EPTWhat Are You Reading 2018 - Page 5
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Flicky
England2668 Posts
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The_Red_Viper
19533 Posts
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CosmicSpiral
United States15275 Posts
On February 12 2018 02:00 Silvanel wrote: Blood Meridan is by far the best book by McCarthy (out of those i have read, about 7-8 including The Road) in my opinion. I'd say The Orchard Keeper is his best written work and his novels past that are slowly dragged down by the steadily plodding, pseudo-Biblical prose that leads to unintentional bathos. | ||
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Silvanel
Poland4736 Posts
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Carnivorous Sheep
Baa?21244 Posts
On February 11 2018 01:07 imgbaby wrote: I have to respectfully disagree with your analysis of "Never Let Me Go." This work has many puzzling qualities + Show Spoiler + Why did the children never leave Hailsham? Well for starters they don't believe they are human which is clear enough, but what are the obstacles keeping them from believing this? Riddle me that. Those are just plot issues and can be answered fairly straightforwardly. As in, they're children, and children tend not to be particularly proactive in exploring existential questions. And I alluded to this earlier, but as part of Ishiguro's attempt to separate his works from realism, he did in fact go deliberately toward sci-fi and fantasy. However, as his first genre fiction-veneer work, NLMG was definitely amateurish. It has traits and cliches and elements of sci-fi but it's not really a true sci-fi novel, so it has some problesm with motivations and assumptions and "worldbuilding," because that's not the focus. I think it's less puzzling as it is simply indicative of a less mature work. | ||
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CosmicSpiral
United States15275 Posts
On February 12 2018 17:51 Silvanel wrote: The Orchard Keeper was very weird, a little bit short for my taste. Also i liked the theme and story much more in Blood Meridian. By written I meant prose style. There's a little too much imitation of Faulkner and O'Connor in it, and McCarthy only finds his real muses in later works. However, I find his writing very strong in The Orchard Keeper: descriptive but terse, evocative without pointless meandering (unlike the deliberate meandering of say, Henry James). Then it slowly morphs into a macabre caricature of Raymond Carver with a lot of bad syntax. However, it should be obvious I'm not a fan of the E.B. White School of Functional Writing. It tends to kill the aesthetic pleasure of writing and limit the expressive power. | ||
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goody153
44236 Posts
![[image loading]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386924265i/45110._UX75_.jpg) I've read halfway of assassins apprentice before (though I stopped in favor of reading travelers gate trilogy cause I craved for fantasy combat that time and I learned that that series didn't have much of it) so now I took another shot of reading her work( soldiers son trilogy). As expected she makes the perspective of a child actually exciting as she did with her other series. Her characterization from shammans crossing is still superb ( It seems like shes the best fantasy author when it comes to it). The book was mostly good also had incredibly infruating parts where she portrays the act of dehumanization and how she managed to make the protagonist being a ignorant society sheep quite believable. I did not like the conclusion of this book though it really didn't create any hype at all for next book even though this is a trilogy. Still though it still hooked enough to be motivated to continually read the trilogy | ||
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{CC}StealthBlue
United States41117 Posts
![[image loading]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51sK9f7LJeL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) ![[image loading]](https://images.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9780525557302) | ||
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Acrofales
Spain18146 Posts
On February 14 2018 20:40 goody153 wrote: Just finished the 1st book of the soldiers son trilogy. I've read halfway of assassins apprentice before (though I stopped in favor of reading travelers gate trilogy cause I craved for fantasy combat that time and I learned that that series didn't have much of it) so now I took another shot of reading her work( soldiers son trilogy). As expected she makes the perspective of a child actually exciting as she did with her other series. Her characterization from shammans crossing is still superb ( It seems like shes the best fantasy author when it comes to it). The book was mostly good also had incredibly infruating parts where she portrays the act of dehumanization and how she managed to make the protagonist being a ignorant society sheep quite believable. I did not like the conclusion of this book though it really didn't create any hype at all for next book even though this is a trilogy. Still though it still hooked enough to be motivated to continually read the trilogy Agree with your assessment. I found book 2 barely readable, btw. Book 3 is better, but not great. Real shame she couldn't keep it as interesting as the first 3/4 of the first book. In general, I find that (by far) the worst of her trilogies. The Farseer Trilogy and the Liveship Trilogy are far far superior. I suggest you read those. Tawny Man Trilogy is also good, but I haven't gotten through the last one yet. The first book seemed rather repetitive: there doesn't seem to be much she can still tell about Fitz, but she insists on dragging him out of retirement (again). I did enjoy the less formally structured Rain Wild Chronicles, although the first book is really slow (really really slow). | ||
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goody153
44236 Posts
On February 14 2018 22:38 Acrofales wrote: Agree with your assessment. I found book 2 barely readable, btw. Book 3 is better, but not great. Real shame she couldn't keep it as interesting as the first 3/4 of the first book. In general, I find that (by far) the worst of her trilogies. The Farseer Trilogy and the Liveship Trilogy are far far superior. I suggest you read those. Tawny Man Trilogy is also good, but I haven't gotten through the last one yet. The first book seemed rather repetitive: there doesn't seem to be much she can still tell about Fitz, but she insists on dragging him out of retirement (again). I did enjoy the less formally structured Rain Wild Chronicles, although the first book is really slow (really really slow). Which one has more fighting farseer or liveship ? I just prefer fantasy series with more combat(I'm aware that robin hobb doesn't have much combat in her books) Too bad book 2 might be terrible for me but I'll still give it a shot. Seems like farseer is probably her work that receives th most attention | ||
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IgnE
United States7681 Posts
On February 12 2018 00:42 farvacola wrote: Blood Meridian is way better imo; the most draining part of The Road is its lack of coherent phrasing and poor attempt at matching rhetoric with set and setting. It reminds me of how disappointing the intellectually disabled part of The Sound and the Fury was when I first read it. have you read dostoyevsky's The Idiot? | ||
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farvacola
United States18840 Posts
Oddly enough, that was one of the first "high literature" books I ever read (it's one of my mother's favorite books) and I have a special fondness for it. | ||
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The_Red_Viper
19533 Posts
There is no compromise in this book, other stories with similar concepts don't go the full way to realize their setting, this one definitely does exactly that and tells a very touching story of a father and his son in the process. Excited for McCarthy's other books now. | ||
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imgbaby
158 Posts
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Atreides
United States2393 Posts
On February 17 2018 06:34 farvacola wrote: Oddly enough, that was one of the first "high literature" books I ever read (it's one of my mother's favorite books) and I have a special fondness for it. Interesting. I had a very, very hard time finishing "The Idiot" in comparison to the other dostoevsky's and prefer some of the other russian classic authors in general. In particular I preferred both major Tolstoy novels to any of dostoevsky's although they aren't really directly comparable. I haven't read much of that sort of literature for quite some time though. And some of this other discussion about books/author's I haven't read is interesting to me. As to Robin Hobb, I've only read Assassin's and Liveship trilogies, and neither has any "first person combat" type stuff to speak of. To be honest, if that is what you really want I guess I'd recommend R. A. Salvatore or something. The books aren't very "good" overall but their strongest facet BY FAR is the personal combat in my opinion. I re-read the first three Drizzt books this winter and enjoyed enough to consider trying to track down the rest which I have not read since high school although I remember the first 3 being kind of the best of them so I dunno. My own reading in last two weeks. + Show Spoiler + Garbage stuff, I reread first two of Sanderson's Stormlight Archives then read Oathrbinger they are standard Sanderson ofc, not my favourite fantasy but he is definitely the best of modern "feel good fantasy", Reading To Have and Have Not by Hemingway. I REALLY like Hemingway and have been spacing the last couple books of his I havent read out. Only reading one every 2 years or so because the notion of having no more Hemingway's to read is very sad to me. | ||
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farvacola
United States18840 Posts
Edit: Also shout out to Cheep, Hermann Hesse has a really cool short essay on The Idiot one can find here. | ||
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imgbaby
158 Posts
On February 17 2018 23:55 farvacola wrote: The Idiot is definitely something of an acquired taste, a taste I happened to acquire pretty early on in life :D Edit: Also shout out to Cheep, Hermann Hesse has a really cool short essay on The Idiot one can find here. fascinating, nay---moving. Hesse sure is a special writer. I remember reading steppenwolf for the second time after reading narcissus and goldmund and just getting it. | ||
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Jerubaal
United States7684 Posts
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Silvanel
Poland4736 Posts
![[image loading]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51LjFRbB4DL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) The world is interesting - somwhere halfway between our world and total apocalypse (Bacigalupi standard i guess). This time the World is dominated by genetic/crop controlling corporations Monsanto style. With genetic engineering going out of control, humanity on verge of extinction from lack of food or mutated diseases and geneticaly modified animals/plants. Plot is ok i guess but in standard Bacigalupi fasion is like slice of the world. Nothing is finalized, it just some events and the history goes on. I liked middle part the most. Ddidnt like the ending at all. 6/10 to 7/10. | ||
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Mun_Su
France2063 Posts
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