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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 19, 2022 12:19:55 GMT -5
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir Book club encouraged me to finally grab this... I loved the Martian, and was very curious as to what this one would be like. Turns out... VERY similar. Ryland Grace could easily have been Mark Watney... I guess the excuse of being a middle school science teacher was why he knew alot about, well, everything. It borders on comic 'scientists' where if you're any sort of scientist you know all about everything. That doesn't mean it was bad... on the contrary, it takes the Martian, and turns it up to 11 with a world -saving mission to deep space. The format is the same though.. . the main character talking to himself (but really the reader) for alot of it. In the Martian, the excuse was a journal... here it was amnesia, but had the same purpose. That, of course, in interspersed with flashbacks on how thing got to where they were. I REALLY hate that every writer feels that linear story telling is passe. I think it could have really helped here... there were some bits of the story that were just not a big deal because you don't care about them until after you know how they turn out. It's funny, in a world where people get so upset about spoilers, many writers go ahead and spoil their own story. That said, this really good hard sci-fi, with a good, logical plot and reasonable science once you take the Astrophage as existing. It's internally consistent and makes sense. The pages definitely turn quickly, especially once Ryland gets going on his mission. Two things I didn't like.... one had to do with Ryland himself (which I won't describe as not to spoil it, but it's so silly, you can't miss it) and the 2nd was the ending... we don' t REALLY know what happened, we're left to guess, and I HATE that. If needed an epilogue badly. Even with it's faults though, its nice to see someone writing hard sci-fi in such an understandable, relatable way. I just finished this. I've been pretty bad about reviewing lately so I'll just comment here. I loved The Martian. I actually liked Artemis quite a bit, which is apparently controversial. So I'm a fan of Andy Weir. And I liked this book. But it was not without problems. It really was just The Martian all over again with higher stakes and in a slightly different setting. Maybe Weir was leery of doing something much different after the tepid response to Artemis. I don't have a problem with non-linear story-telling if the author has the chops to do it...and Weir does. I honestly think telling this story in a linear fashion would have been detrimental. I've heard the problem with the ending before and I just don't see it. I thought it was pretty clear what happened, though it wasn't explicitly spelled out. My biggest problems were that it just felt a lot like a re-hash of The Martian and it definitely drug at points. But overall it was a good read. |
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Post by berkley on Oct 19, 2022 17:08:11 GMT -5
So this may be an odd request...I am looking for recommendations for examples of prose (doesn't matter if its short stories or novels) where classic martial arts play a significant role and are well described using words alone. This is partly an rpg thing, where I think a significant skill in quality DMing is being able to paint effective word pictures. With traditional fantasy combat, I have no shortage of prose examples depicting fantasy battles with chain mail or plate and swords' and arrows, etc. to draw on and build my own vocabulary to articulate those scenes at the table easily. I have had enough input over the years to have the ability to get the output I want. I am currently working on building that vocabulary for steampunk as my steampunk thread has indicated. But where I can fall short is when there is a martial arts based character. I really like martial arts characters and stories, but my exposure to them has been almost entirely via the screen and comic page where visuals, not words do the work of conveying the flow and maneuvers of a martial arts combat. I have read some prose in modern settings where a characters may know judo or some other martial art which makes them standout, but they rarely have the kind of martial art combats that I am looking to input, and its usually just an excuse to make a protagonist or antagonist look badass and stand out form other combatants. I am looking for something that is more authentic (maybe not so much that as has more verisimilitude) in conveying the back and forth interplay of a martial arts combat and describes via prose the maneuvers in such a battle in a way that doesn't devolve into names of techniques assuming the reader can then visualize that from their experience watching martial arts movies. Bonus points if it has a pre-modern settings where the combat doesn't involve firearms or more modern (or cinematic influenced) weapons and accessories (also more bonus points if its a good story to boot). The examples I have come across in prose have been terrible at painting such word pictures or assume that by simply evoking a known visual aesthetic of martial arts the reader will fill in the blanks for the writer. In the end I want to be able to add input, so my output can convey a believable and interesting word picture of a martial artist in combat that does more than he does a flying kick kind of like Bruce Lee and deals x amount of damage, or she does a bunch of dope monk stuff to get down the 40 ft wall and lands in a crouch in front of you... I just can't seem to find the kind of stuff that will provide me the input I need, but I also don't have a good starting point. Most of the stuff I am aware of is in vintage paperbacks that are insanely prices and out of print, so not easily available. -M PS non-fiction is good too
I'm don't practice any martial arts so I'm not really qualified to say what's accurate or what isn't, but two writers whose fight scenes always impressed me as nicely detailed and convincing are Roger Zelazny and Peter O'Donnell. The latter in particular always left me with the impression that he must have researched the moves he was describing, whereas with Zelazny it was more that he had a knack for getting across to the reader the action he was trying to describe. But I don't think either is quite what you're looking for.
The combat scenes in the Iliad are often surprisingly detailed and specific, come to think of it.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 20, 2022 17:59:26 GMT -5
Two for the MoneyMax Allan Collins, 2004   (cover to the 2021 re-issue) After recently finishing the latest Quarry installment, Quarry’s Blood, I felt the need for another Collins fix and remembered that I purchased this with a whole stack of other ebooks in a Hard Case Crime Humble Bundle offer last fall. This is in fact a sort of omnibus edition of two novels, Bait Money and Blood Money, that were originally published in 1973 – making them two of Collins’ earliest published works (they were re-issued in 1981). So the first book, or rather in the first half of this book, Bait Money, introduces the character of Nolan, a top-notch and super-tough professional thief who, at 48 years old, would like nothing better than to retire from that profession. But he’s been on the run from the Chicago mob for about 16 years, and a series of events sees him organizing a bank heist in Iowa City with several amateurs less than half his age. Once completed, he should be square with the mob, and one underboss in particular. But things don’t quite work out as planned, of course. In the sequel, Blood Money, some loose ends from the first story come back to bite Nolan in the a**, and he goes on a chase in much of the Midwest (from central Illinois to Iowa City then Milwaukee and back) to recover money that he had stolen fair and square and exact revenge on an old enemy. As usual, Collins delivers a fun romp, full of action but also engaging and likable characters. Bait Money in particular is just a really tightly-plotted, fast-paced heist story. I got the same Humble Bundle. I just read Bait Money a week or so back. Overall I enjoyed it. It was pretty clearly a Parker pastiche and Collins is a much more accomplished writer now than he was then, but it was a fun read. I'll read Blood Money in a few weeks. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 21, 2022 4:44:12 GMT -5
I got the same Humble Bundle. I just read Bait Money a week or so back. Overall I enjoyed it. It was pretty clearly a Parker pastiche and Collins is a much more accomplished writer now than he was then, but it was a fun read. I'll read Blood Money in a few weeks. A few weeks? Man, I read both of those in practically a single sitting... But yeah, the Nolan books are pretty fun and blessedly quick reads - same goes for the two books I reviewed on the preceding page.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 21, 2022 8:40:36 GMT -5
I don't have a problem with non-linear story-telling if the author has the chops to do it...and Weir does. I honestly think telling this story in a linear fashion would have been detrimental. I've heard the problem with the ending before and I just don't see it. I thought it was pretty clear what happened, though it wasn't explicitly spelled out. My biggest problems were that it just felt a lot like a re-hash of The Martian and it definitely drug at points. But overall it was a good read. How do you think it would have been detrimental? Much of the drama of the flashback parts would have been much better, imo. As far as the ending goes, it absolutely did NOT say if he actually saved the day or not. It was clear he chose to think so, but that's not really an answer. Totally agree in alot of ways it was a rehash of the Martian... honestly, it could have just been a direct sequel if they simply changed the name of the main character. I haven't read Artemis yet.. I will at some point, but the bad reviews moved it down the list some. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 21, 2022 9:26:54 GMT -5
I don't have a problem with non-linear story-telling if the author has the chops to do it...and Weir does. I honestly think telling this story in a linear fashion would have been detrimental. I've heard the problem with the ending before and I just don't see it. I thought it was pretty clear what happened, though it wasn't explicitly spelled out. My biggest problems were that it just felt a lot like a re-hash of The Martian and it definitely drug at points. But overall it was a good read. How do you think it would have been detrimental? Much of the drama of the flashback parts would have been much better, imo. As far as the ending goes, it absolutely did NOT say if he actually saved the day or not. It was clear he chose to think so, but that's not really an answer. Totally agree in alot of ways it was a rehash of the Martian... honestly, it could have just been a direct sequel if they simply changed the name of the main character. I haven't read Artemis yet.. I will at some point, but the bad reviews moved it down the list some. Does it explicitly say he saved the day? No. But it strongly implies he did. And I feel it's fitting he gets to infer that through scientific data. I had no issue with that. I felt the reveal of his cowardice and the way he ended up on the mission (not that he was a replacement, that was telegraphed) worked better in the flashbacks. You can disagree, but I was fine with the nonlinear storytelling. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 21, 2022 9:32:16 GMT -5
I got the same Humble Bundle. I just read Bait Money a week or so back. Overall I enjoyed it. It was pretty clearly a Parker pastiche and Collins is a much more accomplished writer now than he was then, but it was a fun read. I'll read Blood Money in a few weeks. A few weeks? Man, I read both of those in practically a single sitting... But yeah, the Nolan books are pretty fun and blessedly quick reads - same goes for the two books I reviewed on the preceding page.
I tend to spread out my genre readings so Blood Money will come up next time a noir novel comes up. That will probably be middle of the week after next. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 22, 2022 2:26:46 GMT -5
I tend to spread out my genre readings so Blood Money will come up next time a noir novel comes up. That will probably be middle of the week after next. I can understand that, as I sort of do the same thing - although currently work commitments are leaving me little time to pick up any prose books (just reading some comics here and there). However, the novels in Two for the Money can easily be considered two sections of a single novel, as the first one just sort of slides into the second.
By the way, off-topic, but I just remembered that I tagged you in another thread about a month ago - if you haven't yet, check out this post, you might find it interesting. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 23, 2022 1:45:02 GMT -5
Finished Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates as part of my steampunk recommendation reading foray.  Not much actual steampunk in this one though, more of a time travel/alternate history sci-fi thing with a little bit of mythology/fantasy and sorcery mixed in. Not a bad read, a little slow in places, and a lot of plot coincidences, but entertaining overall. -M |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 23, 2022 12:56:10 GMT -5
Does it explicitly say he saved the day? No. But it strongly implies he did. And I feel it's fitting he gets to infer that through scientific data. I had no issue with that. I felt the reveal of his cowardice and the way he ended up on the mission (not that he was a replacement, that was telegraphed) worked better in the flashbacks. You can disagree, but I was fine with the nonlinear storytelling. See, I had trouble caring about that, because I already knew it was fine in the end. If it was told linearly, there would have been some suspense. I know that's not the point of the story, but I think it would have benefited. As far as the ending, sure he HOPED he saved the day, and was able to find some empirical data that supported his hope. But he's not an impartial source, of course he WANTED the day to be saved. And I got the impression he was being handled and kept almost as a really nice, respected zoo exhibit. So his guests WANTED him to be happy, so of course they would let him assume that. I would have preferred a page or two at the end TELLING us. I admit though, this is a big pet peeve of mine. When I'm reading a book, I'm reading it because I want the author to tell me a story, I don't want them to suggest a story for me to make up the rest of.. I can do that just fine on my own if that's what I want to do. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 25, 2022 21:29:12 GMT -5
The Intuitionist
Colson Whitehead
I'm still wrapping my head around what I just read here... one the one hand, you can take the book at face value... an somewhere weird but interesting commentary on turn of the century New York and it's race relations. But then, THIS New York is obsessed with elevators, as if they are some crazy technology advancement. It's not totally clear turn of the century is accurate... they talk about the 1850s been not too long ago, but then everyone has a car, and no one talks about the Civil War. There is radio, but no TV, and gangsters abound. Maybe the 20s or 30s?
I was thinking at the beginning the 'intuitionist' elevator inspectors might be a joke, but then, there's just the one that we know about (the main character) and the rest are not really shown to believe it, so there's probably some great deeper meaning there.
I suspect the author wrote this book at alot of different levels, and different readers probably get different bits of them.. sort of like picking your floor in an elevator. It fits. Definitely worth reading for Whitehead's prose.. he's a fantastic wordsmith. Not everything totally makes sense all the time, but I don't think it's supposed to.. that stuff is just not on the level you picked.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2022 21:48:21 GMT -5
The Intuitionist Colson Whitehead I'm still wrapping my head around what I just read here... one the one hand, you can take the book at face value... an somewhere weird but interesting commentary on turn of the century New York and it's race relations. But then, THIS New York is obsessed with elevators, as if they are some crazy technology advancement. It's not totally clear turn of the century is accurate... they talk about the 1850s been not too long ago, but then everyone has a car, and no one talks about the Civil War. There is radio, but no TV, and gangsters abound. Maybe the 20s or 30s? I was thinking at the beginning the 'intuitionist' elevator inspectors might be a joke, but then, there's just the one that we know about (the main character) and the rest are not really shown to believe it, so there's probably some great deeper meaning there. I suspect the author wrote this book at alot of different levels, and different readers probably get different bits of them.. sort of like picking your floor in an elevator. It fits. Definitely worth reading for Whitehead's prose.. he's a fantastic wordsmith. Not everything totally makes sense all the time, but I don't think it's supposed to.. that stuff is just not on the level you picked. I read this for a book club maybe 20 years ago now (it was before I moved out to Ohio in '03). It was selected by my friend the lit teacher and I remember we dissected the book pretty heavily, but I don't remember a lot of what folks came up with. I did like the book a lot, and Whitehead (who was an up and coming writer at the time (was this his debut novel? I forget) and I think he had a lot to say and was trying to pack it all into this on a lot of levels, sometimes successfully and other times not so much, but there was a lot to like and a lot to unpack in there. -M |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 25, 2022 21:55:57 GMT -5
This would definitely be a good one to read with a book club.. lots of things to talk about. It is indeed his debut novel. I'm been meaning to check out Undergound Railroad, and this one sorta jumped out at me at the library.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2022 2:22:22 GMT -5
Continuing my exploration of the steampunk oeuvre, I just finished... The Iron Wyrm Affair (Book One of the Bannon & Clare series) by Lilith Saintcrow  Lilith Saintcrow is an author I have circled around as she writes a lot in the horror and urban fantasy fields, but had never read before, so it is a bit ironic that my first experience with her is this book, her first foray into Steampunk when I had missed her in genres I am much more deeply read in. Emma Bannon is a powerful sorceress (a Prime) in the service of the Queen of Britain and Archibald Clare is a mentath (think a Holmes-like investigator) pressed into the service of the Crown in a alt-history Victorian era. This books is an alt-history urban fantasy within a steampunk setting and aesthetic (including things like clockwork horses and a threat by logic powered mechas immune to the effects of sorcery). It is an origin story of sorts that brings together the Prime sorceress, her bodyguard (Mikal, a Shield i.e. a warrior adept or eldritch knight in D&D parlance, in her service) and the mentath together as a team to work a case that involves a threat to the crown and the disappearance of other mentaths. The characters are quite engaging, and Saintcrow's world is lush and well developed, especially her magic system-I am not usually one to gush about magic systems as part of the world building mechanism as is so popular in a lot of modern fantasy, but she was crafted a system that fits her world and characters, and enhances the steampunk aesthetic she is playing with that also is integral to parts of the story and serves to at times both drive the narrative forward and create obstacles/conflicts that need to be overcome to achieve the goals of the protagonists. It works both for and against them at times, which is a refreshing change from magic as undefined deus ex machina in some fantasy. Saintcrow's prose style is both rich in detail and fast paced. She does a lot to dress her world and characters without bogging down the narrative flow or devolving into self-indulgent tripe, which made for a nice fast-paced read that didn't feel like empty reading calories. Chapters often alternated between Clare's POV and Emma's, both when they were together and when Saintcrow "split the party" as the story progressed. The setting was integral to the plot and the story told, drawing on some aspects of British folklore, and avoided being mere window dressing. The same was true of the steampunk elements even though this was much more a period urban fantasy than steampunk at its core. Still overall a good read. I am interested in possibly seeking out further volumes in the series, but not until I have done a deeper dive into different steampunk options. -M |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 4, 2022 15:15:56 GMT -5
 Treasure of the Sierra Madre - B. TravenSo when the topic of movies that are better than the book comes up I have another entry to go along with The Godfather. Not that this is a bad book. It's actually quite good. And much like he did with The Maltese Falcon, screenwriter John Huston used Traven's novel as a very clear guidebook for the film. But where the film is superior is that Huston got rid of a number of diversions that Traven put in that were only of marginal interest, such as a couple of long stories about gold mines, and a much better and more concise ending. It probably doesn't help that Treasure of the Sierra Madre is one of my favorite movies, one I've seen close to a dozen times. So if you're familiar with Dobbs, Curtin and Howard, all you're going to get out of this novel is what I consider to be padding. If you've not seen that masterpiece of a film then I definitely recommend the novel. It's an excellent look at the way greed motivates and manipulates men. It's also clear that Traven, whoever he actually was, was very familiar with Mexico at the time the novel was set (in the recent aftermath of World War I). |
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