The Sword and Laser discussion

Started "Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman, enjoying it so far. Just finished " The Affinity Bridge".

I had held off until now but I just finished my first Jim Butcher book. Pretty much accepted that I'm hooked and will be plowing through the series.

I also needed a bit of a break from sci-fi and listening to Destiny of the Republic. It's about Jrs Garfield. Very good so far.

Tradshad wrote: "I had held off until now but I just finished my first Jim Butcher book. Pretty much accepted that I'm hooked and will be plowing through the series.

I also needed a bit of a break from sci-fi and..."

That is what happens to most people who pick up and read Dresden.

I abandoned my library book pile to start 1Q84 and already Murakami has me looking up music.

Finished Deadline which was a fun romp with a few problematical bits. I really shouldn't read zombie books before going to work, I feel dystopic all day.

Closing in on finishing The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities. It's an astounding array of authors, many of whom write completely different vignettes than I would have guessed. (I'm looking at you, Lev Grossman. And Tad Williams.) It has little of the medical conceit in the earlier collection The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases. Very eclectic, some good and some meh.

Jenny wrote: "I abandoned my library book pile to start 1Q84 and already Murakami has me looking up music."

Once Veronica creates a 1Q84 board, I'll post some notes on things like cram schools and rightwing sound-trucks.

I'm going to join in on both Elantris and 1Q84 but I don't know if I'll be able to read them simultaneously. I'm also trying to finish reading the Inheritance Cycle books (currently on Eldest). Has anybody listened to 1Q84? I'm debating if I want to read it in print or audio.

I had a percussive run in with 1Q84 - take off the translucent cover and drk on the back. It sounds hollow!

terpkristin wrote: " Has anybody listened to 1Q84? I'm debating if I want to read it in print or audio."

I'm listening to it on audible at 2x speed. So far its a pretty easy listen. The full book is almost 47 hours long. I'm about 3 and a half hours into it. The audible version is supposed to have a interview with the translators at the end so the story probably isn't the full 47 hours.

I'm about 10% into Elantris and so far I'm having to read a little slower than I normally do because if I read faster then every time I see "Elantrian" my mind translates it as "Electrician".

terpkristin wrote: "Has anybody listened to 1Q84? I'm debating if I want to read it in print or audio."

I listened to part of the first chapter, but the narrator ... is ... so ... slow. There's a second narrator for the male POV, but I didn't bother checking him out and just went with the ebook instead.

just joined after finding the podcast via The Nerdist podcast. I'm reading The Prince of Nothing series. How did I miss this when it first came out? I just finished the first and really enjoyed it.

I opted to get The Night Circus with my audible credit this month. About half way through, it's a curious book, lots happen...but nothing really moves forward. I'm enjoying it though. It's a peaceful kind of book, despite some awful things happening.

I equate it to the novel version of a cup of tea. If that make any sense.

I just finished Captain's Fury. I picked up Elantris earlier today. Looking forward to it. I never read anything by Brandon Sanderson.

Sam wrote: "I just finished Captain's Fury. I picked up Elantris earlier today. Looking forward to it. I never read anything by Brandon Sanderson."

How are the Codex Alera books? I've been working my way through the Dresden files. I've just finished book 6.

Nick wrote: "Sam wrote: "I just finished
Captain's Fury. I picked up Elantris earlier today. Looking forward to it. I never read anything by Brandon Sanderson."

How ar..."

I have really enjoyed them. I like the way Jim Butcher writes.
However, I did feel the first one was hard to get in to. But once I did, I quickly became addicted.

Sam wrote: "I just finished Captain's Fury. I picked up Elantris earlier today. Looking forward to it. I never read anything by Brandon Sanderson."

I imagine you'll like Sanderson alot, hiss stories aren't gritty, but I really enjoy them. He has a certain style that you'll see across all of his books.The Mistborn series and The Way of Kings were excellent.

@Nick,
I read the Codex of Alera series before reading Dresden. I really enjoyed the series and enjoy Jim Butcher writing style.

It was the Codex Alera series that got me to read Dresden as I was not interested in Urban fantasy before Dresden.

Sam wrote: "I just finished Captain's Fury. I picked up Elantris earlier today. Looking forward to it. I never read anything by Brandon Sanderson."

You can't go wrong with the Mistborn series. It is one of my all time favorites. A truly wonderful story with great characters.

Cheers! Jim

@Jim,
How does the second book in the Mistborn series compare to the first. I read the first one and it was good but it did amazed me and I am not sure if I want to continue the series.

With the aid of a very helpful librarian I managed to hunt down Elantris this afternoon* and am ready to actually join in the the Sword and Laser pick for the first time since Dance with Dragons. Huzzah.

But I also got a collection of short stories originally published in Clarksworld which I might read first.

*My library is full of these stupid displays so books aren't on shelf where they're meant to be. It seems like it should be easy for the librarians to have a system of recording what's on a special display and not on shelf but apparently not. Drives me crazy.

Reading Love me a good dragon story. This is the second book in the series. Don't think the third is out yet.

Jim wrote: "Sam wrote: "I just finished Captain's Fury. I picked up Elantris earlier today. Looking forward to it. I never read anything by Brandon Sanderson."

You ca..."

I found it to be better than the first. I thought there was a pretty steep learning curve to book 1, given the totally foreign environment. The comments in the Goodreads forum about book 2 are fairly polarizing. If memory serves me right there is a fair bit of politics and less action, which was the root of most of the negative comments. The characters and their relationship to one another are really developed in book 2 and I found that very engaging. If I had to wait on book 3 to come out I might have had some negative feelings about book 2, but by the time I got to the series all three books were available and I read them one after another. Book 3 is full throttle just about all the way through - Sanderson keeps the pedal to the metal all the way until the end.

I hope you read it and enjoy it.

Cheers, Jim

Brandon wrote: "@Nick,
I read the Codex of Alera series before reading Dresden. I really enjoyed the series and enjoy Jim Butcher writing style.

It was the Codex Alera series that got me to read Dresden as ..."

The Codex series is on of my favs. Loved the different take on magic.

Kate wrote: "With the aid of a very helpful librarian I managed to hunt down Elantris this afternoon* and am ready to actually join in the the Sword and Laser pick for the first time since Dance with Dragons. H..."

I spent a few hours trying to track down a copy of Elantris, but the library didn't have a book copy and they still are not using Overdrive until December. So I took a box full of books to half price to scrape up the money for the kindle edition.

I am a few chapters into it and I think its going to be really good! This will be the first non-series fantasy book I've read in a while, Im hoping the pace will be quicker than some of these 10,000 page series'.

It's a bit quicker, but ends up seemingly too short

Ala wrote: "It's a bit quicker, but ends up seemingly too short"

That's what she said.

Still working my way through 1Q84 and 11/22/63, but took a break for the Highschool of the Dead Color Omnibus.

Started Cryptonomicon, lotta math in this one!

Reading Battlefield Earth, hope the book is better than the movie.

Kevin wrote: "Reading Battlefield Earth, hope the book is better than the movie."

Not a great deal

Phillip wrote: "Kevin wrote: "Reading Battlefield Earth, hope the book is better than the movie."

Not a great deal"

I kind of figured that since its written by the founder and creator of Scientology.

I finished Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (what a ride!) and am now finally discovering Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind I am way behind on this, but at least I won't have to wait for volume 2. And it already feels like I wanna have the second part - people have not over-hyped this book.

Check out the audio version of Elantris the www.graphicaudio.net did. Great version, full cast, music and sound effects. It's slightly edited to make it more like an audio play than a straight book reading. it's a little more expensive than other versions, 3 6hr parts @ 12.99 a part. they've also done his Warbreaker - Part 1 of 3.

Is the Graphic Audio version what some would call a "full cast recording" where they take out the modiiers such as "he said" and such? I've always wanted to try an audiobook like that.

terpkristin wrote: "Is the Graphic Audio version what some would call a "full cast recording" where they take out the modiiers such as "he said" and such? I've always wanted to try an audiobook like that."

Yep. Like they'll take out 'he laughed' and just laugh. But most of the text is there. A lot of their books are 'lowest common denominator', but the Sanderson books are pretty good. I've heard Warbreaker.

FINALLY finished reading Reamde (reamding Readme). Getting started on the new Pratchett novel Snuff now. Halfway through already and I'm finding it to be really, really good. I've heard a few people commenting on his recent works, including this one, not being up to his usual standard, but I'm really not finding that to be the case here. The only thing I'm noticing is that there's been a darker twist with a few of his most recent books (This and I Shall Wear Midnight at least). I felt like the latter ended up having a bit of a cop out by the end when (view spoiler)[people weren't just hateful and distrusting of witches, it was a magic spell that got reversed. It made sense storywise, but it did kind of take away a lot of the turmoil was going on there while wondering how various situations would be resolved. (hide spoiler)]

Graphicaudio does a lot of the pulp series like Deathlands, Mountainman, Mack Bolan, etc. But they also do Brandon Sanderson, Elizabeth Moon, Brent Weeks, R. A. Salvatore, etc. Plus they have a fair selection of DC Comics stories. They come out with new stories every week.

I've enjoyed them for a couple of years. Generally I buy 1 audible book and 1 graphicaudio story every week. Building quite a collection, and it takes up so much less room than paper, not to mention creates less dust. 8-D

Snokat wrote: "3 6hr parts..."

Any chance you know how the chapters are broken out? Like part 1 is chapters 1-20 (or whatever...)?

Not like that. Each part runs about 6hrs. Some a little more some a little less. So if a book requires more than 1 part, they try to find natural stop points to break the story up. I usually war until all parts are available, so I don't have to wait to finish the story. Like I said before, the stories are edited to be audio plays, rather than straight book reading.

They offer samples of each book you can listen to before buying. Check them out. www.graphicaudio.net

Well I grabbed part 1 of 3. Give it a go. :) Trying to figure out where chapter 10 is in part 1.

terpkristin wrote: "Well I grabbed part 1 of 3. Give it a go. :) Trying to figure out where chapter 10 is in part 1."

Well, that wasn't a good experience for me. I liked the idea, but I found the music/sound in the background distracting. I kept looking around for if the cat was getting into something, and felt it really hard to hear what was going on with the audio. Oh well, no big issue. It was worth a shot. Too bad that the preview file was "File Not Found," I might have realized before purchasing.

hmm... I was thinking of giving it a go too, but now I'm thinking the Audible version might be better.

Not for everybody, I guess. I've always been a fan of old radio dramas. Must have 100's of hours on one of my hard drives.

Snokat wrote: "Not for everybody, I guess. I've always been a fan of old radio dramas. Must have 100's of hours on one of my hard drives."

I've enjoyed some full cast works in past. I wish the preview sample worked so I could get a sense of if I would like this production. Unfortunately like terpkristin I get a file not found. Oh well.

Have you tried some of the newer titles? Sent an email to graphicaudio so they know there's a problem and can fix it?

Or @graphicaudio on twitter.

Graphicaudio says they've fixed the problem. You should be able to try the samples now.

Cool. I'll give it a spin when I get a chance.

I finished The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown: A Novel, a fictional account of the activities of a group of sf pulp writers, including Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and L. Ron Hubbard, working on a secret project for the Navy during WWII. It had lots of real-life facts that I was unaware of, like Tesla's experiments with world-wide power, and the cult Hubbard lived with.

Also I finally finished The Habitation of the Blessed by Catherine Valente, which was four inter-twined stories. She has an odd approach to story structure. Memorable images though.

I started The Temporal Void a little while ago and have been having a terrible time with it; it's just not holding my interest. I grabbed the free 1Q84 ebook download here yesterday and am loving it so far.