The Sword and Laser discussion
Pitch me your "Sword" picks for June!
I'll nominate The Hum and the Shiver. It's sorta urban fantasy, sorta not. A different kind of book than the usual.
Ryan wrote: "I would be down for a classic 'sword' book. Maybe The Eye of the World?"FAQ read fail!!!
See the section about books the club has read before.
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/8...
How about Vellum: The Book of All Hours by Hal Duncan. Its one I've been meaning to read for ages and haven't gotten around to it.
While I partly joined the book club in order to be exposed to new and different books I will throw A Darkness Forged in Fire in for consideration as I did read through part of it (and enjoyed it) before getting distracted with other things and losing my spot. Either way I am curious to see what the club comes up with for June's pick.
I noticed there's no Ursula K. Le Guin on the bookshelf, so how about A Wizard of Earthsea?And I'd also champion Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, but its quite a large book. Neil Gaiman recommended though. ;)
Nick wrote: "FAQ read fail!!!"I'm sure Ryan was merely classifying Eye of the World as a classic S&L pick.
As for me, browsing through my Amazon shopping list I see I wanna read A Wizard of Earthsea or The Curse of Chalion.
Nick wrote: "Ryan wrote: "I would be down for a classic 'sword' book. Maybe The Eye of the World?"FAQ read fail!!!
Whoops, then I will second Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It is a longer one, but highly recommended. That, or A Wizard of Earthsea.
I cast a vote for A Wizard of Earthsea as well.Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is fantastic and one of my all time favourites but it's a horrible timesuck. I really don't think it'd work all that well for this book club.
aldenoneil wrote: "As for me, browsing through my Amazon shopping list I see I wanna read A Wizard of Earthsea or The Curse of Chalion. "I'd second The Curse of Chalion. I adore Bujold but have never read any of her fantasy.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell works for me. I have had it in my queue to read and bought it when it was a kindle daily deal last year.
In case anyone is unlucky enough to not already be familiar with Robin Hobb, I'd suggest Ship of Magic.
I lemmed Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, this would give me the opportunity to give it another go at least.
I would like to suggest Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb or Acacia: The War with the Mein by David Anthony Durham. But I don’t know if these books have been chosen before…
The Name of the Wind was never an official book club pick? I seem to remember seeing it on the shelf at some point but it doesn't seem to be there now. If it hasn't I change my nomination.
Ooh, I would go for The Name of the Wind or Tigana for sure. I would be interested in seeing what people have to say about either, and I really enjoy both books.
The highest rated book on my To-Read Fantasy shelf is The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett, so I vote for that.
Carlos wrote: "How about Pandora's Star for June's "Laser" book?"We generally pick one or the other at a time. But you bring up a good point - the club should technically be called "The Sword or Laser." I'll inform the organizers.
Ooh, I would totally like to read Jonathan Strange with this group. It's next on my list to read and I've seriously had my copy for years without actually opening it.
Random wrote: "How about Vellum: The Book of All Hours by Hal Duncan. Its one I've been meaning to read for ages and haven't gotten around to it."I second Vellum: The Book of All Hours.
It's twisty and interesting and only my to re:read list. I'd like to have people to bounce ideas off.
And if the group has read Neal Stephenson, surely it could handle Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell :)
With the release of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition, I tought of The Last Wish (a collection of short stories) or Blood of Elves
While I love Robin Hobb, all the works mentioned here pretty much require reading a whole trilogy.Au contraire:
Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was by Barry Hughart. Winner of the World Fantasy Award. A stand-alone, but with characters that were revisited in two later novels. A non-Western setting, but with enough nods to traditional fantasy to be utterly approachable. Average GoodReads rating of 4.39. Densely plotted, great foreshadowing, Gods, monsters, swordfights, ghostly monks, martial arts, and a sage with a slight flaw in his character, all wrapped up in a less-than-400-page package!
And, my killer argument: not a downer. Yes, you heard it here first folks, an actually up-beat S&L pick. I mean, after The Magicians and Hyperion, won't we really, really deserve one?
The Curse of ChalionThis leads in to one of the books on my Hugo shelf, so S+L would be the perfect spur to read it. :)
Assassin's Apprentice
Ship of Magic
Oh no! Don't split the Robin Hobb vote! :P
Assassin's Apprentice would be a excellent choice. It's a fantastic book!I would recommend avoiding Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I was so disappointed in this enormous tome. Dreadful, boring and painfully slow! I would have Lemmed it if I knew there was such a thing.
As always I would think R.A. Salvatore would a great addition for group read, The Crystal Shard, which is the book I would recommand to start, even though its not the first book in the series, but published first. It would be great to listen to the author talk about his involvement on video games. Especially the connection that video games have with books since a lot of people in the group play video games and read books, and the development of games from table top games to massive mmos.
I don't know if this was a read before, but Gardens of the Moon. This is a fantasy I've been wanting to try.
aldenoneil wrote: "Carlos wrote: "How about Pandora's Star for June's "Laser" book?"We generally pick one or the other at a time. But you bring up a good point - the club should technically be called "The Sword or ..."
I actually answered before the coffee kicked in. So I missed the "Sword" part of the subject... -_-
I think "The Sword and ..." is perfectly fine though :)
I'll go an unusual route in suggesting The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I've been meaning to read this since I fully enjoyed the anime. It might be more on the sci-fi/fantasy combo mold (depending on your definition), but this would be a good choice if you're looking for something off the beaten path in the fantasy or sci-fi genres.
I nominate The City and the City by China Miéville. I've read Perdido Street Station and it is wonderful imho. But I see that his new one, Railsea is out May 15th, maybe we should go for a brand new book this time?
P. Aaron wrote: "Au contraire:"Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was sounds really interesting, so consider it re-mentioned.
I ditto Railsea and Storm Front, and would also throw in Among Thieves as well as The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.
Michael wrote: "I ditto Railsea and Storm Front, and would also throw in Among Thieves as well as The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms."We've already read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.
I second Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson. I consider it to be the weakest of the COMPLETED series and it is still awesome. And, the reason I think it is weaker than the rest is that the plot is more straight forward. Each consecutive book in the series tells the interqoven tale of new characters as their timelines all interact with the previous books. It is truly a great series.Tigana is a wonderful book that is beautifully written and the story is very poignant and thought provoking. I loved it when I read it.
The Way of Kings and The Gone-Away World are next on my to read list and both are above 4.0.The Warded Man looks good too.
I'd like to suggest Monstrous Regiment, because it's a nice standalone Discworld book, aside from being brilliantly clever... but what else could you expect from Mr. Pratchett?Or perhaps some urban fantasy... Zero Sight if you like supporting really good indie authors (side note: you should), or Peeps if the greatest vampire book you'll ever read is more your thing.
Oh, or dragons in an alternate history Napoleonic War! His Majesty's Dragon is many, many more times enjoyable than it has any right being.
And I'll toss Furies of Calderon out there as well because darn it all, I'm a fan of Jim Butcher, Roman legions, and Pokemon.
I'm going to throw Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones into the cauldron as well, just re-watched the film recently. Or are have there been enough suggestions by now? :)
Not quite enough I think. I'd also like to addFortress in the Eye of Time by C.J. Cherryh because I've never actually read anything by her and this needs to be rectified. :)
The Sword and Laser
Books mentioned in this topic
Hyperion (other topics)The Hum and the Shiver (other topics)
The Eye of the World (other topics)
The Warded Man (other topics)
Gardens of the Moon (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Peter V. Brett (other topics)Neal Stephenson (other topics)
R.A. Salvatore (other topics)
China Miéville (other topics)
Steven Erikson (other topics)
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It would be preferable that everyone use the add book/author tool at the top of the comment window to show their selctions. This enables me to see an accurate count of the menions in this thread. Thanks!