๐ The book lovers thread
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@masonwheeler That's not particularly spoilery, but I'm not sure why you felt the need to tell me it. I did just say I'm intending to read part 2 soon.
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@carrievs Just making sure, in a deliberately non-spoilery way, that you'd be able to know where the end of the book is. The idea of having the story be split up is kind of weird to me. It doesn't really feel like it would work well, from a narrative perspective. (Which might be why you found it somewhat unsatisfying?)
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@masonwheeler I've been assuming it's two parts, but I can't imagine it will be hard to check and find out. Thanks though.
I didn't mind the point it ended on. It clearly wasn't a real ending but it was a good place to stop. I didn't say I found it unsatisfying, just not as good as Mistborn: chiefly, it was because there are three main characters (plus some occasional others with POV) and every time I started a new chapter and saw it was Whatsherface I couldn't help but wish it was a Kaladin chapter.
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@carrievs Shallan Davar?
That's a common complaint about The Way of Kings, that Shallan's not as interesting as Kaladin. Just wait until you get to Words of Radiance. It's "Shallan's book," like The Way of Kings was "Kaladin's book," and IMO by the end of it she comes out looking like the most interesting person in the whole series.
...so far at least. Oathbringer is going to be Dalinar's book, and I'm really looking forward to it... :D
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@masonwheeler Yeah her. I guess she's not interesting enough (in WoK) for me to remember her name.
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@carrievs Yeah, just wait until we start getting into her backstory...
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@carrievs said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
Kingkiller
Fuck yes! It is getting too long and I'd rather not go back and read things.
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@dse Agreed. Pat Rothfuss has been visibly doing a whole lot of stuff in the last several years; you'd think he'd find some time in there to finish one book...
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@masonwheeler He gets really mad when people ask how the book is going, or complain that he said it was almost done a year ago.
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@magus The way I heard it--and this may or may not be true at all, so don't quote me on it--he got a whole lot of marketing mileage on the claim that the entire trilogy was written as a whole and then split up, and now he just needed to revise and edit the remaining parts, but nowadays when people bring that up, he's claiming he never said that and he has no idea where that idea came from. (Kinda reminds me of Bill Gates's infamous 640KB...)
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@masonwheeler There is that too, but he also said he was nearly done with the third book last year, and then started streaming games and stuff, and people somewhat crazily ask why he's doing that and not writing (I fully understand why someone would want to take a break) - which has caused him to make videos about how silly people are to not understand how hard it is to write a book.
But if you don't want people to complain and ask why you're wasting time, a good strategy is to not say you're almost done and then not give any progress reports for a year.
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@magus This is another reason why I really like Brandon Sanderson. He keeps focused. (Unsurprisingly, he's a good friend of Howard Tayler, whose consistent output is legendary.)
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@jarry said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
I'm halfway through the second book, and it's really good.
Yeah, they're all good.
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@boomzilla said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
@jarry said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
I'm halfway through the second book, and it's really good.
Yeah, they're all good.
yeah. i read the first one and...... well it was way darker than i usually like, well past the point that i usually just put the book down and play mariokart instead for a while but..... for some reason i couldn't put the book down.
i am conflicted. i didn't like the book because i like my books to be..... happier.... but i also couldn't put it down because the book was good.....
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@accalia They definitely have a lot of darkness, but there's a lot of happy, too. And a lot of unknown, obviously, which only gets mostly resolved after several books.
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@boomzilla said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
@accalia They definitely have a lot of darkness, but there's a lot of happy, too. And a lot of unknown, obviously, which only gets mostly resolved after several books.
yeah..... i keep looking at the second book and thinking " i gotta do this, don't i? Yeah..... but i can put it off for a while and read some shoujo manga for a while first."
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@accalia Y'know...focus on how much the crew has become a family. Have you watched the TV series? They introduced Chrisjen Avasarala very early, but in the books she doesn't show up until the second book.
She's awesome, though honestly her character was toned down for TV. Also, the development of Amos throughout the books is incredible.
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@boomzilla said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
Y'know...focus on how much the crew has become a family
yeah..... yeah..... just..... gimme a couple of months to work up my courage.
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@accalia I hear that. After watching The Shield my wife and I swore of of FX shows for a few years.
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@boomzilla FX shows?!
Why would you stop watching shows with FXXING in them?!
THOSE ARE THE BESTEST SHOWS! they always have exactly the right amount of clothing in them too: none.
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@perverted_vixen said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
Why would you stop watching shows with FXXING in them?!
The ending was...just too depressing.
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@boomzilla said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
@perverted_vixen said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
Why would you stop watching shows with FXXING in them?!
The ending was...just too depressing.
oh..... they cut it off before the climax?
I hate it when you get videos like that. they're going at it sexy times and all, and then just when it's plainly about to get good BAM! they stop the video and tell you that you can buy the full video at some URL that's almost certainly long dead......
that is so annoying.
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@dse said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
Did any of you suggest The Bobiverse?
https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ
If you did, I owe you a beer! It was great, so much that I may read it again (maybe in 10 years).
The story is original, thrilling and funny. What is most important for me is I could not find glaring bugs, once you accept wrap-drives (and faster than light communications) there is no more non-sense (yet in book 2).
Just FYI, the third one just came out.
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@masonwheeler said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
@dse said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
Did any of you suggest The Bobiverse?
If you did, I owe you a beer! It was great, so much that I may read it again (maybe in 10 years).
The story is original, thrilling and funny. What is most important for me is I could not find glaring bugs, once you accept wrap-drives (and faster than light communications) there is no more non-sense (yet in book 2).
Just FYI, the third one just came out.
i know. it's next in my queue after i refinish the second one (i finished trhe first one again yesterday)
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@masonwheeler said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
Recently found and enjoyed this:
Orconomics: A Satire
Set in a fantasy world where investors and corporate interests finance adventuring parties in return for shares of the loot, loot is beginning to dry up, putting the entire Kingdom's economy at risk. Meanwhile a priceless cultural treasure has gone missing, causing tensions to rise between Orcs and Elves. A ridiculously dysfunctional adventuring party is assembled to find and return the treasure to its rightful owner... and then things get worse.
Sounds similar to The Dark Lord's Handbook series:
(Linking to the series page doesn't onebox for some reason, the link to the first book's own page does )
In an attempt to triumph over Good, Evil writes a manual on how to be a Dark Lord. In due time, it reaches the person destined to be the next Dark Lord, and he promptly starts following it. Team Good, led by the local nobles and other 1%-ers, finds a Hero (by asking him to pull a sword from a swamp, no less) and convinces him to lead their army against the new Dark Lord. Satire, meta humour, orcs, dragons shapeshifting into humans, an impending loan crisis threatening the economy, what else do you need? Oh, the Dark Lord and the Hero are both in love with the same woman...
Evil made his way to where it had all ended. A neat ring of corpses lay around the blasted ground where the Dark Lord had fallen. Evil sighed. Heโd had high hopes for this one. The early signs had been good, with notable successes, but then this? How had the Dark Lord managed to get it so wrong? It wasnโt that hard. All he had to do was read the fuckingโฆ
โLoser,โ said a voice from behind him, interrupting his thoughts. He didnโt have to turn to know who had come to gloat.
โI wondered when youโd turn up,โ said Evil.
โLoooooooooser,โ repeated Good.
Evil turned to face his old adversary. โIs that necessary?โ
Good shrugged. โYou had me worried there. For a while. Attacking from the east at dawn. Thatโs my trick.โ โNothing in the rules says I couldnโt,โ said Evil. It was one of a number of small things that had all come together to give him real hope he would win this time. โThe burnished shields were a nice touch.โ
โThanks,โ said Good. โI had them up all night polishing. It was close.โ
โNot close enough. And I honestly thought this one was different. He seemed to be doing so well.โ
โThey always make a mistake.โ
Evil sighed. โI even wrote it all down, in easy to read chapters.โ
โPictures?โ
โOf course.โ
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@dcoder said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
Sounds similar to The Dark Lord's Handbook series:
I just picked up the Kindle version of the first book for $0.99. So far it's a very entertaining read.
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@masonwheeler said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
@dse said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
Did any of you suggest The Bobiverse?
https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ
If you did, I owe you a beer! It was great, so much that I may read it again (maybe in 10 years).
The story is original, thrilling and funny. What is most important for me is I could not find glaring bugs, once you accept wrap-drives (and faster than light communications) there is no more non-sense (yet in book 2).
Just FYI, the third one just came out.
I know.
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@dkf said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
@weng said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
I know.
Kobold Genโฆ?
Character sheet generator for Kobolds Ate My Baby.
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@weng said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
@masonwheeler said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
@dse said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
Did any of you suggest The Bobiverse?
https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ
If you did, I owe you a beer! It was great, so much that I may read it again (maybe in 10 years).
The story is original, thrilling and funny. What is most important for me is I could not find glaring bugs, once you accept wrap-drives (and faster than light communications) there is no more non-sense (yet in book 2).
Just FYI, the third one just came out.
I know.
Just finished Bobiverse 3. I'm having a panic attack because all the loose ends are tied up and there's only a weak open ended sequel hook.
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@weng said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
there's only a weak open ended sequel hook.
There is? I didn't really even notice that; it seems like a pretty clear "THE END" to me.
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The title is ever-so-slightly misleading. They won't be releasing the entire book for free on Tor.com. Only the first 1/3 of it. (Which itself is the size of an ordinary novel by a lesser author. :P )
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Recently read Neal Stephenson's Seveneves.
Weird book. So, the moon gets shattered by something, an apocalypse happens as a result and a bunch of humans are dicks yet the species survives nonetheless. First two thirds describe how the survival parts come about.
Last part is a story several centuries later where some guys set out on a quest, find other survivors who survived in a slightly different way, a bunch of the guys die and that's where the book ends.
As a result you're left with a "And what exactly was the book supposed to be about, now?" feeling. Let me compare it a bit - it's like combining the world building of the Silmarillion with the first third of the Hobbit, but ending the story right before Bilbo finds the One Ring (and killing off Gandalf and almost all the dwarves before).
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@rhywden said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
As a result you're left with a "And what exactly was the book supposed to be about, now?" feeling.
About a good story with fewer flaws than most. A new generation of mankind with their own myths and triumphs, and legends about small acts of bravery of course
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@dse said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
@rhywden said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
As a result you're left with a "And what exactly was the book supposed to be about, now?" feeling.
About a good story with fewer flaws than most. A new generation of mankind with their own myths and triumphs, and small acts of bravery of course
Yes. But I like to have a resolution to a story. Even a cliffhanger would have been welcome.
This one? It ended with the equivalent of the "Meh" sound and a shrug.
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This is just a thing of beauty...
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@rhywden said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
As a result you're left with a "And what exactly was the book supposed to be about, now?" feeling
That's kind of typical of his writing. It always seems like a roller coaster attached to a random number generator. I personally like that :D
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@magus @Rhywden I disagree that there was no conclusion. Sure SevenEves did not end in a marriage with the princess or a new king on throne. The conclusion was the end of current humanity and beginning of a new stock of breed, whereas we came with the Adam and Eve legend, the new world has 7 eves. There is no Cain and Abel, but a crazy eve and a devious politician to pass on the genes necessary to build empires. What is a better conclusion than a completely new start?
What happened to the moon was irrelevant.
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@dse It was a firly open ending, but I agree that that was the idea. I didn't hit the end wondering what the point was like he did, I just can easily understand why someone would. All those books have that possibility.
It's kind of like in The Diamond Age, where at the end.
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@dse That's your opinion. To me it felt like he simply ran out of ideas. Again, it's a "meh" ending. It has no weight to it.
I mean it has some "Genetic Cold War" to it. But even that is more subdued and lacks all urgency, making it a "Rather Tepid War".
Basically, it's boring. And a "completely new start" is also uninteresting if it never goes anywhere.
There were no plot twists, no real backstabbing, no intrigues. And the reveal of the submariners and undergrounders was completely not surprising.
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@weng said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
Did any of you suggest The Bobiverse?
Ok I want to buy this book.
But.... HOW!?
The only place where I can find it is some stupid "kindle" thing on Amazon.
I don't know what's kindle and I don't care. I just want to pay somewhere to be able to download a PDF copy of the book. Is that too much to ask!?
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@cartman82 said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
I just want to pay somewhere to be able to download a PDF copy of the book. Is that too much to ask!?
Yes, apparently.
Kindle is Amazon's ebook platform. When you buy a Kindle book, you can read it in a web browser, or in a Kindle app on your phone. It's actually pretty well done.
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@masonwheeler said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
Yes, apparently.
Kindle is Amazon's ebook platform. When you buy a Kindle book, you can read it in a web browser, or in a Kindle app on your phone. It's actually pretty well done.Epubs that I can add to Calibre would also work, but I guess they won't let you download that either.
Whatever, I pirated it. I'll buy it if I end up reading it.
Fuck you Amazon.
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@cartman82 said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
Epubs that I can add to Calibre would also work, but I guess they won't let you download that either.
Whatever, I pirated it. I'll buy it if I end up reading it.
Fuck you Amazon.Paid.
I am def reading it. I want to see Bob kick some fundie ass.
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@cartman82 said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
@cartman82 said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
Epubs that I can add to Calibre would also work, but I guess they won't let you download that either.
Whatever, I pirated it. I'll buy it if I end up reading it.
Fuck you Amazon.Paid.
I am def reading it. I want to see Bob kick some fundie ass.
you won't regret. :-)
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@cartman82 calibre handles .mobi(the amazon format) so it should be the same.
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@accalia said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
@cartman82 said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
Paid.
I am def reading it. I want to see Bob kick some fundie ass.
you won't regret. :-)
He might regret. The FAITH stuff becomes mostly irrelevant just a few chapters in; it mostly just exists to set up the story of how the Bobs came to be.
(Hopefully this will still not carry much regret, because the stuff that happens to the Bobs is a really good story in and of itself.)
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@masonwheeler said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
@accalia said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
@cartman82 said in ๐ The book lovers thread:
Paid.
I am def reading it. I want to see Bob kick some fundie ass.
you won't regret. :-)
He might regret. The FAITH stuff becomes mostly irrelevant just a few chapters in; it mostly just exists to set up the story of how the Bobs came to be.
(Hopefully this will still not carry much regret, because the stuff that happens to the Bobs is a really good story in and of itself.)
DUDE! SPOILERS!
NOT COOL!
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@accalia Meh. Not so much, since it happens very close to the start of the book and I didn't say how they become irrelevant to the plot. (That would have definitely been a spoiler!)