/lit/ - Literature

Definitely Tolstoy.

Though I prefer Chekhov and Turgenev to both and I wish Lermontov hadn't died so fucking young.

Dostoevsky is a good ideas man but he's pretty poor as a novelist.

I loved the short stories in "All Fires The Fire."

Hated "Hopscotch."

Yeah, if it's your sort of thing.

I prefer TLS though.

>>3019818

I find Penguin classics good but lazy.

All they ever have to do is slap some old, appropriate looking, painting on the cover and then job done.

That's why the Modern Classics covers are much more sketchy in their quality.

I think it's great. Bit more straightforward than Ishiguro's previous work but still a wonderful novel.

>>3012640
>This is How You Lose Her’.

Friend of mine said this was very good and he usually doesn't like short stories much.

I've had Drown sitting on the shelf all year but haven't read it yet (all the Spanish lingo was vaguely off putting when I first got it) but it seems like I ought to get stuck in.

A pretty good novel. Well written without being of the dry and / or purple prose that sends me to sleep and often passes for "good" literary writing.

I'm surprised how much it reads like a biohazard horror novel though, and the weird Jewish slant was even more unexpected.

>>2979860

Pretty good. I don't read many biographies, so I don't have much to compare it to, but it was very readable and certainly informative, for the most part. Some parts of his life could have done with more depth but, since it was written back in the Cold War, I guess research would have particularly difficult?

The high and the low, same as always.

Having read up to the end of Midnight Tides I can say that there are certain things I love about Malazan and certain things I hate, and they haven't changed from day one. On that basis I'd tell you to quit - because if you don't find Malazan enjoyable from the start then, it seems to me, you won't enjoy it later because the series doesn't fundamentally change.

All I would say is that Warrens do get explained in book three (and I thought the explanation pretty cool) and that book is probably the best overall, thus far (my rankings would be 3>5>1>4>2). If you're willing to give it one last shot maybe that should be it.

TBH, there's a lot of stuff in Malazan that I read and don't bother to retain (basically all the old Imass, Tiste, Jaghut info) and it doesn't really seem to make much difference. Might be lazy of me but it doesn't hurt much.

>>2959850

I think GotM is the worst for this though, as Paran and Crokus are, at least initially, fairly generic Mary Sue types. They do get a bit better throughout the subsequent books though.

Characters are definitely one of Erikson's weak points. It's not that he can't write good characters (yes, take Kruppe, for example) but I find he never gives them space to develop. There're too many characters for starters, and there's always so much shit going on that there's rarely any time to see any other sides to any of them apart from the one we're initially presented with.

I think GotM is the worst for this though, as Paran and Crokus are, at least initially, fairly generic Mary Sue types. They do get a bit better throughout the subsequent books though.

Characters are definitely one of Erikson's weak points. It's not that he can't write good characters (take Krupp for example) but I find he never gives them space to develop. There's too many characters for starters, and there's always so much shit going on that there's rarely any time to see any other sides to any of them apart from the one we're initially presented with.

I've read half the Malazan saga and this is my two cents: I read GotM and really liked the first half. I thought the second half of the book, mostly in Darujhistan, was less interesting.

Regardless, over the next five books the Malazan saga will not change. Everything I liked and everything I disliked about GotM was prevalent in the books thereafter. Doesn't mean that some books aren't a lot better than others (because, personally, I have found, thus far, the odd numbered Malazan books good-to-great, and the even numbered ones meh-to-okay) but at the end of the day if you don't like GotM don't carry on with the rest of the series because nothing will come along to change your mind at the series.

Oh, and if you think GotM is complicated it gets a lot worse as you go along, because Erikson keeps dumping layer upon layer of information to his world, as well as conjuring up new people, new eras and new places to add to the complexity.

Papa Wolf? Can't think of anything off the top of my head but if you haven't already read Joe Abercrombie's gritty, minimal-fantasy The First Law trilogy, then why not? IMO he's the best in the genre at the moment.

And on that note: I'm eagerly awaiting Red Country's release next month.

>>2918073

But I have it in eBook format

18 books by Turgenev (and yes, for some reason I still don't own a physical copy of Sketches, despite the other unusual books I have).

/lit/ doesn't hate ASOIAF, it's just much more popular on /tv/, sadly.

TBH though, Theon's character is done better (or at least more sympathetically) in the TV show. That said... I doubt the TV show will handle what happens to Theon in the future as well as the books do.

But, whatever, yes, the books are very enjoyable. Read them.

>First Law, Prince of Nothing, the Black Company

These are the best. Maybe start with The Black Company as it's a finished series (and can easily stop after the original trilogy).

First Law is great and, yeah, you can stop after that trilogy, but Abercrombie's story has continued in the successive "stand alone" books which have come since, so it's effectively still on going.

Prince of Nothing - well, book 1 is really great. 2 and 3 aren't quite as good and that trilogy ends with really very little resolved (so it's very much ongoing).

Other options? Malazan aside, it's more classic stuff - Amber, Lyonesse, Book of the New Sun, Dying Earth, Elric, Rift War, that sort of thing.

>>2818021

*when I say "it" I mean the Malazan series as a whole.

And, god, I thought Erikson was done with the Malazan universe (except for maybe B&KB shorts). Can't believe Forge of Darkness is all about Kurald Galain.

>>2818012
>Picking up the first two and deciding doesn't work well with this series.

Eh, from my own experiences I'd say it works fine.

OK, you might not (completely) understand what's going on but the tone is set and I've read up to Midnight Tides and nothing changed in the way the series worked. What was good in books 1 and 2 remained good there after, what criticisms I had also remained.

TBH, I think you can make your mind up after GotM alone. If you like it, you'll like the rest. If you don't, you won't.

I quite like GotM and five books later I still quite like it.

I'm too busy reading and lurking.

>>2803461

Good one. Given I've read that, and very much liked it, I don't know why I forgot about it.

>>2803465

I'll add Bierce. I haven't read him but he seems like a decent addition.

And yes, further suggestions (other than the ones in the last thread) for additions to this section or any other are still most welcome! Now the overall list is being divided up I think we can try and be more comprehensive.

That's a graphic novel.

The actual book, "The Nightmare Factory" is a collection of much of Ligotti's early fiction. If you like Lovecraftian horror (or dread and paranoia) you'll like Ligotti. I think he's OK, just not as terrifying as people make out.

I'm wondering, given that a few more "horror" authors are creeping in (not necessarily a bad thing), should Ligotti be added to the list?

I'm not his greatest fan but Songs of a Dead Dreamer is good (better IMO than TG and Grimscribe, which are the others of his I've read).

Am wondering if anyone wants to help maybe put together an SF short story list / image?

I've read a fair bit bit of SF but could definitely use some help on this.

I don't really want to shoehorn the few great SF story collections in to the overall "literary" short story recommendations I'm doing, as there's probably enough they deserve their own list.