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Post by deuce on Mar 13, 2016 12:19:42 GMT -5
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Post by andys on Mar 22, 2016 17:41:56 GMT -5
Did you find playing the games spoiled anything from the book(s)? The Witcher 3 has been getting insanely good reviews, but I hear the games take place after the novels, so I've been hesitant in picking it up. I haven't played Witcher 3 yet (it'll probably be on deck soon...), but from what I understand it does reference the books more than the previous two and likely has spoilers, yeah. And there are certain things that the other games spoil, such as what happens to Geralt at the end, although in those cases it probably couldn't be helped since I think the first game preceded the translation of the books. Just wanted to do a belated follow-up on this because I'm well into playing Witcher 3 now. I think I can say that while reading the books before playing the games isn't strictly necessary, it probably helps a lot in terms of understanding the setting, personalities, and character relationships. They're still excellent games but it's plain to see that a reader would get more out of the experience. Imagine playing a Conan game in which you're wandering around and run into Valeria - someone who's read Red Nails would immediately understand her significance and have a good idea of how to respond to her and there would be a bit of a thrill in recognizing her, while a non-reader simply wouldn't make the same connection. Otherwise, this is a really good game. It's hard to put into words how IMMENSE the world is, but no matter how big it is, you're never far from something interesting happening and chances are good that it comes with completely unique scripting and has a well laid out subplot that will take you a couple of hours to complete. And then you realize you've barely dented the game. I'm like 30 hours into it and I feel like I've barely started the main story. I'm just going around this one dinky corner of the world doing witcher work, investigating accursed towers, wiping out monster nests, killing bandits, and fending off wild animal attacks. There are a lot of games with swords and magic in them but there aren't too many that get the sword-and-sorcery vibe like this one does. Anyway, back to the book talk (I'm reading The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett right now). |
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Post by deuce on Mar 27, 2016 19:50:42 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2016 15:13:50 GMT -5
Has anybody read 'The Year of the Horsetails' by R.F. Tapsell ?
It's a fantastic historical novel, I would say very much in the Robert E Howard tradition. The hero is Bardiya, I think he is a Scythian? He protects a Slavic people called the Drevich from the onslaught of the Turko-Mongol Tugars. The Khan of the Tugars is kind of a Attila, Genghis type character.
I remember that this was a great read, well-paced with yurt-loads of action.
I sold/lost my copy years ago. It's very difficult to find a copy of the earlier edition these days.
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Post by deuce on Apr 1, 2016 14:47:32 GMT -5
I've been a fan of Julian May's work for about 30yrs, especially her Pliocene Exile series. She's a Howard fan. Julian was the "Lee Falconer" who wrote the Gazeteer of the Hyborian World for Starmont way back when. Her Pliocene books are a sort of scifi-fantasy saga set in the Pliocene era, with swords, psionics and plenty of action. Lots of intrigue, sex and blood. Also plenty of cool male characters (not always something you find in femme-penned books). Tor reprinted the books a couple of years ago. Apparently, there's some talk about the saga (and the related "Galactic Milieu" novels) being made into a TV series. www.sffworld.com/2015/06/julian-may-interview/www.torbooks.co.uk/blog/2013/02/06/julian-may-peter-f-hamilton-and-fans-on-her-bestselling-novels |
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Post by almuric on Apr 2, 2016 12:30:51 GMT -5
Her Brother's Keeper, by Mike Kupari. You may remember Kupari as Larry Correia's collaborator on the Dead Six novels. This is Kupari's first solo effort and it's quite a debut. Catherine Blackwood has a father who disapproves of her chosen career as starship captain, and a missing brother. To find her brother, she has to hire mercenaries and travel to a distant planet to rescue him from the warlord holding him captive. It's nicely reminiscent of David Drake's RCN novels with great characters, action and science. Highly recommended.
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Post by deuce on Apr 5, 2016 22:57:15 GMT -5
Has anybody read 'The Year of the Horsetails' by R.F. Tapsell ?It's a fantastic historical novel, I would say very much in the Robert E Howard tradition. The hero is Bardiya, I think he is a Scythian? He protects a Slavic people called the Drevich from the onslaught of the Turko-Mongol Tugars. The Khan of the Tugars is kind of a Attila, Genghis type character. I remember that this was a great read, well-paced with yurt-loads of action. I sold/lost my copy years ago. It's very difficult to find a copy of the earlier edition these days. Morgan Holmes/"docpod" has a very high opinion of it: www.castaliahouse.com/the-year-of-the-horsetails/ |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2016 11:44:19 GMT -5
Has anybody read 'The Year of the Horsetails' by R.F. Tapsell ?It's a fantastic historical novel, I would say very much in the Robert E Howard tradition. The hero is Bardiya, I think he is a Scythian? He protects a Slavic people called the Drevich from the onslaught of the Turko-Mongol Tugars. The Khan of the Tugars is kind of a Attila, Genghis type character. I remember that this was a great read, well-paced with yurt-loads of action. I sold/lost my copy years ago. It's very difficult to find a copy of the earlier edition these days. Morgan Holmes/"docpod" has a very high opinion of it: www.castaliahouse.com/the-year-of-the-horsetails/Thanks Deuce. |
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Post by andys on Apr 8, 2016 12:52:28 GMT -5
Just finished Armada by Ernest Cline. Cline's first book was Ready Player One, which was basically a scavenger hunt set in a virtual reality, with tons of 1980s pop culture references. I thought that one was amusing in an "I understood that reference" way, but there's not much to the book beyond that. So I checked Cline's second book out of the library to see if he improved and unfortunately he really doesn't.
Armada is like a cross between The Last Starfighter and Ender's Game, with of course lots more 80s references. The premise is "What if you were playing Eve Online and it turned out you were controlling an actual spaceship in an actual space war?" It's very silly and has this cheesiness and emptiness that reminded me of crappy direct-to-video movies that were cranked out to capitalize on the success of better theatrical movies; like, Cline isn't writing Gremlins, he's writing a Ghoulies or Critters sequel. Stereotypical characters, questionable psychology, and too much exposition instead of real plotting. It feels longer than its 350 pages or so.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2016 8:43:46 GMT -5
Anyone red any books by Mika Waltari? Book such as "The Egyptian" and "Turms the Immortal" come to mind. Reviews at the time of publishing (somewhere in the 50s) said that for someone never been outside his home, Mika Waltari writes incredibly detailed and realistic picture for historic fantasy. I tried to read the books, but perhaps they are slightly too "slow paced" for a modern and ill-practiced reader, so I'd like to hear other opinions. "The Egyptian" was made into a movie in the 50's (found on youtube at ) but according to reviews the movie makes the book no justice. I personally liked it.  The book is just too thick for my patience, hehe. |
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Post by deuce on Apr 9, 2016 9:13:05 GMT -5
Anyone red any books by Mika Waltari? Book such as "The Egyptian" and "Turms the Immortal" come to mind. Reviews at the time of publishing (somewhere in the 50s) said that for someone never been outside his home, Mika Waltari writes incredibly detailed and realistic picture for historic fantasy. I tried to read the books, but perhaps they are slightly too "slow paced" for a modern and ill-practiced reader, so I'd like to hear other opinions. "The Egyptian" was made into a movie in the 50's (found on youtube at ) but according to reviews the movie makes the book no justice. I personally liked it. The book is just too thick for my patience, hehe. I enjoy Waltari's books. I've read 5 or 6 of them. Some are a little slower than others. The Roman is fast-paced with some good, understated humour (the narrator is unreliable and a bit arrogant). |
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Post by trescuinge on Apr 25, 2016 19:49:11 GMT -5
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Post by deuce on Apr 27, 2016 22:00:03 GMT -5
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Post by lordyam on Apr 28, 2016 2:13:59 GMT -5
I'd recommend the Dresden Files. They're a pretty good Urban Fantasy series with a fairly rough start that quickly improves into a funny, well written and well crafted series. It has good balances of humor, tragedy and badassdom.
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Post by KiramidHead on Apr 28, 2016 15:39:08 GMT -5
Tales From Development Hell, by David Hughes
This is pretty interesting so far. I swear, some of the movie executives described so far must have been smoking some serious crack. XD
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The book is just too thick for my patience, hehe.
