thefirstbardo
There ain't no such thing as leftover crack
Posts: 7,968
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Post by thefirstbardo on Apr 28, 2010 19:06:19 GMT -5
" China Miéville Becomes The First Three-Time Arthur C. Clarke Award WinnerChina Miéville's foray into crime fiction, The City And The City, has already paid off handsomely. It's garnered the British Science Fiction Association's "best novel" prize, a Nebula nomination... and now, his third Arthur C. Clarke Award. According to the Guardian: Miéville pronounced himself "absolutely gobsmacked" and "incredibly honoured" to win the Arthur C Clarke, an award originally established by Clarke himself to help promote science fiction in Britain. "It's very different from most of my other books," said Miéville, who has previously won the Arthur C Clarke with more traditional fantasy novels Perdido Street Station and Iron Council. "It was very much written in an effort to be absolutely faithful to works of crime fiction. Crime readers will denounce a book because it has 'cheated,' and I wanted to write a book that didn't cheat, that was faithful to crime rules and that if you'd never read any fantasy you could pick up." io9.com/5526775/china-mieville-becomes-the-first-three+time-arthur-c-clarke-award-winner |
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Post by FullFrontalBuddha on Apr 29, 2010 7:39:18 GMT -5
I have The Road on my kaboodle list. I just finished Rise To Rebellion by Jeff Shaara- part 1 of his american revolution 2 parter. I have the second one but can't for the life of me find it now. So I am going to either start his WWII trilogy just recently finished up- amal's dad sent them to me- or start Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series which I just got the 1st and 3rd books from amazon a couple of week ago. I picked up volumes 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 from various yard sales. I also got Riddley Walker at a flea market for 25 cents. it's a larger paperback copy from the early 80s, not long after the novel was published. heard great things about it and can't wait to read it. I am a huge fan of post-apocalyptic stories and films. I got the first Sword of Truth book as a present, then went on to buy the subsequent books in a couple of those little boxed-set deals (3 books grouped or whatever) and while there is some halfway decent storytelling, for the most part I found the characters annoying, the plot tiresome and overall, the series an unsatisfying waste of time. I mean, look at this pompous douchebag. I want to hit him with a brick.  |
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Post by Mink - The Original on Apr 29, 2010 8:24:31 GMT -5
My issue with The Sword of Truth series, and I think I've had this discussion with Moy previously, is that it becomes quite repetitive. In addition, the first part of the stories are filled with detail and much better written than the last parts where it seems like he's decided, "hey, I've written 500 pages of good stuff, but now I've got to finish everything in the next 75 pages" so the finales typically seem rushed and slapped together. But, at this point I've invested too much time in the previous books that when new ones come out I still read them and then kick myself for doing so. However, The Sword of Truth books did lead to The Legend of the Seeker tv show, which means we get to see...  |
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Smaug
My breath, death!
Posts: 19,004
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Post by Smaug on Apr 29, 2010 8:35:59 GMT -5
That's Terry Goodkind? He looks like a total douche... in the vein of that Coach a-hole from Survivor. Why can't he look more like this guy? BTW, this links to an excerpt from the next Song of Ice and Fire book, A Dance With Dragons. www.georgerrmartin.com/if-sample.htmlWhen, oh when, will Dance With Dragons be out?  He's still pumping out the manuscript- something like 1300 pages now. |
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Smaug
My breath, death!
Posts: 19,004
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Post by Smaug on Apr 29, 2010 8:37:17 GMT -5
I still need to watch that show, but want to after I read the first couple of books.
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Post by Mink - The Original on Apr 29, 2010 8:47:35 GMT -5
The tv show is very loosely based upon the books...read the first one and then you can watch the show if you're trying not to be spoiled.
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Smaug
My breath, death!
Posts: 19,004
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Post by Smaug on Apr 29, 2010 8:53:22 GMT -5
Yeah, that's basically it. I like reading the books first and then seeing the films. Aside from not being spoiled, I prefer to enter those stories by the written word first because it makes the experience richer, IMO. I like to create an idea of what the characters and the world looks in my mind first before having them pigeonholed by hollywood.
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Post by FullFrontalBuddha on Apr 29, 2010 8:55:59 GMT -5
The show is basically Hercules meets Xena without a sense of humor, and it's only loosely based on the books, since Goodkind said that a lot of the original storyline doesn't work episodically. But I admit that Tabrett Bethell in leather certainly doesn't upset me.
I'm waiting (like everyone else) for Dance with Dragons and the next installment of Stephen R. Donaldson's Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
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Post by Mink - The Original on Apr 29, 2010 8:58:38 GMT -5
Yeah, that's basically it. I like reading the books first and then seeing the films. Aside from not being spoiled, I prefer to enter those stories by the written word first because it makes the experience richer, IMO. I like to create an idea of what the characters and the world looks in my mind first before having them pigeonholed by hollywood. But in this case, if you've read more than the first book you'll get mad at the out of character stuff that they do instead, lol. |
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Smaug
My breath, death!
Posts: 19,004
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Post by Smaug on Apr 29, 2010 9:00:18 GMT -5
No sense of humor? Sounds dull. Eye candy, even in sci-fi, is meaningless to me if the show sucks.
I never read SRD's Thomas Covenant books. Don't know why, since I was a huge fantasy fan in the 80s.
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He's still pumping out the manuscript- something like 1300 pages now.