Discuss and rate the last thing you read

[gorfias]

I'm doing the "Super Powered" series on Audible. I'm on year 3 and loving it but did the spin off between 2 and 3, "Corpies". https://www.amazon.com/Corpies-Super-Powereds-Spinoff-Book-ebook/dp/B01D9C21DE/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=corpies&qid=1555971372&s=books&sr=1-1-catcorr Terrific narrator, compelling characters in a well fleshed out sci fantasy world. The Super Powered series itself is like a serious version of the movie "Sky High" with super hero candidates in a 4 year college program. Can be silly in that they have "healers" by to fix people after they have been injured in training combat. Sorry but in real life, if people are intentionally causing others to have broken limbs, even the shock from that can kill someone.

Corpies was a lot of fun: taking place where a hero grad joins a team of corporate supers that are not licensed heroes but use their powers to rescue people. Glad I "read" it. (3 hour a day round trip commute. Audible helps.

 

[Hawki]

Dragon Ball: Volume 4/5/6 (3/5)

So, finally got volumes 4-6, after skipping from 1-3 to 7-9, as I described earlier. Question is, did I miss much?

Well, in terms of plot, not really - as I stated, starting from volume 7, I'd already got a good idea of what was going on. In terms of the collection itself? Well, it's a mixed bag. With the martial arts tournament, let's cut to it - Jackie Chun is Roshi, and the manga does a terrible job of hiding it. I'm not even sure if it's actually trying to hide it, though I did think that it wasn't going to reveal that they're one and the same, because that would be too obvious a plot twist, but no, obvious plot twist is obvious. On the flipside, something that's remained true throughout the manga is that the fight scenes are fun to read (is read really the word?) Usually I gloss over action scenes in manga and comics because so often it feels separate from the plot. And while that's arguably true here as well, here, I felt entertained by them. If the arc can be considered an excuse plot for martial artists beating the crap out of each other, than well done, it's at least entertaining to watch them beat the crap out of each other. Also, the sexual innuendo jokes have been toned down - not removed, but I'm glad for the reduction regardless.

What I'm not as glad about is the absurdity of Roshi destroying the moon. Like, that's a thing. That's actually a thing. Like, serious question, is Toriyama even aware what destroying the moon would do to Earth? Tides? Axial tilt? Debris? The cultural impact? The manga makes a joke about moon pie, Moon Festivals, and werewolves, but no-one even really mentions it. No-one seems to even care. The manga's played fast and loose with physics up to this point, but this is the point where it well and truly jumps the shark into any credibility.

Moving onto the Red Ribbon Army stuff...well, already know how it ends, so can't comment much. It's fine. It's okay. Goku's still a Gary Stu and the other characters are left without much, if anything to do. Characters like Krillin and Yamcha may get the odd victory, they may get their odd moment of triumph, but by Shenron, don't ever consider that they could rival Goku in power. This problem is more pronounced in volumes 7-9, as I described in my review of them, but it's clear that at this point, there's a 'paradigm of power' that the manga can't (or won't) move away from. I've given DBZ a lot of flak for this, but I have to concede that the 'power paradigm' DBZ portrayed had its origins in Dragon Ball Vanilla. And while Dragon Ball is far from the only series to have this problem. key difference is that here, it's far more pronounced, in part because it actually revels in it.

So, yeah. Despite all this, I did enjoy the volumes. It's fluff, at the end of the day, but enjoyable all the same.

 

[Hawki]

StarCraft: Soldiers (4/5)

This was very nearly a 3/5. That's what comes when the last issue of a series is basically one giant action scene. Remember in the last review how I explained why Dragon Ball's fight scenes engaged me when so many comics/manga didn't? This is the case of "didn't."

Still, at the end of the day, I do feel the series does earn a 4/5, even if it's more a 3.5 (but I don't do decimals). It's better than Scavengers in that it's paced better, and has a more engaging main character - Shivani at least undergoes a character arc, even if the arc itself is quite simple. On the flipside, I'm left to ask how this factors into the wider StarCraft universe. So far, almost all new lore has come from the Dark Horse comics, and I'm kind of reminded of how Dark Horse handles the Xenopedia IPs - you can state that they're in canon with the films, but in many ways, they feel like their own sub-universe. Since we've gone Scavengers, Soldiers, then the upcoming Survivours, this appears to be the case. So, yay for Dark Horse ,but not sure how it factors in otherwise.

God, am I out of things to say? Well, whatever. Comic's good. Not great, but good.

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941 by Lynne Olson (2013)
Back into the non-fiction realm with this one. After dealing with all the bile, divisiveness, and general partisanship that plagues today's news, it was rather refreshing to dive into a work pointing out how we have been here before. In the years before the United States' entry into the war, we were as bitterly divided then as today. I can only hope it doesn't take another world war to finally get people to snap out of their tribalistic headspace and deal with the world again.

As for the book itself, I can highly recommend it to anyone interested in the history of the this particular period. It is very well written and researched. I learned quite a bit of the behind-the-scenes rivalry and maneuvering that took place in the fights between the isolationists and the interventionists (as they called themselves). In looking back at American history, the general unity that the U.S. had during WWII overshadows the divide that existed beforehand. The perspective offered by Lynne Olson is very interesting indeed.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Been reading the Stormlight Archive by Brian Sanderson, currently in the middle of book two.

Series is epic western style fantasy. Very slow paced and rich world-building, interesting magic system. It does the multiple protagonists thing where it tells various stories from various people's lives and slowly (very very slowly) brings them together. Themes are of leadership and honor as well as an interesting critique on social mores and even war profiteering.

My favorite thing about the series so far is the system of spirits that exists, it's kind of like animism taken to extreme degrees, with things even like gravity having a conceptual origin and nothing being purely there because of physical laws. Don't wanna spoil much but if anyone's looking on being immersed in a behemoth of a book (both books I've gotten my hands on so far were over 1000 pages each) I'd highly recommend it.

 

[Hawki]

Been reading the Stormlight Archive by Brian Sanderson, currently in the middle of book two.

Series is epic western style fantasy. Very slow paced and rich world-building, interesting magic system. It does the multiple protagonists thing where it tells various stories from various people's lives and slowly (very very slowly) brings them together. Themes are of leadership and honor as well as an interesting critique on social mores and even war profiteering.

My favorite thing about the series so far is the system of spirits that exists, it's kind of like animism taken to extreme degrees, with things even like gravity having a conceptual origin and nothing being purely there because of physical laws. Don't wanna spoil much but if anyone's looking on being immersed in a behemoth of a book (both books I've gotten my hands on so far were over 1000 pages each) I'd highly recommend it.

How would you say book 2 differs from book 1, if at all?

Reason I ask is that I read part 1 of book 1. You can see my review of it earlier in the thread, but among all else, it moved way too slowly for me.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Been reading the Stormlight Archive by Brian Sanderson, currently in the middle of book two.

Series is epic western style fantasy. Very slow paced and rich world-building, interesting magic system. It does the multiple protagonists thing where it tells various stories from various people's lives and slowly (very very slowly) brings them together. Themes are of leadership and honor as well as an interesting critique on social mores and even war profiteering.

My favorite thing about the series so far is the system of spirits that exists, it's kind of like animism taken to extreme degrees, with things even like gravity having a conceptual origin and nothing being purely there because of physical laws. Don't wanna spoil much but if anyone's looking on being immersed in a behemoth of a book (both books I've gotten my hands on so far were over 1000 pages each) I'd highly recommend it.

How would you say book 2 differs from book 1, if at all?

Reason I ask is that I read part 1 of book 1. You can see my review of it earlier in the thread, but among all else, it moved way too slowly for me.

Most of book one is kind of a prologue, whereas book 2 has the characters move past their establishing states and advance. It is very slow but at the same time it's one of those things where you realize you only have another 500 pages and it feels like it's not gonna be enough never mind being too slow due to just how interesting everything is.

If you think of all books in the story, book 1 is kind of like act 1, it establishes a lot of the things that the others will get to play around with and does a ton of worldbuilding that the second book feeds off of (and it's actually about 100 pages longer!). Also near the end it has some extremely epic moments with especially Kaladin that it's worth reading for those alone imo.


Oh and you may have read up to part 2 if you read 500~ pages since the books are split in 4 parts but yeah it's just gonna take a while for things to happen but once they do they happen all at once. The Shallan chapters are especially slow and it does feel like a drag to read about her at first when you're in a high action story with Kalladin or Dalinar but she grows the most out of everyone, especially since she's so young. She gets her flashbacks in book 2 (like Kaladin did in 1) which shed a lot of light to her as well.

 

[Hawki]

Sanderson of Metro (2/5)

This is a prequel to The Wraith novel/graphic novel series. The writer, who's a colleague of mine at work, offered me a chance to work on said series. I said yes, and borrowed some installments for background reading. Having done that, I've soured on the prospect.

To be fair, this installment isn't written by the main author himself, but that aside, I've got to admit, it really isn't my thing. The series takes inspiration from 70s pulp action heroes, and that's an era I wasn't even alive for. Which wouldn't be so bad in of itself, but the writing, the plotting, the worldbuilding, is extremely amateur. Being generous, let's boil this down to execution rather than concept, but even then, we've got villains who chew the scenery, fridged love interests, and white saviour syndrome. Now, normally any one of these things is something I could live with (personally I think the term "white saviour" is used far too liberally), but I can't deny that this is every cliche packed together with writing that's simplistic at best. And, look, maybe that's the point, to emulate the style of the genre right down to the writing. But if that's the case, it's writing I can do without.

I plan to read some main series installments, but so far, not warming up to this.

 

[Dalisclock]

Rereading One Hundred Years of Solitude. I read this like a decade ago and now that there's some talk of it getting adapted by Netflix I felt I should give it another go. It's much as I remember it, this wierd blend of muti-generational epic set in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere somewhere in Colombia in what's probably the 19th century(but since there's only allusions to events most non-colombians wouldn't be aware of it's hard to tell). There's also this weird sense of magical realism amongst the soap opera like drama, but there's also this tragic emotional core of mistakes being repeated every generation as well.

So yeah, a good book but I have no idea if it's possible to make a good series of it. There's a lot going on and there's very little actual dialogue. Apparently the Author didn't want an adaptation for screen at all if it couldn't be made to match the spirit of the book, and boy is that gonna be tough to pull off. Since he's dead, his kids apparently made the deal with netflix.

 

[Hawki]

Fairy Tail: Volume 1 (2/5)

Remember everything I said about Dragon Ball? Basically take all the bad stuff and amplify it, and remove any of the good stuff to offset it.

Like, am I a prude? Am I the only one put off with the fetishization of young girls in these things? FFS, we can't even get to volume 2 before Lucy's forced to dress up as a maid because hey, pervs exist in this world. Am I the only one who's put off by how Fairy Tail (the guild) is basically a bunch of assholes who do collateral damage, and whose guild master says "screw it!" as to the suggestion that hey, maybe the people who don't want collateral damage have a point? Am I the only one put off by the summon sequences that remind me of Final Fantasy Unlimited (bleh)? Am I the only one put off by how the manga feels very 'gamey?' like, here's a board, take a quest, get a reward, rinse and repeat?

Well, considering how popular the manga is, quite possibly so. But I'm not fond of it. Even Dragon Ball, at the very least, had cool fight scene artwork, but this manga doesn't even manage that, and like many such mangas and comics, I just glazed over the action parts. So, no. Can't say I like this.

 

[Hawki]

Fairy Tail: Volume 2 (3/5)

So, against my better judgement, I borrowed the second volume of Fairy Tail. This, despite my dim view on the first. Question is, is it better? Well, you can tell by the rating that it is, but that isn't to say that it's "good," far from it. Rather, it's simply average.

But make no mistake, I really didn't like this. Some of the worst elements of the previous volume are toned down. For instance, Lucy is slightly less of a sex object (key word being "slightly"), and does get some agency. Also, there's Erza, who's not only a better character, but actually calls out the Fairy Tail guild as effectively being a bunch of morons at best, or assholes at worst (except Happy - Happy is awesome). However, just because some of the worse aspects are mitigated, it doesn't mean I'm left engaged. Like the first part of the plot is basically "burn a terrible book that my author father wrote." Which means infiltrating a mansion belonging to an insane man who has giant hairy maids that he's attracted to (yes, really). Like...I don't...I can't...

And to think I thought Bulma's bunnysuit in Dragon Ball was low brow. Little did I know that that was apparently the pinnacle of refined tastes.

We at least get a dark guild to work with, but they're still filled with psychopaths who have nothing better to do than chew the scenery, and who want to commit mass murder because hey, they're evil (yes, there is a reason, but it's trite). Also, the fight scenes are a bit better, but still fairly dull. It might be that I'm already familiar with the characters with Dragon Ball, as to why I was more invested in them, but whatever the case, I just glazed over them here. That, and people just WON'T STOP SHOUTING IN THE SCRIPT! CAN YOU HEAR ME? DID YOU GET THAT?

All this aside, the question can be asked whether this is a manga for me. And in fairness, the answer is "no." I'm not the target audience. So in that sense, and given that the manga/anime's already insanely popular, I figure why bother?

 

[Hawki]

Crossfire (3/5)

So, this is another book I read in the Wraith novel/graphic novel series - another way of getting me more up to speed with the setting. You might remember Sanderson of Metro and if you recall, I wasn't too keen on it. Still, Crossfire is written by the series's loremaster/main author/whatever, so the question is whether it's better written as a result?

Well, I can't say it's better written "as a result" (not without inference at least), but it's certainly better written. Again, this isn't really my stuff, and I have to say, the plot, while thin, would work much better as a graphic novel, because it's clearly harkening to superhero traditions. Like, the Wraith is akin to Batman, Crossfire is akin to Deadshot, Bob Sloan is akin to Jim Gordon, and so on and so forth. So while it's not really my thing, if I evaluate it on the terms of the genre, it certainly functions. It's paced well, and for better or worse, does adhere to tropes of the genre. Which, given that it's trying to harken back to 70s pulp fiction, I guess is the point.

So, yeah. Make of that what you will.

 

[Hawki]

One Piece: Volume 1 (3/5)

Kind of on a manga splurge aren't I? Well, it's not Fairy Tail this time, it's One Piece. I mean, surely, thought I, there'd be something for me here. I mean, everyone seems to love One Piece, right? Right?

Well, I don't.

That's not to say it has the same issues with Fairy Tail for me, but in a sense, I found it far more obnoxious, if less...problematic? I dunno, maybe I'm a prude, but at the very least, when it does introduce female characters, they don't appear there for the purposes of sexualization. But I get to deal with a whole new set of gripes, namely that people just won't...stop...SHOUTING!

DID YOU GET THAT? DID YOU SEE ME USE CAPITALS TO CONVEY THAT PEOPLE SHOUT A LOT IN THIS MANGA? SHOULD I SHOULD LOUDER?

Y'know how manga and anime often use exagerated facial expressions? Think that, ramped up to eleven. Doesn't help that Luffy is a boring protagonist. His goal is to become the Pirate King (or lord, whatever). He has absolutely no idea how to do that bar drifting around. Also, he's practically invincible. So, unless you're attached to idiotic characters who can't be harmed (and I'm not), Luffy isn't going to be a character for you. Also Zeno. Zeno, who gets forced tragic backstory thrown in as a flashback that breaks down the flow. Plus there's kid who wears glasses (can't remember his name), who wants to join the Navy (just "the Navy," we're never given a name), despite the Navy also being manned by idiots and over the top, overly effiminate villains. Because...yay for law and order? Say what you will about Fairy Tail, I can at least remember the characters' names and motivations.

So, is One Piece bad? No. Not really. But it IS designed for a younger audience. Granted, it's marked YA, but I figure with it being so popular, it must have some broader appeal, right? Well, if it does, I'm not among it.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Tiamat's Wrath the 8th book in the Expanse series.

The spoiler free version is: The Expanse is a great book series, that consistently delivers engaging sci-fi drama and action. Tiamat's Wrath is no exception, coming hot off the heels of Persepolis Rising and continuing the story of that book.

What I like about the Expanse in particular is that it is a book series that deals in themes that easily gets authors nihilistic, like the vastness of space, the question of if other sentient life exists in the universe, the frailty of human life and how power corrupts, yet it never becomes bleak, grimdark or nihilistic. The recurring theme of the Expanse is that humanity is at its best when we work together, try to bridge our differences and don't just look out for ourselves. The Expanse are books about space adventure but they describe those space adventures from a deeply human point of view and it is one of the few book series that repeatedly has me emotionally touched by the beauty of its character portraits and positive view of humanity.

Basically, go read these books.

The spoiler part is below, so spoiler:
I am pretty amazed by how the Expanse started out as "near future" sci-fi, with humanity unable to leave the solar system and has since progressed into more traditional intergalactic sci-fi. It is a transition that could easily have floundered the entire series, especially as it is done by introducing alien technology as a sort of deus ex machina (and oh boy that protomolecule is a doozy of a deus ex machina in terms of plot devices), yet the series manages to keep its' tone and air of scientific authenticity and never looses its emotional core. To be eight books into a sci-fi story that's increasingly about intergalactic threats humanity doesn't understand and still managing to maintain the same emotional and thematic core is pretty impressive, especially as the storylines aren't wheel spinning and there's no status quo that the books cling to.

 

[Agema]

Senlin Ascends / The Arm of the Sphinx / The Hod King - Josiah Bancroft

I'd been aware of the good press behind these for some time, but hadn't got around to them until last month. They are the first three books of a quadrilogy (last one out next year) about a mild-mannered headmaster, the eponymous Senlin, who loses his wife Marya whilst visiting the Tower of Babel and sets about trying to find her, unpeeling the mysteries of the tower as he does so. The tower is vast - miles wide and miles high - with each level an independent "Ringdom" with its own quirks, although we only see a dozen or so. As Senlin makes his way through the tower, he must adapt to each to progress.

This isn't the Biblical tower of Babel (although plenty of the names and some concept is derived from the myth). It's kind of steampunky - the tech is roughly Victorian, although the Tower of Babel itself is rather more advanced. It is deemed a peak of civilisation, from which the fruits of knowledge, fashion, and much else spread to the rest of the world. As Senlin soon finds out, it is a corrupt, venal place full of bizarre cultures, with strange ritual, slavery, crime, greed, envy, and vanity. Our lead character, Senlin, is a flawed but empathetic character. He starts stuffy and starchy, if intelligent and well-meaning; he grows throughout the series to uncover his hidden depths. One of his main virtues - and which much of the tower lacks - is empathy for others. That empathy is key to his progression, as he draws other victims of the tower to him, inspiring them to more moral conduct. The rest of the team he gradually picks up, as well as many of the antagonists, are well fleshed out.

These books are beautifully written, switching effectively between action, drama and humour, whilst retaining good emotional punch. The characters are well constructed, and the different ringdoms are attractively imagined. It is nice to see fantasy that is creative - not just another set of well-worn cliches. In some of the stylings, particularly the odd, even grotesque cultures and humour, it reminds me perhaps of the likes of Mervyn Peake and Jack Vance - both two authors I have greatly enjoyed.

Anyway, well worth the time spent reading.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Rereading One Hundred Years of Solitude. I read this like a decade ago and now that there's some talk of it getting adapted by Netflix I felt I should give it another go. It's much as I remember it, this wierd blend of muti-generational epic set in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere somewhere in Colombia in what's probably the 19th century(but since there's only allusions to events most non-colombians wouldn't be aware of it's hard to tell). There's also this weird sense of magical realism amongst the soap opera like drama, but there's also this tragic emotional core of mistakes being repeated every generation as well.

So yeah, a good book but I have no idea if it's possible to make a good series of it. There's a lot going on and there's very little actual dialogue. Apparently the Author didn't want an adaptation for screen at all if it couldn't be made to match the spirit of the book, and boy is that gonna be tough to pull off. Since he's dead, his kids apparently made the deal with netflix.

Well his son is a film director, I always figured he'd be the one to helm it. Marquez was famously against adaptations of his work but that didn't stop the (horrible) Mike "Harry Potter 4" Newell from making Love in the Time of Cholera.

I imagine the problem with a series would be there's no central character to outlast the whole story.

 

[stroopwafel]

Legends of the Dark Knight Vol 3: Jim Aparo. I love Jim Aparo, his signature artstyle was the Batman of my childhood, together with Norm Breyfogle and Kelley Jones. Unfortunately it seems only Jones is still left alive. Aparo is probably most popular for A Death in the Family, infamous for having the readers decide if Jason Todd lived or died. The book mostly collects his earlier work at the end of the bronze age in 80/81 Detective Comics and The Brave and the Bold. Espescially Aparo and Denny O'Neill were such a great team. Though there were more excellent writers working on Batman at the time like Mike W Barr and Gerry Conway. It's cool to see how they re-envisioned Batman by taking the character seriously and started to modernize the storylines way before Frank Miller, Bruce Timm or Alan Moore. DC keeps making these awesome collections. The Breyfogle and Mounch collections were really good as well. Very high quality paper and sublime printing quality.

 

[Hawki]

Tiamat's Wrath the 8th book in the Expanse series.

The spoiler free version is: The Expanse is a great book series, that consistently delivers engaging sci-fi drama and action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nvuEw9XcuU

Yeah, really not a fan of the books (or at least the first four, never bothered moving on from there). Really liked the TV series though.

 

[Agema]

Yeah, really not a fan of the books (or at least the first four, never bothered moving on from there). Really liked the TV series though.

They're strangely old skool. Sometimes it works in their favour, other times not. Fundamentally, there's a problem with credibility that some dude, his ship and crew manage to find themselves constantly in the middle of the action even when they're not trying to be: a good ol' down to earth, aw shucks, speaks as he finds it type sorting out the galaxy's problems with homespun philosophy and can do spirit, umpteen crises on the trot.

 

[BrawlMan]

William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Songs of Innocence, and Songs of Experience. I have to say, a pretty great read of poems. I heard Blake was a cool guy too. When I get the chance, I'll check out the Book of Urizen. You can thank V for me checking Blake's works.