Discuss and rate the last thing you read

[Dalisclock]

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.

I read Love in the Time of Cholera but never saw the film. I guess I didn't miss much. The closest thing to a persistent character is the Matriarch, Ursula, who makes it all the way to Generation 7 before finally dying(at over 120 years old), but she doesn't drive the plot much. I just hope they do a good job at casting or costuming or something to help everyone keep these characters distinct, because the book comes in a family tree for a reason(7 generations that keep using the same names over and over again).

I guess they could do the Cloud Atlas thing of flipping back and forth in time, designating 4 or 5 focal characters as protagonists. Although it would make things even more confusing, probably.

The book already kinda does this, where it outright starts with a flashback and occasionally jumps around while generally progressing forwards. The problem being, yeah, it makes a work much harder to follow. Catch 22(the film and the book) did it, but apparently the Hulu series doesn't(I haven't had a chance to watch it yet). Gravity's Rainbow is also infamous for jumping around like crazy in the timeline, though Gravity's Rainbow is just confusing as hell in general.

Cloud Atlas gets away with it because the time periods are fairly visually distinct from each other with notable differences in character costuming and such, while 100 years would all be set in the same town in different decades with the cast being the main differences.

And again, the problem with the same names being used over and over again. Having to refer to a family tree in the series like the book practically requires might not be the best idea.

 

[Agema]

Maybe my read on Holden is wrong, but isn't his conceit as a character that he can't stop himself from interfering because of his ideas about moral responsibility?

I totally agree. But even still, he's in the right place at the right time suspiciously often, and happens to have been bequeathed an abnormally competent crew as survivors of what was a basic frieghter. For another example, that Naomi conveniently enough just happens to be the ex- of someone who turns out to be incredibly important in a later book.

Of all the terms I could use to describe The Expanse, "old school" wouldn't be among those that immediately come to mind. If I'm thinking of "old school" sci-fi, stuff like Star Trek TOS comes to mind, or going further back, stuff written by Wells and Verne. The Expanse doesn't fit that, because unlike a lot of that stuff, it's very much on the "hard" end of the sci-fi spectrum, with great attention to worldbuilding and making the functioning of the world as realistic as possible. It's actually the one key thing I think the books do well, least initially. And as for Holden, I can't agree with that assessment. He spends a lot of time blundering around (least in the first book), and whatever the Roci crew accomplishes, it's usually in service to an authority, such as Fred Johnson and the OPA, or Avasarala.

Think books, not TV. Star Trek was a little soft as SF goes, but vast amounts of 60s SF literature is "one man (+ team) and his spaceship" space opera with plenty of hard SF trappings. The other aspect that strikes me is if we think in terms of the sea change introduced by Gibson's Neuromancer, and how computers exploded in terms of relevance to SF, this is in many ways a throwback to the pre-Neuromancer era, full of humans with wrenches solving the universe's problems.

 

[Hawki]

Tuf Voyaging (3/5)

So, did you know that George R.R. Martin used to write stuff other than A Song of Ice and Fire? Chances are you do, but if you don't, well, now you know. And one of those books is 'Tuf Voyaging', a collection of short stories focused on Haviland Tuf - a social recluse who comes to control a powerful starship, and who has a love of cats. Cats who are psionic in this universe, because go cats.

I'm not going to review every short story individually, but looking at the stories as a whole, they're okay - some are definitely better than others. I should also note that Tuf is pretty much a Gary Stu, in that he's infalliable, but I don't mind too much, because he does succeed with his intellect rather than brute force, so that's a change from what you might expect here. I should also comment that the worldbuiliding is very broad - broad enough that you get a sense of history, but not so focused that it can be called in-depth. Also, some of the short stories do connect between each other. The stories can't be called deep per se, but there's certainly intelligence to them, touching on themes such as biodiversity and overpopulation. If we take Tuf as Martin's viewpoint character, it's fair to guess where he stands on certain issues in the real world, especially when it comes to organized religion.

So, yeah. Decent set of reads. Took me ages to get through them though, but that's no fault of the book itself.

 

[Hawki]

Anthem: A New Verse (3/5)

So, this is weird. From what I can tell, this was meant to be a 4 issue comic series, but it seems to have become three. I don't know if the plot was compressed, or 3 ended where it was meant to, but either way, reviewing it now.

It's...okay. Actually, post-issue 1, it's better than I thought it would be. Certainly the two main characters are reasonably engaging, and the comic does a reasonable job of standing alone. Like, it's framed as a prequel to Anthem, but without any knowledge of the setting, you could probably get the gist of it. And it does have some emotional punch. However, what it also has is pretentiousness. Like, I can't (or won't) comment on the "correct" way to write a comic, but the comic here relies a lot on text blocks within the frames. As in, there's a lot of passive narration. Which wouldn't be so bad if it didn't use overly flowerly language for a lot of it. Um, Dark Horse? Don't know if you noticed, but this is a setting where your average hero is basically Iron Man. People flying around in powered suits fighting other people in powered suits, along with insects that shoot at the people in powered suits. There's a limit to how deep you can make it, and even beyond that, this doesn't reach the limit, it mis-shoots the limit.

So, yeah. Decent, better than I expected, but nothing special.

 

[Hawki]

The Wraith: Dread Avenger of the Underworld (3/5)

So, still familiarizing myself with the Wraith universe per my work with Trinity Comics. And by "work," I mean "god damn it, I really need to find time to actually write this, because it's hard to find time when you're working every day of the week.

Anyway, there's not too much to say about this that I haven't already. I will say though that per its nature as a superhero universe, it certainly works much better as a graphic novel than as a written novel. Also, maybe it's just me, but in addition to the Batman vibes (and obstensibly those of the 70s such as the Spider), I was getting vibes of the Phantom as well. Something about the black and white, coupled with the Wraith's headwear, coupled with the supernatural elements. I mean, it's not great, but it's lacking the more obnoxious elements of the manga I've read recently where ALL THE CHARACTERS SHOUT HALF THE TIME IN BIG BOLD LETTERS!

That aside, I'm not sure if I can really reccomend this graphic novel as a first entry to the setting, because it's effectively a collection of single issues that don't really connect with each other, and ultimately end on a cliffhanger. But, if you want to support indie comics, then it isn't the worst place to start either.

 

[Agema]

The Soldier by Neal Asher.

Honestly, if you've ever read a Neal Asher book, it's just like all the others you've read. It might even have some of the same characters, which sporadically recur across his main body of books about an AI/human space empire called the "Polity". First part of a new mini trilogy within that wider series. Think hugely powerful AIs, massive battleships, world-wrecking weapons, wisecracking assassin droids, secret agents, interstellar war and peril written, all written with an exuberant, cracking pace. Good, lightweight fun, like nearly all his novels.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

I'm currently working my way through Anna Karenina.

It is a very dry book and I can't remember half the character names. But it's a good Russian novel. That's all I can really say about it right now.

 

[Agema]

I'm currently working my way through Anna Karenina.

It is a very dry book and I can't remember half the character names. But it's a good Russian novel. That's all I can really say about it right now.

Consider skipping the last 150 pages or so. The story kind of ends, and then it has this huge addendum where Tolstoy propounds his philosophy to much tedium.

 

[Hawki]

Read a bunch of stuff recently, won't go in detail, but list and rankings are as follows:

-The Simpsons Family History (4/5)

-Terminator: Sector War (2/5)

-The Terminator: 1984 (3/5)

-The Terminator: 2029 (3/5)

-Terminator: Death Valley (3/5)

I'm currently working my way through Anna Karenina.

It is a very dry book and I can't remember half the character names.

If you can remember half the names from Anna Karenia, that's more than the percentage of names I can remember from War & Peace.

And before anyone says anything, I can admit that this is probably more down to me than the book.

 

[Trunkage]

I'm currently working my way through Anna Karenina.

It is a very dry book and I can't remember half the character names. But it's a good Russian novel. That's all I can really say about it right now.

I'm trying to reread Theory of Moral Sentiment before I go back to Wealth of Nations. It has a section at the start that lists all the possible sentiments to a variety of actions that you could have. It's taken a year... And I know your pain.

I haven't read Anna Karenina but if I know Tolstoy, its somehow interesting but completely boring at the same time

Edit: I actually find Dickens the same way but his books aren't quite as dense

 

[Dalisclock]

Finished my re-read of 100 Years of Solitude. Possibly better on the second go around, watching the eternal cycles of the family members and how the town rises and falls over time. I'm really curious how the Netflix series presumably going to happen is going to pull this off.

Just got around to reading the Sandman Graphic Novels by Neil Gaiman. Read the first one and am now Reading A Dolls House. So far I'm intrigued and I'm curious to see where this goes. I'm particularly curious to see what changes not having Sandman in the world for 70 years had on the world, aside from making things weird(and the Sleepy Sickness). I am curious how Gaiman got away with having all of the references to famous copyrighted characters so far, though I imagine some kind of deal was struck with DC at very least, oh wait...published by DC. That explains a lot.

 

[Hawki]

On Violence (4/5)

This is another installment on the "on X" series - On Hatred was one such example. Still, unlike the past versions, this gets a 4 rather than a 3, though I can't really say why. I mean, it was talking about stuff I already knew about and/or stuff I agreed with, least for the most part. Could be because when discussing domestic violence, it's easier to give hard figures than rely on more abstract descriptions of racism (which has become an increasingly abstract concept in recent times). Well, whatever the case, this is mostly a case of preaching to the choir as far as I was concerned, but still, decent.

Dragon Ball Z: Volume 5 (4/5)

Well, this was something I borrowed at random from the library - I'm good with quick reads on the 2hr trip home, least when reading something bulkier (which I am right now). Still, this was good. Like, better than any of the Dragon Ball volumes I read, and I don't think it's because I'm more familiar with the anime that was adapted from said manga.

I don't know if this is the case with DBZ's manga as a whole, but it felt more mature than its predecessor, or at least as mature as you can get with the concept. Like, for one thing, remember how in Dragon Ball I complained about the amount of sex-based jokes? Gone. Remember when I complained about the lack of stakes because Goku was practically invincible? Gone. Like, I assume that problem would rear its head up later down the line, but at least at this point in time, we're in a bit of a sweet spot, where Gohan and Krillin are strong, but not so strong that they can act willy nilly. So, when they have to walk rather than fly, when they see Frieza's men murdering namekians, then...yeah. Darker, rather than grittier. Not the first time I read a DBZ manga, but unlike the other time I did so, I didn't switch over to the TFS script in my head.

 

[Agema]

Sixteen Ways To Defend A Walled City - KJ Parker

KJ Parker is the nom de plume of fantasy humourist Tom Holt when he wants to write grittier, more fantasy-orientated work, often without happy endings. KJ Parker's work is probably a little unusual for a lot of fantasy readers expecting heroes and magic words and stuff. In fact, I got the impression KJ Parker was dropped by their publisher as his works disappeared for a while, but after self-publishing new work on the internet (The "Two of Swords" series) seems to have generated enough interest to be picked up again.

This, like so many of the KJ Parker works, is a deeply cynical view of the world leavened by plenty of humour. The basic idea is that a colonel of engineers, Orhan, finds himself unexpectedly in military command of the Robur Empire's capital when it is under assault from a military genius. Orhan, with just a regiment of engineers and a few hundred city watch, has to somehow spin lead into gold and make the city defensible despite the sclerosis of its political classes, bureaucracy and peacetime attitudes. There's often something quite cold and reserved about a lot of KJ Parker's protagonists. They are often thinkers, methodical, perhaps in ways troubled and little given to friendship and intimacy, and Orhan is no exception. But there's plenty to enjoy in the wheezes he and his associates dream up in their efforts to save the city. Ultimately, however, this really is not KJ Parker's best work. The Two Of Swords is superior, as is some of his earlier work, so if you're intrigued, maybe check them out first. All or nearly all of his works appear to be in an approximate, same world - the same empires or kingdom names keep coming up - although mostly vague, perhaps separated by centuries - to make them all effectively standalone works.

 

[Batou667]

Total Recall - Arnold Schwarzenegger

This is Arnold's autobiography, and the fact that I finally finished after dipping in and out of it across three different calendar years perhaps sums up how engaging I feel this book is, despite being (naturally) co-authored to ease Arnold's clunky English for the benefit of the reader.

The focus of the book is broadly split between the three main phases of Schwarzenegger's life - his bodybuilding era, followed by his movie career and then term as Governor of California. Perhaps unreasonably, I felt that each section was long enough to bore somebody who had no real interest in the subject matter while simultaneously being too shallow to satisfy muscleheads, film buffs, or political pundits respectively. Comparing the chapters dealing with coming to the USA to compete in bodybuilding, for example, with the documentary Pumping Iron, demonstrates just how economical Arnold is with the background, the flavour, and also with the facts. Arnold has been the subject of countless controversies over the years, but in this airbrushed account he only admits to events that have already been made public knowledge, and even then you have to read between the lines. It almost feels there is a whole companion book worth of omitted material sitting in the editor's waste paper basket.

A solid 3/5, and that's coming from somebody who is fairly partisan.

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

Merchant Soldier Sage: A History of the World in Three Castes by David Priestland [2013]
A very interesting look at world history that doesn't use the concepts of Marx in competing economic classes, but instead through the lens of competing philosophical underpinnings exemplified by the concepts of caste, centered around the merchant, soldier and sage caste concepts especially.

I don't know if Priestland's analysis would hold up under the weight of full historiography scrutiny, but he certainly makes a decent case for his structure in this work. Written just after the major fallout of the 2007-08 financial crisis, Priestland talks about the ever-changing balance between the basic caste philosophical viewpoints and how different periods of history were affected by those ideas. In essence, Priestland argues that whenever any particular caste philosophy becomes overly dominant in social thought, then we see the instability play out quite dramatically.

I highly recommend the work. While I can see some folks having problems with the underpinning philosophy Priestland uses, it is still a thought-provoking piece that forces the reader into considering matters from a different point of view. Always a good thing.

 

[Agema]

The Labyrinth Index - Charles Stross

Another installment in Stross's long-running series about "The Laundry" - a division of the British secret services that deals with Occult threats. In terms of his series, Stross seems to me write an awful lot of rent-paying dross; this Cthulhu mythos / tech geek / spy series is probably his best series.

The basic idea is that computing power (both human thought and computers) are advancing humanity towards a sort of occult singularity as Lovecraftian aliens are attracted and will eventually cause a catastrophic magical apocalypse. At this point in the series [redacted for spoilers- let's just say stuff has happened], the USA appears to be in the middle of a takeover from a malign extradimensional entity and the president is missing. One the Laundry's senior agents, a PHANG (i.e. vampire) is tasked with taking a team over the Atlantic to help restore authority and prevent the USA falling to domination. Stuff happens. It's readable enough - poking fun at bureaucracy, techy fun with apps and computers for geeks, the action's good enough and you can scoot through it in a breeze. However, I cannot help but feel this far in the series, the charm has declined substantially and sclerosis is setting in, so it's a sort of Laundry novel going through the motions.

 

[Agema]

I Still Dream - James Smythe

James Smythe is, I think, one of the better SF writers to have emerged from the last few years. He writes usually quite near-future material, and his books are quite interested I think in psychology and our perception of the world. Some are quite tonally different - his previous works have been borderline SF horror, where "I Still Dream" is certainly not.

At base, it's the story of one Laura Bow, who is instrumental in creating the world's first AIs. The story starts in 1997, and revisits at 10-year intervals to the mid-21st century; we thus see snapshots of Laura's life with the development of her personal AI project, Organon, and a rival part "stolen" from her by Bow Corporation (which her father was instrumental in founding). So that qualifies as SF. But really it's about Laura and the people around her; ruminations on love and loss (death of relationships, friends and family is a recurrent theme), and the nature of development - that bringing up an AI from rudimentary to developed sentience is partly a job of psychology, not just coding. It's an emotionally moving book rich on character, both sad and hopeful.

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

Pigeons From Hell by Robert E. Howard

Decided to go back and reread this selection of short stories from Howard that I picked up years ago. It was a fun read, but one of the things I had actually forgotten about was Howard's . . . . interesting views on race. The first short story simply presented the "average-for-the-1930s" level of racism I was expecting from the author. The second story, however, jumped straight into full-on white supremacist racism of the worst sort. Sad, but unfortunately not unexpected. At least I can take comfort in the knowledge that Howard and his circle of literary friends (including Lovecraft) came up with some very interesting ideas that less racist (and in some cases, simply better) writers have expanded on over the years.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Brown's Requiem by James Ellroy (1981)

Apparently I was stuck on Brown's Requiem for exactly 5 months. To call the read "breezy" might sound disingenuous, but it is true: Ellroy writes with ease, keeping the prose snappy and the dialogue florid. But for some slumps in the narrative this should be a quick, fun read.

I guess the story never involved me much. For the most part it's your usual noir fare, which should be good enough, but Ellroy introduces weirdo elements that seem there purely out of personal taste and clash horribly with the disgraced PI/femme fatale/serial arsonist/bent cops routine. Loopers ('70s street for "caddies") feature prominently as lowlifes and hired goons, for some baffling reason that would better suit a parody. Through his mouthpiece Fritz Brown, Ellroy delivers lengthy speeches championing their awesome ethos as if caddying is a form of elevated counterculture. Brown is also a classical music nut (tying with his, as well as Ellroy's, obsession with his own Germanic heritage), a plot point that keeps finding its way back into the narrative awkwardly.

I just didn't care for Brown very much. He's always a little too in control, things always go a little too easy for him. There's no underdog charm to him. His penchant for lecturing people he's just met as soon as he has figured them out is tiresome, moreso when he takes a congratulatory tone. He's quick on judgement and paternalism and that strikes me as a very insecure or unsure Ellroy voicing his general opinions through a paper-thin surrogate.

Brown's Requiem isn't half-bad for a debut novel, but what I enjoyed the most was everything that reminded me of Ellroy's would-be hit The Black Dahlia, including the conspiratorial framework, one hellish trip to TJ (the high point of the book) and a suitably melancholy ending. At one point Brown even jokes about cracking the Black Dahlia case. Next time for sure, James.

 

[Agema]

The Deathless - Peter Newman

I really enjoyed Peter Newman's previous trilogy (The Vagrant, The Malice, The Seven) so had no qualms about picking up his new book. In a sense - humanity threatened by encroaching demonic forces - the basic idea is similar. However, where the previous trilogy involved a rent in the fabric of the world in which demons pured through, here demons are intermingled with nature; the wild is seriously dangerous. Small townships grow food, transport is across huge raised roads, and an elite live in floating castles that defend the townships when they are threatened.

These elites have noble blood lineages where one is chosen as host to a soul that is perpetually reborn (The Deathless), and leads the fight against the Wild. There are seven realms/families, each of which has an associated crystal, each with 3-7 deathless, the numbers being limited by how many receptacles they have to hold the souls. However, in the Sapphire realm, trouble is afoot. The High Lord is unstable, has riven his family by revoking his sister's immortality, and the realm is on the verge of collapsing into murder and civil war.

So, nice enough set-up, but I couldn't help it feel was a little ho-hum unoriginal fantasy thereafter. There were some intriguing hints of where the series might go - that there's a huge amount the characters (and thus the reader) don't know about the state of the world, but the characters aren't particularly engaging, the plot is pretty average. They're not bad either, mind. The writing's pretty good, and it's easy to read. The end is not much of an end, more a pause - it feels like the book could almost be an extended intro/prologue, with the second book is going to revisit about 5-10 years down the line and get the real meat of the story started.

Anyway, yeah, fine to spend some time on, but not by itself compelling.