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Megazver posted:Have you seen this? Not until now, interest piqued
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Jul 14, 2023 00:34
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I'd say you should probably reread the books yourself before you go looking for other's opinions. It will likely cement certain ideas into your head that you'll find hard to shake if you see contrary evidence. That said there is no lack for material Botns writing. The above, the Rereading Wolfe Podcast which has some people who've been around the block and have good knowledge about the old mailing list crowd and Shelved by Genre whom just started and have a mix of people who've read the work over many times and a novice who never finished the work; it's been refreshingly interesting and insightful compared to some other podcasts with similar conceits. If you want text there's a collection on https://ultan.org.uk/ A bunch of stuff archived http://www.urth.net/ And you can also go out and look for write ups by Marc Aramini and Driussi out there on Reddit and the like.
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Jul 14, 2023 00:53
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Gaius Marius posted:I'd say you should probably reread the books yourself before you go looking for other's opinions. It will likely cement certain ideas into your head that you'll find hard to shake if you see contrary evidence. That said there is no lack for material Botns writing. The above, the Rereading Wolfe Podcast which has some people who've been around the block and have good knowledge about the old mailing list crowd and Shelved by Genre whom just started and have a mix of people who've read the work over many times and a novice who never finished the work; it's been refreshingly interesting and insightful compared to some other podcasts with similar conceits. Yeah, I think that's a good word of caution. I've heard good things about the podcasts, I just have a very hard time listening to things.
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Jul 14, 2023 01:33
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I liked Urth but everyone I know hated it, or outright refused to read it after completing the main series. I wasn't a huge fan of Fifth Head. Out of all the tales only the first one really grabbed me. The mystery of the indigenes is cool. Peace rules. The frame narrative is alright but I love all the creepy little vignettes.
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Jul 14, 2023 22:44
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The First Bright Thing, by J. R. Dawson. In the 1920s, there's a traveling circus that's more than what it seems. Everyone knows that magic isn't real. That trapeze artist is just phenomenally skilled, she can't really fly. That isn't one man who can multiply himself, a group of brothers done up in makeup to look alike. The strongman isn't really immune to bullets, those are fake guns. And so long as the public 'knows' it's not real, this collection of outcasts with supernatural gifts entertain instead of horrify, are welcomed with benign amusement rather than arrested and hauled away. A haven for the magical, the homosexual in a time when that is put to death, and others who don't fit in, all lead by a time traveling ringmaster who refuses to jump the circus back before 1918 or past 1940 but refuses to tell anyone why. This is an odd one. It's part a love letter to the old traveling circuses and carnivals, part queer love story, part battle with a supervillain with evil magical gifts. The heart of the book, though, is contemplating the questions of free will and how much one person can change the world, exemplified by the protagonist fleeing both past and future that terrify her. It's mostly a heartwarming story, but also one that goes into some very dark places when dealing with emotional abuse and the horror of war. What really makes this book stand out for me, though, is the strong theme of religion as a positive thing - so rare to see in LGBT fiction! The protagonist is Jewish, and her upbringing and faith are a big part of why she presses on and believes in the hope of making the world a better place despite all that she's suffered. I enjoyed this book a lot, but my recommendation also needs to carry a warning: this book deals with some heavy themes and feelings, and the ending strongly implies that the protagonist ultimately dies not for her magic or her sexuality, the things she always feared being persecuted for, but was killed in the Holocaust for being Jewish.
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Jul 15, 2023 20:40
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A Gentleman’s Game by Greg Rucka. A prose book from his Queen & Country series which also saw a number of comic stories over the years. It focuses on a couple characters from one of the British special services and one particular POV terrorist bad guy character. A very mid 2000s post-9/11 plot about a terrorist attack in London and the ramifications of what comes next. Rucka is at his best with this spy thriller stuff, both in the comics and in prose. He writes fast snappy action and dialogue, and moves from beat to beat pretty quickly. He pauses for the required back room intrigue but doesn’t get bogged down in it. There are deaths but it’s not too gory and there’s sex but it’s not too gratuitous (other than the female main character being very into sex, which is fine to me). The main characters feel pretty well realized and their motivations make sense, and while they are shown to be super competent, that’s also the whole concept of this side of the genre so I’m ok with that. It feels a lot like a modern interpretation of a Bond book. The only downside to me was that the ending was forecast a mile away. I like a bit more of a twist in my spy thrillers, but this was also the first Q&C prose so I’m willing to forgive him sticking to the basics. Definitely a recommendation from me if you like this kind of stuff.
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Jul 15, 2023 23:37
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escape artist posted:Life's Work by David Milch. I have been fascinated with him since like 2007. I even watched and rewatched John From Cincinatti and loved it. He is best known for Deadwood and NYPD Blue. What you might not know is he a Yale educated writer who was there around the time of Bush and Kerry, also he's a bipolar addict who suffered CSA in his youth. He's been living in an assisted living facility with Alzheimers for 4 years. It's probably the best memoir I've ever read, written by one of the writers who gave me a passion for writing when I was younger. I enjoyed the memoir and appreciated the gradual, disappearing coherence among the stories near the end.
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Jul 16, 2023 19:57
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Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths: A discussion of the history of different "big" algorithms in computer science (e.g. sorting, scheduling, networking, caching, etc.) and how they relate to human problems. It's an interesting read if you like to / work with code. The authors suggest ways to incorporate these algorithms into your daily life, which was intriguing, but ultimately not something I'd want to do as it would make me feel very robotic to adhere to a strict guideline for different choices / tasks in my life. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl: I read this with my daughter. I didn't get into Roald Dahl when I was young (I think the only book of his I read was Matilda), so I had never read this book. I've seen both movies a few times, so I came into it knowing mostly what to expect. My daughter came in blind. From my perspective, I liked comparing and contrasting both movies' interpretations of the book. What they did "verbatim" vs. what they changed. The book feels very rushed, but it's a children's book and they tend to do that. It's also much more into child shaming than I'd liked (overweight kids, talkative kids, kids who like TV, etc. all need to be taught horrific lessons to change them). From my daughter's perspective, she enjoyed the book and my very bad British English accents. She almost cried when the book introduced Charlie's starving family and kept asking why no one would help them. What a great discussion to have with my 7yo daughter. Coincidentally, the new "Wonka" trailer dropped the day we finished reading the book, so naturally, I showed it to my daughter who is pumped to see the movie when it comes out, even though I am lukewarm on the trailer. We'll need to show her the existing movies as well at some point.
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Jul 17, 2023 15:08
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Good-Natured Filth posted:... Yay! Kids getting into reading! I will recommend this book to everyone with a kid who likes fantastical stuff: The Teaspoon Tree I read over 200 children's books for a college project, and that one was my favorite of the chapter books. It's interesting and has a tone and theme somewhere between Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with a bit of The Phantom Tollbooth. At least those are the books it reminds me of 😄 I also recommend The Thirteen and A Half Lives of Captain Blue Bear for any kid. It's long but exciting and a kid would feel so accomplished reading that whole thing!
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Jul 18, 2023 22:54
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Speaking of kid books, I’m a chapter away from finishing reading Colin Dann’s Fox’s Feud to my 2 year old. Colin Dann’s animals books were a highlight of my childhood reading, but it’s been a long time. Uhhhhhh one of the main character’s kids is violently murdered in like the fourth chapter. There are multiple other murders, and also after all but two of the animals of a particular species (Vole and his son) are killed, the author says something to the effect of “and sadly it was a boy who survived, so Vole won’t be able to get a new mate” which like 🤮. There was also a part where the other species are joking with Rabbit about bunny incest. I have to say I respect that Dann really wanted them to still be animals and not just be little humans, despite the whole conceit of different animal species sticking together, but this was a weird read. Luckily my son is at an age where he’s not getting much but the sound of my voice and the words, not the meaning. Jordan7hm fucked around with this message at 13:14 on Jul 19, 2023 |
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Jul 19, 2023 13:12
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Windsworn by Derek Alan Siddoway: A YA fantasy book about A mid-tier, by the numbers, YA fantasy novel. Oh right, the big secret about her parents. Her dad is the king's brother and is still alive, but exiled because he impregnated the queen (his brother's wife) who died giving birth to Eva. And the king sent baby Eva away because he didn't want to be reminded of the queen's infidelity. Which is glossed over towards the end of the book. A huge revelation that is basically received as "Oh well. Them's the breaks. You have to read the second book to find out more!"
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Jul 22, 2023 03:31
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I was away from my computer for a couple of weeks and decided it was time to finally get through House of Leaves and it just breezed by, loved every second of it even the parts I didn't.
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Jul 22, 2023 09:43
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Finished the Broken Earth Trilogy and ARTEMIS by Andy Weir The Broken Earth was very fun. It has the Fantasy Writers' tic of renaming things like "earthquakes" while letting thing like the scientific names like "boron" or "crystal lattices" stand. That's fine. It was a ton of fun. The characters were not particularly likeable, but that was good given that it is a story about whether or not to save a planet doomed by slavery, eugenics, and colonialism. Sometimes an egg is already too cracked. If you can get through the fancy first part of the first book, you will probably like the whole series. re: ARTEMIS. God I loving hate this author. I watched The Martian and was skeptical of its book origins given that 95% of it was Matt Damon wisecracking into a camera. Then I read Project Hail Mary and it was 95% of the protagonist wisecracking into an alien who is mostly asleep. Then I read this, and it has more actual things that that happen. The things happen in ARTEMIS happen in shorter order and at a faster pace, but the overwheling majority of interactions between persons are one party didactically explaining a simple concept to another party. The recipient of the lecture is either awed by the lecturer's ability or responds with their own didactic trump card, causing the original lecturer to state the this is "SUPER BAD, LIKE REALLY REALLY BAD" There were at least four times that someone who has advanced technical knowledge utters the words "super duper bad, okay?!" One character is awed by our narrator's acumen, but then draws a gun on her. The gun is then put quickly away because the plot needs to move forward. The result of any of the interchanges between characters is that they exchange the most technically aware and sarcastic quips possible in place of dialogue. Whomever quips hardest, wins. It sucks. There is also a gay person in the story. His gayness has zero import, beyond him stating blankly to two women who are knock-down fist-fighting in a pressurized lunar rover over whether to over-pressurize a gas pipeline to the moon station - "hey, ladies i get that this would be hot to some guys, but I'm REALLY GAY" The narrator also belligerently tells the reader that "I put on my niqab. OKAY. you can stop pretending you've EVER EVEN heard of a niqab. A niqab is......" I want to chase this goober around with a bike chain, swinging it at him and whacking his ankles until he writes better dialogue. It was actually easier for me to listen to Wil Wheaton's read of the Kaiju Preservation Society (which also sucks) than to read this guy's dialogue. I get why his most successful ventures were when his protagonists were talking to NASA bots or aliens that can't really talk back or perfom quips.
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Jul 22, 2023 10:31
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UltraShame posted:It was actually easier for me to listen to Wil Wheaton's read of the Kaiju Preservation Society (which also sucks) than to read this guy's dialogue. This is the worst condemnation imaginable. KPS was so bad it made me angry.
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Jul 23, 2023 23:00
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UltraShame posted:God I loving hate this author. I had to call it quits after Project Hail Mary. You are far braver than I am.
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Jul 24, 2023 01:51
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Started and finished A Game of Thrones to get the awful taste of Andy Weir out of my brain. I put off starting this series because I wanted to wait until the "new one was written" - then I looked at when the last was published - had a huge lol, and dove on in. I really expected something more of a sword and sorcery. Much earlier in life I tried to slog through the first Wheel of Time book - ended up putting that one down. For some reason I was anticipating something similar and did not get that. I know I'm late to the party and stating the obvious, but this is a page turner. Listening to the audiobook on commute, and while running, and reading the text in evenings I got through this in just 3 days. Even the characters that are hateful are fun to read, and every single character seems doomed in one way or another. The overarching feeling for the protagonist characters reminds me of The Two Towers: the looming war, impending political crisis, treachery and miscommunication, and despair is all over. Tyrion and Catelyn are standouts, so I assume they will meet disastrous ends at some point. After reading two garbo books in a row, this was refreshing.
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Jul 25, 2023 06:23
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I just now finished The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. There is so much to say that I struggle to bring out. It's one of those books that makes you feel like you've been everywhere, seen everything human society has to offer. The final chapter of his ungraceful retirement is like the final chapter of a Napoleon biography about his life on St. Helena, years of lonely, quiet resentment after such a long and exciting career. The ending had such a stark sadness to it that I almost forgot how horrible he was in most of the preceding 1140 pages.
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Jul 25, 2023 07:53
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I just got covid for the first time and decided now’s the time to read Jeff Vandermeer’s Borne. I loved the southern reach trilogy and, while this was not that, I still enjoyed it. I’ve got the two follow ups to read next, Strange Bird and Dead Astronauts.
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Jul 26, 2023 05:22
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The Last Days of Jack Sparks is a horror novel that stars the worst person you know as he fucks around and finds out. It’s starts with him laughing aloud at an exorcism because he’s an internet atheist, and continues with him making bad choices at every turn. I loved it. It gets even better as when his selfish mask is slowly stripped away and he’s humanized and understood, and you start actually rooting for this dumb bastard, even knowing from the title what’s going to happen. If you read this, don’t skip out on the afterward and epilogue. It delivers a final, even sadder coda to this doomed man’s life.
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Jul 26, 2023 20:48
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Piranesi. Quick read and enjoyable but I don't think it's something I'd ever recommend. It never left me feeling awed and I didn't find the mystery that compelling, which I had been hoping for given the setting and subject matter. That said, the prose was well crafted, and while the last third of the book was less intriguing, it was more engaging (i.e. page-turning). Up next: Gideon the Ninth
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Jul 26, 2023 21:10
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Why are Piranesi (the actual guy) artbooks so expensive. I don't have 60€ to spend on pictures. 
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Jul 26, 2023 21:34
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I adored Piranesi 
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Jul 27, 2023 00:52
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malnourish posted:Piranesi. Quick read and enjoyable but I don't think it's something I'd ever recommend. Yeah it's weird. I really liked Piranesi. A lot. I read it in two sittings. I don't think I would recommend it, either. I think most people I know who read would think it was boring. But I also shy away from recommending books to my friends because I gave a friend a copy of a novel called Virgintooth and she has never forgiven me 😮💨
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Jul 27, 2023 05:08
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Piranesi rules and I recommend it.
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Jul 27, 2023 06:41
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I would value your perspectives on the book; I found it well written but not as thought provoking as what I was looking for. Even if it doesn't change my opinion, the views of others helps me appreciate something more.
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Jul 27, 2023 11:09
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Piranesi was fantastic, I’m very curious why you guys wouldn’t recommend it to folks? The slowly revealed gravity of the world the narrator inhabits, the slow reveal of the mystery. The narrator’s words feels like the thoughts of an alien at first. Just an absolute blast of a book.
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Jul 27, 2023 17:48
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Yeah Piranesi is like, my premiere trip book rec for people who are basically normal but like a little lovecraft derived stuff and maybe a little sci fi stuff. I devoured it and was sad I couldn’t have more
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Jul 27, 2023 18:30
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I enjoy more complex narratives and complicated characters. I wish the world had been further explored and the mystery more developed. There weren't intricate clues to piece together and there was no "aha!" moment for me. I felt like the pursuit of ancient knowledge was unceremoniously dropped. It made sense in the story why it was, but it seemed a more compelling thread. All of the secondary characters came across a little flat to me and the lead was a little too perfect. I would have liked more time in the labyrinth and less with what were largely news reports. malnourish fucked around with this message at 01:15 on Jul 28, 2023 |
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Jul 28, 2023 00:07
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Piranesi is House of Leaves for Harry Potter fans. I read 80% of it on two flights but I started it long before that, the narrator’s voice was a chore until pieces of the mystery started to appear
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Jul 28, 2023 01:25
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Okay I think I can word this in a way that makes sense. Piranesi is a book about someone maliciously torturing someone. It's upsetting. I think some people would hate it because they don't want to read about someone maliciously torturing another person in the most laborious and dreary way possible. The tortured person is sometimes bored to near tears, or nearly drowned, or just so lonely that you see their mind breaking. It's a great book but it is a bummer.
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Jul 28, 2023 01:30
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I mostly loved Piranesi, but I definitely preferred the early parts just describing The House, before the mystery plot really got rolling. I also just really like stories where somebody explores a big weird place, though.
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Jul 28, 2023 02:50
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I love books where somethin weird's goin on and it definitely had that.
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Jul 28, 2023 03:35
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Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was by Barry Hughart. I read this because I kept seeing people say that it was one of their favorite books and I really enjoyed it. It reminded me of the first two Discworld books, which I liked the most out of the ones I've read (the first ten) which I've been told puts me at odds with most people who've read the books. Like those books there's an overarching plot that connects relatively self contained smaller stories. One of things I liked the most is that while supernatural forces exist in the world there're also lots of instances of people faking the supernatural or misunderstanding what is happening on which created uncertainty about what was going on and added to the mysteries of the plot.
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Jul 28, 2023 03:56
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Discendo Vox posted:The Snow Leopard is the story of one man's profound and grueling two-month, 250-mile journey up his own rear end. Recovering from his wife's death, Peter Matthiessen leaves his grieving son with friends and goes to Nepal to engage in 300 pages of florid prose that alternates between hairshirtery, orientalism, pseudoscience, and casual racism. Matthiessen cannot resist interpreting his every mood swing for its profound significance. With those swings, he alternates between reading profound truth into the half-understood version of Buddhism he ascribes to local lamas, and referring to the residents of the steppe as either primitive or childish. In between there's plenty of time to endorse free energy theory, wax poetic with discredited racial theories about cultural commonalities and promote the existence of the yeti. I kid you not this was one of the hardest books for me to finish. And the same year I read, based on a friend's recommendation, "The Power of Now" and it was a one-two punch of third-life crisis dudes thinking everybody cares about their celebration of ignorance, and calling it wisdom? Does that make any sense? Because the book sure didn't. By the end of "The Snow Leopard" I was wondering if I was losing my mind considering all the praise this book has received. Even Paul Theroux, the snarkiest, least hairshirtery of the dudes who made their careers ditching their families to travel, loves it.
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Jul 28, 2023 06:45
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Hey this isnt a I just finished this but I found a book from 1925 that someone left in the rain it has those illustrations that come with that odd wax paper The "core" is dry but every edge of every page is damp. How do I dry this out properly
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Jul 28, 2023 23:45
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Piranesi honestly ended up reminding me of an artsy indie walking simulator, where you walk your character through a bunch of cool collapsing statue rooms and find useless items and read journal entries and try to piece together what happened here. I liked it, but I really couldn't shake that feeling.
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Jul 30, 2023 06:21
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Nice Tuckpointing! posted:I kid you not this was one of the hardest books for me to finish. And the same year I read, based on a friend's recommendation, "The Power of Now" and it was a one-two punch of third-life crisis dudes thinking everybody cares about their celebration of ignorance, and calling it wisdom? Does that make any sense? Because the book sure didn't. By the end of "The Snow Leopard" I was wondering if I was losing my mind considering all the praise this book has received. Even Paul Theroux, the snarkiest, least hairshirtery of the dudes who made their careers ditching their families to travel, loves it. I agree wholeheartedly, even as someone who reads a lot of nonfiction (including very bad stuff). It took me about a year and a half to get through, I think it may have permanently deteriorated my enjoyment of reading, and "celebration of ignorance" captures it perfectly, on levels I'd not considered before. Clearly we should both read The Secret next. Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 07:37 on Jul 30, 2023 |
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Jul 30, 2023 07:34
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I just spent the past month tucking into the meal that is James Michener's Hawaii. I loved that the first 20 pages are a history of volcanic seamounts. I liked the 100 or so pages of the Polynesians of Bora Bora taking a canoe across the Pacific, despite us not knowing (especially in the 1950s when this was written) how that all went down. But the 130 pages of Calvinist missionaries on their little sailboat negotiating the Drake Passage and trying to convert the whalers could have easily been cut in half. Once they actually get to Hawaii it gets a bit better, but the story seems to always be from the viewpoint of Hawaii's visitors, with native Hawaiians in supporting roles. It works most of the time, but can drag when once again Mr. Puritan argle-bargles about the sinfulness of the hula or surfing. There's also a big chunk about the Chinese laborers and the dynasty one woman creates, and then the Japanese laborers and the differences and similarities in experiences. And, can we talk about this phenomenon of what I would like to call "I think I am showing respect, but it's still blatant Orientialism"? Our aforementioned woman visits the local Honolulu Chinatown rich person to negotiate a marriage between their kids, and there's that drat, dumb inscrutable-Asian thing, such as, "Chang did not say a word, but took a sip from her tea and placed the cup down before making eye contact. Nyuk-tsin knew she had her answer: The marriage would go ahead."* Um...what? This happens a lot in the Asian-to-Asian interactions. Never is body language a deciding factor with the white folks. The one good result of this is that the second generation of these immigrants get a good amount of attention and the struggle to be of the land that they grew up in vs the land their parents are fighting to instill in them. Overall, I am glad I read it, even if it could be maybe 100 pages shorter. But the one bit that grated me the most was the MASCULINE TOUGH GUY archetype that pops up several times. He's the former whaler who becomes a shipping/trading magnate for the sugar barons. He punches ruffians first, then kicks them when they are down (a lesson mentioned multiple times in the book as a life lesson, "So they know never to retaliate.") and I kept expecting this guy to come to regret his harsh view of his fellow humans. But, no. He's the romantic swashbuckler of a dying age. Then his grandson does the same and he too gets the hero treatment. The BIG TOUGH GUYS who made the hard choices to make Hawaii STRONG or whatever. If you ever read James Clavell's books, it's the prototype of Tai-Pan's Dirk Struan and Shogun's John Blackthorne. What is it with Jameses and their 1000-page books about TOUGH GUYS? Anyway, I have read six Michener books now, and I would rank them from most satisfying to least: The Source Space Tales From the South Pacific Hawaii Poland The Novel *edit; this is not the actual quote from the book, but close enough. Discendo Vox posted:Clearly we should both read The Secret next. Oh god, I just listened to the "If Books Could Kill" podcast episode about that. I don't think I can manifest the courage. Nice Tuckpointing! fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Jul 31, 2023 |
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Jul 31, 2023 07:00
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Whups, edit does not equal quote. So I will mention the other book I just finished. Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde, continuing the adventures of Thursday Next, a SpecOps agent investigating literary crimes, including those in the previous book The Eyre Affair in which she chases down the baddie by literally entering the story of Jane Eyre. Also her father's a time traveler trying to fix history and she has a pet dodo bird clone. It's wildly creative and I will get to the next book in the seven-book series eventually, but not yet. My one complaint is that it's perhaps too creative. The story feels at times like an eat-your-vegetables necessity before dad pops into the scene and asks Thursday, "Do you know who Winston Churchill is? No, not yet? Drat." and disappears. Nice Tuckpointing! fucked around with this message at 07:37 on Jul 31, 2023 |
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Jul 31, 2023 07:28
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What would you say are Michener's best and worst opinions about politics/humanity/society/culture/history?
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Jul 31, 2023 08:04
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