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| Author | Message |
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virtuadept
 
(frozen)
| | #1 posted April 6, 2007 at 1:18pm (EST) |
What was the last book you read? Post about it here.
I just finished Shadowrun #4 - Drops of Corruption (from the recent line of SR novels). I really enjoyed #1-#3, but #4 is a bit harder pill to swallow. First of all, 1-3 were a trilogy and all involved mostly the same characters. #4 has a couple of cameos from a few of the characters I liked in 1-3, and one character that I didn't like so well in 1-3 plays a more central role in #4. So I guess it was a bit frustrating at first not having all my "friends" from the series in it.
The plot in #4 however, I thought was very well done, if a tad slow moving. I can see why he did it the way he did, however. It involves the mafia, and one character who was basically a good person slowly getting trapped into working for the mob and how they hooked him in. There are a lot of nasty characters in this book as one might expect from a book dealing with organized crime. Even the main character, who was as I said essentially good, was hard to like for other reasons I can't get into without spoilers. So having a cast of essentially unlikable characters didn't help my enjoyment of the story too much either.
But as I said the plot was well done, and in the end, a rewarding story that actually did have a "lesson" or whatever. There were some really cool scenes in the book, and overall I felt this was a book worth reading especially for Shadowrun enthusiasts like myself. Not my favorite in the series, but I did end up enjoying it, even though it was a slow read for me and I set it down several times before I finally got into it.
This is not a novel I can heartily recommend to anyone. If you enjoy books about organized crime, this book might be for you, with the caveat that it is completely fictional and not all that realistic, plus set in a fantasy future. If you like Shadowrun, this book is definitely worth picking up for a couple of reasons. First, it's a good in depth look at how the mafia in Seattle operates, and secondly it involves a bit of Tir Tairngire, which was interesting, and of a mage who has "burnt out" so you kind of get a feel for how that would work. This book is not a "fan fiction" work, the writing is good quality writing, but the subject matter is such that essentially it will appeal to a limited set of eyes.
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sgtshaggy
  
 
| | #201 posted August 14, 2007 at 3:12am (EST) |
Finished Deathly Hallows about an hour ago. Oh my, wonderful final novel for a wonderful series.
shags
"Fair seedtime had my soul, and I grew up
Fostered alike by beauty and by fear."
- William Wordsworth |
Bassgrabber
BTRs
(abandoned)
| #202 posted August 14, 2007 at 6:41pm (EST)
edited August 14, 2007 at 6:46pm (EST) |
Agreed! I'm re-reading it (it will take me a few days, as it did the first time) because I always miss something first time around for something that size..... and I liked it. BTW, I'm 40+ and everyone knows not to hassle me about my reading material 
I am in the not-quite middle of Raymond E. Feist's "Faerie Tale". It seems like it wants to be a Stephen King novel but hasn't quite gotten there yet. I really enjoyed his Midkemia/Kelewan series (/me waves to pugmagician) and figured I'd give this a read, too.
Nihon: I've read the first few books of Terry Brook's "Shannara" series some times ago. I recently picked up a few (Goodwill) to jump back into it as I couldn't remember if I enjoyed it, or not. I do remember it being a tad on the tedious side but that doesn't always put me off of a good read. What else would you suggest by this author? |
Reed
| | #203 posted August 16, 2007 at 3:32am (EST) |
reading Angles and Deamons now, hopefully it gets better...
Need a  Loan? Visit the PAYPAL LOAN FORUM! |
therainstormlord
  
| | #204 posted August 16, 2007 at 7:09am (EST) |
TMNT wrote:
> reading Angles and Deamons now, hopefully it gets better...
>
poor fellow. Try not to regret the lost hours of your life reading it. |
Yaverot
| | #205 posted August 16, 2007 at 11:49am (EST) |
Finished re-reading HP7. Looks like I'm not going to finish Ben Franklin's Web Site, as paying a late fine would defeat the point of checking it out of the library.
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vDub
 
| | #206 posted August 16, 2007 at 2:12pm (EST) |
finished Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Force Heretic III: Reunion last night.
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virtuadept
(frozen)
| | #207 posted August 17, 2007 at 2:20pm (EST) |
therainstormlord wrote:
> TMNT wrote:
>> reading Angles and Deamons now, hopefully it gets better...
>>
> poor fellow. Try not to regret the lost hours of your life reading it.
I loved it.
Visit virtuadept's RPG forum! or virtuadept's blog! |
nihon
| | #208 posted August 19, 2007 at 3:10pm (EST) |
Bassgrabber wrote:
>
> Nihon: I've read the first few books of Terry Brook's "Shannara"
> series some times ago. I recently picked up a few (Goodwill) to jump
> back into it as I couldn't remember if I enjoyed it, or not. I do
> remember it being a tad on the tedious side but that doesn't always
> put me off of a good read. What else would you suggest by this author?
I enjoyed the Landover series by Brooks. On a similar note, the Wizard in Rhyme series by Christopher Stasheff is quite good, too.
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vDub
| | #209 posted August 20, 2007 at 6:40am (EST) |
I'm currently reading Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I wanted to see the movie, but didn't know anything about it.  Pretty cool so far.
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sgtshaggy
| | #210 posted August 20, 2007 at 8:02am (EST) |
Is it a novel and a graphic novel? Or just the latter? Seems like I saw a regular novel at the local Borders last weekend.
shags
"Fair seedtime had my soul, and I grew up
Fostered alike by beauty and by fear."
- William Wordsworth |
vDub
| | #211 posted August 20, 2007 at 11:20am (EST) |
I'm not really sure. According to Wikipedia, it's usually published as a graphic novel.
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Foxhoundx
| | #212 posted August 20, 2007 at 3:43pm (EST) |
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
Freaking amazing book!
Visit the GTZ Pokemon Center! |
sgtshaggy
| | #213 posted August 20, 2007 at 4:12pm (EST) |
Hmm, I dig the title--what's it about? I have no idea what WWZ is, or Zombie War for that matter.
shags
"Fair seedtime had my soul, and I grew up
Fostered alike by beauty and by fear."
- William Wordsworth |
vDub
| | #214 posted August 20, 2007 at 4:17pm (EST) |
Shags - World War Z
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sgtshaggy
| | #215 posted August 20, 2007 at 4:19pm (EST) |
Hehe--thanks. I'd normally dig it up myself, but it's tough to read up on stuff at work (other than a blurb) without interruption.
shags
"Fair seedtime had my soul, and I grew up
Fostered alike by beauty and by fear."
- William Wordsworth |
sgtshaggy
| | #216 posted August 22, 2007 at 7:56pm (EST) |
Finished A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick yesterday. Looking forward to watching the movie after the wife reads it.
shags
"Fair seedtime had my soul, and I grew up
Fostered alike by beauty and by fear."
- William Wordsworth |
Foxhoundx
| | #217 posted August 23, 2007 at 2:41pm (EST) |
The road by Cormac McCarthy
But yeah, Shags, if you are into zombie stuff, you'll love World War Z. It's by the same guy that wrote the Zombie Survial Guide.
Visit the GTZ Pokemon Center! |
sgtshaggy
| | #218 posted August 23, 2007 at 3:23pm (EST) |
I'm not a big zombie fan, per se, but the title is rockin'. After reading up on it a bit (thanks vDub), it sounds like a fun read.
shags
"Fair seedtime had my soul, and I grew up
Fostered alike by beauty and by fear."
- William Wordsworth |
Yaverot
| | #219 posted August 23, 2007 at 3:55pm (EST) |
Sandworms of Dune
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vDub
| | #220 posted August 23, 2007 at 4:51pm (EST) |
Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I liked it and now I'm a little more interested in seeing the movie.
Now I'm reading Perfect Dark: Second Front by Greg Rucka.
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virtuadept
(frozen)
| | #221 posted August 23, 2007 at 5:00pm (EST) |
Greg Rucka is also a comic-book guy. He wrote The OMAC Project for DC which was a tie-in for Infinite Crisis. That rocked pretty hard. He's done a lot of stuff for both DC and Marvel. I may have to check out that Perfect Dark book.
You will like the Stardust movie I think. |
vDub
| | #222 posted August 23, 2007 at 6:17pm (EST) |
virtuadept - if you wanna read the Perfect Dark books, the first one is Initial Vector and Second Front is the sequel
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AlphakirA
(frozen)
| | #223 posted August 24, 2007 at 2:17am (EST) |
just picked up the Zombie Survival Guide today, seems like a neat book and a good precursor to World War Z
Alpha's Wii Forum |
nihon
| | #224 posted August 27, 2007 at 3:50am (EST) |
Mistborn: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
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Foxhoundx
| | #225 posted August 27, 2007 at 3:13pm (EST) |
Spook Country by William Gibson
Visit the GTZ Pokemon Center! |
ndrake
| | #226 posted September 6, 2007 at 10:37pm (EST) |
American Gods - Neil Gaiman |
Potter
| | #227 posted September 6, 2007 at 11:39pm (EST) |
How is that? A friend of mine always tries to push it on me. |
AlphakirA
(frozen)
| | #228 posted September 7, 2007 at 5:44am (EST) |
Finished 'The Zombie Survival Guide' and almost finished with 'Wiseguys'.
Alpha's Wii Forum |
ndrake
| | #229 posted September 7, 2007 at 7:47am (EST) |
Potter wrote:
> How is that? A friend of mine always tries to push it on me.
It kicks ass. Read it. |
sgtshaggy
| | #230 posted September 7, 2007 at 8:57am (EST) |
I've been in a bit of a restless phase with my reading, with lots of aborted starts on various books ranging from Atlas Shrugged to The Dragonbone Chair. I picked up The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay yesterday, ordered The Belgariad in two volumes, then went home and started reading the LOTR trilogy again. I need to settle on something.
shags
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." - Bilbo |
AlphakirA
(frozen)
| | #231 posted September 8, 2007 at 4:48am (EST) |
more importantly,happy b-day shags 
Alpha's Wii Forum |
sgtshaggy
| | #232 posted September 8, 2007 at 8:36am (EST) |
Thanks! 
shags
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." - Bilbo |
Foxhoundx
| | #233 posted September 9, 2007 at 2:35pm (EST) |
Desperation by Stephen King
Visit the GTZ Pokemon Center! |
virtuadept
(frozen)
| | #234 posted September 9, 2007 at 10:14pm (EST) |
I'm not quite done with it yet but I've been reading EMPOWERED by Adam Warren. This is essentially a very hilarious T&A comic done in a somewhat manga style. I do not like manga. I am not a manga reader. But this, this I like. For one thing it's hilarious. For the other thing the drawings are, shall we say, um... titillating. It's just hysterical all the situations this poor super-heroine wanna-be gets herself into. And did I mention it's funny? As in, rolling on the floor funny? If you like superhero comics that aren't afraid to make fun of superhero comics, you should get this. And the T&A doesn't hurt either.
Visit virtuadept's RPG forum! or virtuadept's blog! |
ndrake
| | #235 posted September 10, 2007 at 5:52am (EST) |
Eternals - Neil Gaiman |
vDub
| | #236 posted September 10, 2007 at 4:06pm (EST) |
Death's Head by David Gunn.
I didn't enjoy it that much, but I only have one word to describe it: wow. It's a military science-fiction novel that according to Amazon.com, it's supposed to be a hilarious book with a ton of sex & violence. The humor was apparently lost on me because I didn't read anything that was even remotely funny. The character, Sven Tveskoeg is an ex-legionnaire who ends up being recruited into an elite group known as Death's Head after having been demoted for hitting a superior officer and sentenced to death. He takes no crap from anyone and he'll kill anyone who so much as thinks to look at him funny. He has sex with almost every female involved in the story but what he doesn't know is that he's only a mere pawn caught up in a much larger game of chess.
Like I said, I didn't like it too much but managed to read the whole book. If it was supposed to be humorous, it was lost on me. There were some points that I found hard to follow too.
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vDub
| | #237 posted September 10, 2007 at 4:09pm (EST) |
Here's an editorial review for Death's Head that Publishers Weekly posted on Amazon.com:
"First-time novelist Gunn, a Brit who's served his country by undertaking mysterious military or espionage "assignments," delivers a hilarious far-future shoot-'em-up featuring a flawless antihero. As Sven Tveskoeg survives one certain death after another, he reveals himself to be a supernaturally quick healer, able to communicate telepathically with aliens, honorable and compassionate in the face of terrible consequences and equally capable of masterminding a prison planet rebellion, the invasion of a city and the assassination of cyborg generals. Fortunately for Gunn (and Sven), readers are much more likely to cackle with glee than to point and snicker. Some may accuse Gunn of autobiographical wish-fulfillment that would make a fan-fic author blush, and Sven's adventures read almost like a novelization of a movie or video game. Those looking for hard-bitten military SF will be disappointed. Those who love schlock that stops just short of parody will be delighted."
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Dimidium
| | #238 posted September 13, 2007 at 6:30pm (EST) |
Just finished The Husband by Dean Koontz and before that, Battle Royale by Koushin Takami (best book EVER, and I've read a ton).
"Only an idiot fights when he knows he can't win. Balls have nothing to do with it." - Kensuke Aida from |
Foxhoundx
| | #239 posted September 13, 2007 at 7:22pm (EST) |
Blaze by Richard Bachman
Visit the GTZ Pokemon Center! |
nihon
| | #240 posted September 13, 2007 at 8:44pm (EST) |
Fruits Basket #1 - Great fun.
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-- Utah Speculative Fiction Council |
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