caruso_stalker217 wrote:The Waste Lands is terrific, but my favorite hands down is Wizard and Glass. Not many books can make ole Caruso tear up, but that one does. Book Seven (I never call it The Dark Tower since that's the name of the series and that would create confusion) even managed to get me really fuckin' bad between long passages of "WHAT THE FUCK AM I READING!?" type stuff.
Hope that's not a spoiler.
I gotta agree with Kirks about Drawing of the Three. That book fuckin' flies. Not as much as Song of Susannah, though. After the long fuckin' read of Wolves (took me months to finish) Susannah was just the fuckin' shot in the arm I needed. I read that shit in like a day.
Hope that's not a spoiler.
travis-dane wrote:I've read the Jenna book too, I like the Nic Cage part.
RogueScribner wrote:Also, if this book is indicative of the level of Jodi Picoult's writing talent, I don't think I'd be interested in reading anything else of hers either.
Maui wrote:I read The Graveyard book in one day. A fantastic read which was extremely difficult to put down.
Now reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson.
TheBaxter wrote:i wonder if anyone here has read or heard of The Strain, which was co-authored by Guillermo del Toro.
i just finished this book, and to be honest, i thought it was just so-so. there were parts i really liked, but some parts i really didn't.
in a way, it reminded me a lot of Fringe. the beginning REALLY reminded me of Fringe, since it starts off with a mysterious airplane incident. the whole airplane section was one of the best parts of the book, all the buildup and mystery, although the payoff was a bit disappointing. anyway, this is a book about vampires, and since it's del Toro, it reminds me a lot of Blade II as well. not just because of del Toro, but because the nature of the vampires in this book are a lot like the reapers from blade II, especially the way the vampire "virus" physically changes the mouths and throats of the infected. also, once you find out the exact method by which the vampire "virus" is transmitted, it also begins to resemble Night of the Creeps crossed with Alien. so overall, it's like a cross between Fringe, Blade II, Night of the Creeps, with a little bit of Grey's Anatomy thrown in when you get to the main character who is a CDC doctor, and his family drama... though i've never seen Grey's Anatomy, but i imagine it's kind of what it's like. the family drama with the CDC doctor, btw, is probably my least favorite part of the book. thankfully it gets mostly jettisoned by the time you get into the meat of the story, but in the opening pages there are some reallyl cringe-inducing cliche'd scenes with the doctor, his son, and his newly divorced wife, their custody battle, the evil step-boyfriend, etc.
the other thing i didn't really care for was the biological explanations of the vampirism. there are a lot of ways to approach vampires, from the purely supernatural to the purely scientific, and this book goes the latter way, and it's not my favorite approach. i think it steals away some of the mystery and horror when you try to give a scientific explanation for each and every aspect of the vampires. this is another way in which it's like Fringe or X-Files though... i think it's part of the zeitgeist of the era we're living in, that they try to extract horror out of science and technology instead of supernatural means, but i will always prefer supernatural-based horror. plus, we end up getting the inevitable scene or scenes that are in EVERY vampire book or movie or tv show these days, explaining which vampire myths are true and which aren't: this time around, sunlight still kills vampires, so does beheading, and silver also hurts them, but crosses, holy water, and stakes are ineffective, and they can't turn into bats or smoke. there's also a couple hints that maybe the vampire virus has alien origins. at this point, i'd love to see or read a vampire story where vampires are just plain old vampires, and all the usual tricks (sunlight, stakes, crosses) all work the way they are supposed to, and the story doesn't need to explain which ones apply and which ones don't, and give a full explanation of why some work and some don't.
overall, the book is pretty well written, and has some very good scenes of suspense. it was co-written by some crime novel writer i think, and since english is not del toro's first language, i'm thinking probably del toro was mostly responsible for the story, and the other writer did more of the actual prose. there are some intriguing ideas and hints about the head vampire, and about vampire history and the other old vampires... but they are just small hints. since this is the first book of a planned trilogy, i'm sure those will be expanded upon considerably in the next two. i don't know if i'll be reading those though... while this one was ok, it didn't make me feel a pressing urge to continue reading. but the direction that is hinted at towards the end sounds more interesting than the story from this book, so i might give it a shot.
TonyWilson wrote:I was tempted to get this, Baxter, don't know if I will now though. And I agree about science Vampires vs supernatural ones. But I think The X-Files did supernatural stuff really well and didn't always boil it down to a scientific explanation.
Bloo wrote:Maui wrote:I read The Graveyard book in one day. A fantastic read which was extremely difficult to put down.
Now reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson.
I love LOVE LOVE Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, curious to hear your thoughts Maui
Maui wrote:Bloo wrote:Maui wrote:I read The Graveyard book in one day. A fantastic read which was extremely difficult to put down.
Now reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson.
I love LOVE LOVE Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, curious to hear your thoughts Maui
Missed this Bloo and I really should have finished the book by now but I got sidetracked with warm weather/vacation. I'm halfway through the book and really digging it. More later.
Bloo wrote:I
Dead Until Dark because I've seen some eps of True Blood and wanted to read the books it was based on
TonyWilson wrote:Name Of The Rose, Sepp, Name Of The Rose - just forget the movie if you ever saw it. Not that it's a bad film just that it's like the cliff notes of the precis of the review of the novel. Coincidentally I just started on Foucault's Pendulum this very evening, it's pretty splendid so far.
Maui wrote:Bloo wrote:I
Dead Until Dark because I've seen some eps of True Blood and wanted to read the books it was based on
I picked up the Sookie Stackhouse (the Southern Vampire series) this past weekend. I sped through Dead Until Dark and I'm now halfway through Living Dead in Dallas. It's good fun and an incredibly light read!
Needless to say, Allan Ball is not following the books 100%. Which is fine by me, I like some of the twists that he's added to the show - more dark humour, new characters and story lines. I was a bit surprised with how insignificant Lafayette's character is in the books (he's dead now) and all we found out was that he wore fake eyelashes and liked pink.
Bloo wrote:glad you're liking Southern Vampire Maui, it really starts to get good soon and really expands the mythology of Sookie's world, I picked up DEAD UNTIL DARK on a whim and ended over like a 2 week period picking them all up
Maui wrote:Bloo wrote:glad you're liking Southern Vampire Maui, it really starts to get good soon and really expands the mythology of Sookie's world, I picked up DEAD UNTIL DARK on a whim and ended over like a 2 week period picking them all up
Yeah, I can really sink my teeth into this series.![]()
Charlaine Harris has written up to book 9, Dead and Gone. I wonder when she plans on retiring the series?
TonyWilson wrote:Name Of The Rose, Sepp, Name Of The Rose - just forget the movie if you ever saw it. Not that it's a bad film just that it's like the cliff notes of the precis of the review of the novel. Coincidentally I just started on Foucault's Pendulum this very evening, it's pretty splendid so far.
Bloo wrote:she's also written several short stories in the same universe and I know she's planning on publishing the full collection this...Oct I think
on her website she addresses that very question
Hermanator X wrote:
Stieg Larsson's The girl with the dragon tattoo, lined up next. Which im very looking forward too, having heard only good things about. The first part of a trilogy (the millenium trilogy), written for fun in a journalists spare time, and sadly published after his untimely death at only 50. Hoping to work through the books before I check out the movies (swedish) which are also getting rave reviews. (although named Menn som hator Kvinnør, rather than the dragon tattoo thing.)
Maui wrote:Bloo wrote:she's also written several short stories in the same universe and I know she's planning on publishing the full collection this...Oct I think
on her website she addresses that very question
Have you read any of her short stories? I'll have to mosey on over to her website and ch ch ch check it out.
TonyWilson wrote:Name Of The Rose, Sepp, Name Of The Rose - just forget the movie if you ever saw it. Not that it's a bad film just that it's like the cliff notes of the precis of the review of the novel. Coincidentally I just started on Foucault's Pendulum this very evening, it's pretty splendid so far.
Maui wrote:I'm still plowing through the Southern Vampire Series, on book 4 now, Dead to the World, 5 more to go. Enjoyable reads, each book is approx. 300 pages, which I can usually whiz through in a day.
I kinda want to hurry up and finish these books so I can read some more HST.
justcheckin wrote:I have to read Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson... It is actually on the summer reading list for the high school I teach at and I am hoping that it is actually good. YIKES! Anyone read it? Want to give me some encouragement?
Bloo wrote:what do you think so far, I thought the first 2 books were good, but they feel self containted, about book 3 is where I think the whole mythology really starts to kick in
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest