Fragile Bird Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 @Starkess I don’t think I’ll bother with trying to pick up where I left off, then. When I was listening to the book great mention was made of a certain character being missing and understood to be killed in battle, or maybe not missing just killed. The first thing that crossed my mind was, well, I guess we’ll meet them before the end of the book. And reading the first four pages of the next book I saw I was right. While it might be painful for us to read because of cliches, perhaps it will open the readers to trying other fantasy books, so some good may come out of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TormundsWoman Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 On 1/7/2024 at 3:35 PM, Iskaral Pust said: Better Off Dead by Lee Child (and cowriter Andrew Child) is a Jack Reacher novel and one of the later volumes. I won’t repeat all the problems with this character and the vigilante wish-fulfillment — they’re enjoyably written for what they are, you just have to decide whether that’s what you want to read. That said, this wasn’t the strongest example from the series. Perhaps the co-writer transition isn’t going well. On one hand, the plot feels very far-fetched, although that’s perhaps unavoidable as the series of implausible below-the-radar vigilante interventions gets longer and longer. On the other hand, the execution of the writing felt below par too: some clunky prose in places and some shoddiness in describing the settings. Smoking Seventeen by Janet Evanovich is a Stephanie Plum novel of light-hearted crime fiction. I read the first two of these years ago and now picked this up as a Kindle deal for a light, quick read. Surprisingly, the 17th installment is basically unchanged so I guess you can pick these up in whatever order you like. The POV character is still living paycheck to paycheck as a bail bond enforcer with more gumption than competence, but at least her love triangle with the police detective and ex-special forces bounty hunter provide her with plenty of access and assistance. And her gossipy Trenton community always provides the necessary tip-offs, along with unwanted romantic fix-ups and general menschy color for the setting. I wanted to read the Reacher books since Tom Cruise just to have an idea is the hype was worth it. Then I saw the second movie and said nah. Now with the Amazon Prime series on his second season I think I might do it. It’s good to know though that the books are just about as outlandish wise about “drifter with unlimited resources though nothing to his name” as the movies and series. I always thought the screen adaptation would completely exaggerate the books premises. I also still enjoy for a brain candy casual re-reads of the Plum series :D. Formulaic as hell, but one already knows and expects it. They are light and fun as long as one doesn’t binge reads several at a time. Reading “Fat Chance: the bitter truth about sugar”, by Robert Lustig, MD. It’s not saying in essence anything I didn’t suspect or know. Or anything I haven’t heard before. However since his viral YouTube lecture in 2012 lots of people started to pay attention to what he and many of his colleagues were saying and researching and original book finally got on my list of suggestions from Amazon so here I am reading it. Highly recommend for knowledge and style of writing. He’s funny, detailed, full with references to studies and frankly if you’re interested about nutrition, biochemistry and a good conspiracy theory then one might enjoy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VigoTheCarpathian Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 Just finished “City of Last Chances” by Adrian Tchaikovsky - my wife picked it up on a whim at the library, and I was pleasantly surprised and sucked in by the worldbuilding and original story, I’d only heard the name mentioned here, but will definitely check out more by this author. Almost done with “Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand” by Ursula Le Guin. Really odd and poetic set of short stories, very beautiful little vignettes that really is some of the best writing in/about the Pacific NW I’ve ever experienced. williamjm 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Grey Wolf Strikes Back Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 Currently reading an Arthurian indie novella, Ap Ector. After that I'm going to read Dark Reflections, the debut anthology by Annwn Press, followed by The King-Killing Queen by Shawn Speakman, having enjoyed the original novella of the same name in The King Must Die anthology, which I backed on Kickstarter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 The Pursuit of William Abbey was good but it's probably not my favourite of Claire North's books. It was well written, as all her books tend to be, but the racism and imperialism are bad theme of the book made it a little too obvious how it was going to go. Next up I'm going to read Lois McMaster Bujold's latest Penric novella. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peadar Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 On 1/15/2024 at 11:09 PM, VigoTheCarpathian said: Just finished “City of Last Chances” by Adrian Tchaikovsky - my wife picked it up on a whim at the library, and I was pleasantly surprised and sucked in by the worldbuilding and original story, I’d only heard the name mentioned here, but will definitely check out more by this author. Almost done with “Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand” by Ursula Le Guin. Really odd and poetic set of short stories, very beautiful little vignettes that really is some of the best writing in/about the Pacific NW I’ve ever experienced. There is a new book set in the same world "The House of Open Wounds". Also great, IMHO. As for me, I just read the graphic novel Voyaging, Volume One: The Plague Star, adapted by Raya Golden from our old pal, GRRM's Tuff series. Very enjoyable. williamjm 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilbur Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 (edited) Stimulated by my recent read of Lawrence Watt-Evans' The Lure of the Basilisk, I proceeded on to the second of his four books describing the adventures of Garth the Overman, The Seven Altars of Dûsarra. This is maybe the third novel-length story LWE wrote or published, and he finds his feet in this one as a strongly competent acolyte of Fritz Leiber and Robert Howard. He writes a story where the protagonist has agency and takes the logical action within his world and circumstances, and we understand his motivations and logic for those choices he makes. The world-building is spare but effective - we know where the hero is, and we understand the challenges he faces, most of which are physical confrontations with the physical world or dangerous beings. We don't have to worry about unreliable narrators or strange psychological states. The cover of the first edition accurately depicts the world we enter in these books. Quick summary: The King in Yellow charges Garth to journey to Dûsarra and bring back the first thing he finds sitting on each of the seven altars of the Dark Gods. Garth isn't interested in it, but circumstances force him to do so, and being an Overman, he takes his hairy ass and warbeast to Dûsarra and proceeds to openly rob or take as a gift the contents off the altars of five or six of the Lords of Dus. Most of these gods are truly evil, and their priests are likewise so, while some are only scary, rather than evil. Let's just say that I derive a strong sense of glee in the way that Garth develops his relationships with the priests of the particularly vile sort. For a simple, relatively short fantasy novel, I find this one to be deeply satisfying. Reading it as a kid made me happy, and even as an adult it is still gratifying. Garth's logical, inhuman viewpoint is sort of like if Spock was seven feet tall, had two thumbs on each hand, possessed himself of many competencies, and enjoyed strenuous physical action, all while being polite to those who were polite to him. LWE also deals with the practical effects of adventuring: unlike LOTR, characters in these books sweat and complain about their soggy underwear, wear out their boots and have to go shopping, lose their weapons during melees, receive inconvenient wounds, etc. etc. And just as in The Lure of the Basilisk, Garth uses his brain to overcome these sort of practical problems with satisfying, real-world solutions. Good stuff. Edited January 21 by Wilbur Original book covers rock Gigei 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 (edited) I finished Ian McDonald's latest novel, Hopeland. I think the best way to summarise this is that it is showing how two very different families, each with their own obsession, try to find a way to prosper in a turbulent 21st Century. The Hopelands are trying to build a multinational 'family' where kinship is based on choosing to join the family rather than any biological connection while the Brightbournes are trying to create things that will last for generations. Throughout the book there is a love triangle between members of the two families, I think the actual question of who ends up together is not the interesting part of the book but it does drive most of the plot due to the characters taking inspiration from each other's families. As the book goes on an increasing amount of it is focused on the impact of climate change, particularly on the Arctic and the Pacific Islands, with the Pacific plotline becoming the most compelling part of the story. It is a long book with a lot happening in it, including some occasional fantasy elements, but I thought it did justify the long length. I've now started Adrian Tchaikovsky's House of Open Wounds, the sequel to the excellent City of Last Chances, and this is also very good so far. Edited January 21 by williamjm Peadar and Zorral 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 19 minutes ago, williamjm said: I finished Ian McDonald's latest novel, Hopeland. I think the best way to summarise this is that it is showing how two very different families, each with their own obsession, try to find a way to prosper in a turbulent 21st Century. This sounds excellent, written by someone who has has studied Kim Stanley Robinson in a productive way, and a constructive way, i.e. learned the lessons and also all to adapt them to author's own manner and ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 Raid Of The Wolves by Donovan Cook is the second in his Viking historical fiction series. I enjoyed it. It continues the development of the POV protagonist and a supporting cast of characters, now expanding out from intra-Scandi conflict to join Viking raids on Germany and France. Both books in the series have used traitorous antagonists plus a longer arc of unrelated mystical antagonists, which I hope does not become formulaic. It has plenty of action and Viking cultural lore and overall pretty good for the genre. New Teeth by Simon Rich is another collection of his short stories of playful literary fiction, showing a creative variety of narrators, humor and insight. I like his work and will continue reading more. The Melancholy Strumpet Master by Zeb Beck is a literary fiction about a long-stalled PhD candidate reluctant to admit that his anthropology thesis about sex workers in Tijuana is floundering. This irreverent satire of academia and society has a lot of dark humor and pretty good prose. I enjoyed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 Olivia Strauss Is Running Out Of Time by Angela Brown is a literary fiction about a woman who is just starting to wrestle with a midlife crisis when a (very contrived) DNA test forces her to confront imminent mortality instead. It’s a reasonable literary conceit to escalate and examine the underlying fear and tension in any midlife crisis. But the writing and characterization just weren’t great. I would not recommend. This Book Is Full Of Spiders by David Wong is the second in his series of humorous Lovecraftian horror set in a small town (USA) located on a tear between dimensions. These are zany but I’ve enjoyed them as something different as I vary between different genres and styles. Worth reading if you’re up for this genre. Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson is the fourth in her Jackson Brodie series of murder mysteries that are more literary fiction than genre fiction. I’m very conflicted about this series because the prose is very good but the style is a slow tapestry of melancholy reminiscences by all of the characters, whose feelings and regrets are justification for any actions. The tone feels brooding and rueful. I think I just need to drop the series and acknowledge that the high quality of the writing just doesn’t offset (for me) the style, tone and pace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 East Of Eden by John Steinbeck is my first return to this author after being hugely disappointed by The Pearl as an assigned novella in secondary school (seriously, was it written for 8 year olds?). This guy can write after all. For the first 20-30% I was really impressed by, and enjoying, how tightly he could capture each character’s essence as he introduced them in vignettes and set up the tension in their relationships. But this book is too long and the Cain-Abel allegory is too drawn out and repeated unnecessarily in the next generation. It felt like it could have been a tighter and better novel if he didn’t insist on extending it so far. Similar to The Pearl, the allegory is wielded like a sledgehammer. I’d recommend it though just for the quality of the writing. The Billion Dollar Spy by David Hoffman is a nonfiction about Cold War espionage. It was highly recommended to me by a colleague/friend who was previously a CIA field agent in Eastern Europe in the aftermath of the collapse of the USSR, so I assume it’s a good representation of how this world actually works. It provides a thoroughly researched insight into real espionage that had very real consequences for the Cold War, but the writing and narrative structure let it down. Recommended if you’re interested but not a gripping read. TBH, my colleague/friend tells much better stories about his experiences. Heart Of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a literary fiction that was recommended to me as a classic (there are unfortunately many of those that have passed me by). This is quite a short read and struck me as the literary origin of Apocalypse Now, with all that implies. It’s a metaphorical reflection on colonialism but gets stuck in its limited and repetitive symbolism. Probably emo goths would enjoy the constant refrain of the “the darkness” but it seems very limited as literature and the prose was nothing special. Perhaps it’s a classic as an early moral challenge of colonialism rather than for its literary merit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 (edited) 45 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said: Perhaps it’s a classic as an early moral challenge of colonialism rather than for its literary merit. .I think it's a classic because it codified a story template in a way that hadn't really been seen before, one that's since been imitated or been a heavy influence in one way or another countless times (including, as you say, by Apocalypse Now). It's a pretty foundational work of modern storytelling, regardless of how the actual telling itself has aged. The colonialism part was part of it, of course, but that find-the-Kurtz-character, geographic-journey-mirrors-a-mental-journey structure has also been influential to stories without that aspect. Edited January 22 by polishgenius Wilbur, Larry of the Lawn, Iskaral Pust and 1 other 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 1 hour ago, polishgenius said: .I think it's a classic because it codified a story template in a way that hadn't really been seen before Additionally, Heart of Darkness remains a first-hand, factually descriptive document of what Leopold was sanctioning and supporting in his private property to enrich his private purse. Conrad witnessed these horrors with his own eyes piloting steam paddle ships on the River and tributaries. He was a splendid observer, and equally so as a writer. Imagine having something like this still extant written by a contemporary eye witness, viewing from the outside with a moral and ethical compass, something such what the Romans did in one place or another. The Congo territory wasn't even a colony of Belgium -- it was the king's own real estate. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/belgian-king-establishes-congo-free-state/ Some of Mark Twain's most savage diatribes were about Leopold and Belgium and those who sanctioned and allowed, including the US Government. But there were many in the US who were activist members of local, national and international movements to make what was happening there stop. Larry of the Lawn, maarsen, Fragile Bird and 1 other 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alytha Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 I have been reading a couple of samples on kindle lately, and would appreciate some help deciding if I should get them or not - Babel17 by Samuel R Delaney - I'm always a bit wary of classic sci-fi as it tends to not age very well. Has anybody read it and could comment on that? - The City of Dusk by Tara Sim: I found the premise interesting, but from the sample, there seems to be a lot of teenage drama incoming? Has anybody read it? Is it rather YA or adult level? Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Chatywin et al. Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Just got my copy of Fluke in the mail. It's about chaos theory and am pretty curious. I plan on reading it alongside Schur's book about philosophy. Seems like a good pairing. I just need to finish up these last ones I'm working on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maarsen Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 On 1/22/2024 at 3:18 AM, Alytha said: I have been reading a couple of samples on kindle lately, and would appreciate some help deciding if I should get them or not - Babel17 by Samuel R Delaney - I'm always a bit wary of classic sci-fi as it tends to not age very well. Has anybody read it and could comment on that? - The City of Dusk by Tara Sim: I found the premise interesting, but from the sample, there seems to be a lot of teenage drama incoming? Has anybody read it? Is it rather YA or adult level? Thank you! I have read Babel-17 many years ago and I suspect it will hold up especially if you have an interest in language. Delaney was never big on space opera but language and the nuances it comes with and the problems that can arise are one of his themes. It is not a large book like Dhalgren, which I would not recommend unless you really like Babel-17. Larry of the Lawn, Wilbur and Winterfella 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 I don't wanna give Samuel R Delaney any money because he's a NAMBLA apologist and while I'm not sure he still gives them money (he implies he doesn't), he's still been vocally supportive in the relatively recent past. So as grim as it sounds I'm gonna start reading his books when he dies, if at all. *For clarity his comments on it in the past have suggested that his support for the 'organisation' is based on being abused as a child in a moment that he saw as formative, rather than him being an adult who likes abusing children. But still. Fucking yikes. https://dorisvsutherland.com/2019/09/23/samuel-r-delany-and-nambla/ Here's an article that goes into the situation a bit, for anyone who wants to know. Apologies for the downer but, ya know. I figure like this particular one is one people should know. It's a pretty fucking serious strike against someone often held up as a progressive SFF hero. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derfel Cadarn Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 I’m currently binging thr Slow Horses books (after binging thr TV series), and just starting Joe Country. Also re-reading thr Dark Tower books, currton Drawing of Three at the moment. in a few months I’ll start my re-read of Memory Thorn Sorrow, then read for the first time the sequel series, timed for the release of the last book. After that, the Wherl of Time and maybe my Drizzt books Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deedles Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 On 1/18/2024 at 7:38 PM, ljkeane said: Next up I'm going to read Lois McMaster Bujold's latest Penric novella. Thank you! I’d missed that this was out. Next stop amazon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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