Reading Wicked right now for the second time. Was underwhelmed the first time, but I was depressed when I read it. Like it better now.
Reading Wicked right now for the second time. Was underwhelmed the first time, but I was depressed when I read it. Like it better now.
I'm reading Man's Search for Meaning too.Originally Posted by krissy
I finished Year of Wonders (sucky book), and I'm in the middle of The Forgotten Garden right now (very good so far).
I'm reading all of Janet Evanovichs book in preparation for me seeing One for the Money in theatres. I'm currently on book 10.
I'm currently read The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson. It is the third and final chapter of the Mistborn Trilogy. I am told that it is good and that all of my questions about the series thusfar will be answered before the final chapter of the book. I am hoping this is true because I have a list of questions that I want answers to. It is good.
I'm also supposed to be reading The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century by Robert Roberts but I haven't started it yet. I'm told it is interesting if you like learning about adult literacy in the early parts of the 20th century. Which I do.
At first I didn't love it. I have an unsuppressable urge to criticize anything I'm reading. Some of my least favorite things are cliché stories or character archetypes which are ridiculously predictable. This only gets worse if the author tends to tends to use blatant telegraphing of future events rather than subtle foreshadowing.
In the case of Rothfuss' main character, he seemed too much of a Mary Sue right out of the gate and remained so for much of the first book. I mean, seriously, he's the poster child of such a poorly written character early on. Luckily, the character development is so good. By the end of the first book I was totally on board. By the second book I was so refreshed. The second book was really amazing and I would find myself laughing out loud or crying spontaneously. Great stuff.
I really am going to try to stick with Martin. When I thought about it a bit I realize how much I at least appreciate that nothing is sacred in his books. People die. Things don't go as planned. This I like. This runs counter to the tripe that I've gotten so sick of where any time a character gets a shred of development I know they will live forever and be a main player in the plot of the book.
Awesome name!
I hate this as well, and it extends to movies and television as well. In the majority of fiction, it's simply impossible to buy into plots wherein main characters' lives are in danger because you know that they can't die or the author would have nowhere to go with the book. Don't get me wrong there are great books that involve unkillable heroes escaping every trap and surviving unsurvivable falls and mysteriously dodging bullets from 20 feet away and somehow pull it all off, but they're few and far between, and in any case we've seen it all before by now. The only true ending is the bittersweet ending. A happy ending is not an ending at all, for if the story were to continue it could only end in death. There's no way around it. To carve out some measure of happiness in this life is our goal, but it isn't who we are. We are death and sorrow and despair and fear and sadness, every one of us in the end. All this makes the moments of triumph in Martin's story more palpable and certainly more genuine. I can buy Arya's little victories coming from Martin because I know that as an author he's not seduced by those moments of light and triumph and happiness and will allow the story to unfold as it will. You're right, though, the man can be terribly long winded at times, and I worry sometimes that some of the details that he's thrown at us through the first 5 books are going to be forgotten and wasted--they were merely fluff or filler. There's the potential for the story to end and retrospectively show there to be a depressingly enormous amount of nonsense in the story. I'm still holding onto the hope that I'm wrong about that, and that he will in fact weave it all together flawlessly in the end.
Also, reading The Reavers by George McDonald Fraser. Think Terry Pratchett with the border between England and Scotland as a backdrop instead of Discworld, and less funny.
Last edited by chionos; 02-03-2012 at 03:10 AM.
I couldn't agree with you more about happy endings. They just lack any sense of reality for me. People say I'm cynical for preferring sad or bittersweet endings, but those are just more the way such extreme stories in in reality. I can no longer sympathize with characters who live perfect lives straight through to the end.
I love stories where I know that no character is sacred. Everyone is a potential target.
That's why I got so pissed when people whined about J. K. Rowling killing one of the twins in HP7. "But it's terrible for one twin to die and the other one will be so sad. She shouldn't have done that."
TOUGH. That's war. That's what happens in war. People die and we don't get to only choose the old people with no family left. Sometimes there are deaths that will cause the greatest amount of distress to other people. To only kill off people nobody cares about is such a literary cop out and the people who prefer that are naive and insipid.
I much prefer a happy ending. I'm all for realism in a book. Death and loss are all part of life. One of my favourite books is "The Man on Platform 5" by Robert Llewellyn (of Red Dwarf fame). There's a genuinely shocking and upsetting part of the book towards the end. Horrific actually. But still, at the end you are left with a great sense of joy.
There's enough miserable, unhappy endings in life without me having to experience one at the end of a piece of fiction.
Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicle is one of the more well written entries into the fantasy genre. While I do see why people say Kvothe, the main character, is a Gary Stu, I would disagree with that. More importantly, even if Kvothe is, the story is still great and the writing is superb.At first I didn't love it. I have an unsuppressable urge to criticize anything I'm reading. Some of my least favorite things are cliché stories or character archetypes which are ridiculously predictable. This only gets worse if the author tends to tends to use blatant telegraphing of future events rather than subtle foreshadowing.
In the case of Rothfuss' main character, he seemed too much of a Mary Sue right out of the gate and remained so for much of the first book. I mean, seriously, he's the poster child of such a poorly written character early on. Luckily, the character development is so good. By the end of the first book I was totally on board. By the second book I was so refreshed. The second book was really amazing and I would find myself laughing out loud or crying spontaneously. Great stuff.
In the last week I finally finished the greater part of A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. I am on the latest instalment, A Dance with Dragons and about a 1/5th of the way through. I both really enjoy Martin but also bore of him as well. His story telling is good as well as his characterization. The problem lies within the pacing. Sometimes a lot happens yet at the same time nothing really happens. By this I mean a lot would happen with certain character clusters but the overall narrative feels snail-paced. (SPOILER)Like when you finish A Feast for Crows and start A Dance with Dragons just to repeat some of the same events but from different perspectives.. It gets a bit tiring. Still brilliant though.
I also managed to read Amy Lane's Talker books. Three very short novel(la)s about a boy with horrible scars that he hides with a tattoo that goes from head down his right arm and how he finds love (in rather stoic and down-to-earth Brian) and how they both grow together. While not the best books ever, they were quick reads that left me with a feel-good feeling which is what I was looking for.
Sadly, I attempted to find To Kill a Mocking Bird and Catcher in the Rye in epub format to no avail. I really need to go and read more of the modern classics. For now, I will just finish Martin and then see what I feel like next.
I finally just finished Bastard Out of Carolina.
I pretty much feel like it should be required reading to be a human being.
Signature by rubah. I think.
Few weeks back I read Divergent, by Veronica Roth. It was voted Favourite Book of 2011 by goodreads readers. Last time I take a recommendation from them. It's in the vein of The Hunger Games, YA novel set in post-apocalyptic dystopian Chicago in which the city's population is divided into 'factions' of people who value different morals - so Erudite value knowledge, Dauntless value bravery, etc. Decent enough idea but in execution failed in almost every way. She didn't even bother setting up a world outside of what I've told you, the writing is average at best and you aren't given any reason to care about the characters. I could go on, but I'll spare you. I'm interested in hearing opinions from people who have read it - everyone seems to love it and I can't see why.
Currently reading Lolita. Fairly difficult read, naturally a pretty tough subject and Nabokov is incredibly verbose, but his prose style is one of the best I've ever read.
The Waves by Virginia Woolf. I'm completely entranced by it. Also, The Story of the Stone Volume III, as I'm taking a class wholly dedicated to studying the novel in its entirety.
I just re-read Wicked and Son of a Witch. I'm currently on Lion Amongst Men, but I'm not sure if I'm actually going to stick with it.
I think I might re-read The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden again. It's this beautiful book where the stories are all intertwined. It's basically fairy tales for adults. There's two books in the series, but both books are split in half (to where it's almost 4 books in two volumes.)
Read it and was intrigued with the premise at first and then got super annoyed with the book and how it didn't develop the story AT ALL. None of it makes any sense! How does their society even function, based on the crazy segregation? How in the world did that system not collapse within a month of being formed? Why the hell are the dauntless always training for trout, when it seems like they don't do much beyond patrolling the borders? From what? That question is never even answered.
I totally agree with you that it was such a total failure in execution. And I could hardly get through the "romantic" bits. Such a bore.
The writer needs to read The Giver and learn how to do a real YA dystopian novel. I have my share of criticisms of Hunger Games, but that series is in a whole different league compared to this pile of poo.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
