I discovered Banks's sci-fi stuff in 2008, and decided I wanted to read the lot. So I went on a bit of a library spree in 2009. But I've been saving Matter up because I didn't want to run out of Culture novels too quickly. Once I've read this, there'll only be Against a Dark Background (which isn't a Culture novel) left.
I read two Banks novels last year- one fiction, the other a Culture novel. I liked it okay, but I don't know how much I'd want to read the rest.
What did you read? Consider Phlebas is the first one, but I think the second one, The Player of Games, is the one that makes people want to read all of them.
By the way, if I were reading them all again, I'd give Inversions a miss. It's set entirely on a "primitive" world (equivalent to our Medieval age). But you might like it if you don't insist on having spaceships etc. in your Sci-Fi books.
Despite the hype Camilla is obsessively trying to create, which I know is offputting for some people, I do think you'd enjoy The Gone-Away World a lot. It is super-cool. The beginning drags, but by the end you will see why it had to, and it is so worth it.
Interesting. I don't like hearing that it drags at the beginning, though, because I'm so moody. If I'm not like, immediately hooked, I generally put the book down.
Well, I should correct myself. It begins in medias res with some action as a very effective hook. Then there's a lot of backstory, which is generally fine but a bit draggy in places. But the hook at the beginning is enough to get you through the draggy bits. Then it gets more exciting, and more exciting, and more exciting, and all the time you think it can't get any more exciting, and then it does, and then it springs you the biggest surprise ever, and then it keeps getting more exciting.
1. Stardust- Neil Gaiman
Awesome. And so much more poignant than what the film turned it into. Did you read the illustrated version or the prose version? I tell everyone who will (or won't) listen to read the illustrated version, despite the higher cost.
I read the prose version. I must say, I started Gaiman with Neverwhere and loved it. Then I couldn't finish American Gods, disliked Good Omens, and Stardust left me kinda meh.
I totally fail to understand how anyone can dislike Good Omens. Sorry...
4. The Blade Itself- Joe Abercrombie
7. Before they are Hanged- Joe Abercrombie
8. Last Argument of Kings- Joe Abercrombie
I really want to read him. Is he good?
If you're a fantasy fan, yeah. I've heard people call him "violent," which I guess is true to an extent. Less overall than ASOIAF, I think- it's not enough to be off-putting. Nobody gets what they deserve in the end, which is what makes it both good and bad, I thought. I'd recommend them.
15. The Alchemist- Paulo Coelho
I first read this in French (skiing in the French Alps, finished my book early, needed to get something quickly), and enjoyed it. Then Silje told me she had thought it was really childish, and I realised she was right – I just hadn't noticed it before because my brain was sufficiently occupied, not by the concepts but by translating it as I read. I am now a bit dubious about Coelho. Also, I know a girl who takes her entire philosophy of life from The Alchemist. I find this quite pathetic. What did you think of it?
LOL! I don't know. I think that maybe if I had read it back in high school, like when I read Jonathan Livingston Seagull, I would have enjoyed it more. As is, I think I'm too cynical now to appreciate it fully, though I do appreciate it nevertheless.
19. Watchmen- Alan Moore
Awesome. Don't you just love this quote?:
"Come... dry your eyes, for you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly."
I'm trying to remember where this line is from exactly. I liked Watchmen, but not as much as I wanted to. I thought the movie was better because the ending made a bit more sense. And both endings were anticlimactic for me. Rorschach's character made the whole thing for me.
It's the end of the Laurie-and-Jon-on-Mars bit. And I love Rorschach as a character. But the film ruined it by not making the bad guy look like a good guy until near the end – he was just a bad guy all along. Which defeated the whole point.
59. Servant of a Dark God- John Brown
I've never heard of this, but it has a seriously awesome title.
Hehe, yeah. It's a debut novel I got an ARC for from librarything. At the end of this book, I felt very similarly to what I felt at the end of Sanderson's first Mistborn book, even though it wasn't quite his debut. I thought, this could really be a good story, depending on where this author goes with it. I don't know when it comes out, but look for it- I also think you'd enjoy it.
I'll keep an eye open.
Vigilantibus non dormientibus jura subveniunt.
—Nous disons en allemand : le guerre, le mort, le lune, alors que 'soleil' et 'amour' sont du sexe féminin : la soleil, la amour. La vie est neutre.
—La vie ? Neutre ? C'est très joli, et surtout très logique.
—Nous disons en allemand : le guerre, le mort, le lune, alors que 'soleil' et 'amour' sont du sexe féminin : la soleil, la amour. La vie est neutre.
—La vie ? Neutre ? C'est très joli, et surtout très logique.
50-book challenge complete!
31/12/2009 10:02:42 PM
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What did you think of Three Men on a Boat? One of the more underrated comedies out there, IMO. *NM*
01/01/2010 12:02:36 AM
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I think Jerome K Jerome was brilliant, and wish there were more like him.
01/01/2010 11:21:07 AM
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Good job, Tim!
01/01/2010 01:09:20 AM
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Not only that: my current read is Matter, the last Culture novel.
01/01/2010 11:16:34 AM
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Me too.
01/01/2010 11:53:57 AM
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You counted a book about contract law???
01/01/2010 04:16:53 PM
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fnords!!!!!
01/01/2010 07:29:09 PM
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by the way
01/01/2010 07:30:04 PM
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Three. If they were originally published separately, the fact that someone collected them into...
01/01/2010 11:55:22 PM
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The Night Watch series just got progressively worse. I liked all of them, though. *NM*
01/01/2010 10:18:15 PM
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Of course. It's the 50-book challenge, not the 50-SciFi-or-Fantasy-book challenge.
02/01/2010 12:14:59 AM
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I would never have considered case books "books" for purposes of the 50-book challenge.
02/01/2010 05:41:02 PM
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It's a textbook, not a case book.
02/01/2010 08:43:42 PM
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I think even books we called textbooks were essentially case books.
03/01/2010 05:42:45 PM
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Re: You counted a book about contract law???
04/01/2010 10:30:24 AM
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We both speak Spanish already.
04/01/2010 02:00:06 PM
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Do you really figure...
05/01/2010 01:57:54 AM
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I don't think it would take less time than for Portuguese or French, but...
05/01/2010 04:53:27 AM
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I think you should teach her Koine before French
05/01/2010 04:01:44 AM
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If I could convince my wife, I would
05/01/2010 04:57:05 AM
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There's always Amharic, I suppose
05/01/2010 07:32:50 AM
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For some reason I always want to read that word as though it were in Gaelic
05/01/2010 01:49:44 PM
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Well, at least it's not Klingon!
05/01/2010 11:30:48 PM
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I have a cursory knowledge of Old Persian and a smattering of Gatha Avestan...why do you ask?
07/01/2010 06:09:20 AM
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Oh, come on. Finnish is all kinds of awesome.
05/01/2010 05:01:16 PM
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I know the word "omenapiraaka" means "apple pie" - I went to the Helsinki McDonald's.
07/01/2010 06:10:49 AM
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Since 50 and a half seems to be quite a popular number this year, here are mine.
01/01/2010 04:38:09 PM
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I think I managed, too. However, after that, my reading just... ceased.
01/01/2010 06:02:16 PM
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What did you think of Foucault's Pendulum?
02/01/2010 08:42:02 PM
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Because I'm not American.
03/01/2010 05:50:36 AM
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Yes, but you lot have lost so much more...
03/01/2010 06:03:38 AM
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Is the subjunctive any more alive in America than in Britain?
03/01/2010 06:23:09 AM
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Not in any meaningful sense. I suppose there are some irregularities which could be subjunctive...
03/01/2010 09:54:46 AM
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Would y'all ( ) say it's the same situation as with French (and I think Spanish)?
05/01/2010 02:05:59 AM
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Not exactly
05/01/2010 04:00:04 AM
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All I know about French is what's in Louisiana, and it's just completely incomprehensible.
06/01/2010 08:20:53 AM
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Aaah.
03/01/2010 09:04:45 AM
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I should have mentioned...
03/01/2010 11:39:27 PM
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Illuminatus! is so great. I finished the trilogy last year, I think.
05/01/2010 06:58:14 AM
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If this will be your first Eco, I definitely recommend The Name of the Rose rather than FP. *NM*
05/01/2010 11:13:07 AM
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I finished with 90 books.
09/01/2010 09:45:29 PM
- 650 Views