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It's the slightly tardy Reading Thread!

Annael
Immortal


Jun 30 2015, 6:41pm

Post #1 of 11 (1715 views)
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It's the slightly tardy Reading Thread! Can't Post

Lily is off on a visit to the Auld Countrie - Ireland - so she asked me to step in again this week.

What have you been reading?

I am a dreamer of words, of written words. I think I am reading; a word stops me. I leave the page. The syllables of the words begin to move around … The words take on other meanings as if they had the right to be young.

-- Gaston Bachelard

* * * * * * * * * *

NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967


Ataahua
Forum Admin / Moderator


Jun 30 2015, 8:12pm

Post #2 of 11 (1664 views)
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Dark Run [In reply to] Can't Post

by our own Ufthak.

I really enjoyed this. Think of it as Firefly meets The A-Team, albeit with more of a mercenary bent. After the first couple of chapters the story really takes off at pace, led by diverse and intriguing characters and a storyline that makes you want to keep reading. ("Oh go on then, one more chapter before bed.")

One of the book's strengths is that instead of having the characters be part of a homogenised blended culture in the future, they still have distinct nationalities that inform their backstories and their relationships with each other. (I really enjoyed Drift and Jia's bickering during times of danger!) Those backgrounds are also integral to the plot, and I laughed out loud a couple of times at how Uftie did it. :D

Even better: book two will be coming out this year. :)

Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..."
Dwarves: "Pretty rings..."
Men: "Pretty rings..."
Sauron: "Mine's better."

"Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauron’s master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded beggar with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak.


Ataahua's stories


Kimi
Forum Admin / Moderator


Jul 1 2015, 12:28am

Post #3 of 11 (1654 views)
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"The Martian" by Andy Weir [In reply to] Can't Post

This book has a great back-story. To summarise: Weir always wanted to be a writer; tried without success to find an agent; self-pubbed with encouraging success; was noticed by a producer, and is now having his book made into a movie by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon (it's also been sold to and re-released by a trad publisher).

I used to read a lot of Sci Fi in my teens, and some in my 20s but very little since then. I kept hearing how good The Martian is, and decided to give it a try.

It's huge fun! Big on technical detail, but in an entertaining (albeit carefully accurate) way. The main character is self-deprecating and super-resourceful as he copes with disaster after disaster. I frequently stayed up later than was wise reading "just a couple more pages..."

I'm really looking forward to the movie, which comes out later this year.

An article with more about Andy Weir's success and how it came to be: http://www.ew.com/article/2014/11/05/andy-weir-the-martian-author


The Passing of Mistress Rose
My historical novels

Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?

- A Room With a View


Ataahua
Forum Admin / Moderator


Jul 1 2015, 3:33am

Post #4 of 11 (1639 views)
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I'm intrigued. [In reply to] Can't Post

I first found out about this through xkcd, of all places, and your review has piqued my interest.

Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..."
Dwarves: "Pretty rings..."
Men: "Pretty rings..."
Sauron: "Mine's better."

"Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauron’s master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded beggar with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak.


Ataahua's stories


Old Toby
Grey Havens


Jul 1 2015, 3:40am

Post #5 of 11 (1627 views)
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Voyager and Saxon Shore - some spoilers [In reply to] Can't Post

I finished Voyager, book 3 in the Outlander series. I was a little startled by where Claire and Jamie ended up. And I'm not altogether happy about the setting, but I've got more than a few books to go and there's still time for them to get back to Scotland. At least I hope Jamie isn't in exile forever.

Saxon Shore is book 4 in the Camulod Chronicles. Well, as I've said before, Jack Whyte's Merlyn is a horse of a different color from Stewart's vision. I find him boring in comparison. But the writing is good, the story engaging, and it's interesting to see how Whyte is setting up Merlyn's relationship to Arthur and how he became known as a sorcerer when he has no powers to speak of (well, except prophetic dreams that is).

"Age is always advancing and I'm fairly sure it's up to no good." Harry Dresden (Jim Butcher)


Kimi
Forum Admin / Moderator


Jul 1 2015, 3:40am

Post #6 of 11 (1629 views)
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That cartoon [In reply to] Can't Post

is wise. Especially the mouse-over comment. :)

It's appealing to a lot of never-read-scifi people, as well as lovers of the genre. I found it a great mixture of laugh-out-loud funny and nail-bitingly tense.


The Passing of Mistress Rose
My historical novels

Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?

- A Room With a View


Otaku-sempai
Immortal


Jul 1 2015, 4:29am

Post #7 of 11 (1619 views)
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Words withut Pictures [In reply to] Can't Post

A 1990 collection of prose short stories and poems by comics creators Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Jon J. Muth, Ann Nocenti, Charles Vess, Stephen R. Bissette and Mark Evanier.

"At the end of the journey, all men think that their youth was Arcadia..." - Phantom F. Harlock


entmaiden
Forum Admin / Moderator


Jul 2 2015, 4:17pm

Post #8 of 11 (1583 views)
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I loved The Martian [In reply to] Can't Post

and I'm really looking forward to the movie.


Meneldor
Valinor


Jul 7 2015, 12:55am

Post #9 of 11 (1532 views)
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The Peshawar Lancers [In reply to] Can't Post

by SM Stirling. It's a decent 200 page story jampacked somehow into a 500 page book. Part alternate history, part Boys' Own pulp adventure, part psychic horror, part steampunk worldbuilding, part Kipling travelogue. I have a fairly low tolerance for long descriptions of clothing and settings (unless they're by JRRT) so I skimmed a lot of paragraphs, and it was still a longer read than it should have been, IMO. I might not have finished it, but it had enough swordplay and zeppelins to keep me going to the end.


They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep. -Psalm 107


Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven


Jul 7 2015, 1:49pm

Post #10 of 11 (1520 views)
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I'm baack.... [In reply to] Can't Post

Thank you, Annael, for filling in for me Smile What reading I did while I was gone I'll have to collate and report on next time---I'm still jet-lagged. Not to mention the sudden temperature change from Ireland to Texas has left me a wee bit disoriented. And the good people of Ireland were complaining about the heat! Perhaps because the sun was shining. Cool

Here's one of my favorite vacation photos. We pulled into Killarney and just about the first thing I saw was an ad for this pub. My son (we were traveling with the entire family) found the exact address on his phone and off went the nerd contingent: me, the Gaffer, our two sons, and our grandson.

We didn't have time to stay for a drink, just to take a quick look around and appreciate the attention to detail. And of course I had to get my son to take a photo of me.



So what have y'all been reading?

Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....


Elarie
Grey Havens

Jul 8 2015, 12:11pm

Post #11 of 11 (1504 views)
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Scandalous Society by Nick Foulkes [In reply to] Can't Post

Which, in spite of it's title, is not one of those risqué romance novels, LOL. It's a biography of Count Alfred d'Orsay, an aristocrat/socialite of the first half of the 19th century and a very interesting read for anyone interested in the society and politics of that time. d'Orsay was acquainted with all the movers and shakers of his era - the Duke of Wellington, Napoleon III, Disraeli, etc. - and the author quotes frequently from letters and diaries and gives a very interesting look at some of the personalities of the time. If the book has one drawback it is the author's insistence on inserting his own sarcastic opinions into the text at frequent intervals instead of letting the reader decide for themselves what they think, but even with that it was an good read about that era.

Also, fans of Georgette Heyer's novels will recognize lots of the names and places mentioned in this book, which is always fun.

__________________

Gold is the strife of kinsmen,
and fire of the flood-tide,
and the path of the serpent.

(Old Icelandic Fe rune poem)

 
 

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