Wolfpac 08 said:

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I appreciated his pace and how he didn't get too bogged down in some of the details like a lot of authors tend to do. He gives you just enough info to make sure you get it, then he moves on. Loves that.

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This is one of the things i really didn't like with Red Rising. Most of the time i'm left wishing he would expand more on something, then he just wraps it up and moves on to the next thing. It really throws the pacing off imo.

Different strokes for different folks i guess..

Completed The Butcher's Maquerade on March 31.

Super Minor Spoiler, No Tag Necessary: I still think Princess Donut singing her bard song to the A Team theme was one of the funniest moments in all the books!

I was dying!

I am now 4 chapters in to Eye of the Bedlam Bride.

God bless Dungeon Crawler Carl!

Dr. Mephisto said:

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Completed The Butcher's Maquerade on March 31.

Super Minor Spoiler, No Tag Necessary: I still think Princess Donut singing her bard song to the A Team theme was one of the funniest moments in all the books!

I was dying!

I am now 4 chapters in to Eye of the Bedlam Bride.

God bless Dungeon Crawler Carl!

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Just finished the first Monster Hunter International book (Correa) after reading the entirety of DCC, and talk about a massive step down across the board. Went from constantly being entertained and wanting to keep reading almost nonstop until I finished to groaning and rolling my eyes at the amateur writing style, waiting for it to end. Definitely makes me appreciate DCC more. Maybe if I had gone from a mediocre series to monster hunter, it would be ok, but I'm pretty much moving on at this point.

World War Z is next up, ive heard good things. What's the consensus from folks on this thread?

Just finished up Gateway (Expeditionary Force Book 18) by Craig Alanson last night and started reading Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton.

I have to say, Gateway is one of the worst-edited books I've ever read. There are way too many typos, grammatical errors, punctuation errors, and formatting errors for a professionally published book. I'm not an editor or grammar nazi by any stretch, so if I catch this many errors, it is really bad.
Hopefully, at some point the publishing company will realize the Kindle version is so bad and revise/update it. If I had a hard copy of the book and it was this sloppy, I'd really be upset.

Finished Dungeon Crawler Carl 1 & 2: Damn these are highly entertaining.

I like Princess Donut, but Carl is just a fun read, and actually (so far) I really like Mordecai and just want to know his full backstory. Maybe they'll write the Mordecai dungeon crawl one day

Finished The Lost World by Crichton and I'm so disappointed in that abomination they called a film adaptation. Great book and I highly recommend.

Is Sphere also worth reading?

Quote:

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World War Z is next up, ive heard good things. What's the consensus from folks on this thread?

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I enjoyed WWZ, and like the poster above on "The Lost World" the movie is absolute trash compared to the book.
WWZ is a series of short stories with unrelated characters & how the respond to the zombie apocalypse. Brooks really put some thought into certain scenarios. Been a while since I've read it.

FancyKetchup14 said:

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Finished The Lost World by Crichton and I'm so disappointed in that abomination they called a film adaptation. Great book and I highly recommend.

Is Sphere also worth reading?

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Yes, Sphere is excellent; everything by Crichton is

Just finished reading S. King's The Institute (1st King book I've read).

Good stuff.

Trajan88 said:

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Just finished reading S. King's The Institute (1st King book I've read).

Good stuff.

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Funny enough, that was the first King book I read too! Very much enjoyed it!

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. The horrific crimes of the author aside, I really enjoyed this adaptation of Arthurian legend. I liked seeing different takes on iconic characters and events.

I recently joined the Tough Guy Book Club, we just opened a chapter in Austin in Steiner Ranch if anyone is interested. We read The Beach last month and Still Life this month.

The Beach was terrible.

Still Life was incredible. I wouldnt have picked the book up in a hundred years on my own, but so well written.

World War Z is in the top 5 all time for me.

SpreadsheetAg said:

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Finished Dungeon Crawler Carl 1 & 2: Damn these are highly entertaining.

I like Princess Donut, but Carl is just a fun read, and actually (so far) I really like Mordecai and just want to know his full backstory. Maybe they'll write the Mordecai dungeon crawl one day

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Just keep reading

Halfway through Book 3 already; the one with all the trains

Kaiser von Wilhelm said:

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Dr. Mephisto said:

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Completed The Butcher's Maquerade on March 31.

Super Minor Spoiler, No Tag Necessary: I still think Princess Donut singing her bard song to the A Team theme was one of the funniest moments in all the books!

I was dying!

I am now 4 chapters in to Eye of the Bedlam Bride.

God bless Dungeon Crawler Carl!

---

Just finished the first Monster Hunter International book (Correa) after reading the entirety of DCC, and talk about a massive step down across the board. Went from constantly being entertained and wanting to keep reading almost nonstop until I finished to groaning and rolling my eyes at the amateur writing style, waiting for it to end. Definitely makes me appreciate DCC more. Maybe if I had gone from a mediocre series to monster hunter, it would be ok, but I'm pretty much moving on at this point.

World War Z is next up, ive heard good things. What's the consensus from folks on this thread?

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Before you swear off MHI, try MHI: Memoirs. I personally like MHI and DCC.

Took a break from Moby Dick to start Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 1.

I like reading again!

In all seriousness, if you want to read a classic work that is long but interesting, try The Count of Monte Cristo. It isn't a slog at all.

lurker76 said:

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In all seriousness, if you want to read a classic work that is long but interesting, try The Count of Monte Cristo. It isn't a slog at all.

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I've heard this frequently. First book up for me next when returning to the genre

I have made so many attempts to get into the "classics". I promise I have. For decades now. I feel like it is a rite of passage basically as a self proclaimed "reader". Aside from the ones I was forced to read and CMC, I have rebounded off of pretty much all of them though. Hard. I finally decided last year to just give it up and admit that they are not for me and that that is ok after all. Still stings though for some damn reason.

Kaiser von Wilhelm said:

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World War Z is next up, ive heard good things. What's the consensus from folks on this thread?

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WWZ is a comfort book of mine. I just reread it about 3 days ago. I truly enjoy the style of it. Max Brooks does an incredible job of wrangling in so many different story arcs into a singular story that is pretty easy to follow and explores the event from every angle possible. Love it so much. It doesn't get TOO granular either so pretty accessible to everyone I would say.

Yeah, the movie is nothing compared to the book. Zero debate needed as far as I am concerned. (Still enjoyed it though, just had nothing to do really with the book.)

Eliminatus said:

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I have made so many attempts to get into the "classics". I promise I have. For decades now. I feel like it is a rite of passage basically as a self proclaimed "reader". Aside from the ones I was forced to read and CMC, I have rebounded off of pretty much all of them though. Hard. I finally decided last year to just give it up and admit that they are not for me and that that is ok after all. Still stings though for some damn reason.

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count me as someone who generally find the classics as overrated.


I know that sounds flippant or makes me sound like ass but it kind of makes sense. "The Classics" serve a good foundation for new authors to build upon. If the classics were still the best thing written, that'd be pretty sad and boring. Writing improves as time goes on.

You can see this with individual authors on a smaller scale. When my wife looks back at some of her earlier books, she see things that she would do differently if she were to write the same book today. But that's okay. Each book is a product of the time, place, and mindset of the author when it is written. It doesn't mean that writing will always be great or relevant and that's natural.


It kind goes with the concept that there are limited amount of stories. In 1895 George Polti wrote a book called The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. He said there are only 36 different types of stories/plots/dramatic situations and every single play, performance, book, story, etc. falls into one of those categories. Authors just write one of those 36 updated for their situation, time, place, etc.

Eliminatus said:

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Kaiser von Wilhelm said:

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World War Z is next up, ive heard good things. What's the consensus from folks on this thread?

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WWZ is a comfort book of mine. I just reread it about 3 days ago. I truly enjoy the style of it. Max Brooks does an incredible job of wrangling in so many different story arcs into a singular story that is pretty easy to follow and explores the event from every angle possible. Love it so much. It doesn't get TOO granular either so pretty accessible to everyone I would say.

Yeah, the movie is nothing compared to the book. Zero debate needed as far as I am concerned. (Still enjoyed it though, just had nothing to do really with the book.)

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It's one of my favorites as well, such a fun and unique way of telling the stories.

Also makes me laugh that his dad was Mel Brooks, I wonder if he thought of wild stories besides amazing comedies.

So I just purchased the audio book of WWZ based on what you all said about it. I'm still working my way through the Lord of the Rings. I finished the Hobbit which was a really easy and enjoyable listen. But the first book of LOTR has been slow going. I'm about halfway and it's finally starting to pick up.

Eliminatus said:

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I have made so many attempts to get into the "classics". I promise I have. For decades now. I feel like it is a rite of passage basically as a self proclaimed "reader". Aside from the ones I was forced to read and CMC, I have rebounded off of pretty much all of them though. Hard. I finally decided last year to just give it up and admit that they are not for me and that that is ok after all. Still stings though for some damn reason.

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When COVID hit I set out to try and experience the "Top 100 All Time" of different mediums. Books, albums, video games, movies. I've failed miserably in keeping up with it, but I've definitely found some gems I otherwise never would have unearthed (eg. I never really listened to much Velvet Underground, but I was wowed by their & Nick debut album).

Eliminatus said:

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I have made so many attempts to get into the "classics". I promise I have. For decades now. I feel like it is a rite of passage basically as a self proclaimed "reader". Aside from the ones I was forced to read and CMC, I have rebounded off of pretty much all of them though. Hard. I finally decided last year to just give it up and admit that they are not for me and that that is ok after all. Still stings though for some damn reason.

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This got me to think about the books I had to read in high school through the first couple years at A&M...

From what I can remember:

Wuthering Heights
Jane Eyre
Mayor of Casterbridge
Return of the Native
Tom Sawyer
Huckleberry Fin
Gulliver's Travels
Canterbury Tales (one of those books in Olde English)
Julius Caesar (Shakespeare)
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Silias Marner
Red Badge of Courage
Animal Farm (or was it 1984... cannot recall)

Some of these were a slog to get through... esp Canterbury Tales. But others were rewarding ... Gulliver's Travels (however one had to read the footnotes to know who Swift was throwing under the bus).

Proposition Joe said:

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Eliminatus said:

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I have made so many attempts to get into the "classics". I promise I have. For decades now. I feel like it is a rite of passage basically as a self proclaimed "reader". Aside from the ones I was forced to read and CMC, I have rebounded off of pretty much all of them though. Hard. I finally decided last year to just give it up and admit that they are not for me and that that is ok after all. Still stings though for some damn reason.

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When COVID hit I set out to try and experience the "Top 100 All Time" of different mediums. Books, albums, video games, movies. I've failed miserably in keeping up with it, but I've definitely found some gems I otherwise never would have unearthed (eg. I never really listened to much Velvet Underground, but I was wowed by their & Nick debut album).

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I've always thought reading the top 100 list is an admirable goal, and think about doing it every time I watch The Equalizer, the temptation passes before the end of the movie.

I finished the first book of Expeditionary Force. Not going to lie, I didn't love it. I did find parts of it entertaining, but I'm going to suspect that the audio version is significantly more entertaining (I read it rather than listened) than the written word version. Story wasn't gripping, and the prose was very generic. But something you seek in a lighthearted story passing time listening to. I can see where a narrator could definitely add another level of depth. At a minimum though it was fun.

Just started Bakker's 'A Darkness Comes Before' in the Prince of Nothing series. Holy hell what an 180. Rich complicated prose where you feel like everything is a riddle to decipher. It's a hard (?) read but in a good way. Requires 100% of your attention, and forced your reading to slow down. I have heard it rivals some of the best fantasy series out there, so going to hope that the pay off is truly there. Will combine it with the rest of the Murderbot books to give my mind the occasional break.

I finished Dragon Teeth by Crichton this morning and started Little Fuzzy (Fuzzy Sapiens Series Book 1) by H. Baum Piper. It was the inspiration for Scalzi's Fuzzy Nation.

Read the hobbit for the first time this weekend. I enjoyed it. It is fun to see how much fantasy writing has changed over time.

The Outsider by Stephen King. Very entertaining mystery novel with supernatural and horror elements. Very hard to put down.

The Will of The Many by James Islington . Came across it randomly and really enjoyed it. Fantastic start to a fantasy series.

The Marksman said:

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The Outsider by Stephen King. Very entertaining mystery novel with supernatural and horror elements. Very hard to put down.

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For what it's worth, being a big King fan but not having read this book, the miniseries HBO did on this a few years ago is really good - Ben Mendelsohn stars in it. I recommend checking it out!

I finished "The Elfstones of Shannara". I realize that anyone else who read it is thinking "I read that in 7th grade". But it was among the first of the original post-LOTR fanatasies, so I thought I'd try a classic.

New rule: I flip through the pages of any book before I read it to make sure it has quotes and dialogue. I can't handle 5 pages of exposition on the dark haunted woods and mysterious sounds and moonlight shining through the break in the trees and whatever the hell else the writer thinks I care about. I'm a character and dialogue guy. I wish Elmore Leonard had written Sci-fi or Fantasy. If there's a mysterious shadow following the adventurers, I'd rather hear two adventurers talk about it in their own unique way than hear the omniscient author describe it generically.

That being said, the story in "Elfstones" was nice. There were some good antagonists, a war, some magic, a good twist ending, and what-have-you. I don't recall what exactly made the three elfstones so magical, but I'm sure it was explained in what of the many non-dialogue paragraphs I skimmed over.

Now to clense my palate with some Jurassic Park or a Spenser novel.

Hey Lurker76 - what did you think about Dragon Teeth? I love all Chrichton, but his heyday was the late 70s through early 90s to me. Is post-humous stuff seems to lack the energy of stuff he wrote when he was alive. I've read three books he published poshumously. He's fairly prolific as a dead writer.

I got hardcover Jurassic Park as a gift yesterday. I haven't read it basically since it came out but I'm super stoked. A few pages in and it's a wonderful sense of nostalgia and technology and foreboding.