What books are you reading now?

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Thu Nov 25, 2010 3:52 am

Sashi wrote:The only universally positive thing Heinlein did was invent the word "grok". And the only thing Heinlein 100% believed in was that old crusty dudes should get lots of hot young poontang.

I can grok this wholeheartedly.

PoliteNewb · Post by **PoliteNewb** » Thu Nov 25, 2010 6:29 am

Cynic wrote:Zine: Heinlein is a neocon fascist. It's not just Starship troopers but other books such as Glory Road, Stranger in a strange land, and the rest of the cheap teen scifi books he used to write.

It's been a while, but I seem to recall Stranger in a Strange Land being about crazy free love cults with literal cannibalism as a sacrament. I'm not remembering the fascism. Never read Glory Road.

I did read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, which was about revolution and where one of the main characters was a rational anarchist. Also Friday, which for all it's flaws was pretty much anti-government in all it's forms.

I will grant that I would never want to live in the world of Starship Troopers. But pigeonholing Heinlein as a neocon fascist is a bit shortsighted.

And the only thing Heinlein 100% believed in was that old crusty dudes should get lots of hot young poontang.

Trufax. In fact, it gets a little creepalicious with the Lazarus Long stuff. And by "a little" I mean "like whoa".

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Thu Nov 25, 2010 2:25 pm

Heinlein is a bit unusual in that he changed with the times. I'm told his early work was extremely sexist, but it's definitely way toned down as of Friday.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sun Nov 28, 2010 12:51 am

So, because Wheel of Time has been coming up lately, I offer this link. I may have found it on the Den somewheres.

http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/sh ... p?t=386600

Bihlbo · Post by **Bihlbo** » Fri Dec 03, 2010 5:14 pm

I just finished reading The Book of the New Sun and The Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. Mind-blowing books that make me want to RPG the setting till it's intollerable.

JigokuBosatsu · Post by **JigokuBosatsu** » Fri Dec 03, 2010 5:17 pm

Oh yeah! Gene Wolfe is amazing. I believe there was a New Sun GURPS supplement. It sounded wacky.

Bihlbo · Post by **Bihlbo** » Fri Dec 03, 2010 5:34 pm

The biggest hurdle for me actually doing it is finding a good RPG system that doesn't make me want to spend months reworking it. The setting doesn't lend itself well to skirmish-oriented system like D&D.

JigokuBosatsu · Post by **JigokuBosatsu** » Fri Dec 03, 2010 5:39 pm

Well... it does, kind of. Most of the 'wandering monsters' Severian fights are people, but he also stumbles upon a lot static monsters... cave apes, alzabo, an 'ettin'.

I see what you mean, though. To have full use of that setting and waste it on "You encounter 2d8 Ascian soldiers and a gazebo" would be frustrating.

Bihlbo · Post by **Bihlbo** » Fri Dec 03, 2010 6:17 pm

Hehe, given Wolfe's use of language in the books, I'm almost scared of what a gazebo would be.

Datawolf · Post by **Datawolf** » Mon Dec 06, 2010 5:50 pm

The Laughing Jesus by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy.

Calibron · Post by **Calibron** » Mon Dec 06, 2010 8:37 pm

Strange Angels by Kathe Koja. I recommend it if you like in-depth emotional characterization in a modern setting.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Mon Dec 06, 2010 8:56 pm

Finally got around to finishing the 5th book of Lord of The Isles. It has an ending that is bizzarely nonsensical

See, it turns out the main villain is alt-Ilna, possessed by The Tree of Evil. That in itself is actually pretty cool, but then things become stupid. Ilna is apparently immune to alt-Ilna's power because she told The Tree to fuck off back in the first book. There are many problems with this:

1. Alt-Ilna has a whole lot more power than Ilna-prime has, and several different types. She can rip holes in dimensions and trigger a permanent ice age on the alternate world, which she does by sucking all the heat into herself as raw power. Ilna-prime, meanwhile, can weave mind-effecting patterns, foretell the future, and arbitrarily find things out by connecting them to patterns, all of which Alt-Ilna can also do. If Alt-Ilna learned everything from The Tree, why can't Ilna-prime do them? If she got some of them from other sources, how is Ilna-prime immune to them.

2. So Alt-Ilna can't directly effect Ilna-prime because of... something. However, Ilna-prime is standing on ice Alt-Ilna has demonstrated the ability to reshape on the spot. Why doesn't Alt-Ilna just drop Ilna-prime into the water?

3. Since apparently all evil is controlled by The Tree, why is Ilna-prime ever effected by any hostile magic?

4. Sharina has a badass talking axe with the demonstrated ability to tell Alt-Ilna's powers to fuck right off, specifically a magical item that worked fine of Ilna-prime. Why does she get immobilized by the magical net thingy?

Doom · Post by **Doom** » Mon Dec 06, 2010 9:09 pm

Gene Wolfe is the bomb, with a ridiculously large vocabulary. He insists that he never makes up words, but he must a whole wing of his house devoted to obscure dictionaries.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Tue Dec 07, 2010 1:03 am

Read Brandon Sanderson's "Warbreaker." The magic system was very interesting but the character dialog was absolute shit.

Also Dan simmons apparently loves chewing stalks of grass. In "Hyperion" he has pretty much all the important characters pluck stalks of grass and chew on them when he wants them to contemplate something, anything.

Having 6-7 different characters do this a couple different times through a 600 page book was interesting and felt like Dan Simmons really, really likes wheatgrass shakes.

Korwin · Post by **Korwin** » Mon Dec 13, 2010 1:05 pm

Any girlgenius fans here?
http://www.webscription.net/showproduct ... rship-city

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Mon Dec 13, 2010 5:45 pm

::raises hand::

Thanks for reminding me. I need to check today's update

JonSetanta · Post by **JonSetanta** » Mon Dec 13, 2010 10:37 pm

I've put Foglio's comic aside when it got stale, but maybe the story has picked up again...

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 7:10 pm

Every time I begin to regret my fondness for sketchy D&D novels, I remind myself that it is cheaper than drinking. Another Ebberon novel picked up while browsing a store in the course of looking for an audiobook version of Elizabeth Moon's first book in the Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy. Sheepfarmer's Daughter is pretty good, and the audiobook made an ideal holiday gift when I expect long drives in someone's future.

Psychic Robot · Post by **Psychic Robot** » Mon Dec 20, 2010 4:20 am

The Elfstones of Shannara is a huge step above The Sword of Shannara. Sword basically reads like polished fan fiction (or very mediocre fantasy), but Elfstones shows a lot of development. The Wishsong of Shannara, which I am currently reading, is also better than Elfstones.

Blicero · Post by **Blicero** » Tue Dec 21, 2010 2:37 am

I just finished Shatterpoint, a Clone Wars novel by Matthew Stover. It focuses on Mace Windu doing something tangentially related to the Clone Wars. I'm not really a Star Wars person (my experience consists of the six films, a handful of (mostly YA) novels and comics, and KotORII), but I really enjoyed Shatterpoint.

It's basically a retelling of Heart of Darkness in a Star Wars setting, with a heavy emphasis on The True Nature of War, what being in a lawless amoral setting does to you, etc. It also has a number of kickass action scenes, unsurprisingly.

Stover does take almost ridiculous care to have everything be Star Wars-y. There are lame aphorisms aplenty, weird races that I've never heard of, and, most of all, brandnames. Pretty much every weapon, vehicle, and other piece of equipment has its maker mentioned, its exact size, and so on. Not having a lot of experience with the EU, I can't say how this compares to other novels.

But Shatterpoint works mostly as a warstory that isn't really about Star Wars per se. And, in that respect, it totally works with a couple of minor flaws.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 2:40 pm

I finally got Towers of Midnight. Mat=best character. I'd have to say the best line was:

"Just because a man marries someone doesn't mean he suddenly becomes bloody nobility"

"Mat, That's actually exactly how it works. It's pretty much one of the only ways to become nobility"

I'm pretty sure Verin only did things the way she did as part of her elaborate oath-dodging setup. She didn't know about the cannon R&D Mat was setting up, so she figured he wouldn't want to hang around Caemlyn for very long and would open the letter to get away.

Rand has finally become competent and decisive.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 5:40 pm

Cory Doctorow's Makers is a decent read, but the whole thing where

they invent self-replicating 3D printers in the space of a week with prior art being 3D epoxy printers, with no real motivation or explanation

really hurts suspension of disbelief.

Does he expect us to believe that they're making self-replicating printers out of nothing but epoxy?

And then, for some reason

nobody ends up using those matter printers to make anything bigger, recursively self-improving, or incredibly dangerous

. At least not for over a decade.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 6:03 pm

I got V for Vendetta while my Internet was out.

I'd seen bits and pieces of the movie, but I see they lifted a few scenes directly from the comics (which is what you'd expect).

I prefer comic V, though. The amped-up crazy really works for him. Especially for the stuff like...Having a conversation with a statue of Madam Justice and carrying on both sides of the conversation himself.

It really is an exercise for the reader whether V is insane or does this shit to amuse himself while he's doing his business of crashing the government. He admits to being intentionally theatrical, so...your mileage may vary.

The side-by-side of anarchy and fascism is also interesting.

But, still, I liked Watchmen more. I cared about more of the characters (I don't particularly like Evey, don't really -like- V despite him being fun to see in action) and the plot, too, for some reason.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Thu Dec 30, 2010 1:42 am

I got A Game Of Thrones for Christmas.

I kept wanting to slap characters for not quite grasping the concept of "pissing off a direwolf", but the wolves themselves handed out object lessons pretty readily. They are so awesome; why can't all animal sidekicks be that awesome?

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Thu Dec 30, 2010 2:23 am

My mom bought me (among other books) 100 Things You're No Supposed to Know. Some of it I know, but there's a lot of interesting stuff in there. It's also in perfect bite-sized chunks so it makes great portable reading.