What have you been reading?

I haven't, but my friend who got me on that series highly recommended them.

I got this short story collection last Christmas and read a story by Abercrombie back then. It was kind of a western of sorts and here it apparently takes place in the First Law universe. I guess it features the main character from the most recent standalone, Red Country. Had no idea until I looked up the other novels after finishing these.

I'm glad you dug the ending. I could see how that ending might turn off a lot of traditional fantasy fans but in terms of some of the almost anti-fantasy things that series set up I thought the ending was brilliant and dark and satisfying as hell.

I will say that the way he tried so hard to buck fantasy trends/tropes didn't always work out. I mean at some point it goes from an interesting way to turn the genre on its head to being questionable for the purposes of satisfying reading. Like in the end of the journey in Book 2. But I thought the end of Book 3 really worked.

Yeah, the journey was a weird one because like you (and you can tell in my ratings on goodreads) as a standalone thing, Book 2 kind of pissed me off. But the way that journey ended in relation to the story that is all 3 books was kind of cool in retrospect. But they could have done with a bit more character foreshadowing or...something in those last moments for sure.

I don't know...rambling aside it was like Abercrombie was like "Remember Fellowship of the Ring? FUCK FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING!"

Which character was your favorite or at least whose chapters did you like best? Logen's were my favorite. I enjoyed most of them though (regardless of whether I "liked" them). I never really cared much for Glokta though. While he is an interesting character, I didn't find his plotlines as good as others and found his constant descriptions of pain/suffering a little grating. I know a lot of people really dug him, but I never really loved his chapters.

What I really loved were the chapters that bounced between multiple POVs. I may have mentioned that but those were really well done.

Logen was my favorite, at least I always found myself turning the pages more for his chapters.

I started up The Way of Kings. Feels pretty different after my string of dark fantasy.

I finished a book I've been reading forever called Wildwood. Took forever because it wasn't very interesting. Started up The Hobbit again. Wanted to get to the end of the second movie before the third movie comes out. It's been 7 years since I read it last and I can't remember everything so I wanted to read it again to see how much was changed from the films.

Finished Fields of Fire...destroyed my soul. Now, I've finally started A Song of Ice and Fire...

What made you finally take the plunge?

Trip, I remember you either started or was going to start The Hobbit. Did you ever start/finish?

I am about 110 pages in maybe (my copy is about 300 pages I think). But got a new book in and got distracted. Maybe I will jump back in since you are also reading it. I read it when I was young, but don't remember a whole lot.

It's just simple, pure, adventurous fun. The Lord of the Rings are good, but there's just such a simple flow to The Hobbit. I have a newer edition with some illustrations, but I just finished Chapter 2. I read a chapter and then read a Buffy graphic novel, and then back to a Hobbit chapter, etc.... So I'll be caught up to you in no time probably. Let me know what chapter you're on and I'll let you know when I get there.

TripOpt55 wrote:What made you finally take the plunge?

Partly because I got sick of my girlfriend's "HOLY CRAP" noises as she read them behind me. Partly because I had always intended to read them at some point anyway, and now I realize there's no point waiting. I probably wont marathon them though.

That said, I'm finding the book different enough to the series in both the way things play out and the way the characters act/are described that I'm not just imagining the show. Which is the sign of a good adaptation. It definitely supports my theory that if a book is well adapted they can exist on that separate-but-equal standing with no problem.

Yeah I knew you planned to read them. That is cool you started them up.

@Bret: I'm in the chapter Queer Lodgings (Chapter 7) right now.

I ask this, "What other kind of lodgings would anyone ever dream of having?"

Finished Game of Thrones...was very good! It makes me both appreciate the detail of the books and also how good of a job the show creators did adapting it. They made changes that really made it work on screen. I've said it a million times but with good adaptations my brain is just like "OK, I'm happy with these 2 things existing as separate entities" so while the plot points are the same I'm still interested to read for the details and many of the plot points play out differently which makes it refreshing.

But yeah, I can see why these books got popular when they were published. The writing isn't anything astonishing and he spends a LOT of time describing clothes (in the same way Tolkien liked to describe...doors) and he seems to run into that problem (that I myself do) of describing characters eyes a lot. But still, some awesome dialogue, and great characters.

Also, I like Sansa a lot better in the book, but that didn't surprise me in the least. However, SOME of the show castings were so good I can't not imagine them as those characters in the book (like Tywin)

I'll be curious what you think of Clash of Kings as an adaptation. I think they really did the worst job with that one transferring it to TV. The first is the most faithful for sure.

Faithful but quite good, and the added scenes that were just in the TV show were all very good (i.e. Charles Dance's speech in the tent while skinning the deer...awesome)

You're not kidding about things being different, Trip. I mean, I see why they made the changes they did for the TV show but the characters definitely have a different edge to them and the situations are playing out a lot differently in the book.

So far though, Clash of Kings is still pretty damn slow compared to the breakneck pace that was Game of Thrones.

Been reading Watchmen and ohmygod it's fucking fantastic. I saw the film a couple of years ago and it was pretty cool but the graphic novel is just brilliant. Also read Batman: The Dark Knight Returns which was also good just because I hate Batman and the entire thing was just showing off how insane he was.

Almost done with Clash of Kings. You weren't kidding Trip, it's way different from the show. I can argue some good points for how they did it on both sides though, which I guess is a testament to the talent of the writers on the show.

That said, there were a few plot elements that I wish they had left in (and others I'm glad they cut for hte sake of making a good TV show).

The only big change I thought really helped the TV show was pairing Tywin and Arya. I may be forgetting some other stuff. I generally find the show writers are good at showing stuff the book doesn't due to the POV structure. Like inventing scenes that you'd imagine could have happened in the book. But not so good at creating plots all on their own.

And for what its worth, I watched the first two seasons before I read the books. So it wasn't just like I read the book first and was getting all pissy about the changes when I watched it. It was more like when I read the book, I thought a lot of it worked out better there. I don't know... when you finish, maybe I will mention a few things in spoilers.

A week or so ago, I finished Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep. Still as finely-written crime/mystery novel that lives up to its reputation but I'm a little fuzzy on who killed one or two (which probably doesn't matter since Chandler himself didn't know). It's basically about the process of an investigation, not its results. It's worth it just to read the prose, the way that Phillip Marlowe verbally spars with everyone. And because I love the Humphrey Bogart film so much, I see only him in my mind when I'm reading it. No matter, the role fit him like a glove.

I'm calling a break on Edmund Morris' Theodore Rex. Kind of a bummer since I truly want to finish his trilogy (and own on all of them) but right now he's dealing with a lot of minutiae that drags the pace down considerably. I'll come back to it later. Or maybe I should try it in smaller bits rather than struggling through it.

Right now I've just begun Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind.

I found Best Served Cold for about $6 so I got it and started it up. Main character seems really cool so far.

All New Ultimates has been really disappointing. Save for one issue, these guys have not been taking advantage of pairing the only interesting Ultimate characters left and gave a plot with too many characters and a confusing plot. Guess that's what I get for reading an Ultimate comic outside Spider-Man

Trip, I am to the same chapter as you in The Hobbit. I'll start Queer Lodgings after I watch the first movie because this chapter is the start of the second movie, and as you could probably guess the last chapter finished the first movie. So when I finish watching the movie and reading this Serenity graphic novel I'm working on, I'll start reading it again.

I believe I finished Queer Lodgings... and then stopped reading it again. So I will try and pick it back up. Keep me updated on where you are so I can try and keep up. I'm not sure why but it isn't exactly gripping me.

The Hobbit is about 300 pages right?

Finished Clash of Kings, on to a Storm of Swords. These books aren't even SUPER well written but there is just something horribly addictive about them...