Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Hubris Incalculable]

I quite liked the Inheritance series myself, actually. Not as much as the others I've mentioned, but I've never really understood why a lot of people bash it so much. (I haven't read the last book either, though. Again, book prices here in Aus are harsh.)

My main complaint is linguistic. The conlangs are so awful I gagged the whole time i was reading them. And he completely stole the plot of Star Wars (IV - VI).

Plus, why did he include the "no stinking ba(r)dges" joke? that's just silly.

[Yoink]

Well, I am no linguist myself... You could probably write down the screechings of a monkey, change a few spellings to make them look like words and I would mistake it for some ancient language or other.
As for the other point, well I've, um... _{please don't kill me...} But I've never actually seen the Star Wars movies. I've been meaning to!
There are a lot of 'must-see' movies I haven't seen, so I usually miss any rip-offs or references to them.

[varnish]

(Hooray for the random books button.)

Where did you see that at?

If you click the "book search" thing on the main page, you should find it there.

Or just this.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?sort_order=random

[MaximumZero]

(Hooray for the random books button.)

Where did you see that at?

If you click the "book search" thing on the main page, you should find it there.

Or just this.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?sort_order=random

Neat, thanks!

[Geen]

Anything by Neal Stephonson is good, as is Terry Pratchett. Seriously, how the hell does Pratchett put out SO MANY GODDAMN BOOKS?

[Scelly9]

Anything by Neal Stephonson is good, as is Terry Pratchett. Seriously, how the hell does Pratchett put out SO MANY GODDAMN BOOKS?

Because he has the will of an elephant. Seriously, after he lost the ability to write he started dictating the damn things.

I'll throw in a recommendation for The Belgariad. It is a really great book.

[Skyrunner]

85% through Crown of Swords (Wheel of Time Book Seven) and I still think it's pretty engrossing, despite many people saying it slowed down around here. Read on~

I know I shouldn't say this, but I really hope Pratchett writes Raising Taxes before he passes on ... I wonder why many good people die early . <.<

[MaximumZero]

Hehe, I thought I recognized those music notes, Skyrunner.

[Osmosis Jones]

I wonder why many good people die early.

Because we don't care when the bad ones do, so we only notice the good ones.

Incidentally, favourite Pratchett book? I'd have to say a tie between Night Watch or Thud for me. I mean, c'mon, VIMES.

[Hubris Incalculable]

I wonder why many good people die early.

Because we don't care when the bad ones do, so we only notice the good ones.

Incidentally, favourite Pratchett book? I'd have to say a tie between Night Watch or Thud for me. I mean, c'mon, VIMES.

Vimes is pretty awesome, but my favorite books are the four Tiffany books. I mean, c'mon, FEEGLES.

[Pnx]

I think it was either the ones involving the witches, because I loved the pragmatic attitude witches tend to have, or it was the Rincewind books that were my favourite, but generally pretty much everything Pratchett has written is gold in my opinion.

[Skyrunner]

Hehe, I thought I recognized those music notes, Skyrunner.

I liked them enough to put it in my sig

I wonder why many good people die early.

Because we don't care when the bad ones do, so we only notice the good ones.

That's profound. :-0

I think it was either the ones involving the witches, because I loved the pragmatic attitude witches tend to have, or it was the Rincewind books that were my favourite, but generally pretty much everything Pratchett has written is gold in my opinion.

Spoiler: Indiscriminate spoilers ahead (click to show/hide)

I really loved Wintersmith, because of the sheer sadness of Tiffany's teacher witch dying whiplashed with the calm, and funny dialogue with Death ("YES, THE MAYONNAISE IS ALWAYS THE HARDEST. or something along those lines.) I think that line was a brick joke from another one of the books.

I also liked Going Postal's humor. The parts such as Mr. Slate glaring at the lawyers were so subtly funny I think the recent books have more "mature" wordplay >.> Just my opinion. Didn't really like Mort's humor, neither did I like Soul Music's. I did like the finale of Reaper Man.

In Thief of Time, the suicide of LeJean was sorta sad. Literal death by chocolate.

Thud! and Snuff were nice.

[Osmosis Jones]

I wonder why many good people die early.

Because we don't care when the bad ones do, so we only notice the good ones.

That's profound. :-0

It's called selection bias (technically a sampling bias with a little confirmation bias thrown in too). Also, now that you've had a little stats education, you'll start seeing these sorts of biases everywhere.

I do.

They haunt me



O__O


Back OT (at least a little), I must admit I don't really know what to make of Snuff. I mean, it was cool and all, but...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Things like Vimes using the Summoning Dark to help him seemed to go against all his "Solve crimes by bloody minded police work, no magic!" rules, and the flow of the dialogue just seemed a little strange.

Plus, there wasn't really a proper antagonist; the climax especially, while it was hilarious watching Vimes repeatedly stomp that guy, seemed to lack immediacy. Especially since his magic night vision basically negated most of the threat of the river itself.

Definitely looking forward to Raising Taxes though.

Oh, and have you read The Long Earth? Written in partnership with Stephen Baxter, sort of 20-minutes-into-the-future sci-fi with parallel universes. Good read, has bits of Pratchetts humour shining through (I'm looking at you, Lobsang), but there's enough of a difference from pure Pratchett to be a new read.

[Yoink]

I used to love Pratchett's work when I was a bit younger. The several-boxes-worth of books in my room attest to that.
But these days I'm not quite as much of a fan, for the most part. I mean, I still love some of his books, chiefly the Rincewind stories and The Amazing Maurice, but most of the ones set in the city and involving him main characters like Vimes and Carrot seem really bland, to me. Characters like Vimes and Carrot and

Spoiler: Mild spoilers, nothing really (click to show/hide)

the Werewolf (been a while since I've read any of them)

just seem too powerful, too unflustered in the face of danger and such. Pratchett seems to try a bit too hard to make them seem clever, unique and interesting, to me. They aren't really believable as characters.
He's still a great author, though- I think I might re-read The Amazing Maurice or The Last Continent after I finish reading the two books I'm currently re-reading. I'm just definitely more of a fan of his work that isn't set in Ankh-Morpork, or however you spell it.

[varnish]

My absolute favorite Pratchett book is Small Gods. Feet of Clay and Reaper Man probably tie for second, and The Amazing Maurice and the Wee Free Men are up there too. At least, those are the books that are staring at me from my shelf right now.

I think that Vimes was a more interesting character in the earlier books. More flawed?