|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 10, 2018 23:54:45 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? I think we mostly agree when it comes to Moore. The ones you cited as your favorites are definitely mine. I didn’t mind Dirty Jobs, though it wasn’t great. Noir was a major disappointment. Haven’t read Sacre Bleu yet or Serpent of Venice. But at this point I’d say Fool was his last really strong book.
|
|
|
Post by brutalis on Nov 12, 2018 8:34:46 GMT -5
Took me a little bit to red through this one as it was mighty interesting and a bit longer. The Real wild West: the 101 Ranch and the Creation of the American West by Michael Wallis. Around 525 pages worth of history about the 101 ranch and the family that gave it the place in America's western heritage that it holds. Starting with the father George W. Miller creating a cattle ranch empire, then the 3 sons after his death turning the ranch into farming, agriculture and creating Wild West shows the ranch has a long involved history with lots of famous folks visiting, working and riding and playing hard for the 101. To name a few: Tom Mix, Will Rogers, Bill Pickett, Buffalo Bill, Yakima Canutt, Lucille Mulhall billed as the 1st original cow girl.
This book reads as a who's who of important and famous people of the times. Presidents and cowboys and criminals all together ventured to and participated in the 101 Ranch at some point or another. This family had an incredible influence and developed much of what is considered and known as being the "western life" that everyone knows today. The stories within cover real happenings, supposed and unproven stories and everything in-between. The west was never wilder or woolier than what history tells about this ranch and the people living on it. In these pages fact becomes fiction and fiction becomes fact as the Miller's are such a part of the history of ranching, cattle trails, cowboys and rodeo's and the early western films. You will be enthralled.
A very interesting and entertaining read if you have the time and interest of the west.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 14, 2018 16:38:23 GMT -5
The Gutter and the Grave by Ed McBain My second noir by McBain and Hard Case Crime and the second one that is really quite good. McBain wrote this one as Curt Cannon and it features Matt Cordell, aka Curt Cannon. Cordell occupies an interesting area where hard-boiled detective meets everyman noir. He was a successful P.I. until his wife cheated on him with one of his employees and his license was pulled after he pistol-whipped said employee. Now he spends most of his time in The Bowery pan-handling so he can buy cheap hooch to dull the pain. But now and then he gets pulled into a case...even though it's illegal for him to take them. The general premise of this one is pretty easy. An guy Cordell knows from the old neighborhood looks him up because he thinks his partner is stealing from him. Cordell gets dragged into the case and it ends up in two different murders. Along the way we also run into another P.I. with an old grudge against Cordell. And in the end...in the best noir tradition...there's no redemption. Just another dive into a bottle. I've been super impressed with the two books I've read so far by McBain that were published by Hard Case. I'll definitely be seeking more of his work. Highly recommended.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2018 17:53:57 GMT -5
The Gutter and the Grave by Ed McBain My second noir by McBain and Hard Case Crime and the second one that is really quite good. McBain wrote this one as Curt Cannon and it features Matt Cordell, aka Curt Cannon. Cordell occupies an interesting area where hard-boiled detective meets everyman noir. He was a successful P.I. until his wife cheated on him with one of his employees and his license was pulled after he pistol-whipped said employee. Now he spends most of his time in The Bowery pan-handling so he can buy cheap hooch to dull the pain. But now and then he gets pulled into a case...even though it's illegal for him to take them. The general premise of this one is pretty easy. An guy Cordell knows from the old neighborhood looks him up because he thinks his partner is stealing from him. Cordell gets dragged into the case and it ends up in two different murders. Along the way we also run into another P.I. with an old grudge against Cordell. And in the end...in the best noir tradition...there's no redemption. Just another dive into a bottle. I've been super impressed with the two books I've read so far by McBain that were published by Hard Case. I'll definitely be seeking more of his work. Highly recommended. There is a collection of Curt Cannon stories entitled I Like 'Em Tough. One of them is the one they put in the back of Cut Me In, but all of them retain the Cannon name.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 14, 2018 18:00:45 GMT -5
The Gutter and the Grave by Ed McBain My second noir by McBain and Hard Case Crime and the second one that is really quite good. McBain wrote this one as Curt Cannon and it features Matt Cordell, aka Curt Cannon. Cordell occupies an interesting area where hard-boiled detective meets everyman noir. He was a successful P.I. until his wife cheated on him with one of his employees and his license was pulled after he pistol-whipped said employee. Now he spends most of his time in The Bowery pan-handling so he can buy cheap hooch to dull the pain. But now and then he gets pulled into a case...even though it's illegal for him to take them. The general premise of this one is pretty easy. An guy Cordell knows from the old neighborhood looks him up because he thinks his partner is stealing from him. Cordell gets dragged into the case and it ends up in two different murders. Along the way we also run into another P.I. with an old grudge against Cordell. And in the end...in the best noir tradition...there's no redemption. Just another dive into a bottle. I've been super impressed with the two books I've read so far by McBain that were published by Hard Case. I'll definitely be seeking more of his work. Highly recommended. There is a collection of Curt Cannon stories entitled I Like 'Em Tough. One of them is the one they put in the back of Cut Me In, but all of them retain the Cannon name. Yep. I recently read Cut Me In. I'm going to look for I Like 'Em Tough.
|
|
|
Post by Jesse on Nov 17, 2018 21:17:13 GMT -5
The Enemyby Lee Child Book eight is the second Jack Reacher novel to be written in the first person, like the last book which featured flashbacks this story takes place entirely in Reacher's past. Specifically starting the night of New Years Eve 1989 and the following days. Once again we are getting a peak into Jack's analytical mind while seeing him work a case as a Military Police officer. When a General is found dead in a hotel room and his briefcase containing sensitive information goes missing it leads to a series of murders and a conspiracy unravels. We get a more in depth look at characters from Reacher's past particularly his brother Joe and their ailing mother. I feel like Child is making commentary on the political infighting inside of the military between different branches of the army during a time where downsizing would soon occur with the inevitable fall of the Berlin wall. There is also a really touching reveal about his mother that I don't think anyone would expect. Other than that it's more of the same action packed 'whodunit' where Reacher solves the case, gets the girl, and kills the bad guy.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 18, 2018 17:49:27 GMT -5
Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction by Alec Nevala-Lee Let's just start off that I've needed this book in my life for a long long time. Alec Nevala-Lee gives us a biography of John W. Campbell, editor of Astounding magazine and the midwife of what is generally called The Golden Age of Science Fiction. Along the way he also gives us bios of Campbell's two most important writers Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein, and L. Ron Hubbard...who was a fairly huge writer at the time and went on to greater heights of infamy while his fiction has generally been forgotten or discounted. This is a warts and all bio for all of those involved. And there are plenty of warts to be found among these foundational figures in SF. The obvious import of this book is the look at Campbell, who is rightly the focus. Asimov, Heinlein and Hubbard have all been written about fairly extensively. But Campbell has needed a biography for a long time. Campbell was almost unquestionably the most important SF editor of all time editing the most important SF pulp of all time. He shepherded the early careers of Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov and helped transition SF from early pulp space opera to the first Golden Age of SF. Campbell also gave an outlet for Hubbard as well as being instrumental in the development of Dianetics...from which, one hopes, the world may one day recover. Nevala-Lee gives us an informative and very readable look at the four gentlemen in the title. I love that in his afterward he recognizes that there is still work to be done and biographies and stories from the time to be told. While I was familiar with the broad outlines of the story there was a lot here that was revealing to me...a pretty well-read SF fan of 40 years. I didn't realize how many SF writers had their careers taken off-track by Dianetics and just generally being close to Hubbard, A.E. van Vogt being a particular example. Watching Campbell's (and Heinlein's for that matter) descent from conservative to reactionary was sad and telling. Equally sad was Campbell's descent from being a man attempting to bring science to the masses as entertainment to being the worst kind of patsy for blatant charlatanism. But none of the warts can change the fact that Campbell changed the face of popular culture both through is work as an editor and his development of talent. And one can only wonder what more he could have done if his personal prejudices and his inner demons hadn't constrained both those he cultivated and essentially brought his years of innovation to a pre-mature halt with the end of the Second World War. This is an excellent work. Easily one of the the best I've read in 2018. If you're a fan of SF at all...if you're a fan of popular culture at all...you owe it to yourself to seek this one out.
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 19, 2018 23:54:45 GMT -5
The Martian Sphinx by Keith Woodcott (John Brunner) c. 1965 I found this one a little hard to get through... I don't recall having style issues with the previous John Brunner stuff I've read, but this was a bit of a slog. maybe there was just too much going on.. we have the whole 'world flip' vision of the future, where the US and Western Europe become the 3rd world and the then 3rd world are on top... we have a first contact.. we have an alien mystery... all sorts of stuff. Then there's 'gravipower'... unlimited power by using a bit of the planet's mass.. doesn't make even a bit of sense, and then there was a mention that it was making the Earth go closer to the sun as it was used, which is what lead them to Mars in the first place (because who cares if Mars gets sucked into the Sun, I guess?) It functioned well enough as a technical MacGuffin to drive the story, but the amount of 'hard' science explanation on how it worked when it seemed complete nonsense was annoying. There was also just a bit too much reverse racism.. the main character a white guy from the US (called a 'Cork' as a derogatory racial term.. which made me keep thinking he was Irish), was also the poor oppressed genius that figured everything out. The aliens were almost really interesting, but not quite, then there was a 2nd alien race that didn't even really get resolved. I got the feeling that this was meant to be the start of a series that just failed. It's not nearly as bad as some I've read, but certainly nothing to write home about either.
|
|
|
Post by berkley on Nov 20, 2018 4:23:40 GMT -5
Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction by Alec Nevala-Lee I'll probably read this myself one of these days - but I am a bit surprised to see Hubbard in there with Campbell, Asimov, and Heinlein. I know he was both prolific and popular, but still, from the POV of their impact on science fiction I would have thought there were more deserving writers that could have been included instead. Do you think it's the Scientology angle? I see that as something separate from his influence as a science fiction writer, intertwined though they were.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 20, 2018 10:55:26 GMT -5
Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction by Alec Nevala-Lee I'll probably read this myself one of these days - but I am a bit surprised to see Hubbard in there with Campbell, Asimov, and Heinlein. I know he was both prolific and popular, but still, from the POV of their impact on science fiction I would have thought there were more deserving writers that could have been included instead. Do you think it's the Scientology angle? I see that as something separate from his influence as a science fiction writer, intertwined though they were. It's the impact on Campbell. And to an extent on Astounding the magazine. People tend to forget that Hubbard was one of the more popular pulp writers of the time. That fact has been eclipsed by Dianetics and Scientology and the fact that his writing from the period has not withstood the test of time. More importantly Campbell was intimately involved in the development of and publication of Dianetics. Dianetics was first promoted in Astounding simultaneous to its publication because Campbell was involved in the writing of the book and Hubbard was his friend and had been one of his premiere writers. Added to that Hubbard and Heinlein were at one point friends and had an...odd relationship over the years.
|
|
|
Post by Rob Allen on Nov 20, 2018 14:08:48 GMT -5
Here's Jesus and Mohammed discussing religion with the atheist barmaid at their local pub (in this strip, the duo live in modern London):
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 20, 2018 17:12:17 GMT -5
Coffin For Cash by Nik Morton. Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles are back for one last time. This is the last novella in the series and leaves me with only one that I haven't read (the final short story collection by series creator Edward Grainger, which has mysteriously become completely unavailable). This time around Cash is looking for a missing financier (accompanied by his beautiful sister) while Gideon is escorting a prisoner back to Cheyenne for trial. In true pulp fashion the two storylines intersect in a tale that includes a house of murder, incestuous siblings, a killer undertaker, a casino of death and all sorts of neat stuff. This is a strong send-off to a generally fun series. I'd love to see it start up again.
|
|
Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,085
|
Post by Confessor on Nov 21, 2018 11:35:09 GMT -5
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. So, continuing on my current sci-fi kick, I finished reading Joe Haldeman's military space opera novel, The Forever War, a couple of weeks ago. Published in 1974, the book is clearly influenced by Haldeman's own experiences serving in the Vietnam War. The book details an interstellar conflict between Humans and the alien Taurans, in which the reason for fighting is never wholly understood by the grunts, the top brass are essentially clueless, and the cause of the war is due to a colossal misunderstanding. While The Forever War is an anti-war book, weirdly, it's also one that delights in describing futuristic military equipment, such as the soldier's awesome power suits, and the excitement of using that equipment to blow the hell out of stuff – which, it must be said, are some of the most enjoyable parts of the book. The novel follows William Mandella, right from basic training, through to combat, as he's drafted into an elite task force of the United Nations Exploratory Force and sent off to fight the Taurans. The soldiers travel between the stars via interconnected "collapsars", which allow their spaceships to cover thousands of light-years almost instantaneously. However, going through these collapsars has tremendous relativistic effects, in which hundreds of years pass without the soldiers ageing at all. The dislocation felt by Mandella upon his return to an Earth that he barely recognises, is clearly analogous with the feelings of many soldiers returning to the U.S. after serving in Vietnam. Mandella's love interest, fellow soldier Marygay Potter, is introduced early on in his training, and I must say that the way in which Haldeman handles their blossoming relationship feels very realistic. However, there's a bitter-sweet quality to William and Marygay's romance, since, as the book progresses and these two lovers find themselves hundreds of years out of step with society, they are the only two people they know who can relate to the late 20th century world that they grew up in. The love story between Mandella and Potter is never overplayed, but is central to the book, and, without wanting to spoil anything, the ending definitely betrays Haldeman as something of a romantic at heart. Haldeman's also pretty good at predicting the future, in that he has men and women serving as equals in the army, just as they do today. In addition, his exploration into sexual orientation, as a means of social and population control, is very interesting, especially considering the leaps we've seen in recent years in the legalisation and legitimisation of gay marriage across the globe. Overall, The Forever War was an exciting read while I had it in my hands – I really couldn't put it down. However, it's also strangely forgettable and I'm not sure I could imagine myself re-reading it. As a writer, Haldeman's not one to spend a long time on exposition, but in this case that's a good thing and a major reason why the book – with its relatable characters, vivid descriptions, and thought-provoking anti-war subtext – is such a pleasure to read. This is a really good science fiction story first and foremost, and is well worth your time if military sci-fi is your thing.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 21, 2018 13:38:21 GMT -5
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman I've read a lot of classic SF. However, the vast majority of it is pre-1970. I have read a fair amount from 1970 to the late 80s and from there it's beyond spotty. I've been trying to fill in some gaps in with modern SF, but also decided to fill in some glaring gaps in older books...and this is one of them. I'm not sure why this one never made my reading list. But I'm glad I read it...and I'm probably glad I read it now. I'm not entirely sure it would have had the same impact if I'd read it when I was significantly younger and was less familiar with the background. The Forever War is Haldeman's response to being a grunt in Vietnam. The troops don't know what they're fighting for. There's no clear objective. They don't understand the enemy at all. And the war just goes on and on chewing up people and resources. If I had a complaint about the book it would be that I never really feel a great deal for any of the characters. And that includes Mandella, the narrator. But it's an important meditation on war...and it is definitely once again just as relevant as it was when it was written. This was what I had to say about The Forever War when I read it back in October of 2015. It was definitely a great novel.
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Nov 22, 2018 5:48:10 GMT -5
A False Report, by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong I know we normally post fiction stuff here, but I wasn't sure where else to mention this (doesn't really fit for the history thread). The book is based on a report filed by the two authors which won them the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in 2016. Here, they expanded the story. Basically, it recounts the efforts by several detectives in Colorado to apprehend a serial rapist, and how it connects to an alleged false report of rape a few years earlier by a young woman living in the Seattle suburbs. Even though I read the original article online when it was first posted, I still found this gripping. It's a credit to the authors that it often reads like a police procedural novel, even though it's a very tragically real story. Definitely worth picking up and reading. (Full disclosure: I know one of the authors, Miller, as we used to be housemates back in college.)
|
|