Amalthia's recs and fan works

Summary:
Five years after Fagin was hanged in Newgate, Oliver Twist finds employment in a well-respected haberdashery. Oliver then meets up with Jack Dawkins (The Artful Dodger). Oliver's own inability to let go of his past, as well as his renewed and intimate acquaintance with Jack, take him back to the life he thought he'd left behind. This is a sequel to Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Review:

I hadn't read Oliver Twist since I read the cliff notes back in middle school and watched the movie, so I can't say if the characters were in character or not, but they felt like real people. The setting felt like a real place and time. The prose was rich in detail. The characters were multifaceted. I liked the character Jack and am curious to see where the story goes next. Parts of the story were hard for me to read because there isn't much happiness and people/orphan kids are treated horribly and talked down to all the time. The happy parts of the story are when Jack and Oliver have moments to be together without Oliver worrying so much about what other people think of him. However, in the world they live in I can't blame the guy for being paranoid. He is the product of his times and his times were harsh to anyone not in the upper middle class.

This review does a great job of describing what I liked about the story. The review also gives more details of the plot.

Ebook locations:
Kobo
Kindle
Barnes and Nobles
Smashwords

Is it just me or did these books just not stand up to the test of time?

Back when I was 18/19 these were two of my favorite fantasy novels (though even at that time I recognized that Robin Hobb's works were so much better) but anyways I really enjoyed the story. I liked the characters, the magic, the plot, and was rather entertained.

So I'm re-reading these books and it keeps hitting me that the main characters are a Mary Sue and a Marty Sue and there is a lot of explaining going on. The story is still okay enough for me to read I've read worse in fan fiction but on the flip I've read a hell of a lot better fan fiction than what I'm getting out of these books. the only reason I'm still reading is because I needed a break from fan fiction and wanted to read something longer that wasn't a romance novel.

Basically, as I'm reading this book I keep thinking to myself that I can write better than this and how did this guy get so popular?

Though, as a teenager I truly couldn't get enough of these books so maybe that's why.

I don't have the book pre-ordered. I was hoping to buy an electronic copy but found out recently that none will be released to the Sony Connect store so basically I'm not sure when I'll be able to read the book.

This is just a friendly reminder that not everyone is going to be reading the newest HP book the night it's released so please NO SPOILERS!!!

I'm not kidding about this please use cut tags. I really do want to go into the newest book without knowing the ending already. So far my flist has been great about cut tags but I just wanted it to be clear that I'm avoiding spoilers like the plague and I probably won't get the book as fast as everyone else so I'll truly appreciate it if people keep this in mind while posting in their LJs. I really don't think this will be a problem because so far everyone I've friended has been wonderful about using cut tags but that's always been for tv shows...

Thanks in advance

p.s. I'll use cut tags when/if I feel like talking about the book in my LJ. I just can't believe the series is almost over.

I'm giving some serious thought to creating a community (locked) for people who want to trade Sony E-Reader formated (mostly RTFs I hope) stories. (novels and fan fiction and whatever else people like to read on their reader including manga) However, I'm not sure if there is a protocol for this because this wouldn't be an archive but it's not a rec site (though I doubt people would waste their time converting stories they hate)

So right now I'm debating community names, should I do it or not, if anyone would be interested? I know I immediately started looking for some way to find already formatted stories as soon as I got my e-reader but I couldn't find any sort of trading library for fan fiction. I'm also not sure how to set up a trading system. I just figured I'd upload a list of what I have and the rar file with everything in it...however my collection is already 94MB. At a certain point it'll be too large to share without going to torrents.

I'm at the moment trying to figure out what's absolutely necessary for this community to work without having it explode in my face. (I know people manage to run communities for episode and music downloads,however they are flying under the radar and as far as I can tell they aren't offending their favorite authors)

This community I'm thinking about creating will be mostly about trading fan fiction. I know I didn't ask any author's permission to take their posted fics combine them into single files and format them for my reader (which by the way is very time consuming). And I'm not sure if permission is needed to set up a library for those with e-readers.

So basically this is something I've been thinking about doing for weeks now but I'm not sure how to set it up and promote it without offending people. I don't really imagine there being that many people interested because well I've only met a few other people with ebook readers. But I'm hoping in time more people will discover the Sony Reader and hopefully by then there will be a library of sorts set up for the new users so they don't have to spend hours converting their favorite stories to read on their reader.

I just finished reading the book and I really enjoyed it. :) however it's the excerpt for the Black Powder War that really caught my interest. I'm already looking at slash possiblities between Laurence and this guide...(though nothing in the book indicates that the main character is anything other than straight) :(

Um anyway, I'm completely and utterly in love with this series. :)

edit: am now looking for LJ communities devoted to this series.

I just finished pre-ordering Naomi Novik's new novel Temeraire. Normally I don't order books from the UK because the shipping and handling fees are REALLY expensive. But I have no doubts I'll really love this book and it's the only way to get a hardcover copy. Also some of my favorite authors gave good reviews for the novel. :)

And the kind of good news is that I won't have to wait 3 years to find out what happens next after I finish reading the first book.

Now I just have to be patient and wait until January. I think I'm going to love the month of January. First new episodes of BSG, SG-1, Supernatural, Lost, SGA, Threshold, and Smallville. edit: forgot Veronica Mars (not showing new episode until 1/18/06)

I also have a book to look forward to reading. :) It's been ages since I've looked forward to reading an original novel. Paul Wilson's Infernal (book 8 or 9 or 10 of the Repairman Jack series) was the last book I felt on the edgy about. Even finding out Robert Jordan released the newest book in the Wheel of Time barely increased my blood pressure. (I think knowing I'll have to wait another year or two to read the "last"? book in the series puts a damper on my enthusiasm. Keep in mind I've been reading these books since I was 16, I'm now 25 and the series still isn't finished.

But anyway I'm really happy today and when I get back from exercising I'm going to continue working on the Supernatural vid. I'm making some progress. I hope to have it done by tomorrow or Friday.

Am I the only that noticed that a lot of the people who like Harry Potter also like Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis, and that a lot of HP fans also like stargate??? I swear almost all my friends on LJ like both shows. It's kind of cool. :) It feels like X-Mas today.

Okay still crossing my fingers about getting a copy of the HP book.

Wow I knew I'd be sad when I got the end and I was right. I just can't believe there aren't more episodes. Considering I only got to see 13 episodes I can't help but wonder why they canceled this show, this was powerful storytelling at it's best. I loved all the episodes (which is quite remarkable for me because I'm picky). Now I can't wait to see Serenity.

BTW...just realized this next weekend is going to be great. :) New episodes of Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, and the next Harry Potter book is coming out. I just hope they aren't sold out when I get to the bookstore. I'm debating on stopping by a bookstore tomorrow and to see if it's still possible to reserve a copy. I have a copy already reserved but that bookstore is in San Antonio, months ago when I made the reservation I was living in San Antonio and now i'm in Belton/Temple, Texas. I'm kind of crossing my fingers and hoping people don't read as much in this neck of the woods. I already let my husband know that once I get my hands on that book he'll not recieve a warm reception if he interrupts me while I'm reading.