[Rough sketch for a re-write of Little Women.]I've been reading Louisa May Alcott's gripping sword-and-sorcery saga Little Women.
Just got to the part where the paladin (Beth) and the barbarian (Jo) have met up with Sir Laurence and they stormed the Moffat Castle to rescue Meg. When Beth rammed the candelabra through Ned Moffat's skull in revenge of his horrendous treatment of Hannah, the loyal family slave, I almost wept. Can't wait to see what they get up to in the Slough of Despond. I bet Mr. Brooke gets his.
I need to rewrite Moby-Dick so Starbuck strips naked halfway through and eviscerates everybody who thinks they should stick with Ahab, covering himself with their blood and going about with teeth clenched, telling anybody who asks that he's becoming a legend in the minds of the men he hunts but all he can feel is the warm blood of the kill trickling down his skin. Then he cuts himself out of the book and goes off to do the same to John C. Calhoun.
Because there needs to be more fiction where a naked man cuts open Calhoun.
Also went to the bookstore today and ordered up Nichole Etchseon's Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era and Jonathan Earle and Diane Mutti Burke's Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Missouri: The Long Civil War on the Border.
I've apparently gotten into a string of novels about hungry children—followed up Hearts of Horses with Burial Rites (aftermath of a murder in 1820s impoverished northern Iceland) and Heidi (didn't register the extent of the poverty afflicting Peter's family when I read it as a kid—his grandmother was slowly starving because her teeth were no longer up to the hard brown bread that was all they could afford). All Men Kill, 1930s sci fi from Project Gutenberg... mostly counts, too, except that was due to vampirism, not poverty. <_<
Because there needs to be more fiction where a naked man cuts open Calhoun.
Poor Starbuck. If you haven't been subjected to spoilers, I highly recommend "Benito Cereno." It won't exactly hit your pleasure spot, but it's highly interesting to see what Melville makes of race relations in the decade before the Civil War.
Huh. I just downloaded Heidi from PG, along with an anthology containing Benito Cereno. I'll hit those right after I finish a re-read of Moby Dick.
I also downloaded the autobiography of an executioner along with several books of strange folklore and military gear/tactics. They might be useful in-game.
I've mentioned this book many times on these boards before. Back in the early years of the Eberron setting, I tried to get into it by reading 5 Eberron novels, and trying to read 2 more that I couldn't finish. Of those 7, one was far and away the best: Voyage of the Mourning Dawn by Rich Wulf. I'm now 1 page away from finishing it for the fourth time.
This reading (like my recent fourth reading of the Dragonlance Chronicles) showed what a poor memory for detail I have. Some of the things I said about this book, earlier on these boards, were factually incorrect. But the great elements of the book are unforgettable.
Some of the cool stuff in this book is the Eberron brand of coolness. The PCs ride an airship. Some of the more interesting PCs are an artificer, a warforged, and a pterodactyl-riding halfling. Even the patron NPC, probably a high-level Expert, has a dragonmark (which he uses, in one fantastic scene, in a most unexpected yet plausible way).
But some of the cool scenes would have been good in some other, generic D&D setting. Seren first demonstrated her worth to Dalan in a way that surprised both him and me, and got me hooked on the novel. Zed Arthen's introductory chapter served to demonstrate what a Master Inquisitive does, yet that chapter would have made a great short story even had it been set in, say, the Greyhawk setting, or Forgotten Realms, or Golarion.
I just read one of the great moments of the book.
"Picked."
Classic!
If you love good books but you're broke (like me), check out this site. The Harvard Classics (5 feet of seminal Western literature) are here, as well as many other.
Note: Some of these (the newer works, generally) are only available for online reading, not easy download to an e-reader.
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Finished SEA OF SILVER LIGHT (OTHERLAND #4) in a four hours long marathon that eventually resulted in people peeking into my room to check if I'm still alive. moved on to read REVELATION SPACE (REVELATION SPACE #1), by Alistair Reynolds.
SEA OF SILVER LIGHT thoughts: so much better than the previous books in the series. delivers some cool adventuring, and an ending that was action packed and touching. The book wrapped up the series in a very respectable manner.
Most recently, Slavery in the Late Roman World, AD 275-425.
Further readings along this line: Slavery in Early Christianity. I haven't yet gotten past the introduction. It's a bit less recent than the other one, but still new enough that it postdates the materials I read in college on this subject.
Because there needs to be more fiction where a naked man cuts open Calhoun.Poor Starbuck. If you haven't been subjected to spoilers, I highly recommend "Benito Cereno." It won't exactly hit your pleasure spot, but it's highly interesting to see what Melville makes of race relations in the decade before the Civil War.
Seconded.
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I'm reading The Swords of Lankhmar in the second-volume of a two-volume semi-omnibus (no Knights and Knaves, so there will be no 55th sentence from page 55, I'm afraid.
In lieu of which:
"With a happy roaring shout that only he could hear, blood rushed through the Mouser's arteries toward his center, reviving his limp manhood in a mere moment, as a magically summoned genie offhandedly builds a tower."
Hisvit is hawt!!
Finished Heidi! So much clash of classes, Comrade Anklebiter!
Also, Heidi gets yelled at for duzening the servants—using informal language with them as though they were friends.
Now, on to Nnendi Okorafor-Mbachu's The Shadow Speaker!
Finished Master of Devils and have started on Queen of Thorns.
On the one hand, yay Radovan and Varian (and Arnisant!). On the other hand... elves.
So it's been a while since I've posted (end of May or so?) The highlights of my reading since then have included:
Jim Butcher's Skin Game
Ben H. Winters' The Last Policeman and Countdown City
Myke Cole's Fortress Frontier and Breach Zone
Simon Morden's Equations of Life, Theories of Flight, Degrees of Freedom, and The Curve of the Earth
Stephanie Saulter's Gemsigns
Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice
I'm currently reading Jay Posey's Three. So far it's a fun post apocalyptic / sci-fi story, but I'm only a few pages in, so too early to tell as to overall quality.
Finished Master of Devils and have started on Queen of Thorns.
On the one hand, yay Radovan and Varian (and Arnisant!). On the other hand... elves.
Elves make everything better.
Two and a half consecutive hours of sunshine on Saturday enabled me to go outside and finish of Black Legions of Callisto by Lin Carter (smashing, of course) and Swords of the Barbarians by Kenneth Bulmer. Ken was having a bit of an off-day with that one, I think - also features a tonne of totally non-gratuitous nudity in the shape of a sexy female sorceress who can only cast spells when compleeeetly naked. Most of the book is taken up with her in various stages of undress, desperately trying to take her shoes off in order to save the day while her twin brother hews through legions of mooks in time-honoured fashion. C-.
Two and a half consecutive hours? Isn't that like your whole monthly allotment in the UK?
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That's still better than Bergen.
Elves make everything better.Finished Master of Devils and have started on Queen of Thorns.
On the one hand, yay Radovan and Varian (and Arnisant!). On the other hand... elves.
I disagree, but I'm willing to see how Dave handles them before passing further judgement.
Two and a half consecutive hours? Isn't that like your whole monthly allotment in the UK?
Certainly looks like it, if today is anything to go by...
Early night tonight. Considering whether to start reading all the Fafhrd & Grey Mouser books in sequence or carry on with Outlaws of the Marsh as a nightcap. We'll see.
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I'm not a big elf fan, but I did enjoy Queen of Thorns, so don't give up hope.
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On the home stretch of the Red Seas Under Red Skies audiobook, should wrap it up around the time I finish my shift today. Once that's done, I'll be diving into the copy of The Republic of Thieves that I picked up the other day.
That's still better than Bergen.
"There has been no rain in Bergen this last day." - Norwegian weather report (true story!)
That's still better than Bergen."There has been no rain in Bergen this last day." - Norwegian weather report (true story!)
Inconceivable!
Was that story followed by footage of the inhabitants running for the shadows while yelling ?
AGH! AGH! DEN GULE FACE! DET BRENNER OSS!
I need to rewrite Moby-Dick so Starbuck strips naked halfway through and eviscerates everybody who thinks they should stick with Ahab, covering himself with their blood and going about with teeth clenched, telling anybody who asks that he's becoming a legend in the minds of the men he hunts but all he can feel is the warm blood of the kill trickling down his skin. Then he cuts himself out of the book and goes off to do the same to John C. Calhoun.
Because there needs to be more fiction where a naked man cuts open Calhoun.
Ah, so I see you've seen the "recent" remake of Beowulf.
So I feel like I've been reading almost exclusively fantasy lately. Does anyone have any recommendations for good hard science fiction (preferably recent)?
That's still better than Bergen."There has been no rain in Bergen this last day." - Norwegian weather report (true story!)
Trying to trick us into believing it was sunny, eh? I'm onto you - it snowed that day, didn't it.
So I feel like I've been reading almost exclusively fantasy lately. Does anyone have any recommendations for good hard science fiction (preferably recent)?Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross. Its a late-era Heinleinian space opera.
I already tried it when it came up for Hugo voting, and it just didn't click for me.
For reference, the only science fiction on my bookshelf is The Hitchhiker's Guide, some of the Sector General series, A Canticle for Leibowitz, and The Bladerunner (not related to the movie).
I second that. Add Lin Carter's Jandar books, simply because of the tremendous fun he obviously had writing them (hard sci-fi? Not hard sci-fi?)
I'd put forward Iain M. Banks or Ken MacLeod, personally, but those may not be to everyone's taste.
Gee! I wasn't going to recommend anything for RainyDayNinja, because I haven't been terribly impressed with any of the sci-fi novels from the 21st century that I discovered, but hey! If someone can suggest the John Carter of Mars books, which are not even remotely recent nor hard, maybe I can find my voice after all.
Isaac Asimov was well-versed in the sciences. In my opinion, his magnum opus was his original "Foundation" series, written as a series of novellas in the 1940s and compiled into three books in the 1950s: "Foundation", "Foundation and Empire", and "Second Foundation". That series gave us concepts like that of a galactic empire, and of psychohistory (before chaos theory got formalized).
Arthur C. Clarke's "Rendezvous With Rama" presented a breathtaking view of an alien spacecraft.
My favorite Michael Crichton books are "The Andromeda Strain" (presenting the most believable aliens I've ever seen in fiction) and "Jurassic Park" (speaking of chaos theory).
And since I brought up a galactic empire, I feel compelled to mention Frank Herbert's "Dune". I wouldn't quite call it "hard" sci-fi, because the real science is mixed with some mystical-sounding mumbo-jumbo, but it presents a complex world. It's "hard" in the sense that it's a difficult read (hah!) but if you're willing to devote some time and attention to it, you may find it changing the way you look at sci-fi.
Is it strange that all this talk about the miserable weather in Bergen actually makes me want to go there?Inconceivable!That's still better than Bergen."There has been no rain in Bergen this last day." - Norwegian weather report (true story!)
I like rainy and overcast days far more than I like sun, so I sympathize. (On the other hand, I dislike having to drive in rain... but that's more because of the stupidity of other drivers.)
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<sings> I'm only happy when it rains...
@lucky7: I read the first few John Carter books, and they were good, but I doubt I'll go back.
@Limeylongears: I looked up the first Jandar book, but it seems more old-school than what I'm looking for. I tried one of Iain Banks' Culture novels, but the whole society seemed... cold and lifeless. Which of Ken MacLeod's books in particular do you recommend?
@Aaron Bitman: I've actually read most of those you mentioned in middle school or high school (except for The Andromeda Strain, and I didn't get far into Dune before giving up).
So I feel like I've been reading almost exclusively fantasy lately. Does anyone have any recommendations for good hard science fiction (preferably recent)?
I think the only good, hard, somewhat recent science fiction I have read is Charles Stross's Accelerando. I liked it.
Finished The Swords of Lankhmar, read some more Sherlock Holmes and replaced my library copy of Melville's short fiction with a copy of Penguin's Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories, purchased at Goodwill for 99 cents.
Cock-a-doodle-doo!
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@RainyDayNinja:
I just read Neal Shusterman's Unwind. It was published fairly recently (2007). I liked it and it was a quick read. It is young-adult sci-fi, but it is definitely "hard" sci-fi, because most of the things that happen in the novel are things that could potentially happen in the future (e.g. extending the range of transplantable organs to include parts of the brain).
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So I feel like I've been reading almost exclusively fantasy lately. Does anyone have any recommendations for good hard science fiction (preferably recent)?
If it's a fast pace, character driven adventure story you are looking for, I heartily recommend "Leviathan's Wake" by James S.A Corey (who is actually the combined pen name of it's writing duo, Ty Frank and Daniel Abraham). It's not exactly "hard", but it's got some good use of gravity.
As for actual hard science fiction novels I don't know many, but "Pushing Ice" by Alistair Reynolds is a standalone novel, very hard sci-fi, and it came pretty close to literally blowing my mind with some of it's ideas. It's "near-future" in the sense that large parts of it happen in a future where humanity is still colonizing the solar system.
Ah, and if somehow you didn't get around yet to reading "Hyperion" by Dan Simmons, then you really really should. It's one of the best books I have ever read, period. His other science fiction series, "Helium" is... interesting, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it. It gets a little weird.
I have found that The Player of Games by Banks is a pretty darn good novel. It isn't without its handwave technology, but in general, that isn't the focus.
If you are looking for something more humorous, Accelerando by Stross or Cryptonomicon by Stephenson could fit your bill.
Halfway through Queen of Thorns by Dave Gross.
I can see why it's the fan favorite among most people here on Paizo.
It's for those exact same reasons I'm not enjoying it as much as the first two.
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Just shy of halfway through The Republic of Thieves. I'm enjoying it, but not as much as I did The Lies of Locke Lamora or Red Seas Under Red Skies.
I guess I was expecting the competition between Sabetha and Locke to have got far more heated by the time I got this far into it, but then again, considering the massive shifts in circumstances around the halfway mark in the first book, and the way the second one goes from "Fantasy heist" to "PIRATES" partway through, it could just be that I'm about to hit the point where it kicks into gear and takes off.
That said, I am really enjoying the insight into more of the upbringing that the Gentlemen Bastards had, it's interesting to have another look at how they were growing up together.
Checked my phone today. No missed calls, no messages. Guess my books on Bleeding Kansas aren't in yet. Sit down with the Howard Report and start in.
Phone rings: "We have your books."
I set aside the blog and ducked out to collect them. Got home and dug into Nichole Etcheson's Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era. I skipped ahead and read the chapter on the election of the territorial legislature, where she picked many of the same illustrative incidents out of the Howard Report that I did...and then added several new ones. And it's well-written!
This is not what I expect from non-fiction, especially on the usual margins of the field and on a subject that last got a survey like forty years ago...and it's short. Also by pure coincidence, it's precisely the same form factor as the book that shipped with it in everything except width.
Fun times. :)
Left off at "Billy Budd"--I've read it before; plus I saw that Sopranos episode so I know it's all about sublimated homosexual desire anyway--and turned to Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.
I'll probably be using it to politroll quite a bit in the near future.
Gullivar of Mars was... alright; interesting to see which bits ERB might have been, er, inspired by, and it was short, but really of historical value only, I think. Swords of Mars, by the man himself, which I read today, was fab (of course).
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Just started Anathem. I found a hardback copy in a used book store today (as well as a copy of Saturn's Children with the British cover ^_^) and decided to reread it because for the life of me I cannot remember anything but slivers of its story.
Can anyone recommend any fantasy where the protagonist isn't a very special snowflake? I've been having trouble finding stuff that doesn't engage in Great Man fiction.
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Just started Anathem. I found a hardback copy in a used book store today (as well as a copy of Saturn's Children with the British cover ^_^) and decided to reread it because for the life of me I cannot remember anything but slivers of its story.
Can anyone recommend any fantasy where the protagonist isn't a very special snowflake? I've been having trouble finding stuff that doesn't engage in Great Man fiction.
You might like The Lies of Locke Lamora. Although it seems to be moving more towards the protagonist having a secret heritage in later books, earlier books are very much about the protagonist surviving by virtue of his wits and charisma. It's made very clear that he is, at best, a passable swordsman, and entirely lacking in extraordinary powers or virtues.
I finished Three by Jack Posey today. It was enjoyable, although my one gripe would be that the author introduced a lot of characters, and some of them seemed underdeveloped. Next up will likely be Brian Ruckley's The Edinburgh Dead, although I haven't committed to anything yet.
You might like The Lies of Locke Lamora. Although it seems to be moving more towards the protagonist having a secret heritage in later books, earlier books are very much about the protagonist surviving by virtue of his wits and charisma. It's made very clear that he is, at best, a passable swordsman, and entirely lacking in extraordinary powers or virtues.Just started Anathem. I found a hardback copy in a used book store today (as well as a copy of Saturn's Children with the British cover ^_^) and decided to reread it because for the life of me I cannot remember anything but slivers of its story.
Can anyone recommend any fantasy where the protagonist isn't a very special snowflake? I've been having trouble finding stuff that doesn't engage in Great Man fiction.
Even in the later books, it's made pretty bluntly clear that any benefits he might have gotten from his unknown ancestry are long dead or so dormant he won't ever be able to do anything with them.