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What are you reading?


Shane

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I've read loads since I lasted posted in this thread. Odd.

The Talisman of Troy by Valerio Massimo Manfredi (translated from the Italian by someone who's name I've forgotten) is a 'what happened next' follow up to The Iliad, addressing the victorious Greek armies return to their home kingdoms. Things do not go well for them. Odysseus may have had it easiest after all.

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold is the new Vorkosigan novel, only Miles is a peripheral character, and his mother Cordelia is the lead. So we have a sci-fi novel in which the lead character is a 74 year old widow...and it's mostly about her sex life. It's not really a sci-fi book at all, it's a domestic story about some characters who live in a sci-fi universe.

The Dirt by Motley Crue I re-read for some reason. It made me curious what Tommy Lee's sons looked like now they are adults. They look like Tommy Lee when he was younger (they're both models now). I also wonder why they went to such great lengths to not say how old Mick Mars was. When the band formed Tommy was 18, Vince was 19, Nikki was 22, and Mick was... older than anyone else in the band. He may well have been in his 30s already. No wonder he never really fit in with them.

A Wanted Man by Lee Child is the first Jack Reacher book I've read. He is such a Mary Sue it's unbelievable. 

Spoiler

At one point, he - by himself - clears out a terrorist base, killing 24-ish of them single handed, using only a subpar handgun that has bad aim and low accuracy, with limited ammo.

But I don't think Child really plays fair with his readers, in that he wants to have Reacher be the smartest guy around, but this genre is really based around a competition between writer and reader to see if you can guess the twist before the reveal - he makes it clear that Reacher sees the twist coming, but he shifts the POV so that the reader doesn't see the giveaway detail that Reacher does. So basically it's like sitting an exam when one person's been shown the answers already, and then being called stupid when you score lower than they do. It's OK though. He has a really propulsive writing style.

Wasted Years by John Harvey is a thriller that takes the unusual approach of never actually telling you what city it is taking place in, so you have to guess. And most non-English people would really struggle... not that it makes a difference, but still. It's kind of one of those books that the whole thing is building to an explosive climax (or two explosive climaxes in this case) that are then played as anti-climactic. And the end is pretty rushed... but a lot of the theme of the book is of middle aged people wondering why they are so disappointed with their lives and why their youthful fire and passion don't burn like they used to, so having a fizzle out ending probably fits better than if it went all Hot Fuzz or something.

I just started Rocks by Joe Perry (from Aerosmith), but he's still 13 years old where I'm up to, so nothing much interesting has happened yet. Apparently he's of Portuguese/ Italian descent and his families' original name was Periera, but his Grandad changed it because he loved America.

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I have tried 4 times to read Gentleman Jole and have failed. I love the universe, I love Cordelia in the other books that are "about" her, but this just doesn't click for me. Even the stuff that I historically *have* liked, like the garden party with the Cetagandans where it's all super-subtle political maneuvering and trying to figure things out, didn't really work for me.  It feels like a real step down after Cryoburn and Captain VorPatril's Alliance, both of which I loved.

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Finished Last Known Victim by Erica Spindler, which is set in New Orleans with her group of various cops and detectives trying to find a pre-Katrina serial killer who is back at it again two years after the Hurricane hit. It's the third book for one of her characters, Stacy Killian, and the fourth involving another family of characters,the Malones. Having lived in New Orleans for three years, long before Katrina, the description of a lot of the places in and around St. Charles and Audubon Park really drew me back to my university days. Fun stuff.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The missus' presents for my birthday this year included:

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - Wind, Sand and Stars
Christopher Clark - Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600-1947
Douglas Adams - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Christian Ingrao - The SS Dirlewanger Brigade: The History of the Black Hunters
Alastair Reynolds - The Prefect
K.J. Bishop - The Etched City
Rabindranath Tagore - The Essential Tagore
Irvin D. Yalom - The Gift of Therapy
John McPhee - Coming into the Country
Glen Cook - Chronicles of the Black Company

Woooo!

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Nice haul, Roman... I know you'll love the Alistair Reynolds (I just got his "Best of" from Subterranean Press. Great book, the only thing that bums me out is that they scooped me, otherwise it would have been coming out from Centipede Press under my editorship. Oh well, I scooped them on Fritz Leiber and James Patrick Kelly (already out if print) and Richard Wilson, Kate Wilhelm, Robert Sheckley, Ward Moore, Robert Reed (all forthcoming) and a couple of writers who I can't talk about yet as the contracts aren't signed yet.

That history of Prussia looks really interesting, I was disappointed to see that a first edition was around a hundred bucks, then I checked later printings in hardcover and an "as new" copy may be had for around ten bucks... That's eminently do-able! I'm strange that way (well, I've been told that I'm strange in lots of ways...), fiction books in the genres I collect I insist on first or "best" editions and I'm very picky about condition. Non-fiction, as long as it's a presentable copy, I could care less about collectibility, in fact, I've been known to opt for a paperback from time to time.

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Just finished The Red Queen Dies by Frankie Y. Bailey, and while it built nicely, the big reveal of the mystery of who the serial killer on the loose is total bullshit.

Spoiler

Apparently the killer has a minor mental condition that was reactivated and worsened by a strange combination of prescription pills for migraines combined with a random allergy medicine. Like, WTF?

I was super disappointed when everything was revealed in the end. Not sure if I want to continue the series, based on this, although the characters she invented have potential.

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Went on a small haul this past weekend on Amazon. Picked up the latest Wicked & The Divine TPB, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Beats Up The Marvel Universe, Dave Holmes' Party of One and Mara Wilson's Where Am I Now?

 

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18 hours ago, OSJ said:

Nice haul, Roman... I know you'll love the Alistair Reynolds (I just got his "Best of" from Subterranean Press. Great book, the only thing that bums me out is that they scooped me, otherwise it would have been coming out from Centipede Press under my editorship. Oh well, I scooped them on Fritz Leiber and James Patrick Kelly (already out if print) and Richard Wilson, Kate Wilhelm, Robert Sheckley, Ward Moore, Robert Reed (all forthcoming) and a couple of writers who I can't talk about yet as the contracts aren't signed yet.

That history of Prussia looks really interesting, I was disappointed to see that a first edition was around a hundred bucks, then I checked later printings in hardcover and an "as new" copy may be had for around ten bucks... That's eminently do-able! I'm strange that way (well, I've been told that I'm strange in lots of ways...), fiction books in the genres I collect I insist on first or "best" editions and I'm very picky about condition. Non-fiction, as long as it's a presentable copy, I could care less about collectibility, in fact, I've been known to opt for a paperback from time to time.

I got the rest of the Revelation Space series, as well as two other Alastair Reynolds books. I love them all, and I'm really looking forward to this new one.

Completely unrelated: Ace, I can't look at your signature without singing 'Mama's Got A Girlfriend Now'.

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David Cronenberg's debut novel Consumed is as strange as you would expect it to be. The title has multiple meanings related to sex, cannibalism, disease, technology fetishisation, all themes which Cronenberg frequently presents in his films as he does here.

It took me a while to become accustomed to his style of writing (he really goes in depth on brand names and technological specifications of camera/phones/laptops/programs etc) and I almost gave up the book in anger when I read this clumsy paragraph early on...

Quote

in the corner of the room between the minibar and the TV dresser unit crouched two sets of unopened bags: two camera rollers, two backpacks, two small black Samsonite four-wheel Crusair Spinner suitcases with faux carbon-fiber-weave finish (Naomi and Nathan aspired to Rimowa Topas, the sexy German dentable aluminum stuff, but that was, for the moment, out of their range). It was not so much that they had the same taste in gear, but rather that they collaborated on their consumerism; it was a consumerist dialectic that led to the same commodity. That's what Naomi was thinking in the floating part of her mind as she sucked Nathan's cock - so delightfully, boringly, not curved much at all, not a mutant organ in any way*, but a classic, modern circumcised penis - in room 511 of the Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Hotel.

(* Naomi has just slept with a guy with an abnormally curved penis)

or the laughable sentence after she takes photos of his dick on her iPhone and then deletes them...

Quote

But of course a penis is not so easy to delete, and before long, Nathan's was happily ensconced inside Naomi.

I kept with it, and began to enjoy the middle section when the two protagonist photojournalists get to meet their subjects - hers is a French philosopher who is accused of murdering and eating his wife and is now holed up in Tokyo, his is a doctor in Toronto who discovered an STD which Nathan has now contracted after sleeping with a cancer patient in Hungary.

It's a fun, ridiculous ride (the Cannes Film Festival, entomology, North Korea, 3D printing and hearing aids all play roles in the latter half of the book) though ultimately somewhat underwhelming in the end.

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On 10/19/2016 at 10:51 PM, AxB said:

The Dirt by Motley Crue I re-read for some reason. It made me curious what Tommy Lee's sons looked like now they are adults. They look like Tommy Lee when he was younger (they're both models now). I also wonder why they went to such great lengths to not say how old Mick Mars was. When the band formed Tommy was 18, Vince was 19, Nikki was 22, and Mick was... older than anyone else in the band. He may well have been in his 30s already. No wonder he never really fit in with them.

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

At one point, he - by himself - clears out a terrorist base, killing 24-ish of them single handed, using only a subpar handgun that has bad aim and low accuracy, with limited ammo.

 

He was born in either '51 or '55. There's a part of his in the book where he talks about not knowing exactly when his birthday is due to multiple birth certificates or something of that nature. So, the band formed when he was between the ages of 26 and 30. There's an early press release in the book that lists his age at 27, and I'm guessing they may have shaved a couple few years off for image's sake. So, no one really knows for sure. Odds are, he was around 30, and I'm pretty sure Mick sticks with being born in '51 now.

If ya think that's weird, Tony Lombardo from the Descendents was 34 when he joined the band, while the rest of the band was still in high school.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So now I'm reading Perfidia by Jame Ellroy, which is kind of a prequel to the LA Quartet and features most of the characters from it, but it's set in 1941 right around the time of Pearl Harbour, and the beginning of the internment of Japanese-American citizens as America entered World War 2. I think Ellroy has fallen in love with some of his characters a bit too much here - I get he wants it to be historically accurate to opinions of the day, but literally everyone in this book thinks Eugenics is the very best idea anyone ever had ever. And Dudley Smith (James Cromwell in the LA Confidential movie; Not appearing in the Black Dahlia movie) is now a drug addicted super genius overlord who knows everything about everything. And Elizabeth Short's father.

Spoiler

(nb: Elizabeth Short is the Black Dahlia. She came to LA to see him when she was 17, and was murdered when she was 22. And he takes no interest in investigating her death). This doesn't seem like him at all... I think he's planning on writing sequels to this one though. Most likely, he'll put something in to estrange them.

 

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On 11/25/2016 at 7:01 AM, AxB said:

So now I'm reading Perfidia by Jame Ellroy, which is kind of a prequel to the LA Quartet and features most of the characters from it, but it's set in 1941 right around the time of Pearl Harbour, and the beginning of the internment of Japanese-American citizens as America entered World War 2. I think Ellroy has fallen in love with some of his characters a bit too much here - I get he wants it to be historically accurate to opinions of the day, but literally everyone in this book thinks Eugenics is the very best idea anyone ever had ever. And Dudley Smith (James Cromwell in the LA Confidential movie; Not appearing in the Black Dahlia movie) is now a drug addicted super genius overlord who knows everything about everything. And Elizabeth Short's father.

  Reveal hidden contents

(nb: Elizabeth Short is the Black Dahlia. She came to LA to see him when she was 17, and was murdered when she was 22. And he takes no interest in investigating her death). This doesn't seem like him at all... I think he's planning on writing sequels to this one though. Most likely, he'll put something in to estrange them.

 

Have you read Irene by Pierre Lemaitre?  The Black Dahlia (along with other classics of crime fiction) plays a major role in the plotline of it.  It's really good.

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Read the first 3 issues of the Waid Archie book. I like tit so far. Reggie is only in like one panel but it made me worry that Waid play him up creepy guy trying to fuck Archie over as opposed to "Asshole with a heart of gold, who really is a good dude when he drops the jerk act". I look forward to more of this

James

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2 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Fiona Staples DOES draw great! ;)

Fixed for ya!
;)

Definitely will press on because I want ot see how Waid writes Reggie and also see if we get more of this down to Earth betty Cooper or classic "Totally Archie's stakler" Betty Cooper

James

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Started a English history run. So far I have read one on WIlliam the Conquerer and another on the Normans. Working on a Richard I bio now.  The whole run(if I don't get bored half way through, will take me to Edward VIII, with significant gaps  from Charless II to George IV. . . .

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I finished K.J. Bishop's The Etched City, which had no story to speak of, bland cardboard characters and a lot of pseudo-philosophical babbling. Stay well away.

A similar book of pseudo-philosophical bullshit is Consolations of the Forest by Sylvain Tesson. He stayed in a cabin at Lake Baikal for six months and kept a diary. It had some points of light, but overall it was eye-rollingly clichéd. A poor man's poor man's Thoreau. He wrote some other 'travel' books that look interesting, but I think I lack the courage to tackle them after this one.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams fell flat for me. I enjoyed the first book of the series, but this one was pretty dull. A friend told me he thought it was the least good in the series, though, so I'll struggle on at some point.

I read the first story in Laird Barron's The Imago Sequence yesterday. I loved it. Exactly the kind of story I was looking for from Laird Barron after having read his The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All. A modern-day Lovecraft of sorts, but with the necessary stylistic and narrative updates to make it work. I can't wait to read the rest.

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I read another Lee Child book, Never Go Back (which apparently is the one the second Jack Reacher movie was based on. I'm sure I'll see them at some point, but I'm not going out of my way). It was OK. I liked the bit where his internal monologue was discussing how they needed a vehicle that would be inconspicuous in rural Pennsylvania, and the pickup truck they were driving was perfect, because an alien observing the planet for the first time would assume that the cornerstone of the American economy was it's inhabitants ability to transport 8'x4' boards across great distance, in vast quantities. But they're mostly... you know how literary fiction is often 40% the writer showing off what a great writer (they think) they are, 30% the writer showing off how much research they've done, 20% the writer showing off what a great  set of characters they've created, and 10% the actual story they're telling? Jack Reacher books are like 75% story, 20% look at my awesome character*, 5% research, and no showing off at all.

I also read Tony Robinson's autobiography, No Cunning Plan. Surprisingly little about Blackadder and Time Team, surprisingly a lot about everything he's done that most people wouldn't have heard of. And lots of centre-left politics about how Trotskyists ruin everything. Like a lot of left-wingers, he dislikes other, different types of left-wingers more than he dislikes right-wingers.

* Just the one, mind. Other people are mostly plot devices. And the character is a bit of a Mary Sue. Would it kill him to have someone else be the one with the knowledge of Victorian Romantic poets? Yes, it would. Jack Reacher must know everything about everything. And if anyone else knows anything, they only know because Jack Reacher told them.

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On 10/12/2016 at 10:19 PM, AxB said:

I read another Lee Child book, Never Go Back (which apparently is the one the second Jack Reacher movie was based on. I'm sure I'll see them at some point, but I'm not going out of my way). It was OK. I liked the bit where his internal monologue was discussing how they needed a vehicle that would be inconspicuous in rural Pennsylvania, and the pickup truck they were driving was perfect, because an alien observing the planet for the first time would assume that the cornerstone of the American economy was it's inhabitants ability to transport 8'x4' boards across great distance, in vast quantities. But they're mostly... you know how literary fiction is often 40% the writer showing off what a great writer (they think) they are, 30% the writer showing off how much research they've done, 20% the writer showing off what a great  set of characters they've created, and 10% the actual story they're telling? Jack Reacher books are like 75% story, 20% look at my awesome character*, 5% research, and no showing off at all.

* Just the one, mind. Other people are mostly plot devices. And the character is a bit of a Mary Sue. Would it kill him to have someone else be the one with the knowledge of Victorian Romantic poets? Yes, it would. Jack Reacher must know everything about everything. And if anyone else knows anything, they only know because Jack Reacher told them.

By the eighteenth book of a multi-million pound franchise, you do what sells the books.

None of the Lee Childs' books have been that good in recent years compared to the earliest ones, but once you get a formula that makes you sell a shedload of books around the world, I guess I can understand why he doesn't really care about doing anything other than what the fans expect.

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