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  • I just found this: hope for the Sabriel universe!

    http://www.garthnix.co.uk/books_wall
    "Half of the ehhif on the planet go to bed with empty stomachs: the other half die of eating themselves sick...." -Rhiow,The Book of Night With Moon

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    • i'm reading a few books...about to start on pendragon, looking into a kim harris bok, and i'm reading the fires of merlin. *hopes these boks will prove good* i'll look into the wolving time too.
      I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.
      For those of you who don't recognize WHO'S back, I'll give you a hint, and I don't mean the typo's in my posts - YR.

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      • So, thanks to summer, I've actually had some time to read. I recently finished three fantasy novels, two of which I'm not sure I'd recommend here, the third one I will.

        The first two were from Michael Stackpole's "Age of Discovery" Trilogy: A Secret Atlas and Cartomancy (I'm waiting until The New World comes out in pocket). They're good reading, but there's something odd about the approach to a fantasy story. I'd almost say it's approaching it as if it were science fiction, and not in a way that feels organic, like DD's books. And there's a particularly graphic bit in the first book where someone is killed and disassembled Jack-the-Ripper-style (only worse), which was just completely out of place.

        There's also a weird touch of the old cultural imperialism, where European and things Chinese are sort of mixmastered in a way that gives me a bit of cognitive dissonance. Still, aside from that, it's got good storytelling and some fascinating characters, but as I mentioned, I'm not sure I'd recommend them, and especially not to the readers here.

        The other book, however, was a complete hoot, and I have to run off and find the other two in the series now. Jim Butcher, best known for the Harry Dresden series, has also written a swords-and-sorcery fantasy series, the Codex Alera series. Furies of Calderon is the first one (followed by Academ's Fury and Cursor's Fury).

        It has some interesting overtones of a lot of different things, but is essentially its own thing. Alera is a country on a world where the people can command "furies"--spirits of the elements (earth, air, water, fire, metal, & wood; interesting combination of Eastern & Western views of the elements). Alera's social structure is oddly Roman (you find out why later on).

        The hero is a young boy in a far-flung valley who feels like a freak because he hasn't any furies at all. Naturally, war is coming from outside the gates, and his valley is going to find a long-dormant enemy is coming, first.

        Butcher has a great way with an adventure story, and a fun sense of humor: a little bit smart-alecky, and a lot of fun. And he writes terrific fight scenes. I love Harry Dresden, so I was pretty sure I'd like this series as well, but I think I love it more than the Dresden series.
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        • to those of you who have never read the wheel of time series...DON"T! EVER! IF YOUR"RE THINKING OF IT< GET THE THOUGHT OUT OF YOUR HEAD THIS INSTANT! BAD IDEA!

          it's not that the series is bad...actually, it's great. i loved every book! it's just that the author, robert jordan just died while writing the twelth book...(i think it was twelfth.). either way, the series is probably ended for good now, and the series was not even CLOSE to being resolved. from the looks of it, it wasn't even close to being HALF way resolved! we had kingdoms falling, rand taking over the world out of neccesity, people trapped in the wrong dimension, the one power out in the universe, people having been brought back to life in the wrong body, though they were evil anyways, marriages that the characters didn't even seem to WANT occuring (the character was cursing the fact that he had just realzied he was destined to marry her, and accidenlty said his marriage vows in the process...she completed them later, and they were wed.) rand had just lost his hand, and who knows what else was happening that i've already forgotten! and now the guy's dead, and it'll stay that way till the end of time. (hence the giant recommendation NOT to read this book) i've known he was going to die fora bout a year, and probably more now...deadly disease. very little chance of getitng past it. He SHOULD have had eyeyears left though, with wich to finish the story, which is probably why he didn't go all out for a finishing touch, but...dint' work out that way in the eend. *still can't decide if i'm mopre upset about his death, which i had known was going to happen for a while and had basically forgotten about, or how he left his readers in the story* half his audiance left anyways when, after seeing him get to the eleventh book with no sign of finishing, he went back and wrote a prequal, but i'm sure more then one person is cursing how things worked out at the moment...anyways, DON"T READ THE BOOKS. you'll be sorry. :P
          I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.
          For those of you who don't recognize WHO'S back, I'll give you a hint, and I don't mean the typo's in my posts - YR.

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          • I tried reading the first of the Wheel of Time books, and I just couldn't get into it.

            But I don't know if I agree with you that getting involved in a story that may never see an end is a bad thing. Powers know, I watch enough tv to have seen stories die in mid-cliffhanger, as it were.

            If the story speaks to you, if it engages it, and fires your imagination, then whether or not everything gets tied off with a bow is, well, not necessarily worth getting worried about.

            I'm currently awaiting George R.R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" series. We have long waits between the volumes. Nobody knows if GRRM is actually going to make it or not, given how continually grows. (It was gonna only be four books at the start. Then six. Now, he says seven. I think my money's on eight).

            Saying you shouldn't read a series without an end is like saying you shouldn't fall in love with someone because people die unexpectedly. You love who you love. Now, I should go read that copy of Edwin Drood that's lying around here somewhere...
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            • I'm reading Lord of the Flies for my English class and wow, it's_weird. Apparently (according to my english teacher) it's supposed to be full of these references to Freudian psychology, but I'm not really finding any so now I'm getting worried that I'm missing the whole point of the book and should read it AGAIN or risk failing my tests on it Reading books for a class really takes the fun out of reading the book
              "...For my own part, I known my job; my commission comes from Those Who Are. My paw raised is Their paw on the neck of the Serpent, now and always..." - The (Kitty) Catechism
              Define the universe and give 3 examples.

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              • I hated that book when I had to read it in high school. So sorry it's been assigned to you.

                Just wanted to mention there's a new Discworld hardcover out there; Making Money. It was inevitable after Going Postal that Moist von Lipwig would end up at the Mint...

                Upcoming or current fantasy books I'm looking forward to:<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>Jo Walton - Ha'penny<LI>Scott Lynch - Red Seas Under Red Skies<LI>Linnea Sinclair - Downhome Zombie Blues (romance)<LI>Naomi Novik - Empire of Ivory (Temeraire)<LI>Jim Butcher - Captain's Fury (Codex Alera)<LI>Jim Butcher - Small Favor (Dresden)<LI>Connie Willis - The Winds of Marble Arch (massive short story anthology)<LI>Connie Willis - D.A. (small press novella)<LI>Robin McKinley - Dragonhaven[/list]
                Yes, I'm behind on my reading. But then, I always am.
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                • Aye. Being forced to study a book in depth is not the best way to appreciate it. I first read "Lord of the Flies" when I was 12 years old, a boy at an English all-boys boarding prep school. I could have picked any character in the book and pointed out a boy at my school like that character. I could imagine myself in that situation with no trouble at all. It was an exciting and frightening read. I wouldn't want to study it, though.
                  -- Rick.

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                  • it often seems to take the fun out of a book when you HAVE to read it...i still haven't read the book i fear. it's somewhere on the reading list though..
                    and i would probably agree with you usually, kli... spoilers<span class="ev_code_WHITE">but there's something about being left in a situation where the main characters lost his hand and is having to take over the universe, all the while slowly being driven mad by the voice in his head the person he's the reincarnation of, while everyone tries to kill him, or worship him it seems...while his best friend has just been married to the head of invading enemy, despite not wanting to be. when the greatest evil of eternity (basically this books version of the lone power) is trying to break free and wreak havoc upon everyone, and when the other best friend is struggling with inner turmoil that's just HORRID. (particularly when ther'es also a baby on the way, and three wives all of whom he loves, and who knows what else i've arleady forgoptten!</span> Long story short, it's working it's way into all horrors, and it'll never be finished now...we're just left like that...it drives me crazy. I'm also saddened he's dead...i never met the guy, or came close to him once in my life, but there are probably many people who did, to whom he was more then just a writer, who are now without him...anyways, you can read the book, or not, but be warned: if you read it, you'll NEVER know what happens.
                    I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.
                    For those of you who don't recognize WHO'S back, I'll give you a hint, and I don't mean the typo's in my posts - YR.

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                    • It's funny you mention that as an example, LL, because I loved studying Lord of the Flies. Mind you, I am exactly that kind of nerd, and I was at an all-girls' school, which probably makes a bit of a difference :P But on the whole I found that it was a brilliant book that really opened itself up to analysis. Unlike Sons and Lovers, which we did the next year, which I unilaterally hated.
                      Go ahead! Panic! Do it now and avoid the June rush! Fear death by water!

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                      • I haven't read Sons and Lovers, I don't think it's in my curriculum. But Lord of the Flies I did read last year. I felt it was interesting but the way my teacher tried to explain it to us was sooo bad. I couldn't understand anything she was trying to say. I enjoyed the book though.

                        We just finished The Old Man and The Sea and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, those books are, I feel, good and bad. Good as in good story line... but I don't know, i just didn't like how it was written in the Old Man and the dialogues in Huck Finn.

                        Right now besides the Young Wizard series, my second fave books are A Great and Terrible Beauty/ Rebel Angels
                        Time passes. Even when it seems impossible.
                        Even when each tick of the second hand aches like the pulse of blood behind a bruise.
                        It passes unevenly, in strange lurches and dragging lulls, but pass it does. Even for me.
                        Check out my video: LET GO

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                        • Anyone else read Robin McKinley's new book Dragonhaven yet? Any thoughts?

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                          • I have not read Dragonhaven yet, but it seems like it might be interesting, just by the title. Thanks for the idea. Has anyone read Inkheart or Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo? I think some YW fans might like them. I know i did (although I read them a few years ago)Tell me what you think about them.
                            ~We're the kinda friends that kill each other for a handful of Doritos and in the end we don't say sorry we say Haha! Too bad!!~. Errors have been made. Others will be blamed.

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                            • we'll call you up in a few thousand years and see if you want to renew your love of reading. :P

                              The title DOES sound interesting...

                              I have read inkheart (and inkspell, and loved both.)

                              And i know i'm going on too much on the Robert Jordan books, but apparently he managed to actually write the last book before dying. *Doesn't know HOW anybody could manage to finish off that series in a single book with anything less then devine intervention, and a couple thousand pages, but there you have it.* it still needs editing, and they might have to hire an author to revise i guess, but stilll. *Cheers*\\

                              oh, and s. Morgenstern doesn't exist./ William Goldman's the princess bride is the one and only. :P and ihave some doubts about florinese at the moment, too! *grins* english teacher told me for certain the first part though.
                              I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.
                              For those of you who don't recognize WHO'S back, I'll give you a hint, and I don't mean the typo's in my posts - YR.

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                              • Don't know if anybody else was snagged by the Amazon listing, but the new Diana Wynne Jones, The Game is more of a novella, than a novel. But fun, as DWJ typically is.

                                And if there are any other Neil Gaiman fans roaming the board, the BBC Word Service has got a radio drama adaptation of Anansi Boys that you can listen to until next Saturday (11/24).
                                New to the board? Please take the time to read the YW Board-Specific Rules, or Why We're Not Like Other Boards FAQ.

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