Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

[...] I find that I like the book much more than the film, and that the BBC Radio adaption used an amazingly large amount of verbatim dialogue.

I've now finished "The Fellowship of the Ring". It is amazing how messed up the films are - it wasn't my memory that was faulty.

The films do have some marvellous spectacle and effects. And they have much less time to tell the story than the radio adaption, so of course, even more has been cut.

But what irritates me about the films are the changes in plot and character and time sequence that appear to not have been necessary to make the adaption.

[MickeyC]

Just finished Sideways by Rex Pickett and liked it better than the movie. Seriously thinking of reading the follow on book, Vertical

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I suggest you put down Feet of Clay and go read Soul Music. Discworld is meant to be read in published order the first read around.

You have my curiosity up. Finally at home and able to look at the L-Space website's Reading Order Guide and I see that Soul Music is completely out the story arc of the Watch Novels and in fact is part of the Death Novels arc. Are you just looking at publish dates? Soul Music was the next novel published after Men At Arms. Problem is I like following the novel arcs and the *correct* book to read after Men At Arm is Feet Of Clay. Sometimes published order isn't really the best way to read a series of novels, especially as large a series as the Discworld novels

[gmw]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

You have my curiosity up. Finally at home and able to look at the L-Space website's Reading Order Guide and I see that Soul Music is completely out the story arc of the Watch Novels and in fact is part of the Death Novels arc. Are you just looking at publish dates? Soul Music was the next novel published after Men At Arms. Problem is I like following the novel arcs and the *correct* book to read after Men At Arm is Feet Of Clay. Sometimes published order isn't really the best way to read a series of novels, especially as large a series as the Discworld novels

I agree with JSWolf that the best way to read Discworld is in publication order. But we disagree in emphasis. I think it's best, but I don't think it's that important. Pratchett himself, in the front of Lords and Ladies says:

By and large, most Discworld books have stood by themselves, as complete books. It helps to have read them in some kind of order, but it's not essential.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Thanks Jon, but I've already discovered that the books are pretty much enjoyable as standalones. And as I don't have a copy of Soul Music and I do have a copy of Feet of Clay, I'll have to read them out of order.

Actually, they are not all workable as a stand alone as Terry does not recap and he expects you to know what's come before. So you do miss out things by not knowing what's come before and you can also spoil other books by reading out of order. Terry did say that the order to read is published order and he's 100% correct.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

You have my curiosity up. Finally at home and able to look at the L-Space website's Reading Order Guide and I see that Soul Music is completely out the story arc of the Watch Novels and in fact is part of the Death Novels arc. Are you just looking at publish dates? Soul Music was the next novel published after Men At Arms. Problem is I like following the novel arcs and the *correct* book to read after Men At Arm is Feet Of Clay. Sometimes published order isn't really the best way to read a series of novels, especially as large a series as the Discworld novels

That reading guide is crap. It never should have been created. It is 100% meaningless. The way Terry intertwines things makes that chat totally useless. For example, Death shows up in a number of different books focusing on other characters. But you then have a good chance of spoiling something Death related. There is another Death related character that if you've not read the book he was introduced in, you won't really get him. It's things like that that makes that chart a worthless waste of disk space on any server it sits on.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That reading guide is crap. It never should have been created. It is 100% meaningless. The way Terry intertwines things makes that chat totally useless. For example, Death shows up in a number of different books focusing on other characters. But you then have a good chance of spoiling something Death related. There is another Death related character that if you've not read the book he was introduced in, you won't really get him. It's things like that that makes that chart a worthless waste of disk space on any server it sits on.

Hmm.. I'll think we'll have to agree to disagree. I'm not OCD enough that I *have* to follow publish order and I don't think *anything* is missed if I follow the recommended story arcs in that chart.

As gmw quotes Pratchett above:

By and large, most Discworld books have stood by themselves, as complete books. It helps to have read them in some kind of order, but it's not essential.

My order is the story arcs. Your order is publication date. Good for both of us.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Hmm.. I'll think we'll have to agree to disagree. I'm not OCD enough that I *have* to follow publish order and I don't think *anything* is missed if I follow the recommended story arcs in that chart.

As gmw quotes Pratchett above:



My order is the story arcs. Your order is publication date. Good for both of us.

And when asked, Terry has also said that published order is the correct order because that's the way he writes the series. I go by that since having read enough Discworld to know that Terry is correct there.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

And when asked, Terry has also said that published order is the correct order because that's the way he writes the series. I go by that since having read enough Discworld to know that Terry is correct there.

_Shrug_ You read your books your way and I'll read my books my way.

[Avalona]

I'm about halfway through Julia Quinn's To Sir Phillip, With Love.

And considering the headache I keep having trying to even buy these books at Books on Board... augh! But I like the series, so whatever. (I could just use Kobobooks, but they would be nearly twice the price than at BoB.)

[HarryT]

I'm currently half-way through Brandon Sanderson's "Elantris", and I can't recommend it highly enough. One of the best fantasy novels I've read in a very long time.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm currently half-way through Brandon Sanderson's "Elantris", and I can't recommend it highly enough. One of the best fantasy novels I've read in a very long time.

I enjoyed that one quite a bit. I can't wait for his next novel.

I'm reading "The Song of Achilles". Strongly recommended.

[xg4bx]

Exiles by Dan Worth, a very good indie space opera/military sci-fi/conspiracy novel.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Halfway through the first of the Herriot books -- All Creatures Great and Small. Enjoying it immensely. This book is a journal or compendium of short stories more than a novel, and each chapter really stands mostly alone. It's easy to dip in, read the next chapter, and drop out. There's no ongoing plot or suspense, no massive conflict, but I'm enjoying it immensely.

Still reading this, a chapter here and a chapter there. Enjoying a lot.

Originally Posted by CRussel

Finished reading Born To Run by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon. It's urban fantasy with a car theme, and is in the same universe as a couple of other series by Ms. Lackey. It was a fun read, though there is some serious content here about abused children and runaways that is the underlying theme of this series in one way or another. But the subject is treated well, and none of the abuse is used to titillate, nor does she linger on it. She makes the point and moves on.

Originally Posted by CRussel

@ATDrake: Thanks for that. I forgot to look at 5th Imperium. Definitely it's a bit of a jump to Chrome Circle. I started it, and thought something didn't feel right.

Sigh. Just read Wheels of Fire, thanks to ATDrake's reminding me of the 5th Imperium site. But this was a real slog. It definitely advanced the story line, but by the time I finished it, I wasn't at all sure it was worth it. Makes me leery of starting the next one, When the Bough Breaks, (co-written by Holly Lisle and Lackey but apparently not very much of Lackey if Wheels of Fire was any indication.)

I'm taking a break from urban fantasy, and reading the latest of Cynthia Harrod-Eagles' Bill Slider mysteries: Kill My Darling. This has been out in the UK since last fall, but just became available here in North America this week.

[Nyssa]

Just Finished (Last Night): Echoes of Honor (Honor Harrington #8)

Finishing (This Morning): Let's Go To Prague:The Service of the Sword (Honor Harrington Anthology #4)

Started (Late Last Night): Ashes of Victory (Honor Harrington #9)