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The Alexandria Link by Steve Berry. I hadn't read any of his previous books, picking up this one along with a bunch of other novels after getting an Amazon gift voucher for Christmas, so I hadn't realised it was actually the fourth in a series. Which caused problems. First question: what the hell is the Magellan Billet? Turns out it's some super-secret rear end-kicking US government agency, but it took me half the book to be completely sure. Also, characters suddenly appear out of nowhere and I'm expected to know who they are, why they're there and how come they like the heroes so much. Okay, lesson learned for my own series of novels: explain stuff from earlier books. As for the story itself, there were two main storylines (Cotton's and Stephanie's) and two or three smaller ones intertwined at various points... and the ADD switching between them drove me mad. I'm not a fan of the 'super-short chapters' school of writing to begin with, and this book has 87 of them... and then often switches back and forth between storylines two or three times in a six-page chapter. So just as I'm starting to find out something interesting about one plot, I'm yanked away to endure some blather in another. I'm normally a very fast reader, but this one was a bitch to get through, taking me over a week in dribs and drabs because the literary equivalent of Michael Bay's Avid-fart cutting meant I couldn't stick with it for more than an hour or so at a time. And when I finally got to the end, it wasn't worth it, because I'd already realised the secret was never going to be revealed to the world as it wouldn't do to upset the Israelis. Technically the Saudis, and indeed a lot of Muslims would have been equally pissed off, but the attitude of every good-guy character towards them is basically "gently caress 'em!" so I wasn't surprised they were totally ignored. Why do so many thrillers have completely anticlimactic endings? Speaking of which, Tom Martin's Pyramid - another book I recently finished - has an even more 'meh' ending. For one thing, it's almost exactly like that of Matthew Reilly's Seven Ancient Wonders, only without the gun battles and eye-rippings and people being booted into jet engines. Same location, same MacGuffin, same supernatural beams of energy zapping down from the heavens. For another, the heroes are completely passive, and aren't even where the action is, just watching from a distance. And when the main villain turns up in a ridiculous stealth bomber/UFO aircraft established a few chapters earlier it promptly explodes for no good reason, killing him without the heroes ever having met him or even being aware of his existence. It's as if Indiana Jones never even met or heard of Belloq, but just hung around at the edge of the island waiting for some fires he didn't really know the cause of to subside, then strolled in and took the Ark. EDIT because, holy poo poo, I only just saw this: Orson Scott Card says "Anybody who reads Steve Berry's The Alexandria Link is opening his mind to pro-terrorist hatred and lies." Basically, he says that the book is a rabidly anti-Semetic, Israel-hating, pro-Arab propaganda piece. ? That was the exact opposite of the message I got from the book, which struck me as totally pro-Israel and equally totally gently caress-the-Arabs. Yes, the Israelis aren't exactly painted as happy smiley people since they send Mossad agents to kill the hero to stop him from finding the secret, but by the ending they've got everything they wanted, the US President is 100% pro-Israel and all the heroes are standing by him, the anti-Israeli villains are either dead or in very deep poo poo, and the Arabs get exactly gently caress-all. Mind you, Card admits that he didn't even finish the book because it was "a dangerous piece of Jew-hating, terrorist-justifying filth" and he "choked on the lies." Blimey. Does he post in GBS? Small Strange Bird fucked around with this message at 22:49 on Jan 12, 2008 |
# ? Jan 12, 2008 21:47 |
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# ? Jun 1, 2024 06:30 |
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Captain Burle by Emile Zola Zola's late 19th century stories are better understood in the context of France's inglorious defeat in 1870 to be really enjoyed. Captain Burle is the story of a once brave soldier (captain Burle) who has fallen mightily since he lost hope after being caught by the Germans in 1870. He stops all attempts at climbing higher in the military and instead settles for whoring and drinking as a regimental quartermaster. He is caught by an old friend and superior defrauding the regiment and funneling funds to a local courtesan. Given chance after to chance to reform by his major (mostly because the major, trusting the captain, had blindly signed off on the captain's false requisition orders) he continues to defraud the regiment and finally the major decides to save his honor and the honor of Captain Burle's family by resigning from the service and challenging the Captain to a duel. The misspent money will be discovered, but if the Major is dead he will be beyond the shame and if Captain Burle is dead the Major will be out of the service and will have been seen to have taken care of the problem. The story becomes an extended metaphor for that state of the French army at the time, which was a feeling of defeatism after their high expectations of the Second Empire and hints at the long struggle to restoring French national feeling and confidence. Competently written, your blood will run cold when during the duel, Captain Burle finally realizes that it is not a play fight where the two exchange a few scars and then everything is repaired but instead he is at his execution.
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# ? Jan 12, 2008 21:55 |
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Capn_Marrrrk posted:It sounds like you are reading out of order. http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/ I mostly just skip around. He gives enough of a basic introduction that they're almost pick up and go books. However, I will take your advice and look into Going Postal first.
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# ? Jan 12, 2008 22:27 |
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pill for your ills posted:Finished the Illuminatus! trilogy yesterday. Holy crap. That was one of the most entertaining months I've ever had. All that vivid imagery and wicked language trickery. Way too much to condense to a simple synopsis. Suffice to say, it's right up there with Cat's Cradle as one of my all-time favorites. poo poo, just pick up Schroedinger's Cat now! It's not as complex or well-written as Illuminatus! but it's still RAW with all his quirky humor and amazing characters. Soma Soma Soma fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Jan 13, 2008 |
# ? Jan 13, 2008 00:01 |
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Finished Jay Lake's Trial of Flowers several days ago - great read. I love surrealistic city-themed books and ToF ranks up there with VanderMeer and Harrison. I also enjoyed the numerous little references to Wolfe's Book of the New Sun as well as other works scattered throughout. Just re-read The Lies of Locke Lamora - enjoyed it as much as I did the first time around. I'm well into the followup Red Seas Under Red Skies and loving it. Lynch definitely knows how to tell a story that's as much fun as it is gripping.
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# ? Jan 13, 2008 00:39 |
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I just finished Paul Auster's New York Trilogy. What the gently caress did I just read? I haven't let The Locked Room sink in yet, but City of Glass and Ghosts were fantastic, even if I didn't get the end to Ghosts. I preferred City of Glass to either, mainly because it felt the most in-depth of all the stories. Also, I'm totally confused about what happened in City of Glass. A story written by Paul Auster, whose main character is Daniel Quinn, who imitates the detective Paul Auster, who is in reality a writer and apparently an acquaintance of the narrator. That part was so loving insane that I just can't wrap my head around it. I do know why Quinn did what he did at the end; his life lacked purpose and he, in a sense, became Paul Auster after abandoning Daniel Quinn, Max Work, and William Wilson. That's not confusing. What was the older Stillman even doing in NYC? Seriously, that was bizarre; he never went after the younger Stillman (who was utterly mad), and soon after Quinn imitated the younger Stillman the older Stillman jumped off a bridge? What the hell was going on? Did I miss something in the rants about language?
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# ? Jan 13, 2008 01:31 |
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Just finished The Tomorrow series by John Marsden for like the 10th time, they never get old, I love John marsden's ability to describe emotions so well in writing.
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# ? Jan 13, 2008 02:29 |
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LooseChanj posted:Blindness, Jose Saramago You win a nobel prize for a body of work, not for single books. Still, his style is his style, it doesn't change much between books. Just finished The End of The Affair by Graham Greene. It's the only major book of his I hadn't read, and I thought it was probably his best. The way it's constructed is very elegant, moving effortlessly back and forth between the present and the past. The voice of the narrator is excellent. And it gets heartbreaking towards the end. Lays on the Catholocism heavier than any of his other books though. The Time Machine by HG Wells - hadn't read this since I was a kid, and it was better this time round given I could appreciate more than just the excellent adventure story. I need to recover the rest of his books my my parent's house - I remember Food of the Gods, The First Men on the Moon and The War in the Air being great. Ravenor Rogue by Dan Abnett, and the fantasy collection Red Thirst. The former was the best of any of the Warhammer novels I've read; the characters were fairly well-drawn, even genuinly interesting at times, and though it often ripped ideas wholesale from other sci-fi sources (the fight with the Tyranids on the Wytch house seems to have been transcribed directly from the Alien/s scripts), it was pretty good. The latter I read when I was younger, and I saw it going cheap on ebay. The stand-out story The Voyage South was really good. It's a bit of an anomaly in Warhammer writing, given the main character is a very well drawn woman. edit: Euphoria 5L posted:New York Trilogy If you can, try getting the graphic novel version of it - it looks amazing, and I thought it was better than the original, compressing Auster's clever-clever writing down to something much more focussed. RobertKerans fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Jan 13, 2008 |
# ? Jan 13, 2008 17:52 |
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Jingo, Terry Pratchett It's funny how similar the leadup to any war is. Pratchett does a good job at conveying how insane it all looks from outside the mob's perspective.
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# ? Jan 13, 2008 19:39 |
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I just finished Cigarette Century by Alan Brandt, a Harvard professor of medical history. It's about the story of the cigarette from it monopolistic beginnings in the 1890s through the first surgeon general report in 1964 to the state litigations in the 1990s. The state litigations I found to be very compelling because, after a failure by the Supreme Court to federally regulate Big Tobacco, the anti tobacco lawyers turned to state courts in the hopes of suing the pants off Big Tobacco and eventually bankrupting them. But instead, in 1998, the states accepted to end all the settlements against the companies in return for a settlement of over $246 billion dollars over 25 years. With this new income, states used the money to equal out state budgets but also put the states in bed with Big Tobacco, interested in sales figures and the continued deregulation of the industry. And, of course, the new settlement payments were not placed onto Big Tobacco's back but onto the consumer's. I highly suggest this book to anyone who is currently addicted to cigarettes and/or has a desire to quit, or anyone who justs wants to know the complex tobacco war fought over these skinny, little addicting cylinders.
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# ? Jan 13, 2008 23:32 |
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I finished the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman a few days ago. I really enjoyed it because I wasn't overly concerned with the bigger themes that Pullman tries to put across. I just treated it like an adventure/love story with some theological undertones and I just went along for the ride. I'll have to admit that the ending had me choking back some tears though. Next up is Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa, a fictional history of the early life of the legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. It's one of my favourite books, and I just got it back from a friend. Maybe after that I'll feel up to continuing The Wheel Of Time, but probably not.
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# ? Jan 14, 2008 02:08 |
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I just finished Declare by Tim Powers. It wasn't nearly as good as On Stranger Tides or Anubis Gates, and the plot was pretty drat convoluted, but the second I learned that Kim Philby was a real person and it was legitimate historical fiction I enjoyed it quite a bit.
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# ? Jan 14, 2008 04:50 |
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Yesterday, I finished Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. I loved the book, but more than just that, I love Gladwell. I think he is a wonderful author who knows exactly how to best get his point across or explain what he has researched. The book is about the ability for humans to make great decision in the blink of an eye. That trusting your gut ability. Each chapter talks about a different example of it, like how that quick thought is often good, or how when we try to think and explain our reasons, we usually have a hard time and are worse at choosing better things. He does this superbly, with nice thought experiments and ideas, but the best thing he does is provide many anecdotes. Each chapter usually is focused on one major story and then expanded to more smaller stories. At the end, he brings it back to the original one. The stories, though, are wonderful, humorous, and do an amazing job of explaining his point. They are mostly about social experiments done, such as the Pepsi Taste Challenge, or an experiment about people falling back on stereotypes when relating guns/wrenches with whites/blacks. These make the book outstanding. I loved The Tipping Point, the first book by Gladwell, so I was pumped to read this one. I was not let down at all.
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# ? Jan 14, 2008 05:43 |
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Dr. West posted:I just finished Declare by Tim Powers. It wasn't nearly as good as On Stranger Tides or Anubis Gates, and the plot was pretty drat convoluted, but the second I learned that Kim Philby was a real person and it was legitimate historical fiction I enjoyed it quite a bit. I liked Declare as a departure from his normal writing, and agree that knowing the character was based on a real person made it all the cooler. I recently read On Stranger Tides and Expiration Notice and constantly am amazed at how fantastic an author Mr. Powers is. Tides was a great pirate novel steeped in magic lore and may have knocked The Drawing of the Dark out of my top spot for his books. Besides the (I feel) shoddy ending to Anubis Gates, Tim Powers has rocketed into my top ten favorite authors with his body of work.
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# ? Jan 14, 2008 14:11 |
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Fatherland - Robert Harris I had heard about the book and found it in the bargain-bin of a book store. Since I'm such an alternative history nut I immediately picked it up and it proceeded to sit on my "to be read" pile for several months. Well I'm moving into a new apartment and grabbed a couple books out of the pile to read while I did not have access to all my books and this one was one of them. It's a detective murder mystery set in The Greater German Reich of 1964 in a world where Hitler was victorious. President Joseph P. Kennedy is arriving to better relations between the world's two super powers. Suddenly a string of murders surrounding senior Nazi members starts a detective on the case to find out what they were killed for. It's very well written and a fairly exciting story and the world Harris creates of a maturing German Reich shares much with the world created by Orwell in 1984.
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# ? Jan 14, 2008 19:57 |
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I just finished War of the Worlds. I'd been itching to read it for a long time but kept putting it off for some reason. I really liked it and hope to read more alien invasion stories (need recommendations!).
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# ? Jan 15, 2008 09:57 |
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Hobo Camp posted:(need recommendations!) Footfall by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
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# ? Jan 15, 2008 18:22 |
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I just finished the first book of the Gor Series by John Norman. So far it's been kinda meh. The BDSM/bondage is kinda tame. I have another dozen or so of his Gor books, do they pick up at all? Is it worth reading?
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# ? Jan 15, 2008 18:36 |
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The Courts of Chaos by Roger Zelazny, and with that, the Corwin cycle of Amber. This was my second time reading them. As might be inferred from the re-read, I really like these books. While not as good as Lord of Light, which I read just before this, it is certainly a very good series. The characters and mythology are awesome, as is the storyline. It's a pity the Merlin cycle that follows isn't quite as good. I always got the impression that Zelazny rushed through the Merlin cycle in such a way so as to put everything in place for the final five books (which would probably be focused on Luke, although I would have preferred another five Corwin books), without as much care for internal consistency or logic as the first series (which did have a couple of minor plot-holes, although they could have been flaws on the part of the narrator). Very good books.
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# ? Jan 15, 2008 19:02 |
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The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs. I'd picked up The Know-It-All off of a bargain table in Border's, and loved it, so when this book came out about another crazy experiment of his I was pretty excited. It was funny and insightful, but not as good as his first book.
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# ? Jan 15, 2008 19:10 |
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I just finished the Ringworld series (Ringworld, The Ringworld Engineers, The Ringworld Throne, and then most recently Ringworld's Children). This was my first foray into "hard" Science Fiction, but I have become surprisingly attached to the Niven's Known Space universe. I found the ending to The Ringworld Throne abrupt and unsatisfying (although with later thought it was at least... adequate.) However, Ringworld's Children was a true delight leaving me with a wonderful satisfaction not unlike finishing a rich dessert after a great meal. Of note, I read the four Ringworld books straight through, despite recommendations to read Protector between Ringworld and The Ringworld Engineers. It turned out to be just fine, Niven provided "enough" explanation of the Protectors to fill out the Ringworld books nicely. I went ahead and supplemented that info with Wikipedia reading about the Protectors, and I don't regret it. Next up, Dune.
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# ? Jan 16, 2008 00:05 |
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I just picked up two more books from the Time/Life World War II series. I picked them up for $2.40/each at the used book store and I love them all. War Under the Pacific I didn't know much about the US/IJN submarine fleet and I really enjoyed this one in particular. I was as frustrated as the US skippers probably were after reading about the faulty torpedoes and failed tactics early in the war. It also gave me a really great understanding of how much the US subs really hurt the Japanese commercial fleet. I'm read The Battle in the Atlantic right now which is another good chapter in the Time/life series.
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# ? Jan 16, 2008 02:00 |
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tbradshaw posted:I just finished the Ringworld series (Ringworld, The Ringworld Engineers, The Ringworld Throne, and then most recently Ringworld's Children). As bad as Throne was, I was holding off on buying Children, but if it's not as bad I might give it a go soon.
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# ? Jan 16, 2008 03:38 |
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Finally finished Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson. Good lord that took me forever. Very dense and hard to get into it, but rewarding in the end. The action goes from 1963-1970, all over Southeast Asia, and then we finally get a coda in 1983 in Malaysia. It's funny, the characters are (deliberately) not funny realized but they're hardly caricatures, Johnson gives you enough that you fill in their desires and motivations. I'm really glad I took the time to finish this book. Now reading Snow Crash like every good goon should. Fun book, but reminds me too much of Petey's adventures in Second Life, especially the talking penises. It's funny how Stephenson and Gibson seem like psychics in retrospect but really they just influenced a lot. YancyDCjew fucked around with this message at 04:17 on Jan 16, 2008 |
# ? Jan 16, 2008 04:14 |
Totalitaryan posted:I just finished the first book of the Gor Series by John Norman. So far it's been kinda meh. The BDSM/bondage is kinda tame. I have another dozen or so of his Gor books, do they pick up at all? Is it worth reading? My father sent me all of the stuff I had at his house and slipped in his copies of the Gor Books. I remember reading one years ago, don't remember much about it.
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# ? Jan 16, 2008 04:47 |
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No Country For Old Men by Cormac Mccarthy. It was alright, though I might benefit from doing a re-read sometime. I liked the ending and everything, but I guess I was expecting more from the book what with all the hype & Mccarthy-Mania sweeping the land. I'm looking forward to reading the border trilogy sometime soon. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. I thought it was an excellent novel. Having only seen the David Lean adaptation, I wasn't expecting all the long-winded dialogs, but they were usually interesting and well-translated except for the few painful passages of Zhivago and Lara droning on about their love for each other SLAUGHTERCLES fucked around with this message at 11:29 on Jan 16, 2008 |
# ? Jan 16, 2008 11:26 |
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SLAUGHTERCLES posted:No Country For Old Men by Cormac Mccarthy. It was alright, though I might benefit from doing a re-read sometime. I liked the ending and everything, but I guess I was expecting more from the book what with all the hype & Mccarthy-Mania sweeping the land. I'm looking forward to reading the border trilogy sometime soon. Do yourself a huge favor and pick up Blood Meridian. It's absolutely loving amazing.
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# ? Jan 16, 2008 17:20 |
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Soma Soma Soma posted:Do yourself a huge favor and pick up Blood Meridian. It's absolutely loving amazing. I just finished this book. Read it right now.
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# ? Jan 17, 2008 06:15 |
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I read Blindness by Jose Saramago and loved it a few weeks ago. It took me 20 or so pages to get used to the writing style, but after I got it I was hooked. I just finished reading Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk. It's the first Palahniuk book I've read but I really enjoyed it. I thought the way it was written as everybody just talking about their experiences about the main character was interesting. Right now I'm reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which I'll probably finish in the next day or two. I really haven't read this often since middle school and I want to get back in the habit of reading regularly.
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# ? Jan 17, 2008 06:36 |
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I just finished The Light Fantastic and the Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett. I am trying to re read the whole discworld series in order! Also recently finished the Camel club and The collectors by David Baldacci.
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# ? Jan 17, 2008 17:37 |
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I'd read Cat's Cradle and Slapstick, but I'd never really gotten the chance to read Slaughterhouse Five. I bought said book yesterday. God drat was it good.
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# ? Jan 18, 2008 03:05 |
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perceptual_set posted:Footfall by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle Awesome, thank you. I just got a library card and I'm so excited to use it.
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# ? Jan 18, 2008 03:28 |
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Euphoria 5L posted:I just finished Paul Auster's New York Trilogy. I borrowed that book when I ran out of books to read while traveling and started it thinking it was some pulp detective story. It, uh, wasn't a pulp detective story.
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# ? Jan 18, 2008 07:18 |
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Capn_Marrrrk posted:I forgot, I also read: The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno Here to give a second recommendation for The Boy Detective Fails. I am deeply in love with this book - a quirky, heartfelt, sometimes depressing, often hilarious, amazingly written piece of art. It's the type of book that inspires you to write. I'm just finishing up Mars Trilogy again, by Kim Stanley Robinson (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars). There are definitely sections scattered here and there that make it a tough read for some people (unless you love reading about rocks A LOT), but it's more than just a good hard science fiction series about Martian colonization - the series as a whole has some of the best character development I've ever read. It's strange, but the Song of Fire and Ice series reminds me of this series in a lot of ways. You get to see characters from each others' point of view, and your feelings about them change dramatically throughout the series. Those you might have hated at the start become your favorites - and each time a character becomes the new narrator, you get a sometimes shocking new perspective on a person you only knew from the outside before. And nobody is ever safe. Plus it's filled to the brim with cool future science concepts explained well and on a huge variety of subjects (terraforming, space elevators, life extension, global warming, living in space, etc.) Next up are : Every Sigh, The End by Jason S. Hornsby ( a suggested zombie novel ) The World Without Us by Alan Weisman (non-fiction detailing how the earth would change over the years if the human population were suddenly wiped out) The Pillars of Earth by Ken Follett (friend has been trying to get me to read this for years. And now Oprah tells me I must read it)
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# ? Jan 18, 2008 09:14 |
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Palooka posted:I'm just finishing up Mars Trilogy again, by Kim Stanley Robinson (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars). There are definitely sections scattered here and there that make it a tough read for some people (unless you love reading about rocks A LOT) I can really only recommend the Mars Trilogy to patient people. If you gave up on LOTR before Tom Bombadil, this ain't your thing
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# ? Jan 18, 2008 11:39 |
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Just finishing The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia by David Hoffman. If you ever wanted to know the jaw-droppingly illicit way Khodorkovsky et al made their billions, this is the book for you.
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# ? Jan 18, 2008 15:49 |
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Finished Red Seas Under Red Skies - a bit of a disappointment after Lynch's strong debut with The Lies of Locke Lamora. It started out well but it just dragged on far too much in the middle, only to rush through wrapping up the story at the end. Hopefully the next book in the series will return to what made LOLL so fun to read. Finally got a hold of The Road, so I'm catching up with everyone else on that one. I've read about 50 pages so far and it's fantastic - as always, McCarthy's use of language and his description of the landscape is top-notch.
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# ? Jan 18, 2008 16:42 |
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Squid Hat posted:
i just finished that last night but I thought it was pretty lovely. I didn't like the way he introduced the world that the characters live in by mentioning something then explaining it a little later. He had some interesting ideas that i thought he just couldn't pull off. if you're looking for more by palahniuk, try out survivor or choke. you can read fight club but seeing the movie is the same.
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# ? Jan 18, 2008 23:40 |
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I just finished Dune, although I don't know that I have any fresh analysis for the experienced readers here. Early on, the emphasis on intrigue was slow. At first I wanted to "get into" the book, but I felt like I was walking through knee high mud on an effort to wander to a plot. However, soon I became familiar with all of the names and intrigue came easier and the plot thickened while maintaining speed. In the end I loved the book and have ordered Dune Messiah and Children of Dune to continue the series. The only thing I found lacking in the book was the lack of empathy I could share with the main protagonist in the end. His behavior had become difficult to empathize with. Perhaps it's a credit to the author's ability to express the changes within Paul, and perhaps I'm just spoiled with easy-to-love heros. tbradshaw fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Jan 19, 2008 |
# ? Jan 19, 2008 00:06 |
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# ? Jun 1, 2024 06:30 |
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The Third Policeman, Flann O'Brien Seven kinds of weird, three kinds of strange, and at least 5 kinds of bizarre. Who knew bicycles were so intertwined with atomic theory and the magic box from which anything wished for could be extracted was at the bottom of an elevator in eternity? Or that the winds have colors? For less than 200 pages, this took me entirely too long (better part of a week) to read, but for someone like me who likes to chew thoroughly it's not really too surprising. And even still, I didn't feel like I really understood half of what went on.
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# ? Jan 19, 2008 04:45 |