Rangerland Forum Information

[Bavoo]

Finished the Hunger Games Trilogy. I loved it, and at some point I'm going to end up reading them again. Catching Fire was the best out of the three.

Now I'm looking for something new that isn't that Fifty Shades of Smut. I read the first two chapters on amazon and it was terrible. So I'm torn so far in what to download today.

I started the sample of Game of Thrones Book 1. Any other suggestions, my friends?

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Loved this book. Kinda along the same lines as HGs, but much, much better. A lot more personal stories versus politics and rebellion. I mean, there's rebellion, but on a personal level. I just re-read that sentence.

Anyway.recommend!

[jkman61494]

You know, I am enjoying reading the Hunger Games, but I wouldn't let my kids get near that book until they were in their mid teen years. My 10 year old nephew is telling me everyone in that school is reading it and maybe it's just my slightly social conservative nature but I think that's wrong.

Kids that age don't need to be reading about children being contorted by a spear entering their stomach. They don't need to read about festering puss filled wounds. Brought up a conversation with my sister who told me about what Young Adult is.

Basically you could have the Game of Thrones story with its incest gore and sex end up right next to Louie the Leopard goes to High School if G.O.T only involved young adults.

Then again, since I had to sell Grand Theft Auto to an 8 year old because the parents didn't care, I guess parents these days just don't care what their kids see.

[jkman61494]

So to all those Game of Thrones fans.

Any other good fantasy series I can be reading? I want to wait for the Paperback for Book 5 so in the meanwhile I have some time to kill as that isn't released until almost September.

[the old mole]

So to all those Game of Thrones fans.

Any other good fantasy series I can be reading? I want to wait for the Paperback for Book 5 so in the meanwhile I have some time to kill as that isn't released until almost September.

Are you looking for stuff similar to Game of Thrones or just fantasy in general?

For fantasy in general, I recommend China Mieville's not-really-a-trilogy trilogy of Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Council. It shares with GoT the R-rated stuff but the world is a little more "steampunk" (rather than Medieval) and full of weird creatures. Most of the fantasy I like is love-it-or-hate-it stuff: The Etched City (like if some French Decadent wrote a fantasy novel), Viriconium (plotless and melancholy genre deconstruction), The Book of the New Sun (like if Nabokov wrote a science fiction novel but dressed it up as a fantasy novel), Xothique (Lovecraftian far-future science-fantasy by another author influenced by the Decadents).


Stuff similar to Game of Thrones:
George R.R. Martin has said that Tad Williams's "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" trilogy (The Dragonbone Chair, Stone of Farewell, and Green Angel Tower) is what inspired him to write a fantasy series, and I can see the similarities. Williams's protagonist begins the novel with all these romantic illusions about the world that are quickly shattered (though not as brutally as what happens to the Starks), and though the series is largely focused on him, by the third book you have this massive story with tons of viewpoint characters spread all over the continent. It's also fairly "low magic," like the world of GoT, though there are elves and shit.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by a guy whose name I forgot and can't be bothered to google right now (though I could have googled it in the time it took to write this sentence) is a good one. Humorous and witty but not comedic with a likable roguish hero. Not a million pages long, either.

Joe Abercrombie's "The First Law" trilogy is often recommended to people looking for more stuff like Game of Thrones. I read about half of the first book and thought it was pretty awful. Twilight-level prose. It just happens to have been a grim-n-gritty fantasy series that came out when people wanted grim-n-gritty fantasy series. The author's bio in the back of the book proudly proclaims, "This is his first published work," and it shows.

Malazan Book of the Fallen is another highly-recommended fantasy series of the last decade. There are about a dozen massive books in this series. I read some of the first one but just couldn't commit myself to getting through it. Wasn't bad, though. Really rich worldbuilding, lots of political intrigue.

Lois McMaster Bujold and Guy Gavriel Kay both do the low-magic, political intrigue, historical fantasy thing but without Martin's flair for the brutal.

[jkman61494]

Danke my good man

[xcdudesquadloves...]

I'm Reading RA Dickey's book. It's really good! Guy's lead such an interesting life, and being able to relate to part of it makes me enjoy his success more.

[Beamer]

Just finished Lev Grossman's The Magician and The Magician King.


Recommended.

[Kusand]

Just finished Lev Grossman's The Magician and The Magician King.


Recommended.

Loved both of those. I'm looking forward to the inevitable confirmed! third book.

This post has been edited by Kusand: Jun 18 2012, 10:31 PM

[Paul Smachetti]

I'm in the middle of Kostya Kennedy's "56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports."
I've enjoyed reading a couple of other books on DiMaggio and I like Kennedy's as much if not more than the others.

Edit: You get some insight into his family and his first marriage. I don't know how Kennedy was able to dredge up some of this stuff after all these years. These people have been dead for some time. Perhaps he was taking some license since it must've been difficult to research this.

This post has been edited by Paul Smachetti: Jun 25 2012, 12:13 PM

[Frankie5Angels]

Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett. (Discworld)

[Nilan 666]

EXCELLENT CHOICE.

[hoser]

Just finished Unbroken on the bus today. Holy shit, that was a crazy, crazy survival story of an American POW in the Pacific Theater. I can't imagine.

[rightbug]

Just finished Unbroken on the bus today. Holy shit, that was a crazy, crazy survival story of an American POW in the Pacific Theater. I can't imagine.

"Add to Wish List."

Have I mentioned Nobody Comes Back, Donn Pearce's novel of The Battle of The Bulge? I'd rank it not far behind the best novels of war that I've read -- The Thin Red Line and Catch-22. Donn Pearce wrote Cool Hand Luke. His last novel was published in 1976 or something and then in 2005 he published Nobody Comes Back. I guess if you're going to release one novel every 30 years, make it a good one.

[hoser]

Just finished Unbroken on the bus today. Holy shit, that was a crazy, crazy survival story of an American POW in the Pacific Theater. I can't imagine.

"Add to Wish List."

Have I mentioned Nobody Comes Back, Donn Pearce's novel of The Battle of The Bulge? I'd rank it not far behind the best novels of war that I've read -- The Thin Red Line and Catch-22. Donn Pearce wrote Cool Hand Luke. His last novel was published in 1976 or something and then in 2005 he published Nobody Comes Back. I guess if you're going to release one novel every 30 years, make it a good one.

Cool, I'm picking this up from the library today.

[toph]

"Beijing Welcomes You" by Tom Scocca. Just started.

[Charlie]

"Beijing Welcomes You" by Tom Scocca. Just started.

I LIKE CHINA.

[rightbug]

Cool, I'm picking this up from the library today.

I have likely set expectations too high by mentioning it in the same breath as The Thin Red Line and Catch-22 but it is, nonetheless, excellent.

[toph]

"Beijing Welcomes You" by Tom Scocca. Just started.

I LIKE CHINA.

Did you read it and that's all he has to say? Or do you want me to tell you how it is because you like China and may want to read it?

[Charlie]

"Beijing Welcomes You" by Tom Scocca. Just started.

I LIKE CHINA.

Did you read it and that's all he has to say? Or do you want me to tell you how it is because you like China and may want to read it?

Haha, no I haven't read it. I was mocking myself. I do like China, and am usually interested in what smart people have to say about it.

[Mike B.]

I see that 'bug has just picked it up, so I'll wait until he's finished to discuss, but I recently finished The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgagov's satire of totalitarian Russia and fervent atheism. It was written in the 1930s, but not published in its full, uncensored form until 50 years later. I was so amazed, bewildered, and moved by it that I'm going back and re-reading the first 50 pages or so. Not sure if I've ever done that for a book.

[xcdudesquadloves...]

I have not read fiction in a while but decided to break that with Tender is the night by Fitzgerald. Good choice by me. Wow.

This post has been edited by xcdudesquadloves91!!!: Jul 21 2012, 02:45 AM

[Kusand]

Finished Redshirts by John Scalzi. A light, easy riff on sci-fi that's really fun, and goes by way too fast.

Started Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey. A really compelling read. I tore through parts 1-4 yesterday. That said, it appears to be a continuing serial (he's working on Wool 9) which makes me leery of "will there ever be closure." (That said, each part so far has ended well enough on its own to be satisfying, so maybe that isn't a problem.)

[Paul Smachetti]

Barrooms by Stephen Slattery. His son , who works as a permanent sub at my high school, gave it to me at the end of the school year. Just started reading it last week. It's fiction, but loosely based on his experiences. I was about 2 chapters in and realized the new job the main character was hired for was at the special needs school I worked for at the same time the author did. Actually it was one of the other 2 campuses the school owned. He's slightly changed the names of the towns in the area and the names of the bars he frequents . The characters he works with are composites of many different people but it's fun trying to figure out who they are and recognizing the bars.

[rightbug]

Over vacation I read Saturday's Child by Ray Banks, which was an excellent bit of hard-boiled fiction set in Manchester England. I also read The Post-Mortal by Drew Magary which I liked a bit more than Kusand did. It made me feel very happy to be aging.

Finally I started J.E. Fender's The Private Revolution of Geoffrey Frost which is a bit of historical/nautical fiction set out of Portsmouth New Hampshire. Aside from the local (for me) flavor, Fender's just a good writer so, as a fan of the genre, I've definitely found a new series to enjoy.

Pete, have you read Philip K Dick's The Man in The High Castle? I almost picked it up on vacation but balked at the last second.

[Kusand]

Man In The High Castle was a worthwhile read, I thought.

[Mike B.]

Cliff, did you ever finish The Master and Margarita? What a great book that was.

I'm about a third of the way through Roberto Bolano's 2666 - tough to stick with at first, but it's picking up. It's a sprawling and chaotic 900-page book about several characters drawn to a fictionalized version of Juarez and serial murders of women that happen there. It's split into 5 "parts", each centering around the main characters. The first two were compelling but very lit-reference-heavy, so it was a burden at points. The third part concerns a journalist drawn to Juarez to cover a boxing match, and that's gone more quickly so far.

[rightbug]

Cliff, did you ever finish The Master and Margarita? What a great book that was.

That's my lunch time reading so I'm only about 2/3 of the way through it. I'm loving it though.

[Charlie]

Back on my sci-fi kick. I'm about halfway through Pohl's Man Plus, which I'm enjoying. Don't like it nearly as much as Gateway, but it's still fun.

After that I'm gonna probably read Stranger in a Strange Land and/or The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I've never read Heinlein and feel the need to.

[toph]

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"

I liked the beginning, but it's getting a little out there in the middle so far. I also can't get past the electroshock therapy thing.

[xcdudesquadloves...]

I'm reading "Travels in Siberia" Now. I really like it. I know someone here read it before.

[the old mole]

Man In The High Castle was a worthwhile read, I thought.

Definitely. Philip K. Dick wrote the same novel 30 different ways, and The Man in the High Castle is one of the best iterations of that novel (in which characters explore the nature and the limits of reality). If you only buy one PKD book, make it the "Four Novels of the 1960s" anthology. It collects Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, The Man in the High Castle, Ubik, and The Thre Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Maybe his four best right there.

Cliff, did you ever finish The Master and Margarita? What a great book that was.

I'm about a third of the way through Roberto Bolano's 2666 - tough to stick with at first, but it's picking up. It's a sprawling and chaotic 900-page book about several characters drawn to a fictionalized version of Juarez and serial murders of women that happen there. It's split into 5 "parts", each centering around the main characters. The first two were compelling but very lit-reference-heavy, so it was a burden at points. The third part concerns a journalist drawn to Juarez to cover a boxing match, and that's gone more quickly so far.

This is one of those books on my "to read" list but the length scares me (that is definitely *not* what she said, don't even think about it). Maybe I'll tackle it next summer.

[toph]

I'm reading "Travels in Siberia" Now. I really like it. I know someone here read it before.

Yes! I did, loved that book. Frazier is great. I was in a serious Russia kick when I read it, too.

[xcdudesquadloves...]

I'm reading "Travels in Siberia" Now. I really like it. I know someone here read it before.

Yes! I did, loved that book. Frazier is great. I was in a serious Russia kick when I read it, too.

I'm only like 30 or so pages in, but I'm loving it. Really excited.

[Charlie]

Man In The High Castle was a worthwhile read, I thought.

Definitely. Philip K. Dick wrote the same novel 30 different ways, and The Man in the High Castle is one of the best iterations of that novel (in which characters explore the nature and the limits of reality). If you only buy one PKD book, make it the "Four Novels of the 1960s" anthology. It collects Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, The Man in the High Castle, Ubik, and The Thre Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Maybe his four best right there.

I'd personally put A Scanner Darkly over Ubik and Do Androids Dream.

[rightbug]

So far I've only read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. I'll have to add The Man in The High Castle and A Scanner Darkly.

[Charlie]

So, I'm buying a birthday present for my mom, and more often than not books are a good choice.

She definitely prefers fiction to non-fiction. She also prefers character-centric books over plot-centric (if that makes any sense).

Trying to think of her favorite books, I know the Poisonwood Bible is amongst her favorites. I'm struggling to think of others, but am failing.

Any recommendations?

[toph]

Lolita.

[xcdudesquadloves...]

The Brothers Karamazov.

[Mike B.]

I always associate Annie Proulx with Barbara Kingsolver, though I'm not sure why. Proulx's short story collections are at times brutal and bleak, but really great. Especially the one that includes the story "The Half Skinned Steer" - Close Range.

This post has been edited by Mike B.: Aug 8 2012, 12:44 PM

[Alitaki]

ibooks store has a bunch of Philip K. Dick short stories available for free. Just grabbed 8 of them. What's he written that's worth reading?

EDIT: Ha. There was a whole discussion about this some posts back. Never mind me.

This post has been edited by Alitaki: Aug 9 2012, 03:45 PM

[Kusand]

Containment by Christian Cantrell. Dude's a software engineer, and it shows. Good overall, interesting stuff, but took way too long to get interesting. He also needed editorial help badly.

[Leo95]

The Overton Window by Glenn Beck. Nice book, deserves the hype.

[jkman61494]

So I'm probably late to the party with this, but me and a friend found out today Dance With Dragons has been delayed. Expected August 28th release has now been pushed back to late March 2013.

Really upset to hear this. Was getting amped to read it, May have to break down and get the hardcover.

[rightbug]

I see that 'bug has just picked it up, so I'll wait until he's finished to discuss, but I recently finished The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgagov's satire of totalitarian Russia and fervent atheism. It was written in the 1930s, but not published in its full, uncensored form until 50 years later. I was so amazed, bewildered, and moved by it that I'm going back and re-reading the first 50 pages or so. Not sure if I've ever done that for a book.

So, I just finished the book followed by the commentary and afterward and, yeah, pretty amazing. I love that the meta story of the novel's history, eventual publication and acceptance as an important work reinforces the themes of the book itself. My feelings on a lot of the issues Bulgakov is exploring here mirror his which really gave the book personal ressonance.

[Kusand]

Finished Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake. It was good, but not great. Maybe I just didn't get it.

[Sed]

Reading Dune again for the first time in years. Forgot how much I liked this book.

[rightbug]

Reading Dune again for the first time in years. Forgot how much I liked this book.

[Sed]

Reading Dune again for the first time in years. Forgot how much I liked this book.

FRELINE! Or is it an Arrakitty!

[Kusand]

Reading Dune again for the first time in years. Forgot how much I liked this book.

FRELINE! Or is it an Arrakitty!

Whatever it is, open your tin cans without rhythm.

This post has been edited by Kusand: Aug 19 2012, 08:21 PM

[Mike B.]

I see that 'bug has just picked it up, so I'll wait until he's finished to discuss, but I recently finished The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgagov's satire of totalitarian Russia and fervent atheism. It was written in the 1930s, but not published in its full, uncensored form until 50 years later. I was so amazed, bewildered, and moved by it that I'm going back and re-reading the first 50 pages or so. Not sure if I've ever done that for a book.

So, I just finished the book followed by the commentary and afterward and, yeah, pretty amazing. I love that the meta story of the novel's history, eventual publication and acceptance as an important work reinforces the themes of the book itself. My feelings on a lot of the issues Bulgakov is exploring here mirror his which really gave the book personal ressonance.

What I loved about it was that there were so many different ways to enjoy it. As a satire of Soviet bureaucracy and the Terror, an exploration of literary freedom (apparently "manuscripts don't burn" has become a catch phrase in Russian literature), of individual freedom (Margarita's freeing herself from her loveless marriage), of mental instability, and, what was most moving to me, the way Yeshua breaks through to the cynical Pilate. Not to mention the humor!

I also found the meta story to be amazing, although also very sad that Bulgagov was mostly frustrated and unrecognized during his lifetime.