What books are you reading now?

Concise Locket · Post by **Concise Locket** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 3:33 pm

Just about done with The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. It's fine. I'd recommend it to non-fans of the fantasy sub-genre. I do like that the magic system is alloy consumption-powered wire-fu rather than runes, rituals, fireballs, and old men with beards.

I joined a book club at work and I need to have Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight read before our first meeting on March 18.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 6:47 pm

How much is just about done?

Concise Locket · Post by **Concise Locket** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 7:04 pm

Kaelik wrote:How much is just about done?

Less than 100 pages left to read.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 9:36 pm

Concise Locket wrote:
Kaelik wrote:How much is just about done?
Less than 100 pages left to read.

Yeah... probably shouldn't be opining yet.

Red Archon · Post by **Red Archon** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 9:53 pm

I'm re-reading some 1986 John Varley short stories. As a kid, I found this stuff really icky, what with all the sexual content, but now I see it in a completely different light. Some of this shit, especially concerning sexuality and gender, is really visionary. A lot of what Varley envisioned to take place after we've inhabited the Moon is already here. And to me, that's pretty exciting.

In case you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, in Varley-verse, sex change operations are completely commonplace, even for children, there are essentially no sexual boundaries and the distinction between man and woman has totally vanished. It's kind of neat.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Tue Mar 04, 2014 4:31 am

"Hitler's Tabletalk"
It's a collection of conversations Hitler had with his secretary Martin Borman and other folks. Hitler talking about vegetarianism and his love of dogs is rather humorous. Like he talks about how societies that consume little meat still produce manly men like "The Japanese sumo, or the Turkish porter, who can move an entire piano by himself!" Or how when he conquers Europe he'll put green houses everywhere to spread the joy of horticulture.

His writings right up to his suicide are particularly interesting as he starts talking about all the evils the white race has inflicted upon non-whites, that was unexpected.

I skimmed through Mein Kampf, it's filled with angry ranting that makes it an unpleasant read. Though I could see how it appealed to angry german youths in the way that Fight Club appeals to American college students.

PoliteNewb · Post by **PoliteNewb** » Tue Mar 04, 2014 6:44 am

Red Archon wrote:I'm re-reading some 1986 John Varley short stories. As a kid, I found this stuff really icky, what with all the sexual content, but now I see it in a completely different light. Some of this shit, especially concerning sexuality and gender, is really visionary. A lot of what Varley envisioned to take place after we've inhabited the Moon is already here. And to me, that's pretty exciting.

In case you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, in Varley-verse, sex change operations are completely commonplace, even for children, there are essentially no sexual boundaries and the distinction between man and woman has totally vanished. It's kind of neat.

Only Varley I've read is the Titan series (of which I remember the first being by far the best), but you have intrigued me.

Just read Erebos; quite interesting, and actually had an ending that made a fair amount of sense. Also read the first Divergent novel...it wasn't as good as The Hunger Games, but it has promise; I'll read the rest of them, I think.

GreatGreyShrike · Post by **GreatGreyShrike** » Tue Mar 04, 2014 9:32 am

PoliteNewb wrote:
Red Archon wrote:I'm re-reading some 1986 John Varley short stories. As a kid, I found this stuff really icky, what with all the sexual content, but now I see it in a completely different light. Some of this shit, especially concerning sexuality and gender, is really visionary. A lot of what Varley envisioned to take place after we've inhabited the Moon is already here. And to me, that's pretty exciting.

In case you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, in Varley-verse, sex change operations are completely commonplace, even for children, there are essentially no sexual boundaries and the distinction between man and woman has totally vanished. It's kind of neat.
Only Varley I've read is the Titan series (of which I remember the first being by far the best), but you have intrigued me.

In my opinion, Varley's best works are by far his 'Eight Worlds' books and short stories. Check out his Steel Beach and Golden Globe books in particular - they are very entertaining overall. Steel Beach has one of the most memorable opening lines I've ever read:

John Varley's Steel Beach wrote:“In five years the penis will be obsolete,” said the salesman.

His other stuff varies in quality a lot; I didn't like any of the Titan/Wizard/Demon books that much, and Red Thunder was merely OK while it's sequels were actually bad.

Red Archon · Post by **Red Archon** » Tue Mar 04, 2014 8:09 pm

It's honestly pretty terribly written stuff overall, and the atrocious translation doesn't help. I wouldn't read Varley's stuff were it not for the ideas of the society of tomorrow. The short stories do the trick best, I find, because they essentially just give glimpses to the world from different perspectives without even attempting to be literary excellence. I'm not a big fan of his work, but the aforementioned parts of it are really interesting, and dispassionately presented.

Concise Locket · Post by **Concise Locket** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:49 pm

Finished The Well of Ascension last night. It was an acceptable fantasy romance novel with chaste love and PG-13 violence. Woo, non-radical Mormons.

I pulled Charles Stross' Neptune's Brood off my shelf last night so that's next.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 7:25 am

Finished Raising Steam.

I'm conflicted. It had some good moments, but sometimes felt too overtly preachy. One character, in particular, will say the perfect thing when pressed on his beliefs.

However, I now wish to refer to fundamentalist religious, the kind who want to roll back all these damn changes in the past two thousand years, as 'grags'.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 9:49 am

When the Stars Are Right: Towards An Authentic R'lyehian Spirituality

RufusCorvus · Post by **RufusCorvus** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 5:12 pm

Gentlemen of the Road- Michael Chabon

I think his writing style is too florid (and/or purple) for the subject matter, but I'm going to keep trucking along with it. I loved the shit out of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and The Yiddish Policeman's Union so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt.

I'm also reading through all of Fables. I've liked it so far, but wish the art quality didn't vary so much. Maybe I've just been spoiled with Hellboy/BPRD.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Thu May 29, 2014 5:27 pm

Dresden Files: Skin Game.

Whoo, magic heist novel.

So for artifacts, we have the Iēsus Nazarēnus, Rēx Iūdaeōrum sign, the Crown Of Thorns, the Holy Grail, Jesus's burial shroud (not the Shroud Of Turin), and a knife with a wooden hilt and a leaf-shaped blade. I'm not entirely sure what that last one is; might be the Lance of Longinus with most of the haft chopped off. I assume Nicodemus was after either the knife or the Shroud, since the first one is a weapon and he used a forgery of the second for an apocalypse plague already

Occluded Sun · Post by **Occluded Sun** » Fri May 30, 2014 5:55 pm

Regarding Skin Game:

The 'knife' is almost certainly the famous spear - willowleaf blades are very common for spears from a certain time period. Also, every other artifact has a very clear relationship to the Crucifixion, and it would be very odd if that single item did not.

As it's hinted that Nick was hoping to find more than just the Grail, it makes sense the spear is the one he'd most want. Every other item has a 'positive' relationship with the mythology - only the spear would be associated with violence and death.

It's a pretty neat book, all things considered, although it's notably less of a stand-alone than some others in the series.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Fri May 30, 2014 6:24 pm

I know nothing about the book, but I do know that for some time in the middle ages, peeps also venerated the knife Jesus used at the Last Supper. The spear seems more likely, but there is a knife in history.

Spoiled.

Occluded Sun · Post by **Occluded Sun** » Fri May 30, 2014 6:57 pm

Spoilers, Maj. Spoilers. (edit) Thanks, Maj.

I grant that it could be a generic knife. I'd wonder where the spear got to, if the collection was complete enough to include a placard.

Edited to add:

I can't help but wonder whether, if Murphy had broken the Sword for any reason other than love, the Sword could have been redeemed. I suspect not - her 'failing' was probably necessary to the Sword's power being increased, and it couldn't have happened any other way.

I hope that makes the poor woman feel better. She's had a rough couple of novels.

Blicero · Post by **Blicero** » Tue Jun 24, 2014 7:35 pm

Has anyone read Jaron Lanier's Who Owns the Future? As a collection of anecdotes and asides, it's enjoyable. But I'm reasonably confident that some of his facts and predictions are either misleading or flat-out wrong, but his general lack of citations and my lack of knowledge with economics and the tech industry makes it difficult to check out. The only serious criticism I've found of it online comes from people who seem to have Austrian leanings, which makes me distrust anything they say.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 7:37 pm

I've read quite a bit of books since the last time I posted but it's late and I don't really remember which are the most important ones to talk about.

The most recent book (as of the last 20 minutes) I've finished is Jo Walton's "My Real Children." It's a sobering book about a 75+ year old woman with dementia who remembers two separate lives that she's lived. The book then alternates chapters with the life of either life. It's labeled as science fiction but aside from the idea that she probably could have lived two lives there is absolutely nothing that would really qualify this book as science fiction as most people define the term.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 3:07 am

Max Gladstone's Three Parts Dead was really good. I like reading about the politics of souls in fantasy settings, and it gave me a bunch of ideas for next time I write setting material.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Wed Aug 27, 2014 5:05 am

I recently finished Apostles of Disunion, by Charles Dew.

The author set out to discern the real cause of the Civil War by looking at the speeches and publications used by the commissioners sent to convert states to the Confederate cause, rather than looking at the justifications used post-war.

I don't think I've read anything so simultaneously horrid and enlightening ever. The rhetoric and slurs used then are the same as the ones many right-wing extremists use today. The hate-filled, racist assholery is astonishing. And there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that slavery - and nothing else - was the cause of the Civil War.

Stephen Hale, Commissioner to Kentucky wrote:African Slavery has not only become one of the fixed domestic institutions of the Southern States, but forms an important element of their political power, and constitutes the most valuable species of their property-- worth, according to recent estimates, not less than four thousand millions of dollars; forming, in fact, the basis upon which rests the prosperity and wealth of most of these States, and supplying the commerce of the world with its richest freights, and furnishing the manufactories of two continents with the raw material, and their operatives with bread. It is upon this gigantic interest, this peculiar institution of the South, that the Northern States and their people have been waging an unrelenting and fanatical war for the last quarter of a century. An institution with which is bound up, not only the wealth and prosperity of the Southern people, but their very existence as a political community. This war has been waged in every way that human ingenuity, urged on by fanaticism, could suggest. They attack us through their literature, in their schools, from the hustings, in their legislative halls, through the public press, and even their courts of justice forget the purity of their judicial ermine, to strike down the rights of the Southern slave-holder, and over-ride every barrier which the Constitution has erected for his protection; and the sacred desk is desecrated to this unholy crusade against our lives, our property, and the Constitutional rights guaranteed to us by the Compact of our Fathers.

...

Upon the principles then announced by Mr. Lincoln and his leading friends, we are bound to expect his administration to be conducted. Hence it is, that in high places, among the Republican party, the election of Mr. Lincoln is hailed, not simply as a change of Administration, but as the inauguration of new principles, and a new theory of Government, and even as the downfall of slavery. Therefore it is that the election of Mr. Lincoln cannot be regarded otherwise than a solemn declaration, on the part of a great majority of the Northern people, of hostility to the South, her property and her institutions --- nothing less than an open declaration of war --- for the triumph of this new theory of Government destroys the property of the South, lays waste her fields, and inaugurates all the horrors of a San Domingo servile insurrection, consigning her citizens to assassinations, and her wives and daughters to pollution and violation, to gratify the lust of half-civilized Africans. Especially is this true in the cotton-growing States, where, in many localities, the slave outnumbers the white population ten to one.

If the policy of the Republicans is carried out, according to the programme indicated by the leaders of the party, and the South submits, degradation and ruin must overwhelm alike all classes of citizens in the Southern States. The slave-holder and non-slave-holder must ultimately share the same fate --- all be degraded to a position of equality with free negroes, stand side by side with them at the polls, and fraternize in all the social relations of life; or else there will be an eternal war of races, desolating the land with blood, and utterly wasting and destroying all the resources of the country.

Who can look upon such a picture without a shudder? What Southern man, be he slave-holder or non-slave-holder, can without indignation and horror contemplate the triumph of negro equality, and see his own sons and daughters, in the not distant future, associating with free negroes upon terms of political and social equality, and the white man stripped, by the Heaven-daring hand of fanaticism of that title to superiority over the black race which God himself has bestowed?

...

Will the South give up the institution of slavery, and consent that her citizens be stripped of their property, her civilization destroyed, the whole land laid waste by fire and sword? It is impossible; she can not, she will not. Then why attempt any longer to hold together hostile States under the stipulations of a violated Constitution? It is impossible; disunion is inevitable.

...

Shall we wait until our enemies shall possess themselves of all the powers of the Government? until Abolition Judges are on the Supreme Court bench, Abolition Collectors at every port, and Abolition Postmasters in every town, secret mail agents traversing the whole land, and a subsidized Press established in our midst to demoralize the people? Will we be stronger then, or better prepared to meet the struggle, if a struggle must come? No, verily! When that time shall come, well may our adversaries laugh at our folly, and deride our impotence.

Korwin · Post by **Korwin** » Wed Aug 27, 2014 6:19 am

Red Deja_Vu_Ascendancy by AscendingAuthor which is not an book but an really long webstory.
Story is about an suicidal teenage* boy who becomes an god.

*Really sucidal he sucessfully commits half suicid at the beginning of the story and does so multiple times later.

Laertes · Post by **Laertes** » Wed Aug 27, 2014 11:53 am

Coin Locker Babies, by Murakami.

It's well plotted and well characterised but is difficult going because the novel assumes that you are not only intimately familiar with Japanese society, but have become alienated from it. Since I am neither, it's slow going.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Wed Aug 27, 2014 11:49 pm

Went and bought the latest translated to german WH40K Novels and am reading these one by one by now.
Have finished Betrayer (why the hell did they not go with Traitor as the title?) and am now plowing through Blood of Asaheim

erik · Post by **erik** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 5:03 am

Read Darkwar by Glen Cook. Surprisingly wasn't appalled despite the book being entirely about cat people. It wasn't outstanding but it kept me interested.

I tried to read The Edinburgh Dead but couldn't get into it so returned it to the library for someone else to have a go.