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What are you reading? (June 2011)

Karakand

Member
I think they're catering to you!

The title just makes me laugh because 10 years ago it would be pretty true and today it's just a little bit true. rip neocons.... rip......
 

eznark

Banned
Karakand said:
I think they're catering to you!

The title just makes me laugh because 10 years ago it would be pretty true and today it's just a little bit true. rip neocons.... rip......
The title is awful. Were it not for the authors I never would have looked twice.
 

eznark

Banned
Karakand said:
Know how you feel, I had to read a book with epic in the title recently.
Worst case of a similar phenomenon; Radicals For Capitalism came out at the same time as one of e Harry Potter books. I read Radicals on the T in Boston and tween girls and fat women would try to chat me up because without the dust jacket, RfC looked identical to the latest Potter. Like I would have read that...in public.
 
Cyan said:
http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166580316m/14150.jpg
The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross

I wanted to love this book. The premise is so great--Lovecraft meets Fleming meets Office Space--but the execution just wasn't there. The protagonist is fun, and the scenario plays out cleverly and (mostly) delivers on its promises.

The "dear reader" narrative insertion in the middle was just so out of place and wrong. It totally destroyed my reading experience. The lampshade-hanging with the Bond device took a lot of tension out of the story. And I found Stross's prose a bit plodding--labyrinthine without being rewarding. Finally, the emotional climax at the end was totally unearned, unless you've read the previous volume recently.

I can't recommend it, though neither do I discourage you from reading it. Wishy-washy, I know.
I find I generally agree with your assessment. I made it through The Atrocity Archives but I couldn't find the interest to get more than a couple of chapters into The Jennifer Morgue. It's just too tongue-in-cheek and lamp-shady. I've liked Stross in the past, though. Accelerando (available for free on Charlie's site) and Glasshouse both have some interesting things to say.
 

Karakand

Member
eznark said:
Worst case of a similar phenomenon; Radicals For Capitalism came out at the same time as one of e Harry Potter books. I read Radicals on the T in Boston and tween girls and fat women would try to chat me up because without the dust jacket, RfC looked identical to the latest Potter. Like I would have read that...in public.
just think in the 18th century that book title would be simply redundant instead of *cringe*

and they say we have progress smh
 
Ugh, I'm currently stuck in a rut. I want to read, but I simply can't find the motivation.

When I do get that small burst, I am reading through Hitchens' god is Not Great.
 

Woorloog

Banned
I finished Peter F. Hamilton's Commowealth Saga (Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained) a few days ago. Again. Dunno how many times i've read that, love it.
Space opera, very long, totalling some 2000 pages. A lot of plot lines, some may seem a bit meaningless... the book(s) are not certainly for everyone. Depends a bit how much you like world building, the Commonwealth universe is quite well developed, IMO.

Now i'm reading The Witcher The Last Wish, in Finnish (Noituri: Viimeinen Toivomus or something like that in Finnish). I'm not sure what's wrong with it, it just feel strange. It might be that i'm reading it in Finnish, i rarely read anything anymore in my native tongue. I need to read this in English too to be able to say what's wrong, probably. Yes, i know it's written in Polish originally...

Also reading, again again (i like reading books multiple times) The Road to Dune by Frank and Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. I don't particularly care for Brian's and Kevin's short stories* in the end but otherwise the book's gold, containing the sort of original version of Dune pieced togheter by Brian and Kevin, deleted scenes and chapters from Dune and Dune Messiah and letters relating to Dune's writing and publishing. Very interesting stuff for a Dune fan.

*I've read all the Dune books there are. Nothing tops Frank Herbert's masterpiece of course... The Dune Prequels and Legends of Dune are all right (but not really that special) books on their own right but they're very different from original Dune series. The Dune Sequels are worse than... I'm not saying anything else about them.
The Heroes of Dune are annoying. Yes, annoying. They retcon stuff from Dune and it's sequels, nothing really critical but still... And they're not very good either. Weak or stupid plots, they try to explain some "noodle incidents" mentioned in other Dune works but very unsatisfactorily or retconin some orignal stuff in the process. Oh and 12 year Paul adventuring in a Guild Heighliner? WTF?
If someone here is going to read Dune Prequels etc, my recommendation: Legends of Dune is all right but it's not Dune, just space opera that happens to borrow stuff from Dune. Dune Prequels are all right but seem to be set in an alternate Duniverse. Don't treat neither as canon but don't let that stop you from enjoying them if you like 'em.
And sorry about ranting/explaining about other Dune books but i cannot leave this unaddressed.
 
Woorloog said:
I finished Peter F. Hamilton's Commowealth Saga (Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained) a few days ago. Again. Dunno how many times i've read that, love it.
Space opera, very long, totalling some 2000 pages. A lot of plot lines, some may seem a bit meaningless... the book(s) are not certainly for everyone. Depends a bit how much you like world building, the Commonwealth universe is quite well developed, IMO.



Have you gotten into The Void Trilogy yet?
 

Karakand

Member
Attackthebase said:
Ugh, I'm currently stuck in a rut. I want to read, but I simply can't find the motivation.

When I do get that small burst, I am reading through Hitchens' god is Not Great.
that book sounds pretty bad, maybe you should read something beautiful instead
 

Woorloog

Banned
LocoMrPollock said:
Have you gotten into The Void Trilogy yet?
I've read it only once (well the first two twice or thrice). The Commonwealth Saga is better IMO.
And before you ask, i've read Greg Mandels and Night's Dawn trilogy too.
 

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
I finished the new James Bond novel Carte Blanche on holiday. I enjoyed it, but knowing the author is American was occasionally distracting, as when he described a falling piece of concrete as "cricket ball sized." This version of Bond is an Afghanistan vet who likes to drink small batch bourbon. He also invents a drink called the "Carte Blanche" which consists of Crown, triple sec, bitters, and a twist of orange peel.
 
Just finished

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I was interested in it after watching the trailer for the movie. Overall it was a gripping read, but I never entirely got comfortable with the author (a white woman) writing in the voice of southern black women. I did think it was odd that all the white women in the book sounded all prim and proper without even a hint of a southern accent (other than the one from a really poor white trash town) while all the blacks did not.
 
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