I cannot recommend these books enough. I'm about halfway through book two of his First Law Trilogy. I've tried so many series in hopes of filling that void of finding something to live up to the Song of Fire And Ice series. This is the first author ever that has that combo of rich, captivating characters, witty writing & great violent, epic action that I've been looking for.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ogLN%2BJhZL._SS500_.jpg
movieking
08-04-09, 08:02 AM
Even though Maximum Ride is apart of the Young Adults series, I actually enjoyed it more than most of Patterson's other recent work.
If your pulse flutters at the thought of castle ruins and descents into crypts by moonlight, you will savor every creepy page of Elizabeth Kostova's long but beautifully structured thriller The Historian. The story opens in Amsterdam in 1972, when a teenage girl discovers a medieval book and a cache of yellowed letters in her diplomat father's library. The pages of the book are empty except for a woodcut of a dragon. The letters are addressed to: "My dear and unfortunate successor." When the girl confronts her father, he reluctantly confesses an unsettling story: his involvement, twenty years earlier, in a search for his graduate school mentor, who disappeared from his office only moments after confiding to Paul his certainty that Dracula--Vlad the Impaler, an inventively cruel ruler of Wallachia in the mid-15th century--was still alive. The story turns out to concern our narrator directly because Paul's collaborator in the search was a fellow student named Helen Rossi (the unacknowledged daughter of his mentor) and our narrator's long-dead mother, about whom she knows almost nothing. And then her father, leaving just a note, disappears also.
benedict
08-05-09, 03:13 AM
Jim Butcher's "Grave Peril".
boredsilly
08-05-09, 04:32 AM
I cannot recommend these books enough. I'm about halfway through book two of his First Law Trilogy. I've tried so many series in hopes of filling that void of finding something to live up to the Song of Fire And Ice series. This is the first author ever that has that combo of rich, captivating characters, witty writing & great violent, epic action that I've been looking for.
I think I'm going to check these out. One of the things that always turns me off about fantasy epics, is that the books are usually longer than I like and there are a lot of them. However, while these are longish books, it's only a trilogy. I wish more sword and sorcery writers would practice such brevity.
Sessa17
08-05-09, 04:31 PM
I think I'm going to check these out. One of the things that always turns me off about fantasy epics, is that the books are usually longer than I like and there are a lot of them. However, while these are longish books, it's only a trilogy. I wish more sword and sorcery writers would practice such brevity.
:thumbsup: Sweet, post what you think. They are very quick reads, it's kind of like Martin-lite. Not as dense or complex as his series, but just as good with the characterization, heavy on the action & violence, & a bit more humor & wit.
I'm about 80 pages into The Girl Who Played With Fire. It's very entertaining so far, but I'm putting it down for a few days because I just got an advance reading copy of Mister Slaughter by Robert McCammon.
http://www.matthewcorbettsworld.com/images/ms_06_plan_s.jpg
GoldenJCJ
08-07-09, 11:21 PM
Another thread floating around here inspired me to pick this up.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410191RD07L._SS500_.jpg
Just finished http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41aQIJ3mOqL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg
Starting Management by Peter Drucker
Nick Danger
08-09-09, 12:43 PM
Taking a break from my heavy reading.
I read The Naked Sun by Asimov. It took a day. I hadn't realized how bland his style is, and how little sensual it is. It's like reading a well-written SOP.
Now I'm reading the King Arthur quadrilogy by Howard Pyle. I bought some early editions. I didn't realize that the pictures, which are the main reason I didn't want to buy modern reprints, had been colored in with crayon . . .
Last week I Read: "Dead as a Doornail"
Today I started: "Definitely Dead"
Both are from the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris and both are good readings.
Although I am definitely not a big fantasy type of book fan, based on the great word of mouth, along with the upcoming HBO series, I finally decided to start A Song Of Ice And Fire. No idea if I'll actually make it through the book, let alone the series, but I am definitely going to give it a try:
Believe it or not, I'm reading Craig Shaw Gardner's novelization of Batman. I found a mint copy for practically nothing a few months ago, and after seeing the film on a big screen again in June, it seemed like the right thing to read for the 20th anniversary summer. Plus, after the astoundingly good Boone: A Biography (thanks again, Lateralus!) I needed something that didn't require nearly as much attention from me. Also, I recently got back into the habit of writing at night instead of reading, so even though I should've been finished with Batman within about a day, I've been on it for nearly three weeks.
I had to stop reading Tony Robbins' Awakening the Giant Within and move on to The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Nothing wrong with Tony Robbins book, but I have to read Unlimited Power 1st to have a better understand of his 2nd book.
Right now i'm reading Homers Illiad. But I won't be able to finish it because College is starting back up soon. I'll have to pick at it here and there until I get enough time to finish the book.
B.A.
08-20-09, 02:30 PM
James Clavell's "Shogun"
Ginwen
08-20-09, 03:14 PM
Started this yesterday
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515uCrcRsCL._SL500_AA240_.jpg
Then noticed this is out
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51bzFbM85GL._SL500_AA246_PIkin2,BottomRight,-15,34_AA280_SH20_OU01_.jpg
So reading both but As the World Dies is a pretty quick read so I will probably finish that first.
Finished A Darkness More Than Night and absolutely loved it. By far, my favorite Michael Connelly book so far. Next up is Harry Bosch #8:
http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/33350000/33359502.JPG
Seems like you and I are at a similar pace w/ the Bosch novels (I read City of Bones about a month ago and just finished Lost Light recently). Anyway, A Darkness More than Night...I was let-down by it. I liked how the characters from earlier novels converged into one...but something just didn't sit right w/ me. Loved City of Bones though. :up:
Also recently read The Tommyknockers (King) and The Wolf's Hour (McCammon) while I was on vacation for two weeks.
Gilgamesh1082
08-23-09, 08:51 AM
Just finished the penultimate volume in the Malazan series:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51gWTIHRdeL._SL500_AA240_.jpg
arminius
08-23-09, 09:19 AM
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51J8MYFV24L._SL500_AA240_.jpg
If you have ever read "A Bridge Too Far" or other books about Market-Garden, this tells the story from the other side of the hill. The troops that defeated this operation were basiclly rear area and raw recruit types. A little different than accepted history.
benedict
08-24-09, 03:30 AM
Jim Butcher's "Summer Knight".
movieking
08-24-09, 10:35 AM
Seems like you and I are at a similar pace w/ the Bosch novels (I read City of Bones about a month ago and just finished Lost Light recently). Anyway, A Darkness More than Night...I was let-down by it. I liked how the characters from earlier novels converged into one...but something just didn't sit right w/ me. Loved City of Bones though. :up:
Funny, I just finished City of Bones, and found it to be a letdown after ADMTN. I think that one of the things that was refreshing in ADMTN was the lack of a romantic subplot, often the weakest parts of those books. The relationship in City of Bones was odd to me, especially how it ended (which I am still not totally sure that I understand).
What did you think of Lost Light? I also didn't read Blood Work before ADMTN, but I did know about the Terry Caleb character. What did you think of Blood Work?
buckee1
08-24-09, 11:17 AM
<b>Always Looking Up</b>-Michael J. Fox
<b>The Know It All</b>-A.J. Jacobs
<b>The Night Shift</b>-Stephen King
<b>The Year of Living Biblically</b>-A.J. Jacobs
What did you think of Lost Light? I also didn't read Blood Work before ADMTN, but I did know about the Terry Caleb character. What did you think of Blood Work?
I thought Lost Light started off strong, but lost its momentum half-way through. Was told in 1st person -- which hindered its suspense and the narrative, imo. I did read Blood Work and liked it quite a bit (perhaps the reason I was let-down with ADMTN).
Putting my complaints into perspective -- just want to clarify that I think Connelly is arguably the best voice in modern crime fiction (likewise w/ his protagonist). I'll continue to seek out whatever he publishes.
movieking
08-24-09, 01:21 PM
Agreed. No doubt Connelly is a top notch writer and the Harry Bosch series is the best thing going right now, IMO. Still it's fun to nitpick. And just out of curiosity, in City of Bones, what was your take on:
how Bosch's girlfriend got killed? So she tried to wound herself in the shoulder in order to have justification to take out the supposed bad guy (who turns out to be the actual bad guy in the end) and ends up dying because of a bullet ricochet? And we never got clarification on what she was trying to say to Bosch, did we?
Decided to take a little break from Harry Bosch. Next up:
And just out of curiosity, in City of Bones, what was your take on:
how Bosch's girlfriend got killed? So she tried to wound herself in the shoulder in order to have justification to take out the supposed bad guy (who turns out to be the actual bad guy in the end) and ends up dying because of a bullet ricochet? And we never got clarification on what she was trying to say to Bosch, did we?
Yeah, her death was rather unconventional, but that is how I understood it as well. I can't recall if we ever got closure on what she was trying to say to Bosch -- if we did, it must not have been very memorable.
I get sucked in by the free kindle book above so now I'm reading this
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Bg%2BAvcKwL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg
Buy: