Off Topic: Read any good books lately?

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Other than Martin has anyone got a more recent fantasy writer they like..each time I try a new one it's now a twilight teen ****.

As we've discussed D it'll always be referential but I like a new twist.

Same with Crime stuff....hated the fact it got so formulaic that I'd guessed it 6 chapters in.
Like I said earlier, I don't usually like crime/detective novels but got a Connelly book free from Amazon on my Kindle, first one in the Harry Bosch series, since then I have read a further 8. I really enjoy them and they are in no way a who dunnit <ok>
 
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My main point of comparison between Feist and Martin is Daenerys, and in a way the whole concept of GoTs.
Daenerys story and the Empire story are so alike.
Two great houses lose their head, in one the next in line is a young girl who has to be recalled from a convent, in the other its is a young girl who is sold into slavery.
Both have to marry men they don't want to in order to protect themselves.
Both use their marriage to strengthen their position.
Both lose their husbands yet prosper from it.
Both start to regain power by giving slaves freedom and employing men who have lost their "house"
Both take on a lover who is forbidden/beneath them.
Both have the same aim, to rise their house to the top and sit on the (iron) thrown uniting all the houses.

I know the ending of the Empire, I can see GoTs going a similar way but, with more protagonists there are more options.

Yep...totally get your comparisons.this might sound unfair because Feist dedicated 3 books to one when Martin didn't but I thought Feists female protagonist was much much better...talking book wise here.
 
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Anyone ever read Roger Jon Ellory, his books are all on different subjects, but all have a twist in the tale. Recently re-read Dracula by Bram Stoker in its original form. Still stands up as a creepy book, I imagine when it first was published it was considered terrifying.

Also re-read 1984 surprising how it is still politically relevant in parts



The book that Stoker copied all his ideas from for Dracula is pretty good too. Carmilla (or something like that) is the name.
 
Ha yes ...but tbf...naming Feist, Gemmel and Martin etc..they all basically just took African, Greek, *****l, Celtic or English folklore or history...

I give Gemmel his due he by the end just started doing alternative versions of historical figures which I actually enjoyed

Gemmel did the brigante series which was fun. That basically set Scottash celtic up very Rome with other names.

He also did Jerusalem man which was OK.

He got obsessed with Atlantic and this ancient power of sapistri stones or some such spelling and started sprinkling these guys all through these books.

The old witch in brigantes and the guys in the shan now Jerusalem books were basically the same.

His druss the legend stuff and kilskallon etc etc were better. He made his own world there but you did have dimilar witch there.

The last books before he died were troy which were good but you could tell in last one where his wife finished it.

They all followed a formula, you could tell it easy, the hero, the drunken oaf who turns hero by sacrificing himself, the mad girl, and so on and so forth.


However authors most follow a pattern

For example my wife likes bones on TV. She got the Kathy reichs books and I swear each and every one ends up with temperance brennan tied up in a dark place as the cliff hanger. Everyone. They are all the same bloody book.
 
Anyone read, or comprehend, the series of the fall of the malazan empire.

Those are rambling I can tell you. They have little pattern and meander aimlessly without real context through different world's and gods.
 
Like I said earlier, I don't usually like crime/detective novels but got a Connelly book free from Amazon on my Kindle, first one in the Harry Bosch series, since then I have read a further 8. I really enjoy them and they are in no way a who dunnit <ok>

I've read all the Harry Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer books by Connelly and most are very good but avoid Nine Dragons as that is total crap. Concrete Blond and Angels Flight are my faves.
 
The Flashman book series are also mostly good reads as well and you learn stuff from history that you would have otherwise missed.
 
I've read all the Harry Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer books by Connelly and most are very good but avoid Nine Dragons as that is total crap. Concrete Blond and Angels Flight are my faves.

I have enjoyed all the ones I have read so far, am 5 books away from Nine Dragons and will probably read it anyway to keep the timeline.
 
"I have enjoyed all the ones I have read so far, am 5 books away from Nine Dragons and will probably read it anyway to keep the timeline."


You need to read Nine Dragons because something happens in it that has repercussions on Bosch's life in future. And it's not that bad a book.
The tv series is pretty good too. Titus Wellever is pretty much as I imagined Bosch.
 
Can anyone recommend a good fiction book if you're away on hols. I prefer something a little enlightening/escapism when I'm abroad.

To give you an idea, last book I read on holiday was The Alchemist by Paulo Cuela.

Any recommendations welcome as I'll download to kindle, and I'm going to tag @Master Yoda as he's worked in a bookstore.
 
Can anyone recommend a good fiction book if you're away on hols. I prefer something a little enlightening/escapism when I'm abroad.

To give you an idea, last book I read on holiday was The Alchemist by Paulo Cuela.

Any recommendations welcome as I'll download to kindle, and I'm going to tag @Master Yoda as he's worked in a bookstore.
Tick Tock by Dean Koontz, very light hearted and humorous with some great characters and constant action. Easy to read and get into so you want to know what happens next all the time but, also easy to put down for other things while on holiday and pick up hours after without much thinking.
 
Tick Tock by Dean Koontz, very light hearted and humorous with some great characters and constant action. Easy to read and get into so you want to know what happens next all the time but, also easy to put down for other things while on holiday and pick up hours after without much thinking.

Thanks Diego but I actually want something to make me think while I'm in a foreign environment. I probably didnt explain myself very well but a book with deeper meaning or some profound purpose or message to it.

The Joke (which Master Yoda quoted) the Alchemist, or Tender is the Night. Anything along those lines ideally, mate.
 
Thanks Diego but I actually want something to make me think while I'm in a foreign environment. I probably didnt explain myself very well but a book with deeper meaning or some profound purpose or message to it.

The Joke (which Master Yoda quoted) the Alchemist, or Tender is the Night. Anything along those lines ideally, mate.
Ahh right, being on holiday I thought you just wanted an enjoyable time filler for the rest periods :grin:
 
Can anyone recommend a good fiction book if you're away on hols. I prefer something a little enlightening/escapism when I'm abroad.

To give you an idea, last book I read on holiday was The Alchemist by Paulo Cuela.

Any recommendations welcome as I'll download to kindle, and I'm going to tag @Master Yoda as he's worked in a bookstore.
The Orchard Keeper by Cormack Mcarthy.
 
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