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Spekio wrote:Vilains By Necessity, by Eve Foward.

She tries to deconstruct typical fantasy novels, but it's... not that good, really. Entertaining, tought.

Have you tried Banewreaker by Jacqueline Carey? It's almost written as a response to Tolkein, with Sartoris (Morgoth) as the 'hero' and the Sauron/Witch King as the most sympathetic character. The book's Not-Galdalf really comes across as a sanctimonious asshole.

Broomstick wrote:
Next on deck: Anonymous Rex by Eric Garcia.

That's good fun. I haven't read the rest of the series, but that at least was interesting.

I saw the made-for-TV movie, which was sort of interesting, but I'm expecting the book to be better.

I am halfway through "The Reader" by Bernhard Schlink, and I just finished reading "Catcher in the Rye" by JD Salinger.

Broomstick wrote:

Crazedwraith wrote:Just finished the first Dresden Book Storm Front not entirely sure what I think of it. It was a pretty light read and interesting enough but it didn't exactly pull me in the way other books have.

Remember that first and foremost Dresden is supposed to be entertainment that is, it is supposed to be light reading.

I was complaining about the lightness exactly, lot of books I read are nothing but light fun but that doesn't mean there are uncompelling.

Iosef Cross wrote:

Phantasee wrote:Holy shit, it's Stravo!

I'm working my way through Rise and Fall by Gibbon. It's an abridged version, so I hope to finish it sometime this year, and not sometime this decade.

I have read half of that book (the same version). It becomes unbearable to read about details of the personal lives of the emperors and kings and the absence of treatment into topics like the changes in culture with the times, the demographic tendencies of the time and other more relevant subjects.

Wait...you complain about something missing in an abridged version?

Get the complete version, then read it and treat it as the classic and one of the most important books in history.

Reading Walking with Spring, which is a memoir of the first guy to thru-hike the AT(specifically, his experience on the trail).

Bob the Gunslinger wrote:

Spekio wrote:Vilains By Necessity, by Eve Foward.

She tries to deconstruct typical fantasy novels, but it's... not that good, really. Entertaining, tought.

Have you tried Banewreaker by Jacqueline Carey? It's almost written as a response to Tolkein, with Sartoris (Morgoth) as the 'hero' and the Sauron/Witch King as the most sympathetic character. The book's Not-Galdalf really comes across as a sanctimonious asshole.

It's not bad, but her efforts to really make it a total reversal-response to Tolkien comes across as forced at times. The first book is much better than the second one in the duology.

weemadando wrote:Also have finished Eye of the Storm by Higgins which was just silly fun.

weemadando wrote:I'm done a bit more Higgins (Valhalla Exchange).

are you on some kind of Higgins bender, Anders? mind you I own enough of them I can't talk....


Neutron Star by Larry Niven
"Bill, The Galactic Hero ......" got hardbacks of "on The Planet of Robot Slaves" and "The Final Incoherent Adventure"
"Flux" by Stephen Baxter
and "eXXXpresso" by Dave Warner << the non-sci-fi of the lot it's a hilarious romp around Western Australian by an ex-criminal chasing a coffee machine whilst being chased by soon-to-be-ex-criminals, I recommend it to all Australians (I just bought a copy to replace the one I haven't yet returned to the school where I work library (it's ok, I know the librarian REALLY well)

I'm rereading Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

I just finished reading Hans Ulrich Rudel's Stuka Pilot. While I don't agree with his views towards Hitler or his ignoring events that happened outside his AO, I understand them. His carefully worded opinions of the conduct of the war on the Russian front lead me to believe he was thoroughly disillusioned at the conduct of the war at a tactical and strategic level, but he of course does not come right out and say it. His descriptions of the efforts he undertook to fly, in combat, while critically injured, are a better demonstration of Nietzche's Triumph of The Will philosophy than anything else I've read, including Nietzche's own words. His opinion of the Soviets, our aiding them, and the consequences were IMO spot on target. Not bad for a book written in 1958.

All that aside, his war record is just astounding.

Wiki, I didn't tout up everything in the book wrote:According to official Luftwaffe figures, Rudel flew some 2,530 combat missions (a world record),[Notes 2] during which he destroyed almost 2,000 ground targets (among them 519 tanks, 70 assault craft/landing boats, 150 self-propelled guns, 4 armored trains, and 800 other vehicles) as well as 9 planes (2 Il-2's and 7 fighters). He was also responsible for the sinking of the Soviet battleship Marat, two cruisers and a destroyer. He was never shot down by another pilot, only by anti-aircraft artillery. He was shot down or forced to land 32 times, several times behind enemy lines.

Wow. Imagine this man behind the stick of an A-10.

Aaaaaaaaaaaargh.

I gave up on John Ringo's Ghost after the first "book" of the book. It's not that it was especially obscene or unpleasant. It's just that it was bad, stupid and poorly written.

I read a pretty good one-shot "Pride and Joy" by Garth Ennis. Worth a look.

And I got a few books for my birthday including "Shake Hands With The Devil" by Romeo Dallaire and "Carpet People" by Pratchett.

Romeo Dallaire's book is good. Let me know what you think after you read it.

I'm still going through the Posleen books, but slower now. The first couple were alright, and it just starts sucking more and more (and even more as soon as you start into the tainted ones aka Tom Kratman's).

weemadando wrote:Aaaaaaaaaaaargh.

I gave up on John Ringo's Ghost after the first "book" of the book. It's not that it was especially obscene or unpleasant. It's just that it was bad, stupid and poorly written.

The rest get worse. How far did you make it into the book?

I forced myself to at least finish the Syria Girls part. The end of that convinced me that it was little more than someone's bad empowerment fantasy fic that I would have expected to read on a bad sex fic newsgroup in 1999.

weemadando wrote:I forced myself to at least finish the Syria Girls part. The end of that convinced me that it was little more than someone's bad empowerment fantasy fic that I would have expected to read on a bad sex fic newsgroup in 1999.

It gets kinkier. Ringo is one kinky dude.

Recently finished a reading of Tennyson's Idylls Of The King and am now working through the Selected Poems in the last section of the Signet edition.

Just finished reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Quite good.

Now reading Anansi Boys.

I'm starting on Charles Stross' "The Family Trade". It seems pretty interesting at the moment and I'm actually enjoying the mildly Zelazny-esque tone.

I'm currently reading The Devil you Know by Mike Carey. It's a reasonably competent entry into the "John Constantine with the serial numbers filed off" genre of urban fantasy inhabited by Harry Dresden et al. The most significant USP so far being that the fantastic element, that the dead walk the earth (The main character is an exorcist, not a wizard this time), is out in the open, so it's common knowledge that ghosts, zombies, demons and the like are there, and contact with them is reasonably common.

Evoluton by Edward J. Larson (Hungarian version), among the other books I read and haven't finished yet.

It's a very interesting book that I recommend to anyone interested in the whole evolution/creationism thing. For one thing, creationist are wrong when they try to argue to teach an alternative to evolution: an alternative to evolution would be lamarckism (or one of the many other theories based around it). The whole theory's history and the attitudes towards is acceptance is a little more complicated than it seems.

Currently reading a bunch of papers on reciprocating compressors. More interesting than I thought it would be.

I've just started War at the Wall Street Journal, about the takeover by Rupert Murdoch.

I just finished two non-fiction books first, one good and the other fairly mediocre. The first was Mark Kleiman's When Brute Force Fails, about possible reforms to get less crime with less punishment. Fascinating stuff, and in a short book.

The second, "meh" book was Power Trip by Amanda Little, about energy in American, including the history of it and the rise of renewables. The history part (basically, the first half of the book) was interesting, but a mile wide and an inch deep - like a series of long news articles on it. The last third or so of the book, though, read like an extra-long press release for various renewable energy developments, as well as the various "green" and environmental groups out there. Lots of optimism and positive quotes from renewable people, precious little skepticism.

I'm wondering if I should pick a new fiction book, or do a re-read of one of the series I own.

Thanas wrote:

Iosef Cross wrote:

Phantasee wrote:Holy shit, it's Stravo!

I'm working my way through Rise and Fall by Gibbon. It's an abridged version, so I hope to finish it sometime this year, and not sometime this decade.

I have read half of that book (the same version). It becomes unbearable to read about details of the personal lives of the emperors and kings and the absence of treatment into topics like the changes in culture with the times, the demographic tendencies of the time and other more relevant subjects.

Wait...you complain about something missing in an abridged version?

Get the complete version, then read it and treat it as the classic and one of the most important books in history.

Well, I have tried it when I was 15. Maybe now I can work my way thought.

Gibbon really isn't that hard to read. The biggest challenge for me was filtering all the nonsense he talks about due to his strong personal biases. My version isn't abridged by it's.. 8-9 volumes so it's nto split the 'original' way.

I just re-read Danger Girl. Possibly the best comicbook of the 90s?