Books, Books?, Books!, Books...What are YOU reading? aka the WoT, GoT, Orson Scott Card thread

[shukudai]

Feist is good, and the earlier books are better than the later ones, minus Nakor.

[Mrf]

...
And the last book in the series comes out Tuesday. Huzzah!

How fast do Ebooks typically get put up on the internet for pirating? I buy all the books, but theyre all paperback and only the hardcover comes out on the 8th with no release date for paperback that I can find.

On that note; damned A Dance With Dragons is taking forever to come out in paperback too.

I'm sure it will be awhile for the ebook to come out, but the audiobook is already online.

[Souj]

Third of the way through A Memory of Light and Mat's chapters still have the same problem to me that they've had for the last few books now.
When I finish one of Mat's chapters, I feel like skipping through all of the other characters to get to his next one.


Unrelated to TWOT and only loosely book related; I managed to read through the first 8 Dresden Files books so far and I just found out that not only was there a television show based on the books, but that it was on Netflix as well. So I checked it out and had to turn it off about 10 minutes later because it was pretty bad.

[Qalbert]

yep

[Zeb]

There is an ebook version of AMoL out around on the high seas for plundering.

[Souj]

Spent about 7 hours in a row after I got off from work to finish up AMOL and now no more Wheel of Time to read

seriously don't click if you haven't finished AMOL.

Spoiler: show

Sucks and just seems out of place that Egwene was the only main character to die.
Brigette's death just came absolutely out of nowhere, but at least it ended up getting resolved way better. Good move not to make a big deal about her death if she's just gonna come back.
Only thing that got me a little teary-eyed though was when Jain showed up for Olver.

[Shuvo]

Finished A memory of light... started reading when I was 13... 15yrs later I finally finish it. Think I can die happy now.

Spoiler: show

Mat really stole the show I have to say. Even outshone Rand by far. I loved the little pissing contest between them when they were seeing who had the most accomplishments.
Lan taking out Demandred was badass.
The constant descriptions of trolloc fights was a little tiresome but necessary I guess.
I was sort of hoping that Padin Fain would get locked into the prison with the Dark one. But this was good too. I did not see the True power / saidar/saiden combo coming at all which was nice. It's always nice to be suprised :D

[Souj]

AMOL~

Spoiler: show

Well, Mat's been stealing the show for the last few books.
Had they ever addressed how Mat had gotten his Luck? I don't ever remember that being covered. I don't buy the "because he's ta'veren" because not even Rand had shown any sort of luck like that.
Would love a book that just focused on Mat, especially since Tuon still isn't fully seen as the Empress in Seanchan lands. Too bad there most likely wont be anymore TWOT stuff.

Now I'll finish up the last 6 books of the Dresden Files, then read the first two books of R. Scott Bakker's Aspect-Emperor books and hope the third comes out reasonably soon. Supposedly it's scheduled for Spring 2013, but no actual release date this close to it is a little worrisome.

[Qalbert]

finished Eye of the World this morning. Put it off until now because I wanted the series to be done, waiting on Kingkiller Chronicle book 3, and on GRRM for Song of Ice and Fire, and new Dresden books, is enough waiting for me.

[HadesWeaponx]

finished Eye of the World this morning. Put it off until now because I wanted the series to be done, waiting on Kingkiller Chronicle book 3, and on GRRM for Song of Ice and Fire, and new Dresden books, is enough waiting for me.

Any info on when Rothfuss will put out book 3? Can't even find a release date or nothin'. Makes me sad, feels like forever since I read the second one. Love those books.

[Coren]

I'm also sad that WoT is over. I teared up a bit when I was reading the last chapter and realized that 15+ years of waiting for new books is finally over.

Spoiler: show

I'm seriously annoyed that Egwene alone died among the main characters. It was a pretty spectacular way to go (the anti-balefire? wtf?), but it still sucks; she was arguably my favorite.
I wish there was some sort of explanation for how Rand changed bodies with Moridin. I guess as the Creator's avatar, he can just change the pattern at will (like lighting his own pipe), but that doesn't explain why a member of the forsaken is allowed to just heal up and walk off.
Beyond that, I would have liked a longer epilogue. After surviving 14 books I want to see Rand living in peace with all his kids, not going off alone and trusting the bond to lead his women to him. And I want to picture Faile finally dancing for Perrin. And I want to see Cadsuane working with Logain as the new Amyrlin and M'Hael (or whatever the new title is). And I want to see Rand let Tam know that he's still alive.

I'm assuming Mat got his luck just from the Pattern spinning out somebody with that Talent. Just like Min seems to be the first known seers in 200 years, Perrin one of the only people that can dreamwalk as a wolf, plus all the discoveries (traveling, making cuindillar, dragons, etc).

Rothfuss seems to have been really into the worldbuilders thing lately. I wish he'd get back to writing already since there's supposed to be another trilogy after this one.
I'm also waiting on the Way of Kings sequel from Sanderson that he's supposedly been working on since finishing the last draft of AMoL.
I also started reading the mageborn books. There are currently 3 of them with at least a 4th on the way. While you can tell the author is still pretty inexperienced (the plots are a bit predictable at times), I was definitely entertained. And the books are cheap as hell if you have a kindle (the first one is only $.99).

[Rhyis.]

new Dresden books.

Are the books similar to the show? I really enjoyed the show, and I've been hankering for more Dresden for a little bit now. Thought about getting into the series.

[Souj]

Are the books similar to the show? I really enjoyed the show, and I've been hankering for more Dresden for a little bit now. Thought about getting into the series.

Short answer; Read the books.

I've said this not too long ago, but I like the Dresden books, but really hated the show. ended up turning it off before I got half way through the first episode.
I had wiki'd up the show and the show has almost nothing to do with the books aside from a few character names, except for the episode Storm Front, which I guess is more lossly based on the book with the same name.
That said, books are pretty much always better than the movie/show that it takes from. And theyre a pretty quick read.

I'm also sad that WoT is over. I teared up a bit when I was reading the last chapter and realized that 15+ years of waiting for new books is finally over.

Spoiler: show

yeah, the more I think about it, the more Egwene's death actually pisses me off. After all she did and all she went through and all she had become and would have became, she's the only main character to die off.

Rand and Moridin has had a link to each other for quite a few books now after they each threw Balefire at each other and they collided, somehow causing a link. A few times now they've both appeared in each other's dream worlds when it shouldn't have been possible and both of them had no idea how it had happened. So presumably, that's what let the switch happen.

But yeah, ending was definitely lacking. But maybe that's just an opinion because the series was so long and because there is such a strong connection with a lot of the characters, no amount of epilogue would leave people feeling ready to let go. Though I would have at least liked to have found out if the future Aveihnda(sp) saw was changed, and all that would have taken was her telling someone what the name of her children was going to be.

[Wulfgang]

Just finished A Memory of Light; can't believe it's over. I have to say that the book wasn't bad, but it was by no means awesome either. That said, it's tough to do what Sanderson did with another's legacy and I think it was solid enough. Spoiler commentary to follow:

Spoiler: show

-Sanderson spent way too much time talking about the battles. 80% of the book dealt with wheeling cavalry units and flanking and so forth.
-A lot of deaths were really poorly done imo. Siuan's death was TERRIBLE.
-Lanfear's story arc was 1000% fail. Her death by Perrin at the end was awful. I really thought that she would come back to the light and play a pivotal role in saving the day.
-Resolution was definitely lacking at the end. I was hoping Sanderson would have budgeted an extra ~40 pages after the climax to pull a LOTR-esque type of ending (minus the whole Saruman scouring the Shire thing). I really wanted to hear more about the post-apocalyptic Two Rivers en route to becoming Manetheren reborn, Berelain / Galad, definitely more Tuon / Mat, Ogier rebuilding Camelyn, Talmanes finding a lady (was hoping he'd take down Aludra), Pevara and Androl, etc.
-I still don't understand Moridin and Rand switching bodies at the end
-The fight with the Dark One was so intangible for me that it ended up being pretty mediocre

Quick first thoughts; lot on my mind.

[Coren]

Just finished A Memory of Light; can't believe it's over. I have to say that the book wasn't bad, but it was by no means awesome either. That said, it's tough to do what Sanderson did with another's legacy and I think it was solid enough. Spoiler commentary to follow:

Spoiler: show

-Sanderson spent way too much time talking about the battles. 80% of the book dealt with wheeling cavalry units and flanking and so forth.
-A lot of deaths were really poorly done imo. Siuan's death was TERRIBLE.
-Resolution was definitely lacking at the end. I was hoping Sanderson would have budgeted an extra ~40 pages after the climax to pull a LOTR-esque type of ending (minus the whole Saruman scouring the Shire thing). I really wanted to hear more about the post-apocalyptic Two Rivers en route to becoming Manetheren reborn, Berelain / Galad, definitely more Tuon / Mat, Ogier rebuilding Camelyn, Talmanes finding a lady (was hoping he'd take down Aludra), Pevara and Androl, etc.
-I still don't understand Moridin and Rand switching bodies at the end
-The fight with the Dark One was so intangible for me that it ended up being pretty mediocre

Quick first thoughts; lot on my mind.

Spoiler: show

I'm by no means a fantasy writer, but after reading so many "the dark angry god-thing tries to CRUSH THE HERO WITH HIS GODLY POWER and the hero RESISTS IT" I'm not sure what Sanderson could have done differently. Honestly, after 14 books, I have no idea WHAT the end battle with Shaitan could have been that wouldn't be at least a bit of a letdown.

And yes, wtf at Suian's death. I think he got to the end of the book and went "oh fuck, better go kill some people" or something asinine.

[Souj]

IMO the most epic AMOL moment;

Spoiler: show

Moghedian changing into Demandred to take control of his troops, only to turn around and take some cannons to the face
and Rhuarc's death was way lamer than Suian's
All the compulsion shit in the book was lame. If she was able to do that the entire time, why didn't she use it to that extent any other time in the past?
and I didn't have a problem with Lanfear's end. I felt her true end happened with Rand confronted her and told her that she didn't mean shit to him.

[Indalecia]

It's okay, because...

Spoiler: show

Mat and Rand tied up in Tuon's garden: worth it.

[Wulfgang]

Dammit the more I think about the book, the more pissed off I am. There were a lot of terrible aspects to it. I'm reading the Dragonmount forums now and there's a ton of stuff I didn't mention that I completely agree with. I completely agree with this spoilered post:

Spoiler: show

Honestly, it's not the lack of resolution that bothers me in this book as much as it is how poorly some of the resolution was written in and integrated. Lanfear, Moridin, Alanna, Padan Fain, Darkhounds and Wolves, Moiraine, etc. They all felt just dropped in and wrapped up in the least amount of effort possible just for the sake of resolution. It really is terrible how casually "oh and there are darkhounds at shayol ghul now...and now padan fain and his mist is here..." some of these major plot points were finalized.

[Shade]

Are the books similar to the show? I really enjoyed the show, and I've been hankering for more Dresden for a little bit now. Thought about getting into the series.

The Dresden books are a lot of fun, but do take a good 3-5 books to really get good.
One of them opens with Harry fleeing from a horde of monsters while carrying a box full of puppies and the very first words in the story are "The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault."
I mean you really can't go wrong.

[Souj]

Dammit the more I think about the book, the more pissed off I am. There were a lot of terrible aspects to it. I'm reading the Dragonmount forums now and there's a ton of stuff I didn't mention that I completely agree with.

I'm just gonna let it go. When I was reading it, I enjoyed it enough. The book is done, the series is done, even after the original author had died. No point in ruining it by overthinking about it too much. Sure it could have been better, but eh.

What I'm really curious about is how Robert Jordan had originally planned to have The Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight, and A Memory of Light be a single book.