Kevin's Watch

The Forever War

Joe Haldeman

Forever Free

Joe Haldeman

Never could get into the Forever War stories for some reason. How you finding them?

--A

Deadhouse Landing, by Ian Esslemont!

Avatar wrote:Never could get into the Forever War stories for some reason. How you finding them?

--A

Just started Forever Peace.

Fair question A. Prose and characters not very interesting, rudimentary even, Forever Free is a bit better in that regard. The ideas and plot of The Forever War are intriguing for sure. It is, as far as I can tell, a very influential novel, its ideas and images are recognizable from many later works. The Gap for instance.

House of Chains - Steven Erikson

Just finished Memories of Ice.

This is my second read of the Fallen books, having also now read all the other ancillary stories. I'm getting so much more out of the Fallen books now - first time round didn't understand much at all. The end of MoI was heartbreaking.

Fist and Faith wrote:Deadhouse Landing, by Ian Esslemont!

Jealous!

Hiro wrote:Fair question A. Prose and characters not very interesting, rudimentary even, Forever Free is a bit better in that regard. The ideas and plot of The Forever War are intriguing for sure. It is, as far as I can tell, a very influential novel, its ideas and images are recognizable from many later works. The Gap for instance.

I never even made it far enough to recognise them. Felt like I was plodding through it until I gave up. (Which is very rare for me.)

I do like his book Tool of the Trade though.

Iolanthe wrote:House of Chains - Steven Erikson

Just finished Memories of Ice.

This is my second read of the Fallen books, having also now read all the other ancillary stories. I'm getting so much more out of the Fallen books now - first time round didn't understand much at all. The end of MoI was heartbreaking.

Agreed. I also struggled with them at first. I only had the first 4 (Lucimay sent me GotM and Fist sent me DHG, MoI and HoC) and the first time I read GotM I really couldn't get into it. By my second read of the 1st 4 though, it started making more sense.

I really like HoC (used to be my favourite) (now a tie between DHG and MoI) although these days I tend to only skim the first 100 / 200-odd pages of Karsa's early story.

--A

Reading the Erikson discussions the first read non-understanding seems to be quite common. I purposely didn't skim through Karsa's early story as I've picked up so much more this time. Ah! I thought. That's the boat

Spoiler

in Chain of Dogs!

Didn't connect at all the first time. Didn't like Karsa at all the first time. Now, with hindsight, I see much more in him.

I'm thinking of getting the physical books 2nd hand so that I can look for connections. Torvald Nom - I knew I'd seen his name somewhere before when he turned up later but couldn't for the life of me remember where. Goodness knows where I will put them though.

Haha, well, to be fair, I only started skimming his intro after the 3rd or 4th read. But yes, the convoluted timeline does make it difficult to fit things together sometimes.

--A

I've started Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee, sequel to Ninefox Gambit.

Finished my Gabaldon re-read with The Scottish Prisoner this weekend, that being the last of her books I have.

Started Peter F Hamilton's Dreaming Void now. Know nothing about the series at all.

--A

The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James

And speaking of Edur, I've just started the 5th Fallen book, Midnight Tides. Can't wait to read the banter between Tehol and Bugg again.

Entropy in Bloom by Jeremy Robert Johnson.

Iolanthe wrote:And speaking of Edur, I've just started the 5th Fallen book, Midnight Tides. Can't wait to read the banter between Tehol and Bugg again.

Yeah, they're about the only thing that makes book 5 and 7 bearable...

--A

Oh, God...Esslemont.

You reading it or just bemoaning it?

--A

Book 2 of Peter F Hamilton's Void series, The Temporal Void now.

Quite enjoying the series actually.

--A

And the final book, The Evolutionary Void.

--A

The Affirmation, Christopher Priest. Interesting, yet the bland prose and bland scenes distract.