What Book Are You Reading XV - The Pile Keeps Growing!

[EnglishEdward]

This book, Edward? It looks quite intriguing.

Yes, that is the one.

I prefer the time travel aspects to the (soppy) romantic aspects, but that is my nature.

 

[Takhisis]

Test of the Twins!

 

[Arakhor]

Is that a reread or have you somehow never read the Legends trilogy before?

 

[DaggerDigwillow]

Currently reading several books and try to alternate depending on mood, location, and schedule..

A Man Without Qualities by Musil. Almost finished with the unfinished work and getting ready to launch into the notes and alternative writings.

Heartbreak by Florence Williams on the scientific emotional neurochemistry of failed relationships.

Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind: by V. S. Ramachandran , Sandra Blakeslee et al on the phantom limb syndrome.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov not sure how much I can say about this in the forums.

English Grammar 100 tragically common mistakes and how to correct them by Sean Williams. Mostly for toilet literature.

 

[DaggerDigwillow]

Finished Ward No. 6 by Anton Chekhov. Describes a pre-revolutionary insane asylum in Russia as a social criticism parallel to society. 7/10 stars.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Test of the Twins!

I wish the Istar part of the storyline in this trilogy meshed better with the Kingpriest trilogy written by another author. It's awkward when you're used to the story going one way and the other trilogy tells the same events in a different way.

Anyhow, my favorite character in this trilogy is Dalamar.


I decided to start reading some of my print fanzines while waiting for my favorite online Harry Potter stories to get updated (honestly, there's one in which Molly dies in the Battle of Hogwarts and six years later a marriage law results in Hermione marrying Arthur Weasley). I'm currently working my way through a fanzine that focuses on Methos, in the Highlander series.

 

[Takhisis]

Is that a reread or have you somehow never read the Legends trilogy before?

I read a crapton of Dragonlance books in the 2000s here (most of them borrowed) and then they went out of circulation and it's only now that I'm slowly being able to (re-)read them.

I wish the Istar part of the storyline in this trilogy meshed better with the Kingpriest trilogy written by another author. It's awkward when you're used to the story going one way and the other trilogy tells the same events in a different way.

Anyhow, my favorite character in this trilogy is Dalamar.

Since I read them in the order that I could get them, I think I first met Dalamar through the Defenders of Magic books.

I remember reading the Kingpriest of Istar's story once, with Takhisis herself doing a Terminator act and infiltrating an already-crumbling structure.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I remember reading the Kingpriest of Istar's story once, with Takhisis herself doing a Terminator act and infiltrating an already-crumbling structure.

I don't remember that. Have you read the Kingpriest trilogy by Chris Pierson?

 

[DaggerDigwillow]

Finished A Man Without Qualities by Musil 1,700 pages of relationship and social commentary. Much of the book is brilliant and highly quotable but much of it is also rambling and eye roll inducing details that seem irrelavent to the story. The additional hundreds of pages of notes and reworked parts of the story are interesting to read for the literary process and working out of ideas.

 

[Takhisis]

I don't remember that. Have you read the Kingpriest trilogy by Chris Pierson?

Honestly, I might or might not. Since the majority of the books I've read were borrowed and I'm only this year catching up. And especially the multiple re-editions and my having read it in more than one language, with more than one version of the title, makes it even more confusing. I recently got the staff at a shop suspicious by taking out pen and paper and poring through every book to check the original English title.

I got them a bit less nervous by actually buying one.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Honestly, I might or might not. Since the majority of the books I've read were borrowed and I'm only this year catching up. And especially the multiple re-editions and my having read it in more than one language, with more than one version of the title, makes it even more confusing. I recently got the staff at a shop suspicious by taking out pen and paper and poring through every book to check the original English title.

I got them a bit less nervous by actually buying one.

Why should they be suspicious if you want to check the title? I used to keep two notebooks with me on my in-person book hunts to make sure I didn't buy any duplicates, or the same book by a different title, or an anthology full of stories I already had in other anthologies. If staff asked, I explained that I'm a collector and this is how I organize my library. They shut up when told how many hundreds of books I had (at that time; it's in the thousands by now).

There was one (w)itchy co-owner of a bookstore who didn't like me for some reason. I came in one day and she rudely snarked that "there's nothing new since you came in last time", meaning "I don't want you here, GTFO."

I told her that I liked to try different authors, and often saw books there that I didn't have enough to get before but would come back when I did, and hope they were still there. I was relieved when this unpleasant woman left.

Too many bookstore employees don't get that people like to browse, and the longer you let them, the likelier it is that they will find something to buy. That's why Chapters has chairs and tables for people to relax. Sure, some may read without buying, but most will buy something.

 

[Takhisis]

Well, they were suspicious because I was somebody new (or, who hadn't dropped in since before the pandemic, which is nearly the same) who'd dropped in with a backpack, was facing away from the security camera and was groping more or less every book. Once I started explaining and showing them which books I had and which I was missing and so on things got warmer, but apparently there's being a lot of petty theft lately.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Well, they were suspicious because I was somebody new (or, who hadn't dropped in since before the pandemic, which is nearly the same) who'd dropped in with a backpack, was facing away from the security camera and was groping more or less every book. Once I started explaining and showing them which books I had and which I was missing and so on things got warmer, but apparently there's being a lot of petty theft lately.

Similar to some of my situations, then, minus the pandemic and the backpack. I haven't been in any non-food/medical related store in 3 years. Nobody on Amazon questions my browsing habits, though they seem to think it's reasonable to nag me to post a review of something that was only delivered yesterday. Give me a chance to read it!

Some clerks are ungodly suspicious even about purses, let alone backpacks or other things. I've had to explain many times that no, I will not check my purse, because it contains 1. my meds, and there are times when I need them IMMEDIATELY; and 2. unless they guarantee to watch my purse every second, I can't trust that it won't be stolen or searched.

 

[warpus]

I had a bunch of spare time lately so I finished reading Sisterhood of Dune - a book I've owned for about a decade, but the first time I tried reading it all those years ago I didn't get very far.. I picked it up again earlier this year when I was camping with family, but only ended up finishing it a couple weeks ago, when I ended up in bed with some free time, recovering from an acl reconstruction surgery (it's going well!)

This is the novel that a new HBO max TV series is based on, although based on the announced characters and other details it seems that the plot is being altered to some degree. I liked the book overall, but would maybe rate it at a 6.5/10. This novel takes place about 80 years after the end of the Butlerian Jihad trilogy, so it's basically a sequel to that trilogy, with some of the same characters and plot elements. I liked where they took some of the leftover ideas from those novels.. but the characterization and dialogue is in a couple places a bit clunky. Still, an overall entertaining read

After this I picked up Mentats of Dune and Navigators of Dune, the two sequels to Sisterhood of Dune. I liked Mentats of Dune the most, it made me feel a bit like the authors have finally grown up a bit and have started to take some risks with the story even slightly reminiscent of Frank Herbert. The ending was so-so, but some of the stuff that happens in that novel is pretty interesting. Overall I'd rate it at a 7.6/10 or so. I found Navigators of Dune to be a decent finale, with all loose ends tied up, but maybe a little bit too neatly.. 7.1/10

I am currently reading Dune: Duke of Caladan and am almost finished with it. Overall it's about a 6.9/10. I want to rate it higher, because there's parts where you can picture actors from the 2021 movie saying some of the lines.. And parts of the novel also come across a tiny bit Frank Herbert-y, although not as much as Mentats (a tiny bit more). But overall the story is sort of average.. which I guess you sort of have to accept, this taking place about a year before the events of the original Dune.. so not thaaat much really could have happened. Overall an entertaining prequel and I will pick up the next 2 books in the trilogy when they come out in massmarket paperback.

Next I might read Into Thin Air, because it recently came up when I posted some photos from my 2017 Everest Basecamp Trek hike. But we'll see. There are a couple other candidates lying right beside my bed (including Tim's book)

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I had a bunch of spare time lately so I finished reading Sisterhood of Dune - a book I've owned for about a decade, but the first time I tried reading it all those years ago I didn't get very far.. I picked it up again earlier this year when I was camping with family, but only ended up finishing it a couple weeks ago, when I ended up in bed with some free time, recovering from an acl reconstruction surgery (it's going well!)

This is the novel that a new HBO max TV series is based on, although based on the announced characters and other details it seems that the plot is being altered to some degree. I liked the book overall, but would maybe rate it at a 6.5/10. This novel takes place about 80 years after the end of the Butlerian Jihad trilogy, so it's basically a sequel to that trilogy, with some of the same characters and plot elements. I liked where they took some of the leftover ideas from those novels.. but the characterization and dialogue is in a couple places a bit clunky. Still, an overall entertaining read

After this I picked up Mentats of Dune and Navigators of Dune, the two sequels to Sisterhood of Dune. I liked Mentats of Dune the most, it made me feel a bit like the authors have finally grown up a bit and have started to take some risks with the story even slightly reminiscent of Frank Herbert. The ending was so-so, but some of the stuff that happens in that novel is pretty interesting. Overall I'd rate it at a 7.6/10 or so. I found Navigators of Dune to be a decent finale, with all loose ends tied up, but maybe a little bit too neatly.. 7.1/10

I am currently reading Dune: Duke of Caladan and am almost finished with it. Overall it's about a 6.9/10. I want to rate it higher, because there's parts where you can picture actors from the 2021 movie saying some of the lines.. And parts of the novel also come across a tiny bit Frank Herbert-y, although not as much as Mentats (a tiny bit more). But overall the story is sort of average.. which I guess you sort of have to accept, this taking place about a year before the events of the original Dune.. so not thaaat much really could have happened. Overall an entertaining prequel and I will pick up the next 2 books in the trilogy when they come out in massmarket paperback.

I rolled my eyes when reading Sisterhood. My eyeballs got a really good workout.

If you go by canon history and the Dune Encyclopedia, the Bene Gesserit were around long before the Butlerian Jihad. The Jihad happened partly because the aborted fetus that catalyzed the Jihad would have been the mother of the Kwisatz Haderach (Sarah Butler, daughter of Sister Jehane Butler).

This "small-world" syndrome is really tiresome. Not everyone has to be related to Vorian Atreides, Whatsisname Harkonnen, or Norma F. Cenva.

That said, I have not read Mentats, or Navigators, nor even bought the Caladan books (the Amazon preview was enough to put me off).

I found a fanfic that's set during the Scattering/Famine Times, and it's interesting and well-written. Pity KJA/BH couldn't tackle that, rather than rechew what they've done before. Since FH didn't go into detail and just skipped over 1500 years, there wouldn't be as much retconning.

 

[warpus]

I do hate small world syndrome, so many authors and tv shows/movies fall prey to that... Peter F. Hamilton is pretty bad at that too, although his books are pretty good overall

I gotta point out that the encyclopedia is not canon at all though, but that's a conversation for another place

It looks like they are revamping the story quite a bit for the Sisterhood TV series btw, at least judging by the casting decisions so far (i.e. there's major characters who don't exist in the novel). Which makes sense, as Sisterhood was a sequel to the BJ trilogy, continuing story arcs, etc.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I do hate small world syndrome, so many authors and tv shows/movies fall prey to that... Peter F. Hamilton is pretty bad at that too, although his books are pretty good overall

I gotta point out that the encyclopedia is not canon at all though, but that's a conversation for another place

It looks like they are revamping the story quite a bit for the Sisterhood TV series btw, at least judging by the casting decisions so far (i.e. there's major characters who don't exist in the novel). Which makes sense, as Sisterhood was a sequel to the BJ trilogy, continuing story arcs, etc.

Frank Herbert stated his "delighted approval" of the Encyclopedia, albeit reserving the right to change stuff for future novels (the biggest being the continued existence of Duncan Idaho gholas, as the Encyclopedia says the Duncan of God Emperor was aka "Duncan-the-Last" as he did not want to be brought back ever again. Of course the BG would ignore that and do it anyway.

FH's approval is good enough for me. He and McNelly had plans to co-write their own Butlerian Jihad novel, but then FH got sick and that was that...

 

[Takhisis]

Similar to some of my situations, then, minus the pandemic and the backpack. I haven't been in any non-food/medical related store in 3 years. Nobody on Amazon questions my browsing habits, though they seem to think it's reasonable to nag me to post a review of something that was only delivered yesterday. Give me a chance to read it!

Some clerks are ungodly suspicious even about purses, let alone backpacks or other things. I've had to explain many times that no, I will not check my purse, because it contains 1. my meds, and there are times when I need them IMMEDIATELY; and 2. unless they guarantee to watch my purse every second, I can't trust that it won't be stolen or searched.

Now that I'm returning to stores in person I also got worse treatment at another store where the man didn't recognise me but also physically just stood in the doorway, blocking it.

…

But he did point me in the right direction when I explained I was looking for Dragonlance books, so it wasn't all that bad.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Now that I'm returning to stores in person I also got worse treatment at another store where the man didn't recognise me but also physically just stood in the doorway, blocking it.

…

But he did point me in the right direction when I explained I was looking for Dragonlance books, so it wasn't all that bad.

So you need personal approval to go into a store now? I thought they want people to spend money?

 

[EnglishEdward]

Yesterday I finished reading

The Soldier

by

Neal Asher

It is a convoluted sci-fi soap opera involving numerous characters none really human.

I wasn't good at guessing the plot, perhaps re-written after quality reviewers succeeded.