Finished the King of Thorns. I can't say I liked the back-and-forth format between past and present. It was more annoying than anything, especially with all the detours in the roadtrip. Overall while the setting is pretty neat, I can't help but feel the characters are lacking.
Spoiler:
In general most of, if not all, the characters just feel flat. It's still fun though. Miana was cute.
I finished Slaughterhouse Five recently. Should have started reading Vonnegut years ago.
I also just started A Canticle for Leibowitz. The writing style isn't exactly gripping, but I like the premise of post-apocalyptic missionaries enough to keep going.
Spoiler:
I read Red Sister recently by the guy who did the Prince of Thorns, I laughed Prince of Thorns right off my Kindle in about teo chapters, but Red Sister hit a nice spot.Originally Posted by Sesto
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Just finished the Idiot by Elif Batuman. Interesting narrative voice, but I think the book overstayed its welcome and I wasn't crazy about the ending. But then I get what the author was going for, so I can't critique either of those elements without missing the point.
Count of Monte Cristo.
Actually picked up the audiobook when the NA Prison Tower event came out, but haven't had the time to go through it fully.
dear god this man rambles
i did not know it was possible to ramble like this
why didn't his editor slap him out of it
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Like many 19th century novels, it was originally published in serial, so some of the rambling is quite possibly attributable to wanting to pad the number of installments.
naru hodo
FGO Supports
Finished Emperor of Thorns. Overall the books were a bit silly, but it was fun. The climax was really hype even if the final showdown was cliché. I don't regret reading it.
Thought about reading these but the protagonist sounded a bit insufferable. How much edge are we dealing with?
First book, an insane amount of edge. It's also the peak of his gary stuness as he's young and without a lot power, except apparently with enough edge you can bend the plot to your will anyway.
Second book, the edge is a bit dulled. He still pulls stuff out of his ass but he's not a total cunt like he is in the first.
Third book, he's basically just a pragmatic dickhead. He does become a bit likeable in certain areas but at the end of the day he's still a dick.
Overall I'd say it's worth checking out. The worldbuilding is cool. It's not the greatest series but it's still enjoyable.
I know this isn't a book recommendation, but what are some of the least favored/worst books you guys have ever read?
This serves as a future warning for me to probably stay away from them.
Last edited by SleepMode; March 31st, 2018 at 12:29 AM.
The Act of dozing off in the afternoon is a luxury indeed.
Coffee would be nice, though.
[Collection of my Servant Sheets]
Now Revamped!
the martian
ok, probably that's less objectively worse than mistakenly rated
Dan Simmons - Song of Kali. Really just appalling on every level.
かん汗ぎゅう牛じゅう充とう棟
Expresses the exceeding size of one's library.
Books are extremely many, loaded on an oxcart the ox will sweat.
At home piled to the ridgepole of the house, from this meaning.
Read out as 「Ushi ni ase shi, munagi ni mitsu.」
Source: 柳宗元「其為書，處則充棟宇，出則汗牛馬。」— Tang Dynasty
The Dinosaur Lords, definitely.
Ernest Cline's Armada
Increasingly arcane video game references+boring characters I can't seem to care about (the less said about the MC, the better)+fanfic tier prose=a not very pleasant reading experience.
I remember hating a book called the IX ages ago.
Terrible writing and hilarious bad history
I think I read that a while ago. Romans + 'murican cavalry + modern special ops guys team up to fight superdinosaur aliens throughout time or somesuch.
It was... vaguely entertaining not-much. Nothing special, nothing hilariously bad, the sort of thing you could expect from a mediocre Hollywood writer.
Maybe it's a me-thing, but personally, I'll just advise against reading anything you've seen called a classic, or generally lauded, with any real expectations in mind.
So many times, I've picked up what people have hyped up, and been so disappointed- Shakespeare for the writing, Tolkien for the fantasy, a bunch of works from ye olde whatevere. I liked the Martian, I thought Ready Player One would've been a good read if you'd cut out the entire first half of the book, the stupid MMO aspect and the constant 80s references from what I can only assume is someone who is literally the character he was writing- an 80's-obsessed hyper-ultra-mega-nerd who refuses to consume anything if it isn't from that era- but if I'd seen the popularity before I'd picked them up, I think they'd have been disappointing too.
FGO Supports
Lev Grossman's The Magicians was insufferable in a sense that the MC is an incel loser PoS and the story builds up to be his wish-fulfillment journey so I gave up one quarter in.
From what I've heard the series does try to critique the wish-fulfillment aspect later on. Ymmv how effectively this is done, obviously.
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