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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 3, 2024 17:57:45 GMT -5
The Last Colony by John ScalziI loved Old Man's War. I liked The Ghost Brigades, but not quite as much. This one...probably fits about halfway between the two. But I really do like all three a lot. John Perry, our protagonist from Old Man's War, is retired and married to Jane Sagan, a former member of the Ghost Brigade. They are living quietly on a settled colony with their adopted daughter, Zoe, the orphaned daughter of Charles Boutin (the antagonist in The Ghost Brigades). That is until they are chosen, somewhat against their wishes to be the leaders of a new colony to be named Roanoke (foreshadowing). Honestly, almost anything more than that gets in to spoilers almost immediately. Needless to say they are thrust deep in to the middle of intergalactic politics of the highest order. Scalzi has become my go-to favorite "new" SF author. When you get to be my age anything under 20 years old is definitely new. This is just solid SF that goes at a super fast clip. And that's another thing that I love about it. There's nothing here that's excessive. Scalzi tells his story. He does it concisely but with panache and then lets you move on to your next thing.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 4, 2024 3:12:52 GMT -5
I think I mentioned somewhere upthread that I simply devoured the entire Old Man's War series in less than a month almost a decade ago; since I read them all scrunched together like that, I didn't really rate them individually. I'll just say that the last two, The Human Division and The End of All Things, sort of shift the narrative, i.e., the focus is on a different character (or rather, characters), and in both, the individual chapters/sections were initially released as a digital serial before being collected into books.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 5, 2024 0:53:59 GMT -5
I know I read at least a couple of that series.. and I remember almost nothing of it... I should re-read it sometime.
Disco for the Departed Colin Cotterill
This was a library book sale purchase.... I came into it knowing nothing about the author or the main character, but I've really enjoyed any of the Soho Crime published books I've come across, and a mystery set in communist Laos in the 70s is certainly unique!
The mystery leaned a bit too much into the supernatural... it was not really clear if we (the readers) are supposed to believe that Dr. Siri actually talked to spirits or if that was just the personality quirk that fictional detective seems to have, but it was definitely not a plus... most of the narrative of the mystery is moved along by spiritual inspiration.
Where the book shined is in the setting and the characters... the side plot with Dr. Siri's assistant trying to get back 'home' to the morgue was by far the best part of the book.. both inspirational and heartbreaking at the same time, yet with enough of the absurd to make it an amazing read. The whole book seemed focused on making the characters larger the life enough so one can learn their lessons without taking it too seriously.
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Post by Batflunkie on Mar 5, 2024 12:48:03 GMT -5
Commodork: Sordid Tales from a BBS Junkie by Rob O' Hara (2006)
So this is probably my fourth or fifth time reading this, it's one of my favorites. It tells a first hand account of a boy growing up in the blooming home computer revolution and slowly becoming addicted to the Bulletin Board scene, cracking and distributing pirated copies of games, and getting up to general mischief. I always thought that it was an interesting approach to telling the same story of "hacker kid goes online, does something wrong, and gets busted by the cops". Though the worst Rob gets into is getting sold a modem that was bought by a BBS operator with a stolen credit card
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 6, 2024 23:49:14 GMT -5
Perry Rhodan #32: Challenge of the Unknown Clark Darlton Just when it looked like it was going to be easy for Perry and co. to swipe yet another amazing space ship and run home to make another giant techonolgical leap, it turns out it's not quite so easy. I'm definitely intrigued at the overall plot direction... it seems Perry has his sights on taking over the whole empire.. or at least installing a friendly ruler somehow. That seems too easy, but we'll see. This book was a bit of a shift in tone as well... more comic relief (the ongoing silliness with Pucky and Bell has been a continuing them, but it seems to have kicked up to 11 in this one) and more character beats (It seems we're getting closer to the inevitable moment where Perry and Thora get together, and Dr. Haggard seems to be back) Then we have the Mooffs... I wonder if the name is less silly in German? It is pretty interesting how Perry responds to other telepaths, not sure it goes with the whole 'Peacelord of the Universe' idea, but I guess the Mooffs aren't people, so... A new serial started in this one as well, 'Cosmos'. Which the book proclaims as from a 30s fanzine that has chapters from a veritable who's who of the active authors of the time, though this first chapter didn't live up to that, we'll see.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 12, 2024 17:30:10 GMT -5
Cut Me InEvan Hunter, 1953 The set-up for this one is pretty out of the ordinary I think, as the main character is a literary agent named Josh Blake, and the story gets going when he stumbles upon the dead body of his partner (the agency’s co-owner), a few bullet holes in him, in their office one Monday morning. The office’s safe is open, and there is a very important legal document missing from it – one that means a lot of money for the agency as it gives them representation of a famous author of Western novels whose works are about to be optioned for movies and TV. Blake thinks the murder is definitely tied to that, while the NYPD detective handling the case isn’t so convinced. This is a competently written story with pretty good characterization and dialogue and even a few genuinely entertaining scenes. It doesn’t really throw any surprises, though, even though the plot involves a lot of misdirection. Also, it’s very much a product of its time, so there’s a bit of casual misogyny that comes across as a bit jarring now (like Josh constantly calling his receptionist ‘Hon,’ and even slapping her bottom at one point). And I got a bit thrown out of it when the three main female characters, all naturally quite attractive and buxom women, basically throw themselves at Josh (of whom only one of them had some kind of logical rationale for doing so). This Hard Case edition also includes a short story, “Now Die In it” (which is called a ‘novelette’) that features one of Hunter’s recurring characters, a disgraced, alcoholic former detective named Matt Cordell. In it, a friend of his asks him to find the murderer of his 17 year-old sister-in-law, who was a few months pregnant. Also competently written, but I kind of figured out who the likely killer would be pretty early on. And again, an attractive young female character comes onto and beds Cordell for no apparent reason. An interesting side-note is that the novel was originally published under one of Hunter’s other pseudonyms, Hunt Collins (and was also republished in 1955 under a different title, The Proposition), but then Hard Case used his best known pen name, Ed McBain, for this 2016 edition.
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Post by johnnygobs on Mar 12, 2024 22:47:45 GMT -5
Love those Curt Cannon/Matt Cordell stories.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 12, 2024 23:48:02 GMT -5
Perry Rhodan 34: SOS: Spaceship Titan! Kurt Brand This entry in the series was the first time I can remember that I really noticed the change from one writer to the next. It hasn't always been smooth, but this time the story had a very different vibe.. it very much felt like a Star Trek episode. The characters were very much out of character (mostly Perry and Krest, who where the focus), and Pucky did even more impossible things than usual to make sure the day was saved. It seems the long term bit of the story is to find out the shadowy puller of strings, so I suspect, like the quest for Pel, there will be a few adventures like this one while the crew slowly get closer to the answer. In the back up.. the idea of 'Cosmos' has now become clear, each writer is creating their own Burroughs-ian society somewhere in the solar system (this one on Callisto) and they're all going to meet up and do... something important, based on the Alpha Centurians from the first one. This entry was pretty fun. with a matriarchial society hoping to breed out males entiretly, but still needing them for the dirty work.
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Mar 13, 2024 1:09:32 GMT -5
I haven't had much luck reading novels so far this year outside of Tolkien and Moorcock. I've picked up a few and lost interest 100 pages or so in, regardless of genre or era. I wanted to read prose, but I wasn't finding anything longform that was holding my interest. I read one for a day or two, put it down, and not pick it up for a week or so and hive no interest in doing so. Being sick last week didn't help. So I decided to give up on novels for a while and I just got a pile of short story anthologies and just started reading from them. A story or two form one, pick up a different one, a story or two from another, etc. wherever the mood took me and I've found I was reading a lot more prose again. I'm not focused on finishing any of these particular volumes, just reading the stories within as the mood strikes me until I find something longform again that grabs and holds my interest.
Since I started I've read the following:
Bierce, Ambrose, "Haita the Shepher" "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" (both in The Hastur Cycle : Tales of Hastur, the King in Yellow and Carcosa)
Bishop, Farnham & Brodeaur, Arthus Gilchrest "The Golden Snare" (in The Big Book of Adventure Stories"
Brown, Frederic,"Obit for Obie" (in Pure Pulp)
Howard, Robert E., "The Tower of the Elephant" (in The Sword & Sorcery Anthology)
Lackey, Mercedes, " a Tale of Heroes" Bailey, Robin W., "The Woodland of Zarad Thra" de Lint, Charles, "The Weeping Oak" (all from Sword & Sorceress IV)
We'll see how long this goes but I am enjoying picking up a volume, reading a story and then moving on to something different, whether in the same volume or a different one for now.
-M
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 14, 2024 14:36:08 GMT -5
The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands
Brands, a professor of history at University of Texas, gives us a Pulitzer Prize finalist biography of Benjamin Franklin that John J. Ellis called "The authoritative Franklin biography for our time.” Franklin is an interesting case as a "Founding Father." He's definitely not forgotten in the way that, say, John Jay, Robert Morris. Roger Sherman, etc. are, but I do think that he may well be better known at this point for being on the $100 bill and for his experiments with electricity than in his pivotal role in America's independence. And Franklin was instrumental in America gaining its independence even though he, as much as anyone, worked to prevent the revolt during his work representing the colonies of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Georgia in the U.K. in the years leading up to the revolution. Franklin was the very first American to be really well known, if not world-wide, then in Western Europe, based on his scientific experiments, his inventions and his writing. It was because of this...and his less than puritanical personal life and views, that allowed him to connect with the French people, particularly those in control of the purse-strings and the foreign policy, in a way that other Americans who were sent to France to negotiate loans and treaties, could never hope to equal. John Adams, Arthur Lee, John Jay, simply could not have managed what Franklin did in getting the crucial military alliance with France in 1778. Even Thomas Jefferson, who took Franklin's place in Paris stated "I succeed (Franklin). No man can replace him." Brands gives us Franklin as a whole man. The good and the bad. He abandoned an apprenticeship, Boston, and his parents, to go to Philadelphia and make his own way. He fathered at least one bastard and then saw his relationship end as they were on opposite sides of the revolution. He abandoned his wife for years on end during his work in Britain and his wife ended up dying alone. He was also a very attentive grandfather. Took care of his family in a very good manner and was absolutely committed to public service on behalf of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and America. This is a very long book. But Franklin led a very long and very eventful life. I think what really came out of it is that you can make a very good argument that Franklin was the lynchpin that held the revolution together. No, he didn't start it. You can lay that at the feet of the likes of Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, etc. In fact Franklin worked diligently and desperately with Parliament to try to preserve the American colonies as a part of the British Empire. But once Parliament and the King had lost Franklin, they had lost the colonies. He didn't lead armies...but he was key in scrounging up the money and the support that allowed those armies to remain in the field. He WAS the reason that France allied with the new confederation providing ships, troops and, most importantly money, arms and supplies. This book will take some time. And now and then it drags just a bit. But it's worth the time and the effort. Franklin's life was fundamental to the founding of the U.S. Very likely as important as anyone, including Washington.
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Post by berkley on Mar 14, 2024 16:57:53 GMT -5
The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands
Brands, a professor of history at University of Texas, gives us a Pulitzer Prize finalist biography of Benjamin Franklin that John J. Ellis called "The authoritative Franklin biography for our time.” Franklin is an interesting case as a "Founding Father." He's definitely not forgotten in the way that, say, John Jay, Robert Morris. Roger Sherman, etc. are, but I do think that he may well be better known at this point for being on the $100 bill and for his experiments with electricity than in his pivotal role in America's independence. And Franklin was instrumental in America gaining its independence even though he, as much as anyone, worked to prevent the revolt during his work representing the colonies of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Georgia in the U.K. in the years leading up to the revolution. Franklin was the very first American to be really well known, if not world-wide, then in Western Europe, based on his scientific experiments, his inventions and his writing. It was because of this...and his less than puritanical personal life and views, that allowed him to connect with the French people, particularly those in control of the purse-strings and the foreign policy, in a way that other Americans who were sent to France to negotiate loans and treaties, could never hope to equal. John Adams, Arthur Lee, John Jay, simply could not have managed what Franklin did in getting the crucial military alliance with France in 1778. Even Thomas Jefferson, who took Franklin's place in Paris stated "I succeed (Franklin). No man can replace him." Brands gives us Franklin as a whole man. The good and the bad. He abandoned an apprenticeship, Boston, and his parents, to go to Philadelphia and make his own way. He fathered at least one bastard and then saw his relationship end as they were on opposite sides of the revolution. He abandoned his wife for years on end during his work in Britain and his wife ended up dying alone. He was also a very attentive grandfather. Took care of his family in a very good manner and was absolutely committed to public service on behalf of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and America. This is a very long book. But Franklin led a very long and very eventful life. I think what really came out of it is that you can make a very good argument that Franklin was the lynchpin that held the revolution together. No, he didn't start it. You can lay that at the feet of the likes of Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, etc. In fact Franklin worked diligently and desperately with Parliament to try to preserve the American colonies as a part of the British Empire. But once Parliament and the King had lost Franklin, they had lost the colonies. He didn't lead armies...but he was key in scrounging up the money and the support that allowed those armies to remain in the field. He WAS the reason that France allied with the new confederation providing ships, troops and, most importantly money, arms and supplies. This book will take some time. And now and then it drags just a bit. But it's worth the time and the effort. Franklin's life was fundamental to the founding of the U.S. Very likely as important as anyone, including Washington.
Franklin's one the more interesting on the list of famous American historical figures, and probably one of the few whose biography I could see myself reading at some point, possibly.This is the kind of biography or history book - i.e. one covering in detail a long span of time - that I don't usually pressure myself to read all in one go. I'll usually space it out over a few months, maybe reading some fiction from the same period in between or something completely different just fr a change.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 14, 2024 17:17:45 GMT -5
The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands
Brands, a professor of history at University of Texas, gives us a Pulitzer Prize finalist biography of Benjamin Franklin that John J. Ellis called "The authoritative Franklin biography for our time.” Franklin is an interesting case as a "Founding Father." He's definitely not forgotten in the way that, say, John Jay, Robert Morris. Roger Sherman, etc. are, but I do think that he may well be better known at this point for being on the $100 bill and for his experiments with electricity than in his pivotal role in America's independence. And Franklin was instrumental in America gaining its independence even though he, as much as anyone, worked to prevent the revolt during his work representing the colonies of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Georgia in the U.K. in the years leading up to the revolution. Franklin was the very first American to be really well known, if not world-wide, then in Western Europe, based on his scientific experiments, his inventions and his writing. It was because of this...and his less than puritanical personal life and views, that allowed him to connect with the French people, particularly those in control of the purse-strings and the foreign policy, in a way that other Americans who were sent to France to negotiate loans and treaties, could never hope to equal. John Adams, Arthur Lee, John Jay, simply could not have managed what Franklin did in getting the crucial military alliance with France in 1778. Even Thomas Jefferson, who took Franklin's place in Paris stated "I succeed (Franklin). No man can replace him." Brands gives us Franklin as a whole man. The good and the bad. He abandoned an apprenticeship, Boston, and his parents, to go to Philadelphia and make his own way. He fathered at least one bastard and then saw his relationship end as they were on opposite sides of the revolution. He abandoned his wife for years on end during his work in Britain and his wife ended up dying alone. He was also a very attentive grandfather. Took care of his family in a very good manner and was absolutely committed to public service on behalf of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and America. This is a very long book. But Franklin led a very long and very eventful life. I think what really came out of it is that you can make a very good argument that Franklin was the lynchpin that held the revolution together. No, he didn't start it. You can lay that at the feet of the likes of Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, etc. In fact Franklin worked diligently and desperately with Parliament to try to preserve the American colonies as a part of the British Empire. But once Parliament and the King had lost Franklin, they had lost the colonies. He didn't lead armies...but he was key in scrounging up the money and the support that allowed those armies to remain in the field. He WAS the reason that France allied with the new confederation providing ships, troops and, most importantly money, arms and supplies. This book will take some time. And now and then it drags just a bit. But it's worth the time and the effort. Franklin's life was fundamental to the founding of the U.S. Very likely as important as anyone, including Washington.
Franklin's one the more interesting on the list of famous American historical figures, and probably one of the few whose biography I could see myself reading at some point, possibly.This is the kind of biography or history book - i.e. one covering in detail a long span of time - that I don't usually pressure myself to read all in one go. I'll usually space it out over a few months, maybe reading some fiction from the same period in between or something completely different just fr a change.
Most of my super long history books I start reading while I'm in between court hearings or when I'm waiting for them to bring me clients in jail. I can do that with non-fiction and keep everything in my head. I can't do that with fiction. When I get the book down to 300 or fewer pages it moves from "work" reading in to my regular "general non-fiction" reading slot. My current "work reading" is a look at Tombstone and the Earps it's not super long and I'm already under 300...so it will move over on my next general non-fiction read immediately...unless I'm actually done with it by then. Next up after that is a biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 14, 2024 23:13:49 GMT -5
Its interesting....in the Alvin Maker books, one of the characters talks about Franklin's greatest invention was that of inventing the American... that has always stuck with me. I'm not totally sure it applies to real life, but it's definitely true that he was the face of America to Europeans for quite some time.
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Post by berkley on Mar 15, 2024 0:09:04 GMT -5
Franklin's one the more interesting on the list of famous American historical figures, and probably one of the few whose biography I could see myself reading at some point, possibly.This is the kind of biography or history book - i.e. one covering in detail a long span of time - that I don't usually pressure myself to read all in one go. I'll usually space it out over a few months, maybe reading some fiction from the same period in between or something completely different just fr a change.
Most of my super long history books I start reading while I'm in between court hearings or when I'm waiting for them to bring me clients in jail. I can do that with non-fiction and keep everything in my head. I can't do that with fiction. When I get the book down to 300 or fewer pages it moves from "work" reading in to my regular "general non-fiction" reading slot. My current "work reading" is a look at Tombstone and the Earps it's not super long and I'm already under 300...so it will move over on my next general non-fiction read immediately...unless I'm actually done with it by then. Next up after that is a biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Interesting. I like hearing these details about individual reading habits: pretty much all our members here are serious readers and we've likely each developed our own different way of dealing with our habit, so to speak. I've brought up my own ever-changing method or program from time to time and I'd like to hear more people describe theirs too.
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Mar 15, 2024 14:32:43 GMT -5
Latest batch of stories...
Robert E. Howard-"The Devil in Iron Harold Lamb-"The Mighty Manslayer
both in The Big Book of Adventure Stories
Evan Hunter (a.k.a. Ed McBain)-"The Scarlet King Donald E. Westlake-"The Devil's Printer" Glenn canary-"Interference"
all from Pure Pulp
-M
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