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Post by Mezzaphor on Jun 17, 2014 3:33:38 GMT
Rather than further derailing Applelight's recommendation thread...
I just started The Ball and the Cross by G.K. Chesterton and I think I'm going to really like this. On the very first page, there's a great line about how dreamlike the world of science is. Unfortunately it's too long to type out on this phone.
And then, still on the first page, is this: "That thing which looked like an enormous key with three wheels was really a patent and very deadly revolver."
Holy carp it's Problem Sleuth's gun/key!
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jun 17, 2014 4:05:29 GMT
I really need to get into reading some Chesterton. Everything I've heard about him makes me think I'd enjoy his work.
Though I should probably finish A Song of Ice and Fire before I start anything else. I'm about halfway through A Clash of Kings, and while it's quite good, it is a (slight) step down from Game of Thrones mainly because of how disconnected everything is. The first book had a strong primary plot thread tying everything together. This one sort of does as well (namely that everybody and their grandma is claiming to be king now), but the problem is all of the subplots don't really intersect much, which gives it the feel of being a dozen stories that take place in the same universe rather than being one novel. Like there'll be a chapter about one character doing something, and then it'll jump to another character hundreds of miles away doing something totally different, and it'll be half a dozen chapters before the first character's plot thread picks up. Granted, I'm pretty sure they'll all collide at the end, but I do sort of wish they'd be a bit more intertwined.
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Post by Mezzaphor on Jun 25, 2014 3:53:01 GMT
Just finished The Ball and the Cross. Here's the quote I mentioned in my last post:
And here's another one from near the end.
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Post by Applelight Limited on Jun 25, 2014 12:55:23 GMT
Just finished The Ball and the Cross. Here's the quote I mentioned in my last post: And here's another one from near the end. Now that is quality writing. In my own reading, I'm getting...nothing done. I'm far too busy, and the football is too good.  |
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Post by Mezzaphor on Jun 26, 2014 1:17:18 GMT
And as much as Chesterton is ragging on science and rationalism in those quotes, he also points out that faith without reason is just as bad.
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jun 26, 2014 1:42:36 GMT
I think the point is that extremism in either case is bad. As for faith, too many people take it as "belief without evidence" when practically it always actually means "belief without empirical evidence." You can have reason to believe something that might not necessarily be scientifically provable.
In other news, I'm like 2/3rds of the way through A Clash of Kings. Still pretty interesting, though it gets bogged down a bit in that there are so many plot threads going that it feels like it takes forever for anything to actually happen. FourLinesAllWaiting taken to an extreme basically. It's the only real complaint I have at this point. And I know that while most people know the ASOIAF series for the plot and characters, his GRRM's prose is actually really strong. On occasion he dips into show-y territory, but it's amusing in that his use of POV occasionally dips into LemonyNarrator territory, which I find really impressive because he manages to do it without ever breaking the pseudo-medieval tone it has.
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Post by Applelight Limited on Jun 26, 2014 10:19:46 GMT
What number in the series is clash of kings?
Edit:
Removed OT stuff.
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jun 26, 2014 13:13:27 GMT
It's only the second book. Every book in the series is a doorstopper.
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Post by Applelight Limited on Jun 26, 2014 14:10:52 GMT
Whoops, I thought this was the live chat thread. And yeah I hear they're long. One book is apparently longer than the whole LOTR trilogy. |
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jun 26, 2014 17:20:32 GMT
Yeah, the whole series so far is over a million and a half words.
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Post by Applelight Limited on Jun 26, 2014 18:04:59 GMT
 Damn George Arrarrg Martin, you writey!
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Post by kegisak on Jul 5, 2014 1:05:46 GMT
I'm trying to get back into WoT recently. I kinda stalled on book five because it was focusing on all the characters I didn't like, but I picked it up again because I was having trouble sleeping so I wanted to tire out my mind a little, and it turns out that the chapter immediately after where I stopped switched back to the good characters, and it looks like it's setting up for the climax, so it should hopefully stay there for a while. Which is nice; it seems like it's setting up some interesting plots for the next book, so maybe I can bring myself to get back into it again.
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jul 5, 2014 2:13:42 GMT
Damn George Arrarrg Martin, you writey! Well, he has the advantage of doing it for a living, as well as spending nearly 20 years on it (first book was published in 1996). I've written 250,000+ words in the past two years, and that's as a hobby. If I could do that exclusively, I could probably write that many words in that long. What's impressive is that he's doing it all in one story. kegisak: WoT? |
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Post by Mezzaphor on Jul 5, 2014 3:56:59 GMT
Wheel of Time?
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jul 5, 2014 4:21:02 GMT
That would be my guess, but there are probably other series out there with the same acronym and I want to make sure. And I need to get on with the third Song of Ice and Fire book. Finished the second one a few days ago.
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