What you reading?

[bladestarr]

I started talking about this in the Ender's Game movie thread, but I'll go more in depth here (since we're actually in the Music and Books forum). ((All the way to)) I'll stop hogging the discussion now. I promise.

I love you, will you marry me? And if not, do you have a hot uncle? ;D

[Magill]

Call me dense, but are you teasing me for being verbose or actually complimenting me?

[bladestarr]

Complimenting you. Although I feel differently about Card "trying to convert" people, everything else you said I felt to the letter. The only point of dissention is that I do believe that all art is expression of yourself, and by proxy, your beliefs. As such, when someone is using their book to express their beliefs, I do not see it as being a negative thing. I love to learn the beliefs of others, and I do not take it personally when someone shares those beliefs with me. I am confortable with and confident of my beliefs, and because of that I am not afraid to be proselytized to. Consequently, I usually end up scaring Jehovah's Witnesses out of my house. I have done so twice already (true story!). I am not a Mormon, but I don't get upset at him for expressing his beliefs.

On the other side, I agree with you fully that the Speaker series is wonderful, and I believe that series is vastly superior to the Shadow series. And the Shadow series was good, but I did feel at the point of Shadow Puppets that there was too much of a leap of faith that you had to take to accept that Bean and Petra were in love, let alone that they wanted children together. Their relationship always felt to me as more of a partnership between equals than a romantic adventure. All I see is respect and understanding, no passion and illogical emotion.

So in summation, Card rules.... as long as he is talking about pain and suffering and not about political intrigue run amok.

[Landatauron]

duckie said:

What do you think of this book? I've read everything else by Preston and Childs, but have been waiting for this to get to paperback.

It's pretty good. Not thier best work. But it's got Pendergast. So I am happy.

[Magill]

BladeStarr said:

Complimenting you. Although I feel differently about Card "trying to convert" people, everything else you said I felt to the letter. The only point of dissention is that I do believe that all art is expression of yourself, and by proxy, your beliefs. As such, when someone is using their book to express their beliefs, I do not see it as being a negative thing. I love to learn the beliefs of others, and I do not take it personally when someone shares those beliefs with me.

I double-checked my post to be sure, but I never said that I felt Card was tring to convert people. I have no problems with him expressing his beliefs. It's just that during Shadow Puppets, for the first time ever in reading his books, I felt that Card the person was talking to me, instead of Card the storyteller. It just seemed to be poor writing, not that he had bad beliefs or that I resent having those beliefs being shared with me.

[bladestarr]

For the first time in reading his books, I felt like Card's personal religious beliefs were preaching to me through his fiction.

Whosajiggawhat?

[Magill]

But I don't see how that statement says that I thought Card was trying to convert me. It just reinforces my belief that in that book, Card the [religious] person seemed to be telling the tale, rather than Card the storyteller.

Man, can you tell that I took debate in high school and have thought about going to law school (though I'd be interested in patent law rather than law law, or whatever non-patent law is called)?

[duckie]

Landatauron said:

It's pretty good. Not thier best work. But it's got Pendergast. So I am happy.

Sounds like it's fine that I'm waiting until it hits paperback, then. I probably wouldn't get to it until then anyway.

BTW, I was checking out Amazon, noticed that Preston has a new book, Childs has one coming in May, and they have a combined work due out in August... I'm falling behind very quickly!!!

[Ms. Jellybean]

Alas, I gave up on Being a Green Mother. I've only read books 3, 6, and 7 in the series. Ah well.

Right now I'm trying to look intellectual in front of my peers by reading Milton's Paradise Lost.

[loulabelle]

I'm reading two books, but by reading I mean they're half-read and collecting dust on my dresser. I should probably stop ditching them for TV and what not.
Dickens' Great Expectations and a book by this woman who tutored me at university called The Lambing Flat.

[PoolMan]

Y'know, I've GOT to get to something more meaningful and challenging, but it appears to be my year for sci fi. I've taken up the Timothy Zahn Dark Force Rising trilogy. I've read an awful lot of the SW extended universe, but I always found Zahn's writing to be the sharpest.

[HeyCreepy]

I'm currently reading 'Bitch' by Elizabeth Wurtzel. It's the only book I could find that was discussing modern feminism. She tends to ramble some interesting views and seems to have immersed herself in years of pop culture. Quite a different read than I'm used to.

[FiveMileSmile]

PoolMan said:

Y'know, I've GOT to get to something more meaningful and challenging, but it appears to be my year for sci fi. I've taken up the Timothy Zahn Dark Force Rising trilogy. I've read an awful lot of the SW extended universe, but I always found Zahn's writing to be the sharpest.

That trilogy, and the following Jedi Academy trilogy are pretty much the best of the SW fiction in my opinion. Several of the short story collections are worth reading as well, but those two trilogies are the ones I really enjoyed.

Personally, I've just started my annual re-reading of the Gap series by Steven Donaldson. If you like gritty, dark sci-fi you aren't going to find a finer, more involved, and involving set of books than these. I really can't pimp these books hard enough, and as many of my friends can attest, I'm firmly of the opinion that they are the Greatest Work Of Fiction Ever Written(tm).

They are, in order, The Real Story, Forbidden Knowledge, A Dark And Hungry God Arises, Chaos & Order, and This Day All Gods Die, in case anyone is interested.

- Rich
Read them. They're great.

[duckie]

Magill said:

Also try Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus. Yes, it involves time travel of sorts, but I really liked it.

Just finished reading this, Magill... thanks for the recommendation! Really enjoyed it, was a fresh change from some of the thrillers I've been reading lately.

[bladestarr]

What did you think of Maps in a Mirror duckie?