A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE

Is this book any good?

Stego?

i'll keep to generalizations and no spoilers.

Has anyone else read the new Drizzt book yet? I finished it a few days ago (mostly because mistborn 2 has yet to arrive anywhere here). i had a ton of issues with this book, which i will relate in no peticular order. Did anyone else find that:

-the writing went downhill? i know that this has been a complaint of salvatore for a long time but the sellsword books have so far been fantastic. i really thought he was getting back into the swing of things. this was another 'zomg what is wulfgar going through' book.

-the book is titled ORC KING. arguably the only character i care about whatsoever now is obould, so this is great, yeah? but it isnt about him. its about Wulfgar and his emo view of everything. Its about bruenor and his rampant and unrelenting racism. Its about manufacturing a way for Cattie to live forever/give her absurd life so that drizzt stories need never go away.

-im not even going to mention how little i care for fight scenes with any of the main characters.

-THE PRELUDE/PROLOGUE completely fucked the novel. 'hey look guys its the distant future! this is bascally how everything unfolds! can you guess how i am going to mess with you at the end here? Nope. cause i wont." it pretty much just turtles and crawls its way to its eniveitable and expressed conclusion. you can actually stop reading before the first chapter and know pretty much how it goes.

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it dosent sound like i am a salvatore fan but i try to be. maybe post lynch/bakker/sanderson i can no longer accept this 80s-style hack and slash novel, and every thing i read of quality slowly pushes me farther and farther away. or maybe im just tired of this set of characters? The Blade Itself at least has a twist on this premise. Im not sure who salvatore writes these for anymore.

Just wondering if it is worth the time.

Thanks in advance,

FS

What is the most hopelessly abysmal piece of crap book you've ever read? Please, please remember that you can't nominate any of Goodkind's faeces as it would just become another Tairy-bashing thread. I myself will nominate "The Sword of Shannara" by Terry Brooks. I've only read the first trilogy so I can't really judge him as a writer but the first book just seemed to be LOTR with some of the nouns changed around. I thought "Wishsong" and "Elfstones" were fairly awful too but I'm sure a lot of people would disagree. Let the hate commence!

The current Prince of Nothing thread becomes too spoilerific, and I can see by the baubles of sweat forming on the other forum member's foreheads that we need a new spoiler thread.

So here it is. If you're on a Windows box, the International keyboard layout is your friend. Also, remember that the "Quick Edit" button destroys non-ASCII characters, but the (slow) "Edit" button preserves them.


To pick up where that thread was headed:

Is Esmi just a pretty womb for Kelly? I say no. He specifically picks her for much the same reasons Akka chose her: she is easily the smartest woman we have met in the Three Seas. Here's a quote from the Kelly–Moe meeting:



I think Kelly purposefully chose the best genes this side of Ishuäl. And that's Esmi. The prettiest womb would have been Serwë.

Iv read everything from C.S. Lewis to Bakker to Martin to Tolkien to Rowling to Eddings to McCaffrey to Jordan to Edison (i started a goodkind and thought my brain was going to die from boredom...if that counts) but somehow never made it to Malazan. The thing that always kept me away from it is its a ten book series. Dont get me wrong i love long books and even better long series with long books, but i dont want to start it get to book 4 and be like "this is going to slow or going nowhere" as i did with the dark tower series...so i was wondering if i could hear some various opinions about the series WITHOUT SPOILERS...please keep out things such like "i didnt like that it had a happy or sad ending" "to many/not enough characters died" or things to that respect. also i would like to know if this series is just a simple heroes quest...as im sick to death of these...
thanks for your comments...
-Garlan

laoise & I have been on a spending spree in recent weeks. This is some of what we shelled out for:

The First Chronicles of Lankhmar - Leiber
The Twilight Watch - Lukyanenko
Red Seas Under Red Skies - Lynch
The Name of the Wind - Rothfuss
Hood- Lawhead
For a Few Demons More - Harrison
Battle Royale - Takami
The Bourne Identity, Supremacy and Ultimatum - Ludlum
The Harsh Cry of the Heron and Heaven's Net is Wide - Hearn
Bones to Ashes - Reichs
Night of Knives - Esslemont
Lord John & the Brotherhood of the Blade - Gabaldon

Should keep us busy for a couple of weeks.

While I know many people (including GRRM and Parris) are disappointed that Worldcon will not be in Kansas City in 2009, I do think they will be pleasantly surprised by Montreal - as a city, at least (reserving judgement on the organizing committee for now, although I have a feeling that some of the crew who organized the Winnipeg Worldcon back in '94 are working on Montreal '09). Even I, slacker that I am, might bestir myself to join the pur laine-lovin' throngs. Anybody else?

I just finished this book and really enjoyed it a lot. I felt the mysticism was a bit over the top for a normal mystery book, and that it bordered on being urban fantasy (not sure where a book store would have placed it as it came from the warehouse store).

I was wondering if anyone else had read this and what they thought of it? or if anyone had read any of his previous books?

(oh, I just read the back of the dustcover and this is his 34th book, including the Blackstone Chronicles, which sounds vaugley familar)

Does anybody have any idea what this could be referring to? This was said to Brienne on the Quiet Isle by either Elder Brother or Narbert - that six had been found, and they were waiting for THE seventh (not "more" for example). There are few references to Rhaegar's Rubies in the text - the only thing I really remember reading about is Dany's vision, where the rubies flew off Rhaegar's breastplate like drops of blood when Robert killed him.

May not be important, but who knows with Martin!

I've been brainstorming an epic fantasy that I plan on writing, and I'm wondering about any advice anyone might have concerning names and (especially) terminology. You see, unlike most fantasy worlds, the setting for my work is not a quasi-medieval one but rather is set in a 1940's/1950's era. There are televisions, firearms, tanks, modern governments and institutions . . .

This presents what I feel to be a bit of a problem. Some of the governments in this world are vaguely analogue to historical real-life ones such as the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Naturally, I can't use terms like "Marxism" or "Nazis," as these are too specific to our world. But how about "Communism" or "Fascism?" It just seems silly to make up new names for such familiar concepts, yet the word "Fascism" historically stems from the latin word fascio, which means "bundle" or "group," and also from the movement's symbol, which was a fasces, or an axehead embedded in a bundle of sticks -- which was a traditional Roman symbol of strength and unity.

It seems odd to use a word that has a specific real world origin, but on the other hand many words are like this, and it would be impossible to avoid them while writing.

But where do I draw the line?

How about scientific names in latin? Or words derived from latin? Should I make up another language and base all terminology upon it? How far should I take this? To me, it makes sense for "evolution" to be called "evolution," but "Darwinism" to be called something else.

But how about "democracy," "anarchy," "oligarchy," etc, etc? These are all obviously rooted in latin, but it would be awkward to make a bunch of new terms for all of these concepts.

Any advice?

A tribe of humans lives in a vast, crumbling city in the midst of a forested land. No-one knows who built the city or why. The Tribe survives by hunting hostile species for food, or trading flesh with more neutrally-aligned races. When a hunter becomes too wounded or too elderly to endure, they are expected to Volunteer for the flesh-trade. It is a harsh world of kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, where the strong survive and the weak perish.

Stopmouth is a hunter low in confidence due to his constant stutter, overshadowed by his more heroic, intelligent brother. But the Tribe needs them both to survive, when their rival species form an unprecedented alliance and a strange force falls from the skies which will drastically change Stopmouth's life forever...

The Inferior, Book One of The Bone World Trilogy, is a refreshingly different type of speculative fiction, channelling many of tropes of fantasy but gradually subverting them with SF ideas as the storyline continues to develop. The world of the Tribe is an intriguing one, a savage landscape where different races battle for survival and for flesh and the good of the many comes before the good of the individual. It is also a world where nothing is as it first appears, and later chapters introduce new races, new locations, new ideas and characters which add to the tapestry of the storyline.

The Inferior is being marketed as a Young Adult series, but it's a fairly harsh book, not skimping on the details of cannibalism or the visceral nature of the hunt and combat. I imagine the author had a great time inventing different monsters and species, with the vile Longtongues and Diggers being particularly unpleasent. The characters are likewise an interesting bunch, from our main protagonist Stopmouth through his two-faced brother Wallbreaker, the courageous Rockface and the enigmatic Indrani. However, outside of this main group it could be argued that some of the other characters are only lightly sketched, and the rather late introduction of a villain and foil for Stopmouth doesn't quite work as well as it should. The other key criticisms are that nowhere on the spine, the cover or indeed inside the book is it revealed that this is a trilogy, so some may find the abrupt ending a bit startling. Finally, a major plot revelation is given away by the book's cover blurb, so be very careful about reading it. Note that the last two issues are faults of the publisher, not the author.

The Inferior (****) is an enjoyable debut novel from a clearly talented author. An intriguingly harsh Darwinian story of life struggling to survive in the face of the environment, this book is different enough from a lot of recent SF&F to make a vivid impression on the reader and leave them wanting more.

Publisher details and links to other reviews of the book can be found on the blog.

Apologies if this is already a topic.

I just wanted to get some stories about meeting authors and whether you considered the experience good or bad. I've met two of my favorite authors - Neil Gaiman and Harlan Ellison - both in New York City, both absolute giants in the fields of S/F, fantasy and speculative fiction. What's funny is how vastly different my experiences were.

When I met Ellison, my buddy and I walked into the Barnes and Noble on 5th Ave., bought his latest book, asked where we should line up, and were politely told where to go. We were third and fourth in line respectively (tho were were lined up outside, exposed to the elements, in the middle of November). After an hour wait the line grew to about a hundred people. Five minutes before the event started, Ellison himself came out on to the street and greeted everyone, complaining that Barnes and Noble shouldn't be lining up their customers outside on a cold day. He walked the whole length of the line, said hi, and returned to his table. I got to spend a full two minutes talking to him and the store employees didn't try to rush me. He was brilliant and awesome.

Gaiman was a freakin' circus act. I called B&N and was told it was a good idea to arrive FIVE HOURS before his appearance just so that I could be assured of getting a seat. 300 people were crammed into a reading area meant for 150 and I was forced to just sit and twiddle my thumbs for hours - no bathroom, no food - just to keep a grip on my seat. I listened to the most asinine conversations I've ever heard about Gaiman's works until he finally arrived. He spoke for 20 minutes, took questions for another 20, and then began the signing process. I was in row 14 - relatively close - and it took me 2 freakin' hours to actually get up to his table. Sure, it was a thrill to meet him and shake his hand and tell him how much I liked his stuff, and he was impossibly gracious and charming...but it was a 12 hour day, all things considered and a pretty big expense on my part.

The point is, these experiences have caused me to really stop, hesitate, and THINK about future signings and author appearances and just how worth my time they might be. I don't think I'd ever do Gaiman again (to be fair, he is immensely popular these days- alot moreso than Ellison) but there are still plenty of authors out there I'd love to meet. The question is, is the 30 seconds of time I'd spend with the author worth the huge effort it takes just to get to him/her?

What do you think? Have you guys had good experiences, bad ones, totally indifferent ones? When you weigh all the time and effort and money, has it been worth it?

First, the nominees.

And now, the results. The bits of usual interest:

Best Novel: Vernor Vinge, Rainbow's End. Beats out Novik's first novel (I totally expected this one), Stross's Glasshouse, Flynn's Eifelheim (I thought it was slightly likelier to win than Rainbow's End) and Watt's Blindsight (which seemed to me a very early favorite, but then as people had longer to chew on it it lost a fair bit of its shine).

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long form: Pan's Labyrinth. I figured.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short form: Doctor Who, "Girl in the Fireplace". Neil Gaiman's pick, that one, I believe.

Campbell Award for Best New Writer: Naomi Novik, beating out Scott Lynch (also in his first year of eligibility), Brandon Sanderson, Sarah Monette, and Lawrence M. Schoen (all in their last year of elibigibility). As I said elsewhere, I expect 2008 to feature Lynch and Rothfuss duking it out (though possibly there'll be some other SFnal up-and-comers who'll show up then too).

Oh, and the site for the 2009 Worldcon appears to be Montreal.

Well you all know what to do.

So I'll get it started: I'm still working on Ragamuffin by Tobias Buckell. It's a loose follow-up to Crystal Rain. The focus of this book is completely different from that of Crystal Rain, and I'm liking what Buckell is doing very much. He's definitely building an interesting and complex universe.

This month I plan on reading:

Midnight Tides by Erikson
Mr. Punch by Gaiman
The Crooked Letter by Sean Williams
The Shotgun Rule by Charlie Huston

and if I have time I'll start Bonehunters by Erikson