Narz
keeping it real
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth
Chris comes off as extremely likable, so annoyingly so I can't even be annoyed
Chris comes off as extremely likable, so annoyingly so I can't even be annoyed
EnglishEdward
Deity
I have completed three books in the last couple of weeks:
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
copyright 2022 (from Waterstones)
A most enjoyable well written Sci-Fi soap comedy
Dubliners by James Joyce
first published 1914 (second hand)
Provides insights in to pre WW1 Dublin city life.
A series of short stories of variable quality.
I had to look up irish words and "preloothered".
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
copyright 2005 (second hand)
A very enjoyable comic fantasy story.
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
copyright 2022 (from Waterstones)
A most enjoyable well written Sci-Fi soap comedy
Dubliners by James Joyce
first published 1914 (second hand)
Provides insights in to pre WW1 Dublin city life.
A series of short stories of variable quality.
I had to look up irish words and "preloothered".
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
copyright 2005 (second hand)
A very enjoyable comic fantasy story.
Josu
Emperor
Ended The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman
Enjoyed the Appendices more than the book itself, interesing book in any case
Started Battle Royale by Kōshun Takami
Enjoyed the Appendices more than the book itself, interesing book in any case
Started Battle Royale by Kōshun Takami
EnglishEdward
Deity
Last week I finished reading:
Velocity Weapon
by
Megan E O'Keefe
copyright 2019
It has some great ideas although some of the character sets sometimes came across as
naive to the point where one thinks; hold on; what they are doing doesn't make sense.
Velocity Weapon
by
Megan E O'Keefe
copyright 2019
It has some great ideas although some of the character sets sometimes came across as
naive to the point where one thinks; hold on; what they are doing doesn't make sense.
Boris Gudenuf
Deity
Took a break from the stuff I have to read for historical research to browse through some old favorites . . .
The Bear Went Over the Mountain by William Kotzwinkle. The first time I read it I thought it was one of the funniest things ever written in English. Second time it's just as funny, because it's still a massive satire on the entire American publishing and celebrity industry.
Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. In my mis-spent youth, I read all of Catton and MacPherson and the otrher 'Civil War Greats', but this Pullitzer Prize winning novel is still the best single book ever written about that Great American Event, the Civil War. He gets you inside the heads of people who don't think the way we do any more, and makes you understand them. If you can get past the last words of Armistead without weeping, you need burial, because you are already dead.
The Man Who Counts by Poul Anderson. Anderson's science fiction stories about the Polesotechnic League and Nicholas van Rijn are gems anyway, and this is, as far as I now, the only novel set in that future. It asks and answers a question that is in no way limited to science fiction: with a problem that requires the cooperation of Alien creatures to solve, who is more important, the stalwart, technically-accomplished engineer or the scheming, conniving politician?
River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay. I would read Kay's laundry list if it was published: he is that good a writer. This fantasy is doubly entertaining: it is set in a historical analog of Tang China instead of the usual European fantasy rehash, and the fantasy part is so subtle it is almost invisible - until he slaps you with it, like a great fish to the face. His depiction of a Chinese Werewolf will knock your socks off.
Too Many Magicians by Randall Garrett. Just realized how much of this Good Old Stuff is from the science fiction/fantasy genre. Oh well. This novel should have won every Science Fiction prize going, but it was published in the same year as Herbert's Dune, so almost no one noticed it. It is, basically, a Sherlock Holmes mystery set in an alternative universe in which Magic takes the place of most technology - Steampunk long before anyone had ever heard of the term. It is also a James Bondian spy thriller, a locked room murder mystery, and has one of the greatest concepts in all of fantasy/science fiction: a Forensic Sorcerer assisting the detective by analyzing the crime scene with Spells.
The Bear Went Over the Mountain by William Kotzwinkle. The first time I read it I thought it was one of the funniest things ever written in English. Second time it's just as funny, because it's still a massive satire on the entire American publishing and celebrity industry.
Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. In my mis-spent youth, I read all of Catton and MacPherson and the otrher 'Civil War Greats', but this Pullitzer Prize winning novel is still the best single book ever written about that Great American Event, the Civil War. He gets you inside the heads of people who don't think the way we do any more, and makes you understand them. If you can get past the last words of Armistead without weeping, you need burial, because you are already dead.
The Man Who Counts by Poul Anderson. Anderson's science fiction stories about the Polesotechnic League and Nicholas van Rijn are gems anyway, and this is, as far as I now, the only novel set in that future. It asks and answers a question that is in no way limited to science fiction: with a problem that requires the cooperation of Alien creatures to solve, who is more important, the stalwart, technically-accomplished engineer or the scheming, conniving politician?
River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay. I would read Kay's laundry list if it was published: he is that good a writer. This fantasy is doubly entertaining: it is set in a historical analog of Tang China instead of the usual European fantasy rehash, and the fantasy part is so subtle it is almost invisible - until he slaps you with it, like a great fish to the face. His depiction of a Chinese Werewolf will knock your socks off.
Too Many Magicians by Randall Garrett. Just realized how much of this Good Old Stuff is from the science fiction/fantasy genre. Oh well. This novel should have won every Science Fiction prize going, but it was published in the same year as Herbert's Dune, so almost no one noticed it. It is, basically, a Sherlock Holmes mystery set in an alternative universe in which Magic takes the place of most technology - Steampunk long before anyone had ever heard of the term. It is also a James Bondian spy thriller, a locked room murder mystery, and has one of the greatest concepts in all of fantasy/science fiction: a Forensic Sorcerer assisting the detective by analyzing the crime scene with Spells.
Josu
Emperor
Ended Battle Royale by Kōshun Takami.
Masterpiece
Started Half King by Joe Abercrombie
Masterpiece
Started Half King by Joe Abercrombie
Kaiju was tolerable for its worldbuilding, that was about it. The main character seemed nonexistant. The villain novel (more recent) was more fun.
Just finished two solarpunk collections -- Growing Seeds from Stone, a half-story about life in an eco-community, and Solar Flare, a collection of solarpunk short stories. Generally enjoyable.
Also read Burning Dreams, the Christopher Pike bio-novel from Margaret Bonanno. Loved it, but Anson Mount has made Captain Pike my favorite captain, beating out Sisko after twenty years.
bene_legionary
Believes in love
About 35% of the way through The Count of Monte Cristo. Some parts are quite funny in the way Dantes outmanoeuvres his betrayers and the irony hidden behind his words. Yet sometimes it's a little farcical. Still fun though.
As I'm playing Marathon I'm looking at other science fiction novels with AI, and one that I've just seen is Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks. So that might be my next one... if I don't start reading all the other books I promised myself I'd read
Love In the Time of Cholera is still on my bedside table only one doctor's death in, and I still haven't finished Tess of the d'Urbevilles.
As I'm playing Marathon I'm looking at other science fiction novels with AI, and one that I've just seen is Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks. So that might be my next one... if I don't start reading all the other books I promised myself I'd read
Love In the Time of Cholera is still on my bedside table only one doctor's death in, and I still haven't finished Tess of the d'Urbevilles.
Narz
keeping it real
The white tiger, I really enjoyed, found out they made a movie bout it will watch this week
Josu
Emperor
Ended Half King by Joe Abercrombie. Enjoyed it
Started The Therror by Dan Simmons
Started The Therror by Dan Simmons
tjs282
Stone \ Cold / Fish
That one's pretty good, but it was published quite late in the Culture series, and is also a followup of sorts to the very first of them (Consider Phlebas), set during the Culture-Idiran War which is commemorated by the main event of LtW.
Of the Culture novels which focus more on the interactions and conspiracies among the Minds and Ships, Excession is usually considered the best example.
(My favorite, though, is The Player of Games which, given its central conceit, should also hold particular appeal for CivFanatics generally!)
Bonyduck Campersang
Staring into the distance
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2022
- Messages
- 4,673
Still meandering through Swann's Way. I did finally get to the part where they say the name of the book in the book v Swann's Way is one of the two paths the narrator and his parents take for walks. Most probably Proust didn't just pick the title at random from one of the terms in the book, and Swann himself will probably figure more prominently in the future, but for now he's just been one of the cast, popping in and out every now and then.
The blasted narrator insists on describing every single blasted feeling he gets in his walks. There was a passage on a bunch of lilies and a river or a stream or a pond that seemed to go on forever, and I had to read it over and over again because my mental grip was slipping (and I'm secretly a masochist who won't just skip a passage and must needs suffer everything that comes my way). It was beautifully poetic, but you can bear beautiful poetry for only so long, and I just want to get on with the story.
I originally wrote that the narrator describes every sight he sees, but changed it to "feeling" because that seems more appropriate. It is not only the outer physical aspect that the narrator describes but also the way it made him feel and/or how the thing is a metaphor for Combray or for life in general. The narrator is also obsessed with capturing and analysing the feelings he gets from scenic landscapes and flowers and scents and stuff, something I think @Angst is or may be interested in. At one point, after a chapter's worth of telling us how he wanted so badly to retrieve the memory and feeling of this image or that smell he finally does jot down his impressions of three (church-towers?) on the way back in a cart ride. It is not very illuminating, but I did get that the towers take on the aspect of women seeing off someone going on a journey, both physically and otherwise (metaphorically?).
Even though there has been no chapter break (or any that I can remember) since the time the narrator was munching on his aunt's confectionery and guzzling her tea, the story has progressed, in the background. Aunt Louise (or was it Great-Aunt Louise?) has finally passed away, as well as M. Vintreuil, a poor reduced composer known for encouraging the narrator's artistic tendencies and for doting on his daughter (and for some ultra-minor scandal blown over by the gossiping women in the family which I didn't really catch). This daughter we last met in a park as an awkward tomboy, but at moment of going to press seems to have grown up enough to engage in adult behaviour with another woman (really a very unpleasant scene in more ways than one). Now I was sure this daughter was the same age as the narrator, and so assumed the narrator was grown up too, but he is still being sent to bed early and weeping the whole night because he can't see his Mama (though he sees her all the time during the day).
The entire story is told via the reminiscing of the narrator who is now an old man in a nursing home or the like. These memories (of his childhood, mostly at least) are aroused by the play of some lamp on the wall, casting shadows which recall to him characters and incidents from Combray. Judging by the length of the book – and what I saw from Googling the book – he will continue in this vein into his adulthood at least. It's very interesting and fun to see how this affects the narrative style – sometimes the narrator will tell us something from the time period he is reminiscing about, and then briefly move onto the future (but still the past) to hint at what happened then.
Weirdly, the narrator hasn't been given a name so far. In fact I think only once is his surname even mentioned, and even then it's his mother who is being addressed. I don't know if we'll learn of his name at any point in the book – the narrator does hint at some relationships with women in the eventual future, would be awkward if they didn't address him by his name even once. On the other hand I hope we get an explanation, or some idea at least, for why he has a nameless childhood.
There are some great humorous parts in the book, sprinkled here and there, but very deliciously subtle. There are other great non-humorous passages as well
The blasted narrator insists on describing every single blasted feeling he gets in his walks. There was a passage on a bunch of lilies and a river or a stream or a pond that seemed to go on forever, and I had to read it over and over again because my mental grip was slipping (and I'm secretly a masochist who won't just skip a passage and must needs suffer everything that comes my way). It was beautifully poetic, but you can bear beautiful poetry for only so long, and I just want to get on with the story.
I originally wrote that the narrator describes every sight he sees, but changed it to "feeling" because that seems more appropriate. It is not only the outer physical aspect that the narrator describes but also the way it made him feel and/or how the thing is a metaphor for Combray or for life in general. The narrator is also obsessed with capturing and analysing the feelings he gets from scenic landscapes and flowers and scents and stuff, something I think @Angst is or may be interested in. At one point, after a chapter's worth of telling us how he wanted so badly to retrieve the memory and feeling of this image or that smell he finally does jot down his impressions of three (church-towers?) on the way back in a cart ride. It is not very illuminating, but I did get that the towers take on the aspect of women seeing off someone going on a journey, both physically and otherwise (metaphorically?).
Even though there has been no chapter break (or any that I can remember) since the time the narrator was munching on his aunt's confectionery and guzzling her tea, the story has progressed, in the background. Aunt Louise (or was it Great-Aunt Louise?) has finally passed away, as well as M. Vintreuil, a poor reduced composer known for encouraging the narrator's artistic tendencies and for doting on his daughter (and for some ultra-minor scandal blown over by the gossiping women in the family which I didn't really catch). This daughter we last met in a park as an awkward tomboy, but at moment of going to press seems to have grown up enough to engage in adult behaviour with another woman (really a very unpleasant scene in more ways than one). Now I was sure this daughter was the same age as the narrator, and so assumed the narrator was grown up too, but he is still being sent to bed early and weeping the whole night because he can't see his Mama (though he sees her all the time during the day).
The entire story is told via the reminiscing of the narrator who is now an old man in a nursing home or the like. These memories (of his childhood, mostly at least) are aroused by the play of some lamp on the wall, casting shadows which recall to him characters and incidents from Combray. Judging by the length of the book – and what I saw from Googling the book – he will continue in this vein into his adulthood at least. It's very interesting and fun to see how this affects the narrative style – sometimes the narrator will tell us something from the time period he is reminiscing about, and then briefly move onto the future (but still the past) to hint at what happened then.
Weirdly, the narrator hasn't been given a name so far. In fact I think only once is his surname even mentioned, and even then it's his mother who is being addressed. I don't know if we'll learn of his name at any point in the book – the narrator does hint at some relationships with women in the eventual future, would be awkward if they didn't address him by his name even once. On the other hand I hope we get an explanation, or some idea at least, for why he has a nameless childhood.
There are some great humorous parts in the book, sprinkled here and there, but very deliciously subtle. There are other great non-humorous passages as well
thetrooper
Misanthrope
- Joined
- May 24, 2004
- Messages
- 9,084
I think I’m ready for Lillelord (trilogy) by Norwegian writer Johan Borgen even though I fear this exercise will drain me completely.
Just finished the Monk and Robot series by Becky Chambers. Liked the worldbuilding and introspection. Currently reading an ARC called Lawless Republic, which uses Cicero's legal trials to examine the fall of the Roman Republic -- as well as a book about volcanos.
EnglishEdward
Deity
Week before last I finished reading:
Broken Angels
by
Richard Morgan
copyright 2003
It is a sci-fi spectacular with humanity speading accoss the stars using maps from extinct ~Martians~,
wars with troops having spinal stacks to dump their consciousness so they can be re-sleeved if killed.
Apparently they started to make a Netflix film series, but they ran out of budget.
I am not surprised as it would be expensive to do properly
I was so impressed, I went back to the same second hand book shop and bought the next book Woken Furies.
Broken Angels
by
Richard Morgan
copyright 2003
It is a sci-fi spectacular with humanity speading accoss the stars using maps from extinct ~Martians~,
wars with troops having spinal stacks to dump their consciousness so they can be re-sleeved if killed.
Apparently they started to make a Netflix film series, but they ran out of budget.
I am not surprised as it would be expensive to do properly
I was so impressed, I went back to the same second hand book shop and bought the next book Woken Furies.
tjs282
Stone \ Cold / Fish
The TV series is called Altered Carbon (after the first book in the series), and Netflix made 2 seasons of it (so far).
Season 1 was pretty much a straight adaptation of Book 1, but the scriptwriters made several substantial changes to it, such that Season 2 was necessarily a much looser adaptation of Book 2, which is the one you just read.
Season 1 was pretty much a straight adaptation of Book 1, but the scriptwriters made several substantial changes to it, such that Season 2 was necessarily a much looser adaptation of Book 2, which is the one you just read.
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EnglishEdward
Deity
Thank you. I don't subscribe to Netflix so I am hearing everything third hand.
Just read a short story by Max Brooks called Tiger Chair, about a frustrated and suicidal Chinese soldier's despair over the way in America is going. Interesting look at futuristic military action and tactics against it. Also finished Dune: The Graphic Novel Vol I. Enjoyed the art. I've never read the book properly and thought this might make a good introduction. Will take on book proper soon.
bene_legionary
Believes in love
For the past two days I crashed through The Count of Monte Cristo because I found I was beginning to place reading it over studying for my very very very (very!) imminent exams. Thoroughly enjoyed the vengeance, the reflection, and the remorse that comes with it. Poor, poor Valentine.
It seems like I'll need to take a break from reading; I'll hope and wait for the time I'm free from exams, then I'll have all the time in the world (well, all of four and a half weeks) to read, and catch up with some people.
One thing I am curious about is how differently novels read from the time internal monologues weren't as common. It was enjoyable and engaging, to be sure, but I feel like the scope of a character is seen better when you can analyse it from their thoughts, and not by the description of the author. Anna Karenina and its very vivid scenes of internal turmoil and crazed thoughts in – for example, the last chapters of part 7 (or, according to this standard ebooks version, chapter 300?!) – feel like they're a notch higher than in comparable scenes in Monte Cristo where the scenes are mostly described from above, not from within a character.
It seems like I'll need to take a break from reading; I'll hope and wait for the time I'm free from exams, then I'll have all the time in the world (well, all of four and a half weeks) to read, and catch up with some people.
One thing I am curious about is how differently novels read from the time internal monologues weren't as common. It was enjoyable and engaging, to be sure, but I feel like the scope of a character is seen better when you can analyse it from their thoughts, and not by the description of the author. Anna Karenina and its very vivid scenes of internal turmoil and crazed thoughts in – for example, the last chapters of part 7 (or, according to this standard ebooks version, chapter 300?!) – feel like they're a notch higher than in comparable scenes in Monte Cristo where the scenes are mostly described from above, not from within a character.
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