Nope. There's no shared characters and only loosely a shared universe. If you don't enjoy it, it's simply that. More knowledge of the setting won't help.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cryptoshrimp
Printable View
Nope. There's no shared characters and only loosely a shared universe. If you don't enjoy it, it's simply that. More knowledge of the setting won't help.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cryptoshrimp
Quote:
Originally Posted by Serenegoose
I've not read Hydrogen Sonata yet, but personally I think reading Consider Phlebas and Look to Windward provides the perfect introduction to the Culture universe.
To the reader struggling with Hydrogen Sonata,I would recommend trying to start out with those two and then moving onto the other books. Player of Games and Excession would be my follow up recommendations
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_t68ar0SFX5...0/The+Lost.jpg
It's been a while since I last read one of the Gaunt's Ghosts books. I almost forgot just how gripping they can be.
Am I the only person who waits for an omnibus before buying any Black Library books?
Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton. 350 pages in and it's just so boring, all setup and no payoff. I always liked Hamilton for being a entertaining read, this book not so much. It really needs to improve massively in the last half for it not to be a big waste of time.
Finished Robin Hobbs first Assasin trilogy. My god, this was bad.
Apparently, there are more books but nope. Enough for me.
There are thousands of things to trash this joke of a fantasy novel for, but few really stood out for me.
1. The whole country feels like three people and domestic animals
2. No bureaucracy, no one ever writes down what King says, economy never explined, no detail
3. Main character is an unsympathetic whiny braindead fuckup who fails at everything repeatedly
4. Autor cripples and tortures him every time but nope, still can't sympathyze with him
5. Trying to set a dark tone and ambigious morality doesn't help when you are failing basic things
6. Like worldbuilding and characterization.
7. So it feels like a highfantasy trash that masqurades as lowfantasy trash, that makes it even worse
8. Lighten up, Robin! Your dry humorless language doesn't make your books better
9. Everyone in the setting know about poisons but antidotes only mentioned once?? What a joke.
I thought it was a decent adventure story but it's a long time since I last read the Assassin books. Robin Hobb is still one of my favourite fantasy authors for the Soldier Son trilogy but I guess there's no point recommending it if you hated the other books that much. And her latest trilogy about a weird mutant girl who runs off to live with the dragons reeks of author insertion fantasy, wasn't too impressed with that.
Not a book in the strictest sense - but I got two copies of Interzone from Amazon's Kindle service. Good SF magazine from what I have read so far... I also tried the digital versions of Asimov's and Analog, but found the stories to be old-fashioned Hard SF lacking believable characters and/or juvenile adventures.
So it's a JRPG?Quote:
Originally Posted by coldvvvave
I'm almost finished with A Game of Thrones. I've about two chapters left and about four chapters ago I realized I was only reading it to finish it.
I like the show more. There hasn't been much detail in the book that I don't believe didn't carry into the show. Apart from finding out that some people who I didn't realize where related are actually related, but an hour or two on a wiki would've sorted that.
Should I try continue in the books? I admit I liked it at the start, but then it just got a bit slow and now it's going at a crawl, but that could just be because I know what happens already at the end. Also the show did a much better job with Ned Starks death than the book.
Well If you didn't enjoy the first one I don't know if I'd recommend you to read the following books. I've enjoyed them a lot but some of them (second and fourth books) can get a little tiring and feel somewhat stretched.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesus_Phish
There's a lot that the show misses out on, especially in season two (Riverrun anyone?). I'd recommend reading the books and then watching the show for anyone interested, but if you've already determined you don't like the books you're probably better off sticking with just the show.
Brans whole thing definitely doesn't really get explained in the show and I think that's a shame because its going to be even more confusing when it gets used which I'm guessing it ill be soon.
Reading A feast For Crows myself I think this is definitely a more world building book, I think it does well in fleshing out the world and giving you some common people and what has happened to them in the world but my god is it slow and not really much interest happens in a lot of the chapters. That wouldn't be a problem if it didn't talk about more interesting stuff going on in the background i want to see the outlaws and there war, I want to see more of Arya and less Cersei which is a broken record its like the same chapter over and over again it seems, i want to see more of the intrigue of Dorne unfortunatly that one is definitly a missed opportunity it shows intriguing things then when you go back to it the intriguing thing has already happened and you were like I really would have liked to see that to be honest.
Anyway good things about it I do genuinly like the atmosphere still its definitly a bleak world thats fully realised and the characters are still pretty strong with a lot of memorable side characters and sometimes it is slow but its world building so I don't totally mind it. But I am kind of reading it to get to the end and seeing where Dance Of Dragons go.
The fourth book is the slowest and more tedious one. A dance with dragons picks up the pacea lot.Quote:
Originally Posted by Xercies
As I said, I've only just about finished the first book, so I haven't written them off yet. I'm just wondering if I should continue or just watch the show.
I can't think of anything in book one that's all that different from the show, apart from some people were made older (dany) and some people are younger than I thought (didn't think robb was only 15).
I enjoyed parts of the books, the slight extended things that happen that the show cut out, like the battle that Tyrion fights.
But other parts just dragged on and on, almost anything with Cathlyn Stark was a bore to get through.
I might pick up book two and try it, from what I at least remember of the series two of the show, it focuses on some of the more interesting characters.
Hm I liked the bits with Catelyn Stark though on reflection she was so much more annoying in the first book than the rest.
Really? From the Amazon reviews I got the impression it was more of the same.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tikey
It's still longer than it should but at least a lot of interesting stuff happens.
Feast was lacking in the "stuff that happens" department.
Edit: I've read some of those amazon comments. They're right, the story doesn't advance a lot (still much more than in feast) but there are still interesting things, it seems to me that it broadens the scope and sets up a lot of things rather than resolve them.
I've been reading "In the Garden of Beasts" for my WW2-history fix. Definetily very interesting to read how outsiders perceived the development in Germany (especially Berlin) during '33.
I used to read Interzone on a very occasional basis, haven't seen a physical copy in years.Quote:
Originally Posted by zephalopod
I'm beginning to think I'm the only person who hasn't indulged in this series in some way and it's starting to get to the point where I avoid it for that reason, honestly I'll get round to it sooner or later.Quote:
Originally Posted by everyone
Quote:
Hm I liked the bits with Catelyn Stark though on reflection she was so much more annoying in the first book than the rest.
I am the same I think she is a pretty strong character that does do interesting things.