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Bareback Werewolf posted:I just finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I actually loaned my mother the book before reading it and she sent it back after only reading like 70 pages. Oddly enough she wasn't weirded out by the prostitute sucking the dude up in her vagina but by Laura coming back from the dead. But what did you think of the prose?
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Aug 30, 2018 12:11
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fridge corn posted:But what did you think of the prose? His prose was the strength of the book imo. It's a very easy read. There were certain shocking scenes in the book where I just wanted to put it away and move on to something else, but his writing style sucked me back in. I didn't really like the Lakeside part of the book at first. I felt like he was trying to do his best Stephen King impression of small town America and failing. The characters felt way too hokey and unnatural. The end of the book kind of rectified that.
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Aug 30, 2018 12:45
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I thought it was an easy and enjoyable read but damned if I could remember any of it a week later
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Aug 31, 2018 02:50
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Zola posted:You will probably enjoy it, all of his stuff is fine, not exciting, not fantastic, but solid writing and a minimum of pretentiousness. Sort of like fantasy cotton candy The Belgariad was also written for a young adult audience, and I consider it basically the ideal series to introduce someone in middle or late elementary school to the fantasy genre.
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Aug 31, 2018 04:31
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The Belgariad isn't earthshaking, but I like it a lot for the fact that it is all about just humbly telling its story. The people describing how unpretentious it is really are spot on. It's not new, but it isn't desperately trying to make new things out of old cloth, either. In a genre filled with intricately boring magic systems and overwrought attempts to explain the very particular lessons about life the author learned, it manages to be a standout just by being something a lot of people can get something out of.
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Aug 31, 2018 04:41
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Solitair posted:Oh, and I also read Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings. It's the first part of The Belgariad, which was sold to me as a classic fantasy narrative light on innovation but also on bullshit. So far that holds true. The story feels way more streamlined than, say, The Wheel of Time and the characters have pretty good chemistry. It feels a little bland and dated, but it doesn't gently caress anything up either. I'll consider continuing the series later. FWIW the rest of the Belgariad is much less transparently a Lord of the Rings clone in slightly different costumes. Not that that's much of a criticism given so many 80's fantasy series were boilerplate fantasy nothings when they started out. It's been years since I've read it but I remember even the second book being a step up.
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Aug 31, 2018 04:45
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Recently finished: Use of Weapons: it might have been a cool book without the ridiculous gimmick of splitting the book in two opposite timelines. It also doesn’t help that I was listening to it as an audiobook so it was really impossible to flip back and keep track of each timeline as I went. So don’t audiobook this one. As for the actual story and themes, it was pretty meh. I feel like Haldeman does a better job at handling the consequences of absurd bureaucracy in conflict and Herbert does a better job of setting up a universe with ancient space empires and whatnot. I really don’t get the hype about this one. One Hundred Years of Solitude: I was supposed to be reading this with my girlfriend, who moved from Colombia when she was a teenager, but I fell off the bandwagon because I had to pay too much attention to the names of characters and I was in a stressful time while listening. Now, after finishing it I can say that it’s a really incredible book with layers of meaning and charm. For her though, it’s like a cultural history told brilliantly so that it perpetuates the culture while passing on its events. All Systems Red: great fun. It was humorous and nerdy without falling into all the Scalzi nerdcore bullshit problems or the sarcasm of Connie Willis. Good little book.
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Aug 31, 2018 10:17
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MockingQuantum posted:FWIW the rest of the Belgariad is much less transparently a Lord of the Rings clone in slightly different costumes. Not that that's much of a criticism given so many 80's fantasy series were boilerplate fantasy nothings when they started out. It's been years since I've read it but I remember even the second book being a step up. I didn't even get that much of a LotR vibe from it beyond the basic setup of a young rural protagonist prompted to go on a journey by a rising evil that starts looking where he lives. Contrast this with The Eye of the World, which reminded me of Fellowship so much I got annoyed with it.
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Aug 31, 2018 12:26
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tuyop posted:
Theres like 3 character names in the whole book: Aureliano, Jose Arcadio and Remedios. I am currently in the middle of it now and its fantastic.
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Aug 31, 2018 15:21
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TommyGun85 posted:Theres like 3 character names in the whole book: Aureliano, Jose Arcadio and Remedios. Yeah but they’re different people all the time! And yeah, it’s very good!
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Aug 31, 2018 18:31
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Just finished A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen. It's about a Russian émigré who moved to America as a kid and moves back to Moscow in 2008 to take care of his grandmother and avoid his faltering career as a Russianist. It's really funny and moving. I will admit that I was sent a review copy. Nevertheless I earnestly recommend it since it takes your standard coming of age/growth narrative and makes it actually interesting and funny. It's also explicitly leftist.
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Sep 1, 2018 00:31
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Nikita Khrushchev posted:It's also explicitly leftist. pass
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Sep 1, 2018 04:01
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Nikita Khrushchev posted:It's also explicitly leftist. I shall not pass.
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Sep 1, 2018 05:13
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Nikita Khrushchev posted:Just finished A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen. It's about a Russian émigré who moved to America as a kid and moves back to Moscow in 2008 to take care of his grandmother and avoid his faltering career as a Russianist. It's really funny and moving. I will admit that I was sent a review copy. Nevertheless I earnestly recommend it since it takes your standard coming of age/growth narrative and makes it actually interesting and funny. It's also explicitly leftist. I'm not going to take Nikita Krushchev's ideas of what is leftist seriously. gently caress to revisionism!
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Sep 1, 2018 05:30
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lol, I just mean the character falls in with a group of leftists in Russia and hijinks happen. It's a pretty keen insight into the Russian left. That's all 
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Sep 1, 2018 18:16
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Dead Again by T.J. Garrett This is book one of the Whistler series, I'd classify it as paranormal/urban fantasy A reporter is still mourning the death of his wife when his editor asks him to check out a story involving a man who supposedly can speak to the dead. There's a lot of twists and turns in this one, overall it's well written and while it won't win any awards for being "littrature", it's fun. It was intriguing enough that I paid for the second book in the series and it hasn't let me down. (Free book on Amazon link>) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M224JO2/
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Sep 2, 2018 22:19
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I just finished Empire of the Sun by J.G Ballard, which is about a little English boy who gets separated from his parents in Shanghai after the attack on Pearl Harbour. It is a bleak and somewhat amusing look into the dysfunctional development of a young POW. Overall I really enjoyed it. I plan to watch the Spielberg film later this week.
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Sep 2, 2018 23:51
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A few quick ones: The Rose and the Ring by William Makepeace Thackeray is something I picked up after hearing that it was a very old example of fantasy fiction. What I got is an enjoyable fairy tale extended into novella length, the best part of which is an extended scene in the middle where one of the titular items changes hands from character to character without any of them knowing its magical properties, flipping their dynamics around multiple times in succession. It's decent fun, plus it sets up a bunch of conflicts which pay off well by the end. It reminds me of the movie version of Stardust, which I also enjoyed much more than I thought I would. Thackeray skipped over a couple of scenes that I really wish he wouldn't, since they include the resolution of one conflict and one character reversing her earlier attitude. However, this is a story for young children, as evidenced by the silly place and character names, so if Thackeray couldn't find an entertaining way to bridge those gaps, I suppose I can understand skipping over them. I also wouldn't call this a satire, despite what Wikipedia claims. The Pearl by John Steinbeck is a story about greed and unfair societal stratification that is nevertheless open to interpretation. If I didn't know anything about Steinbeck, I would assume going in that this would be a parable of a man who lets sudden wealth go to his head and who would have been better off if he had been content with his lot in life. While the latter part is technically true, Kino's yearning for a better life is completely understandable, given that he is part of a colonized people and that most of the characters who want to exploit his pearl are depicted without an ounce of sympathy. If anything, the book resonates to me more as a splash of cold water on the fantasy of upward mobility than a general reminder that people be greedy. Even then, Kino's fate isn't as harsh as I thought it'd be. He and his wife are still alive and in their hometown, with no mention of coming retribution for Kino killing four men. Steinbeck shows more restraint than some authors in letting his protagonist's misery end with a baby getting shot in the loving head. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum is pleasant enough. It mostly resembles the movie I watched a long time ago, except without the prologue involving the old woman who wants to get rid of Toto, and a third journey section after the Wizard leaves in his balloon. I suspect this isn't the best of what the Oz books can offer me just yet, though.
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Sep 3, 2018 00:04
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Helen DeWitt's The Last Samurai. I've had it on my to-read list for years but I'm not sure why it was on the list or where I heard about it and it's been out of print and not available on Kindle. Apparently there was a reprint in 2016 that I missed and it was on sale for $3 for Kindle the other day so I picked it up. It was alright. More "LitFic" than I usually like. It wore its pretension like a badge of honor and, other than a couple of gimmicky narrative tricks, the pretension was largely in service to the story. It did the brilliant/precocious child prodigy thing pretty well, not quite as well as Elegance of the Hedgehog, but pretty well. It was a solid 4/5 for me until I hit the Afterward for the reprint, where the author came off as such an elitist rear end in a top hat that it made me like the book less.
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Sep 3, 2018 17:47
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The Werewolves of London by Brian Stableford. Take a sci-fi author, then make him write gothic horror in the vein of Lovecraft. What you get is a surprisingly good supernatural horror novel about eldritch things that might be angels or demons or worse invading reality and using human pawns in a fight between themselves. There's lot of philosophy about the nature of reality, and what humanity is and what it can become - and shockingly, the book ends with an optimistic note about what human can do. In that sense it's anti-Lovecraft - we are not helpless in the face of unknowable evils, and we will conquer the vastness of space. Or at least, that's where book one ends - with the initial encounter resolved and things mostly at a standstill. It works as a standalone novel, but I am going to dig into book two as soon as it arrives, and I hear book three goes places. That said, it's mostly a book of ideas. The plot's okay, the characters are readable - I wouldn't say anything in the book is awful outside of the occasional fascination with sex - but if you're not down with thinking about the nature of reality, and the merits of reason, then you're probably out.
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Sep 3, 2018 18:06
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Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup Holy poo poo this book was amazing. I never even knew about Theranos during the hype but it's amazing reading about all these rich people stuck in the sunk cost fallacy as they pour more and more money into a company that has existed for almost a decade without a single product sold and no contracts at all.
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Sep 3, 2018 19:12
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All Systems Red by Martha Wells. The story revolves around a security robot tasked by its employer to protect a team of global surveyors and how said robot feels about that. I loved this. After finishing the novella, I'm convinced the robot would fit in quite well posting on SA.
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Sep 4, 2018 01:28
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Pyromaniac Ida posted:Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup isnt Elizabeth Holmes going to jail for like 30 years?
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Sep 4, 2018 14:40
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TommyGun85 posted:isnt Elizabeth Holmes going to jail for like 30 years? Oh yeah for sure. Things went down the shitter for all involved Rupert Murdoch was in for 120 million dollars while a newspaper he owned was working on a front page report that was going to kill off Theranos. Holmes begged him on several occasions to kill the story before it was published but he refused to intervene.
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Sep 4, 2018 16:09
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Preet Bahrara interviewed the author of Bad Blood on his podcast recently, it was a good interview and got me interested in reading the book. https://overcast.fm/+MzRktJvZc
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Sep 4, 2018 16:52
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TommyGun85 posted:isnt Elizabeth Holmes going to jail for like 30 years? She's certainly been banned from running a company for some years. Jail time seems unlikely. But one of the interesting parts of Bad Blood is that the deceit ran for a decade and needed multiple people inside and outside the company to keep it going. Even their fall seems mostly bad luck - a pharmacy blogger just happened to know the right journalist which started the ball rolling. Had Murdoch quashed the story, Theranos would still be untouched.
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Sep 4, 2018 17:14
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TommyGun85 posted:isnt Elizabeth Holmes going to jail for like 30 years? nah man she's white
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Sep 4, 2018 21:03
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I haven't felt well so I spent the last two days reading King's The Outsider. I enjoyed it. I wish the denouement was better but it is King we're talking about. Man that villain was creepy.
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Sep 4, 2018 22:39
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Memories of Ice. IMO, best in the Malazan series so far and one of my new favorites.
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Sep 8, 2018 04:03
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Unlimited Power by Tony Robbins. I imagine that goons are pretty down on self help books. However, I found the advice pretty useful. Particularly taking notes about how you feel during times that you are having a very "on" day when you get a lot done, then taking these feelings and replicating them again and again to improve your career / relationships.
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Sep 8, 2018 14:17
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Sock The Great posted:Unlimited Power by Tony Robbins. Naw, if it helps, great! Be the best goon you can be. To add to the note thing, keep an eye on what you eat as well. If I start my day with a bagel and creamcheese it will be delicious but I will be groggy and a little grumpy until lunch. If I do an omelette instead I'm usually more energetic. Stuff like that!
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Sep 8, 2018 14:36
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Sock The Great posted:Unlimited Power by Tony Robbins. I, for one, hope that your life improves enough that you no longer feel the need to further line the pockets of a filthy rich misogynist, OP.
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Sep 8, 2018 14:37
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StrixNebulosa posted:Naw, if it helps, great! Be the best goon you can be. Thanks for the encouragement. I usually fast for 16-18 hours a day so that makes it pretty easy to avoid carb heavy stuff in the morning!
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Sep 8, 2018 14:50
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I just finished Lonesome Dove. I had heard it was good and went in with fairly high expectations and had them exceeded. The characters were fantastic and well written, and it was just a hell of an enjoyable read. I just started The Streets of Laredo. So far I'm actually a bit disappointed as he's killed off several characters that I quite liked in the first book "off screen" and made some strange decisions as far as putting characters together. I am only 2 chapters in though.
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Sep 10, 2018 12:49
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I just finished all four books of the Whistler series by T.J. Garrett Dead Again Bone Yard Sleep Demon Death Herself I mentioned the first one here already, I enjoyed it enough that I took advantage of the half-price sale to pick up all of them. This is a quirky paranormal/urban fantasy that has some interesting stuff that''s not the run of the mill Paranormal Detective in London: a bit of time travel, some unexpected creatures and some genuinely funny moments. The protaganist, Daniel, is trying to come to terms with the loss of his wife Helen when he discovers he is sensitive to paranormal influences. Unlike Dresden, there is no "powerup" kind of progression, and unlike Rivers of London, Daniel's learning is off-stage. Like Harry and Peter, he is a bit of a putz but usually manages to figure it out . The characters are believable and the pacing is good. Nice easy reads. There are a few issues with editing, nothing major but I hope if Mr. Garrett finds more success he can get the series gone over by a good editor. Apparently he is blind, and I quickly realized that the major portion of the editing errors could be laid at the door of a text-to-speech converter, such as saying "That maybe" instead of the correct "That may be". This was not a huge problem for me but I figured I'd put it out there. The first book is currently free on Kindle so if my description sounded interesting, it might be worth giving it a try. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M224JO2/
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Sep 13, 2018 02:28
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The Divinity Student - Michael Cisco It was good. Very trippy imagery, very cool setting. I'm surprised Cisco doesn't get more goon love considering the Lovecraftian imagery and genre-bending craziness.
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Sep 13, 2018 18:24
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I just finished Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, which is a memoir of the 1996 Everest disaster. I found it very compelling, since I've always been interested in mountaineering stories as an armchair enthusiast. However, I'm curious about how almost every other survivor wrote their own memoir of the experience--I wonder how Krakauer shapes up in other accounts.
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Sep 14, 2018 18:25
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Angel of Pain by Brian Stableford. Sequel to the Werewolves of London, and while not as good, it hits similar highs in the last half of the book. A solid advancement of the premise, a decent character study, and all-in-all a solid hoot as I realize: the entire premise of this series isn't just "what if there really were eldritch deities?", but instead "what if there really were unknowable eldritch deities...and they were just as confused by humans as we are by them?" Can't wait for the finale to arrive!
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Sep 15, 2018 21:21
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Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. Enjoyed the hell out of this one, witty, cynical if not nihilistic (which is pretty commonplace for a Vonnegut book.) The sci fi aspects are interesting and the anti war sentiment hits home. If you liked Slaughterhouse Five and enjoy its themes of determinism and war, and want something with a little more sci fi going on, I highly recommend this book. Personally I enjoyed it more so than sh5 and thought it had more going for it.
Mencils fucked around with this message at 08:06 on Sep 24, 2018 |
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Sep 24, 2018 08:03
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I have yet to read that one. Cat's cradle is my favorite Vonnegut book so far, you should check it out if you haven't. Best served cold by Joe Abercrombie, read by Steven Pacey The first standalone book after the "First Law" trilogy. A few characters from the trilogy show up here so I do recommend reading this afterwards. The story is more straightforward and with a better pacing. If it isn't clear from the book's title it is basically a revenge tale. Some of the PoV characters are very interesting but I think a couple fell a bit flat, at least compared to the others. The character interactions are still great and so is the narration.
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Sep 24, 2018 16:01
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