Member: glowboat

First of, sorry for the long delay in replying, I haven't been logging in here regularly yet, plus I was on vacation for a week.

Brook's Genesis of Shannara series is actually not as bad as I feared, definitely better than the latest ones which were basically the same plot over and over again and only the names changed. This series feels halfway original, even though it's by no means perfect.

If you're looking for unusual or maybe even unique fantasy, I'd definitely recommend the First Law books - especially if you like George Martin. Definitely not typical fantasy, but rather set in a medieval alternate world with some certain fantasy elements. As with Martin, he doesn't embellish violence or fighting scenes and things don't just magically work themselves out so it feels a bit more realistic than the average fantasy novel. I also quite like his characters, none of them without their flaws, none the typical hero-type.

posted by adara at 7:51 am (EST) on Sep 5, 2008

Thanks for the welcome!
So far, I like LibraryThing. I have discovered quite a few new books already, all of sound promising. There are some additional features I'd like to see (e.g. being able to add books with ISDN via the mobile site) and I have to say I find the groups (at least the bigger ones) somewhat chaotic to keep track of but all in all, a very nice site.

Concerning books - I finished Joe Abercrombie's First Law series some week ago (I liked!) and am now midway through the first book of Brook's Genesis of Shannara series. Though I have to admit that I'm not that big of a Brooks fan anymore it's not as if I can not finish a series once started..
Looking forward to the Martin's A Dance with Dragons a lot lately.. might have to re-read the earlier books while waiting for the release!

posted by adara at 3:07 pm (EST) on Aug 7, 2008

I haven't read Fevre Dream by Martin, but I've had others suggest it as well. I'll definitely have to check it out. I just finished reading Mars by Ben Bova, and I'll probably start on A Dance with Dragons next.

It's difficult for me to review books often because most of the time I'm working on my novel or on my Web site. Also, I've been working on some short stories lately, and I plan to post those to my site when I'm done editing them. Hopefully, I'll have a new one up this coming week. I'm glad you stopped by my site. Any recommendations or suggestions to make it better are much appreciated!

Great talking with you. You'll have to let me know how you like The Forest.

Steven
http://steventill.com

posted by StevenTill at 11:58 pm (EST) on Aug 2, 2008

In regards to Martin, my plan is start reading A Feast for Crows soon, in hopes I will finish about the time A Dance with Dragons comes out. I've heard AFFC only focuses on the South, so I will probably not like it quite as much; I tend to favor the characters and story lines of the North, though I do like Daenerys, which many do not.

As for Rutherfurd, I did enjoy the Forest. I've actually only read two novels by him: The Forest and Sarum. I read Sarum first, and I liked it better of the two. I picked up Sarum by chance in a bookstore one day -- I worked in a bookstore part time for two years -- because I read the back cover and thought it sounded interesting. Sarum is centered around the current city of Salisbury, England -- old name of the city was Sarum -- and it follows the progression of five major families all the way from 10,000 BC to the modern age. I enjoyed the first half of the novel better than the last half. The first half focuses on ancient and medieval Britain, and the last half from the colonization period forward to modern times.

Overall, I enjoy ancient and medieval history better, so that's probably why that period appealed to me, but I also thought the characters and stories were more engaging. If you enjoy history -- especially British history -- you will enjoy Rutherfurd's novels. His historical details, from what I know of ancient and medieval England, are very accurate.

Here's my review of Sarum from my website, if you're interested: http://steventill.com/2007/08/03/sarum-t...

I never did review The Forest. I need to take the time to review more novels than I do currently.

Steven
http://steventill.com

posted by StevenTill at 8:15 pm (EST) on Jul 29, 2008

Always nice to find other fans of Martin. I still have A Feast for Crows left to read in ASOIF. How did you like it?

And of course, you have to love Tolkien.

Also, I see you have Umberto Eco listed. I liked Name of the Rose by him, but that's his only novel I've read. Which others would you recommend?

Steven
http://steventill.com

posted by StevenTill at 7:43 pm (EST) on Jul 17, 2008

I entered every single comic individual. It was a monumentous task. I sat down to do about 1 comic box a week and before long they were all done. For cover images I took them from milehighcomics.com but as you can see I have a lot left to do.

I'm not sure librarything is the best place for recording comic collections. I believe that right after I finished a number of comic specific sites began to be advertised in comics that partially automate the process.

posted by The_Gedaks at 8:34 am (EST) on Aug 24, 2007