|
JustAurora posted:I just recently finished The Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes vol. I (B&N classic ed). The stories were fun and the writing is very good. Admission: I read this volume because I enjoy the tv show 'House.' I will say that people complain about the show being repetitive, well, the stories were a bit repetitive as well, after a while. They were good, and the characters were interesting, but there you go. The only thing I didn't like is that some of the stories took a pretty Big leap between the information ascertained and Holmes coming up with the answer. Even with the explanations given. But I would recommend it. Huge fan of Doyle. There's a 1984 BBC series with Jeremy Brett as Sherlock and David Burke as Watson which is absolutely brilliant. If you really enjoyed the book, I'd say you continue with the Return of Sherlock Holmes and then watch the series if you can find them  They also did a full movie based on the Sign of Four that is of the same quality. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086661/ The Return of Sherlock Holmes : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090509/ The Sign of Four : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0685628/
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2010 22:06
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 17, 2024 22:59 |
|
|
Ballsworthy posted:Have you read Bordersnakes yet? Milo + Sughrue = mega-badasss, but the plot starts out shaky and goes completely loving haywire in the end. I think his earlier stuff is a lot better about that, but the marked difference is not too surprising given the ten year gap between Dancing Bear and Tree Duck. I'm really interested in reading the book of short stories he wrote during that gap but it's hard to get ahold of. So far, I've read all of Crumley's detective novels except for Bordersnakes and The Wrong Case. I agree his earlier stuff seems to have less of a tendency to go batshit towards the end plot-wise, The Last Good Kiss (which I would also agree is the best of his books I've read) being the prime example.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2010 01:57
|
|
|
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. I know I'm a little late to the party. Read it first when I was 16 or so, and didn't really get the whole black comedy/satire angle back then. I just remember that I was really annoyed by the constant designer clothes descriptions and pretty disgusted by the detailed torture killings. Well I'm still pretty disgusted by the torture/killing parts. Especially after a boner inducing hardcore sex description, that ends up in severe snuff porn. But this time around I really enjoyed the total neutrality of the author and the description of Bateman's hilarious yuppie life: The difficulty of getting a reservation to the holy grail of trendy restaurants; Dorcia, his detailed recitals of fancy restaurant food and fellow yuppies designer brand clothes, his total anxiety inducing homophobia and his rare moments of almost sensitive human behavior. I also didn't catch the ambiguity of whether the killings actually took place the first time I read it. Suffice to say I was pretty impressed by this novel and will definitely read some other novels by this Ellis fellow. How to Rob an Armored Car by Iain Levison. I have read all of his previous novels and I like his humorous take on the lower working class struggle, which is relate-able. This novel describes the inept criminal actions of three stoner friends in a rundown Pennsylvania coal town ending with [title of novel]. Nothing groundbreaking but quite enjoyable. I'm definitely going to get the next Levison novel. Boody posted:Finished Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan earlier. Had thought it might be a book I read about 10 years ago but turns out it wasn't. I quite enjoyed the first half but the embarrassing sex scenes and the ability of the Kovac to walk from violent fight to violent fight with no regards to injury really ruined the second half for me. The "sleeving" concept seemed interest at start but was being overused towards the end of the book. Altered Carbon is supposedly the best of the series. I couldn't even finish Broken Angels despite only having 30 pages to go. I never bothered picking the 3rd book in the series (Woken Furies?). Broken Angels is also filled with embarrassing sex scenes, but has none of the charm or inventiveness of Altered Carbon, and the whole detective/noir angle I appreciated in the first book was left out in the second. Broken Angels is pretty much just Rambo in space who fucks all the hot mercenary chicks and kills everybody else.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2010 03:04
|
|
|
something_clever posted:American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. I know I'm a little late to the party. Almost embarrassingly, I didn't quite finish American Psycho when I read it. About 85% through, the book deteriorates into a nearly endless string of murder/torture scenes and gets really hard to read. But that's also the best part of the book. I have never read anything that made me so unnerved and kept SO TIGHT to the downward spiral style like that book, and I'll probably pick it up again and read it through. Surprisingly, the movie did a pretty good job of capturing the feel, though it didn't go nearly as far down.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2010 06:11
|
|
|
something_clever posted:American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. I once asked a bookstore clerk if they had the book and she was horrified and so was my date and I felt like a terrible weirdo. Gonna buy it on Amazon one day.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2010 18:14
|
|
|
Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche by Ethan Watters. Watters uses examples from four different disorders in four different areas of the world to explain how Western conceptions of mental illness can shape or even impact negatively how foreign cultures see and treat them. The entire book comes off as a cautionary tale for mental health professionals trying to promote Western standards of mental health as "the best" or the most efficacious. It's pretty scary that something we would like to use to help people in different parts of the world could actually serve to homogenize cultures, but hopefully more Western mental health professionals can rethink their treatment of people from other cultures (especially during disaster relief) by studying the cultural impact on psychology BEFORE imposing treatments we have come to use.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2010 21:23
|
|
|
I just finished reading Brave New World for the second time (first time in High School). Last time I read it, I didn't think too much of the ending conversation between the World Controller and John, but I thoroughly enjoyed it this time. It really put into perspective the argument of social stability vs. happiness.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2010 21:24
|
|
|
Going into February, here's my list from January: Chain of Attack and The Final Nexus, by Gene DeWeese A re-read of the two best Star Trek novels I've ever read. Chain of Attack begins with the Enterprise investigating gravitational anomalies and getting hurled halfway across the universe to a war ravaged region of space where as soon as a planet makes contact with another they get attacked and war ensues until one is destroyed and the other waits until another race comes on the scene and they attack, keeping the cycle of violence repeating. The Enterprise tries to help stop the chain, while trying to find a way back home. The Final Nexus continues the story of the "gates", delving deeper into the how and whys of the intergalactic transportation network. That network is old and breaking down, jeopardizing most of the universe and the Enterprise has to find a way to destroy it. These two are less "Trek" and just plain fun science fiction stories that don't really need to be set in the Star Trek universe to work. Kabumpo in Oz, The Cowardly Lion of Oz, by Ruth Plumly Thompson More Oz (ozbiously), these are the 16th and 17th in the series, and the first and second entirely credited to Thompson. Kabumpo tells the story of the prince of Pumperdink's journey and adventures in his quest to find a proper princess to marry and thus save his kingdom. The Cowardly Lion relates the tale of how the Lion decided to devour a brave man to gain his courage. During this quest the Lion is hunted by the agents of a wicked king who wants a thousandth lion for his menagerie. Of course, everything turns out fine at the end of both books. Thompson seems to be continuing the series in the spirit of Baum, and the stories are still entertaining. Jailbird, and God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, by Kurt Vonnegut Jailbird is about a man recently released from prison for having had a small part in the Watergate scandal. The novel is an indictment of corporate America and the anti-communist paranoia of the 1950's, and discusses the labor movement. Rosewater is an even stronger rant about the unfairness of socioeconomic inequality in America. The story relates the philanthropic efforts of Eliot Rosewater, in charge of the Rosewater foundation as he does what he can for the people of a small Indiana town. For trying to help the poor and dejected, a lawyer tries to get him declared insane so the control of the foundation will be passed to a distant relative. An excellent commentary on some of the absurdities of capitalism. The Red Tree, by Caitlin R. Kiernan Kiernan's best novel yet about a writer living near an old tree. More subtle than her earlier stuff. Definitely worth reading if you like weird and creepy.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2010 22:19
|
|
|
Cross posting from the Fagoon thread: I just burned through David Levithan's Boy Meets Boy in 2 days and loved the hell out of it. I cried at the end! It's a really adorable and outrageously romantic young-adult novel about gay teens at a high school somewhere in America. The twist is the town is pretty much this fantasy land where homosexuality is accepted and celebrated. At least half the characters are gay or lesbian, and one of the best minor characters is Infinite Darlene, a drag queen who is both the football team's lead quarterback, and the homecoming queen. It's a short but sweet read, by the dude who wrote Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and I highly recommend it if you want to increase the  in your life.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2010 01:42
|
|
|
I just finished A Portrait of the Artists as a Young Man by James Joyce. Parts of it dragged for me, but overall I enjoyed it quite a lot. The one part that completely held my attention was that 4-5 page spiel about Hell. That scared the poo poo out of me. And not jumpy-House-of-Leaves-bump-in-the-night scary, but legit scared to my core. Thank god I'm agnostic or something and don't believe in that, phew. I also enjoyed a lot of the conversations Stephen had towards the end of the novel. As someone who has not read a lot of ancient greek and philosophy stuff, I thought they were pretty cool. Glad I read it though, so when I try to read Ulysses again I have a better idea of Joyce's writing style.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2010 06:11
|
|
|
robotsinmyhead posted:Almost embarrassingly, I didn't quite finish American Psycho when I read it. About 85% through, the book deteriorates into a nearly endless string of murder/torture scenes and gets really hard to read. you missed some great internal monologues that happen near the end of the book IM_DA_DECIDER posted:I once asked a bookstore clerk if they had the book and she was horrified and so was my date and I felt like a terrible weirdo. Gonna buy it on Amazon one day. it's people like this, with ignorant preconceived notions of the book, that deter it from ever being recognized as one of the best novels of the 90s...or really modern american literature.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2010 08:06
|
|
|
I've been slacking off a bit - my last post in this thread was more than 2 months ago. Since then, I've finished a few things. Apologies for the  2666, by Roberto Bolaño was just as strange, poetic, and confronting as I expected. I liked the fact that the five parts of the novel were only loosely connected to each other, and I enjoyed the dialogue and underlying sense of absurdity. I feel a little exhausted even thinking about it, though, so I won't say too much here. I'll try to contribute to the '2666 Spring' thread. Recommended to anyone who likes big postmodern novels (or anyone who likes novels, really). QVT posted:I gave up on Augie March ... so bad ... gently caress you Bellow I read Faulkner's As I Lay Dying for a book group, which is good because I felt a lot of it went over my head, and I'll need to talk about it before I can feel like I've really finished it. I liked the use of multiple narrators and colloquial speech, and the images of the South he presented felt genuine, but there were a few chapters where I had no more than a superficial understanding of what was going on. I remember someone saying the same thing a few pages back, has anyone come across a good guide? Beyond Einstein, by Michio Kaku and Jennifer Thompson, was a fairly mediocre introduction to string theory. Kaku is or was a leading string theorist (Thompson is the ghostwriting journalist), and although his summary of the theories preceding string theory are useful and clear, when he gets around to talking about strings he turns into a bit of a cheerleader, and gives frustratingly little detail about the theory. The chapter I enjoyed most was about the practical implications of higher-dimensional physics, taking Stephen Hawking's Flatlanders as a starting point and using the analogy of the difference between two– and three-dimensional space to explain how higher-dimensional objects might manifest themselves in our universe. The final downside to the book is that it was published in 1987, and has only been revised once, in 1995, so the physics is probably a bit out of date by now. Although it has interesting sections, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone curious about string theory but would instead suggest something more recent such as The Elegant Universe. Season of Migration to the North, by Tayeb Salih is a short (140pp) Arabic novel I picked up after reading a review in Harper's. Again, I felt that I missed the literary references (apart from the obvious ones to Othello and Heart of Darkness), but I enjoyed the story and the African perspective on post-colonialism. The English translation is pretty good, as it seems to have retained an Arabic musicality, although I can't be sure as I haven't read any Arabic novels before. The description of village life on the Nile is beautifully pastoral, but at the same time it is surprisingly explicit in its portrayal of sex and violence, especially given that it was published in the Sudan during the 1960s. It was translated to English pretty soon after it was published, but the edition I read was a new NYRB edition with a useful introduction by Laila Lalami. I'd recommend it to anyone curious about Arabic writing - it was chosen by a panel of writers and editors as the most important Arab novel of the 20th century.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2010 09:42
|
|
|
something_clever posted:Altered Carbon is supposedly the best of the series. I couldn't even finish Broken Angels despite only having 30 pages to go. I never bothered picking the 3rd book in the series (Woken Furies?). Broken Angels is also filled with embarrassing sex scenes, but has none of the charm or inventiveness of Altered Carbon, and the whole detective/noir angle I appreciated in the first book was left out in the second. Broken Angels is pretty much just Rambo in space who fucks all the hot mercenary chicks and kills everybody else. Just finished Broken Angels and I agree totally. It started off well and had some potentially interesting ideas but started going downhill about a quarter of the way in and just became laughably bad towards the end. I did finish it but found it annoying the way the author just kept changing the rules and introducing new stuff as a mechanism for Kovacs to get out of progressively more dangerous (and stupid) situations. Remember now why I haven't read any new sci-fi for years, tough going from the likes of PKD to stuff like this or use the concept of the "singularity" as a lazy ending. Might have missed something but what was the deal with Kovacs and smoking? I don't really care if characters smoke but in both book he has Kovacs smoking, gives up, smoking, giving up pretty much randomly the whole way through the book.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2010 23:32
|
|
|
vivisectvnv posted:it's people like this, with ignorant preconceived notions of the book, that deter it from ever being recognized as one of the best novels of the 90s...or really modern american literature. I can't improve on them, so I'll just quote DFW's comments from here: quote:I think it’s a kind of black cynicism about today’s world that Ellis and certain others depend on for their readership. Look, if the contemporary condition is hopelessly lovely, insipid, materialistic, emotionally retarded, sadomasochistic, and stupid, then I (or any writer) can get away with slapping together stories with characters who are stupid, vapid, emotionally retarded, which is easy, because these sorts of characters require no development. With descriptions that are simply lists of brand-name consumer products. Where stupid people say insipid stuff to each other. If what’s always distinguished bad writing—flat characters, a narrative world that’s cliched and not recognizably human, etc.—is also a description of today’s world, then bad writing becomes an ingenious mimesis of a bad world. If readers simply believe the world is stupid and shallow and mean, then Ellis can write a mean shallow stupid novel that becomes a mordant deadpan commentary on the badness of everything. Look man, we’d probably most of us agree that these are dark times, and stupid ones, but do we need fiction that does nothing but dramatize how dark and stupid everything is? In dark times, the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what’s human and magical that still live and glow despite the times’ darkness. Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it’d find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it. You can defend "Psycho" as being a sort of performative digest of late-eighties social problems, but it’s no more than that.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2010 05:02
|
|
|
Time for a look at January: The year started with Bertolt Brecht's Die Dreigroschenoper (The Three-Penny Opera), a commentary on the social situation in Germany in the 1920s/1930s. I like Brecht's style, the crude language, the dark humour but I hated the guts out of Mackie Messer for being a stupid, arrogant prick. Next was Plato's Symposium (annotated German translation), a book I thoroughly enjoyed. The story framework was fun and Aristotle's dialogue served as a really good introduction to Plato's work, I think. Third one was A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man by Joyce, which was overall a great read. Some of Stephen's musings dragged on a little too long for my taste but in the end it was well worth it. The last book I started in January (and actually finished on 1st February) was Erich Maria Remarque's Im Westen Nichts Neues (All Quiet On The Western Front) and, drat, this is a really strong book. The crushed lives and souls of these boys, the total absence of hope in the trenches, the incredibly moving passage where the protagonist is on leave at home and can't connect with anyone anymore... really depressing poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2010 12:38
|
|
|
Just finished The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave. I have always been a fan of his music and was pleasantly surprised by how good the book was. It is pretty twisted (the protagonist is constantly going on about Avril Lavigne's vagina) but I like that. I may have to go and read his other stuff now.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2010 22:53
|
|
|
Finished Crying of Lot 49. I liked it, I think it was let down by Pynchon's actual writing. He has a lot of stylistic ticks that I don't tend to enjoy. There are some good ones, too, and it's a compelling novel. The characters don't feel all too individually voiced (more on that in Case Histories) outside of Oedpia and Metzger. Metzger was really interesting and I was sad to see him take off (Humbert Humbert style!) so early in the book. Feel like I kinda missed out on reading this book when it was meant to be read. Nobody uses mail anymore. Recommended with a couple reservations, especially if you're interested in the 60s. Bailed halfway into Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. If you gave me a paragraph of this and asked me for a demographic, I could tell you it was written by a white middle class Englishwoman. I read this because I was interested in seeing how someone would pull off a "literary" detective story. Very badly is the answer. Atkinson hasn't got an ounce of talent. The characters all speak and think essentially the same. The content is different, but she can't manage to pull her own voice out of them. We get unforgivable asides on television channels and religion and all kinds of other boring poo poo. Avoid. Read Chandler, it's more literary than this. Case Histories was my break between Crying and Pale Fire. I'm incredibly excited to read Pale Fire.
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2010 06:54
|
|
|
Phisty posted:Just finished The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave. I have always been a fan of his music and was pleasantly surprised by how good the book was. It is pretty twisted (the protagonist is constantly going on about Avril Lavigne's vagina) but I like that. Please, read And The rear end Saw The Angel. That is really mindblowing, or was at least to me plus it's more in line with Cave's lyrics pre-Murder Ballads. It's a bit heavy to read and you might want you old testament and Faulkner/other Southern author present, but it's a great read!
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2010 13:04
|
|
|
I just finished "The post-American World". Great book, lotsa information about world economics and politics that I did not know before. Anyone else read this?
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2010 19:52
|
|
|
After taking a week to read Angels and Demons, I finished The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol over three days. I really enjoyed them, but a certain sense of suspended disbelief has to be in place.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2010 00:09
|
|
|
Finished up The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. I hadn't read any of his books before (I know!) so I didn't really know what to expect. Turns out he's a cross between Douglas Adams and Pratchett. Yes, I realize he predates both of those authors. Quite enjoyable anyway, I picked up Slaughterhouse 5 and Cat's Cradle since I've heard positive things about those as well. Coronet XX posted:After taking a week to read Angels and Demons, I finished The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol over three days. I really enjoyed them, but a certain sense of suspended disbelief has to be in place. Give Umberto Eco or Arturo Perez-Reverte a shot for similar themes, and far superior writing.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2010 00:31
|
|
|
I just finished the unabridged recording of Daemon by Daniel Suarez, read by Jeff Gurner. The narrator's voice really put me off at first but as the story developed it was quite appropriate. The various voices, both human and vocoder were well done. There was a lot of whining on Amazon about the crappy conclusion but I thought the ending was awesome. I am going right to the sequel.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2010 00:48
|
|
|
PBCrunch posted:I just finished the unabridged recording of Daemon by Daniel Suarez, read by Jeff Gurner. Hey, I just finished Pirate Latitudes by Michael Criton, and picked this up for my new Kindle DX. So far, it seems really good.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2010 06:08
|
|
|
I just finished The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. gently caress. I thought that ASoIaF was depressing sometimes. I really liked the characters and the world, but, poo poo, if you like feel good stories stay away. Has some pretty awesome fight scenes, though.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2010 18:33
|
|
|
Treemeister posted:if you like feel good stories stay away The only decent fantasy written in the past twenty years or more has been the darker tough stuff anyway.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2010 10:59
|
|
|
I just finished The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. I was fairly pleased with the way things turned out with the new author, and it's nice that the series is actually going to end fairly soon. Now I just have to find a new book to occupy myself with.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2010 00:00
|
|
|
PBCrunch posted:I just finished the unabridged recording of Daemon by Daniel Suarez, read by Jeff Gurner. That's exactly what I said about Jeff Gurner when I posted here You'll love Freedom. I need to get off my rear end and update my read list here. In the meantime, I've read Freedom by Daniel Suarez, All creatures great and small by James Herriot, The Search by John Battelle, The wisdom of crowds by James Surowiecki and Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2010 03:25
|
|
|
I just finished The Great Gatsby. Can't believe I managed to miss it in college. Quite a page turner. I ended up feeling like the romance between Nick and Jordan was the focus of the story. Or maybe not the focus, but rather the romance you were supposed to look at and think "maybe love isn't all that bad?" by the way, I really liked the length of this book. I ended up reading it over a few days, but it could have been a one sitting deal. Pickwick fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Feb 7, 2010 |
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2010 05:01
|
|
|
Dune by Frank Herbert. One of the quintessential science fiction novels, and it lives up to the billing. The world building, the plot, the characterization, all well crafted and very compelling. Required reading for SF fans. I'll be continuing to book two, Dune Messiah.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2010 22:31
|
|
|
urbancontra posted:I'll be continuing to book two, Dune Messiah. I hope you'll come back with impressions of Messiah. Reviews seem to be all over the map, with some taking the position that Messiah is effectively the "ending" of Dune and others describing it as fairly different in style and substance from the first book.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2010 22:53
|
|
|
I just finished listening to Freedom TM by Daniel Suarez. This was the sequel to Daemon. I really enjoyed this book, though it did have several "jump the shark" moments. The narration by Jeff Gurner was terrific. I thought I had heard his voice before, and it turns out he has done a lot of video game narration work, which just makes his involvement with this story even better. I am about forty pages from finishing Accelerando by Charles Stross. This book was very very strange and I do not recommend it to others. I will give Charlie Stross one more chance. I found this book to be kind of similar to Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge (also the only Vernor Vinge book I have read) which is no surprise since both stories are driven by technology that is nowhere near existence that has taken the human race to nearly unimaginable scenarios.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2010 20:12
|
|
|
Sleepless by Charlie Huston The European cover is quite cool. Up close you can't really see anything, you just see a lot of black dots and it's really uncomfortable to look at. Once you get some distance between yourself and the cover though, you see this:  Other than that I did like the novel as well. Pre-apocalyptic, pandemic virus that renders people unable to sleep, internet gaming, gold farming and drugs in LA. Next I am thinking about checking out Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2010 15:33
|
|
|
PBCrunch posted:I just finished listening to Freedom TM by Daniel Suarez. This was the sequel to Daemon. I really enjoyed this book, though it did have several "jump the shark" moments. The narration by Jeff Gurner was terrific. I thought I had heard his voice before, and it turns out he has done a lot of video game narration work, which just makes his involvement with this story even better. Where did the book jump the shark? It was so 'B-Movie' that I find it impossible for it to do so?
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2010 22:43
|
|
|
The General posted:Where did the book jump the shark? It was so 'B-Movie' that I find it impossible for it to do so? I guess the shark jumped in Daemon right about when the ninja-blade motorcycles showed up. I went through both books with no gap in between so I got kind of lost continuity-wise. Even still I have recommended this book to everyone I know that likes reading, action movies, video games, computers, or any combination thereof. Also, in Daemon was it ever explained how Detective Sebeck was brought back to life? It was completely b-movie awesome though. I haven't enjoyed a recent SF novel in the same way since the first time I read Snow Crash almost ten years ago. Autonomous ninja-bladed motorcycles with runes all over them! Fuckin awesome!
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2010 00:27
|
|
|
PBCrunch posted:Also, in Daemon was it ever explained how Detective Sebeck was brought back to life? No, but I just assumed that the person who set up the death drugs worked for the deamon and put in some coma inducing drug instead of the killer ones. Once transported to the morgue ChunkyMonkey would have put in the drug to wake him up. The Automates and Razorbacks are awesome. More stories need Razorbacks. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2010 01:19
|
|
|
Finished up "Dynasty of Evil" (new Darth Bane Star Wars book) tonight. It was... interesting. Thinking of trying to get back into Daemon tomorrow though. I ended up stopped reading around the first BUKKAKE party. No real reason, just loving came out of nowhere and seemed odd. Decided to read some CSU books instead. Loves me a good murder mystery!
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2010 07:54
|
|
|
Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Thinking of trying to get back into Daemon tomorrow though. I ended up stopped reading around the first BUKKAKE party. No real reason, just loving came out of nowhere and seemed odd. Decided to read some CSU books instead. There's only one of those, and after reading the whole book, it fits right in. Though there is nothing more hilarious than Jeff Gurner reading "Teen Lolita takes horse cock!"
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2010 12:20
|
|
|
Folderol posted:I hope you'll come back with impressions of [Dune] Messiah. Reviews seem to be all over the map, with some taking the position that Messiah is effectively the "ending" of Dune and others describing it as fairly different in style and substance from the first book. I finished it tonight! I can definitely see how people who loved the first book may not like Dune Messiah. There's so much to love about Dune: the strong characters, the epic revolution and transformation of Paul, the visionary universe with complex interrelated politics, economics, and ecology. Most of that is missing from Messiah, but it does retain the political intrigue of the first novel. I felt like the plot was fairly tight, but with a couple deus ex machina-type turns near the end. (Why does Alia fall in love with Duncan all of a sudden? How does Hayt, out of nowhere, overcome his preconditioning and somehow recall Duncan's personality and memories? These are fairly important plot points but they aren't built up to at all.) Wikipedia says Messiah was serialized, and it kind of shows. It doesn't have the grand flow of a novel. To me, it read much like a play that would be very difficult to perform because of all the internal monologue and description of intangible, extra sensory concepts. I don't know if I would say that it's the "end" of Dune, maybe just the end of an era. The series is, after all, about Dune and not Paul. I'll probably have to make that call after I finish a few more in the series, though. All in all, I feel pretty much the same way that most people I've talked to feel: Dune Messiah was okay, but not as good as the first one. To its credit, it's really hard to compete with one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time. I certainly wasn't disappointed with it. It kept me engaged in the Dune universe by expounding upon a few subjects we'd already heard about while introducing others, and it made me realize that I'm really into the politics of fictional universes by continuing with the intrigue that made the first novel so gripping. I'll be continuing on with Children of Dune.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2010 08:19
|
|
|
Finished The Painted Veil, by Somerset Maugham, last night. It's a quick book, finishes in just a couple of sessions, but the story and characters are fully and richly developed. Maugham uses a sort of minimalist approach to writing. Maybe that's not the right word. It's not bloated or in need of editing, every word and phrase has its place and it works really well. Very vivid, sad, sort of uplifting read. I'll have to continue on and read some more of his books, seems to be a fantastic author.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2010 17:15
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 17, 2024 22:59 |
|
|
I haven't read a science fiction book outside of light SF authors like Vonnegut or Phil Dick since high school, and picked up Ringworld at the recommendation of a friend. It was probably the worst book I've read in the past five years, and only stuck with it because the premise and description of technology are rather interesting. The characters are one-dimensional caricatures (complete with sexist views of women), the plot absolutely peters off in the second-half of the book, and the writing itself is convoluted and rather confusing, especially given the subject matter. I did stick with it, mainly because I don't like leaving a book unfinished, but I enjoyed browsing Wikipedia articles for the series more than actually reading the book. Next up is The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, of which I've read excerpts, so I at least know what I'm getting into. NicelyNice fucked around with this message at 05:29 on Feb 13, 2010 |
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2010 05:10
|
|
