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Post by BigPapaJoe on Oct 23, 2017 8:45:29 GMT -5
covers for the sequels and new edition of Point Man... -M Who did the cover art? EDIT: Nevermind. Found out. Frank Stockton.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 24, 2017 11:33:04 GMT -5
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline I'd been putting off reading this book for a while.. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was too popular. Or too many people said I'd love it. Whatever the reason, it took book club choosing it to get me to read it... and I did, in fact, read it in less than 48 hours. I'm not sure I'd say I loved it, but it was awfully fun to read. It's basically Willy Wonka for this generation.. I mean, back then, what kid wouldn't want to run a candy factory. For those of us that spent their youth on text RPGs and Atari, it's being the king of a legit VR internet. The references came fast and hard, and helped me come to the conclusion that I think the author is one of my peeps.... I mean just about every major 80s item he focused on is a favorite of mine.. even some (like Rush and Monty Python) that I wouldn't call 80s in particular. I also really appreciated the (few) subtle call outs, and suspect there were a couple a missed. As for the book itself, the story isn't anything too special, and is certainly predictable, but it's YA targeted, so that's to be expected. It's certainly a page turner. I suspect people who don't have a love of old video games and 80s TV see it as just another in a sea of YA dystopian novels, but if you're on board for the references, it's a great ride. This is what I had to say when I read it... "I get it. This is nostalgia porn. It is. It's aimed at those of us who grew up in the late 70s and the 80s. Especially if you were a bit of a nerd. And that's why I had avoided it. I can wax nostalgic about some things, but Sturgeon's law applies. However, after Amazon and Goodreads and every other durned thing telling me I needed to read this book, I finally caved. And it was okay. It was decently written. Nice, if not incredibly original premise. Then BAM!! The Tomb of Horrors became a major plot-point. And I got it. This works. It works for me...partly because of what it is. Partly because of what it says. Partly as nostalgia porn. I didn't even end up tremendously upset by the Hollywood ending. I got suckered in. And that's okay." I do have to disagree that it's aimed at YA. It's aimed squarely at people who grew up in the 80s. The YA market wouldn't get 80% of the references in the book. They don't have to get the references... they are explained in just about every instance. There are only a very few that are not (the Conan ones, and a few offhand ones, like planet Benetar or the main character drinking a Gargle Blaster, etc.) I think it was more about getting the current generation to look up the references, really... almost preaching about the church of the 80s. Plot was it was 100% YA... the independent plucky lead, the gender swap, the romance, the perfect plans made on the spur of the moment, etc. The fact that people can read it for Nostalgia is a bonus.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 24, 2017 13:12:26 GMT -5
This is what I had to say when I read it... "I get it. This is nostalgia porn. It is. It's aimed at those of us who grew up in the late 70s and the 80s. Especially if you were a bit of a nerd. And that's why I had avoided it. I can wax nostalgic about some things, but Sturgeon's law applies. However, after Amazon and Goodreads and every other durned thing telling me I needed to read this book, I finally caved. And it was okay. It was decently written. Nice, if not incredibly original premise. Then BAM!! The Tomb of Horrors became a major plot-point. And I got it. This works. It works for me...partly because of what it is. Partly because of what it says. Partly as nostalgia porn. I didn't even end up tremendously upset by the Hollywood ending. I got suckered in. And that's okay." I do have to disagree that it's aimed at YA. It's aimed squarely at people who grew up in the 80s. The YA market wouldn't get 80% of the references in the book. They don't have to get the references... they are explained in just about every instance. There are only a very few that are not (the Conan ones, and a few offhand ones, like planet Benetar or the main character drinking a Gargle Blaster, etc.) I think it was more about getting the current generation to look up the references, really... almost preaching about the church of the 80s. Plot was it was 100% YA... the independent plucky lead, the gender swap, the romance, the perfect plans made on the spur of the moment, etc. The fact that people can read it for Nostalgia is a bonus. It wasn't marketed as a YA book. It wasn't reviewed as a YA book. I guess your mileage varies, but I don't see it nor do I see it being referred to as a YA book.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 24, 2017 14:38:39 GMT -5
I read Swiss Family Robinson for the first time this weekend and I was pretty blown away with how intelligent, independent and capable Elizabeth (the wife) was written to be. Sure, she didn't go out on many of the adventures that her husband and sons went on, often being left to keep the home-fires burning, but when issues arose she wasn't a passive spectator but rather a strong voice whose opinions were listened to and considered strongly. Those qualities are to be commended in the fantasies of today, but in a book from 1812 it really surprised me.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 25, 2017 9:17:01 GMT -5
It wasn't marketed as a YA book. It wasn't reviewed as a YA book. I guess your mileage varies, but I don't see it nor do I see it being referred to as a YA book. Goodreads has it as a young adult book, and I got it off the YA shelf in my library. That said, now that you say so and I look at it more closely, that's a user-defined thing. I don't really recall the marketing and such, so I'll believe you there. It was more the vibe I got... it definitely felt like another YA dystopia, with the 80s nostalgia as the 'hook' for it. Certainly it's a pretty foggy sorta thing...I've had plenty of times where I've argued about book with stores and librarians... it drives me nuts when they call Ender's Game or Lord of the Rings as YA. For me, its more of a vibe than the marketing, and this book had it.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 25, 2017 12:39:00 GMT -5
It wasn't marketed as a YA book. It wasn't reviewed as a YA book. I guess your mileage varies, but I don't see it nor do I see it being referred to as a YA book. Goodreads has it as a young adult book, and I got it off the YA shelf in my library. That said, now that you say so and I look at it more closely, that's a user-defined thing. I don't really recall the marketing and such, so I'll believe you there. It was more the vibe I got... it definitely felt like another YA dystopia, with the 80s nostalgia as the 'hook' for it. Certainly it's a pretty foggy sorta thing...I've had plenty of times where I've argued about book with stores and librarians... it drives me nuts when they call Ender's Game or Lord of the Rings as YA. For me, its more of a vibe than the marketing, and this book had it. I'm not trying to argue. I actually think this is an interesting discussion. Goodreads, I believe, as far as the genre thing goes is user generated based on how the users shelve the books. So with Ready Player One you get Science Fiction; Fiction; Young Adult; Science Fiction -> Dystopia; Fantasy in descending order. I actually didn't remember the marketing either, so I went back and looked at both the marketing and the early reviews and it really wasn't marketed or reviewed as a YA book. I do think YA is somewhat problematic because it's a pretty amorphous category. There are books that are very clearly YA (Rick Riordan, Harry Potter). And then there are the two examples you give that clearly are not YA but sometimes seem to be shoehorned in because young people like them.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 26, 2017 22:17:39 GMT -5
It really is... some people think YA is any book that would pass with a 'PG' rating if it was a movie.... that is, no swears, no sex... YA!
I kinda think of it as 'if they were making this into a show, would the CW pick it up?'... if yes, it's YA.
There's people that think if the main character is a kid, then it's a YA novel.
Certainly alot of people classify most, if not all, sci-fi/fantasy as YA these days, since the popularity of Harry Potter et al... especially when those books crossed over into the general public. I remember when I was still at the book store and getting Pubisher's Weekly, the golden goose was always a YA book that crossed over into the 'Soccer Mom' demo (women 35-54).
That's when I get aggravated.. stuff that has adult themes and has no business in the hands of a 10 year old ends up next to magic tree house in the library. Honestly, Ender's Game falls into that category the most, IMO. I mean, there's a couple scenes in it that are pretty violent, yet one can find it in the kids sections next to Magic School Bus books.
What is really entertaining at times is going into a store like Savers, where some little old lady that doesn't read (or sticks to Harlequins) tries to sort the books. Last time I found David Weber in the History section (with space ships on the cover)... Steven Ambrose in sci fi... Jean Auel's Valley of the Horses as a western (because clearly Horse = western) and Mike Lupica YA novels in the sports section.
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Post by Calamas on Oct 27, 2017 9:18:00 GMT -5
A little off topic, the funniest (or maybe stupidest) misfile I ever encountered was the novelization of Superman Returns in the horror section because it was written by Marv Wolfman. I mean, it has Superman in the title.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 28, 2017 14:00:56 GMT -5
Black Dog by Neil Gaiman Published in the collection Trigger Warnings, this novella (novelette?) follows Shadow Moon as he works his way south through Great Britain following the events in Monarch of the Glen. Shadow lands in a small English town with a history of having a Barghest. He is befriended by a middle-aged couple, an attractive young lady and as per usual for Shadow, things are more than they seem...and definitely stranger. Probably a tad weaker than Monarch of the Glen, it's still always great to see Shadow and more of the shadow world around him.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 1, 2017 12:55:22 GMT -5
Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Burroughs returns to Barsoom after a short absence to bring us the adventures of Carthoris and Thuvia. It's still early in Burroughs' career but he's already falling into routine. This is largely a re-hash of the John Carter/Dejah Thoris romance. The love that cannot be, the captured Princess, the stalwart fighting man to the rescue. The addition of the Lotharians and to a lesser extent Kar Komak at least means there is something new...Burroughs is always good for creating lost civilizations. But there isn't enough new here to make this more than a middling entry.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 1, 2017 13:28:26 GMT -5
A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut. It's been ages since I've read Vonnegut. And I do intend to re-read his works...someday. But I had never read this one and I wanted something short and quick to read. And since we never got a memoir from Vonnegut this collection of essays was going to have to do. And holy moly did it do. This is Vonnegut at full-funny, full-irreverent and fully telling the world how little he thinks of most of it. This one puts Vonnegut high on my list of people I'd love to have had dinner and conversation with. An absolute must read.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 1, 2017 22:07:46 GMT -5
Love that Thuvia cover!
City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett
I read the first series of this book a little while back, and did really enjoy it, but after reading the summary of this one, a waited.. I mean, where are the main characters? I assumed Bulikov would not be the locale (Sadly), but no Shara? I just wasn't all that interested in a book featuring a minor character. Boy, was I wrong.
Bennett gives us a very different, but equally as interesting city to explore, and Gen. Mulagesh turns out to be an extremely engaging protagonist.. a solider that has very definite views on what it means to serve. I love her (and Bennett's) view on this... if even a small percentage of our real life soliders feel that way, we're in very good hands.
At first, I thought the complete disinterest in continuing the story from City of Stairs was annoying, but as the story developed, having that simmer in the background to give Voortyastan its due made total sense. The rare combination of a good story, good characters, and a good ending made this one a joy to read... I'll be sure to read the next one in alot less time than I waiting to get to book 2.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 2, 2017 9:52:26 GMT -5
The Michael Whelan covers came out when I was in Junior High/High School and I loved them.
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Post by berkley on Nov 2, 2017 11:59:05 GMT -5
The Michael Whelan covers came out when I was in Junior High/High School and I loved them. I like some better than others but that's one of his best ones, to my mind. I don't think I've ever seen it reproduced like that, with no text or creases. I must look up the rest of the Whelan Barsoom covers to remind myself how they look. Most of my ERB paperbacks now have Frazetta or Krenkel covers, if I've been able to find them.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2017 16:24:54 GMT -5
Don’t think I’ve ever seen a Whelan cover that didn’t make me want to pick up the book.
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