The thread of book recommendations

Million Dollar Mimring wrote:

Didn't the author of the Immortal Iron Fist write Gotham Central for DC? If so, is Gotham Central any good?

Sort of.

Gotham Central was written by Ed Brubaker (one of the writers of Iron Fist) and Greg Rucka. It is super awesome.

However, Ed Brubaker's contributions to Iron Fist were largely in plotting the general story arcs. The dialogue and action were written by Matt Fraction. After the first couple arcs of Iron Fist proved to be a hit they promptly changed the creative team on it, new writer, new artist. It is not as good.

Almalik wrote:

To the people who mentioned the China Meiville novels earlier (perido street station, etc.) - I was pretty meh on Iron Council, are the other Perdido books better than that one? (I did enjoy King Rat)

I've started reading Un Lun Dun, but haven't read anything else by Meiville. Un Lun Dun is like young adult urban fantasy, though. Not sure how it would compare to his adult stuff.

Spinrad wrote:

Million Dollar Mimring wrote:

Didn't the author of the Immortal Iron Fist write Gotham Central for DC? If so, is Gotham Central any good?

Sort of.

Gotham Central was written by Ed Brubaker (one of the writers of Iron Fist) and Greg Rucka. It is super awesome.

However, Ed Brubaker's contributions to Iron Fist were largely in plotting the general story arcs. The dialogue and action were written by Matt Fraction. After the first couple arcs of Iron Fist proved to be a hit they promptly changed the creative team on it, new writer, new artist. It is not as good.

I agree on all counts, especially regarding the new Iron Fist artist, who is kind of terrible. Fraction is now writing Iron Man and doing a damn good job with it, except that he has to play along with the latest stupid crossover event, Dark Reign.

Almalik wrote:

To the people who mentioned the China Meiville novels earlier (perido street station, etc.) - I was pretty meh on Iron Council, are the other Perdido books better than that one? (I did enjoy King Rat)

The Scar is by far the best in my opinion. Perdido Street Station was very good, and Iron Council was the weakest of the three. I've read everything of his except Un Lun Dun and possibly a few short stories.

Don't miss The Scar. In fact, I'd suggest reading the first two in order, then skipping Iron Council. Too late for you, of course.

Not Sure wrote:
The Scar is by far the best in my opinion. Perdido Street Station was very good, and Iron Council was the weakest of the three. I've read everything of his except Un Lun Dun and possibly a few short stories.

Don't miss The Scar. In fact, I'd suggest reading the first two in order, then skipping Iron Council. Too late for you, of course.[/quote]

I'm not a big fan of Mieville, but I agree with your list. I've just read Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council, and The Scar is definitely the best of the three, and pretty good by any standard. Perdido Street Station was interesting, but had a distinctive flavor that I just don't happen to like... good plot, but the setting was too British or something. Same with Iron Council, only I didn't find it interesting, either.

I just finished 'Dawn Patrol' by Don Winslow. The best way to describe it is 'surfer noir'. Yeah, I know. Sounds horrible, but it was a really good detective novel.

Last week I knocked out 'The Black Echo' by Michael Connelly. I liked it a lot; think I'll check out more of his stuff.

I recently finished Flashman In The Great Game. I like the Flashman books a lot, despite the casual racism and the fact that the author, George Macdonald Fraser, was clearly a reactionary lunatic who yearned for the days when Britannia ruled the world and dirty foreigners knew their place. If you can get past that, the Flashman books are about as entertaining look at the 19th century as you get, as well as being painfully well researched.

The book is set in the Indian Mutiny and has Flashman running around, nominally trying to prevent a rebellion, but mostly, as always, just trying to save his skin while having as muh sex as possible. It's probably one of the best of the series, though I'd still say that that the first book is the best jumping-off point.

I don't think I've seen them mentioned although I'm sure most here have probably read them. So I'm going to recommend the 5 books of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy.

Mad Dog wrote:

I don't think I've seen them mentioned although I'm sure most here have probably read them. So I'm going to recommend the 5 books of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy.

Not really a trilogy anymore though. I read the first four. While I found the beginning hilarious, I thought things started to drag later on. Maybe it would be better to read each book with a break in between so as not to get burned out on that British humour.

Not Sure wrote:

Almalik wrote:

To the people who mentioned the China Meiville novels earlier (perido street station, etc.) - I was pretty meh on Iron Council, are the other Perdido books better than that one? (I did enjoy King Rat)

The Scar is by far the best in my opinion. Perdido Street Station was very good, and Iron Council was the weakest of the three. I've read everything of his except Un Lun Dun and possibly a few short stories.

Don't miss The Scar. In fact, I'd suggest reading the first two in order, then skipping Iron Council. Too late for you, of course.

My feelings, except that Iron Council still had good bits, even if it didn't have the same oomph as the first two.

I loved reading Perdido, The Weaver is probably one of the greatest characters ever. The ending was pretty Deus Ex Machina however, and felt rushed. New Crobuzon did have that British-London feeling that is recurrent in Miéville's work.

I haven't read King Rat yet, but have read the rest. His short story collection is also worth checking out.

His next novel, The City & The City, is coming out in May, and sounds pretty cool. We'll probably once again get that London feel.

Here's the synopsys :

When the body of a murdered woman is found in the extraordinary, decaying city of Bes el, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks like a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlu of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he probes, the evidence begins to point to conspiracies far stranger, and more deadly, than anything he could have imagined. Soon his work puts him and those he cares for in danger. Borlu must travel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own, across a border like no other. With shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984 , "The City & The City" is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights.

Columbob wrote:

I haven't read King Rat yet, but have read the rest. His short story collection is also worth checking out.

His next novel, The City & The City, is coming out in May, and sounds pretty cool. We'll probably once again get that London feel.

King Rat was okay, but it felt like a watered-down version of Gaiman's Neverwhere. Too much overlap between those two books. I liked many of Mieville's short stories as well, and the collection has most of them.

Definitely interested in his new book. He's one of my favorite newer writers, along with Richard K. Morgan and Jonathan Lethem.

It's been awhile since any discussion has taken place here. Summer's coming up and I'm lookin' for some good reads.

What are people reading?

I'm listening to Before the Dawn right now by Wade. It's subtitle is Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors and it's an investigation into the current state of knowledge of pre-history, based upon archaeological, anthropological and genetic indicators. Not the lightest of reads but exceptionally well presented and very very enlightening.

I have the audio version so that I can "read" it during my commute each day and I'm on the rev button on my Fuze an awful lot just due to the amount of crunchy technical goodness in the text. Very much enjoying it.

Sag.

I've been reading the Harry Dresden books. I'm about to finish book 3, Grave Peril. They aren't exceptionally well written, but for a dumb, supernatural detective book, it's enjoyable enough.

I'll be finishing off Miéville's The City and the City during my lunch break, about 30 pages left. Pretty cool, if odd, premise, which demands a huge suspension of disbelief from the reader. As usual for Miéville, very well written, with great characters. The story moves a bit slowly, and I suspect the ending will leave some baffled.

I'll probably pick up Stephenson's Snow Crash after this. Maybe. My to read pile is huge. Some people collect games with the intent to play them, I have a slightly similar problem with books, although I do read them, and a book is far cheaper and smaller than a board game. And I still read them faster than I'm buying them, so I should catch up eventually.

Read Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy in April and thoroughly enjoyed it. A lot of people had problems with the ending, as everything was not all wrapped up in a neat little package and many of the main characters were right back where they started. Who cares? That was awesome, life goes on as usual. I'll pick up his not-quite-sequel-standalone book (Best Served Cold) when it's released this summer.

Besides that one, not really too many other new books I'm waiting to pick up anytime soon.