OT: Books, Books, Books.

narf poit chez BOOM · #1 January 3rd, 2004, 04:15 AM

aside from it not having the general looniness of the other books, i don't really see the problem. the books more serious tone reflects the more serious and experienced miles. he was in his twenty's during his adventure's and now that he's thirty, his starting to run his thinking from his brain, not his glands. and is naturally appalled at some of the risks he took.

Geckomlis · #2 January 3rd, 2004, 04:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by gregebowman:

quote:
Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
i read series in whatever order i find them.

I did that one time. Bought book 3 of the Donald Stephenson first trilogy (White Gold Wielder?), then read the second trilogy, then read the first 2 books of the original trilogy. Talk about being confused.

Yes, that would just about confuse anyone...

Geckomlis · #3 January 3rd, 2004, 04:43 AM

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Originally posted by gregebowman:

quote:
Originally posted by Deathstalker:
Cordelia has the first two books in the series, then Young Miles has the next two IIRC. Thats the ONE thing I hate about book stores (even Chapters does it), you go in and look at a book, it seems interesting and then you find out its part 45 of 68 and part 1 is nowhere to be seen. ARGH. Luckily our local chapters seems to be ok at stocking titles and we have several good 2nd hand book shops.

Deathstalker, that's the most frustrating thing for me too. I don't usually go the to the book stores. Usually I'll see a book at Wal-Mart or some similar store and buy it there. But it is frustrating to see a book in a series you've never heard of before and then find out it's book 2 or 3 of a trilogy, or maybe book 5 of a series of 8. So I know what you mean.

Ok, I have to ask: Did you try your local public library system? Even if they do not have a book, they usually can get it via inter-library loan at no cost to the patron. Most libraries have put their catalogs on-line, i.e. you can search for books from any web browser. I have borrowed every SF book I wanted from the library. I could never afford to buy the hundreds of books that I have read over the years...

SpaceBadger · #4 January 3rd, 2004, 04:45 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
aside from it not having the general looniness of the other books, i don't really see the problem. the books more serious tone reflects the more serious and experienced miles. he was in his twenty's during his adventure's and now that he's thirty, his starting to run his thinking from his brain, not his glands. and is naturally appalled at some of the risks he took.

Bah, I'm talking about the plot and the writing - just not up to Bujold's usual high standards. I mean, seriously, look at the ending - all of the action happens offstage and is described second-hand afterward!

Miles is no more of a stick in this one than he was in Civil Campaign, and I =loved= Civil Campaign. I just didn't think Diplomatic Immunity was as good a book as the rest, and I've been reading them (and re-reading them) since about '88 or '89, whenever I first ran across Miles in the pages of Analog (the story where he meets Taura, title escapes me at the moment). Diplomatic Immunity just felt too much like she was going through the motions without anything really interesting to say, which was a significant letdown from her usual quality.

I'm happy to report that Bujold's latest book, Paladin of Souls (second in the Chalion series, not a Vorkosigan book), is an excellent story and shows very well that she has not lost her touch - perhaps she just needs to get away from Miles for awhile.

SpaceBadger

[ January 03, 2004, 02:47: Message edited by: SpaceBadger ]

narf poit chez BOOM · #5 January 3rd, 2004, 04:51 AM

well, ok, it has adventure's. but not the level of hilarity of the other books. and, alot was happening offstage. but, it was told from vorkosigan's point of view and he was unconcious for the wrap up and not very on top of things until the end, where he showed his usual style. i didn't find it quite as engrossing as the other's, but i think it was just a difference in the style. mostly.

Narratio · #6 January 3rd, 2004, 01:57 PM

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Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:

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I've just become a dinosaur.....

how so?

I think that Cipher, like me, reads everything he can lay his hands on including cereal boxes. When Atrocities (an otherwise noble individual) said he don't read tomes...
Well, Ciper and I have something in common.

Randallw · #7 January 4th, 2004, 02:09 AM

Since this thread started out about David Weber. I am currently reading the "Shiva Option". I swear it reads like a game of SE4 (or another space empires game). You have fleets with say 68 Battlecruisers, 40 Monitors, 40 Carriers, 100 cruisers and 2000 fighters taking each other on. First they enter through a warp point destroy all the mines and warp point defenses including bases, then move into the system and fight other fleets sometimes chasing them to other warp points in the system or attacking planets. It is just fleet engagement after fleet engagement with almost no coverage outside battles, except a few pages every once in a while about the empires planning their war on the enemy. The Writers even thank a fellow wargamer who created one of the empires. Its like they played a game and one of them wrote a book about what happened each turn. I think the "Bahgs" would be an interesting empire to play, but of course they have absolutely no opportunity for roleplaying. I tried reading honour harrington books once but didn't like the first one i tried after a few pages.