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Post by wildfire2099 on Aug 5, 2014 22:00:33 GMT -5
Sometimes I feel it's only a matter of time before we get that stuff in real life. I read the 2nd Hap and Leonard book Mucho Mojo today... first time in a while I read a whole book in (almost) one sitting (took a break to eat dinner with the kids and get them in bed).. I really enjoyed it. It reminded me alot of Justified, but more raw. A few parts seemed a bit gratuitious, but they were damn funny, so I didn't mind. While not for the weak of heart or mind (you could really get easily offended if you chose to), it was a great book... definitely getting the next one  Happily, the fact my library system didn't have the first one didn't matter much... I got the gist pretty quickly (which is usually the case with mystery/thriller type series) |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 5, 2014 22:05:14 GMT -5
Lansdale's middle name is gratuitous.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2014 1:22:26 GMT -5
I absolutely love the Hap & Leonard books. I might be forgetting something, but I'm pretty sure they're the only novels apart from Stephen King's that cheapskate me makes a point of buying new in hardcover upon release, though admittedly I didn't start doing so till after I moved here & found that what was then the latest release, Captains Outrageous, wasn't on the library system's shelves.
The first one, Savage Season, I went back & dug up as a used paperback in the Little Rock area after reading the next few via the library. I've never seen it in hardcover, though I assume it's subsequently been reprinted in that format.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2014 1:25:01 GMT -5
Haven't read any of Pohl's short stories (or anything else of his, come to think of it) since probably the '70s, but yeah, he was a master of the form & of sf in general. Pretty sure I've got that, & have read, that edition of Turn Left at Thursday.
His Drunkard's Walk would've been one of the first sf novels I ever read, courtesy of the town library.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2014 18:26:24 GMT -5
Have any of you ever read a book specifically aimed at the opposite sex just to see what gets into their heads, motivates, makes them tick etc? This makes for interesting reading...I'm giving a copy to all the girls too because it's always fun to develop tactics to engage in tactics aimed at us. Erik, come at me with all you've got junior....  Mr. Jez does not mind when I'm in bars with my mates (lusty tavern wenches) and without my wedding band...harmless fun, besides I'm married, not dead. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Aug 7, 2014 21:16:12 GMT -5
I sell self-help books for a living, and have listened to countless authors lecture... most of them are pretty much just common sense spelled out. Sure some bit might help you out when it's presented in a certain way, but generally I think they're kinda silly.
On you topic in particular, my wife liked the John Gray book back in the day, but I generally feel that most gender stereotypes are crap, and there is no 'opposite sex' way of thinking, there's just how other people think.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Aug 7, 2014 23:50:36 GMT -5
 Not quite the one I have... I have the orignal from 1969, from Powell books (a very short lived publisher)... same art though. I'd never heard of the author..no wiki entry, even, though 'Albert Augustus Jr.' sure sounds pen-name-y. Anyway, it LOOKS like a pretty cheezy book, and it is pretty formulaic... spaceship crashed on a unexplored planet.. they roam the jungle, get captured by natives... turns out there are Roman-ish city states, and of course, gladiators. The hero fights, saves the girl, they fall in love, etc. There was a 3rd 'main' character, but he was completely irrelevant... I assumed he was a red shirt, but surprisingly he made it through to the end, There were some interesting bits, though... alot of discussion about slavery, and how many people just accept their lot without trying to change it, just because they think it would be too hard.. or even that slavery is OK if your treated well. Then there was the 'atomatic' pistols, which cracked me up, too... I can't figure out if that was supposed to sound futuristic, or if it was a typo that someone liked. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Aug 10, 2014 22:39:07 GMT -5
Two books to post from the weekend:
first Cold Days from the Dresden Files . I was a big fan of the first couple books (and the sadly short lived TV show), but I kinda gave up when they got too carried away putting Harry though the ringer... so I didn't read the last couple.
This one, however, was back on track. The pop culture references were WAY too forced, and too numerous, but otherwise the story got back to the original tone (IMO), wasn't TOO dark, and certainly surprised me at the end.
At the beach today was Flying Finish ... one of the Dick Francis horse racing mysteries. I've only read a couple of them, but it amazes me every time that the author manages to tell good stories with engaging characters EVERY time in such a narrow scope. Even more amazing is that he creates a pile of new characters for every novel. Sure, the protagonist/narrator is a bit of a Marty Stu, but still, the books are always a fun read.
Flying Finish was no exception, dealing with a shipper of horses whose employees were mysteriously disappearing. The main character was an Earl who was an amateur jocket and pilot, and who was a very down to earth 'I just want to be a regular guy' type. As it was written in 1966, naturally communists are involved, too. The ending wasn't entirely satisfactory (it really could have used 1 last chapter/epilogue), but that's just because I want to know if everyone lived happily ever after or not.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Aug 12, 2014 11:37:18 GMT -5
Yesterday's book:
Transhuman by Ben Bova
This is ( I think) his most current one, and it takes place totally on Earth, and in our curent time (or perhaps the very near future). A Cancer researcher is devastated when he learns his 8 year old Granddaughter has inoperable brain Cancer, and is sure if they let him try his experimental new drug, he can cure her. The hospital refuses to allow it, so he kidnaps her (with the help of her doctor), and tries his treatment as he goes cross country, stopping in with former students for help. Meanwhile, he's using the same drug (used in the opposite way) to reverse his aging.
It sounds like it should be a really cool story, and Ben Bova is a great writer. Not this time, though. The book is burdened with a tin-foil hat conspiracy plot that makes little sense (and gets resolved in an even dumber way that it starts). It's also far too easy for the main characters to get away from the authorities, so much so that it throws you out of the story for it's silliness. I guess Mr. Bova should stick to space.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Aug 12, 2014 12:17:11 GMT -5
Opened a box from my closet thats been untouched for decades and lo and behold uncovered a bunch of paperbacks I purchased back in the 1970s, many I never got to read. Time to rectify that matter Eye In The Sky
Philip K. Dick
1957 Cover Artist Unknown (JB initialised)
8 random people are caught in an accidental explosion involving an atomic bevatron. Upon revival they find they dwell in a parallel world ruled by an omnipresent and very much involved God. Similar to the Supreme Being portrayed in the First Testament, your sincere prayers are answered and your slightest sins are swiftly punished. This is but one of the parallel worlds these folks travel through hoping to find their way back Loved this book. Just breezed right through it until I was forced to pause to get work done. Its a work of its time with refrences to the Cold War and the early civil rights movement. Dick strikes gold mining the various nuances of parallel worlds dominated by certain personality types.Its crazy,humourous, adventurous and thought-provoking. Its what I like about good SF There's a bunch more PDK books I never got around to read and are now on the top of my stack of upcoming perusals  |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Aug 12, 2014 13:29:56 GMT -5
That's one of those classics that I need to get and read one of these days. I think PKD got a little to heavy on the drug culture references at times, but his early stuff (like this one) I generally really like.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2014 13:41:29 GMT -5
Quite a few PKD fans regard Eye as his first "mature" book, at least as far as his trademark preoccupation with the nature of reality goes. I accord that distinction to Time Out of Joint myself, but admittedly I'm biased.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2014 13:55:40 GMT -5
Not quite the one I have... I have the orignal from 1969, from Powell books (a very short lived publisher)... same art though. I'd never heard of the author..no wiki entry, even, though 'Albert Augustus Jr.' sure sounds pen-name-y. Anyway, it LOOKS like a pretty cheezy book, and it is pretty formulaic... spaceship crashed on a unexplored planet.. they roam the jungle, get captured by natives... turns out there are Roman-ish city states, and of course, gladiators. The hero fights, saves the girl, they fall in love, etc. There was a 3rd 'main' character, but he was completely irrelevant... I assumed he was a red shirt, but surprisingly he made it through to the end, There were some interesting bits, though... alot of discussion about slavery, and how many people just accept their lot without trying to change it, just because they think it would be too hard.. or even that slavery is OK if your treated well. Then there was the 'atomatic' pistols, which cracked me up, too... I can't figure out if that was supposed to sound futuristic, or if it was a typo that someone liked. I've heard of Nuetzel, though I'm not sure why. Seems like he might've been mentioned a time or two in Famous Monsters when I was a kid. (I see he wrote the novelization of Queen of Blood, which Forry Ackerman had a cameo in. Hell, Forry might've been his agent.) Looks like he founded Powell, from what I just dug up via Google. None of the books attributed to him ring a bell, but I know I owned at least one Powell title back in the day -- Charles Fritch's Horses' Asteroid. Back in the '70s, at least, the imprint was known mainly for having published (in what was apparently a botched edition) Karl Edward Wagner's first Kane book, Darkness Weaves. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2014 13:58:17 GMT -5
Double post.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 14, 2014 10:55:55 GMT -5
Finished up Flashman and the Redskins. I should have been reading Flashman's Lady, but my copy disappeared and I didn't want to buy another. I struggled a little with this one. Part of it was just life and work taking my mind away from reading. Part of it was the setting. Fraser is really good with his history and his books have tended to focus on areas I'm not super familiar with so that adds to the interest. But I know a TON about the history of the American west so this one didn't have that going for it.  |
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