http://www.sffworld.com/forums/blog.php?2487-Spears-amp-Buckler en Thu, 20 Jun 2013 00:58:17 GMT vBulletin 25 http://www.sffworld.com/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.sffworld.com/forums/blog.php?2487-Spears-amp-Buckler http://www.sffworld.com/forums/entry.php?2172-GRRM-Has-Made-Me-See-the-Light Thu, 12 May 2011 16:15:15 GMT So I’ve read the first seven of Terry Goodkind’s *Sword of Truth *books after watching and enjoying the TV show *Legend of the Seeker* which was based (loosely) on those books. Please. Don’t judge me. Of the seven I read, I really enjoyed two (Stone of Tears and Soul of the Fire) I... So I’ve read the first seven of Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth books after watching and enjoying the TV show Legend of the Seeker which was based (loosely) on those books.

Please.

Don’t judge me.

Of the seven I read, I really enjoyed two (Stone of Tears and Soul of the Fire) I thought three were okay (Wizard’s First Rule, Blood of the Fold and Faith of the Fallen) and I really hated the other two (Temple of the Winds and The Pillars of Creation). After finishing The Pillars of Creation and thanking God that the torment was over (it took me over 4 weeks to finish. Brutal!) I read a couple RA Salvatore books and then dove into A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin.

Whoa.

A great book which I enjoyed thoroughly from cover to cover. This book also took me over four weeks to finish. More like five. But the difference between Thrones and Pillars is that I took my time and savored the 700+ pages of Thrones as opposed to not wanting to pick up Pillars. I went back to reread certain passages of Thrones that really struck a cord with me (“And Grey Wind threw back his head and howled.”). When something happened that may have been hinted at previously, I had to find that previous scene and read it again. I don’t do those things often, but I did them a lot with this book. I haven’t enjoyed a read this much since R. Scott Bakker’s The Warrior Prophet, which is a bold statement because in my opinion Bakker’s work is second to none. Will GRRM’s series measure up to Bakker’s? If the subsequent books are as good as Thrones it certainly will.

It’s also fun to geek out while watching HBO’s awesome adaptation because I already know what is coming. “Cool there’s Ghost!” and “Yeah, choke on THAT Viserys!” The book is full of characters you love and those you hate. Sometimes the hate is stronger than the love, though. Yeah, I’m talking to you, Joffrey.

I’m on page 58 of Goodkind’s Naked Empire and I’m not liking it at all. I’m really stubborn, so I always finish a book that I started, and since I already invested a lot of time into reading the first seven Sword of Truth books, I really wanted to finish off the last four and complete the series. But you know what? Screw that. I’m done with Goodkind and his repetitive, tired plots which he seems to recycle from book to book.

And what does all this have to do with GRRM making me see the light? Mr. Martin has shown me that life is too short to read shitty books. ]]> http://www.sffworld.com/forums/entry.php?2172-GRRM-Has-Made-Me-See-the-Light http://www.sffworld.com/forums/entry.php?826-The-First-Law-and-stuff Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:54:35 GMT I just finished up Last Argument of Kings, Book 3 of Joe Abercrombie's brilliant The First Law trilogy. This was the best work I've read since R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing. I love-love-loved it! Like Bakker and Matthew Stover, I'll read everything that Abercrombie publishes. I'm looking forward to reading Best Served Cold and then The Heroes, but I'm pretty rigid with my reading schedule. I have a list of books I want to read that will take me well into 2012, and I haven't scheduled in those other Abercrombie books yet. I'm pretty weird that way, but more on that later.

For the most part, my favorite pieces of writing are very character-driven. Don't get me wrong, I love great world-building and magic systems and so forth. But it doesn't mean squat to me if I don't give two shits about the characters. Abercrombie's characters are unforgettable, loveable, hateable and hilarious all at the same time. The brutally violent Northman Logen Ninefingers; the crippled torturer Sand dan Glokta; the meddling magus Bayaz. All of these characters have done or are still doing some pretty awful things, but I still loved them anyway. The most enjoyable scenes in this trilogy were those that involved the ruthless killers from the North who used to travel with Logen. Full of action and the dialogue had me laughing all the while.

When I got to the end I was sad because I know the other two books by Mr. Abercrombie do not feature Glokta or Logen, so I can only hope that sometime soon we can see them again.

Great trilogy, one that I will read again and again.

I've moved on to Terry Goodkind's 5th Sword of Truth offering Soul of the Fire, and I'm really hoping that it's better than that piece of **** Temple of the Winds. So far, not so good. All I know is that this "chicken that is not a chicken" better turn out to be something big. Come on, dude! If I wanted to hear about chickens I'd listen to my son play with his extremely annoying Old Macdonald toy. If this book isn't any better than Temple, I may have to give up on the Sword of Truth.

Now back to my insanity. The following is my to-be-read list:

Soul of the Fire - Terry Goodkind
Cell - Stephen King
Disciple of the Dog - R. Scott Bakker
Faith of the Fallen – Terry Goodkind
A Game of Thrones – George RR Martin
The Pillars of Creation – Terry Goodkind
Changes – Jim Butcher
Naked Empire – Terry Goodkind
Tongues of Serpents – Naomi Novik
Republic of Thieves – Scott Lynch
Chainfire – Terry Goodkind
Dracula – Bram Stoker
Winterbirth – Brian Ruckley
Phantom – Terry Goodkind
The Passage – Justin Cronin
Side Jobs – Jim Butcher
Confessor – Terry Goodkind
Ghost Story – Jim Butcher

To be scheduled:

Best Served Cold - Abercrombie
The Heroes – Abercrombie
The White Luck Warrior – Bakker
The Law of Nines – Goodkind
The Omen Machine – Goodkind
The Lord of the Rings reread – JRR Tolkien
The Silmarillion reread - Tolkien
Farseer Trilogy reread – Robin Hobb
God of War – Matthew Woodring Stover


I know, right? I've got issues. But if Soul of the Fire sucks as hard as I think it might, it will free up some time for other books because all of those Goodkind books on that list will be outta there. ]]> http://www.sffworld.com/forums/entry.php?826-The-First-Law-and-stuff http://www.sffworld.com/forums/entry.php?528-Blood-of-the-Fold-Part-3 Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:08:47 GMT I finished Terry Goodkind’s Blood of the Fold not too long ago, and I’m becoming more and more of a *Sword of Truth* fan with each book. Don’t panic, now! I’m not turning into one of those fans who gets all pissed off when someone says something negative about the series. It does have its faults,... I finished Terry Goodkind’s Blood of the Fold not too long ago, and I’m becoming more and more of a Sword of Truth fan with each book. Don’t panic, now! I’m not turning into one of those fans who gets all pissed off when someone says something negative about the series. It does have its faults, but I like where it’s going and Richard and Kahlan’s relationship isn’t anywhere near as annoying as it used to be. Although this could be because they were apart for most of this book.

The Sisters of the Light’s storyline continues to interest me (I’m still trying to figure out who is in which Ajah. Snicker snicker.), and it seems that they will play an even larger role in events to come. Even though I still think Richard’s rise to power and subsequent control of Aydindril and other lands was too quick and neat, it’s cool to see him in that position and I like how he is handling it.

The ending worked for me because there was a lot of action on more than one front where Big Things went down. This showed me that Mr. Goodkind’s ability to juggle different storylines is pretty good.

Now it’s time for a couple of things I didn’t care for much. On an earlier blog post, I mentioned that I liked Emperor Jagang’s introduction and that I thought he was a good villain. I still think this and he’s far and away a better one than Darken Rahl. But that introductory scene with him was his only scene! What a tease. I hope there is more with him as the series continues.

Richard’s knowledge of magic and how to use it is supposed to very limited. But it seems that he can do extremely difficult magic when he needs to, and the explanation for it is that he follows his instincts. I think this is kind of a cop-out and I don’t find it believable. But I go along with it after an eye-roll and all is well.
I’ve got three more books to read on my list before I get back to Sword of Truth and Temple of the Winds and I’m looking forward to it.
I also just finished Gerald’s Game by Stephen King in less than a week (This is quite fast for me). It had me staying up late because I couldn’t put it down and it was pretty twisted. Typical King. The guy never ceases to amaze me, with all his good books and so-forth. I almost want to come across a bad one so I’ll know that he’s human. ]]> http://www.sffworld.com/forums/entry.php?528-Blood-of-the-Fold-Part-3 http://www.sffworld.com/forums/entry.php?510-Seeker-and-Lost-Finales Tue, 25 May 2010 19:10:17 GMT Page 368 of Blood of the Fold and finally Kahlan appears! Yay! So *Legend of the Seeker*’s finale was Saturday night and *Lost*’s was Sunday. What a downer of a weekend because two of my favorite shows are now done. But both finales were very satisfying for me and I liked them a lot. Beware,... Page 368 of Blood of the Fold and finally Kahlan appears! Yay!

So Legend of the Seeker’s finale was Saturday night and Lost’s was Sunday. What a downer of a weekend because two of my favorite shows are now done. But both finales were very satisfying for me and I liked them a lot. Beware, there be spoilers, here. We’ll start with Seeker.

I liked how Seeker resolved their main conflict for this season and didn’t leave it open at all. I find that refreshing especially since I think they finished filming before it was known that the show would be cancelled.

The action in the finale was great, and I’m glad Cara was back on Richard’s side. What was done with Kahlan was an interesting twist, too. The background music is fantastic for this show, and I’m not just talking about the finale but throughout the entire series. Even though the show is light viewing and a little campy, it was still one of the few shows I watched every week and enjoyed a lot. I will miss it greatly.

I know there are conflicting opinions about Lost, but I really liked the way it ended. Jack’s eye closing at the very end was the perfect image and now that I’ve seen it I can’t imagine them leaving us with any other. I also liked how the show came back to focusing more on his character like it was in the beginning. There was a season or two in there where we got away from him a little more than I cared for, although I realize the cast was growing and other parts were becoming more important.

I had a feeling that something might happen to Jack because he was the obvious choice to protect the island and I was right about that. But I thought it would ultimately end up being Sawyer who was the one. It was cool that it turned out to be Hurley; his character is still one of the best. The Star Wars references got me every time! My favorite was from last season (I think) when he was writing the script for The Empire Strikes Back. Love that one.

I wish we could have found out what exactly the island was and what would have happened had the Man In Black gotten off the island, but the finale for Lost was awesome and there is now a gaping hole where that show was. As much as I’ll miss Seeker, I will miss Lost more.

Here’s to waiting for HBO’s A Game of Thrones! ]]> http://www.sffworld.com/forums/entry.php?510-Seeker-and-Lost-Finales http://www.sffworld.com/forums/entry.php?504-Blood-of-the-Fold-Part-2 Tue, 18 May 2010 16:36:44 GMT Blood of the Fold, Book 3 in the *Sword of Truth* series by Terry Goodkind. Blood of the Fold is still moving a little slowly, but I’ve just passed the 300 page mark and now we’re getting somewhere. I’ve just met the newest villain in the book, the emperor Jagang, and although I have an issue... Blood of the Fold, Book 3 in the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind.

Blood of the Fold is still moving a little slowly, but I’ve just passed the 300 page mark and now we’re getting somewhere. I’ve just met the newest villain in the book, the emperor Jagang, and although I have an issue with him that I will get into in a bit, his character is intriguing so far. The Sisters of the Dark fear him and I’ve heard a lot about him, so there was a little bit of build-up for him, and he didn’t fall short. His “on-screen” introduction was well done and he seems like a bad-ass, to put it bluntly.

What I don’t understand about this very powerful emperor who commands an almost unrealistically large army is why so many, including Sisters in the Palace of the Prophets (which is technically in his empire) have not heard of him. I understand that people in the New World may not know who he is because of the boundaries and the Towers of Perdition and such, but still somebody with such great power as Jagang has should be more well known.

Something else I just can’t grasp is how people, the Blood of the Fold in particular, who serve a righteous Creator can think that torture and murder are okay. I guess these religious fanatics fall under the same umbrella as those in the Crusades or maybe the modern day terrorists who think they are doing the work of their god. I struggle with this because I just don’t see how people can think that way.

The obsession with the game Ja’La is also kind of silly. It almost seems that Mr. Goodkind put this in because he has some kind of bug up his ass about professional sports.

Hopefully there is a lot more with Jagang in the upcoming passages, and his plotline continues in a good direction. What Richard is doing in unifying the Midlands is starting to make more sense, but it still seems too easy. Overall the book is decent, and I expected it to fall off in quality from the first two from what I have read online so I am pleasantly surprised.

Oh, yeah. Where the hell is Kahlan? ]]> http://www.sffworld.com/forums/entry.php?504-Blood-of-the-Fold-Part-2