No.117
>>112Honestly Sanderson makes the most "anime" feeling fantasy I've ever read (this is not a bad thing). I think it's interesting to compare how it raises it's stakes in comparison to homestuck, specifically how Sanderson does it in a better way. He gives all the characters time to breath and interact with each other, and the utterly ridiculously powerful stuff is given enough of a build up before it actually gets screen time. Additionally, every character gets the right amount of screen time. I recall that at the end of each chapter in most of that series, I just wanted to skip to when the narrative would get back to the narrative that was going on. The man knows how to write a chapter that makes you beg for more.
Lol just wait until you see link marry the master sword and when king candy comes around. No.118
>>108 here. Been a while since I posted but I thought I'd update for a tiny bit of discussion on here. Over the past year or so I've slowly
listened to Crime & Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov and The Citadel. All really good books. Won't give a brainlet's analysis of Dostoevsky's work so I'll say what I enjoyed about each. Crime and Punishment was an entertaining book right from the start and I very much enjoyed reading the build up to the murder, the murder itself and the eventual escape. While the delirium afterward was boring it picked right back up again until the ending. Was never a moment I felt really bored by the book although I was spoiled on the ending about halfway through when trying to figure out some themes of the book and meanings behind the characters which annoyed me. My favourite part of the book will always be the chapter that discusses Raskolnikov's idea of the Übermensch and the ordinary person and how the Petrovich discusses this with him how he read his theory in the paper on it and begins to suspect him because of it. Very fun cat and mouse energy while reading. As for Karamazov. I found the first 10 chapter or so excruciatingly boring but once it got to The Great Inquisitor I really enjoyed it since that story was just amazing. After that I found myself really engrossed with the characters and loved how the book went on. A very long book but worth it in the end. Although, I did find the divergence from the main plot about Ilyusha to be strange and somewhat ruined the pacing but I heard it was because he knew it was going to be his last book and wanted to throw all his unused stories in here in some form. The Citadel was a short book and I finished it a week ago. Mainly about a young doctor in 1920's Britain and his life in a small mining town up in Wales. He spends most of his time dealing with how terrible, greedy and under-qualified the other doctors are while trying to actually HELP patients that come to see him. Leading him to help miners bit by bit and become a loved figured in the the small town. Eventually the main character gets married and moves to London to start his own practice but discovers that actually treating patients is not profitable and starts to wonder if he should be a greedy person giving coloured water to patients so they'd all remain sick and keep paying him
Post too long. Click here to view the full text. No.294
I recently read a volume of Stanisław Lem that included Fables for Robots and The Cyberiad, it was very fun! It made heavy use of language so it might depend on the translation, but in my language it was very amusing.
No.296
I'm reading Iqbal's Javidnamah. A dream-like fantasy poem where the protagonist is guided by the poet Rumi on a journey through the stars. On his way, he meets the people of various planets, Egyptian Pharaohs, Satan and even Nietzsche. It has this other worldly magical aesthetic combining Asian religious imagery with references to modern events like industrialization, WW1, the rise of Japan or the Russian revolution. Iqbal is mostly forgotten these days and painted as a fundamentalist for his pan-Asianist, pan-Islamic views. Sadly, he was India's last great Persian fiction author. The language would die out a decade or so after he died.
No.297
I picked up M.M. Kaye's The Far Pavilions awhile ago. The only work I'd read by her previously was The Ordinary Princess, which I was re-reading when I noticed in the back it said she was actually famous for her historical novels. The local library had The Far Pavilions, so I grabbed it. It's about a boy born to English parents in India in the mid-19th century, except thanks to events he's quickly orphaned and raised by his nurse as an Indian, and then a lot of stuff happens. It's one of those sweeping epics that just follows this guy through his life and gives you an extensive portrait of India and the people living in it during the time period. I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit. It's much more tell than show, but the author does it well, and all the characters feel real. I can't speak for the historical accuracy, but it feels like it was the product of a lot of research. So far it's worth a read if you have any interest in India during the time period.