This has always been my problem too. The first couple books in that series are damn near unreadable for me. Consequently, I've never read it.
The first two books read a lot different in tone than than the rest of the series. I think it really starts hitting its groove in book 3. Sirius has escaped from Azkaban, you've got Dementor's roaming Hogwarts, and the tone seems so much more mature. Of course, you've also got the bloody time rewind device (major pet peeve), but this is where she should start. You could explain the first two books in a few sentences, and she's not really going to miss that much.
I just finished my audio book 're-read' of Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon. WOW....The details you catch on a re-read- so many little nuggets of information that you miss just jumping in to that book on the first read. I've never had such a satisfying second read. The whole series is a highly recommend re-read. I'm going to start Deadhouse Gates today. I took two history classes (Ancient Greece and WWII) this semester which required a total of five books. The Greece class has a generic, dull textbook, so I don't consider it a good read. However, the four WWII books are -very- good so I'll list them here: A Short History of WWII by James Stokesbury - I would recommend this to anyone who wants to know the details of WWII. It's an easy, entertaining read. Russia's War by Richard Overy - Details the USSR side of WWII. Fascinating read. Why the Allies Won by Richard Overy - Good Allies side read. The American People in WWII by David M. Kennedy. This is actually part two of the Pulitzer Prize winner, Freedom From Fear. It's a US-centric view of WWII. I think it's fair to say that the series will get finished somehow. GRRM's partner, Paris (a lady, they just aren't married), knows all of the details, and the characters are fleshed out enough that another author could finish the series ala Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series (which could have been 8 books, IMO....).
I had to take a few weeks from reading after my 17 month old son kicked me in the eye. Who knew your iris can get infected? At the urging of a friend, I picked up the Death Gate Cycle by Weis and Hickman. I loved the Dragon Lance series (first 6 only) when I was in middle school, but I hated the Dark Sword Trilogy and quit the authors after that. I should have stuck with my impression. I slogged through the first book, but I quit in the middle of the second. Having Fizban from Dragon Lance show up was just too corny. The writing is sloppy, and the plots were formulaic. I wanted to learn more about the central character Haplo, but he's absent too often from the current POV. The secondary characters were pretty weak. So I'm moving on to another fantasy series. It's finally time to tackle Steven Erikson. I've got the first 9 books and am looking forward to reading them straight through to book 10, which comes out March 1. I'm only 40 pages into Gardens of the Moon, but I can already feel this is going to be an epic read.
Weis and Hickman write intro to fantasy, IMO. Good stuff for younger teenagers after Harry Potter. I stuck it out through the entire Death Gate series. The first four books establish the characters, worlds, etc. The last three are the 'meat' of the series. It's been a loooong time since I read them, but they're nothing to write home about, so I wouldn't go back to it if you're not impressed (it's not as bad as Goodkind, at least). For the Erikson books, I would suggest not trying too hard to connect all of the dots. I'd say it's impossible unless you have a photographic memory. He drops names in passing in book one that don't show up until several books later. It's a series that demands a re-read for the academic enjoyment of it all. I'm doing book two in audio, and it never ceases to amaze me at how much the entire series is planned out and how much knowledge he has of his world and characters.
I'm re-reading MBOTF, I'm loving the series much better than any other Fantasy series I've read (Wheel of time and song of fire and ice were also great). It is the only books I have ever re-read. It is amazing. And I'm enjoying it very much, there are so many hints in the earlier books about what is coming etc. Just amazing. Gardens of the moon can sometimes be a little dificult. but like Xerobull said do not worry if you cannot connect all the dots, nobody can. I just bought Stonewielder, But i'm going to read that just before the Crippled God comes out. I'm less impressed with Esslemont (especially Night of Knives wasn't that impressive) But still it is nice to read more of the world (The return of the crimson guard was nice). Deathhouse gate was the second series I ever read, and I loved it. I hadn't read Dragon lance before hand So I loved Zifnab.
I finished Red Seas Under Red Skies, and I gotta say that I ended up enjoying it just as much as Lies of Locke Lamora. I'm loving this series and can't wait for the 3rd book.
I've got Feb 17 circled on my calendar. The first three months are huge for fantasy series: Erikson, Lynch, Rothfuss, Abercrombie, Martin. Just kidding on that last one...
I was under the impression Memory was still set for November but if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Towers of Midnight was pretty good so I'm looking forward to this ending finally.
I pulled that from wikipedia, which could be wrong. I imagine they'll spend even more time than usual editing and polishing it since this is the final chapter. I plan to read the whole series about 2 months before the final book comes out. I quit after book 8 or 9 and am excited to read the whole thing start to finish and see how it all ends.
I'd have to say it's pretty epic, but there are a few annoying aspects as well - some worse than others. YMMV. I'm hooked anyway.
Just finished a history book called The Commissar Vanishes published by an historian who has a large and envied library of photographs from Stalin's USSR. He demonstrates how photographic manipulation was used for propaganda. He shows before and after shots of photos of groups of leaders where important players who fell into disfavor or executed in the Purges are erased from history. It'd be funny if it wasn't so chilling.
I finished Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson last night. I've been looking forward to reading the Malazan Book of the Fallen series for a while, and I had some pretty high expectations before tackling the opening novel. One book down, and I'm damn impressed. A number of others have mentioned that you are thrown into an elaborate world without much explanation, and that was spot on correct. For the first 100 pages, I made mental notes about people or places that I was looking forward to learning more about. Eventually you realized that the story is just too damn epic. I had bookmarks on the character guide at the beginning and glossary at the end of the book and referenced them quite often. Despite the at times confusing, massive scope of Erikson, this novel was a lot of fun. The story blended together dozens of characters and plotlines and wove them into an epic tale that came to a satisfactory end. There is clearly a ton of story left, and I was fine with that. This novel ended definitively enough for its tale that I didn't feel I was left hanging. I love the idea of luck as a concept, and the Oponn storylines were manna for me. I polished off 100 pages of the second book, Deadhouse Gates, last night as well. I knew that it shifted away from a lot of the central characters of the last book, but I'm just as hooked. So far this series is like crack. It's going to a be a fun 10,000+ page read. Like Xerobull has stated, I'm looking forward to somewhere down the line rereading this epic yarn with the advantage of knowing what the hell is going on with all the different races, magic warrens, gods, elder gods, etc.
Man, you devoured Gardens. These books are tomes. I'm almost done with my re 'read' of Deadhouse Gates via audiobook. It's slow going since I only have time for it when I drive. I had forgotten that it's one of my favorite books in the series, and it introduces you to some awesome characters and concepts. There are some really good maps here, if you like that sort of thing. Might be some spoilers.
Really? I've had the book on one of my shelves for a long time and have tried twice to read it. Couldn't make it past the first couple of chapters, and I loved Lies. Heck, I even read the complete Patrick O'Brian series again (for the 3rd or 4th time... could have been the 5th and probably was), rather that delve back into that. Maybe I'll try to slog through it again. Speaking of shelves, I've got about a thousand books sitting on mine, the majority hardcovers. There are probably an equal numbers in storage, with the majority of those paperbacks. What made me think of this was a visit with my sister, who's a romance writer. She recently got a Kindle and we had an interesting conversation about what will happen to books, her having an obvious interest in the subject as her novels are getting into the digital media. She thinks the majority of works will eventually become digital, but that there will always be people like us who prefer the feel of the book in their hands. The publishing industry is in a state of flux now, yet another medium affected by the technology that's given us the internet and all the good things, and bad, that have come with both it and the attendant technologies. Pretty trippy to think about.
Yeah I think you need just fight through the first few chapters. You can see from my earlier response in this thread that I also found Red Seas slow going at first, but it really got going and sucked me in after a while. I listened to the audiobook though, which was a new experience for me but I felt really added to my interest in the characters. I'll probably do the same for the 3rd book when it comes out. A couple days ago I ordered The Art of Racing in the Rain as well as Halting State from Amazon. I'm a sucker for a feel good dog book and someone had recommended Art of Racing in the Rain earlier in this thread, so I'm looking forward to it. I grabbed Halting State because it sounds like a cyber thriller in the same vein of Daemon.
I love dogs and had one almost human beast for 12 years that I've written about here often enough. This might interest me, so let us know how you like it. I'm sure you've read Watchers, by Dean Koontz, which remains one of my all time favorite novels involving dogs. If you haven't, you're in for a treat.
I've never read it, will for sure check it out though. Earlier this year I read Merle's Door , and that was awesome. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone that is a dog lover.
