MagiStream

I have a new book recommendation for y'all. Cinder, by Marissa Meyer. It's a sci-fi version of Cinderella, and it's amazing.
I seriously couldn't put that book down. I got the first 5 chapters for free, and when they were over I got the whole book right away, because I was hooked.

It lives!!!! I didn't want to double post, so I was stuck for months debating whether I wanted to edit my last post or just wait until someone else posted.

Amaimon wrote:I love books, let me in!
Username: Amaimon
Favourite books/authors/genres: James Patterson, Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game, fantasy, science fiction, James Dashner's The Maze Runner, The Percy Jackson series. ♥
Recommend ONE book! Tell us why it's great! I recommend reading Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife because of the deep emotions, the depth of the characters, and the all-around heartfelt experience that finishing the novel brings. It held me captive until the very last page. :3

Welcome new member!

Ender's Game was really good. What other Orson Scott Card books would you recommend? And I can't believe I still haven't read The Time Traveler's Wife. Definitely going to the library soon.

Not a huge fan of James Patterson though. (Although I did enjoy Sundays at Tiffany's as a purely fluffy read to get me through a tough junior year of high school.) What books do you like by him and why?

I'm so behind on my 100 books challenge this year. Probably because of college and the fact that I didn't have this guild to post in, so I've been slacking. I'm only at 25 and I'm supposed to be at 50. Oh well, lots of reading over the summer I guess.

I've been reading more Neil Gaiman and I have to say, American Gods must be the exception and not the rule, because that's the only book by Neil Gaiman I don't like. (Unfortunately, that was also the first book of his I read, so I had a negative opinion of him for awhile.) Fragile Things was amazing. All his short stories have been amazing. He manages to pack in so much into so little space. I also read Neverwhere, and that book was a really neat exploration of fantasy London juxtaposed against normal London. The characters in Neverwhere are more generic, at times, I felt like I was reading a Lloyd Alexander novel, but that was also what was so good about it. It was more familiar, and I was more sympathetic to the characters.

The King of Lies by John Hart is probably the first mystery book I've genuinely enjoyed in awhile. I read Dark Horse by Tami Hoag last year, and it wasn't bad, but I read it going like, "I would much rather be watching an episode of Castle instead" The King of Lies was really amazing though. The difference was definitely the main characters. They were both compelling, but Work from The King of Lies had so much depth that I don't think it'd be able to be conveyed in any other form besides a book.

Hmm. No perfect 7's yet this year. (I rate my books out of seven, because it was something I decided to do on a whim in seventh grade and now I can't change my mindset back into rating things out of 10) Neverwhere was 6.9, The King of Lies was a 6.8.

Oh, the other 6.8! Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. It's a massive 700 page book that's impossible to summarize. It's...sort of steam punk? Just read a couple of chapters and you'll what I mean. It defies explanation.

And there were so many other good books I've read this year. But this post is getting a bit too massive for my tastes, so hopefully I'll be able to post again. (Hopefully I won't have to wait several months this time.)

I love books, let me in!
Username: Foxesrule.
Favourite books/authors/genres: Adventure stories, fantasy stories...And pretty much anything to do with animals.
Recommend ONE book! Tell us why it’s great! Umm...Hard choice...Err... The secret country! It's unique, fantastic writing...Pretty much everything you want from a book. (If you like fantasy and adventure stories with a little twist.) Apparently, I forgot the name of the author... ( ) Once I had read it, I wanted to read the sequel and the other book the author had published! Another good thing is that pretty much everyone can read it. Or, I would say 9-100. ( ) It's brilliant!

(I'm surprised I didn't choose one of my favourite fox stories... )

Woo! I'm in.~ Thank you! c:

Selinea wrote:What other Orson Scott Card books would you recommend?
James Patterson - What books do you like by him and why?

^Kinda tweaked it.

Orson Scott Card... There's a few that I remember reading, but can't remember the exact details. Eesh. I should read them again. But. These were definitely good reads. They're sequels from Ender's Game.
Speaker for the Dead
Xenocide
Children of the Mind
Ender's Shadow
Shadow of the Hegemon
Shadow Puppets
Shadow of the Giant
First Meetings

James Patterson's Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment pulled me in, and I've stuck with the series ever since. The idea of mutant teens with wings plus everyday teen drama and how they manage to deal with it just intrigues me since I can't handle my own all that well. That, and Fang is my hero. Daniel X and the rest of that series are fun reads, too. The graphic novels stick right with the books, and the artist is, in my opinion, amazing.

My mom says that I'm horrible at reviews, and bases my interest in the book on my reactions to it. So I wouldn't ask me to review anything. (I guess it works. She hasn't brought home anything I wouldn't read lately. o3o)

Selinea wrote:(Hopefully I won't have to wait several months this time.)

... /Schwarzenegger accent. I'll be back.

Amaimon wrote:Woo! I'm in.~ Thank you! c:

Selinea wrote:What other Orson Scott Card books would you recommend?
James Patterson - What books do you like by him and why?

^Kinda tweaked it.

Orson Scott Card... There's a few that I remember reading, but can't remember the exact details. Eesh. I should read them again. But. These were definitely good reads. They're sequels from Ender's Game.
Speaker for the Dead
Xenocide
Children of the Mind
Ender's Shadow
Shadow of the Hegemon
Shadow Puppets
Shadow of the Giant
First Meetings

James Patterson's Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment pulled me in, and I've stuck with the series ever since. The idea of mutant teens with wings plus everyday teen drama and how they manage to deal with it just intrigues me since I can't handle my own all that well. That, and Fang is my hero. Daniel X and the rest of that series are fun reads, too. The graphic novels stick right with the books, and the artist is, in my opinion, amazing.

My mom says that I'm horrible at reviews, and bases my interest in the book on my reactions to it. So I wouldn't ask me to review anything. (I guess it works. She hasn't brought home anything I wouldn't read lately. o3o)

Selinea wrote:(Hopefully I won't have to wait several months this time.)

... /Schwarzenegger accent. I'll be back.

Uh, I hope you realize I'm not the guild leader. I just...seem to post "welcome new member" more than anybody else. (I have no idea why that ends up happening)

Okay, I will continue with that series then. The aye's have it! (Basically, a couple people have told me that Ender's Game was the only good book, and a couple other people have told me that the entire series is great, but I think more people have now said to read the entire series, so I will.)

I actually didn't like Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment. Max was way too much of a Mary Sue and none of the characters intrigued me beyond Fang, who didn't show up much in the first book and acted like a total villain half the time. I'm also just not a big fan of James Patterson's writing style. It's like...he's too description heavy when I don't want him to be description heavy, and glosses over the parts I wanted to read more of. Maybe I'll just read the graphic novels for the plot. I agree, it looked like the artist did a really good job, I just never checked it out from the library because I wasn't a big fan of the first book.

Just your reactions to a book is exactly what this guild is for. I mean, if someone wanted literary critiques on the themes and symbolism, you'd just google official reviews and look the book up on spark notes. I have an entire system based off of plot fluidity, logistics, characters development, descriptions/imagery, and English mechanics/sentence structure that I use when I edit someone's story or leave a review on fictionpress, but I rarely post all that stuff here towards books I read for fun because a single character could make you fall in love with a book series. An overload of imagery might make you dislike a book. (One of my friends doesn't like The Hunger Games because she said the book focuses on describing what people are wearing too much. I think that's an incredibly bizarre reason to not like a book, but hey, to each their own.)

I wasn't a big of The Devil's Hearth, but my quote of the week has been stuck on something from that book for almost forever, because just certain lines in that book really spoke to me. And The Swan Thieves was the most beautiful book I've ever read. (Not best, not most interesting, not most unique, but most beautiful) There was something about the descriptions of that book that just worked well for me. Yet I find it one of the most unquotable books ever. I always describe it as a book that's about art that's like a work of art. It's absolutely beautiful and you can't just look at a sentence just like you can't just look at a corner of the painting. (The plot is really slow though. Read it if you like drinking in descriptions.)

Foxesrule wrote:I love books, let me in!
Username: Foxesrule.
Favourite books/authors/genres: Adventure stories, fantasy stories...And pretty much anything to do with animals.
Recommend ONE book! Tell us why it’s great! Umm...Hard choice...Err... The secret country! It's unique, fantastic writing...Pretty much everything you want from a book. (If you like fantasy and adventure stories with a little twist.) Apparently, I forgot the name of the author... Once I had read it, I wanted to read the sequel and the other book the author had published! Another good thing is that pretty much everyone can read it. Or, I would say 9-100. It's brilliant!

(I'm surprised I didn't choose one of my favourite fox stories... )

Welcome new member!

So The Secret Country is like Bridge to Terabithia only then made real? A quick search on google tells me it's by Pamela Dean. Sounds interesting, making a library run after I post on here so I'll look that up.

I think you'd like The Squire's Tale by Gerald Morris. It's a really cool medieval fantasy series based off of the Knights of the Round Table.

And have you read the Redwall series? Animals and adventure galore.

I generally find myself posting more about books that I'd think would find a bigger audience which is why I didn't include this book in my previous post, but I also really loved Zoo City by Lauren Beukes. If any of you have ever seen District 9, the movie, it has a similar tone. It's set in South Africa and really gets into the social problems and racial issues, but also like District 9, it has a lot of sci-fi/fantasy elements thrown in so it's not at all dry or boring. So if you liked District 9, or if you liked the theme of Cry the Beloved Country but not the plot, then Zoo City is for you. If you want lighthearted fun reads as you're reading, then Zoo City is not for you, although there's some dark humor in Zoo City too.

So, question for everyone. What kind of book characters would you prefer:
A. All black and white characters (Ex: Um...don't really know...The Boxcar Children? A couple of the Redwall books? Haven't read many books series lately that dealt in all black and white. I got it! Pure adrenaline thrillers like most of the Bond movies, or Seven Deadly Wonders by Matthew Reilly also deal in black white.)
B. Mostly black and white characters (Ex: Harry Potter is the most obvious example. It was pretty clear who's good and who's bad, but a couple characters are mixed, like Snape.)
C. A couple black and white characters (Ex: Most epic fantasy books, mystery books, etc. The Sword of Shannara, The King of Lies, etc. You have a little group of main characters that definitely good, and then everybody else out there has their own agenda.)
D. All gray area (Ex: Mortal Coils, or better yet, the second book of that series, All that Lives Must Die. Sometimes, even the main characters make questionable moral decisions that make you think less of them.)

And obviously, it's not a clear cut four category thing. It's more of a spectrum. I could have easily made like, nine choices or fifteen choices to this multiple choice question instead of four. I'm just curious where people lie on the spectrum.

I think that while I read all over the spectrum, I appreciate group B books the most, because all black and white is just too...fluffy and boring. (Okay, I realize I just called gory action books fluffy, but they are due to the way that they don't make you think.) But I'm also reading for enjoyment most of the time, and diving into something like Zoo City can be exotic and interesting and absolutely great for class, because you get to discuss a book that was actually cool, but it's not the kind of book I would want to read twice a week every week.

I also hate it when books shift to a radically different place on the spectrum. If a book starts out in group B with a mostly clear line between good and evil, I don't want it slide down to group D and make it so that all the bad characters gain redeeming qualities and all the good characters gain flaws that make it impossible to root for them. On the flip side, if you start out with tortured, conflicted characters, I hate books where those characters suddenly decide to become a total hero or total villain. It's like the author decided that characters must stick to clichés rather than just being people.

Things are picking up in here! (And I thought my last post was long. This one is equally massive.)

Hi guys, I'm posting instead of lurking for once!

Selinea wrote:So, question for everyone. What kind of book characters would you prefer:
A. All black and white characters (Ex: Um...don't really know...The Boxcar Children? A couple of the Redwall books? Haven't read many books series lately that dealt in all black and white. I got it! Pure adrenaline thrillers like most of the Bond movies, or Seven Deadly Wonders by Matthew Reilly also deal in black white.)
B. Mostly black and white characters (Ex: Harry Potter is the most obvious example. It was pretty clear who's good and who's bad, but a couple characters are mixed, like Snape.)
C. A couple black and white characters (Ex: Most epic fantasy books, mystery books, etc. The Sword of Shannara, The King of Lies, etc. You have a little group of main characters that definitely good, and then everybody else out there has their own agenda.)
D. All gray area (Ex: Mortal Coils, or better yet, the second book of that series, All that Lives Must Die. Sometimes, even the main characters make questionable moral decisions that make you think less of them.)

I really like characters that fall into the D category, and a little black-and-white is sometimes good, as in C. I like stories with a lot of complexity and a lot of things to understand as you go along. It makes the book feel more like a real world.
That said, I don't mind B category stories, A is sometimes fine but sometimes a bit annoying. Anything well-written is good for me. I just really like having a lot of substance in the things I read.


I personally haven't been reading much recently, what with life and senior activities and all. I plan to reread the Harry Potter books over the summer to figure out what made me dislike them, other than that terrible and completely unnecessary epilogue. Other than that, I have nothing I want to read. The local bookstore went out of business so now I'd have to go drive for half an hour to get to the nearest one and browse, and they really don't have a good selection to choose from.

And since I haven't been here in a while and we have so many new members, is there anyone who wants one of these?

I love books, let me in!
Username: BBkat

Favourite books/authors/genres: Mainly fantasy/supernatural and those types, though I have been known to stray into other genres like detective/mystery(Sherlock Holmes, just started reading A Study in Scarlet; when I was younger I did read some of the Nancey Drew and Trixie Belden novels) sci-fi (Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury) and pretty much anything I think looks interesting. The Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman are fantastic reads, especially if you love fantasy. Ray Bradbury's Illustrated man is another one I found myself liking a lot-it's a collection of short stories all linked together. It's very good.

Recommend ONE book! Tell us why it's great! Only one? Damn. I'll go with the one I finished reading(again) most recently, The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. As for why it's great? It's a beautiful tale and while it's not a very long novel or a particularly difficult one to read it's still a good read for anyone. I love the characters in it-my favourite will always be Schmendrick the bumbling magician. If you haven't read it(or have only seen the movie) go read it. And even if you have read it well, read it again xD

Drei Korvik wrote:
And since I haven't been here in a while and we have so many new members, is there anyone who wants one of these?

I´m not a new member but I´d love one of those book (pearl) wyrms

Selinea wrote:So, question for everyone. What kind of book characters would you prefer:
...

I personally prefer characters in category C and to a certain extend D. C gives you someone to relate to and "accompany" in their quest to find out what all other characters´agendas are. Category D is closer to real life characters, life doesn´t always gives you the option to make a morally unquestionable decision. But those situations/decisions have to be written well so that the decision makes sense within the frame of the story, more often than not they feel forced or make me question the character´s intelligence which usually ends with me putting the book away for good.

So, I'm putting this year's book list in this new post rather than editing last year's book list. (Keeping my book list on a virtual post it note means there's way too much scrolling for my tastes.)

1. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (5.4)
2. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman (6.6)
3. The Crying of Lot 49 (4.7)
4. The River Knows by Jayne Ann Krentz (5.6)
5. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko (5.8)
6. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris (5.4)
7. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (3.8)
8. The Devil's Hearth by Phillip DePoy (6.0)
9. Amazonia by James Rollins (5.7)
10. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino (5.7)
11. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles (5.9)
12. Dangerous Instincts by Mary Ellen O'Toole (5.3)
13. Mortal Coils by Eric Nylund (6.7)
14. Women in the Ancient World by Jenifer Neils (5.1)
15. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (5.3)
16. Tribute by Nora Roberts (6.0)
17. The King of Lies by John Hart (6.8)
18. All that Lives Must Die by Eric Nylund (6.3)
19. Utopia by Thomas More (5.5)
20. The Man in my Basement by Walter Mosley (5.8)
21. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip Dick (6.4)
22. Provenance by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo (5.2)
23. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (6.9)
24. Zoo City by Lauren Beukes (6.7)
25. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville (6.8)
26. The Fallen Blade by Jon Courtenay Grimwood (4.6)
27. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame Smith (5.1)
28. The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen (6.4)
29. Sword Dancer by Jennifer Roberson (6.5)
30. The Psychology of Wealth by Charles Richards (5.5)
31. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (6.2)
32. Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (6.7)
33. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (6.5)
34. The Rainaldi Quartet by Paul Adam (6.3)
35. With Just One Kiss by Francis Ray (3.8)
36. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury (6.7)
37. Prague Winter by Madeleine Albright (6.1)
38. Soulless by Gail Carriger (6.4)
39. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (5.9)
40. House of the Hunted by Mark Mills (4.4)
41. A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole (5.8)
42. The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle (5.7)
43-48. Immortals After Dark series by Kresley Cole (Uh... on average a 5.9?)
49. The Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher (4.7)
50. Buried in the Sky by Peter Zuckerman (6.6)
51. Deep Kiss of Winter by Kresley Cole and Gena Showalter (5.6)
52. Summer Knight by Jim Butcher (6.6)
53-58. The Weather Warden Series by Rachel Caine (5.5)
59. Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton
60. A Quick Bite by Lyndsay Sands (3.7)
61. Shadow Game by Christine Feehan (5.8)
62-75. Dark Series by Christine Feehan (Again, on average...um, 5.1, again, some are better than others)
76. Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead (6.7)
77. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead (6.4)
78-79. Succubus on Top/Succubus Dreams by Richelle Mead (6.0)
80. At The Dark End of the Street by Danielle McGuire (6.2)
81. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (5.6)
82. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King (5.4)
83. Haunted America by Beth Scott (5.8)
84-87. Dark Secrets (1-4) by Elizabeth Chandler (6.4)
88. The Ghost of Flight 401 by John Fuller (5.9)
89. Demon in the Dark by Kresley Cole (6.2)
90. Signs and Wonders by Alix Ohlin (6.6)
91. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (5.8)
92. Anna Karenina in Our Time by Gary Morson (6.4)
93. Lothaire by Kresley Cole (6.2)
94. Unpossible and Other Stories by Daryl Gregory (6.4)
95. The Universal Mirror by Gwen Perkins (6.2)
96. Eternal Rider by Larissa Ione (5.8)
97. Last Night I Sang to the Monster (6.2)
98. The Elegance of the Hedgehog (6.3)
99.

Once again, ratings are out of 7.0.

I will try to keep this post as a simple, direct list, so...responses are forthcoming.