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frenchnewwave posted:Is it a sci fi story? I'm wondering if you meant jumping around time and space in a sci fi Doctor Who kind of way, or telling a story in non linear fashion. It is sci-fi. Part of the story takes place on Earth, another part on another planet, and a 3rd part on a spaceship traveling between the two at relativistic speed. She manages to juggle those three timelines moving through time at different speeds in a way that makes sense for the reader.
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Dec 26, 2012 16:20
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Just finished Dodger and Hogfather, both by Terry Pratchett. Really liked how Dodger had a bunch of historical tie-ins/references.
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Dec 26, 2012 22:59
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Sacrilage posted:Also, another I finished last month was In Her Name. The first half of the trilogy is a very good "child growing up amongst aliens" story. The rest wasn't too shabby either, so definitely worth a read. This sounds interesting but it could not possibly have been published in a more confusing way. There are apparently three trilogies called In Her Name by Michael R Hicks, each with a different subtitle and also released as an omnibus edition; In Her Name: The Last War (consisting of First Contact, Legend of the Sword, and Dead Soul) is the first one. In Her Name: Redemption - which, from the jacket description, is probably what you just finished - follows that and consists of Empire, Confederation, and Final Battle. And then there's In Her Name: The First Empress, consisting of From Chaos Born, Forged in Flame, and Mistress of the Ages, which from the description sounds like it might be a prequel to The Last War and is not yet finished. Apparently you're meant to start with The Last War. I think. 
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Dec 27, 2012 03:17
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Read through all of K.A. Applegate's Everworld series for the hell of it, and about to finish The Book of Dead Days (Marcus Sedgwick), The Ruins (Scott Smith), and The Four Archetypes (Carl Jung). A really good book I finished a couple months back is The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. Definitely one that deserves a mention here.
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Dec 28, 2012 06:32
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[quote A really good book I finished a couple months back is The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. Definitely one that deserves a mention here. [/quote] I always forget about this book but its probably in my top 5. Really touching and well written.
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Dec 28, 2012 13:21
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Fabian Essays in Socialism (1889) - The Fabian Society Enquiry proves that Socialism is founded upon a triple rock, historical, ethical and economic. It gives, to those who make it, a great hope - a hope which, once it finds entrance into the heart of man, stays in to soften life and sweeten death. Socialism is one of those myriad movements of which everyone in the world has heard repeatedly and yet most never really understand in even the smallest way. So, it was with interest that I began this book; eight essays by seven different authors, among them such soon to be luminaries as Sidney Webb and George Bernard Shaw. Surely, after this, socialism will be easy to explicate. And it certainly is; socialism, it seems, is communism with all the bite taken out. It is, equal with communism, a brilliant theory that fails to work at all in practice. Again and again through this book, the drum is beaten to indicate that socialism is on the horizon. Thus it is of interest to read the new forwards to each new edition; George Bernard Shaw has the last word, writing a forward for the sixtieth anniversary edition of the book. He’s well over ninety and he seems just as passionate about socialism, if less idealistic and somewhat cynical and chagrined, more to the pity. The great revolution never really happened, as we can all attest. Capitalism still reigns supreme on the world market. Certainly capitalism comes in for its fair share of lumps, all of them very much deserved. But would socialism truly work better? The book fails to convince me. At bottom, it’s a philosophical break; to my way of thinking, every economic structure tried has failed to create utopia. It has rarely been the structure’s fault; the simple fact is that human nature tends toward greed, venality, corruption. Communism would work, as would socialism, as would capitalism, as would all models, if only men were angels and not men. But we are men; we are not angels. Thus all the flaws, the exploitations, the injustices, that are found in capitalism would certainly equally apply under socialism, a fact Shaw reluctantly begins to own up to in his final forward. It’s an oddity, really. On the one hand, there is deep cynicism: the Fabian society believes that capitalism is corrupt through and through and that nothing can restore dignity to mankind but a complete scrapping of all this industry and the building of an entirely new model. Thus, the perspective of the Fabians is quite a dark one, quite a bleak one. However, when talking of socialism, the new model, things take a turn into the relentlessly sunny and cheery; the Fabians begin to believe that all men are basically philanthropists, that no one is lazy, that no one is greedy, that socialism could never be corrupted because mankind will rise to the occasion. One tries to think of a time when mankind rose to the occasion. One is baffled and a little sad. Thus the deep schizophrenia of the book can be summed up quite easily. Capitalism has failed because man corrupted it. Socialism will stand because man will choose not to corrupt it. At once, man is the villain and the savior, the devil and the messiah. Quite a moving proposition; quite a utopia to live in. Quite a castle in the air. 2 ½ out of 5 stars.
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Dec 28, 2012 19:56
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Just finished Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. That book is ten types of crazy. His style was not something that I got used to, since it was so chalk full of incredible stuff.
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Dec 28, 2012 20:53
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Finished The Roman Hat Mystery, both by and starring Ellery Queen. It was functional. Clues were presented during the story, and ultimately a culprit was revealed. I didn't guess the killer's identity, and some bits of the logic still don't quite make sense to me (How did Barry slip into the audience, murder Fields, then slip back over the course of ten minutes when he was playing the main drat character of the play?), but that may be on my end, not Queen's. My main objection is that it lacked the charm I've grown accustomed to from reading Agatha Christie's stuff. The characters were too disconnected, the motivations too detached, the setting too large. It wasn't personal. I'm taking a break from this genre, but I'll be sticking with Christie when I return. For now, I'm starting off my 52 book challenge with either Endymion or Couch.
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Dec 28, 2012 22:25
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Just read World War Z by Max Brooks - pretty darn good and I'm just about sick of zombies by now. I've also been listening to the audio book... yes it has some big names reading but god some of the accents are almost rascist. Curious about the movie considering the novel is written as a series of interviews and clearly the movie will not be similar in delivery method. I see RebBrownies just read Blood Meridian, I think that is my next one.
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Dec 29, 2012 16:55
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hollylolly posted:I just read the Wool omnibus by Hugh Howey, and it was really, really good. I also just finished reading this and I must say it was very good. My wife enjoyed it as well, and we usually have slightly different tastes in literature. I recommend it highly.
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Dec 29, 2012 20:01
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I recently finished Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut. I mistakenly picked up an abridged copy of Les Miserables (Still around 800 pages) which is a shame, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. This one took me awhile, I took a break in between parts a couple times to read other books. It got kind of bogged down in the middle but the last part was awesome. Book had a lot of fantastic characters in it. I've been on a Vonnegut kick recently and I had Deadeye Dick recommended to me. It was good, but probably not one of my favorite Vonnegut books. It didn't really come together in the end, and the ending itself was particularly unsatisfying. However, there were a few good segments in it, and I really liked the parts where Rudy described his life like it was a play.
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Dec 29, 2012 20:16
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A Game of Bones: An Epic Erotic Fantasy Parody The interweaving plot of court intrigue mixed with high-art sexual-romantic-thriller undertones makes this the breakout novel of 2012. From beginning to end readers will be enthralled with the adventures of such rich and powerful characters that one is lead to believe they are a fly on the wall as John Waters and Cormac McCarthy discuss literature and cinema in the 21st century. A Game of Bones, the tour-de-force by the up and coming new star T.B. Thread is sure to please and I can't recommend it enough, and would go so far as to call it my 2012 Book of the Year.
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Dec 29, 2012 23:50
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I just finished "The Complete Brigadier Gerard" by Arthur Conan Doyle. If you liked George Macdonald Fraser and Patrick O'brian, I highly recommend it.
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Dec 30, 2012 08:45
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Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut. I picked this up at random from the library with no prior context other than having enjoyed Vonnegut a lot in the past. Nobody seems to talk about this book but it was fantastic other than a slightly slow start - everything from page 50 or so onward is brilliant. It's a faux-autobiography by a fictitious contemporary of Jackson Pollock and the like, acting both as a critique of modern art (as Vonnegut states in the foreward) and as a sort of how-to manual for aspiring artists. I really enjoyed this one. He does two storylines at once, with the "author" rambling back and forth between his life story and the antics that are unfolding as he writes the book. The ending is extremely satisfying: early in the book he sets the mystery of what he's hiding in the potato barn and it pays off in a huge way at the end. The ending of the book is the happiest ending I've ever read yet is not even a little sappy.. I highly recommend this seemingly lesser known Vonnegut book to any fans of his.
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Dec 31, 2012 02:38
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I just finished Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strand and goddamn, it should be required reading for anyone in their twenties (and before, or after, but I think it'll resonate the most with people in that phase of their lives). Basically it's a selection of advice columns from an online site she used to write for, although the twist on that format is that Strand usually weaves in experiences from her own life (many of them painful, wonderful, or some combination of the two). It's very well-written and full of sage advice; definitely something I'll be going back and re-reading, recommending to friends, etc. Really, I highly recommend this book to pretty much anyone. wlokos posted:Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut. You really can't go wrong with any of Vonnegut's lesser-known stuff, and like you, it kind of surprises me that so much of it isn't really talked about. Mother Night, Deadeye Dick, hell I even liked Timequake when I read it, which I know puts me in the minority. Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 07:31 on Jan 1, 2013 |
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Jan 1, 2013 07:20
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I finished House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski last night. I enjoyed it thoroughly even though I found the beginning far more scary than the end.
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Jan 3, 2013 23:17
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Blood Song by Anthony Ryan. Based off a goon recommendation I bought this book cheap for kindle about a week ago. I like to think of it as diet GRRM. Good (but not great) world building, interesting characters, great action sequences, intrigue, and some twists thrown in for good measure. After being a bit let down by some older fantasy novels recently this one cleared my palette. It's supposed to be part of a trilogy and the author recently quit his daytime job to focus solely on writing so my hopes are high that the trilogy will be finished in a reasonable amount of time and will just get better as it progresses. Also finished three short novels by the same author (The Slab City Novels), and the first two were free on the authors website with the most recent (and polished) being only 99 cents for Kindle. The first two had some pretty shoddy editing but were enjoyable and the main character reminds me a bit of Decker from Blade Runner.
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Jan 4, 2013 05:32
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Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson It was very good. Very unique "magic" system. It also has a very interesting fantasy setting, not really high fantasy, I find it hard to describe. Anyways I highly recommend the book. It is a trilogy also and one of my co-workers says the books get better and not worse which is rare for any trilogy, so we'll see.
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Jan 4, 2013 06:23
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The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. It took me quite a few pages to get used to his style, but once I did I really felt like I was inside the protagonist's head. Post-apocalyptic fiction is one of my favorite genres so I've read quite a few books in that setting, but somehow this was very different from anything I've read before. I have the feeling that it's exactly because I was in the mind of the protagonist, which let the book focus more on memories and relationships rather than pure survival. It's set some 10 years after a flu wipes out the population (of the continent/world), so you have a nice mix of old and new worlds.
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Jan 4, 2013 13:48
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elbow posted:The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. How many pages? I wanted to like this, but set it down after about 50 and promptly forgot about it (and Earth Abides is one of my favorite books, period).
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Jan 4, 2013 14:37
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funkybottoms posted:(and Earth Abides is one of my favorite books, period). I love this book. One of my favourites too.
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Jan 4, 2013 16:51
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Spies: The Secret Agents Who Changed The Course of History by Ernest Volkman. In short: needed less quantity and more quality. It discusses 45 spies, which in a 300 page book doesn't give a lot of room per spy; I feel it would have greatly benefited from being cut down to, say, 10-15 spies and then examining each one in greater depth. The writing also wasn't up to the standard set by Aquarium or Blind Man's Bluff; not technically inept, just, well, boring. And overly fond of superlatives. This book is best used, I think, as a jumping-off point for saying "oh, that sounds interesting" and then looking up other, better books on (say) CIA operations in Vatican City during the Cold War. For now, though, I'm going to set aside nonfiction and read C.S. Friedman's Magister trilogy, since she finished it while I was thesising and I always like her books.
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Jan 4, 2013 16:52
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funkybottoms posted:How many pages? I wanted to like this, but set it down after about 50 and promptly forgot about it (and Earth Abides is one of my favorite books, period). Probably around a quarter of the way into the book, which is also about how long it takes for the story to get going. I'd give it another few pages if I were you, but if you really can't get into it then it's probably a waste of your time.
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Jan 5, 2013 00:23
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 Our Gleaming Bones Unrobed by Grant Loveys Sometimes poetry gets dense, but this is totally different. This is a whole bunch of clear, concise, super-sharp images all tied up in poems that read like miniature short stories. Kinda heartbreaking and kinda life-affirming at the same time. Really, really good stuff. I can't stop thinking about it. It's published by a small press, so it might be hard to find, but it's definitely worth a look. There's an excerpt on the publisher's website if you're curious: http://www.ecwpress.com/books/our-gleaming-bones-unrobed
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Jan 5, 2013 02:08
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I just finished Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson. For the most part it was a good book but Thompson's writing style goes from cool and edgy at first to boring and repetitive halfway through the book. Cool forum!
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Jan 5, 2013 09:32
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I just finished Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. There is a lot of boring dialogue; A lot of talking heads going back and forth. Ender has a weird relationship with his sister. The story culminates to an anticlimax. I felt like the characters were really one dimensional. Ender seems like a mary sue character to me in that he can never fail; he's this super awesome genius kid that always wins and stays that way throughout the whole book. I always hear this as a must read science fiction book but I don't understand why. It was childish, but written with diction and themes that were likely aimed at older readers. That said, I still enjoyed reading it. The action scenes were engaging. The story seemed like it was going to go somewhere, and only until the last quarter of it did I start to feel disappointed. Banjo Bones fucked around with this message at 09:37 on Jan 5, 2013 |
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Jan 5, 2013 09:33
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If you didn't think too highly of Ender's Game, then I strongly recommend you stay away from the rest of the series. I personally enjoyed Ender's Game, but it was all down hill from there. I recently finished the third book in Chris Wooding's series "The Tales of the Ketty Jay" It's a reasonably simple read, and I found the characters quite endearing. In some ways it reminds me of Firefly. Good stuff.
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Jan 5, 2013 10:02
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Just finished all of The Strain Trilogy written by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. It's...Ok. It has these fantastic flourishes that feel like Del Toro, with this mix of mysticism and science and the origin of the 'Ancient Ones' was actually pretty great. I'm a sucker for anything that takes a break from the narrative to tell these little vignettes and those are peppered all the way through here. The characters are generally well drawn though except for a main character who, by the third book, is rendered utterly unlikeable despite how much they try and pile on the sympathy.
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Jan 5, 2013 14:17
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DrVenkman posted:Just finished all of The Strain Trilogy written by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. It's...Ok. It has these fantastic flourishes that feel like Del Toro, with this mix of mysticism and science and the origin of the 'Ancient Ones' was actually pretty great. I'm a sucker for anything that takes a break from the narrative to tell these little vignettes and those are peppered all the way through here. The characters are generally well drawn though except for a main character who, by the third book, is rendered utterly unlikeable despite how much they try and pile on the sympathy. I sort of enjoyed the first book for offering a different take on vampires. The airplane scene was cool in the beginning. But I got bored with the second book and didnt bother with the third (I didn't even realize it had been released). I hate to sound cliché but I think they could be decent movies. I agree that, for books, the characters fell very flat.
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Jan 5, 2013 15:08
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bromplicated posted:I just finished Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Basically you have to read it as a nerdy 12-year-old because then it's an affirmation of "Yeah, gently caress adults! Kids can be supergeniuses too, and you can beat up all the bullies and save the day!  " Whether by design or by accident I don't know, but reading it as an adult just makes that too obvious to really be enjoyable, in my opinion. I loved it when I was a nerdy 12-year-old but trying to reread it as an adult, I had all the same problems you did.
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Jan 5, 2013 15:55
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Socal Sapper posted:I just finished Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson. For the most part it was a good book but Thompson's writing style goes from cool and edgy at first to boring and repetitive halfway through the book. If you think that's boring and repetitive, try reading anything he wrote after 1980 when all he had left was his gonzo gimmick.
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Jan 5, 2013 18:52
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I read Fear and Loathing in America Vol. II, and I must say his correspondence made for [a] very interesting read. At that point, late 60s, early 70s, he still seemed to possess a lot of intelligence and zeal.
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Jan 5, 2013 20:42
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Just finished The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. Really enjoyed it, but I might be a bit biased because I'm kind of a sucker for those styles of books. Starts a bit slow, but it gets much better as it progresses.
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Jan 6, 2013 03:05
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Also just finished the Wool omnibus. What I liked about it was how it dealt with the big secret of the novel, i.e it told the reader straight away what it was, and then built up tension by revealing how the characters find out about it. I like this far better than the 'keep the reader in the dark' method where you find out at the end along with the characters - a la Brandon Sanderson.
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Jan 6, 2013 06:22
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DrVenkman posted:Just finished all of The Strain Trilogy written by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. It's...Ok. I read the first one last year and I thought the main character (I can't even rememmber his name) was a horrible self important prick before a hundred pages so I'd hate so see how annoying he gets by book three. The Jewish Van Helsing character was likeable but the bit at the end with badly timed stroke that let's the bad guy get away but as soon as he's gone "no worries I'm better" was one of the worst instances of writing themselves out of a corner I've read. Anyway I'm about half into House of Leaves and I'm having a hard time getting into it. I like a lot about it but can't really read it for longer than 30 odd pages before my mind wanders. Krypt-OOO-Nite!! fucked around with this message at 17:23 on Jan 6, 2013 |
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Jan 6, 2013 17:21
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Krypt-OOO-Nite!! posted:I read the first one last year and I thought the main character (I can't even rememmber his name) was a horrible self important prick before a hundred pages so I'd hate so see how annoying he gets by book three. That would be Ephraim Goodweather, Dr Ephraim Goodweather. The spoilered part did annoy me quite a bit but I found it intriguing enough to carry on. I still think it has some fantastic ideas in it, and ultimately I liked the ending of it. I didn't actually mind him in the first two books but the third one I found him largely insufferable, his kid too. It's clear that Del Toro/Hogan seemed more interested in the other characters and I will say that they happen to write great villains, particularly the human sympathisers.
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Jan 6, 2013 19:47
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I just couldn't get into this series, especially after such sparkling writing as: "The trailing edge flaps and the ailerons—the spoiler panels on the back sides of the wings— were all straight up like Paula Abdul, which is how pilots set them after runway touchdown." So much of this book contained way too much explanation, as well as... well, dubious writing...
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Jan 7, 2013 00:41
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tonytheshoes posted:I just couldn't get into this series, especially after such sparkling writing as: Especially as that's nonsense. You'd think if you were going to be overly descriptive, you'd make sure you weren't saying things that are factually incorrect.
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Jan 7, 2013 00:56
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In my quest to read more of the classics, I just finished Charlotte Bronte's Villette this morning. It took me a while, this is no light read! I understand why Jane Eyre is better known, Jane Eyre is far more palatable a read, this one requires a lot more attention and some rudimentary French or willingness to hit an online translator repeatedly. I'm still not sure what I think of it, the ending, had it occurred in a more modern novel, I would have called a lazy cheat, but given Charlotte Bronte's depression at the time of the book's publication (she had lost all her sibs at that point), I could definitely understand her not quite wanting to have it end tragically yet not having the heart to give it a happy ending either. This one is going to have to go into my reread pile and I'm going to need to find Spark Notes or equivalent to understand it fully.
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Jan 7, 2013 04:27
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Finished The Guns of August and The Time Traveller since December. The Time Traveller was not really that interesting unless that's the first book with time travel. I didn't really like how humanity had changed in the future, it was basically beautiful good people and ugly bad people. When the Time Traveller first travelled through time to this new Earth, I was curious to find out about this completely new Earth but nothing great happened. Not a great sci fi and not really great in terms of the social human evolution it offers. The Guns of August, on the other hand was brilliant, quite a large book only about the first month of the first world war. I knew nothing about the first world war going in and now I know why the conflict started, European Powers relationship's at the start of the 20th century and much more. None of it's fiction but the people in it are so interesting, to really know a general and his decisions you get some backstory about them, at times I just wikipedia'd them before a battle would happen hoping they didn't die there. Also since the story is told from both sides, it's unnerving with the lack of proper communication in those years, one report would claim a city has been taken, the other would say no attacks have been had. It's amazing how one communication error or General's hatred for another would turn tides and result in entire battles lost. Amazing book, this really made me want to read a bunch on that era. One complaint I had is that the battle that the book is building upto is just summarized. Felt really rushed that. Ulio fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Jan 7, 2013 |
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Jan 7, 2013 23:01
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