Books - General - Facepunch Forum

[QUOTE=mastermaul;28777658]I've recently ordered this: [img_thumb]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bMgwKBBp0JE/TCkjHoPmbKI/AAAAAAAADAs/kDHOQebEh3s/s1600/NO+MAN%27S+WORLD+-+BLACK+HAND+GANG.jpg[/img_thumb] It's about 900 British soldiers who one day just disappear on the Somme battlefield during the Great War and end up on an alien planet with no idea what the hell just happened. I can't wait for it to get here because frankly it looks like the best shit ever. It's actually a series; there's another one coming out later this year which I think is more focused around the tank they apparently brought with them (don't actually know where the tank came from, haven't read the book yet). [img_thumb]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_uIPXkash3qE/TNLQ6tK-i8I/AAAAAAAAAfg/aHhX7L6l2AA/s1600/IRONCLAD+prophecy.png[/img_thumb][/QUOTE] Knowing how fucked up the Somme was, I'm not surprised. Tell me how it is when you're done with it, it looks interesting

[QUOTE=mastermaul;28777658]I've recently ordered this: [img_thumb]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bMgwKBBp0JE/TCkjHoPmbKI/AAAAAAAADAs/kDHOQebEh3s/s1600/NO+MAN%27S+WORLD+-+BLACK+HAND+GANG.jpg[/img_thumb] It's about 900 British soldiers who one day just disappear on the Somme battlefield during the Great War and end up on an alien planet with no idea what the hell just happened. I can't wait for it to get here because frankly it looks like the best shit ever. It's actually a series; there's another one coming out later this year which I think is more focused around the tank they apparently brought with them (don't actually know where the tank came from, haven't read the book yet). [img_thumb]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_uIPXkash3qE/TNLQ6tK-i8I/AAAAAAAAAfg/aHhX7L6l2AA/s1600/IRONCLAD+prophecy.png[/img_thumb][/QUOTE] That just sounds silly, but I too would like to know your thoughts when you're done with it.

[QUOTE=Warriorx4;28777713]That just sounds silly, but I too would like to know your thoughts when you're done with it.[/QUOTE] Apparently there's a lot of underlying mythology around the alien world. I've been looking for some WWI-related scifi (rather literally or just inspired) so this was a goldmine when I came across it. Amazon says the delivery date will be "March 29th - April 13th" so it might be awhile.

[QUOTE=mastermaul;28777658] [img_thumb]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bMgwKBBp0JE/TCkjHoPmbKI/AAAAAAAADAs/kDHOQebEh3s/s1600/NO+MAN%27S+WORLD+-+BLACK+HAND+GANG.jpg[/img_thumb] [/QUOTE] Your description just made me order it too. I need to read me a good fiction again.

[QUOTE=pie_is_good;28535392][img_thumb]http://i56.tinypic.com/2ey8efq.jpg[/img_thumb] Right now I'm about 260 pages through Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Other than The Broom of the System and the Pale King which is unfinished because the author was too busy hanging himself to finish it, this is the only Novel he's every done. But my, what a novel. It's over a thousand pages long, and the last 100 or so is all footnotes. The guy loved footnotes. It doesn't really have one straight forward plot. It focuses on a lot of different stories. It takes place in the future, well it actually takes place around now but it was the future when it was written, where numbers are no longer used for year names, and the names are up for sponsorship. For example most of the novel takes place in The Year of the Depends Adult Undergarment. The novel mostly takes place at The Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House (redundancy sic), and the Enfield Tennis Academy, which are both in Boston, and revolves around a mysterious film cartridge that is so entertaining that whoever watches it will lose interest in everything else and they'll forget to eat and eventually die. There's also a group of wheelchair bound Quebecois terrorists who want to find a master copy of the film. This is probably the most insane story I've ever heard of, and it certainly is a very awesome book. It's gonna take me a while to finish it though.[/QUOTE] I'm 800 pages in now. The plot and characters develop at the rate of a glacier. Not that it's a bad thing, but this book certainly isn't for everyone. It's actually like your finding more about the plot and the characters pasts than it is about moving forward. The book's mostly centered on David Foster Wallace's meditations on drugs, addiction, media, entertainment, and tennis anyway and he does a great and interesting job at that.

[img]http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/douglas-adams-books/18-9.jpg[/img] aw yeah bitches

I just finished "How to build a dinosaur: reverse Evolution", pretty good. Also almost done with "Your inner fish". [img]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41sXyQ2oUUL.jpg[/img] [img]http://scienceblogs.com/afarensis/Your%20Inner%20Fish.jpg[/img]

I read less-involved books than you guys. Partly because I'm 14, guessing I'm a lot younger, reading "Furnace" Right now, about a kid who gets framed and gets sent to an underground jail, more grown up one "The Resistance" is about a WW2 attempt to stop the war and let the Norwegians(? Haven't read in about two weeks) win.

[QUOTE=tommofandan;28778763]I read less-involved books than you guys. Partly because I'm 14, guessing I'm a lot younger[/QUOTE] Don't let age be a factor dude, I was reading everything at 14. Going to try and give The Ravenor Omnibus another go.

[QUOTE=tommofandan;28778763]I read less-involved books than you guys. Partly because I'm 14, guessing I'm a lot younger, reading "Furnace" Right now, about a kid who gets framed and gets sent to an underground jail, more grown up one "The Resistance" is about a WW2 attempt to stop the war and let the Norwegians(? Haven't read in about two weeks) win.[/QUOTE] No reason not to read involved books even at 14, as long as you can spot the themes.

[QUOTE=myalt22;28778922]Don't let age be a factor dude, I was reading everything at 14. Going to try and give The Ravenor Omnibus another go.[/QUOTE] I'd rather read Eisenhorn, but that's me.

[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;28778986]No reason not to read involved books even at 14, as long as you can spot the themes.[/QUOTE] It is really interesting to read a book at 14 or so, and then read it again at 18 to realize just how much you missed. Read Fahrenheit 451 at about 14 or so, and I liked it, but I entirely missed the incredible imagery at the beginning, which I picked up on when I read it a few months ago.

[QUOTE=InvisibleTed;28781828]It is really interesting to read a book at 14 or so, and then read it again at 18 to realize just how much you missed. Read Fahrenheit 451 at about 14 or so, and I liked it, but I entirely missed the incredible imagery at the beginning, which I picked up on when I read it a few months ago.[/QUOTE] Alrighty, I will do.

[QUOTE=mastermaul;28779012]I'd rather read Eisenhorn, but that's me.[/QUOTE] I don't even know what Eisenhorn is, I just bought It because it looked pretty cool. Will I be able to actually figure out wtf is going on If I read Eisenhorn?

[QUOTE=mastermaul;28777658]I've recently ordered this: [img_thumb]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bMgwKBBp0JE/TCkjHoPmbKI/AAAAAAAADAs/kDHOQebEh3s/s1600/NO+MAN%27S+WORLD+-+BLACK+HAND+GANG.jpg[/img_thumb] It's about 900 British soldiers who one day just disappear on the Somme battlefield during the Great War and end up on an alien planet with no idea what the hell just happened. I can't wait for it to get here because frankly it looks like the best shit ever. It's actually a series; there's another one coming out later this year which I think is more focused around the tank they apparently brought with them (don't actually know where the tank came from, haven't read the book yet). [img_thumb]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_uIPXkash3qE/TNLQ6tK-i8I/AAAAAAAAAfg/aHhX7L6l2AA/s1600/IRONCLAD+prophecy.png[/img_thumb][/QUOTE] That sound pretty awesome, just added it to my Amazon wishlist. I'll be sure to buy it some time. Would it be better as a Book or eBook?

I suggest anything from the Enderverse. Children of the Mind was my favorite, followed by Ender's Shadow.

Can anyone recommend me any books I might enjoy? I'm currently reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, but it's not holding my interest enough for me to finish it. I'm not a huge reader, but I can tell you guys I enjoyed most of Michael Crichton's big novels (Timeline, Andromeda Strain, Sphere), S.D. Perry's Resident Evil series, and Heart of Darkness by Conrad. One thing I'm kinda interested in is a futuristic book that goes into detail on how their society works. Not necessarily 1984 or Brave New World type stuff (I didn't enjoy either of those books), but stuff like The Giver (a children's novel, I know).

By the nature of this forum I can almost guarantee Ender's books were suggested already :P Either way, his other books are okay too, like Hidden Empire and what not, though they are definitely not nearly as good as the Ender series. Dune serves as a good replacement.

[QUOTE=Watevaman;28786734]Can anyone recommend me any books I might enjoy? I'm currently reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, but it's not holding my interest enough for me to finish it. I'm not a huge reader, but I can tell you guys I enjoyed most of Michael Crichton's big novels (Timeline, Andromeda Strain, Sphere), S.D. Perry's Resident Evil series, and Heart of Darkness by Conrad. One thing I'm kinda interested in is a futuristic book that goes into detail on how their society works. Not necessarily 1984 or Brave New World type stuff (I didn't enjoy either of those books), but stuff like The Giver (a children's novel, I know).[/QUOTE] You might like Infinite Jest that I talked about before which takes place in the not to distant future.and it does go into great detail on how certain future stuff works. There's a whole chapter explaining the rise and fall on video-telephones, and how people start to get more worried about their appearance on the screen so they start to wear masks and overlays on the lens so they look better but then they eventually just go back to regular phones. There's also a big chapter about how a former germaphobe president of the U.S. made the upper-east side of the U.S. and lower east side of Canada into a big Dump and how it effects Quebec so they for a terrorist group who tries to obliterate the Organization of North American Nations. It's not as dystopian as the Giver or 1984 or as science fictiony like a William Gibson novel, and it is a very long book, so you might want to just read the first parts at a library or something first.

[QUOTE=CakeMaster7;28785604]That sound pretty awesome, just added it to my Amazon wishlist. I'll be sure to buy it some time. Would it be better as a Book or eBook?[/QUOTE] I don't think an ebook version is available.

[QUOTE=mastermaul;28777658]I've recently ordered this: [img_thumb]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bMgwKBBp0JE/TCkjHoPmbKI/AAAAAAAADAs/kDHOQebEh3s/s1600/NO+MAN%27S+WORLD+-+BLACK+HAND+GANG.jpg[/img_thumb] It's about 900 British soldiers who one day just disappear on the Somme battlefield during the Great War and end up on an alien planet with no idea what the hell just happened. I can't wait for it to get here because frankly it looks like the best shit ever. It's actually a series; there's another one coming out later this year which I think is more focused around the tank they apparently brought with them (don't actually know where the tank came from, haven't read the book yet). [img_thumb]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_uIPXkash3qE/TNLQ6tK-i8I/AAAAAAAAAfg/aHhX7L6l2AA/s1600/IRONCLAD+prophecy.png[/img_thumb][/QUOTE] For those of you who didn't know the Black Hand Gang was the gang to start the first World War in 1914, after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the leader Gavrilo Princip ran up to the car and killed them both, all of the members were equipped with broken cyanide tablets and therefore lived and were all prosecuted, and arrested (too young to be executed) I think the main point of this book is trying to aim towards that they escaped and kidnapped/killed the soldiers.

[QUOTE=Watevaman;28786734]One thing I'm kinda interested in is a futuristic book that goes into detail on how their society works.[/QUOTE] Dune. For the love of god, Dune.

I'm slightly sad to say the only 2 books i have read for pleasure are Lord of the Rings and Starcraft Archive. [IMG]http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/c4/c20798.jpg[/IMG] That book was surprisingly good i think. Had some very memorable moments and i love how some of the novels were connected. Especially Liberty's Crusade and Speed of Darkness were great. Speed of Darkness made me cry a little.

[QUOTE=tommofandan;28790057]For those of you who didn't know the Black Hand Gang was the gang to start the first World War in 1914, after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the leader Gavrilo Princip ran up to the car and killed them both, all of the members were equipped with broken cyanide tablets and therefore lived and were all prosecuted, and arrested (too young to be executed) I think the main point of this book is trying to aim towards that they escaped and kidnapped/killed the soldiers.[/QUOTE] [quote]On November 1st 1916, nine hundred men of the Pennine Fusiliers vanish in the middle of their advance on the German positions in Harcourt Wood.[/quote] I think it's just a cool sounding title bro. Unless you've read it and just spoiled something in which case you're a massive douchebag.

Started reading Count of Monte Cristo. I love reading but I never get around to it due to having so many other diversions.

[QUOTE=clockroach;28534406][img_thumb]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qLU7DEy3nVU/TWJ3DkyMfuI/AAAAAAAAAGo/QTCECvzsr9M/s1600/746491.jpg[/img_thumb] First four books are the best, but the whole series is fantastic.[/QUOTE] Fucking this. Currently in book seven. The series is indeed fantastic. Did you hear he's writing another Dark Tower novel that bridges the gap between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla?

[QUOTE=myalt22;28783044]I don't even know what Eisenhorn is, I just bought It because it looked pretty cool. Will I be able to actually figure out wtf is going on If I read Eisenhorn?[/QUOTE] Eisenhorn comes before Ravenor, it may explain a few things about Ravenor. MAYBE.

[QUOTE=Jack Bryce;28795505]Eisenhorn comes before Ravenor, it may explain a few things about Ravenor. MAYBE.[/QUOTE] Will it explain the terminology?

[QUOTE=myalt22;28796282]Will it explain the terminology?[/QUOTE] Possibly, it's been a white since I read it. Anyway I would strongly recommend reading Eisenhorn first, it does explain how Ravenor got to be how he is. One more thing, if you read Eisenhorn first, DO NOT read the "where are they now"-type thing at the end, I did and I regretted it when I started Ravenor.

You might want to start elsewhere when reading into Warhammer 40k. Or you could just hit up lexicanum and read the first few lines (no more) of every article about stuff you don't get.