The AC Book-club

[Kite 3,263]

Hopefully if this picks up we can make this into a new section dedicated to books

This thread is to share books we have read, giving a synopsis, what we liked and/or didn't like.

Myself took up reading for leisure only a couple years ago, prior to that, I honestly never read a book other then comics/graphic novels or text/educational books.

Some of my favourite books of all time:

Batman: Knightfall

This book is about Batman and Bane.

Bane is very cunning and powerful enemy of Batman.

He makes it his goal to break and end Batman.

The book is set in 3 sections.

The defeat of Batman, The rise of a new Batman, and the return.

Bane using his cunning and strength cripples Batman by 1st exhausting him mentally and physically to breaking point.

Bruce realises Batman is needed in Gotham, a Gets a replacement, while travelling to follow up on a kidnapping. The new Batman however cares more for punishing the guilty then helping the innocent.

The last section is Bruce returning, to have to face the Batman he left behind, who has forged the mantle of Batman to a new image.

I loved this book because it explores the characters. Why is Batman the best, why is Bane a monster.

That Batman above all else is a human.

what i liked most of all was Bruce finally admits to himself he likes Violence, and dominating another in a fight, and how he relearns to be Batman.

Overall, the book is an easy read, contains violence, blood, not a children's book, fast flowing story, not boring at any part.

The climax of the book could be considered a let down, but on the other hand felt right.

I would recommend this book to any fans of the Hero genre

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I've read most of the first Batman: Knightfall, where it ends with batman getting his back broken. I have some of the comic books with that new batman, and damn he was different with those metal claws. but I never did finish the entire thing. I've been wanting to pick up the entire collection book at some point. Bane was definitely the best villain in Batman. It always pisses me off how Bane is portrayed in any batman cartoon or that horrible batman movie where he was a mindless muscle guy.

I've been on a Star Wars novel kick still. I'm currently reading Before the Storm (Star Wars: The Black Fleet Crisis, Book 1). So far its pretty good, but the plotline with Luke was annoying me at first but I think I see where its going now.

I recommend "It". It is best book Stephen King has ever wrote outside of his Dark Tower series. It is the only book to have actually given me nightmares. The book was so well wrote, that I would go as far as saying that the monster/creature/existence know as "It" could exist and is killing even now.

Another book I highly recommend is "Servant of the Bones" by Anne Rice. For me, this is definitely Anne Rice's best novel. This book is about a man named Azrael who ends up becoming the Servant of the Bones. The story starts in the present day, but covers ancient Babylon and follows his immortal existence throughout time leading up to the days where the book begins. His power is beyond anything else immortal on earth. And all he wanted was to get into heaven. But he is bound to earth and he could either save or destroy the planet as we know it and nothing could stop him. This book tackles religion in an interesting way, and explains idol worship to a point where it makes complete sense why there was idol worship in the old days. This book highly impressed me with the explanation of religion, magic, immortality, etc. It covers so much in such an expansive story, its one of my favorite books.

[Ladywriter 7,783]

Servant was Rice's best work imo. Lestat and Queen were also good but Servant is stand alone goodness.

It is just superstar fantastic. It and The Wastelands (DT book3) are my fav King

[Pchan 5,162]

For a funny, yet depressing book of pure evil magnitude - The Lie by Chad Kultgen.

Warning: you will be messed up by the end of the book, pissed that there wasn't an extra chapter or two.

[Kite 3,263]

Just finished the book

Innocent Mage by Karen Miller

Part one of a 2 book series

From Wiki

The Doranen have ruled Lur with magic after fleeing the evil Morg who took over their homeland. For an Olken (Lur's original inhabitants) it is unlawful to use magic. Any Olken who breaks the law will be executed.

Asher has come to Lur‘s capital city to make his fortune. He begins as a worker in the stables of the Royal Palace but is soon made an assistant to the magicless Prince Gar, who is the mediator between the Olken and the Doranen. Soon, he hopes to gain enough money to buy a boat and fish with his father for the rest of his life.

But unrest starts to show among the Olken. It has been prophesied that the Innocent Mage will be born, and the Circle is dedicated to preserving the magic of the Olken until the saviour arrives. The Circle have been watching Asher, and as the city streets are filled with Olken rioters, his life takes a bitter turn.

It is called the innocent mage, as Asher the protagonist, is naive of his destiny and therefore innocent of it, His destiny being he will become acepted by the royals, and die for the kingdom

It is an interesting story as it is 600 pages, and covers a lot, but in reality not much actually happens in terms of story progressing

Asher is a 1-dimensional boring character with, talks like a country bumpkin, not a hill billy, but a farmer.

He is rude and direct, his lack of kiss ass attitude is what gets him noticed by the prince,

who in reality is the best character

The prince was born without magic, which is ultra rare, therefore covertly hated by his magic kind, as he is a reminded that there not perfect. His destiny of being King, and the responsibility of keeping the kingdom safe by reinforcing the barrier that protects them from he hell outside there paradise.

As he is magicless, the king has a second child who happens to be a prodigy,

His daughter hates her brother calling him a cripple, and always makes him look the fool by parading her magic when she can.

you understand her a lil, as the King can have 1 heir, but as the price is magic less and cant become the one who protects the kingdom,. she was born

the prince becomes the medium between the 2 races, and is loved by all but the nobles of his own race

so back to 1-d asher, he is so freeking annoying, his attitude is, i am me, blah blah, i dont give a shit.

What also sucks, is there is no mention of magic for like 500 pages, then a minor wizard fight happens for like 1 paragraph.

It gets interesting near the last few chapters which theres no mention of asher, only the prince, and the plot to destroy Lur is put into motion.

The plus is, with 600pages, the characters do evolve on the pages,

it isnt an exciting book, and has few likeable characters, but the ending (which was hard to plow too) was good enough for me to want to know the ending of the complete story

with the title innocent mage, i turned every page expecting asher to go and develop god like powers, but nope, he fails on page after page of being interesting

The title should be innocent fool, as he isnt a mage, and it is a long read for 1 paragraph of magic

The sequal is called the awakened mage, im starting to think is might refer to the prince, as even though he isnt a mage, he seems to be the most intesting char, and by far steals the show nearer the books conclusion

to summarise, i wouldn't recommend it so far, but the 2nd book can start another 600 pages without the boring back story

Edited July 26, 2010 by Kite

[Ladywriter 7,783]

I went back and hit The Gunslinger, now I'm on The Drawing of the Three