What fantasy/science fiction book are you reading RIGHT NOW?

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 8:48 pm

Call them untrue dragons if you want. But they looked like dragons; smelled like dragons; were huge like dragons; and kicked ass like dragons.

A Soletaken dragon isn't someone who turns into a false dragon. It's someone who turns into a dragon. As opposed to a being who was born a dragon, and always is a dragon. (Hmmm, a Soletaken Eleint, who veers into another form? Heh)

Post by **I'm Murrin** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 9:02 pm

Who used the words "untrue" and "false"? Certainly wasn't me.

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 9:14 pm

Well, if Silanah was "the only true dragon", then the others were...? Not true? Untrue? False? In regards to Malazan, you and I know what that means. I just didn't want those who don't know the books to think of them as anything other than dragons. If ussusimiel is looking for dragons, he might decide there aren't enough actual dragons in Malazan to bother, not understanding what you meant by that.

Post by **ussusimiel** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 9:47 pm

Fist and Faith wrote:If ussusimiel is looking for dragons, he might decide there aren't enough actual dragons in Malazan to bother, not understanding what you meant by that.

Sold on the dragons trueborn or Soletaken. I'm beginning to think that I never read this book at all

None of it sounds familiar. All the more reason to read it. Hooray!

u.

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 9:55 pm

YouTube · Post by **Menolly** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 10:23 pm

Murrin wrote:Well Silanah was the only true dragon in the book, and appeared along with five (IIRC) Soletaken Eleint, which included Korlat and Orfantal. They fought the Tyrant at the end.

huh.
"True dragon" as in possibly explaining the description of Maeror's follower as the "Last True Dragon" on Eiran in P2? I never did understand that phrase.

Post by **I'm Murrin** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 10:38 pm

The "dragons" in P2 were described by Xar as little more than small beasts of burden. You turned some of those into intelligent creatures based on Pern. I created a dragon character which actually looked and behaved like a traditional western dragon in the mode of, say, The Hobbit.

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 10:59 pm

Au contraire!

The drakes in P3 are the beasts of burden. There were serious dragons in P2. Some came to Shakari, asking to be allowed to live there. They were pretty powerful in earth- and fire-magic. One turned out to be absolutely unmutatable, as we learned when he was unaffected while visiting Immeril when Nor Yekith mutated half the continent. I used power to look into it, but didn't get back to it to learn how he became so.

YouTube · Post by **Menolly** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 11:04 pm

Murrin wrote:The "dragons" in P2 were described by Xar as little more than small beasts of burden. You turned some of those into intelligent creatures based on Pern.

Actually, I thought the drakes of P3 are the "small beasts of burden." The dragons of P2 were glorious creatures, even before I introduced the Pernese traits to them.

Murrin wrote:I created a dragon character which actually looked and behaved like a traditional western dragon in the mode of, say, The Hobbit.

Well, there was room for that variable. I definitely enjoyed your writing which featured him (I just wish I could remember his name). But being based on a "traditional western dragon" made him no more "true" than the ones which followed cho, or the ones in Shakari. Still, obviously the story of his demise stayed with me. Well done, sir.

[Fist beat me to it...]

YouTube · Post by **Menolly** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 11:56 pm

*pardon the double post*

Am starting part two of AATE.

Post by **Savor Dam** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 3:26 am

Menolly wrote:Am starting part two of AATE.

Are you? Good to hear; about time you got that far.

Let me know when you get to the scene that aligns with the piece of art you shared with me the week after Elohimfest. That and a couple other scenes in Part Two bear further discussion...

Post by **Cameraman Jenn** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 6:58 am

Just finished "Perdido Street Station" and all I can say is AWESOME!!!!!! I totally LOVED it. I wonder if China would be willing to move to NM and accept a room in one of my Har-him condos....

Post by **lucimay** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 7:38 am

really? you loved it? i didn't love it. i liked it. but it took a pretty long while for me to really get hooked into it, then BOOM it was over. i do have a lingering urge for more of that moody mieville landscape and to that end i got embassytown on my kindle but...then i got hooked on the Jo Nesbø books which are even moodier. (he's the scandanavian james lee burke if you ask me) and then A Dance with Dragons arrived in my kindle so that's what i'm reading now. i reckon i'll get back to mieville once i'm done with that. oh i also downloaded a book called The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi. it's pretty bizarre. i started it but then, as i said, the Jo Nesbø hooked me. if you liked stieg larsson you'll love Jo Nesbø.

Post by **Cameraman Jenn** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 7:55 am

LUCIMAY

REALLY??? You didn't like it? WOW. I think that's the first time we have NOT agreed on a book. Friday night during some of the climactic parts I was reading voraciously and I went all the way two stops past my stop on the train before I realized it and had to get off and backtrack. Granted it IS out there and i know you like the more gritty emotional journeys of characters and put less stock in the crazy world building aspect which is why we gnerally love the same books (malazan) but the whole world and imagery and concepts just grabbed me hard. I loved it.

Post by **danlo** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 7:03 pm

luci wrote:but it took a pretty long while for me to really get hooked into it, then BOOM it was over.

I kind of felt the same, in a little weirder way, about The Prince of Nothing series and Deadhouse Gates-but the BOOM made them both very worthwhile...

Thank you Orilion!!! Just finished the prologue to Van Vogt's The Weapon Makers and am enjoying the living hell out of it!!! Wow what a premise and set so far out in the future I can't believe this book (or the series of stories) were published in Astounding Stories as far back as 1949!

The only thing I've read that's ever rivaled this for true groundbreaking Sci-Fi is Bester's The Stars, My Destination

(boy you guys spoil like hell re: Malazan, but I will purposely try to forget whatever I've heard as per my "private" discussions with Murrin.

)

Post by **Spiral Jacobs** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 7:13 pm

Cameraman Jenn wrote:LUCIMAY

REALLY??? You didn't like it? WOW. I think that's the first time we have NOT agreed on a book. Friday night during some of the climactic parts I was reading voraciously and I went all the way two stops past my stop on the train before I realized it and had to get off and backtrack. Granted it IS out there and i know you like the more gritty emotional journeys of characters and put less stock in the crazy world building aspect which is why we gnerally love the same books (malazan) but the whole world and imagery and concepts just grabbed me hard. I loved it.

You should probably get on with The Scar asap. It's better.

Post by **lucimay** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 7:32 pm

Spiral Jacobs wrote:
Cameraman Jenn wrote:LUCIMAY

REALLY??? You didn't like it? WOW. I think that's the first time we have NOT agreed on a book. Friday night during some of the climactic parts I was reading voraciously and I went all the way two stops past my stop on the train before I realized it and had to get off and backtrack. Granted it IS out there and i know you like the more gritty emotional journeys of characters and put less stock in the crazy world building aspect which is why we gnerally love the same books (malazan) but the whole world and imagery and concepts just grabbed me hard. I loved it.
You should probably get on with The Scar asap. It's better.

no jenn i said i didn't LOVE it. i LIKED it. i felt like meiville really invested much more in the character of the city than he did the walkingaround characters of the story. i really loved the bird guy and some of the other characters. the girl with the bug head...that kinda grossed me out.

and spiral i just couldn't decide which one to get next. thanks for the rec on The Scar. i'll try it.

Post by **aliantha** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 12:44 am

Luci, read The City and the City. You will eat it up with a spoon, I promise you.

Probably will tackle ADWD next myself.

Post by **danlo** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 1:24 am

I just ordered ADWD!

Post by **Cameraman Jenn** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 3:32 am

I'm ordering ADWD as soon as I wake up with my direct deposit in my account on Friday.

I am totally loving "The Scar."

Kevin's Watch

Kevin's Watch

What fantasy/science fiction book are you reading RIGHT NOW?