On a whim, I'm re-reading John D. MacDonald's Darker Than Amber. For a novel written in 1966, the story is holding up surprisingly well so far.
Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel.
And as someone whose favourite novel of all time is The Count of Monte Cristo I'm somewhat befuddled at the idea that it's surprising that a book from 1966 holds up.
Now if it were from 1969, though. ;)
For me, it's slightly different for modern mystery stories, insofar as stuff like cell phones, DNA forensics, and GPS/satellite surveillance tend to make a difference in how things "should" play out.
When Dumas tells you that Edmund Dantes' father met with Napoleon in 1814, you don't envision him carrying an i-phone. But when MacDonald tells you, "Just yesterday, I was thinking how much I hate what's happening in Florida lately," it's a little different.
P.S. Love Dumas! I read TCoMC, unabridged, in two nights.
I like Dumas too, but I did not like TCoMC. No buckling and very little swash. The initial couple of chapters are (supposedly, partially) based on the experiences of Dumas' own father, though.
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For me, it's slightly different for modern mystery stories, insofar as stuff like cell phones, DNA forensics, and GPS/satellite surveillance tend to make a difference in how things "should" play out.
When Dumas tells you that Edmund Dantes' father met with Napoleon in 1814, you don't envision him carrying an i-phone. But when MacDonald tells you, "Just yesterday, I was thinking how much I hate what's happening in Florida lately," it's a little different.
P.S. Love Dumas! I read TCoMC, unabridged, in two nights.
Heh. Guess it helps if you're like me and, to the consternation of a lot of my friends and family, regularly leavd the phone at home - cause if I'm going shopping or sightseeing, or something, why would I want to talk on the phone or surf the web?
Also- Three Musketeers in one sitting which ended with a flashlight under the blanket because my parents kept telling me to turn off the light and go to sleep (I was eight).
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.
Still expanding my readings in this area. Google books is helping me keep up with (parts of) recently published material:
Roman Slavery and Roman Material Culture (a 2013 collection)
I'd like to review Servus Onerosus: Roman Law and the Troublesome Slave, which I glanced over too quickly when I still had college library access, but at $40 for an article pdf...
In other news, unfortunately, the Pantagruel translation I got my hands on earlier hadn't aged very well. I anticipate being able to acquire a 1950s translation which I'm told is better, though.
I'm reading 13 Hours In Benghazi. It's a very good book co-written by the Contractors that were involved on the ground. Very interesting.
The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth 1st by Stephen Alford. Pretty good.
Vikram and the Vampire - Trad. Arr. Richard F. Burton. Odd.
Conan The Mercenary - God-Emperor Offutt. Entertainingly cheesy.
Richard Blade 1: The Bronze Axe - Jeffrey Lord. Even cheesier; an unholy blend of Gor, James Bond and Celto-Viking slaughter-porn, if you can imagine such a thing.
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I like Dumas too, but I did not like TCoMC. No buckling and very little swash. The initial couple of chapters are (supposedly, partially) based on the experiences of Dumas' own father, though.
I found it dry, until I got to the end and suddenly all the strange details and boring chatter from earlier started to make sense.
Recently I started a job that is mostly answering e-mails for a company, but since I work the night shift I've got a lot of free time to read pdf. Here is a list of what I've read recently:
The Dresden Files Reread all of it. Still one of my favorite series. The first book has recently been translated and released here in Brasil and I'm going to buy it as soon as I can find a store where it hasn't sold out already.
Shadow Ops by Myke Cole. Interesting setting but the first book is a slog with a very unlikable main character. I plowed through it and found that the mcs of the other books are much better.
Clockwork Century by Cherie Priest. Zombies and a steampunk Civil War. Funny, good pacing, I liked it enough that I want to search for other stuff from the author.
Aeons Gate by Sam Sykes. Had to stop towards the end of the second book. All of the characters are unlikable. I pushed through the first book hoping for some character development but they only developed into being more unlikable.
Pantheon Series by James Lovegrove. Read two of he books so far. Each book is a stand alone with its own setting and focused on a different pantheon. It has some flaws but all in all it's a good read.
Night Angel by Brent Weeks. A really interesting setting that I really wish could be made an RPG setting. I really liked these books and it's another author that I want to read more.
Recently I started a job that is mostly answering e-mails for a company, but since I work the night shift I've got a lot of free time to read pdf. Here is a list of what I've read recently:
The Dresden Files Reread all of it. Still one of my favorite series. The first book has recently been translated and released here in Brasil and I'm going to buy it as soon as I can find a store where it hasn't sold out already.
Shadow Ops by Myke Cole. Interesting setting but the first book is a slog with a very unlikable main character. I plowed through it and found that the mcs of the other books are much better.
Clockwork Century by Cherie Priest. Zombies and a steampunk Civil War. Funny, good pacing, I liked it enough that I want to search for other stuff from the author.
Aeons Gate by Sam Sykes. Had to stop towards the end of the second book. All of the characters are unlikable. I pushed through the first book hoping for some character development but they only developed into being more unlikable.
Pantheon Series by James Lovegrove. Read two of he books so far. Each book is a stand alone with its own setting and focused on a different pantheon. It has some flaws but all in all it's a good read.
Night Angel by Brent Weeks. A really interesting setting that I really wish could be made an RPG setting. I really liked these books and it's another author that I want to read more.
I really enjoyed the Pantheon novels. I've read Age of Ra, Age of Zeus and Age of Odin. Haven't read the second set he wrote yet, only just found out they existed.
Age of Zeus is probably the best of the first three, followed by Age of Odin. Age of Ra was good, but didn't grab me in the same way.
Love the Night Angel trilogy. I started reading The Black Prism, the first book of his Lightbringer follow up series, never finished it though. Should probably go back to it and try again.
I'm not actually reading any novels at the moment. Instead I'm listening to audio books (just started book 5 of Simon R Green's Nightside series, so far book 4, Hex and the City has probably been my favourite) and re-reading some of my graphic novel series. Just finished Preacher and started The Boys, then I'll go through Chew and The Crow collections again.
I have been running a table top game recently that features a shadowy organization as the villain and have been looking for books/movies recently that feature spys, intelligence networks, clever hidden villains etc
I was wondering if you guys had any recommendations for books featuring a secretive and/or conspiracy based villainous organization that scores high on the coolness factor scale I could read for inspiration for my game.
It could be any genre, cold war based set-in-the-real-world fiction, fantasy lets-uncover-the-cult fiction etc.
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I have been running a table top game recently that features a shadowy organization as the villain and have been looking for books/movies recently that feature spys, intelligence networks, clever hidden villains etc
I was wondering if you guys had any recommendations for books featuring a secretive and/or conspiracy based villainous organization that scores high on the coolness factor scale I could read for inspiration for my game.
It could be any genre, cold war based set-in-the-real-world fiction, fantasy lets-uncover-the-cult fiction etc.
I Highly recommend Michael Marshall Smith, in perticular the book "The Straw Men", a suspense novel that is all about a secret, conspiratorial society.
I didn't get very far in The Princess and the Goblin before realizing that I had to give it La Principessa for Christmas.
Next up...I'd really like to re-read DuBois's John Brown bio, but I lent it to Mr. Comrade and he never gave it back. I used Xmas UPS overtime as an excuse for my talking on the phone until all hours of the night and not preparing my class for The New Jim Crow. I don't think I'm going to be reading much for a while. For once, I don't seem to mind.
There's more to life than books you know, but not much more
More to life than books?! Heresy, Sir Doodlebug!
I am currently reading Dreadnought by Cherie Priest. I have been slow to pay attention to the whole steampunk thing, but Ms. Priest has made it worthwhile. I recommend Boneshaker, the first in her Clockwork Century series, to anyone who is interested.
Well, books will do for the time being.
I'm reading 'The Wandering Jew' by Eugene Sue (bedumbedumbedum, bedoobedoobedoo)
I just finished "Red Seas Under Red Skies"
While I enjoyed the read, I would agree with others who say "The Lies of Loch Lamora" is better. That book felt like it had a much tighter plot where everything built up to a specific conclusion. In contrast, this book wandered all over the place, starting off with a big heist of a casino, then moving onto pirates, with several other tangents along the way.
It felt much more like the author getting bored with one plotline, and deciding to switch over to another. Also, unlike Lies, which is pretty much self-contained, Red Seas feels as much set up as anything else, with many plot threads left dangling as well as implications that some characters would show up again.
It's also interesting to note that I honestly believe Loch was being played by the bondsmage..they were using him as a pawn to bring down Stragos, who they considered a threat. Will be curious to see how the bondsmage figure in the next book (that I start tonight) which is set in their home city
I Highly recommend Michael Marshall Smith, in perticular the book "The Straw Men", a suspense novel that is all about a secret, conspiratorial society.I have been running a table top game recently that features a shadowy organization as the villain and have been looking for books/movies recently that feature spys, intelligence networks, clever hidden villains etc
I was wondering if you guys had any recommendations for books featuring a secretive and/or conspiracy based villainous organization that scores high on the coolness factor scale I could read for inspiration for my game.
It could be any genre, cold war based set-in-the-real-world fiction, fantasy lets-uncover-the-cult fiction etc.
Thanks for the suggestion, that series looks good.
I just finished "Red Seas Under Red Skies"
** spoiler omitted **
If you weren't a fan of the fact that the second book felt like it was setting everything else up, I wouldn't be surprised if you have the same issue with the third. My reaction to it was that it felt like it was a story that existed purely to set the stage for the next few books, and that the plot had no real feel of danger for the characters for the most part.
I started Republic of Thieves today, so we will have to see.
That said I enjoyed the book, just felt it wasn't as good as the first book. So as long as I don't notice a continued downward trend I think I will be okay.
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Having finished The Catcher in the Rye (I know that book resonates with some people, but not really with me - I find Holden Caulfield difficult to connect with), I have been reading some stories by Truman Capote, essays by David Sedaris, and sections of the Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters.
sections of the Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters.
Spoon River Anthology is a lot of fun! When I was in high school we put on a production where we turned several of the vignettes into monologues; I got to play the nutter who chloroforms his own grandmother. Mwa-ha-haaa!
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Finished FALLEN DRAGON, my first taste of Peter F. Hamilton. Next up (tonight, I hope) I'll kick back and relax with DEATH MASKS (DRESDEN FILES #5) before delving back into the Wheel of Time.
I didn't like the ending, though. It felt like a very forced twist that wasn't justified by prior knowledge we had from the book - even in the story Denise tells the portal can only take people forward in time (which is what lead to the downfall of the species that built it), yet somehow know it works to go back in time.
In addition, there's the small matter of the gaping breach in the logic of the story - Lawrence has access to this super advanced software called Prime that can do just about anything, including the ability to bypass the highest security available to the company he's trying to buy his way out of.One has to wonder why he can't just use the Prime to hack into the company's accounts and release himself. Or steal a bunch of money. Even worse, the only reason he has Prime in the first place is the unsatisfying time travel element introduced at the end of the book. I think that by removing those two story elements the author could have created a much stronger book overall.
I'm sure I'll be reading more of Hamilton's books in the future, but not in the near future, since his other books are all parts of sprawling series which Fallen Dragon didn't quite convince me to commit myself to anytime soon.
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Finished FALLEN DRAGON, my first taste of Peter F. Hamilton.
For a shorter batch of books, Mindstar Rising is self-contained, but he continues on with the characters introduced there for two more books (A Quantum Murder & The Nano Flower), but not as part of a trilogy, you can read one, two or all three and get a complete story or set of stories.
The Reality Dysfunction, on the other hand, yeah, that's a trilogy, or quintrilogy, or whatever. Also a damn good read, and a hugely compelling bit of world-building, if you're into that sort of thing.
My latest book, a Christmas gift, is The Best of Edmund Hamilton, with collected sci-fi stories of his written between the '20s and '60s. I love older sci-fi, not just Lovecraft, and was turned on to Ed Hamilton at a Legion of Super-Heroes messageboard (since he wrote for that space opera-esque comic book, way back in the day).
Great stuff.
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I was wondering if you guys had any recommendations for books featuring a secretive and/or conspiracy based villainous organization that scores high on the coolness factor scale I could read for inspiration for my game. It could be any genre, cold war based set-in-the-real-world fiction, fantasy lets-uncover-the-cult fiction etc.
Taking a break from Charlie Chan to read Fritz Leiber's The Big Time -- SciFi/alternative history/time travel stuff that's a zillion miles away from his Fafhrd & Gray Mouser stories.
Wow, Puppet on a Chain takes me back. I read a lot of Alastair MacLean as a kid, a long, long time ago.
MacLean was one of my faves! Sadly, none of his stuff is available for Kindle, and it's all out of print.
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The posthumous "from MacLean's notes" books by other writers should be avoided, though. Money in the sink is what that purchase was.
Or "money in the lake" if I were to translate the Swedish expression.
MacLean was one of my faves! Sadly, none of his stuff is available for Kindle, and it's all out of print.
Please, come to our doctor's waiting rooms, charity shops, ratty purveyors of legitimately acquired 2nd hand goods, rubbish dumps, etc., and take them awaaay.
'The Wandering Jew' - a rollercoaster of a novel, crammed with sizzling Jesuits, plus everything but the bleeding kitchen sink - Napoleon, cholera, twins, rare poisons whose use defies detection, thugees and so on. Good for long train journeys, but a bit OTT, if I'm going to be honest.
I've also finished 'Vikram and the Vampire' by Richard F. Burton, which was actually pretty funny, and have started on part 2 of 'Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina'. Also have 'Back to the Stone Age' by Edgar Rice Burroughs on the go.
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Blitzed through DEATH MASKS (DRESDEN FILES #4) , and am settling in to read THE SHADOW RISING (WHEEL OF TIME #4).
Finished FALLEN DRAGON, my first taste of Peter F. Hamilton. Next up (tonight, I hope) I'll kick back and relax with DEATH MASKS (DRESDEN FILES #5) before delving back into the Wheel of Time.
** spoiler omitted **
I've only ever read Fallen Dragon and the Reality Dysfunction books, but I feel from what I have read Peter F. Hamilton is really really bad at ending stories. I know the ending of the Reality Dysfunction books was very much a "throw a book at a wall" moment, and not in a good way.
Besides Republic of Thieves (which is my breakroom reading material for the next few months), I have also started reading a World of Ice and Fire. I am really enjoying it, and you could even use it as a sort of Campaign setting guide if you ever wanted to run a Pathfinder game in Westeros or Essos. I suspect the book is loaded with hints and potential foreshadowing, but since it's written from the viewpoint of a Maester of the citadel, it's hard to tell what is true, what is propaganda, and what is worldbuilding detail not relevant to the plot. The book really only covers up to the time period of the First Grayjoy rebellion, so no real spoilers.
Only downside so far is that at times the portion of the book dealing with the Targaryan kings can be a bit of a slog. Mostly because there are so many Daemons, Aegons, Rhaenas, etc that it is hard to sometimes remember who did what. This is especially bad for the Dance of Dragons, which was a compact section with a ton of names to keep track of.
I've finished all the Dresden Files book and am impatiently awaiting the next. What impresses me about Butcher is his extensive plotting. He's written a bunch of books that are all tightly tied together, plot-wise. Something that looks like a throwaway piece of flavor turns out to be important eight books down the line. I've had to reread the series a couple of times to appreciate the fore-fore-fore-foreshadowing.
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I've finished all the Dresden Files book and am impatiently awaiting the next. What impresses me about Butcher is his extensive plotting. He's written a bunch of books that are all tightly tied together, plot-wise. Something that looks like a throwaway piece of flavor turns out to be important eight books down the line. I've had to reread the series a couple of times to appreciate the fore-fore-fore-foreshadowing.
Having now finished the fifth (thanks, Alzrius :P) Dresden Files book, I am probably not deep enough into the series to see that, but I felt like the book was winking to it's predecessors a bit much. Every now and then Harry would make a slightly out of place reference to the other books in the series. Not a big deal, but I found some of the continuity stuff annoying rather than nostalgic.
The posthumous "from MacLean's notes" books by other writers should be avoided, though. Money in the sink is what that purchase was.
They're as bad as the anonymous hack warehouse churning out books by "Robert Ludlum(TM)."
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Pillow Talk Among the Ultra-Left Litterateurs
For women's liberation through international proletarian socialist revolution!
Vive le Galt!
The chances that anyone is going to read this whole article are pretty slim, I realize, so I thought I'd highlight my favorite part:
"The Code also established the right of all children to parental support until age 18 and the right of each spouse to his or her own property. In implementing the Code’s measures, judges were biased in favor of women and children, on the grounds that establishing support for the child took priority over protecting the financial interests of the male defendant. In one case, a judge split child support three ways, because the mother had been sleeping with three different men."
Goblins do it in the factory barracks!
Was telling this story to la Principessa and then she said "What were their names?" "Well, there was Pavel the poet, a Pushkin scholar, Igor the Rough-Handed Peasant Lad at the head of the local Red Guard and Semyonov the Party Commissar." "Ooh, tell me about Pavel!" "Well...."
Later, I was delighted when she told me the story of Paolo and Francesca from The Inferno which led me to run home and grab a copy of Chretien de Troyes' Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart.
Nerds do it better.
Today I read 'History of Witchcraft' by Montague Summers, who:
1) Thinks the Templars were guilty
2) Is also absolutely certain that most types of (non RC) heresy are synonymous with Satanism - Protestants are grudgingly admitted into the not-being-Devil-wroshippers club, but it's still their fault that it happens. NO WITCHCRAFT IN IRELAND, YOU SEE!
3) Has lots and lots of proof that witches were also revolutionary Anarchists.
4) Greatly dislikes Margaret Murray.
There is also an interesting chapter on Dildos Through The Ages, although most of it's in Latin, which I can't read. Blast.
The Lord of the Rings (combined single book).
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Finished off World of Ice and Fire. Definitely a fun book with lots of factoids, most I don't think will be relevant for the actual novels, but still make the world more complex and complete.
Also a surprising large number of Lovecraft references, which I really wasn't expecting.
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So, quick Shadow Rising (Wheel of Time) venting.
The power team of Egwene, Nynnaeve and Elayne are starting to seriously piss me off in a way that no character in a book had for a long time. They are each more arrogant, pretentious and stubborn than the other.
For the entire duration of the previous book Egwene and Nynaeve were spending increasing amounts of energy in a petty power struggle between the two of them. Since the first book Nynaeve has an obsession to hating Moiraine, which at first was very acceptable since Moiraine sent her world into termoil, stole her position as "wise, powerful woman" and has the eternal loyalty of Lan (I somewhat suspect that there's a complex entenglment of emotions where some of the reason Nynaeve wants Lan is because she envies Moiraine and some of the reason she envies Moiraine is that she has Lan).
So Nynaeve being incredibly narrow minded about one person I could accept, but about two it's becoming quite the glaring (and annoying) character flaw.
The worse part about all three is that they seem entirely unaware of the way they act and think. Whenever someone does anything that they don't like, their first instinct it to "teach him/her a lesson" with the Power. Not only is this petty and mean, it's also irresponsible. Essentially, they are drunk on their own new-found power.
They are as stubborn as anyone, and each of them knows that about the other two but refuses to see it in herself as well.
Then there's the manipulations. They are constantly, and for no good reason, manipulating people in ways far more blunt and petty ways than Moiraine ever had, not that it stops them of accusing her of being manipulative. One moment that just had me wanting to punch Elayne in the face is when she makes Rand swear to always be perfectly honest with her, and immediately lies to him two lines of dialog later (it's when she first expresses her love to him after Egwene tells him she doesn't love him any more - Rand asks if they planned it this way ahead of time, which they did, and Elayne rebukes him for even thinking such a thing and denies it). Slightly before that in the scene she used the Power to essentially pinch Rand painfully in the butt, and so after lying to him, to reward him for being honest, she heals the pain away.
Now I know that this is intentional by the author. He does a thing I like where he is presenting the characters in a way that is transperent to an attentive reader, without actually stating those characters have those traits - it's not "Egwene was proud", he shows us her pride. Show don't tell and all that.
Anyway, it's written pretty well, and that makes me suspect that the three ladies are obnoxious on purpose, which I dislike. It's kind of funny when they go around talking about how foolish men are, displaying a sort of reverse schauvenism since they themselves are, by this point, more foolish than any of the male characters. Somehow, while the three boys from the Two rivers have shown serious growth into more responsible adults, the women (with the addition of the crown princess of andor) are showing serious regression into snotty brats. Probably a reaction to being so incredibly powerful as Aeas Sedai. Still, annoying.
So, just venting about the part of the story I read today. Been a really long time since I found characters to be so unlikable.
Has anyone read Station Eleven? It's gotten a lot of good press, and I've had a hankerin' lately for some good post-post-apocalyptic fiction, but the Amazon reviews kind of put me off.
Cold and snowy mornings in Brooklyn while my baby's edumacating the snot-nosed brats of Flatbush has led me to finally pick up The Knight and Knave of Swords and W.E.B. DuBois's bio of John Brown.
Have also been watching a lot more Britishiznoid television than I normally would. Damn schoolteachers...
Love Among the Ultra-Left Litterateurs
Last night, it was, she followed a very exciting tale of her yelling at her principal with a whispered recitation of the plot of Tess of the D'Ubervilles. (I've never even read any Hardy.) This was followed by a brief argument over Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina.
Tonight, post-coital pillow talk consisted of discussions of Alexandra Kollontai and Wuthering Heights.
Outside of the bedroom, I finished up "The Curse of the Smalls and the Stars" which I thought was pretty amazing. In a fit of whimsy, I directed my attention towards her library books, passed over two anthologies with George R.R. Martin's name on the cover (Dangerous Women and Dreamsongs, Volume II, if you're interested) and picked up Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things.
Please forgive me if I'm feeling a bit smug.