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September '18 Reading - A Labor of Love


aceluby

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On 9/6/2018 at 4:14 AM, Gorn said:

Currently reading through the collected works of Kurt Vonnegut, since I've never actually read him before. Here are my thoughts so far:

Slaughterhouse 5 - Overrated IMO. I can see why its pacifistic sentiments would appeal to the generation which lived through the Vietnam War, and there are some powerful scenes, but overall it did not live up to the expectations I had.

Cat's Cradle - His best work I've read so far and a genuine masterpiece.

Player Piano - Shows its age in many ways, but is surprisingly relevant in other. My dislike of the protagonist kept me from fully enjoying it.

Deadeye Dick - Started off promising, but lost focus and sort of fizzled out toward the end.

Bluebeard - I'm currently about 2/3 through it, so far it is remarkably similar to Deadeye Dick in its structure, and even with some almost carbon-copy characters. I hope it has a better ending.

In general, most of his books are very similar in terms of structure, characters, protagonists and their thoughts and worldviews, so I'm starting to wander if it is worth it to read them all.

Try Mother Night. I went through a phase of reading Vonnegut many years ago and that is the one that stuck with me. Cat's Cradle was also good and so was The Sirens of Titan. 

I agree that he can be a difficult writer to like but there are gems to be found. 

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So I just caught up with the Wandering Inn, which is currently in the middle of its fifth outing. It's been a charming few weeks. The story telling is not always polished but there's definitely talent there. I ended up skipping lots of chapters, particularly the side stories about persons I do not care for. On the one hand, I adore the living amoral skeleton, the emperor of the small village, and the tiny adopted child. On the other, the large scale stories and battles leave me unmoved. I can't stand the wars, the King of Destruction, and the [Lady] Magnolia, characters intended to provide a broader world sized scope. Some small interludes hit the mark (the earth [Doctor]), while others fall flat (the [Twin]s of [Boredom] and most of the frost fairies). Some characters never rise beyond caricatures. Others marysue.

The early writing quickly improves, with fewer breaks for tears and vomit, although the tendency towards "fridge drama" via lost limbs and "meaningful deaths" remains throughout.

The author constantly introduces new characters while weaving them effortlessly into the main stories. Instead of going off on Robert Jordan-like tangents, they pull those extra characters into the main conflicts. I like how story seeds are liberally planted and then harvested at leisure.

There is a class of novels called "cozy mysteries". I would classify this web serial rpglit as "cozy rpg". The fun comes from the leveling up (where there are few stakes), from the moments of pure joy (from impromptu concerts to poop slimes), and the warmth of spending time with comfortable friends, many of whom remain reasonably flawed and interesting, with character growth.

It's certainly not great literature but it was a delightful read. I have to wait a year or so and then start reading again. I would not like to follow the "read twice a week" model where you have to remember to come back again and again.

If you have any recommendations for similar story telling (I believe next up is "Worm"), please let me know. I'm intrigued to read.

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I managed to knock off a couple reads while on holidays. First was the critically acclaimed Exit West by Mohsin Hamid. This was a short and reasonably enjoyable read, with a couple of "woah" moments of fantastic prose. But I think Hamid tried to cover off too much in a small volume - both the migration/refugee arc and the romantic arc felt slightly underdeveloped to me. 

I also read Orwell's 1984. I can't say that I particularly "enjoyed" reading it, but it was admirably relentless in conveying its message. 

Now on to Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, which has been excellent so far. Then I might resume the Harry Potter re-read. 

On 9/6/2018 at 5:40 AM, aceluby said:

Finished up The Gunslinger, which was surprisingly short.  Can tell it's just a set-up book, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.  Now on to book 2.

By far the best instalment of the series in my view! 

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17 hours ago, maarsen said:

Try Mother Night. I went through a phase of reading Vonnegut many years ago and that is the one that stuck with me. Cat's Cradle was also good and so was The Sirens of Titan. 

I agree that he can be a difficult writer to like but there are gems to be found. 

Those inclined should definitely check out the film adaptation of Mother Night as well.

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18 minutes ago, aceluby said:

 may take a break to read some more Stover.

About that series, I read Heroes Die and I still feel uncomfortable about the libertarian, socially conservative, anti (strawmen)"elite" and global takedown of goodness as a lie (extreme cynicism if you will) vibe it gave off. Is that a wrong impression, is it contradicted by sequels?

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1 minute ago, Errant Bard said:

About that series, I read Heroes Die and I still feel uncomfortable about the libertarian, socially conservative, anti (strawmen)"elite" and global takedown of goodness as a lie (extreme cynicism if you will) vibe it gave off. Is that a wrong impression, is it contradicted by sequels?

The elite on Earth are the major villains in all the novels, and the character is a cynical son of a bitch; so I guess if those themes made you feel uncomfortable you'll probably not enjoy the next novels much more.  He grows a lot, but those themes permeate throughout and are major drivers to his actions.

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2 minutes ago, aceluby said:

The elite on Earth are the major villains in all the novels, and the character is a cynical son of a bitch; so I guess if those themes made you feel uncomfortable you'll probably not enjoy the next novels much more.  He grows a lot, but those themes permeate throughout and are major drivers to his actions.

Oh, I have no problem with cynicism, like in The First Law & sequels, it's just that here the world validates that worldview while at the same time having a field day making Caine the only good big man, and links all that not so subtly to our present.

Thanks for the heads up, I'll be giving this a pass.

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18 hours ago, Errant Bard said:

Oh, I have no problem with cynicism, like in The First Law & sequels, it's just that here the world validates that worldview while at the same time having a field day making Caine the only good big man, and links all that not so subtly to our present.

Thanks for the heads up, I'll be giving this a pass.

They're also rather predictable, or at least they were to me. I dropped the Acts after Blade of Tyshalle. No regrets.

---

I finished Bennett's Foundryside, and while it's a departure form his Cities books I quite enjoyed it. 

Next up is Cook's new Black Company, Port of Shadows.

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I finished reading Salvation today. 

I found some of the early chapters a bit boring until things started coming together. Still interesting enough that I'm looking forward to the next book. 

The characters in Hamiltons books seem the get less interesting with each book he releases though. Maybe it is just because I'm getting older. 

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Finished up book 2 of The Dark Tower.  Loved it from start to finish and have started up book 3 which has started right where book 2 left off.  Enjoying these a lot more than I thought I would and am only reading them because my tattoo artist and I were swapping book suggestion at my last session.

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10 hours ago, aceluby said:

Finished up book 2 of The Dark Tower.  Loved it from start to finish and have started up book 3 which has started right where book 2 left off.  Enjoying these a lot more than I thought I would and am only reading them because my tattoo artist and I were swapping book suggestion at my last session.

I'll be interested to see what you think of The Waste Lands. 

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I finished up Luna: New Moon awhile back.  It was a bit of a slow read, but I really enjoyed it, and the ending had me wanting to jump straight into book two.  But I didn't, I started reading Apocalypse Nix by Kameron Hurley, right now I'm about halfway through that book.  I'm very much enjoying being back in Nix's world.  I did take a break last week when my copy of Richard Kadrey's Hollywood Dead arrived.  I breezed right through that, and it left me wanting more, as the Sandman Slim books always do.  After I'm done with Apocalypse Nix I will be moving on to my horror reading for the year.

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I finished rereading When Time Began by Zecharia Sitchin, overall it was alright for his work but there were more issues in his theories and conclusions that stood out more than previous installments of his book series.

I started reading Red Rising by Pierce Brown, I'm roughly 40% into the book and frankly without going into spoilers it feels that it's just like another series except "In Space".  I have the other two books in the first trilogy, but if I'm not really impressed by the end of this book then I'm not wasting my time with Golden Son and Morningstar.

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On 9/14/2018 at 7:53 AM, RedEyedGhost said:

I finished up Luna: New Moon awhile back.  It was a bit of a slow read, but I really enjoyed it, and the ending had me wanting to jump straight into book two.  But I didn't

Pretty much my reaction to the book too. Slow read, gets interesting at the end, but didn't bother with book two. Mostly because I haven't found book two in the same size paperback as book one. Whoever came up with the practice of printing books in the same series in different sizes? Has it something to do with which editions they are? If you pick up a series halfway through its publication, you're likely to get them in smaller sizes, in which case you can forget buying the next installments as soon as they are released, because they will be printed in this bigger format, and the smaller one won't be available for half a year or so. Or however long it will take McDonald's publishers to realize the two books will just look awkward next to another on any bookshelf. 

Oh, and the prose in the first book was a little too purple for me.

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7 hours ago, Starkess said:

I started Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. So far it is...fine? Reads like a mythology book I had has a kid. I'm enjoying it fine but not really sure why it exists.

Uh, because Mythology is awesome? I loved my greek mythology books, isn't that enough?

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