Books, books and more books!

[Songbird]

Songbird - I'm also a Christie fan - I liked Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse mysteries, and the adaptations of Henning Mankell's 'Kurt Wallander' mysteries.

I've watched the TV shows based on the Inspector Morse and Kurt Wallender series, but I've never read the books before. I'll have to check those out! :D

Which of Agatha Christie's books is you favorite? I'm torn between "And Then There Were None", "Lord Edgware Dies", "Peril at End House", "Evil Under the Sun", and "Ordeal by Innocence." I also enjoy "The Mysterious Mr. Quinn" but that's more of a collection of short stories.

[Oniya]

My first, and still a favorite, is 'The Mirror Crack'd', although I also dearly love 'Murder on the Orient Express' (It could be because David Suchet is just so darn cute as Poirot.) 

[gaggedLouise]

Someone asked me if I knew any good recent detective novels that felt real, enveloping and not jampacked with graphic, lengthy violence perpetrated by sadistic serial killers. I replied: "Without Fail by Lee Child" - it's one of the best sleuth thrillers I've read in the last couple of years. Found it back in 2008, during the U.S. primaries season, and that added a bit of topical interest to the story of how the loner Jack Reacher and a female FBI agent try to track down somebody who is clearly, but silently, planning to kill the U.S. vice president. But what really makes it so good is its grey, windy and wintery evocation of U.S. plains and cities, the gritty, tight dialogue and the tense hunt for an unknown and faceless adversary, and how the duo and the cops they're working with are trying to second-guess and outwit their foes out there somewhere. Like The Day of the Jackal, it's more about the methods of committing a crime, and of preparing against it, than about the killing itself. I'll have to look up more books by that guy.

[Slywyn]

I just wanted to point out(In case it hasn't been before), that Warcraft's fanbase doesn't hate Knaak because he's a bad writer. he's actually pretty decent.

They hate him because of how he treats the material.

He's literally destroyed, completely changed the characterization of several characters, and he makes changes to the lore and the setting willy-nilly.

He has actually admitted to doing zero research when writing a Warcraft novel, and just churns out whatever Blizzard hands him.

As far as books I only have one or two that haven't already been mentioned.

War of the Flowers(Though I don't remember the author), and Beyond the Blue Moon(And other books) by Simon R. Green.

Also, You Suck - A Vampire Story(though I don't have the book on hand to get the author's name) if you like funny books about vampires.

[Songbird]

My first, and still a favorite, is 'The Mirror Crack'd', although I also dearly love 'Murder on the Orient Express' (It could be because David Suchet is just so darn cute as Poirot.)

I've been meaning to read "The Mirror Crack'd"! :D I like that its title is from Alfred Lord Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott." What romantic doesn't love that poem? :-)

[Oniya]

I actually learned about the poem from the book, and later got a copy of Loreena McKennit's rendition of it.

[Songbird]

I actually learned about the poem from the book, and later got a copy of Loreena McKennit's rendition of it.

I love both! :D It's such a sweetly tragic tale. :-)

Speaking of which, I really should brush up on my Arthurian legends! ;D

[Deamonbane]

Forgive me for saying this, but Robert Ludlum(The Bourne Trilogy, The Matarese Circle), Tom Clancy(Without Remorse, The Bear and the Dragon, Clear and Present Danger), Fredrick Forsyth(The Avenger), Vince Flynn(Term Limits), W.E.B. Griffin, Stephen Hunter (Bob Lee Swagger Trilogy) are the top dogs in the authoring business... David Gemmel and Terry Goodkind are also good, if a bit too fan-oriented...

[Lilias]

Forgive me for saying this, but Robert Ludlum(The Bourne Trilogy, The Matarese Circle), Tom Clancy(Without Remorse, The Bear and the Dragon, Clear and Present Danger), Fredrick Forsyth(The Avenger), Vince Flynn(Term Limits), W.E.B. Griffin, Stephen Hunter (Bob Lee Swagger Trilogy) are the top dogs in the authoring business... David Gemmel and Terry Goodkind are also good, if a bit too fan-oriented...

If we're talking sales, the top dogs are probably James Patterson and Stephen King. :P

Adventures and thrillers have naturally broad audiences and few demands in knowledge or attention, that's why they sell. More niche genres tend to have more fans than casual readers.

[Deamonbane]

No...*Shakes head* No... no... no!!!!!

*grins*

Stephen King has his moments, but I tend to dislike most of his work... James Patterson...*shakes head* Never liked him much either...

[Lilias]

I like old Stephen King, and I mean old - like the first 15 of his 40 writing years. I don't think I've read anything he wrote post-accident... (I have to get started on the Dark Tower series, though.)

[Slywyn]

Even if you don't like King or Patterson, you have to admit that they're pretty successful.

Probably moreso than most other authors out there.

[Deamonbane]

Even if you don't like King or Patterson, you have to admit that they're pretty successful.

Probably moreso than most other authors out there.

Oh, no doubt... they are extremely talented, no question there... I just don't particularly like their books, is all...

[Oniya]

King and Barker both fell into the 'how badly can we drown the scene in body fluids' trap.  The early stuff was better.

[Deamonbane]

That's an interesting way to put it, although I agree... Ludlum had something of a problem with making sequels where none were needed.... Goodkind just goes on, and on, and on... he is good, but, honestly, he should have finished it with the first book, Max the second...

[Lilias]

It's frustrating when your favourite author doesn't sell as much as you'd like (I know, my favourite author is someone few people under 40 have even heard of, with just one lasting mainstream work, and several of her older ones out of print), but the market is the market. Every time I pass a 50 Shades display I have to remind myself 'this too shall pass'. :D

[Deamonbane]

Well... one can only hope...*grins*

[Lorrigan of Trost]

Every time I pass a 50 Shades display I have to remind myself 'this too shall pass'. :D

I am so sick of being recommended that book I doubt I'll ever even pick it up to see if it's worthy of all the hype.  I feel like someone took a chance in publishing it, and then the thousands of people who have never been exposed to erotic literature had a revelation of sorts, and that's the only reason it's selling as well as it is. 

[Slywyn]

We can only wish they'd been exposed to something better.

[Lilias]

We can only wish they'd been exposed to something better.

Like Jacqueline Carey's work.

[Oniya]

Or Elliquiy! ;D

[Tsenta]

I just recently picked up The Hobbit, the LOTR trilogy, and six books from the Dragonlance sagas. I'm like a little kid again.

[Deamonbane]

If you are into LOTR, I would recommend the 'Unfinished Tales' and the 'Silmarilion'... very great books...

[Cayen Aleva]

If you are into LOTR, I would recommend the 'Unfinished Tales' and the 'Silmarilion'... very great books...

My mother is just reading The Simarillion now, she's been a massive fan of Lord of the Rings since she was a kid and I swear she's going to find reading too slow, tear off the pages, eat them to gain their knowledge, and then throw the spine behind her like an orange rind.

I've just picked up part two in Catherynne M. Valente's Prester John series, The Folded World. (The first book is Habitation of the Blessed.) I love her work, she's nigh-unknown but her style is lyrical and poetic and challenging. She's supremely High Fantasy, and is very good at taking old folk tales or legends and updating them with her own markings, like the Russian tale of Marya Morevna in Deathless. I found her when I picked up Palimpsest at the behest of a serial fiction author I stalk follow who is also in love with her.

I'm also a big fan of Asimov. I've read Nine Tomorrows and of course I, Robot, but my favourite story of his is Gold, from the book of the same name, which nobody seems to know.

I went through Iain M. Banks' The Algebraist recently, too. That one is incredibly lush science fiction, written in a slightly different style depending on which character is being followed at the moment, always spinning their actions in a supportive light whether the obvious Big Bad Villain or the main protagonist.

Also I want to weigh in on 50 Shades of Grey, because I have strong feelings about it: It's Twilight with BDSM. Not only is the abusive relationship at the core of the books exactly the same, 50 Shades was originally Twilight fanfiction. No, really. Check Wikipedia. There's even a third trilogy coming that keeps the pseudo-BDSM elements and adds back in the vampires, called Gabriel's Inferno.

I'm not passing (too much) judgment on the method by which it was written. I love fanfiction at the best of times. But yeah. The source of it all is incredibly questionable.

[Pumpkin Seeds]

Started up Dresden Files again and just finished Death Masks.  Just started the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan and also going to read Sword of Shanara (sp?).