What are you reading now?
-
wrote on 12 Feb 2022, 12:52 last edited by
Short novella. Very not-Scalzi in terms of content (not Sci-fi); very Scalzi in terms of humor and snark.
-
wrote on 12 Feb 2022, 23:15 last edited by
OK that was fun, and very, very different. Nice twist at the end.
Started this today. Several people on FB have commented that "Consider Phlebas" is not Banks' strongest work. If you recall, I gave up about 75% of the way through, having gotten bored with it.
So, to give Banks another shot I started this today (about 40% of the way through it).
The Culture — a human/machine symbiotic society — has thrown up many great Game Players, and one of the greatest is Gurgeh Jernau Morat Gurgeh. The Player of Games. Master of every board, computer and strategy.
Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad, cruel and incredibly wealthy, to try their fabulous game. . . a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked, blackmailed, almost murdered, Gurgeh accepts the game, and with it the challenge of his life — and very possibly his death.
Yeah, in the same "universe" as "Phlebas," but a much, MUCH, better story.
-
wrote on 18 Feb 2022, 00:17 last edited by
More Bosch
-
wrote on 18 Feb 2022, 00:19 last edited by
Oh, between that and the Banks book, I did LeCarre's "Spy Who Came in From the Cold." I enjoyed "A Legacy of Spies" so I thought it might be fun to revisit the premise of LeCarre's penultimate book.
-
Almost finished with "Endurance."
A very well-told tale which never, ever gets boring.
It reminds me of "Unbroken," the story of survival of the airmen of a downed B-24 in WWII.
wrote on 18 Feb 2022, 04:26 last edited by@George-K said in What are you reading now?:
Almost finished with "Endurance."
A very well-told tale which never, ever gets boring.
It reminds me of "Unbroken," the story of survival of the airmen of a downed B-24 in WWII.
Glad you enjoyed it. Awesome book.
-
wrote on 19 Feb 2022, 21:00 last edited by
Just finished "Angel's Flight," the Bosch book.
It was not my favorite. It had a really nice twist about ⅔ of the way through, but the ending was a bit of a disappointment.
Up next - more Iain M Banks:
-
@george-k said in What are you reading now?:
I love, LOVE, Ben MacIntyre's books ("Operation Mincemeat").
Started this today...
Bumping this for @Renauda who might find it interesting.
wrote on 19 Feb 2022, 21:10 last edited by Renauda@George-K said in What are you reading now?:
@george-k said in What are you reading now?:
I love, LOVE, Ben MacIntyre's books ("Operation Mincemeat").
Started this today...
Bumping this for @Renauda who might find it interesting.
Read it a few years ago. Really good. A genuine page turner.
-
wrote on 23 Feb 2022, 01:13 last edited by
Return to "Dune."
About 100 pages in...so far, meh.
It seems like the desire to spin-out spin-offs is causing the ability to write creative stories is winning. The words that kept coming to me as I started were "cash cow."
-
Return to "Dune."
About 100 pages in...so far, meh.
It seems like the desire to spin-out spin-offs is causing the ability to write creative stories is winning. The words that kept coming to me as I started were "cash cow."
wrote on 27 Feb 2022, 02:20 last edited by@George-K said in What are you reading now?:
Return to "Dune."
About 100 pages in...so far, meh.
Actually not too bad. Pretty predictable, and with the multiple storylines (The Sisterhood, the Mentats, the Navigators, the Venport industries) the tale is limber enough to keep your interest.
Oh, and, of course, Arrakis.
Got about 100 pages left.
Popcorn's pretty good.
*** out of **** stars so far.
-
wrote on 9 Mar 2022, 23:29 last edited by
Taking a deep, deep dive into the "Dune" universe, I finished "Sisterhood" a few days ago. I stand by my original thoughts. A very satisfying tale, and it makes you want to get to the next story.
So, today, I finished this:
It's basically a continuation of "Sisterhood," and my thoughts are exactly the same. Very satisfying popcorn that makes you want more, so, today, I started this:
https://images-na.ssl-imag
es-amazon.com/images/I/91mTFk88YpL.jpg -
wrote on 12 Mar 2022, 14:38 last edited by
I have about ⅔ of the last "Dune" book left, and it's okay. Very predictable in terms of character development, etc. Popcorn, as I said. Not great popcorn, but okay popcorn.
When I finish that, I'm going to queue this up:
-
wrote on 16 Mar 2022, 13:46 last edited by jon-nyc
Just finished this:
Rather disappointing on account of being so vague. Like critical legal theory texts I’ve read, it tends to be long on complaints about liberal/enlightenment values and short on remedy or policy.
I’m now about halfway through Derrick Bell’s book:
It’s well written, and even though it is a collection of fictive short stories or parables it’s far more substantive than Delgado and Stefancic’s introduction.
It does come across as a bit dated, as he’s describing institutional environments that were mostly gone by the time I started my career. Still a very worthy read.
-
wrote on 19 Mar 2022, 21:27 last edited by
I cheated, and continued my dive into the Dune-iverse. Was gonna start Barr's book, but...well, you know how it goes.
Finished this today.
It jumps forward about 10K years from the other prequels (Sisterhood, Navigators, Mentats) and puts you about 30 years before the original book. The Harkonnen/Atreides feud continues.
There are 3 in the series, but I'll take a pause for a while.
Started this today. Kind of interesting reading this guy's remembrances of early East Germany and his parents' indoctrination into the Soviet line of thinking.
More on the author here:
-
I cheated, and continued my dive into the Dune-iverse. Was gonna start Barr's book, but...well, you know how it goes.
Finished this today.
It jumps forward about 10K years from the other prequels (Sisterhood, Navigators, Mentats) and puts you about 30 years before the original book. The Harkonnen/Atreides feud continues.
There are 3 in the series, but I'll take a pause for a while.
Started this today. Kind of interesting reading this guy's remembrances of early East Germany and his parents' indoctrination into the Soviet line of thinking.
More on the author here:
-
Was gonna start Barr's book, but...well, you know how it goes.
Yep, one damn thing after another…
-
Was gonna start Barr's book, but...well, you know how it goes.
Yep, one damn thing after another…
wrote on 20 Mar 2022, 00:01 last edited by@jon-nyc the thing that gets me about these books is that they are all, well, boring.
I read Bolton's book, and I found it supremely uninteresting. It was one rant after another. It was about three times longer than it needed to be, in my opinion.
Hopefully Barr's won't fall to that standard.
-
wrote on 21 Mar 2022, 00:58 last edited by
I haven’t read any Trump admin memoirs. Or Obama admin for that matter.
I did read all the Bush era ones, well at least national security related and finance related.
-
I cheated, and continued my dive into the Dune-iverse. Was gonna start Barr's book, but...well, you know how it goes.
Finished this today.
It jumps forward about 10K years from the other prequels (Sisterhood, Navigators, Mentats) and puts you about 30 years before the original book. The Harkonnen/Atreides feud continues.
There are 3 in the series, but I'll take a pause for a while.
Started this today. Kind of interesting reading this guy's remembrances of early East Germany and his parents' indoctrination into the Soviet line of thinking.
More on the author here:
wrote on 22 Mar 2022, 20:44 last edited by@George-K said in What are you reading now?:
Finished it this afternoon. Interesting tale, which is much more interesting in the first half than the second. His memories of his education in East Germany, his love affairs, and his recruitment by the KGB were really intriguing.
Some of the training he received (spending two years in Moscow learning English - with an American, not German, accent), his education on tradecraft, etc also made interesting reading. I found his first exposure to West Berlin ("Everything was so colorful, and the people smiled.") almost sad. He recounts going to a restaurant and ordering a beer. When he asked for a bottle opener, the waiter was dumbfounded, and twisted the cap off for him. Apparently twist-off caps were not a thing in East Berlin, and he realized that such simple ignorances of the culture could give away his identity as a foreigner.
I was disappointed that the book didn't get into what he was actually doing for the KGB in his years in New York. The only hint he gave is that when he worked for MetLife (insurance) he photographed some computer code and sent it to Moscow.
3/5 stars.
-
@george-k said in What are you reading now?:
So far, it's VERY James Bond-like. Interesting, perhaps unrelated opening, flashback to past missions, etc.
Oh, and it was written by someone I knew, back in another life.Yeah, it was okay.
Not "blow me away I want MOAR" away, but a pleasant-enough waste of a few hours where you don't feel like you wasted a few hours.
Nice twists in the last ¼ of the book.
I was going to start this (and got about 10% of the way through it), but got, well, not bored, but "I'm not ready for this again," so I gave up - for now.
I think I'll do some more Bosch instead.
wrote on 22 Mar 2022, 21:34 last edited by@George-K said in What are you reading now?:
@george-k said in What are you reading now?:
So far, it's VERY James Bond-like. Interesting, perhaps unrelated opening, flashback to past missions, etc.
Oh, and it was written by someone I knew, back in another life.Yeah, it was okay.
Not "blow me away I want MOAR" away, but a pleasant-enough waste of a few hours where you don't feel like you wasted a few hours.
Nice twists in the last ¼ of the book.
I was going to start this (and got about 10% of the way through it), but got, well, not bored, but "I'm not ready for this again," so I gave up - for now.
I think I'll do some more Bosch instead.
Wait, I haven’t seen that. New series?
-
@George-K said in What are you reading now?:
@george-k said in What are you reading now?:
So far, it's VERY James Bond-like. Interesting, perhaps unrelated opening, flashback to past missions, etc.
Oh, and it was written by someone I knew, back in another life.Yeah, it was okay.
Not "blow me away I want MOAR" away, but a pleasant-enough waste of a few hours where you don't feel like you wasted a few hours.
Nice twists in the last ¼ of the book.
I was going to start this (and got about 10% of the way through it), but got, well, not bored, but "I'm not ready for this again," so I gave up - for now.
I think I'll do some more Bosch instead.
Wait, I haven’t seen that. New series?
wrote on 22 Mar 2022, 21:37 last edited by George K@LuFins-Dad said in What are you reading now?:
Wait, I haven’t seen that. New series?
THey're a lot of fun.
What I'm enjoying is how Herbert and Anderson are able to take the concepts of the original book and weave them into a pretty good tale.
Some of the stuff seems to be "filler," like popcorn.
But it's not bad popcorn.
