Books

[Kathy Li]

PM, maybe next time, move them one by one in order?

I've read Conrad's Fate and am all smug and happy with the good-readingness. It's a lot of fun! And didn't DWJ have a blast threading a Chrestomanci story through an Upstairs/Downstairs big country house setting?

Stupidly, I picked up The Hook by Donald Westlake. Now Snow Crash and Drowned Wednesday are going to have to wait a while... and Laurie King's going to be signing Locked Rooms (Russell & Holmes in San Francisco!) at the end of June. Oh, dear. That means I have to toss Califia's Daughters on the pile, too...

[Crazy Carl]

pm start practicing moving large groups of posts at once in like a archived topic before you mess with the current one. XD

anywho...darn now i forgot. GAHHHH

[Gryphon]

I just finished a trilogy called the Farseer Trilogy by something Hobb... Robin Hobb. XD I had one of his books in front of me. The books are called Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin, and Assassin's Quest. They're good, fantasy, and not about killing people. Not really, at least. It's followed by a second trilogy, still with Fitz.

Also read Idoru, sci-fi. Really neat, and I liked it, but I felt like the plot... didn't involve the main characters, if that makes any sense. XD

[Lisa]

Yay!!!! Here's some news for Eragon fans!

First, the winners for the poetry contest still haven't been announced, but he's working on it.

Second, the paperback version has been released in the US.

Third, the movie will be sometime in 2006 in the US, possibly June 16th.

Fourth, the most recent page count for Eldest is about 704 pages.

Fifth, never mind what I said in some other post somewhere about Paolini writing the script. It may not be true.

Sixth, only 113 days, 23 hours, and 19 minutes unitl Eldest is released! Yahooooooooooo!

[Gigo]

I just read Ender's Game, and Ender's Shadow.

Ender's Game I just swallowed whole, and just read it.

Ender's Shadow, on the other hand, I read it piece by piece.

1/8th into the story made sense. Then toilet seats and Anton's key got me confused. then everything made sense except the last bit, about the battle.

I finally read THE GOLDEN COMPASS!!! It's great. Noo!!! My library doesn't have the other books!!!

[Lisa]

The Golden Compass? I loved it. I can be a bit of a baby when it comes to books. For example: I read the first two of the Golden Compass books. Then mom didn't take me back to the store when she said she would. Since it was a used book store, it wasn't there when we went a couple days later. And we didn't have time to go to another store because there was a Boy Scout Pack meeting in a couple hours and my dad was gonna pick me up anyway. So, I convinced my mom to go to the store, buy it, give it to a friend that was also going to the meeting, who could give it to me so I could read it.

The Ender's Game books are good too. I loved them! Now, I have to read the rest. Xenocide (which is in my locker), the other books that are out that I don't know about...In addition to Ender's Shadow, there's Shadow of the Hegemon, also about Bean. I want the next one of those to come out. But I didn't like in Speaker of the Dead when (spoiler) <span class="ev_code_WHITE">Jane, the technological thing, got mad at Ender. She was my favorite character.</span>

[alla]

YAY! Look at what I found in the bookstore this afternoon. I couldn't resist buying it. I've read a couple of chapters and its just as good as the others. Oh, and tui <span class="ev_code_WHITE"> it is a sequel, and not a prequel. Horowitz did a good job of pulling him out of the, shall we say dilemma that came into play at the end of Scorpia.</span>



Its really scary. I'm starting to collect Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Files again... I keep finding them, some that I haven't even read and yeah... I wonder if my collection will expand to what it was again. BookFest is coming up again soon, and thats usually a pretty good place to get them from.

Alla

[Birdhead]

Alla: :O :O :O UNBELIEVABLE.

I think he's probably pushing the envelope, though. *amused*

I finally got Conrad's Fate yesterday & really enjoyed it. I also read Night Watch by Pratchett and The Twisted Window by Lois Duncan and Space Demons by Gillian Rubinstein and The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy though, as well, which it now occurs to me may have contributed to my fantastic but bizarre mood last night. I would reccommend this combination, or similar, for someone who would like to break their brain a little bit.

[Kathy Li]

Thanks to Neil Gaiman mentioning Thorne Smith on his blog, I've now pulled Topper down off the shelf and started reading it. I'd forgotten how good Smith was.

In the close embrace of the night there is something almost personal. It clings to Topper like a wronged woman, filling him with a desire to be elsewhere.

Snicker. Man, he can put words together.

[Stormpetrel]

Gigo:I finally read THE GOLDEN COMPASS!!! It's great. Noo!!! My library doesn't have the other books!!!


^Don't worry Gigo, I read all three, but I didn't think that any of them were as good as Compass. Pullman starts going off the deep end a tad in the next two... Muahahaha.

Ooh...books... *licks lips* I don't know where to begin, but here's a modest effort:

Anything at all by Heinlein, (amazing man, I absolutely adore him!)
Anything at all by Robin McKinley (The Blue Sword is a work of art. )
"The Chronicles of Narnia"...also good, but I highly disliked it when (spoiler!) <span class="ev_code_WHITE">Peter and Susan were told that they would not be able to return to Narnia. That was sad.</span> (end spoiler). So I basically stopped reading after Prince Caspian.
Shakespeare is a genius, and Watchers by Dean Koontz along with anything Tolkien is amazing.

*pants* I believe I've meandered enough through the various genres of literature. However, I shall return! With more good books.


Ooh...forgot the Pendergast books by Preston & Child. Also good.

Okay,
Zhai'helleva and Dai'stiho Cousins

[Gryphon]

AHAHAH!! Stormpetrel, you have made my day. NO ONE, NO ONE here has read any books by Preston & Child. And Pendergast is the coolest (and, maybe, creepiest) FBI agent to ever haunt the US.

I didn't like the Blue Sword, but I loved the Crown, King, and wazzit... no, I have the book; I'll look. The Hero and the Crown! But it could've been because I read them out of order. And because the Blue Sword was not only a hardcover, but a _moldy_ hardcover. (...) I know that's sad, but it's a little hard to ignore.

[bluesalamanders]

I love almost all of McKinley's books, with the exception of Rose Daughter, which I don't care for much at all. I've been reading her books for most of my life, but her most recent one, Sunshine, just blew me away. She's matured in her writing style so much that it's almost like it's a different author from the fairy-tale style of her previous books. Not that I don't still love Blue Sword and Hero and so on, because I do, but Sunshine sucks me in like very few other books do. If I start reading it, I pretty much have to be prepared to spend the whole day reading it.

I also really like Pullman's His Dark Materials series. I don't agree with Stormpetrel opinion about Pullman going off the deep end in the other two books; I think the trilogy fit well together and even though the ending makes me cry whenever I read it (yes, I'm a sap, though only a very few books can make me cry), I think it fits well with the universe Pullman created. And I absolutely love the scientist, what's her name, Dr. Malone.

I'm also fan of Isaac Asimov, Tamora Pierce, Patricia Wrede, Karen Cushman, Nick Bantock, Marge Piercy...I'll stop there for now

(Ok, so not quite stopping.) I also love "A Night in the Lonesome October" and the Amber series (except for the last book) by Roger Zelazney, Shockwave Rider by John Brunner (be warned - it is VERY dated), and a number of things by Peter S. Beagle, including, of course, The Last Unicorn, but also the anthology he edited called Immortal Unicorn.

[Stormpetrel]

Bluesalamanders: I also read Rose Daughter, but I remember not liking it too much. And Sunshine is an amazing book. I really hope that she writes a sequel, I enjoyed it extremely, but I did not like the way she ended it! Argh... *frustration mounts* And yes, the next two books in the Pullman series were good, but I enjoyed Compass most. (The end of Spyglass makes me bawl! though, I thought that is was apt, yet mean... *sob*

So, anyways, Issac Asimov, Tamora Pierce, Patricia Wrede... all AMAZING authors. *smiles* You like the same books I do, wow... it's hard to find people like that. (Bluesalamanders, have you tried Heinlein or Simak if you enjoyed Asimov?)

Gryphon: Neat-o! I love the Pendergast books. Did you know that the next one comes out in July? It's very exciting. They have a forum which is rather interesting, a lot of good ideas are floating around, some of which have been put into the books. *grin* It's cool. And mayhaps you should give The Blue Sword another chance? I thought that it was amazing, and although a bit hard to get into at first, after you hit around chapter eight, it blows you away, or me anyways.


I can't think of anymore books right now, I have to go peruse my shelves some more...hehe. *is tired*

Okee-day, Zhai'helleva and Dai'stiho!

[bluesalamanders]

I've read some Heinlein, I think. I don't really know, I've read so much SF by so many different authors. I got into it first when I was in high school, borrowing books from my parents' old SF collection. I'm not sure about Simak, the name doesn't ring a bell. I'm sure I'll go to the library sometime soon, I'll see what I can find.

I actually liked the way McKinley ended Sunshine. I thought it was apropos for the story and the characters. If she were going to write other books about Sunshine's universe, I would prefer her to write about Yolande's history, or Mel's, or even Onyx Blaise, something about the Voodoo Wars. I mean, I always wish there was more about the main characters in books I love, but this time, there are so many fantastic supporting characters that I really want more about them.

The beginning of The Blue Sword is kind of slow, but the middle and end are much more exciting. One of my friends (who I met in an online book group by talking about Sunshine) once asked me which character I could relate to most of McKinley's early heroines. I had to choose Harry, mostly because of the way she said "the difference was riding me as I ride Sungold". Like she wasn't necessarily inherently a hero; more like it was something that was laid on her.

[alla]

Welcome to all the new people who have posted in this thread since I was last around.

Storm: I almost thought that you were Sharky for a second.

Anyway... booksbooksbooks.

I really like Robin McKinley too. I've forgotten how long ago it was that Dad gave me that one to read. If you like that one though, try Kristen Britain - the Green Rider books are good.

Anyway, must go off to lectures. I will post tonight in the TOGR and give a full account of my weekend at the Brisbane Medieval Fayre .

Alla

I have a sword