Which book are you reading now? Volume XI

[Kozmos]

Try some Alastair Reynolds. It is not diamond hard because it involves some speculative physics and picks an interpretation of cosmology to suit the story but ultimately all hard-sf fail that test of time. That said, I've heard good things about Blindsight by Peter Watts and the Grand Tour series by Ben Bova. Furthermore Kim Stanley Robinson has a delightful Mars Trilogy and his other works are peachy as well I'm told.

 

[Mouthwash]

I'll look for Reynolds. I recently tried Jack McDevitt because of the raving recommendations, but his writing is shockingly amateurish. Seriously, SK?

 

[madviking]

Sportsman's Sketches, Turgenev

 

[Antilogic]

Finished a couple of short books at the conference (and more specifically on the plane):

American Fascists by Chris Hedges
Four Hats in the Ring: The 1912 Election... by Lewis Gould

And still plugging away on Volume III of Hobsbawm.

 

[Cutlass]

For the first time in several months I've had time to get to some new books.

Glen Cook, Wicked Bronze Ambition Latest in an odd series, Garrett, P.I. It's a 30s like noir detective in a swords and sorcery setting. Fairly light and entertaining.

Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, David Freer, Burdens of the Dead Latest in the Heirs of Alexandria series. Which is an alt-history set around Venice and other parts of Europe of the mid 16th century. But in a world with magic, gods(multiple) and demons. I have the feeling that Freer did most of this book. I've read a lot by Lackey and Flint, and they have a much smoother and more professional prose than this book.

Mercedes Lackey, Steadfast Latest in her Elemental Masters series. Which isn't my favorite series by her. But it's decent.

Tad Williams, Happy Hour in Hell This is a sequel to The Dirty Streets of Heaven, which I think some people here were discussing several months ago.

 

[Mouthwash]

Egypt, Greece, and Rome -Charles Freeman

Ruins -Orson Scott Card

 

[Smellincoffee]

Martin Eden, Jack London. 'Tis the story of a working-class genius who "civilizes" himself to win the love of a society dame, but now he's gotten hooked on the prospect of intellectual and artistic achievement.

 

[Kaitzilla]

I want to complain about "A Desert Called Peace" by Tom Kratman
http://www.amazon.com/Desert-Called-Peace-Science-Fiction/dp/1416555927

I managed to download it for free and it had lots of good reviews and I love military sci-fi.
Especially the free kind.
And the title is referencing the Romans.
Free download:
http://www.baenebooks.com/p-614-a-desert-called-peace.aspx

Ever read a book and think it will keep getting better but it doesn't?
Then it breaks your suspension of disbelief and...

SPOILERS

Spoiler :

... I guess I'll start with the main character.
Retired military guy working for essentially the United States on another planet. (Our world on another planet 400 years in the future essentially)
Sits around writing war history with his two best friends who happened to be his enemies in the last war.

They spend 40 pages patting each other on the back about how great they were fighting each other, but in the flashbacks you never really see it.

They do their history writing near a statue of the main character's wife who is evidentally the most beautiful woman in the world.

At the time, she is visiting the main character's uncle in the 100th floor of a skyscraper while pregnant and with 3 kids.
Islamic terrorists fly zepplins (the hydrogen kind) into 3 towers ala 9/11 and she has a heartbreaking phone call to the main character.

The uncle facing death has a change of heart and phones his lawyer that the main character gets all his money and business stuff in his revised will.

The towers collapse, main character gets extremely depressed at his family dying.

Gets a ride with his brother in law.
Asks him to take him to get liquor.
Then asks him take him to a Muslim extremist? rally where they are celebrating the 9/11 style attack. (The correct answer is no at this point!)
Brother in law takes him there. He picks a fight with 6 guys and shoots and beats them to death brutally.

Brother in law, who is a cop!, says they need to run but main character makes them stay put.
Then his buddy shows up, the one from the library who was making a war history and was his best friend/war enemy and it turns out he is the head of the police and "It was obviously self-defense"

I won't even mention the bar scene apology. I have to stop and go throw up now.

I'm sure I'm missing out on some Rambo type revenge or intense war.
The main character is zero dimensional and the writing style is just plain bad.

It took me a while to remember where I'd seen the author's name before.
He was co-author of a book that I saw the most scathing review of my life written about.

Language Warning
<snipped>

Moderator Action: Violates one click rules.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

It wasn't worth free
Back to Jack Reacher novels for me. High quality stuff comparatively.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Tad Williams, Happy Hour in Hell This is a sequel to The Dirty Streets of Heaven, which I think some people here were discussing several months ago.

The first was great! On to the second.

 

[Mouthwash]

Language Warning
<snipped>

You can do that?

Moderator Action: No. Direct links to banned words or content is not allowed.

 

[Verarde]

Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis.
The Prince, Machiavelli.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Central Asia: 130 Years of Russian Dominance, ed. by Edward Allworth

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Blackwell's A Companion to 20th-Century America. About as objective as one can get for the history of such a prominent nation that arouses rather passionate viewpoints.

 

[Darth Caesar]

Finished 1984 by George Orwell last night.

Spoiler :

Holy crap. I didn't except a happy ending but I had no idea it would be the most miserable ending to any piece of fiction I've ever read or watched so far.

 

[Traitorfish]

That's Orwell for ye.

 

[Mouthwash]

I loved Animal Farm.

 

[Darth Caesar]

That's Orwell for ye.

I'm still looking for the tiny pieces of my shattered soul.

 

[Traitorfish]

I loved Animal Farm.

That has a pretty bleak ending as well, mind.

The live action version is pretty great, though. At the end, the pigs overthrow themselves, somehow, it's not explained, and the animals, realising the utter futility of their democratic aspirations, realising the sheer hubris of imagining that they could govern themselves, invite a new set of humans to rule over them, only benevolently or something, they hope, without the remotest guarantee. You can't help but feel that there's more truth in that revision to the analogy than was intended.

I'm still looking for the tiny pieces of my shattered soul.

Might be worth giving Homage to Catalonia a try. It doesn't have a cheerful ending, exactly, what with the violent suppression of the Spanish left-opposition by the Stalinists, but it has a sort of triumphant defiance to it. Apparently, sometime between 1938 and 1948, he got a lot more pessimistic.

 

[JohannaK]

Key difference with the other books being the unhappy ending in that one was a real thing.

 

[Mouthwash]

A History of Ancient Egypt: From the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid -John Romer