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Just finished Australian novelist John Birmingham's Axis of Time trilogy, about the fallout from a 2021 (although some of the tech seems a bit more 2051, but anyway...) international naval task force being teleported back to 1942, with most of the fleet (American, British, Australian, even a Japanese vessel) joining the Western Allies but some other vessels of the task force ending up in the hands of the Axis powers or the Soviets and everyone trying to take advantage of the technology and, just as, if not more importantly, knowledge of the future to shape events as they'd prefer.
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Before that I was reading one of John Birmingham's newer novels, Without Warning, where, on the eve of the 2003 war in Iraq, a massive energy field drops over most of North America and all the people caught in the phenomenon, called "the Wave" disappear: all of the continental US aside from northwest Washington State (Seattle and the surrounding area), much of Canada (aside from the Territories, much of BC, about the northern half of Alberta and a little bit of northern Quebec), most of Mexico, most of the Bahamas, and most of Cuba outside Guantanamo Bay. The novel takes a look at what happens after the US disappears and the results are not stellar. Birmingham apparently took his inspiration for the premise from a protestor in Australia at the time of the war who said the world would be better off if the US disappeared.
I just finished Leonard Carpenter's Conan - Scourge of the Bloody Coast
Middle-ish of the pastiche pack, I'd say. Higher if you like Conan as a pirate.
Search 'Conan' for a couple more reviews.
Next review will be John Maddox Roberts' Conan the Rogue, which I'm enjoying quite a bit.
Finished Diamond (finally!) and am on to Lord Dunsany's King of Elfland's Daughter -- one chapter into it, and I'm already guessing it's the source for most of Neil Gaiman's Stardust.
I am jealous that you got to Dunsany before me.
More Kurt Vonnegut links stolen from commie websites.
Allen Ginsberg Porn!
Song
The weight of the world
[...]is love.
Under the burden
[...]of solitude,
under the burden
[...]of dissatisfaction
[...]the weight,
the weight we carry
[...]is love.
Who can deny?
[...]In dreams
it touches
[...]the body,
in thought
[...]constructs
a miracle,
[...]in imagination
anguishes
[...]till born
in human--
looks out of the heart
[...]burning with purity--
for the burden of life
[...]is love,
but we carry the weight
[...]wearily,
and so must rest
in the arms of love
[...]at last,
must rest in the arms
[...]of love.
No rest
[...]without love,
no sleep
[...]without dreams
of love--
[...b]be mad or chill
obsessed with angels
[...]or machines,
the final wish
[...]is love
--cannot be bitter,
[...]cannot deny,
cannot withhold
[...]if denied:
the weight is too heavy
[...]--must give
for no return
[...]as thought
is given
[...]in solitude
in all the excellence
[...]of its excess.
The warm bodies
[...]shine together
in the darkness,
[...]the hand moves
to the center
[...]of the flesh,
the skin trembles
[...]in happiness
and the soul comes
[...]joyful to the eye--
yes, yes,
[...]that's what
I wanted,
[...]I always wanted,
I always wanted,
[...]to return
to the body
[...]where I was born.
I think I'm going to read Thuvia, Maid of Mars next.
It's one of those little books, I don't know what they're called, they're about 3/4ths the size of a paper back. It looks really cool.
I'm almost done with "V is for Vengeance" and so far there are no alien spacecraft hovering over major metropolitan areas around the globe and no one is a giant lizard dressed up in human skin.
But I don't have a book to read after "V is for Vengeance" and the library is closed for Easter! :-O What to do? What to do??? :-O
China Mieville's Scar. I was smart and stocked a pile of books for Easter (ok, actually more like hadn't managed to read them before Easter but whatever).
"Instruments of darkness" by Imogen Robertson. A Housewife and a naturalist as 18th century amateur detectives.
"Not a good day to die" by Sean Naylor. Operation Anaconda in Afganistan 2002 (the end reminded me of the film "Black hawk down")
Just started "The march of folly" by Barbara Tuchman.
I left Thuvia in my friend's car, and am now re-reading Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld to prepare for finally reading Behemoth.
Also, my artist player lent me his copies of Gustav Dore's Bible and Paradise Lost carvings.
Still reading Sense and Goodness Without God. It can be very good, but I really think part of the reason it's such a slog is that I know this stuff already. Maybe twelve years ago it would have been hot stuff for me. I'm just past figuring out things like why science is reliable and how we are products of our brains.
Also reading something like 3-6 issues of Uncanny X-Men per night, currently in 1987 and just starting the Australian period. This is the first time I've had the luxury of reading the entire run more or less in sequence and it's holding up a lot better for that, though there are still clunkers. And I say that as a guy that really admires Claremont's work on the book. Some of the twists are just random and the Siege Perilous is just as cheap a plot device in-context as it was when I read it in isolation.
Also reading something like 3-6 issues of Uncanny X-Men per night, currently in 1987 and just starting the Australian period. This is the first time I've had the luxury of reading the entire run more or less in sequence and it's holding up a lot better for that, though there are still clunkers. And I say that as a guy that really admires Claremont's work on the book. Some of the twists are just random and the Siege Perilous is just as cheap a plot device in-context as it was when I read it in isolation.
I think this is where I came on-board with the X-Men back in my goblin adolescence. Revisiting them a couple of years ago, they mostly pissed me off.
I've decided that I don't like Chris Claremont.
Psylocke getting changed into an Asian chick really pissed me off.
The fate of Madelyne Pryor made me mad, too. Like it was her fault that Claremont couldn't keep from bringing Jean back to life.
But she ended up so HAWT!
And all that stuff with The Dazzler and Longshot--wtf?!?
Jubilee was pretty hawt, though.
But she ended up so HAWT!
Which one?
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Just finished Bernard Cornwell's Death Of Kings, part of an awesome series set around the time of Alfred the Great. The main character, Uhtred is wonderful because he is so set against much of what Alfred supports and there is a real question as to where he and others will go.
Am reading exellent Alexandra Quick books as well as something else.
Someone told me to read Cornwell once, but I never did.
What's your favorite Cornwell book, Kerney?
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I just finished Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV. While some of his points are a bit silly, some are very interesting especially when combined with surprising interview answers he got from many TV execs, producers and creators from the '60s and up.
Now I'm reading Vanished Kingdoms which is a kickass book about various European nations/kingdoms that no longer exist. Each chapter is devoted to one subject like the the Visigoth Tolosa in France, Aragon is Spain, Litva in Lithuania and Poland and Alt Clud in Scotland. I'm currently going through Prussia...
But she ended up so HAWT!Which one?
By the time Jim Lee was doing the pencils, there wasn't a need to specify *blush*; and yes, when I think of Jubilee's age (never mind storm as remade by The Nanny) that does get a bit creepy.
When is that Vanished Kingdoms book from, Callous Jack?
'Cuz it'd be funny if one of them came back.
By the time Jim Lee was doing the pencils, there wasn't a need to specify *blush*; and yes, when I think of Jubilee's age (never mind storm as remade by The Nanny) that does get a bit creepy.But she ended up so HAWT!Which one?
Well, I was only barely pubescent myself back then. [Uncomfortable hem-hem sound]
Anyway, I appreciate the beauty of the Asian female as much as any other white hetero dork (well, actually, probably not), but Betsy was so cute when she was proper and British!
I wonder if banging a telepath would be awesome!! or crippling. Hmmm.
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When is that Vanished Kingdoms book from, Callous Jack?
'Cuz it'd be funny if one of them came back.
It came out in January. I wouldn't be surprised to see 1-2 of these countries come back with the way countries in Europe split, especially something like Aragon. But others, like Prussia, are deader than dead.
I wonder if banging a telepath would be awesome!! or crippling. Hmmm.
Read Joan Vinge's Psion and Catspaw. The main character's a telepath and the books are written from his point of view; Vinge includes way more than enough to satisfy your curiosity on that account.
I wonder if banging a telepath would be awesome!! or crippling. Hmmm.Read Joan Vinge's Psion and Catspaw. The main character's a telepath and the books are written from his point of view; Vinge includes way more than enough to satisfy your curiosity on that account.
Dude there's a third one where Cat goes and has experiences with the psionic alien culture.
...What am link?
Dude there's a third one where Cat goes and has experiences with the psionic alien culture.
I intentionally omitted Dreamfall because I kept falling asleep (ha!) reading it and never could finish it. The first two are fun, unabashedly angsty teen fiction; the third aspires to be literature, and isn't.
I hear you; I never finished it either, but wasn't sure if it was the quality of writing or the *ahem* San Francisco lifestyle. But yes, the plight of the Hydrans at the hands of the evil mega-corp did make feel like it was the "very special episode" of the Cat books.
After getting the DvD of Game of Thrones, I've finally picked up the books and am 4/5ths of the way through A Clash of Kings. I don't care what anyone says about the length and number of characters, I find it a much easier read than the Baroque Cycle.
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Someone told me to read Cornwell once, but I never did.
What's your favorite Cornwell book, Kerney?
I just got back into him. Read his Starbuck Chronicles years ago but they have not had a sequel in years. Just this summer I read The Last Kingdom which is really a coming of age story of two Saxon Children growing up among the Danish Armies of 870's and largely identifying with them. The viewpoint character becomes the main series character and it follows him into at least his forties (so far).
Thing is, like in many of his books you're cheering for the 'bad guys', which is part of the fun.
I think this is where I came on-board with the X-Men back in my goblin adolescence. Revisiting them a couple of years ago, they mostly pissed me off.I've decided that I don't like Chris Claremont.
He certainly makes some very odd choices at times. That and certainly his libido ended up writing often enough. It's hard to read him gushing about how awesome Storm or Rachel or Jean is without picturing other forms of hardness. Not that the industry doesn't owe him a major debt for helping turn female characters into more than vapid love interests and fainting machines.
But I do like that he manages to convey the notion that the characters genuinely like and respect each other most of the time. They feel like people who've worked together a long time and been through a lot together. I don't get that same sense in many recent comics. Granted they still behave like hormonal teenagers, but that's true of most people in comics.
Also I preferred British Psylocke to ninja buttfloss Psylocke too.
I wonder if banging a telepath would be awesome!! or crippling. Hmmm.Read Joan Vinge's Psion and Catspaw. The main character's a telepath and the books are written from his point of view; Vinge includes way more than enough to satisfy your curiosity on that account.
I'd be afraid that I'd learn too much about the Freudian morass underneath my sexuality. Y'know, like, "Oh gee, I like to be touched there because when I was three, my uncle used a little too much force when inserting a rectal thermometer." That kind of stuff.
Also, more Ginsberg:
America
"When will you be worthy of your million Anklebiters?"
finished saga of old city and enjoyed it. finished night arrant and was disappointed, but even the parts that weren't so great still had that great gygaxian vocabulary. just started artifact of evil and really enjoying it. stories about iggwilv, graz'zt, iuz, and eclavdra? love it.
Different Strokes, For Different Folks, Messy, but I can't reconcile this with finding Hawkmoon unnotable.
So, the Leviathan books by Scott Westerfeld are great fun. I'm in the beginning of Behemoth where they're taking time from their secret mission to Istanbul to hunt German battleships in the Mediterranean.
Finished the Howl portion of Ginsberg's poems.
The Dore illustrations for Paradise Lost are making me itch to reopen that.
So many books, so little time.
Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin.
Finished The Scar and started Eddings' The Ruby Knight. Mieville was tough read but it was much better than Iron Council. A bit better than Perdido Street Station.
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Finished The Deed of Paksenarrion this morning. (Lots of time for reading on the morning shift.) The first book reminded me of Glen Cook's Black Company series, but by the middle of the second, it had blended into that familiar fantasy feel. Started The Hobbit afterwards, since I picked up a paperback set of LotR. Guess we'll see how it fares.
Drejk: <3 Eddings.
Drejk: <3 Eddings.
It's nice, it goes with cliches, sometimes straight, sometimes bending them.
What I would like to get in my hands, however, is Esslemont's Return Of The Crimson Guard and Stonewielder...
Different Strokes, For Different Folks, Messy, but I can't reconcile this with finding Hawkmoon unnotable.
to be fair, i love moorcock's creativity; i just don't think he's a great writer.
So many books, so little time.
yep.
In Behemoth, one of the protagonists just hooked up with the Committe of Union and Progress. Also, for some light reading to cleanse the palette, I've been reading Noam Chomsky's Profits Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order.
Finished The Ruby Knight. Started Eugeniusz Debski Tamta Strona Świata (That/Other Side Of The World), probably not available in English.
In Behemoth, one of the protagonists just hooked up with the Committe of Union and Progress. Also, for some light reading to cleanse the palette, I've been reading Noam Chomsky's Profits Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order.
** spoiler omitted **
I thought Naomi Klein had already made that clear in The Shock Doctrine.
I'm still reading A Song of Ice and Fire, and have outpaced the TV series at this point. My point of view on the novels? Picaresque comes to mind. (It's not an insult.)
Ope, if you just start the Foreigner series by C.J.Cherryh, that's like thousands of pages right there; I don't know if it'll last till GRRM finishes the next one, but certainly worth reading.
Then again, if you want an epic story about emotional cripples and stuff, go for the Faded Sun trilogy. (Sometimes it's called Mri Wars trilogy, but by C.J.Cherryh.)