What Did You Just Finish?

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Was Taters: Jul 30, 2004; Here comes a regular

Hoover Dam posted:

Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven. First of his books I've read, and I'll be picking up the rest. It's the story of the fundamentalist (i.e. still practicing polygamy) Mormon sects and how they're keeping up the tradition of holding tight to church practices that Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and other church founders all just kinda made up.

I'm more a fan of his survival/adventure stuff.

I just finished Eliot Pattison's latest Tibetan mystery, Beautiful Ghosts. The guy writes about Tibet and China, mystery novels set in Tibet which are as much about the struggle to preserve the Buddhist culture of Tibet in the face of China's reforms, as they are about any mystery. I cannot recommend them highly enough, although I will say I always finish them feeling pretty melancholy.

His site can be found here: http://www.eliotpattison.com/

# ¿ Nov 22, 2006 10:42

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 21:05

Was Taters: Jul 30, 2004; Here comes a regular

Faderaven posted:

Just finished Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling.

It's a book written by a geek about geeks for geeks. The main characters are some sort of special forces guy and a wiccan priestess!

Having said that I really liked it. I thought his characters were fairly well written but the main villain pretty much comes out of nowhere. I hear I have to slog thru a horrible second book and then a third book to find out how our heroes deal with him.

Heh I read the second book without reading the first book! Am relatively intrigued, may move on to the 3rd book.

# ¿ Nov 23, 2006 01:16

Was Taters: Jul 30, 2004; Here comes a regular

David Keck's In the Eye of Heaven - it's a very good fanasy novel, which is long but doesn't go into multiple novels to conclude its story. Which I appreciated.

The main character is sympathetic if a bit self-loathing, and there's plenty of good battle action - which is typically hard to convey in print.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2007 01:13

Was Taters: Jul 30, 2004; Here comes a regular

I just finished the third book in Jim Butcher's Fury series, "Cursor's Fury" and realized it's going to be several more books before it's done. Oh well.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2007 10:21

Was Taters: Jul 30, 2004; Here comes a regular

I just finished Richard K Morgan's Market Forces. Loved it, due to the action, and human interaction. Sometimes a bit preachy, but it's hard to find a good writer of action anymore and the car chases in this actually revved my heart. I like Morgan's science ficti a lot, which this is not - more just future fiction, although it does give a nod to Mars (all his other books feature Mars pretty heavily).

# ¿ May 12, 2008 06:52

Was Taters: Jul 30, 2004; Here comes a regular

Just finished The Yiddish Policeman's Union. What a loving great book. I haven't read anything else by Chabon, and I'd just heard this talked up randomly so I thought I'd check it out. Definitely one of my top five for the past decade.

# ¿ May 25, 2008 04:39

Was Taters: Jul 30, 2004; Here comes a regular

Blindsight by Peter Watts. Hard science fiction, Hugo nominated - just excellent. Fell apart a tiny bit at the end but still, excellent.

# ¿ Sep 14, 2008 02:47

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 21:05

Was Taters: Jul 30, 2004; Here comes a regular

I just read Michael Chabon's The Final Solution. I enjoyed it a lot and read it at high speed so I completely missed the 'twist'. Someone else had to tell me! How dumb am I?

# ¿ Oct 12, 2008 23:31

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > What Did You Just Finish?