With how people talk about Malazan (and the first book in particular), having a bunch of people to bounce questions off of would be nice. I'm down.
I have no idea who or what Malazan is but I'd probably be game for it, depending on the requirements or whatnot
I'm at the point where the books are going downhill but I know they pick up. I've set then aside for the moment and moved on. Will hopefully come back to finish soon.
Looking to read a good science fiction epic but don't know of any and Google brings up so much. What would anyone recommend? I'm looking for a series and not a standalone.
I’ve heard about the dip in quality but then the resurgence as well but I’ve never actually heard where it occurs. Is there a generally accepted spot for the dip? Like book 7-9 or whatever.
Only read the first one, thus far, but Dan Simmons’ Hyperion was excellent. Kind of a sci-fi Canterbury Tales (the rest of the series does drop that format I’ve heard).
The last 200 pages of 9 are a series highlight, but 7-8, 10-11 are probably the slowest it gets. But if you dig the Seanchan, you’ll not care all that much.
It's my first read through the books. I'm at book 6 and it's going a little bit down. They still contain some wtf moments but I don't know. Maybe I expected more. I heard Hyperion was good. I'll look into it a bit further. Thanks!
I wouldn’t call it “epic” in scope like an epic fantasy series but I really like the maddaddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Attwood novels are always pretty great. I'll add it to the "look into this when you get to the bookstore" list.
There is an Amazon bookstore near me that I went to a few months back. It was still nice to be able to go to a physical bookstore, but there was something incredibly sterile about the whole vibe. It lacked any of the character that you’d experience in other bookstores.
Same! My wife and I still go and hang at Barnes and Noble on Friday nights. It’s better than no bookstore, but it doesn’t give me that same feeling that Borders gave me. I spent so much time their in high school and worked there after college (Massachusetts and Chicago). There’s still an old one that I pass sometimes that hasn’t been made into anything new. The Borders sign is still on the side, and I always think that it’s still there for a split second.
With this talk of bookstores, how do people feel about libraries? Does anyone here use them? I don’t buy many books anymore, but I am at my local library every week. Sorry if this has been discussed before. I’m semi-new to the thread.
I live in a tiny county with two horrible libraries. Like. Don’t even have certain classics type of horrible. I’m sure Knox County has a much better library system. I loved going when I lived in Tampa. But I’ve also always been a “I want to own them all!” type person
Same here. The two libraries closest to me are both extremely unwelcoming - at least to adults, they do still have programs for kids and things like that. There was a library in the town where I went to college that I could walk to when I lived on campus, and it was very cozy and perfect, like exactly what a library should be like in my opinion. They even had "friends of the library" sales where you could get old used books for super cheap. It was great, and I wish I could go somewhere like that. I have a Books-a-Million near me. It's okay. We used to have a Hastings, which I loved, but it closed, so now it's either BAM or Amazon for me. Those were the two places we hung out in high school. Now, though, BAM is moving more and more towards movies and Funko Pops and games and knick-knacks and like...timely displays when movies are coming out and things of that nature. It can be hard to find things sometimes - best to go in without anything specific in mind.
The town I just moved to has a very small library, but it’s part of a larger network so I can request books easily which is nice. So, not the best place to hang, but its helping me work through my booklist.
I love libraries but I don't spend a lot of time in them anymore. I read so slowly now that it's almost always better for me to buy them and take my time as opposed to rack up fees. However it does force me to make the most of my time when I check stuff out. Still, it closes p early and that also goes a long way to making my visits scarce