What is the last book you finished, and what did you think of it?

[Samus Aran but a man]

I just finished The Great Gatsby. Man, what a great book. "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." Gatsby is such a fascinating character. I think Carraway is bisexual, which is pretty cool for a novel from 1925.

Anyway, what was the last book you finished, and what are your thoughts on it?

 

[BathorysGraveland]

Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire. Brilliant book. Loved it. Great narrative, storytelling and those glorious battle scenes. I like how, opposite of most other Thermopylae-themed media, Steven portrayed the Persians and their allies as humans, not monsters. It actually made me buy his other historically-themed books and am reading Tides of War now.

 

[Esotera]

Just finished To Kill A Mockingbird, which was really good, and reminded me a bit of Mark Twain. I'm currently reading Exultant by Stephen Baxter and get the feeling that Destiny's Children is going to be the best trilogy I've read so far.

 

[GrimTuesday]

I finished Leviathan Wakes quite recently, very enjoyable book. Its kind of an old fashion space opera (in other words, the plot/characters are the important thing, the science isn't). Its book one of an ongoing series written by two authors under one pen name (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck). I'm pretty sure George RR Martin had some part in editing it, as Ty Franck is his assistant. Anyway, the characters are cool, the battle scenes well written, and all around a cool book. I'm very eager for the next book to come out.

 

[purplecactus]

I've recently finished The Bridge by Iain Banks. I love his writing, and I enjoyed this book. It was kinda weird, the characters were done well, and there was actually a story to follow, not to mention everything managed to link together for an ending that made sense and felt like a proper conclusion.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire. Brilliant book. Loved it. Great narrative, storytelling and those glorious battle scenes. I like how, opposite of most other Thermopylae-themed media, Steven portrayed the Persians and their allies as humans, not monsters. It actually made me buy his other historically-themed books and am reading Tides of War now.

Holy shit, me too... 'twas fucking awesome...

Also, the level of realism and the visceral narrative was brilliant, every character (or their near analogous) held historical fidelity and only the framing device deviated, but given its effectiveness, I'm heavily inclined to forgive this.

Which was great because the book I finished before was Scipio - A Novel by Ross Leckie and I almost suffered a stroke (with rage) after I finished it. Biggest pile of shit I'd ever read.

But Gates of Fire, brilliant piece of writing. If he did a dramatisation of the Anabasis, I'd buy that in an instant...

 

[DoPo]

Well, the last actual book book I finished was Storm Front - I just started reading the Dresden Files again. It's good, as always. But actually the last book, as in...erm, just book, I finished was Dudes of Legend. It was fucking hilarious. Most probably one of the best things I've read. You can get the free sample here [http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/80217/Dudes-of-Legend-%28Free-Sample%29]. It's short but awesome (the full one has roughly three times as much content...it's 20 pages in total and it costs a dollar).

More background: it's something of a mix between system hacks and ideas that would make for a more entertaining game of World of Darkness. And I mean, it includes rules for a ridable grizzly bear (it's in the sample), also a pterodactyl, but there are also magical katanas, dickslapping as an actual attack, magical homosexuals and others. Or to quote the back of the book

Strippers? Awesome. Lesbian strippers? Double-awesome. Lesbian strippers whipping off their trenchcoats only to reveal a katana tucked delicately in a garter or g-string? That is a face full of awesome. Your face will be dripping with awesome. The sauce of awesome will give you a nasal enema.

It's a worthwhile read even if you're don't know the core WoD rules (skim over them, they aren't that important). At least read the free sample (it's 5 pages of stuff, come on). I can say that the back of the book, doesn't lie - I had a blast reading it. Wether it would be useful in a game or not is really not important.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Three of Swords, which is a collection of Fritz Leiber's early Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories. They're massively fun.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

"The Promise" Avatar the Last Airbender graphic novel. Does that count?

If not, the last book I read was "The Black Prism" by Brent Weeks. It's a great book with an interesting take on magic in a fantasy setting, and a main character who's a little... coo coo.

 

[Padwolf]

After a thread on here about 50 Shades of Gray, I decided to check it out and got through it in one day. It was absolutely terrible. It feels like it was written by a little girl. The main character Anastasia is possibly one of the worst protagonists I've ever read. Nothing makes her happy and she cannot seem to think for herself or really form a sentence. Also when she hears that Christian Gray was in a sexual relationship with his mothers friend at the age of 15, her only reaction is to be jealous of the woman, it's not until much later in the book that she finally questions the relationship. Also the romance feels fake and forced, all that "sexual tension" looks more like genuine fear, the relationship seems abusive rather than BDSM relationship. The plot and characters seem more or less copy and pasted from Twilight, and I have to say, Twilight was better than that crap. Also the sex scenes were poorly written, as was the whole book really, there were often mistakes made, the author would use the same descriptive word twice in one paragraph. Also the sex scenes are hardly erotic, the very first one refers to Gray's penis as a popsicle.

And for any of you still reading my rant, my final and my main gripe with the book is this: The author portrays BDSM as something mentally wrong. She makes it out as though it's something incredibly unhealthy and only brought on by mental trauma and an abusive childhood.

Wow sorry for the long rant everyone. I didn't expect too much from the book, but damn I did not expect it to be this poorly written, I was just genuinely curious what the commotion was all about. It took me a day to read, and while I know I could have closed the book at any point in time, I was told that it got better. It did not get better at all.

 

[Varis]

Artemis Fowl and The Lost Colony, by Eoin Colfer. Simply brilliant, I've read all the earlier Artemis Fowls and I simply just love the way he writes. There's something so compelling in these seemingly "childish" books of "juvenile" fantasy. Magic, gadgets, elves, trolls, a teen criminal mastermind... Just pure awesome.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

Finished the first book of the Dune series by Frank Herbert. Liked it so much I'm working on the second book and am mora than half way through it.

 

[Cheesepower5]

Deaths of Kings by Bernard Cornwell, the latest in a historical fiction series about the re-taking of England from the Danes by the Saxon kind Alfred and his successors. It's sort of a spiritual sequel series to the books he wrote about King Arthur, which were fantastic. Nearly done Sharpe's Sword, by the same author, which is about a British major in the Napoleonic Wars.

 

[I.Muir]

Last sparhawk book, hidden city I think

 

[Gabanuka]

I just finished re-reading The Belgariad. That is a criminally under-appreciated series.

EDIT:

"The Promise" Avatar the Last Airbender graphic novel. Does that count?

What did you think of it? Like no one I know has spoken of it, even the few Avatar fans.

 

[Chknboy]

Finally got around to reading and finishing the Silmarillion, man that was dense...But if you want to learn the history of the elves of middle earth and some interesting historical points in the Tolkien universe I would say go for it.

 

[saintdane05]

"The Emperor's GIft" by Aaron Dembski-Bowden. A great introduction to the Grey Knights, but not as good as the author's last book (Void Stalker, which I hail as the greatest Warhammer 40k material ever written.)

 

[Quaxar]

Um, well the last one actually was an anesthesiology textbook which I liked very much since it was so well written an explanatory but I guess that's not really the kind of books this thread is expecting so... the fourth Dune novel I'd think. Somehow every book makes you hate the person you were routing for in the last one which I think is rather fantastic.

 

[TBman]

the age of aztec by james lovegrove. It has a villan that makes being an a**hole an artform.