What books are you reading now?

npc310 · Post by **npc310** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 4:16 am

Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp.

Post by **fbmf** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 4:36 am

npc310 wrote:Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp.

Any good?

Game On,
fbmf

npc310 · Post by **npc310** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 4:38 am

Too early to tell. I am disappointed that his name isn't John McClane.

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 7:29 am

I read a 70s children's book about TALKING RABBITS.
It is better in every single aspect than every popular children's or YA book of the past 15 years.
The world is doomed.

ishy · Post by **ishy** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 11:31 am

Starmaker wrote:I read a 70s children's book about TALKING RABBITS.
It is better in every single aspect than every popular children's or YA book of the past 15 years.
The world is doomed.

This one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watership_Down ?

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 12:29 pm

Finished M John Harrison's "Viriconium" cycle. Seriously literary and heavy fantasy. Hard to get into but once you are in then you just can't stop reading.

Finally figured out one of the key reasons why Frank Herbert was awesome* and his son wasn't. One of the main themes of the original Dune series was ecology and how it changes. FH did this well and he had enough background experience to actually support a lot of his statements while BH & KJA just randomly throw in scientific technobabble to make it seems like they know what they are talking about.

*awesome in that he wrote good fiction. Not awesome as in he had good political or moral philosophy. Using homosexuality as a deviant trait definitely detracts from both his writing and his general likability.

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 9:33 am

ishy wrote:
Starmaker wrote:I read a 70s children's book about TALKING RABBITS.
It is better in every single aspect than every popular children's or YA book of the past 15 years.
The world is doomed.
This one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watership_Down ?

Yes, of course. But if you know of any other awesome books about talking rabbits to comprehensively destroy my faith in humanity, feel free to recommend.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 12:22 am

I started reading Debt: the first 5,000 years by David Graeber. My entire view of history has been shattered in the first two chapters. I love books like that.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 10:54 am

I'm reading the Necronomicons. Plural.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 11:33 am

I just finished Saladin Ahmed's "Throne of the Crescent Moons."

I was slightly disappointed. It's a great fast-paced read set in a middle eastern fantasy setting. But I was hoping that it wasn't just a typical western fantasy novel with just a caliphate empire and all its trappings thrown on top of it.

I would recommend it as just a fun quick read in the pace of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser type of sword & sorcery novels. An interesting part of the novel is that it mostly deals with research and recovery downtime while the action is sparse except in the very end.

Really the only true middle eastern fantasy setting I've seen has been the cyberpunk Marid Audran series by George Alec Effinger.

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:25 pm

Starmaker wrote:
ishy wrote:
Starmaker wrote:I read a 70s children's book about TALKING RABBITS.
It is better in every single aspect than every popular children's or YA book of the past 15 years.
The world is doomed.
This one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watership_Down ?
Yes, of course. But if you know of any other awesome books about talking rabbits to comprehensively destroy my faith in humanity, feel free to recommend.

I wish I could remember the name of the book, but as a kid, I remember reading one about talking animals (at least some of whom were rabbits). There was a fox who was killing and eating them, and when questioned about the blood around his mouth, said it was raspberry jam.

That's literally all I can remember of the book.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 2:29 pm

Starmaker wrote:But if you know of any other awesome books about talking rabbits to comprehensively destroy my faith in humanity, feel free to recommend.

Well, there's the sequel.

Also, The Plague Dogs, which isn't about rabbits, but is by the same author and may well destroy your faith in humanity.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 4:48 pm

Plague dogs was also made into an excellent movie by the same guy who made the Watership down movie.

npc310 · Post by **npc310** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 9:33 pm

Nothing Lasts Forever

I'll open this review by saying this is one of the few instances where I like the movie better than the book. Much better, in fact.

Not a particularly long book. Some character names were the same, but the protagonist and antagonist had different names. I wasn't John McClane vs. Hans Gruber like the movie. The wife in the movie was actually his daughter in the book. They weren't there to steal 600 million dollars, they were there to protest something-or-other to do with oil in Chile or Argentina or some damn place. Not really clear. And that is my principal complaint about the book. Stuff just isn't that clear. Like the part in the movie where he ties himself to the fire hose and leaps over the side. Then there is the tense moment as the weight of the hose and the wheel that it is usually wrapped around fall over the side and start dragging him out the window. In the book, something very similar happens, but it is all muddled and not described well. There is very little tension or fear inspired in the reader during this part. I had a hard time understanding what exactly was occurring. In fact, if not for the movie, I probably would have blown the whole thing off and kept reading, but I went back over it two or three times, trying to visualize the action in my mind. I found much of the book to be like this. Crawling thru the ventilation shafts, climbing thru the elevator chase, and other times when physical activity had to be explained...it just wasn't clear what was going on.

All in all, I would say that the book was a let down. I will definitely concede that it is probably just as much about my over-inflated expectations as it is about poor writing by the author. Die Hard is one of my favorite action movies of all, and I've anticipated reading the book for ten years or more. It's long out of print, and copies on ebay and amazon are outrageously expensive. I've been waiting for it to come out on Kindle, and finally it did so I bought it. I jokingly think to myself that it is my request on amazon.com that made the difference, because I'm cool like that.[/i]

ModelCitizen · Post by **ModelCitizen** » Wed Jun 20, 2012 11:58 am

Cynic wrote:Plague dogs was also made into an excellent movie by the same guy who made the Watership down movie.

I was about to make some joke about rabbits making a death metal video, but it turns out someone beat me to it. (Warning: contains footage from the Watership Down movie, not suitable for persons of sensitive disposition who have been haunted by that fucking movie ever since their parents unwittingly rented it for them at age five. Mommy, what's that red stuff coming out of the bunny's face?)

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Wed Jun 20, 2012 3:02 pm

I finally finished "God Emperor of Dune" and it was still as satisfying as ever. The interplay and rumination between Worm Leto and his human subjects/friends/scaredycats is awesome. There isn't much ecology talk in this book compared to the previous three but it still has enough to keep me happy. I'm just not looking forward to "Chapterhouse Dune." It was never my favorite and I know that once I finish that I'm going to force myself to read the sequels written by Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert. I've never been a fan of either of their works and their early Dune prequels were atrocious. I can only hope that their writing has gotten better.

I've also been plowing through the first volume of The New Avengers. Bendis is a pretty damn good writer when it comes to banter. There are several plot holes and it can get confusing at times during Marvel Universe -wide crossovers. But overall a totally fun read.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Wed Jun 20, 2012 9:08 pm

Ngh, Chapterhouse was painful. It is like a Ringo novel in that the author likes going on giant rants about his stupid politics, but unlike a Ringo novel in that it does not have vast quantities of action scenes and cool tech to compensate.

sabs · Post by **sabs** » Wed Jun 20, 2012 9:49 pm

Well, and the God Emperor's Troops secret tool against Riots.. is letting the rioters gang rape them.

Wut?

TOZ · Post by **TOZ** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:53 am

Michael Jackson's Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch.

I mostly got it because I was just introduced to the drink a week before finding the book, and because it's damn pretty.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 1:48 am

Remember it's not gang rape when you've indoctrinated your troops to the fact that it's good to be gang raped... The greater good even.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 4:13 am

Speaking of emperors and stupidity, I found three paperback Warhammer novels at the bookstore, and bought 'em to help their bottom line.

Soul Hunter, Salamander, and Courage and Honor.

So I think I'll read these over the next week or so, offer up a review.

I do note that Salamander is signed by the author. Which is nice.

Amethyst_Butterfly · Post by **Amethyst_Butterfly** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 3:33 am

I am reading Raymond Feist books for the first time. I read Magician: Apprentice, and I am on Magician: Master now. I am thoroughly annoyed that I never discovered this author before- I love these books!

erik · Post by **erik** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 3:55 am

I'm usually pretty psyched when I find an author that I like and I can read tons of their books without waiting for the next one to come out.

I'm in a horrible position now where I have to read something for my wife. Rather, she read this book, which was written by an old friend, and my wife promised to write a review for it. It aspires to be sci-fi, or something, and my wife says she didn't get it. Sooooo, I have been tapped to read it and I cannot stand it. I can usually read a couple hundred pages an hour, but I can't bring myself to finish it. The prose is not horrible, but the setting, the story... it hurts. Oh, it hurts.

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 12:19 pm

I read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy when I was about twelve (or so I remember) and I just got around to re-reading them. They were almost as good as I remembered them to be. Even so, they're really good. So long as you understand that the books are just as much about Mars as they are about everything else and you can stand the level of technical detail, they're actually really good reads.

I also finally got around to reading Gibson's Sprawl Trilogy, which is equally excellent. I didn't think the second two were as good as Neuromancer, but they were still quite good. I also read Pattern Recognition, which I didn't think was as good.

Regarding sexism in Jim Butcher's novels, which happened something like three pages ago, I've only read the Furies series and the first two Dresden novels, so I can't really talk that much about his corpus as a whole. Even so, the fact of the matter is that the majority of significant female characters in the Furies of Calderon series are specifically defined by their relationship to another figure, predominantly male. The rest of this is spoilered, in case you haven't read them yet. They're consistently page-turning, fairly good escapist fantasy, and if that's what you're in the mood for then I recommend them.

For starters, pretty much every time we see Kitai she's either defined by her relationship to her father (in that her father uses her as a political pawn to halt the invasion) or she's doing something that has to do with Tavi: either refining their bond, pining after him, protecting him, or just straight-up boning him.

Isana is the same: her relationships with other women are predominantly antagonistic and don't even feature that strongly. It's made abundantly clear that her motivations are entirely to protect her (entirely male) family, and the only new relationship that comes into play over the course of the book is with (surprise surprise) another man.

I won't even discuss Odiana.

Of the various high ladies, Placida is actually reasonably strong and independent. She is, however, an ultimately minor character, has to be rescued before she ever does anything significant, and let us not forget that there is a High Lord Placida. High Lady Aquitaine is, however, a much more interesting character. She starts a (non-exploitative) sexual relationship out of wedlock of her own free will, schemes alongside her (more powerful) husband, has no glaring mental illnesses, and is an extraordinarily powerful furycrafter, despite not being as powerful as her husband. Even so, she's never truly independent- being either in thrall to or working alongside High Lord Aquitaine or the Vord Queen.

What does all of that mean? I don't really know. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Jim Butcher is a misogynist pig, but it's not like novels are entirely free of gender stuff, for lack of a better word.

edited because fuck tags

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 1:29 pm

Amethyst_Butterfly wrote:I am reading Raymond Feist books for the first time. I read Magician: Apprentice, and I am on Magician: Master now. I am thoroughly annoyed that I never discovered this author before- I love these books!

He did a 10th anniversary "author's cut" "Magician" which is basically the compilation of the two books. It has a few extra scenes and fleshes out Tomas a little bit more.