The Latest Reading Thread

[Blarghagh]

I've tried to read that book several times. I stop everytime because it gets under my skin too much.

[Monte Carlo]

Some pulpy sci-fi, some Alan Furst, finished the 'Wolfhound Century' trilogy I was raving about a few pages back. Also finished an odd piece of speculative fiction, 'Europe in Autumn' which is a whimsical piece of near-future espionage with some parallel universe schtick. I enjoyed it. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18143945-europe-in-autumn

 

I've been writing more than I've been reading to be honest, I want to re-read the Black Company but apparently the Kindle version is appallingly formatted.

[Lexx]

I am currently reading The Martian by Andy Weir. So far I really like it. I am hooked up since I started it- should be done with it today or tomorrow at latest.

[Tale]

I read The Killing Joke, that oh-so popular Batman comic everyone who cares about Batman comics seems to love.

 

Got mixed feelings about it, but overall don't feel it lived up. It has really good ideas, it starts with Batman visiting Joker to go over how eventually one will kill the other if they don't make up. And the book basically carries that theme through to the end, mixed with a tragic backstory for Joker that makes you think it's entirely possible that he could get better one day.

 

But none of any of that is going to happen. For a much beloved Batman story, it seems nobody likes the ideas it presented. And the unwillingness to fulfill any of those promises kind of takes the impact from the story.

[Raithe]

Out of curiosity I tried Dan Abnett's Tomb Raider: Ten Thousand Immortals.

 

Supposedly a bit of post-Yamatai fiction to help lead into the Rise of the Tomb Raider. 

 

Now while Abnett has done some quite decent Warhammer books, I have to say this one didn't really work that well. A central theme being that Lara has PTS and panic attacks throughout the whole story. Also, regardless of how capable she became on Yamatai and how many people she killed to survive there, the moment she's back in civilisation she loses all of that. So when she's got a couple of rough guys chasing her, kidnapping her, and all of that, she generally deals with anxiety and goes along until she can escape.

 

There's no real explanation for the bad guys, just a lot of hand-waving and secret society names without any depth to them. A large chunk of the story is meant to be about Lara trying to find the Golden Fleece to cure Sam from some left-over Himiko possession issues, but that also gets hand-waved in the final two pages.

 

I know video game to book adaptions don't tend to work out that well, but I do wonder what crippled Abnett's writing for this. How much of it was to just lay teasers for the next game, which is why they don't really provide any answers?   Ah well.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

 

Now while Abnett has done some quite decent Warhammer books, I have to say this one didn't really work that well. 

 

 

Frankly, what I've seen of Abnett so far has convinced me that the man is painfully mediocre. Especially when you're comparing his work to the insane fever dreams of Watson. On the other hand, I've heard from people who make complaining an Olympic event that the Ravenor series is actually kind of entertaining. So I'm kinda curious. Any recs?

 

 

I'm also getting through China Miéville's Kraken, which is rather tame by the man's standards so far, but still has its moments from time to time.

Edited August 5, 2015 by aluminiumtrioxid

[Raithe]

 

 

 

Frankly, what I've seen of Abnett so far has convinced me that the man is painfully mediocre. Especially when you're comparing his work to the insane fever dreams of Watson. On the other hand, I've heard from people who make complaining an Olympic event that the Ravenor series is actually kind of entertaining. So I'm kinda curious. Any recs?

 

 

 

The Eisenhorn W40k mix is usually pretty good. Ravenor is a spin-off from that.  Also, I will admit that I found chunks of the Horus Heresy entertainin - notably Legion and to a lesser degree Prospero Burns. - To be fair, that might be coloured by how much I'm biased in favour of Alpha Legion and Thousand Sons stories..

[aluminiumtrioxid]

 

The Eisenhorn W40k mix is usually pretty good. Ravenor is a spin-off from that.  Also, I will admit that I found chunks of the Horus Heresy entertainin - notably Legion and to a lesser degree Prospero Burns. - To be fair, that might be coloured by how much I'm biased in favour of Alpha Legion and Thousand Sons stories..

 

 

I'm entertaining the thought of GMing an Alpha Legion-centered Black Crusade game at some point in the future. Think any of those could be useful as an inspiration for that?

[Malcador]

The HH stuff is ok - the Angels books were alright as are Dembski-Bowden's, but holy crap are they milking it. I can see the Siege of Terra, if they even get there, being 4-5 books

[Raithe]

 

 

The Eisenhorn W40k mix is usually pretty good. Ravenor is a spin-off from that.  Also, I will admit that I found chunks of the Horus Heresy entertainin - notably Legion and to a lesser degree Prospero Burns. - To be fair, that might be coloured by how much I'm biased in favour of Alpha Legion and Thousand Sons stories..

 

 

I'm entertaining the thought of GMing an Alpha Legion-centered Black Crusade game at some point in the future. Think any of those could be useful as an inspiration for that?

 

 

Legion is very good at showing the attitude and mindset of the Alpha Legion and how they don't play by the same rules as other legions. Plus it throws in a nice potential twist on why they went with Horus.

[Raithe]

I needed something just a touch silly..
 
The Rules of Supervillainy by C.T.Phipps.
 
Delightfully snarky with a heap of silliness as it joyfully wanders through all the clichés. The story of a nobody with dreams, who one day receives the mystical cloak of a recently deceased superhero and decides to follow his dreams. By becoming a supervillain. While it does have a fair amount of tongue in cheek it's all done quite smartly, but what really sets it apart is that Gary (the protagonist) is deeply in love with his wife and even as he commits to supervillainy he strives to make sure his marriage keeps working.
 

"I retract any doubt I may have had about you being a supervillain. You've taken part in the murder of a half a dozen people and your chief concern is about how your wife is going to react to your phone dying on you in the middle of a conversation."

"I have my priorities straight. It's why most marriages fail today. People don't put their spouses first."

[Guard Dog]

My wife is a yard sale/ flea market junkie. It can be annoying because sometimes it seems like we are sorting through someone's garbage, but she likes it so I go along with a minimal amount of complaining. I've never bought anything at one of these before last week. In a bin of old books I found a sixty year old hard cover copy of Beautiful Joe by Marshall Saunders. ASFAIK it's long out of print. The book is ragged out so it's not worth anything but I had to have it. I read it as a kid and it is one of maybe five of the thousands of books I've read that had a definite impact on my life. I sat on my porch every night this week re-reading it. Still brings a tear to they eye.

 

I'm curious, have any of you ever read a book that changes how your think about things. Have you ever read something that made you live your life differently afterwards?

Edited August 22, 2015 by Guard Dog

[Oerwinde]

Reading the Mistborn books. Started a little slow but I think I'm almost done the first book (have a digital copy of the full trilogy) and its picked up incredibly.

[Raithe]

For the mixed sides on the Hugo Awards.. The Neutral, Pro-Puppies, and Anti-Puppy viewpoints.

 

 

Wired - Who Won Science Fictions Hugo Awards And Why It Matters  (neutral)

 

Set Phasers To Kill, SJWS Burn Down The Hugo Awards To Prove How Tolerant And Welcoming They Are  (pro-puppy)

 

The Obligatory Hugo Awards Recap Post  (anti-puppy)

[Amentep]

I'm not sure why you'd count the "Wired" article as neutral...?  As I understand it, there was a woman who helped run Sad Puppies who is ignored in the article so they make the accusation Sad Puppies (which they don't distinguish from Rabid Puppies) is all about white guys fighting women and minorities.

 

But further, this little paragraph is lovely:

 

 

 

Consider: A woman named Adria Richards Twitter-shames two white dudes for cracking off-color jokes at PyCon, a tech developer conference (and then is fired and fields murder threats). GamerGate makes a political movement out of threatening with rape any woman who has the temerity to offer an opinion about a videogame. A certain strain of comic book fan goes apoplectic whenever Captain America gets replaced with a black man or Thor gets replaced with a woman. This is more than just hatred of change: When Thor once got replaced by a frog (yes, that really happened) no one uttered a peep (or a ribbit).

 

I won't address the first two points as those with opinions will already think one way or the other about those bits, but I want to address the last line - it is wrong.  Thor wasn't replaced by a frog, he was cursed to BE a frog.  And people did complain, you only have to go back to the letters pages of the time to see that.  They also complained when he was replaced (briefly) by Beta Ray Bill, complained when he was replaced by Thunderstrike, etc.   The idea that the complaints now are some sort of "well its because he was replaced by a woman!" is ridiculous, it really is what the writer suggests it isn't - there are certain fans who'll hate any change.

[Raithe]

I think I classed it as neutral because it does present both sides fairly even-handed. While it slams a bit on the one guy, it comes across more with the evidence it's because he's acting a jerk, not because of the message he's pushing.

 

It looked at both sides of the issue, rather than jumping purely on the one and doing "bad bad SJWS"  or "bad bad racist, homophobic white guys".

 

At least that's how it came across to me rather than the majority of articles out there.

[Amentep]

But my point is, its not even handed and in several cases its factually wrong so seems weird to call neutral.

[Malcador]

Aw, shame Kloos withdrew, I rather liked Lines of Departure and that series, well even if the first one showed he read Black Hawk Down.

[Raithe]

I'd say it falls in the neutral because while the author comes across as anti-puppy in her beliefs, she's trying to present both sides arguments and points of view. Not subjecting them to personal bias.  And frankly, that was about the most "neutral" one that I could find when I was making the post.

[Amentep]

Yeah I doubt there really is a True Neutral.
 

Edited August 25, 2015 by Amentep

[Rosbjerg]

Phillip K. Censoredword - The Man in The High Castle.

 

Love me some Phillip K. he's probably my favorite sci fi author, mostly because his mind seems so alien to me and yet his worlds are still logically consitent. Although "Flow My Tears the Policeman Said" was a bit too weird for me, this one seems much more grounded.. Also love contrafactual history, so its a win win.

[Leferd]

Phillip K. Censoredword - The Man in The High Castle.

 

Love me some Phillip K. he's probably my favorite sci fi author, mostly because his mind seems so alien to me and yet his worlds are still logically consitent. Although "Flow My Tears the Policeman Said" was a bit too weird for me, this one seems much more grounded.. Also love contrafactual history, so its a win win.

This is next on my Science Fiction reading list. I've read a good chunk of his material (novels and short stories) but haven't gotten around to this one yet. Will try to fit it in before the "TV" series goes online.

 

Recently been on a Western Civilization history kick. Just finished Steven Runciman's History of the Crusades in three volumes. Now considering whether now is the time to tackle Gibbon's Decline and Fall...

[Rosbjerg]

Oh man, you have to - I know its like the quintessential, but it really is a great piece of historical work.

[Monte Carlo]

The Man in the High Castle was too much for me, I find PKDs style pretty inpenetrable.

[Rosbjerg]

The Man in the High Castle was too much for me, I find PKDs style pretty inpenetrable.

 

After reading the Valis trilogy I realized you have to read him as if reality as we know it, is just something we happened to agree on and therefore should we agree on something different, everything is up for graps. He's like the zanier Star Trek episodes - on drugs.