Topic: What books are you reading? (Read 1,140,538 times)
I have already said that while our village contained much of what humanity has to show, it did not contain everything, and one of the things it conspicuously lacked was an aesthetic sense; we were all too much descendants of hard-bitten pioneers to wish for or encourage any such thing, and we gave hard names to qualities that, in a more sophisticated society, might have had value.
Ramsay is a man twice born, a man who has returned from the hell of the battle-grave at Passchendaele in World War I decorated with the Victoria Cross and destined to be caught in a no man's land where memory, history, and myth collide. As Ramsay tells his story, it begins to seem that from boyhood, he has exerted a perhaps mystical, perhaps pernicious, influence on those around him. His apparently innocent involvement in such innocuous events as the throwing of a snowball or the teaching of card tricks to a small boy in the end prove neither innocent nor innocuous. Fifth Business stands alone as a remarkable story told by a rational man who discovers that the marvelous is only another aspect of the real.
i think that was made into a movie ive seen.
[The Quiet Twin - Dan Vyleta]
The Age of Kings is dead . . . and I have killed it.
It's a bloody business overthrowing a king...
Field Marshal Tamas' coup against his king sent corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brought bread to the starving. But it also provoked war with the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics, and the greedy to scramble for money and power by Tamas's supposed allies: the Church, workers unions, and mercenary forces.
We do not fear the flame, though it burns us,
We do not fear the fire, though it consumes us,
And we do not fear its light,
Though it reveals the darkness of our souls,
For therein lies our power.
-- Blood Oath of the Iron Elves
First in a stunning debut series, A Darkness Forged in Fire introduces an unforgiving world of musket and cannon...bow and arrow...magic, diplomacy, and oaths -- each wielding terrible power in an Empire teetering on the brink of war.
Wow, that's even good depiction of Zagreb main square, with the statue of governor Josip Jelačić in the background. I'll have to pick it up just to see what is it about.There isn't much about Zagreb as such, but a fair section about the age-old and horrible enmity between Serb and Croat. Bernie is a non-Nazi German detective; the novels span the early 1930s through to the Cold War, with all that implies. As a character, he is very much in the 'noir' tradition of e.g. Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe.
I haven't seen any reviews of it - I picked it up when I saw it in the library, because I'd read his first novel, Pavel and I (for which I had seen positive reviews), and thought well of it.[The Quiet Twin - Dan Vyleta]did you find that one as good as the reviews suggested?
It starts with A Darkness Forged in Fire, that almost lost me in the beginning. But I'm glad that I stuck it out through that bit of exposition, as the rest of the read firmly grabbed me.A dangerous strategy for an author. I started Gardens of the Moon, first of Steven Erikson's Malazan Empire series, which opens on a protracted scene where two people, neither introduced, pick their way through a scene of World War 1 level carnage - with no explanation whatsoever. I put the book down. I picked it up again a few weeks later and finished it, but it was a close-run thing whether I'd bother.
It starts with A Darkness Forged in Fire, that almost lost me in the beginning. But I'm glad that I stuck it out through that bit of exposition, as the rest of the read firmly grabbed me.A dangerous strategy for an author. I started Gardens of the Moon, first of Steven Erikson's Malazan Empire series, which opens on a protracted scene where two people, neither introduced, pick their way through a scene of World War 1 level carnage - with no explanation whatsoever. I put the book down. I picked it up again a few weeks later and finished it, but it was a close-run thing whether I'd bother.
[...] I think he fell victim to two things.That sounds like he needed a good editor to suggest improvements. Perhaps publishers and agents don't bother any more.
1) New author
2) the Genre, as I said, was Gunpowder Fantasy. That first part was pure fantasy.
[...] I think he fell victim to two things.That sounds like he needed a good editor to suggest improvements. Perhaps publishers and agents don't bother any more.
1) New author
2) the Genre, as I said, was Gunpowder Fantasy. That first part was pure fantasy.
You said you read a lot. How do you pick what books to read next, given the vast number available and limited time to read? Do you frequent favourite review sites, and if so, which?
(I loved The Crow Road on BBC from about 2000, which Banks said was in some ways better than his novel! The device of Rory speaking to Prentiss was a clever invention of the script.)
When I need a new book, my nook suggests books in the genre that I read.Thanks... I'm still stuck in the print age, on the whole. I used to get suggestions for general books from various print sources, e.g. the book reviews pages of a decent newspaper, but as I don't take a paper now, that's gone. A pity, as I miss recommendations for travel books in particular. I scan such sources as come my way, of course.
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