Books you're reading now

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Featherweight
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Featherweight » 13 Jul 2012, 16:39

I'm a big fan of Ica and fire. Book three is my fav as well, though I gotta warn you well i still think thier wroth reading if only to get to what i'm sure will be a kick ass end to the series, FFC and DOD are padded out to hell and back so meny new chacters and story threads most of which just go nowhere what so ever and contruibe nothing to the over all story, and the main story threads are peppered with rampent filler. You thought the early Daenery's chapters were slow in dance you can just read her frist and her last chapter (thier aproxamitly 10,000 in total) and miss abostly nothing. In my opion splitting what was planned to be one voluem in to two books was a huge mistake and would have been much better as one book with a hell of alot of blue penicl Becouse the good stuff is VERY good it just sucks you have to wad though so much muck to get to it.



Avistew wrote:I'm still reading a Song of Ice and Fire, I'm nearing the end of the third book (I believe. It's pretty long, isn't it? Every time I think it must be the end, more chapters happen) and so far it's my favourite by a lot.
When I read the first two, there were always times I was bored and wanted to skip chapters (mostly Daenerys's. I just couldn't get interested in her story at all. Sometimes Jon Snow too, even though he's one of my faourite characters).
But that never happened for book 3. And lots of things that happened were amazing. I really love it.
I think it might be because I haven't seen the show. While there are differences, maybe because I knew the gist of what was going on I kept thinking "get on with it". But since I had no clue what was going to happen this time, I was more interested?
I don't think it's only that though, there was definitely more going on. Book Three makes it look like Book One is just setting up the backstory and Book Two is just starting to get things going a little bit.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Lemegeton » 13 Jul 2012, 23:54

Batman Hush : vol 1
Twisted Dark Volume 2
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby iamafish » 14 Jul 2012, 01:53

the complete Sherlock Holmes stories :)
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Geoff_B » 14 Jul 2012, 08:42

I approve of the previous two posts :D

Still ploughing through Song of Ice and Fire. The pace has slowed somewhat though :(
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Avistew » 14 Jul 2012, 11:51

Featherweight, I've notice that kind of tendency as an author gets further into a series, often they pad it a lot compared to the previous books. I think maybe they just don't want it to be over?
Thanks for the warning though, I'll keep that in mind.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Geoff_B » 14 Jul 2012, 12:13

Clash of Kings was the best one I've read so far.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Avistew » 14 Jul 2012, 12:42

How far as you in the series?
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Geoff_B » 14 Jul 2012, 12:59

Just over halfway through Storm of Swords. And I haven't like it as much as Clash of Kings so far. Not enough Tyrion you see.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby iamafish » 14 Jul 2012, 13:18

I found the same thing. Storm of Swords was really poorly paced - nothing really happened. I think it really suffered from being a 'part 1', and Martin generally seems to suffer from having too many characters to manipulate to where they need to be for actual plot to happen. Having said that, I'm only 3 books in, so you never know, hopefully it gets better.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Metcarfre » 14 Jul 2012, 13:34

"The Game" by Ken Dryden.

It's about hockey.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Avistew » 14 Jul 2012, 17:38

iamafish wrote:I found the same thing. Storm of Swords was really poorly paced - nothing really happened. I think it really suffered from being a 'part 1', and Martin generally seems to suffer from having too many characters to manipulate to where they need to be for actual plot to happen. Having said that, I'm only 3 books in, so you never know, hopefully it gets better.


A "part one"? Do you mean Feast for Crows, which I understand is the first half of what was supposed to be a single book (Dance being the second one)? Otherwise I'm not sure what you're talking about.

I find it interesting because I thought so much more was happening than in the first two books combined. Hell I'm convinced that Dænerys has chapters at all in book two just so that we don't forget she exists, nothing at all happens to her. It could have been easily summed up in the first chapter of the next book.

I agree that there are many characters in the book, and I feel it could have been divided into different stories with their own viewpoint characters. Spoiler if you haven't read it yet.
I would have put Sam, Jon and Bran all together as the "north" people, then probably have the biggest of the stories with Jamie, Arya, Sansa, Catelyn and Tyrion, although it could presumably have been split even more if Jamie didn't bridge the "Arya and Catelyn" and the "Sansa and Tyrion" stories. And of course Dany on her own as always, on her side of the world. I think they could have worked as separate books taking place at the same time, provided Martin didn't see fit to add more stuff to what was going on

I personally was always eager to know what had happened to the character every time a chapter switched. I'm really curious now how much the show affected my enjoyment of the first two books.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Lord Hosk » 14 Jul 2012, 18:33

I picked up Orson Scott Cards Shadows in Flight, I read it in under a day. :( I love his books, I hate that I consume good books.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby iamafish » 15 Jul 2012, 02:07

In the UK, a Storm of Swords was split into 2 parts - steel and snow and Blood and Gold. I've only read the first half, that was what I meant. I didn't realise that this division wasn't universal. Actually, realising that the split was an publisher's decision, not an authorial decision, makes the whimper with which the first half ends make much more sense.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Lord Hosk » 15 Jul 2012, 05:25

I dont know, I have found song of ice and fire to be very slow and predictable. Character does something, "ok they are going to get stabbed or beat up" yep...
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Geoff_B » 15 Jul 2012, 11:48

Then Tyrion does awesome like only Tyrion can and it's worth reading again :D
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Avistew » 15 Jul 2012, 12:42

Ah yes, editorial decisions. The French versions were split into smaller books, too. Only recently have they started a new version that's the way the books were originally split.
I'm reading the original version though, and I wasn't aware other countries had also done that split. It makes sense from a publisher point of view because different publishing methods mean different maximum numbers of pages, and well, Martin himself had to split one of his stories into two because it would be too many pages for the US otherwise.
Anyways, I'm reading an ebook of the first 4 books, so the maximum amount of pages possible in print is definitely not an issue. That's something I really like with ebooks.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Danzama » 17 Jul 2012, 05:36

So far over the summer break, I've read:

Boy Meets Boy - David Levithan
A book about a boy meeting a boy, with kissing involved.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green and David Levithan
A book about a boy meeting a boy, with kissing involved.

What They Always Tell Us - Martin Wilson
A book about a boy meeting a boy, with kissing involved.

I'm starting to notice a pattern in what I'm reading.

But, back to what everyone else is talking about. Is Game of Thrones any good? I have not read any of it, nor seen the TV show. What's it about?
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby nicholasmc1 » 17 Jul 2012, 06:23

Anna Kirenina! Apparently I'm all class.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby plummeting_sloth » 17 Jul 2012, 07:27

I almost through volume two of "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", which I bought mainly to read along with the History of Rome podcast but also as an experiment to see how pretentious I can look reading in public.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby iamafish » 17 Jul 2012, 07:33

oooo, Edward Gibbon. Isn't someone highbrow?
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Metcarfre » 17 Jul 2012, 07:38

Sloth, nic; lookin' good.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby plummeting_sloth » 17 Jul 2012, 07:38

And it's the version that leaves out all the combat as "repetitive", so I can't even claim I'm reading it for the fight scenes.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Avistew » 17 Jul 2012, 15:05

Danzama wrote:But, back to what everyone else is talking about. Is Game of Thrones any good? I have not read any of it, nor seen the TV show. What's it about?


It takes place in a fantasy world that used to have dragons, magic, etc, but hasn't for centuries and people think it might never have at all. There are the Seven Kingdoms, which is actually now a single Kingdom, with a giant Wall, the Wall, at the North, that is to protect them from whatever is up North (which is said to have been monsters, but now people are more worries about the wild tribes that live up there and try to invade).

It starts as the Hand of the King (that's like the main adviser, the person who makes the big decisions and doesn't take the credit) dies, and the King goes ask an old friend of his to become the new Hand. However there is a lot of intrigue around how the previous Hand died and a lot of other things, too.
There is kind of a parallel story that takes place on another continent. See, the King and his old friend (Ned Stark) took the throne from The Mad King Aerys, so the current King, Robert Baratheon, isn't actually the real heir, although he's been on the throne for over a decade. On another continent, the surviving heirs are plotting to come back.
And yet another parallel story is about what seems to happen North of the Wall.

As the story goes by, some plotlines collides, other divide into several stories, it's a pretty complex series if you're not used to multiple point of views.

The TV show more or less respects the stories, they've adapted a bunch of stuff but the big lines are there so far, although the second season drifts more from the story than the first one ever did.

I personally really like that characters are very three dimensional, there are things to love and hate about them, most characters aren't completely black or white, and thanks to the multiple point of views you can understand better where they're coming from. There are a bunch of fights when you don't necessarily know who you're actually rooting for, and I think that's really good.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Geoff_B » 17 Jul 2012, 15:23

You're rooting for Tyrion. You're always rooting for Tyrion.
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Re: Books you're reading now

Postby Avistew » 17 Jul 2012, 17:01

Tyrion is often on the same side as Joffrey. Nuff said.
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