The Athenaeum - Reading updates and Literary Review from the Obsidian Elite (this means you)

[aluminiumtrioxid]

 

I've been reading this piece of crap:

 

 

Easily one of the worst sci-fi books I've ever had the misfortune to encounter, with characters and dialogue so wooden that Asimov would shed proud tears seeing how the standard he set lived on even in 1995 (which, I'm told, is when this thing was written), ideas and themes Ian Watson's Warhammer 40k books have better addressed five years before the first publication of this story as gaming literature (which is pretty much the lowest of SFF), and a... final twist that actually kinda works? Surprisingly? It's definitely too little, too late to save the book, but at least an attempt was made.

 

 

Watson's 40k books addressed themes ?

 

 

Hell, compared to crap like the Gaunt's Ghosts series, they addressed themes proficiently.

[Malcador]

Hey Gaunt's Ghosts explores the themes of...uhm...melodrama in war ?    I just stick the Horus Heresy series, the literary equivalent of Paradox DLC at this point.

[Gritino]

Hey Gaunt's Ghosts explores the themes of...uhm...melodrama in war ?    I just stick the Horus Heresy series, the literary equivalent of Paradox DLC at this point.

 

I hear the Horus Heresy series is getting a TV show.

[Guard Dog]

I have been having a heck of a time finding a decent fantasy series to hook my attention. I seem to just hate all the magic stuff lately. I guess I might be better off finding something historical fictiony instead. I just want a decent coming of age adventure type story.

 

I also can't find many triathlon history or biographies. I guess it is still too young of a sport to have a decent library.

You turned me on to Cornwell's Saxon series. But man that got repetitive real quick. Every book was essentially the same thing. In fact I'm pretty shire he cut-and-pasted some of Uthred's and Harold's conversations from one book to another. As for fantasy... forget it. The only ones I didn't hate were Tolkiens, Rothfuss's first two Kingkiller books, and ASoIaF.The latter two may never even get completed. The rest is just crap!

[Gritino]

 

I have been having a heck of a time finding a decent fantasy series to hook my attention. I seem to just hate all the magic stuff lately. I guess I might be better off finding something historical fictiony instead. I just want a decent coming of age adventure type story.

 

I also can't find many triathlon history or biographies. I guess it is still too young of a sport to have a decent library.

You turned me on to Cornwell's Saxon series. But man that got repetitive real quick. Every book was essentially the same thing. In fact I'm pretty shire he cut-and-pasted some of Uthred's and Harold's conversations from one book to another. As for fantasy... forget it. The only ones I didn't hate were Tolkiens, Rothfuss's first two Kingkiller books, and ASoIaF.The latter two may never even get completed. The rest is just crap!

 

 

When it comes to fiction, I only read a few books here and there. And that's only if they're very good. Otherwise, forget about it.

 

But I can definitely give you some pointers on what non-fictional works to read.

[Guard Dog]

I read a lot. 10-15 books a month sometimes. I generally split it between fiction & non-fiction. Fantasy is just a genre I don't have a lot of patience for. Sci-fi as long as it's not too far fetched appeals to me  little more.

 

The last good novel I read was a few weeks ago, Robin Lloyd's Harbor of Spies. The last really good non fiction is posted on the first page of this thread. The book about Pluto and the New Horizons mission was really interesting

[Malcador]

 

Hey Gaunt's Ghosts explores the themes of...uhm...melodrama in war ?    I just stick the Horus Heresy series, the literary equivalent of Paradox DLC at this point.

 

I hear the Horus Heresy series is getting a TV show.

 

 

 

Could be fun if it were animated.

[Gritino]

I read a lot. 10-15 books a month sometimes. I generally split it between fiction & non-fiction. Fantasy is just a genre I don't have a lot of patience for. Sci-fi as long as it's not too far fetched appeals to me  little more.

 

The last good novel I read was a few weeks ago, Robin Lloyd's Harbor of Spies. The last really good non fiction is posted on the first page of this thread. The book about Pluto and the New Horizons mission was really interesting

 

Yeah. Fiction doesn't really do anything for me anymore, but I'm always entertained by non-fiction. It's nice to learn.

 

Just remember to purchase and read this:

 

 

And this:

 

 

You can't go wrong with these two books. They explain everything.

[Guard Dog]

Now reading this. It's sort of a combination of my own interest and professional interest:

 

 

Also reading this:

 

 

A little light reading of German/Russian espionage in the 1930's

[Guard Dog]

Now reading this:

 

 

Apparently this event is pretty well known down under. It's the first I've heard of it. Fascinating story though. Two different ships wrecked on opposite sides of the same island at the same time (sort of). Neither group of survivors aware of each other. the two stories have very different endings. 

[Zoraptor]

I'd heard of the Grafton, but not the other ship involved. The General Grant would be the most famous Auckland Island shipwreck- since it was carrying gold- but that was a couple of years later.

[Malcador]

Reading Hackers, realizing Ken Williams was a bit of a ****, don't feel as badly for Sierra being taken from him.

 

Also RMS is as extreme as I thought

[Hurlshort]

Reading Hackers, realizing Ken Williams was a bit of a ****, don't feel as badly for Sierra being taken from him.

 

Also RMS is as extreme as I thought

 

I never felt bad for him to begin with, he walked away with a lot of money from that Sierra deal. I felt worse for the people that made the early games, since I don't think they walked away with much. I believe he lives on a yacht and travels the world now.

[Malcador]

Well true, but regardless of the outcome had always thought it was the case of evil corporate types robbing him of his baby rather than him more or less dying by the sword he wielded. Was funny to read EA being born as a dev focused company, too

[Raithe]

One to contemplate...

 

[Hurlshort]

That was the dumbest thing I have read in awhile.

 

People were way tougher in the dark ages when literacy rates were like 1 percent.

[kirottu]

One to contemplate...

 

*pic snip*

 

Spiderman and a lot of other Marvel superheroes say: "Hi."

 

Just to make things absolutely clear I think the guy is full of ****. He thinks because he likes certain kind of fantasy it makes him superior to other guys who like different kind of fantasy. It's a **** statement on its own even if his timeline wasn't wrong. Marvel guys didn't invent someone suddenly getting superpowers. That kind of fantasy has always been around.

[Malcador]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casca_(series)

 

Anyone read these books ? Not expecting too much as a book series that reaches 47 books probably isn't amazing

[Guard Dog]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casca_(series)

 

Anyone read these books ? Not expecting too much as a book series that reaches 47 books probably isn't amazing

Holy crap that is a lot of writing! The legend of the "wandering jew" is an old one. It sounds like that inspired his work here. I remember a very old book, Melmoth the Wanderer IIRC. It was also a take on that story. I though Anne Rice did a pretty fair service to the problems of immortality in her vampire books too. Although like most book series it went off the rails after the 2nd book.

[Raithe]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casca_(series)

 

Anyone read these books ? Not expecting too much as a book series that reaches 47 books probably isn't amazing

 

I went through a couple of dozen of them.

 

They start off with some interesting bits, but then they really start to repeat a loop of somewhat racist attitudes and milking the semi-harem building in different points in time. While the first ten or so follow strictly chronologically, they then start jumping all over the place and doing parts in flashback which gets a wee bit annoying.

 

There are some elements of nice history, but it does get wrapped up in a lot of stupid at points.

 

Edit: Also, one of the first things that happens is that the Roman Soldier, becomes a slave next to a foreign traveller who turns out to be a martial arts expert from the far off lands of asia. So, he picks up Kung Fu around 50 AD.

Edited June 27, 2018 by Raithe

[Malcador]

Edit: Also, one of the first things that happens is that the Roman Soldier, becomes a slave next to a foreign traveller who turns out to be a martial arts expert from the far off lands of asia. So, he picks up Kung Fu around 50 AD.

Okay so they are about as meh as I expect. Reading the Horus Heresy series leaves me no place to judge, but was curious.

 

Plowed through Fields of Fire, one of Kloos' Frontlines series books, not bad for sci-fi milporn I guess

[Guard Dog]

Now reading:

 

 

The book is definitely better than the movie. Not that that was a high bar to leap over.

 

 

 

I also bought this. I've been interested in the story ever since the scene in Jaws where Robert Shaw talked about it.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9S41Kplsbs

Edited June 28, 2018 by Guard Dog

[Guard Dog]

Now reading

 

 

OK, the Chet & Bernie books are not exactly heavy reading. But for some reason I've always enjoyed them enough to make it a guilty pleasure.

 

Still reading In Harms Way as well. It's a hard book to read. One of the worst ordeals I've ever read.

Edited July 5, 2018 by Guard Dog

[majestic]

Well, not exactly a book but I've spent a good deal of time reading Atomic Rockets through the years. The site is old and it shows, but is constantly being updated and worth a look for any fan of sci-fi who likes real space physics.

[Raithe]