Conversation Between Astinus and acatfrommars
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  1. acatfrommars
    February 15th, 2016 11:05 PM
    acatfrommars
    Chronicles of Shannara? I've heard MTV has butchered thaat show. xp
  2. Astinus
    February 10th, 2016 5:37 PM
    Astinus
    I grew up surrounded by books, so I've been reading for a long time! To the detriment of my studies, though. I was always more interested in whatever book I was reading on my free time than what ever the school assigned. (Which I talked about in one of your threads before.)

    I haven't yet read Hitchhiker's yet, though I do have a nice copy that has the entire series in it. It's on my massive "to-be-read" pile, along with the rest of the Song of Ice and Fire series.

    The first book of which was the only fantasy that I've read recently. My problem is that I read a lot of the DragonLance books. (And there are a lot of them.) Most of the books in that series aren't that great, though if you're looking for some light fantasy with dragons, check out the Chronicles trilogy. Those books would be: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, Dragons of Summer Dawning. There are other decent books in the series, but those are the three books that started it all.

    Other than that, I really don't know a lot of fantasy series I can personally recommend, since I don't read in that genre often.
  3. acatfrommars
    February 8th, 2016 1:04 AM
    acatfrommars
    Yeah, I didn't know either when it first came out. It was just a happy coincidence, and I'm glad I read the series. Dang, you know a lot about books way more than I do. After I graduate from school, I plan to read a lot more of what I actually want to read instead of textbooks all day. Dx

    Yeah, the movie had some dry spots and I hope that the book doesn't. However, I've also heard that the director of the movie pulled a Michael Bay and just did whatever he wanted, so the book and movie aren't that similar at all. Who knows though, maybe I'm wrong haha.

    Have you ever read Hitchikers guide to the Galaxy? :p
    Also, what's a good fantasy series you'd recommend, kinda like a quest type of thing?
  4. Astinus
    February 7th, 2016 6:48 PM
    Astinus
    I recall hearing about the movie I Am Number Four. I didn't know it was based on a book! At least that means it should be easy to find copies of the books in stores or at the library.

    Science fiction is definitely a genre I enjoy, along with fantasy. It was actually Card that made me a fan of the genre in terms of books, and I went on to read Crichton, Asimov, and other authors.

    2001: A Space Odyssey was a weird book. Other people have said that it's boring (and the movie is boring too), so it is tough to get through. Once you do, the whole thing kind of sticks with you afterwards. I just randomly looked up discussions about the story today because I was hit by the ending again.
  5. acatfrommars
    February 5th, 2016 10:37 PM
    acatfrommars
    Ah okay, yeah a lot of famous authors seem like that. I guess it just takes one big book or series to become famous, which is cool because I'd like to write a book one day but I don't know if I want it to be fiction or what.

    I'll probably try Ender's Game at the end of next eek though, I haven't been able to read as much this semester because I'm trying to achiever a 4.0 and have harder classes. Last semester I was able to read like 2-3 books a week, I love reading as well haha. The Lorien Legacies are amazing, tough they are kind of teen-y. I would definitely recommend them if you like Science Fiction, the first book in the series is called I Am Number Four. A movie came out about it a few years back ,and I saw it when it first came out so I don't really remember how similar to the book it is. The last book in the series comes out this year, and I suspect that more movies will be out after that.

    If you're thinking about reading the series, then I would suggest reading the first one and if you don't like it, then maybe don't read the rest because the books are similarly written. However, the author, Pittacus Lore does do a better job at the writing style as the books progress, it's kinda like Ender. The story is great though, and at the ending of the first book there is a cliffhanger. However, I do wish that the books were a bit longer because I felt that things passed by too fast towards the end.

    Another book I want to read is 2001: A Space Odyssey. :p
  6. Astinus
    February 5th, 2016 7:17 PM
    Astinus
    It is my favorite series, but not my favorite books written by Card. I've read a lot of his books and actually like more of his stand-alone novels over the various series that he's written. His series tend to be hit-or-miss. For example, I don't much like the later books of the Enderverse series.

    How about the Lorien Legacies? Would you recommend those? I read pretty much everything, so I'm always open to suggestions.
  7. acatfrommars
    February 4th, 2016 9:18 PM
    acatfrommars
    Ah okay, I'm fine with that then! The first book in The Lorien Legacies wasn't written particularly well imo, but the plot was probably my 2nd. favorite of the 6 books written so far. Ah, you seem like a huge fan is it your favorite series of all time? :p
  8. Astinus
    February 3rd, 2016 8:54 AM
    Astinus
    Rough like written poorly. Card knew what he wanted to say in the story, so there's not a lot of pointless scenes, and the writing does bring you in. But if you stop to think about if the world actually makes sense, or the timeline of the story, or what the characters say from one chapter to the next, there's a lot of issues there.

    I'm currently reading through a blog that goes through Ender's Game chapter-by-chapter, so that's why the issues with the book are very fresh in my mind.
  9. acatfrommars
    February 2nd, 2016 10:34 PM
    acatfrommars
    Rough, like written poorly or rough like a dry and just a lot of fluff?
  10. Astinus
    February 2nd, 2016 6:44 PM
    Astinus
    Ender's Game is the one told from Ender's point of view. It's rather rough because it's one of Card's earliest works, but so long as you don't think about it much, it's pretty darn good. It's actually my favorite out of all the Enderverse books, though the little that I've read of Earth Unaware is pretty darn impressive.
  11. acatfrommars
    February 2nd, 2016 2:05 PM
    acatfrommars
    Okay, it reminds me of Lorien Legacies a little bit, but Ender's seems a lot more complex. With Lorien Legcies there are the main canon books, ten there are The Lost Files which are short stories from other character's points of views which are interesting to read too.

    I think I will start with the first book that's told from Ender's point of view, that would be Ender's Game right?
  12. Astinus
    February 1st, 2016 2:39 PM
    Astinus
    Haha, that's a question for the ages, and one that I've been planning to write up a decent answer to!

    But to get you started... I'd say start with either Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow. They tell pretty much the same story, but are written from two different point of views. One is about Ender himself, and the other is about a character introduced in Game that Card wanted to write more about named Bean.

    After you read those, you then can decide which character you liked more. If you want to follow Ender more, then you can go right to Speaker For the Dead. If you like Bean more (and wanted to know what happened to the rest of the characters), you start off with Shadow of the Hegemon. After those, it's pretty much straight-forward which books you go to.

    The two series are:
    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, Shadows in Flight

    Then there's the supplemental books to read. First Meetings is a collection of short stories, and is what it says in the title. It's stories about how some characters are introduced to others.

    There's A War of Gifts, which is a Christmas story. But it's absolute fluff and not really that great, so don't worry if you can't find this one.

    Then there is Ender in Exile, which takes place between Ender's Game and Speaker For the Dead. I would not recommend reading it between those two books unless you have already read the entire Shadow series.

    Lastly, there's the First Formic War series: Earth Unaware, Earth Afire, and Earth Awakens. I haven't read those yet, but I'd guess you can read those after either Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow if you want a little history about the universe.

    Ugh. I hope this clarifies a little bit on where to get started with this series. It is a lot to get through, but once you know where to get started (after Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow), it gets a little bit easier.
  13. acatfrommars
    January 31st, 2016 7:52 PM
    acatfrommars
    Okay sooo let's say I wanted to give The Ender's series a try. There are so many freakin books in the series, like where would you suggest I start? haha