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Post by MRPs_Missives on Jul 10, 2024 10:44:00 GMT -5
As a side note, there's a newish "genre" called romantasy that mashes up traditional romance novel type stories but sets them in fantasy settings with all the world building and magic system development you see in modern fantasy (the likes of Brandon Sanderson as an example of modern fantasy). I've not read much at all of these types of fantasy, but they are getting popular with a certain section of modern fantasy readership and get of exposure in the fantasy corner of booktube (i.e. the corner of youtube whose content focuses on book discussion). These are a more recent trend than paranormal romance, which has been around and going strong for a few decades at least now. But many point to things like Anne McCaffery's Pern books as kind of the blueprint on which the romantasy genre was built. -M I haven't read it yet, but Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros is the poster child for this 'new' sub-genre. People I trust say its 90% romance and it's popularity on Goodreads (which tends to be most popular with young females) tell me it might not be for me. Also, apparently there is a lot less dragons than advertised. That said, I'd love someone here to read and review it  As I said, my wife has read a lot of stuff that falls under that umbrella, but not that particular book. I know the Kushiel books by Jacqueline Carey are a particular favorite of hers, and does fall under that broad umbrella. If I ever get my tbr pile down to less than a couple score, I might sample that series, or others she likes, but I'm not that interested in a simple romance with fantasy trappings. Carey and some of the others she likes have romantic elements, but are fantasy stories. You can also look at something like the Blue Rose ttrpg for something that is fantasy but with a lot of romantic elements in it. It takes its inspiration in many ways form the Mercedes Lackey Valdemar books, but also has a strong element of romantic trope sin its gameplay. I only played it once a decade ago at Origins Game Fair with my wife, who wanted to try it, and we were lucky enough to be at a table where Steven Kenson, the lead designer for the game, was the GM, so we got to talk about the nuts and bolts of designing that style of game and what his Appendix N equivalent was for it. We ended up buying, but never playing that edition, but that was an edition or two ago for Blue Rose. That version was based on Green Ronin's Mutants and Masterminds d20 system (True 20 as they called it), the current edition is built on a D&D 5E engine, but I haven't looked at it to see how it has changed/evolved in the ensuing 15+ years since that con. -M |
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Post by berkley on Jul 11, 2024 0:33:47 GMT -5
I finished Zothique, a collection of Clark Ashton Smith's stories set in that fictional, far-future earth when our sun is dying and human history may be nearing its end, but the setting is very much fantasy-based rather than SF - sorcerers and necromancers rather than mad scientists are the villains. The atmosphere is one of decadence and darkness - though there are occasional surprising flashes of humour, especially in the last story, The Voyage of King Euvaron, which might be seen as outright satire.
I liked this quite a bit but I would say it's better for reading a story or two at a time in between other things rather than reading straight through in one go. I look forward to comparing CAS's other collections and settings when I get to them.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 12, 2024 20:42:44 GMT -5
Heir to the Empire Timothy Zahn  After reading and review some of the early Dark Horse comics... the urge to re-read this (which had been building since Thrawn made his live action TV debut) was too much to ignore. (The cover there is the one I have... purchase as a new title near release) . I have alot of nostalglia vibes for this book... I read it for the first time just shortly after it came out at at Boys' State (a high school program that was like a camp to learn about the government, but mostly involved alot of hazing and basketball). I read quite a good chunk of it after lights out using the power light of my walkman as a book light.. a couple words at a time. This was the first legit sci fi novel I read (after some D&D novels and the Darksword Trilogy). Its funny which parts stuck out in my mind and which didn't. I very vividly remembered the scene where Luke disassembles his hand to power a door to escape from Talon Karrde, for instance, but I had almost completely forgotten about Fey'lya and his plot to take over the council. I vividly remembered the climatic fight at the shipyard, but had forgotten about the earlier battle where Thrawn obliterates a New Republic task force. It's very easy to see why this is still considered the gold standard of Star Wars novels... the characters created here are all great.... not just Thrawn, ,but Karrde, Mara Jade, Winter, etc. It also made it very clear why Thrawn portrayal in the current Disney continuity falls a little flat... here we get to see exactly how his mind works and his planning and why he's a grand Admiral. Many of the things he does here pay off in the other books, but its very clear (both to the in universe characters and the reader) that he is the Empire's last hope, and that he could well succeed. Looking at it now with a bit more critical eye, (which is very difficult, given the love I have for the story), there is a bit of coincidence being the driving plot point.. with the main character converging on the scenes needed almost like they had to be there... which of course they do. Then of course we have the force eating lizards, which I didn't like at the time and still think are dumb, but they serve an important plot function, so we just have to live with the little guys.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 14, 2024 12:11:02 GMT -5
 What's The Worst That Could Happen? by Donald E. Westlake
And back to Dortmunder after a break. John, Andy and the gang are back to take down a billionaire who had the audacity to cross John Dortmunder. When May receives a man's ring as a bequest from a long-lost uncle, Dortmunder decides he likes it and adopts it as his lucky ring. Wearing it on a burglary of a Long Island summer home that is supposed to be empty as it is a Chapter 11 bankruptcy asset, the billionaire owner ends up holding Dortmunder at gunpoint while waiting for the police and ultimately, claims the ring as his own while Dortmunder is taken in to custody. Well...this will not stand and Dortmunder embarks on a cross-country mission with Andy Kelp, Stan March, Herman X and seventeen others to retrieve his lucky ring. Well...it seems the ring is luckier for Dortmunder when it's not in his possession and not quite so lucky for its new owner. I had taken a break from the Dortmunder novels because I'd been struggling with them a bit. And this one firmed up the reason why. The book is just too long. This is a fun caper novel. It needs to breeze along. But there are definitely times this one slogs. You could easily cut 20-30% of the word count of this book and I suspect you wouldn't lose much. The third act is quite fun and it's nice to see Andy Kelp find a little love. But I'm going to have think about whether I'm up for the next installment. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 14, 2024 13:08:15 GMT -5
What's The Worst That Could Happen? by Donald E. Westlake
(...) If I ever get around to reading any of the other Dortmunder novels besides the one I've already read, I'll probably just stick with the earlier ones. Westlake is kind of a frustrating writer for me; some of his books I've read are really tightly-plotted page-turners, others are just o.k. or middling (usually the longer ones) and a few others are just ... not good.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 14, 2024 13:15:35 GMT -5
What's The Worst That Could Happen? by Donald E. Westlake
(...) If I ever get around to reading any of the other Dortmunder novels besides the one I've already read, I'll probably just stick with the earlier ones. Westlake is kind of a frustrating writer for me; some of his books I've read are really tightly-plotted page-turners, others are just o.k. or middling (usually the longer ones) and a few others are just ... not good.
I wonder how much of it is a publishing issue. The same thing happened with the Parker novels. The last couple and then the books when he came back to the series after hiatus were much longer and more meandering. It could just be Westlake changing his style, but there was definitely a change in paperback publishing from short punchy quick novels to longer reads. I think it also may come, in part, from the books no longer being paperback originals and thus having to justify the size of a hardcover initial printing. All speculation on my part. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 14, 2024 14:10:15 GMT -5
(...) All speculation on my part. Seems plausible, though. And on to another master of craft...
Charcoal Joe
Walter Mosley, 2016
 It’s 1968, and at the start, LA-based detective Easy Rawlins is riding high and feeling good about life: he and two colleagues are now co-owners of a private investigation agency, his daughter Feather is absolutely flourishing in her new private school, and he is planning to ask his long-time love to marry him. However, the rug gets pulled out from under him pretty quickly, esp. on that last matter (this ties in to some on-again, off-again problems that go all the way back to the short story collection Six Easy Pieces), and then he gets roped into a case that he would rather not take. The client is a man named Rufus Tyler, but who is better known as ‘Charcoal Joe’ (because he likes to sketch people’s portraits with charcoal), a seemingly unassuming older gentlemen who’s in fact one of the most dangerous and well-connected operators in the LA underworld. And he wants Easy to help a geeky young physicist named Seymour Brathwaite, who has been arrested after being found by police standing over the bodies of two men who were shot to death, even though he had no murder weapon on him and has no connection to the victims. Joe, a friend of the young man’s foster mother, insists that he’s innocent, and although Easy doesn’t like the idea of getting mixed up with Joe in any way, he’s also afraid of refusing to help him. As usual, there’s a really good, pretty intricately plotted mystery to chew on, as well as further developments in Easy’s private life, that keep you flipping the pages. Edited to add: I almost forgot to mention that Fearless Jones, who was the main character in a series of three earlier novels by Mosley, also plays a supporting role in this one.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 14, 2024 14:17:13 GMT -5
I think I’ll get back to Easy after I finish up the Nate Heller novels.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 14, 2024 20:58:44 GMT -5
The Gray Man
Mark Greaney
I found this at a library book sale, and a co worker had recommended it to me,so I thought it'd give it a shot. I haven't read one of these sort of books since Jack Reacher and Jack Ryan, so I thought it would be fun to see what the super spy action hero is like these days.
Turns out.. its alot like a FPS. I felt very much like I was reading someone's video game here... especially with the copious and unnecessary details about which guns a give character was using.
It wasn't a bad book, it definitely turned the pages, but the main character was pretty much a super hero... no human can take as much damage as he did and live, never might STILL take out a bunch pf bad guys and save the day... alot like a video game character.
The main character was pretty trope-y.. your basic 'I do bad things to bad people so the good people don't have to' type. A couple of the minor character were pretty interesting, but no reason to suspect they'll ever appear again the way these sort of series go. I especially liked Claire... I'm not sure I 'get it' though when in a big manly shooty thriller my favorite character was an year old girl.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 16, 2024 15:53:42 GMT -5
Dark Force Rising
Timothy Zahn
I ended up doing alot of waiting the yesterday and today so I went through this one quick... it definitely feels like the middle book of a trilogy.
The plot, like the 1st book, is Thrawn is looking for ships... this time ht focus is on a 'lost' fleet that both sides try to find. My favorite part of the book is definitely the introduction of Garm Bel Iblis, the 'lost' founder of the Rebel Alliance from Corellia.
I think Zahn does a really good job with the characters... Han is properly curmugeonly, given he's a bit older, but still a scoundrel at times. Luke still sees the good in everyone to a fault but is a bit more cautious. I also like how even though it seems like the battle is won, the ending her is a similar vibe as Empire Strikes Back.
There's a big spotlight on Zahn's creations here... Carrde, Mara, C'Baoth, etc... some are good, some are less good,but they do most definitely set the foundation of the extended universe, which gave us a whole lot more Star Wars goodness than Disney has.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 17, 2024 11:36:36 GMT -5
 Our Artists at War: The Best of the Best of American War Comics by Richard J. Arndt & Steven Fears I wasn't a war comic kid. I bought maybe one or two war comics off spinner racks. Now, that's not to say that I didn't have any, because I ended up with quite a few out of yard/garage sales (heavily weighted toward Weird War Tales for some reason). But, as time has gone on, I've recognized that a lot of the very best comics were done in that genre. And since I've been a fan of Twomorrows books, and had just finished reading Will Franz and Sam Glanzman's The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz this seemed like a natural follow-up. Let me start by saying that this book apparently started out to be two separate works, but it was affected by the Covid shutdown and ultimately those two became...kind of one. During the 60s and in to the 70s DC had what were called the Big Five war comics. At that point DC was the king of war comics. Charlton's were at best also rans, Dell's Combat was interesting, but short-lived, and Sgt. Fury was a super-hero comic that pretended to be a war comic. The author's thesis here is what really were the true Big Five of American war comics (sorry guys, no Charley's War). And that's an interesting exercise. Ultimately they came up with: Kurtzman's war books for EC; Warren's Blazing Combat; Kanigher and Kubert's Enemy Ace; Franz and Glanzman's The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz (and The Iron Corporal); and Sam Glanzman's U.S.S. Stevens. And I can't really argue with any of that. All outstanding books and all game-changers as far as war comics went. There was an asterisk as there was apparently some dissension between the authors (and maybe the publisher) between choosing Enemy Ace or Jack Kirby's run on The Losers. So we get a look at that run...and that's fine. Interspersed there is some historical background on other war comics, which was originally going to be a separate book. I'd have liked a bit more of this type of thing. And there's a pretty nice chapter dealing with latter-day war comics by the likes of Don Lomax, Wayne Vansant and Garth Ennis. Is the book fully satisfying? Nope. But it's a nice look at some very good war comics with a bit of extra context. I'm not unhappy that I read it and it added a few things to my potential reading pile. Any book from Twomorrows is going to be worth a look. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 18, 2024 1:53:29 GMT -5
Blood GroveWalter Mosley, 2021  In the mid-summer of 1969, Easy Rawlins is just back from a case that took him to Vegas and hoping for a little down time; his partners are both out of town working their own cases, so he even sends off their secretary on an impromptu 2-week vacation for a little peace and quiet in the office. However, that same day, a young Vietnam war vet named Craig with a severe case of PTSD comes to his office with an unusual story: while camping at the edge of a blood orange orchard on the outskirts of the city a few nights earlier, he claims to have been awakened by shouts at a nearby cabin and came upon a man brandishing a knife and beating a woman tied to a tree. He tried to subdue the man and ended up stabbing him with his own knife. He then got hit in the head and when he came to, there was no sign of either of them. He wants Easy to find out if he killed the man, and also find the woman to see if she’s o.k. The whole thing sounds far-fetched and sketchy, but against his better judgement, Easy agrees to help the guy, largely because – as a WW2 vet – he sympathizes with his haunted and troubled state of mind. However, as usual for Easy, there is so much more to this case (stolen money and double-crosses, as well as murders) so he really regrets ever agreeing to get involved. Another pretty solid entry in the Easy Rawlins saga, although I thought there were a few questionable plot points. Also, and quite unusual for any book by Mosley that I’ve read, a real-life celebrity makes a brief cameo appearance in this one, which I found kind of odd. I’m now all caught up with the Easy Rawlins books on my shelf – the next one ( Farewell, Amethystine) was only released last month and I have no idea when I’ll get my hands on a copy.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 20, 2024 21:45:25 GMT -5
So I’m reading L.A. Confidential. Yeah, I know it’s fiction. And Ellroy is playing fast and loose with some facts (“Hush-Hush” instead of “Confidential,” etc.). But he’s also using a lot of historical people (Mickey Cohen, Johnny Stompanato, Jack Dragna, etc.). It’s when he plays fast and loose with the historical figures that it’s bugging me. He keeps saying that Dragna has been deported and is no longer boss of the LA mob. Dragna was ordered deported in ‘53, but he appealed the deportation order and was never actually deported before his death in ‘56. And while he slowed down after his wife’s death and a lot was handled by his brother Tom and Momo Adamo, he was technically boss until his death.
I’m not sure why this is bugging me so much but it is. Every time someone says Dragna has been deported it grates on my nerves.
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Jul 22, 2024 20:29:47 GMT -5
Just finished James Logan's The Silverblood Promise, his debut fantasy novel and the first in a series called the Last Legacy.  Lukan was an academy dropout after unintentionally killing the scion of a great family in a duel and has been living hard in exile since, until he receives word that his estranged father, who had been a scholar who studied an ancient collapsed civilization (think something like Atlantis but altogether different-Netheril in the Forgotten Realms is probably a better analogy), had been murdered and had left him a note written in his own blood that sends him off on a quest to a faraway city, where he gets involved with members of the city's underworld and set up trying to prevent a coup by a corrupt councilor all in an effort to recover the legacy his father left for him. Lukan and the supporting cast are likable characters, the prose moves well, and plot held my interest and the fantasy lore of the fallen kingdom was of interest to me, so I enjoyed this, and will likely read the second volume if/when it comes out. It won't make my list of upper echelon fantasy books (at least not yet) and I hope I don't wind up disappointed and disinterested half way through the second volumes as I have with a lot of modern fantasy series in the past 6-8 years, but I did like this book a lot, and hope the second book lives up to this debut novel. -M |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 23, 2024 10:02:34 GMT -5
Ancillary Justice
Ann Leckie
I've had the 3rd book of this series sitting on my shelf for a while.. waiting for friends. Then my real life book club decided to read the newest book in the series and the goodreads sci fi book club read a different one, and it was clear the universe was telling me to read this,
It is...OK. The dying empire is a pretty common theme, with an interesting twist here. 'Ancillaries' are basically captured enemies with their brains reprogrammed, but seemingly with no chance of rebelling. The leader uses the same techinque to have multiple bodies and be essentially immortal, but then different versions of her(him? more on that in a minute) and they basically are fighting each other for control.
The main character used to be the Ancillary of a ship (which means she has all the memories of the ship) but escaped and is basically now a hero/revolutionary.
It took a LONG time to get there though...too long. Then there's a thing with pronouns. I recurring theme was that the main character couldn't tell males from females and used the wrong pronouns for different races. That can be a one off joke, or whatever, but it was mentioned time and time and time again, to the point where I have no idea which gender (or if there was any gender) any given character is. It seems the Radch themselves use 'she' as the generic, and don't really differentiate. I wish it was left at that instead of constantly returning to it and making it a big thing that had no impact on the story at all. I'm not sure if the author was trying to use that to make a point, but if she was it is completely lost upon this reader.
That said... it feels like the next book might be better, so I'll probably still read it.
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