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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2018 21:16:52 GMT -5
Picked up this hefty tome while at Target today (it was priced within a few cents of what it was on Amazon, so we grabbed it when we saw it...) I've flipped through it a bit at the store and in the car afterwards seeing how much of the art I recognized and it was quite a stroll down memory lane. I am looking forward to sitting down and digging into it a little deeper later tonight. -M
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,085
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Post by Confessor on Nov 5, 2018 4:32:48 GMT -5
Picked up this hefty tome while at Target today (it was priced within a few cents of what it was on Amazon, so we grabbed it when we saw it...) I've flipped through it a bit at the store and in the car afterwards seeing how much of the art I recognized and it was quite a stroll down memory lane. I am looking forward to sitting down and digging into it a little deeper later tonight. -M Does that book collect all the artwork from the '80s Basic Dungeons & Dragons manuals? If so, me and my best buddy, back when we were about 10-14, used to love discussing the merits of the artwork in those books...along with which of the various warrior women depicted we most fancied, *a-hem*. Our favourite artist in those manuals was "somebody" Elmore (I forget his first name...maybe Larry?).
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2018 11:54:44 GMT -5
ConfessorYes Larry Elmore. It has art from all era of the game. I am only 21 pages in so far, and the first chapter is focused on a visual history (including a lot of the art as well as photos, documents etc.) of the original boxed set that came out in the early 70s. I haven't looked in detail yet on the chapters on the 80s, but Elmore stuff was well represented when I flipped through the book at the store and in the car before I dove in. Elmore is one of my wife's favorite artists as well and we have a fair number of prints and postcards and one original piece she got a a con years ago hanging up in various places in the house. -M
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,085
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Post by Confessor on Nov 5, 2018 17:27:20 GMT -5
Elmore is one of my wife's favorite artists as well and we have a fair number of prints and postcards and one original piece she got a a con years ago hanging up in various places in the house. Nice. Larry Elmore's artwork was the easy favourite of ours in those '80s D&D manuals. There was great art by other artists as well, but Elmore's was by far the best.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 6, 2018 22:22:40 GMT -5
That D & D book looks really fun! I felt a lot like Confessor when I first read John Carter... I wanted to love it, but the writing is a struggle at times... I find I was much more able to get into the comics. Now that I've read a lot more old sci fi, it doesn't seem as bad.. I guess I'm more used to the tics and style stuff that ERB in particular and old writers in general use. Touch of Death (sometimes published as 'Mix Yourself a Redhead') Charles Williams c.1953 Unlike a lot of the Hard Case Crime covers, this one actually depicts a scene in the book! I definitely need to stick with Hard Case Crime doing reprints, not new novels. Here we have a peaked-in-high-school ex-football player who is down to selling his car to pay the bills when he stumbles on the potential for a heist... the wife of a banker turned embezzler has a fortune in her house, and since she's the prime suspect in his murder, she can't really complain if it's stolen. A couple double crosses later, our 'hero' is trying to hide out with the wife to get the money before she can get away with it herself or the cops close in. It's hard to describe much of the book without giving it away.. it's full of great twist and turns where you can really feel Lee (the main character) suffering from setbacks and getting excited about new ideas. While there was a bit of a plot hole at the end that is nagging at my brain, it was still a gripping thriller that really got you into the minds of the characters.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Nov 8, 2018 6:47:15 GMT -5
Boy, I do hope that Michael Crichton’s 2004 novel State of fear manages to keep me interested just on its (eventual) strength as a thriller, because its Youtube Conspiracy Level climate denying expository dialog is extremely annoying!!!
Meanwhile, 14 years later, we still have dramatically shrinking polar ice caps, a vanishing Greenland ice shelf, itsy bitsy tiny glaciers and a long string of summers that manage to be hotter than the one before.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 8, 2018 10:26:37 GMT -5
Touch of Death (sometimes published as 'Mix Yourself a Redhead') Charles Williams c.1953 Unlike a lot of the Hard Case Crime covers, this one actually depicts a scene in the book! I definitely need to stick with Hard Case Crime doing reprints, not new novels. Here we have a peaked-in-high-school ex-football player who is down to selling his car to pay the bills when he stumbles on the potential for a heist... the wife of a banker turned embezzler has a fortune in her house, and since she's the prime suspect in his murder, she can't really complain if it's stolen. A couple double crosses later, our 'hero' is trying to hide out with the wife to get the money before she can get away with it herself or the cops close in. It's hard to describe much of the book without giving it away.. it's full of great twist and turns where you can really feel Lee (the main character) suffering from setbacks and getting excited about new ideas. While there was a bit of a plot hole at the end that is nagging at my brain, it was still a gripping thriller that really got you into the minds of the characters. I read this one back in 2010 and quite liked it...though I didn't take the time to review it. Williams was a pretty strong writer of paperback originals. Not on the level of Jim Thompson but far better than average. And he did a fair bit of swamp noir which I quite enjoy. His best work is probably The Hot Spot. Check it out if you get the chance.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Nov 8, 2018 12:54:28 GMT -5
Boy, I do hope that Michael Crichton’s 2004 novel State of fear manages to keep me interested just on its (eventual) strength as a thriller, because its Youtube Conspiracy Level climate denying expository dialog is extremely annoying!!! Meanwhile, 14 years later, we still have dramatically shrinking polar ice caps, a vanishing Greenland ice shelf, itsy bitsy tiny glaciers and a long string of summers that manage to be hotter than the one before. I think the last book Crichton wrote that's worth reading - as a diversion - is Jurassic Park. He really started grinding his socio-political axes after that; I struggled through Disclosure and Rising Sun (which I almost threw against the wall a few times) and decided that was it for me. Personally, I think his best stuff is from the late '60s and '70s, like Andromeda Strain, Great Train Robbery, Terminal Man, etc. and his crime thrillers (originally written under various pseudonyms).
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Post by berkley on Nov 9, 2018 3:35:49 GMT -5
Boy, I do hope that Michael Crichton’s 2004 novel State of fear manages to keep me interested just on its (eventual) strength as a thriller, because its Youtube Conspiracy Level climate denying expository dialog is extremely annoying!!! Meanwhile, 14 years later, we still have dramatically shrinking polar ice caps, a vanishing Greenland ice shelf, itsy bitsy tiny glaciers and a long string of summers that manage to be hotter than the one before. I think the last book Crichton wrote that's worth reading - as a diversion - is Jurassic Park. He really started grinding his socio-political axes after that; I struggled through Disclosure and Rising Sun (which I almost threw against the wall a few times) and decided that was it for me. Personally, I think his best stuff is from the late '60s and '70s, like Andromeda Strain, Great Train Robbery, Terminal Man, etc. and his crime thrillers (originally written under various pseudonyms). Yeah, I read the three you mentioned there - Andromeda Strain, Great Train Robbery, Terminal Man - as a kid, and also Eaters of the Dead, bit a different one for Chrichton. Enjoyed them all at the time. Years later - mid 80s? - I read Congo, but it didn't work for me as the earlier Chrichtons had done, though whether the difference was in me or in his writing, I couldn't say.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Nov 9, 2018 5:36:03 GMT -5
Oh, yeah, Eaters of the Dead, that one's pretty entertaining, too. Congo, though - didn't like that one very much, nor his other book from the '80s I recall reading, Sphere.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 9, 2018 16:02:04 GMT -5
You Suck by Christopher Moore. I'm a big fan of Christopher Moore. For my money he is book in and book out the best humor author working today. That said, his vampire books are by far his weakest work. I recently re-read Bloodsucking Fiends and I did like it better than I did the first time I read it. But this one just didn't work very well for me. None of the characters are particularly likeable. Not that I have to love my protagonists. But I want to at least find them interesting. And really...nobody here is remotely compelling. The addition of Abby didn't help. She's more of an annoyance than a welcome addition. There's nothing inherently wrong with the book. It's just not super funny and it definitely is weak-sauce compared to Moore's better work.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 10, 2018 12:29:40 GMT -5
Picked up this hefty tome while at Target today (it was priced within a few cents of what it was on Amazon, so we grabbed it when we saw it...) I've flipped through it a bit at the store and in the car afterwards seeing how much of the art I recognized and it was quite a stroll down memory lane. I am looking forward to sitting down and digging into it a little deeper later tonight. -M I'd really love to have that book. I'm really struggling to justify the cost.
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Post by Jeddak on Nov 10, 2018 22:46:49 GMT -5
You Suck by Christopher Moore. I'm a big fan of Christopher Moore. For my money he is book in and book out the best humor author working today. That said, his vampire books are by far his weakest work. I recently re-read Bloodsucking Fiends and I did like it better than I did the first time I read it. But this one just didn't work very well for me. None of the characters are particularly likeable. Not that I have to love my protagonists. But I want to at least find them interesting. And really...nobody here is remotely compelling. The addition of Abby didn't help. She's more of an annoyance than a welcome addition. There's nothing inherently wrong with the book. It's just not super funny and it definitely is weak-sauce compared to Moore's better work. Gotta agree with you. I love some of Moore's work ( Fool, The Stupidest Angel, Lamb), and like others ( Sacre Blue, Fluke). But the vampire books just don't do anything for me. Maybe I'm just burned out on vampires? But A Dirty Job did nothing for me, either. And Noir was a disappointment. I'll keep reading him, cause when he's good, he's really that good. But I go in a little warily, knowwhatImean?
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Post by Jeddak on Nov 10, 2018 23:14:51 GMT -5
Valdez is Coming by Elmore Leonard Valdez is a marshal, kept around to keep the peace among the Mexican populace, and tolerated or patronized by the white guys who run the town. When a powerful rancher puts him in a position where he has to kill an innocent man, Valdez thinks the town owes the dead man's widow some recompense. They laugh, but he persists, and is abused and left to die. He doesn't, being the title character, and comes back for justice. Sounds like a typical revenge western, right? And that's what I expected. But despite what happens to him, Valdez remains focused on justice, on doing the right thing. He doesn't go into the usual vengeful rage, staying cool and dutiful throughout. Which makes him a much more interesting character, and makes the book a refreshingly different read. And the ending is not the cliché resolution either, though it's still satisfying. It's not perfect. The bad guy is pretty generic; Lee Van Cleef could play him with one arm behind his back. And the bad guy's woman, who Valdez ends up kidnapping, seems deeper than the usual damsel, but her change of heart doesn't really work for me. Still, a well done book; glad I finally decided to try Leonard.
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Post by Jeddak on Nov 10, 2018 23:25:01 GMT -5
Bellwether by Connie Willis Two research scientists working at a big corporation are brought together by a series of coincidences (or are they?). They end up combining their projects, as they find that their separate questions might have a common answer. This is a smart, funny book, skewering the management mentality and talking (a lot) about the nature of fads. Which, as a pop culture nerd, I found really interesting. The book actually reminds me a bit of a British sitcom I recently discovered, The IT Crowd, with its exaggerated characters and situations which still feel relatable. And did I mention it's funny? The one thing it isn't, despite the cover, is science fiction. I mean, it's fiction, about scientists, and about the workings of science, yes. But SF? Nope. If I had to put this book in a genre, I'd have to call it a romcom. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.
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