book recommendations RCF book club

[The Human Q-Tip]

As a Sanderson fan, a series lately—especially audiobooks—that have taken grip on me is the Cradle Series by Will Wight.

It’s progression fantasy, but large connected universe etc. with Cosmere vibes.

Another favorite of mine is definitely Dresden Files, but that’s just not everyone’s cup of tea.

Love Dresden Files. Kind of pulpy, but fun as hell.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

Hi bob2the2nd & everyone else.

Before I recommend my own books, let me ask if self-promotion is ok. I write humorous scifi/fantasy.

Thanks,

jjvors

Some of my all-time favorite stuff is Jack Vance's work, and humor is really important in a lot of his books, Tales of the Dying Earth in particular.

 

[jjvors]

Finished The Sun Also Rises. I have kind of mixed feelings. On the one hand, I wish I had read it sooner, but on the other, I'm not sure I would have appreciated it had it been assigned in high school. Seems like a book best enjoyed in your early thirties after you've lived a little life and done a little traveling. My generation doesn't have something like World War I that everyone is trying to recover from from like the characters of this book, but I don't think I would have been as able to empathize with these people if I had read this when I was seventeen.

I liked it a lot. Hemingway's writing style reminds me a lot of Elmore Leonard. There's occasional vivid descriptions that really give you a sense of place and the feeling that the author was there himself, but the bulk of the book is just dialogue. It's not quite as compelling as Leonard's dialogue tends to be, but that's largely a product of this book being written in 1926 when people talked quite a bit differently, especially the type of people who make up a good chunk of this book's cast.

Anyway, as they say, sometimes the classics are classics for a reason, and such is the case here. In a novel where almost nothing happens, I was still turning the pages to see what would happen next and what would become of these characters I'd come to appreciate. The first quarter of the book is a bit slow, but once Bill Gorton shows up and adds a bit more levity, it gets a lot better and more or less stays that way.

Would recommend.

I read The Sun Also Rises in both my teens and my 40s. In my teens, I knew it had a happy ending, but I didn't understand much of the byplay in the plot. In my 40s, I appreciated what was going on much more. Hemmingway implies a lot, without saying things.

As far as dialogue differing over the years, that's absolutely true. I've read books from the 18th to 21st centuries and the styles have changed drastically. For example, in Victor Hugo's 'Hunchback of Notre Dame', he spends a whole chapter describing Paris around Notre Dame. No one would do that today. But I appreciate the different styles. You just need more patience with older styles of books.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

I read The Sun Also Rises in both my teens and my 40s. In my teens, I knew it had a happy ending, but I didn't understand much of the byplay in the plot. In my 40s, I appreciated what was going on much more. Hemmingway implies a lot, without saying things.

As far as dialogue differing over the years, that's absolutely true. I've read books from the 18th to 21st centuries and the styles have changed drastically. For example, in Victor Hugo's 'Hunchback of Notre Dame', he spends a whole chapter describing Paris around Notre Dame. No one would do that today. But I appreciate the different styles. You just need more patience with older styles of books.

Victor Hugo could really write.

 

[Heat Check]

Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Incredible books. Blew my fucking mind.

I first read them when I was 20. Then I waited 20 years and read them again, just so I could almost get back to the feeling of reading them for the first time. I'm not kidding.

The Endymion books are good too, but these first two are simply masterpieces.

 

[bob2the2nd]

Hi bob2the2nd & everyone else.

Before I recommend my own books, let me ask if self-promotion is ok. I write humorous scifi/fantasy.

Thanks,

jjvors

i have no issue with it. @The Human Q-Tip, do you have any issues (As mod)

 

[Jack Brickman]

I read The Sun Also Rises in both my teens and my 40s. In my teens, I knew it had a happy ending, but I didn't understand much of the byplay in the plot. In my 40s, I appreciated what was going on much more. Hemmingway implies a lot, without saying things.

I wouldn't say it had a happy ending at all.

 

[jjvors]

I wouldn't say it had a happy ending at all.

Compared with 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', at least he ends up with the girl.

 

[Jack Brickman]

Compared with 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', at least he ends up with the girl.

He very much does not end up with the girl. They love each other, but he can’t satisfy her sexually because of whatever happened to him in the war that left him either impotent or castrated. Further, the end of the book seems to imply that, even if he could, it’s not in her nature to settle for one man.

At the end, she comments that they could have had such a good time together (were he able to have sex). His reply is, “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” Which, as I mentioned, seems to imply that he doesn’t believe it.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

i have no issue with it. @The Human Q-Tip, do you have any issues (As mod)

I see no problem with someone who is already a member/participant in RCF promoting their own books in a book thread. Just don't do it site-wide or anything.

@jjvors @Sebastian

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Incredible books. Blew my fucking mind.

I first read them when I was 20. Then I waited 20 years and read them again, just so I could almost get back to the feeling of reading them for the first time. I'm not kidding.

The Endymion books are good too, but these first two are simply masterpieces.

Hyperion is being made into a movie. Been greenlit by Warner Brothers and Bradley Cooper, who apparently is a huge fan and has been trying to get it made for years.

Bradley Cooper Launches Production Label; Sets ‘Hyperion’ At Warner Bros With Graham King

EXCLUSIVE: Eight-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper is launching a new production banner, Deadline has learned. At the same time, Cooper and Weston Middleton at the new label are set to produce Hype…

deadline.com

 

[jjvors]

He very much does not end up with the girl. They love each other, but he can’t satisfy her sexually because of whatever happened to him in the war that left him either impotent or castrated. Further, the end of the book seems to imply that, even if he could, it’s not in her nature to settle for one man.

At the end, she comments that they could have had such a good time together (were he able to have sex). His reply is, “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” Which, as I mentioned, seems to imply that he doesn’t believe it.

Yes, I missed both of those implications. Heck, I read the whole book without realizing he was impotent. Probably another implication. I've got a pretty literal mind and I don't tend to read into things that aren't literally there.

 

[Heat Check]

Hyperion is being made into a movie. Been greenlit by Warner Brothers and Bradley Cooper, who apparently is a huge fan and has been trying to get it made for years.

Bradley Cooper Launches Production Label; Sets ‘Hyperion’ At Warner Bros With Graham King

EXCLUSIVE: Eight-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper is launching a new production banner, Deadline has learned. At the same time, Cooper and Weston Middleton at the new label are set to produce Hype…

deadline.com

Yikes.

Not sure I'd trust anyone but Denis Villeneuve to film these books.

Probably not even him. The Hyperion books are as close to unfilmable as it gets IMO.

 

[Jack Brickman]

Yes, I missed both of those implications. Heck, I read the whole book without realizing he was impotent. Probably another implication. I've got a pretty literal mind and I don't tend to read into things that aren't literally there.

Yeah, he never explicitly says that Jake lost his dick in the war, but it very much seems to be the implication, as he calls it an injury that might have been funny had it happened to someone else, and one of his friends tells him he should never talk about his injury.

But yeah, that's the basis of why he and Brett can't be happy together, although as I mentioned the book definitely implies that they ultimately wouldn't have been happy anyway.

 

[jjvors]

Okay, I have published 7 fiction books in two series.

The first humorous scifi series is a satire on the whole zombie genre. It starts with Zombie Turkeys!


The second is a superhero series with four 7th-graders with four different disabilities and four different superpowers. They decide to fight crime and hide their secret identities behind their disabilities. They name their group, the Secret Supers.


I'm happy to answer any questions you have. I write under the pen name, Andy Zach. My author page is here: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01M3Q35H1