Author Topic: What are you reading?  (Read 845472 times)

wintermute

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Reply #2600 on: February 24, 2016, 10:17:49 PM
Just started reading Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix.  It is supposed to be a Haunted House story set in a modern American Ikea competitor called Orsk. 


That one's a lot of fun.

ebook or paper copy?
Good old dead tree paper.  I love my kindle paperwhite, but it will never completely replace physical books.

Almost everything I read these days is on the Kindle, but I got Horrorstör in paperback, because the physical format seems to be as important as the text itself. The fact that I got t signed might also be a factor, but the IKEA catalogue appearance is a nice touch.

Overall, I really liked that one. Creepy as hell.

Science means that not all dreams can come true


lowky

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Reply #2601 on: February 25, 2016, 04:03:29 AM


Almost everything I read these days is on the Kindle, but I got Horrorstör in paperback, because the physical format seems to be as important as the text itself. The fact that I got t signed might also be a factor, but the IKEA catalogue appearance is a nice touch.

Overall, I really liked that one. Creepy as hell.

got the paperback from the library, don't recall if it was from here, or a goodreads update that I heard about it, but when I saw it at the local library i jumped on it.


Fenrix

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Reply #2602 on: February 25, 2016, 09:19:18 PM
Agreed that the quality of the book looking like the ephemeral catalog is a significant contribution to the experience.

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


stePH

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Reply #2603 on: February 29, 2016, 10:09:10 PM
A novel called Apocalypticon by one Clayton Smith, that I got free for Kindle thru BookBub. In a devastated world, a guy in Chicago named Patrick decides that he wants to go to Disney World in Orlando. He drags his friend Ben along for the trip.

For some reason, within a couple of pages of starting the book, Patrick's voice in my head sounds like comedian/actor TJ Miller.

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Fenrix

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Reply #2604 on: February 29, 2016, 10:25:54 PM
I just finished The Day of the Triffids. I was expecting 50's monster movie. I got something way bigger than that. It was refreshingly unproblematic considering the time period. There were also some fascinating cultural extrapolations about how different cultures approach the apocalypse.

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


Sgarre1

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Reply #2605 on: February 29, 2016, 10:29:56 PM
Excellent book. Excellent author.



stePH

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Reply #2606 on: February 29, 2016, 11:55:30 PM
Excellent book. Excellent author.

Not so great movie.

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stePH

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Reply #2607 on: February 29, 2016, 11:57:52 PM
I just finished The Day of the Triffids. I was expecting 50's monster movie. I got something way bigger than that. It was refreshingly unproblematic considering the time period. There were also some fascinating cultural extrapolations about how different cultures approach the apocalypse.

It's noteworthy that the "apocalypse" is simply the sudden blinding of almost all of humanity, complicated by the presence of an alien plant species that has been around for years prior to the "apocalypse".

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lowky

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Reply #2608 on: March 01, 2016, 04:52:18 AM
Currently reading The Passage by Justin Cronin.


Fenrix

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Reply #2609 on: March 01, 2016, 07:34:12 PM

I just finished The Day of the Triffids. I was expecting 50's monster movie. I got something way bigger than that. It was refreshingly unproblematic considering the time period. There were also some fascinating cultural extrapolations about how different cultures approach the apocalypse.

It's noteworthy that the "apocalypse" is simply the sudden blinding of almost all of humanity, complicated by the presence of an alien plant species that has been around for years prior to the "apocalypse".


The opening scene with the protagonist waking up in a hospital while the world has fallen to hell around him is effectively done, and I was again surprised that this popped up in 1951 and has continued in (at least) zombie fiction.

I also like how the triffids were pre-Romero proto-zombies. It also makes me question why we don't see more zombie traps. There were traps in one good episode in the Walking Dead before I quit that misery-porn show, but not nearly enough.

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


eytanz

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Reply #2610 on: March 05, 2016, 10:20:42 PM
I just finished The Day of the Triffids. I was expecting 50's monster movie. I got something way bigger than that. It was refreshingly unproblematic considering the time period. There were also some fascinating cultural extrapolations about how different cultures approach the apocalypse.

It's noteworthy that the "apocalypse" is simply the sudden blinding of almost all of humanity, complicated by the presence of an alien plant species that has been around for years prior to the "apocalypse".

They're not aliens in the book (they are in the movies, I think) - they're GMOs.



stePH

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Reply #2611 on: March 07, 2016, 07:15:17 PM
[Triffids are] not aliens in the book (they are in the movies, I think) - they're GMOs.

Been some time since I read it; I thought I remembered that it was uncertain where they actually came from but it they were believed to have grown from spores that fell from space. If you've just read it, I'll take your word for it, for now (until I reread it)

As for being GM, what kind of idiot would purposely engineer something like that?  ??? :o

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Fenrix

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Reply #2612 on: March 07, 2016, 09:15:19 PM
[Triffids are] not aliens in the book (they are in the movies, I think) - they're GMOs.

Been some time since I read it; I thought I remembered that it was uncertain where they actually came from but it they were believed to have grown from spores that fell from space. If you've just read it, I'll take your word for it, for now (until I reread it)

As for being GM, what kind of idiot would purposely engineer something like that?  ??? :o

I would pedant and say that it's not confirmed that they're not aliens, although GMO out of Russia is the simplest (and thus most likely) explanation. The seeds for triffids came out of Russia behind the iron curtain, so their origin is cloaked in mystery. The uncertainty of their origin actually helps this novel age well, because it's got a lot of vectors outside of nukes for mankind to bring about the apocalypse - manufactured plagues, GMO's, blinding satellites and other MAD science.

Why make triffieds? They were processed for oil and animal feed. They produced somewhere between a magical petroleum substitute and Oil of Dog. And they were nutritious but bland, so very good for animal feed, and you can even feed the poor in a pinch.

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


wintermute

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Reply #2613 on: March 07, 2016, 10:03:10 PM
I've started on Cat Valente's The Girl who Raced Fairyland all the Way Home. I had the pleasure of hearing her read the first chapter last week, and it's a lot of fun.

If you've not been reading the series, I don't even know what you've been doing with your life.

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Tango Alpha Delta

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Reply #2614 on: March 08, 2016, 03:36:38 AM
I've started on Cat Valente's The Girl who Raced Fairyland all the Way Home. I had the pleasure of hearing her read the first chapter last week, and it's a lot of fun.

If you've not been reading the series, I don't even know what you've been doing with your life.

Working, remodeling, and editing my novel.

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stePH

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Reply #2615 on: March 08, 2016, 07:05:07 PM
As for being GM, what kind of idiot would purposely engineer something like that?  ??? :o
Why make triffieds? They were processed for oil and animal feed. They produced somewhere between a magical petroleum substitute and Oil of Dog. And they were nutritious but bland, so very good for animal feed, and you can even feed the poor in a pinch.
All well and good, but giving a carnivorous plant mobility AND venomous stings is just asking for trouble.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2016, 07:09:16 PM by stePH »

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stePH

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Reply #2616 on: March 08, 2016, 07:07:35 PM
I've started on Cat Valente's The Girl who Raced Fairyland all the Way Home. I had the pleasure of hearing her read the first chapter last week, and it's a lot of fun.

If you've not been reading the series, I don't even know what you've been doing with your life.

Smoking weed, playing video games, and masturbating to fucked-up flipper-baby porn. Thanks for asking.  :P

(MC Chris talks about Resident Evil 4 and Kingdom Hearts II)

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Fenrix

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Reply #2617 on: March 08, 2016, 10:13:18 PM
As for being GM, what kind of idiot would purposely engineer something like that?  ??? :o
Why make triffids? They were processed for oil and animal feed. They produced somewhere between a magical petroleum substitute and Oil of Dog. And they were nutritious but bland, so very good for animal feed, and you can even feed the poor in a pinch.
All well and good, but giving a carnivorous plant mobility AND venomous stings is just asking for trouble.

Also communication ability and something that resembles a hive-mind.

But they're a little more shambling mound carrion feeding than carnivorous. It was mentioned they leave the bodies for a bit or ripening before digging in their roots.

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


danooli

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Reply #2618 on: March 08, 2016, 10:19:31 PM
I started listening to Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan, and I really like it so far :)



jrderego

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Reply #2619 on: March 26, 2016, 05:36:52 AM
Ready Player One.

It's crap

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lowky

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Reply #2620 on: March 26, 2016, 06:35:38 AM
Feed by Mira Grant


Talia

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Reply #2621 on: March 26, 2016, 06:41:55 AM
Ready Player One.

It's crap

The writing's not all that great, granted, but I enjoyed the nostalgia of it. Kind of a gimmick, sure, but for a one-time deal I thought it worked.



jrderego

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Reply #2622 on: March 26, 2016, 01:23:04 PM
Ready Player One.

It's crap

The writing's not all that great, granted, but I enjoyed the nostalgia of it. Kind of a gimmick, sure, but for a one-time deal I thought it worked.

Without a the 80s references the story would be 500 words long, and that a rip of literally any quest fantasy story ever written. The writing is awful. The one or two interesting ideas in the book are also throwbacks to stuff like William Gibson's imagery and ideas from the late 1970s. Which, in case anyone didn't get his references, he spelled them out, literally, right after using them as a metaphor - or even more terribly, as a footnote.

I hate every single page of Ready Player One.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised when it stopped being an insufferable, unreadable, sentence-fragment-filled, juvi-dystopia, to become a more mature story in "Level 2". I still remained virtually unreadable, but the subject matter was more complex.

Next time someone asks me, "Jeff, why don't you write science fiction anymore?" I'll hand them this book.

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Talia

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Reply #2623 on: March 26, 2016, 03:46:06 PM
Next time someone asks me, "Jeff, why don't you write science fiction anymore?" I'll hand them this book.

There's plenty of evidence for good science fiction becoming popular as well, if you consider, for example, "The Martian,"  or to a lesser degree James Corey's 'The Expanse' series, if its just the popularity of the book is what turned you off. Bad things being popular shouldn't spoil a whole genre :)



jrderego

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Reply #2624 on: March 26, 2016, 04:20:08 PM
Next time someone asks me, "Jeff, why don't you write science fiction anymore?" I'll hand them this book.

There's plenty of evidence for good science fiction becoming popular as well, if you consider, for example, "The Martian,"  or to a lesser degree James Corey's 'The Expanse' series, if its just the popularity of the book is what turned you off. Bad things being popular shouldn't spoil a whole genre :)

I'll give you a Mulligan on the Martian. I have it on my nightstand and my son raved about it, so that is actually set to be read right after I grind through Ready Player One. The thing is, it's not that the book is bad that gets to me, there are a ton of awful books produced and that become popular every year, normally I can ignore them because normally I read through a whole mess of different genre at any given time some of it unbelievably good and very popular - the Help by Katherine Stokkett was absolutely awesome, except for the places where it was clear this was a first novel... but that's another story... I didn't expect to find myself sacrificing sleep to plow through that one but I did, Damned by Chuck Pahlaniuk, who I normally like quite a bit, was awful and dull and poorly paced and haphazardly written.

Maybe it's because I always feel that science fiction should always look forwards and not backwards and Ready Player One only looks backwards that it gets under my skin. The same way classic rock stations get under my skin, or actual rock and roll stations that still fill their playlists with Nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots, and Aerosmith. The way politics seems to marvel at the distant past as some utopia to which we should aspire. And this stupid book with all of the glowing reviews and all of the awards focus ONLY on that he makes references to shit like Thompson Twins, and Better of Dead, and more obscure crap, and people love it because they remember being 6 years old when Transformers were on TV every afternoon... I keep thinking it's more of a critique of society, that we as a people can't look forward further than the next episode of Walking Dead or some other stupid pop culture moment and that's why we aren't on the Moon or Mars. That's why the futurism that drove me to science fiction when I was a kid died off and was replaced by fear and nihilism.

And the consumers of it, the enthusiasts for it, make me angry.

I don't know. I'm old now. 46. Died twice so far, once last year. My perspective is all skewed. Get off my lawn you kids!

LOL >:( ::) :P
« Last Edit: March 26, 2016, 04:27:28 PM by jrderego »

"Happiness consists of getting enough sleep." Robert A. Heinlein
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