Raithe Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 On a book related note.. Darrell K. Sweete died. 1934-2011. While you might not recognise the name, he illustrated an amazing amount of sci-fi and fantasy books over the years. Tor - Darrell K. Sweete "Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walsingham Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 BREAK BREAK GD, I've been listening to the biography of the spy known as Mata Hari. Apparently her husbnad was involved in this massive campaign in the Dutch East Indies I'd never heard of. Sounds fascinating. Plenty of mercenaries too. Maybe mix in that war with shreds of your original story as part retrospective? That way you'd get the civil war chaps, exploit your understanding, and bring in a really exotic flavour at the same time. Ok I think you are on to something here. I was investigating if any conferderate veterans turned up in the French Foreign Legion, or the British Army following Approtimax but I like this idea too. On a book note I'm now reading The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805 by Richard Zacks. As many of you know it was the Barbary Coast campaign where the line in the Marine Corps hymn "To the shores of Tripoli" came from. Fascinating reading. That does sound interesting. I will have to give it a go. "It wasn't lies. It was just... bull****"." -Elwood Blues tarna's dead; processing... complete. Disappointed by Universe. RIP Hades/Sand/etc. Here's hoping your next alt has a harp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guard Dog Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Now reading Walden by Thoreau. Not for nothing is it one of the most influential works of all time. "While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before" Thomas Sowell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MechanicalLemon Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Now reading Walden by Thoreau. Not for nothing is it one of the most influential works of all time. I visited Walden a few years back. Very beautiful place. I'm reading through Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers. So far, it's exactly the same as the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guard Dog Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Now reading Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero by Micheal Hingson. He is a blind man who worked on the 76th floor of the North Tower of the WTC on 9-11. His guide dog Roselle led him and a lot of other people out after the plane hit. "While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before" Thomas Sowell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WDeranged Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 I need to get around to finishing Walden, I remember being hugely impressed with the author's intellect, modern writing has lost that level of insane descriptive detail, a falling leaf is now just a falling leaf, embellishment seems pretentious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guard Dog Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 This just in: Brandon Sanderson Has Finished The Final WoT Book "A Memory of Light" Once revisions are completed we can finally see how it all ends after almost 20 years. It should come out in 3Q this year. "While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before" Thomas Sowell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hurlshort Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 I read the Hunger Games trilogy. It was better than expected, kind of like The Giver, but with a bit more teenage angst. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightshape Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 This just in: Brandon Sanderson Has Finished The Final WoT Book "A Memory of Light" Once revisions are completed we can finally see how it all ends after almost 20 years. It should come out in 3Q this year. Just enough time for a re-read I came up with Crate 3.0 technology. Crate 4.0 - we shall just have to wait and see.Down and out on the Solomani RimNow the Spinward Marches don't look so GRIM! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shryke Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 This just in: Brandon Sanderson Has Finished The Final WoT Book "A Memory of Light" Once revisions are completed we can finally see how it all ends after almost 20 years. It should come out in 3Q this year. friggin' finally i hate leaving a series unfinished and i've struggled through the latter half of the series let it end when your mind works against you - fight back with substance abuse! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guard Dog Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 This just in: Brandon Sanderson Has Finished The Final WoT Book "A Memory of Light" Once revisions are completed we can finally see how it all ends after almost 20 years. It should come out in 3Q this year. Just enough time for a re-read I had that same thought. It's been years since I've looked at any of them other than the last one. I called Eye of the World on my Kindle last night and set out from Emonds Field once again... for the last time. "While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before" Thomas Sowell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoonDing Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I wouldn't be surprised to see Sanderson finishing A song of ice and fire, too. The ending of the words is ALMSIVI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MechanicalLemon Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 GRRM has posted an excerpt from TWOW. Spoilers obviously. Reading the excerpt has confirmed my suspicions regarding a certain letter at the end of ADWD. Also reading "A Conspiracy of Paper" by David Liss. It's a historical/mystery book centered around the first stock market crash. Pretty interesting so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blarghagh Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Just started reading "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss on recommendation by... the world, or something. It'd be easier to list who didn't recommend it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shryke Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Just started reading "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss on recommendation by... the world, or something. It'd be easier to list who didn't recommend it. my sister made me read it and the sequel too it's... okay i guess nothing special though. just the typical zomg main character is super fantastic mage and is a badass fighter at the same time oh, and plays the lute like a boss when your mind works against you - fight back with substance abuse! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blarghagh Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Yeah, it feels a little Mary Sue but the writing is pretty good and makes up for it, I feel. Thus far, anyway, but I'm not very far in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WDeranged Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 (edited) I've been neglecting my Terry Pratchett books so this morning I read the first 50 pages of Making Money, I can tell I'm going to enjoy it, if only because the insane banking system of Ankh Morpork still makes more sense than our real world equivalent Edited January 12, 2012 by WDeranged Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raithe Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 My fresh copy of Skirmish - House Wars book 4 by Michelle West arrived. Heh, so look at it this way, many years ago (we're talking a couple of decades) an author writes a duology. What was intended as a minor character (a 15/16 year old girl with some untrained seer-talents) in the first book expands, and becomes much more significant but you don't really find much more about them. Approximately a decade or so later, the author then writes up a 6 book series (The Sun Sword series) which is set in the same world (and roughly 16 years after the events in the duology), and braids several storylines together, with the aforementioned minor character turning up (now a young 30 something, with some influence in a noble house) and having a quite extensive section throughout the story - again, seeming to support other events, but growing even more into a primary character with her own story arc. There seems to be a whole subplot to the Sun Sword series about how she might have to fight an "in-house political war" and assume control of it when her mentor dies - however that's always kept to the background of the primary story but its still pumped along.. then towards the end of the final book - boom. The character finds out her mentor dies, that its all coming to a head.. and she gets summoned back to the house in the middle of a war. The book continues with the war (which was the primary story) but never wraps up any of story of that character. Jump forward another decade of real world time, and the author writes the first book in the House War - which is set about 5 years _before_ the original duology that started it all off, and is the story of a 10 year old orphan girl on the streets and who happens to have an erratic and untrained seer-talent... (yes, this time that minor character gets the lead role from the beginning rather then huge sections from books that she was just "supporting"...). The first three books cover how she goes from street orphan to being "adopted" as it were into the leading noble house of the empire - book 3 actually redoes a lot of the original duology, but from the girls point of view. And ends with her being around the 15/16 year age... Book four starts ..and its the day after her mentor died. Picking up exactly where the girl teleported out of the war zone in the 6 book series... I have to admit, if you enjoy braided storylines and fantasy stories it's worth the effort of actually following the books. But I do find it quirky just how it all grew out and developed over time. "Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guard Dog Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 Now reading "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" all five books in one collection. I don't know how I've avoided reading this on yet but it is a lot of fun. "While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before" Thomas Sowell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walsingham Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 "Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the western..." "It wasn't lies. It was just... bull****"." -Elwood Blues tarna's dead; processing... complete. Disappointed by Universe. RIP Hades/Sand/etc. Here's hoping your next alt has a harp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theseus Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Relfections On the French Revolution Edmund Burke This is a good book, if anyone wants to contrast Thomas Pain and the American revolution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walsingham Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 May have already mentioned this, but a friend of mine is writing a book on his father's experiences in a prisoner of war camp. To my enormous surprise and pleasure it's actually very good. As a wordish side-salad I'm reading UK Eyes Alpha by Mark Urban. Published in 1998 it's a somewhat (but presumably not entirely) outdated look at the British Intelligence Services. I hoover up stuff like this, but I'm also curious to know what shape the services were in just before 9/11. The biggest point so far is that Sovbloc intelligencers rule the roost with carefree abandon. Every other area languishes! "It wasn't lies. It was just... bull****"." -Elwood Blues tarna's dead; processing... complete. Disappointed by Universe. RIP Hades/Sand/etc. Here's hoping your next alt has a harp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guard Dog Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Now reading True Spirit by Jessica Watson about her solo circumnavigation two years back. Also rereading The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan. "While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before" Thomas Sowell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raithe Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 For the general interest value: Game Over Man! - Tor Appreciates Military Fiction For the month of January, Jim Killen, the buyer in charge of Barnes & Noble "Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walsingham Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Wot? No Ghosts? "It wasn't lies. It was just... bull****"." -Elwood Blues tarna's dead; processing... complete. Disappointed by Universe. RIP Hades/Sand/etc. Here's hoping your next alt has a harp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now