What are you reading and book reviews

[semi-pro waster]

I've read a few books over the holiday season but the most recent and probably memorable is Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger which offers an insight into a world that is almost completely alien to me. I'd heard of it before but picked it up by accident, it's about high school American Football in a small town in Texas which is essentially obsessed with it - it's both fascinating and worrying in roughly equal measure.

There's an epilogue from the author where he reflects on it after a decade and notes that some changes have been effected in the town but that in writing what he considers a fair exposition of the town he's been viewed as a traitor. I don't know precisely how much is true or how much artistic licence was taken but either way it's worth reading for an understanding of how it is/was. If you've ever watched Varsity Blues there are some parallels that can be drawn.

[Stan_Lite]

Currently reading the "Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R. R. Martin.

I got the "A Game of Thrones: The Story Continues: The complete 5 books (A Song of Ice and Fire)" Kindle edition, which is the first 5 books all in one. I've got to about 1/3 of the way through the second book and am enjoying it so far. I like the way the story is told with each chapter being told from the viewpoint of one of the various main characters in turn. There does seem to be a bit of 'stretching out' of some plot lines but, for the most part, the story barrels along very well. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series and then watching the TV series as well. A bit of a deviation from the usual fantasy standard with less emphasis on magic and sorcerers etc and more politics and fighting (as well as some adult content). A welcome deviation in my opinion

[Kitten]

LOVE GoT. Books & series both fantastic.

[Tak]

I'm getting rid of a load of books and this is the first batch in case anyone is interested

https://www.facebook.com/Takhisis/po...?stream_ref=10

[Kitten]

Shared on FB I'm on a physical book ban now and am charity'ing several bags a month :/ have you tried 'http://www.webuybooks.co.uk'? They only really buy popular books but it's worth a try for any you don't get interest in

I don't really post in here anymore but I post regularly on Goodreads. Helps me keep track!

[Tak]

I haven't - I'll give them a look, and thanks for the share xx

[Garp]

Finished the Mistborn trilogy by Brian Sanderson a few weeks ago (and went on to read the stand-alone "Alloys of War"). Very good, well written with a clearly thought out set of plot lines that all tied up perfectly at the end of the 3rd book. It focuses around the central character Vin, a member of a criminal gang of slaves, who discovers she's what is called an Allomancer, one who is able to burn metals she has swallowed to achieve a variety of effects, e.g. super strength, telekinesis (against other metal objects) and so on; and her fight to overthrow the oppressive 'God' Emperor.

[Stan_Lite]

Originally Posted by Garp

Finished the Mistborn trilogy by Brian Sanderson a few weeks ago (and went on to read the stand-alone "Alloys of War"). Very good, well written with a clearly thought out set of plot lines that all tied up perfectly at the end of the 3rd book. It focuses around the central character Vin, a member of a criminal gang of slaves, who discovers she's what is called an Allomancer, one who is able to burn metals she has swallowed to achieve a variety of effects, e.g. super strength, telekinesis (against other metal objects) and so on; and her fight to overthrow the oppressive 'God' Emperor.

I read that last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. A little different from the standard fantasy format.

I'm currently most of the way through the Five Kingdoms series by Toby Neighbours. Whilst the story is decent enough, the writing is amateurish, bordering on childlike and the proof-reading appears to have been done by someone illiterate - the number of mistakes (especially in book 5, which I'm on now) is very distracting. The author has stretched the story too much as well. There is a fair amount of repetition and blatant eking out in the latter stages. The only reason I started reading it is because the first 3 books were available as one choice in the Amazon Prime lending library and, by the time I'd finished that, the 4th book was available there too. I bought the last 2 books because they were only a couple of quid each (even that's a bit pricey). I will finish the series since I've paid for the last 2 books but I won't be buying any more books by this author.

[Garp]

I'd have to say the same about the Sorcerer's Ring series by Morgan Rice, which I ended up getting for just a couple of $s and even bought the next few books (in my defence they were short and very cheap), hoping I could ignore the bad writing enough for the plot to drag me along. Here's what I ended up writing on Amazon (along with a 1 star):

"I want to like the series, the premise is good but the narrative is diabolically bad. Lots of short declarative statements fills the prose, leaving a very disjointed staccato feel to the story. So little attention to detail is paid to many key plot elements that it's rather maddening. Often it seems like things seem to have whatever size they need to for that particular sentence, for example a dragon creates a huge canyon with its footprint that the characters are able to climb down into, and yet they end up fighting the self-same dragon inside its own footprint...?
Full Plate armor seems to frequently be made of paper, and the fight sequences rarely present anything even remotely resembling sense, with barely trained kids fighting and defeating experienced warriors whenever it suits the narrative.

Time also seems to have little or no meaning, as soon as the character is no longer directly involved in the narrative, frequently presenting situations so anachronistic that it's hard not to just give up on the story there and then."

I originally commented this on response to someone else's critical review:

"Time apparently only has meaning when the characters are at the center of the story, otherwise time seems to just stop for them, or pass slowly at best.
The fight sequences routinely make no sense either. Soldiers described as being in full plate armor (which inclues metal gauntlets) somehow have their hands or heads chopped off seemingly casually by a sword, or worse bitten off by his pet.
Thor seems to also get away with just following his heart and has everyone worship him. At one point a character gets kidnapped by a sizeable contingent of warriors and Thor goes riding off to the rescue with a small group of fellow soldiers. No attempt to contact superiors, no attempt to get additional help (that would have been very quickly provided under the circumstances, along with an experienced officer.) When he gets back everyone just congratulates him rather than punish him for effectively going AWOL.

Beyond the lack of attention to detail, dialogue is utterly bizarre. Characters just randomly say stuff to progress the plot (or occasionally to get an "Awww" moment?), regardless of whether it's in character or not. The narrative frequently delves into rather short declarative statements, particularly when anything approaching romance is concerned. Unfortunately (due to how it's handled) that romance comes up quite frequently as the author seems utterly intent on providing a love match for a significant number of characters, major or minor, who all seem to fall in love in just a couple of paragraphs. The only comparison I can make is to Anakin and Padme's romance in Star Wars Episode 2, which has very similar aspects of inanity about it, but at least there was implied time passing there vs 5 minutes :-/

After 6 books (why did I keep reading so far?!) I still honestly have no feel for any of the characters apart from possibly Thor or Gwendolyn who seem less likely to do things radically out-of-character, even though we frequently find the story being narrated by (possibly too) many of the other characters."