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Going to try for 40. Already got one down! 1. REAMDE, Neal Stephenson 2. Let's Pretend This Never Happened, Jenny Lawson 3. The Mallet of Loving Correction, John Scalzi 4. Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein 5. For The Win, Cory Doctorow 6. Promise of Blood, Brian McClellan 7. The Ghost, Robert Harris 8. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig 9. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson 10. The Human Division, John Scalzi 11. The Alloy of Law, Brandon Sanderson 12. The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson 13. Heir to the Empire, Timothy Zahn 14. Dark Force Rising, Timothy Zahn 15. The Last Command, Timothy Zahn 16. Sheriff of Yrnameer, Michael Rubens 17. Old Man's War, John Scalzi 18. Words of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson <- this is where all of April went 19. The Crimson Campaign, Brian McClellan <- and this is a lot of May 20. The Martian, Andy Weir <- god drat if this wasn't an incredible loving book in the most excellent way 21. Elantris, Brandon Sanderson 22. Foundation, Isaac Asimov 23. Transmetropolitan (counting the entire series as one book), Warren Ellis 24. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke 25. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins 26. Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins 27. Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins <- depressing, this also ends my foray into YA for a while 28. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein 29. Nimitz Class, Patrick Robinson 30. HMS Unseen, Patrick Robinson <- 3/4 of the way there with only two weeks to spare 31. Neuromancer, William Gibson 32. A Fire Upon The Deep, Vernor Vinge 33. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke 34. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke 35. Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey 36. Caliban's War, James S. A. Corey 37. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho 38. The Man in the White Suit, Ben Collins 39. Abaddon's Gate, James S A Corey FAILED BY ONE. Only got halfway through Shogun before the new year hit. wintermuteCF fucked around with this message at 16:56 on Jan 2, 2015 |
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Jan 3, 2014 18:39
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Time for a 2014Q1 update, since today's the last day in March! I have read 15 books in 3 months, so if I continue at the same pace, I should easily surpass my goal of 40 for the year, and might even be able to reach 52. 1. REAMDE, Neal Stephenson - Not a bad overall (techno)thriller novel, and a nice non-cyberpunk entry from Stephenson. I never could get into his Baroque Cycle books, and Anathem and Cryptonomicon haven't called to me yet. The longest Stephenson novel I have completed, and pretty entertaining overall. 2. Let's Pretend This Never Happened, Jenny Lawson - Hilarious from start to finish. If unsure if you'll like her writing style, check out her blog (thebloggess.com). 3. The Mallet of Loving Correction, John Scalzi - I love Scalzi, and this is a collection of his Whatever blog posts. Yes, you could just use the internet, but it's not bad in book form either. 4. Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein - Bought 4 years ago, didn't finish the first chapter before I got distracted by other things. Finally got around to it and it's good! Not quite as pro-military as some people say it is (at least, I didn't feel like this was just a hoo-rah for the Marines). Also interesting from the perspective of one who's read The Forever War and Old Man's War. 5. For The Win, Cory Doctorow - TBB Secret Santa delivers! Fun overall read, if aimed at a younger audience (woo YA fiction). 6. Promise of Blood, Brian McClellan - TBB Secret Santa delivers again! Definitely similar in style to Brandon Sanderson and the Mistborn series, you can see his influences in the work. Looking forward to the second entry coming out in May. 7. The Ghost, Robert Harris - Wanted to read because I saw The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski's movie based on this book) a few years ago. Good book, even if it was mainly fleshing out a story I already knew from the movie. 8. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig - gently caress this book takes longer than it should. I don't know, I didn't hate this book, but I sure as gently caress didn't love it either. I was originally reading this to my wife, and she just couldn't handle it about halfway through, it's just too dense on the philosophy stuff for her. I even minored in philosophy and it seems like he takes too long to get to the loving point, and his expository passages about the main character's past seem overdone. 9. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson - I read this book to my wife in an effort to expose her to fun cyberpunk with some humor. She loved it. It's an old re-re-re-re-re-read for me, and I still like it. 10. The Human Division, John Scalzi - More Scalzi, the latest in the Old Man's War universe. Focuses on Harry Wilson, the buddy of OMW's protagonist John Perry, who is working with the diplomatic corps. A nice change of pace, given there's little to no combat, so the focus is on diplomatic relationships between species. If you liked OMW, you'll like this. 11. The Alloy of Law, Brandon Sanderson - A new entry in the Mistborn universe, set about 300 years after the conclusion of the earlier trilogy, so all new characters, with the same magic system present. The story itself was good overall, interesting villain, likable protagonist, nice support cast. Some people criticize Sanderson's inclusion of new metals into the existing universe/magic-system, as it's never explained why these new metals didn't exist in the old series (had they not been discovered yet? was there some arbitrary reason they were ignored? are they just the macguffin of the moment?), and I understand why those criticisms have merit. Still didn't detract from my overall enjoyment, so it was a good read. 12. The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson - Ambitious! If Sanderson pulls this series off, then bravo. Buckle up, folks, it's gonna be a long one. It's good though, and at least Sanderson doesn't suffer from GRRM-esque "must kill everyone at some point or another" sadism  13. Heir to the Empire, Timothy Zahn 14. Dark Force Rising, Timothy Zahn 15. The Last Command, Timothy Zahn - Going to deal with all three of this series ("The Thrawn Campaign"/trilogy) together here. Set in the Star Wars universe approximately 5 years after the second Death Star explodes and the old Emperor dies. The New Republic is A Thing and the remnants of the old Empire are still around, making trouble for the New Republic and trying to regain power. Leia and Han are hitched and expecting twins, Luke is no longer the last of the Jedi, as he's training his sister (and eventually her kids), there's a Dark Jedi somewhere (because of course there is), and some other Force-sensitive people come to notice. The titular Thrawn is a brilliant tactician who happens to be one of the old Grand Admirals of the Empire who escaped death at the Battle of Endor by virtue of not being there in the first place, and he's making lots of trouble for the New Republic because he's better at warfare than they are. Whatever, you know the universe. It's a good overall story, although it suffers a bit by arbitrary plot point-counterpoint-countercounterpoint because it feels a bit too convenient that the two opposing forces seem to guess the others' action a bit too well. For example, the New Republic will decide to attack planet X while leaking information and making it look like planet Y is the target, so Thrawn obviously goes "well it looks like they're going to attack Y so clearly the target is X!". It's all a bit too convenient. Nevertheless, it's a good series, flies by pretty quickly (for the good reasons, not because it's shallow), and is reported to be one of the best Expanded Universe works. If you're a Star Wars fan, you'll probably enjoy this. Time to get back to reading for Q2 starting tomorrow
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Mar 31, 2014 18:29
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