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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler

First experience with Chandler and I absolutely understand how his influence has permeated pop-culture. That said, I don't think I've seen a single 'imitation' that can quite mimic his voice. The plot is half-nonsense, even for the era it's set in, but the entire appeal is in the prose and the environment of the book. Chandler wrote like nobody else ever has, and probably ever will.

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On 4/8/2018 at 7:31 PM, KuechTheCat said:

I just finished The Dragon Reborn (third in the Wheel of Time series), and I've had it. I'd say three 600+ page doorstoppers qualifies as more than giving a series a chance, and I am just not into it. Definitely not slogging through the other eleven (?) or so books. 

Two comments:

1.  Jordan's Wheel of Time doesn't hold up well over time - but at the time when it was released, it was just so much more in-depth and more world-building than the fantasy novels before it.   Pretty much every author was putting out trilogies LOTR-style, and always with the same idea (poor boy orphan bastard-prince in disguise, or falls in love with maiden princess trying to live up to royalty expectations).   At the time, WoT was ground-breaking.   I'm a little surprised you find it slow going in the first 3 novels, but I read them as they were released, so given what fantasy was like then and how it is now, I can see how it appears slow compared to how GRRM & other series move along.   Before WoT, world building was so superficial with the Feists/Brooks/Eddings of the world.    Now, compared to what we get with series today, though, I get that it doesn't age well - just keep in mind that without Jordan's series, I don't know that we get publishers who sign off on GRRM's world, or others so complex.    Doesn't mean you have to go through that pain of 14 books, though (he really milked that series in the middle third of that series, Sanderson finished it off as well as anyone could have).

2.  If you really want something with more bite, and more in line with GRRM, I highly recommend Steven Erikson (and then his colleague, Ian Esslemont) Malazan's Book of the Fallen series.   Warning, it's incredibly deep and complex - but much like GRRM - they are NOT afraid to kill off characters as part of strong storytelling.   And these are complex, nuanced characters, and a world so stunning, I think they need 3 separate websites to keep the stories straight there.   The mythology they create with their ancient races is sometimes incredibly hard to keep up with, but the characters, their development and stories Erikson created are just amazing, I daresay on par or even better than GRRM's peak (not the TV series, but book-level - man, those Bridge Burners, and Mael/Tehoct, the Claw, Crimson Guard, Tiste Andii, man so many favorites) - Erikson's the one guy I rate over GRRM at their peak.  THAT good.   Gardens of the Moon, Deadhouse Gates - amazing books, and the whole series is just top-shelf.  Cannot recommend enough.

Edited by Broncofan
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On 7/8/2018 at 6:10 AM, flyers0909 said:

Just finished Slaughterhouse Five, I really loved this book.  Bought a few more Vonnegut books as well from Thriftbooks I'll try to burn through in the next couple weeks. 

Thriftbooks is mindblowing on everything that isn’t a relatively new 

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