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Elyv posted:To be honest, other than manticore being space england in every way, haven being lead by the committee of public safety for some time, and incredibly tortured age of sail analogs that lead to things like crossing the t being a thing, I don't think the story maps all that well to the French Revolution and following events It was pretty clearly intended to at first, though. I mean Robert S. Pierre, come on now.
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Jun 14, 2016 18:44
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Throatwarbler posted:And then a large wave of Russians storm in from nowhere and beats everyone to a bloody pulp? They better not quote:Russia will be thrown out of Euro 2016 if their fans cause further trouble, says European governing body Uefa. e: 
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Jun 14, 2016 18:45
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Ensign Expendable posted:The hot thing in trashy Russian historical fiction is a hero from modern days who appear in the past and influence WWI, the revolution/Civil War, or WWII somehow. The genre is called popadantsy (those who ended up in something), while actual historians gave it the derogatory nickname vpopudantsy (those who let you put it in their butt). I've seen some trashy Russian sci-fi stuff on sale in newstands here... it's something. On the other hand, every Russian movie cover is a guy in telniashka with an AK and there's an explosion in the background. Buschmaki posted:mercenaries and k***hts That's some amazing censorship
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Jun 14, 2016 19:02
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Phanatic posted:The Guardians starts out great! Full scale exchange, a special ops unit has to get the President from the White House to the secret rebuild-the-nuked-US enclave in a small convoy of V-150 Super Commandoes, actually decent writing (by which I mean, a good command of the language, actually decent prose), it's Mad Max meets John Rambo. The series isn't *totally* ridiculous, at first. It does end up suffering from the bane of most serials, escalation - can't just be "whomping on random raiders/traitors/Euro invaders", it has to jack up to world-altering Heavy poo poo (or, alternately, The Guardians Are Traitors! and they've got to clear their names again). Where it comepletely shits the bed is #14, Death From Above (orbital And don't forget the Europe-based spinoff The Marauders, which started off absolutely unreadable and, uhm... I never tried to find anything after the first book, which I took back to the used book store as trade-fodder. (Useless trivia: "Richard Austin" was a pen-name for Victor Milan, writer of many schlocky skiffy/fantasy series. Thus, Albuquerque/southwest US fandom "starring" in #14.) (I very much suspect a real influence on The Guardians was The Morrow Project, a moderately-popular post-apocalyptic SF RPG with secret caches and Cadillac-Gage armored cars galore.) (For more fun trash/pulp "literature", you may wish to find Serial Vigilantes of Paperback Fiction: An Encyclopedia from Able Team to Z-Comm which will provide you with a wide pool of shallow, violent reading material to embarrass yourself being seen with.) For unrelated-to-the-post-but-on-topic content: I've read (and re-read) Anthony Burgess' WWII Airborne nonfiction for years - starting with Curahee!/As Eagles Scremed. What's the general opinion of his work: not so much "bullshit or not" but "how embroidered are they"?
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Jun 14, 2016 19:51
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Cyrano4747 posted:If you want to grog out? No. If you want to indulge in Reagan era Patriot masturbation yeah. Holy poo poo. Dude. I had never seen either of the Ringo threads, nor heard of these books. And now I have. Holy poo poo. Dude.
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Jun 14, 2016 20:14
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Zamboni Apocalypse posted:(I very much suspect a real influence on The Guardians was The Morrow Project, a moderately-popular post-apocalyptic SF RPG with secret caches and Cadillac-Gage armored cars galore.) Don't know how the rest of that RPG is, but if the bomb blast calculation tables are an indication, it's spergier than Twilight 2000 MrMojok posted:Holy poo poo. Dude. I had never seen either of the Ringo threads, nor heard of these books. And now I have. Holy poo poo. Dude. I tried to abridge Cyrano's retelling on 'Ghost' from the second thread, but I couldn't remember what happened in the third part of the book. Deathrape broadcast and hooker rape made the nonsexual parts of it kind of not memorable
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Jun 14, 2016 20:57
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I should say that I have no desire to hunt down the books, Cyrano's quoted passages are plenty hilarious. And also Cyrano's writing ABOUT the writing, like this:Cyrano4747 posted:Unfortunately Kansas is dull as gently caress and our Action Man Hero needs to be constantly achieving and excelling or he dies, kind of like a rapist shark. Cyrano4747 posted:Let me take this moment to emphaisze that Mike is an expert in history. At a glance he determines the history going back hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of years of items, buildings, and even tribal groups. This is to be expected. After all, he did major in History at the University of Georgia for two years before dropping out.
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Jun 14, 2016 21:08
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I've been reading le Carre, eat poo poo bad milihist book readers
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Jun 14, 2016 21:20
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feedmegin posted:It was pretty clearly intended to at first, though. I mean Robert S. Pierre, come on now. Even looking at the early books I just don't agree. Space France is an expansionist power (and, like, the only expansionist power) because they went provided too much of a safety net and therefore need to plunder other countries to afford the fact the 90% of their populace is useless (  ). The government and de facto aristocracy aren't deposed by a popular uprising, but by a well-planned coup after their war against the alliance has already started. Speaking of the alliance, it's basically space Britain plus a bunch of chumps. Also not-France loses all the early battles. I just don't think the analogy works overall. The Committee of Public Safety is basically the real Committee of Public Safety though, no argument there.E: also they're bad books and we should talk about something more interesting instead Elyv fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Jun 14, 2016 |
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Jun 14, 2016 21:27
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space france sounds cool, i'd read about space richelieu hell yeah
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Jun 14, 2016 21:29
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Imagine the space hats for the not-Napoleonic Wars.
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Jun 14, 2016 21:58
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Good war novels-- I really liked Kate Atkinson's WWII books, A God in Ruins and Life After Life-- especially the latter, which felt like one of those life-changingly memorable books to me. Life After Life also tricked me into caring about WWII by having a lengthy section from the main character's childhood about the long summer before WWI, thus stimulating the part of my brain that's really into The Last Express. A God in Ruins is about a RAF Bomber Command pilot, and Life After Life is about... well... I don't really want to spoil it, but it deals with the civilian side of the war-- the Blitz, air defense wardens, that kind of thing. also, reincarnation. also, what it means to be english. also, hitler getting shot. I really like how Atkinson's books books feature the experience of women in the war-- the main character of Life After Life is a female civil servant in the War Office and air raid warden in some of her lives, but even in its sequel A God in Ruins, which follows her brother, we're still constantly reminded of how women are involved in the war effort-- his wife worked at Bletchley Park, there's women serving in the WAAF everywhere, etc. Even when they aren't the main character, it's a reminder that women were still present for all of this, that it's our history, too. I've only read the first book of Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy of WWI novels so far, but it was really good and I've been meaning to read the others. Slaughterhouse Five? I mean everyone's heard of that so recommending it is pretty pointless. Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle is, um, historically suspect, but it's what got me interested in the Early Modern and the Thirty Years War and its aftermath. I probably shouldn't mention A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel (of Wolf Hall fame) since it deals almost exclusively with political developments in Paris and not the Revolutionary Wars, but it still owns so I'm going to anyway. And then in a completely different era from any of that there's Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road, about two Jewish mercenaries/bandits/adventurers running around Khazaria in AD 950.
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Jun 14, 2016 21:59
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Empress Theonora posted:Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle is, um, historically suspect, but it's what got me interested in the Early Modern and the Thirty Years War and its aftermath. I never really thought about the Baroque Cycleas having much to do with war, even though there is quite a bit of war and its consequences in it. It focuses mostly on the details of war in the era, rather than any particular campaign. The 30 years war is over by the time the first novel begins, and the Dutch-English war happens mostly out of sight - we learn more about "politically it is a big deal if Charles II is Catholic" than any particular fallout from that war. Cryptonomicon, on the other hand, would teach you a fair bit about cryptography in WW2, and a bit about the war in the Pacific.
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Jun 14, 2016 22:12
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a friend of mine likes The Religion, is it good?
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Jun 14, 2016 22:15
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MrMojok posted:Holy poo poo. Dude. I had never seen either of the Ringo threads, nor heard of these books. And now I have. Holy poo poo. Dude. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKfupO4ZzPs
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Jun 14, 2016 22:17
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Pontius Pilate posted:Imagine the space hats for the not-Napoleonic Wars. You could fit a pretty efficient miniaturized fusion generator in a shako for your laser musket space battles.
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Jun 14, 2016 22:17
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For anyone who missed it, dtkozl is doing a Combat Mission: Final Blitzkrieg game with goons in control just like Grey Hunter's past games (don't worry, I just copied the link address from the Let's Play index instead of opening the thread so I didn't view any spoiler posts). The American and Axis threads have been put up and we're taking final sign-ups for command of infantry squads on both sides! I'll be commanding the Sherman Jumbo Cobra King.
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Jun 14, 2016 22:18
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We read Regeneration in secondary school, but my (very Catholic) teacher said never to read the rest of the series - I immediately did, and subsequently learnt quite a lot about the mechanics of anal sex. Edit: good books! Well worth a read. In terms of other war fiction, I really like Derek Robinson's duo about bomber command, damned good show and hullo Russia goodbye England lenoon fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Jun 14, 2016 |
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Jun 14, 2016 22:20
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HEY GAL posted:a friend of mine likes The Religion, is it good? I and a few friends liked it and the sequel, Twelve Children of Paris. A brutal story about a brutal siege, with interesting characters and lots of detail.
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Jun 14, 2016 22:22
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Ataxerxes posted:A brutal story about a brutal siege you coming down to germany/czech republic/netherlands at any point this season?
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Jun 14, 2016 22:40
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HEY GAL posted:most of 'em are Not this year, most likely. Grolle in the next year definitely and Palmanova possibly this September. But it's not quite certain yet.
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Jun 14, 2016 22:45
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Ataxerxes posted:Grolle in the next year definitely
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Jun 14, 2016 22:46
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HEY GAL posted:see you then Yeah, from what I'v heard it's one hell of an event.
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Jun 14, 2016 22:57
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Ataxerxes posted:Yeah, from what I'v heard it's one hell of an event.
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Jun 14, 2016 23:08
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At battplefield, lost fingat!
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Jun 14, 2016 23:12
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HEY GAL posted:a dude got his finger cut off last year So, how many Czechs were involved?
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Jun 14, 2016 23:12
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JcDent posted:I've seen some trashy Russian sci-fi stuff on sale in newstands here... it's something. It's not their fault, at least one of those things is in sight any any given time in Russia.
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Jun 14, 2016 23:37
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I can;t stop recommending Gravity's Rainbow. The way the narration jumps from one character's head to another and the emphasis on how mechanical and unstoppable WW2 violence was makes for a pretty heavy experience. It's mostly about people who are a ways behind the front lines and the idea of heroism changes a lot when almost everyone fights by performing some function inside a closed-off machine or institution and never sees their enemy. A lot of these chickenhawk military fiction guys seem to have a real hard on for sadism. It seems vile to me; I wonder how soldiers see it. I read Tim O'Brien or Shigeru Mizuki and it seems like violence doesn't feel so good and even when you win, or survive, it kind of feels like you are in hell. But those guys may be atypical soldiers; Mizuki definitely does not portray himself as fitting in with army culture
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Jun 14, 2016 23:46
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JcDent posted:Don't know how the rest of that RPG is, but if the bomb blast calculation tables are an indication, it's spergier than Twilight 2000 Now that would be something!
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Jun 14, 2016 23:50
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xthetenth posted:All this kind of sounds like the dude except if he ran Ikea the instructions would be a lot more interesting.  my dad posted:Yeah, he'd make people assemble their own gallows.
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Jun 15, 2016 00:44
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Buschmaki posted:I've been playing a lot of War of the Roses, and this got me thinking about the 15th century. Everyone always talks about the equipment of mercenaries and k***hts because of the rise of professional soldiers, but did rulers still levy people, and if so what equipment would they have used? There's probably huge regional variations on this stuff so I guess learning about English levies would be fine. This isn't precisely what you asked but a guy on youtubes who is extremely into period-authentic medieval armor uploaded a video literally a few minutes ago that starts with an explanation of how to find image sources for medieval armor, what pitfalls to avoid when looking at primary sources, and then discussion of some representative images from late 14th-century France, including many common soldiers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBrGYGk4Q-Y
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Jun 15, 2016 02:17
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^^^^ Oh god, he spells it "knyght"  swamp waste posted:I can;t stop recommending Gravity's Rainbow. The way the narration jumps from one character's head to another and the emphasis on how mechanical and unstoppable WW2 violence was makes for a pretty heavy experience. It's mostly about people who are a ways behind the front lines and the idea of heroism changes a lot when almost everyone fights by performing some function inside a closed-off machine or institution and never sees their enemy.
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Jun 15, 2016 03:09
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Capital C Chickenhawk is incredible. Low Level Hell is also pretty good. Saburo Sakai's biography is good too, as is Japanese Destroyer Captain.
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Jun 15, 2016 04:23
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Empress Theonora posted:Slaughterhouse Five? I mean everyone's heard of that so recommending it is pretty pointless. I am going to specifically recommend this. It's an incredibly powerful novel that looks at one of the most brutal things the Allies did in WW2, firebombing cities, and some parts are like a punch in the gut. Cryptonomicon is great, you could skip all the present-day parts and still have a really exciting and interesting read that focuses on some of the intel and counterintel efforts of the war. edit: In fact I kind of recommend that, the WW2 parts were always the stronger half of the book and the present-day stuff is pretty dated by now. Unless you really want to know what bitcoin would have looked like if it were invented in the late 90s. Peepers fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Jun 15, 2016 |
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Jun 15, 2016 04:25
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Elyv posted:the last time I was reading those books haven was no longer lead by the committee of public safety and robert s pierre (get it) and are now good guys and the bad guys were the shadowy conspiracy of slavers and ubermenchen yeh but the fites are now poo poo
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Jun 15, 2016 04:59
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Japanese Destroyer Captain. So glad Naval Institute Press did another print run, my dad's copy was good for only one reading. Surprisingly excellent for a falling apart book with a pulp cover and red pages.
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Jun 15, 2016 05:42
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xthetenth posted:So glad Naval Institute Press did another print run, my dad's copy was good for only one reading. Surprisingly excellent for a falling apart book with a pulp cover and red pages. You can get that on Kindle now.
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Jun 15, 2016 05:47
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wdarkk posted:You can get that on Kindle now. I may do that too but I have a nice hardcover with soft pages that'll stay white.
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Jun 15, 2016 06:04
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The war bits in Parade's End , especially No More Parades and A Man Could Stand Up- are good, particularly since they portray a lot of the 'boring bits' of WW1 and have quite an interestingly dynamic take on 1918.
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Jun 15, 2016 06:33
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Hogge Wild posted:Now that would be something! As I recall, The Morrow Project tracked player damage with two separate stats for "structural" and "blood" damage. There was some basic math to figure out how much blood and structure your character had based on their stats. IIRC the game itself was essentially the Chaosium BRP system and wasn't overly complicated, as far as 80s RPGs went. (And in addition to all the Cadillac-Gage armored cars, everybody got Stoner 63 rifles, and the Land Master from Damnation Alley was also a option for a player vehicle.) But from what I hear, the ultimate millsperg RPG was Phoenix Command. Hyper detailed game made by a couple rocket scientists from MIT, relatively obscure until the company got a license for Aliens and used a cut-down ruleset that was moderately successful, but then they folded a couple years later after wasting the money on other licenses such as The Lawnmower Man: The Roleplaying Game. http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/latwpiat/phoenix-command-small-arms-combat-system/
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