Greyweather's comments
(member since Sep 17, 2008)
Greyweather's comments from the SciFi and Fantasy Book Club group.
(showing 1-20 of 105)
I'll second Nine Princes in Amber.
Jeffrey wrote: "This first fantasy novel in his five part Belgarion books is a fun novel as the young magician garion learns his craft from his Uncle Belgarath and aunt Polgara. The magical system of using your will through words is interesting and decently unique."I don't remember him learning any magic in the first book.
The Gathering Storm isn't the final volume. It precedes The Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light.Frankly Asmah I don't see how any of those, save maybe Moorcock's, are appropriate.
John wrote: "Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson just finished reading it and its magic system is pretty unique, Allomancy the burning of metals to manipulate matter or emotions its the first book in a trilogy."I'll fifth it. Mistborn was the first book that came to mind for this theme.
There is no mention on his website about a new book, let alone a sequel.
Some sci-fi that might work for her:The Midnighters trilogy by Scott Westerfeld
The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld
The Supernaturalist series by Eoin Colfer
The Darklands trilogy by Anthony Eaton
The Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson Haddix
The Missing series by Margaret Peterson Haddix
All of Isaac Asimov's work is pretty accessible.
It is a stand alone rather than a series, but she might like Shade's Children by Garth Nix.
Arthur wrote: "Greyweather wrote: "I just finished with The Silver Skull by Mark Chadbourn. It was an entertaining swashbuckling fantasy adventure novel"Is it s stand alone book?"
It is the first volume in a new series. The story in this volume is basically self-contained so you can treat it like a stand-alone, as opposed to Joe Abercrombie's First Law books. The UK release isn't until April and according to the author's blog it will not have the same title. So instead look for "The Swords of Albion"
Even Gaiman says that American Gods stands apart from most of his work.Neil Gaiman wrote: "it divides people. As far as I can tell, for every five people who read it, one loves it utterly, two or three like it to varying degrees, and one hates it, cannot see the point to it and needs convincing that it's a novel at all. (Quite often the last person really likes some of the other books I've written, if they ever pick up anything else by me ever again.) But that's the fun of democracy, and American Gods has won more awards than any other single thing I've written."
I've read that collection, and it is a good one. Howard was an excellent writer. Unfortunately, Howard was also a huge racist (hardly surprising considering when and where he lived), and a lot of the stories in this collection reflect this.I do recommend people read it, if only to see how much attitudes have improved over the last 70 years.
Also, President Obama is a fan of Conan the Barbarian, and if he can enjoy Howard, surely the rest of us can.
I just finished with The Silver Skull by Mark Chadbourn. It was an entertaining swashbuckling fantasy adventure novel. Kind of halfway between Solomon Kane and Locke Lamora.Next I plan to read Wild Cards: Inside Straight by George R.R. Martin et al.
Laurel wrote: "As usual, the list of what I'd like to read is longer that what I may actually be able to finish, but I love to dream big!The Curse of Chalion..."
I love that book,
I finished with Changeling by Roger Zelazny this morning and I think it is one of his best books. Better than his Amber series at least.Next I plan to read both of the book club selections, starting with Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.
Publishers Weekly Top Story This Afternon - ABA Asks For Government Investigation of Price Wars
(8 new)
Oct 22, 2009 03:05PM
It is already normal business practice actually. It is called using "loss leaders"
I just finished with The Book of Knights by Yves Meynard, an excellent fantasy novel in the vein of Le Guin's Earthsea books or Valente's Orphan's Tales.Next I'm going to try and tackle the expanded edition of Stephen King's The Stand that my neighbor lent to me. Not only is it the biggest book I've ever picked up, it is 50% longer than the longest book I have read to date. I am slightly intimidated.
The Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg is about four college students on a quest for immortality.Vellum by Hal Duncan is, at least initially, about four college students.
Rowena wrote: "Cover art is generally not the author's fault..."Generally cover art is completely out of the author's control.
Take for example Ursula K. Le Guin:
But I had endless trouble with cover art. Not on the great cover of the first edition—a strong, red-brown profile of Ged—or with Margaret Chodos Irvine's four fine paintings on the Atheneum hardcover set, but all too often. The first British Wizard was this pallid, droopy, lily-like guy—I screamed at sight of him.
Gradually I got a little more clout, a little more say-so about covers. And very, very, very gradually publishers may be beginning to lose their blind fear of putting a nonwhite face on the cover of a book. "Hurts sales, hurts sales" is the mantra. Yeah, so? On my books, Ged with a white face is a lie, a betrayal—a betrayal of the book, and of the potential reader.
In general I only read books that are by authors who have been recommended to me, so I pick my books before I even see the covers. If the cover is awful though I won't read it in public.I am more likely to be turned off by a lousy title than a lousy cover.
I just finished off Jo Walton's Farthing, a very good mystery novel that also happens to be a very good alternate history novel.To gear up for Halloween I'm looking at the horror short story collection 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill as my next book. I also hope to fit The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan and The Stand by Stephen King into this month, though looking at the size of King's novel I'll probably still be reading it in November.
GRRM's editor Anne Groell said back in July at the San Diego Comic-Con that an October 2009 completion of the book for a March 2010 publication (in the USA, the UK could get it in February) is not unreasonable, but that assumes the book is finished this month. GRRM himself said at FinnCon that him finishing the book in October is a best-case scenario.So Amazon was completely off saying you'd get the book in 2009. Until Martin actually finishes writing the book no street date on Amazon or anywhere else is worth spit.
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke is both very good and nice and short.Ringworld by Larry Niven, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny, To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip José Farmer, Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg, and Under My Roof by Nick Mamatas are some other examples of good, short sci-fi novels.
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