued by the Laundry series; I might give that a bash soon.

I'm reading Realmgate Wars - War Storm and I am really enjoying it!! I'm about half way through so far. I really do like the AOS background :-)

 jreilly89 wrote:
Has anyone read the Disc World series and care to weigh in? It looks pretty good and seems like its up my alley.

Another definite recommendation here. The sheer volume can be daunting, but there's really no need to read them all. A few I'd recommend:

Mort: A good starting place, the first one that's actually a novel with a plot rather than a series of loosely connected fantasy. Does a lot with Death, who is one of the best and most common characters in the rest of them.

Going Postal, Making Money, Raising Steam: One of the more satirical parts of the series, this trilogy sends up the post service, banking industry and railways and has one of the funniest lead characters in Moist Von Lipwig. There was a decent TV film of the first one, which I think is on Youtube in parted-out form.

Wyrd Sisters: Pratchett does Macbeth. Expect double-dealing, treachery, politics and some rather unconventional witches...

The Watch and Vimes books: Basically a cop drama, but with more trolls... and dwarves...

They're all good stuff, though.