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Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson on the non-fiction side, a hulking single-volume history of the American Civil War and its causes. It's an excellent way to get back in touch with a deeply complicated time in American (my) history, which does not skip on the political context that drove the military campaigns. It's also a fantastic reinforcement for anyone who wondered even for a second if the Confederacy had any moral legitimacy whatsoever (the answer is no, and the rebel government will show you why in their own words). A very readable ride through the Republic's darkest hours, with a fantastic bibliography if you would like to know more. The Sympathizer by Viet Tahn Ngyuen on the fiction side. Magisterially human in its portrayal of a fundamentally conflicted Communist agent in deep cover with the South Vietnamese secret police, the novel approaches the end of the war with a dry, cutting humor. It's been compared to Catch 22, but it isn't uproariously funny in the way Catch 22 is. Rather, it is a very personal and dark humor that doesn't go after War Itself, but the consequences for individuals in its aftermath. Best enjoyed with a cocktail.
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Oct 29, 2018 02:58
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The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie, read by Steven Pacey. This is the 5th (2nd standalone) book of the First Law Trilogy. Unlike the last book which could be read on its own, I think this one needs to be read in the right order or it loses a lot of the context. This has been the book on the series I have liked the least, maybe because I just dislike war stories in general or because the characters didn't feel as strong as the other books. Out of 6 main PoV characters I can say I only really cared about 2 of them, while the others felt unnecessary or just there to witness the war from another perspective. The fighting scenes were pretty good and Abercrombie does some fun stuff with the way he tells them, like a chapter where he moves down the army's chain of command from one PoV to another. Despite not being my favorite book I still think it is worth a read, especially if it comes into play in the last book which I will move on to next. I always praise Pacey, but I think I can now say he is my favorite narrator.
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Oct 29, 2018 22:23
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Bilirubin posted:Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death. If you like magic in your post apocalyptic Africa-set stories, then check this one out. It has elements of horror, weird, and sci fi, rolled into a fantasy burrito. A female take on the classic hero cycle. Good stuff worth a read. Can confirm, this is very good but also be warned it can get very intense and bleak. Definitely not a light and cheerful read.
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Oct 30, 2018 03:42
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Lawen posted:I think I’ve read everything Matt Ruff has written and Set This House in Order is still my favorite so check it out if you haven’t 🙂 Captain Hotbutt posted:Glad to hear it!
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Oct 30, 2018 14:30
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I finished The Haunting of Drearcliff Grange School by Kim Newman, which I read over the weekend. I don't tend to read very much fantasy these days but I enjoyed it; I like most of Newman's books and I prefer the sort of story paper/pulp-influenced setting he's created with various books more than his Anno Dracula series.
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Oct 30, 2018 15:05
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tetrapyloctomy posted:Purchased, but Bad Monkeys showed up first so I'm reading it instead. I've been curious but hesitant about Mirage. I've got a real soft spot for Fool on the Hill though. It's a first novel, but one with some definite strong points.
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Oct 30, 2018 15:13
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Ben Nevis posted:I've been curious but hesitant about Mirage. I've got a real soft spot for Fool on the Hill though. It's a first novel, but one with some definite strong points. Mirage is worth a look, especially if you already like Ruff. It’s an interesting post-9/11 alternate history. I think it, like Bad Monkeys and Lovecraft Country, is a bit more accessible than Fool on the Hill or The Public Works trilogy (and I say that while also having a soft spot for Fool). There’s a definite arc to his career with his first two books being weirder and rougher, the two most recent being pretty polished and accessible, and the middle two being somewhere in between.
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Oct 30, 2018 19:02
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Last night I finished reading I have America Surrounded: The Life of Timothy Leary. Overall it was a good read, very forgiving of Tim Leary's faults + his many many self-inflicted fuckups. The S.M.I2..L.E. or SMIILE meme came up in the book & finally makes sense to me now. The S.M.I2.L.E. meme stands for space migration, legrange points or life extension along with adult education, nuero-linguistic reprogramming, and universal basic incomes that would have enlightened educated people migrating to space stations built in the LeGrange points while leaving all the working class/conservative chuds behind on earth. Freed from dealing with earthbound chuds the super-educated space station peeps would then be able to focus their energies on massive improvements in psychology, zero g sex, space exploration, general science, and medical science to the extent of transcending death in a hippy version of the singularity. Basically both Robert Anton Wilson + Timothy Leary were in their "LSD every-day, LSD every-way" phase when they dreamed up S.M.I2.L.E. and even at it's most coherent setup the SMIILE meme required multiple "underpant gnomes" style ??? stages to make things happen.
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Oct 30, 2018 19:13
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Ben Nevis posted:I've been curious but hesitant about Mirage. I've got a real soft spot for Fool on the Hill though. It's a first novel, but one with some definite strong points. It's funny -- many of the too-on-the-nose parallels in his alternate world made me roll my eyes ... and then when the back story came together they added to the story rather than detracted from it. Additionally, though I can't quite explain how, Ruff cones across as genuinely interested in understanding that which he researches for his books, rather than just exploiting them for setting hooks. Both books I've read thus far make me wish I could get a group together for tabletop roleplaying again, and then I remember that I am lazy and lack imagination.
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Oct 31, 2018 02:39
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The Last Days of New Paris by China Mieville. Somebody sets off a device in Paris during the war that pulls surrealist art off the page and into the streets. Nazis naturally combat this with demons. The book is an interesting idea that doesn't ever fully mature in my opinion. Part of it was the wandering of the carefully named streets of Paris being in a jumble (from Sacre Coeurs to Montparnasse to the right embankment to Ile de la Cite to the left bank)--perhaps that was intended though? When the action kicks into higher gear the narrative loses a bit more focus. It is a neat idea but after reading Gravity's Rainbow bizarre WWII stories just seems done already. Also, gently caress. Mengele? Artist Hitler??? UGH
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Nov 1, 2018 04:14
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i have just finished all three books of CRAZY Rich Asians. The books gives you the culture of high end society of mainland china, Singapore. This is also not about being history it talks about the time frame from japan invders in china to current stage. There it have all drama, history and whole new world.
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Nov 1, 2018 17:52
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Salamander's Fire by Brian Stableford, the second book of his Genesys trilogy. I have never read a book like it - the author really flexed his creative muscles here, adding more strange and wonderful environments and ecosystems and critters to his world, while advancing and exploring the politics of the humans who live in 'em. Plot-wise it was a middle book and moved slowly, but I didn't mind. It was a delight to read each chapter and see how things unfolded. While the ending read less like an ending and more like a "and now you get book 3 out and continue it", I'm going to take a short break from the series to absorb what I read. It's very dense, and I've never read a sci-fi that's spent so much time on exploring the concept of paedogenesis and how it might work in alien species.
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Nov 2, 2018 22:56
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Turning Point by Lisanne Norman. Pure pulp sci-fi adventure, mediocre at best. A nice palate-cleanser before I move onto better books. That said, it was nice to watch the author go from super-clunky "this is the first thing I've ever written" to actually competent by the mid-point of the book. I wouldn't object to reading one of the sequels in the future.
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Nov 4, 2018 17:33
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The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin Whelp, I guess I’m an anarchist now. Like all LeGuin’s work, it was a profound experience. I have to space out reading her books because they are so intense. Prior to this I read The Left Hand of Darkness which I still consider my favorite so far. The Dispossessed was not as emotionally intense as Left Hand of Darkness but it was certainly as effective in causing me to reevaluate my lifestyle. LeGuin’s books are also slowly but surely converting me to veganism. It’s strange how even though I have been exposed to many of the themes and morals expressed in her work already, LeGuin has a way of driving her point straight into my guts.
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Nov 4, 2018 19:31
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The Screwtape Letters by C.S Lewis. Chronicling the letters sent by a senior, upper management demon to a lower level grunt, with advice on how to propperly deal with his assigned human. Written in a very typical Lewis style, with lots of philosophical musing and pearls of wisdom thrown into a funny and entertaining story. Overall I found it to be a nice relaxing short read.
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Nov 5, 2018 04:32
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Just wrapped up Thin Air by Richard K Morgan, previously known for Altered Carbon. I gotta say, while I really enjoyed Carbon and it's sequels, this felt like a discount retread of them. Less interesting setting, characters, premise, ideas, etc. It didn't help that the story's rhythm was a very direct Detective Novel Paint-By-Numbers setup. While I really think Morgan can put together some excellent descriptions and drives home a gritty cyberpunk noir like few other people can, I have to admit I found myself skimming through some pages as I approached the climax because I'd formed absolutely no connection with any of the characters. I'd only recommend this to really, really diehard fans.
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Nov 10, 2018 13:15
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A rec thread suggestion, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Incredibly written, a chilling story, and a vibrant portrait of the era and place. My only complaint with the book is how much time it spent in the murderers' povs, which is more my preference - I didn't enjoy learning about them as people. Their motive and methods were just... Monsters both.
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Nov 11, 2018 19:22
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I finished The Long Goodbye on Friday and finished Playback today. Good stuff. I have the Trouble Is My Business collection but I've been pretty much exclusively on Chandler for the past wee while (with the exception of the latest Kim Newman book) so I think I will put something else in before I get to it.
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Nov 11, 2018 19:32
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I just finished posting the 2018 secret santa thread. Come and check it out and sign up to get books from people who know nothing about you!
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Nov 17, 2018 05:40
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cult member at airport posted:I'm looking for (preferably modern) books that match the following aesthetic I posted this in the recommendation thread a while back and someone suggested Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman. After a long break from genre fic I gave it a go and finished it in two days. The world was such a perfect mix of wonder and dread. The characters are well fleshed out, although there is an over-reliance on flashbacks in my opinion. What I really liked was how the story made a worldwide apocalyptic struggle a small-scale tale of overcoming personal demons. And it bears repeating, Buehlman masterful at writing scenes that truly feel horrific without coming off as "trying too hard". Has anyone read his other books, and are they as good as this one? Also, if anyone has other suggestions for my request in the quoted post, I'm happy to hear them.
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Nov 18, 2018 17:31
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cult member at airport posted:Also, if anyone has other suggestions for my request in the quoted post, I'm happy to hear them. Blake Butler (particularly Scorch Atlas), maybe Alan DeNiro's Total Oblivion, More or Less
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Nov 18, 2018 18:02
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Just finished Narco-nomics How to run a drug cartel by Tom Wainwright. Great read, he’s a writer for the Economist.
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Nov 18, 2018 21:39
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BurningBeard posted:Bloodless is a great way to put it. The elements are all there. The delivery is competent. But it always feels very paint by numbers. Workmanlike, if not extraordinary. I remember reading American Gods as a kid, followed almost immediately by Neverwhere but I'll be damned if I can remember very much about them now. I did revisit Gods when it got the new release, and my memory was such that I almost felt Like I was Reading it for the first time. It dragged a lot the second time through. I know material was added but I'd attribute my impatience more to a gap of years and changes in taste more than anything reflective of the book itself though. Just picked up the Reed book based on this recommendation. Thank you! I recently finished The Iron Druid book one, because gently caress it, I had a 14-hour plane journey and a buddy recommended it. Worst book I’ve read in years. The protagonist is a flawless magical- and martial-arts master who has the most powerful sword in the world and is totally the best swordsman on the planet and also the most powerful magic user and also the best unarmed fighter and also the smartest and sexiest person and also can have sex with like all of the perfect-11 goddesses that all totally want to have sex with him because he gives them like a hundred orgasms with his perfect form and every single woman in the book is a flawless gorgeous beauty and they all want him oh and also he looks 21 forever Holy loving poo poo that book sucked.
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Nov 19, 2018 14:47
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Thursday Next posted:Just picked up the Reed book based on this recommendation. Thank you! You sound like you need to read the Kingkiller Chronicles by Pat Rothfuss 
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Nov 19, 2018 14:51
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Thursday Next posted:Just picked up the Reed book based on this recommendation. Thank you! Based on this description I Google image searched the author. https://www.google.com/search?q=Kev...iw=1200&bih=733 He looks exactly, %100 like I imagined.
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Nov 19, 2018 17:51
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Ew, fantasy authors.jpg is so gross in context.
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Nov 19, 2018 18:19
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Chimera's Cradle by Brian Stableford, the third and final of his Genesys trilogy. ... I have a lot to think about before I can properly say anything about this trilogy, but suffice it to say that it is as vibrant and strange as any of his works. I've never read a series more creative or interesting, with its setting or characters. So many different biomes, a strange interpretation of lore... The tl;dr of this trilogy is, a group of adventurers go on a journey to the Navel of the World to uncover its secrets, and boy, do they uncover its secrets. There's plenty of action, development, and strange alien things. Things I loved most: - The horror sequence where the main character is turned into a living tree. - The transparent turtles - The entire finale of the first book, as everyone went into the Dragomite hills - The development of the Princess into a bold adventurer who accepts herself and what she wants - The biological AI thing - The Serpents and how they developed as badass characters - The Manticore character. ...and more. There's a lot. And the central concept of human resilience and optimism is worth a lot to me.
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Nov 19, 2018 21:56
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spandexcajun posted:Based on this description I Google image searched the author. Has anyone seen Kevin Hearn and Boogie2988 in the same place at the same time? 
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Nov 20, 2018 04:54
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Finished the Red Atlas: How the Soviet Union secretly mapped the world. It's built around lots of ultra-detailed USSR maps of the world, very interesting book. Iron Druid chat: The pronunciation guide in it should have been a warning sign to people. Science fiction + Fantasy books with pronunciation guides tend to suck and usually devolve into author power-tripping fantasies fast.
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Nov 21, 2018 07:25
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:Iron Druid chat: The pronunciation guide in it should have been a warning sign to people. Science fiction + Fantasy books with pronunciation guides tend to suck and usually devolve into author power-tripping fantasies fast. Iron Druid isn't great, but I mean, those are all actual real names from non-Anglo cultures that people might have trouble with. It's not the same.
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Nov 21, 2018 10:42
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Megazver posted:Iron Druid isn't great, but I mean, those are all actual real names from non-Anglo cultures that people might have trouble with. It's not the same. Atticus O’Sullivan
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Nov 21, 2018 13:05
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Thanks to having today off, was able to finish reading Walls by David Frye, and Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. Walls was about defensive wall formations that have been built throughout human history in most areas of the world, and the roles defensive walls played in civilization. Bad Blood was just a endless series of lies + hype by Theranos the blood testing "company".
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Nov 22, 2018 03:00
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The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner. Mad Men meets Maddaddam. Or perhaps Rachel Carson collaborated with Walter Miller, Jr. A story set in the early 70s while the US is facing total environmental collapse due to pollution, pesticides, pharma ran amok, and military wastes disposed into the sea. The world built is on point, and a lot of it rings true today. However, I found the execution a little wanting. Not the dialogue--really set in a 50s-70s jargon--or the sexism that runs rife (again, presumably a product of the time in which the author worked), but the narration. I found little to distinguish the voices of the (many) characters, and the names are all blandly the same too, so as the narrative focus switched from character to character, it took me a long time to reconnect with them, and how they fit within the story (is this the couple with the kid, or the couple with the kids, or the couple that want kids?). It made the book distracting and difficult to fully engage with. An editor might have requested cutting some of these parallel stories but...well, there is kind of a point to it, but still, that could have been delivered just as effectively with a little less jumping around.
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Nov 24, 2018 06:12
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John Brunner had a thing for writing dystopian multiple narrative voice stories. Stand on Zanzibar won him a Hugo Award, but it's so awkwardly disjointed + dated that I've never gotten farther than 30 pages in it. Almost seemed designed to win awards or maybe the scifi award committees in the mid 1960s - late 1970s Hugo were desperate for books that explored the possible futures of counter-culture. Read Physics for Future Presidents last night. Covered a bunch of subjects (energy, nukes, terrorism, space exploration, climate change) by Richard A Muller. While the author definitely had rock-hard opinions on stuff in the book(why the TSA makes you remove shoes, how terrorists are amazing efficiency experts, etc), overall the information in the book was good for people who have been out of college for awhile + mostly forgotten joules/calories.
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Nov 24, 2018 14:56
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I finally finished the lord of the rings after multiple attempts over the years. The only thing that got me through it all was listening to the "There and Back Again" podcast after each chapter, breaking down the subtle things that I never would have understood on my own.
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Nov 26, 2018 04:05
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Took me a good month to get through Lethal White by Rowling. By the end I barely remembered half the threads and mysteries that the book spent almost 700 pages to set up. But I do like the characters for the most parts so I'll most likely keep on reading the series. I just hope they won't be as long as this one.
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Dec 2, 2018 14:58
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I read The Wayward Bus by Steinbeck. It was on some kind of book choice survey, and my library had a copy. Character driven, dated a bit, not as fully rounded compared to contemporary fiction. It could be slanted to fit any number of modern arguments on race, feminism even youth/senility/virility of man. Not as much bus action as I was hoping for. The last major scene and protagonist felt rushed. If I was in high school this would be a decent read for a book report. Very middling feeling overall.
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Dec 5, 2018 02:35
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The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture - Glen Weldon A really interesting look into how Batman changes and doesn't change based on the whims of the times his comics and movies are being made in, as well as how from even the very beginning, there were terrible nerds to police both the general reactions to all things Batman and how the character is represented. It's a solid read if you're looking for something quick and diverting - the writer doesn't take things too seriously, thankfully - but he could have definitely gone harder on certain sections of the internet that post death threats etc. if you don't love the fake billionaire costume man's latest movie or whatever.
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Dec 6, 2018 18:41
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France and England in North American Volume 1 (4 collected books of a series of 8) Francis Parkman Really interesting progression from the 16th century onwards about an expansive part of American history so unfairly fast-forwarded in your basic grade school course. Digestible prose for a 19th century work, I would recommend this to anyone. Sometimes distractingly romantic, but the cruelest parts of the inroads made by the world powers are presented plainly. Stay for the blood, guts, and greed. The accounts of the earliest interactions among Europeans and the various tribes of the eastern coasts are fascinating. The Lottery Shirley Jackson Not just the famous short, but the anthology it was collected in and published in ‘49. It’s a swift read, and the stories inside are mostly sardonic vignettes of horrors vague and inane. A Macy’s employee wanders through her first days in a blundering, oblivious confusion under the equally oblivious and confused managerial system of the department store. An outsider is introduced to countrified cures for a wayward dog and the smiling face of casual brutalities. A young boy is regaled with stories of child mutilation by a kindly old man. It was extremely up my alley.
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Dec 9, 2018 05:00
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The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett I'd picked up a few things about Discworld from the tabletop games subforum, such as the entire opening monologue about the world being a flat disc balanced on the backs of four elephants, all sitting precariously upon a massive sea turtle. It had always intrigued me, but school and work has kept me too busy to read until recently. Every one of the four short stories is about Rincewind, the incompetent and cowardly wizard. It's such fun to read through these stories as Fate, and forces more powerful than that, seem to conspire to make his life as miserably adventurous as possible. Although I like Rincewind, I think the tourist he's escorting (Twoflower the "in-sewer-ants" agent) was the more interesting of the two. While Rincewind is often the one to save the day, Twoflower is usually the one to push the story forward with his curiosity and love for all things dangerous. His adoration of the world around him is infectious, as I've also learned to love the fantastic and silly world that he lives in.
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