Maklershed
Member
May I recommend Ship of Fools? It's fast paced sci-fi AND horror. Win win!
Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo
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What are you reading? (February 2016)
- Thread starter Maklershed
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May I recommend Ship of Fools? It's fast paced sci-fi AND horror. Win win!
Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
I have not - I'll research it a bit, thanks.
Sample added to my Kindle!
Dandy Crocodile
Member
Currently going through Follett's Fall of Giants on audio.
The narrator is stellar and his rapid accent switching really enhances the book. Historical fiction is usually definitely not my thing but I'm enjoying it so far at about 25% through.
The narrator is stellar and his rapid accent switching really enhances the book. Historical fiction is usually definitely not my thing but I'm enjoying it so far at about 25% through.
Yeah, RR is the way to go. Despite my negative comments about Morning Star the trilogy is still fun to go through. Just don't expect any real substance under the fast paced action.
Finished reading Star Wars: Before the Awakening. It was alright, filled in some gaps about the characters from the movie, but Finn's story was short and Rey's was kind of depressing. Poe's was easily the best one. Not sure I would recommend. It was short and if you want to know more about the character it wouldn't take long to read.
Focusing on Righteous Mind now, want to finally finish it.
Focusing on Righteous Mind now, want to finally finish it.
Quote
Member
I still think about this book often. I should read it again.May I recommend Ship of Fools? It's fast paced sci-fi AND horror. Win win!
Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo
Have you come across anything else like it?
Maklershed
Member
Blindsight is close but the horror element isn't really there so I like Ship of Fools more. Still, it's worth a read. There's also Hull Zero Three but again, that didn't quite get me in the same way but I'd recommend it.
Here's a goodreads list. If you try something and like it please let me know - I'm desperate for more space horror ...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/17148.Space_horror
I will also check these out, thanks!
Quote
Member
Finished
The middle was a bit slow for me, but I don't think it could have worked without it. It's great as a standalone, but I'm excited that there is a sequel in the works.
Ceebs in the December thread said it best:
Starting
This was highly recommended by someone I follow on Twitter and the summary is right up my alley.
The middle was a bit slow for me, but I don't think it could have worked without it. It's great as a standalone, but I'm excited that there is a sequel in the works.
Ceebs in the December thread said it best:
Starting
This was highly recommended by someone I follow on Twitter and the summary is right up my alley.
I'll try those samples and some from the list. Thanks!
Recently finished "The Glass Bead" Game by Hermann Hesse. I'm not really sure whether I liked it or not. It's very well written, has an interesting premise and setting, and has tons of great ideas and insights. But... it's quite boring. And the main character isn't very believable.
Now, something very different. "Looking for Rachel Wallace" by Robert Parker. Mr. Spenser is a cool detective who punches bad people and quotes from literature.
Now, something very different. "Looking for Rachel Wallace" by Robert Parker. Mr. Spenser is a cool detective who punches bad people and quotes from literature.
Makoto-Yuki
Banned
Sherlock Holmes A Study In Scarlet.
AngmarsKing701
Member
Wow, surprised that very few of the books in that list have average ratings above 4 stars on goodreads.
Parker is one of my favorites. I've read every one of the Spenser novels. Definitely some ups and downs in that series, but the early ones, especially up to and including A Catskill Eagle, were all very good imo.
nailbombxx
Member
Starting
This was highly recommended by someone I follow on Twitter and the summary is right up my alley.
Tell me how you like it. I'm reading Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others and I'm absolutely loving it. I've heard Egan is similar in that he is a hard science fiction author who uses real science as the basis of his stories and goes really deep with it.
Maklershed
Member
Looks like there's an opening in that genre for a talented writer .. hint, hint :b
AngmarsKing701
Member
I see that. I've got something in my mind that's sci-fi... I'd have to tweak it a bit for horror but it's a possibility.
Of course I'm not quite halfway through writing book 2 of the Heart of the World series and it's slow going right now. :-(
And after that I have a collaboration with a friend... so.... don't hold your breath!
Maklershed
Member
Did anyone else get an email from Amazon saying their kindle will basically be bricked if they don't update by March 22nd?
Ah well at least I have book 2 in that series to look forward to. I'll have to reread one first though I'll have forgotten a lot of the story till then. I was just discussing with a friend yesterday how excited we were for the next Stormlight book and we both realized with that as well that we couldn't remember what happened - just that we liked it. Haha
I see that. I've got something in my mind that's sci-fi... I'd have to tweak it a bit for horror but it's a possibility.
Of course I'm not quite halfway through writing book 2 of the Heart of the World series and it's slow going right now. :-(
And after that I have a collaboration with a friend... so.... don't hold your breath!
Ah well at least I have book 2 in that series to look forward to. I'll have to reread one first though I'll have forgotten a lot of the story till then. I was just discussing with a friend yesterday how excited we were for the next Stormlight book and we both realized with that as well that we couldn't remember what happened - just that we liked it. Haha
Windle Poons
Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
I am reading 'And on That Bombshell' by Richard Porter who was one of the script writers for BBC's Top Gear.
Quite interesting so far.
Quite interesting so far.
Just finished reading "The Country Wife" by William Wycherley. Was not really well-versed in Restoration drama going into this, but it was a treat. I love how its use of sex is such a blatant "fuck you" to Puritanism. I was fascinated by Horner's plot to pass himself off as a eunuch in order to lower the guards of husbands and sleep with their wives.
About to begin reading "Revolutionary Suicide" by Huey P. Newton.
About to begin reading "Revolutionary Suicide" by Huey P. Newton.
AngmarsKing701
Member
Wow thanks for that! The fact that I have a fan looking forward to more in the series gives me motivation to get back into it.
Maklershed
Member
Hell yeah man. I read it in June 2014 (wow has it been that long already?)
My gf of two years broke up with me today. I knew something was up over a month ago, but it wasn't till last week that we talked about it. It's a good break-up, we will stay friends after I've had a bit of time to get my feelings in check, but this gives me more time to plow through my back list with a vengeance. Binged read and finished Kill Baxter by Charlie Human last night(damn its good), and now onto World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters.
If you have love, hold onto it. If you do not, be happy with yourself.
If you have love, hold onto it. If you do not, be happy with yourself.
I just wrapped up Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois Bujold, which by my count is the seventeenth novel in the Vorkosigan Saga. Unsurprisingly, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I dunno how useful it is to describe the book - either you're a fan of the series and are all in on a new installment or you're new to the series and shouldn't read this until you have another, oh, fourteen books or so under your belt - but the short, intentionally vague version is that it's about Cordelia several years after the epilogue from Cryoburn and, as Bujold describes it, is a book about grown ups, which is to say that it's about characters in late middle age making major life decisions. It's short on action and long on thoughtful, in-depth characterization and while the stakes are high they're largely personal, so this isn't the book you want to read if you're looking for the sort of military SF adventure that dominated the earlier installments of the series. I thought the book was great and, if it turns out to be the final Vorkosigan novel, will act as a wonderful epilogue to the entire saga.
I also recently read The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School by Kim Newman and found it to be completely delightful. Set in a sort of Edward Gorey rendition of the late 20s, it's about a girl who, having started to float inconveniently at home, is shipped off to a boarding school that's not so much Hogwarts as St. Trinian's, and quickly goes
full Lovecraft
FnordChan
I'm guessing this one is self-pubbed? Sounds fun.
My gf of two years broke up with me today. I knew something was up over a month ago, but it wasn't till last week that we talked about it. It's a good break-up, we will stay friends after I've had a bit of time to get my feelings in check, but this gives me more time to plow through my back list with a vengeance. Binged read and finished Kill Baxter by Charlie Human last night(damn its good), and now onto World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters.
If you have love, hold onto it. If you do not, be happy with yourself.
I finished this yesterday. Great series.
Quote
Member
I received an e-mail today talking about the new update but I don't see anything about being behind on updates. Is yours a few updates behind?
Edit: Ah I see. A few updates behind. It's either a way to stop supporting old code or vulnerability I guess.
Why are the covers of all the Vorkosigan novels fucking terrible? Like seriously, everyone I have is seen is awful.
I just wrapped up Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois Bujold, which by my count is the seventeenth novel in the Vorkosigan Saga. Unsurprisingly, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I dunno how useful it is to describe the book - either you're a fan of the series and are all in on a new installment or you're new to the series and shouldn't read this until you have another, oh, fourteen books or so under your belt - but the short, intentionally vague version is that it's about Cordelia several years after the epilogue from Cryoburn and, as Bujold describes it, is a book about grown ups, which is to say that it's about characters in late middle age making major life decisions. It's short on action and long on thoughtful, in-depth characterization and while the stakes are high they're largely personal, so this isn't the book you want to read if you're looking for the sort of military SF adventure that dominated the earlier installments of the series. I thought the book was great and, if it turns out to be the final Vorkosigan novel, will act as a wonderful epilogue to the entire saga.
I also recently read The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School by Kim Newman and found it to be completely delightful. Set in a sort of Edward Gorey rendition of the late 20s, it's about a girl who, having started to float inconveniently at home, is shipped off to a boarding school that's not so much Hogwarts as St. Trinian's, and quickly goes. And, this being Kim Newman, it's densely packed with cultural references from the era of the sort that might be best enjoyed with ready access to Wikipedia; at one point I found myself going several articles deep when looking up the authoritarian names being denounced in graffiti by the school anarchist. The bit from the book I've been using to plug it to friends involves one of our heroine's roommates (or cell-mates, as they're invariably referred to): Kali, a young Indian woman who plans to murder her bandit-king father and seize his territory for her own and who learned to speak English from American gangster films and is forever referring to things like Chicago typewriters and giving people neckties. It's that sort of book. If you're looking for an offbeat riff on the whole magic school thing, or if you're a fan of either Newman's earlier work (such as Anno Dracula or his Diogenes Club stories) or, say, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, you'll get a kick out of this.full Lovecraft
FnordChan
You Know Nothing
Member
She's trying to inculcate the lesson of not judging a book by its cover obviously.
Exactly. I think it is a valuable lesson for us all.
fredrancour
Member
I've wound up juggling multiple books, which is quite unusual for me.
Started reading Pratchett's Equal Rites and Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground while traveling on a kindle. haven't finished either. sure do wish I didn't find the underground man so relatable, but hey i'm working on being a less awful person. equal rites is adorable and funny though i didn't make it all that far.
I added Pratchett's Reaper man as well because i had a borrowed hard copy lying around. Pretty fun, though I'm expecting to get emotionally suckerpunched because death's scenes usually do that and it is a death book.
I'm also making my way through Ellison's Deathbird stories, but that's an anthology and I'm not breaking from it mid-short so it doesn't reaaally feel like part of the juggling act.
Oh, and I'm reading some clive barker. we just grabbed a stack of them from the liibrary one day at random because i loved books of blood. Turns out one of them, abarat, is a ...YA? middle-grade? fantasy-adventure thing. caught me by surprise. probably going to just tear through it since it's such a fast read.
From the word of mouth, it sounds like the first book itself is something that you can read and feel content with, not something written with unlimited sequel potential in mind to leave you hanging. I can't say yet for sure- I just began the audiobook today and have never read it before.
As to whether there's a clean break at the end of the original author's portion of the sequels I don't know.
Started reading Pratchett's Equal Rites and Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground while traveling on a kindle. haven't finished either. sure do wish I didn't find the underground man so relatable, but hey i'm working on being a less awful person. equal rites is adorable and funny though i didn't make it all that far.
I added Pratchett's Reaper man as well because i had a borrowed hard copy lying around. Pretty fun, though I'm expecting to get emotionally suckerpunched because death's scenes usually do that and it is a death book.
I'm also making my way through Ellison's Deathbird stories, but that's an anthology and I'm not breaking from it mid-short so it doesn't reaaally feel like part of the juggling act.
Oh, and I'm reading some clive barker. we just grabbed a stack of them from the liibrary one day at random because i loved books of blood. Turns out one of them, abarat, is a ...YA? middle-grade? fantasy-adventure thing. caught me by surprise. probably going to just tear through it since it's such a fast read.
From the word of mouth, it sounds like the first book itself is something that you can read and feel content with, not something written with unlimited sequel potential in mind to leave you hanging. I can't say yet for sure- I just began the audiobook today and have never read it before.
As to whether there's a clean break at the end of the original author's portion of the sequels I don't know.
Not at all - the self-publishing part, that is, the book is certainly fun. Secrets of the Drearcliff Grange School was published by Titan, Newman's US publisher; they've released a bunch of his books here, such as the recent An English Ghost Story, new editions of the Anno Dracula series, and the upcoming essay collection of his Video Dungeon columns. Titan is also the publisher of the all-powerful Hard Case Crime imprint.
Once you're into Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen the cover does make a bit of sense, but I certainly wouldn't say it's inspired. For that matter, the last couple of covers - Cryoburn and Captain Vorpatril's Alliance - have been pretty damn bland. I wish Baen would find a suitably badass illustrator to go along with her books, though at this point they may be under the impression that it's kinda a moot point since her novels will sell like hotcakes whatever they put on the front.
FnordChan
AngmarsKing701
Member
Come on now, Bujold's covers are amazing when you consider the absolute rock bottom one of the bunch.
German translation of Warrior's Apprentice.
Christoff Yurievich
Member
I liked the book so much more than the movie, and I'm bummed you're not buying the sequels. I read the second one and it was weird how it was a sequel but no one showed up from the first book until this one part and then you're like wow, she built this world incredibly well!
I kind of liked that aspect. :/Sorry to hear you find it boring.It's one of my favorite books. Diana Wynne Jones does have a tenacity to have a really strong beginning, then kind of just wanders around, and then ties up everything really quickly at the end. I happen to enjoy her wandering but I can imagine if you're not having fun with her style or characters, it can be frustrating.
It's definitely the strongest in its series though. The sequels also aren't true sequels. Sophie and Howl just make cameos or are secondary characters at best.
Reading a lot of Encyclopedia Brown with my son and trying to get him to think about the clues before just turning to the back. You can tell the books were written from a simpler time with the slang and stuff. The one thing neither of us like are the ones where you have to actually know the answer and not get it from clues in the story. Like, how many people know that ducks need gravity to swallow?
Dandy Crocodile
Member
I've been listening to Me Before You on audio lately because apparently I'll read just about every Public Library Book Club Bestseller that I see becoming popular at work.
It's had at least two really great metaphors in it. The kind that made me pause for a moment just to digest it fully.
It's had at least two really great metaphors in it. The kind that made me pause for a moment just to digest it fully.
I finished Blues Legacies and Black Feminism yesterday. It was as good as advertised, though I'm really quite annoyed that I managed to bend and crease the corner of the back cover.
Anyway, it's basically an analysis of feminist / proto-feminist themes in the lyrics (and performances) of three blues women, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Billie Holiday. I think the book is worth the price for "Strange Fruit" alone, though the whole thing should be read.
I've also started The Journey to the West, in a new revised translation by Arthur C. Yu, who originally translated it in 1980-something (83, I think). It's a lot of fun, especially in the first seven chapters, which basically covers the part of the story that I'd heard before (e.g. Sun Wukong's trouble-making in Heaven).
Anyway, it's basically an analysis of feminist / proto-feminist themes in the lyrics (and performances) of three blues women, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Billie Holiday. I think the book is worth the price for "Strange Fruit" alone, though the whole thing should be read.
I've also started The Journey to the West, in a new revised translation by Arthur C. Yu, who originally translated it in 1980-something (83, I think). It's a lot of fun, especially in the first seven chapters, which basically covers the part of the story that I'd heard before (e.g. Sun Wukong's trouble-making in Heaven).
I finished Blues Legacies and Black Feminism yesterday. It was as good as advertised, though I'm really quite annoyed that I managed to bend and crease the corner of the back cover.
Anyway, it's basically an analysis of feminist / proto-feminist themes in the lyrics (and performances) of three blues women, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Billie Holiday. I think the book is worth the price for "Strange Fruit" alone, though the whole thing should be read.
I've also started The Journey to the West, in a new revised translation by Arthur C. Yu, who originally translated it in 1980-something (83, I think). It's a lot of fun, especially in the first seven chapters, which basically covers the part of the story that I'd heard before (e.g. Sun Wukong's trouble-making in Heaven).
Interesting. I'll to check that out sometime. I read his original translation years ago and quite enjoyed it, but I find the Wade-Giles system incredibly annoying. If the translation is improved and all the Chinese names are in pinyin then this might be something that I eventually re-read.
Just keep in mind that this story is a lot more similar to Romance of the Three Kingdoms than The Story of the Stone. It has been a long long time, but I remember the focus being more on the adventure and the wonder than the characters, their emotions, and their interactions.
AngmarsKing701
Member
Williams's return to Osten Ard, The Witchwood Crown, scheduled for January 2017.
Looks like a re-read of the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy is on my list for this year. The only question is whether I pull the paperbacks out of mothballs or go ahead and spring for the Kindle versions.
Decisions decisions...
Looks like a re-read of the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy is on my list for this year. The only question is whether I pull the paperbacks out of mothballs or go ahead and spring for the Kindle versions.
Decisions decisions...
Picked up Crime and Punishment after finishing The Brothers Karamazov last month.
Just looking to recapture that magic...reading Aloysha's parts in BK just made me, I don't know, happy?
50 pages into C&P and I'm wondering if maybe I should have started with this, and then moved onto BK.
Just looking to recapture that magic...reading Aloysha's parts in BK just made me, I don't know, happy?
50 pages into C&P and I'm wondering if maybe I should have started with this, and then moved onto BK.
There's an excellent 100 page introduction that I'm really glad I read beforehand, which talks about things like historical and literary predecessors, the uses and (religious) sources of poetry (which is evidently what Yu's original translation was particularly known for; in showing how integral the poems were), and allegorical meanings of the fictional story. There's lots of talk about syncretistic religious movements and religious synthesis and Quanzhen Daoism and so forth.
Or as one of the pull-quotes on the back cover says
I haven't read the original translation, but as I understand it the revised translation has at least those two benefits: a new comprehensive introduction based another thirty years of literary and religious research and a move to Pinyin romanization. Obviously, I'm not at all culturally literate here, and with so many religious terms and figures and titles (not to mention geographical references that I only rarely "get") I'm going to be happy if I even vaguely get the subtext and just get the text. It's really interesting stuff, though. I'm about a fifth of the way through, and so far I find it much more interesting than The Three Kingdoms, though honestly I think that if I had read something that framed that as well as this introduction framed this for me, I might have "gotten" it better.
Also, speaking of The Story of the Stone, Anthony C. Yu, the translatior has a literary analysis of The Story of the Stone that I've been wanting to read for some time. I'm sure I've mentioned it to you before, but it seems topical, so here we are again.
Interesting, I obviously was too ignorant or stupid to get that the first time I read it. I knew it had a great deal to do with Chinese mythology and religion, but I did not really 'get' that it dealt with religion, culture, and poetry at a profound level.
Of course, Chinese literature and poetry is kinda known for incredibly obscure references to elucidate profound points that anyone not sufficiently educated will completely miss. so I guess its not surprising that I took it as a nice adventure story the first time.
What a lovely word. You should be unbanned for its use alone.
unless you did something unforgivable!
Lol.
Well, actually a lot the poetry here is purely descriptive apparently, which is apparently different than lyric poetry normally in Chinese (which is supposed to be more ... allusive, I suppose is the word). But there's also poetry that sort of explicates religious positions or even is simply a direct quotation of a particular text.
I mean, the picaresque adventure quality of it is honestly the part I'm enjoying the most actually reading it, but then I often find reading about books as interesting as actually reading it, you know?
Yea, its kinda like sitting in on a literature class. You get to read the book for fun, but also get to enjoy the interesting themes, ideas, and connections that you missed by not being an expect in the history, culture, and genre. And also that you were reading it for fun, and not reading it 'seriously'
Atraveller
Banned
Are you talking about the poems Jia Baoyu read when he was in that dream place (I don't know the English translation)?
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