What books are you reading now?

TOZ · Post by **TOZ** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 2:31 am

The Deed of Paksenarrion.

The first couple chapters made me feel like I was reliving my basic combat training.

RiotGearEpsilon · Post by **RiotGearEpsilon** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 3:17 pm

I just finished Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber. Fantastic stuff.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 8:55 pm

TOZ wrote:The Deed of Paksenarrion.

The first couple chapters made me feel like I was reliving my basic combat training.

Nice series. The follow-up series is a little disappointing, though. The cliffhanger in Echoes of Betrayal was annoying to me.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
After article after article on Something Awful with ads for it, I finally decided to order Zack Parsons' Liminal States. I'll see if it lives up to the hype on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Post by **fbmf** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 11:03 pm

fbmf wrote:Hunger Games.

Game On,
fbmf

Finished Catching Fire. On to Mockingjay.

Game On,
fbmf

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 3:49 am

Reread the first two books of the Dune cycle. It's still as good as I remember being it. But compared to other long-spanning space opera that I've read since then, it really doesn't hold up that well.

I also started M. J. Harrison's Viriconium series.

The setting is something post-apocalyptic in that the modern world's been long forgotten and nothing remains as to what happened in it. It's become vaguely feudalistic but it still has technology such as force weapons and mecha.

I've only finished the first book "The pastel city" but I'm conflicted about the series. It's really very poetic in the way it's written. But it also has this way of informing you of new events that's vaguely hinted at in the paragraphs or pages before. It's kinda cool in the beginning but it gets annoying because I keep looking for hints as to what might happen.

Overall, I do like the book but the writing is a little bit annoying.

I forced myself through Darwin's "Origin of the species" but the book is seriously dull and I feel like I should have honestly read a more modern book that encompasses Darwin's work and other stuff.

I've also been reading a lot of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. It's acerbic but intelligent. So...the Den but the thoughts are more collected and concise.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 3:57 am

I've been re-reading the Dresden Files. Currently finishing Dead Beat.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:10 am

I've never read any Star Wars fiction. I've heard that most of it is pretty bad. But for some odd reason I'm intrigued. Any suggestions? Any order of what I should read?

Fuchs · Post by **Fuchs** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 9:05 am

Currently I am reading the "Song of Ice and Fire" series.

Post by **fbmf** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 10:45 am

Cynic wrote:I've never read any Star Wars fiction. I've heard that most of it is pretty bad. But for some odd reason I'm intrigued. Any suggestions? Any order of what I should read?

It has been more than a decade since I read any, but Timothy Zahn I do recall as awesome and Kevin J. Anderson sucked.

I'd do HEIR TO THE EMPIRE, DARK FORCE RISING, and THE LAST COMMAND for sure.

Game On,
fbmf

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 3:15 pm

Yeah, Most Kevin J Anderson books seem to be really horrible. I tried plodding through Dune: House atreides and some of his DC novels. several years ago and I couldn't stand it. I put it down after 50 pages.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 3:21 pm

fbmf wrote:
Cynic wrote:I've never read any Star Wars fiction. I've heard that most of it is pretty bad. But for some odd reason I'm intrigued. Any suggestions? Any order of what I should read?
It has been more than a decade since I read any, but Timothy Zahn I do recall as awesome and Kevin J. Anderson sucked.

I'd do HEIR TO THE EMPIRE, DARK FORCE RISING, and THE LAST COMMAND for sure.

Game On,
fbmf

Seconded. I read that when I was about fourteen. And every now and then over the years, I've tracked them down for a re-read and they're still good.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 3:28 pm

Any of the New Jedi Order books any good? The only thing I know about them is the fact that Chewy was killed by a moon.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 3:38 pm

Cynic wrote:Any of the New Jedi Order books any good? The only thing I know about them is the fact that Chewy was killed by a moon.

Meh. I stopped reading about then.

NJO took Star Wars Extended Universe from being a ton of loosely interconnected adventures, and trying to give a coherent overarching plot for...way too many books.

I'm sure there's some cool moments in there every now and then, it's just...Why bother? I've moved on in my tastes, largely.

Anyways. Yeah. Chewbacca does die rescuing people, thanks to the New Bad Guys using one of their old tricks to crash a moon down onto its planet. And some Star Wars fans went apeshit that Chewbacca had been killed and R.A. Salvatore wrote the book where it happened (even though it had been ordered from on high).

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 5:48 pm

Everyone in NJO came down with a terminal case of dumb. Luke and half the Jedi sat around doing nothing for the first third or so of the series, in large part because, I shit you not, the Vong had no force presence. The other half just had no coherent plan and either went wandering randomly or signed up with the military. Meanwhile, the New Republic could not decide whether to fall back to major strongholds and ramp up military production or try to defend every planet under attack, with the result that they wasted a huge number of ships sending badly undersized fleets to defend places of no particular strategic value that got taken anyway. Also, there were an absolutely unbelievable number of collaborators, whose numbers only increased when it became clear that the invaders had no intention of keeping any of their bargains.

And the Battle of Courescant was a complete clusterfuck of epic proportions, only mildly salvaged by one of the previously unlikable characters taking 25K soldiers and numerous warships out in his suicide-by-nuke.

The invaders had half a clue about strategy and tactics, but had a religious prohibition on R&D, so they slowly became progressively more fucked.

And then there's the general problem with large, multi-author works, namely that the relative toughness of various warships varies wildly between books.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 6:39 pm

Reading the new edition of Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue May 01, 2012 2:53 am

I really liked Kevin J. Anderson's Tales From Mos Eisley Cantina/Jabba's Palace/Bounty Hunters anthologies, but he mostly just edited those (and wrote a couple of the short stories.)

His other books are mediocre to crap though, and I agree on the Thrawn Trilogy being awesome.

And yeah, the New Jedi Order books, especially the war with the Vong, are needlessly drawn out and full of stupid.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Tue May 01, 2012 5:09 am

Darth Rabbitt wrote:I really liked Kevin J. Anderson's Tales From Mos Eisley Cantina/Jabba's Palace/Bounty Hunters anthologies, but he mostly just edited those (and wrote a couple of the short stories.)

His other books are mediocre to crap though, and I agree on the Thrawn Trilogy being awesome.

And yeah, the New Jedi Order books, especially the war with the Vong, are needlessly drawn out and full of stupid.

Agree on the anthologies being pretty good.

Also, I, Jedi keeps a place in my heart. Michael Stackpole.

PoliteNewb · Post by **PoliteNewb** » Tue May 01, 2012 4:21 pm

I thought the X-wing Rogue squadron books were pretty good, if a little too heavy on the comedy/goofiness at times. Depends on what you like about star wars, though...I prefer ship combat and guys getting shot in the face with blasters to all the Jedi wank.

Black Fleet Crisis was moderately enjoyable, if you ignore everything with Luke. I'm personally a big fan of the Lando/Lobot chapters, but some people found that boring.

The anthologies were generally good, especially the stories by Daniel Keys Moran. His Boba Fett origin story was about a thousand times better than the bullshit Lucas pulled out for the prequels.

Post by **fbmf** » Tue May 01, 2012 5:19 pm

I liked the anthologies also, especially the Dannik Jericho (sp?) stories. I forgot KJA edited them.

Game On,
fbmf

shau · Post by **shau** » Thu May 03, 2012 2:52 am

I got Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter as an impulse buy, and I have to say I am pretty disappointed. To my surprise and chagrin, its not a comedy.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Thu May 03, 2012 3:43 am

I was talking about Dune with one of my buddies at a bookstore near work. Somehow, now I'm writing Dune Abridged.

ABRIDGED DUNE
CHAPTER ONE
Paul Muab-Dib is good. Really good. Everyone against him is evil. Like the Harkonnens. Really really evil.
--Princess Irulan, first drafts.
The BARON HARKONNEN, his nephew FEYD RAUTHA, and the Mentat assassin PITER DE VRIES meet to plot villainy.
BARON: So it'll happen as planned.
PITER: Yup.
BARON: Run through the plan so Feyd Rautha can see the evilness of our evil treacherous plan.
FEYD RAUTHA: Do I have to sit through it?
BARON: Yes.
FEYD RAUTHA: Whatever.
PITER: So, okay, your family hates the Atreides, in a feud going generations because one of your ancestors got court-martialed for cowardice on the battlefield, by an Atreides.
FEYD RAUTHA: What, really?
BARON: Yes.
FEYD RAUTHA: Why're we holding a grudge over it, then? Seems fair enough to me.
BARON: Shuttup and listen, Feyd Rautha.
PITER: Anyway, we're swapping control of the planet Arrakis to them. Arrakis is the single most valuable planet in the universe because it's the only place you find spice, melange. The most valuable substance in the universe. The ultimate awareness-spectrum narcotic. In other words, it's the good shit.
BARON: And cut off from their support and unaccustomed to their surroundings WE WILL CRUSH THEM.
PITER: It's been planned out by me, the psychotic Mentat assassin who pops down spice like it's candy.
FEYD RAUTHA: It's such a comfort to have our course of action plotted by a self-admitted mentally unstable supergenius drug addict.
BARON: I'd rather have him working with us than against us. Piter, tell him the rest.
PITER: They know some plan is in motion against them. We know they know. They know we know they know that something's up. But I don't think they think we know they know we know they know. So they're outmaneuvered. But they don't think they're outmaneuvered when we know they are... [PITER continues]
FEYD RAUTHA: Is he always like this?
BARON: Sometimes it's worse and he'll keep this up until he creams his pants in an evilgasm.
FEYD RAUTHA, while PITER keeps going: So lemme check something, Uncle. We're engaged pulling off an involuted scheme to destroy a family over an unjustified grudge that started generations ago.
BARON: Correct.
FEYD RAUTHA: And meaning no disrespect, but you're a grotesquely obese, ugly, disease-ravaged, scheming, power-hungry, slave-owning pedophile.
BARON: I can't find any point of inaccuracy that would sway a jury.
FEYD RAUTHA: We're the villains, aren't we? It's like someone just went through the list of traits that scream 'evil people!' and clicked 'select all'.
BARON: Gotta play the hand we're dealt, kid.
FEYD RAUTHA: Whatever.
PITER finishes his plotting, eats some spice, and passes out grooving to the colors.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:53 pm

I've been enjoying Ursula Vernon's fairy tales with additional commentary lately.

Highlights include:

In the morning the giant had to go out to pasture his goats, and as he was leaving the house he told the King’s son that he must clean out the stable. “And after you have done that,” he said, “you need not do any more work today, for you have come to a kind master, and that you shall find. But what I set you to do must be done both well and thoroughly, and you must on no account go into any of the rooms which lead out of the room in which you slept last night. If you do, I will take your life.”

“Well to be sure, he is an easy master!” said the Prince to himself as he walked up and down the room humming and singing, for he thought there would be plenty of time left to clean out the stable; “but it would be amusing to steal a glance into his other rooms as well,” thought the Prince, “for there must be something that he is afraid of my seeing, as I am not allowed to enter them.”

The fact that the giant just told him that he’d kill him if he went into the other rooms and the Prince still thinks he’s an easy master without irony kinda makes me wonder what the Prince’s home life was like. That’s seriously not normal.

So he went into the first room. A cauldron was hanging from the walls; it was boiling, but the Prince could see no fire under it. “I wonder what is inside it,” he thought, and dipped a lock of his hair in, and the hair became just as if it were all made of copper. “That’s a nice kind of soup. If anyone were to taste that his throat would be gilded,” said the youth, and then he went into the next chamber.

Personally I always sample soup with my hair first.

There, too, a cauldron was hanging from the wall, bubbling and boiling, but there was no fire under this either. “I will just try what this is like too,” said the Prince, thrusting another lock of his hair into it, and it came out silvered over. “Such costly soup is not to be had in my father’s palace,” said the Prince; “but everything depends on how it tastes,” and then he went into the third room. There, too, a cauldron was hanging from the wall, boiling, exactly the same as in the two other rooms, and the Prince took pleasure in trying this also, so he dipped a lock of hair in, and it came out so brightly gilded that it shone again. “Some talk about going from bad to worse,” said the Prince; “but this is better and better. If he boils gold here, what can he boil in there?”

As this is never mentioned again anywhere in the story, I envision the prince going through the rest of the plot with weird three-tone metallic hair, and possibly 80′s shoulderpads as well.

And

The Wonderful Birch

Once upon a time there were a man and a woman, who had an only daughter. Now it happened that one of their sheep went astray, and they set out to look for it, and searched and searched, each in a different part of the wood. Then the good wife met a witch, who said to her, “If you spit, you miserable creature, if you spit into the sheath of my knife, or if you run between my legs, I shall change you into a black sheep.”

See, this is how you know it’s a fairy tale. Real fairy tales, as various people have pointed out, often have completely nonsensical elements. How many of us are really worried about random strangers spitting into the sheath of our knife, or running between our legs? I mean, sure, it would be unpleasant, but the issue just does not arise. It’s such a weird thing to warn somebody against.

The woman neither spat, nor did she run between her legs, but yet the witch changed her into a sheep.

The witch is totally not playing fair here. I’m all for people suffering horrible fates if they break the rules in a fairy tale, but when you don’t break the rules and they get you anyway, it’s dirty pool.

Then she made herself look exactly like the woman, and called out to the good man, “Ho, old man, halloa! I have found the sheep already!”

The man thought the witch was really his wife, and he did not know that his wife was the sheep; so he went home with her, glad at heart because his sheep was found. When they were safe at home the witch said to the man, “Look here, old man, we must really kill that sheep lest it run away to the wood again.”

That’ll teach it!

The man, who was a peaceable quiet sort of fellow, made no objections, but simply said, “Good, let us do so.”

The daughter, however, had overheard their talk, and she ran to the flock and lamented aloud, “Oh, dear little mother, they are going to slaughter you!”

“Well, then, if they do slaughter me,” was the black sheep’s answer, “eat you neither the meat nor the broth that is made of me, but gather all my bones, and bury them by the edge of the field.”

Okay, okay, hold on. First off, how did the daughter know? Was she watching the sheep get changed? Did the witch not notice her? This is a really big oversight! If I am going around turning people into sheep, I want the witnesses to be transheepified as well!

Second, the sheep talks.

Now, if I am this hypothetical daughter, I might think “There is no way that Dad will believe Mom is really a sheep and this is an imposter, and if I bring it up, the witch may kill me.” This would be quite understandable. But damnit, I have a talking sheep. This is proof! I just have to wait until the witch pops out to the corner store for a sixpack, get Dad out to the flock, and have the talking sheep say her piece!

Furthermore, the witch’s work is REALLY shoddy if she leaves her victims the power of speech. That’s just crap witchery right there.

The only thing that settles this for me is that perhaps there is something very gratifying about being a sheep, and Mom much prefers standing in a field with her brethren all day. Her speech is certainly philosophical. She has attained the Zen of sheepdom. Why fret? Today’s lambs are tomorrow’s mutton. The wool groweth and the wool is shearedeth away. Life, death, it’s all one in the great wheel of sheep.

Also, apparently fairy tales were really quite long back in the day.

Post by **fbmf** » Mon May 07, 2012 10:31 pm

Completed Mockingjay. Started The Wind Through the Keyhole.

Game On,
fbmf

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Tue May 08, 2012 2:12 am

fbmf wrote:Completed Mockingjay.
Game On,
fbmf

Speaking of which--how's the trilogy as a whole?

Post by **fbmf** » Tue May 08, 2012 11:03 am

Maxus wrote:
fbmf wrote:Completed Mockingjay.
Game On,
fbmf
Speaking of which--how's the trilogy as a whole?

Started out good, downhill from there.

My main complaint is the Curse of the First Person Narrative: The first person narrative + increasingly large cast of characters = awesome stuff happens off camera (like Harry Potter).

The Love Triangle was dragged out. It didn't help that I was assured by others that this didn't happen. When I called these folks out on their blatant lie, their uniform response was: "Well, compared to TWILIGHT...".

Game On,
fbmf