Author Topic: What are you reading?  (Read 845371 times)

Listener

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Reply #550 on: August 16, 2008, 01:35:02 PM
Walter Jon Williams, "The Green Leopard Plague" -- pretty good, though the "twist" at the end (involving Michelle) sort of felt like Williams had written himself into a corner and had no idea how to make the Michelle plotline resolve itself.

Cory Doctorow, "Little Brother" -- devoured this book in about 2.5 hours last night.  It is, I kid you not, the scariest book I have read this decade.  It's really, really good, if slightly repetitive.  Now I feel bad for saying my new story, "Bittersweet Symphony", is Doctorow-esque, because this book blows away my story.

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Reply #551 on: August 16, 2008, 02:34:09 PM

Cory Doctorow, "Little Brother" -- devoured this book in about 2.5 hours last night.  It is, I kid you not, the scariest book I have read this decade.  It's really, really good, if slightly repetitive.  Now I feel bad for saying my new story, "Bittersweet Symphony", is Doctorow-esque, because this book blows away my story.

Don't be ashamed.  I read "Little Brother" a couple of months ago and was absolutely blown away.  My middle-school son, the anti-reader, loved it too.  I just read "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" and a few of Doctorow's short stories and I wouldn't guess in a million years that they were written by the same author.  "Little Brother" is so different from anything else I've read by Doctorow.  My copy has now been read by three people and is in the hands of a fourth.  It reminded me so much of when I was an idealistic kid in the post-McCarthy era and my friends and I were worried about the FBI/CIA collecting information on us for subscribing to certain publications or belonging to certain groups.  I'm recommending "Little Brother" to everyone.



Listener

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Reply #552 on: August 17, 2008, 01:29:23 AM

Cory Doctorow, "Little Brother" -- devoured this book in about 2.5 hours last night.  It is, I kid you not, the scariest book I have read this decade.  It's really, really good, if slightly repetitive.  Now I feel bad for saying my new story, "Bittersweet Symphony", is Doctorow-esque, because this book blows away my story.

Don't be ashamed.  I read "Little Brother" a couple of months ago and was absolutely blown away.  My middle-school son, the anti-reader, loved it too.  I just read "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" and a few of Doctorow's short stories and I wouldn't guess in a million years that they were written by the same author.  "Little Brother" is so different from anything else I've read by Doctorow.  My copy has now been read by three people and is in the hands of a fourth.  It reminded me so much of when I was an idealistic kid in the post-McCarthy era and my friends and I were worried about the FBI/CIA collecting information on us for subscribing to certain publications or belonging to certain groups.  I'm recommending "Little Brother" to everyone.

The really scary part is that he finished writing it in late 2006, and it's amazing how many predictions came true...

I did catch a couple of errors here and there -- most notably, the mom's name changes from Lillian to Louisa and back -- but eh... nothing's perfect.

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Listener

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Reply #553 on: August 18, 2008, 01:48:56 PM
"The Reckoning" by Jeff Long.  So far interesting; may get into the supernatural soon.  So far, very cliched main character, somewhat cliched "expert who knows everything about everything" other main character, and stuff appearing in digital photos.

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Reply #554 on: August 21, 2008, 06:37:52 PM
I started reading Iain M. Banks' Consider Phlebas, the first Banks novel I've read.  I'm about halfway through now (unfortunately, I read a lot slower than Listener).  But it's cool, the book is blowing my mind.  It's rollicking space opera, terrifying, funny, and completely compelling.  Looking forward to reading more of Banks' stuff after I'm done with this one.


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Reply #555 on: August 21, 2008, 07:03:40 PM
I started reading Iain M. Banks' Consider Phlebas, the first Banks novel I've read.  I'm about halfway through now (unfortunately, I read a lot slower than Listener).  But it's cool, the book is blowing my mind.  It's rollicking space opera, terrifying, funny, and completely compelling.  Looking forward to reading more of Banks' stuff after I'm done with this one.

In all fairness, most people read more slowly than me.  I finished the last three HP books in 5, 4, and 6 hours respectively.

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Reply #556 on: August 23, 2008, 07:13:38 PM
Finished "The Reckoning" -- the supernatural element didn't quite do it for me, though it was sufficiently creepy.  Also, there was a rather unnecessary girl-on-tree almost-sex-scene that I could've lived without.

Now reading "The Magician" by Michael Scott.  I found it at work on the "take this stuff" pile... it's a pre-release reviewer's copy.  It's decent, but not awesome yet.  Stars Machiavelli... of all people.  Yes, THAT Machiavelli.

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Reply #557 on: August 23, 2008, 08:21:28 PM
Just finished Momentum is Your Friend, Joe Kurmaskie's story of the summer he spent bicycling across the continental US with his two sons, ages 5 and 7.  It's vintage Kurmaskie -- a series of vignettes about the adventure, the people he meets along the way, and his life.  If you like that sort of thing, it will probably work for you.  If you don't, then you probably won't.  I'm a long-time fan -- the copy I read is an autographed edition I picked up at one of his speaking engagements -- so I enjoyed it throughly. 

I'm currently reading two books:

Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer's story of Chris McCandless, a young man from a well-to-do family who graduates from college and becomes drifter, living by his wits and wandering across the Western US before heading into the Alaskan wilderness with minimal gear for his final, fatal adventure.  Krakauer blends his story with those of others from earlier times and other places who followed a similar path, attempting to use the wilderness to quell their inner demons.  So far, it comes across as extremely well-researched, and it's an excellent read.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Last Days by Richard H. Perry is not a joke, but rather a serious attempt by a competitor to the better-known for Dummies guides to tackle the subject of the Second Coming of Jesus in a very accessible format.  While it's a bit jarring to see scriptural references about the Apocolypse set off with the same graphical conventions used to highlight shortcuts to MS Word functions, the project seems to do a decent job of conveying a very complex topic.  Part of the price of such simplification, of course, is not covering competing viewpoints.  The author states up-front his belief in Biblical inerrancy and literal interpretation of Scripture, so omission of viewpoints I'm personally much more comfortable with (i.e. The Revelation to St. John concerns not the end of the world, but rather the end of the Roman Empire) seem reasonable in light of the book's self-described mission.  However, I note that the negative reviews on Amazon beat the author up for giving short shrift to "pre-tribulation Rapture" which is apparently a big deal among fundamentalist-minded interpreters.

Perhaps unfortunately, it's confirming one of my long-standing prejudices against fundamentalism -- much like "strict constructionist interpretation" of the Constitution, "literal interpretation" of Scripture seems to be nothing more than a way for conservatives to say: "line of reasoning that reaches conclusions I agree with."  Essentially, clothing a very partisan method with a veneer of objectivity it doesn't really deserve.  For all his self-stated belief in the Bible's "literal correctness," it doesn't seem to bother Perry to launch off into some highly allegorical interpretation of various passages when it suits him to do so.  And having looked up and read the surrounding text for many of his references, it seems to me that he plays really fast and loose with the original context much of the time.

Still, it seems to be a good and easily-digestible approach to a viewpoint I'm not all that familiar with.

Mods: Please EP-ize those links... (Just the idea of Steve Eley and Escape Pod collecting a comission on The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Last Days completely cracks me up.)

Link Bandit strikes again
« Last Edit: August 24, 2008, 03:05:34 PM by Russell Nash »

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Reply #558 on: August 26, 2008, 04:03:09 PM
Finished "The Magician" (Michael Scott) -- interesting story and spin on mythology.  The writing is a little annoying sometimes (While x was y and z was a and b was c, Josh thought about d) and I'm not enthused that the first two books take place over the same two weeks or so, but it was a good adventure and it kept my attention.

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Reply #559 on: August 26, 2008, 11:04:36 PM
Finished Into the Wild during a late-night/early-morning reading binge.  Krakauer's quality and compassion held up through the end of the book.  My questions about how much cooperation he got from the family got answered, and it was a satisfying read overall.

I just started The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection by Gardner Dozois.  The heft of the thing took me by surprise; I should have read the description on Amazon more carefully.  Back in the day, I was fan of Donald A. Wolleheim's yearly All the World's Best Science Fiction anthology collections and for no particularly good reason I had The Year's Best Science Fiction figured as their modern successor.  Dozois is apparenty far more comprehensive than Wolleheim -- the book weighs in at over 700 pages and 1.8 lbs.  NOT that I'm complaining about a large sampler of promising stories for a very fair price, mind you.  It's just a bit more than I was expecting right at the moment.

So far, I've enjoyed the intro, which is an overview of the genre in 2007, and as someone returning to the SF community after a protracted absence, it was welcome, if a bit overlong.  And unless I missed something (possible; I was pretty tired when I read it) Dozois goes on at great length about magazines, books and movies, but gives graphic novels no more than a nod, and makes absolutely no mention of webcomics or podcasts. 

I'll post a fuller review when I finish, but that may take a while...

Mods: Please perform the Customary Operation on that Amazon link... 

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« Last Edit: August 27, 2008, 06:37:06 AM by Russell Nash »

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Reply #560 on: August 27, 2008, 02:04:02 AM
Finished Into the Wild during a late-night/early-morning reading binge.  Krakauer's quality and compassion held up through the end of the book.  My questions about how much cooperation he got from the family got answered, and it was a satisfying read overall.

I really liked Into The Wild also.  I'm half way through Krakauer's Into Thin Air and am really in to it as well.  It's the story of his experience climbing Mount Everest, pretty intense stuff. 

BTW, did anyone see Penn's movie version of Into The Wild?  I thought he did a nice job with it.

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.    -  Carl Sagan


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Reply #561 on: August 27, 2008, 02:38:55 AM
Finished Into the Wild during a late-night/early-morning reading binge.  Krakauer's quality and compassion held up through the end of the book.  My questions about how much cooperation he got from the family got answered, and it was a satisfying read overall.

I really liked Into The Wild also.  I'm half way through Krakauer's Into Thin Air and am really in to it as well.  It's the story of his experience climbing Mount Everest, pretty intense stuff. 

BTW, did anyone see Penn's movie version of Into The Wild?  I thought he did a nice job with it.


I read Into Thin Air several years ago.  I got interested in it during a brevet -- a 300-kilometer timed bicycling event -- when another participant quoted Krakauer's assertion that climbing was "an inherently irrational act." We agreed that brevets were cut from the same cloth, though not nearly as hazardous.

I saw the movie version of Into the Wild before I read the book, and after reading the book, I think it was a remarkably good adaptation.  Though I'm not sure why they didn't go with Krakauer's theory on mold as the most likely source of the illness that did him in. 

"My whole job is in the space between 'should be' and 'is.' It's a big space."


Darwinist

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Reply #562 on: August 27, 2008, 01:29:49 PM
Finished Into the Wild during a late-night/early-morning reading binge.  Krakauer's quality and compassion held up through the end of the book.  My questions about how much cooperation he got from the family got answered, and it was a satisfying read overall.

I really liked Into The Wild also.  I'm half way through Krakauer's Into Thin Air and am really in to it as well.  It's the story of his experience climbing Mount Everest, pretty intense stuff. 

BTW, did anyone see Penn's movie version of Into The Wild?  I thought he did a nice job with it.


I read Into Thin Air several years ago.  I got interested in it during a brevet -- a 300-kilometer timed bicycling event -- when another participant quoted Krakauer's assertion that climbing was "an inherently irrational act." We agreed that brevets were cut from the same cloth, though not nearly as hazardous.

I saw the movie version of Into the Wild before I read the book, and after reading the book, I think it was a remarkably good adaptation.  Though I'm not sure why they didn't go with Krakauer's theory on mold as the most likely source of the illness that did him in. 

Yeah, I wondered about that also.  There were a couple other very minor things that Penn changed in the movie also, which I wondered about.  There really was no reason to tweak little things that didn't have any impact on the story.   I agree, it was a really good adaptation. 

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.    -  Carl Sagan


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Reply #563 on: September 03, 2008, 12:12:47 AM
Just finished The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Last Days.  Much like it's subject, the book kept getting worse as it went on, only with the book, there's no redemption at the end.  Scriptural references got vaguer and more obviously-abused until they all but vanished in the last few sections.  The table of contents at the end indicates there's supposed to be a final chapter about the 1,000-year reign of Christ that was apparently left out of my copy.  I'm not planning to complain because I don't care. 

To have engaged as much attention as it has for as long as it has, there's got to be a better-researched, better-better reasoned explanation of "Last Days" theology out there someplace.  Eventually, I may even feel compelled to look for it.

Anyway, I'm cleansing the mental palate with The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, Diana Wynne Jones' send-up of High Fantasy cliches.
« Last Edit: September 04, 2008, 05:37:44 PM by Russell Nash »

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Reply #564 on: September 04, 2008, 09:15:28 PM
Just finished "Wrath of a mad god" by Raymond Feist.

It was a good ending to his latest trilogy, and like always leaves itself open to a whole new trilogy and sub-story plots to be explored in future books.  Unfortunately Ray's writing seems to be getting worse as he piles through and his habit of going back and re-characterizing what really happened in the previous books starts to get a bit tiresome.  And maybe it is because he is planning to give the sub-plots further treatment as a separate book that he trivializes the rolls of Jommy, Tad and friends.... I just felt this was not as strong as his original writing and he's not utilizing his characters and giving them the depth the original series had, but maybe that's because he makes the assumption that we're already familiar with his characters.

If I had read this trilogy first instead of his original Magician series I don't know that I would have gone much further



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Reply #565 on: September 05, 2008, 11:28:58 AM
I finished Yiddish Policemen's Union not long ago. I actually kind of had to force myself to sit down and read it.. I didn't immidiately find it super engaging.. but it really grew on me and was very rewarding in the end. So while it may have taken some effort to finish it was well worth it.

Trying Charlie Stross' Halting State right now. Its ok, but written in a weird point of view that I'm not sure I'm liking. I'll keep at it though.

oh, and I just finished Jim Butcher's 'Small Favors'. Absolutely wonderful and buckets of fun, as per the norm. I am just sad the next one isn't due till april 09.

:(



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Reply #566 on: September 07, 2008, 09:52:56 PM
Talia, you had almost the same reaction to "Yiddish Policemen's Union" that I did.  I'm really stunned that it won the Hugo though.  Yes it's an alternate history, but it seemed to be more of a socio-political alternate history than a science/technology one.  I thought "Brasyl" was much better and was better science fiction. 

 I, too, will be reading "Halting State" sometime this month.  I hope it's better "Accelerando" by the same author.  I hated that book.  I'm trying to read the books that were Hugo Nominees this year.  Most of them are available in paperback now, so it's time to read them.



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Reply #567 on: September 08, 2008, 01:55:56 AM
Finished Runaways volume 1 and Batman: The Long Halloween recently.  Both excellent.

Now into the Neon Genesis Evangelion manga, about halfway through book 3.  I'm hoping it diverges from the anime at the end; I'll let you know (if anybody's interested).

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Reply #568 on: September 08, 2008, 03:16:36 AM
Finished Runaways volume 1 and Batman: The Long Halloween recently.  Both excellent.

Now into the Neon Genesis Evangelion manga, about halfway through book 3.  I'm hoping it diverges from the anime at the end; I'll let you know (if anybody's interested).


What happend with I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist?  I'm curious how the author got to evidence for the inspiration of The Bible from creation.  I can see where you can get from certain aspects of the natural world to the idea that there is a creator -- Aristotle's "first, unmoving mover" but I can't see any way to get more specific than that.

Did he make a credible effort?

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Reply #569 on: September 08, 2008, 03:50:52 PM
What happend with I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist?  I'm curious how the author got to evidence for the inspiration of The Bible from creation.  I can see where you can get from certain aspects of the natural world to the idea that there is a creator -- Aristotle's "first, unmoving mover" but I can't see any way to get more specific than that.

Did he make a credible effort?

I'm thinking I might just send this one back unfinished.  I kind of got the "Cliffs Notes" version when I found a site that rips the book apart point-by-point.  Google "I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be a Christian"; that's how I found it (from a reviewer at Amazon).

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Reply #570 on: September 08, 2008, 04:06:34 PM
Besides my poker books, btw Read 'em and Reap by Joe Navarro is outstanding, he has another book about reading people that is non-poker, What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-Reading People, that covers most of the same material.

Anywho, my fiction book right now is Fulgrim, part of the Warhammer 40k Horus Heresy series.  I generally consider my WH40k books to be "trash" fiction, in that they are exciting but not too terribly thought provoking.  However, I've found that the Horus Heresy really delves into religion. 

For those that don't read WH40k, the Emperor is the equivalent of God.  In the Horus Heresy, the Emperor himself basically outlaws religion.  It is a society of atheists.



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Reply #571 on: September 08, 2008, 05:10:02 PM
Anywho, my fiction book right now is Fulgrim, part of the Warhammer 40k Horus Heresy series.  I generally consider my WH40k books to be "trash" fiction, in that they are exciting but not too terribly thought provoking.  However, I've found that the Horus Heresy really delves into religion. 

I'm only aware of Warhammer as a tabletop wargame, typically played with miniatures..

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Reply #572 on: September 08, 2008, 05:19:08 PM
Yup, it's the same thing, but there is a whole line of fiction.  You can check them out at www.blacklibrary.com

There are a few of the series I'm partial to, and I've missed A LOT. 



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Reply #573 on: September 08, 2008, 05:43:48 PM
This silly little thread is officially the number one thread on the EA Forums.  It is the longest running consistent thread.  It also has the most posts and views. 



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Reply #574 on: September 08, 2008, 06:04:38 PM
This silly little thread is officially the number one thread on the EA Forums.  It is the longest running consistent thread.  It also has the most posts and views. 

Hardly surprising.  I'm sure we all read, and we like to share our reading tastes with others.

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