a new purchase

WhiteWashMan

am reading terry pratchetts latest offering
the fifth elephant

and by god, its as good as the rest of the discworld series

Trojan

Hey WWM!

I saw that last week in the shops alright - you just gotta love that title!

Anyways did you shell out 16 quid for the hard-back? Or is it out softcopy?

Give us a review when yer done.

Al.

WhiteWashMan

al
i got the hardback for 16 lids
always buy hardbacks

i'll give you a good run down when im finished

but its started of as most of them do...as a sort of detective 'who dun wha' type thing.
as confusing as ever, very funny, and lots of the partitician who is one of my fav characters.

now if we could get back to rincewind every now and then...

Trojan

Ah Rincewind is sound but I think that all the ones with the guards are class, and whats the chiefs name doh anyways hes good.

****in expensive habit you got the mate

I always buy soft 10 yr old 4th hand books

Al.

mewso

If there's a scam in books it's bleedin hardbacks. I don't buy them on principle. Don't tell me they are for people who like to have a collecters item etc. because the softback is never available for months later. Bleedin scam I tells ye.

M

Draco

I got it off Amazon for £11 - better than the £16 normally.

Like all the other Watch books, it's worth reading. While I don't think it's as good as Men at Arms (with which I think Pratchett peaked), it is still held my interest untill the end.

As for buying hardbacks - I've bought the last 8 or 9 Prachetts in hardback and a couple of other books from series that I *just* had to finish and couldn't wait the 9+ months for the softback. Is is a scam, but it gets me everytime.

And Rincewind can **** off - he really annoys me. I'd like to see a book with completely new characters (except DEATH of course...)

Draco

LoLth

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Discy-crap!!!!! I should delete the lot of ya, just on principle!!!!

Draco

Ah **** off! It could be worse - it could be another Eddings book...

Trojan

Or another gawddamn Shannara book

Lolth, Pratchett's cool! He kicks the ass off all the comic-style writers out there.

He appeals to sf & fantasy heads as well as people who don't even like reading novels (shock horror - there are muppets like that!!! ).

So take yer "Lolth says No!" to some other thread before we give ya a smack!

--

Anyways the guards novels are defo the best, kick the ass off the Rincewind series (he's a muppet anyways). Captain Grimes, or whatever his name is (haven't read them in a year or 2), is my personal favorite, but the Luggage comes in at a close second!

Al.

Draco

That would be Sir Sammuel Vimes, Commander of the Watch and Earl of Ankh.

Canaboid - which 8 did you read though? There are common themes through out all the books, and some are becoming boring (The various C.M.O.T. Diblers are particulerly annoying IMHO).

Draco

Excelsior

Explain the attraction to these sci-fi books, why read them when you have so much great stuff out there that doesnt involve turtles carrying the world on their shoulders and mech warriors and optimus prime and his transformers.
Jsut a question.

Trojan

Implying that serious sf and the transformers are even remotely connected will get you in serious trouble Excelsior.

Now be a good little boy and find a book written by one of the authors I mentioned in the other thread. Read said book and come back and start posting remarks like that.

At least it would not then be complete muppetry, but "informed" complete muppetry and we might give a ****.


Al.

[Addendum]: I guess that sounded a bit to serious originally. Most ppl would probably see my name and wouldn't take it seriously but ya never know. Smileys added as appropriate!


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Canaboid

One word - Derivative.
Of all the previous ones that is. I've read about 8 and I just can't read anymore.

Excelsior

No you mis-interpret my style as an insult.
Point taken, the great Hemmingway stated style was an ability to get your message across. As such, my style was clearly not up to the job of posting the question.
Let me try again:
With all due respect,
imagine this is a contest on the back of a milk carton and the prize is a collection of limited edition sci-fi milk bottles, or "Michael Collins Drank Milk" commererative coins or whatever sh.it they give out as prizes. You have to fill in the blank:
"I like Sci-Fi books because...."
in as few words as possible.
I just want your genuine opinions.
Kevin

WhiteWashMan

i dont like scifi.

i do like terry pratchett

terry pratchett is not sci-fi

by the way, tis a good book
and i have to say i like te watch stories
always funny
if you dont like em, dont bother postin
simple as that
personally i dont like romance novels either, but they are the most popular type of book sold in the world, so i guess someone does.

you havent seen me post an ian banks is crap post have you?
i dont like his style. i think he rambles on something awful.
just coz i dont read the 'trendy' or intellectually stimulating' books that others read, doesnt mean they arent good.

wtf is going on with these board recently?
does everyone have to post their f*cking opinion anytime someone farts?
i mean seriously. i expect the muppets on the quake board to do this sh1te, but to be honest i thought a nice board like books would actually have some sort of.... intelligent.... posts.

but nope.
im gettin very bored of other people telling everyone else their opinions are wrong.

f*ck that, i mean, thats the last time i post up that im enjoying a book.
next tme i might get crucified.
or maybe just edited and censored

nice to see the readers are just a closed in mind as the majority of this bigoted on-line community
and just as boring

TwoShedsJackson

Sock it to 'em Eamo.

LoLth

WWman, you're wrong. hehe.

soz, but pratchett is a pet hate of mine. I read them all up to STRATA. Strata just ruined it for me.

Then I got harrassed by a fanatic who actually stood outside a toilet quoting it at me during a nice relaxing movement.

I was just having a laugh, and maybe getting a bit of conversation going. A board with 'this is good. Buy it' all the time is boring. A board with, 'I think this is good because....' and 'No it's not because....' is much more interesting.

I bought the Banks books after reading not just recommendations but comparisons and criticisms on this board. I loved the books, best spree of buying I ever had (barring pub sprees...)

but Pratchett. Eeeeeeeeek! I don't like the author, I don't like his style, I hated the three witches (except the story in the Legends Anthology, that was good - almost like a kiddies bedtime story that), and I absolutely loathed Strata, not only because it was crap SF (completely unoriginal and mindnumbingly plodding) but because IMO i ruined the previous discworld novels (of which I liked the rincewind one with the walking luggage and something about colour and magic in the title - I think).

And it's not just the genre of humorous fantaasy I don't like because I like Robert Aspirin (another fine myth , myth conceptions etc.) and the guy who wrote the Garden of Earthly delights (a f*cked up book if ever there was one).

that better?

Excelsior

For once wwman I gotta digress. I dont think you got slagged for sharing your opinion, I'd like to publicly thank you for that. As for your opinion thingy I dont know quite where you're coming from. This is a board for opinions.
As for Draco, I never actually revealed my own opinions on sci-fi. Please don't give me the pathetic student attitude that I'm going with the "establishment." Don't be so arrogant. Judge not lest you be judged. Basically don't be so obvious as to present yourself as some renegade. My first question could be mis-construed as derisive but I apologized in my second post in which I simply asked for your opinion.
I have to go solve some puzzles.
Kevin

---

We are superfriends
Super friends are we

WhiteWashMan

nice to see we can get some some decent replies.
just sick of the sick of the crap

ive had my sleep now
having no sleep is not good for me.
ive taken my pils as well
didnt mean to rant, so apologies to any1 who was annoyed at me

Draco

As far as I rememebr, Strata was wriiten before the *proper* Discworld books. There is another Pratchett Scifi (Dark Side of the Sun I think) that is tripe.

As for why I read Scifi (and don't forget fantasy!) rather than say Dickins or Hemingway or any other "classic" author you care to metion is because if I wanted something true to life, I'd see what was going on around me. I read Scifi to escape the humdrum world we live in. I have zero interest in reading about junkies (I can talk to my friends ), bored bank managers (I can talk to my friends dads), irratating teenagers (my sister) or the tortured soul of some poet (I'll talk to some of the muppet arts studemts I know). You are buying into the establisment view that Scifi/Fantasy isn't *proper* litrature - it's a debased form written by half-wits. these of course are the same people that say comics are only for kids (I dare them to read the likes of Preacher, Hellblazer etc.)

WWman - keep posting your opinions - like Lolth I read some of the Banks stuff after reading the for/against posts.

Draco

Trojan

WWMan:

What's the point of having a bloody board if no one posts opinions on it?!?!

I mean this thread is a great example of how things *should be* on the other boards: we have a small on-topic discussion on loads of things (like what ppl think of hard-backs, someone notes its a fiver cheaper on amazon, ppl say who they like in the Discworld series, and err, me stirring it up a bit there towards the end (soz lads I apologise ) )....

If we don't post opinion on books (of all things!!) what do we say about them?

Anyways that's my 37 1/2 cents....

Al.

Draco

Sorry if I jumped the gun a bit, but I am so used to hearing from literary critics that Scifi/Fantasy is not really litrature - I tend to get a little defensive. I remember one critic complaining that Terry Pratchett didn't even use chapters. But my point is thatyou were challenging us to defend our choice, some that the establishment (or is that a bad word?) do everyday out of hand. My answer was the standard one I give to people who say "But why scifi?"
And as for being judged, we do it unconciously all the time anyway.

Draco

Trojan

LOL - the establishment????!

ffs I don't think there's anyone on these boards who you could seriously call part of "The Establishment"...

Draco, re your 2nd last post - good answer to be fair, I think thats exactly the reason I've always read sf/fantasy (apart from the Hobbit being the first book I read and my dad being a crazed Asimov fan.. )

Actually on that note, I'm interested in that since me aul lad is an English teacher, loves Keats, Yeats, Wordsworth and all that stuff, yet he's mad into Asimov/Clarke/Bear etc....

I think it really goes to show that there's no accounting for taste, and that there's no such thing as a stereotypical person.

Al.

Draco

Heh - the only way you could you could use the word 'establishment' to describe one of us lot is if you put 'dis' in front of it.

As for your Dad's taste in books, I would say he's an exception rather than the norm - most english teachers I've come across have been rabidly anti-scifi/fantasy - thus the frothing-at-the-mouth put down of literary critics.

Draco

WhiteWashMan

well thats ok coz my mum used to be an english teacher so i am well eduated in that regard!
ffs i ahad read the entire leaving cert english lit. course before i was 12.
lord of he flies scared the hell outta me i can tell you.
now there is a good book.

course, she teaches philosophy in trinity and UCD now, so im not sure if that has had a good or bad effect on me.

like i said, i just saw one or two posts yesterday that were jus brushing aside ppls opinions (or seem to) and thats what annoyed me.
i have no problem saying they dont like so-and-so or they though xyz was deadly cos of abc.

what i dont like is hes a crap writer so there. end of debate.
thats why i spam my usual surealist sh1te onto the quake board and not here.

however, if anyone has a decent book to read, let me know coz i need something to read.
mind you, if you love trivia like i do, the missus bought the top 10 of everything book the other day and its deadly!
did you know that ireland is second inthe world for drinking beer at 215 litres perhead average behind the czech republic?
or that ireland is the highest tea (at over 1300 cups per year) and milk drinkers in the world. cool stuff

god, i must get a job where i get to sleep at night and not for about 4 hours per day!

Excelsior

I reckon there are plenty of sci-fi books that people could love. Including english teachers- the *******s. One of them asked me if I was on drugs when I wrote essays. Thats a nice bit of encouragement. Anywho, you showed up a fatal flaw in making people respect your interest. You ASSUMED I was attacking you. That isn't going to endear a newbie to anything, be it Quake or SciFi or whatever. Furthermore I would refuse to get dxefensive even if one was spouting prejudiced crap. They'd be fueled by me acting all antisocial and nerdy.
....and after America?

WhiteWashMan

anyway, whats wrong with he establishment?

i think shes a niffty looking queen.
as for her mum...phoar!

Draco

I'm sure that there are teachers out there who read sci-fi. But I would guess that those that don't are in the vast majority. As for encouragement with essays, I was accused of coping an essay off someone as the teacher thought I was incapable of writing something good.
As for defending myself, I'll defend all of my opinions. If I didn't, they'd be worthless. I would act the same if someone said to me we should stop eating meat (a pet hate of mine - it's all a bunch of tree hugin' hippie crap!) I'm not acting nerdy or anti-social. I'd be anti-social if I either just walked away or started shouting at them. Nerdy...how do you get that?

Dra-I'm in an argumentive mood-co

Trojan

Aww WWMMWWMWMan

> one or two posts yesterday that were jus brushing aside ppls opinions

I guess there was one of mine in there somewhere - just for the record I was just taking the pi$$ as usual. Please note that I did use the prerequisite smileys but neglected the (<- JOKE) tag... nah we are not going to go there ppl!!

Anyways don't take it to heart.

cyas later fer a pint lads!

Al.

WhiteWashMan

f*ckin A1 al!

seeya in sachs later
if yer not in long stone that is
gowan you know you wanna come in for a pint with me!
celebrate me new job an all that!

Trojan

Well ya know yerself Eamo,

I thought this might be an appropriate forum for the more subtle intellectual humour, since the muppets flaming each other out in 'Quake' would never come near the place!

Anyways Long Stone? Where's that? Will be going up to Harcourt Hotel for 6.30 for happy hour pints (£1.80 a pint! )

Come along one and all, it's only a few mins walk to Sachs from there.

Al.