What are you reading now?

[bucksfan2]

Originally Posted by medford

I enjoyed The Bear and the Dragon.

To me, the problem with a typical Clancy book has always been that the first 1/3 or so of his books are a grind. The plot and story lines are so deep and far that it takes a long time to "get going". It also seems like this same part of his books are a little bit dry as he gets into the nuts and bolts of his background story. However, once the story lines start to come together, his books take off quickly and lead to a fabulous journey.

the one book of his that seems to stray from this line was "Without Remorse" It has always been one of my favorite stories of his, or any authors. The movie rights have been swaped around a handful of times, different writers have been brought in, but its never left development, so I doubt the movie ever gets made.

I have two problems with Clancy. You highlighted my first one. His books take a long time to develop. Its usually a couple of hundred pages before the action really picks up. My second problem is he can get overly technical at times. Its usually during the first 1/3 when its a grind to read.

That said once you get past the grind the books are hard to put down and you have hundreds of pages of suspense.

[Roy Tucker]

Originally Posted by bucksfan2

I have two problems with Clancy. You highlighted my first one. His books take a long time to develop. Its usually a couple of hundred pages before the action really picks up. My second problem is he can get overly technical at times. Its usually during the first 1/3 when its a grind to read.

That said once you get past the grind the books are hard to put down and you have hundreds of pages of suspense.

For a techno-dweeb like me, I love that part of Clancy's writing. For any of you who have read my overly-detailed posts, that's probably no surprise. Back in the day, I was a co-author of a 6 degree of freedom laser guided bomb computer simulation so I can get pretty far into the technical weeds.

Back a few posts, Raisor posted that Larry Bond was co-author of Red Storm Rising. I did not know that and found it very interesting.

Also back in the newsgroup days (mid to late 90's), Clancy used to interact with his readers over at alt.fan.tom-clancy and alt.books.tom-clancy as tomclancy@aol.com. He'd make some interesting comments there and get cranky a lot.

[medford]

Originally Posted by bucksfan2

I have two problems with Clancy. You highlighted my first one. His books take a long time to develop. Its usually a couple of hundred pages before the action really picks up. My second problem is he can get overly technical at times. Its usually during the first 1/3 when its a grind to read.

That said once you get past the grind the books are hard to put down and you have hundreds of pages of suspense.

That's part of why I like his stuff though. I feel like I've "earned" the thrill of the last 2/3rds of his books. I think it makes for a better overall story line than many others put together.

I once read "Ultimate Jest" which was just a complete grind the entire time with zero reward at the end. It had paragraphs that would run on for pages at a time, things never came together, I just gritted my teeth and finished the 800+ pages because I had already started long after I realized I would never be happy. It got a lot of praise; I'll never understand why.

[marcshoe]

Just started OnceThey Moved Like the Wind, the story of Cochese, Geronimo, etc. Very good so far. Doesn't romanticize its subject. Geronimo comes across as much more aggressive than I remember him bring when I was him play.

[RonDunn95]

Will start to read Lord of the Flies.

[Chrietic]

nikki sixx books

[Stephenk29]

Black by Ted Dekker - Awful

The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss. If you like any hint of the fantasy genre (I usually do not) I highly encourage to read this one. I can't put it down.

[foxfire123]

Originally Posted by Stephenk29

Black by Ted Dekker - Awful

The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss. If you like any hint of the fantasy genre (I usually do not) I highly encourage to read this one. I can't put it down.

I got about halfway through that Rothfuss book, and finally gave up. Just could not get into that one....

[Spitball]

I just received 11/22/63 by Stephen King for Christmas. I have read two pages and so far it is great!

[Sweetstop]

got for christmas and am currently reading joan didion's "blue nights"..about the death of her daughter, something no parent should ever go through..i think i like it better than her wonderful "a year of magical thinking" about the death of her husband, the author, john gregory dunne..."blue nights" is also about the fear of aging, which looms...

then i'll go back to "war and peace" yep, i will finish it.

[Redsfaithful]

Originally Posted by Spitball

I just received 11/22/63 by Stephen King for Christmas. I have read two pages and so far it is great!

It's his best book in probably 20+ years.

[Roy Tucker]

Originally Posted by Redsfaithful

It's his best book in probably 20+ years.

Just finished this book today and I agree.

I didn't want to read it too fast because I was enjoying it too much. So I'd force myself to put it down for a while because my instinct was to plow through it. King has matured as a writer and this one was his best. An SF time travel tale with a love story as its soul and an unexpectedly satisfying ending.

[Redsfaithful]

Originally Posted by Roy Tucker

King has matured as a writer and this one was his best. An SF time travel tale with a love story as its soul and an unexpectedly satisfying ending.

I read somewhere that his son (also a writer, Joe Hill) suggested the ending. Makes perfect sense to me, that's always been King's weak point.

[Roy Tucker]

Originally Posted by Redsfaithful

I read somewhere that his son (also a writer, Joe Hill) suggested the ending. Makes perfect sense to me, that's always been King's weak point.

Yep, it was in the epilog of the book.

And you're right about King's endings. When I read the last pages of the last book of the Dark Tower series, I about threw it through a window.

[Redsfaithful]

Originally Posted by Roy Tucker

Yep, it was in the epilog of the book.

And you're right about King's endings. When I read the last pages of the last book of the Dark Tower series, I about threw it through a window.

Oops, well there you go, it's been a few weeks since I read it. The Dark Tower got really silly, I think it just got away from him. I don't hate the ending completely, but mostly I just pretend it's a 4 book series.