tjs282
Stone \ Cold / Fish
Coming round the last bend of The Expanse: finished Babylon's Ashes yesterday, started Persepolis Rising this morning, and already ~130 pages in...
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Which book are you reading now? Volume XIV
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hobbsyoyo
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There's still one more book due to be released this year!
Does anyone have a trigger word that sets them off in a book?
I've heard some people say "suddenly" kills the mood for them.
What really grinds my gears is characters winking more than once.
I hate "wink".
I always imagine a face convulsing trying to close one eye, followed by a smugness that slays since they just coveyed how clever they think they are.
I've heard some people say "suddenly" kills the mood for them.
What really grinds my gears is characters winking more than once.
I hate "wink".
I always imagine a face convulsing trying to close one eye, followed by a smugness that slays since they just coveyed how clever they think they are.
*mandatorysimpsonsmeme.gif*
hobbsyoyo
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No specific words but I hate the overuse of apostrophes in alien names/words and badly written sex scenes.
Synobun
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You prefer your badly written sex scenes to have fewer apostrophes?
EgonSpengler
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April, iirc. I recommend Walter Jon Williams' The Praxis, in the meantime. Anything by Williams, come to think of it, he's one of my favorite authors. I'm reading This Is Not a Game right now. I've liked all of Scalzi's books, too, although I thought Head On was kind of dull - maybe that concept was only good for one book.
I really like this style of Sci Fi cover art. I found that The Expanse covers were too abstracted and I generally don't like the spaceships to be too vague and undefined.
Weird flex: I finished this book in 2 days. This series is definitely a change of pace from some of the denser books I've been reading and a welcome change at that. It was a good sequel and I can't wait for the last to book to be released this year.
Spoiler :
I go up-and-down with Sanderson. I thought Elantris was outstanding. I dove straight into The Way of Kings, but couldn't get into it. I just read Skyward the other week, which was pretty good, and The Reckoners series was alright, too. I'm kind of scared to reread Elantris, on the chance it isn't as good as I remember.
I have the same problem with Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana and China Mieville's Perdido Street Station (which ought to be a tv series by now, I can't fathom why it hasn't been adapted yet). Anyway, I haven't read any of the Mistborn books yet. If these are your bag, I also recommend NK Jemisin's The Fifth Season and The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett.
Synobun
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It's the first I've read of his. I loved it. Really, really loved it. Perfect pacing and characters, and the language is decidedly straightforward. Absolutely no adherence to trying to sound smart or fancy, which is perfect for me since I don't imagine what I read and the flowery, verbose language does nothing for me.I go up-and-down with Sanderson. I thought Elantris was outstanding. I dove straight into The Way of Kings, but couldn't get into it. I just read Skyward the other week, which was pretty good, and The Reckoners series was alright, too. I'm kind of scared to reread Elantris, on the chance it isn't as good as I remember.
I put a hold on the second book but I'll need to wait 10 weeks.
I will definitely have myself a gander at those other titles if some of my other holds don't come through next week.
Narz
keeping it real
Just finished Stonemouth and as usual with Banks it was excellent. Whilst some are better than others even his worst are still enjoyable.
I do wonder if he had a troubled adolescence though. A lot of his "serious" novels concern a character going home and resolving issues from their adolescence.
About to start The King in the North by Max Adams about Oswald Whiteblade, an 8th century king of Northumbria.
I do wonder if he had a troubled adolescence though. A lot of his "serious" novels concern a character going home and resolving issues from their adolescence.
About to start The King in the North by Max Adams about Oswald Whiteblade, an 8th century king of Northumbria.
Ajidica
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I was getting a suit fitted on Monday for a friends wedding and realized it was near a used bookstore I liked, so I dropped by - big mistake!
I picked up a number of historical books, along with a Robert Howard (Conan the Barbarian) compilation, some of the later Barsoom books that aren't digitized by google yet, and some other assorted books. I made some pretty good progress on the stack over the last few days, finishing up these two.
Their Trade is Treachery by Chapman Pincher. One of the first UK authors to write about MI5 and MI6 in the early 80s, Pincher acquired the reputation of being 'the sewer, not the sewage' by republishing anything cranky right-wing MI5 and MI6 officers told him, such as the belief the former director of MI5, Roger Hollis, was a Soviet spy. The books is primarily focused on the Roger Hollis allegations, and MI5/MI6's oroborous-like tendency to tie themselves in knots over the Cambridge 5 and the 'Fifth Man'. Real 'inside scoop' stories are intermixed with score-settling and right-wing nuttery, but good book nonetheless.
Vladimir: The Russian Viking by Vladimir Volkov. An utterly bizarre book. The author uncritically reproduces the Rus chronicles - with a smattering of Greek, Arabic, and German chronicles- in relating the life of Vladimir the Great and then adds in a bunch of speculation on what Vladimir was thinking or 'dialogue' between parties and individuals motivations. It almost feels like particularly well researched historical fiction than a historical biography.
I started on EA Thompson's The Huns, part of a series that Peter Heather contributed a book on the Goths to. I started reading and found it's syntax a bit strange, the author's habit of including untranslated Latin or Greek phrases, and not citing anything more recent that the early 1940s. Flipped to the back of the book and discovered that it was actually written in 1948 and the author was planning on updating it before he died, so Peter Heather took over. Thankfully this was during Heather's "good period" before he started publishing nonsense such as saying immigrants caused the collapse of the Roman Empire or that the overthrow of Romulus Augustulus in 476 was 'the end of the Empire'. It shouldn't be that bad history wise as our knowledge of the Huns in archaeological terms doesn't seem to have changed much based on what I read from Halsall.
I picked up a number of historical books, along with a Robert Howard (Conan the Barbarian) compilation, some of the later Barsoom books that aren't digitized by google yet, and some other assorted books. I made some pretty good progress on the stack over the last few days, finishing up these two.
Their Trade is Treachery by Chapman Pincher. One of the first UK authors to write about MI5 and MI6 in the early 80s, Pincher acquired the reputation of being 'the sewer, not the sewage' by republishing anything cranky right-wing MI5 and MI6 officers told him, such as the belief the former director of MI5, Roger Hollis, was a Soviet spy. The books is primarily focused on the Roger Hollis allegations, and MI5/MI6's oroborous-like tendency to tie themselves in knots over the Cambridge 5 and the 'Fifth Man'. Real 'inside scoop' stories are intermixed with score-settling and right-wing nuttery, but good book nonetheless.
Vladimir: The Russian Viking by Vladimir Volkov. An utterly bizarre book. The author uncritically reproduces the Rus chronicles - with a smattering of Greek, Arabic, and German chronicles- in relating the life of Vladimir the Great and then adds in a bunch of speculation on what Vladimir was thinking or 'dialogue' between parties and individuals motivations. It almost feels like particularly well researched historical fiction than a historical biography.
I started on EA Thompson's The Huns, part of a series that Peter Heather contributed a book on the Goths to. I started reading and found it's syntax a bit strange, the author's habit of including untranslated Latin or Greek phrases, and not citing anything more recent that the early 1940s. Flipped to the back of the book and discovered that it was actually written in 1948 and the author was planning on updating it before he died, so Peter Heather took over. Thankfully this was during Heather's "good period" before he started publishing nonsense such as saying immigrants caused the collapse of the Roman Empire or that the overthrow of Romulus Augustulus in 476 was 'the end of the Empire'. It shouldn't be that bad history wise as our knowledge of the Huns in archaeological terms doesn't seem to have changed much based on what I read from Halsall.
MagisterCultuum
Great Sage
I am continuing to alternate back and forth between books of The Expanse and The Witcher series. Right now I am am about halfway through "Baptism of Fire." Next I plan to start on "Persepolis Rising."
I've just finished reading El sari rojo by Javier Moro (published in English as The Red Sari: a dramatised biography of Sonia Gandhi). Interesting. It chronicles Sonia Gandhi's life but really is a biography of Indira Gandhi and, by extension, the Congress Party from the 1960s until the late 2000s.
How much archæological evidence do nomadic peoples leave, compared to settled cultures?
Ajidica
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That's the problem. We have some object types associated with the Huns, but that's already pretty tenuous because the association is that the objects were found in an area where 'the Huns' were supposed to be. The Huns do not appear to have had any great metalworking tradition, so a lot of their objects are similar either to 'Gothic' objects* or part of the general steppe culture. Even practices traditionally associated with Huns, like skull binding, are more common in non-Hunnic graves than Hunnic graves. The highest concentration of skull bindings in graves discovered so far occur in Allemanic regions which were never really party of the Hunnic Confederation or its sphere of influence.
*Indeed, given the prevalence of Goths in the Hunnic Confederation and the fact the most likely etymology for Attila's name is Gothic (little father), the Huns who raided and invaded the Roman Empire were highly likely to be a small aristocratic elite ruling over a Gothic population.
‘Small aristocratic elite ruling over a <name> population’ does seem to be an accurate description of several states that resulted from rapid expansion, both nomadic and sedentary, including the Mongol Khanate, Alexander's Macedonian Empire and the Incas.
By comparison? Hardly any.
EnglishEdward
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Just finished
"The Bloody Deluge" by "Adrian Tchaikovsky"
I have started on:
"Falling Sideways" by "Tom Holt".
"The Bloody Deluge" by "Adrian Tchaikovsky"
I have started on:
"Falling Sideways" by "Tom Holt".
Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal".
About solving the issue with the poors in Ireland.
@Traitorfish should read this, I am sure it was in line with other proposals for the problem, though perhaps a little too suspect due to anti-papism; otherwise equally sound though.
About solving the issue with the poors in Ireland.
@Traitorfish should read this, I am sure it was in line with other proposals for the problem, though perhaps a little too suspect due to anti-papism; otherwise equally sound though.
Have you tried any of Holt's historical novels? I liked Olympiad and Alexander at the World's End although I thought they were getting a bit formulaic after that.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
I'm still reading "The Dreaming Void', by Peter F. Hamilton.
It's the next trilogy in the previous series which started with "Pandora's Star", which came recommended to me by Tim.
This author.. man.. So many interesting ideas and good characters, but it's taking me years to make my way through the whole story. After Dreaming void I have 2 more Void books that wrap up the story (I think). There's also 1 or 2 prequels or in-between-quels, but I will not read those.
I am engaged in teh story and characters, but just dont' care to read it most of the time. I think there's too much pseudo intrigue in the book, but that just seems to be the way this guy writes. I just want to get to the meat to the story, but it jumps around and shows me all this stuff I don't care about. Ok I'll stop complaining now
It's the next trilogy in the previous series which started with "Pandora's Star", which came recommended to me by Tim.
This author.. man.. So many interesting ideas and good characters, but it's taking me years to make my way through the whole story. After Dreaming void I have 2 more Void books that wrap up the story (I think). There's also 1 or 2 prequels or in-between-quels, but I will not read those.
I am engaged in teh story and characters, but just dont' care to read it most of the time. I think there's too much pseudo intrigue in the book, but that just seems to be the way this guy writes. I just want to get to the meat to the story, but it jumps around and shows me all this stuff I don't care about. Ok I'll stop complaining now
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