I haven't been able to get into the Fables series yet. Every time I try, I just stop in place. However, I don't know that I've ever gotten as far as issue six, so maybe I'll reboot and start all over again. The series is highly thought of, and I enjoy stuff the contributors have done on other titles.
Something to be aware of, there's some spin-off series, and apparently somewhere around issue #40 of Fables, there's a series of cross-over issues with those spin-offs, and if you haven't been reading the spin-offs from the beginning, you're kinda screwed as far as the plot goes. I can't remember the details, just hearing my friend rant angrily about the whole thing. Something worth researching, though.
@jonah, crossovers you say? Crossovers that interrupt the main plotting? ::sigh:: I read comics in fits and starts that anything without at least a semblance of linearity will devolve into a tangle in my mind quite quickly. Maybe someone has done me a solid and made a wiki for the series.
So, I'm about 1/3 of the way into A Feast for Crows, and I can see the issues people have with it. It's still very good, but it feels like a completely different story from the first three. The focus on so many new characters is jarring.
FYI - I'm on Goodreads now, if you want to be my friend.
The Springsteen book turned out to be quite good in terms of providing lots of insightful ideas about many of the songs, many specific shows, and all the albums, with connections to his life and development as an artist. With 43 pages of notes it was certainly well researched, and it wasted very little time on gossip. Those pluses may have had something to do with what might seem like a drawback, though. I don't think he had any access at all to first person sources. None with band members, family, even roadies, much less Bruce himself.
I just started this this morning, but it seems good so far. The reader reviews on Amazon are spread out over an unusually wide range, but positive ones predominate.
I'm 118 pages into Knife Of Dreams, Book Eleven of The Wheel Of Time series - yes, I know, I called it that "accursed" series above - but, dammit, the opening parts were good here, so I'm hoping it doesn't start wandering about like some of the preceding volumes - there's only a few volumes left to find out if The Last Battle is happening or not.
Eventually want to read my laundry room book exchange copy of the third Bourne book - am expecting it will have almost nothing to do with the third Bourne movie, just like the two previous, which was quite a surprise when I read those - I suppose because the books were written like 2 decades or more before the movies were done. First book had a guy named Jason Bourne whose an operative with amnesia, and there's a woman named Marie, and I think that was about all it had in common with the movie which I had already seen - that actually was kind of cool.
I've been meaning to get some comics for years and years - this seemed like a good place to start. It's very good so far. On deck is book one of The Sandman.
I just started A Feast for Crows. After being stuck waiting a couple weeks ago I loaded my current book and the next one in the queue on my BlackBerry. I read a chapter or two of A Storm of Swords on it.
Currently:
Oh so exciting... Actually, it's very informative and I'm learning quite a bit. But maybe week this I'll get to start in on this when it arrives:
I need a rec. Heading to the in-laws for a long weekend and once I finish A Feast for Crows in the next couple of days I won't have any unread books in my possession. As the books on my short to read list don't quite fit the bill for a weekend of lounging around with my wife's family, I could use a rec. I'm thinking some experimental fiction that would likely be available from my library without a wait list. I love post apocalyptic stuff, but that's far from a requirement.
Are you using any electronic reading devices? If so check out these collective commons books from Small Beer Press. I've read four out of five and loved them all, especially the Kelly Link.
Also here's 11 chapters free of Drowned Cities - which is being touted as a new Hunger Games. I was all happy because I thought the book was free - turns out it's just a sample.
No e-reader yet. Would make things easier if I was, though. Just went through this thread and saw a ton of good options (I've never read any Philip K. Dick or David Foster Wallace), but they all seem to be checked out of the library.
ETA: Wallace's The Broom of the System is available. Anyone read that one?
Craig, are you familiar with Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun? That is one of the most prodigious and challenging works in all of science fiction, and qualifies as experimental (see, e.g., this comment).
I second the Wolfe recommendation - I read the series quite recently. It took me a little while at first to get completely into it - I found in the early going that the narrative/stylistic strategy of the reader seeing the world through Severian's prose had a distancing effect, sacrificing some early immediacy/identification - but the payoff in the end is huge, and by the time I got to the end I wanted to start over.
Comments
I haven't been able to get into the Fables series yet. Every time I try, I just stop in place. However, I don't know that I've ever gotten as far as issue six, so maybe I'll reboot and start all over again. The series is highly thought of, and I enjoy stuff the contributors have done on other titles.
Something to be aware of, there's some spin-off series, and apparently somewhere around issue #40 of Fables, there's a series of cross-over issues with those spin-offs, and if you haven't been reading the spin-offs from the beginning, you're kinda screwed as far as the plot goes. I can't remember the details, just hearing my friend rant angrily about the whole thing. Something worth researching, though.
Cheers.
FYI - I'm on Goodreads now, if you want to be my friend.
Craig
I just started this this morning, but it seems good so far. The reader reviews on Amazon are spread out over an unusually wide range, but positive ones predominate.
Eventually want to read my laundry room book exchange copy of the third Bourne book - am expecting it will have almost nothing to do with the third Bourne movie, just like the two previous, which was quite a surprise when I read those - I suppose because the books were written like 2 decades or more before the movies were done. First book had a guy named Jason Bourne whose an operative with amnesia, and there's a woman named Marie, and I think that was about all it had in common with the movie which I had already seen - that actually was kind of cool.
I've been meaning to get some comics for years and years - this seemed like a good place to start. It's very good so far. On deck is book one of The Sandman.
Oh so exciting... Actually, it's very informative and I'm learning quite a bit. But maybe week this I'll get to start in on this when it arrives:
First Jo Nesbo book that I have read that is not a Harry Hole detective story. Good so far if you like Scandanavian crime fiction.
Ideas?
Craig
Also here's 11 chapters free of Drowned Cities - which is being touted as a new Hunger Games. I was all happy because I thought the book was free - turns out it's just a sample.
ETA: Wallace's The Broom of the System is available. Anyone read that one?
Craig
Just edited my last post.
Craig
Craig
But get Elwood's too, or something else; Virtual Light goes by pretty quickly.
I think I'll grab Virtual Light and that Wallace. Those will certainly get me through to my next book shop trip.
Thanks guys!
Craig
Also, see commentaries by Peter Wright and Neil Gaiman.
Craig