Books

[Frank Delicious]

I just got done with Book III of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" saga. I'm not usually a big King fan, but this is better than I would have expected. Weird and trippy, but pretty cool. It makes me want to play Fallout 3.

I don't want to be a downer again but The Dark Tower saga starts out really strong but goes down hill when King mary sues himself into the story really blatantly. I still finished the series because I had read the first 5 or 6, I can't remember when he inserts himself into the story, and I still liked it alright but man the first three were so much better than the rest.

Also I check my bookshelves tonight when I get home for a better list but good fantasy off the top of my head:

To Reign in Hell - Stephen Brust
The Years of Rice and Salt - Kim Stanley Robinson
Temple in the Forest - Norman Mailer (kinda fantasy, kinda not)
Neverwhere, American Gods - Neil Gaiman (most any book by Gaiman is good)
The Book of Lost Things - John Connelly (really recommend this one if you like old school Grimm fairy tales)
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho (skirts the line between fantasy and just fiction)
100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Marquez (Spanish Magical Realism)
Anything by Ray Bradbury
I am Legend - Richard Matherson
Also a lot of the older Dragon Lance, Forgotten Realms stuff is my trash fantasy bad habit.

[JimW]

My favorite series of all time has to be the

Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind

The first three of the series being my favorite.

Goodkind's novels include the following:

Wizard's First Rule (1994)
Stone of Tears (1995)
Blood of the Fold (1996)
Temple of the Winds (1997)
Soul of the Fire (1999)
Faith of the Fallen (2000)
The Pillars of Creation (2002)
Naked Empire (2003)
Chainfire (2005)
Phantom (2006)
Confessor (2007)

Sword of Truth really would have been better off wrapping up in 3-4 books, or even just keeping Wizard's First Rule as a stand alone novel. Which is something I really hate to say because I LOVED the series when I first got into it. I got into it probably around 2000 or so and was reading the books as they came out but when I bought Chainfire I read about 20 pages of it and totally lost interest for years before picking it up again a few months ago and reading it and the rest of the series.

The first two books are easily the best but the third and fourth were solid too. Soul of the Fire was a big dropoff in quality but Faith of the Fallen was really good and very interesting. Pillars of Creation and Naked Empire, while pretty good books, were utterly pointless and added virtually nothing to the series. I didn't like Chainfire much at all, the main storyline in it was just lame. Phantom was fairly good and Confessor really redeemed the series. Still, I think Goodkind tried to stretch it out way too long and the series as a whole suffered for it.

Read the first seven books of Wheel of Time, started the eighth, then put it down one day and never picked it up again. The books all have superb endings but there's just too freaking much going on throughout each one, it gets so tedious reading a book that goes on forever before finally resolving something. One day I do want to try the series again though and see if I like it better.

I'm a huge fan of the Saga of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt Jr. My one complaint is the fairly lame and generic words he uses for measurements of distance and time but all the books are superbly written. What I love most is that a single character's storyline never spans more than two books, though the whole series is set within the same world it never suffers the fate of series like the Sword of Truth and Wheel of Time which go on too long for their own good.

The Wayfarer Redemption series by Sara Douglass, along with the related stand-alone novels Threshold and Beyond the Hanging Wall and the follow-up Darkglass Mountain series are another of my favorites. Very, very good books and once again it doesn't suffer from dragging on too long because it's broken up into trilogies that each have their own distinct storyline.

[disc junkie]

Sword of Truth really would have been better off wrapping up in 3-4 books, or even just keeping Wizard's First Rule as a stand alone novel. Which is something I really hate to say because I LOVED the series when I first got into it. I got into it probably around 2000 or so and was reading the books as they came out but when I bought Chainfire I read about 20 pages of it and totally lost interest for years before picking it up again a few months ago and reading it and the rest of the series.

The first two books are easily the best but the third and fourth were solid too. Soul of the Fire was a big dropoff in quality but Faith of the Fallen was really good and very interesting. Pillars of Creation and Naked Empire, while pretty good books, were utterly pointless and added virtually nothing to the series. I didn't like Chainfire much at all, the main storyline in it was just lame. Phantom was fairly good and Confessor really redeemed the series. Still, I think Goodkind tried to stretch it out way too long and the series as a whole suffered for it.

I agree completely with that assessment.

Also do NOT watch the show it is absolute GARBAGE and I have no problem with cheesy fantasy/sci fi shows.

[Barbikes]

Its rained all week and its suppose to rain the rest of the week where I live. Anybody know of any new good books to read?

Wow! Talk about thread drift! Did anyone else notice that MonsterX12 said he was interested in NEW good books. I may have missed it somewhere in the last three pages but I don't think I've seen any NEW books listed. I don't have any to recommend but I too would be interested in hearing about any NEW books or NEW authors that you like.

[bcsst26]

I just got done with Book III of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" saga. I'm not usually a big King fan, but this is better than I would have expected. Weird and trippy, but pretty cool. It makes me want to play Fallout 3.

I don't want to be a downer again but The Dark Tower saga starts out really strong but goes down hill when King mary sues himself into the story really blatantly. I still finished the series because I had read the first 5 or 6, I can't remember when he inserts himself into the story, and I still liked it alright but man the first three were so much better than the rest.

Also I check my bookshelves tonight when I get home for a better list but good fantasy off the top of my head:

To Reign in Hell - Stephen Brust
The Years of Rice and Salt - Kim Stanley Robinson
Temple in the Forest - Norman Mailer (kinda fantasy, kinda not)
Neverwhere, American Gods - Neil Gaiman (most any book by Gaiman is good)
The Book of Lost Things - John Connelly (really recommend this one if you like old school Grimm fairy tales)
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho (skirts the line between fantasy and just fiction)
100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Marquez (Spanish Magical Realism)
Anything by Ray Bradbury
I am Legend - Richard Matherson
Also a lot of the older Dragon Lance, Forgotten Realms stuff is my trash fantasy bad habit.

I loved the Dark Tower Series. A great read. I heard a lot of complaints about King inserting himself but I enjoyed that part. If you read any interviews and such with him, he always stated about how that series scared him and he didn't want to end it. I think this was his way around some of that. Anyways a great read and I still think could be a good movie if done by Jackson. If you enjoy other King books it is pretty cool to see hints and characters of those stories in the Dark Tower Series.

[Frank Delicious]

Its rained all week and its suppose to rain the rest of the week where I live. Anybody know of any new good books to read?

Wow! Talk about thread drift! Did anyone else notice that MonsterX12 said he was interested in NEW good books. I may have missed it somewhere in the last three pages but I don't think I've seen any NEW books listed. I don't have any to recommend but I too would be interested in hearing about any NEW books or NEW authors that you like.

This is a bad post.

[Barbikes]

Its rained all week and its suppose to rain the rest of the week where I live. Anybody know of any new good books to read?

Wow! Talk about thread drift! Did anyone else notice that MonsterX12 said he was interested in NEW good books. I may have missed it somewhere in the last three pages but I don't think I've seen any NEW books listed. I don't have any to recommend but I too would be interested in hearing about any NEW books or NEW authors that you like.

This is a bad post.

Maybe I misinterpreted MonsterX12's intent. There is already a thread "fascinating books to read" or something like that. When I saw the title to this post I assumed it would be about NEW books as in books that have been published in the last year. So I was disappointed that no one seems to be discussing new books here. Not that this is an uninteresting thread and definitely worth reading but it seems totally similar to the already existing thread.

[JohnnyB]

I just finished Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist.
Enjoyable, but seemed like a bit of the feeling was lost in translation.

[Frank Delicious]

Maybe I misinterpreted MonsterX12's intent. There is already a thread "fascinating books to read" or something like that. When I saw the title to this post I assumed it would be about NEW books as in books that have been published in the last year. So I was disappointed that no one seems to be discussing new books here. Not that this is an uninteresting thread and definitely worth reading but it seems totally similar to the already existing thread.

You seem pretty worked up about the word new, what is the definition of new in this context? Newly published, new to him, new to me? Anyway using the amazing power of google here are some lists of books published in 2009. Go hog wild.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/popular_by_date/2009

http://www.booklistonline.com/default.a ... id=3343643

[Roy]

Maybe I misinterpreted MonsterX12's intent. There is already a thread "fascinating books to read" or something like that. When I saw the title to this post I assumed it would be about NEW books as in books that have been published in the last year. So I was disappointed that no one seems to be discussing new books here. Not that this is an uninteresting thread and definitely worth reading but it seems totally similar to the already existing thread.

You seem pretty worked up about the word new, what is the definition of new in this context? Newly published, new to him, new to me? Anyway using the amazing power of google here are some lists of books published in 2009. Go hog wild.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/popular_by_date/2009

http://www.booklistonline.com/default.a ... id=3343643

Classy as always

I googled "books new to Frank"... nothing came up. Amazing power of google my ass.

[Frank Delicious]

Classy as always

I googled "books new to Frank"... nothing came up. Amazing power of google my ass.

thanks bro, I always thought my google fu was strong.

[Jesse B 707]

blah.....should have Bing'd it.......its NEW!

[maks]

read "I hope they surve beer in hell" by Tucker Max.....it made me LOL

[some call me...tim?]

In terms of recent books, I listened to Carl Hiaasen's "The Downhill Lie" not too long ago. If you like Hiaasen and have any appreciation of/experience with golf (disc golf counts), it's pretty f-in hilarious. Unlike his other stuff, this is non-fiction, and basically a diary of his struggles in returning to the game after taking 30 years off. Anybody who has felt not-so-great about their golf game can totally relate and sympathize. If you can get your hands on a copy of the audiobook (I can point you in the right direction), I'd recommend that, as Hiaasen reads it himself and it just adds to the experience.

[kaht]

Who says the Wheel of Time isn't going to end? The entire series is scheduled to be wrapped up in November 2011, 14 books in all. The most recent book (released about 3 weeks ago), was co-written by Brandon Sanderson. My wife is a big fan of his other work - Elantris is a standalone novel if you prefer stories that aren't drawn out. Personally, I usually suggest the Assassin Trilogy by Robin Hobb if someone asks me for a fantasy recommendation. If you insist on reading a book with a happy ending then you might wanna skip over it.