The Sword and Laser discussion
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What Else Are You Reading?
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What else are you reading - November 2020
Catherine wrote: "Tamahome wrote: "Too bad Hella has no tribbles."They'd be enormous Tribbles!"
Are they treble the size?
They'll be no tribble at all.(David Gerrold wrote the original Star Trek "Trouble With Tribbles" episode.)
Currently reading:The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark
Know My Name by Chanel Miller
Untrumping America-Dan PFeiffer
Finished:
Even If We Break by Marieke Njikamp-The premise of a thriller about a group of teens with a tumultuous friendship going to a cabin to play one last weekend of their role playing campaign sounded very promising. Events within the past few months had separated the group so this was their one last chance to just enjoy the world they've created before the seniors moved on. Appreciated the diverse cast and they're relationships but the thriller aspect came up fairly short for me.
If This Isn't Nice, What is? by Kurt Vonnegut-A collection of Vonnegut's graduation speeches from throughout the years. The speeches are all individually *very Vonnegut* but after you read a few they all pretty much repeat the same handful of ideas. Still a fast read so I didn't have any issue plowing through all of them in two days. Definitely worth reading a couple at the least.
Rivers of London-Hoo boy where to start. First of all I'm glad this wasn't picked for the group (and I voted for it most rounds I believe). It's disappointing because I really loved so much of this book. The writing is witty, fun, creative and just hits the right notes. The main issue is the male nerd wish fulfillment (I am a male nerd to be clear) and that shortcoming just kind of becomes more glaring throughout the book. There was also a line about a woman who was so fat/ugly that she had to have a wonderful personality or the alternative was suicide. Yikes. I thought this book was like 20 years older than it was after hearing that.
Finished and really liked Hench. Somehow the main character is both sympathetic and seriously villainous - a real feat.
^ I am going to start Rivers of London soon. My wife has read four so far and really loved them. She asked me to join in as she wants to talk about them. Will see what I think about the flaws described above.
Silvana wrote: "Struggling through Foreigner and getting ready for The Burning God in five days."I got that as part of a one those mail order sci-fi book clubs where you got like 10 books for a couple of dollars, but had to send in the post card to cancel the new one each month for a year. I remember liking it at the time (25 years ago) and even picked up both it and the next in the series for cheap on kindle a while back. Been meaning to reread it, but haven’t yet. Sorry to hear it may not be as good as I remembered.
Cherryh is one of my all-time favorite authors and Downbelow Station is my favorite SF novel of all time, but for whatever reason I just never started the Foreigner books; and now that there are like 400 of them, I may not ever read them.
John (Taloni) wrote: "Read both Peace Talks and Battle Ground recently.Peace Talks was decent as a standalone. I didn't love it but was glad to see that Jim Butcher had broken through his block and was writing Harry D..."
I have never been able to get over the scene in one of the Dresden books where he's battling a ghost in "the basement of the UChicago library." As a UChicago alum who worked in the ILL department, my brain is like "Which one? There are at least 5" (depending on the pub date, Harper was probably still in use, but Mansueto hadn't been built yet). The most likely candidate is the Reg, which has two belowground floors, one of which holds a 24 hour study area, the other has a vast expanse of mobile shelf bays. Although my money would be on Crerar to be the haunted one, and the basement was the only area shelved by Dewey instead of LOC...
John (Taloni) wrote: "^ I am going to start Rivers of London soon. My wife has read four so far and really loved them. She asked me to join in as she wants to talk about them. Will see what I think about the flaws descr..."Look forward to seeing what you think.. the audio version is brilliant. I can forgive a great deal for an Urban Fantasy that is completely multi cultural. It is actually set in the real London, not some mythical London where only white people live.
Brooke wrote: "I have never been able to get over the scene in one of the Dresden books where he's battling a ghost in "the basement of the UChicago library." As a UChicago alum who worked in the ILL department, my brain is like "Which one?"Like other authors, Butcher avoids specific settings to keep readers from being dicks and visiting places mentioned and bothering the people who live there. That’s why novelists often create streets and landmarks, to throw people off. He has specifically said he also does this. That may be part of what’s happening there.
Of course, if a fictional address becomes popular enough, municipalities may actually create it to draw tourists. Sherlock Holmes lived at 221B Baker Street when there was no such place. Eventually London created it due to its fame, and the Sherlock Holmes museum is there. The area of York which inspired Diagon Alley has bowed to the inevitable and opened three Harry Potter stores.
Iain wrote: "John (Taloni) wrote: "^ I am going to start Rivers of London soon. My wife has read four so far and really loved them. She asked me to join in as she wants to talk about them. Will see what I think...Look forward to seeing what you think.. the audio version is brilliant. I can forgive a great deal for an Urban Fantasy that is completely multi cultural. It is actually set in the real London, not some mythical London where only white people live."
I concur that the audiobook is terrific. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith does an amazing job. He was the physical therapist in Doctor Strange, and I thought he was American, underscoring his talent.
Joseph wrote: "Cherryh is one of my all-time favorite authors and Downbelow Station is my favorite SF novel of all time, but for whatever reason I just never started the Foreigner books; and now that..."My late cousin was a huge Cherryh fan, so I read Foreigner when it came out and did not like it at all. It put me off reading anything else by her.
Trike wrote: "My late cousin was a huge Cherryh fan, so I read Foreigner when it came out and did not like it at all. It put me off reading anything else by her."I know her style isn't to everyone's tastes. If you do ever want to give her another shot, I'd suggest Alliance Space: Merchanter's Luck and Forty Thousand in Gehenna (Company Wars #2) (Merchanter's Luck in particular, but these days it's mostly available in an omnibus with 40,000 in Gehenna) or Gate of Ivrel (the first of the Morgaine novels, which read like fantasy but have SF underpinnings).
I didn't enjoy Downbelow Station when S&L read it (2013?) so I left it in the hotel I was staying in at the time. I'm currently listening to Howl's Moving Castle and enjoying it. I'm also reading The Answer Is…: Reflections on My Life. RIP, Alex Trebek :(
Mod
I'd think the best player ever should take over. Which would obviously be Watson 😉
I've never been a fan of the arse-about nature of the question/answer format of Jeopardy 😕
Tassie Dave wrote: "I've never been a fan of the arse-about nature of the question/answer format of Jeopardy "Do you also hate motherhood, democracy and pie? 😡
I thought it was baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s7V8...
Mod
Do you also hate motherhood, democracy and pie? 😡"
I don't hate Jeopardy. Just the format 😉
Mark wrote: "I thought it was baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s7V8..."
The aussie equivalent was "Football, Meat Pies, Kangaroos & Holden cars"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGW-W...
General Motors was a co-partner with Holden in Oz. Hence the shared ad jingle.
Trike wrote: "Iain wrote: "John (Taloni) wrote: "^ I am going to start Rivers of London soon. My wife has read four so far and really loved them. She asked me to join in as she wants to talk about them. Will see..."Kodna Holdbrook-Smith was fantastic. Meant to mention that in my initial post. The majority of this book was really good I was just mostly bummed about the off putting things and would have a hard time recommending it with caveats. Like the proverbial "I'm not mad just disappointed" lol. It was still an easy 4 star read for me. Will definitely listen to the next two books too (especially being on Libby).
Tassie Dave wrote: "The aussie equivalent was "Football, Meat Pies, Kangaroos & Holden cars""Apparently there was also a South African radio jingle too. Their Chevy cars were rebadged Holdens. I wonder how many variations are out there?
Braaivleis, Rugby, Sunny Skies and Chevrolet
https://youtu.be/x1wvQ7ERXhY
To bring this back around to reading in November 2020...Covid, T.P., TBR and Fantasy
or...Sci-Fi, Lockdown, TBR and Doomscrolling
Mark wrote: "To bring this back around to reading in November 2020...Covid, T.P., TBR and Fantasy"
We didn’t start the fire....
Tamahome wrote: "Finished Longmire #1 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."If you listen to audiobooks I really enjoy the George Guidall narration for this series.
I watched the first couple of episodes of the show but it never really grabbed me.
Thanks for the tip. I'm actually checking out the 6th Dave Rochibeaux book because I saw the movie with Tommy Lee Jones. In the Electric Mist
I finished up Howl's Moving Castle and then The Answer Is…: Reflections on My Life. I enjoyed both, though the latter I must've read in a dusty room because I found water in my eyes toward the end. For anyone who's loved Jeopardy and/or been a patient with a chronic illness, I think it's a great read.I'm looking to finish reading Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong—and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story today or tomorrow (in advance of the work book club meeting at 6:30 p.m.), which will leave me plenty of time to be ready for Rhythm of War on Tuesday. I'm not actually enjoying "Inferior" very much but it's for a work book club for women in engineering. The next book they're reading is The Calculating Stars, which I may re-read to be able to discuss with them (and not mix and match things that happen in the other books).
I'm really looking forward to Rhythm of War. I have two other friends that will be reading it at the same time. One who reads much faster than I do (well, he listens, and he makes more time for listening than I do) and another who reads more slowly. So it should be a good time discussing with both.
Started King's Dragon, the first in Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars series, and this (well, the series, at least) is going to take me into 2021, isn't it?
Finished two books recently. First one is Chapterhouse Dune. Yep, I broke down and read the last Frank Herbert Dune book when I had a slot open in the library holds and no purchases I wanted to make.I didn't hate it, probably because my expectations were so low. Herbert did a great job with the original Dune, then spent the next five books tearing down all the precepts set up in that book. I know the writer's admonition is "kill your darlings," but come on Herbert.
So Chapterhouse Dune is Frank Herbert's answer to a question no one asked. Want to know more about the inner workings of the Bene Geserit? Well...no, actually. But here it is! This group of Bene Geserit seem far more benign than the stark characters we met in the original Dune, so Herbert isn't so much showing us the Bene Geserit of that day, but rather making up a new, softer, more sympathetic Bene Geserit with completely understandable motivations, instead of the power grasping people we saw then.
Sandworms have come to the Bene Geserit Chapterhouse and are slowly killing the entire planet. Well, they're converting it to desert and destroying the existing life. Why is this a good thing? There's even other sources of Spice now. Shai-Hulud seems more a life-destroying villain than something to be revered.
There's plenty to object to in the book. Think the Bene Geserit are bad? We've got something badder! I feel like I'm in a Weird Al video where he spoofs Michael Jackson's "Bad" with "Even Worse."
And if the bizarreness of one-upping the Bene Geserit isn't enough, they're importing a practice from that other group and using sex to control men. Oh yay. But wait, there's more! If you haven't hurled yet, there's sex between an adult and a child. Pardon me, I must go to the vomitorium.
Problems of scale persist as well. The Chapterhouse might have a few thousand people, based on how it is organized and how they serve food in cafeteria lines and so on. Yet another planet is described as having four million Bene Geserit. (BTW this is the book where I finally twigged that "Geserit" has the same cadence as "Jesuit" and which is likely intended. Yay me, only five decades behind the time.)
There's weirdness in the cloning process as well. How is it that a few cells used to create a ghola are enough to contain the memories of the person it came from? Memory is a complex thing. This is a trope out of the worst low-budget SF or Horror movies, where a clone has the memories of the original. At least handwave it, Herbert.
Anyway, it was at least decent insomnia reading. I've given up expecting Herbert to deliver a good Dune sequel. This one at least didn't stink up the joint like some others (Looking at you, God Emperor of Dune!)
As this is the last book written by Frank Herbert, I have to call out the most long-running example of the unfired Chekov's Gun. A phrase which refers to the idea that if you have a gun in the first chapter, by the end of the book it must be fired. In the appendices of the first Dune book there's a tantalizing bit that the actions of the Bene Geserit don't make sense by their own principles, by which the putative appendix writer concludes that there is another wholly unseen group manipulating events behind the scenes. One of my fave bits! So as a young'un I read the next two saying hey, where's this group? No sign of 'em. Reading the six Herbert books now, nope, STILL nothing. Great plot point Herbert, thanks for throwing it in the trash.
Following Chapterhouse Dune I read Tooth and Claw. I came to this book as a result of reading the latest Twilight installment. Edward and Bella are talking about their favorite books, and Bella hit the high points of several that I have enjoyed. She also mentioned Tooth and Claw. Never heard of it! A quick look showed some interesting subjects. Dragons, yep. Victorian romance, not my biggest interest but I have enjoyed the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen.So I should like this book! Er...nope. Yes, the dragons live in a society much like 19th century England. But they only grow by eating other dragons. I found this so grotesque that it killed any other enjoyment I might have had from the book. The local lord is allowed to eat any young dragon that has poor survival prospects, by which he grows larger and more powerful. He also parcels out the dragon flesh as he sees fit. I suppose there's an allegory there but the concept so grossed me out that couldn't deal.
There's the usual comedy of manners around marriage, for several couples. But where, say, Pride and Prejudice takes time to develop characters, this book is more like "Monty Hall" redemption. Most characters have only to introduce a little conflict, only to find it redeemed soon after with a great reward.
There's really only one subtle plot point in the book. (Actual spoiler, so spoilertext.) (view spoiler)
I didn't even find it good insomnia reading. I tried to lose myself in the marriage comedy, but never knew when one dragon would wind up eating another one. This book is well loved by many. I am not among them. Think I will back away from this particular author and let her fans have their fun.
I really liked Tooth and Claw, and I want to point out that this certainly doesn't make me more right than you. But I also wanted to point out that I don't think that the allegory here is as deep as you were looking. In the Victorian era, there were a class of folks that worried all day about marriage, inheritance, their hats and blah blah. The prosperity of that class was due to the newly mechanized farms, mines and factories which literally chewed up the bodies of their workers. That's it. Walton just took the Victorian imperative for economic growth and turned it into a biological imperative for the growth of her dragon characters. Probably there are more specific allusions to Victorian authors or particular novels, but in general I don't think it's generally more complicated than that.
Joseph wrote: "... I just never started the Foreigner books; and now that there are like 400 of them..."Now is the perfect time to start that series. You can read a book every couple of months for several years and never have to spend the first quarter of each book trying to remember the characters and plot lines.
Of course, you'd have to be able to tolerate Cherryh's tendency to make her protagonists inclined to be hysterical. (Which, IRL might be pretty realistic under the story's circumstances, but not always what I'm looking for in my preferred opiate. But I have read the entire Foreigner series :)
I read through one of the Robichaux thrillers that was also a movie with Tommy Lee Jones. It actually has a weird element to it that may be considered fantasy or horror: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Tamahome wrote: "I read through one of the Robichaux thrillers that was also a movie with Tommy Lee Jones. It actually has a weird element to it that may be considered fantasy or horror: https://www.goodreads.com/r..."Also true of Longmire novels like Hell Is Empty
Brian wrote: "Now is the perfect time to start that series. You can read a book every couple of months for several years and never have to spend the first quarter of each book trying to remember the characters and plot lines."The thing that does make the Foreigner series potentially more accessible than a lot of others is the way Cherryh breaks everything into more-or-less discrete trilogies, so I could just read three or six or nine books at a stretch.
Calvey wrote: "my guilty pleasure Shadows in Death"Those have always been billed more as mysteries/thrillers than as sci-fi despite taking place in the future. I've always wondered what the sci-fi content is like? Is it important to the story, or just an interesting backdrop to the mystery?
Finished with The Burning God. What a page turner! Great ending to the trilogy.Almost halfway through After Atlas. It's quite slow but the near future world is so interesting.
Tomorrow I will start Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora which I have been dying to read for months.
Tamahome wrote: "Thanks for the tip. I'm actually checking out the 6th Dave Rochibeaux book because I saw the movie with Tommy Lee Jones. In the Electric Mist"Big fan of that series as well but have not done any of the audio.
I just finished The Once and Future Witches. I mostly liked it, but I found it a little heavy on the anti-male theme. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but maybe there could have been a little more nuance.Next I'm re-reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for our family Harry Potter-themed Thanksgiving.
I finished off all the other books I was working on, so now it's time for Rhythm of War, which I started the other day. I expect it will take a loooong time.
"Shadversity" on youtube did some weapons consulting for that.
I finished Ring Shout. If you liked Lovecraft Country you will like this long novella or short novel, i don't know which. Started The Burning God in ebook and Rhythm of War in audio. I be doing a lot of cleaning, purging of various items while listening to 54 hours of Epic fantasy . It requires a plan to cut out chunks of time . My one hour walk and listen is okay for the 12 to 15 hour book . Almost like my own mini quest.
Rhythm of War will also be fully dramatized on Graphic Audio in the coming months for $125 total. https://www.graphicaudio.net/the-stor... There's samples for the first 3 books. https://www.graphicaudio.net/our-prod...
Geoff wrote: "Next I'm re-reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for our family Harry Potter-themed Thanksgiving."Sounds like you have an awesome family.
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The Sword and Laser
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They'd be enormous Tribbles!