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im rreadng Hollow, by B. Catling i dnno its kinda grimy in a cool way
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Jan 26, 2024 07:20
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BigHead posted:I'm plugging my way through The Dark Forest trilogy for the second time. It's pretty good sci fi. Also it is a look into Chinese culture where the Chinese culture isn't the star of the show. Like an American writing about Chinese culture will make the culture some big obstacle or spectacle or something. It's refreshing just reading what people do someplace that isn't my country. I just read the Dark Forest trilogy, which was pretty great but also a bit hard to get into due to the Chinese-to-English translation. The storytelling was kinda janky early on, particularly the simulation bit. I'm very afraid of what D&D do to it in the upcoming Netflix adaptation, but at least they have a completed work to build on. Then I went in a completely different direction and read Butcher's Crossing by John Williams. That book is fuckin great and makes me want to go live in the mountains of Colorado and maybe even lose a hand to the elements in the process. John Williams has the perfect balance between beautiful descriptive language and plot moving storytelling, it's just such an easy book to get lost in. Moving on to Stoner by him, which so far is very different but engaging all the same. Szechwan fucked around with this message at 08:29 on Jan 26, 2024 |
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Jan 26, 2024 07:31
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Anyone else read "Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir (the guy who wrote The Martian). I loved it, read it immediately again after finishing it. Also soon to be a movie. But I've come to understand it's not everyone's cup of tea, and it seems specific to Weir's style of writing. PHM is about a global effort to ward off an apocalyptic solar event. It has a lot of the same "Science and Engineering" energy that The Martian had.
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Jan 26, 2024 15:44
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redshirt posted:global effort at some point in my life i realized that these things were the most fictional part of science fiction
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Jan 26, 2024 15:58
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Worf posted:at some point in my life i realized that these things were the most fictional part of science fiction lol, Covid showed us some real truths.
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Jan 26, 2024 15:59
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redshirt posted:Anyone else read "Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir (the guy who wrote The Martian). I read his book Artemis for the 372 Pages podcast and it was not good to say the least. I hope his other books are a lot better than that
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Jan 26, 2024 16:02
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Szechwan posted:I just read the Dark Forest trilogy, which was pretty great but also a bit hard to get into due to the Chinese-to-English translation. The storytelling was kinda janky early on, particularly the simulation bit. I'm very afraid of what D&D do to it in the upcoming Netflix adaptation, but at least they have a completed work to build on. the trailer looks like the netflix show is focusing on the early set up in book one and the mystery of “what’s happening” is the hook, that could be good
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Jan 26, 2024 16:05
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Doctor J Off posted:I read his book Artemis for the 372 Pages podcast and it was not good to say the least. I hope his other books are a lot better than that I enjoyed parts of Artemis, but there was plenty I did not like. He should never try and write a woman protagonist, at least until he's a much better writer. PHM is much better than Artemis, and much more similar to The Martian.
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Jan 26, 2024 16:06
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redshirt posted:I enjoyed parts of Artemis, but there was plenty I did not like. He should never try and write a woman protagonist, at least until he's a much better writer. I skipped Artemis, and thought The Martian was solid. PHM is one of my favorite books in the past 20 years.
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Jan 26, 2024 16:20
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I am reading a book called Bad Nature or With Elvis in Mexico by Javier Marías. I like that it is very short and I will finish it in bed tonight.
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Jan 26, 2024 16:24
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I listened to the Audiobook version of Artemis which was read by a woman and it still came off awkward. I liked the setting but the story itself was a snooze.
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Jan 26, 2024 16:34
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BAGS FLY AT NOON posted:I listened to the Audiobook version of Artemis which was read by a woman and it still came off awkward. I liked the setting but the story itself was a snooze. Yeah the Lunar colony and how it worked was a great setting. And a crime caper on the Lunar colony has potential. But it's just not in Weir's wheelhouse. IMO he should be one of those authors who has a lane and he sticks to it. Not every writer has to be a master of multiple genres and styles.
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Jan 26, 2024 16:37
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I read the Martian and thought it was p weak tbh. Too many contrivances and coincidences, characters were one note, whole thing smelled of IFLScience writing. Never saw the film. e - I never read any of his other stuff because that was supposedly the best of his work.
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Jan 26, 2024 16:50
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redshirt posted:I enjoyed parts of Artemis, but there was plenty I did not like. He should never try and write a woman protagonist, at least until he's a much better writer. Fair enough. I'll probably avoid his other stuff because I'm much more into soft than hard sci fi. I'm about to start My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki. I really enjoyed her book A Tale for the Time Being.
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Jan 26, 2024 16:55
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still reading the newly released Exordia by goon author Seth Dickinson and it's still good, go out and buy it thank u
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Jan 26, 2024 17:04
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The Martian was decent competency porn and so was Project Hail Mary though the latter does stretch further in to SF. i didn't read Artemis. and this is irrelevant but i only made it ten pages in to Scalzi's Kaiju book before the dialogue made me want to throw it at a wall. gently caress you John Scalzi
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Jan 26, 2024 17:07
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Worf posted:at some point in my life i realized that these things were the most fictional part of science fiction 
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Jan 26, 2024 20:56
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The Martian is the most gripping series of to-do lists I've ever read.
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Jan 27, 2024 05:17
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Savage Dragon #267, just hit. Written and drawn by the same guy since 1992, love that kind of run. The best. For novels, I've been in the middle of Neuromancer for a while, and doing the audiobook of Hitchhiker's Guide and Rob Halford's autobiography.
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Jan 27, 2024 21:31
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is that the jizz cannon comic book?
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Jan 27, 2024 21:42
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Someone talk to me about Butcher's Crossing damnit
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Jan 30, 2024 02:12
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i cant ive only read Stoner
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Jan 30, 2024 02:26
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which is the best book ive ever read, also
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Jan 30, 2024 02:26
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Doctor J Off posted:I read his book Artemis for the 372 Pages podcast and it was not good to say the least. I hope his other books are a lot better than that  Loved the Martian, but Artemis was real badmost recent book - This Is How You Lose The Time War i thought it was pretty good and I liked it, although its relatively short and the  twist is extremely predictable, but there's something beautifully poetic about the story. AARD VARKMAN posted:The Martian was decent competency porn and so was Project Hail Mary though the latter does stretch further in to SF. Old Man's War was good, the sequels and whatnot were 90s Waldenbook poo poo-tier
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Jan 30, 2024 03:25
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Vampire Panties posted:most recent book - This Is How You Lose The Time War I've been interested in this one for a while now, but haven't made the plunge. Two things about it - it seems like a lot of reviews praise the writing style over the plot, which could go either way for me, and it's short enough that I can never bring myself to spend an audiobook credit on it. Maybe someday it'll go on sale cheap enough to just throw some real money at it.
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Jan 30, 2024 03:33
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Captain Hygiene posted:I've been interested in this one for a while now, but haven't made the plunge. Two things about it - it seems like a lot of reviews praise the writing style over the plot, which could go either way for me, and it's short enough that I can never bring myself to spend an audiobook credit on it. Maybe someday it'll go on sale cheap enough to just throw some real money at it. I've got it on my "To Read" pile and it's next in the docket. It is short, so I'll report back when done.
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Jan 30, 2024 03:34
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I've started The Danube, by Nick Thorpe. It's a kind of travel/history account of tracing the Danube from the mouth in Romania to the source in Germany. I like books like this written by journalists because they sniff out interesting people and stories. I'm travelling to Europe later this year so I'm in the mood for this kind of book
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Jan 30, 2024 04:50
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I'm in the middle of War and Peace and I'm really enjoying it. I don't get the reputation it has as a hard book to read. It's not a difficult book at all.
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Jan 30, 2024 08:24
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Wendigee posted:I liked the library at mount char by Scott Hawkins. Love that book. Read it quite a while ago, then got an audiobook recently to relive it Right now I'm rereading Best Served Cold, Joe Abercrombie's best novel in that universe in my opinion. Gritty, humanistic and real while still being ludicrous and schlocky somehow. Big fan of his novels Also Theft of Swords by Michael J Sullivan. Never heard of it before, just rented it off Hoopla randomly. But so far it's pretty solid low fantasy stuff, I like it. I read a lot of sci fi, fantasy and nonfiction about random topics. Fiction set in reality isn't for me, I get enough of reality through living already
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Jan 30, 2024 09:32
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TK8325 posted:I'm in the middle of War and Peace and I'm really enjoying it. I don't get the reputation it has as a hard book to read. It's not a difficult book at all. Some people find the military stuff towards the end, particularly the kind of essays a bit of a drag. I found it to be a page turner though, my wife also did, and she's not into those kinds of books usually.
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Jan 30, 2024 09:53
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I started reading The Jungle, but... somehow I had that book completely wrong. For some reason I thought it was a non-fiction expose of the meat industry at the time, not a fiction book that featured parts that were informed by Sinclairs undercover work at beef processing plants. The first chapter I'm all "What is the extended wedding reception sequence?". Gave that book up for now, will come back to it when I'm in the mood. I was still looking for something non-fiction though, which I generally don't read, so I picked up Barbarians At The Gate. A behind the scenes look at the failed Leveraged Buy-Out of RJR Nabisco in the 80's. Fascinating look at the crazy lifestyles of RJR Nabiscos top execs, the dirty deals and backstabbing, the in-fighting and late-night dealmaking as companies scrambled to bring billions to the table for what was at the time one of the largest business deals ever attempted. A perfect encapsulation of why capitalism blows, and how it got us to where we are today. One interesting crossover I noticed was that one of the key players in the book, Jeff Beck, was one of the top insider deal-makers on Wall Street in the 80's. Nicknamed "Mad Dog", he was considered at the time to be in the top 5 deal makers in the world. Endless connections, access to money and power, and could bend anyones ear on Wall Street. So in the movie Wall Street, one of my favorite parts is when Bud is invited by his trader friend Roger Barnes to sit in on their board-meeting, where they are reviewing Gekko's deal with Bluestar. There was a guy in the background, barely viewed in the scene, who was rattling off stats and figures, and going over the broad strokes of the deal. One of my favorite lines goes "The beauty of this deal is the overfunded pension. Gekko makes $75 million there. $50 million buys him the minimum annuities for 6,000 employees... and he walks away with the rest. I figure he'll make... He'll clear $60-70 million. Not bad for a month's work. Your boy really did his homework, Fox. And you'll have the shortest executive career since that Pope that got poisoned." I always thought whoever was playing that part really sounded like they knew what they were talking about. They sounded like a real broker, not an actor. Well, they were. That was Jeff Beck. Bit part basically playing himself in the film. Guy ended up dying of a massive heart attack in his 40's, so working in the high-stakes world of trading didn't do him any favors.
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Jan 30, 2024 10:15
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i am reading Crime and Punishment and oooh something awful! Oh how I don't like it! You may have thought it a classic, something awful, ah ah, yes, I can tell from your reactions, even though you have yet to respond, I just know, call it a...a sixth sense!! Yes a sixth sense! truly it is wretched book, most wretched I do say sirs but sirs believe me when I tell you I will finish it. I will finish it because it must be done sirs, you know this as sure as you know the Time At Lebeisziwitisz Square[1] yes sirs oh indeed sirs. oh and i'm after i'm finished i shall be happy sirs, maybe I finally shall be at peace even perhaps or perhaps not, who could ever say sirs!! who am I to say sirs!!! but i apologise sirs this post has gone on far too long and I am rambling, for I have always been a rambler and even it's what my mother said of me, imagine that, your mother, who is the only to be with you always to say such a thing of her sons sirs but she is right of course for she is right, now I must take my leave sirs and i do bid you farewell he he sirs
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Jan 30, 2024 10:19
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I'm reading Shogun right now, because it was my father-in-law's favorite book. It's 1210 pages, and the first 600 were a slog. But once I got past that halfway point, it kinda just clicked for me and now I'm really into it. Still 300 pages to go, but I really like it now.
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Jan 30, 2024 16:39
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cumpantry posted:which is the best book ive ever read, also I've heard that from a few people actually. I'm only halfway and while the writing is amazing, I can't tell why people have it so highly rated. The shenanigans with his wife have only just started though, so the book seems to be shifting gears after a long time spent setting the table.
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Jan 30, 2024 19:16
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TK8325 posted:I'm in the middle of War and Peace and I'm really enjoying it. I don't get the reputation it has as a hard book to read. It's not a difficult book at all. It's fantastic I reread it every decade at least. And after you've read it it's fun to watch all the different movies
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Jan 30, 2024 19:25
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Narzack posted:I'm reading Shogun right now, because it was my father-in-law's favorite book. It's 1210 pages, and the first 600 were a slog. But once I got past that halfway point, it kinda just clicked for me and now I'm really into it. Still 300 pages to go, but I really like it now. All of Clavells works are like history porn/trash and I enjoyed them in my 20s and 30s as well as James Michener who wrote similar sagas. Pre internet I used to buy paperbacks by the large grocery sack full from second hand stores 
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Jan 30, 2024 19:30
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I pre-ordered the 4th inkheart book which i did not expect to...be a thing that ever existed. i thought the 3 books wrapped up the story pretty darn well. I'm very excited for it though, i chowed through the trilogy real fast. I saw the movie in theaters back when it came out, which wasn't the best, but the premise was interesting enough that i wanted to read the books. got the first book, got sucked in, went out and bought the other two right away.
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Jan 30, 2024 21:10
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What translation of War and Peace does everyone read? I've heard that Constance Garnett's is notoriously bad, are there any others someone can recommend?
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Jan 30, 2024 21:47
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Doctor J Off posted:What translation of War and Peace does everyone read? I've heard that Constance Garnett's is notoriously bad, are there any others someone can recommend? Garnett was not good enough at Russian to be a translator, and her prose feels antiquated as gently caress.
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Jan 30, 2024 21:57
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Spinz posted:All of Clavells works are like history porn/trash and I enjoyed them in my 20s and 30s as well as James Michener who wrote similar sagas. Secondhand paperbacks are the greatest things in the world. I don't think I'll read any more of Clavell, but only because they're such a time investment.
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Jan 30, 2024 23:09
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