[Durero]

Just finished: Cradle to Cradle - very cool & inspiring.
Starting: The New Rulers of the World - John Pilger.
Old favorite: the entire Dune series.

[Naren]

Originally Posted by Metal Ken

You just can't get any more metal than blowing people's bodies into bloody pulp, cutting people to bloody shreds, barely touching a guy, then when he laughs at you, you just reply "You're already dead" ("Omae wa mou shinderu") to which they respond "Huh?" and then their head swells and explodes, ending their hideous screaming.

I mean, I can't think of a series more metal than "Hokuto no ken."

I love how he promises he'll let some guy go if they'll tell him where their leader is, they tell him, and he just starts walking away. The guy gets back up and says "You were a fool to let me live. I'll make you regret your foolish decision." and Ken just says "Who said anything about letting you live?" and the guy's whole body explodes into a bloody mist. Or the scene where his brother Jagi had been completely harassing him and he was just taking it and Jagi comes to kill him and become the successor for Hokuto shinken and Ken just pushes the pressure point to make Jagi's head explode, only stopping it before it happens, but leaving him deformed the rest of his life (would've avoided a lot of trouble down the line if he had killed Jagi right there).

[distressed_romeo]

Originally Posted by The Dark Wolf

Awesome book. About my favorite character of hers, too. Marius.

Yeah, it rocks. Only one of the Vampire Chronicles I haven't read... Writing my disertation on vampires next year...

[Drew]

Originally Posted by The Dark Wolf

I'm reading the series that that book is a sorta prequel to, 'The Mallorean', by the same author(s).

You should try the George R.R. Martin series I turned Drew on to afterwords, Ken. It's brilliant. If you like the Eddings stuff, you'll love the Martin, I almost guarantee it.

Martin = Eddings with less political manouvering and no obligatory "thief" character.

Course, those are two elements I always dug about Eddings, but if you're on a fantasy kick, Martin is definitely worth a read.




Currently, well, I read the third Martin on the flight over to Italy and the first couple trainrides (bob, is the 4th out?), Ralph Ellison's Juneteenth on the flight back (it's no Invisible Man, but it IS ellison, so if you've read IM it's definitely worth a read), the introduction and the first chunk of Jaques Derrida's "Of Grammatology" on the beaches of Italy (which is a fucking accomplishment, for kicks I should post up some excerpts), and started re-reading Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow" again on the flight back, which is one of those books that amazes me even more every time I re-read it. a seriously fucked up read, but incredible.

[distressed_romeo]

'Sunshine' by Robin McKinley...great stuff. Brought it on impulse yesterday.

[The Dark Wolf]

Originally Posted by Drew

Martin = Eddings with less political manouvering and no obligatory "thief" character.

Course, those are two elements I always dug about Eddings, but if you're on a fantasy kick, Martin is definitely worth a read.




Currently, well, I read the third Martin on the flight over to Italy and the first couple trainrides (bob, is the 4th out?), Ralph Ellison's Juneteenth on the flight back (it's no Invisible Man, but it IS ellison, so if you've read IM it's definitely worth a read), the introduction and the first chunk of Jaques Derrida's "Of Grammatology" on the beaches of Italy (which is a fucking accomplishment, for kicks I should post up some excerpts), and started re-reading Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow" again on the flight back, which is one of those books that amazes me even more every time I re-read it. a seriously fucked up read, but incredible.

Man, Eddings and Martin the same? Look, I'm reading Eddings right now, but he can't even come close to Martin. Yes, he writes interesting stories, and that's numero uno. Gotta have that. But his characters are so one dimensional! I mean, the world is falling apart, and what are the characters doing? Huh. Bantering. Funny. They've been doing that for 800 pages, now. No emotion, no reality... his characters (Sure, I love Belgarath. He and Silk are about the only two worth a shit, and what do they do left and right? Uh... banter) are cardboard.

Martin's characters on the other hand breath with life. Each one is different. with different motivations, different goals. In Eddings, his villians are just pathetic bad guys, who never, ever get one on the good guys, and have the most simplistic motivations. In Martin, well, who's the bad guys? Show me? He'll make you see two (or more) sides to every conclusion you want to make.

Martin is FAR more satisfying, as well as technically proficient, than Eddings, or Robert Jordan, or Terry Goodkind, or any of their ilk.

[Drew]

Eh, it's been years since I've read him. All I was saying was that if you like Eddings, you'll probably like Martin.

And keep in mind I'm one of the most un-phasable people I know - if the world WAS coming apart, I'd be the one standing there cracking jokes about the Apocalypse while trying to stop it. I'm sorry, i've got a very dark sense of humour, and the end of the world is too good an opportunity to miss.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Drew

Eh, it's been years since I've read him. All I was saying was that if you like Eddings, you'll probably like Martin.

And keep in mind I'm one of the most un-phasable people I know - if the world WAS coming apart, I'd be the one standing there cracking jokes about the Apocalypse while trying to stop it. I'm sorry, i've got a very dark sense of humour, and the end of the world is too good an opportunity to miss.

Humour, eh?

You've been hanging with the sodding wanks on here too much.

[Drew]

I go back and forth on Soddy Wanker/USA spellings, something I've never denied.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by The Dark Wolf

Man, Eddings and Martin the same? Look, I'm reading Eddings right now, but he can't even come close to Martin. Yes, he writes interesting stories, and that's numero uno. Gotta have that. But his characters are so one dimensional! I mean, the world is falling apart, and what are the characters doing? Huh. Bantering. Funny. They've been doing that for 800 pages, now. No emotion, no reality... his characters (Sure, I love Belgarath. He and Silk are about the only two worth a shit, and what do they do left and right? Uh... banter) are cardboard.

Martin's characters on the other hand breath with life. Each one is different. with different motivations, different goals. In Eddings, his villians are just pathetic bad guys, who never, ever get one on the good guys, and have the most simplistic motivations. In Martin, well, who's the bad guys? Show me? He'll make you see two (or more) sides to every conclusion you want to make.

Martin is FAR more satisfying, as well as technically proficient, than Eddings, or Robert Jordan, or Terry Goodkind, or any of their ilk.

Neg. Wheel of Time > SOIAF.

Both kick ass, but I liked WoT better. The "problem" with WoT is that by book 10, it's about 25 complete stories going at once and a lot of people just can't keep track. Hell, book 11 is out, I haven't read it, and I KNOW that I have to start from scratch again to get caught up with everything.

Not to knock Martin, because his work is excellent, but I don't think he's far more anything than Jordan.