Random’s Comments (group member since Apr 30, 2009)

Random’s comments from the Beyond Reality group.

Finished Authority and Acceptance

My memory of those two books was pretty hazy and I am glad I reread them.

Will be starting Absolution tonight.

Now this is a REALLY old memory, but Spellsinger
All I can really remember is music was involved and I'm pretty sure one of the songs mentioned was by the Beach Boys.

I've actually been tempted to read this book again mostly out of curiosity.

Maybe Song of the Beast
Another one a read quite a while back so my memory is a little hazy. (view spoiler)[I think his music had an affect of some kind on the dragons (hide spoiler)]

So, scant details, but I am sure they meet the criteria. :D

Finished Annihilation
Will be starting Authority sometime tonight or tomorrow.

Its been a while since I've done any real traveling and even longer since I did so for pleasure.

I do go through and make sure I have a bunch of audiobooks queued up on my player. I don't plan reads to match up with where I am going, just do my usual read what matches my mood at the time.

I always have my entire ebook library synced to my phone, so I have plenty to choose from there.

Almost always listening to audiobooks in the car, even if I'm just driving to the store. If its not audiobooks, it will be a podcast or radio show. I actually really enjoy road trips for this reason. :)

Flights can be different. There's something about airports that are unsettling to me and I can never feel comfortable enough to read or listen to much of anything.
On flights I think there is something about the noise that can make it difficult for me to concentrate as well. When I listen, its usually either something I don't need to really pay attention to much (rereads, comedy radio shows/podcasts/etc) or I just listen to music.

Another problem with audiobooks and airports/planes. There's nothing to do with my eyes or hands. While driving, I'm watching the road and interacting with the car. But there, I just sit and stare and do nothing. Its difficult for me to just sit there with nothing to keep my hands and eyes busy. This makes crossword puzzle books an absolute must. I usually buy a stack of them before I leave.

Its funny. I adore flying, I love watching the clouds below us and imagine the various shapes as castles and kingdoms and similar. I just hate everything else that comes along with flying. :D

I am officially on vacation!!!!!

Started my reread of the Southern Reach series to help refresh my memory for Absolution

Oh, and in case anyone is interested, there's a new Murderbot short story.
https://reactormag.com/rapport-martha...

Lets go back to that nomination I withdrew on last poll.


Science Fiction
Faller by Will McIntosh
Had been really enjoying the book but had to put it down because life got in the way and never got back to it.

No one can remember anything. Reality has seriously fragmented. As we follow the protagonist, we slowly start to discover who he is and what happened.

As a bonus, its a stand alone story and not yet another first book in a series. I swear, this is a dying breed. :D

I'm drawing a blank on Fantasy at the moment but will come back if I get any good ideas.

Ryan wrote: "One more question, from Day Twelve – “The server looked over at Vera, confused, as Simms ordered a vodka martini. Vera made a very small hand motion at her neck to the server that Simms did not see..."

When I read that part, I thought it was a signal to bring her something without alcohol in it. She didn't want to be impaired.

BTW - The upcoming Project Hail Mary movie is an exception to my usual rule where I don't watch TV shows or movies based upon books I liked. That trailer looked amazing and I am very excited for it.

Four come to mind right off the bat. First two Shel mentioned, Project Hail Mary and the Amber series.

A third is Faller by Will McIntosh. I really need to get back to that book.

Also Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Six Wakes might also count. Clones who are triggered to awaken after their deaths. They don't have memory of how or why they died.

Rachel wrote: "Did anyone think he was actually going to destroy the planet? I think my spouse did"

I wasn't sure, but the tone didn't feel like an apocalyptic one.

I said I would post and then I didn't for 4 days. :)

So, I mentioned in other threads that this was not quite what I expected it to be. I was a little unprepared that this did not follow the more usual form. When I realized I was over 60% into the book, new characters were still being introduced, and there was no indication of an upcoming conflict, or even an attempt to solve the problem, I realized this was going to be something different.

I did enjoy this, and looking at the entire story from the end, I see what he was doing here. This wasn't about solving any problems or conflicts, though there were some conflicts. This was showing sometimes very sweet vignettes of how people live their lives and react when something impossible, something we can do nothing about, happens.

From feuding cheese shop brothers, a guy inadvertently proposing on chat, spoiled billionaires, scientists, politicians, and mothers. Its an interesting look at humanity. What do we do when there is nothing we can do? Be human and continue to live our lives as best we can.

In the end I found it quite charming and an optimistic view of humanity when so often we see the opposite.

I wish I had realized this when I started. I think I might have been able to enjoy the first half more than I did.

Finished it last week. Enjoyed though it wasn't quite what I expected.

Will post in the spoiler thread later.

I wince any time tropes are mentioned. Not because I dislike tropes, but because of how others can make use of them.

I've spent too much time in company that

- Consider specific tropes to be stupid/lazy/(whatever negative you prefer).
For example, I might be tired of The Chosen One trope, but I do not try to act like a book has no value if it uses it or that others are wrong if they enjoy it.

- Think any trope is evil and the only good books are the ones that are tropeless. Well unless its a trope they like. I suspect this category of people just like the dump on the joy of others and act all superior.
And yes, I know how silly the "tropeless" thing is. :)

- Play the trope police dictating to others what is or is not truly X. Whatever your X might be.

Ex:
Can't be a romance if there is no HEA
Can't be a mystery unless there is a crime
Can't be SF unless there are aliens, space ships, high technology, story takes place in the future, etc.


As for tropes, I can be a bit of a sucker for
- The Heroic Sacrifice
- The Bittersweet Ending (often tied with the Heroic Sacrifice)
- The Unreliable Narrator
- The Medieval Fantasy setting. There's value in other settings, but I have a weakness for this one and its not as common as it used to be.
- Ancient advanced civilization that's no longer around
- The Moral Dilemma - I really have a thing for there to be no right choice or no absolutely good path.

While not asked, I'll toss out of a few tropes I'm not that fond of

1) As mentioned before, The Chosen One/Reluctant Hero/Secret Heir. This one has been around forever and I think I am just tired of it. I tend to more enjoy the hero who just happens to be the in the right place at the right time (or, depending on PoV, the wrong place at the wrong time) and has to do the job that's in front of them because no one else is doing it.

2) The Evil One - the being/person/creature is evil because . . . they are evil.

3) Alien Monocultures. The idea that an entire species has one and only one culture.
I mean, look at humanity. We are one species on only one planet, and yet we have different cultures based on where in the world we live currently, where our ancestors came from, our age, what social groups we are part of, the source of our faith (or lack of faith), where we went to school, what sports team we root for, what social, political, or economic groups we are part of. Do we really believe a species spread across multiple worlds with a population that dwarfs humanity in its current state would be completely homogeneous?

4) Romance subplots
Seriously. I often suspect YA books have screwed with an entire generation's head and they now believe the only kind of close relationship someone can have is romantic.

OMG have people never had real friends? Coworkers? Neighbors?

I have had close friendships with more guys than I have had romantic relationships. Just because they happen to have a gender identity I am attracted to, does not mean the only kind of relationship I can have with them is romantic.

Or the same gender friend whose been with you through multiple life stages. They were there during joy and sorrow. Losses and achievements. They've been at your side during the good and the bad. Seen you at your best and at your worst. Been the person to laugh with, to tell your fears, to celebrate with, to grieve with.

Finished When the Moon Hits Your Eye

That was not what I had expected. Not bad, just unexpected. More to come when our discussion starts next week.

I had intended to start a Southern Reach reread for the 4th book in that series (Absolution) but most of me now wants to pickup on a few podcasts that I have been meaning to listen to for years now. Some of them have finished while they were waiting in my queue and I think they might be just the thing I need for a mental break.

We'll see how it goes.

I'm reading When the Moon Hits Your Eye so very near future earth, looking up at an impossibly big and bright moon and thinking WTF!

Busy week

Read The Ballad of Black Tom, which I've been meaning to read forever. Sadly, I think it could have been a fuller experience if I could remember the Lovecraft story The Horror at Red Hook. If that was a story I had read in the past, it would have been around 30 years ago and my memory is nada.

Read Truths, Half Truths and Little White Lies, a memoir by Nick Frost

And I went a head and started When the Moon Hits Your Eye
I had intended to start this next week, but everything else I want to read right now is series related and I don't want to interrupt a series for this.

Dawn wrote: "I think Lord of the Rings is the only one I can think of where I liked the movie better than the book, I just found the book so tedious, and the movies did a good job of putting all the good stuff in without the annoying stuff."

I was having a lot of problems thinking of any answers to this question. I usually either have enjoyed the books more or I have not read the associated books.

But you reminded me, I think the Lord of the Rings movies were in some ways better than the books.

Specifically The Two Towers. The pacing in the book was horrible. Interesting things are happening and then, Sam and Frodo are trudging their way to Mordor. More interesting things happen and then Sam and Frodo are trudging their way to Mordor. It got so tedious I actually started hating Frodo.

The movies smoothed this out much better.

Did I miss Tom Bombadil? Yes. Did I miss the Scouring of the Shire after they return home? Yes I did, though I feel the movie was able to was able to convey the changes to the characters well enough without it. Did the movies tone down the evils of industrialization message? Probably so, though when I read it as a kid, that message went completely over my head.

Christos wrote: "For Fantasy I’d like to nominate Garth Marenghi's TerrorTome a hilarious Stephen King parody where a writer literally has sex with his Magic typewriter.."

This made my brain explode. I was familiar with Man to Man with Dean Learner and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. I was absolutely unaware of a book however.

When I commented to my husband, his reply was that we already have the book. :D

Would anyone object if I change my SF nomination from Faller to Foe by Iain Reid?

I just finished it yesterday morning and I really want to talk about it with others. I think this could make fascinating discussion material for the group.

Finished Foe (short book)

I am honestly not sure what I think about it. I think it achieved what it set out to do, but I am unsure on my reactions. Unusual for me.