I'm working on writing one of these myself. It has to do with a giant octopus and Thomas Jefferson. The movie is going to star two foxy Hollywood actors. I won't name any names, just keep you all in suspense.

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Originally posted by GLE:
And man... what happens when we get past 300 GDs? Will we need a second MOTL?

And then past 300 MOTLs... we'll need a new internet!

quote:

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Originally posted by hilikuS:
Not being an avid reader, but wanting to post this anyway. You should look into the genre of "historical friction". Highly erotic, and often historically accurate.

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See, when I think of historical fiction, I think more along the lines of Bernard Cornwell or Simon Scarrow...

__________________
"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think they will sing to me."
-T.S. Eliot

The only path to victory in the “war on terror” is the moral high ground. Sadly, it's buried beneath the rubble of your nation.

Thanks,
Jazaray

__________________
A Plastered Dragon Original Limerick:
There was a nice lassie named Jaz
Many wished to have what she has,
A delicate face,
A soft warm embrace,
And a whole lot of bedroom pizzazz.

WeedIan: Jazaray is like MOTL's Mom.

Speechjew: Check out Mika Waltari, if you're not familiar with his work. The Egyptian is fantastic, as well as is The Etruscan (though I'm not sure how well the English translations fare). Truly magnificent works of art, and the attention to historical detail is impeccable.

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Traction - realtime audiovisual experiences

I have some more serious stuff sitting waiting to be read when I get done with these. Wanting to read Deception Point and Digital Fortress by Dan Brown shortly. Also keep staring at the Bourne series by Ludlum, and knowing that I need to dive in sooner or later.

__________________
There's no need to fear, UNDERDOG is here!

All your Gruul Nodorogs are belong to me. Trade them to me, please!

Report rules violations.

Great work Goodkind, ya Douche.

quote:

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Originally posted by Jazaray:
I read a LOT, and I've timed myself and apparently read 600wpm. I always have a book or two on me somewhere. I'm currently on my way through the HP books again. Gearing up for HBP. Gonna re-read all the books, and then re-watch all the movies. w00t!

Thanks,
Jazaray

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Huh, I should time myself some time....

Anyway:
I'm almost done reading the Kite Runner. Other books I've read in the past month are V for Vendetta and the Maus duology. I'm probably going to pick up A Thousand Splendid Suns from the library tomorrow after school.

Also, I will finish reading The Bourne Identity.
...eventually. It's been about a year and a half now and I still haven't finished it.

__________________
This message brought to you by MOTL's very own fancy biologist.

Currently also reading Donald Kuspit's The End of Art for my thesis. Other thesis materials will soon follow.

__________________
"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think they will sing to me."
-T.S. Eliot

The only path to victory in the “war on terror” is the moral high ground. Sadly, it's buried beneath the rubble of your nation.

quote:

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Originally posted by Gawain:
I would recommend The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind, but after book 5 or so you'll want to strangle him, and after the story FINALLY peters out in book 13 or however ludicrously high the number went, you REALLY want him dead. Then, you watch the TV show, go to his website to jump on the forums and bitch about how awful it is, only to find that bitching about him or his works OR the show on the site is strictly forbidden and heavily policed.

Great work Goodkind, ya Douche.

On a happier note, just started Game of Thrones and it's AMAZING.

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Care to expound? I'm curious as to why you had this reaction to SoT.

Shadow Divers is an interesting historical read, especially since it's not fiction.

-Caitiri

quote:

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Originally posted by pyr0ma5ta:
I read the interwebs.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Caitiri:
Care to expound? I'm curious as to why you had this reaction to SoT.

Shadow Divers is an interesting historical read, especially since it's not fiction.

-Caitiri

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No problem, though I warn you I could fly into a rant. Also, there are probably SPOILERS below for anyone who hasn't read the series.

So yeah, Wizard's First Rule was amazing. It was innovative, edgy, had great characterization and an original world. I was blown away by how insightful Goodkind obviously was in terms of his understanding of people and the way he wrote it through his characters. The story itself was crack, and like everyone I fell in love with Zedd (because he is a badass).

Stone of Tears is the best book in the series. It was actually the first one I read, and the first twenty pages were nothing but gratuitous violence. I was, of course, immediately sucked in.

Blood of the Fold and Temple of the Winds were both amazing reads as well. The problem for me began in Soul of the Fire. First off, when the Chime possessed that chicken in the Mud People's village, I about stopped reading. Seriously? A demon chicken? You can't do better than that Goodkind? I finished the book of course, and was left with a bittersweet taste in my mouth. The story was mediocre, several of the characters were just annoying, and Anderith was the first locale in this world that I didn't give to farts about. Go figure it plays *so* heavily into the story later.

After that, there was a string of hit or miss books that were so randomly awful/good that I can never remember all of their titles, or the order in which they were written. I believe Faith of the Fallen is the sixth book, and I liked that one. Some of the epic army stuff that was going on between the D'Harans and the Imperial Order rocked my socks, and Warren's death ripped my heart out.

Everything after that is pud man. Characterization falls off in quality, as does story telling in general. Worse, much worse in my opinion, is how sickeningly self-righteous Goodkind becomes in the later books. It gets to a point where Richard's (and other characters') rants become utterly tedious and preachy. Goodkind began ramming his ethics and morals down the reader's throat relentlessly. I agreed with a lot of that stuff to begin with, but found myself so disgusted with it in the end that I was arguing with him in my head just to argue the opposing view. Also, WAY too many of his characters were WAY too insightful and verbose. Frankly, especially in a quasi-medieval world like the one he created, not that many people are going to be that intelligent, well-spoken, and practically telepathic in their abilities to read people. In other words, every character eventually became just another avatar for Terry's preaching.

Then there is the TV show. It's a monstrosity. There is NO adherence to the actual storyline, it's cheesy as hell, the production value is second rate....I could go on and on. The only bright spots are the guy who plays Zedd (though whoever writes his lines is an idiot), and that incredibly hot girl who plays Kahlan. The way they dress her ****es me off though, 'cause sexy as it is, the Mother Confessor would never show that much cleavage.

After watching the show, I logged onto Goodkind's website looking to discuss my disappointment with other fans of the (first third) of the series, only to discover that he apparently only allows suck ups and sycophants to opine on his precious page. Seriously, ALL negative, or more specifically NOT positive comments regarding the books, and especially the show, was completely forbidden. Your thread would be closed and you would be kicked out of the forums if you were to nay say him, his work, or his decisions.

This indicates to me that the man suffers from many of the same flaws he attributes to his villains: narcissism, self-righteousness, and pettiness come to mind. I mean, he can't even stand a little constructive criticism! He totally sold out, and what's worse, it wasn't even remotely necessary.

Anyway, I'm done ranting. I love the first few books and always will, but all the rest of it can just disappear for all I care.

Frankly, if you want quality fantasy, you have to look really hard for it. I'd say to look to Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen, and perhaps to Bakker's Prince of Nothing series. Although in both cases, you have to make it past the relatively crappy first book in order to make it to the awesome rest of the series.

__________________
"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think they will sing to me."
-T.S. Eliot

The only path to victory in the “war on terror” is the moral high ground. Sadly, it's buried beneath the rubble of your nation.

quote:

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Originally posted by Goaswerfraiejen:
What turned me off the SoT series was the standard crap-fantasy/RPG plot: farmer gets in trouble, picks up sword (which he wields expertly), turns out to be some sort of noble, and wields all kinds of (limitless) magic. This hero is perfect in just about every way, blah blah blah. Standard fantasy tropes, and all too boring. There was also the issue of mimicking Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time a little too closely for my comfort. The first three were acceptable, but the Jordan-plagiarism really killed them in my eyes.

Frankly, if you want quality fantasy, you have to look really hard for it. I'd say to look to Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen, and perhaps to Bakker's Prince of Nothing series. Although in both cases, you have to make it past the relatively crappy first book in order to make it to the awesome rest of the series.

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I would agree with that to an extent. I felt like Goodkind limited Richard's ability to use magic pretty well...he never really did learn how to control it, though there were times when his ability to summon it was a bit too convenient. Goodkind is was, and always will be adamant that his books aren't fantasy; he's an idiot of course, they totally are. Having read TONS of fantasy (though surprisingly, not Wheel of Time), I would give it a 6 or 7 out of ten on the overall spectrum. Again, the first few books are fantastic, and the rest suck. The semi-generic nature of some of his choices can be excused a bit by the allegorical nature of the books.

quote:

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Originally posted by Gawain:

From everything I've heard, George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is unstoppably awesome...only about 30 pages into the first book though, so I can't speak too much for it m'self. Seems worthy thus far.

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I read the first book (A Game of Thrones, right?). Didn't like it too much: too much emphasis on cavalry and glory, for one thing. But the other, more serious point is that the fragmented perspectives really didn't work for me. I was only really interested in Jon Snow's storyline, and the different storylines didn't really come together for the end of the book, which means that you basically read a dozen different short stories, but they're spread out so far that you're just left frustrated and with a bad memory of what happened. Fragmented perspectives are a mainstay of contemporary fantasy novels, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I prefer when the author makes the effort to weave them back together.

For the second novel, I only bothered to read Jon Snow's story. And then it took too long for Martin to pump out the next installment, so I gave up. I didn't mind his writing so much, but I just couldn't dig his chosen medium for conveying the story. And then I started reading John Marco's Tyrants and Kings trilogy, and Guy Gavriel Kay's works, and that really sealed the deal. Speaking of which, Kay's Sarantine Mosaic duology is amazing. Most of his works are, but The Fionavar Tapestry reads more like a cross between Narnia, Power Rangers, and Captain Planet. The rest of his fantasy is amazing, though.

__________________
"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think they will sing to me."
-T.S. Eliot

The only path to victory in the “war on terror” is the moral high ground. Sadly, it's buried beneath the rubble of your nation.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Goaswerfraiejen:

See, when I think of historical fiction, I think more along the lines of Bernard Cornwell or Simon Scarrow...

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Historical fRiction. Completely different animal.

__________________
Originally posted by GLE:
And man... what happens when we get past 300 GDs? Will we need a second MOTL?

And then past 300 MOTLs... we'll need a new internet!

quote:

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Originally posted by Goaswerfraiejen:

Comments and recommendations.

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Hrrrmm....I already got a taste for the fragmented perspective thing. I was rather hoping there wouldn't be TOO many storylines. Ah well, I'll finish it anyway and see how things go. It sounds a lot like the Chung Kuo novels, wherein there are so damned many characters it makes your head spin trying to keep track of them all. They are awesome though, and quite worth the effort.

Also, thanks for the suggestions, I'm ALWAYS looking for a new read _

quote:

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Originally posted by JackSpade:
I know this happened about a year ago but id just like to say. Robert Jordan died. WTF! Wheel of Time is one of my favorite series i just hope the ending lives up to all the hype. If anyone is interested, its a great fantasy series. And for those who are slightly masochistic it got up to book 12 and i believe their will be at least 2 more.
And RIP Robert Jordan, your novels sparked my love of books.

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Despite Robert Jordan's insistence that there only be one more due to his unwillingness to break the plot anymore, the author who is finishing the series has decided, because of unexpected length, to divide it into three more novels. The first comes out this fall. The complexity of that series never ceases to amaze me.

-Caitiri

Thanks,
Jazaray

__________________
A Plastered Dragon Original Limerick:
There was a nice lassie named Jaz
Many wished to have what she has,
A delicate face,
A soft warm embrace,
And a whole lot of bedroom pizzazz.

WeedIan: Jazaray is like MOTL's Mom.

quote:

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Originally posted by Gawain:

On a happier note, just started Game of Thrones and it's AMAZING.

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I can also vouch for this, I'm up to date on the series and am a huge fan. Especially the Daenerys, John, and Tyrion storylines.

quote:

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Originally posted by Jazaray:
I really enjoyed the Redwall series very very much. I've only read the first four, but those four are outstanding (IMHO), you should read those.

Thanks,
Jazaray

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Ah yes, Redwall. Those were good books.