From Punk to Monk: A Memoir
Ray Cappo

The story of Youth of today frontman Ray Cappo.

This was a pretty amazing book by a guy who has lived a pretty crazy life and fully committed to finding out the meaning of it.
This ain't no glorifying the punk/musicians life like most of these books, it's just a small part of this guy's story who gave it all up to go and live as a monk in India.

Christopher Paolini "Fractal Noise"

I did not enjoy it as much as previous Paolini book. I am not sure what it meant to be: book about bereavement, lost of love one, hard SF or Robinson's Crusoe/Martian type of adventure. It's neither. I feel the inspiration was drawn from timeless classic "Solaris" but Paolini is nowhere near mastery of Lem. This book is patchwork of idea from different fields of literature that meant to be remarkable but end product is mediocre at most.

Not a big reader, but Currently making my way through the Witcher books, they're pretty cool actually.

Adrian Tchaikovsky "Alien clay"

As usual Tchaikovsky maintain very high standards. Imagine gulag on alien planet full of flora and fauna who lives only to eat you. Intriguing and entertaining not far from superb excellence of "Shards of Earth" trilogy

Written by Netzach on 11.07.2024 at 18:26

Not a big reader, but Currently making my way through the Witcher books, they're pretty cool actually.

I don't like Witcher. It starts great with short stories but than every book is worse than previous one.

Other Sapkowski series "Narrenturm" is much better in my opinion but I am not sure if this was translated to other languages

Written by [user id=124046] on 11.07.2024 at 22:42

I don't like Witcher. It starts great with short stories but than every book is worse than previous one.

Other Sapkowski series "Narrenturm" is much better in my opinion but I am not sure if this was translated to other languages

"The Last Wish" was really good, I'm currently making my way through the second one, and it's indeed not as good, I was hoping it'd get better from here.

some of my friends were really offended years ago when after reading first print of it I told them I did not like it.

If you like fantasy I got few recommendations for you: First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, Wheel of time, the Name of the wind and whole black company series

Did you try audiobooks? I cannot imagine driving to work, or doing any chores without listening to some book

I read Twilight

I’ve seen the movies, so I knew most of the story and the lore. I’d always assumed that the books received way more hate than they deserved. Most of the negative discourse around Twilight seemed to come from boys and men who were angry at how vampires weren’t their thing anymore. We’ve all seen the homophobic memes and the inane claims that “Stephenie Meyer ruined vampires” and so on. I suspect more than half of Twilight’s biggest detractors never read a single page of the book. I was also suspicious of the small number (comparatively) of critics who claimed the problem was not snarky-sparkle Edward or muscle-bustle Jacob, but the poor writing. Unfortunately, the latter critics were right. The book is shockingly amateurish regarding style and characterization. I don’t fully agree with Stephen King’s famous statement that the road to hell is paved with adverbs, but I think if he read Twilight, he would’ve reached the bottom circle of hell and still kept descending.

An adverb follows nearly every dialogue tag in Twilight. Some lines get a second bonus adverb. I believe this would bother most readers, even if they had little to no knowledge of the guiding principles of fiction writing. It’s difficult not to sense that something unnatural and annoying is going on when reading lines like:

”She‘s my friend; she sits with us,“ Mike whispered back loyally, but also a bit territorially.

Stephenie Meyer also feels the need to telegraph intentions and actions with clunky wording, for example:

“Hello, Edward,“ I said pleasantly, to show him I was going to behave myself.

“I know.“ He smiled and then changed the subject. “I think your friends are angry at me for stealing you.“

“No,” I disagreed.

It’s bizarre for an author to write like she thinks the reader can’t infer disagreement from a simple “no” or as if she fears readers can’t tell when someone changes the subject, unless she spells that out. It’s more bizarre still her editor didn’t know or care enough to instruct Stephenie Meyer to cut these lines.

The storytelling is very weak. The mystery of Edward’s true nature was uninteresting to me. That’s partially because I knew the answer. But the book also reveals the answer when a freshly introduced character explains it in dialogue, which is a boring way to resolve the question. And then, after we get the truth, there are still pages wasted on Bella searching for confirmation on Google. Brief scenes of characters seeking information in the forbidden section of a library at night can captivate, but reading about how a character googles “vampire” is more dull than watching someone play a video game.

The love story didn’t make me care at all. I don’t mind that Bella sees Edward as perfect. A tale of blinding, head-over-heels love isn’t inherently bad. The issue is that Bella’s internal monologue doesn’t go beyond “Edward was perfect, he was flawless, impossibly angelic, divinely divine, the best thing since sliced Jacob” etc. Edward is clearly special for Bella, but it’s impossible to align with her perspective, even a little, when her descriptions of her beloved are so abstract. The salt in these wounds is the way Bella also describes Edward’s family members as “perfect” more than once. It’s not just shallow, it is generic. If all vampires are perfect in her eyes, what makes Edward so special? Why does she love him? Bella’s feelings come across more like teenage infatuation, which would be fine if that’s how the book presented them. There would be potential for an interesting story there, too. Reading a character debating her own thoughts and feelings to convince herself that her infatuation is true love could work. That, too, would require more depth from the character, though, and more substantive descriptions of the object of her desire.

Stephenie Meyer is bad at describing locations, her descriptions range from bland to comically bland. For example:

The house was timeless, graceful and probably a hundred years old. It was painted a soft, faded white, three stories tall, rectangular and well proportioned.

It was very bright, very open, and very large.

Just as with the dialogue, these lines too awakened my inner editor like an alarm clock that was very very loud and very very close to my very very very sensitive ears.

And finally, Stephanie Meyer is better at action and suspense than romance. The villain who shows up towards the end of the book wasn’t bad. She established the bad guy as a serious physical threat and when I thought that was all he was going to be, surprised me with how cunning he turned out to be. The final 70-80 pages are a moderately enjoyable climax. It would work a lot better if Bella and Edward weren’t walking blocks of wood and I could actually care about their fate, but I still liked it.

Twilight gets a 2.5/10 from me. It’s not good, but neither is it the worst book ever, not even close. And I am forever amused that millions of dudes lost their minds over a sparkling Robert Pattinson.

The Blacktongue Thief
Book by Christopher Buehlman

Oh boy what a book. Or I should say OH BOY WHAT A BOOK!!!

this is probably best new fantasy book I read this century. I don't know where to start witty dialogues and narration, excellent characters or the world building that makes me read more and more about it.

Buehlman is not trying to reinvent the fantasy genre. He takes classic clichés and plays with them skillfully and with great imagination. The result is superb story told by colorful and complex character taking the reader through excellently build world full of huge deadly birds, goblins, krakens, giants, magic and magickers, political intriguing, greed, healthy dose of heroism and some sarcastic and extremely funny comments

Trying to read all the (pre Disney) Star Wars novels I got in chronological order. Never read them all in order before. Started with Outbound Flight, finished that last night. Pretty good, though all the Zahn Star Wars books were. There's a short story at the back of the book that goes after it, then I'm up the Han Solo trilogy. 1st part of the trilogy's a bit meh, but the other part were good, as I recall.

Zahn's Star Wars books are standing out. Read few of his and other authors and there is a huge difference.

My favourite SW books would be Thrawn trilogy by (drum roll) Timothy Zahn of course

Written by [user id=124046] on 07.08.2024 at 12:13

Zahn's Star Wars books are standing out. Read few of his and other authors and there is a huge difference.

My favourite SW books would be Thrawn trilogy by (drum roll) Timothy Zahn of course

I still don't understand how Troy Denning kept getting brought back to write Star wars books. His 3 in the Legacy Of The Force series were the weakest of the series, for example. It's like he just coasted on the back of Star By Star to keep getting SW gigs.
I'd probably go for Aaron Allston as my favourite SW author. Zahn would probably be my 2nd, though. Revelation (LotF book 8) by Karen Traviss is probalbly my favourite SW book. Iron Fist (Allston) 2nd, maybe? Or Mercy Kill (also Allston), then the Thrawn trilogy. Isard's Revenge, Dark Journey, The Hutt Gambit, Scoundrels, Bloodlines as the next few?

This year I've read:
• The Anthropocene Reviewed (8/10)
• The Nice House on the Lake Vol. 1-2 (8.5/10)
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (8/10)
• Saga Vol 1-11 (9.5/10)
• The Name of the Wind (10/10)
• Fourth Wing (7.5/10)
• The Way of Kings (10/10)
• The Wise Man's Fear (9.5/10)

Currently reading Words of Radiance, Nexus, Immune, Death Note and Berserk.

Written by Metren on 28.07.2024 at 11:37

I read Twilight

Cheers for being open-minded. One shouldn't limit oneself in terms of reading. And as you said, how can you base an opinion about something without doing proper research? Allthough I have to admit that certain books would be difficult for me to read in public. if I would start reading Twilight and would read it in a public place, I probably would bring a notebook with me and say it's beacause of research I'm reading the book if anyone would ask. I don't think people would care, but I guess I'm still afraid in some sense of being falsely labeled or judged, despite trying to have a critical view of norms in general.

Written by M C Vice on 05.08.2024 at 12:37

Trying to read all the (pre Disney) Star Wars novels I got in chronological order. Never read them all in order before. Started with Outbound Flight, finished that last night. Pretty good, though all the Zahn Star Wars books were. There's a short story at the back of the book that goes after it, then I'm up the Han Solo trilogy. 1st part of the trilogy's a bit meh, but the other part were good, as I recall.

Are the books doing the franchise any justice in your opinion? It was kind of sad to see how the majority of Star wars was buthered after disney took over, even though it was to be expected.

Written by Torelli on 21.09.2024 at 19:14

Written by M C Vice on 05.08.2024 at 12:37

Trying to read all the (pre Disney) Star Wars novels I got in chronological order. Never read them all in order before. Started with Outbound Flight, finished that last night. Pretty good, though all the Zahn Star Wars books were. There's a short story at the back of the book that goes after it, then I'm up the Han Solo trilogy. 1st part of the trilogy's a bit meh, but the other part were good, as I recall.

Are the books doing the franchise any justice in your opinion? It was kind of sad to see how the majority of Star wars was buthered after disney took over, even though it was to be expected.

These are the books from before the Disney buyout, the ones that fans were bothered/butthurt (not sure which word you meant with buthered) about being ditched. I understand why Disney scrapped the Expanded Universe, but I still don't like that they did.

Written by M C Vice on 21.09.2024 at 22:32

bothered/butthurt (not sure which word you meant with buthered)

probably "butchered"

Written by F3ynman on 21.09.2024 at 22:44

Written by M C Vice on 21.09.2024 at 22:32

bothered/butthurt (not sure which word you meant with buthered)

probably "butchered"

For some reason, I saw the word 'fans' between "majority of Star wars" and "was buthered". Some new form of dyslexia where you see words that aren't there at all?

Written by Torelli on 21.09.2024 at 19:14

Written by M C Vice on 05.08.2024 at 12:37

Trying to read all the (pre Disney) Star Wars novels I got in chronological order. Never read them all in order before. Started with Outbound Flight, finished that last night. Pretty good, though all the Zahn Star Wars books were. There's a short story at the back of the book that goes after it, then I'm up the Han Solo trilogy. 1st part of the trilogy's a bit meh, but the other part were good, as I recall.

Are the books doing the franchise any justice in your opinion? It was kind of sad to see how the majority of Star wars was buthered after disney took over, even though it was to be expected.

Since I misread the question originally, I'll try answering it again.
I'd say the Expanded Universe (now called Legends) books do do the franchise justice. Like any series with this many different books, and different authors writing them, there'll be hits and misses. But overall, I'd say they do a good job of continuing the story from the original films. Just watch out for the continuity clashes from the prequel films in the books written before they came out. Boba Fett's backstory, for example. Or how long ago the Clone Wars happened.

Written by F3ynman on 21.09.2024 at 22:44

Written by M C Vice on 21.09.2024 at 22:32

bothered/butthurt (not sure which word you meant with buthered)

probably "butchered"

Yep, that's what I meant. Was a bit careless with the proofreading before I posted, haha!

Written by M C Vice on 22.09.2024 at 01:10

Written by Torelli on 21.09.2024 at 19:14

Written by M C Vice on 05.08.2024 at 12:37

Trying to read all the (pre Disney) Star Wars novels I got in chronological order. Never read them all in order before. Started with Outbound Flight, finished that last night. Pretty good, though all the Zahn Star Wars books were. There's a short story at the back of the book that goes after it, then I'm up the Han Solo trilogy. 1st part of the trilogy's a bit meh, but the other part were good, as I recall.

Are the books doing the franchise any justice in your opinion? It was kind of sad to see how the majority of Star Wars was buthered after disney took over, even though it was to be expected.

Since I misread the question originally, I'll try answering it again.
I'd say the Expanded Universe (now called Legends) books do do the franchise justice. Like any series with this many different books, and different authors writing them, there'll be hits and misses. But overall, I'd say they do a good job of continuing the story from the original films. Just watch out for the continuity clashes from the prequel films in the books written before they came out. Boba Fett's backstory, for example. Or how long ago the Clone Wars happened.

I guess that is bound to happen when you have an expended universe with so many books in it, despite continuity errors they could still be good though. W'll see if I give it a chance in the future. For now, course litterature is occuping my reading time while I wait for "Death's end" (last book of Rememberance of Earth's past triology) to arrive.

Read 68 books this year, a bit less than usual. Aiming for 80.

Almost finished with Adrian Tschaikovsky's Shards of Earth trilogy. I don't read a lot of scifi or fantasy nowadays, but I've got back into it with audiobooks - I try to listen to a few series a year. This may be my favorite in a long time (alongside Ann Leckie's Ancillary series). It's pure, classic space opera with mysterious alien civilizations, ancient artefacts, diverse species (from god-like oysters to AI hives and cloned Amazons), cosmic-level threats, a rag-tag ensemble of spacer misfits etc. Takes all the clichés of the genre and knows what to do with them. Not a whole lot of subversion or innovation, just an engaging story with great characters, delivering just what I want to scratch my scifi itch.