Books

[Wilf]

Series with fat books are a menace... I got given the first two books in Robin Hobb's Assassins trilogy, and then I had to buth the 3rd, and then sequel trilogy as well. And, they all fat, dense books - a lot of reading (I'm a student, so words per pound [£] is important to me.)

"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hadrin, in Isaac Asimov's Foundation

[Kathy Li]

Wilf, whatever you do, don't pick up Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles or House of Niccolò series or George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, or ...

[Agent M]

[Rysade]

Originally posted by Wilf:
Series with fat books are a menace... I got given the first two books in Robin Hobb's _Assassins_ trilogy, and then I had to buth the 3rd, and then sequel trilogy as well. And, they all fat, dense books - a lot of reading (I'm a student, so words per pound [£] is important to me.)

By that, we can deduce that there are some pretty menacing series out there: Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series' last book is actually 2 books, about 2-3 inches thick each. Also, Robert Jordan's Wheel Of Time is probably the most menacing of any series, ever.

--Dai Stihó
"Our world is rule by people with issues, not brains." - Gryphon
ha (hä) interj. [echoic] an exclamation variously expressing wonder, surprise, anger, triumph, etc.: repeated (ha-han. the sound of this exclamation or of a laugh
-Webster's Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition

[Tanis]

The dragon lance series had a couple of books that were 500-600 pages long though I' ve heard that Robert Joradn's books have gone over 1000 pages.

*Many have gone and many have stayed but one thing stays the same: Love and Hate they never go away but they can be beaten- Devin
*Many have come to this place and most have left it but let not their life be a mystery- Devin
*Many have come and gone so we need to leave a ripple before this planet is washed away- Devin
*Many have come and gone but few are here to stay-Devin

[papercrane]

How many books would something have to have to be considered a series? Is a trilogy a series? Or is there a certain point beyond which something is a series?
For instance, is the Hitchhiker's Trilogy a series? It's got five books in...is that enough to qualify? Or, if trilogies aren't labeled as series (plural (what is the plural for series anyway? (I should know this, but...'serieses' certainly isn't it. And I've never had occasion to use the plural form of 'series' before. Strange but true.))) is it excluded by name even though the name isn't entirely accurate?

The important thing about adventures, thought Mr Bunnsy, was that they shouldn't be so long as to make you miss mealtimes.
-- (Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents)

[Zgirl]

You guys all make me feel ashamed. I've said it many times and I'll ask it again. Does anyone else here read stuff other than science fiction/fantasy/anything else like that?! I love the princess diaries series, it's wonderful! They're only 5 books and they're a series.

The monkey made me do it!
~Z~

[Rysade]

Well, right now I'm reading Quicksilver, which isn't EXACTLY science fiction because it's historical fiction, but it is written by a Science Fiction author...

Also, I just started reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works, because I've heard enough good things about Sherlock Holmes to get around to it...

But other than that, yeah. I think it's just about all I read.

--Dai Stihó
"Our world is rule by people with issues, not brains." - Gryphon
ha (hä) interj. [echoic] an exclamation variously expressing wonder, surprise, anger, triumph, etc.: repeated (ha-han. the sound of this exclamation or of a laugh
-Webster's Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition

[papercrane]

Other than sci-fi/fantasy?
Hmm...
nope.
Not for fun, anyway.

The important thing about adventures, thought Mr Bunnsy, was that they shouldn't be so long as to make you miss mealtimes.
-- (Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents)

[Kathy Li]

PPC: The Beekeeper's Apprentice doesn't count as non-SF/F?

Rysade, can't go wrong with Holmes. Although they do get weaker by the time you hit the Casebook. But, if you like historical adventure, you might want to see if you can find some of his non-Holmes work as well (and I don't mean The Lost World or The Poison Belt. He wrote a bunch of boys' own adventure type stories that were collected in anthologies that are a hoot and a half. I'm working my way through The Croxley Master which is all early 1800s boxing stories. A total hoot.

As for series, well, I guess I'd consider more than one book that continues the same characters a series.

ZGirl--I read mostly genre fiction, but I read lots of stuff besides SF and F. Mostly, Britlit, since I never read much in my teens or twenties. Authors I love include Georgette Heyer, Dorothy Sayers, Rafael Sabatini, Damon Runyon, Charles Dickens, Laurie R. King, Wilkie Collins, Jane Austen, Arthur Conan Doyle, Thornton Wilder, Terry Pratchett, Connie Willis, Diane Duane, George R.R. Martin, Dorothy Dunnett, Patrick O'Brian, P.G. Wodehouse, Thorne Smith, J.M. Barrie, Frances Hodgson Burnett, G.B. Shaw, Somtow Sucharitkul, John M. Ford, Neil Gaiman, and I could just keep on going... i like reading. A lot.

[papercrane]

Oh, true. I do read detective-type stuff occasionally.
Must...defeat...Poot...
Rabbits are fun. Lookit what I drew.
http://www.oekakicentral.com/mirrorr...ctures/748.jpg (copy and paste)

The important thing about adventures, thought Mr Bunnsy, was that they shouldn't be so long as to make you miss mealtimes.
-- (Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents)

[Gryphon]

Woah, Kli6! That's a lot of authors. Heh. I liked the one jane Austin book... whazzit called? Pride and Predjudice! That was it. I saw Terry Pratchett in your list. heh heh. Great author, that.

Firebringer didn't have a sucky ending. I liked it. The Sight ended well, but it was SAD!!!
-M

Oh gawd... Some books are my mortal enemies. Just to list a few THE SIGHT (coughcough) and TBONWM. What do I have against these books? Might be everything. I quit reading the site after the black wolf thing fell under the ice. does he live? He had better. And all the rest was kinda GRRRR to it. The ending of the Firebringer... it was so... not logical? I mean, c'mon! The whats-his-name gets all these people and defeats the baddies but a lot of people die. Blah blah. And surely that many deer wouldn't be blind enough to do all that stuff? The hero gets old and dies. What fun. It was a sad book! A good book too, if I didn't have an ending with issues.

My opinion. Don't hurt me!

-MaThFrEaK
"Hehehe. You smell funny."
"I love fish and chicken and turkey and ham and squirrels and pork and..."
"Izza mousey!"
~Gryphon~

[Nancy Drew]

Firebringer....gugh. I hated that book. I didn't finsh it, but it was just too boring. And nothing happened. At least that's what I thought. They traveled....somebody died....they traveled....somebody died....etc.
Is the Sight good? I kind of want to read it, but I don't want it to be like Firebringer.

You had better start believing in ghost stories, Miss Turner. You're in one. -Pirates of the Carribean

Don't you dare call me Cutey.

[Kathy Li]

Skitty: pfeh, that's nothing. You should hear the people I know who are really well-read! My tastes are still pretty narrow. I tend to stick to genre and fiction. I don't tend to read non-fiction very often, unless it's computers or origami books.

I love Pride and Prejudice, too, but my favorite is her last book: Persuasion. I really wish Austen had lived to a ripe old age and had been able to write another dozen books--she just got better and better with each one.

I feel the same way about Dickens--he was just getting into writing mystery novels. It's probably why I like Wilkie Collins so much. Collins was a young "protegee" of Dickens's, and they sort of discovered the English detective novel together. Only, I've always felt that Collins had a better handle on writing women, and a much more accesible sense of humor. I love the introduction of Marian in The Woman in White:

My first glance round me, as the man opened the door, disclosed a well-furnished breakfast-table, standing in the middle of a long room, with many windows in it. I looked from the table to the window farthest from me, and saw a lady standing at it, with her back turned towards me. The instant my eyes rested on her, I was struck by the rare beauty of her form, and by the unaffected grace of her attitude. Her figure was tall, yet not too tall; comely and well-developed, yet not fat; her head set on her shoulders with an easy, pliant firmness; her waist, perfection in the eyes of a man, for it occupied its natural place, it filled out its natural circle, it was visibly and delightfully undeformed by stays. She had not heard my entrance into the room; and I allowed myself the luxury of admiring her for a few moments, before I moved one of the chairs near me, as the least embarrassing means of attracting her attention. She turned towards me immediately. The easy elegance of every movement of her limbs and body as soon as she began to advance from the far end of the room, set me in a flutter of expectation to see her face clearly. She left the window--and I said to myself, The lady is dark. She moved forward a few steps--and I said to myself, The lady is young. She approached nearer--and I said to myself (with a sense of surprise which words fail me to express), The lady is ugly!

Now, that's class writing.

[Gryphon]

Snort. Funny...

Pride and Prejudice is the only one of Jane Austin's that I've read.

Nancy Drew, The Sight is no different! I was reading througfh the beggining of it and one thought came to my head:
"This sounds really familiar. Hmmm... Stupid marked wolf with funny powers and a lot of people dying. Oh, yeah, there's even a poem to go with it."
If you didn't like Firebringer, you will NOT like the Sight.

David-Clemens, I think, is the author.

I finished book two of The Firebringer trilogy. I love these! They're by Meredith Ann Peirce or something like that. I like the way she writes.

I think it's really boring with characters traveling all the time. Can't something happen??? I'm talking about Firebringer by DC again.

Another thing I thought... Their goal was to restore the Lore and cast down their foe or whatever. Well, they didn't really do that? Part A, I mean. Cuz, like, does the god thayt they beleive in even exist??? And that's all the book is about! That Herne...

Herne?

Children of Herne... Hernystir are the children of Herne...??? They are! Hmmm... The Hernestyr (i forget the spelling) were a people in Tad Williams book. They were the 'Children of Herne' according to their religion. Wasn't it the same in the Firebringer? I wonder what that means...

I usually stick to fantasy or science-fiction. bad habit, I suppose. And that's how I picked up Crusader. The cover looked like a fantasy book. Don't judge a book by its cover. Well, I'm glad I did. Crusader was such a good book! I have so many books in my bookshelf, it's not funny. It would be full... but my brother had the YW books with him.

-MaThFrEaK
"Hehehe. You smell funny."
"I love fish and chicken and turkey and ham and squirrels and pork and..."
"Izza mousey!"
~Gryphon~