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Just finished Count Zero by William Gibson. I enjoyed it. I read Neuromancer a while back and have just started Mona Lisa Overdrive, as I want to get through his "Sprawl" trilogy before moving on to his other stuff. Like Neuromancer, Count Zero took me two or three attempts to get past the first couple chapters, but once it picked up steam I couldn't put it down. I feel like Gibson handles the notion of humanity creating our own objects of worship, investing them with our trust and power, and then hating and fearing them in such an interesting, believable way. Count Zero is told in a different fashion from Neuromancer. Neuro had an ensemble cast, but was told principally through the perspective of Case. In Count Zero, the story perspective switches from Bobby to Turner to Marly, and they basically never meet, but the manner in which they all interconnect was enlightening and held my interest. Gibson doesn't just take a character type from Neuromancer and slap a new name on them, either, which is appreciated. I can't say I enjoyed it more than Neuromancer, but that's because they're very different books. I recommend it if you like sci-fi, cyberpunk, dystopian fiction, and the places where those may-or-may-not intersect with the mystical.
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Apr 20, 2012 21:02
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Just went through Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. For all the sci-fi I went through over the years, this one stayed under the radar, and I finally decided to give it a go. I was mildly annoyed with the concept of super-smart 10-year-olds in space, and just when things started picking up, the ending happened. This really took me by surprise, as I did not monitor my progress on the e-reader and had to do a double take on what just happened. I found Card to have a great talent for light and easy to read writing, but his characters rather annoying. Also, I know that relativistic physics are the poo poo these days, but whenever they make an appearence, things turn space opera-ish very fast, and it is not something I'm keen on (I'm a simple man, give me loveble space vagrants and we'll call it a day). Seems now I have the whole series to go through, and since I love a good series, I'm down with it, though I really need some more fun characters like Mazer. Good read, original ideas, somewhat flawed characters.
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Apr 21, 2012 14:11
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I just finished The Boy in the Attic. It's a true story about an Irish teenager who kills his seven-year-old neighbour so he can use his body in a satanic ritual. While the story itself is plenty interesting, you can see the author struggled to make the information stretch as far as it did. It gets repetitive towards the end. If you're into those kinds of books, I'd still recommend it, though. I'm planning to start reading A Game of Thrones. Should be good.
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Apr 21, 2012 20:15
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VigilanteVixen posted:I'm planning to start reading A Game of Thrones. Should be good. Set aside lots of free time - in fact, pick a second book to go along with it. While the writing is superb, it's by no means a light read, and requires some dedication and attention to details.
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Apr 22, 2012 01:03
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I just finished An American Dream by Norman Mailer. Despite the incessant misogyny, misanthropy, and even the occasional racism, I still loved it. It's about a former congressman/current university professor and TV personality who in a fit of blind rage murders his wife and tries to cover it up. Mailer is an intense writer with one of the harshest voices I've read in a long time. I love his disgusting little similes that manage to turn seemingly innocuous moments into rancid imagery. It's also dawning on me that the title of the novel doesn't really come up in the text, so that adds a whole new layer to it.
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Apr 22, 2012 03:17
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Just now finished Number 9 Dream by David Mitchell and holy gently caress - I'm blown away. It reminds me very superficially of Catcher in the Rye in the basic premise that it's about a young man *"coming of age"* in the big city (Tokyo, in this case), and in how powerfully it's spoken to where I am right now in my own life. There are gigantic shifts between the everyday mundane, the character's wild Hollywood daydreams, and crazy grand-guignol Yakuza violence, and it all works in a way that seems far more modern and true to my generation than anything else I've read. I'm trying to think of a book that I felt more invested in and I just can't. The Japan setting has inspired me to give Murakami another shot, so I picked up Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I read Kafka on the Shore and thought it was complete amateurish garbage, but people won't shut up about him and his style strikes me as promising on paper, so I'm going to see if it was just a fluke.
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Apr 22, 2012 03:22
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I just finished Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro and I'm blown away by his style. I'm continually haunted by this book since I finished. The narration is truly something I haven't seen in a long time. The story of Kathy H who goes to a special school for special children unravels in this despairing dystopian novel. Also just read Atwood's Oryx and Crake. The story of Jimmy who has delt with possibly the end of mankind? Really enjoyed, but I'm not sure if I should continue with the trilogy. It felt very complete on its own.
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Apr 22, 2012 13:20
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Just finished The Hunger Games trilogy. I liked the first book but man did the other two fall off a cliff. By the end I was just trying to speed through it to make it end.
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Apr 22, 2012 14:02
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Blink! by Malcolm Gladwell will turn you into a superhero. Fascinating read. I'm going to start on Outliers next. I have a six week field exercise and expect a lot of downtime. Bought five books, wish me luck
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Apr 23, 2012 04:46
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Kekekela posted:Just finished The Hunger Games trilogy. I liked the first book but man did the other two fall off a cliff. By the end I was just trying to speed through it to make it end. I had pretty much the same reaction to the last two books. Disappointing resolution. I just finished Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, and while I liked it well enough, I ended up thinking I just didn't get it. I thought Tony Webster's ex-girlfriend Veronica was toxic, all the way through, and Tony was no more exceptionally vile than anyone but I may be missing the point.
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Apr 23, 2012 07:58
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GRINK HELCH posted:I just finished Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro and I'm blown away by his style. I'm continually haunted by this book since I finished. The narration is truly something I haven't seen in a long time. The story of Kathy H who goes to a special school for special children unravels in this despairing dystopian novel. If you liked that, you should really try The Remains of the Day . While it's not a sci-fi esque book, it still really hits big on the theme of nostalgia. It's equally beautiful in a different way, and a really, really excellent book. I love Ishiguro.
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Apr 23, 2012 18:22
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Mokotow posted:Set aside lots of free time - in fact, pick a second book to go along with it. While the writing is superb, it's by no means a light read, and requires some dedication and attention to details. In that case, I'm also re-reading Watership Down.
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Apr 23, 2012 19:04
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A History of Psychiatry (Edward Shorter). Picked this up after it was mentioned in one of the threads here. I thought it was quite mediocre, the only interesting part being about the "nerve clinics" of the late 1800s to 1920s and the drug development of the 1940s and 1950s. It just didn't spend enough time on any topic. Lobotomy was quickly summed up as "this didn't work out" when there could have been so much more - the Rosemary Kennedy episode (which I do believe was known about at the time of the book's publication), the sheer brutality of the Freeman method, and Freeman's fall from glory over the death of a patient. Also, there is nothing about the era of "mother's little helper." Decent if you know nothing about psychiatry, but if you're even slightly familiar, this just doesn't do it.
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Apr 24, 2012 06:46
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I caved into the hype and started reading the Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy - just about finished with book two. I was wondering if I should start a thread on it, but I didn't know if anyone else here caved like I did and read through it. The writing isn't very good and some of the scenes suspend my disbelief, but be damned if I'm not excited to start the third book.
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Apr 25, 2012 05:16
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Just finished Warhammer 40k's Ciaphas Cain book six, called Cain's Last Stand. It was pretty good as hes sort of an anti-hero and usually a total b**tard and just out to save his own skin. its pretty funny at times, but after reading a lot of sci-fi lately I think I'm going to look for something a little different next.
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Apr 25, 2012 12:21
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George R.R. Martin's Clash of Kings. Tyrion!  I'm in the mood for some history next though, either Fredrick's Douglass biography or Downfall by Richard B. Frank. GRINK HELCH posted:Also just read Atwood's Oryx and Crake. The story of Jimmy who has delt with possibly the end of mankind? Really enjoyed, but I'm not sure if I should continue with the trilogy. It felt very complete on its own. Oryx and Crake isn't actually part of a trilogy. There is Year of the Flood though which is a companion novel with completely diffrent characters. Jimmy only shows up at the very end if I remember correctly. Lord Lambeth fucked around with this message at 07:30 on Apr 26, 2012 |
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Apr 26, 2012 07:14
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Just finished Postmortal. I love it when books start off solid and you think, "OK. if it can maintain this standard of story, it'll be a great read" and then they get even better. I just loved all the little worldbuilding that went on. It's a great illustration about the direction/purpose of our western lifestyles. Isn't too long and well worth a read if you are interested in the following: -What happens when our present day world suddenly gets 'the future' it's been promised -An author who actually understands our generation and can write for/within it. Instead of being all HURDUR THESE KIDS ARE ALL HACKERS BECAUSE INTERNET -If you've daydreamed lately about immortality.
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Apr 26, 2012 14:30
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Finished a re-read of Dance with Dragons and now I'm moving on to Rhialto The Marvellous by Jack Vance. I love the Dying Earth books and I purposely set this one aside to keep myself from reading all four at the same time. Looks a bit heavier than the others, so I'm not sure that was such a good idea, but there's nothing wrong with density.Greenman 0309 posted:Just finished "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan. Very good book that totally sucked me in...very much a book "that you can't put down". Its set up pretty well for a sequal which i cant wait for! I'll probably read I, Lucifer also by Glen Duncan next. I'm hearing nothing but praise for that book. I really need to try it out.
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Apr 26, 2012 15:13
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bengraven posted:I'm hearing nothing but praise for that book. I really need to try it out. Did you not see my response to that post? I seriously loving hated that book. I loved Postmortal, though, and I'm surprised not to see more praise for it here.
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Apr 26, 2012 16:00
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Just finished Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World. While I enjoyed it, I feel like it had a bit of a preaching to the choir aspect (I just sort of doubt you would read the book if you weren't already a skeptic). I did find it really fascinating though, particularly when it was talking about various witch hunts. I really enjoyed his writing style, so I'll have to read some of his other books eventually.
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Apr 26, 2012 17:20
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funkybottoms posted:Did you not see my response to that post? I seriously loving hated that book. Oh, well now I've officially heard "mostly" praise for it. 
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Apr 26, 2012 19:03
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Lampsacus posted:Just finished Postmortal. Now I really enjoyed the book too, but I thought his inclusion of the "Troll" group felt very geriatric and poorly thought out. "Oh, I'm an abuse victim with anger problems and low self-esteem. Why don't I join an internet forum of like-minded individuals, paint my head green, and throw lye in people's eyes to ruin their immortal lives forever? Yeah, that sounds like a plan!
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Apr 26, 2012 19:29
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Lord Lambeth posted:George R.R. Martin's Clash of Kings. Tyrion! I liked Year of the Flood. As Lord Lambeth says it isn't a continuation. It feels more like a novel sharing the world rather than an attempt to progress the plot of Oryx and Crake. Of course it also shares some of the same characters and it's interesting to get glimpses of them in passing.
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Apr 26, 2012 23:54
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Woman on the edge of time by Marge Piercy. I liked it, the utopia the author put together as the future was really interesting, intricate and well thought out and I thought the characters were well constructed and 3 dimensional, but the ending felt like a cop-out and there were too many questions left unanswered for my taste. It didn't feel like a "make up your own conclusion" moment, it just felt to me like the author didn't know where to take things. Maybe I skim read one too many important paragraphs or something, because I just felt I should know more by the end.
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Apr 27, 2012 01:41
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Spirit Gate by Kate Elliott People that ride under eagles, indentured servants, and a prologue plot thread that doesn't get tied until the end. The book also has a very feudal Japan feel to it.
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Apr 29, 2012 04:05
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Return of the Soldier, by Rebecca West. We had a debate in class about this, and I was on the side that Chris should've been left un-cured for the reasons that 1) Kitty is a vapid and horrible person 2) it's his way of copping his PTSD and the untold horrors he saw in the trenches and 3) the moment he's cured, he's going to be shipped back. If we take the intro of the book, when Kitty and Jenny were told that Chris was wounded by Margarette, it's Jenny who gets him. Kitty wants Chris to come back a hero, dead or alive! I do hate Kitty. Benny the Snake fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Apr 29, 2012 |
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Apr 29, 2012 05:03
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I finished the latest book in the Ender series, Shadows in Flight. A short read, but it did go into more detail about the Formics which was interesting. A predictable ending. Overall a good read but not as good as the other Ender novels.
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Apr 30, 2012 01:21
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outlier posted:Taking a break from a bit of serious reading, I picked up - and just finished - John Courtney Grimwood's Pashazade. I liked his previous RedRobe, so I've had this on my shelves for a while. I just finished this one yesterday as well, and it's the strangest thing: I loved the book, but I can't disagree with anything you've written here and can even add some complaints of my own, like the fact that the whole mystery of the book was solved in the last 10 or so pages without much buildup throughout the novel. And yet I just loved all the characters, from the beginning when I thought "holy poo poo, Raf is just The Dude from The Big Lebowski in North Africa" (although he did change from that pretty quickly) and especially Hani, cliche computer hacker kid she may be. I loved the setting as well, even though I never realized that El-Iskandriya is Alexandria until your post  Saying it out loud and seeing the two words together it seems so obvious, but it just never occurred to me. Anyway, basically what I'm saying is that while I agree that it would have really irritated me if I were looking for a plot-driven, tightly-wound mystery (which I kinda was at some points, which is why I can agree with everything you said), I really enjoyed it from the standpoint of "interesting characters I like are doing things in a dark, intriguing city" with the things they're actually doing being secondary, if that makes any sense. Not saying you're wrong, since I fully understand why you feel the way you do about this book, I'm just providing my alternate take. I definitely feel you on the graphic violence, too. I've never been one to shy away from violence or gore, but it gets a little wearisome reading "so-and-so was shot three times, now let me describe what each of those bullets did to her in detail, one by one." Although I did think it worked for Felix's death, since that was more for drama than anything else.
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Apr 30, 2012 02:13
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WeaponGradeSadness posted:I just finished this one yesterday as well, and it's the strangest thing: I loved the book, but I can't disagree with anything you've written here and can even add some complaints of my own, like the fact that the whole mystery of the book was solved in the last 10 or so pages without much buildup throughout the novel. I can totally see that - I didn't dislike it in the sense of it being a bad book (I've read a lot, lot worse), more that it seemed like all the parts were there for a good book but they didn't really come together. It's a great premise (Germany wins WW1, the Ottoman Empire never falls, its byzantine and corrupt bureaucracy continues to rule the Middle East into the 21st Century), a great setting (the rich and poor rubbing shoulders in this noir-ish Middle Eastern city), but the story - from my point of view - doesn't make much use of it. It feels more like the setup for a trilogy - which it it is. Once thing, is it ever adequately explained how Raf ends up with a head full of cyberware and killer instincts? The books seems to wave it away with a rushed explanation.
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Apr 30, 2012 08:53
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I've finished reading the Angel of Rage by Colin Chadwick and Tricked (The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book Four) by Kevin Hearne. Angel of Rage - being the second book by C. Chadwick - was more enjoyable to read than the previous one: the conquest still continues but the Stone Giant slaves finally manage to escape their captors. The story delves further into the background/history of the Fallen Angels and their transformation. Tricked, the fourth book of the Iron Druid Chronicles was refreshing to read compared to the previous books. While they had been a tad boring and predictable (find a member of some pantheon, figure out their weakness and slay them), this one more or less exclusively dealt with Native American mythology (which mostly means Coyote).
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Apr 30, 2012 13:00
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outlier posted:I can totally see that - I didn't dislike it in the sense of it being a bad book (I've read a lot, lot worse), more that it seemed like all the parts were there for a good book but they didn't really come together. It's a great premise (Germany wins WW1, the Ottoman Empire never falls, its byzantine and corrupt bureaucracy continues to rule the Middle East into the 21st Century), a great setting (the rich and poor rubbing shoulders in this noir-ish Middle Eastern city), but the story - from my point of view - doesn't make much use of it. It feels more like the setup for a trilogy - which it it is. Yeah, I can definitely see that. I've got the second book, hopefully whenever I start that it'll flow a lot better now that the setup is out of the way. As for the cyberware, I'm pretty sure there was a couple lines about how his mother had them implanted at birth as basically the most hardcore child safety insurance possible, and since it does things like speed up his reaction time and so forth to help him get out of danger he's able to use it for offense as well.
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Apr 30, 2012 16:02
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WeaponGradeSadness posted:Yeah, I can definitely see that. I've got the second book, hopefully whenever I start that it'll flow a lot better now that the setup is out of the way. Right - I got that part, but thought it was bit thin and there had to be a better, more thorough explanation. Glad to see I didn't miss anything.
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Apr 30, 2012 17:11
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funkybottoms posted:Did you not see my response to that post? I seriously loving hated that book. To go back to your question of "Why do people like 'The Last Werewolf?'" I liked it mostly because the narrator's voice clicked with me. I think most people's enjoyment of the book will hinge on whether they like the narrator or not. I also love "not quite sci-fi" like most of Jonathon Lethem's books, so that helped. It's a more literary take on the whole werewolves and vampires thing. Literary in that it's more about the characters than the specifics of werewolf lore and species wars, etc etc that most supernatural books devolve into. I liked the main character, I liked the turning point, I liked the ending. It's not amazing, but a good, solid read.
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Apr 30, 2012 19:28
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Shadow Gate by Kate Elliott, second in the Crossroads trilogy. Pretty good book despite a chapter long rape and female degradation thing along with some implied underage stuff 2/3 of the way through.
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Apr 30, 2012 22:43
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The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan. Not thrilling nor any of the good things it was reportedly supposed to be. White Horse by Alex Adams. Like a cross between The Road and The Stand. Great stuff. Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig. Another great one.
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May 1, 2012 00:18
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I just finished Life, the Universe, and Everything by Dougles Adams. I loved it. Some very great parts that make you re-read just so the genius can sink in. Can't wait to get So Long and Thanks for all the Fish . Read about a third of the way through 2061: Odssey Three by Arthur C. Clarke, and I can't put it down. After that, I don't know. I have a lot of books in queue, but most of them are sequels. I'm in the mood for something new.
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May 1, 2012 00:29
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I recently finished Carrie by Stephen King, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, and 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King. I used to avoid Stephen King after the first book of his that I read, Cell, didn't impress or interest me very much, but after reading Cujo I've realized that his early work is his best and I've started going through them in order. Carrie is an outstanding book for anyone who was ever given a rough time by their classmates or their parents, and it works well as a gruesome revenge fantasy. 'Salem's Lot is a great vampire novel and thoroughly creeped me out. Brave New World is one of the granddaddies of dystopian fiction, and while it isn't as good as 1984 or Fahrenheit 451, it's certainly an interesting read. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is...hard to explain to anyone who's not familiar with it. Technically speaking it's about two guys doing lots of drugs in Vegas in the early 70s, but really it's about so much more than that. Not much of a story, but Thompson's writing is so disturbing, insightful, and hilarious you won't even notice.
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May 3, 2012 04:05
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Unto Leviathan AKA Ship of Fools (US title) by Richard Paul Russo. In the field of sci-fi horror, I'd rank it about equal with Hull Zero Three, but not as good as Blindsight. Here's how I see it: UNTO LEVIATHAN + very readable - not much explained by the end HULL ZERO THREE - ambiguously and confusingly written + everything explained by the end BLINDSIGHT + very readable + everything explained by the end On Goodreads I gave the above three books 4, 4, and 5 stars, respectively. ----------- My Goodreads review for Unto Leviathan: Hedrigall on goodreads posted:Spooky scary spaceship happenings! In some ways a let down because a lot went unexplained. Nevertheless, it kept up a great atmosphere throughout so I still enjoyed it. I wish it wrapped things up more definitively though. Blindsight and Hull Zero Three (this book's stablemates in the tiny subgenre of space horror) both managed that a lot better.
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May 3, 2012 13:21
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Static Rook posted:To go back to your question of "Why do people like 'The Last Werewolf?'" I liked it mostly because the narrator's voice clicked with me. I think most people's enjoyment of the book will hinge on whether they like the narrator or not. ...and if they're into lengthy, vivid descriptions of anal sex. Not to bag on you/argue- if you liked it, you liked it- but I found the sardonic, literary narration to be window dressing on an otherwise unremarkable, unoriginal genre novel/slash fiction. To each their own, though. Insatiably Curious" posted:White Horse by Alex Adams. Like a cross between The Road and The Stand. Great stuff. Did you have a problem getting into this, or are the first thirty or forty pages indicative of the entire book? I had an ARC months back but wasn't feeling it. To contribute something positive, if you're looking for some very well-written short stories about motherhood and nurturing (what goon isn't?), Megan Bergman's Birds of a Lesser Paradise is quite good. If you want a bunch of short stories and fragmentary vignettes that remind you of all the awful decisions you've made in life, Matt Mullins' Three Ways of the Saw is... good? Well, neither book is terribly happy, but I enjoyed them both.
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May 3, 2012 13:52
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A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. I like the format of the whole thing, since pretty much every story could stand on its own, but I feel like it didn't let me connect to the characters all that much. It felt like it had the slow character development of a novel but in the span of a short story, so that large pieces just weren't there and it never totally got around to everything/everyone. I also had a tough time recalling a bunch of the stories the day after I finished them until bits and pieces were explicitly mentioned later on. Nothing really stuck with me. Some of the stories were tough for me to get through. Forty Minute Lunch and Out of Body took me some time, but some of the others were great, like X's and O's and Safari which I read in a short story collection and is why I picked up the book in the first place. I kind of braced myself going in since everyone told me how great it was (and that it won a pulitzer) and I'm glad I did or else I might have been really disappointed. It wasn't bad at all, but it didn't feel particularly special to me, either.
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May 3, 2012 16:27
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