Cantr II Discussion Forum

If we have a music thread... Why not a book one? That said -

I just finished Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. First thing I've read by him, and I was absolutely not disappointed. Very good book, great characters, great characterization, plotting, writing... Very good. I heartily recommend it.

Next, I'm going to start (again) Toll the Hounds and try to finally finish Malazan Book of the Fallen.

When I woke up this morning I had to finish The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. Then I had breakfast.

Been reading "The man in the high castle", really quite cool

I finished reading "Make room! Make room!", by Harry Harrison. If you're into dystopian future novels, like Brave New World, 1984 or Fahrenheit 451, you'll like this one. It was also the basis for the movie "Soylent Green", which I also recommend.

My closest friends set up a reading club this month (yay, I want to smoke a pipe and talk snob-ish now!), and they chose Farenheit 451 for the first meeting, so I read it again to refresh my memory, and I liked it more than first time. It leaves a bitter taste, though, regarding how close fiction is with reality sometimes. Great idea for a thread, Wolfsong, maybe I can get inspiration here to propose the next book!

Didn't have Toll the Hounds on my phone, haven't had a chance to download it from my computer, and I donated my Malazan collection to somebody a few years back who showed an interest. So! Back on my sci fi kick.

Just finished Endymion by Dan Simmons. I loved delving back into the Hyperion Cantos, and thought the Pax was a wicked cool idea, especially the functionality of the archangel ships - brilliant world building as ever. If anything, though, it makes me want to reread Ilium (different series) and rip into its sequel too.

Probably will finish the Hyperion Cantos, then do just that.

Nope, didn't have Fall of Endymion on my phone, so I opted for Prince of Thorns.

I read that last night - not a hard read, and it didn't feel like a particularly long one since I read it start to finish in a couple hours. I've already moved onto the next book in the series, King of Thorns. Hot damn. I think it's a trilogy. I've nearly finished that one, too, and will start the last book in the series as soon as I do - it's already preloaded onto my phone and all. Maternity leave is turning into a prime time for catching up on my book reading, evidently.

It's your standard fantasy series with a twist, and very reminiscent of (IMO) Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series, though obviously much less detailed and meaty. (Nobody beats Wolfe.) In both respects, though, you have an unreliable narrator who isn't entirely likeable. In fact, in the case of the Broken Empire series, the narrator is very unlikeable.

Bought some books and have been working through them slowly.

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

Valor's Choice: A Confederation Novel by Tanya Huff

His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

Simulating War: Studying Conflict through Simulation Games by Philip Sabin

Lost Battles: Reconstructing the Great Clashes of the Ancient World by Philip Sabin

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson

Latro in the Mist by Gene Wolfe

Barsk: The Elephant's Graveyard by Lawrence M. Schoen

Plus a ton of books I grabbed secondhand at a book fair in a city an hour away a couple weeks ago.

Got from friend on loan one book (All the best history books are in english) and he has like one room filled with books. It's like home library, gonna go loan some more history books ^^

Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942-1943 written by Antony Beevor


I also have tons of other books about history

Talking of history books, and though it's technically a novel, I've read again "All Quiet on the Western Front", by Erich Maria Remarque. One of my favourite books ever, so intense and sad, with so much to learn from... IMO, It should be a must in every school.

It led me to investigate further into war poetry, where my limited English skills keep me quite frustrated, but I still am happy to discover Wilfred Owen poems today. Step by step.

Which make me wonder... Would anyone recomend me an easy book to read in English? I'd love to be able to read some of the "Classics" in the original version someday, but something easy to begin with would be great. Joyce will have to wait! Until my next two or three reincarnations, heh.

Let me think about that before I recommend a classic.

Books that pair well together after reading All Quiet on the Western Front: Storm of Steel and Attacks (sometimes called Infantry Attacks.) Both are accounts of WW1, but from very different perspectives, IMO. Storm of Steel feels very traditionally trenchy, while Rommel's book is all about enfilading fire, flanking and movement. (Edit: both are originally German; I read English translations.)

Meanwhile, I read The Traitor Baru Cormorant and... eh. It was alright, but not nearly as good as what people suggested. Good, but ultimately forgettable.

Finally powered through Toll the Hounds - and though it wasn't my favorite Malazan book, I did appreciate what it did to resolve (ish) some of the stories of my favorite characters, even if it focused mostly on the characters I didn't care as much about from the previous novels. Stonny's arc was particularly bittersweet. Picker's still one of my favorites, too. But I fucking hate Kruppe and Pust, and god if the book didn't linger too long on those guys, major players or not.

Edit: Hate's a strong word. I just am not all that fond of those characters. Pust can be entertaining, though.

Now... I think I'm gonna try to finish the Malazan series (!!) before moving on to Under the Skin.

Alterworld by D. Rus.

The premise is that people can have their consciousness become permanently stuck in video games. It's been a long time since I was so thoroughly amused by a book. The characters themselves are not works of art, be warned. They aren't totally flat personalities, but not incredibly complex, either. But the plot, environments, etc., would likely interest many gamers.

If you like that sort of book, try the Otherland series by Tad Williams.

Reading 'Cartas en el asunto', aka 'Going postal', I've read the paragraph 'Run before fly! Fly before crawl...'
It took me about five seconds to associate it, being in Spanish, but then I inmediately thought of cantr forum. Anyone remembers who used to have it as a signature? Just curious.