What are you reading right now?

[Guardsman Bass]

I found a book by Brian Billick (the ex-Ravens coach) about the NFL at the library. It has distracted me from my other books.

I'm guessing that I'll never find that in a library in Australia - let me know what it's like and if it's worth tracking down on amazon/ebay.

Some of it is light fare, for the most part - like a beginner's guide to the NFL and its various aspects, with some insider thoughts and good and/or amusing anecdotes thrown in*. The best chapters were the ones of the potential labor conflict in 2010-11, the chapter on Quarterbacks, and the chapter on offense, likely because in the case of the latter two he's on familiar ground. I like how he talks about how picking good QB's is really a crapshoot for the most part, and how many of the things that make a good QB at the college level just don't work at the pro level (Tebow's penchant for running the ball personally was one of them).

*He has a good one about Ryan Leaf from just before he was drafted.

[Thanas]

I just finished reading Neil Gaiman's complete works so far.

Would you recommend them?

Yes, I would. I normally do not read comics, but The Sandman is just very well done. I mean, what other comic cites ancient egyptian poems? The sandman is one of those comics where you feel the author has done his research. Not to mention the prose is gorgeous.

However, what I most enjoyed was the short story Snow, Glass, Apples. It is just masterful and a great retelling of a famous fable. "Stardust" was good as well.

To get a feel for Gaiman, here is a short story of his. Yes, it is the entire short story.

If you like this sort of thing, you will love the rest of his work.

[loomer]

Right now I'm reading Drew Bowling's Tower of Shadows, which is the first volume of his series The Tides of Fate. I'm starting to get very near the end of the book, but here is an excerpt that gives a very good picture of the book in general:

As Wren charged into the carnage, a pirate dived at him with a spear. With a mighty swing of the rapier, Wren lopped off the tip of the weapon, following through to take off the pirate's head. Instantly, he spun to blcok a sword stroke. An ax glanced off his shoulder. He kicked a nearby chair at the swordsman and turned to slash blindly with his rapier, catching the ax wielder in the face. Wren jerked his rapier free and continued forcing his way through the melee, thrusting and cutting in all directions.

This is, naturally, after the guy has already been wounded several times, beaten severely, tossed down a couple of flights of stairs and knocked unconscious, all within the last hour or so. And given how he's unarmored, I'd like to know what his skin is made out of that an axe blow doesn't even faze him, even if it was a glancing hit.

Next up on the list is Ian C. Esslemont's Return of the Crimson Guard and then Jennifer Fallon's Wolfblade trilogy.

Fuck, and I thought I was bad, having a guy keep fighting after a shield-blunted sword blow to the arm. Even if it was somehow a major fuck-up with the side or back of the axe, wouldn't it knock him about just from concussive force? The axe isn't exactly a weapon of finesse.

[Darth Wong]

It sounds like the author was writing with one hand free and a box of tissue handy. Do people really write stuff like that and expect it to be taken as anything other than wankery? He might as well add some prose about the enormous size of his protagonist's penis.

[open_sketchbook]

Eh, properly executed such books (indeed, anything like that) can be hilarious. Wank =/= bad, it's just that it happens to be a pervasive sign of a poor writer. Properly executed silly action like the above can be a fun read.

[Edi]

It sounds like the author was writing with one hand free and a box of tissue handy. Do people really write stuff like that and expect it to be taken as anything other than wankery? He might as well add some prose about the enormous size of his protagonist's penis.

More likely, the author simply hasn't got the first fucking idea of what he's talking about. Probably never swung an axe to split wood or hefted a sword in his hand, never bothered to check on whether the things he puts there are physically possible in the first place. Biography says he's a college student and started writing that in high school. And it shows.

This particular hero is actually rather underwhelming, all told, certainly not an unequaled swordsman.

The most worrying things is that the above paragraph and others similar to it got through the editing process.

[Sheridan]

Eh, properly executed such books (indeed, anything like that) can be hilarious. Wank =/= bad, it's just that it happens to be a pervasive sign of a poor writer. Properly executed silly action like the above can be a fun read.

This is a good point. I mean, see The Princess Bride for a good example; satirism of this sort of writing almost requires the same types of prose.

However, having skimmed the novel in question when I was in the bookstore, this is not an example of satire. I think the author is just terrible.

[Darth Nostril]

Just read through the Dark Tower series.

What a shite ending.

On many, many levels.

In fact, the current theory is that the entire last book is a big middle finger aimed at all the fans who bugged him over the years to write the Dark Tower series, which he seemed to lose interest in just after (or even a little before) book 4.

No shit dude.
Note to any aspiring authors - don't start writing an epic series if you have no gumption to call your own and lose interest in things easily, all you'll do is piss off people when you meander off track.

[JME2]

I just finished reading Neil Gaiman's complete works so far.

Would you recommend them?

Yes, I would. I normally do not read comics, but The Sandman is just very well done. I mean, what other comic cites ancient egyptian poems? The sandman is one of those comics where you feel the author has done his research. Not to mention the prose is gorgeous.

However, what I most enjoyed was the short story Snow, Glass, Apples. It is just masterful and a great retelling of a famous fable. "Stardust" was good as well.

To get a feel for Gaiman, here is a short story of his. Yes, it is the entire short story.

If you like this sort of thing, you will love the rest of his work.

If you liked Sandman, I'd recommend Mike Carey's spin-off series Lucifer. It picks up where Lucifer's story in Sandman left off and, while not as acclaimed, is equal to its parent IMO.

Anyway, I'm getting started on Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series with the first novel, Master & Commander.

[Thanas]

If you liked Sandman, I'd recommend Mike Carey's spin-off series Lucifer. It picks up where Lucifer's story in Sandman left off and, while not as acclaimed, is equal to its parent IMO.

I do not think I will get any spin-off series not written by Gaiman himself. What drew me to him were his lyrics, the artwork was secondary. The story is what counts and I fear that without Gaiman to helm it, Lucifer will turn out to be second-rate.

[JME2]

If you liked Sandman, I'd recommend Mike Carey's spin-off series Lucifer. It picks up where Lucifer's story in Sandman left off and, while not as acclaimed, is equal to its parent IMO.

I do not think I will get any spin-off series not written by Gaiman himself. What drew me to him were his lyrics, the artwork was secondary. The story is what counts and I fear that without Gaiman to helm it, Lucifer will turn out to be second-rate.

.

It's admittedly a different beast than it's parent. In terms of writing, Carey's style mimics Gaiman's for the early issues before transitioning into his own. But Gaiman's endorsed Carey's take on the Devil. In terms of themes and story, Lucifer is a literal, if not philosophical continuation of the conversation between Morpheus and Lucifer as he's locking up Hell in "Seasons of Mist". It's an analysis of the nature and perception of good vs. evil, of free will, determinism, and fate -- with a lot of global mythology and political intrigue thrown in. That's actually why I like it more than it's parent.

[Dalton]

Powering through Interface right now and considering my next read.

[Steve]

Devoured the Trek TOS novel Kobayashi Maru today, having finished Dr. Thomas Barnett's latest book Great Powers, next up is probably one of the newer bookx in the Oxford Series on the history of the US of A, Empire of Liberty (covering the first quarter century or so of the US of A's existence, from the Constitution signing to the War of 1812). After that I may move on to What Has God Wrought?, the next book in the aforementioned Oxford series, covering the period between the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War.

[Stark]

I'm reading Metro 2033, but Dmitry Glukhovsky. Why is non-Western fantasy better than all Western fantasy? Serious question.

[The Grim Squeaker]

I'm reading Metro 2033, but Dmitry Glukhovsky. Why is non-Western fantasy better than all Western fantasy? Serious question.

You only get the top 1% or so of non English fantasy translated, while you have access to 90% or so of English Fantasy.
Simple selection, translation is expensive so only the best stuff gets the treatment and foreign export.

[loomer]

Presumably also different cultural elements play a role - the usual fantasy bullshit we have is derived from Tolkein who might not be so popular over there, leave alone the different folklore influences.

[Stark]

I'm reading Metro 2033, but Dmitry Glukhovsky. Why is non-Western fantasy better than all Western fantasy? Serious question.

You only get the top 1% or so of non English fantasy translated, while you have access to 90% or so of English Fantasy.
Simple selection, translation is expensive so only the best stuff gets the treatment and foreign export.

popularity isn't quality. If they translated the top one percent popular stuff you'd expect it to be just as shit as the most popular English fantasy (shit like Harry Potter and fucking Wheel of Time). It isn't.

I think it's like Loomer says. It's not necesarily better(many translations are horrid) it's just different and does trip my jaded limit.

[Stravo]

I am currently reading "De Bello Lemures, Or The Roman War Against the Zombies of Armorica" which is really a neat concept. Roman Centurions against Romero type zombies - I'm almost sure we had a thread or two on this very concept many moons ago. Well written in terms of aping the style of ancient historical texts and for a $1 on my Kindle I can't say no to that.

[Phantasee]

Holy shit, it's Stravo!

I'm working my way through Rise and Fall by Gibbon. It's an abridged version, so I hope to finish it sometime this year, and not sometime this decade.

[Iosef Cross]

Holy shit, it's Stravo!

I'm working my way through Rise and Fall by Gibbon. It's an abridged version, so I hope to finish it sometime this year, and not sometime this decade.

I have read half of that book (the same version). It becomes unbearable to read about details of the personal lives of the emperors and kings and the absence of treatment into topics like the changes in culture with the times, the demographic tendencies of the time and other more relevant subjects.

[JME2]

Holy shit, it's Stravo!

Welcome back, sir.

[Stark]

I'm working my way through Rise and Fall by Gibbon. It's an abridged version, so I hope to finish it sometime this year, and not sometime this decade.

Rise and Fall is so terrible. I own a full edition myself, and it's worth reading just for his hilarious Byzantine hate and constant moralising. Have you read Mommsen?

[Phantasee]

No I haven't. Is it any better/worse?

[Stark]

Better.

Metro 2033 is a good book; it's a shame they changed the climax for the game so you basically have no idea what's happening. The translation isn't the best; they regularly confuse 'cartridge', 'magazine', 'round' and 'bullet' and at one point use 'police' instead of 'polis' for an important discussion. The bioweapon they dropped on the Kremlin is some fucked up shit. The social, Russian themes are quite accessible for the Western reader and it's quite interesting overall. And it has Mormons.

[Guardsman Bass]

I just finished R. Scott Bakker's Neuropath. Goddamn, that book is a weird fucking mind-screw. He gets a little wordy and drifts into "third-person teacher" voice on occasion, but it's still good and bizarre.

I've got The Bible Unearthed to work on.