Chrono Book Reviews, Recommendations, and Deals

The book thread is here, inspired by @coralinecastell

Tell us what your reading, what you’ve read, what your going to read, and what you recommend. Or just talk about books, and your opinions on them.

I personally love books and always have to have something to read.
I am currently reading StormLight, The Way Of Kings
I have to say my favorite book series is MistBorn of course I only read the first 3 books.
My favorite author is Brandon Sanderson.
Favorite book is The Hero Of Ages, MistBorn.

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im not sure if these books are of interest to any of you, i think of you as at least 30 years old people but i really enjoyed the works of Joe Abercrombie and Patrick Rothfuss
im not even 20 that is why im unsure if we have common interests
my favourite book is ‘the slow regard of silent things’ by Patric Rothfuss
(i’d like to put in a link for the book but im not sure what site should it be, a store, wikipedia something else?)

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I’ll soon be done with this https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23434529-dokumentti. Part five of a series about a hot-headed alcoholic womanizer and his very odd friends. By this point in the series the main character has pretty much gotten his life together, but his alcoholism threatens to ruin everything. I’ve always enjoyed the author’s inclination towards very lowbrow humor, but this one took me somewhat by surprise by being much more serious than the former parts and actually had me crying at one point. Can’t remember if a book has had that effect on me before. Somehow after writing this I’m reminded of Irvine Welsh and especially his books Trainspotting (good movie too!) and Porno which I happen to own. I should check out the other parts of this “Mark Renton Series” I guess.

Before that one I finished Metro 2034, the sequal to Metro 2033. I definitely recommend the original for anyone interested in post-apocalyptic settings and then Metro 2034 for those who were left wanting for more. An interesting combination of claustrophobia, supernatural stuff and the last of mankind’s struggle for survival. Might also prove to be an interesting read or a refresher for those who have played the game of the same name. Also for similar stuff, Roadside Picnic (which Tarkovsky made into a movie called Stalker) might be worth a look.

Still have a book called Mandala (by Tõnu Õnnepalu) (read something about a simple life with two cats in the synopsis and grabbed it) along with a cyberpunk anthology by finnish writers to work trough before my next library visit. Going to grab a H. P. Lovecraft collection I noticed the last time and read the few stories by him I haven’t yet read, probably some scifi and/or fantasy and then whatever catches my fancy :slight_smile:.

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How about:

Chrono Book Club by Chronies For Chronies Who Like Books… and Chronies.

or

Shhhhhh… Reading

or

Chrono%20C%20Logo%20Trans:open_book::clubs:

You can just stick with what you have, as it is fine too.

I am currently reading:
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And listening to the audiobook of:

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Both are pretty good.

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WARNING: Do Not attempt to use…

(See Image)

image

…as a replacement for lubricant. If you do, do not then attempt to wash it off with water. Doing so may result in headaches.
If such symptoms occur, please contact a Comedian and tell him/her your story. The Doctor is in too much agony ATM, laughing at your stupidity and your burning nether regions.

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I would just suggest something simple for the thread title, like “The Literature/Book Club” or “General Literature Discussions” or something like that, so that people may know it is both a discussion thread and a daily post thread, but then again if they load into the topic they should get the picture regardless.

As for what I am reading…I am mostly focusing on The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (and Brandon Sanderson). I’ve decided to restart the series until I can get the rest that I don’t own (there’s a total of 14 books!), so I’ve picked up The Dragon Reborn again.

It is hard to describe why this series is so good, but if you have ever read The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, A Song of Ice and Fire, The Sworth of Truth (Terry Goodkind!), The Chronicles of Amber and whatnot, all of which have extremely in depth lore and settings, you will instantly understand why The Wheel of Time is an amazing high fantasy series.

Robert Jordan manages to create a world much like Middle Earth without recreating it and leaving readers bored with exact copies of everything we have already seen a dozen times with little to no variation.

I cannot talk much of the series without spoiling it, but the day I picked this series up is probably the best day in literature I have had since I was a kid and had the joy of reading Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne.

I heartily recommend anyone who loves to read to give it a chance, especially if you loved A Song of Ice and Fire.

Also, I would like to include a list of recommendations and a reading list, if that is okay? It would be neat to see what others would suggest and a total reading list, and would also help each other build our libraries up and possibly find new loves! :slight_smile:

Recommendations & Reading List

(and some of these are on my “to read list” or “currently reading list”)

  • A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin
  • A Sword Of Shadows by J. V. Jones
  • Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix
  • Boreal Moon Trilogy by Julian May
  • Black Company by Glen Cook
  • Bounds of Redemption by M.D. Ireman
  • Crown of Stars by Kate Elliott
  • Cold Fire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman
  • Deathgate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
  • Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
  • Discworld by Terry Pratchett
  • Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • Farworld by Jeffery Scott Savage
  • Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaima
  • Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
  • Ilium by Dan Simmons
  • Imajica by Clive Barker
  • Lyonesse Trilogy by Jack Vance
  • Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
  • Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson
  • Memory, Sorrow, And Thorn by Tad Williams
  • Olympos by Dan Simmons
  • Prince Of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
  • Riddle Of Stars by Patricia A. McKillip
  • Shadowmarch by Tad Williams
  • Saxon Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell (this also has a show on Netflix)
  • The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
  • The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
  • The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S Lewis
  • The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss
  • The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski
  • The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
  • The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind
  • The Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron
  • The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson
  • The First Law by Joe Abercrombie
  • The Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham
  • The Dannger and the Coin by Daniel Abraham
  • The Farseer by Robin Hobb
  • The Prince Of Nothing by R. Scott Bakker
  • The Lightbringer Series by Brent Weeks
  • The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay
  • The Swan’s War by Sean Russell (extremely poetic)
  • The Deed Of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon
  • The Chronicles Of The Unhewn Throne by Brian Staveley
  • The Faithful and the Fallen Series by John Gwynne
  • The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny
  • The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
  • Witch World by Andre Norton
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I planned on reading this but got distracted by FableHaven, which wasn’t very good until the last book :expressionless:, and now I’ve gottwn into all of Brandon Sandersons books, so I probably won’t be reading it for a couple years :confused:

I’m mostly into young adult, fantasy, science fiction, and action (not sure if action is a genre)

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@Nateninja21

It is a wonderful series, and the rest of them are written by Brandon Sanderson (he was picked by Robert’s wife after his death), so you may very well love the series. Whenever you get to them, if you do, I hope you love them! :blush:

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Actually changed the name to that, tell me if you like it.

@Rhyagelle
I’ll see if I can get to it a little faster looks like a pretty nice book :blush:

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We don’t buy books, we buy the illusion that we’ll eventually have time to read all of them. :smiley:

In all seriousness, the Daily Deals in the Kindle store over at Amazon have been both a boon and my bane for several years now. In the last couple weeks I’ve picked up the following:

  • Redwall - Brian Jacques
  • The Kill Society - Richard Kadrey (part of the Sandman Slim series)
  • Split Infinity - Piers Anthony (a sci-fi/fantasy classic)
  • Poldark: Ross Poldark - Winston Graham (because the wife and I have been binge watching the series on Amazon)
  • Horrorstor - Grady Hendrix (a horror novel that’s in the vein of Shaun of the Dead in an Ikea knock-off)
  • Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
  • The Black Company - Glen Cook
  • Origin - Dan Brown

And that’s just within the last month. Sales for $3 and under are like crack to a reader like me.

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I am currently reading:

-The Evolution of Beauty by Richard O. Prum
-Corrupt Histories (studies in comparative history): Krieke & Jordan.

I realize these are both rather technical reads, so instead I recommend:
-The Rook by Daniel O’Malley
-Dinosaur in a Haystack by Stephen Jay Gould
-Flight of the Iguana by David Quammen

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Stop selling yourself short. Just because you are young doesn’t mean we can have common grounds. My grandmother, back in the 80’s got cable TV because she wanted MTV. She loved the music videos and always wore jeans. She called me up one day and said she had bought tickets to see the Beach Boy, Whitney Houston, and Jefferson Starship and wanted to know if I would go with her. I laughed and said, “Do you know who Jefferson Starship is?” And she said very quickly, “yes, I do. They used to be Jefferson Airplane and their lead singer is Gracie Slick.” So we went and had a blast!

I think I am the oldest one here…In my 60’s(But I will take 30…Thanks :hugs: ) But we are all ages…

SO…Thanks @anyamtikja, now, I have 2 more authors to check out.

I was in uni when he was born but his books looks like something I would like.

Knew I had heard that name before…“Rothfuss was a guest on Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop, playing Lords of Waterdeep on Episode 10 of Season 2, which he won

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Rothfuss is an amazing author, I think that ‘The Wise Man’s Fear’ should replace the Hobbit in high school Advanced English. Only shame, is he takes his sweet time writing the next book in a series. If you can wait definitely read the Kingkiller Chronicle, but I would recommend that if, like me, you read everything in a series and don’t like to wait, try and schedule your reading so that by the time you have finished the currently available books a new one is due out.

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Already loving this thread. Thanks, nate!

@Y’all, I’d like to get started on Patrick. Gifted one of his books to an ex boyfriend (when he wasn’t an ex, naturally): The Name of The Wind. I gifted it in English, but later read the “silence in three parts” bit in the original and loved it. Memorable.

You guys think Name of The Wind is a good place to start?


I’m currently reading 20 books. You read that correctly. I know, I know. Anyways, a few (re/reading):

  1. Mort by Terry Pratchett. My dad’s edition, older than me.
  2. War and Peace by Tolstoy. Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, my heroes.
  3. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. An illustrated hardcover edition.
  4. One of Portuguese author Florbela Spanca’s poem books. In the original.
  5. Bilingual French/English edition of The Tempest, by Willy Shakesperoo.
  6. Always re/reading something by Sig Freud because my mentorship program doesn’t afford an alternative. Currently checking out some of his 1916-19 lectures.
  7. Wonder by R. J. Palacio. College assignment.
  8. The Curious Bartender by Tristan Stephenson. Wanna enroll in a bartender course.
  9. Emma by Jane Austen. I like her personality thus far, and I done my bonnet while I read it.
  10. Autobiography of sculptor Benvenuto Cellini. Funny as all hell.

As you can see, my taste is consistent. :blush:

PS: Sorry for lack of links and typos. On mobile. :upside_down_face:


Btw, if we doing a book club, shouldn’t we do a monthly read thing? Maybe we could read The Witcher books? Because… Games and Geralt’s sexy ass?

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Reading twenty at once? I used to have time to just sit down and read as much as I wanted to, but somewhere along the line, it changed. I wish I could just freeze time so I can finish everything I want to read right now. :disappointed_relieved:

This is probably going to be crazy to say to a lot of literature weirdos, but I could never really get into Jane Austen’s works. I mean it wasn’t that her work was bad in any sense, they are fantastic, but her female characters were always so predictable in the sense that they were…how do I put it? Safe. I perfectly understand though such were the times and that was what she could do, just always expected more from her work whenever people spoke of it and it ended up being much of the same. However Emma was certainly among my favorites from what I can recall of it.

You seem to be well into classic literature @coralinecastell. Have you ever read anything by Sir Walter Scott? If you like historical/period pieces, he makes great work of it, especially of Waverley set during the Jacobite uprising.

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Awesome thread. Huge fan of Sanderson myself. Have you guys tried Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher (known for Dresden series)?

Currently reading “Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room” and it’s crazy to me that a business could get to this point - great read so far.

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Also big fan of Sanderson and Rothfuss. I just finished https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20518872-the-three-body-problem and currently reading the next book in the series https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23168817-the-dark-forest. Really enjoyed the first, I recommend if you like sci-fi with a mix of the fantastic and hard science. It was also very interesting to read a book from a Chinese author and based in Chinese politics/myth, it’s a viewpoint I’ve never experienced.

Here’s my Goodreads profile if you want to see more of what I’ve been reading: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/41702039-zak-steltz

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i dont know how these book clubs work but im not sure if its a fair thing to ask us to read all the witcher books in one month

i remember when i was reading one of the books from the Chaos Walking series i did almost cry (are these childish? idk i’ve read them a few years ago), and i stopped reading ‘extremely loud & incredibly close’ because it was too sad, it still makes me sad just thinking about it

oh and i read ‘The Years of Rice and Salt’ last year and i was struggling with it a bit maybe because i usually read different kinds of books but i just loved the reincarnation in it, a few months later i went around asking people what they thought was after death

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Ooooh no I have not! Also I read anything, really – with a couple of exceptions I’ll not disclose… :joy:

Thanks for the rec! He got any short stories? Love those and it’s all I can make time for atm. Speaking of which, I sit on the same ~20-book list for a year reading a bits of each in class, before sleep, etc. Hopping. If I don’t finish them all in one year I swap the list.

You got my attention. Question time: seems like the translators are different. Ken Liu (translator of the first book) is known: he’s an author AS WELL as a translator. Did you notice any considerable change in prose from #1 to #2? Just curious.

Gonna download the kindle sample right away to check the first one out. :blush:

Friendly tip for all: most (if not all) the best translators in the world are also writers. If you hated a renowned book, that’s OK, just make sure you didn’t get the absolute worstests crappiest double translation in God’s green Earth to read it like I did with Marcus Aurelius years back and whined on for ages about how much it sucked. Not saying he does or doesn’t, but a superior translation sure did help my butthurt.

ARE YOU CRAY CRAY? I ain’t even read all of them and I’ve had YEARS to do so hahaha :joy:

They’re short stories, basically! Each book is a collection of events in Geralt’s life, so like requests he does for the filthy peasants and dark magic and monsters and stuff. Each story is what… 20, 30 pages long? Maybe we could read ONE STORY from ONE BOOK in a WHOLE MONTH or something hahahah :joy:

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I own the (officially translated) Witcher books, well, some of them at least. There are short stories in the series (like side branching stories), but the rest are full blown novels. For example, Blood of Elves is decently large. I’ll get a pic if y’all want to see them?

@coralinecastell

Short stories? Yes, he most certainly does, but the bulk of his bibliography focuses on what I suppose are more average lengths of story telling for his time. The short stories are Chronicles of the Canongate and The Keepsake Stories.

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