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Post by Tig on May 31, 2019 11:36:11 GMT -5
So this will be our "go to" thread for what you're currently reading and/or recommending. Feel free to do reviews as well.
I'm currently hooked into Neil Gaiman's American Gods. I had no idea what I was starting. I have a very hard time reading. I read very slowly and when reading out loud I tend to stutter, so it is rare for me to find a book I can just blow through. I've burned through 75 pages in the first day, an impossible concept. Loving it so far.
I'm late for an appointment but I'll write more on my favorite reads.
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Post by Mako on May 31, 2019 16:33:54 GMT -5
Just got back from the used bookstore with a few diamonds in the rough. Ended up with four (plus one I already have) to read:
The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Steadfast, Jack Campbell - Was needing this one as it is the second from last of the series I've been reading lately and I already have the last book to read after.
Dune, Frank Herbert - Been looking for this since it had been brought up awhile back here, and finally found a copy. The spice must flow!
Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein - Another classic I've been wanting to read. Seen the movie often enough. Would you like to know more?
Wing Commander: Freedom Flight, Mercedes Lackey and Ellen Guon - First book of several based on the old Wing Commander game series. A no-brainer why I want to read this one. Never thought I'd find any of them as I think they are now out of print and just happened to catch this one today.
Very happy with my finds today. Will keep me busy for awhile. Really could have used some the past couple of days as I unwound after my trip. Didn't find any more of The Last Kingdom series, but still thrilled to find these.
Will 'review' as I finish them.
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Post by WickedCrustacean on May 31, 2019 19:04:09 GMT -5
Been reading a lot lately, on my commute and sometimes at home as well:
James Clavell's Shogun - mentioned this in the other thread, but a really impressive novel. It's very long, but the depth of the plot and different aspects of it, and the way the Japanese and European cultures are explored and contrasted to each other are all just excellently done.
The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel - Another great book, the start of a series, about human (both Cro Magnon and Neanderthal) history circa 25-40 thousand years ago, in ice age Europe. If you are into prehistory, or ever wondered what life was like for people thousands of years before civilization, agriculture, or even ancient sites like Gobliki Tepe, look no further. There is a lot of speculation about stuff that the science doesn't really know about, but all of it is very intelligent and believable.
Timeline by Michael Crichton - I generally love Crichton's books, he was my favorite author growing up, and I find him to still be amazingly entertaining with his mix of thrills and scientific exposes. But this book was fairly disappointing. It's probably my least favorite of his books. First, the science and logic behind it seems to be very shoddy. For instance, the book tells you it's not really time travel, but travel to parallel universes which are at a different time of their history, but then everyone leaves signs for people to find in modern times, which doesn't make any sense in the parallel universe context. Also, it's kind of retarded in terms of having modern people take a few sword/jousting lessons and defeat people who did this their entire life.
I wanna read some fantasy books next, other than Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit and A Song of Ice and Fire. I heard good things about Glen Cook's The Black Company, and some of Neal Stephenson's stuff.
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Post by Tig on May 31, 2019 20:14:57 GMT -5
Mako let me know what you think about Dune. It was a fun journey but the composition of the book as a whole was lacking. I still gave it 4*.
Wicked I intentionally stayed away from Timeline because I always loved Crichton's realism and Timeline just sounded stupid.
I'm currently on Neil Gaiman's American Gods and I'm loving it. I swallowed the hook somewhere in the preface and I'm getting pulled right along. I'll keep y'all posted.
The Difference Engine I talked about in the Cornwell thread. VERY disappointing.
If y'all didn't catch my Facebook post, look up How To Be A Paranormal Detective by my good buddy Greg Lawson. Greg is an awesome cop and brilliant former child abuse investigator, SWAT, rescue diver, Army/Air Force, you name it. Really colorful character that has delved deep into the world of the paranormal.
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Post by Mako on May 31, 2019 21:55:16 GMT -5
I'll have to look for Shogun. Sounds very good. I actually saw The Clan of the Cave Bear along with several others in the series at the bookstore and was tempted to grab it, but with all the ones I found today I figured I had enough for now.
I read Timeline years ago. Maybe 10-15. I enjoyed the plot and idea, but it was lacking compared to other Crichton books I've read. Thought it would make an awesome movie. Then I heard it had already been done and was horrible. Still haven't seen the movie, actually.
How to be a Paranormal Detective sounds like a great one. I've watched some of the TV shows out there on the subject from time to time. Will have to keep an eye out for it.
Will let you know after I read Dune. Want to finish The Lost Fleet series first, then will delve into the other ones. They had some others in the Dune series there, but figured I'd give it a go and see how I liked it before I got any more.
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Post by Tig on May 31, 2019 22:54:34 GMT -5
Yeah the Timeline movie sucked. Everything about it was stupid and insulting to those of us that love medieval history.
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Post by Taibi on Jun 1, 2019 3:35:51 GMT -5
I love the first 3-4 books of The Clan of the Cave Bear series, not even sure I read the last, because I was so disappointed by the latter books.
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Post by Taibi on Jun 1, 2019 3:37:54 GMT -5
I am on a leave of absence from uni, so at some point I decided I wanted to get through a course book a week. Still on my first 6 weeks later... but currently about to finish The Rise of Rome by Kathryn Lomas. It is a decent overview book of the period, though I find it lacking in references, so not particularly useful onwards.
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Post by fantasiawht on Jun 1, 2019 7:34:46 GMT -5
Tig, I thought American Gods was fantastic. I've generally been really impressed by everything Neil Gaiman writes, with the single exception of... I forget the exact name but it was his retelling of Norse Mythology. Just hated the writing style. Stardust is awesome though, and I enjoyed Anansi Boys too.
I just finished the latest Magic: The Gathering book. One is released for each new set, and my son and I both play MTG a ton. He reads all the books and convinced me to try this one. It was awful. Too bad, because there's a lot of really interesting lore going on the MTG world, but the writing is very mediocre.
Before that I read The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland. It's the true stories of what happened on 9/11 when 38 planes and about 6,000 passengers were diverted to the tiny town (~10k) of Gander, Newfoundland, extremely far away from any major cities. Gander had been a major airport because Trans-Atlantic flights needed a refueling stop, but when jets came along and fuel economy improved, it rapidly declined. But for 3-4 days, this tiny town showed the world (all these flights were international) what true hospitality is. Really awesome book.
I read a bunch of webcomics regularly - XKCD, Sandra & Woo, Order of the Stick, PvP, Penny Arcade, and more. It's like reading the funnies in the paper, except they're actually funny.
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Post by Mako on Jun 9, 2019 17:23:19 GMT -5
Finished up the Jack Campbell books and Starship Troopers.
I've really enjoyed the Jack Campbell books, as they are military starship fleet oriented. War, strategy, diplomacy, and logistics were some of the key subjects it included that I really enjoyed and was looking for in sci fi books. Highly recommend it if you are interested in a longer story where the problems evolve with the story, though it can be a bit simplistic and the main character is almost too perfect at times and can do no wrong. The complexity is more in the story than the characters.
The first series he wrote was The Lost Fleet, in which the main character wakes up from an escape pod after 100 years. There are two factions of humans dividing up the region of space, the Alliance and the Syndicates. The ship he was captaining was destroyed when the Syndics attacked unprovoked to start the war and his escape pod was damaged and put him under life support until a fleet meant to end the war finds him shortly before it ran out. That battle is lost and since he is the most senior member of the fleet (everyone being grandkids of those he knew), he is left in charge and has to lead the fleet back home through enemy territory. He finds that the government has propped him up as a hero and example for all to fight and die in glory like him, and the war has become just the two sides fighting head on with no real strategy. Instead of a strict leadership structure before battles the captains of all ships debate and negotiate in a play for power, and everyone is out for themselves. He re-instills discipline and teaches the fleet strategy. Along the way he discovers an alien race that set up the humans to fight each other.
The sequel series is The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier. Now an admiral, the main character takes the fleet back out to investigate the alien race he had found before, and discovers two others as well, and deals with war and diplomacy. He also has to deal with a government that is wary of him thinking he intends to stage a coup to take over the government, people that are used to a life with constant war, as well as the remnants of the Syndics who they were supposed to be at peace with causing problems. There's one final series called The Lost Stars that is about one of the Syndic systems that rebels and forms an independent system during this period. There's also some things in the series that could lead to more from the Alliance side if he decides to follow that path.
Really enjoyed Starship Troopers, as well. Even though the movie was quite a bit different than the book - there was much more background and a more personal side to the story in the book, and while there was still a good amount of similarity lots of key elements were changed for the movie. Found it interesting as a book that includes a lot on views of society and government (and was very outspoken in doing so) that, even though it was written in 1959, is still very relevant today. It felt like a more recent book as I read it.
Up next I'm going to read Dune (and I picked up the sequel, Dune Messiah, the other day).
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Post by Tig on Jun 15, 2019 0:50:13 GMT -5
Finished American Gods. Easily one of the best books I've ever read and most certainly my favorite for the past year.
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Post by Mako on Jun 15, 2019 11:38:23 GMT -5
Okay, I've finished reading Dune. It took me quite a bit longer to read than the other books I've been reading, not just because it has more pages but it's a tougher read with so many new words to learn and understand. Had read a little background before and it was correct about how Islam and Middle Eastern culture was used quite extensively to base much of it on. Was very interesting.
Agree completely with the previous assessments that it is a good story, but a little too overdrawn and goes from very well written in the beginning to skipping ahead and over events with no real development in the characters. They are rather simplistic and never truly evolve, even though it's trying to impress they do. It's more that they understand themselves better than truly evolve. Technically it's three books in one and almost would have been better to have been written as three separate books and have each fleshed out a bit more. It almost felt like a game that was taking too long and ended up being rushed by the publisher as the end neared. The closer to the end the more it was rushed.
Also very much Tolkein-esque in many regards in how he developed a very deep world with extra writings (that were then used by his son apparently to write additional books after Frank died).
Another point that Tig brought up that I agree with is with it being considered one of the sci fi greats, but is more in a steampunk mold (which technically is still sort of sci fi, but not what you'd think for traditional sci fi). Reading the appendices it came out that basically it's in the distant future after humans had sort of an apocalypse brought on themselves by relying too much on technology that apparently turned on them, which explains the advanced technology without computers.
Overall I'd give it a 4 1/2*. At the beginning it felt like a true 5* book, but lost that about midway through. But not by enough to drop it greatly.
I've also got Dune Messiah, the second book in the series, as well as God Emperor of Dune, the fourth book. Luckily the second book is about half the size of the original, so shouldn't take me long to read. Then I'll have to find the third book (Children of Dune) before I get to the fourth (which is another very long one). In all there are six books by Frank Herbert, and the rest are by his son. Definitely a series I plan on reading through, though.
Edit: Oh, and I can't wait to watch the original movie again. I've seen it a couple of times, and while I've enjoyed it I never truly understood it like I do now. Hopefully the new version coming out in 2020 will be good and not another modern Hollywood movie that changes everything to fit an agenda.
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Post by Tig on Jun 15, 2019 12:07:23 GMT -5
I watched the David Lynch movie after finishing the book. It's amazing how Lynch's ending actually does more to wrap the story than the book did with one simple scene. Even Frank Herbert, who was opposed to the movie at first, said it's a faithful telling of the story.
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Post by WickedCrustacean on Jun 15, 2019 15:43:48 GMT -5
Yeah, as I was reading it, I thought the way it had a lot of Islamic concepts was original, since typically you don't see sci fi and Islam mix much.
I also planned to keep reading the series after the first book, but after finishing it, just wasn't hooked enough. It's too much reading for the level of enjoyment that it provides, and it's almost pseudo-deep, from the vocabulary and the scope, it seems like it would be a tremendous book about the human condition or something, but ultimately, it's just a fairy tale just like Star Wars (prince defeats bad guys, wins kingdom), but a lot less entertaining.
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Post by Tig on Jun 15, 2019 16:20:21 GMT -5
Yeah that's precisely how I feel about it, and when people go on and on about how deep a piece it is all I can think of is they're reaching to make themselves feel better about reading it.
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