Coconut Monkey Cornerclub

[Zloth]

Oh fun, more books!

But if you want to recommend a good Fantasy series or 3, I'd love to hear it. I haven't read any fantasy in quite awhile. Would be fun to get back into it.

Well, you've got the Wheel of Time, but that requires a bit of risk taking. Each book is quite large and the first book was, at least to me, kinda meh. It got great with the second book. The world building rivals Tolkien, the characters are great, the cultures are interesting, the magic is interesting, and the baddies are interesting. The big thing that bugged me was that it tried to follow a lot of plot lines at the same time. Having two or three plot lines going at once is nice, but Jordan can have five or six going at once! When you split a 1000 page book between 5 stories, you don't end up with much happening in any of them by the end.

Brandon Sanderson is doing well and has a lot more variety out there. The Stormlight Archive is a set of huge books and is a fantasy setting. The first Mistborn series is a lot smaller and is also a fantasy setting. The second Mistborn series (Wax & Wayne) is a western+magic. Warbreaker and The Emperor's Soul are both stand-alone books in a fantasy setting. (Legion isn't fantasy at all, but it has the most interesting main character I've ever seen!) You can get a short one to see what the writing style is like, then get more books if you like them.

Mayer Alan Brenner's Dance of the Gods books were good. Not astounding, but definitely good, and you can still buy them - which is better than a lot of stuff I've tried looking up! (No idea why Amazon is calling the first book in the series #787.) Honestly, it's been a while now, it's getting hard to remember just what I liked and didn't like...

Are Star Wars books close enough to fantasy? Timithy Zhan's series (now called the Thrawn Trilogy) is excellent. It's a real shame Disney didn't use those books to do the final three films.

 

[ZedClampet]

Oh fun, more books!
Well, you've got the Wheel of Time, but that requires a bit of risk taking. Each book is quite large and the first book was, at least to me, kinda meh. It got great with the second book. The world building rivals Tolkien, the characters are great, the cultures are interesting, the magic is interesting, and the baddies are interesting. The big thing that bugged me was that it tried to follow a lot of plot lines at the same time. Having two or three plot lines going at once is nice, but Jordan can have five or six going at once! When you split a 1000 page book between 5 stories, you don't end up with much happening in any of them by the end.

Brandon Sanderson is doing well and has a lot more variety out there. The Stormlight Archive is a set of huge books and is a fantasy setting. The first Mistborn series is a lot smaller and is also a fantasy setting. The second Mistborn series (Wax & Wayne) is a western+magic. Warbreaker and The Emperor's Soul are both stand-alone books in a fantasy setting. (Legion isn't fantasy at all, but it has the most interesting main character I've ever seen!) You can get a short one to see what the writing style is like, then get more bookspas if you like them.

Mayer Alan Brenner's Dance of the Gods books were good. Not astounding, but definitely good, and you can still buy them - which is better than a lot of stuff I've tried looking up! (No idea why Amazon is calling the first book in the series #787.) Honestly, it's been a while now, it's getting hard to remember just what I liked and didn't like...

Are Star Wars books close enough to fantasy? Timithy Zhan's series (now called the Thrawn Trilogy) is excellent. It's a real shame Disney didn't use those books to do the final three films.

I tried Wheel many, many years ago and quit pretty quickly because I considered it poorly written, but my standards have relaxed quite a bit since then, so I may give it a try. I don't remember him being nearly as bad as Terry Brooks. He was absolutely terrible. One of his books began with two guys engaging in friendly banter. Brooks then took the time to explain what banter was and how you should feel about what you just read. I actually threw the book away. Didn't want it on my bookshelf with the rest of my collection lol

Will definitely look at the Sanderson and Brenner books. Not much of a Star Wars guy.

 

[Zloth]

People do complain about the Wheel of Time books repeating information. That was really useful when you had to wait a year or two between each book, but I guess it's a bother for people reading the books one after the other.

 

[Pifanjr]

I personally really loved Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Cycle collection. I used to read a ton of fantasy and I consider those books among the very best I've read.

 

[ZedClampet]

The first fantasy book I ever read was A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony. I was in middle school and completely entranced. Unfortunately, I sort of bounce off them after he made them an endless series that mostly involved fantasy puns. I read part of another series of his, Incantations of Immortality, but stopped when in one of the books it was obvious that he had gotten tired of it and quit writing. After about 500 pages, he literally just stopped writing the story and summarized the ending.

Also, it turned me off that he started putting Author's Notes in his books complaining about people who wrote to him saying that they read his books in a library because he didn't make money off of people borrowing his books from libraries. Come on, man, you were writing children's fantasy. Lots of kids don't have money and are actively encouraged to go to the library and read, and here's a respected adult author bitching about children reading library books.

 

[mainer]

But if you want to recommend a good Fantasy series or 3, I'd love to hear it. I haven't read any fantasy in quite awhile. Would be fun to get back into it.

1) Brandon Sanderson (possibly the best author I've ever read), The Stormlight Archives (not yet complete):
THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE® SERIES | Brandon Sanderson

2) Brandon Sanderson, the Mistborn books (please don't read the last 4 books unless you've read the 1st trilogy, there are many references to those 1st books events, as well as characters, that would be confusing otherwise. Plus they're separated in the timeline by a few hundred years.

The first 3 books: The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages.

The (currently) last 4 books: The Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, Bands of Mourning, The Lost Metal.

I'm currently in the middle of reading the last 4 books as the last book, The Lost Metal is new to me (I think @Zloth is also reading this).

Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn books in order

Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn book series in order, with the latest releases, covers, descriptions and availability.

www.fantasticfiction.com

3) The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan with the last 3 books written by Brandon Sanderson. An epic fantasy series that started back in 1990. 14 books, nearly 12,000 pages, and I've read every one multiple times over the years. Please, do not watch the (redacted) garbage that Amazon passes off as the Wheel of Time series, it does not do justice to one of the best epic fantasy series ever written.
The Wheel of Time - Wikipedia

4) Malazan Book of the Fallen, by Steven Erikson, 10 books. An epic adventure where you follow a group of Malazan marines to defeat a god. The books jump around in the timeline, but everything comes together in the end. Erikson can drift out at times on his descriptions, but like all the above books, they are driven by character's personalities and conversations. The second book in this series, Deadhouse Gates, is one of the best, and most brutal books I've ever read.
Malazan Book of the Fallen - Wikipedia

The one thing that all the above authors have is the ability to blend humor with the explicit brutality of the story, and drive the story forward by the strength of the character's personalities.

 

[Zloth]

Oh yeah, Piers Anthony did Double Exposure. That was good. WAS. I read it back in high school and enjoyed it. I tried reading it about ten years ago and didn't like it at all.

Yeah, I guess it wouldn't work all that well to start with the second set of the Mistborn books. Some old characters and references pop up that the book's characters know through their history lessons and religion, so the books don't have a real need to explain what's going on. Plus, you would find out about too many metals.

 

[ZedClampet]

The last fantasy I read was, maybe, in the 90's or early 2000's. I gave up on GRRM and read two series by Robin Hobb, The Farseer Trilogy and Liveship Traders Trilogy. I really enjoyed them, but that caught me up with her, and I don't have a clue what she's written since then.

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We have a Mexican restaurant and also a Chinese place near us that refuse to raise their prices despite inflation. They are now cheaper than McDonalds. Also, both restaurants only employ family, so there's no employee shortage. Three of us ate at the Mexican restaurant on Friday for $28.00. Food is good at both places, and Ling, the owner of the Chinese joint, picks on Guido mercilessly. Can't beat that.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

The last fantasy I read was, maybe, in the 90's or early 2000's. I gave up on GRRM and read two series by Robin Hobb, The Farseer Trilogy and Liveship Traders Trilogy. I really enjoyed them, but that caught me up with her, and I don't have a clue what she's written since then.

****

We have a Mexican restaurant and also a Chinese place near us that refuse to raise their prices despite inflation. They are now cheaper than McDonalds. Also, both restaurants only employ family, so there's no employee shortage. Three of us ate at the Mexican restaurant on Friday for $28.00. Food is good at both places, and Ling, the owner of the Chinese joint, picks on Guido mercilessly. Can't beat that.

The Farseer and Live Trader books are really good!

The Tawny Man finishes off Fitz's story, I liked it. I could never get into her other stuff as much. I read Soldier Son trilogy which were just OK and she started writing prequels to the Farseer Books I kind of fizzled out on.

Tawny Man trilogy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Had to edit, as apparently theres a whole other trilogy on the Fool I didnt know about, that came after the Rainwild books I couldnt get into. I liked the Tawny Man books, not as much as the first two trilogies though. After that it got a bit much for me.

 

[ZedClampet]

The Farseer and Live Trader books are really good!

The Tawny Man finishes off Fitz's story, I liked it. I could never get into her other stuff as much. I read Soldier Son trilogy which were just OK and she started writing prequels to the Farseer Books I kind of fizzled out on.

Tawny Man trilogy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Had to edit, as apparently theres a whole other trilogy on the Fool I didnt know about, that came after the Rainwild books I couldnt get into. I liked the Tawny Man books, not as much as the first two trilogies though. After that it got a bit much for me.

I'm not a big fan of prequels, I almost never read them.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

The Tawny Man is about Fitz in his 30's so not a prequel.

Apparently the Rain Wild books arent prequels either its just my terrible memory after 12 years. They run concurrent to Tawny Man, and theres a final Trilogy about Fitz in his 50's now as well.

 

[mainer]

I gave up on GRRM

Same here. His last book in "The Song of Ice and Fire" books was A Dance with Dragons released in 2011, and at this point I don't care if he ever writes another book. My personal feeling is that he's enjoying his wealth and fame from HBOs Game of Thrones and personal appearances to be bothered with finishing his storyline.

I read Soldier Son trilogy which were just OK

Yeah, while I think her writing and characters are excellent, I just couldn't get immersed, it kind of felt a bit unfocused compared to her other books. I enjoyed it more the second time through, but it was still, as you say, just "OK".

read two series by Robin Hobb, The Farseer Trilogy and Liveship Traders Trilogy. I really enjoyed them, but that caught me up with her, and I don't have a clue what she's written since then.

Apparently the Rain Wild books arent prequels either its just my terrible memory after 12 years. They run concurrent to Tawny Man, and theres a final Trilogy about Fitz in his 50's now as well.

The Rain Wilds Chronicles (2 books) weren't her strongest books either, they felt more like a back story to the Liveship Trilogy, though the events occurred after the events of the Liveship books. Good writing but felt a bit bland and melodramatic.

The final series of Hobb's books that I've read, The Fitz and the Fool Trilogy, is excellent writing, "page-turning dramatic", but extremely brutal in parts, especially towards the end. So brutal and gut wrenching that I may never read that trilogy again (and I'm not a squeamish person) . It takes the characters and events from the previous books, not only the Fitz & Fool books but also the Liveship and Rainwild books and blends them altogether (as they're all part of the same world space). I can't describe it much more without mentioning spoilers.

That final trilogy contains the books: Fool's Assassin, Fool's Quest, and Assassin's Fate.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Guess I'll have to slog through those Rain Wild books then, I'm definitely up for more Fitz and Althea so it will probably be worth it in the end.

 

[ZedClampet]

Guess I'll have to slog through those Rain Wild books then, I'm definitely up for more Fitz and Althea so it will probably be worth it in the end.

I'll have to read the originals again. I just don't remember enough to try to pick the next ones back up, though it may come to me if I just started reading them.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I read those first two trilogies 3 times over the years so I have most of it in there somewhere.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

We have a Mexican restaurant and also a Chinese place near us that refuse to raise their prices despite inflation. They are now cheaper than McDonalds. Also, both restaurants only employ family, so there's no employee shortage. Three of us ate at the Mexican restaurant on Friday for $28.00. Food is good at both places, and Ling, the owner of the Chinese joint, picks on Guido mercilessly. Can't beat that.

It's like that around us, too. We have a place that's kind of like a mix between Mexican and a bar & grill-type place. They have raised prices, but not a lot. But you can now get one of their burgers (which are some of the best burgers I've ever had), and seasoned potato wedges for no more than going to Wendy's.

 

[Zloth]

Large beef sandwich and an order of onion rings: $18. Prices sure went up at the nearby BBQ joint. I don't think keeping the price the same was an option - there's a lot of meat on those things.

 

[Frindis]

I refuse to pay for overpriced stuff at least if it comes from a large company that should have no problem competing in prices, especially in the food business. I take notice of those who sell their products more expensive while also cutting in the contents and will be booting them. Let's not forget the tons of food that also gets thrown away every day that is also conveniently not helping the prices in dropping. This is not just a problem with larger companies, even households are culprits here and I do believe a lot of people have forgotten how to smell and taste the food before throwing it away. I'm no angel in that department myself, but I try to pinch myself in the arm whenever I throw something or someone (hurr, hurr) in the bin that shouldn't be there.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Now they're talking about some virus coming across the border that could possibly decimate our beef industry. It's always something...

 

[Brian Boru]

they're talking

A lot depends on who "they" are

 

[PointnClicker01]

Hey @PointnClicker01 are you in Saqqara? C'mon, don't be a secret keeper

Gold-covered mummy among latest discoveries

Egypt archaeology: Gold-covered mummy among latest discoveries

The mummy was found inside a sarcophagus that has remained unopened for 4,300 years.

www.bbc.com

Or was it Luxor?

1800-year old Roman city unearthed at Luxor

1800-year old Roman city unearthed at Luxor, Egypt.

The city dates back to second and third century (BC) according to reports.

economictimes.indiatimes.com

Hi everyone! I‘m back from Egypt 😎

Feels good to be back home with working internet and computers!

@Brian Boru Thanks for the links! It sure is amazing what the Egyptian Egyptologists unearth these days, but unfortunately it is mostly for the media than for actual science:

Egypt has unveiled many major archaeological discoveries in recent years, as part of efforts to revive its tourism industry.
…
But, critics have accused Egypt's government of prioritising media-grabbing finds over hard academic research in order to attract more tourism.

The problem is that the discoveries are often poorly documented and in many cases „beautified“ to attract more people.

Most of the international researchers, including me and the team I‘m working for, prefer to focus their research on the many longly known sites which still need a lot lot more detailed and structured work.

Your guess with Luxor wasn‘t far off though! I worked on the west side of the nile near Luxor in an ancient city called Deir el-Medina dating back to around 1500 BC.

 

[Brian Boru]

I‘m back

Welcome back, Mummy!

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Hi everyone! I‘m back from Egypt 😎

Glad to have you back! I was hoping you wouldn't forget about us.

 

[ZedClampet]

Hi everyone! I‘m back from Egypt 😎

Feels good to be back home with working internet and computers!

@Brian Boru Thanks for the links! It sure is amazing what the Egyptian Egyptologists unearth these days, but unfortunately it is mostly for the media than for actual science:

The problem is that the discoveries are often poorly documented and in many cases „beautified“ to attract more people.

Most of the international researchers, including me and the team I‘m working for, prefer to focus their research on the many longly known sites which still need a lot lot more detailed and structured work.

Your guess with Luxor wasn‘t far off though! I worked on the west side of the nile near Luxor in an ancient city called Deir el-Medina dating back to around 1500 BC.

You didn't happen to unleash an ancient curse and get chased around by Imhotep did you?


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Time to find a new Internist. Will be my 5th one in about 5 years. Ugh.

 

[ZedClampet]

So AI art programs have a problem with human limbs, especially hands, so I did an experiment thinking maybe we just weren't being specific enough. I asked for a human hand with four fingers and one thumb. This picture is representative of what I got:

So, out of curiosity, I asked for one dog, and it gave me four pictures, each with one dog. Yay. So then I asked for two dogs, and it gave me four pictures with two dogs. But when I asked for 3 dogs, I just got a random assortment of dogs, one picture had 3, two pictures had 2 and the last picture had 4.

So basically it can count to 2, which is worse than an Ogryn.

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Back to our dog vs cat discussion, I have a Cassius Coolidge salute to cats: