What are you reading now?

[Jolly]

Currently...

[jon-nyc]

@bachophile said in What are you reading now?:

Let us know if you like it.

Also, how was the book on Pilate?

[bachophile]

@jon-nyc the pilate book was very hard to read, and i eventually gave up on it. there is very little source material on pilate and most of the book seemed to be a lot of conjecture and guessing.

otoh, kertzer is amazing. well written, easy to read...and significantly, its based on a lot of new material just released, as Pope Francis has allowed the release of secret archival material which was kept under wraps for many years.

so i highly recomment kertzer, the other book, was simply not good.

[George K]

Book 2 of the "Silo" trilogy by Hugh Howey. The first book was an interesting, though somewhat predictable, take on post-apocalyptic sci-fi.

This book is set in the past, describing the events that led to Wool. Much more engaging, with some interesting twists. I'm about ⅓ of the way through it and enjoying it. Later in the book, it ties in with the events of Wool.

[George K]

I hope to finish off the trilogy this weekend. I'm about halfway through the final book.

Good story overall, and the last two books are better than the first, which seems to be more of a preamble than anything else.

Nevertheless, all the mysteries appear to be exposed in this final chapter.

If you're looking for some not-too-difficult sci-fi (unlike Alastair Reynolds), this series might suit you.

[Jolly]

[Jolly]

[Mik]

I listened to Foundation on the way west. Hadn’t read it since 75. Fabulous story. The tv series loses the beauty of the book entirely.

[George K]

@Mik said in What are you reading now?:

The tv series loses the beauty of the book entirely.

No kidding. The TV show isn't bad sci-fi, it's just not Asimov's Foundation. It takes the concept of pre-history and goes from there, to a completely different direction.

I re-read Foundation about 4 years ago. What a great tale.

Meanwhile...

[George K]

I'm a huge Reynolds fan. I enjoyed the first book of this trilogy, so I started the 2nd today.

Chiku Akinya, great granddaughter of the legendary space explorer Eunice Akinyaand heir to the family empire, is just one among millions on a long one way journey towards a planet they hope to call their new home. For Chiku, the journey is a personal one, undertaken to ensure that the Akinya family achieves its destiny among the stars.

[LuFins Dad]

My guess is @Jolly has read this as it's been a part of the Baen free library for years. It's also free on Audible and Apple Books as well...

Alternate history... A small modern (2000 AD) coal mining town in West Virginia with a population of roughly 5,000 (very similar to towns @Aqua-Letifer and I have spent big parts of our lives in) gets transported by cosmic mishap to Thuringia (Germany) in 1631 AD, smack in the middle of the 30 Year War. creating a splinter universe timeline.

The modern town has it's own power plant, coal mine, several machine shops, and a modest agricultural base. It also has a new HS and Vocational Tech school... It also has a good number of Appalachian Coal Miners, Hillbillies, trucks, and modern firearms...

It's an interesting story of a town that has incredible technological advantages, but is also vastly vastly outnumbered in the middle of one of humanity's darkest and most violent periods. A time when they have to balance their own American ideals vs the needs of the moment. The author's VERY pro-union attitudes come through a little too strongly for my taste, but it's an interesting story,.

[bachophile]

Thuringia? That’s where I’m from.

(I mean, bach of course)

[LuFins Dad]

@bachophile said in What are you reading now?:

Thuringia? That’s where I’m from.

(I mean, bach of course)

There's an interesting note in one of the many follow-ups where they find musicians from Wechmar in the school library listening to Bach works. I think the implication was that it was supposed to be Christoph Bach...

[taiwan_girl]

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

The desert was the apotheosis of all deserts, huge, standing to the sky for what looked like eternity in all directions. It was white and blinding and waterless and without feature save for the faint, cloudy haze of the mountains which sketched themselves on the horizon and the devil-grass which brought sweet dreams, nightmares, death. An occasional tombstone sign pointed the way, for once the drifted track that cut its way through the thick crust of alkali had been a highway. Coaches and buckas had followed it. The world had moved on since then. The world had emptied.

Well............................ I finally did it. 8 books, 4300 pages, I finally finished "The Dark Tower" series by Steven King.

The Dark Tower series tells the story of Roland Deschain, Mid-World’s last gunslinger, who is traveling southeast across Mid-World’s post-apocalyptic landscape, searching for the powerful but elusive magical edifice known as The Dark Tower. Located in the fey region of End-World, amid a sea of singing red roses, the Dark Tower is the nexus point of the time-space continuum. It is the heart of all worlds, but it is also under threat. Someone, or something, is using the evil technology of the Great Old Ones to destroy it.

Inspired in equal parts by Robert Browning’s poem, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Western classics, The Dark Tower series is an epic of Arthurian proportions.

Quite interesting, and from what I have heard, not a typical Steven King story. Overall, I quite enjoyed it.

Somewhat uneven, but I think that is expected in such a big series that was written over a 30 year period (~1975 - 2005)

• The Gunslinger
• The Drawing of the Three
• The Waste Lands
• Wizard and Glass
• The Wind Through the Keyhole
• Wolves of the Calla
• Song of Susannah
• The Dark Tower

[bachophile]

I’ve put this on my Amazon shopping list based on this review in the times

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/22/books/review/american-gun-cameron-mcwhirter-zusha-elinson.html

I don’t know when I’ll get around to it because I have a pile already waiting but it looks interesting

[Aqua Letifer]

[Jolly]

@LuFins-Dad said in What are you reading now?:

My guess is @Jolly has read this as it's been a part of the Baen free library for years. It's also free on Audible and Apple Books as well...

Alternate history... A small modern (2000 AD) coal mining town in West Virginia with a population of roughly 5,000 (very similar to towns @Aqua-Letifer and I have spent big parts of our lives in) gets transported by cosmic mishap to Thuringia (Germany) in 1631 AD, smack in the middle of the 30 Year War. creating a splinter universe timeline.

The modern town has it's own power plant, coal mine, several machine shops, and a modest agricultural base. It also has a new HS and Vocational Tech school... It also has a good number of Appalachian Coal Miners, Hillbillies, trucks, and modern firearms...

It's an interesting story of a town that has incredible technological advantages, but is also vastly vastly outnumbered in the middle of one of humanity's darkest and most violent periods. A time when they have to balance their own American ideals vs the needs of the moment. The author's VERY pro-union attitudes come through a little too strongly for my taste, but it's an interesting story,.

Funny, I'm rereading this now. Do a web search for "Baen CD" and you'll find some links to the CD's they used to put in their books. Probably a half dozen of the follow-on books, plus several editions of the Grantville Gazette.

While you're perusing all the available books, do try On Basilisk Station, the first book in the Honor Harrington series. Most of that series is pretty well written. Think Hornblower in space...

[bachophile]

Saw this just now in the non fiction list of the nytimes bestsellers.

Next on my shelf

[jon-nyc]

@Jon said in What are you reading now?:

I have read his Rise and Fall of the Third Reich I believe 3 times. Like that book, this is also quite interesting and informed by his personal experiences as he lived in Paris from 1925 until the early 30s, and then later when he had to leave Germany.

Finished this a few weeks ago. Superb book, though long like his others. I think it was 44hrs on audio.

Renauda - I think you’d love it. It covers the entire third republic from 1870 to its destruction in 1940, focusing most on the final 5-10 years.

[Horace]

Werner considers himself a writer and poet, before a film maker. I did not know that.