I read all the Fool/Tawny Man series by Hobb. I loved those books. I haven't read the Liveship series though. I've heard their good, and I know there are some things that tie in together. I suppose eventually I will have to read them.
thats the same dude that did lonesome dove right, thats all i have ever read by him? ill have to check these your talking about. that is one my top 10 favorite movies also.
Lonesome Dove was Larry McMurtry. I just read Lonsome Dove last summer. I thought about it a bit when I was reading Blood Meridian. Blood Meridian is just way more violent, and has almost no sympathetic characters in it. It's loosely based on a real gang of people in 1849 - 1850. I do love Lonesome Dove, and the mini-series is quite faithful to the book. I don't know if they can ever make a movie out of Blood Meridian. I can recommend Cormac McCarthy books I've read, but just be prepared.
McMurtry is certainly a brilliant writer. I consider Lonesome Dove quite possibly the finest Western ever written. Something like 7-800 pages, yet when it ended, you were like, "NO!! There's got to be another couple of hundred pages left!" The series was pretty faithful, but as good as it was, it couldn't touch the novel. Another of his I really liked (there are so many!) that's more contemporary is Cadillac Jack. Anyone here read Stephan R. Donaldson's Lord Foul's Bane? Bane is a rather dark fantasy that's difficult to describe, but well worth reading. The main character is from "the present day" and gets transported to another world/reality/some damn place! Once you get into it, you won't be able to put it down. My wife enjoys fantasy and a lot of other genres, but doesn't read nearly as much as I do, and picks her spots, so to speak. She really liked it.
I read and kind of enjoyed the Thomas Covenant series (Lord Foul's Bane, etc.), but I've only read the first book of the the current series (the third series is four books. I think two are out). I'll probably get around to reading the whole thing when it's complete. Another dark Donaldson series is the Gap series. The first book starts out slow, but it evolves into the best sci fi series I've read. It's dark as hell though and filled with a lot of very bad people. Donaldson really outdid himself with the plot of that series. My favorite Donaldson series is Mordant's Need (The Mirror of Her Dreams; A Man Rides through). It's a kind of medievil fantasy series with some really cool plotlines and characters. This particular series is one of my favorite fantasy series of all time. My wife and sister both read and loved them as well, and they're not into fantasy. The Fool is in the Liveship trilogy, and I think a bunch of the characters show up in the Tawny Man trilogy. I liked it better than the Farseer trilogy, which I enjoyed quite a bit.
My favorite Donaldson novel was Bane. I read the first couple in that series that came after it, but that's all of his that I've attempted. Not sure why, but there you go. What you said about the Gap series being the best SF you've ever read is high praise, as I've read several SF series that I consider superb. I'll have to check it out.
oops ok. well ive only read the road by him. and ill say again ill check blood meridian out haha :grin:
Thanks, I plan on reading it, once I get through Cities of the Plain. I've heard good things about it.
Recent reads: Girl w/ Dragon Tattoo Girl who played with Fire Girl who kicked Hornets Nest Excellent series!!!! I'm hoping they do something with that rumored 4th book. What a terrible loss to the literary world The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon ~ A magical bittersweet story. The Help ~ Loved it. I can't wait to see this as a movie. A Reliable Wife ~ Decent but hated the ending. Reading Now: The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard
I don't have the focus to read one book at the time so I'm currently on three. Two are classics that I've been meaning to read for a long time, Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" and Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead". The third book, I was in the library yesterday and came across in the Sports section: I'm on the second chapter of this and it's quite interesting, although I don't believe most of it.
If you liked the first Thomas Convenant trilogy (starting with Lord Foul's Bane), you'd like the second one as well. It takes place a decade or so after the first on our planet, but 4000 or so years have passed in the Land. Everything there is familiar but warped from the first series. I'm planning on reading all 3 series straight through when the fourth book of the Last Thomas Convenant series comes out in 2013. Keep in mind I haven't read a ton of sci fi. I've read my Phillip K Dick as well as some contemporary authors, but I usually don't care for the genre because it can get gimmicky and is frequently filled with poorly designed characters and formulaic plots. I liked the Gap series because Donaldson brought his formidable writing skills to the task and created a very intricate plot with some shady but well fleshed out characters. He said he wanted to write a sci fi piece based on Wagner's Ring Cycle. This isn't some dorked out sci fi series, but a really compelling story that happens to be set in a sci fi setting. What other SF series would recommend?
In no particular order... an old one, but a good one is Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. Another I loved was John Varley's Gaean Trilogy, of which Titan is the first. Of course, Frank Herbert's Dune series... the ones written by Frank, of which Dune is easily the best. Larry Niven's Ringworld series, Ringworld, like Dune and the others, I believe, winning every SF award on the planet. Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Series, which can be very funny, if you like humor, and is excellent SF. Orson Scott Card's Ender Series, of which Ender's Game is definitely the best, but the rest are excellent. Jack McDevitt's Academy Series, which starts with The Engines of God. Pretty mind blowing and highly entertaining. Walter Jon Williams wrote an excellent SF series, Dread Empire's Fall, that I really like. The Praxis is the first. All three novels are excellent, which is not always the case in a series. I'll stop with a series by Kage Baker, who was a great fantasy author, but uncorked a terrific SF series, Novels of The Company, of which In the Garden of Iden is the first. Those are some that I can think of.
Thank you Sir! I'm familiar with all of those, but only read Card's work. I have quite a few Lois McMaster Bujold books on my shelf that I've been meaning to read. I feel like I've chronically neglected reading Dune and Ringworld. Ditto for Asmiov's work. I'm adding these to my buy list and will keep an eye out for them while book hunting. Now I just have to manufacture enough time to read them as well as the hellishly long queue on my bookshelf.
I finished Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides last night and enjoyed it quite a bit. Eugenides has a great writing style, and this story was so much more entertaining than the dreary and morose Virgin Suicides. The subject matter was a bit odd. It dealt with the interesting but mundane matter of Greek family life overseas and for immigrants in America as well as life in Detroit (particularly the auto industry) over 3 generations. I found this a fascinating look into a culture that I have a passing acquaintance but not that much of a detailed familiarity with. And then there's the main character who is a hermaphrodite, raised a girl but later self-identifying as a man. I guess I hadn't really ever considered what a hermaphrodite would go through and how damn confusing that could make the already mysterious rite of puberty. I learned a great deal of medical fact about the condition and found the main character's journey through childhood and her teenage years fascinating. The story is told in first person perspective, and it helps that Eugenides tells the story through Cal\Calliope with such humor. There's also the story of Cal's parents and grandparents meeting and falling in love. Of course the grandparents were siblings, and the parents were third cousins. I like a love story and all, but the brother and sister hooking up was weird and uncomfortable. It was a bit of a plot device to show Cal wound up with a bucketful of recessive genes, but it was still an odd subject matter. I echo what others on ClutchFans have said in praising the book. I'm curious how our book club conversation will flow with the diverse subject matter. I really hope nobody cops to a family affair after after a few glasses of wine. I'm reading The Tawny Man trilogy by Robin Hobb next. This is her concluding trilogy in the Fitz\Fool saga, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how she ends this sucker. I read for a bit last night and was surprised at how quickly I had blown through 200 pages.
I wound up having a pretty good book club discussion about Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides last week. Since the family of the book was Greek and the book discussed food so much, we wound up having a Greek potluck dinner. It also doesn't hurt that the book club contains James Beard Award winning chefs and wine collectors. I was curious how the discussion would unfold since the book was contained some pretty odd elements, but it was a lively discussion and seemed to be a pretty good choice. I'm excited because we're reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak for our next meeting. It's one of the best books I've ever read, and I think it's a crime that this book is classified as young adult. I just finished up The Tawny Man trilogy by Robin Hobb and am sad to see this epic 9 book series come to an end. Fantasy readers, pick these books up if you haven't read them. This final trilogy picks back up with FitzChivalry, the main hero of the first trilogy. In all of fantasy, the only other character that has a rougher time than this guy is Harry Dresden, and I think Fitz is even more emotionally and physically beat up than Dresden. He essentially went into hiding and lived as a hermit while most thought he was dead for 15 years following the first trilogy. The series picks up with him reintegrating himself with his former life in stages. Once again Hobb has woven a rich story in this trilogy. The pace isn't hurried but doesn't bog down in too many details. There is action, political intrigue, and a great deal of exploration of the relationship between various characters and Fitz. In particular, the Fool (who shows up in all 9 books) and Fitz go through a great deal of work on their friendship. The concluding trilogy picks up storylines from the first 6 books and wraps them up pretty neatly. Even elements from the first 3 books I thought concluded get more detail and clarity by the end of the last book. I would have liked to see the characters from the second trilogy used more heavily. They had a few chapters but were otherwise absent. The Liveship Traders was definitely the best of the three trilogies. For something this epic (6600 pages), you want to finish with a sense of closure and contentment. I found myself nodding in satisfaction as I reluctantly read the last few words. While I'm looking forward to reading some other books, I am sad to leave these characters and their world behind. Good show, Ms. Hobb. This was some outstanding writing. I'm reading The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Zafon is the author of Shadow of the Wind, which is one of if not my favorite novel of all time. I've been waiting for Zafon's first four books to be translated for years. They're young adult books, but they've received outstanding reviews. According to the preface, they've been in legal limbo and are finally freed to be published in other languages. This is Zafon's first novel. Hopefully his trilogy will be translated and published here in the States soon.
