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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 26, 2024 3:22:24 GMT -5
I liked the two Tim Powers books I read back in the 80s, The Anubis Gates and Dinner at Deviant's Palace, and always meant to read more of his work but somehow never have gotten around to it. But I'll get there one of these days. Anubis Gates is one of three more books by Powers I have on my shelf waiting to be read (another is the third installment of the Fault Lines trilogy that I'll probably start reading today). Dinner at Deviant's Palace is one I'd like to get to eventually, because it's possibly his only straight-up SF novel, as opposed to the supernatural/fantasy (mixed with alt history) stuff he usually does.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 27, 2024 10:36:21 GMT -5
Flying Blind by Max Allan Collins
Having jumped back in to reading Nate Heller with a vengeance our historical shamus meets up with and tackles the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. It's 1935 and Heller has recently left the Chicago P.D. and opened his office as a private investigator. He is hired to accompany and provide security for aviatrix on her cross-country lecture tour as she has been getting anonymous threats. Of course this leads to Heller becoming involved with her further and ultimately investigating her disappearance in the South Pacific as the U.S. and Japan appear to be on an inevitable course for war. Besides Ms. Earhart, Heller meets a few other historic personages, most organically and involved in the early aviation biz. James Forrestal, at the time an advisor to Roosevelt and later Secretary of the Navy and the first Secretary of Defense, makes an interesting appearance. Collins appears to be skeptical of the motivations of the U.S. government, frequently...and almost certainly with good reason overall. I really only new the bare basics about Earhart. Many air records. Lost at sea trying to fly around the world. What one can glean from cultural osmosis and general reading. So this was a great opportunity to go down some extraneous outside research. Obviously Heller's result is speculation, but it's not unreasonable speculation. And that makes it that much more fun.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Apr 29, 2024 21:56:25 GMT -5
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
I grabbed this because it was the oldest thing on my 'to-read' list, and I was in the mood for a history book. I've since become old and wiser and generally stay away from epic history tomes of this nature (they often just have too many small details and the bigger, more interesting bits get lost), but in this case, Roosevelt just did so much stuff it just moves along nicely.
You won't find any criticisms of Teddy in these pages.. the author is very clearly a big fan, and glosses over anything that would be considers a scandal or a failure. The writing is great though, and details all the important stuff without getting too bogged down in details.
It was especially interesting to me to compare Roosevelt and what he was and accomplished to today's politicans... it feels like maybe a certain orange-tinted candidate could be the the Mirror version of Teddy... I wonder if a less positive portrayal would lean into more similarities?
I'm very happy I finally got around to this one!
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Post by berkley on Apr 30, 2024 1:11:45 GMT -5
I liked the two Tim Powers books I read back in the 80s, The Anubis Gates and Dinner at Deviant's Palace, and always meant to read more of his work but somehow never have gotten around to it. But I'll get there one of these days. Anubis Gates is one of three more books by Powers I have on my shelf waiting to be read (another is the third installment of the Fault Lines trilogy that I'll probably start reading today). Dinner at Deviant's Palace is one I'd like to get to eventually, because it's possibly his only straight-up SF novel, as opposed to the supernatural/fantasy (mixed with alt history) stuff he usually does.
A trivial note, but I just brought up the French wikipedia to look for something else (Alain Delon's filmography, for another thread) and their featured article of the day that pops up when you first open the site was "Les Voies d'Anubis ... un roman fantastique et de science-fiction écrit par Tim Powers ..." . The interesting thing is, I don't think that's an exact translation of The Gates of Anubis: I thought "voies" was more something like roads or ways or paths and I would have guessed the most obvious translation for "gates" would have been "portes". But then again, my French is far from fluent so I could be completely mistaken. I did check DeepL, an online translation site, and it does seem to agree, more or less - portails might be the better word for gates.
Anyway, just thought it was a curious coincidence that that particular book came up, presumably at random (no idea how wikipedia chooses these "articles of the day" - some kind of automated process?) just a few days after we were talking about it here, and then the possibly not quite exact translation of the title struck me as well. I do have the usual misgivings about reading things in translation - how do we know which is the best when there are several choices available, for example? And when you do pick one, or one is picked for you because there are no alternatives, how much of the original are you really getting?
But I'm very much a proponent of reading things in translation. No one, not even the greatest polyglott, can know every language on earth, so if you want to read things from other cultures, as I think everyone should, you have no choice but to rely on translations in some or in all cases.
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Post by MRPs_Missives on May 2, 2024 17:10:01 GMT -5
Finished the last few stories in The Hastur Cycle collection. Like any collection of Mythos stories form multiple authors, it was a mixed bag, but overall I enjoyed it. The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander has been popping up in my conversations frequently that past few moths both online and in person, and I realized I hadn't revisited it since I moved to Ohio, so I pulled my omnibus copy of the shelf yesterday and finally dove in again. I finished the first book, the Book of Three, this morning (their short and easy to read), and will probably start on the Black Cauldron tonight. Though I love the convenience of the omnibus edition, I miss the artwork from the vintage paperback versions I had as a kid... makes we want to go dig out my copy of the Mabinigion and sample some tales from there as well. -M
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 4, 2024 9:02:08 GMT -5
Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler
This book was on display at the library, and the striking cover got my attention, then the inside flap description made it a must read.. an enviornmentalist trying to save elephants gets downloaded into a Wooly Mammoth? yes, please.
I'm not sure the fact that ivory trade is evil needs to be pointed out in 2023, but maybe it does. (I admit to having assuming that's not a thing that happens anymore, perhaps I am mistaken). That said, the book does a darn good job of it, though both the hunters and the hunted. It swaps back and forth between the past Damira remembers as a human and her fights with poachers to the present where Damira the mammoth rallies her herd to take out current hunters that have a dark secret.
Definitely would recommend as a quick, off beat read.
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